Edward Brooke-Hitching's father was an antiquarian book dealer. So began his fascination, leading to a unique journey through the entire history of literature, delving into its darkest territories to hunt down the very strangest books ever written, and uncover the stories behind their creation.
This is a madman’s library of eccentric and extraordinary volumes from around the world, many of which have been completely forgotten. Books written in blood and books that kill, books of the insane and books that hoaxed the globe, books invisible to the naked eye and books so long they could destroy the Universe, books worn into battle, books of code and cypher whose secrets remain undiscovered… and a few others that are just plain weird.
Produced by Clive Brill.
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
We’ve all had to endure the Lockdowns. For some it was a blessing, an opportunity to renew relationships, to dust off old photo albums and walk-through old memories.
Just like everything there isn’t one story to emerge from families in Lockdown. Good, bad, that’s the human tapestry: the story of us.
And during Lockdown the sound of traffic was replaced by birdsong. It felt to me as though the world was reborn. That this was how the world used to be before we humans plundered it and turned it into a factory on the skin of the planet feeding the wants of us human beings.
I, like others, experienced a lot of change during the Lockdowns. Meetings online. We’ve become used to waiting for parcels to arrive at our doorstep.
And along the way, so many of us have lost someone, or we know of someone who has passed away.
With the rollout of the vast vaccination programme, I believe people will simply go back to the way things were. But let’s not. Let’s take the good from what we’ve learned and leave the not-so-good behind.
Lord, you are the All-Hearing. Allow us to hear the stirring of our conscience, to hear the consequences of the things we’ve done, to allows us to hear the unwinding of our hearts and to take full responsibility for the great gift you’ve given us: Planet Earth.
When Luke told his friends and family he wanted to be a magistrate aged just 20, they all had one question: "Why are you doing that, Luke?" In this talk Luke takes us inside the magistrates' courts where for six years he has been convicting, sentencing, and acquitting offenders, many of his own age, to explain how he answers that question.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
With its beaches, rugged cliffs and imposing headlands, the Durham coastline is a dramatic landscape, stretching from Sunderland to Hartlepool in North East England. Today it's designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty owing to its Magnesian Limestone grasslands, wildflower meadows and ancient woodlands. But this coastline was once the site of several of Durham’s last deep coal mines and notorious for its ‘black beaches’ and heavily polluted landscape. In the late 1900s, after the closure of the pits, it was transformed in a multi-agency clean-up to remove well over a million tonnes of colliery spoil which had been tipped onto the coast. Today it's “a wonderful conglomeration of human and geological layers” says archaeologist and artist Rose Ferraby. Rose along with poets Katrina Porteus and Phoebe Power revisit this landscape which inspired a book of illustrated poems and prose as part of the National Trust’s People’s Landscape project which explores the role landscapes have played in social change. We hear from a former miner and a litter picker, discover beauty in an abandoned mattress, watch a butterfly through the lens of a child’s camera, uncover a kaleidoscope of colours, catch up on memories of life working underground and wind-blow corn cockles above ground.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/peoples-landscapes-explore-the-places-that-have-shaped-the-nation
https://www.guillemotpress.co.uk/poetry/katrina-porteous-and-phoebe-power-sea-change
'A miracle and a disaster' - that's how the modern food system was described this week at the launch of part 2 of the National Food Strategy. Charlotte Smith asks the farming industry what they make of the strategy. With Patrick Holden of the Sustainable Food Trust, Stuart Roberts of the National Farmers' Union, and Sheila Dillon of Radio 4's The Food Programme. HRH the Prince of Wales talks about the need to put nature at the heart of farming and the importance of small family-run farms.
There are visits to the Great Yorkshire Show and the Kent County Show, just two of a small handful of agricultural shows that have gone ahead this summer.
You can hear Sheila Dillon's interview with Henry Dimbleby on The Food Programme on Radio 4 on Sun 18th July 2021 at
Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
More than 20,000 bereaved families can now claim financial support once restricted to married couples and civil partners. The payments worth up to £10,000 have been extended to cover all couples who lived together and claimed child benefit.
Eight years ago the government said it would introduce funding for university and higher education that is comparable with the principle of Islamic finance. So when will it happen?
What should banks do to protect problem gamblers and what you can do if you think you are being paid less than minimum wage.
Professor Sharon Collard, Research Director at the Personal Finance research Centre at the University of Bristol
Includes a look back at events since Sunday’s historic Euros final and an unusual challenge for Ronan Keating.
With Jon Culshaw, Lewis Macleod, Jan Ravens, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey
Written by Nev Fountain & Tom Jamieson, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden & Tom Coles, James Bugg, Simon Alcock, Edward Tew, Jane McCutcheon & Vivienne Riddoch, Sophie Dickson, Jeffrey Aidoo, Rajiv Karia & Tasha Dhanraj
Chris Mason presents political debate from the Church of St James and St Basil, Newcastle, with a panel which includes the businessman John Elliott, the Shadow Digital Minister Chi Onwurah MP, the Pensions Minister Guy Opperman MP, and head teacher Dame Nicola Stephenson.
Journalist Kieran Yates hears from people who have taught themselves new skills as adults and overcome fears or hesitation.
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 tells how learning to dance has seen him through lockdown and Kieran asks him if he can inspire her to get on a bike - something she's still learning to do.
Vienna 1913. Colonel Alfred Redl is a double agent. Like the empire, he believes he's unstoppable. A brilliant story manipulator and pioneer in modern surveillance techniques, Redl was almost the perfect spy. By the time the web of lies is complete, both Redl and the Empire will fall. Mike Walker's series about the rise and fall of House Habsburg concludes.
Weekend Woman's Hour: The Three Hijabis, 150 years of Female GPs & going braless
Three female football fans – hashtag ‘TheThreeHijabis - as they called themselves set up a petition calling for racists to be banned for life from all football matches in England. Shaista Aziz, Amna Abdullatif and Huda Jawad tell us about the petition which now has over a million signatories.
As the Royal College of GPs marks 150 years of women in general practice we ask why more than half of GPs in the UK are women. We also discuss why women GP’s may still face issues like lower pay compared to men in their field. We hear from the President of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Amanda Howe and GP trainee, Dr Sophie Lumley.
After more than a year of working from home during the pandemic, a third of women say they want to ditch their bra forever. Joanna Wakefield-Scurr, is Professor in Biomechanics at the University of Portsmouth she talks about the pros and cons of not wearing a bra.
A Government challenge to a Parole Board decision to release Colin Pitchfork has been rejected - paving the way for the double child killer to be freed in the next few weeks. Pitchfork has served 33 years in prison after being jailed for raping and murdering 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in the 1980s. We hear from Philip Musson the uncle of Dawn Ashworth and from Belinda Winder, a Professor of Forensic Psychology and Research Director of the Centre of Crime, Offending, Prevention and Engagement (COPE) at Nottingham Trent University, and from David Wilson Emeritus Professor of Criminology at Birmingham University.
Deborah James is a the host of the BBC's You, Me And The Big C podcast, a campaigner, writer and mother of two. She tells us about her recent experience of liver failure followed by sepsis and how she attended Wimbledon only 12 hours after leaving hospital.
And we have music and chat from Bronwen Lewis a Welsh singer songwriter whose style sits between Country, Pop, Folk and Blues.
Should consumers be told the carbon footprint of the products they buy? And if so, how? In recent years, a shift in customer attitudes towards climate change has caused businesses to up their game when it comes to showcasing the environmental impact of products. But just how transparent it this? How much do buyers want to know about how sustainable their shopping is? Evan Davis and guests discuss the highly complex issues around carbon labelling and how best to communicate sustainable business practices.
Paul Weller, Kenneth Branagh and Lolita Chakrabarti, Jackie Clune, Danny Wallace, Enny, Anneka Rice, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Anneka Rice are joined by Kenneth Branagh, Lolita Chakrabarti, Jackie Clune and Danny Wallace for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Paul Weller and Enny.
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
Poet Imtiaz Dharker was born in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Her family moved to Glasgow when she was less than one year old. A fine artist and film maker, she has won the Queen’s Gold Medal for her poetry. Seen as one of Britain's most inspirational poets, she has been heavily involved for many years in Poetry Live, an organisation bringing poetry to school students which was set up by her late husband. She describes herself as a "Scottish Muslim Calvinist" adopted by India and married into Wales. Her poems talk about journeys both geographical and cultural displacement, which she also discusses with her friend and fellow poet Simon Armitage along with pomegranates, Mumbai and hand made paper.
As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, Celia Hatton looks at how party slogans reveal the turbulent history of modern China. Throughout its existence, the party has used key slogans to communicate policy and mobilise the country's vast population. These messages reflect not just the ambitions of party leaders but also have a profound impact on the lives of millions. Using the BBC archive Celia examines the story behind eight key Communist Party slogans, from their early years as a guerrilla movement to the campaigns of China's current all-powerful leader Xi XInping.
Contributors: Professor Vivienne Shue, Dr Jennifer Altehenger, Dr Olivia Cheung, author Lijia Zhang, Dr Rowena He, and New York Times correspondent Christopher Buckley.
Under the brutal rule of the puritanical followers of Maya, Tumanbay, once the most powerful and wealthy city on earth, has become a place of fear and suspicion. While Gregor (Rufus Wright) attempts to survive the regime by collaborating and demonstrating his loyalty, his niece Manel (Aiysha Hart) is drawn to the rebel cause.
Tumanbay is created by John Dryden and Mike Walker and inspired by the Mamluk slave rulers of Egypt.
Jessica Raine reads the next in Daisy Johnson's series of deliciously spine-chilling ghost stories with a feminist twist, set in a haunted hotel.
In today's story, a young woman throws herself into her career, until a visit to The Hotel throws up some discomforting truths...
Is it time to rethink our attitude to work? Nearly half of employees care less about their careers since Covid, according to a survey this week of 2000 staff of large companies. Four in ten said they are concerned about work-related burnout and a quarter of women said the pandemic has had a negative impact on their work-life balance. The lockdown has disrupted long-existing patterns of work for some and exposed the work-based inequalities of others. As we’re about to unlock, many believe this is the moment to re-negotiate the role of work in our lives. Some believe that employers should be more adaptable to the individual circumstances of their employees, seeking as far as possible to eradicate work-related stress for the sake of their mental health. Others think greater flexibility based on people’s lifestyles could foster a culture of entitlement and we should accept that a certain amount of stress is inseparable from productivity and creativity. What about the value of work itself? For some, the goal should be to do less and less of it. Trials of a four-day week in Iceland were described as an "overwhelming success" and led to many workers moving to shorter hours. Radical advocates of leisure time defend the ‘right to be lazy’ and view idleness as central to creativity. While others believe that work is intrinsic to a person’s sense of purpose and dignity. Is there a distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ work in an economy that has seen billionaires get richer while some families have struggled to put food on the table during the pandemic? Should we work to live or live to work? With Philip Booth, Matthew Garrahan, Will Stronge and Otegha Uwagba.
Before the 2021 Brain of Britain series gets under way, Russell Davies welcomes back four top-scoring contestants from recent years for an elite quiz contest. The Brain of Britain champions from 2019 and 2020 are joined by the runners-up from those Finals, to determine who takes home the prestigious Brain of Brains trophy.
The quiz comes from the Radio Theatre in London and was recorded with restrictions on indoor gatherings still in place.
Graham Barker, a retired dental surgeon from the Wirral (the reigning Brain of Britain champion)
'Poet Laureate of Twitter' Brian Bilston chooses his favourites from among the listener requests, including UA Fanthorpe, Henry Reed, Philip Larkin and more. Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio in Bristol.
SUNDAY 18 JULY 2021
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m000xzyc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Green Originals (m000czl8)
Rachel Carson
Reflections on the modern pioneers of the environmental movement. Today - Rachel Carson.
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring was probably the most important environmental book of the 20th Century. It catalogued, in grim detail, the effect that pesticides were having on the countryside and the wildlife within it. The book was fiercely attacked by the chemicals companies, whose businesses had grown rapidly in the years after the Second World War as a result of the widespread adoption of pesticides like DDT (dubbed the “insect bomb”).
After the publication of the book, there was a change in policy regulating the use of such substances in North America and in Britain too, where the effects of DDT on birds of prey numbers had long been suspected by organisations like the RSPB.
The nature writer Conor Jameson reflects on the work of this humble marine biologist turned conservationist, and analyses what challenges remain for the regulation of chemicals in wider environmental systems.
“Carson has taken on the status of a prophet,” he says, “with Silent Spring she created a new testament for our ecological times."
Producer: Emily Williams
Series Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown Production in association with The Open University
SUN 00:30 From Fact to Fiction (m000xv88)
"Forced Rhubarb" - by Hannah McGill. A romantic dinner doesn't go according to plan. Reader: Victoria Liddelle. Producer: Bruce Young
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000xzyf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000xzyh)
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 (m000xzyk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m000xzym)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m000xzjy)
The church of Holy Trinity, Skipton in North Yorkshire
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of Holy Trinity, Skipton in North Yorkshire. The present church dates from around 1300 and was extended in the late 15th century. In 1853 and again in 1925, the church was struck by lightning. The current ring of eight in the note of E flat were cast by John Taylor of Loughborough in 1921. We hear them ringing Kent Treble Bob Major.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m000xzj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m000xzgw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b08vwmsn)
Childish Things
Turning 40, for many, is a time of anxiety and existential crisis. In thinking about what it means to be finally grown up, journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik finds his thoughts returning to the question of what it means to be young - and what of childhood and youth can we still carry with us.
If, as it's said in the Islamic tradition, youth comes to a decisive end at the age of 40, then how can we still hold on to the energy, dynamism and even innocence of our younger years without being childish?
Reflecting on Saint Paul's advice to the church in Corinth to leave behind "childish things", Abdul-Rehman finds consolation in the words of C.S. Lewis who thinks that adults too concerned with adulthood are rather more immature than children. He also finds uneasy perspective in the encyclopaedic Hindu scripture Srimad Bhagavatam which tells us how, even in childhood, we carry the trauma of past lives and experience - shaping our adult lives.
Drawing on William Blake's Songs of Innocence, Sioux tribal wisdom, Zen paradoxes and the music of Herbie Hancock and Leonard Cohen, Abdul-Rehman finds that growing up well has as much to do with knowing what of childish things to keep as with what needs to be let go.
Presenter: Abdul-Rehman Malik
Producer: Jonathan Mayo
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m000xzgy)
Woodland Crofts
The idea of woodland crofts is taking off in Scotland, with 250 families now on the waiting list, keen to grow trees and food on former forestry land. In this programme Richard Baynes visits Tignabruaich on the Cowal peninsula where he talks to woodland croft tenants Marylou Anderson and Craig Ward, and meets two of those who want to follow in their footsteps, turning stump-covered hillsides into productive ground. Richard discovers habitats among the brash, hears about plans to tame invasive rhododendrons, and learns that there troll villages hidden in the moss.
Produced and presented by Richard Baynes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m000xzh0)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m000xzh2)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m000xzh4)
Women at Hajj; Football and Racism and Universal Credit
This year, for the first time, women are allowed to register for the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city this year without a male guardian. The Hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia begins on July 17th and continues until 22nd July. It was to be something of a festival, with women from all over the world planning to go together. Sadly only Saudi citizens can attend due to Covid restrictions. But it's still a big moment for Muslim Feminists. The BBC's Emb Hashmi reports.
England under 21's football coach Michael Johnson talks to Edward about how he guides young players and helps with their resilience and coping strategies with racism and how his Christian faith helps him in difficult times.
The Church of England and the charity Child Poverty Action want the Government to change its policy of limiting most universal credit payments to a maximum of two children per family. The two child limit started in 2017. Official figures published this week show that more than a million children have been affected since then - many from religious minorities. The Bishop of Durham the Right Reverend Paul Butler is the Church's spokesman on Families and Welfare.
Producers:
Carmel Lonergan
Rosie Dawson
Editor:
Helen Grady
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m000xzh6)
Feed the Minds
Broadcaster and journalist Cathy Newman makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Feed the Minds.
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 ‘Feed the Minds’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Feed the Minds’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1165603
SUN 07:57 Weather (m000xzh8)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m000xzhb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m000xzhd)
Rebirth and Renewal in Senghenydd
The community of Senghenydd near Caerphilly knows what it is to experience both trauma and revival. The scene of two of the UK's worst mining disasters, the first of which happened 120 years ago this year, it's the location of St Peter's church, a congregation which until recently had been in sharp decline and whose building stood at risk of closure.
Just a few years after the 1901 mining disaster, in the last Welsh revival, this had been a place of such zeal that even the rugby team disbanded, its members more focussed on saving souls than scoring tries.
Tragically the shortcomings exposed in the first mining disaster were not resolved and in 1913 what remains the UK's most serious industrial disaster took place: hundreds of lives were lost. Their deaths resulted at the time in compensation payments to their families of just 1 shilling and 11 pence.
Rugby began again in the town within a few years, while the mine closed in the late 1920s, and in recent years the town has erected lasting memorials to the men and boys who lost their lives. Now too at St Peter's church a new and young congregation is growing, supported by other churches in the Llandaff diocese.
Bishop June Osborne preaches in a service exploring how after trauma can come rebirth and renewal. The service is led by Ministry Area leader Father Mark Greenaway Robbins, with contributions from members of the congregation including former miners.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m000xv8s)
Verrucas Optional
'I object to the demotion of the noble art of indoor swimming,' writes Sara Wheeler, 'in the current frenzy to leap into the nearest river.'
Sara explains why she has little time for the new fad of wild swimming and sings the praises of those gorgeous pools that sprang up around the UK from the nineteenth century.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b08tcnmh)
Will Young on the Woodland Kingfisher
Singer Will Young dates his love of birds from this encounter with the woodland kingfisher.
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 Miles Warde.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m000xzhg)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m000xzhj)
Writers, Liz John And Sarah Hehir
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Phoebe Aldridge … Lucy Morris
Ben Archer … Ben Norris
David Archer … Timothy Bentinck
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Ruth Archer … Felicity Finch
Lee Bryce … Ryan Early
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Clarrie Grundy … Heather Bell
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy … Trevor Harrison
Joy Horville … Jackie Lye
Roy Tucker … Ian Pepperell
Adrian … Greg Hobbs
Paula … Therese Collins
SUN 10:54 Tweet of the Day (m000xzhl)
Tweet Take 5 : Goldcrest
Along with the firecrest, the goldcrest is Britain's smallest bird. Though often difficult to see high up in a conifer, the goldcrests' distinctive quiet call is a sure sign these delightful birds are close by as heard in this extended version of Tweet of the Day featuring wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, naturalist Chris Baines and ecologist Rosa Gleave.
Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m000xzhn)
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, athlete
Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is an Olympic gold medallist and three-time world champion heptathlete, and is one of the most successful women in British sporting history. She was the face of Team GB during the 2012 London Olympics, and her image adorned billboards and hoardings across the country in the run up to the Games.
Born in Sheffield, Jessica discovered sport as a youngster after attending a local athletics camp during the school holidays. By the time she was 13 she was working with a coach and had joined the City of Sheffield Athletics Club.
In 2006 she won bronze at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games but in 2008 she suffered an injury to her right foot which dashed her hopes of competing in the Beijing Olympics.
She spent the next year working her way back to fitness and by the 2012 London Olympics she was at the peak of her powers. When she crossed the finish line on 4 August – known as Super Saturday when Team GB won three athletics gold medals in less than an hour – she took the gold medal with a British and Commonwealth record score which remained unbeaten for seven years.
Just 15 months after the birth of her first child, Jessica won the heptathlon world title in Beijing – her third World Championship gold medal in a row. She won silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016. In October of that year, at the age of 30, she retired from competitive athletics.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 Marketing: Hacking the Unconscious (b08pdy05)
Series 1
Selling a Philosophy
Rory Sutherland explores how a three-word slogan transformed a mundane sports good into an entire lifestyle philosophy, and generated a marketer's most precious quality: cool.
In 1987, Nike's fortunes were on the slide. Overtaken by rival sports companies in market share, profits nosediving - the brand even found themselves being sued by The Beatles. Yet by the end of the decade, three little words had utterly altered their fortunes: a slogan that ditched the hi-tech athletic geekery of their previous campaigns and sold a feeling, a lifestyle, a philosophy. Just Do It.
How does a product move beyond mere utility and come to embody a zeitgeist? And should "cool" brands aim to cultivate an air - and a consumer base - of loyal specialists - or make that "cool" available to a mass market? Nike insiders Scott Bedbury and Liz Dolan tell the turbulent story of the early Just Do It campaign - featuring divorces, serial killers, and a badly-translated Maasai warrior - whilst Rory speaks to marketing guru Byron Sharp and evolutionary psychologist Nichola Raihani about our desire to, as Apple once put, "Think Different".
Producer: Steven Rajam
---
Why do certain marketing campaigns - from Nike's "Just Do It" to the MND Ice Bucket Challenge - cast such a spell over us? Rory Sutherland explores the story - and the psychology - behind ten of the most influential campaigns in history - with first-hand accounts from the creative minds that conceived them, and contributions from the worlds of evolutionary biology, behavioural psychology, socio-economics and anthropology.
Marketing. It's come to be one of the most misunderstood - and maligned - disciplines of our age: perceived variously as the Emperor's New Clothes, an emblem of the ills of capitalism, a shadowy dark art designed to steal away our hard-earned money and make us do (or buy, or vote for) things we don't want.
Yet marketing is undeniably a key part of contemporary culture. It's a science that's fundamentally about human behaviour - marketers, to some extent, understand us better than we know ourselves - and in the most successful campaigns we find our deepest emotions and urges, from altruism to shame, hope to bravado, systematically tapped into and drawn upon.
But what are these primal behaviours that the best campaigns evoke in us - and how do they harness them? Is marketing purely about commercial gain or can it underpin real common good and societal progress? And does the discipline manipulate our subconscious instincts and emotions - or simply hold a mirror to them?
Over ten episodes, senior advertising creative and Spectator writer Rory Sutherland unravels the story of some of the most powerful, brilliant and influential campaigns of our age. Set alongside personal testimonies from the brilliant minds that created them, we'll hear from a host of experts - from biologists to philosophers, novelists to economists - about how these campaigns got under our skin and proved to be so influential.
Contributors include: writer and former copywriter Fay Weldon; social behaviourist and expert on altruism Nicola Raihani; Alexander Nix, CEO of big data analysts Cambridge Analytica; philosopher Andy Martin; writer on Islamic issues and advisor to the world's first Islamic branding consultancy, Shelina Janmohamed; and evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m000xzvk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000xsvf)
Series 75
Episode 5
The godfather of all panel shows returns with a recording from the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House with a 1000-strong remote audience drawn exclusively from the North of England. Join panellists Andy Hamilton, Rachel Parris, Fred Macaulay and Lee Mack under the eagle auspices of the show’s reluctant chairman, Jack Dee. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m000xz3x)
Plate of the Nation: Second Serving
Could we kick-start a major transformation of our food system, in just three years?
That's the ambition of the National Food Strategy, the first independent review of our food policy in nearly 75 years, commissioned by the government in 2019 and authored by Henry Dimbleby - who published the second and final part of the report this week.
Food-related problems have been stacking up in the UK for a while: inequality, poor diets, a boom in costly bariatric diseases, the environmental impact of food production, the resilience of the overall system - the list goes on. But now we could be at a turning point, as the country starts to emerge (hopefully) from months of restrictions with fresh perspectives and priorities, and seeks to reposition itself post-pandemic and post-Brexit.
Now, Part 2 of the National Food Strategy has set out a framework for transforming our food system.
So how exactly does it propose we do that?
Sheila Dillon digs into the detail of the report, speaking to Henry Dimbleby (co-founder of the restaurant chain Leon and co-author of the 2013 School Food Plan) about the strategy's focus and recommendations; and inviting listener feedback for a future episode.
The programme also features questions from Caroline Keohane at the Food and Drink Federation, Martin Lines from the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and Jeanette Orrey: a former dinner lady turned school meals campaigner and co-founder of Food for Life. And we revisit previous guests Nutritank - a student organisation campaigning for better nutritional education for medics - and Social Bite: a project supporting Scotland's homeless through social enterprise cafés.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced by Lucy Taylor in Bristol
SUN 12:57 Weather (m000xzht)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m000xzhw)
Jonny Dymond looks at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m000xzhy)
Who are we?
Fi Glover presents friends, relatives and strangers in conversation.
This week: Laurie from Stroud, which recently came top in a ‘best place to live’ list, chats to town crier Les whose hometown of Halifax featured in a Top 10 of ‘worst places to live’; Lee, a unionist from Belfast and Andrew from Glasgow who supports independence for Scotland, discuss the challenges of devolution and what being British means to them; and Shabir and Niki share the struggles they’ve faced in applying for British citizenship.
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: Rav Sanghera
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000xv86)
GQT at Home
Kathy Clugston and her panel of experts answer gardening questions. Joining her this week are Matthew Pottage, Christine Walkden and Anne Swithinbank.
The panellist's discuss a mystery pest targeting lily pads and share design ideas for shady areas of the garden.
Away from the questions, Matt Biggs visits Tottenham Hotspurs Kitchen Garden, and Pippa Greenwood shares her favourite tree.
Producer - Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer - Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 Green Originals (m000czl8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:15 today]
SUN 15:00 Drama (m000xzj0)
Joseph Andrews Remixed
Episode 1
Written by Shaun McKenna and based on Henry Fielding’s novel.
A funny and romantic tale about a sexy, handsome, honourable and self-deprecating young footman in love with his childhood sweetheart Fanny and his misadventures on the road in the company of his friend, an eccentric parson, Abraham Adams. They are an unlikely Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
An eighteenth century comic romp satirising the manners, morals and fashions of the day. But in this new version the narrative is influenced constantly – and inconstantly – by the relationship between Henry Fielding and his wife Charlotte, who pull the story around between them and give the tale an up-to-date twist.
Episode One
Harry.....Max Bennett
Charlotte.....Lyndsey Marshal
Joseph.....Angus Imrie
Parson Adams.....Michael Bertenshaw
Lady Booby.....Jane Whittenshaw
Mistress Sideaway/Slipslop.....Helen Longworth
Fanny.....Lauren Cornelius
Pounce/George.....Simon Ludders
Pelham/Wilson/Driver.....Tony Turner
Lady Tittle/Harriet.....Jane Slavin
Lady Tattle/Amelia.....Elinor Coleman
William/Russell/Stranger.....Stewart Campbell
Marmaduke/Inn Keeper.....Joseph Ayre
Directed by Tracey Neale.
Henry Fielding is writing his new book, his first big prose work, Joseph Andrews. He is short of money. His wife, Charlotte, sits down to help him. Charlotte is a smart, witty woman who is by no means in awe of her famous husband and his literary ambitions. He has always relied on her opinion. She is the first to question whether anyone is interested in elusive references to Aeschylus - or indeed to the best-selling Pamela, a book she found profoundly irritating.
Harry and Charlotte laugh, bicker and ultimately spur one another on. As they talk (and often disagree) about the twists and turns of the story, what begins as Henry's satire on contemporary fiction becomes a jointly conceived story about fully rounded, fully realized people trying to do their best in a complicated world. The main characters, despite their names, are three-dimensional with hopes, dreams, virtues and all-too-human failings which is hugely entertaining.
The Writer
Shaun McKenna's recent radio credits include Eleanor Rising, China Towns, The Forsytes and The Complete Smiley and Home Front.
Technical Producer, Keith Graham
Production Co-ordinator, Jenny Mendez
Producer & Director, Tracey Neale
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m000xzj3)
Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics. Producer: Di Speirs
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (m000xzj5)
Arlo Parks
The award-winning singer and poet Arlo Parks shares a selection of her favourite poems from Poetry Please's listener requests, including Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Plath and Hieu Minh Nguyen. Arlo reads one of her own poems and explains why she's determined to share how powerful poetry can be.
Producer: Caitlin Hobbs for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000xs0h)
Held to Ransom
The extraordinary story of a UK schools group which took on a cyber ransomware gang.
The Harris Federation seems an unlikely target for ransomware criminals but it found itself at the centre of a cyber attack by anonymous hackers. With its servers down and a ransom demand of nearly £3 million, school leaders had to decide quickly whether to pay or suffer the consequences. File on 4 has unique access to the extraordinary negotiations that took place behind the scenes, involving an Israeli security company and Russian hackers.
More British institutions are being hit by ransomware gangs than ever before, from multi-national corporations to health care trusts and even schools.
The attackers hack into an organisation's computer system, encrypt the data and demand a ransom to get it back. Increasingly, they also threaten to publish sensitive information if no payment is made. It's known as double extortion.
The former head of the National Cyber Security Centre tells File on 4 that the government needs to intervene as a matter of urgency, and make it illegal to pay ransomware gangs.
Presenter: Paul Kenyon
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Nicola Addyman
SUN 17:40 Profile (m000xzj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m000xzj9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m000xzjc)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000xzjf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m000xzjh)
Sean Cooney
Presenter: Sean Cooney
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production support: Ellen Orchard
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet
SUN 19:00 Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair (m000k91m)
Series 6
Me and Tina Were Up West When We Bumped Into Avril
A chance encounter with an old friend leaves Dee and best friend Tina invited to a posh party, but among the guests Dee spots a face she'd rather forget.
Linda Robson is best known for her role in 'Birds of A Feather' but she has also appeared in Loose Women and with Jenny Eclair in 'Grumpy Old Women'.
Written by Jenny Eclair
Read by Linda Robson
Producer, Sally Avens
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m000xzjl)
Alun Cochrane: Centrist Dad?
“A Centrist Dad takes his children to feed the ducks, a Conservative Dad takes his children duck shooting, a Socialist Dad takes his children to a Solidarity With Ducks rally.”
Centrist Dads have a bad reputation. They’re “entirely responsible for Labour’s Election defeat”, “aggressively condescending” and they “like Top Gear too much”. And yet, Alun Cochrane is fine with being one (albeit one who hasn’t actually watched Top Gear).
Recorded in front of a virtual audience from Salford, this show is Alun’s quest for the centre ground, an area bizarrely underpopulated in the comedy world. Comedians should poke fun at all hypocrisy no matter whether it emerges from the right or the left, so why are so few stand-ups apparently adept at sniping from the middle?
Alun investigates whether his politics have changed or if it's the world that has changed around him and left a reasonable man feeling like an extremist. He is pretty sure he isn’t an actual baddie. He spends his days writing jokes in ‘Where’s Wally?’ pyjamas alongside his gluten-free dog. Does that sound like an extremist to you?
Written and performed by Alun Cochrane
Production co-ordinator: Mabel Wright
Sound engineer: Michael Smith
Producer: Richard Morris
Photo credit: Matt Stronge
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 19:45 Wolverine Blues (m000xzjn)
Episode 1
Wolverine Blues, or a Case of Defiance Neurosis
A new fiction from Graeme Macrae Burnet, inspired by the case study "Defiance Neurosis of a Seventeen-Year-Old High School Student" by Alphonse Maeder.
In 1950s Switzerland, Max finds himself on a collision course with his father when a new friend stirs a passion for music.
Read by Alasdair Hankinson and Robin Laing
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Graeme Macrae Burnet lives in Glasgow and is the author of novels including 'The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau' and the Man Booker shortlisted 'His Bloody Project'. His new novel, 'Case Study', is published in October and follows the investigation of a young woman who believes a charismatic psychotherapist is implicated in her sister's death.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m000xv8d)
Should BBC sports commentators remain impartial during football matches involving home nations? Some listeners think they are openly biased in favour of England, Roger Mosey, the former Director of BBC Sport, gives his views.
Does Radio 4’s Rethink series needs to be rethought for not being radical enough?
And 25 years after the Spice Girls crashed through some glass ceilings, did two radio listeners really, really want to listen to a Radio 2 documentary about them?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m000xv8b)
Jehan Sadat (pictured), Michael Horovitz, Richard Ernst, Dilip Kumar
Matthew Bannister on
Jehan Sadat, the wife of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, who campaigned for women’s rights, supported the disabled and disadvantaged people and forged an academic career.
Michael Horovitz, the anarchic poet who staged chaotic 'happenings' and supported new talent.
Richard Ernst, the Swiss chemist who won the Nobel prize for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Dilip Kumar, the Bollywood actor known as 'the king of tragedy'.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Noah Bakr
Interviewed guest: Shibley Telhami
Interviewed guest: Adam Horovitz
Interviewed guest: John Hegley
Interviewed guest: Matthias Ernst
Interviewed guest: Professor Kurt Wüthrich
Interviewed guest: Anil Sinanan
Archive clips used: ABC NEWS, 06/10/1980; SPINE TV, 21/12/2011;
Martin Packard, You Tube 2010; Devdas film, 1955;
Kohinoor film, 1960; Mughal-E-Azam film, 1960.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m000xzjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m000xzh6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Analysis (m000xsvk)
Science in the Time of Cancel Culture
In an age of social media ’cancel culture’ might be defined as an orchestrated campaign which seeks to silence or end the careers of people whose thoughts or opinions deviate from a new set of political norms. So if this threat exists for anyone expressing an opinion online in 2021, what’s it like for scientists working in academia and publishing findings which might be deemed controversial?
In this edition of Analysis, Michael Muthukrishna, Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics, assesses the impact of modern social justice movements on scientific research and development.
Speaking to a range of experts, some who have found themselves in the firing line of current public discourse, and others who question the severity of this phenomenon and its political motives, Michael asks: if fear of personal or professional harm is strengthening conformism or eviscerating robust intellectual debate, can open-mindedness on controversial issues really exist in the scientific community? Or is rigorous public assessment of scientific findings helping to achieve better, more equitable and socially just outcomes?
With contributions from:
Emily M Bender, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington
Pedro Domingos, Professor of Computer Science at University of Washington
Caroline Criado Perez, writer and campaigner
Brandeis Marshall, data scientist, Professor of Computer Science at Spelman College
Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University
David Reich, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School
Producer Craig Templeton Smith
Editor Jasper Corbett
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m000xzjt)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (m000xtb4)
Carol Morley on Muriel Box
With Antonia Quirke
Director Carol Morley asked Film Programme listeners if any of them knew Muriel Box, Britain's most prolific female director and arguably most neglected. And she heard from Muriel's daughter, grandson and family friend. Carol tells Antonia why she believes Muriel deserves more recognition for her ground-breaking work.
Antonia is on a mission this summer to tell people how much she loves their work, to take the opportunity while she can. This week, she tells Jude Law how much she's always wanted to talk to him about The Talented Mr Ripley and how one scene, in particular, has never left her.
Barbara Sukowa has worked with some mercurial directors often known for giving actors a hard time. She tells Antonia why nobody has dared to give her a hard time on set, and about Two Of Us, a powerful drama about two women in their 70s who have been lovers for years, without their families knowing.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b08vwmsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 19 JULY 2021
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m000xzjw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m000xr8p)
12. Brighter than Bagpuss
Boston, Massachusetts. 1970. A group of mothers and young children assembles outside the offices of the local TV station. It’s the first phase of a fight to improve kids’ TV that would go all the way to the United States Senate.
Matthew Syed looks at how kids' TV got smart, and what we can learn about the developing mind from the programme makers who led the way.
In the late 1960s, children’s television in the US was dominated by cheap cartoons and adverts for sugary snacks. Peggy Charren had something to say about it. She formed a grassroots activism group in her living room with other concerned mothers - Action for Children’s Television. It would become one of the most influential broadcast lobbying groups in history.
Peggy was part of a wave of people who were starting to take kids’ TV seriously. From the creators of Sesame Street, to psychological researchers like Professor Daniel Anderson who brought science into children’s programme making, Matthew draws out what we can learn from these innovators who know how to create a hit show.
With Debbie Charren, Peggy’s daughter, and former schoolteacher and reading specialist; Robert Krock, Action for Children’s Television’s former development director; Daniel Anderson, Professor Emeritus at the department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Dr Michael Muthukrishna, Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics; and Andrew Davenport, creator, writer and composer of In the Night Garden, Moon and Me, and Teletubbies.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Caroline Thornham
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander
Our theme is Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m000xzjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000xzk0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000xzk2)
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 (m000xzk4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m000xzk6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000xzk8)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain
Good Morning.
Have you checked your social media account today? If you haven’t already, you’ll probably do so later. And of course, it’s a great way to stay connected with family and friends - even work colleagues. For many, social media was a lifeline during the Pandemic, and it continues to be.
Twenty years ago, there was social media but not as prevalent. Today, social media influences elections. It isn’t something to be scoffed at.
The thing with social media though is that we all tend to create echo chambers. That’s where we become vulnerable because we start to become locked into our view of the world.
I think it’s important to break out of our silos that we construct and find opposite voices to ours.
That isn’t so easy on social media, I can assure you, because usually when you do it isn’t friendly. However, I have persevered and along the way I’ve found people who disagree with me on everything, and you know what, it’s great. What a breath of fresh air!
Whether we work in a business or the public sector or even the third sector it’s important that we don’t surround ourselves with people who all clone what we say, think, and believe. A different point of view can add a more nuanced dimension. And it also makes more people feel like they’re included in decision making.
Thinking differently shouldn’t be a reason to keep someone out, it should be the reason to keep them in.
Dear Lord, the voice of our hearts sometimes only speaks to itself. Grant us the gift to listen to other voices because listening strengthens compassion for others and deepens our understanding of ourselves.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m000xzkb)
19/07/21 Wildflower meadows, giant sequoias, UN report to preserve and protect nature
97% of wildflower meadows have disappeared over the last 100 years, leaving just 1% covering the UK. Why ask why that matters.
Nearly 500 saplings of the world’s largest tree, the giant sequoia, have been planted in Brecon. The team behind the project says it'll be the largest plantation in Europe, and that each tree will offset one person's lifetime carbon footprint.
A new report by the UN’s Global Diversity Framework aims to preserve and protect nature and its essential services to people. It suggests reducing pesticide use by two thirds, managing agriculture, fisheries and forestry sustainably and conserving 30% of land and sea for nature.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
MON 05:56 Weather (m000xzkd)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkwg9)
Brown Kiwi
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the New Zealand brown kiwi. A piercing wail can be heard in a forest at night. A brown kiwi is calling. Only found in New Zealand, kiwi are flightless birds and the brown kiwi, which is about the size of a domestic chicken, lays an egg weighing as much as a quarter of its own bodyweight – proportionally; the largest egg for its size of any bird. More mammal like than birds; their tiny eyes are of little use, but they have an excellent sense of smell, using their nostrils located unusually for birds near the end of the bill. Held in great affection, brown kiwi appear on coins, stamps and coats-of- arms as well as providing a nick-name for New Zealand's national rugby team.
MON 06:00 Today (m000xz2y)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 The Patch (m000xz30)
Lowestoft
The random postcode generator leads producer Polly Weston to an old boatyard in Lowestoft, surrounded by myth and legend...
Lowestoft is famous for being the most easterly point in the UK. This week's postcode, NR33 9, is sandwiched between the seafront and edge of the Norfolk Broads, along the south of a section of water known as Lake Lothing. This stretch of water was once home to huge factories and shipbuilders. The most famous of these was probably Brooke Marine - a world renowned ship builders which employed 2000 people in the town, and built some of the finest ships in the world - from military vessels, to luxury yachts, to Richard Branson's record breaking Challenger II. Today, all these industries have gone. But what looks like it might be derelict industrial land, hides a series of business parks tucked next to the water - sheds concealing fascinating people and stories... but as we discover, there's one story which unfolded here a couple of decades ago, whose impact is still being felt and fought on the shores of Gibraltar and Spain... the story of the "uncatchable" boat...
Produced by Polly Weston for BBC Audio in Bristol
MON 09:30 The Power of Negative Thinking (b0845ws5)
Abandon Hope
Jim Trodden has recently retired, after decades as a safety supervisor on North Sea oil rigs. In this harshest of workplace environments, merely hoping for good outcomes, or remaining positive, was inherently to invite disaster. Instead, Jim describes his dominant offshore mindset as one of ‘chronic unease’. Constantly and vividly envisaging the worst possible outcome of every scenario was a key tool in helping to prevent disaster and - potentially - saving thousands of lives. It’s just one example of deploying “Negative Visualisation” - a technique extolled in Sun Tzu’s Art of War and by philosophers in Seneca’s Stoic tradition, and grasped instinctively by generations of military leaders from Alexander the Great to Winston Churchill. In part 2 of Oliver Burkeman’s series The Power of Negative Thinking, the psychology writer finds it can also be applied in modern contexts, and in all our lives.
MON 09:45 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000xz32)
Ep 1 - January, 2020
Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green tell the gripping inside story of the making of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. From the outset it was a race against the deadly virus that has caused - and continues to cause - devastation across the planet. They explain the cutting-edge science, and sheer hard work that went into the extraordinary achievement of making an effective vaccine against Covid-19, and at the same time giving us hope that an end to the pandemic is in sight. All the while, like everyone else, they were dealing with the challenges of living through lockdown and society's restrictions.
Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and her career has been dedicated to developing vaccines against disease. Since 2020, she has led the Oxford vaccine project. Catherine Green is Associate Professor in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter College, and Head of Oxford University’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.
Read by Samantha Bond and Debra Baker.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000xz35)
Maria Callas, Loulou Storey & Lucy Adlington on casual workwear, International Aid legal challenge & slavery reparations
Maria Callas is one of the most famous opera singers. She was brought up in New York and Greece by an emotionally abusive mother who forced her to sing. Despite being admired by Hollywood stars and royalty, she fought sexism to rise to the top but never had a happy private life. Lyndsy Spence's new book Cast a Diva draws on previously unseen documents to reveal her tragic story.
Stacie Marshall has inherited her family's farm in a small Appalachian valley in the US state of Georgia. She'd vaguely known about the history of her family and their land but it wasn't until she moved into her grandparents house that she realised her family had in fact owned seven enslaved people. Now Stacie, the only young woman running a farm in the valley, is trying to make amends for the wrongs of her ancestors. She joins us live from Georgia and we also hear from Nkechi Taifa a civil and human rights lawyer and long-standing reparations advocate.
A charity that provides sexual and reproductive support to disadvantaged women around the world is threatening legal action against the UK government, over their recent decision to cut the international aid budget by around £4 billion. We speak to Mina Barlow, Director for External Relations at The International Planned Parenthood Foundation.
And we look at the new casual officewear trends with Fashion Historian Lucy Adlington & Style Coach Loulou Storey to consider if the way we dress for work has changed forever?
Presenter: Chloe Tilley
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Sue Maillot
MON 11:00 Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket (m000xz37)
Baby X
The science fiction that Silicon Valley techno-billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel adore often concerns gleaming futures in which fantastically powerful and often immensely rich men colonize other planets. In this episode, Jill Lepore takes a look at the science fiction that’s usually left out of this vision. New Wave, feminist, post-colonial science fiction. Including the story of Baby X, a story from the 1970s about a child - like Musk’s youngest son - named X.
The Evening Rocket is presented by Jill Lepore, Professor of American History at Harvard University and staff writer at The New Yorker. Her latest book is If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future. She is also the host of The Last Archive, a podcast from Pushkin Industries.
Producer: Viv Jones
Researcher: Oliver Riskin-Kutz
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Mixing: Graham Puddifoot
Original music by Corntuth
MON 11:30 More or Less (m000y49w)
On the day the Government plans to drop the remaining Covid restrictions, Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to work out how long cases will continue to rise and whether we can be sure the link with deaths and hospitalisations has been broken. Is this “freedom day" or an unnecessary gamble with people’s lives?
MON 12:00 News Summary (m000xz3c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000xz3f)
Episode 1
Yasushi Inoue's 1949 novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors.
From the planning of a bullfight through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his detached isolation, Inoue crafts an intense tale of loss and the difficulty of loving. The novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a population ground down by defeat, a society riddled with corruption and, at its heart, two men gambling with other peoples' money on a sporting event which is subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Meanwhile just as the two bulls are destined to lock horns, Tsugami the newspaper editor and his lover the young widow Sakiko wrestle with the emptiness of their desperate relationship. Should they remain together or end it ?
Born in 1907, Yasushi Inoue worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, only beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with Bullfight. He went on to publish 50 novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, his work making him one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan. He died in 1991.
Written by Yasushi Inoue
Translated by Michael Emmerich
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m000xz3j)
Freedom Day; Online Fitness; Hotel Staff Shortage
Most of the remaining Covid legal restrictions are lifted today in England, yet infections are still raging. Will people, businesses and transport operators feel confident about abandoning masks and social distancing and returning to "normal life"?
Desperate times; desperate measures! Hotels are struggling to hire the staff they need to cash in on the domestic holiday boom. We speak to one hotelier who has changed the way she recruits - has it worked?
During the pandemic, online fitness classes were a lifeline for people who wanted to keep up with their exercise regime. For the duration, fees for some of the music used by trainers in their routines were waived, but no longer. It's claimed that the new charges are confusing and could kill the sector before it re-establishes itself after the pandemic.
More employers are offering their staff help with fertility treatment, with cash and specialist support for couples who have turned to IVF.
In 2013 legal aid was withdrawn from people who wanted to pursue consumer cases in the civil courts. We speak to a recently retired judge about his new book which aims to help consumers make the law work for them.
Producer: Kevin Mousley
Presenter: Shari Vahl
MON 12:57 Weather (m000xz3l)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m000xz3n)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Ingenious (m000xz3q)
The Fat Gene
Many of us have got a bit chunkier over the last difficult year, but can you blame your genes if you no longer fit into your jeans? Or is it all about willpower?
Dr Kat Arney finds out with the help of eating experts Dr Giles Yeo and Professor Theresa Marteau… and some irresistible cookies.
Presenter: Kat Arney
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Sound mix: James Beard
Editor: Penny Murphy
MON 14:00 Drama (m000xz3s)
The Lemonade Lads
By Faebian Averies
Ted struggles to find contentment, until he meets Brian and together they discover the powers of lemonade. A comedy drama about the pursuit of happiness, starring Matthew Aubrey and Steffan Rhodri.
Faebian Averies is an actor/writer and the current Writer in Residence for BBC Wales and National Theatre Wales.
Ted…. Matthew Aubrey
Brian…. Steffan Rhodri
Gemma…. Faebian Averies
Simon….. Connor Allen
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
MON 14:45 The Why Factor (b06nn7d2)
Series 2
Graffiti
In large parts of the world, at most times in history, walls in public spaces have been decorated by illicit art. When the public were allowed into the homes of wealthy Romans, graffiti soon began to appaer and it was regarded as a weakness to remove it. The modern day graffiti artist risks being arrested and even death, climbing into forbidden premises to spray private buildings or parked subway trains. Why do so many people like making graffiti art?
Presemter:Mike Williams
Producer:Rose de Larrabeiti
Editor:Andrew Smith
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m000xz3v)
Heat 1, 2021
(1/17)
The quest for the 2021 Brain of Britain champion begins in earnest, with the first four of this season's 48 competitors joining Russell Davies at the BBC Radio Theatre for the 68th season of the general knowledge contest.
Taking part are
Claire Barrow, a trust and estate practitioner from Honiton in Devon
Lillian Crawford, a freelance writer from Bearsted in Kent
David Gregson, a civil servant from London
Chris Kilbride, a retired maths teacher from St Austell in Cornwall.
Today's winner will go through to the semi-finals in the autumn, but one of the others could join them if the scores are high enough to get them through as a top-scoring runner-up.
As always, there's a prize on offer for a listener who manages to outwit the competitors with questions of his or her own devising, in the Beat The Brains interval.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m000xz3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Written in Scotland (m000xt9l)
Episode 4: Language and Class
A four-part series about the relationship that Scotland’s writers have with Scotland itself. Presented by Kirsty Wark. Episode 4 – Language and Class.
Kirsty demonstrates that the very language used by Scotland’s writers is highly political. Poet Hugh MacDairmid’s experiments in Scots sparked off a literary renaissance, and the political party he helped to found became the present day SNP, the party which currently governs the country. Scotland’s two Booker Prize winning novelists, James Kelman and Douglas Stuart, both put language and class at the heart of their work.
Given that the current best sellers list for Scottish authors includes Ali Smith, Jackie Kay, Val McDermid, Jenni Fagan, AL Kennedy, Louise Welsh, Maggie O’Farrell and Denise Mina, we ask if Scotland is having a renaissance of women’s writing.
Producer: Brian McCluskey
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m000kgt6)
Series 16
The End of Everything
Everyone knows about the Big Bang being the beginning of the universe and time - but when and how is it going to end? ask brothers Raffie and Xe from Rome. For this series, with lockdown learning in mind, Drs Rutherford and Fry are investigating scientific mysteries for students of all ages. The doctors sift science from philosophy to find out.
Cosmologist Jo Dunkley studies the origins and evolution of the universe. She explains how astrophysical ideas and techniques have evolved to tell us what we now know about our galaxy and far beyond, from the elegant parallax technique to standard candles. This particular distance measure, which uses stars of a known brightness to work out how far away other objects in the universe are, was discovered by American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt in 1912, who worked at the Harvard University as one of several “computers” – women who processed and calculated data and made significant contributions to astronomy.
Curious Cases’ universal guru Andrew Pontzen puts this into context. Because the universe is so enormous, it turns out that these measurements are just the first steps on the cosmic distance ladder – a suite of tools that astrophysicists use to determine distances to celestial objects. Scientists know that objects are moving away from us because the wavelengths of light from them get stretched and appear redder in our telescopes – the so-called red shift effect. But having a handle on the distances to and between those objects allows cosmologists to monitor what’s happening to them over time. And it turns out that not only are they getting further apart, indicating that the universe is expanding, but that this process is accelerating.
So what might happen in the end? Expansion and then collapse – a big crunch? Expansion into the void – a big freeze, or a big rip? Or what if there is more than one universe – might a new one bubble up with totally different laws of physics that would cause our own to cease existing? It turns out that when dealing with predictions for something involving infinite space and time, the possibilities are largely limited by human imagination alone. Ideas are where science starts, but experiments are required to build evidence confirming or rejecting them as fact. The doctors discuss how gravitational wave detectors and quantum computers might one day provide this.
Presenters: Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford
Producer: Jen Whyntie
MON 17:00 PM (m000xz3z)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000xz41)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m000xz43)
Series 75
Episode 6
This final episode in the programme’s 75th series comes from the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House with a 1000-strong remote audience drawn exclusively from Scotland. Join panellists Andy Hamilton, Rachel Parris, Fred Macaulay and Lee Mack under the reluctant chairmanship of Jack Dee. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.
Producer - Jon Naismith
A BBC Studios production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m000xz45)
There’s a shock for Brian, and Helen faces a tough opponent
MON 19:15 Front Row (m000xz47)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
MON 19:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000v1nq)
Episode Six: The Mastermind
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Six: The Mastermind
As news breaks of the robbery, along with a swirl of accusations and counter accusations, one politician uses parliamentary privilege to name the individual he believes was responsible for its meticulous planning.
Written and presented by Glenn Patterson
Music: Phil Kieran
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
Producer: Conor Garrett
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4
MON 20:00 This Union: A Sea Between Us (m000xz49)
Episode 2
Like many among her generation who grew up during the Troubles, Andrea Catherwood chose a future outside of Northern Ireland. When Andrea left home, the IRA was still active and the talks which would lead to the Good Friday Belfast Agreement had yet to begin. Back then, the prospect of a united Ireland seemed remote and unionist parties enjoyed a comfortable majority at the polls.
Now, the combined unionist parties have lost their majority in the Stormont Assembly. The DUP and the UUP have had five new leaders between them in the last six months. Calls for a referendum on Irish unity are becoming increasingly amplified and its outcome could be determined by an increasing number of voters who no longer identify as unionist or nationalist. The creation of new trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK has been blamed for triggering Loyalist violence and unionists say it threatens Northern Ireland's constitutional status within the UK. In this, Northern Ireland's centenary year, unionism may have reached a critical turning point.
Andrea Catherwood crosses the Irish Sea and goes back home to Northern Ireland to ask what unionism means now and explore some of the challenges it faces.
In programme two, Andrea focuses on the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Negotiated by Boris Johnson's government as part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the Protocol keeps Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods. To avoid the need for checks on the Irish land border, EU Customs rules are enforced at N Ireland’s ports instead. Unionists call it ‘The Irish Sea Border' and insist it damages not only trade but more fundamentally, Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Producer: Conor Garrett
MON 20:30 Analysis (m000xz4c)
Cancelling Colston
In June 2020 the statue of slaver trader Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into the harbour in Bristol – one of the most visible moments of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK. The statue now lies on its side in a museum, a testament to the dramatic re-evaluation of Bristol’s painful history at the centre of the transatlantic slave trade. Over the last year schools and buildings bearing Colston's name have been renamed. Colston has been cancelled.
But what about the system of wealth, power and race that he represented?
Bristol journalist Neil Maggs speaks to the people in Bristol dealing with Colston’s legacy. Current members of the Society of Merchant Venturers, a powerful charitable organisation which erected the statue and promoted Colston’s reputation as a philanthropist, have suddenly been thrust into the spotlight. School leaders are rolling out unconscious bias training. Elsewhere community leaders and politicians are navigating the potential for a backlash against terms such as white privilege as the national conversation on race continues.
Producer: Lucy Proctor
Editor: Jasper Corbett
MON 21:00 Reflections on Hi-Vis (m000xrzk)
Chances are at some point today you’ve come across someone wearing a hi-vis vest or jacket - seeing a cyclist, accepting a delivery, passing a construction site, watching a protest on TV, being told you “can’t park there” or glancing across the dance floor at the weekend’s rave. People wear it for a variety of reasons - safety, status, security, solidarity.
In Reflections on Hi-Vis, Steph McGovern asks why a safety item has become so ubiquitous. What does that say about us? Are we more safety conscious? Or has the day-glo uniform come to signify authority in all its forms? After all, no event is complete without a fluorescent-clad army pointing and directing. Politicians never miss an opportunity to appear on TV in a hard hat and a glowing jacket. In France, hi-vis came to symbolise a whole protest movement – the eponymous Gilets Jaunes.
Ironically hi-vis was born out of an industrial accident. Student Bob Switzer had a summer job unloading trays of tomatoes at a Californian Heinz Factory. In 1933 he fell, suffering a skull fracture, severed his optic nerve and was instructed to lie in a dark room until he recovered his eyesight. Six months recuperating in a darkened cellar below the family pharmacy led Bob and his brother Joe (a chemistry student and amateur magician) to develop a fluorescent paint for Joe’s magic shows. When Bob tested the day-glo paint on swatches of his wife’s wedding dress, the hi-vis jacket was born.
Hi-vis arrived in the UK 30 years later when Glasgow track workers trialled the fluorescent jackets (or ‘fire-flies’). Many were reluctant to wear the unflattering garb. Retired linesman Jimmy Gillies recalls the scepticism of colleagues. Only when hi-vis became required on building sites, were the dazzling jackets willingly donned.
There are diversions into policing, rave culture, political photo ops, cycling and safety on construction sites. What’s the significance and potential of hi-vis and is it here to stay?
Reflections courtesy of Jimmy Gillies, Juliet Elliot, Dr Mike Esbester, Kerri Layton, Rod Liddle, Bénédicte Paviot, Professor Clifford Stott, Millsy, Lou and Daz, Debs Southernwood and Stefan Rousseau.
Produced by Alexandra Quinn.
Executive Producer: Andrew Smith.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 The Patch (m000xz30)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m000xz4f)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000xz3f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m000xs03)
Why is English so weird?
Why do we say 'I climbed' not 'I clomb'? Why is there a 'p' in 'receipt' and not in 'deceit'? Why is 'of' spelled with a 'f' when it sounds like a 'v'?
Michael Rosen hears why from American linguist Arika Okrent. Together they talk about the strangeness of English and who is to blame for the mess.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000xz4h)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
TUESDAY 20 JULY 2021
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m000xz4k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000xz32)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000xz4m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000xz4p)
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 (m000xz4r)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m000xz4t)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000xz4w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain
Good morning and Eid Mubarak!
This is the second Eid this year; the first one marked the end of Ramadan, and this one heralds the culmination of the Hajj the great annual Pilgrimage to Mecca.
Eid in Arabic means ‘feast’ and this one lasts three days and commemorates the sacrifice that Prophet Abraham was ready to make – the sacrifice of his firstborn.
My children are looking forward to Eid hopeful that they’ll get a day off school!
Since the Pandemic hit the world has changed so much. Annual rituals were transformed, and many places of worship were closed for many months. Thankfully, sacred buildings are open once more. I’m grateful to be able to return to a semblance of normality.
I think we’ve all learned valuable lessons from the long Lockdowns.
Eid is a big celebration for the Muslim community, yet even in this moment of joy it’s important for us to reflect.
It’s tradition for families to visit the local cemetery on the way back from Eid Prayers. However, it’s a poignant experience for everyone I know because of the large number of graves. Everyone, from whichever community they belong to, has felt grief. Entire swathes of my local cemetery have filled up over the last eighteen months.
Holding the memory of those who’ve gone on before us informs our present and helps us, I believe, to make better choices.
It makes us, I believe, more grateful, not less.
Lord, you existed before the beginning, and you will exist after the end. You bring the dead out of the living and living out of the dead. Almighty God, many have returned to you. Have mercy on them; forgive them and bless them with your infinite grace.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m000xz4y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkx14)
Arctic Warbler
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the long distant migrant Arctic warbler. These classic olive-grey warblers, slightly smaller than the European robin, with a pale eye-stripe, winter in south-east Asia, but each spring fly to northern forests to breed. This can be as far as Finland, up to 13,000 kilometres away as well as Arctic and sub-Arctic Russia, Japan and even Alaska. They do this to feed on the bountiful supply of insects which proliferate during the 24-hour daylight of an Arctic summer. A few make it to Britain, the Northern Isles, but whether they finally return to Asia is not known.
TUE 06:00 Today (m000xzdf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Positive Thinking (m000xzdh)
Is Thinking About Divorce the Secret to a Happy Marriage?
Sangita Myska goes in search of the innovators with big solutions to our most intractable problems.
In this episode, Sangita meets Harvard law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen who believes pre-marriage mediation is the key to a lasting relationship.
If you want to understand what makes a marriage work, says Jeannie, you should think about how a marriage ends. Divorce makes the rules of marriage explicit, and understanding those rules can help us build better relationships from the beginning.
But is it possible to predict future tensions and sidestep them in this way? Sangita puts Jeannie’s idea to a panel of experts to see if it’s a model for marriage that could work for British couples.
Contributors include:
Jeannie Suk Gersen, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Davina Katz, Senior Partner of Katz Partners, a divorce and family law firm specialising in high net worth and complex cases.
Dr Raksha Pande, Senior Lecturer at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University and author of Learning to Love: Arranged Marriages and the British Indian Diaspora.
Andrew G Marshall, marital therapist and host of The Meaningful Life podcast
Producer: Eve Streeter
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:30 Hybrid (m000y1xt)
The Skin We're In
Evolutionary biologist, comedian, and aspiring Dr Frankenstein Simon Watt is on a quest to improve the human body, with a little help from our animal cousins. In each episode he turns his imaginary scalpel on a different human organ and wonders if we wouldn’t be better off with something slightly different – the eyes of a chameleon for example, or the guts of a vulture!
Our skin is the largest organ in our body, a soft, squashy bed-sheet sprinkled with hair follicles, sweat-glands and freckles. Not to mention all the cool scars. It's sensitive, flexible and waterproof - not bad. But it's also pretty fragile. Ashley Seifert from the University of Kentucky wonders if we might be better with the skin of the African Spiny Mouse. These incredible critters can lose huge patches of their skin, but then miraculously regenerate it all. Grow it back from scratch, like Wolverine, without a scar in sight. Handy!
But perhaps our skin could be helping us be more sneaky instead. Roger Hanlon, Marine Biologist from the Woods Hole Lab in Massachusetts has a suggestion: the light-show skin of the Common European Cuttlefish. This crafty cephalopod can transform in the blink of an eye to match pretty much any background you can think of; surely the most impressive feat of camouflage in the animal kingdom.
Meanwhile radio-pharmacist Ekaterina Dadachova in Saskatchewan introduces Simon to a truly extraordinary fungus. It might not be much to look at, but this microscopic black mould uses the melanin in its skin to derive energy from deadly radiation - you'll find it growing in the destroyed reactors at Chernobyl where it consumes radiation at levels that would kill anything else. Would we take the trade?
A BBC Audio Bristol production for Radio 4, Produced by Emily Knight
TUE 09:45 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000xzgf)
Ep 2 - Designing the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine
Professor Sarah Gilbert finds out about an outbreak of a respiratory disease with no apparent cause on New Year's Day, 2020. Three weeks later with a design for the vaccine in hand, she calls on Dr Catherine Green. Can she go straight to production? The readers are Samantha Bond and Debra Baker.
From the outset it was a race against the deadly virus that has caused - and continues to cause - devastation across the planet. Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green explain the cutting-edge science, and sheer hard work that went into the extraordinary achievement of making an effective vaccine against Covid-19, and at the same time giving us hope that an end to this pandemic is in sight. All the while, like everybody else they are adjusting to living and working through lockdown.
Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and her career has been dedicated to developing vaccines against disease. Since 2020, she has led the Oxford vaccine project. Catherine Green is Associate Professor in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter College, and Head of Oxford University’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000xzdm)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares (m000xzdp)
Episode 1
Biologist Matthew Cobb presents the first episode in a series which looks at the fifty year history of genetic engineering : from the concerns around the first attempts at combining the DNA of one organism with the genes of another in 1971 to today’s gene editing technique known as CRISPR.
The first experiments to combine the DNA of two different organisms began at Stanford University in California in 1971. The revolutionary technique of splicing genes from one lifeform into another promised to be a powerful tool in understanding how our cells worked. It also offered the prospect of a new cheap means of manufacturing life-saving drugs – for example, by transferring the gene for human insulin into bacteria, growing those genetically engineered microbes in industrial vats and harvesting the hormone. An new industrial revolution based on biology looked possible.
At the same time some scientists and the public were alarmed by disastrous scenarios that genetic engineering might unleash. What if microbes engineered with toxin genes or cancer genes escaped from the labs and spread around the world?
In early 1974, responding to the public fears and their own disquiet about how fast the techniques were developing, the scientists leading this research revolution called for a global moratorium on genetic engineering experiments until the risks had been assessed.
This was followed by an historic meeting of 130 scientists from around the world in February 1975 in California. Its purpose was to decide if and how the genetic engineering research could be done safely. It was a rancorous affair but the Asilomar conference is held up as an idealist if imperfect example of scientists taking responsibility as they developed a powerful new technology.
TUE 11:30 Unreal: The VFX Revolution (m000xzds)
The New Flesh
Oscar winner Paul Franklin tells how visual effects changed and how they changed cinema. By the mid 1990s, Industrial Light & Magic, the VFX house at the heart of the rebirth of photochemical illusions, was home to a small but growing band of digerati convinced that the next breakthrough was at their fingertips. Jurassic Park not only proved their point but showed audiences and filmmakers that nothing could be the same again. The quest for the illusion of life, for the subtlety of performance would eventually lead back to Middle Earth and the evolution of Gollum - the perfect fusion of man and digits. Meanwhile the illusory world of The Matrix put its extraordinary moments of Bullet Time at the heart of its story and ideas. This was visual effects as both story and metaphor. Christopher Nolan's Inception took that warping of reality to a different, hyper-real realm as Paul Franklin and his team folded the streetscapes of Paris upon each other. And now? What does the future hold for storytelling and visual effects?
Producer Mark Burman
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m000y0j8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000xzdx)
Episode 2
Yasushi Inoue's 1949 novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors.
From the planning of a bullfight through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his detached isolation, Inoue crafts an intense tale of loss and the difficulty of loving. The novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a population ground down by defeat, a society riddled with corruption and, at its heart, two men gambling with other peoples' money on a sporting event which is subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Meanwhile just as the two bulls are destined to lock horns, Tsugami the newspaper editor and his lover the young widow Sakiko wrestle with the emptiness of their desperate relationship. Should they remain together or end it ?
Born in 1907, Yasushi Inoue worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, only beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with Bullfight. He went on to publish 50 novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, his work making him one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan. He died in 1991.
Written by Yasushi Inoue
Translated by Michael Emmerich
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m000xzdz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m000xzf1)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m000xzf3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Ingenious (m000xzf5)
The Huntington's Gene
A simple glitch in the DNA code turns an unassuming gene into a deadly killer. It passes from parent to child, has been subject to huge stigma, and for many has been a dark family secret. Dr Kat Arney speaks to Alice Wexler, author of “The Woman Who Walked into the Sea: Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease”, whose family uncovered the secrets of the Huntington’s gene, and Dr Sarah Tabrizi, who’s leading the hunt for a cure.
Presenter: Kat Arney
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Penny Murphy
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m000xz45)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000xzf7)
The Half Widow. Part 1
It's August 2019. The Indian government has revoked Kashmir's special status and the region is now under curfew and communications blackout. Zameera (Mita Rahman) is a half-widow, the Kashmiri term for a woman whose husband is one of 'the disappeared'. She just wants a normal life, but she and her son are soon pulled in different directions. By Avin Shah.
Zameera....Mita Rahman
Yusuf.....Narinder Samra
Javed.....Gavi Singh Chera
Aaliyah.....Aysha Kala
Sergeant Patel.....Emilio Doorgasingh
Gashe.....Avin Shah
Journalist.....Ronny Jhutti
Directed by Emma Harding
Sound design by Alison Craig
Production co-ordination by Maggie Olgiati
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m000xzf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Made of Stronger Stuff (p098d1xd)
The Nipples
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 examine the nipples – the least rude naughty bits!
They hear from a nipple tattooist, explore why nipples are both milk dispensers and erogenous zones, and question why some nipples spark more outrage than others.
Producer: Dan Hardoon
Researcher: Emily Finch
Executive Producer: Kate Holland
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m000xzff)
The Art of Inventing Languages
How does one go about inventing a language?
David J. Peterson is the creator of the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for fantasy series Game of Thrones, as well as many others. He joins Michael Rosen for a playful discussion about all things conlang, and Michael tries his luck at inventing a new language for bacteria.
Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m000xzfh)
Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins
Vanessa Redgrave is 'in love with' Rachel Holmes' biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, Eileen Atkins has chosen a very different biography, Oliver Soden's imagining of the life of Jeoffrey, the cat who lived with the poet Christopher Smart 250 years ago. Harriett goes even further back in time with her selection, The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín.
Tell us what you think of these books on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
Produced by Sally Heaven for BBC Audio in Bristol
TUE 17:00 PM (m000xzfk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000xzfp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Simon Evans Goes to Market (m000xzfr)
Series 6
The Super Rich
As the waters recede from the tsunami of the global pandemic and Britain settles into its new relationship with Europe and the World, Simon Evans returns to focus his jokenomics lens on the myriad economic challenges and opportunities facing humanity.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have had an excellent pandemic. A 2021 Oxfam report found that the world’s 10 richest billionaires have collectively seen their wealth grow by $540 billion over the last year. And it’s not just the super-rich, it’s true that even the less obscenely wealthy have got richer during the pandemic. The price of Aston Martins and other playthings is sure to rise but what does this further bunching of wealth at the top mean for the rest of us?
Simon is joined by Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List to take a look at the lives and influence of the Super Rich.
Written and presented by Simon Evans
Additional material from Dan Evans
Production co-ordinator: Cherlynn Andrew-Wilfred
Producer: Richard Morris
Photo credit: Steve Best
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m000xzfv)
Alan has a brainwave and Kirsty does some digging.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m000xzfx)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
TUE 19:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000v2sj)
Episode Seven: Burning Embers
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Seven: Burning Embers
Irish police follow a money laundering trail to County Cork, where someone is going to extreme lengths to get the cash off their hands
Written and presented by Glenn Patterson
Music: Phil Kieran
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
Producer: Conor Garrett
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4
TUE 20:00 Waiting for the Van (m000xzfz)
"I couldn't stand back anymore and just watch people die."
In September 2020, drug policy activist Peter Krykant decided he'd had enough. The former heroin addict, turned frontline campaigner, bought a minivan and kitted it out with sanitisers and needles, a supply of naloxone- the medication used to reverse an opioid overdose- and a defibrillator.
He parked it in Glasgow's city centre and opened its doors to homeless drug users who are most at risk of overdose.
The van is operating as a drug consumption room (DCR), which are widely used in Europe and North America. But in Britain they're considered illegal under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, though legal experts dispute that.
Scotland now holds a per capita death rate three times higher than anywhere else in Europe, tallying six straight years of record-setting, drug-related deaths. The SNP government has expressed support for bold initiatives, like DCRs, but claims its hands are tied by Westminster.
A few years ago the Home Office had stepped in to halt plans for permament site in Glasgow. Since then DCRs have been at the centre of fierce debate.
For Peter Krykant, setting up the van is not just about saving lives, but challenging drug policy.
Presenter Dani Garavelli recorded with Peter at the van over eight months, getting to know him, his family and the users who rely on the service.
Producer: Caitlin Smith
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m000xzg1)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m000xzg3)
A weekly quest to demystify the health issues that perplex us.
TUE 21:30 Positive Thinking (m000xzdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m000xzg5)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000xzdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m000xzg7)
198. Thorn Birds and Scouse Diasporas, with Winifred Robinson
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane are joined by Radio 4 Presenter Winifred Robinson. The host of You and Yours gets into some Liverpool analysis with her fellow Merseysider Jane (and Fi too). Winifred also offers some smart consumer tips, talks about getting her start at the Catholic Pictorial and bravely sticks around to hear listeners' emails on their unusual collections. Before Winifred logged in there's multiple scatter sites and a look back to the Euros finale.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000xzg9)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
WEDNESDAY 21 JULY 2021
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m000xzgc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000xzgf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000xzgh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000xzgk)
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 (m000xzgm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m000xzgp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000xzgr)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain
Good Morning.
I’ve been wondering about how much we waste. Food. Time. Pretty much everything. We even waste nothing. I mean why do we need a ZERO at the start of phone number? Isn't it a total waste?
Can't we do away with using this digit?
How much ink would the Yellow Pages have saved if the ZERO was omitted? Tonnes!
But I hear you say, “It’s just a zero. It barely takes a second. What’s the big deal, eh?”
There are more than 5 billion mobile phone users in the world today and if everyone has to dial a ZERO…that makes a lot of zeros.
In the UK, mobile numbers begin with two numbers: ZERO and SEVEN. Why do we need to input these two digits? How many times has someone started to give you their mobile number and there you are waiting impatiently for the digit after the 7? For some of us that’s every time!
Think of the disk space we would save if we did away with this vestigial feature. Perhaps the humble ZERO once had utility, but all it seems to lead to now is futility.
OK perhaps someone’s going to come up with a reason for them, but if not, let’s rid ourselves of digital encumbrances and become leaner and lighter. The Lord knows the world is in need of it.
Dear Lord, we do things that we don’t need to do. Make us more aware of what is useful and what isn’t. Allow us to save things and not waste things. Allow us to use our intelligence to make our world better each day filled with the lightness of hope.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m000xzgt)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0902kwc)
Frank Gardner on the Three-Wattled Bellbird
High in the cloud forest of Costa Rica, Frank Gardner recalls for Tweet of the Day, a bird he has heard but never seen, the three wattled bell bird.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Picture: Feroze Omardeen.
WED 06:00 Today (m000y0jh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Soul Music (m000y0jk)
We've Only Just Begun
The Carpenters - brother and sister duo Richard and Karen - were one of the most popular groups of the 1970s. His outstanding compositions and her stunning vocals created several massive hits including We've Only Just Begun. Originally written as a TV advert for a bank portraying happy young couples embarking on married life full of hope, they loved it and released it as their third single in 1970. Karen's wistful voice gave the song a melancholy that has long resonated with fans.
After her premature death from heart failure due to anorexia nervosa, the song took on an extra poignancy with lyrics like "so much of life ahead".
Fans tell their stories about the song and how it relates to their own life journeys.
For Professor Karen Tongson (named after the singer), We've Only Just Begun is about growing up in the Philippines where The Carpenters epitomised the American Dream. When she emigrated to the USA, the song became a metaphor for the immigrant experience.
Nomad and writer Jeff Read remembers his childhood in a poor part of Los Angeles brought up by a single mother who eventually died homeless on the street. The song brings back memories of childhood optimism and his longing for a stable family life.
Poet Abigail George recalls seeing a film about Karen Carpenter's life and identifying with the singer's struggles with an eating disorder as she herself had to cope with a difficult family life in South Africa.
Retired policeman John Weiss was reminded of the song when he attended the death of an elderly person at a care home. John looked at the deceased man's wedding photos and was struck by the brevity of life.
The singer Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes always loved The Carpenters and recorded her own version of We've Only Just Begun as part of an album where things don't end well for the young bride. Ironically, her version now features in a commercial for a British bank so the song has come full circle.
Randy Schmidt is the author of Little Girl Blue (The Life of Karen Carpenter).
Versions of the song featured are by
Grant Lee Buffalo
Paul Williams
Natasha Khan
The Carpenters
The Carpenters with the Philharmonic Orchestra
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Maggie Ayre
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m000y0jm)
Thought-provoking talks in which speakers explore original ideas about culture and society
WED 09:45 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000y0l9)
Ep 3 - Producing the first precious doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green's account of making the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine continues. Today, in Cath's lab work begins on making the starting material destined to seed three billion doses. Tense weeks and months lie ahead. Debra Baker reads.
From the outset it was a race against the deadly virus that has caused - and continues to cause - devastation across the planet. Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green explain the cutting-edge science, and sheer hard work that went into the extraordinary achievement of making an effective vaccine against Covid-19, and at the same time giving us hope that an end to this pandemic is in sight. All the while, throughout 2020, like everybody else they were adjusting to living and working through lockdowns and restrictions.
Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and her career has been dedicated to developing vaccines against disease. Since 2020, she has led the Oxford vaccine project. Catherine Green is Associate Professor in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter College, and Head of Oxford University’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000y0jr)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 This Union: A Sea Between Us (m000xz49)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 What's Funny About ... (m000jh1m)
Absolutely Fabulous
TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.
In this episode, Peter and Jon talk to Jennifer Saunders about her BAFTA and Emmy award winning hit Absolutely Fabulous. They discuss the inspiration for Edina Monsoon, why recordings of the show were always finished by
9.30 pm (clue: the BBC bar closed at 10), and what might charitably be described as Jennifer’s “last minute” approach to script delivery!
With Peter and Jon as our guides, we’ll take the opportunity to ask quite how our guests went about making a great bit of TV comedy. Who came up with it? How did it get written? We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.
We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.
Original Absolutely Fabulous clips written by Jennifer Saunders
Based on an original idea by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
Producer: Owen Braben
An Expectation production made for BBC Radio 4 Extra
WED 12:00 News Summary (m000y0ml)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y0jx)
Episode 3
Yasushi Inoue's 1949 novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors.
From the planning of a bullfight through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his detached isolation, Inoue crafts an intense tale of loss and the difficulty of loving. The novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a population ground down by defeat, a society riddled with corruption and, at its heart, two men gambling with other peoples' money on a sporting event which is subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Meanwhile just as the two bulls are destined to lock horns, Tsugami the newspaper editor and his lover the young widow Sakiko wrestle with the emptiness of their desperate relationship. Should they remain together or end it ?
Born in 1907, Yasushi Inoue worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, only beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with Bullfight. He went on to publish 50 novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, his work making him one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan. He died in 1991.
Written by Yasushi Inoue
Translated by Michael Emmerich
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m000y0jz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m000y0k1)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m000y0k3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Ingenious (m000y0k5)
The Warrior Gene
Is there really a gene that makes some people more violent than others? And should certain criminals get a lesser sentence because of what’s in their DNA? Dr Kat Arney investigates how the so-called “Warrior Gene” is being used as a defence to some grisly crimes, with the help of psychologist Dr Sally McSwiggan and Dr Jari Tiihonen.
Presenter: Kat Arney
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Penny Murphy
WED 14:00 The Archers (m000xzfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000y0k7)
The Half Widow. Part 2
It's August 2019. The Indian government has revoked Kashmir's special status and the region is now under curfew and communications blackout. Zameera just wants a normal life, and for her son to go to medical school in Mumbai, but they are both caught up in events beyond their control. And Zameera is given a terrible choice. By Avin Shah.
Zameera....Mita Rahman
Yusuf.....Narinder Samra
Javed.....Gavi Singh Chera
Aaliyah.....Aysha Kala
Sergeant Patel.....Emilio Doorgasingh
Gashe.....Avin Shah
Gravedigger.....Ronny Jhutti
Directed by Emma Harding
Sound design by Alison Craig
Production co-ordination by Maggie Olgiati
WED 15:00 Money Box (m000y0k9)
MBL: Travel Rights and Money
What do you need to know about travel rights, money and insurance this summer?
On Wednesday's programme Adam Shaw and guests answer your questions about the practicalities and costs of travelling this year. Whether you're considering a summer holiday or you've rebooked a cancelled trip, let us know what's on your mind.
How much is a PCR test, what does the travel traffic light system mean for your insurance and how do you get the best deal on your travel money?
e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now with your questions and stories. If you’ve just returned from a trip we’d love to hear how you got on.
On the panel are:
• Rory Boland, Travel Editor, Which?
• Helen Saxon, Money Saving Expert
• Graeme Trudgill, British Insurance Brokers’ Association
Presenter: Adam Shaw
Producer: Diane Richardson
Editor: Alex Lewis
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m000xzg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m000y0kc)
A question of justice
When Ray and Vi Donovan left court after the sentencing of three boys who murdered their 18-year-old son, Christopher, they said they had justice for Chris, but not the truth. They still didn’t know why Christopher was murdered on a May evening in 2001. That was a question the trial didn’t answer and only Christopher’s killers could.
Years later, they would meet the three boys, by now men, to ask that question - why?
Criminal justice asks what laws have been broken, who broke them, and how the lawbreaker should be punished. But Ray and Vi needed different questions answered. They started to go through a restorative justice process - an alternative way of understanding crime that centred on their needs as victims, which Ray says is ‘not rocket science, it’s two people talking’.
Ray and Vi spent months preparing for each meeting, thinking about what they needed to know and what they wanted to happen afterwards. Until they met and talked with each of these three men.
In this episode of Sideways, Ray and Vi tell of how restorative justice changed them. Matthew Syed examines the philosophy underpinning restorative justice, asking what needs it seeks to address and its relationship to criminal justice.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer/Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander
Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m000y0kf)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m000y0kh)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000y0km)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Paul Sinha's General Knowledge (m000y0kp)
Series 3
Episode 1
Paul Sinha is an award-winning comedian, a former British Quiz Champion and also, according to the Radio Times, the UK's "funniest fund of forgotten facts". He returns to Radio 4 with a third series of his General Knowledge, recounting the amazing true stories that lie behind fascinating nuggets of information.
This episode catches up with the news since the last series of General Knowledge finished in 2020, from those we've lost to those we've 'liked', and commemorates the Vice President most worthy of being the next to get the 'Hamilton' treatment.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material by Oliver Levy
Music by Tim Sutton
Recording engineered by Darren Wardrobe and Mike Smith
Produced by Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo/Somethin' Else co-production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m000y0ks)
Helen makes a breakthrough and Chris faces a race against time.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m000y0kv)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
WED 19:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000v2q8)
Episode Eight: See No Evil
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Eight: See No Evil
Weeks after the robbery a man is murdered outside a packed Belfast bar but no witnesses are coming forward
Written and presented by Glenn Patterson
Music: Phil Kieran
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
Producer: Conor Garrett
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m000y0kx)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m000y0jm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Made of Stronger Stuff (p098d1xd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m000y0kf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m000y0kz)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y0jx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Heidi Regan: No Worries (m000y0l1)
Episode 4
As someone who tends to worry in 'normal' times, the pandemic has of course offered some exciting new areas of exploration for the anxious mind. Having a partner who is a GP has both helped and not helped Heidi with that: worrying about her being safe, but also, yay, on tap medical advice! That said, examining rashes of a loved one over dinner isn’t really the romance her partner signed up for. As Heidi and her partner ponder some of the big questions in life, Heidi's brain resorts, as it always does, to distracting them (and the audience) with increasingly silly jokes as she makes an argument for the pros and cons of joking your way through life.
In this final episode Heidi turns to face her worries.
Written and performed by Heidi Regan.
With thanks to Nick Elleray
Production co-ordinator... Caroline Barlow.
Producer...Julia McKenzie
A BBC Studios Production
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m000y0l3)
Series 4
Episode 8
Returning to twist itself into - and remix - the news. Jon Holmes presents The Skewer.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000y0l5)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
THURSDAY 22 JULY 2021
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m000y0l7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000y0l9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000y0lc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000y0lf)
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 (m000y0lh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m000y0lk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000y0lm)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain
Good Morning.
Sometimes it feels as though our entire world is in constant turmoil. During such times it’s useful to wake up early and listen to the birds singing and re-find our purpose.
It can be hard to do.
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a rich merchant who lived in Arabia. He traded in a local market where he sold his wares brought by ship from all over the world. One day a young man ran up to the merchant’s stall and cried, “Bad news! Your ship was been lost at sea!”
The Merchant who was busy with a customer paused for a moment. He said, “Alhamdolillah!” (All Praise be to God!) before turning back to his work.
The young man, confused, hurriedly departed.
A few days later the youth returned and shot straight for the merchant. This time he said, “Good news! Your ship has come into port!”
Once again, the merchant paused for a moment and said, “Alhamdolillah!”
The surprised youth asked, “But why? When we thought the ship was lost you said “Alhamdolillah” and now it has been found you say “Alhamdolillah’?”
The merchant smiled. “Everything belongs to God,” he said, “whether he gives something or takes it away, I am content either way.”
And the youth replied, “Alhamdolillah!”
Dear Lord, fill our hearts with gratitude for everything you have blessed us with from the breath in our bodies to the things we can sense. And fill us with gratitude for the embracing love of our family and friends.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m000y0lp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08rr9g7)
Chris Jones on the Raven
Chris Jones from Worcestershire has been fascinated by the corvid family from childhood. For years he has been rescuing sick and injured birds. Here he tells the story of one of his favourite rescue ravens.
Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.
Producer Maggie Ayre.
THU 06:00 Today (m000y0ps)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Across the Red Line (m000y0pv)
Series 6
When the Queen's reign ends, should we abolish the monarchy?
Jonathan Dimbleby, who has presented many political and current affairs programmes for ITV and the BBC, and Dorothy Byrne,
former Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, debate whether the BBC's flaws are a price worth paying. And then presenters Anne McElvoy and conflict resolution expert Gabrielle Rifkind invite each guest in turn to try to discover what drives the other's viewpoint - and to articulate it back to its holder.
Producer: Phil Tinline
THU 09:30 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m000sr4d)
Drosophila Melanogastronaut
Erica McAlister examines the innocuous flies that are Drosophila melanogaster. They’d be content to spend life doing nothing much more than hovering around a pile of rotting apples and getting drunk. But we now know more about these flies than any other animal on the planet, as a model for human biology and genetics - on earth and now in space.
With contributions from : behavioural geneticist Prof. Matthew Cobb, University of Manchester; Dr. Stephanie Mohr, Harvard university and author of First in Fly; Sharmila Bhattacharya, NASA's chief scientist for Space Biology.
Producer: Adrian Washbourne
THU 09:45 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000y0px)
Ep 4 - Scaling up production of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
Professor Sarah Gilbert & Dr Catherine Green's account of producing a vaccine to combat COVID-19 continues. Today, scaling-up production & preparing to manufacture millions of doses begins. Meanwhile, hundreds of vials of vaccine needed for clinical trials in the UK are waiting to be collected from a lab in Italy, but it's March, 2020 and commercial planes are grounded. Read by Debra Baker.
From the outset it was a race against the deadly virus that has caused - and continues to cause - devastation across the planet. Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green explain the cutting-edge science, and sheer hard work that went into the extraordinary achievement of making an effective vaccine against Covid-19, and at the same time giving us hope that an end to this pandemic is in sight. All the while, throughout 2020, like everybody else they were adjusting to living and working through lockdowns and restrictions.
Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and her career has been dedicated to developing vaccines against disease. Since 2020, she has led the Oxford vaccine project. Catherine Green is Associate Professor in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter College, and Head of Oxford University’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000y0pz)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m000y0q1)
Dangerous Liaisons in Sinaloa
The Mexican state of Sinaloa is synonymous with drug trafficking. With the profits from organised crime a driver of the local economy, the tentacles of ‘narco cultura’ extend deep into people’s lives – especially those of women. In the city of Culiacan, plastic surgeons service demand for the exaggerated feminine silhouette favoured by the men with guns and hard cash. Often women’s surgery will be paid for by a ‘sponsor’ or ‘godfather’. Meanwhile, a group of women trackers spend their weekends digging in isolated parts of the state, looking for the remains of loved ones who disappear in Sinaloa’s endless cycle of drug-fuelled violence.
Producer / presenter: Linda Pressly
Producer in Mexico: Ulises Escamilla
Editor: Bridget Harney
(Photo: Lawyer Maria Teresa Guerra advocates for women in Sinaloa. Credit: BBC/Ulises Escamilla)
THU 11:30 Sketches: Stories of Art and People (m000y0q3)
Micro Worlds
Middlesbrough in miniature. The microworlds of arthropods. A minute replica of a student bedroom. How can small creations help with the big things? This week, the writer Anna Freeman hears stories of people and their tiny worlds.
There's Steve Waller, who always wondered exactly what his great uncle saw on his last walk out of Middlesbrough before he died in Battle of the Somme. Then Ros, inspired by a novel and needing to heal a heartbreak, who made her student bedroom in miniature. And Matt Doogue, who found solace lying in the grass with his macro camera, communing with the world of spiders and grasshoppers.
Produced by Maggie Ayre and Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio in Bristol.
THU 12:00 News Summary (m000y0q5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y0q7)
Episode 4
Yasushi Inoue's 1949 novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors.
From the planning of a bullfight through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his detached isolation, Inoue crafts an intense tale of loss and the difficulty of loving. The novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a population ground down by defeat, a society riddled with corruption and, at its heart, two men gambling with other peoples' money on a sporting event which is subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Meanwhile just as the two bulls are destined to lock horns, Tsugami the newspaper editor and his lover the young widow Sakiko wrestle with the emptiness of their desperate relationship. Should they remain together or end it ?
Born in 1907, Yasushi Inoue worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, only beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with Bullfight. He went on to publish 50 novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, his work making him one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan. He died in 1991.
Written by Yasushi Inoue
Translated by Michael Emmerich
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m000y0q9)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
THU 12:57 Weather (m000y0qc)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m000y0qf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Ingenious (m000y0qh)
The HIV Gene
HIV is an incurable disease - or is it? It turns out that some people are naturally immune to HIV, and their genes can be used in to remove the virus from a patient’s system altogether. But given that HIV is a new disease, how did this resistance evolve? And what does this mean for the millions living with the condition? Kat Arney digs into the buried past of the “HIV gene”, and its life-saving future, with Dr Stephen O’Brien and Dr Ravi Gupta.
Presenter: Kat Arney
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Penny Murphy
THU 14:00 The Archers (m000y0ks)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0007kyt)
Fire in the Bookshop
Timothy X Atack holds a satirical mirror up to an imaginary Britain – a dystopia where books are shunned and bullies have business arrangements with their schools.
Documentary maker Jeremy J Wylie confronts his own childhood demons by embarking on an “up close and personal” investigation of how bullying has changed over 30 years. His first encounter is with 15 year old Kevin Hartcliffe who is employed by his own school, Straight Edge Academy, to keep fellow pupils in line. But things get more intriguing when Jeremy meets pupils Dulcie Arnold and Shawnessa Mengis. He starts to find out just how crooked things are in Straight Edge.
Cast:
Jeremy J Wylie...................Tom Meeten
Juliet .............................Pippa Haywood
Hartcliffe...................Tom Edward-Kane
Dulcie............................Ayesha Antoine
Shawnessa...................Evlyne Oyedokun
Writer: Timothy X Atack
Director: Alison Crawford
Photo courtesy of Victoria Cansfield
THU 15:00 Open Country (m000y0qk)
Journey to the Source of the Ancholme
Ian Marchant tracks the River Ancholme to its source. Others might prefer the Limpopo or the Zambesi, but Ian is drawn to the subtle mysteries of the canal-like Ancholme in Lincolnshire, arguing that there are delights to be found if you take a close look in your own back yard. And there are plenty of delights. If historic boats are your thing then there's Humber Sloop Amy Howson, an ochre-sailed ship moored at the mouth of the Ancholme, in the care of the Humber Keels and Sloop Preservation Society, or Brigg Raft, a five metre Bronze age raft designed specifically for the slow moving waters of the Ancholme.
Brigg was always, it seems, a good place to keep a boat. The town is an island, created by two channels of the Ancholme encircling its centre. Brigg Raft and the even more astounding Brigg Log Boat (nearly fifteen metres long) were discovered in 1886, lurking in mud at the site of what is now Glanford Boat Club. There are still around fifty boats moored at Glanford Boat Club, a vibrant social centre.
Just off the course of the Ancholme is Stow Minster, which has, etched into its stone, two images of Viking longships: further evidence of visitors by boat to central Lincolnshire. But will Ian make it to the source in the Lincolnshire Wolds? And how would he know if he got there?
Produced for BBC Audio by Mary Ward-Lowery
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m000xzh6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m000xzj3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (m000y0qm)
Bruce Robinson: Withnail and me
With Antonia Quirke
Antonia reveals the favourite phone box scenes as chosen by Film Programme listeners and talks to writer/director Bruce Robinson about the phone box in Withnail And I that has now become a shrine for fans of the movie.
A phone box in Uist is one of the stars of Limbo, a new drama about an asylum seeker who has to wait on one of the islands while he finds out if he can stay in this country. Director Ben Sharrock and producer Irune Gurtubai reveal what is like filming in gale force winds and dangerously high tides.
Death In Venice has been described by its star Bjorn Andresen as the film that destroyed his life. Kristina Lindstrom and Kristian Petri, the directors of The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, reveal why the film still haunts the actor 50 years after he made it.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m000y0qp)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m000y0qr)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000y0qt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Olga Koch: OK Computer (m000y0qw)
Episode 3
Olga Koch and her digital assistant are on a mission to get healthy, but the topic is very tricky to compute. How can we be healthy if we don’t know what health even means? What is a Placebo, and why don’t we know any of their songs?
Comedian and Computer Scientist Olga Koch takes a deep dive into the world of computer science with her trusty virtual assistant Algo as the digital duo take the truths that you hold dear and tear them to shreds using logic, like a teenager on the internet. A four part stand-up special exploring Nationality, Beauty, Health and Privacy through the eyes of a woman with half a masters degree in the social science of the internet. By applying computer science to the world around her, Olga and Algo take an hilarious and pedantic journey to reveal the inherent absurdities of the modern world.
Written by Olga Koch and Charlie Dinkin
Starring Sindhu Vee as Algo
Additional Material from Rajiv Karia
Produced by Benjamin Sutton
A BBC Studios Production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m000y0qy)
Writers, Daniel Thurman And Naylah Ahmed
Director, Jessica Bunch
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer … Ben Norris
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge … Angela Piper
Phoebe Aldridge … Lucy Morris
Lee Bryce … Ryan Early
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter … Wilf Scolding
Ian Craig … Stephen Kennedy
Ruairi Donovan … Arthur Hughes
Alan Franks … John Telfer
Kirsty Miller … Annabelle Dowler
Adam Macey … Andrew Wincott
Fallon Rogers … Joanna van Kampen
Kyle … Ben Crowe
Spence … Denny Hodge
THU 19:15 Front Row (m000y0r0)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 19:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000v2wy)
Episode Nine: Testimony
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Nine: Testimony
When Glenn attends the trial of the only person charged in direct connection with the raid, he's struck by what he hears in court and what he sees on TV that night
Written and presented by Glenn Patterson
Music: Phil Kieran
Actors: Louise Parker, Thomas Finnegan & Conor O'Donnell
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
Producer: Conor Garrett
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m000y0r2)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m000y0r4)
The extraordinary success of the creation of vaccines for Covid-19 has made the business of clinical trials look simple. But appearances can be deceptive and it usually takes many years and costs hundreds of millions of pounds to bring a new drug, therapy or medical device to market.
Evan Davis and his guests discuss how the economics of commercial clinical trials now look for companies in the light of such a disruptive event as the pandemic. How far is greater collaboration - with start-ups partnering with big pharma - changing the way in which trials operate? And will new tech developments - like the greater, tailored use of Artificial Intelligence and Complex Cell Models - make the process cheaper and quicker - while compromising neither safety nor patient anonymity?
Editor Hugh Levinson
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m000y0qp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Across the Red Line (m000y0pv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m000y0r6)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y0q7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Michael Spicer: Before Next Door (m000y0rb)
Cheesy Strings
His Room Next Door videos are getting tens of millions of views online, a mention in the House of Commons and plaudits from highbrow cultural commentators so, by rights, Michael should be drowning in big money offers. But, in reality, he’s sat at his desk writing copy for a kitchen worktop company worrying about the restructuring consultant they’ve brought in. Getting the axe would be catastrophic for Michael and his family.
This strange position is heightened when A-list British actor Emily Mallaby contacts Michael to invite him to a political dinner party at home. She is starting a new movement to shake up Westminster and wants the famous Room Next Door Man, who lampoons cabinet members so mercilessly, to spearhead the campaign.
At the same time, Michael’s wife Roberta is channelling her energy into hustling for Michael as a distraction from having to make a work friend redundant. She secures him an audition for a potentially lucrative commercial. OK, the role is to play a cheesy string, but a gig’s a gig and shows that Michael should take Roberta’s ambitions to be his manager seriously.
Unfortunately, he fails to acknowledge her skills and they have a massive falling out, just as he needs his wife’s advice on the work situation. Michael tries to enlist his eldest son, Sam’s help to extract that advice, but he’s useless. Perhaps Daddy is expecting too much of a nine-year old?
Both the audition and the political dinner party test Michael’s patience and integrity but fortunately Peter Curran is on hand to reassure and unnerve him in equal measure. Can Michael emerge with his principles intact and what will happen when Roberta’s ex-colleague Alexandra turns up at her doorstep while Michael is gallivanting with the A-Listers?
Continuing to listen to this excellent comedy series will not only answer those questions, but also make it more likely that Michael will never have to go back to his office job. So please continue to listen. After this, there’s only more episode and the tension just keeps on mounting. As do the jokes.
Cast: Michael Spicer with Ellie Taylor, Joanna Neary, Beattie Edmondson, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Peter Curran and Kipp Spicer.
Writer: Michael Spicer
Producer: Matt Tiller
A Starstruck and Tillervision production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000y0rg)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRIDAY 23 JULY 2021
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m000y0rl)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000y0px)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m000y0rq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m000y7gn)
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 (m000y0rv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m000y0rz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m000y0s3)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Zahid Hussain
Good morning.
Don’t we love those Top Lists? Top 10s, Top 100s?
Well, I do!
• Top 10 Children’s TV Programmes!
• Top 100 Movies Ever!
• Top 3 Reasons to Buy a New Sofa!
Of course, some of these are sheer opinion and others are supposedly based on fact.
Isn’t it great to know our place in things, to know we’ve watched the Top 10, to know that we’re a purveyor of great taste?
But there’s something about these top lists of things then never occurred to me until I lived abroad for a few years and I didn’t even go far. France and Spain. The funny thing was when I encountered a Top 10 list of Best Songs, Best Movies they were completely different from the ones I’d read about in the UK
For instance, the French based their Top 10 Movies on French movies…The Spanish on well, you guessed it!
And it’s the “Best Ever”, “Greatest Ever” that really does startle me. If anyone compiles a Best Ever list and it doesn’t include Chinese or Indian movies or books or songs or anything…then the list just missed half the world’s population. It can’t be a global Top 10 or 100 of anything at all.
The world is incredibly diverse and please, please don’t believe that everyone in the world watches the same soaps, news and listens to the same songs. They really, really don’t.
Dear Lord, we sometimes forget we share this world with others and that their lives are as significant as our own. Allow us to learn from each other, to share the best of each other and to remember each other as you would like us to do.
Ameen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m000y0s7)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0ly5)
Christmas Shearwater
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
On Christmas Day, Sir David Attenborough presents the Christmas shearwater. 2000km south of Hawaii the highly marine Christmas shearwater is at home over the Central Pacific seas, tirelessly riding the air-currents, skimming wave-crests and hugging the contours of the sea looking for food. They rarely come to land as adults, but when they do, it is to return to their place of birth on remote oceanic islands to breed. Here they form loose colonies, laying a single white egg which is incubated for around 50 days. Inhabiting these far flung inaccessible islands means little is known about their biology, but that remoteness gives them protection from land based predators.
FRI 06:00 Today (m000y1f6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m000xzhn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green (m000y1gm)
Ep 5 - From clinical trials to vaccine rollout
Professor Sarah Gilbert & Dr Catherine Green's account of making the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020 concludes. Today, the scientists are waiting for the vaccine trial results. Read by Debra Baker & Samantha Bond
From the outset it was a race against the deadly virus that has caused - and continues to cause - devastation across the planet. Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green explain the cutting-edge science, and sheer hard work that went into the extraordinary achievement of making an effective vaccine against Covid-19, and at the same time giving us hope that an end to this pandemic is in sight. All the while, throughout 2020, like everybody else they were adjusting to living and working through lockdowns and restrictions.
Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, and her career has been dedicated to developing vaccines against disease. Since 2020, she has led the Oxford vaccine project. Catherine Green is Associate Professor in Chromosome Dynamics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, a Senior Research Fellow at Exeter College, and Head of Oxford University’s Clinical BioManufacturing Facility.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m000y1fb)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Spark (m000y1fd)
Henry Marsh and terminal illness
Helen Lewis returns with a new series of interviews with people offering radical solutions to the big problems we face, and explores how their personal experiences drive their work and thinking.
Neurosurgeon and author Henry Marsh tells Helen about coming to terms with being diagnosed with cancer, and how it has informed his ideas about how we deal with terminal illness. They discuss the case for assisted dying, and the changes to the law that Marsh advocates.
Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children (m000y1fg)
The Special Ones
New comedy from stand-up comedian Ashley Blaker about his unusual home life. As a father of two sons with autism and a daughter with Down Syndrome, episode three is dedicated to all parents of children with special needs and goes through the five things Ashley would like everyone else to know about his family and his special children.
Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children is a mix of stand-up and observational documentary, all recorded in the Blakers’ unusual home with the voices of his real family, and tackling parenting, adoption and raising children with special needs.
The series brings a whole new perspective to the subject of parenting. That is because as parents of six children, Ashley and his wife Gemma are trying to raise a family in a world that is only really set up for having two. What's more, the Blakers’ children are not just any kids. Three have special needs – two autistic boys and an adopted girl with Down Syndrome – and Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children sensitively finds the funny in both raising children with disabilities and adoption.
The series is written and performed by Ashley Blaker - a comedian who has performed on five continents including tours of the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Israel and Australia. His 2018 Off-Broadway run was called ‘a slickly funny stand-up show’ by the New York Times and, in 2020, he returned with Goy Friendly which ran at the prestigious SoHo Playhouse.
Ashley is joined by Shelley Blond (Peep Show, Cold Feet and the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider), Kieran Hodgson (three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee), Rosie Holt (online lockdown star with countless viral videos) amd Judith Jacob (EastEnders, The Real McCoy, Still Open All Hours).
Also appearing as themselves are Ashley’s own children: Ami (17), Ophie (15), Simi (13), Soroh (12), Sruly (11) and Bina (7).
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m000y1j6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y1fl)
Episode 5
Yasushi Inoue's 1949 novella won him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and established him as one of Japan's most acclaimed authors.
From the planning of a bullfight through Tsugami's struggle, his focus and his detached isolation, Inoue crafts an intense tale of loss and the difficulty of loving. The novel brilliantly evokes the atmosphere of a population ground down by defeat, a society riddled with corruption and, at its heart, two men gambling with other peoples' money on a sporting event which is subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Meanwhile just as the two bulls are destined to lock horns, Tsugami the newspaper editor and his lover the young widow Sakiko wrestle with the emptiness of their desperate relationship. Should they remain together or end it ?
Born in 1907, Yasushi Inoue worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, only beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with Bullfight. He went on to publish 50 novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, his work making him one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan. He died in 1991.
Written by Yasushi Inoue
Translated by Michael Emmerich
Read by David Threlfall
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m000y1fn)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m000y1fq)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m000y1fs)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Edward Stourton.
FRI 13:45 Ingenious (m000y1fv)
The Eyeball Gene
Is there more than meets the eye when it comes to the similarities between the compound eyeballs of a fly and your own peepers? What's so special about starfish feet? And what can some of nature’s oddest eyes tell us about our connection with life, the universe and everything?
Dr Kat Arney find out with the help of fruitfly-troubler Dr Patrick Callaerts and eyeball-building expert Professor Veronica Van Heyningen.
Presenter: Kat Arney
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton
Sound Mix: James Beard
Editor: Penny Murphy
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m000y0qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m0006l9r)
Variations on a Theme by Neil Armstrong
As we approach the anniversary of the moon landings, Michael Symmons Roberts takes a look at fake news through the lens of the conspiracy theories that this historical moment happened on a film set on earth. Variations on a Theme by Neil Armstrong is a dark comedy, exploring what's real and what's fake in the way such news is communicated.
Belle - Lydia Wilson
Luna - Laurel Lefkow
Neil Armstrong - Andonis James Anthony
Laura - Verity Henry
Mario - Louis Labovitch
Billy - Graeme Hawley
Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m000y1fx)
Horatio's Garden, London & South East: Postbag Edition
Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Horatio's Garden, London and South East. Joining him are Christine Walkden, Matt Biggs and Bunny Guinness, as regular feature presenter and Head Gardener, Ashley Edwards takes them round the garden.
Producer - Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer - Jemima Rathbone
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m000y1fz)
Personal Growth
When a woman finds herself getting bigger and bigger, she must reassess how and where to exist.
An original short story by Anna Wood.
Anna Wood has written for Mojo, The Quietus, Dazed and Caught By The River, and has had stories featured in the Guardian, the Canongate anthology My Old Man and forthcoming in the 3 of Cups anthology Outsiders. She was the winner of the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize 2018/19. Her debut collection of stories YES YES MORE MORE was published in 2021.
Read by Caroline Catz
Produced by Anne Isger
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m000y64z)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m000y1g1)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations
FRI 17:00 PM (m000y1g3)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m000y1g7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 Party's Over (m00076tk)
Pilot
What happens when the Prime Minister suddenly stops being Prime Minister?
One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'
Miles Jupp stars as Henry Tobin - Britain's shortest serving and least popular post war PM (he managed 8 months).
We join Henry soon after his crushing election loss. He’s determined to not let his disastrous defeat be the end of him. Instead Henry's going to get back to the top - he's just not sure how and in what field..
In this pilot episode, Henry is looking to repair his tattered reputation by getting a publishing deal for his memoirs to set the record straight on his premiership.
Written by Paul Doolan and Jon Hunter
Henry Tobin... Miles Jupp
Christine Tobin... Ingrid Oliver
Natalie... Emma Sidi
Drew... Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Jones... Justin Edwards
PJ... Rosie Cavaliero
Jack Steele & Tony... Adam Riches
Producer Simon Nicholls
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2019.
FRI 19:00 Front Row (m000y1gc)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
FRI 19:45 The Northern Bank Job (m000v3q8)
Episode Ten: This Country
It was the biggest bank robbery in British and Irish history. Days before Christmas 2004, gangs of armed men take over the homes of two Northern Bank officials in Belfast and County Down. With family members held hostage, the officials are instructed to remove cash from the vaults of Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast city-centre and load it into the back of a van - not once, but twice - before the van disappears into the night, along with more than £26.5 million in new and used notes. With the finger of blame pointed at the IRA, the raid makes headlines around the world and sends shock-waves through an already faltering Northern Ireland peace process.
Through dramatized court testimonies, new interviews and archive, Glenn Patterson takes us into the unfolding story of a meticulously planned heist and its chaotic aftermath. Military precision giving way to soap powder boxes stuffed with cash. The bickering of politicians against the silence of the man said to be the robbery’s mastermind. There are even rumours that proceeds from the robbery are to be used as a pension fund for IRA members as it prepares to disarm and disband.
Glenn Patterson has unfinished business with the Northern Bank Job. In fact, he thinks all of Northern Ireland does.
Episode Ten: This Country
So where did all the money go? And what went with it?
Written and presented by Glenn Patterson
Music: Phil Kieran
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
Producer: Conor Garrett
A BBC Northern Ireland production for Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m000y5sx)
Lord Forsyth, Angela Haggerty, Baroness Kennedy QC, Michael Russell
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from Campbeltown Picture House with the Conservative peer and former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth, the journalist Angela Haggerty, the Labour peer and barrister Baroness Kennedy QC and the President of the SNP Michael Russell.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Ken Garden
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m000y63s)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b0729t65)
A Brief History of Disobedience
"Oh my goodness, look at that sign over there. Keep Off The Grass. Makes me wonder who put it there.
Makes me wonder why I should keep off the grass. And it makes me want to go on the grass!"
American satirist Joe Queenan presents A Brief History of Disobedience, follow up to his programmes on Blame, Shame, Anger and Irony. He travels in time from the Old Testament to Tarrytown, his home in suburban New York. The aim? To discover the importance of not doing what we are told. As the hippies used to say, let your life be a counter friction to the machine.
With notable contributions from the archive - Gandhi, the Suffragettes, the Greenham Common Peace protestors.
Heroes of Disobedience include Martin Luther, Geronimo, Woody Guthrie and The Doors. Plus Matthew Parris on Margaret Thatcher, Bill Finnegan of the New Yorker on his barbarian days as a surfer, and Karen Moline on writing dirty books.
Plus helpful hints about how to be usefully disobedient in everyday life.
Joe Queenan is an Emmy award winning broadcaster and writer.
Produced in Bristol by Miles Warde.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2016.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m000y1gf)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (m000y1fl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m000xzfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m000y1gh)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A Good Read
16:30 TUE (m000xzfh)
A Good Read
23:00 FRI (m000xzfh)
A Point of View
08:48 SUN (m000xv8s)
A Point of View
20:50 FRI (m000y63s)
Across the Red Line
09:00 THU (m000y0pv)
Across the Red Line
21:30 THU (m000y0pv)
Analysis
21:30 SUN (m000xsvk)
Analysis
20:30 MON (m000xz4c)
Any Answers?
14:00 SAT (m000xzxn)
Any Questions?
13:10 SAT (m000xv8q)
Any Questions?
20:00 FRI (m000y5sx)
Archive on 4
20:00 SAT (m000xzy7)
Archive on 4
21:00 FRI (b0729t65)
Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children
11:30 FRI (m000y1fg)
BBC Inside Science
16:30 THU (m000y0qp)
BBC Inside Science
21:00 THU (m000y0qp)
Bells on Sunday
05:43 SUN (m000xzjy)
Bells on Sunday
00:45 MON (m000xzjy)
Brain of Britain
23:00 SAT (m000xsv4)
Brain of Britain
15:00 MON (m000xz3v)
Broadcasting House
09:00 SUN (m000xzhg)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
12:04 MON (m000xz3f)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
22:45 MON (m000xz3f)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
12:04 TUE (m000xzdx)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
22:45 TUE (m000xzdx)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
12:04 WED (m000y0jx)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
22:45 WED (m000y0jx)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
12:04 THU (m000y0q7)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
22:45 THU (m000y0q7)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
12:04 FRI (m000y1fl)
Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
22:45 FRI (m000y1fl)
Castle of the Hawk
15:00 SAT (m000xzxq)
Crossing Continents
11:00 THU (m000y0q1)
Dead Ringers
12:30 SAT (m000xv8l)
Desert Island Discs
11:00 SUN (m000xzhn)
Desert Island Discs
09:00 FRI (m000xzhn)
Drama
15:00 SUN (m000xzj0)
Drama
14:00 MON (m000xz3s)
Drama
14:15 TUE (m000xzf7)
Drama
14:15 WED (m000y0k7)
Drama
14:15 THU (m0007kyt)
Drama
14:15 FRI (m0006l9r)
Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket
11:00 MON (m000xz37)
Farming Today
06:30 SAT (m000xzx0)
Farming Today
05:45 MON (m000xzkb)
Farming Today
05:45 TUE (m000xz4y)
Farming Today
05:45 WED (m000xzgt)
Farming Today
05:45 THU (m000y0lp)
Farming Today
05:45 FRI (m000y0s7)
Feedback
20:00 SUN (m000xv8d)
Feedback
16:30 FRI (m000y1g1)
File on 4
17:00 SUN (m000xs0h)
Fortunately... with Fi and Jane
23:00 TUE (m000xzg7)
Four Thought
05:45 SAT (m000xr7t)
Four Thought
09:30 WED (m000y0jm)
Four Thought
20:45 WED (m000y0jm)
From Fact to Fiction
00:30 SUN (m000xv88)
From Our Own Correspondent
11:30 SAT (m000xzxd)
Front Row
19:15 MON (m000xz47)
Front Row
19:15 TUE (m000xzfx)
Front Row
19:15 WED (m000y0kv)
Front Row
19:15 THU (m000y0r0)
Front Row
19:00 FRI (m000y1gc)
Gardeners' Question Time
14:00 SUN (m000xv86)
Gardeners' Question Time
15:00 FRI (m000y1fx)
Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares
11:00 TUE (m000xzdp)
Green Originals
00:15 SUN (m000czl8)
Green Originals
14:45 SUN (m000czl8)
Heidi Regan: No Worries
23:00 WED (m000y0l1)
Hybrid
09:30 TUE (m000y1xt)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
12:04 SUN (m000xsvf)
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
18:30 MON (m000xz43)
In Touch
20:40 TUE (m000xzg1)
Ingenious
13:45 MON (m000xz3q)
Ingenious
13:45 TUE (m000xzf5)
Ingenious
13:45 WED (m000y0k5)
Ingenious
13:45 THU (m000y0qh)
Ingenious
13:45 FRI (m000y1fv)
Inside Health
21:00 TUE (m000xzg3)
Inside Health
15:30 WED (m000xzg3)
Last Word
20:30 SUN (m000xv8b)
Last Word
16:00 FRI (m000y64z)
Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair
19:00 SUN (m000k91m)
Loose Ends
18:15 SAT (m000xz39)
Made of Stronger Stuff
15:30 TUE (p098d1xd)
Made of Stronger Stuff
21:00 WED (p098d1xd)
Marketing: Hacking the Unconscious
11:45 SUN (b08pdy05)
Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World
09:30 THU (m000sr4d)
Michael Spicer: Before Next Door
23:00 THU (m000y0rb)
Midnight News
00:00 SAT (m000xv8z)
Midnight News
00:00 SUN (m000xzyc)
Midnight News
00:00 MON (m000xzjw)
Midnight News
00:00 TUE (m000xz4k)
Midnight News
00:00 WED (m000xzgc)
Midnight News
00:00 THU (m000y0l7)
Midnight News
00:00 FRI (m000y0rl)
Money Box
12:04 SAT (m000xzjr)
Money Box
21:00 SUN (m000xzjr)
Money Box
15:00 WED (m000y0k9)
Moral Maze
22:15 SAT (m000xr96)
Moral Maze
20:00 WED (m000y0kx)
More or Less
11:30 MON (m000y49w)
News Briefing
05:30 SAT (m000xv9b)
News Briefing
05:30 SUN (m000xzym)
News Briefing
05:30 MON (m000xzk6)
News Briefing
05:30 TUE (m000xz4t)
News Briefing
05:30 WED (m000xzgp)
News Briefing
05:30 THU (m000y0lk)
News Briefing
05:30 FRI (m000y0rz)
News Summary
12:00 SAT (m000xzyp)
News Summary
06:00 SUN (m000xzgw)
News Summary
12:00 SUN (m000xzvk)
News Summary
12:00 MON (m000xz3c)
News Summary
12:00 TUE (m000y0j8)
News Summary
12:00 WED (m000y0ml)
News Summary
12:00 THU (m000y0q5)
News Summary
12:00 FRI (m000y1j6)
News and Papers
06:00 SAT (m000xzwy)
News and Papers
07:00 SUN (m000xzh2)
News and Papers
08:00 SUN (m000xzhb)
News and Weather
13:00 SAT (m000xzxl)
News
22:00 SAT (m000xzy9)
Olga Koch: OK Computer
18:30 THU (m000y0qw)
On Your Farm
06:35 SUN (m000xzgy)
One to One
14:45 SAT (m000wjpq)
Open Book
16:00 SUN (m000xzj3)
Open Book
15:30 THU (m000xzj3)
Open Country
06:07 SAT (m000xtb2)
Open Country
15:00 THU (m000y0qk)
PM
17:00 SAT (m000xzxv)
PM
17:00 MON (m000xz3z)
PM
17:00 TUE (m000xzfk)
PM
17:00 WED (m000y0kh)
PM
17:00 THU (m000y0qr)
PM
17:00 FRI (m000y1g3)
Party's Over
18:30 FRI (m00076tk)
Paul Sinha's General Knowledge
18:30 WED (m000y0kp)
Pick of the Week
18:15 SUN (m000xzjh)
Poetry Please
23:30 SAT (m000xskj)
Poetry Please
16:30 SUN (m000xzj5)
Positive Thinking
09:00 TUE (m000xzdh)
Positive Thinking
21:30 TUE (m000xzdh)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 SAT (m000xv9g)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 MON (m000xzk8)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 TUE (m000xz4w)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 WED (m000xzgr)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 THU (m000y0lm)
Prayer for the Day
05:43 FRI (m000y0s3)
Profile
19:00 SAT (m000xzj7)
Profile
05:45 SUN (m000xzj7)
Profile
17:40 SUN (m000xzj7)
Radio 4 Appeal
07:54 SUN (m000xzh6)
Radio 4 Appeal
21:25 SUN (m000xzh6)
Radio 4 Appeal
15:27 THU (m000xzh6)
Reflections on Hi-Vis
21:00 MON (m000xrzk)
Saturday Live
09:00 SAT (m000xzx8)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SAT (m000xv93)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 SUN (m000xzyh)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 MON (m000xzk2)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 TUE (m000xz4p)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 WED (m000xzgk)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 THU (m000y0lf)
Selection of BBC World Service Programmes
01:00 FRI (m000y7gn)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SAT (m000xv91)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SAT (m000xv96)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SAT (m000xzxy)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 SUN (m000xzyf)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 SUN (m000xzyk)
Shipping Forecast
17:54 SUN (m000xzj9)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 MON (m000xzk0)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 MON (m000xzk4)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 TUE (m000xz4m)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 TUE (m000xz4r)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 WED (m000xzgh)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 WED (m000xzgm)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 THU (m000y0lc)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 THU (m000y0lh)
Shipping Forecast
00:48 FRI (m000y0rq)
Shipping Forecast
05:20 FRI (m000y0rv)
Short Works
15:45 FRI (m000y1fz)
Sideways
00:15 MON (m000xr8p)
Sideways
16:00 WED (m000y0kc)
Simon Evans Goes to Market
18:30 TUE (m000xzfr)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SAT (m000xzy2)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 SUN (m000xzjf)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 MON (m000xz41)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 TUE (m000xzfp)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 WED (m000y0km)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 THU (m000y0qt)
Six O'Clock News
18:00 FRI (m000y1g7)
Sketches: Stories of Art and People
11:30 THU (m000y0q3)
Something Understood
06:05 SUN (b08vwmsn)
Something Understood
23:30 SUN (b08vwmsn)
Soul Music
09:00 WED (m000y0jk)
Stand-Up Specials
19:15 SUN (m000xzjl)
Sunday Worship
08:10 SUN (m000xzhd)
Sunday
07:10 SUN (m000xzh4)
The Archers Omnibus
10:00 SUN (m000xzhj)
The Archers
19:00 MON (m000xz45)
The Archers
14:00 TUE (m000xz45)
The Archers
19:00 TUE (m000xzfv)
The Archers
14:00 WED (m000xzfv)
The Archers
19:00 WED (m000y0ks)
The Archers
14:00 THU (m000y0ks)
The Archers
19:00 THU (m000y0qy)
The Archers
14:00 FRI (m000y0qy)
The Bottom Line
17:30 SAT (m000xtbx)
The Bottom Line
20:30 THU (m000y0r4)
The Briefing Room
20:00 THU (m000y0r2)
The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry
16:30 MON (m000kgt6)
The Film Programme
23:00 SUN (m000xtb4)
The Film Programme
16:00 THU (m000y0qm)
The Food Programme
12:32 SUN (m000xz3x)
The Food Programme
15:30 MON (m000xz3x)
The Hotel
21:45 SAT (m000p0m4)
The Kitchen Cabinet
10:30 SAT (m000xzf9)
The Kitchen Cabinet
15:00 TUE (m000xzf9)
The Listening Project
13:30 SUN (m000xzhy)
The Madman's Library by Edward Brooke-Hitching
00:30 SAT (m000xv7l)
The Media Show
16:30 WED (m000y0kf)
The Media Show
21:30 WED (m000y0kf)
The Northern Bank Job
19:45 MON (m000v1nq)
The Northern Bank Job
19:45 TUE (m000v2sj)
The Northern Bank Job
19:45 WED (m000v2q8)
The Northern Bank Job
19:45 THU (m000v2wy)
The Northern Bank Job
19:45 FRI (m000v3q8)
The Patch
09:00 MON (m000xz30)
The Patch
21:30 MON (m000xz30)
The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed
19:15 SAT (m000xzy5)
The Power of Negative Thinking
09:30 MON (b0845ws5)
The Skewer
23:15 WED (m000y0l3)
The Spark
11:00 FRI (m000y1fd)
The Week in Westminster
11:00 SAT (m000xzxb)
The Why Factor
14:45 MON (b06nn7d2)
The World This Weekend
13:00 SUN (m000xzhw)
The World Tonight
22:00 MON (m000xz4f)
The World Tonight
22:00 TUE (m000xzg5)
The World Tonight
22:00 WED (m000y0kz)
The World Tonight
22:00 THU (m000y0r6)
The World Tonight
22:00 FRI (m000y1gf)
This Union: A Sea Between Us
20:00 MON (m000xz49)
This Union: A Sea Between Us
11:00 WED (m000xz49)
Today in Parliament
23:30 MON (m000xz4h)
Today in Parliament
23:30 TUE (m000xzg9)
Today in Parliament
23:30 WED (m000y0l5)
Today in Parliament
23:30 THU (m000y0rg)
Today in Parliament
23:30 FRI (m000y1gh)
Today
07:00 SAT (m000xzx4)
Today
06:00 MON (m000xz2y)
Today
06:00 TUE (m000xzdf)
Today
06:00 WED (m000y0jh)
Today
06:00 THU (m000y0ps)
Today
06:00 FRI (m000y1f6)
Tumanbay
21:00 SAT (b08nq5x1)
Tweet of the Day
08:58 SUN (b08tcnmh)
Tweet of the Day
10:54 SUN (m000xzhl)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 MON (b04hkwg9)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 TUE (b04hkx14)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 WED (b0902kwc)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 THU (b08rr9g7)
Tweet of the Day
05:58 FRI (b04t0ly5)
Unreal: The VFX Revolution
11:30 TUE (m000xzds)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
09:45 MON (m000xz32)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
00:30 TUE (m000xz32)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
09:45 TUE (m000xzgf)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
00:30 WED (m000xzgf)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
09:45 WED (m000y0l9)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
00:30 THU (m000y0l9)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
09:45 THU (m000y0px)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
00:30 FRI (m000y0px)
Vaxxers by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green
09:45 FRI (m000y1gm)
Waiting for the Van
20:00 TUE (m000xzfz)
Weather
06:57 SAT (m000xzx2)
Weather
12:57 SAT (m000xzxj)
Weather
17:57 SAT (m000xzy0)
Weather
06:57 SUN (m000xzh0)
Weather
07:57 SUN (m000xzh8)
Weather
12:57 SUN (m000xzht)
Weather
17:57 SUN (m000xzjc)
Weather
05:56 MON (m000xzkd)
Weather
12:57 MON (m000xz3l)
Weather
12:57 TUE (m000xzf1)
Weather
12:57 WED (m000y0k1)
Weather
12:57 THU (m000y0qc)
Weather
12:57 FRI (m000y1fq)
Westminster Hour
22:00 SUN (m000xzjt)
What's Funny About ...
11:30 WED (m000jh1m)
Wolverine Blues
19:45 SUN (m000xzjn)
Woman's Hour
16:00 SAT (m000xzxs)
Woman's Hour
10:00 MON (m000xz35)
Woman's Hour
10:00 TUE (m000xzdm)
Woman's Hour
10:00 WED (m000y0jr)
Woman's Hour
10:00 THU (m000y0pz)
Woman's Hour
10:00 FRI (m000y1fb)
Word of Mouth
23:00 MON (m000xs03)
Word of Mouth
16:00 TUE (m000xzff)
World at One
13:00 MON (m000xz3n)
World at One
13:00 TUE (m000xzf3)
World at One
13:00 WED (m000y0k3)
World at One
13:00 THU (m000y0qf)
World at One
13:00 FRI (m000y1fs)
Written in Scotland
16:00 MON (m000xt9l)
You and Yours
12:18 MON (m000xz3j)
You and Yours
12:18 TUE (m000xzdz)
You and Yours
12:18 WED (m000y0jz)
You and Yours
12:18 THU (m000y0q9)
You and Yours
12:18 FRI (m000y1fn)