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?
What is a Buddhist doing on Prayer for the Day? Buddhism is a non-theistic faith, so it isn’t about worshipping God, let alone praying to Him. But in every Buddhist country there are temples where people perform devotional rituals; and, yes, as well as meditating, Buddhists also pray. So what do we worship and what do we pray for?
We could start with the word ‘worship’, which stems from an Old English root that means acknowledging the worth of something; so ‘worship’ is worth-ship. The question then, for all of us, is what has the greatest worth?
Religions, including Buddhism, come with ready-made answers; but we can start with a more personal reflection. Who are the people I most admire, and what are their qualities? What inspires me to exchange my normal habits for something nobler?
The main focus of Buddhist devotion is the Buddha himself – the man who lived 2500 years ago; and Buddhists believe he attained a state of profound wisdom which we call ‘Awakening’ or ‘Enlightenment’. We see his life, as he met others and responded to their needs, as as an expression of compassion.
Buddhists worship the Buddha because we consider that his wisdom and compassion are the worthiest qualities to which we can aspire, and developing them for ourselves is our noblest calling.
Most Buddhist prayers take the form of an aspiration, and whatever our outlook on life, prayer can be a way to express our deepest wishes:
Amid the day’s challenges, may I find time to reflect.
Amid the noise, may I listen for a deeper voice.
The former dentist who’s just become the new leader of Scottish Labour. Anas' childhood was infused with politics - his father became the UK's first muslim MP and his mother devoted a great deal of time to activism and campaigning. But that came at a cost. The family endured racist threats while he was growing up. Now a lot rests on his shoulders. With only nine weeks until the Holyrood elections, can he turn round the party's fortunes in Scotland and in so doing change the make-up of Westminster politics too? Mark Coles explores his life and career.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
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.
Gareth Thomas was 20 when he made his international rugby union debut for Wales in 1995. He went on to win 100 international caps for Wales, captaining them as well as the British and Irish Lions. Gareth announced publicly he was gay in 2009 and retired from rugby in 2011. In 2019, Gareth spoke openly about living with HIV and his new book Stronger documents the impact of his diagnosis and the ensuing publicity.
Chris McCausland is a stand-up comedian who is now a regular fixture on TV after 18 years on the circuit. Chris had to quit his job in IT because of a hereditary eye condition which means he is now blind. He almost became an MI5 spy at one stage but instead decided to make people laugh with his observational comedy.
British Iranian musician and artist Roxana Vilk is collecting lullabies in diverse languages that are sung to children around Bristol and the UK. Singing Lullabies in Farsi to her own children allowed Roxana to connect with her culture and childhood experiences of conflict in the Middle East.
Sylvia Wiggins was the drummer of the Liverbirds, emerging out of 1960s Liverpool as one of the world’s first female rock bands. They aimed to rival the Beatles in popularity and they eventually went on to play with Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks and the Rolling Stones.
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.
21st March 2021 is Census Day in most of the UK. To his surprise, Greg discovers that the census provided remarkably fertile ground for comedy. He revisits a 1971 BBC informational programme for census collectors which features Carry On-style sketches, including one of a bickering husband and wife.
A listener is curious about recordings of hecklers being “dealt with”, which sends Greg on an odyssey of comedians and actors being insulted and political meetings gatecrashed by anarchists.
Black Panther actor Daniel Kaluuya was one of a long list of British actors to receive a gong at the 78th Golden Globe Awards this week. Perhaps less well known is that Kaluuya cut his teeth in a Radio 4 sitcom from 2009 about a group of hapless surveillance operatives. Dolly Parton has also been in the news after singing an impromptu song about vaccination. There’s plenty of Dolly Parton riches in the archives, including interviews with Terry Wogan and the unforgettable moment when Parton presented the National Lottery in 1998.
Elsewhere, a request leads Greg to a song contest where listeners were invited to vote for the likeliest hit. Songs You Might Never Have Heard was a long-running series from the 1930s in which a committee of listeners including a shop girl, a hospital nurse, a postman and his wife gave their verdict on ditties by new songwriters. Remarkably, some of the songs from the series survive on vinyl, which gives Greg the perfect opportunity to judge one of them for himself.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
Earlier this week the Government announced that economic abuse will be a criminal offence under the Domestic Abuse Bill. The law previously only recognised abuse that took place within a relationship, not after separation. We hear one survivor's shocking tale - she was left with nearly half a million pounds of debt - and hear her reaction to the law change. Paul Lewis talks to barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman.
On Wednesday the Department for Work and Pensions revealed that 200,000 women could be in line for payouts averaging £13,500 to compensate them for the underpayment of their state pensions going back decades. The DWP estimate the bill to be about £2.7bn. Paul talks to Sir Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister and current partner at Lane Clarke & Peacock who explains why some pensioners lost out and who is likely to benefit now.
In the Budget the Chancellor confirmed that newly self-employed people who completed a tax return for 2019 to 2020 are now eligible for financial help. The group, which includes more than 600,000 people who became self-employed last year, were unable to access the first three instalments but they can now apply for the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant. Paul talks through the changes with Andy Chamberlain, Director of Policy at The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE).
NatWest has become the latest high street bank/building society to launch a lottery-style savings account. With interest rates so low, is this the future? Rachel Springall, finance expert at moneyfacts.co.uk, explains
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!
This week Chris McCausland Musks up, Zoe Lyons takes a dip whilst Tim Sutton and Sooz Kempner go Gaga...
This week on Any Questions Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with Financial Secretary to the Treasury Minister, JESSE NORMAN, LORD BILIMORIA, crossbench peer and President of the CBI, LUCY POWELL, Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers and YANIS VAROUFAKIS, economist and former Minister of Finance in the Greek Parliament. .
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?
Ayeesha Menon takes Rudyard Kipling’s family classic and gives it a darker twist, re-imagining it in the concrete jungle of present-day India. A gangland coming-of-age fable.
Mowgli, the orphan boy at the centre of the story, is being brought up by the Wolves, a gang of petty criminals in a tenement block in Mumbai, and quickly learns how to survive in that world. But when the villainous politician, Tiger Khan, threatens Mowgli's life, two residents of the tenement block, "black panther" Bagheera and the "bear" Baloo, offer to help him escape and he embarks on a journey of self-discovery through the city, meeting "creatures" along the way who don't always have his best interests at heart.
The government wants to boost the UK's growing space industry through its £400 m investment in satellite communications firm OneWeb. The company is a pioneer, launching satellites in Low Earth Orbit with the aim of providing broadband to under-served areas of the globe. But there are rivals, Elon Musk's Starlink Constellation being the best known. So is the UK investment in OneWeb a moonshot moment? Evan Davis and guests boldly go into discussion over what happens when you combine cutting-edge technology with uncertain business outcomes - and whether the state should be involved
Lorraine Kelly, Katherine Ryan, Lynn Ruth Miller, Bishi, Shingai, YolanDa Brown, Gemma Cairney, Emma Freud
Emma Freud, YolanDa Brown and Gemma Cairney are joined by Lorraine Kelly, Katherine Ryan, Lynn Ruth Miller and Bishi for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Bishi and Shingai.
Anneka Rice delves into her teenage past, when she spent more time on cooking, cleaning and childcare than she did on her school work.
Phill Jupitus searches for the answers to questions posed by songs. A song made a hit by Elvis in 1960 provokes a discussion on the connection between loneliness and night time with Samaritan volunteer Sue Peart and Louise Arseneault, Professor of Developmental Psychology at Kings College, London.
There is, argues poet Paul Farley, something very particular about the bluff that sets it apart from other members of the deception family.
More theatrical than a straight-forward, two-dimentional lie, it can be called, it can be doubled, and often times remains mysterious - we never actually find out whether indeed a particular bluff was just that.
It permeates our everyday conversation, with nods of the head and affirmative grunts suggesting that yes indeed we have read Proust, and are of course conversant with Scandinavian philosophy; it proves a vital weapon on the sports field and the poker table; and in international relations and military strategy remains an invaluable resource.
Paul takes to the poker table himself, and speaks to experts from a variety of fields, including Jonathan Agnew and Bridget Kendal, to delve deeper into the psychology and application of the bluff.
Along the way he frequently has need to suggest a degree of knowledge in subjects that in fact remain largely a mystery to him.
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.
Why do people suffer from hypochondria, the fear of having a serious, undiagnosed illness? It can be an intensely distressing and disabling condition, with some sufferers even ending up in wheelchairs. So why do hypochondriacs attract so little sympathy?
The Covid vaccine has given us a ‘roadmap’ out of the lockdown but it also provides us with a whole new set of moral conundrums. The virus will likely be with us forever, so the question becomes: how will we live with it in the medium and long-term? We’ve all accepted conditions on our daily lives, with the view that they would be temporary, but should we have to get used to them? Downing Street says the idea of a "Covid passport" app is still under review. Should we make the ability to travel, socialise in public or even go to school and work conditional on having been vaccinated? Those in favour, say it’s a pragmatic route to normal life in a world of vaccine hesitancy. Others base their argument on the principles of safety and fairness: there is a good reason to treat people with immunity differently if they are not a risk to others. The 200,000+ people who signed a recent online petition urging the government not to introduce vaccine passports are worried about their impact on civil liberties and social cohesion. Sam Grant from the human rights organisation Liberty said they would, "create a two-tier society where some people can access support and freedoms, while others are shut out - with the most marginalised among us hardest hit." For many, conditionality is an issue of trust, fairness and proportionality; it is part of the give and take of the responsibilities and rights of citizens. In welfare, for example, they believe people should demonstrate their commitment to finding work in order to receive benefit payments. For others, conditionality undermines social cohesion, because it comes with an implicit sense of blaming victims. Rather than further stigmatising people by attaching conditions to their daily lives, they believe we need to understand better why they are not pursuing a particular course of action. What, if any, conditions should be applied to living in a post-vaccine world? With Silkie Carlo, Matthew Oakley, Prof Julian Savulescu and Dr Beth Watts.
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.
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.
SUNDAY 07 MARCH 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000sxyn)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 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 00:30 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
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sxyq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sxys)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sxyv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000sxyx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000sxh1)
St Mary's, Amersham in Buckinghamshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Mary’s, Amersham, in Buckinghamshire. Standing where a Roman Road crossed the River Misbourn, there has been a church on the site in “Old Amersham” since at least the mid 12th century. The current building, however, is a much altered 13th century structure, with a Victorian flint-clad exterior. In 1983, the old ring of six bells were recast and augmented to an eight, and hung in a steel frame. Ten years later, they were augmented again by Taylor’s of Loughborough to a ring of twelve bells, with a tenor weighing nineteen hundredweight in the note of E. We hear them ringing Cambridge Surprise Maximus.
SUN 05:45 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.
SUN 06:00 News (m000sxf6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01shst3)
When Certainties Are Shaken
When things we feel sure of are not actually as they seem, it can be unsettling. What do we do when new revelations throw past convictions into doubt? Samira Ahmed reflects on times when existing certainties in people and events are shaken; when trust is tested.
Is there anything we can be truly certain of in life? Our sense of self might alter with age and experience. The most solid relationship could change or end. Even our most heartfelt beliefs could falter. In the wider world, we might place trust in things communally as a society; things we feel we should be confident of, like financial institutions or the labels on our food. Even with a healthy dose of scepticism, do we need to invest a degree of certainty or trust, for society to work?
When something goes wrong - particularly in these uncertain times - do we feel that trust or faith has been shaken? History has many examples of existing certainties crumbling in the face of new revelations, especially from the world of science.
Perhaps absolute certainty about anything is rare. Maybe most things in life we might feel certain of - people, situations, ourselves - are prone to be shaken up from time to time. In the programme, we hear the Reverend Canon David Reindorp share his experience of depression; a period of great insecurity for him.
The programme includes readings from Angela Carter, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Walt Whitman with music by Etta James, Stephen Sondheim and Sir William Herschel.
Produced by Caroline Hughes
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b05w9bhw)
Daffodils
Wordsworth's famous poem is always in the top 5 most loved poems in English. His encounter with daffodils in the Lake District has become a romantic expression of our relationship with nature. They are radiant beauties that bring hope to the heart after the long winter months. The native flowers are delicate and small, unlike the cultivated, rather brash varieties that adorn roadside verges and roundabouts, creating much daffodil snobbery. Daffodils are the national flower of Wales, though only since the 19th Century, promoted by Lloyd George who thought them more attractive than leeks. Attractiveness though led them to be associated with vanity, the Greek Narcissus (daffodils in Latin: narcissus) fell in love with his own reflection and pined away. Their appearance in Lent gives them the name Lenten Lilly and associated with resurrection, but in Eastern cultures it is the flower of wealth and good fortune. It has been used throughout history as a medicine, despite being toxic. Today it is grown extensively in Wales as its bulb contains galantamine, a drug used in the treatment of Alzheimer's. Whatever way you look at daffodils they are quintessentially a part of human cultures wherever it grows and can be considered the flower that brightens Britain after long, cold winters.
Producer : Sarah Pitt
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes
Revised Repeat : First Broadcast BBC Radio 4; 28th August 2015
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000sxf9)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000sxfc)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000sxff)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sxfh)
Lymphoedema Support Network
Professor Peter Mortimer makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Lymphoedema Support Network (LSN).
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 ‘Lymphoedema Support Network (LSN)’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Lymphoedema Support Network (LSN)’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1018749
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000sxfk)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000sxfm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000sxfp)
Young People In Lockdown
Throughout the pandemic children and young people across the UK have faced increased pressures, worries and difficulties – from anxiety over exams and future employment, to dealing with grief, to increased concerns for the climate, or living with mental health illnesses. In Norfolk, a group of Christian youth workers have come together to transform the site of a 150 year old convent into the UK’s first bespoke ecumenical Christian community focused on young people. One of the community’s leaders, Jamie Cutteridge, shares why he believes loving and serving our young people must be a priority amongst the church, especially in this current season. The community’s newly appointed dean, Rev. Canon Jutta Brueck, preaches on the spirit speaking through young people. We also hear from a couple of teenagers about their experiences in lockdown and how they have navigated their faith in such challenging times. With prayers and readings from Christian youth workers from across the UK. Preacher: Rev. Canon Jutta Brueck Producer: Jessie Bland
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000ss4j)
Sacred Cows and Sushi Rolls
'The spell of the cities is now being broken,' writes John Connell.
On his family farm in Ireland - where he's returned after many years abroad - John reflects on the new wave of migrants to rural areas and how the pandemic is changing the face of rural communities.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b08vzfgk)
Cyrus Todiwala on the Ring-Necked Parakeet
London chef and restaurant owner Cyrus Todiwala recalls for Tweet of the Day a once familiar sound to him in India, now heard near his London home, the ring-necked parakeet.
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.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000sxfr)
News with Paddy O'Connell: how damaging might Harry and Meghan's US interview be? Why some families are moving to the UK from Hong Kong, Reviewing the news coverage - entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan, political journalist Jack Blanchard and Radio 3's Sean Rafferty.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000sxft)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed & 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
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000sxfw)
Tweet Take 5 : Stonechat and Whinchat
Chats are small robin like ground nesting birds and part of the larger thrush family. In Britain we have several species of chats the most familiar of which are the resident stonechat, often seen perched on a fence or low shrub, and the whinchat, a summer visitor to our shores where they breed mainly in the north and west. These characterful birds are a welcome distraction when seen in the countryside as we'll hear from wildlife broadcaster Michaela Strachan, novellist Melissa Harrison and presenter Steve Backshall in this extended edition of Tweet of the Day.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000sxfy)
Mark Strong, actor
Mark Strong has appeared in more than 60 films, along with numerous TV dramas and plays.
His career took off after he won a leading role in the landmark 1996 BBC series Our Friends in the North, and since then his screen work includes dramas such as Syriana, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Zero Dark Thirty and The Imitation Game, as well as the fantasy and comic book worlds of Stardust, Kick Ass and Shazam. In 2015 he won the Olivier best actor award for his London stage performance in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, in a production that also won him great acclaim in New York.
Mark was born in London, the only child of an Austrian mother and an Italian father. His father left the family when Mark was a baby and has played no part in his life. Thanks to his mother, Mark is fluent in German, and he spent most of his school holidays with his Austrian grandmother. His mother had two jobs to support them both, and Mark attended state boarding schools in the UK from the age of six. His first taste of performing came in a punk rock band at school, but he began his further education by starting a law degree in Germany, before changing course and returning to the UK to study drama.
Most recently he has been filming the TV drama Temple, in which he plays a rogue surgeon operating in abandoned tunnels beneath a London underground station.
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor
SUN 11:45 The Battles That Won Our Freedoms (m00020yl)
7 Catholic Emancipation
In this episode, Phil Tinline asks Professor Marianne Elliott to tell the story of Daniel O'Connell's long struggle in the early 19th century to free Catholics from old laws which stopped them becoming going to university or participating fully in British public life, culminating in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. Siobhain McDonagh MP reflects on what O'Connell's battle means to her, and explains why she campaigned to lift a restriction left over from the 1820s that remained in law throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
First broadcast in 2019.
Producer: Phil Tinline
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000sxg0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:03 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
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000sxg2)
Genome editing and the future of food
Dan Saladino looks at the future role of genome editing in food and farming. A public consultation is underway on technologies such as CRISPR. What could it mean for farmers and consumers?
Unlike transgenic technologies (in which DNA is moved from one species to another), genome editing can be used to create changes to the DNA of plants and animals within a species. Helping to explain how the technology works is a plant biologist working at Cold Spring Harbour in the United States, Zach Lippman. He's using CRISPR to create new types of tomato plants, some of which are higher yielding, more compact and better suited to urban agriculture. Meanwhile, Dr Mike McGrew, a molecular biologist based at the Roslin Institute in Scotland describes how genome editing might help result in future breeds of chickens that are completely resistant to avian influenza, a serious problem for all forms of poultry production.
The public consultation has been prompted by the UK government's desire to change the legal status of genome editing. At present, because of a decision by the European Court of Justice back in 2018, the technology is as strictly regulated as all other forms of genetic modification. Brexit makes it possible to diverge from the EU's position.
Lawrence Woodward of the campaign group Beyond GM has concerns over the process. For such a powerful technology, one that could potentially transform the future of food and farming, he argues we need a much bigger public debate. Farmer Guy Watson of Riverford Organic and Philip Lymbery of Compassion in World Farming both fear the technology will result in more intensive, industrial forms of production. Gideon Henderson, DEFRA's Chief Scientific Adviser gives his response.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000sxg4)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000sxg6)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000sxg8)
The Nation in Conversation
Fi Glover presents friends and strangers in conversation as the nation adjusts to the 'new normal'. In this week's programme, a Lara and Chris talk frankly and movingly about how and why they began to self-harm and the impact it's had on their lives; and Steven and Justin talk about the joys of being in the great outdoors and how they came to be explorers.
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 (m000ss3y)
GQT at Home: Sweet Peas and Rusty Leaves
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 the live virtual audience. They discuss nurturing asparagus plants, the differences between sweet peas and garden peas, and what their flower characters would be.
Away from the questions, historian Advolly Richmond tells the fascinating history of vanilla, while Kirsty Wilson gives us an unusual option to plant this Spring.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j22d)
Hereditary disease
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.
In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot visits the place where Burton was buried in 1640 – Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. She meets Professor John Geddes, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford.
They explore Burton’s view that melancholy is ‘an hereditary disease’. Are genetics involved in depression and other mental illnesses and how does that work? Amy is curious to know if her former struggle with alcoholism is connected with her dad’s bipolar disorder.
John Geddes reflects on how The Anatomy has inspired him throughout his life as a psychiatrist and researcher into mood disorders, since picking up a copy as a junior doctor in Sheffield.
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, Jonathan Flint offers John Dowland (English composer, 1563 – 1626).
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 (m000sxgb)
The Hand of Ethelberta
During 2021 on Radio 4, Hardy’s Women takes a fresh look at the novels of Thomas Hardy, through the eyes of some of his female protagonists
The Hand of Ethelberta
Adapted By Katherine Jakeways.
All of London Society is in pursuit of Ethelberta's hand, but the infamous poet is not exactly the lady they think she is. Her claim to distinction is one of brains rather than blood. Her sister is her maid, her brother her butler, and she has just a year left before the whole family are left homeless and penniless. She must find a rich husband before the truth gets out. As her many ridiculous suitors pursue her half way across France, a farce is inevitable.
CAST
Ethelberta - Rebecca Humphries
Picotee - Abra Thomspon
Christopher Julian - Alfred Enoch
Lord Mountclere - Adrian Scarborough
Neigh - Simon Armstrong
Ladywell - Lee Mengo
Chickerel & Mountclere's brother - Michal Bertenshaw
Aunt Charlotte & Mrs Petherwin - Heather Craney
Menlove & Faith - Catriona McFarlane
Joe - Tom Forrister
Harp - Alis Huws
Piano - Branwen Munn
Directed by John Norton
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m000sxgd)
Kei Miller - The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to award winning poet, novelist and essayist Kei Miller about his Forward Prize Winning poetry collection The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion.
The collection is set on Jamaica and structured through conversations between the map maker, trying to organise and lay down history with a deep conviction of his own rational knowledge, and the rastaman, trying to explain a more spiritual way of knowing. Kei talks to James and the audience about his own multiple identities which are played out in the collection, and reveals which of these characters most represents himself... (and which of them wins the argument!).
Presenter: James Naughtie
Producer: Allegra McIlroy
April’s Bookclub choice: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
SUN 16:30 Herman Melville's Sea Change (b06zqpcc)
Melville's Moby-Dick is one of the weirdest great novels. Most people know that. What not many people know is how Melville came to write the book and how he nearly didn't and how he almost became a Liverpudlian in the process. Paul Farley, poet and Liverpudlian, salutes an almost-ran and looks out after Melville across the Atlantic.
Melville had one of the strangest and saddest lives. He died broke. Very few copies of Moby-Dick had been sold in his lifetime. Earlier he had a bizarre interlude in his life when he thought of settling in Liverpool and being thereby 'annihilated' as he called it. Taking this as his starting point Paul tracks Melville, his work and inspiration and his life, and looks at the novel and its author from the western-facing sea ports of Britain. How did the white whale and all that it has come to mean and suggest come from Melville's crossing of the Atlantic? What does it mean to undergo a sea change? Are we all eligible?
With Chris Routledge, Philip Hoare, Philip Davis and Horatio Clare.
Producer: Tim Dee
SUN 17:00 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.
Editor, Maggie Latham
Producer, Jim Booth
Reporter, Kate West
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000ss55)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000sxgg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000sxgj)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sxgl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000sxgn)
Jake Yapp
Presenter: Jake Yapp
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet
SUN 19:00 Stillicide (m00099xt)
Episode 10: Potato Water
Sudha Bhuchar continues Cynan Jones' timely series set in the tangible future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the huge capital city is increasingly at risk of sabotage.
Today: just beyond the city, a woman finds a frail young boy. As she cares for him, she begins to fear for his brother - and their dog...
Reader: Sudha Bhuchar
Writer: Cynan Jones, with contributions from John Bowler and Richard Woska
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000sxgq)
Stephen Buchanan: Talking Shop
BBC New Comedy Award winner Stephen Buchanan's debut stand up show for BBC Radio 4.
In Talking Shop, Stephen outlines his chequered work history from shop worker to human ping pong ball. At home Stephen lives with his mum and a Vietnamese refugee Dove. Can Stephen help Dove onto the career ladder and can they both move up in the world?
Stephen Buchanan - Talking Shop encapsulates the trials and tribulations of his life so far, alongside the true story of Stephen and Dove's developing friendship - all of which have led to this very moment: Stephen's debut Radio 4 special.
Written and Performed by Stephen Buchanan.
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 19:45 The Last Resort (m000sxgs)
Lynette
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: Dearbháile McKinney
Writer: Jan Carson
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000ss44)
Melvyn Bragg came up with the idea of the long-running Radio 4 programme In our Time back in 1998 and, 900 editions later, is still at the helm. He answers listeners’ questions and explains how he thought it would only last six months at best.
Peter White has gone much further back in time for his series Disability: A New History recently re-broadcast on Radio 4. Listeners have found it revelatory, but did he?
And a mother and daughter try to discover whether men really do rule the world, by listening to a programme on the World Service.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000ss42)
Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani (pictured), Sidney Alford, Alison Lurie, Chris Barber
Matthew Bannister on
Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi oil minister who presided over the 1970s embargo that caused crises for Western economies.
Sidney Alford, the maverick explosives expert who created methods of defusing improvised explosive devices used in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He also demolished large buildings and created spectacular effects for film makers.
Alison Lurie, the American novelist whose biting satires on academic life and manners have been compared to Jane Austen.
Chris Barber, the jazz trombonist and band leader who was a leading figure in the trad boom of the 1960s.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Dr Mai Yamani
Interviewed guest: Javier Blas
Interviewed guest: Jeffrey Robinson
Interviewed guest: Roland Alford
Interviewed guest: Prof Judith Newman
Archive clips used: Panorama: BBC One, TX
20.11.1973; Book at Bedtime – Foreign Affairs: Radio 4, TX
11.10.2004; Desert Island Discs: Radio 4, TX 9.
3.1985; 15 Minute Drama - Imaginary Friends: Radio 4, TX 11.
7.2011; Chris Barber - Leader of the Band: Radio 2, TX 20.
4.2011
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000sxgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:03 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sxfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 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
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000sxgx)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000srfr)
The World of the Coens
With Antonia Quirke
Antonia presents a guide to the universe of The Coen Brothers with help from the siblings themselves. From Film Programme interviews over the last twenty years, Joel and Ethan discuss old Hollywood movies, haircuts and communism.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01shst3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 08 MARCH 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000sxgz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 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
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000sxh1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sxh3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sxh5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sxh7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000sxh9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sxhc)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Vishvapani
Good morning.
It might not be true that ‘All you need is Love’, but who can doubt that all of us, and the whole world, need much more kindness?
Over the next few days, I’ll be exploring themes from the Buddhist teachings on loving kindness, as a quality we can develop, drawing on a meditation practice with five stages that direct kindness to ourselves, then to different kinds of people and finally to everyone in the world.
The first of these stages – feeling kindness for ourselves – can be the most challenging. I hear people say that they love their families and give to others, but but are very hard on themselves. We seek out flaws in ourselves that we’d forgive in others, and measure ourselves against an imaginary standard we can never reach. Socially isolated or locked down, we can find that we’re left alone with someone we don’t like – ourselves.
For Buddhism, it isn’t selfish us to regard ourselves with kindness. Sensing our own value is a starting point for a happy life and giving to others. Imagine viewing yourself through the eyes of a friend who loves you; or as a mother gazing on her only child, and cherishes them as a unique being. We can love ourselves with all our faults, failures and tummy flab.
A pause to reflect, to meditate or to pray is also an opportunity to connect with our capacity to be content and appreciate ourselves just as we are. That reflection can be a prayer.
This is my time on earth, this is the only life I have.
I am worthy of love and respect.
So may I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from suffering.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000sxhf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000sxhh)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b092t5j1)
Amy Liptrot on the Greylag Goose
Orcadian writer Amy Liptrot reflects on the greylag goose on Orkney, where seemingly no car journey can be completed without seeing a field of geese, in this Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this 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: Mark Ward
Picture: Simon Richardson.
MON 06:00 Today (m000sy1g)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000sy1j)
Understanding Melancholy
400 years ago Robert Burton produced his labyrinthine masterpiece, The Anatomy of Melancholy – a work which was celebrated in the Renaissance for its understanding of the huge variety of causes, symptoms and cures of mental distress. In A User’s Guide To Melancholy the academic Mary Ann Lund looks back to this precursor of the self-help book. She tells Amol Rajan that we have much to learn from those who struggled with melancholy in the past.
In Heavy Light, the writer Horatio Clare shares how his mind began to unwind; his growing mania followed by psychosis and his treatment in a psychiatric hospital. But he also details the journey of recovery and healing, and he investigates how society treats acute crises of mental health.
The psychiatrist Ahmed Hankir understands only too well what it’s like to feel depressed and hopeless – he suffered from mental health difficulties during his studies. He has used his own experiences to produce The Wounded Healer which seeks to reduce stigma around mental health, blending psychiatry and the performing arts.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sy4b)
When Film Could Be Female
Film critic Helen O'Hara celebrates Hollywood’s female pioneers - in front of and behind the camera - who fought sexism and the power of the studio system to find their own voices and change film forever.
The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of film-making. Early pioneers such as Nell Shipman and Lois Weber shaped the way films were made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside, and their contributions written out of film history.
Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same money or give them the same respect as their male contemporaries.
The studios gave their stars no choice over the roles they played and invaded the most intimate aspects of their lives, controlling their romantic relationships and forcing them to have abortions. Life was even harder for women of colour.
Helen O'Hara celebrates the women who fought back against the system - stars like Olivia de Havilland and Marilyn Monroe who defied the control of the studios, women of colour such as Hattie McDaniel who had to fight to attend her own Oscar ceremony, and pioneering producers such as Dawn Steel and Sherry Lansing who broke the male stranglehold over the film industry.
In this first episode, Helen tells the story of Alice Guy-Blaché, one of the most prolific and successful film-makers in the first years of Hollywood, and how, late in her life, she fought to preserve her legacy.
Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over 15 years. She is now Editor-at-Large of Empire magazine, and co-hosts the Empire Podcast.
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Helen O’Hara
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sy1q)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 10:45 Gudrun (m000sy1v)
Series 7
Episode 6
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun has discovered her son, Jesson, and friend, Truda, are in danger and she sets out to rescue them.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
John Crescentius ….. Roger Ringrose
Servant ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m000sy1z)
My Name Is... Josh
Joshua Styles finds the rest of us see weeds and moss. But its not only a beauty, he can see an environmental worth in them,that is being dangerously ignored.
Josh has loved weeds, mosses and other plants since he was a boy, turning his Mum's back garden into a haven for the type of growth the rest of us spend hours and lots of money trying to get rid of. His enthusiasm is infectious, Josh is desperate for us us all to appreciate the unloved bits of our natural world, not just because he does, but because it could help save the planet. These mosses and weeds play a massive role in sucking up carbon from the atmosphere and even provide the base for medicines used to treat some of our worst illnesses
But he argues that the Sphagnum Mosses that he talks so joyfully and passionately about arent as loved as the poster boys and girls of the environmental movement. like pandas and whales
In 'My Name Is', Josh asks whether the fauna below our feet can ever be taken as seriously if their worth to us isn't properly explained
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000sy23)
Tim Harford reports on the global race to create a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000sy27)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000sy2c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sy2h)
1: The Store
From the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, this is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend, who waits from her place in the store to be chosen by one of those who pass by on the street. But when it emerges that her life may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
A novel of exquisite tenderness and restraint that asks what it means to be human, and what it means to love.
Today: Klara waits patiently in the store, hoping that a lonely child will choose her.
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro is the Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go.
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:20 You and Yours (m000sy2p)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000sy2t)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000sy2y)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00shk95)
The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD)
Seated Buddha from Gandhara
This week the history of the world as told through one hundred objects is looking at how the world's great religions began trying to find the perfect way to visually express the divine, less than 2000 years ago.
Today, Neil MacGregor looks at how a stone sculpture from modern day Pakistan can tell us about how Buddhism set about creating the classic image to represent the real life Buddha who lived and roamed around North India in the 5th Century BC. It was not until over five hundred years later when the classic seated image of the Buddha was first formulated. Before then the Buddha was represented only by symbols. How did the Buddha image come about and why do we need such images? The Dalai Lama's official translator, Thupten Jinpa, and the historian Claudine Bautze-Picron help explain.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
MON 14:00 Homeschool History (m000sy33)
Mary Anning
Join Greg Jenner for a fun homeschool history lesson on the life of palaeontologist Mary Anning.
Due to her gender and social standing, Mary’s vast contributions to palaeontology were often overlooked by the science community during her lifetime. She has since been voted one of the most influential women in the history of science.
Historical Consultant: Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
Produced by Abi Paterson
Scripted by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Research Assistance by Hannah MacKenzie
An Athletic production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:15 Drama (m000sy37)
The Christopher Boy’s Communion
Martin Jarvis directs the British premiere of David Mamet’s brand-new thriller, set in New York City.
Joan (Rebecca Pidgeon) is a devout Catholic and a mother, whose son Michael has mutilated the body of his nice Jewish girlfriend. He awaits trial in prison. Joan will stop at nothing to free him, even blackening the dead girl’s character.
In a series of gripping encounters, Joan attempts to persuade her husband Alan (Clark Gregg), Jewish lawyer Mr Stone (David Paymer) and priest (John Pirruccello) to do her deadly bidding. She even tries blackmail.
This present-day, churchgoing Lady Macbeth is driven by her misguided views on intermarriage. Mysterious Mrs Charles (Tony-award nominee Fionnula Flanagan) might provide a solution to Michael’s freedom by inspiring Joan’s own capacity for belief, and the strength of her maternal instinct.
Then, an extraordinary, thought-provoking final twist in this thrilling and provocative drama.
This is Jarvis & Ayres' seventh collaboration with David Mamet. They produced his Keep Your Pantheon (R4), Glengarry Glen Ross (R3), Faust (R3) all directed by Rosalind Ayres. Martin Jarvis appeared in Mamet’s movie Phil Spector (HBO) and Funny Or Die (Comedy Central).
Cast:
Joan….Rebecca Pidgeon
Alan….Clark Gregg
Mr Stone….David Paymer
Father Paul….John Pirrucello
Mrs Charles….Fionnula Flanagan
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000sy3c)
Programme 1, 2021
(1/12)
The longest running quiz show on British radio returns for a new season, with Tom Sutcliffe asking the trademark cryptic questions. This year all of the panellists are taking part from home because of pandemic restrictions. The first contest pits last year's series champions the South of England (Paul Sinha and Marcus Berkmann) against the North of England team (Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras) who were champions the previous year - so the competition is sure to be fierce.
As always, Tom will award and deduct points according to the fluency and ingenuity of the teams' answers to the complex questions. The programme includes several ideas suggested by listeners since the series was last on air. There'll be an unanswered question to ponder at the end of the programme, to which Tom will reveal the solution next time.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000sxg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Shock Waves (m000sy3g)
Poet and musician Cornelius Eady
When a shock wave hits the world, how do artists respond? Public performance has all but halted, silence and solitude reigns in our performance spaces and places. But the virus cannot kill creativity. In a new five-part series, artists chronicle how they have responded to the crisis and the challenge of performance. Dare they dream and imagine what work might emerge out of the pandemic?
For Cornelius Eady, a leading Black American poet, playwright and musician, the virus struck just as he was about to go into a studio at Nashville to record with his regular music collaborators Lisa Liu and Charlie Rauh. By mid March the three were separated by the gulf of Covid 19, all gigs cancelled, a fearful city surging with infections. Eady had survived prostate cancer, had clapped and watched as the first-responders made their way to Ground Zero on 9/11, but now life was atomised, the enemy was unseen. What began as an attempt just to stave off the panic and worry gradually coalesced over the weeks and months into a pandemic folk song project, 'Don't Get Dead'. The three had to learn to collaborate remotely whilst Eady's work has had to encompass not just a pandemic but the impact of Trump's policies and upheaval of Black Lives Matter. Looking back now on his earliest songs in the spring of the pandemic feels almost like a different age for Cornelius as his project expanded to embrace the spiralling chaos and disaster. His latest song celebrates the actions of Officer Eugene Goodman during the mob insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. As he anxiously awaits the vaccine, he and his collaborators hone their latest song whilst reflecting on a terrible year and the possibilities ahead.
Producer: Mark Burman
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000sy3j)
Series 22
Treasure
Every time we seek treasure and eventually find, we get a hit of endorphins that tickles the happy parts of our brains.
There are tales of extraordinary discoveries; King Tut’s tomb, The Mona Lisa, Viking gold. Incredible things that took ingenuity and dedication to uncover. Wouldn't it be remarkable to strike it lucky and find real treasure buried for hundreds or even thousands of years? Every rabbit hole we go down, every mystery we try to solve scratches that itch. It might be offline, or on. What does it look like? How do we find it? And is it wise to do so?
Archaeologist Peter Reavill tells us about the discovery of an astonishing Viking hoard in Herefordshire, but like so many tales of treasure warn, it became a curse to those who found it. They chose to value secrecy about what they discovered digging up the hoard, higher than its historical value.
Stefan from Germany is sitting on an unbelievable hoard of digital treasure - $371,000,000 but with only two goes left on his flash drive to guess the password, it became such a curse it drove him to contemplate ending it all.
And alternate reality game developer Dan Hon introduces us to Perplex City, an online and offline treasure hunt which led Andy Darley to dig up a metal cube claim a£100,000 prize. Dan draws similarities between alternate reality games and how QAnon works and we hear from Leila who after becoming obsessed with QAnon explains how a search for information, patterns and connections became the digital equivalent of seeking treasure but became so toxic it started affecting her mental health until she managed to pull herself out of it.
Producer Kate Bissell
Researcher Juliet Conway
MON 17:00 PM (m000sy3l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sy3q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000sy3s)
Series 86
Episode 3
Nish Kumar hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where he challenges guests Lucy Porter, Josie Lawrence, Zoe Lyons and Gyles Brandreth to talk on the subjects including Eating Like a Horse, Walking in New Shoes, and The War of the Roses. Hesitation, deviation, and repetition are strictly forbidden. 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 (m000sy3v)
Negotiations commence at Brookfield and Neil comes to a decision.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000sy3x)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Gudrun (m000sy1v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Wedding Detectives (m000nv34)
Episode 2
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 have a remarkable wedding album from 1952 that belonged to London couple George and Kathleen Sewell. There are enough clues in the album for the Wedding Detectives to discover that George was a pioneering film maker in the 1930s, inspired by his time in the trenches in the First World War. Film critic Mark Kermode assesses his work.
George Sewell’s film The Gaiety of Nations can be viewed at:
http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/2681
Produced by Jonathan Mayo
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000sy3z)
Levelling Up Wakefield
With its low-wage economy, Wakefield is the kind of place the government has promised to help level up. But what kind of help do people there most need? Anand Menon returns to his home city to find out. He meets someone who remembers the days when Wakefield was known for its vibrant nightlife. He hears about the council's plans to entice new people to the district through attractions like the Hepworth Art Gallery and the transformation of the Rutland Mills. He finds out what attracts - and hinders - private sector investment. And he discovers how communities built around mills and mines have lost their economic purpose and been left stranded by poor local transport links.
Producer: Helen Grady
Data research: Professor Christina Beatty from the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University
Editor: Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 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 crises has shaped emotional literacy and economic fortunes.
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
Sound Design: Emma Barnaby
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000sy1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sy42)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sy2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000sxyj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sy45)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 09 MARCH 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000sy47)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sy4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sy4g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sy4j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sy4l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000sy4n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sy4q)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Vishvapani
Good morning.
There are many ways to tell the story of your life. But have you ever thought of your life as the story of your friendships?
The earliest friends I recall are the fellow-toddlers who shared the perils and adventures of the playground. There were the childhood friendships formed with a simple, ‘Will you be my friend?’ There were best friends – made and then lost because I tired of them or, more painfully, they tired of me. There were the more complicated friendship groups in teenage years, where we competed with each other as we figured out together how to be independent.
The more I reflect on friendships the richer this area of life seems. As an adult, there are people I look up to – guides, mentors and Buddhists call we ‘spiritual friends’. Then have been many peers and colleagues with whom I’ve been friendly, and sometimes the connection has deepened into a lasting friendship. Reflecting in this way, I recognise how important friendships have been for me. Along with my family, my friends are the most important people in my life.
I confess that I often take my friendships for granted, only to find that they fade. Some friends have died, leaving both sadness and regret for lost opportunities. As Dr Johnson said, ‘You must keep your friendships in good repair.’
Through friendship I also connect with something precious in myself. I care about my friends with a warm, open-hearted generosity, that is the seed of a much wider compassion.
Thinking of my friends, may I open my heart with love.
May I cherish them, whatever they need.
May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from suffering
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000sy4s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b092m9bv)
Samuel West on the Grey Heron
Actor Samuel West recalls how his birdwatching companion unpicked a riddle-like line in Hamlet but told him just late enough that he'd finished playing the part.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Richard Blackburn.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000sz1h)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000sz1m)
Mark Spencer on how plants solve crimes
Inside the mind of a forensic botanist, Mark Spencer tells Jim Al-Khalili how he uses plant evidence to help solve crimes. By studying the vegetation at crime scenes, Mark can tell how long a dead body has been laying in the ground. Brambles can be particularly informative, he says. And by looking at tiny traces of plants under the microscope, he can link suspects to victims, or particular locations.
Mark tells Jim Al-Khalili how he came to be a forensic botanist. After working in bars and clubs in Soho for many years, he decided to study for a degree in botany and developed a special interest in water moulds. As a curator of the botanical collections at the Natural History Museum in London, he became intimately acquainted with British flora past and present. And, more recently, has spent a lot of time monitoring urban wildlife – recording how the composition of native species and non-native species in the capital is changing, as the global climate changes and the global trade in plants continues.
Producer: Anna Buckley
TUE 09:30 One to One (m000sz1p)
Friendship: Sima Kotecha speaks to her mum Hansa Kotecha
Can mothers and daughters ever truly be friends? In this episode of the One to One series, BBC News correspondent Sima Kotecha speaks to her mother Hansa about their own relationship; from the love they have to the topics that are absolutely off limits.
Produced by Caitlin Hobbs for BBC Audio in Bristol
TUE 09:45 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sz3d)
Silenced by Sound
Film critic Helen O'Hara celebrates Hollywood’s female pioneers - in front of and behind the camera - who fought sexism and the power of the studio system to find their own voices and change film forever.
The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of film-making. Early pioneers such as Nell Shipman and Lois Weber shaped the way films were made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside, and their contributions written out of film history.
Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same money or give them the same respect as their male contemporaries.
The studios gave their stars no choice over the roles they played and invaded the most intimate aspects of their lives, controlling their romantic relationships and forcing them to have abortions. Life was even harder for women of colour.
Helen O'Hara celebrates the women who fought back against the system - stars like Olivia de Havilland and Marilyn Monroe who defied the control of the studios, women of colour such as Hattie McDaniel who had to fight to attend her own Oscar ceremony, and pioneering producers such as Dawn Steel and Sherry Lansing who broke the male stranglehold over the film industry.
In this episode, Helen tells the story of Lois Weber, the most powerful woman in the early days of Hollywood. She would become the most successful female director of the silent era, and arguably of the 20th century, given her clout and prestige. But as film production became industrialised, women directors such as Weber were marginalised and eventually excluded from Hollywood for decades to come.
Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over 15 years. She is now Editor-at-Large of Empire magazine, and co-hosts the Empire Podcast.
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Helen O’Hara
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sz1t)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 10:45 Gudrun (m000sz1w)
Series 7
Episode 7
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun’s son is being used as a bargaining chip by ruthless power-broker John Crescentius
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Sigrid ….. Hollie Burgess
Garvinicus ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Servant ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
TUE 11:00 Faith, Lies and Conversion Therapy (m000sz1y)
Despite the overwhelming evidence that human sexuality is innate and immutable over time, proponents of conversion ‘therapies’ have sought to ‘change’ or ‘fix’ queer peoples’ sexuality for much of the 20th century. Presenter Caitlin Benedict speaks with scientists, historians and survivors to uncover the heinous practices that LGBT+ people were subjected to with the guise of changing their sexuality, including lobotomies and chemical castration. Caitlin examines how adherents modified conversion practices to embrace Freudian psychoanalytic techniques, adapting to the improving legal and social recognition for homosexuals, and asks what faith groups are doing today, to eliminate the practices within their communities where evangelical churches took up the baton in the effort to suppress or ‘repair’ the sexualities of their LGBT+ congregation.
During the summer of 2020, Prime minister Boris Johnson called conversion therapy ‘absolutely abhorent’ and promised to ‘bring forward plans to ban it’. Caitlin speaks with one of the people responsible for a recent ban on conversion therapies in the Australian state of Victoria, and seeks to understand how easy this ban will be to implement.
Presenter: Caitlin Benedict (they/them)
Producer: Rory Galloway (he/him)
TUE 11:30 Art of Now (m000t6r7)
Dreaming of Damascus
When Mohamad Hafez first arrived in Connecticut from Syria, he missed his homeland so much he began constructing extraordinary miniature models of Damascus.
By day he would design glass and steel skyscrapers, by night he recreated the city he loved. The sculptures dripped with nostalgia and were cut through with half forgotten memories.
But as the conflict in Syria took hold ten years ago in 2011, Mohamad's work underwent a transformation. Gone were the pretty bird nests perched on door frames and clothes on washing lines. Now he creates work that is gritty, rusted, lived-in, and partially destroyed. It is this work that has made his name.
Mohamad's works have featured in exhibitions around the States, the Middle East and at the Saatchi Gallery in the UK. Now a respected sculptor, is he still dreaming of Damascus?
Presenter Mitra Kaboli travels to Connecticut to meet Mohamad and finds out about how the Syrian War changed his art, and life.
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000sz20)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000sz22)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sz24)
2: Hope
From the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, this is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend, who waits from her place in the store to be chosen by one of those who pass by on the street. But when it emerges that her life may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
A novel of exquisite tenderness and restraint that asks what it means to love.
Today: Klara draws the attention of a teenage girl, who longs for an Artificial Friend.
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:20 You and Yours (m000sz26)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000sz28)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000sz2b)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00shkn0)
The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD)
Gold coin of Kumaragupta I
This week Neil MacGregor is exploring how several of the great religions around the world, less than 2000 years ago, began creating sophisticated new images to represent their beliefs and their deities. Many of the images created then are still with us today and remain essential forms of veneration. These include the images of the gods and goddesses of Hinduism, whose recognisable modern form can be seen on coins from the Gupta empire which flourished in India from around 320 to 550 AD. The Gupta period is regarded by many Indians as a golden age, a time when Indian cultural life and religion came together to create temples and texts that are central to Hinduism today. The growing sophistication of the time is explored with the help of the historian Romila Thapar and the Hindu cleric Shaunaka Rishi Das
Producer: Anthony Denselow
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000sy3v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000sz2f)
Scenes from a Zombie Apocalypse
When the world goes off track, sometimes children understand it best. A persuasive modern horror story.
Cast
Bo ..... Orla Pearce
Ellie ..... Eliza Pearce
Bernadette Strange ..... Laura Elphinstone
David Chase ..... David Sturzaker
PC Blake ..... Nicholas Murchie
PC Ackie ..... Marilyn Nnadebe
Fiona ..... Jessica Turner
Jerry ..... Tony Turner
Man ..... Joshua Riley
Alison ..... Elinor Coleman
Shopkeeper/Saeed/Lawton ..... Hasan Dixon
Mum /Paramedic ..... Jane Slavin
Driver/Dr Simms ..... Stewart Campbell
Written by Katie Hims and Paul Elliott
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000sz2h)
Moonlight
Short documentaries and adventures in sound which take place under the light of the moon, presented by Josie Long. From a night swim across a freezing cold lake to the writer Courttia Newland on astral projection.
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000syp4)
The New Environmental Sheriff in Town
Dame Glenys Stacey is charged with the job of keeping the government on track toward a greener future. She talks to Tom Heap in her first interview as the head of the new Office for Environmental Protection.
If public bodies in England such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and local authorities fail to keep rivers clean and city air breathable then it will be Glenys Stacey who will try to make them to do better She was a well respected regulator of examinations at Ofqual and has plenty of experience of holding authorities to account, but does she have the powers and budget to keep the government green?
Producer: Alasdair Cross
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000sz2k)
Discriminatory prison sentences
Can new sentencing guidelines ensure that there is no racial unfairness when it comes to sending someone to prison? Data from the Crown Court Sentencing Survey show that for three categories of drugs offences, ethnic minority offenders have been about 50% more likely to be sent to prison than white offenders. Women on the other hand were less likely to be given a custodial sentence than men. How can those discrepancies be minimised?
Scotland needs the agreement of the Westminster-based UK government to hold a referendum about independence legally. So far Downing Street has indicated that the UK would not agree to a second referendum in the short term. But could there be legal options around the need for Westminster's approval?
And jabs for jobs? Can vaccination be made compulsory in some circumstances? What are your rights if your employer requires you to be vaccinated to come to work? Or if your employee refuses to be vaccinated? And what about companies - from cinemas to airlines - can they legally require proof of vaccination from their customers?
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000sz2m)
Jane Hill & Derek Owusu
Jane Hill chooses The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, and Harriett's choice, Murder in Notting Hill by Mark Olden, takes place a hundred years later, in a very different part of British society. Derek Owusu isn't sure whether Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzerald really is a good read after all.
Producer Sally Heaven
Get involved on Instagram: @agoodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000sz2p)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sz2t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000sz2w)
Series 4
Episode 2: Because Change Happenz
Rupert Hardacre (Nigel Havers) returns to his advertising agency a changed man, after six weeks in the wilderness. He has a new beard, a new outlook and a new soulmate - visionary artist Lake (Rebekah Staton).
For Amanda (Josie Lawrence), Joe (Mathew Baynton), and Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker), relief at his return soon turns to anxiety as Hardacre and Lake begin to remake the agency in their own image, adopting a more holistic approach to creativity.
As the rest of the team gradually warms to Lake, Joe finds himself increasingly isolated, and resolves to discover exactly what has happened to the Rupert Hardacre he thought he knew.
Cast:
Nigel Havers – Hardacre
Mathew Baynton – Joe
Josie Lawrence – Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker – Teddy
Rebekah Staton – Lake
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 the BBC
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000syn9)
One resident finds themselves in a terrifying situation and the pressure is on for Jazzer.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000sz2y)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Gudrun (m000sz1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000sz30)
The Disinformation Dragon
Prior to the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s presence on international social media was largely to promote a positive image of its country – trying to ‘change the climate’ rather than seeking to sow confusion and division. But this is changing.
In this investigation by File on 4 and BBC Monitoring, Paul Kenyon and Krassimira Twigg examine China’s new strategy of aggressively pushing disinformation on social media platforms through the use of ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats, internet bots, ‘the 50-cent army’ of loyal Chinese netizens and a longer term goal of inventing a new type of internet where authoritarian governments can control users.
Editor: Lucy Proctor
Producer: Jim Booth
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000sz32)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000synh)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000sz1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sz34)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sz24)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000sz36)
181. Brooding Windows and Roadtrippin' with Edith Bowman
This week on Fortunately, Fi Glover and Jane Garvey are joined by DJ and broadcaster Edith Bowman. Edith talks to Fi and Jane about music, film and TV in her podcast Soundtracking, her work on The Crown: The Official Podcast and the three of them do some cardboard cut-out shopping. Before Edith’s arrival there’s sailing clubs, late night drives and it’s eyes down for property programmes.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sz38)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000sz3b)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sz3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sz3g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sz3j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sz3l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000sz3n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sz3q)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Vishvapani
Good morning.
In the second covid lockdown I’ve missed the rituals that made the first more bearable. I miss clapping in the street on Thursday evenings and sharing the moment with my neighbours. Cocooned in our households, we were both isolated and uncomfortably close to our immediate families. Applauding together reminded me that everyone else was sharing my strange experience.
I know the people in my street a bit, but not well. I can’t say they’re my friends, but neither do I dislike them. They’re people to greet with a polite hello, and my feelings are broadly neutral.
That’s natural, but Buddhist practice teaches me its possible to go further if I use my imagination. I know that every stranger is a human being and therefore like me, in many ways. They think and feel. They want to be happy and avoid suffering, and have their own ways to find it. Like me, they are born and grow old; and our lives share a common destination.
It can be surprisingly powerful to connect with people in the neutral zone of our lives. The woman in the shop; the man on the bus; the neighbours we usually don’t see. Each has a vivid life that we just glimpse. That’s what happened when we all emerged from our houses, clapped together and the applause reverberated across the city.
I speak this prayer:
I am not alone. I share my life with others.
May my heart and mind open to their lives and struggles.
May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from suffering.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000sz3s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x474w)
Rook
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the rook. High in the treetops buffeted by March winds, rooks are gathering twigs to build their untidy nests. The bustle of a rookery is one of the classic sounds of the UK countryside, especially in farming areas, where rooks are in their element, probing the pastures and ploughed fields with long pickaxe bills.
WED 06:00 Today (m000sym9)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000symc)
Ending Poverty
Sangita Myska goes in search of the innovators with big solutions to some of our most intractable problems.
Michael Tubbs believes the key to tackling poverty could be as simple as giving people money when they need it, with no strings attached.
He road-tested his guaranteed income scheme while he was mayor of Stockton California, and now thirty four other US Mayors are planning similar pilots.
But can the answer to poverty really be that straightforward?
Contributors include:
Emma, a participant in Covid Realities, a Nuffield Foundation funded project that's tracking how people on low incomes are faring in the pandemic.
Sir Julian Le Grand, Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE)
Miatta Fahnbulleh, Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation
Julie McLachlan, Senior Manager in Economic Policy at North Ayrshire Council, and member of the steering group for feasibility of a Scottish Basic Income pilot.
Producer: Ellie Bury
WED 09:30 Will Self Takes the Waters (m000symf)
On the Rocks
Will Self explores the science behind mineral water in his exploration of our insatiable thirst for bottled H2O.
Will imagines himself in the Loire Valley on a water-tasting trip, accompanied by water sommelier Martin Riese.
They sample the French brand Badoit and explore the science of drinking water.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
(Photo credit: Luther Self)
WED 09:45 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000symh)
Putting the Industry in Film Industry
Film critic Helen O'Hara celebrates Hollywood’s female pioneers - in front of and behind the camera - who fought sexism and the power of the studio system to find their own voices and change film forever.
The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of film-making. Early pioneers such as Nell Shipman and Lois Weber shaped the way films were made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside, and their contributions written out of film history.
Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same money or give them the same respect as their male contemporaries.
Helen O'Hara celebrates the women who fought back against the system - stars like Olivia de Havilland and Marilyn Monroe who defied the control of the studios, women of colour such as Hattie McDaniel who had to fight to attend her own Oscar ceremony, and pioneering producers such as Dawn Steel and Sherry Lansing who broke the male stranglehold over the film industry.
In this episode, Helen describes how the studios gave their stars no choice over the roles they played and invaded the most intimate aspects of their lives, controlling their romantic relationships and even forcing them to have abortions. And she celebrates the woman who did more than anyone to fight back against Hollywood censorship – Mae West.
Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over 15 years. She is now Editor-at-Large of Empire magazine, and co-hosts the Empire Podcast.
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Helen O’Hara
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000symk)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 10:45 Gudrun (m000symm)
Series 7
Episode 8
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Rival religious factions in Rome threaten violence. Truda tries to persuade Gudrun to flee the city with Jesson.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Sigrid ….. Hollie Burgess
Garvinicus ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
WED 11:00 The Jump (m000symp)
The Jump: Covid-19
Chris Van Tulleken explores the human behaviours causing pandemics, paying the price for getting too close to animals by degrading their territory and allowing viruses to jump. What's clear is that Covid-19 was inevitable; that a coronavirus would jump in Asia was predicted in at least 3 papers in early 2019. It's a symptom of degraded ecosystems leading to intimate contact with animals we don't normally encounter.
When examining the origins of Covid-19, perhaps the most amazing aspect is the number of different possibilities. Bats as medicine, bats as food, bat transmission to other intermediate animals - Mink farmed for fur or Raccoon Dogs hunted as game. We don't know if it jumped in a home or a wet market or in a cave. Chris talks to NERVTAG virologist Prof Wendy Barclay who explains why she thinks It's not the case that it escaped from a lab. Plus ecologist and bat enthusiast Prof Kate Jones argues that invasive human behaviours are offering these viruses multiple chances to jump into people – mostly all totally hidden from sight - but is optimistic as the UK Government asks her to advise on spillover risks and how to achieve sustainable landscapes.
WED 11:30 Alexei Sayle's The Absence of Normal (m000syms)
Series 2
Clive Hole
Alexei Sayle’s The Absence of Normal, is a series of dark comic plays narrated by Alexei Sayle and adapted for radio from his original short stories.
Clive Hole has a top job in TV commissioning, a chauffeur and a secretary. There’s only one problem. He is completely incapable of making a decision on what to commission and what to turn down. The pressure begins to mount on Clive when two dogged producers, Cherry and Tatum, make it their number one priority to get a decision on their screenplay, Bold as Bacon.
Starring Katheryn Drysdale, Graham Duff, George Fouracres, Georgie Glenn, Tim McInnerny, Alice McMillan, Duncan Wisbey.
Written and narrated by Alexei Sayle. Adapted for Radio by Graham Duff.
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000symw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000symy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000syn0)
3: Home
From the Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, this is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend, who waits from her place in the store to be chosen by one of those who pass by on the street. But when it emerges that her life may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
A novel of exquisite tenderness and restraint that asks what it means to be human, and what it means to love.
Today: Klara begins to process her new home, and her new owners...
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro is the Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go.
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:20 You and Yours (m000syn2)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000syn4)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000syn6)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00shkn2)
The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD)
Silver plate showing Shapur II
Throughout this week Neil MacGregor is describing how people across the globe around 1700 years ago found new images to express their religious beliefs. Today's object is a dramatic visualisation of power and faith in 4th Century Iran. It is a silver plate that shows King Shapur II out hunting deer. Neil describes how this apparently secular image reveals the beliefs of the day, when the king was seen as the agent of god and the upholder of the state religion - Zoroastrianism. How might we read this hunting scene as a religious image? And why did the belief system of such a powerful dynasty fail to become a dominant world religion? With contributions from the historian Tom Holland and the Iranian art historian Guitty Azarpay.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000syn9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000sync)
The Flowers Are Perfect in the Garden
In The Flowers Are Perfect in The Garden by Lucy Caldwell, a man spends his final days in a hospice surrounded by his wife and once estranged children, who have travelled far and wide to be by his bedside at this time. It is full of laughter and tears as memories often are and it is a chance for them to re-connect and re-charge the loving bond that had been lost for a time. They are able to come together as a family and as a result in the death of their father there is a birth of a family once more.
Starring:
Pat ... Dermot Crowley
Mary ... Dearbhla Molloy
Oisín ... Patrick O'Kane
Emma ... Charlene McKenna
Emma (child) ... Clara Murphy
Oisín (child) ... Alex Warburton
Letitia ... Deborah Bahi
Corazón ... Maria Cristina Crampton
Other parts were played by Alice Hoskyns and Tom Glenister
Writer ... Lucy Caldwell
Director ... Celia de Wolff
BBC NI Radio Drama Production
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000synf)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000synh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000synk)
The Most Selfish People on Earth
On the spacecraft Voyager, hurtling through deep space sits a golden record, filled with the music of planet earth. It is a cultural gift for unknown extraterrestrial life forms. If an alien species discovers this unique double LP, they'll be greeted by the singing of the Mbuti people of the Congo recorded by the anthropologist Colin Turnbull.
Matthew Syed examines Turnbull's seemingly utopian experiences in the forest with the Mbuti and contrasts them with his utterly bleak account of the Ik people of Uganda. The Ik were, according to Turnbull, a "loveless" people devoid of culture, brutal and totally uncaring. He labelled them "the most selfish people on earth".
Turnbull argued that the Ik offered a stark warning to westerners. This allegedly nightmarish society was, according to Turnbull, the way the west was headed.
Matthew hears from Turnbull's critics who say he misunderstood the Ik and uses Turnbull's work to ask a profound question - is mankind fundamentally rotten and selfish at the core, or do kindness and compassion lie at the beating heart of human society?
Producer: Mike Martinez
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick
Series Editor: Russell Finch
Executive Producers: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000synm)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
WED 17:00 PM (m000synp)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000synr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar (m000synt)
Episode 5
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:
Ex-Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq,and award winning chef and restaurateur Asma Khan
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 (m000synw)
Tension mounts at the hospital and Jim extends the hand of friendship.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000syny)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Gudrun (m000symm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000syp0)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Melanie, Mona Siddiqui, Tim Stanley and Ella Whelan. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m000syp2)
The Next Supper
A personal, hopeful reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter.
Theologian Dr Paula Gooder considers how the Last Supper has particular poignancy in the pandemic, in which we remember the last time were able to share a meal with our loved ones and look forward to the moment of our next supper together.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000syp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000synm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000syp6)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000syn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
WED 23:00 Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum (m000syp8)
Posh Radio
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 head. In this episode Tom looks at belief and how those beliefs affect the way we see eachother.
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 an audio adaptation of Mayhew's acclaimed Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew which transferred to a sell out run at the Soho Theatre.
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000sypb)
Series 3
Episode 9
Jon Holmes's award winning satirical river of sound returns to twist itself into the news.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sypd)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 11 MARCH 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000sypg)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000symh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sypj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sypl)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sypn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000sypq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000syps)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Vishvapani
Good morning. It’s easy to speak warmly of kindness and compassion. Of course, I would much rather be a kind person than an unkind one, and I can easily fantasise about being kind to everyone. But what about the reality?
One of Dostoyevsky’s characters says ‘the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular.’ But Buddhism teaches that if we want to be compassionate, in truth and not just in our fantasies, we have to include the people we dislike.
I can’t think of anyone in my life I’d call ‘an enemy’, but there are certainly people who try to get their way at my expense, or who irritate, annoy or provoke me. There are chance encounters on the road with people who are rude or aggressive; and tensions with family members that never seem to be resolved.
I don’t think I’m alone in this. All our lives contain people we dislike, and if you’ve been treated badly by someone, you may have strong reasons for doing so. But anger and resentment can be a painful weight in our hearts and minds, and, as Buddhism teaches, they cause us to suffer.
Including difficult people in a wider sense of compassion doesn’t mean pretending to like them. But we can reflect that they are people, just like us, who want to be happy and avoid suffering. This brings a wider perspective and we can sincerely wish someone well, even if we don’t like them:
May I learn to put down my anger, rather than being driven by it.
May I recognise the humanity I share with the people I dislike.
May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from suffering.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000sypv)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b095rbt1)
Melissa Harrison on the Starling
Nature writer Melissa Harrison muses on the mimicking sounds of starlings, particularly one that learned the ring of her family phone causing calamity in the house.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. In this latest series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Merseymouse.
THU 06:00 Today (m000sz7v)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000sz7x)
The Late Devonian Extinction
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating mass extinctions of the Late Devonian Period, roughly 370 million years ago, when around 70 percent of species disappeared. Scientists are still trying to establish exactly what happened, when and why, but this was not as sudden as when an asteroid hits Earth. The Devonian Period had seen the first trees and soils and it had such a diversity of sea life that it’s known as the Age of Fishes, some of them massive and armoured, and, in one of the iconic stages in evolution, some of them moving onto land for the first time. One of the most important theories for the first stage of this extinction is that the new soils washed into oceans, leading to algal blooms that left the waters without oxygen and suffocated the marine life.
The image above is an abstract group of the huge, armoured Dunkleosteus fish, lost in the Late Devonian Extinction
With
Jessica Whiteside
Associate Professor of Geochemistry in the Department of Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton
David Bond
Professor of Geology at the University of Hull
And
Mike Benton
Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at the School of Life Sciences, University of Bristol.
THU 09:45 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sz7z)
How Women of Colour Fought to Be Heard
Film critic Helen O'Hara celebrates Hollywood’s female pioneers - in front of and behind the camera - who fought sexism and the power of the studio system to find their own voices and change film forever.
The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of film-making. Early pioneers such as Nell Shipman and Lois Weber shaped the way films were made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside, and their contributions written out of film history.
Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same money or give them the same respect as their male contemporaries.
The studios gave their stars no choice over the roles they played and invaded the most intimate aspects of their lives, controlling their romantic relationships and forcing them to have abortions. Life was even harder for women of colour.
In this episode, Helen tells the story of women of colour in Hollywood who had to fight both sexism and racism. In the early days, roles were thinly drawn and few and far between and most black actors rarely played anything other than maids or servants. Helen celebrates the courage of women such as Lena Horne whose musical numbers were frequently cut from movies distributed in the American South, and Hattie McDaniel who had to fight to attend her own Oscar ceremony.
Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over 15 years. She is now Editor-at-Large of Empire magazine, and co-hosts the Empire Podcast.
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Helen O’Hara
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000sz81)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 10:45 Gudrun (m000sz83)
Series 7
Episode 9
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun’s eyes have been opened to the danger she’s in and she prepares to save her family - but has she left it too late?
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Sigrid ….. Hollie Burgess
Garvinicus ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Soldiers ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr and Hasan Dixon
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000sz85)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world.
THU 11:30 Future Art (m000sz87)
Artists
Art historian James Fox talks to celebrated artists Anish Kapoor, Cai Guo-Qiang, Random International and Stephanie Dinkins as he asks how technology is transforming the art world.
The deepfake algorithms generating today’s art world novelties will soon seem as rudimentary as the spinning jenny. As new ways of making, selling and experiencing art gather speed, James sets out to capture the start of this new era in a series of three programmes.
James begins with the artists as he explores both the opportunities offered by new technology and its limitations. From Cai Guo-Qiang’s virtual fireworks to Anish and Ishan Kapoor’s journey into the self, James asks how skills, creativity, the nature of art and the role of the artist are being re-made and re-imagined in the digital age.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000sz8b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000sz8d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sz8g)
4: Imitation
From the Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, this is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend, who waits from her place in the store to be chosen by one of those who pass by on the street. But when it emerges that her life may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
A novel of exquisite tenderness and restraint that asks what it means to be human, and what it means to love.
Today: Klara takes an unsettling trip to Morgan's Falls with Josie's Mother...
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro is the Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go.
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:20 You and Yours (m000sz8j)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000sz8l)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000sz8n)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00shkn4)
The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD)
Hinton St Mary Mosaic
This week Neil MacGregor is exploring how many of the great religions, less than 2000 years ago, began creating sophisticated new images to aid prayer and focus devotion. Many of the artistic conventions created then are still with us. In today's programme Neil MacGregor introduces us to one of the earliest known images of the face of Christ. This life sized face is part of a much bigger mosaic. It was made somewhere around the year 350 and was found not in a church but on the floor of a Roman villa in Dorset. What does this astonishing survival say about the state of Christianity at this time and what sort of Christ was imagined in Roman Britain? The historians Dame Averil Cameron and Eamon Duffy help paint the picture.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000synw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000sz8r)
At Sea
Lucy Caldwell has written a trilogy of plays looking at different ways families say ‘Goodbye’. At Sea is set in a near future where we find ourselves in a refugee camp in Berwick Upon Tweed filled with families fleeing from a Cholera torn London. We follow three generations of a family as they struggle to hold themselves together in such extreme circumstances. The Father has already escaped to Norway under the cover of night to try to set up a new home for them there, but the struggle gets ever greater and with a traumatised son, a devastated mother and a determined daughter and grandmother, they go on a journey that leaves them no choice but to say goodbye. Beautifully told with wit and heart breaking warmth.
Cast:
Lily ... Clara Murphy
Oliver ... Alfie Hurley
Elaine ... Ger Ryan
Susan ... Emma Amos
Chris ... George Anton
Cameraman/Smuggler 1/Fisherman 1 ... Tom Glenister
Smuggler 2/Fisherman 2 ... Finlay Paul
News Anchor/ Woman ... Julia Grogan
Written by Lucy Caldwell
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A BBC NI Radio Drama Production
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000sz8t)
Big Cats! Rick Minter in Gloucestershire
Do big cats roam the British countryside? It’s a long running debate, one that’s never far from the headlines. A few years ago on Ramblings, Clare saw what she described as an “enormous black cat” on a walk near Ross on Wye. Several newspapers followed this up, as did the ‘Big Cat Conversations’ podcast which is hosted by Rick Minter: he set up a camera trap close to Clare’s sighting and made contact with Ramblings. So, for today’s walk, Clare and Rick explore the area around Selsley Common in Gloucestershire and discuss why he’s so sure big cats do exist in rural Britain.
Grid Ref for the layby where we parked: SO830027
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000sxfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m000sxgd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000sz8w)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000sz8y)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000sz90)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000sz92)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Between Ourselves with Marian Keyes (m000sz94)
Adulthood
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, actor Tara Flynn.
She is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, Marie Claire and The Irish Independent. 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 46A bus rumbling past.
Series 1 was described in The Observer as “a laugh out loud hoot” and the Daily Mail as “bright, funny and clever”, all of which is very much the plan for this second series. What we might lack in a studio audience reaction, we aim to make up for in warmth and witty, good-natured companionship.
In this final episode of the series, the theme is adulthood. The question is, are you grown up enough to hear Marian explain “How To Deal With A Hostile Hairdresser” and her experiences with “Therapies”?
Presenters: Tara Flynn and Marian Keyes
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000sz96)
Writers, Julie Beckett & Tim Stimpson
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ... Tim Bentinck
Brian Aldridge .... Charles Collingwood
Neil Carter .... Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter .... Charlotte Martin
Chris Carter .... Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Alan Franks .... John Telfer
Emma Grundy .... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Shula Hebden-Lloyd .... Judy Bennett
Jim Lloyd .... John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ... Annabelle Dowler
Sashel .... Debbie Korley
Doctor .... Youssef Kerkour
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000sz98)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 19:45 Gudrun (m000sz83)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000sz2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000sz9b)
Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000sz8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000sz7x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000sz9f)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000sz8g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
THU 23:00 A Good Read (m000sz2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000sz9h)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 12 MARCH 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000sz9k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000sz7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000sz9m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000sz9p)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000sz9r)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000sz9t)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000sz9w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Vishvapani
Good morning. Last Christmas, stuffed with food and wading through piles of presents, I decided to allocate a certain amount of money to give away. I enlisted my son and together we watched videos about charities that caught our eye.
‘Two charities,’ I said, ‘Let’s decide which ones.’ It was sobering to expose ourselves to so many needs. Famine in Africa. Homelessness. Sick children. Caste discrimination in India. The preoccupation with presents faded as we sensed the big world beyond our little family and felt growing impulse to respond.
It was hard to choose, so my son put in some of his own money and I put in some more. Our Giving pot expanded. We felt excited – maybe a little smug as well, but we also sensed a connection to our new friends in a children’s hospital, a local charity and a big relief organisation.
That expansive sense of connection and care is what Buddhism means by loving kindness or compassion. It starts with small, everyday acts of kindness and generosity, like giving to a charity. These are the sparks.
What I’ve learned through practising the Buddhist meditation on loving kindness is that, if you cherish those sparks and encourage them, they can grow into a fiery sun that blazes out with love and compassion, touching the people we know, whether we like them or not, and expanding without limits to everyone in the world.
When the Buddha taught about this thousands of years ago he made his teaching into a prayer:
Let our thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world: above, below and across without obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.
May all beings be well. May they be happy. May they not suffer.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000sz9y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b095sy8g)
Melissa Harrison on the Kingfisher
Nature writer Melissa Harrison braves a dip in a Dorset river and hears the high 'pip' of a kingfisher. She realises she must be sharing with the water with one of her favourite birds.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. In this latest series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Lynn [Mrs Birds].
FRI 06:00 Today (m000t02s)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000sxfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Rigorous History: Women vs Hollywood (m000t04m)
The Women Who Fought Back
Film critic Helen O'Hara celebrates Hollywood’s female pioneers - in front of and behind the camera - who fought sexism and the power of the studio system to find their own voices and change film forever.
The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of film-making. Early pioneers such as Nell Shipman and Lois Weber shaped the way films were made. But it wasn't long before these talented women were pushed aside, and their contributions written out of film history.
Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same money or give them the same respect as their male contemporaries.
The studios gave their stars no choice over the roles they played and invaded the most intimate aspects of their lives, controlling their romantic relationships and forcing them to have abortions. Life was even harder for women of colour.
In this final episode, Helen celebrates the women who fought back against the system - stars like Olivia de Havilland and Marilyn Monroe who defied the control of the studios, and pioneering producers such as Dawn Steel and Sherry Lansing who broke the male stranglehold over the film industry.
Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over 15 years. She is now Editor-at-Large of Empire magazine, and co-hosts the Empire Podcast.
Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood
Read by Helen O’Hara
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t02z)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 10:45 Gudrun (m000t031)
Series 7
Episode 10
The final series in Lucy Catherine’s Viking epic of love, revenge and faith inspired by the Icelandic sagas.
Gudrun comes face to face with her destiny.
Gudrun ….. Kate Phillips
Freija ….. Samantha Dakin
Truda ….. Charlotte East
Kjartan ….. Ian Dunnett Jnr
Pope ….. Roger Ringrose
Jesson at 7 ….. Harry Clarke
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
FRI 11:00 Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge (m000t033)
Episode 1
As we race into an uncertain future, conspiracy theories appear to be everywhere. Why has this way of thinking become such a significant part of how we see the world?
In this series, documentary-maker Phil Tinline explores how conspiracy theories have long told us stories about power. And how fiction and movies - and journalism and history - have done the same. Over many years, baseless theories, works of creativity and evidence-based accounts of the real world have become tangled up with each other. Why have we let that happen - and how can we tell them apart?
To find out, Phil talks to historians, writers and analysts of internet culture to unpick how the narrative structure of baseless theories is strikingly different from real conspiracies. He explores how much of this comes down to the nature of the connections between the supposed conspirators, to the function the story plays in people's lives and to the role of 'secret knowledge'. And he asks how fictional representations of power can work to bring out the difference between real and imaginary conspiracies, rather than blurring the lines between them.
Series contributors include: Michael Butter, Bryan Cheyette, Paul Cobley, Karen Douglas, Sir Richard Evans, Beverly Gage, Pamela Hutchinson, Dennis Kelly, Rick Perlstein, Whitney Phillips, Vwani Roychowdhury, Tim Tangherlini
Presenter/ Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000t036)
The Lear Jet Lady
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’s home is besieged by unexpected visitors, some of whom have come a very long way in a very short time.
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Thomasina ..... Laurel Lefkow
Tamsin ..... Beth Marshall
Laura ..... Samara Maclaren
Sadie ..... Tracy Wiles
Tommy ..... Gordon Kennedy
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 (m000t038)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t03b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t03d)
5: Chances
From the bestselling and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let me Go and The Remains of the Day, a story of what it means to be human., read by Lydia WIlson.
Klara, an Artificial Friend, waits from her place in the store to be chosen by one of those who pass by on the street. But when it emerges that her life may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
A novel of exquisite tenderness and restraint that asks what it means to love.
Today: Klara agrees to help Rick and Josie to achieve their plan.
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:20 You and Yours (m000t03g)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000t03j)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000t03l)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00shkn6)
The Rise of World Faiths (200 - 600 AD)
Arabian bronze hand
Throughout this week Neil MacGregor is looking at how the great faiths were creating new visual aids to promote devotion around the world of 1700 years ago. Having looked at emerging images from Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism he turns his attention to the religious climate of pre-Islamic Arabia. The story is told through a life sized bronze hand cut at the wrist and with writing on the back. It turns out to be not a part of a god but a gift to a god in a Yemeni hill village. Neil uses this mysterious object to explore the centrality of Arabia at this period, with its wealth of local gods and imported beliefs. The hand surgeon Jeremy Field considers whether this was the modelled from a real human hand while the religious historian Philip Jenkins reflects on what happens to the old pagan gods when a brand new religion sweeps into town.
Proudcer: Anthony Denselow
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000sz96)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m0002hyg)
Martians
In Lucy Caldwell’s Martians, Tia Bannon plays a young midwife who is preparing to leave her family and the world she knows to begin life on another planet.
One of the twelve chosen few to be picked to take their skills to Mars to begin new life, just as her grandmother did when she moved from Jamaica to London and her father’s ancestors leaving a famine-riddled Ireland for America, Laura has to choose what to take and what to leave behind. She also has to say goodbye to her family for good, she doesn’t want any fuss, just another day, she is going to make a difference, a star in the sky….
Laura ..... Tia Bannon
Michael ..... Toheeb Jimoh
Margo ..... Angel Coulby
Lorraine ..... Michelle Greenidge
Eoin ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Joan ..... Joy Richardson
Angharad & Young Woman 1 ..... Tallulah Bond
Ijaaz, Male Voice ..... Ronny Jhutti
Older Woman, Radio Presenter & Automated Voice ..... Beth Goddard
Written by ..... Lucy Caldwell
Produced & Directed by ..... Celia De Wolff
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000t03p)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston chairs the gardening Q&A with a panel of experts - Matthew Pottage, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood - and a live virtual audience.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000t03r)
Hunter's Bog
A young girl hatches a plan to flee her claustrophobic life.
Written by Carol Farrelly
Read by Nicola Ferguson
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Carol Farrelly is a prize-winning short story writer who lives in Scotland and is writing her first novel.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000t03t)
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 (m000t03w)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000t03y)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t042)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000t044)
Series 58
Episode 3
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 Ellie Taylor and Darren Harriott with music supplied by Huge Davies.
Voice Actors: George Fouracres and Gemma Arrowsmith
Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-Ordinator: Carina Andrews
Editor/Engineer: David Thomas
BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000t046)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Gudrun (m000t031)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000t048)
Daisy Cooper MP, Lord Sumption
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with a panel which includes the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP and the former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000t04b)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00t5ldj)
The Rise of World Faiths (AD 100 - 600)
Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum in London, continues his global history as told through objects from the Museum's collection. In this episode he is looking at the way the world's great religions began to perfect a way to visually express the divine, less than 2000 years ago.
He begins with a stone sculpture from modern day Pakistan that would create the classic image of the real life Buddha who lived and roamed around North India in the 5th Century BC. His journey takes him onwards to Damascus, modern day Iran and Dorset in Great Britain.
Producers: Paul Kobrak and Anthony Denselow
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t04f)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t03d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
FRI 23:00 Newsjack (m000szkm)
Series 24
Episode 3
The week's news stories lovingly moulded into sketches and one-liners by the public for Radio 4 Extra.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t04h)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament