SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2019

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00045t5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0003zz4)
Moonlighting

“After a while, eyes closed, I released the breath I did not know that I had been holding, and I began to clear the table.”

Everything is laid bare in Eley Williams' new short story for radio. Williams' writing is "elegantly droll without the kind of hipster quirkiness that makes me want to hurl books at the wall." (Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent).

Produced by Becky Ripley.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00045t7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00045t9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00045tc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00045tf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00045th)
All Saints, Daresbury

Bells on Sunday comes from All Saints Church, Daresbury in Cheshire. The parish is the birthplace of the author Lewis Carroll, whose father, the Reverend Charles Dodgson, was vicar there. In the ground floor chamber of the tower ringers can admire the west window, which depicts characters from the book ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’. The tower dates from 1550 but the present ring of eight bells was cast in 1913. The tenor is tuned to E and weighs sixteen hundredweight. We hear them ringing a series of rounds and call changes.


SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (m0003z9d)
The Uncertainty of Judas

"The most hated person in all of literature?" Theologian Dr Candida Moss considers the questions surrounding Judas’ motives and what they say about the demonisation of others and the complexity of betrayal.

Producer: Dan Tierney


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (m00046p3)
The latest national and international news headlines.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m00046p5)
Saying Goodbye

Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand explores the ecstasy and agony of saying goodbye. Drawing upon the words of the poet Shel Silverstein, she examines the notion that "there are no happy endings".

Human beings have developed all manner of rituals to ease the process of parting, from simple handshakes to elaborate funeral liturgies. Shoshana reveals that even the nightly ritual of saying goodnight to your children is laden with significance. She explains the Jewish bedtime ritual of saying the Shema - a prayer which is said to invoke the protection of angels.

Shoshana also explores the linguistics of saying goodbye - from the French "adieu" which commends the receiver to god, to the German "auf wiedersehen" which literally means "until we see again". Describing her experiences as a hospital chaplain, she discusses the final days and weeks of life, a "deeply scared" time when "this world and the next meet".

Shoshana concludes by arguing that, however painful parting may be, being aware that time spent together is limited makes it all the more precious. It's that awareness that impels her to make the most of her farewell rituals – using them as an opportunity to express gratitude for the people and places that enrich her life.

Presenter: Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Living World (b01h2chx)
Bee-flies

There's a pretender on the wing. Joanna Pinnock joins naturalist John Walters in Devon to find out more about a bee mimic, the Dark Edged bee fly. With its reddish hairy body and rapier-like proboscis it's said to look part bee, part mosquito and is often spotted in gardens in Spring hovering and darting above the ground. The long proboscis helps it take nectar from deep within flowers rather like a hummingbird.

While this furry, buzzing, rather attractive fly is harmless to humans, its pretence of being a bee is to help its young get a good start in life by using others' nests. In Spring the female bee fly coats her eggs in dust to give them some added weight and then hovering near solitary bee nesting holes will flick her eggs at the entrance. As they develop, her larvae head inside the bee's nest and devour the emerging bee larvae. It's a fly-eat-bee world. (First broadcast in 2012).

Producer: Sheena Duncan
Editor: Julian Hector


SUN 06:57 Weather (m00046p7)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00046p9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00046pc)
Sikh Vaisakhi, Fleabag and Forgiveness

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00046pf)
Action for Stammering Children

Michael Palin makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Action for Stammering Children.

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 ‘Action for Stammering Children’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Action for Stammering Children’.

Registered Charity Number: 801171


SUN 07:57 Weather (m00046ph)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00046pk)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00046pm)
Invitation to empathy

Fr Dermot Preston SJ preaches live from St Aloysius' Glasgow, with the Schola Cantorum of St Aloysius' College on this Palm Sunday. ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ is a cry of desolation. It’s a quote from one of David’s psalms, which seems to describe the crucifixion with uncanny accuracy: the ridicule and insults, his heart melting like wax, his thirst and the gambling for his clothes, and the isolation and despair. Somehow, mysteriously, Jesus was forsaken by his Father so that we could be forgiven. He faced loneliness in its most extreme form so that we never have to. Here is the ultimate act of hospitality: Jesus was displaced from the presence of God so that we could be welcomed into it. Jesus suffered in solidarity with humanity in order to bring us back to God. A link to resources for individuals and groups can be downloaded from the Sunday Worship web pages.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0003zzt)
Automation...and a packet of frozen peas

"If you have ever tried to scan a bio-metric passport, an e-ticket or just a packet of frozen peas", writes AL Kennedy, "you'll know that using technology can turn, within moments, into a bizarre ritual of presenting, rubbing, re-presenting, murmured prayers and computer generated instructions which lead either to complete defeat or the intervention of human assistance that could have been there all along".

