SUNDAY 06 DECEMBER 2020

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000q3p7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 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 00:30 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.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000q3pg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000q3pq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000q3pz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000q3q6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000q3k5)
St Nicholas in Harpenden

Bells on Sunday comes from St Nicholas in Harpenden. The church tower contains a ring of eight bells, cast by John Taylor’s foundry at Loughborough in 1990 using metal from six of the earlier ring, which dated from 1612. The tenor weighs just over fifteen hundredweight in the key of F sharp. The old tenor and fifth have been retained as Clock and Sanctus bells and are hung above the new ring of eight. We hear them ringing Stedman Triples.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m000q3nq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News (m000q3d6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00sw4vh)
Finding Your Father

British-based Gospel singer and broadcaster Muyiwa Olarewaju tells the story of his search for a father. He was sent from Nigeria to Britain when he 10 years old. His father was shot dead in Nigeria and he never saw him again.

Muyiwa recalls standing on a London high street, with all his belongings in a black bin bag, wondering where to turn. He recounts how he met a church youth leader Emmanuel Mbakwe - now the national leader of the UK Apostolic Church - who adopted him and encouraged him to take up his career as a Gospel singer. This led to a deeper understanding of his spiritual father and eventual peace.

Muyiwa reflects upon the true sense of fatherhood, drawing on readings ranging from Nigerian author Chinua Achebe's classic "Things Fall Apart", to American Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead". He also draws on music and songs which reflect the theme of finding a father - including his own hit Gospel song "Safe In His Hands," recorded with his band Riversongz.

Producer: Kim Normanton
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b05w9lgt)
Fleas

Throughout history, human fleas have been one of our closest companions; the irritating bedfellows of everyone from kings and queens to the poorest in society. Brett Westwood discovers how the flea has been a carrier of disease, causing suffering on an enormous scale. But, despite being a danger and a pest, their proximity has led to us to try to understand them and find humour in them.

The esteemed British naturalist Dame Miriam Rothschild was one of the world's leading experts on fleas and led an investigation into how they propel themselves to such speed and distance from their minuscule frame. As parasites, their ability to jump onto hosts to suck their blood led to fleas being charged with sexual energy in the 16th century. Poets wrote entertainingly intimate poems of their jealousy that the flea could jump onto areas of a beautiful woman that they themselves would be unable to reach.

The comedic role of the flea continued into the era of the flea circus when they pulled miniature metal chariots several times their weight and their role as performers didn't end there - leading on into early cinema and even tourism. They may have been often overlooked but fleas have had a stark impact on our lives.

Revised and shortened repeat.

Archive Producer: Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 06:57 Weather (m000q3dg)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000q3dm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000q3dr)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m000q3dw)
The Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin-in-the-Fields 2020

The Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, makes the Radio 4 Christmas Appeal on behalf of the work of St Martin-in-the-Fields with homeless people.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 082 82 84.
- Send a cheque to FREEPOST St Martin's Christmas Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope.)
Cheques should be made payable to St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal.
- Or donate online via the Radio 4 website.

Registered Charity Number: 1156305


SUN 07:57 Weather (m000q3f0)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000q3f3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000q3f7)
Cities of Promise - a place for nature

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. Such an understanding of the potential of the city might have inspired Sir Ebenezer Howard who, in 1920 founded Welwyn Garden City, a planned town that was intended to combine the benefits of city and countryside whilst avoiding the disadvantages of both. With the Rev Dr Rob Marshall, Rector of Digswell, Welwyn Garden City. Reading: Revelation 21: 22 - 22:5. Producer: Andrew Earis.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000q27z)
Edible Architecture

"Unusual conditions produce novel responses" writes Will Self. And Will's response is what he calls "edible architecture". Pounding the pavements with his son during lockdown, they imagine which of London's edifices would be most edible...were they to be made out of food, rather than masonry.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0sqd)
Greater Roadrunner

Michael Palin presents the greater roadrunner of south western North America. A cuckoo that can run at 20 miles per hour and snap up venomous reptiles might not seem destined for cartoon fame, but that's exactly what happened to the Greater Roadrunner.

The loud "beep-beep" call of the Warner Brothers cartoon creation, always out-foxing his arch-enemy Wile-E. Coyote brought this very odd member of the cuckoo family racing into the living rooms of the western world from 1949 onwards . Greater roadrunners live in dry sunny places in the south western states of North America, where their long-tailed, bushy--crested, streaky forms are a common sight. They will eat almost anything from scorpions to rats, outrunning small rodents and lizards and even leaping into the air to catch flying insects.

As it runs across the desert, the roadrunner's footprints show two toes pointing forward and two backwards. The "X" shape this forms was considered a sacred symbol by Pueblo tribes and believed to confound evil spirits because it gives no clues as to which way the bird went.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000q3fc)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 09:45 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m000q3fh)
Making a Difference

Hugh Dennis reports on how your donations from last year's Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St Martin in-the-Fields have been spent on changing the lives of homeless people through the work of The Connection at St Martin's in London, and how crisis grants from the Vicar's Relief Fund have helped secure housing or have kept vulnerable people in accommodation all around the UK. The appeal is now in its 94th year.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 082 82 84.
- Send a cheque to FREEPOST St Martin's Christmas Appeal. Cheques should be made payable to St Martin-in-the-Fields Christmas Appeal.
- Or donate online via the Radio 4 website.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000q3fm)
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


SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000q3fr)
Tweet Take 5 : Coot and Moorhen

Coots are one of those birds easy to ignore, yet they are worth a second glance. These all-black birds are somewhat larger than its cousin, the moorhen, and easily identified on open water by a distinctive white beak and 'shield' above the beak, which gave rise to the phrase "as bald as a coot". Moorhens while looking similar have more colour about them, with a red and yellow beak and long, green legs, they prefer smaller bodies of water and wet areas too. As we'll find out in this extended Tweet of the Day, featuring wildlife presenter Chris Packham, ornithologist Dominic Couzens and nature writer Stephen Moss.

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Andrew Dawes


SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000q3fw)
Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar

Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar is Director of the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation which funds scientific research. He is a member of Sage, the scientific group currently advising the government on Covid-19.

He is the youngest of six children and was born in Singapore. His mother was an artist and his father was a teacher, who worked around the world, and the family lived in New Zealand, Cyprus and Libya.

After struggling to win a place a medical school, he trained as a doctor in London and then moved to Edinburgh to work as a neurologist. He switched to public health and was for 18 years the Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, where he worked on infectious diseases, including the re-emergence of bird flu in 2004. He was knighted for services to global health in 2019, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of The Royal Society.

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor


SUN 11:45 Charisma: Pinning Down the Butterfly (b066zp9z)
Animal Magnetism

Franz Mesmer and the charismatic healing power of suggestibility.

Francine Stock attempts to pin down the alluring yet elusive quality of charisma.

The 18th century medical doctor, Franz Mesmer, was a European celebrity in his day. Francine Stock hears from historian of science Patricia Fara about Mesmer's use of so-called "animal magnetism" to heal - and wonders about Mesmer's erotic input. Meanwhile, the actor Simon Russel Beale reads some truly extraordinary contemporary accounts of Mesmer's impact in Britain and France.

Attempting further to understand Mesmer's healing powers, Francine also explores the charismatic power of the mesmeric or hypnotic gaze. The distinguished art historian, Richard Cork, shares his memories of the gaze of Pablo Picasso, while the illusionist, Derren Brown, frankly shares some professional secrets with Francine.

Producer: Beaty Rubens

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2015.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000q3g0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 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.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000q3fx)
The Secret Life of Chocolate. Part 1: Origins.

In the first of a two part chocolate special Dan Saladino explores the origins of cacao, from the bean's journey from central America to Europe and the rise of the chocolate bar.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m000q3g6)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000q3gb)
Global news and analysis, presented by Jonny Dymond.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000q3gh)
Capturing the nation in conversation to build a unique picture of our lives today and preserve it for future generations.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000q27b)
GQT at Home: Squirrels and Sweet peas

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.

This week, the panellists discuss gardening options for aspirational students, the perils of re-potting plants and how to deal with pesky squirrels in the garden. Chris Beardshaw also solves the curious case of popping sweet pea pods.

Away from the questions, Ashley Edwards tells you how to construct the perfect festive wreath, and Claire Ratinon interviews two young florists who are shaking up the industry.

Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 The Creation of an Icon (m0001m7t)
Shining with Divine Splendour

Day four in iconographer Aidan Hart's studio. As he continues to paint an icon he talks about transfiguration and how to use paint to create a divine light.

You can see how he creates the icon in the picture gallery on the programme's website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001l7x

Producer: Phil Pegum


SUN 15:00 Drama (m000q3gp)
iPromise

By Martin Jameson

A quantum cryptocurrency audio heist movie and psychological tech thriller exploring the illusory nature of money itself.

Bit – real name Rebecca “Becky” Isobel Troughton, BIT, get it? – is in trouble. Big trouble. She’s only gone and hacked into US mainframes and brought the entire eastern seaboard to a standstill. And now she’s on everybody’s Most Wanted list.

But Bit is no hacking ‘gun for hire’. She’s driven by principle and she’s the very best at what she does. So when shady government organisations come knocking in a bid to secure her services, she just sends them packing. Well, sort of.

But there are some offers even Bit can’t refuse. Like the search for 494 million’s worth of missing iPromises - a brand-new un-hackable cryptocurrency that’s the sexy place to put your pennies.

But before Bit can even think about those 800 giant servers in the middle of an Icelandic wilderness, there are more pressing matters to deal with closer to home. Like finding a safe place to live and avoiding her estranged father. And why does she feel like she’s being followed?

In Bit’s head, the references to The Wizard of Oz keep stacking up, but we are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Cast:
Bit & Infinity Bit ….. Tamara Lawrance
Kevin Straw ….. Jonathan Forbes
Tinaya ….. Skye Lourie
Leon ….. Gunnar Cauthery
Emir & Clive ….. Nabil Elouahabi
Frank & Grimmur Ekkert ….. Danny Sapani

Other characters are voiced by the cast

Sound design ….. Adam Woodhams
Mix ….. Steve Bond
Executive producer ….. Sara Davies
Directed & produced by Nicolas Jackson

An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m000q3gw)
David Vann - Legend of a Suicide

David Vann discusses his novel Legend of a Suicide with James Naughtie and this month's group of readers.

Legend of a Suicide is an intimate and profound account of a family tragedy, told in six linked stories that deal with the complicated misunderstandings between a son and his father, and describes the love, guilt and the painful understanding that begins to come with adolescence. When it was published twelve years ago this autobiographical work of fiction was lauded as a groundbreaker; based on the events in David’s own life, and the death of his father when he was just 13, Legend of a Suicide is a tough but beautiful read.

And in the novella at the heart of the book - the longest of the six sections – the reader is unlikely to forget what it's like to spend time in the loneliness of Sukkwan Island in Alaska.

To take part in future Bookclubs, email bookclub@bbc.co.uk

January 2021's Bookclub Choice : Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed Guest : David Vann
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
Studio Manager : Donald MacDonald


SUN 16:30 The New Lyrical Ballads (m000h0fh)
Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge first published in 1798, changed the course of British poetry. Growing up in the Lake District, Wordsworth set out to use the everyday language he heard around him in his poems in order to make them accessible to a wider audience. Both poets drew inspiration from seeing a return to the original state of nature, in which people led a purer and more innocent existence The word Lyrical linked their poems to ancient rustic bards, while Ballad refers to an oral storytelling tradition. Both poets used rural life and country people as the subject of their poetry which was a marked shift from what had come before.

To mark the 250 anniversary of Wordsworth's birth, four leading poets Zaffar Kunial, Kim Moore, Helen Mort and Jacob Polley read new lyrical ballads inspired by the ideas in the original collection. Each of the contemporary poets have strong links to Cumbria and the Lake District and their poems give us a glimpse into life in the county now.

Produced by Lorna Newman and Susan Roberts
A BBC North production.


SUN 17:00 Generation Covid (m000pxqz)
What has the experience of children and young people living in the era of Covid-19 done for their mental health and wellbeing?

Mental health researcher Sally Marlow speaks to epidemiologists, clinicians, parents, and young people themselves to try to evaluate how the challenges of 2020 might have impacted our youngest and more vulnerable members of society. In a sector already in need of investment and refreshment, some have called the situation an imminent “second pandemic”, but is that really the case?

Epidemiologists have previously worked with door-to-door and school-based questionnaires to try to evaluate what younger people are going through, and this way have tracked the ongoing rise in numbers experiencing mental health needs. But those scientific tools of objective data gathering which are so crucial to determine mental health policy have not been available this year.

The lack of social contact and the closure of schools and youth groups, necessitated by lockdown measures, have also taken away much of mental health professionals’ ability to support the children and young people they work with. So both at the frontline and at a policy level mental health professionals have had to find new ways to work.

Some trends are coming through, and they are not positive.

But of more concern are the extremes of the scales. As with many aspects of our pre-Covid society, it seems it is the inequalities that are being magnified. Many vulnerable children and young are at increased risk, including those in mainstream schooling, and those who are being looked after by the state. And as with many physical diseases elsewhere in society, remote rather than face-to-face provision may be storing up problems for the future, as fewer and fewer satisfactory diagnoses can be made, and it’s not clear whether digital interventions can deliver the support needed.

Children and young people, as Anne Longford, Children’s Commissioner for England, tells Sally, are in need of their own Nightingale-scale moment.

Presenter: Sally Marlow
Producer: Alex Mansfield


SUN 17:40 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m000q3fh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000q3h2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m000q3hb)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000q3hl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000q3hv)
Stewart Henderson

Stewart Henderson chooses the best of BBC Radio this week.


SUN 19:00 Strictly Stories (m00057qv)
Charleston

When a long lost friend appears at Lisa's weekly Charleston class, it triggers flashbacks to their 80s heyday when they did aerobics together. But day-glo green leotards and stripey legwarmers aren't the only memories unearthed by this blast from the past.

Written by Bethan Roberts
Read by Jenny Funnell

Produced and directed by Kate McAll

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:15 Dot (b0bfxw6l)
Series 3

Dig for Victory!

By Ed Harris

The very idea of the 'countryside' fills Dot with horror, so when she finds herself recruited by the Women's Land Army to work the land, she sets about planning a great escape. Comic adventures in Ed Harris' witty and quirky wartime comedy.

Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko.


SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000q3j2)
12: Mother

Rebecca Root reads the next in Daisy Johnson's deliciously spine-tingling stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens.

Today: a woman visits The Hotel in search of answers from her mother - who died a year before...

Reader: Rebecca Root is an actress, voice coach and transgender campaigner. She was rated 18th in The Independent on Sunday's Rainbow List 2014, which named her as one of the very few openly trans actresses in mainstream television.
Writer: Daisy Johnson
Producer: Justine Willett


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000q27j)
What is the truth about the White Helmets who rescue bomb victims in Syria, and was one of their leaders, a former British soldier, murdered, or did he commit suicide? The presenter and producer of the Radio 4 podcast series Mayday answers listeners’ questions.

And the BBC’s daily consumer programme You and Yours is 50 years old. The editor explains to Roger Bolton how, after half a century on air, they never run out of material.

And two listeners review a programme where remarkable poetry is produced from a mental illness.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000q27g)
Hamish MacInnes OBE, José Padilla, Anne Rasa

Matthew Bannister on:

Hamish MacInnes, the mountaineer known as “The Fox of Glencoe”. He climbed the Matterhorn aged 16, made four trips to Everest and was a stalwart of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue team. He was also an inventor, coming up with an all metal ice axe and a collapsible stretcher for use in rescue operations. His services were much in demand as an advisor to big budget films like The Eiger Sanction, the Mission and even Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Professor Anne Rasa, an expert in animal behaviour who studied the matriarchal society of the dwarf mongoose and then set up a sanctuary for meerkats in the Kalahari region.

The Spanish DJ Jose Padilla who pioneered chill out music by providing a soundtrack to the sunset on Ibiza.

Producer: Neil George

Archive clips from: Final Ascent: The Legend of Hamish MacInnes, BBC 4, 01/11/2020; Singular Scots, Radio 4, 12/09/1991; A Time to Talk, Radio Scotland, 10/01/1974; The Eiger Sanction, The Malpaso Company/ Universal Pictures; Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Python (Monty) Pictures / EMI Films; Natural Selection: Mongoose, BBC Bristol, 25/10/1985; Jóse Padilla – An Ibiza Original, A Fact Magazine Documentary; Moments in Love: A History of Chillout Music, Radio 2, 01.05.2004


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000q3jb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Christmas Appeal (m000q3dw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 My Name Is... (m000d7pg)
Natasha: Trying to find a black egg donor

Natasha is 38 and trying to have a baby. She's had four unsuccessful rounds of IVF and doctors have told her that it's highly unlikely she'll be able to use her own eggs. She needs an egg donor but her heritage is Caribbean and she can’t find anyone suitable. Natasha wants to find out why it’s so difficult to source a non-white egg donor and why there is such a taboo around egg donation within the black community.

Natasha talks with producer Ben Carter about her struggles as she embarks on a journey to try and find some answers. Along the way she meets Dr Edmond Edi-Osagie, a gynaecologist and reproductive medicine specialist, Helen George, a NHS psychotherapist and Yacoub Khalaf, a clinician and member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) who regulate clinics in the UK.

Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000q3jl)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000q0zb)
Tom Burke on Orson Welles

With Antonia Quirke

Actor Tom Burke reveals how he perfected the voice of Orson Welles for his new film Mank, about the making of Citizen Kane.

Rob Savage explains how he made a horror movie called Host, when every member of the cast and crew were locked down in their homes and he directed them in his pyjamas and dressing gown.

Critic Pamela Hutchinson, the curator of a new season of Marlene Dietrich movies, picks her favourite Marlene moment.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00sw4vh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]