Mary McAleese, the former President of Ireland, reads the final instalment of her memoir. Today, after leaving high office, there's a plan to become a canon lawyer, and a new start as a doctoral student.
Mary McAleese charts her life story beginning with a happy and boisterous childhood, growing up in the tight knit streets of Belfast in the 50s and 60s, before the start of the Troubles when her family was subjected to brutal violence. At Queen's University she studied law before becoming one of the first women called to the Bar, and laying the groundwork for her run for the presidency in 1997, months before the Good Friday Agreement was signed. One of her last acts as president was hosting the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh when they made their historic state visit to Dublin. Not one to rest, after her two terms as President of Ireland she studied for a doctorate in Canon Law to highlight the Roman Catholic Churches failure to protect its children from abuse. Interwoven with intimate glimpses into family life, her memoir is written and read with wit and candour, Mary McAleese's story is one about the pursuit of peace and equality for all.
The music is An Droichead which was composed and performed by Liam O'Flynn for Mary McAleese's inauguration as President of Ireland.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Debbie Thrower, of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain
Years ago, I recall visiting an author whose wife was living with a long-term illness. Hugh Marriott had just written The Selfish Pig’s Guide to Caring.* Why a ‘selfish pig’? Well, he suggested buyers of the book might be drawn to it because they think of themselves as a selfish pig – having never expected to find oneself in the role of carer - AND feeling guilty about it.
If that sounds familiar, it’s not surprising. There are almost seven million carers in the UK – one in ten people – and the number is rising.
Some years after conducting that interview with Hugh Marriott I met his wife, Cathie, again. Coincidentally, she was now resident in the same care home both my parents were to live in – at different times - until their deaths. I used to see Hugh and their adult children visiting their mother who was one of the youngest people in the home at the time but, sadly, also one of the most frail. Hugh had written his book because he’d faced a dearth of advice when he found himself caring. With searing honesty, he describes what it’s really like looking after someone round the clock. No doubt it’s brought comfort for not shying away from the truth.
Lord of time and eternity, who never ceases to walk alongside us on our life’s journey, assure those facing old age of your continuing presence. Comfort them when they face bereavement, limitations or illness, and grant them and those who care for them each day a rich experience of your grace at work in their lives.
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 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.
Art, literature and science in 17th century Holland shared a fascination with death – and overlapped each other in macabre ways as they explored their subject. Dutch anatomists made great discoveries both about the structure of the body and how to preserve and prepare corpses for dissection. But they also created what today we'd call artistic installations. Some turned their dissection theatres into museums of curiosities open to the public, others took preserved body parts to create creepy scenes – a boy's foot stamping on the guts of a girl who had died, a fetal head resting on a pillow of placenta. Professor Alice Roberts explores this intriguing turn of events in the history of anatomy.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Bex Band was not an outdoorsy person, but one day she decided to hike the length of Israel. Whilst there she noticed very few women walking the 1000km National Trail so, on her return, decided to do something about it. She set up Love Her Wild, an organisation that encourages women to become more adventurous. The community now has over 25,000 members. On today’s walk, she takes Clare for a loop around King Alfred’s Tower near the Stourhead Estate, not far from Shepton Mallet in Somerset. As they walk, Bex discusses her forthcoming book; why women need encouragement and support to access the outdoors; and the other adventures she’s completed including kick-scooting the length of the United States.
29/05/21 - Farming Today This Week: Trade deals, flower power and neglected crofts
The Government has launched consultations on two more trade deals this week with Canada and Mexico - both countries in the world’s top 10 for agricultural exports. Meanwhile, the controversy over a deal with Australia rumbles on. It's reported the Government is offering a reduction in tariffs on food and farming goods over 15 years, ending up with tariff and quota free access to the UK market. Farmers here say their produce will be undercut by cheaper imports. We hear from Minister for International Trade, Ranil Jayawardena and Chair of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Neil Parish.
Many of Scotland's crofts are being underused or neglected, while at the same time there's a lack of availability for new entrants - according to a survey by the Crofting Commission. There are just over 20 thousand crofts across the Scottish Highlands and and Islands, mostly tenanted. They're small parcels of land that come with special rights, but also a duty not to neglect the croft and to put it to good use.
And we hear about new research that suggests the nectar from certain flowers can help bumblebees fight off disease. Sainfoin flowers have caffeine in their nectar, and that reduces the impact of a fungal bumblebee-disease.
Sara Cox has been entertaining the nation for 25 years, first through Channel 4 and MTV, then as host of Breakfast on BBC Radio 1 and now drive time on Radio 2. She joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles to discuss her latest project, TV book club Under the Covers.
Ben Dunne’s teenage son River died in a tragic road traffic accident in Sweden alongside his fellow bandmates from Viola Beach and their manager. They were on the cusp of stardom, scheduled to play a series of festivals in the UK and beyond. In the years following the tragedy, Ben has dedicated his life to providing opportunities for young people in River’s name.
Anoushe Husain is a paraclimber who was born missing her right arm below the elbow. A civil-servant by day, Anoushe has experience multiple health conditions including cancer, and now supports girls from deprived backgrounds to improve their lives through climbing.
Listener Dr Stephen Gillam is a GP who wonders if he was predestined to take up the stethoscope after discovering his family have been doctors for the best part of 250 years.
Host Greg Jenner is joined by historian Professor Michael Scott and comedian Shappi Khorsandi to head back to 480BCE for one of history’s most notorious naval battles - The Battle of Salamis. On a journey through the events leading up to the battle and beyond we will uncover one of the most unique methods ever used to cross a body of water, one of the most spectacular deaths ever recorded and why sometimes it pays to give water a jolly good telling off.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
Andy Zaltzman presents a look back at the week's headlines with guests Lucy Porter, Alice Fraser, Hugo Rifkind and Daliso Chaponda.
This week a certain select committee hearing and the inaugural FALSE or VERY FALSE round.
Written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Eleanor Morton, Rajiv Karia and Simon Alcock.
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Bridlington Spa with the UK Political Editor at Politico Jack Blanchard, Conservative MP and former Brexit Secretary David Davis MP, the Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle and the author, broadcaster and comedian Timandra Harkness.
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 to clinical psychologist Dr Gazal Jones. What's going on in the brain? How does it affect people differently? And what's the best way to get treatment?
Photo credit: Robert Harper. Producer: Becky Ripley.
Simon Dixelius' life just got very strange. Since being jilted on his wedding day Simon is experiencing a strange form of heartache - a girl group in the classic mould, adorned in shimmering dresses, keep following him around and singing love songs at him. Only no one else can see or hear them.
As Simon attempts to understand his new affliction he undergoes a journey of self-discovery. An original drama with songs by Sebastian Baczkiewicz .
Simon Dixelius ..... Arthur Darvill
Kiyoko Jones ..... Kerry Gooderson
Larry ..... Ryan Early
Imogen ..... Hannah McPake
Nick Robinson talks to Uniosn General Secretary, Christina McAnea, in a personal and political interview.
Chrissie Hynde, Harriet Walter, George Egg, Ríoghnach Connolly, The Breath, Emma Freud, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Emma Freud are joined by Chrissie Hynde, Harriet Walter, George Egg and Ríoghnach Connolly for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Chrissie Hynde and The Breath.
Kate Bingham took on one of the hardest jobs in the Covid pandemic - finding and procuring the necessary vaccines to stop people dying. A venture capitalist who invests in new drugs, she got the call from the Prime Minister who asked her to chair the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce. Once she had worked out which vaccines to back and order in advance, she and her team had to get the systems in place to roll them out in record time. Before this she had spent 30 years in private equity in the city, which she has now returned to.
Described by many as "a force of nature" she defied critics and sceptics and successfully secured 350 million doses of six different vaccines which started going into people's arms at the end of last year. The number of doses administered in the UK has now past 60 million and everyone over the age of 30 is being offered the jab.
Via in depth interviews with close friends and colleagues from throughout her life and commentators, Mark Coles reveals the character behind the woman responsible for securing a pipe-line of Covid vaccines for the UK population.
Rufus Hound talks to former Goodie Bill Oddie about his teenage diary, which records Bill's time on an extremely demanding Outward Bound course in the Lake District in 1958. Hill walking, abseiling and jumping into freezing cold waterfalls are all part of the fun.
In this episode, Michael reveals how slowing down and focusing on your breath can have a wide-reaching effect on your body and brain - from reducing pain, to improving concentration. He speaks to psychologist and neuroscientist Professor Ian Robertson, Trinity College Dublin, who’s discovered how spending just a couple of seconds to control your breath can act as a powerful reset button for your brain.
Alvin Hall tells the story of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in US history - using newspaper archives, manuscripts, oral history interviews, and local experts.
For many years this horrific event was suppressed, even Oklahomans didn’t know about it. In the early 20th century, Tulsa was a wild west town which became a boom city. But the oil capital of the world was also home to the thriving and prosperous district of Greenwood - nicknamed Black Wall Street by Booker T Washington - because it was a mecca for Black entrepreneurs. Several were millionaires in today's money and and figured out ways to prosper during segregation, creating profitable businesses for Greenwood’s 10,000 residents who couldn’t spend their money with white businesses downtown.
On May 30th, a young Black shoe shiner Dick Rowland, was wrongly accused of attacking a white elevator operator Sarah Paige (the girl later recanted her story). This was the trigger, on May 31st and June 1st, for an armed white mob to loot and burn Greenwood, in a violent 16-hour attack.
It’s impossible to know the true extent of the damage. Many estimate up to 300 Black citizens were killed. Over 1200 homes were destroyed, every church, hotel, shop, and business was completely wiped off the map. Almost $4 million in insurance claims were filed, but never paid since the city designated it a ‘riot'.
Alvin examines the role of the local media in stoking up racial tension, the influence of the Ku Klux Klan, and how city officials instigated a cover up, while trying to prevent Greenwood's Black community from rebuilding so they could take the land. They resisted however, working and living initially in tents, and by the 1940s Greenwood was twice as prosperous, though this was ultimately short-lived.
The story of the massacre was then buried, documents were destroyed, and threats were issued. Local historians, brave survivors and their descendants, fought for decades to bring it into the open. Now, on the centennial of the massacre, Tulsa is grappling with its shameful past and opinions are divided on how to mark the anniversary, including the right to reparations.
Archival interviews by kind permission of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma State University, Voices of Oklahoma oral history podcast, and White Plains Public Library NYC.
Made in collaboration with the Tri-City Collective - producers of Focus: Black Oklahoma on Tulsa Public Radio.
The tenth and final episode of this epic saga of revenge, betrayal and deception, inspired by the Mamluk slave-dynasty. As the people of Tumanbay await news of the Sultan’s (Raad Rawi) great victory, Gregor (Rufus Wright) the heartless player discovers he has a heart and that he has been played.
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, Master of the Palace Guard, is charged by Sultan Al-Ghuri with the task of rooting out this insurgence and crushing it.
A tale of designer domesticity in a stylish Copenhagen apartment - where being a low-paid cleaner can sometimes mean being presented with a dilemma.
From the recently published anthology Copenhagen Tales, the mood of the Danish capital is explored in this story of cleaning and clothing, and how the other half lives.
Written by Jakob Ejersbo, a Danish journalist and writer who authored the immensely popular novel Nordkraft. It was a huge hit in Denmark, selling over 100,000 copies and making Ejersbo an established writer who continued to write several more novels until his early death in 2008.
This story is part of Radio 4's Reading Europe project and continues an exploration of contemporary writing from Scandinavia.
According the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the “vast majority” of people in Bolton who have been admitted to hospital after contracting the fast-spreading Indian variant of Covid-19 had been offered a vaccine but hadn’t taken it. Attempts to persuade vaccine uptake have focussed on public health, social freedom and economic recovery. What about the language of morality? Is it immoral to refuse the vaccine? We are social beings, and the definition of morality is behaving in a way that is good for others, not just ourselves. How are we to make moral judgments when there are many reasons for vaccine refusal and hesitancy: conspiracy theories, false information, health concerns, religious objections as well as cultural and language barriers. Some people justify their refusal precisely because they believe it to be moral. It could be argued that to be moral isn’t always about doing the right thing, it’s about seeking to do the right thing, and even if you have reached the wrong conclusions, this doesn’t make you bad person. Vaccine refusal often involves a group dimension above and beyond individual choice. A potential consequence of moral condemnation is the scapegoating of entire groups. While it is true that vaccine uptake is greater among white adults, it is also the case for the vast majority of adults across all social groups. Nevertheless, if there is a connection between vaccine hesitancy and certain religious or ethnic groups, how should we respond without risking further stigmatisation? To what extent does this issue raise wider questions about social integration and trust in British institutions? With Dr Rakib Ehsan, Dr Alberto Giubilini, David Halpern and Dr Travis Rieder.
The outcome of this year's Round Britain Quiz season depends on the result of this final match, between the South of England and the Midlands. If the Midlands' Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Stephen Maddock win today, they'll have won four out of four and will become 2021 champions. Can Marcus Berkmann and Paul Sinha of the South of England thwart their victory?
Tom Sutcliffe is on hand to ensure fair play, and to award and deduct points depending on how much nudging the teams need, to steer them away from red herrings and blind alleys. All of the questions in this final show of the series, by tradition, are based on ideas supplied by RBQ listeners.
In this series, free verse poet Andrew McMillan meets a diverse group of contemporary British poets who are re-framing traditional techniques to write about the modern world, exploring why form is fashionable again.
In today’s programme, poet and academic Aviva Dautch goes back in time to unpick the history of the classic but flexible sonnet, with poems read by Juliet Stevenson. She traces the sonnet’s European origins and the poetic revolution that happened once it reached the UK and became a mainstay of English poetry in a modern multicultural Britain.
This year sees the publication of three books of sonnets with new takes, ranging from playful to dark, on the traditional form. We’ll meet Jacqueline Saphra, author of 100 Lockdown Sonnets, as well as sonneteers Vidyan Ravinthiran and Hannah Lowe, hearing poems that travel from Limehouse canals to inner-city classrooms.
SUNDAY 30 MAY 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000wkhy)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m000wdh5)
Book Club
An original short story from the acclaimed Irish author Joseph O'Connor. As read by the actor, writer and comedian Aisling Bea (This Way Up).
The Author
Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of nine novels as well as two collections of short stories and a number of bestselling works of non-fiction. He has received numerous awards including the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature.
Writer, Joseph O’Connor
Reader, Aisling Bea
Producer, Michael Shannon
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wkj0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wkj2)
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 (m000wkj4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000wkj6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000wjg2)
The church of St Andrew’s and St George’s West, Edinburgh.
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Andrew’s and St George’s West, Edinburgh. The Grade A listed building was completed in 1784 and serves the Edinburgh New Town parish. The tower holds a peal of eight bells, cast by William and Thomas Mears of London, in 1788. The tenor weighs fourteen and a half hundredweight and is tuned to E. We hear them ringing Marlborough Surprise Major.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000wjff)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m000wjd0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b08295y8)
Rumi
Jalal ad-Din Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, theologian and Sufi mystic, whose influence as a writer extended throughout central and southern Asia. Eight hundred years later it extends worldwide. He has been described as the most popular poet in the United States and he is still revered by many in the East.
Mark Tully assesses his contemporary popularity with Coleman Barks, one of Rumi’s pre-eminent American translators and asks why Rumi resonates with so many people of so many nationalities and faiths.
In a programme featuring music from all over the world and readings of some Rumi’s great passionate masterpieces, he presents a portrait of the founder of the Mevlevi Order – also known as the Whirling Dervishes.
The readers are Paapa Essiedu and Emma Pallant.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b05w9dxn)
Anemone
Sea anemones are also known as the flowers of the sea. They inspire whimsy and fancy, poetry and art. The Victorian craze for aquariums which Philip Henry Gosse encouraged with his 1860 book "A History Of The British Sea-anemones and Corals" was intense, though short lived, and had an ecological effect in nature.
Today the collection of anemones for aquariums is devastating places like the Philippines, especially since the Hollywood blockbuster Finding Nemo was released. Bizarrely the complexity of anemone nerves means they are more closely related to humans than to flies and worms. Some species are as close to immortal as you can get. Cut them in half and you get two, cut off the mouth and it will grow a new one. They seem to go on and on, leading some scientists to use them in the search for eternal youth. The Natural History Museum in London owns delicate, anatomically accurate and beautifully crafted glass models of anemones are so realistic they look like the real thing crystallised from the sea. They were made by father and son glass blowers called Blaschka in the 19th century. These models allowed ordinary people to see the wonders beneath the sea.
Original Producer : Andrew Dawes
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio
Revised Repeat : First Broadcast BBC Radio 4; 6th October 2015
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000wjd3)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000wjd5)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000wjd7)
Cathedral Cycle Route; Gordon Browns Global Vaccine Plea and The Pagan Ceremony of “Handfasting”.
A new cycle network is being launched this morning linking all 42 English Cathedrals across a 2000 mile route. A group of cyclists are setting off from Newcastle Cathedral this morning. Clare MacLaren is the Canon for Music and Liturgy at Newcastle Cathedral and Sean Cutler from Northumbria University pulled the route together.
Gordon Brown leads a group of religious leaders asking for G7 leaders to prioritise vaccines for developing countries ahead of the G7 summit.
The Dalai Lama and Rowan Williams are among the other signatories to a letter asking the UK to use its chairing of G7 to make the difference on the global vaccine campaign.
The ancient marriage ceremony known as handfasting can be traced back to Celtic and Druid ceremonies. It may even be where the phrases ‘tying the knot’ and ‘bound for life’ originate. Now campaigners from the Pagan Federation have launched a petition asking Parliament to review the law in England and Wales. Sarah Kerr is President of the Pagan Federation.
Producers:
Carmel Lonergan
Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Editor:
Tim Pemberton
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000wjd9)
Kidney Research UK
Former Premiership footballer Andy Cole makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the Andy Cole Fund with Kidney Research 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 ‘Kidney Research UK’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Kidney Research UK’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 252892
Main image credit: Christopher Thomond, the Guardian
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000wjdc)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000wjdf)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000wjdh)
Doing Justice
Doing Justice: A Service of Reflection marking the Anniversary of the murder of George Floyd - from the New Testament Church of God Community, Brixton.
An array of senior Church leaders from across the United Kingdom will remember the death of George Floyd and challenge churches and communities in Britain and Ireland to stand up for justice, and against racism, ignorance, and hatred.
The ecumenical service, initiated by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland features the IDMC Gospel Soul Choir and soloists HURU and Davinia Robinson, and contributions from an array of senior Church leaders. The preacher is the Revd Les Isaac, OBE, founder of Street Pastors in the UK. The New Testament lesson is read by the Most Revd and Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York.
The service will feature the IDMC Gospel Soul Choir - directed by John Fisher - singing Walk with me, On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah and Turn It Around.
Producer: Alexa Good
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000wdhp)
Eavesdropping
'I have to concede: I am a fervent eavesdropper', writes Will Self.
He ponders eavesdropping etiquette, the hard and fast rules of the game, and whether - in our straitened times - there can be any future for the eavesdropper.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b01s8qh4)
Wood Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the wood warbler. Their song has been described as "a spinning coin on a marble slab" and you're most likely to hear this chorister in oak or beech wood.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000wjdk)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000wjdm)
Writers, Caroline Harrington and Adrian Flynn
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Tony Archer … David Troughton
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge … Angela Piper
Lee Bryce … Ryan Early
Lilian Bellamy … Sunny Ormonde
Neil Carter … Brian Hewlett
Vince Casey … Tony Turner
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Ruairi Donovan … Arthur Hughes
Clarrie Grundy … Heather Bell
Shula Hebden- Lloyd … Judy Bennett
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Kirsty Miller … Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter … Alison Dowling
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000wjdp)
Tweet Take 5 : Snipe
If you are luckily enough to see this secretive wader, the snipe possesses one of the longest bill of any British bird. It also produces one of the most striking sounds in a wetland landscape, a repetitive drone known as drumming, produced not from it's call but adapted tail feathers, as we'll hear in this extended edition of Tweet of the Day featuring wildlife artist Jane Smith, presenter Kate Humble and the illustrator of the Tweet of the Day book, Carry Akroyd.
The producer for BBC Audio in Bristol is Andrew Dawes.
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000wjdr)
Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, charity CEO
Amanda Khozi Mukwashi is the chief executive of Christian Aid, leading development and humanitarian work in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Amanda was born in Twickenham and grew up in Zambia and Rome where her stepfather worked in the diplomatic service. She studied international trade and investment law at the University of Zambia in Lusaka and during this time she began to develop her political outlook and commitment to the issue of social justice.
She moved to the UK in 1996 where she took a master’s degree at the University of Warwick. But even with two degrees and considerable work experience she was unable to find a job and retrained as a care worker. She says her time working in nursing homes “reshaped” and “humbled” her.
Later she worked for the VSO and served with the United Nations Volunteer programme in Germany before landing what she calls her “dream job” at Christian Aid in 2018.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m000wjdt)
Hot Bath
In this episode, Michael takes a long soak in the bath, and explores why it might be good for our heart, metabolism and sleep. He speaks to one of the UK’s leading sleep experts, Professor Jason Ellis, Director of the Northumbria Sleep Centre, to find out why a hot bath a couple of hours before bed can help us get to sleep. They discuss the interplay of responses in your brain and body that work together to get your body ready for rest - and why a hot bath one to two hours before bed can help kick start the process… Crucially, it is not the warm, relaxing bath that’s important, but what happens afterwards.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000wl81)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 Nature Table (m000wcd0)
Series 2
Episode 4
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in an fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Note: Series 2 was recorded in November 2020, during lockdown conditions, so this time round there is no studio audience this time round. The host, panel and guest zookeepers recorded the series at ZSL London Zoo, socially distanced.
Episode 4
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests:
Billy Heaney (Zoologist & wildlife presenter), Dr. Claire Asher (Science writer) and comedian and writer Josie Long.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000wjdy)
India's Covid Crisis: The Food Story
Dan Saladino looks at covid's impact on food in India and the heroic efforts underway to feed communities.
Lockdowns and job losses have disrupted access to food in this country of 1.4 billion people. A further 400,000 covid cases are being reported on a daily basis and 300,000 deaths have been recorded so far. For much of the world the pandemic has primarily been seen as a health crisis, accompanied by significant economic pressures. In India however, the impact on the food system has been considerable.
Among the most vulnerable are the daily wage earners and labourers who go from pay check to pay check. When India went into a sudden lockdown in March 2020 many lost their income overnight and also their ability to purchase food. Meanwhile, millions of migrant workers left cities across India to travel back to their villages. This also resulted in people experiencing food shortages and hunger.
Chhavi Sachdev, a journalist and broadcaster based in Mumbai joins Dan to report on food stories from the pandemic, from people who survived lockdown in some of the city's most densely crowded slums to home cooks who took it upon themselves to feed people in need.
The London based Indian chef Asma Khan describes how she has been trying to send food supplies to a village close to her family's home. Although it's an agricultural area, food supplies have been running low and some people have been at risk of starvation.
Bhawani Singh Shekhawat of Akshaya Patra, an organisation that provides hot meals to millions of school children in India each day, explains how the pandemic initially disrupted their ability to provide food, but also led to them innovating and finding new ways of feeding even greater numbers of people.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000wjf0)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000wjf2)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000wjf4)
A life's work
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation.
This week: Retired police officer Adge and volunteer patrol founder Rob, discuss the line between enhancing community safety and vigilantism; student nurse Lucy and experienced critical care nurse Liz compare their experiences of their chosen career during the pandemic; Early retiree Andrew, and 84 year old sweet shop owner Tom consider the formula for work life balance; and mothers Kia and Lauren reflect on the stereotypes attached to them as a result of having children in their teens.
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 (m000wdh3)
GQT at Home: Fertilised Vines and Garden Crimes
Kathy Clugston hosts the gardening Q&A with a panel of experts. Joining Kathy and the virtual audience this week are Christine Walkden, Anne Swithinbank and Chris Beardshaw to discuss your questions on caring for Pilea plants, growing Hollyhocks and starting a gravel garden.
Away from the questions, the panel delves into the controversial topic of peat and, to celebrate the inaugural National Hedgerow Week, James Wong meets with Sara Lom of the Tree Council to discuss all things hedgerow.
Producer - Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Thought Cages (m00017wb)
For Greater Diversity, Be Less Fair
Society rightly craves greater more diversity in the way its businesses, institutions and systems are composed. But is our obsession with measuring this with “rational” metrics ruining any chance of a truly free, fair world?
Rory’s joined by the Darwinian philosopher and rationalist Helena Cronin from the London School of Economics – who vividly describes the subject as a “third rail issue – touch it, and you die”. She explains how measuring outcomes – percentage distributions of males and females across the employment world – is a terribly blunt instrument to assess the complex world of sex differences, and the very real issue of discrimination in the modern world.
Produced by Steven Rajam for BBC Wales
SUN 15:00 Hardy's Women (m000wjf6)
Jude the Obscure
Episode 1
Sue Bridehead relates the story of Wessex stonemason, Jude Fawley, who aspires to be a scholar at the university of Christminster. But an early romance threatens to blow him off course. Starring Robert Emms, Kirsty Oswald, Elinor Coleman and Julius D'Silva. Dramatised by Graham White.
Directed by Emma Harding
Sue.....Kirsty Oswald
Young Jude.....Hector Bateman-Harden
Jude.....Robert Emms
Drusilla.....Jane Slavin
Arabella.....Elinor Coleman
Phillotson.....Julius D’Silva
Mrs Edlin.....Jessica Turner
Troutham.....Tony Turner
Taylor/ Shepherd...Nicholas Murchie
Michael/ Carter 1/ Hawker.....David Sturzaker
Anny.....Megan McInerney
Miss Fontover.....Marilyn Nnadebe
Carter 2/ Undergraduate....Joshua Riley
Carter 3/ Undergraduate....Stewart Campbell
Production Co-ordinator.....Maggie Olgiati
Sound designer.....Caleb Knightley
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000wjf9)
Tech startups in fiction; Editor's Tip; sensitivity reading.
Two new novels - The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam and Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour - are set in the fast, frenzied, heady world of new tech companies. Tahmima and Mateo join Johny Pitts to talk about bringing this world to life and why both of their fictional apps appeal to the spiritual side of human nature.
Also on the programme, our monthly editor's pick: this month the recommendation is a book about sibling relationships and turning 40 as your Mum is turning 65; and crime writer Will Dean and deaf blogger Deafinitely Girly discuss their working relationship - she is one of Will's first readers, as his central character, Tuva Moodyson, is deaf.
Book List – Sunday 30 May and Thursday 3 June
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
The Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
Grown Ups by Marie Aubert, translated by Rosie Hedger
Bad Apples by Will Dean
Dark Pines by Will Dean
Black River by Will Dean
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
SUN 16:30 On Form (m000wjfc)
The Ghazal
In this series, free verse poet Andrew McMillan meets a diverse group of contemporary British poets who are reframing traditional techniques to write about the modern world, exploring why form is fashionable again.
For hundreds of years, writers have experimented with the ghazal – one of the oldest and most popular verse forms in the world. First written in pre-Islamic Arabia, the ghazal spread to Africa and Spain where it was often used as a form of lyrical across-cultural dialogue. It has been central to Persian writing since the 13th century, then became a mainstay of traditional verse throughout the Indian Sub-Continent, and is now appearing in contemporary English language poetry.
In today’s programme, poet and academic Aviva Dautch who translates ghazals as well as writing her own, takes us around the world to unpick the music and meaning of the form and explores its use in political and religious dialogue. She considers the elements of the ghazal, from its traditional rhymes and refrain to the register of tone and images with which it is often associated.
We meet Syima Aslam, director of Bradford Literature Festival, who tells us about the importance of the ghazal to her community. Our Guest poet, award winning poet writer Mona Arshi describes how her experimental English ghazals draw on the Indian and Spanish traditions, and Afghan refugee poet Suhrab Sirat explains why the ghazal has given him a home in language.
The reader is Juliet Stevenson.
Photo of Andrew McMillan credited to Urszula Soltys
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000w9vn)
Sexual Abuse in Schools
In 2016 the House of Common’s Women and Equalities Committee published a report into sexual harassment and abuse between pupils in British schools. In concluded that the scale and impact was such that urgent action was needed by the government.
Five years on, more than 16,000 young people - mostly women - have posted harrowing accounts of their experiences on the Everyone’s Invited website. It's prompted the government to instruct Ofcom to carry out a review of peer on peer sexual abuse in our schools and colleges. They've also funded the launch of a new NSPCCC
hotline so that those affected can report what's happened to them.
In this investigation Hayley Hassall assesses how common this abuse is, whether schools are brushing the problem under the carpet, to what extent the availability of online porn plays a role and whether teachers are getting enough training.
Details of organisations offering information and support with sexual abuse are available at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22VVM5LPrf3pjYdKqctmMXn/information-and-support-sexual-abuse-and-violence
Reporter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Jim Booth
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000wjff)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000wjfh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000wjfk)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wjfm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000wjfp)
Greg James & Bella Mackie
Presenters: Greg James & Bella Mackie
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Emmie Hume
Studio Manager: Richard Hannaford
SUN 19:00 Short Works (b07vngz6)
Long Distance by David Szalay
The first of five tales originally commissioned to celebrate the BBC National Short Story Award shortlist in 2016:
In David Szalay's story, a man drives a lorry through Europe and sleeps in the cabin at service stations. It's always the same, drive and sleep. Then one night there's a knock on the cabin door..
Reader Paul Hilton
Producer Duncan Minshull
SUN 19:15 The Confessional (m000wjfr)
Series 1
The Confession of Joan Bakewell
Actor, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Mangan presents a comedy chat show about shame and guilt.
Each week Stephen Mangan invites a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional box to make three 'confessions'. This is a cue for some remarkable storytelling, and surprising insights.
We’re used to hearing celebrity interviews where stars are persuaded to show off about their achievements and talk about their proudest moments. Stephen's not interested in that. He doesn’t want to know what his guests are proud of, 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.
This week, legendary broadcaster Joan Bakewell confesses to gaffes in the Big Apple, escapades in Paris and not being outspoken enough.
Other guests in the series include Cariad Lloyd, Dr Phil Hammond, Clarke Peters, Suzi Ruffell, Marian Keyes, Phil Wang, Lucy Porter, Nigel Planer and Alastair Campbell.
Written and presented by Stephen Mangan
With extra material by Nick Doody
Devised with Dave Anderson and produced by Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 The Things We Leave Behind (m000wjft)
Episode 4
A five-part series specially written for Radio 4 by Mary Paulson-Ellis.
THE THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND tells the story of a life in five objects. Starting near the end of her life and moving backwards in time, the defining moments of Rosalind Goddard’s life are revealed through seemingly random accumulated items.
Part Four THE GREEN RIBBON is read by Alexandra Mathie.
Producer - Gaynor Macfarlane
SUN 20:00 More or Less (m000wc4t)
Wales jab success, Eurovision and living with your parents
Wales has given one vaccination dose against Covid 19 to a larger proportion of their population than any other country except a couple of super tiny ones. They’ve given one vaccine dose to over 80% of their adult population. We explore some reasons why they seem to be doing so well.
The UK continues to do poorly at Eurovision – we take a look back over the years to examine why the UK used to do well, and why it doesn’t any more.
Waiting lists for NHS treatment across the UK have grown – but why are things so bad in Northern Ireland?
Is it true that 42% of young people are living at home with their parents? We find out what a young person is and why they haven’t flown the nest.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000wdh7)
Sir Paul Cosford, Max Mosley (pictured), Dr Frances Rotblat, Norman Lloyd
Julian Worricker on:
Sir Paul Cosford, who - as medical director of Public Health England - took on a prominent role during the Ebola outbreak and the Salisbury poisonings.
The Formula One boss, Max Mosley, who helped turn his sport into a global spectacle and became an outspoken privacy campaigner.
Dr Frances Rotblat, a haematologist, whose pioneering work led to significant advances in the treatment of haemophilia.
And the veteran actor, Norman Lloyd, whose career began in the 1920s and who worked alongside Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Dr Gillian Leng
Interviewed guest: Jeremy Hunt
Interviewed guest: Simon Taylor
Interviewed guest: Tom Brown
Interviewed guest: Donogh O’Brien
Archive clips used: BBC News: BBC One, TX 7.
3.2018; BBC News, BBC One, TX
25.10.2014; Today Programme: Radio 4, TX 24.
5.2021; On the Ropes: Radio 4, TX 1.
3.2011; Today: Radio 4, TX
22.11.1984; Brain of Britain: Radio 4, TX 12.
9.1977; Art for the Millions: Radio 4, TX 1.
2.2018
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000wjfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000wjd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000wcd4)
What the Foucault?
Last December Liz Truss made a speech. The Minister for Women and Equalities spoke about her memories of being at school in Leeds. She was taught about sexism and racism, she said, but not enough time was spent on being taught how to read and write. "These ideas," said Truss, "have their roots in post-modernist philosophy - pioneered by Foucault - that put societal power structures and labels ahead of individuals and their endeavours."
So do Foucault's ideas pose a real danger to social and cultural life in Britain? Or is he a "bogeyman" deployed by some politicians to divide and distract us from real issues?
In this edition of Analysis, writer and academic Shahidha Bari tries to make sense of Foucault's influence in the UK - and asks whether his ideas really do have an effect on Britain today.
Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Jasper Corbett
Contributors:
Agnes Poirier, journalist and author of Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50
Michael Drolet, Senior Research Fellow in the History of Political Thought, Worcester College, University of Oxford
Lisa Downing, Professor of French Discourses of Sexuality at the University of Birmingham
Richard Whatmore, Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the Institute of Intellectual History
Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent
Clare Chambers, Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
Charlotte Riley, Lecturer in Twentieth-Century British History at the University of Southampton
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000wjfy)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000wcyf)
Toby Jones
With Francine Stock
Actor and writer Toby Jones discusses the film that still resonates with him almost 30 years after he first saw it, In The Soup. Alexandre Rockwell's comedy beat Reservoir Dogs to the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in 1992, but while Quentin Tarantino's movie went on to box office glory, In The Soup was so badly forgotten that within a decade only one battered copy remained. Toby reveals the part he played in helping Rockwell's movie survive.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b08295y8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 31 MAY 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000wjg0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000wc5l)
Migrants in London
MIGRANTS IN LONDON: how has London been shaped by the history of immigration? Laurie Taylor talks to Panikos Panayi, Professor of European History at De Montfort University, & author of a new study which examines the contribution of immigrants to London’s economic success and status as a global capital - from Jewish & Irish immigrants in the 19th century to the Windrush generation and beyond. They’re joined by Esther Saraga, a retired social scientist, whose recent book charts the emotional journeys of her parents, two German Jewish refugees, reconstructing their story from a substantial collection of family material, archives and secondary historical sources. She argues that their contradictory experiences of welcome and restriction challenge simple views of Britain's liberal tradition of welcoming refugees. Thinking Allowed is produced in partnership with the Open University.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000wjg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wjg4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wjg6)
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 (m000wjg8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000wjgb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wjgd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Debbie Thrower, of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain
Good morning.
As a Chaplain for older people, I’ve visited numerous men and women over the age of a hundred. Edna is now 104 and, mentally, as sharp as ever. Her greatest fear has been that she’d develop dementia, as several members of her family have done in the past. Each time she has cared for them.
It’s estimated that 850,000 people are living with dementia (and that number is set to more than double to two million by 2051).
When I last visited Edna, who is now housebound, she recalled the periods of her life when she has been a carer. Sometimes, she admitted, she hadn’t always been as cheerful in the role as she’d have wished. Handing me a crumpled piece of paper on which was written a prayer, she told me that an old friend had given her this prayer. The friend had, also, cared for three of her own relatives as they lived with dementia into old age.
It’s anonymous and has been passed by word of mouth. It indicates why it’s always worth persevering and spending time with someone living with the disease. Edna said: ‘I found it most helpful when tiredness overwhelmed, and patience wore thin, others might also.’
Lord, let visitors take my hand and stay awhile, even though I seem unaware of their presence. Help them to know when I don’t recognise them, that I will, I will. Keep their hearts free from sorrow for me. For my sorrow when it comes only lasts for a moment, then it’s gone. Please let them know how very much their visit means to me. How, even through this relentless mystery, I can still feel their love.
Amen
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000wjgg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000wjgj)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09sn7yh)
Helen Moncrieff on the Northern Wheatear
Known locally as Sten-shakker or Chek after their alarm call, Northern Wheatears never cease to delight Helen Moncrieff, Shetland Manager for RSPB Scotland when they return to Shetland for the breeding season.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Sonia Johnson.
MON 06:00 Today (m000wl32)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m000wl34)
DH Lawrence: life and work
DH Lawrence was once a towering figure in literature in the 20th century but his reputation has taken a battering, with accusations of nostalgia, self-indulgence and misogyny. But Frances Wilson tells Andrew Marr that it’s time to look again at this complex and courageous man, and the full spectrum of work he produced – from his novels, poetry, criticism and letters. In Burning Man Wilson focuses on a decade in his life from the suppression of The Rainbow in 1915 through his years of travelling to his diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Lawrence mined his own life in his novels, populating them with the people he met, pioneering the genre of ‘auto-fiction'. The award-winning writer Salman Rushdie rejected that form in his own novels, preferring ‘magic realism’. In his latest collection of essays Languages of Truth Rushdie explores the power of storytelling, and the relationship between reality and fantasy.
The poet Simon Armitage – an admirer of DH Lawrence – looks to rescue glorious poetry from pretention and obscurity, arguing the form offers ‘the best opportunity for reflection and scrutiny’. A Vertical Art brings together the public lectures he gave during his tenure as Oxford University Professor of Poetry. In them he offers his personal reflections of the work and lives of poets from Ted Hughes to Elizabeth Bishop and Douglas Dunn.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wl4m)
Episode 1
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.
Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.
Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000wl38)
A Celebration of Women's Sporting Success
Over the last few weeks and months we have seen women make huge progress in the world of sport. It was just over a month ago that the jockey Rachael Blackmore made history by becoming the first female rider to win the Grand National in its 173 year history. Also last month Rebecca Welch became the first female referee to oversee an English Football League match in 134 years. And the former footballer Alex Scott has become the presenter of the BBC’s Football Focus, becoming the show's first permanent female host in its history.
It comes against a backdrop that has seen viewing figures for women’s football and rugby continue to grow despite a virtually invisible summer of competition last year. But a recent BBC Survey of elite sportswomen found that more than 60% earn less than £10,000 a year from their sport. So what still needs to be done when it comes to building on women’s success in sport and how can this upward momentum be maintained and include a variety of sports and not just football, cricket and rugby?
We have gathered some of the biggest influencers in the sporting world around a virtual round table. Zarah El-Kudcy a Trustee at the Women’s Sports Trust and the Head of Commercial Partnership Development at Formula 1, Emily Defroand a Great Britain and England Hockey player, Catherine Bond Muir the CEO of the W Series a motor racing championship for women, Kelly Simmons the FA’s Director of the Women’s Professional Game, Alison Kervin a writer and former Sports Editor for the Mail on Sunday (she was the first female sports editor on a national newspaper) and Dr Ali Bowes is a senior lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell
MON 11:00 The Untold (m000wl3b)
Niyi - One Year On
Last year, Producer Sam Peach followed the story of Niyi, a postgrad student whose eating disorder has stopped him coming home for Christmas. After nearly losing his Mum to a brain tumour, he wanted to change things.
Niyi is a young, successful Cambridge student with a bright future ahead of him, but for the past few years, he has struggled with an eating disorder. It has made him very conscious of eating with others and the pressure of being around the family dinner table at Christmas has been too much. So he stayed away. Sam recorded with Niyi as he started a new course of therapy to help him work through his eating issues, in the hope that it would give him the help he needed.
Now, one year on, in spring 2021, Sam catches up with Niyi. It's been a momentous year. Not only has he had to contend with the pandemic as a vulnerable person, but there's also some news that changed Niyi's life and idea of himself.
Produced by Sam Peach & Mark Burman
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m000wkht)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000wl52)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wl3h)
Episode 1
Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman flees post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, the solitude and the clear air begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable – and then two English sisters arrive at her door...
This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.
Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000wl3k)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m000wl3m)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000wl3p)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Ladder to Somewhere (m000wl3r)
Episode 1
Following her award-winning 2019 series Ladder to Nowhere, Liza Ward continues the dramatic story of how she escaped from a life of poverty, social chaos and gang crime.
Liza became a mum at 13, spent time in the care system, and was forced to cut ties with her alcoholic mother. She was later drawn into Manchester’s gang culture, had a relationship with a gun dealer and almost became a casualty of gang crime herself. Through it all, she fought to get herself the education that she knew would offer her the possibility of a better life.
Liza escaped that world, but many people she knew did not. Their lives were damaged beyond repair. They became lost souls who gave up on society, and eventually on themselves. In this series, Liza revisits that time, to see if she can pinpoint the reasons why she was able to break free while others remained trapped. In five themed episodes, each addressing a major social issue of our time, she recalls the turning points in her life. Liza talks to family and friends whose love and support helped her through, and reconnects with teachers and employers who encouraged and mentored her. Through their honest and often uplifting testimony we get a vivid portrait of a family, a city, and a working-class culture in decline.
In the first episode, Liza recalls her experience in the care system. With her mother unable to care for her, she spent time in children’s homes and foster care. When she became a mum herself, the challenges became even greater. Liza reunites with an old care-home friend, shares war stories with poet, care-leaver and campaigner Lemn Sissay, and seeks answers from the man in charge of a new review of our children’s care system.
Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:00 Drama (m0009zcd)
Escape Kit
This is William Thirsk Gaskill's first play for radio, having previously confined himself to short stories.
It's a bitter sweet comedy about two misfits who find solace in each other's dilemmas.
Cast:
Bradley ..... Will Taylor
Arthur ..... Reginald Edwards
Celia ..... Verity Kirk
Edmund ..... Patrick Knowles
Davina ..... Tanya Loretta Dee
Grandpa and Train Guard ..... David Shaw Parker
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 The Why Factor (b08y2pbg)
Series 4
Goths
Why would anyone be a goth? What is the appeal of this dark and spooky subculture that embraces death, pain and sadness? Goths have been attacked, abused and are often misunderstood, but still choose to stand out - dramatically - from the crowd.
Catherine Carr talks to goths about their music, their dress and their love of the darker side of life. Why has this scene that began in the UK in the late 1970s and has spread worldwide, adapted and endured?
She hears from gothic vlogger, Black Friday, about how others react to her striking style and that of her goth husband, Matthius; she learns from Dr Catherine Spooner of Lancaster University about the role and influence of gothic literature in the goth scene and finds out from Professor Isabella Van Elferen of Kingston University, London about the transcendental power of goth music. Dr Paul Hodkinson of Surrey University explains the enduring appeal of the subculture and why once a goth, you're always a goth. And she meets Sylvia Lancaster, whose daughter Sophie, a goth, was murdered because of the way she looked.
Presenter: Catherine Carr
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Editor: Andrew Smith.
MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (m000wl3t)
Series 11
The University of Southampton
A funny, lively and dynamic quiz presented by Steve Punt and recorded on location at a different university each week, pitting three undergraduates against three of their professors. This week the show comes from the University of Southampton.
The rounds vary between specialist subjects and general knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors’ awareness of television, sport, and quite possibly Ed Sheeran. And the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, offer plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides.
The specialist subjects this week are Biological Sciences, Fashion Design and Film Studies and the questions range from Harry Styles to dinosaur hips via Bullet Time and British Home Stores.
The other universities in this series are Cumbria, Nottingham Trent, Northampton, Anglia Ruskin and Brasenose College Oxford.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000wjdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 A Life in Music (m000wcxx)
Adult Life
When music journalist Jude Rogers lost her father aged five, she turned to songs for solace and structure. Music helped her redefine her identity as a teenager and connect with her young child as a parent after post-natal depression.
In this emotional and educational series, we explore how music impacts us at each stage of our lives. Across four programmes in A Life In Music, Jude speaks to musicians, neuroscientists, psychologists and music-lovers to discover why music means so much to us all.
In this third episode, Adult Life, Jude explores how music helps us navigate the challenges and changes that come our way in adulthood. How and why does music allow us to come to terms with our past, quiet the demons in our head and move forward with our lives?
We hear from American singer-songwriter John Grant, neuroscientist Dr Daniel Levitin, Dr Beate Peter who researches electronic dance music cultures, and dance music fans Brett and Sylvia Van Toen.
Producer: Georgia Moodie
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m000wl3y)
Series 20
Legacy
Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world.
MON 17:00 PM (m000wl40)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wl44)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Nature Table (m000wl46)
Series 2
Episode 5
Nature Table is comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins’ new comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.
Taking the simple format of a ‘Show & Tell’, each episode Sue is joined by celebrity guests from the worlds of comedy and natural history. Each of the natural history guests brings an item linked to the wild world to share with the audience, be it an amazing fact or funny personal anecdote. Each item is a springboard for an enlightening and funny discussion, alongside fun games and challenges revealing more astonishing facts. We also hear from some of the London Zoo, as they bring us their own natural history ‘show and tells’ for Sue and the guests to discuss.
Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in an fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.
Note: Series 2 was recorded in November 2020, during lockdown conditions, so this time round there is no studio audience this time round. The host, panel and guest zookeepers recorded the series at ZSL London Zoo, socially distanced.
Episode 5
Recorded at London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests:
Martin Hughes-Games (Zoologist, Wildlife presenter), Dr. Chris Thorogood (Deputy Director of Oxford Botanic Garden) and comedian Felicity Ward.
Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Kat Sadler & Jon Hunter
Researcher: Catherine Beazley
Music by Ben Mirin. Additional sounds were provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Produced by: Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000wjqg)
It’s the end of an era for Ed, and Lee makes an impression.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000wl48)
Paulette Randall
Paulette Randall MBE celebrates her 60th birthday this year. Her career highlights include her role as Associate Director of the unforgettable London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and being playwright August Wilson's director of choice in this country. She has a rich and varied career on stage, screen and stadium taking in Shakespeare, sketch comedy and Silent Witness. She is in lively conversation with Tom Sutcliffe about her beginnings, going to drama college because of a £5 bet, winning a prize at the Royal Court for an early play, fallings out, her artistic values, and triumphs - in particular on that Olympic night, and in her productions of Wilson's plays including Fences with Lenny Henry in 2017.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Sarah Johnson
Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum
Main image: Dr Paulette Randall MBE
MON 19:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008p5n)
The Scientific Sublime
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, and the Science Museum’s Head of Collections, Dr Tilly Blyth, begin their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other with Joseph Wright’s painting A Philosopher Giving A Lecture On The Orrery from 1766 and now in the permanent collection at Derby Museum. Wright’s work celebrates the relationship between astronomical science and a religious understanding of the cosmos.
It’s a fitting choice to begin this 20-part series that reveals how the ingenuity of science and technology has been incorporated into artistic expression – and how creative practice, in turn, stimulated innovation and technological change. As Ian Blatchford says; “In Wright of Derby’s painting, science makes a dramatic entry on stage. It’s a new character in the human drama. A modern scientific age is announced with all its novelty, excitement, disruption and above all, the ambiguity of its potential”.
Tilly Blyth reveals that it’s likely that Wright first encountered an orrery when Scottish astronomer James Fergusson visited Derby on a lecture tour in 1762. The orrery was designed to explain God’s creation, not replace it. Fergusson’s mechanical device is one of many types produced to demonstrate the workings of Newton’s universe. It’s a jewel within the Science Museum Group Collection and shows how key ideas about the rationality of the heavens spread far beyond those who first developed them.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph: Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
MON 20:00 The Great Post Office Trial (m000wl4b)
The Reckoning
In a follow up to the ten-part series The Great Post Office Trial, Nick Wallis explores how campaigners for justice around the Post Office scandal have been continuing the fight, and reveals startling new details on the story which have emerged in court.
Since the original series aired, the government has officially launch an inquiry, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams. But many are frustrated by what they fear is the inquiry's limited scope, and worry that the inquiry will not dive deep enough or hold individuals accountable. Some Sub Postmasters are also seeking further legal redress, and attempting to pressure the government to cover the Sub Postmasters' costs from the initial trial.
As the potential cases of miscarriage of justice work their way through the Court of Appeal, Nick discovers revelatory new documents which cast fresh light on what was going on inside the Post Office as the scandal unfolded.
And we hear newly emerged stories of more Sub Postmasters affected, as the full scale of the story becomes clear.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000wl4d)
The Zoomshock Metropolis
Our towns and cities are facing an existential crisis. The rise of online shopping has left gaping holes in high streets. And if hybrid working takes off, some economists predict a dramatic 'zoom shock' as workers spend less time and money in city centres. What seems like a crisis could be an opportunity to reinvent our cities and 'Level Up' struggling towns. But are we ready to seize this moment?
Helen Grady meets local leaders embracing this moment of change - from the Teesside town bulldozing a shopping centre to create a park to the US community paying remote tech workers to relocate. She hears how big cities like Manchester are enticing people back to the office. And she asks if we're about to see a move away from city-led growth to a model where jobs and prosperity are more evenly spread between towns and cities.
Producer and presenter Helen Grady
Editor Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 Why Time Flies (and how to slow it down) (m000w9tg)
Armando Iannucci travels through time - discovering why it seems to accelerate alarmingly as he gets older and what, if anything, can be done to slow it down.
How exactly does the human brain calculate the passing of time? Why are the results often so distorted, with time either dragging or flying by? Armando meets physicists, psychologists and philosophers who help him unravel the emotional, physical and cultural factors which affect our perception of time.
Along the way he finds out how time flies….for flies.
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explains how he attempted to simulate the experience of time slowing down during a road accident, by throwing participants off a 150 foot high platform. Would they be able to decipher flickering images which would normally flash by too quickly?
Physicist Adrian Bejan suggests that Armando's brain has simply worn out, generating temporal discrepancies. He argues that as people age, the rate at which their brain processes visual information slows down, making time speed up.
Can the phenomenon be explained by mathematics. Kit Yates explains that each moment of our lives, every hour, day or week, becomes a smaller and smaller fraction of our entire life.
Psychologist Ruth Ogden, has conducted experiments to test how people of all ages estimate the passage of time, including under lockdown conditions. She says the reason our perception of time varies so dramatically lies in the way we form memories. Children’s lives are filled with new experiences, creating rich memories which make time seem to pass slowly. As we age, we have fewer new experiences, fewer vivid memories, and time rushes by.
To slow down time we must inject new, exciting experiences into our lives… like listening to this programme for example.
Producer: Brian King
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m000wl34)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000wl4h)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wl3h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Daft Punk Is Staying at My House, My House (m000vwr0)
It was 1994, and legendary techno duo Slam were booked to play an event in Disneyland Paris. “We had a couple of days to kill, and a friend got in touch to say he knew these two young French musicians who wanted to give us music they’d made.”
The “young French musicians” Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were still in their teens at that point, and Daft Punk was under a year old. Stuart McMillan distinctly remembers hearing their 4-track demo for the first time; “We were blown away!”
Composed of Orde Meikle and Stuart McMillan, Slam launched independent electronic record label Soma in 1991. It had a very DIY ethos. Along with manager Dave Clarke, they’d overseen a number of influential releases. It was Slam’s own track ‘Positive Education’ that piqued Thomas and Guy-Manuel’s interest. They recognised Slam as kindred spirits, and Soma as the label they wanted to launch Daft Punk, and that's when things went really wild.
This is the story of Daft Punk's earliest beginnings on Glasgow's techno scene.
Narration written by Kirstin Innes
Narrated by Kate Dickie
Mixed by Alison Rhynas
Produced by Victoria McArthur
MON 23:30 Night Vision (m000fpp4)
The Shadow
In new after hours listening on Radio 4, the team behind the award-winning Wireless Nights present three acoustically rich journeys through three long nights of the soul. Nights that left an indelible mark on the storyteller.
Time stretches out in the early hours. The space between sleep and wakefulness is alive with possibility. Fears and anxieties are projected in lurid hues, distorted, outsized. Dreams fade in and out. The real and the imaginary blur.
Over three programmes, we’ll enter that space with three artistic individuals: writer Zakiya McKenzie, sound designer Axel Kacoutié and actor Jonathan Forbes. Each have selected a Night Vision that has never left them.
Ep 1: Composer and sound designer Axel Kacoutié returns to a sleepless night from his youth, recovering from a heartbreak and forced to look at himself closely in the mirror. Fortunately, he wasn’t alone. With Bram Stoker’s Dracula as bedtime listening he finds a companion in the solicitor Jonathan Harker in the Count’s castle. Both are trapped. But there has to be some way out.
Words and Sound Design by Axel Kacoutié
The actress was Tamara Fairbairn
Jonathan Harker was played by Michael Harbour
Producer Neil McCarthy
TUESDAY 01 JUNE 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000wl4k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wl4m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wl4p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wl4r)
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 (m000wl4t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000wl4w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wl4y)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Debbie Thrower of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain.
Good morning.
Needing care can creep up on you. In the Quakers’ pamphlet, Advices and Queries* we’re advised to approach ageing with courage and hope. It says: ‘As far as possible, make arrangements for your care in good time, so that an undue burden does not fall on others.’
Acknowledging that old age may bring increasing disability and loneliness, it points out that it can also bring serenity, detachment and wisdom. None of this is easy, of course, but these are prizes worth striving for. There are tasks to be accomplished in mastering the art of ageing well. Australian researcher, Elizabeth McKinlay, has identified four such tasks in our later years: to transcend difficulty, disability and loss; to search for final meanings; to find intimacy with God; and to have hope.
How do we set our compass so that we travel in the right direction towards attaining such goals? I return once more to the Quaker Way which has distilled such a direction of travel into just one sentence: ‘Attend to what love requires of you, which may not be great busyness’; less, may just be more. What love requires may mean doing fewer things better? Busyness may be a trap we set for ourselves that has more to do with ego than with rewards that actually matter.
Dear Lord, please meet me in my making of ‘to do’ lists. Help me to stop for a moment and consider what love requires of me at this time, for me, as well as for the benefit of all those to whom I relate.
Amen
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000wl50)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv60)
Moorhen
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 Moorhen. Almost anywhere there's freshwater you might hear or see a moorhen. They're easy to identify from their red and yellow bill, red shield on the forehead and green-ish yellow legs with a red patch that looks like a garter.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000wjpl)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m000wjpn)
Tamsin Edwards on the uncertainty in climate science
Certainty is comforting. Certainty is quick. But science is uncertain. And this is particularly true for people who are trying to understand climate change.
Climate scientist, Tamsin Edwards tackles this uncertainty head on. She quantifies the uncertainty inherent in all climate change predictions to try and understand which of many possible storylines about the future of our planet are most likely to come true. How likely is it that the ice cliffs in Antarctica will collapse into the sea causing a terrifying amount of sea level rise?
Even the best supercomputers in the world aren’t fast enough to do all the calculations we need to understand what might be going on, so Tamsin uses statistical tools to fill in the gaps.
She joined the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2018 and is currently working on the 6th Assessment Report which will inform the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26.
She tells Jim Al-Khalili about her life and work and why she wishes more people would have the humility (and confidence) to consider the possibility that they might be wrong.
Producer: Anna Buckley
TUE 09:30 One to One (m000wjpq)
Learning a Skill: Kieran Yates talks to Colin
Journalist Kieran Yates hears from people who have taught themselves new skills as adults. In this programme, Kieran speaks to Colin Brien who, in his seventies, is entering the world of technology and learning how to stay connected.
Kieran meets Colin at a community hub in Romford and hears how technology has opened up the world for him, enabling him to keep in touch with friends and family. Colin explains his surprise at joining multi-person calls, how learning to dance has seen him through lockdown and sees if he can inspire Kieran to get cycling.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Caitlin Hobbs
TUE 09:45 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wjps)
Episode 2
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.
Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.
Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000wjpv)
Sinead O'Connor, Your returning to work manifesto
It's one of the most unforgettable moments in pop. Sinead O'Connor singing Nothing Compares 2 U straight into the camera. Big eyes, shaved head, minimal make-up - tears rolling down her cheeks. It catapulted her to fame whether she liked it or not. Sinead joins Emma to talk about her autobiography," Remembering"
The ‘work from home’ guidelines are expected to be scrapped on June 21 - should the government’s current roadmap continue. If you were writing a manifesto for the best way for women to work post-pandemic what would it say? We hear from author and columnist, Elizabeth Uviebinené who argues in her new book ‘The Reset’ for a fundamental reset of our entire work culture, Danny Hammer, Chief People Officer for Aviva on how big companies are addressing the flexibility needs of their workforce and Mark Gatto, father of a two-year-old and research associate in masculinities and working parenthood,
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Beverley Purcell
PHOTO CREDIT: Donal Moloney
TUE 11:00 A Sense of Music (m000wjpx)
Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musicality that binds us together. But music is regimented, organised. That same 'sense' that lets us lean into Beethoven makes a bad note or a missed beat instantly recognisable. But does that same thing happen in the minds of animals? Can a mouse feel moved by Mozart? Will a bird bop to a beat?
Do animals share our 'Sense of Music'?
Charles Darwin himself thought that the basic building blocks of an appreciation for music were shared across the animal kingdom. But over decades of scientific investigation, evidence for this has been vanishingly rare.
Fresh from his revelation that animals' experience of time can be vastly different to our own, in the award-winning programme 'A Sense of Time', presenter Geoff Marsh delves once more into the minds of different species. This time he explores three key aspects of musicality: rhythm, melody and emotional sensitivity.
Geoff finds rhythm is lacking in our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. But it's abundantly clear in a dancing Cockatoo, and internet sensation, named Snowball. He speaks with scientists who have revealed that birds enjoy their own music, but may be listening for something completely different to melody. And Geoff listens to music composed for tamarin monkeys, that apparently they find remarkably relaxing, but which sets us on edge.
In 'A Sense of Music', discover what happens when music meets the animal mind.
Produced by Rory Galloway
Presented by Geoff Marsh
TUE 11:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m000wjpz)
Series 7
Jocasta
"Rock star classicist" and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. In these series she explores (historical and mythological) lives from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They are hilarious and tragic, mystifying, revelatory. And they always tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.
Today Natalie stands up for Jocasta, whose second marriage was to Oedipus. Now for some spoilers if you're thinking of watching or reading Sophocles' play Oedipus Tyrannus.
After some years of happy marriage and four children, Jocasta discovers that Oedipus is, in fact, her son, and the murderer of her first husband (his father) Laius. Jocasta only has a few lines in the famous play, but we learn a remarkable amount about her character. She is smarter than her husband, quicker to understand what's happening and its implications. She is courageous. And she is quicker to act.
The story - in all its forms - is still spellbindingly shocking today.
With Professor Edith Hall.
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery for BBC Audio in Bristol
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000wjq1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wjq3)
Episode 2
Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman has fled post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, nature and solitude begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable – and then two English sisters arrive at her door...
Although the sunshine and clear air of an Alpine summer are helping to sooth the troubled narrator, an anniversary serves to remind her that bad memories are never far away.
This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.
Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000wjq5)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000wjq7)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000wjq9)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Ladder to Somewhere (m000wjqc)
Episode 2
Following her award-winning 2019 series Ladder to Nowhere, Liza Ward continues the dramatic story of how she escaped from a life of poverty, social chaos and gang crime.
Liza became a mum at 13, spent time in the care system, and was forced to cut ties with her alcoholic mother. She was later drawn into Manchester’s gang culture, had a relationship with a gun dealer and almost became a casualty of gang crime herself. Through it all, she fought to get herself the education that she knew would offer her the possibility of a better life.
Liza escaped that world, but many people she knew did not. Their lives were damaged beyond repair. They became lost souls who gave up on society, and eventually on themselves. In this series, Liza revisits that time, to see if she can pinpoint the reasons why she was able to break free while others remained trapped. In five themed episodes, each addressing a major social issue of our time, she recalls the turning points in her life. Liza talks to family and friends whose love and support helped her through, and reconnects with teachers and employers who encouraged and mentored her. Through their honest and often uplifting testimony we get a vivid portrait of a family, a city, and a working-class culture in decline.
In episode 2, Fighting for an Education, Liza remembers her grandmother’s crucial role in helping her to keep up at primary school, despite the many distractions in her home life. And she has a moving reunion with the teacher who made a telling intervention when the teenage Liza seemed likely to go off the rails.
Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000wjqg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m00051py)
Madame Tempy
This story was inspired by Sylvia Smith Lewis about her paternal grandmother, Madame Tempy Stuart Smith. A musical matriarch's journey from the racist, violent southern United States of the early 1900s to New York where she became a wealthy and respected musician and teacher during the Harlem Renaissance.
Tempy Smith grew up in Mississippi, the daughter of an enslaved woman. Although she was a successful musician who also ran her own dairy farm, events led her to flee the south taking her children on a musical journey north, performing as a family on the legendary Chitlin Circuit telling no one they were on the run. Once she reached New York City, Tempy found success and wealth with her series of music schools and she remained there until her death in the 1950s rubbing shoulders with the likes of Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson.
Her granddaughter Sylvia receives a phone call from the town in Mississippi where Tempy grew up saying they are to honour her grandmother as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. This comes as a surprise to Sylvia who remembers her grandmother describing the blues as 'the Devil's music'. Nonetheless she is intrigued by the invitation and sets off to the town of Ocean Springs to learn about her grandmother's traumatic past.
Adjoa Andoh plays Madame Tempy with Lisa Davina Phillip as Sylvia.
Written by Winsome Pinnock
Produced by: Maggie Ayre
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m000wjqj)
Smoke and Mirrors
Josie Long presents magical short documentaries and audio adventures about illusions. From a series of magical failures to an illusion which helped steer someone safely home.
Curatorial Team: Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Made of Stronger Stuff (p095jmp7)
The Lungs
Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body, to find out what it can tell us about our innate capacity for change. In this episode, Kimberley and Xand take a deep breath and explore the lungs.
They’re taught how to belly breathe by a champion free diver, get to grips with the science of why deep breaths relax us, and find out how air pollution affects not just our lungs, but almost every part of our body.
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Executive Producer: Kate Holland
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m000wjql)
Fighting knife crime
Fighting knife crime before it happens; Scotland's "not proven" verdicts; and the law on automated cars.
Knife crime in England and Wales is at its highest in ten years. Some young people can find it hard to resist gangs or knives for what they see as self-protection. Often they end up in the criminal justice system. Some argue the law is not the answer. But what is the alternative? We hear from a youth worker at the successful youth centre Youth Futures, and from a retired senior criminal barrister, who has launched an online one-stop-shop, fightingknifecrime.london, for those seeking or offering help to keep young people out of trouble.
In Scotland, juries can find defendants guilty, not guilty or not proven. If guilt is "not proven", the defendant is acquitted and regarded as innocent in law. Should that third option be abolished? Juries often use "not proven" in rape cases, if they feel guilt has not been proven 'beyond reasonable doubt' (the requirement for a guilty verdict) but nor do they want to imply they disbelieved the alleged victim. Now some campaigners want to abolish the "not proven" option, as research has shown that if it didn't exist, more juries would find the accused guilty, even in rape cases.
The government has announced that cars will be allowed to steer themselves in slow-moving motorway traffic, so long as they had been approved for use with automated lane-keeping systems. But what does the law say about liability for automated vehicles? Who is responsible if there is an accident? Is it the driver or the car manufacturer? What changes are being introduced by this year's Automated and Electric Vehicles Act and the planned changes to the Highway Code?
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m000wjqn)
THE SURPRISE LIVES
"Step one: invite notable guest. Step two: get them to talk about someone else."
After nearly 500 episodes, Great Lives feels like a stable series, but there have been surprises along the way.
From Bernard Manning on Mother Theresa to Timmy Mallett on Richard the Lionheart, there's a tradition of guests picking unexpected people they admire.
Cerys Matthews on Hildegard of Bingen, Diane Morgan on Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding, Iain Lee on Andy Kaufmann, and Lemn Sissay on Prince Alemayu of Ethiopia: "Maybe this is the first Great Life that is a life that hasn't happened," he says.
Also features Josie Long on Kurt Vonnegut plus a host of other famous voices in the mix.
Presented by Matthew Parris
Produced by Miles Warde
TUE 17:00 PM (m000wjqq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wjqs)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Alex Edelman's Peer Group (m000wjqx)
Series 4
New Relationships To Old Things
Alex Edelman is a comedian who spends his life travelling the US and the world. So when his parents come to sell the family home he thinks nothing of it. That is until lockdown happens and he realises he might have more emotional investment in the house, and the things he left behind, than he had at first thought.
Written by Alex Edelman and Max Davis
With special thanks to
Josh Weller
Alfie Brown
Rajiv Karia
Tasha Dhanraj
Danny Jolles
and
Hannah Einbinder
Producer is Sam Michell
It is a BBC Studios Production
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000wjr1)
Adam offers the benefit of his experience and Emma attempts to manage expectations.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000wjr5)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008nwk)
Masters of Spectacle
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other with a focus on the drama captured in Phillipe Jacques de Loutherbourg's painting "Coalbrookdale by Night". Its theatrical portrayal of industry, at the centre of a beautiful Shropshire landscape along the River Severn, came to shape boldly the early conflicted impressions of Britain's Industrial Revolution.
De Loutherbourg drew heavily on his talent for pushing the boundaries of thrilling spectacle. He'd designed sets for impresario David Garrick at Drury Lane, and built his own wholly immersive theatre, the Eidophusikon, that overawed audiences with scenes of infernal landscapes and the supernatural.
Tilly Blyth travels to Shropshire to see the site of the industrial marvels in Coalbrookdale. And in the Science Museum Group Collection she finds a detailed mahogany model by Thomas Gregory of the single arch Iron Bridge. It's testament to the ironmasters' skills at stage managing a heightened emotional response to the forces of nature, and experienced by the many artists and tourists drawn to such new industrial wonders.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph: (c) The Board of Trustees of The Science Museum
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m000wjr9)
Leaseholder Losses
The government recently introduced new laws to protect leaseholders from large ground rent increases. But campaigners say more widespread changes are needed to properly protect the millions of leaseholders in England and Wales.
The cladding scandal has highlighted just how few rights leaseholders have when it comes to what happens to the buildings they live in. Felicity Hannah discovers there are many other issues they face.
A change in planning law means freeholders can now build extra apartments on top of blocks of flats without having to get planning permission. While such developments could bring in millions of pounds for landlords, the leaseholders can't object and in some cases could see the value of their homes plummet. Felicity speaks to residents who say one such development has turned their lives into a nightmare
Other leaseholders have been left reeling after their council landlord landed them with estimated bills of over £100,000 for improvements to their homes. Under the rules, the homeowners can't challenge the costs and some fear they could have to sell up.
Many people are now asking: is the current leasehold system fit for purpose?
Reporter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Gail Champion
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000wjrf)
A Genetics Special
In this special programme, we examine the role genetics plays in both the inheritance of sight loss and its future treatment. We hear about the latest breakthrough reported in the journal 'Nature Medicine' in which the vision of a completely blind man was partially restored using light-sensing proteins first found in algae. He was treated with a type of therapy called optogenetics, which uses the proteins to control cells at the back of his eye.
And we discuss the merits of gene testing with the Chief Executive of Retina UK about how genetic testing can help people with inherited sight loss make future choices about their lives.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m000wjrk)
Programme exploring the limits and potential of the human mind. Producer: Deborah Cohen.
TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m000wjpn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000wjrp)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wjq3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000wjrt)
191. The Paperwork of Space with Scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane chat to space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock. The Sky at Night Presenter discusses multigenerational voyages, the power of the moon and she also ponders why Jane's food tastes better after a few hours in the fridge. Before Maggie arrives there is an apology seminar and a new way to tell someone to take it easy.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Night Vision (m000fwd5)
The Forest
In new after hours listening on Radio 4, the team that developed the award-winning Wireless Nights present three acoustically rich journeys through three long nights of the soul. Nights that left an indelible mark on the storyteller.
Time stretches out in the early hours. The space between sleep and wakefulness is alive with possibility. Fears and anxieties are projected in lurid hues, distorted, outsized. Dreams fade in and out. The real and the imaginary blur.
Over three programmes, we’ll enter that space with three artistic individuals: writer Zakiya McKenzie, sound designer Axel Kacoutié and actor Jonathan Forbes. Each have selected a Night Vision that has never left them.
In this episode, British-Jamaican nature writer Zakiya Mckenzie goes looking for her past in the darkness of the Forest of Dean. Occupied by one night from her youth spent in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, Zakiya takes her first trip into an English Forest at night...to discover what the murky history of the Dean can tell her about herself.
Producer Sam Peach
Sound by Axel Kacoutié
The Black Boy of Littledean Hall story read by John Dougall
WEDNESDAY 02 JUNE 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000wjrw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wjps)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wjry)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wjs1)
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 (m000wjs5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000wjs9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wjsf)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Debbie Thrower of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain.
Good morning.
If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard someone in a care home say to me, ‘Why am I here?’ or ‘What’s the point of me anymore? I hate being a burden’, or words to that effect… I’d be rolling by now! We prize autonomy highly.
We want to be independent for as long as we can, for all sorts of reasons;
Yet, somehow we’ve forgotten that there’s a natural cycle to life. Just as we start life as babies dependent on others - so the later stages of our lives, especially if they’re long ones (and that’s increasingly the case for many)… mean coming to terms with that stage in our development is just as vital as at other times.
I have the privilege of being the founder and pioneer of Anna Chaplaincy, which works across the UK to provide chaplaincy for older people. In his address when he was commissioning Anna Chaplains in Bromley in 2018, Archbishop Justin Welby said that ‘dependence on other people’ is the way God has designed life and, therefore, ‘no-one is less valued when they are being cared for.*
So much of faith is expressed verbally, he said, ‘to the extent that when we can no longer articulate our beliefs there may be a feeling God has gone away, but he is still there, and he remembers us even when we don’t. We are held in the memory of God from the beginning to the end of our life’.
Lord, please forgive me when I forget you amid the details of life. Thank you that you remember me and that when my life ends you will, literally, re-member me, put me back together again, in the safety of your eternal love.
Amen
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000wjsj)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0htz)
Hyacinth Macaw
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the hyacinth macaw of the Brazilian Pantanal. Raucous ear-piercing screeches are produced by one of the most beautiful parrots in the world, flying high over the marshy wetlands of the Pantanal. As their name suggests they are a rich cobalt blue, with sulphur-yellow eye rings with a massive bill and long elegant tail-feathers streaming behind them in flight, making them our longest parrot. Popular as captive caged birds, they are now endangered in the wild and legally protected in Brazil. They feed on palm nuts, including those of the acuri palm which are so hard that even the macaw's powerful bill can't break into them, until they've first passed through the digestive tracts of cattle.
WED 06:00 Today (m000wjlf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m000wjlh)
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000wjlk)
Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society
WED 09:45 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wjmh)
Episode 3
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.
Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.
Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000wjlp)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 The Great Post Office Trial (m000wl4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b09hrxw2)
Series 8
Matlock and Matlock Bath
Mark Steel visits the lovely Derbyshire towns of Matlock and Matlock Bath.
Matlock Bath is a seaside town that is nowhere near the sea. Here, Mark visits the National Stone Centre, where there aren't any stones. And he has fish and chips in a chip shop, of which there are hundreds. He also takes a trip up the cable cars to The Heights of Abraham and he talks to a man who is the only human ever to enter the Bonsall World Championship Hen Races.
The eighth series of Mark's award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Sterling
Sound Manager ... Jerry Peal
Producer ... Carl Cooper
Picture Credit ... Tom Stanier
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2017.
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000wl5d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wjm5)
Episode 3
Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman has fled post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, nature and solitude begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable - and then two English sisters arrive at her door...
The beauty of the Alps has done its work and the narrator is much restored. Her curiosity is aroused by her new companions and she’s desperate to learn more about the widowed sisters, but the ladies are almost unbearably discreet.
This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.
Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000wl5g)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000wl5j)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000wl5l)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Ladder to Somewhere (m000wl5n)
Episode 3
Following her award-winning 2019 series Ladder to Nowhere, Liza Ward continues the dramatic story of how she escaped from a life of poverty, social chaos and gang crime.
Liza became a mum at 13, spent time in the care system, and was forced to cut ties with her alcoholic mother. She was later drawn into Manchester’s gang culture, had a relationship with a gun dealer and almost became a casualty of gang crime herself. Through it all, she fought to get herself the education that she knew would offer her the possibility of a better life.
Liza escaped that world, but many people she knew did not. Their lives were damaged beyond repair. They became lost souls who gave up on society, and eventually on themselves. In this series, Liza revisits that time, to see if she can pinpoint the reasons why she was able to break free while others remained trapped. In five themed episodes, each addressing a major social issue of our time, she recalls the turning points in her life. Liza talks to family and friends whose love and support helped her through, and reconnects with teachers and employers who encouraged and mentored her. Through their honest and often uplifting testimony we get a vivid portrait of a family, a city, and a working-class culture in decline.
As Manchester goes through a huge property boom, Liza looks back to the 1990s, when finding a safe place to live meant pounding the streets for days on end. Forced to move when she became caught up in gang violence, Liza ended up on an estate where she witnessed at first hand the negative effects of high-intensity urban housing.
Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000wjr1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b0952qpz)
Rumpole
Rumpole for the Prosecution
Horace Rumpole's client asks him to do something he's always sworn he will not do - appear for the prosecution. It's a case where the injured party is dead and cannot speak for herself.
There's a piece of evidence that just doesn't add up and a literary reference which only Rumpole recognises as a clue.
Adapted for radio by Richard Stoneman
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000wl5q)
Paul Lewis and a panel of guests answer calls on personal finance. Producer: Emma Rippon
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m000wjrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m000wl5s)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000wjm1)
A crisis for war reporting?
The role of foreign reporter is one of the most glamourous in journalism. But with international correspondents stuck at home during the pandemic, and editors looking to save money, foreign reporting now faces an existential crisis. What would we lose if our perspective on the world didn't come from our own correspondent?
Guests: John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor; Sebastian Walker, Vice News Washington DC Bureau Chief; Christina Lamb, Sunday Times Chief Foreign Correspondent; Arwa Damon, CNN Senior International Correspondent.
Studio engineer: Duncan Hannant
Producer: Hannah Sander
Presenter: Datshiane Navanayagam
WED 17:00 PM (m000wl5v)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wl5x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Shush! (b08q62bx)
Series 2
Taken at the Flood
When the library is threatened from an unexpected quarter, Snoo gains some friends and Alice sacrifices her favourite tunic.
Meet Alice (Rebecca Front) - a former child prodigy who won a place at Oxford aged 9 but, because Daddy went too, she never needed to have any friends. She's scared of everything. Everything that is except libraries and Snoo (Morwenna Banks) - a slightly confused individual with a have-a-go attitude to life, marriage, haircuts and reality. Snoo loves books, and fully intends to read one one day.
And forever popping into the library is Dr Cadogan (Michael Fenton Stevens) - celebrity doctor to the stars and a man with his finger in every pie. Charming, indiscreet and quite possibly wanted by Interpol, if you want a discrete nip and tuck and then photos of it accidentally left on the photocopier, Dr Cadogan is your man.
Their happy life is interrupted by the arrival of Simon Nielson (Ben Willbond), a man with a mission - a mission to close down inefficient libraries. Fortunately, he hates his mission. What he really wants to do is once - just once - get even with his inexhaustible supply of high-achieving brothers.
Written by Morwenna Banks and Rebecca Front
Based on an idea developed with Armando Iannucci
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000wjlt)
Mia confesses her feelings and Jazzer finds himself out in the cold.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000wjlw)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008nz6)
Satirizing Science
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other with a focus on James Gillray's biting satire Scientific Researches! (1801) about the new pneumatic chemical experiments on show to fashionable society at the Royal Institution in London.
Tilly Blyth reveals chemist Humphrey Davy's crude airbag is the clue to the success and failure of his famous experiments with laughing gas (nitrous oxide). Its erratic and unexplainable effects went on show to a preening aristocracy at the Royal Institution, but nitrous oxide's huge medical value in suppressing pain was passed over for another 40 years. Davy turned to poetry in an attempt to articulate and make sense of the sensations, in an age when the cultural value of science had still to be earned.
At the Science Museum Ian Blatchford uncovers the coded and explosive references in Gillray's print to this gaseous moment. It had arrived at the same time as the worst excesses of the political revolution in France, and nitrous oxide became a powerful metaphor for the dangers of all kinds of scientific or political experimentation. So was Gillray's prolific pen powerful enough to derail science in this new chemical age?
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph (c) The Board of Trustees of The Science Museum
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000wjly)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000wjlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Made of Stronger Stuff (p095jmp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000wjm1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000wjm3)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wjm5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Twayna Mayne: Black Woman (m000wjm8)
5. Food
Comedian Twayna Mayne, born to Jamaican parents and raised by a white parent, explores the subject of food and how it has shaped her identity. Performing at the Radio Theatre with a virtual audience, Twayna also hears from chef and broadcaster Andi Oliver and academic and podcaster Chantelle Lewis. Series 1 was awarded Best Comedy at the BBC Radio and Music Awards 2020.
The extended roundtable conversation is also available on BBC Sounds.
Written and performed by Twayna Mayne
Roundtable guests, Andi Oliver and Chantelle Lewis
Production coordinator, Beverly Tagg
Producer, Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000wjmb)
Series 4
Episode 1
The week’s biggest stories like you’ve never heard them before. Returning to twist itself into - and remix - the news. Jon Holmes presents The Skewer. Headphones on.
The multi-award winning, 'dizzying, dazzling, haunting and moving' satirical comedy returns to twist itself into these turbulent times.
With contributions from brand new and diverse audio talent, The Skewer is the sound the abyss makes as it stares back at you through your ears.
'A kind of concept album made of music and news. There's simply nothing else like it.'
AWARDS
New York Festival Gold Winner
Audio Production Awards Gold Winner
British Podcast Awards Winner
Audio Production Awards - Sound Design Winner
Audio Production Awards - Comedy Silver Winner
BBC Audio and Drama Awards Best Comedy Winner
BBC Radio and Music Awards Finalist
Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Night Vision (m000g50b)
The Snake
In new after hours listening on Radio 4, the team behind Wireless Nights present three acoustically rich journeys through three long nights of the soul. Nights that left an indelible mark on the storyteller.
Time stretches out in the early hours. The space between sleep and wakefulness is alive with possibility. Fears and anxieties are projected in lurid hues, distorted, outsized. Dreams fade in and out. The real and the imaginary blur.
Tonight, actor Jonathan Forbes recalls a night he spent on a friends sofa when he awoke to find a man staring in at him through the window. An unexpected power exchange takes place as he works out what to do about this unwanted Night Vision.
Jonathan Forbes plays himself and the man at the window
The Casting director was played by Jessica Turner
The Snake by DH Lawrence was read by Jonathan Forbes
Thanks to Father Dermot Heakin
Sound Design by Axel Kacoutié
Producer Neil McCarthy
THURSDAY 03 JUNE 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000wjmf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wjmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wjml)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wjmn)
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 (m000wjmq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000wjms)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wjmv)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Debbie Thrower of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain.
Good morning.
Fear of dementia has now overtaken cancer, apparently, as the number one health fear.* Perhaps the reason why lies in our dread of losing all the memories which make up who we are? Without my memory, who am I?
Anna Chaplains, named after the elderly widow Anna who appears in Luke’s gospel, help increase awareness of the spiritual needs of older people, including, of course, those living with dementia. Chaplains find all sorts of ways to nurture and encourage faith and spirituality in people in the third and fourth ages of life.
Chaplains often act as catalysts for new ideas; for instance, they’re pioneering Memory Cafes attached to churches and in the community, or founding Carers Groups and Bereavement Support Groups.
They are skilled listeners who can help accompany people who may be finding life hard in their later years, as well as be a voice for some who might feel they’re becoming invisible as they age. At their best, they have the courage to stay present.
A poem written by a woman with dementia makes the point, graphically, that even if our cognitive abilities decrease our personhood is safe – with God - come what may.
Imagine a lighted candle:
‘Sometimes I picture myself like a candle.
I used to be a candle about eight feet tall-burning bright.
Now every day I lose a little bit of me.
Someday the candle will be very small.
But the flame will be just as bright.’
Lord, may we shine with the light of your love all our days. Convince us that we need never fear we will lose You even if we may forget you.
Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000wjmz)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0m7p)
Red-throated Caracara
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the red-throated caracara from the Amazonian rainforest. The size of buzzards, red-throated Caracaras are black- and -white birds of prey that travel together when searching for paper wasp nests among the leaves. While some birds search for food, others act as sentinels on the lookout for predators. If a monkey or a spotted cat approaches, the sentinel will alert the flock and together they will mob the intruder with loud calls. They specialise in bee and wasp grubs, but seem impervious to stings and it was once thought that they may possess a special repellent which deters the adult insects. Latest research now shows that when they are disturbed by the caracaras, paper wasps keep away from their damaged nest to avoid further danger and so the birds simply take advantage of the wasp's absence.
THU 06:00 Today (m000wlf2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m000wlf4)
Kant's Copernican Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the insight into our relationship with the world that Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) shared in his book The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. It was as revolutionary, in his view, as when the Polish astronomer Copernicus realised that Earth revolves around the Sun rather than the Sun around Earth. Kant's was an insight into how we understand the world around us, arguing that we can never know the world as it is, but only through the structures of our minds which shape that understanding. This idea, that the world depends on us even though we do not create it, has been one of Kant’s greatest contributions to philosophy and influences debates to this day.
The image above is a portrait of Immanuel Kant by Friedrich Wilhelm Springer
With
Fiona Hughes
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Essex
Anil Gomes
Associate Professor and Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford
And
John Callanan
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wlfw)
Episode 4
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.
Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.
Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000wlf8)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m000wln1)
Insight and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world.
THU 11:30 A Life in Music (m000wln3)
Later life
When music journalist Jude Rogers lost her father aged five, she turned to songs for solace and structure. Music helped her redefine her identity as a teenager and connect with her young child as a parent after post-natal depression.
In this emotional and educational series, we explore how music impacts us at each stage of our lives. In four programmes, Jude speaks to musicians, neuroscientists, psychologists and music-lovers to discover why music means so much to us all.
In this fourth and final episode, Later life, Jude explores how music can keep us active, alert, and involved in the world around us as we grow older. We now know that learning music as a child, or taking part in a choir as an older adult for just 16 weeks, can improve the way our brains process sound. Participating in a choir also makes us feel less lonely, and increases our interest in life as we age.
We hear from English singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull, neuroscientists Professor Nina Kraus, Assistant Professor Assal Habibi, and Professor Julene Johnson, as well as Welsh chorister Effie Evans.
Producer: Georgia Moodie
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000wln5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wlfr)
Episode 4
Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman has fled post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, nature and solitude begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable – and then two English sisters arrive at her door...
While the narrator is pleased that the sisters have agreed to keep her company at the chalet, Kitty and Dolly remain frustratingly tight-lipped about the past.
This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.
Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000wln7)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000wln9)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000wlnc)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Ladder to Somewhere (m000wlnf)
Episode 4
Following her award-winning 2019 series Ladder to Nowhere, Liza Ward continues the dramatic story of how she escaped from a life of poverty, social chaos and gang crime.
Liza became a mum at 13, spent time in the care system, and was forced to cut ties with her alcoholic mother. She was later drawn into Manchester’s gang culture, had a relationship with a gun dealer and almost became a casualty of gang crime herself. Through it all, she fought to get herself the education that she knew would offer her the possibility of a better life.
Liza escaped that world, but many people she knew did not. Their lives were damaged beyond repair. They became lost souls who gave up on society, and eventually on themselves. In this series, Liza revisits that time, to see if she can pinpoint the reasons why she was able to break free while others remained trapped. In five themed episodes, each addressing a major social issue of our time, she recalls the turning points in her life. Liza talks to family and friends whose love and support helped her through, and reconnects with teachers and employers who encouraged and mentored her. Through their honest and often uplifting testimony we get a vivid portrait of a family, a city, and a working-class culture in decline.
Liza recalls her early steps into the world of work, where she immediately encountered class bias, racism and sexual violence. Initially a fish out of water in the corporate world, she learned that by harnessing the communication skills she had acquired on difficult estates, she had a natural talent for managing human resources.
Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000wjlt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0004l8q)
What's He Building in There?
Original drama written by Rachel Smith.
Kate is desperate to get her gaming brother out of the attic before the family home is sold. But as Ryan’s attempts to build his online world erupt into a psychiatric crisis, she’s forced to confront uncomfortable truths about their past - live on the Tricky Milo channel. A drama about siblings coming to terms with loss, and finding each other in unexpected ways.
KATE.....Christine Bottomley
RYAN.....Mike Noble
JOHN.....Wyllie Longmore
MAEVE.....Angela Lonsdale
Other parts played by: Dora Davis, Lucy Greenaway, Isaac Lane, Noah Lane, Joe Pass, Luca Rawlinson, Eloise Westwood.
Programme consultant: psychiatrist Dr CM Shaw
Directed by Nadia Molinari
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m000wlnh)
Mallerstang in Cumbria with Debbie North.
Debbie North uses a motorised wheelchair and is a powerful advocate for making the countryside accessible for all. Debbie had always been a keen walker but, in her 40s, was diagnosed with spinal degeneration. Very quickly she became a wheelchair user yet made the decision that this wasn’t going to stop her accessing the countryside that she loves. Today she takes Clare on one of her favourite rambles in Mallerstang. It starts at The Thrang, south of Outhgill. Although officially at the eastern edge of Cumbria, the walk is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Their destination is the 'Water Cut' stone sculpture which overlooks some of the area's most beautiful and expansive scenery.
Grid Ref for start of walk: NY783004
OS Map: OL19 Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000wjd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000wjf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000wlnk)
Ben Whishaw
With Antonia Quirke
Ben Whishaw reveals why he went up to complete strangers on Tottenham High Road for his latest film Surge, and why nobody seemed to recognise him.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000wlfl)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000wlnm)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wlnp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (m000wlnr)
Series 9
Episode 5
The ninth series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is very different to the previous eight. It's still written by John Finnemore, "one of our best sketch writers", (The Observer), and performed by him with "a great supporting cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan" (The Telegraph), and there are still sketches and songs. But, with no live studio audience this year, John has taken the opportunity to try something completely new
Every episode in this series of Souvenir Programme is made up of scenes from one person's life, played in reverse order. There's no narrative to the episode; it's still a sketch show, not a sitcom... but the sketches in each episode all happened to one person, played by one member of the cast, over the course of their lifetime.
This week concerns Newt, following his life backwards from a funeral in 1990 to an eventful Christmas dinner in 1898.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme started in 2011 and quickly established itself as "One of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" (The Guardian), and "One of the funniest and most inventive new radio comedy shows of recent years" (The Daily Mail).
Written by ... John Finnemore
Newt ... John Finnemore
Ensemble ... Lawry Lewin
Ensemble ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Ensemble ... Simon Kane
Ensemble ... Carrie Quinlan
Original music composed by .... Susannah Pearse
Original music arranged by ... Susannah Pearse and Tim Sutton
Recorded and edited by ... Rich Evans at Syncbox Post
Production coordinator ... Beverly Tagg
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios Production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000wlfd)
Writers, Keri Davies and Daniel Thurman
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge … Angela Piper
Lee Bryce … Ryan Early
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Ruairi Donovan … Arthur Hughes
Adam Macy … Andrew Wincott
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy … Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy … Emerald O’hanrahan
Mia Grundy … Molly Pipe
Will Grundy … Philip Molloy
Joy Horville … Jakie Lye
Tracy Horrobin … Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary … Ryan Kelly
Calvin … Greg Jones
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000wlfg)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 19:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008p38)
Observing the Air
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other, from the Enlightenment to Dark Matter.
They focus on the long tradition by artists and naturalists to capture and define the untamed patterns of clouds in all their short lived states.
Ian and Tilly visit Paddington's Crossrail Station where they look up at clouds most recently interpreted in Spencer Finch’s A Cloud Index (2019), which depicts different types of clouds on a vast glass canopy. It pays homage to the work of the Romantic landscape painters and their time when imaginative and rational inquiry were becoming allies.
Ian reveals that John Constable was one of the first to paint these ethereal assemblages of water vapour with a remarkable understanding of cloud movement and structure as a result of his intense "skying" sessions during the 1820s on Hampstead Heath. Constable believed art could shed certainty on science - and he coincidentally added weight to the new science of meteorology and the work of amateur weather watcher Luke Howard, whose new classification scheme is depicted in sketches and watercolours on loan from the Royal Meteorological Society.
As Tilly Blyth illustrates, Howard's sketches and classifications cleverly captured a sense of endless mutating forms which, despite restricting the imaginative shaping by the influential Romantic intellects, meant an infinite variety of cloud forms could now be grasped by anyone. For Constable, elusive cloud shapes could be captured without any conscious shape-making taking place.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with the Science Museum Group
Photograph by Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m000wjql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000wlfj)
Evan Davis chairs a discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000wlfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m000wlf4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000wlfp)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wlfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 52 First Impressions with David Quantick (b07c4vt6)
Series 2
Episode 4
Journalist and comedy writer David Quantick has met and interviewed hundreds of people – what were his first impressions, how have they changed and does it all matter?
This week, stories about Paul Welller, soap operas and Sting, among others.
Written and Presented by: David Quantick
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 A Good Read (m000nc27)
Johny Pitts & Charlotte Proudman
Writer Johny Pitts and barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman talk to Harriett about the books that have inspired and entertained them. Johny chooses Romance in Marseilles, written in the 1930s by Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay but only published this year because it was considered so transgressive at the time. Charlotte describes how Butterfly Politics by the feminist and legal scholar Catharine A MacKinnon persuaded her not to leave the law, and some of the same themes of consent and sexual harassment are addressed in the form of a novel, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill, which is Harriett's choice.
Join the conversation on instagram @agoodreadbbc
Producer Sarah Goodman
FRIDAY 04 JUNE 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000wlft)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wlfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000wlfy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000wlg0)
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 (m000wlg2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000wlg4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000wlg6)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Debbie Thrower of the Bible Reading Fellowship and founding Anna Chaplain.
Good morning.
One of my abiding memories of my late father is of sitting with him in the gardens of his care home in summertime and offering him a fresh pear to eat. In his conf usion, he couldn’t handle the small knife I had brought with me to peel the pear, so I offered to do it for him.
It was only a few minutes sitting in the sun, sharing our enjoyment of the sights and sounds of a June day, the birdsong, and the juiciness of eating a perfect, ripe pear. But the memory has stayed with me of a golden moment of being together, helping him to feel loved and of savouring the sweetness of the fruit.
Dementia is an insidious disease; robbing us of so many memories, striking at the heart of our identity. That day my father was still very much my Dad, despite his symptoms.
Another time, in the home’s dining room when we had lunch together, he suddenly asked, ‘Is this the best hotel in Lyme Regis?’ It would have been futile to set him straight. ‘Yes’ I replied, and we both basked in his sense of enjoying what he perceived to be a most delicious lunch, in his mind’s eye at least!
As dementia takes hold, and cognitive function decreases, behaviour can become challenging, the effects for those with round-the-clock responsibility so tiring, something many will be thinking about during the approaching National Carers’ Week. As carers we have to remember that the essential person remains, and as someone made in the image of God- he or she is lovable, and infinitely precious.
Lord, you have invited us into your family through Christ; help us to love, honour and depend on each other so that our homes reflect the glorious togetherness of heaven.
Amen
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000wlg8)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkwj9)
Shoebill
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the mysterious shoebill of Uganda. Reaching almost one and a quarter metres in height and looking like a hefty-looking blue-grey stork, ornithologists remain unsure which birds are their closest relatives. As its name suggests, the Shoebill's most outstanding feature, is its enormous clog-shaped bill. Up to 20cm long, half as wide and ending in a nail-like hook. They live in central and east African swamps where they feed on reptiles, fish, amphibians and even young crocodiles. Their bill is also useful in the baking heat of the African sun, when the adults scoop up beak-fulls of water and shower it over their chicks to help them keep cool.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000wlxh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000wjdr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (m000wlxk)
Episode 5
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child to his first encounters with racist teachers, race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire he charts his own personal story alongside the social, historical and political factors that have shaped the world we live in today.
Kingslee Daley, better known by his stage name Akala, is a British rapper, author, and activist. In 2006, he was voted the Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards. He is the founder of the The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and has recently published a novel called The Dark Lady, which features a 15-year-old orphan on the streets of Elizabethan London.
Written and read by Akala
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000wlxm)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 Descendants (m000wm4b)
Malik and Mark
One year on from the toppling of the Colston Statue in Bristol, Descendants asks... how close is each of us to the legacy of Britain's role in slavery? And who does that mean our lives are connected to?
Yrsa Daley-Ward narrates seven episodes telling the stories of people whose lives today are all connected through this history.
Malik was a lost teenager in Liverpool when a chance encounter with Gil Scott-Heron set him on a path to find out more about his history. His journey to uncover his ancestry would take him to Guyana where he would discover the way Britain's role in slavery shaped the lives of his family today. But it also led him to discover his connection right back to the place where he began, and to the heart of power in Britain. In Liverpool, 200 years ago, Malik's ancestors would clash with Mark's ancestor, a prominent abolitionist called James Cropper. To this day Mark runs the family paper mill, James Cropper PLC, and the legend of James Cropper has travelled right down through the generations... yet Mark makes a shocking discovery when he learns that there's another side to his ancestry after all.
Producers: Polly Weston, Candace Wilson, Rema Mukena
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Academic consultants: Matthew Smith and Rachel Lang of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL
Additional genealogical research by Laura Berry
FRI 11:30 It's a Fair Cop (m000wm4d)
Series 6
Policing Covid
In this show Alfie and his audience cops tackle the issues around policing the Covid pandemic.
In a departure from the programme's traditional format, rather than focus on just one real-life case, Alfie looks back at the past fifteen months and explores some of the issues facing the police during the Covid pandemic. With contributions from senior and frontline police figures, as well as the usual tests for the assembled audience cops, Alfie reflects on how prepared the police were for Covid-19 and how the UK's national lockdowns have been policed.
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 (m000wm4g)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wly0)
Episode 5
Bearing the weight of devastating loss, a woman has fled post-war London for the sanctuary of her Swiss chalet. As she lies in the sun and lets her gaze linger on her thin sliver of garden, nature and solitude begin to do their work. Recording her thoughts in a journal, she eventually finds herself well enough to feel lonely and irritable – and then two English sisters arrive at her door...
The clear Alpine air has done its work and the narrator is much restored. Contemplating a return to England, she worries about the fate of her companions.
This delightful short novel of 1920, from the author of ‘The Enchanted April’, is a hymn to the restorative powers of nature, landscape and companionship.
Read by Ruth Gemmell
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000wm4j)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000wm4l)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000wm4n)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 Ladder to Somewhere (m000wm4q)
Episode 5
Following her award-winning 2019 series Ladder to Nowhere, Liza Ward continues the dramatic story of how she escaped from a life of poverty, social chaos and gang crime.
Liza became a mum at 13, spent time in the care system, and was forced to cut ties with her alcoholic mother. She was later drawn into Manchester’s gang culture, had a relationship with a gun dealer and almost became a casualty of gang crime herself. Through it all, she fought to get herself the education that she knew would offer her the possibility of a better life.
Liza escaped that world, but many people she knew did not. Their lives were damaged beyond repair. They became lost souls who gave up on society, and eventually on themselves. In this series, Liza revisits that time, to see if she can pinpoint the reasons why she was able to break free while others remained trapped. In five themed episodes, each addressing a major social issue of our time, she recalls the turning points in her life. Liza talks to family and friends whose love and support helped her through, and reconnects with teachers and employers who encouraged and mentored her. Through their honest and often uplifting testimony we get a vivid portrait of a family, a city, and a working-class culture in decline.
In the final episode, Liza gets close to home as she explores how family life suffers, yet sometimes thrives, in the environment she grew up in. She tells the stories of some of the women in her family whose lives were blighted. And she shares parenting thoughts with her daughter Olivia, whose welfare was Liza’s number one priority and who is now raising a family of her own.
Producer: Hugh Costello
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000wlfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (p09h4vpy)
The System
Level 2: Sweat Blood
By Ben Lewis.
A witty and propulsive six-part thriller about a mysterious personal development programme. Starring Siena Kelly, Jack Rowan and Iain de Caestecker.
Level 2: Sweat Blood.
The Past: Jake and his fellow underdogs begin to radically transform their minds and bodies.
The Present: Maya’s hunt for their leader gets tense when she realises they might be hunting her.
Cast:
Alex … Iain de Caestecker
Maya … Siena Kelly
Jerome… Don Gilét
Coyote…Divian Ladwa
Beau…Matthew Needham
Jake …Jack Rowan
Original music and sound design by Danny Krass
Featuring tracks from Equiknoxx music collective
With thanks to Dr Joel Busher at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, University of Coventry.
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Kirsty Williams
FRI 14:45 Chinese Characters (b09zv3d7)
Zheng He: The Admiral Goes to Africa
China rarely had an image as a great maritime power. But for a brief time in the mid-15th century, that all changed under the Ming dynasty and its admiral, Zheng He. He was sent out on seven voyages to points as far apart as Southeast Asia, Ceylon, and even the coast of Africa. His fleet consisted of numerous mighty vessels, larger than anything that Europe could manage. And his voyages created new routes for trade and influence; he even brought back a giraffe. Zheng He's voyages mark the greatest extent of China's explorations of the world until the modern era. No wonder he has become an icon again today as China seeks a global role.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000wm4t)
GQT at Home
Peter Gibbs hosts the show with a group of gardening experts. Joining him this week are Bunny Guinness, Bob Flowerdew and Matthew Pottage, to answer questions from the virtual audience.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Millie Chu
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000wm4w)
Lava! Lava! Lava!
Lava! Lava! Lava! by Tiffany Murray.
Following her mother’s instructions, Ruthie has gone to Iceland: to wait for the volcano to erupt and to complete an important task.
Tiffany Murray is the author of the novels Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents and Sugar Hall. Her fourth book, The Girl Who Talked to Birds, is set in Iceland. She is completing a memoir, You, Me, and The Rock n’ Roll Cook, about growing up with Queen and Black Sabbath sleeping in your house.
Writer: Tiffany Murray
Reader: Tanya Reynolds
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000wm4y)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant. Prod: Eleanor Garland (Beverley Purcell Apr-July)
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m000wjlh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m000wm51)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000wm54)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m000wm56)
Series 105
Episode 8
Andy Zaltzman presents a look back at the week's headlines
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000wlxr)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Art of Innovation (m0008r5s)
Tracking Progress
Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other, focussing on the novelty and anxiety of rapid technological change at the height of Britain's railway mania in the 1840s.
No image better evokes the transformative influence of the railways than JMW Turner's 1844 painting Rain, Steam and Speed. The painting, which normally resides at London's National Gallery, seems to give pride of place to the new Firefly locomotive and its exhilarating speed. But as the railways shaped ideas about modernity, was this steam powered newcomer seen as an exciting harbinger of change or a grim blight on the world?
The Firefly locomotive depicted in Turner's picture no longer exists, but a 1/8th scale working model designed by engineer Daniel Gooch resides in the Science Museum Group Collection. As Tilly Blyth reveals, the social and physical repercussions of Gooch's exquisitely fashioned engine, as it cut though the landscape, were clearly novel for some artists but confusing for many, who called into question the very nature of Victorian pride in progress.
Whilst it's a conflict that's never resolved, Ian concludes that we keep on returning to contemplate Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed - since rather than being a lament, it celebrates the new, without moral judgement. It's left to us, the viewer to weigh up any dilemmas that modernity and change continue to evoke.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group
Photograph (C) The National Gallery, London
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000wlxt)
James Graham, Rachel Maclean MP, Luke Pollard MP, Ann Widdecombe
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from the Landmark Theatre in Ilfracombe with the playwright James Graham, Minister for the Future of Transport and Decarbonisation Rachel Maclean MP, Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard MP and former politician and author Ann Widdecombe.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000wlxw)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Meeting Myself Coming Back (b01k9lvs)
Series 4
Paddy Ashdown
From rookie MP to Liberal Democrats leader, from the Royal Marines to high office in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown relives his life from the archives in a frank and sometimes emotional conversation with John Wilson
From his early days in the army to his leadership of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown - now Lord Ashdown- has been a singular political figure. He arrived in Westminster as a Liberal but soon his party voted for a merger with the SDP. He led the newly named Liberal Democrats for 11 years and then worked in Bosnia, trying to repair the damage that the war had done.
In this interview he meets his younger self at key moments from the sound archive and discusses his reactions with John Wilson. We hear his memories of serving in the Marines and also hear extracts from his first major speech at the Liberal Party Conference when he warned of the dangers of Cruise missiles.
There are highly emotional moments as well, when Paddy recounts the horrors of the scenes he saw in Bosnia in 1992.
And the programme comes up to the present with a consideration of what the Coalition and the recent local elections have meant for the Liberal Democrats.
Producer: Emma Kingsley.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000wlxy)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim (m000wly0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m000wjqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 A Good Read (m000nl81)
Mark Radcliffe & Patricia Cumper
Radio broadcaster Mark Radcliffe and playwright Patricia Cumper nominate their favourite books. Patricia chooses Toni Morrison's acclaimed novel Beloved, while Mark advocates for a very different writing style in Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again. Harriett's pick is Helene Hanff's book of letters, 84 Charing Cross Road, which charmingly contrasts American chutzpah and British reserve in a long lost era.
Producer Sally Heaven
comment on instagram at @agoodreadbbc
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
52 First Impressions with David Quantick
23:00 THU (b07c4vt6)
A Good Read
23:30 THU (m000nc27)
A Good Read
23:30 FRI (m000nl81)
A Life in Music
16:00 MON (m000wcxx)
A Life in Music
11:30 THU (m000wln3)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (m000wdhp)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (m000wlxw)
A Sense of Music
11:00 TUE (m000wjpx)
Alex Edelman's Peer Group
18:30 TUE (m000wjqx)
All in the Mind
21:00 TUE (m000wjrk)
All in the Mind
15:30 WED (m000wjrk)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (m000wcd4)
Analysis
20:30 MON (m000wl4d)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (m000wkhc)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (m000wdhm)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (m000wlxt)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (m000wmjg)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (m000wlfl)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (m000wlfl)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (m000wjg2)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (m000wjg2)
Bodies
05:45 SAT (m000rllx)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (m000wjdk)
Chinese Characters
14:45 FRI (b09zv3d7)
Daft Punk Is Staying at My House, My House
23:00 MON (m000vwr0)
Descendants
11:00 FRI (m000wm4b)
Desert Island Discs
11:00 SUN (m000wjdr)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (m000wjdr)
Drama
15:00 SAT (b0b7ck97)
Drama
21:45 SAT (b088k0rv)
Drama
14:00 MON (m0009zcd)
Drama
14:15 TUE (m00051py)
Drama
14:15 WED (b0952qpz)
Drama
14:15 THU (m0004l8q)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (m000wkgr)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (m000wjgg)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (m000wl50)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (m000wjsj)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (m000wjmz)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (m000wlg8)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (m000w9vn)
File on 4
20:00 TUE (m000wjr9)
Fortunately... with Fi and Jane
23:00 TUE (m000wjrt)
Four Thought
09:30 WED (m000wjlk)
Four Thought
20:45 WED (m000wjlk)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (m000wkh3)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:00 THU (m000wln1)
Front Row
19:15 MON (m000wl48)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (m000wjr5)
Front Row
19:15 WED (m000wjlw)
Front Row
19:15 THU (m000wlfg)
Front Row
19:00 FRI (m000wlxr)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (m000wdh3)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (m000wm4t)
Great Lives
16:30 TUE (m000wjqn)
Great Lives
23:00 FRI (m000wjqn)
Hardy's Women
15:00 SUN (m000wjf6)
Here's the Story by Mary McAleese
00:30 SAT (m000wdhy)
In Our Time
09:00 THU (m000wlf4)
In Our Time
21:30 THU (m000wlf4)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (m000wjrf)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
12:04 MON (m000wl3h)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
22:45 MON (m000wl3h)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
12:04 TUE (m000wjq3)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
22:45 TUE (m000wjq3)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
12:04 WED (m000wjm5)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
22:45 WED (m000wjm5)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
12:04 THU (m000wlfr)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
22:45 THU (m000wlfr)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
12:04 FRI (m000wly0)
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
22:45 FRI (m000wly0)
It's a Fair Cop
11:30 FRI (m000wm4d)
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme
18:30 THU (m000wlnr)
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
19:45 SAT (m000wc07)
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
11:45 SUN (m000wjdt)
Ladder to Somewhere
13:45 MON (m000wl3r)
Ladder to Somewhere
13:45 TUE (m000wjqc)
Ladder to Somewhere
13:45 WED (m000wl5n)
Ladder to Somewhere
13:45 THU (m000wlnf)
Ladder to Somewhere
13:45 FRI (m000wm4q)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (m000wdh7)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (m000wm4y)
Law in Action
16:00 TUE (m000wjql)
Law in Action
20:00 THU (m000wjql)
Limelight
14:15 FRI (p09h4vpy)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (m000wkht)
Loose Ends
11:30 MON (m000wkht)
Made of Stronger Stuff
15:30 TUE (p095jmp7)
Made of Stronger Stuff
21:00 WED (p095jmp7)
Mark Steel's in Town
11:30 WED (b09hrxw2)
Meeting Myself Coming Back
21:00 FRI (b01k9lvs)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (m000wdhw)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (m000wkhy)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (m000wjg0)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (m000wl4k)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (m000wjrw)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (m000wjmf)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (m000wlft)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (m000wjfw)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (m000wjfw)
Money Box
15:00 WED (m000wl5q)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (m000wc5z)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (m000wjly)
More or Less
20:00 SUN (m000wc4t)
More or Less
09:00 WED (m000wjlh)
More or Less
16:30 FRI (m000wjlh)
My Teenage Diary
19:15 SAT (m000jvz0)
Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics
11:30 TUE (m000wjpz)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
09:45 MON (m000wl4m)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
00:30 TUE (m000wl4m)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
09:45 TUE (m000wjps)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
00:30 WED (m000wjps)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
09:45 WED (m000wjmh)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
00:30 THU (m000wjmh)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
09:45 THU (m000wlfw)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
00:30 FRI (m000wlfw)
Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
09:45 FRI (m000wlxk)
Natural Histories
06:35 SUN (b05w9dxn)
Nature Table
12:04 SUN (m000wcd0)
Nature Table
18:30 MON (m000wl46)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (m000wdj6)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (m000wkj6)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (m000wjgb)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (m000wl4w)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (m000wjs9)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (m000wjms)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (m000wlg4)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (m000wkwx)
News Summary
06:00 SUN (m000wjd0)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (m000wl81)
News Summary
12:00 MON (m000wl52)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (m000wjq1)
News Summary
12:00 WED (m000wl5d)
News Summary
12:00 THU (m000wln5)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (m000wm4g)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (m000wkgp)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (m000wjd5)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (m000wjdf)
News and Weather
13:00 SAT (m000wkh9)
News
22:00 SAT (m000wkhw)
Night Vision
23:30 MON (m000fpp4)
Night Vision
23:30 TUE (m000fwd5)
Night Vision
23:30 WED (m000g50b)
On Form
23:30 SAT (m000wc0r)
On Form
16:30 SUN (m000wjfc)
One to One
14:45 SAT (m000v2rw)
One to One
09:30 TUE (m000wjpq)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (m000wjf9)
Open Book
15:30 THU (m000wjf9)
PM
17:00 SAT (m000wkhh)
PM
17:00 MON (m000wl40)
PM
17:00 TUE (m000wjqq)
PM
17:00 WED (m000wl5v)
PM
17:00 THU (m000wlnm)
PM
17:00 FRI (m000wm51)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (m000wjfp)
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
17:30 SAT (m000wkhk)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (m000wdj8)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (m000wjgd)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (m000wl4y)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (m000wjsf)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (m000wjmv)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (m000wlg6)
Profile
19:00 SAT (m000wjff)
Profile
05:45 SUN (m000wjff)
Profile
17:40 SUN (m000wjff)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (m000wjd9)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:25 SUN (m000wjd9)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (m000wjd9)
Ramblings
06:07 SAT (m000wcyc)
Ramblings
15:00 THU (m000wlnh)
Round Britain Quiz
23:00 SAT (m000wccq)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (m000wkgy)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (m000wdj2)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (m000wkj2)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (m000wjg6)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (m000wl4r)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (m000wjs1)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (m000wjmn)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (m000wlg0)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (m000wdj0)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (m000wdj4)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (m000wkhm)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (m000wkj0)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (m000wkj4)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (m000wjfh)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (m000wjg4)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (m000wjg8)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (m000wl4p)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (m000wl4t)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (m000wjry)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (m000wjs5)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (m000wjml)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (m000wjmq)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (m000wlfy)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (m000wlg2)
Short Cuts
15:00 TUE (m000wjqj)
Short Works
00:30 SUN (m000wdh5)
Short Works
19:00 SUN (b07vngz6)
Short Works
15:45 FRI (m000wm4w)
Shush!
18:30 WED (b08q62bx)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (m000wkhr)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (m000wjfm)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (m000wl44)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (m000wjqs)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (m000wl5x)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (m000wlnp)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (m000wm54)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b08295y8)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b08295y8)
Start the Week
09:00 MON (m000wl34)
Start the Week
21:30 MON (m000wl34)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (m000wjdh)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (m000wjd7)
The 3rd Degree
15:00 MON (m000wl3t)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (m000wjdm)
The Archers
19:00 MON (m000wjqg)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (m000wjqg)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (m000wjr1)
The Archers
14:00 WED (m000wjr1)
The Archers
19:00 WED (m000wjlt)
The Archers
14:00 THU (m000wjlt)
The Archers
19:00 THU (m000wlfd)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (m000wlfd)
The Art of Innovation
19:45 MON (m0008p5n)
The Art of Innovation
19:45 TUE (m0008nwk)
The Art of Innovation
19:45 WED (m0008nz6)
The Art of Innovation
19:45 THU (m0008p38)
The Art of Innovation
19:45 FRI (m0008r5s)
The Bottom Line
20:30 THU (m000wlfj)
The Confessional
19:15 SUN (m000wjfr)
The Digital Human
16:30 MON (m000wl3y)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (m000wcyf)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (m000wlnk)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (m000wjdy)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (m000wjdy)
The Great Post Office Trial
20:00 MON (m000wl4b)
The Great Post Office Trial
11:00 WED (m000wl4b)
The Life Scientific
09:00 TUE (m000wjpn)
The Life Scientific
21:30 TUE (m000wjpn)
The Listening Project
13:30 SUN (m000wjf4)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (m000wjm1)
The Media Show
21:30 WED (m000wjm1)
The News Quiz
12:30 SAT (m000wdhh)
The News Quiz
18:30 FRI (m000wm56)
The Skewer
23:15 WED (m000wjmb)
The Things We Leave Behind
19:45 SUN (m000wjft)
The Untold
11:00 MON (m000wl3b)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (m000wkh1)
The Why Factor
14:45 MON (b08y2pbg)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (m000wjf2)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (m000wl4h)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (m000wjrp)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (m000wjm3)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (m000wlfp)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (m000wlxy)
Thinking Allowed
00:15 MON (m000wc5l)
Thinking Allowed
16:00 WED (m000wl5s)
Thought Cages
14:45 SUN (m00017wb)
Today
07:00 SAT (m000wkgw)
Today
06:00 MON (m000wl32)
Today
06:00 TUE (m000wjpl)
Today
06:00 WED (m000wjlf)
Today
06:00 THU (m000wlf2)
Today
06:00 FRI (m000wlxh)
Tumanbay
21:00 SAT (b06z2tjf)
Twayna Mayne: Black Woman
23:00 WED (m000wjm8)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b01s8qh4)
Tweet of the Day
10:54 SUN (m000wjdp)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b09sn7yh)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b03mzv60)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b04t0htz)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b04t0m7p)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b04hkwj9)
Weather
06:57 SAT (m000wkgt)
Weather
12:57 SAT (m000wkh7)
Weather
17:57 SAT (m000wkhp)
Weather
06:57 SUN (m000wjd3)
Weather
07:57 SUN (m000wjdc)
Weather
12:57 SUN (m000wjf0)
Weather
17:57 SUN (m000wjfk)
Weather
05:56 MON (m000wjgj)
Weather
12:57 MON (m000wl3m)
Weather
12:57 TUE (m000wjq7)
Weather
12:57 WED (m000wl5j)
Weather
12:57 THU (m000wln9)
Weather
12:57 FRI (m000wm4l)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (m000wjfy)
Why Time Flies (and how to slow it down)
21:00 MON (m000w9tg)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (m000wkhf)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (m000wl38)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (m000wjpv)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (m000wjlp)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (m000wlf8)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (m000wlxm)
World at One
13:00 MON (m000wl3p)
World at One
13:00 TUE (m000wjq9)
World at One
13:00 WED (m000wl5l)
World at One
13:00 THU (m000wlnc)
World at One
13:00 FRI (m000wm4n)
You and Yours
12:18 MON (m000wl3k)
You and Yours
12:18 TUE (m000wjq5)
You and Yours
12:18 WED (m000wl5g)
You and Yours
12:18 THU (m000wln7)
You and Yours
12:18 FRI (m000wm4j)
You're Dead To Me
10:30 SAT (p08lz6pz)