SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2019
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0008r6t)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 Who Am I, Again? (m0008r54)
Episode 5
Lenny Henry tells the extraordinary story of his early years and sudden rise to fame in his long-awaited autobiography. Today, amidst family revelations, he reflects on his father.
The legendary actor, comedian and campaigner has graced our screens for over four decades. A co-founder of Comic Relief, he was knighted in 2015 for services to charity and drama.
Who Am I, Again is a poignant and hilariously observed self-portrait of growing up in the Midlands as child of Jamaican immigrants seeking, though not always finding, a better life. The book candidly documents racism and fraught family relationships, but ultimately celebrates how a working-class kid from Dudley made the big time with support from those around him.
Read by Lenny Henry
Abridged by Penny Leicester
Produced by Ciaran Bermingham
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008r6w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008r6y)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008r70)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0008r72)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008r74)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m0008nx7)
An Empathy Machine
Emmanuel Ordóñez-Angulo asks whether Virtual Reality (VR) could be an 'empathy machine', and whether that would be a good thing.
Emmanuel is a former film-maker, and current philosopher, and in this rich talk, recorded at the Larmer Tree Festival, he uses both traditions to probe the reaches of human empathy. Can VR fulfil the promise, long-held by some filmmakers, to allow us to walk in the shoes of others, increasing empathy and demanding wide-ranging social change? Or is the very notion of walking in another's shoes flawed?
Producer: Giles Edwards
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0008x90)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m0008p3b)
The Highest Hill in the Cotswolds
Clare is climbing Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham in today’s Ramblings. At 330 metres above sea level it’s the highest point in Gloucestershire, and of the Cotswold Hills. With her are Chas and Sue Howes who live at the foot of the hill, and have a strong connection to it. Until 2012 Chas was the Finance Director of a major international clothing company. When he left he spiralled into a severe depression, something he now realises he had suffered from for many years. He says the business world is still a place where it’s very difficult to discuss mental health issues.
Cleeve Hill and Common have been something of a lifeline for Chas: alongside medication, walking and running on the hill have improved his physical and mental health. He is now a trustee of its conservation body which raises money to protect and improve the hill and its surrounding land.
Details of organisations offering information and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline
Please scroll down to 'related links' for more information on the support available. Also for more information about Cleeve Hill.
Location Producer: Tom Bonnett
(Producer: Karen Gregor)
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0008x92)
Farming Today This Week
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m0008x94)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (m0008x96)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0008x98)
Martina Cole
Justin Hawkins from The Darkness, writer Thomas Harding and doctor and chef Emily Chung.
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0008x9b)
Series 26
Museum of London
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits. Dr Barry Smith, Shelina Permaloo, Sophie Wright and Tim Anderson answer the queries from the audience.
This week, the panellists debate the best way to make buttercream icing, suggest savoury dishes using coffee and come up with ideas for a showstopper of an apple pie.
Joining the panel are Museum of London Curators Dr Alex Werner and Dr Danielle Thom, and James Hoffman, co-founder of Square Mile coffee roasters.
Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone
Food Consultant : Anna Colquhoun
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m00095f8)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0008x9f)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0008xff)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0008x9k)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m0008r6c)
Series 100
Episode 5
Guest host Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by Hugo Rifkind, Neil Delamere, Kerry Godliman and Darren Harriott.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
photo credit Edward Moore @edshots
SAT 12:57 Weather (m0008x9m)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m0008x9p)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0008r6k)
Joanna Cherry MP, Michael Crick, Andy McDonald MP, Nadhim Zahawi MP.
Edward Stourton presents political debate from the People's History Museum in Manchester with a panel including the SNP Westminster spokesperson on Justice and Home Affairs Joanna Cherry, the political journalist Michael Crick, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Andy McDonald and the Business and Industry Minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0008x9r)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 Bad Faith (b015pbhn)
Opiate of the Masses
by Peter Jukes
Opiate Of The Masses
Six months into his secondment, Jake is still living at the homeless shelter with his best friend Tony.
Thrown into a hostage crisis and an exorcism, with suspicions about the circumstances of his father's death and allegations of drug dealing by his friend swirling around, Jake finds all his demons are coming home at the same time.
Jake Thorne ..... Lenny Henry
Tony Wingard ..... Clive Russell
Chief Supt Sufiq Khan ..... Vincent Ebrahim
Kevin Stanhope ..... Conrad Nelson
Marianne Brown ..... Claire Benedict
Sakina Bellingham ..... Vineeta Rishi
Jesse Thorne ..... Ray Fearon
Isaac Thorne ..... Oscar James
Amanda Copley ..... Alex Tregear
Nurse/Radiologist ..... Susie Riddell
directed by Mary Peate
SAT 15:30 Mary Portas: On Style (m0008nw5)
Li Edelkoort, Miss Jason in London, RIBA's new Neave Brown Housing Award
When the distinguished trends forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort provides her vision of the future in her General Trends Books, her pronouncements are eagerly awaited by those working in the worlds of fashion and design. She talks to Mary about the reasons behind the one forecast she's made that the fashion world hasn't wanted to hear - Fashion is dead. However it's not all bad news as she shares her thoughts about the trends she thinks will be influencing what we'll be wearing in the very near future.
This week Mary Portas: On Style's fashion correspondent, Miss Jason, is in London talking to those he encounters in Covent Garden about the item of clothing that's had the longest residency in their wardrobe.
As housing hits the headlines this week with a new report released by the National Housing Federation revealing that one in eight people are living in unaffordable and unsuitable housing, Mary turns her attention to a new architecture prize for housing - the Neave Brown Award, which has been established by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Mary is joined by RIBA’s immediate past president, Ben Derbyshire, and the architecture and design journalist and editor, Jessica Mairs, to discuss whether it's possible to bring architectural flair to social housing.
Presenter: Mary Portas
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0008x9v)
Esther Rutter on the knitted bikini, Sally Challen and composer Suzanne Ciani
Esther Rutter on the secret feminist history of knitting.
Sally Challen was jailed for 22 years for killing her husband Richard in 2011. She was released earlier this year after a change in the law on coercive control. She talks to Jane about her marriage, her sentence and what it’s like to be a free woman.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag won three separate awards at this years Emmy’s - what's behind her success?
Jennie Joseph, a UK trained midwife, tells us about her work in the US reducing maternal and perinatal mortality among black women and other women of colour. Plus could you continue to love your son if he was accused of violent sexual crimes? And the five time Grammy award nominated composer and electronic music artist Suzanne Ciani on her career spanning 40 years.
Presenter Jane Garvey
Producer Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor Beverley Purcell
Guest; Emma Bullimore
Guest; Hetta Howes
Guest; Tracy-Ann Oberman
Guest; Anupama Chandrasekhar
Guest; Sally Challen
Guest; Esther Rutter
Guest; Jennie Joseph
Guest; Suzanne Ciani
SAT 17:00 PM (m0008x9x)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news, plus the sports headlines.
SAT 17:30 The Inquiry (m0008x9z)
How can we save our forests?
In the afternoon of August 20th this year, the sky over Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo turned dark. The cause of this premature night was the smoke from fires burning thousands of kilometres away in the Amazon rainforest.
The scale of the fires caught the attention of the world, but the Amazon is one story among many. The global community has long worried about deforestation, five years ago nations agreed to work to halve global tree loss by 2020 and end it by 2030. This month, those targets were acknowledged to be missed.
This week we investigate what tactics are being used to preserve forests around the world, and ask if any of them are effective.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0008xb1)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m0008xb3)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008xb5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0008wsr)
Christopher Eccleston, Louis Theroux, Sh!t Theatre, Squeeze, Nikki Bedi, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Christopher Eccleston, Louis Theroux and Sh!t Theatre for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Squeeze.
Producer: Sukey Firth
SAT 19:00 Profile (m0008xb8)
Baroness Hale
Baroness Hale, President of the Supreme Court, was wearing a giant spider brooch as she delivered this week’s bombshell ruling that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful. "Spiderwoman takes down the Hulk" was the headline in one newspaper. Mark Coles looks at the life of the first woman to lead the UK's highest court.
Producers: Smita Patel and Jordan Dundar
Researcher: Darin Graham
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (m0008xbb)
Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The Last Tree, The Dutch House, Mark Leckey, World on Fire
Caryl Churchill celebrated her 80th birthday last year. She's written four new short plays for the Royal Court, the theatre with which she's most closely associated: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp. Horror and abuse flash through often very funny scenes played by a cast including Toby Jones and Deborah Findley.
Shola Amoo's praised second feature The Last Tree is an account of a boy of Nigerian heritage who grows up in foster care in rural Lincolnshire and then goes to live with his mother in South London. It draws on some of his personal experience.
Ann Patchett's new novel The Dutch House is a study of what money can do to a family, what motherhood means and the nature of loss - and it includes a character she claims is her first real villain.
Mark Leckey's exhibition O'Magic Power of Bleakness at Tate Britain re-creates a space under a motorway bridge on the M53 where he used to hang out as a child for an audio-visual journey into memory and the world of spirits.
And World on Fire is a new BBC1 drama for Sunday nights telling the story of the Second World War from both international and personal perspectives, by award-winning writer Peter Bowker.
This week's reviewers are cultural commentator Gaylene Gould, author Catherine O'Flynn and Toby Lichtig, fiction editor of the TLS.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Sarah Johnson
This week's podcast extra choices are:
Gaylene: Cleveland Watkiss at the EFG London Jazz Festival https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/cleveland-watkiss-60th
Catherine: Pushing Paper at the British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pushing_paper.aspx
and Hikaru Davis' videos finding out about his dad, David Bowie drummer Dennis Davis: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2aDqSy2_g6hysuYU7uOPw/featured
Toby: Brett Anderson of Suede's new memoir Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn
Tom: Daniel Rachel's book Don't Look Back in Anger
Main Image: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.
L-R Toby Jones, Deborah Findlay, Sule Rimi
Photo credit: Johan Persson
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m0008xbd)
Please Leave a Message after the Tone
The voicemail is falling out of favour - and fast. It's increasingly seen as inefficient, impractical, even old-fashioned. Writer and broadcaster Olly Mann charts its rise, fall and strange afterlife.
As our communications move ever more towards email, text, DMs and the rest, the etiquette, culture and unique characteristics of the voicemail and answerphone message are under threat.