She argues that automation must be governed by human needs and strengths.

Personal contact, she believes, is more important than ever.

Producer: Adele Armstrong


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrc9l)
Hoopoe

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

Kate Humble presents the hoopoe. The hoopoe, a salmon-coloured bird with a long curved bill and a black-tipped crest, which it can spread like a fan when excited, is so outrageously exotic that its call reminds us of the Mediterranean. Several hoopoes arrive in the UK each spring and autumn. These are usually birds which have overshot their migration routes and almost certainly won't find a mate here, though they do breed very occasionally.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00046pp)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00046pr)
Writer ….. Nick Warburton
Director ….. Gwenda Hughes
Editor ….. Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer .... Patricia Greene
Pip Archer .... Daisy Badger
Josh Archer .... Angus Imrie
Ben Archer ..... Ben Norris
Kenton Archer .... Richard Attlee
Tony Archer .... David Troughton
Pat Archer .... Patricia Gallimore
Helen Archer .... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer .... William Troughton
Harrison Burns .... James Cartwright
Ruairi Donovan .... Arthur Hughes
Toby Fairbrother ..... Rhys Bevan
Alan Franks ..... John Telfer
Will Grundy .... Philip Molloy
Mia Grundy .... Molly Pipe
Shula Hebden Lloyd .... Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ..... Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Elizabeth Pargetter .... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter .... Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter .... Katie Redford
Johnny Philips ..... Tom Gibbons
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Natasha .... Mali Harries
Leonard Berry .... Paul Copley


SUN 11:15 The Reunion (m0004629)
Parliamentary Expenses Scandal

Sue MacGregor brings together key figures from Westminster and Fleet Street involved in the protracted battle over releasing MPs' expenses to the public.

The MPs' Expenses Scandal was one of the biggest political upsets in living memory, centring on the abuse and misuse of allowances and expenses. More than half of MPs were forced to pay back a total of more than £1million and the scandal led to the biggest clear-out of politicians in decades, as well as the first forced resignation of the Speaker of the House in three centuries.

Freedom of Information campaigners had been trying for years to get MPs' claims for second homes, travel and office expenditure into the public domain. But time and again they were blocked by parliamentarians who believed the public had no right to see how MPs were spending this taxpayers' money.

And then, in spring 2009, the information was leaked to the Daily Telegraph, who published damning evidence of MPs' spending. From dog food to duck houses, the public were appalled and MPs were united in shame. Some had taken deliberate efforts to defraud or mislead and six ended up in prison.

In this edition of The Reunion we hear how FOI campaigners like Heather Brooke were repeatedly thwarted by legitimate requests which were refused, an expensive High Court appeal, and even an attempt by MPs to exempt themselves from their own law. Andrew Walker, who was head of House of Commons finances, said MPs were on tenterhooks wondering who would be next to be exposed by The Telegraph, and Ann Cryer, then Labour MP for Keighley, and her son were both accused of claiming expenses on the same flat which belonged to her daughter. She said that Labour Party whips were on “suicide watch” as traumatised MPs battled through the mire.

Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m00046pt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (m00040mh)
Series 22

Episode 2

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

Sindhu Vee, Susan Calman, Graeme Garden and Tony Hawks are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as swimming, mothers, magazines and clowns.

Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m00046pw)
How to Start a Food Revolution: The Food Adventures of Claus Meyer

Can you reinvent a food culture? Dan Saladino meets a man who did, Denmark's Claus Meyer, the co-founder of Noma, one of the world's most influential restaurants.
From there he went to Bolivia and set up a restaurant to rescue lost foods of the Andes and Amazon, and onto New York where he founded a cooking school in a neighbourhood with some of the worst levels of food related illness in America.
So what is he now doing in Newport, South Wales.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m00046py)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00046q0)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.


SUN 13:30 Along the Peaceline (m0001krl)
In February 2016 a controversial wall in Belfast was demolished. It was the first of over a hundred such structures across Northern Ireland set to disappear by 2023. Collectively, they’re known as peacelines. Some are just a few hundred yards long, others over three miles. Some are flimsy, rickety affairs, others are made of reinforced concrete, galvanised steel and razor wire. Depending on one’s personal view, they either divide or protect Catholic and Protestant communities from each other.

Peacelines first appeared in Belfast in 1969, intended only as temporary structures. But they're still there today, steadfast symbols of the Troubles.

What was it like growing up next to one of these walls? In Along the Peaceline, two Belfast-born writers, Maria Fusco and Glenn Patterson, each return to a peaceline they've known since childhood.

Glenn revisits the Shankhill Road, an area of Belfast he got to know well as a boy on his way to see his aunt and uncle. Parts of the peaceline there have since become a tourist attraction. Meanwhile, Maria heads to the Ardoyne neighbourhood she grew up in, where the local peaceline was “a constant flashpoint for rioting”.

It’s an evocative journey for both of them as they trace the length of their respective peacelines. They recall how these structures affected their lives during the Troubles and observe what's changed since. Reflecting on the then and now, Glenn and Maria bring historical fact and their own personal perspectives to help excavate these contested sites and try to gauge the overall effect peacelines have had on today’s much changed Belfast.

Photo: Conor Garrett

Producer: Dan Shepherd
A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0003zz2)
Braintree, Essex

Peter Gibbs and the panel of gardening experts are in Braintree, Essex. Christine Walkden, Matthew Wilson and Matt Biggs answer the audience's questions.

The panellists discuss the best shrubs to plant in heavy clay, getting rid of plum tree suckers and combining a flower bed and a vegetable patch.

Pippa Greenwood is in Alice Holt Forest with Bruce Rothnie to find out more about the history of the forest commission.

Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (m00046q2)
Sunday Omnibus: Language and Storytelling

Three conversations about air-traffic controllers and alpacas; the poetry of 'Dundonian; and the healing power of storytelling. Fi Glover presents 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: Mohini Patel


SUN 15:00 Drama (m00046q4)
Luke, Acts (Part 2)

In this two-part dramatization based on the Authorised King James version of the bible, poet Michael Symmons Roberts tells afresh one of the founding stories of our culture and of world history. The ancient writer known as 'Luke' is believed to be the author of the most dramatic of the four gospels - which bears his name - but also the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles, known as 'The Book of Acts'.

Luke is believed to have been a Greek doctor, which explains the medical details he gives of the healing miracles! He worked in Syria but retired to his native Greece and died at the age of 84. As a gentile, he encountered this new sect - Christianity - when he met Paul in Syria and converted to this new faith, accompanying him on his missionary travels.

Luke and Acts have strong personal relationships at their heart and are written as detailed accounts of the rise of early Christianity. Luke’s Gospel is specifically addressed to a figure called 'Theophilus'. We know that Paul, who was converted on the road to Damascus, spent several years under arrest in Rome awaiting trial and Theophilus is supposed by some scholars to be part of the defence team at Paul's trial, although there is no definitive identification of him or her.

In this drama, Theophilus is a young Roman woman who seeks out Luke in the AD60's, three decades after the death of Jesus. Luke has come to Rome with Paul to support him in his forthcoming trial. As part of this support Luke is writing down as accurate an account as he can of the events leading from the birth of Jesus to the spread of the early church. Together they hope carefully chosen extracts from his account will equip the legal team to exonerate Paul.

Luke, Acts is a BBC Radio Drama North Production, directed by Sharon Sephton

The Gospel of Luke tells the astonishing story of the life and ministry of Jesus from his birth through healings, miracles, betrayals, trial, execution and resurrection.

The Book of Acts picks up the story after the resurrection with Jesus' disciples in hiding and devastated at the violent death of their leader. Then he appears to them, resurrected, and the book then tells the extraordinary story of the birth and battles and growth of the early Christian church, including Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus from persecutor to apostle.

The Authorised King James Version is the world's most widely known Bible translation, using early 17th-century English. Work began for the Church of England in 1604 and was completed in 1611. Its powerful, majestic style has made it a literary classic, with many of its phrases and expressions embedded in the English language.

LUKE.....David Schofield
THEOPHILA.....Verity Henry
MIRIAM.....Angela Lonsdale
JESUS.....David Seddon
PETER.....Shaun Mason
PAUL.....Jason Done
CHIEF PRIEST.....Jonathan Keeble
ANANIAS.....Hamish Rush
NEPHEW.....Stephen Hoyle

With multiple parts played by members of the cast.

