Azadeh Moaveni's acclaimed, considered and complex account about a cast of young women who made the shocking decision to join ISIS. Today, their choices exact a high price, and there are also unsettling consequences.
Journalist, writer and academic Azadeh Moaveni has covered the Middle East for almost two decades. She is the author of Lipstick Jihad and Honeymoon in Tehran. Together with the Nobel Peace Laureate, Shirin Ebadi, she wrote Iran Awakening. Guest House for Young Widows: Among the Women of ISIS is her latest book and was shortlisted for the Baille Gifford Prize for non-fiction.
Nadia Albina reads.
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
It’s International Women’s Day tomorrow, and as a mother of two young girls – I’m paying close attention to calls for greater gender equality. It is often reported that globally women spend at least twice as much time as men on domestic work.
Indeed I often wonder if I had spent more time mastering recipes from my mother than tapping away on my laptop in my twenties, I might be better equipped for my days as a mother which are so often dominated by meal planning, cooking and laundry chores.
But of course mums don’t only pass down the secrets to preparing delicious dishes to their daughters. In the Hindu tradition, mothers are also considered as custodians of an ancient culture, responsible for passing down principles and values to their children.
A deep appreciation for the Bhagavad Geeta is something my mother worked hard to pass on to me – for many years to deaf ears. But now I am in her shoes; passing down a desire to live a meaningful, creative and noble life is something I sincerely hope to give my girls.
It started in the womb for my elder daughter…I spent six weeks during pregnancy studying Scriptures at an ashram in India – she claims to still remember that trip …and has now evolved into regular Sanskrit chanting together early in the morning and a good dose of listening to enthralling stories from Hindu epics like the Ramayana, that introduce her to characters that display courage and bravery.
And so tomorrow, on International Women’s Day 2020 – while some rightly highlight their tireless efforts to fight for gender equality – let those of us who are parents, teachers or supportive guides to girls and young women, express gratitude that we have the opportunity to empower them on their inner journey.
Two cold callers feature in this episode. Jennifer Langston from Ontario in Canada sent this message to curiouscases@bbc.co.uk:
"My husband has just taken up cold water swimming and he'll swim in temperatures as low as 6 degrees Celsius. I worry that it's too cold for him, but he claims that 'swimming in cold water is good for you', which drives me bonkers. Can you tell us if there is any scientific proof behind this?”
Adam takes a trip to his local lido and asks the locals why they get a kick out of a chilly winter dip. Meanwhile, Hannah calls the Antarctic to talk to meteorologist Richard Warren about the perils of a frozen beard.
Our second cold caller, Sarah Dudley, asks why women get cold feet in bed. Thermal physiologist Heather Massey is on hand with the answer.
But when it comes to the natural world, other animals are masters of sub-zero living. Frozen Planet producer Kathryn Jeffs, from the BBC's Natural History Unit, explains why polar bears are perfectly designed for the Arctic. And we discover why Paddington Bear is better suited to Peru.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Clare Balding visits the ancient and mysterious labyrinth on top of St. Catherine's Hill in Winchester. Leading the walk is Brian Draper, who runs soulful retreats in nature.
Throughout this series of Ramblings Clare is exploring how walking affects our inner life. She is hiking with people of differing beliefs and none to discover how the simple act of being in the natural world can change how we feel. Today, she joins a retreat run by Brian Draper - you may recognise his voice from Thought For The Day on Radio 4 - who encourages the group to slow down and be a part of nature, and discusses the benefits this can have. Together they climb St. Catherine’s Hill to discover the meaning and purpose of labyrinths, a kind of spiritual maze-like path used for walking meditation.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Jo Whiley joins Aasmah Mir and the Rev Richard Coles. Jo was booking bands like Nirvana and Pulp on to Channel 4’s The Word before moving to Radio 1 as a DJ where she stayed for 18 years. These days Jo presents on Radio 2 and from Glastonbury, as well as pursing her passion for gardening. A competitive swimmer in her youth, she is about to take on the triathlon for Sport Relief.
Saturday Live listener Deborah Rowland, who trained as an archaeologist and an anthropologist, describes how uncovered her own human heritage when she tracked down her birth parents.
When Ryan Riley’s mum Krista was diagnosed with terminal small cell lung cancer, he cared for her for two years. In that time chemotherapy and radiotherapy dulled her sense of taste and she couldn’t enjoy food. After she died, Ryan had a life changing moment and decided to set up a cookery school for people like his mum – with his friend Kimberley who also lost her mother to cancer.
Sarfraz Manzoor is an author and screenwriter. Adapted from his memoir, Greetings From Bury Park, the feature film Blinded by the Light tells the story of Javed (Sarfraz), a British Muslim teenager growing up in Luton and how he finds inspiration and hope in the unlikely form of Bruce Springsteen. This has inspired his new show at the Leicester Square Theatre, Blinded by the Light – The True Story.
Dame Kristin Scott Thomas shares her Inheritance Tracks – These Boots Are Made for Walkin’, by Nancy Sinatra; and The Planets - Mars, The Bringer Of War, by Holst.
The random postcode-generator takes us to Tiptree; a place known for its jam production and for being 'Britain's largest village.'
Lately, residents have been experiencing crime like never before. Why is it happening? Is it really happening? We find answers on late-night walks, a police patrol and the Crimewatch Tiptree Facebook group.
Anushka Asthana of the Guardian and guests look back at a week in which coronavirus dominated debates at Westminster. Theresa May's effective deputy and former Conservative MP Sir David Lidington and David Cameron's former press aide Gabby Bertin reflect on the handling of the crisis.
The Labour MP Tulip Siddiq talks about the challenge of representing her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed since 2016 in Iran.
Plus, the US presidential election race viewed from the UK, with SNP MP John Nicolson and Labour activist and former Obama campaigner, Matthew McGregor.
And the Daily Mirror's Pippa Crerar on Munira Mirza and Boris Johnson's other choices of inspirational women.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
The latest news from the world of personal finance plus advice for those trying to make the most of their money.
This week we tackle the news from the UK and look further afield at Super Tuesday – Lucy Porter snoops on her shopping and Darren Harriott explores his environmental credentials.
Written by the cast, with additional material from Laura Major, Liam Bierne, Helena Langdon and Charlie Dinkin
Chris Mason presents political debate from the College of Richard Collyer in Horsham, West Sussex, with a panel including shadow home secretary Diane Abbott MP, Conservative MP Andrew Griffith, the head of the Social Market Foundation think tank James Kirkup, and Professor Hugh Pennington, Emeritus professor at the University of Aberdeen.
A governess is sent to care for two orphaned children in a remote country estate. She soon becomes convinced that forces of evil want to take possession of the children but her struggle to protect them from harm leads to a devastating conclusion.
This drama has been recorded in binaural. For an immersive 3D experience listen on headphones.
The power of crying, Hubble astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, Children and Coronavirus
The power of crying - Keith Brymer-Jones, one of the judges on the Great Pottery Throw Down, the psychoanalyst and psychotherapist Susie Orbach, and voice coach Joanna Cross discuss.
Kathryn Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was an astronaut in the team that launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.
After mastectomies the aim is to make breasts look and feel as they did before but sensitivity tends to suffer. Sarafina Nance is leading a campaign to increase understanding of sensitivity and talks about an experimental nerve-preserving procedure she received in the USA last year. We also hear from the breast surgeon Dr Ayesha Khan on treatments available in the UK.
Composer Emily Hall on the inspiration behind her piece for the Seven Ages of Women, a new commission by Radio 3 to mark International Women’s Day.
Coronavirus – how do you reassure children when everyone is talking about it, and how can they best protect themselves? We hear from Professor Trudie Lang, Director of the Global Health Network at the University of Oxford and Emma Citron, consultant clinical psychologist.
Vogue Williams, TV presenter and Instagram influencer on the rise of parent shaming.
Celebrating 10 years of the Women of the World Festival - two young activists Eunice Mwende and Dajanaa 'Dexi' Stosic on working to empower young girls and women in Kenya and Serbia.
How will the infection affect commerce in the UK and around the world? Evan Davis and a panel of guests discuss what's happening to the economy and look at likely scenarios.
Gloria Guevara, CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Vicki Pepperdine, Tanita Tikaram, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Suzi Ruffell, Unnati, Joy Crookes, Athena Kugblenu, Nikki Bedi
Nikki Bedi and Athena Kugblenu are by joined by Vicki Pepperdine, Tanita Tikaram, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Suzi Ruffell for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Unnati and Joy Crookes.
The Cabinet Office is investigating several allegations about Ms Patel's behaviour, all of which she denies.
Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office's most senior official, resigned on 29 February, alleging Ms Patel's conduct towards staff included "swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands". Since then, similar allegations have emerged from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for International Development.
Mark Coles delves into the life and times of the ambitious daughter of Indian newsagents, who wants to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher.
Hilary Mantel's new novel - The Mirror and The Light - is the final part of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. The previous two parts have sold millions of copies worldwide and garned prizes from all quarters. Can this one compare?
The Mikvah Project is a new play at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. Two Jewish men meet every Friday for ritual cleansing and a close friendship develops.
Sulphur and White is a new British film which tells the true story of a highly successful banker who suffered repeated sexual abuse as a child and how this drove him to seek justice for all abused children
A new exhibition at The Hayward Gallery in London - Among The Trees - looks at the crucuial role that trees play in our lives and imaginations
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Christopher Frayling, Abigail Morris and Catherine O'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones
Catherine - The National Telephone Kiosk Collection in Bromsgrove and the 1972 film La Cabina
Christopher - Who's Afaid of Virginia Woolf at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol and Prints by Norman Ackroyd at Watts Gallery near Guildford
Sixty years after the last conscripts arrived at their barracks and queued for their kit, historian Richard Vinen uncovers stories of the two million young men who went through National Service.
While some embraced the discipline, camaraderie and opportunities that National Service offered, others endured misery. Most never left the country, but some fought in Korea or the Malayan jungle, or found themselves in Kenya, Suez or Cyprus.
As well as memories of parade grounds and patriotism, brief moments of terror and long months of tedium, Richard considers the absurdities of army life and post-war ideas of class and masculinity.
And in an era when war with the Soviet Union seemed likely, Richard unpicks the politics of National Service from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, asking why post-war Britain needed its young conscripts and whether conscription changed Britain.
By Sharon Oakes. A series of five linked comedy dramas about an immigrant fish and chip shop run by different families through the decades. It is 1953 and the build up to the coronation. Vito is expecting his mother from Italy for the celebrations. So why is he dreading her visit?
Eight new cases to challenge the detective wit of Chief Inspector Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.
Annika is still coming to terms with the death of her friend and long-time, long suffering forensic photographer Mikel. But life goes on, and so does police work on the Oslofjord. Annika must forge a new relationship with Mikel’s young replacement, Sigrid.
Annika is on the roof of a concert hall, talking to a famous violinist who is sitting far too close to the edge for her liking.
Nick Walker is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often featured on BBC Radio 4 - including the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010) and the plays Life Coach (2010) and Stormchasers (2012). The previous series of Annika Stranded were broadcast in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a tiny organism migrated from an animal to a human. Three months later, COVID-19 has gone global. So far, nearly 90,000 people are known to have caught coronavirus and more than 3,000 of them – mostly already ill or elderly – have died. Here in the UK, the government has acknowledged that its ‘containment’ strategy is likely to fail and is planning for delaying the spread of the virus and mitigating its effects. But nobody knows how the virus will behave in Britain, and planning for the unpredictable is far from straightforward. If we know we can’t win this fight, but we don’t want to lose it too badly, what are we prepared to sacrifice on the battlefield? How authoritarian do we want the government to be? Must we be ready to accept martial law, the isolation of towns and cities, closed schools, factories and offices, bans on public transport, concerts and sporting events? While some would see such measures as sensible, others warn against authorities who would stamp on our civil liberties out of a nervous need to be seen to be doing something. And what about those in the ‘gig’ economy who can’t afford not to work? The moral dimension goes beyond the arguments about precaution, panic, freedom and frailty. The coronavirus dilemma could be seen as a real-life example of that age-old ethical thought experiment, the ‘Trolley Problem’. Should we do everything we can to protect the most vulnerable in our society, even if the knock on effect to the global economy has the potential to cause suffering and death for many more people further down the line? With Dr. Tony Booth, Dr. Norman Lewis, Julian Sheather & Professor Dominic Wilkinson.
