The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The story of a man's search for the truth about his family's past
The last time Hesseline - known as Lien - saw her parents was in The Hague as she was collected at the door by a stranger and taken to a city far away to be hidden from the Nazis. She was raised by her foster family as one of their own but, some years after the war, she became estranged from the family who took her in. What was her side of the story? Bart van Es - a grandson of the couple who looked after Lien - was determined to find out.
Lien was now in her 80s and living in Amsterdam. Reluctantly, she agreed to meet him and eventually they struck up a remarkable friendship. The Cut Out Girl combines a powerful recreation of Lien's intensely harrowing childhood story with the wider picture of life in Holland under the Nazi occupation.
In the final extract, Lien faces the most painful memories of events in her past.
Written by Bart Van Es
Read by Daniel Weyman
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Lizzie Davies
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 comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
Our listener Sarah got in touch about her daughter Isla who is deaf and until recently received extra funding at school to help her. But Sarah doesn't yet know if that will continue in the new school year.
Our Your News bulletin is read by BBC Weather's Carol Kirkwood.
And iPM is taking suggestions from where we could broadcast an entire programme. A recommendation from one listener takes us to Chiswick in London, to see what the RNLI lifeboat team do there. Send us your ideas to iPM@bbc.co.uk
Presented by Luke Jones. Produced by Cat Farnsworth.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Helen Mark discovers the fascinating world of the UK's largest ship's graveyard Purton Hulks, the largest collection of maritime wrecks above water in Britain.
What began as the intentional beaching of a small fleet of semi-redundant timber lighters in the winter of 1909 to strengthen the nearby eroding canal bank eventually grew into 81 vessels that and today represents the largest collection of maritime artefacts on the foreshore of mainland Britain - including boats that hold scheduled monument status, the same protection afforded by Westminster Abbey and Stonehenge.
Resting on the banks of the River Severn they still provide a barrier of protection for an important stretch of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal which runs alongside the village of Purton in Gloucestershire. Following an on-going programme of research carried out by a dedicated team of volunteers, the stories of these ships have finally been revealed and their future is being protected for generations to come. Helen Mark uncovers the fascinating history of these stranded ship and the emotional resonance that they still hold for visitors today as she meets with those who care for these ships and manage the special landscape that surrounds it.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
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News and current affairs including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, Kim Wilde's inheritance tracks, Bryony Gordon on staying sober and running, the Urban birder David Lindo and Thames plastic picking cyclist Dhruv Boruah join Rev Richard Coles and Suzy Klein.
Mark-Anthony Turnage is one of the most admired and widely-performed composers of his generation whose operas include Anna Nicole and Coraline. He'll be talking about why he likes to mix pop culture into classical and provoke a response from his audiences.
Former corporate guy Dhruv Boruah likes a challenge, the more he can learn the better - he learnt to drive so he could drive an ambulance to Mongolia, learnt to swim so he could join an ocean race and he made a bike on which he cycled the Thames from source to sea to pick up rubbish. He joins us to discuss his motivations.
David Lindo aka The Urban Birder, is a naturalist, writer, broadcaster and photographer. His obsession with birds began from a young age, when he first started noticing the birds from his window growing up in Wembley, North London. Since then he's been birding round urban environments from Newcastle to New York.
Bryony Gordon has been a Telegraph writer and columnist since her teens, often writing about her own life. More recently she has become a mental health campaigner, given up alcohol and run two marathons.
Listener Wendy Chalk gives her thank you and we'll hear from Nicky White from the Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival (11th - 19th August).
Kim Wilde tells us her inheritance tracks - she chooses Anyone who had a heart by Cilla Black and Everything put together falls apart by Paul Simon.
Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Eleanor Garland.
For centuries tales were shared around the camp-fire; modern settlements share data via wi-fi. But what hasn't changed across the ages is our passion for histories and information - we shape and make sense of our lives by telling stories about what has happened to us, and relax by reading or seeing fictions about the lives of imagined characters. From cave-dwellers to millennials , stories have been organised in pretty much the same way - with a beginning, middle and end, although, in contemporary culture, now less frequently in that order. All storytellers have used techniques of tension, delayed revelation, surprise twists. But - now - the art of narrative is being fundamentally changed by new technologies, which offer fresh ways of telling stories and different places for them to be told, redefine narrative genres, and allow audiences unprecedented opportunities to inter-act with and even co-author the content.
In this, the first part of a new three part series, Mark Lawson speaks with some of the leading figures in British TV - including showrunner Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty), producer Nicola Shindler (Red Productions) writer Paula Milne (The Politician's Wife, Angels), Charlotte Moore (BBC Director of Content) - to examine how the stories being told on television in the digital age have adapted to the advent of streaming services, binge-watching and catch-up TV.
Mark also visits a cinema in Macclesfield to watch the live broadcast of 'Follies'- staged simultaneously in the West End. He talks with Kwame Kwei-Armah, soon to begin as the Young Vic's Artistic Director, about how the technology involved has brought top-level theatre to a whole new audience and redefined the idea of live spectatorship.
Presenter: Mark Lawson
Producer: Geoff Bird.
The invention of the factory created not only a place of work but also a whole social structure. Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the key components of the rise of the factory, tracing its development from eighteenth century Britain to twenty-first century China and beyond. The discussion spans the lives of factory workers, the capitalist and communist ideas of the factory, and the changing face of manufacturing in an age of robots and big data. Bridget is joined by Joshua B Freeman, Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Centre of City University, New York; Martin Krzywdzinski, Head of the Project Group 'Globalization, Work, and Production' at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Nina Rappaport, architectural critic, curator, educator, consultant and director of the think tank Vertical Urban Factory; and Alessandra Mezzadri, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Image: Illustration of an old 18th century factory. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images).
A hostage and captor meet again in Syria, anger grows amid Assam's floodwaters and young people take to the barricades in Nicaragua. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories from around the world.
Quentin Sommerville was wary of interviewing two former members of the so-called Islamic State: he didn't want to give them any kind of platform. But in Syria he did get to talk to them - and witness their reactions when a man whom they'd once held captive got to ask the questions.
As monsoon storms lash the subcontinent and flood waters rise, Nick Beake speaks to farmers and families who feel exhausted and marginalised by an endlessly repeating cycle of disaster and rebuilding in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
In the past week, Argentina's Senate voted NOT to decriminalise abortion in the first three months of pregnancy - despite a vocal and vigorous campaign, led by women, to change the law. Katy Watson hears from both sides of the debate.
Arturo Wallace returns to Nicaragua, his homeland, and is unnerved by echoes of history in this year's political crisis there - as street protests, state repression, and unidentified assassins return to the streets of Managua.
And there's a football match in Agadez, Niger - a major stop-off on the migrant routes funnelling people from West Africa over the Sahara desert to the Mediterranean, and (they hope) to Europe. Jennifer O'Mahoney watches from the sidelines as local talent play newcomers, and even the kit is shared.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Why an Essex mum wanted her jewellery melted down and what it says about government debt.
Economics with Subtitles is your everyday guide to economics and why you should care. In this show, Ayeisha and Steve explore government debt. Why did an anonymous mother send her bracelet to the government to be turned into a bullet? How are you lending the government money without even realising? And when should you be worried about how much debt the government is in?
Producers: Simon Maybin & Phoebe Keane
Presenters: Ayeisha Thomas-Smith & Steve Bugeja.
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a female panel - using the events, trends and talking points they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
Host Jo Bunting is joined by a panel of women including Rose Matafeo, Lauren Pattison, Lucy Porter and Val McDermid.
Jo Bunting is a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, with credits including Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
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The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Ritula Shah presents political debate from the Media Cafe at Broadcasting House, London, with the Conservative MP Bim Afolami, the crossbench peer Lord Hennessy , Labour MP Rupa Huq and the journalist Marie Le Conte.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
The Bargain
By Ian Curteis
In 1988, while on a brief visit to London, Mother Teresa of Calcutta met the media tycoon and former MP, Robert Maxwell. There were photographs but no witnesses to the actual conversations that took place. This fictional drama imagines what they might have discussed.
The story
1988. Robert Maxwell, learning that Mother Teresa is coming briefly to London, tries to get her to give her name to a religious publishing venture, in return for a large donation to her work. Mother Teresa agrees to meet and seems to have her own agenda and her own price. Is there more to this publishing venture than meets the eye? Over a period of twenty-four hours Maxwell attempts to strike a bargain but Mother Teresa proves to be a rather tough negotiator.
Ian Curteis has written for radio, television and theatre. He's probably best known for his political dramas such as, Philby, Burgess and Maclean; The Road To Yalta; Suez 1956; and The Falklands Play.
Producer/director: David Ian Neville.
At a vibrant open-air party in Mumbai, stories of young, contemporary India converge - from the rise of the nation's first global superstar DJ, to the varied lives of his young fans.
DJ Nucleya is the hottest property in Indian dance music: the breakout star whose rise marks a turning point in Indian culture. Before him, dance music (or EDM) was the preserve of the monied middle-classes. But Nucleya has ripped up the rule book: placing traditional Indian street music - ecstatic pounding tabla and dholes - at the core of his art, and attracting a legion of young, predominantly working-class fans.
Told in immersive binaural stereo, Indian Rave charts the story of a single event in the searing Mumbai heat earlier this year - a teeming aural world of stories, sensations and sheer headrush. Woven through it are the voices and stories of just some of the thousands of Indians in attendance - and the tale of the rise of a 21st century Indian musical superstar.
Producer: Steven Rajam for BBC Wales.
As Madonna turns 60 we look at her influence on women in the music industry.
Women may have to quit jobs to fill caring roles post Brexit - that's according to a Department of Health response to the Migration Advisory Committee. Is it a sexist assumption that women should do the caring, or just a statement of fact?
Are you embarrassed to be the main breadwinner in your home? Why are women still worried about making more money than their male partner? T
Who are the women in Heavy Metal that we should know about? Plus, what do you do when your child favours one parent over the other? The pros and cons of solo travel. And a look at the new play Home, I'm Darling - what would life be like for a 21st century couple to live as if it was the 1950s?
Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell.
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Julie Hesmondhalgh, Su Pollard, Gbolahan Obisesan and Jayde Adams for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Tracyanne & Danny and Bala Baile.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
Artist Zarah Hussain recalls her father's love of gardening and growing roses as a link to his native Pakistan. She reflects on the rose as a symbol of British national identity while also having foreign origins and universal appeal.
"The rose is a migrant, a traveller, beholden to no land, culture or language, but embraced by all. Something that started as foreign has become our own and has been absorbed over time into our culture and our history."
Recorded in front of a live audience at Somerset House in London.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook.
Iceland's film industry is not a big player around the globe, but it does create character-driven small-scale works. Under The Tree is a very dark Icelandic comedy film about what happens when neighbours fall out and civility begins to evaporate. There's a revival of Brian Friel's Aristocrats, a play about a Catholic family on its uppers in Donegal just opened at London's Donmar Warehouse. Michael Hughes new novel, Country, is a re-imagining of The Iliad, set in the sticky lethal politics of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. The BBC's new season Big British Asian Summer includes shows across the radio and TV networks looking at the British Asian experience. We're reviewing Big Asian Stand-up and A Passage to Britain. Nick Drnaso's graphic novel Sabrina has been Booker-shortlisted - the first of its kind to enter the ring traditionally associated with novels of the non-graphic kind.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Patrick Gale, Anthony Johnston and Sharmaine Lovegrove. The producer is Oliver Jones.
