Scotland’s national poet Jackie Kay examines the rumours and controversies around the death of Bessie Smith, as she brings to life the dramatic story of the Empress of the Blues.
Orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on the street to support her siblings and was swept into travelling shows as a young woman. Facing extreme racial prejudice, she frequently brawled under the influence of bathtub gin and had tumultuous love affairs with men and women. She also sold hundreds of thousands of records and became a genuine superstar.
Mixing biography, fiction, music and memoir, the Makar remembers the electric thrill of identification when, as a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, she was first gifted the music of the Empress.
Good Morning. Today is the funeral of Captain Sir Tom Moore - to so many he was a gentle hero. Gentleness is sometimes mistaken for weakness and yet one of the strongest, bravest people I know personally is a Peace Maker. Over the past twenty years, in many conflicts all over the world he’s acted as a mediator, risked his life as a human shield and spent months in prison.
His way of living is to challenge violence by trying to win over people’s hearts with love and compassion. I asked him how he’d learned to live gently in a violent world. He said “I’m no saint - I had to face those parts of my personality that I was ashamed of. When I’d faced my own capacity for inflicting pain then I could understand and deal with that same trait in others.”
Each day we face the harsh reality of a broken world – either in the international news or closer to home, in the aggressive way some people treat one another in everyday life or on social media.
My peace-making friend often uses this quote: “ Be the change you want to see in the world.”
So as we start this new day, how will we react to others? - The driver who cuts in, the stranger who gets in our way, the child who tries our patience? We have a choice: it’s up to us how we respond. Those words from Proverbs may seem naïve, but so often I’ve found them to be true: “ A gentle answer turns away anger but a harsh one stirs it up” .
Loving Lord, In the face of anger, hatred and aggression, help us to reflect your love with patience and understanding.
Give us the courage to change the world gently, one heart at a time.
She is a also a former special advisor, committed animal rights activist and Brexit supporter. And, not that long ago, she was director of communications for the Conservative Party.
It's that political experience that has fuelled questions about how much influence she has over decisions made in Downing Street. The Bow Group think tank this week called for an inquiry into her role.
Mark Coles profiles the woman who has been making waves, and headlines, in recent weeks.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Simon Gudgeon is one of our leading sculptors, but he didn't practice his art until his mid 40s. He'd worked as a solicitor, a photographer, and a landscape gardener before, one day, picking up a lump of clay to see what he could create. It wasn't long before he knew that sculpting was all he wanted to do. His distinctive creations, often inspired by the natural world, are showcased at his own venture, Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset. Set in 26 acres and featuring over 40 lake and riverside works of art, establishing Sculpture by the Lakes proved a financially risky labour of love. Simon tells his story to Clare Balding on a walk from the historic St. Nicholas Church in Moreton, to his home at the sculpture park in Pallington, Dorset.
Grid Ref for St. Nicholas Church: SY805892
This week Caz Graham looks at trawler fishing and how it's being affected by Brexit and the Coronavirus pandemic. It's not been an easy 12 months for the fishing industry, the tonnage of fish being landed has decreased - with vessels staying in the harbour, rather than risking catching fish they cannot sell. The owner of one of the UK's biggest trawlers, the Kirkella, tells us it may have to stop fishing altogether if the Government fails to reach a new agreement on quotas. Meanwhile the Marine Management Organisation, the Government body that regulates the seas around England, is consulting on banning bottom trawling in four marine protected areas.
The charity, Keep Britain Tidy tells us that the system for waste disposal in the UK is "broken", as Government figures for England show a 2% increase in fly-tipping in the year to March 2020. Landowners and farmers say it's just the tip of the iceberg, as the figures only include incidents on council-owned land. One estate manager tells the programme he is spending hundreds of pounds cleaning up fly-tipped rubbish every week.
We also listen in on the National Farmers Union annual conference, which took place online this year. For the first time in 13 years, a leader of the Labour party gave an address. Sir Keir Starmer set out his support for British farming, promising a review of the parties policies.
And from Kenya we hear how farmers dealing with swarms of locusts are now trying to trap and kill the insects which have been destroying crops for the past year in order to turn them into animal feed.
Niki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Sophie Ellis Bextor. Having started in the music business aged 16 in indie band theaudience, she went on to have a hugely successful solo dance pop career with hits like Groovejet and Murder on the Dancefloor. Most recently seen singing in her kitchen every fortnight in her online Kitchen Disco.
After taking calls from lonely farmers as a volunteer for the Samaritans, listener Heather Heber Percy founded a rural dating agency to connect single people in the countryside. She joins us.
Beth French is an endurance swimmer with a history of ME, who became the first person to swim from Cornwall to the Isle of Scilly. She juggles her training with being a single mother to her autistic son Dylan.
And Guvna B is an award winning rap artist, who found that his father's sudden death in 2017 challenged his faith, and ideas of masculinity and identity.
We have the Inheritance Tracks of crime writer Stuart MacBride who chooses The Bear Necessities performed by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen and My Chemical Romance: Welcome to the Black Parade.
Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', rummages through the BBC's treasure house of archives, using current stories and listener suggestions as a springboard into the vaults of audio, video, documents and photographs.
This week, following the announcement of the European Space Agency’s first recruitment drive in over a decade, Greg travels to space in search of the first astronauts. He hears early assumptions about who would be suitable for space travel and, following a listener request, tracks down the BBC’s 1980s sci-fi drama Star Cops, featuring a prototype of the digital assistants we know today.
With Fleetwood Mac’s single Dreams recently featuring in the UK Top 40 singles chart thanks to a viral TikTok video, Greg pieces together the story of how the band’s two couples – Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and John and Christine McVie – were tearing each other apart while recording their best-selling album Rumours.
While we’ve been at home, rats have been invading our empty office spaces: the British rat population boomed by 25% in 2020. Greg coaxes some early rat catchers and rat lovers out of their hiding places in the BBC archives.
And following last week’s overwhelming response to I Remember, He Remembered – a 1970s Radio 4 programme which aimed to find out how far back living memory can go – Greg hears from listeners with second-hand memories of the sinking of the Titanic and the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
Nearly a million carers will get an increase of just 35p a week from April. 939,000 people receive a benefit called Carer’s Allowance — currently £
a week — for looking after another person who is severely disabled. In order to qualify people must provide for at least 35 hours a week - though most will spend considerably more time caring than that. The April rise amounts to just 1p extra per hour. This increase is in line with the rate of inflation the previous September when inflation was just half of one percent. Paul Lewis talks to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, and Gareth Howells, Chief Executive of the charity, Carers Trust.
After last week’s item about one family’s 20 hour wait to tell HSBC about a push payment fraud which cost listener Richard £8500, Money Box asked for your experiences getting help from your bank when a theft happens. Hundreds of you were in touch. Dan Whitworth reports on what you told him and Paul talks to Tom Keatinge who is Director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at Royal United Services Institute.
One of Britain’s largest insurers has admitted long delays following instructions from customers to access their pension savings when they retire. Money Box received several complaints about the weeks and weeks it is taking for customers to get hold of their own money. Paul talks to Romi Savova, Chief Executive of Pension Bee.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in front of a remote audience - and all from their own home!
In the first show of the new series, they are joined by Jessica Fostekew who relays her time volunteering in a vaccination centre. Ken Cheng talks about his experiences as a Chinese Briton plus music from Beardyman...
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with a panel including the Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy MP, the archaeologist and broadcaster Neil Oliver, the SNP Foreign Affairs spokesperson Alyn Smith MP and the Minister for Business and Industry and COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Nadhim Zahawi MP.
BBC journalist Sabet Choudhury donated a kidney to his mother five years ago. He says it was not a difficult decision to make. Once he heard she only had 3 years to live unless he stepped up, his decision was already made. The transplant transformed her life and Sabet says it opened his eyes to the whole issue of organ donation. During his personal donation journey he discovered that there is a lack of organ donors from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities in the UK and this can lead to extra-long waits for a transplant. In this, the last of three programmes, Sabet talks to Saj Khan, a teacher from Birmingham who has experience of the emotional highs and lows of waiting for a kidney. Saj had his first transplant as a very young man, but sadly the kidney failed just after he graduated and he has spent years and years waiting for a new kidney.
The Beautiful and Damned. Part 2
F Scott Fitzgerald's novel which charts the Jazz Age via a glamorous but doomed marriage.
Anthony Patch and his wife, Gloria Gilbert, are the essence of glamour: a golden couple, spoiled and selfish, who descend through the wild partying of the Jazz Age into despair and alcoholism.
Anthony Patch ..... Joel MacCormack
Gloria Gilbert ..... Jessica Hardwick
Fred Passmore ..... Rhashan Stone
Maury Noble ..... David Sturzaker
Joseph Bloeckman ..... Tom Mothersdale
Muriel Kane ..... Melody Grove
Adam Patch/Bounds ..... Ben Onwukwe
Haight/Percy ..... David Seddon
The rush on shares by individual investors, into struggling US video game store chain Gamestop was portrayed as an attempt by a new breed of retail investors to thwart hedge funds which were shorting the stock. Some investors won big, others lost everything and one hedge fund, Melvin Capital, lost half of its $13bn fund. Was this really a David and Goliath fight, signalling a win for retail stock pickers, collaborating on social media platforms like Reddit? And has it changed the future of investing? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
Sheila Hancock, Alice Cooper, Humza Arshad, Pippa Evans, Gizmo Varillas, Georgia Van Etten, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Sheila Hancock, Alice Cooper, Humza Arshad and Pippa Evans for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.With music from Gizmo Varillas featuring Orkesta Mendoza and Georgia Van Etten.
Helen Lederer reads from her teenage diaries and talks about her school days in South-East London, when she was far more interested in boys than in school work.
Phill Jupitus searches for the answers to questions posed by songs. A 1988 trance music hit for The KLF provokes a discussion about circadian rhythms with Professor Russell Foster.
Professor Russell Foster is Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at Oxford University.
Ian Hislop, satirist and Editor of "Private Eye" magazine, meets his younger self in the sound archives in conversation with John Wilson
Ian Hislop has been called the most sued man in Britain, keeping lawyers busy with a steady stream of writs from those whose public and private failings have been exposed in the pages of Private Eye. He became the magazine’s youngest editor at the age of just 26 in 1986, and 35 years later is still in charge. He's also become well-known through his appearances as a team captain on the comedy quiz show "Have I Got News For You".
In this programme, where the guests don't know what they're going to hear, John takes Ian back through a variety of archives to trace how his life and career have developed. We hear the young Ian on stage in a school production of "Oliver" , get a glimpse of his early forays into standup comedy. hear how he planned to avoid libel writs as the new Editor of Private Eye and how that plan was scuppered with regular appearances in court and a record damages award against the magazine to Sonia Sutcliffe, the wife of the Yorkshire Ripper.
Ian and John also discuss his role on "Have I Got News For You", his thoughts on press freedom and regulation and his career as documentary-maker and dramatist.
The Matterhorn was conquered on 14th July 1865 by Edward Whymper. But four men died on the descent. Damian Lewis stars as Whymper, forever tormented by the tragedy.
