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

Alberto Manguel has had consistent 5-star ratings for his books on reading, books and libraries. With regret, he packs up his library of 35,000 volumes and prepares to move from a vast property in rural France to a small apartment on Manhattan's West Side.

Choosing which books to keep, store, or cast out, Manguel finds himself in deep reverie on the nature of relationships between books and readers, books and collectors, order and disorder, memory and reading.

In this poignant re-evaluation of his life as a reader, he illuminates the highly personal art of reading and affirms the vital role of public libraries. Manguel's musings range widely - from delightful reflections on the idiosyncrasies of book lovers to deeper analyses of historic and catastrophic book events, including the burning of ancient Alexandria's library and contemporary library lootings at the hands of ISIS.

With insight and passion, the author underscores the universal centrality of books and their unique importance to a democratic, civilised, and engaged society.

Reader : Oliver Cotton
Author: Alberto Manguel
Abridger : Barry Johnston
Producer : David Roper

A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

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The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A reading and a reflection to start the day with Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs.

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 explores the landscape in between the city of Coventry and the countryside which surrounds it. These 'edgelands' are often ignored yet they are also places which inspire artists and writers and can tell us about how we live today. Tile Hill is the place which the artist George Shaw depicts in his work and inspired by him poet Liz Berry has written about these 'edgelands' and the stories they contain. Jonny Bark is a photographer who has recently explored this theme in his work around Coventry and writer JD Taylor has spent time travelling around these overlooked places in search of who we are and how we live in 21st Century Britain.

Food labels - what's on them, what do they mean, and how might they change in the future. Sybil Ruscoe chairs a discussion looking principally at the labelling of meat and dairy, with Professor Chris Elliott from the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast, Liz Bowles from organic certification body and campaign group, the Soil Association - representing the Labelling Matters consortium, of which they're a member, and David Swales, Head of Strategic Insight in Market Intelligence at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board: a non-departmental public body that represents British farming.

Producer: Toby Field.

The latest weather forecast.

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

Aasmah Mir and the Rev Richard Coles are joined by award-winning comedian and comedy writer Andy Hamilton and former female bouncer Delia El-Hosayny.

Jay Rayner and his panel are in the Italianate village of Portmeirion in Wales. Zoe Laughlin, Tim Hayward, Rachel McCormack and Angela Gray answer the questions.

Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

Food Consultant: Anna Colquhoun

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Portuguese sailor and explorer Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find a route to the riches of the spice islands, north east of present day Indonesia. Through a series of adventures and tragedies, Magellan's voyage discovered the Straits of Magellan joining the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans in Southern America and was the first expedition to completely circumnavigate the world. But Magellan died on the way and the remaining crew were in fact first round the globe. To explore an achievement that changed the world and still influences us today, Bridget Kendall is joined by Dr Rodrigo Cacho, Dr Alison Sandman and Dr Rachel Winchcombe.

Photo: An illustration of Ferdinand Magellan (Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

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

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

The energy regulator, Ofgem, is encouraging suppliers to hand out smart meter installation appointments to customers who haven't asked for them, and in some cases, to turn up at their homes uninvited. It's all part of the government's drive to get energy smart meters in all homes by 2020. Energy customers have been contacting Money Box angry that they've been receiving letters and texts with appointment times for the installation of the digital meters even though in some cases they've already refused one. The meters are not compulsory. The Government says smart meters will help households manage their energy use and their bills more efficiently. But the roll-out of the digital meters has had a number of teething problems. Reporter Tony Bonsignore has the story. Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Smart Energy GB joins the programme.

Later this month the Supreme Court will rule on the case of Siobhan McLaughlin from County Antrim who is challenging the rules that refuse her and her four children bereavement benefits because she wasn't married to her late partner John Adams. In 2015 at the High Court, she argued that the refusal to pay the widow's allowance discriminated against her on grounds of marital status. She won, but the decision was overturned on appeal in 2016. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. Paul Lewis speaks to Siobhan McLaughlin about why she's pursuing the legal action. And Jo Edwards, partner and head of family law at legal practise, Forsters, explains the importance of this case.

Company opens a new pension scheme which guarantees a pension for life linked to pay. That's not a common headline these days. Because across the country good pension schemes are being closed down. These so-called defined benefit schemes promise a pension based on the worker's salary. But they are disappearing in the private sector as firms fear the cost of future liabilities. But not everywhere. Some firms are actually opening new schemes which they say are affordable.

Paul Lewis visits Bromford Housing Association in Aylesbury which is opening a new scheme for its 1,100 staff that promises a pension for life. Hilary Salt from First Actuarial also joins the programme.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Lesley McAlpine
Editor: Jim Frank.

Miles Jupp is joined by Angela Barnes, Andy Hamilton, Zoe Lyons and Hugo Rifkind for a satirical look at the week's news. This week the panel discuss Theresa May's response to the chemical attacks in Syria, Donald Trump's lawyer's uninvited guests and an over priced bag of stones.

Written by Sarah Campbell, Jon Hunter, James Kettle and Laura Major with additional material by Simon Alcock.
Produced by Joe Nunnery.
A BBC Studios Production.

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The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Oxford Town Hall with Labour MP Caroline Flint, the columnist Peter Hitchens, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales Caroline Lucas MP and the Conservative peer Lord Patten.

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

John Wyndham's science fiction novel adapted by Val McDermid. Performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a terrifying modern retelling of alien invasion and global flooding. Starring Tamsin Greig, Paul Higgins and Richard Harrington.

The floods have recently devastated parts of Britain. But what if the flood waters never subsided? What if an apparent meteor shower was actually the invasion fleet of an alien race, incubating in the ocean deeps until they were ready to begin their war of attrition against the human race? What if we were trapped on a drowning planet?

Val McDermid is a long-time fan of Wyndham's work and retells this dramatic novel in light of contemporary fears of climate change.

Recorded with a live orchestral accompaniment from the BBC Philharmonic. Composer Alan Edward Williams worked with Val to create a brand new 50's B movie inspired orchestral score that takes on the role of the unseen Kraken during the performance .

Episode 1:
Radio reporters Mike and Phyllis Watson are drawn into the story when a Northern Lights cruise spots five fireballs landing deep in the ocean. With other global sightings, social media is agog, for a while. But governments don't lose interest when Twitter does. And when naval expeditions link up with scientists to investigate the deeps there are more shocks in store. Scientists are baffled, though theories abound then a series of disasters makes it indisputable.
There is something down there and humans are under attack.

Performed 'as live' with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Composer: Prof Alan E Williams
Conductor: Clark Rundell

Director and Producer: Justine Potter
A Savvy production for BBC Radio 4.

An intimate portrait of singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Peel.

Hannah Peel inhabits many different worlds. She can, blithely, be described as a singer-songwriter, known for stripped back renditions of 80s pop songs, accompanying herself with a hand-turned music box. But then she's also composed an epic concept album for brass band and electronics and provided the music for a theatrical re-imagining of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, as well as being a session musician as a singer, violinist, trombonist, keyboard player and arranger.

Her personal life - like her professional activities - traverses different worlds, too. Her childhood was divided between Northern Ireland, where she was born and to which she returns often, and Yorkshire, where she grew up in the brass band tradition.

Now, she's a synthesiser convert and calls her studio The Lab. Yet, in all her music-making, her voice carries the legacy of a family steeped in the culture of singing.

Presented and produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Photo credit: Adam Patterson).

Three members of the band GRRRL perform their track 'Wissi'.

How productive are investigations into current and historical child sex abuse? Do they help victims?

Ruth Jones best known for her screenwriting talks about her debut novel Never Greener.

Twitter went crazy last week when someone suggested a challenge - describe yourself the way a male author would and lots of references to breasts, tight trousers and curves ensued - so how well do men create female characters?

