A reflection on the meaning of Christmas with novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
As Christmas Day draws to a close Frank Cottrell-Boyce reflects on the idiosyncrasies of the day and the uniqueness of this year’s festivities. Amidst the new toys, ripped wrapping paper, and leftover turkey, Frank contemplates stars of wonder, recurring traditions, and why, even in the darkest times, the spirit of Christmas is never far away.
Barack Obama reads the final episode from his new presidential memoir offering a unique and very personal account of the highs and lows of life in high office and the landmarks of his first term.
In today’s episode, Obama meets Donald Trump for the first time, and is compelled to deal with birthirism - the movement brought about by Trump's questioning of his American citizenship. An early foreshadowing of a 'dark and alternative vision' he thinks, but there's no time to dwell, as his CIA advisors have a lead on Osama bin Laden’s hideout. So begins the defining military action of his presidency, with Obama giving a blow by blow account of Operation Neptune's Spear as Navy SEALS raid the terrorist’s compound in Pakistan and carry out their orders.
Elected in 2008, Obama became the 44th president of the United States and the first African American to sit in the Oval Office. A Promised Land documents the unrelenting demands on the President of the USA and presents intriguing glimpses of family life with Michelle, Malia and Sasha at one of the world’s most famous addresses.
Abridged by Katrin Williams.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
I hope you had an enjoyable day yesterday – even if it wasn’t quite a normal Christmas. In my household it was simpler, humbler and more outdoors. The house got tracked with mud from our boots… How very apt, I suddenly realised - a little bit more like the original Christmas. Shouldn’t that be the one we call normal?
The first people ever to celebrate Christmas were a bubble of shepherds tracking mud from their boots, into a stable that was full of mud. As to simpler, humbler, more outdoors: that describes it pretty well. The shepherds were humble folk who lived simply. Their lives were lived entirely outdoors - in the fields a good distance from town - because others shunned them. Not the people you might expect to gather: not religious, not educated and not ‘safe’. In today’s terms we might call them vulnerable – obliged to self-isolate, lest their lifestyle and uncleanness be contagious. Yet these are the ones who get the news, who get invited, who get to the party.
So, mud and boots is just what Christmas is all about! At the incarnation God does not get precious and does not keep distance from the mire of our world. The pristine Word is made earthly Flesh! In the promise of a Messiah people expected a figure of power, owning a palace, riding a steed, dressed to impress: but God chose it simpler, humbler and more outdoors: metaphorically speaking to put on his boots, and not shun the mud of our world.
Lord God at Christmas despite the mire of our world, you came to us - that we might come to you. Open the doors of our hearts to live simply and humbly – and like the shepherds to discover the wonder of the Word made Flesh. In Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who doesn’t smile at the sight of a floating Father Christmas or a hovering happy birthday? Helium filled balloons are festive, but as the gas reserves run low – should we reconsider the balloons?
Helium is a finite resource here on Earth and many branches of science need it. Doctors need it to run MRI machines to diagnose tumours, engineers test rockets for leaks with it and deep sea divers use it to avoid the bends.
The story of helium starts with a solar eclipse in 1868. The event had many astronomers' eyes fixed on the sun. Two astronomers, nearly simultaneous and independently, made the same observation; a strange light with an unusual wavelength coming from the sun. It turned out to be the first sighting of extra-terrestrial helium. It would take decades for helium to be discovered on Earth and longer still for its worth to be recognised.
As its ability to make things float and inability to burn became apparent, the US military started hoarding it for their floating blimps. But they soon realised that it is very hard to store an element that is so light that it can escape the Earth's gravitational pull. As we empty our last reserves of the periodic table's most notorious escape artist – is the future of floating balloons up in the air?
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
In 2012 punk and folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner was on top of the world. He had his first gold record, headlined his first arena show, and to top it all off he performed at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. But as the press requests and celebrity party invited poured, Frank chose to step out of the limelight and head home, back to Winchester and the Meon Valley where he spent the first part of his life, to walk the South Downs Way.
For this programme Frank returns to the area to find out more about its rich Saxon history and its unique wildlife habitats, and to explore how this area shaped him as a person and as a musician, with songs like 'Take Me Home' and 'Wessex Boy' drawing so strongly from the landscape. There's even time for him to speak to his Mum!
2020 has been a year like no other, but as the pandemic raged around the world, farmers kept on farming!
In this programme, Charlotte Smith looks back at the highlights of farming year - from fights over food standards and tussles over trade... to the farm businesses forced to adapt to our "new normal".
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by writer and comedian Adam Buxton, who talks about his partnership with schoolfriend Joe Cornish, family relationships and performs a song. Anne Glenconner’s memoir Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown became a bestseller. Now 88, Lady Glenconner has written her first novel Murder on Mustique, set on the island formerly owned by her husband. She discusses her life, dealing with tragedy and why she’s now at her happiest.
As a Boxing Day treat, Jools Holland and Sheila Ferguson share their Inheritance Tracks. Jools Holland has chosen Up Above My Head by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Love Made Them Do That by Jools Holland With Ruby Turner. Sheila Ferguson has chosen What Are You Doing New Year's Eve by Nancy Wilson and When Will I See You Again by The Three Degrees.
During lockdown Jay Flynn become known for his Virtual Pub Quiz, which won him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. He’s also been awarded an MBE as he has raised over £750, 000 for charity. But in his 20s, after a relationship breakdown, he spent time sleeping rough in London – calling a bench on Victoria Embankment his home.
Adam Buxton's Ramble Book is out now.
Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner is out now.
Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra will welcome in 2021 with his annual Hootenanny on BBC 2.
Sheila Ferguson is performing in We Need A Little Christmas in support of Shelter & Crisis, which will be streamed from 20th December to 1st January.
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Dr Barry Smith, Andi Oliver, Tim Anderson and Sue Lawrence join Jay at his virtual kitchen table answering questions from a virtual audience.
This week is all about leftovers. The panellists give a chicken korma 101, discuss the food they make extra of just so they can have leftovers, and suggest what to do with that jar of frankfurters at the back of the cupboard.
Greg Jenner is joined by chocolate historian Alex Hutchinson and British TV legend Richard Osman to explore the culinary and cultural history of chocolate - Britain's favourite confectionery.
Just what did the Maya use to flavour their cacao? How did cacao become chocolate and find its way into our shops and hearts? And why did a family feud change the entire branding of a much loved chocolate bar?
Nobody could have failed to notice the one story dominating the science news this year - but what about the discoveries that have been overshadowed in 2020? This week, Dr Adam Rutherford eschews all mentions of the pandemic as he invites dinosaur researcher Dr Susie Maidment, climate scientist Dr Tamsin Edwards and astrophysicist Dr Emma Chapman to share their science highlights of the year.
We journey to the moon and beyond to discuss the many missions that have been blasting and grabbing bits of space rock to bring back to earth and tackle the ongoing debate about whether signs of life have been found on Venus.
Back down on earth, this year could be one of, if not the, hottest years on record, with particularly high temperatures in the Arctic Circle. What might a warming world mean for ice-shelf collapse in Antarctica and how are governments responding? We discuss Joe Biden’s presidency, UK carbon emissions and what China’s recent announcements of net zero by 2060 might mean for the future of the planet.
And despite limitations on travel this past year, exciting discoveries in the dinosaur world have nonetheless continued with what is believed to be the first aquatic dinosaur. The detection of soft shell eggs is also changing understandings of how dinosaurs reared their offspring.
And if that wasn’t enough, Dr Adam Rutherford challenges our experts to predict what big science stories might lie on the horizon in 2021.
Adrian Chiles tries to eat, drink, wear and travel British for a week. As the UK prepares for the end of the transition period with the EU and during a global pandemic, what we consume and where it comes from has never felt so relevant. So how self-sufficient are we and does it matter?
As a vegetarian, Adrian is hoping food will be the least challenging tasks of the week. But many of the staples in his cupboards and fridge have to go and there’s a long list of produce where the provenance is unclear. He heads to his local shops and one of the big supermarkets to find out what actually is British and plan his week’s menu. He also talks to other consumers about what’s in their totes and trolleys. Traditionally brand allegiance, quality and price have been more of a motivator than provenance. Will Brexit and a global pandemic change our buying habits?
Getting dressed poses further problems. Adrian buys most of his clothes from high street British retailers but practically nothing in his closet is made in the UK. Adrian speaks to industry insiders to find out what’s left of Britain’s clothing industry. And does buying British mean buying ethically?
Travelling brings new obstacles and he’s got to get to work in Manchester, Bradford and central London. Adrian’s Yamaha bike, BMX and German car aren’t an option. He looks at public transport and asks if there is a wholly British car left to drive. Where can we legitimately stamp ‘Made in Britain’?
The British industry of today is not as big, simple or as visible as it once was. Much of what we export is less tangible, like financial and IT services, or not vital to a daily existence - as Adrian discovers in his avocado-free week. Does that matter? Should focus stay on the service industry or do we need to boost domestic production in these unprecedented and uncertain times.
It’s not just a week of denial and gloom and doom. Throughout the week, Adrian’s diet improves as he makes new home-grown culinary discoveries. And glossing over the fact that his electronic devices are made in China, there’s no shortage of home-grown music and TV. All of which can be consumed with a whisky, beer, cider or even wine.
In a change to the usual format, the show listens-in to how the great and good are spending Christmas. Much like everyone else? Maybe not…
Mark Drakeford finds a new way of addressing the people of Wales, while Nigel Farage thinks now’s the right time for a pub crawl.
Topical satire from Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis McLeod, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey.
The writing squad for the series: Nev Fountain and Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden and Tom Coles, Sarah Campbell, James Bugg, Jeffrey Aidoo, Alex Hardy, and Lewis Cook.
Producer: Bill Dare. A BBC Studios Production
In keeping with the show's 'show and tell' format, Sue will be joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Expert guests for the festive special include: naturalist, presenter and writer Chris Packham, botanist, presenter and writer James Wong, wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan. And helping Sue to make sense of the amazing funny facts that the experts present is Tony-nominated comedy actor Stephen Mangan (Billy Elliot, I'm Alan Partridge, Green Wing, Have I Got News For You).
For the Christmas special, our experts will be presenting flora and fauna that all have a festive connection. These include: reindeers, robins, fly agaric mushrooms (that hold the key to why reindeers can fly and Father Christmas wears red and white), turtle doves, Christmas spiders (and their link to the history of Christmas tinsel), holly and partridges.
Nature Table positively celebrates our planet's wild flora and fauna, by making a show that's both informative and funny. The Christmas special will be a cheery sparkly humorous addition to Radio 4's Christmas schedule.
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
In this festive edition of Fortunately, Fi Glover and Jane Garvey are joined by special guest Dawn French. The actor, comedian and writer discusses her new book Because of You and her return as The Vicar of Dibley. Dawn also tells Fi and Jane about a very memorable corporate dinner, how a meeting in a sunlit room changed her life and the time she spotted Santa Claus. Before their guest's arrival, Garvey and Glover reflect on the year gone by and go through a 'corking' bunch of listener emails.
Bernardine Evaristo reflects on spirituality and syncretism.
"There are many people," she writes, "who are rock solid in a particular faith...but others are more flexible or live with multiple belief systems."
Bernardine tells us why she loves the idea of the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa, founded in 1966 and designed to give African-Americans a winter festival that is uniquely theirs.
Neil Gaiman’s perfect Christmas-time fairy tale, brought to life by award-winning dramatist Katie Hims. Starring Penelope Wilton, Gwendoline Christie and Ralph Ineson as well as Neil Gaiman himself.
The Sleeper and the Spindle is a new tale drawing on traditional folk stories, interweaving Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in an enchanting drama that puts the women firmly centre stage.
In her mountain kingdom, a soldier-Queen prepares for her wedding day. Three dwarves, guardians from her childhood, race towards her. They were coming for the celebration, but they also bring news of a sleeping sickness sweeping the land. As a girl she survived her own long, magical sleep, so she throws on her armour, straps on her sword and rides into the heart of this new plague to try to find its source and save her people. The magical sleep is spreading from a castle deep in the forest. There, our heroine discovers a beautiful sleeping girl, and a very, very old woman, forever awake…. But when the Queen wakes the princess in the traditional way, she discovers that all is not as it seems. Ultimately, she comes to understand that she really can make her own choices, and follow the path to her own happy ending.
Dame Penelope Wilton ….. The Narrator/The Old Woman
Gwendoline Christie ….. The Queen
Neil Gaiman ….. The Home Secretary
Ralph Ineson ….. The First Dwarf
Stefan Adegbola ….. The Second Dwarf
Ian Dunnett Jnr ….. The Third Dwarf/The Prince/ The Tinker/The Woodcutter
Cecilia Appiah ….. The Pot Girl/ The Young Girl/ The Mother
Emma Handy ….. The Maid/The Other Woman/ The Stepmother
Roger Ringrose ….. The Father/The Innkeeper/ The Bandit
Milton Dighton ….. The Child
Oti Mabuse's second Strictly win; Virtual child protection conferences; Liz Berry's poetry
Labour MP Stella Creasy joins us to discuss buy now pay later services, and whether they should be regulated.
Oti Mabuse and partner Bill Bailey have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions as they took the 2020 glitter ball trophy home on Saturday. Oti Mabuse is the first professional to win the competition two years in a row. Next year, she is going on tour with her new show ‘I AM HERE', which explores her journey from growing up in South Africa, to becoming a multi-award winning dancer.
The mezzo-soprano Patricia Hammond is celebrating the parlour song. Composed by women, these domestic songs of the Victorian era have largely been marginalised or forgotten. In her new book and CD, She Wrote the Songs, she tells us about the women behind the songs and their importance to musical history.
We heard earlier in the pandemic that in-person meetings for vulnerable children had become mostly impossible. But now child protection professionals feel that face-to-face conferences are unlikely to ever resume. So what does that mean for the children in question? And what is missed as a result? Lisa Harker from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory joins us.
A new BBC three-part drama Black Narcissus tells the story of a group of Anglo-Catholic nuns who travel to the Himalayas to set up a school in an abandoned clifftop palace, which was once known as the 'House of Women'. It's adapted from Rumer Godden's 1939 novel, and the writer Amanda Coe joins Jane to discuss.
The breast surgeon and breast cancer survivor, Liz O'Riordan, tells us the story behind her 'Jar of Joy'.
And the award-winning poet Liz Berry shares her evocative poetry inspired by her love for the Black Country.
The novelist, journalist and broadcaster Elizabeth Day makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Samaritans.
- 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 ‘Samaritans’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Samaritans’.
Johny Pitts explores the dazzling brilliance of Charles Dickens, a writer we often associate with Christmas. Even in his own lifetime Dickens was dismissed by some as a great showman and entertainer rather than an accomplished author, and today his biography can overshadow his novels. In this programme novelist Thomas Keneally, Professor John Mullan, and writer Armando Iannucci share their joy in his use of words and language, his literary inventiveness and modern techniques, while food historian Pen Vogler guides us through some of the delicious and celebratory meals in his novels.
Clive Anderson and Sara Cox pick their Loose Ends highlights from 2020. Conversation, comedy and music comes courtesy of an eclectic line up.
The creator of Mrs Brown's Boys has had a bumpy ride to stardom. Becky Milligan charts the journey - born the youngest of 11 children in Dublin, he faced bankruptcy and serial disappointments before finding success as the the matriarch of his very own family sitcom. This year it returns - for the 10th consecutive year - to our TV screens over Christmas.
13. Rylan Clark-Neal
Covid-19 hasn’t gone away and, due to travel restrictions, neither has Louis Theroux. In the second outing of his podcast series, he tracks down more high-profile guests he’s been longing to talk to - a fascinating mix of the celebrated, the controversial and the mysterious.
In this episode, television and radio presenter Rylan Clark-Neal settles down in his personal Big Brother diary room to talk to Louis about modelling his own home on the Big Brother house, crying onstage in front of millions and how one of Louis’s documentaries ignited his teenage sexuality.
Cultural historian and writer Christopher Frayling delves into the archive to explore the rich and surprising history of pantomime.
What could be more British than the Christmas tradition of going out with the family to see a pantomime? Yet panto dates back to ancient Rome, via the 16th century Italian travelling street theatre known as the Commedia dell'arte.
The familiar trappings of modern British panto originated with the Victorians - the principal boy, the dame, popular tunes with new lyrics, double entendres, and those well-worn catchphrases - 'It's behind you!' and 'Oh yes it is!’.
Since then, pantomime has been rebooted in line with other forms of popular entertainment, from working class music hall to middle class variety; radio to film and television. Today, celebrities from both sides of the Atlantic queue up to appear on British stages at Christmas. The panto season has stretched to last from the start of December to the end of January, and become essential to the UK’s theatre economy.
With the help of pantomime historians, actors, writers and directors, Christopher Frayling explores how the form has remained so very popular for almost as long as Shakespeare's plays. He examines its role in our more enlightened, politically correct times and hears how companies are striving to stage pantomimes in 2020.
As time runs out for Helen, the truth about Arca Island is revealed and she's offered an impossible choice.
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.
Freddy…. Jonathan Forbes
Amina.... Emma Fryer
The Architect.... Siân Phillips
The Reporter.... Kathy Clugston
The Medic.... Stefan Adegbola
Frances.... Juno Robinson
The Why Factor investigates the concept of "Groupthink". How the perceived wisdom of our allies and colleagues can influence our choices and persuade us to make disastrous military decisions, join cults or simply deny the evidence before our very eyes.
Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England, argues that the roots of the climate change threat lie in a deeper crisis of values. He suggests that we can create an ecosystem in which society’s values broaden the market’s conceptions of value. In this way, individual creativity and market dynamism can be channelled to achieve broader social goals including, inclusive growth and environmental sustainability.
