The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In his new book, Philip Hoare seeks out various shorelines, examining our need to be immersed in water. Or at least to be near it.
A final quest sees him going to Bantry Bay. He's previously been swimming with whales and dolphins, but never with 'aurelia aurita', let alone 'chrysaora hysoscella'. Truth be told, it's quite an unnerving experience with these unpredictable creatures..
Reader Tobias Menzies
Producer Duncan Minshull.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Ian Marchant associates the landscape at the mouth of the River Lune with his friend and musical partner, Chas Ambler, who died nearly two years ago.
In this personal exploration of his connection to the life of the river, Ian talks to poet Paul Farley about how to value un-romantic landscape. He meets Fiona Frank, one of the founder members of the Lancashire Co-Housing project , to discuss living in an 'intentional community' on the banks of the Lune. Lancaster has a little-known connection with the slave trade, which Ian discusses with Anthea Purkis from the city's Maritime Museum.
Ian also visits Michelle Stevenson - or Chel - to talk about how she invited Chas to move into her family home at Glasson Dock for the last few weeks of his life, an act of extraordinary generosity. And if that isn't enough to reaffirm his faith in life, Ian meets haaf net fisherwoman, Margaret Owen, at the isolated north bank of the river, Sunderland Point.
An unusual, moving and funny edition of Open Country exploring the dark side of the Lune.
The UK is home to a wealth of agricultural stories, surrounding everything from the country's varied geography and rural traditions, through to local foods and heritage livestock. This summer, Farming Today is shining a light on farming people and practices across the country, to paint a vibrant picture of British farming.
This week the focus is on England - with Caz Graham taking a trip to the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate.
A wander round the show-ground takes in elegant equine displays and runaway pigs, vintage tractors and traditional cattle breeds, as well as the packed food hall and some homemade local spirit.
FTTW also looks into how the 'Suffolk Trinity' - three traditional livestock breeds - could give Brand England a boost; and finds out just how dramatically wheat has changed in the past century, as well as what's being done today to improve the crop further.
Presented by Caz Graham, producer by Lucy Taylor.
The latest weather forecast.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Martine McCutcheon, real life east ender, became famous as a TV Eastender in the 90s playing Tiffany, on off love interest for hi-maintenance Grant Mitchell, until she was squished by Frank Butcher outside the Queen Vic on Christmas Eve. She reinvented herself as a pop star - having a Perfect Moment in 1999 with the chart topping song of that name - and then another perfect moment co-starring with Hugh Grant in the Richard Curtis romcom, Love Actually. Off screen life, however, was complicated and after an award winning but stormy run in My Fair Lady in the West End, things went Pete Tong. Illness, bankruptcy, time to regroup - but now, fighting fit, she's back with a new album.
When Benjamin Mee's dad died, he persuaded his mum to buy a zoo so that the whole family could live together. Of course it wasn't as easy as that - there were plenty of challenges along the way. But his story was made into a film starring Matt Damon in 2013.
With the thank you slot, when we offer you the opportunity to thank someone for a good deed done by left unthanked, we're especially delighted on the rare occasion when a thanker is reunited with a thankee. But, people of Britain, today we reunite two of them live in the studio. Rabia Dignam and Sir Harold Walker, who met in a crowded and extremely tense Baghdad airport during the Iraqi Invasion of 1990.
There's not much Gabe Cook doesn't know about cider. He's made cider for big name companies and small breweries. He's done the PR for the UK cider industry. And now he is his own man - a ciderologist and Britain's first 'pommelier'.
The adorable and thoroughly cherished Roy Hudd was on Saturday Live a while ago with tales of his six decades in showbiz. He started as a redcoat, has appeared in everything from panto to Broadchurch, presented the News Huddlines here on Radio Four for a quarter of a century, and is today a custodian of anecdotes to the platinum standard of Ned Sherrin. Heritage on legs, people, and we thought we'd be unforgivably remiss if we didn't get him to surrender his Inheritance Tracks.
Cally Beaton has done alright. She worked her way up to senior Vice President at the media company Viacom International. Then inexplicably at the age of 45 she decided to get into stand-up comedy. Her show Super Cally Fragile Lipstick will be in Edinburgh from August 5th
And as you know we always want to hear from you - the listener. This week's Call Out is asking 'what unusual job do you do and how did you get into it'? In fact do you have such an unusual job most people wouldn't even know it exists? We have heard of people who are professional mourners. One person even told us they had a job as a professional 'cuddler'.
We want to hear from you.
Get in touch and don't forget to leave a number in case JP Devlin wants to call you back
EMAIL: saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk
TEXT: 84844
TWEET: #bbcsaturdaylive
Presenters: Aasmah Mir & the Rev. Richard Coles
Producer: Maire Devine.
Jay Rayner visits the Chawton House Library in Hampshire. Joining Jay this week are culinary panellists Dr Annie Gray, Rachel McCormack, Tim Hayward and Sophie Wright.
Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
Food consultant: Anna Colquhoun
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Jim Waterson of Buzzfeed looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
It's the week of the Repeal Bill, the first big step in taking Britain out of the EU and the most significant event in post war British history. What does it actually mean and how will the government progress it through parliament with its small majority.
Plus has abuse of MPs reached an unacceptable stage, how far should the use of social media be controlled, and can the Conservative party reach out to younger voters.
The editor is Marie Jessel.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Many more people are drawing down from their pensions without taking advice, according to a study by the Financial Conduct Authority. The FCA has reviewed changes in how people are accessing their retirement income in the year since pension freedoms came into force. The freedoms, which were brought in by the then Chancellor George Osborne, mean that instead of being required to buy an annuity with their pension pot, people aged 55 and over have more flexibility to take their pots how they wish. The FCA says that since the change, the proportion of people drawing down from the pensions without advice has risen from 5% to 30%. We hear from Claire Trott, Head of Pensions Strategy at the consultancy Technical Connection. And Graham Vidler, Director of External Affairs at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).
The house builder Taylor Wimpey is being accused of breaking its promise to help thousands of homeowners who were sold leasehold homes with controversial clauses that see their ground rent double every ten years. The company announced in April that it was setting aside £130m to compensate those affected, but homeowners say they have so far received no help. Some even say their ground rents have already doubled for the first time. Money Box reporter Tony Bonsignore investigates.
Lloyds Bank is to overhaul the way it charges for overdrafts. All existing overdraft charges will be scrapped and replaced with a single fee of 1p per day for every £7 of overdraft used. From November, the changes will affect twenty million accounts with Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland. We hear from Gareth Shaw, personal finance expert from the consumer organisation Which?.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Paul Waters.
It's a momentous week for Theresa May as she makes her first appearance on Dead Ringers as Prime Minister.
Ministers sacked, the Labour party in meltdown, Brexit fears remain unabated this is a fabulous time for Laura Kuenssberg, Andrew Neil, Robert Peston, Jon Snow, Andrew Marr, Kirsty Wark , Hugh Edwards, all feeding off the trough of political failure.
Starring: Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens and Lewis Macleod.
Written by: Nev Fountain & Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden & Tom Coles, James Bugg, Laura Major, Sarah Campbell, Jack Bernhardt, Alex Harvey and Sara Gibbs.
Produced and created by Bill Dare.
BBC Studios Production.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Ed Stourton presents political debate from Heswall Hall on the Wirral with the Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti, the SNP's Europe Spokesman at Westminster Stephen Gethins MP, the Sunday Telegraph columnist Simon Heffer and the conservative MP Nicky Morgan.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
William Goldman's dark cult thriller about a student whose world is turned upside down by a Nazi dentist and a network of spies.
Dramatised by Stephen Keyworth.
Starring Jack Lowden, Ian McDiarmid and Tom Burke.
Directed by Kirsty Williams.
How is modern music helping striptease to adapt its traditional image? Some of the biggest stars and producers of 21st century burlesque reveal what makes a great striptease soundtrack.
Sixty years ago it was all sassy, jazzy show tunes. Today it can be techno, post-punk, hip hop, spoken word - even sound effects.
So what's happened to the soundtrack - and the image - of striptease? We hear what works best, and what should be avoided. And we explore how the sound of contemporary and neo-burlesque can support its social, cultural and political power.
Starring:
Julie Atlas Muz (former crown holder, Miss Exotic World and Miss Coney Island)
Darlinda Just Darlinda (multiple winner, Golden Pastie Awards)
Tigger! (The Original King of Boylesque - The Godfather of Neo-Burlesque)
Nasty Canasta (The Girl with the 44DD Brain)
Luna TikTok (The Tickin' Time Bombshell)
Aurora Galore (finalist, Miss Exotic World)
Also featuring:
Zoe Ziegfeld, Fancy Feast, Lux DeLioux, DJ Scott Ewalt, DJ Momotaro
Producer: Steve Urquhart
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4
Playlist:
Buddy Morrow - Night Train
Buddy Guy - What Kind Of Woman Is This
Nero's Day At Disneyland - No Money Down Low Monthly Payments
Big Spender (instrumental) - from the musical Sweet Charity
Reverend Horton Heat - D for Dangerous
Aqua - Barbie Girl
Blood Sweat and Tears - You've Made Me So Very Happy
Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky
KRS One - Sound of Da Police
Sam Taylor - Harlem Nocturne
Louis Armstrong - St Louis Blues
Sounds of various car alarms
Garbage - Number One Crush
Infected Mushroom - Saeed
Perez Prado - Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.
The writer and activist Laurie Penny places women's politics and gender politics at the centre of her writing. She discusses her new book 'Bitch Doctrine' - Essays for Dissenting Adults.
Is women's tennis boring? The BBC sports commentator Dot Davies and the sports writer for The Herald Susan Egelstaff discuss.
Parliament has launched Vote100, a series of events marking 100 years since women got the vote and a woman was elected as an MP. How easy is the job in 2017? An inquiry has been launched into the online abuse MP's experienced during the election. The Labour MP Yvette Cooper discusses the vitriol she and her colleagues are exposed to on a daily basis.
Should women involved or formerly involved in prostitution have their criminal records sealed or wiped when they apply for work? Heather Harvey from the charity nia and Fiona, a prostitution survivor discuss.
Are you a Miss, Mrs, Ms or Mx? Dr Amy Erickson has explored the history of women's titles and explains how they have developed over the centuries.
Our series Dating with Difficulties continues we hear from journalist Amy Nickell on what it's like to date when you're a single parent with a three year old.
How can you tell if your child is gifted and how best do you parent them if they are? We hear from Julie Tapin from Potential Plus and Tina Crawford who is mum to nine year old Toby who is a member of Mensa and took his Maths IGCSE this year without any tuition.
Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell.
Full coverage of the day's news.
When things go wrong in the corporate world the public expects an apology from the man or woman in charge. So why are some CEO's more comfortable with saying sorry and why won't some shoulder the blame? Evan Davis and guests discuss why sorry is sometimes the hardest word in business.
GUESTS
David Kirk, Partner, McGuire Woods
Mark Selby, Co-founder Wahaca, Mexican restaurant chain
Paul Charles, CEO and Founder of reputation management consultancy, The PC Agency
Producer: Julie Ball.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Brian Blessed, Nadiya Hussain, Sara Pascoe and Andy Zaltzman for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Mercury Rev and Sweet Baboo.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
Mark Coles profiles Rob Goldstone, the man at the centre of the Donald Trump junior/Russia saga. This week it emerged that Rob Goldstone fixed a meeting between Donald Trump junior and a Russian lawyer. Goldstone had reportedly sent an email to Trump junior before the meeting saying that the Russian lawyer could offer damaging information about Hillary Clinton - and that the material was part of a Russian government attempt to boost his father's presidential campaign. So how did this tabloid journalist turned music PR from Manchester gain access to the inner circle of the Trump family and the Russians?
Producers: Smita Patel and Kate Lamble.
Sophia Coppola's film The Beguiled is set during the American Civil War when a wounded Yankee soldier is rescued by the last few staff and pupils at a largely abandoned school for young women in the deep south. Can hospitality overcome suspicion? And who has the upper hand?
Moving Kings, Joshua Cohen's new novel, is set in New York and Israel
Soul of a Nation at Tate Modern explores art in the age of Black Power. Work by African American artists exploring and celebrating black identity 1963-1983
Regent's Park Theatre's latest production is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' French Revolution-set A Tale of Two Cities.
Ozark is a new series on Netflix about a Chicago lawyer whose debt to a Mexican drug lord means he has to relocate with his family to Missouri
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ellen E Jones, Sathnam Sanghera and Susannah Clapp. The producer is Oliver Jones.
It's 50 years since the so-called Summer of Love, when thousands descended on Haight Ashbury suburb in San Franciso with their flower power, wacky fashions, drugs and hippy anti-establishment message which soon spread around the world. But what did it all mean to British people?
Historian and writer Dominic Sandbrook argues that, for the majority in Britain, the Summer of Love and even 1960s Swinging London was a party happening somewhere else.
In 1967, with the economy running into trouble, Harold Wilson's government devalued the pound. All was not well in British industry, with unofficial wildcat strikes and the country's ports paralysed by a 10-week strike. Dockers like Colin Ross, his young wife and baby struggled to feed themselves. Divisions in society were evident whether, as Colin puts it, 'between the haves and have-nots' or in multi-racial communities like Brixton.
Yet the '60s brought a new sense of freedom, tolerance and colour to people's monochrome daily lives. Tourists flocked to London fashion haunts such as Carnaby Steet and, in 1967, The Beatles' Sgt Pepper was declared album of the decade while barefoot songstress Sandi Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest.
As a pop columnist, Virginia Ironside seemed to have it all. But, as liberated as she appeared, she felt pressure from the permissive society. She had two abortions, one illegally in a Harley Street clinic.
In 1967, laws came in legalising abortion and homosexuality. The same year saw the new town Milton Keynes which, although not quite the countercultural utopia San Francisco hippies had hoped for, still represented a kind of idealism - a vision of a suburban good life in the heart of the countryside.
Producer: Sara Parker
Executive: Samir Shah
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
by John le Carré
2/3. When Magnus Pym disappears after his father's funeral MI6 launches an urgent manhunt to prevent his defection. But Pym is on a search of his own to solve the central mystery of his life - what made him the perfect spy. Dramatised by Robert Forrest.
Other parts are played by the cast.
Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen. Each medium, she says, draws a different potential from the original. She argues that fiction, if written well, doesn't betray history, but enhances it. When fiction is turned into theatre, or into a film or TV, the same applies - as long as we understand that adaptation is not a secondary process or a set of grudging compromises, but an act of creation in itself. And this matters. "Without art, what have you to inform you about the past?" she asks. "What lies beyond is the unedited flicker of closed-circuit TV."
The programme is recorded in Stratford-Upon-Avon in front of an audience, with a question and answer session, chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.
(2/13)
Who played the drums on the Marvelettes' recording of Please Mr Postman? And on which occasion would you routinely hear the prelude to Marc Antoine Charpentier's 17th century Te Deum?
The competitors in today's heat of the wide-ranging music quiz will be expected to know the answers to these and many other questions, as Paul Gambaccini welcomes them to the Radio Theatre in London. They'll also have to use their judgement in choosing a set of specialist questions, from a list of categories of which they've had no warning.
Today's winner will go through to the semi-finals in September.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Last year, Maura Dooley was poet-in-residence at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire.This is where Austen lived for the last eight years of her life and worked on her novels. While there Dooley listened a great deal, to conversations of visitors and workers, the sounds of garden and village and, most of all, the house itself. In response she wrote a series of poems, 'A Quire of Paper'. The inspiration for these is sometimes surprising; A 'Quire of Paper' is the name given, so thin are they, to cream pancakes the recipe for which is in the Austen family's household book.
'A Quire of Papers - A Poem for Jane Austen and her House ' gathers the sounds of a life Austen would recognise - the shutters being opened in the early morning (as they are each day, by the volunteers, and were by Jane and her family); footsteps on the stairs; the floorboards creaking; a C19th square piano; birdsong in the garden; horses on the road. Interwoven with these are the sounds of Jane Austen and her work reverberating now, as an industry, in contemporary life - the conversations of visitors from around the world; comments from curators and staff running the house. These are punctuated by Dooley's poems, recorded in the house and garden.
At Alton, where Jane and her sister walked all the time, there is still a market. The fruit and vegetable woman who calls out wares - exactly in the manner of street cries Jane Austen would have heard. At the edge of Chawton is a sound she could not imagine, heavy traffic roaring down on the A31. With new poetry set against the history of the place. 'A Quire of Papers - A Poem for Jane Austen and her House ' offers an unusual, contemporary and creative way to think about Jane Austen.
Presenter: Maura Dooley
Producer: Julian May.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Events after a concert on London's South Bank transport Gustav back to the Prague of his youth. Written by Federica Lugaresi and specially-commissioned for Radio 4.
Federica Lugaresi is from Cesena, Italy, and now lives in London. In 2016 she graduated from Birkbeck with an honours degree in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in The Mechanics' Institute Review Online, and has been shortlisted for the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize and the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. The New World is her first story for radio.
Writer: Federica Lugaresi
Reader: Jonathan Coy
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
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The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of St Augustine, in the Kent village of Brookland.
Situated on Romney Marsh, St Augustines is famous for its detached 12th Century Wooden structured belfry, most of which is still intact. The tower contains a peal of six bells; the oldest, the 5th, was cast by William Chamberlain of London in 1440. The tenor weighs six and a half hundredweight and is tuned to A flat.
We hear them here ringing St Clement's College Bob Minor.
The latest national and international news.
500 years after Luther's Reformation, Mark Tully examines calls for reforming today's church to address issues like declining congregations and influence, feminism and homosexuality.
Beginning with St Francis of Assisi who believed he had heard Jesus saying to him, "rebuild my church," Mark explores the growing impetus for reformation in today's Christian Church and particularly the calls for a return to spiritual traditions that have atrophied in mainstream churches.
He also looks at other faith traditions, finding practitioners - both contemporary and ancient - who have embraced more mystic expressions of faith.
However, he warns about exaggerating the need for reform, arguing that perhaps what any expression of faith needs most of all is to demonstrate that they have spiritual life and celebrate the grandeur of God.
Producer: Adam Fowler
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.
Ruth Sanderson meets eighth-generation eel fishermen on Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. With 80% of their catch exported to Holland and Germany, and export and import of the protected European eel currently prohibited from and into the EU, Brexit presents an uncertain future for the eel fishery. Eel fisherman Martin Devlin is worried that the fishery will close down, and his fisherman son, Ryan, is wondering how he'll be able to support his young family.