DIRECTOR.....Sharon Sephton
PRODUCER.....Susan Roberts
AUTHOR.....Luke
ADAPTOR.....Michael Symmons Roberts


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00046q6)
Damian Barr, Candice Carty-Williams, Beckett's prose

Damian Barr joins Shahidha Bari to discuss his novel You Will Be Safe Here, which explores themes of nationhood, toxic masculinity and the legacies of colonialism against the backdrop of more than a century in South African history.

Candice Carty-Williams was working in publishing when she wrote her debut novel Queenie, in which a young black British woman navigates the dating scene, friendships and everyday racism in contemporary London. She explains why it needed to be written.

50 years on from his Nobel win, should we be paying more attention to Samuel Beckett's prose? Novelist Sam Thompson and Beckett's friend and biographer James Knowlson discuss.

And in a literary postcard from Brazil, novelist Julian Fuks argues that the torrent of bad news facing the country's book industry must be actively challenged by writers.


SUN 16:30 A Psalm for the Scaffolder (m00046q8)
Geoffrey Faber prize-winning poet Kim Moore invites us into her life as a writer. She focuses on her working class background and long held desire to follow her scaffolder-dad to work and become poet in residence among the scaffolders.

She shares her love of music and years spent working as a trumpet teacher, and how her tender, atmospheric poetry grapples with the transformations that affect both body and mind during a violent relationship.

This picture of Kim's life and the poetry it informs takes shape alongside a portrait painted by Claire Eastgate as part of her project, Painting the Poets, giving us a unique opportunity to listen in on the intimacies of the painter-sitter relationship.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 Goliath: How Monopolies Came to Be (m0003zvn)
Political economist, academic and journalist Will Hutton traces the history of monopolies and public attitudes towards them. Coming at the subject with an open mind full of strongly held beliefs - some of which are in opposition to each other - he considers the great ironies and tensions at the heart of the modern monopoly.

The last 200 years have been dominated by two schools of thought on how the economy functions. One, originating from Adam Smith, focuses on competition. The other, conscious of how Smith's brand of liberalism leads to rapid concentration of wealth, takes its starting point from the tendency of unfettered markets towards monopoly. Smith was keenly aware of this tendency and demanded vigilance against it, but his thinking was developed before the 20th Century world of mass-scale production and the 21st Century world of data capitalism, where initial winners take all by becoming monopolists.

The West, post-World War Two, has been dominated by the liberal school of thought, with its accent on promoting competition. However, as inequality has widened and concerns about its effectiveness grown, the competitive school has become increasingly unable to explain why the contemporary economy has a tendency towards monopolies – or how best to respond.

This has seen the second school of thought begin to challenge traditional Smith-style liberalism - although it is something we don't yet understand well and has a contradictory, irony-filled past and possibly future.

Will Hutton takes a wide-ranging journey through our own political and economic history, breaking a seemingly vast issue down into relatable and coherent arguments, to be better equipped to understand the crucial issues driving our economies and, by extension, our lives in the 21st Century.

Producer: Sean Glynn
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:40 Profile (m00045sx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00046qb)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m00046qd)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00046qg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00046qj)
Peter Curran

The best of BBC Radio this week with Peter Curran.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00046ql)
Eddie has serious concerns and Elizabeth takes her first tentative steps.


SUN 19:15 Rumblings from the Rafters (b07hwxbk)
House Fly and Soprano Pipistrelle Bat

An annoying House Fly played by Lee Mack and a warm-hearted Soprano Pipistrelle Bat played by Pam Ferris, reveal the truth about life in a draughty old attic in a house in Amersham in the second of three very funny tales, written and introduced by Lynne Truss, with additional sound recordings by Chris Watson.
The House Fly loves life. "The best bit is the buzzing". He loves the aerobatics, dodging the flypapers in the attic and "... my favourite manoeuvre, settling on the ceiling. It is unbelievably brilliant" He loves to buzz. But he also loves, what to humans, is a disgusting way of life. He loves to walk around on filth and to poo everywhere and to spread disease "And listen, we don't mind! Not at all. It's the least we can do". He would love to spread more diseases and takes great joy in telling us just exactly how he does this ... perhaps best not to listen if you're eating!
The Soprano Pipistrelle Bat is a very different creature; a tiny bat with a huge and loving heart. She is nine years old and has given birth to a single pup each year. Her newest pup, Jethro, is her darling; "... such a lovely little face. Chestnut fur. Perfect little ears. He smells like chicken flavour crisps. Ooh, I could eat him." He is six weeks old and weaning - proudly catching insects for himself; and this is always a poignant time for this mother-bat, where pride and sadness mingle. The main concern with Jethro, she finds, is that he can't seem to grasp the idea of torpor, "Oh don't mum. Don't go torpid. It's like you're dying", but as she knows "torpor is nothing to be scared of, .. torpor is your friend".

House Fly: Lee Mack
Soprano Pipstrelle Bat: Pam Ferris
Written and introduced by Lynne Truss
Wildlife sound recordings Chris Watson
Producer Sarah Blunt.


SUN 19:45 Life at Absolute Zero (m00046qn)
Series 4

Celebration

A new story by Lynne Truss set in the windy seaside town of Meridian Cliffs.

Formidable Sharon, a force of nature, is determined that fellow worker Keith is going to celebrate the fact that he's paid off his mortgage. Keith would rather have a quiet day making sure the crime novels line up neatly along the shelf.

It's going to be a tense day at Meridian Cliffs' most successful charity shop.

Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0003zz8)
Gwyneth Williams answers your questions

As Feedback turns 40 this month, Roger Bolton quizzes outgoing Radio 4's Controller Gwyneth Williams about the twists and turns of her tenure before she passes her baton on to the new boss.

While BBC Sounds has come under criticism from some users, there has been high praise for one of its original podcasts. NB is a series about being non-binary - people who don't identify with traditional gender labels - and has struck a chord with many of its listeners. We hear their views on the series.

With Brexit dominating the news agenda, a number of Feedback listeners say that the issue of climate change is being underplayed. Roger talks to David Shukman, the Science Editor for BBC News, and Deborah Cohen, the Science Editor for BBC Radio, about coverage of the issue - and its prominence.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0003zz6)
Sydney Brenner, Dan Robbins, Edda Tasiemka, Ian McDonald

Pictured: Sydney Brenner

Matthew Bannister on

Sydney Brenner, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist who worked with Francis Crick to map DNA.

Dan Robbins, the artist who invented painting by numbers.

Edda Tasiemka, the archivist who kept a comprehensive newspaper and magazine cuttings collection in her North London home.

Ian McDonald, the Ministry of Defence spokesman during the Falklands War who became a familiar face on TV and was known for his sonorous delivery.

Interviewed guest: Professor Jonathan Hodgkin
Interviewed guest: Larry Robbins
Interviewed guest: Robert Lacey
Interviewed guest: Ian Mather
Interviewed guest: Revel Barker
Producer: Paula McGinley


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m00045s4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00046pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (m0003zcy)
The Irresistible Rise of eSports

Its top stars can earn millions of dollars a year, without breaking into a sweat. They train for hours a day and have legions of fans, who fill stadiums to watch them. But these aren't normal sports stars. They're part of one of the fastest growing industries - known as Esports. And, as John Murphy discovers, the distinction between real physical sport and this online, virtual version is narrowing, as major companies and some of the world's most famous football clubs are signing up the top Esports players to play in major competitions. A number of video games, including Fifa, Dota2, Call of Duty and League of Legends, have their own international leagues and world championships. The global audience is now estimated at more than 200 million, and growing. Annual revenues from Esports, currently around 650 million dollars for events, continue to rise.

Billions more are generated through video games sales. In the UK the video games sector, from which Esports have sprung, is now worth more than video (films) and music combined. There's even talk of Esports becoming an Olympic sport.

So will dexterous Esporters become the new athletic champions, or is this a business that will play itself out? Who is making the money and how? And why are top football clubs clamouring for some of the virtual action?

Presenter: John Murphy
Producer: Lizzy McNeill


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00046qr)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m0003zcf)
Paul Laverty: From Daniel Blake to Carlos Acosta; Secrets of The Shining

With Antonia Quirke.

Writer Paul Laverty explains why he followed up I, Daniel Blake with a bio-pic about Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta. Yuli is directed by his partner Iciar Bollain, and this is their fourth collaboration as writer and director. They explain how they first met on the set of Ken Loach's Land And Freedom.

Gordon Stainforth, the music editor of The Shining, reveals some little known facts about its famous score and why Stanley Kubrick was not the control freak that he's often been made out to be. Neil Brand reveals the differences between the music on the soundtrack and the original score composed by Wendy Carlos.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (m00046p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]