The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on R4 Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 05 AUGUST 2023

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001p7t9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p7nr)
Episode 5

In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.

Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.

As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.

Episode 5:
He Left No Note: Learning about what happened to her great uncle allows Victoria to begin to come to terms with a much closer, and more painful loss.

Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.

The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.

Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p7tf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p7tk)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p7tp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001p7tr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p7tt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

Football Season starts today!

Good morning.

And it is a great morning indeed, because today the English Football League season starts. Unless you’re a fan of Sheffield Wednesday or Southampton, in which case it started for you last night. The beginning of a new football season is an exciting time for me as Club Chaplain of Northampton Town. As a new season dawns, there is hope and promise and, for a few short days at least, any eventual outcome is possible. All too soon the reality of the situation will doubtless set in - I’ve been a Cobblers fan for some time after all - but there’s something about a bold, bright first day of a new season which really sets the pulse racing.

Before you switch off in a huff, I think the same applies to so many areas of life, not merely the sporting arena. Each new day is an opportunity to not just try something new, or to make marginal gains on how yesterday and all the days before it went, but to allow ourselves to be made new too. My faith tells me that whatever the outcome of each day, I am held and loved by God through it. This gives me comfort and confidence. It also inspires me to trust God day by day, as with each new day, the mercies I am given multiply, not just for my own good, but so that I can share life, hope and love with others too. So I’ll be trying to be faithful, right to the final whistle.

Today, be blessed to know the love, mercy, joy, possibility and transformation of a new day and a new start with God. Amen


SAT 05:45 Living on the Edge (m001p7md)
Skegness

Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.

Today: with John Nuttall and his donkeys on Skegness beach.

Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.

In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001pdxn)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001p7b9)
The Isle of Man

Thousands of years ago, large parts of Britain were covered with temperate rainforest - also known as "Atlantic woodland" or "Celtic rainforest". It's a habitat which needs high rainfall and low annual variation in temperature, so the western fringes of the British Isles provide perfect conditions. But temperate rainforest has been largely destroyed over the centuries and there are now only fragments of it left. One of the few surviving areas is in the Isle of Man, where work now is underway to expand and restore this unique habitat, thanks to a £38 million grant. At Creg y Cowin over 70 acres will be planted with native tree species, with around 20 acres left to regenerate naturally. Helen Mark visits the island to learn about this project and meets the Wildlife Trust volunteers involved in the early stages of getting the work underway. She also finds out about "tholtans" - abandoned agricultural dwellings which are a feature of the landscape of the Isle of Man. She meets a couple who are trying to document as many of these ruined buildings as possible, and finds out about links between the landscape and the Manx language.

Produced by Emma Campbell for BBC Audio Bristol


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001pdxq)
05/08/23 Farming Today This Week: Importing eggs; rural crime; harvest challenges; wild camping on Dartmoor

Imports of eggs are up 276%; the latest figures from the government show that just under 7 million dozens of eggs were brought into the UK in May.

The cost of rural crime in the UK increased by 22 per cent last year, with high-items such as tractors, GPS systems and power tools being the most sought after things to steal.

Farmers share how they are trying to deal with the damp and inconsistent weather as they try to harvest.

And wild camping is allowed back on Dartmoor.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001pdxs)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001pdxv)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001pdxx)
Jon Culshaw, Asmaa Al-allak, Tommy Jessop, Alice Oseman, Molly Lemon...in nature

Jon Culshaw's big break came when convincing the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in a prank phone call that HE was the then Conservative leader William Hague - an infamous moment in his life for which he was called an imposter. Since then, he’s built up a repertoire of 350 celebrity voices, starred in 23 series of Dead Ringers and joins us live from the Edinburgh Festival where he’s starring in his new show, Imposter Syndrome.

Tommy Jessop is an actor, a campaigner and has just had his first book published, 'A Life Worth Living’. In 2007, he became the first actor with Down Syndrome to star in a primetime BBC Drama in the film ‘Coming Down the Mountain’ and has gone onto tour theatres as Hamlet and played Terry Boyle in 'Line of Duty’.

This year’s Great British Sewing Bee champion Asmaa Al-allak spent her formative years growing up in Iraq. Her grandmother was a seamstress who passed her skills on to Asmaa’s mother, who in turn taught her and after winning the series, Asmaa said it’s fair to say ‘it’s in the blood’. After leaving Iraq at the age of 14, having lived through the Iran-Iraq war, Asmaa and her family moved to Durham where her father was working as a scientist. She went on to study medicine and is now a consultant breast surgeon at a cancer centre in Cardiff.

Also - the first in our '...In Nature' series where we hear from artists and creatives about how they are inspired by the natural world. Today is the turn of printmaker and wood engraver Molly Lemon.

And...the Inheritance Tracks of Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (p09vkd6b)
Nell Gwyn

One of the original comedic rags to riches stories, Nell Gwyn. We're travelling back to 17th century England to delve into a celebrity of the Restoration era, one of the first actresses in comedy and a mistress to King Charles II all rolled into one!

Nell Gwyn's life is as eventful and comedic as her turns on the stage, and Greg Jenner and his guests have a lot of fun unpicking this incredible life story where politics meets the stage, and there is only one (or maybe several?) winner/s

Greg is joined by associate professor and writer of 'Prologues and Epilogues of Restoration Theatre: Gender and Comedy, Performance and Print', Diana Solomon, and flanked by Jess Knappett, comedian, actress, writer and producer, who you'll know from her hit sitcom Drifters as well as appearances on 8 out of 10 Cats, Inbetweeners and Taskmaster.

Produced by Cornelius Mendez
Script by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Research by William Clayton

The Athletic production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001pdy0)
Series 41

Stowmarket

Jay Rayner hosts this week's culinary panel show from The Food Museum in Stowmarket. Joining Jay are food historian Dr Annie Gray, Kurdish chef and food writer Melek Erdal, British-Chinese chef Jeremy Pang, and best-selling food writer and Masterchef champion Tim Anderson.

The panel divulges in a variety of culinary conundrums. Whether it be the top tips for using up coconut oil, to the best no-mushroom veggie dishes, the panel assesses an array of food-based questions. Fitting with The Food Museum's grounds, which contain a flour-grinding watermill, the panel discuss the pros and cons of many types of bread, and addresses the all important question - is sourdough worth the hype?

Sandwiched between the audience’s questions, the director of The Food Museum, Jenny Cousins, gives us an insight into eating insects.

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001p7dw)
Is it Saudi's century?

With vast financial resources and a new found desire to engage in regional and global diplomacy, Saudi Arabia has got the world's attention. But just how powerful can it become?

David Aaronovitch talks to:

Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent
Quinn Slobodian, Professor of History at Wellesley College and author of Crack-Up Capitalism
Simon Chadwick, Professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris
Cinzia Bianco, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
Safa al-Ahmad, Saudi journalist and documentary maker

Produced by: Ben Carter, Diane Richardson and Kirsteen Knight
Edited by: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown and Sophie Hill


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001pdy2)
Cambodia's strongman bows out

Kate Adie introduces stories about Cambodia's outgoing Prime Minister, and from Pakistan, Romania, New Zealand and Germany.

For the last 38 years Cambodia has been ruled by one, increasingly autocratic man, Prime Minister Hun Sen. He is now handing power to a new Prime Minister next week – his own son. Jonathan Head has just been to Cambodia, and reflects on Hun Sen’s remarkable longevity in office.

Three hundred young Pakistani men are still missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean after the Greek shipping disaster in June. Why did they want to leave their country, at the mercy of people smugglers? Caroline Davies has been finding out, and asks what the police are doing to stop the human trafficking.

In Romania on the other hand, the economy is booming, and people are moving to it, rather than away from it. That includes many Romanian emigrants who are now returning home, armed with new skills and attracted back by improved salaries. Tessa Dunlop detects a new confidence in the country.

New Zealand is trying to eradicate all rats, possums and stoats. These are not native to New Zealand but were brought there by humans in recent centuries. They have been decimating the local wildlife, but wiping out several species across a whole country is a tall order however - and what about ethical qualms? Henri Astier joins a rat-catching expedition in Wellington to find out more.

Culture wars are raging in many countries, about different issues. In Germany, it's sausages, motorway speeds - and grammar. Damien McGuinness carefully wades into the debate.

00:45 Cambodia's new leader
06:33 Pakistan's missing migrants
11:43 Romania's booming economy
17:06 New Zealand's war on rats
22:19 Germany's grammar culture war

Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar

Image: Outgoing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Credit: Kith Serey/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001pdy4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001pdy6)
Money Box: Surviving or Thriving? Households

Rising costs are having an impact on almost everyone, but that impact is very different for different social groups. Is anyone managing to make a difference to their own budget, however small? Whether they be high earners or low income households, how are people taking control of their finances?

Felicity Hannah meets Peter who lives alone in a rented flat in Stoke and has a disability that prevents him from working; Hollie, a new mum, living with her fiancé in Wigan, who’s trying to juggle money while on maternity leave with the rising costs of having a small baby. And Kishan, one of many people being bitten by monthly mortgage rate hikes. He lives in London and has three mortgages; his own plus two buy to lets.

The programme also talks to Dr Gemma Tetlow Chief Economist at the Institute for Government to ask what does Peter, Hollie and Kishan’s experience tell us about the cost of living crisis across the nation. Are households surviving or thriving?

Series Producer Smita Patel
Editor Clare Fordham
Studio Engineer Rod Farquhar


SAT 12:30 What Are You Talking About? (m001p7r0)
The second of our satirical specials this summer. Hosted by Rhys James (Mock The Week, The Now Show), ‘What Are You Talking About?’ investigates the major issues of the week before solving them perfectly forever. Rhys is joined by a gaggle of comedy’s fastest rising stars; Alasdair Beckett-King, Celya AB, Alex Kealy and Katie Norris; to look at the news and ask ‘Why?’, ‘How come?’ And ‘Why though?’

Hosted and written by Rhys James with additional material from Adam Hess, Zoë Tomalin and Cody Dahler.

Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Baum
Recorded and edited by David Thomas

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001pdy9)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001pdyf)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001p7s4)
Jamie Driscoll, Richard Holden MP, Alison McGovern MP, Jill Rutter

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Saltburn Community Theatre, Saltburn with the North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Transport Minister Richard Holden MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Alison McGovern MP and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government Jill Rutter.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Lead Engineer: Michael Smith


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001pdyk)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week


SAT 14:45 The Museums That Make Us (m00168m3)
Liverpool

Neil MacGregor presents a new series for BBC Radio Four celebrating the role and ambition of museums the length and breadth of the country, and in the process he'll be finding answers to the question ‘What are Museums For in 2022’.

Immigration has been part of Liverpool's story for centuries. As a port city communities from all over the globe settled there, but it was the Irish immigration, particularly during the time of the famine, that had the most dramatic impact. But the Museum of Liverpool, with its spectacular position on the harbour front, has chosen a Jewish Butcher's shop to illustrate that it wasn't just Irish Immigrants who made the city their own. Galkoff's green tiled frontage was a familiar sight to many Liverpudlians, including the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture and Sport, Nadine Dorries. It now has a permanent place in the museum, along with stories from the Galkoff family who ran it and the many people living in the neighbourhood of Pembroke Place.

Museums have always been telescopes trained on the past to help locate a sense of place in the present. Neil believes that role is an active one, responding to changes in the people museums serve and the shifting social and cultural landscape they inhabit. After spending much of his life at the centre of our national Museum life in London, Neil is taking to the road to discover more about the extraordinary work being done in Museums outside the capital, from Stornoway to Stowmarket, and Belfast to Birmingham.

In each episode he visits a single museum, inviting them to choose an object from their collections which they feel best illustrates their civic role, and the way they relate and want to relate to their local audience. Very rarely have they chosen a crown jewel from their often priceless collections. More often it's an object with a particular local resonance, or which helps tackle episodes from the past which are being viewed very differently by citizens in the 21st century.

He’ll be visiting the great national museums of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as major city institutions in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and elsewhere. And in spite of the challenges of the last two years, everywhere he meets passionate teams who are dedicated to providing a unique experience for both local audiences and visitors from further afield.

Neil writes: “What’s going on in our museums is at once challenging and exciting and it can only really be understood by visiting as many as possible and finding out how they have approached what is a vital role in providing a sense of local, regional and national identity.”

Producer - Tom Alban
Original music composed by Phil Channell


SAT 15:00 Turning Point (m001pdyp)
Behind Beyond the Fringe

May 14th 1961 - Reviewing the hottest ticket in town, Observer theatre critic Ken Tynan effused: "Future historians may well thank me for providing them with a full account of the moment when English comedy took its first decisive step into the second half of the twentieth century."

Like the 'angry young' novels and 'kitchen sink' dramas of a few years earlier, 'Beyond the Fringe' was a cultural and political turning point, introducing new voices and fresh attitudes to a generation hungry for change. 'Beyond the Fringe' not only transformed the style of British comedy, lighting the fuse of the satire boom, it also fired a broadside at The Establishment and sent a blast of fresh air through the fusty corridors of power. Before the Beatles made the 60s swing the Fab Four of comedy, Bennett, Cook, Miller and Moore opened the door to 'the permissive society', auguring the death of deference which still clung to paternalistic, post-colonial Britain.
Jeremy Front's drama takes a look at how four young men were brought together to stage a comedy show and ended up staging a revolution.
With thanks to John and Josh Bassett for their help in researching the play.

Johnny Bassett ..... Patrick Walshe McBride
Dudley Moore ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr
Alan Bennett ..... Matthew Durkan
Jonathan Miller ..... Tom Durant-Pritchard
Peter Cook ..... David Reed
Robert Ponsonby ..... Hasan Dixon
Donald Langdon ..... Samuel James
Stella/Waitress/ASM/
Mrs Grossett/Eleanor Fazan ..... Rhiannon Neads

Writer ..... Jeremy Front
Technical Producer ..... Peter Ringrose
Director ..... Sally Avens


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001pdyt)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Loneliness & health, Concepts of Renaissance beauty & Rock Follies musical

All this week on Woman’s Hour we’ve been discussing the topic of loneliness as women and young people are statistically more likely to experience it. We hear from the psychiatrist Dr Farhana Mann from UCL about the impact of loneliness on our health.

Jodie Ounsley is the world’s first ever deaf female rugby sevens international player, and she was part of the Woman’s Hour Power List of women in sport. She also uses TikTok to show others what it’s like to live with hearing loss. She talks about being a sportswoman, as well as one of the brand new TV Gladiators.

The children’s charity NSPCC says that its Helpline received over 1,000 contacts last year about children experiencing coercive and controlling behaviour, a form of domestic abuse. The school summer holidays can be a particularly difficult time for some of these children. If you are worried about someone, what should you do? We hear from Paddi Vint, Development Manager for the NSPCC and a woman we call Margaret, who experienced coercive control in a previous relationship.

Would you use fig and pine nut hand scrub? Or perhaps some tree gum anti-wrinkle cream? Just a few of the 16th century beauty recipes Professor Jill Burke has included in her new book, How to be a Renaissance Woman. Jill discusses 16th century women’s body anxieties and the men who wrote beauty tips for them.

Actor and writer Georgie Grier has shared a post on social media after her opening show at the Edinburgh Fringe had just one person in the audience. She’s had replies of support and encouragement from thousands of people, including comedian Jason Manford. She tells us what it was like to perform to one person, and how she feels about the reaction she’s getting.

Rock Follies was a 1970s TV series about an all-female rock band, The Little Ladies, trying to make their mark on a male-dominated music industry. A new musical adapted from the TV series is currently on in Chichester. We hear from Rula Lenska, who played Q in the original TV series, and Zizi Strallen, who has taken on the stage role.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed


SAT 17:00 PM (m001pdyy)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 All Consuming (m001p770)
Houseplants

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala go mushy for houseplants in this episode of All Consuming where they explore our culture of consumption.

Philodendrons, Hoyas, Monsteras - the list of plants available to consumers is now almost endless and these green companions became a crucial part of our home during lockdown when we craved the outdoors.

In recent years, our love for houseplants has seen the plant market explode - but at what cost?

Charlotte and Amit meet Jacob James, a seller of rare plants at the Royal Chelsea Flower Show, who reveals that there’s been a recent crash in rare houseplant prices.

We check in with historian Catherine Horwood to find out how houseplants first entered the home and ecologist Dr Adam Cross gives us a fly’s eye view of a rare carnivorous plant.

Amateur biologist Sebastian Cocioba tells us how he hacks orchids for a special Mother’s Day present.

Presenters: Amit Katwala and Chalotte Stavrou
Producer: Emily Uchida Finch

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001pdz2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001pdz6)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pdzb)
The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has urged his supporters to protest peacefully against his arrest.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001pdzg)
Kevin Rowland, Lou Sanders, Poppy Jay, Sam Palladio, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Sabiyha, YolanDa Brown, Anneka Rice

Anneka Rice and YolanDa Brown are joined by Kevin Rowland, Lou Sanders, Poppy Jay and Sam Palladio for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Beth Nielsen Chapman and Sabiyha.


SAT 19:00 Reith Revisited (b095qpg2)
Series 1

Michael Sandel on Bertrand Russell

Sarah Montague and Professor Michael Sandel discuss the inaugural Reith lectures by philosopher Bertrand Russell, on the topic of “Authority and the Individual”. As part of the celebrations of 50 years of Radio 4, the network assesses the contributions of great minds of the past to public debate, in a dialogue across the decades with contemporary thinkers. In 1948, households across Britain gathered before the wireless as the pre-eminent public intellectual of the age, the philosopher Bertrand Russell, delivered a set of lectures in honour of the BBC’s founder, Lord Reith. Since then, the Reith Lectures on the Home Service and subsequently Radio 4 have become a major national occasion for intellectual debate. This series revisits five of the speakers from the first ten years of the Reith Lectures. Sarah Montague discusses Russell’s lectures with Sandel, who is known to Radio 4 listeners as The Public Philosopher and more recently The Global Philosopher.

Producer: Neil Koenig
Researcher: Josephine Casserley


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0fwwxq7)
Series 27

Cosmic Dust

No programme information found


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001pdzm)
Live and Let Diet

With new diets and slimming plans coming and going on a regular basis, broadcaster and novelist Fern Britton takes us on a journey charting the history of diets taken up by people in the UK.

Weight loss diets have been around for centuries. In 1863, William Banting wrote Letter on Corpulence, addressed to the Public, where he advised the limiting of carbohydrates in order to lose weight. Still in print in the 21st century, it's hard to imagine that Banting's diet, which prescribes a "glass or two of good claret" to accompany your dinner, supper, and a night-cap if required, would pass muster with any registered nutritionists today.

During the First and Second World Wars, the whole country was put on a diet as rationing came in. A period of food parity across the country saw us generally become a healthier nation, but what impact did rationing have? How did people react once they could eat what they wanted again?

Fern hears how dieting started to become big business in the 1960s, as native New Yorker Jean Nidetch's Weight Watchers left her humble kitchen in Queens to make it across the Atlantic and around the world. And as the number of microwaves and freezers in kitchens increased in the 1970s and 80s, we saw the advent of the ready meal and an increasing number of fast food restaurants. Fern reflects on how food has become more processed over the years - and how that may have impacted weight.

But as food and shopping tastes changed, so did diets. Fern hears how the emphasis altered with many turning into diet with exercise plans in the 80s and early 90s, including the Jane Fonda workout.

More recently, the Atkins' diet would go on to become one of the most famous and popular diets around the world. Originally published by Dr Robert Atkins in 1972, the low-carb diet became huge at the turn of the century with almost one in ten Americans claiming to participate in it.

An array of guests talk about their experience of diets and dieting including former MP and Celebrity Fit Club survivor Ann Widdecombe, EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me star Nina Wadia, TV cook Rustie Lee, and fitness instructor 'Green Goddess' Diana Moran. Rosemary Clooney CBE talks about her world famous low fat diet while psychologist Susie Orbach recalls her ground breaking book Fat is a Feminist Issue. There are also contributions from dietician and nutritionist Priya Tew and Professor of Diet and Population Health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, Professor Susan Jebb OBE.

Finally, Professor Daniel Davis from Imperial College London talks about why personalised diets could be the future.

Produced by Kurt Brookes
Executive Producer: Ashley Byrne
Actor: Jonathan Kydd

A Made In Manchester production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (m000hmn8)
Series 5

Episode 6

It's the 1990s and Brian Oldman is still in jail for a crime he didn't commit.

He found a man in jail able to prove his innocence - but that man was soon found dead in his cell. He suspects that Joseph Oldman, now Sir Joseph Olinska MP, organised the killing.

GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman/Olinska family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's a tale revealing a nexus of crime, business and politics that’s woven through the fabric of 20th century greed, as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.

Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending both Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, Joseph intends to extend his business interests into Russia with the help of Boris Yeltsin and his cronies. John Major is now the Prime Minister and a young man from the left, Tony Blair, also seems keen on making Joseph’s acquaintance.

The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.

CAST
Joseph Olinska Toby Jones
Margaret Olinska Flora Montgomery
Brian Oldman Joe Armstrong
Nikolai Lebedev/Alexei Egorkin Kieron Jechinnis
Tony Wednesday/Malcolm Rifkin Alec Newman
Leah Cohen Jasmine Hyde
Boris Isarov Anatoly Popov
Eddie Richardson Charles Davies
Chuck Haley Matt Rippy
Pongo Damian Lynch
Rita Sarah Lambie
Lord Carson Jamie Newall
Catherine Isabella Urbanowicz
Jack Braden John Hollingworth
Warder Peters Paul Kemp
Nurse Moriarty Lucas Hare

Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:45 The Skewer (m001p7n2)
Series 9

Episode 7

Jon Holmes's comedy current affairs concept album remixes news into award-winning satirical shapes. This week - Bad Blood, Trump's Troubles, and Jordan Henderson of Arabia.

Created and produced by Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m001pdzp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Add to Playlist (m001p7rt)
Sir Richard Stilgoe takes us from Folsom Prison to the Berlin Wall

In the final episode of the current series, Sir Richard Stilgoe joins Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the final five tracks, taking us from a live recording in California's Folsom Prison to a massive 1980s pop classic via a celebration of freedom with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Drummer Jeremy Stacey is also on hand to fill us in on the changing fashions of laying down the beat.

Add to Playlist returns to Radio 4 on 13th October

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Folsom Prison Blues (Live) by Johnny Cash
Ode to Joy (Freedom) from Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Monkey Wrench by Foo Fighters
What’s Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner
Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja / The Birdcatcher am I indeed from The Magic Flute by Mozart

Other music in this episode:

Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
I’d Rather Go Blind by Etta James
Crescent City Blues by Gordon Jenkins, sung by Beverly Mahr
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live) by Nirvana
Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc
Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) by Kate Bush


SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (m001p7ck)
Series 13

King's College London

Coming this week from King’s College London, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.

The specialist subjects this week are law, cosmology and culture, media and creative industries so there are questions about a giant spider, a silver hammer and why it's no longer illegal to commit champerty. Also, there are not one but two questions about Audrey Hepburn and stamps. How can you resist?

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.

In this series, the show goes to Exeter, Strathclyde, Keele, King’s College London, Portsmouth, and Somerville College, Oxford.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Yeti (p0fxt84g)
6. Footprints in the Forest

Determined to give yeti searching one more try, Andy and Richard head to the remote kingdom of Bhutan. This is a country where belief in the yeti is widespread and there’s even an official dedicated yeti sanctuary.

Andy and Richard head to the capital Thimpu, where they speak to a wildlife expert who led an expedition to look for the yeti.

Along the way they meet a businessman who shows them photographs of strange footprints he stumbled across in a forest. Could these have been made by a yeti?

In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.

Producer: Joanna Jolly.
Executive Producer: Kirsten Lass.
Sound designers: Peregrine Andrews and Dan King.
Composer of original music: Marisa Cornford.
Assistant Producer Maia Miller- Lewis.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.



SUNDAY 06 AUGUST 2023

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001pdzr)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 The Dawn-Care (m001p71h)
Helen Mort explores the Old English word 'uhtceare', which meant anxiety at early morning, or 'dawn-care'.

In Old English 'uht' is the name for the last part of the night, the empty chilly hours just before the dawn, and so a particularly painful time for grief and loneliness. The word appears in the 10th century poem 'The Wife's Lament', and this programme looks for the causes of the affliction then and now.

Historian Janina Ramirez helps Helen try to imagine the world the speaker in 'The Wife's Lament' was living in, how exile from their Anglo-Saxon community seems to be feeding uhtceare, and how the poem presents many riddles. Medievalist Eleanor Parker suggests that the speaker, caught up in a warrior culture, has been left behind to grieve her husband, with words now her only form of protection.

Author and adventurer Maria Coffey finds resonances in the poem, and discusses with Helen whether the hours before dawn - without daytime distractions - can also strip back something and reveal the world as it is to us. Left behind to wait for news of a missing loved one - Maria's partner Joe Tasker disappeared on an expedition to Mount Everest in 1982 - an inescapable truth set in at 4am one night.

Helen's own poem, written during pre-dawn wakings, forms the spine of the programme, and she talks to poets Sharon Olds and Hannah Lowe about the cares that surface in the small hours of the night. Do these sleepless hours help or hinder their work? Are there are ever creative solutions to be found in the constant churning over of problems?


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pdzt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pdzw)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pdzy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001pf00)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001pf02)
Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand

Bells on Sunday, comes from Christchurch Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand. Completed in 1881 the Cathedral originally had ten bells cast by the Taylors of Loughborough England. In 1978 they were replaced with a ring of twelve bells, again cast by Taylors, with a Tenor weighing 24 and three quarters hundredweight tuned to the note of D. In 2011 Christchurch and the Cathedral was extensively damaged by a massive earthquake that toppled the tower, burying the bells in debris. The bells are currently back in the UK for repair whilst the Cathedral Reinstatement Project is in progress. We hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Maximus


SUN 05:45 Reith Revisited (b095qpg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001pf4d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b037glt7)
Stewardship

"The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it", according to the Psalms.

There is an argument that we hold the world in divine trust in many faiths. Contemporary ecological movements, religious or not, would argue that we have a responsibility to future generations. Do traditional concepts of stewardship have something to teach us?

Mark Tully discusses the idea of stewardship in conversation with philosopher Roger Scruton. With readings from John Mortimer, poet Arthur Guiterman and environmentalist Aldo Leopold - and music by Woodie Guthrie, Joni Mitchell and Bach.

The readers are Gerard Murphy and Toby Jones.

Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001pf4q)
Hitchin Up the Horses

There are only a handful of farmers using working horses here in the UK. One couple flying the flag are Mike and Ellie Paddock, who’ve recently relocated their logging and training business, Hitch In Farm, to a new holding in Carmarthenshire. They are busy tilling their 52 acres and logging the woodland with the help of their sizeable herd of heavy horses. Verity Sharp visits the farm on a day when a pair of mares are being harnessed for a spot of chain harrowing. Mike and Ellie are passionate about working horses, breeding from their own stock to produce stout, wide animals that favour stamina and muscle over elegance for the show ring. They are very clear that they aren’t farming this way as some kind of nostalgic throwback. This isn’t about tradition; it’s about a sustainable future, using real horsepower over machines, in the name of doing right by the soil and passing on valuable skills and knowledge. They’ve only been at Pencaerau Mawr for three months, but their aim is to build up a traditional mixed, food-producing farm where horses live and work in harmony alongside goats, sheep, pigs, chickens and cattle.

Produced and presented by Verity Sharp


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001pf53)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001pf5f)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001pf5r)
Hundreds of thousands of young people have greeted the Pope for World Youth Day in Lisbon. Find out why it matters to UK Catholics who have travelled there.

Hear from the ex-Catholic nun, who cast off her habit to work as a nurse, an author, and finally a stand-up comic. Kelli Dunham has a show at the Edinburgh Fringe that takes in her past lives as well as difficult topics like grief and death.

Morocco play France on Tuesday having made it to the last 16 of the Women's World Cup in their debut appearance. Last Sunday, the Moroccan defender Nouhaila Benzina became the first player to wear a hijab at the World Cup. We'll consider some of the challenges facing Muslim women in football.

Dr Robert Jones, founder of the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington DC explains why Trump's indictment shows no sign of affecting his popularity with white Christian evangelical voters.

Last week the Taliban in Afghanistan issued photographs of a giant bonfire of musical instruments. Is their crack-down on music and singing just strictly-applied Islamic principle? Or is it – as some have called it – ‘cultural genocide’? Hear from a British Imam and Afghan musician Elaha Suroor.

PRESENTER: William Crawley
PRODUCERS: Catherine Murray and Louise Clarke
EDITORS: Tim Pemberton and Helen Grady


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001pf62)
Children Change Colombia

Sir Michael Palin makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Children Change Colombia.

To Give:
- UK Freephone 0800 404 8144
-You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Children Change Colombia’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Children Change Colombia’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered charity number: 1075037


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001pf69)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001pf6k)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001pf6x)
Writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson anticipates the Edinburgh Festival on its opening weekend, looking forward to its creativity, inspiration and hope.
Anna hears from Nicola Benedetti, the International Festival's director, Bosnian film-maker, Samir Mehanovic, and Ukrainian refugee, Hanna Tekliuk.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001p7sd)
The Tourist Trap

This week, UNESCO recommended that Venice should be added to its list of World Heritage in Danger, citing its failure to adequately protect the city from overwhelming tourism and the impact of climate change.

As unprecedented numbers of tourists are visiting Europe, Sarah Dunant reflects on how historic cities can manage the challenges of overtourism.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Bridget Harney


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0gzx)
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Liz Bonnin presents the greater racket-tailed drongo of South-East Asia. Across a clearing in a Malaysian forest flies a dark bird, seemingly chased by two equally dark butterflies. Those butterflies in hot pursuit aren't insects at all; they are the webbed tips of the greater racket-tailed drongo's excessively long wiry outer-tail feathers, which from a distance look like separate creatures as it flies. Glossy blue-black birds which live in wooded country and are great insect catchers, hawking after them in mid-air before returning to a perch. They're bold too and won't hesitate to harry and chase much larger birds than themselves, including, birds of prey. Like other drongos the greater racquet-tailed drongo has an extensive but not very musical repertoire which includes the sounds of other birds it meets, when it joins mixed feeding flocks, and can imitate the call of a hawk to alarm the hawk's victims and so steal food from them while they are distracted by the call: an ingenious tactic, which few other birds have learned.

Producer : Andrew Dawes


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001pf78)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001pf7p)
Writer, Nick Warburton
Director, Jess Bunch
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Paul Mack ….. Joshua Riley
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Adil Shah ….. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001pf7y)
Shirley Collins, folk singer

Shirley Collins first enjoyed success as one of the leading figures in the British folk revival of the 1960s. She initially performed with her sister, Dolly Collins, and also collaborated with other folk luminaries to create some of the era’s most beloved albums. In the past decade she has made an acclaimed return to the concert stage and the recording studio.

Shirley was born in Sussex in 1935. She can still recall how her grandfather used to sing folk songs to comfort her while they were sheltering during German air raids in the early 1940s.

Alongside her career as a singer, in the 1950s she travelled to the American South with Alan Lomax, where they made field recordings of blues and folk musicians, helping to create a significant archive.

Later in her performing career, Shirley found that she could no longer sing, following a distressing betrayal in her private life. She stepped away from music and was silent for many years, taking on other work, including a stint in a job centre Then, in her 80s, she found her voice again. In 2016 she released her first new album after a gap of almost four decades, and she has since released two more albums.

Shirley lives in Sussex, not far from her childhood home.

DISC ONE: Chiling O Guiry - Concerto Caledonia
DISC TWO: The Birds in the Spring - The Copper Family
DISC THREE: Who Would True Valour See - Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band
DISC FOUR: Dear Father, Pray Build Me a Boat - Sheila Smith
DISC FIVE: 61 Highway Blues - Mississippi Fred McDowell
DISC SIX: Poor Sally Sits a-weeping - Dolly Collins
DISC SEVEN: A Heart Needs A Home - Richard & Linda Thompson
DISC EIGHT: Going Home - Mark Knopfler

BOOK CHOICE: A collection of Brodie detective novels by Kate Atkinson
LUXURY ITEM: A solar powered fridge filled with Italian Ice cream and two lipsticks
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Poor Sally Sits a Weeping

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001pf8l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001p7dp)
Series 79

Episode 4

Back for a second week at the Regent Theatre, Ipswich, panellists Vicki Pepperdine, Omid Djalili, Andy Hamilton and Henning Wehn compete amongst one another, with Jack Dee the unimpressed umpire. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith.

It is a BBC Studios production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001pf8g)
Medicinal mushrooms – magically good for our health?

Mushrooms like Chaga, Reishi, Lion’s Mane and Turkey Tail are popping up all over the place at the moment, in supplements, powders, and even coffee. These are the so-called medicinal species of mushroom that have been used for centuries by our ancestors, and currently today in Traditional Chinese medicine. Sheila Dillon started taking these mushrooms a decade ago as part of diversifying her diet after becoming seriously ill, but they weren’t that easy to buy then. Now they seem to be everywhere. And some of the health claims you can find online attached to these medicinal species go way beyond what can currently be backed by modern science.

In this programme Sheila finds out how medicinal mushrooms went from ancient wild food, to the latest hot health and wellness trend. We hear from Professor Nik Money, mycologist at Miami University in Ohio, about Lion’s Mane and what we currently know about the claims that it’s supposed to be good for our brains. To taste the freshest UK-grown medicinal species in the flesh, Sheila visits specialist mushroom grower Forest Fungi in Devon. And she has a mushroom coffee with Dr Emily Leeming, Scientific Researcher at Kings College London, to discuss mushroom supplements, and what we know about the nutritional benefits of mushrooms and their impact on the gut microbiome.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001pf8t)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001pf92)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 The Battle for Liberal Democracy (m001k12p)
Security

In this major new series, Tom Fletcher will examine what future historians may well regard as the most fundamental issue of the 2020s: the complex, multi-faceted and far-reaching international contest between liberal democracy and its enemies. Tom, a former diplomat and adviser to three British prime ministers, will draw on his own experiences in countries as diverse as Lebanon, Kenya and France to reveal how this battle has developed since the end of the Cold War. And in conversation with people he encountered along the way – people who rose to the very top – he will examine the state of liberal democracy, ask where it succeeds and where it fails, and make the case for its urgent renewal. With sometimes surprising stories from around the world, he’ll look at how the world’s democracies can confront autocratic regimes, how they make liberal democracy more ‘magnetic’ to democratic backsliders, and how they can put their own houses in order.

In this first episode, Tom will begin by looking at security, the first responsibility of any government. Which type of government delivers security best – both internally and externally – for its people? What compromises are citizens prepared to make to get the security they crave? And, in the fallout from the war in Ukraine, are democracies better or worse-placed now than they were a year ago to push back against autocracy?

Producer: Giles Edwards


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001p7p4)
Worsley

Is it worse to over water or under water hanging baskets? Does rhubarb have a life expectancy? Are south facing gardens worthy of the hype?
 
Kathy Clugston and the GQT team are in Worsley, at the stunning gardens of RHS Bridgewater to answer more horticultural queries. Joining her this week are garden designer Bunny Guinness, proud plantsman Neil Porteous and Marcus Chilton-Jones, curator of RHS Bridgewater.
 
Peter Gibbs visits Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where Head of Garden Design, Richard Wilford gives him a sneak preview of the brand new design of their famous herbaceous border.

Producer: Dan Cocker

Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock

Executive Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001pf98)
In Patagonia

In December 1974, Bruce Chatwin headed south from Buenos Aires to write an account of his journey through Patagonia. On the surface it was based on a series of encounters with the dispossessed - exiles, refugees and outlaws and those who had made their home on the southernmost tip of South America - but Chatwin’s real interest lay in the internal journey behind their stories and the nature of human restlessness.

John Yorke looks at why his vivid prose and highly original style both startled and excited readers when it was published in 1977. It was to catapult Bruce Chatwin from a journalist to a much-feted writer and he went on to author a series of critically acclaimed books, including The Songlines and On the Black Hill.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized on BBC Radio 4's Sunday Drama series. From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods.

As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.

Contributors:
Susannah Clapp – Theatre critic and Chatwin’s editor and author of With Chatwin.
Dr Jonathan Chatwin – travel writer and academic (no relation).

Credits:
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin by Faber ,3rd revised edition 1993
Archive clips of Bruce Chatwin interview and reading from the text taken from BBC TV In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin: Episode One.

Reader: Tom Glenister
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Producer: Julian Wilkinson
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Iain Hunter

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001pf9g)
In Patagonia

Bruce Chatwin's landmark book dramatized by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.

Russell Tovey stars as a writer on a quest to the very end of the world in search of mythical beasts. Based on Chatwin's picaresque travelogue, an adventure to find a treasured family heirloom, a lost piece of brontosaurus, turns in to something all together more fantastical yet deeply human.

In Patagonia has been described as "probably the most influential travel book written since the war", some argue exactly because it is not a travel book at all. Fifty years after he set out on his "Wonder Voyage", the writer, whose life was cut tragically short, has himself been much mythologised. His enduring literary snapshots of barren yet brimming landscape - from an enchanting pianist adopted by a Welsh-speaking community, to a prophetic Argentinian priest and tall tales of Butch Cassidy - have inspired this powerful drama which reflects on what it means to be exiled from a past which may never have existed.

WRITER/NARRATOR ..... Russell Tovey
BILL ..... David Sterne
MRS JONES/ALICE ..... Noni Lewis
ANSELMO/CASS ..... Hasan Dixon
LUISA ..... Melissa Vaughan
ANTON/GABRIEL ..... Ewan Bailey
ESTHER ..... Florencia Cordeu
MARKETA/NELL ..... Helen Schlesinger
FATHER PALACIOS ..... Julio Galán
With thanks to Susannah Clapp

Production Co-ordinator Jenny Mendez
Piano ..... Satoshi Kubo
Sound ..... Keith Graham and Jenni Burnett
Adaptor .... Sebastian Bazckiewicz
Director ..... Ciaran Bermingham


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m001pf9n)
Mick Herron: Slow Horses

Mick Herron answers readers' questions about his novel, Slow Horses, the first in his hugely popular Slough House series.
In it we meet the 'Slow Horses’ for the first time; failed spies who instead of being pensioned off, find themselves working in Slough House, near the Barbican in London. Here, they carry out menial administrative tasks of little or no importance, led by their offensive, vulgar boss Jackson Lamb. In this novel, the Slow Horses find themselves unexpectedly at the centre of the action.

Our next recordings:

Thursday 17th August: Jenni Fagan on her novel Luckenbooth . 7pm at The Portobello Bookshop, Portobello, Edinburgh. (Free tickets are available via the Bookshop's website)

At BBC Broadcasting House, London:

Thursday 21 September at 1300 - Bernardine Evaristo on Mr Loverman

Thursday 12 October at 1200 noon - Katherine Heiny on Standard Deviation.

Email bookclub@bbc.co.uk to take part


SUN 16:30 I Belong to Glazgoy (m001n1x7)
Klezmer musician and scholar of Jewish culture, Dr Phil Alexander is on the southside of Glasgow, looking for clues to a man whose music he’s spent five years piecing together. Isaac Hirshow, a virtuosic Russian Jewish synagogue cantor and composer, arrived in the Gorbals from Warsaw in 1922. He was one of thousands of Jewish immigrants who landed here, just south of the river Clyde, where Yiddish voices mingled with Gaelic and Irish airs, Lithuanian laments, and Italian arias.

A hundred years ago, it would have been easy to find Isaac - Phil could have gone to the Jewish Institute or to Chevra Kadisha Synagogue on Oxford Street where Isaac worked. Today, however, much of Hirshow’s Gorbals has been bulldozed, and although we can’t walk those streets any more, we can build a picture through the emotional traces that persist in memory, and the physical traces left in archives.

Music is how Phil met Isaac Hirshow. But it was music in limbo, held in an archive, unplayed - just black marks on the page. Phil has spent the last five years bringing it to life, ready to receive its very first performance. But he also wants to understand the man who wrote it and the hybrid Scottish / Jewish identity he built for himself in the city known to Jews of the time as Glazgoy.

As Phil excavates Hirshow’s story through archive, oral history, poetry, early recordings and specially performed music, he connects with musician, former refugee and migration scholar Aref Ghorbani and Chilean singer Valentina Montoya-Martinez. All three are well versed in using music to find common ground, and together they use the musical themes from The Hope of Israel to situate Hirshow’s music in a new age of community building and culture in transit.

Presenter: Dr Phil Alexander
Contributors: Harvey Kaplan, Eddie Binnie, Natasha Lange

Musicians:
Valentina Montoya-Martinez (singer) Aref Ghorbani (singer and setar), Phil Alexander (piano and accordion)

University of Glasgow Chapel Choir, directed by Katy Lavinia Cooper

Special thanks to University of Glasgow Archive & Special Collection, Ellen Galford

Produced by Freya Hellier

A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001p6v6)
The Wolf of Crypto

Set in the belly of rural England, the small village of Winchmore Hill is a far cry from the world of privileged tech bros and slick silicon valley investors, often associated with crypto currencies. Yet in 2021, this community just north of Slough became the recruiting ground for a crypto investment called Koda.

Thanks to the gregarious pub landlord, who promoted the coin and ran crypto nights, a big chunk of this community where everyone knows everyone put money into the currency. They invested thousands of pounds, in some cases their life savings, but when the currency plummeted months later, they lost it all, leaving the community utterly devastated.

Lucinda Borrell explores the lasting impact on this small village, and asks why this particular crypto coin became so appealing in the first place.


SUN 17:40 Reith Revisited (b095qpg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001pf9x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001pfb8)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pfbm)
A man who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit says the system for determining compensation for wrongful convictions needs to be overhauled


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001pfc0)
Katie Thistleton

The importance of getting your hands dirty, eating fish and keeping cool - just some of the discoveries Katie made this week as she listened to the best audio from across the BBC. She's got a Formula One legend, army veterans, plastic dolls, emotional reunions and the resolution of a 45 year cliffhanger, all waiting for you.

Presenter: Katie Thistleton
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001pfcc)
Oliver’s been invited to the Borsetshire Rural Food Fayre; he’s hoping to put in an appearance but wants to be back to see Eddie’s special attraction at the fete. Ian’s judging at the fayre. Oliver comments Helen’s hoping for a top prize with her cheese so Adil will select it for Grey Gables. Oliver confides they’ve had to let the new Head of Food go already. He suggests Ian might be interested. Ian protests he’s a chef, not a head of food – and Adil wouldn’t want him anyway. Oliver’s disappointed, and Ian agrees to think about it. Later a judge pulls out of the food fayre, and Oliver suggests Helen take her place. It might impress Adil even more than a prize. Helen proceeds to mark down Cordwell Cream, the rival cheese being considered for Grey Gables. Ian protests judging has to be unbiased. Helen insists she marked it honestly.
At the fete Eddie’s allocated the stall positions wrongly, and people are complaining. Lynda reassures struggling Joy; she’ll help smooth things over. Eddie arrives in a medieval warrener’s outfit, keen to get his surprise attraction set up for later. George passes Lynda the QR code for her brochures before setting off for his charity challenge, and all is underway. George’s bale stacking is a success, but Lynda can’t relax, fretting about Eddie. However when he unveils his Grundy Ferrets Wheel she’s charmed; it’s quite wonderful and captures perfectly the spirit of the fete. And her brochures have over five hundred downloads. What an event for her to bow out on!


SUN 19:15 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m001pfcr)
Series 2

Exeter to Newquay

Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys with a trip through Devon and Cornwall from Exeter to Newquay.

Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.

Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the thoughts and moods of the great British travelling public. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.

Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.

In this programme, Alexei meets Finn who has swapped his job at Nandos for a life in the Royal Navy looking after helicopters; Andrew who is about to run up the Cornish coastal path to meet his girlfriend who is running down it the other way; Paula and James who share a love of music, especially in Paula’s case, the harpsichord; Julian who has just returned from being a volunteer crew member on an historic Brixham trawler; and Eta and Rowan who are both determined travellers and tell Alexei of a visit to Chernobyl - while Alexei surprises them with his own very unusual insight into the historic city of Petra in Jordan.

A Ride production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Golden Eggs (m001pfd7)
Oxbow Blues

Five British Asian writers take folktales or traditional stories and rework them in contemporary settings.

Episode 4: Oxbow Blues by Gurnaik Johal.
Inspired by the Punjabi love story Sohni Mohiwal. While the land around her floods, a woman reflects on loss, grief and a news story about doomed lovers.

Gurnaik Johal is a writer from West London. He was shortlisted for The Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize in 2018 and graduated from The University of Manchester in 2019. His first collection of stories, We Move, was published in 2022.

Writer: Gurnaik Johal
Reader: Chetna Pandya
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001p7px)
Is the BBC getting climate change right? Andrea Catherwood is joined by the BBC's Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt to answer your comments.

Radio 3’s Katie Derham takes Andrea on a backstage tour of the Royal Albert Hall and hears what listeners have to say about this year’s Proms.

The latest listening figures came out this week and it’s not good news for the BBC. Matt Deegan, Creative Director of Radio Consultancy firm Folder Media, unpicks the statistics.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001p7pn)
Richard Barancik, Yvonne Littlewood MBE, Edward Sexton, Dr Christian Carritt

Kirsty Lang on:

Richard Barancik, the last known surviving member of a World War II allied unit - The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section - known as the Monuments Men and Women.

Yvonne Littlewood MBE, the first woman to become a television producer and director in the BBC Light Entertainment unit.

Edward Sexton, the Saville Row master tailor.

And Dr Christian Carritt who set up her own GP practice in 1950s London.

Interviewee: Robert Edsel
Interviewee: Cathy Graham
Interviewee: Liz McLoughlin
Interviewee: Dominic Sebag-Montefiore
Interviewee: William Cohen

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:

Hitler's Stolen Art Collection (1945), British Pathe, War Archives, YouTube published 10/01/2012; EuroVision Song Contest 1962, BBC One, Introduction, 1963; Yvonne Littlewood interview, History of the BBC, 09/01/2015; Yvonne Littlewood interview, The History Project: Film, Television and Radio, historyproject.org.uk, 21/11/1991,; Yvonne Littlewood interview Tape 2, The History Project: Film, Television and Radio, historyproject.org.uk, 28/11/1991; The Val Doonican Show, BBC One, 09/06/1984; Edward Sexton – Master Tailor, Edward Sexton YouTube, uploaded 29/08/2014; Edward Sexton interview, The Rake Presents, The Rake, YouTube uploaded 04/03/2021;Edward Sexton interview, Midweek, BBC Radio 4, 26/11/2014; Edward Sexton – British Style Genius, BBC Four, repeated broadcast date 11/06/2008;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001pdy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001pf62)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001pdzg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001pfdz)
Ben Wright discusses the latest developments over the migrant barge moored off the Dorset coast, with a local Conservative MP, Chris Loder; former TUC leader and Labour peer, Frances O'Grady; and the SNP's David Linden. They also talk about the forthcoming Rutherglen by-election, and proposals to cut hundreds of railway ticket offices in England. Kevin Schofield - political editor of the Huffpost UK website - brings additional insight and analysis. And on a lighter note, Ben interviews political strategist John McTernan about how Prime Ministers choose to spend their summer holidays.


SUN 23:00 Life Changing (m001kpsh)
Taken: Tracey’s story

Tracey knew something was wrong the moment she got to the house. The place was empty, the children were gone and so was her husband Taz. Their marriage had broken down and they were going through divorce proceedings. Then she got a text message from him: ‘Gary and Lisa say goodbye forever.’ They’d been taken to Pakistan. Tracey enlisted the police, the Foreign Office and Interpol but in the absence of an agreement between Pakistan and England about parental child abduction cases — they were powerless. Tracey was advised not to travel to Pakistan and she had no idea where to start looking for them anyway. Dr Sian Williams hears what Tracey went through in the decade it took for her to find her children, and the complicated aftermath.

In the next episode Sian talks to Lisa, Tracey’s daughter, to hear the story from her point of view.


SUN 23:30 Beyond Belief (m001kppr)
Grief

Rabbi Jonathan Romain's son, Benedict, died tragically and suddenly in January. In the grieving process his faith, community and the rituals of Judaism have all played a part. He speaks to Aleem Maqbool about his experience and his response to bereavement.

His story leads to a panel discussion on the place of faith, religion and ritual within the grieving process, whether it is a help or a hindrance and whether belief in an afterlife makes it easier to deal with loss.

Maggie Doherty is the Director of the Centre for the Art of Dying Well at St Mary’s University. The Centre’s mission is to help people to live and die well and be supported in their grief. She is also a trustee of St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney and is a student in Digital Health.

Louise Blyth was 33 when her husband George died from bowel cancer, leaving her with one and three year old boys. At a time like that many lose their faith, but Louise found it, becoming a Christian. A year later she quit her dream job in operations for Mars to write a book “Hope is Coming” all about her experiences. Louise currently juggles being a Mum with trying to write her second book.

Jusna Begum supports bereaved Muslim families by washing the bodies of those they have lost; an essential part of the grieving process. She is also the director of a domestic violence charity in east London.

PRODUCER: KATHARINE LONGWORTH



MONDAY 07 AUGUST 2023

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001pffd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Sideways (m001p7lv)
49. Inside Marjorie's Parlour

Every Sunday afternoon for over 30 years now, Marjorie Eliot has played a jazz concert in her Harlem apartment for anyone who comes. It all began on a Sunday morning back in 1992, after she was faced with an unimaginable loss.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores how music has allowed Marjorie Eliot to look for joy within the deepest of losses. And through the history of jazz itself, he tries to understand how music can become such a powerful, even transcendental force.

With actress, playwright and musician Marjorie Eliot; singer, composer, actor - and Marjorie’s son - Rudel Drears; and Dr Tammy Kernodle, musicologist and Professor of Music at Miami University in Ohio.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Jake Otajovic
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001pf02)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pffs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pfg7)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pfgn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001pfgz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001pfhd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

Nina Simone

Good morning.

At the start of a new working week it is easy to feel that ‘it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and I’m feeling good’ as the song famously performed by Nina Simone says and, if that’s how you feel as you get moving this morning then I am delighted for you. For others the opposite feeling can persist, almost like a fog that never seems to lift, and it can easily seem that everything is against us.

I’ve gone through a lot of my life as a disabled person being told that independently is the best way to live. I’ve been told that I need to work hard, to fight to prove myself. To be honest, as I’ve got older I’ve found that kind of narrative increasingly exhausting and dispiriting. It can settle in your mind, heart and soul and have a real impact. It also flies in the face somewhat of Jesus’s encouragement to ‘fear not, because I have overcome the world’. The world and all that it has to throw at us, as it had plenty to throw at Jesus, has been overcome.

If I trust and rest in the promise of his presence and peace today then it is likely that my need to prove myself, or to apologise for perceived failings which are not my fault will greatly diminish and I will be left with the kind of hope and life for which I was made.
Lord, thank you for freeing me to be joyfully obedient to your law of love today. I choose to trust you.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001pfhs)
Supermarkets supporting farmers

Tesco and Morrisons are paying millions of pounds to support farmers as the cost of production remains high. Following some food shortages earlier this year, notably of British eggs, the stores say they'll pay costs including rising feed and fertiliser costs. Some commentators have said farmers should be paid a fair price for their produce instead, though the stores say they continue to support their suppliers in many ways.
This week we examine what farming could look like in 2050, including how the industry can transform to zero carbon. Today we ask how farmers could be impacted by the availability of lab-grown meat, which can be produced without emitting greenhouse gases, and using a fraction of the land needed for conventional livestock farming.
Presented by Charlotte Smith


MON 05:56 Weather (m001pfj7)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378wy3)
Common Redstart

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Michaela Strachan presents the common redstart. Redstarts are summer visitors from sub-Saharan Africa. The males are very handsome birds, robin-sized, but with a black mask, white forehead and an orange tail. John Buxton gave us a fascinating insight into their lives when, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he made a study of them.


MON 06:00 Today (m001pff0)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Is Psychiatry Working? (m001h3y1)
Crisis

Although psychiatry helped writer Horatio Clare when he was in crisis, some people in difficulty, their families, clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists themselves will tell you there are serious questions about the ways psychiatry understands and treats people in trouble. And so this series asks a simple question: is psychiatry working. In the following series, accompanied by the psychiatrist Femi Oyebode, Horatio traces a journey through crisis, detention, diagnosis, therapy, and recovery. In this first episode they look at how psychiatry responds to those in crisis.

If you need support with mental health or feelings of despair, a list of organisations that can help is available at BBC Action Line support:

Mental health & self-harm: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1NGvFrTqWChr03LrYlw2Hkk/information-and-support-mental-health-self-harm
Suicide/Emotional distress: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/information-and-support-suicide-emotional-distress

or you can call for free to hear recorded information on 0800 066 066.

Presenters: Horatio Clare and Femi Oyebode
Producer: Emma Close
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound Mix: James Beard


MON 09:30 Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On (m001k149)
5. No Way Out

As the clock ticks down Tony Blair’s options begin to run out. Diplomacy fails and the limits of British influence are revealed. So was war really the only option?

Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Producers: Ellie House, Claire Bowes
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore, Naked Productions
Production coordinators: Janet Staples, Brenda Brown
Series Editor: Penny Murphy


MON 09:45 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pffc)
Episode 1

The story of the extraordinary decade that followed the execution of Charles I in 1649.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001pffv)
Sarah De Lagarde's bionic arm, Women's World Cup update, Kim Sherwood on writing Bond

A few months ago, Sarah de Lagarde came on Woman's Hour to share her incredible story of survival. She had fallen on to the Tube tracks at a north London station and was run over by two Tube trains. She lost her right arm and leg as a result. Today, Sarah returns with a newly fitted bionic arm, made possible with the support of a crowdfunding campaign. She speaks to Hayley about her recovery journey.

As England’s Lionesses face Nigeria in the knock out stages of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, Hayley Hasssall is joined by BBC sports reporters Mimi Fawaz and Anna Thompson to discuss all the action.

MPs are warning that the use of smart technology and connected devices in facilitating domestic abuse is becoming a growing problem. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has found that smart products in the home are being used to 'monitor, harass, coerce and control' victims. Committee Chair and Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage joins Hayley.

Priya Hall decided to use her experience of trying to start a family within a same-sex couple as the basis for her stand-up comedy debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She speaks to Hayley about the unfairness that same-sex couples face when it comes to accessing fertility treatment.

With the blessing of creator Ian Fleming’s estate, the latest literary instalment of James Bond is based in a modern world, and written by a woman. Hayley speaks to author Kim Sherwood on her experience of writing for the iconic series.


MON 11:00 History on the Edge (m001pfg8)
Films and Filming

Anita Anand uncovers the hidden story of the British film magazine that, for 40 years, offered a cloak of authoritative cinematic respectability for gay readers who sought sexual contact when homosexuality was punishable by prison.

Films and Filming was a widely respected magazine that built a serious reputation for its coverage of the burgeoning international art-house cinema of the 1950s and 60s. It sold throughout the English-speaking world, its tens of thousands of readers admiring the calibre of its reportage of new masterpieces by Claude Chabrol, Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci. But when it launched, from a dingy basement near Victoria Station in London in 1954, few knew that Films and Filming was also a clandestine publication of great interest to men whose sexual preference was for other men.

That same year, when Films and Filming launched with Marlon Brando in his signature role in On the Waterfront on the cover, homosexuality had also been featured for months on the front page of Britain’s tabloids, as the famous peer, Lord Montagu, was put on trial and eventually sentenced to a year in gaol for illegal sex with other men.

Today, when equal marriage is legal and widely accepted in the UK, it’s hard to fully comprehend just how furtive and secretive gay relationships needed to be 70 years ago to escape the attention of the law – gay men lived in constant fear of discovery. So the existence of a respectable magazine that offered both stories about cinematic gay icons and images, often of near-naked male film stars, was a lifeline.

Even more of a lifeline were the magazine’s personal ads where gay film fans could arrange to share their interests, cinematic and otherwise, covertly of course, with impunity.

Anita Anand leafs through historic copies of Films and Filming with one of its regular columnists, David McGillivray. She meets his readers and reveals the hidden story of the magazine’s mysterious publisher, Philip Dosse, whose team of editors, almost exclusively gay, ran a distinguished portfolio of arts magazines on theatre, ballet, books and art, as well as film, from that Victoria basement.

Producers: Sara Parker and Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:30 Analysis (m001mc6f)
We know how to stop knife crime, so why don’t we do it?

In the last five years in the UK, more than 100 children have died from knife wounds. But violence isn't inevitable and evidence shows that we need more mentoring, therapy, family support and police in the areas where violence is high. So why don't we do what works? Jon Yates from the Youth Endowment Fund looks at the schemes that have successfully reduced knife crime. He investigates why the lessons they've taught us haven’t been scaled up. And why we’re spending money on other things like knife awareness campaigns without any evidence they work.

Presenter: Jon Yates
Producer: Rob Walker
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound Engineer: Richard Hannaford
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele

Contributors:
Karyn McCluskey, Chief Executive, Community Justice Scotland
Karen Timoney, Director, KDT Wellness
Graeme Armstrong, author of The Young Team
Laura Knight, Toolkit and Evidence Engagement Lead, Youth Endowment Fund
Gavin Stephens, Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council
Lawrence Sherman, Chief Scientific Officer, Metropolitan Police
Jhemar Jonas, youth worker and musician
Ciaran Thapar, youth worker and author of Cut Short
Thomas Abt, Founding Director, Center for the Study and Practise of Violence Reduction at the University of Maryland; author of Bleeding Out
Sajid Javid, Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, former Home Secretary
Luke Billingham, youth worker and researcher
Jahnine Davis, Director, Listen Up


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001pfgq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001pfh0)
Selling Houses; Sweet Shops; Kitchens

The latest figures from Halifax show another fall in house prices - although smaller than last month's. People looking to sell are reducing their asking price, but how low are they prepared to go? We hear from one listener who says she's prepared to accept £50,000 less than what she originally hoped.

Oxford Street in London should be a premier retail site but instead there are lots of new sweet shops opening up. The council don't like it and are battling to shut them down and offering incentives to other businesses who want to take their place.

And time was if you had a posh toaster or mixer you'd have it out proudly on display on the worktop. But now the latest must-have in your kitchen is a 'garage appliance' - it's basically a special cupboard to hide stuff away. Will it take off?

PRODUCER: SIMON HOBAN

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON


MON 12:57 Weather (m001pfhf)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001pfht)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Nick Eardley.


MON 13:45 One Direction (m0016h2w)
Disorientation

Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Part 1 begins today with our apparent lack of any significant orientation. On a digital globe, and on Google maps, it seems cardinal points no longer matter - we place ourselves at the centre of the map. The result is an egocentric mapping whose only orientation is immediate gratification. We are left, quite literally, disoriented.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, journalist and editor for Bloomberg City Maps Laura Bliss, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author Irna Qureshi, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, curator Rosemary Firman and historian of Islamic maps Yossef Rappaport.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001pfcc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Takeover (m001pfj8)
Series 3

Episode 1

High-stake deals and sibling rivalry set in the world of the super wealthy. The Majumdars, a family at war - with itself. With the media and half of his family out to get him, business mogul Ravi Majumdar (Rajit Kapur), acts to cleanse his image in the eyes of the world.

Series 3, Episode 1: a business fails, a deal is struck and Maya plots her revenge.

Cast:
Ravi Majumdar…..Rajit Kapur
Ash…..Abhin Galeya
Maya……Amrita Acharia
Zara…..Ramanique Ahluwalia
Shaan…..Danny Ashok
Ian……Finbar Lynch
Seraphina…..Jennifer Armour
Chantelle…..Gianna Kiehl
Amit…..Tavish Bhattacharyya
Sky……Sophia Del Pizzo
Arabella…..Tallulah Bond
Jeet…..Raj Ghatak
Dhruv…..Vivek Madan
Nadeem…..Nadir Khan
Ravi’s Father…..Rishabh Kanti
Young Ravi…..Yohann Mathur

And Bethany, by Kirsty Bushell

All other parts were played by:
Matthew Marsh
Walles Hamonde
David Holt
Philip Desmeules
Chris Anderson
Vivek Madan &
Natasha Arancini

Written by Ayeesha Menon and Matthew Solon

Sound Design…. Eloise Whitmore
Original music…. Sacha Puttnam
Sound recording… Paul Clark, Ashyar Bulsara & Ayush Ahuja
Assistant Producer….Eleanor Mein

Producer…. Emma Hearn & Nadir Khan
Assistant Director….Andy Goddard
Director….Ayeesha Menon
Executive Producer…. John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (m001pfjk)
Series 13

University of Portsmouth

Coming this week from the University of Portsmouth, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.

The specialist subjects this week are musical theatre, maths and psychology and the teams are quizzed on Cauchy sequences, Hilbert spaces, the Dunning-Kruger effect and what on earth is dangling from Mick Fleetwood? Also, the world's dodgiest song in the world's first ever musical.

The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.

In this series, the show goes to Exeter, Strathclyde, Keele, King’s College London, Portsmouth, and Somerville College, Oxford.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001pf8g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0fwwxq7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 16:30 Soul Music (m0017swt)
Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton

Candi Staton and others celebrate this 1970's disco classic which delivers an optimistic message.

Written by David Crawford and released in 1976 this is the kind of song that feels like a carefree celebration, something to lose yourself in on the dancefloor. But its story isn't quite so simple. As Candi tells Soul Music, Young Hearts Run Free was influenced by her own troubled and abusive relationship which she struggled to leave. In fact the creation of the song helped her gain the confidence to finally walk away.

Other contributors are:

Singer songwriter, Glen Hansard. He performs the song 'as' his mother because it reminds him so much of what the song meant to her.

Ziggi Battles , a singer who chose to cover the song as a way of rejoicing in the role it played in recovering from a very difficult time.

Jason Gilkison, the Creative Director of Strictly Come Dancing. It will forever remind him of the first time he choreographed a group dance for Strictly at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. His grandfather had danced there himself as a young man, before establishing the first dance school in Perth, Australia, which is where Jason developed his own love of ballroom dancing.

Neil Brand, composer and broadcaster, analyses why the piece works musically. He also describes the pure joy of a version by Kym Mazelle and - unlikely as it seems - the actor and opera singer, Paul Sorvino. It was used as the soundtrack to the ballroom scene in Baz Luhrmann's film of Romeo and Juliet.

Versions used: Candi Staton; Glen Hansard; Maz O'Connor; Ziggi Battles; Gloria Estefan; Kym Mazelle; Kym Mazelle (Ballroom Version) with Paul Sorvino

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Karen Gregor


MON 17:00 PM (m001pfk9)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pfkp)
The first asylum seekers have boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge after a series of delays


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001pfl2)
Series 79

Episode 5

The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to Northampton’s Royal & Derngate Theatre.

Rachel Parris and Milton Jones compete against Fred Macaulay and Sandi Toksvig with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.

Producer - Jon Naismith.

It is a BBC Studios production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001pf5t)
Ian and Adam discuss Ian’s Grey Gables job offer. It puts the dampers on his summer plans. Adam says it’s fine to turn it down. The money would be useful but they’re not desperate. Ian resolves to think it over. Ian comments that Xander fell asleep late last night as he’s still upset about Weaver. He’s drawn Stella a picture. Ian suggests they call in on Stella today with it. Adam agrees it would be better to have Stella as a friend than an enemy. Stella loves the picture, and their gift of flowers. Prompted by Ian, Adam apologises for the recent tensions between them. But when he talks about the cherries, Stella takes it the wrong way and cuts short their visit. Later Ian declares he’ll take the Head of Food job. It might just give him the money to start expanding the pizza business.
Ed cooks Emma a birthday breakfast. She reports ruefully that George only sent her a card via Clarrie. She tells Ed that Eddie’s lost Marvin, his favourite ferret. Ed’s still feeling bad about Weaver; he thinks Stella’s avoiding him. Emma suggests he tells Stella again how sorry he is. He approaches harassed Stella, who’s trying to get the combine fixed and field a call from the vet about releasing Weaver. Ed offers help, and another apology. Stella assures him it’s not his fault; she just wants to be able to get on with the harvest. Emma reminds disconsolate Ed that Stella’s grieving, and has a lot on. Ed resolves to help Stella take a break.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001pflg)
Lucy Prebble on The Effect, Welsh band Adwaith perform and Is the Critic Dead?

When you fall in love how do you know it’s for real, and not just the result of chemicals in your brain? Lucy Prebble’s play The Effect is back at the National Theatre - Tristan and Connie fall in love during a clinical trial for a new antidepressant and wonder if their passion is merely drug-fuelled.

The Welsh band Adwaith play their online hit Fel I Fod (How To Be) – just before the Camarthen band appear at the National Eisteddfod.

And could it be true that the art of criticism is dying? Theatre critic Mark Shenton believes it might be – but social media influencer Mickey-Jo Boucher says he’s bringing in new audiences. Head critic and reviews editor at The Stage Sam Marlowe says the art of reviewing is evolving and there’s room for both approaches.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Harry Parker


MON 20:00 The Price of Protection: Who Pays for War in Ukraine? (m001pf9d)
After 18 long months of war, the Ukrainian economy is near breaking point, and deeply dependent on western economic and military aid. Will Ukraine ever be able to repay the debts it has accrued? And what will the West ask of Kyiv in return?

Including interviews with Lt Colonel Pavlo Khazan, head of unmanned (drone) systems in the Ukrainian territorial army, and Melaniya Podolyak, a spokesman for the Serhiy Prytula Foundation, a charity that uses private donations to help fund the Ukrainian armed forces.

Presenter: Duncan Weldon
Producer: Leo Hornak
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001p75t)
Returning to Romania

Millions of people left Romania after it entered the EU in 2007. They were haemorrhaging doctors at such a rate they had to shut entire hospitals and losing so many builders they had to cancel major infrastructure projects. By 2015, nearly 20% of the population lived abroad. Now their government wants them to come home. They’ve doubled health care salaries, offered tax breaks to builders and dished out thousands of Euros in grants for returners who start up a business. And in 2023, with Romania projected to have one of the fastest growing economies in the EU, the migration tide could finally be turning.

Dr Tessa Dunlop travels to Transylvania to meet Alina, who was persuaded to leave the UK by a grant that helped her start up a leather clothing business. Adrian, co-owner of an app design company, relishes the high tech salary he can earn and the relatively low living costs in Romania. Dan, a foetal medicine specialist left the UK after nearly a decade working for the NHS, hoping to improve Romania’s maternity wards. In some sectors, though, there are still shortages. Builder Ion can't find the Romanian talent he could easily recruit in Italy. Perhaps not enough has improved, yet, to tempt lower paid workers home.

Producer: Phoebe Keane
Editor: Penny Murphy


MON 21:00 Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer (m001p6rp)
The Cheating Amoebas

Dr Kat Arney explores cancer through the lens of evolution. Why do we get cancer?

In this episode we find out that far from being a new disease, cancer is embedded deep in almost every branch of the tree of life, from the very earliest organisms through to today, and in most species from aardwolves to zebras.

Kat explores how the origins of cancer are inseparable from the history of life itself, with the help of some ancient mummies, cheating amoebas, lazy bees and naked mole rats.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth Sagar-Fenton
Edited by Chris Ledgard


MON 21:30 Is Psychiatry Working? (m001h3y1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001pflr)
First asylum seekers arrive on migrant barge

Migrants are spending their first night on a barge in Dorset. Fifteen asylum seekers are on board - but a group of about 20 refused to join them. We speak to the charity blamed by the government for blocking them.

Also on the programme:

The United States is stopping over $100m of aid from going to Niger until the military junta that's seized power steps down. We hear from one resident about how free people are to voice their opinions.

And Britain's wonkiest pub - The Crooked House - has burned down. We have a local lament.


MON 22:45 The Lock Up by John Banville (m001pflx)
Episode 1

1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

John Banville is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. He has written 17 novels and has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Author: John Banville
Reader: Gerry O’ Brien
Abridger: Neville Teller
Producer: Gemma McMullan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001p6sn)
The stories behind our names

Michael Rosen talks to journalist Sheela Banerjee about the family and cultural histories revealed by our names. In her book What’s in a Name? Friendship, Identity and History in Modern Multicultural Britain, she takes a deep dive into her own personal and family names and those of her friends. Names turn out to be excellent prisms through which to view history and the stories she uncovers are surprising and poignant.
Producer Beth O'Dea, BBC Audio Bristol


MON 23:30 Rewinder (m001nwnv)
A Business of Ferrets

Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and proud radio nerd, heads into the BBC archives to deliver a selection of prime audio, using stories of the week and listener requests as his launch-pad.

As Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Oppenheimer opens in cinemas, Greg finds some extraordinary recordings of the real J Robert Oppenheimer, the man in charge of the secret laboratory at Los Alamos where the atomic bomb was invented. We hear Oppenheimer's reaction to the testing of the first ever nuclear bomb in 1945, as well as his thoughts on the bombing of Hiroshima. He was invited to give the BBC Reith Lectures in 1954, and then in 1956 his security clearance was stripped from him by the US Government during a trial which the BBC reconstructed verbatim in a strange programme broadcast in 1970.

Following on from Greg's enthusiastic search for old radio jingles last week, listener requests lead him to more memorable melodies, including jingles for paraffin and the decimalisation of Australian currency.

Greg also marks 40 years since vandals broke into the Blue Peter garden. He unearths some letters sent in by young viewers with offers of help, some more sinister than others.

And a clip of legendary director, actor and writer Ken Campbell on Radio 4's Midweek in 2002 sends Greg down a ferret hole where he explores Blue Peter's strange obsession with ferrets over the years, and finds the man who held the world record for keeping ferrets down his trousers.

Producer: Tim Bano



TUESDAY 08 AUGUST 2023

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001pfm1)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pffc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pfm5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pfmd)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pfmk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001pfmp)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001pfmt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

What makes your heart sing?

Good morning.

What is one thing that, when you think about doing it, your heart starts to sing? If you come up with something in answer to that question it might be that you are on the way to answering a deeper question, that of what your vocation in life might be. I work as a Diocesan Director of Ordinands and Director of Vocation and Formation (kudos to anyone listening who understands what this means). I have a privilege in my role as the majority of my work involves meeting with and listening to people who are exploring what to do with their lives and offering themselves, often, to serve God, community and Church in some form of ministry. It is so exciting to meet people from so many places, backgrounds and experiences. It really is true that no two people, no two stories, are ever the same.

I think there’s a risk as we get older that one of the things we lose is a sense of wonder and the willingness to dream and to take risks. As you set about your day today, I wonder what the thing that makes your heart sing, the dream that you can take a step towards realising today, might be.

Father, you promise those who walk with you that they will have visions of hope, dreams of a future with you. Would you give us those today and help us to work for peace, hope and love in all we do.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001pfmy)
08/08/23 Stress-testing strawberries; hay cutting delays; a 2050 vision from a young environmental activist and ornithologist

Scientists experiment with how much crops can be deprived of water without affecting their growth.

A farmer in Gloucestershire shares her weather woes as she tries to cut hay.

And a young environmental activist and ornithologist gives her vision for 2050 when it comes to reaching net zero carbon emissions.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08wpd52)
John MacPherson on the Herring Gull

Wildlife photographer John MacPherson recalls a childhood memory of his mother and a herring gull for Tweet of the Day.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001pf36)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001pf3d)
Deborah Greaves on wave power and offshore renewable energy

If you’ve ever seen the ocean during a storm, you’ll understand the extraordinary power contained in waves. On an island nation like Britain, that power could well be harnessed to produce clean energy; so why have we barely begun to tap this bountiful resource?

Deborah Greaves is trying to change that. As Professor of Ocean Engineering at the University of Plymouth, she combines physical wave tanks with sophisticated computer modelling to test how well wave power devices respond to stormy seas. And as Director of the Supergen ORE Hub, she brings together researchers in offshore renewable energy to imagine a future of widespread, eco-friendly ocean power.

Deborah tells Jim Al-Khalili about growing up in Plymouth fascinated by the sea, and about breaking from the norm in her arts-focused family, to pursue a degree in engineering. But she spent years as a civil engineer building tunnels for the London Underground - and going on expeditions to the Arctic with her husband - before undertaking a PhD at Oxford University, exploring what happens when waves crash into solid structures.

She eventually returned to Plymouth and set up the institute’s Coastal, Ocean and Sediment Transport (COAST) Laboratory - a building with a swimming-pool-sized wave tank for testing new technologies. As Jim hears, these wave devices have an extraordinary diversity of uses - and could help to propel Britain into a greener energy future.

Produced by Phil Sansom.


TUE 09:30 One to One (m001pf3k)
Jamie Dornan on being Paul Conroy

Jamie Dornan - star of Fifty Shades and The Fall - played conflict photographer Paul Conroy in A Private War. Paul has travelled back from the frontline in Ukraine to talk to Jamie about the role, what he did to prepare, and whether he can still manage a decent scouse accent.

Future interviewees in the series include Greg Wise (Mountbatten in The Crown)
plus Rosamund Pike who has played both Marie Curie and Marie Colvin.
Paul Conroy was working with Marie Colvin when she was killed in Syria.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde


TUE 09:45 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pfbl)
Episode 2

The story of the extraordinary decade that followed the execution of Charles I in 1649.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001pf3y)
The case against Bill Cosby, Live music from Chloe Matharu, The world of incels, Texas abortion law

A judge in Texas has ruled that women who experience pregnancy complications are temporarily exempt from the state's abortion bans. The ruling comes after a group of thirteen women and two doctors sued the state of Texas in March of this year, calling for a clarification of the law. However, the injunction is only temporary until the lawsuit is decided - and the state of Texas has appealed the ruling. Dr Emma Long, Associate Professor in American History and Politics at the University of East Anglia, joins Clare McDonnell to explain the significance of the ruling.

Author and researcher Dr Julia Ebner has spent the last two years immersed in one of the darkest corners of the internet, the world of incels. She has been pretending to be an unhappily single, unemployed, male in his late 20s who is tired of feminism. This is part of her decade-long work going undercover investigating different extremist movements and how they pose a risk to democracy. Her new book, Going Mainstream, looks at the rapid spread of extremism into our mainstream social and political discourse.

Chloe Matharu is an award-winning, singer songwriter and harpist. She has cultural roots in Scotland, Wales and the Punjab, and draws inspiration from her time in the Merchant Navy and the natural world as experienced at sea. Her debut album, Small Voyages, was selected for Celtic Music Radio’s Album of the Year. At Celtic Connections she was awarded the revered Danny in February this year. She joins the programme live in the studio to talk about her music and to perform The Silkie of Sule Skerry.

More than 60 women have made allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment against the US comedian and actor Bill Cosby. But only one woman, Andrea Constand, was able to gain a criminal conviction. In 2018, he was sent to prison for three to 10 years on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. At the time it was celebrated as a major win for the #MeToo movement. Less than three years later, he was freed when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction on a legal technicality. In a new two-part documentary exclusively for ITVX from 10 August, The Case Against Cosby, Andrea tells her story.


Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

00:00 Opener
02:50 Texas abortion
13:16 Julia Ebner
29:58 Chloe Matharu
38:52 Andrea Constand


TUE 11:00 Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer (m001pf42)
A Patchwork of Mutation

Why is it so hard to cure cancer? Although half of all people diagnosed with cancer a decade ago are still alive today - a figure that has doubled over the last 40 years - too many families are still suffering terrible losses while scientists scramble to find "a cure". Dr Kat Arney explores the incredible complexity that modern technology has revealed about this ancient disease, showing that every person's cancer is a unique medley of mutated cells, any one of which could be carrying the seeds of resistance to treatment, and meets researchers who are peering deep into our DNA to discover how to beat it for good.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth Sagar-Fenton


TUE 11:30 Anti-Building with Cedric Price (m001pf48)
Tom Dyckhoff explores the life and work of forward-thinking architect Cedric Price.

Often referred to as “architect and thinker” – or “philosopher architect” – Cedric Price is a tricky person to pin down. He thought differently about what architecture could do – the way it could shape human relations. And for a generation of architects – including Richard Rogers and Norman Foster – he was an inspiration.

He was an expansive optimist who believed in architecture's potential to delight and to nurture change. At first glance his projects (some of which could be called buildings, some of which are more like grand plans) can appear fantastical, other-worldly – but they were deeply serious proposals.

Such as the Fun Palace – in collaboration with the theatre director Joan Littlewood – an egalitarian arts centre able to be constantly reconfigured according to the needs of its users. Or the Potteries Thinkbelt: a detailed plan for the regeneration of a large area of post-industrial Staffordshire into a new kind of mobile democratic university.

Cedric Price was interested in lightweight structures with fixed lifespans. His proposals often included instructions for demolition. And it’s perhaps fitting that one of his very few surviving works – the Snowdon Aviary at London Zoo (now reinvented as Monkey Valley) – is less a building than a giant high-tech tent.

Cedric Price was a technophobe technocrat; a romantic logician; a moralist and hedonist; a radical man of the people in a crisp collar and plummy voice; an architect who – at times – seemed very much anti-building.

Featuring Eleanor Bron, Anna Francis, Samantha Hardingham, Paul Hyett and Jude Kelly.

With thanks to Sir Peter Cook, Hans Ulrich Obrist and everyone involved with the Portland Inn Project.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001pfmb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001pf4t)
Call You & Yours: How do you make your clothes last longer?

It's our phone in today and we're asking: How do you make your clothes last longer?

New research shows that paying more for clothes doesn't mean they'll last longer.

Your clothes lasting can be down to a range of things - how you wash them, the material and how they're made.

Do you wash your clothes carefully? Do you repair them? Do you buy vintage clothing because of the quality?

How do you make you clothes last longer?

You can call our phone line on 03700 100 444 from 11am Tuesday morning.

Or email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001pf56)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001pf5j)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.


TUE 13:45 One Direction (m0016prz)
North

Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history, the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the Global South with the industrialised Global North drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

In Part 2 of this series, Jerry looks North. It’s the cardinal point at the top of most world maps, although historians and cartographers have never really agreed why – even as digital mapping threatens to de-throne it’s position. It’s also the most contradictory of the of the four directions, associated with vast wastelands and uninhabitable cold but also great beauty, revelation and the navigational truth of the North Star. For Jerry, born in Bradford, the North also confers identity.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps - any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, journalist and editor for Bloomberg City Maps Laura Bliss, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author Irna Qureshi, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, curator and Medieval scholar Rosemary Firman and historian of Islamic maps Yossef Rappaport.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001pf5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Takeover (m001pf64)
Series 3

Episode 2

High-stake deals and sibling rivalry set in the world of the super wealthy. The Majumdars, a family at war - with itself. With the media and half of his family out to get him, business mogul Ravi Majumdar (Rajit Kapur), acts to cleanse his image in the eyes of the world.

Series 3, Episode 2: a faustian pact, a forbidden tryst, and a terror attack on Davos.

Cast:
Ravi Majumdar……Rajit Kapur
Ash…..Abhin Galeya
Maya…..Amrita Acharia
Zara…..Ramanique Ahluwalia
Shaan…..Danny Ashok
Ian…..Finbar Lynch
Seraphina…..Jennifer Armour
Chantelle…..Gianna Kiehl
Arabella…..Tallulah Bond
Amit…..Tavish Bhattacharyya
Sky & Wanda…..Sophia Del Pizzo
Dhruv…..Vivek Madan
Nadeem…..Nadir Khan
Randy…..Walles Hamonde
Ravi’s Father…..Rishabh Kanti
Young Ravi…..Yohann Mathur
Young Pavesh…..Anay Arlekar
Katrina…..Ayeesha Menon
Rahul…..Zeus Paranjape

And Bethany, by Kirsty Bushell

All other parts were played by:
Chris Anderson
Natasha Arancini
Philip Desmeules
Walles Hamonde
David Holt
Rishabh Kanti
Vivek Madan

Written by Ayeesha Menon and Matthew Solon

Sound Design…. Eloise Whitmore
Original music…. Sacha Puttnam
Sound recording… Paul Clark, Ashyar Bulsara & Ayush Ahuja
Assistant Producer….Eleanor Mein

Producer…. Emma Hearn & Nadir Khan
Assistant Director….Andy Goddard
Director….Ayeesha Menon
Executive Producer…. John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001pdy0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 A Very British Cult (p0fdl4qf)
5. Paulie

To understand Lighthouse, Catrin needs to try and understand Paul Waugh. She delves into his past to investigate his claims of incredible wealth, high profile business connections, and a difficult childhood.

What happens when a life coach takes over your life? Catrin Nye and her team expose control, intimidation and fear at a sinister life coaching company.

Reporter: Catrin Nye
Written by: Jamie Bartlett and Catrin Nye
Producers: Osman Iqbal, Natalie Truswell, Ed Main & Jo Adnitt
Researcher: Aisha Doherty
Executive Producer: Ravin Sampat
Sound Mixing: James Bradshaw
Original Music by: Phil Channell
Commissioner: Rhian Roberts

Archive clips: Unleashing the Power Within - An Owner's Manual for the Brain (Robbins Research Institute); Zig Ziglar - Changing the Picture (Zig Ziglar Corporation); Harvey Mackay: Best-Selling Author & Entrepreneur (Eagles Talent); The Oprah Winfrey Show 1993 (Harpo Productions); The Oprah Winfrey Show 1988 (Harpo Productions); The Oprah Winfrey Show 1996 (Harpo Productions).


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001pf6j)
Fandom

There's lots of 'birging' in this week's programme. For those not in the know - that's short for Basking In Reflected Glory and it's something football fans in particular do when they talk about their team's triumphs using the 'extended we'. Michael Bond author of 'Fans' talks to Michael about the words and language different fan groups have as a shared means of communication. Whether it's being a superfan of sport, film or music there are words and phrases that show you belong to a particular fandom.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001pf6t)
Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore and London Zoo

It's a famous name - there's Raffles Hotel and Raffles Hospital, plus the rafflesia, the largest flowering plant in the world, an ant, a butterflyfish and a woodpecker, as well as the Raffles Cup, a horse race in Singapore. He was born in 1781 and as an agent of the East India Company, Thomas Stamford Raffles rose to become lieutenant governor of Java during the Napoleonic war. He's also often named as the founder of Singapore and also London Zoo. But how did he achieve so much so fast?
Recorded on location at London zoo with Matthew Gould, CEO of the Zoological Society of London; plus Stephen Murphy of SOAS University of London and Natasha Wakely who talks about Matthew Gould's second choice, Joan Procter, first female curator of reptiles who famously used to take a Komodo dragon for walks on a leash.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde


TUE 17:00 PM (m001pf75)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pf7v)
Leaders from eight countries that share the rainforest assembled for the summit in Brazil


TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001jsk1)
Series 1

Episode 3: Eel Girl v The Incredible Moth

Steph McGovern heads to Newcastle to ask some seriously funny minds for their definitive answers to the great questions of our age. Or not. Welcome to the world's most devious game of Would You Rather? With guests Scott Bennett and Josie Long.

Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Scott Bennett and Josie Long
Devised and written by Jon Harvey & Joseph Morpurgo
With additional material from Laura Major
Researcher: Leah Marks
Recorded and mixed by David Thomas
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Ed Morrish and Polly Thomas

Photo: Carolyn Mendelsohn

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001pf83)
Oliver admires George’s bale stacking effort. It’s a fantastic achievement and George has raised a phenomenal amount of money. George says he starts his farm management course in the autumn – before Oliver knows it he’ll be a fully-fledged farm promotions company. Neil arrives to talk to George. Oliver thinks George should hear his granddad out. Neil praises George’s fete effort and invites him to tea. Neil hates all the bad feeling between them. George shocks him by declaring Oliver’s been more of a granddad to him than Neil. Neil tells Oliver he’s not sure George will ever come round, guiltily admitting he’s not an easy kid to like. Oliver thinks he’s being hard on himself, but Neil wonders why he’s the only grandparent who can’t connect with George.
Clarrie says Eddie’s holed up in the cider shed, stressing over lost Marvin. Emma reports her birthday meal last night was miserable, with Ed and George hardly speaking. The women resolve to keep looking for Marvin. George has offered to put an appeal online, meanwhile Eddie’s savagely dismantling the ferret wheel. George has news later that Eddie’s taking some positive action and starting a ring round to see if anyone’s heard anything. Emma tells George that Ed’s under pressure, trying to arrange some time off for Stella, so George needs to go easy on him. George agrees he will. Later he offers to drive a tractor for Home Farm, free of charge, to help out. Emma sees this as a kind of apology from George; he’s not a bad lad deep down.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001pf8c)
Bruce Lee, mental health in reality TV, poet Sean Street on birdsong

On the 50th anniversary of the release of the martial arts film Enter The Dragon, actor and filmmaker Daniel York Loh and Bruce Lee’s biographer Matthew Polly discuss the star of the film, Bruce Lee, and his continuing influence across culture.

As reality TV remains a staple of our television schedules, Carolyn Atkinson reports on the work that television production companies are now doing to support the mental wellbeing of the members of the public who become contestants on their shows.

The author, poet and sound recordist Seán Street talks about how the challenge of describing the sounds of nature in words makes us listen differently, and why it may encourage us to care more for our environment. His new book is Wild Track - Sound, Text and the Idea of Birdsong.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paul Waters


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001pmkj)
Jon Holmes, Generation Shame

Last year a Parliamentary Report concluded that between 1949 and 1976, around 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were put up for adoption in England and Wales, many of these by force. For File on Four, The Skewer’s Jon Holmes investigates whether he was one of them.

Jon Holmes has always known he was adopted, but was never very interested in searching for his birth parents until results of a recent DNA test proved he was of Irish heritage and his curiosity was piqued.

A large folder arrives from Warwickshire County Council and slowly Jon begins to unpick the story of his life and the world he was born into. As secrets of Jon’s past are revealed, a Parliamentary Report by the Committee on Human Rights is published detailing shocking and vivid accounts of mothers being forced into giving up their babies by a society that outcast and shamed them at every turn.

What will Jon discover about his own family? What truths will he uncover as he speaks to mothers forced into handing their newborns over, as well as fellow adoptees about the damaging and traumatic culture he was born into?

Government has always denied any responsibility and is refusing demands for an apology, but is that really the case?

As Jon slowly finds out more about his own past, he also investigates the impact of this era and asks where does responsibility for this societal culture lie… and can it ever be repaired?

Presenter: Jon Holmes
Producer: Elizabeth Foster


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001pf90)
Braille on Food Labelling; Disability Policy at the White House

Getting braille onto food labelling is the subject of an ongoing campaign by a number of disability groups in Scotland. Oban and District Access Panel, Disability Equality Scotland and Sight Scotland have taken their campaign to the Scottish Government and are currently seeking visually impaired people's experiences and preferences when it comes to accessible food packaging.

If you'd like to submit your experiences, visit: http://inclusivecommunication.scot/braille-campaign
Or call Disability Equality Scotland on 0141 370 0968

Day Al-Mohamed may not be a household name here in the UK, but she is certainly making waves in the United States. As well as being an author, a broadcaster, a documentary film maker and co-founder of a company that helps disabled people get into film making, she also spent a year working at the White House. There, she was Director of Disability Policy and would review new legislation and current policies to ensure the rights and needs of disabled people were being met.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m001pf97)
What difference could new Alzheimer’s disease drugs make?

Until recently, breakthroughs in treating Alzheimer’s disease were non-existent. But two new drugs have shown promise in moderately slowing memory and thinking problems for people with early-stage disease. While welcoming the idea of a ‘new era’ for treating Alzheimer’s disease, how much of a difference could these drugs make for people living with the condition?

James Gallagher visits a Memory Café in Doynton to hear about the daily challenges people living with dementia face, and their feelings about the new treatments on the horizon. Lauren Walker, Alzheimer’s disease researcher at Newcastle University, gives an overview of the protein these drugs target in the brain, and Liz Coulthard, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the University of Bristol, explains how these treatments might impact patient's lives.

After listening to our “How hot is too hot for human health?” programme, one of our listeners contacted insidehealth@bbc.co.uk to ask how the heat experienced during a hot flush impacts the body. James asks Clare Eglin, lecturer in applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth, what happens in the body during a hot flush and hears about how many others symptoms are actually caused by the menopause from GP, Margaret McCartney.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Julia Ravey
Editor: Erika Wright
Production Co-ordinator: Johnathan Harris
Technical Producer: Tim Heffer


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m001pf3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001pf9f)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 The Lock Up by John Banville (m001pf9m)
Episode 2

1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

John Banville is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. He has written 17 novels and has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Author: John Banville
Reader: Gerry O’ Brien
Abridger: Neville Teller
Producer: Gemma McMullan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


TUE 23:00 Witch (p0fpbw67)
11. Through the Veil

The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?

Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.

Witches seem to have a rare familiarity and ease with the idea of death But what does that look like in practice? India spends time at an ancestor workshop, talks to Tatum about Silent Suppers and goes to Cornwall to experience a séance.

Scored with original music by The Big Moon.

Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Producer: Elle Scott
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed

A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Rewinder (m001p1hp)
A Rhyme for Beef

Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and proud radio nerd, heads into the BBC archives to deliver a selection of prime audio, using stories of the week and listener requests as his launch-pad.

An email takes Greg to the London markets of 1935, where he meets the porters of Billingsgate who can carry up to 150kg of fish on their heads. He finds himself embroiled in the 1925 'market song wars', sparked when the BBC played a foxtrot called Eat More Fruit which extolled the virtues of a fruit-based diet. The meat sellers of Smithfield and the fish purveyors of Billingsgate were up in arms and set about composing their own songs in retaliation.

As singer, model, actor and all-round icon Grace Jones turns 75, Greg finds some extraordinary interviews in the archive. She talks about her tough upbringing, her stunts with a six-foot stick while filming A View to a Kill, and we hear her first BBC appearance on a variety show called Seaside Special. Then there's the infamous interview with Russell Harty, one of the most famous chat show moments of all time, when a sleep-deprived Grace lashed out at the host.

Greg goes in search of the elusive concept of 'the spirit of cricket'. Is it in the village of Tilford on a rainy day in 1936? Maybe it's in the unconventional diet of legendary England fast bowler Harold Larwood? Or perhaps Ainsley Harriott can help?

And as a new Mission Impossible film opens in cinemas, Greg's mission is to uncover the exploits and adventures of British secret agents. He hears from a Second World War saboteur who recalls his parachute training, and from a member of the Special Operations Executive who finds out his comrade is a double agent and has an impossible decision to make.

Producer: Tim Bano



WEDNESDAY 09 AUGUST 2023

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001pfb4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pfbl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pfbw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pfc8)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pfcm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001pfd2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001pfdj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

I love jazz!

Good morning.

I love jazz. It is so diverse, so full of wonder. It is, often, too so full of performances of enormous technical skill, but which simultaneously saunter along on sumptuous and sinuous grooves which are providers of tremendous joy. There’s something truly right about finding the back-beat in a tune and riding the wave of a phrase all the way to the top of a crescendo. The trouble is that if it is not found, all too often the same glorious genre of music can sound like a jumbled, even sometimes atonal or cacophonous mess. Through it all, there’s always the one, that first beat of the bar, root chord or first note in the scale, that when it is found or returned to, enables everything to start making sense again.

I grew up listening to the British rock of the 90s, bands like Oasis, Kula Shaker and Supergrass. In these last years, something of the slightly less clear, more improvised and uncertain nature of jazz has really started to appeal to me. I think life is a bit like the shift from rock to jazz. We start out looking for certainty and aren’t quite sure what to do when we don’t find it, surprised that it really is true that the wind blows where it blows and we’re not as in control of it as we might have first thought. It’s a comfort to me in these times that I can look to God and know that he has been calming storms for some time and hasn’t given up yet.

Lord, help me to trust you in the storms today and to help others through theirs too.

Amen


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001pff1)
09/08/23 Barn conversions for housing and a conservation scientist's vision for 2050

The government has launched a consultation on whether farmers in English National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty should be allowed to convert barns into housing without planning permission.

A conservation scientist shares his vision for 2050 in trying to reach net zero carbon emissions.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08wn2jh)
John McPherson on the Hooded Crow

Wildlife photographer John McPherson recalls, for Tweet of the Day, watching hooded crows working intelligently to obtain food caught by an otter on the Isle of Mull.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


WED 06:00 Today (m001pf80)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Reflections (m001pf88)
Valerie Amos

Baroness Amos takes James Naughtie behind the scenes of a career in the foreign office, Tony Blair's government, and the UN, and reflects on how to bring activism to the establishment


WED 09:30 Living on the Edge (m001pf8k)
Cardiff Bay

Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.

Today: at Cardiff Bay with Roma Taylor, founder of Windrush Cymru Elders.

Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.

In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.


WED 09:45 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pf8v)
Episode 3

Eleven years when Britain had no king.
On a raw January afternoon in 1649, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.
The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man. Notable players from the time also feature, including Lord Fairfax, creator of the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell and George Monck the general who negotiated the return of the monarchy.
Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain’s history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

In episode three the new government tries to get its message across via the press, and the charismatic journalist Marchamont Nedham finds himself in prison.

THE RESTLESS REPUBLIC by Anna Keay
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
Reader: Helen Schlesinger


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001pf96)
Megan Thee Stallion, Fertility Anxiety, Colombian striker Linda Caicedo

The rapper Tory Lanez has been sentenced to 10 years for the shooting of fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion. She required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her foot after he shot her following a party in 2020. BBC entertainment correspondent Chi-Chi Izundu joins Clare McDonnell to discuss.

Do you have fertility anxiety? Today we are discussing why some women fear they can’t easily have children, despite having no known health issues. The journalist Sophie Gallagher joins Clare alongside Dr Ellie Cannon, an NHS GP and author.

18-year-old Linda Caicedo has been one of the break-out stars of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Colombian player’s journey so far includes a professional and international debut at 14, a cancer diagnosis at 15, and a move to one of the most well-known clubs in the world. BBC Sport reporter Emma Smith joins us to explain her meteoric career.

Lorna Rose Treen is an award-winning comedian who has taken her one-woman character comedy show Skin Pigeon to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time this year. Being a performer at the Fringe is fun but can be gruelling – so how does it work? Lorna has recorded an exclusive audio diary for Woman’s Hour to give us a peek behind the scenes.

Spiritual healing is extremely popular in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa. But the practice is unregulated and that means women are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. An investigation by BBC News Arabic has uncovered allegations of widespread sexual abuse by healers in Sudan and Morocco. Clare McDonnell is joined by the BBC’s Hanan Razek and Senior Women's Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Rothna Begum, to discuss.

Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Emma Pearce

00:00 Opener
02:53 Megan Thee Stallion
10:42 Fertility Anxiety
25:54 Linda Caicedo
35:29 Lorna Rose Treen
47:53 Spiritual Healing


WED 11:00 The Price of Protection: Who Pays for War in Ukraine? (m001pf9d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand (m001pf9l)
A Thorough Examination - Live at Hay

Chris and Xand van Tulleken recorded live at the Hay Festival. They’re reflecting on how much their lives have changed since they started recording their podcast, A Thorough Examination.

Xand has lost almost three stone and Chris has written a book about ultra processed food, which was the cause of Xand’s weight gain. They’ve navigated serious health concerns, major bust-ups in their working and personal life and are continuing to challenge their scepticism about each other’s ability to change and improve.

In front of a live audience at the Hay Festival, Chris and Xand choose the most memorable moments from series one and two of A Thorough Examination . They’ll revisit Xand’s lowest moments with his weight struggles, Chris’ misguided nagging and reflect on the most useful advice they’ve received from experts.

All of this is in the hope that, as they embark on recording series 3 of A Thorough Examination, things will go as smoothly as possible…

Recorded live at the Hay Festival, 28th May 2023
Presented by Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Produced by Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


WED 12:00 News Summary (m001pf9t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001pfb3)
Underage cosmetic fillers; Energy refunds; Carry on cruising?

It’s nearly two years since a law was introduced in England which made it illegal for under-18s to be given certain cosmetic treatments such as lip filler and botulinum toxin - often known as botox. Despite this, there's clear evidence that underage treatments are continuing and that the number of unregistered practitioners remains high. There were nearly 3,000 complaints from people using unregistered practices last year alone, according to the organisation Save Face, which provides a national register of accredited practitioners. Enforcing the law is down to local Trading Standards.

You and Yours receives many complaints from listeners having trouble with energy companies when they try to retrieve their own money in their account when they switch providers. The experience of Jayne from Berkshire is a case in point. She had £2,700 in credit when she switched from SSE/OVO to another provider. But even after 9 months of phone calls and a successful complaint to the ombudsman it all failed to persuade SSE/OVO to pay up . Now she is demanding to know why they are able to keep her money from her for so long , and whether the energy companies take the Ombudsman seriously.

Cruising was particularly badly hit by the Covid pandemic - what was once a £7 billion global industry suddenly shrank by two thirds. Today it is undergoing a healthy recovery with holidaymakers in the UK and Ireland alone taking 1.7 million cruises last year...nearing levels before the pandemic. But the industry, and its passengers, are facing another headwind. More and more holiday destinations are turning against the huge ships because of the pollution they bring, and the sudden influx of large numbers of tourists. Amsterdam is the latest city to ban or restrict cruises - joining other places such as Venice, Palma in Mallorca, Dubrovnik and Bar Harbour on the east coast of the United States. We examine the knock-on for the cruise industry as more and more key holiday destinations say the mega cruise ships are no longer welcome.

And, after 70 years of production, the Volvo Estate car is no longer being sold new in the UK. In that time, more than six million have been made, and they have become synonymous with the safe, family car. But Volvo says it want to focus on electric cars and SUVs, given that demand for saloon and estate cars has been declining in the UK. We want to hear your Volvo estate stories at youandyours@bbc.co.uk

PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: CRAIG HENDERSON


WED 12:57 Weather (m001pfbh)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m001pfbv)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.


WED 13:45 One Direction (m0016xj4)
East

Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

In Part 3 of this series, Jerry looks East. It’s the direction of the sunrise, emblematic of the human life cycle; a symbol of birth and the beginning of life’s journey encapsulated in one day, ending with twilight and the setting of the sun. Over centuries the West - with which it forms an axis - came to be understood in direct relation to the East. It created a stereotype of the East - or Orient - as not just an idea, but a fantasy of beguiling mystery, also despotic and irrational. Meanwhile places to the east of Europe developed their own assumptions about the West, with China asserting its geopolitical power by drawing on the iconography of the east: rebirth, renewal and the rising sun.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, director of the China institute at SOAS Steve Tsang, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian and sinologist Timothy Brook, author Irna Qureshi, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, librarian at Hereford Cathedral Rosemary Firman and historian of Islamic maps Yossef Rappaport.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m001pf83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Takeover (m001pfc7)
Series 3

Episode 3

High-stake deals and sibling rivalry set in the world of the super wealthy. Meet the Majumdars, a family at war - with itself. With the media and half of his family out to get him, business mogul Ravi Majumdar (Rajit Kapur), acts to cleanse his image in the eyes of the world.

Series 3, Episode 3: an arrangement is broken, a car crash, a son is sacrificed.

Cast:
Ravi Majumdar…..Rajit Kapur
Ash…..Abhin Galeya
Maya…..Amrita Acharia
Zara…..Ramanique Ahluwalia
Shaan…..Danny Ashok
Ian…..Finbar Lynch
Seraphina…..Jennifer Armour
Chantelle…..Gianna Kiehl
Guy…..Matthew Marsh
Dhruv…..Vivek Madan
Sky…..Sophia Del Pizzo
Amit…..Tavish Bhattacharyya
Randy…..Walles Hamonde
Ravi’s Father…..Rishabh Kanti
Young Ravi…..Yohann Mathur
Young Pavesh…..Anay Arlekar
Raveena & Ravi’s Mother…..Ayeesha Menon
Prison Guard…..Chris Anderson

And Bethany, by Kirsty Bushell

All other parts were played by:
Chris Anderson
Natasha Arancini
Philip Desmeules
Walles Hamonde
David Holt
Rishabh Kanti and
Zeus Paranjape

Written by Ayeesha Menon and Matthew Solon

Sound Design…. Eloise Whitmore
Original music…. Sacha Puttnam
Sound recording… Paul Clark, Ashyar Bulsara & Ayush Ahuja
Assistant Producer….Eleanor Mein

Producer…. Emma Hearn & Nadir Khan
Assistant Director….Andy Goddard
Director….Ayeesha Menon
Executive Producer…. John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m001pdy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m001pf97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Sideways (m001pfcv)
50. Take the First Step

In 2014 Angela Maxwell was feeling stuck. She wanted something fresh, something exciting. After a chance encounter she landed upon her goal - she was going to set off on one of the largest adventures imaginable: a walk around the world. She didn't know exactly how the journey would play out, but that was part of the appeal - the whole planet was waiting for her to just take the first step.

In this episode, Matthew Syed hears from Angela about her 6 year walk around the world, from the misery of freezing cold nights, to finding beauty in solitary nights sleeping under the stars. And Angela explores her ideas about courage - after she was raped during her expedition, she chose to continue her journey around the world. Over the six years she walked, she would find deep connection to herself and to others, making lifelong friends and sinking into the places, slowly, just placing one foot in front of the other.

We hear from Susan Houge Mackenzie, a professor of psychology at the University of Otago, about the benefits of adventure to our mindset, even 'micro adventures' which take place much nearer to home, and from naturalist and conservationist Nadia Shaikh, who is a land justice activist working with the Right to Roam campaign, who makes a case that we need far greater access to nature to be able to undertake micro adventures in our local area.

Matthew considers how adventures big and small can clarify our goals for our lives, and asks us to consider whether we ought to all be heading out on adventures a little more often.

If you have been affected by sexual abuse or violence, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Nadia Mehdi
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru.
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001pfd8)
Trying Trump

As of now, Donald Trump has three criminal trials pending – the latest, and most serious, concerns allegations that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. When it gets to full trial, it will be box office. But the conventions of the Federal Court ban any electronic broadcast or photography. What are the implications for Trump and for American democracy?

Plus Jeff Jarvis discusses his book The Gutenberg Parenthesis and we hear about the row consuming France’s only national Sunday newspaper.

Guests: Jeff Jarvis, Associate Professor, City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism; Elie Honig, Senior Legal Analyst, CNN; Naomi Lim, White House Reporter, The Washington Examiner; Jeremy Barr, Media Reporter, The Washington Post.

Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Simon Richardson


WED 17:00 PM (m001pfdr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pff3)
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has apologised for the data breach


WED 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (m0005t56)
Series 8

Episode 4

John Finnemore returns to Radio 4 with an eighth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined by his regular ensemble cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

This week's episode will make you feel like a princess, whether you want it to or not - and you can have that, if you like. And, well... since you ask him for another tale of crossing the ocean by horseback...

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described by The Radio Times as "the best sketch show in years, on television or radio", and by The Daily Telegraph as "funny enough to make even the surliest cat laugh". Already the winner of a Radio Academy Silver Award and a Broadcasting Press Guild award, this year Souvenir Programme won its second BBC Audio Drama award.

Written by & starring ... John Finnemore
Cast ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Cast ... Simon Kane
Cast ... Lawry Lewin
Cast ... Carrie Quinlan

Production Coordinator ... Beverly Tagg
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios production


WED 19:00 The Archers (m001pffl)
Stubborn Stella’s having trouble accepting relief help from Ed and George, but she finally gives in and offers George a day’s trial at Home Farm, at the going rate.
Joy reports Harrison isn’t able to help with finding Marvin. Clarrie thought as much. Eddie’s too depressed even for George to do his appeal video. Joy offers to speak to Eddie, coaxing him not to wallow and to take positive action. They can continue the search without Harrison’s help. Undeterred by his doom-mongering, Joy manages to get Eddie to do the video. She’ll get George to edit and tidy it, and see if the Echo will post it on their socials. Eddie and Clarrie are grateful. Clarrie wants to go with Ed and Emma to the Bull to celebrate George’s successful day at Home Farm, but Eddie’s not keen. However Clarrie insists, and sends him upstairs to change his clothes. Jubilant Eddie finds Marvin curled up the pocket of his trousers. It’s a double celebration at the Bull!
George has made a good fist of his tractor driving trial, and Stella offers him some casual shifts. George promises he won’t let her down, but not before divulging that Weaver’s the second dog Ed’s killed. Later Ed offers to buy Stella a drink. She’s looking forward to overnight camping with Pip and Rosie now she’s got some help with the farm. She’s also had time to arrange a proper burial for Weaver. Ed tries to explain what happened with Baz, Will’s dog, but Stella’s fine with it. She’s appreciated Ed’s kindness.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m001pffz)
Anohni, artists' intellectual property, Bruntwood Prize-winning play Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz

Mercury Prize winning and Oscar-nominated artist Anohni returns with a soulful new album, My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross, released under the moniker Anonhi and the Johnsons for the first time.

The artist Michael Moebius is preparing to launch another legal battle to protect his intellectual property, after successfully suing 399 companies for infringing his copyright in a landmark lawsuit. To discuss why artists and designers need better protection, Nick Ahad is joined by US lawyer Jeff Gluck and Margaret Heffernan, Chair of the Design and Artists Copyright Society.

Playwright Nathan Queeley-Dennis is in Edinburgh appearing in his debut play, a monologue which won the Bruntwood Prize last year. Nathan tells Nick about writing and performing Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, a love letter to Brimingham, barbers and love itself.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m001p7n5)
'Woke' capitalism

Should companies weigh-in on sensitive social issues?

After a Costa Coffee van featured artwork of a trans man with mastectomy scars, there have been calls to boycott the chain on social media. And there’s been controversy over banks rejecting customers because of their political views. Are businesses trying to make the world better or just more money? And is it the place of companies to fight what they see as social injustice?


WED 20:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001h414)
Reach Out

It turns out having friends has big benefits for your health. Fascinating research shows social contact can boost your immune system and your brain power. In this episode, Michael Mosley is joined by Professor Pamela Qualter from Manchester University, who explains how reaching out in the simplest of ways - from sending a simple text to helping your neighbours - can significantly reduce loneliness levels, helping you feel more connected and a part of a community. People appreciate being contacted much more than you think. So, the next time you wonder whether to reach out to a friend – just do it.


WED 21:00 A Very British Cult (p0fdl4qf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001pfd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001pfgw)
Italian MEP on migrant boat deaths - 'NGO's are encouraging' dangerous journeys

Four survivors from a migrant boat which sank say 41 others have drowned. - we hear from an MEP from Italy's governing party,
Also: concerns about safety from a Northern Ireland policewoman, how to rebuild a pub, Russian history textbooks, French spies in Libya, and the death of Sex Pistols collaborator Jamie Reid.


WED 22:45 The Lock Up by John Banville (m001pfh7)
Episode 3

1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

John Banville is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. He has written 17 novels and has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Author: John Banville
Reader: Gerry O’ Brien
Abridger: Neville Teller
Producer: Gemma McMullan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (m001pfhn)
Series 10

Episode 4 - with guests Jane Horrocks and David Morrissey

Bunk Bed goes on tour - after a fashion. Peter Curran’s old caravan is dragged to a field at this summer’s Black Deer Americana festival. Patrick Marber hates every moment.

'Bunk Bed is funny, strange, enchanting, and beautifully put together.' - The Observer

'Bunk Bed is beloved by broadsheet critics, but don't let that put you off....' - Metro

Produced by Peter Curran

A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001pfj2)
Series 9

Episode 8

Jon Holmes's comedy current affairs concept album remixes news into award-winning satirical shapes. This week: This week: Fawlty Migrants, You've Been Droned, and Horror of Mogg.

Created and produced by Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000k22t)
Series 1

W1A - with Hugh Bonneville & John Morton

TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.

In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Hugh Bonneville and John Morton about W1A, their much-loved satire of the BBC.

They discuss where the idea for W1A came from (there is, you’ll be pleased to hear, a fold-up bike involved).

John reveals which BBC grandee offered his services when it came to researching the show.

Hugh talks about the challenges of playing Ian Fletcher and Downton’s Earl of Grantham, often at the same time (and how it all actually helped W1A to prise a bit more cash out of the BBC!).

And we hear what Ian Fletcher might be doing next.

With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how they went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.

We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.

Original W1A clips written by John Morton

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in June 2020.



THURSDAY 10 AUGUST 2023

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001pfjg)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pf8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pfjr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pfk6)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pfkj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001pfkx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001pfl9)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

How did you sleep?

Good morning.

I hope, if you were trying to, that you rested well last night. Rest doesn’t come too easily to me. Whatever I try, consistent and uninterrupted through the night sleep eludes me. Usually by a Thursday I am reaching a point of tiredness somewhat greater than that which I felt on Monday morning. You would think I would learn by now but I never seem to follow the example of Jesus in this regard. He travelled considerable distances, working extremely hard and making huge amounts of time for people (which itself must have been highly taxing on energy, but through it all he rested, regularly and as a priority.

As we begin to move through the school holidays that will have impacted many of us, have we made or found time to rest to be refreshed for what is to come? If the rhythm of your life no longer revolves around educational terms, have you made a priority for renewal and making ready which will enable you for the long haul ahead? These are questions I’m asking myself this summer, too. I want to learn to let myself rest. It was something which God instructed us to do. We’re not made to keep going till we drop. I hope I prioritise finding time to rest today.

Lord, thank you for your promise that those who love and follow you will find rest in life with you. Help us to do that today and help us to enable those around us to rest, too.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001pfln)
10/08/23 Scottish farmers' concerns about windfarms, Carolyn Steel's 2050 vision.

Farmers in Scotland have criticised what they say is the government's 'lack of joined up policy' after it emerged that over the past 23 years nearly 16 million trees have been felled to make way for wind farms. The Scottish government says that there is a planning presumption to protect woodland and that developers would be expected to plant trees elsewhere to make up for the loss.
All this week we’re looking ahead to 2050 when, if the government hits its target, the UK will have reached net zero emissions of the greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. So what should and could farming and the food system look like? It's a question we've put to a range of people over the week, farmers, conservationists and today an architect turned writer who has given a lot of thought to food and its place in our lives.
Carolyn Steel is the author of Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives and Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World. She argues that food is a powerful force and we don't give it the value it deserves.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (m0002bvl)
Trudie Goodwin on the Hoopoe

For many, actress Trudie Goodwin is best known for her television roles as Sergeant June Ackland in The Bill and latterly in Emmerdale. But during all that time Trudie has possessed a lifelong love of bird watching. At the age of ten she was given the Collins Book of British Birds, which on a well thumbed page contained occasional accidental migrants which could be found in Britain, including the hoopoe. It was not until much later in life that she finally managed to see this bird, while on holiday in Portugal.

Producer: Andrew Dawes


THU 06:00 Today (m001pf9w)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 How to Play (m001pfb7)
Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden' with the Heath Quartet

The Heath Quartet invites us behind the scenes as they get ready to perform Schubert's poignant "Death and the Maiden" string quartet, one of the great pillars of the chamber music repertoire.

At their living room rehearsal, we eavesdrop on violinists Sara Wolstenholme and Juliette Roos, viola player Gary Pomeroy and cellist Christopher Murray as they tackle Schubert's tricky technical corners, test out different interpretations, and share the joys and challenges of working on this beloved piece as an ensemble. Also, music researcher Katy Hamilton tells us the backstory to this epic work and why Schubert had mortality on his mind as he wrote it.

Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Wales and West

Photo: The Heath Quartet (credit Kaupo Kikkas)


THU 09:30 Inside Pages (m001h45s)
Caerphilly

Journalist Ian Wylie journeys to some of the hidden corners of Britain to view small towns through the lens of the people who don’t ignore them - their local reporters.

Some of the towns are struggling, others are thriving. The one thing they have in common is they’re pretty much invisible in the eyes of the national media, even though they are home to tens of thousands of people. They don’t have football teams. They’re not pretty resorts that attract tourists. They can’t even claim to be a contested marginal seat that will determine the outcome of a general election. Our guides are the passionate people who remain committed to telling the stories of what’s happening in their small towns. Through their newspapers, websites and social media posts they refuse to turn the page on local news reporting - often at some personal cost.

In our first episode, Ian travels to Caerphilly in South Wales. It’s a small town with a familiar issue - it feels dwarfed by Cardiff, the big city nearby.

Produced and presented by Ian Wylie
Executive producer: Ian Bent
Sound designer: John Scott
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4


THU 09:45 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pfcz)
Episode 4

Eleven years when Britain had no king.
On a raw January afternoon in 1649, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason. Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the ‘useless and dangerous’ House of Lords discarded. The people, it was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this meant, and where it would lead, no one knew.
The Restless Republic is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. And the indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man. Notable players from the time also feature, including Lord Fairfax, creator of the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell and George Monck the general who negotiated the return of the monarchy.
Keay brings to vivid life the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain’s history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a conservative people tried revolution.

In episode four the Countess of Derby attempts to hold on to the last royalist stronghold whilst her husband is imprisoned in Chester castle.

Abridged and produced by Jill Waters and The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
Reader: Helen Schlesinger


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001pfbz)
Barbie in China, The Hundred: women's cricket, Women & student loans, Why university students are staying at home

New research by the Sutton Trust reveals that more than a third of A-level students in England are considering living at home if they get into their preferred university. And in some cases, chooing lower-ranking universities because they are closer to home.
Rebecca Montacute, head of research for the Sutton Trust, explains the findings. Hayley also hears from future student, Lori Cobon, and her mother Rachel.

The summer of cricket continues with The Hundred. Hayley finds out the latest news from Beth Barrett-Wild, who is Director of Women’s Professional Game with the England and Wales Cricket Board, the ECB, and number eight on the Woman’s Hour Power list. Hayley is also joined by England cricketer Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is ranked number one in the world and is Captain of Trent Rockets Women.

Barbie the film is a surprising hit in China, exceeding box office expectations. Why are feminists flocking to see it and how does it compare with other films released there this summer? To find out more, Hayley speaks to Frances Hisgen, Research Programme Manager for the Project on China’s Global Sharp Power at Stanford University in the US and Jingfei Li, a lecturer at Shanghai Vancouver Film School in China.

Many young people will be looking forward to starting university and thinking about their student finances. Nicola Robinson got in touch to say that she believes women like her who took out a student loan in England have been unfairly penalised. She tells her story. Hayley also discusses the issues with Sabina Mackenzie and Katie Watts, Head of Campaigns at Money Saving Expert.

Presented by Hayley Hassall
Producer: Louise Corley
Studio engineer: Andrew Garratt

00:00 Opener
02:56 Students Living at Home
16:36 Student Loans
34:13 Women on Wheels
40:03 Barbie in China
48:31 Cricket 100


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001pfcb)
When Wagner came home

Tens of thousands of Russian criminals – murderers, rapists, robbers – were recruited from prisons by the mercenary group, Wagner, to fight in Ukraine. Now, after six months on the battlefield, the survivors have returned home, with official pardons. Many served only a fraction of their original sentences. And now, they're officially treated as heroes - protected by a new law which criminalises discreditation of anyone who fights on the Russian side in the war.

Already, some returnees are reported to have committed further serious crimes. One has confessed to the brutal axe-murder of his 85-year-old former landlady. In another case, an ex-convict believed to have served with Wagner has been charged with masterminding the killing of two children's entertainers, one of them a 19-year-old woman who was training to be a teacher. The murders in southern Russia provoked an outpouring of anger and grief, with thousands signing a petition demanding that the alleged ringleader - who denies any guilt - should get a life sentence if he is eventually convicted. But they know any punishment will probably be less severe, because the criminal records of former Wagner mercenaries have been wiped. They start their lives again from a clean slate, and if they re-offend, no previous convictions can be considered.

Reporter Arseny Sokolov talks to the mother of the murdered entertainer, to campaigners for prison reform - and to an ex-convict who fought for Wagner - to investigate what threat the returned mercenaries pose in their home towns and villages - and to assess the damage "legal nihilism" is doing to Russian society.

Producer: Tim Whewell
Editor: Penny Murphy


THU 11:30 Great Lives (m001pf6t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


THU 12:00 News Summary (m001pfdd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001pfd4)
Gap Finders: Anna Brailsford from Code First: Girls

Code First: Girls provides free coding courses for women. It's already trained over 140,000 women to code and is now on a mission to train one million in the next five years. Leading that mission is CEO and co-founder Anna Brailsford.

Anna grew up in Liverpool in the 1980s. At the age of ten, she made a deal with herself to step out of her comfort zone at least once every day 'just to see what happens'. Since then, she has worked for her family business, co-founded her own companies and was commercial director at the online learning platform Lynda.com when it was bought by LinkedIn for $1.5 billion in 2015.

Code First: Girls was created in 2012 by entrepreneurs Alice Bentnick and Matt Clifford, but it wasn't until Anna came on board in 2019, that it became the company it is today.

In this edition of Gap Finders, Anna talks to Shari about the gap she spotted, and how it enabled her to transform Code First: Girls from a social enterprise, into a rapidly accelerating profit-making business with the potential to tackle inequality in the tech industry.

PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
PRODUCER: JAMES LEESLEY


THU 12:32 All Consuming (m001pfdm)
Running shoes

From the running boom at the end of the 19th century to a lockdown-inspired desire to lace up, running shoes have evolved to fit the shape of our lives for over 150 years.

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala explore how they keep pace with trends, innovations, and even our ambitions.

Thomas Turner, author of The Sport Shoe: A History from Field to Fashion, reveals the role of Victorian periodicals in spreading tips and recommendations to fellow runners.

Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, takes us to 1970s California where running shoes signalled a new kind of aspiration for baby boomers, driven by new brands and mass marketing.

Dr D’Wayne Edwards, sports footwear designer and founder of Pensole Lewis College, shares insider stories of being one of just two black footwear designers when he started in 1989, and how he’s bringing a more diverse cohort into the industry today.

Meanwhile, Jessica Morgan, journalist, and editor, unboxes a memory of a special pair of running shoes that saw her through her darkest times. And we jog down to Hackney Downs park in east London to meet Michael Doughty from Hylo Athletics who left a career in football to set up a running shoe company with green ambitions.

Producer: Ruth Abrahams
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:57 Weather (m001pff5)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m001pffk)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.


THU 13:45 One Direction (m001747b)
South

Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

In Part 4 of the series, Jerry looks South. Perhaps the most fluid and mutable of the cardinal directions, for centuries it’s been defined negatively against North – visually North is ‘up’ and South ‘down’. But it’s also been a repository of fantasies, a vast unknown region at times populated by tropical islands, azure seas and fantastical creatures, but travelling further south, crossing the freezing Antarctic circle, explorers found a place of utter isolation and existential darkness. Today the political concept of ‘the Global South’ has replaced the discredited term ‘Third World’. It’s led to a new alignment of states south of the equator, from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa to South America and Southeast Asia - countries that share a history of colonial rule and that are most vulnerable to climate change.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, journalist and editor for Bloomberg City Maps Laura Bliss, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian of navigation Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author Irna Qureshi, director of the China institute at SOAS Steve Tsang, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, librarian at Hereford Cathedral Rosemary Firman, historian and sinologist Timothy Brook and historian of Islamic maps, Yossi Rappaort.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis


THU 14:00 The Archers (m001pffl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Takeover (m001pfgf)
Series 3

Episode 4

High-stake deals and sibling rivalry set in the world of the super wealthy. Meet the Majumdars, a family at war - with itself. With the media and half of his family out to get him, business mogul Ravi Majumdar (Rajit Kapur), acts to cleanse his image in the eyes of the world.

Series 3, Episode 4: tragic loss, an imposter is revealed, and a revolution begins.

Cast:
Ravi Majumdar…..Rajit Kapur
Ash…..Abhin Galeya
Maya…..Amrita Acharia
Zara…..Ramanique Ahluwalia
Shaan…..Danny Ashok
Ian…..Finbar Lynch
Seraphina…..Jennifer Armour
Chantelle…..Gianna Kiehl
Amit & Guru…..Tavish Bhattacharyya
Rahul…..Zeus Paranjape
Sky…..Sophia Del Pizzo
Dhruv…..Vivek Madan
Randy…..Walles Hamonde
Indian Officer…..Rishabh Kanti

And Bethany, by Kirsty Bushell

All other parts were played by:
Chris Anderson,
Natasha Arancini,
Philip Desmeules
Walles Hamonde and
David Holt

Written by Ayeesha Menon and Matthew Solon

Sound Design…. Eloise Whitmore
Original music…. Sacha Puttnam
Sound recording… Paul Clark, Ashyar Bulsara & Ayush Ahuja
Assistant Producer….Eleanor Mein

Producer…. Emma Hearn & Nadir Khan
Assistant Director….Andy Goddard
Director….Ayeesha Menon
Executive Producer…. John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


THU 15:00 Open Country (m001pfgs)
Oban Cliff Mystery

"They rise up suddenly out of fields, they're next to roads and they're even in the middle of the town golf course." Oban resident Antonia Quirke is intrigued by the strange cliffs that can be found everywhere along this stretch of Scottish coast, and she becomes more obsessed when she finds out that someone has been banging in titanium bolts to create new climbing routes up to their peaks.

Joining her at the Dog Stone is the geologist James Westland who begins to unpick the history of these cliffs, plus two climbers she meets en route south, a volunteer with the Woodland Trust, Laura Corbe; and an Australian climber called Andy who has been helping to bang in the new routes.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001pf62)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Bookclub (m001pf9n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 Walt Disney: A Life in Films (p0fxbs34)
7. Alice in Wonderland

Through the stories of ten of his greatest works, Mel Giedroyc examines the life of Walt Disney, a much mythologised genius. A man to whom storytelling was an escape from an oppressive father and a respite from periods of depression.

His name is truly iconic, but how much do we really know about this titan of the entertainment industry? Who was the real Walt and why did a man who moulded Western pop culture in his image end up on his deathbed, afraid that he’d be forgotten?

In this episode, Mel leaps through the looking glass into the delightfully surreal world of Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. Walt had long been a fan of Lewis Carroll’s classic story and was hell bent on adapting it into an animation. He was confident he could create a fantastical viewing experience that would be box office dynamite. Hookah smoking caterpillars, talking flowers, Mad Hatters, troublesome twins Tweedleedum and Tweedledee - they were a gift to any animator - it would be an easy lift from page to screen.

Or would it?

As we discover, the project became an immense creative challenge. The end result might have been a critical and commercial flop upon release, but over the decades the film has emerged as a countercultural classic.

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001pfhc)
Time is still ticking for the Amazon

After decades of exploitation, time is running out for the Amazon rainforest. Eight South American nations came together this week for the first time in 14 years in an attempt to draw up a plan for a more sustainable future.

The BBC’s South America correspondent Katy Watson sends us an update on the summit from Belém, Brazil.

We also hear from Brazilian scientist Joice Ferreira who tells us why the Amazon is so important for the entire planet.

Next up Victoria Gill finds out more about how British Sign Language is adding key scientific concepts to its dictionary in order to open up science communication to a broader community of people. There are still many words and phrases that have not yet been ‘signed’.

Now did you know that the inhalers used by asthmatics emit a tiny amount of greenhouse gas with every puff? Victoria speaks to Dr Veena Aggarwal, a GP registrar and former member of Greener NHS, about whether the government’s new plan for environmentally friendly inhalers will help.

Finally Victoria catches up with palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger. He’s written a book that tells a harrowing tale about his trip into a labyrinth of underground tunnels to find out more about an ancient human-like creature called Homo naledi.

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Hannah Robins and Harrison Lewis
Content producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
Research: Patrick Hughes
Editor: Richard Collings


THU 17:00 PM (m001pfhq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pfj5)
The US president Joe Biden has declared the situation a major disaster


THU 18:30 Ed Reardon's Week (m001pfjj)
Series 15

5. Ed Reardon is on Fire!

It’s been sixteen weeks and four days now since the death of Elgar and Ed is in need of a distraction. His son, Jake, suggests Ed should re-start his quiz nights online for £10 an entry which is not an unappealing thought. He’s also got a new commission from Ping to write for a new quiz format ‘Fess Your Chew – all the snacks and sweets you loved from the noughties’. However, Ed has another, more pressing, distraction when Jake introduces his new girlfriend, Quizzy, who bears an uncanny resemblance to one of Ed’s lost loves from 1998.

Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas
Ping - Barunka O’Shaughnessy
Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead
Olive - Sally Grace
Winnie - Ellen Thomas
Eli - Lisa Coleman
Jake - Sam Pamphillon
Quizzy - Helen Monks
Firefighter - Rachel Atkins

Written by Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis
Production Co-ordinator - Katie Baum
Sound - Jon Calver


THU 19:00 The Archers (m001pfjt)
Ian reports to Tom Helen’s slightly odd behaviour at the food fayre, where she tried to downgrade the cheese competition. Ian continues to share the details, in confidence, when Helen interrupts them and susses they were talking about her. Mortified Ian protests he was just worried about her, but Helen isn’t having it. She misunderstands, and storms off in anger at her friend’s betrayal. Later Tom tries to talk to Helen, but she insists she’s fine. She’s keen to move on and focus on the business. She thinks they should let Fallon know that tying themselves into a longer lease for her on the Tearoom right now wouldn’t make sense for them. She asks taken aback Tom to give Fallon the news.
Rosie’s too scared to sleep in the tent Pip’s set up, and has retreated to her grandparents for the night. Pip suggests going to the pub instead of camping, but sensing Stella’s disappointment agrees they should go ahead with it anyway – especially when Stella reveals she’s brought some giant marshmallows! Jubilant Pip gets a fire going and the two share their respective journeys into farming. They agree it can be lonely. Pip admits that sometimes she wants to branch out, but she’s stuck because she’s scared. Stella reckons Pip’s brave, and impressive. As the conversation progresses, Stella gets emotional. Pip apologises for chattering on when Stella’s just buried her dog. Stella says it’s been a welcome distraction. They hug, which turns into a kiss. Panicked Pip jumps up, exclaiming she has to go.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m001pfk8)
Composer György Ligeti, L'immensità starring Penelope Cruz, La Cage Aux Folles

György Ligeti: on the 100th anniversary of his birth, we celebrate the Hungarian-Austrian composer and the 2023 Proms performances of his work - music which was famously used by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick in The Shining and A Space Odyssey. Pianist Danny Driver, and music critic, author and librettist Jessica Duchen join Tom to discuss.

Plus we review La Cage Aux Folles - the musical story of a gay couple running a drag nightclub, and new Italian film L'immensita, starring Penelope Cruz - about a young girl in 70s Rome who yearns to be a boy, Our reviewers are theatre critic David Benedict, and writer, editor and podcaster Thea Lenarduzzi.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Emma Wallace


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001pfkn)
What’s behind the Niger coup?

Military unrest in Niger isn't an uncommon phenomenon. There have been five coups in the last 50 years. But what's behind the latest one and is a peaceful resolution possible?

David Aaronovitch talks to:

Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow at Chatham House Africa Programme
Gare Amadou, journalist and manager of the newspaper Le Canard Dechaine in Niger
Nabila Ramdani, French Algerian journalist
Olayinka Ajala, senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Beckett University

Produced by: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Alix Pickles
Edited by: Penny Murphy
Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill


THU 20:30 Blood on the Dance Floor (m001l947)
1. Why Haven’t You Heard About This?

The untold story of the murder of a gay police officer in Northern Ireland in 1997

Belfast 1997. But not just any part of Belfast, gay Belfast. A place you've probably never heard of before. Cigarette smoke, aftershave and expectation fill the air in the only openly gay bar in the country. Sat having a drink on a night out is Darren Bradshaw. He was just 24 years old when he was shot dead in front of hundreds of people. His brutal murder by terrorists sparked fears of a return to all out violence as the new Labour government under Tony Blair sought to bring peace to Northern Ireland - on the road to the Good Friday Agreement.

This is the untold story of his life and murder. A story of both love and eventually betrayal.

Presenter Jordan Dunbar grew up in the city, he was a comedian and drag performer on the Belfast scene and yet this murder and Darren's life was never talked about. As a child of the ceasefire, his knowledge of LGBT life in Northern Ireland all came after the Good Friday Agreement. His history was based on the Loyalist and Republican - the Orange or Green versions and the rainbow had never come up.

Following Darren's story brings to life the struggle of being gay in The Troubles, how Belfast got its first Pride parade only in 1991 and its very first gay club in 1994 -The Parliament - where Darren was tragically shot dead.

It's a community surviving as well as thriving against a backdrop of violence and discrimination. He meets the original drag queens, DJs and club pioneers determined to claim back the city centre from the terrorists and create a safe place of their own.

Determined to piece together for the first time how Darren was killed that night and why, Jordan uncovers stories of bigotry, bravery and betrayal.

Reporter: Jordan Dunbar
Series Producer: Paul Grant
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editors: Richard Maddock and Dylan Haskins
Editor and Executive Producer: Carl Johnston


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001pfhc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 Windrush: A Family Divided (m001n1kc)
Part Three: Health and Wellbeing

Robert and Jennifer Beckford, still locked in a passionate debate about the legacy and impact of the Windrush Generation, now turn their attention to health and wellbeing in this gripping episode.

For Jennifer, the allure of Jamaica is irresistible. The sun-soaked beaches, the soothing waves, and a slower pace of life provide her with a profound sense of happiness and a deep connection to her roots. She envisions a future where their family relocates to Jamaica for good.

However, Robert, with a wary eye on the high crime rate, disagrees. To illustrate his concerns, he arranges for Jennifer to meet with Steve Walker, whose brother Delroy fulfilled Jennifer's dream of returning to the island, only to tragically lose his life to violence. The encounter sparks a robust debate as Steve candidly discusses the dangers he sees in moving their family back to Jamaica.

Yet, Jennifer is determined to present her case convincingly. She organises a video call for Robert to engage with 'returnees' who have made the leap from the UK to Jamaica. They tell Robert his views are outdated and share stories of happiness and a new lease on life on the island. Will their experiences be enough to sway Robert's perspective and make him consider that a better life may indeed await in Jamaica?

Producer: Rajeev Gupta


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001pfl7)
US citizens released from prison in Iran

Five Americans jailed for years in Iran have been moved from prison to house arrest. Also:Hawaii latest, Disney woes, and new evidence that a big freeze in Europe over a million years ago left the continent uninhabited.... for 200,000 years.

(Photo: Iranian and US flags. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)


THU 22:45 The Lock Up by John Banville (m001pfll)
Episode 4

1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

John Banville is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. He has written 17 novels and has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Author: John Banville
Reader: Gerry O’ Brien
Abridger: Neville Teller
Producer: Gemma McMullan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


THU 23:00 Nick Revell: BrokenDreamCatcher (m001pflt)
Series 3

The Tale of the Time Travelling Tartan Tea Towel

"This was meant to be a story about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 but seems to have turned into one about when the Dalai Lama told me to eff off."

Master storyteller and satirist, Nick Revell returns to BBC Radio 4 with a remarkably believable (no, really!) story about one man and his time traveling tea towel.

We find out how Bonnie Prince Charlie became a cruise ship entertainer and meet celebrities from the past, present and future as the story wends its way from The Fox and Gynaecologist (Islington's last remaining traditional boozer) around the world, through time - and back to the pub.

Hold on tight because it's a funny, fast-paced ride through Nick's imagination and out the other side with original music and sound design by contemporary composer, Paul Clark.

Written and read by Nick Revell
Music and sound design by Paul Clark
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000jvtg)
Series 1

Goodness Gracious Me - with Meera Syal and Anil Gupta

TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.

In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Meera Syal and Anil Gupta about their ground breaking sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.

They discuss show's impact on popular culture and how they feel they were treated by the BBC.

Discover how a broken video camera at their first-ever showcase that meant that Goodness Gracious Me very nearly never happened, and what sort of show Meera thinks the GGM team should get back together and make.

With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how they went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.

We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.

Original Goodness Gracious Me clips written by:

Meera Syal
Sanjeev Bhaskar
Kulvinder Ghir
Nina Wadia

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in June 2020.



FRIDAY 11 AUGUST 2023

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001pfm0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pfcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001pfm4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001pfmc)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001pfmj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001pfmn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001pfms)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Haydon Spenceley

It's the end of the week

Good morning.

As another week ends I find myself in a reflective mood. Life moves by so fast, so much happening, so much noise and so much competition for my focus and attention. Today, as on so many other days, God invites me to draw aside and just to be with him. Not to do anything. Not to be productive, impressive, especially active or noteworthy, but to be, with him. Will I take the risk of ruthlessly trusting that this is the thing that I was made for in this moment. Who can say, in a few short breaths the moment, fleeting as it might feel, will pass and my ever-nomadic mind will be on to something else.

But I could, if I chose, now, today, make God my refuge, my very present help, whether in times of joy or struggle. I could do that. But that is my choice, the beauty of faith. I used to think Christianity was prescriptive and inflexibly dogmatic. Now, I know that although there is a framework, the true beauty of faith is being known and loved by God and invited into holy improvisation with him day by day.

Trusting, obeying, moving, resting, breathing, living, loving. Lord, help me to do all of these things with you today. Help me to take the opportunities you give, and to be thankful when you do.

Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001pfmx)
11/08/23 Grouse shooting season, the Kenyan Pig Farmer, Emily McGowan's 2050 vision

The guns will be out on the moors for the Glorious Twelfth tomorrow, the first day of the grouse shooting season. We ask what’s the appeal and as more landowners ban grouse shooting, what kind of a future does it have.

Flavian Obiero moved to the UK from Kenya as a teenager, and was bitten by the farming bug after a stint of work experience on a farm near Basingstoke. Charlotte Smith visits Tynefield farm to find out how the new venture is going.

All this week we’ve been speaking to people about their visions for 2050 when, if the Government hits its target, the UK will have reached net zero emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Today we hear from a young farmer who you may have seen on TV because she makes video diaries about her farming life for the BBC’s Countryfile programme. Emily McGowan is gradually taking responsibility for the family farm just west of Strangford Loch in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45r3)
Little Ringed Plover

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Bill Oddie presents the little ringed plover. In 1938, there was great excitement at a Hertfordshire reservoir. On the gravelly shoreline a pair of birds, which had never bred in the UK before, were showing signs of nesting. They were little ringed plovers, summer visitors to Continental Europe and they'd been attracted to the reservoirs' shingle banks where they laid their clutch of four eggs. Today there are around a thousand pairs in the UK.


FRI 06:00 Today (m001pfn2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001pf7y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay (m001pfn6)
Episode 5

The story of the extraordinary decade that followed the execution of Charles I in 1649.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001pfn8)
Andi and Miquita Oliver, Jacqueline Springer, Emma Rawicz, Afghanistan's most successful female footballer - Dr Nadia Nadim

Mother and daughter duo, Andi and Miquita Oliver, have started a new podcast, Stirring it Up, where they ask guests to join them at their kitchen table. They join Hayley Hassall to talk on how this format harks back to their roots, their passion for sharing food and stories, the challenges they’ve faced as women at different life stages in broadcast, and growing up together in London’s Ladbroke Grove.
It's been two years since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan and during that time women and girls have found many curtailments on their liberty. Dr Nadia Nadim is Afghanistan's most successful and most influential female footballer. She fled to Denmark following the death of her father and has gone on to play for the Danish national team over 100 times. Dr Nadim joins Hayley to discuss her career and her hope for women and girls back home in Afghanistan.
Last week we spoke to the children’s charity, the NSPCC, who talked about how the school summer holidays can be a particularly difficult time for some children. And Hayley talks to Ruth, who has worked on the helpline for over a decade, and Brad, who made that call.
Emma Rawicz is an award-winning young saxophonist and composer, already making waves on the UK music scene, and described as "an astonishing new talent" by Jamie Cullum. Emma is a recipient of the 2021 Drake Yolanda Award, winner of Best Newcomer at the 2022 Parliamentary Jazz Awards, as well as being a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician competition.  She joins Hayley to chat and perform live in the studio.
Women and Hip Hop with music journalist Jacqueline Springer and the latest on the devastating Maui Fires with Chair of the Island Council Alice Lee.

Presenter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Michael Millham

00:00 Opener
02:06 Maui Wildfire
07:16 Andi and Miquita Oliver
17:02 Afghanistan
32:50 Reporting Child Abuse
40:14 Women and Hip Hop
47:53 Emma Radwicz


FRI 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001pfkn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Thursday]


FRI 11:30 Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children (m001pfng)
Series 2

2. School

Do your children do their homework or would they rather spend the evening inflating latex gloves with water and bursting them in the bath?

In episode two of the new series of stand-up comedian Ashley Blaker’s show about raising children with special educational needs, Ashley considers the many issues around sending his kids to school. These include dealing with countless meetings, judgy parents and children who want to use the school’s computer room to google some very strange search terms!

Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children is a mix of stand-up and observational recording featuring the voices of Ashley's real family. The series brings a whole new perspective to the subject of parenting. Three of Ashley’s children have a diagnosis – two boys with autism and ADHD, and an adopted girl with Down Syndrome – and Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children sensitively finds the funny in raising children with disabilities.

Ashley Blaker is a comedian who has performed two Off-Broadway shows, tours on five continents, and is author of ‘Normal Schmormal: My occasionally helpful guide to parenting kids with special needs’.

He is joined by Shelley Blond (Peep Show, Cold Feet and the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider), Kieran Hodgson (Three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and now known to all for his online parody of The Crown), and Rosie Holt (another star of lockdown who has put out many viral videos, most often as her character, The Woman).

Also appearing as themselves are Ashley’s own children - Adam (19), Ollie (18), Dylan (15), Zoe (14), Edward (13) and Bailey (9).

Written and performed by Ashley Blaker
Also starring Shelley Blond, Kieran Hodgson, Rosie Holt, as well as Adam, Ollie, Dylan, Zoe, Edward and Bailey Blaker.
Produced by Steve Doherty

A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001pfnm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001pfnr)
Hard work and mental health

Is better awareness of mental illness a good thing - or encouraging people out of work?

A newspaper columnist questioned whether a rise in people out of work because of bad mental health might include some who could have “soldiered on”? It reignited a discussion online about the benefits of work and the importance of emotional wellbeing. On one side are those who think a better understanding of mental health is a necessary correction following decades of neglect. On the other, people who say all the talk of conditions like depression and anxiety has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. What’s the evidence?


FRI 12:57 Weather (m001pfnw)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m001pfp0)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Simon Jack.


FRI 13:45 One Direction (m0017cls)
West

Author Jerry Brotton presents a five part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.

Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.

In the final part of the series Jerry looks West. Forming a direct axis with East and the rising sun, West is the direction where the sun sets, anticipating the descent into darkness and symbolically, the end of life. As a result hardly any early societies chose it as a sacred orientation for prayer and even fewer placed it at the top of their maps. Broadly understood as originating in Europe then incorporating North America, 'West’ is more often imagined as a frontier or threshold than a fixed geographical place (in America, tied to the notion of ‘manifest destiny’). But it has given birth to that most powerful yet intangible of concepts, the western world. As a political identity it's more contested today than any of the other cardinal directions.

So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.

Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, geographer Alistair Bonnett, head of the China Institute at SOAS Steve Tsang, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author Irna Qureshi, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, librarian at Hereford Cathedral Rosemary Firman and historian of Islamic maps Yossef Rappaort.

Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001pfjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001pfp4)
There's Something I Need to Tell You

There’s Something I Need to Tell You - 1: Tennis Buddies

After agreeing to help a mysterious stranger, young couple Jake and Kayla are implicated in an assassination at their hotel. They find themselves plunged into a deadly game of political score-settling that spans the world and from which they must run to survive. A global thriller of espionage, money and murder.

In Episode 1, a five-star hotel, contract killers and a chance encounter in Dubai…

By John Scott Dryden and Misha Kawnel

Cast:
Jake.....Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Kayla.....Sophia Del Pizzo
Omar.....Nick Nevern
Marty.....Chris Anderson
Barman..... Nezar Alderazi

Other parts played by:
Yasmine Alice
Jennifer Armour
Walles Hamonde
Megan Soh

Original music by Sacha Puttnam

Production:
Sound Design: Joseff Harris & John Scott Dryden
Sound Engineer: Paul Clark
Production Assistant: Jo Troy
Producer: Emma Hearn
Director:John Scott Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 14:45 Witness (b01qhd0w)
The plot against Franco

In 1964 a young Scot called Stuart Christie joined a plot to assassinate the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco. He had become friends with Spanish exiles living in London and was keen to help end Franco's rule. But the plot failed and Christie ended up in jail. He has been telling his story to Mike Lanchin.

Photo: Stuart Christie, in jail in Spain in 1967.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001pfpf)
Army Flying Museum

To snap or to cut - what is the best way to dead head my roses? Why are my tomatoes falling off before turning red? Which plant would you relegate to the compost heap?

Kathy Clugston and her team of GQT experts are at the Army Flying Museum in Hampshire to answer all these questions and more. Joining her this week are garden designer Juliet Sargeant, head gardener Ashley Edwards, and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood.

Alongside the horticultural Q and A, we hear from Deputy Director and Head of Science of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, Chris Thorogood who talks us through Mediterranean-inspired gardening in the UK.

Executive producer: Hannah Newton
Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001pfpm)
Acousmatic by Manon Steffan Ros

New short fiction by Manon Steffan Ros.

Read by Sara McGaughey

Why does Elen listen to the voices so much these days? Is it because everybody she lives with has stopped listening to her?

Directed by John Norton
Sound by Nigel Lewis
A BBC Audio Drama Wales production

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001pfpq)
Sir Michael Boyd, Jess Search, Warren Ford, Leny Andrade

Kirsty Lang on:

Sir Michael Boyd, the former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Jess Search, the fearless documentary producer who backed award winning but controversial films others feared to touch.

Warren Ford, the tea consultant and buyer who devised the well-known Yorkshire blend.

Leny Andrade, the Brazilian bossa nova and jazz singer.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001pfps)
Musician and 6 Music presenter Tom Robinson has been a passionate advocate for BBC Introducing shows on Local Radio through his BBC Introducing Mixtape on 6 Music. Tom joins Andrea Catherwood to voice his concern about the reduction in shows and to respond to your comments.

Glasgow graffiti artists Conzo and Ciaran, who gained notoriety with their ‘fake Banksy’, are in the Vox Box to review a series about the rise of the real deal - Radio 4’s The Banksy Story.

And listeners lament the demise of broadcasts on Long Wave. Gareth Mitchell, former BBC Engineer and now lecturer at London’s Imperial College, hears what they have to say.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 17:00 PM (m001pfpx)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001pfq0)
Legionalla bacteria were discovered in the water supply on the vessel


FRI 18:30 Dom Joly Breaks the News (m001pfq4)
The third of our satirical specials this summer. In a topical mash-up of prank calls, interviews and features, Dom Joly offers his mischievously surreal take on the people and stories that are hitting the week's headlines.

As Dom attempts to get to the bottom of the biggest stories of the week, he challenges experts and makes calls to the wrong people about the wrong thing, often at the wrong time.

Best known for Trigger Happy TV, which reinvented the hidden camera format, Dom actually has a degree in politics and is a former diplomat. He once stood against Alan Clarke in the 1997 general election. So make no mistake, in Dom Joly Breaks the News, Dom’s asking serious questions about that week's actual news. He just wonders whether approaching things from a slightly different angle might give us more interesting answers.


Presenter – Dom Joly
Producers – Alison Vernon-Smith and Julian Mayers
A Yada-Yada Audio production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001pfq9)
Writer, Sarah McDonald Hughes
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy ….. Angus Stobie
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna van Kampen
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001pfqj)
The Jukebox Soundtrack

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate the power of pop music on screen, 50 years on from the release of George Lucas' American Graffiti, with its hits-packed soundtrack.

First opening on 11 August 1973, coming of age classic American Graffiti was arguably the original ‘jukebox movie’. The film plays out over a single night in 1962, in a town where everyone is listening to the radio, and pop music of the era provides an almost unbroken accompaniment to the action.

Mark looks back on how American Graffiti revolutionised the use of music in movies, speaking to legendary film-maker Walter Murch, who was responsible for the unique sound of the film.

Meanwhile, Ellen delves into the relationship between pop music and the screen, with the help of music supervisor Jen Malone - the woman responsible for a resurgence in the career of The Cramps after including them on the soundtrack of Netflix hit Wednesday. And she talks to DJ, record producer and creator of original soundtracks David Holmes about the intrinsic connection he feels between pop music and cinema.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001pfqq)
Sir Ben Bradshaw MP, George Monbiot, Selaine Saxby MP, Olivia Utley

Alex Forsyth presents political discussion from Pavilions, Teignmouth with the Labour MP Sir Ben Bradshaw, the writer George Monbiot, the Conservative MP Selaine Saxby and Political Correspondent at GB News Olivia Utley.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Carwyn Griffith


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001pfqx)
Limbo

Sara Wheeler reflects on the concept of limbo as a way of helping us deal with current uncertainties but she recognizes this will not be easy.

'Limbo is a borderless, undefined, in-between state that is neither one thing nor the other and therefore it is hard to label and harder to accept.'

She believes though that an acceptance of unknowability may be increasingly important since 'the rules and certainties on which we built our lives have altered beyond all recognition.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Bridget Harney


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b038x1m1)
This Train Rides Again

In 1963, the legendary American broadcaster Studs Terkel presented a radio programme, This Train, in which he followed African Americans travelling on a train from Chicago to Washington. They were part of the March on Washington, which culminated in Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech.

The thousands who took part wanted to achieve jobs and freedom for black Americans. One woman on the train spoke of her hopes for a better future for her relatives, “after I am gone.”

First broadcast in 2013, Kwame Kwei-Armah revisits the 1963 broadcast, speaking to those who made that journey including the 95 year old organiser of the march, a descendant of a slave, and the civil rights activist the Reverend Jesse Jackson. He hears about the hopes with which they originally set out, and whether they have been realised in today’s United States.

Kwame recreates Studs’ journey riding a modern day train from Chicago to Washington, meeting passengers and staff including the colourful character Lou, a sleeping car porter, to discover how present day dreams and aspirations compared with 50 years ago. He discovers many people have not only forgotten the March on Washington, but also tend wrongly to assume it was only about racial integration.

He hears how the jobs aspect of the march has been overlooked and how economic opportunities are still unequal. On arrival in Washington, he meets the then only surviving March on Washington speaker, John Lewis, and others involved in the organisation of the actual day.

The programme combines these interviews with extracts from Studs Terkel’s programme. In this rich soundscape of America's railroad, we tell the story of the legacy of Martin Luther King and his words.

A Kati Whitaker production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001pfr3)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 The Lock Up by John Banville (m001pfrd)
Episode 5

1950s Dublin. in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered – an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim’s sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

John Banville is one of Ireland’s most prolific writers. He has written 17 novels and has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He lives in Dublin.

Author: John Banville
Reader: Gerry O’ Brien
Abridger: Neville Teller
Producer: Gemma McMullan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


FRI 23:00 Americast (m001pfrn)
From Our US Correspondent

As Donald Trump prepares for a possible fourth indictment, Americast wonders if the word “unprecedented” has lost all meaning. To find out, we gather together four BBC Washington reporters past and present to talk about how US politics has changed since their tenures, swap stories of presidential interviews, and share American memories through the medium of show and tell.

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America editor
• Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent

GUESTS:
• Matt Frei, Channel 4 News presenter
• Nick Bryant, ex-BBC New York correspondent

GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast

Find out more about our award-winning “undercover voters” here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.

This episode was made by Rufus Gray with Catherine Fusillo. The technical producer was Gareth Jones. The series producer is Daniel Wittenberg and the editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.

BBC SOUNDS TIMECODES:
2:35 – The Presidents & The Unprecedented
16:57 – Show & Tell
27:18 – The 2024 Election


FRI 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000j819)
Series 1

The Thick of It - with Armando Iannucci and Rebecca Front

TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.

In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Armando Iannucci and Rebecca Front about their biting pollical satire The Thick Of It. Was Nicola Murray just a nice (if hapless) person, thrust into a nest of political vipers, or was she just as bad as the rest of them? Who came up with the line “about as much use as a marzipan dildo”? And who was Malcolm Tucker really based on? (It’s probably not who you think.)

With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how they went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.

We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.

Contains very strong language.

Original The Thick Of It clips written by:

Jesse Armstrong
Sam Bain
Simon Blackwell
Rob Colley
Roger Drew
Dan Gaster
Sean Gray
Armando Iannucci
Georgia Pritchett
David Quantick
Tony Roche
Will Smith

Additional material: The Cast

Producer: Owen Braben

Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in May 2020.




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

A Point of View 08:48 SUN (m001p7sd)

A Point of View 20:50 FRI (m001pfqx)

A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand 11:30 WED (m001pf9l)

A Very British Cult 15:30 TUE (p0fdl4qf)

A Very British Cult 21:00 WED (p0fdl4qf)

Add to Playlist 22:15 SAT (m001p7rt)

Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train 19:15 SUN (m001pfcr)

All Consuming 17:30 SAT (m001p770)

All Consuming 12:32 THU (m001pfdm)

Americast 23:00 FRI (m001pfrn)

Analysis 11:30 MON (m001mc6f)

Anti-Building with Cedric Price 11:30 TUE (m001pf48)

AntiSocial 20:00 WED (m001p7n5)

AntiSocial 12:04 FRI (m001pfnr)

Any Answers? 14:00 SAT (m001pdyk)

Any Questions? 13:10 SAT (m001p7s4)

Any Questions? 20:00 FRI (m001pfqq)

Archive on 4 20:00 SAT (m001pdzm)

Archive on 4 21:00 FRI (b038x1m1)

Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children 11:30 FRI (m001pfng)

BBC Inside Science 16:30 THU (m001pfhc)

BBC Inside Science 21:00 THU (m001pfhc)

Bells on Sunday 05:43 SUN (m001pf02)

Bells on Sunday 00:45 MON (m001pf02)

Beyond Belief 23:30 SUN (m001kppr)

Blood on the Dance Floor 20:30 THU (m001l947)

Bookclub 16:00 SUN (m001pf9n)

Bookclub 15:30 THU (m001pf9n)

Broadcasting House 09:00 SUN (m001pf78)

Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer 21:00 MON (m001p6rp)

Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer 11:00 TUE (m001pf42)

Bunk Bed 23:00 WED (m001pfhn)

Crossing Continents 20:30 MON (m001p75t)

Crossing Continents 11:00 THU (m001pfcb)

Desert Island Discs 11:15 SUN (m001pf7y)

Desert Island Discs 09:00 FRI (m001pf7y)

Dom Joly Breaks the News 18:30 FRI (m001pfq4)

Drama on 4 15:00 SUN (m001pf9g)

Ed Reardon's Week 18:30 THU (m001pfjj)

Farming Today 06:30 SAT (m001pdxq)

Farming Today 05:45 MON (m001pfhs)

Farming Today 05:45 TUE (m001pfmy)

Farming Today 05:45 WED (m001pff1)

Farming Today 05:45 THU (m001pfln)

Farming Today 05:45 FRI (m001pfmx)

Feedback 20:00 SUN (m001p7px)

Feedback 16:30 FRI (m001pfps)

File on 4 17:00 SUN (m001p6v6)

File on 4 20:00 TUE (m001pmkj)

From Our Own Correspondent 11:30 SAT (m001pdy2)

Front Row 19:15 MON (m001pflg)

Front Row 19:15 TUE (m001pf8c)

Front Row 19:15 WED (m001pffz)

Front Row 19:15 THU (m001pfk8)

GF Newman's The Corrupted 21:00 SAT (m000hmn8)

Gardeners' Question Time 14:00 SUN (m001p7p4)

Gardeners' Question Time 15:00 FRI (m001pfpf)

Golden Eggs 19:45 SUN (m001pfd7)

Great Lives 16:30 TUE (m001pf6t)

Great Lives 11:30 THU (m001pf6t)

History on the Edge 11:00 MON (m001pfg8)

How to Play 09:00 THU (m001pfb7)

I Belong to Glazgoy 16:30 SUN (m001n1x7)

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue 12:04 SUN (m001p7dp)

I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue 18:30 MON (m001pfl2)

In Touch 20:40 TUE (m001pf90)

Inside Health 21:00 TUE (m001pf97)

Inside Health 15:30 WED (m001pf97)

Inside Pages 09:30 THU (m001h45s)

Is Psychiatry Working? 09:00 MON (m001h3y1)

Is Psychiatry Working? 21:30 MON (m001h3y1)

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme 18:30 WED (m0005t56)

Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley 20:45 WED (m001h414)

Last Word 20:30 SUN (m001p7pn)

Last Word 16:00 FRI (m001pfpq)

Life Changing 23:00 SUN (m001kpsh)

Limelight 14:15 FRI (m001pfp4)

Living on the Edge 05:45 SAT (m001p7md)

Living on the Edge 09:30 WED (m001pf8k)

Loose Ends 18:15 SAT (m001pdzg)

Loose Ends 21:30 SUN (m001pdzg)

Midnight News 00:00 SAT (m001p7t9)

Midnight News 00:00 SUN (m001pdzr)

Midnight News 00:00 MON (m001pffd)

Midnight News 00:00 TUE (m001pfm1)

Midnight News 00:00 WED (m001pfb4)

Midnight News 00:00 THU (m001pfjg)

Midnight News 00:00 FRI (m001pfm0)

Money Box 12:04 SAT (m001pdy6)

Money Box 21:00 SUN (m001pdy6)

Money Box 15:00 WED (m001pdy6)

News Briefing 05:30 SAT (m001p7tr)

News Briefing 05:30 SUN (m001pf00)

News Briefing 05:30 MON (m001pfgz)

News Briefing 05:30 TUE (m001pfmp)

News Briefing 05:30 WED (m001pfd2)

News Briefing 05:30 THU (m001pfkx)

News Briefing 05:30 FRI (m001pfmn)

News Summary 12:00 SAT (m001pdy4)

News Summary 06:00 SUN (m001pf4d)

News Summary 12:00 SUN (m001pf8l)

News Summary 12:00 MON (m001pfgq)

News Summary 12:00 TUE (m001pfmb)

News Summary 12:00 WED (m001pf9t)

News Summary 12:00 THU (m001pfdd)

News Summary 12:00 FRI (m001pfnm)

News and Papers 06:00 SAT (m001pdxn)

News and Papers 07:00 SUN (m001pf5f)

News and Papers 08:00 SUN (m001pf6k)

News and Weather 13:00 SAT (m001pdyf)

News 22:00 SAT (m001pdzp)

Nick Revell: BrokenDreamCatcher 23:00 THU (m001pflt)

On Your Farm 06:35 SUN (m001pf4q)

One Direction 13:45 MON (m0016h2w)

One Direction 13:45 TUE (m0016prz)

One Direction 13:45 WED (m0016xj4)

One Direction 13:45 THU (m001747b)

One Direction 13:45 FRI (m0017cls)

One to One 09:30 TUE (m001pf3k)

Open Country 06:07 SAT (m001p7b9)

Open Country 15:00 THU (m001pfgs)

Opening Lines 14:45 SUN (m001pf98)

PM 17:00 SAT (m001pdyy)

PM 17:00 MON (m001pfk9)

PM 17:00 TUE (m001pf75)

PM 17:00 WED (m001pfdr)

PM 17:00 THU (m001pfhq)

PM 17:00 FRI (m001pfpx)

Pick of the Week 18:15 SUN (m001pfc0)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 SAT (m001p7tt)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 MON (m001pfhd)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 TUE (m001pfmt)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 WED (m001pfdj)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 THU (m001pfl9)

Prayer for the Day 05:43 FRI (m001pfms)

Radio 4 Appeal 07:54 SUN (m001pf62)

Radio 4 Appeal 21:25 SUN (m001pf62)

Radio 4 Appeal 15:27 THU (m001pf62)

Reflections 09:00 WED (m001pf88)

Reith Revisited 19:00 SAT (b095qpg2)

Reith Revisited 05:45 SUN (b095qpg2)

Reith Revisited 17:40 SUN (b095qpg2)

Rewinder 23:30 MON (m001nwnv)

Rewinder 23:30 TUE (m001p1hp)

Saturday Live 09:00 SAT (m001pdxx)

Screenshot 19:15 FRI (m001pfqj)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SAT (m001p7tk)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 SUN (m001pdzw)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 MON (m001pfg7)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 TUE (m001pfmd)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 WED (m001pfc8)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 THU (m001pfk6)

Selection of BBC World Service Programmes 01:00 FRI (m001pfmc)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SAT (m001p7tf)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SAT (m001p7tp)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SAT (m001pdz2)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 SUN (m001pdzt)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 SUN (m001pdzy)

Shipping Forecast 17:54 SUN (m001pf9x)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 MON (m001pffs)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 MON (m001pfgn)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 TUE (m001pfm5)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 TUE (m001pfmk)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 WED (m001pfbw)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 WED (m001pfcm)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 THU (m001pfjr)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 THU (m001pfkj)

Shipping Forecast 00:48 FRI (m001pfm4)

Shipping Forecast 05:20 FRI (m001pfmj)

Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On 09:30 MON (m001k149)

Short Works 15:45 FRI (m001pfpm)

Sideways 00:15 MON (m001p7lv)

Sideways 16:00 WED (m001pfcv)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SAT (m001pdzb)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 SUN (m001pfbm)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 MON (m001pfkp)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 TUE (m001pf7v)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 WED (m001pff3)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 THU (m001pfj5)

Six O'Clock News 18:00 FRI (m001pfq0)

Something Understood 06:05 SUN (b037glt7)

Soul Music 16:30 MON (m0017swt)

Sunday Worship 08:10 SUN (m001pf6x)

Sunday 07:10 SUN (m001pf5r)

Takeover 14:15 MON (m001pfj8)

Takeover 14:15 TUE (m001pf64)

Takeover 14:15 WED (m001pfc7)

Takeover 14:15 THU (m001pfgf)

The 3rd Degree 23:00 SAT (m001p7ck)

The 3rd Degree 15:00 MON (m001pfjk)

The Archers Omnibus 10:00 SUN (m001pf7p)

The Archers 19:00 SUN (m001pfcc)

The Archers 14:00 MON (m001pfcc)

The Archers 19:00 MON (m001pf5t)

The Archers 14:00 TUE (m001pf5t)

The Archers 19:00 TUE (m001pf83)

The Archers 14:00 WED (m001pf83)

The Archers 19:00 WED (m001pffl)

The Archers 14:00 THU (m001pffl)

The Archers 19:00 THU (m001pfjt)

The Archers 14:00 FRI (m001pfjt)

The Archers 19:00 FRI (m001pfq9)

The Battle for Liberal Democracy 13:30 SUN (m001k12p)

The Briefing Room 11:00 SAT (m001p7dw)

The Briefing Room 20:00 THU (m001pfkn)

The Briefing Room 11:00 FRI (m001pfkn)

The Dawn-Care 00:15 SUN (m001p71h)

The Food Programme 12:32 SUN (m001pf8g)

The Food Programme 15:30 MON (m001pf8g)

The Infinite Monkey Cage 19:15 SAT (p0fwwxq7)

The Infinite Monkey Cage 16:00 MON (p0fwwxq7)

The Kitchen Cabinet 10:30 SAT (m001pdy0)

The Kitchen Cabinet 15:00 TUE (m001pdy0)

The Life Scientific 09:00 TUE (m001pf3d)

The Life Scientific 21:30 TUE (m001pf3d)

The Lock Up by John Banville 22:45 MON (m001pflx)

The Lock Up by John Banville 22:45 TUE (m001pf9m)

The Lock Up by John Banville 22:45 WED (m001pfh7)

The Lock Up by John Banville 22:45 THU (m001pfll)

The Lock Up by John Banville 22:45 FRI (m001pfrd)

The Media Show 16:30 WED (m001pfd8)

The Media Show 21:30 WED (m001pfd8)

The Museums That Make Us 14:45 SAT (m00168m3)

The Price of Protection: Who Pays for War in Ukraine? 20:00 MON (m001pf9d)

The Price of Protection: Who Pays for War in Ukraine? 11:00 WED (m001pf9d)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 09:45 MON (m001pffc)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 00:30 TUE (m001pffc)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 09:45 TUE (m001pfbl)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 00:30 WED (m001pfbl)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 09:45 WED (m001pf8v)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 00:30 THU (m001pf8v)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 09:45 THU (m001pfcz)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 00:30 FRI (m001pfcz)

The Restless Republic - Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay 09:45 FRI (m001pfn6)

The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim 00:30 SAT (m001p7nr)

The Skewer 21:45 SAT (m001p7n2)

The Skewer 23:15 WED (m001pfj2)

The Ultimate Choice 18:30 TUE (m001jsk1)

The World This Weekend 13:00 SUN (m001pf92)

The World Tonight 22:00 MON (m001pflr)

The World Tonight 22:00 TUE (m001pf9f)

The World Tonight 22:00 WED (m001pfgw)

The World Tonight 22:00 THU (m001pfl7)

The World Tonight 22:00 FRI (m001pfr3)

Today 07:00 SAT (m001pdxv)

Today 06:00 MON (m001pff0)

Today 06:00 TUE (m001pf36)

Today 06:00 WED (m001pf80)

Today 06:00 THU (m001pf9w)

Today 06:00 FRI (m001pfn2)

Turning Point 15:00 SAT (m001pdyp)

Tweet of the Day 08:58 SUN (b04t0gzx)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 MON (b0378wy3)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 TUE (b08wpd52)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 WED (b08wn2jh)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 THU (m0002bvl)

Tweet of the Day 05:58 FRI (b03x45r3)

Walt Disney: A Life in Films 16:00 THU (p0fxbs34)

Weather 06:57 SAT (m001pdxs)

Weather 12:57 SAT (m001pdy9)

Weather 17:57 SAT (m001pdz6)

Weather 06:57 SUN (m001pf53)

Weather 07:57 SUN (m001pf69)

Weather 12:57 SUN (m001pf8t)

Weather 17:57 SUN (m001pfb8)

Weather 05:56 MON (m001pfj7)

Weather 12:57 MON (m001pfhf)

Weather 12:57 TUE (m001pf56)

Weather 12:57 WED (m001pfbh)

Weather 12:57 THU (m001pff5)

Weather 12:57 FRI (m001pfnw)

Westminster Hour 22:00 SUN (m001pfdz)

What Are You Talking About? 12:30 SAT (m001p7r0)

What's Funny About ... 23:30 WED (m000k22t)

What's Funny About ... 23:30 THU (m000jvtg)

What's Funny About ... 23:30 FRI (m000j819)

Windrush: A Family Divided 21:30 THU (m001n1kc)

Witch 23:00 TUE (p0fpbw67)

Witness 14:45 FRI (b01qhd0w)

Woman's Hour 16:00 SAT (m001pdyt)

Woman's Hour 10:00 MON (m001pffv)

Woman's Hour 10:00 TUE (m001pf3y)

Woman's Hour 10:00 WED (m001pf96)

Woman's Hour 10:00 THU (m001pfbz)

Woman's Hour 10:00 FRI (m001pfn8)

Word of Mouth 23:00 MON (m001p6sn)

Word of Mouth 16:00 TUE (m001pf6j)

World at One 13:00 MON (m001pfht)

World at One 13:00 TUE (m001pf5j)

World at One 13:00 WED (m001pfbv)

World at One 13:00 THU (m001pffk)

World at One 13:00 FRI (m001pfp0)

Yeti 23:30 SAT (p0fxt84g)

You and Yours 12:04 MON (m001pfh0)

You and Yours 12:04 TUE (m001pf4t)

You and Yours 12:04 WED (m001pfb3)

You and Yours 12:04 THU (m001pfd4)

You're Dead to Me 10:00 SAT (p09vkd6b)