As a podcaster, Olly Mann is fascinated by the voicemail. Leaving a voicemail message is not about having a conversation, but it can be an imagined conversation. It can be a performance of sorts. While it may seem a relic of the late 20th Century, some of the biggest news events of this millennium have involved voicemails - including the phone hacking scandal where journalists broke into private messages and brought down the News of the World, and the ‘Sachsgate’ affair which started with an answering machine message. There are also a few surviving voicemails sent by victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Olly explores how voicemails have given life to, and fed the plots of, films and TV programmes and impacted on many genres of music, as well as documentary - and daily life.
As more people ignore that red icon at the bottom corner of the phone screen, are these disembodied monologues worth saving?
Featuring cognitive neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott, audio producer Davia Nelson, film critic for the Observer Simran Hans, tech journalist for Guardian US Kari Paul, and trumpeter and music producer Keyon Harrold.
A Voicemail Valentine extracts used with thanks to Phono Post Archive and Radio Diaries.
Portrait of an Artist as an Answering Machine was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) with Valerie Velardi.
Extracts from The Sonic Memorial Project were produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson).
Producer: Richard Ward
Archive Research: Thomas Rees
Mixing Engineer: Mike Woolley
Executive Producer: Russell Finch
A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (m0007wsy)
Episode 5
Timberlake Wertenbaker’s adaptation from the French of Marcel Proust’s allegorical reflection on time, memory, art and love.
Marcel and his beloved Grandmother return from Balbec at the end of the season and move to a new flat in Paris which is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Guermantes. Marcel becomes obsessed with the Duchess and is desperate to be introduced to her and invited to one of her famous musical soirees.
He visits his new friend Robert de Saint Loup, nephew of the Duchess, at his barracks with the aim of securing an introduction to the Duchess via her nephew. But will the Guermantes’ soiree live up to Marcel’s expectations?
Meanwhile, his Grandmother takes a turn for the worse and an invitation from the Baron de Charlus is received.
Cast:
MARCEL (narrator) ………Derek Jacobi
MARCEL …………Blake Ritson
FATHER …………. Oliver Cotton
MOTHER ………. Sylvestra le Touzel
FRANCOISE ………… Susan Brown
GRANDMOTHER ………. Joanna David
DUCHESS DE GUERMANTES (ORIANE) ……… Fenella Woolgar
DUC DE GUERMANTES (BASIN) ………. Robert Glenister
ROBERT DE SAINT LOUP ………Kyle Soller
MADAME D'ARPAJON……… Charlotte Blandford
PRINCESS DE PARME …………Emma Amos
DU BOULBON/SERVANT …………Ben Crowe
DOCTOR………… Finlay Paul
SOLDIERS……..… Daniel Whitlam
Nicholas Armfield
Toheeb Jimoh
Tom Glenister
TELEPHONE OPERATOR …………Alice Hoskyns
Translated and adapted from the French by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Produced and directed by Celia de Wolff
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling
Recording and Sound Design: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:00 News and Weather (m0008xbg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:15 Addicted (m0008xbj)
Evan Davis gets to the heart of drug use in Britain today in a special discussion programme. Along with a panel of experts, he hears both the facts and the personal stories of users, dealers and others, assessing the extent and impact of the use of both legal and illegal drugs. He asks why humans seem to be built to enjoy using narcotic and hallucinogenic substances, some of them toxic. He hears about the scale of drug and alcohol use, how it's changing and what harms different substances can do. And he examines how drugs intersect with issues of class, gender and race. And he asks why drug and alcohol use seem to be changing so fast with younger people - with a new trend towards abstemiousness.
Producer: Maire Devine
Producer: Viv Jones
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m0008p5v)
Series 33
Heat 4, 2019
(4/13)
Where could you hear Sibelius, Ariana Grande and Cole Porter within the space of a few minutes without changing channels? Where else but Counterpoint - as Paul Gambaccini tests the range of musical knowledge of another eager trio of competitors.
Taking part today are Philip Bray, a writer and designer from Hastings; Jessica Brown, a student from Exeter; and Alan Franklin, a retired librarian from London. As always they'll be asked individual questions on a musical topic that's only revealed half way through the programme, and which they've had no chance to bone up on. But there are plenty of musical treats along the way, some familiar and some new.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Mother Tongue (m0008qgj)
Lost and Found
Poet Imtiaz Dharker hears poems written in Persian, Korean and Torwali - an endangered language, indigenous to Pakistan. Starting with the phrase "Lost and Found", she reflects on how ideas of memory, loss and preservation have inspired these poets.
Imtiaz speaks to Azita Ghahreman, an Iranian poet now living in Sweden. Her poems address themes of loss and exile, drawing on experiences of Iran’s book-burning years and tender memories of family and her childhood. The poems featured are from her collection Negative of a Group Photograph, with the English versions read by the translator, poet Maura Dooley. They were paired by the Poetry Translation Centre. Elhum Shakerifar produced the literal translations.
Kim Hyesoon is South Korea’s leading poet. Her latest collection, Autobiography of Death, is an intense and startling sequence of poems, representing the forty-nine days during which, according to Buddhist belief, the spirit roams after death. She was driven to write them by the anger she felt at the deaths from the sinking of the Sewol ferry in South Korea, in 2014. Imtiaz speaks to Kim Hyesoon along with the translator, poet Don Mee Choi.
Finally, we hear poems in the Torwali language, an indigenous language from the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan which appears on UNESCO’s list of endangered languages. Activist Zubair Torwali has collected several hundred ancient Zo poems from local elders, as part of his work to preserve and revive the Torwali language. We hear from British poet Chris McCabe, who has translated some of them and has edited an anthology of poetry in endangered languages, Poems from the Edge of Extinction, in which they appear.
Produced by Caroline Hughes
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2019
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0008xbl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0008r5z)
Two big, three small
An original short work for BBC Radio 4 by the Irish author Anne Griffin. As read by Mark Lambert.
Anne Griffin is the author of the Number One Irish best-seller 'When All Is Said'. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly, and she was recently the awarded the John McGahern Award for Literature. This is her first story for BBC Radio.
Writer ..... Anne Griffin
Reader ..... Mark Lambert
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008xbn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008xbq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008xbs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0008xbv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0008xbx)
St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol
Bells on Sunday comes from the city-centre church of St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. The majority of the ring of twelve was cast in 1903 but one bell dates back to 1622. We hear them ringing Avon Delight Maximus.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m0008xb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m0008xxk)
The latest national and international news headlines.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m0001h0x)
Living in the Moment
Rabbi Harvey Belovski examines the benefits of living in the moment and concentrating on the needs of the now. He highlights the importance of accepting and understanding the future’s unpredictable nature.
Harvey considers the value of mindfulness as a way of encouraging people to pay attention to the present, reducing stress and improving mental wellbeing. He explains that spirituality is often misperceived as venerating the past, or aspiring towards the future. While it’s important to do so, identity and meaning can also be found in the present.
Harvey reads a prayer that imagines God reviewing the performance of every human being. The prayer has a simple and plaintive message: no-one knows whether they will be alive this time tomorrow, let alone further into the future. The importance of appreciating the present, then, becomes clear. According to legend, the prayer was written by Rabbi Amnon, who composed it as he lay dying, having been tortured for his refusal to abandon his faith.
Rabbi Harvey also considers the relationship between living in the moment and caring for one’s self. While it’s important to be fully present for others, what’s more important, according to Harvey is to attend to one’s own needs. This in turn leads to being better at living in the moment for others.
Presenter: Harvey Belovski
Producer: Oliver Seymour
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Living World (m0008xxm)
My Living World
Winter Ladybirds
Zoologist and wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall is joined by Billy Clark, a researcher with the BBC Natural History Unit to discuss another selection from the LIVING WORLD archive. Today the subject is over-wintering ladybirds and the challenges these most familiar of insects face during dormancy. They also discuss the origin of the name 'Ladybird', the diverse range of species we have, threats from an alien species and a ladybird survey that is looking for your help. Producer Sarah Blunt.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0008xxp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0008xxr)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0008xxt)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0008wlk)
SafeHands
Radio presenter Jane Garvey makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity SafeHands
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 ‘SafeHands’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘SafeHands'.
Registered Charity Number: 1097928
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0008xxw)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0008xxy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0008xy0)
Live from St John’s parish church in Devizes, Wiltshire, to mark the Harvest Festival.
At the beginning of the book of Genesis is a story of God creating the heavens and the earth in six days - the Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, reflects on this in relation to Harvest. The readings are Genesis
1.24-31 and Matthew
5.13-16. The choir of St John’s will lead the congregation in hymns including Come ye thankful people come (St. George's, Windsor), We plough the fields (Wir pflugen) and To thee O Lord our hearts we raise (Golden Sheaves).
Director of Music: Chris Totney. Organist: James Lancelot. Producer: Alexa Good.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0008r6m)
Keep right on
Michael Morpurgo reflects on growing old.
"You find you are now amongst the last old trees in the park", he writes, "wary of wild winds of fortune that might weaken you or uproot you".
But he finds his mentors - the young and the very old.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcm9)
Goosander
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the goosander. Goosanders are handsome ducks and belong to a group known as 'sawbills' because their long slender bills are lined with backward pointing 'teeth', for gripping slippery fish. Underwater they're as agile as otters, chasing fish in raging currents or nosing for them under riverbanks.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0008xy2)
News with Paddy O'Connell including how to calm Parliament and live apple tasting. Reviewing the news - Labour peer Baroness Prosser, broadcaster Dotun Adebayo and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0008xy4)
Writer, Daniel Thurman
Director, Dave Payne
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Justin Elliot ….. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Toby Fairbrother ….. Rhys Bevan
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Lexi Viktorova ….. Ania Sowinski
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer
Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley
Vince Casey ….. Tony Turner
Brett ….. Sargon Yelda
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m0008xy6)
Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, firefighter
Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton is the Chief Fire Officer for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. She is one of the most senior women in the Fire and Rescue Service in the UK.
After spending some time living on the streets as a teenager, her work as a firefighter began at the age of 18, after she had applied to 31 different fire services. During her career, her interest in psychology and fascination with how people make choices in stressful situations led to her studying for a degree, followed by a PhD. Her research into risk, decision-making under extreme pressure and human error has won awards and she has shared her findings with fire services in other countries.
