The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

When Eddie Izzard was six, he and his brother Mark lost their mother. That day, he lost his childhood too.

From early childhood memories of happy days running with a gang of local kids, doing naughty-ish things in Bangor, County Down, to months of loneliness and isolation at boarding school, Eddie Izzard has experienced loss in a way that no child should at such a tender age. And this, as well as struggling both with dyslexia and also trying to understand his gender and sexuality issues at a time when they were not openly discussed, leads to a fascinating insight into the early life of one of Britain's most idiosyncratic and cerebral of performers.

In his memoir, Eddie takes us on a journey through his life - one during which he has discovered much about himself along the way, and come to terms with not fitting into the box that most of us like to put people in.

With a nod to the surreal humour and disarming candour of his shows, and some occasional digressions, Believe Me tells the story of a little boy who lost his mother yet who has risen to become a star of comedy and drama, a leading advocate of total clothing rights, and an extreme runner of marathons.

Written and read by Eddie Izzard
Directed by Lizzie Davies
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

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A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Dr Stephen Wigley, Chair of the Wales Synod of the Methodist Church.

After the Grenfell tragedy, a former firefighter investigates his own high-rise tower block in Manchester.
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.

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When Andy Murray steps out onto Centre Court to defend his 2016 title at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club in Wimbledon it will be the culmination of a year's work by a team of people who dedicate their lives to this iconic sporting landscape. Alison Mitchell takes a break from the commentary box to go behind the scenes of this iconic sporting venue.

Starting on the roof of the broadcast centre she speaks to Ashley Jones from Wimbledon Museum about how the grounds have moved twice since the club was founded in 1868, and explains how a broken piece of garden equipment led to the inception of the Championships.

Alison describes the Centre Court commentary box as an 'Alice in Wonderland' moment, and squeezes through its narrow doors, ducking under its low ceilings to speak to John Barrett about his life-long relationship with the Championships from visiting as a boy, to later playing there, and then his many years commentating for the BBC including that epic 1980 men's final between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.

She goes court-side with Head Groundsman Neil Stubley to talk about the upkeep of the playing surface, before joining Johnny Perkins on 'Henman Hill' to find out how this patch of spare ground has become an integral part of the Championship experience.

For podcast subscribers there's also an interview with Ronald McIntosh about how his first assignment at Wimbledon turned into the longest-running match in tennis history with John Isner triumphing over Nicholas Mahut 70-68 in the final set, an encounter now marked by a plaque at Court 18.

Producer: Toby Field.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

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News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

With Judy Murray, Wolfgang Puck, chef who's catered to the Oscars for 23 years, British female racing driver Jamie Chadwick, and Inheritance Tracks from Ute Lemper.

Jay Rayner and the culinary panel are in Yeovil. Zoe Laughlin, Silvana Franco, Tim Anderson and Rob Owen Brown answer the audience questions.

Up for discussion this week are eggs of all varieties - including how to cook the perfect fried egg, silicon kitchenware, and edible plants.

Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

Food consultant: Anna Colquhoun

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Sam Coates of the Times looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The Editor is Marie Jessel.

Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The latest news from the world of personal finance.

Recorded the day before transmission, the satirical sketch show remains as sharp and topical as ever. Impressions and caricatures are the charming couriers of explosively satirical truth-bombs.

The series is written by Private Eye writers Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, together with Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Sarah Campbell, Laurence Howarth, James Bugg, Laura Major, Max Davis, Jack Bernhardt and others.

The series stars Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod, Deborah Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey.

A BBC Studios Production.

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Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from The Braid Museum and Arts Centre in Ballymena County Antrim with Owen Smith the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Any Answers after the Saturday broadcast of Any Questions?. Email any.answers@bbc.co.uk. Tweet,#BBCAQ. Follow us @bbcanyquestions.
Lines open at 1230 on Saturday 03700 100 444.

Presenter Anita Anand
Producer: Maire Devine
Editor Eleanor Garland.

By Arthur Koestler
Adapted by Simon Scardifield

At the height of the media attention during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, US President Bill Clinton reportedly referred to Arthur Koestler's novel, telling an aide, "I feel like the character in the novel Darkness at Noon....I am surrounded by an oppressive force that is creating a lie about me and I can't get the truth out."

Clinton was referring to Nicholas Rubashov, the protagonist of Koestler's novel inspired by the Moscow Trials of Stalin's Russia. Rubashov, once a powerful player in the regime, finds the tables turned on him when he is imprisoned and psychologically tortured. His reflections on his previous life and experiences in prison are at the heart of this thought-provoking masterpiece.

Written after Koestler became disillusioned with Communism, Darkness at Noon is a moving and thought-provoking indictment of totalitarianism. Simon Scardifield's new adaptation draws on Koestler's original manuscript - which had been thought lost for 75 years, after Koestler hurriedly fled Paris before the German occupation in 1940, only to be recently discovered in a Zurich library.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

Laura Barton takes a close listen to the music of one of Britain's long-isolated locations, Cornwall.

The tradition of communal singing known as a Shout hasn't just survived in Cornwall. As Laura discovers in a pub outside Redruth, it's thriving. In a bar packed with young and old, songs about mining and fishing, in Cornish and English, compete with hymns and the occasional import from overseas, in high energy performances that define an oral tradition. None are sung more full-heartedly than Kerra Kernow, beloved Cornwall.

Laura talks with Hilary Coleman of the celebrated Cornish folk group Dalla about the qualities of the folk tradition in the Duchy and with two singer-songwriters. Florence MacDonald, who also teaches music in primary schools, describes what drew her back to Cornwall, and Ruarri Joseph, aka William the Conqueror, considers the balance he maintains between the demands of touring and the allure of the surf off Newquay and the woods and hills of his childhood home.

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

The actor and playwright Zawe Ashton discusses her feelings of anxiety and fear of getting her period on stage. The psychologist Philippa Perry tells us how common it is for women when they are under pressure and what it says about how we and society view the female body.

The author and illustrator Shirley Hughes gives us a masterclass for aspiring picture book writers and illustrators with the Freelance designer Ness Wood and the Editorial Director of Children's picture books at Penguin, Andrea Macdonald.

Dame Ann Dowling the first woman to become President of the Royal Academy of Engineering discusses her love of Opera. The Opera singer and teacher Nelly Miricioiu and her student Hanna-Liisa Kirchin on piano illustrate the operatic voice.

The five times Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds tells us about her newly discovered love of travelling solo. Amy Baker the author of Miss-adventures: A tale of ignoring life advice while back packing around South America and Sophie Radice discuss the ups and downs of going abroad alone.

Karen Blackett the Chair of Mediacom tells us about her guilty pleasure - watching TV dating shows like The Bachelor and The Millionaire Matchmaker. We hear from the series editor of Channel 4's First Dates Lana Salah and the journalist and blogger Daisy Buchanan about their appeal.

We have music from the singer songwriter Ayanna Witter-Johnson - another of Zawe Ashton's choices.

And Shirley Hughes discusses making her own clothes and hats and some of the funny feedback she gets from the children who read her books.

Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.

Full coverage of the day's news.

Evan Davis presents the business magazine.

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Clive Anderson and Emma Freud are joined by Alice Cooper, Eddie Izzard and Tape Face for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy With music from Elkie Brooks and Poppy Ajudha.

Producer: Debbie Kilbride.

Mark Coles profiles Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the retired judge leading the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire

Sir Martin was born in Wales and educated at Cambridge. His career has spanned nearly five decades after being called to the Bar in 1969.
As a lawyer, he specialised in commercial law which involved dealing with disputes relating to maritime and land transport of goods.
He was a judge for more than twenty years in the Commercial Court and Court of Appeal until his retirement in 2016.

Producers: Smita Patel and Jordan Dunbar.

Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson in a film adaptation of Hans Fallada's novel Alone In Berlin - based on a true story of small scale wartime heroism.
Ink - a play about Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of The Sun in 1969 and the grubby world of redtop journalism.Opening at London's Almeida Theatre.
Christopher Wilson's novel; Zoo, a comedy set in Stalin's dying days, about a boy who inadvertently becomes the food taster for The Man of Iron
Dreamers Awake is a new exhibition at White Cube Gallery looking at women in the Surrealist movement and its lasting influence on female artists
2 TV music documentaries about famous rock sideman including Earl Slick (who played guitar with David Bowie, John Lennon and many more) and Becoming a Lied Singer in which Baritone Thomas Quasthoff gives his personal guide to Lieder - poems of nature, love and death for solo voice and piano.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests will be Stephen Hough, Georgie Hopton and Natalie Haynes. The producer is Oliver Jones.

In 2008, the Crash delivered a severe challenge to the economic liberalism that had long dominated our politics. Ever since, British politicians have been searching for a new big idea that can shape the next few decades, as economic and social liberalism has shaped our lives up to today.

And now, a range of commentators are telling us that the general election has brought all this to crisis point.

So - how can we make sense of all this? To get a glimpse of what the future may hold, we need to look back to the past.

Because this isn't the first time a dominant set of ideas has broken down. The Keynesian 'consensus' ruled from the Second World War, based around full employment - until after thirty years, it broke down amid 1970s strikes and stagflation and Thatcherism took over.

And before that, an earlier version of global liberal economics dominated - until the Wall Street Crash and the Depression laid the ground for the postwar welfare state.

So in this programme, documentary-maker Phil Tinline tells the dramatic story of the breakdown of the post-war approach, through the epic fights of the Seventies - and uses it to try to work out where we're up to today.

He talks to historians and politicians about the way the 1970s became a battle for power between government and trade unions, which ended in Mrs Thatcher's victory. And he hears from thinkers - variously labelled 'Blue Labour', 'Red Tory' and 'post-liberal' - who have been arguing ever since the Crash that the new battle for power is against both centralised government and big corporations.

Over the last few years, leading figures in both big parties have tried to use these ideas to take on concentrations of power and break through to a new orthodoxy. But, like those politicians who challenged the power of the trade unions in the 1970s, they have repeatedly come up against the power of the status quo and the taboos that underpinned it.

So - does the election, and the struggle over the meaning of Brexit, mean that these ideas might now find their moment? Or does the story of the 1970s actually suggest that we might be simply heading back to something more like the big-government model of the post-war years?

Speakers include: Phillip Blond, Rowenna Davis, Maurice Glasman, David Goodhart, Dominic Sandbrook, David Skelton, Peter Snowdon.

Producer/ Presenter: Phil Tinline.

Bridget Kendall presents a new oral history of the early turning points in the Cold War.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.

The story of how an obsessive relationship with history killed the young Polish writer Stanislawa Przybyszewska, told by best-selling author, Hilary Mantel. The brilliant Przybyszewska wrote gargantuan plays and novels about the French Revolution, in particular about the revolutionary leader Robespierre. She lived in self-willed poverty and isolation and died unknown in 1934. But her work, so painfully achieved, did survive her. Was her sacrifice worthwhile? "She embodied the past until her body ceased to be," Dame Hilary says. "Multiple causes of death were recorded, but actually she died of Robespierre."

Over the course of these five lectures, she discusses the role that history plays in our lives. How do we view the past, she asks, and what is our relationship with the dead? The lecture is recorded before an audience in the ancient Vleeshuis in Antwerp, a city which features in Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell and the cosmopolitan world of the early Tudors. The lecture is followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

The producer is Jim Frank.

A funny and dynamic quiz show hosted by Steve Punt - this week from the University of Liverpool with specialist subjects including Physiology, Egyptology and Psychology and questions ranging from the great god Ammit, the Eater of the Dead, to Buzz Aldrin and from gallstones to Gershwin.

The programme is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in an original and fresh take on an academic quiz.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Justin Bieber. In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds see students take on their Professors in their own subjects, offering plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

Other Universities featured in this series include Roehampton, Hull, Queen's University Belfast and St John's College, Cambridge.

Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.

Kate Molleson travels to Jerusalem to meet a legend of Ethiopian music, the piano-playing nun, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou.

Born in 1923 to a noble Ethiopian family, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was celebrated as a young musician in Addis Ababa - even performing for the Emperor Haile Selassie. But when she was mysteriously refused permission to take up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, her life changed forever, and she abandoned music.

For 10 years she lived on the holy mountain of Guishen, barefoot, in solitary prayer and meditation, until the monastery had to close and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam headed home to Addis Ababa. There, she slowly returned to the piano keyboard, composing languorous waltzes, infected with the spirit of ancient Ethiopian music and with a free-wheeling sense of time.