In 1945 thousands of angry housewives formed a group to fight austerity and a Welfare State that they believed was "not in the interests of a free and happy home life". This militant battle is the starting point for an analysis of the housewife; her politics, economics and shifting power down the decades. How did the focus on feminism and the working mother, change the way society viewed her? And, has the housewife now embarked on a fight back? "Having it all" in practice seems to mean being exhausted, on the wrong side of the gender pay gap, and spending most of your income paying someone else to look after your children. Jo Fidgen delves into the archive, from the post-war period right through to today's knicker-twisting discussions over how to talk to, and about, women in the home.
Producer: Rosamund Jones
Image: Copyright of the Royal Albert Hall Archive.
Home Front's Kenny Stokoe arrives at the front, in this story by Jonathan Ruffle.
On 2nd June 1916, large numbers of Kitchener's new civilian army are massing in the valley of the Somme to take part in a carefully-planned, well-prepared attack of such overpowering weight that it might just end the war.
They include one Kenny Stokoe, local football hero for Marshall's, and spurned suitor of Edie Chadwick. Along with his pals, the newly-trained signallers of the Tyneside Scottish, Kenny is feeling confident. Until he meets the old army, in the person of Mickey Bliss.
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.
And through it all, we'll follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.
Psychotherapist Susie Orbach explores the private relationship between therapist and patient. We join Susie in her consulting room, where she meets a different client each day.
Today, Susie meets John. He is a retired railway worker who has always been closely involved with union affairs. In a previous meeting he has told Susie that he loves her, now he has come to some conclusions about his future.
All of the clients are played by actors, but these are not scripted scenes. Each client profile has been carefully constructed by therapist Susie, director Ian Rickson (former artistic director at the Royal Court, and director of the highly acclaimed Jerusalem) and radio producer Kevin Dawson. The client profiles have been given to the actors who have learned about the characters' lives, backgrounds, and reasons for seeking therapy. The scenes have then been improvised and recorded on concealed microphones at Susie's surgery.
Throughout the encounters in this series, we get to hear the therapist at work, experiencing what it's like to eavesdrop on the most intimate of exchanges.
To help us with our understanding of the process, Susie Orbach commentates on what is happening in the room, giving us an insight into her role as a therapist and shining a light on the journey both she and her patient have embarked upon.
Psychotherapist: Susie Orbach
John: Peter Wight
Producer: Kevin Dawson
Director: Ian Rickson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Anne McElvoy returns with the series that asks figures from opposing sides of a political issue to listen to each other, and explore the roots of each other's beliefs, with the help of conflict resolution specialist Gabrielle Rifkind.
In this edition, Anne brings together Joanna Williams, Associate Editor of Spiked, and Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party, to debate the question: 'Is 'Victim Culture' an Obstacle to Justice?'
Producer: Phil Tinline.
(1/13)
The quest for the 32nd BBC Counterpoint champion gets under way, as Paul Gambaccini welcomes the first three competitors of the 2018 season. One of them will win a place in the semi-finals and stands a chance of going all the way to the title. To do so they'll have to prove the breadth of their musical knowledge and field Paul's questions on everything from opera to R&B.
The quiz includes the fiendish special subject round, where the competitors choose a musical topic on which to answer questions without having had any chance to prepare.
Taking part in the first contest of the series are:
Trevor Collins, a retired textile designer from London
Michael Dale, an events organiser and festival director living in Glasgow
Emma Raczkowski, a marketing manager from London.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Roger McGough is joined by Wendy Cope, with a selection of her favourite poems from the Poetry Please archive of listeners' requests. Choices include requests for poems by A E Housman, Philip Larkin, W H Auden, Fleur Adcock, Edna St Vincent Millay and Charles Causley.
Wendy Cope has published several volumes of poetry including Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis and Serious Concerns. A remarkable talent for parody and for using humour to address grave topics, she also recites some of her new poems from her recent collection, Anecdotal Evidence (Faber 2018).
Producer: Sarah Addezio.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
A message in a bottle on a Cornish beach provides unexpected answers in this new story for Radio 4 by Lucy Wood.
Reader: Alex Tregear
Producer: Justine Willett
Writer: Lucy Wood is the author of a critically acclaimed collection of short stories based on Cornish folklore Diving Belles. She has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize and was a runner-up in the BBC National Short Story Award.
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The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Bells on Sunday comes St John the Evangelist Church, Sidcup in Kent. The tower contains a peal of six bells, the four lightest were cast by Thomas Mears the Second in 1843, the fifth and tenor were cast by John Warner and Sons in 1901. All six bells were retuned by Mears and Stainbank in 1950. The tenor weighs eight and three quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the key of A. We hear part of a full peal of Single Oxford Bob Minor.
Samantha Kane has changed gender three times, from male to female and then back to male, before transitioning a second time to female. She tells Dominic Lawson the powerful story of her personal journey, and the challenges she faced whilst building three careers as a barrister, entrepreneur and published author. And she replies to critics who have questioned whether transgender women like her should be considered 'real women'.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
The latest national and international news.
Rabbi Harvey Belovski discovers the tension between togetherness and personal space at the heart of every marriage and reveals the dance between these two polarities.
Having been married to his wife for twenty eight years, and now with seven children, Harvey looks back at the ups and downs of his own relationship and is slightly uncomfortable that it has taken him so long to work out the simple truth that a relationship is strengthened and nurtured by the differences between a couple - and that partnership comes from opposition.
Harvey also realises that in order to love one's partner as they are, rather than as we'd like them to be, we need to have a clear sense of who we are ourselves. He concludes, "I'm evolving towards a position in which a secure relationship allows and encourages considerable space for individual growth. This is not purely to avoid smothering one's partner, but to nurture a healthy and mature relationship." His journey of discovery is illustrated with readings from Alain de Botton, Khalil Gibran and Eric Fromm, along with the music of Billy Joel, Liszt and Brahms.
Presenter: Harvey Belovski
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4.
In Nottinghamshire there's an estate where the farmers still do things the same way they were done in the Middle Ages, before enclosures created the farmed landscape we're familiar with today. Historian Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough travels to Laxton to meet the people who work the land using the Mediaeval strip farming system. There's even still an ancient court system with legal powers to enforce the rules which govern how the strip farming is carried out, with its own jury - a forerunner of the current English legal system. Eleanor finds out about this remarkable survival from Mediaeval times, and asks whether it can endure into centuries still to come.
Produced by Emma Campbell.
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The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Hundreds of people have died after a devastating earthquake hit the Indonesian Islands of Lombok and Bali this week. As Hindus on the islands start making preparations for the cremations of loved ones, Maria Bakkalapulo reports on the rituals and the significance of food during the ceremonies.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) accused two Catholic schools of allowing abuse to go unchecked for 40 years. They say both Ampleforth and Downside have blocked efforts to reform their structures. But how did safeguarding in these schools run by religious orders go so badly wrong.
We start our series looking into how MP's with a faith balance religious beliefs and political life. This week Harry Farley meets Labour's Slough MP Tanmanjeet Dhesi at his local Sikh gurdwara.
Wim Wenders' docu-film Pope Francis - A Man of His Word is out in the UK this week. Richard Fitzwilliams reviews the film with Emily Buchanan followed by an interview with director Wim Wenders himself.
Only 2200 out of 550,000 GCSE history students took up the choice to study Israel-Palestine conflict this year. We talk to Michael Davies, a history teacher in Lancaster who says he has come up with an effective way to teach this topic in schools. Suhayl Patel, curriculum manager at the Abrar Academy faith school also joins us to tell us how Michael's teaching methods allowed pupils at his school to understand the conflict from a Jewish point a view.
Why do some Muslim women wear a Burka when others feel a simple headscarf is enough to be compatible with their Islamic values? Mona Siddiqui and Fatima Barkatulla discuss the history and theology behind the Muslim veil.
PRODUCERS:
RAJEEV GUPTA
PETER EVERETT
SERIES PRODUCER:
AMANDA HANCOCK.
Broadcaster Gaby Roslin makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of National Literacy Trust.
Registered Charity Number: 1116260
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 'National Literacy Trust'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'National Literacy Trust'.
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The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
'Shining like stars' is this year's Keswick Convention theme. Preacher: Derek Burnside, Principal of Capernwray Hall Bible School in North-West England takes the famous bible reading and early Christian hymn from Philippians 2 as his inspiration. Leader: Caz Evans. With Emu Music and Miriam Jones. Producer: Philip Billson.
Photo credit: Jenny Woolgar Photography
As we near the end of four years of collective reflection on the First World War, Michael Morpurgo talks of the importance of never taking peace for granted.
"We have been looking back, remembering, or trying to", he writes, "because remembering a time and a war that none of us can remember is hard".
He discusses one particular plan - the dream of a WW1 soldier - to make a new pilgrims way in No Man's Land.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
Chris Turner's quotable gags and rapid freestyle raps have established him as one of the most in-demand comedy acts on the circuit. Possibly less well known is his interest in birds. Thus for this Tweet of the Day, coinciding with his month long show at the Edinburgh Festival, Chris gives his own comedic view on those tweety-birds.
Producer: Elliott Prince
Photograph: Abby Tebeau.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Freddie's nightmare continues, and Shula's birthday ends in fireworks.
Sue MacGregor reunites the Labour rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981.
Launched on a wave of euphoria, the SDP aroused the hopes and enthusiasm of millions of people in the early 80s. Promising to break the mould of British politics, its leaders, the gang of four - Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers, were some of the most respected figures in British public life.
Then, as now, British politics was in a state of flux. Margaret Thatcher was an inexperienced prime minister. Her austere economic and public spending policies seemed disastrous. The Labour party should have been demolishing her but was becoming an unmanageable cauldron of left-wing and centrist factions, ineffectually led by Michael Foot who was pledged to unilateralism, and leaving NATO and the EU.
The SDP, in alliance with the Liberals, soared to an astonishing 50% in the polls. But despite the defection of 28 Labour party MPs - the largest parliamentary defection since 1886 when the Liberals had split over Ireland - the alliance disintegrated amidst acrimony and bitter in-fighting by the autumn of 1987. David Owen and Bill Rodgers didn't speak for seventeen years.
Now they, and Shirley Williams, join Sue MacGregor around the table - along with the SDP's former chief exec Dick Newby and defecting Labour MP Mike Thomas - to chronicle the party's short but turbulent history and analyse the reasons for its early success and its ultimate demise.
Producer: Emily Williams
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Year 51 and Series 82 of the nationally treasured panel game. In this first episode of the new series, Nicholas Parsons introduces four fine players of the game, Paul Merton, Gyles Brandreth, Tony Hawks and Zoe Lyons.
What exactly took Gyles to Corsica and why is everyone so wound up about George V?