Stephen Maddock and Elizabeth-Jane Burnett of the Midlands return to the Round Britain Quiz retreat, to see if they can exact sweet revenge on Adele Geras and Stuart Maconie of the North of England, who beat them the last time they met.
Tom Sutcliffe is on hand to ask the questions and to steer them in the right direction, deducting points when the hints get too heavy. Tom will also have the solution to the teaser question he left unanswered at the end of the previous edition.
Anna Scott-Brown hears more stories from the people who stop to sit beside her on benches around the country.
In this edition, she sits on a bench in Falmouth, Cornwall. Throughout the programme a specially commissioned work by the poet Penelope Shuttle draws on the voices of those passing by – and sometimes pausing on – the bench in Queen Mary Gardens on the seafront.
It is a counter-intuitive approach to the county that gets away from its picture-postcard image, reflecting the poverty and hardship experienced by many in a post-industrial county.
There are stories of love and death, poignantly brought together as Penelope remembers her late husband Peter on whose bench the conversations are taking place.
From the automata maker and his little cat that tells us ‘suddenly it is now’, to the exercise teacher from Washington DC, the swimming instructor who remembers losing her wellies in the park as a child, and the sustainable tourism gold award winner who is now sceptical about how much good tourism does for the country.
How long does it take to become Cornish? It seems the answer is three generations, while the county itself seems to draw out a special affection from old timers whose families go back generations and from newer arrivals.
Hidden lives are revealed and common threads recur as Anna’s gentle but insistent, and sometimes extremely direct, questions elicit poignant and profound responses from those sitting on the bench.
SUNDAY 08 MARCH 2020
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000g525)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000fx2g)
All the Fire by Jacob Ross
Lilly is a new mother with a beautiful baby and burning soul - she just has to find it again. An original short story for Radio 4 about new life and a flame that won't go out.
Jacob Ross is a novelist, short story writer and creative writing tutor. He is also Associate Fiction Editor at Peepal Tree Press, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and winner of the inaugural 2017 Jhalak Prize for his second novel The Bone Readers. His latest, Black Rain Falling, is published in March 2020.
Writer: Jacob Ross
Reader: Jade Anouka
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g527)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g529)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g52c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000g52f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000g4y8)
The Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon in Crediton in Devon
Bells on Sunday comes from The Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon in Crediton in Devon. There is a peal of twelve bells, with the tenor weighing twenty six and a half hundredweight and tuned to D. The Exeter Cathedral band rings their test piece of Cambridge Surprise Maximus.
SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (m000fvzz)
Rachel Mann - Trans Identity
Lent Talks is a personal perspective on an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is identity – losing and gaining identity; struggling with identity; accepting and owning identity. Anglican priest Rachel Mann reflects on Jesus’ journey of self-acceptance in the wilderness and how it has encouraged her in her own identity as a trans woman.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m000g4wm)
The latest national and international news headlines.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b03z3lkl)
Temptation
In this second of two special programmes for Lent, Mark Tully examines the role Temptation plays as a driving force in both spiritual and secular life. Just as all the major faiths encourage periods of abstinence from time to time, so too they all struggle with the perils of temptation.
The Buddha struggled with the temptations of asceticism, Christianity and Islam are shot through with the temptations set by the devil, and in Hinduism demons tempt the gods themselves. However, writers as disparate as Shakespeare and Martin Luther are at pains to emphasise the positive dynamics of temptation.
The programme includes music by Franz Liszt, Nina Simone and Hubert Parry, and readings from the work of R.S. Thomas, John Betjeman and Rosalind Coward.
The readers are Robert Glenister, Francis Cadder and Julie Covington.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Living World (m000gdnx)
My Living World
Winter Flies
Where do flies go in winter and what happens to them? Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Billy Clark review another selection from the Living World archive to try and find out the answer. The original programme was recorded beside an icy pond in a woodland near Kidderminster where, with the help of pooters and ‘ghostbuster gear’, a surprising number of flies are discovered in winter including the stunning-looking dollies, best known for their metallic green sheen and long dancing legs!
Producer Sarah Blunt
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000g4wp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000g4wr)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000g4wt)
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000g3g7)
Scottish Love in Action
Konnie Huq makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Scottish Love in Action.
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 ‘Scottish Love in Action’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Scottish Love in Action’.
Registered Charity Number in Scotland: SC030516
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000g4ww)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000g4wy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000g4x0)
The Woman at the Well of Living Water
Marking International Women's Day from St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow.
With Dr Pat Bennett of the Iona Community, and Provost Kelvin Holdsworth.
Cathedral Choir directed by Frikki Walker. Assistant Organist: Steven McIntyre
Readings: Isaiah 58: 9-11 / John 4
Hymn: I heard the voice of Jesus say (Kingsfold)
Rage, Wisdom, and our hearts inflame (Veni creator); Sal McDougall
The Call; Gail Randall/George Herbert
How can I keep from singing?; Sarah Quartel
Lord's Prayer; Russian Orthodox setting
Hymn: Tell out my soul (Woodlands)
Producer: Mo McCullough
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000fx36)
What to do?
"There are some things that one just has to put up with," writes Tom Shakespeare. "Sometimes over-thinking is the worst response."
Tom reflects on how we can best respond to difficult situations.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03z9k44)
Woodcock
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the woodcock. Woodcocks are waders, thickset, long-billed, and superbly camouflaged. On the woodland floor, where they hide by day, their rust, fawn and black plumage conceals them among the dead leaves of winter. Often the first sign that they're about is a blur of russet and a whirr of wings as a woodcock rises from almost under your feet and twists away between the tree-trunks.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000g4x2)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000g4x4)
Emma makes a big decision and disaster strikes for Oliver.
Writer, Caroline Harrington
Director, Julie Beckett
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ….. Tom Gibbons
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell .... Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin ….. Gareth Pierce
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m000g4fm)
Chris Riddell, illustrator, author and political cartoonist
Chris Riddell is an illustrator, author of children’s books and a political cartoonist. From 2015 to 2017, he was the Children’s Laureate, and he has won three Greenaway Medals for his work – more than any other illustrator.
He was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his parents were both anti-apartheid activists. They moved to the UK when Chris was a year old. He grew up first in rural England, and later in south London where his father, a vicar, became chaplain of Brixton Prison.
He started drawing as a young boy when he was given paper and pencils by his mother to keep him quiet during his father’s sermons. After school, he studied illustration under Raymond Briggs at Brighton Polytechnic and received his first commission while still at art school. As a writer his work ranges from picture books to chapter book series including Ottoline and Goth Girl, and as an illustrator he has frequently collaborated with authors such as Paul Stewart and Neil Gaiman.
He started as a political cartoonist in the late 1980s and has drawn the Observer’s weekly cartoon since 1995, celebrating 25 years at the paper this year. As Children's Laureate, he encouraged children to draw, and championed the importance of school libraries and librarians.
Chris is married to Jo, a fellow illustrator and printmaker, with whom he has three grown-up children, among them Katy, another illustrator.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000g4x6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Nature Table (m000fwcw)
Series 1
Episode 4
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all it’s funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo audience, a mix of London Zoo staff and members of the public, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in an fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Episode 4
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests zoologist and author Lucy Cooke, fly expert Dr. Erica McAlister and comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000g4x8)
Is the Pasty Really Cornish?
In the week that Cornish people celebrated their Patron Saint St Piran, Dr Polly Russell & Sheila Dillon ask why the pasty remains an emblem of Cornishness for people around the world.
There would have been a time when pasties were eaten all over the UK, but the PGI protected Cornish pasty has persevered in Cornwall. Today the Cornish Pasty Association estimate that on it's own, production of Cornish pasties is worth around 20 per cent of the value of the county's food and drink industry.
In this programme we hear what the pasty means to people in Cornwall, and all over the world; Because when Cornish miners emigrated away from the UK in the 19th century, they took their pasties with them.
At 2020's World Pasty Championships, we meet pasty makers from as far as the USA, Argentina, Jamaica, and closer, from Kent, Sheffield and Bristol. We hear from Bridget Galsworthy de Estavillo, who has helped to reconnect Mexican paste (pasty) makers with their Cornish heritage in the mountain communities of Hidalgo. And we ask what the Cornish pasty says about a new generation's sense of regional/national identity.
Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000g4xb)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000g4xd)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 Art of Now (m000fvv1)
North Korea
One of the largest art studios in the world is to be found in a most unexpected location.
Created in 1959 to produce art that revered the totalitarian regime, North Korea's Mansudae Art Studio now employs over 5000 staff, making it one of the biggest art-production sites in the world.
The studio makes everything from small sketches to monumental statues and murals for public buildings. Its artists are said to be the only ones permitted to portray North Korea's ruling family.
But propaganda is not its only aim: the studio is also driven by profit. In recent years, monuments and sculptures made by Mansudae artists, have popped up in Africa, Southeast Asia and even Germany.
Contributors:
Teresa Song, collector of North Korean art
Jean Lee, Director, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy
Nick Bonner, co-founder Koryo Tours
BG Muhn, Professor of painting at Georgetown University
Song Byeok, artist
Onejoon Che, filmmaker and visual artist, responsible for 'Mansudae Master Class' project.
Hamish MacDonald, Associate Fellow at RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute
Photo Credit: Koryo Tours
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000fx2d)
Spring Archive Edition
Peter Gibbs looks through the GQT archive for a spring edition of the show.
Featuring some questions and answers from across the years, as well as some old recognisable voices, there's advice on some of the best plants for a spring garden, options for different strawberry varieties, and tips for starting an allotment.
Bob Flowerdew visits James Wong's garden and Matt Biggs visits Val le May Neville-Parry at the National Collection of Clematis Montana.
Producer: Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m000g4xg)
Sunday Edition: Mark and Darren - Strangers in conversation
Palliative care consultant and hospital café assistant manager talk to each other in depth for the first time and discover how much they have in common.
Fi Glover presents the Sunday edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments 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 The Pallisers (m000g4xj)
Episode 6
The Pallisers. Dramatised by Sharon Oakes based on the novels by Anthony Trollope.
Lady Glencora has tragically died. But she is still a presence in her family. Plantagenet is bereft, but he has to protect and guide his grown up children Silverbridge and Mary. Plantagenet is against Frank Tregear marrying Mary but desperately wants Silverbridge to marry Lady Mabel Grex. Will his plans come true?
Lady Glencora............................................Jessica Raine
Plantagenet.................................................Tim McMullan
Mary..............................................................Laura Christy
Tregear........................................................Prasanna Puwanarajah
Lady Mabel.............................................Anneika Rose
Silverbridge.............................................Will Kirk
Tifto.............................................................Sam Dale
Marie............................................................Melody Grove
Isabel...........................................................Julianna Jennings
Mr Boncasson........................................Jessica Turner
Nidderdale.............................................Ikky Elyas
Popplecourt..........................................Greg Jones
Director Emma Harding
Producer Gary Brown
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000g3g9)
Kiley Reid, Lucy Foley and Abir Mukherjee, Peter Swanson
Mariella Frostrup talks to Kiley Reid about her debut novel Such A Fun Age, a story of race, class, and feminism in contemporary America.
Crime writers Lucy Foley and Abir Mukherjee discuss the fingerprints of Agatha Christie on their recent novels The Guest List and Death in The East.
