The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Adrian Scarborough continues reading from Yuval Noah Harari's ground-breaking account of humankind's remarkable history from insignificant apes to rulers of the world.
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
'Who are you and who do you want to be?' - iPM speaks to a listener and his colleague about identity and how it will shape the way they'll vote in the Scottish referendum. Kirsty Young reads Your News. Presented by Eddie Mair and Jennifer Tracey. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
"Strange and beautiful, a heart shaped place between two rivers" is how television playwright and author, Dennis Potter described the Forest of Dean, where he grew up. On the 20th anniversary of his death, Felicity Evans explores the landscape that shaped much of his work.
The Forest has a rich industrial heritage which Forester and Freeminer, Rich Daniels explains at the former site of the New Fancy coal mine. The old spoil heap now provides spectacular views across the Forest. In the distance, you can see Cannop Ponds and the pit where Dennis' father was a miner.
Then it's to Berry Hill, the place where Potter grew up and visited frequently with his own family. Firstly to "Spion Kop", the Potter family home where artist John Belcher now lives and then onto some of the locations used in Potter's work.
Felicity meets historian and verderer, Ian Standing who talks about his role in upholding Forest law and culture and shows us the oak trees that Lord Nelson planted.
Finally from the ancient forest to the very modern as we visit a nearby café in Coleford to talk to teenagers from the Forest Youth Forum about what it's like to live in the Forest of Dean today. How does the landscape affect them? Dennis Potter was concerned that the "New Foresters" would have no sense of community and not realise how special and unique it is. Were his fears unfounded?
The badger cull started again in Gloucestershire and Somerset this week. This is Year 2 of a four-year pilot project to reduce badger numbers by 70%. The government's decision to use culling as part of its strategy to tackle the spread of bovine TB is proving as controversial this year as it did in 2013.
In this programme, Charlotte Smith hears the arguments for and against the cull. She speaks to the Farming Minister and to the Badger Trust, which this week won the right to appeal against a High Court judgement that the cull is still legal, despite the removal of the Independent Expert Panel which oversaw it last year. We hear from reporters who have been out in the cull zones at night - with both the marksmen whose job is to find and shoot badgers, and the campaigners whose mission is to stop them.
Farming Today This Week also explores other options for tackling TB, including the vaccination possibilities for both badgers and cattle, and the need for increased biosecurity on farms.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.
The award winning crime writer Val McDermid has written 28 novels, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. She joins Richard to talk about her passion for football, her musical aspirations and where she finds inspiration for her novels.
Former Royal Marine and medallist Andy Grant lost his right leg in Afghanistan in 2009. He describes how vital sport has been to his rehabilitation and the amazing feeling of winning Gold for the 1500 metres.
JP Devlin talks to R2 Breakfast presenter Chris Evans about the importance of reading with his children and why he finds it so emotional.
Award winning photographer Paul Clarke explains how he changed career late in life and reinvented himself, by swapping a bottle of tequila for a camera.
Mary Wilson sustained injuries to her cheek, toes and shoulder, while on a Military Horse Riding course with the Royal Artillery. She has since taken part in the US Warrior Games 2013. She talks about the events she's taking part in for the Invictus Games, and how she's recently completed 282 Munros.
Tony Harris's vehicle was hit by an explosion whilst on patrol in Afghanistan. He spent 10 months in hospital and his leg was amputated due to infection. He has since taken part in the Dakar Rally. He is now a member of the sitting volleyball team and explains that taking part in sport has been vital to his recovery.
And we hear the Inheritance Tracks of actress Rebecca Front, who chooses We All Laughed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and Siciliano, The second movement of Bach's Second Piano Concerto, performed by Glenn Gould.
Paul Clarke won the Professional category of the Event Photography Awards 2014.
Jay Rayner and the panel are in Harrogate for this week's episode of the culinary panel programme.
Taking questions from a local audience are food historian Annie Gray, Scottish-Indian fusion chef Angela Malik, school food adviser and restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, and champion of daring DIY cookery Tim Hayward.
All eyes are on Scotland in the last few days before the referendum on Independence. Whatever the result there will be change in the make-up of the United Kingdom so what can we expect? What can we deduce from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's last minute emergence as a pivotal figure in the debate?
Kate Adie introduces Correspondents' stories. This week Paul Wood hears warnings of civil war returning to Lebanon; Andrew Harding reflects on the Pistorius trial; Darius Barzagan can't get the images of MH17 out of his head; Niall O'Gallagher joins Catalans celebrating their National Day and calling for independence; and Lucy Ash meets Ivory Coast's most famous actress to talk about infidelity.
Scotland decides; As the polls show the gap between Yes and No is too narrow to call, the volume of listener questions has grown. So we return to the question 'what will it mean for our money - in Scotland or the remainder of the UK - if the vote is Yes, and should I do anything now?' Guests: David Bell, Professor of Economics, University of Stirling. Colletta Smith BBC Scotland's Economic Correspondent and David Davison, a Director at Actuarial practice, Spence and Partners.
Jewellery Insurance Heist? What will your insurer offer if your precious jewellery is lost or stolen? Vouchers for a High Street jeweller seem to be the preferred option with many insurers. And that leaves many customers very unhappy. What can you do to get a better deal? Bob Howard reports.
Pensions Freedom: A listener with a good employer final salary pension scheme is persuaded to transfer it into a personal pension with no guarantees. Its value halves in five years. With the new freedom to take our pensions out, could this mis-selling grow. We look at what this listener can do to get his money back. And what anyone else who is tempted should do.
Steve Punt is joined by Terry Mynott, David Quantick, Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin and Jon Holmes for a comic romp through the week's news.
Written by the cast with additional material from Andy Woolton, Carrie Quinlan and Alice Gregg. Produced by Alexandra Smith.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen with John Swinney MSP Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government, and the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, Managing Director of Business for Scotland Michelle Thomson and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Jim Murphy MP.
If the recent polls are to be believed, the possibility of Scotland breaking away from the rest of the Union is a very real one. Listeners discuss currency union, financial instability and what it means to be British.
In the fourth of the Martin Beck Killings, Beck is now a Detective Superintendant. But his promotion hasn't made him any more cheerful; if anything, it's only confirmed his gloomy belief that the best way to solve crimes is by hard slog, dogged persistence, a grimly realistic view of human nature - and the occasional flash of sheer intuition. His team of colleagues, headed by Lennart Kollberg and Frederick Melander, are used to his stubborn ways and his frequent colds. His wife Inga isn't as tolerant.
The Laughing Policeman begins on the evening of a big demonstration in Stockholm against the Vietnam war; as the police are dealing with protesters outside the American embassy, a mass shooting on a bus in a suburb ends with nine dead, including one of Martin Beck's team. The trail to find the murderer leads Beck back to an unsolved case from the past that had puzzled the Swedish police for years.
The first act signed to David Geffen's Asylum Records in the early 1970s, Judee Sill produced two astonishingly beautiful albums in her lifetime.
Seemingly emerging from the Laurel Canyon scene, her music wove a diverse tapestry of influences - from gospel piano to Bach, rhythm and blues to country, forty-part vocal harmonies blending into piano ballads...
So why did Judee Sill disappear from view? Ruth Barnes traces Judee's peculiar life story - hearing tales of armed robberies, reform school and addiction, alongside musical invention and heartstopping songs.
With contributions from family, friends, lovers and devotees of her music including JD Souther, XTC's Andy Partridge, Jim Pons, Tommy Peltier and 'Whispering' Bob Harris.
Barbara Hulanicki celebrates the 50th Birthday of Biba. As life expectancy increases, jobs for life become a thing of the past. How easy is to take up a different career or juggle different projects? Crime writer Sophie Hannah on bringing Hercule Poirot back to life in a new novel. Ruzwana Bashir, inspired by the revelations from Rotherham to talk publicly about the abuse she suffered as a child, explains why it's so hard for British-Asian women to speak out about sexual abuse. Plus Clare Balding on her new book "Walking Home", family life and her broadcasting career. Is being embarrassed by your parents a rite of passage every child has to go through? And with an increasing range of technology available and a growing number of dedicated children's channels, we look at the children's TV industry and what its future holds.
Presented by Jane Garvey.
Clive sees a Clown in the Moon with musician and broadcaster Cerys Matthews, who has a successful music career, her own 6 Music show and is now the curator of 'The Goodlife Fesitval'. Cerys has also contributed to 'Dylan Thomas: a Centenary Celebration'; a collection of specially commissioned essays celebrating the poet's life and work, and exploring his lasting legacy.
Nikki Bedi gets down with poet and rapper Kate Tempest. At 16, Kate rapped at strangers on night buses and pestered MCs to let her on the mic at raves. She's written poems for Amnesty International, The Royal Shakespeare company and won last year's Ted Hughes Award for her work 'Brand New Ancients'. Kate talks to Nikki about her new book of poetry 'Hold Your Own' and performs 'The Beigeness' and 'The Truth' from her album 'Everybody Down'.
Actor Edward Petherbridge has had a distinguished stage and screen career spanning over 50 years. While rehearsing for the role of King Lear 7 years ago, Edward suffered a major stroke. He tells Clive about how, at this time he discovered that the entire role of Lear still existed word for word in his mind. His show 'My Perfect Mind', is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit through the prism of Shakespeare's great tragedy.
Irish actress, comedian and writer Aisling Bea is one of the country's fastest rising comic talents. As a stand-up, she won the prestigious So You Think You're Funny? Award in Edinburgh, 2012 making her the second woman ever to win it and the first to do so in 20 years. Aisling talks to Clive about starring in the likes of 'Dead Boss', 'Cardinal Burns' and Radio 4's 'Mick's and Legends'
How did Jack Ma, a teacher with no business training, become one of China's - indeed, the world's - most successful entrepreneurs?
The BBC's business editor Kamal Ahmed looks at the man behind the online retail giant Alibaba Group - a company described as a mix between Amazon and Ebay - which is due to list on the New York Stock Exchange later this month, making Alibaba one of the most valuable internet companies in the world.
Jack Ma is no ordinary business leader. How many other global tycoons like to fill a stadium with their employees only to step on stage, be-wigged, to deliver not bland corporate messages, but Lion King songs?
Archive clips from the film 'Crocodile in the Yangtze: The Alibaba Story' (by Porter Erisman).
Destiny: the most expensive video game ever produced has just been released - a perfect excuse for us to explore the rich and diverse world of gaming.
Pride is a lighthearted film about lesbian and gay groups from London who supported miners during the 84 miners' strike - leading to an unexpectedly harmonious and fruitful relationship.
What would America be like after a Rapture-like event when 2% of the population will be taken into heaven and the rest are left behind? The Leftovers is a TV series that considers a post-rapture-like USA.
Ali Smith's new novel is called How To Be Both - 2 complimentary self-contained stories that can be read in either order.
Horst was a German American fashion photographer whose work is featured in a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Kevin Jackson, Barb Jungr and Catherine O'Flynn. The producer is Oliver Jones.
The rockets and missiles fly, from Israel into Gaza, from Gaza into Israel. It's the latest iteration of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours which has flared since the very founding of the Jewish state in 1948.
Accompanying the conflict has been an unprecedented level of media coverage. And almost nothing is uncontested. Every sentence, every word of a news report is parsed for signs of bias by individuals and organisations dedicated to ensuring a fair deal for their point of view. Coverage is measured in minutes and seconds of airtime. Media organisations stand accused, by both sides, of prejudice, systemic bias and deliberate distortion.
Why does this particular conflict, above all others, attract the attention it does? And why does it create such strong emotion, even among those with no connection to the region?
John Lloyd, a contributing editor at the Financial Times, examines the evolution of coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the founding of Israel to the present day.
With contributions from journalists and those who monitor them, Lloyd asks why there is such focus both on the conflict itself and on those who report it. He traces the way reporting has developed from the early television age, through the introduction of 24-hour news channels to the inception of social media. And he examines the challenges of reporting fairly and accurately on a conflict in which every assertion is contested.
Mark Robarts, Vicar of Framley, worries that Lady Lufton may find out about the Bill he has put his name to, but she's more interested in plotting with Susan Grantly to marry their respective children. Which would scupper Mark's sister's potential happiness forever.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
We live in a world that is being globalised by ever-accelerating trade and technology.
In such a world, can the complex, delicate codes of civility - the hidden wiring of civilisation - survive?
Future Proofing challenges three people from very different disciplines to find out.
Mathematician Hannah Fry talks to a woman whose mother's railway suicide provoked a storm of online abuse.
And she gathers all tweets sent in the UK in the week before the programme, to test out where and when we Brits are at our most uncivil.
Literary scholar Ian Sansom travels to meet a couple of London police officers who have retired to Cumbria to run a fish and chip shop. Is the countryside really more civil than the city? And what does Geoff Mulgan, one of our leading scholars of the future, make of Ian's findings?
Meanwhile, journalist Saira Shah revisits the terrifying story of her brother's wrongful imprisonment in a Pakistani torture prison - and how her understanding of the codes of civility helped her get him out.
And so, finally, Hannah, Saira and Ian meet to compare notes and try to fathom whether civility has a future - and if so, how it will have to adapt to survive in the 21st century.
Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for its 50th series.
In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian McKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.
Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.
Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Producer ... Carl Cooper.
Roger McGough presents a mixed bag as requested by listeners, including poems by Allan Ahlberg and DH Lawrence for teachers returning to work, Keats' classic Autumnal ode, and watery poetry by Thomas Hardy and Charles Tomlinson. There's also James Joyce and Thom Gunn, and Sean Street reading his paean to a jazz great, 'Hearing Buddy Bolden'.
SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2014
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04gct68)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Nadine Gordimer - A Flash of Fireflies (b03hn2rw)
A Chip of Glass Ruby
Marking Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer's death in July, the last in this series of stories from her remarkable career as a writer and political activist.
In this tale of personal bravery, set during apartheid in South Africa, a bewildered husband struggles to cope with his wife's political activism.
Read by Raad Rawi
Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04gct6b)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04gct6d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04gct6g)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04gct6j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04gnhrz)
The bells of Merton College, Oxford.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b04gnhnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04gct6l)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04gnht6)
Grandparents
In a celebration of what it means to be a grandparent, Mark Tully examines the very particular relationship that exists between grandparent and grandchild.
This is obviously a two-way street, so this is a programme full of music and readings that explore the bridge between the generations from all points of view.
Here are evil grandmothers according to Rachmaninoff and inspiring ones from New York journalist Adriana Trigiani; we meet Victor Hugo, the doting grandfather, and Seamus Heaney, the devoted grandson; and musician Josef Suk plays the work of his revered grandfather.
The readers are Emily Raymond and Jasper Britton.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b04gnhvv)
Urbanites in the countryside
Phil Palmer and Michael Butcher were dedicated urbanites, living and working in central London, until they moved to start a new life in the country just over 5 years ago. What started as a dream of a holiday home turned in to a full time job farming 40 acres, raising rare breed animals and running their own micro brewery. Complete agricultural novices, they got their farming training from google and adapted their skills of marketing and journalism to build an on-farm business. They tell Ruth Sanderson about the challenges they faced moving to their new life.
Presented and produced in Bristol by Ruth Sanderson.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b04gct6n)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04gct6q)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04gnhvx)
Ian Paisley, Scottish Referendum, Sami Yusuf
This week's presenter William Crawley looks back on the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr Ian Paisley.
While the Church of Scotland has declared its neutrality on the subject of independence, there has been disagreement among prominent individuals within the Kirk about which way to vote in the referendum. We debate the issues.
US President Barack Obama set out his plan to escalate US military action against Islamic State militants this week. Professor Fawaz Gerges argues there is a more pressing need to put out the 'sectarian fires' that rage in the region.
Matt Wells reports from the US on a row over the body of Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which lies in the crypt of Saint Patrick's in New York, that could derail a decades-long campaign to canonise America's first male saint.
Sunday continues its quest to find a fitting place for the sculpture 'Homeless Jesus'. Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons Rose Hudson-Wilkin and journalist Quentin Letts tell us where they would like to see it placed and we hear some listeners' suggestions.
Plus, he's been called "the most famous British Muslim in the World" - Sami Yusuf is a globally acclaimed singer-songwriter and talks about his life and work.