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
Sheila Dillon visits Shetland to meet the people transforming Shetland's food culture by reinventing traditional dishes as well as creating new food initiatives. Social media is playing a huge part in promoting a vibrant, young food scene that is attracting entrepreneurs as well as bringing back those who may have left the islands as teenagers. Jonathan Williamson left to manage the food hall at Fortnam and Mason but came home in his late 20s to build and run Cafe Fjara on Lerwick harbour. Akshay Borges from Mumbai answered an ad for a head chef at the Scalloway Hotel nine years ago. He has been here ever since and is now launching his own restaurant the String bringing food, music and art together. Traditional skills like fishing and meat production are thriving too. A career in food was never on the agenda for 29 year old Chris Wright who worked different jobs in his early twenties before following his dream of becoming a butcher. He blogs about the meat dishes he prepares in addition to his day job at Anderson's Butchers in Lerwick. Elizabeth Atia is the UK's most northerly food blogger and one of the few who makes a living from it. She says being Shetland based gives her blog -Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary- a USP in the blogging world. Many restaurants on Shetland get their vegetables from Transition Turriefield run by Penny Armstrong and Alan Robertson. They have nurtured the barren land on their croft since returning to Shetland fifteen years ago, building poly tunnels and enriching the soil to grow a variety of seasonal vegetables which they sell to customers through a box scheme. All of them stress the importance of social media in spreading the word about Shetland's renewed food culture and its high quality fresh local produce.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
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Global news and analysis.
Martin Wolf argues that, to be a truly democratic and prosperous society, we need a new and comprehensive movement devoted to public engagement with economics.
In 2008, following the deepest financial crisis Britain has ever faced, the Queen asked how it was possible that nobody in the government or the City had been able to see the crash coming.
A group of eminent economists responded to her question in a letter, arguing, "Everyone seemed to be doing their own job properly on its own merit. And according to standard measures of success, they were often doing it well. The failure was to see how collectively this added up to a series of interconnected imbalances over which no single authority had jurisdiction."
The economists' letter does little to reassure the reader about avoiding another crash in the future. Moreover, it implicitly endorses the dominant view that our economy should be managed and maintained by a small group of technocrats, serving the public interest.
The Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf mounts a challenge to this belief and explores why economics education and engagement falls so far behind other disciplines.
He speaks to figures such as former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, chief economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane, economist Wendy Carlin, journalist Robert Peston, and politicians John McDonnell and Liz Truss.
Producer: Sean Glynn and Tom Peters
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4.
Eric Robson and the team are at the Edinburgh Festival. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness and Bob Flowerdew answer questions from an audience of local gardeners and festival goers.
The panellists explain why tomatoes are prone to splitting, ponder over a failing rhubarb crop, and suggest plants for a Japanese garden.
Eric Robson goes in search of the oldest floral clock in the world, and we answer correspondence from gardeners in Vancouver.
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations between friends who have supported each other through difficult experiences and find the positive in their situations. All 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.
Taut crime thriller by leading Polish writer, Zygmunt Miloszewski, dramatised for radio by Mark Lawson. War time intrigue and modern politics mesh in a murder mystery.
The complexities and frustrations of the modern Polish legal system are the setting for this bestselling crime novel, featuring long suffering State Prosecutor Szacki who finds himself trapped in a limbo land of half-truths and secrets from post-Communist Poland. Will he prove himself to be a redoubtable seeker of the truth or will he compromise?
Episode 1: The Blood Painting
Szacki is finding small town Poland a little dull but a bizarre murder case soon throws him back into action. The crime scene is littered with grotesque clues suggesting that the murder is mirroring an infamous Jewish blood libel, drawing on historical anti-Semitism.
The writer:
Zygmunt Milosewski is a leading Polish writer. The Teodor Szacki series is hugely popular in Poland and the book series is currently being filmed.
The translator:
Antonia Lloyd Jones is a full time translator of Polish literature. She won the Found in Translation Award 2008 for the English version of The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle and is a committee member of the UK Translators Association.
The dramatist:
Mark Lawson is a well-known writer, critic and journalist.
Warsaw backgrounds - Zofia Morus
Polish language advisor - Antonia Lloyd Jones
Producer/director................Polly Thomas
Sound design.................... Eloise Whitmore
Production coordinator..............Sarah Kenny
Executive producer...............John Dryden
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
Claire Fuller talks to Mariella Frostrup about her new novel Bitter Orange and the appeal of the crumbling country house as a setting.
Neil Gaiman explains why forgotten classic Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees deserves a wider readership.
What does the combination of sanctions and censorship mean for Iran's writers? The Guardian's Saeed Kamali Dehghan and publisher Azadeh Parsapour discuss.
And Carrie Plitt, agent at Felicity Bryan Associates recommends Sally Rooney's Normal People for our monthly Editor's Tip.
Roger McGough is joined by Kate Tempest, who shares a selection of her favourite poems from the Poetry Please archive of listeners' requests.
A playwright, poet, novelist and spoken word artist who began performing when she left school at the age of 16, Kate Tempest has gone from performing to strangers on buses to winning accolades including being the youngest winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry with her piece, Brand New Ancients in 2013, and she was selected as one of the 2014 Next Generation Poets by the Poetry Society, a once-in-a-decade award. She's been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and won Best Female Solo Performer at The Brits for her music. Equally influenced by Joyce, Bukowski, Blake and the Wu-Tang Clan she has a musical sense of language, bridging the worlds of rap and traditional lyric verse.
She joins Roger on the publication of her new collection of poetry, Running Upon The Wires (Picador) with poem choices including Wislawa Szymborska, Yusef Komunyakaa, Zia Ahmed, Sharon Olds, Christopher Logue, Langston Hughes and readings by Kim Moore and one of the children from the anthology, Poems From A School, Maah Noor Ali.
Producer: Sarah Addezio.
Wildlife and Arts broadcaster, Lindsey Chapman takes us on a roller coaster radio ride this week. From the expanding horizon to the precision of the horizontal line, life can move from microcosm to macrocosm in a matter of moments! And all the while, we're searching for our own little corner of existence, a sense of freedom, the place we call home. We travel to Edinburgh, India and America, via musical piranhas and the unexplained depths of the teenage brain...and we sensibly ask: is it sensible to be sensible? There's poetic praise for the shape shifting otter; the tragic story of Lein, one of Holland's hidden children; a poignant letter from a WW1 soldier, who dreams of a new pilgrim's way in No Man's Land; and the instruments and voices of the Minnesota Orchestra with a rousing miners' hymn.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The final of the 2018 BBC New Comedy Award, live from Edinburgh.
Host Mark Watson will be joined by an expert panel of judges comprised of stalwarts of the comedy world, including Sioned Wiliam, Commissioning Editor for Comedy on Radio 4, as six of the UK's most exciting new comedy acts compete for the coveted title.
The winner of this year's competition will take home £1000 and a 15 minute script commission from BBC Studios. Past winners and finalists of the BBC New Comedy Award include Alan Carr, Peter Kay, Lee Mack, Sarah Millican, Russell Howard, Joe Lycett, Josie Long, and Nina Conti.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
Pressure mounts for Elizabeth, and Fallon wakes up to a shock.
The results of the BBC New Comedy Award 2018 final, live from Edinburgh.
Host Mark Watson will be joined by an expert panel of judges comprised of stalwarts of the comedy world, including Sioned Wiliam, Commissioning Editor for Comedy on Radio 4, who will announce the winner of the coveted title.
Featuring a set from 2014 BBC New Comedy Award winner and current Britain's Got Talent champion Lost Voice Guy (aka Lee Ridley).
The winner of this year's competition will take home £1000 and a 15 minute script commission from BBC Studios. Past winners and finalists of the BBC New Comedy Award include Alan Carr, Peter Kay, Lee Mack, Sarah Millican, Russell Howard, Joe Lycett, Josie Long, and Nina Conti.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned stories with subterranean settings.
Episode 3 (of 3): In Praise Of Radical Fish by Alison MacLeod
Believing themselves to be bound for Syria, three not-very radical young men prepare on Brighton beach.
Alison MacLeod lives in Brighton. She was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2011 and her story 'Solo, A Capella', about the Tottenham riots, featured in the Radio 4 series Where Were You ... in 2012. Her previous works include The Changeling and The Wave Theory of Angels. Her novel Unexploded was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was a Book At Bedtime on BBC Radio 4. Alison is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester.
Read by Amir El-Masry
Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Three of the BBC's leading foreign correspondents discuss reporting foreign news in extraordinary times - with Roger Bolton.
Jon Sopel is the BBC's North America Editor, Lyse Doucet is Chief International Correspondent and Steve Rosenberg is the Moscow correspondent. They answer listeners' questions and talk about the unique challenges of their roles - from reporting amid the Syrian Civil War to being called an "enemy of the people" by the President of the United States.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Pictured: Barry Chuckle
Matthew Bannister on
Tony Bullimore, the self styled "Del Boy of yacht racing" who was trapped under the hull of his boat for 4 days during a solo round the world race.
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, the Japanese American woman who was interned in the USA during the World War Two and later fought for and won a presidential apology and compensation for her fellow inmates.
Barry Chuckle - one half of the Chuckle Brothers who entertained a generation of children on TV.
June Jacobs, the Jewish activist who caused controversy by meeting members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Tommy Peoples, the award winning Irish fiddle player of the Bothy Band.
Producer: Paul Waters
Archive clips from: BBC News 20/06/73; ChuckleVision, BBC TV.
Online banking has grown massively, and some new banks don't bother with a branch network at all. But as Ruth Sunderland discovers, some in the banking business still think high street branches and personal service have a bright future. So how far will this financial revolution go? Talking to leading players in the business, Ruth hears how those who want to manage our money are full of new ideas, but facing huge uncertainty about what banking will become.
Producer: Chris Bowlby
Editor: Penny Murphy.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
With Antonia Quirke.
Antonia talks to Heathers director Michael Lehmann, as the dark high school comedy is back in cinemas for its 30th anniversary. Catherine Bray and Angie Errigo trace its influence, from Mean Girls to The Craft.
Kevin Brownlow talks about the film he began as a 17 year old and finished 8 years later. It Happened Here, which imagined what would have happened if the Nazis had invaded Britain, was shot on Sundays with a cast of non-professional actors and passers-by, and was funded by the meagre wages from his lowly office job.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Josie Long presents short documentaries about creating something out of nothing, fresh starts and the beginning of the end.
From a band that existed before they'd ever met each other to the new beginnings which bring sweet, if painful, endings in a relationship between a mother and daughter.
The Dandelion Adventure
Produced by Geoff Bird
Good Year for the Roses
Produced by Sophie Townsend
Meteor Shower
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the Eurasian scops owl found in Mediterranean regions. In summer a mournful monosyllabic call interrupts the heady scented air of a Greek olive grove at dusk. A male scops owl is proclaiming his territory with a repeated call lasting over 20 minutes. Hearing these tiny owls, no bigger than a starling is one thing, seeing one roosting in an old tree is quite a challenge. They feed mainly on moths and beetles which they hunt for in open country with scattered trees. By autumn these largely nocturnal birds are heading south to sub-Saharan Africa, until the following spring when once again the olive groves resound to their plaintive song.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
If you have positive friendships when you're young, you're more likely to become a happy adult...research in the US suggests close stable friendships increases our self-esteem and they help us form better long term relationships. And new research from The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London says if you are lonely at 18 you're more likely to have mental health problems.
So how do we ensure that children develop good friendships? Is it a skill you're born with or one that parents can nurture? And how involved should adults be in a child's social life? How and when do young children make relationships, what happens when it goes wrong and can we make it go right? Plus, stepping beyond the boundary of childhood - Is good friendship more than an individual's happiness, can it also shape a healthier society?
Mariella Frostrup is joined in the studio by consultant child and adolescent psychotherapist Lydia Hartland-Rowe from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, Liz Robinson co-head of Surrey Square Primary School in London, Anna-May Mangan a self-confessed pushy mum of 4 who wrote a book to help her daughters get into medical school. And Dr Sally Marlow, mental health researcher from The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London.
Producer: Philly Beaumont.
Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.
"In mankind's search for temporary oblivion," writes Inglis, "opiates possess a special allure. Since Neolithic times, opium has made life seem, if not perfect, then tolerable for millions. However unlikely it seems at this moment, many of us will end our lives dependent on it."
A turning point in the history of opium was the invention in 17th Century England of a new form of the drug. Two key figures in this development were Christopher Wren - not just an architect, but an anatomist as well - and the physician Thomas Sydenham, who mixed opium with saffron, cloves, cinnamon and sherry to create laudanum. It was easy to swallow, easy on the stomach, and easy to dispense over the counter.
"A new age in drug-taking had begun..."
Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.
The reader is Anita Vettesse.
The producer is David Jackson Young.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The final mystery in our popular long-running thriller set in 10th century Japan - and the final ever encounter with Lady Shonagon and her Lieutenant Yukinari.
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The new young Empress has been on the throne for a year, and the iron-fist of her rule is being felt by all within the Imperial Palace. Meanwhile, the Empress Teishi is in child-bed. While the Emperor waits fretfully outside, only Lady Shonagon is permitted to attend her.
The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court. First aired in 2008, this is now the eleventh and concluding series of The Pillow Book, told in across a week.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
The Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, in Harlem, New York City is an exceptional college that prides itself on welcoming first generation scholars. Nicknamed the poor person's Harvard, the school is part of City College, where General Powell himself graduated sixty years ago.
Powell was the son of British Jamaican immigrants who moved to New York and worked in the garment industry. He tells the story of his own journey through education and his passion to connect a new generation of students from less fortunate backgrounds to the best opportunities.
We hear how Powell makes networking and internships a priority - he and his circle and the college staff work to place students in Washington and Wall Street, working in not-for-profits, in law, and organisations such as the United Nations.
We also hear from a collection of students - African Americans, young people from El Salvador and Bangladesh, from China, Peru and the Virgin Islands. As General Powell says, there is no college in the USA that can boast such diversity. It's a diversity he celebrates, in defiance of prevailing government thinking. America, after all, he points out, was built on immigrant talent and labour - just like his own.
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
By Ed Harris
Dark doings in the War Rooms as a suspicious death leaves the gals from personnel with no options other than to investigate. Comic adventures in Ed Harris' witty and quirky wartime comedy.
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices.
Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking what does it mean to be Free?
Helping him answer it are philosopher Angie Hobbs, criminal barrister Harry Potter, neuropsychologist Paul Broks and theologian Giles Fraser.
For the rest of the week Angie, Giles, Harry and Paul take us further into the history of ideas with programmes of their own.
Between them they'll talk about Isaiah Berlin's distinction between positive and negative freedom, JS Mill's thoughts on individual liberty and the state; what neuroscience has to say about the age old philosophical debate about Freewill and whether freedom is over-rated as a political, moral and psychological concept.
We investigate whether the market for diesel cars is cooling off.
Last week we learnt that sales of new diesel cars fell by nearly 25 per cent.
Now You and Yours has seen figures that show sales of used diesel cars are falling too.
They reveal that 41 per cent of used car dealers are now selling fewer diesel vehicles than a year ago.
We visit a car dealership in Greater Manchester, to find out how consumer confidence in used diesel cars is holding up there.
We also speak to Pete Williams from the RAC Foundation who helped produce the latest figures.
A growing number of companies are now building houses on the factory floor and then assembling them on site.
They're called modular homes and are constructed from pre-made parts and unit modules that can be easily transported and put back together.
In Scotland, these pre-made homes are providing housing in remote spots where it might otherwise be tricky to build.
Our reporter, Jon Douglas, goes to see what's involved.
Electric scooters are popular across the pond in America but could they take off in the UK?
The scooters, are motorised, bigger versions of the ones that children ride here.
Our reporter, Jess Quayle, visits one of the companies hoping to introduce electric scooters into UK cities.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.
Disagreement can bring many benefits and help us reach better outcomes. But our society seems uncomfortable with open-minded arguing - often it degenerates into escalating abuse or standing your ground on principle or just not listening to other views.
In this series Timandra takes a range of topics, to examine how clashes of interests. competing moral visions, factual disputes, arguments about strategies and even different personal preferences over which film to watch at the cinema can all be managed better.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
Paul McGann stars in Maggie Ayre's drama documentary telling the story of her relation Peter, who disappeared without trace in Glencoe more than sixty years ago, leaving an empty tent and supplies, and a rift in the family that has rippled down the generations. It's a story of mystery, intrigue and family fallout. Maggie goes in search of the man and talks to the relatives and friends he left behind set against a narration from the man himself written by Richard Monks
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
(2/13)
The competitors in this second heat of the 2018 season will need to show a good grasp of music ranging from Brahms to New Order, to tackle Paul Gambaccini's questions in the famously unforgiving music quiz. As well as general knowledge questions on music, they'll be offered a choice of topics on which to answer individual questions, of which they've had no prior warning and no chance to bone up. There are copious clips and musical illustrations, both familiar and surprising.
The quiz comes from the BBC's historic studios at Maida Vale, and the line up today is:
Liz Ashling, a registered nurse and midwife from Amersham in Buckinghamshire
Steve Brown, a software developer from Llanddeusant in Carmarthenshire
Brian Thorne, a plasterer from Shillingstone in Dorset.
The winner will take his or her place in the semi-finals in the autumn.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week she takes a different figure from the Ancient World and tells their story through a mix of stand-up comedy and conversation.
Today she stands up in the name of playwright Euripides. Feminist, anti-war, ironic, full of subtext: his work displays strikingly modern sensibilities and his Medea still has the power to shock.
With special guests playwright Mark Ravenhill and classicist Professor Edith Hall.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
The Code Breakers
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Katy Brand, as they transport the cage of infinite proportions to the home of modern day cryptography and codebreaking., GCHQ. They'll be discovering how far we've come from the days of the humble code book and the birth of machines like Enigma. and how the new digital era has turned us all into modern day code breakers and cryptographers, without us even realising it.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Series 82 continues with another fine cast of players as Paul Merton, Pam Ayres, Josie Lawrence and Julian Clary show their skills with words and refined prevarication.
This week's game features intel on our panellists' favourite breakfast eateries and a small contretemps about canals.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
Johnny loses his cool, and Josh attempts to secure his future.
Janeane Garofalo is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and writer. She began her career as a stand-up comedian and became a cast member on The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, and Saturday Night Live, and has appeared in more than 50 films. She discusses her Edinburgh show, Put A Pin in That.
Rosie Jones, a stand-up comedian whose material plays on her experience of living with Cerebral Palsy, discusses defying expectations - both onstage and off. Her one woman show is Fifteen Minutes.
Presenter : Viv Groskop
Producer : Dymphna Flynn.
If you are a parent, you probably do not need an introduction to Fortnite Battle Royale. It's the online video game that's been absorbing the minds and time of millions of children and young adults since its launch last September. To the uninitiated, it's an online shooter game that has elements of The Hunger Games movies and the building video game Minecraft. In each match, 100 people are air-dropped onto a cartoon-rendered island where they run around searching for weaponry, building defensive forts and fighting to the death. The winner is the last one standing. It's free to play on multiple devices from computers to games consoles to smartphones. Presenter Kevin Fong (medical doctor, broadcaster and father of two) asks, is Fornite more like the new crack cocaine or more like the Beatles?
It's estimated that more than 125 million people have played Fortnite Battle Royale and that 3 million people around the world are playing it at any one time. Its creators Epic Games have earned more than US$1 billion from Fortnite within the last year, and that is just from players buying virtual outfits and victory dances for their avatars. These dances or 'emotes' have leaked out of Fortnite's virtual world into the real one as anyone watching the World Cup will have seen. Football players now emote on scoring goals.
There are also professional Fortnite players who are making millions by playing the game while vast numbers of people spectate via live streaming internet channels. Fortnite's Ronaldo is Ninja, a 26 year old man in Illinois, USA. It's said he makes US$ 500,000 from the 300 hours he spends playing the game each month. There are now Fortnite e-sports scholarships offered to students at one university in the United States.
Is Fortnite a revolutionary development in video gaming and what is the formula of its undoubted success? With the World Health Organisation recently adding Gaming Disorder to its list of disease categories, how concerned should parents be about the risks of gaming addiction for their Fortnite-playing offspring? Kevin Fong explores the culture and conversation around Fornite with gamers of all ages, games creators, games culture experts, psychologists and psychiatrists.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
In January, Aurelia Brouwers - a 29 year old Dutch woman, with a history of severe mental illness - lay down on her bed to die. She had been declared eligible for euthanasia a month earlier - Dutch law permits the ending of a life where there is, 'unbearable suffering' without hope of relief. Aurelia's death provoked an outpouring on social media, and widespread discussion within the Netherlands... What if a death wish is part of someone's illness? And does someone with serious mental health challenges have the capacity to make a decision about their own demise? These are questions now being debated in the Netherlands as a result of Aurelia's death. Crossing Continents features recordings of Aurelia made in the two weeks before she died, hears from some of the friends closest to her, and explores the complex terrain of euthanasia for people with psychiatric problems in Holland. Reported and produced by Linda Pressly.
(Image: Aurelia Brouwers. Credit: RTL Nieuws, Sander Paulus)
If you're feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations that offer advice and support, go online to bbc.co.uk/actionline. Or you can call for free to hear recorded information - 0800 066 066.
With its playful, hand-holding, pebble-juggling ways, the otter wins the cuteness contest with its eyes closed. It's no wonder such a stunningly elegant and charismatic animal has been the star of films and books and the inspiration for thousands to make pilgrimages to rivers in Devon or rings of bright water in Scotland.
But do not be deceived. As Brett Westwood discovers, this elusive wild animal is a skilled and ferocious predator and, given half a chance, he'll have your fingers off!
Writer Miriam Darlington shows Brett the paw prints on the banks of the river Dart, and describes the first time she ever saw an otter.
Anthony Phillips, once the guitarist for global pop group Genesis, now composes music for screen and, he tells us, it all started with reading and feeling compelled to make music inspired by Tarka.
Dr Elizabeth Chadwick, who manages to slit otters open for science, explains how the otter's insides are a barometer of health for our environment.
Dr Daniel Allen charts the history of otter hunting from anglers removing fish-eating vermin, to a Great British summertime sport, and the legislation that saved them.
and Olivia Morgan reads Robert Macfarlane's spell for conjuring an otter, over the watery sounds of Joanna Newsom's Divers, in an attempt to evoke the slippery land fish that inspires such awe, devotion and fear.
