SATURDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2020
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000ptck)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (m000pt9z)
Episode 5
Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and a writer. He received a Ph.D. in Tropical Ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a musician and keen fermenter. Entangled Life is his first book.
In Episode 5 we look at the role of that most useful group of fungi : natural yeasts in fermenting, baking and brewing, and how the fungi that live in our bodies may hold the key to our health and provide resistance to disease if we allow them to proliferate.
Entangled Life
Written and Read by Merlin Sheldrake
Abridged by Isobel Creed
Produced by Lizzie Davies and The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
Music: Islands by Cosmo Sheldrake
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ptcm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ptcp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000ptcr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000ptct)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ptcw)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m000pp82)
Our Lost Food Culture
Alastair Hendy explains why he thinks we've lost our food culture and how we can rediscover it. Remembering the seventies when convenience food was less available and it was normal to cook from scratch, he urges us to understand more about where our food comes from and calls for basic cookery skills to be taught again in schools.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook
aghendy.com
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000pvjz)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m000pqdf)
Eilean Shona
Eilean Shona, a small wooded island in Loch Moidart, on the West Coast of Scotland, is owned by Vanessa Branson, sister of Richard.
Over many years she has restored deserted crofters' cottages, the schoolhouse and the Big House, replanting trees and managing the wildlife. It's famed for a unique collection of pine trees planted in the 19th century by a former owner, Captain Thomas Swinburne. Vanessa runs artists workshops and retreats as well as a holiday business. The island has a famous literary connection with J.M Barrie who is reputed to have written the screen play for 'Peter Pan' while staying there.
Vanessa tells Helen Mark that living in such a remote, exposed part of the UK has made her much more conscious of the threat of climate change. She talks about the growing number of severe winter storms and dry hot summers which are increasing the risks of tree diseases and forest fires.
Vanessa says she is very conscious of controversies over Scottish land ownership and describes herself and her family as Eilean Shona's 'custodians', preserving and looking after the environment and respecting its past. She believes it also has a valuable role as a cultural centre where writers, artists and film makers can work.
James MacLellan, grew up on Eilean Shona. His family worked there for generations and he recalls being the only pupil in the island's school. He remembers helping his father when it was a working estate and he talks about the pressure on families living in tied cottages.
Jonty and Sarah Watt have recently given up their commuter lifestyle in the south of England to become the island's estate managers. They talk about the challenge and attraction of moving from Sussex to the Hebrides.
Presented by Helen Mark
Produced by Kathleen Carragher
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000pvk1)
Farming Today This Week
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
SAT 06:57 Weather (m000pvk3)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m000pvk5)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000pvk7)
Mica Paris
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Mica Paris. Hauled up onstage by Prince, fish 'n' chips with Stevie Wonder and footsie with Whitney Houston, and now EastEnders and a Gospel album.
John 'Chickie' Donohue joins us from New York - he travelled more than 8,000 miles into the middle of the Vietnam War, to take his buddies some beers.
Listener Liza Frank has been looking into folklore of the British Isles and sometimes beyond, and set her self the challenge of doing a ritual or tradition every day of the year and logging it in her blog.
Karenjeet Kaur Bains is accountant by day, and a powerlifter the rest of the time - she is Britain’s first female Sikh powerlifter to represent Britain on the World and European stages.
We have the inheritance tracks of writer John Lanchester who chooses JS Bach, Partita no. 1 in B flat major, BWV 825 played by Dinu Lipatti and Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees; and a listener's thank you.
Producer: Corinna Jones
SAT 10:30 You're Dead To Me (p07n8pqw)
Harriet Tubman
We are heading down to the Underground Railroad to discover the incredible life of American hero and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. From a torturous childhood to surgery without anaesthetic, get ready to understand true bravery as we uncover the events which made Harriet Tubman a phenomenal force for change. Greg Jenner is joined by comedian, actor and writer Desiree Burch and historian Dr Michell Chresfield from the University of Birmingham. It’s history for people who don’t like history!
This episode was produced by Dan Morelle, scripted by Greg Jenner and researched by Emma Nagouse.
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000pvkb)
A look back at the political week with the New Statesman's Stephen Bush.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000pvkd)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000pvkg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000pvf8)
Fraud in the Direct Debit system
Money Box has found evidence of fraud in the Direct Debit system. How difficult it is to protect yourself against it, once criminals use leaked or stolen personal details to target your account. Young people and hard up families are being priced out of rented homes by landlords asking for six months rent in advance.
And a breakthrough for some parents of children with learning disabilities who haven't been able to access their child's savings once they reach 18. The largest child trust fund, OneFamily, is defying government guidance and giving parents and carers control of the money owed to their child. Normally parents are obliged to go through a long and expensive process which may cost more than the total invested for their child in the fund. We hear the latest on this good news for some families, but also look at the plight of the many more who remain stuck with the old system, as their providers hang on for new guidance from the government.
Plus in the Money Box Podcast Extra – the horrific case of a student in Nottingham who was abducted, assaulted, hospitalised and burgled – but struggled to be set free from his housing contract. We hear what students can do if they feel they have to withdraw from their student accommodation contract.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Producer: Paul Waters
Assistant Producer: Darin Graham
Programme Coordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Emma Rippon
SAT 12:30 The Now Show (m000ptc3)
Series 57
Episode 5
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis get to grips (from a safe distance) with all things 2020 in the form of sketches and guest contributions.
This week Catherine Bohart dons The Crown, Eshaan Akbar takes responsibility and musical duo Harry and Chris take us to church...
Additional voices from Emma Sidi and George Fouracres
Written by the cast, with additional material from Jeffrey Aidoo, Laura Major, Georgie Flinn, Charlie George and Simon Alcock
Production Co-Ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Engineer and Editor: David Thomas
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 12:57 Weather (m000pvkj)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News (m000pvkl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000ptc7)
Sir Graham Brady MP, John Mills, Alyn Smith MP, Professor Ngaire Woods
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London with the Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady MP; the businessman and former chair of Labour Leave John Mills; the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster Alyn Smith MP; and Ngaire Woods, Professor of Global Economic Governance and Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000pvkn)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 Drama (b0631r4y)
James Bond - Diamonds Are Forever
An all-star Ian Fleming James Bond adventure, directed by Martin Jarvis and starring Toby Stephens as 007.
Fleming's fourth Bond novel is especially dazzling. Its dark humour encompasses millions of pounds-worth of diamonds smuggled out of British mines in Africa. Responsible? Somebody known as ‘ABC’. James Bond is sent undercover by MI6 to New York to follow the pipeline. Masquerading as a courier he meets enticing, ice-cold, Tiffany Case. She stands between Bond and gang-bosses whose criminal diamond business stretches from Sierra Leone, via London, to the gambling tables of Las Vegas.
Bond infiltrates the mob. Horse-racing scams, a car chase, a rigged card game, pursuit by locomotive - Bond and Tiffany endure all. Eventually flown to West Africa, Bond unmasks the ultimate villain.
Archie Scottney’s dramatisation parades a bizarre collection of mafiosi monsters.
James Bond ..... Toby Stephens
‘M' ..... John Standing
Supt Harris ..... Nigel Havers
Rufus B. Saye ..... Alan Shearman
Tiffany Case ..... Lisa Dillon
‘Shady’ Tree ..... Alex Jennings
Felix Leiter ..... Josh Stamberg
Ernie Cureo ..... Stacy Keach
Mr Spang ..... Jared Harris
Sammy ..... Kevin Daniels
Rocky and Wint ..... Andre Sogliuzzo
Kidd and the Sergeant ..... Darren Richardson
Tingaling and Dentist ..... Matthew Wolf
Voice of Ian Fleming ..... Martin Jarvis
Other parts played by members of the cast
Sound design: Mark Holden
Original music: Mark Holden and Michael Lopez
Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.
SAT 16:15 Woman's Hour (m000pvkq)
Weekend Woman's Hour - Ozlem Cekic, The Crown, Lockdown Bickering
Ozlem Cekic, one of the first Muslim women with an immigrant background to enter Danish parliament, tells us why she decided to meet up with the people who sent her racist emails.
We discuss whether a new women's centre at the site of the former Holloway Women's Prison will get the go ahead. We hear from Lucy who's with Reclaim Holloway and also from the last woman to leave the prison four years ago.
The lastest series of the drama The Crown has introduced a new generation to Princess Diana as well as her depression and her bulimia. We hear from the former BBC Royal Correspondent, Jennie Bond, and from Ali Pantony of Glamour Magazine.
The chef and writer, Marie Mitchell, tells us about her love of Caribbean food and culture and how to cook the perfect Roti.
And we discuss bickering with Penny Mansfield from the relationships charity One Plus One. She tells us why she thinks the pandemic has bought out the bickerer in many of us. One of our listeners, Deborah, tells us what starts off a bickering argument with her partner.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Siobhan Tighe
SAT 17:00 PM (m000pvks)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000pvkv)
Nick Robinson talks to Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch in a personal and political interview
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000pvkx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m000pvkz)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000pvl3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000pvl7)
Juliet Gilkes Romero, Kevin Le Gendre, Richard Herring, Welly O’Brien, Mica Paris, This is The Kit, YolanDa Brown
Clive Anderson and YolanDa Brown are joined by Juliet Gilkes Romero, Kevin Le Gendre, Welly O’Brien and Richard Herring for with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Mica Paris and This is The Kit.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m000pvdh)
Professor Sarah Gilbert
The determined scientist whose team designed the Oxford vaccine. Mark Coles first discovered the many talents of Professor Sarah Gilbert in July. This week, with news of its success, he takes another look at the woman behind the latest vaccine breakthrough.
SAT 19:15 My Dream Dinner Party (b0b7ck95)
Series 1
Sally Phillips
Actor, comedian and campaigner Sally Phillips is joined for dinner by Hollywood acting legend Jack Lemmon, novelist Barbara Cartland, entertainer and comedy writer Bob Monkhouse, natural scientist and campaigner Miriam Rothschild and comedian, actor and songwriter Victoria Wood.
There's sparkling and candid conversation round the kitchen table as Sally and her guests discuss neediness on stage, life with a disabled child, Marilyn Monroe, women in comedy, and Britain's obsession with class and the anatomy of insects. Alongside laughter, eccentricity and marriage tips, there's also help with how to cope with flea bites.
Written and presented by Sally Phillips
Producers: Sarah Peters and Peregrine Andrews
Researcher: Edgar Maddicott
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers
A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 19:45 What Is a Story? (b061d16g)
Bearing Witness
Marina Warner looks at, 'Bearing Witness'
A review of the world of contemporary fiction. In the company of leading contemporary writers, she considers a story and story writing from a different angle.
Marina speaks with writers as diverse as Julian Barnes, Michelle Roberts, Fanny Howe, Marlene van Niekerk, Alain Mabanckou, Lydia Davis, Edwin Frank, Elleke Boehmer, Wen-Chin Ouyang, Daniel Medin, Nadeem Aslam and Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
There are questions around the boundaries between fact and fiction which Marina believes are central to any consideration of storytelling, since readers' pleasure depends so much on trust built up between the storyteller or writer and the audience.
With discussions on the reasons for writing, writers as witnesses and political interaction.
Marina was Chair of the Man Booker International Prize 2015 and the series draws on the expertise of the International Booker judging panel, the views of the shortlisted writers, as well as other key literary talent.