She is also an ambassador for The Big Issue magazine, in the wake of her own experiences of homelessness.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0008xzk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m0008p66)
Series 85
Episode 8
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 (m0008wtd)
Food Additives, Part 2: The Debate
In the second part of The Food Programme's focus on additives, Sheila Dillon takes a closer look the myths and realities around these extra ingredients and their roles in our everyday diets - through addressing questions and comments from listeners.
She's joined by a panel of food aficionados as well as an audience of industry professionals and interested listeners, at the BBC's New Broadcasting House in London - to discuss a range of points raised by listeners and audience members.
The panellists are:
- Dr Helen Crawley, a dietitian and public health nutritionist, who currently manages and coordinates the First Steps Nutrition Trust: an organisation focusing on the need for expert, independent information and support for good childhood nutrition;
- Ralph Early, a food scientist, a Trustee of the Food Ethics Council and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology. He was formerly Professor of Food Industry at Harper Adams University and has also worked in the food industry itself, primarily in the dairy sector.
- Helen West, a dietitian "on a mission to cut through the untruths and nonsense in the world of nutrition"; she’s also co-founder of The Rooted Project: a community that says it aims to make evidence-based nutritional information accessible to all.
- And Sanjay Kumar: a chef hailing from Calcutta, who trained in Oxford under Raymond Blanc and has worked in kitchens around the world – but now runs a cookery school, teaching people of all generations to cook and eat better, on a budget.
Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Lucy Taylor.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0008xyc)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0008xyf)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 Art of Now (m000823r)
Sell Out
Ben Ferguson explores corporate sponsorship in the arts and the murkier area of brand-artist collaboration.
The art world is saturated with corporate money. There are big sponsorship deals, where companies underwrite cultural institutions like the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum and the Tate in return for cultural prestige and hanging company logos over exhibitions. And alongside this, the half-hidden, lucrative world of artist-brand partnerships or collaborations, where brands are not only underwriting artists' work financially but wrapping themselves around the creative process itself.
Patronage in the arts is nothing new. With years of austerity, public funding suffers and corporate money becomes ever more vital for the art world. But companies and brands have their own agenda, their own interests. What are they getting out of it? How much influence do they have on the work commissioned and shown?
Fossil fuel companies who sponsor the great public galleries, in particular BP, are accused of using their association with the arts to divert public attention away from their environmental record - so-called "art-washing". Meanwhile there is growing unease that brands in general are becoming embedded in the art world, their commercial interests somehow concealed behind the work. Are lines being crossed between art, ethics and commerce and should we be worried?
Journalist Ben Ferguson hears from artists including Nan Goldin, Gary Hume, Anish Kapoor, Antonio Roberts and Unga from the collective Broken Fingaz, as well as critics, activists, educators and cultural platforms. He asks what "selling out" really means in today’s art world.
Produced by Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
Image credit: Antonio Roberts
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0008r5x)
Highclere Castle: Correspondence Edition
Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Highclere Castle for a correspondence edition of the show. Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Matt Biggs answer questions sent in by post, email and social media.
This week, the panellists tackle questions on a mysterious Brussel Sprout killer, re-potting a large cactus, and an unusually colourful Wisteria. They also recommend climbing plants for a conservatory and discuss how to create a green driveway.
In among the questions, the team wanders through the gardens of Highclere Castle with Lady Carnarvon and head gardener, Paul Barker.
Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m0008xyh)
Sunday Omnibus - Global Citizenship, Modern Migration
Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen. This edition includes three conversations with German, American, Scottish and English voices and sentiments.
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 (b0bfwxgd)
The Pillow Book
The final mystery in our popular long-running thriller set in 10th century Japan - and the final ever mystery for Lady Shonagon and her Lieutenant Yukinari.
The Pillow Book series follows the adventures of Shonagon and Yukinari - an unlikely and compelling duo. Written by one of our leading radio writers, Robert Forrest, The Pillow Book captures a strange, magical world - simultaneously utterly remote and wonderfully familiar to our own - and it tells a cracking mystery at the same time.
With the Empress Teishi dead, Lady Shonagon has been banished from the Imperial Palace and separated from her policeman. Under Imperial guard, she is sent back to her only remaining relative, her brother Takai. But there has been no love lost between Shonagon and her brother since they were children, and Shonagon must set out once more on her own in search of her friend Saisho. Meanwhile, the villain Ikiryo walks abroad, and no one is safe.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0008wlm)
Dana Czapnik, Black Death novels, Imani Perry on Corregidora by Gayl Jones
Dana Czapnik's debut novel The Falconer has drawn comparisons to The Catcher in the Rye. She tells Mariella why her basketball playing heroine Lucy was born out of a frustration at the lack of female coming of age stories.
Madeleine Bunting reveals the book she'd never lend, a classic children's novel which helped shape her worldview at an impressionable age.
James Meek and Oisin Fagan discuss their recent novels which both feature the Black Death as their backdrop and reflect on the contemporary resonances the period evokes.
And Imani Perry, Professor of African American studies at Princeton University, celebrates the seminal novel Corregidora by Gayl Jones. This 1975 work is generally accepted to have paved the way for Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, and is being reissued as a Virago Modern Classic.
SUN 16:30 Four Seasons (m0008xyk)
Autumn Equinox
September 23rd was the autumn equinox. Throughout the day Radio 4 broadcast a series of seasonal poems to mark the turning of the seasons. This compilation brings together the poems and poets whose work was featured throughout the day.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m0008nxl)
The therapy business
When BBC reporter Jordan Dunbar sought help for his mental health he was told he'd face a long wait on the NHS. So like thousands of others he decided to go private.
In this edition of File on 4 Jordan reveals how one shockingly bad experience made him question what protection the largely under-regulated therapy industry gives its patients. He discovers there are no laws against anyone operating as a therapist, psychotherapist or a counsellor in the UK. Many have set themselves up after completing cheap online courses and, as the NHS struggles to cope with demand, the private therapy business is booming. But Jordan discovers at the same time there's been an increase in the number of serious complaints made against psychotherapists and counsellors and finds gaps in the system of regulation for those professionals in whom we entrust our mental health.
Reporter - Jordan Dunbar
Producer - Rob Cave
Editor - Carl Johnston
Image credit; Jane Winder
SUN 17:40 Profile (m0008xb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0008xym)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0008xyp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008xyr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0008xyt)
Stewart Henderson
The best of BBC Radio this week with Stewart Henderson.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0008wt6)
Ian begins to have doubts and Tracy makes herself at home
SUN 19:15 Cooking in a Bedsitter (b09jrkr2)
Series 2
Bolognese Cutlets
Beattie Edmondson and Nikesh Patel star in Sue Teddern's romantic comedy, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classic. Trisha is definitely over Deepak. She really, truly is. Extracts from Cooking in a Bedsitter are read by Eleanor Bron.
Directed by Emma Harding.
SUN 19:45 Stillicide (m0008xyw)
Episode 8: Lake
Lydia Williams continues Cynan Jones' powerful series set in the tangible near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
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 towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city.
Today: tensions are rising up in the Lakes, where the Water Train begins its long and hazardous journey south..
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Cynan Jones
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
SUN 20:00 More or Less (m0008r63)
Austerity deaths, C-sections, Being struck by lightening
During Question Time on the 19th journalist Ash Sarkar claimed that 120,000 people have been killed by austerity measures, but is this true? We speak to Mike Murphy, professor of demography at the London School of Economics to find out more.
Loyal listener Viv emailed us after hearing a surprising statistic: ‘producing a leg of lamb releases the same amount of Co2 as a transatlantic flight’ – does this spell the end of the Easter Sunday roast or are the figures a bit woolly?
Yet more loyal listeners Charles and Lucy emailed us wondering if we could look into how many women in China give birth in hospitals, and whether it was true that 50% of births there are delivered by caesarean section. Oh, and we also mention guts and bacteria…
Does God hate men? Seems quite a controversial statement but when the statistics show that men are four times more likely to be struck by lightning than women you can’t help but wonder… Tim talks to Timandra Harkness to find out more.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Editor: Richard Vadon
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0008r61)
Jacques Chirac, Sir Michael Edwardes, Cokie Roberts, Pat Cavendish O’Neill
Pictured: Jacques Chirac
Julian Worricker on:
Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris for eighteen years, who served twice as French Prime Minister and twice as French president....
The man who took on the toughest of managerial assignments - running British Leyland in the late 1970s - Sir Michael Edwardes....
US television journalist and presenter, Cokie Roberts, credited with changing the role of women in the newsroom....
Pat Cavendish O'Neill, the racehorse trainer and breeder, who built up a menagerie of rescue animals in Kenya and South Africa.
Interviewed guest: Agnes Poirier
Interviewed guest: Nick Jones
Interviewed guest: Michael Goldfarb
Interviewed guest: Mark McGinness
Producer: Neil George
Archive clips from:
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0008x9k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0008wlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (m0008p43)
How Politics Broke Up with Business
Why have politicians gone from cosying up to businesses, to turning a deaf ear to their concerns? Jeremy Schwartz – a CEO himself – finds that the love affair was starting to become toxic long before Brexit, and asks whether it’s really such a bad thing if governments no longer care what business leaders think.
Contributors include:
Andrea Leadsom – Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Frances O’Grady – General Secretary, TUC
Iain Anderson - Executive Chairman, Cicero
Giles Wilkes – Former Special Adviser to the Prime Minister
Helen Dickinson – Chief Executive, British Retail Consortium
Andy Street – Mayor of the West Midlands, former CEO of John Lewis Partnership
Joe Owen – Institute for Government
Paul Walsh – Chairman, Compass Group
Presenter: Jeremy Schwartz
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0008xyz)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m0008p3j)
Asif Kapadia
With Francine Stock
Asif Kapadia talks about the film that influenced Amy, Diego Maradona and The Warrior. He explains how a lightbulb went on above his head when he first saw the Vietnamese gangster movie, Cyclo, and how his life was never the same again. Francine also talks to Cyclo's director Tran Anh Hung about one of the movie's key scenes, when a helicopter falls off the back of a lorry.
SUN 23:30 Fence Me In (m0007b4k)
Adam Fowler records artists at work in different locations - from the ramparts of a ruined Northumberland castle to a small, echoing chamber - to test how their creativity is affected by the acoustics of a space.
While there has been research into how the built environment affects our wellbeing and how noise influences our ability to function, there is little on how the walls around us can create sonic environments for creative work.
Now musicians Anna Clock and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh visit the University of Salford to perform in both the Anechoic Chamber, which reflects no sound at all, and the Reverberation Room which has the opposite effect, considering how each space affects their ability to improvise together.
