The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.
RADIO-LISTS: BBC RADIO 4
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC Radio 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Radio 4 presents 'The Freedom Papers' in collaboration with Edinburgh International Book Festival. It's a pivotal point in our modern history in terms of political uncertainty and challenges to social justice. This motivated Edinburgh's International Book Festival to commission 51 writers to explore ideas related to freedom. In a one-off Book of the Week, we showcase ten very different perspectives on freedom from some of the world's most exciting literary voices, including Sandip Roy, Nicola Davies, Rory Maclean, Kapka Kassabova and Gavin Francis.
Producer: Victoria McArthur
Authors: Nicola Davies and Karen Lord.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Reflection and prayer with Father Jamie McMorrin, Assistant Priest at St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Our iPM listener Noushad watched as India's heaviest monsoon rains in a century destroyed the place he had called home for 30 years. But concern turned to anguish when he lost contact with his wife who had been visiting family in Kerala. Here he tells us how he watched and waited.
Also this week our Your News bulletin and suggestions from two iPM listeners about where we should choose to do an outside broadcast from, in our highly competitive non-competition.
Let us know your story on iPM@bbc.co.uk
Presented by Luke Jones and Sarah Smith. Produced by Cat Farnsworth.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Stretched along the northern side of the Severn Estuary, the historic and naturally rich landscape of the Gwent Levels represents the largest and most significant example in Wales of a 'hand-crafted' landscape. They are entirely the work of man, having been recurrently inundated and reclaimed from the sea from the Roman period onwards.
This stunning patchwork of natural habitats has become nationally renowned for the diverse wildlife which has made its home amongst the alluvial wetlands and intertidal mudflats. It is also home to the Lave-Net Fishermen at Blackrock, a group who have fished along the estuary for centuries.
But having been carved out by the hand of man the levels are now facing re-invention once again as plans to extend the M4 through part of the landscape are currently being debated through a local public enquiry.
Helen Mark journeys through this ever shifting area to hear the stories from those who live and work there and asks what these potential changes could mean for them.
British farmers face a constant battle against pests - here there are seventy thousand different species that attack agricultural crops - worldwide many more. The University of Reading is carrying out research into controlling insect pests on farms with predators such as black wasps, Sybil hears how these methods can help boost crop production and reduce the use of chemicals. There are also reports on culling pigeons and rabbits using guns, dogs and ferrets.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe
Produced by Alun Beach.
The latest weather forecast.
News and current affairs including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Singer songwriter Jim Kerr of Simple Minds talks about his love of walking in deserts and mountains, sustaining friendships over decades and his pop career.
Atoosa Sepehr shares recipes from her cook book Persian Kitchen - authentic recipes and fabulous flavours from Iran - and talks about growing up in Iran & Italy.
Nigerian crime fiction writer Leye Adenle reveals how "sunshine noir" authors are fighting back against the dominance of Nordic Noir.
Gold medal-winning wheelchair dance duo Paula Moulton & Gary Lyness discuss their partnership representing Britain in international competition and how they're encouraging others to take up the activity for prestige and pleasure.
We check in with a chilli-eating contest. And TV presenter & musician Loyd Grossman shares his Inheritance Tracks - Ragtime Cowboy Joe & You Really Got Me by The Kinks.
Presenters: Aasmah Mir & Suzy Klein
Producer: Paul Waters.
The rise of social media and smartphones has given the audience for artistic events - whether on TV, in the theatre or in cinemas - the chance to react more quickly and with more impact than ever before. In the final part of the series, Mark Lawson considers how this newfound power is affecting the way stories are being told across the arts. He hears about the frustration felt by producers, writers and directors when a small proportion of negative tweets are used as the basis for front-page news stories, but also speaks with some writers who are keen to use social media to engage in more direct and productive ways than previously possible with their audience, even those whose reactions are initially negative. Mark considers the similarities between the newly empowered audience making itself heard within the arts with those in the worlds of sport and politics. He hears how some platforms are already allowing the audience to play a direct role in the way narratives progress, and finally turns his thoughts to the future, and how new advances - some of which we have only just begun to consider - might change the way we view and take part in stories as technology's development continues to accelerate.
The ancient Inca town Machu Picchu is now the most visited tourist attraction in Peru - and yet it lay nearly forgotten for over three centuries until American and Peruvian explorers drew the world's attention to it in the 1910s. And despite a century of excavations at the site, there are still many unanswered questions about Machu Picchu: why was it built in the first place, who were the immigrants that made up a large proportion of the town's population, and why was it abandoned so quickly.
To find out more about Machu Picchu, Bridget Kendall is joined by leading archaeologists of the Inca civilisation Lucy Salazar and Michael Malpass, the celebrated mountaineer and explorer Johan Reinhard and by writer Mark Adams who retraced the steps of the 1911 expedition led by Hiram Bingham that put Machu Picchu back on the map.
Photo: Machu Picchu, Peru. (Eitan Abramovich/Getty Images).
The Rohingya village elder reduced to rags and the flash youngster who's become kingpin. Kate Adie introduces stories, insight and analysis from correspondents around the world:
Helen Nianias meets two men trying to bring peace to the chaos of Bangladesh's refugee camps which are home to almost a million Rohingya people many of whom fled a violent crackdown by the Burmese military in neighbouring Myanmar.
Guy De Launey reflects on a tale of identity that's veered from absurd comedy to physical violence as Macedonians prepare to vote on plans to rename their country North Macedonia.
Martin Plaut was one of the thousand or so students who staged a 'sit-in' at the University of Cape Town, angry at its decision to withdraw the appointment of a black lecturer. Fifty years on he's reunited with some of his fellow protestors.
Mark Stratton learns about the scarification ceremonies in Papua New Guinea in which boys have their torsos, backs, and shoulders cut with razor blades so their skin will resemble a crocodile's - a mark of their progression to manhood.
And Jenny Hill meets a man who's been trying for decades to rekindle Britain's taste for Hock - the German wine favoured by Queen Victoria.
Producer: Joe Kent.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Why we have interest rates, how we misunderstand them - and a curious coffin connection.
Economics with Subtitles is your everyday guide to economics and why you should care. In this edition, Ayeisha and Steve make sense of interest rates. Why did they lead to coffins full of car getting sent to the US Federal Reserve? What factors affect what you have to pay on your loans? And what do your film choices say about why you decide to borrow?
Producers: Simon Maybin & Phoebe Keane
Presenters: Ayeisha Thomas-Smith & Steve Bugeja.
The Now Show team returns to Edinburgh with another helping of satirical silliness from the world's biggest arts festival.
Joining Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis for this Edinburgh special are; NCA winner Stephen Buchanan and Edinburgh newcomer nominee Sarah Keyworth, Paul Mayhew-Archer, Luke Kempner and Karen Bartke
Producer...Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, London with a panel including the Chair of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady MP, the Labour MP Rosie Duffield, the commentator and charity campaigner Esther Rantzen and the Scottish National Party MP Tommy Sheppard.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
Published in two volumes in the early 17th Century, Cervantes' Spanish classic Don Quixote is famous as the world's first modern novel; a ground-breaking piece of art that influenced countless generations of writers and at 800 plus pages of dense prose, one of the most unreadable novels ever.
Writer David Reed has read it so that you don't have to and condensed this mighty tome into an hour's rip-roaring entertainment. A meditation on the age of chivalry, insanity and truth. A quest of windmills, magic and donkeys. Join peasant Sancho and the man who thinks he's a Knight as they travel together locked together in a quest to save those who don't want saving and unravel enchantments which may or may not only exist in their minds.
Starring Sylvester McCoy and Amanda Abbington; The Penny Dreadfuls Present: Don Quixote.
Written by David Reed.
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios production.
You are a rhythmic being. Inside each and everyone one of us exists a polyrhythmic symphony that lasts a lifetime. The virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie searches for musical inspiration from the body's internal rhythms with the help of a team of leading scientists and doctors.
The brain is a massively rhythmical structure, with diverse groups of neurons firing in time producing vastly increased processing power. We hear the legendary experimental composer Alvin Lucier's groundbreaking work in which he used his own brainwaves to play a selection of drums, we also hear a piano composition in which the notes are triggered by the firing of neurons.
The programme also includes Kate Elswit, a scholar and artist who has spent years developing dance pieces that fuse choreography with scientific data drawn from the lungs in order to explore the rhythms of breathing.
Of all the body's internal rhythms, the heart is the most iconic. Evelyn meets heart surgeon Francis Wells who invites her into his operating theatre. Peering into the chest cavity during an operation and seeing the heart beating in front of her, Evelyn is amazed at the beauty of this internal metronome.
Finally, Evelyn heads to the lab to examine the complex circadian rhythms which see countless pacemaker cells ticking away in response to the steady oscillation of the light/dark cycle as we move back and forth between day and night.
In conclusion, Evelyn argues that by listening to our biological rhythms and appreciating the fact that we are all part of a vast symphony of life, we can draw fresh creative inspiration from our bodies and connect with each other in a more profound and meaningful way.
Presenter: Evelyn Glennie
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4.
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week. Presented by Jenni Murray.
Producer: Sophie Powling
Editor: Jane Thurlow.
Coverage and analysis 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, Sara Cox, Arthur Smith and Nikki Bedi get out and about beyond the festivals in Edinburgh...
Producer: The Loose Ends Team.
Maggie O'Carroll calls for action to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs. She contrasts the "palpable positive culture towards entrepreneurship and for female entrepreneurs" of the US with a lack of organised support in the UK. Recalling her mother's success as a farmer in the West of Ireland, she feels sure there were other powerful women behind the scenes. "We need these invisible entrepreneurs to step out into the spotlight and become the role models and the inspiration for others to join them."
Recorded at Leaf in Liverpool.
Presenter: Olly Mann
Producer: Sheila Cook.
A revival of Michael Frayn's multi award-winning 1998 play Copenhagen at The Chichester Minerva Theatre. 20 years on from the original production how does it stand up and what does it say to the new audiences?
Ian McEwan's novel The Children Act has been adapted for the big screen by Richard Eyre, starring Emma Thompson, Fion Whitehead and Stanley Tucci
All Among The Barley is Melissa Harrison's new novel. The Costa and Bailey's nominee explores the rhythms of rural life between The Wars and how it affects the locals in a village in Suffolk
Two new series are starting on TV exploring similar territory: Extraordinary Rituals on the BBC and Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage on Channel 4.
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Shahidha Bari, Kate Maltby and Rajan Datar. The producer is Oliver Jones.
Emmett Till, 14 & black, was put on the train from Chicago by his mother Mamie in August 1955. She got him back in a pine box. His corpse mutilated & stinking. He had been beaten, shot and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for supposedly whistling at a white woman. His killers would forever escape justice.
What Mamie did next helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement & make Emmett the sacrificial lamb of the movement. From the very first Till's death was both a call to political action & the subject of songs, poetry & prose. Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell & many more have been drawn to tell his tale-his is the never ending ballad of a black life that mattered.
His disfigured image was seared into the memories of generations of Black Americans by a legendary photograph in Jet magazine-that image still resonates. And now Till has returned to haunt America. First taken up by the mothers and fathers of the slain in the Black Lives Matter movement, the subject of new documentaries, a trio of forthcoming Hollywood films & crucially a cold case recently reopened by the FBI as the search for justice continues. His coffin is enshrined at the heart of the nation in Washington's new museum of African American history-a secular shrine and symbol of the enduring pain of American racism.
Maria Margaronis travels through landscape & memory across Mississippi & Chicago, listening to historians, poets, writers & Till family members as she grapples with the many layers of meaning & the many, many ways Emmett's story has been told & retold. Both by Black & White Americans. These are the Ballads of Emmett Till.
Producer Mark Burman.
Lee Ross, Indira Varma, Fay Castelow and Justin Salinger star in this story by Jonathan Ruffle.
When Mickey Bliss is summoned to advise on signals at the Bureau Centrale Interallie in Paris he comes across both an impressive young woman and a disturbing figure from his past.
Meticulously based on war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war exactly 100 years ago.
Through this series of TOMMIES we follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers. They are cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of war, over 4 long years.
With Ewan Bailey, Nick Underwood and Maksim Mijovic.
Series created by Jonathan Ruffle
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: David Hunter.
Psychotherapist Susie Orbach explores the private relationship between therapist and patient. We join Susie in her consulting room, where she meets a different client each day.
Today, Susie meets with out of work actress Jo, who is struggling to cope.
All of the clients are played by actors, but these are not scripted scenes. Each client profile has been carefully constructed by therapist Susie, director Ian Rickson (former artistic director at the Royal Court, and director of the highly acclaimed Jerusalem) and radio producer Kevin Dawson. The client profiles have been given to the actors who have learned about the characters' lives, backgrounds, and reasons for seeking therapy. The scenes have then been improvised and recorded on concealed microphones at Susie's surgery.
Throughout the encounters in this series, we get to hear the therapist at work, experiencing what it's like to eavesdrop on the most intimate of exchanges.
To help us with our understanding of the process, Susie Orbach commentates on what is happening in the room, giving us an insight into her role as a therapist and shining a light on the journey both she and her patient have embarked upon.
Psychotherapist: Susie Orbach
Jo: Sinead Matthews
Producer: Kevin Dawson
Director: Ian Rickson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Anne McElvoy returns with the series that asks figures from opposing sides of a political issue to listen to each other, and explore the roots of each other's beliefs, with the help of conflict resolution specialist Gabrielle Rifkind.
In this edition, Anne brings together Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Editor-in-Chief of The Canary, and Juliet Samuel, columnist for the Daily Telegraph, to discuss the question: 'Is Tax a Burden?'
Producer: Phil Tinline.
(3/13)
Who wrote the classic tune Lullaby of Birdland? Which composer wrote the score for the recent film McQueen, about the life of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen? And how many of Shakin' Stevens' British number ones could you name?
Paul Gambaccini is in Salford for the third heat of the 2018 tournament. The whole of the classical repertoire, film music, jazz,, musical theatre and 60 years of the pop charts are all represented in the questions facing today's competitors. As always, they'll face general knowledge questions on all aspects of music, before getting a chance to answer specialist questions of their own choice.
Taking part today are:
Julie Cowburn, an administrator from Hyde in Cheshire
Charles Dusting, a retired accountant from Worcester
Rachael Neiman, a record label owner from Manchester.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Bristol's first poet laureate, Miles Chambers, joins Roger McGough with a selection of his favourite poems from the Poetry Please archive of listeners' requests. His choices include requests for Benjamin Zephaniah, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Azfa Awad and Robert Burns.
Miles Chambers is a performance poet, slam champion and playwright, who was appointed Bristol's first City Poet in 2016.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
An original short story for BBC Radio 4 from the Northern Irish writer Rosemary Jenkinson. As read by Julie Maxwell (BBC 'Soft Border Patrol').
Rosemary Jenkinson is a playwright and short story writer from Belfast. Winner of The Sunday Tribune's Hennessy Award for New Irish Writing, she has published several short story collections including 'Contemporary Problems Nos. 53 & 54', ' Aphrodite's Kiss' and 'Catholic Boy'. Her work for radio includes 'Castlereagh to Kandahar' (BBC Radio 3) and 'The Blackthorn Tree' (BBC Radio 4).
Writer ..... Rosemary Jenkinson
Reader ..... Julie Maxwell
Producer ..... Michael Shannon.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Edward's Church in Eggbuckland in Devon, which has more bell towers than any other county. St Edward's church has six bells, all cast in 1882. We hear a typical call change band, raising the bells prior to ringing these traditional Devon call changes.
World-renowned doctor, Waney Squier, tells Dominic Lawson the price she paid for changing her mind about shaken-baby syndrome. Having supported the existence of the syndrome and testified that people - often parents - were the ones inflicting death and serious injury on children this way, she changed her mind.
Waney Squier was one of the foremost medical experts on the developing brain of infants and babies before their birth. She appeared many times as an expert witness for the prosecution in cases of shaken-baby syndrome. But she changed her mind and decided the evidence now suggests this syndrome does not exist, casting doubt on any explanations for a baby's demise that rest on this theory. Her change of mind was followed by a complaint from the police that led to her being struck off the medical register. Here she tells her story, and how her change of mind led to professional disaster and personal heartache.
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
The latest national and international news.
To mark this year's festival of Raksha Bandhan, Mark Tully discusses the significance of the rite in which sisters tie rakhi threads round their brothers' wrists for protection.
In conversation with Mahatma Gandhi's granddaughter, Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, who has made him her honorary rakhi brother, Mark contemplates the power of this symbolic binding. He also considers the strength of sibling bonds and wider ties of friendship between people of all faiths.
The readings include the work of Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Mary Lee McNeal, with music from Ravi Shankar and Phillip Glass, Gal Costa and Tuatha Dea.
The readers are Jasper Britton and Emma Cunniffe,
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4.
Ruth Sanderson helps move the cattle of Strangford Lough from island to island. A National Trust barge transports livestock around the lough, preserving wildlife through conservation grazing and enabling one of the lough's oldest traditions, island farming, to thrive. Ruth joins ranger Hugh Thurgate as he helps a farmer move his ten cows, bull and several calves off one island as the water supply has dried up.
Produced by Beatrice Fenton.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
Comedian Mark Thomas makes the Radio 4 Appeal for INQUEST Charitable Trust.
Registered Charity Number: 1046650
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 'INQUEST Charitable Trust'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'INQUEST Charitable Trust'.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
From the World Meeting of Families in Dublin which is being visited this week end by Pope Francis. In this Act of Worship, the Most Rev Dr Donal McKeown, the Bishop of Derry looks at the importance and role of the different families to which we belong. The service is led by Father Martin Magill.
Ephesians 5.25-31
John 6.60-69
Though we are many (Bernard Sexton)
O blessed are those who fear the Lord. (Inwood)
Set your hearts in the higher gifts (Warner)
O Joy for all the earth (Feely).
Tom Shakespeare is downsizing. But what to do with his books?
He points out that he has nothing like the magnitude of problem faced by the Argentine-Canadian author, Alberto Manguel, a few years ago when he downsized from his medieval presbytery in France to an apartment in New York and had to deal with 35,000 books! Or even the 3,000 books Penelope Lively wrote about recently.
But Tom ponders how few of his thousand or so books will be enough to live with.
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
Kate Bradbury loves the sparrows which come into her tiny garden in Hove near Brighton. As a wildlife gardener she is passionate about organic, wildlife-friendly gardening and has recently documented her love of creating a wildlife oasis in her latest book The Bumblebee Flies Anyway. But for this Tweet of the Day, Kate returns to those noisy chirruping sparrows which provide a calm in the urban jungle.
So we begin Kate's first week curating her favourite episodes from the Tweet of the Day back catalogue. You can hear all five programmes chosen this week, and some thoughts from Kate about her passion for wildlife and gardening in the Tweet of the Week omnibus edition, which is available via the Radio 4 Website.
Producer: Andrew Dawes.
Photograph: Sarah Cuttle.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Elizabeth needs help, and reality bites for Fallon.
Sue MacGregor and guests recall the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on London's Waterloo Bridge.
The assassination of a Bulgarian dissident in 1978 captured headlines around the world. As details of the unconventional murder weapon emerged, the incident soon became infamous as the "umbrella murder". It was one of the first in a series of poisonings in the West, attributed to the former Soviet Union.
During the 1960s, Georgi Markov was one of Bulgaria's best-known writers. But in 1969, as party censors clamped down on his work, he defected to the West and settled in London. He began working for the Bulgarian section of the BBC's External Services, but it was his reports for Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe, which depicted the reality of life inside communist Bulgaria, that incensed the regime and its leader.
On 7th September 1978, as Georgi Markov walked across Waterloo Bridge between shifts at the BBC, he felt a sudden pain in his right thigh which appeared to have been inflicted by the tip of a stranger's umbrella. That night he developed a fever and four days later he died of unexplained blood poisoning.
It soon emerged that a tiny metal pellet filled with the poison ricin had caused his death. Fingers were immediately pointed at the Bulgarian and Soviet secret services, although the assassin was never identified. Scotland Yard's investigation into his murder remains open.
Joining Sue to look back on this political murder are Peter Udell, Georgi Markov's manager at the BBC; Bernard Riley, the doctor who tried to save him; Rumiana Ebert, a friend and fellow Bulgarian émigré; Michael Cockerell, who investigated the case for Panorama; and Markov's brother Nikola, who received warnings that his brother was a target for the Bulgarian regime.
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The first of two special episodes recorded at this year's Edinburgh Festival featuring guests Paul Merton, Zoe Lyons, Gyles Brandreth and Janey Godley.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
Dan Saladino and food historian Polly Russell share stories of seeds as told at this year's Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. From the link between amaranth and cannibalism to edible acorns.
Founded in 1981 the Symposium takes a theme and invites scientists, anthropologists, historians, cooks and food enthusiasts to deliver papers and share experiences on the topic. This year they chose one of the biggest subjects possible, seeds.
Using the Oxford Botanic Garden's "Plants That Changed The World" display as their backdrop, Dan and Polly have selected six speakers to provide insight into the past, present and future of seeds, from politics to pleasure and from culture to cooking.
Professor Simon Hiscock, Director of The Oxford Botanic Garden, starts of by explaining what a seed is and when they first appeared in earth history. Over millions of years biodiversity has meant we've so far identified 400,000 different plants. Elinor Breman of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank explains why a team of seed hunters have been travelling to the most remote parts of the world in search of seeds. As Elinor explains, a fifth of these seeds are at risk of becoming extinct and need to be stored safely for the future.
All seeds have a story to tell and one of the most intriguing (and disturbing) is told by food historian David Sutton, "Amaranth: Food of the Gods, or Seed of the Devil?".
Meanwhile Steve Jones of the Washington Bread Lab describes his efforts to bring deliciousness back to wheat.
Produced by Dan Saladino.
Presented by Dan Saladino & Polly Russell.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis.
Tayo Popoola looks at the changing face of the Zimbabwean music scene since the fall of Robert Mugabe.
Zimbabwean musicians had been largely silenced by the reign of Mugabe. Internationally renowned performers like Thomas Mapfumo and Lovemore Najaivama were banned by state TV and radio for their socially minded lyrics and their opposition to Government corruption. Night curfews meant that many music venues were forced to close.
Now Mapfumo, known as "the lion of Zimbabwe", has announced his return from exile later this year, and musicians are feeling free to express themselves.
In Bulawayo, musical styles like Sungura and Jit, which placed Zimbabwe at the centre of the African music scene in the 1980s, are being revived. They are irrepressibly upbeat, encapsulate the joyous period immediately after independence, and are playing to new audiences.
Tayo Popoola assesses the mood of the Zimbabwean music scene as it emerges into the light.
Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Eric Robson and the panel are in Liverpool. Bunny Guinness, Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew answer this week's questions.
The panellists offer advice to a man with an 8ft cactus growing in his greenhouse, diagnose an ailing Cosmos crop and debate the best way to rid an allotment of ants.
Questioners also grill them on baking apple trees, mare's tail, therapeutic plants and how best to grow okra in the UK.
Matt Biggs visits Wanstead Flats in East London to meet garden designer Jonathan Snow and discuss the effects of fire on plants.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations remembering the pain and secrecy of illegitimacy and celebrating the possibility of choosing between having a baby or getting married 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.
Contemporary drama from Iran. A writer must cheat the censor to publish his love story.
In order for his book to receive a publishing permit, the writer must convince Mr Petrovich, the all-powerful censor at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, that it will not provoke sin in the mind of the reader.
His characters, Sara and Dara, meet at a riot and are obliged to hide their encounters from both their families and the regime's Campaign Against Social Corruption, the feared citizen-guardians of Islamic morality. Gender separation is rigorously enforced and illicit passion punished so the lovers exercise their creativity to meet in secret amid the bustling streets of Tehran, in an empty cinema and a hospital A&E unit. Discovery would mean imprisonment, or even death.
Yet writing freely of their encounters puts the writer in as much peril as his own fictional lovers in this Farsi "Fahrenheit 451".
Written by Shahriar Mandanipour
Dramatised by Hattie Naylor from the translation by Sara Khalili
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound Design by James Morgan and Steve Bond
Music by Gorkem Sen
Produced and Directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4.
Alex Clark talks to Richard Powers about The Overstory, a novel about the majesty and importance of trees. They're also joined by Melissa Harrison and Jessica J Lee to consider contemporary nature writing and the environmental concerns preoccupying novelists today.
And ecologist Liam Heneghan examines why children's writers have been so drawn to trees and forests.
In 1968, The Last Poets hit the streets of New York with their no-holds-barred commentary on American society, race and revolution. Using their "words as bullets", in the wake of the civil rights movement and in the midst of the black arts movement, they mixed sharp, spoken word with African drumming, redefining what poetry could be and ultimately inspiring the sound of hip hop.
Set against a soundtrack of their songs and poems, Last Poets Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan and drummer Baba Donn Babatunde talk about what inspired their sound and how they found an outlet for their ideas through words. Spoken word artist and rapper Saul Williams puts their work into context and we also hear from younger spoken word artists about how, in the context of turbulent American politics today, their words seem more relevant than ever. The programme is timely in the light of a new book by the writer Christine Otten about the lives of the Last Poets and their new album, Understand What Black Is.
Producer Jo Wheeler
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
With a quarter of its people trapped in poverty, and economic strength at the bottom of UK league tables, Wales seems further than ever from standing on its own feet financially. Add to that the apparent failure of a massive tidal lagoon project and cancellation of rail electrification to Swansea, and things seem bleak. But does it have to be like this?
Sarah Dickins challenges economists and business leaders to imagine a new Wales, one which pays its way and offers prosperity to its inhabitants. We meet the new wave of entrepreneurs growing high-tech businesses and look at whether natural resources such as tidal power, wind and water could bring the jobs and wealth once made possible by coal. Could thinking the unthinkable even give a glimpse of a Wales as an economic powerhouse for a post-Brexit UK?
Producer: Michael Surcombe for BBC Wales
(Photo credit: Anthony Dawton).
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
In Pick of the Week poet Kate Fox takes a trip down memory lane from one of the scariest films ever made, to the 1986 of the Challenger disaster and Halley's Comet. There's recollections of people and landscapes from a motorbiking trip from Orkney to New Zealand, and on the way we encounter human jellyfish, and learn the buzz you can get from beekeeping. And if you'll allow an extension of the simile, there's also a stroll up Liberty Street, past people who are getting their kit off with joy and abandon, and a hostile encounter with Noel Edmonds. Finally we saunter to storytelling island where young people have beat the odds in Newcastle, a father and son say goodbye via the medium of Test Match Special, and the World Service pays tribute to the former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.
Elizabeth attempts a brave face, and Clarrie offers some unwelcome advice.
Michael Frayn: the most comic philosophical writer of our time. An all-star cast has great fun with Frayn's hilarious view of us all. And of how we attempt to communicate.
In this opening episode, we hear Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam as stone effigies in a cathedral talking to each other like an old married couple. (Well, they've been together several hundred years. Nothing much changes.)
Then there's the younger couples - Charles Edwards and Sophie Winkleman bickering over who should finish who's sentences, and Lisa Dillon and Alex Jennings on the irritations that occur when discussing an apparently simple decision - whether or not to accept a kind invitation.
Martin Jarvis has trouble with a rarefied type of cold-calling - how to tell someone they've won a Nobel Prize. And we have an excerpt from a documentary on a species of creature that scurries and scuttles in the darkness. The wild life narrator sounds suspiciously like Sir David Attenborough. (It is.)
This four-part series is Theatre in miniature. Short entertainments based on Frayn's recently acclaimed book, Matchbox Theatre. His brand new collection, now on the radio - the theatre of the listener's imagination. Set design, ice-cream sales, packet of nuts, where to sit - it's up to you. Just sit back and enjoy.
Episode 1 cast: Charles Edwards, Sophie Winkleman, Joanna Lumley, Roger Allam, Lisa Dillon, Alex Jennings, David Attenborough, Martin Jarvis
Written by Michael Frayn
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
Eight new cases to challenge the detective wit of Annika Strandhed, queen of the Oslo Police boat patrol.
Since we last met her, Annika has been promoted to Chief Inspector. Her first act was - apart from choosing a new speedboat - to co-opt Mikel, her forensic photographer of choice, to accompany her. Her son Tor is about to start school.
Being Chief Inspector means a bigger case-load. What follows will test her physically and emotionally as never before.
Episode 2: Deep Sea Drilling
Annika is helicoptered in to sort out an unusual situation developing on an oil rig.
Nick Walker is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, Blackbox and Helloland. His plays and short stories have often featured on BBC Radio 4, including the First King of Mars stories (2007 - 2010) and the plays Life Coach (2010) and Stormchasers (2012). The previous series of Annika Stranded were broadcast in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Writer: Nick Walker
Reader: Nicola Walker
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
What would have been the most efficient way to get to Mordor? To answer this Tim Harford turns to information in the Lord of the Rings books and original documents at the Tolkien exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. He crunches the numbers with the help of Professor Graham Taylor of Oxford University, an expert in mathematical biology.
Could computers do a better job than humans of exposing fake news and holding politicians to account? Tim Harford interviews Mevan Babakar of the fact-checking organisation Fullfact about the software tools she and her team are building to try to automatically verify statistical claims.
The Child Poverty Action Group claims low-earning parents working full-time are unable to earn enough to provide their family with a basic, no-frills lifestyle. Tim Harford examines the numbers with the author of the group's report, Professor Donald Hirsch of the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University.
Presenter: Tim Harford.
Pictured: Kofi Annan
Julian Worricker on:
Diplomat Kofi Annan, who rose through the ranks of the United Nations, to serve as its secretary-general for nine years....
Janice Tchalenko, a ceramicist, designer and artist, who bridged the gap between art and large-scale production...
The botanist, Hugh Synge, voted one of the 20 most influential British conservationists....
One of the finest harp players of her generation - Helen MacLeod - a champion of the music of the West Highlands of Scotland...
And Hettie Williams, who at 23, led her class of terrified pupils to safety during the Aberfan disaster.
Archive clips from: Night Waves, Radio 3 10/10/2012; Surviving Aberfan, BBC Four 20/10/2016; Saturday Review, BBC TV 02/11/1985; See Hear, BBC TV 01/02/2012.
Young Taiwanese entrepreneurs working in a start-up hub are offered attractive sweeteners. But this isn't in California or even Taipei, it's on the outskirts of Shanghai. The People's Republic of China is setting its sights on Taiwan's youth by encouraging them to relocate to the 'mainland'. Wages in Taiwan have stagnated as its economic growth has failed to keep pace with that of China, prompting thousands of people to leave the island and head to the mega cities of the People's Republic for better jobs and access to greater opportunities.
In February the Chinese government unveiled a package of measures to attract Taiwanese young people and businesses to the mainland, with tax breaks, subsidies, research grants and access to government contracts.
Taiwan's current pro-independence government is worried about a potential 'brain drain' and there are fears that Beijing, which views Taiwan as a rebel province is using its vast economic clout in a soft power offensive to promote and enhance social and commercial integration between its young peoples.
Caroline Bayley travels to Shanghai and Taipei to meet young Taiwanese and asks whether Taiwan's younger generation can be lured in this way by China and whether Taiwan can do anything to stem the exodus.
Presenter/Producer: Caroline Bayley.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
Antonia Quirke presents a special edition of The Film Programme with Spike Lee.
They discuss his latest award-winning film, BlacKkKlansman, based on the improbably true story of an African-American cop who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan. They talk about racism, the power of the moving image and the gift left for him by his late friend Prince.
Gaylene Gould gives us a beginner's guide to Spike Lee.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Josie Long hears stories of observation - from glimpsing who you might become to an artist who secretly surveilled her father.
Rosalind Jana explores the crackle of possibility and hope in a love story observed across a crowded room, Johanna Heldebro talks about her art project - To Come Within Reach of You - in which she followed and photographed her father, and Sarah Algashgari talks about working at the first football match in Saudi Arabia that allowed female spectators.
Deciphering
Featuring Rosalind Jana
The Watchers
Featuring Sarah Algashgari
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
Following Father
Featuring Johanna Heldebro
Produced by Tom Henley
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with The Rev Richard Frazer, Minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
The striking-looking Bullfinch is the subject of the first of five TWEETS from naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines about the birds he hears and encourages into his 'wildlife-friendly' garden. In the past, Bullfinches were persecuted for their fondness for fruit tree buds but as far as Chris is concerned, this is a small price to pay to have a pair of these beautiful birds visit his garden.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Sharon Marwood.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Andrew Marr presents a special edition of Start the Week at the Edinburgh Festivals, weaving together ancient stories and contemporary fiction - from Scotland to Iceland via ancient Greece.
He speaks to award-winning writers Pat Barker, Sjón and James Robertson and the singer-songwriter Karine Polwart. Karine also performs live.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
In September 1988, eleven-year-old Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, trained by a coach at his local swimming baths in Eltham, South East London.
Tom first went to the swimming baths in Eltham when he was seven. As one of the slowest swimmers in his class at school, he could barely make it across a width without taking a break half way. Despite a reluctant start, his potential was soon spotted by the coach who ran the club. John Bullet was an old-school disciplinarian and a maverick in the Channel Swimming establishment, who had an impressive track record for training distance swimmers. He had established a team of local kids who trained together in open water at Dover, in the cold waters of Windermere, and in London Docks. When John singled Tom out as a Channel contender, Tom's training began in earnest; as his ability and stamina became evident, his (and John's) sights focussed on the world record for the youngest swimmer to make a solo crossing of the Channel.
As coach, mentor and inspiration John Bullet inspired extraordinary loyalty from his young swimmers. Tom and his older sister Anna were part of a close-knit group of young people who spent their holidays being mini-bussed around the country, camping out and listening to Top Twenty mix tapes, all the while training in conditions which would challenge swimmers of any age.
Tom describes the intensity and closeness of these five years of his life with affection and honesty; the account of his gruelling training and his record-breaking Channel swim, all before his twelfth birthday, is both exhilarating, and, to a generation brought up on stricter health and safety regulations, occasionally disquieting.
Tom's world record still stands today and can never be broken; since his swim the qualifying age for an official Channel challenge has been raised to sixteen.
Tom Gregory went on to become an officer in the Royal Anglican Regiment and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.
Reader: Patrick Kennedy
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
A quarter of us will have a holiday fling at some stage in our life . Why do we fall in love abroad? Have you ever had a holiday romance? Did you end up with a partner for life or was it a case of what happens on holiday stayed on holiday. Psychotherapist Christine Webber will be alongside Jane Garvey in the Studio and we want to hear from you. Call 03700 100 444. Lines open at 8.30am.
Presenter Jane Garvey
Producer Elisa Kennedy.
By Alan Harris
First in the latest series of the magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
When Gareth is pushed off the harbour wall, he finds himself face-to-face with a mermaid.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
The journalist John Harris examines the potency of narrative, both in the stories that define us as individuals and in those that shape our understanding of the public domain.
Story is ubiquitous - and not simply in the realm of literature and entertainment. From television and advertising to religion, science, business and politics, narratives shape our world. They make connections, explain cause and effect and infer meaning. More than that - stories bewitch us. And recent political events have demonstrated quite how potent they can be.
In this episode, John reflects on how our understanding of ourselves - and the idea of the self - is shaped by story. He hears from people who are compelled to convey persuasive stories of their lives, for example at the Job Centre, as well as researcher Lynne Friedli who challenges the heroic qualities required by such accounts. John also talks to a therapist who works with narrative Suzanne Elliot, behavioural psychologist Nick Chater who believes we are all brilliant re-inventers of ourselves from one minute to the next, and philosopher Galen Strawson who challenges whether we actually do - or even should - think of ourselves in terms of narrative.
Presented by John Harris
Produced by Nina Garthwaite and Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
By Ed Harris
The Prime Minister is preparing to broadcast to the French Resistance and needs urgent help with his French vocab. Desperate to please, Dot and Millicent embark on a race across London to get to him first when an air raid stops them in their tracks. But could Dot's resemblance to Vera Lynn give her the upper hand? Comic adventures in Ed Harris' witty and quirky wartime comedy.
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
A new history of ideas presented by Melvyn Bragg but told in many voices.
Each week Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question. This week he's asking 'What is Justice'?
Helping him answer it are barrister Harry Potter, criminologist David Wilson, philosopher Angie Hobbs and historian Alice Taylor.
For the rest of the week Harry, David, Angie and Alice will take us further into the history of ideas about justice with programmes of their own. Between them they will examine civil disobedience, Kant's theory of Justice, Habeas Corpus and philosopher John Rawls' ideas on how to create a just society.
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
A group of MPs is calling for the government to take swifter action to protect vulnerable gamblers. Three months after plans were announced to reduce how much people can bet on Fixed Odds Betting Machines, it's still not clear when the change will be introduced. It's possible to lose up to £100 every 20 seconds on the machines and they've been blamed for an increase in problem gambling. The government says it hopes to reduce the maximum stake as soon as possible but it needs time to work with the industry and to take the changes through parliament. The former Conservative party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, is one of a group of MPs pushing for urgent action. He tells us that the machines prey on vulnerable people and cause serious harm.
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond says that the government is considering a review of the taxes paid by online retailers, to help redress the balance with high street shops. It reflects complaints from traditional "bricks and mortar" retailers that they shoulder a much higher tax burden than their online competitors. As more and more high street shops close, it's suggested that a new tax on shopping online would be a way to level the playing field. But could a new tax really drive shoppers back to the high street? We hear from both sides of the debate.
Some celebrities are able to make huge amounts of money by recommending products on their social media accounts. If a popular blogger or star endorses a brand of clothes or make up, it can really boost sales. But consumer watchdogs are concerned that some celebrities are misleading fans by not making it clear if they are being paid to recommend a product.
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Peter White.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Brighton has the most internet searches for the word lonely. Plymouth is top for debt problems. Aldershot has the most Buddhists. Jenny Kleeman explores locations at the extremes of UK society, uncovering the stories behind a revealing statistic.
The Office for National Statistics gathers data on everything - the economy, employment, even our wellbeing. We have more data available than ever before, including from search engines, and increasingly the government and big businesses are making crucial judgments based on these statistics. But these numbers can't tell us everything. In this series, Jenny explores the true stories behind the figures.
Episode 1: Loneliness
Why does Brighton have the highest rate of internet searches for the word lonely? Jenny starts her investigation by meeting 87-year-old widow Pat O'Byrne whose post on Facebook last year went viral. Her plea for someone to take her out for a Sunday roast dinner attracted responses from as far afield as Japan and Canada. But could Brighton's history of internet searches reveal an isolation epidemic in the city that's hidden from view?
Produced by Paul Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
A space ship is heading towards earth. The world leaders respond - all that is except Donald Trump who believes it's all fake news. For reasons which gradually become clear the alien, (who's name is Geoff) has chosen Great Britain as his home from home. His impression of Britain comes from 70s television - a more innocent and cosy world. Swept up in a celebrity rollercoaster, Geoff enjoys his life in Britain, and Brits take him to their hearts. That is... until he becomes just a little too successful when he wins both Strictly and Bake Off, so beginning Geoff's fall from grace.
Written by Private Eye writers Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, together with Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Sarah Campbell, Laurence Howarth, and others.
It stars Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey.
Producer..Bill Dare
A BBC Studios Production.
(4/13)
Russian ballet, classic Motown, contemporary opera and the music of this summer's Royal Wedding all crop up among the questions facing today's competitors. Paul Gambaccini is at the Radio Theatre to put them through their paces and determine who takes another of the 2018 semi-final places. As always, it will be the contestant whose knowledge best covers the wide range of musical genres in the toughest music quiz of them all.
Taking part today are:
Nicholas Brann, a finance director from London
Jeremy Pearce, a solicitor and business consultant, also from London
David Sherman, a hospital catering administrator from Chelmsford.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
AL Kennedy grew up in Dundee in the 1970s and remembers a litany of industrial decline, council corruption and dodgy developments. So when she heard the V&A was coming to the city, she couldn't help feeling sceptical.
Returning to her home town today she discovers a dramatic transformation along the waterfront with the new V&A Dundee, Scotland's first design museum, providing a beautiful new public space. ALK can hardly believe her eyes.
Traditionally, Dundee is not a city that shouts about its achievements, struggling to have its voice heard over the din of looms in the jute mills and more widely eclipsed in favour of Glasgow's patter and Edinburgh's prim posh. Now though, there's a new confidence in Dundee's creative community, with writers celebrating its distinct dialect, street art cropping up in hidden corners and a vibrant music scene has grown from the town's folk heritage. It's also high time everyone knew that design triumphs from The Beano to Grand Theft Auto were made in Dundee.
The question is, will all this creative capital have a tangible, positive impact on the citizens of Dundee. AL Kennedy visits Art Angel, where people experiencing mental health issues create art, and finds that for some, art provides the most valuable lifeline. It remains to be seen if the cultural regeneration of Dundee will have the same effect.
Credit: Hufton+Crow.
When it comes to religion, what is an acceptable target? God surely must enjoy a joke. Why else would he have created mankind? But are those who worship him fair game for comedians? Undoubtedly certain religions have been the source of much humour. Jewish comics such as Joan Rivers, Woody Allen and Groucho Marx have always been willing to make fun of their culture but should they also poke fun at their religion and how do you disentangle culture from religion? If you enjoy laughing at the culture and beliefs of your own community, is it acceptable to make jokes about a culture and religion to which you do not belong? Where should we draw the line between freedom of speech and the need to respect the beliefs of others? Taking a look at religion and humour a multi-faith panel of comedian discuss the question: How far can you go?
The panel:
Tez Ilyas
Pippa Evans
Bennett Arron
Paul Kerensa
Producer: Helen Lee.
Simon Jack with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The second of two special episodes recorded at this year's Edinburgh Festival with Paul Merton, Fred MacAulay, Mark Watson and Jo Caulfield.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
The stress builds for Helen, and Jim's plotting continues.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
In February 2017, President Trump made a speech to his supporters. He moved on to the topic of immigration and Sweden.
"You look at what's happening last night in Sweden," he told the crowd at a rally in Florida. "They took in large numbers; they're having problems like they never thought possible".
This confused the Swedes because they hadn't noticed anything happening on that Friday night in their country.
What Trump was referring to was a Fox News report he had seen about immigration and crime in Sweden. The report twisted a story done by Ruth Alexander for Radio 4's More or Less programme and used misleading statistics to try to show that recent immigrants were responsible for a crime wave in Sweden.
More or Less debunked the report and its use of statistics but since then there has been spate of violent crime in Sweden.
Ruth Alexander travels to Stockholm and Malmö to find out the truth about what's going on.
Producer: Keith Moore.
When someone in Jamaica emigrates to the UK, it is said they have 'gone to foreign'. Over the past 70 years several hundred thousand Jamaicans have done this, following in the footsteps of the so-called 'Windrush generation' who first arrived in Britain in the late 1940s. But the spirit of adventure and optimism those early pioneers bought with them has changed over the years and a recent political scandal now finds some of them unwanted and rejected by Britain. Following changes to immigration law and failing to comply with citizenship requirements, they have been designated illegal immigrants. On returning from holiday in the Caribbean, some of the children of the Windrush generation (now in their 50s and 60s) have been refused entry back to Britain, and others have been deported from Britain back to the Caribbean. For Crossing Continents, Colin Grant travels to Jamaica to meet two men who, despite having lived in the UK for decades, working and paying taxes, find themselves in limbo, trapped and unable to return to the place they call home. What happens when you are stranded in a place you were never really familiar with, an island which you have little memory of, and may not have returned to for half a century? Grant hears of their endeavour to return to the UK and how they have struggled to keep up hope in the face of a very painful and public rejection.
Colin Grant reporting and producing.
Holding what looks like a television aerial, reptile ecologist Nigel Hand strides across the heath. It may look something out of a science fiction movie, but as Nigel explains to Brett Westwood he is on a serious quest; searching for adders. These adders he has previously caught and fitted with tiny radio transmitters and the aerial is used to track and follow them as he learns more about the behaviour and habits of these much misunderstood snakes. Like Nigel, Brett Westwood has been fascinated by adders since he was a child and as he discovers they have long been the subject of myths and superstitions often attributed with powers of wisdom or a sly nature, giving rise to stories about their ability to hypnotise their prey and swallow their young. But as Brett discovers the truth about our only venomous snake is even more fascinating. Producer Sarah Blunt
Contributors
Jim Foster - Conservation Director at Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Erica Fudge - Professor of English studies at the University of Strathclyde
Nigel Hand - Reptile Ecologist
Stephanie Hoehl - Professor of Development Psychology at the University of Vienna
Sylvia Sheldon - Naturalist and Adder Recorder
Readers - Elizabeth Counsell and Georgie Glen.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Will it ever be safe to go back into the water?
Henry Goodman continues Peter Benchley's classic 1974 novel, and one of the greatest movies of all time.
Amity's beaches are open again for the 4th July weekend. But Brody is nervous...
Reader: Henry Goodman
Writer: Peter Benchley's 1974 novel shot straight on to the bestseller lists, and has since sold some 20 million copies. It was adapted into the iconic film by Steven Spielberg a year later. The film won three Academy Awards.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
by Jon Canter
Comedy as James Boswell Dr Johnson's celebrated biographer pursues other legends to immortalise. Today he attempts to locate the cream cracker under the settee of Mr Alan Bennett.
It's the life we're told we want, where we just shout at a device and our needs are met as quickly as the supply chain allows. Aleks Krotoski explores frictionless digital living.
But is there value in friction? Aleks hears from someone who's life depends on it, mountaineer Andy Kirkpatrick. He has a reputation for stacking the odds against himself as much as possible; long routes, often climbed alone in the worst of conditions. Back on the ground Andy also needs friction to not get complacent, accept others views without question, to keep moving forward.
Without friction we risk falling prey to what economist Umair Haque describes as the infantilisation economy. One where we are diminished by being able to have our every need met by Amazon's Alexa. And the cost isn't just to us but also to the army of digital serfs peddling about in all weathers with those trademark boxes on their backs. Its a future that was foreseen as far back as the late 19th century by the likes of Nietzsche in his descriptions of the 'last men' a humanity living the most vanilla of existences without challenge or ambition to change.
Nothing sums this up better than the food replacement industry. No time to shop, cook, chew? Get everything you need nutritionally in a drink like Soylent or Huel - all in the name of efficiency. Its a world that fascinates anthropologist Jan English-Luek who for over 20 years has been observing trends in silicon valley.
Ultimately Aleks will ask what we're saving all this time and effort for and do we ever reap the benefits? Or does it just keep us where the digital world wants us, consuming in ever more efficient ways.
Producer: Peter McManus.
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.
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with The Rev Richard Frazer, Minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
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 Grey Heron. The Grey Heron makes a loud croaking sound, often standing in an ungainly way on a tree-top which it might share with many others for nesting - the heronry.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Ian Hislop, editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye, has been invited by the British Museum to curate an exhibition celebrating the variety, ingenuity and extent of dissent around the world. With the help of museum curators he's collected artefacts that tell a story of the way people have made a stand, however humble or grand, against the constraints of the society in which they find themselves living from ancient Babylon to modern Washington DC. In a three part series in conjunction with the exhibition Ian goes beyond the objects to find dissent in other media and to tell the story of our seemingly unquenchable desire to kick against whatever system frustrates or oppresses them at the time.
In the first programme Ian looks at dissenting objects 'Hiding in Plain Sight', from a coded teapot with a deliberately provocative number under the spout to items of clothing that sent a message to observers without ever actual breaking any laws. There are also the everyday sedition of popular music but with a look at Indian protest songs rather than their more familiar and celebrated western counterparts, and there's the religious object masquerading as a condiment container, allowing dangerous sedition in the guise of providing for extra flavouring in food.
Producer: Tom Alban.
Unexpected stories of education: The journalist Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to the crime writer, Val McDermid, about an unusual educational experiment she was part of in the 1960s.
Datshiane Navanayagam had a difficult childhood punctuated by periods of homelessness, but she was always expected to achieve educationally and won a bursary to a private school which led her onto Cambridge University. As a result she's fascinated by the transformative role of education and for three editions of One to One is speaking to people who went on an unexpected educational journey.
Today she meets the crime writer, Val McDermid, who was part of an educational experiment in the 1960s which separated her from her peers and pushed her forward by a year.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
In September 1988, eleven-year-old Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, trained by a coach at his local swimming baths in Eltham, South East London.
Tom first went to the swimming baths in Eltham when he was seven. As one of the slowest swimmers in his class at school, he could barely make it across a width without taking a break half way. Despite a reluctant start, his potential was soon spotted by the coach who ran the club. John Bullet was an old-school disciplinarian and a maverick in the Channel Swimming establishment, who had an impressive track record for training distance swimmers. He had established a team of local kids who trained together in open water at Dover, in the cold waters of Windermere, and in London Docks. When John singled Tom out as a Channel contender, Tom's training began in earnest; as his ability and stamina became evident, his (and John's) sights focussed on the world record for the youngest swimmer to make a solo crossing of the Channel.
As coach, mentor and inspiration John Bullet inspired extraordinary loyalty from his young swimmers. Tom and his older sister Anna were part of a close-knit group of young people who spent their holidays being mini-bussed around the country, camping out and listening to Top Twenty mix tapes, all the while training in conditions which would challenge swimmers of any age.
Tom describes the intensity and closeness of these five years of his life with affection and honesty; the account of his gruelling training and his record-breaking Channel swim, all before his twelfth birthday, is both exhilarating, and, to a generation brought up on stricter health and safety regulations, occasionally disquieting.
Tom's world record still stands today and can never be broken; since his swim the qualifying age for an official Channel challenge has been raised to sixteen.
Tom Gregory went on to become an officer in the Royal Anglican Regiment and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.
Reader: Patrick Kennedy
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
By Alan Harris
Second in the latest series of the magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
Gareth's attempts to prove his masculinity become increasingly extreme.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
"For me 1971 was the Year of the Dragon," says Brett Westwood. This was the year he first read the Hobbit and discovered the giant winged Smaug. Dragons are everywhere - in books, myths, tattoo parlours, computer games, and of course on the Indonesian island of Komodo. Here be dragons warned the ancient maps, but where does myth meet reality ... and why has the dragon reached into so many cultures around the world?
With contributions from zoologist Mark Carwardine who travelled to Komodo with Douglas Adams for Last Chance to See. Plus Joe Capon of the Attenborough Komodo Dragon House at London Zoo; film critic Antonia Quirke who explains the connection between King Kong and Komodo; Martin Arnold, author of a new book on Dragons: Power and Fear; and Matt Swarbrick who helped film the first dragon buffalo hunt - from bite to final throes.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie reveals a hidden world of rhythm around us and searches for musical inspiration from some unlikely sources.
As a musician and rhythm obsessive, Evelyn has always been fascinated by the rhythmic nature of the world around us. She explains that, by learning to focus our attention, we can tap into a complex realm of energy and pattern in our surroundings. Over the course of the programme, Evelyn tunes into everything from the oscillation of a tree in the wind to the polyrhythmic groove of our solar system.
Visiting the Mini plant in Oxford, an enormous factory that beats out a steady meter of 1000 cars a day, Evelyn surveys the endless rows of robotic arms and describes the location as "like being in a massive percussion instrument". Walking around the factory, Evelyn is desperate to "play the space". Back in her studio, surrounded by percussion instruments, she does exactly that - hammering out a metallic improvisation inspired by the rhythms of the production line.
Evelyn explains that she has always drawn inspiration from non-musical art forms. At Tate Britain, surrounded by prints by Bridget Riley, Evelyn meets the composer Milton Mermikides who uses digital technology to translate Riley's famously rhythmic paintings into mesmeric music. Evelyn also performs a percussive piece in response to the looping rhythms of Riley's work.
Finally, Evelyn gazes up at the buildings that line the Thames with composer Peter Adjaye, whose work is heavily influenced by the rhythm of architecture. Evelyn explains that, like a piece of music, a building is a composition based on structure, ornamentation, repetitive patterns and layer upon layer of rhythm.
Presenter: Evelyn Glennie
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
All this week Melvyn Bragg and guests are discussing ideas of Justice. Today lawyer Harry Potter uses the ideas of the philosopher Kant to ask whether deterrent prison sentences are just.
He takes us back to the 1700s, when hundreds of petty offences carried the death penalty. And Gordon Finlayson from the University of Sussex explains how Kant's idea that you should never treat people as a means to an end would put him at odds with our justice system today, where people can receive heavy sentences in order to put others off committing the same crime.
To see whether Kant's ideas and our justice system can be reconciled, Harry visits Lord Judge who was Lord Chief Justice at the time of the London riots of 2011, when deterrent sentences were handed down. He explains how sentences are determined.
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Brighton has the most internet searches for the word lonely. Plymouth is top for debt problems. Aldershot has the most Buddhists. Jenny Kleeman explores locations at the extremes of UK society, uncovering the stories behind a revealing statistic.
The Office for National Statistics gathers data on everything - the economy, employment, even our wellbeing. We have more data available than ever before, including from search engines, and increasingly the government and big businesses are making crucial judgments based on these statistics. But these numbers can't tell us everything. In this series, Jenny explores the true stories behind the figures.
Episode 2: Bingo
Jenny visits Mecca Forge in Glasgow, the biggest hall in a city that's the hot spot for bingo. She shadows its manager, Paul McGlinchey, who is trying to introduce the game to a younger audience. But is it enough to keep bingo thriving here?
Produced by Paul Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Part 1. It's the Solstice music festival, when 150,000 people descend on a farm in the North-East for the open-air event of the summer. The audience pours in from all over the UK and beyond. The artistes come from all round the globe. The journalists likewise.
Among the hacks is Zoe Meadows, who has left her husband Jamie and two small children at home to watch the event on TV. For really, if you weren't working, who would actually want to be there, partying for a weekend without adequate sanitary facilities on what is, at its heart, an agricultural site?
You wouldn't go hungry, though. Well, you might if you thought too closely about those hundreds of food stalls desperate to keep their costs down, not asking too many questions of their meat suppliers, not really caring whether those hand-crafted pork sausages are from pigs stuffed full of antibiotics on the intensive farming unit they came from. One of those food stalls is Sam's Sausage Sandwiches, run by Sam and Lisa Shore.
Zoe owes them a great deal. Since becoming a mother and wanting fewer hours she has taken a step back from investigative journalism and has settled for covering the softer stories such as Solstice. Even this wouldn't have been possible without Sam and Lisa who stepped in to look after the kids when both her and Jamie were working...
Resistance was written by Val McDermid
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
Programme consultant - Christopher Dowson Professor of Microbiology, University of Warwick and Trustee for Antibiotic Research UK.
Life on the streets is hard and precarious but every soul who sleeps on a pavement has a story. Tara and George is a six-part series exploring the lives of two people in their late forties who sleep rough in London's Spitalfields. It asks the simple questions - what led them there and why do they remain?
Journalist Audrey Gillan has come to know them as neighbours in this diverse and fashionable area of the capital, and has been recording her conversations with Tara and George for nearly two years.
In this episode, Audrey travels north. Before running away to London on a National Express coach "at the age of 12", as he tells it to Audrey, George grew up in the former pit village of Nettlesworth, County Durham. Still living in a house across from George's family home, Audrey finds his aunt Lillian. In an attempt to capture a sense of what George left behind - and ran away from - Audrey goes in search of other members of his family.
Written and presented by Audrey Gillan
Produced by Audrey Gillan and Johnny Miller
Original music by Francis Macdonald
Series Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
John Wilson continues with the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
The legendary TOM JONES talks to John Wilson about Praise and Blame - the first of a trilogy of albums that would take him back to his musical roots.
Described as a musical "shape shifter" who could "slide from soulful rasp to pop croon, with a voice as husky as it was pretty" (The New York Times), Tom Jones' career has spanned six decades, selling over 100 million records. In 2010, he released an album of largely unknown gospel covers, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things, Pop Staples' Don't Knock and John Lee Hooker's Burning Hell. The album's stripped-down, live production (by Ethan Johns) led one critic to declare "at last Jones the artist is the match of Jones the entertainer" (The Guardian)
A rare opportunity to hear Sir Tom together with Ethan Johns talk and play their way back to an album that "with its loose, spontaneous sound and... all-pervasive sense of artistic rebirth... is a revelation" (Daily Telegraph)
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
Thirty years ago the British government took an almost unprecedented decision - to ban the voices of Sinn Fein and other groups in Northern Ireland associated with terrorism from being heard on television and radio.
The Belfast based broadcaster Stephen Nolan tells that story.
He starts by tracing how Sinn Fein, who at the time were seen as the political wing of the IRA, turned themselves into a democratically elected party. This meant that broadcasting organisations like the BBC started to interview their leaders like Gerry Adams on the nightly news. But Margaret Thatcher hated the IRA and did not want to see people like Adams on her television screen. After the murder of her friend Airey Neave and the IRA's attempt to blow her up at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton in 1985, she gave a speech setting out her view that terrorists should be denied the oxygen of publicity and not allowed on broadcast platforms like the BBC.
So, after a spate of violence in 1987 and 1988, the government decided it was time to ban the voices of people associated with terrorism in Northern Ireland from British airwaves.
What made the ban unique was that journalists like Denis Murray, the BBC's Ireland correspondent at the time, could still go and interview Gerry Adams - they just couldn't use his voice on the news. Instead, a group of young actors just out of Belfast's drama schools were suddenly handed one of the most bizarre roles of their career.
Producer: Joe Sykes
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
The Olympic rower Helen Glover is Matthew Parris' guest this week, choosing the life of the mountaineer Alison Hargreaves to discuss with the help of her biographer Ed Douglas. Alison Hargreaves' short life was defined by her love of the mountains. She became interested in climbing as a teenager and devoted her life to pursuing ever greater challenges. She was the first woman to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and unsupported before losing her life on the infamous K2 mountain in Pakistan in 1995.
Producer: Maggie Ayre.
Simon Jack with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Start/Stop is a sitcom by Jack Docherty about three marriages in various states of disrepair.
Starring: couple number one - Jack Docherty as Barney and Kerry Godliman as Cathy; couple number two - John Thomson as Evan and Fiona Allen as Fiona; and couple number three - Charlie Higson as David and Laura Aikman as Alice.
The set up: Barney and Cathy have been married for ages and it shows, Evan and Fiona's marriage is one big, noisy argument and David is old enough to be Alice's father.
Start/Stop follows the story of these three couples as they try to make the best of their marriages and friendships. The show is warm, smart and funny, and the characters are able to stop the action, explain themselves to the audience and start it all up again.
This week: 'The Third Way'. Fiona road tests Barney's theory about how to put the spark back in your marriage, much to Barney's annoyance. Meanwhile Evan is housebound, sitting in a rubber ring after breaking his coccyx. And David is worried his memory is failing, and he's trying everything under the sun to improve it.
Written by: Jack Docherty
Producer: Claire Jones
A BBC Studio Production.
Susan has a confession to make, and Adam offers some feedback.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Being stopped by beggars on the street and asked for money makes most people feel uncomfortable. We may divert our eyes or make excuses about why we didn't stop. "They'd only spend it on drugs..." we tell ourselves. We worry they might not really need the money or that they might trying to con us.
Presenter Mark Johnson explores our relationship with beggars. He shares his own experience of living on the streets and goes on a journey to find out if there is such a thing as a fake beggar and asks why the police are fining and in some cases even jailing beggars.
He travels across the country to track a vigilante campaign in Torquay in which members of the public are trying to drive "fake beggars" off the street and discovers that 'outing' people can have terrible consequences for some of the most vulnerable in society. In Brighton he speaks to beggars who have been targeted by police using a 200 year old law to prosecute and fine them. And in Cambridge he meets a man who has been arrested 17 times and sent to prison twice for begging.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Matthew Taylor concludes his look at the charity sector with a look at the impact charities have, and how they measure it.
In Leeds and Bradford, Matthew visits charities with very different approaches to measuring and assessing what they do and the impact they have. Some ask whether it's really possible to measure love; others say a relentless focus on measuring impact allows the charity both to explain itself to funders and to improve its effectiveness. And he hears from one leading businessman who says that charities are often part of the problem - and only business, with its hugely greater scale, can really solve many of the most pressing social problems.
But as he reaches the end of the series Matthew is prompted to ask a more profound question: where do our responsibilities lie? Some influential advocates argue that failing to adopt a utilitarian perspective in at least some of our giving is irrational, even immoral; while for many volunteers, donors and trustees of charities the act of giving itself is what makes charity worthwhile.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Will it ever be safe to go back into the water?
Henry Goodman reads Peter Benchley's classic 1974 novel, and one of the greatest movies of all time.
Brody, Hooper and Quint set out on their mission to find and kill the shark...
Reader: Henry Goodman
Writer: Peter Benchley's 1974 novel shot straight on to the bestseller lists, and has since sold some 20 million copies.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
A current affairs parody and stupidly feasible visit to the 24-hour Hall Of Opinion Mirrors. Taking both sides of serious issues seriously
A cotton-based crisis, a row about dimensionality and the ethics of the whoopee cushion are analysed with forensic skill by a team of paid voices, chaired by chairperson-in-chief Alexandra Palisades in this new parody created by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris.
With Carrie Quinlan as Alexandra Palisades and the voices of:
Justin Edwards
Melanie Hudson
Kath Hughes
Simon Kane
Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Jess Robinson
Luke Sumner
Tony Way
Written by Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
It does not interject, it has endless patience and you gain empathy from shared experience. Aleks Krotoski explores how the online space has become our greatest confidante...
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.
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with The Rev Richard Frazer, Minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The dunnock is a newly-appreciated bird in the O'Leary household and as Dermot potters around the garden he admires the work ethic and understated beauty of this industrious little brown bird.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photo: Ian Redman.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Ian Hislop's companion series to his exhibition at the British Museum celebrating sedition through the ages turns from dissent in the form of familiar items and objects to the works of dissenting professionals. There are some figures familiar to British audiences like cartoonist James Gillray and Richard Newton and we also hear from a modern day member of what Ian refers to as 'The Awkward Squad', Roger Law, part of the team that shook up the political world of the 1980s with the ITV series Spitting Images. But we also meet the Yoruba carving satirist Ar'owugun and his doors with their gentle mockery of British colonial rule and the shadow puppets from Turkey, Karagoz and Hacivat that were used to make fun of authority figures. There's also the work of a representative of the professional tomb painters of ancient Egypt who took time out to produce a tongue in cheek counter image to the familiar funerary images on which their employment depended.
Ian takes the opportunity of chatting with a living dissenter, Roger Law, to find out what it was that inspired his work and what satisfaction he gained from a TV series watched by millions.
Producer: Tom Alban.
David Cannadine examines the careers of British Prime Ministers through their props of power.
In an inconspicuous-looking box, in a locked drawer, deep in the archives at Churchill College, Cambridge sits Margaret Thatcher's handbag. David comes face-to-face with this artefact which came to represent the most visible symbol of our first female Prime Minister's power to command. As Charles Moore put it in his official biography, "her handbag became the sceptre of her rule". It was a prop that Mrs Thatcher would produce at meetings to show she meant business.
Although Margaret Thatcher didn't like the connotation, by the time of the Falklands conflict, a new verb entered the English language - "to handbag", meaning to subject your opponent to a forthright verbal assault or strident criticism. For the rest of her life, Mrs Thatcher's handbag was almost as newsworthy an item as she was herself and on the day she died, one of her handbag-makers saw a sharp rise in sales of her favourite black structured design.
Readings by Ewan Bailey, Will Huggins and Claire Vousden
Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
Series Researcher: Martin Spychal
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.
In September 1988, eleven-year-old Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, trained by a coach at his local swimming baths in Eltham, South East London.
Tom first went to the swimming baths in Eltham when he was seven. As one of the slowest swimmers in his class at school, he could barely make it across a width without taking a break half way. Despite a reluctant start, his potential was soon spotted by the coach who ran the club. John Bullet was an old-school disciplinarian and a maverick in the Channel Swimming establishment, who had an impressive track record for training distance swimmers. He had established a team of local kids who trained together in open water at Dover, in the cold waters of Windermere, and in London Docks. When John singled Tom out as a Channel contender, Tom's training began in earnest; as his ability and stamina became evident, his (and John's) sights focussed on the world record for the youngest swimmer to make a solo crossing of the Channel.
As coach, mentor and inspiration John Bullet inspired extraordinary loyalty from his young swimmers. Tom and his older sister Anna were part of a close-knit group of young people who spent their holidays being mini-bussed around the country, camping out and listening to Top Twenty mix tapes, all the while training in conditions which would challenge swimmers of any age.
Tom describes the intensity and closeness of these five years of his life with affection and honesty; the account of his gruelling training and his record-breaking Channel swim, all before his twelfth birthday, is both exhilarating, and, to a generation brought up on stricter health and safety regulations, occasionally disquieting.
Tom's world record still stands today and can never be broken; since his swim the qualifying age for an official Channel challenge has been raised to sixteen.
Tom Gregory went on to become an officer in the Royal Anglican Regiment and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.
Reader: Patrick Kennedy
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
By Alan Harris
Third in the latest series of the magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
As the Glan Don crime wave continues, Gareth has another run-in with the mermaid.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
A father hopes that the conversations he has with his son are more open than the ones he remembers having with his father. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
The hit series returns for an eighth series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave. Written by and starring Donald Mcleary and Sanjeev Kohli.
Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop, the award winning Fags, Mags and Bags sees a return of all the shop regular characters, and some guest appearances along the way, from the likes of Moray Hunter, Lorraine McIntosh & Mina Amwar.
In this episode, Mrs Birkett raises suspicions about the source of a lurgy outbreak in Lenzie and starts to point an accusing finger at Hilly.
Join the staff of Fags, Mags and Bags in their tireless quest to bring nice-price custard creams and cans of coke with Arabic writing on them to an ungrateful nation. Ramesh Mahju has built it up over the course of over 30 years and is a firmly entrenched, friendly presence in the local area. He is joined by his shop sidekick, Dave.
Then of course there are Ramesh's sons Sanjay and Alok, both surly and not particularly keen on the old school approach to shopkeeping, but natural successors to the business. Ramesh is keen to pass all his worldly wisdom onto them - whether they like it or not!
Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Angie Hobbs with Leif Wenar and David Runciman debate and explore one of the most searching ideas of twentieth century legal thought: John Rawls' assertion of the value of a veil of ignorance.
John Rawls was a prolific American philosopher and one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. His magnum opus, A Theory of Justice defines the principles of Justice as those that "everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position". He proposed that in order to build a truly 'just' system of law, the law-makers should be kept unaware of their eventual position within that system - they should determine what is best for society from a position outside of society. This famous thought experiment is known as the 'veil of ignorance'.
Rawls served as a soldier in the Second World War and was promoted to Sergeant. After he refused to discipline a fellow soldier, who he thought had done nothing wrong, he was demoted back to Private.
Producer: Tim Dee.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Brighton has the most internet searches for the word lonely. Plymouth is top for debt problems. Aldershot has the most Buddhists. Jenny Kleeman explores locations at the extremes of UK society, uncovering the stories behind a revealing statistic.
The Office for National Statistics gathers data on everything - the economy, employment, even our wellbeing. We have more data available than ever before, including from search engines, and increasingly the government and big businesses are making crucial judgments based on these statistics. But these numbers can't tell us everything. In this series, Jenny explores the true stories behind the figures.
Episode 3: Debt
Jenny is in Plymouth. According to government statistics, it has the highest rate of personal insolvency in the country. She meets John Sanderson, a man in his 50s who moved to the city over a decade ago. A recent chain of unfortunate life events has left him in unsustainable credit card debt. With bailiffs circling his home and his mental health deteriorating, Jenny joins him as he seeks help. He describes Plymouth as "a city with its back to the sea". What does John's story tell us about the culture of debt here?
Produced by Paul Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Part 2 . A mystery disease seems to be spreading and nobody's quite sure how it's travelling. Is it in the air we breathe? Is it in the water we drink ? Is it in the food we eat?
Zoe is trying to get an interview with Aasmah about the research that's being funded into the disease. But Aasmah's not talking, on orders from above. Politics has entered the game. Barry Tomlinson is the chief of Public Health in England. He's a desperately worried man. He persuades the Minister that it's time for a crisis meeting. Politicians hate the word 'crisis' unless they're well on the way to solving it, so the minister is determined not to make a big deal out of it.
Meanwhile, Josef Nowak is facing a nightmare at the pig farm. His animals are dying and nothing the vet can do is helping.
Zoe and Jamie talk about what they might do to avoid being caught up in the epidemic. His aunt has a smallholding in the Welsh mountains; they could load the car up with tins and dried food and hole up there till the worst has passed. Zoe is torn between wanting to protect them and wanting to be a good journalist and get to the heart of what's going on ...
Written by Val McDermid
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
Programme consultant - Christopher Dowson Professor of Microbiology, University of Warwick and Trustee for Antibiotic Research UK
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
The lust to escape your life, gifts that make you feel misunderstood and a mystery with an elusive man at it's centre - Josie Long unfurls stories of mistaken identity.
The writer Nikesh Shukla and his friends, Nick Hearne and Robbie Lingham, talk about the frustrating mysterious character who entered their lives after they sent a lamb chop into space. The Australian producer Natalie Kestecher is horrified by a gift from a close friend and a young woman plots her escape in a call from Laura Mayer's How Are You Doing Project.
Navy Story
Originally recorded for the How Are You Doing Project
Produced by Laura Mayer
The Gift
Featuring writing from the Redundant Women series
Produced by Natalie Kestecher
Adam
Featuring Nikesh Shukla, Nick Hearne and Robbie Lingham
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
Simon Jack with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Part 2: One-Seventeen AM.
"Good day, bad day, who can tell..."
Multi-award winning storyteller Sarah Kendal returns with more hilarious, gripping and moving stories.
This second volume of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy, is one show in three parts. A collection of seemingly unconnected stories and memories, which, together, form a meditation on luck, survival and hindsight.
Scrolling backwards and forwards in time to different moments in her life, over the three parts Sarah creates an intricate montage, demonstrating the interconnectedness of life.
In this second part, Sarah is trying to be more positive. She tells us of a trip to the vets with the family's pet hamster, of a car accident she was in as a child, and of a day at a clinic with her son. And we find out that hamsters originate from Syria.
Written by Sarah Kendall & Carl Cooper
Performed by Sarah Kendall
Producer - Carl Cooper
Production Co-ordinator - Beverly Tagg
This is a BBC Studios production
Photo Credit - Rosalind Furlong
Series One of Sarah Kendall's Australian Trilogy-
Winner - Writers' Guild Award - Best Radio Comedy
Winner - BBC Audio Drama Award - Best Scripted Comedy (Longform)
Winner -Silver ARIA Award - Best Fictional Storytelling
Nominee - Chortle Comedy Awards - Best Radio Show
Nominee - Music and Radio Awards - Best Storytelling.
Oliver takes the stand, and Tom is struggling.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
This week; Rural isolation amongst the elderly is a growing problem across the UK with forecasts putting over 50% of the rural population over 65 by 2030.
How can we prevent this huge group of people being cut off and experiencing the devastating effects of loneliness?
Follow ten of the country's brightest minds as they gather in the Royal Oak pub, Tetbury. They have just one day to come up with a solution that will convince a panel of local judges - and the locals of the town.
Presented by Matthew Taylor and facilitated by Cat Drew from Uscreates.
Team One-
Rebecca Ford - RSA
Paul Randall - Rainbow Zebra Furniture
Georgina Osman - Tetbury Council Tourism Manager
Immy Robinson- Shift Design
Aidan Rumble - Design Consultant
Team Two-
Lil Adair - US Creates
Sue Fellows - Police Community Support Officer
Rich Gundry - Wonderland Communications
Nigel Burton- I-Adapt
Rebecca Wilson - Jolly Nice Farm Shop
Emma Parnell - Snook Design
Expert Witnesses-
Robert Sharp - Tetbury Resident
Natalie Turner - Centre For Aging Better
Judges-
Lisa Hepworth - Social Prescriber, Gloucestershire Rural Community Council
Penny Williams - Manager, St Marys Day Centre
Julia Hasler - Chair, Tetbury Goods Shed
Producers-
Jordan Dunbar
Estelle Doyle
Editor-
Penny Murphy.
Talks with a personal dimension.
Diogenes (404 - 323BC), who lived in a barrel in Athens, was perhaps the most famous cynic. The school gets its name from Diogenes' who was nick-named "kynikos", or 'dog-like', because he lived in the street and fed on scraps. The Cynics were arguably the first environmentalists and the modern anarchist elements of the Green movement are adapting their teaching, especially around self-sufficiency and living a simple life. The ancient Cynics thought we have been corrupted by the false beliefs of civilization, such as the belief that the most important thing in life is to win success and status. So they set out to puncture these false beliefs. Diogenes the Cynic called this 'debasing the currency' and he became well known for his philosophical pranks. Plato is said to have described him as a Socrates "gone mad.". For satirist Andy Zaltzman this all sounds very familiar and he goes to talk through the philosophy with the comedian and political activist Mark Thomas. But when it comes to carrying out the tasks set for him by Jules Evans, author of "Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations" he's stretched to his limits.
Producer: Phil Pegum.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
We're gonna need a bigger boat!
Henry Goodman continues Peter Benchley's classic 1974 novel, and one of the greatest movies of all time.
It's day two of the hunt, and tensions are rising on board the boat when the shark reappears....
Reader: Henry Goodman
Writer: Peter Benchley's 1974 novel shot straight on to the bestseller lists, and has since sold some 20 million copies. It was adapted into the iconic film by Steven Spielberg a year later. The film won three Academy Awards.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Australian stand up Felicity Ward stars in her first BBC Radio 4 series where she tries to solve her mental health issues, one app at a time.
In the final episode of the series, Felicity attempts to treat her anxiety with the aid of meditation app 'Keep It Down' (as voiced by Rose Matafeo).
Throughout the series, Felicity downloads a new app each week to help her destress, refocus and find practical solutions to her various trouble areas - anxiety, depression, IBS and insomnia.
Written and performed by Felicity Ward.
Script Editor: Gareth Gwynn
Production Co-Ordinator: Beverly Tagg
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production.
A heady combination of maths, science and comedy with Festival of The Spoken Nerd trio who are stand up Mathematician Matt Parker, Physicist Steve Mould and Physicist and musician Helen Arney. It's science that you can play along with at home as the team look at domestic phenomena that we relate to on a day to day basis.
In this episode the Shepard tone is explored along with the radioactivity of bananas and the conductivity of bones.
Producer... Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production.
Aleks Krotoski enters the world of the unwatched, the unread and the unnoticed, all the content posted online that no-one ever sees.
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.
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with The Rev Richard Frazer, Minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
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.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Willow Tit. Willow Tits are declining rapidly in many areas: they are very similar to marsh tits, so alike in fact that no-one realised that they existed here until 1897 and their identity as a breeding bird in the UK was confirmed three years later.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Ian Hislop's series celebrating dissent and dissenters through the ages, made in partnership with the British Museum who are hosting an exhibition on the subject, turns to the question of what drives sedition. Is it a natural human desire to claim a space for ourselves, to be heard? Or is dissent inevitably a crusading desire to see right prevail? He talks to fellow contemporary dissenter Armando Iannucci, author and director of 'The Thick of It' and the recent film 'Death of Stalin' about what makes him continue to kick at authority figures and the systems that support them. They talk about the limited but necessary power of anger which also underpins one of Ian's favourite pieces from his British Museum exhibition, a forged banknote from 1819 by the artist Cruikshank. It pours bitter scorn on the government of the day and their policy of punishing forgery and handling with execution. But there's also gentler frustration that provoked an altogether more gentle dissent from composer Joseph Haydn in the form of his Farewell Symphony, intended to prompt his boss to release his fellow musicians from their protracted summer season.
But at the heart of it all is the desire to leave a mark, however lowly one might be, and it is epitomised by the name scrawled on a Babylonian brick, placing the builder alongside the other name stamped on the brick, that of his king, Nebuchadnezzar. Ian is joined by Irving Finkel of the BM's Babylonian collection to celebrate the first version of the modern advertising mantra - 'Because I'm [You're] worth it!'.
It's the most celebrated period of British ingenuity, but are our Victorian forebears due a rethink? Sci-curious sisters Kat and Helen Arney are on hand with some revisionist revelations that could turn what we think we know completely upside down.
Was the water-based toilet the pinnacle of 19th century hygienic invention, or did the Victorians literally flush away our most precious resource? Why did they choose the water closet over the alternatives that were available to them - the Earth Closet and the Air Closet? And was there a Fire Closet too (or was that just the result of that other great Victorian import, the curry?). Helen and Kat are holding their noses and diving in.
Helen Arney is a presenter and comedian, and Dr Kat Arney is a writer and broadcaster who has published a book on genetics.
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
In September 1988, eleven-year-old Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, trained by a coach at his local swimming baths in Eltham, South East London.
Tom first went to the swimming baths in Eltham when he was seven. As one of the slowest swimmers in his class at school, he could barely make it across a width without taking a break half way. Despite a reluctant start, his potential was soon spotted by the coach who ran the club. John Bullet was an old-school disciplinarian and a maverick in the Channel Swimming establishment, who had an impressive track record for training distance swimmers. He had established a team of local kids who trained together in open water at Dover, in the cold waters of Windermere, and in London Docks. When John singled Tom out as a Channel contender, Tom's training began in earnest; as his ability and stamina became evident, his (and John's) sights focussed on the world record for the youngest swimmer to make a solo crossing of the Channel.
As coach, mentor and inspiration John Bullet inspired extraordinary loyalty from his young swimmers. Tom and his older sister Anna were part of a close-knit group of young people who spent their holidays being mini-bussed around the country, camping out and listening to Top Twenty mix tapes, all the while training in conditions which would challenge swimmers of any age.
Tom describes the intensity and closeness of these five years of his life with affection and honesty; the account of his gruelling training and his record-breaking Channel swim, all before his twelfth birthday, is both exhilarating, and, to a generation brought up on stricter health and safety regulations, occasionally disquieting.
Tom's world record still stands today and can never be broken; since his swim the qualifying age for an official Channel challenge has been raised to sixteen.
Tom Gregory went on to become an officer in the Royal Anglican Regiment and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.
Reader: Patrick Kennedy
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
By Alan Harris
Fourth in the latest series of the magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
Gareth makes a shocking discovery about Guto.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
'He was using prisoners like oxen for ploughing for his own gain'. An ex-convict recalls the prison officer in charge of the prison farm he worked on in Uganda. The country has one of the most overcrowded prison systems in Africa. It also has one of the continent's most developed systems of prison labour. For Crossing Continents, Ed Butler reports from Uganda where most of the country's 54,000 inmates are now serving an economic purpose, working for the benefit of an elite collection of private farmers and other business interests - even though half of them have not been convicted of any crime. He speaks to current and former prisoners, to find out how the system works, and asks: is the country breaking its international pledges on prisoner treatment? Presented and produced by Ed Butler.
True stories of life-changing encounters with art in all its forms.
Each week, the writer Anna Freeman presents a showcase of stories of art and people around Britain. In episode one, Anna and the Sketches producers hear stories of escapes...
As a child, Mark Knight fell in love with a painting. He first saw it on a school trip and then came back to visit as often as he could. He would escape from the reality of his childhood into this huge painting, teeming with characters, spending hours with it at a time. Until one day, he came to the museum, and it was gone. Fifty years later, now living on the other side of the world, he set out to track the painting down that meant so much to him.
Bradley Warwick speaks through a computer system which he controls with his eyes. Music is his lifeblood; his bedroom walls are lined with AC/DC posters and gig pictures. Thanks to a computerised instrument called the Clarion, he has been able to perform as part of a youth orchestra.
Icy Sedgwick grew up in the hills around Newcastle, and she never understood why fantasy and imagination should be confined to childhood. She grew up, and she took it with her. She tells us the story of her average day in the grind of being an office manager as her imagination runs wild, and her fantasy fiction comes to life as she escapes into fantastic worlds invented from the things she sees every day.
Six years ago, Leesa Harker was a single Mum to two tiny children in Belfast, with no car, no money, and no idea how to get herself out. As her youngest daughter refused to eat her dinner, Leesa opened her laptop and saw a post from a friend declaring she was looking forward to a date with 50 shades that night. 50 shades really irritated Leesa. It was too dark, and she hated its representation of women. In that moment, she wrote her own filthy spoof of fifty shades... and that was the beginning. Within months Leesa had gone from never having seen a play, to being a published author and playwright. "There are 26 letters in the alphabet... and what you can do with those 26 letters, I just love it."
Producers: Becky Ripley, Polly Weston and Mair Bosworth
Presenter: Anna Freeman.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Criminologist David Wilson looks at 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes and his "social contract" theory. Hobbes argued that the only way to secure peace was for everyone to give up their personal freedom and agree to be ruled by a "sovereign". Otherwise, he said, life was liable to be "nasty, brutish and short", with everyone at war with everyone else.
In fact, none of us has actually signed a contract to give up our freedom, so what if we disagree with what the state wants to do? David looks at the case of the "naked rambler", Stephen Gough, who is currently in Winchester prison because he refuses to wear clothes in public. Gough benefits from the protection of the state, so is he obliged to stick to social norms as his part of the bargain?
David also looks at "bitcoins" - the digital currency that operates outside the control of any government. Is bitcoin world a libertarian utopia, or a reminder of what Hobbes was talking about: that without someone to lay down the law, you end up with violence and rampant criminality?
Presenter: David Wilson
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Brighton has the most internet searches for the word lonely. Plymouth is top for debt problems. Aldershot has the most Buddhists. Jenny Kleeman explores locations at the extremes of UK society, uncovering the stories behind a revealing statistic.
The Office for National Statistics gathers data on everything - the economy, employment, even our wellbeing. We have more data available than ever before, including from search engines, and increasingly the government and big businesses are making crucial judgments based on these statistics. But these numbers can't tell us everything. In this series, Jenny explores the true stories behind the figures.
Episode 4: House Prices
Jenny is in Copeland, Cumbria. According to the Office for National Statistics, it's the most affordable place to buy a home in England and Wales, hitting a sweet spot where low house prices are combined with high average wages. Jenny meets millennials under the age of 25 and able to buy a house. How does getting on the housing ladder so young affect their life? And is it the utopia it seems?
Produced by Paul Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Part 3. Scientists in Germany think they've found an antibiotic that's effective against Zips. Human trials have been accelerated.The horror is out there and growing. The countryside has become a smoking pyre. Government ministers sit in a crisis meeting and they simply don't know what to do.
News reports start to break up and then disappear. Aasmah in her lab talks about the grim prospects with a colleague. It's clear that some countries have collapsed completely. Civil society is starting to break down. There have been food riots in some cities. The dead are beginning to back up in the streets. Other diseases are flaring up because of the decay and decomposition.
Written by Val McDermid
Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts
Programme consultant - Christopher Dowson Professor of Microbiology, University of Warwick and Trustee for Antibiotic Research UK
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Charlotte Smith goes on a trip down memory lane, visiting St Davids in Pembrokeshire. It's the area where she spent many of her childhood summer holidays - but a place she hasn't been back to in forty years. She meets the family still running the farm and campsite where she used to stay as a child, learns how to forage for food in rock pools along the shore, and discovers that the 21st century has found a new use for a disused slate quarry. Life may be very different from how it was in the 1970s, but Charlotte finds nostalgia in the unchanging nature of the Welsh landscape.
Produced by Emma Campbell.
Oscar winner Pawel Pawlikowski talks about his award-winning tale of amour fou in communist Poland, Cold War.
Marnie Chesterton investigates the news in science and science in the news.
Simon Jack with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Comedy about the inept staff at an historic house starring Simon Callow and Miles Jupp.
Every year thousands of tourists flock to the Lake District. But one place they never go to is Plum House - the former country home of terrible poet George Pudding (1779-1848). Now a crumbling museum, losing money hand over fist, it struggles to stay open under its eccentric curator Peter Knight (Simon Callow).
In this episode, Peter is forced to visit town, somewhere he hasn't been since Woolworths closed down, for a medical emergency. He leaves his hopelessly out-of-touch deputy Julian (Miles Jupp) in charge who sees it as a perfect opportunity for him to finally make his mark on the place by, amongst other things, establishing his cafe Chez Julian, a hangout for 'Cumbrian Jean Paul Sartres'.
Written by Ben Cottam and Paul Mckenna
Directed and Produced by Paul Schlesinger
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
Jazzer steps up, and Pat has a suggestion.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.
Thousands of new consumer products are launched every year, and many end in failure.
These flops are rarely discussed, and quickly forgotten.
The Museum of Failure in Sweden is taking a different approach, showcasing some of the world's most flawed products and services.
Ruth Alexander talks to curator Samuel West, and some of the product designers, about what we can learn from commercial mistakes.
Producer: John Murphy.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Will it ever be safe to go back into the water?
Henry Goodman continues Peter Benchley's classic 1974 novel, and one of the greatest movies of all time.
Day three of the hunt, and, against his shipmates' advice, shark expert Hooper decides to descend in the diving cage in search of the fish....
Reader: Henry Goodman
Writer: Peter Benchley's 1974 novel shot straight on to the bestseller lists, and has since sold some 20 million copies.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Between 1954 and 1959, BBC Radio recorded 102 episodes of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's comedy classic Hancock's Half Hour. The first modern sitcom, it made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Galton and Simpson on one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show are missing from the BBC archives, and have not been heard since their original transmission nearly sixty years ago. Now, after a highly successful first series, another five of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre, featuring a stellar cast led by Kevin McNally as The Lad Himself.
Tonight's episode: The Marriage Bureau. Tony needs a job, but can't get one as an unmarried man. Luckily, Sidney James has a proposal...
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score newly recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Margaret Cabourn-Smith. The Marriage Bureau was last broadcast in February 1955.
Produced be Ed Morrish & Neil Pearson.
Written by Ray Galton & Simpson
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
Aleks Krotoski wonders if it's really possible to convey a sense of joyful abandon online...
Producer: Victoria McArthur.
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.
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with The Rev Richard Frazer, Minister of Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh.
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.
Brett Westwood presents the jay. This bird is a colourful member of the crow family. In September and October you'll often see jays flying around woodland with their bills and throats crammed with acorns. Many of these they bury as winter stores but not all are retrieved by Jays and many germinate and grow into young oaks, making the jay a tree-planter on a national scale.
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
In September 1988, eleven-year-old Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, trained by a coach at his local swimming baths in Eltham, South East London.
Tom first went to the swimming baths in Eltham when he was seven. As one of the slowest swimmers in his class at school, he could barely make it across a width without taking a break half way. Despite a reluctant start, his potential was soon spotted by the coach who ran the club. John Bullet was an old-school disciplinarian and a maverick in the Channel Swimming establishment, who had an impressive track record for training distance swimmers. He had established a team of local kids who trained together in open water at Dover, in the cold waters of Windermere, and in London Docks. When John singled Tom out as a Channel contender, Tom's training began in earnest; as his ability and stamina became evident, his (and John's) sights focussed on the world record for the youngest swimmer to make a solo crossing of the Channel.
As coach, mentor and inspiration John Bullet inspired extraordinary loyalty from his young swimmers. Tom and his older sister Anna were part of a close-knit group of young people who spent their holidays being mini-bussed around the country, camping out and listening to Top Twenty mix tapes, all the while training in conditions which would challenge swimmers of any age.
Tom describes the intensity and closeness of these five years of his life with affection and honesty; the account of his gruelling training and his record-breaking Channel swim, all before his twelfth birthday, is both exhilarating, and, to a generation brought up on stricter health and safety regulations, occasionally disquieting.
Tom's world record still stands today and can never be broken; since his swim the qualifying age for an official Channel challenge has been raised to sixteen.
Tom Gregory went on to become an officer in the Royal Anglican Regiment and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and daughter.
Reader: Patrick Kennedy
Abridged and produced by Sara Davies.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
By Alan Harris
Last in the current series of the magical drama set in Glan Don, a mysterious village perched on the wild Welsh coast.
In gale-force conditions, Gareth attempts to complete Manon's Race - a gruelling swim to a cave beyond the headland.
Starring Elis James (Josh), Emma Sidi (W1A) and Ifan Huw Dafydd (Gavin and Stacey).
Series created by Meic Povey
Directed by James Robinson and Nigel Lewis
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
Leigh Alexander explores the growing popularity of analogue hobbies in a digital world.
For 30-something technology writer Leigh, the digital world is just a part of her everyday life - there's no logging off. But despite all the boundless conveniences of the digital world, she says it can sometimes feel as if something has been lost in the transition to an intangible, instantaneous, always-on virtual society. Perhaps that's why analogue formats remain timeless - in fact, they seem more popular now than ever, especially among people of her generation.
From board games and vinyl records to books, calligraphy and even old-fashioned letter writing, people are increasingly seeking avenues to bring a little more face-to-face back into their lives.
Leigh hears from Colleen Cosmo Murphy, founder of listening events that bring participants into a room to enjoy a single album uninterrupted by phones. A 17 year-old student explains why he prefers reading news magazines in print. Leigh hears from a couple who fell in love over vinyl and Leigh's own husband, Quintin Smith, explains why board games are experiencing a huge boom. People just like being with other people, he says.
And Guardian columnist John Harris argues that the persistence of analogue is nothing less than a cultural revolt against industrialisation, one that's been present ever since the late 18th century.
Presenter: Leigh Alexander
Producer: Sarah Peters
Executive Producer: Iain Chambers
A Tuning Fork and Open Audio production for BBC Radio 4.
All is well in Ed's World. He has drafted his son, Jake, to do some cold calling to raise funds for the university coffers whilst he visits his agent to clear out some old boxes from her office. What he wasn't expecting this week is that one of his old projects 'Sir Jasper's Breakfast' could earn him a small fortune due to its popularity at Hen and Stag 'do's' or that Jake's success at fundraising, and subsequent 10% cut of those funds, would leave his university career in jeopardy.
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Historian Alice Taylor explores the idea of justice through history, through the lens of power. Who holds the power? Who SHOULD hold the power? Who does that power serve? And who should it protect?
One way in which the justice system can remove the power of a citizen is by locking them up, but there are strict laws about how and when that can be done. The writ of Habeas Corpus, part of our legal system almost since the time of Magna Carta, is designed to protect subjects from being imprisoned unlawfully. But who this writ really serves is a more complicated question. Alice follows the legal and historical trail to find out who really decides what justice is.
Producer: Emily Knight.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
Brighton has the most internet searches for the word lonely. Plymouth is top for debt problems. Aldershot has the most Buddhists. Jenny Kleeman explores locations at the extremes of UK society, uncovering the stories behind a revealing statistic.
The Office for National Statistics gathers data on everything - the economy, employment, even our wellbeing. We have more data available than ever before, including from search engines, and increasingly the government and big businesses are making crucial judgments based on these statistics. But these numbers can't tell us everything. In this series, Jenny explores the true stories behind the figures.
Episode 5: Buddhism
What brought the Dalai Lama to the grounds of Aldershot FC in Surrey in both 2012 and 2015? The 2011 Census shows that Aldershot has the greatest population of Buddhists in the UK. Jenny spends a day at the Buddhist Community Centre and finds out how the Gurkha Justice Campaign, supported by Joanna Lumley, has transformed the town in the past decade.
Produced by Paul Smith
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
The Third Pill by James O'Neill
Greg works in children's publishing but feels middle aged and out of touch. Then something pops up on his computer that will transform his life. A comedy about finding that elusive elixir of youth.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
Peter and the panel are at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Wilson and Christine Walkden answer the horticultural questions.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Harry Venning's comic monologue about a doomed space cruise which even Jane McDonald cannot save.
It's 2118. Day three of Jeff's space cruise and already events are falling below his required standard. On his phone, he records his experience for the operator, Cosmic Tours of Hove, from whom he must surely get compensation.
Writer: Harry Venning
Reader: Jeff Rawle
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Investigating the numbers in the news.
A father and son reflect on life since he moved into the son's family home. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Simon Jack with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Miles Jupp.
Writer ..... Gillian Richmond
Director ..... Kim Greengrass
Editor ..... Alison Hindell
Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig ..... Stephen Kennedy
Clarrie Grundy ..... Heather Bell
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Adam Macy ..... Andrew Wincott
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Lily Pargetter ..... Katie Redford
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ..... Michael Cochrane
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Hannah Riley ..... Helen Longworth
Russ ..... Andonis James Anthony.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, London with a panel including the Chairman of the House of Commons Brexit Select Committee Hilary Benn MP, the businesswoman Julianne Ponan and the sociologist and bioethicist Tom Shakespeare.
Producer: Emma Campbell.
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
In a series tracing decisive moments in the life of our National Health Service, medical historian Sally Sheard explores the archive to tell the stories behind five crucial moments, in this third omnibus edition from Radio 4's National Health Stories series.
Scandal: How an unsung heroine Barbara Robb triggered a nationwide investigation into the care of the mentally ill, forgotten in the vast long-stay institutions.
Grave: How Cecily Saunders and her 'modern hospice' movement forced the NHS to care for the dying and plan for what's called a 'good death'.
Cradle: In 1978 Louise Brown became the first IVF baby. This success lead to ethical dilemmas: how to limit multiple births. And should IVF be free on the NHS?
Unequal: In 1980 the Black Report showed that people in deprived areas had poorer health. But it wasn't until Labour returned to power in the mid-1990s that the issue was taken seriously by government.
Protest: 40 years after the start of the NHS resources weren't keeping up with demand from patients. A baby died after his heart operation had been cancelled five times for lack of nurses.
Producers: Deborah Cohen & Beth Eastwood.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
Will it ever be safe to go back into the water?
Henry Goodman reads the finale of Peter Benchley's classic 1974 novel, and one of the greatest movies of all time.
Hooper's been killed by the shark, but Quint refuses to give up the hunt....And now it seems the shark wants to make a fight of it.
Reader: Henry Goodman
Writer: Peter Benchley
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton.
Late-night conversation with Lauren Laverne. Lauren's guests are anthropologist Kit Davis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, Helen Lewis, and blogger and writer Chidera Eggerue.
Jane Charlton suffers from depersonalisation leaving her sense of self fragmented. In order to construct her sense of self she seeks the physical presence of people. For Jane social media means nothing. Dr Anna Ciaunica has studied Jane's experience of depersonalisation and what it tells us about the self, how we construct it and how important it is to maintain.
Professor Manos Tsakiris says we need to feel embodiment in order to be fully in touch with our selves. But how does the use of tech influence this? Manos says that the feeling of dis embodied brains or 'brains in jars' doesn't help our sense of self because the body is as important as the brain in constructing the self, even through out adulthood. Aleks goes into a float tank in LA to experience sensory deprivation, no phones to see if she can connect to her body and explores the benefits of doing so.
Brynn Duncan suffers from mast cell disease and can have an allergic reaction to almost anything at anytime. Her friends nick named her 'bubble girl' because she needs to constantly protect herself. For Brynn mentally detaching from a body which causes her great pain is critical and social media is one way she is able to do this. It enables her to live outside her body to escape and remove herself from the here and now. But Brynn says she has a hard time re attaching to herself once she has detached.
Produced by Kate Bissell
Researched by Jac Philllimore
Music by Antfood.
A father and son find that caring for their wife and mother has given them a strong bond. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.