Producer: Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio first broadcast in July 2015.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b071h083)
SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK
In 1982, a publishing phenomenon began with the first appearance of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It would be the first of a series that would sell some 17 million copies in 30 different languages. Which (JK Rowling notwithstanding) might sound unlikely for a set of children’s books involving wizards, goblins and elves.
What was it that set them apart? They were part of a much wider literary innovation known as interactive fiction. You don’t merely read them, page by page, cover to cover. You were asked to make decisions all the way along about what would happen next, where you would go, who you would even fight, which page to turn to. And you often had to keep a notebook and pair of dice close to hand while doing so. You might fail along the way and have to start again (or more likely you'd keep your finger in the previous page until you were satisfied you’d made the right choice). Essentially, they were puzzle books.
This sort of text based adventure would make its way very quickly into the digital realm as a very important early genre of computer game.
And we have built an interactive version of this programme, over at BBC Taster, if you would like to try your SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK.
Naomi Alderman charts the rise and rise of the interactive story, from its beginnings in obscure avant-guarde French literary groups through to the virtual worlds of modern video games, and the cult literary form today of Interactive Fiction.
Produced by Alex Mansfield
SAT 21:00 Tracks (m000pvld)
Series 5: Abyss
Abyss: Episode Five
By Matthew Broughton
Episode five of the conspiracy thriller's final series.
Armed with the co-ordinates of the sunken ship, Helen and Freddy head down beneath the waves in search of the truth. But dark secrets await them in the deep abyss of the ocean.
A gripping thriller, Tracks was the first drama to hit the top of the iTunes podcast chart back in 2017. It went on to win Best Sound (BBC Audio Drama Awards) and Best Fiction (British Podcast Awards). Now Tracks is back with a fifth and final 9 part series.
All four previous series of Tracks are available now in full on BBC Sounds.
Helen… Olivia Poulet
Freddy…. Jonathan Forbes
Valerie Peluso.... Juliet Cowan
Barbara.... Barbara Flynn
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
SAT 21:45 Rabbit Is Rich (b09ydjng)
Episode 7
John Updike's masterful Rabbit quintet established Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom as the quintessential American White middle class male. The first book Rabbit, Run was published in 1960 to critical acclaim. Rabbit Redux was the second in the series, published in 1971 and charted the end of the sixties - featuring, among other things, the first American moon landing and the Vietnam War.
This third book finds Rabbit in middle age and successful, having inherited his father in law's car business - selling newly imported Toyotas to the mass American market. But his relationship with his son Nelson was severely compromised by Rabbit's affair with Jill and her subsequent death has left them both wary of each other.
Published in 1981, Rabbit is Rich won Updike, among other awards, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - and it's extraordinary how many of its themes continue to reverberate down to the present day.
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Toby Jones
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:00 News (m000pvlg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m000pp97)
Defence versus Foreign Aid
The Chancellor’s spending review this week has thrown up competing moral visions for Britain’s place in a post-Covid, post-Brexit world. On the one hand, there will be a boost in defence spending on drones and cyberwarfare; on the other, speculation about the UK’s foreign aid commitment has prompted ex-prime ministers, charities and religious leaders to speak out against any proposed cuts to the aid budget. Symbolically, if not practically, defence spending and overseas aid are seen to be in competition since they are both projections of global Britain. If so, how can we assess their competing moral worth? Is using taxpayers’ money for defence any morally better or worse than for foreign aid? One worldview contends that prioritising investment in defence is jingoistic and problematic, while funding international development is benign and benevolent. Others, meanwhile, consider there to be a greater moral obligation towards those closer to home in response to changing threats from malicious regimes, and question whether the distribution of public funds in the form of overseas aid is incorruptible. Or are the two sectors inextricably linked? Some see international development almost as a branch of national security, exercising soft power and helping to shore up unstable states, while others point out the role of the armed forces in peacekeeping, delivering humanitarian aid and combatting the drugs trade. Both military personnel and aid charities are guided by a moral code and, in both cases, include individuals who have fallen short of that code. When it comes to the daily motivations of human beings on the ground, is the ethos of the armed forces any different to the ethos of international aid workers? With Dr Sabina Alkire, Ian Birrell, Prof Michael Clarke and Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
SAT 23:00 Quote... Unquote (m000plzy)
Nikesh Shukla, Victoria Hislop, Benjamin Partridge
Nigel Rees quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes and quotes.
*Novelist and screenwriter Nikesh Shukla, known for Coconut Unlimited, Meatspace, and as editor of The Good Immigrant
*Author Victoria Hislop, known for The Island, The Return, The Thread and Those Who Are Loved
*Comedy writer and podcaster Benjamin Partridge, known for The Beef and Dairy Network podcast, Horrible Histories and others
This is the 56th series of the popular humorous celebrity quotations quiz.
Producer: Ella Watts
Production co-ordinator: Gwyn Davies
Sound design: Hedley Knights
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 23:30 Thought Pattern, Pattern Thought (m000plwt)
Poet and writer Joanne Limburg presents an immersive and revealing audio composition, exploring her experience of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to create brand new poetic work especially for Radio 4.
Joanne has written about her experiences of OCD before but has never attempted to write poetry about it - until now.
This programme follows Joanne as she creates a set of poems to encapsulate the inner thought patterns and processes of her OCD.
Around 1-2% of people in the UK are affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. A widely misunderstood and misrepresented but treatable condition, it often takes many years for people to seek help.
Common misconceptions about OCD still persist - the belief that someone can be “a bit OCD”, that it’s a quirk or personality trait of people who like things neat and tidy, or that it’s about washing hands. In reality, OCD is a serious and often debilitating anxiety disorder that causes negative, relentless intrusive thoughts and an overwhelming sense of danger which can lead to repetitive compulsive behaviours.
OCD has been part of Joanne’s life since she was a teenager. She reflects on the dark fears, intrusive thoughts and imaginary disaster-filled images caused by her OCD before she received treatment. She reveals her fears of crossing roads and her overwhelming anxieties as a new parent.
With sound, music, Joanne’s words and evocative new poetry, it's a visceral exploration of the OCD thoughts and feelings she has lived with for much of her life.
Joanne Limburg is a Cambridge-based poet and writer. Her memoir, The Woman Who Thought Too Much, is among her published titles.
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2020
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000pvlj)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The Creation of an Icon (m0001mdv)
Symbolism of Paint
World renowned iconographer Aidan Hart paints an icon for Advent and explores the meaning and theology of this ancient religious art form. Today he explains the significance of colour in the icon.
You can follow his progress in the picture gallery on the programmes webpage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001l7x
Producer: Phil Pegum
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000ptbs)
Kumeko the Quiet One
By Hannah Vincent. A story about ambition, cheese and sumo-wrestling mice. Confident Erin and her quiet colleague Kumeko arrive at an empty hotel to prepare for a conference where they will be competing for a place on a sales team.
Hannah Vincent lives in Brighton. She began her writing life as a playwright and her first radio play, Come to Grief, was a re-working of one of her stage plays. It won the BBC 2015 Audio Award for Best Adaptation. Hannah’s most recent collection of short fiction, She-Clown And Other Stories, was published in March 2020.
Writer: Hannah Vincent
Reader: Gabby Wong
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000pvll)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000pvln)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000pvlq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000pvls)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000pvfn)
St Lawrence’s Church, Towcester in Northamptonshire.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Lawrence’s Church, Towcester in Northamptonshire. The church’s large ironstone tower is a prominent feature of the Towcester skyline and has probably contained bells since its construction in 1485. The current ring of twelves bells were created in 1989, based on an 1897 ring of eight bells purchased from a redundant church in Todmorden in Lancashire and augmented with four bells cast by the John Taylor Foundry of Loughborough. We hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Maximus.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000pvdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News (m000pvc3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b012zzzw)
Animals
Mark Tully explores our relationship with animals. He talks to Jane Goodall, who has spent her life living among chimpanzees, about how apes have changed her way of thinking. With readings by Jenny Diski, David Constantine, Alexander Pope and Jeremy Bentham, and music by John Tavener, Joseph Haydn and St Francis of Assisi.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000pvc6)
Saving Devon’s Forgotten Orchards
The traditional English orchard is in trouble. Once a prized feature of many farms, earning its keep through sales of cider and fruit, it has been undermined by cheap apple imports and incentives to grow other crops. It's estimated that two-thirds of English orchards have disappeared since 1950. Now a young couple in Devon have come up with a way of saving remaining orchards from abandonment and further decline. Polly and Mat Hilton harvest the apples usually left to rot and turn them into cider. In exchange they foster and take care of the orchard. Rachel Lovell joins them during peak harvest season, to hear how they have created special ciders using wine-making techniques, and to talk about their hopes for the future of forgotten orchards all over the country.
Produced and presented by Rachel Lovell.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000pvc8)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000pvcb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000pvcd)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000pvcg)
Wellbeing of Women
The actress and comedian Jennifer Saunders makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Wellbeing of Women.
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 ‘Wellbeing of Women’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Wellbeing of Women’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 239281
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000pvcj)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000pvcl)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000pvcn)
Cities of Promise - A place for good news
During this era of Covid the city seems to have been devalued as a place of human flourishing. Instead it's become a place of fear of contamination - a place to get away from, no longer a sought-after place to live. But the biblical view is of a redeemed city, a place where human culture is valued alongside restored relationships - a place of beauty and worship of the living God.
In the first of the Advent series, theologian and scholar of Celtic Christianity, Gilbert Markus, and parish spiritual director, Anne Buhrmann, mark the eve of St Andrew’s Day by reflecting that cities have always represented the worst and best of humanity, and by offering a vision of the values upon which they could be built.
Reading: Matthew 22: 15-21
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000ptc9)
Loving the Body Fat-tastic
Bernardine Evaristo discusses body image and the fashion industry. Why, she asks, do fashionable clothes still need to be marketed by "long-limbed, boy-hipped young women whose silhouettes have no womanly curves and whose body parts have no jiggle-factor?"
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5cbg)
Lesser Redpoll
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the lesser redpoll. You can spot Lesser Redpolls hanging like tiny acrobatic parrots among the slender twigs, while a rain of papery seeds falls down around them. They're lively birds which allow you to get fairly close, and then sometimes flocks will explode en masse for no apparent reason and fly around calling.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000pvcq)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000pvcs)
Writers, Keri Davies & Naylah Ahmed
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roman Trench ….. Ewan Bailey
Blake ….. Luke MacGregor
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000pvcv)
Tweet Take 5 : Three Pipits
Aside from some rarer species, in Britain we are able to regularly can see three pipits in different habitats. To look at, pipits are small brown streaky birds, best identified from their song. The tree pipit is a summer visitor found mainly in heath and woodland. The meadow pipit breeds in the uplands, but over winter on lowland farmland. The rock pipit is at home on rocky coasts washed by the sea. In this extended Tweet of the Day, we bring you the song of each of these three species with wildlife presenters Steve Backshall, Brett Westwood and Michaela Strachan.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000pvcx)
Helen Oxenbury, illustrator and author
Helen Oxenbury is an illustrator of children’s books whose work has featured in many very popular titles for younger readers including the award-winning We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen.
Helen has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Book Trust in 2018. She attended the Ipswich School of Art and later the Central School of Art in London where she met fellow illustrator and her future husband, John Burningham.
After the birth of her children she began illustrating children’s books, working at the kitchen table long after they’d gone to bed. Her work for Ivor Cutler’s Meal One, published in 1971, was praised by Spare Rib magazine for its portrayal of a single mother and her relationship with her young son.
