SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2019

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00099r0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000951c)
Is This Platform Four Madam? Is it? by Pauline Melville

Is This Platform Four Madam? Is it? is an original short story written for radio by the acclaimed Guyanese-born author Pauline Melville.

The haunting story of a remarkable encounter with two mysterious strangers on a train journey south from Newcastle to London. A post-graduate is leaving Newcastle and heading south after finishing her English studies when she is struck by two unusual men who seem oddly over-anxious to establish if they are on the right train. Once on board the pair break into song and it emerges they are Travellers, who have never learnt to read, on their way to their annual festive gathering, Appleby Fair. Is This Platform Four Madam? Is it? captures a fleeting moment when two contrasting cultures, rural and urban, lyrical and literary, age-old and modern, rub up against eachother on one memorable summer's evening.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00099r2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00099r4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00099r6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00099r8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00099rb)
Christ Church, Radyr in Cardiff

Bells on Sunday comes from Christ Church, Radyr in Cardiff. The bells were dedicated in 1912 and there is a ring of eight, with the tenor weighing twelve hundredweight. We hear them ringing Stedman triples


SUN 05:45 Profile (m00099qr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m00099w4)
The latest national and international news headlines.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m0003sy3)
The Unexpected

Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski explores attitudes towards the unexpected, and argues we should view the astonishing and surprising as a gift of guidance.

Rabbi Harvey considers what it means to occupy the space between predictability and the unconscious desire to experience the excitement of the unknown. He draws upon the popularity of Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected to demonstrate our unspoken yearning for the surprising.

He also explores the kindness and joy that can lie within applications of the unexpected. He uses Jack Riemer’s story of a rabbi receiving the same good news from multiple well-wishers, in order to examine the positive side of the surprising. He also reads one of Shakespeare’s most famous verses from Twelfth Night, to explore the way the unexpected can imbue individuals with greatness, despite it being thrust upon them.

In conclusion, Rabbi Harvey considers the way the unexpected can be perceived as a divine steer, and resolves to seize upon the surprising in order to channel it in the best way possible.

Presenter: Harvey Belovski
Producer: Oliver Seymour
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Living World (m00099w6)
My Living World

Stone Curlew

Wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall is joined by Dom Davies, a wildlife film researcher to discuss another pick from the Living World archive. Today their subject is Stone Curlews and a programme in which the presenter Joanna Pinnock travels to Wiltshire in search of these crepuscular waders whose haunting calls can be heard after dusk. She is joined by Nick Adams of the RSPB who has been working with local farmers on a conservation project to improve the habitat for these birds and restore the population which became seriously depleted in the mid-1980s. For Hannah and Dom the programme offers a rare encounter with a bird that few of us will have seen or heard. Producer Sarah Blunt


SUN 06:57 Weather (m00099w8)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00099wb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00099wd)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00099wg)
Music as Therapy International

Imelda Staunton makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Music as Therapy International.

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 ‘Music as Therapy International’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Music as Therapy International’.

Registered Charity Number: 1070760


SUN 07:57 Weather (m00099wj)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00099wl)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00099wn)
Firmly I believe and truly

As people gather from around the world in St Peter's Square Rome to celebrate the Canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Sunday Worship explores the life and legacy of the man soon to be made saint. The 19th century English theologian and poet is renowned for his conversion to Catholicism at a time when he was already a high profile Anglican priest and leader of the Oxford Movement (which wished to return many Catholic beliefs and rituals to the Church of England). After his conversion he was sent to Rome and discovered the model of community life pursued by the Oratorian sons of St. Philip Neri. St. Philip. He was soon was ordained into the Catholic Church and on returning to Birmingham and set up the first Oratory in the UK in 1848 and later the London Oratory and was the founding rector at the first Catholic University of Ireland. He continued to be a prolific writer and educator and dedicated much of his time to helping the local community, and was made a cardinal in 1879.
Recorded in the Birmingham Oratory, the service is led by Father Dominic Edwards and the homily is preached by the Provost, Father Ignatius Harrison. The Director of Music is Myriam Toumi, and the music will include three hymns based on Newman's poetry, Firmly I Believe and Truly, Lead Kindly Light, and Praise to the Holiest. The producer is Miriam Williamson.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0009522)
The Myth of Inevitability

Margaret Heffernan argues that, in the world of technology, there's nothing inevitable about the future.

"I'm not saying that automation isn't a big trend or that driverless cars aren't a possibility", she writes, "but there is nothing about them that is inevitable".

She believes all these assertions of inevitability have agendas. "If we let Silicon Valley hijack our future", she says, "we gain the comfort of certainty, but lose our freedom".

