The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Wendy finds companionship and discussion through online forums, which are a vital lifeline with the outside world as well.
Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 58 . But after a 20 year career in the NHS, based in York, this single mother of two adult daughters was not going to just give in.
This is her account, written with Anna Wharton, of how she determined to try and outsmart the challenges served up by the dementia on a daily basis. Every tiny victory was hard won. Every day is faced with courage and resourcefulness.
Four years on from the diagnosis, she still lives independently, spends more time than ever travelling throughout the UK to give talks, and continues to do whatever she can to change a society that views dementia as a death sentence. Her driving force is a compulsion to live in the moment, never knowing which version of herself - somebody she used to know - might greet her when she wakes each morning.
Written by Wendy Mitchell and Anna Wharton
Abridged by Amanda Hargreaves
Read by Tessa Gallagher
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
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The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
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 has always longed to visit the Inner Hebridean island of Gigha, off the west coast of Scotland.
For a writer and hippie like Ian, it sounds like a dream: an island owned and run by its own community of fewer than 170 people. No more exploitative or neglectful landlords; everyone has a say in how things are done and they all live happily ever after. But also, no more wealthy and benevolent landlords, no more cash injections when things get tough. And, everyone has a say in how things are done.
It's a dream - or a nightmare - that has come true on the Scottish island of Gigha. In 2001 the islanders took their destiny into their own hands and made a successful bid to buy the island. Ian finds out how the landscape is changing and how the people here are adapting to a new way of living.
Interviewees include Tony Philpin of the local Coast and Countryside group; owner of Achamore House Don Dennis; Alasdair MacNeill, whose family were once lairds of the island tracing back to the eleventh century; Joe Teale who approves of the buy-out and runs the island's only shop; and Elaine Morrison, the manager of the Heritage Trust.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Dame Evelyn Glennie tells presenters Aasmah Mir and Rev Richard Coles about her mission to find new ways to help people really listen. She blazed a trail as the world's first professional solo percussionist, having become profoundly deaf at the age of 12. When she's not touring internationally, there's little she likes better than getting out her trusty metal detector and going searching for buried treasure.
Max Beesley was no stranger to showbiz glamour even before he became a TV star, having played drums onstage with Robbie Williams, Stevie Wonder and The Jam. But he was inspired by Robert De Niro to make the switch to acting. He's starred in series like Suits and Hotel Babylon, and is back on screen playing the rugged Harry Sharrow in the second series of Jamestown - which has been described as a Jacobean western.
Jordanian-Irish singer songwriter Keeva explains how she copes with anxiety and depression while putting her life into song and performing on stage. She also pulls pints in a bar, and draws artistic inspiration from her customers' personal dramas. Have a listen to see if you recognise yourself.
Storyteller Matt Hopwood shares love stories he gathered while walking from Lindisfarne in Northumberland to Callanish on the Isle of Lewis. During his 500 mile journey across Scotland, Matt relied on the kindness of strangers for food and shelter. His mission was to listen, and the tales he heard of love for partner, friend, family and place are collected in his book, A Human Love Story - Journeys to the Heart.
We also hear Martin McCutcheon's Inheritance Tracks, and take a icy dip with some chilly open water swimmers at Bardowie.
Presenters: Aasmah Mir & Rev Richard Coles
Producer: Paul Waters.
Two hundred years ago this year Gyles Brandreth's ancestor Jeremiah was found guilty of treason and beheaded. His crime? He was a stocking maker whose livelihood was destroyed by mechanisation, and as a Luddite rebel he lead a failed rebellion against the changes devastating his life and community. Change, Gyles argues, rarely come without a cost. So is change, as the management gurus would have us believe, really so vital for our wellbeing?
In this programme he asks an Economist, Linda Yueh, political operator Alastair Campbell and Fashion consultant Melanie Rickey to tell him how to make change work for you, whether it needs to be damaging and how they themselves operate in the face of changes to both public and private life.
As he says: 'I am a conservative by nature (a lot of British people are): I was brought up on the old Conservative adage that if it is not necessary to change it is necessary not to change . . . Perhaps I am wrong. From Professor Anthony Clare I learnt that change is good, that we need change to stay sane and be happy: we don't like the boat to be rocked, but a little gentle rocking is good for us. So why do certain people and cultures resist it? Why is it necessary? And why do I feel resisting it is harmful and can be damaging, but embracing it is difficult? Can it be made easier?'.
For generations the over-riding message has been clear and has gone almost unquestioned: The Luddites were wrong in every way. While not anticipating an anti-digital revolution and the mass melting down of computers, he'll be kicking back at that definition of modernity and looking for the conservatism with a small c that scarcely dare speak its name.
Anushka Asthana of The Guardian looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The Editor is Peter Mulligan .
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The latest news from the world of personal finance.
Mark Steel, Desiree Burch, Zoe Lyons and Fred MacAulay join Miles Jupp for more news quizzing.
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The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Mary Hare School in Newbury, Berkshire, with a panel including the leader of UKIP Henry Bolton, President of the Liberal Democrats Baroness Sal Brinton, the Environment Minister Therese Coffey MP and Labour MP Stephen Kinnock.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
The award-winning National Theatre of Brent return to Radio 4 with a new comic gem. Developed from their hit National Theatre production of The Wonder of Sex, the company examines sex in myth, history, literature and film - from Oedipus Rex to Brokeback Mountain, via Casanova and Lady Chatterley.
Artistic Director and Maison D'Etre of the company, Desmond Olivier Dingle and his assistant, Raymond Box, go on a journey through sex - a rollercoaster ride through love and desire, often illuminating, sometimes confusing, always funny.
Cast:
Desmond Olivier Dingle: Patrick Barlow
Raymond Box: John Ramm
Written by the National Theatre of Brent - Patrick Barlow, John Ramm and Martin Duncan.
Director: Martin Duncan
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL Production for BBC Radio 4.
Peruvian-born chef and record producer Martin Morales heads back to his homeland to explore the inherent link between food and music in Andean culture.
For the first part of his trip, Martin is accompanied by his 10 year old son and budding radio producer Felix, 8 year old daughter Tilly and his wife Lucy. He shows them round his family's favourite haunts - from the famous La Chomba restaurant in Cusco where musicians queue up to serenade the diners, to the tiny village of Lamay where they dine on the local delicacy of guinea pig on a stick.
At the Centre for Native Arts in Cusco, food and music come together with a dance about the Oca potato. Providing the soundtrack to the dance is a musician Martin once worked with in his early career, the legendary violinist Reynaldo Pillco.
Along the way, Martin meets up with a recent musical discovery of his, singer Sylvia Falcon, who enchants him with a song highlighting the importance of the Coca leaf in Peruvian cuisine and culture.
Leaving the family holiday behind, Martin continues his journey with his chef's hat on, exploring the food and culture of the Andes - including local delicacies such as the freshest trout roe he's ever tasted.
Martin describes his joy at exploring the traditional picanterias (family-run restaurants) of the Andes as being akin to his joy at discovering a new band. For this former music executive, the roots of Andean culture run deep, where music and food are firmly intertwined. On every step of the journey, Martin is drenched in the music of the Andes - twanging guitars, wood flutes, and even the odd harp provide the soundtrack to mealtimes.
A BlokMedia production for BBC Radio 4.
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor:Jane Thurlow.
Full coverage of the day's news.
Evan Davis and guests discuss the relationship between three important pillars of modern society: science, business and the consumer. Is the public right to be suspicious of business and the science it's selling? Why do some us fear GM foods, nanotechnology, AI and gene editing?
GUESTS
Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive, Benevolent Bio
Justin King, Vice-Chairman and Head of Portfolio Businesses, Terra Firma
Kriti Sharma, Vice-President of Artificial Intelligence, Sage.
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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Tom Allen are joined by Sean Hayes, John Simm, Jessica Swale and Bridget Christie for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Ezra Furman and The Visions and Geowulf.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.
David Hare's first episodic television drama Collateral is a BBC and Netflix co production starring Carey Mulligan, John Simm, and Billie Piper. Set in contemporary London it explores the challenges posed by mass migration as a result of war, poverty and persecution. Hare references ground breaking television such as Cathy Come Home, The Boys From The Blackstuff and A Very British Coup as inspiration: will Collateral prove as innovative and as game changing?
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and Best Film at the London Film Festival, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless tells the story of a divorcing couple whose 12 year old son goes missing after an argument. Drawing parallels with Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, Loveless is a probing look at the state of modern Russian society.
Gundog marks the Royal Court debut of writer Simon Longman and is directed by Vicky Featherstone, recently named the most influential person working in British theatre by The Stage newspaper. Gundog is set on a remote farm where sisters Becky and Anna are holding it together after the death of their mother when a stranger enters their midst.
Emily Fridlund's debut novel History of Wolves was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. Born in Minnesota, her new collection of short stories Catapult is a wry look at the trials and tribulations of American family life.
T-shirt: Cult - Culture - Subversion at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London explores the T-shirt in the 20th Century, charting the history, culture and subversion of the most affordable and popular item of clothing on the planet. From men's underclothes to symbol of rock and roll rebellion, through punk and politics to luxury fashion item, T-shirts broadcast who we are and who we want to be.
How cunning is Donald Trump?
In Queenan on Cunning, the satirist Joe Queenan explores a word rarely associated with the current President of the USA.
"From Odysseus to Bismarck, via Brer Rabbit and Machiavelli's The Prince, there's a fine tradition of tricksters and hucksters, but where does the Donald fit in the mix?
You need patience, intelligence, forward planning - some of these are Trump-like qualities. Stress on the some. But he's by no means a modern day Odysseus. Not much of a sailor."
With contributions from Adam MacQueen, author of The Lies of the Land; Edith Hall, who wrote a cultural history of Homer's Odyssey; and Tibor Fischer, whose forthcoming novel is called How to Rule the World.
Plus John Sergeant, Kathy Lette, Richard Nixon, Alistair McAlpine, Laura Barton ... and a campaigning American president cross-faded with a much loved song from The Jungle Book.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Reading Europe - Russia: Bride and Groom. Radio 4's journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.
By one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, Bride and Groom is a tragi-comic novel about family expectations, religious and cultural tensions, and power struggles in rural Dagestan. It's also a love story.
Both Patya and Marat are young, successful and live in Moscow. They have made it: they were able to escape the Caucasian back country that is still stuck between tradition and modernity, as well as police brutality, corruption and Islamist terror. Patya and Marat don't know one another, but when they both return to their home village one summer, their story unfolds. As the couple struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, fate seems destined to keep them together-until the very end.
Adapted for radio by Bethan Roberts from the translation by Dr. Carol Apollonio.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production
The Writer
Alisa Ganieva is an author from Dagestan. Her novel, Salam Dalgat! (published under a male pseudonym) won the 2009 national Debut Prize. Alisa's latest novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize. In 2016 the Guardian named Ganieva number 9 on the list of Moscow's thirty most talented young people.
The translator
Dr. Carol Apollonio translated Ganieva's debut, The Mountain and the Wall and was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
That rich men attract beautiful women - and vice versa - has for centuries been obvious and unquestioned. Suddenly a few noisy scandals have started a social avalanche that some call the new puritanism. In the past week Formula 1 racing has abolished the 'grid girls' whose role had been to look glamorous in the company of racing drivers; the Professional Darts Corporation, in consultation with BBC TV, has done away with the 'walk-on girls' who had provided a similar service for the masters of the triple-twenty; and the UK's gambling regulator has threatened to boycott the world's largest gambling industry conference, accusing exhibitors of using 'scantily clad' women to attract people to their product displays. Reaching back into Victorian times for things to tut about, Manchester Art Gallery last week removed from display Waterhouse's painting 'Hylas and the Nymphs' - then, after a public outcry, put it back. Feminists such as Janet Street-Porter have welcomed all this. 'At last,' she says, 'we're moving out of the stone age.' Others think what women choose to do with their bodies is their own business, be they prostitutes, lap-dancers, fashion models or pretty waitresses flirting for tips. Do we want a world in which it's as bad to employ women for their looks as it would be to discriminate on the basis of race or religion? The objectification of women - our Moral Maze this week. Chaired by Michael Buerk, with Matthew Taylor, Claire Fox, Melanie Phillips and Giles Fraser.
(12/12)
Tom Sutcliffe chairs the last contest of this year's Round Britain Quiz tournament, with Northern Ireland (Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements) taking on Wales (Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards). Can the Welsh make it a clean sweep again this year by winning all four of their fixtures across the series?
All of the questions in this final programme have been selected from listeners' suggestions, and there are some highly devious ones among them - including 'Why would rays of sunlight follow the state of Minnesota, a lookout position, a machine-readable label and Mother Teresa as of 2016?'
Tom will also be revealing the answer to the teaser puzzle left unanswered at the end of the previous contest.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Sinead Morrissey joins Roger McGough to share her favourite poems from listeners' requests, including poems by Anna Akhmatova, Les Murray, Emily Dickinson and Elisabeth Bishop.
Producer: Sarah Addezio.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In the wake of Formula 1 axing their board girls and darts cutting their walk-on girls, Andrew Doyle creates a short story about a young woman fired for being the face of a company trying to change its image.
Andrew Doyle is a stand-up comedian and playwright. He's also the co-writer of internet sensation Jonathan Pie - the spoof news broadcaster created and performed by Tom Walker.
Credits
Writer ..... Andrew Doyle
Reader ..... Sharon Rooney
Producer ..... Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland 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 St John the Baptist Church, Loughton in Essex. The Tenor is tuned to E, with an inscription bearing the name of the Church's patron saint. The eight bells were cast by John Warner and Son in the 1870s, we hear them ringing now, Stedman Triples.
The latest national and international news.
Musician Jahnavi Harrison enters a world of sacred plants revealing that, in many religious traditions, plants are seen as spiritually symbolic - sometimes acting as intermediaries with the divine world.
Jahnavi invites us on a journey to Vrindavan, a town two hours south of New Delhi, a place of pilgrimage and worship for Hindus. Vrindavan is named after the goddess Vrinda who is said to take the form of the holy basil plant Tulasi in the worldly realm. Jahnavi reveals that this same plant is lovingly cultivated in the Hertfordshire temple where she grew up and is brought into the main shrine each day during the morning worship.
She goes on to explore the significance of the lotus flower, a key symbol in many Eastern religions.
The use of plants in worship is not confined to the East. The presence of Ocimum Basilicum - which many of us know as the basil we cook with - is a common sight in regional denominations of Orthodox Christianity, especially in the Greek church. Jahnavi explains that Orthodox Christians believe the herb sprung up where Jesus's blood fell near his tomb. Ever since, basil has been associated with the worship of the cross, particularly during Great Lent.
Drawing upon the Zen poetry of Matsuo Basho, Jahnavi discusses the lessons we can learn by paying close attention to the plants around us. Basho's vivid depictions of the plant world are complemented by the words of Sam Taylor Coleridge, whose poem To Nature is described by Jahnavi as "a prayerful study of the plant kingdom".
Presenter: Jahnavi Harrison
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Ruth Sanderson finds out about an unlikely partnership between a surfwear designer and a shepherdess and it's all based on a love for Merino wool.
Today most Merino wool used for outdoor clothing comes from Australia or New Zealand. British surfwear company Finisterre decided try and create a sustainable British supply chain instead. Their search led them to a shepherd called Lesley Prior who has dedicated her life to establishing one of Britain's only superfine Merino sheep flocks.
The combined passion for producing and crafting Merino wool has created a long lasting partnership between Lesley and surfwear designer Debbie Luffman.
Produced by Emily Hughes.
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The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
David Baddiel makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Alzheimer's Society.
Registered Charity Number: 296645
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 'Alzheimer's Society'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Alzheimer's Society'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
On the Sunday before Lent, an exploration in music and word around the beauty, value and challenge of the Feast and our invitation to both the feast and the fast. The service comes live from the London School of Theology and the preacher is the Principal, the Revd Dr Calvin T Samuel. The LST choir and band are led by Geraldine Latty and Carey Luce. The producer is Andrew Earis.
"Death's not great for selling yoghurt" writes AL Kennedy, "but making Death dance through a culture seems to do more than reinforce dominant ideologies....it can lend power to the powerless".
She says for millennia, the human race has searched for everlasting life.
Instead of resisting our mortality, she argues that it's empowering to reflect on it.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
Andy Clements of the British Trust for Ornithology describes how he was first bewitched by the captivating sound of the Golden Plover in summer above the moors.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Simon Stobart.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
There is more bad news for the Aldridges, and Emma causes tension.
Chi-chi Nwanoku is a double bass player and founder of Europe's first professional majority black and minority ethnic orchestra, Chineke!.