Producers:
Dan Tierney
Zoe Ashworth
Series producer:
Amanda Hancox
Contributors:
Sami Yusuf
Roberta Mazza
Fawaz Gerges
Rev Norman Shanks
Rev Ewan Aitken
Rev Lesley Caroll
Professor John Brewer.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04gnhyf)
Prisoners Education Trust
Susan Hill presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Prisoners Education Trust which improves prisoners' access to learning in order to enhance their chances of building a crime-free life after release.
Registered Charity No 1084718
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope ' Prisoners Education Trust'.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b04gct6s)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04gct6v)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04gnj8k)
Drawing on Scotland's spiritual riches as the Referendum nears.
From St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
Led by the Provost, The Very Revd Graham Forbes.
Preacher: The Right Revd John Chalmers, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
With the Cathedral Choir directed by Duncan Ferguson.
Organist: Donald Hunt.
Producer: Mo McCullough.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04gch0c)
The Horror of War
Lisa Jardine says while documenting and commemorating the First World War we should not lose sight of its horror. "Wars are not heroic, even if they prompt acts of heroism by soldiers and civilians. Our young people, raised in a Britain at peace for 70 years, need to know that."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dvyfs)
White-Bearded Manakin
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the White-Bearded manakin of tropical South America. The sound of party-poppers exploding in a forest clearing tells you that white-bearded manakins are displaying at a lek. At a carefully chosen spot each male clears the forest floor of leaves and other debris before his performance begins. The commonest display is the snap-jump. As he jumps forward he strikes the back of his wings together creating a loud snapping sound followed by an excited "pee-you" call. Snap-jumps are often followed by grunt jumps or a manoeuvre known as "slide-down-the-pole". These displays continue throughout the day, but intensify when females visit.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04gnjft)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b04gnjg2)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b04gnjhk)
New Labour
When Tony Blair delivered the phrase: 'New Labour, New Britain!' to the 1994 party conference, his first as leader, it was the result of a decade of change within the party. Kinnock had rebranded it, introducing the rose as party emblem and had distanced the Labour Party from its far-left factions.
When John Smith came in, he launched the 'Prawn Cocktail Offensive' of the City and tackled the Union block vote, pushing through reform in 1993. His sudden death ushered in a new, young leader, Tony Blair, who swiftly removed the reference in the party's constitution to 'common ownership of the means of production' and New Labour was born.
20 years on, Sue MacGregor brings together some of the key people involved in the New Labour 'Project'.
Peter Mandelson is one of its founding architects. He relaunched the Party under Kinnock, bringing in ad-man Philip Gould with his focus groups and marketing techniques.
Anji Hunter was at Tony Blair's side from 1987 until 2001. Starting as his research assistant, she ran his office when he was Leader of the Opposition, becoming Director of Government Relations for Blair's government in 1997.
Regional Party organizer, Margaret, now Baroness McDonagh, helped expel the so-called 'loony-left' from the party in the 80s, pushed through the changes to Clause 4 and would later become the Labour Party's first female General Secretary.
Margaret Beckett was Deputy Labour Leader under John Smith and shadow Health Secretary under Tony Blair.
Peter Hyman was one of Blair's strategy men and speech-writers; and Sue, now Baroness Nye, kept Neil Kinnock's diary, before becoming Gordon Brown's right-hand woman for the next 18 years.
Producer: Rose de Larrabeiti
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04gct6x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b04g8404)
Series 70
Episode 5
Nicholas Parsons hosts his 900th edition of Just A Minute and Paul Merton, Holly Walsh, Sheila Hancock and Russell Kane try to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04gnjjp)
Ethiopian Teff - An Ancient Grain
Teff has been grown in Ethiopia for Millennia. Traditionally, it's ground, milled, mixed with water and fermented for days to make the sour staple flatbread injera.
Cultivation of this mysterious and tiny grain has been concentrated in Ethiopia for thousands of years. But now that's changing as the health-conscious Western world realise the nutritional secrets this crop might bestow.
In this edition of the Food Programme, Sheila Dillon meets UK entrepreneurs bringing foods, normally seen as Ethiopian to new diners, and speaks to experts to hear how the rise in popularity of teff is affecting the farmers back home.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b04gct6z)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04gnjjr)
National and international news with Edward Stourton.
SUN 13:30 Power in the Blood: The Life of Ian Paisley (b04jzg2d)
William Crawley looks back at the controversial life and legacy of former Northern Ireland first minister Ian Paisley.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04gcfmd)
Postbag at Barnsdale
Eric Robson hosts a correspondence edition of the horticultural panel programme from Barnsdale Gardens. Matt Biggs, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood are joined by Nick Hamilton to answer questions sent in by post, online and through social media.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Darby Dorras
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
This week's questions and answers:
Q. Is it safe to feed delicate seedlings with the tank water, which when being discharged can contain rust from the tank? Does iron rust have an adverse effect on the plants?
A. Too much iron in the soil could be a problem for seedlings, but it shouldn't cause too much harm to established plants. Try to avoid using it on containers as the contaminant can build up and become more of an issue.
Q. Am I better having vertical or horizontal growing containers for Strawberries?
A. Choose vertical pots if you are short of space. Traditional strawberry pots with holes in the sides are too small. If you do choose a pot, add a pipe of grit with holes to the middle and water through that. Buckets make good containers because they can be suspended and keep the plant away from pests.
Q. For at least 10 years I have grown Runner Beans in tubs with a wigwam of canes on a very sunny south facing patio. Early on the yield was excellent but has declined over the years with 90 % of the flowers falling off without setting this year. Can you help?
A. The problem is usually a shortage of water. Perhaps the compost isn't retaining the moisture. The canes could possibly carry a disease. The variety shouldn't have any effect.
Q. I have inherited some Blueberry bushes and I am not sure what to do with them. How should they be pruned and re-potted?
A. Blueberries can be left for many years without being cut back. If you do prune, take out the old growth and leave the young shoots. Look out for scale by going along the stem and simply rubbing it off. You need to use ericaceous, lime-free compost. They ideally need a cubic metre per Blueberry, but most people don't have that much room. They need a lot of water but beware of water-logging.
Q. At the end of the garden a mixed hedge separates the garden from a field. Blackthorn shoots keep appearing in the grass. I assume these are runners from the hedge. I am reluctant to paint them with glyphosate for fear of damaging the bushes in the hedge. Is there any other way of removing these runners or would it be safe to use glyphosate gel?
A. They could be runners or separate plants that have sprouted from the Blackthorn stones. Dig a trench close to the hedge, severing all of the sucker roots to ensure they aren't connected to the main hedge. You could tease the runners out from the grass and the lawn will recover quite quickly.
SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04gnjw4)
Sunday Omnibus
Fi Glover introduces conversations about life as an immigrant, adoptiing a child, and surviving sexual abuse, from Wales and Leeds in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 15:00 The Barchester Chronicles (b04gnm5q)
Anthony Trollope's Framley Parsonage
A Gift of Fire
by Anthony Trollope, dramatised for radio by Nick Warburton
After a lot of proposals made and turned down in Barchester, Miss Dunstable decides to hold a party. Lord Lufton - turned down by Lucy - finally comes back from his fishing trip, unaware that Lucy is now nursing the Vicar's wife in typhus-ridden Hogglestock.....
Music composed by David Robin, Jeff Meegan and Julian Gallant
Produced & directed by Marion Nancarrow
And we return to Anthony Trollope's Barchester in "The Small House at Allington", will be broadcast in December.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b04gntl7)
Ali Smith on How to Be Both
Ali Smith has been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize for the third time this year for her novel How To Be Both. It's a book of two halves - set in the present day and the fifteenth century - united by themes of art, love and loss.
Stella Duffy has just published an anthology of her short stories. She talks about looking back over twenty years of writing life and reveals what a short story can do that the novel can't.
Novelist Kamila Shamsie on the book she'd never lend, her childhood copy of a much loved children's classic and a publisher gives us an insider's tip about an exciting new title.
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b04gnzrt)
Poets Laureate
Roger McGough with a selection of works by Poets Laureate past and present including Wordsworth, Tennyson, Betjeman, Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy. There's also a Cecil Day Lewis poem read by his son Daniel Day-Lewis, recorded as part of the exhibition 'Poetry for the Palace: Poets Laureate from Dryden to Duffy' at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse. Readers Anton Lesser and Alice Arnold.
SUN 17:00 High St Fashion: Weaving New Threads (b04g8jhc)
The collapse of the Rana Plaza clothing factory in Bangladesh was the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry. It brought about a series of recriminations, alliances, promises and calls for change.
With Bangladesh's clothing industry, predicted to quadruple in size over the next twenty years, a New York based private equity firm has come up with an idea to make Bangladesh's factories sustainable and efficient - as well as profitable. With backing from the Soros family, Tau Investment Management's plan is a bold one. They aim to provide a capitalist solutions to capitalism's failures.
The Guardian's Sarah Butler travels to Dhaka to meet Tau's owners and asks whether the Bangladesh factory owners need their help.
Producer: Barney Rowntree
A Tonic production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b04gnhnq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04gct71)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b04gct73)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gct75)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04gnzvn)
On this week’s Pick of the Week, Andy Kershaw hears why Stephen Fry’s life is just a picnic – with wasps; there’s an eyewitness report of how the Chinese are building artificial islands to take over international waters; the forensic geneticist behind the claims to the definitive identification of Jack the Ripper gets a bit of a grilling; then there’s the story of a remarkable, but largely forgotten, ‘wild child’ of Los Angeles music; and nothing whatsoever about the Scottish referendum.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04gnzxn)
Roy finds Hayley sitting alone, away from their bed. Desperate to make things right, he offer s to sleep on the sofa, but Hayley points out it would give the wrong message to the girls.
Johnny wants to make the most of his last hours in Ambridge. He's keen to come out with Tony and the cattle and then help Neil with the pigs. But when Sharon arrives to collect him, he's nowhere to be seen.
When Johnny eventually returns from Grange Farm, Tony asks Sharon to consider letting Johnny stay and follow an apprenticeship in agriculture. Swayed by Johnny's enthusiasm, she goes to phone Eamon.
Hayley asks were things really that bad between them? Roy's 'boss and employer' affair seems such a cliché. Roy says it was a moment of madness - a fantasy. Hurt Hayley reminds Roy of his reality. They have two daughters to look after. Roy makes an effort to be a practical dad and apologises again to Hayley. He's already losing his job. He begs her not to take their relationship and their family away from him.
Hayley doesn't know how she can ever trust Roy again. It's over with Elizabeth, he says. It never really started. Hayley lets him put his arm round her and they share a moment.
SUN 19:15 Gossip from the Garden Pond (b04gqzgp)
The Water Boatman and Great Diving Beetle
The Water Boatman played by Sandi Toksvig and the Great Diving Beetle played by David Ryall, reveal the truth about life in a garden pond, in the second of three very funny tales, written and introduced by Lynne Truss, with sound recordings by Chris Watson and Tom Lawrence.
Messing about in water is what the Water Boatman loves to do most of all. Well actually the Water Boatman is a Boatwoman and in truth she is a Backswimmer not a Water Boatman, but she prefers to be called Water Boatman and being a decisive no-nonsense type, so be it! Her days are spent rowing around the pond and scooping up whatever tasty morsel takes her fancy and trying her hardest to ignore the 'singing' of her ardent admirer, Reg. Stridulation is the technical term for Reg's singing; moving one part of his body against another (a bit like crickets and grasshoppers) to create a courtship 'song'. His persistence finally pays off, but does he win her heart?
Meanwhile, the Great Diving Beetle soars up and down through the depths, spreading fear wherever he goes. With his coat of armour, fantastic mandibles for tearing prey to pieces and a highly unpleasant habit of ejecting toxic fumes at potential predators, he's a creature to avoid! He did have a mate once, but he ate her, and brothers and sisters too, but he ate them. So all alone, he has plenty of time to think and armed with his ballistic missiles he daydreams about being a film star; a hero with super powers, and a match for any creature ... even Batman! One evening though, whilst flying round the neighbourhood, he comes across a shocking scene at a nearby pond, and drawing on his armoury of weapons, he defends the rights of his fellow beetles in a vicious battle.
SUN 19:45 Jessie Kesson Short Stories (b04gqzv8)
Cold in Coventry
The second in a series of readings from the work of the acclaimed Scottish author Jessie Kesson. Best known for her novels "Another Time, Another Place" and "The White Bird Passes", Jessie Kesson's writing was often inspired by events from her own life and by the landscape of North East Scotland.
Tonight, a poignant short story that evokes a young orphan girl's fears for her future when she returns 'In Disgrace' from her first job in service, to face the formidable Madam Superintendent of the Training Institution for Destitute Girls.
Jessie Kesson (1916 - 1994) was a prolific writer of novels, poems, stories, newspaper features and radio plays. She came through a hard start in life (born in the Inverness workhouse, raised in an Elgin slum, removed from her neglectful but much-loved mother to an orphanage in Aberdeenshire) with a passionate determination to be a writer. She combined a successful writing career with a variety of jobs, from cleaner to artist's model, and was a social worker for nearly twenty years, settling finally in London with her husband.
Reader ..... Lizzy Watts
Abridger ..... Kirsteen Cameron
Producer ..... Kirsteen Cameron.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (b04gcfml)
Understanding the Scottish referendum polls
Tim Harford talks to the pollsters about how they are trying to gauge the political mood in Scotland ahead of the independence referendum next week. He interviews Anthony Wells of YouGov and Martin Boon of ICM. Plus, he analyses UKIP's Nigel Farage's claim that more than half the population of Scotland is on benefits.
"More people are suffering from malnutrition as a result of worsening food poverty, experts have warned", reported the BBC. But is this true? Tim Harford gets the facts straight with Professor Marinos Elia, who chairs the Malnutrition Action Group of the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN).
And does the "Curse of Strictly Come Dancing" really exist? The tabloids think so, as they breathlessly report on the relationship break-ups of contestants and their dancing tutors on the BBC One show. But Tim Harford isn't so sure. He crunches the numbers with the help of John Moriarty, a maths lecturer at Manchester University.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04gcfmj)
Rev Ian Paisley, Sir Donald Sinden, Caroline Gooding, Anthony Smith, Andrew McLaglen
Matthew Bannister on former First Minister of Northern Ireland and DUP leader Ian Paisley.
The actor Sir Donald Sinden. Dame Judi Dench and Gyles Brandreth pay tribute.
Anthony Smith, the writer and broadcaster who enjoyed ballooning and travelled across the Atlantic on a home-made raft at the age of 84.
And the lawyer and disability rights campaigner Caroline Gooding - who played a key role in bringing about the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b04gn93p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04gnhyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b04gc3sr)
Which way now for Scottish businesses?
Peter Day talks to businesses in Scotland and asks how they see the future in the light of the referendum campaign. Could there be a return to the status quo or has so much changed already as a result of the political debate, regardless of which way the vote goes?
Peter Day assesses the future through the eyes of video games companies in Dundee, young entrepreneurs in Edinburgh and established Scottish business leaders.
Producer: Caroline Bayley.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04gr1y2)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04gr1y4)
Mary Riddell of The Telegraph analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04gc2xy)
Pride; Anton Corbijn on Philip Seymour Hoffman; screenwriters secrets
With Francine Stock.
The producer of Pride, David Livingstone, discusses the film's evolution from script to screen and reveals what he thinks about his comedy being touted as the next Full Monty.
A Most Wanted Man director Anton Corbijn talks about working with Philip Seymour Hoffman in his last starring role before his untimely death earlier this year.
Is being a writer on a film a thankless task ? Jeremy Brock, whose credits include the adaptation of The Last King Of Scotland, reveals the plight of the lowly scribe.
Clare Binns and Tim Robey discuss the highlights of this year's Toronto Film Festival and assess Oscar hopefuls like the Stephen Hawking bio-pic The Theory Of Everything.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04gnht6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2014
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04gct86)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 The Educators (b04g8qfg)
Paul Howard-Jones
Most parents will have witnessed the magnetic effect of computer games on children. The combination of skill, memory and risk, leading to an eventual prize, can engage people of any age for hours at a time.
Paul Howard-Jones is a psychologist specialising in education and neuroscience. He tells Sarah Montague why a better understanding of what makes games so compelling, could lead to more effective teaching.
Research suggests that combining a reward with an element of risk-taking can increase the brain's appetite for learning and success.
In classrooms this could mean pupils collecting a running score, as they would in a game, then risking some of their points on a chance outcome, such as a roulette wheel spin.
Paul also discusses research into sleep, memory, and transcranial electrical stimulation - putting a low voltage across the scalp - and the impact these things have on our ability to learn.
Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04gnhrz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04gct88)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04gct8b)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04gct8d)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04gct8g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04gr2bg)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04gr2bj)
Equine welfare crisis, EU-US trade deal, Irish beef, Strawberries
The equine industry is worth £7 billion pounds a year to the economy and, in the last 12 months, 4.5 million Britons went riding. But the British Horse Society says it's also in the grip of a welfare disaster, with too many horses and not enough good homes. This week we are looking at the successes and challenges of the equine industry and kick off by speaking to Lee Hackett, director of policy at the British Horse Society.
Charlotte also discusses the risks and opportunities that could come out of a proposed free trade deal between Europe and the United States. The European farmers' organisation Copa Cogeca says it could mean problems for beef and pig farmers who'd be forced to compete with cheaper American meat, but potentially good news for wine and olive oil producers who would benefit from a new market for luxury products.
Sticking with trade concerns, Irish beef farmers have accused retailers on both sides of Irish Sea of paying them less than their British counterparts even though their product meets the same standard. They've organised protests to highlight low prices and RTE's Damien O'Reilly has a special report from Dublin.
Strawberry growers in the UK may be able to maintain yields and reduce irrigation inputs by up to 40%, by inoculating plants with naturally-occurring soil-dwelling fungi, according to scientists at East Malling Research in Kent.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Anna Jones.
MON 05:56 Weather (b04gct8j)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dvz9y)
Guira Cuckoo
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the guira cuckoo of central South America. Guira cuckoos break all the usual rules of their family. They are very sociable and travel in noisy gangs, feeding and roosting together. But what makes the behaviour of guira cuckoos so different is that several females often lay their eggs in a single nest, sometimes as many as 20 eggs which are tended by the respective mothers . This is known as co-operative breeding. Whether a female recognises her own eggs isn't certain, but it's possible that they can distinguish them by variable markings on the eggshells and single them out for special care.
MON 06:00 Today (b04gr42x)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 The Educators (b04fzd9h)
Daisy Christodoulou
It's a relatively new dilemma for teachers. If the answer to almost anything is available with a search, should children be taught to remember facts, or how to find and use them?
Teacher and writer Daisy Christodoulou tells Sarah Montague why she thinks a generation of school children are being let down by discovery learning, which places emphasis on students finding out for themselves.
It's the opposite of traditional 'chalk and talk'. But have classrooms already moved too far towards skills and group work, in the interest of pleasing inspectors?
Based on her own time in classrooms, Daisy Christodoulou believes young people have vast gaps in their knowledge and understanding, and that traditional fact-based lessons would serve them better.
Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.
MON 09:30 The Ideas That Make Us (b03sb2v3)
Series 2
Peace
Bettany Hughes explores changing ideas of peace through images of war-torn Syria and by talking to a man on the brink of death.
The Ideas That Make Us is a Radio 4 series which reveals the history of the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation, ideas which continue to affect us all today.
In this 'archaeology of philosophy', the award-winning historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes begins each programme with the first, extant evidence of a single word-idea in Ancient Greek culture and travels both forwards and backwards in time, investigating how these ideas have been moulded by history and have shaped the human experience. Here Bettany explores changing ideas of peace with photojournalist Paul Conroy, historians Dr. David Gwynn and Dr. Faisal Devji, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Emily Collis and Davor Seselj.
Other ideas examined in The Ideas that Make Us are idea, desire, agony, fame, justice, wisdom, comedy, liberty, and hospitality.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b04gr47w)
Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman
Episode 1
In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.
Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.
Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.
Epsiode 1:
Christmas 1967 and a teenage Alan Johnson is a shelf stacker at Anthony Jackson's supermarket in East Sheen. He dreams of pop stardom, but the need for money and a chance meeting at his sister's Christmas party change his life in unexpected ways.
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04gr4gb)
Pistorius verdict; Choosing a secondary school; Jane Green; Art of flirting
"What message is this sending?" That was the question asked by one of the women protesting outside Oscar Pistorius's trial on Friday. The athlete was found guilty of the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder. So how has the verdict been received in a country where three women are killed every day by their partners? Jane speaks to the BBC's Southern Africa correspondent Nomsa Maseko and Edna Molewa from the Women's League of the African National Congress.
Choosing a secondary school for your child can be bewildering. Open Days, Ofsted Reports and tables of results might help but might not tell you if a school would be right for your child. Are good local state schools losing out because of rumours and out of date information? How can parents find out what schools are really like? Madeleine Holt is the Founder of Meet The Parents, a scheme designed to get communities to commit to good local comprehensive schools and Jan Atkinson is the Head at The Deanes in Essex.
Bestselling author Jane Green has a new novel out, Saving Grace, her most autobiographical to date. The novel is about Grace Chapman, a beautiful woman, living comfortably with her husband, bestselling author, Ted, in a farmhouse on the Hudson River in New York state. But the arrival of a new assistant to Ted changes everything and soon Grace begins to feel side lined in her home and marriage. Is Grace becoming paranoid or there is more to Beth than first appears? In this novel, Jane Green has drawn upon her own experience of being misdiagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She was treated with anti-psychotic drugs and reacted to them very badly. Jane pursued the correct diagnosis for her illness and it turned out that she had Lyme's disease. She joins Jane Garvey in the studio.
According to several studies, when it comes to flirting with the opposite sex, we are surprisingly bad at recognising the signs. And since most people fear rejection, they use tentative or indirect strategies. So how accurately can you tell if someone is flirting or just being friendly? Jane will be joined by social anthropologist and author of 'The Flirt Interpreter' Jean Smith, comedian Tom Craine who writes a Sex and the Single Guy column for Cosmo magazine and Charly Lester, London based journalist who blogs about dating and founder of the UK Dating Awards.
Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Erin Riley.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gr57c)
Queens of Noise: Rip It Up
Episode 1
Louise Wener and Roy Boulter's music drama returns as all-girl band Velveteens surf the wave created by their first single all the way from Top of The Pops to the west coast of America.
Music Directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
MON 11:00 Journey of a Lifetime (b04gr5hh)
2014: Peter Geoghegan. Wrestling with the Future
The winner of 2014's BBC/Royal Geographical Society award for a dream travel project is Irishman Peter Geoghegan. His ambition: to learn the physically exhausting skills of traditional Mongolian wrestling, on the ground in the depths of the Mongolian countryside. But with the nation's economy undergoing a phenomenal boom, this mineral-rich nation, now an industrial powerhouse, must face uncomfortable choices between tradition and change.
Mongolia's wrestlers are world famous; they eat prodigiously and grapple fearlessly for hours in the searing sun. To be a wrestler is not just part of manhood's rituals, it's an integral part of being a Mongolian, indissolubly linked to the people's old traditional life as nomadic herders: a Mongolian nomad must possess the strength to bodily lift his beasts. Each year the national Naadam or games brings together the country's greatest wrestling champions, in exhausting contests of bodily strength and guile. But today, as Peter Geoghegan discovers when he joins a band of three dozen men at one of their training camps, they now arrive in sleek new four-by-fours and often work in western-style jobs in the traffic-choked capital, Ulan Bator.
As the falcons wheel over the steppe, Peter nurses his many bruises and ponders the future of a nation at a critical crossroads between a cherished past and a lucrative future...
Producer: Simon Elmes
MON 11:30 The Pale Horse (b04gr786)
Episode 2
by Agatha Christie
dramatised by Joy Wikinson
New adaptation of this atmospheric murder mystery with an ingenious scam at its heart.
Part Two. Despite his girlfriend's irritation, young - fogey Mark Easterbrook can't resist looking into a series of recent deaths.
Directed by Mary Peate.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b04gct8l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b04gr7ct)
15 September 1914 - Jack Wilson
It's the day of the memorial service, and everyone brings their own grief.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04gr865)
IVF costs; Sir Terence Conran; Romance fraud; Phones4U
Fertility Fairness questioned all 211 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England about their provision of IVF treatment, including how much it costs them. The results show a big variation in the amounts they say they are paying for IVF, with some paying under £3000 and others claiming to pay up to £10,000. Why is there such a disparity in fertility treatment costs and what's it's impact on patients?
Sir Terence Conran tells us how poor design could have cost him his life and why interior design is more than just decorating.
Phones4U has announced it is going into administration but what does that mean for customers who have contracts with them?
MON 12:57 Weather (b04gct8n)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b04gr867)
France conference calls for global response to IS militants. Barbara Plett-Usher reports live from Paris. We also hear from Patrick Coburn, Iraq's Deputy PM Hoshyar Zebari, and Major General Tim Cross, the most senior British Army officer involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion of 2003.
Alex Salmond says he believes the Queen has been "absolutely impartial" in Scotland's referendum campaign; the Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont says the Yes campaign has lost sight of what's most important to voters. Pollster Ben Page tells us about undecided voters, and David Rhodes gauges the mood of "Borderers".
New research suggests commuting to work by public transport - or by bike or on foot - makes you happier than driving. Phillipa Hunt from the charity, Living Streets, agrees; motoring journalist Steve Berry does not.
And Mark Mardell reports from Clacton in Essex where Douglas Carswell is aiming to hold his seat for UKIP in a by-election caused by his defection from the Conservatives.
Presented by Martha Kearney.
MON 13:45 Thames Crossings (b01s4740)
Beginnings
Episode 1 (of 5): Beginnings
The River Thames has run softly through Piers Plowright's largely unplanned life. In this five-part series, he visits different points along its course where his life has crossed the great river.
In this first programme he seeks out the river's source in a dry field in Gloucestershire and finds his way, meanderingly, to Lechlade, where he spent family holidays as a child. Along the route, he meets people who spend their lives by the river - and takes the occasional dip.
Produced by Alan Hall.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b04gnzxn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b01djr4p)
Jailbird Lover
Mid-Wales: and a lonely bachelor avoids personal contact as much as humanly possible, despite the best efforts of his well-meaning but nosey next door neighbours.
Gwilym Lloyd whiles away his time, pottering in the garden, learning the harmonica and writing letters to women serving long-term prison sentences in various jails around the world. Women that he knows he'll never have to meet.
When South Londoner Layla O'Dowd is released on early parole and suddenly shows up on the the doorstep of Gwilym's rural Welsh cottage out of the blue, his whole world is turned upside down. In the modern social media jungle of internet profiles and identity theft, the art of letter writing may seem quaintly old fashioned, but that doesn't mean that it's not fraught with the very same dangers.
Craig Hawes is a new Welsh writer. Jailbird Lover is his first Afternoon Drama. He takes a dark subject and shines a comedic light on crime, nosey neighbours, waterfalls, fate and true romance.
The music was played by harmonica virtuoso Julian Jackson.
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production, directed by Emma Bodger.
MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (b04gr8jn)
Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for its 50th series.
In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.
Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.
Episode 6
Actress, writer and comedienne Maureen Lipman
Presenter and newsreader Penny Smith
Journalist, political commentator and president of YouGov Peter Kellner
Comedian, writer and actor Sanjeev Kohli
Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Reader ... Charlotte Green
Producer ... Carl Cooper.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04gnjjp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Yesterday's Papers: The End of the Music Press (b04gr9h5)
Yesterday's Papers - the end of the music press
With weekly sales down from a high of 250,000 to less than 10,000, the end of the UK music press is nigh. But music journalist and former magazine editor turned successful blogger David Hepworth isn't mourning its loss. Recalling the golden ages of Melody Maker, NME, Smash Hits and other ground-breaking and agenda-setting publications with writers including Richard Williams, Danny Baker, Mark Ellen, Jude Rogers and Danny Kelly, David explores the long decline of pop in print and asks - in the words of the Rolling Stones - who needs yesterday's papers?
Contributors: Richard Williams, Mark Ellen, Danny Baker, Danny Kelly, John Doran, Jude Rogers, Rob Fitzpatrick.
Producer: Trevor Dann
A Trevor Dann production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b04grb9v)
Agnosticism
When it comes to belief how tenable a position is "I don't know"? According to a 2013 You Gov poll, 18% of young people when asked about belief in some "spiritual greater power" answered exactly that. The noisy debate between atheists and religionists has drowned out those that fit into neither camp - the Agnostics. But beyond "I don't know" what does it mean to be an Agnostic and is it a viable theological and philosophical position when it comes to the biggest questions of life?
Joining Ernie Rea to discuss Agnosticism are Mark Vernon, former Church of England priest and author of "How To Be An Agnostic;" Alister McGrath Professor of Science and Religions at Oxford University and President of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics; and Dr Arif Ahmed Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Cambridge University.
Producer: Catherine Earlam.
MON 17:00 PM (b04grb9x)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gct8q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b04grchn)
Series 70
Episode 6
Just how hard can it be to talk for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation? Jonathan Ross, Liza Tarbuck, Alun Cochrane and Paul Merton find out. Nicholas Parsons keeps the score in his legendary style.
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b04grcn8)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b04grcnb)
The Riot Club; Ming at the British Museum; percussionist Colin Currie
The Riot Club, whose cast includes Max Irons and Jessica Brown Findlay, is a film based on Laura Wade's play Posh, about a fictional elite Oxford University male members club. Rachel Cooke reviews.
John Wilson tours the 15th Century Ming treasures at the British Museum's new exhibition - Ming: 50 years that changed China. With curator Jessica Harrison-Hall.
One of the world's top percussionists, Colin Currie, talks about becoming a human drum kit for the first night of Metal, Wood, Skin: his four month long festival at the Royal Festival Hall.
And Viv Groskop on the return of ITV's Downton Abbey.
Presenter John Wilson
Producer Claire Bartleet.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gr57c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Philosopher's Arms (b04grcnd)
Series 4
Trolleyology
Pints and Philosophical Problems with Matthew Sweet. This week, trolleyology: how should you decide between two morally troubling courses of action? This is a question which affects both soldiers in the heat of action and decision-makers in the NHS. Matthew is joined in the snug by philosopher David Edmonds.
Producer: Luke Mulhall.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b04gc0pq)
Thailand's Slave Fishermen
It has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world and much of the catch from Thailand's fishing boats ends up on Japanese, European and American plates. Yet the industry stands accused of profiting from slave labour.
The BBC's Becky Palmstrom investigates this tale of modern day slavery. She travels to Thailand and Myanmar to find out why and how illegal migrants are being forced onto Thai fishing boats, many of them working for months unpaid. She hears allegations of cruelty and even murder.
In Thailand Becky meets Ken, from rural Myanmar, who hoped to make a better life for himself and his ageing parents. He ended up being trafficked twice onto Thai fishing boats. The BBC team was able to bring his parents, back in Myanmar, the first news they had had of their son for four years.
The Thai authorities admit that most of their fishing fleet is unregistered and much of it relies on illegal migrant labour. The Thai government insists it is making every effort to clamp down on trafficking and forced labour in its fishing industry. Yet the US State Department has recently downgraded Thailand to Tier 3 in its "Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP)" - a measure of how little it believes Thailand is doing to curb the problem.
Producer: John Murphy.
MON 21:00 Shared Planet (b04g8hrb)
Giant Otters in the Pantanal
The Pantanal is a huge wetland which lies predominantly within the borders of Brazil. It boasts a diverse array of wildlife including the giant otter, which at two meters long is the world's largest species of otter. Protected by its remote location and the difficulty and expense of developing wetlands, the Pantanal has remained largely intact. However Brazil has seen years of rapid economic development, and while growth may have slowed for now, it's only a matter of time before the opportunities the Pantanal holds will be worth the costs. In this episode Monty Don finds out what the future holds for the Pantanal.
MON 21:30 The Educators (b04fzd9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b04gct8s)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04grdb8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04grdbc)
The Children Act
Episode 6
Juliet Stevenson continues Ian McEwan's powerful and haunting new novel, The Children Act - a story about faith, love and the Law and about the welfare of children and the duty of those who care for them.
Fiona Maye is an esteemed High Court Judge presiding over cases in the Family Court and admired for her 'godly distance and devilish understanding'. But beneath her professional composure, her happy marriage of thirty years is in trouble and a recent case has caused her heartache. Now she faces a life or death decision.
For religious reasons, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy is refusing life-saving treatment, and his devout parents support his wishes. Should the secular court overrule sincerely held faith? What really lies in the boy's best interests? Today the judge must make her ruling.
Ian McEwan is one of the UK's leading novelists, his many novels include Atonement, Enduring Love and On Chesil Beach.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
MON 23:00 The Human Zoo (b04795tv)
Series 4
Episode 1
The Human Zoo is a place to learn about the one subject that never fails to fascinate: ourselves. Are people led by the head or by the heart? How rational are we? And how do we perceive the world?
It's a curious blend of intriguing experiments to discover our biases and judgements, with explorations and examples taken from what's in the news to what we do in the kitchen - all driven by a large slice of curiosity.
Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick University, will be on hand as guide and experimenter in chief, together with the many other experts popularising a fast-growing subject in academia and the bookstores.
Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:30 Lives in a Landscape (b04dqwyc)
Series 17
The Roman Way
Alan Dein follows the fast-moving story of a squatter who takes over a pub in Luton - he says for the benefit of the local community.
The Roman Way is a sprawling 1960s pub at the centre of the Lewsey Farm housing estate.
The landlord of fourteen years, Declan, made the decision earlier this year to give up the business and return to Ireland to start a new life.
But, just as Declan is leaving, on his very last morning in the pub, Biggs turns up; a larger-than-life local character determined to take over the pub on behalf of the newly formed Lewsey Farm Community Action Group.
Dressed in a hoodie and bandana and carrying a heavy chain, he negotiates his way past police and a representative from the pub's owners, and - in his terminology - 'legally occupies' the building.
Over the next few weeks the story takes many unexpected twists and turns, and draws in bailiffs, security guards, police and the local community.
Alan Dein watches as the story comes to a conclusive end.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
TUESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2014
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04gct9q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b04gr47w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04gct9s)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04gct9v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04gct9x)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04gct9z)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04grdtx)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04grdtz)
Scottish Referendum, Princess Anne Opens Equine School, Environmental Scorecard
On Thursday the Scottish people will go to the polls to vote on whether or not to become independent from the rest of the United Kingdom. Farmers at Thainstone Auction Mart in Aberdeen share their thoughts just days before the referendum.
It was supposed to "the greenest government ever" but a new Environmental Audit Committee report has given some of the coalition's environmental policies a 'red card' - especially when it comes to encouraging biodiversity and preventing flooding. Labour MP Joan Walley who chairs the committee tells Anna Hill why they marked the Government so harshly.
The charity World Horse Welfare is celebrating two major breakthroughs after months of campaigning for tougher rules on fly-grazing in England and better regulation of horse passports. European proposals for more robust identification documents have been accepted by member states, including the UK, and could become law by 2016. And the Defra minister Lord De Mauley has intimated that legislation could be a distinct possibility for fly-grazing in England.
And Princess Anne has officially opened a new equine school at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Anna Jones.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dw6yc)
Spix's Macaw
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the now extinct in the wild, Spix's macaw. The Spix's macaw was declared extinct in 2000 when the last known wild born male disappeared from its final refuge in Brazil. Fortunately this strikingly beautiful member of the parrot family survives in captivity. The Al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation centre in Qatar is providing a reservoir for an organised breeding programme which is now managed by several conservation organisations under the guidance of the Brazilian government. Soon it is hoped the bird that inspired the film Rio, can once more fly free in the wild.
TUE 06:00 Today (b04grl93)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 What's the Point of...? (b04grl95)
Series 6
British Board of Film Classification
The BBFC has been going just over a century. In the early days directors could suffer the censor's snips for a long list of transgressions - unnecessary exhibition of underclothing, indecorous dancing and even talk of the relationship between capital and labour. These are more liberal, even libertarian times. We gave up the blue pencil for books and the theatre a long time ago. Now the "C" in BBFC stands for "classification" not "censor." Cinemas are struggling and the commercial power of the public picture house has been bypassed by the ungovernable internet. We can now also watch whatever we want, whenever we want to without the BBFC looking over our shoulder. So what is the point of the BBFC?
Producer: Phil Pegum.
TUE 09:30 Witness (b04grlrn)
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters
In the summer of 1964 the author Ken Kesey led a group of friends on a roadtrip across America. Travelling in a converted school bus and experimenting with LSD along the way, they called themselves the Merry Pranksters. Their trip would become one of the defining moments of American counterculture. Hear from Ken Babbs who was on that bus.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b04hc1jn)
Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman
Episode 2
In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.
Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.
Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.
Epsiode 2:
Alan Johnson participates in his first strike, and takes his first steps on a union career that would eventually lead to higher office.
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04grlrq)
Nicole Farhi, Fashion Police, Madame Bovary, Abortion in films
Nicole Farhi on why she's moved from fashion to sculpture; the new film 'Obvious Child' has been described as an 'abortion rom com' -how has the portrayal of unwanted pregnancies on the big screen changed over the decades? We discuss how and why the 16th century fashion police crusaded against flamboyance and consider who has taken over the style patrol today. Why Flaubert's classic Madame Bovary still resonates today. And we look at whether young people need to talk more openly about pleasure and consent when it comes to sex acts.
Presented by Jane Garvey
Produced by Shoku Amirani.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04grm09)
Queens of Noise: Rip It Up
Episode 2
British all-girl band Velveteens are ready for America but is America ready for Velveteens? It's a very long way to go to play to people who've never heard of you.
Music directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
TUE 11:00 Shared Planet (b04grm6g)
Ground-Nesting Birds
Ground nesting birds such as terns are particularly vulnerable to being disturbed. People are increasingly accessing the countryside for all sorts of recreation from walking and mountain biking to bird watching and photography. Is disturbance really a problem for wildlife? And how can we limit the effect while still encouraging fun and healthy ways to spend our time.
TUE 11:30 The Lost Women of British Jazz (b04grm6j)
Janine H Jones uncovers the secret history of women's jazz - and the tragic story of how a burgeoning musical equality was deliberately snuffed out.
Ivy Benson, Gracie Cole and Kathy Stobart became household names in jazz and dancehall, only after battling throughout the 1940s and 50s to gain recognition and respect in a male-dominated industry; a struggle repeated by other women over many decades.
This programme transports us back to Britain after the First World War was over, when women experienced their first taste of emancipation. The UK was becoming a hotbed of music. Bars, clubs and bottle parties hosted bands every night and ladies were jazzing right alongside the men.
In their own words, lady musicians of the Jazz Age tell their stories. Rare archive recordings fill in the skipped beats of their history and Janine reveals how first their careers, and their rightful place in history, was quashed.
Researcher Jen Wilson, historian Val Wilmer and drummer Sheelagh Pearson break fresh ground in this under-researched area and expose the hidden truth about the role of the pioneering women in early jazz.
Producers: Hannah Loy & Janine H Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04gctb1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b04grnjh)
16 September 1914 - Victor Lumley
Lieutenant Lumley is a man with a plan.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04grnjk)
Call You and Yours: Should IVF be available on the NHS?
Whether you'll get good fertility treatment on the NHS depends on where you live. Couples should get three cycles of IVF on the NHS. The campaign group Fertility Fairness investigates what's really on offer and has found that only 18 per cent of local commissioning groups in England pays for three cycles of treatment. That's down on last year. Scotland and Wales fund two treatments and Northern Ireland one. Winifred Robinson asks should IVF be available on the NHS? The number to call is 03 700 100 444.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b04gctb3)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b04grnjm)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
TUE 13:45 Thames Crossings (b01s5d47)
Learning
Episode 2 (of 5): Learning
The River Thames has run softly through Piers Plowright's largely unplanned life. In this five-part series, he visits different points along its course where his life has crossed the great river.
In today's programme he returns to Oxford where, fifty years ago, he studied history. He swims in his favourite spot at Port Meadow, meets a retired boat builder and talks to Sarah, the lock-keeper at Godstow.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04grcn8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b02ykyg6)
The Sensitive
Black Island
By Alastair Jessiman. In the second of two new cases for the psychic detective, Thomas and Kat go on holiday to the Western Isles. But Thomas is soon drawn into a dangerous game with a celebrated actor.
Producer/director: Bruce Young.
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b04gn91j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b04grpd5)
El Nino: Driving the Planet's Weather
Meteorologist, Peter Gibbs investigates the global impact of the weather phenomenon El Nino. Forecasts predict El Nino will occur at the end of this year, creating fear in many communities around the world.
Flooding, drought and famine have all been caused by the phenomenon in the past. Peruvian fishermen are often the first to notice as warmer waters change the behaviour of coastal fish stocks. Peter hears what they've already noticed and finds out how these changes could have ripple effects around the world. The anchovies in Peruvian waters are caught to feed farmed salmon but they're also an important food source for seabirds. The warm waters could also cause an imbalance in marine life and weather changes that will impact on global crop yields.
Peter Gibbs looks into the possible impacts of El Nino, how long it would take to recover and what's being done to prepare.
Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock.
TUE 16:00 Out of the Ordinary (b01r993j)
Series 1
Episode 1
In a new documentary series uncovering stories from the left field, Jolyon Jenkins reports on the extreme treatments bald men are putting themselves through. They are commissioning laboratories in China to manufacture unproven, untested, and potentially dangerous drugs to cure their hair loss. Is it a hiding to nothing or will they succeed where the drug companies haven't?
Men have always gone bald but now they're not putting up with it. An explosion of online forums has created a "hair loss community". "It's a silent epidemic", says Spencer Kobren, founder of The Bald Truth forum. "Hair loss doesn't physically hurt, but we liken it to a cancer of the spirit". Kobren runs a weekly radio show in which callers express their pain and frustration. Joe isn't sure whether it would be worse to have actual cancer: "I'd rather have one or two good years of hair," he says. "I want to hear the birds sing, I want to walk on the beach, I want to be free of this terrible disease."
In an attempt to deal with encroaching baldness, some young men are reading up on the latest medical research into hair loss and seeking out chemists to manufacture molecules they hope will work. There's no guarantee that the chemicals they are buying are pure, and the buyers have no real idea of the correct dose; but it speaks to their desperation. Some of them report unpleasant side effects. Few of them can show convincing hair regrowth.
Presenter Jolyon Jenkins, a "hair loss sufferer" for two decades, investigates this subculture. Along the way he has a consultation for a hair transplant (£10-£15,000) and looks into "hair systems" - or as some call them, wigs. Does loss of hair really decrease a man's attractiveness significantly? And how did a normal part of being a man become a debilitating disease?
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b04g8m0t)
Series 34
Stella Rimington on Dorothy L Sayers
Dame Stella Rimington, former director of MI5 and a celebrated crime writer herself, nominates for a Great Life that of Dorothy L Sayers.
Sayers' first Lord Peter Wimsey novel was published in the 1920s, the Golden Age of crime fiction, and he is still very much with us, appearing often on BBC Radio 4 Extra.
She went on to enjoy a huge popularity with her crime novels and then turned to writing Christian essays and plays, most notably the series for the BBC on the life of Christ – which stirred up a great controversy as no-one had before impersonated Jesus on the radio.
Dame Stella tells Matthew Parris why the paradoxes and contradictions in Dorothy Sayers' life fascinate her, and explains how Sayers' writing influences her own. With Seona Ford, chairman of the Dorothy L Sayers Society.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
TUE 17:00 PM (b04grrf8)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gctb5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself (b04grrpq)
Episode 1
The impression and sketch show that looks behind the scenes at the life and work of star impressionist Lewis Macleod
Lewis has performed on 4 Extra's Newsjack, plus Postman Pat, The Phantom Menace and Dead Ringers.
With Kate O'Sullivan, Duncan Wisbey and Julian Dutton.
Producer: Lyndsay Fenner
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04grrz7)
Brian's pleased that Jennifer is a wealthy woman in her own right now. Jennifer is still unsure what to do with John's handsome bequest and is worrying what Carol will think. She decides to share her money with the children - each receiving £5,000. Debbie, Kate, Alice and Adam will receive theirs as soon as the money comes through. They should set up a trust fund for Ruairi. Brian is touched. She really doesn't have to do this. But Jennifer says she does, and she wants to.
At the magistrates' court, Wayne is feeling sorry for himself and in need of a drink. He hasn't the cash to pay a big fine. Fallon tries to comfort her dad.
Wayne is given 120 hours community service. There's a reporter outside the court taking photographs. Fallon is cold with PC Burns, who protests that he's only there for another hearing.
Roy's on eggshells with Hayley, who's now working from the cruck barn. Roy hasn't seen much of Elizabeth, and he has been busy with conference guests. Hayley says they need to talk about their work situation. They can't go on like this. Hayley doesn't want to work with Elizabeth but can't just walk out. Roy's job is their main income. He needs to go back to Elizabeth and tell her he has rights.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04grrz9)
Magic in the Moonlight; Constable at the V&A; Ballyturk
Tonight's Front Row reviews Woody Allen's Magic In The Moonlight, starring Colin Firth, and Samira Ahmed visits the new Constable exhibition at the V&A.
Also in the programme: Enda Walsh on his latest play Ballyturk, and documentary-maker André Singer on Night Will Fall, the untold story of how Alfred Hitchcock became involved in the making of a Holocaust documentary - and why that film was suppressed.
(Image: Full-Scale Study for The Hay Wain, John Constable, 1821. Copyright: Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04grm09)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b04grs67)
Abused but Not Heard
Knowl View special school for boys has become infamous as the haunt of Cyril Smith. Prosecutors now say 'Mr Rochdale' should have been charged with abuse of boys while he was alive. But he was not the only one. In the first of a new series, former pupils in the 1970s, 80s and 90s tell File on 4 how a web of abusers, including local paedophiles and other pupils preyed on boys as young as eight while people supposed to protect them looked the other way. Previous police investigations came to nothing. A new probe is underway, focusing on who could be guilty of a criminal cover up. But what became of the innocent? Jane Deith hears from some of those who experienced life in Knowl View. Telling their stories for the first time, they describe childhoods twisted by sexual abuse. Now questions are being asked about whether the failure to end the abuse at Knowl View led to a culture in which the subsequent grooming of young girls in Rochdale was allowed to happen. Alan Collins, a specialist child abuse lawyer representing some of the men who're suing Rochdale Council over abuse at Know View, believes things would have been different had Cyril Smith been prosecuted and convicted: "That would have sent a clear message through Rochdale and much further afield that there was clearly a problem and that problem would not have been so easy to brush away. I think that had a very long tail and that that tail continued right up until recent times."
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Sally Chesworth.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04grspj)
Safe travel - Trialling at Tandem
Peter White speaks to blind commuter Michael Lambert, about his experience of being challenged at a railway station, on his method of negotiating a busy platform. Michael follows the edge of the platform with his white cane to orientate himself and to keep in a straight line. Station staff felt this method was unsafe and insisted Michael obtains assistance or find another route. The station management have since reassessed the situation, apologised and agree that Michael's method is safe.
We discuss the issue with seasoned travellers Julie Smethurst and Chris Danielsen, spokesperson for the National Federation of the Blind in the United States, who should decide what is safe travel for a blind person?
We also hear about a scheme which loans tandem bikes for a period of up to two months to visually impaired people. Dave Williams finds out about the charity called Charlotte's tandems.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Lee Kumutat.
TUE 21:00 Patients Doing It for Themselves (b04grspl)
Patient power is on the rise. But is it rising too far? Frustrated by the time it takes to develop new drugs, the ethical barriers to obtaining clinical data or the indifference of the medical profession to obscure diseases, patients are setting up their own clinical trials and overturning the norms of clinical research.
A DIY clinical trial sounds like a joke - and a dangerous one at that. But as Vivienne Parry discovers, it's real and on the rise as greater access to medical data allows more patients to play research scientists and medics at their own game.
Patients lie at the very heart of clinical research - without them there is none. Yet they come way down the food chain when it comes to transparency about their own health, blinded as they usually are to what pills they're taking and whether they are actually doing them any good. Even after the trial is published they're left with little understanding of whether the treatment could work for them and licensing is usually years away. So it's perhaps hardly surprising that patient networks have sprung up to redress the balance. Much of this current patient led research now takes place through online communities, with activists and the articulate ill demanding more say in their treatment.
Vivienne Parry looks at some examples of patient led research which have challenged the medical establishment. She also asks how far can this go: should patients be prevented from experimenting with procedures or drugs that might kill them ?
TUE 21:30 What's the Point of...? (b04grl95)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b04gctb7)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04grsvw)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04grsvy)
The Children Act
Episode 7
Juliet Stevenson continues Ian McEwan's powerful and haunting new novel, The Children Act - a story about faith, love and the Law and about the welfare of children and the duty of those who care for them.
Fiona Maye is an esteemed High Court Judge presiding over cases in the Family Court and admired for her 'godly distance and devilish understanding'. But beneath her professional composure, her happy marriage of thirty years is in trouble and recent cases have caused her heartache.
Should the secular court overrule sincerely held faith? What really lies in a child's best interests? When is a child still a child?
Today, off on the northern circuit, Fiona finds that her recent ruling that a child's welfare is best served by intervention is not so easily left behind.
Ian McEwan is one of the UK's leading novelists, his many novels include Atonement, Enduring Love and On Chesil Beach.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
TUE 23:00 Kevin Eldon Will See You Now (b04gwg7c)
Series 2
Rewelcome
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient returns with another series of his own sketch show. Sketches, characters, sound effects, bit of music, some messin' about, you know...
In this episode, we meet Kim Jong-Un's haircut and David Livingstone's trousers, plus we extol the wonders of drink and sneezing.
Kevin Eldon is a comedy phenomenon. He's been in virtually every major comedy show in the last fifteen years, but not content with working with the likes of Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse, Stewart Lee, Julia Davis and Graham Linehan, he's finally decided to put together his own comedy series for BBC Radio 4.
After all the waiting - Kevin Eldon Will See You Now...
Appearing across the series are Amelia Bullmore ("I'm Alan Partridge", "Scott & Bailey"), Julia Davis ("Nighty Night"), Paul Putner ("Little Britain"), Justin Edwards ("The Consultants"), David Reed ("The Penny Dreadfuls") & Catherine Shepherd ("Cardinal Burns", "Harry & Paul")
Written by Kevin Eldon
with additional material by Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris ("A Touch Of Cloth", "That Mitchell & Webb Sound")
Original music by Martin Bird
Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
Kevin Eldon is one of the UK's most noted comic actors. His list of credits include -
Father Ted
I'm Alan Partridge
Brass Eye
Black Books
Hot Fuzz
The IT Crowd
Skins
Big Train
Green Wing
Spaced
Nighty Night
Utopia
Fifteen Stories High
Kevin Eldon Will See You Now is a Pozzitive production, produced by David Tyler.
David Tyler's radio credits include Cabin Pressure, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Marcus Brigstocke's The Brig Society, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, Bigipedia, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, The 99p Challenge, Strap In - It's Clever Peter, My First Planet, The Castle, The 3rd Degree and even, going back a bit, Radio Active. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul & Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan's Run, The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.
Comedy's best kept secret ingredient returns with another series of his own sketch show.
TUE 23:30 Lives in a Landscape (b041vvvm)
Series 16
Getting the House Ready
74 year old Myf Barker is turning her enormous home into a wedding venue in the hope that it will make money. Kate Lamble meets the family and uncovers memories amid the chaos.
Purton House has been lived in by Myf, her late husband and her children for decades. It's a rambling family mansion with grounds, and an organic farm attached. But Myf has an eye to the future and wants to leave the house to her children as a viable business. So she's working to turn the property into a venue where weddings can be held and bridal families can stay the night.
Her main job is to convert the upstairs rooms so that they meet the standards of the most exacting couples. Old furniture has to be renovated, walls have to be painted and new bathrooms are being put in. Myf will even have to move out of her own bedroom which is being turned into a sitting room.
It's a daunting workload. Will it be ready on time?
Kate Lamble meets Myf, some of her grown up children including daughters Rowie and Talia and also Glenn, the son she fostered. She hears about the renovations and finds out what the house and its landscape symbolises for all of them, especially since the death of Rowie's husband Alex several years ago.
Producer; Emma Kingsley.
WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2014
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04gctc5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b04hc1jn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04gctc7)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04gctc9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04gctcc)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04gctcf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04grt7k)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04grt7m)
Scottish Referendum; Horse Meat
With just hours to go before polling opens for the Scottish referendum, farmers and farm leaders from the Yes and No camps are still trying to persuade the undecided to back them. We hear from both sides on how they think the Common Agricultural policy and EU subsidies will be affected. We hear from Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the Yes campaign and George Lyon from the Rural Better Together campaign.
We also hear from both ends of the equine industry: Britain can now trade thoroughbreds and racehorses with China thanks to a new trade deal. But the owner of a horse abattoir says tighter controls on the sale of horses could lead to more cases of neglect and abandonment.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dw6z4)
Red-headed Woodpecker
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the red-headed woodpecker found in North America. With its inky black wings, snow white body and crimson hood, the red-headed woodpecker is one of the most striking members of its family, a real 'flying checker-board'. This striking Woodpecker has an ancient past, fossil records go back 2 million years and the Cherokee Indians used this species as a war symbol. More recently and nestled amongst Longfellow's epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, the grateful Hiawatha gave the red headed woodpecker its red head in thanks for its service to him.
WED 06:00 Today (b04gvq04)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Great Lives (b04cc7cr)
Series 34
Jonathan Meades on Edward Burra
Writer Jonathan Meades nominates the English artist Edward Burra, who died in 1976, for "great life" status, arguing that he deserves to be better known.
Burra painted sailors, drinkers and prostitutes in Toulon; jazz musicians in Harlem; surreal wartime pictures of soldiers in terrifying bird masks; and, in his later years, landscapes in which anthropomorphic and malevolent machines bite chunks out of the countryside. Disabled with rheumatoid arthritis from an early age, Burra barely went to school and so escaped the Edwardian upper class upbringing that would otherwise have been his destiny. At once camp yet apparently celibate, Burra was intensely private and disliked talking about either himself or art - or, as he called it, "fart".
Matthew Parris chairs the discussion, and is joined by Burra's biographer Jane Stevenson.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
WED 09:30 Publishing Lives (b03xgl42)
Series 2
Paul Hamlyn
Robert McCrum explores the stories of five great British publishers.
Paul Hamlyn revolutionised the British book trade in the 20th century, turning it from a cosy club serving the elite into an industrial powerhouse. A Jewish émigré from Berlin, he entered publishing by selling books from a barrow at Camden Market. But he soon ran low on stock and started his own firm, printing books cheaply but handsomely in Eastern Europe. His great insight was that beautiful colour plate books could be produced for the mass market at very low prices.
Hamlyn was an outsider who was looked down on by the gentlemen who had traditionally dominated publishing, but he achieved his ambition to become the biggest publisher on the block. Along the way he transformed the industry with a revolution in lifestyle books - cookery, gardening, history, art - mass-produced at high quality.
Hamlyn was at the forefront of the non-fiction revolution that transformed bookshops and brought colour to post-war Britain. Marguerite Patten's Cookery in Colour of 1962 quickly became an unprecedented bestseller. Today's bestseller lists, packed with celebrity chefs, would have been inconceivable before Paul Hamlyn discovered and developed this new market.
Robert McCrum talks to publishing insiders including Tim Hely Hutchinson and Lady Helen Hamlyn.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b04hc1jq)
Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman
Episode 3
In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.
Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.
Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.
Epsiode 3:
Alan Johnson becomes more active in his union and joins the Labour Party. But his political inspiration comes from unlikely sources - Glasgow communist Jimmy Reid and his Tory-supporting brother-in-law Mike.
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04gvrjq)
Kate Hudson; Maternity Care; Enid Blyton; Women Against Fundamentalism
Actress Kate Hudson on her new film. Why are socially disadvantaged women missing out on maternity care? PP Wong on her novel 'The Life of a Banana'. Twenty five years of the Women Against Fundamentalism movement - Nira Yural-Davis and Pragna Patel discuss how it developed and what it means now. Classic archive from the Woman's Hour Collection - Enid Blyton interviewed in the 1960s.
Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Eleanor Garland.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b04gvrjs)
Queens of Noise: Rip It Up
Episode 3
By Louise Wener. After a roller coaster ride across the States, Velveteens finally arrive in California to play the famous Troubadour club. Has it been worth the journey?
Music directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04gvsnk)
Sarah and Natalie - Blind Faith
Fi Glover hears how a child's blindness was misdiagnosed as psychological when in fact it was the result of a tumour, in this conversation between the now 17 year old and her mother, proving yet again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 11:00 Don't Log Off (b04gvsnm)
Series 5
Enduring Love
Alan Dein crosses the world via Facebook and Skype, hearing the real life dramas of random strangers.
In this first programme of the new series, Alan discovers some moving stories of couples under pressure.
Alan builds up a relationship with Hank and Norma in Arkansas, USA following them over the course of a difficult year as harp-playing Hank draws on his own near-death experience to deal with Norma's breast cancer. As Hank puts it: "I worked hard to survive, and I deserve my companion in life..."
Alan also tracks the fortunes of a young couple in love, trying to make a go of it despite the fact one lives in southern Italy and the other in Slovakia.
Plus a veteran of the first Gulf War - now a long distance lorry driver - recalls how he salvaged his own relationship after it faltered as a result of long absences from home.
WED 11:30 Wordaholics (b04gvtj0)
Series 3
Episode 3
Comedian Ed Byrne, Tasmanian stand up and art expert Hannah Gadsby, punmaster general Milton Jones and classics boffin Natalie Haynes vie for wordy supremacy under the watchful eye of chair Gyles Brandreth.
Letter of the week is 'N' and there's a round about derogatory terms.
Panellists also attempt to ban their least favourite words including 'simples'.
Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.
Producer: Claire Jones.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b04gctch)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b04gvvbq)
17 September 1914 - Gabriel Graham
Councillor Graham sees a new side to Folkestone.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04gvvbs)
Copycat websites, British designers, Dogs' homes
The tobacco company behind a smoking cessation device that's been approved by the NHS.
The first in a series focusing on young British designers.
How are our dogs' homes making ends meet?
Do we have the resources to tackle food crime?
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Kevin Mousley.
WED 12:57 Weather (b04gctck)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b04gvvbv)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
WED 13:45 Thames Crossings (b01s5f3m)
Pilgrimage
Episode 3 (of 5): Pilgrimage
The River Thames has run softly through Piers Plowright's largely unplanned life. In this five-part series, he visits different points along its course where his life has crossed the great river.
In this programme, Piers visits Ewelme, a small village in the scoop of the Chiltern Hills where his sister is buried across the way from Jerome K Jerome.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b04grrz7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b04gvw1t)
The Man Who Turned Into a Sofa
A depressed man and the sofa that sorted him out. A true story of illness overcome written and performed by Andrew Fusek Peters, Polly Peters and Rosalind Jana Peters. And a sofa performed by Lorcan Cranitch. With original music by William Goodchild. Who needs a Freudian couch when you've got the most comfortable sofa in the world? Producer: Tim Dee.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b04gw6mh)
Relationships and Money
How do you manage money as a couple? Whether you are setting up or splitting up your finances, call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk
Personal finance may not be the most romantic topic of conversation when you're starting life as a couple but you will have to take on joint financial decisions, goals and responsibilities.
Whether your personal circumstances and spending habits are similar or different you may have questions about protecting or making the most of your assets.
How do you maximise the tax advantages of marriage and civil partnerships?
What are the rules about transferring allowances and assets?
Which of you will be responsible for household bills, joint bank accounts, loans or credit agreements and what happens if you split up?
In the event that a relationship does break down, how can you untangle your money and home fairly?
Can cohabitation and prenuptial agreements help and what are the differences between Scotland and England?
Joining presenter Ruth Alexander will be:
Anita Monteith, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Rachael Kelsey, Family Law Specialist, Sheehan Kelsey Oswald, Edinburgh.
Marilyn Stowe, Senior Partner, Stowe Family Law.
Dennis Hussey, Money Adviser, National Debtline
To talk to the team call 03700 100 444 from
1pm to
3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail your question to moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic call charges apply.
Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Diane Richardson.
WED 15:30 Patients Doing It for Themselves (b04grspl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 The Educators (b04gvm7n)
Sugata Mitra
Professor Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, imagines a future where children teach themselves. Famous for his Hole-in-the-Wall experiment, he believes when young people are given the right tools and encouragement, their innate sense of wonder can allow them to learn almost anything from one another. He believes the days of traditional schooling where teachers stand at the front, and facts are taught and recalled, are numbered.
Professor Mitra's dreams are not going unheard either. Last year his TED wish to build a "School in the Cloud" won him the first $1m TED Prize. Since then, he and his team have gone on to open five learning in the cloud labs in schools in India and in the North East of England.
In this programme, Sarah Montague finds out how Professor Mitra's Hole-in-the-Wall experiment, whereby computers connected to the internet were placed in the walls of Indian slums, has evolved into a concept called a Self-Organised Learning Environment (SOLE). She hears how groups of children with minimal supervision can teach themselves, and how a team of retired teachers, or Grannies, use webcams to provide support and encouragement during the SOLE session.
Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04gw6rk)
Mike Darcey, CEO of News UK; the role of the press in Scotland; Ofcom on London Live
The media regulator Ofcom has rejected London Live's request to reduce programming commitments. After just four months on air, the local TV station asked to produce just one hour of London content during the prime time evening slot, compared to the current three. It also wanted to scrap its commitment to 10 hours of repeats every day. Steve Hewlett hears from Peter Davies, Director of Content Policy at OFCOM about why they rejected the request, and asks him what it means for the future of London Live and local TV.
News UK, publishers of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, has moved from its iconic home in Wapping to a new building across the Thames. It marks a new start for Rupert Murdoch's organisation, which has been plighted by controversy in recent months with the conclusion of the trial into hacking. But with more trials on the way, can staff really put the past behind them? Steve Hewlett gets a tour of the building from Chief Executive Mike Darcey on the day of the opening, and talks to him about how the business is doing, and why he's got no plans to make changes to Page 3.
The Sunday Herald is still the only newspaper in Scotland to back a 'yes' vote in the referendum with the rest either sitting on the fence or backing a 'no'. With just one day to go, with both sides of the independence debate pushing for votes, we look at the role and the impact the press has played in Scotland's big decision. Steve hears from Ruth Wishart, broadcaster and columnist for the 'Herald' and 'Guardian'; Allan Rennie, Managing Editor in Chief of Media Scotland, publishers of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, amonst others, and Greg Philo, Professor of Communications and Social Change at Glasgow University.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b04gw6rm)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gctcp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation (b04gyp8k)
Series 10
How to Eat Food
Setting out to explain one of our most fundamental acts as human beings, Jeremy Hardy picks up the topic of food with the chopsticks of enquiry and then drops it on his trousers of former cleanliness.
Helping him tackle the subject will be special guests Vicki Pepperdine and Paul Bassett Davies.
The comedian engages in a free and frank exchange of his entrenched views. Passionate, polemical, erudite and unable to sing, Jeremy returns with another series.
Few can forget where they were twenty years ago when they first heard "Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation". The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. The Light Entertainment department was besieged, questions were asked in the House and Jeremy Hardy himself became known as the man responsible for the funniest show on radio since Money Box Live with Paul Lewis.
Since that fateful first series, Jeremy went on to win Sony Awards, Writers Guild nominations and a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He was a much-loved regular on both The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Written by Jeremy Hardy
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in September 2014.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b04gw71f)
Ruth and David need to talk about her mum's future. Heather will be allowed home after an assessment.
Adam has still to hear about the current contract to farm the Estate. David's bemused. Refusing to think about the new road, he urges Adam to press on.
The marquee is up for Sunday's baby naming ceremony. Lynda, Fallon and Emma have laid the table cloths and napkins and strung up the bunting - all as per Leonie's careful instructions.
Johnny has been allowed to stay in Ambridge. He's helping Ed and the other casuals pick spuds and enthusing about the apprenticeship Tony has found for him. He's going to see the course supervisor tomorrow.
Ed tells a gripped Johnny about the continued uncertainty over the future of the milk round. Johnny's eyes widen in horror as there's a loud clap of thunder. It's suddenly dark and rain buckets down, gushing over the potato field in torrents. It also plays havoc with Lynda's marquee and the naming day bunting.
David helps Jill mop out the kitchen. Neither he nor Adam have seen rain like it.
Distraught Lynda tries in vain to sweep water away. Tony, Ed and Johnny stop to help. Lynda is distraught. It's not just her garden, it's her plans for Sunday - ruined, all ruined.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b04gw71h)
Joan Baez, BBC National Short Story award shortlist, Hamlet
With John Wilson. The singing legend with the bell-like voice, Joan Baez, about to perform at the Royal Festival Hall, talks about her extraordinary life and musical career.
Alan Yentob announces the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award 2014, and James Schamus - the writer and producer whose films include Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Lost in Translation - talks about the future of Hollywood, ahead of his opening talk for the BAFTA Screenwriting Lectures Series.
Plus, Susannah Clapp reviews Maxine Peake as Hamlet at Manchester's Royal Exchange theatre.
Presenter : John Wilson
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
Image Credit: Marina Chavez.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gvrjs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 FutureProofing (b04gw7xr)
The Immortality of the Crab
To be human is to seek immortality, whether by freeing the soul or freezing your brain. It's the root of religion, the inspiration of philosophy and the driving force behind music, art and literature.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, immortality is a serious business. We've always wanted to live just a little longer, and through exercise, diet and medicine we're getting surprisingly good at it. Life expectancy is rising and rising - children born today in the West have a life expectancy of 100. And this has changed our future in ways we're yet to really understand.
Tom Shakespeare goes in search of that future - and in search of what we can do now to negotiate with that future. We'll need new foods, like insects. We'll need to rethink relationships, and family dynamics. Will we be more reckless, feeling that life just goes on and on? And will we grow old disgracefully, rather than seeing the maturity that used to come with years? The statistics don't tell the whole story of what our future will be.
But perhaps we need to think again, and work a little harder on our changing relationship with death rather than celebrating the length of life?
And then there are the layered meanings in a phrase of Spanish... just what is "the immortality of the crab"?
Featuring writer Bryan Appleyard, bio-chemist Guy Brown, philosopher Stephen Cave, priest and journalist Giles Fraser, painter Osi Rhys Osmond, designer Susana Soares, gerontologist Anthea Tinker CBE.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b04gw7xt)
Series 4
Judgement at Last
Tiffany Jenkins argues that we need more judgement about quality in art, culture and life.
Tiffany's field of expertise is the arts. She says that judgement about quality is unfashionable in today's art world, and this is a problem. She believes that only by being clear about how judgements are reached, and discussing them openly, can we hope to reach a consensus on a common culture.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b04grpd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Great Lives (b04cc7cr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b04gctcr)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04gw88d)
On the eve of Scotland's historic vote on whether to become independent, Ritula Shah presents a special programme from Edinburgh featuring the final moments of the campaign. We'll also be assessing the economic pros and cons and we'll be asking how the historic vote is being seen from abroad.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04gw88g)
The Children Act
Episode 8
Juliet Stevenson continues Ian McEwan's powerful and haunting new novel, The Children Act - a story about faith, love and the Law and about the welfare of children and the duty of those who care for them.
Fiona Maye is an esteemed High Court Judge presiding over cases in the Family Court and admired for her 'godly distance and devilish understanding'. But beneath her professional composure, her happy marriage of thirty years is in trouble and recent cases have caused her heartache.
Should the secular court overrule sincerely held faith? What really lies in a child's best interests? And as the boy whose life she has saved through the court's intervention makes an epic journey and seeks her out, what should Fiona do now?
Ian McEwan is one of the UK's leading novelists, his many novels include Atonement, Enduring Love and On Chesil Beach.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
WED 23:00 Jigsaw (b04gw8cg)
Series 2
Episode 4
The rapid-fire and surreal sketch show series.
Starring award-winning stand-up comedians Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema
Producer: Colin Anderson.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
WED 23:15 Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard (b01jxslj)
Series 3
Election Fever
Step into the magically mundane world that is the life of 21st Century Wizard Mordrin McDonald. An isolated 2000 year-old Scottish sorcerer with enough power in his small finger to destroy a town, yet insufficient clout to get a speed bump installed outside his cave by the local council. Even for such a skilful sorcerer, modern life is rubbish!
In this episode, Mordrin (David Kay) finally gets an opportunity to get a seat on the Wizard Council. The Golden Phoenix has flown down the chimney at the Wizard Chambers signifying the start of the election process, which only happens every 150 years, and Mordrin has been called to stand. It's a brilliant chance for Mordrin to finally get some clout in the Wizard community, the only downside is that failure to win at the ballot box will result in certain fiery death under the Golden Phoenix. Mordrin decides to call upon Bernard (Jack Docherty) to be his campaign manager.
Written by David Kay and Gavin Smith
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:30 Lives in a Landscape (b039c5d3)
Series 14
The Wedding
Mimi and Ryan are getting married. Alan Dein presents a fly-on-the-wedding cake documentary that follows them through the day, from waking up with a hangover to chucking-out time at Sale Rugby Club.
In between there's a church wedding, a christening (their daughter Isabella is six months old), photographs, confetti, a lavish home-made buffet, speeches (ranging from tearful to inappropriate), dancing and a lot of laughter.
'We want to be a proper family,' says Ryan.
'It's the biggest party I'll ever throw in my life,' says Mimi. 'It started out as a budget wedding but it got a bit out of hand.'
Producer: Peter Everett.
THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2014
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04gctfn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b04hc1jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04gctfq)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04gctfs)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04gctfv)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04gctfx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04gw8pl)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04gw8pn)
UK Dairy Day
Charlotte Smith travels to Telford in Shropshire, for a special edition of Farming Today from the first UK Dairy Day. She meets dairy farmers and specialists and hears their concerns about the state of the dairy industry, amid a background of falling milk prices in the UK. Much of the drop is being blamed on global commodity prices and the Russian ban on food imports from the EU, but is that just an excuse? She also hears from producers who are optimistic about the future, and think this is a good time to invest.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dw7p8)
Superb Lyrebird
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the superb lyrebird of eastern Australia. Superb lyrebirds are about the size of pheasants. During courtship, as the male struts and poses, he unleashes a remarkable range of sounds. Up to 80% of the lyrebird's display calls are usually of other wild birds. However, if kept in captivity, they can mimic a chainsaw, camera click, gunshot and a whole host of other man made sound. Research recently discovered that the lyrebird co-ordinates his dancing displays to particular sounds. But superb lyrebirds are promiscuous performers and it's quite likely that another male may have played the leading role while he dances and sings away.
THU 06:00 Today (b04gwchh)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Archive on 4 (b04gnhnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b04hc1q5)
Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman
Episode 4
In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.
Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.
Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.
Epsiode 4:
Juggling a rural post-round – where he gets his first view of the Home Secretary's country retreat, Dorneywood – and with a growing role in the trade union, Alan finds himself at an inevitable crossroads between the family life he had worked so hard to build and the exciting demands of political office.
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04gwcxz)
Chrissie Hynde; Author Kathy Reichs
Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders on her life and career as a leading woman in music as she finally goes solo after 35 years.
Melanie Megevand, Women's Protection & Empowerment advisor at the International Rescue Committee talks about their new report which calls for action to help the thousands of Syrian female refugees who face a relentless cycle of sexual violence, harassment and early or forced marriage.
This Saturday in Glasgow a remembrance service will be taking place for anyone who's lost a baby through miscarriage or stillbirth. It's one in a series of services that have been taking place across the country this autumn called Saying Goodbye. Zoe and Andy Clark-Coates are behind the idea and explain why it's important to have a way to publicly acknowledge your loss.
Plus the forensic anthropologist and best selling author Kathy Reichs joins Jenni to talk about her latest novel, Bones Never Lie.
And as The Riot Club comes to a cinema near you, we ask; What's the value of being a member of an all boys club? Can women compete with the networking opportunities they offer?
Presented by Jenni Murray
Produced by Beverley Purcell.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gwd4b)
Queens of Noise: Rip It Up
Episode 4
by Roy Boulter. Sam has to read the riot act after securing legendary producer Thomas Monmouth, aka Mono, to produce the girls' first album.
Music directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b04gwdgx)
Ivory Coast's School for Husbands
In one remote district in Ivory Coast, men are going back to school. Their studies are part of a UN-backed project dubbed 'the school for husbands' and designed to save the lives of women and children.
The idea is to teach decision makers - the men - about the importance of family planning, check-ups, and pre-natal care for their wives. The aim is to help women and also improve general welfare in farming villages where food is scarce and incomes are dependent on the weather and good fortune.
Lucy Ash hears stories from the schools for husbands and finds out why Ivory Coast's health system is struggling to recover from the post-election crisis three years ago, even as the country's economy roars ahead.
Producer: Mike Wendling.
THU 11:30 Heaven and Earth: Le Ly Hayslip (b04h85ql)
Vietnamese writer Le Ly Hayslip reflects on her life and work shedding new light on her country's experience of the war.
Much of what we know about Vietnam we know through the prism of western, primarily American, culture. Two autobiographies written by the Vietnamese-American author Le Ly Hayslip offer an important insight into the war and its aftermath from a Vietnamese perspective.
It's 25 years since the publication of her first memoir, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace, which was followed in 1993 by her second book, Child of War, Woman of Peace. In this programme, Le Ly gives us unique access into her home in Vietnam to talk about her life and the two books that tell her remarkable story of suffering, survival and her mission to heal the wounds between America and her homeland.
Le Ly was tortured in a South Vietnamese government prison for "revolutionary sympathies", raped by the VC, and fled to Saigon before fleeing to America. There she married unhappily, prospered, and returned to her village in Vietnam 13 years later. She has since set up the East Meets West foundation to reconcile Americans and Vietnamese, and the Global Village Foundation providing development assistance to rural Vietnam.
The programme includes in interview with the director Oliver Stone, who was so moved by Le Ly's story he made a film about her - 1993's Heaven and Earth. Says Stone: 'That she has been through so much and can talk honestly the way she does is the key to her book and the understanding of it and that's why I wanted to make the film - to understand someone who had suffered even more than I had. And I can learn from her.'
Producer: Eve Streeter
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b04gctfz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b04gwfbr)
18 September 1914 - Ralph Winwood
A momentous day for the Winwood household. Ralph has something very important to tell Dorothea, who has something very important to tell Ralph.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04gwfd1)
Debt Letters; GP Reform; Pension Liberation; Unworn School Uniform
One of the big six energy firms has told us it'll continue to pretend it's a debt collector when chasing customers in arrears.
Just weeks before one of the biggest changes in how GPs work - the British Medical Association tells us the new plans are flawed
We look at why some pupils just won't wear their school uniform - and what can you do to change it?
Does being left-handed mean you are being left behind by technology?
The designer Sir Paul Smith gives us a tour of his shed.
And more on people who tried to liberate their pensions early - but didn't get the deal they were promised.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: PETE WILSON.
THU 12:57 Weather (b04gctg1)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b04gwfh0)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
THU 13:45 Thames Crossings (b01s5g50)
Words and Flesh
Episode 4 (of 5): Words and Flesh
The River Thames has run softly through Piers Plowright's largely unplanned life. In this five-part series, he visits different points along its course where his life has crossed the great river.
Piers' journey brings him to Cookham and Maidenhead, where he views the river through the work of his favourite artist, the painter Stanley Spencer, and explores the town's racy reputation: 'Are you married or are you from Maidenhead?'
Producer by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b04gw71f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b04gwk84)
The Basin
The Basin by Dan Allum
When Nina wakes the morning after her wedding to find her new husband sitting outside their trailer skinning a rabbit, it's a vivid reminder that her life has changed completely overnight. Nina gave up her home and career to become a Traveller's wife and although she's excited to take on the new challenge, she still has to come to terms with why she made such a big and hurried leap in the first place.
Produced by Charlotte Riches.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b04gwlf8)
Series 28
The Dales Way, Part One
Clare Balding embarks on her first leg of The Dales Way, in the company of Sarah Howcroft. Sarah, an enthusiastic walker and climber for many years, along with her husband founded one of the foremost outdoor clothing companies. The Dales Way is an 82 mile route, starting at Ilkey in Yorkshire. Sarah and Clare walk along the River Wharfe to Bolton Abbey.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04gnhyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b04gntl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04gwlll)
Nick Cave; Jonathan Coe; The Riot Club
With Francine Stock.
Nick Cave discusses a documentary about his life and work called 20,000 Days On Earth, which mixes fact with fiction, as film-makers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard placed the singer in a series of staged encounters and let the cameras roll. Cave explains why he wasn't entirely happy with some of the things they asked him to do.
Novelist Jonathan Coe discusses the Claudette Colbert comedy Midnight, written by one of his film heroes, Billy Wilder
The Riot Club director Lone Scherfig reveals what she thinks of the British class system as depicted in her adaptation of Laura Wade's play Posh, which displays the drunken antics of a secret society at Oxford University, not unlike The Bullingdon Club which boasted David Cameron as one of its members.
Presenter.... Francine Stock.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04gwlln)
European ancestry; Cern is 60; Graphene plasters; Penguins
European Ancestry
New genetic investigation of ancient human remains, combined with archaeological evidence, is shedding new light on the origins of the early European populations. The international team has provided a detailed analysis of waves of immigration from the near east into Europe, and the emerging agricultural practices that came with it, which has come to dominate the traditional practices of indigenous residents.
CERN - Artificial retina
The human eye and the parts of the brain that process images are second to none when it comes to pattern recognition and concentrating on the important images and ignoring the rest. They have inspired physicists to create a processor that can analyse particle collisions 400 times faster than any other device. In these collisions, protons, that is, ordinary matter, are smashed against protons at close to the speed of light. These processes may produce new particles and help scientists understand matter's mirror - antimatter. Professor Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool, explains how this algorithm could help sift through data from collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Graphene plaster
Since it was discovered 10 years ago, the wonder material graphene has taken the world by storm. What's not to like about it? A sheet of carbon one-atom thick, it was the first two-dimensional material discovered. It's stronger than steel, conducts electricity better than copper. We are told it will be used in touch screens of the future. It may be the secret to miniaturising electronics when current chip technology runs out of steam. But at the other end of the technology market a team at Surrey University has found it useful to blend graphene with rubber bands to make cheap effective bio-sensors.
Penguins
In a new citizen science project, 'penguinologists' are asking the public to classify images of penguin colonies in Antarctica, to help the team monitor their health. Thousands of images taken by remote cameras monitoring over 30 colonies around the Southern Ocean are being posted online. We hear why penguins are at risk from habitat and climate change and what the public can do to help.
Producer: Fiona Roberts.
THU 17:00 PM (b04gwlw2)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gctg3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing (b04gwlw4)
Series 3
About Intelligence
In a mix of stand-up and re-enacted family life - Nathan Caton illustrates what can happen when you try to prove to your family how clever you are.
Written by Nathan Caton and James Kettle
Young, up-and-coming comedian Nathan Caton, who after becoming the first in his family to graduate from University, opted not to use his architecture degree but instead to try his hand at being a full-time stand-up comedian, much to his family's horror and disgust. They desperately want him to get a 'proper job.'
Janet a.k.a. Mum is probably the kindest and most lenient of the disappointed family members. At the end of the day she just wants the best for her son. However, she'd also love to brag and show her son off to her friends, but with Nathan only telling jokes for a living that's kind of hard to do.
Martin a.k.a. Dad works in the construction industry and was looking forward to his son getting a degree so the two of them could work together in the same field. But now Nathan has blown that dream out of the window. Martin is clumsy and hard-headed and leaves running the house to his wife (she wouldn't allow it to be any other way).
Shirley a.k.a. Grandma cannot believe Nathan turned down architecture for comedy. She can't believe she left the paradise in the West Indies and came to the freezing United Kingdom for a better life so that years later her grandson could 'tell jokes!' How can her grandson go on stage and use foul language and filthy material... it's not the good Christian way!
So with all this going on in the household what will Nathan do? Will he persevere and follow his dreams? Or will he give in to his family's interference? Or will he finally leave home?!
Producer: Katie Tyrrell
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b04gwm0s)
Joe gazes down at the River Am. In all his years, he's never seen it looking so brown, with silt run-off from the land. David agrees as they wish each other a happy birthday. Long suffering David proffers a tenner for Joe's drink fund (a yearly tradition).
Ruth and Jill agree with Joe that it's the fault of the Estate. Justin, Rob and Charlie's farming practices are ruining the local soil.
Defeated Lynda despairs of being ready for Sunday's naming ceremony. And there's more bad news. When Lynda rushed out, she left the front door open, allowing water into the hall. She's crestfallen to have let Leonie - worse, Mungo - down. Tony, Eddie and Ed come to help clear up. They fill rubble bags with silt they scoop off the lawn.
Johnny got on well with the course supervisor at Borchester College. Now all he has to do is persuade his mum.
At the Bull, Joe insists on despondent Ed taking some cash for a drink, to treat himself for once.
Joe walks out with Tony. Tony knows that Ed's worried about his future. It's good to see Joe and Ed so close. Joe says poignantly that grandsons can be easier to get along with than sons. You can right a lot of wrongs with a grandson.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b04gwm0v)
Denzel Washington; Howard Brenton; Leonard Cohen; Riccardo Chailly
Denzel Washington on getting revenge in his new film, action thriller The Equalizer.
Samira Ahmed talks to conductor Riccardo Chailly, whose recordings of Brahms Symphonies last night won Gramophone Record the Year.
Howard Brenton discusses Doctor Scroggy's War, his new play for Shakespeare's Globe about the founding father of plastic surgery.
And 80 year old Leonard Cohen releases his 13th studio album, Popular Problems. Ruth Barnes reviews.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gwd4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b04gwm0z)
The Right to be Forgotten
Simon Cox asks why people want to have some results wiped from Google searches and investigates the effect of the recent 'right to be forgotten' ruling at the European Court of Justice. He speaks to those who have tried to have links removed and those who think this is just a charter for criminals to hide their pasts. He travels to Madrid to see Google's first Advisory Panel meeting as they try to gain clarity on the ruling and what it means for Google now and in the future.
THU 20:30 In Business (b04gwm26)
Myanmar Awakening
Peter Day travels to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to find out how the country is trying to emerge from its undeveloped past into the modern interconnected world. After the lifting of sanctions a few years ago, foreign businesses flocked to take a look at one of the least developed markets in the world. But is the country really open for business? With poor infrastructure, political uncertainty and out-dated laws, can Myanmar make the leap into the 21st century?
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04gwlln)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Disabled and Behind Bars (b042zb50)
Nikki Fox is well behaved. She's never been to prison. This is a good thing anyway, but particularly so because Nikki has muscular dystrophy, and gets around in a mobility scooter.
The UK's prison population is getting older, and as a result the prison service has to manage increasing numbers of inmates with physical disabilities. Can it cope with their needs?
Nikki speaks to former inmates, justice officials, and The Prisons Minister to investigate whether disabled prisoners experience harsher treatment than others. She discovers a world where staff refuse to push wheelchairs, disabled prisoners are held in the wrong level of security, lack of access can mean weeks without showering, and where one man's experience left him on a life support machine.
Is a system so reliant on Victorian buildings able to provide the sort of equal access and treatment expected in the outside world? Does prison culture discriminate against disabled people in ways that are now unacceptable in normal society? Are staff sufficiently trained to help with varied physical needs in an era of government cuts and fewer resources? Is it even fair to expect them to do so?
Nikki asks what the prison service and the government are doing to improve conditions for disabled people, and avoid a "double punishment", at the same time as ensuring they face justice. She hears about schemes encouraging prisoners to help each other, the push to develop new more accessible prisons, and the sentencing options open to judges.
Nikki sets out on her scooter to tackle these issues and discover what it's really like to be "Disabled and Behind Bars".
Producer: Neil Cowling
An Alfi Media production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 21:58 Weather (b04gctg5)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 Scotland Decides (b00752nh)
Episode 1
As polls close across Scotland at the end of a long referendum campaign, James Naughtie and Rachel Burden present the results.
Editors: Giles Edwards and Chris Hunter.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04gwm5k)
The Children Act
Episode 9
Juliet Stevenson continues Ian McEwan's powerful and haunting new novel, The Children Act - a story about faith, love and the Law and about the welfare of children and the duty of those who care for them.
Fiona Maye is an esteemed High Court Judge presiding over cases in the Family Court and admired for her 'godly distance and devilish understanding'. But beneath her professional composure, her happy marriage of thirty years is in trouble and recent cases have caused her heartache.
Above all the surprise arrival of Adam Henry, the teenager whose life she saved through the court's intervention, has left her exposed and shaken.
How do you find safe ground again when you have overstepped the mark?
Ian McEwan is one of the UK's leading novelists, his many novels include Atonement, Enduring Love and On Chesil Beach.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
THU 23:00 Scotland Decides (b04hgskl)
Episode 2
As polls close across Scotland at the end of a long referendum campaign, James Naughtie and Rachel Burden present the results.
Editors: Giles Edwards and Chris Hunter.
FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2014
FRI 05:00 Today (b04gyp7k)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Prayer for the Day, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b04gnjhk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b04hc1r3)
Alan Johnson - Please, Mr Postman
Episode 5
In July 1969, while the Rolling Stones played a free concert in Hyde Park, future Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson and his young family left West London to start a new life. The Britwell Estate in Slough, notorious among the locals, came as a blessed relief after the tensions of London's troubled Notting Hill, and the local community welcomed them with open arms.
Alan Johnson had become a postman the previous year and, in order to support his growing family, took on every bit of overtime he could, often working twelve-hour shifts six days a week. It was hard work, but not without its compensations – the crafty fag snatched in a country lane, the farmer's wife offering a hearty breakfast and even the mysterious lady on Glebe Road who appeared daily, topless, at her window as the postman passed by.
Please, Mister Postman paints a vivid picture of England in the 1970s, where no celebration was complete without a Party Seven of Watney's Red Barrel, smoking was the norm rather than the exception, and Sunday lunchtime was about beer and bingo. But as Alan Johnson's life appears to be settling down and his career in the Union of Postal Workers begins to take off, his close-knit family is struck once again by tragedy.
Epsiode 5:
By 1982 Alan Johnson's union career is going from strength to strength with a position on the Executive beckoning. Work keeps him away from home and the Thatcher government at its height ensures life is tough for the union. But the biggest storm clouds transpire to be personal rather than political.
Read by Alan Johnson
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04gypdk)
Scottish referendum, gay police officers, women poets
The Scottish referendum - what happened with the women's vote and how critical was it in deciding Scotland's future?
The Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales recently asked gay members about their experiences at work, and found nearly half fear the consequences of revealing their sexuality while rising through the ranks. Jenni Murray is joined by Chief Superintendent Mike Gallagher of the Metropolitan Police, and Steph Morgan, a retired assistant chief constable to discuss what more needs to be done to remove the stigma faced by gay and lesbian police officers.
Twenty one years ago Peggy Reynolds interviewed four relatively unknown poets about the impact of gender and nationality on their poetry and on their sense of identity. Today, Carol Ann Duffy is the first female Poet Laureate, Gillian Clarke is the National Poet of Wales, Liz Lochhead is the Makar or National Poet of Scotland, and Eavan Boland is a highly distinguished scholar-poet. For Archive on 4 on Radio 4, this Saturday, Peggy revisits all four to ask them to reflect on the state of women's poetry today. She joins us to discuss how the poetry landscape for women has changed.
There is a strong, but neglected tradition of women's poetry written in response to the events of the First World War. Just as the soldier poets came to speak for a 'lost generation' these women poets speak for the women whose lives were also blighted. Jane Potter is from Oxford Brookes University and Louise Fazackerley is a poet who has written about the experiences of her soldier husband. They'll be exploring who are these forgotten poets, and what women have to say about war?
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gypdp)
Queens of Noise: Rip It Up
Episode 5
First single - tick. First Top of the Pops appearance - tick. First U.S. tour - tick. First member to leave? Velveteens fight on. By Roy Boulter.
Music directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
FRI 11:00 My Family and Other Ibex (b04gypsg)
Chemist and broadcaster Andrea Sella returns to the mountain landscape of his childhood to see how this icy world has changed over the past century.
In his father's study hangs a photograph that Andrea has always been told was taken by Vittorio Sella, a distant relation regarded by many as the greatest of all mountain photographers. It depicts the Cogne valley in north-western Italy, a place where Andrea, and his father before him, spent summers as a children hiking and climbing the surrounding peaks. Described as, "unspoiled" in guidebooks, on the surface the valley looks just as it did when Andrea was a child. But look closer and things have changed. After a visit to the archive of Vittorio's photographs where he finds a time capsule of the mountains of the late 19th century, he sets out to see the mountains today.
With Vittorio's photos in his backpack, Andrea hikes from Cogne up into the Gran Paradiso National Park in search of the region's most iconic creature - the Alpine Ibex. Forty years ago, Andrea saw these mountain goats all over the valley. A population that rose strongly through the 1980's has declined sharply, changes that scientists like Dr Achaz von Hardenberg are trying to understand. Evidence points to milder winters as having surprising impacts on Ibex numbers. Further along the path, Andrea meets Park Ranger Marco Grosa, who has lived here for 30 years, guarding his beloved Alpine plants from oblivious tourists. He's also noticed subtle changes to the distribution of flora and how they're creeping slowly up the mountain as the snow line recedes. Finally, Andrea meets mountain guide Alfredo Abram, who once took him on an ice climb as a child. Abram reveals that, today, he and his colleagues have all but thrown away their crampons; the ice Andrea remembers has melted. For villages like Cogne, dependent on melt water from the glaciers, there are worrying signs, as once-reliable springs dry up.
In this highly personal story about family, memory, and landscape, Andrea Sella explores the photographic and environmental legacy of Vittorio's work and learns first-hand how a world he once thought of as timeless, is being steadily transformed.
Producer: Rami Tzabar.
FRI 11:30 My First Planet (b04ck1nv)
Series 2
They Came To Test Our Brains!
A pub quiz and a talking yam spell disaster for Brian when he accidentally discovers his IQ. Oh - and that's what Archer's lungs look like. Thank you Lillian.
The return of the hit sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Vicki Pepperdine ("Getting On") set on a shiny new planet.
Welcome to the colony. We're aware that, having been in deep cryosleep for 73 years, you may be in need of some supplementary information.
Personnel:
Unfortunately, Burrows the leader of the colony has died on the voyage so his Number 2, Brian (Nicholas Lyndhurst), is now in charge. He's a nice enough chap, but no alpha male, and his desire to sort things out with a nice friendly meeting infuriates the colony's Chief Physician Lillian (Vicki Pepperdine), who'd really rather everyone was walking round in tight colour-coded tunics and saluting each other. She's also in charge of Project Adam, the plan to conceive and give birth to the first colony-born baby. Unfortunately, the two people hand-picked for this purpose - Carol and Richard - were rather fibbing about being a couple, just to get on the trip.
Add in an entirely unscrupulous Chief Scientist, Mason and also Archer, an idiot maintenance man who believes he's an "empath" rather than a plumber, and you're all set to answer the question - if humankind were to colonise space, is it destined to succumb to self-interest, prejudice and infighting? (By the way, the answer's "yes". Sorry.)
Written by Phil Whelans
Produced and Directed by David Tyler.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04gcthf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b04gypvz)
19 September 1914 - Kitty Wilson
Hatch, match and dispatch. Parenthood, marriage and death all feature in Kitty's day, and none of them straightforward.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04gypzt)
Scottish Consumers - What Next?; Reluctant Teen Apprentices; Recovering Shoplifting Debt
Scotland - how will the result affect consumers?
Apprenticeships are supposed to provide youngsters with good training for jobs with a future, but many are proving reluctant to take them up. Is the low wage coupled with the loss of benefits putting them off?
Civil Recovery - changes to the law mean big stores will no longer be able to chase shoplifters for damages.
Digital Identity - could banks be used by government as ID providers? A joint study by Lloyds Banking Group and the Cabinet Office suggest they could.
And find out what is created when Britain's leading designers commission up and coming young designers to make something truly unique.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b04gcthh)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b04gypzw)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04gwm0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Brief Lives (b04gyq38)
Series 7
Episode 6
Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly. Ep 6.
Last in the current series about the Manchester paralegals. Frank and Cheryl prepare to leave. But can they both leave their pasts behind?
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04gyqnp)
Harrogate
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from Harrogate.
Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.
This week's questions and answers:
Q. Why are my Sweet Pea plants bushy with few flowers?
A. You should grow them from seed rather than buying the plants. Make sure to water them a lot and that they are in good soil and getting enough sun. If you do buy plants, ensure you separate them when you plant them out. Pick the flowers to stop the plants going to seed.
Q. How can we get rid of chafer grubs to stop the birds ripping up the lawn to find them?
A. You could try covering the lawn with a tarpaulin over night and taking it off in the morning. This brings up the grubs and then birds can eat the exposed ones rather than digging up the lawn. Keep the lawn short. Or, put a positive spin on the experience and think of the birds as scarifying your lawn.
Q. How can I make sure my Orchids flower again?
A. Make sure they are in a position where they have enough light but not too much harsh light. Make sure to water them a little bit every four or five days and give them a little bit of weak feed.
Q. If the panel wanted to encourage pollinating insects into their gardens, would they plant a border of wild flowers, or nectar-rich perennials?
A. Both. A mixture is best. Also remember that bees need a very shallow water source from which to drink. Plant things like Helxine (Mind Your Own Business) that will collect water that bees can drink.
Q. What should I do about the area in my garden made up of stones, pottery shards and some soil? Annuals do okay but most perennials don't.
A. You could import lots of green waste but there are hundreds of herbaceous perennials, such as geraniums, that will love that stony free-draining soil. You could also try growing Verbascum, Knautia Macedonica, Artemisia schmidtiana 'Nana' or Arborescens, Thymes, Alliums, Scholtzias and Penniseum Hameln.
Q. My Dahlias have been fantastic! Should I leave them in the ground or lift and store them?
A. Lift them and store them in a cardboard box in a frost-free location like a greenhouse.
Q. I'd like some suggestions for autumn replacements for my summer bedding plants in containers on the patio.
A. Winter-flowering Pansies, Bellus, small Euonymys, Ophiopogon, Arum italicum, Ivy, clipped Box, bulbs, Chervil, Parsely, Watercress and Mint, small Phormium and Cornus. Change the top half of the compost.
FRI 15:45 Edith Pearlman - Finery (b04gyqnr)
In Edith Pearlman's short story, Tom the student is fitted for a pinstripe suit, which he'll wear to great effect on his Irish travels.
Reader Sara Kestelman
Producer Duncan Minshull.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04gyqtd)
James Nesbitt MBE, Andrew McLaglen, Emilio Botin, Simin Behbahani, Sir Philip Dowson, George Hamilton IV
Matthew Bannister on
Superintendent James Nesbitt who was in charge of the murder squad in Belfast at the height of the troubles. He had to tackle sectarian violence from gangs like the notorious Shankhill butchers.
The film director Andrew McLaglen, best known for Westerns like Shendoah and war films like the Wild Geese.
Emilio Botin who built the Spanish bank Santander into a global financial institution.
The Iranian poet Simin Behbahani who spoke out for women's rights and campaigned for democracy.
And Sir Philip Dowson, one of Britain's most important post war architects, known for his work on St John's College Oxford and the Snape Maltings concert hall.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b04gyqtg)
Kidney donation: the chance of finding a match
The chance of a successful kidney match between two unrelated people has increased significantly in the past ten years - why? Tim Harford speaks to Professor Anthony Warrens, president of the British Transplantation Society.
Donations to the Manchester Dogs' Home have exceeded £1m in the wake of a fire, which killed more than 50 dogs. The large sum raised caused Today presenter Justin Webb to comment that it often seems easier to raise money for animals than humans who are in need. Is it true that we give more generously to animals? Ben Carter reports.
Is Britain poorer than every US state, except for Mississippi? Journalist Fraser Nelson calculates that's the case. Tim Harford speaks to economist Chris Dillow about why he's right.
An edition of BBC Four's Wonder of Animals states that there are 14,000 ants to every person on earth, and that were we to weigh all of these ants they would weigh the same as all the people. Can this be true? Tim Harford and Hannah Moore investigate with the help of Francis Ratnieks, professor of at the University of Sussex.
Friday, September 19 is Huntrodds' Day - a chance to celebrate coincidence and the extraordinary tale of Mr and Mrs Huntrodds. As Michael Blastland explains, they shared their birthday and day of death.
A complaint has been held up against a BBC programme for calling Eritrea 'tiny'. Can any country rightly be described this way?
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04gyqtj)
Annette and Paul - Living with Parkinson's
Fi Glover introduces a couple who have come to terms with the changes imposed on their lives by Parkinson's Disease, and have found that there is much they can still do, proving once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
FRI 17:00 PM (b04gyqtl)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04gcthk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b04gyqtn)
Series 44
Episode 2
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by special guests Elis James for a comic romp through the week's news. With Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin.
Written by the cast, with additional material from Andy Woolton, Nadia Kamil and Liam Beirne. Produced by Alexandra Smith.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04gyrbt)
Fallon makes a decision.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04gyrk3)
Zach Braff, Tessa Hadley, Charles Aznavour
Zach Braff on the film Wish I was Here, which he directed, wrote and starred in, and which is the biggest original project funded by Kickstarter.
Kirsty Lang talks to the French singer Charles Aznavour, whose hits include the classic She.
Writer Tessa Hadley on her story Bad Dreams, which has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, and which can be heard read by Carey Mulligan, here on BBC Radio 4 at
3.30 Monday 22 Sept.
Following the result of the Scottish Independence Referendum, Scottish poet Robert Crawford selects and reads one of his poems, which - for him - sums up the mood of the moment.
Plus the winner of the John Moores Prize for Painting is announced.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b04gypdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04gypw3)
Sir Tom Devine, Ken Clarke, Charles Clarke, Fiona Hyslop
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on the day after the Scottish Referendum with the historian Professor Sir Tom Devine, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop MSP, former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken Clarke MP, and former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke who is now Visiting Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04gyrk5)
Red Dress Sense
This season's fashion for red prompts Lisa Jardine to reflect on the past power of the colour.
"In Tudor England successive monarchs tried to define social status by dress. A strict code governed the wearing of 'costly apparel', and red was one of the colours most rigidly controlled."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b04gyrk7)
15-19 September 1914
Folkestone honours its dead, and our characters' worlds all seem up-ended.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b04gcthm)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04gyrk9)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04gyrkc)
The Children Act
Episode 10
Juliet Stevenson reads the final episode of Ian McEwan's unsettling new novel, The Children Act - a story about faith, love and the Law and about the welfare of children and the duty of those who care for them.
Fiona Maye is an esteemed High Court Judge presiding over cases in the Family Court and admired for her 'godly distance and devilish understanding'. But beneath her professional composure, her happy marriage of thirty years is in trouble and recent cases has caused her heartache.
Tonight as she prepares for the Christmas concert the troubles of the year seem finally behind her, but can the past be left behind?
Ian McEwan is one of the UK's leading novelists, his many novels including Atonement, Enduring Love and On Chesil Beach.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson
The abridger is Sally Marmion
The producer is Di Speirs.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b04g8m0t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:27 Lives in a Landscape (b03zy1bt)
Series 16
The Show Must Go On
Alan Dein follows Pat & Hayley Mallon - a husband and wife singing duo - around the pubs of Bath. The show must go on - even as 69 year old Pat prepares for major surgery on an aneurysm.
Bath's pub circuit is a far cry from the packed houses that Pat was playing with his 5 piece Country & Western band back in the 1980s. His has been a life well-lived. During those heady days, he was on two bottles of whiskey and 100 cigarettes a day.
But now Pat's facing the prospect of major surgery. Fearing he may not be able to return to gigging, he's grooming wife Hayley - 23 years his junior - to take over.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04gyrt1)
Kate and Lucy - Living While Dying
Fi Glover introduces a 21 year old with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a life-shortening condition; she and her mother share her determination to make the most of the time that she has.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
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 (b04gr57c)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 MON (b04gr57c)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 TUE (b04grm09)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 TUE (b04grm09)
15 Minute Drama
10:41 WED (b04gvrjs)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 WED (b04gvrjs)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 THU (b04gwd4b)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 THU (b04gwd4b)
15 Minute Drama
10:45 FRI (b04gypdp)
15 Minute Drama
19:45 FRI (b04gypdp)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (b04gch0c)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (b04gyrk5)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (b04gnb6h)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (b04gch09)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (b04gypw3)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (b04gnhnv)
Archive on 4
09:00 THU (b04gnhnv)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (b04gwlln)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (b04gwlln)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (b04gnhrz)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (b04gnhrz)
Beyond Belief
16:30 MON (b04grb9v)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 MON (b04grdbc)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 TUE (b04grsvy)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 WED (b04gw88g)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 THU (b04gwm5k)
Book at Bedtime
22:45 FRI (b04gyrkc)
Book of the Week
00:30 SAT (b04gc8p4)
Book of the Week
09:45 MON (b04gr47w)
Book of the Week
00:30 TUE (b04gr47w)
Book of the Week
09:45 TUE (b04hc1jn)
Book of the Week
00:30 WED (b04hc1jn)
Book of the Week
09:45 WED (b04hc1jq)
Book of the Week
00:30 THU (b04hc1jq)
Book of the Week
09:45 THU (b04hc1q5)
Book of the Week
09:45 FRI (b04hc1r3)
Brief Lives
14:15 FRI (b04gyq38)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (b04gnjft)
Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing
18:30 THU (b04gwlw4)
Costing the Earth
15:30 TUE (b04grpd5)
Costing the Earth
21:00 WED (b04grpd5)
Crossing Continents
20:30 MON (b04gc0pq)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (b04gwdgx)
Disabled and Behind Bars
21:30 THU (b042zb50)
Don't Log Off
11:00 WED (b04gvsnm)
Drama
14:15 MON (b01djr4p)
Drama
14:15 TUE (b02ykyg6)
Drama
14:15 WED (b04gvw1t)
Drama
14:15 THU (b04gwk84)
Edith Pearlman - Finery
15:45 FRI (b04gyqnr)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (b04gn58r)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (b04gr2bj)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (b04grdtz)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (b04grt7m)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (b04gw8pn)
File on 4
20:00 TUE (b04grs67)
Four Thought
20:45 WED (b04gw7xt)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (b04gn93m)
Front Row
19:15 MON (b04grcnb)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (b04grrz9)
Front Row
19:15 WED (b04gw71h)
Front Row
19:15 THU (b04gwm0v)
Front Row
19:15 FRI (b04gyrk3)
FutureProofing
22:15 SAT (b04g8rhl)
FutureProofing
20:00 WED (b04gw7xr)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (b04gcfmd)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (b04gyqnp)
Gossip from the Garden Pond
19:15 SUN (b04gqzgp)
Great Lives
16:30 TUE (b04g8m0t)
Great Lives
09:00 WED (b04cc7cr)
Great Lives
21:30 WED (b04cc7cr)
Great Lives
23:00 FRI (b04g8m0t)
Heaven and Earth: Le Ly Hayslip
11:30 THU (b04h85ql)
High St Fashion: Weaving New Threads
17:00 SUN (b04g8jhc)
Home Front - Omnibus
21:00 FRI (b04gyrk7)
Home Front
12:04 MON (b04gr7ct)
Home Front
12:04 TUE (b04grnjh)
Home Front
12:04 WED (b04gvvbq)
Home Front
12:04 THU (b04gwfbr)
Home Front
12:04 FRI (b04gypvz)
In Business
21:30 SUN (b04gc3sr)
In Business
20:30 THU (b04gwm26)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (b04grspj)
Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation
18:30 WED (b04gyp8k)
Jessie Kesson Short Stories
19:45 SUN (b04gqzv8)
Jigsaw
23:00 WED (b04gw8cg)
Journey of a Lifetime
11:00 MON (b04gr5hh)
Just a Minute
12:04 SUN (b04g8404)
Just a Minute
18:30 MON (b04grchn)
Kevin Eldon Will See You Now
23:00 TUE (b04gwg7c)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (b04gcfmj)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (b04gyqtd)
Lewis Macleod Is Not Himself
18:30 TUE (b04grrpq)
Lives in a Landscape
23:30 MON (b04dqwyc)
Lives in a Landscape
23:30 TUE (b041vvvm)
Lives in a Landscape
23:30 WED (b039c5d3)
Lives in a Landscape
23:27 FRI (b03zy1bt)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (b04gnhnn)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (b04gcmc8)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (b04gct68)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (b04gct86)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (b04gct9q)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (b04gctc5)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (b04gctfn)
Money Box Live
15:00 WED (b04gw6mh)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (b04gn93p)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (b04gn93p)
Mordrin McDonald: 21st Century Wizard
23:15 WED (b01jxslj)
More or Less
20:00 SUN (b04gcfml)
More or Less
16:30 FRI (b04gyqtg)
My Family and Other Ibex
11:00 FRI (b04gypsg)
My First Planet
11:30 FRI (b04ck1nv)
Nadine Gordimer - A Flash of Fireflies
00:30 SUN (b03hn2rw)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (b04gcmcj)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (b04gct6j)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (b04gct8g)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (b04gct9z)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (b04gctcf)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (b04gctfx)
News Headlines
06:00 SUN (b04gct6l)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (b04gcmcs)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (b04gct6x)
News Summary
12:00 MON (b04gct8l)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (b04gctb1)
News Summary
12:00 WED (b04gctch)
News Summary
12:00 THU (b04gctfz)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (b04gcthf)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (b04gcmcl)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (b04gct6q)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (b04gct6v)
News and Weather
22:00 SAT (b04gcmd5)
News
13:00 SAT (b04gcmcx)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (b04gnhvv)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (b04gntl7)
Open Book
15:30 THU (b04gntl7)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (b04gc2xw)
Out of the Ordinary
16:00 TUE (b01r993j)
PM
17:00 SAT (b04gngmj)
PM
17:00 MON (b04grb9x)
PM
17:00 TUE (b04grrf8)
PM
17:00 WED (b04gw6rm)
PM
17:00 THU (b04gwlw2)
PM
17:00 FRI (b04gyqtl)
Patients Doing It for Themselves
21:00 TUE (b04grspl)
Patients Doing It for Themselves
15:30 WED (b04grspl)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (b04gnzvn)
Poetry Please
23:30 SAT (b04g79p1)
Poetry Please
16:30 SUN (b04gnzrt)
Power in the Blood: The Life of Ian Paisley
13:30 SUN (b04jzg2d)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (b04gcph1)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (b04gr2bg)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (b04grdtx)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (b04grt7k)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (b04gw8pl)
Profile
19:00 SAT (b04gnhnq)
Profile
05:45 SUN (b04gnhnq)
Profile
17:40 SUN (b04gnhnq)
Publishing Lives
09:30 WED (b03xgl42)
Quote... Unquote
23:00 SAT (b04g825s)
Quote... Unquote
15:00 MON (b04gr8jn)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:55 SUN (b04gnhyf)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:26 SUN (b04gnhyf)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (b04gnhyf)
Ramblings
15:00 THU (b04gwlf8)
Saturday Drama
14:30 SAT (b01mnxw7)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (b04gn619)
Saturday Review
19:15 SAT (b04gnhns)
Scotland Decides
22:00 THU (b00752nh)
Scotland Decides
23:00 THU (b04hgskl)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (b04gcmcd)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (b04gct6d)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (b04gct8b)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (b04gct9v)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (b04gctc9)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (b04gctfs)
Shared Planet
21:00 MON (b04g8hrb)
Shared Planet
11:00 TUE (b04grm6g)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (b04gcmcb)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (b04gcmcg)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (b04gcmcz)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (b04gct6b)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (b04gct6g)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (b04gct71)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (b04gct88)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (b04gct8d)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (b04gct9s)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (b04gct9x)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (b04gctc7)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (b04gctcc)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (b04gctfq)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (b04gctfv)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (b04gcmd3)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (b04gct75)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (b04gct8q)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (b04gctb5)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (b04gctcp)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (b04gctg3)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (b04gcthk)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b04gnht6)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b04gnht6)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (b04gnj8k)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (b04gnhvx)
Thames Crossings
13:45 MON (b01s4740)
Thames Crossings
13:45 TUE (b01s5d47)
Thames Crossings
13:45 WED (b01s5f3m)
Thames Crossings
13:45 THU (b01s5g50)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (b04gnjg2)
The Archers
19:00 SUN (b04gnzxn)
The Archers
14:00 MON (b04gnzxn)
The Archers
19:00 MON (b04grcn8)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (b04grcn8)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (b04grrz7)
The Archers
14:00 WED (b04grrz7)
The Archers
19:00 WED (b04gw71f)
The Archers
14:00 THU (b04gw71f)
The Archers
19:00 THU (b04gwm0s)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (b04gwm0s)
The Archers
19:00 FRI (b04gyrbt)
The Barchester Chronicles
21:00 SAT (b04g79nx)
The Barchester Chronicles
15:00 SUN (b04gnm5q)
The Educators
00:15 MON (b04g8qfg)
The Educators
09:00 MON (b04fzd9h)
The Educators
21:30 MON (b04fzd9h)
The Educators
16:00 WED (b04gvm7n)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (b04gc2xy)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (b04gwlll)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (b04gnjjp)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (b04gnjjp)
The Human Zoo
23:00 MON (b04795tv)
The Ideas That Make Us
09:30 MON (b03sb2v3)
The Kitchen Cabinet
10:30 SAT (b04gn91j)
The Kitchen Cabinet
15:00 TUE (b04gn91j)
The Listening Project
14:45 SUN (b04gnjw4)
The Listening Project
10:55 WED (b04gvsnk)
The Listening Project
16:55 FRI (b04gyqtj)
The Listening Project
23:55 FRI (b04gyrt1)
The Lost Genius of Judee Sill
15:30 SAT (b04g8hrd)
The Lost Women of British Jazz
11:30 TUE (b04grm6j)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (b04gw6rk)
The Now Show
12:30 SAT (b04gch03)
The Now Show
18:30 FRI (b04gyqtn)
The Pale Horse
11:30 MON (b04gr786)
The Philosopher's Arms
20:00 MON (b04grcnd)
The Report
20:00 THU (b04gwm0z)
The Reunion
11:15 SUN (b04gnjhk)
The Reunion
09:00 FRI (b04gnjhk)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (b04gn93k)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (b04gnjjr)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (b04grdb8)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (b04grsvw)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (b04gw88d)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (b04gyrk9)
Today
07:00 SAT (b04gn617)
Today
06:00 MON (b04gr42x)
Today
06:00 TUE (b04grl93)
Today
06:00 WED (b04gvq04)
Today
06:00 THU (b04gwchh)
Today
05:00 FRI (b04gyp7k)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b04dvyfs)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b04dvz9y)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b04dw6yc)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b04dw6z4)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b04dw7p8)
Weather
06:04 SAT (b04gcmcn)
Weather
06:57 SAT (b04gcmcq)
Weather
12:57 SAT (b04gcmcv)
Weather
17:57 SAT (b04gcmd1)
Weather
06:57 SUN (b04gct6n)
Weather
07:57 SUN (b04gct6s)
Weather
12:57 SUN (b04gct6z)
Weather
17:57 SUN (b04gct73)
Weather
05:56 MON (b04gct8j)
Weather
12:57 MON (b04gct8n)
Weather
21:58 MON (b04gct8s)
Weather
12:57 TUE (b04gctb3)
Weather
21:58 TUE (b04gctb7)
Weather
12:57 WED (b04gctck)
Weather
21:58 WED (b04gctcr)
Weather
12:57 THU (b04gctg1)
Weather
21:58 THU (b04gctg5)
Weather
12:57 FRI (b04gcthh)
Weather
21:58 FRI (b04gcthm)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (b04gr1y2)
What the Papers Say
22:45 SUN (b04gr1y4)
What's the Point of...?
09:00 TUE (b04grl95)
What's the Point of...?
21:30 TUE (b04grl95)
Witness
09:30 TUE (b04grlrn)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (b04gnbxx)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (b04gr4gb)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (b04grlrq)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (b04gvrjq)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (b04gwcxz)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (b04gypdk)
Wordaholics
11:30 WED (b04gvtj0)
World at One
13:00 MON (b04gr867)
World at One
13:00 TUE (b04grnjm)
World at One
13:00 WED (b04gvvbv)
World at One
13:00 THU (b04gwfh0)
World at One
13:00 FRI (b04gypzw)
Yesterday's Papers: The End of the Music Press
16:00 MON (b04gr9h5)
You and Yours
12:15 MON (b04gr865)
You and Yours
12:15 TUE (b04grnjk)
You and Yours
12:15 WED (b04gvvbs)
You and Yours
12:15 THU (b04gwfd1)
You and Yours
12:15 FRI (b04gypzt)
iPM
05:45 SAT (b04gcph3)
iPM
17:30 SAT (b04gcph3)