George Szirtes reads his award-winning memoir about his mother, Magda. Her turbulent life reflects the drama of the 20th century.
She survived incarceration in two different concentration camps during the Second World War and then settled in Hungary - but fled with her family in 1956. Arriving as a refugee in London, serious illness forced her to abandon professional work and to live at home as a housewife, where she began the process of “Englishing” her family.
The Photographer at Sixteen reveals a life told backwards, from the depths of Magda’s final days to her girlhood as an ambitious photographer in Budapest. The woman who emerges is beautiful, energetic, direct, warm and passionate. It is a book born of curiosity, of guilt, and of love.
In this final episode, George Szirtes goes back to his mother’s early years as a photographer in Budapest, at the beginning of the great age of magazine photography. He reconstructs the moment when she is seized by the militia, and taken away to concentration camps during the War, as a Jew.
“What I would like to present to somebody is the voice and energy, not of someoe sick and dying but of a woman in her prime…”
George Szirtes is a poet and translator who escaped to Britain with his family after the 1956 Hungarian uprising. He’s the author of some 25 books of poetry. The Photographer at Sixteen won the 2020 James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh.
Journalist, controversialist, celebrity - Mark Coles explores the explosive career of Piers Morgan, one of the country's youngest-ever and best-known newspaper editors. In the spotlight, again, this time for storming off the set of ITV's "Good Morning Britain", colleagues, competitors, friends and foes detail a roller-coaster career. If it started with a desire to report from behind the headlines, as years passed he has all too frequently become their subject.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Sound Recordist, Ellie Williams, takes Clare for an audio-rich wander at Abbots Pool in North Somerset. Walking, she says, is as essential to her as food and sleep and – whether she’s recording, or not – she’s always super-aware of the richness of the sounds around her. En route she contemplates why her profession is still so male-dominated and how it can be opened up to more women.
20/03/21 Farming Today This Week: Litter picking, food fraud, pigs getting fatter
Today marks the spring equinox, the astronomical first day of spring ,and time for spring cleaning - outside as well as in. A group of litter pickers is trying to get everyone out cleaning their local green spaces, along roads and hedges for a national Spring Equinox Cleanup tomorrow. They have hundreds of people signed up around the UK to take part.
Lambing is underway and around the country police are dealing with dog attacks on sheep and warning owners to keep their dogs on the lead. As lockdown eases there are fears that there will be more incidents of sheep worrying. The Kennel Club has joined with the National Farmers Union Scotland to work with farmers and crofters on this issue.
There are concerns that the government’s move to ‘lighter touch’ border checks will result in more food fraud.
Pig farmers want more help from processors and retailers to cope with the fallout from delays in slaughterhouses because of Covid restrictions, and indeed Covid outbreaks amongst workers, and the impact of Brexit. Its all led to fat pigs, more properly described as big pigs, as the pigs are staying longer on farms.
Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Ray Mears - an authority on bushcraft and survival, he's been presenting TV series and teaching on the subject for 3 decades.
Jono Lancaster has a rare genetic condition called Treacher Collins Syndrome and was adopted at birth. He has made TV programmes, set up a charity and travelled extensively supporting other young people with facial disfigurement. He discusses his journey to self acceptance.
Jenny Packham’s designs have graced countless red carpets and award shows since she launched her eponymous label in her early 20s. She tells us how she was inspired from a young age by her two dressmaker Grandmothers.
Jake Tyler got severe depression and felt burnt out as a manager of a busy London pub. He ditched city life and embarked on a 3,000 mile walk around Britain, visiting every national park while meeting dozens of friendly strangers who offered him a bed.
And the poet, actor and DJ Craig Charles chooses his inheritance tracks: Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit and Wilson Pickett singing Hey Jude.
Technology makes it easier to hold a meeting than ever before. No-one needs to leave home. David Mitchell thinks it's all spinning out of control and wants to know what we can do about it. He visits a council zoom meeting in Cheshire (not that one); he picks the brains of Imperial College Business School meetings expert Sankalp Chaturvedi, and hears from the former Leader of the House of Commons, Sir Davd Lidington.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
The government responds to Money Box’s revelation that developers are asking customers to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of getting problems with their new build homes fixed. We also hear from listeners asked to keep quiet - despite the denials of developers about the practice. A change in the law next month means there could be a huge rise in the number of contractors working through unregulated umbrella companies - and some of those companies are accused of withholding holiday pay and even pension payments. And thousands of those who tried to claim universal credit in the pandemic have been rejected because they live with a partner who earns too much.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in front of a remote audience - and all from their own home!
Joining them from a safe distance is Lucy Porter fighting for our right to protest, Eshaan Akbar analysing our spending habits and a Beyonce inspired song by Jess Robinson and Felix Hagen.
Baroness Chakrabarti, Sir Geoffrey Cox QC MP, John Finucane, Zanny Minton Beddoes
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with the Labour peer and former director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, the Conservative MP and former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, the Sinn Féin MP John Finucane and the editor-in-chief of The Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes.
A personal, hopeful reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter.
Dr Jason Arday, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Durham, reflects on the health and social barriers he has faced and overcome throughout his life with a positive and grateful outlook.
Ron Hutchinson writes a series of compelling vignettes, exploring why Tango is such an obsession and a way of life for some people.
Is it the drama, the proximity, the rhythm, the soul-bearing? Five people explain why this astonishing dance means so much to them.
Ron Hutchinson has written extensively for the theatre (Rat in the Skull, Pygmies in the Ruins, Moonlight and Magnolias) and for TV and Film (Bird of Prey, The Ten Commandments). His last radio drama was Ship of Lies in 2019.
It’s all around us and has pride of place in the periodic table. Hydrogen is the number one element. For decades it’s been hailed as a potentially cleaner alternative to the fossil fuels which power heavy industry, our homes and transport systems. But hydrogen from renewable sources has never quite realised its potential. It's expensive to produce. However, as the UK now has targets to cut carbon emissions, green hydrogen may have a major part to play in the clean-up. Evan Davis and guests discuss the business of hydrogen.
Eugene McKenna, from the chemical giant, Johnson Matthey.
Dr Laurie King, Fuel Cell Innovation Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University.
And Andrew Cunningham, managing director of Geopura, a green hydrogen energy supplier
Harlan Coben, Jessica Fostekew, Chris Brookmyre, Loyiso Gola, Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves, Emily Moment, David Morrissey
Clive Anderson is joined by Harlan Coben, Jessica Fostekew, Loyiso Gola and Chris Brookmyre for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves and Emily Moment.
Brian Cox and Robin Ince discover the importance of the night sky to human history and how our relationship with the stars has changed over the centuries. They are joined by star-gazer Jon Culshaw, astronaut Tim Peake, astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith and astronomy writer Stuart Clark as they chart the changing nature of our relationship with the sky above us. They discuss ancient cave paintings depicting Orion's belt, the astronomical revolution that came with our understanding of how planets orbit the Sun, and how astronauts like Tim who have "touched the sky" have seen the stars in a totally unique way. Has our ever expanding knowledge about the stars twinkling above us removed some of the magic, or have modern missions and the incredible images of space we now see brought us closer, quite literally, to the sky above us?
Comedian Phill Jupitus searches for the answers to questions posed by songs. A 1971 hit for Marvin Gaye provokes a discussion with historian and author Rutger Bregman about what's happening at the moment in our lives and in our world.
Ask someone what they think of when they hear the word 'referendum' - and chances are it won't be the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote - the Forgotten Referendum.
The only reporter still standing when the final count was announced, Any Questions presenter and Political Correspondent Chris Mason, takes a deep dive into the archive of a decade ago to tell the story of a campaign that arguably failed to capture the public's imagination but whose political impact was wide-ranging. Chris discovers how much the 2011 campaign can teach us about the EU referendum held five years later and uncovers what might have happened had the result gone the other way. Would Jeremy Corbyn be Prime Minister? Would Brexit have happened?
Chris interviews key figures from the campaign - including, among others, Sir Nick Clegg, Lord Hague, Dame Margaret Beckett and Alan Johnson - and the people who made it all happen behind the scenes - including the director of the NotoAV campaign, Matthew Elliott, who later became the Chief Executive of Vote Leave, and the Chair of the YestoFairerVotes campaign Katie Ghose.
Together, they use the wisdom of the intervening years to respond to archive from the campaign, analyse where the battle was won and lost, and consider how the fallout is still felt today. This is a story about political messaging, power and our collective memory. But it's also about a split Labour party, the politics of Coalition, and the influence of one of the last decade's most influential campaigners.
Abeni is new to college and Durham. She’s putting purple braids in local girl, Jasmine’s hair and giving her ‘the talk’, opening Jasmine’s mind to new ways of seeing the world - and the world seeing both of them. In collaboration with Live Theatre, Newcastle, this new play is about fitting in and standing out.
BBC Arts turns the spotlight on theatre as it continues its Culture in Quarantine initiative – bringing arts and culture into the nation’s homes – by partnering with theatres across the country to produce an unprecedented season of plays for audiences at home.
BBC Lights Up began in February 2021, following what has been one of the most difficult winters for the performing arts in history. The season will ‘light up’ stages and studios across the UK by supporting hard-hit organisations and artists, and ensuring that audiences at home continue to have the opportunity to enjoy theatre across BBC platforms.
Why would anyone be a goth? What is the appeal of this dark and spooky subculture that embraces death, pain and sadness? Goths have been attacked, abused and are often misunderstood, but still choose to stand out - dramatically - from the crowd.
Catherine Carr talks to goths about their music, their dress and their love of the darker side of life. Why has this scene that began in the UK in the late 1970s and has spread worldwide, adapted and endured?
She hears from gothic vlogger, Black Friday, about how others react to her striking style and that of her goth husband, Matthius; she learns from Dr Catherine Spooner of Lancaster University about the role and influence of gothic literature in the goth scene and finds out from Professor Isabella Van Elferen of Kingston University, London about the transcendental power of goth music. Dr Paul Hodkinson of Surrey University explains the enduring appeal of the subculture and why once a goth, you're always a goth. And she meets Sylvia Lancaster, whose daughter Sophie, a goth, was murdered because of the way she looked.
The abduction and murder of Sarah Everard has provoked widespread anger, fear, solidarity and soul-searching. While some may see elements of a moral panic, how are we to deal with the uncomfortable truth that, despite progress in so many areas of life, the overwhelming majority of domestic abuse, sexual assault and violent pornography is perpetrated by men against women? Is there something intrinsically wicked about men? That’s a very stark question, which invites deeper exploration. For some, the problem starts with the very idea of ‘masculinity’, which they regard as a social construct; a self-perpetuating myth; a set of harmful descriptors about how men should behave. Others believe that ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are not arbitrary categories, that they usefully describe fundamental biological differences, and that to view the male propensity for violence solely as a ‘masculine’ problem wrongly demonises all men. Assuming there are ‘toxic’ aspects of masculinity, how should we deal with them? For some, it starts at birth with the compartmentalising of boys and girls into the clothes they should wear and the toys they should play with. The inherent misogyny behind this social-conditioning, they argue, pressurises many teenage boys into not displaying so-called ‘feminine’ traits. Is it time to re-define masculinity or scrap it altogether? Others warn against the dissolution of gender binaries and believe it is possible to celebrate male strength and competitiveness without encouraging pathological behaviour. While others argue that we need to address the relationship poverty that cuts through society: from the absence of paternal role models in the home to educating public school boys about consent. With Madeleine Kearns, Dr Lucy Nicholas, Tom Ross-Williams and Dr Andrew Smiler.
Where might the Duchess of Cambridge, the author of The Debt To Pleasure, and the star of Worzel Gummidge, reasonably go to test their eyesight?
Such questions are meat and drink to Round Britain Quiz panellists, and Tom Sutcliffe will be trying this one out on the teams in this second contest of the 2021 series. Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards of Wales take on Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements of Northern Ireland, in today's clash of home nations.
As always, the programme includes a generous selection of ideas submitted by listeners over the past year or so.
The poet Rachel Long talks to other writers, at night, about the ways beds run through the poetic imagination. From a space for dreaming and desire, to a stage for the erotic. A site of birth, sleep, illness and death.
SUNDAY 21 MARCH 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000tdzf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j2s2)
Inflamed brain
In 1621, the English scholar Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience: melancholy
In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot looks at the latest research into the links between inflammation and depression, and finding connections with Burton’s identification of an ‘inflamed brain’ as a cause.
She meets Professor Edward Bullmore, Head of Psychiatry at Cambridge University, and author of The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach to Depression to find out how the immune system and responses to stress may be causes of some kinds of depression and how this could offer new treatment targets.
Amy’s explorations take her to Rydal Waters in The Lake District where she joins kindred spirit and wild swimming guide Suzanna Cruickshank for a bracing swim and where they share their experiences of cold water swimming and the benefits it has brought them both.
Swimming is a cure that Burton uncovers and adds to his Anatomy of Melancholy: ‘Cadan alone commends bathing in fresh rivers, and cold water, and adviseth all such as mean to live long to use it, for it agrees with all ages and complexion and is most profitable for hot temperatures.’
Is there any chance this could link with inflammation and our responses to stress?
Dr Mike Tipton, Director of Research in the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth, shares the latest science behind the question.
As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.
In this episode, Suzanna Cruickshank offers Status Quo, Pictures of Matchstick Men.
Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes
A Whistledown production for Radio 4
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000t77d)
You Forgot Me First
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the Northern Irish writer Tara West. As read by Andrea Irvine.
Tara West is a writer from Co Antrim whose published works include two novels and a memoir. She is a doctoral student at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast and is one of BBC Writersroom’s Belfast Voices.
Reader ..... Andrea Irvine
Writer ..... Tara West
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tdzh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tdzk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tdzm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000tdzp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000tclf)
St Leonard’s Church, Hythe in Kent
Bells on Sunday comes from St Leonard’s Church, Hythe in Kent. The church has a Gothic bell tower, completed in 1752, after the original collapsed possibly following an earlier earthquake. In 1928, the peal of eight bells was retuned and augmented to ten by the addition of two smaller bells, and the recast tenor now weighing over nineteen hundredweight is on the note of E. We hear them ringing three bobbed leads of Bristol Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (m000t49f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
14:45 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News (m000tcjj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b039b67b)
Mending Cracks with Gold
What can we learn from a broken teapot?
According to legend, when a 15th century shogun smashed his treasured pottery, Japanese artists repaired it with gold. Kintsugi, as the practice is known, gives new life to damaged goods by celebrating their frailty and history. Samira Ahmed considers how we might live a kintsugi life, finding value in the ‘cracks' - whether it's the scars showing how we have lived, finding new purpose through loss, or learning to love ourselves despite our flaws.
With readings from The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura, Haruki Murakami's After the Quake, and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - and music from Michio Miyagi, the Rolling Stones and Elizabethan composer, John Dowland.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Jo Fidgen
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b07lfz5t)
Wolf
In this revised repeat of Natural Histories, Brett Westwood meets a wolf at The UK Wolf Conservation Trust at Beenham, near Reading and considers what wolfishness has come to mean in our culture and thinking. And how much does it have to do with the animal itself?
Taking part:
Mike Collins, wolf keeper and site manager
Claudio Sillero, Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Oxford
Garry Marvin, social anthropologist and Professor of Human Animal Studies at the University of Roehampton
Erica Fudge, Director of the British Animal Studies Network at the University of Strathclyde
Judith Buchanan, Professor of Film and Literature at the University of York
Original Producer: Beth O'Dea
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000tcjm)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000tcjp)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000tcjr)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tcjt)
Comic Relief Red Nose Day
Tony Robinson makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Comic Relief Red Nose Day.
To Give:
- Phone number: 0800 4048144
- You can donate online: bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- Cheques should be made payable to Comic Relief and sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal. Please mark the back of the envelope Comic Relief.
Registered Charity Number: 326568
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000tcjw)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000tcjy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000tck0)
Lost Years
As the nation is about to mark the anniversary of the first lockdown, Debbie Thrower - broadcaster and founder of Anna Chaplaincy which promotes the spiritual welfare of older people - marks the loss of more than one hundred and twenty five thousand lives to the pandemic in the United Kingdom. Many of those who died were in their later years – some living in care homes. There are currently 160 or so Anna Chaplains (and others in equivalent roles) in the national network ministering to older people across the UK. Named after the widow, Anna, in Luke's gospel, the chaplains help older men and women reflect on the narrative of their lives, to seek meaning and purpose and to foster hope and resilience in old age. The Anna name reinforces the fact that much of the work is with those who have suffered loss and bereavement. Yet it is a hope-filled ministry, highlighting the tradition of older people having prophetic voices. It recognises that many in retirement have wisdom to impart to younger generations, and key life lessons to share spiritually and in other ways. Appropriately, for a ministry that is a gracious offering from church to the community, the name Anna means ‘gift’ or ‘grace’. Preacher: The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester, and with a Moment of Remembrance led by the Archbishop of York. Reading: Luke
7:11-17; Producer: Philip Billson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000t77x)
All the world's a stage
A year on from the first lockdown, Michael Morpurgo reflects on the effect the last twelve months have had on him - and on the arts world in general.
He describes the impact of a world with no theatres, no concert halls, no cinemas, no audiences.
"Until now," Michael writes, "I don't think I truly realised just how important, how intense, this live relationship can be, for me and for an audience too."
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09hw2w2)
Fyfe Dangerfield on the Woodchat Shrike
Childhood holidays in France, sitting in the back of the car were for musician Fyfe Dangerfield a great opportunity to view rare birds, such as the woodchat shrike known also as the butcherbird.
Producer: Mark Ward
Photograph: Neil Hilton.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000tck2)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000tck4)
Writers, Sarah McDonald Hughes and Caroline Harrington
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
David Archer ... Tim Bentinck
Ruth Archer ... Felicity Finch
Ben Archer ... Ben Norris
Jennifer Aldridge ... Angela Piper
Leonard Berry ... Paul Copley
Susan Carter .... Charlotte Martin
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Eddie Grundy ... Trevor Harrison
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Tracy Horrobin ... Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary .... Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ... Annabelle Dowler
Lisa ... Katherine Jakeways
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000tck6)
Tweet Take 5 : Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler
Until the naturalist Gilbert White separated these two species by their song, it was thought the chiffchaff and the willow warbler were one and the same species. The diminutive willow warbler is one of the first summer migrants to arrive, as are many chiffchaffs though in recent decades some chiffchaff have changed their behaviour and are now resident all winter in the milder south and south west of Britain. Today we recognise the songs of these two warblers on a warm sunny day as one of the markers that spring has arrived, as we'll hear in this extended Tweet of the Day with Bill Oddie, writer Simon Barnes and Kate Humble.
Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000tck8)
Maggie O'Farrell, writer
Maggie O’Farrell has written eight novels, a memoir and a children’s book. In 2020 her novel Hamnet won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was also named Waterstones Book of the Year.
Maggie was born in Norther Ireland. Her parents moved around during her childhood, and she grew up in Wales and Scotland. As a young girl, she was very ill and almost died from encephalitis. She says her lifelong love of reading comes from her long stay in hospital followed by an extended convalescence, when she missed a year of school. Her illness also left her with a stammer, which she believes has profoundly affected her relationship with language.
She studied English at Cambridge University, and then looked for work as a journalist, writing poetry in her spare time. When she chanced upon a discarded computer, she decided to write a novel. She attended a creative writing course, where her tutors encouraged her to get her first manuscript published.
She lives in Scotland with her husband, the writer William Sutcliffe, and their three children.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
SUN 11:45 The Battles That Won Our Freedoms (m00021qw)
9 Gay Rights
In this episode, Phil Tinline asks Professor Frank Mort about the journalist Peter Wildeblood's prosecution for homosexual offences in 1954, Wildeblood's risky decision to be open about his homosexuality - and how this intersected with the work of the committee appointed by Churchill's last government to explore the possibility of changing the law.
Stonewall founder Lisa Power recalls how it was only after male homosexual acts were partly decriminalised in 1967 that the movement for gay liberation took off. And how, after the failure to stop Section 28, the late 1980s saw the birth of a new approach - which began a mainstream political struggle to win the freedoms of today.
First broadcast in 2019.
Producer: Phil Tinline
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000tckb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:03 Just a Minute (m000t40p)
Series 86
Episode 4
Jenny Eclair hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where she challenges guests Paul Merton, Shappi Khorsandi, Julian Clary and Pam Ayres to speak for 60 seconds on subjects including Artificial Intelligence, and A Big Night Out. Hesitation, deviation, and repetition are strictly forbidden. This episode was produced using remote recording technology, with both panel and audience joining from their homes all over the world. Caroline Barlow blows the whistle.
Devised by Ian Messiter
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000tckd)
Food in Lockdown: One Year On
A year after the UK was first put into lockdown, Sheila Dillon catches up with some of those who have been keeping the nation fed. If you listened to news reports, you might have thought getting food in lockdown was all about supermarkets and delivery slots, but as we have been hearing during the past year, it has been quite a bit more complicated than that.
Coronavirus and lockdown has reset our minds to local and opened our eyes to how widespread hunger is in Britain. In this episode, Sheila brings together the Chief Executive of the UK's largest and longest-running food redistribution charity, Fareshare; the owner of a Rhondda convenience store who during the year has started a new online-delivery business; a London cheesemonger who has seen producers alter and adapt for a changed market; and she meets a pastry chef who has given up the restaurant business to deliver cakes and treats from her home.
So what have we learned during this past year about our food supply chains, and how are we doing things differently? And how much of what has changed will last forever?
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000tckg)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000tckj)
Victoria Derbyshire looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000tckl)
The Nation in Conversation
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation as we adjust to the 'new normal'.
In this week's programme: on Census Day, Geraldine and Siobhan share how their passion for unearthing their ancestry has informed their lives in different yet meaningful ways; children's entertainers Ceri and Andrew discuss getting to grips with performing to a virtual audience; Sue, who was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2013, and Julie, Director at UK Dementia Research Institute in Cardiff explore the positive steps that can be taken to help people with the illness; and Christina and Alistair compare notes on moving to, and away from, Australia.
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: Ellie Bury
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000t77b)
GQT from the Archives: Houseplant Special
The team look back through the archives for a houseplant edition of the show.
A variety of panellists, old and new, discuss showering with your plants and orchid maintenance, and one lucky listener finally receives an answer to a 60 year-old question.
Away from the questions, Peter Gibbs visits RHS Wisley’s Giant Houseplant Takeover exhibit.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j1jp)
Terrors and affrights
In 1621, Robert Burton published The Anatomy of Melancholy. It was the first attempt in the modern western world to understand and categorise causes, symptoms and treatments of that universal human experience.
In this episode, writer Amy Liptrot explores what Burton described as ‘the horrible kind of melancholy...most usually caused from some imminent danger'. Remarkably, he describes in great detail the symptoms that we would now associate with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Amy visits the Manchester Resilience Hub, which was set up in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack, and meets Alex, a young survivor who shares her experiences and the therapies that have helped her recover.
Psychologists at the Hub, Clare Jones and Dr Alan Barrett, discuss the different approaches taken to normal mental health services by the Hub.
Professor Emily Holmes from Uppsala University in Sweden and specialist in trauma offers an insight into how PTSD can lead to melancholy, sadness and low mood.
As Burton drew on the writing of others and made a patchwork of texts within his Anatomy of Melancholy, each episode ends with a modern-day contribution for a new and updated Anatomy of Melancholy.
In this episode, Dr Alan Barrett offers Robbing Myself by Ted Hughes (from Birthday Letters) and Clare Jones offers Wires by Athlete.
Simon Russell Beale brings the voice of Robert Burton to life with extracts from The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Presenter: Amy Liptrot
Reader: Simon Russell Beale
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Series consultant: John Geddes
A Whistledown production for Radio 4.
SUN 15:00 Sweeney Todd and The String of Pearls (m000tckn)
Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls Episode 2
It's the reign of George III. What’s going on at Sweeney Todd’s in Fleet Street?
Joanna disguises herself and enters the barber’s employment as ‘Charley’. Is her sweetheart Mark really lost at sea?
A dark humour enhances outstanding performances from Joanne Whalley as Mrs Lovett and Martin Jarvis as Sweeney Todd. With Rufus Sewell, Jonathan Cake, Julian Sands, Moira Quirk, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Matthew Wolf and Ian Ogilvy.
What will be discovered in the vaults beneath St Dunstan’s? Investigator Richard Blunt and loyal Lieutenant Jeffreys aim to protect Joanna. Can Mrs Lovett extract herself from a fearful relationship with Todd? What is the true secret of the barber’s shop? Betrayal, blackmail, murder? Is justice possible?