Adam joins director Catherine Alexander at a Complicité Theatre Company rehearsal. She explains that the sonic architecture of a performance space is key to the devising of a Complicité production.
Poet Katrina Porteous demonstrates how her radio poem, Dunstanburgh Castle: A Secret as Old as the Stones, was informed by the acoustics of different parts of the ruins, from tiny garderobes to open expanses reverberant with the call of kittiwakes and the pulse of waves.
Finally, Chris Chafe from Stanford University describes a new way of creating an "internet acoustic", where musicians thousands of miles apart can play together in one acoustic space.
To test for himself how the acoustics that fence us in can affect our creativity, Adam edits part of the programme in some sonically challenging locations.
Producer: Adam Fowler
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4
MONDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2019
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0008xz1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Am I Too Old to Drive? (m0002z8b)
Political reporter Julia Langdon was so concerned about her elderly father’s driving that she reported him to the DVLA to try to get his licence taken away. Now, septuagenarian Julia asks if we need to change the law and force the over 70s to have their driving assessed officially.
Interviewees include:
Ben Brooks-Dutton, whose wife was killed by an elderly driver;
Dr Charles Musselwhite of Swansea University who says the old are less dangerous than the young;
Darren Shirley of The Campaign For Better Transport who explains that isolation and loneliness are the consequences for the elderly in a car-based society.
Julia Langdon was Fleet Street's first female Political Editor and has been a Lobby Correspondent for over 40 years.
Producer: David Morley
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0008xbx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008xz3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008xz5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008xz7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0008xz9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008xzc)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0008xzf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m0008xzh)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcnt)
Red-throated Diver
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the red-throated diver. The eerie wails of a red-throated diver were supposed to foretell rain. In Shetland the red-throated diver is called the "rain goose" but anyone who knows the island knows that rain is never far away. Like all divers, red-throats are handsome birds with sharp bills, perfect for catching fish. In summer they have a rusty throat patch and zebra-stripes on the back of their neck but in winter they're mainly pearly grey and white.
MON 06:00 Today (m0008wsc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0008wsf)
Where is power now?
Against a backdrop of fierce political battles in Parliament and in court, Andrew Marr explores political power and examines those who wield it - from absolutism to anarchism.
The political commentator Steve Richards has been in the House of Commons for many nights of political strife. Watching the behaviour of parliament and government today, he considers how different British Prime Ministers have used their many powers. In his new book 'The Prime Ministers' he reflects on the individual characters of leaders. From Harold Wilson to Boris Johnson, he recalls moments when Prime Ministers buckled or thrived under the pressure of their role.
At the other end of the power spectrum, the academic Ruth Kinna explores ‘the government of no one’: anarchism. She argues that this much maligned ideology is far more adaptable and effective than we might expect. And she rejects the stereotyped view of it as chaotic and disordered.
The theatre director Eleanor Rhode is bringing Shakespeare’s King John to the stage at the Royal Shakespeare Company. This rarely performed tale depicts a tumultuous nation reeling, as a weakened King fights to retain his crown from the invading French and his rebellious noblemen.
And in a week that saw a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the government's use of prorogation, Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government explains where constitutional power now lies: whether with parliament, government, the judiciary, the Prime Minister, or the Queen. She predicts major changes ahead...
Producer: Hannah Sander
MON 09:45 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wv8)
Episode 1
How did Margaret Thatcher both change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs?
Charles Moore’s full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers, and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death.
It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Moore’s three-part biography of one of Britain’s most important peacetime prime ministers paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, and the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power.
Reader: Haydn Gwynne
Abridger: Polly Coles
Producer: Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0008wsk)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
MON 10:45 Cry Babies (m0008wsm)
Preg/Not Preg
by E V Crowe.
Sally and Bea are best friends in their late 30s - which means it's crunch time. The decisions they make now will affect them forever.
They meet whenever they can for coffee, but life - work, money, family - is in danger of pushing them apart.
Montserrat Lombard and Ophelia Lovibond star in this frank and funny exploration of female friendship in all its gruesome glory.
Sally .... Montserrat Lombard
Bea .... Ophelia Lovibond
Dave .... Shaun Mason
Writer .... E V Crowe
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
THE WRITER
E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme Super Group.
Her first play ‘Kin’ was nominated for the Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards, her second Royal Court play, ‘Hero’ was part of the Olivier Award winning Season in the Theatre Upstairs. Her third play for the Royal Court The Sewing Group was performed in the JTU in November 2017.
She is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club, The Royal Court, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, Manchester International Festival and Chichester Festival Theatre.
MON 11:00 Muslim Pride (m0008wsp)
Sayeeda Warsi asks why Islam and same-sex attraction are often presented as black and white - binary opposites - when the picture has many shades of grey.
The question could not be more timely. Protests outside primary schools in Birmingham have highlighted the often testy relationship between homosexuality and Islam, a problem which several of the contributors in Sayeeda’s previous documentary on Radio 4 - about women and Islam - said required urgent attention.
And now, speaking to five Muslims who experience same-sex attraction, Sayeeda will give it that attention. This is more than just a theological question: it comes laden with practical problems – from keeping their sexuality and relationships hidden, choosing whether, when and how to come out, and in the case of one of Sayeeda's interviewees, rejecting his attraction to other men altogether, choosing instead to marry and have children - telling neither his wife nor his family.
But their problems aren’t limited to being gay whilst Muslim. It’s often also challenging to be Muslim whilst gay, and Sayeeda will hear about the discrimination some of them have experienced in gay communities, as they try to balance and reconcile their different identities, to themselves and others.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m0008wsr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0008xpm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 The Testaments (m0008wsw)
Episode 11
Margaret Atwood's powerful and long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
In The Testaments, set fifteen years after the events of Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, the testimonies of three women bring the story to a dramatic conclusion.
Today, 'Baby Nicole', now going by the name of Jade travels to the heart of Gilead. Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia is relishes in the downfall of Dr Grove...
Writer: Margaret Atwood
Reader: Samantha Dakin, Sara Kestelman
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m0008wsy)
Coral, Gap years, Airbnb
A customer assistant at Coral tells us what it's like to work in a high street bookie, and why staff at her shop are uncomfortable pushing vouchers to customers to encourage them to open online accounts.
We talk to students about the financial implications of taking a gap year.
How you can be turfed out of your Airbnb if a friend nips round for a quick visit.
The musical in Manchester telling the story of bus regulation (to the music of Starlight Express).
The delays at the probate service holding up house sales.
And, how the social network NextDoor has had to change its marketing materials to stop its letters looking like they are genuine letters from neighbours.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Lydia Thomas
MON 12:57 Weather (m0008wt0)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0008wt2)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
MON 13:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008wt4)
Plants on Paper
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other from the Enlightenment to dark matter
They focus on new ways of illustrating scientific knowledge in the mid 19th century through early photography and print in the blooming world of botanical science.
The desire to take emerging technology and try something new is evident from the first photographic images of plants in a print book: Ian examines botanist Anna Atkins’ stunning and detailed hand printed images of algae held in the Science Museum Group’s collection. Her “cyanotypes” were created by placing specimens of seaweed directly onto photographic paper.
Artist and scientist appear as one, but tensions arise in the desire to create images of plants that are both scientifically useful yet aesthetically pleasing. As Tilly reveals, botanical illustration continued to thrive from a growing need to advance botanical science through the shared drawings and print engravings of skilled naturalists, such as George Worthington Smith. His detailed illustrations for the long running Gardener’s Chronicle ensured new discoveries reached a vast discerning and diverse readership.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with the Science Museum Group
Photograph by SSPL/Getty Images
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0008wt6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m0008wt8)
The Call of the Rewild
The last wolf in Scotland was killed in 1680. When a rich businessman announces plans to re-introduce wolves to his Highland estate he advocates the benefits of predators helping to control red deer numbers, a boost to tourism, and an increase in forestation. But he needs to convince the sceptics, including local sheep farmers who fear his wolves will prey on their livestock and threaten the survival of a way of life that’s lasted for generations. By Kieran Lynn.
Marcus Ross ..... Robin Laing
Dorothy MacLennan ..... Anne Lacy
Anna MacLennan ..... Helen Mackay
Gillian ..... Julie Duncanson
PC/Presenter/Journalist ..... Simon Donaldson
Producer/director: Bruce Young
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m0008wtb)
Series 33
Heat 5, 2019
(5/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes three amateur music lovers to MediaCityUK in Salford, where their knowledge will be put to the test in the latest heat of the eclectic quiz. Verdi operas, the Halle Orchestra and a big band arrangement of a song by Genesis are just some of the topics that crop up this week. The winner today will win through to the semi-finals later in the series and stand a real chance of lifting the trophy as the 33rd BBC Counterpoint champion.
Taking part today are
Mike Harrington, a retired chemistry teacher from Rochdale
Elainne Lawrie, a solicitor from Chester
Greg Spiller, a retired software engineer from Heaton Mersey in Stockport.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m0008wtd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Kapow! (m0008wtg)
The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company has everything the pint-sized hero could need. The shelves are full of grappling hooks, tights, deflector bracelets, and bottles of anti-gravity, invisibility pellets, as well as a full range of superpowers available by tin.
But those in the know head for the trick bookcase at the back of the store. Behind it, there's a secret room where children from 6 to 18 come for writing classes. All levels are catered for - there's free after-school tutoring and homework help, along with weeknight and weekend workshops for budding authors.
The store is part of 826, an American non-profit dedicated to helping children improve their writing skills. It has outposts or "chapters" around the US, each with a different cover story, ranging from robots in Detroit to time-travel in LA.
Cathy FitzGerald visits the New York and Boston chapters to meet the organisation's staff and the brilliant young writers they encourage, including Legacy Thornton, Khatazja Harrison and Tariq Jaden Charles.
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m0008wtj)
Series 20
Science of Dreaming
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedian Bridget Christie, neuroscientist Professor Penny Lewis and psychologist Richard Wiseman to explore the science of dreaming. Our dreams have fascinated humans for millennia and then Freud came along and told us they really did mean something, and mostly they were about sex and anger. Was he right? Why do we dream and can we find meaning in the content of our dreams? Can our dreams help us solve problems, give us new ideas, help us write a symphony, even if they can't predict the future? The panel also discuss what is going on in the brain whilst we sleep, and how memories are formed and consolidated while we snooze. It turns out the phrase "better to sleep on it" has a strong scientific argument.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem
MON 17:00 PM (m0008wtm)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008wtr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m0008wtt)
Series 14
Episode 1
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Bridget Christie welcome comedian Jessica Fostekew, engineer Dr Shini Somara and TV producer Linda Agran.