Producer: Ellie Richold.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Eleanor Bron reads Elizabeth Taylor's poignant and witty masterpiece.
Published in 1971 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is both tender and sharp in its depiction of old age.
On a rainy January afternoon, the recently widowed Laura Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel on the Cromwell Road. Apprehensive but doughty, she settles into her room without a view, and begins to meet the other residents.
For the long-term residents of the Claremont Hotel life revolves around waiting for dinner, the nine o'clock serial and visitors. Mrs Palfrey assures her new friends that her grandson will soon be making an appearance.
Writer: Elizabeth Taylor
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Producer: Natalie Steed.
by Jon Canter
James Boswell ..... Miles Jupp
Karl Marx ..... Julian Rhind-Tutt
Directed by Sally Avens
Comedy as James Boswell, Dr Johnson's celebrated biographer, pursues other legends to immortalise. Today he attempts to write a biography of Karl Marx but before he can start must help Marx pen his meisterwerk Das Kapital.
The Dark Ages are often painted as an era of scholarly decline. The Western Roman Empire was on its way out, books were few and far between, and, if you believe the stereotype, mud-splattered peasants ran around in rags.
However, it was far more intellectually vibrant than you might imagine. Out of this era emerged a set of 'problems to sharpen the young,' including the famous river crossing puzzle that's still taught in maths today. The presumed author of these riddles is Alcuin of York - 'the most learned man in the world.' And it was this monk and his puzzles that laid the foundations for a branch of mathematics called combinatorics - the thinking behind today's computer coding and cryptography.
Philip Ball speaks to historian Mary Garrison from the University of York to learn of Alcuin's character and how he encouraged his students to learn for the sake of learning, as opposed to salvation. And University College London mathematician Hannah Fry shows Philip just how much of a role combinatorics plays in today's world.
Producer: Graihagh Jackson.
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 comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the wild turkey of North American woodlands. We are so used to seeing mass-produced captive turkeys (the centrepiece for many a Thanksgiving meal in the United States and Canada) that the sight and sound of a displaying male wild turkey is a real surprise. With his tail fanned and red wattles a-quiver; he struts-his-stuff in a woodland clearing to win the favours of the less flamboyant hens. There are now around 7 million wild turkeys in the USA. But it wasn't always so. Wild turkeys were nearly wiped out in many states by over-shooting and woodland clearance. Their numbers fell from tens of millions in pre-Columbus days, to about thirty thousand by the last Century. Land which had been previously cleared for farming was allowed to return to woodland. Wild turkeys were released back into areas where they'd been wiped out. This along with hunting controls and behavioural research allowed their numbers to increase and their spectacular displays are once again a common sight in many areas of the USA.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
In this series, the historian Peter Hennessy asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and times. Each week, he invites his guest to explore their early formative influences, their experiences and their impressions of people they've known.
Peter Hennessy's guest in this programme is David Blunkett, who served in Tony Blair's Cabinet as Education and Employment Secretary, Home Secretary and Work and Pensions Secretary. Blunkett regards his blindness as an inconvenience rather than a disability, and he believes that people should all be judged by what they do and how effective they are. He brought a passion for reform and social justice to every political post he held, from his election as a Sheffield councillor aged 22 while still a student to his time in the Cabinet.
Blunkett recalls the impact of his father's early death in a work accident and his experiences attending boarding schools for the blind. He listened avidly to the radio and tells what inspired him to join the Labour Party. As a young Sheffield councillor, he reacted against Labour's paternalistic approach. By the 1980s he was leader of Sheffield council and recalls battles with the government over rate-capping.
Blunkett became an MP in 1987. Although he and Tony Blair came from different backgrounds, they agreed on raising school standards. He vividly re-captures the most daunting crisis in his career, shortly after he became Home Secretary in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. He was later Work and Pensions Secretary and is proud of having helped launch the Sure Start scheme that provided services for pre-school children and their families.
Producer: Rob Shepherd.
Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.
The late 18th Century saw the emergence of the Romantic movement in the arts, and many of the most celebrated literary names of the day - writers like Thomas de Quincey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge - were opium addicts.
Laudanum, they believed, fuelled their creativity - and indeed Coleridge's great poem Kubla Khan was famously inspired by a drug-induced dream when he was a young man of 25.
But while the "milk of paradise" may have provided short-term artistic inspiration, it came at a price. Coleridge died a housebound addict in 1834, described by his visitor Thomas Carlyle as "a passive bucket" that was simply "pumped into." And De Quincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, lived a ramshackle life that was "riven by disputes, nightmares, debt and drug dependence."
Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.
The reader is Anita Vettesse.
The producer is David Jackson Young.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return! Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
The Empress Teishi is in child-bed. Her labour has been long and fitful, and the Empress's talk is becoming increasingly delirious. Shonagon begs to be allowed to summon the mid-wife, but is refused. Meanwhile the Emperor waits fretfully outside for the news of his beloved, and the safe delivery of their new son and heir.
The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
There can be few animals which inspire such fascination and intrigue as the Narwhal. Discoveries of their long spiral tusk which is actually a tooth which protrudes from the jaw of the male (and very occasionally the female), inspired legends about Unicorns. The horns were treasured for their purifying and health-giving properties and cups made from the horns were claimed to be able purify water and detect poisonous substances. But the true nature of the tusk is no less extraordinary that the fictional ones as Brett Westwood discovers when he explores our relationship with this Arctic legend. Producer Sarah Blunt
Contributors
Doug Allan - wildlife documentary cameraman
Dr Martin T. Nweeia - Lecturer at The Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Smithsonian research associate and content curator for the Smithsonian exhibit "Narwhal : Revealing an Arctic legend".
Dr William W. Fitzhugh - Arctic Curator and Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Centre in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Barbara Drake Boehm - medievalist and Paul and Jill Rudduck Senior Curator at The Met Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Dr Marianne Marcoux - Research Scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Dr Cortney Watt - Research Scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Ken Mantel - former geologist and owner of an Inuit Art Gallery
Ben Clanton - writer and illustrator of Narwhal and Jelly Books
Georgie Glen - Actress
Additional sound recordings of Narwhals courtesy of Dr Susanna Blackwell- Greeneridge Sciences Inc.
At a vibrant open-air party in Mumbai, stories of young, contemporary India converge - from the rise of the nation's first global superstar DJ, to the varied lives of his young fans.
DJ Nucleya is the hottest property in Indian dance music: the breakout star whose rise marks a turning point in Indian culture. Before him, dance music (or EDM) was the preserve of the monied middle-classes. But Nucleya has ripped up the rule book: placing traditional Indian street music - ecstatic pounding tabla and dholes - at the core of his art, and attracting a legion of young, predominantly working-class fans.
Told in immersive binaural stereo, Indian Rave charts the story of a single event in the searing Mumbai heat earlier this year - a teeming aural world of stories, sensations and sheer headrush. Woven through it are the voices and stories of just some of the thousands of Indians in attendance - and the tale of the rise of a 21st century Indian musical superstar.
Producer: Steven Rajam for BBC Wales.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Angie Hobbs wants to tell you about two kinds of freedom - Negative and Positive. This influential philosophical distinction was made in the 20th century by Isaiah Berlin but it's rooted in the ideas of the hugely influential Greek Philosopher Plato.
Negative freedom involves getting things out of your way - be it the state, the police or your parents. Positive freedom is the ability to take command of your own self and make decisions that are in your own interest.
Berlin used the metaphor of doors: Negative freedom concerns the number of doors open to you. Positive Freedom is about how you choose between them.
Angie talks to conservative MP and ex-banker Jessie Norman and to environmental activist and ex-Jain monk Satish Kumar to see how these two ideas of freedom can co-exist.
This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.
In this programme Timandra looks at clashes of interests, with the help of a trade union negotiator and an expert on neighbour disputes.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
In The Summer book by Tove Jansson (author of the Moomin books) a woman and her six-year-old granddaughter Sophia spend a summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland . They talk about life, nature, religion - everything but their feelings about Sophia's mother's death and their love for one another. This wonderfully humane and atmospheric book is dramatised by the poet and playwright Amanda Dalton from the translation by Thomas Teal.
Sophia Jansson, the real-life model for Sophia and niece of Tove, narrates this radio adaptation . Her own mother, Signe Hammarsten-Jansson informed the character of the grandmother.
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts.
Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?
Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.
In this first episode, More Issues than Vogue, named after the wording on one of Tara's T-shirts, the pair introduce us to their world and reveal how they are each other's anchor in a sea of chaos.
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis Macdonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
John Wilson concludes the current series of the programme where he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.
Antonio Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons' with Nigel Kennedy.
Having trained at both the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music and the Juilliard School in New York, Nigel Kennedy has developed into one of the most popular classical musicians of his generation. This in no small part is due to the phenomenal success of his recording of The Four Seasons in 1989. At the time he explained that he set out to use "every kind of technique I know" to communicate his feeling for the music to his listeners.
Kennedy's passion for non-classical music has seen him play alongside The Who and Kate Bush, record violin-based versions of songs by The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and release an album for the jazz label Blue Note Sessions. However, The Four Seasons retains a special place in his repertoire, and in 2015 he released a completely fresh take on Vivaldi's violin concertos.
In front of an audience at the BBC Studios in Maida Vale, Nigel Kennedy talks about the album that earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling classical work of all time, and performs exclusive excerpts from the concertos that helped make him famous.
Producers: Paul Kobrak.
Lauren Laverne meets three women who trained to become nuns at St Mary's Convent, Ascot in the 1970s.
In December 1972, shortly before Christmas, Stephanie de Laszlo entered the Novitiate of St Mary's Convent in Ascot. She was to be joined by Jane Livesey and Anna Brennan - three young women embarking on a life of contemplation and prayer within the Congregation of Jesus.
But their lives did not all follow that quiet path - since then two of the women have left the Congregation, while the third became its worldwide leader. Today one of the three is a lawyer and one joined the police force before becoming a member of an enclosed community of Benedictine nuns. Which of them chose to leave religious life altogether and why did one go back after several years on the outside?
In this programme the women speak about their faith with clarity and wry humour. They look back on the decision they made to enter religious life and how their resolve was tested in the intervening years. They reflect on the challenges they experienced both inside and outside the convent and how they negotiated the forks in the road along the way to personal understanding and contentment.
Producer: Paula McGinley
Editor: Eleanor Garland.
Towards the end of his comic rant about the descent of man, Simon Evans does something very dangerous. He starts to read out to his audience an extract of John Stuart Mill. Potential comedy death? In this programme he explains why the famous Victorian philosopher with the squirly hair is his idea of genius. As well as On Liberty, Mill wrote The Subjection of Women and was the first member of Parliament to call for women's right to vote.
Joining him and Matthew Parris is Professor Anne Phillips of the London School of Economics.
Simon Evans' latest show is Genius 2.0. He hosts Simon Evans Goes to Market on Radio 4.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Jake Yapp applies his sharp satirical eye to the modern media, exploring its strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies through stand-up, sketch and music.
Episode 4 - Social Media
Jake turns his focus to Social Media and makes an argument as to why you should delete your accounts and through your laptops out of the window.
