SATURDAY 05 JUNE 2021

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000wly2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wlxk)
Episode 5

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.

Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.

Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wly4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wly6)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000wly8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000wlyb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wlyd)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Rev Cheryl Meban


Good morning.

On this day in 1981, the US Center for Disease Control reported on pneumonia affecting 5 homosexual men in Los Angeles. It is from this date that the AIDS epidemic is officially measured.

The virus was isolated at the Pasteur institute in Paris in 1983. Then an American-discovered virus was given a different name, though it turned out to be the same. There was wrangling over what it should be called until both names were replaced by HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

Naming is a powerful thing. One early name for AIDS was, Gay-Related Immunodeficiency syndrome. This effectively stigmatised its sufferers, implying causation or judgment, and made no room for complex lives or other causes of infection. Throughout the eighties one big debate was whether AIDS was “God’s judgment on gays.” A teenage contemporary of mine, as sexuality developed, would feel cosmically judged for sexual attraction beyond their control. The naming of, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and the embodied and relational interactions of ordinary compassionate people - brought sufferers back, verbally and visibly, to human inclusion. But the economic divide between Global north and South still leaves vast swathes of the human race unable to access the lifesaving treatments UK citizens can take for granted.

God teach us to see and name each other first as human. Inspire and equip us -researchers, politicians and business-people - to support life and change how we do relationships (so no one feels inferior or excluded) and economics, so that all who need healthcare and treatment may have life, and have it to the full, as you promised us in Christ. Amen


SAT 05:45 Bodies (m000rnl9)
Episode 10: Visible and Invisible - where the body ends

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 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.

Episode 10: Visible and Invisible - where the body ends

Professor Alice Roberts ends her journey through the history of anatomy. From pre-history until the 20th century, the story was broadly the transformation of a conception of the body as a mysterious black box into the body as a machine. But now we seem on the cusp of a new era – with technology profoundly changing the ways we view our bodies both metaphorically and practically.

Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000wrs9)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m000wlnh)
Mallerstang in Cumbria with Debbie North.

Debbie North uses a motorised wheelchair and is a powerful advocate for making the countryside accessible for all. Debbie had always been a keen walker but, in her 40s, was diagnosed with spinal degeneration. Very quickly she became a wheelchair user yet made the decision that this wasn’t going to stop her accessing the countryside that she loves. Today she takes Clare on one of her favourite rambles in Mallerstang. It starts at The Thrang, south of Outhgill. Although officially at the eastern edge of Cumbria, the walk is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Their destination is the 'Water Cut' stone sculpture which overlooks some of the area's most beautiful and expansive scenery.

Grid Ref for start of walk: NY783004

OS Map: OL19 Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley

Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000wrsc)
05/06/21 - Farming Today This Week: Carbon tax, HS2 Ltd, a green recovery and rural tourism

Over the last few weeks, there’s been heated debate about the Government's attempts to sign a free trade deal with Australia, and it’s showing no signs of going away. Farmers are concerned that giving Australian agricultural produce tariff-free access to the UK market could lead to them being out-competed by cheaper imports and that it would set the precedent for other trade deals. But the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said this week that a carbon tax on imported meat could stop British farmers being undercut on environmental standards. So how would such a system work?

HS2 was “dishonest, misleading and inconsistent” when negotiating compensation with a farmer who had to move to make way for the new high-speed rail line. That's according to the Parliamentary Ombudsman, which has just published its findings into complaints made by a family from a village near Lichfield, in Staffordshire. The building of the high-speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds has meant more than 900 properties worth nearly six hundred million pounds have been bought up to release land for the new routes.

The Wildlife Trusts are calling on government and local authorities to invest in nature to help rebuild after the pandemic. Their ‘Wilder Recovery’ Report says increased spending on nature and the environment would lead to new jobs, a growing economy and a healthier, happier population. Caz Graham visits a initiative in Morecambe called ‘The Bay - A Blueprint for Recovery’, which aims to tackle mental health problems, exacerbated by Covid, by encouraging greater connection with nature, with social prescribing by GPs and mental health teams.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m000wrsf)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m000wrsh)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000wrsk)
Big Zuu

Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.


SAT 10:30 You're Dead To Me (p07pj5m9)
Joan of Arc

Delusion or divine intervention? Learn about Joan of Arc’s super sewing skills, her badass credentials, and the story of why it took nearly half a century for her to become a saint. If you think it’s tough being a woman now, find out what it was like in 1400s France.

Joining historian Greg Jenner to learn about Joan are comedian Catherine Bohart of The Mash Report, and Dr Helen Castor, medieval historian and author of The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth.

Script: Greg Jenner
Research: Emma Nagouse
Producer: Dan Morelle

A Muddy Knees production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 School for Communists (m000wrsn)
A witty and surprising personal view of communism from Alexei Sayle, whose parents were Communists and took him on holidays to the Eastern bloc during the Cold War. Alexei soon rejected their brand of left wing politics - and became a Maoist. He says, "I'm a Marxist-Leninist survivor!"

Alexei meets children's author Michael Rosen, and shares memories of growing up in Jewish Communist homes.

He also meets Tom Bell, a former member of the London Recruits, who was sent to apartheid South Africa to work for the ANC and the South African Communist Party. While Nelson Mandela and others were jailed, Tom and others worked under cover, risking arrest and death.

The current General Secretary of the Young Communist League, Johnny Hunter, explains why they have returned to the Hammer and Sickle, love pictures of Che Guevara and want the destruction of capitalism.

The Young Communist League is a democratic organisation for people under 30, founded in 1921 as the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain. They describe themselves as "Britain's biggest organisation of revolutionary young people - fighting for a society that provides for workers and young people, not big business". They want a revolutionary transformation of society - an end to poverty, unemployment, destruction of the environment, exploitation and division, including oppression based on gender, race and sexual orientation.

In the 1930s, many League members volunteered to join the International Brigades and fight for the Spanish Republic against Franco.

In the 1960s, the YCL helped establish the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and organised medical aid and hundreds of bicycles to support Vietnam against the United States.

A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000wrsq)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000wrss)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000wrsv)
DWP urged to rethink the two child Universal Credit cap

Children’s Commissioner for Wales Professor Sally Holland explains why she, along with the Commissioners for Scotland and Northern Ireland, want the DWP to drop a Universal Credit entitlement rule introduced by the coalition government in 2017. It only provides support for a maximum of two children with a few specific exceptions.

Money Box reporter Joice Etutu hears from some of the thousands of people who have received random cheques from HSBC Banking Group. Amounts vary from tens to thousands of pounds. They’re still also being sent out to the group’s M&S Bank, first direct and John Lewis Finance customers who had arrears on loans between 2010 and 2019. Many thought it was a scam, but it’s not.

EU citizens who want to continue living in the UK are in danger of missing a crucial deadline which could see them lose access to benefits and the right to work. June the 30th is the last date to apply for the EU settlement scheme which allows people to retain their legal status post Brexit. However there’s concern many won’t realise they have to do it. Guest: Kate Smart, Chief Executive of the charity Settled.

The ban on bailiff-enforced evictions in England was an emergency measure to protect renters in arrears related to the pandemic. It ended this week so where does that leave renters who are still having money problems and what other changes might be on the way for them - and their landlords? Meera Chindooroy, Deputy Director of Campaigns, Public Affairs & Policy for the National Residential Landords Association and Chris Wood Assistant Director of Policy at Shelter discuss.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Joice Etutu
Researcher: Stefania Okereke
Producer: Charmaine Cozier
Editor: Alex Lewis


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000wm56)
Series 105

Episode 8

Andy Zaltzman presents a look back at the week's headlines with guests Andrew Maxwell, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Alex Massie and Ria Lina.

It's the last episode in the series and Andy FINALLY becomes the first News Quiz host to present the programme from the BBC Test Match Special commentary box at Lords.

Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Alice Fraser, Max Davis and Tasha Dhanraj.

Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Cherlynn Andrew-Wilfred
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m000wrsx)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m000wrsz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000wlxt)
James Graham, Rachel Maclean MP, Luke Pollard MP, Ann Widdecombe

Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe with the playwright James Graham, Minister for the Future of Transport and Decarbonisation Rachel Maclean MP, Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard MP and former politician and author Ann Widdecombe.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000wrt1)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 One to One (m000v7pd)
OCD: Tuppence Middleton talks to Rose Cartwright

Actress Tuppence Middleton has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It's not something she's really talked about before, except with a therapist. That is, until now. In this series, she's on a mission to find out more about the disorder - and herself - and to bust some myths along the way.

Today, she talks to screenwriter and author Rose Cartwright, who wrote her memoir 'Pure' after a ten-year struggle with 'Pure O'. What is Pure O? Why are the intrusive thoughts that come with it often violent or sexual? And why do so many people with Pure O suffer in silence?

Photo credit: Robert Harper. Producer: Becky Ripley.


SAT 15:00 Drama (m000wrt3)
The Last of England

A darkly comic drama by BAFTA award-winning dramatist Neil McKay, with a title inspired by Ford Madox Brown’s painting. Three 60-something friends argue passionately over the course of a ferry journey from Portsmouth to Santander, returning to their expat life in Spain after attending the UK funeral of their friend Ken, who went home for a visit and would never come back.

Hywel, a loquacious Welshman, Irishman Jim from Lurgan and pugnacious ex-MP Malcolm from Glasgow are unlikely allies (and enforced drinking pals) in the small Spanish town they now call home. Fuelled by some indifferent Rioja and cheap Spanish brandy, through the course of a night they try - and fail - to come to terms with life, death, truth and Brexit.

Also on the ferry are Ken’s daughter Gemma and her partner Rashid, carrying the ashes of Ken, to scatter beneath an almond tree in his favourite spot near the village. But Gemma is furious with her father for abandoning his English family and falling for a bartender more than half his age. She’s furious with her father’s so-called friends for encouraging him. And she’s quite cross with Rashid.

As the ferry heads for Spain and the sea gets rougher, secrets and motivations are revealed, showing nothing is quite as anyone believed and nobody is quite what they seem. Is home where you live, or where your heart is?

Neil McKay - The Moorside, Appropriate Adult, Mo, See No Evil, The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper - is one of our foremost television dramatists, specialising in factually-based drama. He has written many comic pieces including: Hot Money, about female Bank of England employees who robbed the bank of disused notes; Planespotting about British plane-spotters arrested for spying in Greece, starring Lesley Sharp; and, most recently, feature film Dream Horse for Film4/ Warner Bros about a female cleaner in a South Wales village who bred a champion racehorse - starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis.

Cast
Hywel – Anthony O’Donnell
Malcolm – Gary Lewis
Jim – Dan Gordon
Rashid – George Bukhari
Gemma – Faye McKeever

Writer – Neil McKay
Director – Melanie Harris
Executive Producer – Jeremy Mortimer
Production Co-ordinator - Darren Spruce
Sound Recordist - Louis Blatherwick
Sound Designer – Eloise Whitmore

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m000wrt5)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Composer Arooj Aftab, Reclaiming sexist language

How possible is it to actually earn a living from sport? The latest BBC Elite British Sportswomen’s Survey found that four out of five elite British sportswomen feel they are not paid enough compared to their male counterparts and more than 60% of UK’s top female athletes make less than £10,000 a year. On the other hand revenue generated by women's sport in the UK is set to grow to £1bn a year by 2030 – up from £350m a year currently – making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the sports industry. The Women’s Sports Trust says the key to unlocking this impressive growth will be the increased visibility of female athletes and teams. Emily Defroand is a Great Britain and England Hockey player, Zarah El-Kudcy is a Trustee at the Women’s Sports Trust and the Head of Commercial partnership development at Formula 1, and Dr Ali Bowes is a senior lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University.

Lord Michael Heseltine, who was Deputy Prime Minister in the mid-nineties, says he's had to attend a House of Lords course to do with what's right and what's wrong when it comes to conduct between colleagues, especially between men and women. The training is called "Valuing Everyone". The House of Lords has been very firm about this online course on inappropriate behaviour and prejudice, saying all peers must attend. Lord Heseltine was sent a reminder that he MUST complete it, which seems to have aggravated him a great deal. He’s here, and so is Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP. In the House of Commons, the course isn't mandatory for MPs.

Language – and the way we use it – is forever changing. We explore how the word ‘bitch’ and other similar words with a sexist history are being reclaimed and reinvented by women to mean something positive. Chante Joseph is a social media creative and writer. Jacqueline Springer is a Black music and culture journalist. Helen Taylor is an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Exeter.

Why, after decades of social progress is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be? Why aren't we honest about the realities of being a mother? These are just two of the themes explored in a trio of books about motherhood that have just been published. It's not as if these questions haven't been asked before. There is a rich vein of literature from Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex through to Adrienne Rich's classic study Of Woman Born, Juliet Mitchell's A Women's Estate , Jane Lazarre's The Mother Knot and many more. And many second wave feminists fought hard for the rights of mothers on both sides of the Atlantic. And yet very little, if any progress, has been made according to this new crop of authors. Elaine Glaser is the author of Motherhood: A Manifesto, Pragya Agarwal is the author of (M)otherhood: On the Choices of Being a Woman, and Marina Fogle co-presents the podcast 'As Good As It Gets?'

Arooj Aftab is a Pakistani composer, based in Brooklyn. She joins Anita to talk about her music and influences from jazz and Qawwali to Jeff Buckley and Abidi Parveen. She explains how grief has shifted the tone of her music to ‘heavy metal harp’, and discusses her latest album, Vulture Prince, which honours and reimagines centuries-old ghazals, a form of South Asian poetry and music that she grew up listening to with her family.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of novels including 'Purple Hibiscus', 'Half of a Yellow Sun', which won the Orange Prize (now called the Women’s Prize for Fiction), and 'Americanah', which won the US National Book Critics Circle Award. Chimamanda has also delivered two landmark TED Talks: The Danger of A Single Story, and We Should All Be Feminists, which started a worldwide conversation about feminism and was published as a book in 2014. She has now written a more personal book. On 10 June 2020 her father died suddenly in Nigeria. A self-confessed daddy’s girl, she has now remembered her father in a tribute, 'Notes on Grief'. Her mother has since also died. How do you deal with double heartbreak?


SAT 17:00 PM (m000wrt7)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000wrt9)
Nick Robinson talks to the Shadow Business Secretary and former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, in a personal and political interview.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000wrtc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m000wrtf)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wrth)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000wrm2)
Stephanie Cole, Larry Lamb, Peter Wohlleben, Dawn Walton, Sons of Kemet, Sam Wills, Anneka Rice, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Anneka Rice are joined by Stephanie Cole, Larry Lamb, Peter Wohlleben and Dawn Walton for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Sons of Kemet and Sam Wills.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m000wrtl)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines


SAT 19:15 Women Talking About Cars (b092r4rs)
Series 2

Sheila Hancock

The first in the new series of the off-beat light-hearted interview show. Victoria Coren Mitchell meets actress and writer Sheila Hancock for a programme that uses the cars Sheila has known to take us on a trip through her remarkable life from the first stirrings of her theatrical ambitions through to the day John Thaw fell for her and why the number of seats in a Morgan sports car is important, and thence to the enduring lure of a Jaguar and how the trick of getting older is actually to speed up...
With contributions from our studio audience and tongue in cheek readings from Morwenna Banks.
Produced by Gareth Edwards

A BBC Studios Comedy Production.


SAT 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m000wjdt)
Hot Bath

In this episode, Michael takes a long soak in the bath, and explores why it might be good for our heart, metabolism and sleep. He speaks to one of the UK’s leading sleep experts, Professor Jason Ellis, Director of the Northumbria Sleep Centre, to find out why a hot bath a couple of hours before bed can help us get to sleep. They discuss the interplay of responses in your brain and body that work together to get your body ready for rest - and why a hot bath one to two hours before bed can help kick start the process… Crucially, it is not the warm, relaxing bath that’s important, but what happens afterwards.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000wrtn)
Covering Edward Said: 40 years of Islam, Media and the West

In 1981, the Jerusalem-born intellectual Edward Said published a book that examined how ideas of Islam are disseminated in the western news media by commentators and experts. It was called Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.

Forty years on, columnist and author Nesrine Malik examines how Said's ideas - and the responses to them - stack up. Through his blistering public lectures and interviews, we hear not only Said’s irrepressible erudition and his humour but the prescience of Said’s ideas today - ones that speak to questions of identity and coexistence.

Covering Islam emerged from Said’s observations of the western media’s coverage of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Reflecting later, Said said the media's 'arsenal of images' created an impression of "the utmost negative sort of evil emanation...as if the main business of Muslims was to threaten and try to kill Americans.” When he came to update Covering Islam 17 years later, after the Gulf War, Said believed the situation to be even worse.

Nesrine Malik explores how Said’s scholarship and public intellectualism sought to dismantle the idea of a “clash of civilisations” between ‘The West’ and ‘Islam’ through the 80s and 90s to his death in 2003 - and how these tropes have played out and twisted since. Nesrine also considers what Said’s ideas might offer us now, and how he might have dealt with social media and its dissemination of his ideas.

With contributions from Timothy Brennan, the author of the biography Places of Mind, a Life of Edward Said; D D Guttenplan, the editor of The Nation Magazine; Rizwana Hamid, the Director of the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring; and Asad Haider, on of the founding editors of Viewpoint magazine and the author of Mistaken Identity.

Producer: Katherine Godfrey
Assistant Producer: Dahaba Ali-Hussen
Mixing Editor: Sami El-Enany
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam

An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b071sn29)
Series 7

Clennan Court

By Sebastian Baczkiewicz

William Palmer has been betrayed by evil magician Morgan Hambleton. He promised to track him down but so far has done nothing, much to the anger of the King of the Greyfolk

Pilgrim ..... Paul Hilton
Laura ..... Adie Allen
Coral ..... Cassie Layton
Delancey ..... David Schofield
Frances ..... Nicola Ferguson
Mrs. Greeves ..... Susan Jameson

Directed by Marc Beeby


SAT 21:45 The Hotel (m000mrcd)
1: The Hotel

Daisy Johnson's deliciously unsettling series of ghost stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens. Readers in the series include Maxine Peake, Nicola Walker and Juliet Stevenson.

Today: Sara Kestleman kicks off the series with a story of rumour, myth and secrets about The Hotel. Why are only some people haunted by The Hotel? Why do they return again and again? And why are they all women?

Writer: Daisy Johnson is a British novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, making her the youngest nominee in the prize's history.
Reader: Sara Kestelman
Producer: Justine Willett


SAT 22:00 News (m000wrtq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m000wjly)
Happiness

Philosophers and artists, from Epicurus to Ken Dodd, have grappled with the secret to happiness. Now, neuroscientists at University College London suggest the answer could lie in the equation: (t)=w0 +w1∑j=1tγt −jCRj +w2∑j=1tγt −jEVj +w3∑j=1tγt −jRPEj. While hardly rolling off the tongue, the formula roughly translates to mean that we should lower our expectations to be happy – but not so low, and for so long, that it makes us unhappy. This appears to fly in the face of a celebrity culture that chases fame, status and success as ends in themselves. Self-help books and "positive psychology" promise to train us into a happy mood. While the wellness industry is booming, so is the prescription of antidepressants, increasingly for teenagers – according to The National Institute for Health Research. What does this reveal about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? What is wrong with personal happiness as a life goal? Some think that there is too much stuffiness about happiness, that there is nothing selfish about self-care, and that people should be free to set the bar as high as they wish and explore personal fulfilment however they chose. Others believe that life should be about more than seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, that the conscious pursuit of happiness can make us more miserable, and that happiness – rather than being an expectation – should be a by-product of a life well-lived. How useful or desirable is it to measure happiness, particularly when it comes to the wellbeing of a nation? As some economists have observed, beyond a certain point, GDP no longer captures the nuances of citizens’ happiness. Is it time to consider Gross Domestic Happiness? Or is there something dystopian about a government defining what happiness means, since our moods are fleeting and we all have own definition of a happy life? With Dr Andy Cope, Dr William Davies, Dr Ashley Frawley and Sir Anthony Seldon.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (m000wl3t)
Series 11

The University of Southampton

A funny, lively and dynamic quiz presented by Steve Punt and recorded on location at a different university each week, pitting three undergraduates against three of their professors. This week the show comes from the University of Southampton.

The rounds vary between specialist subjects and general knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors’ awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Ed Sheeran. And the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, offer plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

The specialist subjects this week are Biological Sciences, Fashion Design and Film Studies and the questions range from Harry Styles to dinosaur hips via Bullet Time and British Home Stores.

The other universities in this series are Cumbria, Nottingham Trent, Northampton, Anglia Ruskin and Brasenose College Oxford.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 On Form (m000wjfc)
The Ghazal

In this series, free verse poet Andrew McMillan meets a diverse group of contemporary British poets who are reframing traditional techniques to write about the modern world, exploring why form is fashionable again.
For hundreds of years, writers have experimented with the ghazal – one of the oldest and most popular verse forms in the world. First written in pre-Islamic Arabia, the ghazal spread to Africa and Spain where it was often used as a form of lyrical across-cultural dialogue. It has been central to Persian writing since the 13th century, then became a mainstay of traditional verse throughout the Indian Sub-Continent, and is now appearing in contemporary English language poetry.

In today’s programme, poet and academic Aviva Dautch who translates ghazals as well as writing her own, takes us around the world to unpick the music and meaning of the form and explores its use in political and religious dialogue. She considers the elements of the ghazal, from its traditional rhymes and refrain to the register of tone and images with which it is often associated.

We meet Syima Aslam, director of Bradford Literature Festival, who tells us about the importance of the ghazal to her community. Our Guest poet, award winning poet writer Mona Arshi describes how her experimental English ghazals draw on the Indian and Spanish traditions, and Afghan refugee poet Suhrab Sirat explains why the ghazal has given him a home in language.

The reader is Juliet Stevenson.

Photo of Andrew McMillan credited to Urszula Soltys

Producer: Mohini Patel