Jonathan Myerson's drama speculates on what went wrong and why. The climbing team were roped together on the way down but at least two were inexperienced and - for reasons never fully explained - attached together with rope that was unsuitable for holding the weight of a man.
A swift inquest was held and Whymper was exonerated. But some people never forgave him - especially the 8th Marquess of Queensbury, father to Douglas Hadow, one of the dead.
Smaller families are a growing feature on the West - and many women are now choosing not to have children. Mary-Ann Ochota considers why this change is happening - even though there is often great social pressure to procreate.
The government has announced a series of proposals to “strengthen free speech and academic freedom at universities in England”, with a “free speech champion” investigating potential infringements on campuses. The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson warned of a “chilling effect” where students and staff feel they cannot express themselves freely. Many believe these measures are a welcome legal intervention following claims of increasing numbers of individuals being silenced, no-platformed or sacked. Critics, however, say the threat to free speech on campuses is grossly exaggerated and the government is cynically stirring up a culture war to distract from its own failings in tackling Covid. Moreover, they claim these proposals actively undermine free speech because they are just another way of controlling what is 'acceptable' speech, the impact of which is to discipline those who are defending others from racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Students have a right to physical safety and to expect not to be subjected to hatred, but some worry about a ‘concept creep’ in which the definition of hate speech has widened to include any opinions that go against the prevailing orthodoxy. Academics’ own experiences are mixed: some say they feel no pressure of censorship, others believe their colleagues are in denial about the regression of academic freedom. Universities have long been seen as places of intellectual danger, where people go to be shocked and changed. Is this idea in retreat? Or are universities still the vibrant and stimulating places they always were, with a generation of students who are merely less tolerant of intolerance?
Another trio of heat winners from earlier in the series joins Paul Gambaccini for the contest to decide the one remaining place in the 2021 Counterpoint Final. As always, there are questions covering the whole musical spectrum. How will the contestants fare when asked to identify a Tchaikovsky overture, a theme from a great European film, and a brass arrangement of an 80s rock classic?
They also each have to tackle their own individual round of questions on a special musical topic or theme of which they've had no prior warning.
In the final episode of the series, Michael Symmons Roberts confronts some of the most important metamorphoses that occur to our bodies over the course of our lives, taking Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man speech as his starting point.
He asks how poets react to the changes brought about by adolescence, by pregnancy or by serious illness? How much of our spirit and our voice remains constant as our physical being encounters such dramatic transformations? And are the ravages brought about by old age necessarily a thing to fear, or - as Jorie Graham and Michael Longley suggest - an opportunity to find poetic inspiration in the face of the dying of the light?
SUNDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000sq9h)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Disability: A New History (b02140ny)
A Disabled Identity
In the final part of his series, Peter White reveals the birth of a modern disabled identity in the 19th century - through the lives of some extraordinary independent blind women.
Peter says, 'I'm used to people describing me as disabled. Fair enough, I can't see. But I do wonder sometimes whether putting me into a disabled category really makes much sense. Some of my best friends use wheelchairs, but the truth is our needs could hardly be more different. I fall over them, they run over me! But over the last 40 years, disabled people have needed a collective identity to make change possible, to break down discrimination in jobs, transport, in people's attitudes generally.
People have tended to think that this sense of collective identity in Britain began after the First World War, when so many men returned with very visible injuries. But the evidence I've uncovered making this series reveals it to have begun much earlier.
This evidence comes from new research into the lives of blind women in the 19th century. We hear the stories of two extraordinary women who fought the conventions of their time, Adele Husson and Hippolyte van Lendegem. Independent, critical, angry - their voices are very modern, and research into their lives challenges accepted wisdom about the history of the disability movement.
With historians Selina Mills, David Turner and Julie Anderson, and readings by Emily Bevan and Madeleine Brolly.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
Academic adviser: David Turner of Swansea University
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000skd5)
Handy Number
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the Northern Irish writer Matthew McDevitt. As read by Tara Lynne O'Neill (Derry Girls)
Matthew McDevitt lives in Derry with a very clever librarian and three Spaniels. He is a writer for BBC NI's television series 'Soft Border Patrol' and his first radio play 'Lock In' starring Conleth Hill was broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster in 2018.
Reader ..... Tara Lynne O'Neill
Writer ….. Matthew McDevitt
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sq9k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sq9m)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sq9p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000sq9r)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000sq6y)
The cathedral church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro in Cornwall.
Bells on Sunday comes from the cathedral church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro in Cornwall. The Diocese of Truro was established in 1878 and the building of the new cathedral church in the Gothic Revival style was completed in 1910. Originally there were ten bells cast by John Taylor of Loughborough. These were augmented to a ring of twelve with two semitones in 2011 making Truro the first and only ring of twelve bells in Cornwall. The tenor bell weights thirty three and three quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of D flat. We hear the back ten bells ringing Stedman Caters.
SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (m000sh9h)
A Letter to Lydia
A personal, hopeful reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter.
In a letter written to his daughter Lydia, who was born during the pandemic, Manchester-based intensive care doctor Mark Tan describes the last 12 months working on the front line alongside colleagues, patients and their loved ones who have had to endure and sacrifice so much.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
SUN 06:00 News (m000sq51)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0707y3n)
A Wing and a Prayer
John McCarthy explores the sacred and profane place of birds in our daily lives.
He considers the many spiritual meanings birds have for humans. From doves as biblical heralds of the Holy Spirit to ravens in the Qur’an, birds are at the iconic heart of almost all world religions. But how did they get there? Is it their ability to fly which grips us? Or the apparent purity and beauty of (many) of their songs and calls?
Along the way, John explores the parallels between listening to Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending, hearing a dawn chorus in Kielder Forest and seeking a personal pathway to the divine. He also recalls a bird-inspired moment of hope during his time in captivity in Lebanon - a memory triggered by the music of the singer, Fairouz.
John meets keen birdwatcher and author, Stephen Moss who tells how his love of birds helped him through divorce and bereavement, and reveals the true meanings of birdsong, which prove to be both paradoxical and far more profane than sacred.
The programme includes poetry from John Clare, prose from Gerald Durrell, and music from Canteloube, Respighi and Chris Watson.
The readers are Madeleine Bowyer and Peter Marinker.
Producer: Matt Taylor
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b07ws0dw)
Rat
Brett Westwood burrows into the complicated relationship we have with our constant but mostly unwelcome companion: the rat. Featuring interviews with historian Dr. Edmund Ramsden, researcher for the charity Apopo Haylee Ellis, Professor of German and Folklore Wolfgang Mieder, rat enthusiast Jo Pegg, and ecologist and expert in rodents as pests Professor Steven Belmain.
Produced by Ellie Sans
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes
Revised Repeat : First Broadcast BBC Radio 4; 4th October 2016
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000sq54)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000sq56)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000sq58)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sq5b)
IMPACT Foundation
Nadiya Hussain makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of IMPACT Foundation.
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 ‘IMPACT Foundation’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘IMPACT Foundation’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 290992
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000sq5d)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000sq5g)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000sq5j)
St David's Day
The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Reverend John Davies, marks St David's Day in a service for the second sunday of Lent, recorded under lockdown conditions at Brecon Cathedral. The service is led by the Dean of Brecon Cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley.
Music includes:
Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
BBC recording: St David’s Cathedral Pembrokeshire
Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind
BBC recording: National Youth Choir of Wales
Psalm 23 (Brother James’ Air)
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/Sioned Williams, Harp
I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say
BBC recording: BBC National Chorus of Wales
We Praise Thy Name All-Holy Lord
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Choir
Lord Who In thy Perfect Wisdom
BBC Recording: Bangor Cathedral
Mendelssohn Sonata No. 3
BBC Recording: Paul Hayward
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000skfb)
What'll you have?
"So far," writes Tom Shakespeare, "the pub has weathered the tides of history and adapted to every change...so far."
But Tom argues that, in the aftermath of months of closure, this great British institution is now in peril and we all have a role in saving it.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04kjgy6)
Pied Butcherbird
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the virtuoso songster the pied butcherbird of Australia. Australian parks, gardens resonate to the flute like calls of a medium sized black and white bird with stout blue-grey bills, and a black hood. They earned their name 'butcherbird' from their habit of storing prey by impaling it onto thorns or in a tree crevice before feeding on it with their hooked bill. They can sing for up to twenty minutes at a time, appearing to improvise as they perform a mellifluous, but unpredictable performance which they deliver as a solo or a duet with another butcherbird. Australian composer David Lumsdaine, described its call as..... "a virtuoso of composition and improvisation".
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000sq5l)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000sq5n)
Writers, Daniel Thurman & Adrian Flynn
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ... Tim Bentinck
Ruth Archer ... Felicity Finch
Ben Archer ... Ben Norris
Helen Archer .... Louiza Patikas
Harrison Burns ... James Cartwright
Chris Carter ... Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Ruairi Donovan .... Arthur Hughes
Jim Lloyd ... John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller .... Annabelle Dowler
Johnny Philips .... Tom Gibbons
Lee .... Ryan Early
Jade .... Ayesha Antoine
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000sq5q)
Tweet Take 5 : Grebes
Wetlands are fascinating places both to visit and observe aquatic diving birds such as grebes. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day we hear of three grebe species found in Britain. The great crested grebe with nature writer Stephen Moss, The black necked-grebe with Sir David Attenborough, and the much rarer Slavionian grebe with cameraman John Aitchison.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000sq5s)
Claire Horton, charity worker
Claire Horton is the former chief executive of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, and is currently director general of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
She joined Battersea in 2010 during its landmark 150th year, spearheading a campaign which transformed the animal rescue service into a UK top 10 charity brand. During her years in charge, income and volunteer numbers quadrupled; new facilities were developed and the charity successfully campaigned for changes in animal welfare legislation.
As a teenager Claire volunteered for a number of organisations including Mencap and the Riding for the Disabled Association. At 18 she joined the police force as a special constable, patrolling the streets of Dudley where she lived.
Her first position in the charity sector was at the NSPCC and she later worked for the Cats Protection League and the Variety Club of Great Britain. In 2020 she was appointed CBE for her services to animal welfare.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 The Battles That Won Our Freedoms (m00020jz)
6. The Abolition of Atlantic Chattel Slavery
In this episode, Phil Tinline asks Dr Christienna Fryar about the slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1831, led by the enslaved Baptist preacher Samuel Sharpe, and how it contributed to Britain's abolition of slavery. And Dr Fryar and Kimberly McIntosh of the Runnymede Trust reflect on the long-term legacy of slavery, and how free black people are in Britain today.
First broadcast in 2019.
Producer: Phil Tinline
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000sqqd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m000sgsr)
Series 86
Episode 1
Paul Merton hosts the return of Radio 4’s longest running panel show. In the first episode back since the death of Nicholas Parsons, who hosted for 50 years, Paul challenges guests Sheila Hancock, Gyles Brandreth, Tony Hawks and Pippa Evans to talk without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. JAM trivia - Sheila Hancock also appeared in the very first episode back in 1967. Caroline Barlow blows the whistle.
