SUNDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2019

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00088hk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000846j)
A Long Way to Go

On a long journey through deep space, a lone passenger passes the time with stories. An original short story for radio by Daisy Johnson.

Daisy's first short story collection, Fen, was published in 2017. Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, making Daisy the youngest nominee in the prize's history.

Read by Sinead MacInnes and Barbara Flynn
Produced by Mair Bosworth


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00088hm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00088hp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00088hr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00088ht)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00088hw)
St Mary the Virgin, Chislet in Kent

Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary the Virgin, Chislet in Kent. The tower has a ring of six bells. The tenor, cast in 1729, is tuned to E flat and weighs fifteen hundredweight. We hear them ringing a touch of Stedman Doubles.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m00088gz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m0008b04)
The latest national and international news headlines.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0b5qn14)
Uncertainty

Rabbi Harvey Belovski goes back to his childhood and remembers the nervous boy who had an aversion to uncertainty - something that continued to trouble him well into adulthood.

Harvey explains that, when he was young, he was taken with the certainty shown by Abraham in the story of the Binding of Issac, where his total faith in God led him to the brink of sacrificing his son. According to Harvey, "we are always left in awe, or horror, that Abraham seemed to experience no doubt that he was doing the right thing."

Later, Harvey found another interpretation of the story in the writings of a Polish rabbi known as the Ishbitzer, who suggests that Abraham was being tested to see if he could embrace uncertainty - did God want Abraham to sacrifice Isaac or would Isaac become the father of a great nation? Abraham simply couldn't know, yet he was required to accept the doubt.

"This might seem trivial," Harvey says, "but it changed my world forever...I began to see doubt and complexity less as enemies to be eliminated, but as central features of a meaningful life."

Through traditional Jewish music and the compositions of Mozart and Chopin, he leads us on his journey from discomfort to mature acceptance that uncertainty is something to be embraced.

Presenter: Rabbi Harvey Belovski
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0008b06)
The Baking Farmer

Lots of farmers grow wheat, but not many of them mill their own grains to make bread. JB Gill meets a farmer in South Essex who is doing just that.

George Young is passionate about food. He wants to have a direct connection with the people who eat what he grows. He is switching from growing commodity crops like wheat and barley that are sold on the global market, to growing more niche crops that he sells via a shorter supply chain.

JB Gill takes a look at some of his new crops - from hemp to buckwheat - and joins him in the kitchen where he's milling his own wheat to make bread.

Presented by JB Gill
Produced by Heather Simons


SUN 06:57 Weather (m0008b08)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0008b0b)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0008b0d)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme presented by Edward Stourton.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0008b0g)
PAPYRUS - Prevention of Young Suicide

Bereaved father Andy Airey makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity PAPYRUS - Prevention of Young Suicide.

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 ‘PAPYRUS - Prevention of Young Suicide’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘PAPYRUS - Prevention of Young Suicide’.


SUN 07:57 Weather (m0008b0j)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0008b0l)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0008b0n)
Just as I am

A service celebrating the witness of people with disabilities in churches and worshipping communities. The service is led by the Rev Zoe Heming, Vicar of St Andrew's, Church Aston near Lichfield. It features members of L'Arche Community, WAVE Church in Muswell Hill, and the St Martin-in-the-Fields Disability Advisory Group. The service includes a reflection recorded a number of years ago for Sunday Worship by Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche who died earlier this year. Producer: Andrew Earis


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000843l)
September Anxiety

For the September blues, writes Sarah Dunant, "usually time is the healer...you buckle down and get on with it...and by the end of October, things are on track for winter".

But not, she thinks, this year.

Sarah describes why she feels this year's September malaise has a different quality to it.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0p9q)
Montserrat Oriole

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Liz Bonnin presents Montserrat oriole from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In 1995, after being dormant for over 300 years, a volcano on erupted. The eruption not only destroyed Montserrat's capital but much of the wildlife couldn't escape, and one bird, the Montserrat oriole was almost silenced forever. The male is a colourful bird with coal-black head, wings and tail and underparts the colour of egg-yolk. It is one of the most endangered birds in the world, a bird caught between a rock and a hard place. Its forest home had already been reduced by cultivation and introduced predators. It was reduced to living in fragmented pockets of forest, two thirds of which were destroyed in the 1995 and later eruptions. This threatened to wipe out an already endangered bird. So, conservationists from Jersey Zoo moved 8 orioles into captivity to avoid natural extinction and now a captive breeding programme is successfully underway, such as this oriole specially recorded for Tweet of the Day at Chester Zoo.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0008b0q)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0008b0s)
Peggy's got some exciting news and Emma breaks down.

Writer, Keri Davies
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe

David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Lexi Viktorova ….. Ania Sowinski
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Vince Casey ….. Tony Turner


SUN 11:15 The Reunion (m0008b27)
The Alder Hey Organs Scandal

Twenty years ago, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in NHS history - the retention of organs from dead children. Sue MacGregor reunites parents and hospital staff who were caught up in events.

In the autumn of 1999, parents of children who had died at Alder Hey several years earlier were shocked to find out that the hearts, lungs, brains, and even reproductive organs of their children had been kept by the hospital without their knowledge. In most cases, the organs – as many as 2,000 of them – had not been used for medical research but were stored in a dusty basement cellar in central Liverpool.

Much of the blame was placed on the actions of Professor Dick van Velzen, a Dutch pathologist who conducted post-mortems on children between 1988 and 1995. The government’s Redfern Report accused him of systematically removing “every organ from every child" he came into contact with.

A census of hospitals across England found that more than 100,000 organs had been retained from children as well as adults, usually without the consent of relatives.

The retention scandals of the late 1990s and early 2000s transformed relations between doctors and patients, culminating in the Human Tissue Act of 2004, which required explicit consent for the retention of organs and tissue.

Joining Sue MacGregor around the table are Jan Robinson and Jan Valentine, parents who discovered their child’s organs had been retained; Dr Mark Caswell, consultant haematologist at Alder Hey; Kate Jackson, director of the hospital’s Serious Incident Team; and Clare Smith, Health and Family Correspondent for BBC North West.

Producers: Dan Hardoon and Kate Holland
Executive Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0008b29)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m00082f0)
Series 85

Episode 5

Stephen Fry, Jan Ravens, Pam Ayres and Paul Merton join Nicholas Parsons for the panel game where the challenge is to speak without repetition, hesitation or deviation.

A BBC Studios Production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0008b2c)
Ice Cream Nation

We might like the occasional 99 in the rain in the UK, but not for us the piled high gelato cones of Italy, the tubs of sweet American sundaes, nor the eiscafes of Germany and Austria. Right?

Yasmin Khan is on a mission to prove you wrong. In this programme Yasmin (Ice cream fanatic) uncovers the UK’s rich but lesser known ice cream culture, taking a trip down memory lane to visit people making ice cream in places where she's lived. She’ll hear about our overlooked regional specialities like the ‘lemon top’ of Redcar near Middlesbrough. And she’ll hear how our sweet tooth is driving a new market for high street dessert parlours and struggling dairy farms.

She’ll find how our love affair with ice cream all goes back to hundreds of years of immigration, from the Swiss Italians in the 19th century to young entrepreneurs today.

It’s not an ice cream renaissance, because our love of ice cream has never disappeared. (And also there is nothing wrong with a 99 in the rain.)

Presented by Yasmin Khan
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury


SUN 12:57 Weather (m0008b2f)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0008b2h)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 The Trouble with Social Mobility (m0001y8x)
Social mobility is that rare species: an idea popular across the political spectrum. After all, what reasonable person could object to talented young people from less privileged backgrounds being given access to top universities, top jobs, and top pay?

As a beneficiary of social mobility himself, Byron Vincent certainly doesn't. But he does have some questions about the practical effects on individuals and on the communities they leave behind. And he wonders whether the idea itself helps reinforce notions about the deserving versus undeserving poor - and whether the political focus on helping the talented blocks a broader discussion about opportunity and poverty.

In this programme Byron speaks to a variety of people who, like him, have been socially mobile. From rapper and social activist Darren McGarvey in Glasgow, to primary school deputy head Michael Merrick in Carlisle, and author and comedian Jackie Hagan in Manchester, he hears about the challenges facing those who are forced to move away to seek opportunity, and what happens to those who are left behind.

Producer: Giles Edwards


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000846g)
North Riding Coast

Peter Gibbs and the panel are on the North Riding Coast in Yorkshire. Bunny Guinness, Bob Flowerdew and Matthew Pottage answer the horticultural questions.

This week, the team tackles questions on judging a gardening competition, planting in stone planters and adapting with the changes in weather patterns. The panellists also discuss how best to utilise a greenhouse in autumn and winter months.

Away from the questions, Matt Biggs visits 99-year-old Christian Lamb, author and plant-hunter, at her home in London.

Producer: Laurence Bassett
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m0008b2k)
Sunday Omnibus - Sharing Emotions, Time and Work Ethic

Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen - with three conversations on the healing power of talking and laughing; spending time together; and sharing a strong work ethic.

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: Mohini Patel


SUN 15:00 Drama (m0001t0m)
The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales, Part 1

1/2 Queen of Ambridge amateur theatricals Lynda Snell takes charge of this barnstorming new adaptation of Chaucer’s classic tales. Join the cast of The Archers to enjoy stories of courtly love, deadly rivalry and boisterous sex - with a little bit of magic thrown in for good measure.

“A festive feast of spellbinding stories and bawdy banter … Another Lynda Snell triumph!” – The Borchester Echo

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer
Dramatised by Nick Warburton

Director …. Kim Greengrass
Producer …. Alison Hindell

Tellers of the Tales:
Ruth Archer & Chaucer .... Felicity Finch
David Archer & the Host .... Timothy Bentinck
Kirsty Miller .... Annabelle Dowler
Eddie Grundy .... Trevor Harrison
Lilian Bellamy .... Sunny Ormonde
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly

The Knight’s Tale:
Theseus .... Nick Barber
Woman of Thebes .... Sunny Ormonde
Jailer .... Trevor Harrison
Palamon .... Barry Farrimond
Arcite .... James Cartwright
Emily .... Emerald O’Hanrahan
Soldier & Jolly Theban .... Ryan Kelly
Gatekeeper .... Timothy Bentinck
Diana .... Felicity Finch

The Miller’s Tale:
John .... Timothy Bentinck
Alison .... Annabelle Dowler
Nicholas .... James Cartwright
Absolon .... Nick Barber

The Wife of Bath’s Tale:
Knight .... Barry Farrimond
King Arthur .... Trevor Harrison
Queen .... Annabelle Dowler
Crone .... Carole Boyd

The Sailor’s Tale:
Merchant .... James Cartwright
Monk .... Nick Barber
Wife .... Emerald O’Hanrahan

Other roles played by members of the company.

Studio Managers, Andy Partington & Vanessa Nuttall
Production Co-ordinators, Sally Lloyd & Mel Ward


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0008b2m)
Deborah Levy, therapists in fiction, India's richest literary prize, Lorca's symbolism

The Man Who Saw Everything is the eighth novel by Deborah Levy, and her third in a row to be nominated for the Booker Prize. She tells Mariella Frostrup how the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing sparked the idea for the story.

Reading has long been seen as a form of therapy but for Open Book, therapist turned novelist Bev Thomas explores how therapists have fared in the pages of novels.

The JCB Literary Prize was established to help shine a light on India's literary writers. Now in its second year is it working? Literary Director Rana Dasgupta joins Mariella to discuss.

And author Joanna Glen explains how discovering Federico Garcia Lorca as a teenager gave her a lifelong love of novels that feature symbolism from the natural world.


SUN 16:30 Mother Tongue (m0008bsz)
A Sense of Belonging

The globetrotting poetry series. Poet Imtiaz Dhaker explores exciting voices from around the world in their own languages and in translation.

In this episode, she hears poems written in Catalan, Turkish, Kurdish and Livonian – an endangered language from the Baltic coast. As she thinks about the phrase 'a sense of belonging', she discovers how homelands and ties of the heart have inspired these three poets.

Catalan poet Manuel Forcano draws his inspiration from countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Speaking from his home city of Barcelona, he tells Imtiaz about his connection to ancient civilisations and why his poems are often charged with a heady eroticism. He reads poems from his collection Maps of Desire, translated by Anna Crowe.

Bejan Matur writes in both Turkish and Kurdish. She grew up in south east Turkey in a Kurdish Alevi family, and her almost mystical poems engage with the experience of the Kurdish people in Turkey. The English versions are read by the translator, poet Jen Hadfield, who was paired with Bejan Matur by the Poetry Translation Centre. Canan Marasligil produced the literal translations from Turkish to English.