This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate a slotted screw, Test Match Cricket and a sign telling people to Live, Love, Laugh.
The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shepherd, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.
The Producers were Anne Miller and Victoria Lloyd.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0008wtx)
The Grundy’s have a screw loose and Rex’s confidence takes a knock
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0008wtz)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Cry Babies (m0008wsm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Generation Z and the Art of Self-Maintenance (m0008wnn)
Generation Z is self-taught. No-one any older really gets that. The children born around the turn of the millennium came into a digital world and had to find out for themselves how to navigate it. Sure, we all live it now - but we weren't formed by it. We came to digital from the safety of adulthood. In this programme, six wise school-leavers take us on their digital journey in their home town of Huddersfield.
Simone has lived there her whole life and is about to leave for university. But before she goes, she's joined by a group of her friends who take us around Huddersfield and back through their digital adolescence. They tell us their stories of self-education, from friendship to flirting, memes to messaging, and talk about the lessons that they had to learn.
Presenter: Simone Dawes
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
MON 20:30 Analysis (m0008wv1)
Whiteness
For many white people their race is not part of their identity. Race, racial inequality and racism are things that people of colour are expected to talk about and organise around. Not anymore.
Anti-racist activists and academics are now urging white people to recognise that they are just as racialised as minorities. The way to successfully tackle structural racism, they say, is to get white people to start taking responsibility for the racially unjust status quo.
Bristol-based journalist Neil Maggs, who is white, takes a deep dive into the canon of books, Instagram challenges and workshops that seek to educate people like him on their white privilege and internalised white supremacy. He gets advice from anti-racism trainer Robin DiAngelo, learns about the growing field of whiteness studies in the UK, and visits the white working class estate of Hartcliffe to see how these ideas play out there.
He also talks to Eric Kaufmann about the inevitable decline of white majorities by the end of the century and how to prevent white people falling for far-right conspiracy theories about being wiped out.
Presenter: Neil Maggs
Producer: Lucy Proctor
MON 21:00 The Science of Addiction (m0008nw3)
Addiction specialist Sally Marlow examines the science behind addiction to find out why so many people in Britain are hooked on drugs and alcohol.
Neuroscientists now have a sophisticated understanding of the networks in the brain that can pull a person towards addiction and hold them there. Changes in the brain also help to explain why it can be so incredibly hard to quit. But brains don't act in isolation, and neuroscience doesn't explain everything.
Why do some people get hooked in the first place while others, who use drugs recreationally, do not? How much of addiction is genetic, and how much does free will play a role? What about our social environments and life experiences?
Addiction specialists have a good understanding of the complex web of factors that drive people towards addiction and know which treatments work. So why are addiction rates for many drugs at an all-time high? Does society even want to find the answers?
Sally talks to some of the scientists who wrestle with these questions and to Mel, John, Lavinia and Kevin who reflect on their own experiences of addiction and recovery.
Producer: Beth Eastwood
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0008wsf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0008wv4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 The Testaments (m0008wsw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Have You Heard George's Podcast? (p07mk7cx)
Have You Heard George's Podcast?
1. Listen Closer
In the series debut George invites his listeners to step into the speakers and join him on a meandering ride aboard his own train of thought. The Poet muses on the interplay between crime and music in his community, painting an audio-portrait that is in equal parts complex and compelling.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00098q0)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 01 OCTOBER 2019
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0008wv6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wv8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008wvb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008wvd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008wvg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0008wvj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008wvl)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0008wvn)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcq9)
Fulmar
Series of stories about British birds, inspired by their calls and songs. Kate Humble presents the fulmar.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0008y3w)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m0008y3y)
Richard Wiseman on lying, luck and the paranormal
How do you tell if someone is lying? When Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, conducted a nationwide experiment to identify the tell-tale signs, the results were surprising. If you want to spot a liar, don’t look at them. Listen to what they say and how they say it. in If you want to distinguish fact from fiction, radio, not TV or video is your friend. Visual cues distract us from what is being said and good liars can control their body language more easily than their voice. Depressingly, Richard has also shown that our nearest and dearest are the most able to deceive us.
Richard is a rare breed: a scientist who is also a practising magician. By the age of 17 he was performing magic tricks at children’s parties and a member of the exclusive Magic Circle. He chose to study psychology to try and understand why we believe the unbelievable and spent many years doing research on the paranormal: studying séances, haunted places and extra sensory perception. Could a belief in the paranormal be the price we pay for scientific discovery, he wonders?
Jim Al-Khalili talks to Richard about his magical Life Scientific and finds out more about his work on lying, ESP and luck. Are some people born lucky or is it a mind-set that can be learnt?
Producer: Anna Buckley
TUE 09:30 One to One (m0008y40)
Benjamin Zephaniah meets Richard Clothier
Benjamin Zephaniah is infertile. This is not something you hear men readily admit. It has been a taboo subject. This has resulted in many men with fertility problems feeling isolated and guilt-ridden whilst also grieving for the child they cannot have by natural methods. Richard Clothier describes his experiences. Benjamin meets Richard’s wife Terri in the next programme. Producer Sarah Blunt
Support Organisations
Fertility Network UK offers information, advice and support for anyone suffering from infertility related problems.
http://fertilitynetworkuk.org
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is the UK's independent regulator overseeing the use of gametes and embryos in fertility treatment and research. The website offers details of licensed fertility clinics across the UK.
www.hfea.gov.uk
NHS Fertility
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/infertility/causes/
TUE 09:45 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008y42)
Episode 2
How did Margaret Thatcher both change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs?
Charles Moore’s full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers, and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death.
It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Moore’s three-part biography of one of Britain’s most important peacetime prime ministers paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, and the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power.
Reader: Haydn Gwynne
Abridger: Polly Coles
Producer: Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0008y44)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 Cry Babies (m0008y46)
Near Break Up
by E V Crowe.
Ophelia Lovibond and Montserrat Lombard star in a frank and funny exploration of female friendship in all its gruesome glory.
Sally and Bea are best friends in their late 30s - which means it's crunch time. The decisions they make now will affect them forever.
They meet whenever they can for coffee, but Life - work, money, family - is in danger of pushing them apart.
Sally .... Montserrat Lombard
Bea .... Ophelia Lovibond
Writer .... E V Crowe
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
THE WRITER
E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme Super Group.
Her first play ‘Kin’ was nominated for the Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards, her second Royal Court play, ‘Hero’ was part of the Olivier Award winning Season in the Theatre Upstairs. Her third play for the Royal Court The Sewing Group was performed in the JTU in November 2017.
She is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club, The Royal Court, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, Manchester International Festival and Chichester Festival Theatre.
TUE 11:00 Degrees of Love (m0008y48)
On the eve of packing for university, 18-year-old Anoushka talks to fellow students and parents about whether it's best to leave long-term lovers behind, or to try to weave them into the fabric of a new start on campus?
As Fresher’s Week kicks off across the country, Anoushka and her friends talk at length about how difficult it might be to keep relationships from their schooldays going once they begin at Uni. It's a difficult decision, especially when parents and even university officials are offering contradictory advice! She's sceptical that school romances can last, but some of those she’s closest to are adamant they can navigate the pitfalls of being on different campuses and will stay together throughout.
Anoushka's parents are keen for her to throw herself into her new opportunities without worrying about a boyfriend. Some of her friends are guided by parents who themselves weathered college separation and believe it's possible to make anything work if you work at it! An online search points her towards older students keen to help others making the difficult decisions they once grappled with. There’s information on everything, from dealing with fears about cheating lovers to how often you should meet up to keep romance alive!
It’s an issue being played out in homes across the country as difficult decisions are made by new students. On the eve of transmission Anoushka will be starting in Manchester and preparing for the fun to come. It’s a journey Anna Michaux has already made, and when she did she and her boyfriend in London committed to staying together. They managed to do just that for the first two years and she tells Anoushka that far from giving up on new opportunities, the experience helped her appreciate university much more.
“If you can live apart for up to three years, that’s pretty impressive. It shows that you can trust each other and that you care enough about the person to take five-hour coaches every month. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is!” And Anna isn’t sad that she gave up a lot to try and make things work: “It’s a strange situation when you start at college and there’s this focus on young people and being at Uni with lots of partners. That wasn’t ever part of why I went and I never felt like I was missing out.”
TUE 11:30 Mary Portas: On Style (m0008y4b)
Episode 3
A four-part series on style with Mary Portas.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0008y4d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 The Testaments (m0008y4g)
Episode 12
Margaret Atwood's powerful and long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
In The Testaments, set fifteen years after the events of Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, the testimonies of three women bring the story to a dramatic conclusion.
Today: Agnes, now known as Aunt Victoria, is given access to some of darkest secrets of Gilead. Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia wavers over whether or not go ahead with her risky plan...
Writer: Margaret Atwood
Readers: Katherine Press, Sara Kestelman
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m0008y4j)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0008y4l)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0008y4n)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
TUE 13:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008y4q)
Reaching for the Moon
Nearly a century before the Apollo astronauts first captured close up images of the lunar surface, similar detailed photographs had appeared in a book by artist and engineer James Nasmyth. Ian unravels the extraordinary creative process Nasmyth went through. He made meticulous drawings from nightly moon observations though his 20 inch telescope, from which he moulded in plaster detailed recreations of the lunar surface. One of his carefully crafted models in the Science Museum Group’s collection is testament to the sheer amount of scientific detail Nasmyth fashioned, and went on to light and then photograph.
It’s no secret Nasmyth’s artistic creations were highly contrived. But intriguingly, as Ian reveals, at a time when this new era of photography offered science an objective untainted eye, it’s Nasmyth’s very contrivance that led to universal praise for their accuracy and authenticity. It was to prove a pivotal moment in the history of scientific imagery and kick-started realistic renderings of other worlds.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph (C) The Science Museum Group
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0008wtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0008y4s)
The Beatboxer
The Beatboxer by Testament
A beatboxer goes into a call centre to run a training day. But the bosses have ulterior motives for him being there. Written by and starring celebrated beatboxer Testament.