Chi-chi is the eldest of five children, born to a Nigerian father and an Irish mother. Early on, she discovered two competing passions: playing the piano and 100 metre sprinting. She was aiming to qualify for the 1976 Olympics when she suffered a knee injury which cut short her life as an athlete. Her music teacher then suggested that she could have a career as a musician if she took up 'an unpopular orchestral instrument'. She began learning the double bass a week later.
She was a student at the Royal Academy of Music and for over 30 years has played with renowned orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists, London Classical Players and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment , which she co-founded and where she was principal double bass for three decades.
In 2015, she set up Chineke! to support, inspire and encourage black and minority ethnic musicians. Last year the Chineke! orchestra made its debut at the BBC Proms, and Chi-chi was awarded an OBE for her services to music.
Producer: Sarah Taylor.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Sally Phillips welcome the satirical comedy songstress Dillie Keane, intrepid Neanderthal expert Ella Al-Shamahi, and the writer of Notting Hill, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley, Richard Curtis.
This week, the Museum's Guest Committee tuck into some homemade chutney, get embarrassingly excited about caves and celebrate some choice bits of Australian slang.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and QI.
The Production Coordinator was Tamara Shilham.
The Associate Producer was James Harkin.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
Sheila Dillon and Dan Saladino pay tribute to greengrocer extraordinaire, the late, great and encyclopaedic Charlie Hicks.
Produced by Dan Saladino.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
Producer Peter Curran and Blanche Girouard, who teaches in a mainstream school, capture an extraordinary musical collaboration between school pupils with complex educational needs and professional musicians, as they create and perform an original show together.
William Carslake and Patrick Stockbridge have successful careers composing and playing with orchestras and choirs. Another side of their life is bringing musical composition, stage performance and having a good time exploring instruments to young people who have special educational needs around the UK. The work they create together then becomes part of performance festivals and events alongside mainstream schools.
In this programme, they develop a musical about food, the senses, and being lost in the jungle. It's a noisy, funny and inspirational process. They have just 48 hours to write the show from scratch, before a performance in front of the whole school. We hear the thoughts and reactions of pupils and composers as they put their shoulders to the task.
The programme also offers a powerful illustration of the skills and effort by dedicated teachers and carers at the school in Telford, as they shape classes and creative experiences around the changing, often complex needs of each young person in their care.
A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4.
Eric Robson and the panel are at the Seedy Sunday festival in Brighton. James Wong, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew answer horticultural questions from the festival goers.
Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations about the post-referendum rise in racism, whether you want to die where you were born, and German national characteristics 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.
Reading Europe - Russia: Bride and Groom. Radio 4's journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.
By one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, Bride and Groom is a tragi-comic novel about family expectations, religious and cultural tensions, and power struggles in rural Dagestan. It's also a love story.
Episode 2
A death in the settlement further destabilises the community whilst the return of the infamous Khalilbek stirs mixed emotions. As Marat's wedding date draws closer the acts of fate that once kept pushing Marat and Patya closer together now suddenly start pulling them apart. Will there be a wedding after all?
Adapted for radio by Bethan Roberts from the translation by Dr. Carol Apollonio.
Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production
The Writer
Alisa Ganieva is an author from Dagestan. Her novel, Salam Dalgat! (published under a male pseudonym) won the 2009 national Debut Prize. Alisa's latest novel Bride and Groom was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize. In 2016 the Guardian named Ganieva number 9 on the list of Moscow's thirty most talented young people.
The translator
Dr. Carol Apollonio translated Ganieva's debut, The Mountain and the Wall and was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010.
A special programme for Valentine's Day devoted to love and romance. Julian Barnes talks about his new novel The Only Story about a relationship between and older woman and a younger man. And a new look and a relaunch for publishers Mills and Boon.
Jacob Sam-La Rose joins Roger McGough to share his favourite poems from listeners' requests, including poems by Billy Collins, Imtiaz Dharker, Sharon Olds and Josef Komunyakaa.
New transparency rules designed to reveal the true owners of British companies are being flouted. Billions of pounds of dirty money is alleged to have passed through opaque UK companies in recent years.
How does this square with UK's international reputation for financial probity? A British company at a British address carries an air of legitimacy. But, in reality, some corporate vehicles are being used to fill the pockets of corrupt politicians and deprive people living in poverty of much-needed public funds.
In this edition of File on 4, Tim Whewell investigates the scams designed to circumvent new regulations and untangles the global networks behind the Great British Money Laundering Service.
Presenter: Tim Whewell
Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Gail Champion.
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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
John Waite chooses his BBC Radio highlights.
Jennifer has a fight on her hands, and Nic's fears are confirmed.
Andy (Tom Palmer) has found a level of contentment with the world - reading books, watching films, and generally repairing his wounded psyche. Uncle Jeff (Philip Jackson) is having none of this and reveals a hitherto unknown secret to Andy, that the dusty shop downstairs from his seaside flat belongs to Jeff. When necessary, it seems, he offers the community of Flamford a valuable service as an electrical repair person.
Jeff lures Andy into the shop and shows him how to use the till. Andy realises it's another of his uncle's ploys, and refuses this oblique yet unsubtle job offer. But Jeff, never the one to say "die", takes his nephew on a job search in which Andy is an unwilling participant.
Visits follow to Fish Shop Frank (Mark Benton), the Tourist Information Office run by the uniformed and uninformed Steph and Pippa (Alison Steadman and Shobna Gulati), and Flamford's as-yet-unlicensed zoo.
Writers: Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Producer/Director: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.
Episode 5/5
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
A man tries to revive his marriage.
A poignant story inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem about hope stirring, even in the darkest of times. By the poet and short-story writer, Kathryn Simmonds.
Credits
Writer ..... Kathryn Simmonds
Reader ..... Robert Jack
Producer ..... Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.
Investigating the numbers in the news.
Photo: John Mahoney
Julian Worricker on:
The actor John Mahoney who played Marty Crane in one of America's best-loved sitcoms, Frasier.
Hannah Hauxwell, whose solitary life as a farmer in the Yorkshire Dales, was captured in an award-winning TV documentary.
Scientist Ken Seddon, a global leader in his field of inorganic chemistry and pioneer of so-called 'super solvents'.
Landowner Sir John Cotterell, who helped raise funds to save the Mappa Mundi from being sold by Hereford Cathedral.
And feminist icon, Naomi Parker Fraley, the inspiration for "Rosie the riveter", the factory worker who featured in a US wartime poster.
Interviewed guest: Millicent Martin
Interviewed guest: Anna D. Shapiro
Interviewed guest: Olga Smirnova
Interviewed guest: Professor Tom Welton
Interviewed guest: Harry Cotterell
Interviewed guest: Edward Harley
Interviewed guest: John Fraley
Interviewed guest: Dr James J. Kimble
Archive clips from: The World This Weekend, 12/11/89 Radio 4; The Third Ear, 11/01/89 Radio 3; Woman's Hour, 25/09/90 Radio 4.
Poland and Hungary appear to be on paths to what the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called "illiberal democracy". What does this mean for the European Union? Naomi Grimley hears how in Hungary a respected newspaper was shut down overnight after criticising government officials. A liberal university is fighting for its survival. In Poland, a popular singer was disinvited from a festival after speaking out against the proposed outlawing of abortion. Laws have been passed which give politicians more control over the appointment of judges. Both countries are in trouble with the European Commission. And yet, the view from Warsaw and Budapest is that their governments were democratically elected, and that they are enacting the will of their peoples - a will that may not be the same as that of Brussels, but has a popular mandate. In Hungary, Naomi is told that the country simply wants to keep its Christian identity. In Poland, the argument is that the changes of the court systems are simply an overdue updating of the judiciary after the Communist era, and that Poland is entitled to develop as its voters see fit. Could their new paths divide East and West and eventually threaten the EU itself?
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
With Francine Stock
Guillermo del Toro on his Oscar nominated fantasy The Shape Of Water and why it's a parable for our troubled times.
The director of Russian family drama Loveless, Andrey Zvyaginstev, reveals what his film has to say about the conflict in Ukraine.