Dr Jo Toovey tells us why she's proposed a motion at the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, asking for more research into the identification and support of female students with neurodiversity.

Plus, Rose Tremain talks about her r first work of non-fiction, Rosie: Scenes from a Vanished Life and explains why she's decided to write about her childhood

And when it comes to wedding planning how do you make sure you get what you really want?

Presenter; Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell.

Caroline Wyatt with coverage of the day's news.

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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Clive Anderson and Nikki Bedi are joined by Sheila Reid, Juno Dawson, Hugh Dennis and Sean Gandini for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Manic Street Preachers and Melissa Laveaux.

Producer: Tim Bano.

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.

Quiz is the latest play from James Graham. Its subject matter is the edition of Who Wants To be A Millionaire in which a lot of coughing went on. We the audience are asked to vote on whether we think the major is guilty or not of trying to beat the system.
French film Custody is a searing and unflinching look at a disintegrating marriage and the emotional and psychological consequences on all those in the family
1960's sci-fi TV series Lost In Space is returning. And this time it's on Netflix with all the enormo-budgets that have become associated with that channel. But has spending more money made it any better?
Nikesh Shukla's novel: The One Who Wrote Destiny is about the immigrant experience of a Gujarati family into the UK, following different generations' approach to assimilation and identity
There's an exhibition of work by 50 women abstract artists from 1918 to 2018 at Victoria Miro Gallery in London, called Surface Work.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Ayesha Hazarika, Pat Kane and Lynn Nead. The producer is Oliver Jones.

In April 1968, Enoch Powell made one of the most incendiary speeches in modern British politics. Ian McDiarmid reads the Rivers of Blood speech in its entirety - the first time it has been broadcast complete on British radio.

Taking the speech section by section, he BBC's Media Editor Amol Rajan and a range of contributors reflect on the enduring influence and significance of the speech, which was delivered to local Conservative Party members in Birmingham just a few days ahead of the crucial second reading of the 1968 Race Relations Bill.

Professor David Dabydeen of the University of Warwick talks about Powell's failure to realise that the racial unrest in America, which he feared might spread to Britain, was around basic civil rights such as the right to vote, and the right to sit on a bus.

David Lammy MP talks about the fear that the speech created amongst his family at the time, becoming part of the wallpaper of his childhood.

The text of the speech included observations on immigrants taken from Enoch Powell's Wolverhampton constituents, and ended with a reference to a moment in Virgil's Aeneid when the prophetess Sibyll predicts civil war in Italy with "the River Tiber foaming with much blood".

Only a short section of Powell's speech was actually recorded on the night but, for this programme, the full text is recreated by the actor Ian McDiarmid, who has played Enoch Powell on stage recently in the play What Shadows.

Producer: Nathan Gower
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Alfred Molina, Adam Godley, Susannah Fielding and Ian Ogilvy lead an all start cast. Dr Stockmann has discovered the town's spa-baths are contaminated. How will this affect local business interests? Will Stockmann be publicly vilified?

Martin Jarvis directs this new version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz of Henrik Ibsen's dynamic thriller. Will campaigning courage turn into self-righteous fanaticism? Vested interest lives on and this timeless 1882 drama is as up to date now as when it was first performed.

Townpeople: Moira Quirk, Elizabeth Knowleden, Jean Gilpin,
Alan Shearman, Neil Dickson, Ifan Meredith

Specially composed music: A-Mnemonic

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

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

Clive Anderson and guests examine concerns that the government's programme to modernise the court system through use of digital technologies could threaten access to justice.

Today, it's common practice for vulnerable witnesses to give evidence via video link. But government proposals could see the entire court process move online. Critics of the plans say that, without access to a lawyer, vulnerable defendants might act against their best interests, or may even be manipulated by a third party.

Clive hears concerns that, without a defendant appearing in the dock, victims and their families might not feel justice was being done. and - without a physical courtroom for journalists to attend - justice might no longer be seen to be done.

There is a widespread worry that cost-cutting is being prioritised over justice, and that the digitally illiterate risk being shut out of legal system, with profound consequences.

Supporters of the proposals claim digital courts will save the public time and money, be easier to navigate, and meet the demands of the "internet society" that services be delivered online.

Producer: Matt Willis
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.

(7/17)
Who were Roger Bannister's two pace setters in the race that broke the four-minute mile barrier in 1954? And what's the common name of the disease transmitted to human beings by the tsetse fly? These are just two of the questions in Russell Davies' pack as he welcomes another four amateur competitors to the trickiest general knowledge tournament of them all. There's a place in the semi-finals waiting for the winner, with a possibility of a runner-up getting through too, if his or her score is high enough.

Today's competitors are:
Rob Butlin, who works in advertising and comes from Great Doddington in Northamptonshire
Kathy Price, a retired consultant anaesthetist from Sunderland
Brian Roles, a retired IT programmer from Maidenhead in Berkshire
Tom Williams, a personal assistant from London.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

Paul Farley meets the poet Robin Robertson, and hears extracts from his new book-length poem, The Long Take.

1946. Walker is a D-Day veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder; he can't return home to rural Nova Scotia, and looks instead to the city for freedom, anonymity and repair. As he walks the streets of New York, we witness a crucial period of fracture in American history, one that also allowed film noir to flourish. The Dream had gone sour but - as those dark, classic movies made clear - the country needed outsiders to study and dramatise its new anxieties.

While Walker tries to piece his life together, America is beginning to come apart: deeply paranoid, doubting its own certainties, riven by social and racial division, spiralling corruption and the collapse of the inner cities. The Long Take is about a good man, brutalised by war, haunted by violence and apparently doomed to return to it - yet resolved to find kindness again, in the world and in himself.

Reader: Kerry Shale
Producer: Mair Bosworth
Sound Design: Rebecca Ripley and Mair Bosworth.

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

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the acclaimed Irish writer David Hayden. As read by Jane Brennan ('Brooklyn', 'The Tudors')

David Hayden's writing has appeared in gorse, The Yellow Nib, The Moth, The Stinging Fly, Spolia and The Warwick Review, and poetry in PN Review. His debut short story collection 'Darker With The Lights On' was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2018.

Writer ..... David Hayden
Reader ..... Jane Brennan
Producer ..... Michael Shannon.

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Bells on Sunday comes from St.Matthew's Church in Chapel Allerton, Leeds. There are 6 bells which were cast by Taylor's of Loughborough as a clock chime in 1946. They were made into a full circle ringing peal in 1954. The Tenor weighs seven and a half hundredweight and is tuned to B flat. We hear the bells ringing Plain Bob Doubles.

The latest national and international news.

Mark Tully explores the very best of teachers - and the very worst - through fiction, philosophy and memoirs, considering the essential attributes of a great teacher and the formative influence teachers can have throughout our lives.

He talks to former teacher Kabir Shaikh, who, as Director of Education for UNRWA/UNESCO, has also been responsible for providing education for half a million Palestinian refugee children in the Middle East.

There are readings from the works of Charles Dickens, Chalotte Bronte and poet Carl Dennis, and music is provided by Carl Orff, Aaron Copland and Japanese Taiko drummer Joji Hirota.

The readers are Cyril Nri, Emma Pallant and Francis Cadder.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.

Tucked away at the furthest end of a remote private road in central South Island, New Zealand lies one of the world's biggest deer farms. Around 6000 stags, hinds and fawns range over some of Haldon Station's 22,000 hectares of high land, alongside huge flocks of Merino sheep and British breeds of cattle.