Cast:
Mrs Lovett…Joanne Whalley
Colonel Jeffrey…Rufus Sewell
Sir Richard Blunt…Jonathan Cake
Sweeney Todd… Martin Jarvis
Mark…Jack Cutmore-Scott
Joanna…Moira Quirk
Arabella…Elizabeth Knowelden
Crotchet/Mr Brown/Dr Murphy…Matthew Wolf
Mr Wrankley…Julian Sands
The Judge…Ian Ogilvy
Morgan/Attorney…Neil Dickson
Clerk/Sir Ernest…Darren Richardson
Boatman/Counsel/Fisherman…Alan Shearman
Other parts played by members of the company.
Dramatised by Archie Scottney, based on the novel by Thomas Prest
Director…Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000tckq)
Fiona Mozley, Jane Smiley, American working class novels with Jess Walter and Kristin Hannah
Elizabeth Day talks to Fiona Mozley about her second novel, Hot Stew. An expansive portrait of Soho which includes property millionaires, reformed hard men and sex workers fighting gentrification, she tells Open Book about her fascination with Medieval history, ownership and depicting collective struggle.
Jess Walter and Kristin Hannah discuss why there is renewed interest Stateside in fiction that explores unions, strikes and workers' resistance. They explain why it is a perfect time to mine the USA's working class history, and how personal stories are at their heart their latest novels The Cold Millions and The Four Winds, both set in the early 20th century.
Plus, A Book I'd Never Lend from Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer-prizing winning author of A Thousand Acres and most recently The Strays of Paris.
Book List – Sunday 21 March and Thursday 25 March
Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
The Strays of Paris by Jane Smiley
Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart Rølvaag
SUN 16:30 Ways to Weather the Storm (m000tcks)
In the flood-prone landscape of the Calder Valley, poet Clare Shaw asks what it means to live with the inevitability of severe flooding, and why this part of England continues to be loved by its communities - in particular by its many resident artists who are inspired by this watery, often bleak surrounding.
Recorded entirely on location on the steep-sided valleys and wind-swept tops of Calderdale, Clare discusses the pull and the perils of living here, and what this landscape and its communities can teach us about living with disaster of the most elemental kind.
Perhaps the most famous inhabitant of Calderdale is Ted Hughes, whose poem Rain is, for Clare, the most apt evocation of the rain here. Water is an ever-present force in this landscape and in its history. Local historian Nick Wilding and musician Alison Cooper describe the part water has played in the industrial past of the valley, as well as how it continues to affect local communities and the very real threat of climate change.
The impact of flooding comes to the fore in conversation with friend and actress Jackie Kington, whose house in Hebden Bridge often features in national news stories about the flooding of the town. With the poet Zaffar Kunial and storyteller Christine McMahon, Clare asks what role art plays in making sense of these huge events around us, and finding ways of recovering. Mixed-media artist Kate Boyce describes how the beauty and contrasts of this landscape inspire her work, and how her own chronic illness has changed her understanding of both life and landscape.
We hear too from Clare's own collection Flood: a poetic exploration not just of flooding, but also of flood as metaphor in her own life, from breakdown to her mother's death, to the end of a failing relationship. We shape our own world - through stories and music and art and through everyday acts of kindness and resilience.
With thanks to the Ted Hughes Estate for use of his poem Rain, and the Arvon Foundation for allowing access to their terrace for socially-distanced outdoor recording.
Produced by Philippa Geering
Assistant Producer: Elizaveta Butakova
Mixed by Steve Wyatt
A Boom Shakalaka production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000t4w5)
The Asylum Business - the UK's hidden housing crisis
The multi-billion pound AASC contract is the Government's ten-year blueprint for how those seeking asylum in the UK are treated while they await a yes or no for their refugee status. After a year under the pressures of Covid , the contract has become mired in controversy. Former army barracks which have been repurposed as temporary holding centres for those applying for asylum have experienced fires, Covid-19 outbreaks and resident protests, and in other parts of the country, private landlords are threatening to pull out of the contracts. Are those living in such accommodation being treated fairly and humanely? Paul Connolly investigates.
Producer: Rob Cave
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000t78h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000tckv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000tckx)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tckz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000tcl1)
Julie Hesmondhalgh
Presenter: Julie Hesmondhalgh
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Sharon Hughes
SUN 19:00 Stillicide (m0009rzd)
Episode 12: Patrol
Richard Goulding concludes Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is scarce and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And out in the field beyond the city stands police marksman, John Branner - his job is to protect the train. But as the train advances, a light flickers on his scanner... What or who is out there?
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000tcl3)
Jacob Hawley: Class Act
Stevenage soft lad Jacob Hawley left his hometown behind a decade ago and has ascended Britain's social class system, moving to London and forging a career in comedy - just in time for commissioners to decide they want more working class voices. He has now quit the oat milk lattes, drawn a nike tick on to his chinos and re-adopted the glottle stop.
In this stand-up comedy performance, Jacob dissects his journey from working class banter boy to Inner-London feminist. This is politics for idiots, feminism for lads, love stories for louts and self-care for those who don't bother.
Are blokes dismissed as bad-feminists purely because they lack the correct language? Are working class people's mental health problems dismissed because our society values tortured artists over tortured cleaners? And most importantly, is it even worth going to a protest if you don’t tell everyone about it?
Written and performed by Jacob Hawley
Produced by Daisy Knight
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 One Night in Paradise (m000tcl5)
The Last Time
A final fling with his art lecturer lover at a rundown seaside hotel doesn't go quite as planned for the young barista. By Bethan Roberts. Read by John Biddle.
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4, produced and directed by Kate McAll
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000t77j)
Are you a mood mum? Do you even know what that means? You can find out as Roger Bolton explores why Radio 2 is so keen on attracting listeners from this new demographic. But is the station in danger of driving away older listeners as a result?
Martin Jarvis has just directed a controversial new Radio 4 play by the celebrated American playwright David Mamet. He discusses the play and responds to listeners’ comment.
And the alarming effects of the music of Poly Styrene, the singer with band X Ray Spex, on some discomforted Radio 4 listeners.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000t77g)
Murray Walker (pictured), King Goodwill Zwelithini, Mary Asprey, Bunny Wailer
Julian Worricker on:
One of the best known sports commentators of his generation, motor racing's Murray Walker
The woman who co-founded what became the charity, Missling People, Mary Asprey
King Goodwill Zwelithini, who ruled the Zulu nation at a time of enormous change in South Africa
And Bunny Wailer, founder member of the Wailers, whose album Blackheart Man is regarded as one of reggae's finest.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Simon Taylor
Interviewed guest: Nomsa Maseko
Interviewed guest: Sophie Macaulay
Interviewed guest: Trevor McDonald
Interviewed guest: David Katz
Interviewed guest: Clive Allick
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000tcl7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:03 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tcjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000t40w)
The Fine Art of Decision Making
Margaret Heffernan explores the fine art of decision making in times of uncertainty. We make decisions all the time which affect our personal lives, but what about the decisions which affect the lives of many others? How do you decide, when the well being of a nation or the success of a company are at stake, but the path is unclear because the risks cannot be quantified? A desire for more data, the temptation to procrastinate, a reluctance to admit mistakes and the outsourcing of decisions to machines can all lead to bad decision making, so what processes and practices, leadership qualities and attitudes of mind can serve as the best guides? Senior politicians, public servants, business people and academics share their insights based on past failures as well as successes, and suggest ways of better decision making in an increasingly uncertain world.
Contributors:
Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, Director emeritus, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Martin Gilbert, former CEO, Aberdeen Asset Management
Sir Oliver Letwin, former Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister
Dame Louise Makin, former CEO, BTG plc
Baroness Eliza Manningham- Buller, former Director General MI5, Chair of The Wellcome Trust
Professor Cathy O'Neill, founder O'Neill Risk Consulting and Algorithmic Auditing
Jonathan Powell, former Downing Street Chief of Staff to Tony Blair
Producer: Sheila Cook
Editor Jasper Corbett
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000tcl9)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000t6lk)
Francis Lee on Ammonite
Antonia Quirke talks to Francis Lee, director of Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet, about the palaeontologist Mary Anning. They discuss his controversial imagining of a lesbian relationship for Anning, the importance of sound in cinema and why he has never seen his own film on the big screen.
Antonia also looks at the work of MIMC, a film makers' collective in the Scottish borders and discovers the part it plays in its members' lives both socially and cinematographically.
And director Mark Jenkin continues his audio diary and reveals why going on holiday just before shooting commences might not be a bad thing.
Producer: Harry Parker
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b039b67b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 22 MARCH 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000tclc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000t48x)
A Recipe for Happiness
A young entrepreneur builds the ‘happiest company in the world’, an online shoe retailer so profitable that Amazon snaps it up for over a billion dollars. But what if the company’s profits and happiness could be boosted by a radical reimagining of the workplace?
No more bosses, no more job titles, just creativity, equality and pure joy.
Matthew Syed tells the extraordinary story of Tony Hsieh, a visionary entrepreneur who abandoned social hierarchy in his Las Vegas-based shoe company. Could it be that the secret to happiness lies in making everybody equal?
Producer: Robbie MacInnes
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick
Series Editor: Russell Finch
Executive Producers: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000tclf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tclh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tclk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tclm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000tclp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tclr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000tclt)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000tclw)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbyxy)
Redshank
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Redshank. Redshanks are one of our commonest wading birds at home in freshwater marshes and on estuaries where you can easily recognise them from their combination of long scarlet legs, white rumps and wing-bars and greyish brown bodies.
MON 06:00 Today (m000tcnh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000tcnk)
Newton: science and worldly riches
Edward St Aubyn is the award-winning author of the Patrick Melrose series. His new novel, Double Blind, also revolves around transformation and the headlong pursuit of knowledge. He tells Tom Sutcliffe that his characters range across the sciences – from genetics to ecology to psychoanalysis. And their investigations into inheritance, freedom and consciousness intertwine with their feelings of love, fear and greed.
Isaac Newton is often revered as the scientific genius of the 18th century: an unworldly scholar who abandoned his intellectual life to rescue the country’s finances. But the academic Patricia Fara paints a more complicated picture in Life After Gravity. Here Newton is seen in the last 30 years of his life as he heads both the Royal Mint and the Royal Society – a scientist who revelled in the dirty worlds of money and politics.
Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor who has also forged a career presenting health and science programmes on radio and television. With his twin brother Xand he has put competing health theories to the test, and shared his own personal experience of Covid 19. In his new series for Radio 4, The Jump, he investigates the latest scientific evidence looking at how animal viruses spread to humans, and how far human behaviours are causing pandemics.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tcr9)
Episode 1
Craig Brown presents a series of kaleidoscopic glimpses of The Beatles through time. Drawing on interviews, diaries, anecdotes, memoirs and gossip, he offers an entertaining series of vignettes that capture the mood of an era.
It’s a journey that takes us from 9th November 1961 when Brian Epstein first heard the four young men in a sweaty basement, via their mop top haircuts, to the jaw-dropping prices paid for the most trivial of memorabilia. And along the way there is the music, always the exuberant, the playful and ever-changing music.
Written by Craig Brown
Read by Mark McGann / Kate Robbins / Craig Brown
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Extract from the HarperCollins audiobook read by Craig Brown and Kate Robbins used by kind permission of the publishers
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tcnp)
Navigating the perimenopause; Increase in online accessing of child sexual images
The average age of menopause is 51, and menopause itself only lasts for one day, because it simply marks the one-year anniversary of your last period. Perimenopause, on the other hand, refers to the period of time in which you’ll have cycles, but start to experience ‘menopausal’ symptoms. Three quarters of women experience significant symptoms during the perimenopause, yet there is little in the way of evidence based information available. Comical descriptions of symptoms including hot flushes and mood swings are widespread and prevent essential details on the myriad of other symptoms and signs a woman is perimenopausal. Maisie Hill is a highly qualified expert with over a decade of experience as a woman’s health practitioner and birth doula. She joins Emma to discuss the symptoms and her toolkit of tips and techniques women can use to help themselves.
Last year the National Crime Agency assessed there were at least 300,000 individuals posing a sexual threat to children in the UK, and warned of a spike in online child sexual abuse offending during the pandemic. The Stop It Now helpline, a part of child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, is a nationwide service which offers advice and support for men viewing illegal sexual images of under 18s or feeling they are on the verge of doing so. They have reported an increase in people seeking help for their illegal online behaviour since the beginning of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns. Emma speaks to Donald Findlater, Director of the helpline since it started in 2002.
MON 10:45 Meet Me at the Museum (m000tcnr)
Episode 1
In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?
She doesn’t expect a reply.
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.
Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.
Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter
Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf
Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:00 Making Demille (m000tcnt)
In 2016 when producer Georgia first met him, Demille was a cycle courier in his early twenties, taking his company to a tribunal over better working conditions. He was fired-up, political, and excited about a case he would go on to win.