Could the director of Basic Instinct really be one of the greatest film-makers of all time. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh makes the case for Paul Verhoeven, while Simran Hans champions Luchino Visconti for inclusion in The Film Programme's A to Z.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Populism - Laurie Taylor explores the origins, meaning and rise of populist politics, across the Left as well as the Right. He's joined by Mukulika Banerjee, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, LSE; Luke March, Deputy Head of Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University and Thomas Osborne, Leverhulme Research Fellow in Liberalism & Political Ethics and Prof of Social & Political Theory at the University of Bristol.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
Ecologist Penny Anderson has always liked Red Grouse and they never fail to make her laugh as she reveals in this recollection about her encounters with this dumpy red bird.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Fox Pix.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
What would the perfect city look like? Structural engineer Roma Agrawal charts the growth of cities from simple mud huts to the modern metropolis. She tells Amol Rajan about the engineering magic that holds towering city skylines in place, and recalls the eccentric engineers whose visions called our cities into being. The Chinese built a city for the dead more than two thousand years ago and now its relics are on display again. Historian Edward Burman describes how the Terracotta Army found in a necropolis shows a ruler planning for life after death. David Farr depicts the siege and destruction of Troy, the great city of the ancient world, in his vast new BBC One drama. He explains how the Trojans coped under ten long years of siege. Today more people live in cities than ever before and that shapes the way we think, says sociologist Richard Sennett. He lays out a vision for a city of the future based not on ancient Greece but on new 'open' streets.
Producer: Hannah Sander.
The Chauvet Caves of southern France have the oldest known depiction of an owl in the world. Fascinatingly, this closely observed bird is drawn from behind, but with its head swivelled backwards 180 degrees, to meet the gaze of people walking towards it. The drawing dates back 36,000 years and we have been captivated by owls at least that long. We have fixated on this night hunter as predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom, something pretty to print on a tote bag or portent of doom.
Author Miriam Darlington sets out to tell a new story about owls. In her watching and deep listening to the natural world, she cleaves myth from reality to change the way we think about this magnificent creature.
In Episode 1, we meet Murray the teaching owl.
Miriam Darlington was born and brought up in Lewes, Sussex. In 2008 she published a collection of poetry, Windfall, and the same year completed a book for young children, Footprints in the Sand, an ecological tale about rivers. In 2009 she gained funding to complete a book on otters in conjunction with a PhD at Exeter University and the book Otter Country was published in 2012. The Guardian, in its hugely positive review of the book, stated that "Darlington has earned her place alongside [Gavin] Maxwell and [Henry] Williamson."
Writer: Miriam Darlington
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
11/15 Held at knifepoint - will the truth set Anna free?
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Grace Dent tells the story of Yeovil Town Ladies, a team of part time players who must raise £350,000 in order to turn professional and stay in the top tier of women's football.
In November 2016 Yeovil Town Ladies Football Club hit the headlines with a fairy tale story. They were the part time team who had won their way to Women's Super League 1, the highest level of football in the country. A team of students, nurses and firefighters would rub shoulders with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Yet just a few weeks into their first season in WSL 1, the club was hit with devastating news. In order to remain in the league next season, they need to apply as a fully professional club and raise £350,000 to pay their players.
With just a few weeks before the application must be submitted, Grace Dent follows the club as they raise funds while facing gruelling matches against the best players in the world.
Producers: Mohini Patel and Sam Peach.
Britain's only national local radio station returns to the airwaves for a one-off special - a spectacular world-premiere adaption of Charles Dickens' David Chizzlenut.
Mike Channel, Anna Daptor, Martin Brown and the rest of the Radio Active crew try to hold things together as the spectacularly appalling Radio Active Drama Repertory Company unveil their unique rendition of Dickens' mercifully less well-known masterpiece.
Original cast members Angus Deayton, Helen Atkinson Wood, Philip Pope and Michael Fenton Stevens have reunited to recreate an episode of one of the most successful radio comedies of the 1980s, which ran for seven series and won numerous awards.
The show is produced by one of the original producers, David Tyler
Cast:
Helen Atkinson Wood
Angus Deayton
Michael Fenton Stevens
Philip Pope
Written by
Geoffrey Perkins and Angus Deayton
With additional material by Jon Cantor, Moray Hunter and John Docherty
Music by Philip Pope & Richard Curtis
Produced by David Tyler
A So Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Syrian qanun virtuoso Maya Youssef explains why - to her - music is "the opposite of death" in this powerful and poignant talk.
"I played a concert in a refugee centre in Aalborg, Denmark," she says, "and afterwards a ten-year old child approached me and said, 'Your music brought back the memory of beautiful days in Syria and the smell of lemon and jasmine.' Another woman added, 'I haven't felt happy like this for a long time'. I felt joy and grief at the same time hearing this."
Recorded in front of a live audience at the WOMAD world music and arts festival in Wiltshire.
Producer: Richard Knight.
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the countless allegations that have spun out of it, relations between men and women are in flux. Fi Glover and Peter Curran go on the road to find out how recent events have influenced standards of acceptable behaviour in Britain.
Fi is a self-confessed liberal feminist, Peter grew up in the very traditional and masculine culture of 1970s Belfast. Both are old radio colleagues. Together, they travel around the country to find out how relations between the sexes are being redefined in UK workplaces - from call centres and comedy clubs to chicken factories.
Fi Glover says, "Social change is usually only identified in the rear view mirror of history, but we are going to try and run alongside this one and find out if we are living through one of the most significant cultural shifts of recent times."
With the revelations of the last twelve months - Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, the equal pay furore and #MeToo - have we reached a really significant, historic point in time? Is this a sea change across every ocean - or just in some elitist millponds?
From Cardiff to Canterbury, Belfast to Blackburn, Fi and Peter set out to discover whether a consensus exists in Britain on acceptable behaviour between the sexes today.
Producer: Eve Streeter
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
by Sarah Wooley
A comedy drama series about the exploits - musical and otherwise - of a string quartet.
After playing in a festival in Lucca, the quartet is on its way home when they receive a new booking. Fergus has invited Kelly, a young Australian woman, to travel with them. Could things be beginning to go right for the Benjamin Quartet?
All music was played by the Edinburgh Quartet
4/4 was created by Robin Brooks and Sarah Wooley
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.
To launch the new season of 'Brain of Britain', the champions of the three previous series, along with the highest-scoring runner-up in a final, compete for the coveted title 'Brain of Brains 2018'. Russell Davies tests their general knowledge with half an hour of particularly tricky questions, and has a special trophy for the champion of champions to add to their cabinet of accolades.
The winner will also go forward to the 'Top Brain' contest held next week, in which the three most recent winners of 'Brain of Brains' go head to head in the ultimate general knowledge quiz.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Sculptor and musician Nick Reynolds has revived the art of creating death masks.
Coming across Oliver Cromwell's death mask on a school trip to Warwick Castle, Nick instantly became fascinated with the idea that you can stare at the actual facial features of a historical person. He now owns the death masks of many famous people from Ned Kelly and Napoleon to Ken Russell and Ronnie Biggs. They decorate every wall in his flat but he views them not as a macabre way of remembering the dead but as "a kind of time machine".
In recent years, Nick has turned his artistic talents towards producing death masks and his portfolio includes the masks of William Rees-Mogg, Peter O'Toole and Sebastian Horsley. In this programme, their nearest and dearest give their different reactions to the 'undying face' of the person they have lost.
Nick also visits Highgate Cemetery to discuss our attitude to death and describes the death masks which adorn the gravestones of his father and of impresario Malcolm McLaren.
Contributors:
Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
Kate O'Toole - actress and daughter of Peter O'Toole
Rachel Campbell Johnston - Chief Art Critic for The Times
Dr Ian Dungavell - Chief Executive at Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust
Producer:
Helen Lee
Photograph by Rankin of Nick Reynolds holding his father's death mask
Music:
Woke Up This Morning performed by Alabama 3 (Nick Reynolds on harmonica)
Recorded by Visual Hybrid.
Volcano!
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Jo Brand and Volcano experts Professor Tamsin Mather and Professor Clive Oppenheimer. They look at the very latest technology that is used to predict the next big volcanic eruption, as well as the history and importance of volcanoes and volcanic activity on our planet.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Sally Phillips welcome Britain's Got Talent runner-up (at the age of 14!) Jack Carroll, hostage negotiator Suzanne Williams and the traveller with big ideas about mastering little things, Robert Twigger.
This week, the Museum's Guest Committee contemplate how someone changed history by choosing her bus seat carefully in 1955, what life might be like if we paid each other more attention and why all of life might actually be a simulation in a future game of Football Manager.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and QI.
The Production Coordinator was Tamara Shilham.
The Associate Producer was James Harkin.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
Kirsty opens up, and Toby is out of his depth.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
From bombs to Olympic banners: Can winter sports diplomacy stop a war in the Korean peninsula? North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un took the world by surprise with his announcement that his nation and South Korea would unite under a single banner at the Winter Olympics. Was it a diplomatic masterstroke or a cynical stunt? Journalist Jean Lee pieces together what really led to this public relations coup. She investigates how the region went from talk of an imminent war to recent pictures of a Kim's favourite pop star touring the South in her furs. With a legacy of fear and belligerence, can sports really lead to reconciliation?