Written, performed and composed by Jake Yapp
Starring George Fouracres and Emily Lloyd-Saini
Additional material by Robin Morgan
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.
Kenton has a brainwave, and Lynda discovers the truth.
Author Maggie O'Farrell talks about the art of writing life stories as her own memoir I Am, I Am, I Am tops the bestseller charts. Movingly structured around 17 moments in her life when death came terrifyingly close, the book is thought provoking and an unconventional.
Angry Alan and User Not Found are two plays focussing on our online lives - and are receiving rave reviews at the Festival with Angry Alan already winning a Fringe First prize. Writers Penelope Skinner and Terence O'Donovan talk to Kirsty about dramatizing online experiences.
The drag girl band Denim was Cambridge University's first drag troupe when they formed in 2010. Now, they're back in Edinburgh and for Front Row perform a song from their Reunion Tour and discuss how their drag comes with a political and uplifting message.
Presenter : Kirsty Lang
Producer : Jerome Weatherald.
Donald Trump and his supporters have spoken of a Deep State in America, undermining his presidency from within - a shadowy coalition of security and intelligence services, hidden from plain sight, bent on sabotaging an elected government.
The term has caught on, becoming part of political folklore. But what does the idea of a Deep State really mean - where did it come from, what would it consist of, who uses it and for what political purpose? Is the Deep State just another example of conspiracy theory in politics, or is it a more serious concern than that - and does it exist here in Britain?
Drawing on expertise from a range of countries and political contexts, from the USA to the UK, from Russia and Turkey to Zimbabwe and Greece, journalist and writer David Aaronovitch goes in search of this most elusive idea.
The term Deep State may well be at the more respectable end of conspiracy theory but the question why it keeps resurfacing is an interesting one. This programme draws on both recent and historic cases, from Eisenhower's military-industrial complex and Harold Wilson's concerns about MI5 in the 1960s and 70s to the reppearance of the term around the deposition of Robert Mugabe and in Donald Trump's public rhetoric, railing against what he calls the "criminal Deep State".
Not everyone is convinced. Some writers have argued the term is more psychological than political, saying more about people's sense of political impotence and paranoia about government than it does about the real workings of power.
Contributors include British intelligence expert Peter Hennessy, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufkis, FBI and CIA historian Tim Weiner, Turkish political scholar Esra Osyurek, former British diplomat and Iraq expert Carne Ross, Zimbabwean political commentator Miles Tendi, Soviet historian Daniel Beer, political writer Thomas Frank and Chris Mullin, author of 'A Very British Coup'.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Matthew Taylor begins a new series examining how charities work, and asking what they are for.
In this first episode, Matthew asks what we think about when we think about charities, and examines whether the reality is different. He looks at the differences between large and small charities, examines some of the recent scandals surrounding the charity sector, and speaks to the Minister for Civil Society, who has just launched a consultation on the future of the charity sector.
In Leeds and Bradford, Matthew visits a small volunteer-led horse sanctuary, an evening for volunteers who want to work with refugees and asylum seekers, and a church hosting a children's centre as he delves into questions around charity fundraising. How efficient are charities' fundraising operations? Has the big increase in money spent on fundraising recently resulted in more money coming into the sector? And how does what we imagine charities do to raise money differ from the reality?
Producer: Giles Edwards.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Eleanor Bron continues Elizabeth Taylor's poignant and witty masterpiece.
Mrs Palfrey's grandson Desmond still doesn't visit. Laura falls in the street and is rescued by Ludo, a young and impoverished writer. She invites him to dine with her at the Claremont Hotel and somehow lets it be understood by the other residents that he is her grandson Desmond. Ludo willingly plays along.
Writer: Elizabeth Taylor
Abridger: Robin Brooks
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Producer: Natalie Steed.
Maria Merian was born in 1647. At the time of her birth, Shakespeare had been dead for 30 years; Galileo had only just stood trial for arguing that the Earth moved around the Sun. And yet, here in Germany, was a child who would become an important but oft-forgotten figure of science.
Aged 13, she mapped out metamorphosis, catching caterpillars from her garden and painting them in exquisite detail. At that point, most believed that caterpillars spontaneously generated from cabbages and maggots materialised from rotten meat. She later voyaged to Suriname in South America to pursue pupae further, discovering not just new species but also the conditions needed for their survival.
Some call her the first field ecologist; others admire her for her eloquent brushwork. However, her studies will help today's biologists plot which insects lived where. These data are invaluable because this could help scientists predict what species will survive climate change.
Naomi Alderman discusses the life and legacy of Maria Merian with biologist and historian Kay Etheridge from Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania and biologist Kathy Willis from Kew Gardens.
Producer: Graihagh Jackson.
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 comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the black drongo of Southern Asia. What looks a like a small crow crossed with a flycatcher is riding a cow's back in an Indian village. Black drongos are slightly smaller than European starlings, but with a much longer tail. They feed mainly on large insects: dragonflies, bees, moths and grasshoppers which they will pluck from the ground as well pursuing them in aerial sallies. Although small, these birds are famous for being fearless and will attack and dive-bomb almost any other bird, even birds of prey, which enter their territories. This aggressive behaviour has earned them the name "King Crow" and in Hindi their name is Kotwal - the policeman.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
'A Life's Work' is a new series in which Paddy O'Connell brings together three people, from three different generations, who have all dedicated their lives to the same profession.
Today's guests all work in a world traditionally run by women and their combined experience covers 50 years of service from the decade immediately after the 'Call the Midwife'.
Three midwives tell Paddy about how their own personal stories reflect the changes in the community they serve.
Contributors:
Sheena Byrom became a midwife in the 1970s and worked for the NHS for 35 years. She retired at the age of 55 having been a community midwife and then a consultant midwife. In 2009, she became a Head of Midwifery in the North of England and oversaw the opening of three new birth centres. Sheena is still a practising midwife.....one of the oldest in the country....although she doesn't actually 'catch babies' anymore, as she (in her own words) "catches midwives instead".
Sofia Odugleh works as a community midwife in Cardiff. Prior to this, she worked in a high risk maternity unit. She trained to be a midwife in her 30s and has been doing the job for 12 years. Sophia is a devout Muslim.
Dilan Chauhan is just about to qualify. There are no medical people in his family and they were surprised when he announced that he was going to train to be a midwife. (There are in fact fewer than 200 qualified male midwives in this country - 0.4% of the total). Dilan does not resent any woman who refuses to have him in the delivery room - he says that women should be able to make choices about how they give birth and who should be present.
Producer: Helen Lee.
David Cannadine examines the careers of British Prime Ministers through their props of power.
Standing in a fireplace in his Temple of Peace at Hawarden Castle in Wales, is a selection of axes used by William Gladstone to chop down trees. David meets Charlie Gladstone, the current resident at Hawarden, to examine these axes and discuss the attraction of tree-felling for his ancestor, William. It was a vigorous physical activity that took his mind off everything else, especially public affairs.
Gladstone's axe was a Prime Minister's Prop which also became a powerful political metaphor. Gladstone was often depicted by his supporters as swinging his axe to eliminate wrongdoing and error, literally root and branch. And the image of him retreating to Hawarden, working away with his axe, appealed to working people who, as one historian has commented, "found a great statesman and popular leader in the plain clothes of a labourer".
To his critics however, Gladstone's axe was an apt metaphor for his increasingly radical politics, which seemed to them to be violent and destructive. For Tory opponents, and for Queen Victoria, the contrast with William Gladstone's great political rival Benjamin Disraeli was striking. For while Gladstone chopped down trees on his country estate at Hawarden, Disraeli planted them at Hughenden Manor, his rural retreat in Buckinghamshire.
Readings by Ewan Bailey and Will Huggins
Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
Series Researcher: Martin Spychal
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.
After the Second Opium War of the mid-19th Century there was extensive Chinese immigration into the west coast of the United States. This led to the establishment of "Chinatowns" in cities like San Francisco, and Chinese immigrants soon made up 10 per cent of California's population. There was widespread resentment of these alien incomers - a resentment fuelled by their habit of bringing with them "their prime means of relaxation at the end of a long day: opium."
Opium dens sprang up and became a focus for what critics described as "licentiousness, debauchery, loathsome disease and death..."
But in at least one South Dakota town, Chinese-American relations conspicuously thrived: Deadwood - home of Calamity Jane.
Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.
The reader is Anita Vettesse.
The producer is David Jackson Young.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
The Empress Teishi is gravely ill following the delivery of her daughter. Flouting all convention and etiquette, the Emperor enters the Empress's chamber to be with his beloved.
The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
In the light of the raising of the female state pension age, colleagues reflect on their futures in the work place. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
The hit series returns for an eighth series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. Written by and starring Donald Mcleary and Sanjeev Kohli.
Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop, the award winning Fags, Mags and Bags sees a return of all the shop regular characters, and some guest appearances along the way, from the likes of Moray Hunter, Lorraine McIntosh & Mina Amwar.
In this episode, Ramesh discovers to his horror than Sanjay hasn't been entirely truthful about his college education after The Bish (played by Michael Redmond) spots him busking in East Kilbride.
Join the staff of Fags, Mags and Bags in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. He is joined by his shop sidekick, Dave.
Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business. Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them - whether they like it or not!
Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions.
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Harry Potter is a criminal barrister and watches people being let off and locked up for a living. He is interested in the ways the state can curtail our liberty. His key thinker is John Stuart Mill, the 19th century British philosopher who argued that the state should take a minimal role in the lives of its citizens.
Harry talks to Mark Dempster, ex-drug addict, dealer and now counsellor about the limits of individual liberty and to Prof. Philip Schofield of University College London about JS Mill and his ideas.
This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.
In this programme Timandra talks to scientists about disputes over establishing matters of fact.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
Two armoured trains meet on a single train track in the desert, in this extraordinary real life battle story, written by Avin Shah.
Why have the 19th Punjabi Infantry Regiment of the British Indian Army been sent to Turkestan, where the British are not at war?
Why are Russian soldiers driving both the train they're on, and the train they're trying to destroy?
What's behind Railway Lieutenant Stepniak's paranoia about the enemy?
And if either side damage the train track - will they ever get out of the desert?
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago, telling untold stories about the war in Gaza, Gallipoli, Serbia, Mesopotamia, Russia, Macedonia, Italy, Turkmenistan and Tanzania, as well as on the Western Front.
And through it all, we've followed the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting.
A porcine presidential campaign, the feeling of freedom in a communal action and a Danish poet who helps you re-imagine the world - Josie Long hears stories of small radical acts.
Comedian and activist Mark Thomas talks about the feeling of liberty on a city street flooded with bicycles, we explore how Inger Christensen's words have fed into the imaginations of Danish activists, and we hear about Pigasus's curtailed political campaign.
Pigasus the Immortal
Featuring Abe Peck, Jim Lato and Judy Gumbo
Interviews by Sarah Geis
Inger Christensen
Produced by Maria Dønvang
Critical Mass
Featuring Mark Thomas
Produced by Sarah Cuddon
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
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.
Stand-up comic Josh comes to terms with the impending birth of his first child. In the final episode of the series, Josh and his wife Monique's big day finally arrives. Josh has the birth ball and all meditation music but typically, at the crucial moment, disaster strikes.
Written by Josh Howie
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4.
Pip makes a decision, and Alistair receives a touching gesture.
Queen guitarist Brian May fell in love with 3D photography as a child and has since gone on to establish his own publishing company devoted to sharing stereoscopic work from the Victorian era to the present day. May's latest publication is a book by Professor Roger Taylor about the Scottish photography pioneer George Washington Wilson. May and Taylor discuss why Wilson's stunning 3D photographs of Scottish landscapes and street scenes remain as captivating today as they were during the 3D boom of the 1850s and 60s.
As the NHS celebrates its 70th anniversary, three doctors are performing their own stand up shows on the Festival fringe. Adam Kay, Dr Kevin Jones and Kwame Asante talk to Kirsty about using their working lives as material.
Rachel Parris performs from her Edinburgh show - Musical Comedy Club.
Presenter : Kirsty Lang
Producers : Jerome Weatherald and Simon Richardson.
Anne McElvoy returns with the series that asks figures from opposing sides of a political issue to listen to each other, and explore the roots of each other's beliefs, with the help of conflict resolution specialist Gabrielle Rifkind.
In this edition, Anne brings together Polly Toynbee, columnist for the Guardian, and Melanie McDonagh, writer for the London Evening Standard and the Spectator, to discuss the question: 'Is Assisted Dying Morally Wrong?'
Producer: Phil Tinline.
World-renowned doctor, Waney Squier, tells Dominic Lawson the price she paid for changing her mind about shaken-baby syndrome. Having supported the existence of the syndrome and testified that people - often parents - were the ones inflicting death and serious injury on children this way, she changed her mind.
Waney Squier was one of the foremost medical experts on the developing brain of infants and babies before their birth. She appeared many times as an expert witness for the prosecution in cases of shaken-baby syndrome. But she changed her mind and decided the evidence now suggests this syndrome does not exist, casting doubt on any explanations for a baby's demise that rest on this theory. Her change of mind was followed by a complaint from the police that led to her being struck off the medical register. Here she tells her story, and how her change of mind led to professional disaster and personal heartache.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
Andy Zaltzman, the comedian, cricket fanatic and lapsed classics student will be spending a week living by the teachings of three ancient schools of philosophy. This week he'll mostly be being stoic.
Stoicism is being hailed as the new Mindfulness in their quest for a modern day answer to the eternal question of how to live a good life. The trouble is centuries of misunderstanding have left us with glaring misconceptions about what these philosophies really are: Stoicism is nothing about keeping a stiff upper lip and suppressing my emotions. The great attraction of stoicism is what it tells us about resilience and how to deal with life's vicissitudes. Founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BC, Premiership rugby club Saracens hold weekly classes in it, special forces recruits are taught its insights - the value of virtue for its own sake and how to make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it naturally happens - and politicians and business leaders are attracted by the works of famous Stoics like Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.
Every week Andy will be given a set of tasks to confront to teach him a philosophical lesson. His guide and task master is Jules Evans, author of "Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations." Andy will also meet the famous mentalist and illusionist Derren Brown who's also a follower of Stoicism.
Producer: Phil Pegum.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Eleanor Bron continues Elizabeth Taylor's poignant masterpiece about old age.
Ludo turns up at the Claremont and pulls off an impressive deception, delighting Mrs Palfrey.
Writer: Elizabeth Taylor
Adapter: Robin Brooks
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Producer: Natalie Steed.
Australian stand up Felicity Ward stars in her first BBC Radio 4 series where she tries to solve her mental health issues, one app at a time.
In this episode, Felicity tries to treat her IBS with the help of app 'What a Relief' (as voiced by Jess Fosketew).
Throughout the series, Felicity downloads a new app each week to help her destress, refocus and find practical solutions to her various trouble areas - anxiety, depression, IBS and insomnia.
Written and performed by Felicity Ward.
Script Editor: Gareth Gwynn
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production.
The Celebrity Voicemail Show is an entirely fictitious comedy show written, improvised and starring only Kayvan Novak in which he imagines what it might be like to hear the answerphone messages of the rich and famous.
This week we listen in to the voicemail of controversial newspaper columnist, Katie Hopkins.
Philip Ball reveals the dramatic tale of Lise Meitner, the humanitarian physicist of Jewish descent, who unlocked the science of the atom bomb after a terrifying escape from Hitler's Germany. One of the most brilliant nuclear scientists working in Germany her flight from terror cost Hitler's regime dearly. In the early twentieth century it was barely possible for women to work in science at all and yet Einstein once called Meitner Germany's own Marie Curie. It was Meitner's insight that began the nuclear age and her story remains ever relevant, as the threat of nuclear conflict lies once again over the world.
Philip Ball talks to historian Dr Patricia Fara about Lise Meitner and her research and to Patricia Lewis of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons or ICAN, based in Geneva, which this year was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for its work in trying to reverse nuclear proliferation, about Meitner's legacy today.
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 comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the laughing gull off the Florida coast. In summer, the hearty peal of laughter is one of the characteristic sounds people hear along the North American east coast where laughing gulls come to breed. America's version of the British black-headed gull they are easy to recognise as they patrol the seashore in search for food. Like many gulls they eat what they can find and will scavenge at rubbish dumps, and will even feast on the eggs of horseshoe crabs which spawn in Deleware Bay each spring. Some become swept up in autumnal hurricanes and having crossed the Atlantic, occasionally turn up on a European's bird-watching list.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Evan Davis looks for reasonable ways to address the most divisive of issues.
It's the most celebrated period of British ingenuity, but are our Victorian forebears due a rethink? Sci-curious sisters Kat and Helen Arney are on hand with some revisionist revelations that could turn what we think we know completely upside down.
There are few if any more influential inventions on modern life than the automobile but, as revolutionary as cars were in the late 19th century, has the cost to the environment been worth it? Especially as history could nearly have been very different indeed. Is it true that the Victorians in fact invented the electric car, and a petrol-free society was within reach? Helen and Kat are on the trail.
Helen Arney is a presenter and comedian, and Dr Kat Arney is a writer and broadcaster who has published a book on genetics.
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.
Advances in military technology meant that by the American Civil War in the 1860s, the most common injuries suffered by soldiers were shattered bones and lost limbs. This led to the liberal use of morphine powder to relieve pain: one military surgeon was so hard pressed during battle that he diagnosed from horseback, tipped it into his hand and had the men lick it from his palm.
After the war, morphine addiction among former soldiers was so common it came to be known as "the army disease." But it was the Vietnam War a century later that brought the idea of the "junkie soldier" into popular culture.
Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.
The reader is Anita Vettesse.
The producer is David Jackson Young.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
The Emperor and Lady Shonagon keep vigil over their beloved Empress Teishi. The Emperor invites Shonagon to compose a list while they wait - a list of moments in the life of Lady Shonagon.
The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
Seaweed is liberating women in a conservative corner of east Africa. Thousands of women have gained more control over their lives thanks to Zanzibar's seaweed farms. In a traditional island village there is a surprisingly high divorce rate and women have safeguarded their interests with earnings from this salty crop which has given them a much needed income and new independence. At first the husbands were outraged - they complained that seaweed farming made women too tired for their matrimonial duties. The women eventually prevailed but their hard won freedom is now threatened by climate change. Lucy Ash meets the seaweed farmers of Paje village and looks at the ways they are fighting to save their livelihood and raise their families.
Producer: Chloe Hadjimatheou.
According to Charles W. Eliot - President of Harvard and cousin of T.S. - all the basic elements for a complete, liberal education could fit on a shelf of books just 5-feet in length. In 1909 the first volume of the Harvard Classics were published - and grew to become a 51-volume anthology of great works, including essays, poems, political treatises.
But what if all sorts of people from all walks of life were asked to recommend books to be included on a five foot shelf today? Which books do they think might be required for a complete home education?
Ian Sansom has set a course for Wigtown - Scotland's National Booktown - to find out.
Local craftsman Steve has been busy creating just the shelf for the job - exactly five foot long - and fashioned from elm wood and whiskey barrels recycled from a local distillery. Ian will be playing shopkeeper at the Open Book in Wigtown - a B&B meets bookshop which allows visitors to indulge their fantasy of running their own bookstore. With Ian parked behind the counter, all that's needed is for visitors to drop by and try to persuade him of the books they think deserve a rightful on The Five Foot Shelf. But of course not everything will make it on and as custodian of the shelf, Ian can be ruthless. Well, kind of...
No interviews with authors or academics or critics: The Five Foot Shelf is a guide for readers by readers and the books which matter to them.
Producer: Conor Garrett.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Theologian Giles Fraser thinks freedom is overrated. It has become a kind of tyranny or obsession. He is interested in the tradition of religious thinking that understands true liberation sometimes comes from accepting boundaries on life. His key thinker is the medieval philosopher and Franciscan monk William of Ockham whom he blames for this turn of events. Giles talks to Brother Sam, a contemporary Franciscan Monk, about the way his life of constraint has led him to feel free. Giles also talks to Phillip Blond, theologian and political adviser.
This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.
In this programme she examines the difficulty of fundamental controversies over competing moral visions.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
Stanley Baldwin and Cosmo Lang are determined that Edward VIII will not turn back the clock and impose his will on the governance of England by marrying the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
If Edward and Mrs Simpson were to have their way, the Church of England would suffer disestablishment and the national government would collapse.
In essence, this is the story of two men determined to persuade the King from a marriage they feel is not only unsuitable, but also wrong.
Jim Broadbent stars as Stanley Baldwin, Hugh Ross as Cosmo Lang and Anthony Calf plays Edward VIII.
Tomorrow, the story is told from the point of view of Wallis Simpson, as imagined from the memoirs of those based with her in the south of France at that time.
Written by Christopher Lee
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
Ian Marchant hunts for dragons, real and imaginary, in the spooky and fantastic landscape of Radnorshire in Wales. He'll meet a sleeping dragon in Presteigne made by blacksmith Peter Smith; he'll look at the range of hills known as the 'dragon's back' with fantasy writer Phil Rickman and he'll hunt for newts - which are tiny dragons, after all - in Radnor Forest. And he'll find out why so many churches in Radnorshire are dedicated to St Michael. It turns out they're all needed to hold down the Radnorshire dragon, or the evil forces it represents.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
With Antonia Quirke.
Sir Richard Eyre discusses his reunion with novelist Ian McEwan with the release of The Children Act, three decades after they collaborated on The Ploughman's Lunch.
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.
Recorded at the BBC's Edinburgh festival site, Fresh from the Fringe showcases the best in comedy from the Fringe 2018.
Freddie faces the music, and Elizabeth makes a terrible mistake.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
Life expectancy is going up, pensions are declining. Meanwhile the official retirement age has been abolished, while the age at which you can draw your state pension is rising. As a result, more and more of us will have to work until our 70s, or even our 80s. So, asks David Baker, is this the end of retirement?
That may not be as bad as it sounds. For In Business, David meets people who could live a quiet, retired life, but choose not to. One founded a bikini company in her 70s, others sell vintage goods, or left organisations to set up on their own. For them, the very word "retirement" is negative, they love what they do, and wouldn't want to give it up.
