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.
The attorney general of Minnesota is the lead prosecutor in the trial for murder of George Floyd who died in May last year. His death became front page news after a video showed a white police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes. It sparked massive civil unrest and forced a wider debate about law enforcement and racial inequality. Keith Ellison's role in the trial which started this week will be closely watched. He was born in Detroit in 1963, one of five brothers to parents with high expectations and a strong sense of social justice. As a young law student he became involved in community activism, a path which led to his election to Congress in 2006, the first muslim to achieve that. Becky Milligan talks to his family and friends.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
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.
David Mitchell investigates meetings from the ancient "thing" to zoom. Also on the agenda: executive coach Sophie Bryan teaches David to chair a meeting; fellow comedian Russell Kane explores how different personality types behave in meetings; and Dutch sociologist Wilbert van Vree sums up several millennia of meetings history.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
A senior MP tells Money Box it’s “appalling” that house developers are asking some customers to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of fixing serious defects with new homes. A new report this week claims there are still around 250,000 mortgage “prisoners” - people trapped on high-interest mortgages. And what to do if something goes wrong when you try to buy goods and services on Instagram.
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 Daliso Chaponda with music supplied by Huge Davies.
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with the Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins MP, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP, the Shadow Housing Secretary Thangam Debbonaire MP and the former Supreme Court justice and historian Lord Sumption.
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.
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.
Weekend Woman's Hour - The Art of Repair, Nurses' Pay & the Power of Oprah Winfrey
The art of the repair, Molly Martin an illustrator and textile repairer, tells us why repairing clothes, furniture and appliances can be beneficial to not only your pocket but to your mind.
The government's proposed one per cent pay rise for NHS staff is discussed with the Health Minister Nadine Dorries and Dame Donna Kinnair, nurse and chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.
We look at how more than 70 women in a small English town have had their private, often naked images stolen and shared online by people living in their community with one of the victims Ruby and the MP Maria Miller who has been campaigning for better legal protection against image based sexual abuse for years.
It took a year for Maria Beatrice Giovanardi to convince the Oxford Dictionary of English to not only change their definition of ‘woman’ but to re-examine the synonyms for ‘woman’ in their thesaurus, and amend the contents. She tells us why she turned her attentions to Treccani, a leading online Italian dictionary, in a bid to get them to do the same thing.
And after her interview with Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, we discuss the key to Oprah Winfrey’s success with the British Presenter Trisha Goddard.
The forensic psychologist Dr Jessica Taylor tells us why she has set up a new charity to provide support and advice to women and girls who become pregnant from rape, sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking and incest.
A new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies suggests that women in heterosexual couples are much more likely than men to give up their jobs, or cut their hours, after becoming parents. And it shows that this happens even if the woman earns more than her male partner. Alison Andrew, Senior Research Economist at the IFS explains why.
Since Brexit, many companies have had to set up a subsidiary operation in the EU to continue trading. What are the rules, regulations, pitfalls and costs? Evan Davis hears the experience of three very different businesses, in sectors ranging from tights to cheese to architecture.
Ross Hutchinson, founder and principal director, Hutchinson & Partners, architects
John Simm, Jon Culshaw, Nicola Roberts, Lake Street Dive, Jimmy Regal and the Royals, Athena Kugblenu, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Athena Kugblenu are joined by John Simm, Jon Culshaw and Nicola Roberts for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Lake Street Dive and Jimmy Regal and the Royals.
Brian Cox and Robin Ince kick off a new series of Infinite Monkey Cage with a look at probably the least revered or liked group of insects, the flies. They are joined by fly sceptic David Baddiel , fly enthusiast and champion Dr Erica McAlister and maggot expert Matthew Cobb to discover why a life without flies would be no life at all. Can Erica and Matthew persuade David to put his fly gun down and learn to love those pesky pests, or is their reputation for being disgusting and annoying justified? What would a planet without flies look like?
Comedian Phill Jupitus searches for the answers to questions posed by songs. A song from the 1985 multi-million selling CD Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits provokes a discussion about the pros and cons of worrying and what to do when worry gets out of control.
Phill talks with Dr Olivia Remes, a mental health researcher at Cambridge University, and Professor John Crichton, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland.
Author Lynsey Hanley and Mykaell Riley, founding member of the British roots reggae group Steel Pulse, tell the story of the search for a ‘common culture’, following its permutations in the post-war era with the rise of ‘the common voice’ and a new wave of documentary making, fiercely negotiated around issues of social class, race and the impact of multiculturalism, to the present. At a time of huge division and polarisation in civil society they ask if its time has come again in the digital age.
Writing in post-war Britain, for critics like Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, Stuart Hall and others 'culture' meant two things: first, a whole way of life and the everyday, not just a series of great works accessed and curated by an elite; second, as a way of sharing the arts and learning with the whole of society, of open access for everyone in a properly civic space. Lynsey Hanley, who has written on the history of council estates and urban planning, explores how these two ideas were conjoined. 'Common culture' was for the first time inclusive, involving all the strands of everyday living from youth culture to the pub, the football terrace and the cinema. ‘Culture is ordinary’ wrote Raymond Williams in 1958.
The idea of a common culture meant the opening up of 'high' culture too, tied to mass literacy and learning as part of a wider sense of cultural outreach aimed at the British working class. This was boosted by the work of intellectuals like George Orwell and EP Thompson as well as Richard Hoggart’s landmark book 'The Uses of Literacy' which argued for the democratisation of culture and cultivation of learning through what the author called, in a powerful phrase, ‘civic literacy’.
Mykaell Riley builds on this story, of how ‘common culture’ became deeply contested in the 1970s and ‘80s, forged from representations of working-class identity but weaponised around ideas of race. For the post-Windrush generation of Black British youth the idea of a ‘common culture’ was wrapped around the British flag and harshly policed. Music, especially British reggae groups like Steel Pulse, became part of a cultural fightback - an expression of the new political multiculturalism and proliferation of sub-cultures.
Perhaps there has never been a truly 'common' culture that belongs everyone – that the very idea has a deep ambivalence when used in public life, either championing inclusivity or excluding diversity. But does the first always have to mean the second, can we move beyond this stalemate? In our rancorous post-Brexit era and a wide sense of fatigue with division always seeming more important than what we could - and perhaps do - share in common, could the idea of common culture be thought again in new, de-toxifying and inventive ways? Or have we just become better at thinking about what separates us than what we have in common, more comfortable with difference than what we share in public space?
Contributors include director Ken Loach, curator and writer Aliyah Hasinah, critic and author DJ Taylor, dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, director Terence Davies, literary journalist Suzi Feay, singer songwriter Peggy Seger, political journalist Peter Obourne, illustrator and author Nick Hayes, urbanist Adam Greenfield, documentary historian John Corner, director at Byline TV Caolan Robertson and Farrukh Dhondy, a founding commissioning editor for Channel 4.
Rakie Ayola reads a selection of Leonora Brito’s perceptive and spirited short stories about life, love and family from the point of view of Black and Mixed Race women from Cardiff Docks and beyond.
Rooted in the unique culture of Cardiff’s Butetown, Brito’s freethinking, free-talking characters bring a unique perspective to subjects as diverse as motherhood, unemployment, nightclubs, death, and Winston Churchill.
These stories were originally performed live online in three parts, over three nights in February 2021, as a National Theatre Wales production: Dat's Love and Other Stories. The intimate readings featured original music from Imran Khan and live illustrations by Kyle Legall. As part of BBC's Culture in Quarantine, we bring you the essence of those live readings and the stories to Radio 4, hosted by Butetown comedian Leroy Brito.
The 3 stories: Roots, In Very Pleasant Surroundings and Stripe by Stripe, are from the book Dat's Love and Other Stories by Leonora Brito.
A BBC Cymru Wales Production in partnership with National Theatre Wales.
A family rift is bad enough without the added complication of intense media scrutiny. The public eruption of grievances between the Sussexes and ‘The Firm’ had been simmering in the private corridors of royal residences for a long time. How much is the media to blame for a saga which has come at a huge personal cost to those on both sides of the dispute? Many suspect the pile of negative stories and comments written about Meghan point to an undercurrent of racism in Britain and an unspoken unease among die-hard royalists about an ‘outsider’ infiltrating their ‘beloved institution’. Others deny press bullying or racism, believing that Harry and Meghan courted the media to advance their causes, and if they have aspirations to be A-listers with a Netflix deal, they should expect the scrutiny that comes with the status. Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal duties also highlights two contrasting notions of public service. Their supporters argue that public service does not have to be bound by the stuffy traditions of the past, and their public activism in the causes of racial, gender and climate justice reflects an important evolution of society and culture. This cultural shift, they believe, also sits uncomfortably alongside an institution that, to many, represents patriarchy, imperialism and privilege. Sceptics would say that Harry and Meghan’s activism is based on a tailor-made morality, which, for example, sees them denounce plastic packaging while continuing long-haul air travel. Those sympathetic to long-standing royal protocols believe that the quiet dignity of service – governed by duty, self-sacrifice and neutrality – still matters, and the Sussexes’ actions are as much about self-promotion as public service. With Kehinde Andrews, Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Camilla Tominey and Hugo Vickers.
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.
JD Salinger is feted as the writer of one of greatest ever American novels. The Catcher in Rye established him as the most celebrated chronicler of urban New York and, in Holden Caulfield, he created the enduring embodiment of disaffected American youth.
Less well known is that Salinger spent three months in Tiverton, Devon, while preparing to be part of the D Day landings in 1944, and that during this short time he wrote a revealing autobiographical short-story and worked on the development of Holden Caulfield's character. Mark Hodkinson - a Salinger devotee who edited his best-selling biography - travels to Tiverton to retrace Salinger's steps and discover how Devon influenced Salinger's work.
The central character in the short-story, For Esme – with Love and Squalor, is, as Salinger was, a fledgling writer who becomes a US sergeant stationed in Devon. With the help of a local reading group, Mark visits the most likely church featured in the story and learns from people who remember the GIs being in town.
Mark is also accompanied by Dr Sarah Graham of the University of Leicester. They discuss how the story and Salinger's time in Devon informed his work, and life.
The programme also hears an exclusive interview with a 96 year old New Yorker who served with Salinger in Tiverton and remained friends with the reclusive writer for the rest of his life. "Salinger liked Devon," says the veteran soldier, "Any free time he had was taken up by writing on his portable typewriter."
SUNDAY 14 MARCH 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000t4wl)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 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 00:30 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.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t4wq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t4wv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t4wz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000t4x3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000t4l9)
St Andrew's, Nether Wallop, Hampshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Andrew’s Nether Wallop, in Hampshire. The original Anglo-Saxon church of St Andrew’s was built in the 11th century with subsequent additions of a north aisle and a tower and steeple. In 1704, the tower fell down and was rebuilt without a steeple and now contains a ring of bells by various founders. The oldest bell is the fifth which was cast in 1585 by John Wallis, the youngest is the treble bell which was cast by John Taylor of Loughborough in 1992 when the bells were augmented to a ring of six. The tenor bell weighs fourteen hundredweight and is tuned to the note F. We hear them ringing Spliced Minor in six methods.
SUN 05:45 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.
SUN 06:00 News (m000t4jc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01sd0hh)
The Greatest of These Is Love?
John McCarthy is joined by writer Salley Vickers to reflect on the centrality of love in our lives, considering I Corinthians 13. This is sometimes referred to as the "love chapter" of the New Testament and is often read at weddings and funerals. Tony Blair read it at Princess Diana's funeral.
The chapter includes images and phrases which are known to us all, such as the invitation to "put off childish things" and the mystery of "seeing through a glass darkly".
Salley Vickers' first novel, Miss Garnett's Angel, became a phenomenal word-of-mouth hit and was followed by other greatly loved books, such as Mr Golightly's Holiday, The Other Side of You and Dancing Backwards. Salley has a skill at merging ancient art and modern psychology in her stories and often deals with Biblical matters. Her latest book The Cleaner of Chartres explores one of her best loved themes - the power of love to transform.
In this programme Salley considers I Corinthians 13 firstly as a piece of literature by examining how it works in terms of shape, tone, and images. She then brings her own experience to the chapter as both writer and psychotherapist. Questions arise as to whether it is true that "love never faileth" as the chapter says, what the value is of "putting off childish things", and whether it is always the case that love is greater that faith and hope.
The programme includes readings from Rumi, Viktor Frankl, Rilke and George Herbert, with music by Eric Whitacre, J.S Bach and Zbigniew Preisner.
Readers: Rachel Atkins and George Irving
Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b08x998f)
Blackbird
From their beautiful song that ushers in the spring to our rhymes of birds stuffed in pies, Brett Westwood explores the cultural significance of the blackbird with contributions by Mark Cocker, composer Hanna Tuulikki and the poem Adlestrop by Edward Thomas. From 2017
Producer: Tim Dee.
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000t4jg)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000t4jj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000t4jl)
Strange Fruit; Prison during the Pandemic; Religion and the Census
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000t4jn)
Radio 4 Appeal Fund
Felicity Finch makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the Radio 4 Appeal Fund, a way of giving to all the weekly Radio 4 Appeals.
To Make a one-off donation:
- 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 Radio 4 Appeal Fund.
- Cheques should be made payable to Radio 4 Appeal Fund.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
To make a regular donation:
Look for the 'Be A Regular Giver' box on the Radio 4 Appeal page. You can download a form if you would like to set up a standing order.
Registered Charity Number: 327489
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000t4jq)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000t4js)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000t4jv)
On the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Rev Cheryl Meban, the Presbyterian Chaplain to Ulster University and Helen Warnock, the Principal of Belfast Bible College consider how Jesus reached out to the thirsty at the Wedding Feast in Cana and how he reaches out today.
John 2.1-11; 4.4-15
I heard the voice of Jesus say (KINGSFOLD)
Psalm 42 (Irish traditional)
Beauty for Brokenness (Kendrick)
Like a mighty river flowing (OLD YEAVERING)
Guide me, O though great Jehovah (CWM RHONNDA)
The King of love my shepherd is (DOMINUS REGIT ME)
A link to accompanying online materials from the Ignatian Spirituality Centre can be found on the Sunday Worship web page.
Producer: Bert Tosh
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000t04b)
The Year of Speaking Dangerously
'There is a theory,' writes Sarah Dunant, 'that we needed to pull back from too much face-to-face conversation...because we had all got so damn angry with each other.'
The past year has certainly put a stop to much conversation, angry or otherwise.
Sarah imagines how conversation will be - once we're finally able to talk to each other again, face to face.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09h2rbp)
Greta Scacchi on the Goldfinch
Actress Greta Scacchi compares the birds she once knew in Australia with those who now visit her London home, especially the goldfinch which makes her very happy.
Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Gareth Hardwick.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000t4jx)
News with Paddy O'Connell including historian Lord Hennessy's assessment of the Covid year and Sathnam Sanghera account of the racism he's been shown. Reviewing the news - comedian Dane Baptiste, journalist Iain Dale and retail expert Kate Hardcastle.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000t4jz)
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
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000t4k1)
Tweet Take 5 : The Magpie
For many the sighting of a magpie brings about deep held emotions, which the famous magpie rhyme " one for sorrow, two for joy.. " provides our fascination with this bird. Seemingly both a harbinger of ill omen or the bringer of good luck, these black and white crows which are now so familiar in our countryside never fail to arouse comment and even musical composition, as we'll hear in this extended version of Tweet of the Day with writer Eleanor Matthews, Sir David Attenborough and musician Rachel Unthank.
Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000t4k3)
Dame Louise Casey, crossbench peer
Baroness Casey of Blackstock is a former civil servant specialising in social welfare, who has worked under five prime ministers. She has taken on some of UK society’s most difficult issues, including homelessness, anti-social behaviour and family breakdown, and has become known for her forthright views.
She grew up in Portsmouth and her first job was working on reception at a branch of the Department of Health and Social Security in the late 1980s. At 27 she became the deputy director of the housing and homelessness charity, Shelter. In 1999 she was appointed head of Tony Blair’s new Rough Sleepers Unit, prompting the media to call her the ‘homelessness tsar’.
She went on to run the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit at the Home Office where she became known as the ASBO Queen. David Cameron appointed her director general of the Troubled Families Programme in 2011.
In 2016 she was awarded a DBE for services to families and vulnerable people. During the first COVID-19 lockdown she led the government’s Everyone In campaign which found emergency accommodation for rough sleepers.
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 The Battles That Won Our Freedoms (m0002196)
8. The Married Women's Property Act
Dr Sharon Thompson tells the story of the struggle of Victorian women, led by a largely forgotten figure called Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, to win wives a crucial freedom: the right to own their property, keep their own earnings, and to be counted under the law as citizens in their own right.
Energy trader Julie Arnold finds out how the 1882 law that resulted from this struggle shaped the result of her 2017 divorce case.
And Dr Thompson also explores how the struggle for separate property rights helped to pave the way for women winning the vote in the early 20th century.
First broadcast in 2019.
Producer: Phil Tinline
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000t4k5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:03 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
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000t409)
The Barrel Effect: Why Oak casks have stood the test of time.
Brewer Jaega Wise looks into the history of the oak barrel, and hears how despite their shape, sizes and names having barely changed in hundreds of years, their use for flavouring drinks really has.