Helen came up with the idea of her baby board books in the late 1970s after the birth of her third child who suffered with eczema. Discovering that her daughter could be distracted from scratching by looking at baby catalogues, Helen created a series of board books placing babies and toddlers at their heart. Such a concept was unheard of at the time.
From the late 1980s, Helen ensured that the babies and children featured in her books came from different ethnic backgrounds and her work in So Much by Trish Cooke has become a children’s classic. In We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, published in 1989, Helen’s pictures celebrated the joy of adventure and the bond between siblings.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
Photo: Alex Dimos
SUN 11:45 Charisma: Pinning Down the Butterfly (b066wcy2)
The Queen's Touch
The “Royal Touch” as practised by Elizabeth I and our royals today.
Francine Stock attempts to pin down the alluring yet elusive quality of charisma.
In the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth, a belief prevailed in the "royal touch" - the ability of the queen to heal subjects of scrofula by the laying on of hands. This power was seen as a charismatic gift, bestowed by God at her coronation. But this is not entirely a thing of the distant past. Francine Stock is surprised to learn that even at the coronation of our own Queen Elizabeth in 1953, the moment of anointing - when divine power is believed to be bestowed upon royalty - was not shown on camera.
Francine explores this idea of what the German sociologist Max Weber called "charisma of office" with historian Anna Whitelock and John Adair, Professor of Leadership at the UN. She also hears from teenage sea cadet, Sophie, who is proud to have attended on the Queen - and even folded the royal blanket!
Francine explores with Anna Whitelock how a version of the royal touch seems to persist even today, and wonders whether it will continue among the new-look, younger royals of the 21st century.
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Beaty Rubens
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2015.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000pw1d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b0938k91)
Compilation
Episode 6
Nicholas Parsons challenges Paul Merton, Rufus Hound, Jenny Eclair and Zoe Lyons to speak on the topics on the cards without deviation, hesitation or repetition.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.
From 2017.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000pvd1)
Cookbooks of 2020
Whether it's a recipe book full of mouthwatering meals, a deep dive into the science of what we eat or a collection of must-try cocktails, books about food and drink have the power to educate, entertain and enthrall - all in the comfort of your own home.
And this year, that's been more important than ever!
The Food Programme's presenting team - Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Leyla Kazim and Jaega Wise - gather for their annual book summit, sharing their favourite titles of 2020 and hopefully giving some festive gift inspiration along the way...
Plus tales from Iceland's 'Jolabokaflod' Christmas book tradition with Christopher Norris, this year's food and drink book sales chart with The Bookseller's Tom Tivnan, and a first book launch for former BBC Food and Farming Award winners, The Seafood Shack...
Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000pvd3)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000pvd5)
Global news and analysis, presented by Jonny Dymond.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000pvd7)
Fi Glover presents strangers and friends exchange stories as we adjust to the 'new normal'. In this week's programme: Jay and Heli are two generations of women who wanted to exchange notes on being autistic; Fran and Vanessa share their experience of the effects of Long Covid; and dentists Milad and Dipali talk about the effects of lockdown on their patients and their profession.
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 this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000ptbq)
GQT at Home: Hippeastrums and Holly
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme with Chris Beardshaw, Anne Swithinbank and Matthew Pottage. Kathy and a virtual audience from across the country.
This week, the panellists discuss the dos and don'ts of creating colour in the garden, alternative indoor Christmas trees and building a wildlife pond from scratch. They also share their garden dreams and nightmares.
Away from the questions, Alex Young has a survival guide for houseplants through the winter, and Advolly Richmond is back with another fascinating history - this week it's the Amaryllis (or is it the Hippeastrum?)
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Creation of an Icon (m0001l7w)
Holy Perspectives
Iconographer and former Greek Orthodox monk Aidan Hart paints an icon of the angel Gabriel revealing to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus. Today he talks about the strange perspectives of the icon.
You can follow Aidan's painting on the programme's webpage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001l7x
Producer: Phil Pegum
SUN 15:00 Drama (b06tvzqr)
The Continuing Adventures of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Deceased)
An original western by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.
It’s 1904. New Mexico. Legendary lawman Pat Garrett has grown weary and old. An altercation with President Roosevelt has left his future looking bleak, his present is awash with whisky, blood and bullets, and all the while he’s haunted by a ghost from his past.
This is the story of how the myth of the Wild West was created and how outlaws were forged into great American heroes.
Pat Garrett ..... Sean Gilder
Billy The Kid ..... Sam Swann
Nancy ..... Madeline Appiah
Benjy ..... Edward Hogg
Clayton Claypole ..... Nathan Osgood
President Roosevelt ..... Rolf Saxon
Stubbenfield ..... John Guerrasio
Maxwell ..... Caolan McCarthy
Director: Helen Perry
Made for BBC Radio 4 by BBC Cymru Wales and first broadcast in January 2016.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000pvd9)
Jenny Erpenbeck, Margaret Atwood on a classic dystopia, Paintings in fiction
Chris Power talks to Jenny Erpenbeck, the prize-winning German novelist behind Go, Went, Gone and The End of Days. Her latest book, Not A Novel, is a collection of non-fiction combining essays and lectures with insightful insights from growing up in Berlin.
Yevgeny Zamyatin's landmark dystopia We, a direct influence on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984, is a hundred years old. Margaret Atwood joins to discuss her introduction to a new translation, along with Professor of Russian literature at UCL, Maria Rubins.
And Irish author Neil Hegarty takes us on a visual journey of paintings in fiction, two mediums which have long complimented each other.
SUN 16:30 Poems at Dusk (m000pvdc)
Poet Theresa Lola is only 26 years old, but her work has always explored mortality. She's fascinated by our complex relationship with the final stage of life.
In this moving programme, Theresa meets poets in their twilight years, their thoughts and poems interweaving.
We hear from TS Eliot Prize winner George Szirtes, now 71, who uses his poems to retread the corridors of memory as he heads knowingly into the dusk. The American poet Alicia Ostriker explains that, as she's aged, the collapsing of both her body and her mind has inevitably found its way into her poems.
Poet and critic Peter Simonsen introduces us to the final works of WB Yeats who worked long into old age and strove to articulate the experience of physical decrepitude. Peter also offers us a haunting reading of the great Objectivist poet George Oppen's The Tongues. The sparse and fractured nature of the poem makes perfect sense when we learn that, at the end of his life, Oppen was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease which slowly but surely robbed him of the ability to speak and process words.
Our final encounter is with Sarah Yerkes, aged 102. Sarah spent decades welding vast metal sculptures until old age made such physical strains impossible. Despite being over a century old, her mind is as sharp as ever and she still actively writes. While Sarah remains passionate about poetry, the reality of life in old age means her poems are often filled with a sense of confusion and loss.
Sarah muses on the nature of the afterlife and, having concluded that dying is her next great adventure, reads one final poem - an elegy to herself.
Presenter: Theresa Lola
Producer: Brenna Daldorph
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 Inside the Brain of Jeff Bezos (m000pmxh)
David Baker reveals the thinking and the values that have made Jeff Bezos the richest man on the planet, and Amazon the most wildly successful company, even in a year when the global economy faces catastrophe.
Speaking to senior colleagues within his businesses, longstanding business partners and analysts, David Baker learns the secrets to Amazon's success, and the impact of Jeff Bezos' ideas on all of the commercial, cultural and now environmental sectors - on Earth and beyond - that have been influenced by his investments and activity.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000pvdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000pvdm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000pvdr)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000pvdw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000pvf0)
Adrian Goldberg
From football maestro Diego Maradona to punk pioneer Viv Albertine, we’ve got the highlights of an awesome week of lockdown listening for you.
There’s opera – twice – comedy, feminism, and a definite family focus as we consider the easing of Covid restrictions over the festive period.
Presenter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Miriam Williamson
Production support: Ellen Orchard
Studio Manager: Richard Hannaford
Contact potw@bbc.co.uk
The full programmes of all of the selections featured can be accessed in the Related Links section on the Pick of the week homepage.
SUN 19:00 Strictly Stories (m00051kj)
Tango
Nikesh’s secret predilection has put his marriage under pressure. Will learning the tango help the couple rekindle their relationship?
Written by Bethan Roberts
Read by Sara Markland
Produced and Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production produced for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:15 Dot (b0bf56gh)
Series 3
Dial M for Myrtle
By Ed Harris
Dark doings in the War Rooms as a suspicious death leaves the gals from personnel with no options other than to investigate. Comic adventures in Ed Harris' witty and quirky wartime comedy.
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko.
SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000pvf4)
11: Haunted
The next in Daisy Johnson's deliciously spine-tingling stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens.
Today: a businesswoman with a fascination for the macabre, encounters a grieving husband in the shadows of The Hotel - with transformative results.....
Writer: Daisy Johnson
Reader: Laurel Lefkow
Producer: Justine Willett
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000ptbx)
Is the Archers back to its best? After a torrid time under lockdown restrictions, the drama is nearly back to its pre-Covid level of production. Currently it has a powerful storyline with Alice Carter’s alcoholism and pregnancy producing compelling radio. Has it been enough to lure back some once regular listeners?
As she clocks up 25 years presenting Today in Parliament, Susan Hulme takes Feedback behind the scenes in the tense countdown to transmission.
And did our listeners find Radio 4’s The Likely Dads entertaining and informative? Or neither?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000ptbv)
Diego Maradona, Rosalind Grimshaw, Jan Morris CBE
Pictured: Diego Maradona
Matthew Bannister on:
Diego Maradona, the flawed footballing genius who was worshipped by fans in Argentina and his adopted home city of Naples before drug abuse and scandal tainted his reputation. We speak to Asif Kapadia, director of the acclaimed film about Maradona’s life.
Rosalind Grimshaw, the talented stained glass artist whose works include a spectacular window depicting the seven days of creation at Chester Cathedral.
And Jan Morris, the author of more than 50 books chronicling her travels around the world and one describing her decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Interviewed guest: Asif Kapadia
Interviewed guest: Chris King
Interviewed guest: Patrick Costeloe
Interviewed guest: Paul Clements
Producer: Neil George
Archive clips from: Today, Radio 4 26/11/2020; 5 Live Breakfast, 26/11/2020; Diego Maradona, directed by Asif Kapadia, On The Corner/Film 4 14/06/2019; Match Commentary: World Cup 1990 Semi Final - Italy v Argentina, BBC Sound Archive 1990; Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 29/03/2003; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 16/06/2002; Profile, Radio 4 01/06/1978; The Verb, Radio 4 14/02/2020.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000pvf8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000pvcg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 My Name Is... (m000l7pn)
My Name Is Fozia
Fozia was surprised to be bombarded with fake news as she worked on the covid wards and even more shocked to discover that some of the messages were coming from prominent people in the local community. They accused doctors of forcing people to sign Do Not Resuscitate forms, suggested that Covid-19 didn't actually exist and one even told her she would be: “held responsible in the court of Allah for the deaths of these people, for negligence in this life, and life is very short."
“I've been sent a message saying that NHS workers are working on bonuses, that we're taking money for putting Covid on death certificates and we are essentially taking money for life. And I think that's a really cruel thing to say to someone," said Fozia.
She talks to a patient on the hospital’s intensive care unit, Mohammed Azeem, who says he deliberately put off coming to hospital because he’d been hearing the claims on social media. By the time an ambulance was called he was dangerously ill and had to be placed straight on a ventilator. His life hung in the balance for weeks and his mother died before he regained consciousness. He says he has realised the dangers of fake news and wants to help alert others.
As part of her investigation Fozia challenges some of those behind the conspiracy theories which are so prevalent online. She speaks to the anti-5G campaigner, Mark Steel, who says that no one is safe from the alleged impact of 5G and the latest electromagnetic wave induced pandemic. She also hears from a hospital worker who admits to following the conspiracy theories and siding with them even in light of the impact she sees on the wards and her medical training.
In the African community the fear is prevalent in a group of mothers she meets: they are so worried that even if a vaccine became available they wouldn’t think about taking it. One woman tells her that covid-19 is a device being used to eradicate different ethnic groups and that no one is safe. The higher death rate amongst the BAME community is just further evidence that a cleansing policy of some kind is in operation.
Fozia laments the problems fake news is causing on the wards at her hospital, the Bradford Royal Infirmary, which serves a very diverse community. Her colleague, Dr Sam Khan, shares a video his parents have seen circulating on major news channels in Pakistan. It purports to show how vaccines distributed by Bill Gates involve secret microchips. Dr Khan believes the fears were partly fuelled by the hospital’s justifiable policy of not allowing visitors at the start of the pandemic.
In Accident and Emergency Fozia chats to Dr Dave Greenhorn and Sister Emma Clinton, who recently saw a patient too ill to save. Following his death from covid-19 his children turned on them, accusing medical staff of giving their father a lethal injection. For Emma and Dave it was a harrowing moment and it really hit home how difficult the task ahead is. Even publicising the good news stories and focusing on patients who get better and go home does not detract from the widespread fear.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Presented by Dr Fozia Hayat
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000pvfd)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000pqdh)
Heaven's Gate
With Francine Stock
Heaven's Gate is a symbol of Hollywood excess and financial mismanagement. One of the biggest disasters in film history, Michael Cimino's epic is said to have killed the studio that produced it, United Artists. Francine scours through the archives to hear from two its chief protagonists, head of production Steven Bach and director Michael Cimino.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b012zzzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2020
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000pvfh)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000pp8s)
GAMBLING
Gambling: Laurie Taylor talks to Rebecca Cassidy, Professor of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, about her research into a pastime which was once a criminal activity but is now a respectable business run by multinational corporations listed on international stock markets. Who are the winners and losers created by this transformation? Also, Emma Casey, Associate Professor of Sociology at Northumbria University, discusses her research on gambling and social mobility.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000pvfn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000pvfs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000pvfx)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000pvg0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000pvg4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000pvg8)
Spiritual reflection for St Andrew's Day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000pvgd)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000pvgj)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k6rrj)
Dipper
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the dipper. On a cold winter's day when few birds are singing, the bright rambling song of a dipper by a rushing stream is always a surprise. Dippers sing in winter because that's when the males begin marking out their stretch of water, they're early breeders.
MON 06:00 Today (m000pw6t)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000pw6w)
Human ingenuity and shared inheritance
Amol Rajan explores different ways of thinking, and how far humans can be seen as unique for their ability to invent.
In The Pattern Seekers, Simon Baron-Cohen shows how humans have evolved remarkable ingenuity in every area of their lives – from the arts to the sciences – by using complex systemizing mechanisms. He says this ability to formulate if-and-then processes has driven progress for more than 70,000 years. He goes on to argue that the areas of the brain important for systemizing overlap with those for autism. As the Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, Baron-Cohen wants to challenge people to think differently about an often misunderstood condition.
The archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Skyes is also seeking to challenge people’s perceptions. In Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art, she builds a picture of an ancient ancestor who was far from being a brutish thug. She depicts the Neanderthals as curious and clever connoisseurs of their world: technologically inventive and artistically inclined. Humans may have been the survivors but Wragg Sykes argues that we are not necessarily uniquely special - we share many traits and DNA with our Neanderthal relatives.
Susan Carvahlo started her career as an archaeologist with a fascination for human evolution, but her interest in uncovering knowledge of our ancestors led her to become one of the main founders of the field of Primate Archaeology. For decades she has been studying stone-tool use by wild chimpanzees in West Africa. Alongside another project in the Rift Valley, she’s looking to use the knowledge gained from non-human primates to expand understanding of human origins and behaviour.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000pw8l)
Episode 1
David Abulafia’s epic history of our relationship with the oceans is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. Charting maritime networks from the earliest seafaring societies, Abulafia explores how mankind has used the oceans to travel, trade and survive – for ends both noble and wicked.
The story begins with the Polynesians of the Pacific.
Read by Colin McFarlane
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000pw70)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
MON 10:45 Karin and Andrew (m000pw72)
Episode 1
An ex-offender gradually changes his life through his friendship with a photographer. Join Andrew and Karin taking 1000 photos of graffiti over the course of a year.
This first episode opens in a residential centre, where artist-in-residence Karin tries to engage Andrew in a project. He’s remained shut down since he arrived a few weeks ago but, when he learns Karin is a photographer, he starts to show an interest. He tells her he once took 1000 pictures of graffiti in Manchester but lost his camera before his last spell in prison.
Karin has an idea to get him moving again.
The series is based on a real-life friendship between documentary photographer Karin and ex-prisoner Andrew who, every Wednesday, walk miles together photographing pieces of graffiti in central Manchester. They discover a wealth of street art that helps them find a language through which to explore their very different lives. Over the course of a year, walking and talking through all weathers and seasons, we witness a deep friendship forming as Andrew gradually changes the course of his life.
This is a quiet story in praise of friendship, the city of Manchester, graffiti artists everywhere and the endless possibility of change.
Cast:
Karin …. Eve Shotton
Andrew …. Ciarán Griffiths
Joe …. Darren Kuppan
Maggie …. Melissa Jane Sinden
Original music by Matthew Fortunati
Story consultant: Karin Albinsson
Scripted and directed by Melanie Harris
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound designer: Joe Richardson
Photograph by Jason Lock
Executive producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:00 The Untold (m000pw75)
Covid Love
Pauline Demaline was one of the first victims of covid to die in the United Kingdom and even now, months later, the grief amongst her family and friends is overwhelming. Her husband, Nigel, believes he can help by taking part in the search for a vaccine and he wants to as much as he can to protect others from getting ill.
Pauline was only 56 years old when she died, a fit and active woman who worked as the parish administrator at Holy Trinity Church in Skipton. She had been feeling ill and was tired, lethargic and short of breath, but thought that might be a recurrence of childhood asthma. It was in the first days of covid as the country was preparing to lock down and few knew what to expect as the virus took hold.
When lockdown came and with cases hitting the headlines, Nigel finally forced his wife of almost four decades, to go to hospital. Just a few days later and following a positive test for covid-19, she was dead. People locally were stunned and at the church there was confusion about what had happened, who else might be infected and how a funeral could be held to remember the woman they all cared for so deeply.
In this edition of The Untold, Producer Sue Mitchell follows Nigel as he talks to friends about the vaccine trial and makes his decision to go forward as a volunteer. Once he’s been accepted he meets Dr Dinesh Saralaya, who is heading the Bradford Royal Infirmary input into Novavax phase 3 trials that will include 10,000 people across the UK
Dr Saralaya believes the vaccine holds a real hope that people can begin to get back to their everyday lives, free of the worry of covid: “Bradford is part of the global race for a vaccine and we are calling on our local community to get involved. This is the only way that we can save as many lives as possible during the pandemic.”
Nigel does not know whether he will be given the actual vaccine or a placebo, but he is just happy to be taking part. He knows that Pauline would have approved, although she would have worried about the possible side effects: “If I can save one person from going through what we’ve gone through then it’s worth anything I can do. I wouldn’t want anyone else to suffer in the way that we have” says Nigel
Producer: Sue Mitchell
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000py6x)
Episode 3
Tim Harford reports on the global race to create a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000pwbm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000pw7b)
Episode 1
Amy Lee is a neglected motherless child who fantasises about becoming a writer. On a trip to Kenwood House, a stately home in Hampstead on her birthday she meets Robert Vorst, a young boy from a wealthy American family who happens to be visiting with his family. On that chilly October day in London in 1928, the chance meeting of these two young people from very different backgrounds, sets off a chain of events that will change both their lives in ways they could never have imagined. My American is unashamedly romantic. It's one of over 30 books written by Stella Gibbons, her most famous being the satire Cold Comfort Farm.
Abridged by Kate McAll and read by Jan Ravens.
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000pw7f)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000pw7h)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000pw7k)
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 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sbryz)
Empire Builders (300 BC - AD 10)
Head of Alexander
Another chance to hear the first programmes in the second part of Neil MacGregor's global history told through objects from the British Museum. This week Neil is exploring the lives and methods of powerful rulers around the world 2000 years ago, asking what enduring qualities are needed for the perfect projection of power.
Contributors include the economist Amartya Sen, the politician Boris Johnson, political commentator Andrew Marr and the writer Ahdaf Soueif.
Neil begins by telling the story of Alexander the Great through a small silver coin, one that was made years after his death but that portrays an idealised image of the great leader as a vigorous young man. Neil then considers how the great Indian ruler Ashoka turned his back on violence and plunder to promote the ethical codes inspired by Buddhism. Neil tells the life story of Ashoka through a remaining fragment of one of his great pillar edicts and considers his legacy in the Indian sub-continent today. The third object in today's omnibus is one of the best known in the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone. Neil takes us to the Egypt of Ptolemy V and describes the astonishing contest that led to the most famous bits of deciphering in history - the cracking of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. An exquisite lacquer wine cup takes Neil to Han Dynasty China in the fourth programme and the omnibus concludes with the 2000 year old head of one of the world's most notorious rulers - Caesar Augustus.
Producers: Anthony Denselow and Paul Kobrak.
MON 14:00 Tracks (m000pwjx)
Series 5: Abyss
Abyss: Episode Six
By Katherine Chandler.
Part 6 of the conspiracy thriller's final series.
An odd detail on the uniform of a drowned soldier leads Helen further down the rabbit hole. At a military base in North Wales she finds a new companion and a warehouse full of secrets.
A gripping thriller, Tracks was the first drama to hit the top of the iTunes podcast chart back in 2017. It went on to win Best Sound (BBC Audio Drama Awards) and Best Fiction (British Podcast Awards). Now Tracks is back with a fifth and final 9 part series.
All four previous series of Tracks are available now in full on BBC Sounds.
Helen… Olivia Poulet
Freddy…. Jonathan Forbes
Tec…. Dino Kelly
Linda... Maria Pride
Irene… Heather Craney
The Assistant...Tom Mumford
Frances… Juno Robinson
Series created by Matthew Broughton
Directed by John Norton
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
MON 14:45 Welcome to the Quiet Zone (b05v7td5)
Into the Valley
Imagine a place without mobile phones. Quiet isn't it? People still look at each other when they are talking. It's not a dream. It really exists.
Take Highway 250 in West Virginia into the Allegheny Mountains and the car radio fades to static. Glance illegally at your mobile phone and the signal disappears. You're in The National Radio Quiet Zone - 13,000 square miles of radio silence, just a few hundred miles from Washington DC. No Wi-Fi; no cell phones; no radio signals.
Designated a radio wave free area in the 1950s, the area is home to two giant listening stations. One listens to deep space, as far back as milliseconds after the Big Bang - the Green Bank National Observatory; the other is Naval Communications, the NSA listening ear.