And Peter Swanson shares his affection for a childhood copy of Roald Dahl as his choice of Book I'd Never Lend
SUN 16:30 Conversations on a Bench (m000g4xl)
Leeds
Anna Scott-Brown's conversations and chance encounters on a bench in Potternewton Park, Leeds provide the context for Zodwa Nyoni's specially commissioned poem.
Meeting visitors of the Leeds West Indian Carnival, whose home is this very park, along with established and new residents of Leeds' Chapeltown area, Anna uncovers stories of displacement and belonging, of shared space and shared humanity. There emerges a picture of what makes Potternewton distinctive - as well as how it has changed over the years.
The importance of music, heritage and food comes to the fore, alongside racial tensions of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with experiences of bias that still exists today. The Windrush scandal provides a contrast to the celebration of the West Indian Carnival, and the shocking death of David Oluwale in 1969 following serial police victimisation sits alongside historical accounts of police brutality suffered in this area.
Poet Zodwa Nyoni deftly interweaves her own rhythms into the stories and celebrates the beauty and vitality of this space and its people.
Poet: Zodwa Nyoni
Reporter: Anna Scott-Brown
Producer: Philippa Geering
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000fvw2)
Taking the Rap
When a video of one of the UK's biggest rap stars being attacked went viral, it marked the start of a series of events that left three young people dead. They died when tensions escalated between rival gangs in Tottenham and Wood Green in the north London borough of Haringey. File on 4 has been told the events that led to their deaths were triggered by an attack on a rapper called Headie One from the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham. Tensions were escalated via social media - violent tit-for-tat attacks filmed and posted on Snapchat and You Tube. Livvy Haydock hears the stories of those at the heart of this feud and from those whose lives it has devastated.
Reporter: Livvy Haydock
Producer: Oliver Newlan
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000g4xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000g4xq)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000g4xs)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g4xv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000g4xx)
Peter Curran
The best of BBC Radio this week.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m000g4xz)
Lynda’s frustration grows and there are fireworks on Tom and Natasha’s first wedding anniversary
SUN 19:15 Reluctant Persuaders (m0000qq8)
Series 3
Connecting People
Hardacre’s ad agency find themselves competing for an unusual account - Befriendr, a dating-style app designed to help lonely city-dwellers make friends.
Amanda (Josie Lawrence) recruits Joe (Mathew Baynton), as the most normal member of the agency, to accompany her to the Befriendr launch event – a chance to network, and maybe even make some new friends themselves.
Meanwhile Hardacre (Nigel Havers) and Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker) – both banned from attending the event for not being normal enough – seek solace in each other’s company. Hardacre resolves to remake Teddy in his own image, teaching him how to be A Real Man.
Cast:
Hardacre......................Nigel Havers
Joe..................................Mathew Baynton
Amanda........................Josie Lawrence
Teddy............................Rasmus Hardiker
Laura /
'Gram Woman...........Olivia Nixon
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Dangerous Visions (b07bzjxm)
Dark Vignettes
Inertia
The last of four specially-commissioned stories in the Dangerous Visions series.
Inertia by Melissa Lee-Houghton
Somewhere in a near-future Britain, Mr McManus wakes up in hospital and discovers that the healthcare provision he’s been paying for is not at all as expected.
Writer: Melissa Lee-Houghton
Reader: Tim McInnerny
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000fx2l)
As the Ambridge storyline about historic child sex abuse comes to an end, Roger Bolton hears audience views and discovers how The Archers production team handled this difficult story. The Editor of The Archers, Jeremy Howe, explains how the story was planned and why a much loved character, the retired academic Jim, was chosen to be at the centre of the plot.
Also, a father and daughter try - and fail - to agree on whether some new radio comics on Radio 5 Live are actually funny.
And media analyst Claire Enders spells out the existential crisis facing the BBC, as listeners comment on the future of the licence fee.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000fx2j)
Katherine Johnson, Nexhmije Hoxha, Sir Michael Berridge, Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy)
Pictured: Katherine Johnson
Matthew Bannister on
Nexhmije Hoxha, the wife of the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. The couple ran a repressive Stalinist regime and she was known in the West as the Lady Macbeth of Albania.
Katherine Johnson, the best known of a small group of African American mathematicians who carried out crucial calculations for the American space programme. Their story was told in the 2017 film "Hidden Figures".
Sir Michael Berridge, whose pioneering research into the saliva of blowflies revealed the process of cell signalling, with major implications for humans.
And Diana Serra Cary, who, under the screen name "Baby Peggy" Montgomery, was a celebrated child star of silent cinema.
Interviewed guest: Professor James Pettifer
Interviewed guest: Albana Kasapi
Interviewed guest: Dr Martin Bootman
Interviewed guest: Tom Lamont
Interviewed guest: Pamela Hutchinson
Producer: Neil George
Archive clips from: Invasion Of Albania 1939, British Pathé 13/04/2014; Bugajksi Hour, Rezart Taci 23/03/2012; The World Tonight, Radio 4 11/04/1985; Newsnight, BBC Two 11/04/1985; President Obama Awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The Obama White House 24/11/2015; Hidden Figures, directed by Theodore Melfi, Fox 2000 Pictures/Chernin Entertainment/Levantine Films/TSG Entertainment 2016; Katherine Johnson: Math Interest, visionaryproject 08/03/2010; 5 Live Breakfast, Radio 5 Live 25/02/2020; What Matters - Katherine Johnson: NASA Pioneer and "Computer", WHRO Public Media 25/02/2011; John Glenn's Historic Space Flight 1962, CNN 08/12/2016; Lewis Wolpert Conversations, Radio 3 01/04/1993; Front Row, Radio 4 18/01/2006; Summer of Silents, Oscars 21/03/2014.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000g4y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000g3g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000fwd0)
China's Captured "Princess"
If you want to understand the global reach of a rising China, visit Vancouver. Canada has been sucked in to an intractable dispute between the US and China after the arrest on an American warrant of Meng Wanzhou, an executive with the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei. Beijing’s furious response caught Canada off guard. Two Canadians have been detained in China – seemingly in response, precipitating an acute foreign policy crisis. Canadian journalist Neal Razzell examines what could be the first of many tests both for Canada and other nations, forced to choose between old allies like America and the new Asian economic giant.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000g4y4)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000fw1l)
John Boorman
With Antonia Quirke.
John Boorman looks back at a career that includes Deliverance, Hope And Glory and Point Blank. He reveals why he's still surprised that films get made, or at least finished, given that so much can go so wrong.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b03z3lkl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 09 MARCH 2020
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000g4y6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000fvzf)
Loneliness
Loneliness - Fay Bound Alberti, Reader in History at the University of York, charts the emergence of loneliness as a contemporary emotional state. Also, Janne Flora, postdoctoral scholar at Aarhus University, explores the deep connections between loneliness and modernity in the Arctic, tracing the history of Greenland and analysing the social dynamics that shaped it.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000g4y8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g4yb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g4yd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g4yg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000g4yj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000g4yl)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
Good morning.
I often wonder where the tremendous inner strength and power to pursue a great goal arises from.
When I read of Greta Thunberg’s uncompromising determination to change human behaviour in a way that works for the environment or -consider how much Malala Yousafzai has given for the sake of girls' education – I’m reminded of the profound devotion that the hero of the Hindu festival of Holi, Prahlad, had for his goal.
His father, the evil king Hiranyakashipu believed in his own supremacy and declared the world should worship him alone. But his son, Prahlad, still a young boy, only had a deep love for the Lord in his heart. Enraged by his son’s refusal to submit he attempted many times to have Prahlad killed. It culminated in the boy being forced into the lap of the evil king’s sister Holika as she sat in a fire. A strong wind blows a fireproof shawl she was wearing to prevent her being burnt onto the little boy Prahlad, as he continuously and calmly chants the Lord’s name. He is left unscathed while the flames burn her. It is Prahlad’s glory and unflinching devotion that enabled him to endure so much, that is celebrated by Hindus during Holi each year.
Whether a person’s goal is material, political, or spiritual, like Prahlad’s – it seems that a deep, considered commitment to one sole aim can be incredibly powerful.
When it is directed to the greater good of society, the effects can be felt for many years after.
So as the two-day Hindu festival of Holi begins today, let us reflect on those inspiring individuals who’ve been committed to a cause that has mattered to us and let us pray that we too can develop just some of that single-pointedness in our lives.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000g4yn)
09/03/20 - The Northern Ireland Protocol, thermal cameras for spotting birds and lambing starts
There are concerns from farmers and fishermen and women about what the Northern Ireland Protocol will mean for trade, once the Brexit transition period is over. Northern Ireland would have to RETAIN the EU's rules around agricultural and manufactured goods - and that could create trade barriers if the rest of the country ditches EU rules from next year. We hear the latest thoughts from farmers and fishermen.
We visit a farm in south Staffordshire, where birds are being monitored using thermal imaging cameras. Members of the Belvide Bird Ringing Group go out at night to catch and ring species like skylarks, which are hard to get using the more traditional mist nets. Usually only about 200 skylarks a year are ringed across the whole of the UK but with the high tech kit, the team ringed 400 on just one farm.
And as the lambing season kicks off, we focus on the sheep sector. There are about 34 million sheep across the UK - 17 million of them lambs - and in 2018 we produced nearly three hundred thousand tonnes of sheep meet.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe
Produced by Heather Simons
MON 05:56 Weather (m000g4yq)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrc8z)
Green Woodpecker
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the green woodpecker. The maniacal laughing call, or 'yaffle', of a green woodpecker was supposed to herald rain, hence its old country name of 'rain bird'. You can hear their yodelling calls in woods, parks, heaths and large gardens throughout most of the UK. Altough green woodpeckers do nest in trees they spend a lot of their time on the ground, probing lawns and meadows for their main food, ants and their pupae.
MON 06:00 Today (m000g4ys)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000g4yv)
Morality, money and power
Morality has been outsourced to the markets and the state, argues the former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. He tells Andrew Marr that society has become deeply divided, and that today’s challenges will never be met until we remember the importance of personal morality and responsibility. But this does not mean self-care, self-love and selfies - instead Sacks says we should focus on communities and caring for others.
For a decade Mervyn King was the most influential banker in Britain as Head of the Bank of England. In 2008 he oversaw the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. In his new book, King looks back at his career, exploring the difference between risk and uncertainty. He suggests ways to make decisions for an unknowable future.
If you wanted a decision from David Cameron during his time as Prime Minister you would have had to go through ‘the gatekeeper’, Kate Fall. In her memoir of her time at the centre of political power, Fall recalls the highs and lows of working at No. 10, and explains what happens when power and politics starts to fall apart.
Producer: Hannah Sander
MON 09:45 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (m000g4yx)
Autumnal Observations
David Attenborough reads from J.A. Baker's British nature writing classic which was published over fifty years ago to critical acclaim. Written in the form of a diary, it covers seven months from autumn to spring and charts Baker's observations of this extraordinary predator. Today, it is post-harvest and Baker is out in the country-side in search of this avian predator.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000g4yz)
Table Manners: Jessie and Lennie Ware, Naomi Wolf and The Beauty Myth 30 years on
Popstar turned podcaster Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie Ware discuss working together in their hit podcast Table Manners where they cook dinner for a different celebrity every week.
Should racing be doing more to celebrate the fact that it is one of the few sports where men and women compete in the same events? We speak to Jockey Lizzie Kelly - the first woman to win a Grade One race in Britain and now holder of two Grade Ones and two Cheltenham Festival winners. As Cheltenham starts again this year she joins us to discuss Just Jockeys, a campaign by Great British Racing.
Thirty years ago saw the publication of The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. It 'redefined our view of the relationship between beauty and female identity'. With the author and make-up artist Kay Montano, we explore what has changed three decades on.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Interviewed guest: Jessie Ware
Interviewed guest: Lennie Ware
Interviewed guest: Lizzie Kelly
Interviewed guest: Naomi Wolf
Interviewed guest: Kay Montano
Reporter: Georgie Rogers
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore
MON 10:45 The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (m000g4z1)
The Leopard
Episode 6
By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.