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b020tp6d)
Goldfinch

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Goldfinch. With its bright yellow wing-flashes and face painted black, white and red, the goldfinch is one of our most colourful birds.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00099wq)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00099ws)
Writer, Adrian Flynn
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Ruairi Donovan ….. Arthur Hughes
Justin Elliot ….. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Toby Fairbrother ….. Rhys Bevan
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Lexi Viktorova ….. Ania Sowinski
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m00099wv)
Baroness Arminka Helić

Baroness Arminka Helić is credited with persuading William Hague, the former foreign secretary, and the actor and director Angelina Jolie to launch the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) to campaign against rape as a weapon of war.

Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Arminka fled her home country as violence escalated in the former Yugoslavia and her family appeared on a Serbian death list. Following the intervention of Lady Miloska Nott, wife of the former secretary of state for defence Sir John Nott, she arrived in London as a refugee in October 1992.

She completed a master’s degree in international history at the LSE which ignited her interest in politics. Her first Westminster job was filing press cuttings in the House of Commons Library where she was spotted and started working for MPs including Robert Key, Liam Fox and William Hague. When William Hague became foreign secretary in 2010, she joined him as a special adviser and made it her mission to bring compassion and humanity to foreign policy.

After watching Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut In the Land of Blood and Honey, the story of an inter-ethnic love affair set against the backdrop of the war in Bosnia, Arminka persuaded the foreign secretary to join forces with the Hollywood star. The PSVI highlights how sexual violence in conflict zones is often a hidden crime in which the perpetrators go unpunished.

In 2014 the PSVI held a global summit in London which brought together activists and policy-makers with the aim of recognizing this crime and bringing about successful prosecutions. In the same year, Arminka Helić entered the House of Lords as a Conservative Life Peer.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m00099wx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m000937w)
Series 14

Episode 2

Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Bridget Christie welcome comedian Sarah Kendall, botanist James Wong and bioscience entrepreneur Sir Chris Evans.

This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee donate a ship in a bottle, a terrarium and a cabbage.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shepherd, Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.

The Producers were Anne Miller and Victoria Lloyd.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m00099wz)
Joe Wicks: A Life Through Food

When Joe Wicks, the personal trainer, started making Instagram videos in his kitchen in 2014, he couldn't have imagined he'd become author of the second biggest selling UK cookbook of all time. Today he is a phenomenon. He's built a social media brand with millions of followers, nay disciples, on Instagram and YouTube who come for the quick healthy recipes and online fitness workouts.

Yet, Joe tells Sheila Dillon, somewhat modestly, "I'm not really great at cooking..."

In this programme Sheila visits Joe at home in London to find out what drives his ambition and enduring popularity. They talk cooking, parenthood, and how his own fame has affected his whole family.

Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m00099x1)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00099x3)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 Journey of a Lifetime (m00099x5)
Mountains, Mules and My Mum

Redzi Bernard is this year's winner of the 'Journey of a Lifetime' travel bursary where the RGS -in conjunction with Radio 4 - awards £5000 to someone with a brilliant idea for a radio adventure.

Redzi recreates a journey her mother made in 1968 through the Ethiopian mountains to the holy city of Lalibela, often referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World.

She begins in the capital Addis Ababa where her parents met and after night of Ethiopian jazz she hits the road north, avoiding ethnic clashes along the way. With guides and mules Redzi embarks on an arduous trek into the mountains to find a vertiginous landscape, gelada baboons and children - who've never seen foreigners before - fleeing on sight.

Her destination, Lalibela, is a complex of Ethiopian Orthodox churches all hewn out of a single piece of rock below ground level. She arrives to find a scene of pilgrimage and devotion unchanged for centuries. Redzi reflects on her own pilgrimage and struggle as well as that of her mother, who is suffering from cancer.

The closing date for next year's Journey of a Lifetime award is 10th November 2019. Details of this exciting opportunity can be found on the Royal Geographical Society website. The link is here: https://bit.ly/2vNffCs

Producer Neil McCarthy


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0009519)
Chesham

Kathy Clugston is joined by Pippa Greenwood, Christine Walkden and Matt Biggs in Chesham.

This week the panel come up with alternative planting competitions, give suggestions for colourful hanging baskets through the winter months, and identify a pear tree pest. They also offer advice for growing on chalky soil.

Away from the questions, Pippa visits Nick Gilbert at Gilbert's Dahlia Nursery.

Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m00099x7)
Sunday Omnibus - The Joy of Belonging

Fi Glover presents the omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen with three conversations about belonging - about place, about people and about things.

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 (b0b6fbs1)
Wild Honey

Episode 2

David Tennant stars in the second part of Michael Frayn's adaptation of Chekhov's play.

When Wild Honey was first produced at the National in 1984, Ian McKellan played Platonov at exactly the same age as David Tennant is now. It's a rumbustuous cornucopia of characters and themes covering sexual comedy, morality, melodramatics, the state of contemporary Russia and a hint of tragedy.

The play was famously discovered in a bank vault in 1920, sixteen years after Chekhov's death - with the title page of the play missing, leading to its rather varied history of titles. The original piece was nearly six hours long and Michael Frayn has done a masterful job of turning the work into something quintessentially Checkhovian. Most critics agree that if it shows examples of Chekhov's juvenilia - it also shows clear displays of what a genius he was to become.

Platonov himself is half Hamlet, half Benedict. A sharp and witty tongue - but somehow incapable of decision. Comedic with an underpinning of the tragic.

"I love everyone - and everyone loves me. I insult them, I treat them abominably - and they love me just the same!"

Village schoolmaster Platonov has it all - wit, intelligence, a comfortable and respectable life in provincial Russia, and the attentions of four beautiful women - one of whom is his devoted wife. As summer arrives and the seasonal festivities commence, the rapidly intensifying heat makes everyone giddy with sunlight, vodka and passion.

Platonov - What's going to become of us all?
Anna - You seem just a tiny bit less married
Platonov - How are we going to survive our lives?
Anna - First of all by enjoying the fireworks.

And fireworks is what follows.....

Adapted by Michael Frayn

Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00099x9)
Emma Donoghue, Spy Fiction, Harper Lee's Unpublished Novel

Booker shortlisted author of Room Emma Donoghue discusses her latest novel Akin, an investigation into the undercover world of the French Resistance, with a side order of contemporary intergenerational discord.

As GCHQ turns 100, spy writer Alan Judd and academic Sam Goodman consider the best fictional spooks and discuss the surprising history of the genre.

Casey Cep discusses her bestselling book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, an investigation into the true crime novel that the To Kill a Mockingbird author spent months researching but ultimately failed to publish.


SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (m00099xc)
Mike Garry

Roger McGough is joined by Manchester poet Mike Garry to hear his poetry choices. For Mike music is the key to poetry, a way of introducing it to people who believe it's not for them. Mike himself has collaborated with different musicians including New Order and Philip Glass.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000937z)
Can sex offenders and violent criminals be rehabilitated in prison?

The decision to scrap the Sex Offender Treatment Programme raised major concerns about the rehabilitation of prisoners and the impact on victims. The scheme was replaced five years after initial research suggested it wasn’t working - and might even increase the risk of re-offending. There are now calls to ensure that other courses, including those which cater for violent offenders, are properly evaluated.

Campaigners claim the system for assessing the effectiveness of such programmes is too secretive and needs to be made more open. Some experts believe there’s been an over-reliance on treatment schemes as a way of calculating the risks posed by prisoners. Victims say some prisoners are playing the system – accessing programmes to convince the authorities they’re safe to be released. Former inmates say education and training are more likely to stop offenders returning to a life of crime, while there’s emerging evidence that providing newly-released prisoners with support in the community is the key.

Reporter Danny Shaw
Producer Nicola Dowling
Editor Carl Johnston

Photo credit; Motortion\Getty


SUN 17:40 Profile (m00099qr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00099xf)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m00099xh)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00099xk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00099xm)
Sheila McClennon

There’s music and laughter this week – with Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto under the microscope, Ralph McTell’s song for the girl who captured his heart fifty years ago, relationship advice from a NOT so sweet old lady, and a young Afghan musician and his love at first sight - a piano.

Comedy comes from Clare in the Community fulfilling a life-long dream with a Dimbleby, the spoof news team Agendum and orthodox Jewish comedian – Ashley Blaker.

And if that’s not enough – there’s a plague of rats in India, an ode to the River Hull and director Stanley Kubrick’s Odyssey to find a new Post It note.

Producer: Cecile Wright


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00099xp)
Emotions run high at Grange Farm and Elizabeth offers a shoulder to cry on


SUN 19:15 Sofie Hagen: How to Love Your Fat (m00099xr)
Award-winning author-comedian Sofie Hagen examines society’s relationship with fat people and, with her infectious wit, sets a funny and impassioned agenda for moving beyond mere body positivity to a better world for everyone - fat or not.

Fatphobia is one of the last acceptable prejudices in a world that should really know better. Society continues to send poisonous messages about weight and size, causing widespread misery and mental illness, and dangerously skewing the priorities of millions of young people. Sofie Hagen, the brilliant comedian and author of last year’s hugely successful manifesto Happy Fat, asks what it really means to love your body at any size, and sets out a vision for a world where people aren't defined by their bodies.