Taller than the Statue of Liberty, the Green Bank Telescope is the world's largest moving land object. It has the sensitivity, says Mike Holstine, "equivalent to a billionth of a billionth of a millionth of a watt... the energy given off by a single snow flake hitting the ground. Anything man-made would overwhelm that signal." Hence the legal requirement, for a radio frequency free zone.
Photographer Emile Holba, long fascinated with the edges of society, takes a trip into the Quiet Zone where the ability to listen in to moments after the creation of the universe, means the local population have sacrificed their connection to the outside world.
It's not a world without conflict as pressure grows to move into the technological future on the one hand, whilst on the other, a growing band of electro-sensitive immigrants are moving into cabins in the woods. Meanwhile the government are considering the viability of a continued large investment in searching space.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (m000pw7n)
Anna Ptaszynski, Steven Isserlis, Sophie Duker
Nigel Rees quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes and quotes.
*Podcaster and television host Anna Ptaszynski, best known as co-host of the QI spin off show and podcast No Such Thing As A Fish
*Cellist Steven Isserlis, also known for his childrens' books, including Why Handel Waggled His Wig
*Comedian Sophie Duker, best known for her critically acclaimed stand up show, Venus
This is the 56th series of the popular humorous celebrity quotations quiz.
Producer: Ella Watts
Production co-ordinator: Gwyn Davies
Sound design: Hedley Knights
A BBC Studios Production
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000pvd1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Moving Pictures (m000pw7r)
The Sherborne Missal
Each thirty-minute episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork - and you're invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image on Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.
This episode takes a closer look at one of the treasures of the British Library collection, the Sherborne Missal.
Made in the early 1400s, it's a titan of a manuscript, weighing as much as the average five-year-old child and containing more paintings than many art galleries, including numerous tiny portraits of the patrons who commissioned it and the monks who laboured over its decoration.
The episode focuses on the Easter Sunday page, resplendent with intensely coloured images drawn from both the bible and the natural world - and sheltering hairy, combative wodewose in its margins.
To see the high-resolution image, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures and follow the link to explore the Sherborne Missal.
Interviewees: Kathleen Doyle, Eleanor Jackson, Alixe Bovey, Paul Binski, Patricia Lovett
Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald
Art consultant: Leah Kharibian
Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.
Picture credit: a decorated initial ‘R’ containing a scene of the Resurrection of Christ, with a pheasant and the appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene in the border. Detail from the page for Easter Sunday in the Sherborne Missal, British Library, Add. MS 74236, p. 216 © The British Library Board.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000pw7t)
Debt
Britain is in the midst of a huge Debt Crisis. Recent research by a debt charity has found that household borrowing and arrears have soared 66% since May to £10.3 billion. For many people, there seems to be no way out. Month by month they sink deeper into debt. Desmond Tutu once said: “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” Ernie Rea discusses religious responses to debit with Rt Rev David Walker, Bishop of Manchester and Deputy Chairman of the Church Commissioners; Mohammed Kroessin, Head of Islamic Microfinance at Islamic Relief UK; and Jasvir Singh, a family law barrister and chair of City Sikhs which exists to provide a voice for Progressive Sikhs in the UK.
Producer: Amanda Hancox
MON 17:00 PM (m000pw7w)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000pw80)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000pw82)
Series 73
Huddersfield Town Hall
The first of Tim Brooke-Taylor’s final two recordings of Radio 4's ‘antidote to panel games’ recorded in March this year comes from Huddersfield Town Hall where he and Rachel Parris are pitched against Tony Hawks and Marcus Brigstocke, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000pw85)
Tony makes an emotional discovery and David finds himself backed into a corner
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000pw87)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Karin and Andrew (m000pw72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Apocalypse How (m000pw89)
Insectageddon
Could our food supplies be at risk from a worldwide decline in pollinating insects? Much attention has been focused on honey bees, but bees are farmed species and their numbers are largely determined by the activities of beekeepers. Other wild pollinators could be at greater risk. In fact, by trying to protect honey bees, legislators may have made the situation worse for other insects, and reduced food security. Moreover, the majority of the world's crops do not rely on insects for pollination. And yet, long term data does seem to suggest that insect numbers are declining and that eventually the loss of biodiversity will have serious knock-on effects. Jolyon Jenkins tries to disentangle the competing claims.
Producer/presenter: Jolyon Jenkins
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000pqch)
Sicily's Prisoner Fishermen
18 fishermen from Sicily are in jail in Benghazi, accused of fishing in Libya’s waters. And in this part of the Mediterranean rich in the highly-prized and lucrative red prawn, these kinds of arrests are frequent. Usually the Libyans release the men after negotiations. This time it’s different. Gen Khalifa Haftar – the warlord with authority over the east of Libya – is demanding a prisoner swap: the freeing of 4 Libyans in jail in Sicily convicted of human trafficking and implicated in the deaths of 49 migrants, in return for the fishermen. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly explores a little-known conflict in the Mediterranean - the so-called War of the Red Prawn, and its fall-out.
MON 21:00 The Invention of... (m000pmwd)
Scandinavia
The Narcissism of Small Differences
This is the story of how Norway threw off its patronising title of 'little brother' and emerged as the richest Scandinavian nation of all.
In 1814 - just as Napoleon's rampage across Europe was drawing to a close - Sweden took control of Norway. They did this with the permission of the other great powers. Norway did not became a free and sovereign nation until 1905, and during that century they continued to produce timber and fish. But they also produced Ibsen, Grieg and Munch, who painted The Scream; plus Nansen and Amundsen, who beat the British to the South Pole.
With contributions from Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Linn Ullman in Oslo, plus Erica Wagner, Dorthe Nors and Jacob Stougaard-Nielsen of UCL.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000pw6w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000pw8d)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000pw7b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000pvl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000pw8g)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 01 DECEMBER 2020
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000pw8j)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000pw8l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000pw8p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000pw8r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000pw8t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000pw8w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000pw8y)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000pw90)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k6slx)
Robin
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the robin. Christmas cards became popular around 1860 and robins often featured, carrying letters in their beaks or lifting door-knockers and were often referred to as the 'little postmen'. Until 1861, postmen wore red coats and were nick-named redbreasts or Robins, so the association between a familiar winter bird and the person who brought Christmas greetings was irresistible.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000pxnx)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Long View (m000pxnz)
The Long View of Christmas in the Age of Covid
A society wrestles with what to do about enjoying itself over Christmas. Prevailing thinking says that hidden dangers lurk in enjoying the festivities that we are used to. Debate rages across the country about self-restraint, family reunions, and fears over the consequences of getting it wrong. That’s the story today, as governments and individuals try to decide how much freedom we can allow ourselves over Christmas at the height of the Covid pandemic.
But it was also the story in 1644, as the Puritan controlled government of the day, imposed stringent restrictions on festivities, not because of plague and pestilence this time, but because of a fear of moral degeneracy and damnation.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
TUE 09:30 NatureBang (m000pxp1)
Slime Mould and Problem Solving
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight celebrate the intelligence of a brainless slime mould. As single-cell protists, with no brain and no nervous system, slime moulds do not 'think' in human terms, but they can calculate and navigate complex systems with incredible efficiency and objectivity. With some help from a few oat flakes, because slime mould loves oats.
One species in particular, Physarum Polycephalum, has proven itself to outwit us time and time again, from solving complex urban transport problems to mapping the structures of the cosmic web. In doing so, it totally overthrows our human definition of intelligence, where we have positioned ourselves at the top of a big biological hierarchy. From the bottom up, slime mould is starting to uproot the whole system.
Featuring Merlin Sheldrake, writer of 'Entangled Life', and experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats.
TUE 09:45 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000pxp3)
Episode 2
David Abulafia’s epic history of our relationship with the oceans is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. Charting maritime networks from the earliest seafaring societies, Abulafia explores how mankind has used the oceans to travel, trade and survive – for ends both noble and wicked.
In 15th century China, Emperor Yong-le’s maritime expeditions speak volumes about the ambitions of the Ming dynasty.
Read by Colin McFarlane
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000pxp5)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 Karin and Andrew (m000pxp7)
Episode 2
An ex-offender gradually changes his life through his friendship with a photographer. Join Andrew and Karin taking 1000 photos of graffiti over the course of a year.
Karin and Andrew take a tram out towards Salford Quays and make their way to the arches under the tramline, a few stops before Media City. They find a dazzling feast of colourful graffiti that seems to stretch for miles. They are inspired to keep going.
The series is based on a real-life friendship between documentary photographer Karin and ex-prisoner Andrew who, every Wednesday, walk miles together photographing pieces of graffiti in central Manchester. They discover a wealth of street art that helps them find a language through which to explore their very different lives. Over the course of a year, walking and talking through all weathers and seasons, we witness a deep friendship forming as Andrew gradually changes the course of his life.
This is a quiet story in praise of friendship, the city of Manchester, graffiti artists everywhere and the endless possibility of change.
Cast:
Karin …. Eve Shotton
Andrew …. Ciarán Griffiths
Original music by Matthew Fortunati
Story consultant: Karin Albinsson
Scripted and directed by Melanie Harris
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound designer: Joe Richardson
Photograph by Jason Lock
Executive producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:00 Pen Pals (m00029g5)
In 2015, Proinsias O’Coinn made a programme called ‘Lacrimosa’ about his search for a work of art that could bring him to tears. For years, he felt he couldn’t cry because he was struggling to accept his true identity. A month after the documentary was broadcast, Proinsias received an email from a woman called Donna who wanted to tell him about the work of art that makes her cry - a sculpture by Ossip Zadkine called The Destroyed City, which commemorates the bombing of Rotterdam in WWII.
They started writing to each other and discovered they actually had a lot in common. Donna understood Proinsias’ struggle with his sexuality, as her daughter is gay. But there was something else too. They both had the same type of cancer. Proinsias found out he'd had cancer after his tumour had been removed, but Donna was not so lucky – her diagnosis is terminal.
Proinsias knew he had to meet Donna and visit the sculpture with her. Maybe, it would be the work of art that would finally bring him to tears. More importantly, he wanted to meet his new pen pal.
TUE 11:30 My Albion (m000pxpb)
Four Hundred Years
Zakia Sewell's quest for Albion takes her deep into the landscape of Britain and into the soil itself. Looking more closely at what lies beneath our feet, reveals a complex web of histories, some more readily visible than others and some more hopeful.
She talks to a young horticulturalist, Sam Siva; the author of a book on trespass, Nick Hayes; the rapper and playwright, Testament; the sociologist Ben Pitcher and her mum, Amey, as they walk across Hampstead Heath.
Produced by Zakia Sewell and Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000pxpd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000pxpj)
Episode 2
Amy Lee is a neglected motherless child who fantasises about becoming a writer. On a trip to Kenwood House, a stately home in Hampstead on her birthday she meets Robert Vorst, a young boy from a wealthy American family who happens to be visiting with his family. On that chilly October day in London in 1928, the chance meeting of these two young people from very different backgrounds, sets off a chain of events that will change both their lives in ways they could never have imagined. My American is unashamedly romantic. It's one of over 30 books written by Stella Gibbons, her most famous being the satire Cold Comfort Farm.
Abridged by Kate McAll and read by Jan Ravens.
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000pxpn)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000pxps)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000pxpx)
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 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sbrz1)
Empire Builders (300 BC - AD 10)
Pillar of Ashoka
The history of the world as told through objects at the British Museum arrives in India over 2000 years ago. Throughout this week Neil MacGregor is exploring the lives and methods of powerful new leaders.