Don Fabrizio Corbera is the Prince of Salina in Sicily, during the Risorgimento; the unification of Italy. An irresistible giant of a man whose hands are like paws and who makes the ground tremble when he rises to his feet, the Prince is clear-eyed, intelligent and languid, aptly represented by the leopard on his coat of arms.
The Prince knows he must attempt to preserve what remains of his family’s feudal power in a period of political turmoil. He realises their best hope lies in his charming and resourceful nephew, Tancredi, who knows that "everything must change so that everything can stay the same".
The Leopard is a masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Episode 6: Tancredi has fallen in love with the beautiful Angelica, the daughter of the nouveau-riche commoner Don Calogero.
Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
MON 11:00 Out of the Ordinary (m000g4z3)
Series 7
Have we already found aliens?
As telescopes get better, astronomers are seeing more and more things in the night sky. Sometimes they can't explain them. Is it unreasonable to suggest that they might have found evidence of alien civilisation, or at least some form of extra-terrestrial life? Call it right and they could get the Nobel prize. Get it wrong and it could be career suicide. Only those at the very end of their career, with a well-established reputation, can afford to take the chance. Jolyon Jenkins reports on some of the cases where scientists have stuck their necks out, and how badly it can go wrong for them if their findings are less robust than they thought.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000g4z5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000g4z7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g4z9)
Call of the Wild
Jack London's The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck and the story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.
Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and published as a book a month later. Its great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted for film, and it has seen several more cinematic adaptations since.
It's often thought of as a children's book and indeed the current film has turned it into a story more suitable for the young. But the original writing is fierce, poetic, beautiful and atmospheric. It appeals to the core of everyone's nature. Exciting and moving in equal measure, it's a sublime adventure story.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000g4zc)
Debt adverts, Posh Deliveroo, Dangerous cladding
We report on how misleading adverts targeting people in debt are still appearing online despite a promise by Google to deal with them. The adverts are from companies which use names very similar to respected debt charities. They pay Google to come top of searches and attract people who are struggling with debt. These people then end up paying for advice that the charities would have given them free of charge. Last October, Google told us new rules would tackle this, not just in the UK but across the world. We checked and found the same sort of misleading adverts are still appearing. We speak to Stepchange, one of the charities affected.
We examine the growing trend for dining-in since new companies like Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat entered the market. One in 20 people in the UK now order food in this way, and a study by KPMG says 25 per cent would like healthier options on the menu. We speak to Philip Britten, a Michelin-starred chef, who has just launched The Cookout Club, an upmarket food delivery service in south London bringing freshly-made restaurant food to people's homes. We also hear from, Harry Wallop, a consumer journalist, who once worked as a Deliveroo cyclist, and knows a thing or two about this market.
We visit a block of flats in Salford where 150 leaseholders have been told the cladding on their building won't be replaced, because it isn't identical to the type used on the Grenfell Tower. The people living there had been hoping to benefit from a £200 million government fund to cover the cost of replacing dangerous cladding.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes
MON 12:57 Weather (m000g4zf)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000g4zh)
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 Living National Treasures (m000g4zk)
Episode 1
We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!
Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to them, taking the listener by the hand into people's homes, their workshops and their lives.
While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft. In Japan, this includes crafts such as ceramics, textiles, metalwork and even papermaking.
Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. The series represents crafts which are absolutely in and of a place and tell us something about the community and the individual. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've decided to eschew more conventional careers to sustain an existence practising rare and unusual crafts. This is aspirational aural escapism, allowing us to reflect on such a life for ourselves. Each programme will induce a sense of flow in the listener; that peaceful, mindful state when you're doing something, but you're almost unaware that you're doing it.
MON 14:00 The Archers (m000g4xz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (m000g4zm)
Part 3
Written by Anita Vettesse with monologues by Eileen Horne.
Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist, assessing and treating perpetrators of the most unthinkable crimes.
In this gripping drama, Alex charts the psychological impact of the murder of a young man on his family, and explores the long shadow of homicide through her therapy group for murderers.
Whilst David remains in custody for the murder of his son, the rest of the family must move back into the house where the killing took place.
Cast:
Alex … Lolita Chakrabarti
Hannah … Jessica Hardwick
Kyle … Reuben Joseph
David … Robin Laing
Karen … Victoria Liddelle
Laura… Shauna Macdonald
Series created by Audrey Gillan, Lucia Haynes, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.
Series consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Kirsty Williams
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000g4zp)
Programme 9, 2020
(9/12)
Tom Sutcliffe chairs the re-match between the South of England and Northern Ireland, who finished neck and neck last time they met. Paul Sinha and Marcus Berkmann are the South of England pairing, opposite Freya McClements and Paddy Duffy for Northern Ireland.
They'll need their wits about them as Tom's cryptic questions require them to make connections involving medieval chroniclers, early Hollywood comedies, Formula One drivers, children's literature and folk songs. The questions include a number of the most intriguing ideas sent in by Round Britain Quiz listeners in recent months.
Tom also reveals the solution to the puzzle he left unanswered for listeners to ponder at the end of last week's quiz.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000g4x8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Lift Going Up (m000fnl1)
The lift comes to life and tells the story of how the elevator changed the way we live.
Emma Clarke plays the voice of the lift in this cultural history of the elevator. As we step inside, the doors close and the lift starts to speak, telling us its story.
Before the lift, the top floor was the least desired and most unhealthy place to live. The lift changed all that and made the penthouse glamorous and desirable. The lift made life immeasurably easier but it also brought many anxieties - about safety and the strange, forced intimacy of the lift car. It's also been a source of inspiration for writers - from 19th century German literature right through to Hollywood.
And now the lift is about to undergo a radical shift - as engineers develop a lift with no limits on how high it can go.
Step inside, relax, and allow the lift to tell you its story.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000g4zs)
Series 19
Lab Rats
When you go online, there is a 100% chance that you will be part of an experiment. We are constantly observed, and tested upon, in the digital space, and more often than not it’s done without our knowledge or explicit consent.
Many experiments are simple and narrow, focused on how to keep our eyeballs on a particular page, to how to get us to click a particular button, or how to separate people into categories where we can be subjected to particular exploitation - did your hotel or plane tickets cost more or less than another person on the same site?
But should we be afraid of every test in the digital world?
Aleks finds out how a glitch in the World of Warcraft resulted in the first virtual plague, and it allowed epidemiologists to study human behaviour in a pandemic situation, without risk of anyone really being harmed but in ways that were startlingly analogous to real world behaviour.
And she delves into the now infamous Facebook Emotional Contagion study, and finds out that the public outrage may not only have been displaced, but could have done far more, and longer lasting, harm than could have been predicted.
MON 17:00 PM (m000g4zv)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g4zx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Nature Table (m000g4zz)
Series 1
Episode 5
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo audience, a mix of London Zoo staff and members of the public, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in an fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Episode 5
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests award-winning wildlife cameraman Doug Allan, ant expert Dr. Claire Asher and comedian Sindhu Vee.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000g3jf)
One resident finds themselves in a desperate situation and Emma struggles to remain calm under pressure
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000g501)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber (b04l0gd8)
Episode 6
Joe Armstrong, Hayley Atwell and Dougray Scott star in Miranda Emmerson's adaptation of the extraordinary novel by Michel Faber (Under the Skin, Crimson Petal and the White).
Set in the near future, it tells the story of Peter, devoted husband and devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Beatrice.
Peter has travelled to a far distant planet, called Oasis, where an enigmatic corporation called USIC have a base. He has been employed as Christian missionary to the native inhabitants - a gentle, peaceable community, who have welcomed Peter to their settlement and are eager to hear the teachings of the Bible, a book they call 'The Book of Strange New Things'.
In today's episode, Bea has big news for Peter.
Adapted for radio by Miranda Emmerson
CAST
Narrator.....Dougray Scott
Peter.....Joe Armstrong
Beatrice.....Hayley Atwell
Grainger.....Kelly Burke
Oasan/ Tuska.....Mark Edel-Hunt
Jesus Lover Number One/ Severin.....Michael Bertenshaw
Jesus Lover Number Five/ BG.....Damian Lynch
Jesus Lover Number Four.....David Acton
USIC Psychologist.....Jane Slavin
USIC Doctor.....Elaine Claxton
Other parts played by members of the company
Directed by Emma Harding
MON 20:00 The Cash for Ash Scandal (m000g3hx)
The inside story of Northern Ireland's "Cash for Ash" scandal.
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000g503)
Unequal England
Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies explores what the world of work can tells us about inequality and why some towns and cities feel left behind. He finds England is one of the most regionally unequal economies in the developed world.
He looks at the differences in wages and opportunities across the county and seeks to understand why this has created areas where people struggle to find well paid work.
This edition of the programme includes interviews with:
Professor Steve Machin - The Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics
Helen Barnard - Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Tom Forth - Open Data Institute Leeds
Henry Overman - Director, The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth
James Bloodworth - Author "Hired - Six months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain"
Richard Hagan - MD, Crystal Doors
Tony Lloyd MP for Rochdale
Jade & Billy - workers
Producer - Smita Patel
Editor - Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 Science Stories (b05xh31n)
Series 1
The Bone Wars
The Bone Wars
In the first of a new series looking at amazing events and characters from science history, Tracey Logan takes us back to the wild west of America, and looks at the extraordinary feud that came to be known as the Bone Wars. This is a tale of corruption, bribery and sabotage - not by cowboys, but by two palaeontologists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, who would stop at nothing in their race to find new dinosaur fossils. This was the golden age of dinosaur discovery, and their bitter war led to the discovery of some of our most iconic dinosaur species: Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Diplodocus and Camarasuarus to name a few. What led these two seemingly respectable men of science to behave in such an unseemly way, and what was the legacy of this now infamous feud? Tracey Logan investigates.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000g4yv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000g508)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g4z9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Night Vision (m000g50b)
The Snake
In new after hours listening on Radio 4, the team behind Wireless Nights present three acoustically rich journeys through three long nights of the soul. Nights that left an indelible mark on the storyteller.
Time stretches out in the early hours. The space between sleep and wakefulness is alive with possibility. Fears and anxieties are projected in lurid hues, distorted, outsized. Dreams fade in and out. The real and the imaginary blur.
Tonight, actor Jonathan Forbes recalls a night he spent on a friends sofa when he awoke to find a man staring in at him through the window. An unexpected power exchange takes place as he works out what to do about this unwanted Night Vision.
Jonathan Forbes plays himself and the man at the window
The Casting director was played by Jessica Turner
The Snake by DH Lawrence was read by Jonathan Forbes
Thanks to Father Dermot Heakin
Sound Design by Axel Kacoutié
Producer Neil McCarthy
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000b4rp)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2020
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000g50d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (m000g4yx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g50g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g50j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g50l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000g50n)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000g50q)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
Good morning.
After a good few months of grey, gloom and a fair bit of wind and rain, I’ve enjoyed a quiet pleasure in spotting the first few spring flowers adding a very welcome flicker of colour as they emerge in small pockets around my wet and muddy garden.
Such is the joy of Holi, a popular Hindu seasonal festival that is celebrated today, in which everyone splashes coloured water and powder all over each other’s faces and clothes with no restraint.
It’s wonderful, because it reflects exactly what’s happening in nature in early springtime.
But this joy-inducing format that over the last few years has been lifted out of its original religious context and repurposed as the pinnacle of a great party – celebrated more like a rave in London, Ibiza and New York - loses its real charm if its essence is removed.
Some Hindu festivals – like Mahashivaratri which is dedicated to Lord Shiva, are more contemplative. Others celebrate the birth of great incarnations like Lord Rama and Krishna and there are those, like Diwali, that celebrate the victory of good over evil.
All of these offer an entertaining break from the monotony of daily life, but when examined closely, their primary and underlying aim is to elevate and lift the mind towards a noble vision.
