MONDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2021

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m00101lt)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m000zspc)
Cool Consumers

Cool Consumers: Laurie Taylor considers how music acquires the social connotations of “cool” & its implicit association with youth and outsider status. He's joined by Jo Haynes, Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Bristol. Also, the way in which racial marketing promoted menthol cigarettes to African Americans, linking them to notions of ‘cool’, with enduringly harmful effect. Keith Wailoo, Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, unpacks a poignant and intricate story which reveals why 85% of Black smokers prefer menthol brands and how difficult it has been to ban them, not least because of the way that tobacco companies forged deep connections with Black media publishers and civil rights campaigners. He argues that the cry of 'I can't breathe' has multiple meanings in America's painful racial history.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m00100rv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00101ly)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00101m2)
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 (m00101m8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m00101md)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00101mk)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Rev Dr Alison Jack of New College, Edinburgh


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m00101mp)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (m00101mt)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02txxkl)
Dotterel

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Steve Backshall presents the dotterel.

Dotterels are waders, rather like small plovers with a broad white-eye stripe. In the UK, they're almost confined as breeding birds to the Scottish Highlands. They don't tend to fly away when approached which led our ancestors to believe that they are stupid. "Dotterel" derives from the same source as "dotard" and this tameness meant that the birds were easy prey for Victorian collectors.


MON 06:00 Today (m00101j8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m00101jd)
Colm Tóibín on Thomas Mann

The prize-winning author Colm Tóibín recreates the life and work of one of Germany’s most famous and acclaimed writers Thomas Mann. The Magician is a deeply intimate portrait of a private man, revealing both his suppressed homosexuality and complex family ties, and of a public writer who sought to explicate the soul of Germany in the 20th century.

When Hitler came to power Thomas Mann fled his homeland and went into exile in America, and in Switzerland, never to return to live in the country that inspired his creativity. Karen Leeder, Professor of Modern German Literature at Oxford, considers how German writers have become embroiled in the major events of history, and the impact on their writing. She has translated the lectures of the poet Durs Grünbein, For the Dying Calves, to be published in November.

Mann’s novel Buddenbrooks, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the story of the decline of a wealthy bourgeois merchant family. As a family saga it’s been likened to Jesse Armstrong’s 21st century creation, Succession. As the television drama reaches its third series Armstrong explains why the back-stabbing, power-grabbing antics of a superrich, dysfunctional family has so caught the public imagination.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 The History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes (m00101jj)
Episode 1

We are not alone. We are not alone on the planet. We are not alone in the countryside. We are not alone in cities. We are not alone in our homes.

We are humans and we love the idea of our uniqueness. But the fact is that we humans are as much members of the animal kingdom as the cats and dogs we surround ourselves with, the cows and the fish we eat, and the bees who pollinate so many of our food-plants.

In The History of the World in 100 Animals, award-winning author Simon Barnes selects the 100 animals who have had the greatest impact on humanity and on whom humanity has had the greatest effect. He shows how we have domesticated animals for food and for transport, and how animals powered agriculture, making civilisation possible. A species of flea came close to destroying human civilisation in Europe, while the slaughter of a species of bovines was used to create one civilisation and destroy another. He explains how pigeons made possible the biggest single breakthrough in the history of human thought. In short, he charts the close relationship between humans and animals, with great insight and understanding.

The heresy of human uniqueness has led us across the millennia along the path of destruction. This book helps us to understand our place in the world, so that we might do a better job of looking after it. That might save the polar bears, the modern emblem of impending loss and destruction. It might even save ourselves.

We have chosen 10 out of the 100 animals for these extracts from the book.

Simon Barnes is the author of many wild volumes, including the bestselling Bad Birdwatcher trilogy, Rewild Yourself and On The Marsh. He is a council member of World Land Trust, trustee of Conservation South Luangwa and patron of Save the Rhino. In 2014, he was awarded the Rothschild Medal for services to conservation.

Abridged by Florence Bedell

Read by
Paul Westwood
Sophie Barker
Elliot James
Sarah Lambie
Mathew Wellard
Hannah Brackstone-Brown

Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00101jn)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


MON 11:00 Landscapes of the Mind (m00100d8)
The impact of Covid and lockdowns on mental health has raised the importance of urban green spaces. New York’s High Line is one of the most iconic green spaces in that city, and its designer, James Corner explains how demand for green spaces has increased during the pandemic.

He's working on a similar High Line project for Camden, with a design for a ‘garden in the sky’ running along a rail track. Camden High Line’s CEO Simon Pitkeathley describes the challenge and potential of using disused track alongside existing trains and its potential to provide green space access for those living along the projected route.

The benefits of landscape for physical and mental well-being through history are described by Catharine Ward Thompson, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. She discusses research showing that visits to green space and parks have increased as people recognised the benefit for their mental health of getting into green and natural environments. But inequalities exist between those with green space nearby and those from lower socio-economic groups who had less access.

The public health value of urban green space in response to epidemics is described by Sara Jensen C, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She recounts how urban parks such as New York’s Central Park were designed to help with physical and mental health.

The restorative potential of urban green space is described by Jenny Roe, Professor and Director of the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia.

James Corner says while there’s more demand for new green spaces, and there’s the political will to provide them, it is more difficult to create them given the cost of such projects.

A Voiceworks production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m00100r8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


MON 12:00 News Summary (m00101jv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 12:04 Meet Me at the Museum (m000tmkf)
Episode 6

In 1964, Professor Glob, the curator of the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, dedicated his book The Bog People to a group of schoolgirls who had written to him about his recent archaeological discoveries. Fifty years later, at a defining moment in her life, Tina Hopgood writes him another letter about a planned pilgrimage to Denmark with her best friend, Bella, to visit the 2000-year-old Tollund Man. Why did they never make the trip?

She doesn’t expect a reply.

When Anders Larsen, a lonely museum curator responds, neither does he.

Their unexpected correspondence becomes a shared meditation on love, loss, life choices made and the opportunity to make new and different ones.

Episode Six
Anders' life is moving on. But Tina still feels trapped in hers.

Starring Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter

Written by Anne Youngson
Adapted for radio by Richard Leaf

Producer: Karen Rose
Sound: Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:18 You and Yours (m00101jz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m00101k3)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m00101k7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 Poison (m00109f1)
Episode 1: The Chuckling Pensioner

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma believes he has been poisoned, repeatedly. He claims to be the victim of a long, sophisticated, and unfinished plot to assassinate him. But who would want to kill a man still celebrated for his role as a fighter in the struggle against apartheid? Could it be linked to the allegations of massive corruption against him? Or is there a broader conspiracy at work – an international plot to silence a man who claims to be speaking up for South Africa’s neglected poor? In this five-part series the BBC’s Africa correspondent, Andrew Harding, digs into a mystery that links a case of poisoned underpants, to a plot to kill Nelson Mandela, to this year’s riots that left 300 South Africans dead. In this episode, Zuma's early years.

'Poison' is the story of one man's toxic obsession and the battle for South Africa's future.

Presenter: Andrew Harding
Producer: Vauldi Carelse
Sound mix: James Beard
Series editor: Bridget Harney


MON 14:00 The Archers (m00101kc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 United Kingdoms (m00101kh)
Reflecting

A ground breaking five part series from exciting new writers celebrating and revealing life across the United Kingdoms in short, sharp drama, comedy, news reports, song and poetic monologue. Stories, lives and voices making a kaleidoscope of now.

Each episode features five short dramas by different writers - a total of 50 writers and 100 actors have been brought together, showcasing new writing and performing talent from every corner of the United Kingdom.

Belfast - A reflection on a long-ago conversation between the writer's parents about her brother’s first birthday party, the 12th July Orange Day Parade, and a strange meeting in the park. Then the phone rings and, without warning, her mother’s world is turned upside down.

Cardiff Gate - Going back to work with a stoma is no joke. In this surreal comedy, Greg Glover reflects on his real-life experiences of coming to terms with an ileostomy.

Leith - Jo reflects back on her life as a father and grandmother.

Sparkhill - I (Roland Gift) went back to Sparkhill and, for the first time since leaving town, I spent the night in a house of a friend on the road where I was born. Since then, nothing in my world has been the same.

Nottingham - Falling can feel like floating if the conditions are right. Contextualising a dream and rooting it in reality allows for progress to be made.

Belfast written by Zarina Yousuf-Bonass
Performed by Lata Sharma
Music by Louis Gift
Sound Design by Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff

Cardiff Gate written by Greg Glover
Performed by Gareth Pierce, Lisa Zahra and Dom Francis
Sound Design by Nigel Lewis.
Produced by John Norton

Leith written by Jo Clifford
Performed by Jo Clifford and Catriona Innes
Sound Design by Joanne Willott
Produced by Kirsty Williams

Sparkhill written by Roland Gift
Performed by Roland Gift
Music by Roland Gift
Sound Design by Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff

Nottingham written by Ravelle-Sadé Fairman
Performed by Ravelle-Sadé Fairman and Leon Schoburgh
Sound Design by Eloise Whitmore
Produced by Dermot Daly

Programme Illustration by Eleanor Hibbert
Original music composed by Niroshini Thambar

Episode Sound Designers: Lucinda Mason Brown and David Chilton, Essential Music Ltd
Curated by Celia de Wolff for Pier Productions and BBC Northern Ireland for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m00101km)
Heat 11, 2021

(11/17)
Russell Davies welcomes another four competitors to Salford for the penultimate heat in the 2021 season of the general knowledge tournament.

In which book of the Bible will you find the story of Joseph and his multi-coloured coat? Whom did James Corden replace on television as host of America's Late Late Show? And which Lincolnshire-born painter was especially known for his many portraits of Emma, Lady Hamilton?

If the competitors can tackle these questions they may be on their way to a place in the semi-finals, and a step closer to the title Brain of Britain 2021.

Appearing today are:
Alan Burns, a retired solicitor from Salford
Charlotte Jackson-Orland, a modern languages teacher from Manchester
Derek Moody, a retired planning and logistics manager from Warrington in Cheshire
Lauren Watts-Keane, a data engineer from Cardiff.

There will also be a chance for a listener to win a prize by stumping the competitors with questions he or she has suggested.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m00101k2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 History on the Edge (m00101kt)
Anita Anand uncovers an extraordinary personal story from the margins of British history which challenges our perspective of the past we thought we knew. At a crucial moment in the rethinking of whose histories we should be telling, History on the Edge challenges some of the conventional assumptions about our past.

It’s 1940 and, amid the chaos of the Second World War, a 19-year-old refugee from Hitler’s Germany, Konrad Eisig, finds himself caught up in a British policy which, just when he thought he was safe, sends him on a hazardous sea journey to Australia in conditions little better than those of the slave ships of a century-and-a-half before. With the help of Eisig’s first-hand testimony from the astonishing diary he left behind, Anita is on an investigation to unravel his story and understand how this apparently cruel train of events came about, and what it was really like for those who lived it.

With contributions from Nick Ross, Aditi Anand, Laura Walker, Claudia Cotton, Dr Rachel Pistol and Dr Seumas Spark. Extracts from Konrad Eisig’s Diary are read by Gunnar Cauthery.

Producer: Anna de Wolff Evans
Executive Producer: Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m00101ky)
Ignatian Spirituality

If you have ever become so immersed in a book or a film that you feel you are actually part of the story, you are doing something similar to the Gospel contemplations which are part of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. Ignatius was born in Spain in 1491; a military man, he was struck by a cannonball and whilst recovering from surgery underwent a spiritual conversion, became a priest and eventually he founded the Jesuits. But it is his Spiritual Exercises that Ernie Rea and guests will be concentrating on in this programme.

To discuss Ignatian Spirituality are Father Jim Martin (a Jesuit Priest and author of ‘The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything’), Ruth Holgate (Deputy Director of St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in North Wales) and Sister Anne Arabome (a member of the Sisters of Social Service in Los Angeles and Associate Director of the Faber Centre for Ignatian Spirituality).

Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz

This episode of Beyond Belief contains a short audio excerpt from the Disney Pixar animated film ‘Soul’. It was produced by Dana Murray and Pete Docter was the director.


MON 17:00 PM (m00101l2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00101l6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m00101lb)
Series 87

Episode 4

Sue Perkins hosts Radio 4’s longest running panel show, Just a Minute. Sue challenges guests Paul Merton, Sheila Hancock, Daliso Chaponda and Jan Ravens to talk without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. This episode was produced using remote recording technology, with the audience joining from their homes all over the world.

Devised by Ian Messiter

Whistle blown by Caroline Barlow

Produced by Hayley Sterling

A BBC Studios Production


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001008w)
Tracy struggles to keep her cool and Kirsty tries to make sense of the situation


MON 19:15 Front Row (m00101lg)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music


MON 19:45 Will Self Takes the Waters (m000s7lt)
The Ultimate Refreshment?

Will Self ponders the origins of our insatiable thirst for bottled waters.

How did mineral water become such a valuable commodity and is it a luxury the world can no longer afford?

Will's a confirmed fan of mineral water - yet he's puzzled by its enduring appeal when H2O flows freely from the tap.

Over five episodes, he investigates the history of five different mineral waters and the spa towns from which they spring. He's joined by 'water sommelier' Martin Riese who believes that mineral water should be regarded as a connoisseur product, just like wine. Riese serves 20 varieties of mineral water in his boutique hotel in Los Angeles.

Today, the story of Perrier, which comes from the south of France and sold 1.6 billion bottles in 2019. Perrier was first marketed by Englishman St John Harmsworth who bought up the spring in 1903.

Will investigates why Perrier took the world by storm and asks Nestlé, the brand's current owners, what they're doing to address widespread concerns about the environmental impact of their product.

Producer: Laurence Grissell

(Photo credit: Luther Self)


MON 20:00 This Union: Two Kingdoms (m00101ll)
This Union: Two Kingdoms - Crossroads

Allan Little presents This Union: Two Kingdoms, for BBC Radio 4. The epic story of how and why Scotland entered into union with England, of why that Union endured for so long, and of the historic changes that have brought Scotland closer to independence than it’s been since 1707.

Having witnessed the emergence of new independent states from the Balkans to the Soviet Union and across Africa, Allan Little explores his homeland, Scotland, tracing the powerful and deep-rooted forces which are now changing - and might yet end - Scotland’s place in the UK.

In a sweeping history of national pride, ingenious character, passionately held values and political plots, Allan uncovers the people who drove the creation, development and explores its current divergence.

From the catastrophe that cost Scotland half its national wealth, the sticks and carrots that the Crown used to draw Scotland into England’s embrace, to the building of a new British national identity and mythology – this is a story about the emergence of a powerful partnership forged in Empire, industry and war that some now feel is falling apart. Allan reveals the shared national enterprises that shaped the United Kingdom, and the tensions and conflicting values that could end it.

Allan finds the hidden qualities and shared values that once bound Scotland powerfully to its British destiny, and what happens when those values diverge and then clash, with profound consequences for millions of people on both sides of the border.

Presenter: Allan Little
Series Producers: Caitlin Smith and Jonathan Brunert


MON 20:30 Analysis (m00101lq)
Reimagining the Nation

What keeps a nation together? For political scientist Benedict Anderson, it was the idea of the 'imagined community'. Although people from different backgrounds in a country might not know one another, they could imagine themselves as part of the same larger story.

Peter Pomerantsev looks at how we can survive as a society when the idea of the 'imagined community' is under strain. Is it too late to find any commonality? Or are there other ways of imagining the future of the nation?

Producer Ant Adeane
Editor Jasper Corbett


MON 21:00 Electric Ride UK (m000zt93)
Episode 2

Peter Curran is getting back on the road, in an electric vehicle. When Peter set out on his first adventure in an electric vehicle for Radio 4, ten years ago, owning one was more of a niche interest than a regular part of life.

But things have changed. And with a deadline of 2030 on the last sale of combustion engine cars in Britain, manufacturers and researchers have had to kick their work up a gear.

In this new series, Peter travels from Lands’ End to John O’Groats and asking whether the country is ready for the new era of electric cars.

Along the way he’ll explore what makes an electric car, from mining of lithium and the latest in battery technology, to how manufacturers like Nissan plan to keep up with soaring demand. And he’ll also speak to people pushing electric vehicles to their very limits, whether it be in racing, like McLaren and Extreme-E, to Chris Ramsey, a maverick planning to drive an electric vehicle from pole-to-pole.

Presenter: Peter Curran
Producer: Ellie Clifford
Executive Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m00101jd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m00101lx)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney (m00101m1)
Episode 6

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young – but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They worry about sex and friendship and the world they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

Beautiful World, Where Are You is Sally Rooney’s third novel published 7th September 2021 following on from the huge global success of her novels Conversations With Friends (2017) and Normal People (2018).

Niamh Algar is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young actors. In addition to her most recent lead role in Channel 4’s Deceit, Niamh starred alongside Stephen Graham earlier this year in Shane Meadows highly acclaimed drama The Virtues. Niamh is currently filming a Netflix adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s psychological thriller The Wonder shooting in Wicklow.

Author: Sally Rooney
Reader: Niamh Algar
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Gemma McMullan
A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


MON 23:00 Lights Out (m00101m7)
Series 4

Episode 4 of 4: A Service for Society

Documentary adventures that encourage you to take a closer listen.

Eleven years after the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, a sequence of events unfolded that would rock the British political establishment and test those campaigning for gay rights in the United Kingdom.

Through remarkably candid interviews not previously broadcast in this country with Norman Scott (the former model) and Andrew Newton (the suspected hitman), two of the main protagonists in the trial of Jeremy Thorpe (former leader of the Liberal Party), this documentary revisits a very English scandal and gauges its impact on the struggle for gay rights.

We hear from the human rights activist Peter Tatchell; a member of the Brixton Faeries, Julian Hows, who staged a satirical play based on the Thorpe case; and Tom Robinson whose song Glad to be Gay hit the charts in 1978. We also hear from Derek Stimpson, archivist of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, and archive of Peter Cook as the 'biased judge'.

Archive of Norman Scott and Andrew Newton from 'The Jeremy Thorpe Affair' courtesy of CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (1978).

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Mastertapes (b04ps3bn)
Series 4

Angélique Kidjo (the A-Side)

John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.

Programme 5. 'Ayé' with Angélique Kidjo

John Wilson talks to the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter and activist from Benin about her breakthrough album Ayé released in 1994 and hears her perform exclusive versions of key tracks. With songs including "Agolo," "Adouma" and "Djan-Djan", the album has been described as "a spellbinding one-world statement" where "Kidjo treats her voice like it's a percussion instrument".

One of ten children, Angélique Kidjo grew up in Benin in West Africa. But in the 1980s she moved to Paris to escape the communist regime and began synthesising the music of her native country with rock, funk, electronica and Euro-pop.

Kidjo has collaborated with artists as diverse as Alicia Keys, Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet and Peter Gabriel and been declared as the "the undisputed Queen of African Music." Her albums regularly top the World Albums Charts and her gift is said to be "to pour what could so easily be anger and frustration into songs that uplift and inspire us."

Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (as well as some that weren't) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website.

Producer: Clare Walker