Finally, there’s Valts Ernštreits, who writes poems in the Livonian language. It’s an ancient Finnic language, once widely spoken in Latvia but now classified as critically endangered by UNESCO. Valts talks to Imtiaz about his proud heritage and being part of possibly the smallest literature group in Europe. The English versions of his poems are read by the translator, Ryan Van Winkle.

Producer: Caroline Hughes
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 Birds and the Bees 2.0 (m000825m)
This September, English secondary schools prepare to roll out a new curriculum for Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). This overhaul of the subject has been carefully planned and consulted on. Its advocates - including government ministers - claim it will properly prepare teenagers for the relationships they will have and should know about in their adult lives, and help to banish from the classroom outdated adolescent sniggering and mass embarrassment. But how far are these aims likely to be achieved?
In this programme, journalist - and comedian - Jordan Dunbar puts the plans for the new RSE under the microscope. He revisits his native Northern Ireland to recall with friends and family his own sex education of 15 years ago - both at home and in school. And, deploying wit and humour, he assesses the changes that are now being made in RSE and discovers how young people will experience the curriculum. He talks with teachers, parents, educational specialists and young people themselves about the changes and what they want from RSE today.
Although the reforms to RSE in England have been long discussed, the guidance from the Department for Education on what should be taught and how may still come as an unwelcome surprise to some. So what will happen if parents - like those who have expressed opposition to relationships education in some primary schools - disapprove of aspects of the new curriculum and do not want their children to be taught them? What is the proper role of parents and schools in this most sensitive of subjects? And how will we know if the new approach to RSE is proving successful?


SUN 17:40 Profile (m00088gz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0008b2p)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m0008b2r)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008b2t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0008b2w)
James Walton

The best of BBC Radio this week with James Walton.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m000897c)
There is tension at the Parish Council meeting and Freddie's confidence is knocked.


SUN 19:15 Cooking in a Bedsitter (b09h2rby)
Series 2

Mutton Rissoles

Beattie Edmondson and Nikesh Patel star in Sue Teddern's romantic comedy, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classic. Spring 1965. Trisha moves into a new bedsitter with the toast-loving Moira. Extracts from Cooking in a Bedsitter are read by Eleanor Bron.

Directed by Emma Harding

Trisha.....Beattie Edmondson
Deepak.....Nikesh Patel
June.....Ellie Darvill.


SUN 19:45 Stillicide (m0008b0x)
Episode 5: Chaffinch

Stephen Campbell Moore continues Cynan Jones' electrifying short story series set in the very near future.

Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now ice bergs are set to be transported to a huge ice dock outside the capital city.

Today: an increasingly erratic executive at the Water Company faces media scrutiny over the building of the ice dock..

Reader: Stephen Campbell Moore
Writer: Cynan Jones
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m000846n)
Climate deaths, Austerity, Pet food

Challenging the idea of six billion deaths due to climate change

Does ‘the science’ predict 6 billion deaths by the end of this century due to climate change? That’s what Roger Hallam, co-founder of environmental campaigners Extinction Rebellion said on an edition of the BBC’s HARDtalk programme last month. We take a look at the origins of that number and we talk to Andy Haines, Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, whose estimates on the number of deaths are…..well……..lower.

How ‘back of the envelope’ calculations can help you

Do you struggle to multiply big numbers together? Do you get fazed by questions involving sizes and quantities? Rob Eastaway gives some tips on how to manage big or complicated numbers when you are stuck without the need of the internet or a calculator to help you.

Why we’ve had ‘austerity’ despite high government borrowing

A loyal listener emailed to ask, “How has it been that we’ve suffered years of ‘austerity’ when the actual amounts of borrowing were greater, not smaller, than in the previous years?” Tim Harford talks to Dr Gemma Tetlow, Chief Economist at the Institute for Government about the national debt, the deficit and fiscal headroom.

Do pets consume up to 20 percent of all meat globally?

