SATURDAY 17 AUGUST 2019

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0007l2q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem (m0007l2s)
Episode 5

Lara Maiklem shares the delights of mudlarking on the foreshore of the River Thames.

Lara has scoured the banks of the Thames for over fifteen years, in pursuit of the objects that the river offers up from its muddy depths - from Neolithic flints to Roman hair pins, medieval buckles to a Tudor shoe, along with Georgian clay pipes, Victorian toys and semi-precious stones. These objects tell her about the people who lived in or visited London and how they ate, drank, dressed, worked and loved.

Moving from the river's tidal origins in the west of the city to the point where it meets the sea in the east, Mudlarking is a search for urban solitude and history on the River Thames, a place Lara describes as the longest archaeological landscape in England. And, as she has discovered, it is often the tiniest objects that tell the most surprising and enthralling stories.

Those inspired by the book to have a go themselves should be aware that anyone wishing to search the tidal Thames foreshore must hold a current foreshore permit from the Port of London Authority.

Written and read by Lara Maiklem
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Lizzie Davies
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0007l2v)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0007l2x)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0007l2z)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0007l31)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0007l33)
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rachel Gardner, director of a charity which specialises in innovative youth work.

Good morning.

A few things have made me shed tears this week; the news of the monsoon rains in India and the difficult situation in Kashmir, a phone call from a friend who’s going through a hard time and a young person at a Christian youth festival telling me they’re beyond ever being loved.

All different situations, but all cry-worthy.

A survey of UK teens found that a quarter of young people said they have suicidal thoughts and feelings due to the way they feel about their bodies. Bombarded by relentless images of unattainable perfection our young people are growing up in a climate of unparalleled pressure to conform to consumerism. We know this leads to an emotionally and mentally painful existence as many fear they’ll never be ‘enough’.

The actor Andrew Garfield who stars in Martin Scorsese’s film ‘Silence’ speaks for so many of the younger generations when he says, ‘I feel like I’ve been gifted and cursed with a closeness to some grief...the grief of living in a time and a place where a life of joy and love is impossible.’

Young people not knowing if a life of joy and love is possible, or convinced that they’re not enough, is a deep tragedy and a terrible lie.

Thank you God that because of Jesus a life of love and joy is possible. As the youth across this nation wake today, may they know they are deeply loved by you, and may they find the courage to face their fears and challenge the lies as they live their one, God-given life.

Amen.


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m0007ksd)
Taking Humour Seriously

Harriet Beveridge says we don't take humour seriously enough and thinks it's a "woefully misunderstood and underused tool". She extols its power in managing human relationships, dealing with adversity and overcoming prejudice.
"Cracking a joke is a hugely effective way to hold up a mirror, to challenge fixed ideas, because jokes shatter assumptions."
Recorded in front of a live audience at Womad, the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival in Wiltshire.
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Sheila Cook


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0007pr4)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0007kyw)
The Isle of Eels

Earlier this year, Helen Mark visited the Isle of Eels in the heart of the Cambridgeshire Fens for its annual eel day festival. She joins the parade of eels through the streets and takes part in the World Eel Throwing Competition (which thankfully involves no real eels). She also learns about the life cycle of the eel and discovers how this extraordinary fish is intimately bound up with the history and culture of Ely. Producer Sarah Blunt.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0007pr6)
Farming Today This Week: Harvest 2019

It's harvest time on Farming Today and under grey sullen skies Sybil Ruscoe visits Cobrey Farms in Herefordshire to meet owner Henry Chinn.

Across 3500 acres the harvest at Cobrey starts with rhubarb in February. In March thoughts turn to asparagus, before giving way to the summer months and the bringing in of potatoes and beans. This year they've grown sugar snap peas for the first time and Henry explains that because they're hand-picked it's a costly and labour-intensive process. Syb tries her hand at 'blueberry tickling' as she coaxes a few of them off their branches.

The farm has up to 750 seasonal workers, mostly from Romania and Bulgaria, and Sybil asks Henry what might happen to them after Brexit, and whether the Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme that has brought in additional workers from Ukraine and Moldova might be the answer.