Producer: Matthew Chapman.
The latest round in the fight over the future of the UK armed forces is raging in the corridors of Whitehall. As politicians and military top brass argue about money, wider questions about what we want the Army, Navy and RAF to do once again top the defence agenda.
Caroline Wyatt spent many years covering defence for the BBC and has heard warnings from retired generals about chronic under-funding many times. But with army numbers already down to a level not seen since before the Napoleonic Wars, big projects like the F-35 fighter jets in trouble, and a £2bn a year black hole in the defence budget, further salami slicing seems untenable. How then to prioritise which capabilities the UK must maintain and improve?
The UK faces an intensified threat from Russia, 'hybrid' warfare where cyber attacks and political destabilisation are used alongside military force, and advances in missile technology. Post Brexit, the UK's strategic position both globally and within the European defence space is unclear. How we want to deploy our armed forces - where, with whom, and at what cost - is once again up for debate.
Producer: Lucy Proctor.
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia or CLL, is the most common form of leukaemia. It's a disease which kills. The most common treatment is with chemotherapy. If that doesn't work, most patients can only expect to live for another few years at most.
But there are dramatic developments with new targeted treatments which are less toxic than conventional chemotherapy. In this programme, reporter Simon Cox follows a medical trial based at St James' hospital in Leeds which uses a unique combination of drugs designed to defeat the cancer. It's the last hope for many patients but will it work? Can researchers find a cure?
Presenter: Simon Cox
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Andrew Smith
Image: Illustration of man in a white coat looking at a test tube
Credit: BBC.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Michael Rosen and Laura Wright explore how diseases are named and the political, economic and social impact of disease names past and present. Joining them are Laura Spinney, Science journalist and author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World and Professor Peter Piot; Ebola co-discoverer and AIDS pioneer, currently Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and professor of global health.
Producer: Sarah Addezio.
Katy Long tells the extraordinary story of what Bertolt Brecht called 'the most distinguished part of man's anatomy': the passport.
Katy shows how out of step today's modern, biometric, highly securitized and nationalized idea of a passport is with the document's origins, and how it came to be this way. She reveals a document which was once merely to demonstrate personal identity, how in the 18th century many British citizens travelled on French passports because they were cheaper; while after the French revolution, French citizens were often issued British passports. Not only were passports personal, and optional, but Katy shows how they were also intended to be temporary, and how Britain was the greatest opponent of the system.
As so often, it was the First World War which changed everything, and Katy travels to Geneva to the archives of the League of Nations which, tasked with abolishing passports, instead laid down the rules for a new international passport system which still largely operates today.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
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 spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
When a pair of Spotted flycatchers decided to build a nest in a gap in the wall, ecologist Penny Anderson had to stop the pointing work being done to her house but she has no regrets as the birds have bred in her garden ever since.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian Redman.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
What once took decades, now takes days, thanks to an astonishingly powerful new technique invented by Richard Henderson, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
Richard grew up in a remote village in the Scottish borders exploring the countryside and reading the weekly bundles of comics sent by his great aunt, as part of a care package for his family. When he started work at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, a string of Nobel Prizes had been awarded for x-ray crystallography, a technique that had revealed the double helix structure of DNA, and the atomic structure of haemoglobin, vitamin B12 and insulin. But Richard decided to experiment with a radical new approach, using electrons not x-rays. After an early success in 1975, he spent the next 15 years trying to improve the resolution of electron crystallography and, in 1990, he managed to see in astonishing atomic detail how individual atoms were arranged within a particular biological molecule. Next, however, he decided that the future of microscopy lay in different direction and,despite the initial results being very blurry, he embraced a more direct approach to microscopy that involved flash freezing molecules to catch them, mid-movement, as they existed in nature.
Undeterred by a steady stream of technical problems, Richard spent the next 17 years refining this new approach to microscopy convinced that it should outperform all the others and, in 2012, he was proved right. Cryo electron microscopy now enables us to see how the individual atoms are arranged within biological molecules that were previously opaque. We are seeing atomic structures that have never been seen before and, since these are the molecules that make life possible, knowing what they look like is worth millions to pharmaceutical companies trying to design drugs to activate or inhibit their action.
Richard talks to Jim Al-Khalili about half a century of problem solving and the bold strategic decisions that led him to be awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, together with Joaquim Frank and Jacques Dubochet.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
Decca Aikenhead explores how the loss of a parent effects a child. Decca herself was nine when her mother died of cancer, and three years ago, her partner drowned suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving her with their two young sons. She has had to raise them on her own and help them cope with his death. She talks to Sandra, who lost both her father and her husband suddenly, about what happens to children when a parent dies without warning.
Producer in Bristol: Sara Conkey.
The Chauvet Caves of southern France have the oldest known depiction of an owl in the world. Fascinatingly, this closely observed bird is drawn from behind, but with its head swivelled backwards 180 degrees, to meet the gaze of people walking towards it. The drawing dates back 36,000 years and we have been captivated by owls at least that long. We have fixated on this night hunter as predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom, something pretty to print on a tote bag or portent of doom.
Author Miriam Darlington sets out to tell a new story about owls. In her watching and deep listening to the natural world, she cleaves myth from reality to change the way we think about this magnificent creature.
In Episode 2, our marriage to the fragile Barn Owl.
Miriam Darlington was born and brought up in Lewes, Sussex. In 2008 she published a collection of poetry, Windfall, and the same year completed a book for young children, Footprints in the Sand, an ecological tale about rivers. In 2009 she gained funding to complete a book on otters in conjunction with a PhD at Exeter University and the book Otter Country was published in 2012. The Guardian, in its hugely positive review of the book, stated that "Darlington has earned her place alongside [Gavin] Maxwell and [Henry] Williamson."
Writer: Miriam Darlington
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
12/15 Time to be good. Maybe.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
What are we eating? Where does it come from? Why does that make sense? In a new series, Charlotte Smith explores the global networks that supply us with food and asks why they have become so complex. Charlotte visits the Netherlands to find out how it has become the second biggest exporter of food on the planet and to look at the technology that has made that possible. And with farmers, commentators and leading figures in research, she discusses the risks that complicated networks can create, and how food can be produced in a sustainable way for an ever growing global population.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.
In the slums of Wakaliga, Uganda, a group of self-taught filmmakers run one of the world's most unlikely movie studios. Known as Wakaliwood they have released fifty-two feature films in ten years, with kit built from scrap metal and old car jacks.
Despite this, their distinctive brand of kung fu action has found a global audience far beyond Kampala, with trailers going viral on YouTube and festivals around the world putting on sold-out screenings.
Filmmaker Isis Thompson travels to Uganda to experience life on the set of the latest Wakaliwood production, and find out how the tiny studio's unexpected success is changing the fortunes of its cast and crew.
Photo of Wakaliwood action scene by Tess Williams
Presenter: Isis Thompson
Producer: Olivia Humphreys
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Dan Mayfield, founder of the School of Noise, explains why he believes everyone is capable of making music, and why the right kind of music education is so important to encourage young people's creativity.
"I believe... there is musicality in all of us, because I think of music as nothing more nor less than organised sound, and it shouldn't be something to be afraid of."
Recorded in front of a live audience at the WOMAD world music and arts festival in Wiltshire.
Presenter: Helen Zaltzman
Producer: Richard Knight.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Fi Glover and Peter Curran find out how relations between men and women are being redefined in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and #MeToo.
by Ming Ho, with Lia Williams and Sian Phillips.
Winner of the Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Drama 2018.
A mother. A daughter. A lifetime. But what becomes of that bond, when one of you knows only the present moment - Monday, 15.36?
'You said you'd never forget me, but you have.' 'You said you'd love me forever, but you don't know who I am...'
Writer .... Ming Ho
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
Ming has written for TV series EastEnders, Casualty, Heartbeat, The Bill. Her previous stage play, Exhumation, was workshopped at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 2015. She also writes and speaks on dementia and carer issues and blogs at (Dementia Just Ain't) Sexy: http://dementiajustaintsexy.blogspot.co.uk.
Love lost and found, a lingering goodbye and being haunted by a loved one - Josie Long presents stories of holding on.
From the echoes of a partner that linger after their death to an extraordinary tale of love regained after fifty years apart.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
The work of the entomologist very often involves the killing of insects in large numbers. This happens in the search for new species in the exploration of the planet's biodiversity and in ecological investigations to monitor the health of wild insect populations and the impact we are having on the environment. But the methods of entomologists have come under criticism.