More or Less listeners were surprised by a claim they read on the BBC website recently: “Pets are estimated to be consuming up to 20 percent of all meat globally.” So we – of course – investigated and will explain all.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000846l)
Robert Mugabe, Alla Verber, Ciaran McKeown, Bill Anderson MBE

Pictured: Robert Mugabe

Matthew Bannister on

The former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. He was once hailed as a hero of the liberation struggle but later seen by many as a tyrant.

Alla Verber, the Russian socialite who brought high fashion to the newly wealthy in the post-Soviet society.

Ciaran McKeown, who joined Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams to found the Peace People of Northern Ireland.

Bill Anderson, described as Scotland's greatest ever Highland Games heavyweight athlete. He held countless records for throwing the hammer and tossing the caber.

Interviewed guest: Stanley Kwenda
Interviewed guest: Viv Groskop
Interviewed guest: Patrick Corrigan
Interviewed guest: Jack Davidson QC

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Today, Radio 4 06/09/2019; Alla Verber: Leading Russia's Fashion Revolution, ABC News 09/04/2010; BBC Sound Archive, 13/08/1976; PM, Radio 4 27/11/1976; The World This Weekend, Radio 4 28/11/1976; The Heavies, BBC 2S 04/01/1982; Scotland on Film: Aberdeen And Grampian, BBC 2S 05/03/2006; Braemar Games Commentary, AP 1970; Interview with Bill Anderson, BBC Sound Archive, 05/09/1963.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00088g5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0008b0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m00081xf)
The Business of Clicks

Online retail spending has increased more than four fold in the last ten years - it now accounts for almost one in five pounds we spend shopping.

But whilst times are tough for our high streets, e-retailing is far from a licence to print money. With widespread discounting and a growing cost of delivery and returns, margins are being squeezed and many are finding it a struggle to survive.

In this programme, Adam Shaw investigates how the economics of e-commerce work, what the move to predominantly online will mean for many retailers and what our shopping environment may look like in 10 years time.

Presenter: Adam Shaw
Producer: Alex Lewis


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0008b10)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m00081wz)
The secret life of the stills photographer

With Antonia Quirke

What exactly does a stills photographer do on a film set ? Keith Bernstein, whose CV includes American Sniper and Argo, reveals the secrets of his trade.

Director Edward Watts reveals how he worked with film-maker Waad Al-Khateab to shape the 500 hours of footage she had shot during the siege of Aleppo into a 100 minute documentary called For Sama, that's won awards across the world.

Neil Brand reveals the original score for Love Story, and why Francis Lai was brought on board after Burt Bacharach and then Jimmy Webb had been sacked.


SUN 23:30 Shakespeare's Starling (m0006dmc)
How did Shakespeare's single starling take down a passenger plane and wreak environmental havoc across America?

There are hundreds of references to birds in Shakespeare's work, some many times over. But the starling is only mentioned once - in Henry IV Part 1 - and yet this speckled bird is now one of the most hated birds in the US. Multi award-winning radio producer Zoë Comyns explores how one man's Shakespeare-inspired folly continues to have a dire ecological impact more than a century later.

Eugene Schieffelin - Bronx resident, drug manufacturer and theatre aficionado - was a member of a group called the American Acclimatization Society. This society wanted to introduce European species into the United States. In March 1890, Schieffelin did just that - releasing sixty starlings in New York's Central Park. A year later he released forty more.

From those releases there are now almost 200 million starlings in North America today and they are causing devastation to indigenous habitats and farmers' crops. In 1962, a flock got caught in a plane's engine, bringing it down and killing 62 people, and every year almost $1 billion of crop damage is done by this invasive species.

Zoë Comyns explores the legacy of that single starling, Schieffelin's ill-fated deed and the serious and yet at times humorous attempts to eradicate the bird over the past one hundred years. It also explores how Shakespeare has become subsumed into American culture, in part due to acts such as the release of the starlings.

The programme features Professor James Shapiro from Columbia University, Professor Paul Menzer of Mary Baldwin University, the cast of the American Shakespeare Center - including KP Powell as Hotspur, Joe di Constanzo from the American Museum of Natural History, Dan Rausch from Washington DC Department of the Environment, envirohmental historian Harriet Ritvo, and business owner and nature educator Laurel Zoet.

It also includes Laurel's pet bird Pip the starling, who has quite a lot to say for himself.

Presenter and Producer: Zoë Comyns
A New Normal Culture production for BBC Radio 4