Subs ..... Testament
Katherine ..... Susan Twist
Samiya ..... Purvi Parmar
Kristy ..... Verity Henry
Graham ..... John Branwell
Jaron ...... Dermot Daly
Caspero ..... Sholto of The Pushwackers
Director/Producer Gary Brown
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0008x9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m0008wpt)
The e-DNA Revolution
From the Loch Ness Monster and mammoths to the Amazon river and uncharted river flies - 'environmental DNA' is revolutionising how we tell what species are present in a certain landscape. Traces of skin, mucus or gametes can be left by creatures in their environment and scientists can use samples from the water, air or soil and sequence the DNA found within to test for a specific species or to get a broader picture of what is there. It can help monitor for invasive species and even look back to ancient history. Samples can be taken by non-experts, in remote locations, quicker than some traditional methods and it's non invasive. Scientists say this can speed up and revolutionise how we chart our living world....which in some cases might flag up the most urgent need to intervene where species are threatened.
The technique has been used recently by Prof Neil Gemmell from University of Otago working with experts from the Loch Ness Centre - to search for evidence of what is and isn't present in the depths but it's also being used in more applications around the world.
Jheni Osman explores why scientists are so excited about this modern technique, how long the traces last and what it might reveal in the future.
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock
TUE 16:00 Out of Office (m0003rlp)
Episode 1
What do we want from work? Millions of people are now reinventing their working lives. Ruth Barnes presents the first in a new series exploring the changing world of work.
There are now five million self-employed people in the UK, it’s the fastest-growing group of workers. Sometimes it's a case of "needs must" as conventional industries collapse - but the evidence suggests that most are doing it because they want to, they see themselves as breaking free.
The internet is full of inspirational talks from the late Steve Jobs and others, exhorting us to take risks, set out on our own, make our fortune. But with the average freelancer earning only £240 a week - about half the earnings of the average employee - what is the price of freedom?
In this first programme, Breaking Free, Ruth hears from people who have reinvented their working lives, becoming taxi drivers, brewers or cleaners. She talks to David Graeber, an anthropology professor who tapped into something really big when he published his book Bullshit Jobs.
Ruth Barnes spent ten years as a producer and presenter at the BBC, covering music and culture across the national radio. She’s written and presented music documentaries for Radio 4, reported live from the Glastonbury Festival for BBC Radio 5 Live and the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival for BBC Radio 2. In 2006, Ruth started her own online radio show The Other Woman, to showcase new music from female artists. She is three years into running her own podcast production company Chalk & Blade, an independent start-up based in East London.
Producers: Susan Marling and Elizabeth Burke
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m0008y4v)
Colin Greenwood & Joanne McNally
Radiohead's bassist Colin Greenwood and Irish comedian Joanne McNally recommend great books to presenter Harriett Gilbert. Joanne's is This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay. Colin goes for Homing by Jon Day and Harriett's is Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border by Colm Tóibín. First of a new series, follow us on instagram at @agoodreadbbc
Producer Beth O'Dea
TUE 17:00 PM (m0008y4x)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008y4z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Clare in the Community (m0008y51)
Series 12
I Predict A Riot
Clare's found herself in the middle of a riot at the women's prison. It's categorically not her fault, and she is not their leader, OK? Back in the Sparrowhawk office, Joan is convinced there's something strange going on.
Starring Sally Phillips as Clare Barker, the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution.
A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
We join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life. In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.
Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios production
Clare.....SALLY PHILLIPS
Brian.....ALEX LOWE
Queen Pin.....NINA CONTI
Simon....ANDREW WINCOTT
Libby.....SARAH KENDALL
Joan ..... SARAH THOM
Cilla.....GBEMISOLA IKUMELO
Ginger.....EMMA SIDI
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0008wp5)
Brian makes a shocking suggestion and Hannah offers some advice
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0008y53)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Cry Babies (m0008y46)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0008y55)
Families versus the state: An unfair fight?
Julie Montacute-Carter (pictured left) was found drowned in a lake after suffering from depression for many years. But when it came to the inquest into her death it fell to her daughter Becky Montacute to represent the family at the start of the inquest process - and then find and fund a lawyer herself. All because the family could not get Legal Aid. The mental health trust responsible for Julie's care however was able to spend tens of thousands of pounds in legal representation. Critics call this an 'inequality of arms' and there are concerns vital lessons aren't being learned because many families can't afford to pay for legal representation to challenge state bodies like the NHS, the police and the prison service.
Reporter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Mick Tucker
Development Producer: Oliver Newlan
Editor: Carl Johnston
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0008y57)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m0008wpc)
Dr Mark Porter demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice, with the help of regular contributor GP Margaret McCartney
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m0008y3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0008y59)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 The Testaments (m0008y4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m0008wtj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Monday]
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00098q4)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 02 OCTOBER 2019
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0008y5c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008y42)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008y5f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008y5h)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008y5l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0008y5q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008y5v)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0008y5z)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04symph)
Northern Jacana
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the northern jacana at home in Central American wetlands. A cross between a coot and a plover, northern Jacanas are found in swamps in Central America and Mexico. They're long legged birds with a black head and neck, and a chestnut body with yellow highlights. And, northern jacanas are polyandrous; the females have more than one partner. Males build platforms of floating vegetation and attract females by calling or posturing. If a female mates with a male, he may use his platform as a nest for her eggs. The female doesn't care for the eggs, but goes in search of up to three other mates. The result is that a single female may have several males raising different clutches of eggs for her and each clutch may contain the eggs of more than one male!
WED 06:00 Today (m0008wn6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 The Sound Odyssey (m0008wn8)
Roxanne Tataei on the Isle of Lewis
Singer and composer Roxanne Tataei travels to Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis to collaborate with Calum Martin for a Gaelic psalm singing collaboration.
Based on the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland, Calum has a special interest in Gaelic Psalm Singing, a unique acapella improvisatory singing style still practiced by congregations during their Sunday worship services, although the average age in the church is well over 50, and the Gaelic-speaking congregation is dwindling.
According to musicologists, Gaelic Psalms shouldn’t really work harmonically, but they do. They come from the Presbyterian tradition, meaning they are very much word based. It's a beautiful and bleak sound, often compared to the landscape of the Hebrides and the rolling seas surrounding it.
Born and raised in Norbury, South London, Roxanne heritage is half-Jamaican and half-Iranian and she grew up learning psalms in church with her grandparents before being classically trained and establishing her career as a singer.
She will be learning this ancient song form as well as exploring if there are any similarities with Black American Church music and if the two sounds are able to combine to create a piece of music.
Presented by Gemma Cairney
Produced by Jax Coombes
A BBC 6 Music Production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m0008wnb)
Politics Fans
Penny Andrews argues that thinking of political supporters as fans helps explain the current state of politics.
Penny is an academic and a serial fan - covering everything from David Bowie to Ed Balls. And in this energetic and witty talk Penny argues that many of the characteristics of fandom elsewhere - a rich interest, a wish to protect the sanctity of the fandom, and a refusal to tolerate criticism - also mark politics and political fans, whatever side they're on. And that understanding politics in this way may help us understand it better.
Producer: Giles Edwards
WED 09:45 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wnd)
Episode 3
How did Margaret Thatcher both change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs?
Charles Moore’s full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers, and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death.
It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Moore’s three-part biography of one of Britain’s most important peacetime prime ministers paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, and the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power.
Reader: Haydn Gwynne
Abridger: Polly Coles
Producer: Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0008wng)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:41 Cry Babies (m0008wnj)
Chaos
by E V Crowe.
Ophelia Lovibond and Montserrat Lombard star in a frank and funny exploration of female friendship in all its gruesome glory.
Sally and Bea are best friends in their late 30s - which means it's crunch time. The decisions they make now will affect them forever.
They meet whenever they can for coffee, but life - work, money, family - is in danger of pushing them apart.
Sally .... Montserrat Lombard
Bea .... Ophelia Lovibond
Writer .... E V Crowe
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
THE WRITER
E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme Super Group.
Her first play ‘Kin’ was nominated for the Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards, her second Royal Court play, ‘Hero’ was part of the Olivier Award winning Season in the Theatre Upstairs. Her third play for the Royal Court The Sewing Group was performed in the JTU in November 2017.
She is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club, The Royal Court, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, Manchester International Festival and Chichester Festival Theatre.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m0008wnl)
Georgie and Dawn -You're Not From Round Here
Friends talk about women and imposter syndrome, and northern versus southern accents. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
WED 11:00 Generation Z and the Art of Self-Maintenance (m0008wnn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Between Ourselves with Marian Keyes (m0008wnq)
Happy All The Time
Marian Keyes is a publishing sensation - her works of fiction (Rachel's Holiday, The Break and others) have sold in their millions, across the globe. In this new series, Marian reads selections from her non-fiction writing whilst in conversation with her friend the actor Tara Flynn. This week's theme is Happy All The Time. Alongside the craic, Marian reads “Foreign Country” from her collection Under The Duvet and “Negative Thinking” from Making It Up As I Go Along.
Presenters: Tara Flynn and Marian Keyes
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m0008wns)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 The Testaments (m0008wnv)
Episode 13
Margaret Atwood's powerful and long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
In The Testaments, set fifteen years after the events of Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, the testimonies of three women bring the story to a dramatic conclusion.
Today: Agnes and Nicole get some shocking and life-changing news; while Aunt Lydia continues her manoeverings against her rival Aunts...
Writer: Margaret Atwood
Readers: Katherine Press, Samantha Dakin, Sara Kestelman
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m0008wnx)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
WED 12:57 Weather (m0008wnz)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0008wp1)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008wp3)
Dyeing to Display
A 19th-century purple silk dress in the Science Museum Group’s collection, dyed with the first synthetic dye, is witness to the sheer power that new artificial colours had on turning clothing into an eye-catching art form. The accidental discovery by William Henry Perkin of an artificial purple dye from coal tar extract gave birth to “Purplemania”. It sparked a frenzy of activity among research chemists for more bright new colour dyes and in turn a new rigour in rationalising chemical reactions.
But as Tilly reveals, many in the artistic community, such as the influential Arts and Crafts movement rejected the garishness and impermanence of artificial dyes within the Victorian culture of conspicuous consumption. They sought to influence wealthier individuals with a more modest palette of fast dyes, and in so doing helped condition our reaction to the subtleties in walking the ever important tightrope of taste.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with the Science Museum Group
Photograph (C) The Science Museum Group
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0008wp5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Brief Lives - Series 11 (m0008wp7)
Episode 3
Brief Lives by Michael Livesey
Frank and Sarah are holidaying in the Yorkshire Dales when they encounter a tragedy.