Today he looks at how the Indian ruler Ashoka turned his back on violence and plunder to promote the ethical codes inspired by Buddhism. He communicated to his vast new nation through a series of edicts written on rocks and pillars. Neil tells the life story of Ashoka through a remaining fragment of one of his great pillar edicts and considers his legacy in the Indian sub-continent today. Amartya Sen and the Bhutanese envoy to Britain, Michael Rutland, describe what happened when Buddhism and the power of the state come together.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000pw85)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000pxq4)
Fare
Fare by Tony Schumacher
Just a normal night for a taxi driver. Hoping that the next fare will be easy and hassle free. But then a dodgy geezer and his girlfriend climb in. All attitude and matching nylon tracksuits, they pay him big money to drive around. And it turns out not to be a normal night after all.
The Driver..... Mark Womack
Mikey.............. Mike Noble
Leanne......... Sade Malone
The Kid........ Sacha Parkinson
Producer/Director Gary Brown
This is Tony Schumacher's first radio play. His TV series 'The Responder -, starring Martin Freeman - airs on BBC 2 next year.
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000pxq9)
Readers
Short documentaries and audio adventures about the letters and books which reach unexpected readers - with Josie Long.
From the woman who has collected 8000 strangers' diaries to the letter treasured by a political prisoner who'd never met its senders.
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000pxqg)
End of the petrol age
By 2030, sales of petrol and diesel cars in the UK will be banned. The decision announced by the Prime Minister's in November is intended to help the country meet its target of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, and will mean a significant shift in patterns of car ownership over the course of the next decade. In this programme Tom Heap looks at the implications of the decision. Does the UK have the battery-charging infrastructure which will be needed to power thousands more electric vehicles? With electric cars still more expensive to buy than those powered by an internal combustion engine, will the public be willing to make the swtich? Are we ready for the end of the petrol age?
Producer: Emma Campbell
TUE 16:00 Walks Like a Duck (m000kw40)
Equipment, Equipment, Equipment
My name is Louise. I’m a mum to Jacob, wife to Mark, and therapist and friend to many. I also live with a degenerative, muscle wasting disease - a type of Muscular Dystrophy.
A few years ago, my hospital consultant asked a medical student to describe my condition. “Well,” he said, “she walks like a duck.” After a stunned pause, my husband and I howled with laughter. While I doubt the hapless student received the same reaction from the horrified neurologist, his clumsy response provided the perfect title for this documentary series.
The premise is clear. I don’t see myself as a person with a disability, yet that’s what I am. I don’t spend much of my life thinking about disability, yet my mind is filled with it 24/7. I wouldn’t choose to listen to a programme about disability, yet that’s what I was desperate to make!
It’s because living a life full of dependency and loss, my voice - and the voices of others like me - are so often silenced, so feared is the mirror of human weakness that others see reflected in our bodies.
A year in the making, the audio recordings in this series skip from the micro - the exhaustion caused by picking up a box of dropped crackers (when my day’s energy must be meticulously budgeted) - to the macro, such as asking questions about our collective, fearful disregard towards the chronically ill.
Amid all of this, are the real, raw and sometimes amusing sounds of my daily routine - I do live with an 8 year old, after all! - and some personal reflections on the acute emotional and physical pain caused by my diagnosis. I've tried to be absolutely honest in a way that has occasionally been exposing for me, to tell you what my life is like living with a disability.
Episode 2: Equipment, Equipment, Equipment
I am the proud owner of a car with slidey doors, a granny walker called Speedy, a wheelchair, some crutches, a stairlift and a mobility scooter called Brian. My life is pretty logistics-heavy and there’s a part of my brain constantly dedicated to thinking about the thing I will need next to get me to where I need to be. I’m grateful for all the stuff I have to help me - of course I am - but I do often wonder if many people have any idea what it’s like to live a life intertwined with equipment.
Presented by Louise Halling, with thanks to her husband Mark and her son Jacob
Produced by Catherine Carr and Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Muscular Dystrophy UK/Chris O’Donovan
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000pxql)
Clive Myrie & Boyd Tonkin
Journalist Clive Myrie and critic Boyd Tonkin nominate favourite books. Clive, fresh from covering the US election, has chosen Steinbeck's tale of the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath. Boyd recommends Hadji Murat, the last work of Leo Tolstoy, and Harriett goes for the political thriller Red April by Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo. Join the conversation on Instagram at agoodreadbbc
Producer Sally Heaven
TUE 17:00 PM (m000pxqq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000pxqs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 A Normal... (b0bfxl02)
Imagination
The fourth instalment in this acclaimed, occasional series in which acclaimed, occasional writer Henry Normal uses poetry, stories and comedy to tackle those subjects so big only radio can possibly contain them.
In this episode Henry looks at imagination, perception and how we express ourselves through art and creativity.
From the first cave paintings through to Henry's own experiences of creating, writing and producing some of Britain's best loved comedies over the years, Henry explores the wonders of the human imagination.
Henry Normal is a multi-award winning writer, producer and poet. Co-writer of award winning television programmes such as The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, Coogan's Run and Paul Calf, and producer of, amongst many others, Oscar-nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge.
He has published several volumes of poetry, including Travelling Second Class Through Hope, Staring Directly at the Eclipse and his new volume, Raining Upwards. And his memoir, A Normal Family: Everyday adventures with our autistic son.
Praise for previous episodes - 'A Normal Family', 'A Normal Life' and 'A Normal Love':
"It's a rare and lovely thing: half an hour of radio that stops you short, gently demands your attention and then wipes your tears away while you have to have a little sit down."
"It's a real treat to hear a seasoned professional like Henry taking command of this evening comedy spot to deliver a show that's idiosyncratic and effortlessly funny."
"Not heard anything that jumps from hilarious to moving in such an intelligent, subtle way as Henry Normal's show.".
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000pxqv)
Gavin has the rug pulled from under him and Tracy has a bone to pick with another resident
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000pxqx)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Karin and Andrew (m000pxp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Generation Covid (m000pxqz)
Under 2020's eventful restrictions, how has the mental health of younger people been affected? And what does it mean for their future? Sally Marlow investigates.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000pxr1)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m000pxr3)
Programme exploring the limits and potential of the human mind
TUE 21:30 The Long View (m000pxnz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000pxr5)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000pxpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Bameshow (m000pxr7)
Desiree Burch hosts a new format that parodies traditional game shows that have, until now, often overlooked comics of colour. Poking fun at tokenism, unconscious bias and just plain old racism, Desiree and the cast go bravely (and mischievously) where others fear to tread.
Joining Desiree are team captains Kemah Bob and Athena Kugblenu with panelists Glamrou and Ken Cheng...
Producer: Leila Navabi
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000pxr9)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 02 DECEMBER 2020
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000pxrc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000pxp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000pxrf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000pxrj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000pxrn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000pxrs)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000pxrx)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000pxs1)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k6t6c)
Red Kite
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the red kite. After centuries of persecution red kites were almost wiped out but in 1989 a project to restore the red kite back into the wild began. Since then kite numbers have soared, so that now these birds are foraging even around the outer suburbs of London.
WED 06:00 Today (m000py8r)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 The Reith Lectures (m000py8t)
2020: Mark Carney - How We Get What We Value
From Moral to Market Sentiments
Mark Carney’s Reith 2020 Lectures chart how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies. He argues that this has contributed to a trio of crises: of credit, Covid and climate. And the former Bank of England Governor will outline how we can turn this around.
In this lecture, recorded with a virtual audience, he reflects that whenever he could step back from what felt like daily crisis management, the same deeper issues loomed. What is value? How does the way we assess value both shape our values and constrain our choices? How do the valuations of markets affect the values of our society?
Dr Carney argues that society has come to embody Oscar Wilde’s aphorism: “Knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing.”
Presenter: Anita Anand
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Hugh Levinson
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000py8z)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:45 Karin and Andrew (m000py91)
Episode 3
An ex-offender gradually changes his life through his friendship with a photographer. Join Andrew and Karin taking 1000 photos of graffiti over the course of a year.
Andrew decides it’s finally time to visit Ancoats, where he grew up. He’s worried about bumping into people from his past. But he knows there are tags to find and photograph. He starts to enjoy showing Karin some of his old haunts.
The series is based on a real-life friendship between documentary photographer Karin and ex-prisoner Andrew who, every Wednesday, walk miles together photographing pieces of graffiti in central Manchester. They discover a wealth of street art that helps them find a language through which to explore their very different lives. Over the course of a year, walking and talking through all weathers and seasons, we witness a deep friendship forming as Andrew gradually changes the course of his life.
This is a quiet story in praise of friendship, the city of Manchester, graffiti artists everywhere and the endless possibility of change.
Cast:
Karin …. Eve Shotton
Andrew …. Ciarán Griffiths
Maggie …. Melissa Jane Sinden
Original music by Matthew Fortunati
Story consultant: Karin Albinsson
Scripted and directed by Melanie Harris
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound designer: Joe Richardson
Photograph by Jason Lock
Executive producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
WED 11:00 Apocalypse How (m000pw89)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 ReincarNathan (m0002h1b)
Series 1
Swallow
Nathan didn't really nail life the first time round, so he's been reincarnated and given another chance to live a good life. This week he's a swallow in Reading forced to migrate south for the winter.
Diane Morgan and Daniel Rigby star in this comedy about the afterlife, with special guest stars Hugh Dennis, Bill Oddie and Amy Beth Hayes.
Cast:
Diane Morgan - Jenny
Daniel Rigby - Nathan
Tom Craine - Museum Guide
Hugh Dennis - Nathan's dad
Amy-Beth Hayes - Claire
Bill Oddy - Sat Nav
Henry Paker - Wine drinker
Freya Parker - Electronic Voice, Museum Guide, Miss Cobra, Pigeon
Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker
Music Composed by Phil Lepherd
Producers: Harriet Jaine and Jonno Richards
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000py93)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000py95)
Episode 3
Amy Lee is a neglected motherless child who fantasises about becoming a writer. On a trip to Kenwood House, a stately home in Hampstead on her birthday she meets Robert Vorst, a young boy from a wealthy American family who happens to be visiting with his family. On that chilly October day in London in 1928, the chance meeting of these two young people from very different backgrounds, sets off a chain of events that will change both their lives in ways they could never have imagined. My American is unashamedly romantic. It's one of over 30 books written by Stella Gibbons, her most famous being the satire Cold Comfort Farm.
Abridged by Kate McAll and read by Jan Ravens.
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000py97)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000py99)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000py9c)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sbrz3)
Empire Builders (300 BC - AD 10)
Rosetta Stone
Today's programme finds Neil MacGregor in the company of one of the best known inhabitants of the British Museum - the Rosetta Stone. Throughout this week he is exploring shifting empires and the rise of legendary rulers around the world over 2000 years ago and here he takes us to the Egypt of Ptolemy V. He tells the story of the Greek kings who ruled in Alexandria. He also explains the struggle between the British and the French over the Middle East and their squabble over the stone. And, of course, he describes the astonishing contest that led to the most famous decipherment in history - the cracking of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. Historian Dorothy Thompson and the writer Ahdaf Soueif help untangle the tale.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000pxqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Where This Service Will... (b08n4lk6)
Where This Service Will Continue
By Katherine Jakeways
Fifteen months after they met on a train, David has come to find Suzie. Part two of the romantic comedy.