Last August presenter and entomologist Adam Hart was involved in a citizen science project aimed at surveying the abundance and distribution of the various species of social wasp around the country. The survey entailed members of the public setting up wasp traps in their gardens for a week and then sending the dead insects to the lab running the project. Many people took part but the study also generated negative newspaper coverage and stinging criticism on social media.
The reaction got Adam Hart thinking: can his profession really defend the death of thousands and sometimes millions of insects for the sake of science, especially when there's so much concern around insect conservation? How do entomologists feel about killing their subjects, and might the insects themselves feel something akin to pain and suffering themselves?
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright are joined by CN Lester, author of 'Trans Like Me: A Journey for All of Us' to talk about language and gender identity. What does it mean to be transgender and how is language being used (by and about) people who identify as transgender, non-binary or genderqueer?
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
Broadcaster Steph McGovern and comedian Jayde Adams talk about books with Harriett Gilbert. Their choices are, Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Ann Cleeves' The Seagull, from the Vera series, and Postcards from the Edge by the late actress Carrie Fisher. Producer Sally Heaven.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Part three in an occasional series in which the occasional writer Henry Normal uses poetry, storytelling and comedy to tackle those subjects so big only radio can possibly contain them.
Last year Henry brought us his acclaimed show - 'A Normal Life', which was awarded a Silver ARIA for Best Comedy / Entertainment production at the 2017 Radio Academy Awards.
This time Henry returns with his new show for Valentine's Day - 'A Normal Love', exploring love, romance and other unreasonable expectations.
Henry Normal is a multi-award winning writer, producer and poet. Co-writer of award winning TV programmes such as The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, Coogan's Run and Paul Calf, and producer of, amongst many others, Oscar-Nominated Philomena, The Mighty Boosh, Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge.
Written and performed by Henry Normal
Produced by Carl Cooper
This was a BBC Studios production.
Brian loses his cool, and Christine puts her foot down.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
The homeless being denied end of life care.
File on 4 hears the stories of the terminally ill left to die in hostels and on the street.
An estimated 4751 thousand people will sleep rough tonight in England. Many are seriously, even terminally ill.
If you're living on the streets, who will care for you when the end comes?
File on 4 hears from homeless people living with life threatening illness, who can't find a regular bed for the night, let alone a place where their medical needs can be met.
A bed in a nursing home or hospice is usually not available to them. Hostels are left to do their best for the dying. But they say they aren't trained or equipped to give people a dignified death.
We speak to those battling to get homeless people basic medical care. And hear how when services fail, people are left to die on the street.
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Emma Forde
Editor: Gail Champion.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Surgeon Stephen Westaby explores the events leading up to the first heart transplant and reflects on the consequences of that extraordinary medical breakthrough.
"The heart is merely a pump," said Christiaan Barnard, a little-known Cape Town surgeon who became famous overnight following the dramatic events of 3rd December 1967 when he led a 30-strong team through the landmark procedure.
A survival story, a daring professional achievement, a watershed moment in the relationship of the public to the medical profession, it also proved to be a turning point in our conceptions of identity and body, raising fundamental questions of what makes us who we are.
Through archive and new interviews with those who worked with Barnard - or came to know him later in life, as Stephen Westaby did, when Barnard became an increasingly eccentric figure - the programme explores the myths and ethics surrounding the man and medical technique he pioneered.
Produced by Phil Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Manchester International Festival (MIF) is the world's first festival of original, new work and special events. The Festival is staged every two years in Manchester, UK - the next edition will take place from 29 June to 16 July 2017 at venues all over the city.
In the run-up to MIF17, the Manchester International Festival (MIF) is running a project called "Festival in My House", inviting and producing ordinary people's ideas for tiny arts festivals, to be held in their own homes. Festival In My House brings the arts and MIF into in local communities around Manchester.
In this programme, Nija Dalal-Small, who held one of these 'tiny festivals' in her own Levenshulme home, visits some of the others - including ones hosting a Parisian post-punk band, a spoken word celebration and a classical music event - as well as attending a festival in a residential home... Nija speaks with the artists and guests as they experience the arts in this unique, intimate way.
Presenter: Nija Dalal-Small
Producers: Nija Dalal-Small & Geoff Bird.
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 spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Ecologist Penny Anderson wonders whether evolution is a work in her garden as the behaviour of the frogs in her ponds seems to be changing in response to the annual visits by the herons which enjoy a spot of fishing.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian OK.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Arts series.
The Chauvet Caves of southern France have the oldest known depiction of an owl in the world. Fascinatingly, this closely observed bird is drawn from behind, but with its head swivelled backwards 180 degrees, to meet the gaze of people walking towards it. The drawing dates back 36,000 years and we have been captivated by owls at least that long. We have fixated on this night hunter as predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom, something pretty to print on a tote bag or portent of doom.
Author Miriam Darlington sets out to tell a new story about owls. In her watching and deep listening to the natural world, she cleaves myth from reality to change the way we think about this magnificent creature.
In Episode 3, the diminutive but feisty Little Owl.
Miriam Darlington was born and brought up in Lewes, Sussex. In 2008 she published a collection of poetry, Windfall, and the same year completed a book for young children, Footprints in the Sand, an ecological tale about rivers. In 2009 she gained funding to complete a book on otters in conjunction with a PhD at Exeter University and the book Otter Country was published in 2012. The Guardian, in its hugely positive review of the book, stated that "Darlington has earned her place alongside [Gavin] Maxwell and [Henry] Williamson."
Writer: Miriam Darlington
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
13/15 The Gothamites turn up a conspiracy
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
A relationship that's faced challenges in its first year proves strong enough to withstand them. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Star of BBC3's Josh and Radio 4 News Quiz regular Elis James hosts four stand-up shows from the four nations of the United Kingdom which explore what it means to be variously Welsh, English, Scottish and Northern Irish in today's United Kingdom.
This week Elis is in The Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle where he's joined by Rahul Kohli, Suzi Ruffell and Tom Allen to get a comedy snapshot of England and Englishness.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Natalie Maddix, founder of the House Gospel Choir, explains why she believes in the power of singing together. She gets the audience at WOMAD to join in to prove her point.
"Singing really has this healing property. There is a truth inside of us that maybe we're not ready to face and sometimes it's not until we sing together that we even become aware of our feelings."
Recorded in front of a live audience at the WOMAD world music and arts festival in Wiltshire.
Producer: Richard Knight.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Fi Glover and Peter Curran find out how relations between men and women are being redefined in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and #MeToo.
The B Towns: The Punjab by Phil Davies
The first in a series of linked but stand alone dramas. Three stories from three neglected but resilient towns. A character from today's drama takes centre stage in tomorrow's drama. Bilal and his family feel helpless as their family restaurant is being closed as part of a lucrative mill development. Then a character from Bilal's past turns up with anarchic ideas.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
Financial phone-in.
Claudia Hammond presents a special edition of the series that explores the limits and potential of the human mind.
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.
Witness episode 2 of award-winning stand-up comedian Bridget Christie's BBC Radio 4 comedy series, Bridget Christie's Utopia.
As Bridget Christie struggles to come to terms with current world events - Kim Jong-un, the melting polar ice caps and parakeets in her garden reminding her of Brexit, she embarks on a comic quest for her Utopia - a way of living that will make her less anxious and enable her to have her first happy wee since the Brexit vote in 2016.
EPISODE 2 : Spirituality
In this second episode of the series, Bridget explores spirituality - to see if that will make her happier. Could Yoga, Hinduism or becoming a nun be the answer to all her problems? Or will life still be completely rubbish? In her tour of spirituality, Bridget meets an elderly nun - Sister Agatha - at Bar Convent, hides from an Easter egg hunt and witnesses the aftermath of her husband getting a wedgie from the ghost of Napoleon. Will any of this help her switch off?
Stand-up show recorded in front of a studio audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.
Starring: Bridget Christie.
With special guest Sister Agatha.
Producers: Simon Nicholls and Alison Vernon-Smith.
A BBC Studios Production.
Neil makes a touching declaration, and Joe's plan backfires.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Shiv Malik, Mona Siddiqui, Claire Fox and Melanie Philips.
Hanna Pickard says we need to understand the reasons why desperate people become addicted to drugs, seeing them neither as "victims of a neurobiological disease", nor as "selfish, lazy hedonists".
