5. Dangerous Journeys
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straight forward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
Carl Honoré believes we're all missing out by stereotyping older people as "over the hill". He argues for recognition of the positive sides of ageing, and thinks everyone would benefit from more inter-generational mixing. "Spending time with people of different ages makes us happier – and less ageist. After all, nothing shoots down stereotypes more than getting to know the people being stereotyped."
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
It’s just before dawn in late May when we join wildlife cameraman John Aitchison as he steps out of his home to be greeted by a rich chorus of birdsong before strolling across his garden towards the woodland and then the shoreline beyond at the start of this coastal walk near his home in West Scotland. As John approaches the shore he spies one of his regular neighbours; an otter, scouring the weed near the edge of the shoreline for food. The otter is not alone, John also spots a roe deer swimming near the far shore, as well as a group of Canada geese which are wary of the otter and keep their distance. In a shelter belt of trees, John pauses to enjoy the songs of a song thrush and a willow warbler; one a resident bird here all year round the other a summer visitor from Sub-Saharan Africa. Further along the shoreline, John passes a stunning bed of flag irises; vivid yellow against a green background. Out at sea a group of porpoises dive for fish. As the sun breaks through the skyline there’s another wonderful surprise when a white tailed eagle appears; a huge bird with a 6 foot wingspan which lands briefly on a rock in the shallows. As he approaches the end of his walk, John makes a discovery near the water’s edge, is serenaded by skylarks and has a surprising close encounter with a very special mammal. Producer Sarah Blunt
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel show. Dr Annie Gray, Jeremy Pang, Sophie Wright and Tim Anderson join from their kitchens to answer questions sent in by email and social media.
This week, the panellists give their best breakfast hacks, discuss the best way to recreate takeaway fish and chips at home, and help one listener use up his mounds of iceburg lettuce.
They also get their glasses out to celebrate the first guest of the series. Drinks expert Alice Lascelles joins the panel with a new twist on the classic Negroni and Alice has some ideas for non-alcoholic summer drinks.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
During the health pandemic a fraud epidemic has been growing. The latest official crime survey found fraud accounts for a third of all crime in England and Wales. It costs the UK economy tens of billions of pounds and very often individuals many thousands of pounds. But the cost is much more than just financial. It can be emotionally and mentally devastating. Money Box has been given access to a rare recording of fraud in progress. An expert assesses what made it so believable and one of the most senior fraud investigators in the UK tells us what he's doing about this kind of financial crime.
Also on the programme, the car finance customers stuck with a vehicle they cannot use and no longer own but they still have to tax and insure it.
And, as government advice changes and people are asked to go back to work, many childcare providers remain closed. So do employers need to make any allowances?
Expect a summer festival with a difference as some of the nation's favourite comics turn curators and host a virtual festival featuring their favourite performers from the worlds of comedy, literature and spoken word. They'll be in control of everything (even the weather) as we're taken along for the ride to not only hear some great performances but also to get an insight into the cultural radars of our celebrity hosts.
In episode 1, Miles Jupp is our host as he takes us around his bespoke festival site to meet Val McDermid in the literary tent, Abandoman on the music stage and TMS' very own Alison Mitchell in the Cricket Tent (of course there's a cricket tent, it's Miles Jupp we're talking about). Paul Sinha also attempts to run a quiz in the Trivia Tent and stand-up legend Simon Munnery entertains from a field.
Chris Mason presents political debate from Broadcasting House in London with the Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly, the former Foreign Secretary Dame Margaret Beckett MP, the journalist Peter Hitchens and the economist Dr Linda Yueh.
Since she was a university student, Katya Adler has been fascinated by the idea of personality - how personalities are formed, how they can change, and whether we even really have a fixed set of characteristics.
For the third and final part of this One to One series about personality, Katya speaks to Wiebke Bleidorn, professor of social and personality psychology and head of the Personality Change Lab at the University of California, Davis.
Wiebke talks to Katya about how the field of personality psychology has evolved, discusses her research into how stable personality traits are and reveals whether it is possible to change someone's personality.
The 1960s Swedish detective series that inspired a generation of crime writers.
In The Abominable Man, Martin Beck is called in to work in the middle of the night to see the butchered body of a senior policeman. He begins to investigate, dogged by a sense that catastrophe is imminent and once again, his instinct is correct.
Narrator 1 ... Lesley Sharp
Narrator 2 ... Nicholas Gleaves
Martin Beck ... Steven Mackintosh
Lennart Kollberg ... Neil Pearson
Gunvald Larsson ... Ralph Ineson
Einar Rönn ... Wayne Foskett
Frederik Melander ... Adrian Scarborough
Malm ... Nick Murchie
Hult ... Sean Baker
Mrs. Nyman ... Christine Absalom
Stefan Nyman ... Matthew Watson
Bodil ... Greta Dudgeon
Mrs Eriksson ... Dinah Stabb
Mr Eriksson ... John Rowe
Kvant ... Sam Alexander
Kristiansson ... Don Gilet
The Rump ... Robert Blythe
Doctor ... Michael Shelford
Bohlin ... Rick Warden
Man 1 ... Ben Crowe
Man 2 ... David Seddon
Woman in Records Dept ... Joanna Brookes
Official 1 ... Paul Stonehouse
Kate Rusby, Women and high street job losses, Mary Trump, How to be a friend, Childfree by choice
Known as The Barnsley Nightingale, the folk singer, Kate Rusby talks about her latest album of covers, and recording it with her husband and two young daughters.
A number of high street retail stores have announced job losses. So many of the shop floor, customer facing jobs are done by women. Retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth, and Sue Prynn,deputy divisional officer for USDAW's southern division discuss the consequences of these lay-offs.
In court in New York last week President Trump’s niece, Mary J Trump found out that a temporary restraining order on her book about her uncle was going to be lifted. She spoke about Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man.
In the next of our summer series of practical How to guides, how to be a good friend. The broadcaster and beauty expert Sali Hughes, the comedian Jenni Eclair whose new book is Older and Wider – A Survivor’s Guide to the Menopause and Radhika Sanghani, a freelance journalist and novelist discuss.
The Australian chef, Lara Lee specialises in Indonesian cooking. She cooks the perfect sambal, which is a hot relish found on every Indonesian dinner table.
Emma Gannon is a podcaster and writer. She’s now written her first novel. In ”Olive”- the central character is thirty three and, like her creator is childfree by choice.
The gymnast Simone Biles is on the cover of American Vogue’s August 2020 issue, but critics have said the photoshoot highlights why there needs to be more diversity in the photography industry. The photographer Ola Adegoroye and Lazara Storm, who works as a commercial model and is now moving behind the scenes discuss.
Chris Frantz, Mary Coughlan, Kayode Ewumi, Courtney Marie Andrews, Winston Surfshirt, Athena Kugblenu, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Athena Kugblenu are joined by Chris Frantz, Mary Coughlan and Kayode Ewumi for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Courtney Marie Andrews and Winston Surfshirt.
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
How do we construct our pictures of the past, including both truth and myth, asks best-selling author Hilary Mantel. Where do we get our evidence? She warns of two familiar errors: either romanticising the past, or seeing it as a gory horror-show. It is tempting, but often condescending, to seek modern parallels for historical events. "Are we looking into the past, or looking into a mirror?" she asks. "Dead strangers...did not live and die so we could draw lessons from them." Above all, she says, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.
Over the course of the lecture series, Dame Hilary discusses the role that history plays in our culture. She asks how we view the past and what our relationship is with the dead.
The programme is recorded in front of an audience at Middle Temple in London, followed by a question and answer session.
Since the broadcasts of the Radio Doctor encouraged the British to open their bowels during the Second World War, the bowels of broadcasting organisations have filled up with factual and fictional series featuring doctors and nurses.
Mark Lawson visits the BBC's written archives centre in Caversham and reads through programme files detailing reactions to some of the Radio Doctor scripts, worries about the accuracy of early documentary dramas and behind the scenes information about the making of well known series including Dr Finlay's Casebook, The Singing Detective and Angels.
He meets the doctor turned writer Richard Gordon, whose name adorns the jackets of the Doctor in the House books, which have been adapted as film, tv and radio series. And he talks to the former medic Jed Mercurio, who created the TV series Cardiac Arrest, which is regularly voted the most realistic medical drama in polls of medical professionals.
Actor Alan Alda explains how his role in Mash helped to save his life and we hear whether Hugh Laurie (star of House) and Helen Baxendale (star of Cardiac Arrest) believe doctors should be seen as heroic figures. Mal Young, the former head of continuing drama serials at the BBC, discusses having to answer complaints about realism, graphic footage and political bias in Casualty and Holby City. Programme makers' responsibilities are debated by Roger Graef, whose many documentaries about aspects of medicine include Inside Great Ormond Street, and who chairs the Mental Health Media Awards: honouring accurate depictions of psychiatric illness in medical fact and fiction.
Dramas which have been condemned by the medical profession for giving patients false hopes of salvation or resuscitation are now used to train would be doctors - what does Richard Gordon think of this trend?
The final episode in the conspiracy thriller by Matthew Broughton. Starring Romola Garai. Written by Matthew Broughton.
Helen and Freddy fly to Shanghai to discover the secret of ‘life without end’. But Helen fears that she’ll actually find the worst thing in the world.
Who is the mysterious Doctor Fisker Lee? What procedure did he carry out on the boy from the plane crash? And what secrets lie within the vaults of his private research hospital?
Helen…. Romola Garai
Freddy…. Jonathan Forbes
Fisker Lee…. Kenneth Cranham
Rosie…. Susan Jameson
Florian…. Sean Baker
Lin…. Liz Sutherland
K…. Rafay Asfi
Elizabeth…. Matilda Le Fleming
A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned radio stories about this most beguiling of cities. To the outsider, Vienna can be a state of mind as much as an actual place.
Vienna 1939. Leah is hurried through the streets by her mother to try and catch the last Kindertransport (the means by which thousands of children were evacuated from mainland Europe) out of the city.
Jo Baker was educated at Oxford and Queen's University, Belfast. She is the author of several novels, most recently 'Longbourn' in 2013. Jo lives in Lancaster.
Campaigners are calling for an 'empire-neutral' public honour to reward front-line coronavirus workers in the Queen’s birthday honours list this autumn. It’s thought that some nominees will refuse to accept the traditional Order of the British Empire (OBE). The Black Lives Matter protests have sharpened the debate about our colonial past. Oxford professor Nigel Biggar has suggested that academics now put their careers at risk if they say anything positive about the British Empire. It’s an important moment for education, but the issue has become toxic. There’s general agreement that most British citizens have for too long been ignorant of the dark and shameful parts of their history. But was the Empire, as many passionately contest, predominantly a system of racism, slavery and exploitation? Other historians - while not disputing the violence and cruelty that disfigured the imperial project - point to the advances in health, education, the rule of law and economic prosperity that it brought to many parts of the world. How should we weigh up the transgressions and the triumphs of the past? Is it helpful to mark the Empire on a moral balance sheet with ‘shame’ and ‘pride’ columns? Does the obsession with viewing Britain’s history as either glorious or heinous stoke present-day hostility between identity groups? Or, since many British citizens are children of empire and their ancestry is woven into our collective tapestry, should we all focus instead on learning more about our shared past, warts and all? With Professor Nigel Biggar, Dr Nadine El-Enany, Janan Ganesh and Professor Alan Lester.
This week's specialist subjects are classics, education and modern British history and the questions take us from Rwanda to Finland to South Korea to Sainsbury's. And we solve the mystery of how the infant Hermes stole Apollo’s cattle.
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in a genuinely 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, there are the head-to-head rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects - with plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.
In this series, the universities are Bournemouth, Imperial College, Reading, Durham, Ulster University and Mansfield College Oxford.
The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, - not just in the humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as The Now Show, he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 on subjects as varied as The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen and Getting The Gongs - an investigation into awards ceremonies.
Poet and editor Jordan Smith follows the work of Japanese poets who are experimenting with new poetic forms in order to embed poetry into the Tokyo landscape.
Jordan meets Tokyo based poet Nagae Yuki who has taken inspiration from the genre of steric poetry to celebrate a phenomenon that is completely unique to this city. He also follows a theatrical poetry project, known as Heterotopia, which aims to preserve the historic influence that Asian immigrants have had on Tokyo. A group of Japanese poets came together to lay poems at specific landmarks around the city, creating a virtual audio tour for thousands of visitors. And finally, we hear poet Shiraishi Kazuko's sensual homage to the city, entitled “My Tokyo”.
SUNDAY 26 JULY 2020
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000l71g)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The Way I See It (m0009r45)
Roxane Gay and Christ's Entry into Journalism
Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, takes us on a deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means “to see” art.
Leading cultural figures in the series include Grammy- and Emmy-award-winning Hollywood actor and comedian Steve Martin, one of the founders of minimalism – composer Steve Reich and stand-up comedian Margaret Cho. Each episode introduces us to an important art work in the collection, but asks how our own perspective affects our appreciation of the piece.
So, how does a jazz pianist see Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie? How does one of the first black women to write for Marvel comics see the difficult truths in Kara Walker’s sweeping image of African-American history? What does a top fashion designer decode from the clothes painted by an artist in Harlem in the 1930s?
This week we begin with American writer and commentator Roxane Gay, author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist. She chooses a work by Kara Walker, best known for creating black-and-white silhouette works that invoke themes of African American racial identity. Roxane has selected Walker's massive 11-by-18-foot collage “Christ’s Entry into Journalism” from 2017. Riffing off “Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem,” the piece is covered with ink drawings depicting figures real and imagined, past and present, from James Brown to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Donald Trump.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
Main Image: Kara Walker, Christ's Entry into Journalism, 2017. Ink and pencil on paper, cut-and-pasted on painted paper, 140 1/2 × 196" (356.9 × 497.8 cm). Acquired through the generosity of Agnes Gund, the Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Carol and Morton Rapp, Marnie Pillsbury, the Contemporary Drawing and Print Associates, and Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1
98.2018. © 2019 Kara Walker
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000l2rb)
Heart Skips
By Divya Ghelani. Leicester, 1989 and Pramila’s training for a charity skipathon does not run entirely smoothly.
Divya Ghelani was born in Gujarat and grew up in Loughborough, Leicestershire. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and an MPhil in Literary Studies from the University of Hong Kong. She lives between Berlin and the UK where she has published short stories and judged story and flash fiction competitions. She is working on her first novel.
Writer: Divya Ghelani
Reader: Indira Varma
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l71j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l71l)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l71n)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000l71q)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000l71s)
St. Peter’s in Curdridge in Hampshire
Bells on Sunday comes from St. Peter’s in Curdridge, Hampshire. The bells were installed in the new church in 1894 - the heaviest ring of eight in the county. They were given by the Liddell family - Alice Liddell being the subject of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” books. We hear the bells ringing a touch of Stedman Triples.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000l71b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News (m000l79v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0080m9r)
The Dance of Life
The actor Felicity Finch reflects on childhood ballet lessons, adult salsa classes and observations of dance-like movements in everyday life through the writings of Isadora Duncan and Rudolph Laban, Gunther Grass' autobiography and Gabrielle Roth's Sweat Your Prayers.
And she talks with Colin MacLean, a retired priest, who considers dance a form of prayer.
With music by Massenet, Alex Jeffes and His Hotheads and Ali Farka Toure
Readers: Emma Fielding and Jonathan Keeble
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000l79y)
Smoky Wine
Much of this year's grape harvest in Australia's Hunter Valley was tainted by the fierce bush fires that tore through the region. Peter Hadfield meets Christina Tulloch, a winemaker who turned disaster to her advantage, developing a smoky new drink- Hunter Valley Shiraz Spirit.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000l7b0)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000l7b4)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000l7b8)
Bishop Michael Curry; Sudan; Westminster Abbey Financial Crisis
The Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry is the first African American to serve as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. He talks candidly about the soul of America, his hopes and fears post the Coronavirus pandemic, and his concerns about the what he calls a "pandemic of deep and entrenched racism".
Until recently, Muslims in Sudan could be sentenced to death for converting to Christianity; even discussing other religions could lead to arrest. Former British Ambassador to Sudan, Dame Rosalind Marsden explains why the liberalisation of such laws in Sudan is a significant step in the country’s development towards a stable and peaceful future.
In an exclusive interview with the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Dr David Hoyle, talks about the "breathtaking" loss of income the Abbey has incurred as a result of Coronavirus. Dr Hoyle tells the BBC's Religion Editor, Martin Bashir, the steps he might have to take in order to preserve one of the Nation's most historic buildings.
Producers
Carmel Lonergan
Rosie Dawson
Editor
Amanda Hancox
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000l7bd)
Five Talents
Sandi Toksvig makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Five Talents.
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 ‘Five Talents.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Five Talents.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1113969
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000l7bj)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000l7bp)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000l7bt)
Great is Thy Faithfulness
A service preparing for a "Virtually Keswick" Convention, taking place in the last week of July. The theme is hope. At this time of great uncertainty, in the midst of a global pandemic, there is hope in Jesus Christ. Preacher, the Revd Dr Chris Wright, takes the text of a well known hymn, “Great is thy faithfulness; morning by morning new mercies I see…” which comes from the middle of the darkest book in the Bible - Lamentations. The biblical poet describes the sacking of the city of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the mighty empire of Babylon. Yet out of utter despair comes hope...such is the character of God. Leaders: John Taylor and Anna Putt. Readings; Lamentations
3:17-24, 1 Peter 1:3-9; with Emu Music and soloist Cathy Burton. Producer: Philip Billson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000l2ct)
A Hazy Shade of Winter
"Once in a blue moon," writes Rebecca Stott, "new technologies become available that make it possible to open up ancient, long-shelved historical mysteries."
Rebecca tells how modern science has explained the events of 536 AD when the sun 'disappeared' and a devastating pandemic followed.
And she ponders what scientists - hundreds of years from now - will be able to tell about our current pandemic and our environmental crisis.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zdbr0)
Willow Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the willow warbler. The first willow warblers return from Africa in late March. Willow warblers were once the commonest and most widespread summer migrant to the UK but in the last two decades numbers in the south and east of England have dropped by two thirds. Fortunately in Scotland, Ireland and the west, numbers seem to be holding up.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000l7by)
News with Paddy O'Connell including what it's now like to visit a loved one in a care home. Mark Watson talks about his new drive in comedy shows. Plus how popular African music is influencing musicians in the UK. Reviewing the news coverage: Baroness Joan Bakewell, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Mister John Sergeant.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000l7c2)
Writers, Caroline Harrington & Tim Stimpson
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Alice Carter ..... Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ..... Wilf Scolding
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Ed Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
SUN 10:55 Tweet of the Day (m000l7jz)
Tweet Take 5 : Yellowhammer
A quiet stroll along a country lane in summer is often rewarded by the merry refrain "a little bit bread and no cheese". Most often heard but not seen, the bright yellow male yellowhammer perched just out of view on a hedge brings a magical sound to the British countryside. In this extended version of Tweet of the Day, we hear from wildlife presenter Steve Backshall, author James Henry and from nature writer & illustrator Tiffany Francis.
Producer Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000l7k1)
Sharon Horgan, writer, actor, producer
Sharon Horgan is a writer, actor and producer best known for co-writing and co-starring in the Channel 4 series Catastrophe with US comedian Rob Delaney.
Sharon was born in 1970 in east London, where her parents Ursula and John were running a pub. They moved to Ireland when Sharon was three and eventually set themselves up as turkey farmers.
Sharon went to a convent school, then art college in Dublin, before moving to London in 1990, hoping to become an actor. Following six years working at a job centre, she decided to get a degree and enrolled on an English course at Brunel University. She reconnected with Dennis Kelly, who she had acted with previously, and they started writing together. Their breakthrough was the BBC Three series Pulling, first broadcast in 2006, which chronicled the lives of three single women leading unfulfilling lives in an unfashionable part of London.
Sharon appeared in films while continuing to write and, in 2014, set up her own production company. In 2015, together with Rob Delaney, she co-wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed Catastrophe, about a couple who discover they're expecting a child after a short affair. Sharon was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performer and she and Rob won the BAFTA TV Craft Award for Best Comedy Writer in 2016. Catastrophe ran for four series, ending in 2019.
Sharon's other writing credits include the acclaimed series Motherland, Divorce and This Way Up, while her most recent film role was in Military Wives, opposite Kristin Scott Thomas. Sharon is divorced from her husband, Jeremy Rainbird, and lives in London with her two daughters.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
SUN 11:45 Join the Dots (b09534h0)
Series 1
The Dancing Dot
Janet Ellis explores our love affair with the polka-dot and what it says about us.
The simple dot is one of the first marks man ever made. From being a word we uttered infrequently, the advent of digital has made it one we use all the time.
The dot. We wear it, listen to it, read it and gaze on it. We send it through the air and under the waves. Each programme in this series circles a different aspect of this simple mark.
Contributors include film and TV costume designer Leonie Hartard, designer Cressida Bell, and a clown, Mattie Faint.
Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Dora production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000l7k3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (m000l2bn)
Series 24
Episode 6
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.
Lucy Porter, Sean Lock, Zoe Lyons and Jack Dee are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as poison, heavy metal, painters and winter sports.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000l7k5)
Julian Metcalfe: A Life Through Food
Slowly, the hospitality industry is easing itself out of lockdown: but the sector has been hard hit - particularly those high-street outlets seen in towns and cities across the country, offering quick lunch options for a legion of office workers who are no longer around...
In a sector that was already struggling, with slow business hitting chains such as Jamie's Italian and burger brand Byron, what will it take for these brands to not only survive coronavirus, but thrive long term?
Who better to ask than a man who's been instrumental in shaping the nation's high-street fast food offerings: Julian Metcalfe.
Sheila Dillon speaks to the co-founder of international food retailer Pret A Manger about entrepreneurship, his on Asian-inspired brand itsu, staying creative during lockdown - and what he sees as his mission to offer healthy, affordable fast food on the high street.
Presented by Sheila Dillon, produced by Lucy Taylor.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000l7k7)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000l7k9)
Global news and analysis, presented by Mark Mardell.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000l7kc)
Kofi Smiles presents the extended weekly edition of the programme this week on the shared experience of being in lockdown and beyond. In this edition relatives, strangers and friends discuss the highs and lows of running small businesses - from supermarkets to independent cinemas. And a music genre particular to the city of Hull.
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. The
conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moments 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 this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000l2r8)
GQT At Home: Episode Seventeen
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural panel show. Matt Biggs, Matthew Pottage and Pippa Greenwood answer listeners' gardening questions sent in via email and social media.
This week, the panel discusses the merits of banana peel as a fertiliser, how best to care for your succulents and planting suggestions for a movable wedding date.
Away from the questions, James Wong chats to Grow2Know founder Tayshan Hayden-Smith about gardening in the wake of Grenfell and Advolly Richmond dusts off the history books once again to tell the story of the nasturtium.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Way I See It (m0009s1d)
Es Devlin on Felix Gonzalez-Torres's Perfect Lovers
Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, continues his deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means “to see” art.
Today's edition features British stage designer and sculptor Es Devlin. Devlin has made large scale touring stage sculptures in collaboration with Beyoncé, Kanye West Adele, U2, and the Royal Opera House in London, as well as designing the London Olympic Closing Ceremony in 2012. She has selected Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers - in which two synchronized clocks, like those typically found in offices and public spaces, are displayed side by side. One will inevitably stop before the other. Created whilst Felix Gonzalez-Torres's partner was ill, it embodies the tension that comes from two people living side-by-side as life moves forward towards death. Laycock died of AIDS six years before Gonzalez-Torres's own death in 1996. What will one of the world's greatest set designers see in this simple, poignant work?
Producer: Tom Alban
Main Image: Felix Gonzalez-Torres,"Untitled" (Perfect Lovers), 1991. Clocks, paint on wall, overall 14 x 28 x 2 3/4" (35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm). Gift of the Dannheisser Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art, 1
77.1996.a-b. © 2019 The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, Courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
SUN 15:00 Drama (m000l7kf)
The Plague
The Plague was adapted from the globally renowned novel La Peste by Albert Camus, and directed for radio by Neil Bartlett, based on his 2017 Arcola Theatre production and script. A disturbing, deeply relevant listen.
Bartlett's adaptation is the English language world radio premiere production of The Plague and focuses the story on five characters, using only words contained in the novel.
It is often said of La Peste - written in 1947 by the Nobel Prize winner for literature, Albert Camus - that the plague and the rats in his novel are an allegory for the rise of fascism across Europe. He always denied this. For us today, The Plague will have uncanny echoes of the pandemic, the restrictions and the moral dilemmas we are living through, as well as the rise of extremist ideology in many countries today.
Just like our current crisis, the characters in The Plague comprise heroes, selfless and selfish acts, those who shame themselves into changing, and those who do not and suffer the consequences once the plague has been conquered. Hope surfaces when there is talk of a serum but, with the arrival of the first attempts at a cure, who should be selected as the guinea pigs ?
In an uncanny parallel, this drama about a community facing lockdown due to a deadly plague was recorded by actors, locked down in their own homes during our own pandemic. The scope of the production was not reduced as a result.
Cast:
Doctor Rieux ............ Sara Powell
Raymond Rambert .... Billy Postlethwaite
Mr Cottard ................ Joe Alessi
Jean Tarrou .............. Jude Aduwudike
Mr Grand .................. Colin Hurley
Adapted for radio and directed by Neil Bartlett
Producer: Turan Ali
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000l7kh)
Kate Grenville, Beryl Bainbridge, Narrative Voices
Sara Collins talks to Kate Grenville about her latest novel A Room Made of Leaves which a fictional memoir of a real woman, early Australian settler, Elizabeth Macarthur who in the late eighteenth century emigrated to the colony with her husband the notorious settler John Macarthur. The novel traces her life from childhood in rural Devon to womanhood in Australia, where she became the real brains behind the development of the merino wool industry,
Novelist Rachel Joyce and academic Dr Huw Marsh discuss the republication of Beryl Bainbridge's later historical novels, including her fictionalisation of historical figures, savage humour and the intricate qualities of her writing.
And Richard Beard presents the last in his series on the narrative voice, by zooming out to the third person who casts an all seeing omniscient eye over the story.
SUN 16:30 There Will Be Singing (m000l7kk)
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing
About the dark times.
