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

Henry Blofeld reads his autobiography.

Henry became a cricket writer in 1964 and ten years later graduated to the Test Match Special team, where he commentated on cricket for 43 years, announcing his retirement this year.

Episode 5: Enchanting Ghosts
Arlott, Johnners, CMJ et al

Writer: Henry Blofeld
Reader: Henry Blofeld
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

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 Jasvir Singh, Co-Chair of the Faiths Forum for London.

A listener responds to last week's interview with a sex offender... and tells her own story.

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.

Helen Mark is in Formby in Merseyside, a part of the country that is regarded as a haven for the native red squirrel. She discovers what it is about the landscape and the practices conservationists have adopted, which some find controversial, that's allowing the native reds to thrive in this part of the country.

Continuing along the Sefton coastline Helen meets a local resident turned poet; she discovers what makes Formby's sand dunes so special and finds out about the claim that Formby had the first known life boat in existence.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

The latest weather forecast.

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

Aasmah Mir and Suzy Klein meet astronaut Tim Peake; writer and actor Sanjeev Kohli and cake maker Cynthia Stroud.

Tim Peake is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. He finished his 186-day Principia mission on the International Space Station for Expedition 46/47 when he landed back on earth on June 18th 2016. His new book Ask an Astronaut is published by Century.

Sanjeev Kohli is a writer, actor and comedian who stars in the BBC Radio Four series Fags, Mags and Bags and the Scottish sitcom Still Game.

Cynthia Stroud is a cake maker who is one of the four modern confectioners in BBC Two's The Sweet Makers at Christmas. They'll recreate the treats of Christmas past, and discover how their predecessors helped create many of the culinary festive traditions we enjoy today - from Queen Victoria's favoured Boar's Head cake to sugar mice and chocolate apples and oranges. The Sweet Makers at Christmas is broadcast on BBC Two on December 15th.

Also on the programme the actor David Jason shares his inheritance tracks - the Darktown Poker Club by Phil Harris and Holding Back the Years by Simply Red.

Producer: Paula McGinley.
Editor: Eleanor Garland.

Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Alan Dein connects with random strangers around the world and calls them. Each has a story of exile - whether through escape, economic necessity or adventure.
Producer: Georgia Catt.

Radio 4's weekly assessment of developments at Westminster.

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.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week in topical stand-up and sketches, with help from Angela Barnes, Fern Brady, Helen Arney and Kwame Asante.

Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production.

The latest weather forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Coventry Cathedral with a panel including the political commentator Alex Deane, the Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke MP, the business woman Gina Miller and the Shadow Leader of the Lords Baroness Smith.

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

A new production marking 500 years since Martin Luther reputedly hammered his 95 theses on the door of All Saints Church, Wittenberg - starting what became known as the Reformation. With the Pope using the sale of indulgences to fund his own obsessions and works, Luther had begun to see the church as corrupt. He was excommunicated in 1521.

John Osborne's play skilfully intertwines the sacred and the profane and tries to get inside the mind of the man who started as a profound believer in the church's teachings and ended up challenging them all.

The first production of the play was at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham in 1961. It won a Tony Award in 1964.

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

Christine Keeler, the former model at the centre of the Profumo affair that shocked politics in the 1960s has died. We reflect on her life with the writers Amanda Coe and Anne Chisholm.

Vanessa Kirby talks about her role playing Princess Margaret in 'The Crown'.

New figures show that although a near-record number of places were offered on nursing courses this year, both applications and acceptances were down. Alison Leary, Professor of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University and Lara Carmona, Director of Policy and Current Affairs , Royal College of Nursing discuss why nursing has become an unattractive option for prospective students.

Three years ago the BBC said broadcasting a comedy panel show without a woman was not acceptable. Why are there still so few female comedians on our screens? Lecturer in comedy writing and performance at Salford University Lisa Moore and comedian Tiff Stevenson discuss.

The FGM campaigner Nimco Ali discusses whether Somaliland can really become the first country in Africa to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation.

What's the point of an office Christmas Party? Freelance journalist Helen Nianias and former managing director of Slingshot Sponsorship Jackie Fast talk about navigating festive work events.

Alice is one of six people Newsbeat followed for six months as part of Radio 1 and 1Xtra's 'My Mind and Me' campaign. They wanted to share their stories to reveal what it's really like to live with a mental health condition. Alice is a twenty-seven year old mother of two who has schizophrenia.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer Dianne McGregor.

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 Sara Cox are joined by Denis Lawson, Paulette Randall, Hossein Amini and Michael Buffong for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Tricky and Jazz Morley.

Producer: Sukey Firth.

The Winklevoss twins - Cameron and Tyler - became famous for suing Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea for Facebook.
This week it was announced they'd made a fortune from Bitcoin.
They're former Olympic rowers, and also rowed for Oxford in the 2010 Boat Race.
Becky Milligan explores their early life, including talking to their Dad, to discover what drives their ambition.

Producers: Smita Patel and Beth Sagar-Fenton.

A review of the week's cultural highlights.

How did Britain's Jews make their long journey from left to right over the last century? BBC Political Correspondent Jo Coburn tells this remarkable story by weaving archive and interviews together with the story of her own family.
Producer: Simon Coates.

The star of the award winning Mark Steel's In Town brings his new, critically acclaimed stand-up show to Radio 4.

"I've always known I was adopted, even before I knew where babies who weren't adopted came from."

Who Do I Think I Am? is a surprising, moving and incredibly funny story about what Mark discovered in his half-hearted attempt to navigate the red tape required to track down his birth mother.

"It never really bothered me that I'd never met my mum. It never occurred to me I needed to meet her to 'find out who I was', as it didn't seem likely I'd discover I was someone different to who I thought I was. Could it turn out I was three stone lighter than I thought, or I spoke Italian or supported Arsenal or had a fear of Liquorice Allsorts? But after the birth of my own son, I realised it's quite an event to have a child, and she may well remember giving birth to me, and maybe even the adoption..."

This is a special performance of 'Mark Steel: Who do I Think I Am' - recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre

Written and performed by Mark Steel
Producer Carl Cooper
BBC Studios Production.

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

2017 has been a year of sex scandals and toppled reputations; trigger-happy tweeting and polarising rhetoric; 'remoaners' and 'Brexiteers behaving badly'; 'no-platforming', 'safe spaces' and 'snowflakes'. This year some cherished values - among them free speech, accountability, democracy, sovereignty and the rule of law - have been called into question as never before. For this final Moral Maze of the year, we're inviting our four panellists to nominate their "most important moral issue of 2017" and to face witnesses who passionately disagree with them. Here are some moral questions to consider. First, as round one of Brexit talks draws to a close, is the entrenched behaviour of the various camps making it impossible to deliver a good deal for anyone? Second, in the wake of the Weinstein and Westminster revelations, while we are appalled by crimes of sexual abuse and applaud the bravery of victims who come forward to report them, have we overlooked the moral consequences of making unsubstantiated accusations against public figures? Third, as we debate whether or not to pull down the statues that celebrate our colonial past - such as that of the controversial imperialist Cecil Rhodes - how can we reconcile our history with our identity? Finally, are university 'safe spaces' an important protection for vulnerable minorities or a shameful example of blinkered intolerance? 2017: moral maze or moral minefield? Witnesses are Dr Tiffany Jenkins, Peter Saunders, Richard Tice and Maya Goodfellow.
Producer: Dan Tierney.