For the past five years, Georgia and Demille have been meeting and recording.
Demille’s story is one of being young and trying to stay afloat in the gig economy; of resilience and hope and trying to find control over his city and life.
Producer: Georgia Catt
MON 11:30 How to Vaccinate the World (m000tcnw)
What The Numbers Tell Us
Tim Harford is an economist not an immunologist, so he's on solid ground with this week’s programme which is all about numbers. Some of them are small but significant: 7 reported cases of cerebral venous thrombosis in Germany. Others are huge: 400 million doses of Covid 19 vaccine administered around the world.
Then there are the numbers that we’d love to know but don’t - about the effectiveness of a single dose, or whether we are getting closer to herd immunity. We find out what the numbers can tell us about Covid 19 vaccinations with this week's panel of guests: Professor Sheena Cruickshank, of the University of Manchester, Professor Susan Ellenberg, from the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge
Producers: Sandra Kanthal and Beth Sagar-Fenton
Listener questions can be sent to: vaccine@bbc.co.uk
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000tcny)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000tcp0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 12:06 White Fang by Jack London (m000tcp2)
Episode 1
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.
The story details White Fang's journeys through Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-knownwork, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Written by Jack London
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:20 You and Yours (m000tcp4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000tcp6)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000tcp8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Outsiders (m000tcpb)
Poo Fairy by Max Porter
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed. In episode one, Max Porter takes his three sons to the local park for a daily kick-around.
Max Porter is the author of Lanny, longlisted for the Booker Prize, and Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. His most recent book, The Death of Francis Bacon, was published in January 2021. He is the recipient of the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award. Max lives in Bath with his family.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
MON 14:00 Homeschool History (m000tcpd)
Mary Seacole
Join Greg Jenner for a fun Homeschool History lesson on the life of Mary Seacole. Follow her adventures as she travels the world in her ambition to always care for others.
From life as the daughter of a hotelier in Jamaica to owner of the famous British Hotel in Crimea, where she volunteered to set up a business caring for injured soldiers, earning her the name Mother Seacole.
The Athletic production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:15 Drama (m000tcph)
Afterplay
It's the 1920s. A chance encounter in a down-at-heel Moscow café. Perhaps we recognise this couple. No matter if we don’t. As they fall into conversation, the contours of their lives are gradually revealed.
Sonya looks after a large estate once managed by her late uncle. She’s visiting Moscow for financial meetings. Andrey is the brother of three provincial sisters who never quite made it to Moscow. He tells her he’s here to rehearse La Bohème at the Opera House. He’s a violinist.
But there may be lies lurking, as well as truths. Sonya, more direct, confides she’s still hopelessly in love with the local doctor, as she has been for years.
The pair are suspended in a bubble of desperation, obsession, fantasy - appropriately Chekhovian. They consider the peculiarity of living life ‘in a waiting room’. Is there hope?
A riveting two-hander by Brian Friel. It's a play about anyone who may have had dreams, family lives that went awry, failures, even successes. An intense thriller too - a set of Russian dolls where these two characters aren’t being wholly honest with each other.
Cast:
Andrey…Alex Jennings
Sonya… Janie Dee
Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000tcpm)
Programme 3, 2021
(3/12)
The two teams who have not so far appeared in the 2021 series make their debuts today, with Tom Sutcliffe asking the trademark cryptic questions and scoring generously or harshly, depending on how quickly the teams arrive at the answers. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Stephen Maddock play for the Midlands, opposite Val McDermid and Alan McCredie of Scotland.
As always the questions will test their recall of sometimes-obscure trivia and their powers of lateral thinking, as they work out the connections between seemingly unrelated elements. Some of the questions have been suggested by Round Britain Quiz listeners, and there are always unpredictable music and sound clues for the panel to identify and connect.
Tom will also be providing the answer to last week's teaser question which was unanswered at the end of the previous edition.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000tckd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Shock Waves (m000tcpt)
Playwright and Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah
When a shockwave hits the world, how do artists respond? Public performance has all but halted, silence and solitude reign in our performance spaces and places. In this five part series, artists chronicle how they have responded to the crisis over the past year and the challenge of performance. Dare they dream and imagine what work might emerge out of the pandemic?
In the fourth episode of the series, Kwame Kwei-Armah, playwright and artistic director of the Young Vic in London, looks at how theatre makers have been responding to the past year.
Canadian playwright Jordan Tannahill was in pre-production in Germany with his play on the climate crisis, 'Is my microphone on?', when the lockdown began, and has had to pivot towards other kinds of writing since March 2020. Already at the cutting edge of technology and theatre before the pandemic with his Virtual Reality piece 'Draw me Close', Jordan reflects on how VR and other innovations that have come to the fore over the past year might continue to have a role when theatres open again. In looking at the kind of work that might come out of the hearts, minds and souls of theatre makers in future, and how technology will feed into that, Kwame also talks to actor and writer Daniel Bailey of London-based arts collective The Palace of the Dogs. Daniel reveals the impact of the summer of racial reckoning on his work, and how he's had the chance to reflect on the changes that he thinks theatre needs to undergo when it returns, to reflect a changed world.
And with Kirsty Sedgman, Lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol, Kwame considers how the move to communicating online with audiences has opened up new possibilities, and what it means for theatre-going in future.
Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Wales
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000tcpy)
Series 22
Dreams
Dreams have fascinated people since the dawn of humanity, seen as prophetic, used by the ancient Greeks to diagnose illness before physical symptoms appeared, and inspiring some of the world’s greatest inventions and works of art.
But dreams have a darker side. Often we meet our internalised anxieties in our sleeping subconscious. During the Pandemic there was a surge of people reporting having more dreams, especially vivid, nightmarish visions - facing down swarms of insects, swept away by title waves, or being overwhelmed and oppressed by unstoppable forces. At the same time, there was a spike in online searches for ways to induce lucid dreaming, and how to take control of dreams.
Aleks Krotoski explores why we have this urge to take control of our dreams, how technology can influence us in our sleep, and finds out if it’s wise to really try to take control, when we’re still figuring out the purpose and mechanics of dreams and don’t yet know the consequences of tinkering with them.
MON 17:00 PM (m000tcq2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tcqb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000tcqg)
Series 86
Episode 5
Gyles Brandreth hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where he challenges guests Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Tony Hawks and Pippa Evans to talk on the subjects of his choice for 60 seconds. Hesitation, deviation, and repetition are strictly forbidden. This episode was recorded in the Radio Theatre in December 2020, with a remote audience listening in from their homes all over the world. Caroline Barlow blows the whistle.
Devised by Ian Messiter
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000tcql)
Jim fears for the future of the Parish council while Susan has a mountain to climb.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000tcqq)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000mbqk)
Episode 6
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Six
Heawood receives a warning. So who can he trust?
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher……………….………JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood………………….BARNABY KAY
Albert Wilmarth………………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley……………….……..….DAVID CALDER
Ben…………………...........…….…….BEN CROWE
Tania…………………..……...............GABRIELLE GLAISTER
Slide……………………....................FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Mystery woman…………........…...NICOLA STEPHENSON
Child's voice…………………..........EDIE SIMPSON
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
MON 20:00 Out of the Ordinary (m000tcqv)
Series 8
Holy relics
Ever since the middle ages, pieces of the True Cross, and other relics such as saints' bones, have been sold to the gullible. But now the trade in bogus relics has moved online, to the fury of traditional Catholics. They are even more alarmed at the sale of "genuine" relics, which is also picking up pace as monasteries and convents close and their treasures come on the market. In theory selling a relic is an offence under Church law, warranting immediate excommunication. But what is a genuine relic, and how its provenance proved? Jolyon Jenkins goes on a deep dive into a world where faith, science and archaeology collide.
Producer/Presenter: Jolyon Jenkins, BBC Audio in Bristol
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000tcqy)
Science in the Time of Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen the best of science and the worst of science. New vaccines have been produced in less than twelve months. But at the same time we’ve seen evidence exaggerated and undermined, falsified, and flawed. Scientists arguing in public over areas of policy that have reached into all of our lives in an unprecedented way. There has never been so much “science”. But the pandemic has seen science politicised and polarised in ways some of us could never imagine.
In this episode of Analysis, Sonia Sodha explores what the pandemic has revealed about the practice of science, and our relationship with it.
Producer: Gemma Newby
Editor: Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 The Real Internet Giants (m000t4sx)
China
Kathryn Parsons is on a mission to demystify the digital world. She has taught data, coding and cyber skills to half a million people across the globe. In this series Kathryn turns her attention to Russia and China, exploring the innovations, systems and structures which define these two forces in global technology.
In this first episode, Kathryn explores the factors that have made China a leading global player in tech and examines its ambitions to overtake the United States in digital supremacy. With the help of industry insiders, leading innovators and tech experts, Kathryn uncovers the leading tech trends, profiles the key figures and analyses the points where China's politics and technology interact, as the nation faces increasing international scrutiny.
Contributors: Lillian Li - writer of SubStack Newsletter Chinese Characteristics, China Analyst Christina Boutrup, Dr Samantha Hoffman of the Australian Strategic Policy Institue, Adrian Simpson - co founder of Wavelength and Dr Wanli Min of North Summit Capital.
Produced by Sam Peach
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000tcnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tcr1)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 White Fang by Jack London (m000tcp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
MON 23:00 Loose Ends (m000tcr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000tcr5)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 23 MARCH 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000tcr7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tcr9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tcrc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tcrf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tcrh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000tcrk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tcrm)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000tcrp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01slvgp)
Spotted Crake
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Spotted Crake. If it weren't for its whiplash song, the spotted crake could win a prize as our least visible bird. Unlike its showy relatives the coot and the moorhen, this polka-dotted skulker is notoriously hard to find and only rarely betrays itself by singing.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000td0c)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Lessons On A Crisis (m000td0h)
Leadership
Evan Davis presents a new discussion series exploring key lessons to learn from the coronavirus pandemic, a year after the eruption of the crisis in the UK.
In the second episode, Evan and his panel of expert guests discuss lessons on leadership which emerge from the handling of the pandemic in the UK and beyond. What qualities are required of leaders in the effective handling of a pandemic? How should they plan, organise, deliver and communicate?
We compare stories from different countries and explore the record of leaders across the UK, as well as the role of leaders in other parts of government and society.
Producer: Leala Padmanabhan
TUE 09:45 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000td2b)
Episode 2
Craig Brown presents a series of kaleidoscopic glimpses of The Beatles through time. Drawing on interviews, diaries, anecdotes, memoirs and gossip, he offers an entertaining series of vignettes that capture the mood of an era.
It’s a journey that takes us from 9th November 1961 when Brian Epstein first heard the four young men in a sweaty basement, via their mop top haircuts, to the jaw-dropping prices paid for the most trivial of memorabilia. And along the way there is the music, always the exuberant, the playful and ever-changing music.
Today - Jane Asher was already a celebrated young actress when she met The Beatles, but she had more to offer than the inside track on fame.
Written by Craig Brown
Read by Mark McGann
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000td0m)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 10:45 Meet Me at the Museum (m000td0p)
Episode 2
In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?
She doesn’t expect a reply.
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.
Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.
Episode Two
Tina opens up about her family life and presses Anders about his wife, Birgitt.
Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter
Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf
Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:00 The Real Internet Giants (m000td0r)
Russia
Kathryn Parsons is a tech founder and CEO on a mission to demystify the digital world. She leads team that has taught code, data and cyber skills to over half a million people worldwide. Now, she is turning her attention to leading tech scenes across the world.
In this second instalment of the series, Kathryn looks at Russia. This episode will uncover who the movers and shakers of Russia’s internet landscape really are, find out where the country is leading on cyber innovation and consider the country's future aspirations in the global tech race.
Contributors include Tatyana Bakalchuk, founder of Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries and Oleg Tumanov, CEO of Ivi video streaming platform - Russia's answer to Netflix.
Kathryn also speaks to Polina Kolozaridi of the Higher School of Economics, technology investment expert Stefano Zuppet (TMT Global), Adrien Henni - Editor of EastWest Digital News and Elena Ivashentseva of Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund.
Produced by Sam Peach
TUE 11:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m000td0t)
Laura Barton's Happy Sad
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
In this second episode, Laura asks why so many of us love listening to sad music. What makes music sound sad? And how does it make us happier?
She talks with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, bow in hand, about his instrument’s plaintive tone, consults psychologist William Forde Thompson and music critic of The New Yorker, Alex Ross, and she analyses the descending ostinato bass line that underpins Dido’s Lament, one of the most piercingly mournful pieces of the baroque era, and asks Ane Brun why she reconfigured it as an ascending riff in Laid to Earth.
Music:
Gorecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Antony and the Johnsons - Another World
Ane Brun - Another World
Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa
Dowland - Lachrimae Pavan
Muzsikas - Paszdondak
Mariza - Gente da Minha Terra
Smog - Left Only With Love
Bob Marley - Chances Are
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Bach - Chaconne in D minor (2nd Partita)
Purcell - Dido's Lament (Laid in Earth)
Ane Brun - Laid in Earth
Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate
Ane Brun - Last Breath
Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason, credit: Jake Turney)
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000td0w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000td0y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 12:06 White Fang by Jack London (m000td10)
Episode 2
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.
The story details White Fang's journeys through Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-knownwork, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Written by Jack London
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:20 You and Yours (m000td12)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000td14)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000td16)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Outsiders (m000td18)
Speckled Wood by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed. In episode two, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, maps the short walks she made through the bog near her home in a remote part of central Ireland. The landscape there sustained her through months of isolation but one day was nearly the end of her.
Kerri ní Dochartaigh is from the North West of Ireland but now lives in the middle, in an old railway cottage with her partner and dog. She has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, Winter Papers, Caught By The River and others. She is the author of Thin Places.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000tcql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000td1b)
Devoted
Devoted by Ray Connolly
In 2020 writer Ray Connolly spent six months in hospital with Covid. As the virus attacked his body, he was, for much of the time, in a coma. Unaware of how doctors and nurses were saving his life, his mind was filled with fantasies. Only when he recovered did he discover that his wife, Plum, had sent daily bulletins on his condition to their children, some of which had made harrowing reading. Devoted is the story of how Plum would fear the ringing of the phone from the hospital, but also of how music was used to break into Ray’s coma and help nurse him back to health.
Ray.............................Philip Jackson
Plum..........................Alison Steadman
Louise.......................Natalie Grady
Dominic...................Matthew Gravelle
Kieron......................Joseph Millson
Nurse Hannah........Marilyn Nnadebe
Newsreader............Leah Marks
Director/Producer Gary Brown
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000td1d)
The Blue of Distance
Short documentaries and adventures in sound about the colour blue, presented by Josie Long. From a view of the earth from space to an affinity with the ocean.
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000tcd4)
Lockdown Planet
How has one year of lockdown changed our environment in the UK and around the world? Tom Heap is joined by air quality expert, Ally Lewis, psychologist Lorraine Whitmarsh and the BBC's South Korea correspondent, Laura Bicker to find out how we- and the natural world- have been changed by the pandemic.
Producer: Maggie Latham
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000td1g)
Legal aid at inquests
Should there be legal aid for bereaved families whose relative died in the care of the state, such as in prison, a police cell or in a mental health in-patient setting? These deaths trigger "Article 2 inquests", referring to the right to life, protected under the European Convention on Human Rights. The coroner will want to find out what went wrong, so it doesn't happen again. The state has legal representation to defend itself, but the families often can't afford the specialist lawyers that, campaigners argue, are required for a level playing field in what can be an adversarial process. As a result, they say, problematic issues that can lead to deaths remain hidden.
Family breakdown can mean former partners end up in court to try and resolve disputes. This can be time-consuming, with long delays, and be very costly. Could family arbitration be the solution? We eavesdrop on a mock arbitration to find out how it works, and ask for whom they may be suitable. And how much cheaper are they really?
Which UK elections can EU citizens vote in, and in what parts of the country? The answer is surprisingly complex for the votes in May - and will become more so in future elections.
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000td1j)
Adjoa Andoh & Andy Day
Actor Adjoa Andoh, Bridgerton's Lady Danbury, and the CBeebies presenter Andy Day share the books that inspire them.
Adjoa is full of admiration for the remarkable women in Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna and Andy is fascinated by the transformation that occurs in Dibs in Search of Self: Personality Development in Play Therapy by Virginia M. Axline. Meanwhile, presenter Harriett Gilbert heartily recommends Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me by poet Kate Clanchy.
Producer: Sarah Goodman
Join our Instagram book club: @agoodreadbbc
TUE 17:00 PM (m000td1l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000td1q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Reluctant Persuaders (m000td1s)
Series 4
Episode 4: Ask The Man Who Owns One
Hardacre’s advertising agency is shaken when one of their latest ads is ridiculed by industry bible Campaign. Copywriter Joe Starling (Mathew Baynton) takes the news especially hard, spiralling into depression.
Amanda (Josie Lawrence) and Hardacre (Nigel Havers) compete to pull Joe out of his funk, and prove to the other that they are the more gifted mentor. Meanwhile Teddy (Rasmus Hardiker) has worries of his own, as he attempts to care for a new pet.
Cast:
Nigel Havers – Hardacre
Mathew Baynton – Joe
Josie Lawrence – Amanda
Rasmus Hardiker – Teddy
Written by Edward Rowett
Directed by Alan Nixon
Script edited by Mark Evans
Edited and Engineered by Jerry Peal
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Based on an original idea by Edward Rowett and Robert Frimstone
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios, London
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000tcc8)
There’s surprising news for the Carters and the storm clouds gather for Rex.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000td1v)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000mlbr)
Episode 7
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Seven
Heawood sets up a new investigation after receiving disturbing information from an army contact.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.................JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood...........BARNABY KAY
Army friend………………..….STEPHEN MACKINTOSH
Walter Brown………………….KARL JOHNSON
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
TUE 20:00 The Nazi Next Door (m000td1x)
In a dusty attic in the Yorkshire hills sits the life’s work of John Kingston, a man who spent decades investigating whether his own stepfather, Stanislaw Chrzanowski, was, in fact, a Nazi war criminal.
Whilst most knew ‘Mr Stan’ as a friendly pensioner, growing fruit for his neighbours and zipping around his village in the Midlands on his mobility scooter, John was convinced he was hiding a dark secret. Unable to shake the terrifying bedtime stories his stepdad told him as a child, John spent his adult life trying to expose the truth.
When John died in 2018, the year after his stepfather, the files, photographs, and hours of secret recordings he made were left boxed up in his attic, until now, when they were discovered by BBC journalist Nick Southall.
Nick has been investigating the extraordinary story of Stanislaw Chrzanowski for over 5 years, trying to establish if this man, who settled here to help Britain rebuild after the war, had also helped the Nazis kill tens of thousands of Jews in his homeland of Belarus.
Told using the archive of secret recordings found in John’s attic, and hearing from eyewitnesses who knew Stan Chrzanowski as ‘a butcher’, this often chilling story takes us from Birmingham, to Berlin to the Killing Fields of Belarus. In it, Nick seeks to answer two questions - was ‘Mr Stan’ the monster his stepson believed he was? And, if so, what was the real reason he never saw justice for his crimes?
Reporter: Nick Southall
Producer: Mick Tucker
Editor: Carl Johnston
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000td1z)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000tccg)
A weekly quest to demystify health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.
TUE 21:30 Lessons On A Crisis (m000td0h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000td22)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 White Fang by Jack London (m000td10)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000td24)
183.Rock Peddlers and Radio Snooker, with Vick Hope
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane chat to Radio 1's Life Hacks presenter Vick Hope. Vick tells Fi and Jane about her role as a judge for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction, shortlist announced 28 April. She also talks Spanish evening classes, her neighbours' curtain habits and giving anatomy lessons to Scott Mills. Following on from Vick, Jane and Fi swap Mothering Sunday experiences and reflect on the Bloodlands finale.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000td26)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 24 MARCH 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000td28)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000td2b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000td2d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000td2g)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000td2j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000td2l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000td2n)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000td2q)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09wrkrr)
Mark Cocker on the Meadow Pipit
Nature writer Mark Cocker is in Derbyshire where he revels in the windblown melancholy of the meadow pipit's song, on these wild moorland landscapes he knew as a child.
Producer Tim Dee
Photograph: Jenny Brewster.
WED 06:00 Today (m000tcb7)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000tcb9)
Future Proofing Our Schools
In this episode, Sangita Myska asks whether a school dubbed the 'school with no rules' is what our children need to be ready for the 21st century?
The 'Agora' school in the Netherlands has torn up the rule book to help its kids face the challenges of the future. Rob Houben, is the manager of the school and the closest thing it has to a headmaster. Sangita speaks to him about running a school with no classrooms, no teachers and no formal class time, and takes his idea to a panel of experts to see whether it could work here in the UK.
Contributors:
Rob Houben, Manager at Agora School in Roermond, Netherlands
Peter Hyman, co-Director of Big Education , a new organisation with a mission to change the way we do education in this country
Sugata Mitra, Professor Emeritus at NIIT University, in Rajasthan, India and a serial innovator in education.
Iesha Small has 15 years’ experience in the education sector. She's currently Head of Change for Education at the Youth Endowment Fund.
Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
WED 09:30 Chinese Characters (b09ycztp)
Wu Zetian: The Female Emperor
Rana Mitter tells the story of Wu Zetian, the only woman ever to rule as China's emperor in her own right, in two thousand years of dynastic history. Even more remarkably,, she did it during one of the finest moments of China's cultural history - the medieval Tang dynasty. Wu Zetian grew up as a humble lady of the court, but threw off her humility to plan her way to the top with strategic precision, leaving a trail of elite corpses along the way. Once on the throne, she secured China's borders and promoted Buddhism as a powerful new religious force. Later history has condemned her as a dreadful anomaly , as women were never supposed to rule in traditional China. But she's had the last laugh - now regarded as a feminist icon in China with a 74-part TV soap opera dedicated to her rise and rule.
Chinese Characters is a series of 20 essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.
WED 09:45 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tcbc)
Episode 3
Craig Brown presents a series of kaleidoscopic glimpses of The Beatles through time. Drawing on interviews, diaries, anecdotes, memoirs and gossip, he offers an entertaining series of vignettes that capture the mood of an era.
It’s a journey that takes us from 9th November 1961 when Brian Epstein first heard the four young men in a sweaty basement, via their mop top haircuts, to the jaw-dropping prices paid for the most trivial of memorabilia. And along the way there is the music, always the exuberant, the playful and ever-changing music.
Today - the American moral majority disdained The Beatles music, but a reception at the British embassy proved to be startlingly enthusiastic.
Written by Craig Brown
Read by Mark McGann
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tcbg)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 10:45 Meet Me at the Museum (m000tcbj)
Episode 3
In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?
She doesn’t expect a reply.
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.
Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.
Episode Three
Anders' daughter Karin is pregnant. Will she tell the father?
Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter
Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf
Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
WED 11:00 The Jump (m000tcbm)
The Jump: HIV
Chris van Tulleken on the human behaviours that are causing pandemics, paying the price for getting too close to animals by degrading their territory and allowing viruses to jump. Professor Greg Towers explains that HIV has jumped more than once and it's not fully understood why one virus caused a pandemic while others did not. Chris hears new evidence that traces the origins of AIDS to a starving Congolese first world war soldier forced to kill primates in Cameroon for food in order to survive. Previously ‘patient zero’ had been thought to be an indigenous ‘cut hunter’ infected when butchering a chimpanzee. But Jacques Pepin, author of The Origins of Aids, describes how indigenous peoples rarely hunted chimps as it was too dangerous with basic tools such as nets or bow and arrows. When Allied forces invaded Cameroon, then a German colony, 17 local hunters suddenly turned into 1700 forcibly recruited World War 1 soldiers. Armed with rifles, chimps were easy prey. Once again this is a story of change in practice upsetting the ecosystem and humans invading – quite literally in this case – terrain where they have no business to be. Plus Dr Peter Daszak, Dr William Karesh of EcoHealth Alliance and Dr Kanitha Krishnasamy of Traffic explain the links between climate change, deforestation and viruses like HIV jumping. And Chris speaks to Professor Beatrice Hahn, virologist and virus hunter, who identified where HIV jumped by analysing thousands of faecal samples from wild chimps.
Produced by Erika Wright
WED 11:30 Alexei Sayle's The Absence of Normal (m000tcbp)
Series 2
The Nameless Park
Alexei Sayle’s The Absence of Normal, is a series of dark comic plays narrated by Alexei Sayle and adapted for radio from his original short stories.
In Liverpool there’s a nameless park near St Michael’s Hamlet. It’s a beautiful if jagged place, filled with strangely exotic plants. Jason’s sister has a strong affinity with the park and takes her wheelchair user brother for regular trips around its paths. But when Jason falls critically ill, the true nature of their parents emerges.
Starring Louis Emerick, George Fouracres, Shaun Mason, Alice McMillan, Claire Sweeney.
Original music and lyrics by Tim Sutton.
Written and narrated by Alexei Sayle. Adapted for Radio by Graham Duff.
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000tcbr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000tcbt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 12:06 White Fang by Jack London (m000tcbw)
Episode 3
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.
The story details White Fang's journeys through Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-knownwork, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Written by Jack London
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:20 You and Yours (m000tcbz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000tcc1)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000tcc3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Outsiders (m000tcc5)
By The Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed.
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer living in South East London. His writing has been published in Litro, Granta and The White Review. He was named by ‘The Observer’ as one of the 10 best debut novelists of the year, for his book Open Water. He was also shortlisted for the 2020 BBC National Short Story Prize.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000tcc8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000tccb)
Endless Second
by Theo Toksvig-Stewart.
Unflinching drama about consent. Two students fall in love, but one drunken evening changes everything.
Starring Sam Otto (The State, Snowpiercer) and Louisa Harland (Derry Girls).
M ..... Sam Otto
W ..... Louisa Harland
Technical Producer ..... Martha Littlehailes
Technical Producer ..... Alison Craig
Technical Producer ..... Anne Bunting
Technical Producer ..... Mike Etherden
Production Co-ordinator ..... Gaelan Connolly
Writer ..... Theo Toksvig-Steward
Director ..... Abigail le Fleming
THE PLAY
Endless Second was originally produced by Cut the Cord Theatre and directed by Camilla Gütler, starring Madeleine Gray alongside Theo Toksvig-Stewart. It opened at Theatre503 before transferring to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019 where it was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatre Award and the Sit Up Award. The play then transferred to the Park Theatre and Pleasance Islington as part of their 'Best of the Fringe' seasons.
THE WRITER
Theo is a dyslexic writer and actor based in London. He was part of the BBC Writersroom Drama Room 2019/2020 and the Minack Emerging Playwrights Programme 2021. He was most recently commissioned by Applause as a South East Writer in residence. In 2020, he was commissioned by Warts and All Theatre to write an adaptation of Robyn Hood, developed with children in care in Wellingborough. His first play, An Opera from the East, was produced at Drama Centre London.
The proud son of lesbian parents, Theo is developing a number of television projects including a show based on his 'unconventional' uprbinging.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000tccd)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000tccg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000tccj)
Top of the Pops
You might not have heard of Max Martin, but you've definitely heard the songs he's written. You probably know the words whether you like the songs or not. Martin has written many of the world's biggest pop hits. He has 23 number ones, second only to Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Matthew Syed explores the extraordinary career of the enigmatic pop powerhouse who's one of Sweden's most significant musical exports. Matthew contrasts Martin's songwriting process with the practice of scientific research which has become overwhelmingly collaborative in recent years.
Matthew discovers that Martin's unique approach to collaboration, drawing upon the experience and skill of a vast and diverse range of musicians, has enabled him to stay ahead of the pack when it comes to crafting world-beating pop songs.
Producer: Russell Finch
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Benbrick
Series Editor: Russell Finch
Executive Producers: Sean Glynn and Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000tccl)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world
WED 17:00 PM (m000tccn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tccq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Future Empire-fect (m000tccs)
Episode 1
In their previous BBC Radio 4 series, Empire-ical Evidence, comedians Andy Zaltzman and Anuvab Pal travelled to each other’s home cities and walked around, taking in the sights and sounds and taste and feel of the bustling metropoli of London and Kolkata, before performing stand-up in crowded rooms full of people laughing loudly and maybe even sharing snacks.
In Future Empire-fect, their new series recorded in March 2021, they won’t be doing that.
What they will be doing is looking at the future of the relationship between Britain and India in fields such as politics, medicine, cricket, culture, cricket, trade, hospitality and cricket. In this first episode, they take in the pharmaceutical industry, business, trade and politics, and how the two nations plan to work together - or not.
Praise for Empire-ical Evidence:
"Surprisingly successful as both entertainment and education." The Telegraph
"I was intrigued by Andy Zaltzman and Anuvab Pal's ambition and then surprised to find myself chuckling at their chutzpah." The Spectator
Writer/Perfomer: Andy Zaltzman
Writer/Perfomer: Anuvab Pal
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000tccw)
Susan hatches a plan and Kate is determined to help.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000tccy)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000mrc9)
Episode 8
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Eight
Does Henry Akeley hold all the answers?
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher………….………………JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood………………...…..BARNABY KAY
Albert Wilmarth…………………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley……………………………..DAVID CALDER
Parker..........................................PHOEBE FOX
Mystery woman……………..............NICOLA STEPHENSON
Male voice……................……………FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000tcd0)
Combative, provocative and engaging live debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Andrew Doyle, Anne McElvoy, Melanie Phillips and Mona Siddiqui. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m000tcd2)
No Greater Love
Lent Talks is a personal reflection inspired by an aspect of the story leading up to Easter. This year’s theme is ‘hope as an active virtue’. Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, a gendarme, was killed three years ago by an ISIS gunman in a French supermarket after taking the place of a hostage. On the third anniversary of his death, The Reverend Dr Lucy Winkett tells his story with reflections from his widow Marielle Beltrame.
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000tcd4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000tccl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tcd6)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 White Fang by Jack London (m000tcbw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
WED 23:00 Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum (m000tcd8)
Fit to Work
Working Class comedian Tom Mayhew takes you on an autobiographical journey through the benefits system in a stand-up series that takes a wry, sideways look at the prejudices that people have towards benefits claimants and turns those assumptions on their head. Tom Mayhew is a critically acclaimed comedian, whose material about being working-class – mixing the personal and the political, with the punchline-rate of a one-liner comic – sets him apart from any other act on the circuit. Tom Mayhew is Benefit Scum is an audio adaptation of Mayhew's acclaimed Edinburgh show I, Tom Mayhew which transferred to a sell out run at the Soho Theatre.
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000tcdb)
Series 3
Episode 11
Jon Holmes's award winning satirical river of sound returns to twist itself into the news.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000tcdd)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000tcdg)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tcbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tcdj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tcdl)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tcdn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000tcdq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tcds)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000tcdv)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02twhqd)
Coal Tit
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Steve Backshall presents the coal tit.
Coal tits often visit our bird-tables but don't hang around. They dart off with food to hide it in crevices and crannies. What the bird is doing is hiding or cache-ing food to be eaten later. Coal tits are smaller than their relatives and have lower fat reserves, so they store food to compensate for any future shortages. In the winter they store seeds and in summer they will hide small insects.
THU 06:00 Today (m000tfjf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000tfjk)
David Ricardo
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential economists from the age of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. Ricardo (1772 -1823) reputedly made his fortune at the Battle of Waterloo, and he made his lasting impact with his ideas on free trade. At a time when nations preferred to be self-sufficient, to produce all their own food and manufacture their own goods, and to find markets for export rather than import, Ricardo argued for free trade even with rivals for the benefit of all. He contended that existing economic policy unduly favoured landlords above all others and needed to change, and that nations would be less likely to go to war with their trading partners if they were more reliant on each other. For the last two hundred years, Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage in support of free trade has been developed and reinterpreted by generations of economists across the political spectrum.
With
Matthew Watson
Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick
Helen Paul
Lecturer in Economics and Economic History at the University of Southampton
And
Richard Whatmore
Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tfld)
Episode 4
Craig Brown presents a series of kaleidoscopic glimpses of The Beatles through time. Drawing on interviews, diaries, anecdotes, memoirs and gossip, he offers an entertaining series of vignettes that capture the mood of an era.
It’s a journey that takes us from 9th November 1961 when Brian Epstein first heard the four young men in a sweaty basement, via their mop top haircuts, to the jaw-dropping prices paid for the most trivial of memorabilia. And along the way there is the music, always the exuberant, the playful and ever-changing music.
Today’s episode looks at the playfulness of their lyrics, often riddled with half hidden meanings. We also take a look at how disguise offered Paul a chance to hide in plain sight and his realisation that adopting a persona could lead to a certain kind of freedom.
Written by Craig Brown
Read by Mark McGann
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tfjp)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 10:45 Meet Me at the Museum (m000tfjr)
Episode 4
In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?
She doesn’t expect a reply.
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.
Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.
Episode Four
There is a rumpus at the farm. Anders' relationship with his children deepens.
Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter
Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf
Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000tfjt)
Insight, and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world
THU 11:30 Future Art (m000tfjw)
Art Market
In this final episode, art historian James Fox asks how technology is transforming the art market, through online art fairs, virtual reality exhibitions, blockchain verification and the sale of new kinds of art.
The performance artist Marina Abramovic has long believed that the future of art is an ‘art without objects’. As the digital revolution gathers pace, Abramovic is one artist turning to new technologies to realise her vision.
In conversation with contributors from Christie’s, Hiscox and Hauser and Wirth, James asks whether there is a market for these new kinds of artwork.
Katharine Arnold describes Abramovic’s mixed-reality work The Life, which sees the artist materialise as a hologram, and James hears the inside story of the estimate-smashing sale of AI-generated artwork the Portrait of Edmond Belamy, an 18th century aristocrat who never existed.
And, beyond the online auction rooms, James asks how tech companies are taking on the role of patrons, as the boundaries between art and commerce blur.
Producer : Julia Johnson
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
Image: The Life – Mixed Reality installation with artist's box, by Marina Abramović © Christie’s Images Ltd 2021
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000tfjy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000tfk0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 12:06 White Fang by Jack London (m000tfk2)
Episode 4
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.
The story details White Fang's journeys through Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-knownwork, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Written by Jack London
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:20 You and Yours (m000tfk4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000tfk6)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000tfk8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Outsiders (m000tfkb)
Life, Still by Amanda Thomson
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed.
In episode four, the artist and writer Amanda Thomson records the natural year unfolding around her Highlands home, which forms a jarring disconnect with the news cycle drifting in from the world beyond. Parts of this piece had their origin in another essay, 'Still, Life', which was commissioned by the Willowherb Review for the Aerial Festival.
Amanda Thomson is a visual artist and writer who is also a lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art. Originally trained as a printmaker, her interdisciplinary work is often about notions of home, movements, migrations, landscapes and the natural world and how places come to be made. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her writing has appeared in The Willowherb Review, Gutter and the anthology Antlers of Water, Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland, edited by Kathleen Jamie. She lives and works in Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands, and Glasgow. Her first book, A Scots Dictionary of Nature, is published by Saraband Books; and a collaboration with Elizabeth Reeder, microbursts, a collection of lyric and intermedial essays, is published by Prototype Publishing in February 2021.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000tccw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000tfkd)
The Performer - Part 1
Stephen Fry stars in a two-part monologue written by William Humble.
Like many adolescents, Matthew lives in a fantasy land. But where other 13 year-old boys hero-worship John Lennon or Mick Jagger, Matthew’s top of the pops is Sir Laurence Olivier. He’s theatre-mad.
So he’s always been intrigued by the story Dad often tells over Sunday lunch about the day he was stuck in London after work because of a train strike, and ended up going to the theatre to see the great Sir Laurence Olivier in Terence Rattigan’s play The Sleeping Prince.
What makes the story even more intriguing is that Dad never goes to the theatre. In fact, as Matthew and his adoring Mum agree, he never goes anywhere much at all, except for up to the City to do his boring job.
As Dad fails to return, Matthew starts to wonder if, unlikely though it sounds, his disappearance might have something to do with the night he saw Laurence Olivier in Terence Rattigan’s play.
And he tries to find out more.
When he finally meets his Dad again, he discovers things that at first shock him, then transform his relationship with his Mum, and not for the better.
It’s a play about family, father-son relationships and theatre itself, especially English theatre from the 1950s on. Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Terence Rattigan feature heavily, and a number of other theatre figures are evoked too, from Max Miller to Noel Coward to Dora Bryan.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000tfkg)
Stained Glass in Minsmere with Arabella Marshall
Glass artist, Arabella Marshall, takes Clare for a walk at Minsmere in Suffolk. Their focus is an old chapel ‘bleak and broken’ which provided Arabella with the inspiration for a major work of art: a new stained-glass window fitted into one of the ruin’s old apertures. It’s a striking modern feature in the abandoned building. The idea came to her when out walking which, alongside her artistic practice, is the thing she loves best in life. She says rambling alone provides creative inspiration and a space for problem solving.
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000tcjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000tckq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000tfkj)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000tfkl)
Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world
THU 17:00 PM (m000tfkn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tfks)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (m000tfkv)
Series 8
Instalment 2
What with the whole world grinding to a viral halt and everything, this special series of essays and diary entries is recorded at the Sussex home of the world-renowned storyteller.
In 2021, it's 25 years since David Sedaris first shared his very particular world view with the listeners to BBC Radio 4, having brought us The SantaLand Diaries back in 1996. In this eighth series of Meet David Sedaris, he continues to entertain with sardonic wit and incisive social critiques.
David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers and, in 2019, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he's a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.
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. His latest international best-selling book is a collection of stories entitled Calypso. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000tfkx)
Writers, Adrian Flynn and Tim Stimpson
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer ... Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge ... Charles Collingwood
Phoebe Aldridge ... Lucy Morris
Lee Bryce ... Ryan Early
Neil Carter ... Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter .... Charlotte Martin
Chris Carter ... Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Clarrie Grundy .... Heather Bell
Emma Grundy ... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Shula Hebden-Lloyd ... Judy Bennett
Rex Fairbrother ... Nick Barber
Jim Lloyd ... John Rowe
Kate Madikane ... Perdita Avery
Doctor ... Youssef Kerkour
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000tfkz)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000my2n)
Episode 9
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode NIne
Kennedy thinks she has experienced a blackout, but an audio file which has mysteriously appeared on her recorder shows otherwise.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher………….………………JANA CARPENTER
Matthew Heawood………………...…..BARNABY KAY
Albert Wilmarth…………………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley……………………………..DAVID CALDER
Parker..........................................PHOEBE FOX
Mystery woman……………..............NICOLA STEPHENSON
Male voice……................……………FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000td1g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000tfl1)
Evan Davis chairs a round table discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000tfkl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000tfjk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tfl4)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 White Fang by Jack London (m000tfk2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
THU 23:00 The Price of Song (m000sqkp)
Amid the boom in music streaming, John Wilson investigates the value of the songs that provide the soundtracks to our lives.
COVID lockdowns have seen a huge surge in streaming, with 155 million premium subscribers to Spotify alone, a 25% increase on the previous year. Record companies have enjoyed huge profits. But with musicians unable to play live for over a year, the iniquities of the streaming royalties system have been exposed. The people who actually create the music have realised they are getting a raw deal. Meanwhile, seasoned songwriters are queuing up to sell the publishing rights to their lyrics and compositions for huge sums. Universal recently paid a reported $300m for Bob Dylan’s songwriting catalogue.
Merck Mercuriadis, founder of the FTSE 250 company Hipgnosis, explains why he's on a multi-million dollar spending spree, buying up the rights to classic works by the likes of Neil Young, Blondie and Fleetwood Mac. John also talks to Björn Ulvaeus, one half of the ABBA songwriting team, who was recently appointed President of CISAC, the global confederation of authors’ societies and to Sir Paul McCartney, who believes younger songwriters deserve a better deal from streaming royalties. And Fiona Bevan, who co-wrote a global number one hit for One Direction, reveals how a recent song she wrote for Kylie Minogue, that has had over a million streams so far, will reap her just £100 in royalties.
The music industry has changed beyond recognition in recent years, and songs are more readily available to us that ever before. But are we giving back enough to say a proper ’thank you for the music’?
Interviewees:
Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis Songs Fund
Björn Ulvaeus, songwriter
Paul McCartney, songwriter
Fiona Bevan, songwriter
Nadine Shah, songwriter
Tom Gray, songwriter, founder of Broken Record campaign
Laura Barton, music journalist
Tim Collins, CEO of Creed Media
Mike Smith, Downtown Music Publishing
Anya Ryan
Presented and produced by John Wilson for BBC Wales
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000tfl8)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 26 MARCH 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000tflb)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tfld)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000tflg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000tflj)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000tfll)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000tfln)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000tflq)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with the Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000tfls)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk8r)
Thrush Nightingale
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Brett Westwood presents the thrush nightingale. Even though there's no sign of the whistling crescendos that are a hallmark of its close relative, the Nightingale, the song of the thrush nightingale is an accomplished performance. They are summer visitors to Europe and prefer dense damp thickets from which they often sing.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000tg56)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000tck8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown (m000tg70)
Episode 5
Craig Brown presents a series of kaleidoscopic glimpses of The Beatles through time. Drawing on interviews, diaries, anecdotes, memoirs and gossip, he offers an entertaining series of vignettes that capture the mood of an era.
It’s a journey that takes us from 9th November 1961 when Brian Epstein first heard the four young men in a sweaty basement, via their mop top haircuts, to the jaw-dropping prices paid for the most trivial of memorabilia. And along the way there is the music, always the exuberant, the playful and ever-changing music.
In the final episode - it’s hard to pinpoint whose idea it was but the characteristic moptop became a Beatles trademark, spawning thousands of imitation wigs. Their legacy lives on in unexpected ways.
Written by Craig Brown
Read by Mark McGann and Craig Brown
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
Extract from the HarperCollins audiobook read by Craig Brown used by kind permission of the publishers
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000tg5d)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 10:45 Meet Me at the Museum (m000tg5g)
Episode 5
In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?
She doesn’t expect a reply.
When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.
Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.
Episode Five
Anders is lonely after his children leave. But Tina is finding that communal living is lonely too.
Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter
Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf
Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:00 Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge (m000tg5j)
The Secret Knowledge
Documentary-maker Phil Tinline continues his series exploring how conspiracy theories and fictions work as stories, and what they claim to tell us about how power works.
In this final episode, Phil asks Whitney Phillips about 'deep memetic frames' - the ingrained narratives through which, she argues, we all see the world. How do these intersect with conspiracy theories, especially in times of political upheaval? And Dennis Kelly, creator of Channel 4's dystopic conspiracy drama Utopia, discusses the possibilities, and the pitfalls, of creating fictional conspiracies.
Series contributors include: Michael Butter, Bryan Cheyette, Paul Cobley, Karen Douglas, Sir Richard Evans, Beverly Gage, Pamela Hutchinson, Dennis Kelly, Rick Perlstein, Whitney Phillips, Vwani Roychowdhury, Tim Tangherlini
FRI 11:30 For the Love of Leo (m000tg5l)
Leo and the Bump in the Night
By Michael Chaplin.
Edinburgh widower Leo still talks to his beloved wife Tamsin when he’s alone; though pregnant daughter Laura and housekeeper Sadie fill the house and his life.
A day of momentous events and surprising revelations as both old and new friends come together in Leo’s home.
Leo Fabiani ..... Mark Bonnar
Tamsin ..... Beth Marshall
Laura ..... Samara Maclaren
Sadie ..... Tracy Wiles
Jeannie ..... Siobhan Redmond
Julie ..... Pearl Appleby
Mark Bonnar stars as Leo Fabiani, a renowned painter who lost his wife and seems, ever since, to have become a magnet to all kinds of attractive women. We meet four of them in this new series.
Directed by Catherine Bailey
Created by Michael Chaplin and Marilyn Imrie.
A Catherine Bailey Production
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000tg5n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:03 Shipping Forecast (m000tg5q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 12:06 White Fang by Jack London (m000tg5s)
Episode 5
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906.
The story details White Fang's journeys through Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-knownwork, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Written by Jack London
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Kerry Shale
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:20 You and Yours (m000tg5v)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000tg5x)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000tg5z)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Outsiders (m000tg61)
Troopers Hill by Michael Malay
Five writers on how a year of lockdowns has changed their relationship with the nature on their doorstep. This is nature writing for the ordinary, overlooked and not-so-great outdoors close to home.
What happens to nature writing when our access to the great outdoors becomes restricted? We asked writers to reflect on their personal experience of the past year and tell us about their small journeys into the outside world. Those patches of ground, water and sky close at hand which somehow seem more precious now that our access to the outdoors has become so strictly rationed. In episode five, writer Michael Malay takes us to the nature reserve in his East Bristol neighborhood.
Michael Malay is a lecturer in English literature and the environmental humanities at the University of Bristol. He has published articles on poetry, critical theory and animal studies, as well as creative non-fiction on eels, migration and climate change. He is currently working on a book called Late Light, which is about the lives of unloved or disregarded animals on the brink of extinction.
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol. Read by the author, with original music by Nina Perry.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000tfkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000tg63)
The Performer - Part 2
Stephen Fry stars in a two-part monologue written by William Humble.
Like many adolescents, Matthew lives in a fantasy land. But where other 13 year-old boys hero-worship John Lennon or Mick Jagger, Matthew’s top of the pops is Sir Laurence Olivier. He’s theatre-mad.
So he’s always been intrigued by the story Dad often tells over Sunday lunch about the day he was stuck in London after work because of a train strike, and ended up going to the theatre to see the great Sir Laurence Olivier in Terence Rattigan’s play The Sleeping Prince.
What makes the story even more intriguing is that Dad never goes to the theatre. In fact, as Matthew and his adoring Mum agree, he never goes anywhere much at all, except for up to the City to do his boring job.
As Dad fails to return, Matthew starts to wonder if, unlikely though it sounds, his disappearance might have something to do with the night he saw Laurence Olivier in Terence Rattigan’s play.
And he tries to find out more.
When he finally meets his Dad again, he discovers things that at first shock him, then transform his relationship with his Mum, and not for the better.
It’s a play about family, father-son relationships and theatre itself, especially English theatre from the 1950s on. Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Terence Rattigan feature heavily, and a number of other theatre figures are evoked too, from Max Miller to Noel Coward to Dora Bryan.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000tg65)
Edibles Edition
The team look through the archive for an edibles edition of the show.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 An American Fridge by Mick Herron (b07k0k4y)
A man is tempted by a luxury apartment complete with top-of-the-range kitchen. But there will be a heavy price to pay for entry to this glamorous new life.
Written by Mick Herron
Read by Alasdair Hankinson
Producer Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000tg67)
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 (m000tg69)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
FRI 17:00 PM (m000tg6c)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000tg6h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m000tg6k)
Series 58
Episode 5
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches in front of a remote audience - and all from their own home!
Joining them from a safe distance is Dane Baptiste and Janine Harouni with music supplied by Rachel Parris .
Voice Actors: Emily Lloyd-Saini and Luke Kempner
Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-Ordinator: Carina Andrews
Editor/Engineer: David Thomas
BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000tg6m)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Whisperer in Darkness (m000n4yg)
Episode 10
An unexpected phone call turns Matthew Heawood’s attention to a mystery in the gloom of Rendlesham Forest. Folklore, paranormal, otherworldly? Up for debate, but fertile ground for a new investigative podcast, that’s for sure. One question still lingers, will our host be re-joined by his roaming researcher, Kennedy Fisher?
The duo’s last venture patched together frantic updates from Baghdad, as they pursued suspected occultists in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Very little hope lingered of solving the mystery, and maybe even less that Kennedy would return home safe. But for now, a new investigation calls.
Following the success of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, (Silver, British Podcast Awards) Radio 4 commissions a return to this HP Lovecraft-inspired universe. Once again, the podcast embraces Lovecraft’s crypt of horror, braving the Sci-Fi stylings of The Whisperer in Darkness.
Episode Ten.
Heawood has 48 hours to find a connection between Henry Akeley and Charles Dexter Ward.
Cast:
Kennedy Fisher.....................JANA CARPENTER
Mystery woman……………….NICOLA STEPHENSON
Newsreader…………………..FERDINAND KINGSLEY
Albert Wilmarth………………MARK BAZELEY
Henry Akeley………………….DAVID CALDER
Producer: Karen Rose
Director/Writer: Julian Simpson
Sound Recordist and Designer: David Thomas
Production Coordinators: Sarah Tombling and Holly Slater
Music by Tim Elsenburg
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000tg6p)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000tg6r)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Intrigue (m000phyb)
Mayday (Omnibus 2)
When James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Turkey in 2019 he left behind a tangle of truths and lies. Mayday tells the extraordinary real story of the man who organised the White Helmets – rescuers who film themselves pulling survivors from bombed out buildings in rebel-held areas of Syria – and investigates claims that, far from being heroes, they are part of a very elaborate hoax. James Le Mesurier – his detractors say – was a British secret agent, pulling the strings. So when his body was found by worshippers on their way to morning prayers, there were a lot questions.
This programme contains a description of the aftermath of a chemical attack and other violent incidents that have taken place during the Syrian war.
Produced, written and presented by Chloe Hadjimatheou
Editor: Emma Rippon
Researcher: Tom Wright
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Mixed by Neil Churchill
Arabic translation and additional research: Vanessa Bowles, Abdul Kader Habak
Turkish Researcher: Nevin Sungur
Narrative Consultant: John Yorke
Original music: Nick Mundy and Bu Kolthoum
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000tg6t)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 White Fang by Jack London (m000tg5s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:06 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000td1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000tg6w)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
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 (m000td1j)
A Good Read
23:00 FRI (m000td1j)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (m000t77x)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (m000tg6r)
Alexei Sayle's The Absence of Normal
11:30 WED (m000tcbp)
An American Fridge by Mick Herron
15:45 FRI (b07k0k4y)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (m000t40w)
Analysis
20:30 MON (m000tcqy)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (m000tdyn)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (m000t77v)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (m000tg6p)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (m000tdz5)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (m000tfkl)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (m000tfkl)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (m000tclf)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (m000tclf)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (m000tck2)
Chinese Characters
09:30 WED (b09ycztp)
Conspiracies: The Secret Knowledge
11:00 FRI (m000tg5j)
Costing the Earth
15:30 TUE (m000tcd4)
Costing the Earth
21:00 WED (m000tcd4)
Desert Island Discs
11:00 SUN (m000tck8)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (m000tck8)
Drama
15:00 SAT (m000tdyq)
Drama
21:00 SAT (m000tdz7)
Drama
14:15 MON (m000tcph)
Drama
14:15 TUE (m000td1b)
Drama
14:15 WED (m000tccb)
Drama
14:15 THU (m000tfkd)
Drama
14:15 FRI (m000tg63)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (m000tdy0)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (m000tclt)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (m000tcrp)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (m000td2q)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (m000tcdv)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (m000tfls)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (m000t77j)
Feedback
16:30 FRI (m000tg69)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (m000t4w5)
For the Love of Leo
11:30 FRI (m000tg5l)
Fortunately... with Fi and Jane
23:00 TUE (m000td24)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (m000tdyd)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:00 THU (m000tfjt)
Front Row
19:15 MON (m000tcqq)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (m000td1v)
Front Row
19:15 WED (m000tccy)
Front Row
19:15 THU (m000tfkz)
Front Row
19:00 FRI (m000tg6m)
Future Art
11:30 THU (m000tfjw)
Future Empire-fect
18:30 WED (m000tccs)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (m000t77b)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (m000tg65)
Homeschool History
14:00 MON (m000tcpd)
How to Vaccinate the World
11:30 MON (m000tcnw)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (m000tfjk)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (m000tfjk)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (m000td1z)
Inside Health
21:00 TUE (m000tccg)
Inside Health
15:30 WED (m000tccg)
Intrigue
21:00 FRI (m000phyb)
Just a Minute
12:03 SUN (m000t40p)
Just a Minute
18:30 MON (m000tcqg)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (m000t77g)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (m000tg67)
Laura Barton's Notes on Music
11:30 TUE (m000td0t)
Law in Action
16:00 TUE (m000td1g)
Law in Action
20:00 THU (m000td1g)
Lent Talks
14:45 SAT (m000t49f)
Lent Talks
05:45 SUN (m000t49f)
Lent Talks
20:45 WED (m000tcd2)
Lessons On A Crisis
09:00 TUE (m000td0h)
Lessons On A Crisis
21:30 TUE (m000td0h)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (m000tcr3)
Loose Ends
23:00 MON (m000tcr3)
Making Demille
11:00 MON (m000tcnt)
Meet David Sedaris
18:30 THU (m000tfkv)
Meet Me at the Museum
10:45 MON (m000tcnr)
Meet Me at the Museum
10:45 TUE (m000td0p)
Meet Me at the Museum
10:45 WED (m000tcbj)
Meet Me at the Museum
10:45 THU (m000tfjr)
Meet Me at the Museum
10:45 FRI (m000tg5g)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (m000t783)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (m000tdzf)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (m000tclc)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (m000tcr7)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (m000td28)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (m000tcdg)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (m000tflb)
Mitchell on Meetings
10:30 SAT (m000tdy8)
Money Box
12:03 SAT (m000tcl7)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (m000tcl7)
Money Box
15:00 WED (m000tccd)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (m000t49c)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (m000tcd0)
Natural Histories
06:35 SUN (b07lfz5t)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (m000t78c)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (m000tdzp)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (m000tclp)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (m000tcrk)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (m000td2l)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (m000tcdq)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (m000tfln)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (m000tdyg)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (m000tckb)
News Summary
12:00 MON (m000tcny)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (m000td0w)
News Summary
12:00 WED (m000tcbr)
News Summary
12:00 THU (m000tfjy)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (m000tg5n)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (m000tdxy)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (m000tcjp)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (m000tcjy)
News
13:00 SAT (m000tdyl)
News
22:00 SAT (m000tdz9)
News
06:00 SUN (m000tcjj)
Ode to Bed
23:30 SAT (m000tdzc)
One Night in Paradise
19:45 SUN (m000tcl5)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
09:45 MON (m000tcr9)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
00:30 TUE (m000tcr9)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
09:45 TUE (m000td2b)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
00:30 WED (m000td2b)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
09:45 WED (m000tcbc)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
00:30 THU (m000tcbc)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
09:45 THU (m000tfld)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
00:30 FRI (m000tfld)
One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown
09:45 FRI (m000tg70)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (m000tckq)
Open Book
15:30 THU (m000tckq)
Out of the Ordinary
20:00 MON (m000tcqv)
Outsiders
13:45 MON (m000tcpb)
Outsiders
13:45 TUE (m000td18)
Outsiders
13:45 WED (m000tcc5)
Outsiders
13:45 THU (m000tfkb)
Outsiders
13:45 FRI (m000tg61)
PM
17:00 SAT (m000tdyv)
PM
17:00 MON (m000tcq2)
PM
17:00 TUE (m000td1l)
PM
17:00 WED (m000tccn)
PM
17:00 THU (m000tfkn)
PM
17:00 FRI (m000tg6c)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (m000tcl1)
Positive Thinking
09:00 WED (m000tcb9)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (m000t78f)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (m000tclr)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (m000tcrm)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (m000td2n)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (m000tcds)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (m000tflq)
Profile
05:45 SAT (m000t78h)
Profile
19:00 SAT (m000t78h)
Profile
17:40 SUN (m000t78h)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (m000tcjt)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:25 SUN (m000tcjt)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (m000tcjt)
Ramblings
06:07 SAT (m000t6lh)
Ramblings
15:00 THU (m000tfkg)
Reluctant Persuaders
18:30 TUE (m000td1s)
Round Britain Quiz
23:00 SAT (m000t407)
Round Britain Quiz
15:00 MON (m000tcpm)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (m000tdy6)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (m000t787)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (m000tdzk)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (m000tclk)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (m000tcrf)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (m000td2g)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (m000tcdl)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (m000tflj)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (m000t785)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (m000t789)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (m000tdyy)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (m000tdzh)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (m000tdzm)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (m000tckv)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (m000tclh)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (m000tclm)
Shipping Forecast
12:03 MON (m000tcp0)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (m000tcrc)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (m000tcrh)
Shipping Forecast
12:03 TUE (m000td0y)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (m000td2d)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (m000td2j)
Shipping Forecast
12:03 WED (m000tcbt)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (m000tcdj)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (m000tcdn)
Shipping Forecast
12:03 THU (m000tfk0)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (m000tflg)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (m000tfll)
Shipping Forecast
12:03 FRI (m000tg5q)
Shock Waves
16:00 MON (m000tcpt)
Short Cuts
15:00 TUE (m000td1d)
Short Works
00:30 SUN (m000t77d)
Sideways
00:15 MON (m000t48x)
Sideways
16:00 WED (m000tccj)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (m000tdz2)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (m000tckz)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (m000tcqb)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (m000td1q)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (m000tccq)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (m000tfks)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (m000tg6h)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b039b67b)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b039b67b)
Stand-Up Specials
19:15 SUN (m000tcl3)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (m000tcnk)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (m000tcnk)
Stillicide
19:00 SUN (m0009rzd)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (m000tck0)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (m000tcjr)
Sweeney Todd and The String of Pearls
15:00 SUN (m000tckn)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (m000tck4)
The Archers
19:00 MON (m000tcql)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (m000tcql)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (m000tcc8)
The Archers
14:00 WED (m000tcc8)
The Archers
19:00 WED (m000tccw)
The Archers
14:00 THU (m000tccw)
The Archers
19:00 THU (m000tfkx)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (m000tfkx)
The Battles That Won Our Freedoms
11:45 SUN (m00021qw)
The Bottom Line
17:30 SAT (m000t6m1)
The Bottom Line
20:30 THU (m000tfl1)
The Digital Human
16:30 MON (m000tcpy)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (m000t6lk)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (m000tfkj)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (m000tckd)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (m000tckd)
The Infinite Monkey Cage
19:15 SAT (m000rd1c)
The Jump
11:00 WED (m000tcbm)
The Listening Project
13:30 SUN (m000tckl)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (m000tccl)
The Media Show
21:30 WED (m000tccl)
The Nazi Next Door
20:00 TUE (m000td1x)
The New Anatomy of Melancholy
00:15 SUN (m000j2s2)
The New Anatomy of Melancholy
14:45 SUN (m000j1jp)
The Now Show
12:30 SAT (m000t77q)
The Now Show
18:30 FRI (m000tg6k)
The Photographer at Sixteen by George Szirtes
00:30 SAT (m000t76n)
The Price of Song
23:00 THU (m000sqkp)
The Real Internet Giants
21:00 MON (m000t4sx)
The Real Internet Giants
11:00 TUE (m000td0r)
The Skewer
23:15 WED (m000tcdb)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (m000tdyb)
The Whisperer in Darkness
19:45 MON (m000mbqk)
The Whisperer in Darkness
19:45 TUE (m000mlbr)
The Whisperer in Darkness
19:45 WED (m000mrc9)
The Whisperer in Darkness
19:45 THU (m000my2n)
The Whisperer in Darkness
19:45 FRI (m000n4yg)
The Why Factor
21:45 SAT (b08y2pbg)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (m000tckj)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (m000tcr1)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (m000td22)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (m000tcd6)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (m000tfl4)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (m000tg6t)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (m000tcr5)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (m000td26)
Today in Parliament
23:30 WED (m000tcdd)
Today in Parliament
23:30 THU (m000tfl8)
Today in Parliament
23:30 FRI (m000tg6w)
Today
07:00 SAT (m000tdy4)
Today
06:00 MON (m000tcnh)
Today
06:00 TUE (m000td0c)
Today
06:00 WED (m000tcb7)
Today
06:00 THU (m000tfjf)
Today
06:00 FRI (m000tg56)
Tom Mayhew Is Benefit Scum
23:00 WED (m000tcd8)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b09hw2w2)
Tweet of the Day
10:54 SUN (m000tck6)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b01sbyxy)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b01slvgp)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b09wrkrr)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b02twhqd)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b038qk8r)
Ways to Weather the Storm
16:30 SUN (m000tcks)
Weather
06:57 SAT (m000tdy2)
Weather
12:57 SAT (m000tdyj)
Weather
17:57 SAT (m000tdz0)
Weather
06:57 SUN (m000tcjm)
Weather
07:57 SUN (m000tcjw)
Weather
12:57 SUN (m000tckg)
Weather
17:57 SUN (m000tckx)
Weather
05:56 MON (m000tclw)
Weather
12:57 MON (m000tcp6)
Weather
12:57 TUE (m000td14)
Weather
12:57 WED (m000tcc1)
Weather
12:57 THU (m000tfk6)
Weather
12:57 FRI (m000tg5x)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (m000tcl9)
White Fang by Jack London
12:06 MON (m000tcp2)
White Fang by Jack London
22:45 MON (m000tcp2)
White Fang by Jack London
12:06 TUE (m000td10)
White Fang by Jack London
22:45 TUE (m000td10)
White Fang by Jack London
12:06 WED (m000tcbw)
White Fang by Jack London
22:45 WED (m000tcbw)
White Fang by Jack London
12:06 THU (m000tfk2)
White Fang by Jack London
22:45 THU (m000tfk2)
White Fang by Jack London
12:06 FRI (m000tg5s)
White Fang by Jack London
22:45 FRI (m000tg5s)
Why Why Why?
19:45 SAT (m000qjdm)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (m000tdys)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (m000tcnp)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (m000td0m)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (m000tcbg)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (m000tfjp)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (m000tg5d)
World at One
13:00 MON (m000tcp8)
World at One
13:00 TUE (m000td16)
World at One
13:00 WED (m000tcc3)
World at One
13:00 THU (m000tfk8)
World at One
13:00 FRI (m000tg5z)
You and Yours
12:20 MON (m000tcp4)
You and Yours
12:20 TUE (m000td12)
You and Yours
12:20 WED (m000tcbz)
You and Yours
12:20 THU (m000tfk4)
You and Yours
12:20 FRI (m000tg5v)