FRANK....... David Schofield
SARAH...... Kathryn Hunt
ANN/ KATH/ MAGGIE..... Emma Gr
DS NICHOLLS....... Jason Done
JANICE...... Kate Coogan
KARL.......... Martin Wenner
Producer/Director Gary Brown
WED 15:00 Money Box (m0008wp9)
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m0008wpc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m0008wpf)
New research on how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0008wph)
The programme about a revolution in media with Amol Rajan, the BBC's Media Editor
WED 17:00 PM (m0008wpk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008wpm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 The Quanderhorn Xperimentations (b0b9wbf0)
Series 1
The Splattered Remains of Undentifiable Organs Incident All Over Again
It's still 1952. It's always 1952.
The Quanderhorn crew find themselves on Advanced Lunar Station Q, with no means of returning to Earth and limited oxygen supplies.
Splitting into two teams after a game of Martian Closey-Eyesie, Guuuurk (Kevin Eldon) and Troy (Freddie Fox) fall prey to a ravenous Lunar Man Trap, while Brian (Ryan Sampson) and Gemma (Cassie Layton) stumble upon an intact space craft.
But there are two problems. Gemma's ear is unwinding, rendering her emotionally unstable, and there's no apparent entrance to the craft.
Having rather astonishingly escaped their various dilemmas, the crew encounter yet another conundrum - how exactly is the ship powered?
Jenkins (John Sessions), the professor's factotum, detects a spacecraft approaching Earth which Quanderhorn (James Fleet) orders him to blast out of the sky, apparently unaware his own crew is aboard.
The Quanderhorn Xperimentations - an adventure beyond human understanding.
Cast:
Professor Quanderhorn- James Fleet
Brian Nylon- Ryan Sampson
Dr Gemini Janussen- Cassie Layton
Guuurk- Kevin Eldon
Troy Quanderhorn- Freddie Fox
Winston Churchill/Jenkins- John Sessions
Synthetic Voice Rachel Atkins
Created and written by Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall
Directed by Andrew Marshall
Music by Peter Brewis
Engineered, Edited and Sound designed by Alistair McGregor
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Produced by Rob Grant and Gordon Kennedy
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0008wlc)
Jennifer finds herself in trouble and there’s an emergency at Berrow
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0008wpp)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Cry Babies (m0008wnj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m0008wpr)
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Matthew Taylor, Melanie Philips, Mona Siddiqui and Tim Stanley. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m0008wnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m0008wpt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Sound Odyssey (m0008wn8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0008wpw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 The Testaments (m0008wnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Monty Python at 50: The Self-Abasement Tapes (p07mdkc2)
Episode 5
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Monty Python, Michael Palin hunts down lost Python sketches.
This programme contains rare material of historical interest, never heard before from the 2014 O2 Shows, including run-throughs of The Argument Sketch and a sensational duet between Eric Idle and Professor Stephen Hawking.
Starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Carole Cleveland
Produced by James Peak and Andre Jacquemin
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Bunk Bed (b03zd5lx)
Series 1
Episode 1
Everyone craves a place where their mind and body are not applied to a particular task. The nearest faraway place. Somewhere for drifting and lighting upon strange thoughts which don't have to be shooed into context, but which can be followed like balloons escaping onto the air. Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, your tired mind can wander.
This is the nearest faraway place for Patrick Marber and Peter Curran. Here they endeavour to get the heart of things in an entertainingly vague and indirect way. This is not the place for typical male banter. From under the bed clothes they play each other music from The Residents and Gerry Rafferty, archive of JG Ballard and Virginia Woolf. Life, death, work and family are their slightly warped conversational currency.
Writers/Performers:
PETER CURRAN is a publisher, writer and documentary maker. A former carpenter, his work ranges from directing films about culture in Africa, America and Brazil to writing and presenting numerous Arts and culture programmes for both radio and television.
PATRICK MARBER co-wrote and performed in On The Hour and Knowing Me, Knowing You..with Alan Partridge. His plays include Dealer's Choice, After Miss Julie, Closer and Don Juan in Soho. Marber also wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for the film Notes on a Scandal.
Producer: Peter Curran.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00098q8)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 03 OCTOBER 2019
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0008wpz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wnd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008wq1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008wq3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008wq5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0008wq7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008wq9)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0008wqc)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04syy3w)
Morepork
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the morepork or Ru-Ru, New Zealand's only surviving native owl. Strange double notes in the forests of New Zealand were once thought to be cries from the Underworld. But these calls are most likely to be that of a morepork calling. Its familiar call earned it the alternative Maori name of "ruru". Largely nocturnal, it has brown, streaky feathers and large bright yellow eyes which are well adapted for almost silent night hunting forays for large insects, spiders, small birds and mammals. In Maori mythology, moreporks, or "ruru" are spiritual birds, and can represent the ancestral spirit of a family, taking the form of a woman known as "Hine-Ruru" or "owl woman" who acts as a guardian, protecting and advising the family members.
THU 06:00 Today (m0008wkh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0008wkk)
Dorothy Hodgkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work and ideas of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for revealing the structures of vitamin B12 and penicillin and who later determined the structure of insulin. She was one of the pioneers of X-ray crystallography and described by a colleague as 'a crystallographers' crystallographer'. She remains the only British woman to have won a Nobel in science, yet rejected the idea that she was a role model for other women, or that her career was held back because she was a woman. She was also the first woman since Florence Nightingale to receive the Order of Merit, and was given the Lenin Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts to bring together scientists from the East and West in pursuit of nuclear disarmament.
With
Georgina Ferry
Judith Howard
and
Patricia Fara
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wmh)
Episode 4
How did Margaret Thatcher both change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs?
Charles Moore’s full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers, and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death.
It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Moore’s three-part biography of one of Britain’s most important peacetime prime ministers paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, and the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power.
Reader: Haydn Gwynne
Abridger: Polly Coles
Producer: Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0008wkp)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 Cry Babies (m0008wkr)
Together
by E V Crowe.
Ophelia Lovibond and Montserrat Lombard star in a frank and funny exploration of female friendship in all its gruesome glory.
Sally and Bea are best friends in their late 30s - which means it's crunch time. The decisions they make now will affect them forever.
They meet whenever they can for coffee, but life - work, money, family - is in danger of pushing them apart.
Sally .... Montserrat Lombard
Bea .... Ophelia Lovibond
Eddie .... Shaun Mason
Waiter ...Shaun Mason
Writer .... E V Crowe
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
THE WRITER
E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme Super Group.
Her first play ‘Kin’ was nominated for the Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards, her second Royal Court play, ‘Hero’ was part of the Olivier Award winning Season in the Theatre Upstairs. Her third play for the Royal Court The Sewing Group was performed in the JTU in November 2017.
She is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club, The Royal Court, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, Manchester International Festival and Chichester Festival Theatre.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m0008wkv)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 Art of Now (m0008wkx)
Rwanda's Returnees
The arts are flourishing in Rwanda. This richness in theatre, literature, dance, film and photography has been made possible by exiled Rwandan artists who moved back home after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Many of them were born overseas. Their parents fled the start of ethnic violence that began 60 years ago in 1959. They came back to build a new home: both literally and creatively.
Dr Zoe Norridge speaks to returnee artists who grew up in Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, the UK and France to discover what it was that drew and continues to draw those in the diaspora back. Why did they leave the places where they grew up for a country with such a difficult history? And what contribution have these artists made to rebuilding both the arts and the nation?
Choreographer Wesley Ruzibiza, writer and musician Gaël Faye, theatre director Hope Azeda and actor and artist Natacha Muziramakenga, among others, explain how returnee artists drew on their international upbringing to question what it means to be Rwandan, generate new ideas and rebuild both the arts and their home.
Dr Zoe Norridge is a Senior Lecturer in African and Comparative Literature at King’s College London. She recently translated Yolande Mukagasana’s survivor testimony Not My Time to Die and is Chair of the Ishami Foundation.
Produced by Philippa Geering
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0008wrj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Testaments (m0008wl1)
Episode 14
Margaret Atwood's powerful and long-awaited sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
In The Testaments, set fifteen years after the events of Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, the testimonies of three women bring the story to a dramatic conclusion.
Today: when Aunt Lydia's hand is forced, Agnes and Nicole must attempt their escape from Gilead immediately ...
Writer: Margaret Atwood
Readers: Katherine Press, Samantha Dakin, Sara Kestelman
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0008wl3)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
THU 12:57 Weather (m0008wl5)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0008wl7)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
THU 13:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008wl9)
Capturing Time
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other. They focus on photographic innovators of the late 1800s who used new advances in camera techniques to freeze time in the name of science, reanimate in the name of entertainment and seek new truths to human and animal motion.
At the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Tilly examines part of the Science Museum Group’s extensive collection of photographs by photojournalist and arch showman Eadweard Muybridge. His ingenious photo sequences of stills of a horse in motion helped settle a bet over whether the animal’s hooves leave the ground at speed. He would go on to devise magic lanterns with counter rotating discs of his artistically modified picture sequences to recreate the effect of movement, to the awe and excitement of viewers across America and Europe.
Muybridge had little regard for scientific rigour but whilst on tour in Paris his methods were enough to intrigue scientists such as physiologist Etienne Jules Marey who, as Ian illustrates, devised a chronophotographic camera to achieve multiple exposures of athletes in one single plate.
Instantaneous movement had been finally captured for accurate scientific analysis and for art and entertainment.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph by SSPL/Getty Images
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0008wlc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0008wlf)
Song and Dance
by Barney Norris.
Anne and Pete have gone bird watching with their friend Martin when he dies suddenly of a heart attack. They have to make the long journey back home and visit his widow, but his sudden death forces them to confront their own feelings.
Anne ..... Susan Brown
Pete ..... Robin Soans
Eleanor ..... Tessa Peake-Jones
Directed by Sally Avens
Barney Norris is a critically acclaimed playwright, poet and author. His debut full-length play VISITORS, won the Critics Circle Award 2014 for Most Promising Playwright. He was also shortlisted for the prestigious Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Most Promising Playwright, the Writers Guild of Great Britain 2014 award for Best Play and the Best New Play Award at the Off West End Theatre Awards 2014. He is the co-artistic director of theatre company Up in Arms, and is the Martin Esslin Playwright in Residence at Keble College, Oxford.