Three amateur music lovers from around the UK join Paul Gambaccini for a special edition of the wide-ranging music quiz. The focus is very much on festive music, with plenty of extracts to suit the season, from traditional carols to music from films that are holiday favourites. The competitors will also be asked to choose a musical category on which to answer their own individual questions, with no advance warning of the topics on offer - but with a festive flavour to all of them.
Annie Hodkinson, a retired recruitment officer from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
Kim, the award-winning poet who lives and works in Cumbria, chooses her favourites from listener requests, including an old favourite from Thomas Hardy and new discoveries from Abeer Ameer, William Gee and Caleb Femi. She's also very honest about why she began writing poetry...
SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER 2020
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000qm4q)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Disability: A New History (b01slvvj)
The Only Dwarf in Liverpool
Across the country, historians are discovering the voices of disabled people from the past. In this 10-part series, Peter White draws on the latest research to reveal first-hand accounts of what it was like to live with physical disability in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The result is moving, revealing, and sometimes very funny:
'Sirs, I am a dwarf. I have lost my job at the circus and what is a dwarf to do in such a situation? In this Godforsaken place the snow comes so deep that a self-respecting dwarf can't even walk along the street without drowning!'
This document is from a huge archive of letters from disabled people in the 19th century, applying to the local authorities for money. They are a rich source of what life was like with a disability. Sources like this are only now being discovered and interpreted by historians across the country - it amounts to a new historical movement.
In the first programme, Peter explores what this new history reveals, and challenges our pre-conceptions.
For Peter, as a blind man, there is a strong sense of personal discovery. He says, 'I never realised disabled people had a history. History was what happened to everyone else.'
For him the series is revelatory. This programme, for instance, includes 18th century jokes about disability and discusses what juicy terms for disability were common in a society where there was no political correctness.
With historians David Turner, Chris Mounsey, Stephen King, Judith Hawley, and voices from the past brought vividly to life by actors Gerard McDermott, Ewan Bailey and Emily Bevan.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
Academic adviser: David Turner, Swansea University
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000qjcv)
Home
An original short work for BBC Radio 4 by the Irish author Christine Dwyer Hickey. Read by Michelle Fairley.
Christine Dwyer Hickey is an award winning novelist and short story writer. Twice winner of the Listowel Writers’ Week short story competition and a winner of the Observer/Penguin short story award, her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies world-wide. Her most recent novel The Narrow Land was awarded the prestigious 2020 Walter Scott Prize as well as Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards. Her novel Tatty was also selected as 2020 Dublin One City One Book Choice.
Reader ..... Michelle Fairley
Writer ..... Christine Dwyer Hickey
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qm4s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qm4v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qm4x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000qm4z)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000qlqs)
Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire.
Bells on Sunday comes from Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. The central tower is one hundred and forty eight feet high and is the largest surviving Norman tower in existence. Up until the early nineteen hundreds there was a ring of eight, but in 1962 a new ring of twelve bells was cast and hung by John Taylor of Loughborough. The tenor weighs just over twenty seven hundred weight and is tuned to D. We hear the ten largest bells ringing Stedman Caters.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000qlq2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News (m000qlnt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01lh968)
The Instinct for Meaning
Writer Jake Arnott believes narrative is a powerful force. In this week's Something Understood, he explores the idea that the instinct to create stories is innate within us all, and is vital to our understanding of the world and our own lives. After all, without a narrative to join everything together, our time on earth becomes little more than a series of random, unconnected events.
As a novelist, stories are Jake's stock in trade, it's his job to engage with them. But he thinks the desire to do so is universal - since our earliest evolution humans have been telling tales. Fairy stories in particular, passed down through an oral tradition, echo across time and across cultures. EM Forster described story as a 'low atavistic form'. Atavistic, yes, and deeply engrained, but Jake argues that Forster's insistence that story is mere causality is wrong. Story occurs without anything having had to happen, it's not just an order of events. Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' is a play in which nothing much happens, and yet it resonates with a powerful sense of story.
Jake speaks to Jane Davis, founder of The Reader Organisation. Jane's charity invites people to come together and read aloud, using narratives from books to engage with their own life stories. Through her work and her own personal experiences, she has found that stories can transform lives. And the telling of our own life story can be a powerful tool.
Readings from Jeanette Winterson and Joan Didion, and music including the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby and Schumann's Fairytale Pictures, help Jake to unravel the potent energy of narrative.
Producer: Jo Coombs
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b09byqhy)
Beaver
Beavers are back in the UK, hundreds of years since they last lived among us. Brett Westwood asks if we can recover our cultural links with these architectural animals, as well as remember how to live with the changes they bring to the landscape. Nature writer Jim Crumley talks about their green engineering skills and writer Rachel Poliquin brings the Canadian perspective on what she calls the four great human romances with the beaver: with its castoreum, its musk, its architectural skills and its ecological abilities. Original Producer Beth O'Dea.
Revised and shortened reversion. Archive producer Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio Bristol
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000qlnx)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000qn95)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000qlnz)
Hope, Devotional music, Cold water swimming
Is it possible to find hope in a pandemic? One thing many agree on is that a pandemic can reveal much about who we really are, individually and as a society. Pandemics can expose the cracks in our health care and the inequalities that separate us – nationally and globally. If that’s true, pandemics also give us a chance to learn how to care for one another better. That’s a message we often hear from those working in development charities around the world as they’ve continued to combat poverty and hunger, wave after wave of this pandemic. William Crawley speaks with Esther Lehmann-Sow, World Vision’s partnership leader for faith and development and Shahin Ashraf, Islamic Relief's head of global advocacy.
Devotional music and religious chanting have long been a way for people to express an emotional response to the world around them –that’s even more the case, as you might imagine, during a year of pandemic. For many British Hindus and Sikhs, the demands of this year has required them to find creative ways to come together while staying apart. Vishva Samani has been speaking to some of them.
Coldwater swimming is not for everyone. But there is growing evidence that taking a dip in a lake or the sea can help to alleviate stress and anxiety. There’s certainly been a lot of that about this year, which may explain why 2020 has seen a rise in people taking to the waters to exercise. The RNLI has even published new guidance to encourage people to stay safe while they seek out the stress-relief of a cold-water plunge. The poet and spoken word artist Harry Baker is one of those people. We asked him to capture his experience on paper for us.
Editor
Tim Pemberton
Producers
Carmel Lonergan
Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Photo Credit Worldvision
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000qlp1)
MAG
Actor and anti-landmine campaigner Rosamund Pike makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity MAG (Mines Advisory Group).
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 ‘MAG’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘MAG’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 4016409
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000qlp3)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000qlp5)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000qlp7)
"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby marks the 850th anniversary of the murder of his predecessor Archbishop Thomas Becket on the altar of Canterbury Cathedral. The 'turbulent priest' was the Archbishop and the infamous quotation is attributed to the King at the time, Henry II. Their utterance by the King encouraged four loyal knights to travel from the Royal court in Normandy to Canterbury Cathedral, and confront Archbishop Thomas Becket, murdering him in the process. No one believed that Henry directly ordered Becket to be killed, but his words started a chain of events that are fused within the collective memory and illustrate the law of unintended consequences such that they are still quoted today. The service is led in Canterbury Cathedral by the Dean Dr Robert Willis. Music Director: David Newsholme. Organist: Adrian Bawtree. Producer: Ben Collingwood.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000qjg0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:50 on Saturday]
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlphz)
Common Indian Cuckoo
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the Indian cuckoo found across much of South East Asia. A bird singing "crossword puzzle" - "crossword puzzle" over the woods is an Indian Cuckoo, a shy and slender bird, grey above and barred black and white below. These features are similar to those of a small hawk and when a cuckoo flies across a woodland glade, it's often mobbed by other birds. They're right to sense danger. Indian cuckoos are brood parasites and the females lay their eggs in the nests of other species including drongos, magpies and shrikes. The Indian cuckoo's song is well-known in the Indian sub-Continent and has been interpreted in different ways. As well as "crossword puzzle " some think it's saying "one more bottle" or "orange pekoe". And in the Kangra valley in northern India, the call is said to be the soul of a dead shepherd asking "... where is my sheep? Where is my sheep?".
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000qlp9)
News with Paddy O'Connell including the latest on Brexit and lorries in Kent. Astronaut Helen Sharman and surgeon Robert Winston discuss how science has fared in 2020. Prue Leith shares her tips on leftovers. And musician Paul Harvey reflects on a year where he's lived with dementia and had a hit record.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000qlpc)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed & Tim Stimpson
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter ….. Katie Redford
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Vince Casey ….. Tony Turner
Tanners ..... Jane Slavin
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000qlpf)
Tweet Take 5 : Barn Owl
Watching a ghostly looking barn owl flying over a meadow at dusk has to be one of the most evocative sights in nature. Moth like in its flight, these nocturnal hunters could be said to silently bring a little of the supernatural to the natural world. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day, we'll hear three stories of the barn owl, from wildlife presenter Chris Packham, writer and naturalist Paul Evans and presenter Miranda Krestovnikoff.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000qlph)
Colonel Lucy Giles
Colonel Lucy Giles is an officer of the British Army’s Royal Logistic Corps and is currently President of the Army Officer Selection Board - the first woman to take on this role.
After attending her local comprehensive school in Wincanton, Somerset, she studied Biological Sciences at Exeter University where she joined the University Officers’ Training Corps, despite having no military background herself.
After what she calls a “retrospective year out”, she joined the last female-only company at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport in 1992, which became the Royal Logistic Corps the following year.
Over a career spanning more than 25 years, she has served in over 20 countries including South Africa, Bosnia, East Timor and Sierra Leone. She was the first female Officer Commanding of 47 Air Despatch Squadron, enabling operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in 2015 became the first woman Commander of New College, Sandhurst. She was promoted to the rank of colonel in 2018.
She is married to Brigadier Nick Post, and they have two children, Jess and Alex. In her spare time, she is a marathon runner.
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor
SUN 11:45 Charisma: Pinning Down the Butterfly (b067x3w7)
The Best to You Each Morning
Francine Stock attempts to pin down the alluring yet elusive quality of charisma.
7.The Best To You Each Morning
Self-made American charismatic leaders - from W.K Kellogg and Henry Ford to Apple's Steve Jobs and Viacom's Sumner Restone.
A religious upbringing, a great idea and an exceptional ability to read the desires of the American people are just three of the shared characteristics of the early 20th century self-made men who feature in this programme. Collectively, they have set an influential template for charismatic business leaders to this day.
Francine Stock hears from the business journalist and broadcaster Peter Day about his personal - and not altogether complimentary - impressions of Steve Jobs and his extraordinary "force field" of attention. She draws a somewhat surprising profile of the self-made mogul - for whom conquering death itself seems to have become the longed-for ultimate charismatic act.
Producer; Beaty Rubens.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000qmdd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000qj6n)
Series 73
Lockdown Recording 1
A second lockdown recording of the nation's favourite wireless entertainment sees Marcus Brigstocke, Rachel Parris, Miles Jupp take on Rory Bremner, Jo Brand and Andy Hamilton with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000qlpm)
Loving the Leftovers
Christmas is over, everyone’s eaten too much – and yet, there’s still a mountain of leftover goodies, from the turkey to the cheese board, from the veggies to the fruit cake.
So how can we make the most of festive leftovers? And for that matter, leftovers at any time of year? Because this isn’t just about reducing the 4.5 million tonnes of food that UK households waste every year, it can also be a route to some seriously delicious dishes…
Sheila Dillon gets creative in the kitchen while finding out more about the leftovers ethos from cook and author Melissa Hemsley, food-loving writer Bill Buford, and author and journalist Debora Robertson; along with tips for up-cycling the remainders of festive feasts from School of Wok's Jeremy Pang, Gardeners' World's Frances Tophill and BBC Food's Emily Angle.
Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol.
Pictured: BBC Food's Ultimate Festive Cheese Toastie from Sarah Cook. Find the recipe at www.bbc.co.uk/food.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000qlpp)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000qlpr)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000qlpt)
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 (m000qjf5)
GQT at Home: Merry Christmas
Kathy Clugston and her team of gardening experts answer your questions. Christine Walkden, James Wong and Bob Flowerdew tackle questions sent in by listeners and the virtual audience.
The panellists suggest vegetables to grow for next year's Christmas dinner, advise on caring for a Peace lily and put a confusing conifer under the microscope. They also answer questions from some famous fans of the programme.
Away from the questions, Dr Chris Thorogood is talking all things mistletoe, and Advolly Richmond shares the history of the Clematis cirrhosa.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Disability: A New History (b01sm70w)
Miracle Cures
Peter White draws on the latest research to reveal the lives of physically disabled people in the 18th and 19th centuries. In this second episode - the search for Miracle Cures.
Peter says, 'Every so often in the street someone sees me with my white stick and comes up to me -and offers me my sight back. I'm usually quite rude to them, it depends what kind of day I'm having. But the idea of miracle cures runs very deep.'
It goes back at least to the Middle Ages, to the earliest accounts we have of disability in Britain. Peter investigates the roots of the idea of the miracle cure, in conversation with medieval historian Irina Metzler. She reveals that having a child with a disability was thought to be the result of 'the wrong kind of sex' - and there were many 'wrong kinds', such as sex on Feast Days and in daylight.
Thousands of people with illnesses and disabilities flocked to their local Cathedral, praying to the Saints for a cure. When that didn't work, they simply moved on to another cathedral. And the belief in miracles lasted at least until the 18th Century - we hear how the infant Samuel Johnson was taken to see Queen Anne, his mother hoping that the Royal touch would cure his skin disease. It didn't work, of course, but the great rationalist wore the amulet the Queen gave him all his life - hoping for a cure for his multiple disabilities. There's a triumph of hope over experience!
With historians Irina Metzler and Judith Hawley and voices from the past brought vividly to life by actors Emily Bevan, Ewan Bailey and Gerard McDermott.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
Academic adviser: David Turner, Swansea University
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 15:00 Passenger List (m000qlpw)
Inoperative Operative
A familiar song, a friend unmasked, a rogue agent...
Atlantic Airlines flight 702 has disappeared mid-flight between London and New York with 256 passengers on board. Kaitlin Le, a college student whose twin brother vanished with the flight, is determined to uncover the truth. Kelly Marie Tran, Patti LuPone, Colin Morgan and Rob Benedict star in this multi-award-winning mystery thriller.
Written Lauren Shippen & Kevin Rodriguez
Kaitlin ..... Kelly Marie Tran
Don Malone ..... Ray McAnally
Chad ..... Ian McQuown
Thomas ..... Colin Morgan
Jim Dennison ..... Rob Benedict
Phone Voices ..... Alene Latimer, Avery Monsen, James McCarthy, Phoebe Stonebraker & Jon Bershad
Karen ..... Mary Gordon Murray
Professor Marshal ..... Richard Doyle
Created by John Scott Dryden
Script Editor, Mike Walker
Casting, Janet Foster
US Producer, Julia Thompson
Assisted by Julia Adamo
UK Producer, Emma Hearn
Editing, Sound Design & Music by Mark Henry Phillips
Directed by Lauren Shippen & John Scott Dryden
Executive Producers - Lauren Shippen & John Scott Dryden
Executive Producer for Radiotopia – Julie Shapiro
A Goldhawk production for Radiotopia/PRX and BBC Radio
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000qlpy)
Reading in 2020
In a year many would rather forget, what are the books worth remembering? And what will we be reading in 2021? Sara Collins asks novelist Naomi Alderman and critic John Self.
They discuss finding solace in books during an unusually eventful 2020, the big blockbuster titles (in a year that included new releases from Hilary Mantel to Martin Amis, and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell), the breakthrough debuts (including Booker Prize-winning Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart), and the overlooked page-turners giving welcome distraction.
John and Naomi also offer their picks for 2021 and the literary trends to look out for. And looking ahead to January, Frances Bickmore selects A Burning by Megha Majumdar for his Editors' Pick.
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (m000qlq0)
Ian McMillan
Ian's selection ranges through George Mackay Brown, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, and Roger reads a poem he composed especially for Ian.
Producer for BBC Audio Bristol Sally Heaven
SUN 17:00 Can I Talk About Heroes? (m000qjhg)
Vicky Foster's award-winning Radio 4 Audio Drama Bathwater looked at the effect the murder in 2005 in Hull of the father of her children, a firefighter, is still having on her family .
In this documentary, Can I talk about Heroes ? Vicky looks at the way society creates heroes, whether the meaning and significance of that label has changed in recent times and if the term is still useful .
This questioning has been prompted by her own story. Stephen Gallant, convicted of the murder of Vicky's ex-partner,was out on day licence attending a prisoner rehabilitation event in November 2019 when he tackled the London Bridge terrorist with a narwhal tusk, which caught the attention of the public and the media. He was quickly branded a 'hero' .
Vicky Foster talks to Dr Zeno Franco, Associate Professor, Medical College of Wisconsin
Emma Kinder, Victim Support’s Homicide Regional Manager
Jacquie Johnston-Lynch, Head of Services at Vitality Homes Recovery Centre
Mel, a nurse working on a covid ward.
Produced by Susan Roberts, BBC Audio North
SUN 17:40 Uncorked (m0001qj6)
Jancis Robinson talks wine and rugby with Brian Moore
Uncork a bottle, reveal a person…
Jancis Robinson recommends wine to former rugby player and wine connoisseur Brian Moore.
In this series Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wines to famous guests. After all, wines are a bit like people really. Some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. But what do you recommend to a man who was nicknamed 'Pitbull' - famously aggressive on the rugby field, but also a sophisticated debater and a trained manicurist?
