Charles II was addicted to women and, after his restoration to the throne in 1660, despite being married to Catherine of Braganza, he kept a series of mistresses - many of them at the same time.
The most famous of them all was Nell Gwyn. She was loved by the British public who sympathised with her working class vulgarity and sense of humour. They didn’t take too kindly to the King’s French mistress Louise de Kéroualle, a powerful networker at the court with more influence than the Queen.
At a time when religious and political tensions ran high, with Catholics and Protestants fighting over the succession to the throne, these women exerted profound influences on him. For all of these women, the rewards were grand houses, titles with land and increasingly lavish pensions. Between them, Charles II fathered 13 illegitimate children while his neglected and unloved wife remained childless.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard
I was on my way to a meeting with a Roman Catholic sister one day when suddenly I had a near-miss on a narrow mountain road. I’d oversteered slightly to avoid a cyclist and nearly crashed my car into another vehicle. I was all shaken-up by what had happened, but she said to me, “Oh Mary what a blessing to have had such an experience, and to have come through it safely.” It simply hadn’t occurred to me to be thankful, but I found it helpful to be offered a positive way beyond the fear and stress of the moment.
Somebody who championed this way of reflecting on life was Ignatius of Loyola whose feast day this is. He lived over 500 years ago, and his story of Conversion and helping others find faith, has left a profound legacy. He was one of the main founders of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.
Saint Ignatius found spiritual strength when his body was weak and broken after injury in battle. Whilst convalescing he read a life of Jesus and stories of the saints, and these inspired him to change his life completely. Rather than seeking valour on the battlefield he dedicated himself to winning glory for God by guiding others on their spiritual journey. Following intense personal experiences and years of prayer and learning he wrote his spiritual exercises which became a celebrated manual for prayerful formation. Amongst the many gifts of the Jesuits is their emphasis upon learning and imagination, helping seekers connect with the Christian story and to find God in all things.
Creator God, thank you for the gift of our experience and for wise guides on our path through life. Fill us with your grace. Help us to recognise your presence and to discern your purpose for us today. Amen.
Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre argues against the tyranny of positivity which forms part of a culture of "performative wellness", which she says sees illness as a form of personal failure. When extrapolated to other aspects of human life, this attitude is a "poison to society".
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Travel writer Ash Bhardwaj revisits his childhood haunts at Windsor Great Park. The 16,000 acre park is only around twenty-five miles from central London, but has an impressive range of different landscapes and wildlife habitats - from traditional formal flowerbeds to ancient woodland, a deer park, farmland and even a site of special scientific interest. Ash meets the deputy ranger to learn about the history of the park, and finds out about the role played in its post-war evolution by the most recent head ranger, the late Duke of Edinburgh.
A conservation specialist from Natural England shows Ash how to tell the age of an oak tree by measuring its girth, and explains the intricate ecology of the rare species of fungi and insects which thrive in the wildlife habitats provided by the trees - some of which have been growing in the park since the time of the Norman Conquest. Ash also meets up with a florist whose choice of career was inspired and influenced by having spent so much of her own childhood playing among the park's shrubs and flowers, and he visits the stables that are home to the horses which pull carriages up and down the famous Long Walk, with its views of Windsor Castle.
The visit leads Ash to reflect on how much difference having access to Windsor Great Park made to him, growing up as he did in a garden-less flat above a restaurant. He concludes that the park was largely responsible for sparking his lifelong interest in the countryside and the natural world.
31/07/21 Farming Today This Week: Small farms, sustainable food labeling, Orkney water shortage
Today we consider 'sustainable' in food terms - what does it mean, and how do we know it means what we think it might?
We investigate the future of small farms in the brave new world of post-Brexit agriculture.
And the lack of rain in Scotland, and particularly on Orkney, how the drought is having an impact on farmers.
Ellie Taylor joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. The comedian, writer and The Mash Report newsreader talks about her path to stand-up, real life inspiration, and ruining her life in the best way possible.
Listener Tom Edwards has had a successful broadcasting career but he hit rock bottom and ended up homeless. He talks about his road to recovery, and how he was helped by a well-known comedian.
Mevan Babakar's family fled Iraq in 1991 and she spent her childhood moving from country to country. She explains why she decided to track down the asylum centre worker who gifted her a bike when she was five.
Andy Hamilton shares his Inheritance Tracks: It’s Impossible by Perry Como and It Doesn’t Matter Anymore sung by Buddy Holly.
SK Shlomo can produce more noises from his mouth than the average orchestra. As a beatboxer, he’s performed at Glastonbury Festival and has collaborated with musicians including Bjork. But behind the music Shlomo has struggled with mental health issues.
My Child and Other Mistakes: How to Ruin Your Life in the Best Way Possible by Ellie Taylor is out now.
Longhand by Andy Hamilton is out now.
Shlomo's Beatbox Adventure For Kids is touring now until November throughout the UK.
Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits. He's joined by Sumayya Usmani, Tim Anderson, Rachel McCormack and Dr Zoe Laughlin to answer questions from a virtual audience.
This week, our experts wow us with tales of their record breaking kitchen feats. They also talk us through their ideal breakfast spread, and debate the best summer puddings.
A supermarket chain is offering £1000 welcoming handshakes to new truck drivers - just one indication of the shortages in the haulage industry.
The Road Haulage Association says that there is now a shortfall of 100,000 lorry drivers across the UK and other sectors of the economy are also finding it difficult to find workers, including in hospitality, construction and IT.
The pandemic has shaken things up and Brexit has seen thousands of EU workers returning home - but is this a short-term problem or are there deeper structural changes happening?
Dougie Rankine, editor of Truck and Driver magazine.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
Digital current account provider Pockit says it’s had to freeze around 1,000 accounts due to suspicious activity reports. A number of those customers say they are taking legal action to get access to their cash.
Tesco and M&S are both closing all the personal currents accounts they operate. What does this say about the role of supermarkets as financial intuitions and what should you do if you’re affected?
And how can a pension fund you have paid into disappear as charges erode its value.
One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'
Miles Jupp stars as Henry Tobin - Britain's shortest serving and least popular post war PM (he managed 8 months).
We join Henry soon after his crushing election loss. He’s determined to not let his disastrous defeat be the end of him. Instead Henry's going to get back to the top - he's just not sure how and in what field.
This week Henry is reluctantly en route to a wedding while battling to stem some potentially damaging leaks from his former closest aide.
Henry Tobin... Miles Jupp
Christine Tobin... Ingrid Oliver
Natalie... Emma Sidi
Jones... Justin Edwards
Edward Stourton presents political debate and discussion from The Guildhall in Chard with NFU President Minette Batters, Labour's shadow leader of the House of Commons Thangam Debbonaire MP, the Lib Dems' spokesperson on Business, International Trade and Transport Sarah Olney MP and the lord president of the Council and leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.
A missing plane, a cabin full of suspects. A mystery thriller starring Kelly Marie Tran and Ben Daniels. Series 2 finale.
When Flight 702 disappears without trace over the Atlantic, a young woman whose twin brother was on board goes in search of the truth.
Atlantic Airlines flight 702 has disappeared mid-flight between London and New York with 256 passengers on board. Kaitlin Le, a college student whose twin brother vanished with the flight, is determined to uncover the truth.
Kelly Marie Tran, Carlyss Peer, Akie Kotabe and Rob Benedict star in this multi-award-winning mystery thriller. In this episode: that fateful night, a perfume bottle, the truth about Flight 702.
Laurel Lefkow, Christopher Ragland, Eric Meyers, David Menkin, Danielle Lewis, Karl Queensborough, Philip Desmeules
The great jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong died 50 years ago today, in New York. In his near 70 years on Earth, the man known to his fans as "Satchmo" and "Pops" made friends and created admirers wherever he played. It was no different in Britain.
Louis came here first in 1932 and lastly in 1968. He influenced many jazz performers including one of this country's finest trumpeters, Byron Wallen, who first picked up the trumpet after hearing "Satchmo" play.
In this programme- "King Louis the First of Britain", Byron sets out to find out just why Louis made such a connection with people here - a connection that is just as strong today.
Weekend Woman's Hour: Women and Artificial Intelligence, Paralympian Stef Reid & Comedian London Hughes
The writer Jeanette Winterson tells us why women need to be at the heart of the Artificial Intelligence revolution and about her new essay collection which covers 200 years of women and science.
The British stand-up comic, writer and actor London Hughes tells us about making it big in America and the difficulties of dating during a pandemic.
The singer-songwriter, Josie Proto, tells us about her frustration towards the extreme measures women feel they need to take in order to simply get home safely. She performs the new song it has inspired ‘I Just Wanna Walk Home’.
We hear why the government’s new violence against women and girls strategy ignores the needs of black and minoritised women. We hear from Ngozi Fulani, the founder and director of Sistah Space, a small charity that offers specialist support for African & Caribbean heritage women affected by abuse and from Professor Aisha Gill, an expert criminologist working on violence against women and girls in Black and minoritised communities for over 20 years.
Helen Thorne, the other half of the Scrummy Mummies duo, tells us about finding out about her husband’s infidelity during lockdown and finding happiness after divorce.
And the paralympian Stef Reid will represent Team GB in Tokyo next month in the long jump. She tells us how sport helped shape her sense of self and why she’s working to encourage girls to take up sport and stick with it.
How can businesses cope with supply shortages? Car factories across the world have had to shut down because they can't get hold of enough silicon chips. And as many economies bounce back post-Covid, other industries are facing similar problems. How can enterprises plan both for sudden falls and surges in demand and how quickly can supply chains cope? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
Sparks, Iain Stirling, Siobhán McSweeney, Frauke Bagusche, Yola, Fryars, Anneka Rice, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Anneka Rice are joined by musicians Sparks, comedian Iain Stirling, actress Siobhán McSweeney and author Frauke Bagusche for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Yola and Fryars.
The coronavirus epidemic is a growing crisis for England's chief medical officer. This week he has faced criticism from journalists, politicians and public health specialists. Mark Coles finds out about the life and career of Professor Chris Whitty. He is a physician, a plague expert and an epidemiologist. But that's just for starters. He has also studied law, economics and business. But how will he cope with a role in the bright political spotlight?
Jo Whiley tells of her unsure beginnings in the world of broadcasting when she comes to the shed this week. A chance conversation with a lecturer when she was at university led to a job on BBC Radio Sussex' Turn It Up, giving her the chance to attend gigs and interview musicians. Since then she has presented many music shows on national BBC Radio networks. She's also known for her strong connection with The Glastonbury Festival and for her live DJ sets. The conversation in the shed takes in her love of gardening and her campaign to get vaccinations for those with learning difficulties following the admission to hospital of her sister Frances following an outbreak of coronavirus in her care home.
Historian and journalist Zoe Strimpel delves into the archive to explore the surprising history of the 'single'.
Most adults in today’s society expect to be single for a least a period of time. Although normal and natural, the state of being unattached is far from boring, with a rich and diverse history. In this programme Zoe traces key moments in that history using some extraordinary archive, and in conversation with historians and cultural figures.
Zoe begins with the story of the ‘surplus’ women, made forcibly single by World War 1 and the 1918 flu pandemic. In an era when marriage was a universal expectation for young women, how did these women disrupt the stereotype of the ‘barren spinster’? Zoe delves into a unique oral archive in which the women tell their own stories and reflect on their colourful experiences in the interwar years.
She traces the birth of the modern single - from the new urban classes using personal ads to the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, when liberated love seekers of different sexualities took advantage of new freedoms but also encountered new pressures and problems - loneliness in particular.
She discusses the most famous incarnation of the 1990s ‘singleton' - Bridget Jones - with her creator Helen Fielding. Was Bridget a dated gender caricature, or a realistic depiction of the pressures and pleasures facing 30 something women? And what was it about women's 'biological clocks' that so fascinated the commentariat in the era of Bridget Jones - and Sex and the City?
Finally, Zoe reflects on the opportunities - and chaos - facing singles in the age of Tinder. Dating apps have brought choice, convenience and speed, but do they also carry risks of exploitation, sexism and abuse?
As slave trader Ibn (Nabil Elouahabi), accused of hoarding heretical text, seeks justice from the new regime's religious courts, news arrives of a devastating plague in the swamps outside the city. Undeterred, the all-powerful Inquisitor, Barakat (Hiran Abeysekera), continues his mission to cleanse the city of heretics and he chooses Gregor (Rufus Wright) to assist.
Tumanbay is created by John Dryden and Mike Walker and inspired by the Mamluk slave rulers of Egypt.
Anne-Marie Duff continues Daisy Johnson's series of deliciously unsettling of ghost stories, set in a remote hotel on the Fens.
Today, in 'Nightwatch', it is the late 1990s, and a woman, who once visited The Hotel as a child, finds herself working there on the night shift - a dangerous shift for anyone who allows there mind to wander...
It’s easy to see how lots of people singing, shouting and smooching in a stuffy space would keep a virologist up at night. Within hours of nightclubs reopening the Prime Minister announced that full vaccination will be the condition of entry from September. The Netherlands recently tried reopening its clubs and quickly decided to close them again amid rising infection rates. We may be free to party, but we’re not free of the virus. Just because we can, does it mean we should? For some, there is a clear moral case for delaying our gratification that little bit longer. Another view is that we have to start living again; young people in particular deserve an escape after the months of sacrifice, and the fact that every adult in the UK has now been offered at least one jab should be an important part of the moral calculation. Others have gone even further than the Beastie Boys in suggesting we have not just a right, but a duty, to party. Is there an intrinsic moral value in revelry? Those partial to a bit of table-top dancing might argue that these are spontaneous and transcendent experiences of human connection; in theological terms, a celebration of the gift of life itself. Yet, many philosophical and religious traditions have been highly suspicious of hedonistic pleasures. Modern-day stoics and puritans might associate a “living for the weekend” clubbing culture with chaos, over-indulgence and a loss of self-control. Does the truest form of joy lie in self-restraint? Or should we follow Oscar Wilde’s advice: “everything in moderation, including moderation”? With Jeremy Gilbert, Prof Christopher Gill, Olivia Petter and Julian Tang.
Competitors from London, Gloucestershire and Teesside are in the hot seat for the latest heat of the prestigious general knowledge contest, recorded without an audience under Covid-restricted conditions. Russell Davies asks the questions - with a place in the semi-finals awaiting the winner. There is also an opportunity for a listener to 'Beat the Brains' by outwitting the contestants with questions of his or her own devising.
Roger McGough talks poetry with his fellow Mersey poet, who chooses poems by writers as various as Charles Bukowski, Bertold Brecht and Sophie Hannah, and treats us to some of his own work. Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio in Bristol.
SUNDAY 01 AUGUST 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000ydj0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Green Originals (m000czy1)
Petra Kelly
Petra Kelly did more than perhaps anyone else to raise the profile of green politics. As the most prominent member of West Germany’s Green Party, Die Grünen, Kelly’s energetic campaigning played a critical role in catapulting her party to electoral success in the 1983 Bundestag elections, where they won 27 seats.
Outside Germany, Kelly was an internationally famous campaigner against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, issues which galvanised the early green movement. But in 1992, at the age of just 44, Kelly was found dead in mysterious circumstances, alongside her lover Gert Bastian.
The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas looks back on the career of a politician who inspired her and considers Petra Kelly’s relevance to the environmental movement today.
“For Petra Kelly, green politics was never confined to Parliament,” she says, “it happened out on the streets, embracing non-violent protest and direct action.”
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Series Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown Production in association with The Open University.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000y7tc)
The Counting Sheep
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 by the Northern Irish writer Lucy Caldwell. As read by Louise Parker (The Northern Bank Job.)
Lucy Caldwell is the award-winning author of three novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and most recently two collections of short stories: Multitudes (Faber, 2016) and Intimacies (Faber, 2021). She is also the editor of Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber, 2019). Awards include the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the George Devine Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Imison Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, the Irish Writers’ and Screenwriters’ Guild Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Award (Canada & Europe), the Edge Hill Short Story Prize Readers’ Choice Award, a Fiction Uncovered Award, a K. Blundell Trust Award and a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Reader: Louise Parker
Writer: Lucy Caldwell
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ydj2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ydj4)
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 (m000ydj6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000ydj8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000ydjb)
All Saints Church in Marsworth, Buckinghamshire
Bells on Sunday comes from All Saints Church in Marsworth, Buckinghamshire. There have been five bells at the Church since 1662. Four of the present ring date between 1662 and 1702. In 1995 the five old bells were retuned and a new treble cast by Taylors of Loughborough. All six now hang in a new - and locally constructed - steel frame. We hear them ringing 'All Saints Place Doubles'.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000gd7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m000ydn8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b09wpmnb)
Power in Weakness
Journalist Remona Aly explores what it truly means to be weak. All too often, society encourages us to strive for unrealistic goals of perfection, with no room for flaws or failure. Remona considers the unexpected strengths that can arise from positions of vulnerability.
She argues that occupying a position of weakness offers an opportunity from which we can learn from our mistakes, develop resilience, and nurture our faith. Those that wilfully occupy a lowly stance can often find unexpected strength - their humility can cause others' anger to cease. According to Remona, the weakest members of society can radically affect the attitudes of those around them.
Music from Bruce Springsteen and Stormzy contribute to Remona's exploration of weaknesses' hidden strengths. She also draws upon verse from Shakespeare and Homer. "If we remove weakness from our experience," she concludes, "we remove the opportunity to survive and evolve."
Presenter: Remona Aly
Producer: Jonathan O'Sullivan
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000ydnb)
Robot Highways
At Clock House Farm the robots are taking over.
Clock House is a fruit farm, growing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, pears and plums on 330 hectares to the south of Coxheath in Kent. Like many fruit producers, Managing Director Oli Pascall is finding it challenging to get enough staff to pick the crops. So he's looking to the future and has invited a team of scientists and engineers to test a fleet of autonomous robots on the farm.
The project is call Robot Highways and is a collaboration between the University of Lincoln and Saga Robotics. Many of the companies looking at automation in the fruit sector concentrate on the actual picking process, but this project is focused on everything else. For example, 20% of a human worker's time is spent walking between the polytunnels and the pack house, carrying fruit. Now, robots are learning to do this job, leaving more time for the highly-trained human workers to pick fruit. Meanwhile, a fleet of robots has been working through the night on the farm, treating the strawberry plants with UV light to prevent fungal infection.
So is this the future of fruit farming? And if so, what are the implications for the design of future farms?
Presented by Vernon Harwood
Produced by Heather Simons
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000ydnd)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000ydng)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000ydnj)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ydnl)
The National Brain Appeal
Sophie Leggett, who has the gene for early onset dementia, makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The National Brain Appeal.
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 ‘The National Brain Appeal’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The National Brain Appeal’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 290173
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000ydnn)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000ydnq)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000ydns)
"We cling to our faith"
On 4th August 2020, a nuclear sized double explosion at Beirut port killed around 200 people, injuring more than 6000 and displacing 300 000. Sunday Worship comes from the National Evangelical Church of Beirut, the oldest Arabic speaking Protestant church in the Middle East, less than a kilometre from the explosion's epicentre. "One year later we invite you to pray with us as we lift up our country and its people before the lord... For the first time in history, the Lebanese were unified, there was no religion or sectarian root, just the Lebanese people trying to help in any way possible. We saw how there were Muslims cleaning churches and Christians cleaning mosques. It was a really bitter sweet time - a revolutionary day in Lebanese history." Yet this is a nation with very limited electric power and almost no fuel, its economy crashed and people 'fighting over a roll of bread' With musical contributions from the ancient roots of Christianity in the East still found just metres from the explosion: the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Maronite, Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches, and the Armenian Catholic Church...."We cling to our faith". Leaders: Pastor Habib Badr and Dr Rima Nasrallah van Saane of Beirut’s Near East School of Theology. Producer: Philip Billson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000y7tw)
In the Dingle Peninsula
'In the dog days of the pandemic,' writes John Connell, 'I decided the place to recharge my spirit was the mountains and oceans of Ireland's west coast.'
John sets off in the footsteps of the famous Irish monk and journeyman, St Brendan, in an attempt to recover a sense of 'wonder'.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sxv25)
Red-necked Nightjar
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the nocturnal red-necked nightjar of the Spanish countryside. Like others in the family, red-necked nightjars are nocturnal birds which feed on large insects, snapping them up with huge bristle-lined mouths. A summer migrant, the red-necked nightjar breeds mainly in Spain, Portugal and North Africa. It is closely related to the common European nightjar, but it sounds very different. By day they hide on the ground among scrub where their cryptic patterns provide excellent camouflage. They're the colour of mottled bark and as you'd expect from their name, have a rusty-red collar. As the sun sets, they emerge from their hiding places to glide and turn on slender wings through scrub and pinewoods, occasionally warning rivals by clapping their wings together over their backs with a sound like a pistol-shot. Between bouts of moth-chasing, they settle on a pine branch and pour forth their repetitive, but atmospheric song.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000ydnv)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000ydnx)
Writers, Sarah Hehir and Nick Warburton
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Helen Archer …. Louiza Patikas
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Ian Craig …… Stephen Kennedy
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Adam Macy …. Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabel Dowler
Michael Park… David Seddon
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
Leyla … Margaret Cabourn-Smith
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000ydnz)
Tweet Take 5 : Redstarts
Once known as a firetail, both the common redstart and its relative the black redstart provide a welcome sound in the most unlikely of places as we'll hear in this extended version of Tweet of the Day featuring both birds with wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan, comedian and birdwatcher Bill Oddie and writer and ornithologist Matt Merritt.
Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000ydp1)
Nazir Afzal, lawyer
Nazir Afzal is a solicitor and the former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England. Among his notable cases, he brought the Rochdale sex grooming gangs to trial in 2012.
Nazir’s parents arrived in the UK from Pakistan in 1961 and he was born in Birmingham the following year. After completing his legal training he started his career as a defence lawyer but soon realised that he preferred prosecution to defence, joining the Crown Prosecution Service in 1991.
As director of prosecutions for London he turned his attention to so-called honour-based violence and brought successful prosecutions against the perpetrators of these crimes. In 2011 as chief crown prosecutor for north-west England he began investigating sex grooming gangs in Rochdale, overturning a previous CPS decision not to bring charges against the gangs. He brought prosecutions against nine men who were convicted and jailed in 2012 for the sexual exploitation of 47 young girls.
Nazir retired from the Crown Prosecution Service in 2015. He currently chairs the Catholic Church’s new safeguarding body and advises the Welsh government on issues of gender-based violence.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 Marketing: Hacking the Unconscious (b08pfqqd)
Series 1
Food Tubs, Facebook and Fetishes
Rory Sutherland looks at how certain brands, from Tupperware to Ann Summers, harness the power of social proofing: our desire to align our consumer purchases with "people like us".
Forget Facebook. Some brands have been using the power of social networks and peer-proofing for decades.
In the halcyon post-war days of the 1950s, the likes of Avon and Tupperware created the party plan concept - consumers (almost always women) coming together en masse to socialise and revel collectively, away from a societal gaze, in a desirable product. Empowering? Possibly. Effective? Certainly. And as wholesome and all-American as Mom's apple pie. At least until 1981 - and a revolutionary remix of the concept to sell a very different consumer good...
Ann Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold explains how she used ideas of social proofing to help emancipate women to buy "taboo" goods - lingerie and sex toys - in a safe, empowering social setting. Meanwhile Rory talks to psychologists Nichola Raihani and Geoffrey Miller about how our consumer decisions are influenced by our sense of collective identity.
----
Why do certain marketing campaigns - from Nike's "Just Do It" to the MND Ice Bucket Challenge - cast such a spell over us? Rory Sutherland explores the story - and the psychology - behind ten of the most influential campaigns in history - with first-hand accounts from the creative minds that conceived them, and contributions from the worlds of evolutionary biology, behavioural psychology, socio-economics and anthropology.
Marketing. It's come to be one of the most misunderstood - and maligned - disciplines of our age: perceived variously as the Emperor's New Clothes, an emblem of the ills of capitalism, a shadowy dark art designed to steal away our hard-earned money and make us do (or buy, or vote for) things we don't want.
Yet marketing is undeniably a key part of contemporary culture. It's a science that's fundamentally about human behaviour - marketers, to some extent, understand us better than we know ourselves - and in the most successful campaigns we find our deepest emotions and urges, from altruism to shame, hope to bravado, systematically tapped into and drawn upon.
But what are these primal behaviours that the best campaigns evoke in us - and how do they harness them? Is marketing purely about commercial gain or can it underpin real common good and societal progress? And does the discipline manipulate our subconscious instincts and emotions - or simply hold a mirror to them?
Over ten episodes, senior advertising creative and Spectator writer Rory Sutherland unravels the story of some of the most powerful, brilliant and influential campaigns of our age. Set alongside personal testimonies from the brilliant minds that created them, we'll hear from a host of experts - from biologists to philosophers, novelists to economists - about how these campaigns got under our skin and proved to be so influential.
Contributors include: writer and former copywriter Fay Weldon; social behaviourist and expert on altruism Nicola Raihani; Alexander Nix, CEO of big data analysts Cambridge Analytica; philosopher Andy Martin; writer on Islamic issues and advisor to the world's first Islamic branding consultancy, Shelina Janmohamed; and evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000ydp3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (m000y5fq)
Series 26
Episode 1
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Holly Walsh, Henning Wehn, Zoe Lyons, and Richard Osman are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as the Ancient Romans, tea, crustaceans and balls.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000ydp5)
Catering in Care Homes
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought into focus the lives of older and disabled people living in care homes like never before. From the start of the first lockdown, there were fears about food being in short supply, and then later came the reality of lockdown, with residents spending days alone in bedrooms, and video-calls and ‘window visits’ becoming the only means of contact with loved ones.
In this programme, relatives share their anxieties about the catering on offer to elderly parents, about the quality of food, and how well trained care staff are at getting meals from plates to mouths. Sheila Dillon hears how some care homes are tied into buying food from certain catering companies, and discovers the average care home now spends £4 a day on food per person.
In Hertfordshire, Sheila meets an organisation called Hertfordshire Independent Living Service which is being funded by the NHS to improve nutrition and hydration in care homes – it offers training and accredits those that are doing particularly well. While in the Surrey Hills, Birtley House care home has been growing vegetables to be used in the kitchen for several years, its chef explains how it helps keep the menus interesting and the residents healthy.
GBBO judge Prue Leith, who recently carried out a review for the Government into hospital food, says money must be spent on providing better training for care home staff. A chefs course specifically for those working in social care has been set up, but so far only one college is offering it.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
Reporting from Carolyn Atkinson
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000ydp7)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000ydp9)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000ydpc)
Anything Is Possible
Guest presenter Kofi Smiles with strangers, friends and relatives in conversation.
This week strangers Geraldine and Katie exchange stories of living with the knowledge that they could pass Huntington’s Disease on to their children; Craig and Willie share their passion for madcap ways of raising money for charity; autograph hunters and Indiana Jones fans Chris and Tony talk about how they met trying to get Harrison Ford’s signature when he was in town; and animal lovers Josie and Alison talk about cats versus dogs and how pets can lift your spirits in the darkest of times.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000y7t9)
GQT at Home: Crocheted Mushrooms and Vegetables for Schoolrooms
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week, a virtual audience of listeners from across the country puts questions to Chris Beardshaw, Pippa Greenwood and Bunny Guinness.
Our panellists share their vegetable-growing nightmares, and suggest some fun planting ideas that young children can enjoy too. They also advise on the best trees and plants to recreate your own woodland in the garden.
Matthew Pottage tells us about his favourite childhood tree, and we join Hasah Hafeji in the garden for a summer holiday activity - building a wildlife pond.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Green Originals (m000czy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:15 today]
SUN 15:00 The King Must Die (m000ydpf)
Episode 1
A new dramatisation by Robin Brooks of Mary Renault's classic book, The King Must Die.
Mary Renault tells the story of Theseus, his adventures on mainland Greece in search of his true identity, and his journey to the heart of the Labyrinth of Knossos, where he must face the Minotaur. Renault is considered by many to be the finest historical novelist of the 20th Century. In this story, she brilliantly evokes a distant age, and explores the eternal conflict between male and female, through the violent career of a warrior king who is enmeshed in dark forces beyond his control.
Episode One:
The young hero Theseus sets out to solve the mystery of his birth and follow his destiny in a perilous world, caught up in elemental conflict.
Cast:
Theseus ..... Shane Zaza
Persephone ..... Rakie Ayola
Poseidon ..... Raad Rawi
Pittheus ..... Lawrence Werber
Aithra ..... Barbara Peirson
Diokles ..... Richard Bates
Kerkyon / Hippon ..... Gavi Singh Chera
Menas / Lukos ..... Charlie Archer
Photios / Iros ..... Sam Henderson
Amyntor / Lysis ..... Jack Heydon
Xanthos ..... Michael Gukas
Aigeus ..... Roderick Smith
Medea ..... Tessa Wojtczak
Phormion / Rizon ..... Joe McArdle
Helike / Maid ..... Sophie Walter
Melantho / Maid ..... Heidi Parsons
Chryse ..... Alexandra Ewing
Nephele ..... Harmony Rose-Bremner
Simo ..... Alexander Finch
Young Theseus ..... Bruno Finch
Dramatised by Robin Brooks
Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
Music composed by Matthew Sheeran
Recorded on location in Suffolk.
Sound Design by Wilfredo Acosta
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
Picture Credit (for BBC Sounds page)
Theseus killing the Minotaur
© The Trustees of the British Museum
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m000ydpj)
Tahmima Anam
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam is set fifty years ago, during the Bangladesh War of Independence. The conflict is seen through the eyes of Rehana, a fiercely protective mother, whose children join the fighting. Rehana, though not a natural revolutionary, becomes involved in the conflict herself, determined to do whatever it takes to keep her family intact.
Tahmima Anam joins James Naughtie to answer questions from readers about this powerful, award winning book.
SUN 16:30 MTV - A British Invention? (m000ydpl)
Adam Buxton uncovers the influence of British music videos in the early years of MTV, 40 years after the network first launched.
Going live on 1st August 1981, MTV made British new wave artists hugely popular in the USA - for example Duran Duran, A Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club and Adam Ant got extraordinary exposure - but it was also a golden age for music video production. Before the formula set in, and videos became extremely expensive, unit-shifting devices, directors were often given free reign to take risks and experiment.
Adam speaks to pioneering music video directors who were breaking new ground in techniques and imagery. Many came from art schools, were part of the underground music scene, or were starting out in the film industry - borrowing kit after work to film gigs.
Gale Sparrow was one of MTV’s first hires, and in charge of sourcing music videos for MTV’s launch. She turned to small British labels because they had them in ready supply. What she discovered was very different from the few American videos available - which was mostly concert footage of gnarly old rockers.
Will Fowler is curator of artists' moving image at the BFI National Archive and an expert on the burgeoning underground film scene of the late 70s and 80s. He researched and created the touring exhibition This is Now, Film and Video After Punk, which involved tracking down and restoring films which had never been archived. There was an explosion of artists experimenting in film and video. Some - Sophie Muller, John Maybury, John Scarlett-Davis for example - would go on to have very successful careers as music video directors. He explains how the influence of Jean Cocteau and William Burroughs made their way onto MTV.
Produced by Victoria Ferran and Chris O'Shaughnessy.
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 Black Hill, Bleak Summer (m000y6kf)
Twenty years after the UK's worst outbreak of the livestock disease foot-and-mouth, Dave Howard recalls how it affected the Herefordshire hill-farming community where he grew up.
Images of burning piles of livestock carcasses became grimly familiar across the UK in 2001. More than six million sheep and cattle were killed in a bid to control foot-and-mouth disease. It was a national catastrophe that played out locally, out of sight to most of us, often in remote farming communities like Craswall in Herefordshire.
The Craswall valley lies in the shadow of the Black Hill - made famous by the writer Bruce Chatwin - on the edge of the Black Mountains, near Hay on Wye. It was a hotspot of the 2001 outbreak. Several farms had their livestock shot and burned, in what they describe as a poorly handled 'invasion' of the Ministry of Agriculture officials, vets, and military. One local farmer took his life amid the outbreak. Others lost pedigree herds and flocks they had spent their entire working lives building up to pure bloodlines.
In Black Hill, Bleak Summer, Dave Howard re-visits the upland sheep and cattle farmers who were his childhood friends and neighbours. He also speaks to vets and other officials in charge of responding to the crisis, about whether things would be handled differently in future.
A Bespoken Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000gd7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000ydpn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000ydpq)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ydps)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000ydpv)
Lindsey Chapman
From the eyes of a mantis shrimp to the sole of a Roman sandal via the UN Commission for Human Rights...
There’s something to be said for embracing a different perspective - and that’s just what we’ll do. With music, comedy, drama and drag, Lindsey will even have you teetering on the edge of the 10 metre diving board.
So join her, and take the plunge…
Presenter: Lindsey Chapman
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Ellen Orchard
Studio Manager: Phillip Halliwell
SUN 19:00 Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair (m000kp9g)
Series 6
Dreambreaker
When a shop assistant spots a celebrity shopping in the department store where she works she is keen to serve her. After all this isn't just any old famous person it's the one who caused her niece to rethink her whole life.
Written by Jenny Eclair
Read by Christine Kavanagh
Producer, Sally Avens
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000ydpx)
Tessa Coates: Resting Witch Face
Sunday Evening Comedy
SUN 19:45 Wolverine Blues (m000ydpz)
Episode 3
Wolverine Blues, or a Case of Defiance Neurosis
A new fiction from Graeme Macrae Burnet, inspired by the case study "Defiance Neurosis of a Seventeen-Year-Old High School Student" by Alphonse Maeder.
Dr Maeder’s therapy sessions bring some uncomfortable truths about Max’s home life to the surface.
Read by Robin Laing and Alasdair Hankinson
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Graeme Macrae Burnet lives in Glasgow and is the author of novels including 'The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau' and the Man Booker shortlisted 'His Bloody Project'. His new novel, 'Case Study', is published in October and follows the investigation of a young woman who believes a charismatic psychotherapist is implicated in her sister's death.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000y7th)
How does the comedian Mark Steel get away with cheekily satirising towns and cities that he visits in his eponymous Radio 4 programme?
Mark Steel’s in Town has been running for over a decade, but now he has broken new ground writing and appearing in a radio sitcom, Unite. Mark tells Roger Bolton he thinks all comedians are actors at heart, and questions whether there is such as think as left-wing comedy.
And two listeners review Alun Cochrane: Centrist Dad? Part of a series of stand-up specials on Radio 4.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Alun Beach
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000y7tf)
Jackie Mason (pictured), John Woodcock, Dinah Murray, Billy Lacey
Matthew Bannister on
Jackie Mason, the comedian and former rabbi whose observations of Jewish life took him from the Borscht Belt to Broadway.
John Woodcock, the veteran cricket writer who reported on some of the greatest matches of the twentieth century.
Dinah Murray, a tireless campaigner for the rights of autistic people.
Billy Lacey, thought to be the last of the Norfolk marshmen who used traditional methods to clear dykes and cut reeds.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Michael Goldfarb
Interviewed guest: Jonathan Agnew
Interviewed guest: Fergus Murray
Interviewed guest: Dr Rebecca Wood
Interviewed guest: Sue Goodchild
Archive clips used: 20th CENTURY FOX, Simpsons episode 8F05, 1991; WARNER, The World According To Me, 1987; YouTube, A Bi Geznut The Genius Which is Jackie Mason; Angel/EMI, Look Who's Laughing - Live at the London Palladium, 1997; SPORTS BOOK AWARDS, John Woodcock, 2018; WISEArchive, Bill Lacey interview, 2021.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000ydh3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ydnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 American Psycho at 30 (m000tfl6)
Bret Easton Ellis’s third novel, American Psycho, was nearly not published. Leaked pages of some of the novel’s most violent scenes provoked outrage, and the original publishers pulled out.
But 30 years on, the book’s cultural relevance is hard to deny, as is its eerie prescience. The world of Wall Street serial killer Patrick Bateman looks alarmingly similar to today's world - a consumerist, narcissistic and brand-obsessed society, rife with racism and misogyny, and perhaps most eerie of all, an obsession with Donald Trump.
The writer Octavia Bright unravels why this acerbic satire of a cruel capitalist world, and its dubious social and cultural values, continues to resonate. She unpacks our reaction to disturbing and disgust-provoking literature, asking why this novel struck such a nerve.
Octavia speaks to Bret Easton Ellis, the film’s director Mary Harron, Professor of Business Ethics John Paul Rollert, Professor of Social Psychology Sophie Russell, an expert in the emotion of disgust, and novelist Eliza Clark. With readings from the novel by Christopher Ragland.
Did we never leave the 80s? Are we all psychos now?
Presenter: Octavia Bright
Producer: Sasha Edye-Lindner
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000ydq1)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000y6sm)
Francis Lee on My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette, written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Stephen Frears, was one of the early films produced for Channel 4. First screened in 1985, it tells the story of a young British Pakistani, Omar, played by Gordon Warnecke, who is given a failing laundrette to run by his entrepreneurial uncle. Omar recruits an old school friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) to help him turn the business round and a gay relationship between them develops. Francis Lee, director of God's Own Country and Ammonite, tells Francine Stock about the impact it had on him as young gay man, the sexual and social issues in the film and his own encounter with Stephen Frears.
Producer: Harry Parker
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b09wpmnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 02 AUGUST 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000ydq3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000y6nw)
14. Let's All Be Batman
When Amrou Al-Kadhi steps into a pair of heels and takes the stage, they step into another world, another persona where they can be whatever they want.
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed asks whether creating an alter ego is the key to finding our true self.
For Amrou Al-Kadhi, performing as their drag alter-ego, Glamrou started out as an escape. Struggling with mental health issues, feeling like they had to suppress their femininity in some contexts, their Arab identity in others, it was a relief to take a break from it all and get into the mindset of a fearless woman who didn’t give a damn. But soon, Glamrou became so much for than an act.
As Matthew discovers, alter egos might start out feeling like role play, but they have the power to transform us in profound and lasting ways. And it turns out that some of the most successful people around have used them to get the edge, from Beyoncé to Rafael Nadal.
But the benefits of alter egos aren’t limited to the stage or the sports field. Studies show that even children can benefit from taking on alter-egos, and you might just find there are already things you do to harness other identities and shift your perspective when the moment calls for it.
With screenwriter, author and drag performer Amrou Al-Kadhi (drag name Glamrou), author and coach, Todd Herman, and Ethan Kross, Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Michigan and the director of the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Claire Crofton
Series Editor and exec producer: Katherine Godfrey
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander
Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000ydjb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ydq5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ydq7)
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 (m000ydq9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000ydqc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ydqf)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard.
Good morning,
During lock-down last year, I tried to do some gardening. With limited expertise I planted a vegetable patch. Potatoes and beetroot were a great success, [we had a wonderful harvest of both]. Sweetcorn grew tall, and looked impressive, but I don’t think I gave that enough space or water, because it only yielded hard, shrivelled cobs of corn. Although I’d sowed several rows of parsnips, I didn’t see any plants growing at all, so I added them to my list of failures. I thought maybe I’d accidentally cleared the seedlings when I’d tried to do some weeding.
To my surprise, when I dug over the patch earlier this summer, I discovered a bumper crop of huge parsnips, deep below the soil. They were such an unexpected gift and set me wondering whether other things might have grown almost unnoticed during this strange and difficult time.
Amongst new learning I’ve valued has been a deeper understanding of the importance of attending to my own, and others’ mental and emotional well-being. Enforced separation has made me more aware of the value of contact with friends and family. And the length of the pandemic and the difficulty of trying to get back to some kind of normality is teaching me patience and a resilience I didn’t know I had. Many of us have acquired new skills at this time, but gardening’s teaching me to be on the lookout for hope in surprising places and to value every encouragement.
Gracious God, thank you for all that’s growing in our world and in our lives. Help us neither to be dismayed by hurt and failure nor to be complacent at signs of success, but rather open our hearts to notice all that’s good and fruitful. May we be continually inspired to live with the hope and courage we need each new day. Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000ydqh)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000ydqk)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b095tcwv)
Melissa Harrison on the Stonechat
The clacking call of the stonechat punctuates nature writer Melissa Harrison's memories of cagoule-clad walks on Dartmoor with her family in the 1970's.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. In this latest series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Kirsty Taylor.
MON 06:00 Today (m000ydwr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 The Patch (m000ydwt)
Eastbourne
One producer. One random generated postcode. And a story you probably haven't heard before.
This week the random postcode generator takes us to an Eastbourne car park where the monthly arrival of Golden Retrievers from Turkey has just taken place. Why?
Produced and presented by Polly Weston for BBC Audio Bristol
MON 09:30 The Power of Negative Thinking (b084608h)
Send In the Fungineers!
“Are we having fun yet?!” There is a growing trend for companies, particularly in fields of technology and new media, to employ happiness engineers or - in at least one case - 'fabulous facilitators' to boost morale among the workforce. Oliver Burkeman, psychology writer and proud curmudgeon, is a firm believer that forced fun is no fun. He is appalled and perplexed by the idea that happiness should be prescribed - even enforced - in our workplaces. In episode 4 of The Power of Negative Thinking, Oliver explores a phenomenon that has come to be called ‘fungineering’. He meets a ‘Head of Happiness’, and asks what really motivates employees and makes them happy.
MON 09:45 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ydy1)
Episode 1
Felicity Cloake is no slacker when it comes to cycling, with several long-distance cycling holidays under her belt, including doing the complete journey from the UK to Provence with a group of cycling friends. She is also an adventurous cook and has been described as ‘the nation’s food taster’.
Combining her passions, she decided to plot a cycling tour through France taking in the best regional dishes of the places she visited. Each morning begins with a croissant.
"In general, the best breakfasts in France are bread based – yes, you might well enjoy a bowl of sun-warmed figs and sheep yoghurt at your villa in Provence, but just so you know, most people around you would regard this as an eccentric way to start the day. God gave us the boulangerie for a reason, and that reason is breakfast. Baguette with butter and jam is a lovely thing, but on the move, it’s handier to go for something with the butter already baked in. I never deviate from the plain croissant, the apotheosis of the baker’s art."
Places and dishes include fruits de mer in Cherbourg, Breton oysters, a boozy lunch in the Languedoc, three different types of Cassoulet, fish soup (not to be confused with bouillabaisse) in Marseille, a quantity of brie with members of the brotherhood of Brie de Meaux, and an awful lot of pastries.
Felicity Cloake is author of The Guardian's How to Make the Perfect and a New Statesman columnist, and winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year and New Media awards 2011. She also writes for the Daily Mail, the Metro and Fire & Knives magazine, and is the author of Perfect: 68 Essential Recipes for Every Cook's Repertoire (2011), Perfect Host: 162 easy recipes for feeding people & having fun (2013), Perfect Too (2014) and The A-Z of Eating (2016).
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Sophia di Martino
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000ydwy)
Saxophonist Nubya Garcia, Insomnia, the Gender implications of vaccine passports
Journalist Miranda Levy describes her new book, ‘The Insomnia Diaries’, as a ‘self-help’ memoir looking at eight and a half years of disabling insomnia, and the dark places it took her – loss of job and family, over-prescription of tranquillisers, rehab, two psychiatric hospitals. But she recovered and has used her experience to explain what she thinks we should do when facing insomnia and- what NOT to do. Daisy Maskell is a tv and radio presenter. In a soon-to-be-aired BBC 3 documentary she says she realised at the age of nine that she didn’t sleep like other people. They join Andrea.
Watching the Olympics on TV is not what Amber Hill imagined she would be doing. The night before she was due to leave the UK for Tokyo, the 23 year old shooter had to withdraw from the Games after testing positive for Covid. She was due to compete in the Women's Olympics Skeet competition, in which she was a finalist in Rio in 2016. This time she was number one in the world and hopeful of a gold medal but had to watch the American, Amber English, take the medal.
Are vaccine passports gendered? Dr Clare Wenham who's an Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE believes they are. She says introducing them will limit women’s public opportunities and further entrench the gendered norms of men at work and women in the home which have been compounded over the last year.
British saxophonist, composer, DJ and bandleader Nubya Garcia has been nominated for a Mercury Prize, and is one of the brightest of a new generation of jazz talent. She makes her Proms debut later this month, performing music from her album Source.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore
MON 11:00 Speak Up (m000ydx0)
Women may be caricatured as babbling chatterboxes, but in public, women speak a lot less.
Be it in conferences or committee meetings, television or parliamentary debates, women do not get a proportionate amount of air space as men.
Mary Ann takes us on a global journey to find out why women aren't speaking up and if they are being disproportionally side-lined, excluded from the world's debates.
She explores the role history and social conditioning plays: the ancient Babylonians thought if a woman spoke in public, she should have her teeth smashed with a burnt brick; in classrooms today boys get far more attention, teachers accepting their calling out of answers, while punishing girls for the same behaviour.
She hears that when women do speak, they are often spoken over regardless of their status. In the Australian High Court, women judges and even the female presiding judge were regularly interrupted by male advocates. And women aren't heard in the same way as men; many struggle to see that a woman might be the expert in the room.
So how can women be heard? In a year in which the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee said women talk too much and Jackie Weaver had to assert her authority in a fuming parish council meeting, we do need solutions.
Should women be hesitant and tentative or bold and chatty? How can a slight change in the layout of a room make a fundamental difference? Mary Ann finds out how to speak up and be heard, to get your point across and influence both men and women.
Interviewees: Deborah Cameron, Professor of Language and Communication, Oxford University, Chris Karpowitz, Professor of Political Science, Brigham Young University, David Sadker, Prof Emeritus at The American University, Linda Carli, Senior Lecturer Emerita in Psychology, Wellesley College, Ioana Latu, senior lecturer in Psychology, Queens University Belfast and author and speaking coach, Patricia Seabright
Producer: Sarah Bowen
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000ydhr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000yf31)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ydx5)
Episode 6
A big-hearted novel about love, art and the importance of the family we choose.
With the pensione in Florence thriving, art historian Evelyn Skinner's thoughts turn to the soldier she met in Tuscany at the end of the war.
Read by Will Howard
Written by Sarah Winman
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Sarah Winman is the award-winning author of WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT and TIN MAN.
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000ydx7)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000ydx9)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000ydxc)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Unspeakable (m000ydxf)
History
Alice Musabende is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which her whole family were killed, along with over a million other Tutsis. Working first as a journalist and later as an academic, she has found it impossible to articulate the reality of the violence which was unleashed on her people.
“I have spent so many hours, countless of times, writing and reading and trying really to capture the magnitude of the horror. And I still haven’t.”
But now, her two children are curious - about their grandparents, their home in Rwanda and her past. She feels she can no longer run away from “her demons” and must find some way to put into words the unspeakable horror she experienced as a teenager.
“As I started to approach this - not so much as an intellectual project as I had in the last 15 years - but more as a personal human story, I realised I didn’t know how to do that; and as I do quite often so I panicked! Because I wanted to tell a story not just of death or desolation and pain – but also of life.”
In this series, Alice asks for help, wisdom and guidance from others who have “already had the hardest conversations” - from fellow genocide survivors, second generation holocaust survivors, a therapist who works with AIDS orphans in South Africa and a publisher of stories in Rwanda. What can they teach her about when and how to tell her boys about her history and the history of their home country?
Questions of identity, second generational trauma, the importance of stories and history legacy are all explored in a series which takes an emotional turn, when the quest suddenly becomes very immediate and very real.
In this first episode, Alice meets Eric Murangwa Eugene, a educator and fellow survivor who urges Alice not to delay in telling her boys about their country’s past.
Alice Musabende is a journalist and a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at Cambridge University where she studies international peace and security. She is also the mother of two little boys.
Produced by: Catherine Carr
Edited by Jo Rowntree
Music by Ninette Nyiringango
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:00 The Why Factor (b06n6f6f)
Series 2
Dolls
Mike Williams ponders why dolls are so universally popular. He discovers that it's not only girls who like dolls, as is commonly assumed. He speaks to people whoi've studied why dolls are such common playthings and to people who collect them.
Presenter: Mike Williams
Producer: Hannah Moore
Editor: Andrew Smith
MON 14:15 How to Build a Supertower (m00082dj)
Episode 1
By Paul Sellar
When self-made tycoon Max Silver shakes up his property portfolio, he’s persuaded to raise an iconic new London skyscraper.
He has City backing for a defiant new national symbol, plus an eye to his family’s future, as well as a hankering for his own personal legacy.
But Max will still need all his ruthless deal-making skills to avoid the many and surprising traps put in his path by the world of business - and by sheer human folly.
1/4 Before the finance - the Planning.
Max Silver ..... Robert Glenister
Carol ….. Catherine Cusack
Teddy ….. Sean Baker
Zara ….. Katherine Press
Katalina ….. Daphne Alexander
Kolo ….. Buom Tihngang
Larry ….. Paul Hickey
John ….. Shaun Mason
Maryam ….. Susan Jameson
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m000ydxh)
Heat 3, 2021
(3/17)
Off the coast of which state in the USA did the tanker Exxon Valdez spill millions of tonnes of oil in 1989? And what's the most famous invention of John Montague? If you know the answers to these questions, you can find out if the contenders in Brain of Britain do too, as Russell Davies hosts the third heat of the 2021 tournament.
The programme comes from the Radio Theatre in London and was recorded without an audience under Covid rules on indoor gatherings.
Tackling today's questions are:
Mark Manson, a restaurateur from Carmarthen
Caroline Markovitch, an NHS administrator from Letchworth
Bernadette Stott, a former banker and Open University student from South London
Lisa Tulfer, a freelance writer from Glastonbury.
Today's winner will take another of the places in the Brain of Britain semi-finals in the autumn. There's also an opportunity for a listener to win a prize by devising questions with which to stump the combined knowledge of the panel.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000ydp5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Sketches: Stories of Art and People (m000y6s1)
Do It Yourself
Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about the meaning of art in people's lives. This week, stories of people ripping up rule-books and doing it for themselves.
There are violins made from driftwood by Steve Burnett, sculptures from jet engine parts by Phil Starr-Mees and Holly Casio's homemade zines about Bruce Springsteen.
Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.
MON 16:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000kv7j)
Series 16
The Space Burrito
Is there a point in space where the Sun could heat a burrito perfectly? asks Will. The doctors tackle this and a plethora of other conundrums from the Curious Cases inbox.
Featuring expert answers from astrophysicist Samaya Nissanke, cosmologist Andrew Pontzen, and cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott.
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Jen Whyntie
MON 17:00 PM (m000ydxl)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ydxq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m000ydxs)
Series 26
Episode 2
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Rufus Hound, Fern Brady, Ria Lina, and Tony Hawks are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as biscuits, wives, germs and snails.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000ycwd)
Events spiral out of control for Shula while David feels uneasy
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000ydxv)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b071skpm)
Ramanujan: The Elbow of Genius
Sunil Khilnani tells the story of the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
We are accustomed to mathematicians as enigmatic beings, but the case of Ramanujan, one of the most important mathematicians of the twentieth century, is particularly mysterious. His life seems to be have been spun from the stuff of fiction and film. It’s told most often as a tale of a deeply religious, largely self-taught savant, rescued from an obscure south Indian town and brought to Cambridge by a don – where, just as his world changing potential was being unlocked, he died at the age of 32, leaving his greatest insights still secret.
This idealistic narrative – cut with various quantities of exoticism and the miraculous, depending on the teller – even involves some lost notebooks, dramatically rediscovered decades later, and a cryptic but ultimately revelatory deathbed letter.
In most re-tellings, the maths are merely a backdrop to the drama and tragedy. But Ramanujan’s theoretical discoveries are recognized today as being at the forefront of the discipline: with implications for scientists at the cutting edge of cancer research as well as physicists trying to understand the deepest structures of the universe.
Featuring Professor Ken Ono.
Readings by Sagar Arya.
Producer: Martin Williams
MON 20:00 This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England (m000ydlb)
East Anglia - Sutton Who?
With current debate about the stability and durability of the United Kingdom, Ian Hislop felt it was a good time to explore how it was that England, the core of that union, came to be. In this series he tells the story of four great Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, celebrating their golden ages and trying to understand their journey from groupings of assimilated peoples from across the North Sea to powerful kingdoms, and ultimately a single entity.
In spite of a relatively limited written record, it's a period of history that is being constantly re-written, thanks to the impact of new archeological techniques and the rise of the amateur detectorists. Ian hears from authorities on the early medieval period including Michael Wood, Marc Morris, Janina Ramirez and the British Museums curator of Medieval coinage, Gareth Williams, as well as talking to people with local interests in the Anglo-Saxon story.
He's on the look out for ways in which these regional identities have left a mark beyond the occasional use of their names for utility companies or railway services, and he explores the factors that kept the Kingdoms apart but eventually drew them together; common enemies, a unifying language, the church and the residual aspiration to be as the Romans once were.
In today's programme he begins in Colchester, a Roman stronghold which the arriving Angles and Saxons chose to leave alone. But not far up the coast is the place that revolutionised the study of Anglo-Saxon history when it was excavated just before the 2nd World War - Sutton Hoo. Was this the burial of one of the earliest of the great Kings of the Anglo-Saxon period in East Anglia's golden age.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000y6rz)
Rebuilding Beirut’s Village in a City
A year ago Johnny Khawand saw the home he grew up in ripped apart by the massive explosion in a chemical dump in the port of Beirut, Lebanon – one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. For hours Johnny fought to save neighbours trapped in the rubble, seeing some die in front of him. Now, after months of restoration work, he’s coming back to try to rebuild his life, hoping that the unique spirit of his close-knit, multi-faith neighbourhood – Karantina – will survive. As he enters his house again for the first time, memories flood back – both comforting and distressing. Johnny and other survivors have formed close bonds with some of the volunteers, including engineers and architects, who’ve spent the last year rebuilding the district for free. They’re passionate about restoring its ancient buildings exactly as they were before. But they’re angry that they’ve received no help from the Lebanese state, which is accused of negligence over the explosion. And Johnny and others now fear that wider redevelopment plans will bring in big money and change Karantina’s character forever. For Crossing Continents, Tim Whewell asks if Beirut’s “village in a city”, with its many layers of history and memory, can survive?
Reporter and producer: Tim Whewell
Producer: Mohamad Chreyteh
Editor: Bridget Harney
MON 21:00 Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares (m000y6jb)
Episode 2
Professor Matthew Cobb looks at how genetic engineering became big business - from the first biotech company that produced human insulin in modified bacteria in the late 1970s to the companies like Monsanto which developed and then commercialised the first GM crops in the 1990s. Were the hopes and fears about these products of genetic engineering realised?
MON 21:30 The Patch (m000ydwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ydxx)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ydx5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m000y6jz)
Medical English
Michael Rosen asks Dr Sophie Harrison about the strange and special new language she had to learn to become a doctor, having been an editor at Granta Magazine. She's written a book about her language journey: The Cure For Good Intentions: A Doctor's Story.
Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio in Bristol
MON 23:30 Mastertapes (b01ntfw1)
Series 1
Paul Weller (the A-Side)
John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 3, A-side. "The Gift" - 30 years after the band's split, Paul Weller talks about 'The Gift' - the last album for The Jam. The band's only No 1 album, it marked a musical departure from the classic Jam sound to a more soul-influenced style, and it ushered in Weller's ideas for the Style Council. It was an album that didn't just focus on the state of society, it also had a lot to say about where music was going in the 1980s - and it included the classic No 1 'Town Called Malice' as well as 'Running On The Spot' and 'Carnation'. Paul also plays exclusive live versions of some of the tracks on the album.
In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions and that programme can be heard next Monday at
11.00pm.
Producers: Paul Kobrak & India Rakusen.
TUESDAY 03 AUGUST 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000ydxz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ydy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ydy3)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ydy5)
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 (m000ydy7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000ydy9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ydyc)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard.
Good morning.
A few days ago I received an unexpected thank-you note and I can’t tell you how much those words of appreciation lifted my spirits. “To appreciate” means both to grow in value and also to state the worth of things.
Some items like gold or land seem to appreciate or grow in value no matter how we treat them. Other things, like my car or mobile-phone, appear only to decline in worth. With growing awareness of the environmental crisis, we’re learning that we need to put a higher value on things we once discarded.
We humans need particular care in order to flourish. Appreciation is an important part of this. We feel this when someone thanks us, and we can become dispirited if we feel unappreciated.
During the pandemic many of us have had lots of people to thank for all that’s kept us going. We’ve perhaps become more aware of our everyday needs and our dependence upon others. It’s never been more important to say thank you and to back up words with actions that demonstrate sincere gratitude.
As a child I never liked having to say grace before meals – but now the thought of appreciating where food has come from, and the care taken to put it on the table, seems helpful.
The beautiful old prayer called the General Thanksgiving praises God for everyday blessings and prays for an attitude of appreciation, starting within ourselves.
ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we give most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us…give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives…walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days. Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000ydyf)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09wvr84)
Mark Cocker on the Ring Ouzel
Sitting close to the very spot where writer and ornithologist Mark Cocker first saw a ring ouzel as a schoolboy, he recalls the sense of ecstasy hearing and seeing a ring ouzel among the high moorlands landscape of Derbyshire.
Producer Tim Dee
Photograph: Peter Lewis.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000ycvj)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000ycvl)
Equitable Leadership
Sangita Myska meets Baljeet Sandhu MBE, who believes ‘knowledge equity’ can make policy-making more progressive.
Baljeet was working as a high-profile human rights lawyer when she saw a fundamental flaw in the leadership of most elite organisations – those in charge often have no experience of the problems they’re trying to solve and so are slow to find effective solutions.
She went on to become the pioneer of the Lived Experience Movement in the UK, and founder and CEO of the Centre for Knowledge Equity – an idea she believes can dismantle inequality at its roots by bringing together people with lived, learned and practice experience to solve the challenges of our time.
Is redefining expertise and placing a true value on the lived experience a good way to think out of the box about the complex problems we face? Are we stifling human ingenuity by limiting decision-making powers to so few?
Contributors include:
Tracey Herrington, manager of Thrive Teeside, a community-led anti-poverty charity that campaigns to put lived experience at the heart of policy-making.
Lord David Willetts, president of the Resolution Foundation and former Minister for Universities and Science.
Michele Wucker, strategist and author of The Gray Rhino and You Are What You Risk: The New Art and Science of Navigating an Uncertain World.
Producer: Eve Streeter
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:30 Hybrid (m000ycvn)
A Change of Heart
Evolutionary biologist, comedian, and aspiring Dr Frankenstein Simon Watt is on a quest to improve the human body, with a little help from our animal cousins. In each episode he turns his imaginary scalpel on a different human organ and wonders if we wouldn’t be better off with something slightly different – the eyes of a chameleon for example, or the guts of a vulture!
Our heart is our life force, beating out the rhythm to our days 40-100 times every minute, for as long as we live. But it's also fragile; cardiovascular disease has been the number one killer of humans since the middle of the 20th century. And it's all the fault of FAT. Thea Bechshoft from Polar Bears International introduces us to the fluffy white giants of the arctic, who eat nothing but fat, all summer long, and suffer none of our heart-ache from doing so. The secret is all in their genes.
If you reach old age without your coronary arteries clogging up with fat, you might suffer instead from cardiac fibrosis, a kind of hardening of the muscle of the heart. Holly Shiels from the University of Manchester takes us a mile and a half beneath the surface of the North Sea, to meet an ancient titan who simply doesn't get age-related fibrosis. It's the Greenland Shark. They live to extraordinary ages too - up to 500 years old.
For our final stop on the cardiac carousel, Colleen Farmer from the University of Utah takes us deep inside the four-chambered heart of the Crocodile. It's very similar to our own, except for one small and fascinating valve. It allows the humble croc to control where its blood goes, bi-passing the lungs if necessary. Simon wonders what uses we might fund for a crocodilian 'cardiac shunt' of our own.
A BBC Audio Bristol production for Radio 4, Produced by Emily Knight
TUE 09:45 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ycxg)
Episode 2
Felicity Cloake is no slacker when it comes to cycling, with several long-distance cycling holidays under her belt, including doing the complete journey from the UK to Provence with a group of cycling friends. She is also an adventurous cook and has been described as ‘the nation’s food taster’.
Combining her passions, she decided to plot a cycling tour through France taking in the best regional dishes of the places she visited. Each morning begins with a croissant.
"In general, the best breakfasts in France are bread based – yes, you might well enjoy a bowl of sun-warmed figs and sheep yoghurt at your villa in Provence, but just so you know, most people around you would regard this as an eccentric way to start the day. God gave us the boulangerie for a reason, and that reason is breakfast. Baguette with butter and jam is a lovely thing, but on the move, it’s handier to go for something with the butter already baked in. I never deviate from the plain croissant, the apotheosis of the baker’s art."
Places and dishes include fruits de mer in Cherbourg, Breton oysters, a boozy lunch in the Languedoc, three different types of Cassoulet, fish soup (not to be confused with bouillabaisse) in Marseille, a quantity of brie with members of the brotherhood of Brie de Meaux, and an awful lot of pastries.
Felicity Cloake is author of The Guardian's How to Make the Perfect and a New Statesman columnist, and winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year and New Media awards 2011. She also writes for the Daily Mail, the Metro and Fire & Knives magazine, and is the author of Perfect: 68 Essential Recipes for Every Cook's Repertoire (2011), Perfect Host: 162 easy recipes for feeding people & having fun (2013), Perfect Too (2014) and The A-Z of Eating (2016).
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Sophia di Martino
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000ycvs)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares (m000ycvv)
Episode 3
CRISPR is the latest and most powerful technique for changing the genetic code of living things. This method of gene editing is already showing great promise in treating people with gene-based diseases, from sickle cell disease to cancer. However, in 2018 the use of CRISPR to edit the genes of two human embryos, which were subsequently born as two girls in China, caused outrage. The experiment was done in secrecy and created unintended changes to the children's genomes - changes that could be inherited by their children and their children's children. The scandal underlined the grave safety and ethical concerns around heritable genome editing, and called into doubt the ability of the scientific community to self-regulate this use of CRISPR.
CRISPR gene editing might also be used to rapidly and permanently alter populations of organisms in the wild, and indeed perhaps whole ecosystems, through a technique called a gene drive. A gene drive is a way of biasing inheritance, of getting a gene (even a deleterious one) to rapidly multiply and copy itself generation after generation, sweeping exponentially through a population.
In theory, this could be used to eradicate species such as agricultural pests or disease-transmitting mosquitoes, or to alter them in some way: for example, making mosquitos unable to carry the malaria parasite. But do we know enough about the consequences of releasing a self-perpertuating genetic technology like this into the environment, even if gene drives could, for example, eradicate insects that spread a disease which claims hundreds of thousands of deaths every year?
And who should decide whether gene drives should be released?
TUE 11:30 Epiphanies (m000ycvx)
Edmund de Waal, Danielle de Niese, Gabriel Krauze, Olivia Williams
John Wilson explores the intimate moments of creative inspiration that have been experienced by some of our best known artists.
Opera superstar Danielle De Niese remembers how her mother inspired her to sing as a young girl growing up in Australia, with an interpretation of Barbara Streisand’s Evergreen that taught her that singing is as much about personal interpretation.
Gabriel Krauze was longlisted for the Booker Prize for his debut novel Who They Was, based on his time as a member of criminal gangs as a young man on the streets of west London. An obsessive reader of fiction as a child, he remembers the epiphany of first hearing It Was Written, an album by New York rapper Nas which inspired him to tell his own stories of criminality and survival.
As a young girl, actress Olivia Williams wanted to be a ballet dancer after falling in love with Rudolph Nureyev when she saw him dance in Sleeping Beauty. She was inspired to become a stage actress Royal Shakespeare after seeing Judi Dench lead a comedy musical production of A Comedy Of Errors in the mid 1970s.
Ceramic artist and author Edmund de Waal first discovered the pottery wheel when he was taken to an evening art class at the age of five, a moment of epiphany that set the course of his life for the next 50 years.
Produced by John Wilson
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000yfcc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ycw1)
Episode 7
A big-hearted novel about love, art and the importance of the family we choose.
It's 1960 and Ulysses is well established in Florence as a globe-maker and owner of a pensione. He often thinks of Evelyn Skinner but, in spite of several near-misses, the friends haven't met since the war.
Read by Will Howard
Written by Sarah Winman
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Sarah Winman is the award-winning author of WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT and TIN MAN.
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000ycw3)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000ycw5)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000ycw7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Unspeakable (m000ycw9)
Identity
Alice Musabende is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which her whole family were killed, along with over a million other Tutsis. Working first as a journalist and later as an academic, she has found it impossible to articulate the reality of the violence which was unleashed on her people.
“I have spent so many hours, countless of times, writing and reading and trying really to capture the magnitude of the horror. And I still haven’t.”
But now, her two children are curious - about their grandparents, their home in Rwanda and her past. She feels she can no longer run away from “her demons” and must find some way to put into words the unspeakable horror she experienced as a teenager.
“As I started to approach this - not so much as an intellectual project as I had in the last 15 years - but more as a personal human story, I realised I didn’t know how to do that; and as I do quite often so I panicked! Because I wanted to tell a story not just of death or desolation and pain – but also of life.”
In this series, Alice asks for help, wisdom and guidance from others who have “already had the hardest conversations” - from fellow genocide survivors, second generation holocaust survivors, a therapist who works with AIDS orphans in South Africa and a publisher of stories in Rwanda. What can they teach her about when and how to tell her boys about her history and the history of their home country?
Questions of identity, second generational trauma, the importance of stories and history legacy are all explored in a series which takes an emotional turn, when the quest suddenly becomes very immediate and very real.
In this second episode, Alice travels to Coventry to meet another mum; Nailah who has told her boys about surviving the genocide in which their grandfather was killed. Naila’s experience telling her children and as a social worker in the city convinces Alice that she must start talking to her children more about their country and their past.
Alice Musabende is a journalist and a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at Cambridge University where she studies international peace and security. She is also the mother of two little boys.
Produced by: Catherine Carr
Edited by Jo Rowntree
Music by Ninette Nyiringango
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000ycwd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 How to Build a Supertower (m0008248)
Episode 2
By Paul Sellar
When self-made tycoon Max Silver shakes up his property portfolio, he’s persuaded to raise an iconic new London skyscraper.
He has City backing for a defiant new national symbol, plus an eye to his family’s future, as well as a hankering for his own personal legacy.
But Max will still need all his ruthless deal-making skills to avoid the many and surprising traps put in his path by the world of business - and by sheer human folly.
2/4 Scary news means a rush to sign up high profile tenants for a building which is still just a plan.
Max Silver ..... Robert Glenister
Carol ….. Catherine Cusack
Teddy ….. Sean Baker
Zara ….. Katherine Press
Sasha ….. Andrew Byron
Clem ….. Vineeta Rishi
Angus ….. Nicholas Murchie
Asha ….. Nokukhanya Masango
Fadi ….. Alexander Devrient
Larry ….. Paul Hickey
Rory ….. Jonny Holden
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000ycwg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Made of Stronger Stuff (p099v2p7)
The Hands
Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body, asking what it can tell us about our innate capacity for change. In this episode, Kimberley and Xand explore a body part they each thought they knew like the back of their hand.
They hear about a neural-enabled prosthetic hand which can relay the sensation of touch, and discover the brain’s extraordinary ability to accommodate extra fingers and missing limbs.
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Researcher: Emily Finch
Executive Producer: Kate Holland
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000ycwk)
Language Used by Cults
Michael Rosen and Amanda Montell talk about the language used by cults and other more unexpected groups, in order to persuade us to join them.
Produced by Beth O'Dea for BBC Audio in Bristol.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000ycwm)
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was 'a very strange orchid,' says Michael Booth.
He was born in 1806 in Denmark, and today is still famous for so many stories that every child knows, 156 in total.
His own life is almost as odd as the tales he told. A neurotic hypochondriac, he escaped a terrible childhood and travelled to Copenhagen to make his name.
Helping to tell the story of his life is Michael Rosen, the author of many books for children including 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.
Michael Booth is the author of The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia.
And Hans Christian Andersen is the author of The Little Mermaid and The Emperor's New Clothes
The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer for BBC Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde
TUE 17:00 PM (m000ycwp)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ycwt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Simon Evans Goes to Market (m000ycww)
Series 6
Theatre
As the waters recede from the tsunami of the global pandemic and Britain settles into its new relationship with Europe and the World, Simon Evans returns to focus his jokenomics lens on the myriad economic challenges and opportunities facing humanity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought Britain’s world-leading performing arts sector to its knees. Even with significant government investment to keep the industry temporarily afloat, will audience behaviours have changed so significantly that the live event experience is never the same again?
Simon Evans is joined by another Simon Evans, the director of the acclaimed lockdown hit 'Staged'
Written and presented by Simon Evans
Additional material from Dan Evans
Production co-ordinator: Cherlynn Andrew-Wilfred
Producer: Richard Morris
Photo credit: Steve Best
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000ycwy)
Neil tries to pick up the pieces and Josh admits to an oversight
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000ycx0)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b071tgbr)
Tagore: Unlocking Cages
Sunil Khilnani tells the story of the Bengali writer and thinker Rabindranath Tagore.
Born in 1861 To a prosperous Bengal family, Rabindranath Tagore went on to win India’s first Nobel Prize, for literature, in 1913.
While India has often been framed in terms of competing groups – whether traditional institutions like caste, religion, and patriarchal families, or imperial subjecthood, or contemporary mass movements for nationalism – Tagore cut through these collectivities and tried to create a space for individual choice that stood apart from imposed groupings.
In a nationalist age when many of his contemporaries were preoccupied with independence, Rabindranath Tagore preferred to speak of freedom.
But he wasn’t a radical individualist, his conception of freedom was related to expressivity, connection, and that deepest of human experience: love. Becoming who you are, he recognised, is not something you do on your own.
Featuring Professor Supriya Chaudhuri.
Readings by Sheenu Das.
Producer: Martin Williams
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
Original music composed by Talvin Singh
TUE 20:00 A Bad Business (m000ycx2)
Twenty years ago, the brash Texan energy company Enron collapsed after its massive fraud was finally exposed. Investors and pension funds worldwide lost billions of dollars. The case was meant to signal a sea-change in the way businesses were policed. How difficult would it be to weave a similar web of financial deceit today? Lesley Curwen travels to the dark side of business to find out whether it’s still just as easy to fleece investors – which in the end means us – out of our money.
Producer Smita Patel
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000ycx4)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000ycx6)
A weekly quest to demystify the health issues that perplex us.
TUE 21:30 Positive Thinking (m000ycvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ycx8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ycw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000ycxb)
200. Bicentennial Bidets, LIVE at the Royal Festival Hall with Shappi Khorsandi
In a special edition of Fortunately, comedian Shappi Khorsandi joins Fi and Jane for their 200th episode, with a live and socially distanced audience at London's Royal Festival Hall. With the help of a high tech interactive Q&A, Garvey and Glover quiz the audience and face a few probing questions themselves. They are later joined by Shappi, who tells them about her upcoming book Kissing Emma, Rambo crushes and likens the ladies to Muppets.
The next four episodes will be 'your chance to enjoy some repeats' and Fi and Jane will return in September.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.o.uk
TUE 23:30 Mastertapes (b01nxh35)
Series 1
Paul Weller (the B-Side)
John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question in the A-side, and then the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 3, the B-side. Having discussed the making of "The Gift", the final album from the Jam (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Tuesday 13th November and available online), Paul Weller responds to questions from the audience and performs acoustic live versions of some to the tracks from the album which was released 30 years ago.
Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (and others) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website, where all the programmes of the series can also be downloaded and other musical goodies accessed.
Producers: Paul Kobrak & India Rakusen.
WEDNESDAY 04 AUGUST 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000ycxd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ycxg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ycxk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ycxm)
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 (m000ycxp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000ycxr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ycxt)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard.
Good morning.
As a Vicar quite a lot of my time at the moment is spent on weddings. During the pandemic there have been so many obstacles for people planning to get married. Now we’re in slightly less challenging times, many are keen to press on with their big day.
With a variety of restrictions still in place across parts of the UK many church weddings are still scaled-down events. But lots of these seem to be all the more beautiful and intimate for this.
I’ve noticed some remarkable creativity: in one ceremony some of the guests doubled up as the musicians, bringing violins and guitars and playing during the service. One bride and groom organised fabulous picnic boxes for everyone (including the vicar) because they couldn’t have a reception. Another bride made themed masks for all the guests and used flowers to indicate the socially-distanced seating arrangement. What I find touching about this, is the way that the actual wedding service seems to have been enacting some of the best hopes for a good marriage, showing thoughtfulness and a wonderfully inventive spirit.
In the face of necessary restrictions, limitations and difficulties people have drawn upon the gifts of compassion, kindness, and patience; and in so-doing they have exemplified many qualities of Godly love that are often read out in Christian weddings. Such actions demonstrate to me that despite obstacles and constraints love can and will find a way.
God our maker, your love bears all things, believes all things and never fails us. Thank you for all who show us the resilience and beauty of love. Open our eyes to notice acts of love and kindness, and open our hearts to show love and care to others. Amen.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000ycxw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09tcnlz)
Chris Baines on the Bullfinch
The striking-looking Bullfinch is the subject of the first of five TWEETS from naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines about the birds he hears and encourages into his 'wildlife-friendly' garden. In the past, Bullfinches were persecuted for their fondness for fruit tree buds but as far as Chris is concerned, this is a small price to pay to have a pair of these beautiful birds visit his garden.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Sharon Marwood.
WED 06:00 Today (m000ydl0)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Soul Music (m000ydl2)
Take Me Home, Country Roads
"Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong"
Written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with and for their friend John Denver, the song went on to be covered by Ray Charles, Toots and the Maytals, Olivia Newton John and many more. A song about the longing for home and the desire to be back with the people you love, 'Country Roads' has become one of the official state songs of West Virginia but it also speaks to people from around the world and across political divides. It's a song about togetherness, belonging, homesickness, the immigrant experience and the hold that the landscape of your 'home place' can have on you.
Featuring contributions from Bill Danoff, Sarah Morris, Jason Jeong, Ngozi Fulani, Lloyd Bradley and Alison Wells. And from Molly Sarlé, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath of the band Mountain Man.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio in Bristol
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000ydl4)
Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society
WED 09:45 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ydl6)
Episode 3
Felicity Cloake is no slacker when it comes to cycling, with several long-distance cycling holidays under her belt, including doing the complete journey from the UK to Provence with a group of cycling friends. She is also an adventurous cook and has been described as ‘the nation’s food taster’.
Combining her passions, she decided to plot a cycling tour through France taking in the best regional dishes of the places she visited. Each morning begins with a croissant.
"In general, the best breakfasts in France are bread based – yes, you might well enjoy a bowl of sun-warmed figs and sheep yoghurt at your villa in Provence, but just so you know, most people around you would regard this as an eccentric way to start the day. God gave us the boulangerie for a reason, and that reason is breakfast. Baguette with butter and jam is a lovely thing, but on the move, it’s handier to go for something with the butter already baked in. I never deviate from the plain croissant, the apotheosis of the baker’s art."
Places and dishes include fruits de mer in Cherbourg, Breton oysters, a boozy lunch in the Languedoc, three different types of Cassoulet, fish soup (not to be confused with bouillabaisse) in Marseille, a quantity of brie with members of the brotherhood of Brie de Meaux, and an awful lot of pastries.
Felicity Cloake is author of The Guardian's How to Make the Perfect and a New Statesman columnist, and winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year and New Media awards 2011. She also writes for the Daily Mail, the Metro and Fire & Knives magazine, and is the author of Perfect: 68 Essential Recipes for Every Cook's Repertoire (2011), Perfect Host: 162 easy recipes for feeding people & having fun (2013), Perfect Too (2014) and The A-Z of Eating (2016).
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Sophia di Martino
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000ydl8)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England (m000ydlb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 What's Funny About ... (m000k22t)
W1A
TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.
In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Hugh Bonneville and John Morton about W1A, their much loved satire of the BBC.
They discuss where the idea for W1A came from (there is, you’ll be pleased to hear, a fold up bike involved). John reveals which BBC grandee offered his services when it came to researching the show. Hugh talks about the challenges of playing Ian Fletcher and Downton’s Earl of Grantham, often at the same time (and how it all actually helped W1A to prise a bit more cash out of the BBC!). And we hear what Ian Fletcher might be doing next.
With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how they went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.
We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.
Original W1A clips written by John Morton
Producer: Owen Braben
An Expectation production made for BBC Radio 4 Extra
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000ydlg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ydlj)
Episode 8
A big-hearted novel about love, art and the importance of the family we choose.
Florence, 1966. Alys has returned from Art School in London and the heavens have opened.
Read by Will Howard
Written by Sarah Winman
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Sarah Winman is the award-winning author of WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT and TIN MAN.
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000ydll)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000ydln)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000ydlq)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Unspeakable (m000ydls)
History is another family member
Alice Musabende is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which her whole family were killed, along with over a million other Tutsis. Working first as a journalist and later as an academic, she has found it impossible to articulate the reality of the violence which was unleashed on her people.
“I have spent so many hours, countless of times, writing and reading and trying really to capture the magnitude of the horror. And I still haven’t.”
But now, her two children are curious - about their grandparents, their home in Rwanda and her past. She feels she can no longer run away from “her demons” and must find some way to put into words the unspeakable horror she experienced as a teenager.
“As I started to approach this - not so much as an intellectual project as I had in the last 15 years - but more as a personal human story, I realised I didn’t know how to do that; and as I do quite often so I panicked! Because I wanted to tell a story not just of death or desolation and pain – but also of life.”
In this series, Alice asks for help, wisdom and guidance from others who have “already had the hardest conversations” - from fellow genocide survivors, second generation holocaust survivors, a therapist who works with AIDS orphans in South Africa and a publisher of stories in Rwanda. What can they teach her about when and how to tell her boys about her history and the history of their home country?
Questions of identity, second generational trauma, the importance of stories and history legacy are all explored in a series which takes an emotional turn, when the quest suddenly becomes very immediate and very real.
In the third episode, Alice faces up to her fears about transmitting second hand trauma to her boys, by talking to Rita Goldberg - the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Rita says “In a way we are all haunted. I am haunted by the shadow of something and it’s on the periphery of my life all the time… but I have no right to be haunted.” Rita encourages Alice that her love for her boys is a more powerful force than any trauma they may inherit.
Alice Musabende is a journalist and a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at Cambridge University where she studies international peace and security. She is also the mother of two little boys.
Produced by: Catherine Carr
Edited by Jo Rowntree
Music by Ninette Nyiringango
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000ycwy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 How to Build a Supertower (m00081td)
Episode 3
By Paul Sellar
When self-made tycoon Max Silver shakes up his property portfolio, he’s persuaded to raise an iconic new London skyscraper.
He has City backing for a defiant new national symbol, plus an eye to his family’s future, as well as a hankering for his own personal legacy.
But Max will still need all his ruthless deal-making skills to avoid the many and surprising traps put in his path by the world of business - and by sheer human folly.
3/4 Building work can finally begin on the London Hourglass. But when his legitimate financing is suddenly withdrawn, Max is left at the mercy of dark forces.
Max Silver ..... Robert Glenister
Carol ….. Catherine Cusack
Teddy ….. Sean Baker
Zara ….. Katherine Press
Sasha ….. Andrew Byron
Jack ….. Ben Crowe
Rory ….. Jonny Holden
Larry ….. Paul Hickey
Zoe ….. Tife Kusoro
Gavin ….. Shaun Mason
Kevin ….. Paul Hickey
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000ydlv)
Timeshare Holiday Ownership
How does timeshare holiday ownership work and what should you find out before signing up?
On Wednesday’s Money Box Live Louise Cooper and guests look at the costs and considerations of timeshare holidays.
We’d love to hear from you too. If you’re thinking of becoming a timeshare owner send us your questions and if you’ve already got one please share your wisdom! e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now.
On the panel:
Laura Johnston, Consumer Adviser UK International Consumer Centre
Paul Gardner Bougaard, Chief Exec, Resort Development Organisation
Presenter: Louise Cooper
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Editor: Alex Lewis
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000ycx6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000ydlx)
Best Feet Forward
When the Danish men’s football team are called up to replace Yugoslavia in the 1992 European Championships, just 10 days before the start of the tournament, nobody fancied their chances, least of all the players themselves.
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed traces their fairy tale journey towards taking home the trophy and reveals what Denmark's story can teach us about the importance of prioritising team cohesion over individual stardom.
For the Danish coach, Richard Møller Nielsen, it’s all about nurturing the ties between the players, putting the team ahead of the ego of any individual star. Møller Nielsen’s approach is unpopular with the press, the public and the players themselves. But as Matthew discovers, he’s hit upon a crucial element of social cohesion, one that has been powering our societies for centuries.
While we often construct our sports teams, our businesses and our lives assuming that we need to motivate individuals, are we overlooking the importance of human connection? And is this connection the secret to success?
With journalist and football writer Lars Eriksen, former Danish international player and commentator Morten Brunn, Alexandra Michel, leadership development expert and Adjunct Professor at Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Greg Walton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Professor Josef W Meri, historian in interfaith relations at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Pippa Smith
Series Editor and Executive Producer: Katherine Godfrey
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander
Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000ydlz)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m000ydm1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000ydm3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Paul Sinha's General Knowledge (m000ydm5)
Series 3
Episode 3
Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a former British Quiz Champion and also, according to the Radio Times, the UK's "funniest fund of forgotten facts". He returns to Radio 4 with a third series of his General Knowledge, recounting the amazing true stories that lie behind fascinating nuggets of information.
This episode looks at the history of the UK's New Towns, from the son of Stevenage who was one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, to the Redditch-born superstar who has more Twitter followers than anyone else in Britain. Akso, Paul proves empirically that Runcorn is at least three times more interesting than you thought.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material by Oliver Levy
Recording engineered by Kate Barker and Mike Smith
Produced by Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo/Somethin' Else co-production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000ydm7)
Ruairi takes a brave step while one resident struggles with their circumstances.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000ydm9)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b071v5rx)
Visvesvaraya: Extracting Moonbeams from Cucumbers
Sunil Khilnani explores the life and work of engineer, planner and politician Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.
Visvesvaraya was a frail bureaucrat who walked hunched, as if the burden of state-building literally pressed down on his shoulders. But in the popular imagination he turned an engineering degree into a superhuman world-fashioning prowess. He changed the Indian nation with practical and enduring improvements for millions of people, including innovations in sanitation, statistics, flood control, drainage and irrigation.
Austere to the point of dourness, but audaciously hopeful, Visvesvaraya sought to frog-march India into modernity.
Featuring Bangalore-based social scientist Chandan Gowda.
Producer: Martin Williams
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
WED 20:00 The Exchange (m000ydmc)
Faith and Sexuality
Two people who share a common experience, meet for the first time. Each has a gift for the other - an object that unlocks their story. With the help of presenter Catherine Carr, they exchange personal experiences, thoughts and beliefs, as well as uncovering the differences between them.
Saima Razzaq and Teddy Prout both had to make a choice about their faith when they came out as gay.
Teddy was a teenage Evangelical Christian when he came out. But when his church tried to “cure” him and “pray away the gay”, Teddy started to question his beliefs. He began a decade long journey from Christianity to atheism, and humanism. He still feels angry for the 16-year-old boy who was rejected by his religious community.
Saima is a British Pakistani who was prepared for a battle when she came out in her twenties. She was surprised to find being both a Muslim and a lesbian was not a big deal for most of her Birmingham community.
Teddy and Saima share how hard it is to leave a faith, and to stay in a faith. They give away something precious to both of them - symbols of their identity and their personal stories.
Presenter: Catherine Carr
Producer: Louise Cotton
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000ydl4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Made of Stronger Stuff (p099v2p7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000ydlz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000ydmg)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000ydlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Jordan Brookes On... (m000ydmj)
Achievement
For Jordan Brookes life hasn't come easily, but he has managed to climb right to the top of the comedy pile by winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2019. From these dizzying heights he can finally look down and see how he got there and why. Sunil Patel is on call to provide audio description should it be required. If you want to know about success and what is required to achieve it, this is the show for you.
Starring Jordan Brookes, Sunil Patel and Scarlett Brookes.
Produced by Sam Michell for BBC Studios.
WED 23:15 Tricky (p09hg47n)
Life after Sexual Assault
Four people. One topic. No filter.
Sex and relationship educator Esther de la Ford, dominatrix Miss Marilyn, doctor Cerys Barratt and Brenna Jessie of Rape Crisis Scotland discuss life after sexual assault.
There’s so much missing from our conversations about living with such a traumatic experience; what does that life look like, how do you regain control of what’s happened to you and how do you reconnect with your body and feel sexual again?
Producers: Myles Bonnar and Peter McManus
Editor: Anthony Browne
A BBC Scotland production for Radio 4
WED 23:30 Mastertapes (b01nxh51)
Series 1
Brinsley Forde (the A-Side)
John Wilson continues the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
'New Chapter' - More than 30 years since its release, Brinsley Forde talks about Aswad's third studio album. Formed in Ladbroke Grove in West London, Aswad are the band that put UK reggae on the map. They were reknowned for their fusion of styles including dancehall, funk, hip-hop and dub and for bringing strong R&B influences to the reggae scene. New Chapter, their first album for CBS, was both a watershed for the group and a benchmark for British reggae and it features tracks like 'Natural Progression', 'Ina Your Rights', 'Candles' and 'African Children'. Released in 1981, it went on to influence the likes of Maxi Priest, Soul II Soul and Massive Attack.
In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions.
First broadcast on Radio 4, where a new series of Mastertapes began on 11th November.
THURSDAY 05 AUGUST 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000ydmm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000ydl6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000ydmp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000ydmr)
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 (m000ydmt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000ydmw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000ydmy)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard.
Good morning,
I visited a Christian retreat centre recently and was amazed to find it full and booked up for months. After lockdowns and all the restrictions, I didn’t expect that so many would flock to places where time is spent in silence, there’s little internet access, mobile phones are discouraged and there’s a deliberately slow pace of being.
Our experiences of time during this pandemic have been very varied: For some, life has been much more intense and pressurised; others have experienced a lack of busyness and a loss of activity. Separation from friends and loved ones and different routines appear to have caused tiredness, stress and increased anxiety.
Into this situation the famous words from the book of Ecclesiastes might offer comfort, reassuring us that with God there is a time for everything - the strain and calamities of life are held alongside the hopes and healing we long for. Some of its words have felt particularly apt: “there’s a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing” might have been a pandemic slogan. Such wisdom might help us as we look to the future and seek to rebuild our lives.
Visiting the retreat house, it was a comfort to be reminded that such places exist. When my own life is too busy, or when there’s little opportunity to take time out for reflection, I’m glad to know that there are places where people are praying and modelling a more gentle, ordered way of living.
God of all time, shaper and maker of our days. Help us to recognise that time is a gift and a friend. With the shifting pattern of our days help us to keep pace with you; to live wisely, giving our focus and value to all that builds and heals our relationships and our world. Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000ydn0)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09w0vhv)
Matt Merritt on the Wheatear
Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine Matt Merritt revels in fast cheery song of the wheatear, which gave this bird the old name of English Ortolan, in this Tweet of the Day.
Producer Maggie Ayre
Photograph: Ian Redman.
THU 06:00 Today (m000yfjy)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Across the Red Line (m000yfk0)
Series 6
Does consumerism rot the soul?
Consumer journalist Harry Wallop debates the personal impact of consumerism with writer and YouTuber Cinzia DuBois.
Then presenter Anne McElvoy and conflict resolution expert Louisa Weinstein invite each guest in turn to try to discover what drives the other's viewpoint - and to articulate it back to its holder.
Producer: Phil Tinline
THU 09:30 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000ss3t)
Blowfly Detectives
Blowflies with their ability to smell rotting meat from long distances may be some of the most reviled insects on the planet, but as Erica McAlister discovers, they’ve become central to the surprisingly long tradition of forensic entomology.
With contributions from forensic entomologists Martin Hall (Natural History Museum) and Gail Anderson (Simon Fraser University,British Columbia); Daniel Martin Vega, (University of Alcala, Madrid).
Producer Adrian Washbourne
THU 09:45 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000yflg)
Episode 4
Felicity Cloake is no slacker when it comes to cycling, with several long-distance cycling holidays under her belt, including doing the complete journey from the UK to Provence with a group of cycling friends. She is also an adventurous cook and has been described as ‘the nation’s food taster’.
Combining her passions, she decided to plot a cycling tour through France taking in the best regional dishes of the places she visited. Each morning begins with a croissant.
"In general, the best breakfasts in France are bread based – yes, you might well enjoy a bowl of sun-warmed figs and sheep yoghurt at your villa in Provence, but just so you know, most people around you would regard this as an eccentric way to start the day. God gave us the boulangerie for a reason, and that reason is breakfast. Baguette with butter and jam is a lovely thing, but on the move, it’s handier to go for something with the butter already baked in. I never deviate from the plain croissant, the apotheosis of the baker’s art."
Places and dishes include fruits de mer in Cherbourg, Breton oysters, a boozy lunch in the Languedoc, three different types of Cassoulet, fish soup (not to be confused with bouillabaisse) in Marseille, a quantity of brie with members of the brotherhood of Brie de Meaux, and an awful lot of pastries.
Felicity Cloake is author of The Guardian's How to Make the Perfect and a New Statesman columnist, and winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year and New Media awards 2011. She also writes for the Daily Mail, the Metro and Fire & Knives magazine, and is the author of Perfect: 68 Essential Recipes for Every Cook's Repertoire (2011), Perfect Host: 162 easy recipes for feeding people & having fun (2013), Perfect Too (2014) and The A-Z of Eating (2016).
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Sophia di Martino
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000yfk4)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000yfk6)
Nigeria's Kidnapped Children
Since December, armed gangs have seized more than a thousand students and staff from schools across northern Nigeria. Parents face extortionate demands in exchange for the freedom of their sons and daughters and many families in Africa’s most populous nation are now too afraid to send their children to class. The wave of abductions has devastating consequences for the country, which already has the highest number of children out of education anywhere in the world. For Crossing Continents, the BBC’s Mayeni Jones travels to the region and meets those affected in order to understand what’s fueling Nigeria’s kidnap crisis.
Producers: Naomi Scherbel-Ball in Lagos and Michael Gallagher in London
Editor: Bridget Harney
THU 11:30 Sketches: Stories of Art and People (m000yfk8)
Long Roads
Writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of true stories about of people who keep going, along the twisting and turning of long roads, and the art that comes from the journey.
This week, Anna brings stories of the Bristol Bike Bard, Caroline Burrows, who uses the freedom of the open road to inspire her poetry. Whilst Lois Pryce, who found herself housebound recovering from illness, transported herself to faraway lands through the power of imagination. And Clarke Reynolds, whose sight has been deteriorating ever since he was a child, but who harnesses this as inspiration to make curiously visionary art.
Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas, for BBC Audio in Bristol.
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000yfkb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000yfkd)
Episode 9
A big-hearted novel about love, art and the importance of the family we choose.
In the aftermath of the flood, more of Ulysses' friends are drawn to Florence. Cressy's unerring eye for a good bet has gifted Peg an escape route from her dreadful marriage in London – if she's brave enough to join them.
Read by Will Howard
Written by Sarah Winman
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Sarah Winman is the award-winning author of WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT and TIN MAN.
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000yfkg)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000yfkj)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000yfkl)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Unspeakable (m000yfkn)
Tree of Life
Alice Musabende is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which her whole family were killed, along with over a million other Tutsis. Working first as a journalist and later as an academic, she has found it impossible to articulate the reality of the violence which was unleashed on her people.
“I have spent so many hours, countless of times, writing and reading and trying really to capture the magnitude of the horror. And I still haven’t.”
But now, her two children are curious - about their grandparents, their home in Rwanda and her past. She feels she can no longer run away from “her demons” and must find some way to put into words the unspeakable horror she experienced as a teenager.
“As I started to approach this - not so much as an intellectual project as I had in the last 15 years - but more as a personal human story, I realised I didn’t know how to do that; and as I do quite often so I panicked! Because I wanted to tell a story not just of death or desolation and pain – but also of life.”
In this series, Alice asks for help, wisdom and guidance from others who have “already had the hardest conversations” - from fellow genocide survivors, second generation holocaust survivors, a therapist who works with AIDS orphans in South Africa and a publisher of stories in Rwanda. What can they teach her about when and how to tell her boys about her history and the history of their home country?
Questions of identity, second generational trauma, the importance of stories and legacy are all explored in a series which takes an emotional turn, when the quest suddenly becomes very immediate and very real.
In the penultimate episode in the series, Alice is thrown into turmoil by fresh questions about her family history by her eldest son. She talks about the value of therapy and the intense difficulty of knowing what her children will have to absorb about their history. But, she is buoyed by a conversation with Ncazelo Mcube Mlilo, a psychotherapist from South Africa who teaches Alice about the Tree of Life – a therapy style designed to give children hope, despite the difficulties they carry from their past.
Alice Musabende is a journalist and a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at Cambridge University where she studies international peace and security. She is also the mother of two little boys.
Produced by: Catherine Carr
Edited by Jo Rowntree
Music by Ninette Nyiringango
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000ydm7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 How to Build a Supertower (m00081wq)
Episode 4
By Paul Sellar
When self-made tycoon Max Silver shakes up his property portfolio, he’s persuaded to raise an iconic new London skyscraper.
He has City backing for a defiant new national symbol, plus an eye to his family’s future, as well as a hankering for his own personal legacy.
But Max will still need all his ruthless deal-making skills to avoid the many and surprising traps put in his path by the world of business - and by sheer human folly.
4/4 Old scores are settled, and new enemies emerge, as Max's business heads into administration.
Max Silver ..... Robert Glenister
Carol ….. Catherine Cusack
Teddy ….. Sean Baker
Zara ….. Katherine Press
Jack ….. Ben Crowe
Sunil ….. Bhasker Patel
Fadi ….. Alexander Devrient
Kolo ….. Buom Tihngang
Larry ….. Paul Hickey
DK ….. Sagar Radia
Karakas ….. Chris Pavlo
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000yfkq)
Northumberland Sound Walk
A conversation between the Tipalt Burn and Hadrian’s Wall, a legend about treasure that is buried under Thirlwall castle, the conflict between urban and rural life, the significance of the wall, hidden and lost sounds and the migration and transformation of stone are all themes which feature in an immersive sound walk through a Northumberland landscape. Open Country meets several of the artists, poets, musicians, singers, storytellers, composers and writers who were involved in creating this four-mile walk near the village of Greenhead. We discover how they were inspired by the landscape and community of this area and find out how their work was realised.
The story begins in December 2020 when Green Croft Arts commissioned 14 artists with strong links to Northumberland and Cumbria to explore the theme of ‘Collision and Conflict’ for a geolocator sound walk which was launched in the spring of 2021. Participants are invited to downloaded an app onto their phones, and then follow a route marked on a map through the landscape. The artistic responses – a mix of music, storytelling, spoken word and sounds - are linked to specific locations along the route. They are triggered as the walker approaches and can be heard through headphones. It’s an extraordinary immersive journey exploring the past and present, local and global, landscape, hidden sounds, community and culture.
Producer Sarah Blunt
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Green Croft Arts
https://www.greencroftonthewall.com/
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000ydnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m000ydpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000yfks)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000yfkv)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000yfkx)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000yfkz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Stand-Up Specials (m000r31x)
Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Egg-sistential Crisis
Stand-up Kiri Pritchard-Mclean brings a special show to BBC Radio 4 all about millennials and why they have stopped procreating.
Producer: Suzy Grant
BBC Studios Production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000yfl1)
Writers, Caroline Harrington and Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Directors, Jeremy Howe and Julie Beckett
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Josh Archer …. Angus Imrie
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Ruairi Donovan …. Arthur Hughes
Amy Franks … Jennifer Daley
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jazzer McCreary… Ryan Kelly
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000yfl3)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b071vlmn)
Peryar: Sniper of Sacred Cows
Sunil Khilnani tells the story of EV Ramaswamy Naicker, known to his followers as Thanthai Periyar: the Great Man – a self-conscious dig at his nemesis Gandhi, the Great Soul.
Periyar is best known in India as an anti-Brahmin activist, a rationalist and a take-no-prisoners orator. He campaigned actively and energetically for decades against religion, against the caste system and for the equality of women.
Where Gandhi and his followers wore white, Periyar instructed his supporters to dress in black. Where Gandhi massaged the religious beliefs of his audiences, Periyar called his listeners fools, insulted their beliefs and caste practices, and threatened to thwack their gods and idols with his slippers. And where Gandhi wanted to build a national Indian movement, Periyar revelled in the Dravidian south.
‘I've got no personal problem with God,” Periyar once said. “I’ve never even met him, not once”. Occupying conventional political office never interested Periyar, but he left a massive imprint on modern south Indian politics.
Producer: Martin Williams
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000yfl5)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 The Spark (m000y7sq)
Karen Stenner and the authoritarian predisposition
Helen Lewis meets people offering radical solutions to the big problems of our times.
Political psychologist and behavioural economist Karen Stenner, author of The Authoritarian Dynamic, explains how research shows a third of humanity is predisposed to authoritarianism. She tells Helen what happens when this predisposition is activated by feelings of threat - and what liberal democracy can do to respond to the challenges this raises.
Producer: Phil Tinline
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000yfkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Across the Red Line (m000yfk0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000yfl7)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000yfkd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Resist Phoney Encores! (m000yfl9)
The Football Episode
Comedy conversations.
Gruff Rhys investigates crowd behaviour : football crowds and football chants, real and unreal. Is a music crowd more unified than a sports crowd? Why did Wales lose 4 - 0 in Amsterdam? Was Gruff watching the wrong telly? Did the crowd make a difference? What makes a good football song? Do the Brazilians have the answer? and what was Pele doing in a transit van in Grangetown, Cardiff?
Gruff Rhys
with Jefferson Lobo, The Barry Horns, Tim Hartley and Autograph Sound.
Sound Design - Cathy Robinson
Director - John Norton
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
THU 23:30 Mastertapes (b01p0bnh)
Series 1
Brinsley Forde (the B-Side)
John Wilson continues the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Having discussed the making of New Chapter, the third album from the UK reggae group, Aswad, Brinsley Forde responds to questions from the audience and performs live versions of some to the tracks from the album which was released more than three decades ago.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, where a new series of Mastertapes began on 11th November.
FRIDAY 06 AUGUST 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000yfld)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000yflg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000yflj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000yfll)
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 (m000yfln)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000yflq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000yfls)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Archdeacon of Bangor, Mary Stallard.
Good morning.
It’s the Feast of the Transfiguration. This recalls the moment on a mountain when Jesus’ friends had an experience which transformed their understanding of Jesus’ identity, helping them to see his eternal significance.
This time of pandemic has transformed many of our relationships. Today would have been my parents’ fifty-ninth wedding anniversary. Dad died last September shortly after a cancer diagnosis. We were fortunate to be able to have a funeral for him, but grieving in such a time has been hard. I asked Mum if she’d like to mark the wedding anniversary in some way. She said she feels it’s lost its meaning now Dad’s no longer here, and that seems such a natural response.
But here in Wales the Welsh language perhaps offers a helpful insight: wedding anniversary is “penblwydd priodas” - literally ‘wedding birthday’. That reminds me that it marks not simply years clocked up together, but also the beginning of a love shared in marriage. Christians believe that love is eternal, it doesn’t die, the fruits of its existence remain, not only in the family members who are still here, but in all the memories and relationships it shaped and touched. All the little anniversaries of life, and all the celebrations connected with someone we’ve loved who’s died, seem to have even greater significance in a time of challenge. All that’s brought meaning and love to our lives is precious and worth remembering.
God, our hearts are open to you, full of our hopes and sorrows. You know our every desire and hear our deepest longing. Thank you for all the precious gifts of love and friendship in our lives. Help us to treasure our memories and to celebrate all that brings joy today and every day. Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000yflv)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03nt7vc)
David Rothenberg on the Brown Thrasher
Professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology David Rothenberg discussed the brown thrasher.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. In this latest series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tim Dee
Picture: Denise Laflamme.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000yg3v)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000ydp1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (m000yg3x)
Episode 5
Felicity Cloake is no slacker when it comes to cycling, with several long-distance cycling holidays under her belt, including doing the complete journey from the UK to Provence with a group of cycling friends. She is also an adventurous cook and has been described as ‘the nation’s food taster’.
Combining her passions, she decided to plot a cycling tour through France taking in the best regional dishes of the places she visited. Each morning begins with a croissant.
"In general, the best breakfasts in France are bread based – yes, you might well enjoy a bowl of sun-warmed figs and sheep yoghurt at your villa in Provence, but just so you know, most people around you would regard this as an eccentric way to start the day. God gave us the boulangerie for a reason, and that reason is breakfast. Baguette with butter and jam is a lovely thing, but on the move, it’s handier to go for something with the butter already baked in. I never deviate from the plain croissant, the apotheosis of the baker’s art."
Places and dishes include fruits de mer in Cherbourg, Breton oysters, a boozy lunch in the Languedoc, three different types of Cassoulet, fish soup (not to be confused with bouillabaisse) in Marseille, a quantity of brie with members of the brotherhood of Brie de Meaux, and an awful lot of pastries.
Felicity Cloake is author of The Guardian's How to Make the Perfect and a New Statesman columnist, and winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year and New Media awards 2011. She also writes for the Daily Mail, the Metro and Fire & Knives magazine, and is the author of Perfect: 68 Essential Recipes for Every Cook's Repertoire (2011), Perfect Host: 162 easy recipes for feeding people & having fun (2013), Perfect Too (2014) and The A-Z of Eating (2016).
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Sophia di Martino
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000yg3z)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Spark (m000yg42)
Emily Alison and rapport
Helen Lewis meets people offering radical solutions to the big problems of our times.
Emily Alison, co-author with Laurence Alison of Rapport: The Four Ways to Read People, reveals the insights she has derived from her work as a forensic psychologist. And she explains why she argues that techniques for building rapport can help transform a whole range of difficult personal interactions.
Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m000yg46)
Series 2
Parties
Ellie Taylor welcomes you to "Safe Space", a place where anyone can offload their controversial opinions without fear of judgment,. She talks to members of the public about their gripes and then reveals one of her own - that parties are awful and should be banned. Joining her to prove her point are regular sidekick Robin Morgan (Mock The Week) and special guest Ella Al-Shamahi, author of "The Handshake: A Gripping History".
Written by Ellie Taylor and Robin Morgan
Produced by Sam Michell for BBC Studios
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000yg4g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000yg4l)
Episode 10
A big-hearted novel about love, art and the importance of the family we choose.
Amid the sorrow of a huge loss, the friends gather in Florence to celebrate a momentous occasion.
Read by Will Howard
Written by Sarah Winman
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Sarah Winman is the award-winning author of WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT and TIN MAN.
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000yg4q)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000yg4v)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000yg4z)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Unspeakable (m000yg53)
Stories, stories, stories
Alice Musabende is a survivor of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which her whole family were killed, along with over a million other Tutsis. Working first as a journalist and later as an academic, she has found it impossible to articulate the reality of the violence which was unleashed on her people.
“I have spent so many hours, countless of times, writing and reading and trying really to capture the magnitude of the horror. And I still haven’t.”
But now, her two children are curious - about their grandparents, their home in Rwanda and her past. She feels she can no longer run away from “her demons” and must find some way to put into words the unspeakable horror she experienced as a teenager.
“As I started to approach this - not so much as an intellectual project as I had in the last 15 years - but more as a personal human story, I realised I didn’t know how to do that; and as I do quite often so I panicked! Because I wanted to tell a story not just of death or desolation and pain – but also of life.”
In this series, Alice asks for help, wisdom and guidance from others who have “already had the hardest conversations” - from fellow genocide survivors, second generation holocaust survivors, a therapist who works with AIDS orphans in South Africa and a publisher of stories in Rwanda. What can they teach her about when and how to tell her boys about her history and the history of their home country?
Questions of identity, second generational trauma, the importance of stories and legacy are all explored in a series which takes an emotional turn, when the quest suddenly becomes very immediate and very real.
In the final episode, Alice reflects on the idea of stories and the impossibility of finding a neat happy ending in anywhere except children’s literature. Reflecting on the conversations she’s had, Alice speaks to Louise Umutoni, an old friend, a new mother and founder and publisher of Huza Press in Rwanda. Louise talks to Alice about telling hard stories, the importance of narrative and how to create an ending... for now.
Alice Musabende is a journalist and a PhD candidate and Gates scholar at Cambridge University where she studies international peace and security. She is also the mother of two little boys.
Produced by: Catherine Carr
Edited by Jo Rowntree
Music by Ninette Nyiringango
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000yfl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m00070nb)
Faded Glory
Original drama recorded on location in Rhyl written by Rebekah Harrison
Childhood sweethearts Dave and Sue, whose lives have taken them very different ways, meet after 22 years. A bitter sweet love story set against the backdrop of Rhyl: once a thriving seaside town now desperately trying to reinvent itself to survive.
SUE.....Shobna Gulati
DAVE.....Roger Evans
GEMMA.....Annie-Rose Tate
Directed by Nadia Molinari
The drama was recorded on location in Rhyl, with special thanks to actors from Prestatyn Youth Theatre and Prestatyn Comunity Players for additional voices and staff at Les & Rita's Fish Bar.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000yg58)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston hosts this week's gardening Q&A with a panel of experts. Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness and Chris Beardshaw join Kathy to answer the questions sent in by green-fingered listeners.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000yg5d)
Our Dead Billy and Sasha Next Door
Until now, Anna has managed living without Brian, working from home and social distancing. But her morning gets off to a bad start.
The writer, Jenn Ashworthm was born in Preston. Her first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, was published in 2009 and won a Betty Trask Award. Her most recent novel, Ghosted, was published in 2021. She lives in Lancaster.
Writer: Jenn Ashworth
Reader: Hermione Norris
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000yg5g)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000yg5j)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations
FRI 17:00 PM (m000yg5l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000yg5n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Party's Over (m000yg5q)
Series 1
New Party
What happens when the Prime Minister suddenly stops being Prime Minister?
One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'
Miles Jupp stars as Henry Tobin - Britain's shortest serving and least popular post war PM (he managed 8 months).
We join Henry soon after his crushing election loss. He’s determined to not let his disastrous defeat be the end of him. Instead Henry's going to get back to the top - he's just not sure how and in what field..
This week, while standing in as host at a talk radio station, Henry meets Scott Machin who might just have the answers to all his problems.
Henry Tobin... Miles Jupp
Christine Tobin... Ingrid Oliver
Natalie... Emma Sidi
Jones... Justin Edwards
Scott...Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Written by Paul Doolan and Jon Hunter
Produced by Richard Morris and Simon Nicholls
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound design: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000yg5s)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b071x87h)
Iqbal: Death for Falcons
Sunil Khilnani tells the story of the poet and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal.
One of India’s most patriotic, eloquent writers, Iqbal is also celebrated as Pakistan’s national poet. In his spare time, he wrote one of the first Urdu textbooks on economics; earned a doctorate in philosophy, which he studied for in Lahore, Cambridge and Germany; and became a barrister in London.
It was during his time in the west that Iqbal formulated his Islamic critique of Western society that would eventually become famous in Europe, India and the larger Muslim world.
To Iqbal, the West’s problem was one of love and desire. Like the devil, the West seemed consumed with an insatiable appetite. But the devil’s failing, like the failing of Milton’s Satan, was that he ‘declined to give absolute obedience to the Almighty Ruler of the Universe.’
In the same way, the West, by turning away from God and the human brotherhood preached by Christ, had become a terrible inversion of the ideal society. Its desires, severed from the highest things, had become purely material.
Iqbal’s vision inevitably brought him to loggerheads with those, including the British government and the Congress movement, whose aspirations for India did not extend to an ideal Islamic polity.
Partly as a result, although he died almost a decade before its creation, Iqbal’s work has often been read as a forceful argument for Pakistan.
Featuring Professor Javed Majeed.
Readings by Sagar Arya.
Producer: Martin Williams
Executive Producer: Martin Smith
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000yg5v)
Iain Dale, Dame Rachel de Souza, Clive Lewis MP
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from The Players Theatre, Lowestoft with a panel including the presenter and pundit Iain Dale, the Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza and the Labour MP Clive Lewis.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Michael Smith
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000yg5x)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b08f4vym)
A Brief History of Lust
Does what makes the heart beat faster really make the world go round? Oh yes. Welcome to a new history of lust presented by the American satirist Joe Queenan. From Helen and Paris of Troy to Bill and Monica via Rasputin, Edwina Currie and John Major, this is a tale of life as a bunga bunga bacchanal.
With contributions from historian Suzannah Lipscomb, classicist Edith Hall, plus Agnes Poirier, Joan Bakewell (of course), Caitlin Moran and Richard Herring on Rasputin; a specially composed new poem on lust from Elvis McGonagall; and music from Prince, T Rex, Bessie Smith and Cole Porter.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000yg5z)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Still Life by Sarah Winman (m000yg4l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000ycwm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge (m000t76s)
Narrative Graphs
Documentary-maker Phil Tinline continues his series exploring how conspiracy theories and fictions work as stories, and what they claim to tell us about how power works.
Drawing on new research, he finds out how ‘narrative graphs’ reveal telling differences between real and bogus conspiracies. And he explores this casts a different light on the anxious world of post-war America, from McCarthyism, through the assassination of President Kennedy, to Watergate. Are all those 'paranoia' movies of the 1970s actually telling two very different stories? And if so, what might this tell us about how we think about conspiracy narratives today?
Series contributors include: Michael Butter, Bryan Cheyette, Paul Cobley, Karen Douglas, Sir Richard Evans, Beverly Gage, Pamela Hutchinson, Dennis Kelly, Rick Perlstein, Whitney Phillips, Vwani Roychowdhury, Tim Tangherlini