In 1996, as her music became the 21st release in the now famous Ethiopiques series of records, she came to international attention. By this time she had fled the communist regime in Ethiopia and moved to Jerusalem to work for the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchy, where she now lives in a small cell, surrounded by her religious paintings, photographs of her family and of Emperor Haile Selassie propped up on top of her piano.

In recent years she has been moved to publish her work, editing a lifetime of manuscripts with the help of the Israeli musician and composer Maya Dunietz, and has set up a foundation in her name to help children to acquire instruments and music education.

A long time fan of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam's music, journalist Kate Molleson talks with the musician turned nun who, now in her 90s, has led a remarkable life and is still driven to compose her unique music.

Produced by Peter Meanwell
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.

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A young girl growing up amongst extreme wealth finds comfort in her shabbiest possessions. This new story by Molly McGrann is inspired by the Frank Ocean track.
Read by Camille Marmié
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.

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Church bells from the Church of Saints Probus & Grace, Cornwall.

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Writer and priest Malcolm Doney argues that imagination is central to almost every decision we make. For Malcolm, conscious, imaginative thinking is essentially the basis of what it means to be human.

Malcolm draws upon the story of Jesus who himself left no written manifesto. In his physical absence, Jesus' followers were left with the imaginative project of living lives modelled on his. They had to re-imagine a new life without him.

Malcolm explores the work of Nobel Prize winner Peter Medawar, historian Yuval Noah Harari, as well as poets John Koethe and Emily Dickinson. Using this diverse array of sources, Malcolm reveals that imagination is vital to the progress of science and lies at the beating heart of music. He concludes that ultimately, imagination is fundamental to empathy and at the core of that most life-giving command "love thy neighbour as thyself".

Presenter: Malcolm Doney
Producer: Jonathan O'Sullivan
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Brett Westwood relives programmes from The Living World archives. In this episode from 2014, Trai Anfield is in Dorset with naturalist John Walters.

Solitary bees build their nests in some interesting places, but none more so than Osmia bicolor, a mason bee that's preferred real estate is the empty shells of snails. Emerging in spring a few weeks after the males, the mated female spends two days lining and provisioning the shell before laying her eggs and sealing the shell. But she's not finished yet. Perhaps to prevent hungry predators in search of its original slimy occupant from destroying her nest, the snail bee hides the shell under a wigwam of twigs and sticks. Join presenter

Trai Anfield and naturalist John Walters as they look for this pioneering little bee on the chalk hillsides above Cerne Abbas.

Producer Andrew Dawes.

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Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, presented by Edward Stourton.

Peter Capaldi makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Coram.

Registered Charity Number 312278
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That's the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope 'Coram'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Coram'.

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Petertide is one of the traditional periods for the ordination of new priests and deacons. This morning we join the Bishop of Dorking, the Rt Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells at Guildford Cathedral as she presides at an ordination service for the first time as a Bishop. Some of the candidates for ordination offer reflections on their call to ministry and their hopes for the future. The preacher is the Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Andrew Watson. The Guildford Cathedral Girls Choir are directed by Katherine Dienes-Williams and accompanied by Richard Moore. Producer: Andrew Earis.

"It seems indisputable, to me", writes Will Self "that what makes it possible for our attractions to each other to be as deep and profound as they are, is some sort of difference - whether it be given, or something we create".

Will reflects on what a truly gender-fluid society might look like.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Wildlife sound recordist Gary Moore describes for Tweet of the Day, the surprising encounter he had with capercaillie when in the Scottish Highlands.

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Tom Bonnett.

Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.

Lilian has a lot on her mind, and Harrison thinks it is time to move on.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the theoretical physicist, Professor Carlo Rovelli. His book 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' became one of the fastest-selling science titles of all time, catapulting him from the world of academia into the global spotlight. Committed to bridging the gap between science and art and making complex scientific issues comprehensible for the lay person, he is currently Professor of Physics at Aix-Marseille University.

Born in Verona, and an only child, he was encouraged to learn, to be independent and dreamed of travelling through space. By the age of 12 his long-standing rebellious streak was visible and he would later interrupt his university career to travel. Now in his early sixties, his academic career has seen him work in Europe and America and among the scientific community he is best known as one of the founders of Loop Quantum Gravity theory.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

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The 67th series of Radio 4's multi award-winning 'antidote to panel games' promises yet more quality, desk-based entertainment for all the family. The series starts its run at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford where regulars Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel Andy Hamilton and Jo Brand, with Jack Dee as the programme's reluctant chairman. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

Dan Saladino eats with one of the last remaining hunter gatherer tribes, Tanzania's Hadza.

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Global news and analysis.

Part one of a three-part series, in which the journalist and author Matthew Syed explores how and why individuals and organisations learn from their mistakes or fail to do so. He explores the common obstacles to learning lessons from experience and how they can be surmounted.

The series follows a wide-ranging approach, taking in government and public services such as the NHS and the Police, the commercial world from aviation to Google, the role of education, and underlying principles of psychology and philosophy, scientific method and individual decision-making.

Interviewees in the series include the comedian John Cleese, the entrepreneur Richard Branson, the inventor James Dyson, the campaigner Alastair Campbell, and Sara Thornton, head of the National Police Chiefs Council, as well as others from the fields of medicine, education, social work, manufacturing, government policy and academic research.

Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.

Eric Robson and his panel of experts visit Folkestone. Pippa Greenwood, Matt Biggs and Bob Flowerdew answer the horticultural questions from the audience.

This week the panellists discuss lemon/lime varieties to grow in an orangery, the best homemade feeds for flowering plants, and ways to rid your greenhouse of ants.

Also, Matt Biggs buzzes off to the RSPB Dungeness to investigate all things bees.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Phil Barrett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Fi Glover introduces conversations about re-constructed families, good behaviour and dealing with a stammer 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.

by John le Carré
1/3. 'Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.' So says Magnus Pym, the spy of the title; and he has betrayed a lot in his life - countries, friends and lovers. When Magnus disappears after his father's funeral MI6 launches an urgent manhunt to prevent his defection. Dramatised by Robert Forrest.

Other parts are played by the cast.
Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.

Deborah Levy discusses her novel Swimming Home with James Naughtie and a group of readers.

Swimming Home was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and is about a famous British poet on holiday with family and friends on the French Riviera when an unstable young woman, Kitty Finch, turns up out of the blue. At the beginning of the novel she emerges naked from the villa's swimming pool as the group return from a day trip.

From this moment a tangled web of relationships is pulled apart, testing the characters to the limit and exposing all their anxieties and their fears - with the swimming pool at centre stage of the story.

Kitty is obsessed with the poet Joe, and is determined he should read a long poem of her own, also called Swimming Home. Through the novel, she exposes a crack in the marriage of Joe and Isobel his war correspondent wife, watched on by their 14 year old daughter and the neighbour Madeleine.

Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Deborah Levy
Producer : Dymphna Flynn

August's Bookclub choice : Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2001).

BBC Africa Editor Mary Harper meets Somalia's most beloved poet in a rare glimpse into the country's soul.

In Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, everyone knows the nation's most famous living poet - Hadraawi. They call him their Shakespeare. His work over the last 50 years has given voice to Somalis' desire for love, freedom, justice and peace.

The poetry of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame 'Hadraawi' holds a mirror up to all aspects of life - social tensions, politics, love, peace and the fractures of the Somali people. Born in 1943 to a nomadic camel-herding family, forged as a poet in Somalia's liberal years pre-1969, jailed in 1973 for 'anti-revolutionary activities' without trial under the military junta, a campaigner for peace, Hadraawi's poetry tells the story of modern Somalia.

Now in his 70s, this encounter with Hadraawi at his home in Somaliland was recorded just as the first rains fell after the devastating three-year drought. The self-declared republic is rarely seen by the outside world, as the shadow cast by the ongoing violence in Somalia to the south is long. But it's a place Mary Harper has come to know and love during 25 years writing about and reporting on Somalia for the BBC. It is a nation of poets, where poetry is woven deep into the fabric of everyday life.

Poems featured are from Hadraawi: The Poet and the Man, published by Ponte Invisible/Redsea Online/The Poetry Translation Centre. Clarity translated by WN Herbert and Said Jama Hussein, and The Killing of the She-Camel translated by WN Herbert, Said Jama Hussein and Maxamed Xasan 'Alto'.

Produced by Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.

File on 4 investigates claims that parents whose children suffer from a crippling illness that leaves them sick and permanently exhausted have been falsely accused of child abuse.

Parents of children with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) reveal how they have been investigated and referred for child protection measures on suspicion of a rare form of child abuse known as Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII).

FII, also sometimes known as Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, is extremely rare and occurs when a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes the symptoms of a child's illness. One charity says FII is being used inappropriately by education and health professionals. We talk to families who claim the stress caused by this accusation has made their children worse.

With doctors divided over the best way to treat children, what's the impact on families?

Reporter: Matthew Hill
Producer: Nicola Dowling.

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This week Antonia Quirke's picks writers and musicians reach into the past plucking crystalline moments from their youth and childhood. Glenn Gould playing Bach for comfort; a cake eaten at a party before disaster strikes; breath turning to ice inside a fur hood on the Canadian frontier. From a desolate Garret in Gdansk to the welcoming streets of Sheffield and crowd-pleasing pubs of Cornwall - all via deepest, darkest Peru...

Harrison's scheme is uncovered, and Tom clears the air.

The cast of TV's hugely popular sketch show return for their second series on BBC Radio 4. Pete Baikie, Morwenna Banks, Moray Hunter, Gordon Kennedy and John Sparkes revisit some of their much-loved sketch characters, while also introducing some newcomers to the show.

In 2013, the group that made their name on Channel Four in the 1980s and 90s got back together for Radio 4's Sketchorama: Absolutely Special - which won the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Live Scripted Comedy. The first series of The Absolutely Radio Show picked up a Celtic Media Award nomination for Best Radio Comedy.

Cast:
Peter Baikie
Morwenna Banks
Moray Hunter
Gordon Kennedy
John Sparkes
Gus Beattie
Gordon Kennedy

Produced by Gordon Kennedy and Gus Beattie.
An Absolutely/Gusman production for BBC Radio 4.

As part of their final Media Degree assessment at NUC in Northern Ireland, three final year university students - Natalie Driver, JJ Collins and Vic Grant - decide to make a podcast about a cold case which happened in Colecastle fourteen years ago. On Saturday April 26th 2003, Toby Ellis was minding his four month old nephew, Derek Ellis. He nipped into his local newsagents and left the pram outside on the street. He claimed he left the child for no longer than two minutes. During this time, the baby was abducted and six days later the infant's body was discovered buried in a nearby wooded area, Mountfort. Cause of death, a blow to the head. No one was ever charged with the murder and the case has remained on-going.

The first episode of Hiding Out is a podcast hosted by one of the students, Natalie; she reveals she is currently in hiding fearing for her safety. Having published their first podcast on The Murder at Colecastle, her fellow student Vic had received a call from someone who had heard the podcast claiming they had new evidence about the day the child was abducted. Vic and JJ met with the source. That was 3 days ago and no one has seen or heard from either Vic or JJ since... The only contact Natalie has received is a text sent from her classmate JJ's phone which reads "We're watching you. Stop this now." Natalie knows their disappearance is clearly linked to digging into the murder of Derek Ellis. If she finds them, she may finally find the truth of what happened in Colecastle. Natalie's nightly podcasts of 'Hiding Out' are attracting more and more interest - #whereisnatalie and #findvicandjj are rife with speculation. Are these three students actually in danger? Or - as their media lecturer believes - is this all an elaborate media hoax?

Gerard Stembridge ..... Writer
GEmma McMullan ..... Series Producer and Director.

As Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen has one of the BBC's most difficult, and often dangerous, jobs. He sits down with Feedback's Roger Bolton to reflect on his career and his Radio 4 series, Our Man in the Middle East.

Last week, Ed Miliband impressed listeners with an assured week sitting in for Jeremy Vine. This week it's been the turn of former conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith. Feedback listeners pass judgment on how he measures up to his predecessor in the Radio 2 hotseat.

Over the last month, Feedback has been inundated with comments taking issue with how the BBC has covered recent major incidents and terror attacks. The BBC's Director of Editorial Policy and Standards, David Jordan, responds to listeners' questions and explains the BBC's guidelines for dealing with tragic and complex events.

Finally, listeners share their thoughts on Radio 4's Dangerous Visions, a season of dark, disturbing and dystopic drama and readings.

Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Matthew Bannister on

Lord Joffe, the lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela at the infamous Rivonia trial. He went on to co-found the Allied Dunbar insurance company and sat as a Labour peer in the House of Lords.

Michael Bond who created Paddington Bear, the Herbs and the guinea pig Olga Da Polga.

Ann Louise Gilligan the former nun who campaigned for her same sex marriage to be recognised in Irish law.

Carla Fendi, one of five sisters who turned their family business in Rome into a global fashion brand.

And John Avildsen who directed two Rocky films and the Karate Kid.

Producer: Neil George.

Union membership is in decline whilst structural changes in the economy - including the rise of the so-called gig economy - are putting downward pressure on wages, and creating fertile conditions for exploitation by unscrupulous employers. So who is going to ensure that workers get a fair deal? Sonia Sodha, chief leader writer for the Observer, investigates.
Producer: David Edmonds.

Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.

Antonia Quirke visits the house that Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor in a fishing village in Mexico, that's now a deluxe hotel. When the lovers conducted their affair out in the open in Puerto Vallarta, the paparazzi soon followed, and eventually the the small town was transformed into a tourist mecca.

Director Ceyda Torun explains how she invented new technology to follow a herd of cats through the streets of Istanbul for her documentary Kedi.

Antonia visits St Leonards, where King Harold's consort Edith Swan Neck is memorialised with a delapidated public sculpture. There she meets film-maker Andrew Kotting, who is trying to restore Edith's memory with a new documentary Edith Walks, in which he and five friends hike 108 miles from Waltham Abbey to the South East coast as an act of pilgrimage.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

Global inequality: is the Global South catching up with the North, as many corporations and governments have claimed for the last 30 years? Laurie Taylor talks to Jason Hickel, fellow in anthropology at the LSE, who argues that the divide is actually greater than ever. They're joined by Marian Tupa, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute, Washington DC.

Also , Michael Skey, Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University explores the markers and symbols of nation and national identity across Britain.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Stephen Shipley, Radio Producer and broadcaster.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

The latest weather forecast for farmers.

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

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Maggie Ayre.

News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr asks whether scientists have failed in their task to communicate their work to the wider public. The 'passionate rationalist' Richard Dawkins has spent his career trying to illuminate the wonders of nature and challenge what he calls faulty logic. But he wonders whether Darwin would consider his legacy now with 'a mixture of exhilaration and exasperation'. The child psychologist Deborah Kelemen has been working with young children to find out what they make of adaptation and evolution with the storybook, How the Piloses Evolved Skinny Noses, and is encouraged by the sophistication of their understanding. The mathematician Cathy O'Neil says it's time people became more aware of the mathematical models and algorithms that dominate everything we do online and in finance, and yet are increasingly opaque, unregulated and left unchallenged. While Alex Bellos looks to improve numeracy with puzzles and brainteasers which have been entertaining and frustrating people for centuries.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

When Jacqueline Yallop moves to south-west France with her husband, she embraces rural village life and buys two pigs to rear for slaughter. But as she gets to know the animals better, her English sentimentality threatens to get in the way and she begins to wonder if she can actually bring herself to kill them.

This is a memoir about that fateful decision, but it's also about the ethics of meat eating in the modern age, and whether we should know, respect and even love the animals we eat.

At its heart, this book is a love story, exploring Jacqueline's increasing attachment for her particular pigs, and celebrating the enduring closeness of humans and pigs over the centuries.

Written by Jacqueline Yallop
Read by Imogen Stubbs
Abridged by Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Tales of the City: The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin. Dramatised by Lin Coghlan.
Episode 1.
The final series of Tales of the City. Now ninety-two, and committed to the notion of 'Leaving like a lady', Mrs Madrigal has seemingly found peace with the 'Logical' family that has grown around her. But there are ghosts in her past that are the key to her identity and they trouble her. Is she prepared to confront them?

Director/Producer Gary Brown

'The Days of Anna Madrigal' is the ninth novel of Armistead Maupin's bestselling 'Tales of the City' series. It features one of modern literature's most unforgettable characters - Anna Madrigal, the legendary landlady of 28 Barbary Lane as she embarks on a road trip that will take her deep into her past.

Mary is 86 and facing an eye test to decide if she can continue to drive. Will the test put an end to her 65 year driving career - or can she carry on?

She's been diagnosed with several eye conditions including glaucoma, cataracts and macula degeneration, and now she faces the field of vision test - the test which will decide whether she's fit to continue to drive.

She lives in rural Somerset, where public transport is scarce. For 40 years she had the same Morris Traveller and now she drives a Fiat. Although she says, "a car is only necessary in that it has four wheels. And a roof is quite useful." If she has to stop driving, she'll have to depend on her daughter - this is not what she wants. "It's absolutely typical of my age - we fear that if we once give way, the flood gates will open, and we will become dependent."

This is more than a story about driving - it's about independence and the possible loss of it. But is there something else in Mary's life that could pose a greater threat to her driving than any eye test?

Produced in Bristol by Polly Weston.

Susan (Susan Calman) and Fiona (Ashley Jensen) are grown up sisters who live together. But that's all they have in common. Written by Susan Calman, Sisters tackles the painfully funny world of the love/hate relationship you can never escape.

In this first episode, the sisters' flat is plunged into darkness when they suffer a power cut. Next door neighbour and token family member Blake (Nick Helm) doesn't provide the necessary support as he is preoccupied with selling something special online. As the darkness continues, fear of intruders and speculation about paranormal activity take hold and all three descend into a world of paranoia and mutual suspicion.

It's a situation exacerbated by the fact that Susan is harbouring a stray cat and is very keen that Fiona doesn't discover this - especially as Fiona is violently allergic to pets of any description.

A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The Egyptians thought literacy was divine; a benefaction which came from the baboon-faced god Thoth. In fact the earliest known script - "cuneiform" - came from Uruk, a Mesopotamian settlement on the banks of the Euphrates in what is now Iraq. What did it say? As Tim Harford describes, cuneiform wasn't being used for poetry, or to send messages to far-off lands. It was used to create the world's first accounts. And the world's first written contracts, too.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon.

News and discussion of consumer affairs.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Bridget Kendall continues her series tracing the crucial moments in the Cold War.

Today: the fall of Khrushchev and the rise of Brezhnevism.

In 1964 the Soviet premiere Nikita Khrushchev was deposed, to be replaced by the more conservative Leonid Brezhnev. Thus the zig-zagging and inconsistent liberalisation associated with Khrushchev's Thaw gradually made way for the stagnation of the Brezhnev period.

Bridget hears from two people reflecting on life in the Soviet Union during those years.

With Pavel Litvinov and Zinovy Zinik

Producer: Martin Williams.

Special Investigator Bertalan Lázár returns in Philip Palmer's crime drama set in communist Hungary in 1963. Fighting the criminals is hard enough but there are other more sinister battles raging in higher places.

The violin was played by Sam McGregor

Directed by Toby Swift

Keeping the Wolf Out is part of Radio 4's 'Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze'.

(1/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes the first of the competitors in the 2017 season of Radio 4's music quiz, who this week come from London, Exeter and Sunderland. Whether it's Beethoven or Bowie, Kiri te Kanawa or Kraftwerk, there's always something to suit every taste and no shortage of intriguing musical extracts. The contestants are tested on their range of musical general knowledge, as well as being asked to choose a musical subject on which to answer individual specialist questions, from a list of which they've had no advance warning. Today's winner will go forward to the semi-finals in September.

In this third episode Antonia heads to Dudley and encounters a gang of smooth operators on the set of the latest series of Peaky Blinders and puts some key roles into the frame. She journeys through the latest Star Wars films with an industry-renowned grip that also discusses his close-up work on Daniel Craig's most iconic Bond moments, and catches a team excitedly preparing camera equipment for the final series of Game of Thrones.

Throughout, Antonia watches the cast and crews in action, grabbing them in the moments between filming and creating, revealing their various and sometimes entirely surprising contribution to productions, exploring the latest equipment and challenges. Along the way she gathers fascinating and often very moving stories of life behind the scenes. These aren't just the tales of the great actors of our times, but of the people who made those actors and actresses great, content instead to be the stars behind the camera.

Producer: Stephen Garner.

"What Particles Remain to be Discovered?"

Brian Cox and Robin Ince return for a new series of the hugely popular, multi-award winning science/comedy show. Over the series a variety of scientists and comedy science enthusiasts will take to the stage to discuss everything from the glory of insects to whether free will is just an illusion. They'll be joined by the usual eclectic selection of guests over the series, including comedian Sara Pascoe, Dane Baptiste, Katy Brand and Eric Idle, as well as astronauts Sandra Magnus and Apollo astronaut and moon walker Charlie Duke, for a space traveller special.

The first show will see Python legend and Monkey Cage theme tune creator Eric Idle take to the stage alongside physicists Jonathan Butterworth and Catherine Heymans to ask "what particles remain to be discovered?" . They'll be looking at life beyond the Higgs Boson and asking whether a new, as yet undetected particle could answer arguably the greatest question in physics and finally uncover the mysterious unknown elements that make up the 95% of our Universe that are known as Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The 67th series of Radio 4's multi award-winning 'antidote to panel games' promises more homespun wireless entertainment for the young at heart. This week the programme pays a return visit to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford where regulars Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are once again joined on the panel Andy Hamilton and Jo Brand, with Jack Dee in the chair. At the piano - Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

Lynda sticks to her guns, and Matt wants everything to be right.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Golf is in a hole with huge numbers leaving the sport while cycling is free-wheeling to incredible popularity. Mark Hodkinson examines this social and sporting phenomenon.

Golf clubs, many dating back over a century, are closing all over Britain at an alarming rate, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the industry.

Participation has also declined steadily over the past decade. According to England Golf, between 2004 and 2013, one in five golfers in England gave up their club membership.

But golf is still the fifth largest participation sport in the UK and brings £3.4 billion to the British economy. So can the trend be reversed?

Journalist and broadcaster Mark Hodkinson investigates the fall-off in the company of Golf Business magazine editor Alistair Dunsmuir, John and Marie Llewellyn who started the website Golf's Missing Links and John Hopkins, former golf correspondent of the Times.

Mark considers whether declining participation is principally down to changing social trends. We work longer hours, have less free time than ever before and more households have two working parents. Who has the time to spend a whole day on the golf course? Also, despite golf's young and cool starts such as Ricky Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Speith, the sport retains its high-brow image with cliquey clubhouses, ties and jackets, no trainers, ladies afternoons and so on.

So what are we doing if we're not playing golf? Thousands of ex-golfers have swapped their plus fours and clubs for Lycra and a bike. In the wake of Bradley Wiggins' and Chris Froome's victories in the Tour de France, and the successes of Team GB in recent Olympics, the sport is ever growing.

A Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.

What steers the creation and shape of a constitution - and how do they work during times of political turmoil?

In ordinary times constitutional debate often seems an abstract business without very much relevance to the way we live our lives. But political turmoil can operate like an X-ray, lighting up the bones around which the body politic is formed.

Drawing on recent political events, Edward Stourton explores the effectiveness of the constitutions of the United Kingdom, the USA and France and asks are they doing what they were meant to do?

CONTRIBUTORS

Lord Peter Hennessy, Professor of Contemporary British History, Queen Mary University of London

Alison Young, Professor of Public Law, University of Oxford

Professor Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School

Sophie Boyron, Senior Lecturer, University of Birmingham Law School

David S Bell, Professor of French Government and Politics, University of Leeds

Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith.

When Brett Westwood heard he was going to encounter arguably 'the world's toughest animal' he didn't expect to find it on a garage roof in County Durham - but all became clear when he came face to face with the Tardigrade. First described in 1773 and so named because they resemble slow-moving bears, these microscopic animals are probably the closest thing to an alien we are likely to encounter. Capable of living without water and then being revived after 30 years, the Tardigrade or moss-piglet as they are also called, challenge our ideas about what defines life. And as if that wasn't enough, they are probably the cutest little creature you could hope to meet! Producer Sarah Blunt.

The latest weather forecast.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns.

It's Guy Montag's job to know these things: he's a fireman and he burns books for a living. He loves his job doing this service for the public, but he is not happy. As his life unravels he begins to question all his beliefs.

Ray Bradbury's cult classic was first published in 1953 but it imagines a world very like 2017, in which sophisticated mass media are used to pacify and control people; love is a commodity; attention spans are short and police hunts are live entertainment.

Poetic, dazzling and shocking: Ray Bradbury's vision of the future has become terrifyingly familiar.

Abridged by Sara Davies and read by Alex Jennings.
Music: 'Stitch' from the album Bella by PT-1, on Bandcamp.

Part of BBC Radio 4's 'Dangerous Visions' season.

The brain - the final frontier. Radio 4 is setting out on an exploration of the creative mind.

Gerald Scarfe's drawings have intrigued and alarmed for more than fifty years but where do his ideas come from? Professor Vincent Walsh of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience has a theory he wants to pursue. Vincent is an expert in the workings of the visual brain; he thinks that two specific areas may be talking to each other in an unexpected way, resulting in recognisable faces being mixed up with recognisable objects, hence Mrs Thatcher as an axe, a handbag, and even a shark.

Now, cartoonist and neuroscientist are going to meet. "I for one would be fascinated to know what's going on in my brain - please pursue this," says Gerald Scarfe.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.

Sean Curran reports from Westminster.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Stephen Shipley, Radio Producer and broadcaster.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Norfolk based bird therapist Joe Harkness on the calming effect a nightingale song can be for Tweet of the Day.

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Maggie Ayre.

News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Hilary Mantel analyses how historical fiction can make the past come to life. She says her task is to take history out of the archive and relocate it in a body. "It's the novelist's job: to put the reader in the moment, even if the moment is 500 years ago." She takes apart the practical job of "resurrection", and the process that gets historical fiction on to the page. "The historian will always wonder why you left certain things out, while the literary critic will wonder why you left them in," she says. How then does she try and get the balance right?

The lecture is recorded in front of an audience in Exeter, near Mantel's adopted home in East Devon, followed by a question and answer session. The Reith Lectures are chaired by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

When Jacqueline Yallop moves to south-west France with her husband, she embraces rural village life and buys two pigs to rear for slaughter. But as she gets to know the animals better, her English sentimentality threatens to get in the way and she begins to wonder if she can actually bring herself to kill them.

This is a memoir about that fateful decision, but it's also about the ethics of meat eating in the modern age, and whether we should know, respect and even love the animals we eat.

At its heart, this book is a love story, exploring Jacqueline's increasing attachment for her particular pigs, and celebrating the enduring closeness of humans and pigs over the centuries.

Written by Jacqueline Yallop
Read by Imogen Stubbs
Abridged by Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Tales of the City: The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin. Dramatised by Lin Coghlan.
Ep 2.

As Michael and Ben prepare for 'Burning Man' art festival in Nevada, Shawna makes them an offer that could change their lives.

Director/Producer Gary Brown.

Brett Westwood investigates the peaceful, hefty, cud-chewing beasts which have been by our side for thousands of years. In Natural Histories we find out what Shakespeare made of this special relationship, hear Dinka songs from the intense cattle-based cultures of South Sudan and travel to a Leicestershire dairy where robots do the milking. It's a pastoral scene and a violent one too: the fearsome virility of the bull in the poetry of Lorca, sacred cows prompting vigilante violence in India, and a Greek tyrant who would bake his victims alive in a giant metal bull, its resonance turning their cries to moos. From all this bovine history it's clear that the domestication of the cow has fundamentally changed human society.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

After decades suppressed by Myanmar's military regime, we go inside Yangon's booming counter-cultural art scene to reveal the city as seen through the eyes of the young artists on the frontline of change.

Until censorship was lifted in 2012, dissident artists, musicians and poets lived with the threat of jail for speaking out against the military regime that had gripped Myanmar - or Burma - since 1962 and turned it into a police state. Now, from modern art to punk rock and poetry, a new vibrant youth culture is flourishing. It's something that was inconceivable only five years ago, when there was no internet, no mobile phones, and no freedom of expression.

Recorded on location in the country's biggest city, we meet the emerging artists and performers breaking through and forging a new Myanmar.

It's a critical juncture in Myanmar's history, but the rules are still unclear. How open can the artists be? Work by former political prisoners is now on show, and even the country's former spymaster has opened an art gallery. But we hear from a young poet who was imprisoned for six months for a six-line poem deemed to insult the former president and released in 2016. Under Aung San Suu Kyi's government, prosecutions under the notorious 66D defamation clause, seen by critics as a weapon to silence anyone speaking out against the state, have risen sharply. Old habits of self-censorship can be hard to break.

But are young artists optimistic about their country's future? You bet they are.

Produced by Eve Streeter
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

From Spacewar to Pokemon Go, video games - aside from becoming a large industry in their own right - have influenced the modern economy in some surprising ways. Here's one. In 2016, four economists presented research into a puzzling fact about the US labour market. The economy was growing, unemployment rates were low, and yet a surprisingly large number of able-bodied young men were either working part-time or not working at all. More puzzling still, while most studies of unemployment find that it makes people thoroughly miserable, the happiness of these young men was rising. The researchers concluded that the explanation was simply that this cohort of young men were living at home, sponging off their parents and playing video games. They were deciding, in the other words, not to join the modern economy in some low-paid job, because being a starship captain at home is far more appealing.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon.

Consumer phone-in.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Bridget Kendall explores what happened when China broke with the USSR and, in 1966, launched a Cultural Revolution aimed in part at laying claim to pure communism in the face of Moscow's more revisionist approach.

She hears the stories of Sir John Weston, then a young British diplomat, recalls what happened when Red Guards stormed the British Embassy.

And brothers Chen Zhang Gong and Chen Zhang Rang remember the very painful story of how they watched helplessly as their teacher father was hounded to death by their fellow pupils.

Producer: Phil Tinline.

Philip Palmer's detective series continues as Bertalan and Franciska get sucked deeper into a battle of wits that could destroy them both.

Directed by Toby Swift

Keeping the Wolf Out is part of Radio 4's 'Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze'.

Helen Castor and her guests discuss the history stories that are alive today.

Seventy five years on from the first American bomber raid taking off from British soil to attack targets in Nazi-occupied Europe, poet Sugar Brown hears how the thousands of Yanks who arrived in the UK in 1942 were segregated by race - both when they were in uniform and when they were out on civvy street.

On the eve of the announcement of the Art Fund Museum of the Year, we hear from two retired ladies who, having completed a journey on every London bus route, are now visiting every museum in the capital. Iszi Lawrence asks them what makes a good museum.

Tom Holland meets with the author Peter Frankopan to hear how China's new Belt and Road initiative has its historical roots in the Silk Road which, for a millennium, connected the Korean peninsular and Japan to the Mediterranean Sea.

And as a new TGV line opens to Bordeaux we ask what's 'must-see' in that fabulous city for the historian.

Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Criminologist David Wilson talks to former criminal turned journalist Erwin James. James committed a string of petty offences before carrying out two brutal murders. He fled to France and joined the Foreign Legion, before returning to Britain where he stood trial and was sentenced to life.

In prison he started writing a newspaper column and began coming to terms with what he had done, helped by a prison psychologist. He later wrote a book, "Redeemable". But what is redemption, and is it even possible without the forgiveness of those who have been hurt?

Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.

Actor Kathy Burke and comedian Tom Allen talk books with Harriett Gilbert. Kathy's favourite book is Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. She first read it when she was 14 and has gone back to it over and over again, irresistibly drawn by the central character, George Harvey Bone.
Role Models, a kind of memoir by the American film-maker John Waters (Hairspray, Cry-Baby) is a book that means a lot to Tom Allen. It's a celebration of the outsider and of a different way of seeing life.
Then Harriett gets them to read Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym. To say that the book does not go down at all well would be a severe understatement.. but the resulting conversation is hugely enjoyable.
Producer Beth O'Dea.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller is back with more words of wit and wisdom. He opens this series with a new story fresh from the pages of The New Yorker, Untamed, and extracts from his book Theft By Finding, a compilation of diary entries from 1977-2002.

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humour writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

David Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries. was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.

David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). He has been a contributor to BBC Radio 4 since 1996.

Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.

Will tries to gather support, and Brian makes his pitch.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Current affairs documentary series.

News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.

Dr Mark Porter presents a series that aims to demystify perplexing health issues.

Jolyon Jenkins investigates the network of private Christian schools in Britain that teach that evolution untrue, homosexuality is wrong, and that wives should submit to their husbands.

These schools use the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum, originally devised by a fundamentalist Texan who thought that all education needed to assume the literal truth of the bible. The entire curriculum, including science, makes continual reference to God's plan. It promotes creationism, and the false idea that humans and dinosaurs co-existed on earth.

The system requires children to sit in "offices" - desks screened off from their neighbours - and work their way in silence through the "packets of accelerated Christian education" and then take multiple choice tests. The system requires no teachers, only "supervisors". Pupils do not usually take A levels but special Christian exams.

Although some pupils make it to university and have successful careers, Jolyon speaks to others who feel that the system has not served them well. Are ACE pupils being well prepared for life in modern Britain? For years, Ofsted has appeared to show little interest in the contents of the ACE curriculum but a few recent inspections of ACE schools suggest that this may be changing.

Presenter/Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Montag's wife had her stomach pumped last night. But will she even remember? He's not certain of anything anymore.

Ray Bradbury's visionary cult classic, abridged by Sara Davies. Read by Alex Jennings.

Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Stephen Shipley, Radio Producer and broadcaster.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

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

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Maggie Ayre.

Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

Two artists discuss creative questions.

Dan Snow presents the story of WWI through the voices of those who were there.

When Jacqueline Yallop moves to south-west France with her husband, she embraces rural village life and buys two pigs to rear for slaughter. But as she gets to know the animals better, her English sentimentality threatens to get in the way and she begins to wonder if she can actually bring herself to kill them.

This is a memoir about that fateful decision, but it's also about the ethics of meat eating in the modern age, and whether we should know, respect and even love the animals we eat.

At its heart, this book is a love story, exploring Jacqueline's increasing attachment for her particular pigs, and celebrating the enduring closeness of humans and pigs over the centuries.

Written by Jacqueline Yallop
Read by Imogen Stubbs
Abridged by Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Tales of the City: The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin. Dramatised by Lin Coghlan.
Ep 3.

Mrs Madrigal prepares to go back to her home town and Michael and Ben argue over Shawna's offer.

Director/Producer Gary Brown.

A mother recalls how the achievement of taking her severely disabled younger daughter to a gig at Wembley with her elder daughter broadened their horizons. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

A second series of the sitcom about three women who meet during cancer treatment and start going to salsa class together to maintain their friendship. As they adjust to life after cancer they realise that they've all changed. This second series begins as Jill has left her husband and son to live at her new boyfriends' parent's house, Camille is planning a huge life change and Chippy has a new live-in wannabe step-father in the shape of Gordon from their salsa class.

In the second episode, Marco's sister arrives and is not impressed by his new girlfriend - Camille. Jill is still trying to decide whether to have reconstruction while Tim lives the high-life on a photo shoot and Chippy thinks she can save her budding relationship with a lie.

The series is not about cancer, but about life after cancer, how you cope the changes in your outlook, your desires and your expectations. It's also about how other people cope with the change in you.

Written by Kay Stonham

Produced and directed by Alison Vernon-Smith.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

When the great novelist Charles Dickens arrived in America in 1842, he was hoping to put an end to pirated copies of his work in the US. They circulated there with impunity because the United States granted no copyright protection to non-citizens. Patents and copyright grant a monopoly, and monopolies are bad news. Dickens's British publishers will have charged as much as they could get away with for copies of Bleak House; cash-strapped literature lovers simply had to go without. But these potential fat profits encourage new ideas. It took Dickens a long time to write Bleak House. If other British publishers could have ripped it off like the Americans, perhaps he wouldn't have bothered. As Tim Harford explains, intellectual property reflects an economic trade-off - a balancing act. If it's too generous to the creators then good ideas will take too long to copy, adapt and spread. But if it's too stingy then maybe we won't see the good ideas at all.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon.

Consumer affairs programme.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Bridget Kendall explores the major turning points in the later decades of the Cold War.

In August 1968 a Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia brought the period of liberalisation known as the Prague Spring to an end. The social and cultural reforms aimed at achieving 'socialism with a human face' came to an abrupt halt. It was justified under the principles of what became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, whereby the Soviet Union had the right to intervene anywhere in the Eastern Bloc where socialism was under threat. Czechoslovakia entered a period of repression

Bridget Kendall hears the stories of three people caught up in the invasion and active on the streets of Prague.

With Hana Laing, Julius Tomin and Zdena Tomin.

Producer: Martin Williams.

Philip Palmer's Cold War crime drama concludes. Unexpected alliances form when backs are against the wall.

Directed by Toby Swift

Keeping the Wolf Out is part of Radio 4's 'Cold War: Stories from the Big Freeze'.

Financial phone-in.

Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.

Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

It's Pidge and Gavin! The old team back together again for one last mission.

Kieran Hodgson and Ethan Lawrence star in another two-hander written by Cabin Pressure's John Finnemore.

Written by John Finnemore
Produced by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.

Justin gets the lie of the land, and Pat warns against probable pitfalls.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Claire Fox, Matthew Taylor, Anne McElvoy and Shiv Malik.

Talks with a personal dimension.