"Choosing to use drugs, including alcohol, to gain pleasure and escape from life's banality, isn't the same as choosing to use drugs to relieve suffering."
Recorded at the Phoenix Artist Club in London.
Presenter: Helen Zaltzman
Producer: Sheila Cook.
We're bombarded with emotions these days - in the news, in advertising. We expect our politicians to show their emotions in order to seem authentic, and in schools and work places emotional resilience classes and emotional therapies are on the rise.
As we seem to be casting off the traditional stiff upper lip, psychotherapist Philippa Perry asks whether, in this new age of emotion, we're putting how we feel before what we think.
She goes to the country's first, so-called positive university in Buckingham which is introducing mindfulness classes. She asks whether getting young people more in touch with their emotions is helping them deal with the challenges of life - or creating a generation of emotional snowflakes.
Philippa also explores the trend for big brands wanting big data about our emotions, and speaks to journalist Julia Raeside and historian Tiffany Watt Smith about how our emotions have changed, and the impact of the media on how we experience our own emotions.
Producer: Jo Wheeler
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Comedian Tez Ilyas returns for a second series of TEZ Talks.
Episode 4 - Made In Britain
In this final episode Tez talks about what it is like being both Muslim and British at the same time.
Written and performed by... Tez Ilyas
Produced by... Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios Production.
The first of four 14 minute vignettes in a brand new series from John Kearns, the Winner of the Main Prize at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Festival, as well as the Best Newcomer Award in 2013.
In this episode, we get a glimpse into the oddball mind of John as he returns home from work... in "The Ticket."
Producer: Arnab Chanda.
Men talk about all sorts of things. Here are some conversations they tend not to have.
After Harvey Weinstein and #metoo, with daily sexual harassment revelations and disputes over power and pay, gender relations are in a state of flux and the male psyche is under scrutiny.
In The Male Room we ask men to reflect on their own experiences and behaviour; to talk about what it's like to be a man, be it about fatherhood, inadequacy, anger, violence or dating. The result is a series of conversations that men don't often have on air.
In The Male Room you'll hear from the male perspective honestly, openly, thoughtfully. Three late night conversations, three days in a row.
To kick us off on Valentine's Night, we navigate the often delicate world of modern world of dating.
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 spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Mandarin Ducks are flamboyant, brightly coloured ducks which originally hail from the Middle East. A feral population established here in the last century here and a pair regularly visit the garden of ecologist Penny Anderson where they waddle across the lawn, roost on her ponds and perch in her trees.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Derek Morgan.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss fungi. These organisms are not plants or animals but a kingdom of their own. Millions of species of fungi live on the Earth and they play a crucial role in ecosystems, enabling plants to obtain nutrients and causing material to decay. Without fungi, life as we know it simply would not exist. They are also a significant part of our daily life, making possible the production of bread, wine and certain antibiotics. Although fungi brought about the colonisation of the planet by plants about 450 million years ago, some species can kill humans and devastate trees.
With:
Lynne Boddy
Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University
Sarah Gurr
Professor of Food Security in the Biosciences Department at the University of Exeter
David Johnson
N8 Chair in Microbial Ecology at the University of Manchester
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
The Chauvet Caves of southern France have the oldest known depiction of an owl in the world. Fascinatingly, this closely observed bird is drawn from behind, but with its head swivelled backwards 180 degrees, to meet the gaze of people walking towards it. The drawing dates back 36,000 years and we have been captivated by owls at least that long. We have fixated on this night hunter as predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom, something pretty to print on a tote bag or portent of doom.
Author Miriam Darlington sets out to tell a new story about owls. In her watching and deep listening to the natural world, she cleaves myth from reality to change the way we think about this magnificent creature.
In Episode 4, the ghost-like qualities of the Tawny Owl.
Miriam Darlington was born and brought up in Lewes, Sussex. In 2008 she published a collection of poetry, Windfall, and the same year completed a book for young children, Footprints in the Sand, an ecological tale about rivers. In 2009 she gained funding to complete a book on otters in conjunction with a PhD at Exeter University and the book Otter Country was published in 2012. The Guardian, in its hugely positive review of the book, stated that "Darlington has earned her place alongside [Gavin] Maxwell and [Henry] Williamson."
Writer: Miriam Darlington
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
14/15 Harry tells the whole story.
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
Art behaves differently outdoors.
The silence and the rules of the gallery supposedly disappear, as works crash into the sight lines and daily lives of people going about their daily business.
Well that's the plan...
In the second episode of Street Art Dr Cadence Kinsey looks at works which are designed to be interacted with - and works which are intended to exist in the spaces and places of everyday life.
But traditional sculpture often exists not by the streets and the shops, but in the centres of power, the city squares and the town halls. So is a big chunk of the population immediately shut out from public art? We chart the unpredictable afterlife of Anthony Gormley's Another Place on the beaches of Crosby in Merseyside and stop at the Falls Road in Belfast to investigate a project which invited people to team up with artists to "re-image" sectarian murals. We'll hear how Hew Locke commemorated the sealing of the Magna Carta by inviting people to sit down - and how Turner Prize winner Rachel Whiteread successfully stopped squatters living inside one of her artworks.
Taking in artists in their studio and people on the streets - it addresses the key question surrounding art in public - who gets to join in?
Presented by Dr Cadence Kinsey.
Produced by Kev Core.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Laurence Anholt describes how his dying father revealed the traumatic experiences of his early life, explaining his failure to be a loving parent to his son.
"I recalled the nightmares and mood swings he had suffered when I was young, and I began to realise that for most of his life, my father had suffered from acute untreated trauma."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Fi Glover and Peter Curran find out how relations between men and women are being redefined in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and #MeToo.
The B Towns: All of the Beauty in the World by Eve Steele
Three stories from three neglected but resilient towns. A character from yesterday's drama now takes centre stage. Jenny has returned to her home town after graduating from university. But her hopes of finding a decent job are pretty slim.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
Clare Balding joins comedian Ed Byrne as he takes her for one of his favourite walks in the Peak District; to Stanton Moor and Robin Hood's Stride from Winster. They discuss how he became an enthusiastic hill walker and a passionate Munro bagger. Munro bagging is the ideal hobby for Ed as it combines a love of the outdoors and his nerdy desire to tick things off lists. Ed and Clare compare notes on their passion for kit, walking clothing and gadgets.
The route for their seven mile walk can be found on OL 24 , grid reference SK241605.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
With Francine Stock
Alison Janney discusses her award winning role in real-life ice-skating drama I, Tonya
Sally Potter talks about her latest film The Party as it's released for home entertainment.
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The Egg, floating on a giant prehistoric egg in the middle of the ocean, is Britain's most remote prison. So three's no better place to send Patsy Potts, one of the nation's most tricky prisoners, who's a master of disguise and has escaped from every other prison they've tried to keep her in. But when Tim arrives on The Egg with Patsy in the helicopter, she's nowhere to be found, and worse, no-one knows what she actually looks like...And in the second episode Harry and the team must welcome and look after famous movie actor Brad De Depprio who is with them to research a role for his new blockbuster. But what are they supposed to do when Brad demands to share a cell with The Egg's most dangerous prisoner...?
Cast:
Harry Hill as Governor Harry
Karen Bartke as Ann
Marek Larwood as Peter
Tanya Moodie as The Minister
Demetri Goritsas as Brad De Depprio
Dan Maier as Tim the Helicopter Pilot
and
Gyles Brandreth as Prisoner Gyles Brandreth
Written by Dan Maier
Produced by Sam Michell
It is a production from BBC Studios.
Philip makes a move, and Emma tries to make amends.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
Evan Davis and guests discuss why some restaurant chains thrive and others fail. Why are so many chains closing down branches now?
GUESTS
Paul Campbell, Founder, Hill Capital Partners LLP
Angela Hartnett, Chef and Owner of Murano, Café Murano and Merchants' Tavern
Sarah Willingham, Entrepreneur and Investor.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Multi-award winning storyteller Sarah Kendall, brings her critically acclaimed trilogy of funny and moving, live shows to Radio 4.
Taking her audience on a trip, Sarah gives a unique snapshot of small-town life in Australia in the early nineties.
At a time when most people were seeing Australians through the filter of 'Home and Away' and 'Neighbours', Sarah's shows present a darker underbelly to the stereotype of the sun-loving, happy-go-lucky Aussie teenager.
Comedic and tragic in equal measure, Sarah's tales of her teenage life blend intricate narratives with a cast of memorable characters, bringing events to life in front of your very ears.