Producer: Beatrice Fenton.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, presented by William Crawley.
Louis Theroux makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of SurvivorsUK.
Registered Charity Number 1077484
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That's the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope 'SurvivorsUK'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'SurvivorsUK'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
The famous "Blue Marble" photograph has become one of the most reproduced and recognisable photographs in history. Taken from space by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972, it revealed the earth as we'd never seen it before. Many imagined it showed the planet from the vantage point of God. It changed perceptions, inspired hope and helped form the growing environmentalist movement. Chris Cartwright, General Superintendent of the Elim Pentecostal Church in the UK & Ireland, reflects on how an encounter with Jesus can have a transformative effect when seeing life from God's viewpoint. The live service from City Church, Cardiff is led by Senior Pastor Steve Ball. Music, which includes the hymns Crown Him With Many Crowns, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and O Praise the Name is directed by Stephen Gibson. Producer: Karen Walker.
"You can't call him crazy, because it isn't fair to crazy people", writes Adam Gopnik.
"You can't compare him to a four-year-old because four-year-old children are not in fact tyrannical or egotistical".
Six months into Donald Trump's presidency, Adam Gopnik searches - almost in vain - for a descriptive category to fit.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
Kim Durbin recalls an encounter with a blackbird for Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Maggie Ayre.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Shula has unexpected news, and Lilian has got her hands full.
Kirsty Young's castaway is the tennis player and commentator, John McEnroe. He won three singles and five doubles Wimbledon titles, four singles and four doubles at the US Open and was ranked number one in the world for four consecutive years in the 1980s.
Born in New York, he didn't pick up a tennis racquet until the age of eight, but his talent was quickly spotted and he began to compete in junior tournaments. In 1977, aged 18 and between high school and university, he qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon and reached the semi-finals where he lost to Jimmy Connors. By the end of the tournament his on-court behaviour - shouting, haranguing umpires and abusing his racquet - earned him the nickname 'Superbrat'.
He made his first Wimbledon final against Bjorn Borg in 1980. In one of the finest matches in history, despite winning a tiebreak 18-16 to win the fourth set, he lost the match. He beat Borg the following year to win his first Wimbledon singles title. 1984 was the best year in John's career: he won 82 out of 85 matches he played, but it was also the year when he was beaten at the French Open by Ivan Lendl, who replaced him as number one.
John married the actress Tatum O'Neal in 1986. They divorced in the mid-1990s and he has been married to the singer Patty Smyth since 1997. Since retiring in 1992, in addition to his role as tennis commentator, he has been a coach and runs his own tennis academy. He still plays in tennis tournaments.
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman and John Finnemore with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
Dan Saladino meets the world's leading teacher of fermentation, Sandor Katz.
Presenter: Dan Saladino
Producer: Rich Ward.
Photo: Jacqueline Schlossman.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
In the final part of this series, the journalist and author Matthew Syed continues his investigation of how and why individuals and organisations learn from their mistakes or fail to do so. In this episode he explores how government could get better at experimenting and adapting from when things go wrong.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
Eric Robson hosts a correspondence edition from Anne Swithinbank's Devonshire home. Helping Anne to answer the questions are Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew.
The questions cover trees and shrubs that can withstand salty winds, what to do with an infestation of Mare's Tail and why Sweet Peas are suffering this year.
The panellists also offer advice on moving a Myrtle, badger prevention and what to do with a surprise Walnut tree.
And Matt Biggs turns detective as he joins up with a forensic botanist to find out what role plants can have in solving crimes.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations between believers and non-believers, and between believers who have found their need for spirituality provided by different faiths in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
by John le Carré
3/3. As the MI6 manhunt closes in on Magnus Pym he attempts to solve the mystery of what - or who - created his talent for deception. Was it the betrayal and lies of his con man father, Rick? Or the man who recruited him to MI6 - Jack Brotherhood? Or was it Axel, the Czech agent he has known since his teens? All of them have marked his life in some way. Dramatised by Robert Forrest.
Other parts are played by the cast.
Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.
Mariella Frostrup talks to writer Elizabeth Day about her novel The Party, a state of the nation story set in the heart of the British Establishment. Plus writer Abir Mukherjee takes Open Book on a tour of the Bradford Literature Festival, meeting writers A A Dhand and Zeina Hashem Beck, and Patrick Ness shares his love of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, as part of Radio 4's Queer Icons series.
The first edition of a new globe-trotting poetry series. Poet Helen Mort explores exciting voices from around the world. This week, she hears poetry in Arabic, German and Spanish while thinking about the phrase 'Bodies in Motion': seeing how movement, through space and time, filters through the work of some very different poets.
Helen Mort travels to Paris to meet Syrian poet Golan Haji. He's drawn inspiration from many sources, including Bill Viola's video art and a pet ram. Being multilingual, for him, every piece of writing is an act of translation. They meet up with veteran American poet and translator Marilyn Hacker, to hear her version of a Haji poem and talk about the friendship struck up through this translation partnership.
A journey to the centre of the Earth; watching the Berlin Wall fall on a badly tuned TV; and a futuristic German language, have all inspired poems by the compelling German poet and performer, Ulrike Almut Sandig. She tells Helen Mort about her early political 'guerrilla poetry' project, 'eyemail', which found her pasting poems onto lampposts, and its live performance equivalent, which she calls, 'earmail'.
Exploring the fascinating process of translating a poem into another language, Helen Mort takes part in a poetry translation workshop at the Poetry Translation Centre in London. In this case, the original Spanish language poem is by Cuban poet Legna Rodriguez, about her experience of moving from Cuba to Miami. Progressing from the line-by-line literal translation towards a version made collectively, involves discussions on cliché and idioms - and on nuances of the noun 'sofa bed'!
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Volkswagen Group faced a 15 billion fine after the US environmental protection agency found it had fitted cars with software designed to cheat official pollution tests.
Their engines seemed clean in laboratory tests; on the road they emitted much higher levels of nitrogen oxide gas which can damage our health.
Although 8.5 million VW engines in Europe were fitted with the same so-called 'defeat devices', no EU state has yet to take any action against the manufacturer.
File on 4 tells the story of how the emissions scandal has spread to manufacturers beyond Volkswagen.
Europe's MEPs have voted for a new 'real driving emissions' test, but critics accuse European Council ministers of watering it down to please their domestic car industries. A proposal for an independent EU agency to oversee emissions tests and issue sanctions was blocked.
And the manufacturers have been given breathing space before they must meet the legal emissions standards - the new legislation lets them emit beyond the pollution limits for years to come.
Diesel cars were supposed to bring down emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2. But have those plans now gone up in smoke?
The programme asks whether this is the next emissions scandal and whether Europe has the power to make cars as clean as they say they are.
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Rob Cave.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Liz Barclay chooses her BBC Radio highlights.
Eddie comes up with a plan, and Jill continues her opposition.
The cast of TV's hugely popular sketch show return for their second series on BBC Radio 4. Pete Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and John Sparkes revisit some of their much-loved sketch characters, while also introducing some newcomers to the show.
In 2013, the group that made their name on Channel Four in the 1980s and 90s got back together for Radio 4's Sketchorama: Absolutely Special - which won the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Live Scripted Comedy. The first series of The Absolutely Radio Show picked up a Celtic Media Award nomination for Best Radio Comedy.
The final episode of the series features a fractious Stoneybridge Town Council meeting where there's controversy even when there's no agenda, the Little Girl with her take on US politics, Frank Hovis revealing how he met his wife, the Commissionaire on how best to manage a border wall between countries, Calum Gilhooley making a mountain out of buying a cup of coffee and Gwynedd shocking Denzil when she reveals her new beachwear - a beaver skin furkini. The team look at the rise of mobile phone zombies and there's a song about the pitfalls of being a self help junkie, while ageing rockers Joe and Davie try to resurrect the old magic in the recording studio.
Produced by Gordon Kennedy and Gus Beattie.
An Absolutely/Gusman production for BBC Radio 4.
As part of their final Media Degree assessment at NUC in Northern Ireland, three university students - Natalie Driver, JJ Collins and Vic Grant - decide to make a podcast about a cold case which happened in Colecastle fourteen years ago. On Saturday April 26th 2003, Toby Ellis was minding his four month old nephew, Derek Ellis. He nipped into his local newsagents and left the pram outside on the street. He claimed he left the child for no longer than two minutes. During this time, the baby was abducted and six days later the infant's body was discovered buried in a nearby wooded area, Mountfort. Cause of death, a blow to the head. No one was ever charged with the murder and the case has remained on-going.
The first episode of Hiding Out is a podcast hosted by one of the students, Natalie; she reveals she is currently in hiding fearing for her safety. Having published their first podcast on The Murder at Colecastle, her fellow student Vic had received a call from someone who had heard the podcast claiming they had new evidence about the day the child was abducted. Vic and JJ met with the source. That was 3 days ago and no one has seen or heard from either Vic or JJ since... The only contact Natalie has received is a text sent from her classmate JJ's phone which reads "We're watching you. Stop this now." Natalie knows their disappearance is clearly linked to digging into the murder of Derek Ellis. If she finds them, she may finally find the truth of what happened in Colecastle. Natalie's nightly podcasts are attracting more and more interest - #whereisnatalie and #findvicandjj are rife with speculation. Are these three students actually in danger? Or - as their media lecturer believes - is this all an elaborate media hoax?