Barney’s debut novel, FIVE RIVERS MET IN A WOODED PLAIN, was published in April 2016 to critical acclaim, and was a Waterstones and Foyles Book of the Month. His second novel, TURNING FOR HOME, was published by Doubleday in January 2018. His latest book, THE VANISHING HOURS, a novel about the pain of abandonment and the enduring power of love, has just been published.
Susan Brown has been nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the 2018 revival of the play Angels in America and a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in the 2018 play Home, I'm Darling.
Robin Soans is an actor and playwright specialising in verbatim and documentary plays including 'Talking to Terrorists' and 'Crouch Touch Pause Engage' As an actor, he has appeared at The National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe. He starred in Barney Norris's play 'Visitors'
Tessa Peake Jones is best known for playing Raquel Turner, the longtime partner of Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, in the television comedy Only Fools and Horses. since 2014 she has appeared in Grantchester as Mrs Sylvia Maguire, the vicar's religious and cantankerous housekeeper. Tessa also starred in Barney Norris's play 'While We're Here'
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0008wlh)
Walking The Pipe in Shropshire
Clare Balding walks part of the Elan Valley pipeline: 73 miles of Victorian engineering running water from mid Wales into the city of Birmingham. Clare is walking with artist Kate Green who has spent the summer walking the pipe and getting to know people and places along the way. They're walking a stretch that runs around the town of Ludlow in the Welsh Marches. Joining them are Andy Holman who runs a horse rescue centre on his land which holds part of the pipelines, and Tim Hipkiss part of a group of walkers called the Laura Ashley Pate Spreaders who she encountered as they were walking the pipeline too.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0008wlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m0008wlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m0008wlp)
The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0008wlr)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0008wlt)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008wly)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (m0008wm0)
Series 3
Kings of Comedy
Alexei outlines his problem Morecambe and Wise, discusses his issues with the Trade Unions and offers a fable taught by the Zen Master Wudang mountains in China.
Written by Alexei Sayle
Performed by Alexei Sayle
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0008wm2)
Lilian fears the worst and Ed comes to a decision
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0008wm4)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 Cry Babies (m0008wkr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0008wm6)
David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts and insiders present in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 In Business (m0008p43)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 on Sunday]
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0008wlr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0008wkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0008wm9)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 The Testaments (m0008wl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Agendum (m0008wmc)
Series 2
Timebomb
A current affairs parody and stupidly feasible visit to the 24-hour Hall Of Opinion Mirrors. Agendum - taking both sides of serious issues seriously.
Hosted and anchored by host and anchor Alexandra Palisades and created by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris.
With Carrie Quinlan as Alexandra Palisades and, at the very least, the voices of:
Justin Edwards
Melanie Hudson
Kath Hughes
Simon Kane
Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
David Reed
Jess Robinson
Kerry Shale
Luke Sumner
Tony Way
Written by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000993p)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 04 OCTOBER 2019
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0008wmf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008wmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0008wml)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0008wmn)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0008wmq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0008wms)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0008wmv)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0008wmx)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09v6zjj)
Sarah Harris on the Blackbird
Sarah Harris of the British Trust for Ornithology recalls the excitement of watching clouds of migrating blackbirds arriving at Spurn in East Yorkshire from the continent as they seek out the milder winter weather here.
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 encounters with nature and reflections on our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Emilpix.
FRI 06:00 Today (m0008y7p)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0008xy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone (m0008y7r)
Episode 5
How did Margaret Thatcher both change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs?
Charles Moore’s full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers, and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death.
It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Moore’s three-part biography of one of Britain’s most important peacetime prime ministers paints an intimate political and personal portrait of the victories and defeats, and the iron will but surprising vulnerability of the woman who dominated in an age of male power.
Reader: Haydn Gwynne
Abridger: Polly Coles
Producer: Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0008y7t)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 Cry Babies (m0008y7w)
Oh No
by E V Crowe.
Ophelia Lovibond and Montserrat Lombard star in a frank and funny exploration of female friendship in all its gruesome glory.
Sally and Bea are best friends in their late 30s - which means it's crunch time. The decisions they make now will affect them forever.
They meet whenever they can for coffee, but life - work, money, family - is in danger of pushing them apart.
Sally .... Montserrat Lombard
Bea .... Ophelia Lovibond
Writer .... E V Crowe
Director .... Abigail le Fleming
THE WRITER
E V Crowe is a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme Super Group.
Her first play ‘Kin’ was nominated for the Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards, her second Royal Court play, ‘Hero’ was part of the Olivier Award winning Season in the Theatre Upstairs. Her third play for the Royal Court The Sewing Group was performed in the JTU in November 2017.
She is currently under commission to Manhattan Theatre Club, The Royal Court, The Unicorn Theatre, The Coterie, Manchester International Festival and Chichester Festival Theatre.
FRI 11:00 The Corrections (m0008y7y)
The Brexit Murder?
The Corrections re-visits four news stories which left the public with an incomplete picture of what really happened.
In August 2016 Arkadiuz Joswik - known to his friends as Arek - was attacked and killed in a shopping precinct in Harlow where he’d stopped for a late night snack. Arek was Polish and the idea took hold that he had been killed by racists who were somehow empowered by the Brexit referendum earlier that summer. But was this really an anti-immigrant hate crime?
Produced and presented by Jo Fidgen and Chloe Hadjimatheou
FRI 11:30 Quiz Nite! (m0008y80)
4. Services
A series of comedy plays on a quizzing theme, written by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis.
Episode 4 - "Services"
A divorced father and his ex-wife use a Motorway Services as their meeting-point for handovers of their teen daughter. But today, the ex-wife is late... and possibly arriving with her new boyfriend. To pass the time, and soothe the nerves, father and daughter decide to play the quiz machine...
Writers... Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis
Father... Hugh Dennis
Daughter... Dylan Morris
Nurul... Ali Shahalom
Jake... Ali Shahalom
Producer... Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios Production
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0008y82)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 The Testaments (m0008y84)
Episode 15
Margaret Atwood's gripping sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, set fifteen years after the events of Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece, comes to a dramatic conclusion.
Today: now cast adrift in an inflatable, Agnes and Nicole desperately try to row their way to the shores of Canada. Their success will spell the end of Gilead, but what will become of Aunt Lydia if they make it?
Writer: Margaret Atwood
Readers: Katherine Press, Sara Kestelman, Samantha Dakin
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0008y86)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0008y88)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0008y8c)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008y8g)
Celebrating Speed
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other. They focus on responses to a new love of personalised transport and the thrilling exhilaration of speed brought about by the humble bicycle.
As Tilly reveals, the exquisite yet simple design of John Kemp Starley’s Rover Safety Bicycle ushered in the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles – an affordable means of social mobility for all. For a new movement of Avant Garde artists – the Futurists – the energy and velocity of the humble bicycle came to symbolise Italy’s rapidly changing industrial, emotional and moral landscape.
Ian visits London's Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art to examine Umberto Boccioni’s Dynamism of a Cyclist, in which man and machine appear almost as one. The bicycle became star propaganda for the Futurists, whose manifesto set out to challenge traditional society and instil a new disruptive order amidst a future based on technological advance, new freedoms and the ever accelerating pace of modern life.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph (C) Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0008wm2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b09k1fjl)
Elsinore
Episode 1
By Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Set in an alternative Europe in the 1930s, Elsinore imagines the turbulent world of the Danish Court in events that take place some years before the story told in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
King Hamlet's brother, Claudius, is sent to Spain as Denmark's new ambassador. On the way, he is captured by the infamous pirate Captain True. Back in Elsinore, meanwhile, the King must deal with a possible rebellion.
Directed by Marc Beeby & Sasha Yevtushenko
ELSINORE is a prequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet, exploring the relationships at the Danish court, particularly the troubled, not to say murderous relationship between King Hamlet and his brother Claudius. The plays are set in an alternative Europe in the early 1930s. Denmark is a powerful, militarised country with a small Empire around the Baltic which it is fighting hard to maintain. There is more than a hint of totalitarianism in the air. The realism of this is sometimes combined with moments of magical otherworldliness, not out of keeping with Shakespeare's original play.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0008y8j)
King's Cross Skip Garden
Kathy Clugston and the panel are in London at the King's Cross Skip Garden. James Wong, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank answer the audience's questions.
Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0008y8l)
Meditations for a New Mother
Three guided meditations for a new mother by award-winning playwright and performer Amy Mason. Her shows include MASS, HOLLERING WOMAN CREEK and THE ISLANDERS and she is the author of a novel, The Other Ida.
‘Tonight we discovered a genius called Amy Mason….Find her. Watch her.’ Dawn O’Porter
Produced by Mair Bosworth
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0008y8n)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m0008y8q)
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m0008y8s)
Richard and Lily - Working class people have opportunities now
Friends talk about being born into poverty, and education as the route to escape it. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
FRI 17:00 PM (m0008y8v)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0008y8x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m0008y8z)
Series 100
Episode 6
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Andy Zaltzman
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0008y91)
Writer, Liz John
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Justin Elliot ….. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Hannah Riley ….. Helen Longworth
Lexi Viktorova ….. Ania Sowinski
Russ Jones ….. Andonis James Anthony
Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley
Vince Casey ….. Tony Turner
FRI 19:15 Front Row (m0008y93)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Cry Babies (m0008y7w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0008y95)
Nigel Farage MEP, Barry Gardiner MP, Jeanette Winterson.
Topical debate from Backwell School in Somerset with a panel incuding the leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage MEP, the shadow Secretary of State for International Trade Barry Gardiner and the author Jeanette Winterson
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0008y97)
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 The Art of Innovation (m0008y99)
Omnibus 2
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, with their second omnibus edition in which they draw upon key works of art along with objects from the Science Museum Group's collection to explore how art and science have inspired each other in the late 19th century's Age of Enthusiasm
Along the way: science meets art in botanical prints; truths about photography unveiled in the first moon images; chemistry and colour in a textile fashion revolution; vision verses realism in capturing motion; celebrating modernity with the dynamism of speed.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Readers: Shaun Mason, Katherine Cusack, Sean Baker.
Music composed by Mark Russell
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0008y9c)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 The Testaments (m0008y84)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m0008y4v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:25 Today in Parliament (m000993r)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m0008y9f)
Graham and Max - The Last Foresters Standing
Friends share their passion for being born, raised and still living in the Forest of Dean. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.