New Zealand is renowned as a world leader in deer farming and Haldon, like most of the country's large-scale farms, produces not just venison for export around the globe, but also "harvests" velvet, the soft tissue that is cut every year from a stag's growing antlers. It is sold to the health food and aphrodisiac markets in South Korea, China and Taiwan, but it's a controversial practice that is banned in the UK for animal welfare reasons.

The team of ten which is employed to manage the vast herds and flocks all live on the property which has its own school, cookhouse and community centre. Nancy Nicolson made the long journey south to hear about farm lives lived in an enormous landscape.

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

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.

Lorraine Kelly makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Sightsavers.

Registered Charity Numbers: 207544 and SC038110
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 'Sightsavers'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Sightsavers'.

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

On the third Sunday of Easter Beverley Humphreys reflects on the need to continue growing in a sense of Resurrection and renewal. Focussing on the role of breath and breathing which underpins all human life, she is joined in Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff by the Rev. Peter Noble;, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, its Artistic Director Adrian Partington; organist James Anderson-Besant , and members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Music includes 'Let all the world in every corner sing' (Vaughan Williams); Holy Holy Holy (Hoddinott) For the Beauty of the Earth (Rutter).
Producer Karen Walker.

Tom Shakespeare on why we need to rethink our use of the mental illness metaphor.

Is President Trump really "mad"?, he asks. Is Brexit "bonkers"? Or is the latest government policy "schizophrenic"?

He says we all do it. "Within five minutes of starting to write this talk, I find I'm doing it myself!"

But he says we need to break the habit since it shows a profound lack of understanding towards people with real mental health conditions.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

Martin Noble is the guitarist with British Sea Power and a keen birdwatcher in his spare time. He introduces us to some of his favourite birds and tells some of his favourite stories from his birdwatching travels.

Producer Maggie Ayre.

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

Life proves difficult for Alistair, and there is tension at Home Farm.

Sue MacGregor reunites environmentalists and politicians who fought fossil fuel industry lobbyists to secure the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.

The protocol which, for the first time, committed 38 developed countries to collectively cut their greenhouse gas emissions, took a gruelling diplomatic struggle to reach agreement in December 1997.

After ten days of intense negotiations in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, the Argentinian diplomat overseeing efforts to strike the world's first legally binding climate agreement suspended the committee session and huddled with key players in an attempt to prevent the collapse of the talks.

"We were making public policy on probably the defining issue of our time at three in the morning amongst people who hadn't slept for 48 hours," recalls Joanna Depledge, who gained a close-up view of the Kyoto Protocols's make or break moment as a member of the United Nations Climate Secretariat. At about 5am, the morning after the official end of the conference, there was an agreement. When Chairman Estrada declared the so-called committee of the whole was recommending the adoption of the protocol "by unanimity", the conference floor erupted in cheers.

Joining Sue MacGregor to look back on the making of the deal, and its impact, are Joanna Depledge formerly part of the the UN's Climate Secretariat, former British Environment Minster John Gummer, campaigner Tony Juniper of Friends of The Earth, and lawyer Farhana Yamin, who was then policy advisor to the Alliance of Small Island Nations.

Producer: Emily Williams
Series Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.

Richard Osman, Elis James, Sindhu Vee and Alan Davies are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Google, rugby, bananas and crabs.

Produced by Richard Turner.
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

Sheila Dillon travels from the border to Belfast to learn why Northern Irish food has blossomed in recent years and what leaving the EU could mean for producers.

The latest weather forecast.

Global news and analysis.

Rajesh speaks with Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University who has been collecting stories of coincidence since 2011. Rajesh wants to find out why he is so prone to coincidence. Along with discovering mind blowing coincidences Rajesh sets out on an experiment to see if he can seek out coincidence and he's very surprised by the results.

David Spiegelhalter believes its not that these things occur, it's that we notice them. As well as giving an opportunity to study probability and chance David believes that coincidences are important to us, because they are uplifting and good for us. Rajesh does not disappoint and in the making of the programme hears and experiences several coincidences which will leave you thinking what are the odds of that.

Produced by Kate Bissell.

Peter Gibbs invites the panel to join him at Cranfield University. Pippa Greenwood, James Wong and RHS Wisley curator Matthew Pottage answer questions from the audience.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Fi Glover introduces conversations about coping with loss, sharing your home with a refugee family, and settling down after life abroad 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.

Martin Jarvis reprises his award-winning Broadway characterisation as Jeeves. Comic mastery directed by Rosalind Ayres and also starring Joanna Lumley, Ian Ogilvy and Michael York.

When Bertie Wooster (James Callis) embarks on an errand of matrimonial mercy down at Totleigh Towers, he needs all the help he can get from Jeeves (Martin Jarvis). Why? Because there's trouble between Madeline Bassett and Gussie Fink-Nottle. She's forcing Gussie to become a vegetarian. If Gussie refuses to abandon steak and kidney pies, Madeleine will dump him and marry Bertie. Can Wooster avoid such a fate?

Also, human gorilla Roderick Spode (Adam Godley) is besotted by Madeline and loathes Bertie, mistakenly viewing him as a rival. A midnight encounter between Bertie and an Aberdeen terrier doesn't help.

And Bertie's host Sir Watkyn Bassett (Ian Ogilvy) suspects he has designs on a valuable statuette. Joanna Lumley pitches in as dominant Aunt Dahlia, with Michael York as whisky-sodden Major Plank.

Can Jeeves sort it all out?

Dramatised by Archie Scottney
Sound Design: Mark Holden
Director: Rosalind Ayres

A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.

Mariella Frostrup talks to Jennifer Clement, novelist and President of Pen International. Her new, timely novel is an exploration of Florida's gun culture but also a touching portrait of mother-daughter love in the most difficult circumstances.
Also on the programme, literary news from Estonia as the London Book Fair spotlights Baltic writing.

'My assigned counsellor told me I used
poetry to hide from myself, unhook
the ballast from my life; a floating ruse
of surreal jokes.'

Paul Farley brings together two poets working on opposite sides of the Atlantic whose latest work explores addiction and recovery with surrealism and dark wit. Caroline Bird's fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, while the Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar's debut collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf was published in the UK in early 2018 to great acclaim.

Produced by Mair Bosworth.

Jonathan Izard killed a man in a road traffic accident. It wasn't his fault. In an attempt to come to terms with what happened, he tries to get to know the man he killed, Michael Rawson.

Jonathan goes back to the place on the road where his car hit Michael, on New Year's Eve 2015. Michael was crossing the road on his crutches from the bus stop to his flat in sheltered accommodation. It was a winter's evening, pitch black. He didn't see Jonathan's car until it was too late. Jonathan saw Michael, very briefly, just before the impact - a face in the windscreen, a look of puzzled bewilderment, as if to say, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ten months later, the inquest confirmed that there was nothing Jonathan could have done. It ruled that no blame should attach to the driver. But meanwhile, Jonathan retreats from the world, stops shaving, wears black. He doesn't tell his friends what's happened, overcome by trauma and grief.

After the inquest, he starts to make this programme. He visits the place Michael lived, and talks to his friends. He sees Michael Rawson's photograph for the first time and discovers that, strangely, they have things in common. He begins to build up a picture of a complex, highly intelligent scholar who had a passion for photography, travel and classical music.

And he talks to other people who have killed accidentally. Jonathan Bartley, now a politician, ran over a young man when he himself was only 17. Maryann Gray accidentally killed an 8-year-old child when she was still a student. In a profoundly moving interview, Maryann explains this meant she decided never to have children herself - she felt she didn't deserve them.

Together, Jonathan and Maryann discuss their deep regret, their secret sense of shame. As she says, "Terrible things happen to perfectly good people. The world can be so capricious, we know that. But it's helpful for just day-to-day functioning to forget that, and assume that we're in control. When these accidents happen, they are reminders that we are only in partial control."

Last year about five and half thousand pedestrians were killed or injured in traffic accidents on Britain's roads.

Produced by Kim Normanton and Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.

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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

John Waite chooses his BBC Radio highlights.

Shula tries to justify her actions, and Clarrie has reservations.

Ruby Wax talks about mental health in her inimitable style, focusing on how we are all frazzled, how we got to be that way and what we can do about it - using comedy, mindfulness and chat with the audience.

There is so much to say about mental health and feeling frazzled and Ruby has the knowledge - a Master's degree in mindfulness-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She also has the experience after years of struggles with mental health. And of course she has the comic gifts to say it in an articulate, funny and entertaining way

In this show, she wants to make us laugh at her and at ourselves, make our lives feel more manageable, and share tools for how to cope.

Written and performed by Ruby Wax
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4.

Lynne Truss observes the inhabitants of Meridian Cliffs, a small wind-battered town on the south coast of England.

By night, Sarah Birkett dreams of discovering new rooms in her house. Not so surprising, perhaps, given that she's having a loft conversion done. But could the dreams be something to do with letting a new man into her life?

Written by Lynne Truss
Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Radio 4's forum for audience comment.

Photo: Gillian Ayers

Matthew Bannister on

The artist Gillian Ayers, known for her large, exuberant abstract paintings, which reflected her exuberant character.

General Efraín Ríos Montt, the Guatemalan dictator who was convicted of genocide against his own people.

David Cobham, the naturalist and film maker who brought Tarka the Otter to the screen.

Nikki Sievwright, the Sixties model who went on to serve in the Ulster Defence Regiment.

Fergus Anckorn, who used his skill as a magician to win food for his fellow inmates in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Ohio is one of the worst hit US states for opioid addiction rates and deaths. Huge numbers of people have dropped out of the workforce and employers say they struggle to recruit the people they need. If automation increases as a result, will unemployment, despair and addiction get even worse? And is drug testing workers part of the solution or part of the problem? Claire Bolderson asks why the opioid epidemic has taken such a hold here and visits companies hoping to develop new medical solutions to treat pain and manage addition. For them, the opioid crisis might just be a very profitable business opportunity.
Producer: Rosamund Jones.

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

With Antonia Quirke

Antonia talks to Noel Cronin, the man behind cult channel Talking Pictures TV, which specialises in those old movies you used to catch on afternoon telly, often when you were ill from school. He explains how he runs a TV station from his home in the Hertfordshire countryside.

As Clint Eastwood growls his way back into cinemas as The Man With No Name in A Fistful Of Dollars, poet Bridget Minamore and critic Tim Robey discuss the appeal of the Strong, Silent Type.

Ex-submariner Justin Beattie plumbs the depths of movies about life under the ocean waves and separates fact from fiction in movies such as The Hunt For Red October and Das Boot.

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

This year's winning entries explored complex lives and worlds. How did Dalits, member of India's lowest caste, shake the political establishment in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu? What's the impact on the health of people living in a heavily polluted area in rural China? How do Liberian refugees earn a living in a refugee camp in Ghana? Laurie discusses this year's shortlist with two of his fellow judges - Hilary Pilkington, winner of the 2017 award and Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and Nayanika Mookherjee, shortlisted for the 2015 award and Associate Professor (Reader) in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at Durham University.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest shipping forecast.

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

A reading and a reflection to start the day with Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs.

Sybil Ruscoe hears about the recruitment concerns of farm vet practices in the face of Brexit. Andrew Cobner of the BCVA, the British Cattle Vet Association, explains that the industry relies on large numbers of vets trained in EU and East European countries.

Also, why a large Welsh estate is increasing its venison production over that of lamb. The BBC's Steffan Messenger visits Rhug Estate which, concerned at the prospect of lamb retaining its premium after Brexit, is focusing on increasing its herd of Sika deer.

Also Lyme disease in the Outer Hebrides - why research is to being undertaken to address the high incidence of the disease on North and South Uist.

Producer: Mark Smalley.

The latest weather forecast for farmers.

In this programme, London based chef and restaurant owner Cyrus Todiwala talks about his love of the city's house sparrow, bringing a bit of joy to the bustling streets.

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

Producer Maggie Ayre.

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

Fifty years after radicals took to the streets of Paris and stormed campuses across the Western World, Andrew Marr unpicks the legacy of 1968.

Historian Richard Vinen finds waves of protest across the western world in his book The Long '68: Radical Protest and Its Enemies. Some movements were genuinely revolutionary, such as the ten million French workers whose strike nearly toppled the government. But on American university campuses and in British art schools, protests took the forms of civil rights marches and feminist collectives, whose narratives changed the way we think today.

In Paris, left-wing students armed with works of philosophy took on the police and the state. But Paris was still coming to terms with its Nazi occupation, explains Agnès Poirier. Her new book follows the artists and writers of the 40s and 50s, from Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to Miles Davis and James Baldwin, as a new generation helped France regain its reputation for art, passion and political action.

Not only left-wing radicals were inspired by the events of that year. In 1968 philosopher Roger Scruton was holed up in a Paris bedroom studying while rioters smashed windows outside. Scruton was horrified by the chaos and destruction, and turned his back on the left-wing politics of his childhood. He became part of a generation of new conservatives who sought to preserve the past rather than fight for an unknown future.

Today France is facing new waves of strikes, with railway workers bringing the transport system to a halt and Emmanuel Macron pushing through sweeping reforms to social security. Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief for The Economist, asks what France in 2018 owes to the events of 1968.

Producer: Hannah Sander.

John Osborne meets Pamela Lane in 1951 and within three months the couple are married. So begins an extraordinary love affair that lasts over thirty years.

A completely fresh insight into the mind of one of the UK's greatest playwrights, the letters between John Osborne and his first wife, actress Pamela Lane, are also a love letter to a now defunct system of repertory theatre and life in post-war Britain.

As these letters reveal, soon after their divorce, Osborne and Lane began a mutually supportive, loyal, frequently stormy and sometimes sexually intimate alliance lasting thirty years until Osborne's death. By the mid- 1980s, they had become closer and more trusting than they had been since their earliest years together.

"You are for me what you always were," Pamela told him, "I am in love with you still."

It is, he declared, "my fortune to have loved someone for a lifetime."

Acerbic, witty, candid and heartbreaking, the letters reveal a unique relationship - troubled, tender and enduring.

The author, Peter Whitebrook, was born in London and has written and broadcast extensively on the theatre and literature. His co-adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won a Fringe First Award. His biography of John Osborne was nominated for both the Sheridan Morley Prize for biography and the Theatre Book Prize.

Read by Simon Shepherd and Amanda Root
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Autumn term at Addison University. Two months after a freshers' week party, Stephanie makes her way to the police station and a young man is stunned to be accused of rape.

This is a fiction inspired by far too many real events. Many students in the UK today will be impacted during their time at university by a sexual assault case, as complainant, witness, supporter - or the accused.

Stephanie is a fresher at a party when she encounters Charlie and, in a few short minutes, their lives are changed forever. The subjectivity and so-called "grey areas" in the ensuing legal case are explored through the use of rolling monologues, as the narrative passes between the two young people at the centre of the accusation and on to those who surround and support them.

The author Eileen Horne has written numerous adaptations and original dramas for Radio 4, including her detective memoir The Lost Sister and, with Andrew Davies, The Mysterious Death of Jane Austen. She Said/He Said follows months of interviews with people on all sides of this painful subject.

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

Can Natalie Haynes and her team make it out of The Escape Room?

Escape Rooms are immersive, live games where groups of players are locked in a confined space and must solve puzzles to escape in time. Games are often themed. Players can flee penitentiaries, Egyptian tombs or pirate ships.

Five years ago, there were only a handful in the UK. Today, there are nearly a thousand.

In an attempt to understand this phenomenon, the writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes is the latest person to be locked in. Her team has one hour to complete a series of tasks. While searching for clues, she'll also try to find out what's fuelling our fascination for escape.

Natalie thinks there's more to the Escape Room than a renewed interest in immersive play. With players surrendering their phones on entry, is a brief escape from the digital world part of the appeal? Is it possible to have a moment of mindfulness inside a dark, locked room?

Increasingly, companies are using the escape room's reliance on problem-solving skills for corporate training. Recruiters have recently turned to escape rooms to assess potential employees. They're even becoming a popular venue for dates.

What if your career or love life depended on your ability to escape?

A successful escape requires teamwork, communication and delegation, as well as critical thinking, attention to detail and lateral thinking. So Natalie's team is made up of psychotherapist Philippa Perry, digital entrepreneur Bejay Mulenga and comedian and puzzle enthusiast Rob Deering. They'll be observed from afar by Hungarian escape room founder Zoltán Papp and the writer Laurence Scott.

Produced by Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

In celebration of Spike Milligan's 100th birthday, Michael Palin and Spike's daughter Jane, reveal the first broadcast of an archive which uniquely captures Spike's perspective of his life and career. Recorded between 1980 - 1985, Spike is in conversation with his biographer - and his free thinking and honesty give fresh insights into his fascinating life. Extracts from the tapes are linked to excerpts of his comedy - and with our hosts' comment, context and own stories about Spike - combine to create an intimate portrait of an undisputed Goonius. First of two programmes.

Contributor...Michael Palin
Contributor...Jane Milligan
Producer...Verity Maidlow Cornwell
Production Manager...Emma Lawrence.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1918, the upper age of conscription was raised to fifty, and in Folkestone, Sylvia Graham suddenly feels very old.

Written by Lucy Catherine
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Why callers to a free government telephone line are still being landed with big charges.

The supermarket chain accused of breaking promises over animal welfare.

And the robots allowing children too ill to go to school to link up with their classmates.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson

Producer: Jon Douglas.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

He wasn't quite the man who invented history in China, but he certainly shaped it for thousands of years. Author of the Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian), Sima Qian told the history of China in the 2nd century BC in way nobody had done before; interviewing participants, influencing views on who was good and bad. History has always been political in China, and Sima Qian was one of the first writers to show how that politics worked, whether the powerful liked it or not. His objectivity got him into big trouble at court - when he confronted the emperor, he was subjected to a horrific and humiliating punishment. For Sima Qian, writing history came at a price.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

David Threlfall stars in Ian Billings' comic fantasy inspired by the true story of Spike Milligan's madcap ventures in the mid-1960s to preserve the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens whilst also performing in the West End run of his play, The Bedsitting Room. When theatre censors get in the way of Spike saving the elves, events threaten to spiral out of control.

The trumpet player was Peter Ringrose and music was arranged and performed by Neil Brand

Directed by Gemma Jenkins

April 16th 2018 marks the centenary of Spike Milligan's birth. A life-long Spike fan and children's stand-up comic, author and poet, this is Ian Billings' first radio play.

(8/17)
Russell Davies returns to the Radio Theatre in London for the seventh heat in the 2018 general knowledge tournament. The questions cover everything from Spanish painting and Shakespeare to astronomy and the history of mathematics. A semi-final place awaits today's winner. There will also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize, by outwitting the Brains with questions of his or her own devising.

Today's competitors are:
Dan Adler, an IT consultant from Farnham in Surrey
Debbie Green, a puzzle magazine editor from Leatherhead, also in Surrey
Garry Holland, a writer from Didcot in Oxfordshire
Steve Lacey, a mortgage adviser from Corby in Northamptonshire

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.

Natalie is a reformed comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome.

Today she stands up in the name of Greek writer Lucian. Expect to hear about the possible origins of 'The Life of Brian', the possible inspiration for Mickey Mouse and a trip to the moon about a thousand years before NASA.

With special guests Professor Edith Hall and Matthew Sweet.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.

For many years, transgender people have remained silent. But today they are affirming publicly that they have a rightful place in society and religious groups are now grappling with transgender issues. The Church of England General Synod recently debated a motion to draw up a prayer to welcome people who have transitioned from one sex to another. The House of Bishops turned it down.

The Bible asserts that God made mankind in his own image; so what's the problem? Presumably he made people whose gender does not sit comfortably with the sex they were assigned at birth? But debate still rages within the church because the Bible also says that "male and female, God created them" which suggests that there should be no ambiguity when it comes to a person's gender.

The issues are complex and they can multiply if a trans person is living a religious life within a religious community. What is the attitude of religious traditions towards transgender people? Are the problems more cultural than religious?

Joining Ernie Rea are Kamalanandi, and Philippa Whittaker, A Buddhist and a Christian who have both transitioned. With them in discussion is the academic Dr Susannah Cornwall whose work concentrates on contextual theologies, particularly those relating to sex gender and sexuality.

Ernie also talks to Indian transgender activist Vyjayanti Vasanta Mogli about the role that the Hijra play within the Hindu community in India. The Hijra are transgender people who are invited to bless new born babies and married couples but they find themselves outcast within Indian society despite a change in the law in 2014 which recognises their right to be who they are.

Producer: Helen Lee
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.

Arthur Smith, Jack Dee, Lucy Porter and Lloyd Langford are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as rabbits, inventions, butterflies and drugs.

Produced by Richard Turner
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

Elizabeth offers comfort, and there is a visitor for Will.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his home town of Wolverhampton where a battle raged over the right to wear the turban on the buses in Enoch Powell's constituency at the time he made his Rivers of Blood speech.

In 1967 Sikh bus driver Tarsem Singh Sandhu returns from his holidays wearing a turban and a beard, both against the uniform regulations. The Wolverhampton Transport Committee insists rules are rules and there will be no exceptions, so Mr Sandhu enlists the help of a Punjabi political party, the Akali Dal, who employ radical tactics. They bus in Sikhs from around the UK for the biggest march in Wolverhampton since the war, and one of their leaders, Sohan Singh Jolly, announces that he will set himself on fire if their demands are not met.

Right in the middle of the dispute, Enoch Powell makes his infamous Rivers of Blood speech, specifically citing the Sikh campaign as a dangerous example of communalism, where religious or ethnic groups seek special rights that threaten the very fabric of society.

Sathnam Sanghera discovers the real story behind the dispute with surprising revelations that shed light on the history of race relations in the UK.

A one-woman whirlwind of passion and energy, Sukayna Muhammad Younes is a unique phenomenon in Iraq. A council official in the half-destroyed city of Mosul, former stronghold of so-called Islamic State, she's on a mission to find and identify the thousands of children who went missing during the conflict - and reunite them with their families. It's a massive task - and deeply controversial because Sukayna makes no distinction between children who are victims of IS - and those who belonged to IS families. "They're all just children - all innocent," she says. Tim Whewell follows Sukayna through the rubble of the city, visiting her orphanage, trying to find missing parents, meeting families who want to reclaim children. Can she solve the mystery of Jannat - an abandoned fair-haired girl who may be the daughter of a foreign IS family? Can she help Amal, sister of a dead IS fighter, to adopt her baby niece? How can families afford the expensive DNA tests the authorities require before families can be reunited? As she tries to solve these problems Sukayna also has to look after her own family of six children - and cope with personal tragedy. Two of her brothers were killed by jihadis; her family home, used as an IS base, is now in ruins. Highly charismatic - Sukayna now wants to go into politics. "I am a mini-Iraq," she says - her family includes members of many communities - and she believes the country desperately needs more dynamic, tolerant people like her, to bring real change and overcome divisions. But it's hard to be a high-profile, energetic woman in patriarchal Iraq - and she's faced death threats both from remaining IS supporters - and those who think she's too ready to help "terrorist" families.

Presenter Tim Whewell
Producers Nick Sturdee & Mike Gallagher.

Are we on the cusp of a new approach to healthy living and treating disease? BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explores the latest research into how our second genome, the vast and diverse array of microbes that live on and in our bodies, is driving our metabolism and our health.

Recent DNA analysis by the Human Microbiome Project detailed the vast and diverse array of microbes in and on our body - bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses. It has been described as our second genome - a source of huge genetic diversity, a modifier of disease, an essential component of immunity, and an "organ" that influences not just our metabolism but also our mental health. Unlike the human genome which is fixed at birth, this "second genome" can be manipulated in many ways.

Researchers have suggested that our gut microbiome has a major role in the development of chronic conditions such as obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. Now the work has moved onto detailed analysis of the microbes in people with specific problems and measures to change the microbiome.

In this major three-part series, James Gallagher investigates the key research shaping our ability not just to read our microbiome and look at predispositions, but to change it for the better. From the ability to manipulate it to stem chronic disease, to the role it plays in determining our health from birth, to its surprising influence on our brain and behaviour - should we now think of ourselves not as self-sufficient organisms, but as complex ecosystems colonized by numerous competing and health-giving microbes?

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

Ba believes in destiny. Mukesh believes in coincidence. Neha believes in patterns and consistency. And Raks believes in the manifest destiny of his own male ego.

The One Who Wrote Destiny is the hilarious and moving new novel by Nikesh Shukla, Editor of The Good Immigrant anthology of essays and author of the novels Meatspace and Coconut Unlimited.

For Book at Bedtime, five voices tell the story of three generations of the same family, riven by feuds and falling-outs, united by fates and fortunes. Mukesh moves from Kenya to the drizzly northern town of Keighley in 1966. Decades later, his daughter Neha is dying from lung cancer, a genetic gift from her mother and an invocation to forge a better relationship with her brother and her widowed father before it's too late. Neha's brother Rakesh is a comedian but his career is flat-lining and he's grieving his mother and sister. Ba has never looked after her two young grandchildren before. After the death of her daughter, they come to stay with her and she has to work out how to bond with two children who are used England, not to the rhythms of Kenya...

Readers: Bhasker Patel, Chetna Pandya, Maya Sondhi, Indira Varma and Taru Devani
Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Word of Mouth returns with a special programme in which Michael Rosen and guests Marina Warner and Barry Smith discuss the state of language and public debate.

With the rise of the internet there is more political discussion than ever. Yet this torrent of words seems to carry less understanding than ever. This has been attributed to many causes. Some say it is the anonymous nature of internet discussions, or the increasing disparity between rich and poor, or even the efficacy with which media (and propaganda) organisations can affect public opinion. But possibly the problem lies in language itself. Traditionally, political language has been a shared endeavour through which we express our differences. Perhaps now even the language itself has become partisan - words carry profoundly different meanings for different people and the shared understand that public debate relies on is much reduced. Two people can share a word - say government or sovereignty - but if the frame of reference for what that word means has become radically different it's hard to find the common ground on which meaningful debate can happen. So Michael Rosen and his guests are looking at the state of current political and public debate, delving into the philosophy of language and seeing how words get their meaning in the minds of their users. Perhaps, on top of all our other attendant crises, we can claim to be living through a crisis of language.

Producers James Cook and Beth O'Dea.

News 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 reading and a reflection to start the day, with Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

David Attenborough presents the story of the Great Tit. That metallic 'tea-cher, tea-cher' song of the great tit is instantly recognisable and you can hear it on mild days from mid-December onwards. It's the origin of the old country name, 'Saw-Sharpener'.

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

Jonathan Freedland compares safety on the railways in the 1830s to the debate around driverless cars today.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened to great fanfare on 15 September 1830. It was clear this new form of transport would radically transform society. Yet the day was overshadowed by the death of William Huskisson MP who stepped on the tracks and was struck by Stephenson's Rocket as it steamed down the line.

With the the first death to result from driverless vehicles in Arizona a few weeks ago, Jonathan Freedland and guests tell the story of Huskisson's death and explore the implications for the development of self-driving vehicles today.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.

Telling the stories of non-native invasive species and our complicated attitudes to them and with an uncertain political future how do we police our ecological borders? In the 10 years since the harlequin ladybird first hopped across the English Channel it's spread has been scrutinised by an army of scientists and amateur naturalists. It's rapid colonisation has given it the unfortunate title of the worlds fastest invader. Derek Mooney talks to ladybird expert Dr. Helen Roy to find out how this little beetle came to be a great invader.

John Osborne denies that Look Back in Anger is at least in part autobiographical, despite significant resemblances to his early relationship with Pamela Lane.

A completely fresh insight into the mind of one of the UK's greatest playwrights, the letters between John Osborne and his first wife, actress Pamela Lane, are also a love letter to a now defunct system of repertory theatre and life in post-war Britain.

As these letters reveal, soon after their divorce, Osborne and Lane began a mutually supportive, loyal, frequently stormy and sometimes sexually intimate alliance lasting thirty years until Osborne's death. By the mid- 1980s, they had become closer and more trusting than they had been since their earliest years together.

"You are for me what you always were," Pamela told him, "I am in love with you still."

It is, he declared, "my fortune to have loved someone for a lifetime."

Acerbic, witty, candid and heartbreaking, the letters reveal a unique relationship - troubled, tender and enduring.

The author, Peter Whitebrook, was born in London and has written and broadcast extensively on the theatre and literature. His co-adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won a Fringe First Award. His biography of John Osborne was nominated for both the Sheridan Morley Prize for biography and the Theatre Book Prize.

Read by Simon Shepherd and Amanda Root
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

With the police investigation underway, Charlie gets a lawyer and waits to hear if he will be charged. Stephanie hides her secret from her family and tries to get on with university.

This is a fiction inspired by far too many real events. Many students in the UK today will be impacted during their time at university by a sexual assault case, as complainant, witness, supporter - or the accused.

Stephanie is a fresher at a party when she encounters Charlie and, in a few short minutes, their lives are changed forever. The subjectivity and so-called "grey areas" in the ensuing legal case are explored through the use of rolling monologues, as the narrative passes between the two young people at the centre of the accusation and on to those who surround and support them.

The author Eileen Horne has written numerous adaptations and original dramas for Radio 4, including her detective memoir The Lost Sister and, with Andrew Davies, The Mysterious Death of Jane Austen. She Said/He Said follows months of interviews with people on all sides of this painful subject.

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

BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explores the latest research into how our second genome, the vast and diverse array of microbes that live on and in our bodies, is driving our metabolism and our health and how we can change it for the better.

In this second episode he explores how researchers are uncovering a vital relationship between the healthy bugs we accumulate in our gut and our immune system . We have over the past 50 years done a terrific job of eliminating infectious disease. But in we've also done the same to many good bacteria and as a result we're seeing an enormous and terrifying increase in autoimmune disease and in allergy. Could correcting our encounters with bugs at birth, and in the first few month of life set us on a path of good health? And in if in later life the delicate balance between our body and bugs gets skewed, leading to inflammatory diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome or frailty in old age, how can this be rectified?

Growing up in upstate New York, it wasn't a surprise that Claron McFadden wanted to be a singer - she was immersed in gospel music at church, soul and pop at home. That she aspired to be a classical soprano was, as she describes it, no choice at all. Her voice led her there.

Having lived in Amsterdam for over thirty years - a place she instantly recognised as home - she now inhabits a space somewhere between America and Europe, just as her voice is at home in music across stylistic boundaries and eras.