Episode 1: A Day In October
"This show is a story about a day in October in 1990, when I saw a miracle happen to a boy, and his name was George Peach..."
A Day in October is about Sarah's secret relationship with bullied classmate, George Peach. Following an accident at the beach, George Peach died for exactly 11 seconds. Sarah's story examines the remarkable effect those eleven seconds had on Sarah and her schoolmates. The show plays with the relationship between fiction and real-life and explores the redemptive power of storytelling.
This episode was the winner of the 2018 Writers' Guild Award the Audio Drama Award for best comedy production.
Written and performed by Sarah Kendall
Producer - Carl Cooper
Production Coordinator - Emily Hallett
This is a BBC Studios Production.
Men talk about all sorts of things. Here are some conversations they tend not to have.
After Harvey Weinstein and #metoo, daily sexual harassment revelations and disputes over power and pay, gender relations are in a state of flux and the male psyche is under scrutiny.
In The Male Room we ask men to reflect on their own experiences and behaviour; to talk about what it's like to be a man, be it about fatherhood, inadequacy, anger, violence or dating. The result is a series of conversations that men don't often have on air.
In The Male Room you'll hear from the male perspective honestly, openly, thoughtfully. Three late night conversations, three days in a row.
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 spiritual reflection and prayer to begin the day, with Father Eugene O'Neill.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Ecologist Penny Anderson learns how to differentiate between the songs of Blackcap and Garden Warbler when to her delight she hears a Garden Warbler singing in the scrub patch in her garden.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: James Hanlon.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
The Chauvet Caves of southern France have the oldest known depiction of an owl in the world. Fascinatingly, this closely observed bird is drawn from behind, but with its head swivelled backwards 180 degrees, to meet the gaze of people walking towards it. The drawing dates back 36,000 years and we have been captivated by owls at least that long. We have fixated on this night hunter as predator, messenger, emblem of wisdom, something pretty to print on a tote bag or portent of doom.
Author Miriam Darlington sets out to tell a new story about owls. In her watching and deep listening to the natural world, she cleaves myth from reality to change the way we think about this magnificent creature.
In Episode 5, a full house of Long-Eared Owls.
Miriam Darlington was born and brought up in Lewes, Sussex. In 2008 she published a collection of poetry, Windfall, and the same year completed a book for young children, Footprints in the Sand, an ecological tale about rivers. In 2009 she gained funding to complete a book on otters in conjunction with a PhD at Exeter University and the book Otter Country was published in 2012. The Guardian, in its hugely positive review of the book, stated that "Darlington has earned her place alongside [Gavin] Maxwell and [Henry] Williamson."
Writer: Miriam Darlington
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Reader: Teresa Gallagher
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
When a convicted murderer is released on appeal, his supporters claim a victory for justice. But for the murdered man's friends, life implodes.
What really happened back then, in the student house they all shared? The house where Ben died?
Only one of them wants to uncover the old lies. This is her secret audio log.
15/15 Dinna dinna dinna dinna...
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Jolyon Jenkins meets the people who believe in trepanning - drilling a hole in the head. They do it for what they think are good medical reasons. Many ancient civilisations practiced trepanning, for reasons we can only guess at, but in modern times the practice dates from the 1960s and attempts by people in the counterculture to expand their consciousnesses. These enthusiasts thought they could get more blood into the brain if the skull was a bit more elastic, and therefore get "high". Unfortunately they didn't always do it very well. and sometimes had to make several attempts before they penetrated the skull.
More recently, their focus has shifted away from blood, and towards cerebrospinal fluid. They argue that one role of CSF is to flush away the brain toxins that are implicated in dementia. Trepanning, they think, can improve the flow of CSF. Bits of their argument are potentially plausible, and they have at least one proper scientist on their side. And trepanning is, in itself, not an especially dangerous operation - most brain surgery starts with drilling a hole in the skull. But the medical profession won't take them seriously, and so they are forced to go to Ecuador to find a surgeon who will do it ... or do it themselves in their garage.
Are they dicing with death? Or are they up against a hidebound medical profession not prepared to look at the evidence?
Presenter/Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
Comedy series by Katherine Jakeways about four generations of women living under one roof.
Emily's choosing her options, Jen's taking the plunge and applying for her first teaching job and Maggie's getting excited about the prospect of an adventure or two of her own. But will she be able to go away, or is Hetty hiding something?
All Those Women explores familial relationships, ageing, marriages - it's about life and love and things not turning out quite the way that you'd expected them to. Every week we join Hetty, Maggie, Jen and Emily as they struggle to resolve their own problems, and support one another.
Written by KATHERINE JAKEWAYS
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Brian Bilston, who accidentally became a poet through Twitter, explains the power of social media for poetry.
"Poetry on social media is more than a never-ending stream of haiku concerning the changing light of the moon on water, or the beauty of cherry blossom. It's far more interesting and relevant than that. It's an opportunity for poetry to present itself in situations when people most need it."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Fi Glover and Peter Curran find out how relations between men and women are being redefined in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and #MeToo.
Connor's Song
by Michael Stewart
Three stories from three neglected, but resilient towns. A minor character from yesterday's drama takes centre stage to tell their story in today's drama.
This final stand alone drama follows Michelle, a single mother who lives in Yorkshire. Her world collides with Halina's from Poland when both Mothers are reeling from devastating news.
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris.
Eric Robson and the panel are hosted by the Newtown Linford Gardening Club in Leicestershire. Matthew Wilson, Matt Biggs and Christine Walkden answer the horticultural questions.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4. As read by Jonathan Forbes (Catastrophe).
'The Killers Come at Dusk' follows an Irish couple living in Lilongwe who, fearing that their child has contracted malaria, must confront every parent's nightmare as well as their own privilege.
Irish writer Eoin O'Connor has spent a number of years living in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2016 he was awarded the Imison Award for Best Radio Drama Script by a New Writer for his drama '30 Eggs'.
Writer ..... Eoin O'Connor
Reader ..... Jonathan Forbes
Producer ..... Michael Shannon.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Investigating the numbers in the news.
A mother and daughter recognise the changes in attitudes to periods and related products between their generations. 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.
Jeremy Hardy, Helen Lewis, Andy Zaltzman and Katy Brand take on the news.
Justin has an ulterior motive, and reality hits for Pip.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Nairn Community & Arts Centre in Scotland with a panel including the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation Bertie Armstrong, Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry, the former leader of Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale MSP and the MEP Dan Hannan.
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
Journalist Bryan Appleyard presents a polemic that tilts at the current cult of optimism, of positive thinking and the relentlessly upbeat mantras of corporations.
Optimism is trumpeted in books, from the walls of yoga studios, the podiums of leadership conferences and in political life, especially in the United States. The optimistic cast of mind is key, apparently, to marital success, health and progress at work.
Pessimism is stigmatised. But if we could only dump our current and historical imperative to look on the bright side of life, Bryan argues, we'd all be a lot happier.
We weren't always so positive. Bryan points to post-war Britain, when we embraced a pessimism, a philosophy of endurance and amiably black humour. This was reflected in our cinema which, contrary to many Hollywood movies, embarked on a dark celebration of the fragilities exposed by the war, with films such as Brief Encounter.
We hear from the philosophers Roger Scruton and John Gray on the pleasures of pessimism. Writer Barbara Ehrenreich traces the origins of the American positive thinking industry from Norman Vincent Peale's sermons to multimillion-selling books such as Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People and Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. Psychologist Tali Sharot explains how optimism and pessimism drive our economy and Dragons' Den's Deborah Meaden reveals the dangers of blind optimism in business.
Bryan, a committed pessimist, also considers how learning to be more optimistic could enhance his life. He meets sales, marketing and personal growth strategist Bruce King for a class in positive thinking.
With archive including Noel Coward, Tony Blair, Peter Cook and Frank Muir.
Producer: Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.
Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth.
Men talk about all sorts of things. Here are some conversations they tend not to have.
After Harvey Weinstein and #metoo, with daily sexual harassment revelations and disputes over power and pay, gender relations are in a state of flux and the male psyche is under scrutiny.
In The Male Room we ask men to reflect on their own experiences and behaviour; to talk about what it's like to be a man, be it about fatherhood, inadequacy, anger, violence or dating. The result is a series of conversations that men don't often have on air.
In The Male Room you'll hear from the male perspective honestly, openly, thoughtfully. Three late night conversations, three days in a row. Tonight, the focus is on fatherhood, for many men, a pivotal moment when they reflect on their relationships with their own fathers and discover a different side to their masculinity.
A friendship across the generations has unexpected benefits. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.