(4/12)
In what endeavour might Piper's companion, a stupid boy and a modern maker of things electric contribute the right notes?

Tom Sutcliffe puts this and other impenetrable-sounding teasers to the teams from Wales and the Midlands, in the latest clash of Round Britain Quiz's 70th anniversary season. Wales, represented by Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards, are the defending RBQ champions and will be fighting to keep a clean sheet against the redoubtable Midlands pairing of Stephen Maddock and Rosalind Miles.

As always, the programme includes several of the best question ideas sent in by Round Britain Quiz listeners in recent months.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

Paul Farley hears Andrew Motion read excerpts from a new long poem about his parents: Essex Clay. The first part tells the story of his mother's riding accident and slow death.

And we pay tribute to the late Sarah Maguire: highly-acclaimed poet, and founder of the Poetry Translation Centre. From BBC archive we hear her reading her poem The Florist's at Midnight

Producers: Tim Dee and Melvin Rickarby.

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

by Pippa Goldschmidt
The arrival of a particular white mouse causes romantic chaos in a research laboratory.

Read by Tamara Kennedy
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St. Andrew's Church in Stratton, North Cornwall. Just over a mile inland from Bude, the tower contains a fine peal of eight bells cast by John Taylor and Company of Loughborough in 1911.
We hear them ringing Stedman Triples.

The latest national and international news.

The drive for popularity - in life, in art, at work and in politics - has never been stronger. Many court it, others seek to avoid it, most will be affected by it one way or another.

Mark Tully considers the potential of popularity, for good and for ill. He examines the preconceptions about it, the power it has for positive change and the dangers it can present.

He talks to broadcaster, priest and public relations expert Rob Marshall about popularity in religion and in politics, and there are readings and music from Angela Carter, Philip Glass, Helen Fielding, Ned Rorem, William Walton and William Shakespeare.

The readers are Alistair McGowan and Emma Cunniffe.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.

It's an early start for farmers across the SouthWest as they bring cattle, poultry and sheep to show at Sedgemoor Auction Centre. The Winter fayre is a chance for farmers to win trophies and for hundreds to meet, catch up on news and celebrate Christmas. Some of the animals sold today will be destined for the Christmas dinner table. Charlotte Smith revisits this important hub at the festive time of year to see how this community celebrates.

Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock.

The latest weather forecast.

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

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

The presenter Ade Adepitan makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Motivation.

Registered Charity Number: 1079358
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 'Motivation'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Motivation'.

The latest weather forecast.

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

The Revd Hugh Palmer preaches in this second in Radio 4's Advent series 'Longing for Hope' from All Souls Church just opposite London's Broadcasting House. Leader: Melinda Hendry. Director of Music: Noel Tredinnick; Producer: Garry Boon.

"It's not merely facts that are under assault in the polarised politics of the UK, the US and other nations twisting in the winds of what some call populism" writes Zia Haider Rahman. "There's also a troubling assault on reason".

He argues that authoritarian tendencies know that warping the facts is only a start. "Warping reason and logic and clarity of thought is the holy grail".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Actress Greta Scacchi compares the birds she once knew in Australia with those who now visit her London home, especially the goldfinch which makes her very happy.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Gareth Hardwick.

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

Pip comes to a life-changing decision, and Lilian finally faces the truth.

Kelsey Grammer is best known for his two-decade-long portrayal of psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane which began on the NBC sitcom Cheers. He continued the role in the hugely successful spin-off series Frasier which ran for 11 years. When the series ended in 2004, it had won a total of 35 Emmys.

Born in the Virgin Islands, he was brought up by his mother and maternal grandparents in Florida, after his parents divorced. He studied drama at the Julliard School in New York but left before the end of the second year. He got his big break when he joined the cast of Cheers in 1984.

In his personal life Grammer has experienced a great deal of loss - his much-loved grandfather died when he was 12 and his 18 year old sister was murdered when he was 20. His struggles with drink and drugs, now behind him, are well documented. Married four times, he is the father of seven.

The winner of multiple awards, he is also a TV producer, director, writer, and known for his voice work: among others he was Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons and Stinky Pete in Toy Story 2. He is currently on stage in London.

Presenter Kirsty Young
Producer Cathy Drysdale.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Winter Gardens in Margate. Old-timers Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Tony Hawks and Andy Hamilton with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

We have a national passion for crisps. Every week, on average, each person in Britain eats 4 bags of crisps - a staggering 240 million bags a week. This is a good moment to look more closely at crisps, since this year they celebrate their bicentenary. It's 200 years since the eccentric Dr William Kitchiner published "The Cook's Oracle", a best-seller in its day, with the first recorded crisps recipe. But quite what made them such a part of British life it's hard to say. In search of answers, Sheila Dillon is allowed a rare visit to the Walkers crisps factory in Leicester to meet people whose job it is to taste crisps all day long. What new flavours are in the pipeline? She hears from schoolchildren about why they insist on crisps in their lunchbox, and from twenty-somethings spending a wild Friday night at a "bottomless crisps party" in a Birmingham bar with all the crisps you can eat. She meets Charles Spence, Professor of Psychology at Oxford, who won an "Ignobel Prize" for his "sonic experiments" with crisps, and talks to Dr Sara Lodge, historian of the crisp, who believes crisps are a symbol of proud British individualism: the individual bag of crisps is on a par with other national icons like the mini or the red telephone box. More disturbingly, Sheila discovers from investigative reporter Joanna Blythman what is actually in crisps and what this gargantuan national consumption might be doing to our health.

Producer Elizabeth Burke
Presenter Sheila Dillon.

The latest weather forecast.

Global news and analysis.

In No Triumph No Tragedy Peter White meets Cyrus Habib, who has enjoyed a remarkable rise through the political ranks to become the first blind Lieutenant Governor of Washington State.

His latest post has made it necessary to equip the Senate with the latest technology, allowing him to preside over hearings using braille prompts. He describes how it works and tells Peter White how he can seamlessly recognise and call lawmakers as debates gather pace. His own mother helped him grow up believing that anything was possible and he feels that the development of technology is helping make that a reality for him and other disabled people.

Cyrus lost his eyesight to cancer when he was eight and says that although it has presented challenges, it has done nothing to dent his political ambition. His first election campaign actually built a strategy around his journey: from Braille to Yale! He is a democrat and is being tipped as a possible leadership contender by the American press, but for the moment he's enjoying the challenges of presiding over the chamber.

His parents were Iranian immigrants and Cyrus has played a leading role in protests against President Trump's executive order barring new refugees and limiting immigration from some Muslim majority countries. If the order had been in place he says that his own family would have been denied entry: "I care about those who are affected by this like they're my own family. Nobody loves this country like the people who leave everything behind to earn their place in it.".

Eric Robson and his panel are in Welton-by-Lincoln. Bunny Guinness, Christine Walkden and Bob Flowerdew help the audience with this week's horticultural issues.