A personal, fiercely funny examination of a subject everyone else is scared to talk about.

An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Stillicide (m00099xt)
Episode 10: Potato Water

Sudha Bhuchar continues Cynan Jones' timely series set in the tangible future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.

Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the huge capital city is increasingly at risk of sabotage.

Today: just beyond the city, a woman finds a frail young boy. As she cares for him, she begins to fear for his brother - and their dog...

Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Writer: Cynan Jones, with contributions from John Bowler and Richard Woska
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000951h)
11/11/19: Roger Bolton presents the programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience

The BBC’s Political Correspondent Chris Mason is to take over the chair of Any Questions, and on Feedback he tells Roger whether he intends to intervene as often as his predecessor Jonathan Dimbleby.

After an avalanche of complaints about the performance of BBC Sounds the executive responsible explains the decision to close the Radio iPlayer and defends the new platform against its critics.

And how appealing is Jeremy Vine’s show on Radio 2 to some loyal Radio 4 listeners? Feedback’s regular listener review has the answer.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

Producer: Kate Dixon

Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000951f)
Ginger Baker, Su Beng, John Haylett, Diahann Carroll

Pictured: Ginger Baker

Matthew Bannister on

Su Beng, the activist known as the father of Taiwan independence.

Ginger Baker, the legendary drummer with rock super group Cream who struggled with drug addiction and an unpredictable temper.

John Haylett who was editor of the socialist paper the Morning Star at a crucial time in its history.

Diahann Carroll, the African American actress who starred in many films and stage shows as well as her own TV comedy "Julia" and the soap opera "Dynasty".

Interviewed guest: Felicia Lin
Interviewed guest: Cindy Sui
Interviewed guest: Adam Sweeting
Interviewed guest: Ben Chacko
Interviewed guest: Matt Wolf

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Chiang Rattles The Sabre, Pathe News 1957; The Seven Ages of Rock, 6 Music 10/03/2015; Nationwide, BBC One 11/05/1978; Julia, 20th Century Fox Television/ Hancarr Productions / Savannah Productions 17 September 1968; Claudine, directed by John Berry, Third World Cinema / Twentieth Century Fox 1974; Dynasty, Aaron Spelling Productions 1 May 1982; One on One: Sir David Frost, BBC One 21/10/2002.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00099q0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00099wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m0009388)
The Problem with Boys

The data is indisputable: in developed countries boys now lag behind girls in several significant areas of education.

For years, women lagged behind men in educational attainment. More boys went to university, and twice as many men as women got degrees in 1960. Forty years later and, fifty seven percent of university students are women. By almost any measure of school related performance girls are doing better than boys.

Everyone agrees there is a problem but there is little consensus over what is causing it. Are boys doing worse or girls doing better? Is the education system biased against boys? Are boys just wired differently when it comes to learning?

The roots of the new gender gap are complex and nuanced, but if we can't agree on what's causing it, how can we solve it? In the meantime more and more boys will fall behind.

In this Analysis on The Problem with Boys, BBC journalist and father of three boys, David Grossman, looks at the evidence and tries to find a way forward.

Producer: Gemma Newby
Editor: Jasper Corbett


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00099xx)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m00094lf)
The London Film Festival

Antonia Quirke and Caitlin Benedict go behind the scenes of this year's London Film Festival, and discover how an award at a festival can change a director's life, and why the festival team had to e-mail critics asking them to refrain from posting their reviews before the films had even finished.


SUN 23:30 Art of Now (m0007kyf)
Jeremy Deller’s Peterloo

For any artist - this is a daunting commission.
Two hundred years ago in Manchester 18 people were killed and hundreds injured in a defining moment for protest and democracy in the UK.
And to mark the anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, Manchester City Council commissioned Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller to create a £1m pound monument to Manchester's revolutionary consciousness and the power of everyday people in the face of the armed state.
Some of the artist's best known works have been about a moment in time - his commemoration of The Battle of the Somme "We're Here Because We're Here" and The Battle of Orgreave, but here he was tasked with memorialising a defining moment of the past for perhaps another two hundred years.
From first concepts explained in 2018 in the artist's studio to the unveiling of plans before a packed Manchester Central Library, producer Kevin Core talks to the artist about the preparations and planning up to the August 2019 unveiling.
For the artist it's a people-centric piece - a stepped platform designed to "disappear" when covered in a mass of humanity, and one which points the way to contemporary instances of states turning their might on innocent protestors.
As the monument begins to take shape however, disabled activists raise their voices, asking how a work supposedly about participation and protest can be composed of steps which effectively turn them into onlookers.
Recorded over the course of a year, it's an intimate look at an artistic vision - and the moment art collides with the public.

Produced by Kevin Core