Helena Attlee first heard Lev’s violin played at a small music festival in Wales. The music being played was Klezmer, Jewish music from Eastern Europe. It blew her right off her feet.
The violinist said he’d been told the instrument came from Cremona, the heart of violin making in Italy, home to Antonio Stradivarius.
Helena sets off on a quest to find out where it was actually made. She travels to Cremona, to the Italian forests where the Alpine spruce grows, and the timbers come down by river. She tries to find out if it might have been a “church violin” played in the great cathedrals and palaces of the Popes and the Medicis, and how it got to Russia where it was bought by Lev from a Roma musician, perhaps via the Nazi confiscation and sale of violins belonging to Jewish musicians.
Finally a dendrochronology test reveals its true origins.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.
When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.
In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.
Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist. She cuts up bodies to reveal another world of astonishing detail beneath the skin. In this episode, Alice introduces her time-travelling tour of anatomical knowledge, from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age. She begins by asking how we see our bodies and examines one idea that has forever dogged our concept of the body - the soul and the need for it to somehow be meshed into our picture of the body.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Stormont's parliament buildings, on the outskirts of Belfast, often features in the national news as the focus of raucous political debates and protests. But the building is also set in the middle of several hundred acres of magnificent parkland. Most of it was closed to the public at the height of the Troubles, but from the late 1990s, as the peace process developed, it has become a treasured public space.
In the past twenty years, the Stormont Estate has developed its woodland and added environmental trails and wetland areas as well as an outdoor fitness gym, running paths and a large play park. It's now one of Northern Ireland's most popular outdoor parks and is also used regularly as a venue for charity and public events. It has been a particularly important fresh air 'escape' for local people during the Covid lockdowns.
Helen Mark talks to Stormont's Head of Estate, Nigel Bonar, about the challenges of looking after a parkland which is also a workplace for politicians and three thousand civil servants. Author Jack Gallagher remembers the excitement of visiting Stormont as a child of the 40s and describes the contrast between its green open spaces and the grey blitz-damaged streets where he lived. We hear about some of the significant moments in Stormont's history and former politician, Monica McWilliams, pays tribute to the late Mo Mowlam who was instrumental in opening up the park to the public when she was Secretary of State during the peace process negotiations in the mid-1990s. Her lasting legacy on the Stormont Estate is the 'Mo Park', the play park enjoyed by thousands of children every week.
03/04/21 Farming Today This Week: farm finance, new Countryside Code, how will tree planting change the British countryside?
How will the new scheme rewarding farmers with public money for public goods work? Now we've left the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, the subsidy payments based on how much land farmers have are being phased out, and replaced in England with Environmental Land Management Schemes, which will pay for things like clean water, biodiversity and carbon capture.
'Be nice, say hello, share the space', that's the new Countyside Code launched this week, 70 years after the first booklet was published. The 'refreshed' code developed by Natural England and Natural Resources Wales aims to help people enjoy the countryside in a 'safe and respectful way'.
Could nationwide plans to plant millions of trees, obscure some of the country’s iconic landscapes? We hear from the National Trust.
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day. Producer: Orwenna Griffiths
Liz Pichon talks to Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi about celebrating 10 years since her first Tom Gates book came out, ways she coped with undiagnosed dyslexia, doodling, and why, when she was growing up, her dad may have had the best job. Chris Bavin was a market trader turned grocer whose career took an unexpected turn when he was invited to be a TV presenter. He explains why his latest job has taken him to the New Forest. A surprise birthday present left Kath Cordingly with a love of beekeeping, she now owns around 10 million bees and is often found rescuing swarms from unusual places, despite developing an allergy to bee stings. Singer Mica Paris shares her Inheritance Tracks: Come Live with Me Angel by Marvin Gaye and Tom Browne- Funkin for Jamaica. Comedian and producer John Simmit talks about his life and career which includes playing Dipsy in the original Teletubbies series.
Tom Gates: Ten Tremendous Tales by Liz Pichon is out now and the closing music was from Tom Gates The Album which is also out now.
BBC Two’s Remarkable Places To Eat is back for two part series. Chris’s episode about the New Forest is on 6th April at
.
Mica Paris’ latest album Gospel....is out now.
John Simmit narrates the Windrush musical Rush : A Joyous Jamaican Journey which tours around UK theatres starting on August 28th. Venues include The Palace Theatre, Redditch; Nottingham Playhouse; Bournemouth Pavilion.
Jay Rayner and his culinary panel are back with an Easter themed show, packed full of tasty titbits. Rachel McCormack, Jeremy Pang, Sophie Wright and Zoe Laughlin answer questions about recipes for leftover lamb, utilising different cooking oils and using up those lingering egg whites.
In 2016 when producer Georgia first met him, Demille was a cycle courier in his early twenties, taking his company to a tribunal over better working conditions. He was fired-up, political, and excited about a case he would go on to win.
Demille’s story is one of being young and trying to stay afloat in the gig economy; of resilience and hope and trying to find control over his city and life.
The German Chancellor is widely respected as good at crisis management, but public confidence in her government's pandemic policies is ebbing away. How will her party, the CDU, campaign during this autumn's general election - is it possible the next Chancellor could be a Green? Jenny Hill reports from Berlin on power struggles and shifting opinions.
While the Christian Democrats confront their future, the German state is still carrying on talks with the government of Namibia about its colonial past. Land rights, official apologies and reparations have all been discussed . So has the treatment of the Herero and Nama peoples in the early 1900s, which some historians now consider "the first genocide of the 20th century". Tim Whewell met black and white Namibians still viewing their heritage though very different lenses.
In Armenia the public mood is mutinous, in the aftermath of the most recent round of conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. A ceasefire agreement is holding, but there's grief and anger on the streets of Yerevan. Mark Stratton has friends in the disputed territory and hoped to revisit them, to see how they had survived the fighting.
Millions of people in Iranian and Kurdish communities around the world recently celebrated Nowruz - the Persian New Year, a joyful festival full of the symbolism of rebirth. But it's enjoyed particularly passionately in the ancient town of Akre in the Zagros mountains in northern Iraq. Leila Molana Allen climbed its stone ramparts and steep hillsides to witness the spectacle.
In eastern Romania, there's a village like no other: Tichilesti, home to Europe's last leprosarium - a facility where people with Hansen’s disease, better known as leprosy, were once sent for life. Nick Thorpe shares some of the stories he heard there.
Fancy earning interest on a £10,000 loan? We’ll find out about what negative interest rates mean for consumers in Denmark and what might happen if they were introduced here. Felicity Hannah talks to Niels Arne Dam, Chief Economist at Finance Denmark and Paul Pester, former CEO of TSB and currently the chair of research and ratings agency Fairer Finance.
Women’s finances have been hit harder than men’s by the Covid crisis, so could that risk a widening wealth gap and how do we fix it? Maike Currie, investment director at Fidelity Investments and Professor Annamaria Lusardi, head of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at The George Washington University School of Business have some ideas.
And, if you’re eating too much chocolate this weekend then you’re not alone! But can that tell us anything about how you plan your pension, your investments, your savings? Or does it just mean you like chocolate? Felicity talks to Dr Pragya Agarwal, a behavioural data scientist and Claire Walsh, a chartered financial planner.
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 Geoff Norcott and Laura Lexx with music supplied by Huge Davies .
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with the Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly MP, the Green Party peer Jenny Jones, the Shadow Schools Minister Wes Streeting MP and the Liberal Democrats' Health and Social Care spokesperson Munira Wilson MP.
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions? Producer: Eleanor Garland (Beverley Purcell April to July)
Lent Talks is a personal reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is ‘hope as an active virtue’. The Right Reverend Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London and former Chief Nurse, considers the small acts of service and self-giving during the pandemic.
In this two-part dramatization based on the Authorised King James version of the bible, poet Michael Symmons Roberts tells afresh one of the founding stories of our culture and of world history. The ancient writer known as 'Luke' is believed to be the author of the most dramatic of the four gospels - which bears his name - but also the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles, known as 'The Book of Acts'.
Luke is believed to have been a Greek doctor, which explains the medical details he gives of the healing miracles! He worked in Syria but retired to his native Greece and died at the age of 84. As a gentile, he encountered this new sect - Christianity - when he met Paul in Syria and converted to this new faith, accompanying him on his missionary travels.
Luke and Acts have strong personal relationships at their heart and are written as detailed accounts of the rise of early Christianity. Luke’s Gospel is specifically addressed to a figure called 'Theophilus'. We know that Paul, who was converted on the road to Damascus, spent several years under arrest in Rome awaiting trial and Theophilus is supposed by some scholars to be part of the defence team at Paul's trial, although there is no definitive identification of him or her.
In this drama, Theophilus is a young Roman woman who seeks out Luke in the AD60's, three decades after the death of Jesus. Luke has come to Rome with Paul to support him in his forthcoming trial. As part of this support Luke is writing down as accurate an account as he can of the events leading from the birth of Jesus to the spread of the early church. Together they hope carefully chosen extracts from his account will equip the legal team to exonerate Paul.
The Gospel of Luke tells the astonishing story of the life and ministry of Jesus from his birth through healings, miracles, betrayals, trial, execution and resurrection.
The Book of Acts picks up the story after the resurrection with Jesus' disciples in hiding and devastated at the violent death of their leader. Then he appears to them, resurrected, and the book then tells the extraordinary story of the birth and battles and growth of the early Christian church, including Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus from persecutor to apostle.
The Authorised King James Version is the world's most widely known Bible translation, using early 17th-century English. Work began for the Church of England in 1604 and was completed in 1611. Its powerful, majestic style has made it a literary classic, with many of its phrases and expressions embedded in the English language.
Sharon Stone. The impact of pornography on young people. Actor Vanessa Kirby
It’s nearly 30 years since Sharon Stone starred in Basic Instinct, with the famous uncrossing-of-legs scene. In 2001, after adopting her first child, she suffered a stroke and almost died. In an exclusive interview with Emma Barnett she talks about her autobiography - The Beauty of Living Twice.
This summer, students in England will receive A-level and GCSE results based on their teachers’ predictions, after official exams have been cancelled for the second year. Teachers will be required to compile evidence to substantiate their predicted grades. We hear from Emma Irving who works part time as a private tutor and Richard Sheriff, Executive headteacher of Harrogate grammar school and president of the Association of School and College Leaders.
Jessica Moxham's eldest son, Ben, is disabled. At birth it was touch and go whether he would live and Jessica spent most of the first year of Ben's life keeping him alive, learning how to feed and soothe a baby who couldn't suck or eat. Jessica has written a memoir, The Cracks that Let the Light in: What I learned from my disabled son.
Continuing our look at what’s being reported as “rape culture” in schools, we examine the impact of pornography on young people and its effect on relationships and sex.
There are plenty of festivals planned in person once social distancing laws are – hopefully – lifted this summer. But why are they still featuring majority male artists, particularly those headlining.
Plus Vanessa Kirby explores her role as Martha in the film ‘Pieces of A Woman’. A story of a couple on the verge of becoming parents, when their lives change dramatically when a homebirth ends in tragedy.
Nick Robinson talks to the vaccines deployment minister Nadhim Zahawi, in a personal and political interview, about his family fleeing from Iraq, losing and making money, capitalism and vaccines, and Shakespeare.
Lynda La Plante, Daliso Chaponda, Saima Mir, Dom La Nena, Lava La Rue, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Lynda La Plante, Daliso Chaponda and Saima Mir for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Dom La Nena and Lava La Rue.
Emerald Fennell is the first British woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. The film, that she also wrote - 'Promising Young Woman' - has been called a 'revenge-comedy', a movie for the #MeToo era. Fennell's rise has been meteoric - showrunner for the second series of 'Killing Eve', she's also well-known for her roles in front of the camera, including her portrayal of the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, in 'The Crown'. Becky Milligan tells the story of a prolific and multi-talented young woman.
Brian Cox and Robin Ince get their chef's hats on as they look at the science of cooking. They are joined by comedian Katy Brand, author and food critic Grace Dent, material scientist Mark Miodownik and science writer Harold McGee, whose seminal book on the science of the kitchen launched the craze for molecular gastronomy. They look at some of the lores of the kitchen are backed up by the science, and ask whether a truly delicious dinner is really a science or an art. Is cooking just chemistry?
Tech blogger Tom has acquired a healthy new lifestyle, a shiny new fridge and a terrifying new problem. Second of the series of modern horror stories.
Modern technology is terrifying. The average smartphone carries out
billion instructions per second. The average person can only carry out one instruction in that time. Stop and think about that for a second. Sorry, that's two instructions - you won't be able to do that.
But what if modern technology was literally terrifying? What if there really was a ghost in the machine?
Travel through the bad gateway in this modern ghost story as writer and performer Tom Neenan discovers what horrors may lurk in our apps and gadgets.
Writer, spy, outsider, insider, neighbour, friend. Who was the real John le Carré and what does his writing tell us about him and his country? In this edition of Archive on 4, John le Carré’s friend and fellow writer Philippe Sands pieces together the inner life of a beloved chronicler of postwar Britain. Using archive interviews with le Carré and new interviews with his editors and one of his sons, Philippe Sands charts le Carré’s shifting sense of identity, and his relationship with Britain.
In the second episode of this epic saga inspired by the Mamluk slave-dynasty of Egypt, another threat is making its way by sea. As slave merchant Ibn (Nabil Elouahabi) awaits for his family to arrive in Tumanbay, sickness has broken out on the ship carrying them.
Tumanbay, the beating heart of a vast empire, is threatened by a rebellion in a far-off province and a mysterious force devouring the city from within. Gregor (Rufus Wright), Master of the Palace Guard, is charged by Sultan Al-Ghuri (Raad Rawi) with the task of rooting out the spies.
Stamps, coins, sea shells, wine - the list of things that humans collect is endless. But why do people do it? What does a collection of inanimate objects bring to our lives that other things do not? Are people attracted by the thrill of the chase, the pleasure of possession or the control in acting as the custodian of precious things?
Mike Williams talks to an eclectic group of collectors in search of some answers. Roman and Maz Piekarski have spent the last 50 years building up a collection of some of the world's finest cuckoo clocks. When Lisa Courtney was bullied as a child she gained comfort in building her collection of Pokemon toys.Seventeen-year-old Tushar Lakhanpal started his pencil collection at the age of three and when David Fulton sold his business to Microsoft in the 90s his new found wealth allowed him to pursue and acquire one of the finest collections of rare instruments ever assembled.
Easter 2021 comes at the end of an annus horribilis. We are meaning-seeking creatures, and the symbolism is everywhere if you want to find it. There’s the re-birth associated with the Spring equinox, the hope in the Christian account of the resurrection, the freedom marked by the Jewish Passover, and the reflection and restoration embodied in the Muslim observance of Ramadan. While many faith and spiritual groups instinctively see this is a powerful moment in the calendar, for many people, the Easter bank holiday weekend means very little other than gorging on chocolate eggs. What should Easter mean? In Christianity, it’s more important than Christmas, and no story has had a greater influence on Western civilisation. While we are no longer a ‘Christian’ society, should Easter be more of a moment of national unity, which transcends the cultural and faith traditions of Britain? We all instinctively know what is meant by the ‘Christmas spirit’, but should we be re-imagining an Easter equivalent, based on values like sacrifice and forgiveness? Or does the very fact of having designated time off work to spend how we chose provide meaning enough? Some people think we need to come together more than ever as a means of channelling our soul-searching following the existential insecurity of the last year. Others are more sceptical about the insistence that crises like pandemics naturally lead to deep moral or spiritual introspection, and question the value of collective gestures like clapping the NHS. As a nation and as a society should we invest more in the meaning of these moments as a basis for dialogue and togetherness? Or is any national endeavour of this kind bound to be seen as coercive and rendered meaningless? With Julian Baggini, Ronald Hutton, Rev Rachel Mann and David Mills.
Why might Edgar's foul fiend, a cartoon spirit with Kenneth Williams's voice, and Charlie Cairoli, appear insoluble?
Tom Sutcliffe has a whole sheaf of apparently insoluble questions just like this, in the latest Round Britain Quiz. Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements appear for Northern Ireland, opposite Adele Geras and Stuart Maconie for the North of England, all of them taking part from home under lockdown conditions. Tom will be awarding and deducting points according to how many clues he has to give them, and how many times he has to steer them away from red herrings, in arriving at the answers.
As always, there's a generous selection of questions supplied by Round Britain Quiz listeners, and Tom will be revealing the answer to the puzzle left unanswered at the end of last week's edition.
Over the last year, patterns of human behaviour have changed as never before, because of lockdown. In this programme, Martha Kearney asks what impact that change has had on wildlife and the natural world. With more people spotting birds in their gardens last spring and tales of goats roaming the streets of Llandudno, there was a perception that wildlife boomed and flourished when people stayed at home. Martha asks whether that is really what happened and learns about some fascinating evidence about the complex web of relationships between people and animals.
SUNDAY 04 APRIL 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000tv24)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j2vf)
Poverty and want
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: melancholy.
In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot examines the effect of poverty and inequality on our mental health. It is something that Burton identified as ‘the fountain of all other miseries, cares, woes, labours, and grievances'.
We hear from Sonny in central London who is at the sharp end of poverty today.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, shares his insights into how poverty and inequality can impact children’s mental and physical health, reflecting on images of families living in single rooms in London on display at The Foundling Museum.
Professor Kate Pickett, from the University of York and co-author of The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone's Well-Being, reveals how those at the top of society can also be negatively affected by inequality.
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, Kate Pickett offers Between the Wars by Billy Bragg.
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 Swipe Right (m000tp85)
Fate, Maybe
As we prepare for a return to office life, a story about the romantic possibilities of the workplace.
Newly single and tired of dating apps, Suzie tries to engineer a romantic 'meet cute' in a lift, but things don't quite go according to plan.
An original short story by Beth O'Leary. This is the first of the Swipe Right short story series from the freshest young writing talent, all about love, relationships and sex (or lack of it) in the modern world.
Read by Claudia Jessie
Produced by Anne Isger
Beth O'Leary is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Flatshare and The Switch. The Flatshare is also available on BBC Sounds.
Claudia Jessie is best known for playing Eloise in Bridgerton, and has starred in Line of Duty and Vanity Fair.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tv26)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tv28)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tv2b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000tv2d)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000tv2g)
All Saints, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of All Saints, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. The original Norman church was rebuilt in 1273 with a central tower that was subsequently demolished in the early 16th century with five bells moved to a new west tower. The tower now contains a ring of twelve bells cast by Whitechapel of London in 2012 with a tenor in the note of D weighing twenty six and three quarter hundredweight. We hear them ringing Cambridge Surprise Maximus.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000tv1y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m000tvfn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b03pdfns)
Keeping up Appearances
Mark Tully examines the human preoccupation with fashion and the importance we so often attach to appearances. He asks why looking one's best can be so important on spiritual, domestic and social planes.
In a programme that touches on fashion as displayed on Neolithic statues, in the court of Louis XIV and on contemporary catwalks, Mark talks to fashion historian Dr. Chris Breward, Professor of Cultural History at Edinburgh University, and introduces readings from William Hazlitt, Pat Parker and Mary Quant.
He also plays music by court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, Peter Philips and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
The readers are Adjoa Andoh and Michael Feast.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Sunrise Service (m000tvfq)
An Easter morning celebration of Christ’s resurrection, exploring the themes of transformation and restoring hope. With music from Manchester, and speech from West Yorkshire.
The service includes a reading from the gospel of John describing the moment when the resurrected Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. Led by Arianna Walker and Debbie Harvie from Mercy UK, a Christian charity based in Bradford, that helps women with life-controlling issues. With uplifting hymns and worship music all performed by ‘Voices Beyond’ gospel choir, recorded in lockdown.
Producer: Jessie Bland
Music:
Morning Has Broken (Eleanor Farjeon)
Agnus Dei (Michael W Smith)
Freedom (Voices Beyond)
Lord I Lift Your Name (Rick Founds)
Photo: Amy Lewis
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000tvfs)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000tvfv)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000tvfx)
Harry Connick Junior; Fiona Bruce, Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and Sir David Suchet
The singer and musician Harry Connick Junior is a Grammy and Emmy winning star. He's sold more than 28 million records worldwide and is in constant demand for concerts internationally. So when Covid struck, he found himself with time on his hands. The result is a new album Alone with My Faith.
Last December, the Conservative MP Fiona Bruce was appointed the Prime Minister's Global Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief. In her first broadcast interview since being appointed, she tells William her priorities for the job.
The actor Sir David Suchet has played many roles from Poirot to Dr Who. His latest performance goes live on Easter Sunday when he reads the whole of St John’s Gospel from Westminster Abbey. The world premiere - as it has been billed - will be released on the Abbey’s website at
4pm on Easter Sunday.
Producers:
Carmel Lonergan
Olive Clancy
Editor:
Tim Pemberton
Photo Credit: Georgia Connick
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tvfz)
Read Easy UK
Richard Madeley makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Read Easy UK.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Read Easy UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Read Easy UK’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1151288
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000tvg1)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000tvg3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000tvg5)
The Most Revd Justin Welby shares his Easter message of hope and resurrection, in a joyful celebration, live from the stunning setting of Canterbury Cathedral. Following Covid-safe guidelines, members of Canterbury Cathedral Choir, directed by David Newsholme, sing well-loved hymns and anthems including Jesus Christ is Risen Today, This Joyful Eastertide and Thine be the Glory and the Mass setting is Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B Flat. With Gospel music from Junior Garr and members of the Spirituals Choir and readings and prayers from the Rt Revd Dr Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover and members of the Community of St Anselm. Producer Andrew Earis.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zqzsv)
Curlew (Spring)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the curlew. The haunting song of the curlew instantly summons the spirit of wild places. By April, most curlews have left their winter refuge on estuaries and marshes and have returned to their territories on moorland or upland pastures. Wherever they breed you'll hear the male birds singing and displaying. It's often called the bubbling song.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000tvg7)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell. Producer: Natasha Shallice
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000txxp)
Writers, Sarah Hehir and Keri Davies
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer ... Ben Norris
Harrison Burns ... James Cartwright
Chris Carter ... Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Ruairi Donovan ... Arthur Hughes
Eddie Grundy ... Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Tracy Horrobin ... Susie Riddell
Jim Lloyd ... John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ... Annabelle Dowler
Lynda Snell ... Carole Boyd
Roy Tucker ... Ian Pepperell
Evangeline ... Sylvestra Le Touzel
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000tvgc)
Tweet Take 5 : The Cuckoo
For many the arrival of the cuckoo means only one thing, the arrival of spring. Yet although the call of the male cuckoo is familiar to many, how many people have actually seen a cuckoo, or heard the strange bubbling calls of the female prospecting for a host nest to lay her eggs? In this extended version of Tweet of the Day we'll hear from Sir David Attenborough and theatrical director Tara Robinson.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 The Reunion (m000tvgf)
Finding Richard III
Kirsty Wark reunites the archaeologists, scientists, a religious leader and a distant relative involved in the remarkable search for, identification, and reburial of the last Plantagenet king.
Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and the first to have his genome sequenced. The discovery and identification of his remains is one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.
After his death on Bosworth Battle Field in 1485, Richard's body was hastily buried in a Friary in Leicester. But over the years, rumours spread that his bones had been dug up and flung into a nearby river.
Others believed that his body could still be in its original burial place, now under a council car park. Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society wanted to know for sure.
The dig started on 25th August 2012 and, within hours, bones had been found. Dr Richard Buckley lead the University of Leicester's archaeological team and confesses that no-one really believed they would find him. But as osteologist Dr Jo Appleby uncovered more of the remains, she discovered he had a curved spine and serious head wounds.
More research was needed to be sure they had got their man. Professor Turi King, an expert in DNA, and Jo Appleby explain the painstaking process to identify the remains and to match the DNA with relative Michael Ibsen, and how they found out more about the way the King lived.
David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, became embroiled in a legal battle over where the remains should be re-interred – York or Leicester – as some distant relatives of the King challenged how the University had looked after the remains.
As well as giving a DNA sample, Michael Ibsen was also a carpenter and reveals how he ended up making his first ever coffin – fit for a medieval king.
Historian and writer Thomas Penn explains the impact of this momentous discovery on our understanding of history and of the man himself.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 11:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m000v3fz)
Early Morning Walk
Michael explores the secret power of early-morning light, revealing the surprising ways it can affect your brain to boost your mood and help get a better night’s sleep. But it’s not just when you go that’s important… He speaks to Marie Murphy, Professor of Exercise and Health at Ulster University, who’s shown how a simple change to the way you walk could cut your risk of heart disease by 20-50%.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000tvgh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:03 Just a Minute (m000tmls)
Series 86
Episode 6
Lucy Porter hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where she challenges guests Nish Kumar, Josie Lawrence, Zoe Lyons and Gyles Brandreth to talk on subjects including The Art of Queuing, and Oomph! 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 12:33 The Food Programme (m000tvgk)
The Magic of Mussels (And Their Troubled Trade)
Dan Saladino finds out how Brexit could wreck plans to turn the mussel into a mainstream food. They're good for our health and the environment so why are producers facing ruin?
From their base in Lyme Bay in South Devon Nicki and John Holmyard grow mussels out at sea. Their pioneering farm, once completed, will be the largest of its kind in European waters, capable of producing ten thousand tonnes of mussels each year. Since January however, they haven't been able to harvest the shellfish which they mostly sell into to Europe. Following Brexit a dispute between the government and the EU has meant the export of much of the UK's live bivalve molluscs (oysters and cockles as well as mussels) has ground to a halt. Dan explains what lies behind this trade dispute and the devastating impact its having on the industry.
Exports into the European Union are essential to mussel farmers in the UK because we eat so little of the shellfish we produce. So why do these bivalves matter? Mary Seddon, a mollusc expert, explains why this source of food was so important to our ancestors and also describes the environmental benefits mussels bring to our coastline.
Belgian food writer Regula Ysewin (pictured) reveals why it was Belgium that fell in love with mussels and also provides a guide to cooking them.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000tvgm)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000tvgp)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000tvgr)
The Nation in Conversation
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation as we adjust to the 'new normal'.
In this week's programme: Belinda Scandal and Asifa Lahore reveal the pleasures and pitfalls of a career as a drag artist; how do friends and colleagues react when someone decides to give up alcohol? Katy, who hasn’t had a drop for nearly ten years, and Antonia, who has given up more recently, share their experiences; and massage therapist and patient Ian and Kevin discuss the impact of a life changing injury and consider how work shapes men’s identity.
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: Ellie Bury
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000tvgt)
GQT at Home: Spuds and Citrus Duds
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week's panellists are Humaira Ikram, Anne Swithinbank and Matthew Pottage, who tackle questions on droopy Calatheas, easily propagated plants for a tropical climate, and troublesome herb plants.
Away from the questions, Hafsah Hafeji gives us a potato planting masterclass, and Dr Chris Thorogood returns to explore the fascinating folklore around the Easter Lily.
Producer - Rosie Merotra
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j792)
Variety of objects, herbs, trees
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 unpicks Burton’s references to plants and herbs with their potential to ‘cure’ melancholy. He lists copious varieties for their medicinal properties and therapeutic value: ‘The best medicine, that e’re God made / For this malady, if well assay’d.’
Burton also recognises the importance of physical exercise that gardening or tending to the land brings: ‘Others enjoin those wholesome businesses, as to dig so long in his garden, to hold the plough, and the like.’
Amy visits Emma Mitchell who has written and illustrated The Wild Remedy. Trained as a scientist, Emma is investigating the reasons behind why her daily walks have become an essential part of staving off depression. Are there any links with Burton’s enthusiasm for herbs as a remedy for melancholy?
Monty Don, gardener and broadcaster, talks from the heart of his jewel garden about his own struggles with depression and how gardening has been a lifeline.
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, Emma Mitchell offers an extract from Four Hedges – A Gardener’s Chronicle (1935) by Clare Leighton.
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 BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama (m000tvgw)
Lights Up: Dedication (Part 1)
After 60 years of production The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton closed its doors due to Covid 19. We mark the venue’s great contribution to regional theatre with a production of Nick Dear’s Dedication, which he wrote for the Theatre in 2016 – a year dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was written to commemorate both Nick’s and Shakespeare’s connection with Southampton. Nick Dear grew up in the city.
Shakespeare’s relationship with the Earl of Southampton has been the centre of much debate. Was he perhaps Shakespeare’s lover? Shakespeare dedicated his poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis to Southampton and it has been suggested that Southampton is the fair youth of the Sonnets.
Nick plays with three possibilities that may or may not explain an important period of Shakespeare’s life, sometimes referred to as The Lost Years, giving the audience the opportunity to make up their own minds. Much more is known about the Earl of Southampton than about William Shakespeare. It’s entirely possible that they never met, but it is equally possible they were lovers. No-one knows.
Dear puts Shakespeare on trial, where he is questioned about his relationship with the gay, cross dressing Earl of Southampton. It is set in Elizabethan England and it is a play of intrigue, sex, politics and power.
Cast:
William Shakespeare......................Alfred Enoch
Harry, Earl of Southampton.........Tom Glenister
Lord Chief Justice.............................Sam Dale
Other roles played by:
Nick Armfield, Tallulah Bond, Declan Mason and Finlay Paul
Writer: Nick Dear
Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
Sound Designer: Lucinda Mason Brown
Broadcast Assistant: Anna de wolff Evans
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m000tvgy)
Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow
James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Amor Towles about his bestselling novel A Gentleman in Moscow. The 30 year story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov takes in the sweep of Russian history from the period just after the Russian Revolution, through the Stalinist purges, and heading towards Kruschev’s thaw – all experienced thorough the lens of Rostov’s long house arrest in The Metropol Hotel.
To join in future Bookclub programmes email us: bookclub@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: James Naughtie
Producer: Allegra McIlroy
May’s Bookclub choice: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
SUN 16:30 Classical Fix (m000syd2)
Clemmie and Emma Barnett
Clemmie Burton-Hill returns to Classical Fix for a special one-off episode recorded for International Women’s Day on BBC Radio 3 - her first time hosting since a serious brain injury in early 2020. Clemmie regularly champions female composers whose music deserves to be better known and in this special edition, she mixes a playlist of all women composers from across the centuries, including new music being written today. Her guest is the broadcaster and new presenter of Radio 4's Woman’s Hour Emma Barnett. In January, Clemmie talked to Emma about her injury and her continuing recovery, including the powerful role music has played.
Emma's playlist:
Maria Szymanowska: Nocturne in A flat major 'La Murmure'
Anna Meredith: Moonmoons
Margaret Bonds/Langston Hughes: Dream Variation (from Three Dream Portraits)
Lera Auerbach: Prelude for Violin and Piano Op.46 No.8
Florence Price: Nimble Feet (from Dances in the Canebrakes)
This episode was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on International Women's Day 2021.
SUN 17:00 What We’ve Learnt About Grief (m000tlw4)
The comedian and award-winning creator of Griefcast, Cariad Lloyd, investigates the science that is revolutionising our understanding of grief.
With a mixture of empathy and humour, Cariad reveals the new thinking which has superseded outdated notions like the much quoted "Five stages of grief" and asks whether extreme grief should now be treated as a medical condition.
She talks to those who have experienced intense bereavement and loss, and also the scientists pioneering new treatments, including Professor George A Bonanno, the author of The Other Side of Sadness and Dr Kathy Shear, the founder of Columbia’s Centre for Complicated Grief.
Presented by Cariad Lloyd
Produced by Rachel Shelley
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
Photo Credit: Matt Crockett
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000tv1y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000tvh0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000tvh2)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tvh4)
The Government says a Covid certification scheme in England would be time-limited.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000tvh6)
John McCarthy
John McCarthy's pick of the best of BBC Radio this week includes Easter offerings, and the sounds of people across England celebrating the easing of lockdown. John shares Laura Barton's love for Bruce Springsteen, and begrudgingly admits that there's more to Muzak than first meets the ear. We also look at the murky world of espionage and review the brilliance of spy writer John Le Carre. And there’s powerful testimony of how music can help us cope with grief and the comfort that can be offered by a care dog.
Presenter: John McCarthy
Producer: Jessica Treen
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet
SUN 19:00 Ayeesha Menon - Undercover Mumbai (b039rn3w)
What's Cooking?
The search for a missing husband leads Police Inspector Alia Khan to the door of the Tandoori restaurant where he was last seen.
Set and recorded on location in Mumbai, this fast-paced six-part police thriller continues throughout this week. It follows Alia Khan, a young woman inspector in the Bandra Division of the Mumbai Police Force, as she attempts to solve a series of crimes, make sense of her troubled past and cope with being a woman in a male-dominated and chauvinistic police force.
Sound Recordist: Hitesh Chaurasia
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Editing Assistants: Andrew Lewis and Aditya Khanna.
Script Editor: Mike Walker
Assistant Producer: Toral Shah
Producer: Nadir Khan
Music: Sacha Putnam.
Writer: Ayeesha Menon
Director: John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:15 Mark Steel's in Town (b07v2mdz)
Series 7
Colchester
Colchester - The oldest recorded town in Britain
Mark Steel returns for a seventh series of the award-winning show that travels around the country, researching the history, heritage and culture of six towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness, and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
"The oldest hot cross bun in the world was baked in Colchester"
Mark visits the Essex town of Colchester and walks through the streets where 'Emperor Claudius once rode triumphantly on the first elephant in Britain', before Boudicca burnt the place to the ground, that was. He visits 'Jumbo', the town's iconic, Victorian water tower and he delves into the history of Colchester Zoo. Mark also discovers how several nursery rhymes have their origins in Colchester and he investigates the town's rivalry with Chelmsford.
In this series Mark visits Stockport in Greater Manchester, Colchester in Essex, Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, The Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames, Lynton in North Devon and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Stirling
Producer ... Carl Cooper
A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2016. .
SUN 19:45 Enchanted Isle (m000tvh8)
Greenlaw by Helen McClory
A new development by the name of 'Greenlaw' on the outskirts of Edinburgh is visited one night by a strange phenomenon at first only spotted by the late night dog walkers on the hill above the houses. The residents of the estate are confused and divided as to what it is and what it means for them. Weird plants start to spring up in their gardens. The community website buzzes with rumour and speculation as to what is causing these strange natural or are they supernatural occurences.
Helen McClory has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Glasgow. Her debut story collection On the Edges of Vision won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award. Her novel "Bitterhall" is published in Spring 2021. She lives in Edinburgh.
Read by: Kirsty Cox
Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000tpw7)
The Controller of Radio 3 Alan Davey answers listeners’ questions - including why the music of Justin Bieber is being played on a radio station better known as the home of classical music on the BBC.
He also explains why a much loved presenter Ian Skelly is going from his morning slot to the afternoon, and talks about Radio 3's move to Salford and whether it will affect the station’s output.
And did Melinda Gates put Pope Francis, and our listener reviewers, out of their comfort zones?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000tp88)
Bob Davey MBE; George Segal (pictured); Lady Violet Aitken; Tony Hendra
Matthew Bannister on
Bob Davey, the retired water board superintendent who made it his mission to restore an ancient church in Norfolk – and in the process made a remarkable archaeological find.
George Segal, the American film star who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and starred opposite Glenda Jackson in the comedy “A Touch of Class”.
Lady Violet Aitken, the aristocratic power boat racer who carried on competing despite a serious injury.
Tony Hendra, the outrageous British-born comedian who made his name in America. He edited the magazine National Lampoon, wrote for Spitting Image and played the manager of Spinal Tap in the classic spoof rockumentary.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Nick Ullett
Interviewed guest: Sue Gattuso
Interviewed guest: Michael Goldfarb
Interviewed guest: Laura Levi
Archive clips used: Making History: Radio 4, TX 8.
5.2012; BBC NEWS: BBC One, TX 11.
7.1969
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000tv17)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tvfz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000tmm5)
Global Britain: is there substance behind the slogan?
Having left the EU, the UK is now re-branding itself as "Global Britain", but what does that actually mean? A key plank of the new foreign policy is a pivot to the "Indo-Pacific". How is this seen in India? And how should Britain deal with China, described as a "challenge" in the government's recently published Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy? And where does all this leave relations with the EU and US?
Should "Global Britain" try to reassert itself as a major power on the international stage, or would the UK's interests be better served by acting as a broker between larger, or like-minded, countries instead, to help bring about beneficial agreements?
And what effect could the reduction in the overseas development aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of Gross National Income have on Britain's "soft power" abroad, with the deep real-terms cuts to humanitarian and other programmes that this will mean for countries such as Yemen or Malawi?
Presenter: Chris Morris
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Jasper Corbett
SUN 22:00 Archive on 4 (m000v204)
A Year on the NHS Frontline
Dr John Wright began recording for the BBC on March 16th, the day of the Prime Minister's first address to the nation on the pandemic: Winifred Robinson presents his audio diaries.
This special edition of Archive on 4 uses those past recordings and also hears from medical teams on duty today at the Bradford Royal Infirmary as they reflect on the last twelve months. With the vaccination program well underway there is cause for optimism, but patients are still being treated on the covid wards and there are many people needing ongoing treatment for long covid.
The series enjoyed unparalleled access at a time when so little was known and people were anxious for information: hospitals were shut to visitors and no other media access had been granted. Dr Wright, a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, managed to capture the emotions, sacrifices and inventiveness of his colleagues: his diaries went out on Radio 4 and the World Service and he also wrote weekly accounts for BBC News Online.
A few weeks into the pandemic other journalists and photographers gained access to hospitals, but even then this series was often ahead of the curve. Dr Wright carried his recorder everywhere as he helped lead the response at his hospital, the Bradford Royal Infirmary. His colleagues became known to audiences as they battled exhaustion, infection, and coped with their own bereavements. The hospital played a leading role in national trials which helped bring new treatments into use.
This was a time of fear and lockdown created the conditions for rumours and fake news to spread. Dr Wright skilfully navigated the need to inform and educate and conveyed the reality faced by NHS staff. The volume of his output at a time when he and his colleagues were under remarkable strain was remarkable: achieved by carrying his little recorder everywhere, and always keeping it sealed as he went onto the covid wards.
The pandemic quickly changed every aspect of hospital life, from new ICU wards to the widespread use of CPAP machines. At the start, Dr Wright was unsure about making this kind of commitment to programme making but one year on he is glad that this important public record exists. He had overseen the response to other infectious diseases elsewhere in the world, Ebola for example and HIV, but nothing had quite prepared him for what was happening in his own hospital:
"We began this pandemic year knowing so little, and now we have learnt so much. We have learnt about our deep reserves of bravery and compassion in NHS and care staff. We have learnt about the remarkable kindness and generosity and the strength in our communities. We have learnt about the power of science and research to develop effective treatments and vaccines.
We have also learnt how unequal the pandemic has affected our country. It is the oldest have died in the greatest numbers and the poorest who have suffered the most. There will be a long shadow from the pandemic as the virus bursts back into flame in the coming months and the economic consequences are felt. "
Produced by Sue Mitchell
Presented by Winifred Robinson
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000tnqw)
Antonia and the stars
Antonia Quirke considers the phenomenon and future of the so called film junket, the movie publicity process whereby film stars are serially interviewed in expensive hotels by a succession of film journalists and presenters. She looks back at the promotional encounters she's had with a cast of big Hollywood names including (in order of appearance) Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Annette Benning, Willem Dafoe, Glen Close, Timothee Chalamet, Jeff Bridges and Greta Gerwig.
Producer: Harry Parker
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b03pdfns)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 05 APRIL 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000tvhf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000tl9y)
8. Mental Athletics
American science journalist Joshua Foer was a perfectly normal guy with a perfectly normal memory. Then he entered the USA National Memory Championships - and ended up giving the country’s brain power prodigies a run for their money.
How did he do it?
Matthew Syed takes a deep dive into the heady world of brain training - where ordinary people challenge themselves to reach new peaks of mental athleticism. Journeying from the methods of the Ancient Greeks, to the showbiz hacks of the 1960s, to the Manhattan competition hall where Joshua competed for the title of memory champion in 2006, Matthew learns that the desire to push the limits of our cognitive capacity has been around for thousands of years.
But do these techniques work? In his effort to understand what’s possible when it comes to improving our minds and memories, Matthew examines the impact of nature and nurture on our brains - asking whether environmental inequality, or genetics, is the deciding factor in determining whether anyone could become a mental athlete.
Producer: Eleanor Biggs
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 (m000tv2g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tvhh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tvhk)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tvhm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000tvhp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tvhr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000tvht)
05/04/21 Flower farmers
Flower growers have had a tough year. When the pandemic struck, lockdown cost them all their wedding and hospitality business, but there was a big surge in online sales, and with Brexit, renewed interest in home-grown flowers. Flowers from the Farm, a network of British flower producers and suppliers say their membership’s gone up by 25% since the start of lockdown, to more than a thousand members.
Over the past year, some businesses have struggled to cope with the demand for flowers, others have reduced the amount they've been planting. Some nurseries laid people off, other growers couldn't recruit enough pickers.
We talk to farmers, wholesalers and nurseries to find out how they’ve fared over the past 12 months.
Produced and presented by Rebecca Rooney
MON 05:56 Weather (m000tvhw)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03wphhd)
Blackbird (Spring)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the blackbird. Blackbirds are thrushes and the brown female often has a few speckles on her throat to prove it. Velvety, black and shiny, the males sport an eye-ring as yellow as a spring daffodil and a bill glowing like a buttercup. Happily blackbirds aren't doing too badly. There's so many of them that their territories often overlap so that where one song leaves off, another song begins.
MON 06:00 Today (m000tvl0)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000tvl2)
Defining mental illness
Reports of a mental health epidemic among young people both leading up to and during the pandemic are now widespread. Sally Holland is the Children’s Commissioner for Wales and a former social worker. She tells Andrew Marr that mental health services in Wales, and the rest of the UK, need a serious rethink, because too many children are waiting too long for help.
But the health researcher and psychologist Lucy Foulkes asks whether we have become fixated with labelling the stresses and challenges of human experience as a mental disorder. In Losing Our Minds she explains what is known about mental health problems, and why they so often appear during adolescence. But she argues that it’s vitally important to distinguish between ‘normal’ suffering and actual illness.
Defining what is and isn’t an illness is also the subject of Suzanne O’Sullivan’s latest book The Sleeping Beauties – And Other Stories of Mystery Illness. Here the neurologist looks at startling cases of what appear to be psychosomatic illnesses which have infected groups of people – from refugee children in Sweden unable to wake up, to American high school students having seizures, to mass headaches and memory loss in the US embassy in Cuba. O’Sullivan looks at how far these disorders are influenced by societal forces and human biology.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000tvmn)
Episode 1
Professor Michael Spitzer brings together archaeological, sociological and historical observations, along with theories from biologists and musicologists, to tell the story of what his sub-title boldly claims to be A History of Life on Earth.
Michael Spitzer did his undergraduate studies at Southampton and then Merton, Oxford. He is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for 20 years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane.
Written by Michael Spitzer
Read by Simon McBurney
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tvl6)
The Feminisation of Chocolate
Inspired by her childhood in York, Emma Robertson, Senior Lecturer in History at La Trobe University, Australia explores chocolate and the history of imperial exploitation, sexism and racism in her study ‘Chocolate, Women and Empire: a Social and Cultural History’. Emma talks about the ‘ordinary’ women positioned at the two key stages of production, the cocoa farms of Nigeria and the Rowntree factory in York.
Women play a critical role in the cacao industry in West Africa but patriarchal attitudes often exclude them from decision making, land ownership, and selling the crop. Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o, Fairtrade Global CEO discusses the life of women cocoa farmers and the Women’s School of Leadership which seeks to empower women and promote gender rights.
What it is like to work in a chocolate factory? Sarah Hartley talks about her job as a quality controller on the factory floor at Whitakers.
Chocolate advertising has long been linked with women and sex. Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a Reader in Consumer Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University and Sue Quinn, food writer and author of 'Cocoa: an Exploration of Chocolate' discuss how chocolate advertisements target women.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Paula McFarlane
Interviewed Guest: Dr Emma Robertson
Interviewed Guest: Dr. Nyagoy Nyong’o
Interviewed Guest: Sarah Hartley
Interviewed Guest: Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd
Interviewed Guest: Sue Quinn
MON 10:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tvl8)
Series 2
Episode 1
The return of Shaun McKenna’s gripping historical drama about the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife and mother to Kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator.
Guilt over the tragic events at Vitry sur Marne is driving a wedge between Eleanor and her husband, Louis, the King of France. Hidden hurts are forced out into the open when Eleanor’s sister arrives back at Court.
Eleanor ….. Rose Basista
Louis ….. Joel MacCormack
Petronilla ….. Elinor Coleman
Geoffrey of Anjou ….. David Sturzaker
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
Though Eleanor of Aquitaine lived nine hundred years ago, she is very modern woman. At 16 she inherits the richest province in France and plans to run it her own way, as her grandfather promised she could. The men around her have other ideas – a young woman with so much power is far too great a threat. Intelligent, tough, imaginative and witty, Eleanor first scandalises then subtly reshapes the world she inhabits. This gains her a host of admirers as well as, inevitably, powerful enemies determined to bring her down. Somehow she stays one step ahead of them all. It’s not that Eleanor think likes a man – it’s that the men have no idea how to contain someone with power who thinks like a woman.
MON 11:00 The Untold (m000tvlb)
The Quarantine Fight Club
A fight promoter has defended his Quarantine Fight Club but will a police raid and large fine give him pause for thought when it comes to organising more live events?
The fight at the Hard Knocks Gym in Bradford was raided last October, with police finding scores of spectators crammed into a tight space: there was no social distancing and few of the people there were wearing face masks. The crowds were cheering on boxers from the Quarantine Fight Club.
It was launched by professional kick-boxer, Darren Moffitt, who says it was only intended as a bit of fun. When the first lockdown was announced he had time on his hands and started holding fights in a field that he live streamed. The club’s following quickly grew and soon he was being offered venues around Yorkshire to host his live events:
“The fights are controlled by myself. I know what I'm doing. I try keep my distance but the fighters don't social distance as they're fighting together. I know it's a hard one. There's always going to be a couple of people frowning on it.”
Darren admits he's done wrong by holding spectator attended events, but is torn about whether to stop: on the one hand he doesn't want to get fined again, but on the other, he claims he's helping reduce the toll lockdown's having on mental health.
His Quarantine Fight Club events now attract thousands of viewers online and his fighters have, he says, really come on. But deciding what to do following the Bradford raid is difficult and he doesn’t want to cause problems for his friend, the bare-knuckle boxer Scott Midgley. Scott started the Hard Knocks Gym from scratch: as a new business he didn't qualify for furlough and is using his life savings to keep going. A hefty fine could force the gym to close and would bring an end to the opportunities provided there for disadvantaged youngsters during lockdown
Producer: Sue Mitchell
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000v69z)
Listeners' Questions
For the final instalment of this series we are turning over the programme to you, our listeners. Over the past four months we’ve asked you to send us your questions, and you have obliged. But we haven’t always managed to reciprocate by answering them. In this episode, Tim Harford talks with a panel of experts who will try to answer as many questions as we can fit into a half an hour. Guests include Professor Beate Kampmann from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Professor Melinda Mills of Oxford University, and the GP Dr Helen Salisbury.
Producers: Sandra Kanthal and Beth Sagar-Fenton
Editor: Richard Vadon
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000tw99)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tvlh)
Episode 1
As he nears the end of a career-making deal, lawyer Sameer’s life is about to change.
Read by Sacha Dhawan and Vincent Ebrahim
This elegant and eye-opening debut crosses continents and generations as it explores love, duty and the long shadows cast by colonialism. Themes of romance and exile combine with a stunning portrayal of modern Uganda as a young man tries to find his place in the world. Winner of the New Writer’s Prize from Stormzy’s imprint Merky books, Hafsa Zayyan takes us from East Africa to the East Midlands - and back again.
Written by Hafsa Zayyan
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000tvlk)
Restaurant hospitality, Sheffield John Lewis, Social media influencers
In a week's time, restaurants in England will be able to serve customers, if they're sitting outside. However the industry has already been impacted by the economic impact of lockdown. Over 22 thousand restaurants have permanently closed between December 2019 and February this year. We look at how some are having to adapt in order to comply with the newest restrictions.
This weekend dozens of messages and photographs have been pinned to the front door of the John Lewis store in Sheffield.
It's one of eight John Lewis stores to shut for good and it's prompted tens of thousands of people to sign a petition to try and convince John Lewis to keep it open.
More than a million people in the UK are suffering from the affects of long Covid. A survey by the Office for National Statistics found that the most common on-going problems included fatigue, coughs, headaches and muscle pain. We look at how this could impact the UK's workforce in the coming months and years to come.
And one of the ways social media influencers make money is by promoting stuff on their Instagram, Youtube and Facebook feeds. But sometimes it can be unclear if posts are adverts which have been paid-for by a brand. A group of MPs is reviewing whether new regulations are needed - to ensure followers know when influencers are being paid to promote products.
MON 12:57 Weather (m000tvlm)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000tvlp)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
MON 13:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000tvlr)
Episode One: Unexpected Visitors
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode One: Unexpected Visitors
Northern Bank employee Chris Ward is watching TV with his dad when there's a knock at the door. Kevin McMullan is at home with his wife Kyran when Police come to tell them there's been a road traffic accident. But all is not as it seems...
Presenter: Glenn Patterson
Actors: Louise Parker, Conor O'Donnell & Thomas Finnegan
Music: Phil Kieran
Producer: Conor Garrett
MON 14:00 Drama (m000tvlt)
Lights Up: Dedication (Part 2)
After 60 years of production The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton closed its doors due to Covid 19. We mark the venue’s great contribution to regional theatre with a production of Nick Dear’s Dedication, which he wrote for the Theatre in 2016 – a year dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was written to commemorate both Nick’s and Shakespeare’s connection with Southampton. Nick Dear grew up in the city.
Shakespeare’s relationship with the Earl of Southampton has been the centre of much debate. Was he perhaps Shakespeare’s lover? Shakespeare dedicated his poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis to Southampton and it has been suggested that Southampton is the fair youth of the Sonnets.
Nick plays with three possibilities that may or may not explain an important period of Shakespeare’s life, sometimes referred to as The Lost Years, giving the audience the opportunity to make up their own minds. Much more is known about the Earl of Southampton than about William Shakespeare. It’s entirely possible that they never met, but it is equally possible they were lovers. No-one knows.
Dear puts Shakespeare on trial, where he is questioned about his relationship with the gay, cross dressing Earl of Southampton. It is set in Elizabethan England and it is a play of intrigue, sex, politics and power.
Cast:
William Shakespeare......................Alfred Enoch
Harry, Earl of Southampton.........Tom Glenister
Lord Chief Justice.............................Sam Dale
Other roles played by:
Nick Armfield, Tallulah Bond, Declan Mason and Finlay Paul
Writer: Nick Dear
Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
Sound Designer: Lucinda Mason Brown
Broadcast Assistant: Anna de wolff Evans
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 The Why Factor (b08y007w)
Series 4
The Kiss
You might think it is a universal trait, something that we all do. But when European explorers travelled the world, they met tribes that didn't kiss. So is it a learnt response after all?
It can be as a greeting, or a sign of reverence or supplication- but we will be talking about the romantic kiss- face to face, lips to lips.
We examine the biochemistry, psychology, anthropology and history of kissing. Where does it come from?
Presented by Charlotte McDonald
Produced by Lizzy McNeill
More editions of The Why Factor are available on the BBC World Service website.
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000tvlw)
Programme 5, 2021
(5/12)
The Welsh and the Scots do battle in the fifth contest of the 2021 season, with Val McDermid and Alan McCredie representing Scotland and Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards playing for Wales. Tom Sutcliffe is on hand to ask the programme's trademark cryptic questions, and to give the teams helpful hints and nudges wherever required - on the understanding that the more help they need, the fewer points they'll get.
Today's edition has again been recorded under lockdown conditions so the panellists are beaming in from home rather than gathering in a studio.
There's the usual helping of questions based on listeners' ideas, and Tom will also be providing the answer to the question he left unanswered at the end of the previous episode.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000tvgk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:33 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Red Letter Days (m000tnqf)
What is it about birthdays - particularly the major milestones - that stop us in our tracks, that marks them out as true red letter days?
In an uplifting and moving programme, Julie Hesmondhalgh plants 50 trees to mark her own half-century as a means of marking time spent on the earth, reflecting on her past and considering how she might spend the years left to her.
She talks with others who have used birthdays in similarly salient and sometimes transformative ways - including the actress who revealed to her friends on her 50th that she is a trans woman, and the writer who cycled across America to understand its divisions better. Julie also hears how birthdays offer a powerful opportunity to remember loved ones, and speaks with poet Lemn Sissay about the way birthdays long served as a painful reminder of the family he didn’t have while growing up in care.
Presenter - Julie Hesmondhalgh
Producer - Geoff Bird
Executive Producer - Eloise Whitmore
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000tvlz)
Bees
In the first of a new series of Beyond Belief, Ernie Rea is joined by three beekeepers.
Bees have been important to humans for thousands of years. Honey was found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, Aristotle and Virgil wrote about beekeeping and bees and honey get an honourable mention in the scriptures of many religions. There is a whole surah (chapter) in the Qu’ran called ‘The Bee’ ('An-nahl') and the Old Testament refers to Israel as ‘a land of milk and honey’. Bees are vital to our world ecology and they pollinate a third of our crops but their numbers are in decline.
To discuss the role of bees and honey in different religious traditions, Ernie is joined by three urban beekeepers: Salma Attan looks after her bees on the roof of the East London Mosque, Rabbi Kelley Gludt tends a hive in Baltimore, Maryland and Adrian Rhodes was the 'Canon Apiarist' at Manchester Cathedral.
Producer: Helen Lee
MON 17:00 PM (m000tvm1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tvm5)
A further easing of England's lockdown restrictions will go ahead on schedule next week. All shops and hairdressers will reopen, along with outdoor hospitality venues.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000tvm7)
Series 86
Episode 7
Stephen Fry hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where he challenges guests Paul Merton, Sue Perkins, Desiree Burch and Jenny Eclair to talk on the subjects of his choice for 60 seconds. 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 (m000tt8n)
Feeling lonely in a deserted Grey Gables, Kirsty calls Helen. She feels weird after Philip and Gavin’s sentencing and her difficult year. After work, she pops round to Helen’s and returns a wedding present Pat and Tony gave her; she doesn’t want any reminders of her marriage. She feels lost she admits, nothing in her life has worked out as she imagined. Helen counsels Kirsty that setting up her own business helped her win back self-confidence. Why doesn’t Kirsty go freelance as a conservation consultant? Kirsty is hesitant; she’s nearly 40. But Helen insists she’s at her peak.
Jazzer has treated Jade to a birthday picnic. He’s still gutted about the Mystery Plays being cancelled, but Jade can’t understand how amateur dramatics can be fun. She loves the biker jacket Jazzer has bought her but she’s insulted by Jim’s hamper of luxury smellies; is he implying she needs to wash more? Later, she picks Jim apart; he’s controlling, she insists, is turning Jazzer old before his years and she thinks their relationship is a bit creepy. Jazzer snaps at this. How dare Jade be so rude about his friend? She’s dumped! Later Jazzer tells Jim they’ve broken up. He then hints that he already has the eye for a mature lady who’s also a good mate, but he’s scared of getting it wrong. Jim thinks he should go for it – nothing ventured, nothing gained!
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000tvm9)
Author Michael Rosen on his experience of Covid and his tribute to the NHS
A year ago, the writer, poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen was rushed to hospital with Covid. Put into an induced coma in intensive care for 48 days, he underwent weeks of convalescence as he learned to walk again.
Following his recovery he wrote a new book, Many Different Kinds of Love: A Story of Life, Death and the NHS, featuring letters written to him by the medical staff who cared for him, as well as a series of poems about his months in hospital. Michael Rosen discusses his near-death experience and his desire to pay tribute to the NHS workers who saved his life.
Presenter Elle Osili-Wood
Producer Jerome Weatherald
MON 19:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tvl8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Out of the Ordinary (m000tvmc)
Series 8
The buy button
Half of all money spent on advertising is wasted. But we just don't know which half. In recent years, marketing professionals have been trying to use neuroscience to locate the "buy button" in our brain, which if pressed would make us buy their stuff. It's the holy grail: a way of knowing, in advance, which ads are going to work and are worth spending money on, and which ones would flop. The promise, from both marketers and some neuroscientists, is that our brains can, effectively, be hacked. But does it work?
Presenter/producer: Jolyon Jenkins
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000tnqc)
Namibia: the Price of Genocide
More than a century after its brutal colonisation of Namibia, including what it now accepts was the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, Germany is negotiating with the country’s government to heal the wounds of the past. The eventual deal may set a precedent for what other nations expect from former colonisers. But how do you make up for the destruction of entire societies? Germany has agreed to apologise - but Namibia also wants some form of material compensation. What should that be, and who should benefit? Namibians are now divided about how the talks are being conducted - and some in the country’s German-speaking minority, descendants of the original colonists, question the very idea of compensation. Tim Whewell travels to Namibia to ask how far full reconciliation - with Germany, and within the country - is possible.
Produced and presented by Tim Whewell
Editor, Bridget Harney
MON 21:00 A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity (m000tlv2)
Fire
This is the first in a four-part series looking at the energy revolutions that drove human history. In this programme Justin Rowlatt goes right back to the origin of our species two million years ago to explore how the mastery of fire by early humans transformed our metabolism, helping us to evolve our uniquely energy-hungry brains.
The physical evidence for early use of fire is frustratingly thin on the ground, according to archaeologist Carolina Mallol. But primatologist Jill Pruetz says she has learned a lot from observing chimpanzees interact with wildfires on the African savanna.
Research collaborators Rachel Carmody and Richard Wrangham theorise that our ancestors' unique ability to cook their food transformed the way our bodies access the energy it contains - something Justin seeks to test out by going on a raw food diet. The bounty of metabolic energy it delivered may have enabled us to become the formidably intelligent species we are today, according to neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, transforming us into prolific hunters who conquered the world.
Producer: Laurence Knight
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt
Studio manager: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Zoe Gelber
Editor: Rosamund Jones
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000tvl2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tvmg)
Boris Johnson: roadmap for lifting lockdown “on track”
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tvlh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000tv1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 The Battersea Poltergeist (p096k9kn)
Episode 5: Strange Bones
After the exorcism, Shirley’s fame increases, but as she’s drawn into a press expose by two journalists, the world wants to know – is this a haunting or a hoax? At Number 63, the poltergeist activity seems to intensify, taking a terrifying new direction that puts the whole family in danger.
Written and Presented by Danny Robins, starring Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Toby Jones (Detectorists), Burn Gorman (Torchwood) and Alice Lowe (Prevenge), with original theme music by Mercury-nominated Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier, this gripping 8-part series interweaves a chilling supernatural thriller set in 1950s London with a fascinating modern-day investigation into Britain’s strangest ever haunting – a mystery unsolved… until now.
Cast:
Shirley Hitchings……..Dafne Keen
Harold Chibbett………Toby Jones
Wally Hitchings…… Burn Gorman
Kitty Hitchings……….Alice Lowe
Ethel Hitchings……….Sorcha Cusack
John Hitchings……..Calvin Demba
Lily Chibbett……..Kacey Ainsworth
Ronald Maxwell……….Rufus Wright
John Knight……..Dan Starkey
Consultant…….Stephen Critchlow
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow
Sound Designer: Richard Fox
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
Directed by Simon Barnard
Consultant: Alan Murdie
With thanks to James Clark, co-author of 'The Poltergeist Prince of London'
A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4
TUESDAY 06 APRIL 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000tvml)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000tvmn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tvmq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tvms)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tvmv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000tvmx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tvmz)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000tvn1)
06/04/21 Protecting National Parks; Farming Apps; Shows and No Shows; Smallholder spring.
As lockdown eases National Parks are bracing themselves for an influx of visitors. During the pandemic there have been problems with wild camping, rubbish, barbecues, illegal parking and dogs off leads. Dartmoor National Park wants to introduce tougher new bye-laws and on-the-spot fines. It's working with the police to have special constables and park marshalls who'll liaise with visitors and make sure they're sticking to the rules.
Younger farmers are embracing new technology and using apps for everything from telling them when their cattle are ready to send to market or how to ensure they're complying with rules on spraying fertiliser and pesticides.
A tale of two shows... in an ordinary summer there's an agricultural show or a county show every week , but this year the decision to go ahead with events is far from straightforward. The uncertainty of coronavirus restrictions, the cost of cancelling, and losses from last year has lead the organisers of two big shows to come to very different conclusions. The Royal Cornwall Show's been cancelled, but The Great Yorkshire Show is going ahead.
In spring the countryside's full of new life, but it seems this year there may also be a few more small holders too. Steve Colledge worked on a farm in the Vale of Glamorgan when he was a teenager and ever since he’s wanted his own flock of sheep. It took the pandemic to make him realise, there’s no time like the present. He's not alone, his local smallholder society has seen an increase in membership over the past 12 months.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrc82)
Meadow Pipit (Spring)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the meadow pipit. No-one would give the meadow pipit any prizes in a beauty competition but this small streaky bird has its own charm, as it bustles through the turf with a jerky motion. If you're hiking across the moor it will rise ahead of you, dither in mid-air and then dart off, buffeted by the spring breeze.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000tt7m)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Briefing Room (m000tnrb)
Covid-19 and the World
No crisis has had the global reach and impact of Covid-19. There have been more than 120 million recorded cases of the Coronavirus and 2.7 million people have died and curbs on people’s freedoms have become a familiar part of daily life in many parts of the world.
Just over a year since the world started to get to grips with the first global pandemic in more than a century, what can we say about how different countries have dealt it?
Which countries have been worst-affected and why? Which public health systems have held up best? Why did test and trace work in some countries but not in others?
Around the world governments have propped up their economies accruing eye-watering amounts of debt, but was it money well spent?
Where and why has the vaccine roll out been most successful? And what could be the lasting legacy of the pandemic?
Contributors:
Dr.Thomas Hale, Oxford University
Prof. Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Nazmeera Moola, Ninety One, a South African asset management company
Dr Monica DeBolle, Peterson Institute for International Economics
Jerome Kim, Director General of the International Vaccine Initiative
Rasmus Bech Hansen, founder and CEO of Airfinity
Dr. Jennifer Cole, Royal Holloway, University of London
Kishore Mahbubani, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore
Producers: Tim Mansel, Paul Moss, Kirsteen Knight
Sound Engineer: James Beard
Editor: Jasper Corbett
TUE 09:45 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000ttbf)
Epiosde 2
Professor Michael Spitzer brings together archaeological, sociological and historical observations, along with theories from biologists and musicologists, to tell the story of what his sub-title boldly claims to be A History of Life on Earth.
Michael Spitzer did his undergraduate degree at Merton, Oxford, and then his PhD at Southampton. He is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for 20 years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane.
Written by Michael Spitzer
Read by Simon McBurney
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tt7s)
Family farming with Janice and Matt Baker; New maternal mental health hubs; Author Susan Spindler; Statues of famous women
What do you do, when your mother is in a spot of bother? You run to help…of course! That’s the situation the Countryfile and former One Show presenter Matt Baker found himself in last summer, when his mum Janice had a serious accident with some sheep, and was unable to continue with the day to day running of the family farm in the Durham Hills. Their story is documented in a four part series currently on More4 called Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales. Emma speaks to Janice and Matt.
It's been announced that thousands of new, expectant or bereaved mothers will receive help and support for mental health problems through dozens of new dedicated hubs which are being set up across England. The hubs will bring together maternity services, reproductive health and psychological therapy under one roof as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. Around 6,000 women will receive care and treatment for a wide range of mental health issues from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after giving birth to others with a severe fear of childbirth. Emma gets reactions to the news from Sarah Hughes, Chief Executive of campaigning charity Centre for Mental Health and Dr Alain Gregoire, President of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance.
Another statue of a strong woman has made the headlines. Last year it was Mary Wollstonecraft. Now it's Greta Thunberg. A statue of the 18 year old environmentalist was unveiled in Winchester last week but some think it's a waste of money. Emma is joined by Christine Charlesworth, the statue's creator, who's not only made Greta during lockdown but two other British feminist icons as well.
Susan Spindler's first novel Surrogate tells the story of Ruth who, at the age of 54, volunteers to carry a baby for her daughter, who has just had her seventh miscarriage. But how selfless is Ruth's kind offer? She has done all of the research, taken the hormones, done the tests, thought of everything. What she doesn't know is how being her daughter's surrogate will make her feel and the upheaval it will cause in all of her relationships. Susan tells Emma how she researched the story.
TUE 10:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tt7v)
Series 2
Episode 2
Shaun McKenna’s gripping historical drama about the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife and mother to Kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator.
Louis sees a Holy Crusade as the chance to redeem his soul, while Eleanor sees it as an opportunity to reassert her influence at Court.
Eleanor ….. Rose Basista
Louis ….. Joel MacCormack
Petronilla ….. Elinor Coleman
Abbot Suger ….. Nicholas Murchie
Papal Legate ….. Tony Turner
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
TUE 11:00 A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity (m000tt7x)
Agriculture
In part two of his history of the human use of energy, Justin Rowlatt explores what was the original solar energy revolution – harnessing the sun’s rays to grow food. Some 10,000 years ago our ancestors began to till the soil, producing the energy surpluses needed to feed the first cities and civilisations.
Growing crops was gruelling work, as Justin discovers at Butser Ancient Farm, when he tries to till some soil himself with a replica Stone Age mattock. Resident archaeologist Claire Walton gives Justin a tour through ten millennia of British farming history.
But what first prompted our ancestors to take up such an arduous way of life in the first place? Anthropologist Robert Bettinger thinks it was down to the unusually benign conditions since the end of the last Ice Age. In any case, agriculture delivered domesticated plants and animals that could sustain much bigger human populations, according to Mark Nesbitt of Kew Gardens, and Melinda Zeder of the Smithsonian Institution. And that in turn made the discovery of radical new technologies possible.
Producer: Laurence Knight
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt
Studio manager: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Zoe Gelber
Editor: Rosamund Jones
TUE 11:30 Iran’s Secret Art Collection (m000tt7z)
In the decade leading up to the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Shah's wife, Farah Pahlavi spent much of her time encouraging the building of museums and institutions intended to celebrate the art and craft of the country. But alongside buildings housing priceless carpets and glassware, she was also keen to use the country's oil wealth to bring examples of modern western art to the capital, Tehran. The result was the collection of works by Jackson Pollock, Henry Moore, Picasso, Bacon, Chagall and Renoir. It remains one of the most valuable collections outside Europe and the US. She even commissioned a portrait by Andy Warhol.
The ambition was to house these very expensive works alongside the modern art of Iran in the newly designed and proudly modernist Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
But in 1979, Her Royal Highness had to flee Iran with her husband and the Islamic revolution had little time or appetite for Western art. Through a mix of bravery on the part of local curators, and good luck, the collection survived.
Alastair Sooke talks to Her Royal Highness Farah Pahlavi about the collection and discovers why the popular press coverage suggesting that it was her vanity project was so wrong. He also speaks to Joachim Jaeger, the German Art Director who so nearly managed to organise an exhibition of part of the collection in the west a few years ago. It was to be seen in Berlin and Rome before returning home. The exhibition planners in both Germany, Italy and Iran, had got as far as printing a catalogue when the political authorities in Iran decided it wouldn't be going ahead.
And Alastair hears from those who remember the pre-revolutionary days when the ambition to bring the arts of East and West together in Iran seemed, not only possible, but inevitable. The Empress even kept a memoir in which she explained her vision for the culture of her country, in spite of the turmoil going on outside the palace gates.
Will this extraordinary collection, some of which is now being shown in Tehran for the first time in years, be a force for change in cultural mood? Or will the challenge of works by Francis Bacon and Henry Moore stay safe, but out of the public gaze?
Producer: Tom Alban
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000twjr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tt83)
Episode 2
Young lawyer Sameer has accepted a plum role in Singapore. It’s the culmination of years of hard work - but first he has to visit his parents in Leicester.
Read by Sacha Dhawan and Vincent Ebrahim
This elegant and eye-opening debut crosses continents and generations as it explores love, duty and the long shadows cast by colonialism. Themes of romance and exile combine with a stunning portrayal of modern Uganda as a young man tries to find his place in the world. Winner of the New Writer’s Prize from Stormzy’s imprint Merky books, Hafsa Zayyan takes us from East Africa to the East Midlands - and back again.
Written by Hafsa Zayyan
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000tt85)
Call You and Yours - Are you happy with the easing of lockdown?
Are you happy with the easing of lockdown?
The Prime Minister's outlining how vaccine passports and rapid testing at home will work - as well as an update on non-essential shops re-opening from next week in England.
Tell us what you think about this.
Are you ready to get back out there ... or does it feel too soon for you?
Are you happy with the easing of lockdown?
Let us know by emailing us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk and remember to leave a telephone number so we can contact you. Or from
11am on Tuesday call us on 03700 100 444.
PRESENTER - WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER - BEATRICE PICKUP
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000tt88)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000tt8d)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000tt8j)
Episode Two: Killing Time
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Two: Killing Time
After a year of so called 'tiger kidnappings' all over Northern Ireland, negotiations continue to try to restore the Stormont power-sharing government, as Northern Bank employees Chris Ward and Kevin McMullan prepare to start the most extraordinary working shift of their lives...
Presenter: Glenn Patterson
Actors: Louise Parker, Conor O'Donnell & Thomas Finnegan
Music: Phil Kieran
Producer: Conor Garrett
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000tt8n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 McLevy (b07x2s1w)
Series 12
Ep 1. A Matter of Balance
Victorian detective drama, starring Brian Cox and Siobhan Redmond.
Episode one: A Matter Of Balance
Written by David Ashton.
A circus visits Edinburgh and attempts to drum up business with a high-wire act stretching from the Scott Monument across Princes Street without a safety net. The circus crowds attract a gang of pickpockets. McLevy is on the case. Then the high-wire artiste, Maria Capaldi, receives a death threat.
McLevy..........................................................Brian Cox
Jean..................................................Siobhan Redmond
Mulholland..............................Michael Perceval-Maxwell
Roach.......................................................David Ashton
Ballantyne................................................Finlay McLean
Richard Cameron................................Alasdair Hankinson
Maria........................................................Anita Vettesse
Billy Sangster.........................................Steven McNicoll
Other parts are played by the cast.
Producer/Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000tt8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000tsl4)
Gene Editing Nature
The powerful gene editing technique CRISPR that allows us to rewrite DNA may soon provide a tool to help save our planet’s biodiversity. CRISPR has been described as ‘molecular scissors’ and is used to make targeted, precise changes to the DNA of plants and animals, with all the ethical questions it raises. Since it was developed by scientists 9 nine years ago, research into uses of CRISPR has been increasing in medicine and agriculture, as well as entering the fields of public health and environmental conservation, where genetic engineering had previously not been a realistic possibility. With the threat of climate change and the loss of species and habitats worldwide, gene editing has the potential to be able to help revive endangered species, and help them adapt to changing temperatures. And by combining CRISPR with a ‘gene drive’ – a technique that forces genes to spread through a population, we now have the ability to bend the rules of natural selection and control populations of invasive species or a pest that carries disease. But what are the risks and potential consequences of meddling with the complex processes of the natural world?
Jheni Osman talks to scientists currently researching potential uses of gene editing for environmental conservation, including combining it with a gene drive to control grey squirrel populations, using CRISPR to find the genes responsible for heat tolerance in coral, and editing genetic diversity into species on the brink of extinction. At this early stage of the development of the science, Jheni hears about the particular ethical and practical considerations of altering the genomes of wild species and releasing them into the wild. Should we use this power to edit nature, and if so, how should it be controlled?
Producer: Sophie Anton
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000tt8z)
Alphabetical Order
Michael Rosen and historian Judith Flanders talk about how we categorise things, using alphabetical order and more.
Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio in Bristol
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000tt93)
The Talented Mr Ripley author, Patricia Highsmith
Director Jonathan Kent was friends with Patricia Highsmith. He'd been playing Tom Ripley for a tv show, and staying in the hotel suite next door to her. She took a shine to him. Now he repays the debt with this revealing and intriguing programme to celebrate a hundred years since her birth in 1921. Although best known for the Ripley books, she first broke through with Alfred Hitchcock's film adaptation of her novel, Strangers on a Train. She was, says Kent, not so interested in murder as in what happens to a character after the crime is done.
"I read sometimes how odd she was - I didn't find her odd at all. She was shy, very shy. She had a fringe, a sort of hank of hair that would fall over her eyes and I would catch her sneaking looks at me. But there was nothing odd about her. Perhaps my standards of oddness are different." Jonathan Kent
The programme features extensive archive of Highsmith, plus the film director Anthony Minghella; at least one other Tom Ripley actor; and her award winning biographer, Andrew Wilson, who has a few Highsmithian novels on the way.
This is the first in a new series which also features the African novelist, Chinua Achebe; the Plantagenet king Edward III; and the British entertainer Kenny Lynch.
The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer is Miles Warde.
TUE 17:00 PM (m000tt97)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tt9h)
Boris Johnson has urged people to continue getting coronavirus jabs, despite a senior European health official linking the AstraZeneca vaccine to rare blood clots.
TUE 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000tt9m)
Series 4
Episode 6: Join Our Club
It’s the biggest night of Joe Starling’s (Mathew Baynton) life. After a rough year, his work has been nominated for one of advertising’s most prestigious awards - an A&D Pen.
Joe, Hardacre (Nigel Havers), Amanda (Josie Lawrence), and Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker) arrive at the ceremony to eat, drink, and be merry – and celebrate the agency’s rise to respectability.
But when a familiar foe resurfaces (Martin Jarvis) things begin to veer off course, and what should be a night of triumph turns into one of recrimination and revelation, that threatens the future of Hardacre’s itself.
Cast:
Nigel Havers – Hardacre
Mathew Baynton – Joe
Josie Lawrence – Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker – Teddy
Martin Jarvis – Charles Blackwell
Victoria Rigby – MC
Olivia Penhallow – Waitress
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 (m000tsk2)
Jazzer and Chris chat proudly about Martha. Jazzer’s struggling to find the right words for an important text but he’ll go to visit Martha soon. He gives up on the text and turns up on Tracy’s doorstep. After offering her the smellies that Jade rejected, he thanks her again for her help and admits he wouldn’t find it easy if she had a new boyfriend because he really likes her. Tracy is affronted – he’s going out with Jade! Jazzer explains he’s dumped Jade – but Tracy isn’t flattered by Jazzer’s attention; he’s clearly on the rebound. She slams the door on him. Jazzer knocks again and this time clumsily manages to tell Tracy how he feels about her. Tracy warns she needs a reliable man – she’s got children and responsibilities. When Jazzer declares he’s deadly serious, Tracy admits he’s not so bad and invites him in.
Alice is shattered so Brian offers to take Martha for a walk. He’s shocked by all the paraphernalia a baby needs! But their walk is a great success; he’s bonded with Martha and Alice has caught up on some sleep. He’s bought her some chocolates and a bottle of Rioja. Alice balks at the wine and quickly explains she can’t drink as she’s breastfeeding. Just before Brian takes it away Alice casually mentions that Chris could drink it. Chris is delighted that Alice has cooked supper. Chris is impressed with Brian; taking Martha for a walk and supplying chocolates. All in all not a bad day.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000tt9r)
Riz Ahmed, Climate change books, Paul Ritter remembered, Israel covid passports
Riz Ahmed stars in Sound of Metal as a rock drummer who loses his hearing. The actor and rapper discusses learning American sign language, working with culturally Deaf actors as well as learning about addiction for his Oscar nominated performance.
So far, 2021 has seen a large number of novels with a climate change theme being published. Toby Lichtig, Fiction Editor at the Times Literary Supplement, reports on some of the new releases and shifting attitudes in publishing towards avowedly-politicised fiction.
Concerts and plays with a live audience have been taking place in Israel for over a month now, with audience members required to show a vaccination certificate known as a “green pass”. Allison Kaplan Sommer from the Haaretz Newspaper in Tel Aviv reports.
Paul Ritter has died aged 54. Perhaps best known for playing the dad Martin in Friday Night Dinner, we speak to the show's writer Robert Popper about Paul's life and career.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Oliver Jones
Sound Engineer: Matilda Macari
TUE 19:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tt7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Intrigue (m000tt9x)
Mayday: The Evidence Gatherers
In a secret location in a European city is an archive that contains over a million documents. It’s run by a tough-talking Canadian, Bill Wiley, who set up an evidence-gathering organisation funded by Western governments. Using undercover criminal investigators operating inside a war zone, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) has spent the last eight years extracting official documents from Syria. Wiley says that evidence will prove that the Assad regime has been responsible for a campaign of torture and murder against its own people. CIJA's documents are being used right now in a criminal case in the West to prosecute members of the Syrian regime. But there are those who would discredit the evidence and the people who gather it. These include a group of respected academics here in the UK who are accused of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about the war, twisting the narrative so that the Syrian regime becomes the victim and the British government bears responsibility for war crimes. It is a new kind of warfare being fought not on the ground but on the internet. Who will win?
Correction: We stated that Feras Fayyad won an Oscar - instead his films were nominated on two occasions for an Oscar but did not win.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000ttb1)
Guide Dog DNA; Blind Mountain Biker
3,000 puppies are to have their DNA sequenced via sailva swabs in order to build a database that will help improve the success rate of fully established working guide dogs. The 'Born to Guide' project is being led by Dr Tom Lewis, who told us how the database will establish links between dog genetics, health and behaviour.
And we meet Xavier Hopkins - the visually impaired mountain biker who makes a mental map of the courses he rides, before hurtling down them at very high speeds.
TUE 21:00 The Jump (m000symp)
Covid-19
Chris van Tulleken explores the human behaviours causing pandemics, paying the price for getting too close to animals by degrading their territory and allowing viruses to jump. What's clear is that Covid-19 was inevitable; that a coronavirus would jump in Asia was predicted in at least 3 papers in early 2019. It's a symptom of degraded ecosystems leading to intimate contact with animals we don't normally encounter.
When examining the origins of Covid-19, perhaps the most amazing aspect is the number of different possibilities. Bats as medicine, bats as food, bat transmission to other intermediate animals - mink farmed for fur or raccoon dogs hunted as game. We don't know if it jumped in a home or a wet market or in a cave. Chris talks to NERVTAG virologist Prof Wendy Barclay who explains why she thinks it's not the case that it escaped from a lab. Plus ecologist and bat enthusiast Prof Kate Jones argues that invasive human behaviours are offering these viruses multiple chances to jump into people – mostly all totally hidden from sight - but is optimistic as the UK Government asks her to advise on spillover risks and how to achieve sustainable landscapes. While Dr Peter Daszak and Dr William Karesh from EcoHealth Alliance highlight how climate change and pandemic risk are interconnected; all the solutions already identified to tackle global warming will also help prevent the next virus from jumping.
Produced by Erika Wright
Edited by Deborah Cohen
TUE 21:30 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
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ttb5)
US-Iran nuclear talks
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tt83)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000ttb8)
185. Winking at Mounties with historian and presenter Dan Snow
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane are joined by historian and broadcaster Dan Snow.
The historian and presenter behind the History Hit podcast busts two of the biggest myths in history and discusses making sense of grief in the past. They ask when is the right time to start writing history, and how Fi would have fared in the days before glasses.
Plus Dan discloses the details of a secret Tall Club and its strange acknowledgements, and Jane’s found a benefactor. Sort of…
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 The Battersea Poltergeist (p0977lbn)
Episode 6: Fright Night
After the press backlash, the Hitchings family fight to prove the haunting isn’t a hoax. They invite young journalist Joyce Lewis to spend a night at Number 63 Wycliffe Road – will she experience the phenomena that can prove Donald is real? Meanwhile, Danny spends his own night with a ghost, investigating a house that claims to have an active poltergeist, with sinister parallels to the Battersea case.
Written and presented by Danny Robins, starring Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Toby Jones (Detectorists), Burn Gorman (Torchwood) and Alice Lowe (Sightseers), with original theme music by Mercury-nominated Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier, this gripping 8-part series interweaves a chilling supernatural thriller set in 1950s London with a fascinating modern-day investigation into Britain’s strangest ever haunting – a mystery unsolved… until now.
Cast:
Shirley Hitchings……..Dafne Keen
Harold Chibbett………Toby Jones
Wally Hitchings…… Burn Gorman
Kitty Hitchings……….Alice Lowe
Joyce Lewis………..Miranda Raison
Steve………………..Rufus Wright
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow
Sound Designer: Richard Fox
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
Directed by Simon Barnard
Consultant: Alan Murdie
With thanks to James Clark, co-author of 'The Poltergeist Prince of London'
A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4
WEDNESDAY 07 APRIL 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000ttbc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000ttbf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ttbh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ttbk)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000ttbm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000ttbp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ttbr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000ttbt)
07/04/21: Riding schools in lockdown, rural businesses and lambing
Equestrian bodies are arguing the easing of COVID restrictions over the use of indoor riding schools or arenas aren’t coming quickly enough. From Monday 12th April, children will be able to take part in group lessons indoors - but not adults. Caz Graham hears from a riding school on the brink.
The ‘National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise' at Newcastle University is launching a large scale survey of how farm and rural businesses have coped with the pandemic.
And it's spring, and lambing sheds up and down the country are filling up. We visit Hartpury University and College in Gloucestershire, where staff have been striving to give their students hands-on experience in the lambing shed, in spite of COVID restrictions.
Presented by Caz Graham
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03wq2nz)
Lapwing
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the lapwing. The lovely iridescent greens and purples of the lapwing: with its delicate crest and broad rounded wings that almost seem to twinkle in level flight, they are seen less often on our farmland today. At one time they were so common that their freckled eggs were harvested and sent off to the cities to pamper the palates of urban epicures.
WED 06:00 Today (m000tsh7)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m000v5nf)
A falling man left me paralysed
Jane Garvey talks to Grace Spence Green, a 25-year-old trainee doctor, about an extraordinary turning point in her life.
Grace was walking through the atrium of the Stratford Westfield shopping centre when a man fell from several storeys up and landed directly on top of her. She woke up hearing screams and slowly realised they were her own. She was urgently telling those around her that she couldn't feel her legs.
Grace was left seriously injured. She spent weeks in recovery in hospital, many of those nights desperately trying to wiggle a toe, many of the days learning the new skills of navigating life in a wheelchair and coming to terms with her new reality. All the while everyone around her was full of opinions and fury about what had happened to her but Grace's reaction may surprise you.
Do you have an extraordinary story that you’d like to share? You can contact the programme at Lifechanging@bbc.co.uk
WED 09:30 Chinese Characters (b09yhj09)
Kumarajiva: Translator Monk
Millions of Chinese speak the words of Kumarajiva (334-413) every day. Far fewer have any idea of who he is. He was perhaps China's most influential translator: in medieval China, he translated some of the most important Buddhist texts from Sanskrit into Chinese. Kumarajiva settled down for a life of contemplation as a Buddhist priest, but a series of invasions and occupations from the east saw him kidnapped, finally ending up at the great Chinese city of Chang'an (modern Xi'an). There he was given the task of rendering some of the key Buddhist teachings, such as the Diamond Sutra, into a form that Chinese worshippers could understand and use. In today's China, there are immense numbers of Buddhists who use Kumarajiva's texts. Even if his name has faded, Professor Rana Mitter says his achievement is very much part of the contemporary Chinese religious scene.
Chinese Characters is a series of 20 essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.
WED 09:45 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000tsls)
Episode 3
Professor Michael Spitzer brings together archaeological, sociological and historical observations, along with theories from biologists and musicologists, to tell the story of what his sub-title boldly claims to be A History of Life on Earth.
Michael Spitzer did his undergraduate degree at Merton, Oxford, and then his PhD at Southampton. He is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for 20 years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane.
Written by Michael Spitzer
Read by Simon McBurney
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tshn)
Jessica Fellowes on the roaring twenties and comparisons with life today as come out of lockdown.
As we begin to emerge from lockdown, what are the similarities with the ‘Roaring 20s’ 100 years ago when Britain, having survived the Spanish Flu and the Great War, became a hedonistic playground? Will this time create a need for crowds, parties, touch, and an urge to ‘get out and enjoy life’? Jessica Fellowes, author of Mitford Murders crime series and companion books to the television series Downton Abbey, describes the Bright Young Things who were the influencers of their day, ‘Bachelor Girls’ who no longer needed to be married to enjoy independence, and gives parallels with how technology transformed lifestyles – from the labour saving devices that freed women from endless housework, to the internet which enables women to work from home today.
The public’s understanding of dementia is generally very poor and the message we receive about it are overwhelmingly negative. Could fiction be the answer to showing a more rounded and factual portrayal? Emma Barnett talks to Wendy Mitchell, Anna Wharton and Professor Jan Oyebode.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Engineer: Tanzy Leitner
WED 10:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tsht)
Series 2
Episode 3
Shaun McKenna’s gripping historical drama about the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife and mother to Kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator.
The French army is on the march but Louis’ leadership is being questioned at every turn. Eleanor decides she must act to avert disaster.
Eleanor ….. Rose Basista
Louis ….. Joel MacCormack
Petronilla ….. Elinor Coleman
Geoffrey de Rançon ….. Stewart Campbell
Empress Irene ….. Jane Slavin
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
WED 11:00 Where is Jack Ma? (m000tl9w)
On the eve of what would have been the world's largest share listing, Ant Financial, estimated to float for over $300bn, it's founder Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire mysteriously disappeared. Things started to go wrong for Ma after he told a room full of banking regulators that their methods were out of date and not fit for purpose. Shortly afterwards, the Chinese government cancelled the listing and Jack went silent. The extroverted charismatic billionaire, who once flourished in the public eye, simply did not show up at key events.
It's happening more and more often in China: some of the country's most famous and powerful people are disappearing after coming into conflict with the Communist Party. China's most famous actress, the Chinese head of the international police agency Interpol and even a top news presenter all disappeared.
So what's happened to Jack Ma? In this program journalist Celia Hatton, who spent 15 years living and reporting in China, investigates. Celia asks if Ma is just keeping a low profile or is something more sinister at play? What does Jack Ma’s disappearance tell us about China's relationship with big business, the future direction of its economy and its attitude towards the growing number of domestic tech billionaires?
Producer: Rajeev Gupta
(Clips used: CBS, CNN, World Economic Forum, Alibaba Group, Financial Times)
WED 11:30 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09h6k15)
Series 2
Gardening
Susan Calman is the least relaxed person she knows. She has no down time, no hobbies (unless you count dressing up your cats in silly outfits) and her idea of relaxation is to sit on her sofa playing Assassin's Creed, an hour into which she is in a murderous rage with sky high blood pressure. Her wife had to threaten to divorce her to make her go on holiday, and she's been told by the same long-suffering wife that unless she finds a way to switch off, and soon, she's going to be unbearable.
Susan decided her best bet was to try to immerse herself in the pursuits that her friends find relaxing, to find her inner zen and outer tranquillity. In the first series of this show she attempted to ditch the old Susan Calman and attempted to find the new Susan Calm, by watching Cricket; going Hillwalking; visiting an Art Gallery and being spontaneous. She enjoyed these pursuits, but all too soon found herself slipping back into her old ways. So she's trying again. This week she takes a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to learn about Gardening with Val McDermid, in the hope of one day being able to tell her Euphorbia from Euphoria.
In other episodes Susan will go to a music festival with Robin Ince, try her hand at baking with Selasi Gbmormittah and have a go at birdwatching with Emma Kennedy.
Keep Calman Carry On is an audience stand up show in which Susan reports on how successful she's been - both at relaxing and at the pursuit itself - as well as playing in and discussing a handful of illustrative clips from her efforts. It's an attempt to find out how people find solace or sanctuary in these worlds and how Susan can negotiate her own place in them.
Written by Susan Calman and Jon Hunter.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000tsm9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tsj9)
Episode 3
The shine is coming off Sameer’s perfect London life – at work his amiable boss has quit and oldest friend Rahool is moving back home to Leicester.
Read by Sacha Dhawan and Vincent Ebrahim
This elegant and eye-opening debut crosses continents and generations as it explores love, duty and the long shadows cast by colonialism. Themes of romance and exile combine with a stunning portrayal of modern Uganda as a young man tries to find his place in the world. Winner of the New Writer’s Prize from Stormzy’s imprint Merky books, Hafsa Zayyan takes us from East Africa to the East Midlands - and back again.
Written by Hafsa Zayyan
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000tsjh)
Railway Return, High Street Challenge and Pre-loved Clothes
How will railway bosses match ticket prices to the new ways or working
Voucher trouble: EasyJet refund You & Yours listener but there's still confusion about your rights and travel vouchers
Think about the planet! Calls for city dwellers to not drive large SUV's
Web platforms battle for share of spiralling second hand clothes craze
What should be done to help the High Street recover from Covid carnage?
Tackling loneliness: New ONS report reveals how the condition is spreading through age groups
WED 12:57 Weather (m000tsjn)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000tsjs)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000tsjw)
Episode Three: Progressing Matters
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Three: Progressing Matters
As Kevin and Chris make their way down to the basement cash-centre safe, the masked men holding Kyran McMullan hostage ask if she'd like some light refreshments...
Presenter: Glenn Patterson
Actors: Louise Parker, Conor O'Donnell & Thomas Finnegan
Music: Phil Kieran
Producer: Conor Garrett
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000tsk2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000l2r6)
What He Would Have Wanted
When Caroline had an affair with Jen's husband Alex, their 30 year friendship was over. But a year on, following Jen's father's death, her mother is determined that his memorial will prompt a reconciliation - even if it takes place on Zoom.
And though Caroline's betrayal has cast a long shadow, Anne is keen to reveal some unknown facts about her. Although they may not excuse Caroline's infidelity with Alex, they make it clear that, in a time of plague, there are more important things to worry about than a moment of insecurity and madness.
Cast:
ANNE…..…… Barbara Flynn
JEN ……………Flora Montgomery
CAROLINE….Jane Slavin
SORCHA…….Nimmy March
GEOFFREY... Gerrard McArthur
Written by Viv Groskop
The extract read at the end of What He Would Have Wanted is from AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh.
Produced and Directed by Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000tsk7)
Divorce and separation during the pandemic
There’s been a rise in the number of divorces according to the Office for National Statistics along with predictions that even more couples will split as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
Many law firms are reporting huge spikes in the number of separations during the pandemic.
Plans for new “no fault” divorce rules are due to come in in the next few months and will abolish the need to blame one of the parties when pursuing a divorce.
But what happens to the finances during all of this? What if a couple weren’t married or owned some assets before the marriage?
Presenter Louise Cooper will be joined by:
Rhona Adams, partner at Morton Fraser and head of the family law team
Claire Gordon, family law partner at Farrer & Co
Michael Royce, senior policy and propositions manager at the Money and Pensions Service
E-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @Moneybox now with your thoughts, questions and experiences.
Producer: Darin Graham
Editor: Richard Vadon
WED 15:30 Three Pounds in My Pocket (m000qywb)
Series 4
Episode 1
Since 2014 Kavita Puri has been charting the social history of British South Asians in post-war Britain. Many came with as little as three pounds due to strict currency controls.
This series picks up where the last one finished - the fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989 - and begins by looking at the 1990s. The decade began with Norman Tebbit and his so-called 'cricket test', which questioned the loyalty of those who supported India over England in international cricket. It was a far cry from the multicultural Britain that would be ushered in by Tony Blair's New Labour in 1997.
Amidst this changing political landscape, the children of the three pound generation were finding mainstream cultural success. Goodness Gracious Me was a hit on national television, films like East is East and Bhaji on the Beach found success, and there were hit records from acts like Apache Indian, Bally Sagoo and Panjabi MC. Regular British Asian music nights at commercial venues began, such as Bombay Jungle at Soho's Wag Club, and soon hundreds were queuing up in central London to get in.
Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Historical consultants:
Dr Florian Stadtler, University of Exeter
Dr Edward Anderson, Northumbria University
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000tskb)
Community & Social Capital
Community & social capital. Laurie Taylor talks to Robert D Putnam, Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and co-author of a new study which revisits some of the themes of 'Bowling Alone' his 20 year old, groundbreaking book, which argued that Americans were losing their connections with one another. His latest research takes a look at trends over the last century which have brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. What lessons can be drawn from the past, especially at a time of increased economic inequality, political polarisation and loss of social capital and trust, all of which are playing out against the backdrop of a global pandemic? Is it, as he suggests, time for an 'upswing', more focused on our responsibilities to each other and one which, for the first time, must properly account for the way in which racism has shaped America?
They’re joined by Emily Falconer, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Westminster, who considers the extent to which Robert Putnam's arguments apply to the UK. She also discusses her own research, which focuses on collective singing as a manifestation of social capital and community, in action. Her study of an Online Zoom community choir - at a time when so many face-to-face activity have disappeared - suggests that virtual, group singing has afforded deep connections between people in a landscape in which the future of social gatherings remains uncertain.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Produced in partnership with The Open University
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000tskg)
"There's no democracy without a strong, free press"
As he steps down as editor of the Washington Post, Marty Baron reflects on his tenure. When he joined the paper in 2012, it was a moderately profitable local newspaper. He leaves The Post as a global brand, with ten Pulitzer Prizes under his editorship and a new owner in Jeff Bezos.
Studio engineer: Donald MacDonald
Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producer: Hannah Sander
WED 17:00 PM (m000tskk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tskp)
Officials say the benefits still outweigh the risks -- but the question is more finely balanced for younger age groups.
WED 18:30 Alone (m000tskr)
Series 3
Remember The Date
A sitcom about five single, middle aged neighbours living in flats in a converted house in north London. Written by Moray Hunter and starring Angus Deayton, Abigail Cruttenden, Pearce Quigley, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron,
Mitch (Angus Deayton) is a widower and part-time therapist who is looking to put his life back together now that he is single and living with Will (Pearce Quigley), his younger, more volatile and unhappily divorced half-brother. Elsewhere in the building are schoolteacher Ellie (Abigail Cruttenden) who is shy, nervous and holds a secret candle for Mitch. Overly honest, frustrated actress Louisa (Kate Isitt), and socially inept IT nerd Morris (Bennett Arron) complete the line-up of mis-matched neighbours.
In the series opener, Remember The Date, a very relaxed Mitch and an over-excited Ellie are due to go out on their much postponed date, Morris leaves everyone an intriguing, truncated text message while Will just wants to celebrate his birthday with someone, anyone, although preferably not Louisa.
Cast:
Angus Deayton- Mitch
Abigail Cruttenden- Ellie
Pearce Quigley- Will
Kate Isitt- Louisa
Bennett Arron- Morris
Created and Written by Moray Hunter
Script Edited by Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Directed by Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
Recorded and Edited by Jerry Peal
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Based on an original idea developed in association with Dandy Productions
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000tskw)
It’s George’s sixteenth birthday and Emma grumbles to Chris she hopes he’ll be back in time for the dinner she and Clarrie have slaved over. Will appears as they wait for Alice to arrive and together they reminisce about their own teenage tearaway years. As Martha sleeps, Chris admits he feels anxious for her but Emma says that’s normal with a first baby. When Alice still doesn’t arrive, Chris becomes nervous; she isn’t replying to his texts. He jumps when a phone pings but it isn’t Alice, it’s George saying he’ll be late; he’s busy planning a lads’ holiday. Chris slips off to find Alice while Will and Emma discuss their crafty son who reminds them of Joe.
Phoebe doesn’t have the same vision as her mother about her yurt plans, and doesn’t want her advice. Phoebe talks to Brian about her plans and although he’s initially complimentary about Kate’s ideas, he’s furious when he understands she wants to move Spiritual Home to Phoebe’s site. Her refusal to adapt in the past cost them so much family heartache. She should back off.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000tsl0)
Katherine Parkinson, Louise Kennedy, TikTok and bands
Katherine Parkinson is best known as an actress – she won a BAFTA playing Jen in The IT Crowd and warm praise for her performance on stage in Laura Wade’s play Home, I’m Darling. But she has also written a play, Sitting, an interwoven set of three monologues first performed at the Edinburgh Festival and now on BBC4 as part of BBC Lights Up. It is inspired by her own experience sitting for a portrait painter when she was a student and like the work of the actress herself spans from sharp comedy to raw emotion. She talks to John about performing in the play for the first time.
Louise Kennedy discusses her new collection of short stories, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, which focus on the rugged landscapes and tough characters of north-west Ireland, just south of the border, where she lives. Secrets, lies, cruelty and history lie at the heart of many of the 15 stories, infused with the country’s folklore and politics.
The band Years and Years released a snippet of their new single on TikTok before any other platforms and set a challenge to fans to make the most interesting video with lead singer Olly Alexander. Music Journalist Zoya Raza-Sheikh discusses how bands use TikTok to interact with fans and promote their music.
As he founds a new organisation dedicated to improving Muslim representation on screen, Muslim Film UK, we talk to actor and producer Sajid Varda.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Simon Richardson
WED 19:45 Eleanor Rising (m000tsht)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Life Changing (m000v5nf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 20:30 Shock Waves (m000sqs7)
Writer Naomi Alderman
When a shock wave hits the world, how do artists respond? In a new five-part series, artists chronicle how they have responded to the crisis. Dare they dream and imagine what work might emerge out of the pandemic?
In January 2020, author Naomi Alderman was four years into writing her next book, the fictional story of a flu-like virus spreading across the globe, carried by pigeons. One month later, with 180,000 words under her belt, she decided she had to stop. The story seemed too close to reality. In this programme, Naomi traces the pandemic year through her writing and speaks to fellow novelists, literary historians and to her editor about how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on the world of literature and how big shocks have affected literature in the past.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000tsl4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000tskg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tsl8)
People under 30 to be offered alternative to Oxford vaccine
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000tsj9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Athena's Cancel Culture (m000tsld)
Episode 1
Over the last few years, if a celebrity has ever said or done anything remotely controversial, then they've probably been cancelled. Largely performed through social media, some describe it as necessary evil to help democratise the internet and reflect the expectancy of an artist’s audience, for others it’s just a chance to shut up gobby celebs!
Whatever your view, it certainly helps empower fans by diminishing celebrity cultural capital and helping keep their egos and opinions in check. It's a growing phenomenon that's left almost no one unscathed, from comedians and actors to musicians and TV hosts. It’s also happening to the not so famous - remember the cat bin lady?
With stand up and sketch comedy, Athena explores cancel culture and the world of offence in modern times. Over four episodes, Athena will help explain the phenomenon of cancel culture among celebrities, look at the history of offence, and offer up some cancel rules for guidance. Athena then puts all that cancel knowledge to the test on her own social media activity from 10 years ago. There’s just no escape from cancel culture justice, even for Athena!
Writer and Performer: Athena Kugblenu.
Support cast: James McNicholas.
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Joseph Morpurgo's Walking Tour (b09fy6qx)
Series 1
Yosemite
Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee 2015 and triple Chortle Award Winner Joseph Morpurgo presents a series of 'educational' audio adventures for BBC Radio 4.
Follow our unique walking tour of Yosemite National Park, stuffed with fun facts, survival tips and more.
Written and performed by Joseph Morpurgo, with Naomi Petersen and Jonathan Broke.
Sound design by Craig Schuftan
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:30 The Battersea Poltergeist (p097sq0j)
Episode 7: Dead Letters
The Hitchings family experience strange new phenomena, as drawings appear on the walls and rooms are violently trashed, but strangest of all are handwritten letters that appear, seemingly from Donald the poltergeist. Meanwhile ghost hunter Harold Chibbett makes progress in his attempts to communicate, becoming convinced he is on the verge of discovering Donald’s true identity.
Danny assesses the new developments, alongside experts Ciaran O’Keefe and Evelyn Hollow. How can these things be possible? Are there other more human explanations for what is going on?
Written and presented by Danny Robins, starring Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Toby Jones (Detectorists), Burn Gorman (Torchwood) and Alice Lowe (Sightseers), with original theme music by Mercury-nominated Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier, this gripping 8-part series interweaves a chilling supernatural thriller set in 1950s London with a fascinating modern-day investigation into Britain’s strangest ever haunting – a mystery unsolved… until now.
Cast:
Shirley Hitchings……..Dafne Keen
Harold Chibbett………Toby Jones
Wally Hitchings……..Burn Gorman
Kitty Hitchings……….Alice Lowe
Lily Chibbett……..Kacey Ainsworth
Ethel Hitchings……….Sorcha Cusack
John Hitchings……..Calvin Demba
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow
Sound Designer: Richard Fox
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Nadine Shah and Ben Hillier
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
Directed by Simon Barnard
Consultant: Alan Murdie
With thanks to James Clark, co-author of 'The Poltergeist Prince of London'
A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4
THURSDAY 08 APRIL 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000tsln)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000tsls)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tslx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tslz)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tsm1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000tsm3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tsm5)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000tsm7)
08/04/21 - Wild flower theft, Spring drilling and tidal wetland creation
Some 8,000 bluebell bulbs are being painstakingly re-planted in a wood in Norfolk, after they were dug up illegally. Police were called to the woodland by a walker, and found large sacks and mail bags filled with recently uprooted bulbs. British bluebells are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act along with all other native wild plants and bulbs. Caz Graham finds out what drives wild flower theft.
For arable farmers Spring is the moment when most crops are usually safely in the ground, and some are hopefully getting well established. Planting, or drilling as it’s called on farms, will have started back in September and usually continues through until the end of March. Last year the exceptionally wet autumn and winter meant drilling was delayed, and last year's harvest suffered as a result. So how is this year shaping up so far? Anna Hill visits an organic farm in Norfolk to find out.
And in East Devon a major project has just got underway to recreate a huge tidal wetland at Budleigh Salterton. A 200 year old sea embankment will be breached to allow fields in the estuary of the River Otter to flood, creating salt marsh and mud flats, with the aim of improving habitats and capturing carbon. The project will cost £15 million, with money coming from the Environment Agency, the landowner and the EU as part of a wider project that could create another 70 tidal wetlands on the South coast of England and the North coast of France. We hear from the landowner.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zr1zj)
Common Whitethroat
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the common whitethroat. Whitethroats are warblers which winter in the Sahel region south of the Sahara desert and spend spring and summer in Europe. When they arrive in April the males establish a territory by singing that scratchy song from hedgerow perches or by launching themselves into the air.
THU 06:00 Today (m000twgg)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000twgj)
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Laplace (1749-1827) who was a giant in the world of mathematics both before and after the French Revolution. He addressed one of the great questions of his age, raised but side-stepped by Newton: was the Solar System stable, or would the planets crash into the Sun, as it appeared Jupiter might, or even spin away like Saturn threatened to do? He advanced ideas on probability, long the preserve of card players, and expanded them out across science; he hypothesised why the planets rotate in the same direction; and he asked if the Universe was deterministic, so that if you knew everything about all the particles then you could predict the future. He also devised the metric system and reputedly came up with the name 'metre'.
With
Marcus du Sautoy
Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford
Timothy Gowers
Professor of Mathematics at the College de France
And
Colva Roney-Dougal
Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000twj5)
Episode 4
Professor Michael Spitzer brings together archaeological, sociological and historical observations, along with theories from biologists and musicologists, to tell the story of what his sub-title boldly claims to be A History of Life on Earth.
Michael Spitzer did his undergraduate degree at Merton, Oxford, and then his PhD at Southampton. He is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for 20 years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane.
Written by Michael Spitzer
Read by Simon McBurney
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000twgn)
Tracey Thorn on her friend Lindy Morrison; Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds; Women in the Wedding and Beauty Industry.
Writer and singer-songwriter Tracey Thorn has a new book out, My Rock 'n' Roll Friend. The friend in question is Lindy Morrison. They first met backstage at the Lyceum in London in 1983 when Tracey was 20, insecure, shy, just starting out in the music business. Lindy, ten years older than Tracey, was drummer for an Australian band, The Go-Betweens. To Tracey she looked like "self belief in a minidress". Tracey joins Emma to talk about friendship, being a female performer and why she chose to write about Lindy.
A year ago this week Anneliese Dodds was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer by the newly elected leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer becoming the first ever woman to hold this position. The economic landscape has shifted dramatically over the last year with women often being worst hit by jobs losses and access to support. Anneliese reflects on the big issues of the last year and talks to Emma Barnett about Labour’s plans for a post covid recovery.
Women say they are at the back of the queue when it comes to Covid handouts. We hear from the wedding and beauty sector. Melanie Abbott talks to Kirsty McCall, a wedding make up artist had a breakdown after spending all her savings after Covid almost wrecked her business. Emma discusses the issues with Jessie Westwood, who set up the campaign What About Weddings? last year, and Victoria Brownlie, from the National Hair and Beauty Federation.
Presented by Emma Barnett
Producer: Louise Corley
THU 10:45 Eleanor Rising (m000twgq)
Series 2
Episode 4
Shaun McKenna’s gripping historical drama about the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife and mother to Kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator.
On the march to the Holy Land allies prove untrustworthy. Could the French army be heading into a trap?
Eleanor ….. Rose Basista
Louis ….. Joel MacCormack
Petronilla ….. Elinor Coleman
Geoffrey de Rançon ….. Stewart Campbell
German soldier ….. Nicholas Murchie
Raymond of Antioch ….. Tony Turner
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000twgs)
Denmark: goodbye to mink
Can Denmark's mink industry rise again? Denmark was the world's top producer of mink for the luxury market. Last year a coronavirus variant was found in the animals, and transmitted to people. There was a fear the variant - Cluster 5 - might interfere with the efficacy of any vaccine developed for humans. So in November, the Danish government ordered a cull of all 17 million farmed mink. But questions have continued to be asked about the decision to effectively end production. Was it driven by an anti-fur, political agenda? Was the science reliable? For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly and Danish journalist, Rikke Bolander, meet some of those with skin in the game. What are the chances of a revival of Denmark's mink business?
Producers / presenters: Linda Pressly and Rikke Bolander
Editor, Bridget Harney
THU 11:30 The Day the Muzak Died (m000tlw8)
When Major General George Owen Squier coined the term Muzak, back in the early 1930s, the idea according to elevator music enthusiast Joseph Lanza was “to have a civic use of music”.
At Muzak Corporation’s height during the late 50s and 60s, this practically became a reality as their in-house orchestral arrangements emanated from the walls of hotel lobbies, businesses, airport lounges, doctors offices and across factory floors.
This programme serves as part love-letter, part obituary to the music by Muzak and the particular aesthetic with which it's associated. But it also examines the ethics of such a business model - bound up with ideas of freewill, behavioural science and the use or misuse of technology.
Includes contributions from author Joseph Lanza, artist Mika Taanila, music scholar Caroline Potter, science historian Alexandra Hui, composer Mark Mothersbaugh (from the band Devo), Nigel Rodgers - founder Pipedown, and former Vice President of Programming for Muzak, Rod Baum.
With archive recordings courtesy of Texas Archive of The Moving Image and Hat Trick Productions.
Music sourced from Muzak Archives, Devo and field recordings by Mika Taanila.
Produced by Hannah Dean
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Image credit: Nile Livesey)
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000twjp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000twgx)
Episode 4
As Sameer prepares for his move to Singapore, Hasan’s letters lay bare the full extent of the changes in 1950s Uganda.
Read by Vincent Ebrahim and Sacha Dhawan
This elegant and eye-opening debut crosses continents and generations as it explores love, duty and the long shadows cast by colonialism. Themes of romance and exile combine with a stunning portrayal of modern Uganda as a young man tries to find his place in the world. Winner of the New Writer’s Prize from Stormzy’s imprint Merky books, Hafsa Zayyan takes us from East Africa to the East Midlands - and back again.
Written by Hafsa Zayyan
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000twgz)
Disabled Jobs; Housing Market; Haircuts
Disabled people have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Not just because of the number of deaths, they've also suffered financially. The disability charity Scope say over a million disabled people who are out of work want to be in employment. Plus four out of ten disabled people who had a job at the start of 2020, had lost it by the middle of the year. We'll speak to the charity about that and also here from Laura who's in her 20s and is struggling to find work. Plus Justin Tomlinson - the Minister for Disabled People on the government's plan to make more help available.
The latest official figures on how many house sales are going through, show a big drop in those being processed compared to a year ago. In January we reported on figures from the Land Registry - they'd found house sales down in 2020 by more than a third. Sales of flats were even worse, they'd almost halved. Now figures for December and January 2021 are still much lower year on year, down by as much 18 percent for detached houses, and 38 percent for flats. Experts say there's a big backlog and delay thanks to high demand driven by the stamp duty holiday. We'll speak to Michael Ball - Professor of Urban and Property Economics at Henley Business School, Beth Rudolf from the Conveyancing Association as well as get a response from the Treasury.
And in just a few days time, the government road map for easing lockdown in England will move into the next phase. From Monday, people can visit a non essential shop for the first time in months and people can get a haircut. We'll speak to a hairdresser who's already booked up until May and a toy shop owner who's changed what he's selling ready for the reopening.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Jess Quayle
THU 12:57 Weather (m000twh1)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000twh3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000twh5)
Episode Four: The Drop
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Four: The Drop
Chris leaves the bank with a bag over his shoulder...
Presenter: Glenn Patterson
Actors: Louise Parker, Conor O'Donnell & Thomas Finnegan
Music: Phil Kieran
Producer: Conor Garrett
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000tskw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000twh7)
Losing Paradise
By Stephanie Dale
The UK’s first ‘environmental refugees’ are due to be displaced in the next 20 years. This is the story of Fairbourne, in North Wales.
Fairbourne’s council has chosen to stop funding its coastal defences, so in a few years residents may be forced to leave their homes. Fairbourne’s story begins in the 19th Century, when mill owner Arthur McDougall created the idyllic holiday paradise. But his head builder – George Stevens – is plagued by dreams about what is to come.
George…. Kieran Knowles
McDougall…. John Dougall
Seithenyn…. Sion Pritchard
The Narrator…. Eiry Thomas
The Earth…. Lisa Jen Brown
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000twh9)
Canna
Canna is four miles long and one mile wide. It has no doctor and the primary school closed a few years ago. The islanders depend on a weekly ferry service for post, food and medical supplies. Fiona Mackenzie and her husband, Donald, have lived on the island for six years. Donald is the harbourmaster and Fiona is the archivist for the priceless collection of Gaelic music, photographs and literature stored in Canna House. She's also an accomplished folk singer - the ideal guide for an Open Country visit to the island.
The folklorist and Gaelic scholar, John Lorne Campbell, bought the island in the 1950s. His family was part of Scotland's landed gentry, but he was opposed to sporting estates and absentee landlords and wanted to develop Canna as a flourishing, Gaelic-speaking community. He lived in the island's Big House with his wife, Margaret Fay Shaw - a Gaelic song collector. Canna House became a bohemian Hebridean retreat with a constant flow of colourful visitors including Compton Mackenzie, the author of Whiskey Galore. Campbell's vision for Canna never fully materialised and he gave the island and its archive to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981. It is run as a sheep and moor farm and has a population of just 14.
As well as her archive work, Fiona Mackenzie gives visitors impromptu history and nature walks. She and Fiona Hutton, owner of the island's only guesthouse, take the listeners on a tour of some of the island's sights of historic interest. Fiona and her neighbours also discuss the rewards and challenges of living in a small island community, particularly during the Covid lockdowns.
Down at the shoreline, she finishes the programme with a treat for the listener, a 'Song for Attracting Seals' – .and she promises it does work!
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tvfz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m000tvgy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000twhc)
The Power
With Antonia Quirke
The Power is set in a spooky hospital during the electrical blackouts of the early 70s. Antonia visits the set, itself a spooky old hospital, and meets director Corinna Faith and producer Rob Watson, who reveals that the set itself might be haunted
Maria Djurkovic, the production designer who re-created the Anglo-Saxon mounds in Sutton Hoo for The Dig, reveals exactly where she was when she discovered that she had been nominated for a BAFTA at this weekend's ceremony.
Cinema owner Kevin Markwick looks forward to the films that will be released, when (hopefully) cinemas will re-open from May 17th
Woody Strode was one of the first Black Americans to play in the NFL after World War II and went on to become a Hollywood actor in films like Spartacus and Sergeant Rutledge. Writer Nat Segnit tells the story of his life.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000twhf)
Disobedient particles, noisy gorillas, sharks and fictional languages
In 2016, an accelerator physics centre called Fermilab acquired a massive circular 50 foot magnet from a lab in New York. Too big for the roads, the magnet had to take a 2000km detour via New Orleans to get to its new home. This was the start of the “muon g-2” experiment. Last week, Fermilab announced some of their results, and they don’t quite add up. UK experiment lead Professor Mark Lancaster from Manchester University tells us what they have discovered about the tiny particle that is disobeying the laws that govern how our entire universe fits together.
Mountain gorillas are among the most impressive and powerful primates alive today. Living in the dense forests of eastern and central Africa, they are able to communicate with other gorillas a mile away by cupping their hands and beating their chests. Primatologist Edward Wright and colleagues have been studying male silverback gorillas and explains how gorillas use chest beating to attract potential mates and suss out competitors.
And Professor Corey Bradshaw from Adelaide, South Australia sheds light on a more fearsome animal: sharks. His research has investigated the likelihood of shark attacks around the Australian coast into the future, up to 2066, and asked what would happen to those figures if everyone wore an electrical emitter that interferes with the sharks electrical senses. He finds that shark attacks are remarkably low already, but these emitters could reduce bites by up to 3000 over the next 50 years.
Super fans around the world have learned to speak fluent Klingon, a fictional language originating from Star Trek. In a quest to understand the science behind these languages often dismissed as gobbledygook, Gaia Vince has been speaking to some of the linguists responsible for creating these languages. It’s time for her to relax the tongue, loosen those jaw muscles and wrap her head around the scientific building blocks embedded in language and what languages like Klingon tell us about prehistoric forms of communication.
Presented by Marnie Chesterton
Produced by Rory Galloway
THU 17:00 PM (m000twhh)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000twhm)
Leaders in Northern Ireland call for calm following a night of violence in Belfast
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (m000twhp)
Series 8
Instalment 4
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 book is a collection of stories entitled Calypso. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000twhr)
Kirsty’s had a brainwave after receiving a letter from Philip’s solicitor. Philip wants Kirsty to keep living in the Beechwood house for now, but she doesn’t want to, so she suggests Helen, Lee and the kids move in and rent it. Lee and Helen are excited as they tour the garden, planning veg patches and climbing frames. Helen worries it’s too good to be true, but Kirsty reassures them it’s all legal and above board, and they accept her offer.
Alice is repentant but Chris is unforgiving; he spent hours last night trying to get Martha to take the formula he bought. When Martha wakes up crying he refuses Alice’s pleas to let her feed Martha herself; how can he be sure there isn’t still alcohol in her system? Alice insists the baby’s crying for her but angry Chris has no sympathy. Alice tries to explain she was exhausted and thought she could handle one glass of wine but didn’t have the willpower to stop. Later Chris is sarcastic when Alice says her detox buddy praised her honesty when she spoke to her. How can he trust Alice? Alice insists she loves him and Martha, and promises never to drink again. Chris needs time. Alice persuades him a christening would be good thing to do. Chris admits he’ll never stop loving Alice, and falteringly believes her when she promises to make things right.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000twht)
Peggy Seeger, Liverpool pilot of arts events, Fiction writers of faith
Peggy Seeger has just released her latest album, The First Farewell, at the age of 85. She tells us about the pleasures of working on it with her family, her worries about the post-Covid music scene, getting older - and getting younger.
Liverpool is about to take part in a pilot scheme testing live events. There will be an open-air film screening, a comedy gig and a club night. We talk to Liverpool's director of culture, Claire McColgan, about how it will work and the scientific questions behind it.
Francis Spufford is the author of Golden Hill which won the Costa First Novel Award. Hafsa Zayyan's novel We Are All Birds of Uganda is on Radio 4 this week and won the Merky Books New Writing Prize. The two authors discuss what it means to be a writer of faith in 21st century Britain.
Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Studio Manager: Emma Harth
THU 19:45 Eleanor Rising (m000twgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000twhw)
Global supply chains - is the UK vulnerable?
When the 400 metre long Ultra Large Container Vessel, Ever Given, got wedged diagonally across the Suez Canal at the end of March, it brought one of the world’s most important trade routes to a standstill for six days. Around ten per cent of global shipping passes through the canal.
Shipping itself is responsible for some 90 per cent of global trade. The blockage served to revive worries that global supply chains have become a source of vulnerability for economies that rely on international trade. The immediate effect of the Ever Given accident for the UK may not become clear for several weeks.
The Briefing Room asks what longer term vulnerabilities has it exposed and how might these best be mitigated?
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Production team: Tim Mansel, Paul Moss and Kirsteen Knight
Satellite image shows stranded container ship Ever Given in Suez canal. Egypt March 25th 2021. Credit: Reuters
THU 20:30 The Untold (m000tvlb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Monday]
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000twhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000twgj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000twhz)
Further trouble in Belfast
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000twgx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 It's Not What You Know (b07wthbz)
Series 4
Episode 2
Joe Lycett discovers how well a panel of celebrity guests know their nearest and dearest.
This week Joe probes into the lives of of Zoe Lyons, Adrian Chiles and Mae Martin.
Production coordinator: Emily Hallett
Producer: Matt Stronge
A BBC Studios production.
FRIDAY 09 APRIL 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000twj3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000twj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000twj7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000twj9)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000twjc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000twjf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000twjh)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Chalmers, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000twjk)
09/04/21 Dogs' impact on countryside, peat free gardening, French farmer protests
Dogs should be on leads at all times in the countryside, that’s the call from the Country Land and Business Association, which says that dogs are increasingly a problem. There's been a spike in attacks on sheep over the Easter weekend and a 10% increase in sheep worrying since this time last year.
We hear how the disease Neopsora, spread in dog faeces, is having a devastating impact on a Surrey farmer, causing his cows to miscarry their calves.
The Royal Horticultural Society has announced that it will be completely peat free by 2025 as it switches to other growing media including sphagnum moss.
French farmers are out in the streets in tractors and muck spreaders to highlight their opposition to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x46sm)
Treecreeper
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the treecreeper. Treecreepers are common woodland birds but because their high-pitched almost whispering song, is often drowned out by the dawn chorus, they're often overlooked. The first glimpse may be a silhouette, its belly close to the bark, braced by stiff tail feathers. It has a curved, tweezer-like bill with with which it delicately probes for hidden insects and spiders deep in the crevices of the bark.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000twt1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m000tvgf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer (m000twt3)
Episode 5
Professor Michael Spitzer brings together archaeological, sociological and historical observations, along with theories from biologists and musicologists, to tell the story of what his sub-title boldly claims to be A History of Life on Earth.
Michael Spitzer did his undergraduate studies at Southampton and then Merton, Oxford. He is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for 20 years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane.
Written by Michael Spitzer
Read by Simon McBurney
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000twt5)
Body image. Caring for an abuser. Bafta lookahead. Mrs Sri Lanka Beauty pageant controversy
A parliamentary report into body image has just been published. The Women's and Equalities Committee has been looking into why so many people feel dissatisfied about the way they look. They did a survey which said that 61% is adults and 66% of children feel bad about how they look most of the time. They wanted to find out whether certain groups are most at risk at poor body image and looked at the impact of social media, advertising, diet culture as well as racism and misogyny.
We hear from Caroline Nokes MP chair of the committee. Tatyana Findlater who's 21 and has visible burn scars who gave evidence to the Committee and Dawn Estefan a psychotherapist who works with black women's groups to discuss various issues including body image.
A fight broke out on the stage of the latest Mrs Sri Lanka Beauty pageant last weekend because the winner was accused of being a divorcee. The competition is open only to women who are married and NOT divorced. Why has this beauty pageant received so much media attention and scrutiny? Kanchana N Ruwanpura is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden and a Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
The 2011 Census found that 6.5 million people in the UK are carers and provide unpaid care by looking after an ill, older or disabled family member, friend or partner. It found that women are more likely to be carers than men, with 58% of carers being female and 42% male.
But what if your relationship with the person you're caring for involves a history of abuse?
And a look ahead to this year's BAFTA's with Edith Bowman.
Presenter Anita Rani
Producer Beverley Purcell
FRI 10:45 Eleanor Rising (m000twt7)
Series 2
Episode 5
Shaun McKenna’s gripping historical drama about the young Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife and mother to Kings, crusader, prisoner and formidable political operator.
Brusied and defeated, Eleanor and Louis have arrived in Antioch where their strained relationship threatens to put lives at risk. Eleanor realises she must risk everything if she is to secure her future.
Eleanor ….. Rose Basista
Louis ….. Joel MacCormack
Petronilla ….. Elinor Coleman
Raymond of Antioch ….. Tony Turner
Ralph de Vermandois ….. Nicholas Murchie
Directed by Gemma Jenkins
FRI 11:00 The Prime Minister at 300 (m000twt9)
How has the office survived?
It's 300 years since Sir Robert Walpole took office as the first recognisable office holder of Prime Minister. To mark the anniversary, the historian and biographer Sir Anthony Seldon, examines how the role came about and why it has survived despite various crises and periods of change in the life of the nation. What do Walpole and Boris Johnson, the 55th occupant of the office, have in common?
Former Prime Ministers, Foreign Secretaries, Cabinet Secretaries and others at the heart of government talk about the pressures on the modern office and the responsibilities that come with it. Has the job become too difficult to perform effectively and what could be done to enhance the role of Prime Minister?
The second programme explores how the office survived from the Victorian era to the present day and how it was shaped by a small number of exceptional office-holders.
Producer: Peter Snowdon
FRI 11:30 Paul Sinha's General Knowledge (m0008257)
Series 1
Episode 2
Paul Sinha - comedian, lapsed GP, Chaser and genuinely the fourth best quizzer in the United Kingdom - returns to tell you about... well, everything.
Paul has already told you about history in the Rose d'Or-winning Paul Sinha's History Revision, as well as Britishness (Paul Sinha's Citizenship Test), Magna Carta (The Sinha Carta), the Olympics (The Sinha Games) and, most importantly, cricket (The Sinha Test). But as a competitive quizzer, Paul learns fascinating facts all the time. As a curious man, he then looks up the stories behind those facts and they often turn out to be even more fascinating. In Paul Sinha's General Studies, he shares these stories with you.
This week's show starts with a question about the connection between an Emmy-winning actor and an electro-pop pioneer, before moving through the world of sport in search of barely-believable but true facts, including one of Britain's greatest-ever cyclists and the unusual circumstances around the 1904 Olympic Marathon.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Produced by Ed Morrish
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 BBC News Special (m000vj72)
Continued coverage from BBC News following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.
FRI 16:00 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (m000vjb8)
Edward Stourton presents a portrait of HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and an assessment of his life.
It draws on archive material and interviews with friends, members of the Royal Household and others who knew him well.
Producers: Simon Coates and Vanessa Harrison
Editor: Hugh Levinson
FRI 16:55 PM (m000twv0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000twv2)
Tributes are paid to the Queen's 'beloved' husband of 73 years.
FRI 18:30 The Duke and the Military (m000vjbb)
At Gordonstoun School in Scotland before World War 2, the late Duke of Edinburgh sailed to Norway as a 'cook and lamp-trimmer' aboard the school's vessel. With war looming, he left to join the Royal Navy and served with distinction aboard several warships and, when peace came, rose in the service to command of the frigate Magpie based in Malta. In this tribute to Prince Philip's lifelong military connections, Jonny Dymond explores his devotion to the sea, to the service and to his fellow officers and men. With the words of former First Sea Lord, Admiral Lord West, and the Commandant General of the Royal Marines, Major-General Charlie Stickland, we tell the story of a life devoted to serving Britain through her armed forces, on land, in the air and - the late Prince Philip's greatest love - on the sea.
Producer Simon Elmes
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000twv6)
Taylor Swift's Fearless, Prince Philip portraitist Jonathan Yeo, David Almond, Them
Taylor Swift, who recently won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards, has today released a new album called Fearless (Taylor's Version), which is an exact remake of her 2008 breakthrough album, Fearless. Music critic Sophie Harris explains why Taylor is repeating herself and reviews the new record.
Tom Sutcliffe discusses HRH the Duke of Edinburgh's interest in art and literature with Jonathan Yeo, who painted his portrait, and Ian Lloyd, author of The Duke: 100 Chapters in the life of Prince Philip.
Skellig author David Almond discusses his new novel Bone Music. Set in the forests and fells of Northern England, it's about a young girl who connects with a spiritual ancestor from the stone-age.
Critics Jan Asante and Kohinoor Sahota discuss the provocative new Amazon drama, Them. Does it offer something new in the politicised American gothic horror genre or is it just a Jordan Peele rip off?
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Timothy Prosser
Production Co-ordinator: Hilary Buchanan
Studio Manager: Matilda Macari
Main image above: Taylor Swift. Image credit: Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images
FRI 19:45 Outsiders (m000tg61)
Troopers Hill by Michael Malay
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed. In episode five, writer Michael Malay takes us to the nature reserve in his East Bristol neighborhood.
Michael Malay is a lecturer in English literature and the environmental humanities at the University of Bristol. He has published articles on poetry, critical theory and animal studies, as well as creative non-fiction on eels, migration and climate change. He is currently working on a book called Late Light, which is about the lives of unloved or disregarded animals on the brink of extinction.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000twv8)
Lord Hennessy, Jennie Bond, Stephen Bush, Sir Max Hastings, Professor Margaret MacMillan, Sir Simon Schama
Chris Mason presents discussion on the impact of the life of Prince Philip and on how the UK and the world changed in his lifetime. Joining him are the constitutional historian Lord Hennessy; former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond; political editor of The New Statesman Stephen Bush; journalist and historian Sir Max Hastings, historian Professor Margaret MacMillan and broadcaster and historian Sir Simon Schama.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio director: Kirsty Starkey
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000n6rp)
Reflections on My Mother's Kenwood Mixer
"The K beater, the whisk and the dough hook are rattling around in the bowl, and I am tasting butterscotch Angel Delight on my lips."
Rebecca Stott relives memories of her 1970s childhood with one kitchen device taking centre stage.
And she sees a lesson for today.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
FRI 21:00 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (m000vjb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 today]
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000v1pk)
The Duke of Edinburgh dies
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 We Are All Birds Of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan (m000twtf)
Episode 5
Desperate to avoid telling his parents about his relocation to Singapore, Sameer has worked up a plan for the family business.
Read by Sacha Dhawan and Vincent Ebrahim
This elegant and eye-opening debut crosses continents and generations as it explores love, duty and the long shadows cast by colonialism. Winner of the New Writer’s Prize from Stormzy’s imprint Merky books, Hafsa Zayyan takes us from East Africa to the East Midlands - and back again. Themes of romance and exile combine with a stunning portrayal of modern Uganda as a young man tries to find his place in the world.
Written by Hafsa Zayyan
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b091v0c7)
Series 43
Tracy Chevalier on Mary Anning
Matthew Parris and his guest - novelist Tracy Chevalier - discuss the life of Mary Anning, the working class woman from Lyme Regis who discovered full dinosaur skeletons on Dorset's Jurassic Coast and sold them to collectors in the early 1800s. They are joined by Hugh Torrens, Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology at the University of Keele. Mary's remarkable finds came before Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and she believed them at first to be giant crocodiles, but as scientists began flocking to Lyme Regis to buy her specimens, she started to educate herself in geology, becoming an authority on fossils.
However, as with many of the subjects of Great Lives, she was never fully credited for her efforts and faded from public consciousness after her death.
Download the podcast for extra material
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
FRI 23:30 Wireless Nights (m000jfzq)
Lockdown
From somewhere deep in lockdown, Jarvis trawls the Wireless Nights archive looking for relief from isolation.
From the darkness of Lundy Island to a snowbound white out, from a man sending radio signals to the moon to a castaway in the North Sea, Jarvis tunes into stories of isolation and endurance with fellow travellers as they make it through the long night.
Produced by Laurence Grissell and Neil McCarthy