In this essay, American essayist Jia Tolentino writes about the pressures women are under to present the very best version of themselves; to optimize their personal brand. Today, she argues, that means youthful good looks, the impression of spontaneity and a wardrobe full of expensive athleisure wear. She explores the conflicts between feminism, health, beauty and self-confidence.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
Yesterday, Sikhs around the world celebrated the birth of the first Sikh Guru and founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Devi Ji. This day, also known as Gurpurab, in Sikh tradition, is a celebration of an anniversary of a Guru’s birth marked by the holding of a festival.
Many worldwide take this time to reflect on Guru Nanak Devi Ji’s teachings of the oneness of humanity and how the Guru spoke against tyranny and social injustice. His teaching also encourages us to turn inwards and self-reflect.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji said, “I am not good; no one is bad” – Put another way, I don’t see myself to be good and see anyone to be bad.
Whilst being called bad or even ostracised from society for wrongdoings has always been a risk, and while we’ve always – rightly – called attention to injustices, social media has exposed our bad moments or mistakes, leading in some instances to complete cancellation.
There have definitely been times where I’ve judged someone or looked down on someone for their actions, not knowing anything about how their life experiences have shaped them to be the person they are. In the Guru’s words, if none of us are good, or inherently bad, who am I to judge? Because no one is perfect.
Dear God – help me hold space for compassion and forgiveness and hold no room for ego or for judgement, and trust that each of us are on our journey.
Gamekeeper Mike Holliday stalks an elusive stag on the Glenample Estate in Scotland
Part of a new series of immersive features which allow the listener to step inside the heads of a compelling character and explore their world. Recorded in binaural stereo using the latest recording techniques for a rich, lifelike, 3-D sound. Subjects wear a small microphone in each ear, picking up sound just like the human ear. Whatever they hear, we hear - how they hear it. The series is best heard on headphones.
The number of deer on the estate have to be managed but culling them is by no means straightforward. Mike has to deploy the cunning of a hunter as he stalks his quarry on the glen.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Will Coleman of Golden Tree Productions is creating a major new piece of landscape scale art at Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Kerdoya is a labyrinth celebrating and built from the humble Cornish hedge. Helen Mark visits Will to discover why the Cornish hedge is at the heart of Cornish culture and landscape. She discovers that the emerging labyrinth on the edge of the lake is providing jobs, training and respite - as well as inviting visitors to appreciate the art of hedge-making and the permanence of these ancient structures in Cornwall’s lanes and fields.
20/11/21 - Farming Today This Week: Pig backlog, chicken cull, polluted oysters and deer management
The problems in the pig sector have not gone away. As we've been reporting for months now, a shortage of butchers has meant abattoirs are processing fewer animals, and pigs have been backing up on farms. Where numbers get too high, these pigs have to be culled on farm for welfare reasons - with the meat NOT getting into the food chain. So far, 14,000 pigs have been culled, and we've heard reports that some farmers are considering aborting piglets rather than having to cull them once they’ve been born. To try and tackle this problem, the Government released 800 temporary visas for foreign butchers as well as a scheme to freeze and store extra pig meat - which opened this week. The idea is that pigs can be slaughtered and then cut into basic joints and frozen… with the Government picking up the bill for the storage. We find out how the scheme is working.
We also visit an egg producer to find out how the supermarket pledge to stop selling caged whole eggs by 2025 is impacting his business and see how a "social croft" can be a viable way of making money on a small patch of land.
Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
Ezio Pinza was the first person to sing Some Enchanted Evening when South Pacific opened on Broadway in 1949. His granddaughter, Sarah Goodyear, recounts his extraordinary life story: from international opera singer, to political prisoner, then a star of musical theatre.
Perhaps best known for its 1958 film version, South Pacific famously starred Rossano Brazzi as Emile de Becque. However his singing voice was provided by opera star, Giorgio Tozzi. His son, Eric Tozzi, recalls hearing his father practice Some Enchanted Evening in their California beach-side home.
Canan Maxton runs the charity, Talent Unlimited, which supports student musicians. Some Enchanted Evening was the signature tune to her own love story, which inspired her to launch that organisation.
Alan Titchmarsh is best known as a TV gardener, but he has a surprisingly good voice. Some Enchanted Evening is a childhood favourite which reminds him of his parents, but he couldn't have foreseen the day when he would sing it live at the London Palladium for an ITV audience (credit to ITV All Star Musicals, produced by Multistory Media for the extract used).
Daniel Evans is the Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre. He has recently staged a well-reviewed production of South Pacific; one which explores the racist theme Rodgers and Hammerstein originally sought to address in their Broadway production. He explains the role Some Enchanted Evening plays in the storyline of the show.
Julian Ovenden played Emile de Becque in the Chichester production (which, in 2022, will also be staged in Manchester and London before a national tour). He describes what it's like to perform this very famous and much anticipated song.
The Spectator's Isabel Hardman looks back over a turbulent week in politics - including more developments in the row over parliamentary standards, and a big announcement on rail. And with calls for the Prime Minister to apologise for his handling of the Owen Paterson affair, she discusses whether politicians should ever say sorry.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in front of a remote audience - and all from their own home!
Joining them from a safe distance is Ria Lina and Josh Pugh with music supplied by Beardyman.
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from St Joseph's College in Stoke-on-Trent. On today's panel: Conservative MP Michael Fabricant, Labour's National Campaign Coordinator Shabana Mahmood MP, comedian and political commentator Geoff Norcott, and the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress Frances O'Grady.
Sir says some man called Laurie’s coming in to speak.
We don’t know no one called Laurie.
The girls don't have to give up their lunchtime for this. To listen to some man called Laurie from some company called 'Real Men Cry'.
What can a class full of black teenage boys learn from an expert in mental health, on International Men's Day?
As Bristol's City Poet, Vanessa Kisuule's poem 'Hollow' on the toppling of Edward Colston statue gained over 600,000 views on Twitter in three days. A veteran of the UK's spoken word scene, she has won more than ten slam titles, including the prestigious Roundhouse Slam for 2014. She has been invited to perform all over the world from Belgium to Brazil to Bangladesh. Vanessa has two poetry collections published by Burning Eye Books, 'Joyriding the Storm' and 'A Recipe for Sorcery' and her work was Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize in 2019. She is currently working on an essay collection and her debut novel.
Vanessa Kisuule combines warm humour with measured emotion and has "the ability to articulate feelings previously considered ineffable; a skill as rare as it is wonderful".
The Pallisers. Dramatized by Sharon Oakes based on the novels by Anthony Trollope.
The continuing story of high life and low politics in Victorian England. Bruised by his term as Prime Minister, Plantagenet has retired from front line politics. Cora is pleased that they can spend more time with their grown up offspring Silverbridge and Mary. But can they guide their futures?
Nancy Kelley is CEO of Stonewall, the largest LGBT rights charity in Europe. She speaks about her organisation’s work and gives her reaction to recent high-profile withdrawals from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions workplace inclusion scheme, including the BBC.
This week the cricketer Azeem Rafiq told the Digital Culture Media and Sport select committee about the racism he's suffered. We talk to the MP Naz Shah and Halima Khan who works in grassroots cricket about the impact of his testimony.
For millions of families, the past 18 months have been defined by grief. A growing online community, mainly fronted by young women, is helping others to find support through loss. We're joined by Amber Jeffrey, founder of The Grief Gang podcast, and Helen Smith who has an Instagram page called Lockdown Grief.
Parcopresis is the inability to defecate or go for a poo without a certain level of privacy. The condition is also known as shy bowel and it can stop people from feeling comfortable about going at work, while out and about or even while sharing a toilet with a new partner. What causes this anxiety and why do more women suffer than men? We ask Eleanor Morgan, author of Hormonal: A Conversation About Women’s Bodies, Mental Health and Why We Need to be Heard and Professor Siwan Thomas-Gibson, a consultant gastroenterologist.
Pride and Prejudice (sort of) is a sweary, anarchic reboot of the classic Jane Austen novel by Scottish writer Isobel McArthur, in which an all-female cast of five play all of the characters. We're joined by Isobel and her co-performer Tori Burgess.
Evan Davis and guests discuss how best to resolve disputes between colleagues - both making the best of it and avoiding the worst. Despite our best efforts, conflict never disappears – it’s always there, when humans gather. In the office, it can be start with something as trivial as a coffee cup left on a colleague's desk. And from there, it can spiral into a situation where people are unwilling to work with each other, or even suffer mental ill health as result. Three experts give advice on how to prevent conflict festering and the best ways to mediate when co-workers end up at daggers drawn.
Robert Plant, Kayleigh Llewllyn, Bill Bailey, Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita, Frazey Ford, Anneka Rice, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Anneka Rice are joined by Robert Plant, Kayleigh Llewellyn and Bill Bailey for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita and Frazey Ford.
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
Author and columnist Caitlin Moran talks to John Wilson about some of the works and events that have had the biggest influence on her writing career.
The eldest of eight children, she was home-schooled and raised on a council estate in Wolverhampton. At just 16 years old she published her first novel, became a music journalist, and started writing regular columns in the national press.
She explains why Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ fuelled her desire to become a novelist, how the British music press allowed her to hone her craft as a journalist, and how a letter from Lenny Henry changed her life.
Freddie Mercury was a global superstar. Bohemian Rhapsody was the most streamed song of the 20th century, Queen's Greatest Hits is the best-selling album of all time in the UK. One billion viewers watched the Tribute Concert held after his death. But hardly anyone seems to know Mercury's real name.
Farrokh Bulsara was born 75 years ago in Zanzibar and died 30 years ago this week. He spent his teenage years drinking chai in Mumbai, fled a brutal revolution on British-protected soil, and settled into London's Parsi Zoroastrian community. He never spoke about these things – and the press never enquired.
Sathnam Sanghera talks to Farouk Topan, a contemporary from Zanzibar, to find out what life would have been like there. Friend and biographer Lesley-Ann Jones tracks the transition from Farrokh to Freddie, and reveals his favourite food was always lamb dhansak. Sathnam unearths old BBC interviews, including Queen back stage at Live Aid and Elton John paying tribute to his close friend. He speaks to super-fan Matt Lucas on how we misread Freddie’s sexuality, and asks Bob Harris about racist music crowds.
Sathnam asks why Queen played in apartheid-era South Africa, and finds out why the Great British public never realised Mercury was gay. And he discovers Arabic and Persian lyrics in some of Queen’s most famous songs.
Brief Lives by Nuala O'Sullivan. Ep 2 of 6
More tales from the team of Manchester paralegals. Sarah is called in to defend a man accused of arson. And Cheryl helps Frank with his rehabilitation.
A new story inspired by 'The Homeric Hymn to Apollo', written by Garrett Carr author of The Rule of the Land.
Writer ..... Garrett Carr
Reader ..... Cara Kelly
Producer ..... Claire Simpson
Kirsty Wark reunites the archaeologists, scientists, a religious leader and a distant relative involved in the remarkable search for, identification, and reburial of the last Plantagenet king.
Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and the first to have his genome sequenced. The discovery and identification of his remains is one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.
After his death on Bosworth Battle Field in 1485, Richard's body was hastily buried in a Friary in Leicester. But over the years, rumours spread that his bones had been dug up and flung into a nearby river.
Others believed that his body could still be in its original burial place, now under a council car park. Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society wanted to know for sure.
The dig started on 25th August 2012 and, within hours, bones had been found. Dr Richard Buckley lead the University of Leicester's archaeological team and confesses that no-one really believed they would find him. But as osteologist Dr Jo Appleby uncovered more of the remains, she discovered he had a curved spine and serious head wounds.
More research was needed to be sure they had got their man. Professor Turi King, an expert in DNA, and Jo Appleby explain the painstaking process to identify the remains and to match the DNA with relative Michael Ibsen, and how they found out more about the way the King lived.
David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, became embroiled in a legal battle over where the remains should be re-interred – York or Leicester – as some distant relatives of the King challenged how the University had looked after the remains.
As well as giving a DNA sample, Michael Ibsen was also a carpenter and reveals how he ended up making his first ever coffin – fit for a medieval king.
Historian and writer Thomas Penn explains the impact of this momentous discovery on our understanding of history and of the man himself.
The celebrity panel game about quotations, hosted by Nigel Rees, returns with its 500th programme.
- John Lloyd, Quote...Unquote's co-creator and original producer, who went on to create such delights as QI, The News Quiz and Blackadder.
- Sathnam Sanghera, writer for The Times, presenter for Channel 4, and author of 'EmpireLand'
- Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent, bestselling author and thriller writer.
Danny Robins goes deeper on the first Uncanny case, the haunting of Belfast student tower block Alanbrooke Hall in the early 1980s, and talks to new witnesses to the strange events there. Can he come any closer to solving the mystery?
SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0011rlp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Green Inc (m0011lnr)
The Emperor's New Clothes
Cop26 has been and gone. The usually imperturbable IPCC’s latest report can best be translated as ‘Panic!’ and our Facebook feeds and Twitter timelines are littered daily with biblical scenes of infernos and flooding. But at least corporations are taking the crisis seriously... if you believe their advertising that is.
BAFTA winning activist and satirist Heydon Prowse gives us his personal take as he unpacks the multi-billion-dollar PR and advertising industry that’s helping businesses across tech, energy, food and farming appear climate friendly.
With increasing consumer demand for more sustainable stuff, companies are today falling over themselves to meet increased consumer demand for more sustainable products. Are we seeing the world’s largest companies shift in a more sustainable direction or is all this slick advertising just lulling us into a false sense of security?
In the last in the series Heydon finds out what 'sustainability' really means in the fashion industry when allegations of greenwashing abound.
Producer Neil McCarthy
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011rlr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011rlt)
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 (m0011rlw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0011rly)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0011rm0)
St Mark’s Church in Swindon
Bells on Sunday comes from St Mark’s Church in Swindon. The church was built in the 1840s to serve the workers of the Great Western Railway whose Swindon works were nearby. The tower contains a ring of eight bells, six of which were cast in 1904 by Llewellins and James and a further two in 1927 by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Foundry. The Tenor weighs eleven and a half hundredweight and is tuned to G. We hear part of a full peal of eight spliced Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m0011rlc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m0011rm2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01nk244)
The Book of Misers
Starting with Al-Jahiz's 9th century "Book of Misers", Mark Tully looks at one of our old vices and asks whether it can ever bring positive results.
Scrooge, Silas Marner, Ebenezer Balfour, dozens of proudly mean skinflints in Al-Jahiz's great satire, the archetype of the miser is familiar to all cultures and is as old as money itself. Mark Tully asks how we should view it - is it funny, sinful, harmless or a kind of madness - and can it, surprisingly, have benefits?
With readings from Moliere and William Cowper and music ranging from The Beatles to Gounod and Vaughan Williams to Zain Bhika, Mark examines all that is stingy and mean. The readers are Emily Raymond and Toby Jones.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0011rm4)
Strone estate
On the Strone estate in Argyll, Richard Baynes finds out about deer management on an arduous stalk across rugged ground. The owner Tom Turnbull, chairman of the landowners' group responsible for controlling deer, demonstrates the skill and patience needed to hunt Britain’s largest land mammal, and gives his view on woodland recovery and deer-stalking’s future. We also meet his wife Millie, who runs her own enterprise, and talk to John McNaughton, the farmer whose close relationship with Tom is essential to the running of the estate.
Produced and presented by Richard Baynes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0011rm6)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0011rm8)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0011rmb)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0011rmd)
Children in Need
Presenter Charlotte Smith makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Children in Need.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Children in Need'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Children in Need '.
Reg Charity:1802052 Wales and SC039557 in Scotland
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0011rmg)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0011rmj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0011rml)
Hope in the Winter Garden
Baptist minister the Revd Richard LIttledale seeks out the heart of the Winter Garden, and finds it to be a ‘thin’ place, where hope and faith may be found in the short, cold days and the dormant soil. Hope in the Winter Garden. Producer: Andrew Earis
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0011lq8)
Annoying
AL Kennedy attempts to work out why, and how, everything these days seems to annoy us.
But, she says, it's up to us to resist the work of 'the crisis engineers, political extremists and paid agents who turned up our emotional thermostat'.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03jz1hj)
Whooper Swan
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the whooper swan. The elegance and beauty of wild swans has inspired writers and musicians across the centuries – the most familiar perhaps being Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, which may well have been inspired by the Whooper swan.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0011rmn)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0011rmq)
Writer, Adrian Flynn
Directors, Kim Greengrass & Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m0011rms)
Carl Hester, dressage rider
Carl Hester is a dressage rider who has competed in six Olympic Games, winning a team gold at London 2012.
Carl grew up on Sark in the Channel Islands, where cars are banned and horses are part of the island’s daily life. He learned to ride on a donkey before progressing to horses. After leaving school, his first job was at an equine therapy centre in Hampshire.
A key moment in his early career was an invitation from Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer, a leading figure in dressage, to join his yard. In 1992 Carl became the youngest ever British rider to compete at an Olympic Games. As well as a gold in London in 2012, he and the team won silver in Rio in 2016, and earlier this year a bronze medal in Tokyo, where he was the oldest member of Team GB.
Carl has also enjoyed great success as a trainer of horses, including Valegro, once described as the ‘Lionel Messi of the dressage world.’ He has also mentored the rider Charlotte Dujardin, currently Britain’s most successful female Olympian along with the cyclist Laura Kenny.
He lives near Newent in Gloucestershire and says he hopes to compete at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor
SUN 11:45 Four Thought (m000wsf2)
What's In a Name?
Helena Goodwyn interrogates the near universal practice of giving children their father’s - not their mother’s - surname. She and her husband plan to buck the trend in a stand against structural inequality when their first baby is born. "We have the feminist movement to thank for many of the changes that have led us to our present moment, where broadly speaking, British society no longer stigmatises people based on whether they were conceived in or outside of marriage but in the case of cohabiting heterosexual couples the giving of the father's surname remains the norm."
Dr Helena Goodwyn is Vice-Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in English Literature at Northumbria University.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0011sw0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m0011l16)
Series 16
Episode 5
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Holly Walsh are joined by comedian and podcaster Catherine Bohart, broadcaster and author Elizabeth Day and Iron Maiden frontman and airline pilot Bruce Dickinson.
Catherine Bohart talks about creating her comedy new material night Gigless and her appreciation for a perfectly soft boiled egg. Elizabeth Day explores what can be learned from failure and the success of her latest book Magpie. Bruce Dickinson discusses life as the lead singer of Iron Maiden and his other life as a pilot flying all over the world.
This series of The Museum of Curiosity has been recorded remotely.
The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Mandy Fenton and Lydia Mizon of QI.
The Production Co-Ordinator was Sarah Nicholls.
The Producer was Anne Miller.
The Executive Producer was Julia McKenzie.
Edited by David Thomas.
A BBC Studios production.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0011rmx)
Cookbooks of 2021
What are the books that the presenters of Radio 4's The Food Programme have been relishing this year? You are about to find out.
In this episode, Sheila, Dan, Jaega and Leyla get together at 'Books for Cooks' in London's Notting Hill to share their favourite titles; the ones that have made them think, that have inspired them to get creative, and have simply filled them with joy.
We also catch up with The Bookseller's Tom Tivnan to hear how publications and sales have been this year, food writer Signe Johansen shares her knowledge and experiences of ghost-writing in the cookbook world, and Eric Treuille, who first opened 'Books for Cooks' in 1983 shares with the team a recipe from his book of 2021.
Produced by Natalie Donovan in Bristol.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0011rmz)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0011rn1)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m0011rn3)
Capturing the nation in conversation, in partnership with the British Library.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0011lpp)
Becontree Estate: Postbag Edition
Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Becontree Estate answering your gardening questions. Joining him this week are regular panellists Matt Biggs, Christine Walkden and Matthew Wilson.
To celebrate Becontree's 100th birthday, community gardener Carole Wright shows Peter and the panel what the local community have grown on this otherwise urban estate.
As they explore the estate, the panel answer questions from listeners, including how to grow a healthier Photinia and how best to cut back an unruly rose shrub.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 A Home of Our Own (m00108hp)
Black's Gate Crescent, Belfast
Lynsey Hanley visits 28-year-old Katrina who's just moved into her brand new house in west Belfast, an affordable home built on a brownfield site.
Katrina is thrilled with her new three-bed home. Constructed on the the former Visteon car manufacturing site, the Black's Gate development features hundred of new affordable homes in an area with a significant shortage of homes.
Every home has a story to tell about the UK's housing crisis. Old industrial sites appear to offer an answer to Britain's housing shortage. But as Lynsey discovers speaking to the site's developer, Radius Housing, building on brownfield sites is not without its challenges.
House historian Melanie Backe-Hansen looks at the history of the site, and Professor Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics looks at the issues surrounding building on industrial land.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
SUN 15:00 Drama (m0011rn5)
The Certificate
Dramatised by Jonathan Myerson, from the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Leonard Wolf.
This warm-hearted comic romance tells the story of hapless teenager David Bendiger, who washes up penniless in 1922 Warsaw.
Out of the blue, he gets the offer of a free Certificate enabling emigration to Palestine - on condition that he marries. It's a controversial British plan to fulfil the recent Balfour Declaration, but it may also be the currency David needs to make a life for himself.
It's just a pity that he's a hopeless fantasist and a clueless virgin who can't shake the voice of his disapproving Rabbi father from his head - a shtetl Adrian Mole who's soon embroiled in the lives of three very different women, but somehow no closer to getting on the boat.
David’s story gives us a crazy tour of the political and cultural turmoil of early 20th Century Jewish life - as the old, old world of the Warsaw ghetto struggled to reinvent itself in newly independent Poland. Isaac Bashevis Singer was the son of a Rabbi, and we know from his autobiographical writings that The Certificate closely mirrors some of his experiences in Warsaw, where he lived as a child and where, like David, he returned as a young man in the early 1920s. There, Singer observed the increasing politicisation of Jewish life outside orthodoxy, and abandoned orthodox dress, but eventually found himself unable to commit to any one ideology. In 1978, Singer received the Nobel Prize for Literature - the only writer in Yiddish to receive the honour.
Cast:
David Bendiger ..... Sid Sagar
Father ..... Henry Goodman
Sonya ..... Debbie Chazen
Minna Ahronson ..... Rhiannon Neads
Edusha ..... Safiyya Ingar
Mr Ahronson/The Fixer/The Black Marketeer ..... Stephen Hogan
Kalmenzohn/The Rabbi/Hertz Lipmann/Mendl ..... Samuel James
Bella/Pharmacist ..... Jane Slavin
Sound Design ..... Jon Nicholls and Jonquil Panting
Producer/Director: ..... Jonquil Panting
A Jonx production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0011rn7)
JJ Bola
Johny Pitts talks to JJ Bola about his novel The Selfless Act of Breathing, the story of a millennial angst told through the eyes of a young teacher who seems to have it all.
Prof David Damrosch and writer Rob Doyle talk about their books, Around the World in 80 Books and Autobibliography, and how a life in reading inspired them to bring together a collection of their most cherished reads in a single volume.
Taskeen Ahmed from Awesome Books discusses how we can be more green by buying second hand books.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, author of Dust and one time winner of the Caine Prize for African Literature, sends us her literary postcard from Nairobi. And Johny hears about online market for second hand books and why buying them helps the climate change.
Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer: Kirsten Locke
Book List – Sunday 21 November and Thursday 25 November
The Selfless Act of Breathing by J J Bola
No Place to Call Home by J J Bola
Mask Off by J J Bola
Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch
Autobibliography by Rob Doyle
Voyage Autour de ma Chambre by Xavier de Maistre
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Weight of Whispers by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
The Divine Comedy by Dante
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Ethical Bookshops
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/shopping-guide/ethical-bookshops
https://www.booksellers.org.uk/bookshopsearch
https://www.awesomebooks.com/
https://uk.bookshop.org/
SUN 16:30 The Language Exchange (m0011rn9)
Liz Berry and Buzz Baum
The Language Exchange is a place where poets and scientists meet to share ideas and create new work. In each episode a poet will sit down with a scientist to find out more about a specific piece of research. The poet will then write a brand new poem inspired by their discussion.
Here, poet Liz Berry meets scientist Buzz Baum. Liz Berry's poetry has examined the joy and anguish of motherhood. In this programme, Liz will be thinking about the very beginnings of life as she sits down with Buzz Baum at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Buzz studies cell division, the process where one cell becomes two.
Liz Berry won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2014 for her debut collection 'Black Country'. Her latest collection is 'The Republic of Motherhood'
Producer: Jessica Treen
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m0011lfr)
Who is policing the police?
With the murder of Sarah Everard shining a light on police vetting procedures, File on 4 reveals that thousands of officers have still not been re-vetted to standards brought in in 2006. As a public inquiry tries to establish what’s going wrong with our policing, Melanie Abbott talks to the women who say they’ve been betrayed by police officers who should have kept them safe and to officers who say sexism and harassment are part of the job.
Reporter: Melanie Abbott
Producer: Mick Tucker
Editor: Nicola Addyman
SUN 17:40 Profile (m0011rlc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0011rnf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0011rnh)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011rnk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0011rnm)
Mobeen Azhar
The best of BBC Radio this week.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0011rnp)
It’s a big day for Eddie and Clarrie, and Oliver steps up to the mark.
SUN 19:15 It's Not What You Know (b09tf70n)
Series 5
Episode 1
Has Tony Hawks ever committed a crime, what's the most embarrassing thing Rachel Riley does when working on Countdown and what did Desiree like least about working as a dominatrix?
All these questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Joe Lycett where panellists are tested on how well they know their nearest and dearest.
Produced by Matt Stronge.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
SUN 19:45 Gambits (m0011rnr)
4: The Rook
The next in a dazzling new short story series set in Little Purlington - a seemingly ordinary English village, but which is anything but. Today, in 'The Rook', a woman living secretly in the local folly finds herself under suspicion for the strange happenings in the village...
Reader: Jasmine Hyde
Writer: Eley Williams is the author of Attrib. and Other Stories, and a debut novel, The Liar's Dictionary.
Producer: Justine Willett
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0011lpw)
In a programme broadcast during COP 26, Radio 4’s The Food Programme looked at “how meat and dairy can play a positive role for the future of people and the planet”.
Did it analyse the argument or promote it, and did presenter Dan Saladino need to record from inside an abattoir in such graphic detail? He answers these questions and others from listeners.
One of the BBC’s key podcast commissioners talks about whether she thinks there is a future for broadcast radio.
And two listeners have a sparky reaction to an interview with the film maker Mike Leigh?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0011lpt)
Aaron Beck, Joan Carlyle (pictured), Etel Adnan, Anne Bradford
Kirsty Lang on Aaron Beck the Eminent psychiatrist who developed cognitive behavioural therapy into the world’s most popular treatment for depression and anxiety.
Joan Carlyle the principal soprano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for almost 20 years.
Etel Adnan one of the Arab world's most important writers, and author of one of the most important War Novels ever written and
Anne Bradford Compiler of the bestselling crossword solver’s dictionary who could complete the Times puzzle in six minutes.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Dr Judith Beck
Interviewed guest: Catriona Gallo
Interviewed guest: Peggy Reynolds
Interviewed guest: Dr Elizabeth Marcus
Interviewed guest: Gillian Beauchamp
Archive clips used: BBC Radio 4, All In The Mind 26/03/2003; BBC TWO, Living Hell: Depression 03/03/1999; BBC TWO, Music On Two: I Think It Should Go Like This 31/01/1973; Serpentine Galleries, Etel Adnan Reading From The Arab Apocalypse 07/10/2015; HENI Talks, Hans Ulrich Obrist Visits Etel Adnan 24/02/2020; BBC Radio 4, The Reference Library 21/11/2000.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0011rkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0011rmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m0011l1g)
Finding Things Out
Finding things out during the pandemic has been hit and miss: there’ve been miracles, and there’s been junk. What matters is not just what we think we know about how to intervene to improve human health, but how we think we know it. Methods can be inspired, flawed, or both. Michael Blastland tells the short and still-changing story of how science has been trying to get better at finding things out.
Contributions from:
Professor Sir Angus Deaton, Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University.
Maria Popp. Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, Emergency and Pain Medicine, University Hospital Wuerzburg.
Professor George Davey Smith, Director of the Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol.
Sheena McCormack, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at University College London
Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Jasper Corbett
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0011rnt)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Think with Pinker (m0011lsz)
Think Twice
Sabermetrics, the search for objective knowledge about baseball by analysing statistical records, has transformed the sport. But can statistics and formulas really do a better job of picking the best players than a baseball coach with decades of experience?
Professor Steven Pinker is joined by Sig Mejdal, sabermetrician, former NASA engineer and assistant manager of the Baltimore Orioles and by Professor Ellen Peters director of the Centre for Science Communication Research in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. They discuss the on-going relationship between human expertise and statistical evidence.
Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.
ARCHIVE
Laurel or Yanny: vocabulary.com
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01nk244)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0011rnw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m0011lwz)
19. Is This What Success Looks Like?
Lee Chambers is an undeniable success. From his parents' single bedroom, with the boiler humming away day and night, he founds an e-commerce video games business that gives him a healthy bank account in seven months. Next comes the car, the house, the fancy holidays with his wife. But all the time, Lee feels like a total failure. Everyone is telling him he’s a success, but he can’t see it. He’s on the verge of being overwhelmed, until his body intervenes to stop him in his tracks.
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed asks us to question the myths we’re fed about success and redefine its meaning for ourselves. Is it always about working harder? Can we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or, actually, do many more of us need a leg up from others? Matthew explores the way toxic myths about successful entrepreneurialism are sold to us, which often ignore the uneven access to risk-taking and the importance of timing. With philosopher Dr Gwen Bradford, of Rice University, Matthew asks us to reconsider what achievement really means. And, ultimately, asks us to create a healthier approach to what it takes to become successful.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer and Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Executive Producer: Max O’Brien
Researcher: Nadia Mehdi
Music, sound design and mix: Nicholas Alexander
Additional mixing: Alex Portfelix
Produced by Novel for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0011rm0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011rny)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011rp0)
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 (m0011rp2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0011rp4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0011rp6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jaspreet Kaur
Good morning.
With only a few weeks left to go until the festive season, I’m sure many of us are asking or being asked “what would you like for Christmas”!
However, a friend of mine recently popped a message in our group chat saying she really didn’t need anything this year at all. Others shared links to sustainable brands, jewellery made from recycled materials, brands that donate to charity and others that seek to minimise waste. It’s the first year my friends and I have wanted to make more conscious and sustainable gift choices.
In the Sikh faith, the second Guru, Guru Angad Devi Ji, wrote in the Guru Grant Sahib that “the mouth is not satisfied by speaking, and the ears are not content by hearing. The eyes are not fulfilled by seeing.” We’re always wanting more and never feel like we have enough.
It reminded me of a beautiful Spanish word I’d learnt a few years earlier on my travels. A word that inspired this poem;
Aprovachar
It means to use something wisely,
To take the opportunity,
To take advantage of —
Getting full value from life.
“I am satisfied. “
Enjoying all the good that each moment and each thing has to offer.
Dear God, thank you for the blessings you have bestowed on my life and for providing me with all I need. Please guide me in making more conscious and sustainable choices for our earth and generations to come.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh - Praise to God.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0011rp8)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m0011rpb)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09hw8jh)
Fyfe Dangerfield on the Pied Butcherbird
Having recorded a number of bird calls in Australia, back home musician Fyfe Dangerfield manipulates their speed and pitch to experiment in music and melody composition.
Producer : Mark Ward.
MON 06:00 Today (m0011rsc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0011rsf)
Christianity: Changing Fortunes
Pentecostalism is global sensation: a Christian movement, founded at the turn of the 20th century by the son of freed slaves, that has become the fastest-growing religion in the world. Elle Hardy explains to Andrew Marr how this flourishing, tech-savvy movement is reshaping not only the expression of faith and one’s relationship with God, but whole societies as well. In her exposé, Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over The World, Hardy explores how miracles, money and power have become intertwined, but also how the movement has brought meaning and community to many of the most marginalised and rootless worldwide.
In the Middle East there are some of the oldest continuous Christian communities, going back 2,000 years. But in The Vanishing, the award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni paints a portrait of faith communities in serious decline. With threats of war, religious persecution and economic uncertainty, their futures are in doubt. But amongst the stories of attacks on churches and political harassment, di Giovanni reveals glimmers of hope and resilience in Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Gaza.
In her roles as Canon of Westminster and Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons the Reverend Tricia Hillas is situated at the spiritual heart of political power. She reflects on the continuing importance of faith in modern society and the issues facing the Church of England today. With congregation numbers in steep decline, in what ways can the Church spread its appeal, diversify and attract the younger generation?
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011rsh)
1. How an undcocumented childhood begins.
Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving memoir is about leaving China for Brooklyn aged seven, and growing up as an illegal immigrant. In today's episode, it's 1994 and Qian Julie's family make a new start in America, the Beautiful Country, but the promise of a better future proves elusive.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
Abridged by Sarah Shaffi
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0011rsl)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 11:00 The Untold (m0011rsn)
The Dentist Van
Nick has an unbearable tooth ache and has tried, and failed, to extract the bad tooth himself.
He's homeless and, like many others, can't access NHS dental care. When a mobile dentist van arrives at a homeless support centre, Nick joins the queue. He's desperate but he was too late putting his name on the list. Will he get an appointment?
The charity van roams Britain with a dedicated brigade of volunteer dentists, filling in wherever the need is greatest. As it parks up outside the support centre in Hastings, we hear the stories of those seeking help. There are many hoping to be seen.
Presented by Grace Dent and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Eliza Lomas.
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m0011rl9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0011rsr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011rst)
1: 'You must feel so lucky'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's achingly funny and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever, beautiful and funny, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is she now friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister, and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: as her husband leaves her, Martha looks back on her bohemian childhood and the bomb that went off in her teenage brain...
Reader: Hattie Morahan is an acclaimed stage and screen actor.
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m0011rsx)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m0011rsz)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0011rt1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Breakup (m0011rt3)
Episode One: Drawing the Line
When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?
Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before.
Episode One: Drawing the Line
When Ophelia's mum tells her she’s worried about violence over the future of the border in Ireland, Ophelia charts the beginnings of the partition line and the establishment of the Irish Boundary Commission, set up to finalise its shape.
Presenter: Ophelia Byrne
Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne
Music: David Holmes
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0011rnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m000sj88)
Writ in Water
A new play by John Keats expert Angus Graham-Campbell to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the poet, who lost his battle with tuberculosis at the age of only 25.
Despite his tragic early death, Keats produced a huge output, but his success and acclaim would really only come after his passing. In his 20s, he fell passionately in love with a neighbour in Hampstead, Fanny Brawne, who was the inspiration for some of his famous poems. But after a lifetime of poor health, he was persuaded by the doctors to travel to Italy in the hope that the warmer climate might improve his health.
The play focuses on the journey to Italy and his time there. Setting off with his close friend, Joseph Severn, their journey by boat was treacherous and nearly killed them but, having finally made it there safely, they were able to enjoy a short time before his illness overwhelmed him.
Angus Graham-Campbell's previous drama about the earlier life of Keats, Rebel Angel, was broadcast to mark the 200th anniversary of the poet's birth.
Cast includes Billy Howle whose recent credits include leads in The Serpent on BBC television, the films Dunkirk and On Chesil Beach. Callum Woodhouse plays a leading role in The Durrells and is one of the leads in the acclaimed new series of All Creatures Great and Small. This is their debut in radio drama.
Cast:
John Keats........................Billy Howle
Joseph Severn...................Callum Woodhouse
Fanny Brawne..................Saffron Coomber
Poynter..............................Will Howard
Dr Clark.............................Stephen Critchlow
Rev. Wolfe..........................Crawford Logan
Princess...............................Rachel Atkins
Dr Darling...........................Gerard McDermott
Author: Angus Graham-Campbell
Director: Cherry Cookson
A Wireless Theatre production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (m0011rt6)
Nick Robinson, Salena Godden, Helen MacDonald
The celebrity panel game about quotations, hosted by Nigel Rees, returns with a series celebrating its 500th programme.
This episode features:
- Nick Robinson, host of the Today programme and former political editor of BBC News and ITV News
- Salena Godden, acclaimed performance poet, author and novelist
- Helen MacDonald, naturalist and author of "H is for Hawk"
Reader of the Quotations: Charlotte Green
Production Co-Ordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Producer: Ella Watts
Executive Producer: James Robinson
This programme is a BBC Studios Audio production.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m0011rmx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Hacking Capitalism (m00111x9)
Capitalism is in crisis and blamed for everything, from environmental devastation to social inequality. But what if it could be hacked, and made to it fulfil its promises of a better life? Sustainable finance expert Leo Johnson seeks solutions, in Hacking Capitalism.
From the fields, to the factory and on to finance, Leo Johnson seeks out the hacks to capitalism which could make it deliver on its promise to deliver better lives for people around the globe.
Leo explores how ancient farming techniques in India and France could reverse climate change; how revolutionary methods used to develop new technology in China may unlock prosperity for millions across Africa, and how a new plan to combine crypto currency and forest protection could hack the heart of capitalism itself - the world’s financial system.
Producer Jonathan Brunert
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m0011rt9)
African Spirituality
The increasing influence of African spirituality on Western society is very evident. You can read it in the work of novelists like Ben Okri, see it in the work of artists such as Chris Ofili and hear it in the music of pop superstars like Beyonce. Partly driven by the desire of young people within the African diaspora to find a deeper connection to their African heritage, African spirituality is very different to Christianity or Islam; religions brought to Africa by colonizing forces. It contains many diverse beliefs which differ from region to region. There are no scriptures – the traditions are passed on by word of mouth – and ancestors play a key role. Many of the practices are not found in Western culture (such as juju), but they express deep spiritual convictions and bind societies together.
To discuss African spirituality, Ernie Rea has assembled a panel of experts from across the African continent. Born in Nigeria in the West of Africa, Jacob K Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions at Harvard Divinity School and Professor of African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Mary Nyangweso was born in Kenya in East Africa and is Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University. And Adeola Aderemi is a Holistic Healer who bases her practice on her Isese Ifa spirituality with its origins in the Yoruba culture of Southern Nigeria.
Ernie also talks to Nigerian born artist Laolu Senbanjo who now works in New York. Laolu’s art is influenced by his Yoruba heritage and practice of African spirituality. His ‘Sacred Art of the Ori’ (Yoruba symbols painted onto the naked body) featured on Beyoncé’s 2016 Grammy award winning video for her concept album ‘Lemonade’.
Producers:
Helen Lee
Julian Paszkiewicz
MON 17:00 PM (m0011rtc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011rtf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m0011rth)
Series 16
Episode 6
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and the Museum’s latest curator Holly Walsh are joined by comedian and writer Daliso Chaponda, Chief Fire Officer of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and neuroscientist Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton and anaesthetist and space medicine specialist Dr Kevin Fong.
Daliso explains how jokes have got him into some seriously hot water and discovers how many anagrams there are of his name. Sabrina discusses how experiencing homelessness as a teenager led her to the fire service and her love of Xoloitzcuintlis (Mexican hairless) dogs. And Dr Kevin Fong explores how an air ambulance could work in space and donates a special tribute to the NHS teams working devotedly through the COVID 19 crisis.
This series of The Museum of Curiosity has been recorded remotely.
The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Shephard, Mike Turner and Mandy Fenton and Lydia Mizon of QI.
The Production Co-Ordinator was Sarah Nicholls.
The Producer was Anne Miller.
The Executive Producer was Julia McKenzie.
Edited by David Thomas.
A BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0011rtk)
Lynda’s feeling a cut above the rest while Jazzer and Will hatch a plan.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0011rtm)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 20:00 The Wedding Detectives (m0011rtr)
Episode 4
Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost? Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family.
This time, from a box of ephemera, they uncover the moving love story of Thelma, a young woman who fell in love with Tony, a dashing Royal Marine. She saved his letters, a lock of his hair, the programmes from the plays they went to see and more. Her scrapbooks show a developing love affair, from the edge of childhood into adulthood. There’s an engagement notice and excitement about the wedding to come.
Then, instead of a wedding album, there is a sombre black-bound album with newspaper reports about the Royal Marines Commando Display at Madison Square Garden of the summer of 1960. Tony would abseil from a great height every night, dressed in a City gent’s outfit, holding an umbrella. On 1st July he fell to his death. The tragedy made headlines.
In an emotional journey, Charlotte and Cole find out what happened to Thelma and the wedding that never was, and the lasting impact on Tony’s family.
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0011lrw)
Salmon Wars
A bitter fight over fish is playing out in the American West. Sockeye salmon make one of the great migrations in the world, swimming 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to 6,500 feet up in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, where they spawn and die - but that journey may not happen much longer.
In addition to the gauntlet of predators the fish face, from orcas on the west coast to eagles in the mountains, they are running into a man-made obstacle: dams.
Most scientists agree the dams need to go for the fish to live, but the dams provide clean energy and an inexpensive way for farmers to get their crops to international markets.
Heath Druzin investigates how a bitter fight is underway in the American West pitting Native American tribes, fisherman and conservationists against grain growers and power producers.
Meanwhile, time is running out for the iconic species.
Presented by Heath Druzin
Produced by Richard Fenton-Smith
Editor, Bridget Harney
MON 21:00 Political Time Zones (m0011ldt)
Surviving the Future
We have always been on the brink of apocalypse. It's a claim made in every era. But now predictions of our imminent destruction have considerably more substance. We face cataclysmic threats - climate change, pandemics, demographic shifts, economic upheaval. That puts pressure on how politics plays out across the world. In fact, it's one of the distinctive features of 21st century politics - the future is quite hard to imagine.
And that has led to political leaders around the world turning endlessly to the past.
In episode two of Political Time Zones, David Runciman looks at how the present is being pulled apart by the past and the future. How might we re-imagine the relationship between the past, present and the future to help us survive the apocalypse?
Presenter: David Runciman
Producer: Ant Adeane
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0011rsf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0011rtx)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011rst)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Wireless Nights (m0011rv1)
Series 7
Bat Night
Jarvis Cocker is back with a new series of Wireless Nights
Tonight, armed with a bat detector Jarvis sets off through a wetland in search of bats and bat stories.
He finds ecologist John Altringham crouched beside a cave in North Yorkshire awaiting a swarm of bats that come once a year to dance the night away.
Jayne Hyde Dryden is using her powers of echo location to find her way around on a night walk. Being blind, this helps her see in sound.
And Gail Armstrong is on watch at the Bat Hospital in Lancashire, nursing injured bats back to good health and finally returning them to the wild.
Producer Neil McCarthy
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0011rv4)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
TUESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0011rv6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011rsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011rv8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011rvb)
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 (m0011rvd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0011rvg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0011rvj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jaspreet Kaur
Good morning.
I was in the car the other day, listening to the radio, and I had a little flashback to 2005 when a song that teenage Jaspreet used to love burst from the speakers. It was Bobby Valentino’s ‘Slow Down.’ When I got home, I wanted to play the song again, and after typing in “slow down” online, almost a thousand other songs showed up!
Why is it that so many songs have this same message? In the chaotic existence that is the twenty-first century, is it that there are too many things competing for our attention that all these singers and songwriters are all agreed what we need to do – slow down!
The exhaustion of constant busyness is real. Sometimes I feel like I’m moving at 100mph, and it takes a while for my brain to catch up!
Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Sikh Guru, said, “Involved in worldly affairs, he wastes his life in vain; the peace-giving Lord does not come to abide in his mind.”
I spent most of my teenage years rushing to grow up. Now, the irony is that I’m starting to feel an urgency to pause. To reflect. To slow down.
Dear God, help us give ourselves permission to be still, to find peace in that stillness, and to slow down so that we can take that time to turn inwards.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh – “praise to God”
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0011rvl)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09dtd3m)
Dermot O'Leary on the Sea Eagle
Presenter Dermot O'Leary goes in search of sea eagles in the Highlands. He's enlisted wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan to help him track them down but with the light fading their chances of seeing them are not looking good.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photo: Ian Ireland.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0011sf5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Things Fell Apart (m0011sf7)
3. A Miracle
It’s the early 1980s and a hugely popular television evangelist is having a crisis of conscience. She wants Christian evangelism to be less bigoted. And so, to the horror of her peers, she invites a very unexpected guest onto her TV show…
Written and presented by Jon Ronson
Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
Original music by Phil Channell
Archive from the PTL network's 'Tammy's House Party' and the 'PTL Club'.
TUE 09:30 Biohacking (b0bgq182)
Just Like That
Prof Jonathan Ball finds out just how easy it has become to sequence a genome and edit it. Matt Loose and Chris Denning helpfully demonstrate the cheapness and practical simplicity of a USB connected DNA sequencer and the clever potion that is CRISPR/Cas-9 editing technique.
What once took $3bn and earned a presidential congratulation, can now be done in a hotel room with a laptop and a coffee machine.
Presenter: Prof. Jonathan Ball
Producer: Alex Mansfield
TUE 09:45 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011sfb)
2. School and Work
Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving memoir is about leaving China for Brooklyn aged seven, and growing up as an illegal immigrant. In today's episode, a new arrival without immigration papers, Qian Julie's mother takes what work she can.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
Abridged by Sarah Shaffi
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0011sfd)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Political Time Zones (m0011sfg)
Episode 3
David Runciman looks at how democracies might think more deeply about time to tackle the challenges of the future.
TUE 11:30 History on the Edge (m00101kt)
Anita Anand uncovers an extraordinary personal story from the margins of British history which challenges our perspective of the past we thought we knew. At a crucial moment in the rethinking of whose histories we should be telling, History on the Edge challenges some of the conventional assumptions about our past.
It’s 1940 and, amid the chaos of the Second World War, a 19-year-old refugee from Hitler’s Germany, Konrad Eisig, finds himself caught up in a British policy which, just when he thought he was safe, sends him on a hazardous sea journey to Australia in conditions little better than those of the slave ships of a century-and-a-half before. With the help of Eisig’s first-hand testimony from the astonishing diary he left behind, Anita is on an investigation to unravel his story and understand how this apparently cruel train of events came about, and what it was really like for those who lived it.
With contributions from Nick Ross, Aditi Anand, Laura Walker, Claudia Cotton, Dr Rachel Pistol and Dr Seumas Spark. Extracts from Konrad Eisig’s Diary are read by Gunnar Cauthery.
Producer: Anna de Wolff Evans
Executive Producer: Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0011sfj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011sfl)
2: 'You are just a bit lost'
Described as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's achingly funny and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a woman who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is she now friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister, and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: Martha's unfortunate marriage to the white jeans and wet-look gel-wearing art dealer, Jonathan Strong...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m0011sfn)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0011sfq)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0011sfs)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Breakup (m0011sfv)
Episode Two: Secrecy's Veil
When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?
Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before.
Episode Two: Secrecy's Veil
As they continue their hearings along the existing border, all three Boundary Commissioners agree on a strict code of secrecy - but one of them may not be playing by the rules...
Presenter: Ophelia Byrne
Additional Research: Courtney McKay
Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0011rtk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Douglas Livingstone (m0008jdv)
Road to Ferrara
Raymond has long since divorced, but is still not resigned to his single status. When his mother dies, he looks to her carer for help of a different sort.
An invitation to go with her to Ferrara to witness the oldest Palio in Italy seems to open up the possibility of romance, but Ferrara is a city with a history of lust, betrayal and revenge - and Raymond’s visit there has unexpected echoes of the past.
Written by Douglas Livingstone
Drama inspired by extensive recordings made at the 2019 Palio at Ferrara.
Raymond.....Peter Wight
Lucia.....Rebecca Lee
Martha.....Joanna McCallum
Marco.....Sebastiano Kiniger
Maid.....Emma Noakes
Restaurant Owner.....Jane Bertish
Maria......Flaminia Cinque
Director: Jane Morgan
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in September 2019.
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m0011sfx)
Wheel of Fortune
A writer wonders if she has been cursed by the comedian Stewart Lee, a man builds his home beside an active volcano, and the story of a clothes peg and it's strange, romantic power.
Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about luck, superstition and surrendering to chaos.
Sandwiches
Featuring Laura Barton and Stewart Lee
Kilauea
Featuring Gary Sleik
Produced by Thomas Phillips
Lucky 7
Featuring Richard O'Neill
Photo credit: Gary Sleik ("Photo taken February 11, 2017 at 7: 48 a.m. about 7 km west of my home, on my morning walk to see where the lava was flowing on the surface. I was able to see these flows from my bed at night, more comfortable for me than most people I'm sure.")
Curated by Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Executive Producer: Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m0011ryj)
All Aboard the Sir David Attenborough
The public wanted to name her Boaty McBoatface, but in the end she got a slightly more stately name. The UK's newest polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has just set out on her maiden voyage to Antarctica, where she'll enable scientists to research climate change and its impacts on the polar regions.
Following a hundred years of polar exploration, this ship will write the next chapter in UK polar science.
In this episode, ocean physicist Helen Czerski gets aboard to poke around the new ship, and meets the crew members and scientists who will be taking her to the ends of the earth in search of the answers to some of the most pressing questions of our time. She finds out how the ship has been designed specially to encourage collaboration and bring together scientists from different fields. And she tries out the bunks and learns what life at sea will be like.
Find out why krill can fight climate change, how you cook at sea in a storm and what the massive hole in the middle of the ship is for!
Producer: Heather Simons
TUE 16:00 Stolen Honour (m000ysmv)
In November 2020, former army Sergeant Deacon Cutterham sold his medal collection to a private collector for £140,000. Having served for 19 years, completing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said the sale of his medal collection, including a valuable Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, would help support his family.
But there's a problem. Members of Cutterham's Afghanistan unit say the act of bravery that won him his biggest prize didn't happen.
Cutterham's medal was awarded in 2011 after he picked up and hurled away a Taliban grenade while on patrol in Helmand, saving the lives of eight men. His comrades say there was a grenade - but it came from Cutterham's own equipment belt.
If their accusations are true, why would a soldier be so desperate for a medal?
In this programme, defence correspondent Jonathan Beale explores the culture of medals within the military. He assesses their significance and questions whether they encourage violence and recklessness as soldiers fight for recognition in the field of combat. There are some who argue that gallantry medals actually endanger lives and undermine the process of peacekeeping.
We'll hear from critics of the medals system who argue that it's entirely outdated, far better suited to the wars of the 20th century than the subtle counter-insurgency campaigns of today. They say medals are awarded for "kinetic activity", by which the forces mean violent exchanges. Quite simply, you don't win medals for keeping things calm.
Producer: Sasha Edye-Linder
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m0011sfz)
Kaffe Fassett and Andy Summers
Kaffe Fassett is perhaps best known for his colourful knitwear designs but he is also a quilt maker, painter and ceramicist. His choice of book is Kandahar Cockney: A Tale of Two Worlds by former foreign correspondent James Fergusson. It's the story of Mir an interpreter Fergusson meets and hires while on assignment in Afghanistan in the late 1990s as the country fell to the Taliban for the first time. Fergusson assists Mir in escaping to Britain and claiming asylum where he becomes the eponymous 'Kandahar Cockney' trying to navigate a new life in the East End of London. Kaffe chose it because of recent events and wanted to reread it.
Andy Summers is a guitarist best known for being part of The Police. He is also the author of a collection of short stories Fretted & Moaning featuring a variety of characters whose lives centre in some way around the guitar. His good read is A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki which he says is 'hip, modern and amazing'.
Alongside these two books is Toast by Nigel Slater, the food writer's memoir of growing up hungry in the 1960s and 70s.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Maggie Ayre
TUE 17:00 PM (m0011sg1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011sg3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 The Casebook of Max and Ivan (b096gspx)
Series 2
Case #96 - Community Disservice
The return of acclaimed double-act Max and Ivan as incompetent private detectives for hire.
Joanna Lumley guest stars.
The detectives investigate a series of mysterious thefts which threaten the very future of Nunhead Community Centre.
Assisted by the permanently tired caretaker Gerry, they track the chief suspect, washed-up former B-Movie actress Lavinia Moncrief and eventually have to go undercover to infiltrate her bizarre acting classes. Also featuring bell ringers, hypnotism and a mutant komodo dragon.
Written by and Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez.
Max ...... Max Olesker
Ivan ...... Ivan Gonzalez
Lavinia Moncrief ...... Joanna Lumley
Gerry Glossop ...... David Reed
Andromedo ...... David Reed
Battle re-enactor ...... David Reed
Narrator ...... Lewis Macleod
Malcolm McMichaelmas ...... Lewis Macleod
Soulless property developer ...... Lewis Macleod
Janet from the council ...... Lolly Adefope
Bell-ringer ...... Lolly Adefope
Developed by John Stanley Productions
Producer: Ben Walker
A Retort production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in October 2017.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0011rxw)
Chelsea strikes a deal and Ruth feels bogged down.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0011sg5)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0011sg7)
Am I in a Cult?
How do you know if you’ve been recruited by a cult? Rachel Stonehouse investigates claims there are up to 1,500 cults currently operating in the UK. We talk to young people who say they were recruited on campus and a father who went to court to free his daughter from the influence of a harmful cult.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0011sg9)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m0011ry0)
Programme exploring the limits and potential of the human mind. Producer: Deborah Cohen.
TUE 21:30 Things Fell Apart (m0011sf7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0011sgc)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011sfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m0011sgf)
212. Underpant Pyres, Death and Dying with Kathryn Mannix
In this edition of the podcast, Kathryn Mannix, former palliative care doctor, joins Fi and Jane to discuss death and dying. Kathryn talks about what we might expect in end of life, how to discuss death with others and her experiences of treating people who are dying. The three of them also respond to listeners who have shared their perspectives and reflections over email. Before Kathryn's arrival, Jane is subject to double embarrassments and Fi remembers an unfortunate playground dash.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0011sgh)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
WEDNESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0011sgk)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011sfb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011sgm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011sgp)
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 (m0011sgr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0011sgt)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0011sgw)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jaspreet Kaur
Good morning.
Recently, I was gifted a beautiful book by Masi Noor called Forgiveness is Really Strange. It looked into the health benefits and healing of forgiveness and explains, with some very helpful diagrams for those of us who aren’t scientists, what happens in our brains, bodies and even our communities when we choose to forgive.
It reminded me of the story of the late Congressman and civil rights activist, John Lewis.
In 1961, Lewis was one of the Freedom Riders attacked at the Rock Hill, South Carolina bus station. Many years later one of the attackers, Elwin Wilson, travelled to Washington, met with Lewis and apologised for his actions. Lewis forgave him. The two men became friends and made several appearances together, including one on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In the Sikh faith, Guru Arjun Dev Ji, the fifth Sikh Guru, tells us, “Don’t keep ill thoughts within your mind towards others, and there will be no suffering for you.”
Forgiveness is indeed really strange, as Masi Noor’s book title emphasises. Deep down, I know ill thoughts and anger can ultimately lead to our own internal suffering.
Dear God, with your hand, protect me and guide me away from negative thinking and ill wishes, and instead, guide me towards forgiveness so that my pain can be destroyed.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh – “Praise to God”
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0011sgy)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09fzt78)
Fyfe Dangerfield on the Gannet
Musician Fyfe Dangerfield describes being enthralled by the rapid, bombing dive of a gannet fishing out at sea and the magic of unexpectedly seeing one up close.
Producer: Mark Ward
Photograph: Debbie Stevens.
WED 06:00 Today (m0011rx5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m0011rx7)
Jane Garvey talks to ordinary people about an extraordinary turning point in their life.
WED 09:30 Witness (b01kjlhc)
In prison with Nelson Mandela
Ahmed Kathrada was one of the ANC activists accused of conspiring to overthrow Apartheid at the Rivonia Trial in South Africa in 1964. He was jailed on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela and spent almost as long in prison. In this edition of Witness he spoke to Alan Johnston about his time in prison: the petty distinctions that Apartheid imposed on the prisoners according to their race, how they filled their time, and what they missed most. Ahmed Kathrada died in 2017.
WED 09:45 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011rx9)
3. Sushi and Shopping Day
In Qian Julie Wang's moving memoir about growing up an illegal immigrant in America, her mother gets another new job, and the struggle to make ends meet continues. Katie Leung reads.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
Abridged by Sarah Shaffi
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0011rxc)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 Could I Regenerate My Farm to Save the Planet? (m0011rxf)
Regenerative Farming is gaining traction around the world as a means of increasing biodiversity, improving soil quality, sequestering carbon, restoring watersheds and enhancing the ecosystems of farms. The shepherd James Rebanks, author of English Pastoral, is on a quest to find out if it is possible to adopt these methods on his farm in the Lake District. He meets leading proponents of these methods in the UK, US and Europe and discovers how mimicking natural herd movements, stopping ploughing and adding costly chemicals could make his farm economically sustainable.
This is becoming an urgent question as not only is the global population projected to rise to nearly 10 billion by 2050 but according to the UN's Food and Agriculture organisation within 60 years we may literally no longer have enough arable topsoil to feed ourselves. Meanwhile our reliance on meat products is being blamed for increasing CO2 and climate change.
But can James,and indeed other farmers, make the switch to these techniques when industrial farming has been the paradigm for so long? When so many people believe turning vegan and shifting to plant-based ecological farming is the way forward, should he continue breeding sheep and cows? And as companies like Nestle, Walmart, Unilever, McCain and Pepsi all pledge to invest in regenerative farming to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, do the claims about carbon sequestration stand up? How can he use his farm to save the planet?
WED 11:30 John Finnemore's Double Acts (b08vzj4j)
Series 2
Penguin Diplomacy
A chance meeting between Søndergaard and Bunning could very well lead to a new Cold War.
Martin Clunes and Tom Goodman-Hill star in another of the six two-handers written by Cabin Pressure's John Finnemore.
Written by John Finnemore
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m0011rxh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011rxk)
3: 'Someone with your tendencies'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's darkly humorous and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: honeymoon and heartbreak, and the return of old friend Patrick...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m0011rxm)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m0011rxp)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0011rxr)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Breakup (m0011rxt)
Episode Three: Game Plan
When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?
Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before
Episode Three: Game Plan
Ophelia finds out what happened to some of the communities which testified to the Irish Boundary Commission - but a chance discovery in the archives makes her begin to question the entire Commission process
Presenter: Ophelia Byrne
Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0011rxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Stone (b08493nw)
Series 6
Casualties
Third drama of Stone, long running detective series created by Danny Brocklehurst with Hugo Speer as DCI Stone.
In Casualties by Martin Jameson, a young British Asian man becomes a murder suspect, but powerful factors come into play that test DCI Stone’s team to breaking point.
DCI JOHN STONE.....Hugo Speer
DI MIKE TANNER..…Craig Cheetham
DS SUE KELLY.....Deborah McAndrew
VICKI / SHANNON.....Kimberly Hart-Simpson
RIAZ / BARRON.....Sushil Chudasama
MCAFFREY / KEVIN.....Conrad Nelson
ADDIE / VAL ......Krissi Bohn
Directed by Nadia Molinari
WED 15:00 Money Box (m0011rxy)
Running an Online Business
What does it cost to run an online business? Small business owners share their experiences of setting up, marketing and developing their online brand with Adam Shaw and guests.
If you've a story, a good tip or lesson learnt we'd love to hear from you. Tweet @Moneybox or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now and please include a phone number if you'd like to join in.
Presenter: Adam Shaw
Producer: Diane Richardson
Editor: Emma Rippon
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m0011ry0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m0011ry2)
Matthew Syed explores ideas that shape our lives, making us see the world differently.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0011ry4)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m0011ry6)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011ry8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Henry Normal: A Normal... (m0011ryb)
Ageing
Henry Normal uses poetry, storytelling and comedy to explore life's big questions.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0011ryd)
Ed tries to keep a lid on it while the cat’s out of the bag for Alan.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0011ryg)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 20:00 Life Changing (m0011rx7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 20:30 Descendants (p09jjsr8)
Richard, Alasdair, and Jen
Narrated by Yrsa Daley-Ward, the poet and writer introduces us to a network of lives, each one connected in one way or another through the legacy of Britain's role in slavery.
In the final episode, the connections between histories bring us right back to the start - the 7th June 2020, and the day the Colston statue was toppled. Richard Pendlebury runs a charity for older people in Bristol, called The Anchor Society. In 1895 their member, J. Arrowsmith, paid for the Colston statue to be put up - 175 years after Colston's death. Alasdair was one of those who helped put it in the harbour, but he's also been looking into his own family history, and was surprised to see a very familiar name appear in his tree, back in the 17th Century.
Assistant Producer: Rema Mukena
Producer: Candace Wilson
Series Producer: Polly Weston
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Academic consultants: Matthew Smith and Rachel Lang of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL
Additional genealogical research by Laura Berry
Studio Manager: Michael Harrison
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m0011ryj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m0011ry4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0011ryl)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011rxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Rosie Jones: Box Ticker Too (m0011ryn)
Sexuality, with Joe Sutherland
Stand-up comedy and chat from triple-threat Rosie Jones. She’s disabled, gay and northern. But she’s not a great example of any of these communities and she’s tired of being asked to speak on their behalf.
This week, Rosie looks at sexuality with help from stand-up Joe Sutherland. Both coming from small and conservative towns, they compare growing up perceiving themselves as outliers, the effect and affections of labels in sexuality, and the liberation they found from coming out and freely expressing themselves.
Recorded in a live comedy club, prepare to be shocked and disappointed by Rosie’s lack of respect for your expectations.
Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m0011ryq)
Series 5
Episode 4
Your new news fix. Jon Holmes's The Skewer returns to twist itself into current affairs.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0011rys)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
THURSDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0011ryv)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011rx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011ryx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011ryz)
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 (m0011rz1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0011rz3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0011rz5)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jaspreet Kaur
Good morning.
With today being my fifth prayer for the day in the last week, and it being the 25th of November, which is five multiplied by five, it got me thinking about the uniqueness of the number five in many different faiths.
Other significant numbers are available of course but number five symbolism in religion is everywhere you look! In Hinduism, there are the five basic elements - Space, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. In Christianity, the number five is for some the number of grace; there were five holy wounds of Christ, The Book of Psalms is divided into 5 main sections, and in the bible there are five books of God’s Law. There are the five pillars of Islam: five obligations that every Muslim must fulfil to live a virtuous life, one being to pray five times a day.
In the Sikh faith, we see five in several places. The five 5ks, the five virtues, the five evils, and the panj pyare (meaning the five beloved ones) who were initiated by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, on Vaiksahi in 1669.
I’ve even tried to apply this power of five in my personal life too. So, I have five people who I turn to whenever I need some advice, support or guidance.
Dear God, may I continue to see the power of panj, the power of five in all areas of my life, in the hope that it can give me guidance, and ways to express my devotion to you.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh – “Praise to God”
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0011rz7)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09k6q40)
Doug Allan on the Snowy Sheathbill
In his recollections about his encounters with birds in Antarctica, wildlife cameraman Doug Allan recalls watching an opportunistic Snowy Sheathbill taking advantage of a young Adelie Penguins to get an easy meal.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Murray Foubister.
THU 06:00 Today (m0011rzr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0011rzy)
Plato's Gorgias
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of Plato's most striking dialogues, in which he addresses the real nature of power and freedom, and the relationship between pleasure and true self-interest. As he tests these ideas, Plato creates powerful speeches, notably from Callicles who claims that laws of nature trump man-made laws, that might is right, and that rules are made by weak people to constrain the strong in defiance of what is natural and proper. Gorgias is arguably the most personal of all of Plato's dialogues, with its hints of a simmering fury at the system in Athens that put his mentor Socrates to death, and where rhetoric held too much sway over people.
With
Angie Hobbs
Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield
Frisbee Sheffield
University Lecturer in Classics and Fellow of Downing College, University of Cambridge
And
Fiona Leigh
Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at University College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011s05)
4. Turning Points
In Qian Julie Wang's powerful account of growing up as an illegal immigrant in America, family life in America is upended, and she takes a bold step. Katie Leung reads.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
Abridged by Sarah Shaffi
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0011s0c)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m0011s0k)
Rotterdam and the cocaine connection
In the Port of Rotterdam they are preparing for a ‘White Xmas’ - but no one is talking about snow. Europe’s North Sea coast has overtaken the Iberian peninsula as the primary point of entry for cocaine reaching the continent. Industrial-sized labs have been busted in the Netherlands, and mafia-style executions have occurred on the streets. Most recently the crime journalist, Peter R de Vries was shot and mortally wounded in busy Amsterdam. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly asks how the Netherlands has become one of the largest illicit drug economies of the world.
Reporter, Linda Pressly
Producer, Michael Gallagher
Editor, Bridget Harney
THU 11:30 The Exploding Library (m0011s0q)
The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien
In this new literature series, a trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.
As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Flann O’Brien, Jean Rhys and Kurt Vonnegut, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.
Featuring the comedic voices of Mark Watson, Josie Long and Daliso Chaponda, and created by award-winning producers Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat) and Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), this is an arts documentary series like no other.
In the first episode, comedian Mark Watson circles the strange, fantastical and hilarious world of The Third Policeman by the Irish author Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan). Written in 1940, and riddled with strange philosophical ideas and fake - or are they? - footnotes, the book was described by one critic as “a nightmarish piece of Irish rural sci-fi where people turn into bicycles and policemen talk in non-sequiturs about quantum physics”.
It’s a book that’s always entranced Mark with its combination of laugh-out-loud absurdist humour and genuinely disturbing terror. But what was the author trying to do? What the is it really about - nuclear science, post-colonial identity, surrealism? And what’s going on with all the bicycles?
With contributions from writers Julian Gough and Roisin Kiberd; "Flannophiles" Maebh Long and Art Riordan, writer on sci-fi Jack Fennell and legendary Irish comedy actress Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless), Mark saddles up to discover whether, as the author of the Third Policeman once put it, “hell goes round and round”.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Producer / Series Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0011s11)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011s17)
4: 'Bonjour Tristesse'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's darkly humorous and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a woman who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: Martha returns from Paris for her sister's wedding, and is confused by her feelings for Patrick...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0011s1d)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m0011s1j)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0011s1n)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Breakup (m0011s1s)
Episode Four: Splendid Isolation
When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?
Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before.
Episode Four: Splendid Isolation
The Boundary Commission hearings end and wild speculation begins over their decision on the final shape of the border. But the Irish Commissioner remains aloof...
Presenter: Ophelia Byrne
Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne
Additional Research: Courtney McKay
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0011ryd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (m0011s1x)
Series 2
Part 3
The winner of the British Podcast Award for Best Fiction 2021 returns with a gripping drama about trauma, obsession and why we harm the things we love.
Part 3 of 7
Written by Lucia Haynes with monologues by Eileen Horne.
Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, assessing and treating perpetrators of violent crime.
Sarah has made a new friend, which feels like good news to Dr Bridges. But what if we can’t recover from past trauma?
Alex … Lolita Chakrabarti
Sarah ….. Melody Grove
Paul ….. Robert Jack
Ros ….. Lois Chimimba
Kelly ….. Veronica Leer
Malcolm ….. Michael Nardone
Rowena ….. Wendy Seager
Series created by Lucia Haynes, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.
Series consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
THU 15:00 Open Country (m0011s21)
Memorial walks and woodlands
Leicester was hit hard by the pandemic with long lockdowns and many families affected. At Watermead Country Park close to the city they have chosen to remember those who lost their lives, the essential workers and everyone who has played their part in these hard times. Trees have been planted along a new memorial walk in this park, which was once a huge quarry.
Roo Peake helped to crowdfund for the walk in memory of her friend and fellow charity member at Leicestershire Masaya Link, Michael Gerard. Helen Mark meets her, along with the Head of County Parks Richard Hunt and Head Ranger Dale Osborne, to discover more about how this park on the edge of the city is constantly adapting as it grows from reclaimed industrial land to a thriving habitat for wildlife and sanctuary for people nearby.
Helen then travels to the National Memorial Arboretum in the National Forest to find out about the beginnings of a national Covid memorial which will use trees and water to heal the scars left by industry and help the whole country find a place to remember.
Produced by Helen Lennard
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0011rmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m0011rn7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Think with Pinker (m0011s25)
Methinks it is a weasel
It’s tempting to see patterns in the random kaleidoscope of everyday experiences, but its also dangerous.
Along with his business partner Warren Buffet, vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger has made billions of dollars but, by his own admission, he would have made billions more if only he’d made better decisions. He joins Professor Steven Pinker to discuss defying the odds and the dangers of over-interpreting coincidences. They hear why Tim Harford, economist, presenter of ‘More or Less’ and author of ‘How to Make the World Add Up: 10 Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers’ thinks a stock picking cow can help us make sense of a complicated world.
Producer: Imogen Walford
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0011s29)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0011s2f)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011s2k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Relativity (m000l8dy)
Series 3
Episode 3
The third series of Richard Herring’s comedy drama builds on the warm, lively characters and sharply observed family dynamics of previous series.
His affectionate, sharp witted observation of inter-generational misunderstanding, sibling sparring and the ties that bind will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to win an argument with a teenager. Amid the comedy, Richard broaches some more serious highs and lows of family life. In this series, he focuses on the roller coaster ride of first time parenting, how to maintain a long standing marriage and brass rubbing.
Richard Herring is a comedian, writer, blogger and podcaster and the world's premier semi-professional self-playing snooker player.
Episode 3
Ian takes Chloe and baby Don away, hoping a relaxing weekend at a spa hotel will help. Meanwhile, Holly is arrested at Extinction Rebellion, while 16 year old brother Nick is struggling to keep her whereabouts secret from their parents.
Cast:
Margaret…………….Alison Steadman
Ken……………..Phil Davis
Jane…………….Fenella Woolgar
Ian……………….Richard Herring
Chloe…………..Emily Berrington
Pete………………..Gordon Kennedy
Holly………………...Tia Bannon
Mark………………Fred Haig
Nick………………..Harrison Knights
George……………..Danny Kirrane
Written by Richard Herring
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner.
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0011s2p)
Writer, Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Alan Franks ….. John Telfer
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Jim Lloyd
Blake ….. Luke MacGregor
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0011s2t)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0011s2y)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 Stolen Honour (m000ysmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0011s29)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0011rzy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0011s33)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011s17)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Fred at The Stand (m001254z)
Series 3
Dave Johns, Erika Ehler, Sammy Dobson and Mark Simmons
Fred MacAulay is back at The Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle, doing what he does best - making people laugh.
This new series brings another selection of some of the best of stand-up comedians working in the UK right now. Some you’ll know and some you won’t know - yet.
In this lively show, Fred introduces four hand picked favourites. Mark Simmons is known for having a joke for any subject under the sun and fires out countless one liners at an incredible pace. Erika Ehler makes her Radio 4 debut with an smart, uncompromising set that ruffled a few feathers on the night, whilst local hero Sammy Dobson set her home crowd straight on what dating is really like as you get into your 30s. Headlining the show is the inimitable Dave Johns, who takes the audience on the journey of seeing Ziggy Stardust for the very first time. Spellbinding, and of course, hilarious.
Fred At The Stand is the closest thing your ears are going to get to an actual night in a comedy club.
Produced by Richard Melvin.
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0011s36)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0011s3b)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011s05)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0011s3g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0011s3k)
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 (m0011s3p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0011s3t)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0011s3w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jaspreet Kaur
Good morning.
I was at a family get together the other week. It was pretty crowded, and there was a dog in the mix too. It was a casual event, and we all spent a lot of time chatting in the kitchen, cooking, eating and cleaning. I was at the sink washing dishes when I heard a little yelp. One of the other guests had accidentally stepped on the poor dog’s tail! “He’s always in the way,” she said.” Really?” I thought. “You step on the dog, and then you blame him/her.”
Who does that? Actually, a lot of us do.
We learn to start blaming others at an early age, usually to escape parental anger and punishment, but also to preserve our own self-esteem and self-image. I’m sure the phrase “they started it!” sounds familiar?
When it comes to the blame game, the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scripture, says: “Dadda: Do not blame anyone else; blame instead your own actions.”
There are, of course, times when others should take the blame and have justice served for their wrongdoings. But, even if someone else is to blame, the only thing we can truly control is our own perceptions and responses to those situations, and how much anger we decide to hold. And that takes work.
Dear God – continue to guide me in taking self-responsibility and not holding any anger, resentment or blame within me. Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh - “Praise to God.”
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0011s3y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (m0000xmx)
James Henry on the Little Owl
Author of the prequel detective Jack Frost thrillers James Henry picks the diminutive, non native little owl beloved by Florence Nightingale for his Tweet of the Day.
The diminutive little owl takes it genus name, Athene from Athena, the Olympian goddess for war and wisdom, and protector of Athens. It is from this ancient connection that Western culture derives an association of wisdom and knowledge with owls. And maybe why Florence Nightingale on a tour of Greece rescued a Little Owl chick she found at the acropolis. The owl, she named Athena was her companion for 5 years.
Producer Andrew Dawes
FRI 06:00 Today (m0011tb1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0011rms)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (m0011tb3)
5. A Journey
In Qian Julie Wang's powerful memoir about growing up as an illegal immigrant in America, she and her mother make a life-changing journey, and the past catches up. Katie Leung reads.
Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang's powerful and moving debut. Here she tells of her childhood growing up as an undocumented illegal immigrant with her parents, who had both been professors back home in China. Here they labour at menial, degrading jobs, and Qian Julie vividly describes the sweatshops and sushi factories where she and her mother undertake gruelling work, for little pay. Fear of the immigration authorities, poverty and hunger are the family's constant companions. In school, Qian Julie is quickly marked out as an outsider, and loneliness compounds her impoverished life. When illness strikes, the family is terrified as they are compelled to emerge from the shadows. Qian Julie's past has left an indelible mark, but as she looks back on her childhood what emerges is a portrait of grit and determination to overcome hardship.
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School, and is a managing partner of a law firm advocating for education, disability and civil rights. She lives in Brooklyn. This is her first book.
Katie Leung first came to public attention for playing Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise. Recent television roles include Chimerica, Roadkill, and The Nest.
Abridged by Sarah Shaffi
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0011tb5)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Spark (m0011tb7)
Sam Bowman and building more houses
Economist Sam Bowman tells Helen Lewis why he thinks building more houses will fix a surprising range of social problems. And he sets out the democratic device he thinks this can bring this about without conflict with so-called 'NIMBYs' - those who prefer not to have new building take place near their homes.
Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b08n2wt4)
Series 3
Some Owls Were Harmed During the Making of This Programme
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient returns with another series of his own sketch show. In this episode, a love song, a dead scarecrow, a Jiffy Bag and Kylie Minogue. Some owls were harmed during the making of this programme.
Kevin Eldon is a comedy phenomenon. He's been in virtually every major comedy show in the last fifteen years, but not content with working with the likes of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, Stewart Lee, Julia Davis and Graham Linehan, he's also created his own comedy series for BBC Radio 4.
After all the waiting - Kevin Eldon Will See You Now.
Also starring Amelia Bullmore (I'm Alan Partridge, Scott & Bailey), Julia Davis (Nighty Night), Paul Putner (Little Britain), Justin Edwards (The Thick Of It), David Reed (The Penny Dreadfuls) and Rosie Cavaliero (Alan Partridge, Harry and Paul).
Written by Kevin Eldon with additional material by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (A Touch Of Cloth and, yes, those modern Ladybird books)
Original music by Martin Bird
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0011tb9)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011tbc)
5: 'Insanity is not a dealbreaker'
Hailed as 'Patrick Melrose meets Fleabag', Meg Mason's darkly humorous and heartbreakingly tender novel is one of the most talked-about novels of 2021.
Martha Friel is clever and beautiful, a woman who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. So why is she - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and broken? And why did Patrick decide to leave?
Now Martha, with the help of her devoted, wise-cracking sister and dysfunctional, bohemian parents, has one last chance to find out whether she can write a better ending for herself.
Today: Ingrid's baby makes and unexpected entrance, and Martha and Patrick make an unexpected decision...
Reader: Hattie Morahan
Writer: Meg Mason began her career in journalism, working on The Times, the New Yorker and Vogue. This is her second novel.
Abridger: Antonia Hodgson
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0011tbf)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0011tbh)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0011tbk)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Breakup (m0011tbm)
Episode Five: The End of the Affair
When Irish Boundary Commission proposals for a new, final border line in Ireland are leaked to the press in late 1925, the British and Irish governments prepare to take drastic action to have the Commission’s report ‘burned or buried’. Why?
Across five dramatic episodes, Ophelia Byrne follows a line on the map into an improbable world of high statecraft, split communities, broken promises and many thousands of lives changed forever. Through original testimonies, secret letters and classified police reports, she uncovers what really happened when the Irish Boundary Commission set out to redraw the border in Ireland almost a century ago. Then a chance discovery in the archives makes Ophelia begin to question the entire Boundary Commission process and mission. As questions over the future of the border climb up today's political agenda, she realises this could be a story which matters more now than ever before.
Episode Five: The End of the Affair
A political storm is unleashed when proposals for the new partition line are leaked to the press. Looking back on the final chapter of the Boundary Commission story, Ophelia asks what it all means now
Presenter: Ophelia Byrne
Producers: Conor Garrett & Ophelia Byrne
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0011s2p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (p0b060jg)
Harland
Harland - Episode 5: Saturday
Lucy Catherine's supernatural thriller reaches its climax on the day of the Festival of the Hare. 50 years earlier, Harland was founded on the site of a cursed and abandoned medieval village. The past is about to have its say.
Sarah ..... Ayesha Antoine
Dan ..... Tyger Drew-Honey
Sadie ..... Melissa Advani
Jim ..... Chris Jack
Lori/Evie ..... Grace Cooper Milton
Lindsay ..... Jasmine Hyde
Pete ..... Michael Begley
Police Officer ..... Justice Ritchie
Crow ..... Christine Kavanagh
Sound design by Caleb Knightley
Directed by Toby Swift
FRI 14:45 Witness (b01kr7q9)
Bay of Pigs Invasion
In 1961 Alfredo Duran was part of a group of CIA-trained Cuban exiles who invaded the island to try to overthrow Fidel Castro's revolutionary government.
He tells Witness how the scheme went badly wrong, and how the promise of help from the Americans never came.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0011tbq)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
FRI 15:45 From Fact to Fiction (m0011tbs)
Alexander McCall Smith creates a fictional response to this weeks' news.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0011tbv)
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 (m0011tbx)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations
FRI 17:00 PM (m0011tbz)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0011tc1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m0011tc3)
Series 59
Episode 5
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches
FRI 19:00 Four Thought (m000k902)
Depolarizing
Ali Goldsworthy explains why campaigns which succeed by polarising people can cause long-term harm, and suggests ways we might tackle the resulting damage.
Ali was a top digital campaigner, working with charities, campaigns and political parties to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people to take action on behalf of causes. But in this honest and introspective talk she reveals how her doubts about some of the techniques she was using eventually suggested a dramatic change of direction. Ali now heads up the Depolarization Project, seeking to create space for people to change their minds.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Giles Edwards
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m0011tc5)
Music Programme on Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0011tc7)
Miatta Fahnbulleh, Lord Lamont
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Slough and Eton Business and Enterprise College with a panel including the Conservative peer and former Chancellor Lord Lamont and the chief executive of the New Economics Foundation Miatta Fahnbulleh.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Kevan Long
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0011tc9)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b05pbxqg)
Epic Fail
Journalist Grace Dent presents her own field guide to failure, told through some of our most cherished and ear-popping examples of infamous fails. Featuring contributions from writer Jon Ronson, philosopher Andy Martin and Stephen Pile, author of The Book Of Heroic Failures.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0011tcc)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (m0011tbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m0011sfz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0011tcf)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.