Jancis aims to find bottles that match or reveal things about Brian's public persona but also his more secretive, private self. What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers. It's a conversational masterclass from one of our foremost wine writers. But more than that – the open bottle starts up conversations about people's lives and opinions on all sorts of things. We’ll find ourselves asking what our own taste in wine might reveal. Open up a bottle and you’ll open up a person.
Brian and Jancis were drinking...
Cellier de St-Jean Vacqueras 2016 (14.5%) £
8.99 - "Tannic, really substantial, very good vintage in the Rhone. Bottled in Beaujolais."
Domaine Chapel Julienas 2017 (14%) £25 - "Gloriously subtle, representing the Beaujolais revolution."
Campbell's Rutherglen Muscat (17.5%) £
12.99 for a half bottle - "Australian Strong and sweet speciality made nowhere else in the world - very Christmassy."
Produced in Bristol by James Cook and Melvin Rickarby.
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000qlq4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000qlq6)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qlq8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000qlqb)
Pick of the Podcasts 2020 with Alice Levine
In this global pandemic year of lockdown and self-isolation, podcasts have come into their own. They’ve reflected an uncertain world, tapped into our introspection, and provided a space to laugh in the face of absurdity. From revealing but ropey Wi-Fi conversations to polished, jaw-dropping storytelling; all life is here: intimate, informal, heart-breaking and uplifting. Alice Levine chooses her 'Pick of the Pods 2020'.
Presenter: Alice Levine
Producer: Dan Tierney
Production support: Ellen Orchard
Contact potw@bbc.co.uk
The full episodes 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 (m0005t0v)
Paso Doble
Maksym, the Ukrainian ballroom teacher at the Pink Lemon Dance Studio, is hoping to win the championships at Blackpool with his Paso Doble routine. Last year his chances were ruined when boyfriend Joe's phone started ringing in the middle of the Flamenco taps and he got distracted. This time he's taking no chances.
Written by Bethan Roberts and read by Andrew Byron.
Produced and Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:15 Big Broadcast (m000qlqd)
Series 4
Sex
Neil Brand's musical caper set in a Chicago radio station in 1937. When the station is threatened with closure by the League of Decency, Katharine Hepburn responds in style.
Cast
Katharine Hepburn ..... Susannah Fielding
Cary Grant ..... Ian Conningham
Arthur Clarke ..... Neil McCaul
Barbara Meek ..... Bettrys Jones
Ramona Fairfax ..... Heather Craney
Jerry Soundguy ..... Hasan Dixon
Preston Lanister ..... Clive Hayward
Danny Folly ..... Franchi Webb
Singer ..... Helen Neeves
Singer ..... Nancy Cole
Singer ..... Christopher Bowen
Singer ..... Jimmy Holliday
Foley ..... Alison Craig
Written and composed by Neil Brand
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
SUN 19:45 The Hotel (m000qlqg)
15: The Film
The finale in Daisy Johnson's deliciously dark series of contemporary ghost stories, read by Sara Kestelman.
Today: gripped by rumours and myths about The Hotel, a group of students go to film whatever lurks within its walls.....
Writer: Daisy Johnson
Reader: Sara Kestelman
Producer: Justine Willett
SUN 20:00 My Favourite Things (m000qjmb)
Andrew McGibbon explores how the song My Favourite Things from Rogers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music gained greater popularity through the intervention of jazz artist and pioneer John Coltrane.
Coltrane's version elevated the song to a stand alone masterpiece, contributing to the evolution of the jazz genre and bringing a new audience to the saxophonist's unique, progressive and electrifying sound.
Together with Chick Corea's bass player John Patitucci, BBC Jazz Musician of the year Xhosa Cole, Music Academic Lewis Porter, British jazz saxophonist Iain Ballamy and fellow musicians, Andrew examines how My Favourite Things was made into a hit by John Coltrane. The song was known to Broadway audiences from the late '50s but Coltrane’s 1961 recording sold millions and introduced both the song and his soaring and ineffable interpretation of it to wider audiences, long before the musical had become a household name.
The song represents a significant milestone in the evolution of John Coltrane’s musical legacy. from where he would continue to be inspired to greater heights of improvisation in his restless search for the presence of love found through the pursuit of musical perfection. Later in the '60s, fans would find it hard to keep up with his astonishing experimentation during live performances of My Favourite Things as he pushed the boundaries of the saxophone with his relentless curiosity.
The artists heard in the programme and on the specially recorded version of My Favourite Things are...
Iain Ballamy - Soprano Saxophone
Xhosa Cole - Tenor Saxophone
Trish Clowes - Soprano Saxophone
Duncan Lamont - Clarinet
Gareth Williams - Piano
Lewis Porter - Piano
Jules Jackson - Acoustic Bass
John Patitucci - Acoustic Bass
Andy Paresi - Drums
Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon
Produced by Nick Romero
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000qlqj)
Millie Small, JJ Williams, Maurice Healy, Dame Fanny Waterman
Julian Worricker on
Millie Jones, the singer who brought ska rhythms and Jamaican culture to a global audience with her hit song My Boy Lollipop.
JJ Williams, the Llanelli, Wales and British Lions winger who became one of the stars of world rugby.
Dame Fanny Waterman, who co-founded the Leeds International Piano Festival and introduced many of the greatest pianists of our time.
And consumer champion Maurice Healy, editor of Which? magazine and director of the National Consumer Council, who was instrumental in bringing in shopping on a Sunday, cheaper air fares and better food labelling.
Interviewed guest: Chris Blackwell
Interviewed guest: Chris Salewicz
Interviewed guest: Phil Bennett
Interviewed guest: Petroc Trelawny
Interviewed guest: Richard Thomas
Producer: Paul Waters
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000qlql)
Eve and Nick
Eavesdrop as a couple open up to a relationship counsellor about their personal finances and their feelings.
Money worries are known to put a big strain on relationships, and it can be hard to talk openly and honestly without tempers flaring or heads burying deep into the sand.
Newly-weds Eve and Nick have different ideas about how joined up their finances should be. They sit down with Dee Holmes, a counsellor from the relationship charity Relate, to explore their different attitudes to money, and how they were formed. Will this bring the couple and their finances closer together?
Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Smita Patel
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000qlp1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 My Name Is... (m000lzjp)
Roman: What's wrong with screen time?
Eleven-year-old Roman is adjusting to a new three-day limit on his use of screens.
He's a huge fan of Minecraft and he also uses Tik Tok and You Tube.
Mum Louisa and dad Ben think during the pandemic there has been too much time spent on screens and they're trying to restore a balance - but what do the experts say?
Cambridge Research Fellow Dr Amy Orben and Professor Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute take Roman through research which suggests that there may not be a great deal of evidence to show that screens have a major impact on young people's happiness.
But the views of mum and dad are the ones that matter. They chart their reasons for wanting to bring more balance to the use of screens at home.
Sebastian Suggate shares his research with Roman - discussing the impact of media on young children's capacity for forming their own mental images.
Along the way Roman hears about the difficulty of age verification for sites like Tik Tok - but also that increasingly scientists wanting to study how screens affect us are kept in the dark by tech companies' reluctance to share data about how we use their platforms. The information our time on screens gives them is a valuable commodity - one which they're keen on protecting.
A Government spokesperson said: “Technology gives children and young people a wealth of information and increasing their social interactions. But spending too much time on devices can place children at risk because not all content and images are suitable for young audiences. We are working closely with industry to tackle online harms, and protect children and young people."
Presented by Roman
Produced by Kevin Core
SUN 22:00 News Review of the Year (m000qlqn)
2020
While it was a year like no other in living memory with Covid-19 dominating politics, economics, the Arts, sport and the international scene, Jonny Dymond and his guests assess what else happened during 2020 which is likely to prove of lasting significance.
From the election of a new President in the United States to the video-conferencing boom, from the Black Lives Matter protests to the collapse of high street brands, discrete events occurred which will affect all our lives in the years ahead.
Joined by a panel of guests, featuring Helen Lewis - staff writer for The Atlantic magazine; Professor Anand Menon, head of the research group, UK in a Changing Europe; and Daniel Finkelstein, associate editor of The Times, Jonny Dymond discusses what really mattered at home and abroad, assesses those whose reputations soared - and sank - and remembers the achievements and legacies of some of those who passed away during the year.
Producer: Simon Coates
Credits:
Scenes from Goldfinger and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Eon Productions.
General Chuck Yeager, Academy of Achievement.
Letitia Wright as Altheia Jones-LeCointe in Mangrove, part of Sir Steve McQueen's film anthology, Small Axe (Turbine Studios, Lammas Park & EMU Films).
Nobby Stiles, goal for Manchester United in English Football League Division One, 1966; Paolo Rossi, goal for Italy against Brazil in 1982 Fifa World Cup; and Diego Maradona, goal for Argentina against England in 1986 Fifa World Cup.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000qjnp)
Christopher Nolan & Tom Shone
With Antonia Quirke
Director Christopher Nolan and author Tom Shone discuss Tom's book The Nolan Variations, and the influence of artists Escher and Francis Bacon on movies like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. And Nolan reveals why he has a favourite glacier.
Photograph: Oliver Nolan
SUN 23:30 Anansi Boys (b09ghqjr)
1/6
'Stories are Webs. They are connected strand to strand....'
Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys comes to Radio 4, with a stellar cast, and a specially commissioned song written and performed by Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones's Grey Worm) who makes his radio debut as Fat Charlie Nancy, a South London boy whose dad is trouble. And not just your standard, run of the mill kind of trouble: more like, your trickster God and master of mischief and storytelling kind of trouble.
Anansi Boys is a story of love, laughter, music and murder, old gods and new tricks, that takes Fat Charlie from his home in London to Florida, the Caribbean, and the very Beginning of the World itself. Or the End of the World. Depending on which direction you're coming from.
Jacob Anderson is a musician (as Raleigh Ritchie) as well as an actor. Starring as Fat Charlie, a young man who struggles to find his voice, he has also written and performed a specially commissioned song - Charlie's Song - which forms part of the magical fabric of Anansi Boys.
The stellar cast of the series also includes Earl Cameron, Tanya Moodie, Adjoa Andoh, Joseph Marcell, Lenny Henry, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sheila Atim, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Cecilia Noble, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Danielle Vitalis, Ronke Adekoluejo, Clifford Samuel, and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong.
This is Dirk Maggs's fifth adaptation of a Neil Gaiman novel for Radio 4, and Neil Gaiman's favourite so far.
Writer ..... Neil Gaiman
Adaptor ..... Dirk Maggs
Sound Design ..... Wilfredo Acosta
Producer ..... Allegra McIlroy
Director ..... Allegra McIlroy.
MONDAY 28 DECEMBER 2020
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000qlqq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000qknk)
Disinformation
Laurie Taylor talks to Annie Kelly, a researcher of the Digital Far Right, about the QAnon conspiracy theory and why it has attracted a striking number of female followers, many of whom are mothers. She argues that their rhetoric and slogans have cleverly smuggled legitimate concerns about the welfare of children into a baseless and dangerous set of entirely false claims about the nature of child trafficking. What role have social media sites dominated by women played in the circulation of QAnon theories and how can they be challenged?
Also, Nina Jankowitz, Global Disinformation Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, examines Russia’s role in the spread of disinformation, not only in the USA but also in Eastern and Central Europe. What lessons can be learned from these experiences? She argues that the best types of disinformation are able to amplify and exploit the already existing divisions in society, including racism and inequality in the US context.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000qlqs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qlqv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qlqx)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qlqz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000qlr1)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000qlr3)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
Good morning, on this third day of Christmas.
For Mary it’s day 3 days of new parenthood.
I remember so well the blur and overwhelming. I picture Mary, holding the baby Jesus in her arms, rocking him to try and console whatever may be the cause of his crying, anything to get him to sleep. I remember how those cries pierce the heart, especially when you’re desperate for sleep yourself. Just as I also remember how tired my arms got from holding a new little bundle – that feels so heavy before the biceps have caught up with their new form of work-out.
So today we pray for all who are parents. For those who are brand new parents, gifted with wonder and adjusting to the responsibility of a new baby: for their sleep and for their strength. For those who are parents of toddlers, confined by covid constraints and unable to run off their energy: for patience and perseverance. For parents of school-aged children, stretched to manage the juggle of demands and opportunities: for their judgement and for joy. For those who are parents of teenagers, seeking to keep open the channels of communication and accountability: for courage and commitment. Finally, for those parents who can’t see their children, for any whose hearts are heavy with misgiving, or hurt, and for those who long to be parents: we pray for healing and hope.
Almighty God who is holy father and tender mother: we pray for all who are parents and especially those for whom the responsibility is new or overwhelming. Sustain their joy in the gift of childhood. May they find in you their source of love and grace. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000qlr5)
28/12/20 - The Dartmoor Shepherd
When Lewis Steer was a teenager, he believed that not coming from a farming background would put his dream career out of reach. Not inheriting a family tradition though forced him and his partner Flora Searson (aka The Dartmoor Shepherd) to look at agriculture differently. Along with their sheepdog Moss, they now farm 800 sheep across 16 different sites on the moor, putting into practice their vision for sustainable production that seeks to replicate what farmers were doing on Dartmoor thousands of years ago.
Presented and produced by Fiona Clampin
MON 05:56 Weather (m000qlr7)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b092f778)
Amy Liptrot on the Hooded Crow
Writer Amy Liptrot recalls seeing hooded crows while living in Berlin and reflects on their namesakes back at her childhood home in Orkney for Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Mark Ward
Photograph: Paul Smith.
MON 06:00 Today (m000qlrr)
Director of the Wellcome Trust Sir Jeremy Farrar guest-edits the programme.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000qlrt)
Nicholas Hytner
2020 has been disastrous for the arts in Britain and many people have lost their jobs as Covid-19 has swept through the country. Sir Nicholas Hytner has been working in the theatre for nearly four decades and he tells Andrew Marr about the unprecedented challenges that now face his industry.
Hytner made his name and fortune in the 1990s with the musical Miss Saigon. Further successes came with theatre and film productions of The Madness of King George and The History Boys, and the sell-out One Man, Two Guvnors.
He ran the National Theatre for twelve years before setting up his own commercial venture – with his business partner Nick Starr – the Bridge Theatre. During the year of the pandemic Hytner has sought to keep the theatre afloat with performances of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, and a specially adapted, socially distanced, but joyful, version of A Christmas Carol.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Photographer: Helen Maybanks
MON 09:45 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qlrw)
Ancient Book, Modern World
Professor John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed up on it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and New Testaments.
In the first episode, Barton asks how relevant is this most ancient of tomes still is to today’s world.
Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000qlrz)
Women and Space: Nasa's Holly Ridings, the psychology of space travel, Rocket Women and the cultural significance of space
Holly Ridings is the first woman to be NASA's chief flight director. She was appointed in 2018 and is responsible for missions to the International Space Station, the Orion spacecraft and commercial spacecraft. She is also in charge of the Artemis programme - named after Apollo's twin sister - which will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and potentially lead to further missions to Mars. She is responsible for 32 flight directors who are overseeing human spaceflight at the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
How do you know if you’re fit enough psychologically to go into space? What do you need to do to survive in such close quarters with other people? When it comes to Mars, the focus is often on how to get there: the rockets, the engines, the fuel. But upon arrival, what will it actually be like? Jane speaks to Kate Greene author of “Once Upon a Time I Lived On Mars” and to Dr Iya Whiteley, Director of the Centre for Space Medicine at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London.
What are the jobs for women in space? Vinita Marwaha Madill is founder of Rocket Women which aims to inspire women around the world and provide advice on working in the space and technology industries.
And finally, what is the cultural significance of space and the moon to us? It is the site of so much folklore, myth and legends and has spawned countless books, films and songs. Looking up at the stars is a trope of romance – but it also a reminder of how small and insignificant our own lives are – seen against the life of the cosmos. For that reason many ask – should we even be going to the moon or Mars? Jane discusses this with the folksinger Karine Polwart who is writing a new theatre piece called “The Only Light Was Stars” and Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian who is a driector, member of the SETi Institute, Vice-Chair of The Committee for the Cultural Utilisation of Space and director and founder of the International Space Orchestra in NASA.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Clare Walker
MON 10:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qls1)
Part 6
By Charles Dickens
Rosa has an upsetting meeting with John Jasper, while a mysterious white-haired gentleman appears in Cloisterham and forms an alliance with young Deputy Winks.
Kate Dickens… Pippa Nixon
John Jasper… Joel McCormack
Rosa Bud … Isabella Inchbald
Reverend Crisparkle … Damian Lynch
Neville Landless … Maanuv Thiara
Helena Landless … Halema Hussain
Deputy Winks… Aaron Gelkoff
Adapted by Mike Walker
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
MON 11:00 The Untold (m000qls3)
The Undercard
In 2017 pro-boxer Ashley Lane won a Commonwealth Boxing Council title. He then lost the title in 2019, and in March 2020 as lockdown hit and the sport was forced to shut down, Ashley did what many other professional sports people did - he got a job. In the months that followed Ashley did a lot of soul-searching, confronting some of the more difficult issues in his past including being bullied in school, periods of homelessness, unemployment and bulimia. Now, finally, his life has stablised - he's got a steady income, a house, a wonderful partner, and a renewed outlook from his daily sessions of yoga and meditation. He is done. It's time to retire from the sport that has been his life since the age of fifteen.
But then, out of the blue, comes the call. A chance to fight on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua v Kubrat Pulev title match on December 12th, a major pay-for-view event. It's money, but more than that, it's a chance to recapture a place on the grand stage of boxing. With his trainers and his partner encouraging him, Ashley accepts the challenge.
Producer Toby Field follows Ashley as he prepares for the fight. They talk about Ashley's reasons for leaving boxing and his decision to now return. It's a story about redemption and determination, but it's also the story of who's in that ring with you, in your corner, when the bell starts the first round.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Toby Field
Presented by Grace Dent
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000qnbz)
Bill Gates
As the co-founder of Microsoft, and one of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates has long been a poster child for geek power. But, through his Gates Foundation, he is also at the centre of the effort to end the pandemic of 2020. In this edition of How To Vaccinate The World, Tim Harford talks with Bill Gates about what he’s doing, what others are doing, and what needs to happen next if we are going to vaccinate a global population against Covid 19.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000qls5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qls7)
Episode 1
In the Castle of My Skin is the first and much acclaimed novel by Barbadian writer George Lamming, originally published in 1953 by Michael Joseph in London. The novel won a Somerset Maugham Award and was championed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, the latter writing an introduction to the book's US edition.
It's an autobiographical coming-of-age novel - set in the 1930s and 40s in Carrington Village, Barbados, where the author was born and raised - and follows the events in the life of a young boy named G, taking place against the background of dramatic changes in the society in which he lives.
The book's title comes from a couplet in Derek Walcott's early work Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), "You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd."
Lamming wrote:
"Migration was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome. It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of heritage nor the expectation of welcome would have been seriously doubted. England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we left. It was the name of a responsibility whose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time (...)
Much of the substance of my first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is an evocation of this tragic innocence. Nor was there, at the time of writing, any conscious effort on my part to emphasise the dimension of cruelty that had seduced, or driven, black people into such lasting bonds of illusion. It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. Black versus black in a battle for self-improvement."
Abridged by Florence Bedell
Read by Paterson Joseph
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000qlsb)
I've Lost My Pension Pot - It's Somewhere in Germany
A You & Yours investigation can reveal that millions of pounds of investors' pension savings haven’t been returned by a German property company that was promising to keep them safe.
Dolphin, now known as German Property Group, promised huge returns and their original capital back, if investors lent their money for up to 5 years.
Dolphin would use the money to buy derelict listed buildings across Germany, do them up into flats and sell them to German buyers. Whilst Dolphin did use investor money to buy some buildings, it didn’t develop enough of them to pay the loans back.
The firm has now collapsed owing an estimated £1 billion to investors all over the world.
Thousands of UK investors have not received their pension savings back.
You & Yours reporter Shari Vahl is investigating where the money went.
She can reveal that only a fraction of the money invested by individuals in the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Korea and other countries was spent on German property.
Presented by Shari Vahl
Produced by Beatrice Pickup
MON 12:57 Weather (m000qlsd)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000qlsg)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qlsj)
Episode 1
The Death of Nuance: what's not black and white, but grey all over?
MON 14:00 Electric Decade (m000qlsm)
Antic Hay
Electric Decade: Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley. Dramatised by Mike Harris
Part of 'Electric Decade' a series of classic titles that characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s. When inspiration leads Theo Gumbril to design pneumatic trousers to ease the discomfort of a sedentary life, he decides to give up teaching and seek his fortune in London. But his dreams seem to disappear as he gets caught up in the world of his self absorbed friends. A wicked satire on the glittering hedonism of the 1920s.
Theo..................James Cooney
Myra..................Emily Pithon
Coleman...............Jonathan Keeble
Lypiatt...................Simeon Truby
Shearwater............Graeme Hawley
Emily.......................Verity Henry
Producer/Director Gary Brown
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m000qlsp)
Series 34
Heat 4, Series 34
Another trio of music lovers joins Paul Gambaccini for the contest of musical knowledge, covering the widest possible range of styles and eras.
From the Woodstock Festival to the Salzburg Festival, from indie rock to great Baroque Mass settings - the questions test the competitors' knowledge in all areas. Sometimes they surprise themselves with things they didn't realise they knew - at other times they're frustrated at answers which are just out of reach. There's a rich spread of musical extracts to illustrate the questions, and something to suit every taste. The winner today will take another of the places in the semi-finals in the new year.
Today's competitors are
Peter Almond, a solicitor from Bristol
David Love, a semi-retired financial planner from Wombourne in Staffordshire
Alan Stromberg, a housemaster from North Norfolk.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000qlpm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Faith in Music (m000qlss)
Leonard Bernstein
Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan considers Leonard Bernstein's complex faith life and religious roots as a 20th-century composer living at a time of great change in the USA.
Marin Alsop once wrote: "The question of faith is woven through every Bernstein piece - even when there is no obvious religious component. For Bernstein, the crisis of the 20th century was a crisis of faith".
James talks with conductor Marin Alsop who was a student of Bernstein's. Also to Joshua R. Jacobson, one of the foremost authorities on Jewish choral music and Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University. And to Bernstein biographer Humphrey Burton.
Over the centuries, composers have created musical masterpieces which many listeners have come to regard as spiritual touchstones. For example, Tallis's motet Spem in alium; Wagner’s opera Parsifal; Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius; Bernstein's Mass. But what did these composers actually believe about God, faith, compassion, an afterlife and redemption? And do we need to in any way share these beliefs in order to have a spiritual experience as listeners to their music? Answers to these questions are complex, fascinating and challenging.
Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Must Try Softer Production
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000qlsv)
The Dalai Lama
This year, the Dalai Lama celebrated his 85th Birthday. He is one of the world's most prominent religious leaders and is certainly the most famous Buddhist but talk is now turning to who will replace him. In 1959, His Holiness was forced to leave Tibet and since then he has been living in Dharamsala in northern India. In exile, he has become so much more than just the Tibetan spiritual leader but what do we really know about him and what will his legacy be?
Discussing the 14th Dalai Lama with Ernie Rea will be Kate Saunders (a writer and independent specialist on Tibet), Professor Robbie Barnett (Former Director of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University and now a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS). the Venerable Lama Losang Samten (Spiritual Director of the Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Centre of Philadelphia and personal attendant to the Dalai Lama in the 1980s) and Andrew Quintman (Associate Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University who specializes in the Buddhist traditions of Tibet).
Producer: Helen Lee
Editor: Amanda Hancox
MON 17:00 PM (m000qlsx)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qlsz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:15 Excuse Me, Are You John Shuttleworth? (m000qjfp)
Episode 2
Radio 4 fans need no introduction to singer/organist John Shuttleworth, who has been a firm favourite on the station for some years now. But say the name Graham Fellows and many listeners won’t know who you’re talking about – including John Shuttleworth himself!
Graham Fellows is an actor, musician and character comedian who has been in showbusiness for 40 years and, after hiding behind the masks of made-up people, it’s time he revealed himself.
This two-part series is an honest account of Graham’s life to date - sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving and often disarmingly honest - which will give a real sense of the man behind the mask. Each show will be punctuated with witty and moving songs performed on pedal harmonium and Graham will share which songs he kept for himself and which he gave to his characters, and why.
There will, on occasion, be interjections from some of Graham’s characters, particularly John Shuttleworth, as these lives are so intertwined. In fact, John is such a well-developed character that he can interject when Graham least expects it!
Part Two finds Graham a bit depressed and ready to quit showbusiness. After some counselling, he decides that what he really wants to do with his life is become a milkman! But after three months with not a single glimpse of a housewife in a nightie, he’s offered an acting job in the Theatre. This renews his love of performing and he returns to John Shuttleworth, honing the character so that he’s shortlisted for the Perrier awards and has his first series on Radio 4.
Graham soon feels ready to create a new character, and rock musicologist Brian Appleton is born: “I've been dumped upon from a massive height by so many rock stars, even Morrissey ripped me off. I wrote a song called My Turn to be Poorly.”
John is ever present, and Graham reveals that such were the demands of Shuttleworth and the sheer quantity of songs the character needed for new tours and radio shows that he had to pass many of his own songs straight over to John, including She Lives in Hope and The Man who Lives on the M62. At which point, Ken Worthington appears and insists that John wrote all his own songs, unaided.
Graham reveals who voices the other characters in the Shuttleworth world before ending the show with a song that captures the truth of a simple event in HIS life – I Had an Egg with my Son.
A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000qlt1)
Series 73
Lockdown Recording 2
Another lockdown recording of the nation's favourite wireless entertainment sees Tony Hawks, Pippa Evans and Harry Hill pitted against Sandi Toksvig, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 Front Row (m000qlt3)
A poetry edition, with Simon Armitage, Vanessa Kisuule, Anthony Anaxagorou, Em Power, Anna Selby, Daphne Astor, talking, reading
The pandemic is having a profound impact on the arts. But you don't need to go anywhere, involve other people or need many materials, to write or read poetry, and during the lockdown people have turned to verse. In an extended edition of Front Row devoted to poetry Samira Ahmed hears from the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, about his recent writing life - composing lyrics for Huddersfield Choral Society. Vanessa Kisuule, City Poet of Bristol, talks about her collaboration with the Old Vic and local groups, creating modern work inspired by medieval mystery plays. Em Power, three times Foyle Poet of the Year winner, reveals how poetry is a communal art. And they all read their work.
Even before the lockdown there was a surge in sales of poetry books, driven by the internet. Anthony Anaxagorou and Vanessa Kisuule chart their journeys as poets via YouTube to the printed page.
They discuss poetry addressing politics - Kisuule's poem on the toppling of the Colston statue went viral - and poets' engagement with the environment. Armitage launched the Laurel Prize to encourage this. In March Daphne Astor started the Hazel Press whose books about the natural world are created from it using local recycled paper, printed with vegetable inks. Anna Selby writes poems about the underwater world - while underwater.
The prospect of inoculation against Covid gave rise to'vaccination nationalism'. When Edward Jenner pioneered smallpox vaccination in 1796 he was determined his discovery would benefit people around the globe. Several poets, including Robert Southey, wrote poems in his honour. Front Row has commissioned Anthony Anaxagorou to do the same for the developers of the Covid vaccine, and he reads his new poem.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May
MON 19:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qls1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Can I Still Read Harry Potter? (m000n47p)
Journalist and fan Aja Romano examines their decision to close the books on the boy wizard and hears different viewpoints toward Harry Potter and contemporary readership.
Aja Romano has been a Harry Potter fan for many years, but after personally disagreeing with statements by their author JK Rowling regarding gender identity, they are considering closing the books for good.
Across the world, millions continue to embrace the Wizarding World in all its forms and JK Rowling has received a lot of support for speaking out on an important issue in a personal way.
With this in mind Aja assesses the different factors at play in their choice, speaking to cultural experts, academics and fans and considering influences such as social media, trends in fan communities, "cancelling" , literary theory and more. With contributions from critic Sam Leith, writer Gavin Haynes , journalist Sarah Shaffi, Dr Ika Willis and fans Jackson Bird and Patricio Tarantino.
'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' film trailer clip courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, Director: Chris Columbus.
Produced by Sam Peach
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000qjm8)
The Mapuche - Fighting for their right to heal
The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group – a population of more than 2 million people. And, they are fighting for their right to heal. They want Chileans to value their unique approach to healthcare and give them control of land and their own destiny. But, it’s a tough sell when there’s so much distrust and violence between the two communities. Jane Chambers travels to their homeland in the Araucania region in the south of Chile, where she’s given rare access to traditional healers and political leaders.
Presenter / producer: Jane Chambers
Producer in London: Linda Pressly
Editor: Bridget Harney
(Image: Machi Juana at her home by her sacred altar. Credit: Jane Chambers/BBC)
MON 21:00 Don't Log Off (m000qjf8)
Series 12
Grounded
Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent.
Today, airline pilot Peter in Australia talks about deciding to become a bus driver after the pandemic forced him to stop flying.
And wedding planner Vithika in India discusses the dramatic impact of the pandemic on her industry.
Plus, Chun Wing, a ballet dancer at the Paris Opera shares the frustrations of not being able to perform.
Alan also speaks to Shira who lives in an orthodox community in Israel and he catches up with doctor Ahmed in Sudan who’s just made a major decision about his job.
Producers: Sarah Shebbeare & Laurence Grissell
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000qlrt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000qlt6)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qls7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000qlt8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Anansi Boys (b09ghqrv)
2/6
When his father dies, Fat Charlie Nancy (Jacob Anderson) discovers that not only was the late Mr Nancy (Lenny Henry) actually the god Anansi, but that he also has a long-lost brother, Spider (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), who is everything Fat Charlie is not. When Spider begins to take over Fat Charlie's life, flat and even his fiancée Rosie (Sheila Atim), Fat Charlie is forced to make a pact that lands him in even more trouble. Not just with his boss (Julian Rhind-Tutt), the wife of their biggest client (Julie Hesmondhalgh) and police officer Daisy Day (Pippa Bennett-Warner), but with the gods themselves...
Anansi Boys is a magical web of a story that spans the old world and the new, from South London to the Southern US, the fictional Caribbean island of St Andrews, and the Mountains at the End of the World. Or the Beginning of the World. Depending on which way you're heading.
From the writer of Neverwhere and American Gods, a six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's best-selling and much-loved novel.
The stellar cast of the series also includes Earl Cameron, Tanya Moodie, Adjoa Andoh, Joseph Marcell, Cecilia Noble, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Danielle Vitalis, Ronke Adekoluejo, Clifford Samuel, and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong.
Writer ..... Neil Gaiman
Adaptor ..... Dirk Maggs
Sound Design ..... Wilfredo Acosta
Producer ..... Allegra McIlroy
Director ..... Allegra McIlroy.
TUESDAY 29 DECEMBER 2020
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000qltb)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:15 Christmas Compass (m000cms7)
Winter Journey
New Christmas stories from around the globe by Alexander McCall Smith
Kelly Macdonald reads a story about coincidence which begins when a letter sends Susan on a voyage of discovery.
Producer: Claire Simpson
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qlrw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qltd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qltg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qltj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000qltl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000qltn)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
Good morning.
Today commemorates a violent moment in English history exactly 850 years ago, one which is not for the faint-hearted. On the 29th December 1170, the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was murdered, SEEMINGLY on the direct orders of King Henry II after years of opposing what he viewed as the ruthless exercise of royal power. It happened as Becket was preparing for Evensong in Canterbury Cathedral.
So today’s Prayer for the Day is not one for the faint-hearted either. It originates from a young girl at Ravensbruck concentration camp, someone else who suspected she would pay the ultimate price of faith with her life, yet was determined for circumstances of destruction to bear fruit.
In the case of Becket, the stones stained by his blood and the tomb where his bones lay became a site of pilgrimage, a shrine for prayer, even a fount of healing. The same is true of the concentration camps that have been preserved in Germany and Poland for those with the guts to make the journey.
It takes courage to engage with these agonies: the commemoration is painful. But the act of remembering is itself the spur, the seedbed, for growing in virtue ourselves – in loyalty, in humility, in courage, in generosity. Becket not only remained faithful, he even prayed for the four knights who came on the orders of the king to execute him. And so did the girl at Ravensbrook, as the prayer found attached to her body reveals. I invite you to echo it if you dare:
O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember only the suffering they inflicted upon us: remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering – our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by You, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.
Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000qltq)
29/12/20 - Stornoway Black Pudding
Black pudding has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, thanks largely to the endorsement of celebrity chefs who have purloined the blood sausage from its traditional place in the breakfast fry-up and paired it with seafood or used in salads, stuffings and stews.
The Western Isles town of Stornoway has emerged as the go-to destination for this product, and island butchers have geared up production to capitalise on the ever-increasing demand.
But what's the history of black pudding, how is it made - and where does all the blood come from?
Presented and Produced by Nancy Nicolson
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09nvs2r)
Jane Smith on the Great Northern Diver
Wildlife artist Jane Smith listens in the fog to a Great Northern Diver and is drawn towards the strange eerie call of the bird.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Della Lack.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000qlwd)
Two-times Booker Prize winning author Margaret Atwood guest-edits the programme.
TUE 09:00 Soul Music (m000qlwg)
Once In A Lifetime
Talking Heads emerged out of the post punk scene of the late 1970s. Once In A Lifetime is the iconic single taken from their album Remain In Light. With its looped synthesizer and Afrobeat inspired by Fela Kuti it seemed to pre-empt the consumerism and ennui of the 1980s. Writer Ian Gittins interviewed David Byrne and later wrote his book Once In A Lifetime. He says David Byrne had in mind people of a certain middle class existence who seemingly breeze through life with ease when he wrote the lyrics. They may get to middle age or reach a crisis point and ask "How did I get here?" For a song that invites us to question our lives it has a suprisingly emotional core that encourages people to be grateful and make positive changes in their lives where necessary. For Glaswegian Gerry Murphy that meant becoming more present for his family after serious illness forced him to reconsider the amount of time he devoted to his career. He went on to write a book about his experience - And You May Find Yourself: A Guided Practice To Never Fearing Death Again.
Ian Peddie was inspired by the song to leave his dead end existence in Wolverhampton in the mid 1980s to 'find himself in another part of the world' following his dreams. Kelly Waterhouse says the song symbolises gratitude for all the things she takes for granted and sometimes struggles with in her life as a busy working mother.
And singer Angelique Kidjo recorded her own version of Once In A Lifetime in 2018 after coming full circle with the song from her arrival in Paris in 1983 after fleeing the dictatorship in her home country of Benin. She heard the song at a student party and recognised the Afrobeats adopted by David Byrne and Brian Eno that made her feel both joyful and homesick at the same time.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
TUE 09:30 In Their Element (m000cl3t)
Series 4
Gold
Human fascination with gold goes back a long way. For the Egyptians it was the ultimate symbol of wealth, power and eternal life. For this reason they buried their Pharaohs with extraordinary amounts of gold artifacts. It was craftsmanship beyond anything the world had seen before. As a noble metal, gold doesn’t tarnish which added to its status and association with the sun god Ra and the afterlife.
However, gold is not universally loved. Around the same time as the Egyptians were perfecting their goldsmithing skills, in China, the ruling class preferred jade. For a while, the native people in the Americas preferred other metals over gold, like brass. Ships would sail from Europe, across the Atlantic Ocean to deliver brass to Cuba and sail back with a hold full of gold.
The extraction of gold has an unpleasant past and continues in some areas of the world to be cloaked in controversy. Traditionally the method has been to dissolve gold in mercury. But mercury is poisonous to living things and its leakage into the environment is a cause for concern. Gold offers more than decoration – its excellent electrical conductivity and softness are needed for electrical connections. Scientists are inventing ways to recycle gold from our electronic waste using bacteria. The method offers a greener way to satisfy our lust for gold.
Presenter: Andrea Sella.
Producer: Louisa Field.
TUE 09:45 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qly8)
The Gospel Truth?
John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed upon it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and New Testaments.
Today Barton turns his attention to the New Testament and asks how the four great Gospels came into being. Written on Codexes and rather than scrolls, this begs the question just how ‘Holy’ is the New Testament?
Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08m8yrq)
What's in a name?
What do our first names really say about us? More than you might think, according to Dr Jane Pilcher, Associate Professor at the University of Leicester. She claims that our names often reveal important clues about our age, social class and ethnicity that might affect the way that we are treated by other people. She joins Jane, along with name expert and the founder of the British Baby Names website, Eleanor Nickerson to discuss what's in a name.
How has this classic British name become synonymous with being middle of the road? The actor Jane Asher turned 71 earlier this month and was born in the year that Jane entered the UK top 50. Jane Brody celebrated her 30th birthday last week and was born the year after Jane stopped being a UK top 100 name.
Woman's Hour listener Victoria Smillie wanted to change her surname following her divorce, but realised in doing so that she had never been happy with her given name, Lesley, either. So she changed both. They are joined by another of our listeners, Tracy, who truly hates her name but can't quite bring herself to lose it. By the age of three, Esther Robertson had had three different first names and surnames. Esther joins Jane to discuss how her changing name has affected her life.
The author Charlotte Mendelson keeps lists of names and can deliberate for hours about what to call the characters in her novels. She joins us along with the journalist and editor Alex Clark to discuss the best and worst names in books.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Laura Northedge.
TUE 10:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qlwn)
Part 7
By Charles Dickens
Rosa has left for London where she is looked after by Mr Grewgious, while Dick Datchery continues his investigation in Cloisterham.
Kate Dickens… Pippa Nixon
Rosa Bud … Isabella Inchbald
Hiram Grewgious… Peter Davison
Reverend Crisparkle … Damian Lynch
Stony Durdles… Ian Conningham
Deputy… Aaron Gelkoff
Cabby…Wilf Scolding
Adapted by Mike Walker
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
TUE 11:00 Don't Log Off (m000qlws)
Series 12
Opportunity
Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changing world.
Today, Alan hears stories from people who’ve transformed their lives and are helping others to do the same against the backdrop of the pandemic.
He speaks to Alhaji in Sierra Leone who’s building a house for his parents from the money he’s earned working in the United States.
He hears from Tiffany in India who helps visually impaired people become more independent, after her own challenging childhood.
Alan also connects with Al in the United States who aims to inspire young people in a tough area of Chicago.
And he catches up with Ibrahim who, at the start of the pandemic, was homeless on the streets of Athens. Nine months on, Ibrahim’s life has changed beyond recognition.
Plus, Margaret in Uganda – who cares for youngsters orphaned by AIDS – shares her hopes for the new year.
Producers: Sarah Shebbeare & Laurence Grissell
TUE 11:30 The Five-Foot Shelf (m000qlwx)
In 2018 Ian asked a Wigtown craftsman to make a book shelf, fashioned from elm wood and recycled whiskey barrels. Ian was inspired by Charles W. Eliot - President of Harvard and cousin of T.S. – who said that everything required for a complete, liberal education could fit on a shelf of books just five feet in length.
Then he took it to a local bookshop, where visitors dropped in to nominate their book of choice for his brand new shelf.
Buoyed by the success of this first outing, Ian had planned take the shelf on the road, but unfortunately Covid-19 and restrictions on our movements for safety reasons put paid to that plan.
Then, a new idea was born for a virtual shelf of sorts. What have people been reading in 2020 to help them through what has been a very tough year for so many? What books have brought solace and comfort to their lives along with humour, hope and perhaps a chance to learn? While movements have been severely restricted, books have offered a chance to escape, explore and journey far beyond the confines of our homes.
We’ve reached out to four local independent bookshops right across the UK; Leakey’s in Inverness, City Books in Hove, Little Acorns in Derry city and Seaways Books in Fishguard. We asked them to put us in touch with their readers to ask a simple question - what book would they choose for Ian’s Five Foot shelf?
Produced by Conor McKay
Music composed by The Bookshop Band
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000qmbf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qlx4)
Episode 2
In the Castle of My Skin is the first and much acclaimed novel by Barbadian writer George Lamming, originally published in 1953 by Michael Joseph in London. The novel won a Somerset Maugham Award and was championed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, the latter writing an introduction to the book's US edition.
It's an autobiographical coming-of-age novel - set in the 1930s and 40s in Carrington Village, Barbados, where the author was born and raised - and follows the events in the life of a young boy named G, taking place against the background of dramatic changes in the society in which he lives.
The book's title comes from a couplet in Derek Walcott's early work Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), "You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd."
Lamming wrote:
"Migration was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome. It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of heritage nor the expectation of welcome would have been seriously doubted. England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we left. It was the name of a responsibility whose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time (...)
Much of the substance of my first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is an evocation of this tragic innocence. Nor was there, at the time of writing, any conscious effort on my part to emphasise the dimension of cruelty that had seduced, or driven, black people into such lasting bonds of illusion. It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. Black versus black in a battle for self-improvement."
Abridged by Florence Bedell
Read by Paterson Joseph
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000qlx6)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000qlx8)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000qlxb)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qlxd)
Twisting My Words
Oliver Burkeman explores how language may actually limit our capacity for nuanced thought - depending on how we choose to use it.
He dives into the world of ‘untranslatable words’ with Tim Lomas, a psychologist who collects unscramble words from different cultures, and discovers how expanding our vocabulary could change not only our view of the world, but our understanding of our own minds. And he speaks with Professor Naomi S. Baron, a Linguist who has studied how our relationship with language has changed as so much of our communication has shifted from the printed page to digital, and how that simple change in media has negatively impacted the way we think and learn in ways we do not even perceive.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000qjds)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed & Tim Stimpson
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Philip Moss ….. Andy Hockley
Gavin Moss ….. Gareth Pierce
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter ….. Katie Redford
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Vince Casey ….. Tony Turner
Tanners ..... Jane Slavin
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0001r8b)
Lena Marsh, Live and Shticking!
She's Big, She's Brash, She's Still Breathing and She's Here!
Lena Marsh (Rebecca Front) is the self-proclaimed, 'Broad of Broadway'. Now in her 90th decade she's in London to record a new christmas album at the BBC, with the help of her showbiz chums including the legend that is Michael Ball, Olivier Award-winning musical sensation Sharon D Clarke and Kevin Whately ('Lewis' in Inspector Morse and it's spin-off series 'Lewis'). With a son and daughter who both want their mother dead, what could possibly go wrong in this festive action comedy - full of surprises and twists - from the team behind hit Radio 4 comedy, Incredible Women.
With guest cameos from Michael Ball, Kevin Whately and Sharon D Clarke and a top-notch comedy cast including Bafta-winning Rebecca Front, Samantha Spiro, Jeremy Front, Jenny Bede, Jason Forbes, Lewis Macleod, expect candid conversation, surprise revelations and hilarious action as Incredible Women's Jeremy Front raises the red velvet curtain on Lena Marsh - Live and Shticking!
Cast:
Rebecca Front as Lena Marsh, with...
Jeremy Front
Michael Ball
Sharon D Clarke
Kevin Whately
Samantha Spiro
Jenny Bede
Lewis Macleod
Jason Forbes
written by Jeremy Front
Producer: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000qlxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000qlxm)
Series 17
The Pizza Diet
Can I make a pizza that contains my recommended daily intake of everything? asks listener Paul in Manchester. We investigate whether a pizza can meet our full dietary requirements.
The optimum diet for humans has been long contested. From William the Conqueror's alcohol diet to the infamous apple cider vinegar diet, discovering the healthiest nutrition is a centuries-long work in progress. So could The Pizza Diet be the next food fad? We investigate a theory that a basic margherita pizza – with its components of a flour-filled base, along with a cheese topping – should meet our needs for carbohydrate, protein and fat. Adam meets up with body-weight geneticist Giles Yeo from their respective kitchens for a remote cook-off to find out if it's possible to make this mythical one-meal wonder in practice.
On closer inspection of the evidence-based government dietary requirements, this task appears somewhat challenging. Dietitian Clare Thornton-Wood analyses the components of a margherita and unsurprisingly finds they do not entirely meet the guidance. She then scrutinises our attempt to retrofit a recipe that might do the job. Giles attempts to put our proposed pizza into practice. He has to ad-lib, as the resultant mountain of eclectic toppings – chickpea and sweetcorn pizza, anyone? – and giant base won’t fit in his oven.
Disappointingly for hardcore pizza fans like Paul who may be attempting healthier eating habits in 2021, it seems that this particular approach is not the way forward. Food choice psychologist Suzanna Forwood explains why there is so much more to our dietary decisions than digestive physiology, and offers tips for listeners hoping to make seasonal steps in a healthy direction.
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Jen Whyntie
A BBC Audio Science Unit production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 The Green Lady in the Toilets (m000mj1m)
Singer-Songwriter Emmy the Great is looking for stories to help her write a new song. Who better to inspire her than the best bards around, school children? Taking an audio tour of playgrounds around the country, Emma encounters very strange tales of the ghostly individuals who frequent the UK's primary schools.
Characters like the Green Lady and Bloody Mary haunt the quiet, abandoned spaces of schools from Sheffield to London, spooking generations of pupils. Some appear in bathroom mirrors, others are never seen, only heard - their eerie footsteps reverberating through empty corridors.
Real or not, it’s beside the point. They play a very real role in the imaginations and friendships of the playground.
Emma asks why these stories emerge from the shady corners and abandoned spaces of schools. What can they tell us about the shady corners of the mind? She reflects on the role of these stories in helping young people make sense of the more difficult aspects of life, and learns more about the importance of ritual in the playground, with help from researchers and experts Kate Cowan, Julia Bishop and John Potter.
Emma taps into a rich vein of stories and feelings that inform her song-writing process. She experiments with acoustics and creative processes to write a song that brings some of that identity-bending, thrill-seeking, friend-forming magic of playground lore into her creative practice.
Presented by Emma Lee Moss
Produced by Claire Crofton
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000qlxp)
Diane Morgan on Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding
Comedian and actor Diane Morgan chooses the life of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding.
Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding is best known for his role in the Battle of Britain. He is widely regarded as the architect of Britain's unlikely victory, using an intelligence strategy known as the Dowding System. The Battle of Britain was at the very end of his military career - his nickname by then was "Stuffy" Dowding - and shortly after he was side-lined. But he cared deeply for every one of his pilots, and following his retirement he became focused on what had happened to all his "dear fighter boys" lost in the war. He wrote extensively on the after life and spiritualism - many bereaved families wrote to him seeking answers as a result. He met his second wife after a medium suggested he take her out for lunch having received a communication from her late first husband from beyond the grave. Together they were prominent advocates of spiritualism, and of animal rights, with Dowding giving his maiden speech in the Lords about the need for ethical standards in slaughterhouses.
Diane picked up Dowding's book by pure chance through her local book shop during the first lockdown, and has since become fascinated by the life of this man. Together with Dowding's stepson, David Whiting, and historian Victoria Taylor, Diane discusses Dowding's legacy. Is there a paradox between this great military figure's career, and subsequent fascination with spiritualism and ethics - or does it all make perfect sense?
Presented by Matthew Parris
Produced by Polly Weston
TUE 17:00 PM (m000qlxr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qlxw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:15 Uncorked (m0001qw5)
Jancis Robinson talks wine, theatre, and Dr Who with Jodie Whittaker
Uncork a bottle, reveal a person… Jancis Robinson recommends wine to Dr. Who actor Jodie Whittaker.
Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wine to famous guests. The key is to find wines that match their personalities, be that their public persona or more private selves. After all, wines are a bit like people - some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. So what will she suggest for someone who has embodied dozens of characters and personalities - in Shakespeare, Broadchurch and Dr Who?
What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers. And we'll ask what would Dr Who drink on Christmas day. It's a conversational masterclass from one of our foremost wine writers. But more than that – the open bottle starts up conversations about people's lives and opinions on all sorts of things. We’ll find ourselves asking what our own taste in wine might reveal. Open up a bottle and you’ll open up a person.
Jancis and Jodie were drinking...
(Overhex) Dolphin Bay Merlot 2018 Swartland, South Africa (14%) £6 - "...UK bottled, Fair trade, fashionable new region, substantial, great value."
Nyetimber, Classic Cuvee, NV England (12%) £
18.95 "...the pioneer source of English sparkling wine made in the image of Champagne."
Redoma Rose 2015 Douro, Portugal (12.5%) £
17.10 "...really interesting pink wine suitable for the table, made in port country by maverick Dirk Nieport."
Produced in Bristol by James Cook and Melvin Rickarby.
TUE 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000qvtp)
Museum of New Year's Curiosity
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Alice Levine are joined by past curators Sally Phillips and Dan Schreiber and Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence Dr Kate Devlin.
The episode was recorded remotely in December 2020.
The Producer was Anne Miller.
The Exec Producer was Victoria Lloyd.
The Production Coordinator was Mabel Wright.
Edited by David Thomas.
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000qlxg)
Kirsty makes a big decision and Tracy attempts to cover her true feelings.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000qly0)
Pianist Lang Lang on Bach's Goldberg Variations
The pianist Lang Lang this year released his first recording of Bach's 1741 keyboard masterpiece, Goldberg Variations, feeling he was finally ready to do so 20 years into his own musical career.
At the piano from a studio near his home in Beijing, Lang Lang discusses the work originally written for harpsichord, what a challenge it presents for a performer, and why he chose to release two versions of the 31 works, - one recorded in one take in St Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany - Bach’s workplace for almost 30 years and where the composer is buried - and the second a studio version recorded shortly afterwards.
Presenter Kirsty Lang
Producer Jerome Weatherald
TUE 19:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qlwn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 The Burning Question (m000qn9c)
Ahead of a huge year for climate change policy that will culminate in COP 26 in Glasgow, Philip Ball explores how the fight against climate change can move beyond the political left/right agenda. The left has been labelled as the part of the political spectrum for policies that will reduce carbon emissions and the right as those arguing for business as usual. But Philip Ball shows that the picture is more complex than that. He also asks if the world needs a new way of making decisions about climate policies. It's become accepted that targets for carbon emissions should be set on a global scale but would there be more progress if they were made for individual nations? To stop global warming do we need a new approach that appeals to national interests, (which have been associated with the right), as well as the international (and more traditionally left wing), which seems to have become the received wisdom as the best way to tackle it.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000qly2)
A Paralympics Special
We hear from some of the people affected by the delayed Paralympic Games after Covid restrictions led to Tokyo 2020 being postponed. Can the games really go ahead in 2021?
Looking ahead to the 2021 games are Paralympics GB’s Chef de Mission Penny Briscoe, judo stars Chris Skelley and Dan Powell, 2016 gold medal winning runner Libby Clegg and Tim Reddish from the International Paralympic Committee Governing Board.
PRESENTER: Peter White
PRODUCER: Mike Young
TUE 21:00 New Song (m000qjfd)
Songwriting is the creative bedrock of pop music. But the rise of streaming technology and new platforms - from Spotify and YouTube to TikTok - has not only changed the way we listen to music, it is transforming the art of songwriting itself.
For decades, the focus was on the album as a whole, and which tracks would work for radio play or single release. With streaming, all consideration is rolled into the song itself, the central currency of the new technology.
But it is also dictating the way songs are being written. For professional writers today, streaming means shorter durations, the compression of melodic and harmonic ideas and faster tempos to counter our diminishing attention spans. It means overloading the front of songs with hooks and earworms and heading straight to the chorus to stop listeners skipping tracks.
The pressure to deliver hits that keep the listener engaged in real time is, some argue, industrialising the craft with a huge growth of song-writing long-distance and by committee - a creative division of labour between producers (now called ‘track writers’) beat-makers and ‘topliners’, those writers hired to focus solely on the melody and lyrics.
Music platforms are recording our listening choices even as they deliver their services, and this is changing the way music is written too. AI and algorithm technologies mean that, even as we stream and share music online, our data is harvested and fed back to record companies and labels and then passed on to the writers, producing a kind of creative feedback loop. Songwriters are under pressure to produce more and more of the same formula, discouraging innovation and risk while the ear becomes conditioned to certain tempos and durations, chord progressions, hooks and production textures.
Now the streaming economy itself is coming under political scrutiny. Campaigns like Broken Record are challenging an economic model they argue is so skewed, with so little remuneration for writers, that it’s endangering the profession itself.
From the 45 rpm single and the album era to the digital download, the medium has always shaped the way pop music is written as well as listened to. Now the craft of songwriting is being revolutionised again, even as the technology re-wires our cognitive relationship to music.
Presented by songwriter and topliner Helienne Lindvall, this feature hears from songwriters, lyricists and producers from across the pop spectrum including Nile Rodgers, Tre Jean-Marie, Emily Phillips, Jin Jin, Ant Whiting, Nick Atkinson, Tom Gray and Iain Archer.
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 21:30 Soul Music (m000qlwg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000qly4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qlx4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Date Night (m0003kv0)
Episode 4
Semi-improvised comedy show written and performed by Marc Wootton with Catherine Tate, Monica Dolan, Katherine Parkinson, Hammed Animashaun, Ellie White and Jamie Demetriou. Together they portray a series of couples all embracing the modern phenomenon of date night.
DATE NIGHT, noun: A pre-arranged occasion when a couple who have been together for a long time commit to a regular night out in order to keep their relationship alive.
The series follows a collection of couples who are desperately trying to keep their relationship functioning by creating a weekly date night intervention. For some, the relationship is already broken, for others it's their pre-emptive strike in the hope of new-found longevity. More often than not, the stakes are high, involving children, careers and homes.
Date Night is written and created by Marc Wootton whose previous credits include High & Dry (Ch4), La La Land (Showtime), Shirley Ghostman (BBC) and My New Best Friend (Ch4).
Cast:
Fiona/Patrick/Barry/Richard/Rob/Terry ….. Marc Wootton
Jamali ….. Hammed Animashaun
Carol ….. Monica Dolan
Rita ….. Ellie White
Maddy ….. Katherine Parkinson
Gary ….. Jamie Demetriou
Terri ….. Catherine Tate
Narrator ...... Fi Glover
Sound Designers: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Assistant Producer: James Peak
Producer: Anna Madley
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Anansi Boys (b09ghqt4)
3/6
'Fat Charlie has a headache, a grieving heart, and a cash bonus from Graham Coats of two thousand pounds'
A gentle boy whose dad made him feel small, Fat Charlie Nancy is now overwhelmed by the discovery of a brother he never knew he had (not to mention the fact that his dad is the Spider God Anansi). As Spider (not so much feckless as absent on the day they handed out feck) tramples carelessly across Charlie's life, Charlie begins to discover in himself a growing fire.
From the writer of Neverwhere and American Gods, a six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's best-selling and much-loved novel.
The stellar cast of the series also includes Earl Cameron, Tanya Moodie, Adjoa Andoh, Joseph Marcell, Jacob Anderson, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sheila Atim, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Cecilia Noble, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Danielle Vitalis, Ronke Adekoluejo, Clifford Samuel, and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong.
Writer ..... Neil Gaiman
Adaptor ..... Dirk Maggs
Sound Design ..... Wilfredo Acosta
Producer ..... Allegra McIlroy
Director ..... Allegra McIlroy.
WEDNESDAY 30 DECEMBER 2020
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000qly6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:15 Christmas Compass (m000cl4j)
In the DRC
New Christmas stories from around the globe by Alexander McCall Smith
An intrepid reporter in search of his next big scoop remembers the importance of kindness.
Reader: Thierry Mabonga
Producer: Claire Simpson
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qly8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qlyb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qlyd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qlyg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000qlyj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000qlyl)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
Good morning.
‘It won’t always be like this’. I think we know that, yet it’s helpful to be reminded, whether from the song by Carly Pearce or on the sign I saw outside the University of Surrey the other day. I keep saying it every time another plan gets cancelled or postponed.
Whatever tier we’re in, one of the many challenges of the pandemic is that it closes down our horizons. We hunker down. We nurse our disappointments. We try to be grateful for less and less.
It’s fascinating that in these circumstances the statistics suggest that more and more people are seeking for faith, participating in church, and turning to prayer. It is the claims of faith that are defiant in declaring ‘It won’t always be like this’! What we see is NOT all there is. The God who made this world has made another, and it will be beautiful.
Such a declaration is not just wishful thinking. Christian hope is more grounded than that, founded on promises from several thousand years before Christ, so many of which have already come true. Our current circumstances underline the very definition of joy which is about nostalgia for all that lies ahead. ‘It won’t always be like this’. Indeed: it will be so much better.
And prayer is precisely the way we raise our horizons and put that hope into practice.
All-knowing and all-loving God: we thank you for the world you have made but we thank you even more for your commitment to re-make it. In the midst of our current struggles we pray we may live in the hope and joy of the future you have purposed beyond: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000qlyn)
Covid Creating Opportunities
Coronavirus has had an enormous impact on the livelihoods of farmers in the UK. Watts Farm, who grow over 60 different crops and are the only growers of Kafir Lime in Britain, had to launch a brand new business earlier this year. Anna Louise Claydon explores their passion projects and finds out how they've diversified in order to survive.
Presented and Produced by Anna Louise Claydon
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dyh64)
Laughing Gull
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the laughing gull off the Florida coast. In summer, the hearty peal of laughter is one of the characteristic sounds people hear along the North American east coast where laughing gulls come to breed. America's version of the British black-headed gull they are easy to recognise as they patrol the seashore in search for food. Like many gulls they eat what they can find and will scavenge at rubbish dumps, and will even feast on the eggs of horseshoe crabs which spawn in Deleware Bay each spring. Some become swept up in autumnal hurricanes and having crossed the Atlantic, occasionally turn up on a European's bird-watching list.
WED 06:00 Today (m000qlzf)
Co-founder and CEO of Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat.
WED 09:00 The Reunion (m000qlzh)
The Covid-19 ward
Kirsty Wark brings together six people who were in the eye of the storm during this year's pandemic.
The poet and author Michael Rosen is reunited with some of the intensive care staff who cared for him during his battle with coronavirus. He has no memory of much of his time in hospital as he was in an induced coma for seven weeks. The staff who looked after him rarely see their patients again once they have been discharged.
For the ICU staff at the Whittington Hospital in north London, the rising tide of infected patients was like "a tsunami" and the following weeks were like working in "a warzone". Michael's consultant, Professor Hugh Montgomery, said that he and his team watched six coffins go out in one morning. Charge nurse Ally Auladin said, "You'd start your day putting on PPE, then it would be 100mph for the rest of the day."
Senior nurse Jo Eardley said, "You could work a whole day and not know your patient's name because we didn't have time." The baffling symptoms of infected patients meant that much of their previous training and experience was useless. Junior doctor Amanda Macaskill Stewart said; "It's the first time I've worked with a disease that I didn't know about. We were hoping for the best without really knowing."
Michael's wife Emma Williams said that, on the night after Michael was intubated, she feared he may never wake up. As medics worked around the clock to save him, Michael's poem celebrating the NHS took on a new resonance during the pandemic.
For months after his discharge, Michael struggled to make sense of what he had been through. But for Amanda, "He was truly one of our happy stories."
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:45 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qm13)
In the Beginning....
John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed up on it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and New Testaments.
In the third episode A History of the Bible examines the genesis of the Old Testament, asking if we should call it rather ‘the Hebrew Bible’, and exploring the many languages it was written in and subsequently been translated into.
Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000qlzm)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qlzp)
Part 8
By Charles Dickens
Princess Puffer overhears Jasper talking in an opium daze, and turns up in Cloisterham to spy on him, where she falls into a trap.
Kate Dickens… Pippa Nixon
John Jasper… Joel McCormack
Edwin Drood … Iwan Davies
Rosa Bud … Isabella Inchbald
Neville Landless … Maanuv Thiara
Helena Landless … Halema Hussain
Reverend Crisparkle … Damian Lynch
Princess Puffer… Rachel Atkins
Station Master… Wilf Scolding
Adapted by Mike Walker
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
WED 11:00 A History of the World in 100 Objects (m000qpnl)
A History of the World: Object 101
Ten years on from the ground-breaking Radio 4 series, "A History of The World in 100 Objects", former director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor looks back at the impact of the series, on how storytelling in museums has changed over a turbulent decade and asks which object from 2020 would best encapsulate our modern age.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
WED 11:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (m000qlzr)
Series 5
Crayfish Require These Drinks
Danny Robins’ romantic Swedish comedy, partly recorded on location with a mainly Swedish cast, prepares for summer as the pandemic recedes.
The little town of Yxsjö turns its mind to partying with the traditional celebrations for crayfish season. Despite now being a fully paid up Swede, Geoff (Adam Riches) has still to be inaugurated into the mysteries of fishing for crayfish. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law Anders (Fredrik Andersson) claims to have a girlfriend, though there are rumours that she doesn’t exist. Will she make it to the party?
Cast
Geoff: Adam Riches
Linda: Sissela Benn
Sten: Thomas Oredsson
Gunilla: Anna-Lena Bergelin
Anders: Fredrik Andersson
Maria: Johanna Wagrell
John: Harry Nicolaou
Written by Danny Robins
Produced and directed by Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000qmmy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qlzw)
Episode 3
In the Castle of My Skin is the first and much acclaimed novel by Barbadian writer George Lamming, originally published in 1953 by Michael Joseph in London. The novel won a Somerset Maugham Award and was championed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, the latter writing an introduction to the book's US edition.
It's an autobiographical coming-of-age novel - set in the 1930s and 40s in Carrington Village, Barbados, where the author was born and raised - and follows the events in the life of a young boy named G, taking place against the background of dramatic changes in the society in which he lives.
The book's title comes from a couplet in Derek Walcott's early work Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), "You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd."
Lamming wrote:
"Migration was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome. It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of heritage nor the expectation of welcome would have been seriously doubted. England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we left. It was the name of a responsibility whose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time (...)
Much of the substance of my first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is an evocation of this tragic innocence. Nor was there, at the time of writing, any conscious effort on my part to emphasise the dimension of cruelty that had seduced, or driven, black people into such lasting bonds of illusion. It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. Black versus black in a battle for self-improvement."
Abridged by Florence Bedell
Read by Paterson Joseph
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000qlzy)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000qm00)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000qm02)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qm04)
In Praise of Moderation
Oliver Burkeman explores what it means to be a moderate, in an age when proclaiming to be a moderate is likely to annoy people on both sides of the political divide.
He speaks with Damon Linker, a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com, and an outspoken moderate in the USA about why his columns generate so much ire on both sides of the isle, but curiously enough moreso with the people he generally sides with. And why moderation is not apathetic, but deeply passionate, and often a very mentally taxing way of life.
And he discovers a potential way to give people a method to open their minds to ideas from another side, with Daniel Ravner, and Israeli writer and creator of The Perspective, a website that show news stories from both sides, in an attempt to open minds and shatter filter bubbles that have such a profound effect on modern society.
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000qlxg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000qm08)
Wasteland
A new comedy set in the world of Brighton Seafront refuse collection, from the writer of Dot. Blake, an idealist, is determined to clean up the sea front. . Are his methods too revolutionary? Or is he, as his team say, a twonk?
Cast
Blake ..... Matt King
Cromwell ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Diana ..... Cecilia Appiah
Wilf ..... Simon Scardifield
Long Pete ..... Hasan Dixon
Jaws ..... Jane Whittenshaw
Agent ..... Charlotte East
Frankenstein ..... Ian Dunnett Jr
Written by Ed Harris
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
WED 15:00 Archive on 4 (m000qm0b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000qm0d)
The Bed
THE BED: Laurie Taylor talks to Nadia Durrani, writer on archaeology and co-author of a study which explores 'what we did in bed'. offering a social history of an often taken-for-granted object. In a story spanning millennia, she illuminate the role of the bed through time, reminding us that it was not always simply a private space for sleep, sex and relaxation; it's also been a place sharing with strangers, issuing decrees and taking us to the afterlife.
Also, the rise and fall of twin beds for married couples. Hilary Hinds, Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University , charts shifting attitudes towards separate sleeping. Whereas it was once seen as the sign of a modern, hygiene conscious and forward thinking couple, it came to be regarded as the enemy of intimacy. Why did so many couples abandon a sleeping arrangement which once was regarded as one of the keys to re-imagining domestic relations, even promoting equality between the sexes?
This is the last of our current series, as Thinking Allowed heads for a long 'lie in' until April 2021.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000qm0g)
Jane Tranter, super-producer
Jane Tranter is the super-producer behind shows like His Dark Materials, Succession, and the Emmy Award winning The Night Of. As co-founder of Bad Wolf, the Cardiff based production company, she has been credited with revitalising the Welsh TV industry. In this big interview, Jane Tranter discusses her career and gives the story behind some of her biggest hits.
Studio Engineer: Donald MacDonald
Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producer: Hannah Sander
WED 17:00 PM (m000qm0j)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qm0n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:15 Uncorked (m0001r8l)
Jancis Robinson talks wine with actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson
Uncork a bottle, reveal a person… Jancis Robinson recommends wine to actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson.
Jancis Robinson is on a festive mission to recommend wine to famous guests. The key is to find wines that match her guest's personality - both their public persona and more private self. After all, wines are a bit like people - some are bold and fruity, some elegant and refined; you’ll get aging smoothies and sharp young things. But what will she recommend to someone who was the hell-raising Vyvian in The Young Ones, performed punk music on folk instruments in The Bad Shepherds, has been in Star Wars and supports Exeter City?
What follows is a lively conversation about wine and personality – about a person’s taste, their passions and opinions. On the way we’ll learn a lot about wine - about tasting, and style, about balance, acid and tannin; about winemaking and winemakers.
Jancis and Adrian were drinking...
(Felix Solis) Vega Roja Tempranillo/Shiraz 2017 Vino de la Tierra Castilla (13%) £
3.89 - "...light fresh red that's not over-sweetened or overripe. Sets a benchmark for really low-priced wines. Perfect for parties."
Sottimano Nebbiolo 2015 Langhe, PIedmont Italy (14%) £
19.75 - "...a baby Barbaresco from younger, 15 year old, vines. Nebbiolo is the grape, Langhe the name of the hills where Barolo and Barbaresco are grown."
(Concha y Toro) Tesco Finest Limarí Valley Chardonnay 2017, Chile (13.5%) £10 - Pacific cooled new-ish region that produces wines that are so much better value than white Burgundy."
Produced in Bristol by James Cook and Melvin Rickarby
WED 18:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m000qm0q)
Series 2
Just the Way You Are
Conversations from a Long Marriage is a two-hander comedy, starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam, as a long-married couple who met in the Summer of Love and are still passionate about life, music and each other. We listen to – and empathise with - their dangling ‘conversations’ covering everything from health scares, jealousy and confessions, to TV incompatibility and sourdough bread.
In episode one, Roger gives Joanna a masterclass in dishwasher stacking while Joanna instructs him on how to wave goodbye to departing guests. As the turbulent year turns, Joanna makes some New Year Resolutions - for Roger - and suggests their marriage needs a re-boot’ . ‘Out the door?’ is his response.
Written by Jan Etherington. Produced and directed by Claire Jones.
A BBC Studios Production.
Reviews for series 1 were excellent, including:
‘Sublimely funny, touching series. Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam have had illustrious acting careers but can they ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ Simon O’Hagan. RADIO TIMES
'Conversations…. Is the delicious fruit of Jan Etherington’s experience of writing lots of TV and radio comedy (previously with husband Gavin Petrie), blessed by being acted by Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam. They are lifelike and likeable. Comedies about likeable people are not common. Treasure this one, produced by Claire Jones.’ Gillian Reynolds. SUNDAY TIMES
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000qm06)
Freddie attempts damage limitation and Phoebe tries to cheer up a loved one.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000qm0t)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qlzp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Grounded with Louis Theroux (p08ybt4s)
14. Ruby Wax
Covid-19 hasn’t gone away and, due to travel restrictions, neither has Louis Theroux. In the second outing of his podcast series, he tracks down more high-profile guests he’s been longing to talk to - a fascinating mix of the celebrated, the controversial and the mysterious.
Calling in from an eco-village in Scotland, comedian, writer and mental-health campaigner Ruby Wax speaks to Louis about spending time with Donald Trump, turning her back on television and how the sight of Louis's face put Ruby off her food.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
Assistant Producer: Catherine Murnane
A Mindhouse production for BBC Radio 4
WED 20:45 Full Circle (m00027y5)
Fox and Joe
La Ronde, written by dramatist Arthur Schnitzler is a play about sexual morality between social groups, explored through a prism of infidelity, lust and desire. Considered a very controversial work it was censored and banned as soon as it was printed in 1900. Although provocative the dramatic structure of the play is simple. It’s a succession of 10 sexual encounters exclusively focused on the before and the after; the act itself is never described. Each successive scene takes one character from the previous one and introduces another.
In the style of the play La Ronde, Julien Manuguerra, who produces a podcast about breakups and more largely, our common and very humane vulnerability in the face of love, explores how intimacy and morality are evolving today. The series draws a picture of what modern love is – or rather, what modern love can be. The original La Ronde was considered a social commentary master piece on how sexual contact transgresses boundaries of class, our radio version of the play will explore how sex can transgress any boundaries. But it's not a play, there won’t be any actors or actresses. Our characters are real, and they’re all linked to one another; always by sex, sometimes by love, sometimes by something in between. They’ll tell us about their inner emotional experiences of desire and connection and hopefully, this time too, our Round of Dance will go Full circle.
In this episode we stay with Fox from the previous episode and reintroduce Joe from our first episode. Through a brief encounter between Fox and Joe we discover how sex can break through identity; when Fox's body is sexually desired, sex becomes a safe place for Fox to accept their identity.
Presented by Julien Manuguerra
Produced by Kate Bissell
WED 21:00 The Senses (m000qnbp)
Smell and Taste
Imagine spraying yourself with a flowery fragrance but all you can smell is rotting flesh?
Our senses can be surprisingly strange, especially when they malfunction due to injury, disease or genetic abnormalities. In this episode, neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner, explores two senses, smell and taste - separate yet inextricably linked.
We meet Joanne, whose sense of smell is so distorted after a heavy cold, even freshly-cut grass smells repulsive.
We hear from Walter who loves to cook and eat German cuisine but finds that pleasure is ruined when everything, even fine wine, tastes of metal. What causes this glitch in signalling from the taste buds on his tongue to the area of the brain processing taste?
By contrast, 15 year-old Abi’s sense of taste is working properly. She can tell if her food is sweet or salty. But Abi was born without a sense of smell (anosmia), which also means anything she eats has no flavour – because that’s created by smell and taste working together. If you want to imagine Abi’s life, listen out for the jelly bean test.
Loss of smell, an early symptom of coronavirus, has raised awareness of this important, yet neglected sense, often only appreciated when it’s gone. Yet so vital it’s wired directly to parts of the brain responsible for memories and emotion.
Through Joanne, Abi and Walter we learn how disorders of our sensory system can help explain the way our bodies interact with the outside world. And discover how what we believe to be reality is often very far from the truth.
Presenter: Dr Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000qm0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000qm0w)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qlzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Felicity Ward - Appisodes (m000qm0y)
Series 2
Weddings
The series in which stand-up Felicity Ward uses phone apps to help her cope with modern life. In the final episode of this series, Felicity explores the world of wedding help in the form of app “I do this all the time” (voiced by Tom Allen).
Written and performed by Felicity Ward. Script Editor: Gareth Gwynn
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
WED 23:15 Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian (m000g45f)
Series 2
8: Status
Stand-up series exploring British Chinese culture from BBC New Comedy Award finalist Ken Cheng.
Dave's Joke of the Fringe Winner, Cambridge mathematics dropout and professional poker player Ken Cheng returns with a brand new series in which he’ll explore free speech, social status, racism and money…
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
Ken Cheng - Chinese Comedian is a BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:30 Anansi Boys (b09ghqyn)
4/6
Charlie begins to follow the strands of the web to its centre, and takes the first steps to owning his own story. Through an unexpected séance, he slips across the hairsbreadth between worlds, to the place of the old gods, and encounters his father's old enemies, Tiger and Bird.
Anansi Boys is a magical web of a story that spans the old world and the new, from South London to the Southern US, the fictional Caribbean island of St Andrews, and the Mountains at the End of the World. Or the Beginning of the World. Depending on which way you're heading.
The stellar cast of the series also includes Earl Cameron, Tanya Moodie, Adjoa Andoh, Joseph Marcell, Jacob Anderson, Lenny Henry, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sheila Atim, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Cecilia Noble, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Danielle Vitalis, Ronke Adekoluejo, Clifford Samuel, and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong.
Writer ..... Neil Gaiman
Adaptor ..... Dirk Maggs
Sound Design ..... Wilfredo Acosta
Producer ..... Allegra McIlroy
Director ..... Allegra McIlroy.
THURSDAY 31 DECEMBER 2020
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000qm11)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:15 Christmas Compass (m000cnh7)
Primatologist
New Christmas stories from around the globe by Alexander McCall Smith.
Meera Syal reads a tale about a grieving woman who finds comfort and companionship in an unlikely setting.
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qm13)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qm15)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qm17)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qm19)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000qm1c)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000qm1f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
Good Morning.
It’s new year’s eve. No Hogmanay, no fireworks - just another quiet night in, all bubbled up.
I wonder how you’ll make it special. I have a proposal: that around the supper table or over Zoom with loved ones, you do some intentional sharing and listening. What was the hardest moment of 2020? What was the best? The more honesty and heart-searching the better, as you look back and work out: for what am I thankful?
The harder that feels, perhaps the more important to try. When life serves up stones, we work on a rock garden. We’ve had to dig deeper: savouring the sunset; focusing on a flower. Where are the blessings amid scarcity and struggle? As we sharpen our recognition, so our lives are shaped by thankfulness.
And so I invite you to join with me in a very old prayer of ‘general thanksgiving’. It’s been voiced down the ages, through pandemics and famine and war – voicing thanks, no matter what.
ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end.
Amen.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000qm1h)
The Weaving Crofters
Harris tweed and Western Isles crofting go hand-in-hand. An Act of Parliament stipulates this cloth, which is in demand by designers across the globe, can only be produced in these islands - and the majority of the men and women who peddle traditional looms in sheds beside their homes have a close connection to crofting. The income they earn from weaving the cloth underpins the fragile nature of small scale farming on the most westerly edge of Europe. Nancy Nicolson meets crofter Calum George Buchanan while he works in his loom shed on the shores of the Atlantic.
Produced and presented by Nancy Nicolson
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0rtf)
Harpy Eagle
Michael Palin presents the Harpy Eagle flying over the Brazilian rainforest. This is one of the most powerful birds of prey and links mythological corpse-bearers, the coat of arms of Panama and the Harry Potter films.
In Greek mythology harpies were creatures with the bodies of eagles and the faces of women, who seized people in their claws. A human body is beyond the real-life harpy eagle, but with its massive 12 cm talons, it can carry a full-grown sloth or an adult howler monkey. Being versatile hunters, the eagles catch a range of birds and reptiles and can easily hoist porcupines and armadillos into the treetops to feed their young.
Harpy Eagles breed in the rainforests of central and South America. They're blackish- grey above and white below with a black collar and a divided crest which gives them an uncanny resemblance to Buckbeak the Hippogriff in 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'.
THU 06:00 Today (m000qmng)
Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Britain's first black female bishop, guest-edits the programme.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000qmnj)
Eclipses
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss solar eclipses, some of life’s most extraordinary moments, when day becomes night and the stars come out before day returns either all too soon or not soon enough, depending on what you understand to be happening. In ancient China, for example, there was a story that a dragon was eating the sun and it had to be scared away by banging pots and pans if the sun were to return. Total lunar eclipses are more frequent and last longer, with a blood moon coloured red like a sunrise or sunset. Both events have created the chance for scientists to learn something remarkable, from the speed of light, to the width of the Atlantic, to the roundness of Earth, to discovering helium and proving Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
With
Carolin Crawford
Public Astronomer based at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and a fellow of Emmanuel College
Frank Close
Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford
And
Lucie Green
Professor of Physics and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London
Producers: Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson
THU 09:45 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qmnl)
Who's In and Who's Out?
John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed up on it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and New Testaments.
Today Barton considers the Apocrypha and asks did Dan Brown have a point in The Da Vinci Code? Is there any truth in the conspiracy theories that abound about which Books made it into the Bible and which Books were excluded?
Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000qmnn)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qmnq)
Part 9
By Charles Dickens
Neville learns the truth of Rosa’s meeting with Jasper, while Dick Datchery and Deputy make an alarming find in the cathedral crypt.
Kate Dickens… Pippa Nixon
Rosa Bud … Isabella Inchbald
Neville Landless … Maanuv Thiara
Helena Landless … Halema Hussain
Reverend Crisparkle … Damian Lynch
Hiram Grewgious… Peter Davison
Princess Puffer… Rachel Atkins
Deputy Winks… Aaron Gelkoff
Joe…Wilf Scolding
Adapted by Mike Walker
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000qmns)
Series focusing on foreign affairs issues
THU 11:30 Sci-Fi Blindness (m000qmnv)
From Victorian novels to the latest Hollywood blockbusters, sci-fi regularly returns to the theme of blindness.
Peter White, who was heavily influenced as a child by one of the classics, sets out to explore the impact of these explorations of sight on blind and visually impaired people.
He believes a scene in The Day pf the Triffids by John Wyndham imbued him with a strange confidence - and he considers the power of science fiction to present an alternative reality for blind readers precisely at a time when lockdown and social distancing has seen visually impaired people marginalised.
He talks to technology producer Dave Williams about Star Trek The Next Generation's Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, Dr Sheri Wells-Jensen talks about Birdbox and world-building from a blind point of view in James L Cambias's A Darkling Sea. Professor Hannah Thompson of Royal Holloway University of London takes us back to 1910 to consider The Blue Peril - a novel which in some ways is more forward thinking in its depiction of blindness than Hollywood now.
And Doctor Who actor Ellie Wallwork gives us her take on why blindness is so fascinating to the creators of science fiction.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Kevin Core
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000qmnx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qmnz)
Episode 4
In the Castle of My Skin is the first and much acclaimed novel by Barbadian writer George Lamming, originally published in 1953 by Michael Joseph in London. The novel won a Somerset Maugham Award and was championed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, the latter writing an introduction to the book's US edition.
It's an autobiographical coming-of-age novel - set in the 1930s and 40s in Carrington Village, Barbados, where the author was born and raised - and follows the events in the life of a young boy named G, taking place against the background of dramatic changes in the society in which he lives.
The book's title comes from a couplet in Derek Walcott's early work Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), "You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd."
Lamming wrote:
"Migration was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome. It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of heritage nor the expectation of welcome would have been seriously doubted. England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we left. It was the name of a responsibility whose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time (...)
Much of the substance of my first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is an evocation of this tragic innocence. Nor was there, at the time of writing, any conscious effort on my part to emphasise the dimension of cruelty that had seduced, or driven, black people into such lasting bonds of illusion. It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. Black versus black in a battle for self-improvement."
Abridged by Florence Bedell
Read by Paterson Joseph
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000qmp1)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000qmp3)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000qmp5)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qmp7)
Across the Divide
Oliver Burkeman has noticed that even if wants to have a conversation with someone who disagrees with him, it’s harder and harder to find them.
In this episode Oliver talks with Robert Talisse, about his research into how society has become so polarized along the political divide that he could tell at a glance which political view you ascribe to by the coffee you drink, the car you choose buy, or where you would choose to relax on a day off, and how our innocent desire to make a pleasant little slice of the world for ourselves to live in is leading to an ever more fractured society.
And Oliver hears from two friends, Guardian journalist Poppy Noor, and her friend Ronan Walsh, who are best friends despite having very different political views, despite the modern polarized world pressuring them to split apart.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000qm06)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000qmpc)
That Dinner of '67
In 1967, as race riots swept the streets of America and the Supreme Court considered a landmark case about interracial marriage, Hollywood director Sidney Kramer started filming Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner about a pair of young lovers - one black, one white - seeking the blessing of their concerned parents before getting married.
He had assembled a stellar cast of Oscar winners Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn, with Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton making her film debut.
This was a light-hearted, witty film but about a deadly serious subject. It was also the final act of one of Hollywood’s greatest true love stories as, after a love affair that had lasted 26 years and nine movies establishing them as one of the all-time great Hollywood double acts, it was also to be Tracy and Hepburn’s final film together.
Spencer was dying but determined that his final film with his beloved Kate would be both important and a masterpiece.
Tracy-Ann Oberman’s moving and timely play tells a story about love, a classic movie and the impact it had on a divided America.
Written by Tracy-Ann Oberman, with David Spicer
Cast:
Spencer Tracy - Kenneth Branagh
Sidney Poitier - Adrian Lester
Stanley Kramer - David Morrissey
Katharine Houghton - Daisy Ridley
Kate Hepburn - Tracy-Ann Oberman
Ray - Matt Addis
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000qmpf)
Winter at Binevenagh
Helen Mark is used to travelling all over the UK recording for Open Country, however this year she's mostly stayed at home in the north-west corner of Northern Ireland. In April she introduced us to her family farm in Limavady as winter gave way to spring. Now as 2020 draws to an end, we join Helen as she rediscovers the coastal lowland landscape which surrounds her home, overlooked by the dramatic peak of Binevenagh. The area between Derry Londonderry and Castlerock has been an overlooked landscape, but is full of historical intrigue and is one of the best places in the UK to experience the wildlife spectacle of overwintering Whooper Swans on Lough Foyle. The Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust has just been awarded lottery funding to restore and reconnect people to aspects of this landscape. We go to find the pillboxes and other relics from the Second World War to hear about when Lough Foyle was one of the main bases for the Allied Forces in Europe. The mountain of Binevenagh towers above these lowlands and Helen’s farm. She climbs the peak to hear more about its history, wildlife Through the programme Helen and her guests reflect on how this extraordinary year has changed our sense of place and how we experience our local landscapes. Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Sophie Anton.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000qlp1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000qlpy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000qmph)
Richard Lester
With Francine Stock
Francine rifles through The Film Programme archives to hear from director Richard Lester about working with The Beatles on A Hard Day's Night and Help ! And why he didn't work for several years after the 60s had ended.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000qmpk)
Brian Cox and Alice Roberts on a decade of extraordinary science
As a new decade ticks over, Dr Adam Rutherford, Professor Alice Roberts and Professor Brian Cox look back on a decade of science that has transformed perceptions of our medicine, our history and our universe.
From advances in genetics that have brought personalized medicine to reality, and revealed the ghosts of ancestral human species never before identified, to quantum computing lessons that hint at the nature of existence and causation throughout the universe, it has been an interesting time. New observational technologies have revealed fresh windows in time and space. And all of it has been reported by BBC Inside Science.
But what of the next decade?
Programme may contain traces of informed speculation, but (almost) no references to Covid.
Presented by Adam Rutherford
Produced by Melanie Brown
Made in association with The Open University.
THU 17:00 PM (m000qmpm)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qmpp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:15 Austentatious (m000qmpr)
Undead and Unwed: Part One
A festive world premiere of an incredible 'lost' Jane Austen ghost story, full of wit, flirtation and dastardly behaviour - and cooked up on the spot by the UK's finest improv troupe.
Created and performed by Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Graham Dickson, Charlotte Gittins, Andrew Hunter Murray, Cariad Lloyd, Joseph Morpurgo, Daniel Nils Roberts and Rachel Parris. With violin by Oliver Izod.
Produced by Jon Harvey
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
THU 18:30 The Missing Hancocks (m000qmpv)
Series 4
New Year Resolutions
The Missing Hancocks recreates those episodes of the classic Hancock's Half Hour that have been wiped or lost from the archive.
The first modern sitcom, Hancock's Half Hour made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show were missing from the BBC archives. Now, after four highly successful series, the final batch of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.
Tonight's episode: Hancock announces his list of New Year Resolutions, and is confident he can stick to them. Bill Kerr is equally confident that this is a money-making opportunity.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score re-recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane, and with a special guest appearance by Paul Merton. New Year's Resolutions was first broadcast on the 4th January, 1956.
Produced by Neil Pearson & Hayley Sterling.
Written by Ray Galton & Alan Simpson
Music recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Levon Parikian.
A BBC Studios Production.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000qmp9)
Peggy has a shocking suggestion and Jazzer finds himself in a compromising position.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000qmpx)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qmnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000qmpz)
Facebook's Monopoly Problem
US federal regulators and dozens of state prosecutors are suing Facebook accusing it of illegal actions in buying up rivals and stifling competition. It's one of the biggest antitrusts in US history and is one of several cases being taken against big tech companies.
David Aaronovitch explores the case against Facebook and the evolution of antitrust law in the US. What is the basis on which these companies are being held to account, and is this law an outdated tool in confronting tech titans?
GUESTS:
Gilad Edelman - Political writer at Wired magazine
Scott Hemphill - Professor of Law at the University of New York
Lina Khan - Associate Professor at Columbia Law School
Ariel Ezrachi - Professor of Law at the University of Oxford
Producers: Serena Tarling, Viv Jones
Editor: Jasper Corbett
THU 20:30 In Our Time (m000qmnj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m000qmq2)
Music from Gregory Porter, Angelique Kidjo, The Allergies and more.
Clive Anderson with a choice of some of the best music performances on Loose Ends this year, including Gregory Porter, Angelique Kidjo and The Allergies.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000qmq4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qmnz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Austen? (m000qlxy)
Florence Ransom (Dawn French) is a literary novelist, known for the Booker Prize winning Pennant Days. Her sister is Selina Mountjoy (Jennifer Saunders), a movie star and glamorous celebrity.
The two sisters have avoided each other for decades but, when Selina returns to Britain to promote her kiss and tell autobiography Kiss And Tell, the two are forced together once more. As Selina’s popularity outweighs Florence’s, with big bucks book deals and TV appearances, Florence vents her jealousy at her daughter Lucy and PA Mrs Ragnarrok.
But Selina turns out to be be broke and threatens to reveal her sister’s guilty secret unless Florence lets Selina move in with her.
Written by David Quantick
Cast:
Florence - Dawn French
Selina - Jennifer Saunders
Mrs Ragnarrok - Josette Simon
Lucy - Lisa McGrillis
All the men - Alistair McGowan
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Sandi Toksvig's Hygge (m000qnb7)
Episode 5
‘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 Sandi is joined by comedian and friend Alan Davies who talks about walking in nature, literature, the childhood toy he still wants and escaping from the demands of smart phones.
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
Production Coordinator...Carina Andrews
Sound Recordist and Editor...Rich Evans
A BBC Studios Production
FRIDAY 01 JANUARY 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000qmq6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:15 Christmas Compass (m000cn1f)
On The Island
New Christmas stories from around the globe by Alexander McCall Smith.
A detective makes a surprising connection when he retires to his hometown.
Reader: Adam Courting
Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qmnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000qmq8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000qmqb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000qmqd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000qmqg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000qmqj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with The Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, Bishop of Dorking
Good morning.
A new dawn, a new day, a new year. So much in the new that is unknown – not least a brave new era in our relations with Europe! And how we long for a new era in terms of health and well-being, in business and society, as well as for the climate of our whole planet.
But there is so much unknown. How do we live in the face of uncertainty? Jesus’ advice was to do it one day at a time: ‘Do not worry about tomorrow; today has enough worries of its own’. In other words, keep going in the now, one foot in front of the other, maintaining your direction of travel.
The letter to the Hebrews describes Faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. We may not have the details covered but overarching purpose, the final destination is a given. A bit like with a Blue Peter project, God has prepared it earlier. And so we keep going not by sight but by faith.
Years ago I used to pray every day with a student who was very ill, for whom every day was a struggle to survive. This prayer was one that she knew by heart from her Lutheran tradition; and my goodness did she ever live it. I invite you to echo it with me
Lord God,
you have called your servants
to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000qmql)
01/01/20 - The Archers at 70: the farmers of Ambridge
The Archers was first broadcast on 1st January 1951. To celebrate it's 70th Birthday, Charlotte Smith looks back at how the programme has chronicled the changes in farming, and asks how the future landscape of Ambridge could look.
She speaks to the Editor, Jeremy Howe, about the role of farming in the drama, to the Agricultural Storyline Advisor, Sarah Swadling, about how fictional farms can be used to explore very real changes in farming policy over the next few years, and to the actor who plays David Archer, Tim Bentinck, about the secrets behind the sounds.
We also delve into the archives, uncovering gems like a 50s egg-washing machine!
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08v8p5l)
Gregory Ovenden on the Canada Goose
Wildlife sound operator and recordist Gregory Ovenden tries to think creatively about the sounds he records for Tweet of the Day. He tells the story of when he went to record birds walking on a frozen lake and came across a novel solution to record a Canada goose unable to grip the ice.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000qnj6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000qlph)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 A History of the Bible by John Barton (m000qnks)
Nine Lessons and Carols
John Barton’s fascinating A History of the Bible investigates the origins, development and contemporary meaning of this greatest of unread bestsellers. From a disparate collection of writings that first emerged deep in the distant past Barton charts the gradual emergence of both the Old and the New Testaments and their evolution into what have become the two revered volumes of authoritative Scripture that we know today. In a series of lively and engaging essays Barton shows how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and been imposed up on it and explores how differently Judaism and Christianity approach and interpret the books of both the Old and the New Testaments.
In this final episode A History of the Bible Barton takes the famous Nine Lessons and Carols Service as a starting point to explore the markedly different Christian and Jewish readings of the Scriptures, underscoring how the Bible offers a never-ending source of fascinating and fruitful investigation.
Read by Hugh Bonneville
Adapted for radio by John Barton and Richard Hamilton
Produced by Karen Holden
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000qnjb)
Women and the Archers: how farming has changed, female scriptwriters, the role of gossip and future characters.
Woman's Hour celebrates the 70th anniversary of The Archers, looking at the female characters and storylines that have shaped the programme, presented by Felicity Finch (Ruth Archer).
How have the roles of women in farming changed over the last 70 years in the real world and in The Archers? From Jill Archer who is often portrayed more as a traditional farmer's wife to Ruth who is very much in partnership with David to Pip who is a thoroughly modern farmer and appears to be in pole position to inherit the farm. Helen Archer has also made a foray into cheese-making. Felicity hears from Mary Quicke of Quicke’s cheeses, who is cited by Agricultural editor of The Archers as an inspiration for Helen’s storyline.
Female scriptwriters only began on The Archers in 1975. They brought a new perspective to the programme, revitalising its profile and cementing its place in the British psyche. One of the first women to write for the show was Mary Cutler. She joins Felicity to talk about what it was like during those early years and her most memorable stories for female characters during her 40 years writing for the show. Felicity also talks to Naylah Ahmed, who has been writing for the show for 5 years.
Susan Carter is often at the heart of what is going on in the village of Ambridge and is known as the village gossip. According to a recent study, men and women gossip on average for 52 minutes every day. But Susan’s gossip is often perceived as malicious and small-minded. Charlotte Martin who plays Susan actually works as a psychologist when she’s not on the programme. She joins Felicity, Dr Cara Courage and comedian Angela Barnes to discuss the role of gossip on the show.
One of the unique and strange things about playing a character in Ambridge – is that the storylines unfold over years, so you grow old with the programme. Younger characters, as they age, inherit the standing of more established characters, and none of them know where they might end up. So we asked the actor Katie Redford – who plays Lily and Emerald O’Hanrahan who plays Emma to talk about their hopes for their characters in the future. Our guests also muse on the characters who might be missing that they hope might turn up in Ambridge one day.
Presenter: Felicity Finch
Producer: Clare Walker
FRI 10:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qnjd)
Part 10
By Charles Dickens
Jasper’s plans come to a head as the climax to the story is played out at the top of the cathedral tower.
Kate Dickens… Pippa Nixon
John Jasper… Joel McCormack
Rosa Bud … Isabella Inchbald
Neville Landless … Maanuv Thiara
Helena Landless … Halema Hussain
Reverend Crisparkle … Damian Lynch
Deputy Winks… Aaron Gelkoff
Station Master…Wilf Scolding
Adapted by Mike Walker
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
FRI 11:00 Five Knots (m000hmy1)
Timandra Harkness ties together five stories that begin with a knot to discover how knots have played a role in human history, technology, culture and mathematics
She visits the The Museum of Knots and Sailors’ Ropework – a shed in the garden of Des Pawson, one of the world's leading authorities on knots - who tells us where and when the first humans started to tie things together.
She also meets Mike Lucas, a forensic knot expert who helps police dealing with murders and suicides where rope has been involved. A knot can reveal a lot about the person who tied it.
Although not possessing one herself, Timandra finds out that there are in fact ‘85 Ways to Tie a Tie’ from physicist Thomas Fink, co-author of a book of the same name. He explains that that a humble tie connected in a loop is an example of an ‘unknot’ in a branch of mathematics called ‘knot theory’.
Closely connected to this is mathematical ‘braid theory’ which takes us across the Atlantic where Timandra talks to Chicago poet Raych Jackson, whose poem ‘A sestina for a black girl who does not know how to braid hair’ recounts the importance of hair braiding in black culture from someone who did not possess the skills herself.
Climber Dave Macleod tells Timandra of the importance of knots in mountaineering and abseiling and recalls how the lack of one almost lead to his death.
Finally, returning to the Museum of Knots, Timandra discovers that some of the earliest known knots can now be found on Mars – this most basic of technology is now being used on the NASA Mars Rover.
Producer: Julian Mayers
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m000qvtp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000qnn1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qnjj)
Episode 5
In the Castle of My Skin is the first and much acclaimed novel by Barbadian writer George Lamming, originally published in 1953 by Michael Joseph in London. The novel won a Somerset Maugham Award and was championed by Jean-Paul Sartre and Richard Wright, the latter writing an introduction to the book's US edition.
It's an autobiographical coming-of-age novel - set in the 1930s and 40s in Carrington Village, Barbados, where the author was born and raised - and follows the events in the life of a young boy named G, taking place against the background of dramatic changes in the society in which he lives.
The book's title comes from a couplet in Derek Walcott's early work Epitaph for the Young: XII Cantos (1949), "You in the castle of your skin / I the swineherd."
Lamming wrote:
"Migration was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought we were going to an England that had been painted in our childhood consciousness as a heritage and a place of welcome. It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of heritage nor the expectation of welcome would have been seriously doubted. England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we left. It was the name of a responsibility whose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time (...)
Much of the substance of my first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is an evocation of this tragic innocence. Nor was there, at the time of writing, any conscious effort on my part to emphasise the dimension of cruelty that had seduced, or driven, black people into such lasting bonds of illusion. It was not a physical cruelty. Indeed, the colonial experience of my generation was almost wholly without violence. It was a terror of the mind; a daily exercise in self-mutilation. Black versus black in a battle for self-improvement."
Abridged by Florence Bedell
Read by Paterson Joseph
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:18 With Great Pleasure (m000qjcs)
With Great Pleasure at Christmas
Expect snow on the hills of Borsetshire and a hot toddy in the Bull in this festive celebration marking seventy years of The Archers. Just as Ambridge hosts its own Christmas show, 'With Great Pleasure' brings you readings, music and anecdotes from the cast, one for each decade of existence of Radio 4's most popular drama.
Charles Collingwood (Brian Aldridge) kicks off with a comic poem on the hazards of being an actor on a long-running show. Specially written for Charles and his wife Judy (Shula) by their old friend Sir Richard Stilgoe, it asks: will this be the episode in which my character meets a surprising end in order to bump up the ratings?
The nations' beloved Gran and ace lemon-drizzle baker Jill Archer, or Patricia Greene in real life, reads from Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. She is followed by Ben Norris, who plays grandson Ben. He reveals that Paddy is much more mischievous than Jill and says he has found particular joy in spending time with his on-air Gran after the loss of his own.
Katie Redford (Lily Pargetter) remembers inviting all the neighbours round to see her Spice Girls 'show' as a child, without warning her mum, who was surprised when they all turned up. Trevor Harrison (Eddie Grundy) remembers his much-loved radio dad, Joe, played by Edward Kelsey, and admits there's solidarity among the 'Grundy' actors and a tiny bit of rivalry with those who play Archers or Aldridges.
Ryan Kelly (Jazzer) sings an acapella version of Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns that'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and Susie Riddell (Tracy Horrobin) admits she wishes she was as fearless as the character she plays.
Festive delight; hilarious, revealing and moving stories from behind the scenes in Ambridge.
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000qnjm)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000qnjp)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague.
FRI 13:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qnjr)
Regaining Nuance
In this series, Oliver Burkeman has discovered the reasons why nuance is declining in the modern age. For the New Year, he wants to find out how we could restore it.
He speaks to Naomi Baron about how we can use language to know ourselves better, and so protect ourselves against forces that would simplify our views of the world.
And he continues his conversation with Susan Nieman, about the need to break away from simple views of the world, in order to face the horrors humans can do to one another, rather than dismissing them.
And he sits down with Richard Holloway, writer and former Bishop of Edinburgh, to find out about how groups of people can evolve their thinking as the world changes, and discovers that even Jesus teaches to break away from beliefs that make us hostile to fellow human beings, even if that means breaking from codes laid down by God.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000qmp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b08dnrq8)
Hashtag Love
A live romantic comedy set behind the fictional scenes of The Archers. The drama will report and react to listeners' social media comments as it tells the story of an unravelling romance, with the audience steering the course of true love as it unfolds.
Starring Ruth Jones and Stephen Tompkinson and written by Peter Souter.
Sound Nigel Lewis
Director Alison Hindell
A BBC Cymru Wales production.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000qnjw)
GQT at Home: Happy New Year
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts, hosted by Kathy Clugston. Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and James Wong answer questions from green-fingered listeners.
This week, the panellists suggest the best trees to grow for toothbrush handles, discuss why two acorns from the same tree can produce such different plants and identify an interesting looking fungus.
Away from the questions, Humaira Ikram is at the Olympic Park finding out about its wildlife legacy since 2012, Matt Biggs gives his top tips for using Christmas leftovers in the garden, and Dr Chris Thorogood has the ultimate gardener's hangover guide.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000qnjy)
One
An original short work for radio by Merryn Glover.
A mathematician shares her New Year rituals with a young visitor.
Read by Sarah Lam
In a life spent crossing cultures and settling in new habitats, Merryn Glover was born in Kathmandu and brought up in Nepal, India and Pakistan. She went to University in Australia, keeps returning to South Asia for love and work and has called Scotland home for over 25 years. She writes fiction, plays, poetry and non-fiction. Her first novel, A HOUSE CALLED ASKIVAL, is set in an Indian hill-station and her second, OF STONE AND SKY, is the story of a Highland shepherd who disappears into the mountains and is published in April 2021. Her current project is THE HIDDEN FIRES: A CAIRNGORMS JOURNEY WITH NAN SHEPHERD. A response to 'The Living Mountain' as a woman walking and writing in the Cairngorms today, it is due out with Polygon in 2022.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000qnk0)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 When Will Theatre Come Black? (m000q9fh)
As the sector rebuilds in the wake of Covid-19, theatre critic and poet Bridget Minamore imagines a new future for Black British theatre.
Setting out her vision, Bridget asks if the confluence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the devastating impact of the pandemic on the theatre industry might be an opportunity to build a more egalitarian theatre sector with greater opportunity for black makers, performers, backstage workers, and audiences - and, as a consequence, for other marginalised groups.
For over 100 years, Black theatre groups have worked on the periphery of the industry, while making work that moved the conversation around race and representation forward. What can this history of creating in the face of adversity tell us now about the future of theatre?
Talking to those working on the frontiers of the contemporary scene, Bridget explores whether black theatre workers could be empowered to build alternatives to the establishment, and end the uneasy and often gestural culture of diversity schemes that many feel stand in place of genuine change and opportunity.
Right now, the fear in the industry is that the panic to save venues and companies will lead to a new conservatism, and risk-averse programming (for 'safe' read 'white'), reversing some of the hard won gains made by black and minority ethnic professionals in theatre in recent years - not to mention those from queer, disabled and other identities deemed peripheral.
So - Bridget asks - could this response be countered with a fresh attitude to what is 'safe' to attract audiences?
With reflections from voices across theatre including, Tobi Kyeremateng, Kwame Kwei Armah, Lynette Gordon, Paulette Randall MBE and Roy Alexander Weise MBE, Jasmine Lee Jones and more.
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m000qnk2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000qnk6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:15 Austentatious (m000qnk8)
Undead and Unwed: Part Two
A festive world premiere of an incredible 'lost' Jane Austen ghost story, full of wit, flirtation and dastardly behaviour - and cooked up on the spot by the UK's finest improv troupe.
Created and performed by Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Graham Dickson, Charlotte Gittins, Andrew Hunter Murray, Cariad Lloyd, Joseph Morpurgo, Daniel Nils Roberts and Rachel Parris. With violin by Oliver Izod.
Produced by Jon Harvey
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000qnkb)
Series 104
Best of 2020
Andy Zaltzman gives 2020 the treatment it deserves in this compilation episode of News Quiz highlights from planet earth's latest annus horribilis.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m000qnjt)
Writers, Keri Davies & Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Peggy Woolley ….. June Spencer
Rhiannon ….. Shelley Rees
Tanners ..... Jane Slavin
FRI 19:15 The Archers Anniversary Quiz (m000qnkf)
To mark the 70th anniversary of The Archers, Kenton and Jolene host a special quiz in The Bull, focusing on events and characters in Ambridge down the decades. Capacity is strictly limited because of pandemic restrictions so there isn't room for the crowd that would gather in more normal times. But for this special occasion, a team of familiar Radio 4 presenters will take on a team of Archers super-fans from around the UK.
There'll be plenty of brain-racking and dredging of memory banks as the players try to remember significant events, scandals, people who came and went, fleeting relationships and stories that have passed into Ambridge folklore.
Taking part on the Radio 4 team are avid listeners Jane Garvey, Martha Kearney and Senior Announcer Chris Aldridge who is adamant that sharing a name with a prominent Ambridge family doesn't give him a built-in advantage. They face a team made up of three formidable fans who boast decades of listening and who, between them, run a number of fan sites and blogs devoted to The Archers - Harriet Carmichael from London, Bernadette Hawkes from Margate and Gary Gilday from Glasgow.
The rivalry across the socially-distanced lounge bar promises to be keen, but there'll be plenty of fun to be had along the way, and perhaps a few surprise guest appearances.
Listeners can download a score-card online so they can play along and try to better the scores achieved by the teams in The Bull.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
FRI 19:45 The Mystery of Edwin Drood (m000qnjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Pick of the Year (m000qjdf)
Pick of the Year 2020
2020! We’ll certainly remember it, won’t we? But what? Which bits of the year stand out for you? All through 2020, radio has been tuning into how people have coped, how we’ve struggled and how we’ve connected: we’ve put together a powerful and moving programme that captures this. We hear from footballer Ian Wright, we hear about the death of George Floyd, there’s a kind of tribute act to Dolly Parton, and Joanna Lumley reads us a story. Join Michael Rosen in conversation with his son Joe as they discuss the radio highlights of an unprecedented year.
Presenters: Michael Rosen & Joe Rosen
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Ellen Orchard
Studio Manager: Owain Williams
Photo: Elsie Rosen
FRI 20:45 In Their Element (m000cl3t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 21:00 Correspondents' Look Ahead (m000qnkj)
Looking Ahead to 2021
There were times in 2020 when the world felt like an out of control carousel and we could all have been forgiven for just wanting to get off and to wait for normality to return.
But will 2021 be any less dramatic? Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January but will Donald Trump have left the White House by then? Vaccines are promised to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic but how successful will they be and how do global leaders go about trying to repair the economic damage the virus has caused? And then there's the not insignificant matter of what happens in the latest Brexit chapter, the ending of the transition period. What impact will that have on both the UK and the EU?
So many big questions but luckily we have some big hitters to provide plenty of answers.
Presenter: Lyse Doucet
Panel: Aleem Maqbool, Dharshini David, Gabriel Gatehouse, Justin Rowlatt and Katya Adler
Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Ravin Sampat
FRI 21:50 A Point of View (m000qnkl)
New Year Letter from New York
Adam Gopnik, cycling around Central Park in New York, explains why going round in circles suddenly appears not futile, but fortunate.
In the midst of the pandemic, Adam - like thousands of other New Yorkers - has taken to cycling round the park on a daily basis.
"The truth, revealed at the end of one more revolution is simple," he writes. "We feel lucky to be alive. That may be the one truth we didn't know before, or didn't know enough."
Producer: Adele Armstrong
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000qnkn)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming (m000qnjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000qlxp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Anansi Boys (b09ghqzr)
5/6
Anansi Boys is a magical web of a story that spans the old world and the new, from South London to the Southern US, the fictional Caribbean island of St Andrews, and the Mountains at the End of the World. Or the Beginning of the World. Depending on which way you're heading.
The stellar cast of the series also includes Earl Cameron, Tanya Moodie, Adjoa Andoh, Joseph Marcell, Jacob Anderson, Lenny Henry, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sheila Atim, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Cecilia Noble, Angela Wynter, Ariyon Bakare, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Danielle Vitalis, Ronke Adekoluejo, Clifford Samuel, and Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong.
Writer ..... Neil Gaiman
Adaptor ..... Dirk Maggs
Sound Design ..... Wilfredo Acosta
Producer ..... Allegra McIlroy
Director ..... Allegra McIlroy.