Gerard Stembridge ..... Writer
Gemma McMullan Series Producer and Director.
Roger Bolton investigates audience responses to BBC radio programmes.
A number of listeners were shocked to hear description of an act of torture and murder on Radio 4's lunchtime series Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze and considered it overly graphic for the time of day. Should listeners have been given more warning about the unsettling nature of the story? And was the station right to broadcast it at all? Producer Phil Tinline and Radio 4's Editorial Standards Editor Roger Mahony answer listener complaints.
And, has radio become just a bit too fast? Radio 3 is spearheading a trend towards "Slow Radio", which uses ambient sounds and unusually long programmes to provide listeners with a relaxing antidote to rolling news and action packed documentaries. Feedback reporter Rebecca Pearce explores how this trend originated in Norway and is now migrating onto BBC Radio. She speaks to Norwegian Slow TV pioneer Thomas Hellum and to Horatio Clare, the presenter of Radio 3's recent Sound Walk.
Also, Music to Strip To gave the Radio 4 audience a quick blast of burlesque culture, catching the imagination of one listener in particular. He interviews the producer, Steve Urquhart.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Matthew Bannister on
Simone Veil, the Holocaust survivor who became a leading French politician and President of the European Parliament.
Graham Rose who directed some of the best loved TV commercials, including the award winning Photo Booth for Hamlet Cigars.
Tom Isaacs who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at the age of 27 and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for research by walking right round the coastline of Britain.
The Chinese literary critic and dissident Liu Xiaobo who was one of the "four gentlemen" of the Tiananmen Square protests. He died while serving an eleven year sentence for advocating democracy.
Ken Hirst, secretary of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band for 42 years.
Producer: Neil George.
Michael Blastland asks if it's desk-bound work, rather than over-eating, which is making more and more of us obese. He hears about remarkable research which, despite received wisdom, suggests that people in the UK have reduced their calorie intake. However, they are expending far less physical energy, particularly because of new patterns of work which now require little if any bodily exertion. Michael examines projects to change individual behaviour such as corporate wellness programmes and altering office layouts - but finds it's going to be a tough sell.
Interviewees:
Dr Melanie Lührmann, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway
Professor Alexi Marmot, architect, UCL
Professor Andre Spicer, Cass Business School
Professor Mike Kelly, School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge University
Producers: Estelle Doyle, Phoebe Keane and Smita Patel.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
With Francine Stock.
Warren Beatty tells Francine Stock about the making of Bonnie And Clyde in the year of its 50th anniversary, and why he thought Bob Dylan would make a better Clyde Barrow than him.
Hope Dickson Leach explains why she set her family drama The Levelling on the Somerset Levels just after the floods of 2014.
How does Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled compare with the 1971 original starring Clint Eastwood ? Larushka Ivan-Zadeh delivers her verdict.
Documentary-maker Matthew Heineman discusses City Of Ghosts about a group of journalists who are fighting a war of information against Islamic State in Raqqa, at a personal cost to their families.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The secret world of hair: Emma Tarlo, Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, takes Laurie Taylor on an anthropological journey from wig factories in China to Hindu temples in Southern India. Also, Diane Trusson, lecturer in sociology at the University of Nottingham, talks about her study into the impact and meaning of hair loss amongst women with breast cancer.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. First, volunteer Steve Vickers recalls childhood memories of the eider duck.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Fertility experts say don't delay but 50 % of UK babies are born to women over 30. The number of men having babies over 50 has risen by two thirds in last 16 years alone. Mariella Frostrup is joined by Melinda Mills, Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford; Vishal Wilde, columnist on political, economic and financial topics for The Market Mogul; Professor Heather Joshi from University of London, an expert in economic and developmental demography; and Sophie Walker, leader of Women's Equality Party, to discuss whether biology is at odds with the pressures of modern life.
There is little doubt that fertility declines progressively through life and many women are choosing to delay trying for a family until their mid- to late thirties, when fertility is declining even more rapidly. Yet more women in the UK are now having children over the age of 35 than under the age of 25 and for the first time, over 50% of babies born in the UK are to women over 30. But where once men having children was considered an option at any age, a recent study has found startling results - including a steep decline in male fertility after 35 and greater chances of abnormalities in babies. But are fertility experts who continue to remind us that fertility is finite and that delaying is fraught with risks, fighting a losing battle - given the many social and economic factors at play.
Producer: Mohini Patel.
David Mitchell translates the astonishing follow-up to the ground-breaking THE REASON I JUMP. Naoki Higashida wrote his debut when he was 13 years old - all the more extraordinary since he suffers from autism so severe that his condition is classed as 'non-verbal'. He finds it difficult to speak, and wrote the entire book using a low-tech Alphabet Grid of Japanese syllables, which he points at one at a time to painstakingly build words. Naoki still uses the same method today.
When the award-winning author of Cloud Atlas David Mitchell, whose own son has autism, discovered Naoki's first book, he felt that for the first time his own son was talking to him about what was going on inside his head, through the words of the young author.
Now, in FALL DOWN SEVEN TIMES GET UP EIGHT, written mostly around the age of 18, we meet a clear-eyed young man learning to co-exist with a mind and body not always at his beck and call. The title of the book is borrowed from a Japanese proverb about the merits of persistence, and offers experience, advice, and hope.
Once again, Naoki pushes beyond the notion of autism as a disability, and shines a light on the autistic landscape from the inside.
Written by Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida
Read by Matthew Beard, and introduced by David Mitchell
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
Playwright Vivienne Franzmann joins Jane to discuss her latest play "Bodies", which explores the emotions and ethics around surrogacy. It's about a middle-class couple who decide to use an Indian surrogate to have a baby. We're also joined by the Miranda Davies who's written a book about the subject. She talks about the increasing popularity of global surrogacy and the law around it.
Following on from our recent broadcast from an inpatient hospital which treats eating disorders, we explore the opposite form of treatment. We talk about outpatient services for children and young people provided by NHS England, and how it's being extended throughout the nation. Penny Smith from Children and Adolescent Mental Services (CAMHS) Health in Hertfordshire talks to Jane about their model of care and why it's recognised as so successful. Lucy Priest, a young woman with anorexia who's using the service, is also talking to us in the studio.
What makes a successful marriage and how do you cope with the boring bits? Ada Calhoun has written a book called Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give.
Ex Black Panther and political activist Assata Shakur's autobiography is dramatised by debbie tucker green. With Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Assata.
Director ..... debbie tucker green
Producer ..... Mary Peate
'My name is Assata Shakur and I am a Revolutionary. A Black Revolutionary.'
Assata Shakur was a founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther, activist and Godmother of Tupac Shakur. She became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.
Gubs and Gary are getting married. They've been preparing for this day for over a year.
Gubs is Sikh and Gary is white. Gubs has already told his dad he is gay, and his father managed to accept it. But it looks like a wedding is just one step too far. Now, there are only weeks to go. Final preparations are being made for the outfits, the photography, the food. But Gubs wonders if his Dad will change his mind before the big day. And if he does relent, how will Gubs feel about it?
Producer in Bristol: Sara Conkey.
Susan (Susan Calman) and Fiona (Ashley Jensen) are grown up sisters who live together. But that's all they have in common. Written by Susan Calman, Sisters tackles the painfully funny world of the love/hate relationship you can never escape.
With her five time convicted criminal mother Annie on day release from prison, Fiona decides it's a good opportunity to rekindle the mother/daughter relationship she has missed for the past three years. After all, Annie is a reformed character.
Susan is more cynical about whether their mother is capable of changing, but joins in the expedition as long as Blake drives the van they have had to hire - largely because he is the only one capable of reaching the pedals.
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
You might think it is a universal trait, something that we all do. But when European explorers travelled the world, they met tribes that didn't kiss. So is it a learnt response after all?
It can be as a greeting, or a sign of reverence or supplication- but we will be talking about the romantic kiss- face to face, lips to lips.
We examine the biochemistry, psychology, anthropology and history of kissing. Where does it come from?
Presented by Charlotte McDonald
Produced by Lizzy McNeill
More editions of The Why Factor are available on the BBC World Service website.
The internet has transformed the way we travel and there is now a wealth of free travel information available online. So is there still a market for printed travel magazines? Some of the glossy travel mags on news stands have seen circulations fall, both Conde Nast Traveller and Lonely Planet Traveller have seen reduced print runs in the last few years. But there has been real growth in small independent travel magazines - around fifteen have launched in the last three years. How are these publications setting themselves apart from the traditional fare?
The UK's biggest housing association, Clarion, is renting out some of its properties as holiday lets. We hear from a landlord who has concerns about the arrangement.
The meat industry is proposing a new quality mark for halal meat, to let consumers know that quality and welfare standards have been met. The proposals include labelling that indicates how the animal was slaughtered - whether it was stunned or not before it was killed.
When buying a car do you go for old or older? We look at how you can get the most out of your budget - do you buy the newest second hand car you can afford, or one a bit older with a higher spec? We're told it's a question that clogs up many an online car lover's forum!
Producer: Beatrice Pickup
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Bridget Kendall hears how, in the 1980s, US nuclear weapons came to English villages - and how this shaped the lives of a local farmer, a peaceful protestor and a US pilot.
With: Jeanne Steinhardt, Guy Bower, Terry Pinner
Producer: Phil Tinline.
Piers Black-Hawkins is the winner of the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2016: an award to support Northern based writers new to radio.
