SATURDAY 24 APRIL 2021
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000v9vq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jhnt)
5. Follow the Money
The extraordinary story of a decade-long battle with the Post Office, fought by their own sub-postmasters. Some call it the widest miscarriage of justice in UK legal history.
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
Today, the rollercoaster ride contnues as hopes of a settlement turns to despair at an apparent change of legal tactics by the Post Office and campaigners face the prospect of a long and seemingly unwinnable courtroom battle.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000v9vs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000v9vv)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000v9vx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m000v9vz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000v9w1)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan
Good morning.
‘Solicitor wife attacks vicar husband with scissors in broad daylight’.
Not a headline from a certain kind of newspaper.
In fact a description of what happened to me last Saturday.
Barbers and hairdressers only reopened in Northern Ireland yesterday, but last weekend my wife could wait no longer.
The garden seemed the most practical makeshift salon and thankfully our twelve sets of neighbours with a grandstand view resisted the temptation to take pictures – so far as I know.
Because close contact services, so-called, are usually delivered with at least a degree of privacy.
We don’t know how or where King Nebuchadnezzar was restored to order when the Old Testament book Daniel tells us his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails became like birds’ claws.
But take the bodily anointing of Jesus in the New Testament.
Likewise, the washing of the disciples’ feet during the Last Supper, when Jesus wrapped the towel around his waist and did the needful.
I’ve always felt drawn into the intimacy of these physical encounters, that sense of personal and – for the Lord – sacred space, tenderly and lovingly invaded.
A scene in this year’s Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain had much the same effect on me.
Agnes, the struggling alcoholic mother, lets her doting little boy Shuggie scrape at the old nail polish on her toes.
His attention feels to her “like a penny in an empty meter”.
We pray for those who have felt so deprived this last year
of these priceless ministries of touch,
which meant so much to Christ
and speak to our inmost being of grace bountifully given
and grace unworthily received. Amen
SAT 05:45 Bodies (m000rc4w)
Episode 4: Archetype and Anatomy - The body in ancient Greece
The human body is the battleground where our most fundamental ideas about the way the world is come into sharp focus.
When we think and talk about the body, we are suddenly very aware of that pattern of thinking which frames concepts in opposition, divides the world up between dark and light, material and immaterial, technology and humanity, invisible and visible, mind and body, body and soul.
In this new ten part series, academic and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts traces how human knowledge of anatomy has grown and changed over time, and how this changing understanding has in turn affected our understanding of who we are.
Episode 4: Archetype and Anatomy - The body in ancient Greece
Images of ideal bodies are everywhere we look today. We are invited to look, to enjoy, to judge, to compare to these bodies. Can anyone match up to the ideal? This is not a new problem. In ancient Greece idealised images of the human body were everywhere and an explicit connection was drawn between physical and moral beauty. And it was from this society that the first true anatomist emerged – Aristotle. Professor Alice Roberts celebrates his wonderful studies of animal anatomy and the analogies he drew.
Presenter: Professor Alice Roberts
Actor: Jonathan Kydd
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000vg72)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m000v9c2)
Fisherwomen
The voices of the women who mend the nets, gut the fish and fix the lines of Britain's fishing fleets.
“I started at seventeen as a v-boner. I was everywhere, on the barding, skinning, heading. My last job was in defrost. I was the only one woman in defrost.” Dawn Walton
This rarely heard community have been recorded by landscape photographer Craig Easton and include a trawler skipper called Sheila Hirsch with a gripping account of 'going over the wall' or into the sea. "I've been lucky," she says. "I've been over the wall three times, and each time I've been alright."
Produced in Bristol by Miles Warde
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m000vg74)
24/04/21 Salmon exports, soil, social media hoof trimming
Few farmers would underestimate their soil's importance to their ability to produce food. Soil also stores carbon and in a week where Earth Day saw big announcements from the USA and others on cutting emissions we can expect to hear more about soil. Putting new life into the old saying ‘where there’s muck there’s brass’ is English agriculture policy: increasing numbers of farmers are now looking at the carbon stored in soil, as a way of earning money in the future, through the new Environmental Land Management Schemes which in England will replace payments from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
Scottish Salmon Producers say the government is 97% out on its export figures for January. HMRC statistics show a big drop in salmon exports to the EU this January, but Scottish producers say they actually sent more than last year.
We hear from Ant Thomas, a hoof trimmer based in Cornwall, who is proving a hit on social media by sharing videos of himself at work. He now has 99000 followers on TikTok, a place better known for sharing videos of singing and dancing than hoof trimming. Ant says he thinks people just want something different.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m000vg76)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m000vg78)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m000vg7b)
Tim Burgess
Tim Burgess joins Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi. The Charlatans frontman talks music, meditation and how his lockdown Twitter listening parties have become more successful than he could have imagined.
Natasha Coates developed severe allergies when she was 18. She threw herself into gymnastics and won 22 British titles and 38 British medals. Natasha talks about living with her condition and what sport means to her.
Lawrence Okolie tells the story of how he went from an unhealthy fast food server to world boxing champion and Olympian , inspired by seeing boxer Anthony Joshua in the 2012 Olympics.
Presenter Liz Kershaw shares her Inheritance Tracks: Bobby Darin - Beyond the Sea and You Could Be Mine by Guns N' Roses.
George Butler talks about his experiences as an award-winning artist and illustrator. His work, specialising in reportage, travel and current affairs, has taken him around the world, drawing and telling the stories of people in war zones, refugee camps and most recently on the Covid frontline.
Tim's Twitter Listening Party is on daily, replays available via the website. Tim Burgess' book The Listening Party is being published in September.
Lawrence Okolie's book Dare to Change Your Life is out now.
George Butler's Drawn Across Borders: True Stories of Migration is out now.
Producer: Claire Bartleet
Editor: Eleanor Garland
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000vg7d)
Series 32
Home Economics: Episode 30
Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits. This week, he is joined by Sue Lawrence, Jeremy Pang, Rob Owen Brown and Dr. Annie Gray to answer questions on spare ribs, new potatoes and unassuming veg heroes.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000vg7g)
Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m000vg7j)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m000vg7l)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m000vg7n)
The latest news from the world of personal finance.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m000v9v6)
Series 105
Episode 2
Andy Zaltman presents a look back at the week's headlines with panellists Andrew Maxwell, Athena Kugblenu, Anne McElvoy and Chris McCausland.
This week super leagues, super texts and a super example of someone being told to get out of a pub.
Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Alice Fraser, Mike Shephard, Rajiv Karia and Jenan Younis.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 12:57 Weather (m000vg7q)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m000vg7s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m000v9vd)
Thérèse Coffey MP, Alison McGovern MP, Salma Shah, Pete Wishart MP
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion with Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey MP, Shadow Minister for Culture and Sport Alison McGovern MP, the political strategist and commentator Salma Shah and the SNP's Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Pete Wishart MP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio direction: Kirsty Starkey
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m000vg7v)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 Drama (m000j1pf)
The Voyage of the St. Louis
Several months before the outbreak of the Second World War, an ocean liner, the St Louis, leaves Germany with over 900 Jewish refugees on-board, all hoping to escape persecution. The incredible true story of that journey is now brought to vivid life in Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Daniel Kehlmann’s play, which was awarded Best Adaptation at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2021.
Based on the book The Voyage of the Damned by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts.
This repeat broadcast is dedicated to the memory of the great actor Paul Ritter.
Schiendick . . . . . Paul Ritter
Schroeder . . . . . Philip Glenister
Berenson . . . . . Toby Jones
Bru . . . . . Alan Corduner
Benitez . . . . . Joseph Balderrama
Spanier . . . . . Philip Arditti
Pozner . . . . . Shai Matheson
Hoffman . . . . . John Dougall
Clasing . . . . . Roger Ringrose
Babette . . . . . Bettrys Jones
Jockl . . . . . Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Aber . . . . . Sargon Yelda
Elise . . . . . Rachel Essex
Charlotte . . . . . Elizabeth Counsell
Bergman . . . . . Hasan Dixon
Fischer . . . . . John Lightbody
Marianne . . . . . Rosie Boore
Renata . . . . . Amy-Jayne Leigh
Evelyne . . . . . Taya Tower
Sound by Anne Bunting
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko
SAT 16:15 Woman's Hour (m000vg7x)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week. Producer: Karen Dalziel
SAT 17:00 PM (m000vg7z)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m000vg81)
Nick Robinson talks about what's really going on in British politics.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000vg83)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m000vg85)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vg87)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m000vg89)
Stacey Dooley, Kelly Hoppen, Adjani Salmon, Maureen Beattie,, The Coral, Maths Time Joy x Rich, Scottee, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Scottee are joined by Stacey Dooley, Maureen Beattie, Kelly Hoppen and Adjani Salmon for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music The Coral and Maths Time Joy x Rich.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m000vg8c)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines. Producer: Emma Rippon.
SAT 19:15 My Teenage Diary (m000hvlp)
Series 9
Shazia Mirza
Rufus Hound returns for another series of honest, intimate and hilarious interviews, with famous guests reading from their genuine teenage diaries.
Guests this series are Woman's Hour host Dame Jenni Murray, former Goodie Bill Oddie, comedian Shazia Mirza, impressionist Jan Ravens, podcaster Olly Mann and writer Julie Myerson.
In this first episode of new series, Rufus talks to the comedian Shazia Mirza about her experiences growing up in a strict Muslim family in the UK. In her teenage diaries, the young Shazia Mirza describes arguing with her parents, getting a Saturday job in McDonalds, bumping into a Rick Astley lookalike in a pub and dreaming about becoming a grand slam tennis ace.
Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m000v83f)
Cold Shower
Michael delves into the science of cold water immersion, revealing how just a little bit of physical stress might go a long way to improve your heart health, boost your mood and help keep colds and flu at bay. To find out more, he speaks to Professor Mike Tipton from Portsmouth University who’s been researching exactly what happens in your body when you’re doused with cold water, and why it might have a positive impact on your body and brain, with lasting effects.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000vg8f)
Our Bodies, Ourselves
Five decades on, Laura Barton looks back at the creation of Our Bodies, Ourselves - a revolutionary text in the history of women's liberation.
Written and published by a group of women who met in 1969 at a Women's Liberation Conference, and who later formed the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, it discussed sexual health, sexual orientation, birth control, abortion, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, consent and abuse. Interweaving women's personal stories with practical, clearly written information, it encouraged women to not only get to know their own bodies but to enjoy their sexuality.
It became one of the best-selling feminist texts of all time, updated repeatedly across the decades with the most recent edition coming out in 2011.
In this Archive on 4, we hear new interviews with some of the Our Bodies, Ourselves founders - Miriam Hawley, Wendy Sanford, Norma Swenson, Jane Pincus, Judy Norsigian and Vilunya Diskin - alongside vivid recordings from the feminist movement at the time and archives from the project over the decades.
We explore the freedom that can come from self-knowledge - the power in knowing how we work, on not having to defer to others for explanation of our pain or our pleasure and delve into how the text has been adapted across borders with current OBOS board member Diana Namumbejja Abwoye. We also hear from sex educators and writers inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, as Laura examines what factors can shape our access to information.
With archive from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, WDEE and WAMU
Presented by Laura Barton
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Tumanbay (b06shzzq)
Series 1
Strangle Hold
In the fifth episode of this epic saga inspired by the Mamluk slave-dynasty of Egypt, General Qulan (Christopher Fulford) finds the Provincial Governors less than enthusiastic as he arrives to gather the armies to fight rebel "queen" Maya. In Tumanbay, Gregor is under pressure to find the spies but his investigations keep leading him back to Shajar the Sultan's chief wife (Sarah Beck Mather) and a reliquary she has secreted away.
Tumanbay, the beating heart of a vast empire, is threatened by a rebellion in a far-off province and a mysterious force devouring the city from within. Gregor (Rufus Wright), Master of the Palace Guard, is charged by Sultan Al-Ghuri (Raad Rawi) with the task of rooting out this insurgence and crushing it.
Cast:
Gregor.....................................Rufus Wright
Sarah......................................Nina Yndis
Shajar.....................................Sarah Beck Mather
Cadali......................................Matthew Marsh
Physician.................................Vivek Madan
Wolf........................................Alexander Siddig
The Hafiz.................................Antony Bunsee
Bello........................................Albert Welling
Ibn..........................................Nabil Elouahabi
Maya's Envoy..........................Nadir Khan
Daniel.....................................Gareth Kennerley
Al-Ghuri..................................Raad Rawi
General Qulan........................Christopher Fulford
Provincial Governor Usman.....John Sessions
Fatima.................................Sirine Saba
Other parts played by:
Christian Hillborg
Alec Utgoff
Akbar Kurtha
Music - Sacha Puttnam
Sound Design - Steve Bond, Jon Ouin
Editors - Ania Przygoda, James Morgan
Producers - Emma Hearn, Nadir Khan, John Dryden
Written and Directed by John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:45 Death and Taxis (b07bdgj1)
The Andy Warhol Diaries, Part Two
Adapted by Sean Grundy and starring Scott Capurro as Andy Warhol. Also starring Ronni Ancona, Jon Culshaw and Kerry Shale.
Everyone who is anyone in New York from 1976 to 1987 is in Warhol's diary - from Mick Jagger to Donald Trump.
"Friday, August 30, 1978: The doorbell rang and it was Liza. She said, 'give me every drug you've got.' I gave them some coke, Valium and four Quaaludes. A little figure in a white hat came up, and it was Marty Scorsese, hiding around the corner. He and Liza went off to have their affair on all the drugs. (Valium $1)"
Beginning in the fall of 1976, America’s most famous artist Andy Warhol talked to his secretary by phone at
9:00 AM, every Monday to Friday morning, for ten years. He would talk about the events of the previous day, and his office would transcribe his monologues into diary pages.
The diary began as a careful recording of his use of money, from phone calls to nickels for bag-ladies to cab rides (lots of cab rides), but quickly evolved into Warhol’s personal observations. It was posthumously published in 1989 - a condensed version of Andy’s more-than-20,000 page, phoned-in audit/diary.
The core themes to the dramas are Warhol’s loves (art, men, fame, money, mainly money) and his fears (failure, embarrassment, death, mainly death).
The episodes follow four key themes, using four people in Andy’s life from 76-87 - homeless Crazy Matty, Warhol’s boyfriend Jon Gould, writer Truman Capote and artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Woven into this world are buddies Mick and Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Liza Minnelli and Donald Trump.
Nobody escapes his sharp tongue.
Cast:
BIANCA JAGGER/ JERRY HALL/ JADE JAGGER.................RONNI ANCONA
ANDY WARHOL.............................................................SCOTT CAPURRO
MICK JAGGER / STEVE RUBELL.....................................JON CULSHAW
TRUMAN CAPOTE.........................................................KERRY SHALE
BOB MACBRIDE / ROCK MANAGER.................................MARTIN T SHERMAN
Based on The Andy Warhol Diaries, edited by Pat Hackett
Writer: Sean Grundy
Producer: David Morley
Director: Dirk Maggs
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:00 News (m000vg8h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Reunion (m000v83c)
The Litvinenko Poisoning
Kirsty Wark and guests recall the poisoning and death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
For many, it’s a photo of the Russian exile that’s best remembered - it showed him lying in a bed at London's University College Hospital. His hair had fallen out, his skin had lost its colour and pain ravaged his face as he lay fighting for life. Litvinenko was a former KGB and later FSB Russian officer and long-time political opponent of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin who now lived in exile in the UK.
He was the author of Blowing Up Russia, a book that claimed the FSB was behind a series of apartment block bombings in Moscow in September 1999. It is reported to have enraged his former boss, Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko had fallen victim to the deadliest poison known to man where just one millionth of a gram is enough to kill. The casual manner that it had been carried around London’s hotels and restaurants by his attackers led to widespread panic and fears of radiological contamination in the capital.
Whoever set out to kill Litvinenko would have expected him to die in a few days and the poison never be discovered. But he clung onto life for 23 days – giving doctors and Scotland Yard the vital time needed to discover the truth. The murder led to a breakdown in relations between Britain and Russia and political indecision saw it take almost ten years for an inquiry to be held.
Joining Kirsty Wark to recall the events of that time are Alex Goldfarb, family friend of the Litvinenko’s and political campaigner; Sir Ken MacDonald, at the time Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales; Brent Hyatt, a Scotland Yard officer who interviewed Litvinenko; Yevgeny Kanevsky, who followed the story for the BBC World Service’s Russian Service; and, Marina Litvinenko – Alexander Litvinenko’s widow.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Howard Shannon
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000v89r)
Programme 7, 2021
(7/12)
With a win and a draw under their belt so far this season, the North of England team of Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras are in a strong position as they square up to Paul Sinha and Marcus Berkmann of the South of England again. As always, the elaborate questions will test their ingenuity and powers of lateral thought. Tom Sutcliffe will be on hand to award and deduct points, depending on how many clues he has to give them along the way.
Tom will also have the solution to the teaser question left unanswered at the end of the previous edition.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Poetry & I (m000v83y)
I think. I feel. I am.
Award winning poet Jay Bernard explores the power and potency carried in one small stroke - the letter I.
The first person has been used by poets to explore identity, expression and the self for centuries. Lyric poems, a type of short, introspective poem most associated with the I, are everywhere. We read them aloud at pivotal moments - births, weddings, funerals. It’s Keats, Wordsworth, Shakespeare’s sonnets.
But now the lyric I is being re-imagined by a new generation of poets who are tackling burning social questions. For poets from marginalised communities, the simple act of saying ‘this is what I see’ can be revolutionary, an assertion of their humanity. But, as Jay explains, it isn’t always easy.
Jay’s been tussling with the I in their poems for years. They identify as a lyric poet. But they’ve also had to figure out their relationship to the first person in the context of a Western canon where the I in poetry has been overwhelmingly configured as white and male.
In this programme, Jay embarks on a deep exploration of their own relationship with the I they set down on paper, and hears from other poets grappling with the same tensions.
In the poems and testimony of Harry Josephine Giles, Nuala Watt, Sandeep Parmar and Claudia Rankine, Jay meets a multifaceted, shape-shifting I, with the capacity to re-imagine the world and expand our understanding of the human experience.
Presenter: Jay Bernard
Producer: Caroline Thornham
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 25 APRIL 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000vg8k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:30 Swipe Right (m000v9tv)
On Sundays by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Two ex-lovers in their twenties, brought together by food and J Dilla, meet for a walk. An original short story by Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of one of 2021's biggest debut novels, Open Water.
Reader: Valentine Olukoga
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vg8m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vg8p)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vg8r)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000vg8t)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000vg8w)
St Petroc’s Church, South Brent, in Devon.
Bells on Sunday comes from St Petroc’s Church, South Brent, in Devon. The six bells hang in a substantial Norman tower and were cast in 1759 by Thomas Bilbie, a renowned West Country bell foundy of the time. The tenor weighs thirteen and a half hundredweight and is in the note of F. We hear them ringing Devon Style Call Changes on all six bells.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000vg8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m000vgd5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b063ybcm)
Here Be Dragons
Mark Tully investigates the fascinating power of dragons in Eastern and Western culture.
‘Here Be Dragons’ is the traditional description of any creature or place that remains unexplained. It conjures images of batwinged, eagle footed reptilian firebreathers destroying all before them. It also brings to mind extraordinary beauty and ethereal power.
In a programme that contrasts good and bad dragons, West and East, fact and fantasy, we hear from Seamus Heaney and Lam Sik Kwan, George Elgar and Margaret Toms, John Milton and Marianne Moore. A geographical and cultural feast in celebration of the greatest mystical animal of all.
The readers are Polly Frame, Peter Marinker and Francis Cadder.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique Broadcasting Company production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000vgd7)
The Good Life?
Having suppressed her inner farmer for as long as she can remember, in November 2020, Verity Sharp and her family took the decision to rent a farmhouse in north Pembrokeshire to explore whether a farming life is really for them. Although an incredible opportunity, testing the water during a Welsh winter and a national lockdown has had its challenges. At 77 acres, the farm is owned by former sheep farmers Val and Eddie Kirby, who, in more recent years, have been reducing their livestock and handing the land back to nature. Wildflowers now flourish in every field, marshland supports an abundance of insects, and increased hedgerows and trees are proving a draw for birds. For this edition, Verity and Patrick look back over their first six months on the farm, and wrestle with issues such as whether going into farming in their fifties for the first time is really a good idea, how a farm like this might generate an income in the future, and the ethics of scaling back on a farms food producing capacity in order to better serve nature.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000vgd9)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000vgdc)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000vgdf)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000vgdh)
Muscular Dystrophy UK
Comedian Jon Richardson makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘Muscular Dystrophy UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Muscular Dystrophy UK’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 205395
Main image credit: Andy Hollingworth
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000vgdk)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000vgdm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000vgdp)
To Have And To Hold
With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, former royal chaplain Rev. Canon Ann Easter leads a service reflecting on the gift of relationships. As lockdown restrictions slowly lift we consider the relationships that have helped us through the past year, those that have been tested and challenged, those just beginning or being picked up again as gathering and travelling become more possible.
Three pairs (a grandma and grandson, a husband and wife, and two friends) reflect on their relationships throughout the pandemic and how God has been working through them.
Theologian and social entrepreneur Dr Krish Kandiah preaches on partnering with God in our relationships to love and serve those around us.
With traditional hymns and modern worship songs.
Producer: Jessie Bland
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000v9vg)
The Age of Infantilism
'While self-righteousness loosens the tongues of fools,' writes Howard Jacobson, 'self-censorship ties the tongues of the wise.’
Howard argues that it's not autocracy that has bedevilled us in the past twelve months, it is levity.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrc9l)
Hoopoe
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the hoopoe. The hoopoe, a salmon-coloured bird with a long curved bill and a black-tipped crest, which it can spread like a fan when excited, is so outrageously exotic that its call reminds us of the Mediterranean. Several hoopoes arrive in the UK each spring and autumn. These are usually birds which have overshot their migration routes and almost certainly won't find a mate here, though they do breed very occasionally.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000vgdr)
News with Paddy O'Connell including is it fair to see the questions before your GCSE test? and does sport need losers? Plus we hear from an Oscar nominee who'll be trying to recreate the Hollywood ceremony in the UK. Reviewing the news: Alex Massie, Mary Creagh and Anita Anand.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000vgdt)
Fallon is left reeling and Tracy attempts to make a good impression.
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000vgdw)
Tweet Take 5 : Swallow
For many the arrival of swallows in April heralds the first thought of those longer and warmer days to come in Summer. Yet in a few brief months these long distant migrants will congregate on telephone wires ahead of their long journey south, leaving us bereft of their communal, joyous chattering in the air. As we'll hear in this extended version of Tweet of the Day featuring presenter Kate Humble, Gardener's World presenter Monty Don and presenter and wildlife expert Brett Westwood.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
SUN 11:00 The Reunion (m000vgdy)
The Romanian Orphanages
Kirsty Wark brings together a group of people whose lives were changed by the discovery of long neglected orphanages in Romania in 1990.
It was a revolution triggered by the fall of the Berlin Wall a few weeks earlier. On Christmas Day 1989, Nicolae Ceacescu, the communist leader of Romania was overthrown and executed, along with his wife Elena. A few days later, western journalists started to discover abandoned children living in horrifying conditions in orphanages throughout the country. They were often run down, providing inadequate, verging on squalid, living conditions.
For many years, the state policy in communist Romania was to encourage large families. However, as the economic situation worsened, many Romanians struggled to make ends meet and over 100,000 children were abandoned and given to state orphanages to look after.
Joining Kirsty are the presenter of Challenge Anneka, Anneka Rice, whose programme followed the restoration of a children's orphanage, the former teacher Monica McDaid who first inspired the programme and now lives and works in Romania, Jane Nicholson founder of the Romanian orphanage charity FARA, Mark Cook of Hope & Homes for Children, Iuliana Georgiana who was taken in by an orphanage in Buftea when she was 7 years old, and Alexandra Smart who was abandoned as a baby and grew up in Bucharest’s notorious “Number 1” orphanage before being adopted as a two year-old and brought to Britain in 1990.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Emma Jarvis
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 11:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m000vgf0)
Learn a New Skill
From easing your nerves to improving concentration, in this episode Michael explores the hidden brain benefits of taking up a new hobby. He finds out why learning a new skill is one of the best things you can do for mental agility and speaks to Professor Alan Gow at Heriot-Watt University to discover the best - and most fun - ways to keep your brain active, and how taking on a new challenge could help build new connections in your brain, whatever your age!
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000vggt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m000v8b3)
Series 86
Episode 9
Tom Allen hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where he challenges guests Josie Lawrence, Mark Watson, Paul Merton and Felicity Ward to talk on the subjects of his choice for 60 seconds. Hesitation, deviation, and repetition are strictly forbidden. This episode was produced using remote recording technology, with both panel and audience joining 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
SUN 12:33 The Food Programme (m000vgf4)
A Nominations Celebration
The BBC Food and Farming Awards are back for their 20th edition, ready to celebrate the people across the UK who are changing lives for the better, through food and drink.
Marking the official opening of nominations, Sheila Dillon chats to this year's head judge, chef Angela Hartnett, about how the hospitality industry's coped over the past year - and the brand new awards categories up for grabs. Because although it's been a time of incredible stress and hardship for many in the industry, there have also been staggering displays of imagination, generosity and creativity; which is why this year's awards will focus on the people and businesses who’ve gone above and beyond during the pandemic.
Nominations are open until just before midnight on Monday 17th May.
For more information on how to nominate for the 2021 BBC Food and Farming Awards, visit: bbc.co.uk/foodawards
Presented by Sheila Dillon; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000vgf6)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000vgf8)
Edward Stourton looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000vgfb)
Getting back to business
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation.
This week: Nikki, whose beauty salon has just reopened and Andrew, whose soft play centre is ready and waiting, discuss the ups and downs of owning a business during Covid; A Level student and environmental campaigner Roxy and mining graduate Oli consider whether extracting the earth's resources can ever be 'green'; Maureen and Dickie share their respective memories of the Sheffield and Belfast Blitz; and choir leaders Janine and Emma compare conducting styles and discuss the snobbery that can exist in their industry.
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 (m000v9tq)
GQT at Home: A Midspring Night's Dream
Peter Gibbs hosts the horticultural programme with a panel of gardening experts. This week's questions from the virtual audience are answered by Christine Walkden, James Wong and Matthew Wilson.
The panellists discuss rewilding a garden, wearing gloves while gardening, and the cold hard truth about Bonsai trees.
Away from the questions, Alex Young advises on how to prepare houseplants for spring, and award-winning garden designer Juliet Sargeant gives the ultimate guide to self-seeding plants.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The New Anatomy of Melancholy (m000j8r6)
Moderate sleep and divine music
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 finds out more about the effects of sleep and music on our mood. Like many new parents, sleep deprivation has been a challenge for Amy since the birth of her son, while music and singing has taken on new meaning with its potential to soothe and lift the mood.
Colin Espie, Professor of Sleep Medicine at Oxford University, offers insights into how issues with sleep can affect mood. It’s long been acknowledged that sleep problems can be a symptom of depression, but can they also be a cause? Robert Burton, is in no doubt.
Recently, Amy has discovered singing as a new way to lift her spirits. It is a remedy that Burton champions. She rejoins the singing group which was a lifeline in the early baby days to talk to Liz Powers about why singing in close harmony can have a calming, restorative effect.
Nearby, at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, singing is being taken to the wards as a mood-booster for staff and families and children who want to join in. We hear from staff about what it means to them.
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, Liz Powers offers Everybody Hurts by R.E.M..
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 BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 The Magic Mountain (m000vgfd)
Episode 3
Hugh’s cousin James and the beautiful Madame Claudia have both left the sanatorium, but both are soon to return, with fatal consequences.
Hugh is now deep in the enchantment of the Mountain. If he is ever to escape, he will have to undergo a dreadful vision and a terrifying supernatural experience.
Thomas Mann’s novel is a literary icon, a tragi-comedy, a masterpiece of deep thought, sly irony, sex, love and death.
Cast:
Narrator ..... Lucy Robinson
Hugh Casthorpe ..... Luke Thallon
James Simpson ..... Hugh Skinner
Doctor Crowmarsh ..... Sandy Grierson
Professor Jones ..... Richard Harrington
Clauda Civet ..... Genevieve Gaunt
Peter Piobar ..... Stephen Hogan
Angela Simpson ..... Kate Paul
Howe ..... Huw Brentnall
Ellen Cameron ..... Lilit Lesser
Kirsty / Nurse ..... Georgia Brown
Written by Thomas Mann
From a translation by John E. Woods
Dramatised by Robin Brooks
Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design by Wilfredo Acosta and Alisdair McGregor
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000vgfg)
Jon McGregor; Chester Himes; Editors Tip
Johny Pitts talks to Jon McGregor about his latest novel Lean Fall Stand, inspired by a trip to Antarctica. Opening with sparse, barely describable landscape in the midst of a storm, it follows Robert "Doc" Wright's recovery in the aftermath and sensitively examines heroism, modern masculinity and the failure of words.
Chester Himes is an often overlooked favour of his Black American contemporaries Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright and James Baldwin, despite also attempting to carve out a literary career in Paris. With his better-known Harlem detective series being reissued, his biographer Lawrence P. Jackson and crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell discuss his prescient legacy.
And looking ahead to next month ,Francesca Main of Phoenix Books chooses a multi-generational story of love, family and Indian history as her Editor's Tip.
SUN 16:30 Behind the Scenes (m000rvnv)
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato, the superstar American mezzo soprano, is described by the New Yorker as 'the most potent singer of her generation'.
Here, the multi-Grammy award winner lets us into her world - not just the fabulous stage performances that came to a halt last March but how she is surviving lockdown, keeping the voice in shape and finding new virtual audiences.
Joyce is a diva without any of the attendant hauteur and capriciousness. Honest and funny and humane , she was born in Kansas to a large family that struggled financially. She was destined to be a teacher, not a global opera star. But her ambition goes beyond taking leading roles at the Royal Opera and the Met. Her masterclasses for young singers are legendary. And we hear how her background has shaped her as an activist - working, for example, with prisoners in a New York high security prison.
With the help of Sir Antonio Papanno, music director of the Royal Opera, and Richard Morrison chief music critic of The Times , this programme offers an account of an exceptional, world class talent..
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
Picture: Simon Pauly
SUN 17:00 Putin’s Third Act (m000v7qk)
Vladimir Putin is at a crucial moment in his Presidency of Russia. After a 21 year rule which has seen him take the roles of bringer of prosperity and patriotic leader, he faces collapsing living standards, near historical lows in popularity and an organised and committed opposition.
How will Putin respond?
As Putin enters his “third act” Financial Times Moscow Correspondent Max Seddon asks what we can expect from this new and apparently far more oppressive phase of the Russian leader's rule.
This is the view from Russia, featuring a selection of expert voices including economist Sergei Guriev; Leonid Volkov (opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Chief-of-Staff); political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann; Evgeny Popov (co-host of one of the most popular news shows on Russian state TV) and Nicu Popescu (European Council on Foreign Relations and former Foreign Minister of Moldova). We also hear from Sergey Smirnov, Editor in Chief of Mediazona and protestor Ekaterina Belyaeva on their experiences of a new, more repressive Kremlin regime.
Presenter: Max Seddon
Producer: Michael Umney
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000vg8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000vgfj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000vgfl)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vgfn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000vgfq)
Salma El-Wardany
This week Salma's contemplating the meaning of life, which, if Monty Python taught us anything, is an impossible task. But thankfully with the help of Greek god analogies, the pragmatism of fisherwomen, some sobering stories that made her heart ache and of course, comedy arguments about supermarkets, she's one step closer.
Presenter: Salma El-Wardany
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet
SUN 19:00 Ayeesha Menon - Undercover Mumbai (b039rwcc)
Five-Star Death
A dead glamour model in a five-star hotel leads Police inspector Alia Khan on the trail of Bollywood's leading heart-throb.
Set and recorded on location in Mumbai, this is a fast paced six-part police thriller. It follows Alia Khan, a young woman inspector in the Bandra Division of the Mumbai Police Force, as she attempts to solve a series of crimes, make sense of her troubled past and cope with being a woman in a male-dominated and chauvinistic police force.
Sound Recordist: Hitesh Chaurasia
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Editing Assistants: Andrew Lewis and Aditya Khanna.
Script Editor: Mike Walker
Assistant Producer: Toral Shah
Producer: Nadir Khan
Music: Sacha Putnam.
Writer: Ayeesha Menon
Director: John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:15 The Confessional (m000vgfs)
Series 1
The Confession of Dr Phil Hammond
Actor, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Mangan presents a new comedy chat show about shame and guilt.
Each week, Stephen invites a different guest into his virtual confessional box to make three confessions - with remarkable storytelling and surprising insights.
We’re used to hearing celebrity interviews where stars are persuaded to show off about their achievements. Stephen's not interested in that. He doesn’t want to know about his guests' proudest moments, he wants to know what they’re ashamed of. That’s surely the way to find out what really makes a person tick.
Stephen and his guest reflect with empathy and humour on why we get embarrassed, where our shame thresholds should be, and the value of guilt.
Series guests include Marian Keyes, Cariad Lloyd, Joan Bakewell, Suzi Ruffell, Clarke Peters and many more.
This week, Phil Hammond, doctor, journalist and the medical correspondent for Private Eye, delivers some eye watering accounts of youthful mistakes, dubious diagnoses and Twitter storms.
Written and presented by Stephen Mangan
With extra material by Nick Doody
Produced by Dave Anderson and Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Enchanted Isle (m000vgfv)
The Man On The Rocks by Tom Cox
Louise meets Dave when she's out walking on Dartmoor one day. He asks her out for a drink and they begin dating. But the eccentric man whose mood can influence rivers is not quite of this world and the relationship soon becomes strained.
Tom Cox lives on Dartmoor. He is the author of several books including Help The Witch, Ring The Hill and 21st Century Yokel. His next book is Villager.
Read by Kirsty Cox
Produced by Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000v9v0)
Roger Bolton hears more views from listeners about the BBC's coverage of the death of HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Does Danny Robins, the writer and producer of the Radio 4 programme and podcast The Battersea Poltergeist, believe that ghosts exist? And did making his programme change his mind?
And two drama students review Radio 4’s Front Row. Would they recommend it to their college colleagues?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000v9ty)
Helen McCrory, Hans Küng, Eric Gordon, George Reynolds
Matthew Bannister on
Helen McCrory, the actor best known for playing the matriarch Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders, but equally acclaimed for her classical stage performances. David Hare pays tribute.
Hans Küng, the controversial Catholic theologian who often clashed with the Vatican and wrote many books including 'Does God Exist?” and “Can We Save The Catholic Church?”.
Eric Gordon, the communist journalist who took his family to live in China under Chairman Mao and on his return bought the North London newspaper the Camden Journal and turned its fortunes around.
George Reynolds, the colourful ex-offender who became a multi-millionaire, bought his local football club Darlington FC and once offered to pay off the mortgages of many of his employees and give them each a Mercedes car.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: David Hare
Interviewed guest: Mark Strong
Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney
Interviewed guest: David Willey
Interviewed guest: Charles Curran
Interviewed guest: Kim Gordon
Interviewed guest: Mike Amos
Archive clips used: Sunday programme: Radio 4, TX 7.
10.2012; Infallibility Questioned - Prof. Hans Kung: Radio 4, TX 24.
7.1971; BBC News: BBC One, TX
16.12.1968; Twenty-Four Hours - Gordon Family Interview: Radio 4, TX
20.10.1969; BBC News: BBC One, TX
16.10.1969; Midweek: Radio 4, TX 2.
4.2003; Homeground - George Reynolds Playing By His Own Rules: BBC 2, TX 16.
3.2004; Desert Island Discs – Helen McCrory: Radio 4, TX 3.
7.2020
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000vg7n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000vgdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Short Cuts (m0007wvz)
Series 20
Self-Portrait
Josie Long draws her own image whilst presenting short documentaries about turning the camera lens or microphone on yourself.
A Private Ritual
Written by Jess Bineth and Tilly Lawless
Produced by Jess Bineth
Ghosts
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
How To Remember
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
Production Team: Andrea Rangecroft and Alia Cassam
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000vgfx)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000v9c7)
Mark Jenkin & The Köttings
With Antonia Quirke
The Film Programme has exclusive behind the scenes access to some of the most exciting and innovative film-makers in this country. For the past year, Mark Jenkin has been recording audio diaries for us, as he follows up his award-winning hit Bait with the supernatural tale Enys Men, a film that has been delayed and re-imagined during the pandemic. Father and daughter artists Andrew and Eden Kötting have just finished a new animation called Diseased And Disorderly, also made during lockdown, and they describe how their unique collaboration works.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b063ybcm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 26 APRIL 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000vgfz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000v8wt)
Life Imprisonment
Life imprisonment - Why is it that such sentences were almost unheard of a generation ago and what is their impact on prisoners, as well as society? Ben Crewe, Deputy Director of the Prison Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, talks to Laurie Taylor about the largest ever sociological study of long term imprisonment conducted in Europe. Focusing on prisoners convicted of murder & serving life sentences of 15 years or more from young adulthood, it asks how they manage time, think about the future, and deal with existential issues of identity and the meaning of their lives. They’re joined by Elaine Player, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Kings College, London, who discusses the different needs and experiences of the much smaller number of female ‘lifers’, many of whom are victims of multiple trauma & male violence, drawing on research conducted in a democratic therapeutic community in a women’s prison. Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with the Open University.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000vg8w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vgg1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vgg3)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vgg5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000vgg7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000vgg9)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.
Good morning.
For those hopeful that life might slowly be getting back to normal, comes the exciting news that the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe will go ahead this August, albeit in outdoor venues and with a raft of contingency measures in place.
For summer holidays more generally this year, many are so desperate for a change of scene that a number I know made bookings at the first opportunity,
sometimes, more out of hope than real expectation.
It’s come as a surprise to a lot of people how deflating it feels not to be able to make and keep personal plans.
Did we ever really grasp until now, the psychological importance of having things to look forward to?
Putting dates in our diaries stretches our horizons.
If we’re in a position to, arranging where we’re going to go, what we’re going to see and, above all, who we’re going to be with, lifts our spirits.
But painful as it’s been, part of me wonders have we been learning a new spiritual lesson.
Because, our click-click attitude of doing what we want, when we want to, is one the Epistle of James treats with something approaching disdain.
You do not even know what tomorrow will bring is James’s blunt rebukes to the presumption of those who forget that they live by the mercy of God.
Don’t get me wrong, there are people I can’t wait to see again and places I can’t wait to go again.
Yet from a faith perspective all these things are properly seen not as a right but as a blessing.
Lord we acknowledge before you
the disappointment of missing out on so much.
Teach us, we pray,
to trust the plans you have for us,
plans for our welfare and not for our harm,
to give us a future with hope. Amen
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000vggc)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000vggf)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv8n)
Grey Wagtail
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the grey wagtail. Grey wagtails are supremely graceful birds which boost their appeal by nesting in photogenic locations. They revel in shaded spots near swift-flowing water and will also nest by canal lock-gates or mill-races.
MON 06:00 Today (m000vh4b)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000vh4g)
Personal faith and the Church
What it means to be a black Christian woman in the UK is at the heart of Chine McDonald’s new book, God Is Not a White Man. Part memoir and part theological and historical study, McDonald looks back at the role the Christian faith has played over the centuries in perpetuating ideas of white supremacy. She tells Tom Sutcliffe that black women in the church have stayed silent too long.
The writer Jeet Thayil re-imagines the story of the New Testament through the eyes of the women suppressed and erased from the Gospels. Names of the Women brings to life fifteen women whose importance at the Crucifixion highlights the power they once had. Thayil was born into a Syrian Christian family in India and was inspired to write this work by the defiance and authority of his grandmother.
In 2011 when the Occupy movement set up camp around St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Canon Giles Fraser was caught between his pastoral care of the protestors, the needs of the church and the demands of the City of London. He suffered a crisis of faith and mental health. In Chosen: Lost and Found Between Christianity and Judaism, Fraser explores his own religious roots, and discovers the healing power of theology for the individual and society.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jp2m)
6. War of Attrition
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis, gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
Today, the mediation scheme designed to solve the problem is becoming fraught, so MPs step up the campaign of political pressure on the Post Office. And Lee Castleton, a sub-postmaster from Bridlington, tells his story.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
With Sound Design from Emma Barnaby and Story Editing from Alexis Hood.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000vh4l)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 10:45 Amongst Women by John McGahern (m000jfzm)
Episode 6
Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.
The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.
Writer ..... John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ..... Celia de Wolff
MON 11:00 The Untold (m000vh4q)
The New Build
Greg and David are desperate to get on the ladder. They rent a small flat together in Greater Manchester and have spent the last year of lockdowns living on top of each other. The dream is to get somewhere with a bit more space. A place of their own.
It feels beyond their budget until they realise they can afford a new build house under the government’s Help To Buy scheme. The scheme works as an equity loan, where the government loans the buyer 20% of the house price to go toward the deposit. The buyer only needs to contribute 5% from their own savings. Which suddenly makes it doable for Greg and David.
In August last year, their Help To Buy application was approved, and their offer on a house was accepted. It was a dream come true.
The thing is, the house is still not built. Across the country, construction sites face inevitable delays to the new coronavirus measures. And on top of that, the current Help To Buy scheme is soon to close. There’s no way they can afford the house without the scheme. So the question is: will the house be built in time?
Produced in Bristol by Becky Ripley.
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000vg89)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000vh4x)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm3j)
Episode 6
Broke and broken-hearted Tiffy needs a cheap flat, fast. Night-shift worker Leon needs a flatmate fast. But his place has only got one bedroom, so there’s only one solution. Tiffy gets the bed at night and Leon sleeps there in the day. And they don’t ever even need to meet, insists Leon’s girlfriend Kay. Them’s the rules.
But as Tiffy and Leon's Post-It note chats about crocheted scarves and mushroom stroganoffs grow ever more frequent and intense, so does their curiosity about eachother. Eventually the flatshare rulebook may just need to be thrown out of the window.
The Flatshare is written by Beth O’Leary, performed by Sinead MacInnes and Will Kirk. It is abridged by Katrin Williams and produced by Karen Holden.
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000vh53)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
Producer: Chas Watkin
MON 12:57 Weather (m000vh57)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000vh5c)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vh5h)
Slippery Ships
While at sea or in port, the hull of a ship can be an attractive new residence for all sorts or creatures. The initial slime build-up can provide a welcome mat for more and more creatures. This 'biofouling' can end up being inches think and heavy in weight as well as stopping the streamlining of the vessel. The drag caused can result in more fuel being needed to keep the ship moving forwards at the same speed - more cost and more carbon.
Tom Heap meets a new stowaway on ships which will help fight the build up. Paint company Jotun has now developed the Hullskater robot. Monitoring of conditions will alert when the robot needs to be deployed on missions - with its magnetic wheels and high definition cameras it inspects the surface and uses brushes to remove the build up.
With an increasing fleet of ships, Dr Tamsin Edwards from Kings College London also reflects on other measures to keep hulls free of build up and alternative fuels that might help the international fleet reduce its carbon impact.
Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Professor Bharathram Ganapathisubramani from the University of Southampton.
MON 14:00 Drama (m000kgt4)
Suffer Little Children
Set in rural Austria. On her 80th birthday, an old woman recounts a life of sacrifice, and weighs up its value. The Austrian production of this dark and disturbing play won Best single drama in last year's Prix Europa.
Woman ..... Maggie Steed
Written by Gabriele Kögl
Literal translation by Michael Hastik
Adapted and directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound by Anne Bunting
MON 14:45 The Why Factor (b07krycs)
Series 3
Addiction
Mike Williams investigates the biochemistry of the brain’s reward system in an effort to detect the cause of addiction. How can things which initially bring such pleasure become such a destructive force? Mike talks to scientists and former addicts who speak frankly as he searches for some answers.
Presenter: Mike Williams
Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Andrew Smith
First broadcast on the BBC World Service.
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m000vh5m)
Programme 8, 2021
(8/12)
Tom Sutcliffe asks the questions, as Wales try to avenge their defeat at the hands of Northern Ireland earlier this season. Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards play for Wales, against Freya McClements and Paddy Duffy of Northern Ireland.
There's a generous helping of questions suggested by listeners this week, and as usual the programme ends with a teaser you can puzzle over between now and the next episode.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000vgf4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:33 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 James Baldwin’s Last Amen (m000v9b3)
The work of the American writer James Baldwin gained a new audience in the months following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Europe and the USA.
His observations on race, power and black identity, featured in clips from 1960s chat shows, were widely shared on social media. A spirited performance in a 1965 Cambridge Union debate titled The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro is now considered a landmark moment.
But in the late 1980s, Baldwin's light was fading, and he was living a quiet life in the south of France when theatre producer and director Anton Phillips of Carib Theatre decided to revive his 1954 play The Amen Corner at London's Tricycle Theatre. It transferred to London's Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue - becoming the first all black production to transfer from Fringe to the West End.
At Phillips' invitation, Baldwin made the trip to London to meet the cast in final rehearsals and see the production open.
During the visit he stayed with one of the cast, Clarke Peters, and gave Joan Bakewell what would be one of his last interviews. He died a few months later in December 1987.
In this programme, Clarke Peters recalls that landmark 1987 production, his relationship with "Jimmy", and the lasting legacy of an extraordinary and insightful writer.
Producer: Rosemary Laryea
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m000vh5t)
Dante's Inferno
This year marks the 700th anniversary of the death of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. He is best known as the author of 'The Divine Comedy' which describes his journey through Hell and Purgatory, until he finally reaches Paradise. But it is 'Inferno', containing gruesome descriptions of Hell, that has captured the popular imagination and it is this first part of 'The Divine Comedy' that Ernie Rea discusses with Professor Akash Kumar and Dr Paula Nasti.
Ernie also interviews jazz saxophonist and composer Sherman Irby about his jazz ballet score based on Dante's Inferno.
Producer: Helen Lee
MON 17:00 PM (m000vh5y)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vh62)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m000vh68)
Series 86
Episode 10
Jo Brand hosts a special episode of Just a Minute where she challenges guests Julian Clary, Gyles Brandreth, Tony Hawks and shappi khorsandi to talk on the subjects of her choice for 60 seconds. Hesitation, deviation, and repetition are strictly forbidden. This episode was produced using remote recording technology, with both panel and audience joining 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 (m000vghr)
Ben makes a surprising confession and Justin finds himself with a new nemesis.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000vh6d)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music. Producer: Alice Feinstein.
MON 19:45 The Shadow Over Innsmouth (m000vh6h)
Episode 11
A foggy seafront town where something's coming from the water. An ancient cult, a stranger with a bandaged face and a body in a shallow grave. The story continues.
True-life mystery podcasters Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher return and this time the story is Kennedy Fisher.
A simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility has taken them from Rhode Island to Iraq, to the Suffolk countryside – as they realised that everything uncovered in season one threaded through to season two. But towards the end of 'The Whisperer In Darkness', the investigation turned inward as Kennedy discovered a possible family connection to the uncovered conspiracy. And evidence forces Heawood to question Kennedy’s account of her time in Iraq. As Kennedy heads off to Innsmouth, to look into her apparently spooky ancestry, Heawood is going to Iraq to find an answer to the most disturbing of all questions; could Kennedy be a killer?
Both make life-changing discoveries as the two investigations come together, just as the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world.
Episode Six: "Saint Germain"
MATTHEW HEAWOOD ................Barnaby Kay
KENNEDY FISHER...........................Jana Carpenter
ELEANOR PECK...............................Nicola Walker
PARKER...............................................Phoebe Fox
WILMARTH ......................................Mark Bazeley
SLIDE...................................................Ferdinand Kingsley
SOUND....................................................David Thomas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR......Sarah Tombling
PRODUCER............................................Karen Rose
MUSIC....................................................Tim Elsenburg
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julian Simpson
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:00 The Past Returns to Gdańsk (m000vh4f)
Journalist Michael Segalov traces the story of his Jewish grandfather, who fled Gdańsk before World War Two. Should he reclaim his own lost citizenship? And why is this history so politically fraught in Poland today?
Michael’s grandfather, Oskar, returned home from school one day in 1937 to be told that the family were leaving Gdańsk (then Danzig). His parents told him they were going away for a wedding, but in fact they were fleeing the growing Nazi threat. By the end of the war, the Jewish community of the city had been completely destroyed and Oskar never saw many of his friends and family again.
Over 80 years later, Oskar died a proud British citizen, having never fully opened up to Michael about this traumatic period in his life. Now, Michael heads to Gdańsk to investigate his family’s past and to think about claiming citizenship. But he quickly learns that the past is far from dead in Poland.
Pawel Machcewicz, the founder of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, explains why he was forced out. Michal Samet, leader of the Jewish community in the city, describes recent antisemitic attacks and the fear that history is repeating itself. Ruth Wodak, expert on the far-right, analyses the role that national memory plays in the politics of the present across Europe. Donna Swarthout and Francois Guesnet explore complex questions of citizenship and live-wire history.
Producer: Dave Anderson
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m000v99z)
Kenya's Unhappy Doctors and Nurses
All over the world, frontline workers have paid the ultimate price during the pandemic. But in Kenya the story of one young doctor’s heroism has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. 28-year old Stephen Mogusu died from Covid 19 in December after working on an isolation ward and complaining he lacked adequate protective clothing. Despite his vital service, he hadn’t been paid for five months. Stephen’s tragedy exposes a wider malaise in Kenya’s health system: A corruption scandal involving overpriced masks, aprons and other protective clothing. Meanwhile, across the country, a series of on-off strikes have disrupted care, as doctors, nurses and clinicians made sporadic protests against mismanagement and a devolved power structure they say is dysfunctional. As Kenya continues to battle against the virus, Lucy Ash finds out what’s ailing Kenya’s healthcare system.
Produced by Michael Gallagher. Editor, Bridget Harney
MON 21:00 A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity (m000v7pj)
The Future
In the concluding episode of his exploration of how energy drove human history, Justin Rowlatt looks at the monumental challenge of weaning ourselves off fossil fuels.
Solar and wind could meet all of humanity’s energy needs, but can we switch over before climate disaster strikes?
Fortunately we have the means at our disposal, according to clean-tech enthusiast and investor Ramez Naam. Our fossil-fuelled global economy has enabled a rapid collapse in the cost of renewable energy and electric vehicles.
And now we are seeing a snowballing of government action to decarbonise our economies, according to UN climate negotiator Christiana Figueres. But many problems remain. Energy historian Vaclav Smil points out that we still have no easy way to store renewable energy, or use it to make billions of tons of cement and steel. Sheffield-based ITM Power hope that their green hydrogen could solve many of these problems. Plus electricity historian Julie Cohn says another option might be to build a global electricity grid.
Producer: Laurence Knight
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt
Studio manager: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Zoe Gelber
Editor: Rosamund Jones
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000vh4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000vh6p)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm3j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m000v91g)
Romance Fraud
Dr Elisabeth Carter talks to Michael about the language used by fraudsters who fake romantic relationships online for monetary gain
Producer Sally Heaven
Further information and help.
Action Fraud provide a central point of contact for information about fraud and financially motivated internet crime.
Phone: 0300 123 2040 www.actionfraud.police.uk
Victim Support provides emotional and practical help to victims or witnesses of any crime, whether or not it has been reported to the police.
Phone: 0808 16 89 111 (24/7) www.victimsupport.org.uk
Victim Support NI offers emotional and practical support to all victims and witnesses of crime across Northern Ireland.
Phone: 028 9024 3133 www.victimsupportni.com
Victim Support Scotland offers emotional and practical support to all victims and witnesses of crime across Scotland.
Phone: 0800 160 1985 (Mon-Fri
8am-
8pm). www.victimsupportsco.org.uk
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vh6t)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
TUESDAY 27 APRIL 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000vh6y)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jp2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vh72)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vh76)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vh7b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000vh7g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000vh7l)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.
Good morning.
‘Everyone in’ was the campaign to provide accommodation for homeless people at the start of pandemic.
It also raised the public expectation of longer-term solutions for that proportion of our population overlooked by the mantra ‘stay at home’.
As for most clergy, staying at home confined me and my wife to the house that goes with my parish: a warm, dry, spacious property with plenty of garden.
Minor grumbles are rightly countered by Christ’s famous words:
Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
But in John’s Gospel there’s a reference to home I find far more unsettling.
Immediately prior to his arrest, Jesus makes the withering pronouncement on his disciples:
The hour… has come when you will be scattered, each one to his home.
It’s like the protagonist in John Banville’s novel The Sea, who recognises with shame how the greater part of his energies was always given over
to the simple search for shelter, for comfort, for cosiness.
“Before I saw myself as something of a buccaneer,” he says “facing all-comers with a cutlass in my teeth, but now I am compelled to acknowledge that this was a delusion.
To be concealed, protected, guarded, that is all I have ever truly wanted…”
While staying at home has plainly helped keep people alive, getting out again will be equally essential to prolong all our living.
Lord hear our prayer for those
who will not wake up this morning in their own home or anyone else’s.
For the rest of us
draw us out of our nests again, safely and sensibly
to the wonder of the world which is all of our oysters. Amen
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000vh7q)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45m5)
Egyptian Goose
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the Egyptian goose. Although Egyptian geese are common throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and in Egypt, they are now officially a British bird. These striking birds attracted the attention of wildfowl collectors and the first geese were brought to the UK in the 17th century. By the 1960's it became obvious that the geese were breeding in the wild in East Anglia and since then they've spread in south and eastern England.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000vggw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000vgh0)
Jane Clarke on Protein Folding
Professor Jane Clarke has had a fascinating double career. Having been a science teacher for many years, she didn’t start her research career until she was 40. Today she is a world-leading expert in molecular biophysics and, in particular, in how protein molecules in the body fold up into elaborate 3D structures, that only then, enables them to carry out their roles. How they do this has been one of the fundamental questions in biology and the key to combating some of our most challanging diseases caused by the misfolding of proteins.
Jane talks about her journey, from Tottenham schoolteacher to Cambridge Professor and fellow of the Royal Society, and how, despite the obstacles she’s encountered along the way, she’s always been driven by her passion to understand both the mystery of the machinery of life.
Producer: Adrian Washbourne
TUE 09:30 One to One (m000vgh2)
OCD: Tuppence Middleton talks to David Adam
Actress Tuppence Middleton has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It's not something she's really talked about before, except with a therapist. That is, until now. In this series, she's on a mission to find out more about the disorder - and herself - and to bust some myths along the way.
Today, she talks journalist David Adam, writer of the best-selling book 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop' with the strap-line 'OCD and the true story of a life lost in thought.' David's OCD was triggered by an illogical obsession with contracting HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. He says each era has its "bogeyman". What might this mean for people today, in the age of coronavirus?
Photo credit: Robert Harper. Producer: Becky Ripley.
TUE 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jmt3)
7. A Call for Help
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis, gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
Today, the Post Office is standing firm in the face of political pressure, and Nick explores an explosive intervention from an unlikely source - the sub-postmasters' own union.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
With Sound Design from Emma Barnaby and Story Editing from Alexis Hood.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000vgh6)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 10:45 Amongst Women by John McGahern (m000jgb7)
Episode 7
Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.
The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.
Writer ..... John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ..... Celia de Wolff
TUE 11:00 Dare to Repair (m000vgh8)
How We Broke the Future
We love our electronic gadgets, gizmos and appliances. But when it comes to repairing and caring for them, UK citizens are second only to Norway when it comes to producing electronic waste. We have a culture of buying single-use, throwaway, cheaper-the-better, irreparable electronic goods. But the Age of Consumerism is over. If the kettles, toasters, phones and fridges we buy aren’t made to be repairable, and aren’t repaired, we are going to run out of things to buy, stuff to make them from and money to buy them with. Dare to Repair explores how we got to this unsustainable state, explores the fightback, whether it’s through global legislation or individual groups, and empowers listeners to prolong the life of their electronics and mechanical goods by fixing them.
Episode 1- How We Broke the Future
Materials scientist Professor Mark Miodownik of UCL looks back to the start of the electronics revolution to find out why our electronic gadgets and household goods are less durable and harder to repair now. As he attempts to fix his digital clock radio, he reveals that the drive for cheaper stuff and advances in design and manufacturing have left us with a culture of throwaway technology and mountains of electronic waste.
Presenter - Mark Miodownik
Producer - Fiona Roberts
TUE 11:30 Britain in Ten Operas (m000pp80)
Football and Fishermen
Renowned baritone Roderick Williams picks his top ten highlights from over three centuries of opera in Britain and discovers what our opera story can tell us about British identity.
Britain has often held an ambivalent attitude towards opera. At many points over the last 350 years, sung dramas have spoken to and for a mass audience. At other times we’ve viewed opera as elitist and foreign. In this three-part series we'll see how, throughout that history, the changing place of opera in British culture tells a revealing story about who we are.
In this final episode, Roderick homes in on the 1990s, when the Three Tenors took the sounds of classical opera into the popular mainstream, and he looks at why Benjamin Britten's uneasy tale of a lonely outsider connected so powerfully with British audiences after the Second World War.
With contributions from: musicologist Suzanne Aspden, conductor Sir Mark Elder, sopranos Soraya Mafi and Danielle de Niese, Barbican director Sir Nicholas Kenyon, musicologist Alexandra Wilson, popular culture historian Martin Johnes, baritone Sir Thomas Allen, musicologist Susan Rutherfork, performance historian Eleanor Lybeck, and members of Streetwise Opera.
Produced in Cardiff by Chris Taylor and Amelia Parker
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000vhhr)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm5p)
Episode 7
Broke and broken-hearted Tiffy needs a cheap flat, fast. Night-shift worker Leon needs a flatmate fast. But his place has only got one bedroom, so there’s only one solution. Tiffy gets the bed at night and Leon sleeps there in the day. And they don’t ever even need to meet, insists Leon’s girlfriend Kay. Them’s the rules.
But as Tiffy and Leon's Post-It note chats about crocheted scarves and mushroom stroganoffs grow ever more frequent and intense, so does their curiosity about eachother. Eventually the flatshare rulebook may just need to be thrown out of the window.
The Flatshare is written by Beth O’Leary, performed by Sinead MacInnes and Will Kirk. It is abridged by Katrin Williams and produced by Karen Holden.
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000vghh)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000vghk)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000vghm)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vghp)
Logging For Good
Is logging always bad for the planet? A team from The Nature Conservancy in the United States believe they have developed a way to cut down the trees we need for construction without damaging tropical forests or adding to our carbon emissions.
Tom Heap meets Peter Ellis, the man behind Reduced Impact Logging, and his Indonesian colleagues, Purnomo and Ruslandi, who are persuading the foresters of Borneo to take up the new techniques.
Back in the UK, climate scientist, Tamsin Edwards joins Tom to crunch the numbers- how much carbon dioxide could these ideas save?
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Professor David Coomes from the University of Cambridge and to Professor Michelle Pinard and Professor David Burslem from the University of Aberdeen.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000vghr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 McLevy (b07x6j4s)
Series 12
Ep 4. The Last Goodbye
Victorian detective drama starring Brian Cox and Siobhan Redmond.
Written by David Ashton.
Episode four: The Last Goodbye.
A saboteur at the docks has been shot in the back and McLevy is under suspicion. In disgrace with his superiors and feeling disowned by a still-disapproving Jean, he presses on with his investigation – but, after the opening of the new docks, nothing will ever be the same again for McLevy, Jean, Mulholland and Roach.
McLevy………………………………………………….Brian Cox
Jean………………………………..……….Siobhan Redmond
Mulholland…………….....…….Michael Perceval-Maxwell
Roach………………………………..…………….David Ashton
Hannah…………………………………………….Colette O’Neil
Craddock……………………………………………..Paul Young
Lady Jane…………………………………………Melody Grove
Louis Smith……………………………………Grant O’Rourke
Lord Holland……………………………...…Jimmy Chisholm
Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000vg7d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m000vght)
Shipping
When a cargo ship blocked the Suez canal for nearly a week, the eyes of the media focussed on shipping. Hundreds of vessels were stuck as tailbacks built up at the entrance to what is one of the world's busiest trade routes. What effect does the sheer quantity of goods which we routinely move around the globe have on the environment? Are there ways of 'greening' shipping and lessening its environmental impact? In this programme, Lucy Siegle chairs a panel discussion which aims to find out.
Producer: Emma Campbell
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000vghw)
Coinages
Michael talks to Ralph Keyes about some of the unusual circumstances in which words and phrases are coined
Producer Sally Heaven
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000vghy)
KT Tunstall on Ivor Cutler
Ivor Cutler is hard to categorise. Whimsical and uncompromising, depressive yet joyful, childlike and curmudgeonly, an 'outsider', championed by insiders like Paul McCartney, he's perhaps best known for his collection 'Life in a Scotch Sitting Room Volume Two". There is no volume one.
Or his much-covered hit 1983 indie hit 'Women of the World'.
Cutler often referred to himself as a 'humourist', though his work spans music, poetry, children's books, performative and visual art. A sensitive soul and keen member of the Noise Abatement Society, he loved the small, quiet things in life - bugs, flowers, birds, small kindnesses and cups of tea. He hated chemical smells, loud noises and cars and always rode his bicycle to get around - whether peddling his harmonium to a gig to support Soft Machine or heading to Hampstead Heath to sit quietly with his notebook under a tree.
The Scottish eccentric had a distinctive style - wearing plus fours and with a flower adorning his hat. He would approach strangers offering small sticky labels with 'cutlerisms' on like "Never Knowingly Understood", "Illiterates Against the Nizis" or "Funny Smell". He was convinced that the world was absurd and met it with a unique blend of dark and daft humour, refusing to let it crush his child's eye view.
John Peel, who recorded many sessions with Ivor Cutler, once remarked that Cutler was probably the only performer whose work had been featured on Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4. He continues to inspire a cult following 15 years after his death.
Matthew Parris and nominator KT Tunstall are joined by Bruce Lindsay, currently at work on a biography of Ivor Cutler.
We also hear excerpts from interviews with Ivor's partner Phyllis King and his son Jeremy Cutler, conducted by the producer, Ellie Richold.
TUE 17:00 PM (m000vgj0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vgj4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Bridget Christie: Mortal (m000vgj6)
Death
Comedian Bridget Christie contemplates mortality: birth, life, death and the afterlife.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000vgj8)
Joy turns the tables and debate rages at Lower Loxley.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000vgjb)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music. Producer: Alice Feinstein.
TUE 19:45 The Shadow Over Innsmouth (m000vgjd)
Episode 12
A foggy seafront town where something's coming from the water. An ancient cult, a stranger with a bandaged face and a body in a shallow grave. The story continues.
True-life mystery podcasters Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher return and this time the story is Kennedy Fisher.
A simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility has taken them from Rhode Island to Iraq, to the Suffolk countryside – as they realised that everything uncovered in season one threaded through to season two. But towards the end of 'The Whisperer In Darkness', the investigation turned inward as Kennedy discovered a possible family connection to the uncovered conspiracy. And evidence forces Heawood to question Kennedy’s account of her time in Iraq. As Kennedy heads off to Innsmouth, to look into her apparently spooky ancestry, Heawood is going to Iraq to find an answer to the most disturbing of all questions; could Kennedy be a killer?
Both make life-changing discoveries as the two investigations come together, just as the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world.
Episode Six: "Saint Germain"
MATTHEW HEAWOOD ................Barnaby Kay
KENNEDY FISHER...........................Jana Carpenter
ELEANOR PECK...............................Nicola Walker
PARKER...............................................Phoebe Fox
WILMARTH ......................................Mark Bazeley
SLIDE...................................................Ferdinand Kingsley
SOUND....................................................David Thomas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR......Sarah Tombling
PRODUCER............................................Karen Rose
MUSIC....................................................Tim Elsenburg
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julian Simpson
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 20:00 After a Death (m000vgjg)
News of people being killed in knife attacks recurs with tragic regularity, but the reports rarely touch on the impact on the victim’s family and friends. In this programme Sarah O'Connell sets out to understand these ripple effects — some perhaps expected, others likely not — as she explores the case of Russell “Barty” Brown, who was stabbed to death in Bethnal Green, east London, in September 2016.
As she speaks to Barty's friends and family, to the medics who treated him and witnesses to the terrible incident, Sarah hears about the gap he has left in all their lives, and what kind of a man he was in life.
Producer: Giles Edwards
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000vgjj)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m000vgjl)
Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Catherine Loveday of Westminster University about her new research on our memories during lockdown. Have our memories really got worse during the pandemic?
And Claudia meets the first of the finalists in the All in the Mind Mental Health Awards 2021. The awards recognise the people and organisations that have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help you with your mental health. Radio 4 listeners nominated the unsung heroes and after a process of sifting through the entries, a judging panel of people with extensive experience of mental health has selected nine finalists, three from each category. The categories are Individual, Professional and Project.
Producer: Adrian Washbourne
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000vgh0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000vgjn)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000vgjq)
Multiple Jugs and Victorian Sausage-Makers, with Rosie Jones
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane return from their spring break to chat to comedian Rosie Jones. Rosie tells them about her new travel series Trip Hazard, as well as discussing her life in lockdown with her parents and whether or not she'll be buying a hotel in Bognor. Rosie's book 'The Amazing Edie Eckhart' is also coming this summer. Before their guest arrives, Fi and Jane catch up on the goings on while they were away and muse on the chances of a podcast creche any time soon.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vgjs)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000vgjv)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jmt3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vgjx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vgjz)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vgk1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000vgk3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000vgk5)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.
Good morning.
Chances are, just lately, we’ve all found ourselves seeing people we haven’t seen for a while.
When we have how near have we come to thinking or, perish the thought, even saying: you look different?
Well that’s going to start happening a lot more often, at least according to Helen Rumbelow in The Times a few weeks ago.
“The friends and colleagues we once spent our days with,” she predicts, “will suddenly reappear after rusting in the sidings.”
Her recommendation is that we practise hiding our shock.
Remembering faces can be a hit and miss business at the best of times, but on the subject of recognising people, Jesus’ closing words in the Sermon on the Mount take us way past the physical. Many will say to me, Christ foretells in St Matthew,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name,
and do many deeds of power in your name?
But Jesus will declare to them, ‘I never knew you’.
In the end, so far as Christ was concerned, it’s about a relationship with him, and the proof of that relationship, is doing the will of the Father.
I guess human nature makes it likely that, what we are slow to notice happening to ourselves in the mirror, we will be quick to notice happening to others in the flesh.
Surely what bound us to those people before though, will bind us to them still, whether we can identify them with their distinguished new features or not.
We will always know them, as God will always know those whose hearts belong to him.
Lord, you alone know us as we truly are.
Be in our reunions,
that as others change before our eyes,
we may draw closer to each other and to you,
till we see you face to face.
Amen
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000vgk7)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45pj)
Alpine Swift
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the alpine swift. Alpine swifts are impressive anchor-shaped birds, the colour of coffee above and milk-white below. In the UK Alpine swifts are annual visitors, appearing in Spring, but they don't breed here. They spend the winter in Africa and on their journey north in spring some birds overshoot their breeding areas. Alpine swifts can be seen as they arc through the skies and because they travel so fast they can turn up almost anywhere from central London to Shetland.
WED 06:00 Today (m000vh44)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m000vh46)
Jane Garvey talks to ordinary people about an extraordinary turning point in their life.
WED 09:30 Chinese Characters (b09z3f8d)
Sima Qian: Grand Historian
He wasn't quite the man who invented history in China, but he certainly shaped it for thousands of years. Author of the Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian), Sima Qian told the history of China in the 2nd century BC in way nobody had done before; interviewing participants, influencing views on who was good and bad. History has always been political in China, and Sima Qian was one of the first writers to show how that politics worked, whether the powerful liked it or not. His objectivity got him into big trouble at court - when he confronted the emperor, he was subjected to a horrific and humiliating punishment. For Sima Qian, writing history came at a price.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.
WED 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jmmx)
8. The Big Green Button
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis, gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
Today, the sub-postmasters have hit rock bottom. Working with the Post Office has failed and their last hope is a long shot lawsuit. But Nick manages to get hold of some crucial documents and a whistleblower which might make all the difference.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
With Sound Design from Emma Barnaby and Story Editing from Alexis Hood.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000vh49)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 10:45 Amongst Women by John McGahern (m000jf8h)
Episode 8
Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.
The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.
Writer ..... John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ..... Celia de Wolff
WED 11:00 The Past Returns to Gdańsk (m000vh4f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On (b09jvvny)
Series 2
Birdwatching
Susan Calman is the least relaxed person she knows. She has no down time, no hobbies (unless you count dressing up your cats in silly outfits) and her idea of relaxation is to sit on her sofa playing Assassin's Creed, an hour into which she is in a murderous rage with sky high blood pressure. Her wife had to threaten to divorce her to make her go on holiday, and she's been told by the same long-suffering wife that unless she finds a way to switch off, and soon, she's going to be unbearable.
Susan decided her best bet was to try to immerse herself in the pursuits that her friends find relaxing, to find her inner zen and outer tranquillity. In the first series of this show she attempted to ditch the old Susan Calman and attempted to find the new Susan Calm, by watching Cricket; going Hillwalking; visiting an Art Gallery and being spontaneous. She enjoyed these pursuits, but all too soon found herself slipping back into her old ways. So she's trying again. This week she goes birdwatching with the writer and comedian Emma Kennedy.
In other episodes Susan will learn about gardening with Val McDermid, go to a music festival with Robin Ince and try baking with the Great British Bake Off's Selasi Gbormittah.
Keep Calman Carry On is an audience stand up show in which Susan reports on how successful she's been - both at relaxing and at the pursuit itself - as well as playing in and discussing a handful of illustrative clips from her efforts. It's an attempt to find out how people find solace or sanctuary in these worlds and how Susan can negotiate her own place in them.
Written by Susan Calman and Jon Hunter.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000vh4k)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm72)
Episode 8
Broke and broken-hearted Tiffy needs a cheap flat, fast. Night-shift worker Leon needs a flatmate fast. But his place has only got one bedroom, so there’s only one solution. Tiffy gets the bed at night and Leon sleeps there in the day. And they don’t ever even need to meet, insists Leon’s girlfriend Kay. Them’s the rules.
But as Tiffy and Leon's Post-It note chats about crocheted scarves and mushroom stroganoffs grow ever more frequent and intense, so does their curiosity about eachother. Eventually the flatshare rulebook may just need to be thrown out of the window.
The Flatshare is written by Beth O’Leary, performed by Sinead MacInnes and Will Kirk. It is abridged by Katrin Williams and produced by Karen Holden.
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000vh4r)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000vh4w)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000vh50)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vh54)
Cutting the Cow Burps
Cattle emit huge quantities of planet-warming methane. But they can be stopped! Tom Heap meets Eileen Wall from SRUC, Scotland's Rural College who introduces him to a host of cunning carbon-cutting ideas- from seaweed in the feed and gas masks for cows to barns that can convert methane into energy to power the farm.
Tom is joined by Tamsin Edwards of King's College, London to calculate just how much difference these ideas might make to our warming Earth. Are those the best answers or should we all be persuaded to cut our meat consumption?
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Professor Vincent Gauci of University of Birmingham and to Dr Michelle Cain of Cranfield University.
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000vgj8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m0002m3c)
Daphne & Apollo
Written by Joey Christie
Daphne falls wildly in love and in six short months loses everything. She then attempts to fight for justice...but can she get her voice heard?
This moving story is told as a ‘fictional-documentary’, with actors interviewed in character and responding with semi-improvised performances.
Daphne....Hannah Boyde
Annie....Hannah Ringham
Joe....Philip Jackson
Laura....Grainne Byrne
Gavin....Adam Deacon
Directed by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans
Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000vh58)
Dementia & Money
Adam Shaw looks at dementia and money.
Producer Smita Patel
Editor Alex Lewis
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m000vgjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000vh5d)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000vh5j)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media with Amol Rajan.
WED 17:00 PM (m000vh5n)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vh5s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Alone (m000vh5x)
Series 3
Man Down
A sitcom about five single, middle aged neighbours living in flats in a converted house in North London .- written by Moray Hunter and starring Angus Deayton, Abigail Cruttenden, Pearce Quigley, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron,
Mitch (Angus Deayton) is a widower and part-time therapist who is looking to put his life back together now that he is single and living with Will (Pearce Quigley), his younger, more volatile and unhappily divorced half-brother. Elsewhere in the building are schoolteacher Ellie (Abigail Cruttenden) who is shy, nervous and holds a secret candle for Mitch. Overly honest, frustrated actress Louisa (Kate Isitt), and socially inept IT nerd Morris (Bennett Arron) complete the line-up of mis-matched neighbours.
In the fourth episode, Man Down, Will loses out on a job and resolves to improve himself and turn his life around, Louisa loses touch with reality over a promising work offer, Morris loses his phone, while Ellie seems to lose the plot altogether with Mitch.
Cast:
Angus Deayton- Mitch
Abigail Cruttenden- Ellie
Pearce Quigley- Will
Kate Isitt- Louisa
Bennett Arron- Morris
Created and Written by Moray Hunter
Script Edited by Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Directed by Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
Recorded and Edited by Jerry Peal
Production Manager: Sarah Tombling
Based on an original idea developed in association with Dandy Productions
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000vh61)
Lilian gets her hands dirty and Eddie springs a surprise.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000vh66)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music. Producer: Alice Feinstein.
WED 19:45 The Shadow Over Innsmouth (m000vh6c)
Episode 13
A foggy seafront town where something's coming from the water. An ancient cult, a stranger with a bandaged face and a body in a shallow grave. The story continues.
True-life mystery podcasters Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher return and this time the story is Kennedy Fisher.
A simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility has taken them from Rhode Island to Iraq, to the Suffolk countryside – as they realised that everything uncovered in season one threaded through to season two. But towards the end of 'The Whisperer In Darkness', the investigation turned inward as Kennedy discovered a possible family connection to the uncovered conspiracy. And evidence forces Heawood to question Kennedy’s account of her time in Iraq. As Kennedy heads off to Innsmouth, to look into her apparently spooky ancestry, Heawood is going to Iraq to find an answer to the most disturbing of all questions; could Kennedy be a killer?
Both make life-changing discoveries as the two investigations come together, just as the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world.
Barnaby Kay and Jana Carpenter star in writer/director Julian Simpson’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired universe.
Episode Seven: "Rubaiyat"
MATTHEW HEAWOOD ................Barnaby Kay
KENNEDY FISHER...........................Jana Carpenter
ELEANOR PECK................................Nicola Walker
PARKER...............................................Phoebe Fox
JASPER................................................Steven Mackintosh
SLIDE...................................................Ferdinand Kingsley
AKELEY ....................................... ......David Calder
SOUND....................................................David Thomas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR......Sarah Tombling
PRODUCER............................................Karen Rose
MUSIC.....................................................Tim Elsenburg
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julian Simpson
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
WED 20:00 Life Changing (m000vh46)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 20:30 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
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m000vght)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000vh5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000vh6j)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Athena's Cancel Culture (m000vh6n)
Episode 4
Over the last few years, if a celebrity has ever said or done anything remotely controversial, then they've probably been cancelled. Largely performed through social media, some describe it as necessary evil to help democratise the internet and reflect the expectancy of an artist’s audience, for others it’s just a chance to shut up gobby celebs!
Whatever your view, it certainly helps empower fans by diminishing celebrity cultural capital and helping keep their egos and opinions in check. It's a growing phenomenon that's left almost no one unscathed, from comedians and actors to musicians and TV hosts. It’s also happening to the not so famous - remember the bin cat lady?
With stand up and sketch comedy, Athena explores cancel culture and the world of offence in modern times. Over four episodes, Athena will help explain the phenomenon of cancel culture among celebrities, look at the history of offence, and offer up some cancel rules for guidance. Athena then puts all that cancel knowledge to the test on her own social media activity from 10 years ago. There’s just no escape from cancel culture justice, even for Athena!
Writer and Performer: Athena Kugblenu.
Support cast: James McNicholas and Jamie-Rose Monk.
Series script editing: Sadia Azmat
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Joseph Morpurgo's Walking Tour (b09hs6ww)
Series 1
Dante's House
Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee 2015 and triple Chortle Award Winner Joseph Morpurgo presents a series of 'educational' audio adventures for BBC Radio 4.
This week we're in Florence, exploring the childhood home of Dante. This audio guide will take you on an immersive tour of Dante's greatest work: The Inferno. Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Watch your step!
Written and performed by Joseph Morpurgo, with Naomi Petersen and Jonathan Broke.
Sound design by Craig Schuftan
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vh6s)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
THURSDAY 29 APRIL 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000vh6x)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jmmx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vh71)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vh75)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vh79)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000vh7f)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000vh7k)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.
Good morning.
Bloodlands, the Northern Ireland set police drama prompted a number of relatives and friends farther afield to contact us recently. Recognising all the locations we had visited together, they felt the show a worthy addition to the new Irish-noir corpus. But they also felt it deserved to succeed,
because like the chief character in the story, it was another instance of Northern Ireland straining for something better.
Regrettably it wasn’t long before we had real footage from some real bloodlands following some well-publicised local disturbances.
Yes, we have new structures for airing our disagreements, but for our politicians and community leaders a worrying problem has violently presented itself.
As a person of faith, I’ve found myself asking: is this what happens when people, myself included, stop praying? Because through all the years I studied, worked and holidayed away from home, I would hear Northern Ireland being prayed for. Almost every Sunday, English, Welsh and Scottish voices would lift before God the people who spoke like me.
Reflecting on it now of course, the need to intercede, work and strain for something better has never gone away. Honouring God for answered prayers and those who offered them in the past would be a good place to restart. But not out of place too just now, is sorrow and a touch of shame – in the spirit of Psalm 122’s ancient prayer for Jerusalem:
So we lift before you again Lord,
those places where brokenness makes for bitterness,
where deprivation makes for desperation
and where fear makes for fighting.
Peace be within your walls and, security within your towers
for the sake of my relatives and friends and the house of the Lord our God.
Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000vh7p)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09dxz18)
Dermot O'Leary on the Coal Tit
Since his early teens, presenter Dermot O'Leary has into birdlife and from his kitchen in Central London he loves gazing into the garden and watching the effort small birds like the coal tit put in as they troop back and forth from the bird feeders.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photo: Tom McKibbin.
THU 06:00 Today (m000vhk1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000vhk5)
Ovid
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43BC-17/18AD) who, as he described it, was destroyed by 'carmen et error', a poem and a mistake. His works have been preserved in greater number than any of the poets of his age, even Virgil, and have been among the most influential. The versions of many of the Greek and Roman myths we know today were his work, as told in his epic Metamorphoses and, together with his works on Love and the Art of Love, have inspired and disturbed readers from the time they were created. Despite being the most prominent poet in Augustan Rome at the time, he was exiled from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea Coast where he remained until he died. It is thought that the 'carmen' that led to his exile was the Art of Love, Ars Amatoria, supposedly scandalising Augustus, but the 'error' was not disclosed.
With
Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College London
Gail Trimble
Brown Fellow and Tutor in Classics at Trinity College at the University of Oxford
And
Dunstan Lowe
Senior Lecturer in Latin Literature at the University of Kent
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jn9l)
9. Extremely Aggressive Litigation
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis, gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
Today, Alan Bates and the sub-postmasters reach the High Court, and the Post Office’s secrets start to tumble out one by one.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
With Sound Design from Emma Barnaby and Story Editing from Alexis Hood.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000vhk9)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 10:45 Amongst Women by John McGahern (m000jgh0)
Episode 9
Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.
The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.
Writer ..... John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ..... Celia de Wolff
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000vhkc)
Drug Free in Norway
Can Norwegians with psychosis benefit from radical, drug-free treatment? In a challenge to the foundations of western psychiatry, a handful of Norway’s mental health facilities are offering medication-free treatment to people with serious psychiatric conditions. But five years after the scheme began it is still being questioned by the health establishment. For Crossing Continents, Lucy Proctor hears the testimony of Norwegian psychiatric patients, and the doctors who have aligned themselves on either side of the debate. Why is this happening in Norway? And how much power should people with debilitating psychosis have over their own lives?
Presenter: Lucy Proctor
Producer: Linda Pressly
Editor: Bridget Harney
THU 11:30 Dancers at Dawn (m000vhkf)
On the 1st May 1987 Martin Green’s dad takes him Morris dancing before dawn on Wandlebury Hill outside Cambridgeshire. Many years later, at sunrise on his twenty-third birthday, he walks home from a rave over this same hill.
This uncanny coincidence has got him thinking. To most people, Morris dancing and [raving] rave culture seem so far apart. We like to think we know what sorts of people do what. So, what do these two groups have in common that drives them out into the fields to dance at dawn?
As an accordionist, producer and storyteller, Martin’s own work lives somewhere between traditional music, electronic music and theatre. In 2020 he made a piece of audio theatre that linked the ancient traditions of English dancing to the birth of rave in the 1980s, which led him to draw on events from his own life, of dawn Morris dancing and sunrise raves. This documentary explores those themes. Why do we dance at dawn? Is there an innate desire to do so?
Recollecting his experiences with his father and rave friend Becky, Martin uncovers the traditions and rituals surrounding each activity. He speaks to others who have danced at dawn and seeks expert advice from [the] DJ Lee Burridge, who’s famous for his full moon parties in Thailand and sunrise sets at Burning Man festival.
Taking all this experience on board, Martin undertakes a solo experiment. Removing all people and connections he drives on his own, in the dark to a remote field near his house with a mission. He wants to find out what it is about the music, the dancing and the surroundings that makes dancing at dawn truly special.
Produced by Rebecca Gaskell
Photography by Sandy Butler
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000vhs8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm8n)
Episode 9
Broke and broken-hearted Tiffy needs a cheap flat, fast. Night-shift worker Leon needs a flatmate fast. But his place has only got one bedroom, so there’s only one solution. Tiffy gets the bed at night and Leon sleeps there in the day. And they don’t ever even need to meet, insists Leon’s girlfriend Kay. Them’s the rules.
But as Tiffy and Leon's Post-It note chats about crocheted scarves and mushroom stroganoffs grow ever more frequent and intense, so does their curiosity about eachother. Eventually the flatshare rulebook may just need to be thrown out of the window.
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000vhkl)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000vhkn)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000vhkq)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vhks)
Bamboo Is Better
Fast-growing bamboo has gone in and out of fashion but is now being seen as a possible climate hero. Its capacity to absorb carbon is enhanced by how densely it can be grown, the speed and its regrowth after harvesting - a great advantage over trees.
Tom Heap meets Arief Rabiek from the Environmental Bamboo Foundation based in Indonesia. He's working to restore degraded land by planting bamboo which can be managed by communities on a forest to factory system. The harvested product can be used for building structures and furniture through to vases baskets and clothing. He wants to expand the project to nine other countries to bring economic and environmental benefits but are some uses better than others? Dr Tamsin Edwards helps evaluate the scope of bamboo as a solution.
Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Professor Vincent Gauci of the University of Birmingham.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000vh61)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0003ktf)
The Cairn
By Donna Franceschild.
Sometimes scattering ashes stirs up more than just grief.
A witty and moving drama set on the Kintyre Peninsula by Donna Franceschild.
Cast:
Agim …Nebli Basani
Eilidh …Fiona MacNeil
Arlene … Olivia Morgan
Isla ... Rosie Smith
Wilma … Gerda Stevenson
Alex …Paul Young
Directed by Kirsty Williams
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000vhkv)
Tales from the Black Mountains
Travel writer Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent moved to a cottage deep in the Welsh Black Mountains at the end of October last year, arriving just two hours before lockdown began. She’s pretty much been in lockdown since that day so, unable to go anywhere or see people, has spent the months exploring the mountains from her new front door. She’s walked hundreds of miles, OS map in hand, exploring this new landscape - its ancient sites, high ridges, wooded valleys and peaty uplands. Antonia immerses us in this place and its wildlife, and hears stories from her new neighbours - people who know every crease of the hills and every bird call, as well as the area's history, myths and legends. While reflecting on this exploration, she explores the process of the unknown becoming home.
Producer: Sophie Anton
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000vgdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000vgfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000vhkx)
Film programme looking at the latest cinema releases, DVDs and films on TV.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000vhkz)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000vhl1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vhl5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Rich Hall's (US) Breakdown (m000vhl7)
Rich Hall’s First 100 Days Breakdown
Comedian Rich Hall is joined by Nick Doody to look at the first 100 days of the Biden presidency via the stylings of an American radio talk show.
Producer...Hayley Sterling
Production Coordinator...Sarah Sharpe
A BBC Studios Production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000vhl9)
Writers, Sarah Mcdonald-Hughes and Daniel Thurman
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer ... Ben Norris
David Archer ... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ... Felicity Finch
Lilian Bellamy ... Sunny Ormonde
Lee Bryce ... Ryan Early
Alice Carter ... Hollie Chapman
Vince Casey ... Tony Turner
Ruairi Donovan ... Arthur Hughes
Justin Elliott ... Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother ... Nick Barber
Ed Grundy ... Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ... Trevor Harrison
Mia Grundy ... Molly Pipe
Jakob Hakansson ... Paul Venables
Joy Horville ... Jackie Lye
Kate Madikane ... Perdita Avery
Kirsty Miller ... Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ... Toby Laurence
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000vhlc)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music. Producer: Alice Feinstein.
THU 19:45 The Shadow Over Innsmouth (m000vhlf)
Episode 14
A foggy seafront town where something's coming from the water. An ancient cult, a stranger with a bandaged face and a body in a shallow grave. The story continues.
True-life mystery podcasters Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher return and this time the story is Kennedy Fisher.
A simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility has taken them from Rhode Island to Iraq, to the Suffolk countryside – as they realised that everything uncovered in season one threaded through to season two. But towards the end of 'The Whisperer In Darkness', the investigation turned inward as Kennedy discovered a possible family connection to the uncovered conspiracy. And evidence forces Heawood to question Kennedy’s account of her time in Iraq. As Kennedy heads off to Innsmouth, to look into her apparently spooky ancestry, Heawood is going to Iraq to find an answer to the most disturbing of all questions; could Kennedy be a killer?
Both make life-changing discoveries as the two investigations come together, just as the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world.
Barnaby Kay and Jana Carpenter star in writer/director Julian Simpson’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired universe.
Episode Seven: "Rubaiyat"
MATTHEW HEAWOOD ................Barnaby Kay
KENNEDY FISHER...........................Jana Carpenter
ELEANOR PECK................................Nicola Walker
PARKER...............................................Phoebe Fox
JASPER................................................Steven Mackintosh
SLIDE...................................................Ferdinand Kingsley
AKELEY ....................................... ......David Calder
SOUND....................................................David Thomas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR......Sarah Tombling
PRODUCER............................................Karen Rose
MUSIC.....................................................Tim Elsenburg
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julian Simpson
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000vhlh)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 The Untold (m000vh4q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Monday]
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000vhkz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000vhk5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000vhll)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hm8n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Geoff Norcott: It's OK to Change Your Mind (m000vhln)
Don't worry, Geoff hasn't suddenly become a raging Socialist.
But one consequence of Covid is that the right wing comedian, like many people, has had his most solid convictions challenged repeatedly by events.
A lot of Geoff's long-held beliefs have been challenged by a politically and culturally turbulent twelve months; it can be confusing to have a supposedly right-wing government locking us at home and getting cheered on by large parts of the left, and it's a lot harder for Geoff to explain why he believes in a small state when the government is in the process of successfully rolling out a vaccine.
People ask Geoff if he regrets voting for a Conservative government but, looking at the casual attitude to debt, he says he now regrets not getting one!
It’s not just politics. Has the police's main role become to question why people are sitting down on benches while standing back from actual riots? As beliefs get challenged, statues fall and breakfast TV presenters get cancelled, Geoff pauses to take it all in.
This show is his attempt to get to grips with what happens to convictions and ideology when a pandemic comes along and turns everything on its head.
Producer: Alison Vernon-Smith
Sound Engineer: David Thomas
Production Co-ordinators: Sarah Tombling, Sarah Wright, Jacob Tombling
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vhlq)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRIDAY 30 APRIL 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000vhls)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jn9l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000vhlv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000vhlx)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m000vhlz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000vhm1)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000vhm3)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Canon Simon Doogan.
Good morning.
‘God the rock star’ was a piece in The Economist kindly sent to me recently by my father-in-law. It explored the claim that, with its new broadcast audiences, lockdown has turned religion into a winner-takes-all business.
Those churches which can offer a slicker, more polished online worship experience may fare better than those which simply can’t.
Granted, the joy of reopening church doors over the last few weeks has been widely accompanied by relief at seeing people walk through them again.
But regardless of how tech savvy or social media friendly churches are, that Economist article felt its way to a closing quotation which at one level
will resonate with many in Christian ministry:
“The hand of God and the invisible hand,”
“sometimes seem to work wonderfully well together.”
The Invisible Hand is Adam Smith’s metaphor for the unintended greater social benefits and public good which flow when individuals act in their own self-interests.Well undeniably for believers, the remembering, the phoning and the checking-in on, the deliveries made, the errands run, and the practical, extra-mile kindnesses have all born real spiritual fruit over this season.
Yet I would say that what’s borne even more fruit has been reaching out to those beyond our immediate families of faith. Some give freely, yet grow all the richer… as Proverbs puts it. A generous person will be enriched… one who gives water will get water.
Lord, glad as we have been for virtual services,
we ask today for more opportunities for the actual service
which is the hallmark of every true follower of Christ,
to keep people connected, to energise local communities,
and to envision people and nations.
Amen
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000vhm5)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x45r3)
Little Ringed Plover
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the little ringed plover. In 1938, there was great excitement at a Hertfordshire reservoir. On the gravelly shoreline a pair of birds, which had never bred in the UK before, were showing signs of nesting. They were little ringed plovers, summer visitors to Continental Europe and they'd been attracted to the reservoirs' shingle banks where they laid their clutch of four eggs. Today there are around a thousand pairs in the UK.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000vjmz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m000vgdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m000jpg3)
10. What the Hell Had Happened?
After the introduction of a new computer system in the early 2000s, the Post Office began using its data to accuse sub-postmasters of falsifying accounts and stealing money. Many were fired and financially ruined; others were prosecuted and even put behind bars.
In this ten-part series, journalist Nick Wallis, gets right to the heart of the story, as he talks to those whose lives were shattered and follows the twists and turns of a David and Goliath battle as the sub-postmasters tried to fight back.
In the series finale, the sub-postmasters’ litigation comes to an end - but not everyone is happy. Nick asks what should happen next for the Post Office, and there’s a breathtaking revelation from the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: David Prest
With Sound Design from Emma Barnaby and Story Editing from Alexis Hood.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000vjn5)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 10:45 Amongst Women by John McGahern (m000jhpq)
Episode 10
Michael Moran’s life was forever transformed by his days of glory in the War of Independence. Now, a farmer in the Irish countryside, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past. However, as he grows older, his wife and daughters must confront how their own lives have been irrevocably shaped by this complicated and contradictory man.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of ‘Amongst Women’, widely considered to be the author’s masterpiece. This intimate story of a family living on the Irish border, under the thumb of a former soldier turned tyrant in his own home, has never been more relevant.
The Author
John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the West of Ireland. He was a graduate of University College, Dublin. He worked as a Primary School teacher and held various academic posts at universities in Britain, Ireland and America. In the opinion of the Observer, John McGahern was 'Ireland's greatest living novelist'. He was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, and was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Produced by Celia de Wolff for BBC Northern Ireland.
Writer ..... John McGahern
Abridger ..... John McGahern
Reader ..... Lloyd Hutchinson
Producer ..... Celia de Wolff
FRI 11:00 Prison Break (m000vjn7)
Episode 2: Who is prison for?
Former 'prison wife' Josie Bevan continues her interrogation of the UK penal system by talking with some of those who've been most affected by it.
She meets John Crilly, now the proud holder of a degree in law from the Open University, but formerly an addict who served 13 years for manslaughter. Josie also talks with Donna whose brother Tommy's mental health deteriorated dramatically while serving an IPP, an indeterminate sentence with no fixed end. The early experiences of both John and Tommy mirror each other and the 'prison pipeline' that can lead with alarming predictability from childhood trauma to petty crime, addiction or mental health issues and prison.
Josie's previous podcast series Prison Bag - one family's unflinching confrontation with the prison system - is available on BBC Sounds.
Produced by Rebecca Lloyd-Evans and Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 It's a Fair Cop (m000vjn9)
Series 6
Dog Theft
In this first episode of the brand new series, Alfie tackles the topical crime of dog theft which has seen a huge rise in cases during the COVID pandemic.
Alfie takes us back to his time with the Humberside Police when he was called out to investigate the case of a missing dog. Is this even a police matter in the first place? Is it ok to offer a reward for the safe return of the dog with "no questions asked"? Alfie and the remote audience answer these questions and more with the help of a new online voting system that keeps the listeners on their toes as they're sworn in as police officers for the duration of the show.
Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Production Co-ordinator: Beverly Tagg
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000vjsn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hmdd)
Episode 10
Broke and broken-hearted Tiffy needs a cheap flat, fast. Night-shift worker Leon needs a flatmate fast. But his place has only got one bedroom, so there’s only one solution. Tiffy gets the bed at night and Leon sleeps there in the day. And they don’t ever even need to meet, insists Leon’s girlfriend Kay. Them’s the rules.
But as Tiffy and Leon's Post-It note chats about crocheted scarves and mushroom stroganoffs grow ever more frequent and intense, so does their curiosity about eachother. Eventually the flatshare rulebook may just need to be thrown out of the window.
The Flatshare is written by Beth O’Leary, performed by Sinead MacInnes and Will Kirk. It is abridged by Katrin Williams and produced by Karen Holden.
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000vjnh)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000vjnk)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000vjnm)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Edward Stourton.
FRI 13:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vjnp)
Zero Carbon Farm
Can British farmers transform themselves into carbon-cutting heroes? Arable farmer, Duncan Farrington has worked hard to reduce the carbon emissions from his farm. He's replanted hedges and trees and cut down on diesel-powered machinery. He's even persuaded some of his staff to cycle to work. But Duncan's farm isn't just zero carbon, it's actually sucking in and locking up vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Duncan explains to Tom how he's transformed the management of his soil and proven to doubters that commercial British arable farms can play their part in cutting the planet's carbon emissions.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Dr Adrian Williams of Cranfield University and to Professor Andrew Barnes, Professor Mads Fischer-Moller and Professor Bob Rees of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000vhl9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m000vjnr)
The 100-Year-Old Backstop
Following the formation of Northern Ireland in 1921, the Boundary Commission was created to decide on the precise delineation of the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The governments of the United Kingdom, the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland were allowed to nominate one member each to the commission. Eventually Justice Richard Feetham of South Africa was appointed by the British Government as Chairman, Eoin MacNeill, Minister for Education, was appointed by the Irish Free State Government and Joseph R. Fisher, a Unionist newspaper editor, author and barrister was appointed by the British government to represent the Northern Ireland government. These three men embarked on a tour along the border, meeting with concerned locals across the province, before facing the seemingly impossible task of redrawing the contentious border which stretched over 300 miles, cutting through communities, roads and even homes.
The Writers
Michael Patrick & Oisín Kearney wrote the play ‘My Left Nut’ which they also adapted as a BBC Three series in 2020. Their recent play ‘The Alternative’ was the winner of Fishamble’s A Play for Ireland initiative. They were also part of BBC Writersroom’s ‘Belfast Voices’ 2019 development scheme.
Richard Feetham ….. Paul Kennedy
Joseph R Fisher ….. Martin Maguire
Eoin MacNeill ….. Patrick FitzSymons
Theresa ….. Abigail McGibbon
Trimble ….. Dan Gordon
O’Neill ….. Francis Mezza
Baldwin ….. Richard Croxford
Healy ….. Seamus O’Hara
Reporter ….. Michael Patrick
Writers ..... Michael Patrick & Oisín Kearney
Producer ..... Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
FRI 14:45 Chinese Characters (b09z3f8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Wednesday]
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000vjnt)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week, she's joined by regular panellists Matt Biggs, Chris Beardshaw and Anne Swithinbank to answer questions sent in by green-fingered listeners.
Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Swipe Right (m000vjnw)
Punchline by Rebecca Watson
A young woman meets "Brian". But hidden identities are not unique to the online world...
Swipe Right aptly concludes with Punchline by Rebecca Watson, one of the Observer Debut Novelists of 2021 for her book little scratch.
Reader: Ell Potter
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000vjny)
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 (m000vjp0)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations.
FRI 17:00 PM (m000vjp2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000vjp6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000vjp8)
Series 105
Episode 3
Andy Zaltzman presents a look back at the week's headlines.
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000vjpb)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music. Producer: Alice Feinstein.
FRI 19:45 The Shadow Over Innsmouth (m000vjpd)
Episode 15
A foggy seafront town where something's coming from the water. An ancient cult, a stranger with a bandaged face and a body in a shallow grave. The story continues.
True-life mystery podcasters Matthew Heawood and Kennedy Fisher return and this time the story is Kennedy Fisher.
A simple investigation into the disappearance of a young man from a mental health facility has taken them from Rhode Island to Iraq, to the Suffolk countryside – as they realised that everything uncovered in season one threaded through to season two. But towards the end of 'The Whisperer In Darkness', the investigation turned inward as Kennedy discovered a possible family connection to the uncovered conspiracy. And evidence forces Heawood to question Kennedy’s account of her time in Iraq. As Kennedy heads off to Innsmouth, to look into her apparently spooky ancestry, Heawood is going to Iraq to find an answer to the most disturbing of all questions; could Kennedy be a killer?
Both make shocking, life-changing discoveries as the two investigations come together and reach a gripping conclusion, just as the Coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world
Barnaby Kay and Jana Carpenter star in writer/director Julian Simpson’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired universe.
Episode Eight: "Pleasant Green"
MATTHEW HEAWOOD ................Barnaby Kay
KENNEDY FISHER............................Jana Carpenter
ELEANOR PECK................................Nicola Walker
PARKER...............................................Phoebe Fox
CASEY..................................................Kyle Soller
JASPER................................................Steven Mackintosh
WILMARTH........................................Mark Bazeley
MELODY CARTWRIGHT................Karla Crome
SOUND....................................................David Thomas
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR......Sarah Tombling
PRODUCER.............................................Karen Rose
MUSIC......................................................Tim Elsenburg
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Julian Simpson
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000vjpg)
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from venues around the UK. Producer: Chris Ledgard.
FRI 21:00 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000vjpj)
Five More Fascinating Carbon-Cutting Ideas
We’re resourceful, adaptable and the smartest thing this planet has ever seen. We got ourselves into this mess but we can get ourselves out of it.
BBC Radio Four, in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society, presents 39 ideas to relieve the stress that climate change is exerting on the planet.
From tiny rice seeds and perovskite solar cells to the total transformation of landscapes, Tom Heap and Dr Tamsin Edwards view the fundamental problem of our age from a fresh perspective. Small things that make a big difference. Big things that make a small difference. We’re going to need every one of them.
In the fourth batch of fascinating ideas they meet the robot that makes ships slippier, find fresh ways to stop cattle belching methane and investigate logging techniques that can help save precious tropical forests.
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock and Alasdair Cross with research from Sarah Goodman
Series produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000vjpl)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (p081hmdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000vghy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000vjpn)
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)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
13:45 MON (m000vh5h)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
13:45 TUE (m000vghp)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
13:45 WED (m000vh54)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
13:45 THU (m000vhks)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
13:45 FRI (m000vjnp)
39 Ways to Save the Planet
21:00 FRI (m000vjpj)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (m000v9vg)
A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity
21:00 MON (m000v7pj)
After a Death
20:00 TUE (m000vgjg)
All in the Mind
21:00 TUE (m000vgjl)
All in the Mind
15:30 WED (m000vgjl)
Alone
18:30 WED (m000vh5x)
Amongst Women by John McGahern
10:45 MON (m000jfzm)
Amongst Women by John McGahern
10:45 TUE (m000jgb7)
Amongst Women by John McGahern
10:45 WED (m000jf8h)
Amongst Women by John McGahern
10:45 THU (m000jgh0)
Amongst Women by John McGahern
10:45 FRI (m000jhpq)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (m000vg7v)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (m000v9vd)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (m000vjpg)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (m000vg8f)
Athena's Cancel Culture
23:00 WED (m000vh6n)
Ayeesha Menon - Undercover Mumbai
19:00 SUN (b039rwcc)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (m000vhkz)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (m000vhkz)
Behind the Scenes
16:30 SUN (m000rvnv)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (m000vg8w)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (m000vg8w)
Beyond Belief
16:30 MON (m000vh5t)
Bodies
05:45 SAT (m000rc4w)
Bridget Christie: Mortal
18:30 TUE (m000vgj6)
Britain in Ten Operas
11:30 TUE (m000pp80)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (m000vgdr)
Chinese Characters
09:30 WED (b09z3f8d)
Chinese Characters
14:45 FRI (b09z3f8d)
Costing the Earth
15:30 TUE (m000vght)
Costing the Earth
21:00 WED (m000vght)
Crossing Continents
20:30 MON (m000v99z)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (m000vhkc)
Dancers at Dawn
11:30 THU (m000vhkf)
Dare to Repair
11:00 TUE (m000vgh8)
Death and Taxis
21:45 SAT (b07bdgj1)
Drama
14:45 SAT (m000j1pf)
Drama
14:00 MON (m000kgt4)
Drama
14:15 WED (m0002m3c)
Drama
14:15 THU (m0003ktf)
Drama
14:15 FRI (m000vjnr)
Enchanted Isle
19:45 SUN (m000vgfv)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (m000vg74)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (m000vggc)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (m000vh7q)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (m000vgk7)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (m000vh7p)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (m000vhm5)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (m000v9v0)
Feedback
16:30 FRI (m000vjp0)
Fortunately... with Fi and Jane
23:00 TUE (m000vgjq)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (m000vg7j)
Front Row
19:15 MON (m000vh6d)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (m000vgjb)
Front Row
19:15 WED (m000vh66)
Front Row
19:15 THU (m000vhlc)
Front Row
19:00 FRI (m000vjpb)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (m000v9tq)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (m000vjnt)
Geoff Norcott: It's OK to Change Your Mind
23:00 THU (m000vhln)
Great Lives
16:30 TUE (m000vghy)
Great Lives
23:00 FRI (m000vghy)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (m000vhk5)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (m000vhk5)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (m000vgjj)
It's a Fair Cop
11:30 FRI (m000vjn9)
James Baldwin’s Last Amen
16:00 MON (m000v9b3)
Joseph Morpurgo's Walking Tour
23:15 WED (b09hs6ww)
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
19:45 SAT (m000v83f)
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
11:45 SUN (m000vgf0)
Just a Minute
12:04 SUN (m000v8b3)
Just a Minute
18:30 MON (m000vh68)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (m000v9ty)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (m000vjny)
Life Changing
09:00 WED (m000vh46)
Life Changing
20:00 WED (m000vh46)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (m000vg89)
Loose Ends
11:30 MON (m000vg89)
McLevy
14:15 TUE (b07x6j4s)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (m000v9vq)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (m000vg8k)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (m000vgfz)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (m000vh6y)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (m000vgjv)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (m000vh6x)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (m000vhls)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (m000vg7n)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (m000vg7n)
Money Box
15:00 WED (m000vh58)
My Teenage Diary
19:15 SAT (m000hvlp)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (m000v9vz)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (m000vg8t)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (m000vgg7)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (m000vh7g)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (m000vgk3)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (m000vh7f)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (m000vhm1)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (m000vg7l)
News Summary
06:00 SUN (m000vgd5)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (m000vggt)
News Summary
12:00 MON (m000vh4x)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (m000vhhr)
News Summary
12:00 WED (m000vh4k)
News Summary
12:00 THU (m000vhs8)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (m000vjsn)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (m000vg72)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (m000vgdc)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (m000vgdm)
News and Weather
13:00 SAT (m000vg7s)
News
22:00 SAT (m000vg8h)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (m000vgd7)
One to One
09:30 TUE (m000vgh2)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (m000vgfg)
Open Book
15:30 THU (m000vgfg)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (m000v9c2)
Open Country
15:00 THU (m000vhkv)
PM
17:00 SAT (m000vg7z)
PM
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Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (m000vgfq)
Poetry & I
23:30 SAT (m000v83y)
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
17:30 SAT (m000vg81)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (m000v9w1)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (m000vgg9)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (m000vh7l)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (m000vgk5)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (m000vh7k)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (m000vhm3)
Prison Break
11:00 FRI (m000vjn7)
Profile
19:00 SAT (m000vg8c)
Profile
05:45 SUN (m000vg8c)
Profile
17:40 SUN (m000vg8c)
Putin’s Third Act
17:00 SUN (m000v7qk)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (m000vgdh)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:25 SUN (m000vgdh)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (m000vgdh)
Rich Hall's (US) Breakdown
18:30 THU (m000vhl7)
Round Britain Quiz
23:00 SAT (m000v89r)
Round Britain Quiz
15:00 MON (m000vh5m)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (m000vg7b)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (m000v9vv)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (m000vg8p)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (m000vgg3)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (m000vh76)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (m000vgjz)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (m000vh75)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (m000vhlx)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (m000v9vs)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (m000v9vx)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (m000vg83)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (m000vg8m)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (m000vg8r)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (m000vgfj)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (m000vgg1)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (m000vgg5)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (m000vh72)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (m000vh7b)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (m000vgjx)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (m000vgk1)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (m000vh71)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (m000vh79)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (m000vhlv)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (m000vhlz)
Shock Waves
20:30 WED (m000tcpt)
Short Cuts
21:30 SUN (m0007wvz)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (m000vg87)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (m000vgfn)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (m000vh62)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (m000vgj4)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (m000vh5s)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (m000vhl5)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (m000vjp6)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b063ybcm)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b063ybcm)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (m000vh4g)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (m000vh4g)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (m000vgdp)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (m000vgdf)
Susan Calman - Keep Calman Carry On
11:30 WED (b09jvvny)
Swipe Right
00:30 SUN (m000v9tv)
Swipe Right
15:45 FRI (m000vjnw)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (m000vgdt)
The Archers
19:00 MON (m000vghr)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (m000vghr)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (m000vgj8)
The Archers
14:00 WED (m000vgj8)
The Archers
19:00 WED (m000vh61)
The Archers
14:00 THU (m000vh61)
The Archers
19:00 THU (m000vhl9)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (m000vhl9)
The Briefing Room
20:00 THU (m000vhlh)
The Confessional
19:15 SUN (m000vgfs)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (m000v9c7)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (m000vhkx)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
12:04 MON (p081hm3j)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
22:45 MON (p081hm3j)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
12:04 TUE (p081hm5p)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
22:45 TUE (p081hm5p)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
12:04 WED (p081hm72)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
22:45 WED (p081hm72)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
12:04 THU (p081hm8n)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
22:45 THU (p081hm8n)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
12:04 FRI (p081hmdd)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
22:45 FRI (p081hmdd)
The Food Programme
12:33 SUN (m000vgf4)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (m000vgf4)
The Great Post Office Trial
00:30 SAT (m000jhnt)
The Great Post Office Trial
09:45 MON (m000jp2m)
The Great Post Office Trial
00:30 TUE (m000jp2m)
The Great Post Office Trial
09:45 TUE (m000jmt3)
The Great Post Office Trial
00:30 WED (m000jmt3)
The Great Post Office Trial
09:45 WED (m000jmmx)
The Great Post Office Trial
00:30 THU (m000jmmx)
The Great Post Office Trial
09:45 THU (m000jn9l)
The Great Post Office Trial
00:30 FRI (m000jn9l)
The Great Post Office Trial
09:45 FRI (m000jpg3)
The Kitchen Cabinet
10:30 SAT (m000vg7d)
The Kitchen Cabinet
15:00 TUE (m000vg7d)
The Life Scientific
09:00 TUE (m000vgh0)
The Life Scientific
21:30 TUE (m000vgh0)
The Listening Project
13:30 SUN (m000vgfb)
The Magic Mountain
15:00 SUN (m000vgfd)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (m000vh5j)
The Media Show
21:30 WED (m000vh5j)
The New Anatomy of Melancholy
14:45 SUN (m000j8r6)
The News Quiz
12:30 SAT (m000v9v6)
The News Quiz
18:30 FRI (m000vjp8)
The Past Returns to Gdańsk
20:00 MON (m000vh4f)
The Past Returns to Gdańsk
11:00 WED (m000vh4f)
The Reunion
22:15 SAT (m000v83c)
The Reunion
11:00 SUN (m000vgdy)
The Reunion
09:00 FRI (m000vgdy)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
19:45 MON (m000vh6h)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
19:45 TUE (m000vgjd)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
19:45 WED (m000vh6c)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
19:45 THU (m000vhlf)
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
19:45 FRI (m000vjpd)
The Untold
11:00 MON (m000vh4q)
The Untold
20:30 THU (m000vh4q)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (m000vg7g)
The Why Factor
14:45 MON (b07krycs)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (m000vgf8)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (m000vh6p)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (m000vgjn)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (m000vh6j)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (m000vhll)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (m000vjpl)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (m000v8wt)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (m000vh5d)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (m000vh6t)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (m000vgjs)
Today in Parliament
23:30 WED (m000vh6s)
Today in Parliament
23:30 THU (m000vhlq)
Today in Parliament
23:30 FRI (m000vjpn)
Today
07:00 SAT (m000vg78)
Today
06:00 MON (m000vh4b)
Today
06:00 TUE (m000vggw)
Today
06:00 WED (m000vh44)
Today
06:00 THU (m000vhk1)
Today
06:00 FRI (m000vjmz)
Tumanbay
21:00 SAT (b06shzzq)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b03zrc9l)
Tweet of the Day
10:54 SUN (m000vgdw)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b03mzv8n)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b03x45m5)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b03x45pj)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b09dxz18)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b03x45r3)
Weather
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Weather
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Weather
17:57 SAT (m000vg85)
Weather
06:57 SUN (m000vgd9)
Weather
07:57 SUN (m000vgdk)
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12:57 SUN (m000vgf6)
Weather
17:57 SUN (m000vgfl)
Weather
05:56 MON (m000vggf)
Weather
12:57 MON (m000vh57)
Weather
12:57 TUE (m000vghk)
Weather
12:57 WED (m000vh4w)
Weather
12:57 THU (m000vhkn)
Weather
12:57 FRI (m000vjnk)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (m000vgfx)
Woman's Hour
16:15 SAT (m000vg7x)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (m000vh4l)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (m000vgh6)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (m000vh49)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (m000vhk9)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (m000vjn5)
Word of Mouth
23:00 MON (m000v91g)
Word of Mouth
16:00 TUE (m000vghw)
World at One
13:00 MON (m000vh5c)
World at One
13:00 TUE (m000vghm)
World at One
13:00 WED (m000vh50)
World at One
13:00 THU (m000vhkq)
World at One
13:00 FRI (m000vjnm)
You and Yours
12:18 MON (m000vh53)
You and Yours
12:18 TUE (m000vghh)
You and Yours
12:18 WED (m000vh4r)
You and Yours
12:18 THU (m000vhkl)
You and Yours
12:18 FRI (m000vjnh)