– Bertolt Brecht, Motto to the Svendborg Poems
The German poet and playwright wrote these lines while living in exile in Denmark in the last years of the 1930s. When faced with traumatic times, how do we find the strength to sing? What does the poet write, against the backdrop of war, unrest, injustice, a global pandemic? The Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck writes a new poem in response to Brecht and speaks to three poets whose work recognizes the cruelty of the world and simultaneously tries to praise it: Naomi Shihab Nye, Ross Gay and Tishani Doshi.
Dear Brecht,
Is it Brecht? With a خ?
I’m tired of singing. My country breaks
me. I wanted to consider the walnut tree, but yesterday
my hometown burnt. A young man dead. Then undead.
I will not use the word blooms with blood.
His white shirt—not a field.
- Zeina Hashem Beck
Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet whose most recent collection is Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing, 2017). Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, The New York Times, The Adroit Journal, The Academy of American Poets, Poetry London, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Dubai.
Producer: Mair Bosworth
SUN 17:00 Mohammed and the Market (m000l6tb)
Islam and the financial crisis of 2008 are two of the most hotly debated topics of the past decade - but they aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence. The legacy of one man brings them together - The Prophet Mohammed. He was an entrepreneur and trader, as well as the founder of one of the world’s great religions.
Kamal Ahmed, the BBC’s former economics editor, discovers how money has been closely entwined with the religious teachings of Islam right from its inception. At a time when we face multiple challenges to our economies and to our personal finances, he asks what lessons the West can draw from this.
Kamal Ahmed is with a curator in the British Museum examining a coin. It’s from the 8th century AD and looks like an Islamic dinar. It bears the inscription “There is no God but Allah alone”. But it was minted by the Christian King Offa of Mercia, the most powerful kingdom of Anglo Saxon England, and his head is on the coin. The British Museum medieval coin expert Gareth Williams tells Kamal how this came about.
Roll forward a millennium and Britons continue to seek to connect with Islamic finance. In 2013 the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced the government’s first sukuk, or sharia-compliant bond issue. His aim, he said, was to make the UK a centre of Islamic finance.
Kamal decides to find out more about the links between Islam and the West when it comes to market economics. Along the way, he discovers intriguing connections between the founding fathers of market economics and the ideas of medieval Islamic financial scholars.
The journey of discovery begins in 6th-century Mecca. We discover that Mohammed himself was a successful merchant, as was his wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and that ideas about the place of trade and commerce were embedded in his religious teachings. As Kamal finds out, “ money” and “wealth” weren’t the dirty words that they are in some of the Christian teaching of the New Testament. Unlike other religious leaders, such as Jesus and the Buddha, the Prophet was a rich man. In some accounts, one of the richest in the land. Not surprisingly then, the Prophet had many things to say about the right way of shaping commercial life. His instructions on how to conduct business, from the need to have accurate scales, to the prohibition of interest, are enshrined in the Qur’an and the Hadiths, the record of the traditions or sayings of the Prophet.
These writings form part of an unknown aspect of Sharia Law. To many non-Muslims, the word “sharia” represents something that they have no connection with. But what Sharia Law has to say about trade is far from unfamiliar – in fact, it lies at the root of our own ideas of market economics. We might have heard that interest, or usury, is banned under Islam, but probably less well-known is the debt that our financial system owes to Islamic scholars writing several centuries before their Enlightenment counterparts.
Kamal discovers that some of the most famous ideas of modern economics - such as Adam Smith’s theory on the division of labour or, more recently, Arthur Laffer’s curve - had already been expressed hundreds of years earlier by medieval Islamic thinkers such as Ibn Khaldoun. Kamal explores these connections and tries to find out how the ideas travelled from medieval Islam into the head of the father of capitalism, Adam Smith.
Kamal ends his journey by bringing the story up to date. In addition to David Cameron and George Osborne’s issuing of an Islamic bond, Sharia-compliant products are available on some high streets too for punters looking for a mortgage or a savings plan.
Kamal meets Islamic finance experts who argue that these centuries-old sharia principles of finance make for a much more stable system. Why? Because, advocates of Islamic finance claim, it is not based on high-risk debt, but on risk-sharing.
But it’s not as straightforward as that. Many argue there are serious drawbacks to the risk sharing idea - it generates greater inequality. Islamic finance lowers risk by lending only to the rich.
So, does the story of our debt to Islamic financial ideas offer any lessons to a capitalist system still trying to find its way after the crisis of 2008? Has the answer to our modern economic malaise been hiding in plain sight?
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000l71b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000l7km)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000l7kp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l7kr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000l7kt)
Poignant stories this week of people deported to places they’ve not lived in for many years, the couple facing up to a life with disability, the man left on Victoria Embankment as a baby.
Come along on a march with a million men, visit the colours of war torn Raqqa and meet people helping others through words, pictures and poetry. And when you’ve enjoyed the stories curl up with the dog on the family sofa.
Presenter: Liz Barclay
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production support: Ellen Orchard
contact potw@bbc.co.uk
SUN 19:00 Q & A by Vikas Swarup (b007vlvl)
1,000,000,000 Rupees
By Ayeesha Menon, from the novel by Vikas Swarup.
Thomas is one question away from winning the billion-rupee prize, but the producers can't afford the payout and will do anything to stop him. But Thomas has an ulterior motive for being on the show and he will not leave without getting his revenge on the show's host Prem Kumar.
Thomas ...... Anand Tiwari
Prem Kumar ...... Sohrab Ardeshir
TV Producer ...... Jayant Kripalani
Vikas ...... Rohit Malkani
Directed by John Dryden.
SUN 19:15 Cabin Pressure (b00lxh3r)
Series 2
Johannesburg
When Carolyn makes a foolish bet with her pilots, what better place for a race against time than a sleepy Spanish airfield? Plus we learn about the thermodynamic properties of boiled sweets and the kinetic thrust of white wine.
Starring
Carolyn Knapp-Shappey ..... Stephanie Cole
1st Officer Douglas Richardson ..... Roger Allam
Capt. Martin Crieff ..... Benedict Cumberbatch
Arthur Shappey ..... John Finnemore
Senor Quintanilla ..... Michael Fenton-Stevens
Diego ..... Javier Marzan
Written by John Finnemore.
Produced & directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Spice (m000l7cc)
The Best-Thumbed Parts Of Her Novel
A series of five specially-commissioned tales revolving around the possibilities of the word spice.
5/5. The Best-Thumbed Parts Of Her Novel by Robert Shearman.
A writer is losing her way, and losing the words from her previous novels.
Robert Shearman has written five short story collections, and has won the World Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and the Edge Hill Readers Prize. He was resident dramatist at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, and regular writer for Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough. His interractve BBC radio series The Chain Gang won two Sony awards. But he is probably best known for his work on Doctor Who, bringing back the Daleks for the BAFTA winning first series in an episode nominated for a Hugo Award.
Writer: Robert Shearman
Reader: Meera Syal
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000l2rg)
The outgoing Editor of Radio 4’s Today Programme is heading off to a monastery in France. Has three years of editing the BBC‘s flagship radio news programme led to her taking the veil?
Sarah Sands reflects on her tenure and brings an ‘outsider's’ view of Today and the BBC - and explains she’s going on retreat to write a book.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000l2rd)
John Lewis, Tony Elliott CBE, Wendy Cooling, Dr Alan Howard
Matthew Bannister on
John Lewis, the leading American civil rights campaigner who was beaten and imprisoned in the 1960s when he marched with Martin Luther King and later served as a Congressman.
Tony Elliott CBE, who founded the listings magazine Time Out and oversaw its transformation into a global brand.
Wendy Cooling, the former teacher who, through the Bookstart scheme, gave millions of babies and toddlers their first books.
Dr Alan Howard, the nutritionist who came up with the Cambridge Diet which became an international commercial success.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed Guest: Bob Harris
Interviewed Guest: Alan Yentob
Interviewed Guest: Michael Carlson
Interviewed Guest: Justin Somper
Interviewed Guest: Jon Howard
Interviewed Guest: Julio Bruno
Archive clips from: Tomorrow's People, BBC 15/04/1972; Woman's Hour, Radio 4, 01/02/2008; The Perfect Diet?, BBC 2 28/11/1987
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000l754)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000l7bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000l207)
Behavioural Science and the Pandemic
There were two narratives that emerged in the week before we locked down on 23rd March that could go some way to explaining why the UK was relatively slow to lockdown. One was the idea of “herd immunity” - that the virus was always going to spread throughout the population to some extent, and that should be allowed to happen to build up immunity.
That theory may have been based on a misunderstanding of how this particular virus behaved.
The second narrative was based on the idea of “behavioural fatigue”. This centred around the notion that the public will only tolerate a lockdown for so long so it was crucial to wait for the right moment to initiate it. Go too soon, and you might find that people would not comply later on.
It turns out that this theory was also wrong. And based on a fundamental misunderstanding of human behaviour.
Despite photos of packed parks, crammed beaches and VE day conga lines, on the whole the British public complied beyond most people’s expectations.
So what informed the government’s decision making?In this programme we ask, what is “behavioural fatigue”, where did it come from, how much influence did it have on the UK’s late lockdown, and where does Nudge theory fit into the narrative?
Presenter: Sonia Sodha
Producer: Gemma Newby
Editor: Jasper Corbett
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000l7cf)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000l265)
Luc Roeg on Walkabout
With Antonia Quirke
Film producer Luc Roeg talks about his only acting role, as a seven year old boy alongside Jenny Agutter in Walkabout. He reveals what it was like to be directed by his dad, Nic, and why he really didn't like swimming naked in the film's most famous scene.
Coky Giedroyc, the director of How To Build A Girl, gives her tips for young female filmmakers on how to survive and thrive in a male dominated industry.
Writer Nat Segnit pitches a remake of La Grande Bouffe, in which some middle class friends eat themselves to death over a long weekend, to industry insiders Clare Binns, Rowan Woods and Lizzie Francke
Director Carol Morley introduces her final choice for Friday Film Club, the online movie club that she set up when the cinemas closed down.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b0080m9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 27 JULY 2020
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000l7ch)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0000mrl)
Push Buttons
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, Acting Managing Editor at the i newspaper. Revised repeat.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000l71s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l7ck)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l7cm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l7cp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000l7cr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l7ct)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000l7cw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000l7cy)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zdkjv)
Snipe
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the snipe. The snipe is an intricately patterned wader, not much bigger than a blackbird but with an enormously long bill. In the breeding season they fly high above their territories before dashing earthwards and then sweeping upwards again. Throughout this display you'll hear a bleating sound, known as 'drumming'. Find out how the sound is made in today's programme.
MON 06:00 Today (m000l6ms)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 How to Play (m000l6mv)
Mendelssohn's Octet with the Elias and Emmeline Quartets string quartets
The Elias and Emmeline Quartets string quartets let us inside their Manchester rehearsals for a performance of Mendelssohn's amazing Octet.
Producer: Martin Williams for BBC Wales
MON 09:30 Legacy of War (m000l6mz)
Episode 8
Sean Bean presents a series exploring the ways in which wartime experiences have filtered down through the generations.
A proudly Irish family endorsed Dr Aidan MacCarthy's decision to serve as an RAF medic in World War Two, but his daughters Niki and Adrienne knew nothing of what he had experienced.
Finally, in the 1970s, Dr MacCarthy began to talk about what he had faced. From Dunkirk to the Far East, he had offered medical support to the sick and dying, in battle and as a prisoner of war. His extraordinary legacy was to take Niki on a journey to Nagasaki, Japan, to the site where the second atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.
She was to discover the truth behind a gleaming Japanese ceremonial sword, brought back by Dr MacCarthy and kept in the family home ever since the end of the war.
Producer Mark Rickards
MON 09:45 Girl Taken (m000glx7)
6. A Trap Is Set
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000l6n7)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
MON 10:45 Electric Decade (m000l6nr)
Babelsberg Babylon
Episode 1
By Nick Perry
Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929. A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and film's writer are desperate to find her. Each has their own reasons.
This suspenseful drama is set amid the creative ferment of 1920s Berlin, centred around Babelsberg Film Studio, the world's oldest large-scale film studio. Out of the darkness of military defeat, political chaos, poverty and hyperinflation springs the phenomenon of Weimar culture, a defiant celebration of humanity and artistic expression in all its diverse forms. People flock to Berlin to be a part of the cultural explosion. Writer Jonas Beck, actress Krista Wolff and war veteran Peter X are among them.
Jonas Beck . . . . . Paul Chahidi
Otto Lenz . . . . . Anton Lesser
Lottie . . . . . Clare Corbett
Peter X . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Krista . . . . . Cassie Layton
The songs are written by Nick Perry, Nathan Perry and Maureen Glackin, and the music is arranged and performed by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m000l7pn)
My Name Is Fozia
Fozia was surprised to be bombarded with fake news as she worked on the covid wards and even more shocked to discover that some of the messages were coming from prominent people in the local community. They accused doctors of forcing people to sign Do Not Resuscitate forms, suggested that Covid-19 didn't actually exist and one even told her she would be: “held responsible in the court of Allah for the deaths of these people, for negligence in this life, and life is very short."
“I've been sent a message saying that NHS workers are working on bonuses, that we're taking money for putting Covid on death certificates and we are essentially taking money for life. And I think that's a really cruel thing to say to someone," said Fozia.
She talks to a patient on the hospital’s intensive care unit, Mohammed Azeem, who says he deliberately put off coming to hospital because he’d been hearing the claims on social media. By the time an ambulance was called he was dangerously ill and had to be placed straight on a ventilator. His life hung in the balance for weeks and his mother died before he regained consciousness. He says he has realised the dangers of fake news and wants to help alert others.
As part of her investigation Fozia challenges some of those behind the conspiracy theories which are so prevalent online. She speaks to the anti-5G campaigner, Mark Steel, who says that no one is safe from the alleged impact of 5G and the latest electromagnetic wave induced pandemic. She also hears from a hospital worker who admits to following the conspiracy theories and siding with them even in light of the impact she sees on the wards and her medical training.
In the African community the fear is prevalent in a group of mothers she meets: they are so worried that even if a vaccine became available they wouldn’t think about taking it. One woman tells her that covid-19 is a device being used to eradicate different ethnic groups and that no one is safe. The higher death rate amongst the BAME community is just further evidence that a cleansing policy of some kind is in operation.
Fozia laments the problems fake news is causing on the wards at her hospital, the Bradford Royal Infirmary, which serves a very diverse community. Her colleague, Dr Sam Khan, shares a video his parents have seen circulating on major news channels in Pakistan. It purports to show how vaccines distributed by Bill Gates involve secret microchips. Dr Khan believes the fears were partly fuelled by the hospital’s justifiable policy of not allowing visitors at the start of the pandemic.
In Accident and Emergency Fozia chats to Dr Dave Greenhorn and Sister Emma Clinton, who recently saw a patient too ill to save. Following his death from covid-19 his children turned on them, accusing medical staff of giving their father a lethal injection. For Emma and Dave it was a harrowing moment and it really hit home how difficult the task ahead is. Even publicising the good news stories and focusing on patients who get better and go home does not detract from the widespread fear.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Presented by Dr Fozia Hayat
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000l75s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000l7pr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l6p2)
Episode 1: Star
Booker-winning writer Anne Enright reads her new novel about fame, sex and a daughter's search for truth.
This is the story of the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend Katherine O'Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. From the glamour of postwar Hollywood to obscurity back in Dublin, it charts the highs and the lows of Katherine's life as an actor, and how her fame turned so suddenly to infamy.
Today: Norah looks back to her twenty-first birthday, the glorious day when her mother held court in their Dublin house, knowing that her star was already fading...
Actress was longlisted for the Women's Prize, 2020.
Writer: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Reader: Anne Enright
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000l7pt)
Former FlyBe Routes; Car Thefts; Valspar Paint Problems
The challenges for air passengers with half of FlyBe's old routes not being taken up by other airlines. We look at where you can now fly to and where you can't.
The people still struggling to get refunds for Vacations Rentals holidays scuppered by lockdown.
The number of cars being stolen in Great Britain has hit a four year high. We look at the hot spots and why car crime is a growing problem.
Why are the majority of our museums still closed when they've been allowed to reopen since July 4th?
And the continuing problems being faced by people whose newly redecorated houses ending up smelling of cat pee.
PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson.
PRODUCER: Mike Young.
MON 12:57 Weather (m000l7pw)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000l7py)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
MON 13:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l7q0)
1. Big Oil’s Big Crisis
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured.
In this episode we take you to an oil company’s boardroom as they plan their response to the ‘crisis mentality’ that was emerging after the long hot summer of 1988. 5,000 people died in the heat wave, coinciding with the moment NASA scientist Jim Hansen announced that a ‘greenhouse effect’ was ‘changing our climate now’. This looked like a battle for the survival of the oil industry.
This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.
Producer: Phoebe Keane for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:00 Drama (m000l7q3)
Just The Three Of Us
May dotes on her grand-daughter, Ruby and daughter, Danielle. When Will, Danielle's partner stops contact things quickly escalate into dangerous territory and the extent of his control comes to the fore.
May - Lorraine Ashbourne
Danielle - Michelle Keegan
Ruby - Poppy O'Brien
Will - Jason Done
Written by Becky Prestwich
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris
MON 14:45 Museum of Lost Objects (b071vlmj)
Minaret of the Umayyad Mosque, Aleppo
The Museum of Lost Objects traces the histories of 10 antiquities or cultural sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria.
Since 2012, Aleppo - Syria's largest city - has been a key battleground in the conflict, and hundreds of its residents killed or displaced. Aleppo, thought to be the oldest city in the world, is now left in ruins. One of the great monuments of the city was the minaret of the Umayyad Mosque (also known as the Great Mosque) which was toppled in April 2013. It's still unclear who was responsible - Syrian government forces and rebels blame each other. We tell the story of the minaret, a world heritage site that was connected to that other great Aleppo landmark, the souk.
This episode was first broadcast on 3 March, 2016
Presenter: Kanishk Tharoor
Producer: Maryam Maruf
Picture: Minaret of the Umayyad Mosque
Credit: Getty
Contributors: Nasser Rabbat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Zahed Tajeddin, artist and archaeologist; Heghnar Watenpaugh, University of California Davis; Jalal Halabi, photographer; Will Wintercross, Daily Telegraph
With thanks to Haider Adnan of BBC Arabic, Elyse Semerdjian of Whitman College, and Aya Mhanna.
MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (m000l7q5)
Series 10
Ulster University
Steve Punt hosts the funny, lively and dynamic quiz from Ulster University.
This week's specialist subjects are engineering, sport, physical activity and health, and pharmacy and pharmaceutical studies, and the questions range from chuck keys to trampolines via CAT scans and cannabinol.
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in a genuinely 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, there are the head-to-head rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects - with plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.
In this series, the universities are Bournemouth, Imperial College, Reading, Durham, Ulster University and Mansfield College Oxford.
The host, Steve Punt, although best known as a satirist on The Now Show, is also someone who delights in all facets of knowledge, - not just in the humanities (his educational background) but in the sciences as well. As well as The Now Show, he has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 on subjects as varied as The Poet Unwound - The History Of The Spleen and Getting The Gongs - an investigation into awards ceremonies.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000l7k5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Simon Schama: The Great Gallery Tours (m000l7q8)
The Prado
The Prado Museum in Madrid is a barometer of the fortunes of Spain. It is one of the great galleries because it is based on the collection of the Spanish monarchs of the 16th and 17th centuries - when they were the richest and most powerful in the western world. So the Prado has an unrivalled assembly of paintings by court favourites Titian and Velazquez as well as Goya.
Sir Simon Schama's choices begin, however, with a painting that spent only a short time in the Prado before being moved to the neighbouring museum of modern art - Guernica by Picasso. For Sir Simon, this is that exceptional thing - a modernist history painting. Epic in scale and ambition, it captures the brutality and carnage of the attack by German planes on the defenceless Basque town. Simon links this to the horror of Goya's painting The Third of May 1808, in which a firing squad is in the business of slaughtering a group of Madrilenos rebels who have resisted the French invasion of Spain . Both paintings prompt a visceral response from the viewer.
We are also treated to an account of Titian's magnificent equestrian portrait of Charles V and of Velazquez's masterwork Las Meninas (the Maids of Honour), which has been described as the greatest painting ever made.
The programme concludes with Zurbaran's exquisite still life, Angus Dei, a sacrificial lamb ready for the slaughter, beautifully rendered down to its eyelashes.
You can find the names of the paintings and a link to the gallery on the Great Gallery Tours programme website.
Written and Presented by Sir Simon Schama
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio prodution for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p08h09b2)
Series 22
An Astronaut's Guide to Isolation
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by a stellar panel of space travellers as they get tips on surviving isolation from a group with a truly unique insight. They are joined by astronauts Helen Sharman, Chris Hadfield, Nicole Stott and Apollo 9's Rusty Schweickart to talk Space X, the future of space travel and how a trip to Mars will be the ultimate test of our ability to survive isolation.
MON 17:00 PM (m000l7qc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l7qf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000l7qh)
Another half-hour of quality desk-based entertainment for all the family comes to you once more from the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, where Jeremy Hardy joins show regulars Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and reluctant chairman, Humphrey Lyttelton. At the piano - Colin Sell.
Producer - Jon Naismith
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000l6nh)
Fallon finds herself under pressure and Harrison unveils his grand plan
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000l6nm)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 Electric Decade (m000l6nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Guilty Men (m000khkn)
In 1940, with Britain fearing invasion, an anonymous book appeared. Its attack on the government's 'guilty men' caused uproar. Eighty years on, Phil Tinline explores the benefits and pitfalls of naming and blaming, then and now.
In late May 1940, as reporters got back to Fleet Street with the first interviews with survivors of the Dunkirk evacuation, three journalists - one of them the young Michael Foot - met on the roof of the Express building in Fleet Street. They decided they had to find a way to attack the ministers who had sent "heroes" into battle without "a fair chance".
They planned to hammer out a book, and publish it anonymously. Guilty Men was written in four days, and rushed it into print in less than a month.
It caused outrage for its denunciation of the ministers charged with failing to prepare sufficiently for war - and sold over 200,000 copies.
It was crucial to establishing the idea that the 1930s was a time of government failure and timidity, driven by budgetary austerity, which brought the country to the brink of disaster - with ordinary people on the front lines paying the price.
Yet there is a twist – the book was far too lenient on the journalists' boss, Lord Beaverbrook, and on left-wing anti-war sentiment in the 1930s, in which Foot himself played a part. And for decades, it has been attacked by historians as unfair and simplistic.
So, Phil asks, should Guilty Men just remind us that polemics are a vital way to call out those who have done great harm, and to get rid of old thinking? Or should it also warn us that they can land too much blame on some, let others off the hook - and don’t necessarily help us avoid repeating our mistakes?
Phil explores how this played out in the Brexit debate - and how it might now play out as we process the impact of Covid-19.
Contributors include: Ruth Dudley Edwards, Peter Oborne, Anthony Seldon, Dominic Frisby, Steve Fielding, Alan Allport
Presenter/ Producer: Phil Tinline
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000l25n)
The Many Colours of Raqqa
The untold story of Abood Hamam, perhaps the only photojournalist to have worked under every major force in Syria's war - and lived to tell the tale. At the start of the uprising he was head of photography for the state news agency, SANA, taking official shots of President Assad and his wife Asma by day - and secretly filming opposition attacks by night. Later he defected and returned to his home town, Raqqa, where various rebel groups were competing for control. Other journalists fled when the terrorists of so-called Islamic State (IS) took over, but Abood stayed - and was asked by IS to film its victory parade. He sent pictures of life under IS to agencies all over the world - using a pseudonym. As the bombing campaign by the anti-IS coalition intensified, Abood moved away - but returned later to record the heartbreaking destruction - but also the slow return of life, and colour, to the streets. For months, he roamed through the ruins with his camera, seeing himself as ”the guardian of the city." Raqqa's future is still very uncertain, but Abood now wants everyone to see his pictures, which he posts on Facebook, and know his real name. He hopes the colours he's showing will tempt the thousands of families who've fled Raqqa to return home, and rebuild their lives, and their city.
Reporter: Tim Whewell
Producer: Mohamad Chreyteh
Sound mix: James Beard
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Bridget Harney
MON 21:00 The Political School (m000l0r9)
Episode 2
Have you ever thought that our whole political system needs radical change? That in the face of complex global challenges - a pandemic, for example - the British state is a lumbering beast still using the technology of the 20th century - if not the 19th? That our politicians aren’t as well equipped for their jobs as they could be?
In this three-part series, author and broadcaster Timandra Harkness examines whether there's truth in these ideas - and how our political system can change for the better.
In the second episode, we look at what happens in a crisis - how it can force governments to experiment and innovate, and allow them to do things that in normal times they'd never get away with.
Presenter: Timandra Harkness
Producer: Ant Adeane
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 How to Play (m000l6mv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000l6ny)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l6p2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m000l0s0)
The language of power and inequality in education and leadership
Teacher and writer Jeffrey Boakye, sitting in for Michael Rosen, talks with charity strategist, writer and educator Iesha Small. They explore the language of power and inequality in modern education and leadership, and whether they've both learned to speak 'straight white male'. They also look at the ways in which words that are seemingly innocuous and commonly used in schools conceal deep social inequities, such as the word 'disadvantaged'.
Producer Beth O'Dea. Photo copyright: Antonio Olmos
More about Jeffrey Boakye:
Jeffrey Boakye is an author, commentator, writer and English teacher. He has a particular interest in issues surrounding education, race and popular culture.
Jeffrey, originally from Brixton in London, has taught English to 11- to 18-year-olds since 2007. He began teaching in West London, moved to East London where he was Head of English, and then moved on to Yorkshire where he now lives with his wife and two sons.
Jeffrey started writing his first book, Hold Tight, in 2015 when cradling his first born son in the early hours. Hold Tight was published in 2017 and is recognised as one of the first seminal books on grime music. He started writing his second book, Black, Listed, when cradling his second born son in the early hours. Published in 2019, Black, Listed was praised by David Lammy MP as ‘a book that gives a voice to those whose experience is persistently defined, refined and denied by others’. Jeffrey’s third book, What is Masculinity?, a book for children on masculinity, broke with tradition and was not written when cradling a newborn son.
You can listen to Jeffrey Boakye's conversation with Michael Rosen on Word of Mouth here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004l93
Iesha Small is a writer, speaker and charity strategist passionate about creating a fairer society.
Iesha is Head of Strategy and Policy at the youth charity YHA. She has 15 years’ experience in the education sector as a teacher, governor and Innovation Lead at the Centre for Education and Youth think tank. She is passionate about using storytelling alongside research to create positive change and is the author of The Unexpected Leader.
She has written about education and society for The Guardian, been a columnist for Schools Week and contributed to books covering education, mental health, and gender identity. She splits her working week between YHA, leadership development and storytelling. Her clients have included Chartered College of Teaching, The National Theatre, Teach First and BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000bcmn)
Series 2
Cassava
Cassava roots are a vital source of calories in tropical countries. They are also a puzzle: cassava is highly toxic, and to be made safe it requires a tedious and complex preparation ritual. Plants such as cassava have routinely poisoned the unwary, and yet societies who are accustomed to it manage to make it safe despite all the hurdles. Tim Harford asks how humans have learned to do this without dropping dead. And what does cassava teach us about the hidden social forces that support a modern economy?
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon
MON 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000l6p8)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 28 JULY 2020
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000l6pd)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Girl Taken (m000glx7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l6pj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l6pn)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l6ps)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000l6px)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l6q1)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000l6q5)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08zd770)
Laura Howard on the Swift
Springwatch producer Laura Howard describes how the arrival of swifts in May and learning more about nature walking in the countryside felt like wearing glasses that let her see clearly for the first time.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Phil Luckhurst.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000l8l5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000l8l9)
Ending Hiring Discrimination
Sangita Myska takes a deep dive into some of the biggest problems facing Britain today - and meets the people whose big ideas might solve them.
This week, as a political sea change shines fresh light on the prejudice black Britons can face when applying for jobs, it’s a chance to look at ways to address hiring discrimination. And the UK has a high profile petri dish - the world of professional football, which has long failed to appoint black coaches, managers and executives in proportions to match the players who have proved themselves on the pitch.
Looking at two ideas that aim to change that - a new push to recruit black owners to buy football clubs, and an equality charter that hopes to change the cultures of clubs and national bodies - Sangita explores the obstacles to bringing equality into the top levels of football and asks if, with the right innovation, football could become a positive example for other industries.
Presenter: Sangita Myska
Producers: Tara Holmes and Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:30 Behind the Buzzwords (m000l8lc)
FOMO
David Cannadine tells the story behind the Buzzword FOMO - fear of missing out.
The term is thought to have originated in the marketing world during the late 1990s, but it was re-coined and made popular at the beginning of the millennium by a young New Yorker named Patrick McGinnis, who tells his story in the programme.
Fear of Missing Out isn’t a new cultural concept, it’s ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ by another name but, as developments in social media and IT enabled us to be more connected than ever before, FOMO became a hallmark of the digital age.
In 2013 the psychologist Andrew Przybylski conducted a major academic study into FOMO, to understand who was most vulnerable to it. He explains how he found a small but significant trend that indicated young men showed the highest levels of anxiety about not being part of the pack. Andrew concluded that the less people felt autonomy, competence and connectedness in their daily lives, the more susceptible they were to FOMO.
Recently we have all been missing out, because of restrictions imposed upon us on account of the coronavirus pandemic. David wonders if this mass moment of missing out might have actually put a stop to feelings of FOMO?
With Patrick McGinnis, Andrew Przbylski, Nirpal Dhaliwal and Hephzibah Anderson.
Researcher: Joe Christmas
Produced by Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4
The series is made in collaboration with The British Academy, the UK's national body for the humanities and social sciences, www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
TUE 09:45 Girl Taken (m000gmmy)
7. A Secret Plan
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000l8lh)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
TUE 10:45 Electric Decade (m000l8lp)
Babelsberg Babylon
Episode 2
By Nick Perry
Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929. A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and film's writer are desperate to find her. Each have their own reasons.
In Episode 2, the writer Jonas Beck returns to Babelsberg to learn more about Krista Wolff's disappearance. His search takes him to the cabaret.
Jonas Beck . . . . . Paul Chahidi
Otto Lenz . . . . . Anton Lesser
Odette . . . . . Clare Corbett
Willie . . . . . Carl Prekopp
The songs are written by Nick Perry, Nathan Perry and Maureen Glackin, and the music is arranged and performed by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
TUE 11:00 The Political School (m000l8nz)
Episode 3
Have you ever thought that our whole political system needs radical change? That in the face of complex global challenges - a pandemic, for example - the British state is a lumbering beast still using the technology of the 20th century - if not the 19th? That our politicians aren’t as well equipped for their jobs as they could be?
In this three-part series, author and broadcaster Timandra Harkness examines whether there's truth in these ideas - and how our political system can change for the better.
In the third episode, we look to the future - and how to make government into the engine of change that many voters want.
Presenter: Timandra Harkness
Producer: Ant Adeane
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:30 Life, Death and the Foghorn (m000l8p1)
What happened to the foghorn, those beloved giants of our coastal landscape and soundscape? There used to be more than 100 foghorns proudly stationed around the British Isles. Now, due to maritime GPS and automation, there are fewer than 20, with the figure falling steadily.
The sound of the foghorn has always induced a melancholic feeling, and perhaps the absence of it only increases that sensation. Music journalist and broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allan has long been obsessed with the question of what memories and experiences are lost once the foghorn engines are switched off for good. She is a foghorn obsessive, having completed a PhD on their social and cultural history.
Inspired by the Foghorn Requiem, a 2013 art performance by Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway, this programme is a eulogy for the foghorn. Those sharing their lyrical memories and tributes include a sea captain, a recorder player, and a renegade engineer who restores horns in secret.
There is also foghorn-inspired poetry by Ian C Smith and WS Merwin, and original music from Laura Cannell and Femi Oriogun-Williams.
Produced by Jack Howson.
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000l8p3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8ly)
Episode 2: Swinging the shillelagh
Booker-winning Anne Enright reads her new novel about fame, sex and a daughter's search for truth.
This is the story of the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend Katherine O'Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. From the glamour and fame of Hollywood and the Dublin stage to the inevitable fall and decent into madness when Katherine commits a reckless crime.
Today: Katherine O'Dell's glorious early days as a strolling player in the Irish theatre....
Written and read by: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000l8p5)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000l8p7)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000l8p9)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
TUE 13:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l8pc)
2. ‘Doubt is our product'
At a secret meeting, a plan is drawn up to fight claims that smoking causes cancer. In 1953, the tobacco industry was hit by a major storm. ‘Salesmen in the industry are frantically alarmed and the decline in tobacco stocks on the stock exchange market has caused grave concern’, claimed an internal memo. A study linking smoking to cancer was getting a lot of attention. We’ll take you to the meeting where the PR response was planned. It’s an important meeting. The strategy developed there turned out to be so effective, it would be used again and again and again.
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane for BBC Radio 4
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000l6nh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m00014zj)
Holding Back the Tide
There Will Be Guests
by Nick Warburton
When Richard and Clare Wells inherit a house in Breck Howe they also inherit a sitting tenant, John Hector, who sees the house and the town as his own personal fiefdom. With money tight Richard and Clare decide to take in B&B guests, a decision which John is determined to change.
Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchêne
John Hector ..... Ronald Pickup
Lux ..... Michelle Asante
Chucker ..... Don Gilet
Barb ..... Jeanette Percival
Mikey ..... Cameron Percival
Anthony ..... Lewis Bray
Directed by Sally Avens
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000l716)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 James Veitch's Contractual Obligation (m000k24s)
Mind Reading
In search of a new income stream, comedian James Veitch tries his hand at mind reading.
James investigates the latest science of brain decoding - and speaks to world famous spoon bender Uri Geller.
He explores fears that the big tech giants may soon be able to tap into our innermost thoughts - which in James' case is very scary indeed.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000l8pf)
Words Used About Women
Spinster, slut, bird, cat lady, ladette, hussy, bossy, goddess, wife. Guest presenter Nikki Bedi (sitting in for Michael Rosen) talks to Professor Deborah Cameron about the words used to talk about women.
Deborah Cameron is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford. In 2007 she published The Myth of Mars and Venus, a general-interest book about language and gender differences. She writes a regular blog - 'Language: a feminist guide' - and occasionally performs as a linguistic stand up comedian.
Produced by Mair Bosworth
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000l8gb)
Nicholas Lezard & Gwyneth Williams
Journalist and author Nicholas Lezard and former Radio 4 controller Gwyneth Williams introduce their favourite reads to Harriett Gilbert. Nicholas chooses Watt by Samuel Beckett, a comic novel unlike any other. Gwyneth's favourite is The Leopard, Lampedusa's classic tale of Sicilian aristocracy, and Harriett champions The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, a story of grief, writing and dogs. Producer Sally Heaven.
Join our instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000l8ph)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l8pk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b08y115k)
Series 6
Suitable for Framing; Diary Extracts
The globetrotting, trash-picking, aisle-rolling storyteller with more words of wit and wisdom. This week, Suitable For Framing - a story about the significance of art in David's childhood family home - and additional extracts from his book Theft By Finding, a compilation of diary entries from 1977-2002.
With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humour writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
David Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries. was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.
David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival (2013). He has been a contributor to BBC Radio 4 since 1996.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000l80b)
Tony makes a nostalgic discovery and things are looking up for Joy.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000l8lm)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 Electric Decade (m000l8lp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 The Homeless Hotel (m000l8lr)
Simon had been sleeping in shop doorways in Manchester for three years when the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK. Suddenly, as the government released emergency funding to get people sleeping rough off the streets during lockdown, Simon found himself being offered an en suite room at the Holiday Inn. This is the story of the unprecedented operation to get the country’s street homeless inside - told through one hotel in Manchester. The experience has been transformational for some, including Simon - proof that radical change can happen and happen fast. Government ministers say this is an opportunity to end rough sleeping “for good”. But homelessness charities are warning that as emergency funding runs out, people will end up back on the streets. So what will happen to Simon and others like him as the country moves out of lockdown?
Reporter/Producer: Simon Maybin
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000l8lt)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000l80g)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.
TUE 21:30 Positive Thinking (m000l8l9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000l8lw)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8ly)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p08h09b2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Monday]
TUE 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000bfh3)
Series 2
Solar Photovoltaics
Solar power is a very old technology: Socrates explained how to use it to heat a house, while the Romans, the Chinese, the Puebloans all used houses to be shady in summer while trapping sunlight in the winter. All very elegant: but in recent years, solar power has come to mean something altogether more technologically advanced and disruptive to the oil energy order. So just how quickly is solar photovoltaic energy becoming affordable? And how will the world change, asks Tim Harford, if, or when, the cheapest source of power is solar power?
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon
TUE 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000l8m0)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000l8m2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Girl Taken (m000gmmy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l8m4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l8m6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l8m8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000l8mb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l8md)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000l8mg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0952zl1)
David Rothenberg on the White-Crested Laughingthrush
The white crested laughing thrush is a superb accompaniment to David Rothenberg as he plays the clarinet, the best bird to play along with in this Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. In this latest series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tim Dee
Image WikiCommons / cuatrock77.
WED 06:00 Today (m000l7z2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Soul Music (m000l7zc)
I Will Survive
"At first I was afraid, I was petrified"... From a breakup to a shipwreck, emotional true stories of what Gloria Gaynor's iconic disco anthem I Will Survive means to different people around the world.
A woman sets out to become the first female rower to cross the Atlantic solo; a woman listens to the song 35 times in a row after a breakup; a drag queen steps onto the stage of a Berlin nightclub; a mother watches her daughters sing karaoke at a holiday club on the first foreign holiday since leaving her abusive marriage; women gather on the steps of the Courts of Justice to sing the song together as they await a verdict.
Featuring Elisabeth Hoff, Latrice Royale, Penny Arcade, Pragna Patel and Nadine Hubbs.
Produced by Mair Bosworth
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000l7zh)
Series of thought-provoking talks on topics that affect culture and society.
WED 09:45 Girl Taken (m000gmg3)
8. On the Trail
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000l7zr)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
WED 10:45 Electric Decade (m000l7zt)
Babelsberg Babylon
Episode 3
By Nick Perry
Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929. A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and film's writer are desperate to find her. Each has their own reasons.
In Episode 3, the writer Jonas Beck has a run in with a detective investigating the case. But is he really a detective? And what does Jonas have to hide?
Jonas Beck . . . . . Paul Chahidi
Fischer . . . . . Michael Jibson
Ilse . . . . . Clare Corbett
Barman . . . . . Carl Prekopp
The songs are written by Nick Perry, Nathan Perry and Maureen Glackin, and the music is arranged and performed by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
WED 11:00 How to Cure Viral Misinformation (m000hh0d)
The World Health Organisation calls it an “infodemic” – a flood of information about the coronavirus pandemic. Amid the good advice and the measured uncertainty, there’s a ton of false claims, conspiracy theories and health tips which are just plain wrong.
We’ve been working to fight the tide of bad info, and in this programme BBC Trending reporters Marianna Spring and Mike Wendling trace the story of one specific viral post.
It's a list of supposed facts about the virus and what you can do to protect yourself. Some of the tips are true, some are false but relatively harmless, and some are potentially dangerous. Who’s behind the post – and how did it spread?
Here’s our list of seven key tips on how to stop viral misinformation:
1. Stop and think
2. Check your source
3. Ask yourself, could it be a fake?
4. If you’re unsure whether it’s true … don’t share.
5. Check each fact, individually.
6. Beware emotional posts.
7. Think about biases
Presenters: Marianna Spring and Mike Wendling
WED 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000l7zw)
The Lady In Black
By Michael Chaplin. Edinburgh widower Leo still talks to his beloved wife Tamsin when he’s alone; even though daughter Laura and housekeeper Sadie fill the house and his life. And when his beloved mum dies he finds himself attracted to the rather lovely undertaker!
Mark Bonnar (star of Shetland, Guilt and Line of Duty) stars as Leo Fabiani, renowned painter who lost his wife recently in mysterious circumstances and seems, ever since, to have become a magnet to all kinds of attractive women. We meet four of them in this new series.
Cast:
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Tamsin Fabiani ..... Beth Marshall
Sadie ..... Tracy Wiles
Mary Grace ..... Deirdre Mullins
Laura Fabiani ..... Samara Maclaren
Directed by Marilyn Imrie and Michael Chaplin
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000l8jl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l800)
Episode 3: New York
Booker-winning Anne Enright continues her new novel about fame, sex and a daughter's search for truth.
This is the story of the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend Katherine O'Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. From the glamour and fame of Hollywood and the Dublin stage to the inevitable fall and decent into madness when Katherine commits a reckless crime.
Today: After hitting it big in postwar London, Katherine hits New York...
Written and read by: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000l802)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000l804)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000l806)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
WED 13:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l808)
3. The White Coats
The tobacco industry’s white coats are ready, the battle of science vs science begins. The battle for public opinion will be played out in the media.
In this episode we hear how the tobacco industry chose to fight science with science, pitting one scientist wearing a white coat against another. It worked. Tobacco industry scientists made it on to Ed Murrow’s prominent documentary series “See It Now”.
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000l80b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b0b6phly)
While We're Here
by Barney Norris
Twenty years earlier Eddie and Carol were lovers but then Eddie disappeared.
Now he's back in Havant. As they attempt to redefine their relationship they struggle against the tide of experience.
Can they let go of their fears and make land?
Carol ..... Tessa Peake-Jones
Eddie ..... Andrew French
Produced by Sally Avens
'While We're Here' was originally co-produced for the stage by Up In Arms, the Bush and Farnham Maltings"
'While We're Here' was called 'intimate and compassionate' (Time Out) 'a little gem of a play' (Financial Times) and the cast 'quietly snap your heart'. (Sunday Times).
The original cast reprise their roles in this radio version of the play.
Barney Norris is a highly acclaimed theatre writer: 'One of our most exciting young writers' The Times
'One of the very best writers that I've come across in quite a long time of working in the theatre' Nicholas Hytner
'Everything he writes about love, loss, grief, desolation, and moments of hope and illumination rings absolutely true' Michael Frayn
Barney is also a poet and novelist and has been long listed for The Booker Prize.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000l80d)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000l80g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m00094jg)
Estates
Council estates: Laurie Taylor talks to Insa Lee Koch, Associate Professor in Anthropology at LSE, and author of a new study which explores the history of housing estates and the everyday lives of residents on one such estate in southern England. How did council housing turn from being a marker of social inclusion to a marker of abject failure? Also, the origins and symbolism of the ‘sink estate’, a term invented by journalists and amplified by think tanks and politicians. Tom Slater, Reader in Urban Geography at the University of Edinburgh, traces the usage of this term and the long-term impact of associating council estate residents with effluence and sewage.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000l80j)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m000l80l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l80q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Women Talking About Cars (b0858nvh)
Series 1
Germaine Greer
Victoria Coren Mitchell interviews famous women about their life and the cars they have known. This week Germaine Greer talks about the journeys she has been on and the cars she has travelled in, including her first Mini, a series of Triumphs, and Australia's own car, the mighty Holden.
Car descriptions read by Josette Simon.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000l80s)
Johnny begins a frantic search and Fallon makes a friend.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000l80v)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 Electric Decade (m000l7zt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000l80x)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000l7zh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Soul Music (m000l7zc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000l80j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000l80z)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l800)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Things My Mother Never Told Me (... About Lockdown) (m000l811)
Jayde Adams
Lockdown is making us think a lot more about family, and for many people the parent-child relationship has been flipped. With the older generation more vulnerable to Coronavirus, middle-aged children are now worrying about where their parents are, and if they're behaving responsibly. We're telling them not to stay out late, to stay away from friends (especially those bad influences who won't wear masks), and to eat their vegetables.
Sindhu Vee and her guests take a look at that bond, and ask whether the things their mothers taught them have set them up to cope with a global pandemic.
This week, "Crazy Delicious" host Jayde Adams shares anecdotes about growing up in Bristol with a strong matriarch, and how their relationship changed after the death of Jayde's older sister Jenna.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Damien Slash Mixtape (m0001v88)
Series 2
Episode 4
Multi-character YouTube star Damien Slash makes the move from online to Radio 4, in this new fast-paced, one-man sketch comedy show. From the surreal to the satirical, from the zeitgeist to the absurd, Damien serves up a range of high octane characters, all from his own voice. Adverts, actors, hipsters, trolls - no aspect of modern life is left un-skewered.
Written by and starring Damien Slash (aka Daniel Barker).
Guest starring Natasia Demetriou
Production coordinated by Hayley Sterling
Produced by Matt Stronge
A BBC Studios production.
WED 23:30 Things That Made the Modern Economy (m000bfsn)
Series 2
Chatbot
Have computers finally passed the Turing test? Some computers claim to have passed the Turing test – convincing humans that they themselves are human. Tim Harford asks what the Turing test really signifies. How do computers try to pass it, and what does this have to teach us about business, politics – and the art of conversation itself?
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon
WED 23:45 Today in Parliament (m000l813)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 30 JULY 2020
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000l815)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Girl Taken (m000gmg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l817)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l819)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l81c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000l81f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l81h)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000l81k)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08ynq1n)
Cailean MacLean on the Bonxie
Photographer and Gaelic broadcaster Cailean Maclean recalls an encounter with a great skua, or bonxie on St Kilda for Tweet of the Day.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Maggie Ayre.
THU 06:00 Today (m000l8q4)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 The Long View (m000l8q6)
Dominic Cummings and Civil Service Reform
Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of Civil Service reform. With the PM’s Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings promising a ‘hard rain’ on the Service, Jonathan follows the story of Charles Trevelyan, the ‘stormy reformer’ of the 1850’s, who reshaped the Civil Service and made many enemies along the way.
Featuring Lord Butler, former head of the Civil Service and Dead Ringers star, Jon Culshaw. Historian Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government and Sebastian Payne Whitehall journalist at the Financial Times.
Producer Neil McCarthy
THU 09:30 James Burke's Web of Knowledge (m0002545)
Episode 3
James Burke has spent his career as a broadcaster and writer in the field of science and technology 'joining up the dots'. Now he uses the information he has gleaned over many years to create a 'Knowledge Web', revealing how the most unexpected connections can be made across history. What he can show us is that change doesn't happen in predictable straight lines, and he has some surprises in store.
THU 09:45 Girl Taken (m000glnf)
9. A Time for Answers
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000l8q8)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
THU 10:45 Electric Decade (m000l8qb)
Babelsberg Babylon
Episode 4
By Nick Perry
Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929. A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and film's writer are desperate to find her. Each has their own reasons.
In Episode 4, Jonas Beck comes face to face with Peter X, an obsessive movie fan with horrific injuries from the First World War. What does he have to do with Krista Wolff's disappearance?
Jonas Beck . . . . . Paul Chahidi
Krista . . . . . Cassie Layton
Peter X . . . . . Carl Prekopp
Fischer . . . . . Michael Jibson
The songs are written by Nick Perry, Nathan Perry and Maureen Glackin, and the music is arranged and performed by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000l8qd)
Venezuela's 'Bay of Piglets'
A failed coup in Venezuela - a story of hubris, incompetence, and treachery… At the beginning of May, the government of Nicolas Maduro announced the armed forces had repelled an attempted landing by exiled Venezuelans on the coast north of Caracas. Some were killed, others captured. This was Operation Gideon – an incursion involving a few dozen, poorly-equipped men, and two former US Special Forces soldiers. The hair brained plan to depose Nicolas Maduro, and force a transition in Caracas was conceived by Venezuela's political opposition in neighbouring Colombia, the United States and Venezuela. Command and control of Operation Gideon allegedly lay with another former US Special Forces soldier, Jordan Goudreau. But why would men with decades of military experience between them join a plan that, from the outset, looked like a suicide mission? For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly goes in search of answers.
Presenter / producer: Linda Pressly
Producer in Venezuela: Vanessa Silva
Editor: Bridget Harney
(Image: Jordan Goudreau and Javier Nieto address the Venezuelan people on 3 May, 2020. Credit: Javier Nieto)
THU 11:30 Tales from the Stave (m000k6ph)
Mozart's Haffner Symphony
In a programme recorded before Covid 19 caused the closure of libraries and museums across the world, Clemency Burton Hill is joined by conductor David Robertson and scholar Richard Kramer at The Morgan Library in New York to explore the manuscript of Mozart's Symphony No.35 The Haffner.
Written at the behest of his father for an old friend it was completed at breakneck speed. So fast, in fact, that when Mozart asked his father to send the music back to him a few months later for a concert he was putting on in Vienna, he scarcely remembered it.
The manuscript is one of the treasures of The Morgan collection, demonstrating, as it does the work of a man at the height of his powers and able to deliver musical thoughts directly onto paper with rare moments of indecision or lapses in concentration.
However the manuscript has a story beyond the compositional process. It comes complete with a lavish case specially made for it when it was presented to King Ludwig of Bavaria. As well as exploring the brilliance of the musical creation, Clemency's guests, including the Morgan's then music curator Fran Barulich, tell the story of its journey from being one of the many manuscripts left to Mozart's wife Constanza on his untimely death, to its appearance on the market in the United States two hundred years later.
Producer: Tom Alban
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000l8qg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8qj)
Episode 4: Hollywood wife
Booker-winning Anne Enright continues her new novel about fame, sex and a daughter's search for truth.
This is the story of the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend Katherine O'Dell, as told by her daughter Norah. From the glamour and fame of Hollywood and the Dublin stage to the inevitable fall and decent into madness.
Today: Katherine O'Dell joins a Hollywood studio, and finds herself with a house, a pool, several maids, and, unexpectedly a husband...
Written and read by: Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000l8ql)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000l8qn)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000l8qq)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
THU 13:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l8qs)
4. Tobacco in the dock
As the evidence against tobacco mounts, the court suits keep coming. Tobacco keeps winning.
‘Due to favourable scientific testimony, no plaintiff has ever collected a penny from any tobacco company in lawsuits even though 117 such cases have been brought’. An internal memo from tobacco company R J Reynolds reveals a motive behind their funding of research. In this episode the battle is taken to the court room as we hear how a land mark trial toppled tobacco.
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change.
With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000l80s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b0bd7zhr)
Care Inc
A drama about the confusing and sometimes heart breaking world of American health care by Eric Micha Holmes.
Shirley is single and self employed. She owns a struggling Afro-centric bookstore in Seattle. It's been flooded several times but she can't afford flood insurance because she has to pay so much in health insurance. It's a monumental task to navigate the small print of her Care Inc health policy and Shirley is desperate because she has been denied the treatment that her medical specialist insists she needs. Why? According to Care Inc her policy is too basic. Her Platinum policy isn't as comprehensive as the Gold policy!
In the call centre at the health insurance company, employees face a daily barrage of callers who are frustrated, furious and fearful - callers who don't understand why they can't get the drugs their doctors order or why their claim is denied. To make matters worse for everyone, the staff at Care Inc now face an unprecedented merger with a large pharmaceutical company.
Nina is a call operator. It's a job she is overqualified for, but she and her fiancé are buying a house and the job pays well. When she sees an opportunity to help a needy customer, she risks her job and breaks the rules.
Written by Eric Micha Holmes
Medical Advisor - Dr Stephen Adler
Recorded by Louis Mitchell in Brooklyn, New York
Mixed by Jon Calver in London
Produced by Judith Kampfner
A Corporation for Independent Media production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000l8qv)
Restoration in the Lake District
Ian Marchant talks to people involved in re-imagining the landscape and culture of the Lake District, with lines both sinuous and straight.
Lee Schofield of the RSPB has been part of a project to re-meander Swindale Beck, which had become canal-like after years of 'improvement'. Lee is used to the fruits of conservation work taking years, but this time, the results were virtually instantaneous. The team finished work one Friday when it started raining. A flash flood over the weekend brought calls from the onsite supervisor, afraid of disaster: the whole valley was flooded. Lee arrived back on Monday morning to find the river had become a gentle, naturally sinuous stream, with shallow gravel pools for the salmon to use as spawning grounds. The hay meadows on either bank no longer fill with stagnant standing water, and sand and stones don't get washed downstream.
Jim Bliss is the Conservation Manager of Lowther Estates and he is just beginning the estate's journey into ecological restoration, taking up fences, and selling the flock of 5000 sheep. Now they have Longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs and soon, they hope, reintroduced beavers. There are also bees, which Jim hopes will be a measure of the success of the restoration, responding to the increased biodiversity of the flora with a bigger crop of honey.
Ian loves trains and so does Cedric Martindale, who is keeping alive a dream he has had for twenty-five years, to restore the Penrith to Keswick Rail Line. Nina Berry is a distinctive new playwright based in Cumbria, inspired by the landscape she grew up in. She's been commissioned by Paines Plough and Theatre by the Lake in Keswick, to write a new play in the series: Come To Where I Am.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000l7bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000l7kh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000l8qx)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000l8qz)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world
THU 17:00 PM (m000l8r1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l8r3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 ReincarNathan (m000l8r5)
Series 2
Space Hamster
Nathan Blakely was a popstar. But he was useless, died, and was reincarnated. The comedy about Nathan’s adventures in the afterlife continues with Daniel Rigby and Diane Morgan, and guest-starring Phil Wang.
In episode 4, Nathan is brought back to life as a hamster in a petshop in California. But not just any old hamster – Nathan the hamster is selected by NASA to enter the space-race. Perhaps seeing the earth from space will give Nathan a radical new sense of perspective. Or maybe it will just confirm his rampant egomania. Will Nathan ever learn to do the right thing and make it back to human again?
Cast:
Diane Morgan - Jenny
Daniel Rigby – Nathan
Tom Craine – Mission Control
Henry Paker – Chuck Rogers, Henry VIII
Freya Parker – Vortex, Cosmonaut, Nasa Scientist, Shop Assistant, Susan
Phil Wang – Xavier, the Space Hedgehog
Mike Wozniak – Cosmonaut
Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker
Music composed by Phil Lepherd
Producer: Harriet Jaine
Studio Production: Jerry Peal
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000l8fd)
Writers, Naylah Ahmed & Daniel Thurman
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Tony Archer ..... David Troughton
Johnny Phillips ..... Tom Gibbons
Harrison Burns ..... James Cartwright
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Joy Horville ..... Jackie Lye
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000l8r7)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 Electric Decade (m000l8qb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000l8r9)
Combining original insights into major news stories with topical investigations
THU 20:30 In Business (m000l8rc)
The Jobs Challenge
As the UK emerges from the coronavirus lockdown, millions of employees are still furloughed – either fully or part-time – with most of their salaries paid by the government. But how many of them really have jobs to go back to? Already companies including British Airways, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar Landrover and Centrica, to name just a few, have announced thousands of job losses and no-one knows what the true picture will look like by the autumn, as government support is removed.
There are dire warnings that the labour market could be as bad or even worse than the 1980s. Jonty Bloom asks whose jobs are most at risk from the economic damage wreaked by Covid 19 and what help is needed.
Producer Caroline Bayley
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000l8qz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 The Long View (m000l8q6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000l8rf)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Stand-Up Specials (m000kfy0)
Dave Podmore's Positive Test
The world has been turned upside down in 2020, but could the dearth of sport offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for cricket's anti-hero Dave Podmore to make big bucks?
Pod is in negotiations with the Tokyo Olympics and, after all the efforts to take drugs out of sport, finally there's a chance to take the sport out of drugs. At the same time, can he save the precious jobs of the acting community or, now that we live in the 'new normal', are their valuable jobs as giant sporting mascots gone forever?
Starring Christopher Douglas, Andrew Nickolds, Nicola Sanderson and Lewis Macleod
Written by Christopher Douglas, Andrew Nickolds and Nick Newman
Produced by Jon Harvey
Executive Producer: Richard Wilson
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Your Call Is Important to Us (m000kgny)
Nearly two million people are now known to have applied for Universal Credit since the start of the Coronavirus lockdown. For many of them it’s their first time, and is in sharp contrast to how they expected their lives to be.
To make a claim, many start off by calling the Universal Credit Hotline, a process that can take hours. Once they start their claim it's likely they'll need to wait five weeks for their first payment.
As they wait, in isolation in their homes, we discover more about their lives and follow them on their benefits journey. What led them to this point, how are their personal lives affected and how do they feel? We'll be with them for the ups and the downs.
We'll meet Caroline, who works in HR and is battling illness while making a claim, Dan who plays the saxophone and has moved back home to his mum's house because he couldn't afford to live in London and Matt the warehouse worker whose health means he is shielding on his own in a flat with just the birds for company.
Plus, we'll have a statement from the Department for Work and Pensions on how they've responded to this extraordinary moment in welfare.
Produced and presented by Jess Quayle.
Technical Production by Mike Smith.
FRIDAY 31 JULY 2020
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000l8rh)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Girl Taken (m000glnf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000l8rk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000l8rm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000l8rp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000l8rr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000l8rt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Myriam François, journalist and research associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies, SOAS University of London
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000l8rw)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08y167j)
Heather Bennett on the Lapwing
RSPB Yorkshire staff are reflecting on birds all this week for Tweet of the Day. Today reserve warden Heather Bennett recalls how the lapwing began her love affair with nature.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000l8dn)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000l7k1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Girl Taken (m000gn6g)
10. An End in Sight
BBC journalist Sue Mitchell and ex-soldier-turned- good-Samaritan Rob Lawrie thought they were involved in the heart-breaking, but straightforward story of an Afghan father and his motherless daughter as they struggled to get to Britain. The following four years saw Sue and Rob fall into a web of lies and life changing, mind changing events. Girl Taken is a 10 part hunt - across closed borders and broken promises - for the truth and to find a little girl, taken.
Producer: Sue Mitchell
Studio Production and Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000l8dq)
The programme that offers a female perspective on the world
FRI 10:45 Electric Decade (m000l8ds)
Babelsberg Babylon
Episode 5
By Nick Perry
Babelsberg Film Studios, 1929. A major new movie is in production when its star Krista Wolff suddenly disappears. The head of the studio and film's writer are desperate to find her. Each have their own reasons.
In the final episode, we end up back where we started with Jonas Beck holding the Babelsberg Studio boss Otto Lenz at gunpoint. What's tipped him over the edge? Is it the fate of Krista Wolff or the rewrites to his script?
Jonas Beck . . . . . Paul Chahidi
Otto Lenz . . . . . Anton Lesser
Lottie . . . . . Clare Corbett
Barman . . . . . Carl Prekopp
The songs are written by Nick Perry, Nathan Perry and Maureen Glackin, and the music is arranged and performed by Peter Ringrose.
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
FRI 11:00 The Crisis Of American Democracy (m000l8dv)
Unregistered
Ben Wright examines how American electoral democracy has become increasingly partisan, and how the fight for voting rights will affect the 2020 election. From issues about access to the ballot and the shape of the political map to fundamental questions dating back to the founding of the Republic, America's electoral democracy is under greater strain than at any point since the Civil Rights movement.
In this new series Ben will examine these questions, and ask what they mean for American democracy. In this first programme he'll look at how access to the ballot has become a political fight, with Democrats demanding that voting be made easier while Republicans insist it must be made more secure. He'll ask whether a constitutional amendment passed in Florida in 2018 could determine the result of the presidential election. And he'll hear how each party is gearing up for a legal battle in November, with loudly-voiced concerns from the White House about voter fraud balanced by equally loudly-voiced concerns on the other side about 'voter suppression'.
Producer: Giles Edwards
FRI 11:30 Relativity (m000l8dy)
Series 3
Episode 3
The third series of Richard Herring’s comedy drama builds on the warm, lively characters and sharply observed family dynamics of previous series.
His affectionate, sharp witted observation of inter-generational misunderstanding, sibling sparring and the ties that bind will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to win an argument with a teenager. Amid the comedy, Richard broaches some more serious highs and lows of family life. In this series, he focuses on the roller coaster ride of first time parenting, how to maintain a long standing marriage and brass rubbing.
Richard Herring is a comedian, writer, blogger and podcaster and the world's premier semi-professional self-playing snooker player.
Episode 3
Ian takes Chloe and baby Don away, hoping a relaxing weekend at a spa hotel will help. Meanwhile, Holly is arrested at Extinction Rebellion, while 16 year old brother Nick is struggling to keep her whereabouts secret from their parents.
Cast:
Margaret…………….Alison Steadman
Ken……………..Phil Davis
Jane…………….Fenella Woolgar
Ian……………….Richard Herring
Chloe…………..Emily Berrington
Pete………………..Gordon Kennedy
Holly………………...Tia Bannon
Mark………………Fred Haig
Nick………………..Harrison Knights
George……………..Danny Kirrane
Written by Richard Herring
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
Executive Producers: Jon Thoday and Richard Allen Turner.
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000l8f0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8f2)
Episode 5: Daddy Issues
Booker-winning Anne Enright continues reading her new novel about the rise and terrible fall of Irish acting legend, Katherine O'Dell
Today: as the truth about her father becomes more and more murky, Norah finds herself struggling with her own 'Daddy' issues...
Written and read by Anne Enright is an Irish author of six novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Gathering, as well as The Forgotten Waltz and The Green Road.
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000l8f4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000l8f6)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000l8f8)
Mon-Thurs: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Sarah Montague. Fri: Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.
FRI 13:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l8fb)
5. Big Oil's Big Group
As the world’s scientists agree on man-made climate change, the oil companies come together to form their own coalition. They aren’t just focused on the science, though.
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once-secret internal memos, we take you behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explore how the narrative changed on one of the most important stories of our time - and how the marketing of doubt has undermined our willingness to believe almost everything.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000l8fd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000l8fg)
Bird in the Sky
By Emma Jane Kirby
Emma Jane Kirby investigates the extraordinary mystery of 23-year-old Sergeant Paul Meyer, a successful, respected mechanic in the US Air Force who, at the height of the Cold War in 1969, stole a plane from his base in East Anglia and disappeared mid-flight. What made the airman crack so suddenly and why was neither his plane nor his body ever recovered?
Paul . . . . . Adam Gillen
Jane . . . . . Julianna Jennings
Colonel Kingery . . . . . Elliot Cowan
Sergeant Alexander . . . . . Ewan Bailey
Sergeant Johnson . . . . . Joseph Ayre
Sergeant Vince . . . . . Joe Jameson
Director . . . . . Sasha Yevtushenko
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000l8fj)
GQT At Home: Episode Eighteen
Kathy Clugston presents the horticultural panel show with gardening experts. Anne Swithinbank, James Wong and Matthew Wilson are on hand to answer questions sent in via email and social media.
Producer - Laurence Bassett
Assistant producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 The Poet and the Echo (m000l8fl)
The Idler
Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.
The Idler
Poet, essayist and activist, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson was a mixed-race American born in Louisiana a decade after the Civil War.
Hannah Lavery takes inspiration from her poem about an idle man to create a moving and timely meditation on the value of taking life at a slower pace.
Credits
Writer ….. Hannah Lavery
Reader ….. Anneika Rose
Producer ….. Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000l8fn)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000l8fq)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000l8fs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000l8fv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Summer Comedy Festival (m000l8fx)
Episode 2
Expect a summer festival with a difference as some of the nation's favourite comics turn curators and host a virtual festival featuring their favourite performers from the worlds of comedy, literature and spoken word. They'll be in control of everything (even the weather) as we're taken along for the ride to not only hear some great performances but also to get an insight into the cultural radars of our celebrity hosts.
In episode 2 it's Jo Brand's turn as chief curator as she brings together all her favourite festival ingredients for a celebration of poetry. She's joined by performance poets Nafeesa Hamid and Hollie McNish as well as the impressionist Lewis MacLeod and the comedy poet, John Hegley.
Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound: Chris McLean
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000l8fz)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 Electric Decade (m000l8ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000l8g1)
Mary Beard
Chris Mason presents political debate from London Broadcasting House with a panel including the Historian Mary Beard.
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000l8g3)
The Big Benefits of Smallness
"There's nothing wrong with ambition," writes Linda Colley, "but coming to terms with our inescapable geographical smallness would be helpful."
She says historically there's been a tendency to kick against this awkward fact and an obsession with the idea of a global Britain.
Linda argues that we should recognise the advantages of smallness - nourishing a nation's innovation and agility.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
FRI 21:00 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m000l8g5)
Omnibus. Part 1
From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how to manufacture doubt.
In this series we reveal how some of the world’s most powerful interests made us doubt the connection between smoking and cancer, and then how the same tactics were used to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once secret, internal memos, we will take you behind the board room doors and give you a seat at the table where the PR strategies were drawn up. They’ve been so successful, they’ve managed to change the narrative on one of the most important stories of our time. This is about more than climate change, this is the story of how we have come to live in a world where our sense of shared reality is in retreat. Where nothing seems true, and everything is possible.
Presenter: Peter Pomerantsev
Producer: Phoebe Keane
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000l8g7)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Actress by Anne Enright (m000l8f2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000l8gb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Rewinder (m000j7g9)
Hollywood, Walkies and Home Schooling for Seals
Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and self-confessed 'proud radio nerd', rummages through the BBC's vast archives of audio, video, vinyl, photographs and documents, using current stories as a springboard into the past, as well as answering requests and getting hopelessly sidetracked, as his searches take him to unexpected places.
This week, broadcasting from his bedroom, he turns his attention to animals and how, unlike people, dogs are enjoying the lockdown experience - his own dog Barney being a case in point. With Barney as his starting point he goes back to the 1980s when Barbara Woodhouse, the country's most famous dog trainer, put her four-legged pupils through their paces.
Greg also unearths an example of animal home schooling in Dartmoor where naturalist HG Hurrell teaches Atlanta the seal how to read using flashcards. And when school is over for the day Atlanta also enjoys playing on the seesaw. The success of the Netflix series Tiger King prompts Greg to check out the archive for big cats and he discovers the story of a man who kept a tiger in his garage in Northern Ireland.
An email from a listener sends Greg hunting for the many voices of comedian Peter Cook. He discovers archive from Cook's ill-fated live chat show Where Do I Sit? which was cancelled after only three episodes. Greg also finds an edition of the Radio 3 series Why Bother? recorded not long before Cook's death in 1995, which showcases Cook's skill at improvisation and his impeccable comic timing, in conversation with Chris Morris
Baking has taken off during lockdown and Greg finds an early appearance of Paul Hollywood on the Generation Game, long before he entered the Bake Off tent. And in the week of what would have been Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday Greg finds some moving interviews with people who knew her as well as a short recording of Florence herself made in 1890.
Producer Paula McGinley
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A Good Read
16:30 TUE (m000l8gb)
A Good Read
23:00 FRI (m000l8gb)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (m000l2ct)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (m000l8g3)
Actress by Anne Enright
12:04 MON (m000l6p2)
Actress by Anne Enright
22:45 MON (m000l6p2)
Actress by Anne Enright
12:04 TUE (m000l8ly)
Actress by Anne Enright
22:45 TUE (m000l8ly)
Actress by Anne Enright
12:04 WED (m000l800)
Actress by Anne Enright
22:45 WED (m000l800)
Actress by Anne Enright
12:04 THU (m000l8qj)
Actress by Anne Enright
22:45 THU (m000l8qj)
Actress by Anne Enright
12:04 FRI (m000l8f2)
Actress by Anne Enright
22:45 FRI (m000l8f2)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (m000l207)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (m000l75b)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (m000l2cr)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (m000l8g1)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (b01cvcr6)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (m000l8qz)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (m000l8qz)
Behind the Buzzwords
09:30 TUE (m000l8lc)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (m000l71s)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (m000l71s)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (m000l7by)
Cabin Pressure
19:15 SUN (b00lxh3r)
Crossing Continents
20:30 MON (m000l25n)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (m000l8qd)
Desert Island Discs
11:00 SUN (m000l7k1)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (m000l7k1)
Drama
15:00 SUN (m000l7kf)
Drama
14:00 MON (m000l7q3)
Drama
14:15 TUE (m00014zj)
Drama
14:15 WED (b0b6phly)
Drama
14:15 THU (b0bd7zhr)
Drama
14:15 FRI (m000l8fg)
Electric Decade
10:45 MON (m000l6nr)
Electric Decade
19:45 MON (m000l6nr)
Electric Decade
10:45 TUE (m000l8lp)
Electric Decade
19:45 TUE (m000l8lp)
Electric Decade
10:45 WED (m000l7zt)
Electric Decade
19:45 WED (m000l7zt)
Electric Decade
10:45 THU (m000l8qb)
Electric Decade
19:45 THU (m000l8qb)
Electric Decade
10:45 FRI (m000l8ds)
Electric Decade
19:45 FRI (m000l8ds)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (m000l70w)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (m000l7cw)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (m000l6q5)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (m000l8mg)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (m000l81k)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (m000l8rw)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (m000l2rg)
Feedback
16:30 FRI (m000l8fq)
For the Love of Leo
11:30 WED (m000l7zw)
Four Thought
05:45 SAT (m000l0j3)
Four Thought
09:30 WED (m000l7zh)
Four Thought
20:45 WED (m000l7zh)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (m000l750)
Front Row
19:15 MON (m000l6nm)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (m000l8lm)
Front Row
19:15 WED (m000l80v)
Front Row
19:15 THU (m000l8r7)
Front Row
19:00 FRI (m000l8fz)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (m000l2r8)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (m000l8fj)
Girl Taken
00:30 SAT (m000gj88)
Girl Taken
09:45 MON (m000glx7)
Girl Taken
00:30 TUE (m000glx7)
Girl Taken
09:45 TUE (m000gmmy)
Girl Taken
00:30 WED (m000gmmy)
Girl Taken
09:45 WED (m000gmg3)
Girl Taken
00:30 THU (m000gmg3)
Girl Taken
09:45 THU (m000glnf)
Girl Taken
00:30 FRI (m000glnf)
Girl Taken
09:45 FRI (m000gn6g)
Goodnight, Vienna
21:45 SAT (b04vd8gq)
Guilty Men
20:00 MON (m000khkn)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
13:45 MON (m000l7q0)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
13:45 TUE (m000l8pc)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
13:45 WED (m000l808)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
13:45 THU (m000l8qs)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
13:45 FRI (m000l8fb)
How They Made Us Doubt Everything
21:00 FRI (m000l8g5)
How to Cure Viral Misinformation
11:00 WED (m000hh0d)
How to Play
09:00 MON (m000l6mv)
How to Play
21:30 MON (m000l6mv)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
18:30 MON (m000l7qh)
In Business
20:30 THU (m000l8rc)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (m000l8lt)
Inside Health
21:00 TUE (m000l80g)
Inside Health
15:30 WED (m000l80g)
James Burke's Web of Knowledge
09:30 THU (m0002545)
James Veitch's Contractual Obligation
15:30 TUE (m000k24s)
Join the Dots
11:45 SUN (b09534h0)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (m000l2rd)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (m000l8fn)
Legacy of War
09:30 MON (m000l6mz)
Life, Death and the Foghorn
11:30 TUE (m000l8p1)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (m000l75s)
Loose Ends
11:30 MON (m000l75s)
Meet David Sedaris
18:30 TUE (b08y115k)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (m000l2d0)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (m000l71g)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (m000l7ch)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (m000l6pd)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (m000l8m2)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (m000l815)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (m000l8rh)
Mohammed and the Market
17:00 SUN (m000l6tb)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (m000l754)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (m000l754)
Money Box
15:00 WED (m000l80d)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (m000l0kg)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (m000l80x)
Museum of Lost Objects
14:45 MON (b071vlmj)
My Name Is...
11:00 MON (m000l7pn)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (m000l2d8)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (m000l71q)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (m000l7cr)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (m000l6px)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (m000l8mb)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (m000l81f)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (m000l8rr)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (m000l752)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (m000l7k3)
News Summary
12:00 MON (m000l7pr)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (m000l8p3)
News Summary
12:00 WED (m000l8jl)
News Summary
12:00 THU (m000l8qg)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (m000l8f0)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (m000l70t)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (m000l7b4)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (m000l7bp)
News
13:00 SAT (m000l758)
News
22:00 SAT (m000l71d)
News
06:00 SUN (m000l79v)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (m000l79y)
One to One
14:45 SAT (m000j21m)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (m000l7kh)
Open Book
15:30 THU (m000l7kh)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (m000l263)
Open Country
15:00 THU (m000l8qv)
PM
17:00 SAT (m000l75g)
PM
17:00 MON (m000l7qc)
PM
17:00 TUE (m000l8ph)
PM
17:00 WED (m000l80l)
PM
17:00 THU (m000l8r1)
PM
17:00 FRI (m000l8fs)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (m000l7kt)
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
17:30 SAT (m000l75j)
Positive Thinking
09:00 TUE (m000l8l9)
Positive Thinking
21:30 TUE (m000l8l9)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (m000l2db)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (m000l7ct)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (m000l6q1)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (m000l8md)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (m000l81h)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (m000l8rt)
Profile
19:00 SAT (m000l71b)
Profile
05:45 SUN (m000l71b)
Profile
17:40 SUN (m000l71b)
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
19:00 SUN (b007vlvl)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (m000l7bd)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:25 SUN (m000l7bd)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (m000l7bd)
ReincarNathan
18:30 THU (m000l8r5)
Relativity
11:30 FRI (m000l8dy)
Rewinder
23:30 FRI (m000j7g9)
Saturday Drama
15:00 SAT (b036tjdj)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (m000l714)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (m000l2d4)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (m000l71l)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (m000l7cm)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (m000l6pn)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (m000l8m6)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (m000l819)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (m000l8rm)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (m000l2d2)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (m000l2d6)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (m000l75l)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (m000l71j)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (m000l71n)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (m000l7km)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (m000l7ck)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (m000l7cp)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (m000l6pj)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (m000l6ps)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (m000l8m4)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (m000l8m8)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (m000l817)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (m000l81c)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (m000l8rk)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (m000l8rp)
Short Works
00:30 SUN (m000l2rb)
Simon Schama: The Great Gallery Tours
16:00 MON (m000l7q8)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (m000l75q)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (m000l7kr)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (m000l7qf)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (m000l8pk)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (m000l80q)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (m000l8r3)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (m000l8fv)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b0080m9r)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b0080m9r)
Soul Music
09:00 WED (m000l7zc)
Soul Music
21:00 WED (m000l7zc)
Spice
19:45 SUN (m000l7cc)
Stand-Up Specials
23:00 THU (m000kfy0)
Summer Comedy Festival
12:30 SAT (m000l2rn)
Summer Comedy Festival
18:30 FRI (m000l8fx)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (m000l7bt)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (m000l7b8)
Tales from the Stave
11:30 THU (m000k6ph)
The 3rd Degree
23:00 SAT (m000l2bc)
The 3rd Degree
15:00 MON (m000l7q5)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (m000l7c2)
The Archers
19:00 MON (m000l6nh)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (m000l6nh)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (m000l80b)
The Archers
14:00 WED (m000l80b)
The Archers
19:00 WED (m000l80s)
The Archers
14:00 THU (m000l80s)
The Archers
19:00 THU (m000l8fd)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (m000l8fd)
The Briefing Room
20:00 THU (m000l8r9)
The Crisis Of American Democracy
11:00 FRI (m000l8dv)
The Damien Slash Mixtape
23:15 WED (m0001v88)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (m000l265)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (m000l8qx)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (m000l7k5)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (m000l7k5)
The Homeless Hotel
20:00 TUE (m000l8lr)
The Infinite Monkey Cage
16:30 MON (p08h09b2)
The Infinite Monkey Cage
23:00 TUE (p08h09b2)
The Kitchen Cabinet
10:30 SAT (m000l716)
The Kitchen Cabinet
15:00 TUE (m000l716)
The Listening Project
13:30 SUN (m000l7kc)
The Long View
09:00 THU (m000l8q6)
The Long View
21:30 THU (m000l8q6)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (m000l80j)
The Media Show
21:30 WED (m000l80j)
The New Japanese Poetry
23:30 SAT (m000l1x2)
The Poet and the Echo
15:45 FRI (m000l8fl)
The Political School
21:00 MON (m000l0r9)
The Political School
11:00 TUE (m000l8nz)
The Reith Lectures
19:15 SAT (b08v08m5)
The Unbelievable Truth
12:04 SUN (m000l2bn)
The Way I See It
00:15 SUN (m0009r45)
The Way I See It
14:45 SUN (m0009s1d)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (m000l74y)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (m000l7k9)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (m000l6ny)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (m000l8lw)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (m000l80z)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (m000l8rf)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (m000l8g7)
There Will Be Singing
16:30 SUN (m000l7kk)
Things My Mother Never Told Me (... About Lockdown)
23:00 WED (m000l811)
Things That Made the Modern Economy
23:30 MON (m000bcmn)
Things That Made the Modern Economy
23:30 TUE (m000bfh3)
Things That Made the Modern Economy
23:30 WED (m000bfsn)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (m0000mrl)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (m00094jg)
Today in Parliament
23:45 MON (m000l6p8)
Today in Parliament
23:45 TUE (m000l8m0)
Today in Parliament
23:45 WED (m000l813)
Today
07:00 SAT (m000l710)
Today
06:00 MON (m000l6ms)
Today
06:00 TUE (m000l8l5)
Today
06:00 WED (m000l7z2)
Today
06:00 THU (m000l8q4)
Today
06:00 FRI (m000l8dn)
Tracks
21:00 SAT (b07wsmrh)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b03zdbr0)
Tweet of the Day
10:55 SUN (m000l7jz)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b03zdkjv)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b08zd770)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b0952zl1)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b08ynq1n)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b08y167j)
Weather
06:57 SAT (m000l70y)
Weather
12:57 SAT (m000l756)
Weather
17:57 SAT (m000l75n)
Weather
06:57 SUN (m000l7b0)
Weather
07:57 SUN (m000l7bj)
Weather
12:57 SUN (m000l7k7)
Weather
17:57 SUN (m000l7kp)
Weather
05:56 MON (m000l7cy)
Weather
12:57 MON (m000l7pw)
Weather
12:57 TUE (m000l8p7)
Weather
12:57 WED (m000l804)
Weather
12:57 THU (m000l8qn)
Weather
12:57 FRI (m000l8f6)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (m000l7cf)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (m000l75d)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (m000l6n7)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (m000l8lh)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (m000l7zr)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (m000l8q8)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (m000l8dq)
Women Talking About Cars
18:30 WED (b0858nvh)
Word of Mouth
23:00 MON (m000l0s0)
Word of Mouth
16:00 TUE (m000l8pf)
World at One
13:00 MON (m000l7py)
World at One
13:00 TUE (m000l8p9)
World at One
13:00 WED (m000l806)
World at One
13:00 THU (m000l8qq)
World at One
13:00 FRI (m000l8f8)
You and Yours
12:18 MON (m000l7pt)
You and Yours
12:18 TUE (m000l8p5)
You and Yours
12:18 WED (m000l802)
You and Yours
12:18 THU (m000l8ql)
You and Yours
12:18 FRI (m000l8f4)
Your Call Is Important to Us
23:30 THU (m000kgny)