The drone of Dylan's pharmaceutical telesales world is turned on its head one day when he receives a call from a girl screaming for help. Ignoring his targets and the lures of a bonus, Dylan can't help but investigate. What follows is a dark, spiralling thriller that sends him down a rabbit hole to the underbelly of the corporate medical world.
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
(3/13)
Today's contest comes from Salford, with competitors from Liverpool and Hull convening to answer Paul Gambaccini's questions on all aspects of music. From opera to folk, from musical comedy to rap, everything is fair game. As always, the players will be asked to answer specialist questions on a subject of which they've had no prior warning - with a list of just five to choose from.
The winner will take another of the places in the 2017 semi-finals later in the summer.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
A three part series marking the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of sex between men through the Sexual Offences Act of 1967. Simon Callow presents an exploration of 100 years of queer life in Britain seen through the lens of the arts.
The series has been produced in partnership with Tate Britain and their landmark exhibition Queer British Art 1861-1967. Simon's guide throughout the series is exhibition curator Clare Barlow.
In this first episode, Simon examines a handful of artists and writers working in the late 19th century, a period in British history when sexualities were far less clearly defined. In the late 1800s, a set of British artists emerged who would not have labelled themselves as gay or lesbian, but whose work explored gender, difference and queer desires, albeit in a coded manner.
We uncover the hidden messages within the paintings of Simeon Solomon, reveal the identity of the mysterious poet Michael Field (in fact an alias created by a lesbian couple) and encounter the steely gaze of Gluck, a painter who turned androgyny into a fine art.
This episode also discusses the impact of the trials of Oscar Wilde and Marguerite Radclyffe Hall on the emergence of the stereotype of a queer "artistic type".
Presenter: Simon Callow
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Oxygen: a matter of life and death.
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by chemist Andrea Sella, science broadcaster and writer Gabrielle Walker and comedian Sara Pascoe to look at the life and death properties of oxygen. It's the molecule we simply can't live without, but as fate would have it, oxygen is also the molecule that eventually leads to our death. Hailed as an elixir of life, and foundation of the atmosphere, oxygen is the revolutionary element that quickens life and hastens death through its ferocious reactivity. It's the molecule our cells need, but is actually highly toxic to them, and is in the end what causes us to age. Brian and Robin get to grips with the chemistry of this contradictory molecule, and Andrea Sella tries not to cause too big an explosion by demonstrating oxygen's reactive nature using a digestive biscuit.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Victoria Theatre in Halifax. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman and John Finnemore with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
Matt is keen to impress, and Christine has heard a rumour.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
For 12-year-old Aleisha, who was suffering from depression, it was all too easy to find and use a loaded gun at her grandfather's house. Would she still be alive today if that gun had been a 'smart' gun?
US journalist Al Letson gets to grips with these new kinds of high-tech, childproof guns and explores why there are none available in US shops. Particularly, why is Silicon Valley afraid of innovating and so reluctant to help solve America's gun problem?
We meet one developer, Kai Kloepfer, whose smart gun uses fingerprint technology similar to that on a smart phone to operate it. He hopes its introduction will reduce accidental deaths, including teenager suicides, and disrupt the market for stolen guns.
A seemingly clever idea - but their introduction is causing a firestorm of resistance across America.
Producer: Dom Byrne
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
An extended interview with the political theorist who argues that liberal democracy is in grave danger. Ngaire Woods, dean of the Blavatnik School at Oxford, speaks to Harvard scholar Yascha Mounk. He says that across a wide sample of countries in North America and Western Europe, citizens of mature democracies have become markedly less satisfied with their form of government and surprisingly open to nondemocratic alternatives. "A serious democratic disconnect has emerged. If it widens even further, it may begin to challenge the stability of seemingly consolidated democracies."
Producer: Jim Frank
(Image: Yascha Mounk. Credit: Steffen Jaenicke).
From their beautiful song that ushers in the spring to our rhymes of birds stuffed in pies, Brett Westwood explores the cultural significance of the blackbird. With Mark Cocker, Hanna Tuulikki and poems by Bertolt Brecht, Seamus Heaney and Adam Zagajewski. Reader: Anton Lesser. Producer: Tim Dee.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into 34 languages.
She is the award-winning writer of over 30 original afternoon plays and classic adaptations for BBC Radio 4.
Writer ..... Rachel Joyce
Abridger ..... Rachel Joyce
Reader ..... Rachel Joyce
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Exec Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
Being grown up is boring. Is that the thinking behind the current trend in 'kiddult' activity - where adults play kids' games and generally get in touch with their 'inner child'?
Comedian Mark Watson finds no shortage of evidence for this trend - the programme features adult 'days in the woods' in Corby for grown ups who like climbing trees and making dens, there are playgyms for those who want to dress up or rediscover Lego. We find some women in Bristol who like opening their colouring books in a pub, cafes that serve nothing but the breakfast cereals of your youth, playdays for adults in urban parks, to say nothing of swings and slides and the set of musical see-saws that are currently being enjoyed by adults in Leicester Square.
Mark is out with his own inner child playing 'hedgehogs' with grown ups and sampling the pleasures of a 'board games cafe'.
Philosopher Susan Neiman and Psychologist Oliver James offer their interpretations of this contemporary phenomenon.
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. Today Visitor Experience Manager Liane Holdsworth recalls the thrill of watching a kestrel.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is the Lithuanian conductor who took charge at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra last year at the age of 30. Verity Sharp charts Mirga's first year in her new job.
When conductor Andris Nelsons left the CBSO in 2015, the orchestra was left with the task of finding a new Music Director to fill some enormous musical shoes. Birmingham was where Sir Simon Rattle rose to fame and he was followed by Sakari Oramo and Andris Nelsons.
The CBSO traditionally choose their Music Director democratically. Prospective conductors are invited for trial concerts and both players and management voice their opinions about suitability. When Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla trialled with them early in 2016, the rapport was immediate and she was offered the job without hesitation.
This programme begins in the week that Mirga takes up her appointment in Birmingham - a week involving her London debut at the BBC Proms - and follows the welcome the orchestra and city give her, charting the process of bonding between players and their new conductor.
This is a story of the power of music in musicians' lives, set against a backdrop of global political uncertainties and unprecedented cuts in local funding. It provides real insight into how an orchestra works and is a portrait of a truly extraordinary musician.
The programme includes interviews with the CBSO's Chief Executive Stephen Maddock, Director of Marketing Abby Corfan, violinists Kate Suthers and David Gregory, and Daily Telegraph music critic Ivan Hewett.
Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Monty Funk production for BBC Radio 4.
With remarkable insight and openness, Naoki Higashida describes the delight of being able to communicate with others, a rare joy for him, since his autism makes it difficult for him to speak easily, or access the words he would like to say.
Naoki describes spoken language as a blue sea, on which he sits alone, stuck in a tiny boat while others swim and play - and the wonder with which he experiences being able to communicate in writing, as a magic spell which allows him to dive deep beneath the waves of language, and then break the surface, and surprise everyone.
Most of this book was written around the age of eighteen, painstakingly, Japanese syllable by syllable, using a low-tech Alphabet Grid. And, from the Alphabet Grid of the insider, he reveals the pain of being non-verbal, and the depth of love and gratitude he feels for his family. Most compellingly, he reveals autism as simply a different way of being, and of seeing.
Written by Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida
Read by Matthew Beard and introduced by David Mitchell
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Ex Black Panther and political activist Assata Shakur's autobiography is dramatised by debbie tucker green. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Assata. Assata's political education continues.
Director ..... debbie tucker green
Producer ..... Mary Peate.
It's given us our oldest stories, made England a green and pleasant land, and has even helped shape our brains. Natural Histories investigates our obsession with grass. Humans evolved in the grasslands and the major food crops (all grasses) have made us what we are. Thousands of years later it even gives suburban man an energy and a purpose through the summer. Though not Brett Westwood, who leads us through haymeadows, wheatfields and across garden lawns to Wembley stadium in his quest to appreciate a neatly manicured piece of turf. With poetry by Philip Larkin and John Clare, and music by Beethoven, Thomas Morley and Wilson Pickett. Plus the sound of author Tim Dee, the Honda rotary mower, grass expert Howard Thomas, artists Ackroyd and Harvey, Oxford gardener Simon Bagnall, historian Oliver Cox and groundsman Karl Standley.
Produced by Melvin Rickarby.
Love it or loathe it, the power ballad is the musical genre that never went away. Superfan and ex-Communard Rev. Richard Coles dusts off his song writing skills and goes back to the 1980s to explore an era of inflated emotions, big production and even bigger hair.
Power ballads hit their height in the 1980s - a time of excess and strife - when big music budgets, huge concert arenas and new synthesiser technology made it possible and necessary for these massive tunes to be constructed. They still permeate popular culture from TV talent shows, to Disney films, to musicals like The Bodyguard and Bat Out of Hell. There's even a club, now in its eleventh year, which plays back-to-back power ballads to a sing-along crowd who know every word of every Whitney, Meatloaf, Celine and Bonnie hit.
But can Richard write a new power ballad to rival 'Total Eclipse of The Heart' and set the world singing with lighters aloft? With help from 'the man who invented the eighties', record producer Trevor Horn and singer Lynda Hayes, nothing's gonna stop him now.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Smaller families are a growing feature on the West - and many women are now choosing not to have children. Mary-Ann Ochota considers why this change is happening - even though there is often great social pressure to procreate.
Presenter:Mary-Ann Ochota
Producer:Rose de Larrabeiti
Editor:Andrew Smith.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the early Cold War.
Tim and Pat always had each other's backs growing up in a rough part of Washington, DC. Tim's mother is an addict, so he spends his time at the home of his friend Pat. Tim calls Pat's mum Miss Mary because she is kind, patient and almost saintly. A nurse and widow, she's also a skilled musician and plays the organ in her Catholic church.
The boys fall through the cracks at school and start working for drug dealer Rollo. A violent incident gets them arrested. Miss Mary strains under the emotional and financial pressures of keeping Pat out of jail but they know that the American legal system needs contacts and money. Tim, on the other hand, faces justice alone with an absentee public defender.
George Pelecanos wrote Miss Mary's Room for his short story collection The Martini Shot. He writes about crime in the area of DC where he grew up. He has been called "the Zola of Washington DC" and received Emmy nominations and countless awards for his books and TV work, writing and producing for HBO's The Wire and Treme.
Nick Pelecanos, aged 26, co-directed the production.
All other parts played by the company:
Victoria Wallace
Makonnen Brown
Emily Perkins
Peter McCabe
Eden Marryshow
Sydney Beveridge
Organ by Todd Caldwell
Written by George Pelecanos
Directed by Nick Pelecanos and Judith Kampfner
Produced and Adapted by Judith Kampfner
A Corporation for Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Tom Holland travels north to mark the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian becoming Emperor, by examining the impact of his biggest legacy in Britain - Hadrian's Wall.
We also take-off for Heathrow to learn about its Iron Age origins and ask if a mound near a car park in Slough could really be a Saxon burial site.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson meet a public figure to explore the geography of their childhood. In episode one, Lord David Blunkett takes Alice and Rachel to Sheffield. David shows the award-winning interviewing duo the places and buildings he knew as a boy, and discusses how the Labour-voting, South Yorkshire steel city became a symbol of the disenchantment which led to last year's Brexit vote.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.
Presenter Sara Cox & Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, talk about books they love with Harriett Gilbert.
Sara's is The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang, a strange and darkly compelling South Korean story about a woman who decides to give up eating meat as an act of passive rebellion against an intolerable family.
Eimear recommends Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger, in which a French researcher tries to write a biography of the film actress Barbara Loden. She's now nearly forgotten despite being the first woman to write, direct and star in her own feature film, Wanda, which won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival.
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels is Harriett's pick. A novel about a boy surviving the holocaust which is really an expression of love and of the resilience of the human spirit.
Producer Beth O'Dea.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller with more words of wit and wisdom. This week, Suitable For Framing - a story about the significance of art in David's childhood family home - and additional extracts from his book Theft By Finding, a compilation of diary entries from 1977-2002.
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humour writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
David Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries. was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.
David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). He has been a contributor to BBC Radio 4 since 1996.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.
Fallon's options are limited, and Justin has had enough.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
What happens when your teenage son is targeted by abusers?
File on 4 tells one family's story of fighting the authorities to get support and justice after a 13 year old boy was aggressively groomed by scores of men, aged from their 20s to their 50s. It is a shocking story of opportunities missed, meaning the boy endured assaults by multiple men for years. We look at the impact of that sustained abuse on him and his parents, who were desperately trying to shield him from harm. He says he was dismissed, and even blamed by authorities responsible for protecting him.
Why were they so let down? And have the police been slow to get to grips with cases of child sexual exploitation when they involve boys?
One safeguarding expert tells the programme: "Policy is not matching practice on the ground. It was completely missed that this boy was a child. We need to lift the lid on what is going on when the victims are boys."
Are boys on the radar of authorities or are they grooming's hidden victims?
Reporter: Alys Harte
Producer: Sally Chesworth.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Dr Mark Porter presents a series that aims to demystify perplexing health issues.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into 34 languages.
She is the award-winning writer of over 30 original afternoon plays and classic adaptations for BBC Radio 4.
Writer ..... Rachel Joyce
Abridger ..... Rachel Joyce
Reader ..... Rachel Joyce
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Exec Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. Today reserve warden Heather Bennett recalls how the lapwing began her love affair with nature.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Two artists discuss creative questions.
There are conflicting versions of events when it comes to the British mutiny at Etaples in September 1917, from the soldiers who took part in it, to the military policeman who witnessed it. They tell their stories, along with Officer Jim Davies, who was ordered to help put the mutiny down, at the centre of the action on the bridge between the army camp and the town. With Dan Snow and Peter Hart.
Naoki Higashida was thirteen before he understood the fact of his disability. His first book, written at that time, revealed a young boy with an astonishing internal life, full of wonder at the world, as well as sadness at the challenges of his condition.
Now, in FALL DOWN SEVEN TIMES, GET UP EIGHT, he looks back on his childhood with the eyes of a thoughtful young man. He describes how he couldn't, as a child, visualise a future for himself. Time's passage felt unending, like a swing he couldn't get off, while the scenery remained unchanging. Now, he has begun not only to inhabit, but also to imagine greater possibilities for his future in the neurotypical world.
Written by Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida
Read by Matthew Beard, and introduced by David Mitchell
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Ex Black Panther and political activist Assata Shakur's autobiography is dramatised by debbie tucker green. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Assata. Shakur has become a member of the Black Panther party.
Director ..... debbie tucker green
Producer ..... Mary Peate.
An examination of certain expectations of class and colour that go with veganism, and an admission of certain slip-ups. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Cricket was once the most popular sport played in America. To begin this story, Geoff Boycott and veteran New York cricketer Clarence Modeste recall an extraordinary attempt to revive cricket with the Yorkshire county team playing at Staten Island Cricket Club in the midst of social unrest during 1964.
At that time, America was a turbulent place following the assassination of President Kennedy. The Civil Rights movement was under attack and there was rioting in the streets.
As The Beatles took to the stage of the Paramount Theatre in New York for their US debut, across town the Brylcreem boys of Yorkshire were beginning their attempt to bring cricket back to the USA. Gamesmanship, partying, and psychological warfare are recounted here by some of the survivors.
In the 1800s, before the American Civil War, cricket was the dominant sport in America. Presenter and cricket fanatic David Prest visits the home of US cricket in Haverford, Philadelphia to hear about the social history of the game and how it's surviving now - largely organised and played along ethnic team lines. The award winning-author Joseph O'Neill recounts the origins of his bestselling novel about cricket in the USA, Netherland, and describes how the police organise cricket facilities in New York for young Muslim players in poorer areas in an attempt to keep them from becoming isolated and succumbing to extremist ideology.
By contrast, we also visit the exclusive surroundings of Merrion Cricket Club in Haverford, Philadelphia where millionaires take tea on the pavilion.
Finally, the programme asks if America could ever become a cricketing nation once again.
Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4.
After treatment for Ovarian and breast cancer Chippy, is mad Jill is sad and Terri is definitely dangerous to know! The road back after cancer treatment can be tricky and full of obstacles. In Bad Salsa, two middle aged women and their younger friend seek to regain their zest for life and love by learning to dance at Bad Salsa, the club where everyone knows your name but no-one knows your prognosis!
Depictions of people with cancer on TV and radio too often follow a standard format; there is the diagnosis, the depression the chemo, then the false recovery followed by the tragic death.
Bad Salsa tries to paint a picture at once more hopeful and more in line with survival rates which have improved immensely over the past twenty years. For many, 'living with cancer' is now their day to day challenge. The characters in the series have finished their treatment and are in the process of finding their way back to normal life or at least finding a "new normal." As in the real world, the challenges of everyday life go on for our characters; like us they have boring marriages, distracting crushes, troublesome children, difficult workmates and infuriating parents, but unlike us their brush with mortality has given them a new perspective. The fun and excitement of the series is in watching them decide to preserve the pre-cancer status quo or in Terri's words, to say "sod it all" and "go for it!"
The series follows the women as they embrace the world of salsa whilst they adjust to life after cancer.
Writer ..... Kay Stonham
Producer ..... Alison Vernon-Smith.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Why do people suffer from hypochondria, the fear of having a serious, undiagnosed illness? It can be an intensely distressing and disabling condition, with some sufferers even ending up in wheelchairs. So why do hypochondriacs attract so little sympathy?
Presenter: Becky Milligan
Producer: Ben Crighton.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
When the Berlin Wall tumbled on 9 November 1989, joy spread through the city.
Change had been in the air but when it actually happened it took many by surprise - and not everybody welcomed it, let alone could foresee the dramatic chain of events that followed.
Governed by two different kinds of regime - communist in the East and democratic in the West - Berlin and Germany were divided for over 40 years. Two different societies had developed and when they were to be reunited, it was not always an easy process.
Bridget Kendall hears how the lives of three East Germans - an English teacher, a radio music producer and a university graduate - took an unexpected turn when their country dissolved. While for some opportunities opened up, others had to face personal crisis.
West Germans, too, found themselves in situations that had previously been unimaginable. A journalist and a manager of a theatregoer club from West Berlin tell us about strange encounters and the joy of embracing the whole city again.
With: Elisabeth Heller, Katharina Herrmann, Gisela Hoffmann, Andreas Austilat and Otfried Laur
Producers: Sabine Schereck and Phil Tinline.