The panellists offer their thoughts on dealing with hoards of snails in the garden, suggest a variety of interesting raspberries, and help out a gardener with swan-necked brassicas.

Also, Matt Biggs traces the history of the vast and impenetrable Great Hedge of India

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Fi Glover introduces conversations about working with the homeless, with ancient remains, and at Butlins 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.

James Purefoy stars as Sir Percy Blakeney in Jonathan Holloway's new adaptation of Baroness Orczy's classic tale, set in the French Revolution.

Holloway's political interpretation is brought to life by an ensemble cast including Sienna Guillory as Marguerite Blakeney and Enzo Cilenti as the spine-chilling revolutionary soldier, Henri Chauvelin.

Muscular acting, pungent words, threat and jeopardy replace the whimsy of other adaptations and are floated on a contemporary, filmic score written by Sarah Llewellyn, with sound design by Wilfredo Acosta.

Episode One:
It is the year 1792. We witness a revolutionary France in the grip of a violent proletarian uprising and a British ruling class striving to prevent the same happening here.

Music composed by Sarah Llewellyn
Adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway
Produced by Sally Harrison
A Darling Woolyback Co-Production for BBC Radio 4.

Lionel Shriver, bestselling writer of We Need To Talk About Kevin joins Mariella Frostrup to discuss her new book The Standing Chandelier, which poses that age old question: can a woman ever be just good friends with a man. Jillian, an artist, has a close friendship with Weston which is threatened when Weston gets engaged.

As Finland celebrates its centenary, Ted Hodgkinson asks Finnish novelists what the anniversary means to them; a profile of the little known British writer Ann Quin who is enjoying something of a revival and Jamie Quatro explores how playing the piano helps her writing.

Paul Farley meets the Vietnamese-American poet and essayist Ocean Vuong, who was awarded the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection for his remarkable debut collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds at the 2017 Forward Prizes, and who is shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize. And talks to Manchester-based Mark Pajak, a rising talent to watch, about his pamphlet Spitting Distance.

Ocean Vuong's writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as a 2016 100 Leading Global Thinker, alongside Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-Moon and Warsan Shire, Ocean was also named by BuzzFeed Books as one of "32 Essential Asian American Writers". Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he serves as an Assistant Professor in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at Umass-Amherst. He is currently at work on his first novel.

Mark Pajak was born in Merseyside. His work has appeared in The London Review of Books, Poetry London, The North, The Rialto and Magma. He has been awarded a Northern Writer's Award, an Eric Gregory Award, first place in The Bridport Prize and has been commended in the National Poetry Competition. His first pamphlet, Spitting Distance, was selected by Carol Ann Duffy as a Laureate's Choice and is published with smith|doorstop.

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

The Balfour Declaration is just 67 words - one very long sentence on a small piece of paper issued on November 2nd 1917. But the effects of that sentence are still felt to this day across the Middle East. In the ferment of debate generated by the centenary of the Balfour Declaration this year David Reynolds goes back to its historical roots: to find out how and why it was conceived. Because that document cannot be understood apart from the dramatic autumn of 1917, when the Great War hung in the balance. Britain's Russian ally was on the verge of collapse amidst revolution. The Ottoman empire's military success against British imperial forces was now finally foundering. After the terrible British setbacks of Gallipoli, Kut & disappointment in the war for the Holy Land, General Allenby was finally poised for victory in Palestine. On December the 9th he was able to grant prime minister Lloyd George his Christmas present of Jerusalem's 'liberation' from centuries of Ottoman rule. By that time the fateful Balfour Declaration had been issued in London. Its impact could barely be absorbed across war torn Palestine still suffering the privations of famine, plague and conflict . In London, the small Zionist movement were delighted by their role in shaping the Declaration yet they were just part of a tangle of British imperial planning that, in late 1917, had seen a chance to decide the war and also define the peace. Manipulating Jews and Arabs, Russia and America, British decision makers were convinced of their ability to pull the strings of world politics. But not for the first time (or the last) British leaders would become victims of their own hubris. The very long sentence was a very British story.
Producer: Mark Burman.

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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

In Sheila McClennon's Pick of the Week we hear about the events leading up to the first successful human heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard and why, 50 years later, perfecting a mechanical heart remains a challenge.
There's the fascinating tale of General Anders' Polish Army - one of the last untold epic stories of World War 2; Mark Steel is Back in Town making mischief in Bedford, and to get you in a festive mood there's the Icelandic Yule Lads - 13 naughty trolls who cause trouble in the run up to Christmas; Icelandic comedian Ari Eldjarn explaining why a Danish James Bond just wouldn't work, And Marc Almond on how unrequited love is at the heart of a classic Torch Song.

Produced in Salford by Cecile Wright.

Lilian comes to a heartbreaking realisation, and Nic offers some words of wisdom.

Martin Jarvis performs the first of two beloved Jeeves stories by P G Wodehouse in front of an enthusiastic, invited audience at the Riverhouse Barn Theatre, Walton on Thames in Surrey.

In The Aunt and the Sluggard, Martin tells an extraordinary tale in the character of Bertie Wooster. While living in New York, Bertie has to persuade his brainy manservant Jeeves to concoct a spiffing plan, so that his poet pal Rocky can continue receiving a financial allowance from a rich aunt. The trouble is the aunt wants Rocky to have a good time visiting the fleshpots of Manhattan and to write her letters about it. But Rocky prefers to live as a recluse on Long Island, miles away. How on earth can it be done? Can Jeeves find a solution?

Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.

When a girl disappears in the heart of England how far back do you have to go to find the truth?

Neil Dudgeon continues Jon McGregor's gripping new series. A community is rocked when a teenager goes missing on a midwinter walk in the Peak District. Now her disappearance sparks long-buried memories, and opens old wounds. Today: a former quarry worker ponders the dangers of the local landscape...

The fifteen stories of The Reservoir Tapes each stand alone but together build a compelling portrait of a village shaken by tragedy, as they explore events that precede and follow the disappearance of the teenage Becky Shaw. A companion to Jon McGregor's critically acclaimed Man Booker long-listed novel Reservoir 13, these stories and their different perspectives offer tantalizing glimpses as what to might have happened to the teenage girl.
Writer: Jon McGregor is an acclaimed British novelist who has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. His third novel, Even the Dogs, won the International Dublin Literary Award.
Reader: Neil Dudgeon
Producer: Justine Willett.

Roger Bolton with listeners' views on a range of BBC radio programmes.

When iPM broadcast an interview with a sex offender at length, some listeners wrote to tell us they disagreed that a convicted criminal should have been given such a platform. Listener Catherine Jackson tells us why she thought this was inappropriate and expresses her concern about the impact on his victims.

And just how much of a predicament can BBC presenters find themselves in while on air? BBC World Service presenter Alex Ritson tells us what happened when he experienced a Type 1 diabetes attack during a morning broadcast of The Newsroom.

Producer: Kate Dixon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

(Photo: Christine Keeler)

Matthew Bannister on

King Michael of Romania who ruled his country during the second world war and was forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union. .

Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor who starred in more than a hundred Hindi films as well as English language titles like Shakespeare Wallah and Heat and Dust.

Christine Keeler, the model who was at the centre of the Profumo Affair in the 1960s.

Jenny MacGregor who rescued thousands of ponies and horses from neglectful or abusive owners.

And Johnny Hallyday, France's best known rock star.

Why are so many US workers forced into job contracts that make it hard for them to leave? Employers routinely ask new recruits to agree to "non-compete" clauses when they start work. This means they might be unable to work for a competitor company, or to set up on their own. Is this a good way to protect intellectual property or an unnecessary infringement of workers' rights? Claire Bolderson goes to Massachusetts to explore the personal and economic impact of the legislation and asks if reform might, finally, be a possibility.
Producer: Rosamund Jones.

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

With Francine Stock.

Artist Ai Weiwei reveals why he decided to make a feature length documentary, Human Flow, about refugee crises around the world and about his own life in exile.

The Oscar winning writer of The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal discusses the ethics of depicting police brutality in his latest docu-drama Detroit, which shows three police officers killing and torturing suspects during the 1968 riots.

Catherine Bray and Nadia Denton slug it out to get their directors into the The A to Z of film-makers.

Comedian Rosemary Fletcher considers why there's only ever one woman in an action movie, and her task is almost always thankless.

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

The New Economy: How people turn themselves into 'brands' in the quest for work. Laurie Taylor talks to Ilana Gershon, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, and author of a new study exploring the way that people do (and don't) find work by re-defining themselves as unique business enterprises. Also, the death of homo economicus. Peter Fleming, Professor of Business and Society at Cass Business School, argues that the creation of a fake persona - the rational, self interested economic 'man' - originated by classical economists such as Adam Smith, no longer serves any purpose in the contemporary world.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

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The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Jasvir Singh, Co-Chair of the Faiths Forum for London.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

The latest weather forecast for farmers.

As a child, musician Fyfe Dangerfield learnt bird calls from a sound tape borrowed from the library, meaning he was able to hear before seeing a golden oriole in the French countryside.

Producer Mark Ward
Photograph Martin IG.

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

A mysterious doll's house is at the centre of Jessie Burton's novel The Miniaturist, now dramatised for television. Burton tells Tom Sutcliffe about the claustrophobic world she created amidst the wealthy merchant traders of 17th century Holland. The economist Jonathan Haskel points to the quiet revolution that has taken place since then, as developed countries now invest more in intangible assets like design and software, than in tangible goods like machinery and computers. He asks what impact this has had on economic inequality and low productivity. And then two objects that tell stories far beyond themselves: the umbrella and the Ferrari. Marion Rankine looks at the humble brolly, now a simple object to protect you from the rain, but once a powerful symbol of class and power. And 70 year after Enzo Ferrari brought out his first car, the guest curator at the Design Museum Andrew Nahum looks back at the creation of an iconic brand.
Producer: Katy Hickman

Picture courtesy of Ferrari.

Five letters from five South African writers exploring aspects of life in the week of the ANC elections - covering education, bureaucracy, city living, xenophobia and migration. These novelists and journalists reflect on living in South Africa now.

Bongani explores what it feels like to be a young black man in Cape Town, addressing problems in the way the city has been divided geographically by race and gentrification and imagining a cosmopolitan 'dream city' in its place.

Bongani Kona is a Zimbabwean born freelance writer who lives in Cape Town. He is a contributing editor of Chimurenga, a pan African publication of writing, art and politics. His writing has also appeared in Mail & Guardian, Rolling Stone (South Africa), Sunday Times and other publications and websites. He was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing for his story 'At your Requiem' in 2016.

Written and read by Bongani Kona
Produced by Simon Richardson.

With hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh, we talk to foreign correspondent Christina Lamb about conditions facing women and children in the refugee camps, amid reports of widespread rape and killings.

The Queen's Young Leaders awards recognise the work of young people across the Commonwealth to change lives in their communities. We talk to one of the two UK-based winners Leanne Armitage who won her award for the work she's done to inspire those from disadvantaged backgrounds and ethnic minorities to enter the world of medicine.

Paul Shanks suffered from mental health issues before killing himself at the age of 51, leaving his wife and seven children. Film-maker Lucy Cohen has turned their story into a Netflix documentary about how the family learn to cope. Vikie Shanks discusses the impact his death has had on their children and how they've tried to understand their father's mental state.

Real-life female role models are being celebrated in books for younger readers with some runaway success stories. So how important are these books and what makes someone a convincing role model? Space expert and author Libby Jackson and Dr Hetta Howes, a lecturer in medieval literature at the University of London, discuss.

For some women, it's clear that having children is part of their future; for others it's definitely not. But what about when you're just not sure? Comedy writer Sian Harries and dating and relationships coach Katherine Baldwin discuss ambivalence towards becoming a mother.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Anne Peacock.

By Shelagh Stephenson

When Maddie Cook is violently raped by someone she thought was friend, she is urged by the Police to prosecute her attacker, with decidedly mixed results

Madeleine Cook is 24 and, for the last nine months, she's been living back home with her parents whilst she temps and tries to pay off her student loan. Her boyfriend Nick is still living in London, and they see each other whenever they can.

Madeleine still has old friends from school days and a clutch of new ones. They meet up in local pubs most weekends. Like everywhere now the bars are open late, the drinks are cheap and usually most of them get anything between tipsy and very drunk. The sort of normal weekend behaviour you find in every town and city, but it being a small, relatively middle class place, it's less violent and not particularly aggressive.

One Friday night Madeleine leaves the pub and walks home along the seafront in the company of Danny, a boy of her own age, whom she's known for few months, through other friends. On the way and seemingly out of the blue, he jumps on her. At first she thinks it's a bad joke, but in fact he rapes her. We know it happens, because we're with her at the time.

Stunned, shocked, she calls her friend Louise, and together they go to a rape crisis centre. The next day, Louise persuades her to go to the police.

It sets in motion a whole chain of events which question our attitudes towards rape, sexuality and sexual assault.

Cast:
Maddie Cook ..... Jasmine Hyde
Danny King ..... Mark Quartley
Meg Harper .....Haydn Gwynne
Nick ..... Leon Ockenden
Janet ..... Jeany Spark
Louise ..... Michele Tate
Paula ..... Margot Leicester
Mike ..... Michael Elwyn
Barry ..... Jonathan Tafler
Ned ..... Jonathan Sayer

Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Production for BBC Radio 4.

Jonathan's app could be a lifeline for job seekers in the gig economy. Grace Dent follows the Essex entrepreneur as he tries to get his app off the ground before funding runs out.

Jonathan's a former supermarket worker inspired by the poverty he's seen in his local area. He's created an online recruitment app that aims to help those left behind by the gig economy and zero-hour contracts. For a year he struggled to make progress, but now he's finally got his big break. A backer will fund him for 3 months. For the first time he's been able to pay himself and call the business his job. Yet when funding stops, there's no guarantee he'll be able to continue the enterprise.

We're with Jonathan over the course of a make or break 12 weeks. It's a race against time to grow the business and make it succeed. Can he make enough profit to find a living for himself, as well as others?