Devised by Ian Messiter
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000sq5x)
School Food: Re-imagined
What is the current school meal model, how well is it working and how has the pandemic highlighted existing problems and created new ones?
More importantly, given the very public problems that have cropped up in recent months, how can the system be improved and made more sustainable and resilient?
Sheila Dillon brings together a panel of school food visionaries to re-imagine the way we provide meals to pupils across the UK, and consider whether and how we could change the system for the better.
They are Jeanette Orrey - a former dinner lady and winner of the BBC Food and Farming Awards Cook of the Year, now a school meals campaigner and co-founder of Food for Life, an organisation focused on transforming school food and food culture; Nicole Pisani - a former head chef at Yotam Ottolenghi’s London restaurant NOPI, now a school chef and co-founder of the organisation Chefs in Schools, bringing together chefs and teachers to change attitudes to school meals and food education; and Christina Adane - a food poverty activist and chair for the Youth Board of BiteBack2030, a youth-led movement on a mission to fight child obesity and give young people access to healthy food and lifestyles.
The panel also hear from past programmes that featured schools doing something special around food provision: St Winnow’s School in Cornwall, Logie Primary School in Moray and Washingborough Academy in Lincolnshire.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Lucy Taylor
Photo: Washingborough Academy's Chef Michael Richardson prepares meal boxes for delivery during the pandemic (2020).
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000sq5z)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000sq61)
Radio 4’s look at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000sq63)
The Nation in Conversation
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation as we adjust to the 'new normal'.
In this week's programme: Nicolas and Andy talk frankly and openly about childlessness from a male perspective; Brendan, an extreme challenge runner, and Lizzie, couch to 5k, discuss how they took up running and how it changed their lives, their health and their outlook; and Mohammed, a GP based in a deprived area in Leeds, and Trevor, a volunteer vaccinator in Southampton, talk about their roles in the vaccination drive.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The
conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000skd1)
GQT at Home: Luffa and Ligularia
Peter Gibbs hosts the gardening panel show. This week he's joined by Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank, James Wong and a live virtual audience, to answer questions from listeners about subjects from pomegranate trees to hardy houseplants.
Away from the questions, we get an update from Matthew and Jane Wilson on their cut flower border project, and Claire Ratinon champions organic growing.
Producer - Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j1yc)
Who is free from melancholy?
In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.
Writing from Oxford where he was a life-long scholar, librarian of Christ Church and a vicar, Burton drew on the writing of others and also his own experiences.
Writer Amy Liptrot, delves into this remarkable attempt at understanding the human condition to find out what we can learn and how far we have come in four centuries.
In this episode, Amy travels to the Bodleian Library where Burton discovered many of his sources. She meets Dr Katherine Murphy from Oxford’s Faculty of English and together they look at one of Burton’s own early editions of The Anatomy with his hand-scribbled notes.
Cell biologist Lewis Wolpert, whose own struggles with depression led him to write Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression, shares his experiences and what helped him to recover.
Professor David Clark, Chair of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, and one of the pioneers of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), reveals his vision for future treatments of mental health disorders.
As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.
In this episode, David Clark offers I See a Darkness by Johnny Cash (original: Will Oldham).
Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes
A Whistledown production for Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Hardy's Women (m000sq65)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Episode 3
Dramatisation of Hardy's novel about beautiful, poor young Dorset woman Tess Durbeyfield. After her disastrous wedding night, Tess gets a job working on the land of a mean-spirited farmer.
Cast:
Tess ..... Faye Marsay
Angel ..... Matthew Tennyson
Alec ..... Robert Emms
Marian ..... Bettrys Jones
Izzy ..... Kathleen Cranham
Felix ..... Hasan Dixon
Cuthbert ..... Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Joan ..... Maggie Service
Jack ..... Roger Ringrose
Abraham ..... Aaron Gelkoff
Liza Lu ..... Ell Potter
Isaac ..... Noah Leggott
Lily ..... Tayla Hutchinson
Kingsbere Man ..... David Seddon
Farmer ..... John Lightbody
Labourer ..... Tony Turner
Driver ..... David Sturzaker
Neighbour ..... Jessica Turner
Mrs Brooks ..... Jane Slavin
Author, Thomas Hardy
Dramatist, Katie Hims
Director, Mary Peate
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000sq67)
Mary Lawson
Elizabeth Day talks to award winning Canadian writer Mary Lawson, whose new novel A Town Called Solace is a moving portrait of parenting and secrets. The story centres around Clara, a young girl whose sister is missing, her elderly neighbour Elizabeth who is in hospital and the mysterious Liam who moves into Elizabeth's house. As the novel unfolds, we discover more about the events of the past that have brought them together in a remote town in northern Canada.
Also on the programme a March book recommendation and psychoanalyst Josh Cohen and novelist Ayisha Malik discuss what makes a great fictional character.
Book List – Sunday 28 February and Thursday 4 March
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
How to Live, What to Do by Josh Cohen
This Green and Pleasant Land by Ayisha Malik
Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Luster by Raven Leilani
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
Peanuts by Charles Schulz
SUN 16:30 The Ballad of Stooky Bill (m000sq69)
The first face to be seen on a television screen wasn't human. The image which assembled itself out of the static in John Logie Baird's first experimental TV test was a chalk-white ventriloquist's dummy with a lolling hinged mouth, reduced to grey on the cramped monochrome screen. Stooky Bill was selected for the first screen test because his face was a study in contrasts, and the lights of the first TV studio were so hot no flesh and blood creature could bear it (over time Stooky Bill's face cracked in the heat and his singed hair fell apart) Since then television has become our ubiquitous friend, the flat locus of our dreams and desires, a place of excitement, entertainment, but also shock, sometimes carnage, the place where celebrities frolic in the jungle, 9/11 was staged, where beheadings are screened. It is almost as though the animating spirit of tv is not Apollo but an anarchic, sinister dummy.
In John Burnside's commissioned poem "The Ballad of Stooky Bill", the dummy becomes the animating daemon of TV, the sinister force that drives the square window where our dreams, our desires, our darkest appetitive impulses play out 24/7. Kirsty Wark interviews Alistair McGowan as Stooky Bill in a searing, unsettling vision of the pale white face that inhabited the first television signal, and has never let go.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000sj8x)
The Dangers of Dating Apps
Millions of us each year pick up our phone and swipe right in the hope of finding ‘the one’, and with the pandemic limiting even the most basic of social interactions, statistics suggest more of us are using apps than ever before. For the majority of us these apps are a useful tool to connect in a busy world, but to criminals they serve as a playground to hunt for the vulnerable. From romance fraud to sexual predators, Livvy Haydock investigates the dangers these app’s pose, if big tech does enough to protect its users, and what we as individuals should do to keep ourselves safer. Details of organisations that can provide help and support with fraud, sexual abuse and bereavement are available from the following organisations:
Action Fraud provide a central point of contact for information about fraud and financially motivated internet crime.
Phone: 0300 123 2040
www.actionfraud.police.uk
UK Safer Internet Centre provides e-safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet.
www.saferinternet.org.uk
Get Safe Online offers unbiased, factual and easy-to-understand information on online safety, including advice for parents about safeguarding children online.
www.getsafeonline.org
Sexual abuse:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22VVM5LPrf3pjYdKqctmMXn/information-and-support-sexual-abuse-and-violence
Bereavement:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4MmhHDSbdDmTpVJhBs2v4Py/information-and-support-bereavement
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000skg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000sq6c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000sq6f)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sq6h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000sq6k)
Myfanwy Alexander
In the week in which the Perseverance lander revealed that there were no crocuses of recovery on Mars, Myfanwy has been truffling out nuggets of tasty audio, taking a new look at old history, hearing heart-stopping stories, and will be playing some music from Swifty to a 6th Century lullaby. Join her on the eve of St David's Day...there may be just one or two bits from Wales...
Presenter: Myfanwy Alexander
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet
SUN 19:00 Stillicide (m00092xj)
Episode 9: Sound
James Cosmo continues Cynan Jones' powerful series set in the tangible near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now ice bergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city.
Today: out in frozen waters, a group of men in small boats are on the hunt ....
Reader: James Cosmo
Writer: Cynan Jones
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000sq6m)
Anna Morris: Kid-Life Crisis
Anna Morris hit forty, was single, childless and living back with her parents. Success! She hit a kid-life crisis – like a mid-life crisis but with the added pressure of diminishing fertility.
In this half-hour stand-up show, recorded in front of a remote audience, she looks at all the different ways in which women deal with ageing, dating and being childless – or child free. There's a difference in approach evident in just those two ways of describing women who don't have kids.
From an 'incompetent cervix' diagnosis to proud but patronising new mothers, Anna recounts her journey through the travails of a woman without children.
Written and performed by Anna Morris.
With Jess Robinson and Sam Underwood
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 The Last Resort (m000sq6p)
John
A caravan-park on the Northern Irish coast is beset by a series of impossible thefts, forcing its disparate group of residents to come together to find their missing belongings. However, in this uncanny place where static caravans teeter on an eroding a cliff-edge overlooking the ocean, each holidaymaker soon finds themselves similarly wavering between certainty and doubt; one world and the next; the past and the present; and even reality and fantasy.
Author
Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her most recent novel ‘The Fire Starters’ was awarded the EU Prize for Literature 2019 and the author was acclaimed as “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation” by the Sunday Times. She has also written ‘Wings’ for BBC Three, ‘UnRaveling’ for BBC Radio 3, several short stories for BBC Radio 4’s ‘Short Works’ series and was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2020.
Reader: Ian McElhinney
Writer: Jan Carson
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000skdf)
The BBC‘s Deputy Director of News faces questions from listeners about the Corporation’s Covid coverage. Jonathan Munro hears concerns that his journalists are not tough enough on the Government, and are neglecting other vital stories.
And two young politics graduates who never switch on Radio 4, are exposed to the News Quiz. Did it raise a smile?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000skd9)
Sir William Macpherson (pictured), Margaret Snyder, Eleanor Wadsworth, Iain Pattinson
Matthew Bannister on
Sir William Macpherson, the retired judge whose report on the investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence accused the Metropolitan Police of “institutional racism”.
Margaret Snyder, seen by some as the United Nations’ first feminist. She established funds and projects to support women in developing countries.
Eleanor Wadsworth, one of the last surviving women who delivered fighter planes during the second world war.
Iain Pattinson, who gave up a career as an oil company executive to write jokes once described as “blue chip filth” for “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue”.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Lord Brown
Interviewed guest: Joshua Rozenberg
Interviewed guest: Marilyn Carr
Interviewed guest: Wanjira Mathai
Interviewed guest: Jon Naismith
Interviewed guest: Nick Utechin
Interviewed guest: Jack Dee
Archive clips from: Pathe News (A.T.A. 1943); Kaleidoscope: Radio 4, TX 9.
2.1991; I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue: Radio 4, TX
15.12.2020 and TX 21.
6.1999.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000sq6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sq5b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000sgt1)
Boiled Rabbits of the Left?
