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

Maggie O'Farrell's startling memoir, in which the bestselling author recounts her life through a series of near-death experiences.

The book started out as a private project, a way for O'Farrell to help her young daughter who suffers from a serious immunology disorder, including severe eczema and allergies that can cause her anaphylactic shock: "I've asked myself, when she has been very ill, how do you carry on when death is a daily possibility?"

In this final episode, O'Farrell describes the challenges she and her family face trying to give her daughter as normal life a life as possible.

Reader: Hattie Morahan

Writer: Maggie O'Farrell

Abridger: Kirsteen Cameron

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

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 Claire Campbell Smith.

An iPM listener is inspired by the words of a teacher in a war zone.

iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.

The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.

Huw Stephens is our guide to the Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons. As a DJ Huw has been to many festivals but the Green Man is a favourite. Set in his homeland of Wales the festival is not just about rock music but also about the place in which it is set. This year festival goers are invited to spend time on the site before the music starts to get back to nature and settle into the spirit of the place. Huw meets festival goers, musicians, local food producers and druids to try to understand why hearing music in the great outdoors can be such a powerful experience.

Sybil Ruscoe visits Overbury Estate Farm in Worcestershire to find out how this year's harvest is going. She joins Farm Manager Jake Freestone as he makes the critical decision whether to harvest or not. As they survey the fields he explains how the weather has affected progress this year, and talks about the pressure not only to get the crop out of the ground, but also on the the farmers themselves who work long hours at this time of year and have to drop everything at a moment's notice when the call to harvest comes.

Producer: Toby Field.

The latest weather forecast.

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

Sixty years in showbiz for Marty Wilde this year. The south London boy was signed by the famously unsentimental pop Svengali Larry Parnes, and rose to fame with the generation that included Sir Cliff and Billy Fury. He co-wrote Kids in America for his daughter, 80s pop star Kim Wilde, and has just produced his granddaughter's cover of the Lulu hit 'I'm a Tiger'. If that were not enough, this autumn he's off tour, the Solid Gold Rock'n'Roll Tour

Lara Jewitt's office is pretty unusual - the Tropical Nursery and the Alpine Nursery at Kew Gardens - where the world's rarest plant life begins. She has travelled widely around South America in search of rare plants and most recently won Gold with her team at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

Sweetpea Slight grew up I suppose unconventionally in Dorset, the daughter of artists, but it was theatre for which she was destined. Event intervened, when just before she went to audition for drama school she got rather annexed by the theatre producer Thelma Holt, as famous for her eccentricity as for her nouse. She spent the next twenty years as Thelma Holt's assistant before finally making her move upstage. She's written a very fine book about it with the very fine title, 'Get Me The Urgent Biscuits'.

There's not much Roger McGough doesn't know about poetry. He was one of three poets who contributed to the anthology The Mersey Sound back in 1967. He's president of The Poetry Society and has published more than 50 anthologies. This year is also the 50th anniversary of his love poem Summer With Monika.

Inheritance Tracks this week come from Robert Webb - his new book is a sort of literary memoir of his journey from Boyz2Men - but lately has been best known as the hopeless Jeremy in Peep Show; and his West End Bertie Wooster was the talk of the Drones. He's returning, firmly packaged with David Mitchell, in a new series for Channel Four called Back.

Thank Yous from Esta Charkham .....J P Devlin on Gnomes......and much much more

And, our question this week is

"What is the most unusual thing in your garden"

Get in touch and don't forget to leave a number in case JP Devlin wants to call you back

EMAIL: saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk

TEXT: 84844

TWEET: #bbcsaturdaylive

Presenters: Aasmah Mir & the Rev. Richard Coles
Producer: Maire Devine.

By 1917 soldiers had been fighting what seemed like a never ending war. They yearned for entertainment, an escape from the horror surrounding them.

In the final episode of this year's series on the Great War, Francine Stock finds out about popular cross-dressing theatre troupes who by 1917 were taking the Front Line by storm.

Female impersonators with names like the Sensual Salome and Bodo Wild would perform in front of huge crowds of admiring soldiers, who would send them love letters, perfume and stockings.

Although there was a widespread expectation that war would cause society to return to Victorian ideals about the roles of men and women, instead it started challenged traditional norms.

There was tension between the model of the war hero - as depicted in popular literature - and the private experience of the combatants who read these books and poems. Novels spoke of war as a "rattling good adventure yarn", but the real life battlefield told a different story.

Producer: Caitlin Smith.

From Cellini's magnificent Perseus statue to the humblest of tools, people have been using bronze for at least five thousand years. So what makes bronze such a versatile material, how we first discovered it, and why is it that so many precious bronze art works have failed to survive?
Bridget Kendall is joined by Carol Mattusch, Professor Emerita of Art History at George Mason University, Professor Jianjun Mei, from the University of Science and Technology, Beijing and Director of the Needham Institute in Cambridge who specialises in ancient metallurgy, and David Ekserdjian, Professor of Art and Film History at Leicester University.
Also in the programme: Dutch sound artist Floris van Manen follows the key stages of making a bronze bell at Eijsbouts, one of Europe's leading foundries.

Photo: A rare Chinese bronze figure of a tapir dating back to the 4th century (Getty Images).

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from James Reynolds in Barcelona who considers the political and psychological questions facing Catalans and Spaniards in the aftermath of the attacks; from Olivia Acland in Sierra Leone who finds extraordinary resilience among those affected by the recent mudslide; from Alastair Leithead in Addis Ababa who tours the shiny industrial future Ethiopia's leaders want to embrace but wonders if they will have to include political reforms in the mix too; from Simon Calder in Uzbekistan who pays tribute to a humble survivor of the Soviet era; and from Sarah Wheeler who discovers the EU to be the unlikely hot topic of conversation when she visits her local nail bar in Macedonia.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Pensioners retiring today are described as a fortunate generation. Many have benefited from generous workplace pensions, the ability to buy their own homes and soaring property values. Future generations may not be so lucky.

Until recently the number of people paying into a pension at work was falling. Now, it is rising again thanks to a system of automatic enrolment. But not enough is currently going into many of these pensions to allow people a 'comfortable' retirement. Plus we're all living longer so what funds we do have are having to go further.

In this final programme of our series looking at whether retirement as we know it is dead, we ask whether tomorrow's pensioners will be able to afford a twenty year paid holiday at the end of their lives? If not, then what are their options and what do policy makers need to do to adapt?

Presenter: Adam Shaw
Producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Andrew Smith.

This week, the Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator, the brilliant Romesh Ranganathan welcome:

A costume designer who has dressed Johnny Depp, Madonna and Tom Cruise, Penny Rose.

Truth seeker, commentator, author, biographer, columnist and Private Eye's Editor, Francis Wheen.

and

Professor of Volcanology at Cambridge University and author who travels from the Antarctic to darkest North Korea in search of the Hot Stuff, Clive Oppenheimer.

This week, the Museum's Guest Committee offer as exhibits a decorous device for lifting a Victorian lady's skirt, a letter that Karl Marx never wrote and a tin can full of liquid rock.

The show was researched by Anne Miller of QI and Mike Turner.

The production coordinator was Tamara Shilham.

The producers were Richard Turner and James Harkin.

It was a BBC Studios production.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House London with Dawn Butler MP the Shadow Minister for Diverse Communities, Europe Minister Alan Duncan MP, Ian Paisley Junior the MP for North Antrim for the Democatic Unionist Party, and the journalist Ella Whelan.

Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?

From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is the first in a quartet of books entitled The Neapolitan Novels. They are a forensic exploration of friendship between Lila and the story's narrator, Lena. This is no normal friendship, it's a friendship that loves, hurts, supports and destroys - and yet it is one that lasts a lifetime.

It begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets two girls, Elena and Lila, learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone - or anything - else as their friendship, beautifully and meticulously rendered, becomes a not always perfect shelter from hardship.

It is the story of a nation, of a neighbourhood, a city and a country undergoing momentous change.

This first book centres on their childhood and adolescence.

From the book by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein.
Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Roger Law .. the artist. The name might just ring a bell as one of the two people responsible for a rather infamous satirical TV puppet show that was broadcast in the 1980s. But there's a lot more to this creator than that, and he's gone on record to say he hates puppets anyway. Since the show ended Roger's been very busy.

After a lengthy stint in Australia feverishly drawing the strange and the wonderful creatures he encountered on land or in the sea, he has returned to his roots in East Anglia for a different creative endeavour. But he's not staying put, as this new creative challenge involves making some of the biggest ceramic pots in the world, and the only place with kilns that can cope is thousands of miles away in a provincial city in China. Join him on his quest for porcelain perfection.

Presenter Andrew Graham-Dixon

Producer Mark Rickards.

Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.

Full coverage of the day's news.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Alan Johnson, Zinnie Harris, Ursula Martinez and Twayna Mayne for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Kathryn Joseph and Pictish Trail.

Producer: Sukey Firth.

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines. This edition features Crawford Falconer.

Recorded at The Edinburgh Festivals, there's a selection of some of the highlights from this year's typically varied assortment of delights.
Also:
Ned Beauman's new novel; Madness Is Better Than Defeat, set in 1930s Honduras
An exhibition of British Realist painters at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Kathryn Bigelow's film Detroit tells the story of the 1960s race riots in that city
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Inua Ellams, Louise Welsh and Peggy Hughes. the producer is Oliver Jones.

Marking the 20th anniversary of her untimely death, Archive on 4 presents a unique and moving portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales - her life documented in reverse chronology.

Diana, Princess of Wales was arguably the most famous - and most photographed - woman in the world. Her life has been exhaustively discussed and disassembled in the media both before and since her untimely death on 31st August 1997. As the anniversary of that tragic event approaches, is there anything truly new for us to learn about her remarkable, turbulent, and short life - and how the way we reacted to it changed our society?

Drawing from hundreds of hours of footage, Archive on 4 presents a unique, unmediated portrait of the Princess - starting with the sombre events of her funeral and taking the listener on a journey backwards through her life and times: from the remarkable public outpouring of grief that followed her passing; the almost unbearable press intrusion into her private world in her last months; her new life as a single woman; her divorce, her married life and the public jubilation surrounding the Royal Wedding of 1981; right back to the announcement of the 19 year-old Diana's engagement to Prince Charles.

Unpresented and unmediated, the programme offers a unique audio montage of the events of, and reaction to, one of the most extraordinary lives of the 20th century. Featuring contributions from the archives from Piers Morgan, Andrew Neill, Jennie Bond, Richard Kay - as well as several of Diana's closest friends, and members of the British public.

Produced by Steven Rajam and James Roberts for BBC Radio 4

Contributors:
Andrew Neill
Arthur Edwards
Barbara Daly
Bea Campbell
David Emanuel
David Starkey
Denis Lawson
Eammon McCabe
Earl Spencer
Elizabeth Emanuel
Glenn Harvey
James Naughtie
James Reynolds
James Whitaker
Jennie Bond
Jeremy Paxman
John Humphrys
Ken Lennox
Martin Bashir
Michael Shea
Patrick Jephson
Penny Juror
Piers Morgan
Rosie Boycott
Tim Graham
Tom Cruise
Tony McGrath

Archive:
All Things Considered, BBC Radio Wales
Archive on 4 - A History of the Stiff Upper Lip, BBC Radio 4
A Royal Recovery, BBC Radio 4
BBC News Special - Diana: 10 Years On, BBC News 24
Capturing the Royals: The Story of Royal Photography, BBC2
Decisive Moments: A Rough Road, BBC2
Diana: The People's Princess, BBC1
Great Britons: Diana, BBC2
Heart of the Matter, BBC1
Fifty Years with the Firm: Prog 5: Doom & Gloom, BBC Radio 4
Mediumwave, BBC Radio 4
Memories of Diana, BBC1
Modern Times: The Shrine, BBC4
Newsnight, BBC1
Panorama, BBC1
Proms, BBC1
The Princess's People: A View from the Crowd, BBC2
The Reunion: The Wedding of Charles & Diana, BBC Radio 4
The Today Programme, BBC Radio 4
Thinking Allowed: Remembering Diana, BBC Radio 4
Top of the Pops, BBC1
Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4.

From one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is the first in a quartet of books entitled The Neapolitan Novels. They are a forensic exploration of friendship between Lila and the story's narrator, Lena. This is no normal friendship, it's a friendship that loves, hurts, supports and destroys - and yet it is one that lasts a lifetime.

It begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets two girls, Elena and Lila, learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone - or anything - else as their friendship, beautifully and meticulously rendered, becomes a not always perfect shelter from hardship.

It is the story of a nation, of a neighbourhood, a city and a country undergoing momentous change.

This first book centres on their childhood and adolescence.

From the book by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein.
Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

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

Can you take twelve bright young people and get them to solve a complex policy problem in just one day? It may sound ambitious but using techniques being used increasingly by governments around the world, our teams are going to do just that. The day is introduced by Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA and the teams will be led through the process by Cat Drew a director at design consultancy Uscreates.

In this episode the teams are going to be tackling childhood obesity and at the end they will have to pitch their ideas to our judges: Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, and David Willets former Cabinet minister and now Executive Chairman of the Resolution Foundation.

Who will impress and who will fall short?

Team One:

Jag Singh - tech entrepreneur and former political strategist.

Miriam Redi - social dynamics research scientist at Bell Labs Cambridge.

Margot Lombaert - creative director of Margot Lombaert Studio, an independent graphic design practice.

Solveiga Pakštaitė - industrial designer specialising in user-centred design.

Team two:

Emily Goldhill - strategist and research leader at creative youth network Livity.

Gemma Hitchens - Account Director at Signal Noise, which specialises in data visualisation and analysis.

Jasmine Robinson - RSA-award winning designer.

Dr Rebecca Roache - Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Team three:

Amanda Gore - Co-Director of The Liminal Space, a creative engagement consultancy.

Helen Steer - educator and maker who runs Do It Kits, a start-up that helps teachers use technology.

Matt Tinsley - Senior Economist with consultancy firm Oxford Economics.

Steve Wilson - chef, sociologist and entrepreneur.

(8/13)
Can you name the spectacular new concert hall in Hamburg, and the British tenor who performed at its inaugural concert? If not, what about the only musician ever to be co-credited on a hit record by the Beatles?

Paul Gambaccini will be trying these out on the Counterpoint competitors in today's heat, along with many other questions drawn from every musical genre. There'll be no shortage of musical extracts, some of which will jog your memory, and others you'll be hearing for the first time. The competitors will also each have to specialise in a musical topic which they've had no chance to prepare.

The winner will take another of the places in the semi-finals which begin soon.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

Boston in Lincolnshire is home to many settlers from Eastern Europe and has a long history associated with immigration and migration. It's where the pilgrim fathers who conquered America came from and it has a long cultural history associated with other parts of the world, including the Netherlands.

But the UK media focus in recent years has been on how the people of the Boston of the 21st Century struggle to live side by side. This was also the Brexit hot spot of Britain during the EU referendum.

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah, himself a son of immigrants who grew up in the West Midlands visits Boston to hear, via poetry and interviews with the different people who live there, what Boston means to them.

He meets a variety of people - Romanians, Estonians, Lithuanians and Poles as well as members of the indigenous population - as they put pen to paper to convey their feelings about life in Boston and Britain more generally.

Broken English and foreign languages are mixed with the sound of the traditional Lincolnshire burr as he also hears from people who've lived in Boston all their lives.

Far from finding a town at war, as so often depicted in the media, he discovers a vibrant community who - despite their differences - seem eager to muddle along together and shape a common future.

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.

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

"My eight year old daughter is cooler than me, FACT. Yes she has a rather questionable taste in music and she wears more neon than I'm comfortable with, but get her in a room and she owns it".

Boys Grown Tall is an original short work for radio about fatherhood, raising daughters and playing the drums.

Matt Grinter is a writer and director working in both theatre and film. He was the winner of the Papatango Prize for new writing in 2016 for his debut play ORCA for which he was shortlisted for 'most promising new playwright' at the 'Off West End' awards. His play THE DOG AND THE ELEPHANT ran at the Bristol Old Vic Studio and Vault Fest, produced in conjunction with Ferment. Matt is currently one of the Open Session Writers on attachment at the Bristol Old Vic. His short films include TEA LEAVES, SMALL TALK, JESSIE and THE PARTY PHOTOGRAPHER. Matt is also the artistic director of Red Rope Theatre Company, which he formed in 2012 with actor-producer Rebecca Robson

Read by Stuart McLoughlin
Produced by Mair Bosworth.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

This week's Bells on Sunday, comes from the Church of St Mary and St Benedict, Buckland Brewer in Devon. The church contains a memorial plaque commemorating the bells' notable founder John Taylor of Oxford, who for ten years had a branch of his foundry here. The six bells with the tenor tuned to G, were cast in 1899 and rehung on ball bearings in 1937. We hear them ringing 'Devon Call Changes'.

The latest national and international news.

Games, puzzles and intellectual contests have exerted a fascination on humans for thousands of years. Mark Tully asks why people from so many different cultures are so devoted to games of skill, strategy and calculation.

He talks to Dr Irving Finkel who has been hooked on since childhood, now writes extensively on the subject and recently rediscovered the rules for the ancient Royal Game of Ur. He also explores the many purposes of game-playing, from military training to education and from holding communities together to psychological therapy.

There's music from saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Amy Winehouse and Georges Bizet, and readings from philosopher Bernard Suits and poet Ezra Pound.

Readers: David Westhead and Polly Frame.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.

Tom Heap meets the farmers of bere, an ancient grain, grown on Orkney for centuries.

Producer: Sarah Swadling.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.

Richard Mylan makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Cerebra.

Registered Charity Number 1089812
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 'Cerebra'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Cerebra'.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

Set in the picturesque grounds of the Boughton Estate near to Kettering, Greenbelt brings top Christian thinkers and musicians together with 20,000 festival goers to spend the August bank holiday weekend reflecting on faith, justice and culture. The festival, which has been described as "Glastonbury with God", sees people of all ages, traditions and backgrounds, don their wellies and pitch their tents to consider the big questions of life.

Speakers, musicians and festival goers bring the sights and sounds of this extraordinary gathering to life as they explore this year's theme, The Common Good.

Producer: Katharine Longworth.

Roger Scruton looks at the impact of Harry Potter on our world view.

"People are starting to live in a kind of cyber-Hogwarts", he says, "a fantasy world in which goods are simply obtained by needing them, and then asking some future Prime Minister to wave the magic wand".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Clare Jones recalls the inspiration of seeing a little egret and how a small event can change an entire outlook on life in this 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 Tom Bonnett.

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

Oliver needs to ask a favour, and Shula spots an opportunity.

Sue MacGregor reunites the designers who transformed 1980s fashion.

The eighties are considered one of the most experimental periods in British style history, but trends weren't limited to massive shoulder pads with sizeable hair to match. It was in this era that people expressed themselves in any way they wanted and, at the heart of it all, was a celebration of the individual.

As a result, a new generation of fashion designers emerged. Buyers worldwide flocked to see London's creations and British designs were stocked in shops from New York to Tokyo.

It was on 19 October 1987 that Black Monday hit and everything changed. The American buyers turned their back on importing from the UK and many British designers struggled to make ends meet. So they forged new collaborations and paved the way for the modern fashion industry.

Sue MacGregor brings together the designers who established their careers in the 1980s.

Bruce Oldfield is known for dressing a wealth of celebrities, including Princess Diana.

Considered one of the most important milliners, Stephen Jones began his career in 1980, opening a hat shop in Covent Garden.

Betty Jackson launched Marks and Spencer's Autograph range, but her success goes back to when she was awarded the first of many accolades in 1985.

Wendy Dagworthy is a former fashion designer, turned academic, and now retired. In the eighties, her label could be found in Macy's and Saks and she helped to set up the first London Fashion Week.

Best known for presenting BBC's The Clothes Show, Caryn Franklin promoted new, emerging designers on the box as well as in i-D magazine.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Nicholas Parsons challenges Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Fred Macaulay and James Acaster in a special edition of the popular panel show - recorded at the Edinburgh Festival.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.

Once a cheap dish to feed workers, salted cod has been preserved by cooks around the world who serve it to celebrate: On Sundays, at Carnival, at Christmas. It's an ingredient which has played a part in the forming of empires, fuelled armies and cured hangovers. Sheila Dillon meets cooks and hears the enduring and surprising stories of cuisines shaped by salt fish. She asks why some of the best new British chefs are choosing to include saltfish on their menus.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.

The latest weather forecast.

Global news and analysis.

A monthly series in which broadcaster and acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Dunant delves into the past to help frame the present, bringing to life worlds that span the centuries.

Taking modern day anxieties as its starting point, the programme considers how certain questions are constant, yet also change their shape over time.

This month, Sarah takes us to the brink - to moments where leaders are willing to cross the ultimate line. She'll be asking what happens when the enemy you're negotiating with has nothing to lose, and questioning whether the threat of apocalypse can be good for the soul.

From Caesar crossing the Rubicon in ancient Rome, to medieval apocalyptic fears, via a radical preacher with rhetoric so powerful that it catapulted him onto the global stage, these are moments of fire and fury when the end seemed nigh.

Guests include Dr Hannah Cornwell from the University of Birmingham, Dr Stefano Dall'Aglio of the University of Edinburgh, and Dr James Palmer from the University of St Andrews.

Presenter: Sarah Dunant
Producer: Katherine Godfrey
Assistant Producer: Nathan Gower
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Eric Robson and the panel are in Cardiff. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness and Matt Biggs answer the audience's questions.

This week, the panellists recommend garden uses for sheep fleece, offer advice on overwintering chillis, and give the definitive 'dos and don'ts' for starting an allotment.

They also offer up a whole host of interesting and varied planting suggestions for one questioner with a riverbank garden, one looking to attract pollinators with fruit and veg, and one who is looking for plants to remind his wife of Yorkshire.

Finally, Matt Biggs lets his inner-thespian run amok as he investigates Shakespeare's connections to plants and horticulture.

Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Fi Glover introduces conversations about the morality lessons of horror film, the politics of haircare, and where we find our identity 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.

A new dramatization of Salman Rushdie's dazzling novel of love, history and magic. Saleem is born at the exact moment of India's Partition, August 1947 Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon.

Sound design by Peter Ringrose
Produced and directed by Tracey Neale and Emma Harding.

A voyage around Greek writing both ancient and modern. Kamila Shamsie talks to Mariella Frostrup about her new novel Home Fire, a pertinent and timely story of the two families torn apart by love and war, inspired by Sophocles's Antigone. It's one of a clutch of novels this summer spawned from Greek tragedies. Classicist Dr Nick Lowe discusses recent books by Colm Toibin, David Vann and Natalie Haynes and why the plays remain inspiring for novelists, while writer and translator Joshua Barley recommends more modern Greek writing.

Joe Moshenska travels in John Milton's footsteps, 350 years after the publication of Paradise Lost, to understand how the real people and places he encountered helped to shape his poetic imagination and inspired the divine universe of his poem.

Writing Paradise Lost, the epic poem that tells the story of the fall of humankind, was an out-of-body experience for Milton. Although he was a blind, beleaguered old man by the time he composed the poem, he didn't see this as an obstacle - every night his muse would visit him while he slept and deposit the next parcel of verse in his mind.

Milton's imagination took him out into the farthest reaches of the universe, but also back into his own past, returning compulsively to his youthful travels through France and on to Italy, where he had met the great astronomer, Galileo Galilei.

Joe begins his journey at the cottage in Chalfont St Giles, where Milton found his muse and wrote large parts of the poem towards the end of his life. He then visits the Wren Library of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, which contains an early attempt to write Paradise Lost as a drama. This incredible manuscript gives Joe a glimpse of Milton as a young and uncertain poet, struggling to find his voice and vocation. Finally, Joe travels to Florence where Milton met Galileo, by then blind and under house arrest, who became Milton's exemplar for speaking truth to power, and was the only contemporary to be named in Paradise Lost - perhaps because Milton realised how closely he came to resemble the astronomer in old age.

Joe's journey reflects how Milton's poem thrums with an extraordinary cacophony of different traditions - biblical, historical and mythic, drawn from his wide imagination and travels.

Readings by Deirdre Mullins
Produced by Melissa FitzGerald

A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.

Suicide is the number one killer of men under-50 in England and Wales. A 'zero suicide' approach to prevention first devised in Detroit is now changing attitudes to care in the UK. Merseyside is leading the way. Radio 4 gains exclusive access to a healthcare authority being transformed from the inside-out in a bid to treat suicide as a preventable condition and to bring lives lost down to 0% by 2020.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Carole Walker chooses her BBC Radio highlights.

Contemporary drama in a rural setting. Ian doesn't like what he hears, and Roy's confidence takes a knock.

It's an Ashes summer Radio One County's Andy Hamer finds England's sleaziest ex-cricketer Pod at the lowest of unfair ebbs - suspended from his radio programme for disloyal tweets to a rival broadcaster and stripped of his role as global ambassador for cheapfags.com.

When the nation bids farewell to a controversial yet iconic figure from the East Midlands - his beloved dog Saxon - Pod blows his questionably-gotten fortune on the funeral.

With his prospects in the gutter, and bailiffs turning up faster than grey streaks in his mullet, has Pod finally met his match? Or can a precocious young Tyke help him save the day?

A Hat Trick 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?

Sophie Jo Wasson ..... Natalie
Sanchi McCormack ..... Lena

Gerard Stembridge ..... Writer
Gemma McMullan ..... Series Producer & Director.

Investigating the numbers in the news.

Brian Aldiss - the gifted science fiction author who inspired the Hollywood movie AI artificial intelligence. Jerry Lewis the American comic who - with Dean Martin found fame as one of the most successful double acts of all time. Blanche Blackwell - the Jamaican society hostess who became Ian Fleming's lover and some believe - the inspiration for the Bond movie character Pussy Galore. Abu Kifah, the Syrian rescue worker who made headlines around the world after pulling a baby alive from the wreckage of a bombed out building - and Sir Bruce Forsyth whose death a week ago today has seen him fondly remembered for his contribution to British entertainment in a career spanning more than seven decades.

Twenty five years after the UK opened it's first privately run prison, Matthew Gwyther explores whether they have fulfilled their promise to deliver a cost effective, safe, and reliable prison service. Does incarcerating people for profit work? Or does it lead the sector to cut corners, sacrificing safety and security in the pursuit of profit?

Producer: Sarah Shebbeare.

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

With Antonia Quirke.

Will Poulter on the intense experience of playing a racist police officer in Kathryn Bigelow's new film Detroit.

Indian filmmaker Shubhashish Bhutiani tells us about Hotel Salvation, the story of a son accompanying his elderly father to the holy city of Varanasi to die.

And Best Visual Effects Oscar-winner Andrew Whitehurst rewatches Terminator 2: Judgement Day for us to see how the effects stand the test of time.

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

Writers Joe Dunthorne and John O'Farrell recommend great books with Harriett Gilbert.

John O'Farrell has written for Have I Got News for You, as well as novels like The Best a Man Can Get. His choice of book is less comic, a powerful memoir about life with a brother in a coma: The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

Joe Dunthorne's novel Submarine was adapted for film by Richard Ayoade, and he recommends a slim collection of evocative short stories, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson.

Harriett introduces them both to a modern classic: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, and asks why it is that men don't seem to read one of the greatest living novelists..

Producer Beth O'Dea.

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 Claire Campbell Smith.

The Highland Clearances of the early 19th century saw thousands of crofters moved from their homes in Scotland to poorer, lowland areas, allowing landowners to shift land use to large-scale sheep farming. Called 'improvement', it was often anything but that for the crofters' families. Many were forced to emigrate, others stayed in Scotland but led poorer, harder lives, powerless to improve their lot or take charge of their own futures.
So when Sutherland Estates decided that it would make business sense not to continue their ownership of 3,000 acres of land on the east coast, at Helmsdale, and offered it for sale to the local community, there were obvious parallels with the fate of their ancestors, cleared to the area by the first Duke of Sutherland.
After a local ballot and many grant applications, the £300,000 they needed was raised - and the sale has been agreed.
Moira Hickey visits Helmsdale and hears why it's important for local people to take charge of the four townships to which the 19th century crofters were moved. They are, of course, a powerful reminder of the powerlessness of former generations, but also offer a practical opportunity for local people to create jobs, improve the land, apply for further funding and make it more likely that future generations will be able to stay in the area, if they choose to do so.

The latest weather forecast for farmers.

Orcadian author and conservationist Amy Liptrot laments of the disappearance of breeding Arctic terns from her family farm 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 Mark Ward.

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

With six Grammys, three Emmys and two Oscars (from 20 Academy Award nominations) - to say nothing of his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and membership of both the Songwriters and the Rock & Roll Halls of Fame - means that Randy Newman has one of the most crowded mantelpieces in the world of popular entertainment.

In this special edition of MASTERTAPES the legendary singer-songwriter and composer talks to John Wilson about 'Sail Away' - the album that Rolling Stone magazine described as "a work of genius" when it was released forty-five years ago.

Already with a good dozen years under his belt as a professional song writer (he was only 28 years old when this album was released), with 'Sail Away' we see an artist able to combine biting wit, novelistic complexity and deep understanding of the contradictions of the American psyche with sumptuous melodies and restrained arrangements. Nowhere more so than with 'Lonely At The Top' (originally written with Frank Sinatra in mind), 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' (later recorded by Tom Jones for The Full Monty), 'God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)' and the austere title track that kicks off the album.

MASTERTAPES is recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John Wilson initially quizzing the artist about a career defining key album, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

The second part of this special edition is broadcast at 9.30pm on Monday 28 August 2017

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

Oliver Burkeman asks if we are talking ourselves into feeling overwhelmed with busyness.

From comedy's award winning Robert Webb, a funny and moving memoir which looks back on his bittersweet childhood in Lincolnshire, and also has wise words on masculinity's pitfalls.

Best known for his work with David Mitchell in Radio 4's Sony award winning series That Mitchell and Webb Sound and TV's Peep Show, Robert Webb has written a memoir that is both laugh out loud funny and powerfully moving and tender. An uneasy early childhood growing up in Lincolnshire, is followed by schoolboy crushes on girls and boys, to discovering a talent for making people laugh, to grief, and to becoming a husband and father. As his life story unfolds, Robert questions the expectations thrust on boys and men and reflects on how these have shaped the man he is today.

Written and read by Robert Webb
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

Woman's Lab: where Woman's Hour tackles issues and test solutions. Today, its body image. Presenters Gemma Cairney, Gia Milinovich and Michelle Dewberry take up the challenge over three days on the beaches of sunny Margate. They explore some practical ways to help us be less judgemental about what we see in the mirror. They meet real women, businesses, diet and fitness industry professionals and body experts. Can they finally crack how we can be happier with our bodies? Gemma Cairney goes on a bohemian adventure, inspired by taking her clothes off in a life drawing class. She tries to convince the women of Margate to do the same. Gia Milinovich's scientific research takes her on a journey through muscle gyms, bum toning machines and mindfulness. Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry struggles with a challenge that's not about making money, but spurred on by her own emotional relationship with her body, she creates a piece of installation art. Will the women of Margate think they're onto something?

Producer and presenter: Deborah Coughlin
Producers: Nicky Birch, Alannah Chance, Eva Krysiak, Jo Meek.

by A.L. Kennedy

Directed by Sally Avens

John and Maggie return as the lovers attempting to rekindle the flames of an on/off affair from their younger days only to discover that love doesn't get easier when your older but no wiser.

'A witty take on grown up romance' The Telegraph
A.L. Kennedy is an award winning writer of novels, short stories and drama and a stand up comedian.
Bill Nighy makes regular appearances on screen, stage and radio. He was most recently seen in the film 'Their Finest' and plays Charles Paris in 'The Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4.
Anna Calder-Marshall was most recently seen on stage at The National Theatre in Love in a 'stand out performance' The Telegraph.

Comedian and writer Jenny Eclair throws away her To Do list. She wants to understand why women write so many lists and what life would be like without them.

She discovers there are to-do lists, to-buy lists, to take-back lists, holiday lists and even secret lists of hidden yearnings. Jenny talks to good friend and producer Judith Holder about her own lists. Judith has a small library of books, each with a different list inside. Jenny realises she's on the nursery slopes of lists by comparison.

Going to her local butcher's - listless - Jenny finds out that men who shop there keep their lists on a mobile phone. Not only that, they haven't written the list themselves and, according to the butcher, look wistfully at what they want to buy but don't, because it's not on the list.

Artist Alice Instone made an exhibition of lists called The Pram in the Hall. She wrote to successful women and asked for their lists - and was amazed at how much these women had to do. Alice tells Jenny she was particularly interested in the lists because they're one of the rare things people still hand write.

Jenny also talks to Gena-mour Barrett - who writes articles online made up of lists - about why they are so compelling. According to Gena-mour, you can tell a good list if it is shared and attracts a community of readers. The most successful one she wrote attracted three million readers.

Jenny finally returns to her lists but not without first consulting coach Juliet Landau-Pope about what the perfect list would look like. And she discovers a whole new world of lists just waiting to be completed.

A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.

The hit series returns for a seventh series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. Written by and starring Donald Mcleary and Sanjeev Kohli.

Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop, the award winning Fags, Mags & Bags sees a return of all the shop regular characters, and some guest appearances along the way, from the likes of Sean Biggerstaff, Mina Anwar, Greg McHugh and Simon Greenall.

In this opening episode, we pick up on Dave's relationship with his best friend Lesley (Simon Greenall). Does Dave see a future in the friendship, and what does Lenzie think of his blossoming bromance?

Join the staff of Fags, Mags and Bags in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. He is joined by his shop sidekick, Dave.

Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business. Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them - whether they like it or not!

Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, severe gales across the country uprooted trees and damaged crops, while in Folkestone, Jessie's mood is bleak.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

From Tuesday there are two years left to claim compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance or PPI. For years lenders sold PPI with loans and credit cards to cover payments if customers were sick or lost their work. But many of the people who bought the cover didn't want or need it or weren't eligible to claim. The Financial Conduct Authority - that has set the new two year deadline join the programme.

We hear about your experiences of airport parking.

We'll be talking street food with one of the nominees for the Food and Farming Awards.

Plus - we'll take a look at the apps that turn whole novels into 15-minute reads.

Presented by Winifred Robinson
Produced by Helen Roberts.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

The Grenfell Tower disaster is a defining event in the history of social housing in Britain. Grenfell has brought to light some of the failures and attitudes that underpin our relationship to class, poverty, race and inequality. In this first episode of a ten part series, Lynsey Hanley will examine what Grenfell means for both social housing and for us as a society.

Lynsey argues Grenfell represents the culmination of the long story of how we have sought to meet the needs of the most disadvantaged in society through housing.

She talks to the Labour MP David Lammy about his upbringing. He tells her how social housing was once desirable, something people aspired to. But was the original dream of good quality housing for the poorer members of our society flawed from the beginning? Lynsey asks why we don't have decent housing for all, avoiding the stigma of paternalism and segregation by income and status. Did an original flawed plan create a marginalised class of people set away in isolated estates?

Presenter: Lynsey Hanley
Producer: Sara Parker and Joe Sykes
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

A man travels back in time to give his younger self some advice that could change everything. He is sure he should have kissed Sarah - his first love - when he had the opportunity.

This is Tony Jones' second radio drama. His first, Quill, won the Writer's Guild Award for Best Radio Play in 2016. It will be repeated on Radio 4 on 31st August 2017.

Written by Tony Jones

Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

(9/13)
The last three of this year's Counterpoint hopefuls join Paul Gambaccini for the always-eclectic music quiz. There's just one place left in the 2017 semi-finals. As always, the questions cover all the bases - from Baroque music to early New Orleans jazz, TV and film themes, 20th century classical and pop music from the 50s to the present day.

The competitors will also be faced with a choice of specialist musical topics on which to answer their own individual questions, with no chance to prepare.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

After the violence directed at black people in Nottingham and Notting Hill in the 1950s, and the naked racism expressed in Smethwick during the 1964 general election, a group of pioneering West Indians came up with a simple and defiant riposte: Carnival. In Queens of Chapeltown, Colin Grant goes behind the scenes of Carnival to its Leeds West Indian HQ in Chapeltown - amidst the glue guns, sequins and feathers - to capture that moment of extraordinary transformation, 50 years on: the birth of a tradition which, for one weekend in August, would wash away the bad taste of anti immigrant sentiment with a burst of colour and flash of exuberance that would forever change Britain. Grant travels to Leeds to talk with the pioneers and celebrate the endurance and growth of Carnival.

Is it a religious duty to give to beggars?
If you go into the centre of a city like Yangon or Bangkok, you will also come across people begging. Among them will be fine robed Buddhist monks with their begging bowls. They're highly respected members of society, following the tradition of religious mendicancy. What differentiates them from what we know as street beggars? What should inform our decision on whether or not to give?
Joining Ernie to discuss religious and moral attitudes to Begging are Jon Kuhrt, Chief Executive of the London City Mission; Eleanor Nesbitt, Professor Emerita from the University of Warwick and founder-member of the Punjab Research Group, and Dr Andrew Skilton, Senior Research Fellow in Buddhism at Kings College London.

Producer, Rosie Dawson.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Nicholas Parsons challenges Paul Merton, Paul Sinha, Janey Godley and Mark Watson in a special edition of the popular panel show - recorded at the Edinburgh Festival.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.

Contemporary drama in a rural setting. Oliver is unable to say no, and Peggy is working hard in the garden.

More often associated with comic films, actor Bill Nighy turns his hand to gothic horror in his latest movie The Limehouse Golem. Based on the Peter Ackroyd novel, Nighy plays Inspector Kildare, a compassionate detective, drafted in to investigate a series of grisly murders in Victorian London. He talks to Samira about the safety of comedy and how he hates a challenge.

As Londoners were treated to three different productions of Hamlet this summer, we explore why audiences can never seem to get enough of The Prince of Denmark. Samira is joined by Dame Janet Suzman, who has both acted in and directed the play; Kosha Engler who is currently playing Gertrude and Ophelia in a 3 person abridged version with her husband Benet and her father-in-law Gyles Brandreth; and psychotherapist Mark Vernon.

American photographer Steve McCurry's most famous image is Afghan Girl, a photo taken in 1984 for the cover of National Geographic Magazine. The multi award-winning photographer has been travelling regularly in Afghanistan since the 1979 Russian invasion and tells Samira about his latest book; Afghanistan, a collection of pictures taken over a four decade career.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Edwina Pitman.

As the longest three-tower, cabled-stayed bridge in the world opens in Scotland, Gordon Brown shares the story of the three bridges over the Forth in whose shadow he lives.

Over the Forth river now stand three bridges spanning three centuries . First the famous rail bridge. Built in 1890, it remained the biggest and longest bridge in the world for a third of a century. Then in 1964 the Queen opened the road bridge, at the time the longest suspension bridge outside the USA. Now the elegant Queensferry Crossing takes us into the 21st century.

Striding out onto the new bridge, Gordon celebrates the engineering genius that created these magnificent structures. Setting forth on a boat to view the bridges from the water, he remembers the bravery of those who built them, shares his personal memories of the bridges, and explores how they have touched the lives of people in surrounding communities. Gazing out from his home in North Queensferry towards the iconic Forth rail bridge that has become such an integral part of Scottish culture, Gordon asks if the arrival of yet another world class bridge to the Forth will make the view he sees everyday a site unique in the world - The Three Bridges.

Photo courtesy of Finlay Wells.
Extract from Iain Banks The Bridge courtesy of Little, Brown Book Group.

Tim Whewell meets the sailors of Sevastopol. The Crimean coast of the Black Sea has such an allure that Russia risked the world's censure by seizing it from Ukraine in 2014. Home of the Black Sea fleet; seaway to the Middle East and spiritual heart of Russian orthodox Christianity, Crimea and it's naval port, Sevastopol, is a defining part of Russian identity. The Russian navy is now modernising and expanding its historic fleet so as to strengthen Moscow's campaign in Syria in support of President Assad, and against the so-called Islamic State. But what have been the costs of gaining this valuable prize?

Producer: Monica Whitlock.

We have been catching and eating them for centuries; jellied, smoked or stewed and yet there is still much we don't know about the life of an eel as Brett Westwood discovers when he joins a traditional eel fisherman on the banks of a river in Dorset and learns about bobs and worms. Eel skins were once worn as wedding rings and their heads used as finger puppets in Ely, otherwise known as the Isle of Eels which today holds an annual festival to celebrate all things 'eel' from a giant eel paraded through the streets to the World Eel throwing competition! Producer Sarah Blunt.

A special edition of the programme in which John Wilson talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

Having discussed the making of "Sail Away" - the 45 year old album described by Rolling Stone magazine as "a work of genius" (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 28th August 2017 and available online), Randy Newman responds to questions from the audience and performs live versions of both new and old tracks from his career in music and film that spanned almost 60 years (as well as six Grammys, three Emmys, two Oscars, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and membership of both the Songwriters and the Rock & Roll Halls of Fame)

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Written by Anthony Doerr. Esther, who is an epileptic, escaped Nazi Germany when she was a child and has lived contentedly in Ohio with her husband and their son. Now 85, her fits have intensified and she is haunted by visions of her childhood friends from the orphanage she grew up in. They appear to be calling to her, as memories from her past flood in.

Episode 1:
Esther's seizures open up a new world where old friends await.

Anthony Doerr is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel All The Light We Cannot See which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Afterworld is taken from Memory Wall, a collection of stories about memory.

Writer: Anthony Doerr
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Allan Corduner
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

Lucie Skeaping tells the story of post-diary Samuel Pepys through the music he commissioned, some of it played for the first time in 300 years.

The songs, written for the celebrated diarist by his continental music master Cesare Morelli, provide fresh insight into both the man and the religious struggles of the 17th century, which enshrined aspects of our modern political system and shaped our national identity.

Lucie explores the relationship between Pepys and Morelli, a friendship which survived throughout a supposed Popish Plot to assassinate Charles II and the public terror and hysteria it created, implicating hundreds of innocent people. Pepys was among them - and by hiding his Catholic music master he faced execution for high treason.

Until now, the Morelli manuscripts for Pepys's voice and guitar have remained obscure and impenetrable. Enter Dionysios Kyropoulos, researcher and stage director who, as a bass singer and amateur lutenist like Pepys, found himself uniquely placed to interpret the music Morelli wrote for his master.

At the heart of the programme is a concert of Morelli's works, made possible by Dionysios, and heard for the first time since the compositions were played and sung by Pepys himself.

Featuring Bass Baritone David Ireland, Baroque Guitarist Toby Carr, and Theorbo player James Bramley.

Producer: Anna Scott-Brown.
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.

In Enlightenment After Dark, Allan Little hosts a series of discussions in the spirit of the Scottish Enlightenment, in places associated with historical Enlightenment encounters. In this first programme Allan and guests Rutger Bregman and Mona Siddiqui discuss ideas of Utopia in the Professor's Room of the Botanic Cottage at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.

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 Claire Campbell Smith.

All this week Farming Today is looking at the future of rural churches. With congregations declining and maintenance bills ever increasing, many churches and chapels are finding they need to adapt in order to survive. Sybil Ruscoe talks to a spokesman from the Churches Conservation Trust, who explains that most of the churches which are listed buildings are in rural areas, where the congregations also tend to be the smallest. Meanwhile Emily Hughes visits a chapel in Wiltshire which has broadened its scope to include the village shop, the post office and even a the office of the local police community support officer.

The Angling Trust claims that Welsh fishermen will be unfairly penalised by new rules designed to reverse the decline in salmon and sea trout numbers. It's responding to plans by Natural Resources Wales to force anglers to throw back fish they catch on Welsh rivers for the next ten years. Steffan Messenger hears from both sides.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Emma Campbell.

Writer Amy Liptrot recalls seeing hooded crows while living in Berlin and reflects on their namesakes back at her childhood home in Orkney 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: Mark Ward
Photograph: Paul Smith.

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

Anna Scott-Brown hears more stories from the people who stop to sit beside her on benches around the country. In this edition, she sits on a bench next to Manchester's gay village, in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Throughout the programme, a specially commissioned work by poet Andrew McMillan draws on the voices and stories of those passing the time in Sackville Gardens - a man with schizophrenia and a woman drinking to forget, a potter looking for inspiration in the shape of the trees, a man and his ex boyfriend walking a dog from one of the nearby penthouse flats, the young carer with great compassion, and the woman driven by her past to fulfil her dreams.

The impact of the recent bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena is never far away, while the stories depict a noble city with a distinctive spirit, which comes to the fore at moments of crisis.

Andrew McMillan's poem creates a glimpse of snatched moments and the painful and beautiful stories people tell Anna Scott-Brown in this busy urban setting.

Hidden lives are revealed and common threads recur as Anna's gentle - but insistent and sometimes extremely direct - questions elicit poignant and profound responses from those sitting on the bench.

Presenter: Anna Scott-Brown
Producer: Adam Fowler
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.

In Robert Webb's funny and moving memoir it's the school years. A tough decision is reached and a new talent is uncovered. Meanwhile, the conventional demands of masculinity prove confounding as Robert reflects on the relationships that will define him in later years.

Written and read by Robert Webb
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

When 18 year-old Lydia Jones messaged a man online for advice about advancing her tech start-up business, she was surprised to receive not only tips but also questions about her sexuality and whether she had a boyfriend to help her. Lydia joins Jane to explain what it's like to be a young woman trying to get her foot in the door in a male-dominated industry and they are joined by Jacqueline De Rojas, President of TechUK which represents over 950 tech companies.

Why the Australian Parliament is currently considering banning volunteering in orphanages in developing countries in order to prevent child exploitation. Jane speaks to Senator Linda Reynolds, International Lawyer Kate Van Door and Georgette Mulheir CEO of the charity Lumos

Life after the death of a partner - three women talk about their experiences and how they started dating again.

by A.L. Kennedy

Directed by Sally Avens

Maggie is determined to rekindle her affair with John but an attempted seduction in a hotel doesn't go to plan.
Comic drama about love in later life.

They infest our bodies and our clothes, are amongst our closet neighbours, have been made famous by Robert Burns and yet they are only a few millimetres in size. Brett Westwood explores our relationship with the louse; a creature that has lived alongside since our earliest evolution. Whether it's the head, clothes or crab lice these ancient creatures both repel and fascinate us. Producer Sarah Blunt.

What stories are hiding among the paints and pigments in an art supplies shop?

L Cornelissen & Son has been supplying artists since the 19th century. Based in a little shop near the British Museum, it's a Victorian throwback - all dark wood, high shelves and creaky floorboards. Jars of pigment 'glint like jewels in the semi-dark' (as Derek Jarman put it), full of vibrant powders with mysterious names and long, strange histories - Lapis Lazuli, Rose Madder, Naples Yellow, Potters Pink, Egyptian Blue, Caput Mortuum.

Cathy FitzGerald holes up in the shop for a week to hear its customers' stories. What are they buying? What are they making?

Presented and produced by Cathy FitzGerald
Original music by Stephen Coates
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, President Wilson issued his reply to the Pope's Peace Note, while in Folkestone, Esme Macknade craves a little peace.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Consumer phone-in.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Lynsey Hanley visits the first ever council housing in Liverpool.

In 1842, Friedrich Engels went to work in his father's Salford mill. Shocked by the poverty he saw, he penned his observations in The Condition of the Working Class in England. For Engels, bad housing was the poor's unifying characteristic: "Every great city has one or more slums, where the working class is crowded together." Ever since, his identification of a direct link between poor housing and poverty has guided social reform.

Those ideas found their first expression not far away from Salford, in Liverpool, where the Saint Martin's Cottages - commonly thought of as the first municipal housing in the world - addressed the problems of Irish migrants fleeing the potato famine and living in appalling condition's in Liverpool's cholera-ridden slums. Eldon Grove was an example of later social housing in Liverpool - once beautiful, it now lies derelict.

Lynsey Hanley visits the Saint Martin's Cottages and Eldon Grove. She reflects on the fact that early ideas about council housing were aimed specifically at the skilled working class. This started a trend, which lasted right up to the end of the Second World War, that council housing would be aimed at the better off and socially better regarded strata of the working class. This kind of thinking about housing was based more on a pragmatic belief that workers would be happier if they had better living conditions than any more utopian ideal about providing everyone with safe and stable environments to live in.

Presenter: Lynsey Hanley
Producer: Sara Parker and Joe Sykes
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

Deborah Bowman, Professor of Medical Ethics & Law at St George's, University of London, explores the remarkable stories behind some of the world's most discussed legal cases, and how they've have transformed medical practice for us all.

When 'H' got on the bus to his Day Centre, one day in 1997, he began a journey which ended in four court cases, a landmark human rights judgement, and resulted in the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). As the Law Commission considers replacing DoLS with a new way of ensuring that vulnerable people are not deprived of their liberty, H's remarkable story - and that of his campaigning carers - continues to have consequences for tens of thousands of people around the UK.

Closely based on interviews with those who were there, our eye-witness drama tells the story of 'H', and his life at Bournewood Hospital.

And after the three o'clock news, you can join the real-life participants as they discuss the case and its consequences, in "Test Case: The Legacy of Bournewood".

You can also meet the extraordinary character behind "Test Case: Mr C" and discover why his legal case has had such a lasting impact, in "Test Case: The Legacy of Mr C" on BBC iPlayer.

Test Case: Bournewood is written by Sasha Hails, with additional material by Jonquil Panting.

"H" ..... Samuel James
"Mr E" ..... Simon Ludders
"Mrs E" ..... Adie Allen
Robert Robinson ..... Peter Hamilton Dyer
Ailsa Flinders ..... Sanchia McCormack
Dr Manjubhashini ..... Sudha Bhuchar
Driver ..... Philip Fox
Careworkers ..... Julie Teal, Kerry Gooderson
Staff ..... Tom Forrister, David Sturzaker
Colleague ..... Sarah Ridgeway

Produced and Directed by Jonquil Panting.

Deborah Bowman, Professor of Medical Ethics & Law at St George's University of London, explores the remarkable stories behind some of the world's most discussed legal cases and examines how they've transformed practice for us all.

Our eye-witness drama "Test Case: Bournewood" told the story of H, a man in his forties with severe learning disabilities. His admission to the secure behavioural unit at Bournewood Hospital, away from his carers, triggered an historic legal case.

But what became of H, and why, twenty years on, does his legal case known as Bournewood continue to be discussed so widely?

As H's fate is revealed, Deborah Bowman is joined by a panel of experts, including one of H's carers and his solicitor.

They share their memories of what happened to H and discuss why his legal case continues to have such far-reaching consequences, transforming the way we think about dignity, disability and the rights of the most vulnerable.

You can also meet the extraordinary character behind "Test Case: Mr C" and discover why his legal case has had such a lasting impact, in "Test Case: The Legacy of Mr C" on BBC iPlayer.

Produced by Beth Eastwood.

Josie Long hears stories of heartbreak. Difficult love, women encoded in music and rebuilding yourself after you've been broken.

Laura Barton offers a tender exploration of complex, enduring love, Natalie Kestecher rebuilds herself after a sudden shock and we dive into the sound of heartache.

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.

Christopher Matthew & Martin Jarvis continue on their nostalgic journey into their past.

It was in the Seventies that Martin Jarvis and Christopher Matthews both made the moves that were to give their careers the second wind that would carry them through to the Eighties (and beyond).

For Martin it was his insistence (against the advice of his agent) that he follow up his portrayal as Nicholas Nickleby by auditioning for the role of Uriah Heap - suddenly he shook off the shackles of being the eternal youth and instead he took on a succession of more adult parts (from Oliver Pryde in 'Rings On Their Fingers' to the Governor in 'Doctor Who'). And it allowed him to become one of the best known voices in the country - through his extensive voice-over work on countless TV commercials and on the radio (ironically through his readings of 'Billy Bunter' and Richmal Crompton's 'Just William').

Meanwhile, Christopher left behind the advertising agencies of Berkeley Square and moved across to Fleet Street and Broadcasting House. A chance encounter with a travel editor for the Sunday Times persuaded him to become a freelance writer and the following week he was commissioned for his first piece. A life of travel writing and humorous columns followed - even the occasional book - mostly humorous.

In fact it was as a result of hearing him reading from the diaries of his accident-prone her Simon Crisp in Diary of a Somebody on Radio 4 in 1978 that Martin finally reached out to Christopher and thus began a friendship and frequent collaboration that has lasted for the nigh on 40 years.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

Matthew Parris and his guest - novelist Tracy Chevalier - discuss the life of Mary Anning, the working class woman from Lyme Regis who discovered full dinosaur skeletons on Dorset's Jurassic Coast and sold them to collectors in the early 1800s. They are joined by Hugh Torrens, Emeritus Professor of History of Science and Technology at the University of Keele. Mary's remarkable finds came before Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and she believed them at first to be giant crocodiles, but as scientists began flocking to Lyme Regis to buy her specimens, she started to educate herself in geology, becoming an authority on fossils.

However, as with many of the subjects of Great Lives, she was never fully credited for her efforts and faded from public consciousness after her death.

Download the podcast for extra material

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Alice and Snoo have to elicit the help of Alice's father to save Dr Cadogan from disgrace. Meanwhile Simon's feelings for Alice face an unexpected obstacle.

Meet Alice, a former child prodigy who won a place at Oxford aged 9 but, because Daddy went too, she never needed to have any friends. She's scared of everything - everything that is, except libraries and Snoo, a slightly confused individual, with a have-a-go attitude to life, marriage, haircuts and reality. Snoo loves books, and fully intends to read one one day.

And forever popping into the library is Dr. Cadogan, celebrity doctor to the stars and a man with his finger in every pie. Charming, indiscreet and quite possibly wanted by Interpol, if you want a discrete nip and tuck and then photos of it accidentally left on the photocopier, Dr Cadogan is your man.

Their happy life is interrupted by the arrival of Simon Nielson, a man with a mission, a mission to close down inefficient libraries. Fortunately, he hates his mission. What he really wants to do is once, just once, get even with his inexhaustible supply of high-achieving brothers.

Written by Morwenna Banks and Rebecca Front
Based on an idea developed with Armando Iannucci

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

Contemporary drama in a rural setting. Justin can't hide his joy, and Kirsty wants to play cupid.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Lesley Curwen explores the impact of the digital disruption - automation, artificial intelligence, robotics - in developing economies that have yet to experience its full force.

The idea that robots could be responsible for doing the work that people undertake today is well rehearsed insofar as it relates to the economies of developed countries. The rise of the robots is a well established narrative. But what might happen if that same scenario were to happen in developing economies?

Projections by researchers suggest that many jobs could be automated. What would be the consequences for those countries where large numbers of young people will be entering the workforce in coming years?

Lesley talks to experts in robotics, automation, economics and development, and hears from those involved in the digital economy in countries such as Tunisia, Kenya and India, asking how sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing could be impacted - and whether the numbers of jobs that experts say could be automated will be off-set by the creation of new forms of employment in the digital economy.

Producer: Philip Reevell
A Manchester Digital Media production for BBC Radio 4.

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

With smartphones and fitbits, tracking elements of your life has moved on from the dedicated followers of the Quantified Self movement, to something that any of us can do. Accompanied at all times by her step-counting app which she can't help but check several times a day, Claudia Hammond asks whether tracking your every move can affect your behaviour in unexpected ways.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Written by Anthony Doerr. Esther, who is an epileptic, escaped Nazi Germany when she was a child and has lived contentedly in Ohio with her husband and their son. Now 85, her fits have intensified and she is haunted by visions of her childhood friends from the orphanage she grew up in. They appear to be calling to her, as memories from her past flood in.

Episode 2:
Esther was ten when change came with the arrival of an emigration letter.

Anthony Doerr is an American author of novels and short stories. He gained widespread recognition for his 2014 novel All The Light We Cannot See which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Afterworld is taken from Memory Wall, a collection of stories about memory.

Writer: Anthony Doerr
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Reader: Allan Corduner
Producer: Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

In the year of our lord 1561, Mary Queen Of Scots and the protestant reformer John Knox clash in Edinburgh's old town over a harmless entertainment involving a wayward troupe of Scots comedians and song and dance acts - led by none other than a sixteen century thespian who could easily have been Stanley Baxter's ancestor. It's Murdo, the man with a fan club as big as the Royal Mile and leading light of a visiting troupe of players, Murdo and his Merry May Dancers.

Stanley Baxter was born in 1926 and began working for the BBC Scottish Home Service Radio Children's Hour when he was fourteen - in 1940. He was called up to do National Service at the age of eighteen and returned to perform on BBC Radio in Scotland in 1948 - continuing to do so in the 1950s with a variety of live comedy shows. He then went into films and ultimately into television - but he has continued to work in radio throughout his career.

In the week of his 88th Birthday and in the year of his 75th anniversary as a radio performer, we recorded the latest productions in the much loved, long running Radio 4 series The Stanley Baxter Playhouse.

Written by Rona Munro
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.

In Enlightenment After Dark, Allan Little hosts a series of discussions in the spirit of the Scottish Enlightenment, in historically resonant places. Tonight Allan and guests painter Ken Currie and Professor Sue Black discuss the Body in the atmospheric setting of the Old Anatomy Theatre of Edinburgh University's Medical School.

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 Claire Campbell Smith.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Writer and Orkney native Amy Liptrot recalls her work as the RSPB's corncrake officer on the look out for this largely nocturnal bird in the wee small hours 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: Mark Ward.

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

Can we Control the Dark Side of the Internet?

The Internet is the world's most widely used communications tool. It's a fast and efficient way of delivering information. However it is also quite dumb, neutral, treating equally all the data it passes around the world. From data that forms scientific research papers, the wealth of social media to keep us all connected with friends and relatives, entertainment or material we would rather not see- from political propaganda to horrific violence, the Internet makes no distinction.

Is it time to change that? And can we?
In this programme Aleks Krotoski looks at whether it's possible to use technological fixes to regulate the internet or whether a more political approach is needed to governance of this vital but flawed communications medium.

Ivan Hewett examines a chord from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring to test the idea that harmony is a reflection of history. He's joined by musicologist Gerard McBurney and Professor Valentine Cunningham.

Music is never created in isolation - it's conceived in relation to what's going on around a composer in terms of personal and historical events, new technologies, new ideas and artistic endeavours in other fields. In this series, Ivan Hewett is looking at five very different chords which amply demonstrate the concept that harmony is a reflection of history.

Each programme is a bite size portion of rich musical and historical investigation - and each chord has had far reaching influence on other music and is emblematic of its era.

Stravinsky wrote his ballet The Rite of Spring for the 1913 Paris season of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company with choreography by Nijinsky. The ballet famously caused a riot at its premiere, largely because of the dance and the music - but partly also because the sense of clash that we hear in this famous chord was, in some senses, a reflection of tensions in the air.

Ivan Hewett is a writer on music for the Daily Telegraph, broadcaster on BBC Radio 3, and teacher at the Royal College of Music.

Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Monty Funk production for BBC Radio 4.

In Robert Webb's funny and moving memoir, it's the beginning of the sixth form and his vexed diaries reveal that his virginity is weighing him down. But it's not long before the laughter is brought to an abrupt stop by heartbreak.

Written and read by Robert Webb
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

by A.L. Kennedy

Directed by Sally Avens

John & Maggie have managed to reboot their romance but a date at a crematorium reminds them that they don't have much time left.

A couple who both have disabilities understand each other well, but it's not why they are together. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

The final episode of the sitcom set in a salsa club. Jill plans to re-marry her ex-husband Colin to protect their son's financial future. This gives Terri an idea that involves Chippy.

A third and final 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.

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.

In this final series there's a funeral and a wedding. But who's funeral and who is marrying who?

Something Cold

Written by Kay Stonham.

Produced by Katie Tyrrell.

It is a BBC Studio Production.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, 1500 Welsh miners, out on strike for the reinstatement of one man, returned to work, and in Folkestone, Howard Argent is kept busy.

Consumer affairs programme.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Lynsey Hanley heads to Port Sunlight on the Wirral. There she explores the Lever brothers' dream of housing workers in picturesque conditions.

Port Sunlight was the apotheosis of a movement started by men like Sir Titus Salt, who built Saltaire in 1851, to move workers out of congested and polluted cities and improve their productivity.

The idea of the model village goes back a long way in the English imagination. From Thomas More's Utopia to 17th century landowners trying to create a pastoral idyll on their estates, the thought of creating an ideal community is one that has captivated the wealthy and benevolent for centuries. But it was in the Victorian period that the idea really took off. Rich industrialists, schooled in high Victorian paternalism, wanted to create model communities for their workers to live in.

At Port Sunlight, started by the Lever Brothers in the late 19th century, Lynsey explores how these communities were places built in the image of their creators. These men thought of themselves as upstanding and benevolent, and believed in their own ability to tidy up the messier elements of human settlement.

Were model villages the vanity projects of industrialists that tried to impose Victorian values on the poor - or serious attempts to give workers a better quality of life and freedom from the slums?

Presenter: Lynsey Hanley
Producer: Sara Parker and Joe Sykes
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.