Suzie has a busy day planned - she needs to pick up the dog from the groomers, go to the chiropodists and make a trifle. But her plans are torpedoed by the arrival of David. Fifteen months ago Suzie and David sat next to each other on a train journey from London to Penzance; both married, they shared an intense and unforgettable five and a half hours. Now, out of the blue, David's landed in Suzie's life again.
A romantic comedy from writer Katherine Jakeways. The Radio Times described Katherine as the 'new Victoria Wood' saying "her character comedy is so acutely observed and so sharp that it's in danger of causing permanent injury." Starring Rosie Cavaliero (Prey) and Justin Edwards (The Thick of It).
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000py9g)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m000pxr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000py9j)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000py9l)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m000py9n)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000py9q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Sandi Toksvig's Hygge (m000py9s)
Episode 1
‘Hygge’ (pronounced hoo-ga) along with ‘tak’ (the word for ‘thank you’ that we learnt from watching Borgen and other Scandi dramas) is one of the few Danish words to have become known to us in the UK.
It’s a word that means comfort, contentment and cherishing the simple pleasures in life. In lifestyle magazines it’s faux fur throws, cups of hot cocoa and scented candles; but to the Danish it has simpler and less commercial roots. As these cold Winter nights draw in after a difficult year of scant comfort, it feels like we all need some hygge and legendary Dane, Sandi Toksvig, will do her best to bring it to you.
Deep in the Danish countryside in her cosy wood cabin Sandi will explore the concept of hygge and the Danish way of life and welcomes celebrity guests who join her in front of the open fire to explore what brings them hygge. In this episode artist Grayson Perry talks about how identity might sometimes need an audience and how hobbies and learning new things can bring deep joy, while comedian Sindhu Vee talks about her children's part Indian and part Danish upbringing and how she has come to understand the Danish philosophy.
Guests for the series are Grayson Perry, Alan Davies, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Bridget Christie, Sindhu Vee, Clive Myrie, Professor Brian Cox, Zoe Lyons and presenters and podcasters Rose and Rosie . We look forward to you joining Sandi in her cabin (there will be pastries).
Host...Sandi Toksvig
Producer...Julia McKenzie
Material for Sandi's opening script... Simon Alcock and Charlie Dinkin
Production Coordinator...Carina Andrews
Sound Recordist and Editor...Rich Evans
A BBC Studios Production
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000py9w)
Jazzer finds himself under attack and it’s the end of an era for Susan.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000py9y)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Karin and Andrew (m000py91)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000pyb0)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Nazir Afzal, Ayishat Akanbi, Anne McElvoy, and Tim Stanley #moralmaze
WED 20:45 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000py8x)
Episode 3
David Abulafia’s epic history of our relationship with the oceans is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. Charting maritime networks from the earliest seafaring societies, Abulafia explores how mankind has used the oceans to travel, trade and survive – for ends both noble and wicked.
As Europeans reach the New World, the historian considers the very concept of discovery.
Read by Colin McFarlane
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000pxqg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000py9l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000pyb2)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000py95)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Sarah Keyworth - Are You a Boy or a Girl? (m000pyb4)
Top Man
In her first stand-up series for Radio 4, Edinburgh Best Newcomer Nominee, Chortle Best Newcomer and Winner of the Herald Angel Award, Sarah Keyworth explores her personal journey with gender fluidity.
Join Sarah as she looks back on her own funny, ridiculous and bizarre experiences, as she attempts to shed light on why gender still remains such an important issue in the 21st Century.
Now in the present day; Sarah reflects that she is now at a point in her life in which she is comfortable in her gender and being androgynous. We hear about a recent trip to Ireland and her love for Rock star Pink...
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 Matt Berry Interviews... (b0b7hbcv)
Series 1
Simon Callow
Matt Berry presents a series of interviews with the greats of the stage, screen and music world.
This week Matt Berry brings you his interview with Simon Callow. Simon Callow is a true, true renaissance man. Such talents should always be cherished as their mere existence will inadvertently brighten any situation, or project they are involved with. Not only has he become a Goliath of the theatre but also of the written word. His works on Dickens, and Orson Welles are very highly regarded. Berry interviewed him in his tiny dressing at the top of The Ambassadors theatre in 1987 where he staring in an adaptation of Jilly Cooper's book 'Riders'.
Written, performed and edited by Matt Berry.
Produced by Matt Stronge.
It is a BBC Studios production.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000pyb6)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 03 DECEMBER 2020
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000pyb8)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000py8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000pybb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000pybd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000pybg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000pybj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000pybl)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000pybn)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k7177)
Knot
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the knot. Knot are dumpy waders which breed in the high Arctic but winter in hundreds of thousands on our estuaries and salt-marshes. Crammed together shoulder to shoulder at the water's edge, you can see how they got their scientific name Calidris canutus...a tribute to King Canute who discovered, despite his best attempts, that he didn't have the power to turn back the tides.
THU 06:00 Today (m000q0yd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000q0yj)
Fernando Pessoa
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Portuguese poet Pessoa (1888-1935) who was largely unknown in his lifetime but who, in 1994, Harold Bloom included in his list of the 26 most significant western writers since the middle ages. Pessoa wrote in his own name but mainly in the names of characters he created, each with a distinctive voice and biography, which he called heteronyms rather than pseudonyms, notably Ricardo Reis, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and one who was closer to Pessoa's own identity, Bernardo Soares. Most of Pessoa's works were unpublished at his death, discovered in a trunk; as more and more was printed and translated, his fame and status grew.
With
Cláudia Pazos-Alonso
Juliet Perkins
And
Paulo de Medeiros
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000q104)
Episode 4
David Abulafia’s epic history of our relationship with the oceans is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. Charting maritime networks from the earliest seafaring societies, Abulafia explores how mankind has used the oceans to travel, trade and survive – for ends both noble and wicked.
With maritime routes stretching around the globe, the most abominable form of trade begins to thrive.
Read by Colin McFarlane
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000q0yn)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 Karin and Andrew (m000q0yq)
Episode 4
An ex-offender gradually changes his life through his friendship with a photographer. Join Andrew and Karin taking 1000 photos of graffiti over the course of a year.
It’s a big day for Andrew - a mental health tribunal to determine the level of support and supervision he must still receive. Karin is there to speak in support.
The series is based on a real-life friendship between documentary photographer Karin and ex-prisoner Andrew who, every Wednesday, walk miles together photographing pieces of graffiti in central Manchester. They discover a wealth of street art that helps them find a language through which to explore their very different lives. Over the course of a year, walking and talking through all weathers and seasons, we witness a deep friendship forming as Andrew gradually changes the course of his life.
This is a quiet story in praise of friendship, the city of Manchester, graffiti artists everywhere and the endless possibility of change.
Cast:
Karin …. Eve Shotton
Andrew …. Ciarán Griffiths
Solicitor …. Darren Kuppan
Social worker …. Melissa Jane Sinden
Original music by Matthew Fortunati
Story consultant: Karin Albinsson
Scripted and directed by Melanie Harris
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound designer: Joe Richardson
Photograph by Jason Lock
Executive producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000q0ys)
Belarusian Police – Behind the Balaclavas
Minsk, early December. A wall of masked men in black body armour, beating their truncheons on steel shields. In front of them stand women bundled in winter coats and teenagers wrapped in red and white flags. They’re singing a protest song once heard in the revolutionary shipyards of Gdansk a generation before - an anthem for democracy and change. For more than one hundred days these versions of Belarus have advanced and retreated - and now they seem locked in impasse. Despite sanctions, despite disapproval so loud that even foreign diplomats are demonstrating - the government of Alexander Lukashenko stands firm. For Crossing Continents Lucy Ash explores the world of the security forces that keep Lukashenko in power, peeling back the ubiquitous balaclavas to find the men and women beneath.
Producer, Monica Whitlock
Editor, Bridget Harney
THU 11:30 Behind the Scenes (m000q0yv)
John Wilson and Opera Glassworks
The conductor John Wilson made his name restoring the historical scores of great Hollywood musicals. With the John Wilson Orchestra, he has been a fixture at the Proms for over a decade.
In March this year, he was at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, rehearsing Benjamin Britten’s Turn of The Screw for Opera Glassworks, when lockdown happened. All the tickets had been sold, the costumes were ready, the set was in place and the curtain about to go up. Then the production came to a crashing halt.
There was too much to lose, and this programme tells the story of how, months later, the opera was re-conceived, re-imagined and rescheduled under the new restrictions we are all learning to live in. John Wilson, along with the producers, decided to turn the staged performance into a film. Wilton’s is the perfect Victorian venue for this unsettling and ambiguous ghost story about the corruption of innocence.
In October, the singers came together again, only this time also with a film crew.
Covid restrictions meant the singers and musicians had to be recorded separately and in the most unorthodox ways. We follow John as he brings his meticulous and inspired vision of Britten’s opera to a new audience and a new format. We hear, day by day, what it was like being on set, how John worked in this ‘topsy turvey’ world as he described it, giving the singers the flexibility to interpret the opera and then later conducting the musicians having to fit round their recorded performances.
‘I do believe in making music for the joy of it,’ John says, ‘and we’re experiencing heightened levels of appreciation at the moment because it’s been taken away from us.’
Produced by Anna Horsbrugh-Porter
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000q145)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000q0yz)
Episode 4
Amy Lee is a neglected motherless child who fantasises about becoming a writer. On a trip to Kenwood House, a stately home in Hampstead on her birthday she meets Robert Vorst, a young boy from a wealthy American family who happens to be visiting with his family. On that chilly October day in London in 1928, the chance meeting of these two young people from very different backgrounds, sets off a chain of events that will change both their lives in ways they could never have imagined. My American is unashamedly romantic. It's one of over 30 books written by Stella Gibbons, her most famous being the satire Cold Comfort Farm.
Abridged by Kate McAll and read by Jan Ravens.
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000q0z1)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000q0z3)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000q0z5)
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 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sbrz5)
Empire Builders (300 BC - AD 10)
Chinese Han lacquer cup
In a week of programmes exploring the nature of power and the emergence of new rulers around the world 2000 years ago, Neil MacGregor takes us to Han Dynasty China. He tells the story of how the Chinese maintained loyalty and control by dispensing luxury gifts. He describes the world of the imperial Han through an exquisite lacquer wine cup that was probably given by the emperor to one of his military commanders in North Korea. The historian Roel Sterckx underlines the importance of lacquer for the period while writer Isabel Hilton looks at how the production of goods under state control has remained a consistent interest of the Chinese.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000py9w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0000z5g)
The Beneficial Owner
Deeply in debt and struggling to pay his children's crippling school fees, Tony da Silva finds the offer to front an anonymously owned shell company simply too tempting to resist.
In the wake of the Paradise Papers scandal and Paul Manafort’s conviction, dirty money is currently a big issue. And the UK is earning a reputation as one of the money-laundering capitals of the world. Hugh Costello’s drama explores the world of illicit shell companies and criminal overseas investors, through the plight of an accountant who, at risk to his reputation and his liberty, succumbs to a temptation which he soon comes to regret.
CAST:
TONY…………..…..……..……………………………………John McAndrew
KAREN ‘KAZ’……………….…………………………………Jane Slavin
XENIA…………………..……………………………………… Emma Fielding
LAURA…………..……………………………………………. Melody Grove
PAUL FINNEGAN.……..…………………………………..Lloyd Hutchinson
RUDY… ………………………………………………………..Matt Rippy
NEWS REPORTER.....................................................Andy Verity
Producer/Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000q0z8)
Rediscovering Redesdale
Helen Mark is in Redesdale in Northumberland to find out about a project to restore and celebrate the landscape of these historic borderlands. Now one of the most peaceful parts of England, Redesdale and the surrounding area was a lawless frontier where families on both sides of the border, the Border Reivers, raided each other’s lands. One element of the ‘Revitalising Redesdale’ project is to look for new evidence of the location of the infamous medieval Battle of Otterburn, which inspired several ballads which have been passed down the generations. Northumbrian piper Karthyrn Tickell who lives on the banks of the river Rede, describes how this area’s distinct musical traditions are linked to its landscape.
Producer: Sophie Anton
Presenter: Helen Mark
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000pvcg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000pvd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000q0zb)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000q0zd)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world
THU 17:00 PM (m000q0zg)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000q0zl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy (b0bfz5jy)
Series 2
Seventy-Three Seconds
Part 1: Seventy-Three Seconds
"Good luck, bad luck, who can tell..."
Multi-award winning storyteller Sarah Kendall returns with more hilarious, gripping and moving stories.
This second volume of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy, is one show in three parts. A collection of seemingly unconnected stories and memories, which, together, combine to form a meditation on luck, survival and hindsight.
Scrolling backwards and forwards in time to different moments in her life, over the three parts, Sarah creates an intricate montage, demonstrating the interconnectedness of life.
In this first part Sarah tells us her childhood memories of her brother's 6th birthday party, of their first pet and of her family gathering on the lawn to catch a glimpse of Halley's Comet in 1986. And we get an insight into the process of how this show came together, as Sarah watches a video of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.
Written by Sarah Kendall & Carl Cooper
Performed by Sarah Kendall
Producer - Carl Cooper
Production Co-ordinator - Beverly Tagg
This is a BBC Studios production
Photo Credit - Rosalind Furlong
Series One of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy-
Winner - Writers' Guild Award - Best Radio Comedy
Winner - BBC Audio Drama Award - Best Scripted Comedy (Longform)
Winner -Silver ARIA Award - Best Fictional Storytelling
Nominee - Chortle Comedy Awards - Best Radio Show
Nominee - Music and Radio Awards - Best Storytelling.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000q0zn)
Writers, Caroline Harrington & Julie Beckett
Director: Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Shula Hedben Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000q0zq)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 Karin and Andrew (m000q0yq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000q0zs)
Brexit: Is It Oven Ready?
With just weeks to go till the Brexit transition period ends, David Aaronovitch and The Briefing Room team explore Britain’s readiness for 2021. What will it mean for you? What have supermarkets, airlines, businesses, ports and the government done to get ready – and will it be enough?
Editor: Jasper Corbett
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000q0zd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000q0yj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000q0zw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000q0yz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 The Likely Dads (m000q0zy)
Series 1
Episode 6 - Leisure
Tim Vincent, former Blue Peter presenter and dad to twin two-year-old boys, hosts this comedy discussion show featuring regular panelists Mick Ferry and Russell Kane.
In this episode, Tim and the gang talk about what activities are best to occupy the minds of children of all ages and their top tips for days out. From money saving tips like having children work with their own budget to theme parks to holiday horror stories and the pitfalls of soft play areas. During the programme one of The Likely Dads raises a grievance about the cost of child places at all inclusive hotels, while another shares a story of having to rescue their children from a tube slide definitely not designed for adults.
In a regular feature, one of The Likely Dads has to guess the answers to questions previously asked of their children.
Special guests joining Tim, Russell and Mick in this episode are the comedians Vince Atta and Scott Bennett.
Producer: Kurt Brookes
Executive Producer: Ashley Byrne
A Made In Manchester Production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000q100)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 04 DECEMBER 2020
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000q102)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000q104)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000q106)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000q108)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000q10b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000q10d)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000q10g)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Rev Muriel Pearson, Minister of Cranhill Parish Church, Glasgow
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000q10j)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k72zr)
Starling
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the starling. Throughout autumn parties of starlings have been crossing the North Sea to join our resident birds and as winter's grip tightens they create one of Nature's best spectacles. These huge gatherings, sometimes a million or more strong, are called murmurations and they offer the birds safety in numbers.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000q26f)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000pvcx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Boundless Sea by David Abulafia (m000q288)
Episode 5
David Abulafia’s epic history of our relationship with the oceans is this year’s winner of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize. Charting maritime networks from the earliest seafaring societies, Abulafia explores how mankind has used the oceans to travel, trade and survive – for ends both noble and wicked.
The historian charts how access to shorter routes across the oceans changed the balance of power around the world.
Read by Colin McFarlane
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000q26m)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 Karin and Andrew (m000q26p)
Episode 5
An ex-offender gradually changes his life through his friendship with a photographer. Join Andrew and Karin taking 1000 photos of graffiti over the course of a year.
A day to celebrate - Andrew finally meets the son he hasn’t seen for over 20 years and the launch of the exhibition of his 1000 photographs goes down a storm.
The series is based on a real-life friendship between documentary photographer Karin and ex-prisoner Andrew who, every Wednesday, walk miles together photographing pieces of graffiti in central Manchester. They discover a wealth of street art that helps them find a language through which to explore their very different lives. Over the course of a year, walking and talking through all weathers and seasons, we witness a deep friendship forming as Andrew gradually changes the course of his life.
This is a quiet story in praise of friendship, the city of Manchester, graffiti artists everywhere and the endless possibility of change.
Cast:
Karin …. Eve Shotton
Andrew …. Ciarán Griffiths
Matthew …. Darren Kuppan
Café barista …. Melissa Jane Sinden
Original music by Matthew Fortunati
Story consultant: Karin Albinsson
Scripted and directed by Melanie Harris
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound designer: Joe Richardson
Photograph by Jason Lock
Executive producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:00 The Power of Three (m000q26r)
Episode 1
Cole Moreton presents a deeply personal account of what it’s like to have and to be triplets, as his children Ruby, Josh and Grace turn 18 and prepare to leave home.
Cole and their mother Rachel brace themselves for the future by telling the story of the early years, when there was much joy, but the struggle to keep a family together often felt extreme and overwhelming.
The series explores how triplets can often think and feel differently to other children, facing challenges as they grow. In this episode, in an extraordinary encounter, the kids meet the IVF doctor who says he saw them first as cells pulsing in a set of petri dishes.
Having been together since the womb, how will our three cope with living apart for the first time in their lives?
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (b085t2l0)
Series 8
Randolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
After causing confusion with his nut selection, Arthur attempts to round up reindeer and build Mount Fuji for his own Japanese themed Christmas wonderland.
All false starts and nervous fumbling badly covered up by a delicate sheen of bravado and self-assurance, an expert in everything from the world of entertainment to the origin of the species, everyday life with Arthur is an enlightening, sometimes frustrating, never dull experience.
Count Arthur Strong is supported in the seasonal special by his Radio Repertory Company (like the RSC, only better) - Alastair Kerr, the late Dave Mounfield, Mel Giedroyc and Alfie Delaney as Billy.
Steve Delaney has been performing as Count Arthur Strong since the late 1990s. The character evolved from Edinburgh cult to a mainstay of BBC comedy via numerous series on BBC Radio 4 and three on BBC TV.
A Komedia Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000q29r)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000q26y)
Episode 5
Amy Lee is a neglected motherless child who fantasises about becoming a writer. On a trip to Kenwood House, a stately home in Hampstead on her birthday she meets Robert Vorst, a young boy from a wealthy American family who happens to be visiting with his family. On that chilly October day in London in 1928, the chance meeting of these two young people from very different backgrounds, sets off a chain of events that will change both their lives in ways they could never have imagined. My American is unashamedly romantic. It's one of over 30 books written by Stella Gibbons, her most famous being the satire Cold Comfort Farm.
Abridged by Kate McAll and read by Jan Ravens.
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000q270)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000q272)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000q274)
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 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sbrz7)
Empire Builders (300 BC - AD 10)
Head of Augustus
Neil MacGregor concludes the first week of the second part of his global history as told through objects from the British Museum. This week he has been exploring the lives and methods of powerful rulers around the world about 2000 years ago, from Alexander the Great in Egypt to Asoka in India. Today he introduces us to the great Roman emperor Augustus, whose powerful, God-like status is brilliantly enshrined in a larger than life bronze head with striking eyes.
Neil MacGregor describes how Augustus dramatically enlarged the Roman Empire, establishing his image as one of its most familiar objects. The historian Susan Walker and the politician Boris Johnson help explain the power and methodology of Augustus.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000q0zn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000q277)
London Particular
Episode 1
By Nick Perry
A child in an East End garden plays with an imaginary friend. One day she goes to the bottom of the garden and never returns. A homeless man desperately tries to stay awake, believing that whenever he falls asleep he wakes up in a different century. A London Underground maintenance engineer walks the two miles between adjacent stations in less than four minutes.
While travelling on the London Underground one afternoon, Alice meets the gaze of a man standing on the platform of a mysterious "ghost station". As her train hurtles into a tunnel, he’s gone. She’s convinced that the man was her brother Alan who has been missing presumed dead for the past five years.
This fleeting encounter is the beginning of Alice’s increasingly bizarre, desperate and labyrinthine search for her missing brother, a journey that leads her back through time into London’s past.
As Alice soon discovers, London is not one but many cities, a city of curious anomalies and dark secrets, of hidden portals to other dimensions, a city so vast and varied that the weird and the uncanny blend seamlessly with the ordinary, where the person sitting next to you on the bus, or walking beside you on the pavement, may in fact be a visitor from another time.
Alice . . . . . Scarlett Brookes
Alan . . . . . Ian Dunnett Jnr
Mum . . . . . Jane Whittenshaw
Lizzie . . . . . Emma Handy
Dorian . . . . . Roger Ringrose
Simon . . . . . Joseph Ayre
Kelechi . . . . . Stefan Adegbola
Stefania . . . . . Charlotte East
Isaac . . . . . Aaron Gelkoff
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000q27b)
GQT at Home: Episode Thirty-Three
Kathy Clugston hosts the gardening panel show. Anne Swithinbank, Matthew Pottage and Chris Beardshaw, answer questions sent in by green-fingered listeners and the virtual audience.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000q27d)
The Crongton Soup Kitchen
A heartwarming Christmas tale from author Alex Wheatle, about family, traditions and sibling rivalries. Brothers Des and Clifton need to settle their differences to honour their Christmas traditions.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000q27g)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000q27j)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000q27l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000q27q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000q27s)
Series 57
Episode 6
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis get to grip (from a safe distance) with all things 2020 in the form of sketches and guest contributions.
Joining them are Ivo Graham, Zoe Lyons and with music from Huge Davies
Additional voices provided by Luke Kempner and Emma Sidi
Written by the cast, with additional material from Gareth Gwynn, Josh Weller, Tania Edwards and Charlie Dinkin
Production Co-Ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Engineer and Editor: David Thomas
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000q27v)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Karin and Andrew (m000q26p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000q27x)
Larissa Kennedy, Baroness Morgan
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Broadcasting House in London with a panel which includes the President of the National Union of Students Larissa Kennedy and the Conservative peer and former cabinet minister Baroness Morgan.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio direction: Maire Devine
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000q27z)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 The Reith Lectures (m000py8t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000q282)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 My American by Stella Gibbons (m000q26y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Americast (m000q284)
Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel follow the aftermath of the US election.
FRI 23:30 A Good Read (m000pxql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]