So as this two-day festival of colour is marked, let us remember the dominant idea behind the many Hindu celebrations that relate to seasonal changes is for us to become more attuned to the changes in nature.
May Holi this year encourage us to live in greater harmony with our natural world, especially at a moment in time where the effects of its man-made exploitation are becoming all too quickly apparent.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000g50s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0n4w)
Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the displaying Raggiana bird-of-paradise from Papua New Guinea. An explosion of colour flashes across the tree canopy of a rainforest: male Raggiana birds-of-paradise, one of the most spectacularly coloured birds in the world, are displaying to one another. The Raggiana or Count Raggi's bird-of-paradise is Papua New Guinea's national bird and it's easy to see why. His yellow head and green throat are eye-catching enough but even more flamboyant are the long tufted flank feathers which he can raise into a fan of fine reddish-orange plumes. Males gather at traditional display sites quivering these enormous flaming plumes like cabaret dancers as they cling to an advantageous branch. The urgency of their display is underlined by frantic calls which echo through the canopy, in the hope he can impress the much plainer female to mate with him.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000g3hl)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Patch (m000ffc8)
Warrington
Producer Polly Weston is sent to WA2 0 - the outskirts of Warrington - where she gets thrown into the underground world of teenagers on scrambler bikes.
WA2 0 is a postcode mainly made up of housing estates, with a few pockets of green space. The area was once known for its RAF base, and for producing wire, but nowadays that has all gone. The housing estates are full of families and everyone describes it as a community-orientated area, but it has experienced issues with drugs and violence in recent years.
Yet something else has been bothering residents over recent months - teenagers riding scrambler bikes illegally on the estates. Scramblers - off road motorbikes, pit bikes, and motorcross bikes or crossers - designed for racing off road, on tracks. They are not registered, not licensed, and not meant to be ridden on the roads at all. But here they are hurtling around the estates and pedestrian areas of WA2 and infuriating residents. It turns out it is not confined to Warrington - the police have been fighting it across the North West.
Polly sets out on a seemingly impossible mission to find the teenagers behind the racket, and to understand why this trend has emerged. Amid the reckless behaviour, are some harrowing surprises about how the boys see themselves and their futures, and what the bikes give to them.
This is the first of a series of seven new Patches. Each week a new postcode is generated and a new story searched for, taking us to Blackford in Perthshire, Torry in Aberdeen, Tiptree in Essex, Hartlepool, Croxteth in Liverpool, and the town of Elland.
Producer/Presenter: Polly Weston
Exec Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
TUE 09:30 New Storytellers (m00075jc)
The Flapper
The story of one family told through one object - a memorial to a much-missed matriarch as her family celebrate the life and cookery of Audrie Guthrie, an idiosyncratic and creative mother.
Malcolm Guthrie was 94 when his youngest son Bruce returned to live with him in their family home after 31 years away. This is the story of one of the untold heroes of domestic life - the daily use of something seemingly inconsequential but full of memory, meaning and symbolism to their family. Documenting the ways in which the spirits of people can so often be captured within domestic objects.
New Storytellers presents the work of radio and audio producers new to BBC Radio 4 and this first series features the five winners of this year's Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
The Flapper was produced by Bruce Guthrie, an MA student in Radio Documentary Production at the University of the West of England, who recorded his father and older siblings, Fiona and Tim, during the second Christmas after the death of their mother. It’s a celebration of what the Charles Parker Award judges called her “idiosyncratic, matriarchal ways – a radio feature which acts as a way of dealing with loss as well as containing quiet joy.”
Producer: Bruce Guthrie
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:45 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnbd8)
Ploughing Season
David Attenborough reads from J. A. Baker's classic of British nature writing. It's late autumn, ploughing season, and Baker and the peregrine come face to face.
Published over fifty years ago to critical acclaim, The Peregrine was the recipient of one of the most prestigious literary prizes of the time. Written in the form of a diary it charts Baker's almost daily observations of this extraordinary predator over the course of seven months, from autumn to spring.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000g3hs)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (m000g3hv)
The Leopard
Episode 7
By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.
Don Fabrizio Corbera is the Prince of Salina in Sicily, during the Risorgimento; the unification of Italy. An irresistible giant of a man whose hands are like paws and who makes the ground tremble when he rises to his feet, the Prince is clear-eyed, intelligent and languid, aptly represented by the leopard on his coat of arms.
The Prince knows he must attempt to preserve what remains of his family’s feudal power in a period of political turmoil. He realises their best hope lies in his charming and resourceful nephew, Tancredi, who knows that "everything must change so that everything can stay the same".
The Leopard is a masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Episode 7: Tancredi has fallen in love with the beautiful Angelica, the daughter of the nouveau-riche commoner Don Calogero.
Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
TUE 11:00 The Cash for Ash Scandal (m000g3hx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
TUE 11:30 Art of Now (m000g3hz)
Good Vibrations
With an imminent book deadline, a tax return to complete and a hectic family life revolving around two young children, comedian and actor Isy Suttie is feeling stressed. Neither meditation nor massage has helped her relax, so she decides to explore sound therapy. Practitioners believe sound and music can be used to improve our physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
Isy meets Lyz Cooper, principal of the British Academy Of Sound Therapy and experiences treatments involving gongs and Himalayan singing bowls. She also attempts to chill out by listening to“the most relaxing piece of music in the world”. It’s a track called Weightless by Manchester band Marconi Union, one of whose members, Richard Talbot, explains why it’s so soothing.
Next Isy tries on some wearable tech that pumps vibrations directly into the body. It’s called vibroacoustic therapy and she likens it to “having a friendly, vibrating creature on my back.”
But the real mood-lifter is when she sits in as 85-year-old Gina, who has dementia, enjoys some music therapy. What might seem, on the face of it, to be a simple singalong to some old favourites has a remarkable effect on Gina - and on Isy too.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000g4wh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g3j3)
Episode 2
Jack London's The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck and the story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.
Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and published as a book a month later. Its great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted for film, and it has seen several more cinematic adaptations since.
It's often thought of as a children's book and indeed the current film has turned it into a story more suitable for the young. But the original writing is fierce, poetic, beautiful and atmospheric. It appeals to the core of everyone's nature. Exciting and moving in equal measure, it's a sublime adventure story.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000g3j5)
Call You and Yours
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000g3j7)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000g3j9)
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 Living National Treasures (m000g3jc)
Episode 2
We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!
Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to them, taking the listener by the hand into people's homes, their workshops and their lives.
While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft. In Japan, this includes crafts such as ceramics, textiles, metalwork and even papermaking.
Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. The series represents crafts which are absolutely in and of a place and tell us something about the community and the individual. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've decided to eschew more conventional careers to sustain an existence practising rare and unusual crafts. This is aspirational aural escapism, allowing us to reflect on such a life for ourselves. Each programme will induce a sense of flow in the listener; that peaceful, mindful state when you're doing something, but you're almost unaware that you're doing it.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000g3jf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000g3jh)
Brave Old World
After an eco-holocaust the remaining populations of the world have gone completely green. Economic growth is banned, invention is a crime, and everyone lives in small, self-sufficient villages rigorously controlled by Facilitators.
But all revolutions tend to go wrong, no matter how well-intentioned, and there are always rebels.
Miranda, disaffected with the new old ways and bored by her designated ideologically perfect partner, decides to see what the bad old world had to offer.
Cast:
Miranda ..... Eleanor Jackson
Peter ..... Tom York
The Facilitator ..... Geraldine Alexander
Wendy ..... Kellie Shirley
The Inventor/Boss ..... Christian Rodska
The Prophet ..... Paul Joseph
Written by Mike Harris
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000g3jk)
Series 22
Call Me
Wrong numbers that make the right connections and the comforting voices of strangers - Josie Long presents short documentaries and adventures in sound about phones.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000g3jm)
Fate of the Falcons
The Naga people of north-east India and Myanmar have long been famed for their hunting prowess. In the days of traps and catapults a balance was maintained but the influx of high calibre guns and the arrival of the Chinese Medicine Trade have wiped out much of the jungle wildlife. Tigers and Asian Black Bear are now very rare sights and even deer are increasingly hard to find.
Travel writer, Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent visits Nagaland to meet the local tribal people who have decided that enough is enough. They've banned hunting around their villages and created their own wildlife refuges. Already the signs are positive, with the revival of the Amur Falcon which was once hunted by the thousand and now nests peacefully in enormous flocks in the forest canopy.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000g3gr)
An Enterprising Court
Tucked away in the City of London is one of the UK’s most successful invisible exports. But is the Commercial Court threatened by international developments? Joshua Rozenberg investigates.
Producer: Neil Koenig
Researcher: Di Richardson
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000g3jp)
Henry Normal & Bobby Seagull
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is a book beloved of Bobby Seagull and his family (there's a clue there). Bobby is the school maths teacher and maths genius who leapt out of the screen after appearing on University Challenge into a TV career of his own.
Poet Henry Normal chooses Diary of a Somebody by Twitter-poet Brian Bilston. Henry co-wrote The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle family, and produced TV comedy including Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge. He knows funny, and Brian Bilston's book fits the bill.
Presenter Harriett Gilbert reminds them both of Lord of the Flies by William Golding, studied by them all at school but which reads very differently in adulthood.
Producer Beth O'Dea
talk books with us on instagram on @goodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000g3jr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g3jw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (b09xnnjl)
Hexagonal Phase
Episode 5
Simon Jones stars as Arthur Dent in a brand new full-cast series based on And Another Thing...,the sixth book in the famous Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy.
Forty years on from the first ever radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent and friends return to be thrown back into the Whole General Mish Mash, in a rattling adventure involving Viking Gods and Irish Confidence Tricksters, with our first glimpse of Eccentrica Gallumbits and a brief but memorable moment with The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal.
Starring John Lloyd as The Book, with Simon Jones as Arthur, Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson and Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Jim Broadbent as Marvin the Paranoid Android and Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch. The cast also includes Samantha Béart, Toby Longworth, Andy Secombe, Ed Byrne, Lenny Henry, Philip Pope, Mitch Benn, Jon Culshaw and Professor Stephen Hawking.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018, the series is written and directed by Dirk Maggs and based on And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams.
Music by Philip Pope
Production research by Kevin Jon Davies
Written and directed by Dirk Maggs
Based on the novel And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional material by Douglas Adams
Recorded at The Soundhouse Ltd by Gerry O'Riordan
Sound Design by Dirk Maggs
Produced by Dirk Maggs, Helen Chattwell and David Morley
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000g3jy)
There’s bad news for Robert and Elizabeth goes over the top.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000g3k0)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber (b04l0tg6)
Episode 7
Joe Armstrong, Hayley Atwell and Dougray Scott star in Miranda Emmerson's adaptation of the extraordinary novel by Michel Faber (Under the Skin, Crimson Petal and the White).
Set in the near future, it tells the story of Peter, devoted husband and devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Beatrice.
Peter has travelled to a far distant planet, called Oasis, where an enigmatic corporation called USIC have a base. He has been employed as Christian missionary to the native inhabitants - a gentle, peaceable community, who have welcomed Peter to their settlement and are eager to hear the teachings of the Bible, a book they call 'The Book of Strange New Things'.
In today's episode, Peter attempts to bridge the vast distance between Oasis and Earth and reconnect with his wife, Bea.
CAST
Narrator.....Dougray Scott
Peter.....Joe Armstrong
Beatrice.....Hayley Atwell
Grainger.....Kelly Burke
Oasan/ Tuska.....Mark Edel-Hunt
Jesus Lover Number One/ Severin.....Michael Bertenshaw
Jesus Lover Number Five/ BG.....Damian Lynch
Jesus Lover Number Four.....David Acton
USIC Psychologist.....Jane Slavin
USIC Doctor.....Elaine Claxton
Other parts played by members of the company
Directed by Emma Harding.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000g3k2)
Extreme measures: Can extremists be de-radicalised?
Usman Khan was released from prison in 2018 for plotting a terror attack. He'd undertaken two de-radicalisation programmes designed to turn him away from violent extremism. Yet despite efforts to rehabilitate him, Khan launched an attack near London Bridge - killing two people. It was the first of two violent attacks involving convicted extremists in a little over two months. So just how effective are schemes designed to de-radicalise offenders? For the first time, File on 4 hears from those at the heart of these programmes - the 'intervention providers' tasked with turning offenders away from violence. Some say offenders are able to cheat the system and convince the authorities they've changed their ways. So how can these intervention providers ever know when their work has been successful? The programme hears from a serving prisoner in a maximum security jail who says convicted terrorists are "gaming" the system by pretending to comply with "de-radicalisation" courses - and he warns that non terrorist offenders are being dangerously radicalised.
Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Helen Clifton
Editor: Carl Johnston
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000g3k4)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000g3k6)
Inside Health demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice, with the help of resident sceptic GP Margaret McCartney
TUE 21:30 New Weird Britain (m0005mqz)
Urban Hinterlands
Music journalist John Doran travels across the country in search of an underground movement of musicians, blossoming in the margins of Britain.
Artists of all stripes have been driven out of the city centres by soaring rent prices and hit hard by the dwindling revenues of the digital economy. But untethered from the prospect of making any money and fueled by the current political turmoil, a new wave of musicians is splintering away from convention to stage bizarre one-off performances that fly in the face of austerity.
They are living off-grid in the countryside, building their own instruments out of electronic junk, staging strange rituals with priests smeared in clay, or even performing with a team of dancers dressed as anatomically correct vaginas which squirt cream over the audience.
In this episode, John Doran seeks out the musicians who are managing to cling on to the edgelands of the big cities to find out whether, away from the expensive artisanal coffee outlets of the urban centres, a new musical underground can still survive in the major cities of Britain.
Contributors include Natalie Sharp, aka Lone Taxidermist, Dan Jones and Charlotte Blackburn from UKAEA, Marion Andrau, Kelly Jayne Jones, Emma Thompson, LOFT, Gordon Bruce and Joel White from GLARC.
Produced by Alannah Chance
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Image credit: Luis Kramer
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000g3k8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g3j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Liam Williams: Ladhood (b098nfgb)
Series 2
Episode 3
Comedian Liam Williams recounts his youthful misadventures in this autobiographical sitcom. Episode three finds Liam looking for love in all the wrong places as he tries to impress the ladies with some help from a sleazy pick-up manual.
Ladhood is written and performed by Liam Williams and starred.
Al Roberts
Emma Sidi
Freya Parker
Kieran Hodgson
Paul G Raymond
Sally Grace
Paul Copley
The Producer is Joe Nunnery
It is a BBC Studios Production.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000b5lj)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2020
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000g3kb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnbd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g3kg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g3kj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g3kl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000g3kn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000g3kq)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
Good morning. As my 4-year-old daughter wagged her finger and raised her tone at me for not looking carefully before accusing her of misplacing an item that was right in front of me – a verse from the sacred Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Geeta - came to mind.
yad yad ācharati śhreṣhṭhas tat tad evetaro janaḥ
sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate
It translates from Sanskrit as,
‘Whatever a great man does, that other men also imitate, whatever he sets up as the standard, that the people follow’.
It highlights the psychological truth, that humans are essentially imitating animals. At first glance, this verse may appear more relevant to the nation’s political and religious leaders – from whom we expect exemplary behaviour - rather than to an exhausted mother trying to get her kids in bed by seven.
But children are a wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful mirror – especially in their very early years – out of the blue they speak back to you in a tone you may have – only just once - taken with them. If there’s anyone who will observe and call you out on a slight slip from your standards of integrity, a child in your care will happily offer their services.
And so the idea that, I, an ordinary everyday person am a ‘great man’ to someone holds true here. We cannot all be great leaders that inspire a movement. But nearly all of us can say that there is probably someone in the world who is watching us closely and possibly imitating the way we speak, act and react to the world around us.
So may we remember that whether we are business leaders, teachers, parents, grandparents or anything else, someone, somewhere, is probably being influenced by us and the example we set. Today let us pray that it’s the best we’re capable of.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000g3ks)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0nw9)
Blue Rock Thrush
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the blue rock thrush, perched high on a Spanish castle. The blue rock thrush has a slim silhouette, rather like that of a blackbird, but these largely sedentary, elusive and sun-loving birds are a rare sight in northern Europe. They are widespread in summer across southern Europe and also occur in the Arabian Peninsula and across most of south-east Asia. The male lives up to his name, as in sunlight his deep indigo body feathers contrast with his darker wings and tail. His mate is a more muted mid brown, and barred beneath. Blue rock thrushes often nest in old ruins, but can also be found in houses in villages and on the edge of towns. Here in sunny spots they feed on large insects like grasshoppers and will even take small reptiles in their long thrush-like bills.
Producer Andrew Dawes.
WED 06:00 Today (m000g43w)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Only Artists (m000g43y)
Series 10
Lavinia Greenlaw meets Charles Avery
Lavinia Greenlaw has published six collections of poetry, including The Built Moment which reflected on her father’s dementia. Her novels include In the City of Love’s Sleep, about a relationship sparked by a chance encounter in a museum. She also writes about art and music, including a book on how pop shaped her young identity. She was the first artist in residence at the Science Museum, and her immersive sound work, Audio Obscura, won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry.
Charles Avery grew up on the island of Mull. For more than 15 years, he has worked on a single project – the invention of an imaginary island, creating its people, settlements, landscapes, forests and creatures through paint, sculpture and text. The main town is called Onomatopoeia, and it’s rumoured that the island is home to an elusive beast called the Noumenon.
Producer Clare Walker
WED 09:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000g440)
Series 15
The Exotic Wormhole
"What are wormholes and do they really exist?" asks Manlee-Fidel Spence, aged 12. In this exotic episode, the doctors investigate how wormholes would work.
Cosmologist Andrew Pontzen explains why wormholes could allow you to travel through time as well as space. And physicist Jim AlKhalili outlines the infinite problems this could generate.
When it comes to wormholes and time travel, many science fiction stories have married solid science and successful storytelling, as Jennifer Oullette describes, but others really have defied the laws of physics. Jim also reveals why some quantum physicists now think that wormholes could be everywhere. But don't expect to jump back to 1955 any time soon.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
Producer: Michelle Martin
WED 09:45 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnbxt)
The Peregrine at Play
David Attenborough reads from J. A. Baker's masterpiece about the natural world. Now, it's December and the peregrine makes a kill, first it revels in a westerly gale.
The Peregrine was published over fifty years ago to critical acclaim and has inspired many writers of contemporary nature writing including Robert Macfarlane. Written in the form of a diary it charts Baker's observations of the peregrine's hunting life.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000g443)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:41 The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (m000g445)
The Leopard
Episode 8
By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.
Don Fabrizio Corbera is the Prince of Salina in Sicily, during the Risorgimento; the unification of Italy. An irresistible giant of a man whose hands are like paws and who makes the ground tremble when he rises to his feet, the Prince is clear-eyed, intelligent and languid, aptly represented by the leopard on his coat of arms.
The Prince knows he must attempt to preserve what remains of his family’s feudal power in a period of political turmoil. He realises their best hope lies in his charming and resourceful nephew, Tancredi, who knows that "everything must change so that everything can stay the same".
The Leopard is a masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Episode 8: Everyone is invited to the ball at Palazzo Ponteleone.
Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (m000g447)
Capturing the nation in conversation, in partnership with the British Library.
WED 11:00 Le Divide (m000g449)
Le Divide
How France is facing the challenges of three key issues: liberty, fraternity and equality.
WED 11:30 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.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000g44d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g44g)
Episode 3
Jack London's The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck and the story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.
Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and published as a book a month later. Its great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted for film, and it has seen several more cinematic adaptations since.
It's often thought of as a children's book and indeed the current film has turned it into a story more suitable for the young. But the original writing is fierce, poetic, beautiful and atmospheric. It appeals to the core of everyone's nature. Exciting and moving in equal measure, it's a sublime adventure story.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:18 World at One (m000g44j)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:57 Weather (m000g44l)
The latest weather forecast
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000g3jy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Dangerous Visions (m000g44n)
Body Horror
Episode 1
London, 2050. The transplant industry is in full swing. But can a new body ever fulfil the life-changing expectations of lowly mortician Caroline McAleese? A dystopian thriller by Lucy Catherine.
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Caroline ..... Jill Halfpenny
Gloria ..... Shelley Conn
Rowan ..... Adam Courting
Anastasia ..... Samantha Dakin
Tom ..... Ian Conningham
Waiter ..... Greg Jones
Bar Guy ..... Ikky Elyas
Virtual James ..... Will Kirk
Government Computer ..... Neil McCaul
Work Computer ..... Sinead MacInnes
Lift Voice ..... Lucy Reynolds
Directed by Toby Swift
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000g44q)
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 (m000g3k6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000g44s)
New research on how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000g44v)
The programme about a revolution in media with Amol Rajan, the BBC's Media Editor
WED 17:00 PM (m000g44x)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g44z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Mark Watson Talks a Bit About Life (m000g451)
Series 3
Episode Two: Summer
Multi-award winning comedian and author Mark Watson continues his probably doomed quest to make sense of the human experience. This time, he is aided by the sardonic musical brilliance of Flo and Joan, and by a different comedy friend in each programme. This week, it's Sofie Hagen.
This new series examines the four seasons of the year and the seasons of a human life, as Mark - at the halfway point of his expected lifespan - considers what might come next. This week, Mark and his guests look at Summer - the prime of life, the highpoint of the year, and soon to be the only season we’ll have!
As always, there's a huge number of jokes, some songs, and an awful lot of other stuff crammed into each show as the much-loved comic and his team make their way through life at dizzying speed.
Produced by Lianne Coop.
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000g3g0)
Oliver bears the brunt and Russ offers his support.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000g453)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber (b04l0zq1)
Episode 8
Joe Armstrong, Hayley Atwell and Dougray Scott star in Miranda Emmerson's adaptation of the extraordinary novel by Michel Faber (Under the Skin, Crimson Petal and the White).
Set in the near future, it tells the story of Peter, devoted husband and devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Beatrice.
Peter has travelled to a far distant planet, called Oasis, where an enigmatic corporation called USIC have a base. He has been employed as Christian missionary to the native inhabitants - a gentle, peaceable community, who have welcomed Peter to their settlement and are eager to hear the teachings of the Bible, a book they call 'The Book of Strange New Things'.
In today's episode, Bea and Peter's relationship comes under strain.
CAST
Narrator.....Dougray Scott
Peter.....Joe Armstrong
Beatrice.....Hayley Atwell
Grainger.....Kelly Burke
Oasan/ Tuska.....Mark Edel-Hunt
Jesus Lover Number One/ Severin.....Michael Bertenshaw
Jesus Lover Number Five/ BG.....Damian Lynch
Jesus Lover Number Four.....David Acton
USIC Psychologist.....Jane Slavin
USIC Doctor.....Elaine Claxton
Other parts played by members of the company
Directed by Emma Harding
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000g455)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m000g457)
Simon Thomas - Identity and Grief
Lent Talks is a personal perspective on an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is identity – losing and gaining identity; struggling with identity; accepting and owning identity. TV presenter Simon Thomas reflects on the words of Jesus on the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", and how personal grief gave him a new identity.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000g3jm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Living National Treasures (m000g459)
Episode 3
We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!
Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to them, taking the listener by the hand into people's homes, their workshops and their lives.
While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft. In Japan, this includes crafts such as ceramics, textiles, metalwork and even papermaking.
Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. The series represents crafts which are absolutely in and of a place and tell us something about the community and the individual. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've decided to eschew more conventional careers to sustain an existence practising rare and unusual crafts. This is aspirational aural escapism, allowing us to reflect on such a life for ourselves. Each programme will induce a sense of flow in the listener; that peaceful, mindful state when you're doing something, but you're almost unaware that you're doing it.
WED 21:45 One to One (m000dy4k)
The Value of Idling – Verity Sharp meets Tim Parks
What happens when you become obsessed by words? What happens when this obsession becomes so severe that your life becomes a frenzied narrative filling your every waking moment ? How do you escape? Verity Sharp meets Tim Parks who shares his experiences of a painful chronic condition brought about by a constant mental and physical tension, related to his work as a writer. When doctors couldn’t explain his symptoms, he was forced to look elsewhere. He didn’t give up writing. He has learned to be idle. Producer Sarah Blunt.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000g45c)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g44g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian (m000g45f)
Series 2
Status
Stand-up series exploring British Chinese culture from BBC New Comedy Award finalist Ken Cheng.
Dave's Joke of the Fringe Winner, Cambridge mathematics dropout and professional poker player Ken Cheng returns with a brand new series in which he’ll explore free speech, social status, racism and money…
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
Ken Cheng - Chinese Comedian is a BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:15 Cracking Up (b08r1x64)
Series 1
Utopia
Divorcee Spencer arrives to take Tilly to school and is shocked to see the family home is no longer called Utopia. Meanwhile, teenage son Dylan has illegally downloaded Straw Dogs and daughter Tilly intends to attend school mufti-day in drag as one half of Siegfried and Roy (with cat Lord Lucan as the lion).
Spencer has an argument with the managing agent of his flat over a tiny detail of its refurbishment and threatens to give notice - which the agent willingly accepts.
Spencer sees his list of clients in a daze, mentally obsessing over property and, as he fumbles through the day still carrying a wooden name plaque bearing the fading legend Utopia, ends up wandering into an estate agent's office in an attempt to talk to a pretty girl.
A Big Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000b4xt)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
THURSDAY 12 MARCH 2020
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000g45h)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnbxt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g45k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g45m)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g45p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000g45r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000g45t)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
Good morning. Have five year-olds always had such active social lives?
Among the various administrative responsibilities starting school brings, there seem to be a plethora of party invitations to navigate.
From superhero to princess themed – kids birthday parties now frequently appear to involve hiring out large expensive venues, coordinating décor with the dress of the child in question, and let’s not forget the obligatory cake that is more like a work of art.
I thought Indian weddings were the epitome of excess, but I sometimes feel a similar level of effort and expense is expended by parents keen to give their child and guests a brilliant bash.
While I too am guilty of indulging in all this hullabaloo, I also wonder how much children really care for all the fuss?
Children move on very fast – just as they are quick to discard their plastic party bag contents, you can’t rely on them to nostalgically recall every detail of their special day and so an emptiness often prevails.
In the Hindu tradition, festivals recognise a fundamental human need to break from routine and feast, sing, dance and partake in a joyous celebration. But they are not just occasions for merrymaking – they also uplift the mind and prepare one to face life with greater enthusiasm.
The core principle of bringing people together, getting dressed up and preparing delicious food is a wonderful one, but perhaps children’s birthday parties need a renewed focus on these primary elements, rather than the sugar-coated excess they have taken on in recent years.
Today, let us pray that we can enrich our family celebrations by occasionally stripping away some of the excess and embracing the joy of simplicity.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000g45w)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b099ylnb)
Samuel West on the Long-tailed Tit
Keen Birdwatcher and actor Samuel West recalls the chattering calls of the long tailed tit, the first bird he ever identified by sound.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photo: Kevin Mayhew.
THU 06:00 Today (m000g3f4)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000g3f6)
The Covenanters
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the bonds that Scottish Presbyterians made between themselves and their monarchs in the 16th and 17th Centuries, to maintain their form of worship. These covenants bound James VI of Scotland to support Presbyterians yet when he became James I he was also expected to support episcopacy. That tension came to a head under Charles I who found himself on the losing side of a war with the Covenanters, who later supported Parliament before backing the future Charles II after he had pledged to support them. Once in power, Charles II failed to deliver the religious settlement the Covenanters wanted, and set about repressing them violently. These who refused to renounce the covenants were persecuted in what became known as The Killing Times, as reflected in the image above.
With
Roger Mason
Laura Stewart
And
Scott Spurlock
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnc9z)
The Peregrine in Flight
David Attenborough reads from J. A. Baker's classic of British nature writing. It's February, and once again the peregrine is in flight.
Published over fifty years ago to critical acclaim, The Peregrine was the recipient of one of the most prestigious literary prizes of the time, the Duff Cooper Prize. Written in the form of a diary it charts Baker's almost daily observations of this extraordinary predator over the course of seven months, from autumn to spring.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000g3f9)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (m000g3fc)
The Leopard
Episode 9
By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.
A masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Episode Nine: Twenty years on from the ball that marked the changing fortunes of his family, the Prince knows his time is running out.
Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000g3ff)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 My Amey and Me (m000g3fh)
The bond between mother and child is perhaps the most natural and the most profound relationship we can experience. But for Zakia Sewell and her mother - who she's always called Amey - this relationship has been far from straight-forward.
Now, after many years of disconnection and words unspoken, they're collaborating on a theatre piece, a kind of 'curated conversation', to understand better the issues they have had to overcome.
Some are near, intimate and specific to the two of them - Amey's mental health and her own experience of motherhood - but they are entwined with stories from the past, submerged deep beneath the surface, evoking the ghosts of distant ancestors whose experiences under the brutal tyranny of slavery in the Caribbean find expression through the generations.
With contributions from theatre-maker Cathy Sloan and Sonya Moring-Welch, a specialist in trans-generational therapeutic practice.
Presented by Zakia Sewell
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000g3fk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g3fm)
Episode 4
Jack London's The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck and the story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.
Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and published as a book a month later. Its great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted for film, and it has seen several more cinematic adaptations since.
It's often thought of as a children's book and indeed the current film has turned it into a story more suitable for the young. But the original writing is fierce, poetic, beautiful and atmospheric. It appeals to the core of everyone's nature. Exciting and moving in equal measure, it's a sublime adventure story.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000g3fq)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
THU 12:57 Weather (m000g3fs)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000g3fv)
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 Living National Treasures (m000g3fx)
Episode 4
We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!
Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to them, taking the listener by the hand into people's homes, their workshops and their lives.
While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft. In Japan, this includes crafts such as ceramics, textiles, metalwork and even papermaking.
Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. The series represents crafts which are absolutely in and of a place and tell us something about the community and the individual. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've decided to eschew more conventional careers to sustain an existence practising rare and unusual crafts. This is aspirational aural escapism, allowing us to reflect on such a life for ourselves. Each programme will induce a sense of flow in the listener; that peaceful, mindful state when you're doing something, but you're almost unaware that you're doing it.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000g3g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Dangerous Visions (m000g3g2)
Body Horror
Episode 2
London, 2050. Former mortician Caroline has had a full body transplant. But what shadows are left by the body's former inhabitant? And whose voice is it she hears in her head? A dystopian thriller by Lucy Catherine.
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Caroline ..... Jill Halfpenny
Gloria ..... Shelley Conn
Paulina ..... Chetna Pandya
Anastasia ..... Samantha Dakin
Trevor ..... Clive Hayward
Mel ..... Liza Sadovy
Karina ..... Heather Craney
Che ..... Ikky Elyas
BodyEx Computer ..... Scarlett Courtney
Young Mum ..... Lucy Reynolds
Security Guard ..... Greg Jones
Directed by Toby Swift
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000g3g5)
Outdoor Counselling in Derbyshire
Psychotherapist, Dr. Ruth Allen, explains how outdoor counselling works. She takes Clare Balding on a walk near Holloway in Derbyshire to discuss the healing power of walking & talking.
In this series of Ramblings, Clare Balding is exploring the impact that walking in nature can have on our inner lives. She’s been up Glastonbury Tor with Druids, walked the Wilberforce Way with a Methodist minister and been on retreat in Winchester. Today she discovers the difference it can make to people when a therapy room is swapped for the natural world.
Clare and Ruth walk near Holloway in Derbyshire, not far from Whatstandwell.
Scroll down to the 'related links' box for more information.
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000g3g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000g3g9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000g3gc)
The latest releases, the hottest stars and the leading directors, plus news and insights from the film world.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000g3gf)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000g3gh)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g3gk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 The Break (b0b4ztdn)
Series 2
Monday on the Beach with George
Andy helps Jeff track down a vital document. Thanks to a rapacious seagull, the quest ends in a literal cliffhanger. Philip Jackson, Tom Palmer and Shobna Gulati star.
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000g3gm)
Emotions run high for Lilian and Clarrie has concerns about her new guest
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000g3gp)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber (b04l3bql)
Episode 9
Joe Armstrong, Hayley Atwell and Dougray Scott star in Miranda Emmerson's adaptation of the extraordinary novel by Michel Faber (Under the Skin, Crimson Petal and the White).
Set in the near future, it tells the story of Peter, devoted husband and devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Beatrice.
Peter has travelled to a far distant planet, called Oasis, where an enigmatic corporation called USIC have a base. He has been employed as Christian missionary to the native inhabitants - a gentle, peaceable community, who have welcomed Peter to their settlement and are eager to hear the teachings of the Bible, a book they call 'The Book of Strange New Things'.
In today's episode, life on Earth pushes Bea to breaking point, while on Oasis, Peter has a curious encounter.
CAST
Narrator.....Dougray Scott
Peter.....Joe Armstrong
Beatrice.....Hayley Atwell
Grainger.....Kelly Burke
Oasan/ Tuska.....Mark Edel-Hunt
Jesus Lover Number One/ Severin.....Michael Bertenshaw
Jesus Lover Number Five/ BG.....Damian Lynch
Jesus Lover Number Four.....David Acton
USIC Psychologist.....Jane Slavin
USIC Doctor.....Elaine Claxton
Other parts played by members of the company
Directed by Emma Harding.
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000g3gr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000g3gt)
Are we heading towards a shorter working week? With more discussion being had on four day work weeks and more companies adapting to a shorter week are all businesses on course to take a day off?
What benefits and challenges would it bring and could it bring and could it be the answer to the fear that robots are taking over our jobs.
Mental health and burn out is the biggest driving force behind companies adapting this strategy but can more leisure time be the fix to this and what pressures could it put on some industries?
GUESTS
Lord Skidelsky, Economist Historian
David Stone, Founder and CEO, of MRL Recruitment
Kate Cooper, Head of Research, The Institute of Leadership & Management
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000g3gf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000g3f6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000g3gx)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g3fm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Resist Phoney Encores! (m000g3gz)
New comedy from Gruff Rhys. In this programme, Gruff will attempt to understand crowd behaviour in order to free the audience from the tyranny of the artist, and free all people from all leaders.
Gruff begins his quest with a pilgrimage to a phonebox in Bangor, where The Beatles heard of Brian Epstein's death, and in which he used to sleep. Once he finds the phonebox, Gruff will call his guests: Professor of Social Psychology Stephen Reicher; and Dr Jenny Boyd, psychologist and author, who was there on that legendary trip to Bangor in 1967 with The Beatles, Marianne Faithfull, The Rolling Stones and the Maharishi.
Through the lens of Beatlemania and pop culture, Gruff and his guests will attempt to answer important questions such as:
Do we really get a sense of wellbeing when we share time and space with others, when we are part of a group, or an audience?
What happens when the crowd turns?
Why does it take 5 trains to go from Cardiff to Bangor?
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000b6tz)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRIDAY 13 MARCH 2020
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000g3h1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xnc9z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000g3h3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000g3h5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000g3h7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000g3h9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000g3hc)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with journalist Vishva Samani, a Hindu centred in Vedanta, the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads.
Good morning. We’ve more or less reached the middle of March, which counting from January 1st is well past the supposed 66 days it takes to establish a new habit.
Having spent part of the Christmas break in retreat, away from the daily endless demands of family life, I decided at the end of 2019 - a year and a half after giving birth to my second daughter - that it was time to put some effort into waking up early and spending time in prayer and contemplation before the days begins.
Of course my husband and I were already being woken reasonably early by our 4 year old daughter and for a long time at various painful moments throughout the night by the natural needs of a baby.
I’m glad to say that so far I’ve more or less stuck to my new routine of early to bed and early to rise – enjoying my child-free moments a little more in the dark and reflective silence of the morning instead of slumped on the sofa watching television late into the night.
While my four year old often beats me to my early alarm clock, I’ve managed to carve out this special time type of ‘me-time’ for half an hour each morning – a chance to reflect on my thoughts and deeds, read contemplative scriptural verses and mentally prepare myself to bravely face whatever the day ahead will bring.
It is deeply rejuvenating.
Despite having access to so much that is meant to make our lives easier, many struggle with the pace of modern life.
So let us pray today, that whatever time of day it is, we are each able to find a quiet moment at least once, to breathe, reflect and apply poise and focus to our day.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000g3hf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09b19y0)
Samuel West on the Turtle Dove
Actor and birdwatcher Samuel West laments on the lost call of the once very common summer visitor, the turtle dove.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photo: Ian Clarke.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000g4fk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000g4fm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Peregrine, read by David Attenborough (p07xng6x)
A Bond Is Forged
David Attenborough reads from J. A. Baker's classic of British nature writing. It's late March and Baker forges a deeper connection with the peregrine.
Published over fifty years ago to critical acclaim, The Peregrine is regarded as a masterpiece, and has gone on to inspire some of today's most celebrated nature writers, including Robert Macfarlane. Written in the form of a diary it charts Baker's almost daily observations of this extraordinary predator over the course of seven months, from autumn to spring.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000g4fr)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (m000g4ft)
The Leopard
Episode 10
By Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, translated by Archibald Colquhoun and read by Alex Jennings.
The final part of this masterpiece of European political fiction: beguiling, beautiful and subtle, evoking a centuries-old way of life on the cusp of change.
Episode ten: The Salina ladies are expecting a visit.
Reader...Alex Jennings
Abridged by Sara Davies
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
FRI 11:00 Forum Internum (m000g4fw)
Political Space
What is freedom of thought and why might it need protecting in the digital age? It’s one of our foundational human rights, but the right to freedom of thought has never really been invoked in the courts as it was never believed vulnerable to attack – until now.
This three part explores the need to safeguard what lawyers are calling the forum internum (our own private, mental space) from the incursions of social media technology, new kinds of surveillance and manipulation through data-mining, advances in AI and neuroscience, the arrival of neurolaw and fMRI imaging in the courts, and the very real possibility of thought-crime.
Helena Kennedy QC resumes the argument in this third episode, making the case for freedom of thought and asking whether the law can protect the forum internum from the speed and scale of new technologies and their misuse by corporations and the state. Are we entering a digital dark age for freedom of thought or will we create new spaces for it to flourish?
Series contributors include: authors Shoshana Zuboff and Peter Pomerantsev; psychoanalyst Adam Phillips; neuro-philosopher Patricia Churchland; human rights lawyers Susie Alegre and Philippe Sands; ethical advisor to Google Luciano Floridi; neuroscientists Mark Stokes and Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab; Larry Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting; digital philosopher Mark Andrejevic; Darren Schreiber, advisor on neuro-politics; legal scholar Gabriel Mendlow, the journalist Carole Cadwalladr; authors Dorian Lynskey and James Bridle and B.Troven, activist with the network CrimethInc.
Presenters: Helena Kennedy QC (parts 1 and 3) and James Garvey (part 2)
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 Teatime (m000g4fy)
Episode 4
Comedy by Katherine Jakeways about a chaotic but loving family. Starring Philip Glenister, Samantha Spiro, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Katie Redford and Steven Brandon.
There’s an awkward atmosphere in Vicky and Rav’s house, as Joe (Glenister) and Donna (Spiro) sort through the boxes in the garage and divide up the last of their belongings, remnants left over from their failed marriage. As they talk about old times, Vicky (Edwards) and Rav (Puwanarajah) are upstairs redecorating their spare room, and talking about the future.
Meanwhile, Lisa (Redford) and Uncle Bob (Brandon) are on tea-cooking duties. Bob can handle it, but for Lisa, it’s genuinely the challenge of a lifetime.
So: Joe and Donna have a chat in a garage, Vicky and Rav paint a bedroom wall, and Lisa and Uncle Bob cook some baked beans. Needless to say, events quickly spiral out of control.
Teatime was produced by Sam Ward, and is a BBC Studios production.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000g4wk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g4g2)
Episode 5
Jack London's The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand.
The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck and the story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs.
Jack London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and published as a book a month later. Its great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted for film, and it has seen several more cinematic adaptations since.
It's often thought of as a children's book and indeed the current film has turned it into a story more suitable for the young. But the original writing is fierce, poetic, beautiful and atmospheric. It appeals to the core of everyone's nature. Exciting and moving in equal measure, it's a sublime adventure story.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000g4g4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000g4g6)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000g4g8)
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 Living National Treasures (m000g4gb)
Episode 5
We have become divorced from physicality. Technology detaches us from touch and provenance. This, in part, has contributed to the boom in artisanal crafts. It's a call back to more tactile experiences. We're learning to craft, to forage, to paint, to build; gravitating towards skills which can replace some of the sensory connections from which we've disengaged. We want to literally get our hands dirty!
Living National Treasures seeks to represent this societal shift. This series is about celebrating existing ability and drawing attention to them, taking the listener by the hand into people's homes, their workshops and their lives.
While the Living National Treasure tradition began in Japan - where they also commend buildings and monuments as 'National Treasures' - the celebratory trend has now been adopted by France, Thailand, South Korea and Romania. Living National Treasures are defined as people who possess a high degree of knowledge and skill in a culturally significant craft. In Japan, this includes crafts such as ceramics, textiles, metalwork and even papermaking.
Living National Treasures is a combination of slow radio, artisanal craft and poignant personal stories. The series represents crafts which are absolutely in and of a place and tell us something about the community and the individual. We get under the skin of practitioners, learning why they've decided to eschew more conventional careers to sustain an existence practising rare and unusual crafts. This is aspirational aural escapism, allowing us to reflect on such a life for ourselves. Each programme will induce a sense of flow in the listener; that peaceful, mindful state when you're doing something, but you're almost unaware that you're doing it.
Produced by Kate Bissell
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000g3gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Dangerous Visions (m000g4gd)
Body Horror
Episode 3
Lucy Catherine's dystopian psychological thriller continues. Caroline's new body is starting to shut down. Her fate lies in the hands of the experts at the world's most advanced body exchange facility.
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Caroline ..... Jill Halfpenny
Gloria ..... Shelley Conn
Anastasia ..... Samantha Dakin
Paulina ..... Chetna Pandya
Mel ..... Liza Sadovy
Trevor ..... Clive Hayward
Che ..... Ikky Elyas
Karina ..... Heather Craney
Stan ..... Neil McCaul
Car Salesman ..... Ian Conningham
Library Computer ..... Sinead MacInnes
BodyEx Computer ..... Scarlett Courtney
Hotel Computer ..... Laura Christy
Benefits Office Computer ..... Adam Courting
Directed by Toby Swift
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000g4gg)
Over Allotments, Cheshire
Kathy Clugston and the team are visiting the Over Allotments in Cheshire. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness and Bob Flowerdew are on hand to answer the green-fingered audience's questions.
Producer: Laurence Bassett
Assistant Producer: Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000g4gj)
From Fact to Fiction
A new short story inspired by this week's news. Written by Allan Radcliffe.
A BBC Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000g4gl)
Radio 4's weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000g4gn)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (m000g4gq)
Nene and Adele – We just felt that connection
An asylum seeker and the director of a charity talk about how they became firm friends. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
FRI 17:00 PM (m000g4gs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000g4gx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000g4gz)
Series 56
Episode 2
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches
Join The Now Show team with their unique take on the week's events. With special guests Chris McCausland, Sara Barron and Huge Davies.
Written by the cast, with additional material from Catherine Brinkworth, Max Davis, Charlie George and Simon Alcock
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m000g4h1)
Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter ….. Katie Redford
Robert Snell ….. Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Russ Jones ….. Andonis James Anthony
Doctor ….. Jessica Turner
Other roles ….. Ayesha Antoine, Nick Underwood
FRI 19:15 Front Row (m000g4h3)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber (b04l3gm8)
Episode 10
Joe Armstrong, Hayley Atwell and Dougray Scott star in Miranda Emmerson's adaptation of the extraordinary novel by Michel Faber (Under the Skin, Crimson Petal and the White).
Set in the near future, it tells the story of Peter, devoted husband and devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Beatrice.
Peter has travelled to a far distant planet, called Oasis, where an enigmatic corporation called USIC have a base. He has been employed as Christian missionary to the native inhabitants - a gentle, peaceable community, who have welcomed Peter to their settlement and are eager to hear the teachings of the Bible, a book they call 'The Book of Strange New Things'.
In today's episode, Peter is horrified to find Jesus Lover 5 gravely ill in Intensive Care. And on Earth, a pregnant Bea faces an uncertain future.
CAST
Narrator.....Dougray Scott
Peter.....Joe Armstrong
Beatrice.....Hayley Atwell
Grainger.....Kelly Burke
Oasan/ Tuska.....Mark Edel-Hunt
Jesus Lover Number One/ Severin.....Michael Bertenshaw
Jesus Lover Number Five/ BG.....Damian Lynch
Jesus Lover Number Four.....David Acton
USIC Psychologist.....Jane Slavin
USIC Doctor.....Elaine Claxton
Other parts played by members of the company
Directed by Emma Harding.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000g4h5)
Joanna Cherry MP, Lord Lamont
Chris Mason presents political debate from Shetland Museum and Archives in Lerwick with a panel including the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont of Lerwick and the SNP MP Joanna Cherry.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000g4h7)
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b087p473)
Asa Briggs: The Last Victorian Improver
Tristram Hunt MP tracks the life's work of the historian Asa Briggs, who was instrumental in the founding of the University of Sussex and the Open University.
By the time of his death last year, Asa Briggs had come a long way.
From a childhood helping run his dad's struggling shop in Depression-era West Yorkshire, he began his career at amazing speed. At 16, he arrived at Cambridge University from his grammar school. At 21, he was cracking codes at Bletchley Park. In 1945, he turned down the offer of a safe Labour seat. In his late twenties, he had a fellowship at Oxford. In 1951, he went on a road trip round Syria and Turkey with a young student of his - Rupert Murdoch.
Briggs became the official historian of the BBC, where he learned to run institutions - and then grabbed the chance to build one himself. At the new University of Sussex, he was there from the start, helping to make it the most visible of the new universities of the 1960s. And then he played a major role in shaping the Open University.
In this programme, Tristram Hunt explores the energetic life of one of his heroes. He argues that Briggs was steeped in the Victorian era.
First, through his Victorian grandfather, who took him on tours of the architectural glories of the North of England.
Second, Briggs was a leading historian of the Victorian era, and played a huge role in rescuing it from negative stereotypes.
But third, Asa Briggs was a Victorian himself - in the sense that he wanted to sustain their great effort to improve life. His mission to open up access to education modernised and built on the Victorians' legacy.
With: Dan Briggs, Jean Seaton, David Kynaston, Miles Taylor, Bill Cash MP.
Produced by Phil Tinline in association with the Open University.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000g4h9)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 The Call of the Wild, by Jack London (m000g4g2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000g3jp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000b81z)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (m000g4hc)
Brendan and Brenda - The value of giving back
Father and daughter they look back at the things that have shaped their lives. Fi Glover presents another conversation in a series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.