With hard-edged modern music by Brian Ferneyhough, an elegant aria by Rameau, Gershwin's Summertime, a jazz arrangement of Bach and even a visceral performance of Erwin Schulhoff's Sonata Erotica, Claron talks with Alan Hall about the life she's shared with her voice.

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

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1918, Ambassador Lichnowsky accused German secret agents of working against him in his efforts to avert the war, and in Folkestone, Edie and Marion's undercover work pays off.

Written by Lucy Catherine
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Consumer phone-in.

The latest weather forecast.

Analysis of news and current affairs.

He was the man with the pleasure dome, according to Coleridge, but in reality Kublai Khan didn't have so much time for pleasure. He was too busy running one of the most complex and cosmopolitan empires on earth. Kublai was ruler of the medieval Mongol empire, which became an example of how Chinese culture could be absorbed by a very different people. Kublai was a conqueror, who destroyed the previous Chinese dynasty, the Song. Yet he also ran China on highly ecumenical lines, appointing Muslims as provincial governors, while his subjects continued to practice Buddhism and Daoism. Not everyone loved him; an alienated elite excluded from government turned their hand to drama, producing a great era of Chinese playwriting - much of it aimed at the Mongol rulers. Kublai was a paradox: a great Chinese leader who wasn't actually Chinese.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

In 2016 writer Emily Steel had a termination after her baby was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. 19 Weeks tells her story with brutal honesty.

Emily used to think that people that had 'late' abortions weren't very smart or responsible. A late termination wasn't really ok. Yet here she is, being ushered through protesters, putting on a hospital gown, having an IV drip inserted. Emily is 19 weeks pregnant. The two-day abortion procedure is about to start, but the anaesthetic doesn't seem to be working .....

According to recent statistics 1 in 3 women in the UK have had an abortion and 95% of those say they don't regret it. Yet the subject remains taboo. 19 Weeks is a raw account of the emotional, physical and philosophical battles Emily encountered throughout her late pregnancy termination.

Eve Myles stars as Emily in this true and visceral story.

Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production.

Colombia is second only to Brazil in the extent of its rich biodiversity but armed conflict over a half century has limited exploration and charting of much of its land. Those researchers who braved it risked kidnap, injury or death. But in 2016 President Santos signed a peace treaty with the FARC guerrilla fighters which has opened the door for collaborations and exploration of previously occupied areas home to potentially thousands of new species of flora and fauna.

Costing the Earth follows teams from Kew Gardens, led by Colombian Mauricio Diazgranados, as they travel into uncharted territories and reveal what they see.

Presented by Tom Heap
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock
BBC Audio and Music Production Bristol.

How do fonts change the meaning of a message? What was Comic Sans invented for? Why was Obama's first election campaign so typographically bold? And which font would make you buy one chocolate bar over another?

Michael Rosen is joined by graphic designer, author and the font of all knowledge when it comes to fonts, Sarah Hyndman, to discuss the psychology of typefaces.

Sarah is the author of 3 books, including 'Why Fonts Matter' and 'How to Draw Type and Influence people'. She is also the founder of the Type Tasting studio, which aims to change the way we think and talk about typography through interactive and sensory experiences.

Producer Rebecca Ripley.

Miles Davis - trumpeter, composer, bandleader - is championed by Adrian Utley of Portishead.

"He's always been really important in my life, right from early on when my dad used to play him. It was part of the atmosphere of our house."

From the early years with Charlie Parker and on via Kind of Blue to playing in front of 600,000 hippies on the Isle of Wight, Miles Davis was a musician who never stood still. "Always listen for what you can leave out," he used to say, and Portishead's seminal nineties album Dummy seems to have taken advice from the man. According to Adrian Utley, "The darkness and the sense of space is the thing that I have assimilated from Miles ... he's in my DNA."

With Richard Williams, author of The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music,.

Presented by a sceptical Matthew Parris, and produced by an enthusiastic Miles Warde.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Second series of the award-nominated comedy drama set in Alcoholics Anonymous, written by Pete Jackson and inspired by his own road to recovery. Stars Sue Johnston, John Hannah, Eddie Marsan, Rebecca Front, Paul Kaye and Julia Deakin.

Love in Recovery follows the lives of five very different recovering alcoholics. Taking place entirely at their weekly meetings, we hear them moan, argue, laugh, fall apart, fall in love and - most importantly - tell their stories.

In this fifth episode, Simon's son Joe (Alex Lawther) is grounded, so Simon (John Hannah) has dragged him along to the meeting. He's in trouble, he's worried, he's out of his depth. And that's just Simon. Will Julie (Sue Johnston) have the answers he's looking for?

Writer Pete Jackson is a recovering alcoholic and has spent time in Alcoholics Anonymous. It was there he found support from the unlikeliest group of disparate souls - with one common bond. As well as offering the support he needed throughout a difficult time, AA also offered a weekly, sometimes daily, dose of hilarity, upset, heartbreak and friendship.

There are lots of different kinds of AA meetings. Love in Recovery is about meetings where people tell their stories. There are funny stories, sad stories, stories of small victories and milestones, stories of loss, stories of hope, and those stories that you really shouldn't laugh at - but still do, along with the storyteller.

Written and created by Pete Jackson
Producer/Director: Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.

Brian hatches a plan, and Jazzer finds a captive audience.

Arts news, interviews and reviews.

Who are the Russians who live in the UK? The community is under the spotlight as never before since the attempt on the life of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March . Caught between fascination and horror, the press heaves with cliches about Russian oligarchs, spies and dissidents living - and spending - in the fancier parts of London. Russians in London: A Handbook looks at how the present wave of Russians took root in London in the 1990s, encouraged by successive British governments. Former Moscow Correspondent Lucy Ash goes beyond the bling to find a complex community of many interlocking circles - artists and writers as well as tycoons and shoppers; parents as well as Godfathers. She explores how these communities have evolved over a generation and they have changed and continue to change the city they call home.
Producer: Monica Whitlock.

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

Comedian and presenter Aatif Nawaz considers why the old fashioned clockface continues to survive in the modern-day.

It's over 300 years old, it's hard to learn and doesn't give as accurate a reading as its, cheap modern digital counterpart, yet there's no sign of the analogue dial - hands, face and all - losing popularity.

Or is there?

Aatif Nawaz doesn't wear a watch on stage or off. For a comic to look at his or her watch mid-set is a mistake, as Aatif finds out talking to fellow comedians. Many younger people just use their smartphone.

Aatif visits the keepers of Edinburgh's famous floral clock, more novelty than useful timepiece. And he meets primary school pupils grappling with the big hand and the little hand. Their teacher says they start school with a knowledge of digital time telling but must learn the less intuitive analogue system.

Dr David Rooney, Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, provides a history of the portable timepiece. We learn from him and watch journalist Suzanne Wong of high-end watch magazine Revolution that the first wristwatches were for women. Men regarded wrist wear as effeminate. It was only with the advent of World War 1, that the wristwatch's practicality made it male friendly.

Professor Joe Smith, social scientist at the Open University, sings the aesthetic praises of the old face - confessing, as a family member of the venerable clockmaker Smith of Derby, a special interest. Dr Smith says the public clock is and always was an expression of social and aesthetic values nationally and internationally.

Aatif, his wrist still naked, agrees, citing Mecca, not London as the home to the world's biggest clockface.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

New novel by Nikesh Shukla, the Editor of The Good Immigrant anthology of essays and author of the novels Meatspace and Coconut Unlimited.

The One Who Wrote Destiny tells the story of three generations of the same family, riven by feuds and falling-outs, united by fates and fortunes. Mukesh moves from Kenya to the drizzly northern town of Keighley in 1966. Decades later, his daughter Neha is dying from lung cancer, a genetic gift from her mother and an invocation to forge a better relationship with her brother and her widowed father before it's too late. Neha's brother Rakesh is a comedian but his career is flat-lining and he's grieving his mother and sister. Ba has never looked after her two young grandchildren before. After the death of her daughter, they come to stay with her and she has to work out how to bond with two children who are used England, not to the rhythms of Kenya...

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

Award-winning writer and poet Richard Marsh stars alongside Russell Tovey and Phil Daniels in this heart-warming sitcom set in a greetings card company.

This week, Will's asked to help someone find the words to break some difficult news. As a man who struggles to express his own feelings, what chance does he have of putting the right words in someone else's mouth?

Richard Marsh is the writer and star of Love and Sweets, a Radio 4 comedy series that won Best Comedy in the BBC Audio Drama awards 2014. Now, in Cardboard Heart, he plays Will, a hapless romantic who's keen to find love and an aspiring writer with a 9 to 5 job writing poetry at a greetings card company.

Will shares an office with Goadsby (Rebecca Scroggs), who's responsible for the card artwork and being Will's nemesis, Colin (Sam Troughton), the firm's safety and survival-obsessed accountant, and charming renegade salesman Beast (Russell Tovey). Phil Daniels plays Rog, their roguish boss.

Paid to express heartfelt emotions for people he will never meet, Will consistently fails to express himself properly to anyone he does meet. Every social interaction is a minefield for Will. In his head, he knows exactly what to say but the minute he opens his mouth, it's a disaster. Luckily for you, Will shares his inner thoughts with the audience.

Written and created by Richard Marsh
Directed by Pia Furtado
Produced by Ben Worsfield
A Lucky Giant production for BBC Radio 4.

News from Westminster.

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The latest shipping forecast.

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A reading and a reflection to start the day, with Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs.

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Bill Oddie presents the blackbird. Blackbirds are thrushes and the brown female often has a few speckles on her throat to prove it. Velvety, black and shiny, the males sport an eye-ring as yellow as a spring daffodil and a bill glowing like a buttercup. Happily blackbirds aren't doing too badly. There's so many of them that their territories often overlap so that where one song leaves off, another song begins.

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

Claude Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun speaks to artists of different kinds. Jamaican poet Ishion Hutchinson recalls hearing it through an open window in Kingston Jamaica and being mesmerised by its beauty, but not knowing what it was, setting off on a quest to find out and to write a poem that captured his feelings about the piece. Babak Kazemi was training to be a doctor in his home city of Tehran when he heard it for the first time. The piece changed his life and led him to abandon his medical studies in Iran to move to the UK to become a professional conductor and composer. Artist Fiona Robinson specialises in interpreting Debussy's works on paper. She explains how she has been moved to visualise the Prelude, while Debussy's biographer Paul Roberts credits it with having changed classical music forever.
Katya Jezzard-Puyraud recalls how the music lifted her out of a difficult time after the birth of her first son and how she uses it now to help people with anxiety and stress to relax.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Tiffany travels to Rome to The Vatican's Secret Archive to discover how open they are at allowing access to a vast historical archive connected to the Catholic Church and Tiffany explores the importance of secrecy in creating a space and a connection to the divine. She explores whether accepting secrecy and mystery leads to wisdom as knowing what you don't know is wisdom itself.

Produced by Kate Bissell.

After separating from John Osborne, Pamela Lane experiences financial difficulties, brought on partly by a sudden lack of acting parts. But Osborne comes to the rescue.

A completely fresh insight into the mind of one of the UK's greatest playwrights, the letters between John Osborne and his first wife, actress Pamela Lane, are also a love letter to a now defunct system of repertory theatre and life in post-war Britain.

As these letters reveal, soon after their divorce, Osborne and Lane began a mutually supportive, loyal, frequently stormy and sometimes sexually intimate alliance lasting thirty years until Osborne's death. By the mid- 1980s, they had become closer and more trusting than they had been since their earliest years together.

"You are for me what you always were," Pamela told him, "I am in love with you still."

It is, he declared, "my fortune to have loved someone for a lifetime."

Acerbic, witty, candid and heartbreaking, the letters reveal a unique relationship - troubled, tender and enduring.

The author, Peter Whitebrook, was born in London and has written and broadcast extensively on the theatre and literature. His co-adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath won a Fringe First Award. His biography of John Osborne was nominated for both the Sheridan Morley Prize for biography and the Theatre Book Prize.

Read by Simon Shepherd and Amanda Root
Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

Charlie's mum and girlfriend grapple with the fallout from the rape charge while he grows fearful in the face of the evidence. Stephanie considers dropping the case.

This is a fiction inspired by far too many real events. Many students in the UK today will be impacted during their time at university by a sexual assault case, as complainant, witness, supporter - or the accused.

Stephanie is a fresher at a party when she encounters Charlie and, in a few short minutes, their lives are changed forever. The subjectivity and so-called "grey areas" in the ensuing legal case are explored through the use of rolling monologues, as the narrative passes between the two young people at the centre of the accusation and on to those who surround and support them.

The author Eileen Horne has written numerous adaptations and original dramas for Radio 4, including her detective memoir The Lost Sister and, with Andrew Davies, The Mysterious Death of Jane Austen. She Said/He Said follows months of interviews with people on all sides of this painful subject.

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

Friends share the sectarian code of names that is understood in Northern Ireland. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

Helen Keen is joined by Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane for a comic account of the big problems that have beset humanity over the centuries, and the surprising ways we have devised to solve them. This episode looks at the challenges posed by other people. What are the unspoken rules that make society work? How can we make the internet polite? How did air-conditioners win an election? And are emoticons completely pointless (sad face)? Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill. Produced by Gareth Edwards.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

On this day in 1918, the Ministry of National Service announced that they would conscript a further 50,000 coal miners, and in Folkestone, Adam Wilson needs to get away.

Written by Lucy Catherine
Story-led by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

Consumer affairs programme.

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Analysis of news and current affairs.

If there were a competition for most famous Chinese in history, Confucius (551-479 BCE) would surely come out on top. He was the philosopher and ethicist who has given China a significant part of its cultural DNA. Confucius lived during a period of immense political turmoil, and turned his mind to thinking about how the country could be made calmer and more prosperous. Instead of advocating force, Confucius stressed the importance of rituals and ethical behaviour. It was important to behave in an ordered way; subjects should obey rulers, wives their husbands, children their parents. In his own time, Confucius didn't have much luck in propagating his thought in his lifetime. But over the next few centuries, respect for his work grew. For two thousand years, Confucian thought would dominate Chinese statecraft. Even today, with the Communist Party in charge, there are frequent references in contemporary China to Confucian ideas such as harmony.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

In May 1980, 22 year-old Jessie Earl disappeared. Her flat was left as if she'd just popped out for a moment. She became a 'missing person' until 9 years later when her body was discovered hidden in dense undergrowth on Beachy Head. This is the story of those nine years of searching by her parents, Valerie and John; the nine years of waiting for Jessie to be found so her spirit could rest. By Pat Davis.

Original Music by David Chilton
Produced and directed by Toby Swift

Recorded in 2001, 'Someone, Somewhere' mixes Jessie's evocative diaries, interviews with John and Valerie Earl and poetic monologues based on Jessie's other writings to create a moving portrait of the experience of loss and survival. United by integrity and courage, John and Valerie show how they transcended the tragedy of losing their only daughter, of learning to cope with the loss of all the possibilities that the future would have held for her. The production won the Sony Silver Award for 'Best Feature'.

Financial phone-in.

Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.

Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

Broadcaster and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli sets out to find the next generation of white, black, Asian and minority ethnic satirical sketch writers, with a keen eye on finding the funny in a multicultural Britain.