They also visit a Wheat field which needs to be cut soon as it turns out Wild Boar are quite partial to an arable appetiser.

Producer: Toby Field


SAT 06:57 Weather (m0007pr8)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (m0007prb)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0007prd)
Skin, George RR Martin

Skin from Skunk Anansie made headlines this summer when it was pointed out that she was the first black British artist to headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, not Stormzy. That was in 1999 and Skunk Anansie were five years into an incredible run of chart hits such as “Weak”, “Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)” and “Charity”. Skin discusses her childhood, her career and what it was like being the only black, gay woman in the 1990’s music scene.

Lisa Faulkner was scouted as a model at 16 before becoming an actor at the age of 20. She was well known for roles in Dangerfield, Brookside and Holby City before famously meeting a grisly end in Spooks. In 2010 she won Celebrity Masterchef, has since become a food writer and now co-presents John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen with her fiancé John Torode. She has published the memoir Meant To Be: My Journey to Motherhood which describes the death of her mother when Lisa was just 16 and her years navigating infertility, IVF and adoption.

Joel Golby’s book Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant: Modern Life as Interpreted by Someone Who is Reasonably Bad at Living It describes how the journalist, whose father died when he was 15, became an adult orphan at the age of 25 when his mother died. He talks about the impact of the sudden and unwelcome intrusion of adult responsibility into his otherwise hedonistic life.

Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, author and stand-up comedian. He wrote the international best -sellers The Idiot Brain and The Happy Brain. His new book for teenagers is called Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up The Wall and What To Do About It.

Game of Thrones author George RR Martin shares his Inheritance Tracks.

Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Eleanor Garland


SAT 10:30 Alex Edelman's Special Relationships (m0007prg)
Me and Us

Alex Edelman encourages his guests from both sides of the Atlantic to think laterally about a diverse collection of special relationships in this loose limbed series of chat shows, recorded in London and the USA.

This week, the knotty string between 'me' and 'us' is unravelled in Los Angeles by a diverse bunch of guests with a distinctly modern outlook. It takes in an American podcast host identifying with Coronation Street, an advertising executive whose client she says is planet earth, and a comedian whose level of American-ness alters as she tours the planet.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Origin of Stuff (m000611f)
Fork

The fork is essential. Even camping without one is a false economy, in Katy’s experience. Even a spork - with a spoon at one end and a fork at the other, with a knife formed along one prong - just won’t do. You need both - a fork to steady the meat and a knife to cut it with.

So how did the fork come to be so indispensable?

We didn’t always love the fork. Public historian, Greg Jenner, reveals how it was abandoned for the chopstick in Ancient China, and greeted with scorn in Western Europe when a Byzantine princess ate with a golden double-pronged one.

It was only after the traveller, Thomas Coryat, in 1608, celebrated its use by pasta-loving Italians that the English started to take note. By the mid-19th century, there was a fork for every culinary challenge – from the pickle and the berry, to ice-cream and the terrapin. The utensil transformed the dining experience, bringing the pocket knife onto the table in a blunt, round-tipped form, and ushering in British table manners.

So is there a perfect version of the fork? With the help of tomato, milkshake and mango, Katy discovers that the material a fork is made from can drastically alter a food’s taste.

Featuring material scientist, Zoe Laughlin, and food writer and historian, Bee Wilson.

Producer: Beth Eastwood


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0007prj)
Lost Innocence

The protests at Hong Kong's international airport this week and the violence that resulted have been widely reported. Jonathan Head says not only was this the week that the protest movement lost its innocence, but also that the violence has handed the Chinese authorities a propaganda coup.

Reporting from Indian-administered Kashmir has been especially challenging since the Indian government stripped it of its special status: no internet and no telephones. But Yogita Limaye finds one friendly Kashmiri who supplies both hot tea and functional broadband.

If you're nervous about snakes then Gombe District in northern Nigeria is best avoided, warns Colin Freeman. He visits a hospital that specialises in treating bites, especially those of the carpet viper, an ever-present danger to the local farmers.

Waterproof clothing made from the wool of the Bordaleira sheep has kept Portuguese farmers dry for centuries. Today, it's also the height of fashion, as Margaret Bradley reports; flying off the shelves of smart shops of Lisbon and Porto and in much demand overseas.

President Trump surprised Sweden recently when he suggested that the prime minister intervene in the case of a US rapper who'd been arrested in Stockholm on suspicion of assault. Maddy Savage was in court to see the case play out.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0007prl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 The Money Clinic (m0007prn)
Fay and Ben

Money is one of the top three strains on relationships and it’s a common cause of rift between family and friends too. You might be cautious and risk averse and hate to see your partner frittering their money away on new clothes and nights out; while they might think you should stop being so miserly with your cash and splash out once in a while.

In the Money Box Summer series Ruth Alexander introduces ‘The Money Clinic’. We eavesdrop on the conversations of three couples and a mother and son talking honestly about their finances with a relationship counsellor. We learn who they are, about their relationship with the other person, and what financial issues are coming between them. We hear practical tips on how each couple can better to manage their cash, and also how to manage the emotional side of money. We learn that individual attitudes to money are formed in early life, and how arguments about money are often about so much more than just money.

In this programme, 20-somethings, Ben and Fay, have just moved in together. It’s an exciting time, but their arguments about money are getting them down. Can they learn to see eye-to-eye?

Producer Smita Patel
Editor Emma Rippon


SAT 12:30 Lobby Land (m0007l40)
Series 2

Cometh the Power

Sam and Mia have been nominated for journalism awards at the prestigious DONCASTAs. But has Sam got a bigger decision to make?

Starring Yasmine Akram as Sam, Charlie Higson as Tom, Cariad Lloyd as Mia, Dan Tetsell as Gideon, Daniel Lawrence Taylor as Nath, and Joe Da Costa as Marcus.

Written by Jon Harvey, Christopher Davies and Sarah Dempster
With additional material by Laura Major
Produced by Jon Harvey
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m0007prq)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m0007prs)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0007l2f)
Suzanne Evans, Lord Finkelstein, John Mann MP and Faiza Shaheen

Ritula Shah presents topical debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, London with a panel including the political commentator Suzanne Evans, Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein, Labour MP John Mann and Faiza Shaheen, the director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0007prv)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Ulverton (m0007prx)
Wing / Here / Expedition

Adam Thorpe's ground-breaking Ulverton was published in 1992. Although it was a first novel, the reviews heralded a "masterpiece" (Peter Kemp, Sunday Times) and it was also celebrated in the American press - "as encompassing a portrait of what it means to be British as I have ever read" (Seattle Times) and "One of the great British fictional works of our time" (LA Times).

It's a novel which has long been celebrated for the way it employs all the lyrical agility of the English language as it evolved down the centuries to give us a narrative that is shaped by time and character and born of a particular landscape - the chalk downlands of west Berkshire. A succession of different voices offer brief glimpses of life in Ulverton at roughly a generation's interval.

A brilliant narrative of landscape and voices now concludes, first with a diary entry from 1953.

Written by Adam Thorpe

Wing - featuring Gillian Bevan
Here - featuring David Timson, Jack Flammiger, Tristan Sturrock, Ewan Bailey
Expedition - featuring Tessa Bell-Briggs

Dramatisation by Adam Thorpe and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 15:30 Art of Now (m0007kj2)
Hairy Art

Whether it is denounced as trivial, celebrated, or declared pornographic and disgusting, the presence of body hair on women always elicits strong reactions. It's a topic that poet and performer Keisha Thompson explored in her one-woman theatre show 'I Wish I Had A Moustache'. In this programme Keisha goes in search of other artists who have examined the complicated issues around women and body hair in their work to ask what art can do to help us come to terms with the feelings of guilt and shame that so many women have internalised around their own body hair?

Along the way Keisha visits the National Portrait Gallery with academic and author of 'The Last Taboo: Women and Body Hair', Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, discovering how body hair is most glaring defined in our visual culture by an absence, and meets artists who are bringing it back into view, Kerry Howley who makes delicate, sculptural hair necklaces, Alix Bizet whose work uses hair to ask questions about identity and representation, and Leena McCall, whose 'Portrait of Mrs Ruby May Standing' proved just how controversial depicting female body hair can be. Finally, Keisha visits the 'Kiss My Genders' exhibition at the Hayward Gallery to find out how art is moving the conversation forward.

Presenter: Keisha Thompson
Producer: Jessica Treen


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0007prz)
Edna Adan Ismail on FGM, Composer Errollyn Wallen, Talking to children about racism

Somaliland’s first midwife, first Foreign Minister and former First Lady, Edna Adan Ismail tells us what galvanised her campaign to end the practise of FGM and why now in her 80s she still works at the hospital she helped to build in her homeland.

We discuss the rise and fall of the bonkbuster with the author Lauren Milne Henderson, Maisie Lawrence editor at Bookouture and Sareeta Domingo editor at Mills and Boon.

The Composer Errollyn Wallen’s work stretches back four decades, she tells us about her latest work with the BBC Proms. A new orchestral work titled This Frame is Part of the Painting.

We talk about the impact of The Country Girls by the Irish author Edna O’Brien. It was banned by the Irish Censorship Board and burned publically in her hometown when it was first published. We hear from Lin Coghlan who has adapted it for radio and from the literary critic Alex Clark.

How should you talk about the subject of race and racism to your children? Behavioural Scientist Dr Pragya Agarwal and blogger Freddie Harrel tell us about their personal experiences.

We discuss the latest show from Zoo Nation Youth Tales of the Turntables with dancer Portia Oti and Director and Choreographer Carrie-Anne Ingrouille.

Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Lucinda Montefiore


SAT 17:00 PM (m0007ps1)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news, plus the sports headlines.


SAT 17:30 The Inquiry (m0007ps3)
Is the deep ocean the answer to some of our biggest problems?

Our species is facing a whole lot of problems. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, land based minerals are depleting and there are serious concerns about how warm everything’s becoming.

As the population grows these problems are only going to get worse, but what if we could find some of the solutions to our most pressing problems beneath the waves? Scientists have discovered that deep sea sponges could help fight MRSA, your smart phone could be powered by minerals located thousands of metres beneath the sea, and there are even enzymes that could help your washing machine run on a colder cycle, saving both energy and your new cashmere sweater. Is the deep sea the answer to some of our biggest problems? There’s a lot of promise, but what are the risks?


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0007ps5)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m0007ps7)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0007ps9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0007psc)
Jackie Kay, Nish Kumar, Christopher Biggins, Blue Rose Code, Amy Lou, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Christopher Biggins, Nish Kumar and Jackie Kay for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Blue Rose Code and Amy Lou.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Four Thought (b09fy6m9)
Being Muslim in America

Dalia Elmelige tells the story of her life as a Muslim in America after 9/11.

'I didn't get to celebrate my little brother's first birthday', begins Dalia, as she describes her life as a Muslim in post-9/11 America. From playground bullying to work at the Carter Presidential Center on countering ISIS propaganda, in many ways her life has been defined by the aftermath of 9/11. In this moving talk, introduced by Olly Mann, Dalia shares some reflections on isolation and identity.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (m0007psf)
Sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events, with Tom Sutcliffe and guests


SAT 20:00 The Untold (m0007psh)
The Untold Storytelling Festival

Grace Dent leads a discussion about modern storytelling on radio and television, in fact and fiction. Joining Grace on stage in front of an invited audience at the BBC Radio Theatre are Line of Duty’s creator, Jed Mercurio, factual podcast maker Jennifer Forde, leading drama executive and writer John Yorke, novelist Chibundu Onuzo, and TV writer Laurie Nunn. How does factual storytelling differ from fiction? How is the vogue for real-crime podcasts changing the storytelling landscape and just why did Jed Mercurio kill off one of his leading characters half way through Bodyguard?

At the heart of the discussion are the editor, producers and some of the most memorable contributors from Radio 4’s The Untold. Featuring heart-stopping moments from the first 100 episodes, ‘The Untold’ Storytelling Festival showcases how the team behind Radio 4’s home of real-life storytelling deploy the finest skills of contemporary audio production to follow people as they face life-changing decisions.

Producer Emma Kingsley


SAT 21:00 Drama (m0007kds)
Inspector Chen Novels

Hold Your Breath, China

by Qiu Xiaolong dramatised by Joy Wilkinson

Inspector Chen has fallen from the Party's grace thanks to his anti-corruption investigations but he is back on the case when a serial murderer is on the loose in the ever-thickening smog of Shanghai.

Chief Inspector Chen ..... Jamie Zubairi
Detective Yu ..... Dan Li
Detective Qin ..... Liz Sutherland-Lim
Lou/Huang ..... Andrew Leung
Shanshan ..... Rebecca Boey
Zhao ..... David Hounslow
Qiang ..... Sean Baker
Bian ..... Chris Pavlo
Bei ..... Kenny Blyth
Neighbour ..... Debbie Korley

Director: David Hunter

HOLD YOUR BREATH, CHINA is the 10th of Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen novels, all of which have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4. They have sold over 1 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (m0007psk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:15 Unreliable Evidence (m0007ksv)
Misconduct in Public Office

The law against Misconduct in Public Office has been criticised by the Law Commission as “unclear, ambiguous and in urgent need of reform”. Clive Anderson and guests ask how it should be changed to control the behaviour of the police, politicians and other public officials.

Misconduct in Public Office is a centuries old common law offence, but the number of prosecutions under it has risen from just 2 in 2005 to 135 in 2014. It’s been used to charge prison officers for selling information to journalists, a local councillor for using his position to re-route a road away from his property and a paramedic for groping a woman in the back of his ambulance. Some of these prosecutions have been successful, others not. It was also the law under which an unsuccessful private prosecution was brought against Boris Johnson, for claims he made during the Brexit campaign.

The offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and critics say that there’s uncertainty around everything from who is a public officer to what constitutes misconduct.

Is it a crucial tool in keeping our public servants to a high standard of behaviour? Or a somewhat archaic law which should be eliminated from a legal landscape overgrown with offences to deal with corrupt, dishonest or disreputable practices?

Producer: Hannah Marshall
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (m0007k6j)
Series 9

St Catharine’s College, Cambridge

A funny and dynamic quiz show hosted by Steve Punt - this week from St Catharine's College, Cambridge, with specialist subjects including Geography, French and Veterinary Medicine and questions ranging from French gender to horse teeth via James Bond and Dick Dastardly.

The programme is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in an original and fresh take on an academic quiz.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Ed Sheeran. In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds see students take on their Professors in their own subjects, offering plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.

Other Universities featured in this series include Royal Holloway University of London, Aberdeen, Plymouth, Brighton and Oxford Brookes.

Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 A Poet Laureate’s Peterloo (m0007kdx)
Poetry and song specially commissioned to commemorate The Peterloo Massacre - curated by the outgoing Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and presented by Ian McMillan.

The Peterloo Massacre was the name given to a peaceful pro-democracy rally which took place on August 16th 1819, made up of around fifty thousand men, women and ‎children, who were attacked by an armed cavalry; eighteen people were killed, and hundreds injured. The ‎massacre inspired art and poetry at the time, including ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ by Percy Bysshe ‎Shelley. The aspirations of the protesters and the shock of their violent repression still resonate with writers and artists today.

Ian McMillan welcomes poets Carol Ann Duffy, Clare Shaw, Mark Pajak and singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams to perform their new commissions in front of an audience at Friends' Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester (the wall on the southern side of the building is only piece of infrastructure that would have been at the site of the massacre, and is mentioned in witness accounts). He is also joined by Professor Robert ‎Poole - author of a new study of Peterloo: 'Peterloo: The English Uprising'.

Presented by Ian McMillan
Produced by Faith Lawrence