Producer: Sam Peach.

Beattie Edmondson and Nikesh Patel star in Sue Teddern's romantic comedy, inspired by Katharine Whitehorn's cookery classic. Trisha makes a special pudding for her first visit to Robert's parents' house. Extracts from Cooking in a Bedsitter are read by Eleanor Bron.

Directed by Emma Harding.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, Cuba declared war on Austria-Hungary, and - in North Shields - Marion Wardle is on a different campaign.

Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

A record number of children are expected to be fed by food banks this Christmas, according to the Trussell Trust, the largest food bank operator in the UK. We go to Coventry, the city with the most visited group of food banks, to find out how they're planning to operate.

Six months after the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, many residents have been told the cladding on their buildings is unsafe. In the private sector, some leaseholders are facing bills of thousands of pounds to pay for the removal and replacement of cladding panels that have failed fire safety tests. In the meantime they're also required to fund the presence of fire wardens around the clock to ensure the safety of those living in the buildings.

How to get this year's "Christmas look" right. Retailers and manufacturers start planning Christmas trends two years in advance. Just how influential are trend forecasters when it comes to what we buy? We sent our reporter Chrissie Reidy to a wreath making class at Battersea powerstation in London to discuss this year's unusual trend for upside down Christmas trees. There might be one in the lobby of Claridge's Hotel, but will we really be upending the tree in our living rooms?

Retailers have been criticised for sending emails in the middle of the night encouraging us to shop. The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute says that forty percent of the people with mental health problems they surveyed admitting to 'crisis shopping' at night. Now a new tool called 'Icebox' has been developed, an attachment for your browser that allows you to freeze impulse purchases until the following morning. How will it work?

Presented by Winifred Robinson.
Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

The return of the major series tracking the development of the First World War through the sound archives of the Imperial War Museums and the BBC.

The name Ypres has become shorthand for the most hellish conditions imaginable. In this week's programmes, looking at the events of autumn 1917 through interviews with those who experienced it, we come to the war's darkest days.

As they inched their way towards Passchendaele from July to November 1917, men witnessed scenes that would stay vividly with them for the rest of their lives. As Norman Macmillan, officer of the Royal Flying Corps, surveying the Battle of Passchendaele from the sky, said of it: 'Never at any time had I passed through such an extraordinary experience... Real damnation on the ground. And as we came out of it I felt that we had escaped from one of the most evil things I had ever seen at any time during that war'.

Dan Snow, based on location in Ypres and listening to the accounts of those who survived the place a century ago, attempts to grasp the unimaginable horror and dangerously low morale that marked this period of the war on the Western Front.

The first programme surveys the terrible conditions of the battlefield around Ypres in the autumn of 1917 - among the worst experienced by any army at any time in history. In the second programme Dan maps the painfully slow progress of the British towards Passchendaele between July and November in a series of battles, and how the men were afforded little or no shelter as they inched forward. In programme 3 we hear one man's account of the Battle of Passchendaele. In an extraordinarily honest interview with the BBC recorded almost 50 years later, John Palmer, suffering complete exhaustion after three years on the Western Front, describes the almost suicidal despair that took hold of him one night towards the end of his time on Flanders fields. The relative excitement and rapid gains of the early stages of the Battle of Cambrai are described from the point of view of members of the Tank Corps in programme 4, and in the final programme we hear the remarkable story of William Towers, who was seriously injured at Passchendaele. His life threatened as much by the primitive medical practices of 1917 as by the shrapnel that hit him, Towers speaks movingly of the role of courage, love and luck in his journey back to Britain, and back to health.

Josey may be approaching the end of her life. But she's determined to fight it with her characteristic wit and perspicacity. No one - including death - will tell her what to do.

Written by Mike Harris, who has been writing radio drama for over thirty years. This play displays his customary mix of mirth and mayhem in equal measure.

Written by Mike Harris

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

(5/12)
Why does finding the connection between DeMille's epic, an Agatha Christie whodunit, a re-telling of The Taming of the Shrew. and the framing of Timothy Evans, lie in your own hands?

It can only be Round Britain Quiz asking this type of question - and Tom Sutcliffe will be putting it to the regular teams from Scotland and the North of England in this week's contest, recorded in the Scottish Borders. Val McDermid and Alan McCredie play for Scotland, opposite Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras of the North of England. Both teams are looking for their first outright win of this year's tournament.

The programme includes some more of the best listeners' question ideas sent to us in recent months, and Tom will be revealing the solution to the teaser question he left unanswered at the end of the previous programme.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

Following four distinguished photographers at work on four very different photo shoots, exploring both sides of the story: the process of photographing and of being photographed.

It seems like we're all photographers now, and never have more photographs been taken - events documented, lives snapped, moments frozen. With high quality cameras in most back pockets these days, it's been estimated that a trillion photographs will be taken this year.

What are we doing when we point a camera at something - and why?

In this series we get behind the lens, as we hear about the process and practice of professional photographers. What motivates them? What are they trying to capture? Which shots work best?

And, crucially, what do they think they're doing?

This programme follows the photographer Joanne Coates as she continues her on-going project documenting the fishing industry around the UK. She returns to Poole in Dorset, where she goes out with the fishermen Annie and Ian Gilbert on their boat the Happy Hooker.

Each programme will be accompanied by an on-line gallery of photographs.

Producer: Martin Williams.

Politicians these days are not much given to quoting the Bible; but the Good Samaritan is the exception. Mrs Thatcher pointed out that he was only in a position to help because he was rich. Gordon Brown touched on the parable in support of bailing out the banks. Hilary Benn used it to justify bombing Syria. How can one story be used to support such diverse political policies? Why is it so popular? What resonance does the Good Samaritan have today? Joining Ernie Rea to discuss the political interpretations of the Good Samaritan are Nick Spencer Research Director of Theos, the religion and society Think Tank and author of 'The Political Samaritan'; the Rev Leslie Griffiths (Lord Griffiths of Burry Port) who sits as a Life Peer on the Labour benches; and Adrian Hilton, Director of Education at the Thatcher Centre.

Producer: Helen Lee.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the New Theatre in Hull. Regulars Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Miles Jupp and John Finnemore with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.

Alan reaches the end of his tether, and Eddie reckons he is on to a winner.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 1
Andrew Manson, a newly trained doctor arrives in Drineffy, a South Wales mining town. He is to be an assistant to the elderly Dr Page. Manson
is idealistic and full of enthusiasm but this is soon tempered by reality when he meets the cynical Dr Denny another doctor in the town.
Set in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which partly inspired Nye Bevan to create the NHS.

Director - Gary Brown
Producers Gary Brown and Pauline Harris.

Historian and psychoanalyst Daniel Pick of Birkbeck College, University of London tells the story of how aerial bombardment - from Zeppelins to B52s, from H-Bombs to drones - has made the unconscious mind a field of battle.

Daniel explores how, in the shadow of the First World War, Freud turned his analytical eye from desire to the 'death drive', and how psychoanalysts probed what might happen if another war came.

Would survivors of mass aerial bombardment hold up psychically, or would they collapse into infantile panic? Or would they become uncontrollably aggressive?

And why do humans come to be so aggressive in the first place?

When the war - and the bombers - did come to Britain, it appeared that survivors were much more stoical and defiant than had been expected.

But, as Daniel discovers, brave faces concealed a great deal of psychological damage.

With historian Lyndsey Stonebridge, he visits the Wellcome Library to see - courtesy of the Melanie Klein Trust - the case notes of the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein on her analysis of a troubled ten year old boy, 'Richard'.

What do Klein's notes, and Richard's extraordinary drawings, reveal about his attitude to being bombed?

Daniel examines how, with the advent of the Cold War and the distinct possibility that bombs and missiles could destroy civilisation, technocrats trying to plan for the end of the world coped with staring into the abyss.

Finally, Daniel shows how a radical new turn in aerial bombardment opens up this field anew. Nuclear weapons can destroy the planet; but what does it do to the mind to live under the threat of 'surgical' attack by unmanned drones?

With: Derek Gregory, Peter Hennessy, Dagmar Herzog, Richard Overy, Lyndsey Stonebridge

Producer: Phil Tinline.

As they retreat from Northern Iraq so-called Islamic State has left thousands of women and children behind. Some are the abandoned families of IS fighters, others are being held as prisoners or slaves. There are also boys who were forced to fight for IS. A desperate effort is now underway to reunite these women and children with the families they have been separated from - and to rehabilitate those whose minds have been stolen by the group. Tim Whewell reports from Iraq on the children left behind by the fighters of Islamic state.

Why do some of us do bizarre things in our sleep? Like riding a motorbike, using a shoe to 'phone for a pizza or even having sex while sleeping? These are complex behaviours and yet sleepwalkers aren't aware of what they're doing and often have no memory of their strange night-time activities.

These sleep disorders are known as non-REM parasomnias and include conditions like night terrors and sleep eating.

So why does it happen? Sleepwalking usually occurs during deep sleep, when something triggers the brain to wake - but not completely. So the areas that control walking and other movement wake up, yet other parts, involved in awareness and rational thinking, remain asleep. What's confusing is that sleepwalkers look awake - their eyes are open - but they're really not awake. They're not really asleep either. The brain is awake and asleep at the same time. We have known this happens in some animals, who can sleep with half of their brain at a time. But recently, we have learnt that similar things can happen in the human brain.

In the first of a three-part series, neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner, talks to patients he's been treating at his sleep clinic at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London. They include Jackie who began sleepwalking as a child and continued her strange night-time behaviour as an adult, riding her motorbike whilst sleeping.
We hear from James whose night terrors have become so violent his wife has begged him to get help; from Alex who rescues people from floods in his sleep. And we talk to Tom, whose recent diagnosis of sexsomnia has had a significant impact on his life.

These remarkable sleepwalking experiences help us to understand the complex workings of the human brain.

Presenter: Dr Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes each day, eats the same lunch at work, and buys two bottles of vodka to drink each weekend. She is fine, completely fine. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has carefully built around herself.

Today: Eleanor thinks she's found love, in the shape of local singer Johnnie Lomond. But some appearance-related improvements are needed urgently...

Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.

The legendary JIMMY WEBB talks to John Wilson about a career of song-writing that began in High School and went on to include platinum selling hits for Donna Summer, Frank Sinatra, REM, Barbara Striesand and, of course, Glen Campbell.

The youngest person ever to have been inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame and the only artist to have won Grammy Awards in music, lyrics and orchestration, Jimmy Webb's compositions include 'MacArthur Park', 'Wichita Lineman', 'Up, Up And Away', 'Galvaston' and the third most performed song in the fifty years between 1940 & 1990 - 'By The Time I Get To Phoenix'.

Series Producer: Paul Kobrak.

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 Jasvir Singh, Co-Chair of the Faiths Forum for London.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Musician Fyfe Dangerfield loves being in places which feel removed from modern life where the prehistoric looking grey heron can be a great leveller.

Producer: Mark Ward
Photograph: Alan Matthew.

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

Jonathan Freedland compares the Catalan government's recent bid for independence with a moment during the English Civil War when the military commander, Sir Richard Grenville, devised a plan to gain more autonomy for Cornwall. Jonathan and his guests visit historic locations in Launceston, the ancient capital of Cornwall, where this story took place.

With historian Mark Stoyle, Professor of Early Modern History at Southampton University; Sebastian Balfour, Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies at the London School of Economics; Loveday Jenkin, councillor for Mebyon Kernow, the Party for Cornwall; and actor Beatie Edney who played Prudie in the Poldark.

Comedy writer Sian Harries and guest discuss that strange taboo - women's ambivalence towards having children. Why is it that you're supposed to want to have children, what does it mean if you're really not sure that you do, and why it is that so many people feel they have the right to tell her she's wrong to feel the way she does?

Sian Harries has written comedy for The Now Show, Greg Davies' 'Man Down' and she's worked closely with her husband, the comedian Rhod Gilbert. But despite her success, she explains how bad it made her feel when someone walked up to her at a party and asked her when she was going to have children. She wonders why people feel they have the right to ask this question, and why it only seems to be of women but never men. Through her own experiences, and that of her guest, she explores what it means to feel ambivalent, and why - when society pressurises you - it makes you feel there might be something "wrong" with you.

Sian speaks to Isy Suttie, someone who decided to have children and she asks how that decision impacted on her career and how she feels she's now viewed by the people around her.

Producer: Toby Field

Producer in Bristol: Toby Field.

Five letters from five South African writers exploring life there in the week of the ANC elections. These letters reflect on living in South Africa now, in all its troubled richness.

Journalist Mark Gevisser shares his experience of returning from a peaceful life in France to a politically fraught South Africa . Gevisser luxuriates in the beauty of his new seaside residence in a village outside Cape Town, but soon discovers signs of a desperate underclass living very close to home.

Mark Gevisser is one of South Africa's leading authors and journalists. His latest book, the memoir 'Lost and Found in Johannesburg' was shortlisted for the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in 2014. His biography of second post-apartheid President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki - 'Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream' - was the winner of the Sunday Times 2008 Alan Paton Prize.

Written and read by Mark Gevisser
Produced by Nicola Holloway.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

By Shelagh Stephenson

Naively, Maddie hopes for the quick conviction of her attacker.

One Friday night Madeleine leaves the pub and walks home along the seafront in the company of Danny, a boy of her own age, whom she's known for few months, through other friends. On the way and seemingly out of the blue, he jumps on her. At first she thinks it's a bad joke, but in fact he rapes her. We know it happens, because we're with her at the time.

It sets in motion a whole chain of events which question our attitudes towards rape, sexuality and sexual assault.

Cast:
Maddie Cook ..... Jasmine Hyde
Meg Harper ..... Haydn Gwynne
Nick ..... Leon Ockenden
Helen ..... Jeany Spark
Louise ..... Michele Tate
Paula ..... Margot Leicester
Mike ..... Michael Elwyn
Ned ..... Jonathan Sayer

Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Production for BBC Radio 4.

Imagine waking up and finding you're paralysed. Unable to move. Dark, shadowy figures enter your room, demonic images press against your face. You open your mouth to scream but you can't make a sound. A heavy pressure bears down on you. You feel like you're suffocating. The more you panic, the longer it lasts. Welcome to the terrifying world of sleep paralysis - just one of the sleep disorders experienced by patients of neurologist, Dr Guy Leschziner, from Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in London.

In this programme, he explores this and other medical conditions that affect normal dreaming and assesses what they tell us about the brain and its control of our sleep.

Dreaming usually occurs in REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep) when our brains are very active, but our bodies are not. A switch in the brain paralyses almost all our muscles, to stop us hurting ourselves. But sometimes this switch is faulty, causing sleep disorders that can significantly impact daily life.

We meet Evelyn who experiences sleep paralysis and horrific hallucinations. Christian describes his narcolepsy, a rare brain condition that makes him suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times - including when driving a forklift truck. Adrian recounts his experience of cataplexy, a sleep disorder that can happen during the day and means he suddenly loses control of his muscles. And we hear from John who has REM sleep behaviour disorder (known as RBD) which causes him to act out his dreams, kicking and thrashing in his sleep. Sometimes injuring himself and his wife, Liz. And we learn how RBD may be an early warning of degenerative brain conditions like Parkinson's disease and certain types of dementia.

Presenter: Dr Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams.

How do people with hearing loss engage with music? Performer Eloise Garland challenges assumptions.

Eloise began to lose her own hearing fifteen years ago. Now aged 23, she's a professional singer, violinist and teacher - and reveals her very personal engagement with sound.

She considers different ways of teaching and appreciating music - some of which might surprise people who aren't deaf - and shares her deep emotional connection to an art form and cultural activity that is so strongly associated with hearing.

Eloise also meets Tarek Atoui, a composer and sound artist who brings together deaf and hearing people to make music with special instruments designed to expand the experience of sound beyond the aural. If music cannot be heard, what are the other ways of listening?

Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4

(Image credit: Caroline Lessire).

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, two trawlers were torpedoed East of the Tyne, killing eight people, while in Tynemouth, Iris is ambushed when she least expects it.

Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Consumer phone-in.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Dan Snow, surveying the landscape around Ypres, hears the recollections of veterans of the Third Battle of Ypres, and maps their painfully slow progress eastwards. As the front line crept towards the ruins of the village of Passchendaele, the men renamed the few landmarks around them to reflect their experience of the place - from Hellfire Corner to Vicious Crossroads. As they advanced, in a series of local battles, the men were afforded little or no shelter, apart from abandoned German concrete pillboxes.

by Colin Hough

A seriously funny comedy about prejudice, vintage cars and taxidermy.
What happens when a Fife B&B owner refuses newly-weds Geoff and Val a double room?

produced/directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.

Josie Long delves into the memories held within the covers of a book - with a head full of palindromes, artistic accidents and conjuring a loved one through family recipes.

Featuring Nikesh Shukla, Ralph Steadman and Martin Clear, the winner of the World Palindrome Championship.

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

John Wilson continues his music series, in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about their musical craft. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.

Having discussed his early song-writing career, writing for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Barbara Striesand, Richard Harris and Glen Campbell (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 11th December and available online), Jimmy Webb responds to questions from the audience.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

Andrew McGibbon talks to Manuel Cuevas, the man who created and made the suits that defined "the Man in Black" - country singer, Johnny Cash.

At 75, he is the "King of Cowboy Bling". He has been designing clothes since he was a boy - barely 7 years old - in his native Mexico. His Nashville store is where all the stars get their threads. But from 1969 Manuel was hired to design Johnny Cash's legendary black suits and formed an extraordinary relationship with the iconic star.

In I Was... Johnny Cash's Tailor, Manuel Cuevas tells the story of his tailoring relationship with the country singer and how he saw the metaphysical black in Johnny's character and couldn't resist making him black suits. This is a charming story about the spiritual relationship between a tailor and the most inscrutable and enduring country music star ever.

Written and presented by Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains for Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

Marcel Duchamp, the father of conceptual art, and responsible for that famously provocative urinal signed 'R Mutt, 1917', is the great life choice of fellow artist Cornelia Parker. She explains to Matthew Parris why he's influenced not only her work but that of so many other artists since his death in 1968. As an art student in the 1970s she recalls the attraction of Duchamp's 'readymades', such as a bicycle wheel or suspended wine bottle rack - manufactured items that the artist selected and modified, antidotes to what he dismissed as conventional 'retinal art'.

They are joined by Dawn Ades, Professor of the History of Art at the Royal Academy, who's curated the current RA exhibition on Duchamp and Dali. Dawn recalls an occasion when, whilst she didn't actually meet Duchamp, she once saw him completely absorbed in a game of chess in a café in the Spanish seaside town of Cadaqués, whilst visiting Salvador Dali. They also discuss Duchamp's intriguing female alter ego, Rrose Selavy (Eros, c'est la vie or "physical love is the life") Man Ray's photographs of whom featured in some Surrealist exhibitions.

We hear how Duchamp let the world know that he'd given up being in artist in favour of devoting himself to chess whilst still in his 30s. He played the game at a high level, representing France at international tournaments, whilst covertly continuing his art work. Cornelia Parker explains that his works spoke not just to the Pop Art and Op Art movements of the 1960s, but more broadly to American artists like Bruce Nauman and the composer John Cage, and whose influence can be seen today in the work of, for example, fellow English artist, Rachel Whiteread.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Mark Steel's In Town - Matlock and Matlock Bath

Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 with the 8th series of his award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.

In this episode Mark visits the lovely Derbyshire towns of Matlock and Matlock Bath.

Matlock Bath is a seaside town that is nowhere near the sea. Here, Mark visits the National Stone Centre, where there aren't any stones. And he has fish and chips in a chip shop, of which there are hundreds. He also takes a trip up the cable cars to The Heights of Abraham and he talks to a man who is the only human ever to enter the Bonsall World Championship Hen Races.

Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Sound Manager ... Jerry Peal
Producer ... Carl Cooper.

There's a surprise in store for Elizabeth, and the deception takes a toll on Pip.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason.
Episode 2
Manson and Denny deal with an outbreak of typhoid in the town. Denny is convinced he knows the cause of it and is determined to do something about it.

Director - Gary Brown
Producers - Pauline Harris and Gary Brown.

As recovery work continues in Grenfell Tower, what's the future of the building and its surroundings? Former residents and those living in its shadow give their views.

Faisal Metalsi has lived in the area all his life and Grenfell Tower has been a prominent part of it. In this programme, he asks friends and neighbours how the sight of the Tower affects them,and what they think should happen to it. He talks to those involved in the recovery operations inside the Tower, and we hear lessons from elsewhere on how best to memorialise a site of tragedy and trauma.

Some local residents describe the sight of the burned-out shell of Grenfell Tower as "a daily act of abuse". Many want the building torn down as soon as possible - while others say it should remain as an indictment of unheeded warnings and failures of management.

Six months on, work continues inside the Tower to recover and identify victims, retrieve belongings, and investigate what went wrong. It's a painstaking process involving multiple agencies. And it's highly sensitive. The NHS spoke out recently about the scale of trauma in the area, saying the number of people affected was likely to exceed 11,000. When local people hear noise and see movement in the Tower, it can be distressing, And as days get shorter, some have been startled by the sight of a light in an old friend's window.