There are an estimated 25 million casks in Scotland, mostly filled with Scotch whisky. Although their contents could not be more Scottish, the casks themselves are generally not. We find out why most in fact originate in the United States, and from one State in particular.. Kentucky.
Jaega speaks to Scottish distillers about why they use second-hand casks for maturation, how different varieties of oak can impart different flavours, and why some are keen to get more Scottish oak casks in use. She meets beer brewers, who are using oak to create new flavours for a new generation of drinkers keen to try alternative flavours. And she hears why English wine makers might prefer to age in oak compared with vintners in warmer climates.
Plus as the number of coopers in the UK starts to creep up again after years of decline, Jaega meets one of William Grant and Sons' newest recruits. Dylan Carter worked as a chef before being furloughed during the Covid pandemic, and has recently successfully become an apprentice cooper.
Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000t4k8)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000t4kb)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000t4kd)
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 Cat and Jude talk through the challenges of becoming mothers for the first time in Lockdown; Rapper Xidus and linguistics lecturer Josiane discuss the ways in which language evolves; Philip and Keith share their coming out experiences and being Christians; and Jenny and Gillian give their insights into attitudes towards people with big families.
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 (m000t03p)
GQT at Home: Bulbs, Balconies and Bougainvilleas
Kathy Clugston chairs the gardening Q&A with a panel of experts - Matthew Pottage, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood - and a live virtual audience.
This week the panellists discuss how best to control earwigs, suggest great hanging indoor plants, and tell stories of plants they've changed their opinions on.
Away from the questions, Anne Swithinbank shares her summer bulb shopping list, and Humaira Ikram is on hand with a guide to creating the perfect lawn.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j2s2)
Inflamed brain
In 1621, the English scholar 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: melancholy
In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot looks at the latest research into the links between inflammation and depression, and finding connections with Burton’s identification of an ‘inflamed brain’ as a cause.
She meets Professor Edward Bullmore, Head of Psychiatry at Cambridge University, and author of The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression to find out how the immune system and responses to stress may be causes of some kinds of depression and how this could offer new treatment targets.
Amy’s explorations take her to Rydal Waters in The Lake District where she joins kindred spirit and wild swimming guide Suzanna Cruickshank for a bracing swim and where they share their experiences of cold water swimming and the benefits it has brought them both.
Swimming is a cure that Burton uncovers and adds to his Anatomy of Melancholy: ‘Cadan alone commends bathing in fresh rivers, and cold water, and adviseth all such as mean to live long to use it, for it agrees with all ages and complexion and is most profitable for hot temperatures.’
Is there any chance this could link with inflammation and our responses to stress?
Dr Mike Tipton, Director of Research in the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth, shares the latest science behind the question.
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, Suzanna Cruickshank offers Status Quo, Pictures of Matchstick Men.
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 Sweeney Todd and The String of Pearls (m000t4kg)
Sweeney Todd and The String of Pearls Episode 1
Rosalind Ayres directs a stellar cast in this masterly, rediscovered, horror-thriller. Joanne Whalley stars as Mrs Lovett and Martin Jarvis as barber Sweeney Todd with Rufus Sewell, Jonathan Cake, Julian Sands, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Darren Richardson and Ian Ogilvy. Based on the novel by Thomas Prest.
It's 1785 in Fleet Street, during the reign of George III, with so many secrets and lies. What is the peculiar arrangement between Sweeney Todd and pie-shop owner, Mrs Lovett? What happened to the pearls? They were meant for lovely young Joanna. Is her sweetheart Mark lost at sea? What became of the messenger after entering Todd’s shop? Who is the new cook in Mrs Lovett’s bakehouse?
Can loyal Lieutenant Jeffrey (Rufus Sewell) and investigator Sir Richard Blunt (Jonathan Cake) unravel the dark mystery? A grim humour here - if there are killings, where are the bodies?
Cast:
Mrs Lovett…Joanne Whalley
Sweeney Todd…Martin Jarvis
Colonel Jeffrey…Rufus Sewell
Sir Richard Blunt…Jonathan Cake
Mark…Jack Cutmore-Scott
Tobias…Darren Richardson
Joanna…Moira Quirk
Arabella…Elizabeth Knowelden
Mr Oakley…Julian Sands
Major Bounce…Ian Ogilvy
Mr Grant…Alan Shearman
Morgan/Captain…Neil Dickson
Thornhill/Mundel/Crotchet…Matthew Wolf
Original music: A-Mnemonic
Dramatised by Archie Scottney, based on the novel by Thomas Prest
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000t4kk)
Viet Thanh Nguyen; Lanark at 40; Costume and Power
Elizabeth Day talks to Viet Thanh Nguyen about his novel The Committed. The story continues the journey of his unnamed protagonist from his 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathiser. A Vietnamese refugee and double agent, he arrives in Paris to be immediately swept up in a gangland world of drugs, violence, and street warfare. Both a thriller and a novel of ideas, it addresses the role of colonial powers, ideology, and generational upheaval.
Writers Andrew O'Hagan and Kirstin Innes discuss Alasdair Gray's Lanark. First published forty years ago, it was heralded as a modernist masterpiece and significantly changed the course of modern Scottish writing. This year was the inaugural "Gray Day", an annual celebration of his work, and to mark it we hear why Lanark still has much to offer readers today. And novelist Lucy Jago explores the ways in which in historical fiction women have used clothes to project the power that the public sphere often denied them.
Book List – Sunday 14 March and Thursday 18 March
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Lanark: A Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Scabby Queen by Kirsten Innes
A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
SUN 16:30 Inventions in Sound (m000t4km)
[Sound of sky splitting]
[Sound of heart accelerating]
[Sound of shadows behind a door]
The poet Raymond Antrobus explores the art of translating sound for the eye, looking at the poetic possibilities of closed captions.
What can these captions - designed to illuminate the sound world of a film or TV show - reveal about how we conceive of sound itself?
Raymond speaks to fellow D/deaf poets and artists to explore their experiences navigating the spaces between the words. Are closed captions just a simple act of transcription - [Doorbell rings] - or a more subjective act of translation? How might we reimagine them?
[Sound of something invented]
Featuring the sound artist Christine Sun Kim, poet Meg Day, filmmaker and founding member of FWD Doc Lindsey Dryden and the captioner Calum Davidson from Red Bee Media.
This documentary has been produced in three forms - as a radio broadcast, as a transcript with annotations from Raymond and as a subtitled video.
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 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
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000t050)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000t4kp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000t4kr)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t4kt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000t4kw)
Raees Khan
Presenter: Raees Khan
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Phillip Halliwell
SUN 19:00 Stillicide (m0009jg0)
Episode 11: Letter
Anne-Marie Duff continues Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage.
Today: the wife of police marksman, John Branner, writes her husband a letter... for the last time.
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000t4ky)
Borderline: A postcard from the edge of the Union
Want to know what's really happening in a post Brexit Northern Ireland? Join comedian and presenter Patrick Kielty as he talks to the nation from his hometown of Dundrum, County Down, near the land border with the EU and overlooking the new 'Irish Sea Border'.
From pre ceasefire to post Brexit, Paddy shares his Northern Ireland experiences and is joined by a (virtual) Northern Irish audience, who have lived through the same, as he sends a postcard from the edge of the Union.
Recorded remotely in front of a virtual, Northern Irish audience.
Written and performed by Patrick Kielty.
Additional material by Lee Stuart Evans and Jon Hunter.
Produced by Claire Jones.
Executive Producer: Stephen Stewart.
Production Coordinator: Tamara Shilham.
Sound Designer: David Thomas.
A Green Inc production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 One Night in Paradise (m000t4l0)
Hag Do
The groom-to-be reveals the identity of a secret wedding guest during a stag and hen do at a rundown seaside hotel. By Bethan Roberts. Read by Alexandria Riley.
Produced and directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000t03w)
There has been almost blanket media coverage of the extraordinary interview given by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to Oprah Winfrey. One of the people charged with bringing this story to BBC radio is the Royal Correspondent Jonny Dymond, He responds to listeners’ questions and talks to Roger Bolton about the difficulties in reporting the story.
Fascism is alive and kicking in Britain today. That's the claim of a Radio 4 series, but can we all agree on what fascism is in the 21st Century?
And our Out of Your Comfort Zone listeners review a programme about how ants cope with disease, and whether we can learn anything from them.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000t03t)
Nicola Pagett (pictured), Stan Shaw, Prof John Mallard, Rupert Neve
Matthew Bannister on
Nicola Pagett, the acclaimed actor who made her name on TV in Upstairs Downstairs and as Anna Karenina but also excelled in classical stage roles. Later in life she suffered severe mental illness.
Stan Shaw, one of the last Sheffield craftsmen known as “little mesters”. He spent eighty years forging, grinding and finishing blades in the city’s cutlery industry.