A new two-part dramatisation of Alexander McCall Smith's latest No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, 'Precious and Grace'. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi return to Radio 4 for a new two-part adventure based on the popular novels set in Bostwana, dramatised by the author.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi help a Canadian lady to face the truth about the past, save Mr Polopetsi from involvement in some dangerous dealings and also try to resolve the problem of Fanwell's dog. All while waiting for the rain to come.
Episode 1: The Fat Cattle Club
Mma Ramotswe ..... JANICE ACQUAH
Mma Makutsi ..... NADINE MARSHALL
Mr J.L.B. Matekoni ..... BEN ONWUKWE
Mr Polopetsi ..... STEVE TOUSSAINT
Mma Potokwani/Bandie ..... SARAH NILES
Susan Peters ..... BARBARA BARNES
Mma Rosie/Mma Kentse ..... ELEANOR CROOKS
Fanwell/Cool ..... KEDAR WILLIAMS-STIRLING
Written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith.
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
Money Box listeners set the agenda this week as Louise Cooper and guests tackle some of the money problems you've raised with us in recent weeks.
We often receive e-mails from you full of difficult questions but we don't explore them as much as we'd like, so we're dedicating this programme to your financial dilemmas. Leaseholder rights, Pensions post Brexit, your ideas to make energy pricing more transparent and how to make sure you get what you're owed if you go into a care home are all up for discussion.
Joining Louise Cooper are:
Professor Catherine Barnard, EU law expert, Cambridge University
Jane Vass, Director of Policy and Research, Age UK
Sebastian O'Kelly, Director, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership
You can call with views and ideas from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday 19 July on 03700 100 444, standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply. Or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk.
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Chain Reaction is Radio 4's long running hostless chat show where last week's interviewee becomes this week's interviewer.
In the first episode of the series comedian, actor, technophile and one half of 'Adam and Joe', Adam Buxton talks to the co-creator and star of The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville and Inside No. 9, Reece Shearsmith.
Producer ... Charlie Perkins.
Ruth makes her position known, and Rex gets an invitation.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Michael Portillo, Melanie Phillips, Matthew Taylor and Anne McElvoy.
Andrew Martin explains his passion for using cash in the face of the advancing tide of electronic payments. An aid to thrift, it also spares him from feeling that every purchase is being recorded and potentially monitored.
"I have become like my Dad, who forty years ago, would be deflected from a whimsical purchase because it would mean "breaking into a tenner".
Recorded at the Phoenix Artist Club in London.
Presenter: Helen Zaltzman
Producer: Sheila Cook.
AL Kennedy talks to migraineurs and neurologists to explore the history and experience of a serious, though often misunderstood, condition which affects a billion people worldwide.
Migraine is ranked globally, by the World Health Organisation, as the seventh most disabling disease - responsible for 2.9% of all years of life lost to disability/YLDs - and the leading cause of disability among all neurological disorders.
AL Kennedy says, "I find migraines fascinating. As a sufferer, they're hard to explain to non migraineurs. They aren't 'just a headache' and can even present as partial blindness. My first migraine was just that - a patch of total blindness in my left field of vision, which I was too shy to mention. Having compared notes, I find I'm not the only one to have had such an experience in adolescence.
"Then came the auras, the pain, the disorientation, tingling, the trouble finding the right words for things, the misdiagnosis as a stroke. Some migraineurs are rushed to hospital with doctors suspecting serious strokes or brain tumours."
She looks at art made by migraineurs aged 7 to 70 and hears vivid accounts of the debilitating experience from a handful of sufferers.
Contributors include Britain's leading headache experts - Peter Goadsby, Mark Weatherall and child specialist, Prab Pabhakar from Great Ormond Street Hospital; founder of the Women's Headache Centre in Boston, Carolyn Bernstein; and historian Katherine Foxhall.
A Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into 34 languages.
She is the award-winning writer of over 30 original afternoon plays and classic adaptations for BBC Radio 4.
Writer ..... Rachel Joyce
Abridger ..... Rachel Joyce
Reader ..... Rachel Joyce
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Exec Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
Comedy drama by Pete Jackson, set in Alcoholics Anonymous and inspired by his own road to recovery. Starring Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.
The programme follows the lives of five very different recovering alcoholics. Set entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them get to know each other, learn to hate each other, argue, moan, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and, most importantly, tell their stories.
There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do. Along with the storyteller.
In this second episode, Julie's (Sue Johnston) husband comes back to her after six years and it's up to the rest of the group to pick up the pieces.
Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time with Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found, as many people do, support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls, all banded together due to one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.
Written and created by Pete Jackson
Produced and Directed by Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.
by Jenny Éclair
A lonely woman takes a peek into other people's properties and lives when their houses are put up for sale.
Producer ..... Sally Avens.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. Today Community and Volunteer Development Officer Danielle Meyer recalls working with gannets on Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of landmark fires exploring the parallels between the tragedies of the Watson Street fire in Glasgow in 1905 and Grenfell Tower.
In the East End of Glasgow in 1905 a 'Model Lodging House' at 39 Watson Street caught fire. It housed 300 poor working men, many of them migrants from Ireland and the Highlands. The lodging house itself was densely populated with men sleeping in wood lined cubicles and with only one exit to the street through a turnstile. The fire spread very rapidly, trapping those who couldn't escape on the upper floors and 39 people were killed.
The tragedy immediately drew public attention to fire and building regulations and the urgent need to improve them and an Inquiry soon followed.
Jonathan is joined by historian of fires and fire services Shane Ewen, BBC London reporter Anna O'Neil, retired fireman Jim Smith, Secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Scottish Architects Neil Baxter and actor Robin Laing to explore the parallels between the Watson Street and the Grenfell Tower tragedies.
Producer Neil McCarthy.
Mark Steel's guest this week is impressed by his flow-state, but would like him to reduce his dependence on ironing. She is sports psychologist, Dr. Faye Didymus, from Leeds Beckett University.
Mark believes that his two addictions have much in common - they are stand-up comedy (his job) and sport (watching, playing, talking about it). He's sure that there is a link between the way comedians and sporting types deal with performance anxiety, crowd hostility, risk taking and more. Dr. Didymus, who works with sports stars at the highest level, casts light upon this theory.
In this series, Mark speaks to the former Premiership and England footballer, Graeme Le Saux. And he meets former World Champion snooker player, John Parrott. All three programmes are available as podcasts, and the Parrott & Le Saux podcasts have extra bits.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
Naoki Higashida explores how he experiences the world as a young adult with autism. He describes the challenges he encounters as he attempts to fight the demands of his fixations. He wonders at the joy of hearing the laughter of his family, which he experiences as a bubble-like evanescence. Movingly, he explores how being 'non-verbal' can feel like the dark hours before dawn, and how the loneliness of not being able to hold a conversation with others can be at times overwhelming. Most compellingly, and simply, he explains how it's easier to like himself when he feels loved by others.
Written by Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida
Read by Matthew Beard, and introduced by David Mitchell
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Ex Black Panther and political activist Assata Shakur's autobiography is dramatised by debbie tucker green. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Assata.
Director ..... debbie tucker green
Producer ..... Mary Peate.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
Charles Bliss was a remarkable utopian visionary, whose experiences as a young witness to the pogroms and then Dachau and Buchenwald made him determined to put all his effort into finding a means of bringing about peace between nations. His big inspiration was his belief that conflict arose when people misunderstood each other, or misinterpreted the other's language.
A new visual language based on ideograms would, he felt, prevent such misunderstanding - and he spent years both perfecting and then trying to sell his new system, which he named Semantography and which has become commonly known as Blissymbolics.
As Michael Symmons Roberts will explain, Bliss and his wife Claire sent thousands of letters to academics and librarians across the world without success, but then decades later his language was taken up in an entirely unexpected way - as a means of communicating with children with cerebral palsy. Sadly this apparent turn of good fortune did not lead to a happy ending, and Bliss died an apparently frustrated and lonely man.
Nonetheless, as Michael will explain, he was a great utopian visionary whose determined effort to change the world single-handedly might not have finally paid off, but he left a great legacy behind in his linguistic achievement and in the thousands whom he helped to communicate with the world. Michael meets one of those people, Peter Zein, as well as Shirley McNaughton, the nurse who was one of the key figures in applying Blissymbolics to special needs education, and Brian Stride, a personal friend and admirer of Bliss.
Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts
Producer: Geoff Bird
Exec Producer: Jo Meek
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
When many people struggle to maintain one relationship, why do some people enter into multiple simultaneous marriages? Lucy Ash hears why polygamists are drawn to these complex arrangements and how they manage them. She discusses rotas, hierarchies and curfews with a South African businessman and his four wives who star in a popular reality TV show. A former Mormon polygamist from the American state of Utah tells how having to share her husband with a sister wife had a devastating impact on her mental health. Anthropologist Katie Starkweather explains why some societies have favoured polyandry, the practice of one woman marrying multiple men.
Presenter:Lucy Ash
Producers: Viv Jones, Lizzy McNeill
Editor:Andrew Smith.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the early Cold War.
A new two-part dramatisation of Alexander McCall Smith's latest No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency book, 'Precious and Grace'. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi return to Radio 4 for a new two-part adventure based on the popular novels set in Bostwana, dramatised by the author.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi help a Canadian lady to face the truth about the past, save Mr Polopetsi from involvement in some dangerous dealings and also try to resolve the problem of Fanwell's dog. All while waiting for the rain to come.
Episode 2: Precious and Grace
Written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith.
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
Helen Mark is in Perthshire to climb Ben Lawers above Loch Tay for a better view of the southern Highlands. Scotland's 10th highest Munro, it's home to rare alpine wildflowers, and loved by walkers. The landscape's been shaped by centuries of grazing, first by cattle and in more recent times by sheep. Helen visits the sites of the old shielings, the summer dwellings used by farming families after driving their livestock up for the pastures.
Back down at loch level, Helen visits the locality's annual Kenmore Highland Games, and finds out what a crannog is. Visiting the Scottish Crannog Centre she learns why these ancient fortified dwellings were built over the lochs, on wooden piles.
Up on Ben Lawers overlooking Loch Tay Helen also finds out about the ancient 'cup and ring' markings engraved on boulders long before even the crannogs were built. We might not know their purpose, but that doesn't stop us from guessing.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
Christopher Nolan tells Francine Stock about his first war movie, Dunkirk.
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
"The most exciting new comedy duo working today" - David Walliams
Their hugely successful second series won critical acclaim and a slew of awards. Now double-act The Pin are back with more of their trademark offbeat nonsense.
In this episode, having been spurned from the BBC's official office party, Alex and Ben are out to prove they can throw a party too...
"One of the smartest, punchiest new comedy duos to have appeared in a while...had me laughing out loud on my own in an empty room" The Guardian
"Exquisitely silly and very funny...makes you feel as though you might be hearing the next Mitchell and Webb" The Times
"Genuine moments of hilarity and a real breath of comedic fresh air" RadioTimes
Written and performed by Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen.
Featuring Liam Williams.
Produced by Sam Bryant.
A BBC Studios Production.
Shula shares all the latest gossip, and Kirsty is forced to reveal her hand.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
Evan Davis presents the business magazine.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into 34 languages.
She is the award-winning writer of over 30 original afternoon plays and classic adaptations for BBC Radio 4.
Writer ..... Rachel Joyce
Abridger ..... Rachel Joyce
Reader ..... Rachel Joyce
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Exec Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
After Phil blows a fortune on a spanking new time machine, the Daphne boys must use it to embark on a treacherous adventure in a desperate attempt to recoup their losses.
Join critically-acclaimed sketch trio, Daphne, as they pull out all the stops in a dazzling array of peculiar characters, whacky scenarios, dodgy remarks, curious observations, minor altercations and major peacemaking - served on a bed of catchy little numbers with a live nine-piece band.
Written by and starring: Jason Forbes, Phil Wang & George Fouracres
with Lewis Mcleod, Elizabeth Tan and Sir Willard White
Original music composed by Jeff Carpenter
Orchestrator: Simon Nathan
The live band were the London Musical Theatre Orchestra:
Musical Director - Freddie Tapner
Violin - Debs White
Cello - Nick Squires
Trumpet - Michael Maddocks
Trombone - Elliot Pooley
Tenor Sax - Joe Atkin Reeves
Drum Kit - Ben Hartley
Percussion - Ben Burton
Piano - Jon Ranger
Bass - Jack Cherry
The Production Coordinator was Hayley Sterling
It was produced by Matt Stronge and was a BBC Studios production.
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Craig Gardiner, a tutor at South Wales Baptist College.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. Today reserve manager Matthew Capper recalls school holidays quests for a bittern in East Anglia.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Naoki reveals how, as a child, he used to dream of a version of himself without autism. In his imagination, if he could be as others were, all would be well in his world. Now, though he still yearns to pass as an 'ordinary' person, to walk through the world without being noticed and watched all the time, he has come to see that dream as a childhood illusion, and his autism as part of his true self.
While as a child he often wanted to vanish, now, as a young adult, Naoki feels happiest at the centre of his family. Even if he can't express his pleasure externally, these are his moments of greatest joy and belonging.
Written by Naoki Higashida
Translated by David Mitchell and KA Yoshida
Read by Matthew Beard, and introduced by David Mitchell
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Ex-Black Panther and political activist Assata Shakur's autobiography is dramatised by debbie tucker green. Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Assata. Shakur is in jail awaiting trial with her friend Kamau.
Director ..... debbie tucker green
Producer ..... Mary Peate.
With a lack of new blood coming into the traditional monasteries and convents, Bishop Martin Shaw supports these aging communities in their painful final days as they are forced to leave their homes? His role as an official visitor is to receive the vows of new nuns and monks and to hear the concerns and complaints from its community. Sister Giovanna, Sister Clare and Brother Samuel, who are all from different religious orders, recount their experiences of living and working in religious communities - from that first day in the chapel and hearing Gregorian Chant to outside keeping bees and pigs in the orchard, from teaching young children in inner cities to supporting the bereaved in hospitals, they share how their life of dedication and commitment has been a blessing, but also how their communities have changed over the decades. Although monastic life as it has traditionally been lived is unlikely to survive, there is a level of optimism here as signs of new religious life are beginning to emerge within the Church. We are asked to re-examine our views of what it is to be a monk or nun in today's world??
Produced by Luke Whitlock.
Dr Phil Hammond and David Spicer's satire on General Practice in the NHS reaches fever pitch. An anti-austerity demo vies with new government NHS plans in a battle for hearts and minds.
Of all the politically challenged GP's practices, Polyoaks, is possibly the most politically confused. As a summer of NHS discontent simmers away, the atmosphere is charged as Dr Roy Thornton (Nigel Planer) receives a visit from a political activist (Jasper Britton) and his brother Dr Hugh Thornton (Simon Greenall) is being wooed by the organisers of yet another top down, root and branch reorganisation of the NHS.
Practice Nurse Monica (Polly Frame) shows signs of going back to her campaigning roots and TV's Dr Jeremy (David Westhead) discovers the potential of arranging the catering at anti-austerity rallies.
Meanwhile, the Machiavellian Stephanie Simons (Margaret Cabourn-Smith) has political plans of her own.
Writers: Dr Phil Hammond and Mr David Spicer
Director: Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Why would anyone be a goth? What is the appeal of this dark and spooky subculture that embraces death, pain and sadness? Goths have been attacked, abused and are often misunderstood, but still choose to stand out - dramatically - from the crowd.
Catherine Carr talks to goths about their music, their dress and their love of the darker side of life. Why has this scene that began in the UK in the late 1970s and has spread worldwide, adapted and endured?
She hears from gothic vlogger, Black Friday, about how others react to her striking style and that of her goth husband, Matthius; she learns from Dr Catherine Spooner of Lancaster University about the role and influence of gothic literature in the goth scene and finds out from Professor Isabella Van Elferen of Kingston University, London about the transcendental power of goth music. Dr Paul Hodkinson of Surrey University explains the enduring appeal of the subculture and why once a goth, you're always a goth. And she meets Sylvia Lancaster, whose daughter Sophie, a goth, was murdered because of the way she looked.
Presenter: Catherine Carr
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Editor: Andrew Smith.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the early Cold War.
Drama: The Dad Who Fell to Earth by Toby Hadoke
Tom had been struggling to come to terms with his dad's sudden death, but that was before he found out his dad was secretly an alien from a distant planet. Tom finds his whole world shifting to a new perspective, a perspective that might just also include saving Earth from imminent destruction.
Written by Toby Hadoke
Directed by Charlotte Riches.
Eric Robson hosts the show from west Dorset. Anne Swithinbank, Bob Flowerdew and Bunny Guinness are on this week's panel.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
A young man goes to volunteer with a refugee rescue mission in the Mediterranean, leaving behind the complications of his own life in the UK. An original short work for radio, written and read by Anthony Anaxagorou.
Anthony Anaxagorou is an award-winning poet, short story writer, publisher and poetry educator. He has published several volumes of poems and essays, a spoken word EP and a collection of short stories whilst having also written for theatre. He was a judge for the 2016 BBC Young Writers Award and is currently the poet in residence at several London schools where he teaches poetry and creative writing. He founded Out-Spoken Live in 2012 and Out-Spoken Press in 2013.
Produced by Mair Bosworth
Written and performed by Anthony Anaxagorou
Music - Tareek 3treet by Yousef Kekhia.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Radio 4's forum for audience comment.
When it's human rights that puts the fire in your belly, you could burn out. So sometimes you just have to sit on the kitchen floor with a jar of Nutella. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Recorded the day before transmission, the satirical sketch show remains as sharp and topical as ever. Impressions and caricatures are the charming couriers of explosively satirical truth-bombs.
The series is written by Private Eye writers Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, together with Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Sarah Campbell, Laurence Howarth, James Bugg, Laura Major, Max Davis, Jack Bernhardt and others.
The series stars Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey.
A BBC Studios Production.
There is another unexpected visitor to Grange Farm, and Lilian tries to calm the situation.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Ed Stourton presents political debate from Wedmore in Somerset with a panel including the cross bench peer and consitutional expert Lord Hennessy, businessman Chris Ormrod from the Ministry of Cake, the Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers MP.
A reflection on a topical issue.
Bridget Kendall presents an oral history of the Cold War.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk - as long as it's vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need. Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...
Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into 34 languages.
She is the award-winning writer of over 30 original afternoon plays and classic adaptations for BBC Radio 4.
Writer ..... Rachel Joyce
Abridger ..... Rachel Joyce
Reader ..... Rachel Joyce
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Exec Producer ..... Gemma McMullan.
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
Cousins with Coeliac Disease reflect on onion rings, donuts, and why people have to get crumbs in the butter. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.