The poem "14 June 2017" is written and read by Father Alan Everett of St Clement's Church.

Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

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

Claudia Hammond presents a series that explores the limits and potential of the human mind.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Tracy Wiles reads Gail Honeyman's heartwarming and heartbreaking new novel - this year's bestselling fiction debut.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself.

Today: Eleanor thinks she might have met the man of her dreams. But does she dare tell Mummy?

Reader: Tracy Wiles
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.

June Whitfield stars as Miss Marple in the last of three Agatha Christie dramatisations by Joy Wilkinson.

Miss Marple and her god-daughter, Bunch, arrive at the local church to discover a dying man. His last words provide the clues to unlock an unsolved crime.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins.

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 Jasvir Singh, Co-Chair of the Faiths Forum for London.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

For musician Fyfe Dangerfield seeing a rare bird on his travels is as exciting as seeing a celebrity on the street, and the bluethroat he saw in India is on top of his list.

Producer Mark Ward
Photograph Kevin Mayhew.

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

Series in which two artists discuss creative questions.

Dominic Lawson asks former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey why he changed his mind from opposition to any euthanasia to support for assisted dying to be made legal in the UK.

A lifelong opponent of euthanasia, George Carey recently changed his mind on an issue which the Church of England has always opposed - assisted dying for those who can decide for themselves that their suffering as a result of very serious medical problems is too much to bear. He explains how he decided to change his views on such a significant issue for the Church.

In "Why I Changed My Mind", Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

Five letters from five South African writers exploring aspects of life there in the week of the ANC elections - covering education, bureaucracy, city living, xenophobia and migration. These novelists and journalists reflect on living in South Africa now.

Novelist and journalist Panashe Chigumadzi, who was born in Zimbabwe, describes how it feels to be a foreign born, black citizen of modern South Africa and considers the legacy of colonialism and apartheid and how it informs modern xenophobia.

Panashe Chigumadzi was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa. Her debut novel Sweet Medicine (2015) won the 2016 K. Sello Duiker Literary Award. She is the founding editor of Vanguard Magazine, a platform for young black women coming of age in post-apartheid South Africa. A contributing editor to the Johannesburg Review of Books, her work has featured in titles such as The New York Times (USA), The Washington Post (USA), Transition (USA), The Guardian (UK), City Press (SA), The Sunday Times (SA) and Die Ziet (Germany).

Written and read by Panashe Chigumadzi
Produced by Simon Richardson.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

By Shelagh Stephenson

Maddie begins to regret having involved the Police in the rape.

One Friday night Madeleine leaves the pub and walks home along the seafront in the company of Danny, a boy of her own age, whom she's known for few months, through other friends. On the way and seemingly out of the blue, he jumps on her. At first she thinks it's a bad joke, but in fact he rapes her. We know it happens, because we're with her at the time.
It sets in motion a whole chain of events which question our attitudes towards rape, sexuality and sexual assault.

Cast:
Maddy Cook ..... Jasmine Hyde
Danny King ..... Mark Quartley
Meg Harper ..... Haydn Gwynne
Nick ..... Leon Ockenden
Helen ..... Jeany Spark
Louise ..... Michele Tate
Paula ..... Margot Leicester
Mike ..... Michael Elwyn

Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish Production for BBC Radio 4.

A retired and a serving police officer share their experiences of PTSD and recovery. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

After a successful first series on Radio 4 and a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, policeman turned comic, Alfie Moore, returns with the series that forces his audience to make the policing decisions as he takes them through a real life crime scenario. This week he takes the audience through a case he handled, about harassment. When does harassment become stalking and what can you do about it?

Written and performed by Alfie Moore,
Script Editor ..... Will Ing,
Producer..... Alison Vernon-Smith.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1917, Crimea proclaimed its independence, as a secular Muslim state, advocating gender equality. In North Shields, Fraser Chadwick feels like the least popular man in the world.

Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Consumer affairs programme.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

Among the recordings made for the BBC's landmark series 'The Great War' in the early 1960s, one in particular stands out. John Palmer, a British Gunner who served as a signaller from 1914 onwards on the Western Front, admitted to being at his lowest ebb by November 1917. Towards the end of his time in Flanders fields, he admitted considering a self-inflicted wound to get out of Passchendaele, and the apocalyptic landscape he was crawling around in night after night. Finally, on his last night in the front line, sheer exhaustion left him unable to react as he heard a shell coming towards him. According to the historian Peter Hart, who recorded many of the interviews with First World War veterans for the Imperial War Museums' collection, John Palmer is the voice of the British soldier of 1917: suffering, drained, and almost broken.

A ski resort in the Carpathian Mountains. A secretive British lobbying firm is manipulating the outcome of elections in the city below. As the clock ticks, one of their team goes missing on the slopes. Did she fall? Was she pushed?

CAST:

Marcus ..... Orlando Seale
Kaveeta ..... Deeivya Meir
Niko ..... Adam Fitzgerald
Seth ..... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Greg ..... Philip Bretherton
Kelly ..... Abbie Andrews
Elisa ..... Isabella Inchbald
Pablo ..... Clive Hayward

Written by Peter Jukes
Directed by Peter Kavanagh.

Do you know what Open Banking is? You may already have had a message from your bank telling you all about it. It's been dubbed a 'banking revolution. In just over a month's time, we can allow other firms access to our data to give us better deals. Independent firms are expected to spring up to provide apps to help us with services from budgeting to offering financial products tailored to our needs. There are a number of consumer protections built into 'Open Banking'. The key one is that your bank will only allow firms regulated by the FCA to have access to your data if you have given explicit permission.

Join Louise Cooper and guests as they explain the basics of Open Banking.

Call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday 13 December or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk Standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles apply.

Presenter: Louise Cooper
Producer: Lesley McAlpine
Editor: Andrew Smith.

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.

Jeremy Hardy returns with his brand new series that not only seconds that emotion, but explains it too. In this show, Jeremy is feeling... happy.

Radio 4's most passionate polemicist returns to the airwaves with a new format which promises to be both personal and profound, and to present sides of Jeremy you won't have heard before. He may even sing. (He won't sing.)

The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" regular, proud progenitor of ten series of Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, and winner of numerous awards and almost certainly the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Jeremy is famous for lines like:

"Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own."

and -

"Islam is no weirder than Christianity. Both are just Judaism with the jokes taken out."

His unique world view once lead him to be likened to "an incendiary vicar". Gillian Reynolds called him, "an idealist, a dissenter, a polemicist and moralist - he's a salutary reminder that jokes can, and should, be about big things."

The show is produced by Jeremy's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler, whose radio credits include Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Marcus Brigstocke's The Brig Society, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off, The Castle, The 99p Challenge, Deep Trouble, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia. His TV credits include Paul Merton - The Series, Spitting Image, Absolutely, The Paul Calf Video Diary, Coogan's Run and exec producing Victoria Wood's dinnerladies.

Written by Jeremy Hardy
Produced by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.