Professor John Mallard, who led the team at Aberdeen University which developed the first full body MRI scanner.
Rupert Neve, the recording engineer who designed mixing desks revered by rock stars and music producers.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Simon Williams
Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney
Interviewed guest: Prof David Lurie
Interviewed guest: Dave Harries
Interviewed guest: Phil Ward
Archive clips used: Woman’s Hour: Radio 4, TX 23.
9.1997; Shelford Interviews: Rupert Neve discusses how technologies in the 60's changed sound engineering
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000t4l3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:03 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000t4jn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 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
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000t4l5)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000sz8w)
Location, Location, Location
With Antonia Quirke
Mark Jenkin takes us on a scouting trip for his new film, Enys Men, going deep into an abandoned mine in Cornwall.
Production designer Suzie Davies explains how she re-created the Cold War in Crouch End Town Hall for the new Benedict Cumberbatch thriller The Courier.
The last thing you might expect to survive lockdown would be a video shop. And yet Twentieth Century Flicks in Bristol is still hanging on in there. Co-owner Dave Taylor reveals his survival tactics and his new found love for Tom Hanks movies.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01sd0hh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 15 MARCH 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000t4l7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000synk)
5. 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
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000t4l9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t4lc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t4lf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t4lh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000t4lk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000t4lm)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev David Campton
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000t4lp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000t4lr)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09h34y1)
Sue Perkins on the Great Horned Owl
Comedian Sue Perkins recalls attending the Staffordshire Country Show where she came face to face with a great horned owl possessing a powerful grip.
Producer Andrew Dawes
Photograph Neils Jensen.
MON 06:00 Today (m000t3zc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000t3zf)
Rights and responsibilities
The journalist Matthew d’Ancona attacks the torpor and complacency which has come to dominate the political landscape. In Identity, Ignorance, Innovation he analyses what’s gone wrong in Britain from education and social care, to technological inequality. He tells Andrew Marr that far from demonising identity politics, the right needs to embrace a diversity of voices.
But identity politics has become a major battleground in the culture wars in Britain and the US. The writer Kenan Malik has been charting its rise, and focuses his attention on the growing interest in ‘white identity’, and the debate around the so-called ‘left behind’ in traditional working class areas.
The economist and Director of the LSE, Minouche Shafik argues that societal breakdown and increasing polarisation can only be healed with a new social contract fit for the 21st century. In What We Owe Each Other she draws on evidence from around the world to look at how we can re-evaluate the balance between the individual and society, between rights and responsibilities.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t417)
Episode 1
George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this first episode, George Szirtes describes his mother’s dramatic last dash to hospital, and reflects on the strong, indelible marks she has left on her family.
“Shortly before she died she made a tape in which she sang us happy birthday for the future. Not once but several times, once for each birthday, until her voice gave out…”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator who escaped to Britain with his family after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Read by the author, George Szirtes
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t3zk)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 10:45 No One Called Her Angel (m000d6sy)
Episode 1
Unwelcome memories surface when a woman sees a face from childhood on television.
A series about perspective and truth specially written by Louise Welsh.
Read by Maryam Hamidi
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
MON 11:00 A Life Less Vertical (m000t3zm)
When Melanie Reid spent a year recovering on the spinal ward in Glasgow after falling off a horse, her world collided with an unlikely collection of ordinary people with incredible stories. Despite their only common ground being a newly broken body, Mel grew close to her ward mates. She sets out to discover what became of them.
Danielle was just a 15 year-old school girl, a car crash victim whose spine was crushed by her own seatbelt. She was the first person to utter words to a heavily medicated Melanie. Danielle’s buddy, Daniel, was a year older and hiding a dark secret.
Karen's story is more similar to Melanie's, but her outlook is very different. Her passivity has always fascinated Melanie - can she learn anything from it?
David sat down for a flight and found, when it landed, he couldn’t stand up. Sammi, was crushed by a fork lift on the family farm - but has now reinvented herself as a top athlete.
The ten years that have passed have changed them all, and Melanie reflects on the different ways that they've experienced and adapted to the life less vertical.
Presenter: Melanie Reid
Producer: Leeanne Coyle
Executive Producers: Robert Nicholson & Mark Rickards
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000t3zp)
Tim Harford reports on the global race to create a vaccine to end the Covid-19 pandemic.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000t3zr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t3zt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t3zw)
6: Warnings
From the Nobel 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 a lonely teenager chooses her, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Today: Klara receives an unnerving warning about her trip to the city, where she is to meet the man working on Josie's portrait....
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:20 You and Yours (m000t3zy)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000t400)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000t402)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sl6jb)
The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)
Gold Coins of Abd al-Malik
The history of the world as told through one hundred of the objects that time has left behind. The objects are from the British Museum and tell the story of humanity over the past 2 million years. They are chosen by the museum's director, Neil MacGregor.
This week he is exploring the world along and beyond the Silk Road in the 7th century AD at a time when the teachings of the prophet Muhammad were transforming the Middle East forever. Today he looks at how the Syrian capital Damascus was rapidly becoming the centre of a new Islamic empire. He tells the story through two gold coins that perfectly capture the moment - with contributions from the historian Hugh Kennedy and the anthropologist Madawi Al-Rasheed.
Producer: Rebecca Stratford
MON 14:00 Homeschool History (m000t405)
Life in Roman Pompeii
Join Greg Jenner for a fun Homeschool History lesson on life in Roman Pompeii, as we share what archeologists have discovered from the town that was frozen in time 2000 years ago.
How did they brush their teeth? What was the name of the local pub? And just how do we know so much about what they ate?
Historical Consultant: Professor Mary Beard.
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 (m00088n2)
Eastern Star
Based on the true story of the then-young British journalist Christopher Gunness, who in 1988 was sent to Burma by the BBC World Service to go undercover as a backpacker and investigate rumours of civil unrest against the ruling military junta.
While there, in bizarre cloak-and-dagger fashion, he established a strong covert relationship with a Burmese human rights lawyer called U Nay Min and found himself at the centre of the 1988 Student Revolution - the event that brought Aung San Suu Kyi into international prominence. Gunness became the revolution's "voice" on the World Service, much lionised throughout the country, while Nay Min remained rigorously undercover as its chief architect.
When the revolution was brutally put down by the military, Nay Min was identified, arrested, imprisoned and tortured for 16 years. Gunness went on to an internationally successful career.
But 25 years later, Gunness and Nay Min meet again in a painful and troubled encounter.
A version of Eastern Star was performed, starring David Yip and Michael Lumsden, at the Tara Theatre in South London for three weeks in September 2018 to great critical and audience acclaim.
Cast:
Chris.....................Michael Lumsden
Nay Min...............David Yip
Nick.......................Nigel Pivaro
Morland...............Ian Kelly
Ba Swe..................Windson Liong
Jake.......................Matt Rippy
Receptionist /
Aung San Suu Kyi..........Julie Cheung Inhin
Win Aung /
Colonel.................Paul Chan
Written by Guy Slater
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000t407)
Programme 2, 2021
(2/12)
Where might the Duchess of Cambridge, the author of The Debt To Pleasure, and the star of Worzel Gummidge, reasonably go to test their eyesight?
Such questions are meat and drink to Round Britain Quiz panellists, and Tom Sutcliffe will be trying this one out on the teams in this second contest of the 2021 series. Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards of Wales take on Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements of Northern Ireland, in today's clash of home nations.
As always, the programme includes a generous selection of ideas submitted by listeners over the past year or so.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000t409)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Shock Waves (m000t40c)
Artist Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson is one of the leading artists of her generation. Much of her work explores our place on earth in relation to geological or even cosmic time. As the pandemic brought many aspects of our lives to a halt, and caused various projects and exhibitions to be cancelled or delayed, she’s been exploring how this break in life’s continuum is affecting artistic creativity.
Based outside Edinburgh and with family, staff and studios to support, there was the pragmatic issue of dealing with shrinking finances. But also, with this involuntary pause, a pent-up force of new ideas was released. She’s back in her studio creating an urn made up of collected layers of matter from the dawn of time up until today and is currently deciding which layer should represent the pandemic. She's also creating incense from the first and the last forest on earth.
Comparing notes with other artists - including Edmund de Waal, who's had his most creative year ever, and Peter Liversidge, who saw a gallery that he'd been preparing an exhibition for close - she reflects on the artistic shock waves of the pandemic and its unexpected consequences.
Producer Neil McCarthy
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000t40f)
Series 22
Novelty
As we hunker down for the last period of lockdown novelty has never felt more absent from our lives. Aleks Krotoski explores its importance and asks if the digital world can actually provide it.
Producer Peter McManus
MON 17:00 PM (m000t40h)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t40m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000t40p)
Series 86
Episode 4
Jenny Eclair hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where she challenges guests Paul Merton, Shappi Khorsandi, Julian Clary and Pam Ayres to speak for 60 seconds on subjects including Artificial Intelligence, and A Big Night Out. 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 (m000t40r)
Ben receives an unexpected gift and Eddie makes a rash decision.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000t40t)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000lhkt)
Episode 1
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode One
Henry Akeley, an old student from Dr Eleanor Peck’s folklore and witchcraft course, has gone missing. Could this be Heawood's next story?
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.........................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood....................BARNABY KAY
Eleanor Peck.............................NICOLA WALKER
Henry Akeley.............................DAVID CALDER
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling & Holly Slater
Music: Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
MON 20:00 The Wedding Detectives (m000p0zs)
Episode 3
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 an album that belonged to a couple married in Windsor in 1959. It proves to be their hardest assignment yet. Nevertheless Charlotte and Cole manage to uncover a true-life love story and a lifelong friendship. The lost album finds a home.
Produced by Jonathan Mayo
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000t40w)
The Fine Art of Decision Making
Margaret Heffernan explores the fine art of decision making in times of uncertainty. We make decisions all the time which affect our personal lives, but what about the decisions which affect the lives of many others? How do you decide, when the well being of a nation or the success of a company are at stake, but the path is unclear because the risks cannot be quantified? A desire for more data, the temptation to procrastinate, a reluctance to admit mistakes and the outsourcing of decisions to machines can all lead to bad decision making, so what processes and practices, leadership qualities and attitudes of mind can serve as the best guides? Senior politicians, public servants, business people and academics share their insights based on past failures as well as successes, and suggest ways of better decision making in an increasingly uncertain world.
Contributors:
Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, Director emeritus, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Martin Gilbert, former CEO, Aberdeen Asset Management
Sir Oliver Letwin, former Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister
Dame Louise Makin, former CEO, BTG plc
Baroness Eliza Manningham- Buller, former Director General MI5, Chair of The Wellcome Trust
Professor Cathy O'Neill, founder O'Neill Risk Consulting and Algorithmic Auditing
Jonathan Powell, former Downing Street Chief of Staff to Tony Blair
Producer: Sheila Cook
Editor Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 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 of these 'therapies' adapted to the improving legal and social recognition for homosexuals by modifying conversion practices to embrace Freudian psychoanalytic techniques. Evangelical churches took up the baton left by the discredited 'treatments' in the effort to suppress or ‘repair’ the sexualities of their LGBT+ congregation, and Caitlin asks what faith groups are doing today to eliminate these practices within their communities.
During the summer of 2020, Prime minister Boris Johnson called conversion therapy ‘absolutely abhorrent’ and promised to ‘bring forward plans to ban it’. Caitlin speaks with one of the people responsible for a recent ban on change and suppression practices in the Australian state of Victoria, earlier this year, and seeks to understand how easy a ban will be to implement.
And how will any ban on conversion practices affect the trans community? Caitlin speaks with the MP Alicia Kearns about why she thinks any bill to enact a ban must protect trans people while ensuring that psychotherapists are still able to provide affirmative support for their patients.
This programme was recorded before one of its contributors, Jayne Ozanne, resigned from her position as an adviser to the UK government’s LGBGT+ advisory panel.
Presenter: Caitlin Benedict (they/them)
Producer: Rory Galloway (he/him)
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000t3zf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t40z)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t3zw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000t411)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t413)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 16 MARCH 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000t415)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t417)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t41b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t41d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t41g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000t41j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000t41l)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev David Campton
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000t41n)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09ppwds)
Tony Juniper on the Linnet
Environmentalist Tony Juniper grew up in a neighbourhood where linnets were kept in captivity. As he recalls they were popular not only because of their striking looks but also for their song.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Alan Leech.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000t4sd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Lessons On A Crisis (m000t6ql)
Preparedness
Evan Davis presents a new discussion series exploring key lessons to learn from the coronavirus pandemic, a year after the eruption of the crisis in the UK. In the first episode on preparedness, Evan and his panel of expert guests discuss the UK's readiness to handle a pandemic and compare it with the experience of other countries.
Should the UK have been better prepared, given it had conducted a major exercise in pandemic planning, Operation Cygnus, in 2016? What can we learn from other countries, particularly those in South East Asia, which responded quickly and effectively to the epidemic? Has Covid-19 radically changed our attitude towards risks which threaten the UK and the world? And how can we be better prepared for other emergencies in health such as anti-microbial resistance and other areas such as climate change?
We explore the wider challenge governments and societies face in preparing for catastrophic events which may not happen.
The second and third episodes of 'Lessons on a Crisis' explore themes of leadership and community resilience.
Producer: Leala Padmanabhan
TUE 09:45 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t4wy)
Episode 2
George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this second episode, George Szirtes describes his mother’s attempts to make her family fit in, once they arrive in England.
“We were Englishing ourselves as best we could. But my mother’s firm ideas about dress could be hard on us. She abhorred the way the English dressed their children: the long flannel shorts, the sloppy woollen socks. We had to wear white sandals and white socks. Your shorts will be short, continental length, she decided. We were a laughing stock, but not to her…”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator who escaped to Britain with his family after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Read by the author, George Szirtes
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t4sr)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 10:45 No One Called Her Angel (m000df9q)
Episode 2
Lynn's relationship with her daughter suffers as the pressures of work intensify. Struggling to cope, Lynn spots a long-forgotten face in a crowded cafe.
A series about perspective and truth specially written by Louise Welsh.
Read by Maryam Hamidi
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 11:00 The Real Internet Giants (m000t4sx)
China
Kathryn Parsons is on a mission to demystify the digital world. She has taught data, coding and cyber skills to half a million people across the globe. In this series Kathryn turns her attention to Russia and China, exploring the innovations, systems and structures which define these two forces in global technology.
In this first episode, Kathryn explores the factors that have made China a leading global player in tech and examines its ambitions to overtake the United States in digital supremacy. With the help of industry insiders, leading innovators and tech experts, Kathryn uncovers the leading tech trends, profiles the key figures and analyses the points where China's politics and technology interact, as the nation faces increasing international scrutiny.
Contributors: Lillian Li - writer of SubStack Newsletter Chinese Characteristics, China Analyst Christina Boutrup, Dr Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institue, Adrian Simpson - co founder of Wavelength and Dr Wanli Min of North Summit Capital.
Produced by Sam Peach
TUE 11:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m000t4t3)
Laura Barton's Seventeen
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
At the age of seventeen we stand on the cusp of adulthood, on the edge of new autonomy, freedom, beginning. It is the age, too that has preoccupied songwriters from Chuck Berry via the Beatles and Stevie Nicks to Olivia Rodrigo, who this year - at the age of seventeen - had a global hit with a song about getting that symbol of maturity, her driver's licence.
Laura talks to Janis Ian, herself on the edge of 70, and Sharon Van Etten, who's just turned 40, about the 'seventeen' songs they've written, as well as the music journalist David Hepworth, founding editor of Just Seventeen magazine, about what makes seventeen the pivotal age for pop music.
(Including extracts from Lost in Vegas with George and Ryan and Take 5 with Chit Chat on MAX TV)
Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
Joan Jett - I Love Rock n Roll
Olivia Rodrigo - Drivers License
Jackie DeShannon - When You Walk in the Room
The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There
Janis Ian - At Seventeen
Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
Meat Loaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light
The Cars - Let's Go
Abba - Dancing Queen
Ladytron - Seventeen
The Regents - Seventeen
The Flamingos - Only Seventeen
Ray Coniff - Seventeen
Fontane Sisters - Seventeen
The Supremes - He's Seventeen
The Crystals - What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen
St Etienne - When I was Seventeen
Frank Sinatra - It Was a Very Good Year
Elton John - Between Seventeen and Twenty
David Gates - Love is Always Seventeen
The Magic Numbers - Only Seventeen
Emilio - Seventeen
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000t4t9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t4tf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t4tk)
7: Continuation
From the Nobel 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 a lonely teenager chooses her, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Today: a strange unease hangs in the air, as Klara, Josie and the Mother prepare themselves to view Josie's portrait....
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:20 You and Yours (m000t4tp)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000t4tt)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000t4ty)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sl6dt)
The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)
Sutton Hoo helmet
The history of the world as told through one hundred objects. This week Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, is exploring the world in the 7th Century, at a time when the teachings of Islam were transforming the Middle East and goods and ideas were flowing both ways along the tangle of connections that have become known as the Silk Road.
But what was happening in Britain at this time? In today's programme, Neil travels to East Anglia to describe the sensational burial discovery that has been hailed as a "British Tutankhamen". He tells the story of the Sutton Hoo helmet, the world it inhabited and the imagination it has inspired. The poet Seamus Heaney reflects on the helmet in the context of the great Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, and the archaeologist Angus Wainwright describes the discovery of the great grave ship where the helmet was found.
Producer: Rebecca Stratford
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000t40r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0002hm0)
The Love Test
Rom-Com about meeting the perfect partner. Journalist Kate is writing an article about a psychological test that can tell when you’ve met the “one” but she’s reluctant to believe it will work - until she tries it herself. By Brian Coyle.
Kate ..... Kate O’Flynn
Sam ..... Carl Prekopp
Mark ..... Stephen Hogan
Sarah ..... Deborah Findlay
Gerri ..... Samara MacLaren
Producer/director: Bruce Young
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000t4v4)
The Gallery
Short documentaries and adventures in sound about artworks and artists presented by Josie Long. From an audio reimagining of Bridget Riley to the work of a courtroom sketch artist.
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000t49h)
The Lorax
Dr Seuss' fable of needless consumerism and environmental ruin, The Lorax, is half a century old this year. The 'shortish, brownish, oldish and mossy' character who 'speaks for the trees' increasingly features on placards at demos. Michael Rosen looks at the book's influence on the modern environmental movement and charts its journey from ignored to censored, embraced by the mainstream and inevitably turned into a Hollywood movie and used to sell SUVs.
With Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell, Writer George Monbiot, Economist Kate Raworth, Playwright David Greig, Advertising 'guru' Rory Sutherland, Ben Stewart from Greenpeace, Steve Brezzo, Josh Golin, Terri Birkett and more.
Producer: Ellie Richold
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000t4v8)
Can the law fight climate change?
Around the world environmentalists are taking governments and companies to court to fight climate change. Joshua Rozenberg explores how the law is evolving into a powerful activists' tool.
In the first case of its kind, in a ruling that was upheld by the Dutch Supreme Court, the Netherlands were found to have a duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared to 1990, and this by December of last year. What happened?
Apart from governments, companies are being sued by individuals or shareholders. For example, a Peruvian farmer has filed a case in a German court against a German electricity company for what he claims is its role in warming up the climate enough for him to be threatened by flooding as a nearby Andean glacier melts.
In Poland activist shareholders sued the board of their utility company to stop the development of a new coal mine, claiming an "indefensible" financial risk, due to rising carbon costs and falling renewables prices.
And senior lawyers are developing the concept of "ecocide", with the aim to make it an indictable offence at the International Criminal Court, analogous to genocide or crimes against humanity.
So how is the law evolving to tackle climate change, asks Joshua Rozenberg.
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000t4vd)
Greg James & Bella Mackie
Harriett is joined by a husband-and-wife team: Bella Mackie, author and Vogue columnist, and Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast show and Radio 4's Rewinder.
Bella loves Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Harriett chooses The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré and Greg picks Right Ho, Jeeves! He says it’s the funniest PG Wodehouse novel. But why did it make Bella think he was the right man for her?
Producer: Sarah Goodman
Join our Instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000t4vj)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t4vs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000t4vx)
Series 4
Episode 3: At Your Side
It’s Teddy’s (Rasmus Hardiker) birthday, and Joe (Mathew Baynton) has pulled out all the stops to celebrate – even roping an unwilling Amanda (Josie Lawrence) and Hardacre (Nigel Havers) into the festivities.
The celebrations are interrupted by Teddy’s brother Frederick (Kieran Hodgson), who is determined the time has come for Teddy to make something of his life. But Teddy is more concerned about keeping a promise to Mr Hardacre, in an adventure with cowboys, spies, rock stars, and Milk Tray men.
Cast:
Nigel Havers – Hardacre
Mathew Baynton – Joe
Josie Lawrence – Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker – Teddy
Kieran Hodgson – Frederick
Written by Edward Rowett
Directed by Alan Nixon
Script edited by Mark Evans
Edited and Engineered by Jerry Peal
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Based on an original idea by Edward Rowett and Robert Frimstone
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios, London
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000t48p)
Recent events take their toll on Alice and a decision is reached at Brookfield.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000t4w1)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000lml4)
Episode 2
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Two
Heawood and Kennedy go to Henry Akeley's house in Rendlesham Forest, to see if there's a story.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.........................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood....................BARNABY KAY
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling & Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Exec producer Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000t4w5)
The Asylum Business - the UK's hidden housing crisis
The multi-billion pound AASC contract is the Government's ten-year blueprint for how those seeking asylum in the UK are treated while they await a yes or no for their refugee status. After a year under the pressures of Covid , the contract has become mired in controversy. Former army barracks which have been repurposed as temporary holding centres for those applying for asylum have experienced fires, Covid-19 outbreaks and resident protests, and in other parts of the country, private landlords are threatening to pull out of the contracts. Are those living in such accommodation being treated fairly and humanely? Paul Connolly investigates.
Producer: Rob Cave
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000t4w9)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000t48v)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.
TUE 21:30 Lessons On A Crisis (m000t6ql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t4wf)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t4tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000t4wk)
182. From Ruritania with Love...a Correspondence Special.
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane choose some of their favourite listener emails from the past few weeks. Their choices include missives on international oboes, kitsch appliances, mass hysteria, caravanning pets and childhood eavesdropping. Before the postbag gets opened...there's debriefing on Royal interviews and Jane's relationship with her printer is on the rocks.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t4wp)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000t4wt)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t4wy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t4x2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t4x5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t4x7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000t4x9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000t4xc)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev David Campton
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000t4xf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09qcbsr)
Andy Clements on the Golden Plover
Andy Clements of the British Trust for Ornithology describes how he was first bewitched by the captivating sound of the Golden Plover in summer above the moors.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Simon Stobart.
WED 06:00 Today (m000t476)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000t478)
Keeping humans relevant at work
Sangita Myska goes in search of the innovators with big solutions to some of our most intractable problems.
The World Economic Forum says the workforce is automating faster than expected, displacing a predicted 85 million jobs in the next five years. Tech entrepreneur Charles Towers Clark believes that taking power away from bosses and giving it to employees is the key to humans surviving in the workplace of the future.
He did it in his own company and now he thinks all companies need to do it as a matter of urgency.
But is this the key to keeping humans relevant at work?
Contributors include:
Daniel Susskind, a Fellow in Economics at Oxford University and author of A World Without Work
Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School
Leena Nair, Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Leadership Executive at Unilever
Producer: Ellie Bury
WED 09:30 Will Self Takes the Waters (m000t47b)
What Goes Around
Will Self explores the environmental impact of the bottled water industry.
In this final episode Will's transported to the island paradise of Fiji - whose number one export is water.
He explores whether it's possible to justify shipping bottled water around the globe.
Closer to home, he speaks to Nestlé, the owners of Buxton Water, about their own environmental record.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
(Photo credit: Luther Self)
WED 09:45 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t47d)
Episode 3
George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this third episode, George Szirtes tells the dramatic story of his family’s escape from Hungary after the 1956 Revolution.
“Martial law was declared. People with rifles and pistols were roaming the streets. There were bodies in the streets and people hanging from lamp-posts. We walked under the barrel of a Russian tank, but the Russians did not stop us…”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Read by the author, George Szirtes
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t47g)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 10:45 No One Called Her Angel (m000dpny)
Episode 3
Angel can't quite believe that she's been dragged back to her home town by bereavement and heartache. She's already feeling fragile when she crosses paths with an old schoolmate.
A series about perspective and truth specially written by Louise Welsh.
Read by Maryam Hamidi
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
WED 11:00 The Jump (m000t47k)
The Jump: Bird Flu
Chris van Tulleken on the human behaviours that are causing pandemics, paying the price for getting too close to animals by degrading their territory and allowing viruses to jump. As we've all been locked down for one virus our poultry have been locked down for another. Currently all chicken farms in the UK are behind closed doors due to an H5N8 outbreak across Europe. In Russia there have been some cases in people this year but so far it has not passed from human to human. In 1997 the H5N1 Bird Flu outbreak in Hong Kong poultry markets infected a small number of people but had a 30 % mortality rate including children. Virologist Professor Malik Peiris was at the centre of the outbreak and recalls the concern that a pandemic was on the cards. Culling of all poultry flocks halted that event but not before the virus entered the wild bird population – a reservoir where the virus ‘card pack is shuffling.' Professor Nicola Lewis explains how common dabbling ducks are able to fly hundreds of miles in one hit, migrating across the world and intermingling with domestic animals. An ever increasing number of rice paddy fields is another risk factor while Dr Jessica Leibler underlines the contribution of industrial poultry and pig farming to viruses jumping. We know it would take a small number of mutations for bird flu to become human to human transmissible. NERVTAG virologist Wendy Barclay says, in the end, a bird flu pandemic is inevitable.
If you find dead or sick wild waterfowl (swans, geese or ducks) or other dead wild birds, such as gulls or birds of prey, do not touch them but in the UK call the Defra helpline (03459 33 55 77).
Produced by Erika Wright
WED 11:30 Alexei Sayle's The Absence of Normal (m000t47p)
Series 2
Barcelona Chairs
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.
Architect ‘rupert’ (yes, spelt and pronounced with a lower case ‘r’) is frustrated by his lack of “player architect” status and his clients’ derivative design briefs. He sets about embedding himself in Tony Blair’s Labour government while designing a minimal and perfectly uncomplicated home for himself and his family.
Starring Ambika Mod, Hugh Quarshie, Siobhan Redmond.
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 (m000t47t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t47y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t482)
8: Heart
From the Nobel 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 a lonely teenager chooses her, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Today: after the shocking revelations about Josie's 'portrait', Klara embarks on another risky plan to save her owner...
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:20 You and Yours (m000t486)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000t48c)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000t48h)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sl6dw)
The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)
Moche warrior pot
The history of the world as told through one hundred objects arrives in 7th Century Peru. Throughout this week Neil MacGregor is exploring along the Silk Road and beyond, ranging from Korea to East Anglia. But what was life and culture like in South America during the same period that Islam was transforming the Middle East?
In today's programme, Neil introduces us to a remarkable lost civilisation from present day Peru. He explores the story of the Moche people through a pot in the shape of a warrior, with help from expert Steve Bourget and the potter Grayson Perry.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000t48p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m00035v8)
Seven Five Zero Zero
A desperate pilot hijacks his own plane in Adrian Penketh's tense thriller, set in and around an airport. Starring Don Gilet, Katherine Press and Tony Turner.
Directed by Emma Harding
Steve.....Don Gilet
Neil/ Tanner....Shaun Mason
Megan.....Katherine Press
Chris.....Christopher Harper
Tim.....Ronny Jhutti
Giles.....Tony Turner
G.G......Chetna Pandya
Prime Minister.....Susan Jameson
Helen.....Sarah Ovens
All other parts played by Sam Dale, Michael Bertenshaw, Adrian Penketh and Franchi Webb.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000t48s)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000t48v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000t48x)
A Recipe for Utopia
A young entrepreneur builds the ‘happiest company in the world’, an online shoe retailer so profitable that Amazon snaps it up for over a billion dollars. But what if the company’s profits and happiness could be boosted by a radical reimagining of the workplace?
No more bosses, no more job titles, just creativity, equality and pure joy.
Matthew Syed tells the extraordinary story of Tony Hsieh, a visionary entrepreneur who abandoned social hierarchy in his Las Vegas-based shoe company. Could it be that the secret to happiness lies in making everybody equal?
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 (m000t48z)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m000t491)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t493)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Gossip and Goddesses with Granny Kumar (m000t495)
Episode 6
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:
Doctor Who star Mandip Gill and Evening Standard Best Actress award winner Josette Simon
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 (m000t497)
Jazzer learns a valuable lesson and Clarrie drops a bombshell.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000t499)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000lsm2)
Episode 3
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Three
Heawood and Kennedy’s investigation into the disappearance of Henry Akeley leads them to Rendlesham Forest and an event which took place in December 1980.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.........................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood....................BARNABY KAY
Henry Akeley.............................DAVID CALDER
Albert Wilmarth.........................MARK BAZELEY
Perry..........................................ROBERT GLENISTER
Peniston....................................BEN CROWE
Child's voice..............................EDIE SIMPSON
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000t49c)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Anne McElvoy, Melanie Phillips, Ash Sarkar and Matthew Taylor. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m000t49f)
The Bigger Picture
A personal, hopeful reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter.
Dr Jason Arday, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Durham, reflects on the health and social barriers he has faced and overcome throughout his life with a positive and grateful outlook.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000t49h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000t48z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t49k)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t482)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
WED 23:00 Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum (m000t49m)
Scroungers
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 the benefits system and asks if it actually works.
Tom Mayhew is a critically acclaimed comedian, whose material about being working-class – mixing the personal and the political, with the punchline-rate of a one-liner comic – sets him apart from any other act on the circuit. Tom Mayhew is Benefit Scum is based on Mayhew's acclaimed Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew which transferred to a sell out run at the Soho Theatre.
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
Production Coordinator...Carina Andrews
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000t49p)
Series 3
Episode 10
Jon Holmes's award winning satirical river of sound returns to twist itself into the news.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t49r)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 18 MARCH 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000t49t)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t47d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t49w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t49y)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t4b0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000t4b2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000t4b4)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev David Campton
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000t4b6)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09qhsc0)
Mike Toms on the Tawny Owl
Mike Toms of the British Trust for Ornithology describes his night-time encounters with Tawny Owls in Thetford Forest in Norfolk.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Neil Cowley.
THU 06:00 Today (m000t6km)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000t6kp)
The Bacchae
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Euripides' great tragedy, which was first performed in Athens in 405 BC when the Athenians were on the point of defeat and humiliation in a long war with Sparta. The action seen or described on stage was brutal: Pentheus, king of Thebes, is torn into pieces by his mother in a Bacchic frenzy and his grandparents condemned to crawl away as snakes. All this happened because Pentheus had denied the divinity of his cousin Dionysus, known to the audience as god of wine, theatre, fertility and religious ecstasy.
The image above is a detail of a Red-Figure Cup showing the death of Pentheus (exterior) and a Maenad (interior), painted c. 480 BC by the Douris painter. This object can be found at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
With
Edith Hall
Professor of Classics at King’s College London
Emily Wilson
Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
And
Rosie Wyles
Lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University of Kent
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t6kr)
Episode 4
George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this fourth episode, George Szirtes uncovers the painful history of his mother’s time in the concentration camps.
After the War, she returns to her home city of Cluj in Romania to try to find her family; but discovers that her old neighbours don’t want to know her.
“Returning home was not a simple matter. Magda’s real bitterness was not evident in the immediate aftermath of the camps but followed the discovery that all her family had perished, and that their perishing was greeted by either indifference or pleasure by those who had previously seemed good-natured and neighbourly.”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator who escaped to Britain with his family after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Read by the author, George Szirtes
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t6kt)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 10:45 No One Called Her Angel (m000dzmm)
Episode 4
En route to Angel's childhood home, Lynn sees that her daughter Amber is oblivious to the tensions between the two women.
A series about perspective and truth specially written by Louise Welsh.
Read by Maryam Hamidi
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000t6kw)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 Future Art (m000t6ky)
Episode 2
Art historian James Fox asks how technology is creating new ways of seeing, from immersive art installations to augmented reality.
To explore these new visual worlds, James steps into an iconic painting, takes a virtual trip to teamLab Borderless in Tokyo, stays dry in Random International’s Rain Room and looks up to see Nina Chanel Abney’s Imaginary Friend hovering in mid-air.
And, just beneath the high-tech surface, James uncovers some old aesthetic ideals as he discovers how the sublime is being re-made and re-imagined in the digital age.
Producer: Julia Johnson
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
Image: Valley of Flowers and People Lost, Immersed and Reborn © teamLab
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000t6l0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t6l2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t6l4)
9: Sun
From the Nobel 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 a lonely teenager chooses her, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Today: after Josie's health collapses, Klara turns again to the Sun for help....
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:20 You and Yours (m000t6l6)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000t6l8)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000t6lb)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sl6dy)
The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)
Korean roof tile
Korea: source of modern-day electronic components. Neil MacGregor delves into the history of a an artefact from the region.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000t497)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000t6lf)
Another Place
By Siân Owen
One mum’s struggle to connect to her severely deaf baby son.
Lizzy finds out that Charlie might have a problem with his ears when he's three weeks old, after a routine neonatal screening. It could just be gunk. It could just be newborn gunk. That often happens. So they send him to get tested further. And it's at this test, when Charlie's six weeks old, wires stuck to his little head, that Lizzy sees the machine draw lines that make the audiologist stop smiling.
This is the story of a mum’s quest to understand what being deaf means. Lizzy attempts to fill in the gaps for her son, not realising that he is already filling so many gaps for her - gaps she never even knew she had.
‘Another Place’ is the second audio drama for Radio 4 by writer Siân Owen, whose own son was born with a major permanent hearing loss.
Lizzy…. Alexandria Riley
Joel…. Matthew Gravelle
Seren…. Carys Eleri
Natasha…. Eiry Thomas
Charlie…. Zachary Cox
Directed by Carl Prekopp
Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000t6lh)
Walking in Sound: Ellie Williams in North Somerset
Sound Recordist, Ellie Williams, takes Clare for an audio-rich wander at Abbots Pool in North Somerset. Walking, she says, is as essential to her as food and sleep and – whether she’s recording, or not – she’s always super-aware of the richness of the sounds around her. En route she contemplates why her profession is still so male-dominated and how it can be opened up to more women.
Grid Ref for Abbots Pool Car Park: ST 537 730
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000t4jn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000t4kk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000t6lk)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000t6lm)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world
THU 17:00 PM (m000t6lp)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t6lr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (m000t6lt)
Series 8
Instalment 1
What with the whole world grinding to a viral halt and everything, this special series of essays and diary entries is recorded at the Sussex home of the world-renowned storyteller.
In 2021, it's 25 years since David Sedaris first shared his very particular world view with the listeners to BBC Radio 4, having brought us The SantaLand Diaries back in 1996. In this eighth series of Meet David Sedaris, he continues to entertain with sardonic wit and incisive social critiques.
David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers and, in 2019, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he's a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries, was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.
David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. His latest international best-selling books include a collection of stories entitled Calypso, an edited selection of diary entries Theft By Finding, and a 'greatest hits' selection called The Best Of Me.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000t6lx)
Writers, Sarah McDonald Hughes and Caroline Harrington
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ... Tim Bentinck
Ruth Archer ... Felicity Finch
Ben Archer ... Ben Norris
Jennifer Aldridge ... Angela Piper
Leonard Berry ... Paul Copley
Susan Carter .... Charlotte Martin
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Eddie Grundy ... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Tracy Horrobin ... Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ... Annabelle Dowler
Lisa ... Katherine Jakeways
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000t6lz)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000lz7d)
Episode 4
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Four
Kennedy and Heawood start to doubt Henry Akeley’s sanity.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.........................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood....................BARNABY KAY
Henry Akeley.............................DAVID CALDER
Albert Wilmarth.........................MARK BAZELEY
Perry..........................................ROBERT GLENISTER
Peniston....................................BEN CROWE
Child's voice..............................EDIE SIMPSON
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000t4v8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000t6m1)
Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000t6lm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000t6kp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t6m4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t6l4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
THU 23:00 A Good Read (m000t4vd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t6m6)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 19 MARCH 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000t6m8)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t6kr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000t6mb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000t6md)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000t6mg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000t6mj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000t6ml)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev David Campton
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000t6mn)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (m00026h0)
Trudie Goodwin on the Carib Grackle
Trudie Goodwin is probably best known for her television roles as Sergeant June Ackland in The Bill and latterly in Emmerdale. But during all that time Trudie has possessed a lifelong interest in birds and bird watching. It was while on holiday in the Caribbean that Trudie first heard the call of the male carib grackle, a tropical blackbird. And she fell in love with this noisy, curious and intelligent bird so much she'd have loved to bring one home with her after the holiday.
You can hear more from Trudie in her Tweet of the Week omnibus available on the Radio 4 website
Producer : Andrew Dawes
FRI 06:00 Today (m000t76l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000t4k3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes (m000t76n)
Episode 5
George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this final episode, George Szirtes goes back to his mother’s early years as a photographer in Budapest, at the beginning of the great age of magazine photography. He reconstructs the moment when she is seized by the militia, and taken away to concentration camps during the War, as a Jew.
“What I would like to present to somebody is the voice and energy, not of someoe sick and dying but of a woman in her prime…”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator who escaped to Britain with his family after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Read by the author, George Szirtes
Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000t76q)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 10:45 No One Called Her Angel (m000f5sb)
Episode 5
Angel resolves to fight her husband for the flat, while an enraged Lynn forbids her daughter from having contact with the other woman.
A series about truth, perspective and memory by Louise Welsh.
Read by Maryam Hamidi
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 11:00 Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge (m000t76s)
Narrative Graphs
Documentary-maker Phil Tinline continues his series exploring how conspiracy theories and fictions work as stories, and what they claim to tell us about how power works.
Drawing on new research, he finds out how ‘narrative graphs’ reveal telling differences between real and bogus conspiracies. And he explores this casts a different light on the anxious world of post-war America, from McCarthyism, through the assassination of President Kennedy, to Watergate. Are all those 'paranoia' movies of the 1970s actually telling two very different stories? And if so, what might this tell us about how we think about conspiracy narratives today?
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
FRI 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000t76v)
The Tender-Hearted Poet
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 goes hill walking in a beloved spot and meets a woman who desperately needs his help.
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Tamsin ..... Beth Marshall
Grace ..... Hilary Maclean
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 (m000t76x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000t76z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 12:06 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t771)
10: Slow Fade
Lydia Wilson reads the final part of the new novel from Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author of Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro.
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 a lonely teenager chooses her, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
Today: Klara's pleas to the Sun seem to have yielded results. But what of Klara's future now that Josie is growing older?
Reader: Lydia Wilson
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:20 You and Yours (m000t773)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000t775)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000t777)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Victoria Derbyshire.
FRI 13:45 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00sl6f0)
The Silk Road And Beyond (400 - 700 AD)
Silk princess painting
Throughout this week, Neil MacGregor has been exploring the world of the late 7th century, with objects from South America, Britain, Syria and Korea.
Today's object is from the 4000 mile tangle of routes that has become known as the Silk Road - that great conduit of ideas, technologies, goods and beliefs that effectively linked the Pacific with the Mediterranean. His chosen object which lets him travel the ancient Silk Route is a fragile painting telling a story of "industrial espionage". It comes from the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan, now in Western China, and tells a powerful story about how the secrets of silk manufacture were passed along the fabled route. The cellist and composer Yo Yo Ma, who has long been fascinated by the Silk Road and who thinks of it as "the internet of antiquity", and the writer Colin Thubron consider the impact of the Silk Road - in reality and on the imagination.
Producer: Anthony Denselow
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000t6lx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000t7zh)
Waking Beauty
Alfred Bradley Award Winner Alex Clarke's moving original drama.
Seventeen-year-old Vanilla’s fall from a tree becomes a wake-up call for those close to her. Displaced and disconnected, the Byrne family learn how to reconnect with each other – even though one of them is asleep.
ORLA ..... Sade Malone
MARY ..... Michelle Fairley
SIOBHAN ..... Lucy Gaskell
GEMMA ..... Sacha Parkinson
FATHER ROBIN .... .Joseph Alessi
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Audio Drama North Production
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000t77b)
Houseplant Edition 2
The team look back through the archive for a houseplant edition of the show.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000t77d)
You Forgot Me First
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the Northern Irish writer Tara West. As read by Andrea Irvine.
Tara West is a writer from Co Antrim whose published works include two novels and a memoir. She is a doctoral student at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast and is one of BBC Writersroom’s Belfast Voices.
Reader ..... Andrea Irvine
Writer ..... Tara West
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000t77g)
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 (m000t77j)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000t77l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000t77n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000t77q)
Series 58
Episode 4
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 Lucy Porter and Eshaan Akbar with music supplied by Jess Robinson .
Voice Actors: Jason Forbes and Karen Bartke
Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-Ordinator: Carina Andrews
Editor/Engineer: David Thomas
BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000t77s)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000m4bv)
Episode 5
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Five
Heawood and Kennedy are starting to make progress with the Henry Akeley investigation. Or so they think.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher……………….………JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood………………….BARNABY KAY
Albert Wilmarth………………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley……………….……..….DAVID CALDER
Ben…………………...........…….…….BEN CROWE
Tania…………………..……...............GABRIELLE GLAISTER
Slide……………………....................FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Mystery woman…………........…...NICOLA STEPHENSON
Child's voice…………………..........EDIE SIMPSON
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000t77v)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000t77x)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Intrigue (m000p8z2)
Mayday (Omnibus 1)
When James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Turkey in 2019 he left behind a tangle of truths and lies. Mayday tells the extraordinary real story of the man who organised the White Helmets – rescuers who film themselves pulling survivors from bombed out buildings in rebel-held areas of Syria – and investigates claims that, far from being heroes, they are part of a very elaborate hoax. James Le Mesurier – his detractors say – was a British secret agent, pulling the strings. So when his body was found by worshippers on their way to morning prayers, there were a lot questions.
Produced, written and presented by: Chloe Hadjimatheou
Editor: Emma Rippon
Researcher: Tom Wright
Sound design and mix: Neil Churchill
Additional mixing Graham Pudifoot
Editing assistance: Robbie Wojciechowski
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Arabic translation and additional research: Vanessa Bowles, Abdul Kader Habak
Turkish researcher: Nevin Sungur
Narrative Consultant: John Yorke
Original music: Nick Mundy
End track: Zamilou by Bu Kolthoum
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000t77z)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (m000t771)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
FRI 23:00 Newsjack (m000t6jg)
Series 24
Episode 4
The week's news stories lovingly moulded into sketches and one-liners by the public.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000t781)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament