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.
Michael Palin reads from his new book that follows the mysterious and tragic voyage of HMS Erebus in 1845:
The author is in the bar of the Akademik Sergei Vavlov, an ice-strengthened survey ship, and singing lines from Northwest Passage. "Tomorrow" he says, "we make our way through the Bellot Straight, which will take us into Peel Sound and very close to the heart of the Franklin story." But what will be found there?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Who knows best: the parents or medical professionals? This iPM listener bought her daughter thyroid medicine on the internet, but she was later arrested and spent nearly 2 years on bail. The case has now been dropped, but should she have been more cautious?
Plus Kirsty Wark reads your news bulletin. iPM@bbc.co.uk is how to send us your sentences of news.
Presented by Luke Jones. Produced by Cat Farnsworth.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Clare Balding walks the final part of the Whithorn Way with a local group of walking enthusiasts. It's an an an ancient pilgrim route from Glasgow down along the west coast ending at the holy site of St Ninian's Cave on the southern tip of the peninsula looking towards the Isle of Man. Pilgrims have been making the journey for centuries until they were banned from doing so after the Reformation during the 16th century, but the tradition has been revived and with the restoration of the walking route, more people are expected to do the 146 mile route through some of Scotland's most beautiful but often overlooked landscapes.
Pictured left to right: Ian Gemmell, a retired local vet from Whithorn, Clare Balding, Finn McCreath local farmer and trustee of the Wigtown Book Festival and Jessica Fox, former NASA storyteller.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
The latest weather forecast.
News headlines and sport.
Former England football player and manager Kevin Keegan made his professional debut fifty years ago. He talks to Aasmah Mir and the Rev. Richard Coles about how a nun was his first mentor, the way Bill Shankly changed his life and seizing opportunities off the pitch.
Christel Dee is a Dr Who fan - also known as a Whovian - whose life and career has been shaped by the show.
British Olympian Archer Patrick Huston got in touch to tell us about the woman who inspired him to take up the sport.
Fashion Designer Zandra Rhodes shares her Inheritance Tracks. She has chosen Boléro by Maurice Ravel The Pearl Fishers’ Duet by Georges Bizet.
Romesh Ranganathan left his teaching career to pursue a career in comedy. He talks about the pressure to support his family, staying in the town of his birth and love of Hip Hop.
Producer: Claire Bartleet
Editor: Eleanor Garland.
Jay Rayner and his culinary panel are in Newcastle. Dr Annie Gray, Tim Anderson, Sue Lawrence and Rob Owen-Brown answer the audience's questions.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
‘It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’ Words of advice from a wily desert fox to a little boy who fell to Earth from an asteroid. That quote, by the French author and pilot Antoine Saint-Exupery, is one of the most memorable passages from The Little Prince, a slim volume that is one of the most frequently translated books of all time and has achieved this in just 75 years since its first publication.
But who was Saint-Exupery? How did he come to write The Little Prince? And what else do we know about this adventurer and romantic who risked his life as a pilot many times and captivated the world with his writing?
Bridget Kendall is joined by Olivier d'Agay, great-nephew of the writer and Director of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Estate and Youth Foundation, Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer-prize winning author of an acclaimed biography of Saint-Exupery, and Bernard Chabbert, pilot and historian of French aviation.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Home-made muskets that often fail to fire and little but lucky charms for protection – what it’s like going into battle for the rebels fighting for independence for English-speaking parts of Cameroon. Colin Freeman meets a former member of the Red Dragons.
Caroline Wyatt introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world.
Joanna Roberson hears why the people of Rome fear the historical heart of their city is being carved up by criminals as mafia seek out cafes and restaurants to launder their money.
In China, Robin Brant meets Ian Simpson whose son Michael was murdered last year. Michael was killed by his ex-wife Weiwei Fu but now Ian wants her help to win custody of his grandchildren who are living with Weiwei’s relatives in rural China.
Heidi Fuller-Love discovers what life is like on the Namibian island of Impalila. It may be close to the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, but it can feel a long way from anywhere.
And Emma Jane Kirby meets her hero – the French musician Francis Cabrel who is revered in his home country but little known in Britain as he prefers to sing only in his native tongue.
Producer: Joe Kent
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Paul Lewis presents the latest news from the world of personal finance.
Jo Brand takes the guest host chair for a satirical look at the week's news. Francis Wheen, Lloyd Langford, Lucy Porter and Sindhu Vee are on the panel.
This week, all the moves from the Conservative Party Conference, a Fancy Bear and a box in the ocean.
Writers: Clint Edwards, Gabby Hutchinson Crouch and Ian Smith with additional material by Catherine Brinkworth and Mike Shephard.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Birmingham Repertory Theatre with a panel including the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP, the President of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Saqib Bhatti, Europe Minister Sir Alan Duncan MP and the SNP's spokesperson on Social Care and Health at Westminster Dr Philippa Whitford MP.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
Entertaining new dramas following the political swings of The Republican Party, through the personal stories of its Presidents.
Closely based on the accounts of those who were there, we imagine the triumphs and disasters which have driven the party's electoral fortunes.
1965. As Barry Goldwater’s campaign against LBJ crashes and burns, the Grand Old Party needs a fresh face who can handle the new world of TV.
Step forward a fading Hollywood heartthrob, with a down-home style - and plenty of space in his diary...
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting.
Ronald Reagan . . . Kerry Shale
Nancy Reagan . . . Madeleine Potter
Maureen Reagan . . . Samantha Dakin
Barry Goldwater . . . Corey Johnson
Richard Nixon . . . Jonathan Hyde
Cliff White . . . Joseph Balderrama
Lee Edwards . . . Ryan Whittle
Holmes Tuttle . . . Stephen Hogan
Writer . . . Jonathan Myerson
Director . . . Jonquil Panting
Adrian Laing has an imagined chat with his late father RD Laing, challenging him on his controversial psychiatric methods, his excessive drinking, his frequent depression, and his inconsistent parenting.
RD Laing revolutionised the seemingly uncaring and sometimes brutal treatment of mental illness in the 1950s, but a certain frustration permeates the conversation as Adrian tries to understand why his father never backed up his theories with the academic evidence which might have ensured his place in the psychiatric establishment. Instead, RD Laing's unconventional approach later in his career, including the use of LSD to treat patients, led to hostility from the profession and the undermining of his reputation.
Adrian says to his father in the programme, "You were such a force for good for so many, you helped people in very distressed states of mind to come through it and to find the light, but when it came to your own, you were a disaster."
In 1991, Natalie Cole sang a duet with her long dead father, Nat King Cole. The result was Unforgettable. This is the radio equivalent. In each edition of the series, a different guest is invited to interact with someone, now dead, with whom they have or have wanted to have a connection. The guest has no advance knowledge of the excerpts, and the conversation can take unexpected turns, occasionally leading to some emotionally charged exchanges, as living voices engage with those preserved in the archive.
Other pairings in this series include Victoria Wood in conversation with TV producer Geoff Posner, Anita Roddick with her daughter Samantha Roddick, Doris Lessing with her current biographer Patrick French, and Professor Stuart Hall with filmmaker and artist Isaac Julien.
Archive material used with permission from Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen and The Iona Community.
Assistant Producer: Philippa Geering
Producer: Adam Fowler
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.
The final episode of a series in which broadcaster Verity Sharp listens to the music of the world in a different way. We eavesdrop with her along latitudinal lines, hearing local stories that are having a direct impact on music and musicians. Could there be echoes along these sound lines? Might different music that’s created thousands of miles apart, but on the same latitude, share common ground? And could listening in this way allow us to glimpse the effect of the vast and often immeasurable forces that are sweeping change across our planet?
Verity ends with the Arctic Circle. This far north, both the strengths and limits of human influence over the planet are starkly visible - the melting ice here has come to symbolise the pace of climate change while, for much of the year, the harshness of the environment is a continual reminder of our vulnerability.
Around the circle, we hear three stories.
Electronic musician Roman Kravchenko brings us into his life in one of the planet’s coldest, most remote and polluted cities - Norilsk, some 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, where life expectancy is ten years less than for the rest of Russia.
Christine Tootoo lives in Rankin Inlet, in the Nunavut Territory of northern Canada. Caribou-hunting and throat-singing are an important part of the Inuit culture she seeks to promote in the face of rapid social and environmental change.
And Lasse Marhaug, a Norwegian noise musician, has returned to the far north of the country where he grew up. He’s in search of the reasons he makes his music, recalling the womb-like experience of an Arctic winter storm.
Producer: Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Dame Jacqueline Wilson will be telling us about her new Tracey Beaker novel twenty-six years after her first appearance in a book.
We hear from the writer Leta Hong Fincher about the feminist movement within China.
Two bereaved fathers Paul Williams and Adam Powsney tell us about how they were affected by the loss of their babies during their birth.
The Conservative MP for Faversham and Kent, Helen Whately, tells us how the party is working to get more women involved in Tory politics.
Romy Gill the first Indian woman to own and run a restaurant in the UK cooks vegetarian samosas.
We discuss the impact of voice recognition devices on family life. Katherine Hill from Care for the Family and Janet Read Professor in Child Computer Interaction at the University of Central Lancashire talk about pros and cons of these devices in our homes.
Two young poets Nikita Gill and Charly Cox perform their work and discuss how they are using poems to challenge societal norms.
Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Erin Riley
Luke Jones with coverage of the day's news.
Business has undergone seismic changes over the past decade; do the rules of business need to be re-written? If so, who should write them and what should they say?
Evan Davis and guests discuss.
GUESTS
Ian Taylor, Chairman, Vitol
Dame Helena Morrissey, Head of Personal Investing, Legal & General Investment Management
Wendy Tan White, Partner, BGF Ventures
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by Jeff Goldblum, Graham Norton, Adrian Lester and Rosemary Shrager for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
Producer: Paula McGinley
As the new series of Dr Who launches, Mark Coles profiles the life of new Dr Who script writer and distinguished children's author Malorie Blackman.
The former Children's Laureate has been called a “phenomenal author and a childhood hero” by rapper Stormzy and name checked on Tiny Tempah's hit Written In The Stars.
She has written over 60 books for children and young adults, plays the drums, speaks Russian, Chinese and apparently Klingon.
Producers: Diane Richardson, Smita Patel and Jade Thompson.
Editor: Emma Rippon
The latest reworking of the classic film story of a performer-on-the-wain-being-eclipsed-by-his-protege, A Star Is Born features Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper as the two leads. It has received 5 star reviews all over the place; what will our reviewers make of it?
There's a double-bill of Harold Pinter plays; The Lover and The Collection opening in London as part of Pinter At The Pinter. A series of one-act plays at the theatre named after the playwright.
Berta Isla is the latest novel from award-winning Spanish writer Javier Marias. It's a story of love, espionage, betrayal and coming to terms with who you and what you can't change.
Survey at The Jerwood Space in London is a chance to catch the work of 15 early-career artists from across a range of disciplines
The Bisexual is a new drama series coming to Channel 4, created by and starring Desiree Akhavan (director of The Miseducation of Cameron Post) which explores - yes, you guessed it - the potentially thorny subject of bisexuality.
Podcast Extra:
Miranda Carter recommends the trailer for the new Holmes and Watson film and Also A Perfect Spy by John le Carre
Esther recommends The BBC's RatLine podcasts
Charlotte recommends Sylvia by Zoo Nation
Tom doesn't really recommend Doris Salcedo at White Cube Bermondsey
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Esther Freud, Charlotte Mullins and Miranda Carter. The producer is Oliver Jones
For the first time, Radio 4 tells the thrilling story of the bank bailout from inside No 10, in a dramatic blow by blow account from then Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Along with Chancellor Alistair Darling at the Treasury, Governor Mervyn King at the Bank of England, and BBC Business Editor Robert Peston, we piece together the race against time to deliver a bold plan to stabilise the financial system before the banks go bust.
Taking us inside incredible scenes: in the Oval Office where Gordon receives a fax saying Bradford and Bingley has gone bust whilst trying to persuade President Bush to recapitalise; bank Chief Executives being bundled in the back door of the Treasury for secret meetings that are immediately leaked; Alistair trying to keep a straight face at a boring Finance Ministers meeting in Luxembourg whilst RBS goes belly up; heretical invitations from President Sarkozy for Gordon to attend Euro Group meeting at the Elysee Palace when Britain isn’t even in the Eurozone; phone calls from bankers saying they just need a bit of spare cash to tide them over, and their inevitable downfall.
This is the story of what happened as the drama unfolded, without analysis, interpretation, or hindsight; because at the time nobody knew whether the biggest injection of cash into banks in British history would be enough to stave off Armageddon.
From T E Lawrence and the Great Pyramid at Giza, to the Third Battle of Gaza, Tommies explores the Intelligence battle redrawing the Middle East, in this two-part adventure starring Indira Varma and Lee Ross.
Through camel chases, train derailments, riots and assassination squads, British intelligence and anti-colonial sedition go head to head in Cairo - where Mickey's about to meet some surprisingly familiar faces.
Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each episode of TOMMIES traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago.
And through it all, we'll follow the fortunes of Mickey Bliss and his fellow signallers, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army. They are the cogs in an immense machine, one which connects situations across the whole theatre of the war, over four long years.
Written by Jonathan Ruffle and Avin Shah.
Producers: David Hunter, Jonquil Panting, Jonathan Ruffle
Director: Jonquil Panting and David Hunter.
Wine has been made by most civilisations throughout history, and in every part of the world. It has inspired artists, thinkers, writers, theologians and poets through the ages, and is deeply connected with the story of recorded human history. In this series, five wine critics offer personal reflections on the personal, political, and historical stories of bygone bottles.
In today's episode, British Master of Wine Tim Atkin profiles 2012 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance. Klein is the New World's most historic wine, made on an estate that was created by Simon Van der Stel, the last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony, in 1685. Constantia wine became a favoured tipple of kings and emperors - Napoleon asked for it on his deathbed - and it is immortalised in print from Jane Austen "for its healing powers on a disappointed heart", to Charles Dickens in his final and unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Charles Baudelaire in his most famous volume of poems Les Fleurs du Mal, in which he compares Constantia wine to his lover's lips.
This bottle is also a great story of resurrection. Following the arrival of the vine louse, phylloxera in the upper foothills of the Constantiaberg, production ceased in 1865. Klein survived only in the poetry and prose of the 19th Century and in the illustrious cellars of Europe's great wine collectors. In 1986 it was relaunched and reclaimed its position as one of the Cape's greatest wines.
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4.
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
Sixty people from around the world join Professor Michael Sandel in a digital studio at Harvard to discuss free speech.
Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy and freedom of expression is regarded as a fundamental human right. But even in democracies there are disputes about the limits to free speech. And most countries have laws restricting free speech, such as libel laws, or laws controlling forms of pornography.
But should limits be placed on free speech? Should people be allowed to say and write whatever they like, even if it is untrue and is deeply offensive to vulnerable individuals or groups? Professor Sandel unpicks the philosophy of free speech.
Audience producer: Louise Coletta
Producer: David Edmonds
Executive Producer: Emma Rippon.
(9/13)
The last of the 2018 heats comes from MediaCity in Salford. Paul Gambaccini welcomes three music lovers from the north of England competing for the one remaining place in the semi-finals this year.
As always, they have no idea what musical styles or eras they'll be asked about, with music today including Strauss and Satie alongside John Williams and Donna Summer. They will also have to specialise in a musical topic Paul will offer them at the half way point, without any warning of the categories available to choose from.
Today's competitors are:
Richard Grothusen, a retired hairdresser from Blackpool
Alan Harrison, a retired metallurgist from Sheffield
Mike Meakin, an operating department practitioner from Harrogate.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
We're floating silently in the sky beneath a giant pink balloon. The passengers peer at allotments in rows, over garden walls, spy a police car speeding through suburban streets, a train curving on rails into a tunnel, a sleepy teenager creeping home down an alley, , a woman in a pink dressing gown drinking a cup of tea as her dogs patrol the garden... and finally a magnificent crossing of the River Avon, bird song reaching up to the basket of the balloon drifting silently above.
Birds fly below, wispy clouds hit the bleary eyed faces of two poets a composer and an air pilot, passing over the city of Bristol in the early morning.
Combining the sounds heard from a balloon, with the words and poems of Miles Chambers, Poet Laureate for Bristol and Rebecca Tantony, both first time balloonists, we take a journey over the city, hearing sound rising up unimpeded from the waking city.
Also in the basket, multi-award winning composer Dan Jones, who brings on board both his music and his previous experience as the sound designer for a fleet of balloons called Sky Orchestra - and of course the pilot, Peter Dalby, who spends his life staring down at the world from above.
For the balloonist there is no friction; sound rises curiously unimpeded upwards with zero interference. We bring a rich mix of propane burner gushing, the dawn chorus, a choir of city sounds captured in a balloon, all mixed with the magical music of Dan Jones.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
How does a boy learn when to run away, when to fight back and when to hide in a phone box? Written and performed by Javaad Alipoor, The Phone Box is a new short work for radio. It's a poetic monologue reflecting on those formative moments of childhood that stay with you, bright and ringing, into adulthood.
Javaad Alipoor is a writer, theatre maker and director who grew up in Bradford. He is resident associate director at Sheffield theatres and an associate director of Bradford's Theatre in the Mill. This is his Radio 4 debut.
His most recent play, 'The Believers Are But Brothers', invites audiences to experience the world of disaffected men online. It was Fringe First award winning and Total Theatre Nominated. His other plays include 'The Rising of the Moon' and 'Bassett.'
He also writes poetry and prose. His pamphlet 'The People Want a long form poem about the Arab Spring' was published by Art in Unusual Places. His essays and theory-fiction on global politics, philosophy and art have been published by Continuum and UnKant.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
Bells on Sunday comes from St John the Baptist, Burford in Oxfordshire. There are eight bells with the tenor weighing seventeen and three quarter hundredweight tuned to E. The tower of the church is Norman in origin. The bells are ringing Double Norwich Court Bob Major.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
Sarah Goldingay examines the ongoing relationship we have with our ancestors. These figures hover in our past, unknown to us and yet not entirely distant. Although her ancestors are strangers, Sarah also feels close to them; she senses her place in a long lineage stretching back over the generations.
As a teacher, Sarah is fascinated by another form of lineage, one through which knowledge is continually passed down. We hear from Jiu-Jitsu black belt Rener Gracie, whose family are martial arts royalty. The Gracies pioneered the stunningly effective Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighting system and have been honing it for generations, distilling it into an art form. Rener explains that, although he's only 34, he feels like he has over 100 years of martial arts expertise within him due to the compounding of knowledge across his lineage.
For Rener, a braiding of lineage and family, memory and embodiment is expressed through a martial art. For others it's through the craft they practice or the instrument they play. Music has a powerful ability to strengthen the bonds within a lineage. Sarah draws upon the music of Toumani Diabate, a virtuoso player of the harp-like Kora, whose family have been Kora masters for 71 generations. She also explores the Jewish songs of the Seder, or Passover meal.
Sarah concludes by explaining that religion itself can be thought of as a lineage, a "chain of memory" that connects past, present and future people of faith.
Presenter: Sarah Goldingay
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4
Today’s fashion for self-built homes may have started a few decades ago, but for nearly 200 million years, a family of insects have been quietly developing their own, des res. Depending on where you come from, they are sometimes known as ‘straw worms’, or ‘case worms’, but for most they are simply called ‘caddis’. The origin of the word "caddis" is unclear, but it seems to date back as far as Izaak Walton's 1653 book The Complete Angler, where the angling hero notes how to fish for roach or dace using "case-worms or cadis" as bait.
There are almost 200 species of caddisfly in the UK, the largest of which is more than 3cm long. In this episode of Living World, Lionel Kelleway hopes to find just a few of this number when he is joined on Lake Windermere by caddisfly expert Ian Wallace, who attempts to guide Lionel through these curious pond, lake and river dwelling insects. Along the way they discover some of the intricate biology which leads to the creation of their self built homes, a process that has even been adopted by jewelry designers in recent years.
Lindsey Chapman hosts this revised Living World from 2007 and gently brings the story up to date for today's audience.
Producer Andrew Dawes
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme, presented by William Crawley
Singer songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Medical Aid Films
Registered Charity Number: 1121578,
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 ‘Medical Aid Films’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Medical Aid Films’.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
The former Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones, reflects on the York Mystery Plays, with extracts performed in the original medieval English by members of the 2018 cast.
In medieval times the York Mystery Plays served both as acts of worship and as community theatre. From as early as the 1300s waggons belonging to Guilds of local tradesmen were paraded through the streets of the city as actors performed scenes from some of the great moments in Christian history. The last of the medieval productions took place in 1569, and although they were performed occasionally between 1909 and 1994, it wasn’t until 1998 that they were re-established and performed every two years. 2018 marks 20 years since they began in their current format, again taking place on waggons throughout York.
Forty-eight scripts – by unknown authors – make up the surviving Mystery Plays, and are based on bible passages from Creation to the Last Judgement.
Producer: Ben Collingwood.
Val McDermid argues that the sheer scale of tourism on a shoestring is destroying the very thing we crave when we travel.
"Our great cities are year-round destinations", she writes, "but when the hordes arrive, cultural simplification is seldom far behind".
She says we've grown used to cheap and cheerful instant gratification in many areas of our lives without any thought for the consequences.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Being a human, being a bird, is fun, stupid, impossible, tragic, sweaty, lonely, wild, restless and death to your vocal cords. So says theatre maker Tom Bailey who has spent much of 2018 following in the migratory restlessness of the marsh warbler in his Tweet of the Day.
Tom has chosen his five episodes from the Tweet of the Day archive which you can hear all this week. In addition you can hear more from Tom and his artistic work Zugunruhe, an ornithology term for 'migratory restlessness in birds', in the Tweet of the Week podcast, available on the Radio 4 website as a download.
Podcast Producer: Elliott Prince
Producer: Andrew Dawes
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Writer ..... Tim Stimpson
Director ..... Marina Caldarone
Editor ..... Alison Hindell
Jill Archer .... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Christine Barford ..... Lesley Saweard
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Justin Elliott ..... Simon Williams
Clarrie Grundy ..... Heather Bell
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ..... Tom Gibbons
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Robert Snell .....Graham Blockey
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Hannah Riley ..... Helen Longworth
The composer Thea Musgrave, who celebrated her 90th birthday this year, is interviewed by Lauren Laverne for Desert Island Discs.
Producer Sarah Taylor
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his brand new curator Lee Mack welcome comedian and writer Lucy Beaumont; scientist, writer and storyteller Dr Kat Arney; and multi-award-winning poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee find out how jumping genes took the world by surprise, peep through the smallest window in the world and practise the ancient art of Tai Chi.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
A BBC Studios Production
It’s fresher’s week, and all over the country students are settling in to their new digs, frantically buying kettles, figuring out the microwave settings and stocking up on beans. Or are they?
We all know the stereotypes about what university students eat – it’s all burnt toast and ready-meals, late night take-aways and instant ramen, right? Well, perhaps not. When chef and food writer Lope Ariyo was at university, she adored cooking. Whether it was keeping herself fuelled for late-night study sessions, or rustling up a big warming dinner for her and her housemates, cooking and eating were a huge part of the university experience. Now, Lope is taking a look at what this year’s freshers are eating, how they learn to cook, and dispelling the myth that they’re all permanently teetering on the brink of food poisoning.
Presented by Lope Ariyo, and produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.
The latest weather forecast.
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell
For the first time, more than half the British population says it ticks the No Religion box in surveys. Jane Little asks if that means they believe in nothing beyond the material world.
In social media, faith seems alive and well - hashtags like #PrayforLondon or #PrayforManchester invariably start trending shortly after a terror attack. And when someone dies, they are often addressed as though they are able to read those messages. “Fly with the angels in the stars,” was one of many messages to Stephen Hawking who, in his lifetime, had dismissed the afterlife as a fairy story.
GK Chesterton famously, if apocryphally, stated that when a man stops believing in God, he does not believe in nothing, he believes in anything. So, are people who have turned their backs on organised religion making up their own comforting set of beliefs when it comes to the most difficult things in life, such as death and the loss of loved ones? Are they trying to have their atheist cake while still wanting to lick the icing of soothing beliefs?
Jane Little meets people who define themselves as non-religious, yet hold strong beliefs in the supernatural - people like Russ and Kerry from Uttoxeterwho lost their baby daughter Ruby Jane when she was just three months old but believe she is still sending them signs in the form or feathers, Pat who is an atheist but claims to have had a whole raft of encounters with ghosts, and Rowan who feels "belief" isn’t a strong enough word for her experience of angels.
We hear from those who have used the #PrayforLondon hashtag and ask what non-religious people mean by it.
Jane is joined by experts including Tony Walter, a sociologist specialising in Death Studies, who coined the phrase "once-human angel" for what has become a huge social media phenomenon in the last ten years.
A CTVC Radio production for BBC Radio 4
Peter Gibbs hosts a special correspondence edition from Birmingham Botanics. Neil Porteus, James Wong and Bunny Guinness answer questions from the postbag..
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
Fi Glover introduces conversations between a father and son, friends and brothers about things that matter to them, 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
Dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths from a novel by Henry James.
Prince Amerigo is set to marry Maggie Verver but when Charlotte Stant walks back into his life he is thrown into turmoil.
HENRY JAMES.....John Lynch
PRINCE AMERIGO.....Luke Pasqualino
MAGGIE VERVER.....Daisy Head
ADAM VERVER.....Toby Jones
FANNY ASSINGHAM.....Charlotte Emmerson
CHARLOTTE STANT.....Nathalie Emmanuel
COLONAL ASSINGHAM/SHOPKEEPER.....Jonathan Keeble
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard discusses A Death in the Family, which is the first part of My Struggle, his series of memoirs which have a devoted following.
Already a successful novelist in his native Norway, almost ten years ago Knausgaard embarked on a huge project: a first person narrative about his life.
In A Death in the Family he writes with painful honesty about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and dangerously unpredictable father, and then his bewilderment and grief on his father's death. Becoming a father himself, he has to balance the demands of caring for a young family with his determination to write great literature.
The series is an exploration of the author’s past from which emerges a universal story of the struggles, great and small, that we all face in our lives. Karl Ove Knausgaard writes with honesty about his upbringing, causing ructions in his family. He says he always knew that whatever he wrote, he would have to be able to look his family members in the eye.
My Struggle finally ran to six volumes, and the last one The End, has just been published in the UK. The series became a literary sensation in his native Norway as well as around the world.
Presented by James Naughtie and recorded with a group of invited readers.
Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Karl Ove Knausgaard
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
November's Bookclub choice : The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (2014)
Jacob Polley, Caroline Bird, Wayne Holloway-Smith and Mary Jean Chan share poems about beginnings, arrivals and coming of age in a special episode of The Echo Chamber recorded in front of a live theatre audience at the BBC Contains Strong Language festival in Hull.
Presenter: Paul Farley
Producer: Mair Bosworth
In the aftermath of the Winterbourne View scandal the government pledged to transfer people with learning disabilities and autism out of unsuitable hospital placements and into supported community living settings. A key milestone was to cut inpatient beds by March 2019 and to transform the lives of people who have been previously been ‘stuck’ in institutional settings.
But File on 4 has been told that the target will be missed and that it’s unachievable. Without the necessary expansion of capability to provide care for people in their own homes or community settings - many still languish in unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, with little prospect of moving on.
What are the implications for people who say they’re trapped in the system, with no route out?
Parents fighting to have their children moved to more appropriate environments say they fear for their safety. They paint a picture of a system that is overstretched and at breaking point. Without enough staff to provide the one to one care residents require – some have suffered serious injuries, harm or abuse.
So seven years after Winterbourne View, has enough really changed?
Reporter: Lucy Adams
Producer: Rob Cave
Editor: Gail Champion
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest weather forecast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Broadcaster John Waite takes us on a journey to the arctic circle, where we encounter the ancient tradition of throat singing and uncover the fate of a lost ship and its crew. There's the art conservator who reveals Van Gogh's true colours; fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier gives us a couple of pointers on how he designed Madonna's famous cone shaped bra; Daljit Nagra on the power of poetry to dispel loneliness; learning to face a new challenge in later life, and why instead of believing in God, we're loving angels instead.
Lilian has concerns and Jim's arm is twisted
by Jeremy Front
based on Simon Brett's novel
Charles ..... Bill Nighy
Frances ..... Suzanne Burden
Maurice ..... Jon Glover
Geraldine ..... Amelia Bullmore
Milly ..... Rebecca Hamilton
Sam ..... George Watkins
Tony ..... Ewan Bailey
Will ..... Caolan McCarthy
Doug ..... Richard Pepple
D.I. Hadlow ..... Debra Baker
Directed by Sally Avens
Charles has eventually got a job in Hamlet but within a week the reality star playing Hamlet has been hospitalized and the one playing Ophelia found dead.
Charles may not have been a fan of their acting abilities but he doesn't want the show to close and he suspects foul play, but who would want to kill them?
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 8: Beginnings Two
Annika is struggling and in therapy, but still has to solve the murder of an industrialist at the Oslo theatre.
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
This week BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind programme announced the results of The Loneliness Experiment. It was a large survey conducted by the programme in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection. The largest survey into the issue of loneliness to date, said All in the Mind, while the accompanying BBC press release reported that “The survey results indicate that 16-24 year olds experience loneliness more often and more intensely than any other age group. 40% of respondents aged 16-24 reported feeling lonely often or very often, while only 29% of people aged 65-74 and 27% of people aged over 75 said the same.” In the editors' notes, the press release cautions that “This was a self-selecting sample, so people experiencing loneliness might have been more attracted to take part, inflating reported levels of loneliness.” But much of the reporting by other BBC outlets and the wider media was not so restrained. Tim Harford speaks to Deidre Toher from the University of the West of England about why the survey's results need careful interpretation.
Listeners have been asking us to explain the schools funding row. When headteachers marched in protest at school spending last week, the Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb, went on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to say "We are spending record amounts on our school funding. We are the third highest spender on education in the OECD”. BBC Education correspondent Sean Coughlan explains how he discovered that the OECD figure includes university tuition fees paid by students.
Is it true that "Polish Pilots Shot down 60% of German Aircraft on Battle of Britain Day"? Lizzie McNeill fact-checks this claim found on the side of a van.
New figures reveal that same-sex divorce rates are higher among women than among men. Tim Harford discusses why this may be with Marina Ashdade, economist at the Vancouver School of Economics and author of “Dirty Money”, a book about the economics of sex and love.
Plus, what makes a listener loyal? A nine-year debate rages on.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander
Image: A single fan sits in the stands before a college football game
Credit: Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Pictured: Charles Aznavour
Matthew Bannister on
Charles Aznavour, the French singer who "made despair popular". The lyricist Don Black, who worked with him, pays tribute.
Dr. Charles Kao, the Nobel prize winning physicist who developed fibre optic technology, so paving the way for the world wide web.
Elizabeth de Mauny Wainwright, the pioneering foreign correspondent who helped to smuggle an interview with Solzhenitsyn out of Soviet Russia.
John Cunliffe, the writer who delighted generations of children by creating Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim.
Interviewed guest: Don Black
Interviewed guest: Jeff Hetch
Interviewed guest: Marc de Mauny
Interviewed guest: Rachel Feldberg
Interviewed guest: Nigel P. Harris
Archive clips from:
The Typically French Armenian, Radio 4 02/02/1977; Desert Island Discs, Radio 4 01/01/1978; Aznavour at Eighty, Radio 2 12/03/2004; Treasure Islands, Radio 4 05/04/1992; Postman Pat’s Finding Day, BBC One 16/9/1981; Bookshelf, Radio 4 20/03/1986; Rosie and Jim, ITV 1991; Postman Pat Takes the Bus, BBC One 25/12/1991; Postman Pat’s Secret Birthday, BBC One 30/09/1981; Postman Pat’s Rainy Day, BBC One 07/10/1981; Charles Kao interview with FiberStory, 22/03/2010; Look East, BBC Norwich 06/10/2009; Look East, BBC Norwich 27/01/2006; Radio 4 News, 12/02/1974; Tomorrow's World, BBC One 1994.
How power moved from West to East after the 2008 financial crisis. Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, explores how Asian nations, especially China, demonstrated resilience, and rebounded quickly from the crisis. This led to a profound loss of faith in the ability of the Western leaders to manage the global economy effectively.
Interviewees:
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former finance minister, Nigeria
Nick Stern, former chief economist, The World Bank
Jeffrey Sachs, professor Columbia University
Kumi Naidoo, secretary general, Amnesty International
Willem Buiter, former Chief Economist, Citibank
Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator, The Financial Times
Kishore Mahbubani, professor, University of Singapore
Justin Lin, professor, Beijing University
Adam Tooze, author of 'Crashed'
Christine Lagarde, managing director, International Monetary Fund
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Preview of the week's politics with politicians, pundits and experts.
Antonia Quirke talks to Bradley Cooper about his re-make of A Star Is Born, which he co-wrote, directed and starred in. He reveals how the first ten minutes of the film came to him in a dream
Susie Boyt, author of My Judy Garland Life, and Professor Richard Dyer take us through the other three versions of A Star Is Born, and reveal the title of the movie that started it all.
Comedian Rosemary Fletcher takes a critical look at the phenomena known as "women in refrigerators".
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
Push Buttons: Laurie Taylor explores the pleasure, panic and the politics of pushing. The touch of a finger can summon a taxi, turn on a TV, call for an elevator or 'like' a Facebook post. But are buttons simply neutral and natural mechanisms which ease our daily lives? He's joined by Rachel Plotnick, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University, Steven Connor, Professor of English at the University of Cambridge and Barbara Speed, the opinion editor at the i newspaper.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Marsh Warbler. Marsh warblers are astonishing mimics and when you hear one singing you could be forgiven for thinking that there's a flock of different species in the bush.
News and current affairs programme, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
It’s nearly a century since the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was first conceived. It has gone on to become a multi-million pound industry categorising people from thinking introverts to feeling extroverts. But the mother-daughter team who came up with the idea had no psychological expertise and the test itself has no scientific basis, as the author Merve Emre explains to Tom Sutcliffe.
Our genes are the most important factor in shaping who we are, according to the psychologist Robert Plomin. He argues that DNA influences everything from physical traits to intelligence and personality, and that nature not only trumps nurture, but is the main driver of it too.
But the educationalist Naomi Eisenstadt argues that environment has a significant impact on children, especially in their early years. Eisenstadt was the first director of the Sure Start Unit when it was set up at the end of the 1990s and has been a government advisor on education and inequality. She questions whether there is any role for DNA testing in government policy.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Andrew Roberts' five essays on Churchill that tie in with his new book about the man (which is called Churchill: Walking With Destiny).
During his lifetime he experienced 'very many brushes with death, even in peacetime' - and this shaped his thinking and instincts, and his belief that he would one day save the country from disaster...
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Written by Henry James and dramatized by Amanda Dalton
Following her parents' divorce, six year old Maisie finds herself at the centre of their bitter struggle.
MAISIE.....Talia Barnett
BEALE FARANGE……Andonis Anthony
IDA FARANGE….Joanne Mitchell
MISS OVERMORE / MRS BEALE……Emma Naomi
MRS WIX….Julie Hesmondhalgh
HENRY JAMES.....John Lynch
Directed by Nadia Molinari
It’s 25 years since the film Bhaji on the Beach which looked at the challenges facing British Asian women, such as arranged marriage, divorce, sexism, and the pressure to conform. Now Yasmeen Khan takes three sets of South Asian mothers and daughters to the coast to find out if if the problems and concerns have changed.
As the women travel to their picnic by the sea in a minibus, we hear their stories.
Balwinder was born and brought up in Glasgow and drives a taxi. She was raised in a strict Sikh family and at the age of eighteen her parents arranged her marriage. “With Mum and Dad it was just, ‘You don’t need to study, you don’t need to worry about work, because the only thing you’re going to be doing is getting married.’”
Five years ago, Balwinder’s husband advised her to start taxi driving to support their family after his minor heart attack. “No, we’re Asian we don’t’ do things like that!” was Balwinder’s initial response. She now loves it and claims it’s given her far more confidence.
Balwinder’s 23 year old daughter Priya works in a call centre and is saving up to travel and see the world. She has made it clear an arranged marriage isn’t for her.
Shareefa was a social worker for nineteen years and, at an age when many people would be long into retirement, she’s still dedicating a lot of her time to community work. A Muslim, she came to Britain from Pakistan when she was in her twenties. Her family were very supportive and encouraged her to get a university education. She began challenging stereotypes as soon as she arrived. Her daughter Farzana has learned a lot from her Mum. She feels it’s important to learn to adapt and make changes where necessary. Farzana had an arranged marriage which she describes as “very, very, very unhappy”. She says the self-respect which she got from her parents, gave her the strength to get a divorce.
Reena grew up on her family’s tea plantation in Darjeeling and had very little say over her future. At the age of 16 her mother decided she should be married and soon after she joined her husband living in a small bedsit in London’s East End. Away from the influence of her mother, Reena rebelled and fully embraced the swinging sixties. She cut her hair short and wore mini dresses.
Her daughter Mimi, has taken on her Mum’s rebellion and works as a District Councillor supporting women and fighting causes she feels strongly about. She was recently given an OBE for her community work.
Produced by Kim Normanton.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Second series of the sitcom starring stand-up comic Josh Howie, coming to terms with the birth of his first child.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, an increase in bread consumption was blamed on tastier bread, while in Folkestone, the Grahams are having lunch.
Cast
Isabel ….. Keely Beresford
Charles ..... Rufus Wright
Connie ..... Darcey Brown
Esme ..... Katie Angelou
Gabriel ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Grace ..... Grace Doherty
Juliet ..... Lizzie Bourne
Sylvia ..... Joanna David
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Philippe Sands investigates the mysterious disappearance of senior Nazi Otto Wachter, who was indicted for mass murder. The Ratline is a story of a curious death, political intrigue, spies, Nazi hunters, shadowy forces in the Vatican and a son grappling with the sins of his father.
Philippe begins by travelling to a castle outside Vienna to meet an old man who believes his father was murdered, while a voice from the past offers up clues to how it might have happened.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Sound design: Neil Churchill
Research: James Everest and Lea Main-Klingst
Original music by Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita
The war on terror makes a sudden, terrifying appearance in smalltown Norway.
The shooting of a Moroccan waiter is Lillehammer's first murder in years. Detective Inge Olsen relishes the challenge but quickly finds herself out of her depth. This isn't a random racist attack or the response of a jealous husband, it's the work of the most ruthlessly efficient state security organisation in the world.
Inspired by real events that took place in the wake of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, One Night in Lillehammer constructs an intense crime story set in the short, violent Norwegian summer of 1973.
Writer: Hugh Costello
Director: Alasdair Cross
(10/13)
The first of this season's semi-finalists line up to compete for a place in the 2018 Counterpoint Final. Paul Gambaccini puts them through their paces on everything from French choral music and 19th century opera to boy bands and classic TV drama themes.
Taking part today are:
Liz Ashling, a nurse and midwife from Amersham in Buckinghamshire
David Greenwood, a project manager from Haslemere in Surrey
Jack Spearing, a student from North Hertfordshire.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
Have you seen the women who walk?
Actor and comedian Doon Mackichan goes for a wander with just a few of the women using walking as part of their art. What does this apparently simple activity mean for the work they create, for the places they traverse, and for the way we think about cities and bodies, space and power?
From the Romantic Poets to contemporary Psychogeography, art and writing focused on walking has been seen as the preserve of a relatively exclusive and almost entirely male group. But what stories and ideas, experiences and people does this tradition exclude? Doon seeks out some alternative explanations of what it means to move through the world and reflects on the significance and power of an activity as varied as the people who practice it.
In Tolworth, Kingston Upon Thames, Doon meets artist and poet Lucy Furlong and naturalist Alison Fure as they follow in the footsteps of local walker and nature writing icon Richard Jeffries. At Tooting Bec Lido, artist Amy Sharrocks introduces Doon to the pleasures of falling and the significance of urban water. In Manchester, Doon joins Dr Morag Rose and the Loiterers Resistance Movement for one of their monthly drifts across a changing city. And in Paris, Afghan performance artist Kubra Khademi recalls a walk that changed her life.
Also featuring Professor Dee Heddon, Dean of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities and the James Arnott Chair in Drama at University of Glasgow, co-founder with Misha Myers of The Walking Library.
Presenter: Doon Mackichan
Producer: Michael Umney
The programme is devised by Dr Jo Norcup and produced in association with Geography Workshop.
A Resonance production for BBC Radio 4
Image: SWIM, Amy Sharrocks (2007) photo by Ruth Corney
Aleks Krotoski explores the social and psychological impact of a life lived online, where maintaining a perfectly curated life is key and real life flaws are hidden...
Producer: Victoria McArthur
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Professor of Ignorance John Lloyd and his curator Lee Mack welcome comedian Athena Kugblenu; writer and podcaster Dolly Alderton; and Artificial Intelligence expert Sir Nigel Shadbolt.
This week, the Museum’s Guest Committee opt for the cheapest item on a wedding list, celebrate the triumph of a machine over the best chess player in the world and feel vegetarian nostalgia for corned beef.
The show was researched by Mike Turner and Emily Jupitus of QI.
The Producers were Richard Turner and Anne Miller.
A BBC Studios production
Oliver attempts to be supportive and Tom has an awkward encounter
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MP and historian Kwasi Kwarteng claims the British Empire is all around us today and in this series he sets out to look for it in the UK’s monuments, people - and in its contested memories.
In ‘Empire of the Seas’, he’s in Bristol, where he believes the British Empire really began with the voyage of John Cabot 500 years ago. The explorer’s reputation in the city has gone up and down over the years as Bristol re-assesses its imperial past. Kwasi asks how people feel the presence of empire now, especially in the inner-city’s multi-ethnic communities. In Glasgow, ‘Second city of Empire’, Kwasi explains how it profited handsomely from imperial trade. He also discovers that Glasgow has been slower than other port-cities to question the origins of its imperial wealth. The industries connected with the colonies have long gone. But he does get to visit one workplace which continues the city’s nautical traditions.
Producer Gareth Jones for BBC Wales
Can the Conservatives ever win over non-white support? Black and ethnic minority communities are as diverse in their values and beliefs as the rest of the population, yet there is a history of BAME voters overwhelmingly supporting the Labour Party. Recent studies show almost two-thirds continue to back Labour while just over a fifth support the Conservatives. Long-term this is a headache for the Tories, as the proportion of the population who identify as BAME is expected to double to 25% over the next thirty years. Professor Rosie Campbell looks at the potential political impact of ethnic minority voters and what the parties can do to do win the trust and votes of communities which may in future, decide who governs Britain.
Producer: Adam Bowen
A convent of Mexican nuns is helping to save the one of the world's most endangered and most remarkable amphibians: the axolotl, a truly bizarre creature of serious scientific interest worldwide and an animal of deep-rooted cultural significance in Mexico.
The Sisters of Immaculate Health rarely venture out of their monastery in the central Mexican town of Patzcuaro. Yet they have become the most adept and successful breeders of their local species of this aquatic salamander. Scientists marvel at their axolotl-breeding talents and are now working with them to save the animal from extinction. BBC News science correspondent Victoria Gill is allowed into the convent to discover at least some of the nun's secrets and explores why axolotls are a group of salamanders so important to protect from evolutionary oblivion.
Axolotls are able to regrow lost limbs and other body parts. As a result, the aquatic salamanders are of great interest to researchers worldwide who study them in the hope of imitating the trick: to grow tissues and organs for medicine. The nuns also began to breed and rear their axolotls for medical reasons. They use the salamander as the key ingredient in an ancient Mexican remedy for coughs and other respiratory illnesses. The Sisters of Immaculate Health sell the medicinal syrup to the public. As well as being the basis for a popular folk remedy all over Mexico, the axolotl is also the manifestation of one of the ancient Aztecs’ most important gods.
The big problem is that all species of axolotl are critically endangered. The nun's species is known locally as the achoque. It only lives in nearby Lake Patzcuaro and it has been pushed to the edge of extinction because of pollution and introduced fish species. This is why the sisters began to breed the animals in the convent about 30 years ago. They were advised to do this by a friar who was also a trained biologist because the supply of achoques from Lake Patzcuaro’s fishermen diminished. In the 1980s, 20 tonnes of axolotls were fished from the lake every year. Today they are very few left in the wild.
Biologists from the nearby Michoacan University discovered that the nuns are expert breeders of the species and have started to collaborate with them in a conservation programme to make the Lake Patzcuaro an axolotl-friendly habitat once more and (if necessary) to introduce convent-bred animals to restore the lake’s tiny population. The project is being supported and funded by the UK's Chester Zoo. The zoo's curator of amphibians Dr Gerardo Garcia visits the convent with Victoria, and demonstrates some of the technical help being offered to the nuns. For example, he micro-chips and takes DNA samples from the nun's breeding salamanders so the sisters can refine their breeding success even further.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
This eagerly-anticipated new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ follows nine strangers with a variety of differing emotional and physical needs united at a health-and-wellness retreat that hides a dark agenda beneath it’s glamorous façade.
Romantic Novelist Frances Welty, for example, is there to mend a broken heart, a bad back and a wounded ego. The other eight guests, though seemingly fine on the outside are all harbouring ghosts or pain of some kind and they arrive at Tranquillum House for a little restorative break.
Tranquillum House, however, is no ordinary health resort. It is owned and run by an equally wounded and strange lady who is determined that these nine perfect strangers' lives will never be the same again after the ten days that lie ahead.
Kerry Fox reads Liane Moriarty’s long awaited new page turner.
Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright talk about the Multicultural London English (MLE) dialect with Somali born journalist Ismail Einashe. Listen to this with your fam and you'll know what Stormzy means when he talks about this wasteman ting, and find out how MLE speakers are using new forms of grammar. Producer Sally Heaven.
Andrew McGibbon analyses great artists at a significant time in their careers, but from the perspective of someone who worked for them, inspired them, employed them or even did their job for them while no one was looking.
Naomi Sorkin was Lindsay Kemp's ballerina on an outrageous European tour with the mime and dance impresario in the early 1980s. She joined The American Ballet company in New York, one of the world's finest, becoming a highly acclaimed leading soloist. But tiring of the strictures of ballet company life, Naomi decided to thrust herself into Lindsay's colourful, joyously camp and profoundly sexual mime theatre - a total change of direction.
Today, she teaches ballet and is a high end interior designer - but, back then, Naomi's decision to dance improvised ballet with Lindsay's touring company forced her to reassess her career by embracing Kemp's whirlwind of mime, dance and on stage debauchery.
It was also Lindsay Kemp who famously taught David Bowie his most striking moves and co-created with him the famous Ziggy Stardust stage show. Kemp continues to tour across the world.
Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon
Produced by Nick Romero and Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the Dupont's lark of southern Europe and North Africa. The European home for the Duponts lark is the arid grasslands of south-east Spain where Spaghetti Westerns were once filmed. The Dupont's lark is notoriously difficult to find as it skulks between tussocks of dry but at dawn and again at sunset, male Dupont's larks emerge from their hiding places and perform display flights over their grassy territories. As they rise into the sky their song is a melancholy refrain, which once heard is rarely forgotten.
News and current affairs programme, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
How do social media and friendship influence the development of loneliness? Claudia Hammond analyses the results of the BBC Loneliness Experiment.
Academics from the Universities of Manchester, Brunel and Exeter, supported by Wellcome developed an online survey to investigate loneliness, launched on All in the Mind in February. 55,000 people took part and answered questions such as what people look for in friends, how they trust other people and use social media.
Professor Pam Qualter from the University of Manchester reveals the effects of discrimination on loneliness, how people who feel lonely use social media and the most unhelpful suggestions people make.
Professor Manuela Barreto is interested in the complex relationships which make people less lonely and discusses loneliness in marriage and parenthood.
Andrew Roberts' five essays on Churchill that tie in with his new book about the man:
He was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and was often derided and neglected by him. But - 'his father's influence was to remain with him for the next seventy years'. And what did this influence mean exactly?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Written by Henry James and dramatized by Amanda Dalton
Maisie forms a strong bond with her new governess Miss Overmore but everything changes when she meets Maisie's father.
MAISIE.....Talia Barnett
BEALE FARANGE……Andonis Anthony
MISS OVERMORE / MRS BEALE……Emma Naomi
MRS WIX….Julie Hesmondhalgh
SIR CLAUDE……Rudi Dharmalingham
Directed by Nadia Molinari
The summer of 2003 saw the largest number of deaths ever recorded in a UK heatwave - but by 2040 climate models predict the extreme summer temperatures experienced then will be normal. We will also be experiencing colder winters, and droughts and floods will become more common.
Our infrastructure, housing, water, sewerage, transport and public buildings are not designed for such conditions. Gaia Vince asks how we can adapt and prepare our cities, where most people live and work, for the new normal weather conditions.
New buildings in temperate climates are now designed with keeping us warm in mind, better insulation, more efficient heating and airtight glazing. However when it comes to overheating these measures designed to keep out the cold can be part of the problem.
Can we adapt solutions from other countries where extreme heat is a more usual seasonal event?
And how to keep cool on public transport? The London underground now experiences extreme summer temperatures even when it's cooler above ground.
We also look at our lifestyles. Will we simply have to change the way we organise our day to keep out of the heat? Is the real answer for mad dogs and Englishmen to take a siesta?
Rapper, mother, director, refugee and activist - Maya Arulpragasam is one of Britain's most successful and provocative working-class artists - M.I.A.
Ten years on from the release of M.I.A’s single Paper Planes - a global hit blending agitprop pop, satire and punk - comedy writer Jack Rooke profiles his idol’s artistry, from her activism to the controversies, while telling his own story of teenage grief, super fandom and how Maya's work inspired him and many others to turn adversity into hope.
In 2008, the global financial crash took hold and Hilary Clinton lost the Democrats' presidential candidacy vote to Barack Hussein Obama. Meanwhile, M.I.A. saw in the autumn of 2008 with a monumental transition from respected hip-hop, electronic artist to massive global pop-star. Jay-Z and Kanye West sampled Paper Planes, it featured in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire and sales peaked on Sunday 28th September 2008, going top 20 in the UK and racing up the Billboard top 10. It was the same day Obama celebrated the success of his first presidential TV debate.
And that very evening, Jack Rooke’s life fell apart.
He shares a story of adversity and hope, in which a grief-stricken teenage boy finds the spirit of punk and outspokenness in the work of a Sri Lankan-British rapper.
Fulfilling his dream to make a documentary about this fascinating, outspoken and often controversial artist, he’s on a mission to interview the notoriously elusive M.I.A. But will he manage it?
With contributions from journalist and broadcaster Kieran Yates, director Steve Loveridge and producer Steve Mackay
Produced by Rose De Larrabeiti and Jack Howson
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, a cavalryman called Fowler was discovered after being presumed dead since August 1914, and in Folkestone, Florrie has an unlikely visitor.
Cast
Florrie ..... Claire Rushbrook
Daniel ..... Jonathan Bailey
Eric ..... Paul Rainbow
Johnnie ..... Paul Ready
Kitty ..... Ami Metcalf
Norman ..... Sean Baker
Peter ..... Bea White
Arthur ..... Ryan Whittle
Ted ..... Jonny Holden
Wolfgang ..... Atilla Akinci
Isaac ..... Scout Ready
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Phone-in edition of Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Otto and Charlotte Wachter climb to power, after Hitler annexes Austria, with Otto at his side. Otto's job takes the family to a palace in Krakow and on to Galicia, where his story collides with those of the family of presenter Philippe Sands. This is the continuing investigation into how a leading Nazi evaded justice.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Sound design: Neil Churchill
Research: James Everest and Lea Main-Klingst
Original music by Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita
An original mystery drama featuring documentary interviews. In October 2014, reports of a suspected Russian submarine in the Swedish archipelago sparked an international hunt. Lucas Almquist disappeared at that time.
Now, two years later, Lucas’s sister Lina sets out to find him, and discover the truth about the mystery submarines. Along the way, she meets a retired naval commander and an expert in Unidentified Submerged Objects.
Cast:
Lina Almquist - Ellie Piercy
Inspector Ragnarsson - David Menkin
Maya and Tove - Marion Bailey
With thanks to Janne Westerlund, Sven Kviman, Per Andersson, Clas Svahn, Freddie Petersson, Max Bergström, Marie Wennersten, Malcolm Dixelius, Magnus Lindman and Magnus Berg.
Sound Design by Steve Bond
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Produced and Directed by Joby Waldman
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Somethin Else production for BBC Radio 4
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. That's certain to impact on the weather we experience in Britain. Physicist Helen Czerski and an icebreaker full of scientists have just spent six weeks at the North Pole conducting experiments to find out much more about the impacts of this extraordinary change to our planet.
Join Helen on the Arctic ice floes for the very latest research on the rapid changes to the far north.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Photo by Mario Hoppmann
Michael Rosen discusses slogan T-shirts with fashion historian Amber Butchart and fashion identity commentator Caryn Franklin. What do the words we wear say about us?
Slogan clothing is having - what fashion insiders might call - ‘a bit of a moment’ right now. From longstanding British fashion house Burberry with its new contemporary text based monogram to US designer Tory Burch’s political ‘Vote’ print, the slogan t-shirt is quite literally making a statement. And it’s not just on the catwalk - we’ve all seen them – and many of us are wearing them – from ‘Nike’s ‘old school ‘Just Do It’ to ‘This is What a Feminist Looks Like’ and these chest worn or cap emblazoned messages can reveal much about the identity of the wearer. They can tell us who they are - or - who they want to be. They can reveal hopes, dreams, political views. They are an intriguing insight into the concerns and obsessions of our twenty-first century society. Or are they just a bit of word play and fashionable fun?
Produced by Nicola Humphries
Journalist Grace Dent and comedy writer Sian Harries talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books, and in doing so they talk about grieving, Alzheimer’s and how to be a good woman.. Books are: Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans and Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.
Producer Beth O'Dea
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Multi-award winning Mark Watson is assisted and impeded in equal measure by henchmen Sam Simmons and Will Adamsdale, as he revives his quest to make some sort of sense of life against the backdrop of a world that, in recent times, has come to seem even more peculiar than usual.
The tenacious trio take on some of human life's central topics - family, spirituality, Scandinavia. Watson peddles his unique, high-octane stand-up while Simmons and Adamsdale chip in with interjections which include (but are not limited to) music, shopping lists, life advice, stunts, avant-garde offerings and divvy interactions.
Expect big laughs, controlled chaos and an attempt to answer the one question none of us can quite escape from - what exactly is going on?
This week, Watson and his team consider work and play. How can we find the right balance between them? Do we get more out of life from flogging ourselves at the coalface, or messing about at the coalface, or do we not even have to go to the coalface at all?
Mark Watson is a multi-award winning comedian, including the inaugural If.Comedy Panel Prize 2006. He is assisted by Sam Simmons, winner of the Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award 2015 and Will Adamsdale who won the Perrier Comedy Award in 2004.
Produced by Lianne Coop
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4
Justin puts his foot down and Peggy makes a promise
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
For many NHS patients, being referred for private treatment can sound quite appealing; you'll often be seen and treated quickly, with a more luxurious menu option to peruse in the comfort of your private room.
But when it comes to the medical treatment, are patients getting the same level of care? Are private patients just as safe as those in the NHS? And when things do go wrong, how willing is the private sector to admit to mistakes?
In this programme we hear from families whose loved ones died following surgery in a private hospital that was paid for by the NHS. The deaths reveal how some private hospitals have no emergency cover for when things go wrong.
To secure a contract with the NHS, private providers must deliver services to an equal standard of care. In this episode, File on 4 asks whether the NHS can be sure its patients are safe in private hospitals.
Reporter: Alistair Jackson
Producer: Kate West
Editor: Gail Champion
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Dr Mark Porter goes on a weekly quest to demystify the health issues that perplex us.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
This eagerly-anticipated new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ follows nine strangers with a variety of differing emotional and physical needs united at a health-and-wellness retreat that hides a dark agenda beneath it’s glamorous façade.
Romantic Novelist Frances Welty, for example, is there to mend a broken heart, a bad back and a wounded ego. The other eight guests, though seemingly fine on the outside are all harbouring ghosts or pain of some kind and they arrive at Tranquillum House for a little restorative break.
Tranquillum House, however, is no ordinary health resort. It is owned and run by an equally wounded and strange lady who is determined that these nine perfect strangers' lives will never be the same again after the ten days that lie ahead.
Kerry Fox reads Liane Moriarty’s long awaited new page turner.
Comedy drama from award-winning comedian Josie Long about a young woman trying to build a new, more fulfilling life for herself in Glasgow.
Josie swears off romance and almost imediately finds herself in a budding relationship with Darren's former flatmate, Roddy.
Based on characters from the short films "Romance and Adventure" and "Let's Go Swimming" by Josie Long and Douglas King.
Josie: Josie Long
Darren: Darren Osborne
Roddy: Sanjeev Kohli
Kerry: Hatty Ashdown
Eleanor: Clare Grogan
Chris: Michael Bertenshaw
Janie: Georgie Glen
Mona: Rebecca Hamilton
Fraser: Chris Pavlo
Written by Josie Long
Producer: Colin Anderson
A BBC Radio Comedy Production
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Red-legged Partridge. The red-legged partridge, which are sometimes called French partridges, are native to Continental Europe and were successfully introduced to the UK as a game bird in the 18th century. Seen from a distance, crouching in an arable field, they look like large clods of earth, but up close they have beautiful plumage.
News and current affairs programme, including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day
Backstage access to director Kwame Kwei Armah's debut at the Young Vic - his version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with music and lyrics by Shaina Taub.
Kwame Kwei Armah is facing high expectations as the new Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre in London. He has been away, directing in the USA for five years. While there, he took the cast of his Bob Marley musical One Love onto the streets and transformed the bullet-proof glass and bricked-up windows of Center Stage Theatre in Baltimore into a powerhouse for both the creative community and local residents.
He returns to an artistic scene that is much more diverse and representative than when he left the UK - yet society is in political and social turmoil.
What will he bring to the Young Vic?
The programme follows every aspect of production - from the women building sets for his debut to the actors singing Shakespeare into soul music and show tunes for his version of Twelfth Night.
He shares his vision on how to make the Young Vic an important theatre for writers, alongside its established credentials for directors, and offers a frank take on the expectations facing him as the first black Artistic Director of an established British theatrical institution.
Produced and presented by Peter Curran
A Foghorn Production for BBC Radio 4
Andrew Roberts' five essays on Churchill that tie in with his new book about the man:
He had a dazzling network of friends and was lynchpin of the Other Club - and moreover 'he had a tremendous capacity for friendship and he took his friends from an eclectic group of people'. So, who were these people?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Written by Henry James and dramatised by Amanda Dalton
With both parents remarried Maisie's confusion grows ever greater as she struggles to gain some stability.
MAISIE.....Talia Barnett
BEALE FARANGE……Andonis Anthony
IDA FARANGE….Joanne Mitchell
MISS OVERMORE / MRS BEALE……Emma Naomi
MRS WIX….Julie Hesmondhalgh
SIR CLAUDE.....Rudi Dharmalingham
Directed by Nadia Molinari
A mother and the daughter she adopted from Vietnam reflect on who is more concerned about her Vietnamese identity. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Stanley Baxter’s first story in his new Playhouse season goes back in time to 1949, when a young man, an assistant director on Whisky Galore, falls in love with a local girl on the Hebridean island of Barra where filming is taking place.
Sixty six years later, his memories of that golden time come flooding back.
Stanley Baxter plays the old man who abandoned a career in film to stay on the island with the woman he loved, and now faces a sad farewell. The other members of the company are June Watson, Scott Hoatson, Samara Maclaren and Tracy Wiles.
Cast:
John Anderson...............Stanley Baxter
Peggy Anderson.............June Watson
Young John /
PC Macrae......................Scott Hoatson
Catriona /
Young Peggy..................Samara Maclaren
Mary...............................Tracy Wiles
Written by Michael Chaplin
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, the Hindenburg Line was effectively smashed, while in Folkestone, Nell Kingsley’s defences are lowered.
Cast
Nell ..... Alice St Clair
Adeline ..... Helen Schlesinger
Annie ..... Kathleen Cranham
Forrester ..... Nigel Hastings
Phyllis ..... Christine Absalom
Patrick ..... Jonny Holden
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
The criminal charge sheet against senior Nazi Otto Wachter. Whilst Charlotte Wachter and her children were spending the summer in Zell am See, Otto was in Lemberg overseeing the 'Grosse Aktion' - the mass deportation of Jews to concentration camps. Philippe Sands interviews two Nazi hunters from the US Department of Justice to go through the evidence against Otto. Meanwhile Otto's son Horst continues to maintain his father's innocence.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Sound design: Neil Churchill
Research: James Everest and Lea Main-Klingst
Original music by Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita
Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly.
Episode 3.
Frank gets to meet his childhood hero. But this footballing God has feet of clay.
FRANK................ David Schofield
SARAH................Kathryn Hunt
JOHNNIE ………Steve Evets
JASON …………..Rob Ward
KENDRICK…… Reuben Johnson
D C MARK TURNER ….William Fox
Director/Producer Gary Brown
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
A topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Andy Zaltzman and Anuvab Pal trace the rise and fall of the British Empire by looking at what's been left behind, in a combination of location recording and stand-up comedy.
In this first episode, Andy and Anuvab wander around London, from the docks the trading ships originally departed from in the east of London, to the final resting place of Empire in the west, via the central strongholds of power in Westminster and the City.
What and who have we chosen to remember, and what have we decided to forget? With supporting evidence from the India papers in the British library - seven miles of documents - Andy and Anuvab offer up contrasting perspectives on the shared history between Britain and India.
Andy Zaltzman is a comedian best-known for The Bugle, his weekly satirical podcast. He is a regular performer on Radio 4 both as a guest on programmes like The Now Show or as presenter of his own shows such as My Life As A... .
Anuvab Pal is a comedian who first appeared on Radio 4 on an episode of Just A Minute recorded in Mumbai. In 2018 he made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, and appeared on Radio 4's Fresh from The Fringe and BBC Two's Big Asian Stand-Up. He is Andy's regular co-presenter on The Bugle podcast.
Written and performed by Andy Zaltzman and Anuvab Pal.
Produced by Ed Morrish
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
Freddie loses his temper and Helen kicks off her new hobby
When Stig Abell was in his mid-twenties he went through a period where he would wake up in the middle of the night uncontrollably anxious and found reading, especially the novels of PG Wodehouse, provided respite. In this special programme Stig goes on a journey to try and understand what it is about reading which can improve mental well-being, and talks to writers Marian Keyes and Laura Freeman, and comedian Russell Kane about the role reading has played in helping their own. He visits Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to talk to Dr Pravir Sharma about the efficacy of reading as a treatment for mental health conditions and peer support worker Eugene Egan, a former service user, whose involvement in the Trust's Reading Well group has contributed to his recovery amid other positive outcomes.
Marian Keyes suffered a period of debilitating, clinical depression. As she recovered she turned to writers such as Margery Allingham and Agatha Christie, finding the gentle worlds they recreated, in which there was always a resolution, made her feel the world could be a safe place again.
Russell Kane stood out as an avid reader growing up in a working class family where reading – especially for boys - was frowned upon. Now a highly successful comedian, reading a wide range of fiction is an essential part of his daily life and helps with the stresses of performing.
Laura Freeman was diagnosed as an anorexic in her early teens. She became so thin she was forced to stay in bed, and eating small meals was daily painful hurdle, until she discovered that reading about food could help her to overcome her fear of it.
Eugene Egan is a former inpatient with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust whom he now works for as a peer support worker. It was while on a mental health ward that he started reading Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus's travels related to his own periods of homelessness - and started a passion for reading which he continues to maintain his recovery.
Dr Pravir Sharma is a consultant psychiatrist at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust which supported the creation of Reading Well groups.
Presenter: Stig Abell
Producer: Hilary Dunn
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Shiv Malik, Melanie Philips, Tim Stanley and Giles Fraser.
The Last Poets discuss why they're still performing after 50 years.
The Last Poets were borne out of the origins of the civil rights movement in the United States. They have been writing and performing together in various formations ever since the late 1960s. Abiodon Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan reveal the motivation behind the collective's work and why they feel they're message about black empowerment is as relevant today as it was in 1968.
Recorded at the Shambala Festival.
Producer: Peter Snowdon.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
This eagerly-anticipated new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ follows nine strangers with a variety of differing emotional and physical needs united at a health-and-wellness retreat that hides a dark agenda beneath it’s glamorous façade.
Romantic Novelist Frances Welty, for example, is there to mend a broken heart, a bad back and a wounded ego. The other eight guests, though seemingly fine on the outside are all harbouring ghosts or pain of some kind and they arrive at Tranquillum House for a little restorative break.
Tranquillum House, however, is no ordinary health resort. It is owned and run by an equally wounded and strange lady who is determined that these nine perfect strangers' lives will never be the same again after the ten days that lie ahead.
Kerry Fox reads Liane Moriarty’s long awaited new page turner.
Stand-up series exploring British Chinese culture, from BBC New Comedy Award finalist Ken Cheng. In this episode, Ken examines attitudes towards the Arts.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios production.
US Comedian Maysoon Zayid reflects on putting her Muslim culture and disability to work in life and acclaimed stand-up comedy.
Maysoon Zayid founded the Arab-American comedy festival and gave one of the most watched TED talks on the past few years on her life as a raucously funny and clever stand-up comedian, and a Muslim woman with cerebral palsy living in New Jersey.
Over the past year, she has been forced to employ personal security for some of her gigs because of specific threats. Here, she gives a hilarious tongue-lashing to the culture of prejudice, riffing on the fact that nearly all disabled roles on American TV and Film are played by able-bodied actors.
Maysoon grew up in New Jersey, but spent every summer with her grandparents in the Palestinian territories watching a tatty-but-loved version of Sesame Street and Arab soap-operas. Her dream was to be a New York daytime soap actress but, after hovering in the background as an extra for eighteen months, realised that her type of people were stand-up comedians, not actors. She's currently working on her own online family comedy series set during Ramadan.
A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4.
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the northern jacana at home in Central American wetlands. A cross between a coot and a plover, northern Jacanas are found in swamps in Central America and Mexico. They're long legged birds with a black head and neck, and a chestnut body with yellow highlights. And, northern jacanas are polyandrous; the females have more than one partner. Males build platforms of floating vegetation and attract females by calling or posturing. If a female mates with a male, he may use his platform as a nest for her eggs. The female doesn't care for the eggs, but goes in search of up to three other mates. The result is that a single female may have several males raising different clutches of eggs for her and each clutch may contain the eggs of more than one male!
News and current affairs programme, including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day
In the first of two programmes marking In Our Time's 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's versions of history, starting with the English Plantagenets. His eight plays from Richard II to Richard III were written out of order, in the Elizabethan era, and have had a significant impact on the way we see those histories today. In the second programme, Melvyn discusses the Roman plays.
The image above is of Richard Burton (1925 - 1984) as Henry V in the Shakespeare play of the same name, from 1951
With
Emma Smith
Gordon McMullan
and
Katherine Lewis
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Andrew Roberts' five essays on Churchill that tie in with his new book about the man:
'While researching my biography of him, I found scores of occasions when Churchill burst into tears. Including dozens when he was prime minister..' Not only this, but was there a method or aim behind the tears?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Written by Henry James dramatised by Amanda Dalton
Maisie has to make a difficult decision when her parents decide to pursue their own desires.
MAISIE.....Talia Barnett
BEALE FARANGE.....Andonis Anthony
MISS OVERMORE / MRS BEALE.....Emma Naomi
MRS WIX……Julie Hesmondhalgh
SIR CLAUDE……Rudi Dharmalingham
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Correspondents around the world tell their stories and examine news developments in their region.
Artist and photographer Zoe Buckman recently installed a giant neon uterus with boxing gloves overlooking Hollywood. It’s feminist and it’s fierce.
In the wake of a turbulent year for women and women’s rights, Zoe sets off to find out how other female artists around the world are reacting and responding to sexual discrimination and violence.
Installation artist Mireille Honein suspended wedding dresses by nooses on Beriuit's beachfront to draw attention to a law which allowed rapists to escape punishment if they married their victim.
The Saudi artist Ms Saffaa plasters walls with murals and portraits of Saudi activists in protest at her country’s guardianship laws.
In her studio in Brooklyn, Zoe brings together artist and photographer Lorna Simpson, and sculptor Patricia Cronin in a conversation about how far art can go in braking boundaries, if it can make others listen, and if it can bring about change.
Presenter: Zoe Buckman
Producer: Georgia Catt
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, CW Daniel, the publisher of Despised and Rejected, was fined £460, while in Folkestone, Alice has a red letter day.
Cast
Alice ..... Claire Louise Cordwell
Bill ..... Ben Crowe
Esme ..... Katie Angelou
Walter ..... Joseph Kloska
Susan ..... Jane Slavin
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
The war is over and Otto Wachter has disappeared. Whilst his friends are committing suicide or being tried for mass murder Otto has escaped high into the mountains with the help of a young SS soldier. Meanwhile his wife Charlotte is working on getting him out of Austria. Barrister and author Philippe Sands continues his investigation into how a leading Nazi evaded justice.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Sound design: Neil Churchill
Research: James Everest and Lea Main-Klingst
Original music by Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita
The lights have gone out and nobody is at home. Or are they?
This charming supernatural thriller about a haunted house with unreliable lighting is a 1920’s classic radio drama originally written by Reginald Berkeley and performed for the BBC Home Service. But it’s not just the lighting that’s unreliable in this new production. All is not what it seems…
Starring Gerard Mansell and Tony Whitby.
Mrs Vyner… Clare Lawson Dick
Philiss Vyner… Monica Sims
Henry… Gerard Mansell
Mortimer… Tony Whitby
Vyner… Ian McIntyre
Professor Urquhart… David Hatch
Executive Producer: Gwyneth Williams
Clare Balding meets the writer Tom Cox for a walk on Dartmoor, the setting for many of his musings on walking and nature that are a humorous sometimes spooky take on the countryside and the creatures that inhabit it. His book 21st Century Yokel is full of Devon folklore, haunted landscapes and humorous observations about the people and animals he encounters. Their walk takes them from Manaton Church near Bovey Tracey up to Bowerman's Nose and Hound Tor, stopping off to pay their respects at the grave of Kitty Jay a 17th century farm girl along the way.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
With Antonia Quirke
Rupert Everett approaches the final chapter on his passion project about Oscar Wilde as The Happy Prince is released for home entertainment. He reflects on a journey that has lasted years and on the reviews and reveals why you should listen to the birdsong on the soundtrack and the personal significance it has for him
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
The mood at Hardacre’s advertising agency is black. After losing the biggest account of their careers – the Cosmos X10 smartphone – the team have slid back down the greasy pole and find themselves once again serving only the smallest and least interesting clients around.
While Joe (Mathew Baynton), Amanda (Josie Lawrence), and Hardacre (Nigel Havers) continue to feel sorry for themselves, Teddy (Ramus Hardiker) is determined to lift their spirits. Appointing himself chief morale officer, he sets out to brighten the mood at the agency with a succession of increasingly ill-advised morale-boosting schemes.
What starts with an innocuous Hawaiian shirt day soon snowballs into a team-building and bonding exercise none of the staff will ever forget.
Cast:
Nigel Havers - Hardacre
Mathew Baynton - Joe
Josie Lawrence - Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker - Teddy
Olivia Nixon - Laura
Holly Morgan - WPC and Crystal
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
Elizabeth is on the warpath and Alistair comes to a decision
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
Civil engineers would argue they are the unsung heroes of the railways, roads and bridges we all take for granted. But building major infrastructure projects is a complicated business. So how do you go about putting up a bridge? Are you limited by engineering or economics? Evan Davis tries to find the answer from three civil engineers.
GUESTS
Mike Glover, Arup Fellow
Louise Hardy, Civil Engineer, Non-Executive Director Sirius Minerals and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation
Katy Toms, Senior Engineer, WSP Engineering Consultancy.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
This eagerly-anticipated new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ follows nine strangers with a variety of differing emotional and physical needs united at a health-and-wellness retreat that hides a dark agenda beneath it’s glamorous façade.
Romantic Novelist Frances Welty, for example, is there to mend a broken heart, a bad back and a wounded ego. The other eight guests, though seemingly fine on the outside are all harbouring ghosts or pain of some kind and they arrive at Tranquillum House for a little restorative break.
Tranquillum House, however, is no ordinary health resort. It is owned and run by an equally wounded and strange lady who is determined that these nine perfect strangers' lives will never be the same again after the ten days that lie ahead.
Kerry Fox reads Liane Moriarty’s long awaited new page turner.
The second series of Hilary Lyon's comedy sees Trisha (Hilary Maclean) and her big sister Clare (Hilary Lyon) grappling with yet more change and upheaval while still serving up the best coffee in Edinburgh.
Clare has great expectations of expanding Cafe Culture, although Trisha has rather more pressing, personal matters on her mind.
Lizzie (Pearl Appleby) harbours dreams of becoming a chef, while eccentric temporary cook Minty (June Watson) drives Clare to Health and Safety distraction.
Can a good-looking man on a bike (Derek Riddell) help save the day on a soaking wet Sunday when the team is faced with a sea of folk in kilts?
Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producers: Gordon Kennedy and Moray Hunter
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
The latest shipping forecast
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Richard Reddie from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the widespread marine species, the white tern. Also known as fairy terns or angel terns, these are very slender, long-winged birds, brilliant white except for a black, slightly-upturned bill, dark eyes and very short blue-grey legs. In flight, their wings appear almost translucent. For such a delicate-looking bird, they have rather harsh calls. Unusually they lay their eggs on a bare branch. The female tern selects a small groove in the bark or on the leaf-stalks of palms where her single egg will be most secure. Here, on its tropical tightrope, the egg is safer from ground predators like rats and because there's no nesting material, there's less chance of parasites.
News and current affairs programme, including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day
Andrew Roberts' five essays on Churchill that tie in with his new book about the man:
'If he hadn't been a politician - he would have made a fine living as a stand-up comedian...' But surely there was a purpose behind the jokes, quips and witticisms? And to what end?
Producer Duncan Minshull
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
Written by Henry James and dramatised by Amanda Dalton.
Maisie travels to Paris with Sir Claude but when Mrs Beale arrives she has to make a difficult decision about her future.
MAISIE.....Talia Barnett
MRS WIX……Julie Hesmondhalgh
SIR CLAUDE……Rudi Dharmalingham
MISS OVERMORE / MRS BEALE.....Emma Naomi
HENRY JAMES.....John Lynch
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Winner of this year's prestigious BBC/RGS dream journey award is Paralympian Karen Darke who rides along the length of Australia's Murray River on hand-cycle
Fresh from competing in the para-triathlon at this year's Commonwealth Games, Rio gold medallist Karen Darke heads for Australia's Snowy Mountains and the source of the 'Mighty' River Murray. On hand-cycle she takes a very personal journey down along its 2000 miles from source to sea.
She reflects on the challenges facing the river as it flows through a drought stricken landscape and she also sees the river as a metaphor for her own fragility- Karen is paralysed from the chest downwards - as she contemplates the end of her athletic career.
Burnt out by the pressure she's experienced in pushing herself to achieve, this cycle journey alongside the powerful and vulnerable Murray River makes her more aware than ever of her own vulnerability. Can something be learned from the river and it’s people about how to maintain the ability to flow and flourish whilst still delivering?
If you'd like to apply for next years Journey of a Lifetime Award and make a feature fore Radio 4 about your adventure you have until 9th November. Look for Journey of a Lifetime on the Royal Geographical Society website. www.rgs.org/journeyofalifetime
Henry is preparing for a lecture tour of America and is desperately trying to persuade Vera to accompany him. But first he must negotiate his fiftieth birthday.
He is hoping to ignore it, but Vera has organised one of those vulgar Surprise Parties and everybody will be there - Lytton, Barrington, Hilda, DH Lollipop, his wife, Frieda and Venus, who sneaks in without an invitation and makes a nuisance of herself in the bushes.
By the end of the party a seven week lecture tour in America seems quite appealing.
Cast:
ANNOUNCER.......................................................NIGEL PLANER
VERA SACKCLOTH-VEST...............................MIRIAM MARGOLYES
HENRY MICKLETON........................................JONATHAN COY
GINNY FOX..........................................................ALISON STEADMAN
LIONEL FOX........................................................NIGEL PLANER
MRS GOSLING....................................................ALISON STEADMAN
MR GOSLING......................................................NIGEL PLANER
LYTTON SCRATCHEY......................................NIGEL PLANER
D.H.LOLLIPOP...................................................JOHN SESSIONS
FRIEDA LOLLIPOP...........................................MORWENNA BANKS
HILDA MATTHEWSON....................................MORWENNA BANKS
VENUS TRADUCES............................................MORWENNA BANKS
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, On this day in 1918, Folkestone stepped up its Feed the Guns campaign, while Victor Lumley has a headache.
Cast
Victor ..... Joel MacCormack
Daniel ..... Jonathan Bailey
Isabel ..... Keely Beresford
Kitty ..... Ami Metcalf
Peter ..... Bea White
Phyllis ..... Christine Absalom
Written by Shaun McKenna
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Radio 4's consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
Midnight. Rome. 1949. Otto Wachter, a Nazi on the run, arrives in the Eternal City, penniless, homeless, searching for a way out to Argentina. He's also unwittingly found himself in the middle of a battle between East and West. He is taken in by monks, makes a friend high up in the Vatican and takes on some unusual employment. The continuing investigation into how a senior Nazi evaded justice.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Sound design: Neil Churchill
Research: James Everest and Lea Main-Klingst
Original music by Catrin Finch and Sekou Keita
Inside spy agency GCHQ, agents are monitoring delegates of the G20 summit when they discover a sophisticated cyber-attack targeting the UK National Grid. Senior analyst Henry Morcombe, already unconvinced about the need to monitor allies, leads the team tasked with investigating the threat.
The attack is highly sophisticated and comes from an unknown source. Could it be connected to the G20? It could be criminals, terrorists or even other nation states. Henry and his team attempt to find out, needing to deploy ever more creative ways of monitoring their targets.
Cast:
Henry....................Owen Teale
Gerry / Steve.........Dominic Hawksley
Jacqui...................Lucy Phelps
Siddiq...................Ashley Kumar
Alison...................Alison Newman
David....................Richard Maxted
Aiden....................Niall Ashdown
Ethan....................Paul Chan
Other parts played by members of the company
The Good Listener created by Fin Kennedy and Boz Temple-Morris
Written by Fin Kennedy
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Assistant Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Produced and directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4
Eric Robson hosts the programme from Carlisle. Anne Swithinbank, Pippa Greenwood and Matthew Wilson help the audience with their horticultural inquiries.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4, written and read by the Northern Irish writer Lucy Caldwell.
Lucy Caldwell is an award-wining playwright and novelist. Her novels ‘The Meeting Point’ and ‘All the Beggars Riding’ were serialised on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and her audio dramas include 'Mayday', ‘Notes to Future Self’, ‘Avenues of Eternal Peace’, ‘Quicksands’ and the Imison award winning ‘Girl from Mars’. Her debut short story collection 'Multitudes' was published by Faber in 2016.
Reader ..... Lucy Caldwell
Writer ..... Lucy Caldwell
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations
Friends who are baptised Sikhs consider how others view them and the solace that comes from their religious belief. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
PM at 5pm: interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by guest host Lucy Porter.
Christine fears for the future and Adam has some making up to do
Writer ..... Keri Davies
Director ..... Kim Greengrass
Editor ..... Alison Hindell
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Josh Archer ..... Angus Imrie
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Helen Archer ...... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ..... William Troughton
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Christine Barford ..... Lesley Saweard
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Justin Elliott ..... Simon Williams
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
Eddie Grundy ..... Trevor Harrison
Shula Hebden Lloyd ..... Judy Bennet
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Adam Macy ..... Andrew Wincott
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ..... Toby Laurence
Johnny Phillips ..... Tom Gibbons
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ..... Michael Cochrane
Peggy Woolley ..... June Spencer
Hannah Riley ..... Helen Longworth
Natasha .... Mali Harries
Live daily magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
Any Questions? is 70! Jonathan Dimbleby presents a special anniversary debate from the House of Commons with a panel and audience all aged 18-30: Tom Pursglove MP the Conservative Party's Vice Chair for Youth, Danielle Rowley the youngest Labour MP, the online estate agent entrepreneur and millionaire Akshay Ruparelia, Lara Spirit from OFOC Our Future our Choice and Rizzlekicks singer Jordan Stephens will debate the issues facing their generation now and in the future.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
The third omnibus of Season 15, Onward, set in Folkestone, in the week, in 1918, when General Haig warned against false rumours of peace.
Cast
Isabel ..... Keely Beresford
Florrie ..... Claire Rushbrook
Nell ..... Alice St Clair
Alice ..... Claire Louise Cordwell
Victor ..... Joel MacCormack
Phyllis ..... Christine Absalom
Wolfgang ..... Atilla Akinci
Esme ..... Katie Angelou
Daniel ..... Jonathan Bailey
Norman ..... Sean Baker
Gabriel ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Juliet ..... Lizzie Bourne
Annie ..... Kathleen Cranham
Bill ..... Ben Crowe
Sylvia ..... Joanna David
Forrester ..... Nigel Hastings
Ted ..... Jonny Holden
Walter ..... Joseph Kloska
Kitty ..... Ami Metcalf
Eric ..... Paul Rainbow
Johnnie ..... Paul Ready
Adeline ..... Helen Schlesinger
Susan ..... Jane Slavin
Arthur ..... Ryan Whittle
Charles ..... Rufus Wright
Grace ..... Grace Doherty
Connie ..... Darcey Brown
Isaac ..... Scout Ready
Peter ..... Bea White
Written by Shaun McKenna
Story-led by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
This eagerly-anticipated new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series ‘Big Little Lies’ follows nine strangers with a variety of differing emotional and physical needs united at a health-and-wellness retreat that hides a dark agenda beneath it’s glamorous façade.
Romantic Novelist Frances Welty, for example, is there to mend a broken heart, a bad back and a wounded ego. The other eight guests, though seemingly fine on the outside are all harbouring ghosts or pain of some kind and they arrive at Tranquillum House for a little restorative break.
Tranquillum House, however, is no ordinary health resort. It is owned and run by an equally wounded and strange lady who is determined that these nine perfect strangers' lives will never be the same again after the ten days that lie ahead.
Kerry Fox reads Liane Moriarty’s long awaited new page turner.
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.
Friends are grateful to their parents, who refused to model traditional roles. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.