Experts say that most of us will need to work into old age. Professor Lynda Gratton tells David that the previous life pattern of education-work-retirement will have to yield to a multi-phase one of different careers, broken up by breaks, even late-life gap years, and re-skilling. Why retire at 60 if you could live to 100?
The government, too, wants a million more over-50s in the workplace by 2022 - but not all employers are playing ball. Without the prospect of older staff leaving at a fixed retirement age, bosses are making them redundant instead, including by ugly means, and before they can draw a pension. Some companies though do value older people's skills and experience, and even take them on as apprentices. Until more organisations do this, however, it may be up to us to take matters into our own hands and prepare for a long working life.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Eleanor Bron continues Elizabeth Taylor's witty story of old age.
Mrs Palfrey enjoys a pie supper and a glass of sherry with Ludo. The real Desmond attempts to make a visit and is put off.
Writer: Elizabeth Taylor
Adapter: Robin Brooks
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Producer: Natalie Steed.
Recorded at the BBC's Edinburgh festival site, Fresh from the Fringe showcases the best in comedy from the Fringe 2018.
In Bristol in 1799, a young man started to experiment with newly discovered gases, looking for a cure for tuberculosis. Humphry Davy, aged 20, nearly killed himself inhaling carbon monoxide. Nitrous oxide was next. It was highly pleasurable, 'particularly in the chest and extremities' and he began to dance around his laboratory 'like a madman', before passing out. By day, he gave the gas to patients, carefully noting their reactions. In the evenings, he invited his friends over to have a laugh (with assistants on standby to revive them with oxygen, as needed). The Romantic poets, Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, could barely contain their excitement.
During one session, Davy noted that the gas numbed his toothache and suggested that it could perhaps be used during surgical operations. But it was another fifty years before nitrous oxide was used by doctors. Throughout the 20th century, it was widely used during dentistry and to numb the pain of childbirth. (Nitrous oxide is the gas in 'gas and air': the 'air' is oxygen). And it still is today, but less so. (It's a potent greenhouse gas that damages the ozone layer, it's difficult to store and there are side-effects). But, just as medical use is diminishing, recreational use is on the rise. A new generation of pleasure seekers have started experimenting, just as Davy did, despite the associated risks of injuries caused by fainting and death by suffocation.
Naomi Alderman tells how a gas that created 'ecstatic lunatics' came to be used as an anaesthetic, with help from biographer, Richard Holmes and anaesthetist, Kevin Fong.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
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 comment and prayer to begin the day with the Revd Dr Kirsty Thorpe, United Reformed Minister.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
Large numbers of visitors come to Skomer just to see puffins, however for seabird zoologist Tim Birkhead puffins are boring dull birds, in this Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Sam Linton.
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Derived from the juice of the poppy, it relieves our pain and cures our insomnia. It may even inspire great art. It also causes addiction, misery and death. Historian Lucy Inglis' new book explores man's long and complex relationship with opium.
The final episode of Milk of Paradise looks at the global issue of heroin addiction today.
"It's everywhere, isn't it?" says the author's husband, as they sit in a bar in the south of France watching some twitchy addicts at the next table.
"Yes," she agrees, but concludes on a controversially non-judgmental note that "the very ordinariness of it all made me remember than addictions of all kinds surround us, making us neither good nor bad, nor less human. They make us who we are. Our petty daily tallies, the small triumphs in the face of finality, are measured out in teaspoons for the billionaire and the street addict alike."
Milk of Paradise is written by Lucy Inglis and abridged by Anna Magnusson.
The reader is Anita Vettesse.
The producer is David Jackson Young.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
The Empress Teishi is dead. Nothing now stands in the way of Empress Shoshi reforming the palace, and reform starts with a despicable and squalid example of corruption - the relationship between a Palace Lady and a policeman... Shonagon and Yukinari are summoned to the throne room.
The Pillow Book is inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
Writer and broadcaster Emma Kennedy studied law and worked as a solicitor for five years before realising she was in the wrong job.
A string of studies have produced worrying evidence that Emma is far from alone - they suggest that as many as 75 per cent of British workers feel they are in jobs which don't suit them or which they simply hate.
The figures come as little surprise to psychologist Professor Sir Cary Cooper who says it's no coincidence the UK's productivity rate is one of the lowest in Europe. He says unhappiness in the workplace leads to stress, illness and a £13bn cost to the economy.
In this two-part documentary, Emma discovers what has gone wrong and examines ways to help people find jobs that better fit their skills, aptitudes and aspirations.
The first programme focuses on widespread concerns about non-existent careers advice in schools, inadequate work experience opportunities and an education system which fails to prepare students for a lifetime of work.
Emma begins her journey by visiting psychometric testing experts to find out what job she is really cut out for, and establish what part psychological testing can play in choosing work that suits us. In Emma's case, the conclusion comes as a bit of a shock.
She talks to former Education Secretary Estelle Morris who famously resigned from the post, admitting the job didn't suit her. And she meets 25-year old travel writer Emma Rosen who, after leaving university, found herself in a job she hated, so decided to explore her options by trying 25 different jobs before she was 25, with extraordinary results.
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.
Episode 4: 'The Rectifier'
Ed realises that one of the pleasures of being at university is that he can use his time to write about whatever takes his fancy. So it is that he embarks upon a definitive piece of social history about the workhouse, inspired by his own great-grandfather who, as an inmate, suffered at the hand of the terrifying Beadle. It seems too that history might be repeating itself when Ed discovers that his grandson, Smile, is suffering certain terrors of his own as he may be being bullied at nursery.
Cast list ep 4
Ed Reardon..........Christopher Douglas
Olive....................Stephanie Cole
Pearl....................Brigit Forsyth
Jaz Milvain.............Phillip Jackson
Bow-Tie Man..........Geoff McGivern
Ping..................... Barunka O'Shaughnessy
Inspector...............Dan Tetsell
Stan.....................Geoffrey Whitehead
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Paul Broks tackles an age-old philosophical argument over whether humans have free will or whether all events are pre-determined. As a neuroscientist he is interested in the latest info on how our brains work. He also goes back to the 18th century French thinker Henry Poincare who argued that the universe was entirely mechanistic and that therefore all events in it are pre-ordained. Paul talks to researchers in the field including Professor Patrick Haggard of University College London to establish whether there is any place for human free will in a determined universe.
This programme is part of a week of programmes looking at the history of ideas around Freedom.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Timandra Harkness explores the best ways to disagree with other people - constructively.
In this programme she examines how we argue over personal preferences, and asks why we really try so hard to find and present reasons for what we want to do or believe. And she has a disagreement over the merits of disagreement.
Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.
A new take on a well known piece of British history. Wallis Simpson's view of the abdication crisis as imagined from memoirs of those involved between December 4th and December 12th 1936 and based with her in the south of France at that time.
With a clearer mind, having fled to France to escape the publicity and press intrusion surrounding her impending marriage to Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson tries to persuade the King not to abdicate and convince him they can continue their relationship without the need to marry.
Written by Nicola Baldwin
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for Radio 4.
Peter Gibbs chairs the horticultural panel programme from Herefordshire. Pippa Greenwood, Chris Beardshaw and Anne Swithinbank take questions from amateur gardeners.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
It's a dreich August morning during Edinburgh Festival and a 22 year-old student is home for summer, handing out flyers.
What does it feel like to have your home town turned into a stand-up comedy theme park for tourists every August? Edinburgh is an original short work for radio written and performed by Kieran Hurley. It's a story of soggy flyers, disappointing encounters and splitting headaches. It's also about that transient moment when teenage memories and adult hopes are as raw as each other.
Kieran Hurley is a writer, performer and theatre maker based in Glasgow. His Fringe First-winning play Heads Up won Best New Play at the Critics' Awards 2017 for Theatre in Scotland. Other plays include Rantin: a ceilidh-play with music; Hitch: an autobiographical story with a live band, and Beats: a monologue performed with a DJ, which is currently being adapted into a screenplay.
Written and performed by Kieran Hurley.
Produced by Eliza Lomas.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations.
A couple who are in a band find they don't want time apart. 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.
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a female panel - using the events, trends and talking points they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
Host Jo Bunting is joined by a panel of women including Katie Mulgrew, Sally Philips, Fi Glover and Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Jo Bunting is a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, with credits including Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
The wedding day dawns for Harrison and Fallon, and Susan comes to the rescue.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House London with a panel including the Spectator political correspondent Katy Balls, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire MP and the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb who is Chairman of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and Labour backbencher John Mann MP.
Tom Shakespeare on why he rejects the idea of a bucket list.
He proposes instead an idea dreamt up by one of his mates - a list that rhymes with bucket but begins with an F. "Let's call it a Forget-it-list" he says.
Tom shares the top ten items on his Forget it List this week.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
In a series tracing decisive moments in the life of our National Health Service, medical historian Sally Sheard explores the archive to tell the stories behind five crucial moments, in this first omnibus of episodes from Radio 4's National Health Stories series.
Poor Treatment: How the nation battled to stay alive before the NHS. Treatments were basic and surgery was often performed on the kitchen table.
Pioneers: Enterprising individuals came up with schemes to address health problems in their communities. One, in particular, inspired Health Minister Aneurin Bevan's vision for the NHS.
Remedies of War: Britain's emergency medical provision during the Second World War gave the public a taste of what a national health system might look like.
Doctors Revolt: Before the Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan, could launch his knew health service he'd need to convince the very people he'd need to run it, the doctors, who were also his harshest critics.
Free Specs & Teeth: Tracing the highs and lows that followed the launch of the NHS on 5 July 1948, one which would challenge the philosophy upon which it had been created.
Producer: Beth Eastwood.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Eleanor Bron reads the final part of Elizabeth Taylor's poignant and witty story of old age.
Mr Palfrey gives Ludo £50 but omits to mention it's a loan. She falls and breaks her hip and is taken to hospital where she is visited by Ludo and Desmond, but not her daughter.
Writer: Elizabeth Taylor
Adapter: Robin Brooks
Reader: Eleanor Bron
Producer: Natalie Steed.
Michael Faraday was the most famous scientist of the Victorian age and was the director of the Royal Institution in London from 1825 till his death in 1867. As the son of a blacksmith who, because of poor health, could barely support his family, in 1804 at the age of 13, Michael had to stop his schooling and start bringing in some money. He was apprenticed to a London bookbinder, and it was here, he later said, that he got his real education from reading the books. Two in particular made an impression: the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Mrs Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry.
Philip Ball tells the story of Jane Marcet and how she came to write Conversations on Chemistry. She was a woman who had had no formal scientific training herself, but who grasped the principles as well as anyone in her time. She explained her subject in the form of a conversation between Mrs B and her two pupils. Her book sold well and launched the whole idea of popular science. Philip discusses how science was presented to the public in the first half of the nineteenth century with Dr Melanie Keene, historian of science at the University of Cambridge,
As well as making important discoveries in chemistry, electricity and magnetism, Faraday organised the first Christmas lectures for children at the Royal Institution. They have run ever since 1825. The 2017 lecturer is cognitive scientist Professor Sophie Scott of University College London. She talks to Philip about how science communication has changed since Faraday's time.
The Watch Manager at Wilton Fire Station faces the prospect of sending his own daughter into a blaze.Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.