George Orwell chastised the "boiled rabbits of the Left" for disliking what he called "the spiritual need for patriotism". He was writing in 1940 during Hitler's Blitz of London and other British cities. But Orwell also poses a challenge to those on the Left today who find patriotism redolent of flag-waving chauvinism, uncomfortably at odds with their cherished internationalism and an unwelcome diversion from other priorities.
Since he was elected leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer has spoken of his love of country, determined to make a break with the legacy of his predecessor. Polling suggested Jeremy Corbyn was perceived to be cool in his patriotic sympathies. That view among electors in northern England and the Midlands was indeed so strong it was one of the main reasons former Labour supporters gave for switching to the Conservatives at the 2019 general election.
In this edition of "Analysis", Edward Stourton asks how Labour can turn the page on its seemingly conflicted stance on patriotism. What would a distinctive Labour patriotism consist of? Could it appeal to different people in different parts of Britain when the Union now seems more fragile than ever? Is the task even so fraught with difficulty that Labour should simply leave this subject to its opponents? In short, what is Labour's answer today to the awkward challenge posed by Orwell eighty years ago and which stubbornly refuses to go away?
Those taking part: Deborah Mattinson of BritainThinks; former Labour leader, Lord Kinnock; singer and author, Billy Bragg; Shadow Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray MP; New Labour loyalist, Lord Adonis; Labour MP, Florence Eshalomi; and Jon Cruddas, Labour thinker and MP for Dagenham & Rainham.
Producer Simon Coates
Editor Jasper Corbett
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000sq6t)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000sjyq)
Kevin Macdonald on The Battle Of Algiers
With Francine Stock
Director Kevin Macdonald reveals the influence of The Battle Of Algiers on his latest drama, The Mauritanian, the true story of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without charge.
Photo credit: Tatiana Lund
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b0707y3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 01 MARCH 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000sq6w)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000sh8z)
3. The West and the Rest
Did a shift in our sexual behaviour 2000 years ago lead to the rise of the west as a globally dominant force?
Matthew Syed wants to put the western mind in the spotlight. There’s a good reason for doing this. It turns out that 96% of psychological experiments have been carried out on western students. Why is this? Because western students are easy to access for a psychologist working in a university.
This might sound convenient, but there’s a problem - it turns out that westerners think in a particular way. Easily reproducible experimental findings in the west don’t stack up when you use non-western subjects. Many of our classical assertions about the workings of the human mind are based entirely on the western human mind.
Matthew digs into the deep roots of the western mind and asks whether a ban on cousin marriage triggered a surge of innovation in the west as tribal boundaries broke down.
It’s an intriguing theory, but does it stack up? Matthew is determined to find out.
Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick
Series Editor: Russell Finch
Executive Producer: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000sq6y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sq70)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sq72)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sq74)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000sq76)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sq78)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Beverley Humphreys.
Good Morning. Today in Wales we’re celebrating St. David - and from all the tales and legends the one thing that stands out for most people is a line from St David’s very last sermon – he said “Do the little things”.
What does that mean really?
Sometimes the suffering in the world- the atrocities of war, the pandemic, poverty, injustice – can all seem so insurmountable that we feel helpless and unable to do anything to make a difference.
But we can - as I realised the other day when I received a little text message.
I first met Azam -a refugee from Iran -four years ago at a hostel for the homeless in my home town of Pontypridd. He was 16 - traumatised, often in tears and trusting no one. After a heavy snowfall they said he was wandering, with no coat, around the town and looking lost. When I found him, there was nothing else I could do except wrap him up with my scarf and gloves and take him back safely to the Hostel. And I thought no more about it.
And yet it sowed the seed of trust between us - and we’ve been through a great deal together over the past four years. Two weeks ago, after another snowfall, Azam sent me a text -it read “ Remember that time you searched through all the town for me in the snow. It is a memory -I will keep it in my heart “
It touched my heart, that a little thing for me - had meant a lot to him. In the same way when I’m feeling low, an unexpected phone call, a card through the door or a smile across the street can change the whole complexion of the day.
Loving God - Remind us that each small encounter has the potential to make a connection – transform a life – shine a light in the darkness. Amen
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000sq7b)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000sq7d)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxh9)
Common Hawk Cuckoo
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the common hawk cuckoo from the Bengal region. The repetitive call of the common hawk-cuckoo, otherwise known as the brain-fever bird, is one of the typical sounds of rural India and on into the foothills of the Himalayas. Its name partly derives from its call sounding like "brain fever" but also what one writer called its repetition being a "damnable iteration". It looks like a bird of prey, and flies like one too, imitating the flapping glide of a sparrowhawk in the region, known as the shikra, often accompanied by mobbing small birds. Unwittingly as they mob her, birds like babblers betray their nest, into which the cuckoo will lay her egg.
MON 06:00 Today (m000sqqs)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000sqqy)
Monsters of the deep
The deep sea is the last, vast wilderness on Earth. In The Brilliant Abyss the marine biologist Helen Scales dives below the surface to tell the story of our relationship with the ocean floor. With an average depth of 12,000 feet it remains a frontier for new discoveries and extraordinary creatures. But Helen Scales warns Andrew Marr of the unfolding environmental disasters as people seek to exploit this new world, far beyond the public gaze.
The writer Philip Hoare explores nature through the work of the artist Albrecht Dürer. From his 15th century prints of the plague-ridden Apocalypse to his leviathans in the deep, Dürer’s works were a revelation. In Albert & the Whale Hoare writes about the enduring quality of his art and its powerful message about the fragile beauty of the natural world.
The journalist Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the international bestseller, The Sixth Extinction, which was a clear-eyed account of humanity’s impact on the Earth. In Under A White Sky she asks whether through scientific innovation we can reverse some of the damage done. She meets those re-engineering ‘super coral’ which can withstand hotter waters and those tasked with saving the rarest fish species in the world.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sqt6)
Episode 1
Adrian Scarborough reads from journalist Robert Penn’s account of his search for the perfect bread made from ancient wheat grains – a quest that takes him to several countries around the world, including Egypt, Turkey and America, before he returns home to grow his own wheat in the Black Mountains in Wales. Can he learn to plant, harvest, thresh and bake enough sourdough bread to feed his family for a year?
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Producer: Bruce Young
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sqr6)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 10:45 Gudrun (m000sqrb)
Series 7
Episode 1
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas
Gudrun, a young woman from 11th century Iceland, forges her path through a world of unearthly beauty yet uncompromising harshness. Having given birth at sea and survived the treacherous voyage home from the Vinland, Gudrun believes her young son, Jesson, is destined for great things. Together, they embark on a pilgrimage to Rome.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Monk ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr
Kjartan ….. Luke MacGregor
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
Despite the warmongering and bloodshed Gudrun is a story of family and a mother’s love. An avenging angel forged from violence, she continues to try and lead a good life in a man's world. She longs for the freedom to live her life according to her own rules.
Gudrun is under the protection of Freija, the Norse Goddess of love and war. Freija’s voice cries out for a new kind of leadership. She can sometimes be as slippery a customer as her protégée - is she really on Gudrun’s side or does she have an agenda of her own?
The show is inspired by the famous Laxdaela Saga featuring the original Nordic Noir heroine, Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir. There is speculation that the saga was written by a woman.
Kate Phillips reprises the role of Gudrun. She’s had starring roles in Wolf Hall, Peaky Blinders, War & Peace and most recently in Miss Scarlet and The Duke.
MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m000sqrg)
Hamza
Hamza Malik coaches basketball and martial arts, he's also studying to be a physiotherapist. He believes broadening access to sport can improve opportunities for disadvantaged kids
Alongside studying for his degree Hamza Malik coaches kids in the sports he loves: martial arts and basketball. He's based in the Mandela Centre in Leeds and since lock-down he's seen kids go one of three ways: sticking with the more limited fitness opportunities online; just dropping out altogether; or rising to the challenge and securing opportunities they couldn’t have foreseen. But he believes it didn’t need to be such a lottery and especially one that falls so heavily on those with so little.
Across the UK kids sports have suffered, from swimming lessons through to basketball, which is now suspended – Hamza says there is still no guidance on when players can get back into training. He's worried that mixed messages, stop start regulations and the long periods of absence, will permanently set back a lot of what had been achieved. He speaks to youngsters who have embraced these disruptions and made the best of the situation; with one securing a place at a prestigious prep school and with eyes on the NBA.
As well as the success stories, he's seen the impact of youngsters deciding not to continue and he worries about what will happen. Some of those hardest hit had used sport to stay engaged. They don’t have the facilities available to private schools and with most leisure centres closed or access restricted there’s a big loss on many levels. Hamza is keen to pursue those in a position to help in an attempt to secure the kind of funding and commitments necessary to really ensure that talent and potential won’t be lost forever.
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000sqrk)
Tim Harford reports on the global race to create a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000sqxz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000ssfj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 12:06 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sqrp)
Episode 6
When the North Kent Echo receives a letter from a woman claiming her daughter was the result of virgin birth, they send feature writer Jean Swinney to investigate.
Jean is almost 40 and and leads a restricted life with her demanding mother. But as she becomes more deeply involved with Gretchen, Howard and Margaret Tilbury, things begin to change.
Episode Six
Gretchen stays home to look after a sick Margaret. Jean and Howard drive off together to visit Howard’s aunt.
The author Clare Chambers was born in Croydon and studied English at Hertford College, Oxford. After graduating she lived for a year in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel Uncertain Terms at the age of 22. Small Pleasures was a BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick.
Writer: Clare Chambers
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:20 You and Yours (m000sqrr)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000sqrt)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000sqrw)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000sqry)
Jumping Fleas
Over 80% of animals on our planet are insects, and yet these six-legged rulers of the world can appear as alien or as strange as many a mythic beast. Yet those who’ve been studying these wondrous species, both now and in the past, have discovered a treasure trove of remarkable insights that have fuelled knowledge across many branches of science – from evolution to robotics, and from genetics to forensics.
Dr Erica McAlister of London's Natural History Museum takes a look at some of these entomological pioneers, and how their groundbreaking observations and experiments have led to some truly innovative developments.
She first sets out to examine the jump of the humble flea. Most flea legs average just 3mm and so, without much length, they really don’t have much time to generate energy to push off the ground. So how do these tiny insects achieve jumps of over 20cm? Dame Miriam Rothschild had a life-long fascination with these acrobatic insects. Through intricate dissections of the flea anatomy and innovative high speed filming, she claimed a flea’s jump was not just down to their muscles. Her insights, along with fellow entomologists, have led to discoveries of the most elastic substance in the natural world and a means of acceleration that is fuelling the development of innovative jumping micro robots.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
MON 14:00 Homeschool History (m000sqs0)
The Scottish Wars of Independence
Join Greg Jenner for a fun history lesson on the medieval Scottish Wars of Independence. Why couldn’t England and Scotland get along? Why should you never battle on a bridge? And what one Earth does a spider have to do with anything?
Historical Consultant: Dr Iain MacInnes
Produced by Abi Paterson
Scripted by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Research Assistance by Hannah MacKenzie
A production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:15 Drama (m000sqs2)
Top of the World
Top of the World is Gloria’s chart-topping podcast that promises healing with altitude. She’s a relationship therapist who takes troubled couples for mountain walks. These people have problems, but the summit of Schiehallion or Helvellyn lends perspective. Secrets are shared, buried traumas are exposed to the healing mountain light.
Sian and Jamie have felt their ten year marriage crumble as political arguments became personal and Covid lockdown kept them from their one shared interest. Their mutual friend Tom, a big fan of the podcast, has asked Gloria to help out. The unhappy couple agree to a hike up Cadair Idris in search of reconciliation.
Gloria: Jeany Spark
Sian: Siwan Morris
Jamie: Robert Wilfort
Tom: Matthew Aubrey
Writer: Hugh Costello
Director: Alasdair Cross
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m000sqs4)
Series 34
The Final
(13/13)
The three competitors whose musical knowledge has carried them successfully through heats and semi-finals in this year's tournament now go head to head, in the contest for the 2021 Counterpoint title. They are all taking part from home under Covid lockdown restrictions.
Paul Gambaccini's questions range across the usual wide variety of musical genres. Classic rock, 90s R&B and 19th century opera feature in just the first few questions, and there's a 1970s soul hit in an unusual arrangement. The competitors will also have to pick a special topic on which to answer their own individual questions, for which they've had no chance to prepare.
Hoping to take home the Counterpoint trophy are
Steven Lodge, a care support worker from Somerset
Anju Sharda, a civil servant from Hertfordshire
Martin Warlow, a former civil servant from Pembrokeshire.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000sq5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Shock Waves (m000sqs7)
Writer Naomi Alderman
When a shock wave hits the world, how do artists respond? In a new five-part series, artists chronicle how they have responded to the crisis. Dare they dream and imagine what work might emerge out of the pandemic?
In January 2020, author Naomi Alderman was four years into writing her next book, the fictional story of a flu-like virus spreading across the globe, carried by pigeons. One month later, with 180,000 words under her belt, she decided she had to stop. The story seemed too close to reality. In this programme, Naomi traces the pandemic year through her writing and speaks to fellow novelists, literary historians and to her editor about how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on the world of literature and how big shocks have affected literature in the past.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000sqsb)
Series 22
Troll
In the early days of the internet, trolls were nothing to fear. Comedians, tricksters, harmless pranksters ready to waste a little time or pounce on a typo. Some people enjoyed a bit of provocation to spark some spirited debate. You had flamers and griefers, but in general communities were good at booting out malicious actors, while leaving the trickers to their fun.
But in 2021, things are very different. In the past, a random troll post on 4Chan would quickly sink into obscurity. Now, one proved the start of the QAnon movement that lead to an attempted coup in Washington DC.
Malicious trolls are now the dominant type across our shared internet spaces, their numbers are rising, and their influence spreading both online and off, causing harm to both individuals and wider society.
Aleks Krotoski explores troll evolution, finding out why maliciousness became an evolutionary advantage in the digital space, and asking what happens when being a troll is becoming the new normal.
MON 17:00 PM (m000sqsd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sqsj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000sqsl)
Series 86
Episode 2
Sue Perkins hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where she challenges guests Stephen Fry, Jenny Eclair, Desiree Burch and Paul Merton to talk on the subjects of her choice without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. This episode was produced using remote recording technology, with both panel and audience joining from their homes all over the world. Caroline Barlow blows the whistle.
Devised by Ian Messiter
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000sql5)
Harrison delivers some unexpected news, and Susan has ambitions.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000sqsn)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Gudrun (m000sqrb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Wedding Detectives (m000nl79)
Episode 1
Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost, discarded or even thrown away?
Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family.
This time, the Wedding Detectives find just two photographs from the 1959 high society wedding of Tim and Sonya Bryant but, following clues, uncover a trail that takes them to West Cornwall and an extraordinary story involving Einstein, Marconi, landed gentry in decline, the author of the Chamomile Lawn Mary Wesley, infidelity and a trial for murder.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000sqsq)
Magic Weapons
There used to be a romantic notion of globalisation that all countries would simply have to get along as we were all so interconnected. Why fight when your interests are aligned? It’s an idea that has made direct military engagement less likely. But something very different has emerged in its place.
We live in a new era of conflict, where states try to achieve their aims through aggressive measures that stay below the threshold of war. This is a strategy of statecraft with a long history, but which has a new inflection in our technologically charged, globalised world.
Now a mix of cyber, corruption and disinformation is employed to mess with adversaries. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has referred to political influence activities as being one of the Chinese Communist Party's 'magic weapons'.
In this edition of Analysis, Peter Pomerantsev looks at how political warfare works in a world where we’re all economically entangled - and what Britain could and should do to adapt.
Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 Cultural Exchange: Bristol (m000sqss)
Radio 4 documentary.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000sqqy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sqsw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sqrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000sq99)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sqsz)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 02 MARCH 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000sqt2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sqt6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sqt9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sqtc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sqtf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000sqth)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sqtk)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Beverley Humphreys.
Good morning.
As Spring arrives I’m often woken by the dawn chorus. While the sky is still dark, a lone voice – perhaps a robin or a blackbird – begins to sing, and one by one the others join in: wren, chaffinch, sometimes a song thrush.
This beauty has a purpose – the birds sing their hearts out before sunrise to communicate messages about territory and courtship . And the essence of their mystery has inspired poets like Shakespeare and Keats and composers like Ravel and Vaughan Williams. Even the Beatles sampled the song of a blackbird.
For some people, birdsong is a gift from God – the composer Messiaen felt that it was part of God’s purpose – and his fascination led him to record and analyse the sounds and use them in his own music. For him birdsong was like a prayer - an intimacy with the divine.
During this past year, on our daily walks in towns, parks or countryside, or listening through an open window - for many of us, birdsong has lifted our spirits, it’s helped to restore our mental health, and provided a sense of constancy.
While our lives have been disrupted and turned upside down, the rhythms of nature have continued seemingly unaffected, as they have for millions of years. Perhaps we’ve discovered a new and deeper connection with this aspect of life that we’ve previously taken for granted.
Spirit of God - help us to protect and nurture the natural world, inspire us to listen and sing with the whole of creation. Even in pain, loss or confusion, help us never to lose our sense of wonder, as we are touched by the beauty of this world. Amen
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000sqtm)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0hgk)
Eastern Orphean Warbler
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the eastern orphean warbler in an olive grove near Athens. Until recently there used to be just a single species of Orphean Warbler; a summer visitor to southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia: a handsome bird much like a large blackcap with a white throat and greyish-brown back. But across the wide breeding range which stretches from Portugal to Pakistan some orphean warblers look and sound different. Those east of Italy tend to be subtly greyer above and paler beneath. And the songs of birds from Greece eastwards are longer and richer, often including the richness of nightingale like notes. These slight differences have persuaded many ornithologists that the Eastern Orphean warbler is a different species to the Western Orphean Warbler. Biologists call this "splitting "although exactly where these new species boundaries lie is a moot point.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000sqk4)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000sqk6)
Sarah Bridle on how changing our diet could help to save the planet
What would happen to our carbon emissions if we all went vegan? Astrophysicist, Sarah Bridle tells Jim Al-Khalili why she switched her attention from galaxies to food. A rising star in the study of extra-galactic astronomy, Sarah was the driving force behind one of the most ambitious astronomy projects of recent times, the Dark Energy Survey of the universe. A few years ago, concerned about climate change, she started trying to calculate the carbon emissions from different foods so that she could make more informed choices about what she was eating. Before long, she was adapting the statistical tools and techniques she had developed to study dark matter and dark energy, to quantify the carbon cost of different foods and lobby government to make food labels indicating carbon cost of different foods compulsory.
Producer: Anna Buckley
TUE 09:30 One to One (m000sqk8)
Friendship: Sima Kotecha speaks to Ella Risbridger
BBC News correspondent Sima Kotecha talks to the cook and writer Ella Risbridger about friendship - from declaring someone your best friend after a drunken party to longer term, deeper relationships. Are group friendships better than one on one relationships, and how much can you really depend on friends when the chips are down?
Produced by Caitlin Hobbs for BBC Audio in Bristol
TUE 09:45 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sqkb)
Episode 2
In Egypt - where the rich alluvial soil once made the Nile delta the grain store of the Roman world - Robert Penn learns how to scythe wheat as farmers have done for thousands of years. Back in Wales he makes his first attempt to harvest his own home-grown wheat.
Read by Adrian Scarborough
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Producer: Bruce Young
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sqkf)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 10:45 Gudrun (m000sqkh)
Series 7
Episode 2
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
On the road to Rome, Gudrun has befriended reckless adventuress, Truda, and believes their destinies are intertwined. Truda has other ideas.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Tobias ….. Hasan Dixon
Abbot Bettega ….. Roger Ringrose
Young Sigrid ….. Rosie Boore
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
TUE 11:00 Club 18-30 (m000sqkm)
Marie Le Conte explores the shared experiences of people aged 29 to 33, members of the so-called crisis cohort, who have had their adult lives book-ended by the financial crash of 2008 and the huge economic downturn caused by the Coronavirus.
Marie examines what defines this generation of young, or not so young, people and what adulthood means for them. She explores the ways that living through the crisis has shaped emotional literacy and economic fortunes. And she hears stories of how the crises has left its mark on physical fitness - from running through the stress to the legacy lockdown leaves on the body.
Finally, she asks how her generation has seen these twin crises shape their values - both politically and personally..
Presenter: Marie Le Conte
Producer: Steve Hankey
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:30 The Price of Song (m000sqkp)
Amid the boom in music streaming, John Wilson investigates the value of the songs that provide the soundtracks to our lives.
COVID lockdowns have seen a huge surge in streaming, with 155 million premium subscribers to Spotify alone, a 25% increase on the previous year. Record companies have enjoyed huge profits. But with musicians unable to play live for over a year, the iniquities of the streaming royalties system have been exposed. The people who actually create the music have realised they are getting a raw deal. Meanwhile, seasoned songwriters are queuing up to sell the publishing rights to their lyrics and compositions for huge sums. Universal recently paid a reported $300m for Bob Dylan’s songwriting catalogue.
Merck Mercuriadis, founder of the FTSE 250 company Hipgnosis, explains why he's on a multi-million dollar spending spree, buying up the rights to classic works by the likes of Neil Young, Blondie and Fleetwood Mac. John also talks to Björn Ulvaeus, one half of the ABBA songwriting team, who was recently appointed President of CISAC, the global confederation of authors’ societies and to Sir Paul McCartney, who believes younger songwriters deserve a better deal from streaming royalties. And Fiona Bevan, who co-wrote a global number one hit for One Direction, reveals how a recent song she wrote for Kylie Minogue, that has had over a million streams so far, will reap her just £100 in royalties.
The music industry has changed beyond recognition in recent years, and music seems to be more available than ever before. But in our quest to have the music we crave, are we forgetting to give back enough so that we can really saying a proper thank you for the music.
