The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes and fighting savage natives on distant shores.
Their adventures - printed as a small book and beautifully detailed map in 1558 by an enthusiastic ancestor - were celebrated throughout Europe until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.
Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out to discover what traces remain of these fabled voyages. In this final episode, the quest reaches its furthest point north on the slopes of a smoking volcano in Greenland.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
The news programme that starts with its listeners. Presented by Jennifer Tracey and Eddie Mair.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
The shores of the Durham coastline were once as black as the coal that was tipped into the waves that crashed onto them. But in recent years an amazing transformation has taken place. Helen Mark finds out about the Durham Heritage Coast.
Melton Mowbray pork pies, Stilton cheese and the Cumberland sausage are among the 40 UK products which carry protected name status from the European Union. Strict criteria are set on the area or way in which the food or drink is made. A further 44 UK products are applying and the Government wants even more producers to bid for it.
Charlotte Smith looks at just how valuable such titles are. Although a Cornish Pasty might be well-known, she asks if customers are as fussed if their celery is 'Fenland' or their ale 'Kentish'. She visits a farm in Oxfordshire to see why their Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork is 'Traditionally Farmed' and to ask if customers know the difference or even care.
Meanwhile growers are trying to get protected status for 'watercress'. So what will farmers who grow the leaves in soil use on their labels?
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Justin Webb, including:
What does the shooting of a five-year-old girl in south London tell us about the authorities' ability to combat inner-city violence?
The Reverend Richard Coles with author and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz, poet Murray Lachlan Young, and a former evacuee who was eventually adopted by the family who took him in. There's a Sound Sculpture of washing china tea sets, an I Was There from the Chief Officer of The Canberra when she requisitioned for the Falklands War, and the Inheritance Tracks of rock 'n' roll's first lady Wanda Jackson.
Sandi Toksvig finds out about Nigeria with actor and director Femi Elufowoju Jr and novelist Christie Watson, and gets under the skin of Montreal and Newfoundland with writer Kathleen Winter.
Paul Gambaccini presents the award-winning series that re-visits the occasions on which a classic live album was recorded. He hears from those who were there, on-stage, backstage and in the audience, to re-create the event for all of us who, each time we play the album, think: 'If only I could have been there'.
In December 2000 at The Barbican, Sir Colin Davis conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in the epic Berlioz opera, Les Troyens. Featuring a fine line-up of soloists, including Ben Heppner, Michelle de Young and Petra Lang, Sir Colin's championing of the unfashionable composer brought Berlioz's unwieldy account of the fall of Troy and the founding of Rome to exhilarating life.
The resulting recording was released on the LSO Live label and met with international approval, assuring the new label's success. The album was the unanimous critics' choice at the Classical Brits awards - chaired that year by our presenter, Paul Gambaccini. It also won two Grammy Awards - for best opera recording and classical recording.
Now he hears from Sir Colin Davis himself about his memories of the exceptional recording. Members of the cast, including Ben Heppner, Petra Lang and Toby Spence recall their experience of the opera, as do members of the orchestra and the audience.
Education Secretary Michael Gove was roundly attacked in the commons this week by his opposite number Andy Burnham, for being more of a journalist than a minister. Does he deserve the criticism?
Former Conservative Education Secretary Kenneth Baker and Labour MP Pat Glass fill in his report card.
The Liberal Democrats are the junior partner in the coalition but on economic policy they appear to carry weight. Have they more clout than we think?
Michael Fallon is a deputy chairman of the Conservative party and John Thurso a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee. How do they see it?
Labour is constantly accused of not being specific about its economic plans. But at what stage in the electoral cycle should they show their hand?
Gavin Kelly of the think tank the Resolution Foundation and formerly an adviser to Gordon Brown, discusses this with Matthew Hancock a Conservative MP who worked for George Osborne until May last year.
And fixed term parliaments: Former Speaker Baroness Boothroyd explains the problems this would throw up the role of the speaker.
Visiting time at Yemen's jail for political prisoners: Genevieve Bicknell meets the families of some of those detained who tell her why they feel it's time for the country's president to step down. Mark Urban, just back from Afghanistan, talks of a new attempt to improve the tarnished image of Afghanistan's police force. How the Lost Boys, who fled the civil war in Sudan, are finding out details of their past thanks to an archive which had been gathering dust in Addis Ababa - that's from Paul Adams. Linda Pressley travels deep into the forests of Ecuador to find out how oil exploration is threatening a way of life. Anu Anand is in Delhi, where traditional storytellers have been tempting people away from their flatscreen TVs. And Owen Bennett Jones is in Cairo wondering if he's just been ripped off by a canny taxi driver.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis take a look between the lines of the Coalition cuts story; Jon Holmes shrugs at the iPad and finds a way to enliven British theatre; Mitch Benn downloads a Cloud Girlfriend and guest stand-up Paul Sinha doesn't spout 'extreme anti-white vitriol' towards the countryside.
Eddie Mair chairs the topical discussion from Ashford, Kent with panellists Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, Margaret Beckett MP, New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny and Anne McElvoy, Public Policy Editor for the Economist.
Any Answers? Listeners respond to the issues raised in Any Questions? If you have a comment or question on this week's programme or would like to take part in the Any Answers? phone-in you can contact us by telephone or email. Tel: 03700 100 444 Email: any.answers@bbc.co.uk.
Frank Cottrell Boyce's series of plays about the punk generation 30 years on begins with the story of Julie, the singer in an ageing Blondie tribute band. An invitation to the reunion of the audience at an Adverts gig in 1977 brings some skeletons dancing from the cupboard.
Julie ... Doon Mackichan
Thing ... Sian Reeves
Margaret ... Rosie Cavaliero
Steve Reeves ... Ivan Kaye
Pete ... Paul Viragh
Joe ... Joseph Tremain
Lovely ... Sarah Bedi
Announcer ... John Rowe
Waiter ... Ben Crowe
Director/Producer ... Toby Swift
ONE CHORD WONDERS is a series of 5 plays by top British screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce. The series looks at the 'punk generation' three decades on, with each play telling a different, but connected, story. Featured actors include Pauline Quirke, Doon Mackichan, Sian Reeves, Richard Ridings, Danny Webb, Manjinder Virk and Fenella Woolgar.
Frank Cottrell Boyce is probably best known for films like '24 Hour Party People', 'A Cock & Bull Story', 'Hilary & Jackie', 'Welcome to Sarajevo' and 'Butterfly Kiss'. He won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 for 'Millions', his first novel, which was subsequently filmed by British director Danny Boyle.
The series is based on the fictional premise that in March 1977 punk band the Adverts performed a gig in Camberley to an audience of 27 people. Over 30 years later, someone is trying to bring those 27 people back together again for a reunion.
In 'Parallel Lines' Julie, a singer in an ageing Blondie tribute band, receives her invitation to the reunion. Husband and partner in the band Pete has also been invited - he was, after all, dubbed 'Zorba the Freak' for his legendary exploits that night. As she grapples with whether to go or not, she tries to track down 'Thing' (aka Anne Kirby) and Margaret, two of her contemporaries from those formative days. With so much invested in the past, Julie finds herself facing some uncomfortable truths.
The next 3 plays in the series - 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 'Damned, Damned, Damned' and 'This is the Modern World' - catch up with other, now middle-aged, members of that audience back in 1977.
The final play, 'Television's Over', takes us back 34 years to where it all begin; the day punk heroes the Adverts arrived at the Police Club in Camberley.
Gustav Mahler wrote his 5th Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902. The Adagietto is the 4th movement which is thought to have been inspired by falling in love with Alma who he married around this time.
This single movement is the composer’s most well-known piece of music. It was famously used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice. It was also conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York on the day of the burial of Robert Kennedy.
Composer David Matthews explains the significance of this piece in Mahler's output.
Psychoanalyst Anthony Cantle describes listening to it with his mother during her last days of dementia.
Malcolm Reid tells how this piece signified a change in himself as a young man in the British police force with narrow, racist views, to hearing it in Australia and shifting to becoming a liberal.
Jane Garvey presents. Women in business: how do you make your product or service stand out in a crowded market? Margaret Humphreys on her investigation into the child migrants whose stories unfold in the film Oranges and Sunshine. Human rights abuses in Iran and the likely impact of the appointment of a new UN special rapporteur to the country. Counselling on abortion - how impartial is the advice given? On the eve of Mother's Day, why a son can be the love of your life. Authors Kate Mosse and Lionel Shriver discuss the 'inheritance books' they'd pass on to the next generation. Homosexuality - how far have attitudes towards it changed among young people?
Peter Curran and guests take over the Radio 4 airwaves for a glorious 45 minutes of eclectic conversation and music.
Peter will be entering the 'Dragons' Den' this week as Deborah Meaden joins us in the Loose Ends studio. Deborah's the Den's second most frequent investor , and chats to Peter about her new project 'valuemystuff.com.'
From 'The West Wing' to the West End - Richard Schiff joins the cast of Jack Rosenthal's SMASH! Best known for playing Toby Ziegler in The West Wing he is no stranger to treading the boards over here, appearing in 2007 in the West End production of Underneath the Lintel.
Peter will be talking to musical theatre star, multi-platinum recording artist and chat show host Michael Ball. The king of British musical is famously known for his roles in Hairspray, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Les Miserables.
Chef, Broadcaster and Writer Allegra McEvedy talks to Alison Jackson, who shocked the world with her BAFTA Award-winning BBC TV series, Double Take. Alison has made a name for herself through her use of famous lookalikes to create paparazzi parodies. With the Royal Wedding looming, 'Kate and Wills Up the Aisle: A Right Royal Fairy Tale' is a tongue in cheek look at the royal romance.
In the week that singer-songwriter Adele's critically acclaimed second album retains the UK top spot for the ninth consecutive week, Colin Paterson asks whether she can beat the record set by Madonna to become the female solo artist with the longest-running album at number one for consecutive weeks.
At just 21 years old, how did this 'ordinary girl' from North London conquer the charts?
Tom Sutcliffe and guests writer Kevin Jackson, literary critic John Carey and novelist Louise Doughty review the week's cultural highlights.
Jerzy Skolimowski's film Essential Killing stars Vincent Gallo as Mohammed - a Taliban prisoner who goes on the run from his US captors at a Polish facility and struggles to survive at any cost in the inhospitable winter landscape.
The Free World is David Bezmozgis's first novel and it follows the Krasnansky family as they leave Latvia in 1978 to seek a new life in Chicago. However, when that plan falls through they find themselves stuck in Rome, hoping to move to Canada.
Cause Celebre was Terence Rattigan's final play, first performed months before his death in 1977. Based on a notorious 1935 murder case, Thea Sharrock's production at the Old Vic stars Anne-Marie Duff as the flighty Alma Rattenbury whose husband's murder leads to her facing Niamh Cusack's repressed jury forewoman Edith Davenport at the Old Bailey.
John Braine's 1957 novel Room at the Top has been adapted for BBC4 by Amanda Coe. It stars Matthew McNulty as council accountant Joe Lampton who believes that social mobility is within his grasp and Maxine Peake as the married woman who becomes his lover.
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860 - 1900 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind to have been staged. The exhibition includes over 250 objects and is set out in four broadly chronological sections tracing the growth and development of aestheticism in Britain over the four decades.
In the run up to the forthcoming alternative vote referendum on 5 May 2011, Shaun Ley explores the history of referendums at various levels in the UK and thus the British public's relationship with direct democracy.
Clement Attlee famously derided referendums as 'just not British'. Many in the UK are instinctively resistant to the notion, preferring the supremacy of Parliament. But in recent years there have been more and more referendums from issues ranging from establishing the Scottish Parliament, to whether or not there should be a congestion charge in Manchester.
Supporters of this form of direct democracy say it encourages participation and puts power in the hands of the voter. But critics argue that the politicians hold all the cards, and that referendums are often used to get the government off a political hook, particularly when their party is divided.
While the AV referendum is only the second UK wide referendum - the first being the 1975 referendum on staying in the Common Market - there have been numerous other referendums of smaller kinds over the years. Some have engendered passion, others indifference, and one even a boycott. There have been unusual cross party alliances, and calculated distancing by those on the same side. Campaigners have organised eye catching stunts and wheeled out their best celebrity supporters. Sometimes, despite the music and razzmatazz, the voters have failed to engage. And sometimes voters have given the politicians a bloody nose and stopped a policy in its tracks. Politicians, including Neil Kinnock, Shirley Williams and Teddy Taylor, tell us how referendum campaigns have given them some of their best and worst moments in politics.
With archive and interviews, anecdotes and analysis, this programme examines the UK's referendums including:
- referendums in Wales on Sunday pub opening which were held from the 1960s to the 1990s
- the 1973 Northern Ireland "border poll" which asked if people wanted to remain part of the UK. The referendum was boycotted by nationalists, and 99% of those who took part voted yes!
- the 1979 Scottish and Welsh devolution votes, when voters failed to give enough support for the devolution proposals put forward by James Callaghan's troubled government, leading to the downfall of the government.
- the very different referendum campaigns in 1997 on Scottish and Welsh devolution, which lead to the setting up of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh assembly.
- the 2004 referendum on the regional government in the north east, where the No vote ended John Prescott's dream of regional government;
- numerous local referendums, in London and elsewhere, on the introduction of Mayors
And of course there is discussion of that all important question - "referendums" or "referenda"?
2/2: Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders.
By Arthur Conan Doyle, dramatised by Chris Harrald. Professor Challenger and his team are marooned on the isolated Amazonian plateau, at the mercy of dinosaurs and a murderous tribe of hominids. Will they survive to satisfy their scientific curiosity? Will they be able to escape and bring home news of their discoveries?
Querioz... Vinicius Salles
Indian tribesman... Milton Lopes
Dramatist Chris Harrald is a writer for radio film and television. He won the 2009 Sony Gold award for radio drama for his play 'Mr Larkin's Awkward Day'.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Clive Anderson and some of the country's top lawyers and judges discuss legal issues of the day.
The second programme in the series looks at the law and intellectual property. Humans are an extraordinarily creative species, but can't always agree about the legal rights relating to that creativity.
This programme looks at how our courts attempt to resolve disputes over trademarks, inventions, music and literature; in fact over everything from life-saving drugs to sweater designs. Do our copyright, patent and other laws create the right balance between the protection of entrepreneurship and the potential benefit to the public of less regulated distribution of our creative output?
This episode of 'The 3rd Degree' is brought to you from Middlesex University, where host Steve Punt puts the questions to students and dons of Child Nursing, Design & Art, Biology and Biomedical Sciences. Topics for questions include whirling astronauts, Wagner's operas, and 300 billion copies of the Queen. So if you've ever wondered which exponential function's derivative is equal to the function itself or what are the exact contents of a Jägerbomb cocktail, then this is the quiz show for you.
"The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic new quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.
The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...
The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...
Storyteller Seema Anand explores Muhammad Iqbal's epic poem Shikwa, one of the most famous and enduring works of Islamic literature. The poem is an audacious and heartfelt complaint in lyrical Urdu about all the many ways in which God has let Muslims down.
When it was first recited by Iqbal at a public gathering in Lahore in 1911, a fatwa was issued by Islamic scholars who were shocked by its seemingly outrageous impudence: here was Man daring to challenge the wisdom of God!
Like many works by Iqbal, the poem is presented as a dialogue between Man and God, a quite revolutionary concept in Islamic literature and with echoes of Milton's Paradise Lost. Iqbal felt strongly that Islam should be open to reform and questioning - and many of his ideas are as powerfully relevant today as they were 100 years ago.
Iqbal is often called the spiritual father of Pakistan for using poetry to raise self-awareness amongst Muslims in pre-partition India so that they would eventually rise up and seek a separate nation. His poems are still recited at social gatherings all across the Muslim world (Shikwa is now even available as an iPhone app) but his poetry has a much wider appeal than just for Muslims. It contains many universal ideas about the relationship between Man, Earth and Divinity which resonate to this day.
Seema Anand (who is not Muslim) is learning to translate the poem with the dream that one day she too will be able to recite it and bring it to new audiences in Britain. Despite the challenge of learning a poem in a language she barely knows and with intricate imagery and ideas drawn from earlier Sufi and Persian poets, it's something she pursues because she's convinced the beauty of the verse nourishes the soul.
SUNDAY 03 APRIL 2011
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b00zzmtv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Lent Talks (b00zsjzh)
Feisal Abdul Rauf
This year's Lent Talks sees six well known figures reflect on different elements of conflict found in the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from the perspective of their own personal and professional experience.
In the third Lent Talk of the series, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the chairman of the Cordoba Initiative Islamic Cultural Centre, near ground Zero in New York, reflects on the conflict between faith and identity.
The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, abandonment, greed, forgiveness and love. The main theme for this year's talks will explore conflict in different forms and how it interacts with various aspects of society and culture.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zzmtx)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zzmtz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zzmv1)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b00zzmv3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b00zzmv5)
The bells of St Michael's Cornhill, London.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b00zzmsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b00zzmv7)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00zzmv9)
Yours Truly
American broadcaster Julie Shapiro began a long correspondence with her great aunt Lill following the death of Lill's husband twenty-five years ago. It lasted until Lill's own death seven years later. These letters, read by Irma Kurtz, form the central part of a programme that examines the rituals, intimacies and sustaining qualities of old-fashioned letter-writing.
Julie also draws on 'wise words' to correspondents by Lewis Carroll, read by Jonathan Keeble, and 'audio postcards' from the author Rick Moody and the founder of analogue magazine The Radio Post, Simon Roche, and sets the entire programme to a soundtrack by the Canadian pianist Gonzales - a favourite choice of music to accompany letter-writing.
'Yours Truly' is at once a celebration of an art which technology is in danger of drowning out, a monument to a dearly beloved relative and a 'call to pens'.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b00zzmvc)
Caz Graham meets a former city banker who's swapped his pin-stripe suit for a pair of wellies. Michael Wentworth Waites now trades a different kind of stock: livestock. After three tough years on his upland hill farm in Cumbria, Caz asks Michael if he thinks he's on course to make a profit from this tough landscape.
Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b00zzmvf)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b00zzmvh)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b00zzmvk)
More than 260 alleged victims of a baby-trafficking network in Spain begun under the dictator General Franco are demanding an investigation. How much was the Catholic church involved? William Crawley talks to the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Spain.
Matt Wells reports on the radicalisation of Muslims in the USA which is being compared to McCarthyism.
Cafod's regional Manager for West Africa and Great Lakes, Antonio Cabral talks about the humanitarian crisis sweeping the Ivory Coast as large numbers of Ivorian refugees flee the current conflict.
When William and Kate walk down the aisle at the end of the month they will be joining 1000 years of history linking the Crown to Westminster Abbey. In the first of a series of audio postcards from 4 different perspectives, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch looks at how the former Benedictine Abbey become a place where Monarchy, Church and Parliament have interacted for a thousand years.
Middle East Expert Professor Paul Rogers has just returned from a US State Department Conference in Dubai trying to work out what happens next in the region, he shares his thoughts on the Middle East's future with William Crawley.
After 24 people died following two days of protests in Afghanistan in the wake of the burning of a copy of the Koran by a fundamentalist Christian church in Florida, William talks to Joel C Hunter, a pastor in Florida and a leader within the National Association of Evangelicals, to ask him how he reacted to the news that a pastor had burned a Koran.
William also reflects on the violence in Afghanistan which resulted from the Koran burning with the former bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, and he is joined by historian and analyst Professor Iftikhar Malik from Bath Spa University, to discuss what role the Taliban is thought to have played in these events.
E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zzn23)
International Children's Trust
Joan Bakewell presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity International Children's Trust.
Donations to International Children's Trust should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope International Children's Trust. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. You can also give online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide International Children's Trust with your full name and address so they can claim the Gift Aid on your donation. The online and phone donation facilities are not currently available to listeners without a UK postcode.
Registered Charity Number: 254781.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b00zzmvm)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b00zzmvp)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b00zzn25)
The Unreconciled - Wounds and Healing
On this Mothering Sunday, part of our series for Lent live from St Martin-in-the-Fields, with the Rev Nicholas Holtam. Preacher: The Rev Clare Herbert, Lecturer, St Martin-in-the-Fields. Director of Music: Andrew Earis; Producer: Stephen Shipley.
In our journey through Lent, we are looking at issues in Christian reconciliation. Download web resources specially written for the series from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website. As we travel towards Easter, we prepare ourselves to meet the ultimate reconciling work - what God has done for us in the crucifixion, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Our service this morning comes from a church renowned for its work with some of the most wounded individuals at the bottom of the pile in this massive and diverse metropolis, amongst them mothers and their children. How can healing take place so they are no longer The Unreconciled?
SUN 08:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00zt5xr)
Series 2
Wallace
It was the great travel books written in the 19th century by Alfred Russell Wallace that inspired Sir David Attenborough himself to achieve great things in the realm of natural history.
But Attenborough tells us that Wallace was more than just a great travel writer. His power of meticulous observation and recording as he explored many parts of the world were in the highest league imaginable, even for Victorian standards - and his power of analysis very much akin with Darwin, his great contemporary.
Wallace independently came up with a theory of evolution that was in parallel to Darwin's thinking - two field naturalists breaking huge conventions of the time and coming up with the single most important theory in Biology. How did they resolve the conflict between themselves?
Written and presented by David Attenborough
Producer: Julian Hector
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b00zzn27)
News and conversation about the big stories of the week.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b00zzn29)
For detailed synopses, see daily episodes
Written by Joanna Toye
Directed by Rosemary Watts
Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Jolene Perks ..... Buffy Davis
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Kathy Perks ..... Hedli Niklaus
Jamie Perks ..... Dan Ciotkowski
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy ..... Rosalind Adams
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Vicky Tucker .....Rachel Atkins
Roy Tucker .....Ian Pepperell
Hayley Tucker ..... Lorraine Coady
Phoebe Aldridge ..... Lucy Morris
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Usha Franks ..... Souad Faress
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Elona ..... Eri Shuka
Coroner ..... Stephen Tomlin.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b00zzn2c)
Martin Sheen
Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor Martin Sheen.
In recent years he has won great acclaim and a Golden Globe for playing the leader of the free world in the hugely successful political drama The West Wing. He's made more than a 100 movies, including Apocalypse Now, Badlands and The Departed. For him, work is often a family affair, in Wall Street he acted alongside his son Charlie Sheen and in his latest movie, The Way he was directed by another of his children - Emilio Estevez.
But away from the film set, he's an activist and campaigner - he's been arrested around 70 times and is motivated, he says by faith and conscience above politics.
Record: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.
Luxury: A full set of golf clubs and a bag of golf balls.
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b00zsd0w)
Series 59
Episode 8
Nicholas Parsons is joined by Julian Clary, Paul Merton, Graham Norton and Terry Wogan as they try to speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Subjects include, My Disastrous Trip to the Zoo and for Julian Clary especially... Innuendo.
Producer: Tilusha Ghelani.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b00zzn2f)
Food and the Unification of Italy
Sheila Dillon explores a food story behind the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. In 1861 Italians came together as one nation, but does food reveal a different story?
Sheila travels to Sicily where she hears how the island's powerful food culture is seen as evidence by some of disappointment with the creation of a nation state. She meets food historian Mary Taylor Simeti who explains how menus in the 19th century show how Sicilians rejected the temptations of food from the mainland and further afield.
Producer: Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b00zzmvr)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b00zzn2h)
The latest national and international news, with an in-depth look at events around the world. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #theworldthisweekend.
SUN 13:30 Mothers and Sons (b00zsc28)
For Mother's Day, an exploration of the special bond between mother and son, stories sent in by listeners to Woman's Hour. Ben was close to his family, had a place in medical school and was on course to fulfill his parents' aspirations - when he suddenly announced he was getting married. He was 19. His parents lost him for ten years. But when he reached crisis point he decided to go home - he had nowhere else to go. "It was dark and there was a light in the porch. Mum held me, and I cried for a very long time."
Beverley, a single parent, used to take her young son Benjamin everywhere with her, even parachuting. But he started smoking cannabis, taking ecstasy, and dropped out of university to organize raves. The drugs affected his mental health and he tried to kill his mother. "I believed she'd been cruel to me when I was young. I developed a fantasy that led me to making a gun. That's when things became dangerous. I made the gun and my uncle said, 'What's that for?' and I said, 'It's to shoot your sister.'" She called the police; he was sentenced to four years in prison. But then came the day when, from his secure mental unit, Benjamin decided to call his mother.
In the third story we hear from Ahmed who does not know whether the woman who brought him up is in fact his biological mother. When he was 17, his parents told him that there might have been a terrible mix-up in the hospital after he was born. He believes that he might in fact belong to another family. He has chosen not to take the DNA test and find out. But the lingering doubts remain. Is he really his mother's son? And what does it mean, in the end, to be a good son, and a good mother?
Producers: Elizabeth Burke and Kim Normanton
A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00zt4h5)
Hartlebury, Kidderminster
Eric Robson leads the GQT team in lively horticultural debate in the village of Hartlebury.
Anne Swithinbank investigates the manufacture and safety of municipal compost for the domestic gardener.
Get more from your shopping: Using your grocery leftovers to grow from seed. Bob Flowerdew advises.
Produced by Lucy Dichmont with Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 Wonderful Ways to Beat the Recession (b00zzpl3)
Episode 1
The American satirist Joe Queenan is fascinated by anyone who can turn an idea into a revenue stream. So three years on from his series A Wonderful Way to Make a Living - in which he met the penetration testers, the naked yoga instructor, and the emergency shirt delivery guy - Joe is back to meet the brains behind the businesses bucking the economic downturn. This week, Shopjacket, who make fake shop fronts to cheer up a dying High Street near you; and Joe Hoare the laughter therapy guy. The producer is Miles Warde.
SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b00zzpl5)
Patrick O'Brian - The Mauritius Command
Episode 1
Patrick O'Brian's naval epic set in 1809, dramatised in three parts by Roger Danes. Starring David Robb as Captain Jack Aubrey and Richard Dillane as Doctor Stephen Maturin.
Following his adventures in HMS Surprise, Jack Aubrey has been kicking his heels at home when his old friend, Stephen Maturin, comes knocking at his door with welcome news. Jack is promoted to Commodore, and is to lead a squadron of English ships, charged with taking the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion from the French.
In the course of the novel Jack must succeed against superior odds at sea and on land. Yet, in his new role as Commodore, Jack will need subtlety and subterfuge to win over the crews and subordinate captains of his own fleet.
Based on a naval campaign in 1809-10 when Britain and France were bitterly engaged in protecting their trade routes around the southern tip of Africa.
The Mauritius Command is the fourth novel in Patrick O'Brian's Nelsonic epic series, and the sequel to HMS Surprise which was dramatised for Radio 4 in 2008.
Captain Jack Aubrey ................... DAVID ROBB
Doctor Stephen Maturin .......... ...RICHARD DILLANE
Governor Farquhar ..................... DAVID RINTOUL
Lt-Col Keating ............ .......THOMAS ARNOLD
Lord Clonfert................................ SAM DALE
Captain Corbett................. ....CHRISTIAN RODSKA
Lt Seymour ....................... ...MAX DOWLER
Midshipman George Johnson ....... NYASHA HATENDI
Dr McAdam/Admiral Bertie.......... .SEAN BAKER
Captain Pym............................... BRIAN BOWLES
Mrs. Williams ............................ JOANNA MONRO
Sophie....................................... SALLY ORROCK
Producer/director: Bruce Young
Producer Bruce Young.
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (b00zzpl7)
Jennifer Johnston
Recorded at the Verbal Arts Centre in Londonderry/City of Derry, James Naughtie and readers talk to one of Ireland's finest writers - Jennifer Johnston.
Now in her eighties, Jennifer has been called 'The Quiet Woman' of Irish literature. Her distinguished career has spanned more than 40 years and has netted the Whitbread Prize among her many awards. Her books are taught on the Irish school curriculum and in American Universities.
The chosen novel for this edition of Bookclub is one of her later ones, The Gingerbread Woman. Like many of her novels, this story deals with personal conflict, as two characters meet by chance one day on a cliff top overlooking Dublin Bay and form an uneasy friendship. Yet the conflict between these two mirrors a bigger question - the conflict between the North and South of Ireland.
Jennifer Johnston is a writer who watches and listens. She's best known for her portrayal of different Irelands, notably the group called the Anglo-Irish, who appear in what became known as The Big House novels. More recently she has moved her protagonists out of the countryside and into the affluent suburbs.
Jennifer grew up in a theatrical house - her father Denis was the leading playwright of his day and her mother Shelah an actress. Jennifer describes how her literary upbringing has resonated through her writing, and how much she enjoys writing dialogue.
As always on Bookclub, a group of readers join the author in the discussion and James Naughtie chairs the programme.
May's Bookclub choice : 'Be Near Me' by Andrew O'Hagan.
Producer : Dymphna Flynn.
SUN 16:30 A House Divided: The Poetry of the American Civil War (b00zzpl9)
On the 12th of April 1861 Confederate forces attacked the US Military's Fort Sumter, thus beginning the bloodiest war in American history. It is this conflict, more than the American Revolution or World War Two that has had the most dramatic impact on the nation's character. This year marks its 150th anniversary.
In a war of brother against brother; the conflict created a tragic human drama as the country struggled to define itself. America's most distinguished poets were affected by unprecedented levels of carnage. Herman Melville wrote a chronological, impressionistic volume of poetry on the Civil War.
Walt Whitman, a volunteer nurse during the war wrote heart-wrenching poems about wounded soldiers beside piles of amputated limbs. Emily Dickinson was most productive during this time, though she never wrote directly about the war. However, her meditations on death, violence and the bloody landscape provide a deep insight into the nation's character.
In this programme, we'll hear music and poetry from before, during and after the war.
Slaves like George Moses Horton who sold poetry in the hopes of buying his own freedom reflects on the meaning of liberty. Soldiers like Obediah Ethelbert Baker who wrote for his wife back home, talks about the righteousness of the Union cause. Northern abolitionist Quakers regale the noble Northern mission and the "poet laureate of the Confederacy", Henry Timrod, recalls the birth of a new nation. Allan Gurganus is a southern US author whose work has been heavily influenced by the American Civil War. He presents this fascinating documentary.
Producer: Colin McNulty
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b00zshnz)
Memory on Trial
Do we understand enough about how memory works to properly assess evidence in sex abuse cases when allegations date back decades? Can juries make decisions based on their common sense in complex cases?
The number of so called "historic abuse cases" making their way through the coruts has increased in recent years following changes in the law that make it easier to bring them to trial and a greater willingness on behalf of victims to come forward.
These are among the most difficult cases the justice system handles given the highly sensitive nature of the allegations being made and the often lengthy gap between the events in question and the prosecution. Many cases now turn on one person's word against another and therefore rely heavily on the quality of memory evidence each side can bring.
But even the memory experts are divided on how the court process should assess memory evidence. Whist many victims never forget their abuse, some psychologists say people can genuinely block out or forget abuse and then remember it in detail later in life. But others warn of "false memory syndrome" and claim that in some cases allegations are wrongly based on ideas that have arised during therapy or from third party experiences which complainants adopt as their own.
In this week's File on 4, Jackie Long examines concerns from across the criminal justice system - from lawyers who claim the system is creating "a new genre of miscarriages of justice" because defendants cannot get a fair trial, from victims who say their long-held memories are being branded as false in court and from psychologists who question how well equipped our courts are to consider such evidence.
So how much do we know about how memory works? And is the courtroom the right place to get to the truth?
Producer Sally Chesworth.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b00zzmsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00zzmvt)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b00zzmvw)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zzmvy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b00zzplc)
Truth is stranger than fiction, they say - and Pick of the Week on Sunday certainly bears that out. John Waite will be hearing how a father and son from Manchester travelled to Ecuador to track down their mother's killer. How President Reagan was given the all-clear by his secret service guards, even though he'd been shot by a would-be assassin. Did you know that Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner has the IQ of a genius, and wanted the magazine to be a political document. Or that you can get so attached to chickens that you chat to them and even take them on holiday. The truth, the whole truth .. in Pick of the Week
They Write The Songs - Radio 2
Wonderful Ways To Beat The Recession - Radio 4
Today - Radio 4
Let's Get Quizzical - Radio 4 Extra
Wuthering Heights - Radio 3
Witness - Shooting Ronald Regan - World Service
Document - Radio 4
That's So Gay - Radio 1
The Original Playboy - Radio 4
Act Your Age - Radio 4
The Disappearance of Jennifer Pope - Radio 4
Elegies From A Suburban Garden - Radio 4
Attila The Hen - Radio 4
Woman's Hour - Radio 4
Lives in a Landscape - Radio 4
Listen to the Band - Radio 2
John Waite makes his selection from the week's radio
Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Kathryn Blennerhassett.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b00zzplf)
Joe and Eddie discuss Sabrina Thwaite, who has questioned Joe about her mistletoe. He's managed to convince her it's taking root. Clarrie goes for lunch at Will and Nic's, leaving Eddie and Joe looking forward to their lunch at Jim's.
After a huge lunch, Joe and Eddie - who have decided to watch a DVD of The Ghost instead of reading it for the Book Club - are shocked to be presented with a bill. They realise Clarrie and Jim have tricked them. Eddie and Jim reluctantly agree to sacrifice their dinners for the final two Sundays of Lent.
Kathy tells Clarrie about her row with Jamie and Jolene. Clarrie is shocked to learn about Jolene and Kenton.
Jolene reluctantly agrees to let Jamie stay at The Bull, since he's determined not to go home, but tells him he must let Kathy know where he is. He goes home to collect some things but makes it clear to Kathy that he's not staying. She tries to talk to him but he angrily tells her that she cares about herself more than him. Despite her protestations he storms out, leaving Kathy crying in his bedroom.
SUN 19:15 Americana (b00zzplh)
What's up with Science in America?
The US federal government pledged 45 billion dollars for science and technology research while reeling from the most recent recession, movies like Jurassic Park and Avatar glamorize and popularize science innovation, so what's fact and what's fiction? Americana examines the state of Science and innovation in America today with Mariette DiChristina, Editor in Chief of Scientific American (The monthly magazine was founded in 1845-- it's the oldest continuously published magazine in the US), and author Chris Mooney. His most recent book is, "Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future."
Top American science students at work: Montgomery Blair High School
The BBC's Adam Brookes visits an American high school where a science magnet programme is attracting and exciting students to do original research before, during and after school.
The Power of Memorization: Josh Foer
Memorizing facts is often discouraged as a shallow style of learning but champion memory athlete and author Josh Foer joins Americana for a discussion, demonstration and explanation of the value of memory in today's world of quick internet searches and fancy technology.
Amish Mud Sales:
And the BBC's Jane O'Brien visits with a community that is less interested in the snazzy scientific innovations of the future and still interested in examining what the past has to teach. Americana attends an Amish Mud Sale.
SUN 19:45 Afternoon Reading (b00cqfyt)
Nick Walker - The Further Adventures of the First King of Mars
The King's Subjects
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik we commissioned Nick Walker to write the sci-fi adventure 'The First King Of Mars'. Now in five, thrilling action-packed episodes we continue the story where it left off.
The commander makes a shocking discovery when he finds a door in an underground tunnel.
Nick Walker's theatre work has been presented extensively in the UK as well as Europe, and the USA. His plays and short stories are often featured on BBC Radio 4 and 3 series of the late-night show The Bigger Issues. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels Blackbox and Helloland, published in the UK, US, Australia, Japan and across Europe.
Performed by Peter Capaldi.
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (b00zt4h3)
"Embarrassingly small" cuts?
The Coalition Government's planned spending cuts have been described as "savage" by the TUC's Brendan Barber. But they have also been described by Fraser Nelson of The Spectator as "embarrassingly small". Who's right?
The Other Census
The census is all well and good. It will tell us how many we are, where we live, with whom, and more. Good, hard facts. But, we wondered, could we yield some surprising data by asking less obvious questions? Follow the link below to complete The Other Census.
The cost of intervention
Libya seems to be in full-fledged civil war and the UK is part of an international coalition intervening in the conflict. Last week the Chancellor addressed what all this might cost. But how does he know?
Strawberry Fields... forever?
The maths behind the most mysterious edit in music.
Producer: Richard Knight.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b00zt4h9)
Edward Stobart, Geraldine Ferraro, Diana Wynne Jones and Robert Tear
Matthew Bannister on
Edward Stobart who built up the family trucking firm to become a business success and a cult brand.
Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to stand as vice president of the USA.
Childrens' fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones who drew on her own troubled relationship with her parents in her books.
Paul Baran, the American electrical engineer who developed some of the key building blocks of the internet.
And the flamboyant tenor Robert Tear - we have a tribute from Sir Thomas Allen.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b00zxn8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zzn23)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b00zt3py)
Over a Barrel
Turmoil across the Middle East sent oil prices jumping and has raised big questions about the security of the energy supplies that have powered the world economy for the past 100 years. Peter Day investigates the future of oil.and what the current upheavals might mean for other energy supplies.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b00zzplk)
Carolyn Quinn previews the week's events at Westminster with the political editor of the Independent, Andrew Grice. She asks him how he thinks the government will respond to criticisms of the plans to reform the National Health Service in England.
Three people join the MPs panel this week - the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, the Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams and the Labour MP Rachel Reeves. They discuss the NHS, the Green Party's prospects in the forthcoming elections in May, the referendum on the Alternative Vote and the future of nuclear power.
We have a report on ministerial careers. What do backbench MPs have to do to be promoted to ministerial office? How do they ensure they go on being promoted rather than getting the sack? Contributors include Lord Heseltine, Chris Mullin, Lord Powell and Peter Riddell.
Progamme editor: Terry Dignan.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b00zzplm)
Anne McElvoy
BBC Radio 4 brings back a much loved TV favourite - What the Papers Say. It does what it says on the tin. In each programme a leading journalist takes a wry look at how the broadsheets and red tops treat the biggest stories in Westminster and beyond. This week Anne McElvoy takes the chair.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b00zt4hc)
In The Film Programme this week, Francine Stock talks to two directors at very different stages of their careers - Jerzy Skolimowski and Jim Loach. Skolimowski has been involved in cinema since the Sixties and as well as collaborating with Polanski directed, Deep End and Moonlighting. He believes his new film, Essential Killing, is his best yet. Jim Loach by contrast has just made his first feature - Oranges and Sunshine... a story about the deportation of children from the United Kingdom to Australia - a subject that might easily have tempted his father, Ken. Francine also talks to the actor Roger Allam about his part in bringing Posy Simmonds' cartoon strip, Tamara Drewe, to the big screen and the BFI's Bryony Dixon shares her delight in the ever-evolving relationship between cinema and radio.
Producer: Zahid Warley.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00zzmv9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 04 APRIL 2011
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b00zzqgx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b00zsjz1)
Mafias - Live Music
Woodstock did not have a sponsor, people flooded to Hyde Park for a free concert from the Rolling Stones but now a top price ticket to see Bon Jovi - the 'Diamond Circle VIP Experience' - can cost you something approaching $2,000. What has happened to live music to transform it into the industry it has become? How have concert performances become a successful way of funding music when recorded music has been in retreat? Laurie Taylor speaks to two authorities in the field of popular music studies, Simon Frith and Martin Cloonan, to discuss the social and economic changes which have brought music performance to the fore.
Also we hear of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese Triads in London and Italian Mafias across the western world, but is organised crime really spreading like a global virus? The criminologist Federico Varese explores the capacities of mafias trying to conquer new territories.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b00zzmv5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zzqgz)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zzqh1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zzqh3)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b00zzqh5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zzqh7)
with Rev. Canon Jenny Wigley.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b00zzqr9)
The Irish Farmers Association is campaigning to make pre-nuptual agreements legally binding to protect farm holdings and succession rights. The IFA's James Kane says current rules are unfair and that other countries, including the UK, should follow suit.
Recent figures show that farming accounts for 41 per cent of the UK's overall methane emissions, and cattle are a large part of this. Emma Weatherill goes to meet Professor Chris Reynolds from the University of Reading who says how changing what cattle are fed can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
British flower growers are warning that the bad winter could delay flowers for Easter. After a tough start to the year they've been banking on a good mothering sunday, and then Easter to improve their fortunes. Caroline Marshall - Foster from the British Flower and Plant association says that due to the weather, many producers just won't meet their targets.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Ruth Sanderson.
MON 05:57 Weather (b00zzqh9)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 06:00 Today (b00zzqy7)
Including Sports Desk at
6.25am,
7.25am,
8.25am; Weather
6.05am,
6.57am,
7.57am; Thought for the Day
7.48am.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b00zzqy9)
Andrew Marr talks to the Catholic Archbishop Vincent Nichols about how far his faith's social teachings chime with the Big Society, but also what impact the government's cuts might have on the work of Catholic charities. The writer Michael Collins charts the rise and fall of the council estate, and what role social housing will have in the future. Lisa Appignanesi gets to grips with the most untidy of emotions: love. And the neuroscientist, David Eagleman exposes the workings of the non-conscious brain, and questions whether scientists should wade into the debate over what is fair punishment.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zzr1h)
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Episode 1
Ken Campbell, who died in September 2008, was one of the great mavericks of British theatre.
Ill-suited to a role in conventional theatre, he created a risk-taking confrontational style of performance, which often explored unlikely subject matter. He became, in director Mike Leigh's words, "The outsider's outsider"
Bob Hoskins, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent are amongst the performers whose formative years were spent working with Campbell. What did the director and producer bring to performance that made him such a mesmeric figure?
Michael Coveney's biography tells the story of Campbell, the great adventurer of British theatre.
Writer Michael Coveney is a long-standing theatre critic, who has worked for The Financial Times, The Observer and The Daily Mail. Actor Toby Jones played Truman Capote in 'Infamous' and Swifty Lazar in 'Frost/Nixon' and recently reprised the role of Dobby in the film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Toby has also appeared in a production of 'The Warp' by Neil Oram, the 22-hour epic created by Ken Campbell.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zzr1k)
Jane Garvey presents. Today we are launching our new food series of 'How to make the perfect...' And to start us off, Mary Berry will join Jane Garvey in the Woman's Hour studio to talk about simnel cake. What happens if you suddenly find yourself unemployed in your 50s, having spent all your working life in the same job? The "Black Beauty" effect - what is it about horses that make women so passionate about them? And will Tuesday's changes to Working Tax Credits force women out of work?
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zzsdg)
The Little Ottleys
Episode 1
Series One (5 episodes)
Episode One
It's 1908 and Bruce and Edith, The Little Ottleys, as they were called, live in a very new, very small, very white flat in Knightsbridge. And so begins Ada Leverson's witty and wonderful social comedy set in Edwardian London and dramatised in five episodes by Martyn Wade.
Ada Leverson............Haydn Gwynne
Bruce.......................Bertie Carvel
Edith........................Juliet Aubrey
Hyacinth...................Alex Tregear
Cecil........................Stuart McLoughlin
Anne........................Jane Whittenshaw
Eugenia....................Joanna Monro
Directed By Tracey Neale
London, 1908. The pretty and delightful Edith Ottley is married to pompous Bruce. She adores her son, Archie and thinks herself content with her life in the very new, very concise, very white flat in Knightsbridge but often thought that if Hyacinth Verney wasn't a friend, life would be very dull. The beautiful and wealthy Hyacinth is in love with Cecil Reeve but it appears he is love with someone else. Is Hyacinth's heart destined to remain broken? As Edith ponders on Hyacinth's dilemma she finds her own heart suddenly beating that bit faster when she meets the clever, charming and very handsome Aylmer Ross. As the story builds the physical attraction between the two is electric. They could be the perfect couple but Edith can't dismiss the fact she is Mrs. Ottley. However, as we will discover, there is more to Bruce than meets the eye and when Edith discovers this fact, will that help to change her mind?
The listener will wonder why Edith is married to Bruce but as Bruce's pomposity and fatuousness come up against Edith's quiet responses and ironic questioning they will enjoy the moments of absurdity and admire Edith's stoicism and will her to make the right decision.
The dramatisation by Martyn Wade comes from three short novels written by Ada Leverson between 1908 and 1916. The novels are 'Love's Shadow', 'Tenterhooks' and 'Love At Second Sight' but in 1962 they were grouped together under the title of 'The Little Ottleys'.
The Writer
Ada Leverson was a contemporary and friend of Oscar Wilde. His nickname for her was 'The Sphinx' and he called her 'the wittiest woman in England'. She wrote six novels, each a classic comedy of manners. The three which make up 'The Little Ottleys' are perfect examples of her wit and style. Her world of marriage and married life with all its mysteries and absurdities is as relevant to today's world as it was in her own. She married at the young age of nineteen to Ernest Leverson and had two children but it was an unhappy marriage and he left her to start a new life in Canada and it was after this that she began to write her novels. Elements of her own life experiences evident within her writing.
The Dramatist
Martyn Wade is a skilled and talented radio writer and dramatist. He has wanted to adapt 'The Little Ottleys' for a long time and has a sure and dry comic touch which is ideal for this dramatisation. Martyn dramatised the 'Barsetshire' novels for radio and the 'Palliser' series too. His most recent Trollope dramatisations have been 'Orley Farm' and 'Miss Mackenzie'.
MON 11:00 The Protection Game (b00zzsdj)
Bodyguards, or close-protection officers (CPOs), are the thing of Hollywood myth. But, in real life, do some bodyguards have to make the ultimate sacrifice and dive in front of the bullet?
Broadcaster Yasmeen Khan meets, and trains with, some new recruits at a Task International training course in Kent. These men and women are training to be close-protection officers for corporate clients from around the world. Yasmeen learns more about the training, and the wider world of CPOs from the Task trainer. She also hears about the recent work Task CPOs have undertaken in Cairo, bringing out UK citizens and taking in much needed medical and food supplies.
In a secretive London location, Yasmeen meets up with security expert Will Geddes, and together they discuss the ethics of personal protection, of selling your body & skills to someone else with the possible ultimate outcome of your own death. Who are the clients and what is the stark reality of being a CPO in the modern age? Will discusses his recent experiences in Libya and Cairo.
Yasmeen also talks with Bill Butler, the Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority. Under the SIA's leadership it has now become mandatory for security staff to be licensed in the UK. Yasmeen wants to know how the SIA manages to ensure that unlicensed protection services don't succeed.
As Yasmeen learns, many CPOs come from a military background, but then there are also those who have long experience in the Special Branch and Royal Protection Detail. She heads to an even more secretive location to meet Brian Isdale, a former Special Branch officer, now running his own security service and hiring many ex-police officers. Business is clearly good, and with the Olympics looming, it seems it will only get better.
Producers: Neil Gardner & Yasmeen Khan
A Ladbroke Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:30 Fags, Mags and Bags (b00zzw1w)
Series 4
Foam Wizards
The hit Radio 4 series 'Fags, Mags & Bags' returns with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave.
Written by and starring Donald McLeary and Sanjeev Kohli 'Fags, Mags & Bags' has proved a hit with the Radio 4 audience with this series picking up a Writers Guild nomination for best comedy in 2011.
This series sees a crop of new shop regulars, and some guest appearances along the way from the likes of Mina Anwar and Kevin Eldon.
In this opening episode Ramesh and his son Alok go head to head as they enter a competition to design a new sweetie favourite. Will the old wise head see off the challenge from the young pretender to the corner shop crown?
So join the staff of 'Fags, Mags and Bags' in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of 30 years, and is a firmly entrenched feature of the local area. Ramesh loves the art of the 'shop'.
However; he does apply the 'low return' rules of the shop to all other aspects of his life. Ramesh is ably assisted by his shop sidekick Dave, a forty-something underachiever who shares Ramesh's love of the art of shopkeeping, even if he is treated like a slave.
Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business, and Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them whether they like it or not!
Cast:
Ramesh ...... Sanjeev Kohli
Dave ....... Donald Mcleary
Sanjay ....... Omar Raza
Alok ....... Susheel Kumar
Mrs Begg ........ Marjory Hogarth
Keith Futures ....... Greg McHugh
Hilly ....... Kate Brailsford
Mrs Armstrong ........ Maureen Carr
Keenan ........ Max Merrill
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b00zzy2b)
Consumer news with Julian Worricker.
We hear about new guidelines to stop bullying by some debt collectors. They are being drawn up by the Office of Fair Trading.
Recently a new vaccine to rid the world of polio was announced but there are still plenty of people struggling with the effects of the illness. We examine the condition known as post polio syndrome.
And as the new financial year kicks off for local councils, there are moves by some to hand over the running of many of their public services to voluntary organisations and charities. Some fear this could be privatisation by the back door.
MON 12:57 Weather (b00zzqhc)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b0100wxs)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
MON 13:30 Counterpoint (b00zzy2d)
Series 25
Episode 1
(1/13)
Can you name the composer of the theme music to the classic Charlie Chaplin film 'Modern Times'? Or guess which composer's work is the most-performed in the entire history of the Proms?
The evergreen music quiz returns for its 2011 series, with Paul Gambaccini in the questionmaster's chair. He'll be putting questions on the widest possible range of music to contestants from all over Great Britain, the eventual champion taking the 25th Counterpoint trophy at the end of June.
The quiz tests the competitors' knowledge of the core classics, as well as film and stage music, jazz, rock and pop. There are plenty of musical surprises, and forgotten or rarely-heard extracts, alongside long-established favourites.
As always, the general knowledge questions on music are followed by a specialised round, in which the contestants have to choose a musical topic or category on which to answer. The available categories can range from questions on a specific composer, to musical genres, music for particular instruments, and quirky eclectic themes.
The first trio of competitors joins Paul Gambaccini in Manchester for the opening heat of this 25th anniversary series.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b00zzplf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b00zzy2g)
Dan Rebellato - My Life Is a Series of People Saying Goodbye
How many ways are there to say goodbye? Why do we say goodbye? And what does it really feel like? Is it always forever? An adventurous new play about parting by Dan Rebellato.
Scott and Ben are climbing a mountain. When Scott falls, Ben has to leave him to get help. Sean and Nathan turned the company around but today, Nathan has to make his colleague redundant. Richard has been with Dawn for years, but he knows tonight's evening out is make or break. Sarah is expecting her girlfriend Lou for dinner, so the call from the airport comes as a shock. Nikki is nervous about leaving London to start a new life as a student in Cardiff. MP Andrew has survived a media storm about his expenses claims, with the support of his constituency party - until now.
Blurring distinctions between time, place and people, My Life is a Series of People Saying Goodbye explores the pain, poignancy and new possibilities of parting.
Dan Rebellato is a playwright and academic. He has been shortlisted twice for a Sony award. His new stage play, Chekov in Hell, will be at the Soho Theatre London 20 April to 14 May, after a successful run at The Drum, Plymouth. Other radio work includes an adaptation of Gogol's Dead Souls starring Michael Palin and Mark Heap. He is Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway University of London and a regular contributor to The Guardian theatre website.
Sound designer: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
A Crosslab production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00zzmsm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
MON 15:45 America, Empire of Liberty (b00gqxr9)
The Ninety-Day War
David Reynolds tells the story of the American Civil War which began 150 years ago this month. In ten episodes he explores the origins and legacy of the war. This was originallly broadcast as part of the 90 part series, America: Empire of Liberty
Episode 1: The start of the Civil War: a fight for Southern independence and the end of slavery.
Previously broadcast on 19 January, 2009.
MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b00zzn2f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Click On (b00zzylf)
Series 8
The next silicon city and the granny cloud
Silicon Fen, in Cambridgeshire, is a great success. Silicon Glen, in the Scottish central belt, has many empty lots. Can the government really create the next Silicon Valley in East London? Simon and Rupert find out.
With an ageing population many people are at work trying to find ways to protect our elderly selves in the home, in the least invasive way possible. Simon discovers some of the innovative developments.
And how Newcastle University set up the 'granny cloud' to teach children in developing countries, from their own living rooms.
Producer: Lucy Lloyd.
MON 17:00 PM (b0100267)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zzqhf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (b00zzz1y)
Series 7
Episode 1
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Alan Davies, Jack Dee, Marcus Brigstocke and Lucy Porter are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: curry, eyes, flies and breasts.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b00zzz22)
Kenton and Jolene discuss recent developments; Kenton blames himself for the row between Kathy and Jolene, and for not maintaining a better relationship with Jamie. He asks Jolene what was said during the fight, but she would rather forget about it. Later Jolene tells Kenton that, thanks to Kathy, most of the village already know about their relationship. He tells her that he's told his family, and lies about his mother's bad reaction to the news.
Elizabeth shows Jill the package she intends to offer Roy. It's a good deal, but they worry about upsetting Caroline.
Jill and David discuss the blood tests. Only one heifer must be slaughtered but this should eradicate Johne's disease from the herd. David is pessimistic, but Jill tells him he's just like his father.
Jill has handed in her nomination for the parish council and Jim has asked her to organise refreshments for the Gardeners' Question Time recording. She tells David how shocked she was to hear about Kenton and Jolene, but David points out that Kenton will always do his own thing. They must make the best of it.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b00zzz26)
David Lodge and TV drama The Kennedys
With Mark Lawson.
A big-budget new TV drama series The Kennedys begins this week, starring Greg Kinnear as John F Kennedy and Katie Holmes as his wife Jackie. The mini-series has already caused controversy and has a chequered history. The Washington-based journalist Rupert Cornwell reviews.
The writer David Lodge discusses his new novel A Man of Parts, about the life of H G Wells.
Two new films out this week cover some familiar ground. Mars Needs Moms is an animated film in which Martians visit Earth and kidnap a human for their own ends. And in The Roommate a college student soon discovers that the woman sharing her flat has a rather unhealthy and violent obsession with her. Critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh wonders whether either brings anything new to some well-worn storylines.
And as the row over the unveiling of a large statue of Michael Jackson outside the Fulham football ground by the club's owner Mohamed Al Fayed develops, Stephen Bayley considers whether it's possible to create new public statues of people which win both public and critical approval.
Producer Nicki Paxman.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zzsdg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Communist Cosmos (b00zzz2d)
After Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took to telling party meetings that Gagarin had seen 'no God in space.' When the USSR beat America into orbit it was a triumphant victory not just for the Soviet Union, but for communism itself.
Following Sputnik, the first dogs in space and Gagarin's world-changing flight, the USSR continually followed each mission with a bigger and more audacious successor, and their policy of not reporting failures meant that all the world saw was the USSR going further and faster whilst NASA could barely get off the ground. To the rest of the planet, communism was flexing its muscle as the West floundered.
In 'The Communist Cosmos', Angus Roxburgh tells the story of how the Soviet Union saw space as the key to its global superiority; how the space programme's chief designer Sergei Korolev was hatching plans for manned missions to the moon, Mars and Venus long before anyone dreamed they could be possible; and how ultimately Soviet superiority in space came to an abrupt end
Producer: Chris Walker
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b00zsldf)
Uganda
Anna Cavell investigates the human trafficking of Ugandan women to Iraq. They were lured there by promises of well-paid jobs - but instead found themselves effectively in slavery, beaten and in some cases raped. She hears the story of how a Ugandan security contractor and an American officer together organised a courageous freelance raid which freed nine of the women. And she discovers that despite the rescue, the practice appears to be continuing.
Producer: Natalie Morton.
MON 21:00 Material World (b00zt3pt)
Adam Rutherford presents the weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He talks to Dr. Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth about the latest developments at the Fukashima Plant and Professor Gerry Thomas from Imperial College, London tells him about the current risk to human health. Also on the programme; is sonar damaging beaked whales and could placing decoy artificial birds on the ground near pylons, prevent real birds from flying into them? Finally, the RSC is about to stage a play about Sergei Korolyov the father of the Russian space programme. Adam meets the play's writer Rona Munro.
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b00zzqy9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b00zzqhh)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b0101tj1)
Ivory Coast descends further into civil war - we report the latest.
Will the Government change its NHS reform plans?
Electric cars go Formula One - but will it catch on?
With Ritula Shah.
MON 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zzz2l)
Episode 6
Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch read Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always, provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, a miracle leads to a second encounter between Natalia's grandfather and the deathless man.
Ann Patchett has this to say, "The Tiger's Wife is a marvel of beauty and imagination. Tea Obreht is a tremendously talented writer."
And T.C. Boyle says, "A novel of surpassing beauty, exquisitely wrought and magical. Tea Obreht is a towering new talent."
Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.
She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.
The readers are Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch.
Hattie Morahan has just appeared in Thea Sharrock's Sheffield Crucible revival of David Hare's play, "Plenty". She is well known to television audiences recently playing Miss Enid in Larkrise to Candleford. Radio 4 audiences will have heard her in several radio dramas including, the Classic Serial, "I, Claudius". Classic Serial.
David Horovitch has just appeared in the West End production of When We Are Married.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b00zshnl)
Michael Rosen looks at the world of words.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zzzlm)
The Health Secretary tells MPs that the Government is listening to concerns about its plans for restructuring the health service in England.
Andrew Lansley vows to "pause, listen and engage with those who want the NHS to succeed". But Labour's John Healey accuses him of "confusion, chaos and incompetence".
Labour condemns the way the Government announces redundancies in the armed forces.
And the pensions minister gives details of a new flat-rate state pension expected to be worth £155 a week.
Rachel Byrne and team report on today's events in Parliament.
TUESDAY 05 APRIL 2011
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b01000yr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zzr1h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01000yt)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01000yw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01000yy)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b01000z0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01000z2)
with Rev. Canon Jenny Wigley.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b01000z4)
With sales of organic food at the lowest they've been since 2005, Farming Today asks if this sounds the death knell for the organic sector. Anna Hill discovers how to reduce the amount of ammonia produced by 3500 pigs, and an agricultural lawyer tells Farming Today that farmers should be treated as special cases in the divorce courts when their assetts are being divided up.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
TUE 06:00 Today (b01000z6)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and Justin Webb:
07:48 Does the recent crackdown in China point to paranoia about a "jasmine revolution"?
08:10 Universities minister David Willetts outlines the aims of the government's Social Mobility Strategy.
08:20 Saif al Islam Gaddafi speaks to the BBC's John Simpson about the defection of Moussa Koussa.
TUE 09:00 Between Ourselves (b01000z8)
Series 6
Episode 1
A fascinating, and very personal, discussion between two people who have Asperger's Syndrome. Presented by Olivia O'Leary.
Frederick Veal is in his late 40s, and was only diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome five years ago. He said the diagnosis made sense of his entire life: of the difficulties, the strange habits, the problems holding down a job. He gives a frank and fascinating description of his early life - an obsession with spinning, sensitivity to noise (he could hear humming coming from electric sockets), head-banging. Since his diagnosis he has been able to learn certain coping techniques which make life more bearable.
Ben Delo found out he had Asperger's at the age of 11, when he bugged his parents' telephone calls. This early diagnosis means he began the process of learning and copying many of the idiosyncratic, nonsensical, but necessary social habits that the rest of the world take for granted; things like shaking hands and making eye-contact.
Asperger's Syndrome is named after the Austrian psychologist who first described it, Dr Hans Asperger. It's at the milder end of the autism spectrum and those with it have difficulty with social interaction, with reading social situations, with communicating.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
TUE 09:30 The Narrowcasters (b010020y)
Episode 5
Religious broadcasting may have dwindled in Britain along with Church attendance. But that's not the case in Italy. In the final edition of The Narrowcasters, the series which looks at the world of specialist TV channels, the BBC's Europe Business Correspondent Nigel Cassidy reports from Rome where he drops in on the Vatican Television Centre. The nerve centre of the Holy See's TV operation is a huge state of the art mobile outside broadcast unit parked just off St Peter's Square. It beams out regular live pictures of Pope Benedict's audiences and activities to adherents and non-believers alike. It even turned in a small profit last year from selling the live pictures to major broadcasters. But it's not the only Catholic TV in town. Nigel Cassidy also discovers TV 2000, an entire TV channel owned by some Italian clergy. It shows documentaries, phone-ins and discussions, which seek to add a moral dimension to the talking points of the day. Some see such channels as an antidote to the brasher side of Italian television, where commercial stations owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are better known for quiz and music shows featuring scantily-clad hostesses. But as Nigel Cassidy reports, it may be that in spite of their mission to evangelise the world, Italy's Catholic broadcasters are largely preaching to the already converted.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b0101kyv)
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Episode 2
Michael Coveney's biography tells the story of Campbell, the great adventurer of British theatre.
Campbell's disastrous experience at the Royal Court Theatre in London shapes the direction of his career. With the Roadshow he takes theatre to the people.
Ken Campbell, who died in September 2008, was one of the great mavericks of British theatre.
Ill-suited to a role in conventional theatre, he created a risk-taking confrontational style of performance, which often explored unlikely subject matter.
He became, in director Mike Leigh's words, "The outsider's outsider"
Bob Hoskins, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent are amongst the performers whose formative years were spent working with Campbell. What did the director and producer bring to performance that made him such a mesmeric figure?
Writer Michael Coveney is a long-standing theatre critic, who has worked for The Financial Times, The Observer and The Daily Mail. Actor Toby Jones played Truman Capote in 'Infamous' and Swifty Lazar in 'Frost/Nixon' and recently reprised the role of Dobby in the film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Toby has also appeared in a production of 'The Warp' by Neil Oram, the 22-hour epic created by Ken Campbell.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b0100212)
With Jane Garvey. New research has shown that far from being muddled, the brains of those aged between 40 and 60 could be in peak condition. The science writer Barbara Strauch talks to Jane about the latest findings on the middle-aged brain. A recent court case has highlighted the lack of clarity in the laws surrounding sex workers operating out of brothels. Jane discusses the implications of the case and whether this might force more women back onto the streets. Ines de la Fressange was recently voted the most stylish woman in Paris. As her guide to Parisian chic is published, she shares her style secrets with Jane. And, the artist Rose Hilton turns 80 this year. As an exhibition of her work opens in London, we visit her Cornish studio.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100214)
The Little Ottleys
Episode 2
Series One (5 episodes)
Episode Two
Aylmer Ross makes quite an impression on both Bruce and Edith at the Mitchell's dinner party.
Ada............ Haydn Gwynne
Bruce..........Bertie Carvel
Edith...........Juliet Aubrey
Aylmer.........Jonathan Firth
Hyacinth.......Alex Tregear
Anne............Jane Whittenshaw
Cecil.............Stuart McLoughlin
Directed by Tracey Neale.
TUE 11:00 The Cuckoo (b0100216)
Professor Nick Davies of Cambridge University presents a fascinating portrait of one of our most tantalising birds and a revelatory insight into the evolution of cheating in one of the Natural World's most successful scandals; the ability of a young cuckoo to dupe its host parents into raising and feeding it.
The Common Cuckoo is an obligate brood parasite, that is, it never raises its own young but relies entirely on other host species to do all the work of nest building, incubation and chick rearing. There are about 9,672 species of birds of which one per cent are obligate brood parasites. In Britain, we have just one, the Common Cuckoo. Individuals parasitise particular species: Meadow Pipit, Dunnock and Reed Warblers are the most common. A female cuckoo doesn't make a nest, instead she watches a suitable area. Then, when she is ready to lay, she selects a nest, swoops down, removes a host egg, lays her own its place and flies off. All this in less than 10 seconds. Up to 25 eggs may be laid in a suitable season and in the case of the Reed Warbler host, the Cuckoo's egg closely resembles the host eggs in both colour and size. Incubation is by the host and the young Cuckoo hatches after 12 days. The blind and naked Cuckoo then instinctively pushes other eggs or young out of the nest. Young cuckoos leave the nest after about 19 days and continue to be fed for a further 3 weeks. By this time, an adult Reed Warbler may have to perch on the back of the Cuckoo to feed it!
Moving between nests in the reed beds of Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, Nick Davies discusses the exciting questions that brood parasites raise about the evolution of cheating and the arms race between parasites and their hosts.
Presenter Professor Nick Davies
Producer Sarah Blunt.
TUE 11:30 The RSC at 50 (b0100218)
The Ensemble
James Naughtie goes backstage as the Royal Shakespeare Company celebrates its 50th birthday and reopens its main theatre in Stratford upon Avon. Part 1.The Ensemble.
The RSC is now so much a feature of the British cultural landscape that it is easy to imagine it has been around ever since Shakespeare wrote his plays. Far from it. In this three-part series, James Naughtie explores how the company first came into being in 1961; the creation of its unique ensemble system; its landmark productions; the opening production in April 2011 in its newly built state-of-the-art auditorium within the historic theatre on the banks of the Avon in Stratford.
This series has enjoyed an exclusive breadth of access to the key players of the last half century. It includes the voices of all five of the artistic directors - Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn, Terry Hands, Adrian Noble and Michael Boyd; luminaries such as Peter Brook, Cicely Berry, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart and David Tennant; not to mention many members of the wider team of artists, technicians and crafts-people who support the actors on stage. James Naughtie explores not only the history of the company but also why the work it does matters to the British cultural scene.
In the first programme, James follows Michael Boyd and company as they prepare the new production - Macbeth - which will formally open the new theatre in April 2011.
Producer: Beaty Rubens.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b0100jtl)
Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker. An opportunity to contribute your views to the programme. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at
10am). What role should the Royals play in modern Britain? Do you believe the Monarch is an indispensible part of the social, political and cultural life of the nation, or would we be a more confident, less class conscious and more progressive nation without them?
TUE 12:57 Weather (b01000zb)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b0100nq8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
TUE 13:30 Loud Organs His Glory (b0103wyx)
Anyone who has watched a BBC Prom or visited St Paul's or Salisbury or Hereford or Truro Cathedral will have seen a "Father Willis" organ.
Discover the story of the man who through a blend of engineering ability, musical ambition and massive self-confidence became the dominant organ builder of the Victorian era. It was an era in which huge organs were suddenly required in both cathedrals and the new town halls appearing all over the country.
Simon Townley tells the story of 'Father' Henry Willis from his relatively humble beginnings as the son of a London builder to the heights of Victorian society. By winning a competition at the Great Exhibition in 1851, Willis set himself on a road which was to lead to the building of over a thousand organs. Many are still working today, even if they've been altered over the years. What makes the Willis organs special, and makes organists today acknowledge their greatness in hushed tones, is the subject of this programme.
Simon visits the current Willis factory in Liverpool where new organs are still built and old Willis machines are revitalised.
He plays the organ in Winchester Cathedral, the organ that won the Great Exhibition competition and was squeezed into the cathedral by the then organist SS Wesley, and he finds out more about the man whose love of yachting was matched only by his belief that anything was possible when it came to the building of organs. If that meant splitting an organ in two, putting the two parts on either side of a cathedral transept and linking the whole lot through a system of subterranean pipes then that's what he would do... and he did, in the case of St Paul's Cathedral.
But essentially the Father Willis story is about the details that earned his reputation. The reed technology that no one at the time could match, the use of new steam-generated wind and the design of organ consoles that gave organists like Willis himself a control that they'd never enjoyed before.
It's a story of the king of instruments built at a time of supreme national self-confidence by a man who embodied the spirit of the age and gave it voice.
Producer: Tom Alban
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00zzz22)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b0100230)
Deja-Vu
By Alexis Zegerman
When a young English woman and a French man meet in Paris it is language that stands between them. But when he gets stopped and searched in London, the seed of a much larger difference is sown. This bi-lingual play in French and English is a co-production between BBC Radio Drama and Arte Radio, a division of Arte France.
Claire...Caroline Catz
Ahmed...Karim Saleh
French Policeman...Richard Sanda
French Policeman...Hovnatan Avedikian
British Policeman...Chris Pavlo
Translator...Helen Longworth
Directed by Lu Kemp and Christophe Rault
Produced by Jeremy Mortimer.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b0100232)
Helen Castor and the team explore recent historical research and follow up listener's questions and comments.
Today: a listener's research into his grandfather's involvement in the Boer War reveals an incident which he had referred to as 'genocide' and caused him much distress throughout his life. Helen castor talks to Professor Franjohan Pretorious and Professor Denis Judd to find out whether such a term can be used.
Tom Holland visits Larkhill on Salisbury Plain to see the site of a former airfield and aviation test centre which was home to Britain's early military flyers.
How did our ancestors react to natural disasters? Helen castor talks to professor Frank Furedi at the University of Kent and professor John Dickie at University College London.
In Cumbria, Caz Graham meets up with drainage historians Ted and Stella Davies to find out more about the Johnby Tilery near Penrith and speaks to historian Tony Philips at the University of Keele about the impact of agricultural drainage in the nineteenth century.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b010023q)
Backwards and in High Heels
Fascinating Marion
Stories of women quietly outperforming the men in their lives. Commissioned to mark 100 years since the birth of Ginger Rogers, who famously did everything that Fred Astaire did - only backwards and in high heels.
'Fascinating Marion' by Joan Smith. Teenager Stella is horrified when her practical mother invests in an outlandish hat. Read by Melody Grove.
Journalist, critic and novelist Joan Smith is the author of the 'Loretta Lawson' detective novels and writes a regular column for The Independent.
TUE 15:45 America, Empire of Liberty (b00gqxt2)
The Killers Take Command
David Reynolds tells the story of the American Civil War which began 150 years ago this month. In ten episodes he explores the origins and legacy of the war. In this episode, we meet the men on both sides of the battle lines: Robert E Lee and Ulysses S Grant.
Episode 2 - The Killers Take Command
This was originallly broadcast as part of the 90 part series, America: Empire of Liberty
This episode was previously broadcast on 20 January, 2009.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b010023v)
Michael Rosen explores the complex relationship between language and sport, and asks "If sport is so unpredictable, why is it that sports punditry is so predictably cliche-ridden?"
Michael talks to commentators, athletes, and athletes-turned-commentators to see if the arrival of the Olympics on British soil is likely to herald a new era of hyperbole and inarticulate over-excitement.
Producer: John Byrne.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b010023x)
Series 24
Thomas Edison
Matthew Parris presents the biographical series in which his guests choose someone who has inspired their lives. Here, Sir Clive Sinclair nominates fellow inventor Thomas Edison. Edison invented sound recording, the electric light bulb and moving pictures, but also had his fair share of duds along the way. Sir Clive invented the first electronic calculator but also the ill-fated C5 electric car. Separated by a century, do the two men have anything in common? Joining the discussion is Edison's biographer Neil Baldwin.
TUE 17:00 PM (b010023z)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01000zd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Down the Line (b0100241)
Series 4
Episode 4
The return of the ground-breaking, Radio 4 show, hosted by the legendary Gary Bellamy; brought to you by the creators of The Fast Show.
Down The Line stars Rhys Thomas as Gary Bellamy, with Amelia Bullmore, Simon Day, Felix Dexter, Charlie Higson, Lucy Montgomery, and Paul Whitehouse.
Special guests are Rosie Cavaliero, Robert Popper, Adil Ray and Louis Vause.
Producers: Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse
A Down The Line production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b010025q)
Pat wishes Kathy had told her about Kenton and Jolene. Kathy explains that she felt humiliated, and didn't want to upset Pat and Tony when they were so happy with Henry. She tells Pat about the row, and thinks that maybe Jamie is right - she's a bad mother. Pat rubbishes this suggestion, saying that Jamie will soon upset Jolene too. Kathy worries that Jamie's throwing his life away.
Lynda and Neil discuss the nominations for the parish council. So far there's Jill, Lynda, Neil, Audrey, Oliver and possibly Lilian.
A meeting is held to discuss the arrangements for Gardeners' Question Time. Christine proves to be very helpful and efficient, especially when it comes to booking the hall. The committee discuss potential material for the chairman's introduction about the local area, of which there is plenty.
After Neil and Lynda depart, Jim asks Christine whether Lower Loxley could be an example of a local horticultural project for the programme to feature. They agree the timing is wrong. Jim also mentions that the producers think Lynda would be good value. He's given them her number, and explained about her low-allergen garden and her interest in feng shui. They can make of it what they will.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b0100nbk)
Bob Marley photos, and war documentary Armadillo
In the mid '70s, Kim Gottlieb-Walker photographed Jamaican artists Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear and Lee "Scratch" Perry, introducing the image of reggae to fans worldwide in newspapers and on album covers. DJ David Rodigan joins Kim Gottlieb-Walker to re-live the moment as captured in her book and exhibition, Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae.
Following hot on the heels of the Oscar-nominated Restrepo, a new award-winning documentary about soldiers facing the Taliban in Afghanistan is released this week. Armadillo follows a group of young Danish troops as they cope with the reality of the front line in Helmand Province. Sarah Dunant reviews the latest documentary in which the film-makers put themselves in the line of fire.
Simon Winchester discusses his new book The Alice Behind Wonderland, which focuses on Lewis Carroll's photograph of Alice Liddell dressed as The Beggar Maid, and uses this striking image as a prism to explore Carroll's fascination with photography and his relationship with the girl who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.
In the new US drama series Rubicon, an intelligence analyst discovers that he might be working with members of a secret society that manipulates world events on a grand scale. Following an unexpected death he finds himself in a web of mystery and danger. Jonathan Freedland, who writes thrillers under the name Sam Bourne, reviews.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100214)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b010025s)
Air Crashes
The investigation following an air disaster is supposed to make air travel safer. But do the reports always get to the truth about why planes crash? Emma Jane Kirby examines claims that international air accident investigations are often slow, incompetent and influenced by political sensitivities. So how does this affect the victims' families as they fight manufacturers and airlines for compensation? And could the blame game be preventing lessons being learned that could prevent future accidents?
Producer Jenny Chryss.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b010025v)
How accessible are social networks for blind people?
How welcoming are social networks for blind and partially sighted people? We look at ways they can widen your horizons and pitfalls you should be aware of, and we'll be quizzing the Access Officer of one of the world's biggest technology companies and asking him if Microsoft could be doing more to make their equipment blind-friendly.
TUE 21:00 Blood For Blood (b00qx456)
What lies behind the reluctance of black and Asian people in Britain to act as blood and organ donors? Statistically, they are far less likely to come forward as donors than their white compatriots. The oft repeated suggestion is that there is a greater fear and suspicion of the medical profession by these groups. But is that really the case? Might the answers be cultural, religious or stem from a lack of awareness?
The problem is made even more stark by figures which show that black and Asian people comprise a quarter of the people on the waiting list for kidney transplants for example, far in excess of their percentage of the population.
In Blood for Blood, Beverley De-Gale examines the imbalance between donors and recipients in the black and Asian populations.
Beverley De-Gale's son, Daniel, was in need of a bone marrow transplant and held out hope for several years before finding a donor but sadly died from non-related complications in 2008. But the years of anxious waiting on a list exposed a truth: the pool of black donors was virtually dry.
In the wake of the death of her son, Beverley De-Gale asks just what is behind the conundrum of Britain's black and Asian population's disinclination to volunteer as blood and organ donors.
TUE 21:30 Between Ourselves (b01000z8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b01000zg)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b0100q0m)
In Ivory Coast, Gbagbo requests a ceasefire - but will the violence end?
The second of our special reports on the 'squeezed middle' family finances.
And can any policy really tackle social mobility?
With Ritula Shah.
TUE 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b0100261)
Episode 7
Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always, provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, Natalia returns to the stories of her grandfather's childhood, and the truth about the failed hunt for the tiger emerges.
Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.
She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.
The reader is Hattie Morahan.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.
TUE 23:00 Laura Solon - Talking and Not Talking (b00p2z8j)
Series 3
Episode 3
Laura Solon presents her third series of sketches, monologues and one-liners.
This week we meet a woman who is so completely useless that she's just been snapped up for a job in the government; Britain's most affable secret agent and someone with a pretend hedgehog sanctuary.
Also featuring Rosie Cavaliero, Ben Moor and Ben Willbond.
Producer: Colin Anderson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2009.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b0100263)
Sean Curran reports on the day's news from Westminster, including questions to the Deputy Prime Minister and a statement on social mobility. On committee corridor, the director of public prosecutions answers questions on allegations of phone hacking, and outgoing NUS President Aaron Porter gives his views on tuition fees.
WEDNESDAY 06 APRIL 2011
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b010026c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b0101kyv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b010026f)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b010026h)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b010026k)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b010026m)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01002xm)
with Rev. Canon Jenny Wigley.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b01002xp)
Anna Hill talks to a Dartmoor farmer about his strategy to stop sheep rustlers: dyeing his animals bright orange. This week farming organisations have launched their plan to cut the carbon footprint of growing food by three million tonnes annually, by 2020. About 75% of the carbon footprint of a packet of crisps is generated by growing and storing the potatoes, and Anna finds out how potato producers are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And, new guidelines to protect visitors to open farms and agricultural shows have been issued by the Health and Safety executive in response to the 2009 E Coli outbreak.
WED 06:00 Today (b01002xr)
Including Sports Desk at
6.25am,
7.25am,
8.25am; Weather
6.05am,
6.57am,
7.57am; Yesterday in Parliament
6.45am; Thought for the Day
7.48am.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b01002xt)
This week Libby Purves is joined by Joshua Foer, Marianne Talbot, Tom Renouf and Lydia Carmichael.
Joshua Foer's book 'Moonwalking with Einstein' tells of his year spent investigating memory, in which he talks to experts around the world including neuroscientists, chess masters and 'memory historians'. He also undertakes training under a Memory Grand Master, and finds himself in the finals of the US Memory Championship, among competitors who can recite pi to ten thousand decimal places. 'Moonwalking with Einstein is published by Allen Lane.
Marianne Talbot is Director of Studies in Philosophy at the University of Oxford's Department of Continuing Education. Her book 'Keeping Mum' tells of her personal journey, looking and caring for her own mother who suffered from dementia. 'Keeping Mum: Caring with someone with dementia' is published by Hay House.
Dr Tom Renouf served in the legendary Black Watch during the Second World War. In his book, 'Black Watch', he tells the story of the 51st Highland Division and how, as a raw recruit he and his teenage comrades fought in the Battle for Normandy against the fanatical 12th Hitler Youth SS Division, going on to liberate Holland. They were the first to cross the Rhine, with his division capturing the world's most wanted man, Heinrich Himmler. 'Black Watch' is published by Little Brown.
Lydia Carmichael is a former pupil of the Foundling Hospital in Berkhamsted, whose experiences of being brought up in care there are featured in a major new exhibition at London's Foundling Museum. The exhibition 'Foundling Voices' features the experiences of seventy-four former foundlings whose memories of their childhoods in the first half of the 20th century are graphically preserved in audio interviews, photographs and film.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b0100x2s)
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Episode 3
Michael Coveney's biography tells the story of Campbell, the great adventurer of British theatre.
Campbell's Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool presents his first epic, the nine-hour drama 'Illuminatus'.
Ken Campbell, who died in September 2008, was one of the great mavericks of British theatre.
Ill-suited to a role in conventional theatre, he created a risk-taking confrontational style of performance, which often explored unlikely subject matter.
He became, in director Mike Leigh's words, "The outsider's outsider"
Bob Hoskins, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent are amongst the performers whose formative years were spent working with Campbell. What did the director and producer bring to performance that made him such a mesmeric figure?
Writer Michael Coveney is a long-standing theatre critic, who has worked for The Financial Times, The Observer and The Daily Mail. Actor Toby Jones played Truman Capote in 'Infamous' and Swifty Lazar in 'Frost/Nixon' and recently reprised the role of Dobby in the film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Toby has also appeared in a production of 'The Warp' by Neil Oram, the 22-hour epic created by Ken Campbell.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01002xw)
Jane Garvey presents. She might not have won X-Factor but former supermarket cashier Mary Byrne has beaten Britney Spears and Radiohead with her album "Mine and Yours" to be the highest new entry in this week's chart with her very first album release. Comments by David Willetts, Universities Minister, in connection with the launch of the government's social mobility strategy, that feminism was the single biggest factor that has caused a lack of social mobility in the last four decades. Why do we still struggle to teach our children the facts of life?
And travel writer Sara Wheeler.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01002xy)
The Little Ottleys
Episode 3
Series One (5 episodes)
Episode Three
Aylmer has fallen madly in love with Edith and she with him but they are resigned to being apart
Ada..............Haydn Gwynne
Bruce............Bertie Carvel
Edith.............Juliet Aubrey
Aylmer..........Jonathan Firth
Anne.............Jane Whittenshaw
Hyacinth........Alex Tregear
Cecil..............Stuart McLoughlin
Directed by Tracey Neale.
WED 11:00 Esler on Eichmann (b010026p)
Adolf Eichmann was responsible for sending millions of people to the Nazi death camps during World War Two. After the end of the war he escaped to Argentina, but in 1960 he was snatched by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service and brought to Jerusalem to stand trial.
In this programme the award-winning journalist Gavin Esler travels to Israel to meet those involved in Eichmann's dramatic and controversial capture and trial.
The kidnapping violated Argentina's sovereignty and was condemned by the UN. Questions were raised about whether it was appropriate to try Eichmann in Israel, and international Jewish leaders feared an anti-Semitic backlash.
David Ben-Gurion, Israel's Prime Minister, insisted that the Jewish state was the only heir of the six million murdered and that the trial would fulfil a historic duty. In the event it forced the young country to confront its history in a way that had profound consequences.
Gavin meets Rafi Eitan, who lead the Mossad team and who recalls his acute sense of being involved in something momentous. Gabriel Bach, the deputy prosecutor, explains that Eichmann's defence 'he was only following orders' was laughable. In fact he disobeyed orders to carry out his extermination ambitions. Michael Goldman Gilad, who survived Auschwitz, became a policeman and witnessed Eichmann's execution.
He remembers being forced to spread ash from the Birkenau crematorium onto the icy ground so SS officers wouldn't slip. Only when he saw the tiny pile of ash after Eichmann's cremation did he realise how many bodies must have made up the ash mound in the camp.
Producer: Kate Taylor
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 11:30 Beauty of Britain (b0100gqp)
Series 2
Citroen UXB
No professional care-worker can afford to miss Beauty Olonga's survival guide to Britain – with overheated houses, disappointing church services and world-class charity shops.
Series 2 sees Beauty sent by the Featherdown Agency to provide care for those who need it - and some who don't, but all of whom have relatives with guilty consciences.
Beauty sees herself as an inspiration to other African girls hoping to live the dream in Britain – a land of opportunities. The professional classes are off sick through binge drinking and the rest too lazy to get off the couch to answer the pizza delivery man.
The series breaks the embarrassed silence about what happens to us when we get old and start to lose our faculties. It’s a chaotic, tragi-comedy, from Beauty’s point of view, whose Zimbabwean Shona background has taught her to respect age.
Beauty is sent to look after Sarah, who lives with both her mother and daughter. A perfect, happy modern family, like the kind Beauty has seen in feel-good British movies. With her own family being very demanding, it is understandable when Beauty begins to get too close.
Written by Christopher Douglas and Nicola Sanderson
Beauty... Jocelyn Jee Esien
Joyce ... Julia McKenzie
Sarah ... Jenny Agutter
Lucy ... Catherine Shepherd
Sally ... Felicity Montagu
Karen ... Nicola Sanderson
Music by The West End Gospel Choir.
Producer : Tilusha Ghelani
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b0100gqr)
Winifred Robinson talks to author Michael Mandelstam about his new book which accuses politicians and managers of adopting a completely wrong-headed approach to the NHS. It claims that the elderly are the greatest casualties of a misguided determination to see patients as consumers and the NHS as a business, rather than a caring service.
Tries to find out how you can save money on your Council Tax bills - and asks will a new online service aimed at people in fuel poverty really help them get better deals from their energy providers.
WED 12:57 Weather (b010026r)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b0100tk3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
WED 13:30 The Media Show (b0100gqt)
At last night's British Press Awards, the News of the World and the Guardian were both up for Scoop of the Year - the Guardian, for its stories about phone hacking at the News of the World. It came on the day when two News of the World journalists were arrested as part of the Met Police inquiry into phone hacking. Steve Hewlett went along to the awards discuss the developments with some of the award nominees and with Bob Satchwell of the Society of Editors, which runs the awards.
This week Ofcom published its finding on Frankie Boyle's joke about Katie Price's son Harvey, broadcast last year on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights. Ofcom found that Channel 4 had made an "erroneous decision on a matter of editorial judgement" but that there was no failure in its compliance process and imposed no sanction. Katie Price's lawyer, Mark Bateman, explains why she is still calling for an apology.
And Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, looks at the challenges facing the BBC in his final few weeks in office, ahead of the appointment of his replacement Lord Patten.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b010025q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b0100gqw)
Early Belt and the Present
Murder mystery set in India in 1709. A young servant, Early Belt, accompanies a group of superstitious English merchants as they transport a vast wagon train of goods to Delhi. The wagon train - known as The Present - is an incentive for the Indian Emperor to grant free trade throughout the land. As the convoy crawls across India a merchant is found murdered. Stories quickly spread of a sorceress locked inside an enchanted cabinet somewhere within the convoy. When a second merchant is killed the rumours turn to hysteria. It falls to Early Belt to solve the mystery.
Written by Richard Pitt with additional material by Bert Coules.
Early Belt.....JAMES ANTHONY PEARSON
John Surman.............DAVID HAYMAN
Dr Hamilton..........JOHN SHEDDEN
Prof Peters ..............RALPH RIACH
Merchant 1 ...........KENNY BLYTH
Merchant 2...........BRIAN PETTIFER
Merchant 3.........MARK MCDONNELL
Emperor .............UMAR AHMED
Beda Belt...........LUCY PATERSON
Producer/Director: Bruce Young.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b0100gqy)
Paul Lewis and a team of advisors will be here to answer your questions about welfare benefits on Wednesday's Money Box Live.
The rules are changing for a number of benefits this month, including Local Housing Allowance, Tax Credits and tests for Employment and Support Allowance.
And in the longer term, the Welfare Reform Bill could transform much of our benefits system.
If you have a question about how you'll be affected, or any other benefit question, Paul Lewis and guests will be ready to help.
Phone lines open at
1.30pm on Wednesday afternoon and the number to call is 03700 100 444. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher. The programme starts after the three o'clock news.
WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b0100gr0)
Backwards and in High Heels
Dressing Natalie
Stories of women quietly outperforming the men in their lives. Commissioned to mark 100 years since the birth of Ginger Rogers, who famously did everything that Fred Astaire did - only backwards and in high heels.
'Dressing Natalie' by Hannah McGill. A woman puts pen to paper and writes to her bank manager after an unforeseen spending spree. Read by Barbara Rafferty.
Writer and critic Hannah McGill is a former Artistic Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
WED 15:45 America, Empire of Liberty (b00gqxt4)
Forever Free
David Reynolds tells the story of the American Civil War which began 150 years ago this month. In ten episodes he explores the origins and legacy of the war. In this episode, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves.
Episode 3: Forever Free
Previously broadcast on 21 January, 2009, as part of David Reynolds 90 part series, America, Empire of Liberty.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b0100gr4)
Streetlife - Performing politics in the square
In 1905 Russians gathered at 6 different points to march on the Winter Palace and the streetscape of St Petersburg contributed enormously to their success. The Russian poor were cheek by jowl with the rich and this inflamed a class consciousness which - despite industrialisation - the poor suburbs of Europe did much to dissapate. How does urban geography effect the way societies develop? What have streets given to politics? As street protests continue to challenge authority across the Middle East and violence characterises the marches in our own capital, Laurie is joined by Leif Jerram and John Clarke from the Open University to discuss the role the street in the history of politics. Also on the programme Jeffrey Alexander discusses how the revolution was 'performed' for Egypt and for the rest of the world from Cairo's central square. That compelling drama provided a powerful symbol which was enough to bring down the government.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
WED 16:30 Super Recognisers (b00q3fbv)
What if you could never forget a face? A group of people newly discovered to science have been dubbed 'Super Recognisers'. They have an extraordinary ability to recognise faces of everyone they meet, now matter how fleeting the encounter or how long ago. At the other extreme, imagine looking in the mirror and not recognising who was staring back at you. Or not knowing which is your own child at the school gates. People with prosopagnosia or face blindness have those kinds of experiences every day.
Claudia Hammond explores the science of face recognition. She uncovers the extremes of a skill that is fundamental to social interaction and yet science is only just beginning to understand. She talks to neuroscientists have done some of the first FMRi brain scans to find out more about how our brains register faces.
As many as 1 in 50 people are prosopagnosic but many won't know they have a problem. What are the implications for border control, policing and eye witness evidence? Also everyone struggles to recognise faces of people they don't know but what are the consequences for criminal justice?
WED 17:00 PM (b0100vjb)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b010026t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Act Your Age (b0100gr6)
Series 3
Episode 3
Simon Mayo hosts the three-way battle between the comedy generations to find out which is the funniest.
Will it be the Up-and-Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard who will be crowned, for one week at least, as the Golden Age of Comedy?
Holly Walsh is joined by Sean Walsh, Lucy Porter teams up with Hal Cruttenden and Tom O'Connor is paired with Dave Spikey.
Devised and produced by Ashley Blaker and Bill Matthews.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b0100gr8)
Kenton asks about Jamie. Jolene explains that she never knows where he is and that she's wondering if she did the wrong thing by letting him stay. Kenton offers to talk to him, but Jolene thinks that's a bad idea.
Jolene talks to Jamie herself. Jamie's evasive about what he's been up to at school and in the evenings, but is worried that Jolene will kick him out. He's relieved when she just makes him promise to come home for tea every day.
Emma calls Ed to tell him that she's going into labour, and he rushes home. Emma can't get hold of Clarrie, so Ed asks Nic to look after George. Emma isn't happy but has no choice.
The birth is going well but Ed is more worried than Emma. The midwife suggests he tells them about his day to distract them all, which he does - at length.
Ed's really proud as Emma gives birth to a girl. He wonders how they made something so beautiful. They agree it's the best day of their lives.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b0100grb)
Stefanie Powers interview; Murray Gold on Kafka
Stefanie Powers, perhaps best known as Jennifer Hart, one half of the TV sleuthing team in the long-running series Hart to Hart, reflects on her career on film and in television drama.
Doctor Who composer and playwright Murray Gold has created Kafka The Musical, a new Radio 3 production starring David Tennant. Gold's music also features in the National Theatre's new production of Rocket to the Moon starring Keeley Hawes. He discusses why he was inspired by Kafka.
Travelling on the M62 motorway, it's possible to catch a glimpse of Catalan artist Jaume Plensa's most recent commission in this country - The Dream, a 20 metre high sculpture of a young woman's head. Plensa, whose work is now on show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, talks to Mark Lawson about how his love of language has inspired his art.
Producer Philippa Ritchie.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01002xy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Unreliable Evidence (b0100grd)
Tax
Clive Anderson and guests analyse the legal issues of the day.
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b0100grg)
Well known figures reflect on elements of conflict found in the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from the perspective of their own personal and professional experience.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b0100grj)
Fields Paved with Gold
Birmingham City Council is already fitting solar to 10,000 homes and farmers with more than 35 acres had hoped to earn as much as £50,000 a year harvesting solar energy. But, the government now seems to be backtracking on its promise of large subsidies. Spain's solar industry recently crumbled due to the false economics of government funding and they have a lot more sunshine than the UK. Germany too, which has the world's largest market for solar, has recently had to dramatically decrease promised feed in tariffs in order to prevent an unsustainable bubble.
Detractors of solar argue that even if we covered the country in panels we would only produce the energy of a handful of power plants. Nevertheless the limited FIT offer is heralding a 'goldrush' in parts of the South West who hope to revive the local economy. Once the offer ends the industry must be able to sustain itself but in the UK is the latest renewable hot ticket worth the gamble? Even in sunny Cornwall five figure planning application fees have put off many investors and new uncertainty over feed in tariffs has stalled planned projects.
There are those who believe covering the roofs of some of our most loved National Trust Institutions like Dunster Castle with panels will be an expensive mistake. Others believe that any government or public body influence will only falsely inflate and then ultimately suppress the real value of solar.
As ever the industry relies on growing take up making technology cheaper and increased funding for research increasing efficiency even in Britain's darkest parts.
Low cost organic solar cells being developed at Cambridge University could be the answer but can we afford to wait for them to come online.
WED 21:30 Midweek (b01002xt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b010026w)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b0100vmd)
Portugal's Prime Minister says a bail-out from the EU is inevitable. Will it kill or cure its economy?
Is the detention of artist Ai Weiwei part of a wider crackdown on dissent in China?
Why NATO needs a new tactic to deal with Gaddafi's forces in Misurata.
with Ritula Shah.
WED 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b0100grn)
Episode 8
Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, a bid to save the tiger's wife has an unwanted outcome.
Ann Patchett has this to say, "The Tiger's Wife is a marvel of beauty and imagination. Tea Obreht is a tremendously talented writer."
And T.C. Boyle says, "A novel of surpassing beauty, exquisitely wrought and magical. Tea Obreht is a towering new talent."
Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.
She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.
The reader is Hattie Morahan who has just appeared in Thea Sharrock's Sheffield Crucible revival of David Hare's play, "Plenty". She is well known to television audiences recently playing Miss Enid in Larkrise to Candleford. Radio 4 audiences will have heard her in several radio dramas including, the Classic Serial, "I, Claudius". Classic Serial.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.
WED 23:00 Living with Mother (b0100grq)
Series 1
Spilt Milk
Michael has never had a girlfriend and his mum Susan decides it's time for him to buck his ideas up and get a woman. She wants him out of the house for both their sakes, he's 41 after all!
But Michael is a lazy dreamer. No woman in her right mind would want him. Still, Susan has a plan. Her friend's got a single niece and if needs be, Susan will drag Michael over there. Perhaps the niece will take pity on him. But maybe Michael has plans of his own...
Cast:
Susan: Alison Steadman
Michael: Alexander Kirk
Producer: Anna Madley
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:15 Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard (b00q3ld2)
Series 1
Quest
Written by David Kay and Gavin Smith, Mordrin McDonald is a 2000 year old Wizard living in the modern world where regular bin collections and watching Countdown are just as important as slaying the odd Dragon.
In this episode Mordrin is summoned by the wizard council to deal with an out of control Jakonty Dragon which is on a path of destruction and is set to wipe out the tiny town of Aviemore, but who can he recruit to help him?
Featuring and written by Scottish stand up David Kay and starring Gordon Kennedy and Jack Docherty, Mordrin McDonald mixes the magical with the mundane and offers a hilarious take on the life of a modern day Wizard.
Cast:
Mordrin: David Kay
Geoff: Gordon Kennedy
Heather: Cora Bissett
Bernard The Blue: Jack Doherty
Tracy: Rosemary Hollands
Jill: Sally Reid
Producer/Director: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b0100grs)
Rachel Byrne reports on the day's top news stories from Westminster.
THURSDAY 07 APRIL 2011
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b0100jpg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b0100x2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0100jpj)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0100jpl)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0100jpn)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b0100jpq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b0100jps)
with Rev. Canon Jenny Wigley.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b0100jpv)
Claims that insecticides aren't to blame for a decline in the number of honeybees according to a top scientist from the US Department of Agriculture. Farmers and growers say that there maybe a shortage of fruit pickers next summer as a government scheme to encourage workers from Bulgaria and Romania comes to an end and how reducing tillage can cut down the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
Presenter: Charlotte Smith, Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts.
THU 06:00 Today (b0100jpx)
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis, including:
07:50 The father of a Catholic policeman in Northern Ireland speaks to Justin Webb.
08:10 What next for Portugal after asking the EU for financial assistance?
08:40 The teachers going on strike over bad behaviour.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b0100jpz)
Octavia Hill
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian social reformer Octavia Hill.From the 1850s until her death in 1912, Octavia Hill was an energetic campaigner who did much to improve the lot of impoverished city dwellers. She was a pioneer of social housing who believed that there were better and more humane ways of arranging accommodation for the poor than through the state. Aided at first by her friend John Ruskin, the essayist and art critic, she bought houses and let them to the urban dispossessed. Octavia Hill provided an early model of social work, did much to preserve urban open spaces, and was the first to use the term 'green belt' to describe the rural areas around London. She was also one of the founders of the National Trust. Yet her vision of social reform, involving volunteers and private enterprise rather than central government, was often at odds with that of her contemporaries.With:Dinah BirchProfessor of English Literature and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at Liverpool UniversityLawrence GoldmanFellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, OxfordGillian DarleyHistorian and biographer of Octavia HillProducer: Thomas Morris.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b0100x2v)
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Episode 4
Michael Coveney's biography tells the story of Campbell, the great adventurer of British theatre.
By Michael Coveney. In his production of 'The Warp', Campbell made arduous demands on his cast. For actor Russell Denton it was a life-changing experience.
Ken Campbell, who died in September 2008, was one of the great mavericks of British theatre.
Ill-suited to a role in conventional theatre, he created a risk-taking confrontational style of performance, which often explored unlikely subject matter.
He became, in director Mike Leigh's words, "The outsider's outsider"
Bob Hoskins, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent are amongst the performers whose formative years were spent working with Campbell. What did the director and producer bring to performance that made him such a mesmeric figure?
Writer Michael Coveney is a long-standing theatre critic, who has worked for The Financial Times, The Observer and The Daily Mail. Actor Toby Jones played Truman Capote in 'Infamous' and Swifty Lazar in 'Frost/Nixon' and recently reprised the role of Dobby in the film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Toby has also appeared in a production of 'The Warp' by Neil Oram, the 22-hour epic created by Ken Campbell.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b0100jq1)
Jane Garvey presents. Why mothers in Germany who work could find themselves tagged as Raven Mothers. We discuss whether the label Rabenmutter - referring to those with small children who choose to work - can hold women back. Afghan politician and women's champion Fawzia Koofi talks about surviving death threats as well as assassination attempts and about why she's decided to run for the country's presidency in 2014. South Korean composer Unsuk Chin discusses her international career which began when she taught herself to play the piano. Human rights activist Rebecca Hamilton joins Jane to talk about global campaigning and how it led to the world's attention being drawn to the plight of Sudanese people in Darfur.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100jq3)
The Little Ottleys
Episode 4
Series One (5 episodes)
Episode Four
Edith is missing Aylmer terribly and she has written asking him to return but will he.....?
Ada...........Haydn Gwynne
Aylmer......Jonathan Firth
Bruce..........Bertie Carvel
Edith...........Juliet Aubrey
Mavis.........Deeivya Meir
Cecil..........Stuart McLoughlin
Eugenia......Joanna Monro
Anne...........Jane Whittenshaw
Hyacinth......Alex Tregear
Directed by Tracey Neale.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b0100jq5)
Ecuador
The Ecuadorian Amazon region is one of the most bio-diverse on the planet. In one area, nearly 600 bird species, 80 kinds of bat and 150 varieties of amphibian have been recorded. And it's possible that the density of one of the rarest wild cats, the jaguar, is twice as high as anywhere else in the world. This is also home to two of the last uncontacted groups of indigenous people in the world, who choose to live undisturbed in voluntary isolation.
But beneath the rich tropical soil lies another treasure - nearly a billion barrels of untapped oil, 20% of this Latin American nation's reserves. Ecuador has calculated that if it were to exploit this petroleum, it would make over $7 billion. That is a significant sum of money for a relatively poor nation. But instead, the government has a radical plan: if the international community will compensate Ecuador for half of the loss of revenue, the government will pledge to protect this unique environment and keep the drillers out. With the funds raised, Ecuador will invest in social projects and non-carbon forms of energy, and aims to create a global template for other poor equatorial countries with oil.
This is what's known as Plan A in Ecuador, and President Correa has set a deadline of the end of 2011 to collect the first US $100 million. If donors don't materialise, he has always said he will implement Plan B - to begin the process of extracting crude from this particular oil block, known as Yasuni-ITT.
For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly travels deep into the rainforest to find out what is at stake. She visits a community of Haorani indigenous people who have a history of resisting - often violently - the encroachment of oil companies in the Amazon. And with the recent court judgement against the US oil giant Chevron - who took over Texaco - and a resulting hefty fine of over US$8 billion for pollution, she traces the often dirty history of oil exploitation in Ecuador.
But how realistic is the Yasuni-ITT initiative? Ecuador's economy is dependent on oil exports. Technology too has moved on, and an oil investor and analyst tells Crossing Continents that not only has the industry learnt some lessons, but also that it is now possible to extract oil from the pristine forest with minimal damage to the ecosystems.
So far it seems the Ecuadorean people support Plan A. But although international donors have shown moral backing for the government's idea to save the rainforest, this hasn't been matched by contributions to the fund. And with less than half the $100 million pledged, the clock is ticking for one of the world's most unique and precious habitats.
Producer: Emil Petrie.
THU 11:30 My Nights with Emma B (b0100jtj)
Three years ago, British novelist Adam Thorpe undertook one of the most daunting tasks in literature - to produce an elegant, accurate and atmospheric translation into English of one of the world's greatest books, Gustave Flaubert's story of the devious and beautiful Emma and her life in and around provincial Rouen, Madame Bovary.
Recorded as Adam wrestled with the intricacies of 19th century French, with the highly polished word-perfect prose of Flaubert's original and with the practical reality of making an English version that was fluently and stylishly readable as well as pin-point accurate, this documentary is also a secret life of the novelist at work.
Because, like Thorpe himself, Flaubert was a perfectionist. He's known for his agonising over the fine-grain of his writing, taking a full five years to complete the novel. Long nights could easily elongate into a full week before a single page emerged. And yet Madame Bovary remains one of the great landmarks of storytelling - much filmed and serialised, the tale of the sexy provincial girl with metropolitan tastes and ambitions in 19th century Normandy scandalised as well as thrilled: Emma Bovary's passionate carriage ride through the streets of Rouen is one of the most famous and erotic scenes in literature that contributed to the immorality charge that landed Flaubert in court.
But how to come to terms with all this when even exclamation marks mean different things in English and French? Living himself in the depths of the French countryside, Adam Thorpe reveals the pleasures and the pain of turning Flaubert into enjoyably readable English - but should it be 19th or 21st century English...?
Producer: Simon Elmes.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b010021b)
Winifred Robinson investigates how copper might be used in the fight against superbugs like MRSA. We hear how Blackpool is readying itself for the summer season. Will millions of pounds of investment pay off? Our reporter Carolyn Atkinson shadows the crisis team at the Maudsley Hospital. And we report on the rise of artisan chocolate-makers in the UK.
THU 12:57 Weather (b0100jq7)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b0100vx6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.
THU 13:30 Costing the Earth (b0100grj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:00 The Archers (b0100gr8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b009n44f)
Series 1
Distant Cold Light
by Nick Warburton. Trevor Peacock stars as ancient, earthy, inspired chef Warwick Hedges, in a four part series set in an idiosyncratic restaurant in the Cambridgeshire Fens.
Part 1: Distant Cold Light. A mysterious young man brings his mother for a special meal.
Warwick Hedges.....Trevor Peacock
Jack Hedges.....Sam Dale
David.....Chris Pavlo
Fay.....Liza Sadovy
Marcia.....Kate Buffery
Imogen.....Liz Sutherland
Zofia.....Helen Longworth
Samuel.....John Rowe
Director Claire Grove.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b00zxn8g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:07 on Saturday]
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zzn23)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b0100lg3)
Backwards and in High Heels
Sharing the Joke
Stories of women quietly outperforming the men in their lives. Commissioned to mark 100 years since the birth of Ginger Rogers, who famously did everything that Fred Astaire did - only backwards and in high heels.
'Sharing the Joke' by Reginald Hill. A chief constable remembers her big break as she looks back over her career at her retirement dinner. Read by Wendy Seager.
Acclaimed novelist and CWA Diamond Dagger winner Reginald Hill is the author of series including the 'Dalziel and Pascoe' novels.
THU 15:45 America, Empire of Liberty (b00gqxt6)
A New Nation
David Reynolds tells the story of the American Civil War which began 150 years ago this month. In ten episodes he explores the origins and legacy of the war. The Battle of Gettysburg.
Episode 4: A New Nation
Previously broadcast on 22 January, 2009, as part of David Reynolds 90 part series, America, Empire of Liberty.
THU 16:00 Bookclub (b00zzpl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:30 Material World (b0100ljm)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He talks to Professor Alison Bruce from Brighton University about the latest developments at the Fukushima plant in Japan. He's joined in the studio by Dr. Fred Kavalier a GP and former genetics consultant to discuss pre-pregnancy diagnosis and what genetic conditions it could possibly help detect. Professor Ian Stewart will also be in the programme explaining why maths is fundamental to biology, which is also the subject of his latest book "Mathematics of Life" and Royal Society Head Archivist Keith Moore is bringing in some of the scientific travel manuscripts that have been scanned and put online for all to enjoy.
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
THU 17:00 PM (b0100ljp)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0100jq9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 So Wrong It's Right (b0100ljr)
Series 2
Episode 5
Charlie Brooker hosts the comedy panel show about the wrong side of life with comedians Frank Skinner and Josie Long plus Harry Hill TV Burp writer Daniel Maier competing to suggest the best in bad ideas.
Charlie's challenges in this episode see the panel recall 'the most embarrassing thing they've done in public' plus suggesting concepts for a terrible chain of shops. Can anyone top Frank Skinner's suggestion of the drinking accessory franchise 'Oddbinge'?
Added to this are the panel's nominations for the worst irritants of modern life - including Josie Long selection of 'comment' sections on the web or as she calls them 'the bottom half of the internet'.
The host of So Wrong It's Right, Charlie Brooker, also presents BBC4's acclaimed Newswipe and Screenwipe series - and is an award winning columnist for The Guardian. He also won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009.
Produced by Aled Evans
A Zeppotron Production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b0100j92)
Brian is struggling to balance his work life with looking after Ruairi. At the Borchester Market Developments meeting, Lilian suggests he'll be more appreciative of Jennifer when she returns. She mentions her new project: doing up 3, The Green. After the meeting she tries to sort out a diary date but Brian hasn't got time for that - unless she can pick up Ruairi from school? When Lilian refuses, Brian asks Will. Clarrie hopes Brian remembers this when it's time for Will's bonus.
Clarrie and Susan discuss their beautiful grand-daughter, and wonder when the baby will have a name. Clarrie worries that Ed and Emma will pick something too unusual. Ed picks Emma up from hospital, and is again amazed by his new daughter.
It's George's birthday, and Will is annoyed that Emma's neglecting him. Nic thinks he's being ridiculous, but Will's unconvinced and worries about George's party. George struggles with not being the centre of attention. With Emma preoccupied, it's left to Nic to calm him down. Will is even more concerned about how George will be treated by Ed and Emma. If this is how it's going to be, he's going to have something to say.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b0100ljt)
Documentary maker Molly Dineen; Roger Michell on one-take films
With Mark Lawson
Award-winning TV documentary maker Molly Dineen is known for her intimate portraits of British individuals and institutions. Now, with the release of a DVD collection of her work, she talks about making films such as Home from the Hill, which followed retired soldier Colonel Hilary Hook as he left his Kenyan home, In the Company of Men, about the Prince of Wales Company of the Welsh Guards, and a party political broadcast featuring Tony Blair.
A new film The Silent House has a tag line 'Real Fear in Real Time' and claims to have been shot in just one uninterrupted take. Director Roger Michell gives his verdict on the film and discusses the challenge of long, unedited takes to film-makers.
Playwright Simon Stephens, whose school-set drama Punk Rock won acclaim in 2009, has now turned to the periphery of an airport for his new play. Wastwater portrays three interlinked pairs of people, in three different situations: a painful departure, a dangerous liaison and illegal child trafficking. Gaylene Gould reviews.
Producer Claire Bartleet.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100jq3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b0100ljw)
Voting Referendum
On 5 May, the whole of the UK goes to the polls to vote in a referendum for the first time since 1975. Voters will be asked to decide whether they want to replace the existing "first past the post system" to elect MPs to the House of Commons with the "alternative vote" system.
It is a referendum that will see some unlikely alliances forming on either side of the campaign, with some the UK's largest trades unions lining up alongside senior Conservative party politicians to push for a "no" vote, while those advocating a "yes" come not only from established parties like the Liberal Democrats and some sections of the Labour Party, but also smaller parties like the Green Party.
But with such a complex mix of interested parties, how much do we know about who is bankrolling the campaigns and what their agendas are? Reporter James Silver investigates the campaign groups and private individuals pumping millions of pounds into the contest and asks whether the rules around disclosure of donations are as robust as those for general elections.
THU 20:30 In Business (b0100ljy)
New Bric On The Block
Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and China are the BRICs - the developing countries experts think are well on their way to the top of the world's economic league table. But now there's talk that the fourth most populous country, Indonesia, is heading there, too. From Jakarta, Peter Day finds out more.
THU 21:00 The Cuckoo (b0100216)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b0100jpz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b0100jqc)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b0100vyh)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.
THU 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b0100lmv)
Episode 9
Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch read Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always, provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of an immortal man and the tiger's wife. Today, Natalia's grandfather has a further encounter with the deathless man.
Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.
She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.
The readers are Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.
THU 23:00 Alan Garner: The Return to Brisingamen (b00j6xxz)
John Waite came from the area where "The Weirdstone ..." was located and counts it as a major influence upon him. We follow him as he accompanies Garner to the book's original setting to find out more about the remarkable author who was twice declared dead as a child. Waite also travels to Oxford, to look at the original Weirdstone manuscript in the Bodleian library and meets one of Garner's most ardent admirers, Philip Pullman - who describes him as one of the very best authors of his kind that England has ever produced.
THU 23:30 The Keskidee (b00k4fv9)
Oral Historian Alan Dein pieces together the remarkable and pioneering story of the Keskidee, Britain's first arts centre for the black community. Founded in the early 1970's and tucked away in a church hall in the backstreets of Islington, London, it forged new ground for a generation of black British poets, actors, artists and directors.
Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson was the educational officer at the Keskidee and Bob Marley shot the music video for 'Is This Love?' there. It had its own drama company, artists in residence and was a hub for African and Afro-Caribbean politics and arts, as well as a creative nursery for home-grown talent. It also catered for the needs of local youth and gave a generation of black teenagers a space of their own. But this massively influential cultural centre also has a fascinating earlier history, when it served as a progressive mission hall with a musical pastor and a legendary silver band. Today the building has reverted to being a religious base, housing an African church and a devout and joyous congregation. Dein joins up the hidden history of Gifford Hall which has played host to three different communities, but which, curiously, have much in common.
Producer: Neil McCarthy
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.
FRIDAY 08 APRIL 2011
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b0100h1y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b0100x2v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0100h20)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0100h22)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0100h24)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b0100h26)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b0100h28)
with Rev. Canon Jenny Wigley.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b0100h2s)
Farm land prices have reached an all time high. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says that some land prices have doubled in the last three years. Charlotte Smith speaks to a land agent who predicts that the prices will continue to increase.
Also, farming groups in England have pledged to reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of three million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2022. Sarah Swadling visits a government funded study in Devon which is measuring accurate emissions from UK farming.
And rhubarb is beginning to be harvested. Ruth Sanderson learns how to pull out the crop with a fruit grower in Staffordshire.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Weatherill.
FRI 06:00 Today (b0100h37)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and James Naughtie, including:
07:40 Should former special forces train Libyan opposition fighters?
08:10 Some 13,000 cancer cases in the UK are caused by the patient's drinking habits, a report has found.
08:40 Justin Webb reports on the evolution of politics in Northern Ireland.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b00zzn2c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b0100x2x)
Ken Campbell: The Great Caper
Episode 5
Michael Coveney's biography tells the story of Campbell, the great adventurer of British theatre.
In his later work, Campbell focuses on improvisation; taking the safety-net of the script away from his performers.
Ken Campbell, who died in September 2008, was one of the great mavericks of British theatre.
Ill-suited to a role in conventional theatre, he created a risk-taking confrontational style of performance, which often explored unlikely subject matter.
He became, in director Mike Leigh's words, "The outsider's outsider"
Bob Hoskins, Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent are amongst the performers whose formative years were spent working with Campbell. What did the director and producer bring to performance that made him such a mesmeric figure?
Writer Michael Coveney is a long-standing theatre critic, who has worked for The Financial Times, The Observer and The Daily Mail. Actor Toby Jones played Truman Capote in 'Infamous' and Swifty Lazar in 'Frost/Nixon' and recently reprised the role of Dobby in the film 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Toby has also appeared in a production of 'The Warp' by Neil Oram, the 22-hour epic created by Ken Campbell.
Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b0100h4q)
Jenni Murray presents.
The Killing: Sofie Grabol, star of dark, gritty Danish crime drama The Killing which was shown recently on BBC4. A boxed set of the series was released on DVD on 4 April.
Saudi Arabia: Will the forthcoming elections in Saudi Arabia bring women any closer to the vote? Jenni speaks to Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed, Professor of the Anthropology of Religion at King's College London.
On Yer Bike: Glynis Francis from Manchester is organising 100 women to cycle 100 miles or kilometres to commemorate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Jenni is joined by Viv Slack from Manchester Wheeler's Club and Bella Bathurst who has just written The Bicycle Book which was published on the 4th April.
Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome: Many women will recognise in their partners the middle-aged man - the 'bear with the sore head' - who has lost interest in life and love; could lack of testosterone be the problem? Dr Malcolm Carruthers and Professor Mike Kirby discuss the Syndrome and its possible treatment.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100h4s)
The Little Ottleys
Episode 5
Series One (5 episodes)
Episode Five
Much to the dismay of Alymer, Edith has forgiven Bruce for his romantic liaison with another woman.
Ada.........Haydn Gwynne
Alymer.....Jonathan Firth
Bruce.......Bertie Carvel
Edith........Juliet Aubrey
Mavis........Deeivya Meir
Anne.........Jane Whittenshaw
Eugenia.....Joanna Monro
Hyacinth....Alex Tregear
Cecil..........Stuart McLoughlin
Directed by Tracey Neale.
FRI 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b0100h5j)
Series 7
The Shoot
Alan Dein follows the fortunes of Iraq veteran turned wedding photographer Stefan Edwards as he contends with the difficulties of life on civvy street and tries to cut himself a slice of the increasingly competitive wedding market.
It's a March wedding for Lorraine and Richard from Newport and photographer Stefan Edwards exudes an air of military authority as he helps to chronicle the pair's big day. On the inside, though, Stefan's every bit as nervous as the couple anxiously awaiting the exchanging of vows. For Stefan's a newcomer to the wedding photography business - six months previously, he'd been out in Iraq using his camera to chronicle the war ravaged country, first for the British army and then for a private security contractor.
Having visited virtually every corner of Iraq, Stefan eventually decided to return to the UK to be with his Newport-based family who'd grown increasingly concerned at his absence. With steady work hard to find, Stefan has decided to go into the photography business, swapping one risk for another. Alan Dein joins him at the start of the wedding season as he attempts to drum up trade for his new venture and put the trauma of Iraq behind him.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
FRI 11:30 Spread a Little Happiness (b0100j8w)
Series 2
If Music Be the Food of Love, Stop Now!
It's not Hope's birthday, so why is everyone bringing her presents?
Debra Stephenson and Nicola Duffet star in episode 6 of John Godber and Jane Thornton's comedy set in a sandwich bar in Beverley, near Hull.
'Spread A Little Happiness' is sung by Debra Stephenson
Cast:
Hope ..... Debra Stephenson
Maria ..... Nicola Duffett
Dave ..... Neil Dudgeon
Mam ..... Anne Reid
Ray ..... Shaun Prendergast
Gavin ..... Ralph Brown
Jenny ..... Sarah Moyle
Anita ..... Sherry Baines
Carrie ...... Elizabeth Godber
Eve ..... Helen Longworth
Bob ..... Ben Crowe
Monty ..... Stephen Critchlow
Blinds man ..... James Weaver
Producer/Director: Chris Wallis
An Autolycus production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b0100j8y)
The tour operator which has let down hundreds of pupils and teachers, despite schools paying tens of thousands of pounds upfront for their skiing holidays.
Why British holidaymakers are increasingly opting for 'all-inclusive' packages when they book.
If you are travelling with BA over Easter and you're worried about the possibility of strike action, we'll have the latest advice on avoiding any financial fallout.
And why Yorkshire County Cricket Club have given up bidding for the Ashes.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b0100h2b)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b0100pmt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.
FRI 13:30 More or Less (b0100j90)
Youth unemployment
We are frequently told that young people have never had it so bad. They can't get on the housing ladder and it's increasingly difficult to get a job. New unemployment statistics will be published next week. But will they tell the whole story?
Trumptonshire's deficit
Should the Government cut spending and raise taxes in order to cut the deficit or will doing so be counterproductive? It is, of course, the question of the moment. It's a debate about what economists call the "fiscal multiplier". But what is a fiscal multiplier? And can we measure it? Let's take an example: Trumptonshire.
Social immobility?
A shocking graph showing how the education system allows untalented rich kids to overtake talented poor kids was used by the Government this week to demonstrate Britain's lack of social mobility. But some argue the graph is distorted by one of the oldest statistical problems of all.
Producer: Richard Knight.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b0100j92)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b00h8zf1)
Phumzile
By Matthew Hurt. Tom and Pete are on holiday in South Africa. When a mugger tries to snatch Pete's phone a local woman intervenes, but when she asks him for money Tom is suspicious.
Phumzile...Nadine Marshall
Pete...Stephen Hogan
Tom...Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
Emilia...Syan Blake
Harry...Matt Addis
Directed by Claire Grove
Exploring the complicated relationships we have with poverty. What should our personal response be to the suffering of others? And how do we deal with approaches from individuals?
Matthew Hurt (writer) is South African. His plays include 'Believe' with Linda Marlowe at the Traverse Theatre and 'Singing, Dancing, Acting' with Simon Callow at the Soho Theatre. He won the Peggy Ramsay bursary to develop a stage play The Time Step premiered at The Traverse Theatre in 2009.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b0100j94)
Postbag edition from Bunny Guinness' garden
Round at Bunny's: Bob Flowerdew, Chris Beardhshaw and Eric Robson gather in Bunny Guinness' Peterborough garden to answer a selection of listener questions sent in by post and email.
In addition, a snoop around the award-winning garden designer's patch.
Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 America, Empire of Liberty (b00gqxt8)
The War Behind the Battle Lines
David Reynolds tells the story of the American Civil War which began 150 years ago this month. In ten episodes he explores the origins and legacy of the war.
Episode 5: 'The War Behind the Battle Lines': The burning of Atlanta.
Previously broadcast on 23 January, 2009, as part of David Reynolds 90 part series America, Empire of Liberty.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b0100j98)
Juliano Mer Khamis, Leslie Collier, Pinetop Perkins and Andrew Tait
Matthew Bannister on
The Israeli/Palestinian actor and director Juliano Mer Khamis. He set up the Freedom Theatre in the refugee camp at Jenin - and was shot dead earlier this week.
Also: the virologist Professor Leslie Collier. His work on smallpox vaccines led to the eradication of the illness. He also made a big impact on the treatment of the eye disease trachoma.
The veteran blues pianist Pinetop Perkins - he won a Grammy at the age of 97.
And Andrew Tait - the Director General of the National House Building Council who's been credited with ending the practice of "jerry building" in Britain.
FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b0100j9b)
The Film Programme covers all the tenses this week - past, present and future. Francine Stock talks to the director, Guillaume Canet, about his latest film, Little White Lies, which has sold five million tickets in France alone and is opening in cinemas here now.To look back she's joined by the writer, Paul Mayersberg and the historian, Pasquale Iannone. Paul will be discussing the genesis of Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth while, on the eve of a big Bertolucci season on London's Southbank, Pasquale considers the importance of his second feature, Before the Revolution. Last but not least, the critic Tony Rayns, examines China's attitude to foreign films and what the future might hold for directors trying to get a toehold in its huge market
Producer - Zahid Warley.
FRI 17:00 PM (b0100j9d)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0100h2d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b0100j9g)
Series 33
A listening exercise with Alun Cochrane
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis host the last episode in the series as they examine the pros and cons of AV and who's really listening to the NHS. Guest stand-up Alun Cochrane ponders parental patronage and Oliver Letwin's aversion to flying Northerners; Jon Holmes exposes himself to the latest innovation in airport security; and spring is in the air for Joe Stilgoe, who's crazy about Kate Humble.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b0100j9j)
Elizabeth makes her job offer to Roy, who's pleased with the responsibility it entails and the inclusion of a car. He agrees to talk it over with Hayley and let Elizabeth know.
Jim and Lynda discuss the candidates for the parish council: There are eight candidates for six places. Richard Thwaite and Hilary Noakes are a surprise to Lynda. She's dismissive of their chances since they're new to the community, but Jim seems unconcerned. Later, chatting to a distracted Roy, Lynda rants more about Hilary Noakes' sketchy involvement in local life.
Jolene and Fallon discuss what to do with Jamie, who still plans to be there in the holidays. Jamie refuses to go home and instead asks for work at The Bull. Jolene reluctantly agrees providing he can get permission from his mum.
Although Kathy is initially pleased that Jamie wants to meet her, he soon makes it clear it's just so she can sign his work permit. He tells her that he intends to stay at The Bull. Kathy questions him about missing school that day. He convinces her that this was just a one off, but she refuses to sign his permit until she's had a chance to think everything through over the weekend. Then she'll let him know.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b0100j9l)
TV thriller The Reckoning, and Iraq film Son of Babylon
With Kirsty Lang.
Stella Duffy reviews the new TV thriller The Reckoning, which stars Ashley Jensen as Sally, a single mother who is offered five million pounds to kill someone she doesn't know but who 'deserves to die'. If Sally had the money she could pay for her daughter to have a life saving operation in America. Max Beesley co-stars as Sally's ex-policeman boyfriend.
The film drama Son of Babylon is set in Iraq, as a young boy travels across the country with his grandmother in search of his missing father, who disappeared during the Gulf war. Director Mohamed Al-Daradji discusses how he was able to make the film.
Paula McLain's new novel The Paris Wife charts the romantic and tragic relationship of Ernest Hemingway with his first wife Hadley. Paula McLain discusses her research into the the controversial towering literary figure and how her opinion of him changed in the process.
And with singers including Keren Ann, Rihanna and Lady Gaga all posing with guns or using gun imagery, music critic Rosie Swash wonders what lies behind music's fascination with deadly hardware.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b0100h4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b0100j9n)
Eddie Mair chairs the topical debate from Nova Hreod School in Swindon with the deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph, Benedict Brogan, the broadcaster John Sergeant, the chief executive of Relate and Liberal Democrat peer, Claire Tyler and the Green Party leader and MP Caroline Lucas.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
FRI 20:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b0100j9q)
Series 2
Hummers
Hummingbirds are given spectacular names motivated by their striking colours, patterns and shimmering metallic iridescence; their names are beautiful as are the birds.
David Attenborough has filmed them on several occasions and is fascinated by their agility and flying skills to drink nectar from flowers inaccessible to any other animal. And propelled by this rocket fuel of nature they are capable of flying great distances and living life in the fast lane. Enchanting in this story is how moved David Attenborough is when recalling a story of their conservation; a rare piece of good news he comments.
Written and presented by Sir David Attenborough
Producer: Julian Hector
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.
FRI 21:00 Friday Drama (b00zf64b)
Choice of Straws
by ER Braithwaite. London's East End 1960. Twins Jack and Dave Bennett are a happy-go-lucky, rootless pair of Teddy boys. If they do occasionally rough-up a black guy it's just a game to them. Until a victim in Whitechapel fights back and Dave pulls a knife. From the writer of To Sir With Love.
Jack.....Harry Hepple
Dave.....Luke Norris
Michelle.....Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Mum.....Ellie Haddington
Dad.....David Hargreaves
Ruth.....Annabelle Dowler
Mr Spencer..... Alex Lanipekun
Officer.....Stephen Hogan
Dramatised by Roy Williams
Director Claire Grove.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b0100h2g)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b0101h29)
The EU's economic medicine may make some Portugese quite ill.
What's the worst honeymoon you ever had?
Wales elections: a view from the classroom.
with Roger Hearing.
FRI 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b0100jhd)
Episode 10
Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of an immortal man and the tiger's wife. Today, Natalia makes connections between her father's childhood, the tiger's wife and the deathless man.
Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.
She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.
The reader is Hattie Morahan. Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b010023x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Star Wars on the South Bank (b00rtbg2)
Almost thirty years ago serious plans were made to simulate a Mars colony on the Southbank of the River Thames. Such an outrageous idea would be dismissed outright if it wasn't dreamt up by one of Britain's greatest social reformers - Michael Young.
Lord Young of Dartington, who died in 2002, was committed to building institutions dedicated to social improvement. He initiated or played a major role in creating the Consumers' Association, the Open University, as well as Labour's 1945 manifesto - Let us face the future. But then in 1984 he launched the Argo Venture, a collective of Britain's finest scientists, thinkers and space experts who were calling for the planting of human colonies in space. His son, the author and journalist Toby Young, asks was the Argo Venture an idea too far?
He recruited an amazing cast of volunteers; the Scientist James Lovelock, the astronomer Lord Martin Rees and the Science writer Nigel Calder amongst others. Young's legacy was indisputably great but was this latter-day Georgian folly, born of a grandee legendary enthusiasm? Was the whole project set for failure? Could a serious British Mars Programme exemplify the spirit of the early 21st century?
In this programme Toby Young talks to Lord Martin Rees, Professor Colin Pillinger and hears from passionate advocates of Martian colonisation, but what was his father looking for in Space?
Produced by Barney Rowntree
A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 MON (b00zzsdg)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 MON (b00zzsdg)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 TUE (b0100214)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 TUE (b0100214)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 WED (b01002xy)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 WED (b01002xy)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 THU (b0100jq3)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 THU (b0100jq3)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 FRI (b0100h4s)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 FRI (b0100h4s)
A House Divided: The Poetry of the American Civil War
16:30 SUN (b00zzpl9)
Act Your Age
18:30 WED (b0100gr6)
Afternoon Reading
19:45 SUN (b00cqfyt)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 TUE (b010023q)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 WED (b0100gr0)
Afternoon Reading
15:30 THU (b0100lg3)
Alan Garner: The Return to Brisingamen
23:00 THU (b00j6xxz)
America, Empire of Liberty
15:45 MON (b00gqxr9)
America, Empire of Liberty
15:45 TUE (b00gqxt2)
America, Empire of Liberty
15:45 WED (b00gqxt4)
America, Empire of Liberty
15:45 THU (b00gqxt6)
America, Empire of Liberty
15:45 FRI (b00gqxt8)
Americana
19:15 SUN (b00zzplh)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (b00zzm8x)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (b00zt5xp)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (b0100j9n)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (b00zzmsm)
Archive on 4
15:00 MON (b00zzmsm)
Beauty of Britain
11:30 WED (b0100gqp)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (b00zzmv5)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (b00zzmv5)
Between Ourselves
09:00 TUE (b01000z8)
Between Ourselves
21:30 TUE (b01000z8)
Blood For Blood
21:00 TUE (b00qx456)
Book of the Week
00:30 SAT (b00zt8cr)
Book of the Week
09:45 MON (b00zzr1h)
Book of the Week
00:30 TUE (b00zzr1h)
Book of the Week
09:45 TUE (b0101kyv)
Book of the Week
00:30 WED (b0101kyv)
Book of the Week
09:45 WED (b0100x2s)
Book of the Week
00:30 THU (b0100x2s)
Book of the Week
09:45 THU (b0100x2v)
Book of the Week
00:30 FRI (b0100x2v)
Book of the Week
09:45 FRI (b0100x2x)
Bookclub
16:00 SUN (b00zzpl7)
Bookclub
16:00 THU (b00zzpl7)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (b00zzn27)
Classic Serial
21:00 SAT (b00zs7v7)
Classic Serial
15:00 SUN (b00zzpl5)
Click On
16:30 MON (b00zzylf)
Costing the Earth
21:00 WED (b0100grj)
Costing the Earth
13:30 THU (b0100grj)
Counterpoint
13:30 MON (b00zzy2d)
Crossing Continents
20:30 MON (b00zsldf)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (b0100jq5)
David Attenborough's Life Stories
08:50 SUN (b00zt5xr)
David Attenborough's Life Stories
20:50 FRI (b0100j9q)
Desert Island Discs
11:15 SUN (b00zzn2c)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (b00zzn2c)
Down the Line
18:30 TUE (b0100241)
Drama
14:15 MON (b00zzy2g)
Drama
14:15 TUE (b0100230)
Drama
14:15 WED (b0100gqw)
Drama
14:15 THU (b009n44f)
Drama
14:15 FRI (b00h8zf1)
Esler on Eichmann
11:00 WED (b010026p)
Excess Baggage
10:00 SAT (b00zxn8q)
Fags, Mags and Bags
11:30 MON (b00zzw1w)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (b00zxn8j)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (b00zzqr9)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (b01000z4)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (b01002xp)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (b0100jpv)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (b0100h2s)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (b00zshnz)
File on 4
20:00 TUE (b010025s)
For One Night Only
10:30 SAT (b00zxn8s)
Friday Drama
21:00 FRI (b00zf64b)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (b00zxn8x)
Front Row
19:15 MON (b00zzz26)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (b0100nbk)
Front Row
19:15 WED (b0100grb)
Front Row
19:15 THU (b0100ljt)
Front Row
19:15 FRI (b0100j9l)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (b00zt4h5)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (b0100j94)
Great Lives
16:30 TUE (b010023x)
Great Lives
23:00 FRI (b010023x)
In Business
21:30 SUN (b00zt3py)
In Business
20:30 THU (b0100ljy)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (b0100jpz)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (b0100jpz)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (b010025v)
Just a Minute
12:00 SUN (b00zsd0w)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (b00zt4h9)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (b0100j98)
Laura Solon - Talking and Not Talking
23:00 TUE (b00p2z8j)
Lent Talks
00:30 SUN (b00zsjzh)
Lent Talks
20:45 WED (b0100grg)
Lives in a Landscape
11:00 FRI (b0100h5j)
Living with Mother
23:00 WED (b0100grq)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (b00zzmsf)
Loud Organs His Glory
13:30 TUE (b0103wyx)
Making History
15:00 TUE (b0100232)
Man Versus God
23:30 SAT (b00zs7vc)
Material World
21:00 MON (b00zt3pt)
Material World
16:30 THU (b0100ljm)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (b00zt62q)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (b00zzmtv)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (b00zzqgx)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (b01000yr)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (b010026c)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (b0100jpg)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (b0100h1y)
Midweek
09:00 WED (b01002xt)
Midweek
21:30 WED (b01002xt)
Money Box Live
15:00 WED (b0100gqy)
Money Box
12:00 SAT (b00zxn8z)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (b00zxn8z)
Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard
23:15 WED (b00q3ld2)
More or Less
20:00 SUN (b00zt4h3)
More or Less
13:30 FRI (b0100j90)
Mothers and Sons
13:30 SUN (b00zsc28)
My Nights with Emma B
11:30 THU (b0100jtj)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (b00zt62z)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (b00zzmv3)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (b00zzqh5)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (b01000z0)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (b010026m)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (b0100jpq)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (b0100h26)
News Headlines
06:00 SUN (b00zzmv7)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (b00zt633)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (b00zzmvh)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (b00zzmvp)
News and Weather
22:00 SAT (b00zt63m)
News
13:00 SAT (b00zt63c)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (b00zzmvc)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (b00zxn8g)
Open Country
15:00 THU (b00zxn8g)
PM
17:00 SAT (b00zzmsc)
PM
17:00 MON (b0100267)
PM
17:00 TUE (b010023z)
PM
17:00 WED (b0100vjb)
PM
17:00 THU (b0100ljp)
PM
17:00 FRI (b0100j9d)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (b00zzplc)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (b00zt631)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (b00zzqh7)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (b01000z2)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (b01002xm)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (b0100jps)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (b0100h28)
Profile
19:00 SAT (b00zzmsh)
Profile
05:45 SUN (b00zzmsh)
Profile
17:40 SUN (b00zzmsh)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:55 SUN (b00zzn23)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:26 SUN (b00zzn23)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (b00zzn23)
Saturday Drama
14:30 SAT (b00zzms7)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (b00zxn8n)
Saturday Review
19:15 SAT (b00zzmsk)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (b00zt62v)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (b00zzmtz)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (b00zzqh1)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (b01000yw)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (b010026h)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (b0100jpl)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (b0100h22)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (b00zt62s)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (b00zt62x)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (b00zt63f)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (b00zzmtx)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (b00zzmv1)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (b00zzmvt)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (b00zzqgz)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (b00zzqh3)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (b01000yt)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (b01000yy)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (b010026f)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (b010026k)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (b0100jpj)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (b0100jpn)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (b0100h20)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (b0100h24)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (b00zt63k)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (b00zzmvy)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (b00zzqhf)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (b01000zd)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (b010026t)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (b0100jq9)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (b0100h2d)
So Wrong It's Right
18:30 THU (b0100ljr)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b00zzmv9)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b00zzmv9)
Soul Music
15:30 SAT (b00zsdsn)
Spread a Little Happiness
11:30 FRI (b0100j8w)
Star Wars on the South Bank
23:30 FRI (b00rtbg2)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (b00zzqy9)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (b00zzqy9)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (b00zzn25)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (b00zzmvk)
Super Recognisers
16:30 WED (b00q3fbv)
Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
22:45 MON (b00zzz2l)
Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
22:45 TUE (b0100261)
Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
22:45 WED (b0100grn)
Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
22:45 THU (b0100lmv)
Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife
22:45 FRI (b0100jhd)
The 3rd Degree
23:00 SAT (b00zsc2g)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (b00zzn29)
The Archers
19:00 SUN (b00zzplf)
The Archers
14:00 MON (b00zzplf)
The Archers
19:00 MON (b00zzz22)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (b00zzz22)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (b010025q)
The Archers
14:00 WED (b010025q)
The Archers
19:00 WED (b0100gr8)
The Archers
14:00 THU (b0100gr8)
The Archers
19:00 THU (b0100j92)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (b0100j92)
The Archers
19:00 FRI (b0100j9j)
The Communist Cosmos
20:00 MON (b00zzz2d)
The Cuckoo
11:00 TUE (b0100216)
The Cuckoo
21:00 THU (b0100216)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (b00zt4hc)
The Film Programme
16:30 FRI (b0100j9b)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (b00zzn2f)
The Food Programme
16:00 MON (b00zzn2f)
The Keskidee
23:30 THU (b00k4fv9)
The Media Show
13:30 WED (b0100gqt)
The Narrowcasters
09:30 TUE (b010020y)
The Now Show
12:30 SAT (b00zt4hh)
The Now Show
18:30 FRI (b0100j9g)
The Protection Game
11:00 MON (b00zzsdj)
The RSC at 50
11:30 TUE (b0100218)
The Report
20:00 THU (b0100ljw)
The Unbelievable Truth
18:30 MON (b00zzz1y)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (b00zxn8v)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (b00zzn2h)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (b0101tj1)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (b0100q0m)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (b0100vmd)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (b0100vyh)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (b0101h29)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (b00zsjz1)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (b0100gr4)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (b00zzzlm)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (b0100263)
Today in Parliament
23:30 WED (b0100grs)
Today
07:00 SAT (b00zxn8l)
Today
06:00 MON (b00zzqy7)
Today
06:00 TUE (b01000z6)
Today
06:00 WED (b01002xr)
Today
06:00 THU (b0100jpx)
Today
06:00 FRI (b0100h37)
Unreliable Evidence
22:15 SAT (b00zsjzf)
Unreliable Evidence
20:00 WED (b0100grd)
Weather
06:04 SAT (b00zt635)
Weather
06:57 SAT (b00zt637)
Weather
12:57 SAT (b00zt639)
Weather
17:57 SAT (b00zt63h)
Weather
06:57 SUN (b00zzmvf)
Weather
07:57 SUN (b00zzmvm)
Weather
12:57 SUN (b00zzmvr)
Weather
17:57 SUN (b00zzmvw)
Weather
05:57 MON (b00zzqh9)
Weather
12:57 MON (b00zzqhc)
Weather
21:58 MON (b00zzqhh)
Weather
12:57 TUE (b01000zb)
Weather
21:58 TUE (b01000zg)
Weather
12:57 WED (b010026r)
Weather
21:58 WED (b010026w)
Weather
12:57 THU (b0100jq7)
Weather
21:58 THU (b0100jqc)
Weather
12:57 FRI (b0100h2b)
Weather
21:58 FRI (b0100h2g)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (b00zzplk)
What the Papers Say
22:45 SUN (b00zzplm)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (b00zzms9)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (b00zzr1k)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (b0100212)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (b01002xw)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (b0100jq1)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (b0100h4q)
Wonderful Ways to Beat the Recession
14:45 SUN (b00zzpl3)
Word of Mouth
23:00 MON (b00zshnl)
Word of Mouth
16:00 TUE (b010023v)
World at One
13:00 MON (b0100wxs)
World at One
13:00 TUE (b0100nq8)
World at One
13:00 WED (b0100tk3)
World at One
13:00 THU (b0100vx6)
World at One
13:00 FRI (b0100pmt)
You and Yours
12:00 MON (b00zzy2b)
You and Yours
12:00 TUE (b0100jtl)
You and Yours
12:00 WED (b0100gqr)
You and Yours
12:00 THU (b010021b)
You and Yours
12:00 FRI (b0100j8y)
iPM
05:45 SAT (b00zxf8d)
iPM
17:30 SAT (b00zxf8d)