Interviewees:
Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis Songs Fund
Björn Ulvaeus, songwriter
Paul McCartney, songwriter
Fiona Bevan, songwriter
Nadine Shah, songwriter
Tom Gray, songwriter, founder of Broken Record campaign
Laura Barton, music journalist
Tim Collins, CEO of Creed Media
Presented and produced by John Wilson for BBC Wales
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000sqkr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000ssf8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 12:06 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sqkt)
Episode 7
When the North Kent Echo receives a letter from a woman claiming her daughter was the result of virgin birth, they send feature writer Jean Swinney to investigate.
Jean is almost 40 and and leads a restricted life with her demanding mother. But as she becomes more deeply involved with Gretchen, Howard and Margaret Tilbury, things begin to change.
Episode Seven
Gretchen leaves Howard, and everything is thrown into confusion.
The author Clare Chambers was born in Croydon and studied English at Hertford College, Oxford. After graduating she lived for a year in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel Uncertain Terms at the age of 22. Small Pleasures was a BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick.
Writer: Clare Chambers
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:20 You and Yours (m000sqkw)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000sqky)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000sql0)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000sql2)
Mighty Mouthparts
Erica McAlister unravels the mystery of the hawkmoth’s tongue , whose length has offered the simplest and most effective proof of Natural Selection in action - and is now enspiring bioengineers in the development of nanoprobes
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000sql5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000sql7)
The Ventriloquist's Dummy
No one seems to know what is wrong with Jess. No one but The Gut, that is. But Jess isn’t listening.
Amanda Dalton’s drama documentary explores the history of ventriloquism, the relationship between mind and body and the mysterious wisdom of the gut.
Jess.....CHRISTINE BOTTOMLEY
Eurycles.....SANJEEV BHASKAR
The Gut.....MEERA SYAL
Programme Consultant Dr Nick Read
Directed by Nadia Molinari
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000sql9)
Motherhood
Josie Long presents short documentaries and adventures in sound about mothers and motherhood.
We hear a story of a recurrent dream about searching for an absent mother, Heather O'Neill delves into the ways her mother and her own experience of motherhood have threaded through her life, and the writer Nikesh Shukla reflects on ways to remember a mother you've lost.
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000sqlc)
How to Halve Emissions by 2030
The COP26 conference in Glasgow in November is going to be a very important moment in tackling climate change. We are currently not on track to meet the goal of limiting global temperature rise to between 1.5 and 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to halve total emissions by the end of 2030 if we’re to be on track to hit the 1.5 degree target and avoid the worst effects of a changing climate. To close the gap between pledges and action, countries need to sign up to policies and strategies that start to reduce emissions now. This is the challenge for the summit in Glasgow.
Tom Heap is joined in the studio by Nigel Topping, the High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26, to discuss the ambition of the summit and the momentum that is building not just among governments but cities, investors and businesses to deliver net zero by mid-century. They hear from three experts who will give us real world practical solutions to achieve far-reaching carbon cuts by 2030: Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, Chief Exec of the Green Finance Institute; Dr Stephen Cornelius, Chief advisor on Climate Change at WWF UK; and Dr Angela Wilkinson, CEO of the World Energy Council. Can we really halve emissions by 2030?
Producer: Sophie Anton
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000sqlf)
Covid and the Law
Government rules to suppress the spread of Covid-19 range from mere guidance to regulations enforceable under criminal law. How do we tell the difference? And will these laws stay on the statute books beyond the pandemic, or lapse in due course?
And what happens when human rights appear to contradict each other? Examples include when the right to life (to not die of Covid-19) conflicts with the freedom of assembly and association, or with the right to enjoy family relationships without interference from government. And there is the loss of the right to participate in a demonstration even though it could be conducted with protesters staying two meters apart, outdoors.
The backlog of cases waiting to be tried at Crown Courts alone is now well over 50,000. We assess the impact of the delays on victims of crime. We examine the challenge to justice if long waits mean witnesses forget details or withdraw, or defendants are held on remand for months or even years.
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Researcher: Diane Richardson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000sqlh)
Twayna Mayne & Simon Savidge
Twayna Mayne proposes Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric. Simon Savidge (and his mum) both love An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and Harriett choose Actress by Anne Enright.
Producer Sally Heaven
Join the conversation on Instagram: @agoodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000sqlk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sqlm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000ssk7)
Series 4
Episode 1: If You Like A Lot Of Chocolate On Your Biscuit...
Welcome back to Hardacre’s advertising agency, as Edward Rowett’s award-winning sitcom returns for a fourth series.
It’s February 2019, nobody’s ever heard of a coronavirus, and Rupert Hardacre hasn’t been seen since Christmas.
At the agency, things have been running remarkably smoothly in his absence. Still high on the success of his Christmas campaign for Walton’s department store, Joe (Mathew Baynton) is filling Hardacre’s shoes as creative director, while accounts manager Amanda (Josie Lawrence) is enjoying herself as de facto head of the agency. Only art director Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker) frets about the whereabouts of their missing leader.
As Joe discovers the perks of being creative top dog, running with a new crowd and making a new friend (Oliver Chris), everyone begins to ask themselves the same question...
Who needs Rupert Hardacre?
Cast:
Nigel Havers – Hardacre
Mathew Baynton – Joe
Josie Lawrence – Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker – Teddy
Oliver Chris – Ace
Holly Morgan – Client/Waitress
Esh Alladi – Mikey
Written by Edward Rowett
Directed by Alan Nixon
Script edited by Mark Evans
Edited and Engineered by Jerry Peal
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Based on an original idea by Edward Rowett and Robert Frimstone
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios, London
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000sqlp)
There’s tension at Greenacres, and Phoebe finds herself losing control.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000sqlr)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Gudrun (m000sqkh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000sqlt)
Shipping’s Dirty Secret
The shipping industry is worth millions to the British economy and we depend on it for most of our goods. File on 4 lifts the lid on the dangerous and polluting world of shipbreaking and investigates why ships once owned by UK companies end their lives on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000sqlw)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000sqly)
PRESENTER: James Gallagher
PRODUCER: Beth Eastwood
MUSIC COPYRIGHT: ‘Training with Mr Schaibel’ by Carolos Rafael Rivera from the official soundtrack of The Queens Gambit
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000sqk6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sqm0)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sqkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000sqm2)
Martian Sandwiches and Mob Weddings, with Nick Bryant
This week Fi Glover and Jane Garvey are joined by BBC New York Correspondent, Nick Bryant. Nick takes Fi and Jane back to relive their own experiences of the big apple. He also gives the lowdown on his last four years of 'heavy metal' reporting and how it built into his new book When America Stopped Being Great. Before Nick dialled in from the NYC studio there's post-lockdown lists, War of the Worlds singalongs and some cinematic revisionism.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sqm4)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 03 MARCH 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000sqm6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sqkb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sqm8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sqmb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sqmd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000sqmg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sqmj)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Beverley Humphreys.
Good Morning. Today is Budget Day. The Chancellor’s speech will discuss taxes journalists will compute the likely effects on prices. One thing that won’t be discussed is the cost of love and what happens when you haven’t received any.
A few years ago I was sitting in a draughty hall with a young man who’d just arrived at the Night Shelter. David was homeless, he’d been in and out of care for years and alcohol was his only escape from depression and the chaos of his life. On a faded poster on the wall were the words “God is love”. He said “Huh !!- what’s that all about!”!? No-one’s loved me since I was five”. Instinctively I put my hand over his and found myself saying “David, you and I sitting here, over a cup of tea, your hand in mine - that’s a kind of love”. He managed a rueful smile and falteringly began to share some of his feelings.
I don’t know whether David remembers that – all these years later –but I do. It reminds me that love comes in all shapes and sizes.
Jesus told us that love is the most important thing in life and he asked us to love one another- just as he loves us. It sounds simple but it’s a challenge. The love that Jesus talks about is strong and it’s contagious - it crosses borders - it crosses religions and cultures and can occur between people who will never see each other again and yet still bring hope, even in the darkest moments.
All-embracing Lord . When we feel unloved and yearn to belong, show us that in the circle of your love we are infinitely precious; that you know our name, share our secrets and still call us to be yours - and most of all- loved. Amen
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000sqml)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0p9q)
Montserrat Oriole
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents Montserrat oriole from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In 1995, after being dormant for over 300 years, a volcano on erupted. The eruption not only destroyed Montserrat's capital but much of the wildlife couldn't escape, and one bird, the Montserrat oriole was almost silenced forever. The male is a colourful bird with coal-black head, wings and tail and underparts the colour of egg-yolk. It is one of the most endangered birds in the world, a bird caught between a rock and a hard place. Its forest home had already been reduced by cultivation and introduced predators. It was reduced to living in fragmented pockets of forest, two thirds of which were destroyed in the 1995 and later eruptions. This threatened to wipe out an already endangered bird. So, conservationists from Jersey Zoo moved 8 orioles into captivity to avoid natural extinction and now a captive breeding programme is successfully underway, such as this oriole specially recorded for Tweet of the Day at Chester Zoo.
WED 06:00 Today (m000sr3m)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000sr3p)
How to Stop Men Hurting Women
Sangita Myska goes in search of the innovators who think they hold the key to improving the way we live.
Jackson Katz believes abuse perpetrated by men against women can be prevented and ended, forever.
His idea starts with upending how we see the problem, “Violence against women is in fact a men's issue. The very act of calling rape or domestic violence a women's issue, shifts the focus of accountability and responsibility off of men and puts it onto women - which I consider a subtle form of victim blaming.”
His solution involves the bystander approach, where men make misogynist beliefs completely unacceptable.
To stress test Jackson’s idea, Sangita is joined by a panel of experts: David Gadd, Professor of Criminology at the University of Manchester, Dr Olumide Adisa, Head of Centre for Abuse Research at the University of Suffolk and Chloe Bustin, Senior Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team
Producer: Sarah Bowen
WED 09:30 Will Self Takes the Waters (m000sr3r)
A Kind of Magic
Will Self explores the role of magic in our insatiable thirst for mineral water and health spas.
Today, Will is transported to Scandinavia, as he samples popular Swedish mineral water, Ramlösa. He explores the magical qualities ascribed to water - now and in the past.
He also discusses a brand of glacial meltwater, which comes with an £85 price tag.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
(Photo credit: Luther Self)
WED 09:45 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sr3t)
Episode 3
In America, Robert Penn discovers how the combine harvester transformed the vast plains of the Midwest. In Wales, his first harvest provides enough flour to make bread for a year – but it’s still a disappointing return for his back-breaking labours.
Read by Adrian Scarborough
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Producer: Bruce Young
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sr3w)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 10:45 Gudrun (m000sr3y)
Series 7
Episode 3
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun and Truda embark on a quest to find a renowned Holy relic.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Nun ….. Emma Handy
Woman ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
WED 11:00 Science Stories (m0001jqh)
Eddington's Eclipse and Einstein's Celebrity
Eddington's Eclipse and Einstein's Celebrity
Philip Ball's tale is of a solar eclipse 100 years ago observed by Arthur Eddington, a British astronomer who travelled to the remote island of Principe off the coast of West Africa and saw the stars shift in the heavens. His observations supplied the crucial proof of a theory that transformed our notions of the cosmos and turned a German physicist named Albert Einstein into an international celebrity. But this is also a tale of how a Quaker tried to use science to unite countries. The reparations imposed on Germany after the war extended into science too as many in Great Britain and other Allied nations felt that German science should be ostracised from the international community. As a Quaker, Eddington wanted just the opposite: to see peaceful cooperation restored among nations.
Producer: Erika Wright
WED 11:30 Ability (m000sr40)
Series 3
Working 9 to 5
Matt is 27. He has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app on his iPad. Everyone who cares about Matt knows that this isn't the defining thing about him.
He is funny and clever and "up for stuff" - partly because he is keen to show that there's nothing he can't do, but also because, if he's honest, he's aware that he's less likely than other people to get the blame.
In this third series of the award-nominated comedy, Matt is still sharing a flat with his best mate, Jess (Sammy Dobson.) He still has his rubbish carer, Bob (Jason Lewis) and over the last year or so the three of them have been through a lot together - well a lot of drinking and hangovers anyway. Now, finally, Matt has met a woman he likes and who also seems to like him (Anna, played by Lisa Hammond).
She is a solicitor after all and he wants her to respect him - so the next step is to get a job. But Matt's new boss isn't so sure how capable Matt is going to be of dealing with customer complaints. Matt proves himself though, and Anna comes round to cook him a celebratory meal. Perfect!
Then Jess texts from her holiday in California and, just as things seems to be going so well with Anna, Matt starts to have doubts.
Ability is the semi-autobiographical co-creation of the 2018 Britain’s Got Talent winner, Lee Ridley, otherwise known as Lost Voice Guy. Like his sitcom creation, Lee has cerebral palsy and can only speak via an app. He is - probably - the first stand up comedian to use a communication aid. Prior to BGT, Lee won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014. He has written and performed four full Edinburgh shows and completed major sell out tours of the UK.
The series is co-written by Kat Butterfield and Daniel Audritt. It's set in Newcastle and many of the cast last played together as children in Biker’s Grove.
A Funny Bones production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000sr42)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000ssfb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 12:06 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sr44)
Episode 8
When the North Kent Echo receives a letter from a woman claiming her daughter was the result of virgin birth, they send feature writer Jean Swinney to investigate.
Jean is almost 40 and and leads a restricted life with her demanding mother. But as she becomes more deeply involved with Gretchen, Howard and Margaret Tilbury, things begin to change.
Episode Eight
Jean has been focused on the dynamics of the Tilbury family and her relationship with Howard, but now she has troubles closer to home.
The author Clare Chambers was born in Croydon and studied English at Hertford College, Oxford. After graduating she lived for a year in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel Uncertain Terms at the age of 22. Small Pleasures was a BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick.
Writer: Clare Chambers
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:20 World at One (m000sr4b)
Live coverage of the chancellor's Budget speech with analysis and reaction.
WED 13:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000sr4d)
Drosophila Melanogastronaut
Erica McAlister examines the innocuous flies that are Drosophila melanogaster. They’d be content to spend life doing nothing much more than hovering around a pile of rotting apples and getting drunk. But we now know more about these flies than any other animal on the planet, as a model for human biology and genetics.
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000sqlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000sr4j)
Holding Back the Tide
The Woman In Puce
by Nick Warburton
Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Vanessa ..... Jessica Turner
Directed by Sally Avens
When Richard and Clare Wells inherit a house in Breck Howe they also inherit a sitting tenant, John Hector, who views the house and the town as his own personal fiefdom. Today John's bravado takes a battering when his past returns to haunt him.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000sr4n)
How might the Budget affect you?
Paul Lewis is joined by a panel of experts to discuss how the Budget might affect your finances.
Panellists:
Anita Monteith – Tax manager at Institute of Chartered Accounts in England and Wales
Heather Self - partner, Blick Rothenberg Accountants
Tina Riches – volunteer, Tax Aid
Gareth Morgan - chief executive, Ferret
You can also e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @moneybox.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000sqly)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000sr4s)
4. Looping the Loop
Matthew Syed asks what the world's greatest fighter pilot can tell us about decision making. He discovers a theory that transformed warfare and might have played a key role in Brexit.
John Boyd was a rebel. The quintessential fighter pilot, complete with a cigar permanently installed in his mouth. A legend within the US Air Force, he was known to be able to shoot down any opponent in a dogfight in under 40 seconds.
Boyd developed a decision making tool that would take the military by storm. He argued that the path to victory could be boiled down to a core process: observe, orient, decide, act - OODA. He explained that this process looped, with each action leading to a new opportunity to observe. To defeat an enemy all you had to do was disrupt their OODA loop.
Matthew will reveal that Dominic Cummings is a Boyd devotee, deploying his decision making tactics during the Brexit campaign with great effect.
While the OODA loop is highly effecting in confrontational settings, Matthew asks whether this form of thinking works when co-operation, rather than domination, is the name of the game.
Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick
Series Editor: Russell Finch
Executive Producer: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000sr4x)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m000sr53)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sr59)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar (m000sr5h)
Episode 4
Granny Kumar is back! Meera Syal’s glorious comedy creation returns, with her great granddaughter Maya (Ambreen Razia) and arch nemesis “frenemy” Geeta (Harvey Virdi) to chat with the sisters.
Left alone while her family are stuck in quarantine on a world cruise, Granny Kumar decides to host her own series, born out of frustration at seeing or hearing the same old parade of guests on chat shows (mainly male, pale and stale).
She wonders why no one interviews any of the sisters and asks them about their extraordinary, complex and uplifting stories.
So, Gossip and Goddesses is born – Ummi Kumar gathers together her favourite inspirational women at Wembley Community Centre, aided by her millennial great granddaughter Maya and her arch nemesis “frenemy” Geeta, leader of the local Asian Ladies Silver Bats community group.
The show is a women-only party, where they share stories, laugh loads and chew the fat/dish the dirt/eat the biscuits…
A blend of sitcom, silliness and improvised chat, led by the best kind of interviewers who know how to make anyone talk - two really nosy old Indian women.
Guests:
Author and Any Answers presenter Anita Anand, and Grammy nominated sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar
Cast:
Ummi Kumar – Meera Syal
Geeta Bhandari – Harvey Virdi
Maya Kumar – Ambreen Razia
Written by Meera Syal
Music by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000sr5p)
Ruairi’s suggestion causes controversy, and Jim questions himself.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000sr5v)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Gudrun (m000sr3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000sr61)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Andrew Doyle, Melanie Phillips, Mona Siddiqui and Mathew Taylor. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m000sr67)
Faith in 'Lost Causes'
A personal, hopeful reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter.
Businessman Sir John Timpson considers what he has learned as an employer of ex-prisoners and as a foster carer.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000sqlc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000sr4x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sr6f)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000sr44)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
WED 23:00 Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum (m000sr6m)
Episode 1
Working-class comedian Tom Mayhew takes you on an autobiographical journey through the benefits system in a stand-up series that takes a wry sideways look at the prejudices that people have towards benefits claimants and turns those assumptions on their heads. In this episode, Tom heads to the job centre to meet his advisor, Carol, and talks about what it's really like at the Jobcentre Plus. Also featuring guest comic Darren Harriott.
Tom Mayhew is a critically acclaimed comedian, whose material about being working class – mixing the personal and the political, with the punchline-rate of a one-liner comic – sets him apart from any other act on the circuit. Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum is based on Mayhew's acclaimed Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew, which transferred to a sell-out run at the Soho Theatre.
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
Production Co-ordinator...Carina Andrews
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000sr6w)
Series 3
Episode 8
Jon Holmes's award winning satirical river of sound returns to twist itself into the news.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sr6z)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 04 MARCH 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000sr73)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000sr3t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sr77)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sr7b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sr7d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000sr7g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sr7j)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Beverley Humphreys.
Good Morning. At the start of a new day we often make a mental to-do list - a litany of challenges we face. Worries crowd in about health, money, job - and today -World Book Day -which fictional characters the children are going to dress up as for their school zoom lesson !
Or maybe for you, the prospect for today is yet another yawning stretch of monotonous nothingness.
Over this past year, the whole pattern of our days has changed - future plans are uncertain. We wait for news of vaccinations, we long for the company, cuddles and conversation of the people we love. So we wait and wish the time away but maybe that means we‘re losing this moment – not opening the gift that each God-given moment brings. We’re getting ready to live again but not actually living now.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said “Don’t worry about tomorrow – it’ll have enough worries of its own”.
Living totally in the present doesn’t take away the experience of the past or the mystery of the longed-for future, but it can light up the completeness of this minute - that we are alive now and connected to everything around us.
The hidden heart of each moment is there - if we allow ourselves to really look, listen, smell, taste and touch.
So as we prepare and plan for the new day, let’s savour every sensation – from the smell of the coffee to the colour of the sunrise.
Living Lord. We know that our life is made up of moments – help us to live completely the life contained in each moment you give us – and thank you for it.
Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000sr7l)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q6156)
Birdgirl Mya Rose Craig on the Black Browed Albatross
Young conservationist and Birdgirl Mya Rose Craig aged 14 recalls the excitement of seeing a black browed albatross in Cornwall at the age of seven, thousands of miles from where it should be seen in Antarctica.
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 Maggie Ayre.
THU 06:00 Today (m000srdv)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000srdx)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
In this 900th edition of the programme, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the best known and most influential of the poems of the Romantic movement. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 1798 after discussions with his friend Wordsworth. He refined it for the rest of his life, and it came to define him, a foreshadowing of his opium-addicted, lonely wandering and deepening sense of guilt. The poem tells of a sailor compelled to tell and retell the story of a terrible voyage in his youth, this time as guests are heading to a wedding party, where he stoppeth one of three.
The image above is from Gustave Doré's illustration of the mariner's shooting of the albatross, for an 1877 German language edition of the poem
With
Sir Jonathan Bate
Professor of Environmental Humanities at Arizona State University
Tom Mole
Professor of English Literature and Book History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Rosemary Ashton
Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000srdz)
Episode 4
In his quest for the perfect bread, journalist Robert Penn examines how from ancient times white bread became the preserve of the richer classes, while the coarsest brown loaves were eaten by the poor.
Read by Adrian Scarborough
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Producer: Bruce Young
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000srf1)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 10:45 Gudrun (m000srf3)
Series 7
Episode 4
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun and Truda’s plans are thrown into disarray when they arrive in Rome.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Garvinicus ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Nun ….. Emma Handy
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000srf5)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 The Confessional (m000rvq5)
Actor, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Mangan presents a comedy chat show about shame and guilt.
We’re used to hearing celebrity interviews, where stars are persuaded to show off about their achievements and talk about their proudest moments. Stephen is not interested in that. He doesn’t want to know what his guests are proud of, he wants to know what they’re ashamed of. That’s surely the way to find out what really makes a person tick.
Here, in a half hour of wit, hilarity and toe-curling revelation, he takes the confession of award-winning theatre, TV and film star David Tennant.
Tennant’s three stories of embarrassment and shame – that he’s carried around in secret for years – are put under the microscope and awarded appropriate penances, so that he can leave feeling guilt free.
Written and presented by Stephen Mangan
With extra material by Nick Doody
Produced by Dave Anderson and Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000srf7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000ssfn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 12:06 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000srf9)
Episode 9
When the North Kent Echo receives a letter from a woman claiming her daughter was the result of virgin birth, they send feature writer Jean Swinney to investigate.
Jean is almost 40 and and leads a restricted life with her demanding mother. But as she becomes more deeply involved with Gretchen, Howard and Margaret Tilbury, things begin to change.
Episode Nine
After visiting former patient Kitty, Jean gets closer to the truth of what happened at St Cecilia’s.
The author Clare Chambers was born in Croydon and studied English at Hertford College, Oxford. After graduating she lived for a year in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel Uncertain Terms at the age of 22. Small Pleasures was a BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick.
Writer: Clare Chambers
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:20 You and Yours (m000srfc)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000srff)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000srfh)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000srfk)
Episode 4
Erica McAlister examines the hoverfly that arguably undergoes biggest transformation of any animal on the planet. Its metamorphosis remained a mystery for centuries, but could now be a tool to track future climate change.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000sr5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000srfm)
Holding Back the Tide
Good Fences
by Nick Warburton
Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Mrs Cardabbon ..... Sue Jameson
Morton ..... Sue Jameson
Hedley ..... Nick Murchie
Directed by Sally Avens
Clare and Richard Wells have inherited a house in Breck Howe and a sitting tenant, John Hector, who views the house and the town as his own personal fiefdom.
When a new neighbour moves in next door it's not long before John and he lock horns over rights of way.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000srfp)
Reading the Landscape with Mary-Ann Ochota: Pegsdon Hills
How many times have you been out for a walk and spotted intriguing shapes in the landscape? Your instinct tells you that these dips, hollows, lumps, bumps and oddly shaped stones aren’t natural features, but what on (and under) the earth are they? Mary-Ann Ochota is an anthropologist who writes about these curious archaeological forms and how to understand them. In her book, Hidden Histories, she shows how anyone can become a landscape detective, and start to read the history of the countryside from the clues around them. On today’s Ramblings she takes Clare Balding for a walk around the Pegsdon Hills on the Hertfordshire-Bedfordshire border, and through 6000 years of British history.
Grid Ref for where we parked: TL133301
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sq5b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000sq67)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000srfr)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000srft)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world
THU 17:00 PM (m000srfw)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000srfy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Between Ourselves with Marian Keyes (m000srg0)
Health
Back for a second series, Marian Keyes continues to be a publishing sensation. Her works of fiction - Rachel's Holiday, The Break and her latest, Grown Ups, among many others - have sold in their millions across the globe.
Marian reads selections from her non-fiction writing in conversation with her friend, the actor Tara Flynn.
With the on-going international unpleasantness – and in the brief respite between lockdowns - this series was recorded without a studio audience at Marian’s home in County Dublin, Ireland. If you listen carefully you might hear the number 96A bus rumbling past, outside.
What we might lack in a studio audience reaction we hope to make up for in warmth and witty, good-natured companionship. The first series was described in The Observer as “a laugh out loud hoot” and the Daily Mail called it “bright, funny and clever”.
This week's theme is health. Alongside the craic, Marian explores her love of chemist shops, recalls a disastrous kettlebell class and... is hers really the sickest family in Ireland?
Presenters: Tara Flynn and Marian Keyes
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000srg3)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed and Keri Davies
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge .... Charles Collingwood
Phoebe Aldridge .... Lucy Morris
Harrison Burns ... James Cartwright
Susan Carter .... Charlotte Martin
Chris Carter ... Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Ian Craig .... Stephen Kennedy
Ruairi Donovan .... Arthur Hughes
Rex Fairbrother ... Nick Barber
Eddie Grundy .... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Mia Grundy .... Molly Pipe
Jim Lloyd .... John Rowe
Alistair Lloyd .... Michael Lumsden
Kate Madikane .... Perdita Avery
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller .... Annabelle Dowler
Peggy Woolley .... June Spencer
Jade .... Ayesha Antoine
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000srg7)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 Gudrun (m000srf3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000sqlf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000srgc)
Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000srft)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000srdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000srgk)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000srf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
THU 23:00 A Good Read (m000sqlh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000srgp)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 05 MARCH 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000srgt)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000srdz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000srgy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000srh2)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000srh6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000srhb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000srhd)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Beverley Humphreys.
Good morning. These days it’s easy to start a public campaign via email and social media, but in 1887 it was word of mouth that brought together a group of women in New York. They prayed together and worked to improve the poor living conditions they saw all around them. Over the years this grew into a global movement, and today - the World Day of Prayer – connects over 16 million people from 170 countries in their vision to work and pray about each other’s needs, hopes and fears.
The day of prayer begins as dawn breaks over the islands of Tonga, continues across each continent, encircling the world in prayer for 36 hours. The prayers reflect issues that affect everyone - from Education to Climate Change, and reflect the faith that God is present in every aspect of our lives, from the mundane to the monumental. So these are not just empty words - these prayers help to transform love into action.
The pandemic has shown us how interconnected we are - whatever affects us may also be experienced by someone tens of thousands of miles away. But how refreshing and reassuring it is that today - on World Day of Prayer - something so positive is spreading across the world. We can’t see it, can‘t touch it and yet it has the possibility of impinging on the life of every single one of us.
Generous God. As we face the challenges of our lives and of our world, enfold us and connect us with your love, give us the wisdom to search for your truth, the strength to work for justice and the joy of being close to you and to each other. Amen
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000srhg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q71yy)
John McPherson on the Ptarmigan
Ideally suited to its mountain habitat the ptarmigan enthralled photographer John McPherson as he climbed in the Cairngorms one winter's day. At one point a wheeling lone bird crash landed beside him, looking almost embarrassed to take a tumble.
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 Maggie Ayre.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000ss31)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000sq5s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure (m000ss4s)
Episode 5
Journalist Robert Penn explores how bread has been central to religion through the ages, how modern manufacturing processes have radically changed the taste of bread, and after weeks of trial and error he tries out his new bread-making skills on his family. Will they give him the thumbs-up for the perfect loaf?
Read by Adrian Scarborough
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Producer: Bruce Young
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000ss37)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 10:45 Gudrun (m000ss39)
Series 7
Episode 5
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun is reunited with a figure from her past when she is taken to meet the leader of a religious cult.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Garvinicus ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Sigrid ….. Hollie Burgess
Leif ….. Chris Pavlo
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
FRI 11:00 Britain's Fascist Thread (m000ss3c)
Episode 3
Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century of British fascism.
From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread.
But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed.
FRI 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000ss3f)
The Clipper of Comely Bank
By Michael Chaplin.
Edinburgh widower Leo still talks to his beloved wife Tamsin when he’s alone; though pregnant daughter Laura and housekeeper Sadie fill the house and his life.
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Tamsin ..... Beth Marshall
Claire ..... Blythe Duff
Sadie .....Tracy Wiles
Cristabel ..... Sylvestra Le Touzel
Laura ..... Samara Maclaren
Stephen ..... Alex Wingfield
Mark Bonnar stars as Leo Fabiani, a renowned painter who lost his wife and seems, ever since, to have become a magnet to all kinds of attractive women. We meet four of them in this new series.
Directed by Catherine Bailey
Created by Michael Chaplin and Marilyn Imrie.
A Catherine Bailey Production
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000ssch)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000ssfl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 12:06 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000ss3k)
Episode 10
When the North Kent Echo receives a letter from a woman claiming her daughter was the result of virgin birth, they send feature writer Jean Swinney to investigate.
Jean is almost 40 and and leads a restricted life with her demanding mother. But as she becomes more deeply involved with Gretchen, Howard and Margaret Tilbury, things begin to change.
Episode Ten
Jean solves the mystery of Gretchen Tilbury. Howard makes a decision.
The author Clare Chambers was born in Croydon and studied English at Hertford College, Oxford. After graduating she lived for a year in New Zealand where she wrote her first novel Uncertain Terms at the age of 22. Small Pleasures was a BBC2 Between The Covers Book Club Pick.
Writer: Clare Chambers
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:20 You and Yours (m000ss3m)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000ss3p)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000ss3r)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000ss3t)
Episode 5
Blowflies with their ability to smell rotting meat from long distances may be some of the most reviled insects on the planet, but as Erica McAlister discovers, they’ve become central to the surprisingly long tradition of forensic entomology.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000srg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000ss3w)
Holding Back the Tide
Walk On
by Nick Warburton
Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Mrs Cardabbon ..... Sue Jameson
Theatre Director ..... Nick Murchie
Directed by Sally Avens
The arrival of a touring theatre company in Breck Howe makes Richard question the mundanity of his life running the B&B.
And when auditions are held for extras John Hector is determined to steal the limelight putting Richard's dreams of escape in jeopardy.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000ss3y)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme with gardening experts. Bob Flowerdew, Pippa Greenwood and Matthew Pottage are the panellists answering questions sent in by green-fingered listeners, and from the live virtual audience.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000ss40)
The Sultan's Box of Sparrows
The poet, writer and former human rights lawyer Mona Arshi presents a dark fairytale. After a Sultan has his wife walled up in the garden for being unable to bear him a son he is forced to travel hundreds of miles on a quest to redeem himself. A Miniaturist instructs him to wash his face in five rivers in order to restore good fortune but he is destined to learn some hard lessons along the way.
Written and Read by Mona Arshi
Produced by Maggie Ayre
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000ss42)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000ss44)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000ss46)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ss4b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000spmn)
Series 58
Episode 2
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in front of a remote audience - and all from their own home!
Joining them from a safe distance is Chris McCausland and Zoe Lyons with music supplied by Tim Sutton and Sooz Kempner.
Voice Actors: Luke Kempner and Gemma Arrowsmith
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
Production Co-Ordinator: Carina Andrews
Editor/Engineer: David Thomas
BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000ss4d)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Gudrun (m000ss39)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000ss4g)
Lord Bilimoria
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with a panel which includes the President of the CBI Lord Bilimoria.
Producer: Maire Devine
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000ss4j)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b072zn42)
The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: Anarchy Must Be Organised
2016 saw the fiftieth anniversary of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band going “professional” – kick-starting the chaos with a performance on the bastion of psychedelia and avant-garde: Blue Peter.
The legendary Neil Innes looks back at the influence and influences of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the collision of art, humour, music, language and anarchy that permeated the band’s career.
Archive interviews and performances accompany new interviews with Legs Larry Smith, Rodney Slater, Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell, Sam Spoons, and Bob Kerr and contributions from friends and fans including Terry Gilliam, Adrian Edmondson, Kevin Eldon, Diane Morgan, Rick Wakeman and Stephen Fry.
Neil Innes died in December 2019 at the age of 75.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2016.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ss4l)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (m000ss3k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
FRI 23:00 Newsjack (m000srnl)
Series 24
Episode 2
The week's news stories lovingly moulded into sketches and one-liners by the public.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000ss4n)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament