SATURDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2023

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001hp95)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 The Meat Paradox by Rob Percival (m001hfzr)
Episode 5

Rob Percival is the head of Food Policy at The Soil Association.

He thinks our future diet will be shaped by diverse forces. By novel technologies and the logic of globalisation, by geopolitical tensions and the evolution of cultural preferences, by shocks to the status quo - pandemics and economic strife, the escalation of the climate emergency - and by how we choose to respond. It will also be shaped by our emotions. In short - by the Meat Paradox.

'Should we eat animals?' was, until recently, a question reserved for moral philosophers and an ethically minded minority, but it is now posed on restaurant menus and supermarket shelves, on social media and morning television. The recent surge in popularity for veganism in the Western world has created a debate over our long held relationship with meat.

We must all find a way of balancing competing and contradictory imperatives while understanding the psychology of our dietary choices.

Written by Rob Percival
Read by Alec Newman

Abridged by Polly Coles
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001hp9g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001hp9p)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001hp9t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001hp9x)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001hpb3)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Emma Whittick, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Chaplain at Lampeter and Carmarthen.


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m001hpbb)
Turning to Art

Ted Harrison argues that only art can truly capture the essence of spirituality.

Ted is a former journalist who, close to turning sixty, decided to turn away from using words and instead chose art. It was, he says, because he realised the limitations imposed by words, and the way in which art can capture the ineffable, the spiritual.

Producer: Giles Edwards


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001hwqj)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m001hnmg)
The Hills are Alive! Commoners Choir in Calderdale

Boff Whalley is best known for Tubthumping with the band Chumbawamba but now he’s a core member of the Leeds based Commoners Choir which he founded. They sing about the world around them, about inequality and injustice, and they also love to walk. Cath Long, a fellow member, wrote to Ramblings to ask Clare to join them on a hike in the South Pennines near Todmorden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. So, on a chilly, wet and blustery Saturday in early January, they met by the Shepherd’s Rest pub and headed into the hills to ramble and sing. Boff created a choir manifesto, and one aim was to 'rehearse until we're brilliant' and they really are. Their Skelmanthorpe Flag Song, which they performed at the historic Basin Stone, was heard by fellow walkers at least two miles down in the valley. On a circular hike, which began and ended at the pub, they stopped off at Gaddings Dam, often described as the highest beach in the UK, where some choir members took the plunge and sang out from the wind-blown waves of the reservoir.

Grid Ref for start of walk: SD 945 231

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001hwql)
Farming Today This Week: Environmental Improvement Plan; Fruit growers; Potatoes; Rural Poverty.

The Government published its new "Environmental Improvement Plan" this week, promising to halt decline in nature by 2030 - and outlining how it plans to deliver the Environment Act, with specific targets and deadlines. It includes: targets to tackle pollution from water companies and farmers and improve water quality; restoring a million acres of wildlife habitat; and a fund to protect species at risk. Defra wants the new Environmental Land Management Schemes or ELMS to be taken up by 60-80% of farmers.

It's been a tough 12 months for potato farmers with huge hikes in fertilizer prices and a drought which forced them to irrigate much more than usual. Many are giving up on the crop altogether. We hear from two brothers who are drastically reducing their production and speak to the big potato processor McCain about what it's doing to persuade its farmers to keep planting spuds.

Apple and pear producers have cancelled more than a third of orders for new trees this season, because they say the sums just don't add up. The figures, from the British Growers Association say costs for farmers have risen by nearly a quarter but the price they're paid for their fruit by supermarkets has risen by less than one per cent. They warn the industry's on a knife-edge. We speak to a farmer who's just cancelled an order for 72,000 new trees.

All week we've been talking about an often hidden aspect of rural life - poverty. The Rural Services Network says : If England’s rural communities were treated as a distinct region, their need for levelling up would be greater than any other. We hear from people who've been homeless and those who are on the brink of losing everything.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001hwqn)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001hwqq)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001hwqs)
Michael Rosen

Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by Michael Rosen: Bear Hunt writer, broadcaster, covid survivor, national treasure… he tells us about his life lessons.

Susanna Thornton tells us about her lifelong association with cycling and freedom – which led to a mammoth cycle from Hong Kong to London and many much smaller, wild bikepacking trips in the UK, which she documents online.  She joins us.

Actor Nikki Amuka Bird joins us to talk about her route into acting and her latest role.

Nature writer and conservationist Nick Acheson spent winter 2020 on his mum’s red bike following the hundreds of thousands of geese that descend on his native Norfolk, he joins us.

Former rugby union player Chris Robshaw chooses his tracks: If You Don’t Know Me By Now by Simply Red and California King Bed by Rihanna and we have your thank you.

Producer: Corinna Jones


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001hwqv)
Series 39

Slough

Jay Rayner hosts this week's culinary panel show from Slough in Berkshire. Joining Jay this week are Paula McIntyre, Sophie Wright, Lerato, and Dr Zoe Laughlin.

They chew over how to eat a wider variety of plants in easy-to-cook dishes, the best uses for pineapple and the science behind getting chocolate to sound and taste just right.

Also on the programme, author Zuza Zak offers up insights on the Polish dumpling called pierogi. The team give their favourite versions of this flexible favourite, as well as helping a listener overcome her phobia of school dumplings.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001hwqx)
Political editor of The Guardian, Pippa Crerar, looks back at the week in which Rishi Sunak completed 100 days in office. As Tory MPs make fresh calls for tax cuts following a bleak economic forecast from the International Monetary Fund, Pippa speaks to Sir Jake Berry, briefly party chairman under Liz Truss; and David Gauke, a cabinet minister under Theresa May. She is also joined by former education secretary, Justine Greening; and Labour MP and ex-teacher Emma Hardy, to discuss the teachers' strike and wider industrial unrest. The pollster James Johnson looks at public attitudes to Brexit three years after Britain left the EU. And, as Westminster insiders debate whether the current political moment is more like 1992 or 1997, Pippa brings together Lord Mandelson, architect of New Labour, and Rachel Wolf, co-author of the 2019 Conservative manifesto.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001hwqz)
Grief and Grievances in Israel and the Occupied West Bank

There has been a surge in violence over the past week in Israel and the occupied West Bank, in which several people were killed - first in a military raid on a refugee camp, then in an attack on a Synagogue. Yolande Knell visited Jenin and East Jerusalem, where these incidents took place, and spoke to local residents about their fears of further violence and scepticism that a solution will be found.

Rob Cameron extols the virtue of the old Soviet escalator in his local metro station in Prague, which is now being upgraded. And, as he sits down with pro-EU President-elect Petr Pavel, he reflects on the tension between the country's historic Soviet links, and desire to modernise the country.

In Uruguay, Jane Chambers meets a new breed of cattle rancher - investors based in the city who buy cattle to be managed by local ranchers. She visits the farms beyond the capital, and hears how they've been focused on burnishing their environmental credentials to compete with Brazil and Argentina.

In the Canadian province of British Colombia, Mark Stratton visits a non-profit group who've teamed up with first nation people to promote bear tourism, as an alternative to bear hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest.

And finally, former Brussels Correspondent, Adam Fleming returns to Berlaymont three years after Brexit - to reminisce over friends made, sleep lost and screeds of reports written on the twists and turns of the Brexit negotiations.

Producers: Serena Tarling, Louise Hidalgo and Arlene Gregorious
Editor: China Collins
Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001hwr1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001hwr3)
Energy complaints rise to record levels

Paul Lewis hears how complaints to the Energy Ombudsman reached a record high last year. Plus, the child benefit trap that is catching parents unawares. And we hear one listener's difficult experiences trying to sort out the financial affairs of her terminally ill father.

Presented by Paul Lewis.
Reporter is Dan Whitworth.
Researchers were Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner, studio manager Paul Lewis.
Our editor is Clare Worden.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m001hp6n)
Series 110

Episode 6

For this week's News Quiz we're in Glasgow! Andy is joined by Frankie Boyle, Susie McCabe, Ashley Storrie and journalist Alex Massie. Up for discussion is the latest on strike action, the economy and the possibility of bringing a Dodo back to life.

Hosted and written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Alice Fraser, Max Davis, Stuart Mitchell, Carl Carzana and Jade Gebbie.

Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001hwr5)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001hwr7)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001hp7t)
Chris Hazzard MP, Simon Hoare MP, Emma Little-Pengelly MLA, Allison Morris

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Bangor Court House, County Down with the Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard, the Conservative MP and Chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee Simon Hoare, DUP MLA and spokesperson for Executive Office, Legacy and Human Rights at Stormont Emma Little-Pengelly and the Crime Correspondent at the Belfast Telegraph Allison Morris.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Benson


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001hwrc)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m0010xtv)
Arnold Schwarzenegger's favourite ways to save the planet

Arnold Schwarzenegger is the former governor of California and one of America's most influential green voices. He's also one of the biggest movie stars in the world and a big fan of the innovators, activists and entrepreneurs featured in the previous 39 episodes of this series. In this final programme, the Terminator star discusses his favourite ideas from the series with Tom Heap and looks forward to the crucial climate change talks in Glasgow in November.

Producer: Alasdair Cross


SAT 15:00 Drama (m0014wmx)
A Leap in the Dark

When in 1922, junior producer Cedric Maud and his pushy assistant Grace Wise first proposed the idea of a play to be performed on the newly available wireless sets, the idea was immediately trashed as being at best impracticable and at worst impossible to execute.

Leading theatrical impresario Nigel Playfair demanded to know how one could possibly concentrate on such a play with one’s servants rushing in and out and the doorbell constantly clanging with tradesmen and nannies. The idea was, to his mind, a non starter.

But when it was suggested that the job might instead be offered to the precocious and rival talent that was Noel Coward, Playfair quickly shifted his stance. A radical young writer, Richard Hughes was commissioned to write a piece which would challenge perceptions and exploit the potential of the new fangled and now widely available domestic wireless set.

For its part, the BBC, following the revolution in Russia and the imminent break up of the Empire, was more concerned that some bearded intellectuals would use the opening to promote Bolshevism and class warfare, than the fact that this had never been done before and that the listeners might be utterly baffled as to what was going on.

To celebrate the approaching centenary of the UK’s first ever radio play, Ron Hutchinson’s A Leap in the Dark takes a comedic look how the first drama producers tackled these challenges and invented the wheel that was soon to become a flourishing new art form.

Cast:
Nigel Playfair - Alex Jennings
May Playfair - Jane Slavin
Cedric Maud - Rufus Wright
Grace Wise - Elinor Coleman
Hattersly - Clive Hayward
Billingsby - David Acton
Hughes - Jos Vantyler

Director: Eoin O’Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001hwrk)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Helena Bonham Carter on Nolly, Sophie Duker, Happy Valley and kinship care, Emily Atack

Helena Bonham Carter tells us about playing Noele Gordon, "the Queen of the midlands", in new ITV drama Nolly written by Russell T Davies. The actress starred in the hugely popular TV soap Crossroads for 18 years until she was sacked very suddenly in 1981.

The TV drama Happy Valley has captured the public’s imagination with the final episode of the final series airing this Sunday. We hear from one listener who contacted Woman’s Hour about how as a kinship carer she has felt 'heard' by the drama, and Anita also speaks to Dr Lucy Peake, the chief executive of Kinship – the UK’s largest charity for kinship carers.

We speak to actor and comic, Emily Atack who is standing up against the men who cyber-flash her daily. Having received unsolicited, unwanted, abusive messages, dick pics and crude images for years she has made a documentary Emily Atack: Asking for it? for BBC 2.

It’s 20 years in England since the repeal of section 28 – a law that came in from 1988 to 2003 to ban the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ in UK schools. Professor Catherine Lee of Anglia Ruskin University is a lesbian and taught in schools for every year of section 28. We discuss how this law affected gay or lesbian teachers and students.

Women are able to recall details of sexual assault and rape with accuracy, even if they have drunk moderate amounts of alcohol, according to a new study from the University of Birmingham. Professor of psychology Heather Flowe, who led the study, tells us about its significance.

The comedian Sophie Duker is on a mission to reclaim the term 'hag' in her new UK stand-up tour of the same name. She tells us about growing up with ‘the princess myth’, embracing ageing, and our sexuality

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Surya Elango
Editor: Lucinda Montefiore


SAT 17:00 PM (m001hwrm)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001hwrp)
The Mary Bousted One

Nick Robinson talks to the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, Mary Bousted, about how her headteacher father inspired a passion for education, why she quit her job as an English teacher and whether, in a week of widespread teacher strikes, she can see the current crisis coming to an end anytime soon.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001hwrr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001hwrt)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O' Clock News (m001hwrw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001hwry)
Morwenna Banks, Rosie Jones, Gennaro Contaldo, Sam Delaney, Fantastic Negrito, Charlie Austen, George Egg, Danny Wallace

Danny Wallace and George Egg are joined by Morwenna Banks, Rosie Jones, Gennaro Contaldo and Sam Delaney for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Fantastic Negrito and Charlie Austen.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001hws0)
Chris Packham

The naturalist, broadcaster, author and campaigner has announced he is taking a three-month sabbatical from his TV work to give himself some ‘brain space’.

After rising to prominence in the 1980s as a presenter on the BBC children's TV programme The Really Wild Show, Chris Packham has spent nearly four decades exploring and explaining the natural world on our screens. Along the way he's written books, fronted numerous environmental campaigns, and also raised awareness of living with Asperger's Syndrome.

Mark Coles hears from Chris Packham's family, friends and colleagues about his life and career.

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Ben Cooper
Researchers: Bethan Ashmead-Latham and Diane Richardson
Editor: Simon Watts
Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001hws2)
Rachel Whiteread

John Wilson speaks to internationally acclaimed artist Dame Rachel Whiteread about the influences on her practice as she recalls some of her most famous works. Part of the Brit Art boom of the early 1990s, Rachel was not only the first woman to win the Turner Prize but also, at 29, the youngest artist to do so. Rachel is best known for large scale sculptures cast in plaster or concrete. She made headlines with an inside-out impression of an entire terraced house in east London, and for her Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. Commissioned to make a work to stand on the empty fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square, she cast the plinth itself in a huge block of translucent resin. A globally renowned artist who once represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, the work of Dame Rachel Whiteread can be found in collections, galleries and public spaces all around the world.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001hxs4)
Knock Knock: 200 Years of Sound Effects

It’s 200 years since Thomas De Quincey wrote On the Knocking On the Gate in Macbeth, the first serious consideration of the strange and powerful psychological impact of sound effects - sounds which aren’t language or music but still carry a level of meaning which seem to elevate them above our everyday sound world.

To mark the occasion, composer Sarah Angliss meets some of the world’s foremost sound designers to consider the enduring power and ubiquity of the sound effect.

She's accompanied by musician and esoteric researcher Daniel R Wilson and renowned foley artist Ruth Sullivan. In rural Sussex, Sarah tracks down musique concrète experimenter and Pink Floyd collaborator Ron Geesin to hear what happens when sound effects take centre stage. From his studio in California, Star Wars sfx legend Ben Burtt shows Sarah how to make the real sounds of places which have never existed. And in Bristol, natural history sound editor Kate Hopkins reveals the secrets of bringing silent footage of jungles, oceans and savannahs to life.

200 years after De Quincey’s essay, sound effects are refusing to stay on the stage and screen. Philosopher Ophelia Deroy describes the very real impact of sound effects in our everyday lives - from product design to the basics of how perceive the world around us.

Whether we notice them or not, sound effects have created the modern world - so listen up and hear what it’s made of.

Presenter: Sarah Angliss
Producer: Michael Umney
Executive Producer: Lance Dann
Writer: Ed Baxter
De Quincey: Anton Lesser
Mixed by: Mike Woolley

A Resonance production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Stone (b09ly5v7)
Series 7

Episode 5

Stone episode 5 written by Cath Staincliffe. Detective series created by Danny Brocklehurst.

DCI Stone tracks down one of the key suspects in the current murder case but is forced to consider the possibility that mistakes may have been made in a connected case from twenty years before.

Written by Cath Staincliffe
Created by Danny Brocklehurst.
Script Editor Caitlin Crawford.
Director Nadia Molinari
Producers: Gary Brown and Nadia Molinari

Series:
DCI John Stone investigates the suspicious death of a man in a fire at a homeless hostel. Stone's enquiries lead him to re-examine a murder he worked on twenty years before in order to solve the case. In doing so he uncovers a web of lies and deceit that make him face past mistakes and lead to personal trauma.


SAT 21:45 Rabbit Remembered (m0009lr5)
Episode 5

Written ten years after his Pulitzer Prize winning tetralogy about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, John Updike revisits the family a decade on from Harry's death to contemplate how the family has got on without him.

Rabbit's son Nelson has recovered from his drug habit but separated from his wife. Janice, his widow has remarried. But into their lives steps Annabelle, Harry's illegitimate daughter. And echoes of the past begin to cascade into the present.

Read by Toby Jones
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m001hws4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m001hpbf)
What is Evil?

Boris Johnson has described a chilling phone call in which Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike in the run-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Almost a year on from the start of the war, it’s tempting to see it as a clear-cut conflict between good and evil; Putin the malign aggressor bent on destruction and conquest, Zelensky the courageous defender of liberty and his country. It may be true, or at least substantially so, but is it helpful?

Seeing events through the prism of good and evil enables us to make moral judgements and define what we value. But it can also brush aside the ambiguities of complex situations and de-humanise both those we deem evil, and those we regard as good. Plato and St Augustine thought they were not opposites; that evil was the absence of good, a lack of moral imagination. Psychologists might prefer to dispense with the term ‘evil’ altogether, seeing it as human behaviour to be explained and understood.

Does evil exist? If so, what is it? And how should we deal with it?

With Ed Condon, Professor Scott Atran, Professor Lars Svendsen and Professor Tony Maden

Producer Dan Tierney


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001hp0h)
Series 36

Heat 4, 2023

(4/13)
Three more contenders join Paul Gambaccini at London's Radio Theatre, for the quiz that tests knowledge of the full spectrum of musical styles and genres. How much will today's competitors know about Louis Armstrong and Rimsky-Korsakov, Fleetwood Mac and Bruckner? Part of their challenge will be to tackle questions on a specialist musical topic of which they've had no prior warning, and no chance to prepare.

There are buried musical treasures and plenty of extracts to identify whatever your musical tastes.

Appearing in the quiz today are
Josh Cleary from London
Naadim Shamji from Sunbury-on-Thames
Dave Workman from London.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Poetry Please (m001hnyf)
Bhanu Kapil

Bhanu Kapil won the TS Eliot Prize for her collection How To Wash A Heart. She chats to Roger about poetry and about the poems she loves. Her selection includes work by Sir John Betjeman, Raymond Antrobus, Alycia Pirmohamed and William Blake.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

SUNDAY 05 FEBRUARY 2023

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001hws6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Torn (m001bkrh)
The stories behind the clothes we wear

Ray-Ban

In 1920, during a record-breaking test flight in a single-engine fighter plane, things almost went fatally wrong for the pilot Major Rudolph 'Shorty' Schroeder. He lost consciousness but came round just in time to land at McCook Airport in Ohio State. When his colleague Lieutenant John MacReady pulled him out of the cockpit, he was shocked to see that Major Schroeder’s eyeballs had frozen. It was the catalyst that led Lieutenant MacReady to embark on a mission to help design protective eyewear for military pilots that resulted in Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses.
In the ninth episode of Torn Gus Casely-Hayford charts the history of Ray-Ban sunglasses, and explores how a piece of protective equipment designed for pilots, evolved to become an iconic fashion item worn by presidents, actors and rock stars looking for a dose of classic cool whilst shielding their emotions or their hangovers from paparazzi and the public.
 Casely-Hayford finds that Ray-Ban owe their success to embedding themselves with a powerful ally, first the US military, then with Hollywood, that has catapulted their sunglasses far beyond function and firmly into the realm of fashion.

With anthropologists Aron Cromwell and Sally Applin, and pilot Ben Jenkins.

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
Presenter: Gus Casely-Hayford
Executive Producer: Rosie Collyer
Researcher: Zeyana Yussuf
Production Coordinator: Francesca Taylor
Sound Design: Nicholas Alexander


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m001hp5h)
In Loco Parentis by Jan Carson

An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 written by Jan Carson and read by Lisa Dwyer Hogg.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, Children's Children (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, Postcard Stories (2017) and Postcard Stories 2 (2020). Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. Her third novel, The Raptures, was published in 2022.

Writer: Jan Carson
Reader: Lisa Dwyer Hogg
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001hws8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001hwsb)
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 (m001hwsd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001hwsg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001hwsj)
The Church of St Mary of the Assumption, in Ufford in Suffolk.

Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of St Mary of the Assumption, in Ufford in Suffolk. The church dates from the 11th century and is notable for its medieval wood carvings, including a twenty foot tall font cover. There are eight bells, the oldest of which – the sixth – dates from about 1380 and was cast by William Dawe of London. The tenor bell weighs thirteen and a quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of F sharp. We hear the bells ringing Bristol Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001hws0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001hwsl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0381k9c)
Learning to be Human

What if being human is an act of will? Like many people on the autism spectrum, Dawn Prince-Hughes says she felt like an alien in human society, unable to understand its rules. Until, that is, she found an unusual teacher - a gorilla. By copying him, she 'learnt to be human', and moved from being a stripper to an anthropology professor.

In this programme, John McCarthy explores alternative paths to humanity and what they reveal to us about ourselves.

With words from Albert Camus, Margaret Atwood, Mary Shelley and Edvard Munch, and music from Keeril Makan, Beethoven and Emmanuel Jal.

Producer: Jo Fidgeon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001hwsn)
Organic wine in South Africa

Sales of organic wine are booming, and climate change is also leading increasing numbers of vineyards to move away from conventional production methods. The Spier estate in South Africa's Stellenbosch region looks set to become the country’s biggest organic wine producer. Charlotte Ashton visits them to see how they do it, and asks whether there are lessons for the UK’s burgeoning wine industry.

Produced and presented by Charlotte Ashton


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001hwsq)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001hwss)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001hwsv)
The 'living saint' and the sex cult; Frank Field's belief; chant music at the Grammys

The pope's tour of DRC Congo and South Sudan culminates with a Mass in Juba, with the archbishop of Canterbury and the moderator of the Church of Scotland. Sister Orla Treacy and student Sarah Adut tell Emily Buchanan about their nine day walking pilgrimage to join the Pontiff.

In our series on Ukraine, one year on from the Russian invasion, we hear from father Sergiy Berezhnoy. The Ukrainian orthodox priest and chaplain to the 42nd Battalion of the Defenders of Kyiv, describes some of the challenges of the past year and his hopes for the future.

A new report from L’Arche - the international Christian community bringing together those with and without learning disabilities - reveals it's founder, the late Catholic theologian Jean Vanier, used the community as a cover for a mystical sexual sect. Emily speaks with one of the report's authors, to the community's current CEO and to two of its members, about how it moves on from here.

Cross-bench peer Frank Field has spent much of his adult life campaigning against poverty and for social reform. Underpinning his political thinking is his Christian faith, as he explains to Emily on the publication of his memoir Politics, Poverty and Belief.

The ancient spiritual practice of chanting is now a category in the music industry's Grammy Awards. Emily speaks to chant musician Sean Johnson, of the Wild Lotus Band, about this genre’s coming of age.

As the Church of England's legislative body prepares to meet, Emily asks the bishop of London, the Rt. Revd Sarah Mullally, about the way forward on the most divisive issue, the recommendation from bishops to allow clergy to bless same-sex civil marriages.

Producers: Jill Collins and Katy Booth
Production co-ordinator: David Baguley
Editor: Helen Grady

Photo Credit: Lakshmi Grace Designs


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001hwsx)
Cecily's Fund

Lwiza Mulenga, a healthcare student who works for the charity, makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Cecily's Fund.

To Give:
- UK Freephone 0800 404 8144
-You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
- 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 ‘Cecily's Fund’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Cecily's Fund’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered charity number: 1071660


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001hwsz)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001hwt1)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001hwt3)
Belong, Believe, Become

This morning's worship comes from Alive City Church, London with Volney and Angel Morgan, part of the MOBO Award winning Gospel Group Volney Morgan & New Ye. Volney and Angel felt called to set up this young vibrant church four years ago and credit the growth of their congregation to the power of encouraging people to belong and have a sense of community first, trusting that the believing and becoming will come later. Music will include uplifting, energetic praise and worship from the band, including....Amazing God by Volney Morgan & New Ye, It is Well, and I Gotta Song by James Wilson.

Producer: Miriam Williamson


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001hp83)
AI Agonistes

Adam Gopnik challenges the idea that the artistic and literary creations of artificial intelligence can match human endeavour. Although impressive in their ability to produce pastiche, he thinks AI programmes fail to produce anything 'newly memorable'.

'They are not smart at all in the sense that we usually mean it, capable of constructing creative ideas from scratch,' he writes.

'But rather they're sorts of cognitive scavengers with immense capacity - like whales scooping up all the shrimp and algae from the sea bed, and then churning on it, cud like, until asked to spit up one particular bit.'

Producer: Sheila Cook
Sound Engineer: Peter Bosher
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0p9q)
Montserrat Oriole

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Liz Bonnin presents Montserrat oriole from the Caribbean island of Montserrat. In 1995, after being dormant for over 300 years, a volcano on erupted. The eruption not only destroyed Montserrat's capital but much of the wildlife couldn't escape, and one bird, the Montserrat oriole was almost silenced forever. The male is a colourful bird with coal-black head, wings and tail and underparts the colour of egg-yolk. It is one of the most endangered birds in the world, a bird caught between a rock and a hard place. Its forest home had already been reduced by cultivation and introduced predators. It was reduced to living in fragmented pockets of forest, two thirds of which were destroyed in the 1995 and later eruptions. This threatened to wipe out an already endangered bird. So, conservationists from Jersey Zoo moved 8 orioles into captivity to avoid natural extinction and now a captive breeding programme is successfully underway, such as this oriole specially recorded for Tweet of the Day at Chester Zoo by Andrew Dawes

Producer Andrew Dawes


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001hwt5)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001hwt7)
Writer, Tim Stimpson
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Ruairi Donovan ….. Arthur Hughes
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Julianne Wright ….. Lisa Bowerman


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001hwt9)
Lesley Manville, actor

Lesley Manville made her debut on the West End stage as a teenager in 1972, and since then has taken on a wide range of roles on stage and screen, including an Oscar-nominated performance in the film Phantom Thread.

She was born in Brighton and first enjoyed performing as a singer, winning competitions with her sister. When she was 15, she commuted daily to the Italia Conti stage school in London. Her first professional role was in a West End musical, and in 1974 she joined the cast of the ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm. After two years she decided to leave, even though the work was well paid, and return to the stage.

At the Royal Court in London she appeared in some of the most critically acclaimed new plays of the 1980s including Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, and Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue and Bob Too. She has also enjoyed a long collaboration with the film director Mike Leigh, memorably playing the alcoholic Mary in Another Year.

Her recent TV roles include starring as Cathy in the popular BBC Two sitcom Mum, for which she won a Royal Television Society Award in 2019. She has also played Princess Margaret in The Crown, including a scene in which Margaret shares her favourite records on a BBC radio progamme.

She was appointed a CBE in 2021.

DISC ONE: Over The Rainbow by Eva Cassidy
DISC TWO: My Brother Jake by Free
DISC THREE: O Soave Fanciulla, composed by Giacomo Puccini, performed by
Jose Carreras, Richard Stilwell and Teresa Stratas and Metropolitan Opera Chorus, conducted by James Levine
DISC FOUR: Sugar on the Floor by Etta James
DISC FIVE: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me by Dusty Springfield
DISC SIX: Not While I’m Around by Barbra Streisand
DISC SEVEN: Make You Feel My Love by Adele
DISC EIGHT: Phantom Thread III by Jonny Greenwood

BOOK CHOICE: A Botanical Encyclopedia
LUXURY ITEM: A bed with linen, duvet and pillows
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Over The Rainbow by Eva Cassidy

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001hwtc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m001hp0v)
Series 90

Fool's Gold, Tectonic Plates and Jane MacDonald

Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Holly Walsh, Zoe Lyons and Alan Davies to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The long-running Radio 4 national treasure of a parlour game returns this week with subjects ranging from Tectonic Plates to Jane MacDonald.

Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
A BBC Studios Production


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001hwtf)
Pierre Koffmann: A Life Through Food

Born and raised in Gascony but celebrated as a chef for his cooking in London, Pierre Koffmann shares his food story, from summers spent on a farm to the heat of the kitchen.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001hwth)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001hwtk)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 China's Accidental Activists (m001hxsb)
A group of women are taking on China’s communist government after their husbands and fathers were jailed as dissidents. The women never wanted to be campaigners but felt compelled to help their loved ones. In China, the women endured detention, surveillance, social isolation and persecution. They’ve now fled to the United States, where they juggle jobs, bringing up children – and political campaigning. The BBC’s Asia-Pacific editor, Michael Bristow, hears their stories that reveal the dark side of China’s communist regime.

Presenter: Michael Bristow
Producer: Alex Last
Editor: Penny Murphy
Sound mixing: James Beard and Neil Churchill
Production coordinator: Iona Hammond

Photo: Shi Minglei now in the United States (BBC)


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001hp58)
Tring

How do I get my cypress tree to be pencil thin? I grow vegetables in pots – how can I stop cats ‘going’ in them? Have I killed my husband’s beloved banana trees? When should I cut back my salvias to get a good display in the spring and summer?

Returning to Tring to answer these questions and more in front of a live audience are Peter Gibbs and this week’s panel: Pippa Greenwood, expert in pests and diseases, plantsman Matt Biggs, and garden designer Juliet Sargeant.

And Dr Chris Thorogood, GQT’s intrepid plant-hunter, went to Sumatra to hunt down the Titan Arum – Amorphophallus titanum – in its natural habitat.

Producer: Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001hwtm)
Lady Chatterley's Lover, Episode 2

John Yorke looks into Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence. In this second of two episodes about the book, he looks at what drove Lawrence to use the language that got him into so much trouble and made the novel infamous. He outlines the book's other transgressions and what happened at that famous, ground-breaking trial in 1960.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.

From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters (his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone).

Contributors:
Alison MacLeod, author of Tenderness
Geoff Dyer author of Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of DH Lawrence
Bill Goldstein author of The World Broke in Two
Reading by Ian Hogg

Credits:
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence, BBC Radio 4 January 1990
Abridged for radio by Alan England
Read by Ian Hogg
Producer: Philip Martin, BBC Pebble Mill.

Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound by Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama (m001hwtp)
The Chatterleys (Part 2)

The Chatterleys is a vibrant new version of a well-known scandalous novel, a reinterpretation that gets back to the essence of DH Lawrence’s original - a marriage adapting to one person becoming disabled and the quest to become parents.

It's the latest collaboration between award winning audio indie, Naked Productions and Graeae, placing Deaf and disabled actors centre stage to challenge preconceptions and change attitudes towards deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists.

This cutting edge interpretation of Lawrence’s infamous novel of love, sex and class, is reframed as a 21st century drama about the impact of war, austerity and modern relationships. The drama was developed by working closely with members of BLESMA (British Limbless E Service Men Association), to inform the story and perform in the production.

The Chatterleys is set in contemporary Redcar, North East England, an area with strong military links, tough economic conditions and spectacular coastal landscape. It offers a dynamic insight into modern life, in particular the challenges of becoming disabled and learning to create a ‘new normal’. It is also, at heart, a love story.

The writer, Mike Kenny, is one of the UK's leading playwrights. He was included in the Independent on Sunday’s list of Top Ten Living UK Playwrights and his plays are performed regularly throughout the UK and all over the world. His adaptation of The Railway Children won an Olivier Award.

A transcript of the drama will be available for deaf and hard of hearing people on the BBC Radio 4 website on broadcast.

Episode 2
Cliff finally opens up about the impact of becoming disabled to his veterans group. Connie opens up about her loneliness to Oliver Mellors, leading to a brief affair.
Despite this, Oliver and Cliff become friends, Cliff allowing his support to help him adapt to his new life. Will the Chatterley’s marriage fall apart, or can it survive, in a new form?

Cast:
Cliff ..... David Proud
Connie ..... Ashleigh Wilder
Oliver ..... Mark Holgate
Ivy ..... Melody Brown
Hilly ..... Claire Morley
The Book ..... Jonathan Keeble
Jimmy ..... Jason Burns
Dan ..... Steve Watson
Veteran group member ..... Andy Mudd.

Directors: Jenny Sealey and Polly Thomas
Sound recordist: Louis Blatherwick
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Original music: Megan Steinberg, additional mastering by Alex Armstrong-Holding
Title track by ANBR
Photograph: Sonya McGhee

With thanks to Christine Landess and the team at BLESMA.

Script consultant: Luke Delahunty
Sign language interpreters: Faye Alvi and Caroline Ryan
Production manager: Darren Spruce
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore

A Naked Productions/Graeae Theatre collaboration for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m001hwtr)
Cal Flyn: Islands of Abandonment

James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Cal Flyn about her acclaimed book, Islands of Abandonment, an exploration of places which have been reclaimed by nature. She talks about her travels to Cyprus, the Orkney Islands, First World War battlefields in France, and beyond, chronicling the fightback that plants have staged once humans have left. She reveals why finding hope in even the most desolate places is important to her, and why it's ok to leave lawns unmown.

Our next recordings are both in-person events at BBC Broadcasting House in London.

16 February 2023 at 18.30 Nadifa Mohamed will be answering questions about The Fortune Men.

15 March 2023 at 1830 Tan Twan Eng on The Garden of Evening Mists

To come along and take part, email bookclub@bbc.co.uk


SUN 16:30 The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed (m001hwtt)
Ian McKellen

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink , waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills, he's been working on a new kind of poem he's invented - the Flyku - inspired by the moths and butterflies he sees around him. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about creativity, music, art, sheds, music, poetry and the countryside.

To kick of the new series, Sir Ian McKellen, whose acting career spans seven decades joins Simon to talk about everything from his early childhood in Wigan , creating the character of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, remembering Shakespearian lines and getting an Elvish tattoo

Produced by Susan Roberts


SUN 17:00 Today (m001hp4w)
The Today Debate: Brexit three years on. How's it going?

The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we could ever have during the programme in the morning.

Precisely three years since the UK left the European Union, Today presenter Mishal Husain was joined by a panel of guests to get their take on how it's going.

Joining Mishal in front of an audience in the BBC's Radio Theatre were the former Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg MP and Alastair Campbell, former Labour spin doctor.


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001hws0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001hwtw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001hwty)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O' Clock News (m001hwv0)
The government and a leading union have traded accusations before another NHS strike.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001hwv2)
Frank Cottrell-Boyce

A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001hwv4)
On a walk through the rewilding site, Jakob notices Kate is more upbeat. Kate is inspired by the photograph of her when she was at a protest in her eco-warrior days. It was a photo that Jennifer had particularly liked and had framed. Kate wants to get back to being that fearless person and wonders when she lost it. When Jakob commends building her own business saying that it took guts, Kate’s dismissive. Later, when Kirsty mentions growing interest in Kate’s cold weather yoga classes, she’s surprised to find that Kate believes it should all be cancelled.

Kirsty relays her conversation with Kate to Alice, saying Kate sounded pretty definite. Alice says she’ll have a word. Meanwhile, Jackob tries to understand why Kate’s thinking of turning away from yoga at the rewilding. Kate explains she has to make some big changes in her life if she’s going to achieve as much as she did when she was younger. Jennifer’s death has been a monumental wake up call for her.

Ruairi tries to butter up Julianne in the hope she will take him along to an important business meal. He’s wrong-footed when she says she’s booked someone else to accompany her. Later, Julianne is kind to him but when Ruairi admits he cares for her, Julianne coldly says that he leaves her no choice but to end their arrangement. She orders Ruairi to leave. Upset, Ruairi calls Alice unable to decide what to do now Julianne has turned him away. Concerned, Alice implores him to come home.


SUN 19:15 Believe It! (m000n6qn)
Series 5

Grumpy Old Menopause

Richard Wilson returns with another series of not quite true revelations about his life. Jon Canter’s comedic writing is as sharp as ever as he delves into themes such as celebrity, brand awareness and death. As usual Richard has many friends from whom he seeks advice.

Starring Ian McKellen as Head of Gay, Peter Capaldi and David Tennant as the Two Doctors, and Antony Sher as The Man Addicted To Waitrose along with an excellent supporting cast.

It’s a mockumentary and spoof autobiography rolled into one.

CAST:
Richard Wilson
David Tennant
Peter Capaldi
Alexei Sayle
Jasmine Hyde - Tina and Announcer
Eliot Levey - Jonathan
Kate - Janine and Linda
Sarah Lambie Claire

Written by Jon Canter
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:45 The Circus (m001hwv6)
Episode 5 - The Judge

A former working men’s club in North Belfast called ‘The Circus’ has been refurbished and relaunched with an inaugural talent show – and a massive cash prize for the winner! – inspiring the locals to brush up on some old skills. The new owner, a successful London property developer, has promised to bring a bit of the West End to North Belfast. But can the area really change? Can the people?
Cliftonville Circus is where five roads meet in North Belfast. It is situated in the most deprived part of the city; it is also the most divided. Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. ‘The Circus’ explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity.

The Author
Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh has written comedy, essays, flash fiction, a novel, plays and short stories. His work has been performed on radio, stage and television, and published in seven languages. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival and is an associate director at Word Factory. His debut novel 'The Good Son' won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award. He is also the editor of ‘The 32: Irish Working Class Voices’, ‘Queer Love: An Anthology of Irish Fiction’ and ‘Belfast Stories’.

Writer: Paul McVeigh
Reader: Maggie Cronin
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


SUN 20:00 More or Less (m001hp5w)
Brexit and trade; pensioner millionaires; and Hannah Fry on loyalty cards and cancer

Has trade with the EU increased since Britain left the European Union? Tim Harford and the team look at a claim suggesting just that. There’s a row over the renaming of a street in North London previously called Black Boy Lane – but how much has it really all cost? Also are there more pensioners in 'millionaire households' than pensioners in poverty. And mathematician Hannah Fry talks about a new study suggesting cases of ovarian cancer can be detected by looking at spending on loyalty cards.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Series Producer: Jon Bithrey
Reporters: Josephine Casserly, Nathan Gower, Charlotte McDonald, Perisha Kudhail
Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001hp5q)
Ralph Ehrmann, Sylvia Syms, Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy, Jo Sandilands

Matthew Bannister on

Ralph Ehrmann, the German-born businessman behind the success of the Airfix model kits that delighted a generation of young boys in the 1960s and 70s.

Sylvia Syms (pictured), the actor whose roles ranged from beautiful heroines in the 1950s and 60s to Margaret Thatcher and The Queen Mother later in life.

Rabbi Dr Abraham Levy, the leader of the UK’s oldest Jewish community who was awarded the OBE for services to interfaith relations.

Jo Sandilands, who edited the magazines Honey and Woman and became Programme Controller of Capital Radio in London.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Melanie Williams
Interviewed guest: Jenny Agutter
Interviewed guest: Jonathan Sacerdoti
Interviewed guest: Alexandra Ehrmann
Interviewed guest: Jeremy Brook
Interviewed guest: Gay Search

Archive clips used:
East of Sudan (clip), YouTube: MorningsideMovies channel, uploaded 28/11/2021; In Town Today, BBC Radio TX 21/08/1965; My Teenage Daughter (clip), YouTube: Network Distributing channel, uploaded 01/09/2014; Ice Cold in Alex (clip), YouTube: Coolmacatrain channel, uploaded 09/02/2019; Clip from ITV news item about Intermission Youth Theatre School, YouTube: Ricardo P Lloyd channel, uploaded 04/11/2019;Excerpt of Les Barker reading his poem ‘Déjà Vu’, YouTube: Les Barker channel, uploaded 03/03/2020; Relighting the Candle, BBC 1 TX 14/10/1993; Mazeltov Israel, BBC 1 TX 30/04/1998; Woman Magazine advertisement, YouTube: Nina Perez channel, uploaded 18/01/2015; Chris Tarrant jingle, YouTube: MayDay51 channel, uploaded 22/12/2017; Airfix advertisement, YouTube: British Nostalgia channel, uploaded 06/03/2015


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001hwr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001hwsx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Icon (m001d5f5)
Episode 6: Celebrating Life

“With my name, I could open doors, I was a commodity in myself – and I’m not talking as an actress... I could take the fame I resented and tried to get away from for so many years – but you can never get away from it – and use it to do some good…” And the cause Elizabeth Taylor championed, earlier and more energetically than anyone else, was AIDS awareness.

With David Furnish, Chairman of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Marc Thompson, Co-Director of The Love Tank, and archive from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

With Louise Gallagher.
Produced by Alan Hall with music by Jeremy Warmsley.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001hwv8)
Carolyn Quinn is joined by the Conservative MP and former minister, Theresa Villiers; the Labour chair of the Business Select Committee, Darren Jones; and former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Cathy Ashton. They consider the debate over tax cuts and management of the economy; the latest strikes; and relations between China and the West. Paul Waugh - chief political commentator for the i newspaper - brings additional insight and analysis.


SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001hwry)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b0381k9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]

MONDAY 06 FEBRUARY 2023

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001hwvc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m001hp9j)
Museums

Museums - Laurie Taylor talks to Adam Kuper, most recently Centennial Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economic, about their history and future. Originally created as colonial enterprises, what is the purpose of these places now? How do we regard the ways in which foreign and prehistoric peoples were represented in museums of anthropology? What should be done with the artefacts and human remains in their custodianship and how can they help us to understand and appreciate other cultures?

Kerry Wilson, Reader in Cultural Policy at Liverpool John Moores University, discusses House of Memories, a multiple award-winning dementia awareness programme, led by National Museums Liverpool. The programme promotes the use of social history collections and museum objects to inspire communication and connection between carers and people with dementia, via dedicated museum-based events. Is this an example of how museums can offer social value to local communities today?

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001hwsj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001hwvf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001hwvh)
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 (m001hwvk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001hwvm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001hwvp)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Revd Dr Emma Whittick, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Chaplain at Lampeter and Carmarthen.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001hwvr)
06/02/23 - Restoring landscapes and growing food; wetlands; peat.

Today we discuss restoring landscapes and how that fits in with growing food.
Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee, says while the government has been 'excellent' at setting environmental targets it's been less good at delivering them.
Volunteers are planting thousands of native plants at a Wiltshire wetland, aimed at reducing the flow of water and hence helping to reduce flooding.
To start our week looking at peat, we hear from Professor Martin Evans from the University of Manchester on why our peatlands are so important to preserve.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 05:56 Weather (m001hwvt)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09gfbbv)
Michael Morpurgo on the Magpie

Children's author and poet Michael Morpurgo discusses the cackling magpie in this Tweet of the Day, a bird that seemingly never dies.

Producer: Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Ken Bentley.


MON 06:00 Today (m001hwyr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001hwyw)
Power, violence and witches

Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is ruthless in her pursuit of power and then driven into madness and despair. But the writer and director Zinnie Harris has re-imagined a new story for Lady Macbeth in her version of this classic play. Macbeth (an undoing) - published by Faber - is on at The Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh until 25th February.

Marion Gibson is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter and is interested in how power and superstition collide in witch-trials through the centuries. In her latest book, The Witches of St Osyth, she tells the story of the sixteen women and one man accused of sorcery in a small rural village in 1582, and of a community devastated by violence and betrayal.

The filmmaker Jo Ingabire Moys draws from her own experience of surviving the Genocide in Rwanda in her short film Bazigaga, shortlisted for a BAFTA. As violence erupts a Tutsi pastor and his young daughter take shelter in the home of the feared shaman Bazigaga. The film was inspired by the true story of Zura Karuhimbi who used her reputation as a witch doctor to save hundreds of lives.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Image: The actor Eliane Umuhire in 'Bazigaga', written and directed by Jo Ingabire Moys


MON 09:45 Let Me Tell You What I Mean: A New Collection of Essays by Joan Didion (m001hwyz)
Episode 1

Eight essays selected from the 'Let Me Tell You What I Mean' essay collection that offer a glimpse into the mind and process of the iconic and influential writer: Joan Didion.

Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in our selection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about topics ranging from Nancy Reagan to Robert Mapplethorpe. Here are subjects Didion has long written about – the press, politics, California, women, the act of writing, and her own self-doubt.

Joan Didion began her career in the 1950s after she won an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine. She came to prominence with a series of feature articles in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post that explored postwar America followed by celebrated novels 'Play It as It Lays' and 'A Book of Common Prayer'. Focusing on California and the chaos of the 1960’s, Didion successfully established herself as an advocate of New Journalism. Didion passed away in December 2021, aged 87. It was this same year that this essay collection was published.

Here Didion reflects on being rejected from the University of her choice and her encounter with the charming Nancy Reagan.

On Being Unchosen by the College of One’s Choice, 1968
Pretty Nancy, 1968
Read by Laurel Lefkow
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Lorna Newman


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001hwz2)
Janhavee Moole, Julia Golding, Holly Bourne, Sam Quek, Rachel Williams, Ella Whelan, Abbie Cheeseman

Is the world of Young Adult (YA) Fiction getting too dark for our teenagers? Nuala McGovern speaks to YA authors Julia Golding (Finding Sky) and Holly Bourne (The Places I’ve Cried in Public) to discuss where teenagers can find joy and uplift in their reading today, as well as why it’s important to address some of the darker themes in young adult literature.

The latest from Iran where tens of thousands of prisoners have been pardoned with Abbie Cheeseman from The Telegraph.

Commentators Ella Whelan and Rachel Williams debate whether Welsh Rugby Union were right to ban choirs from singing "Delilah" at games.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India – the governing body of the sport - announced last week that the five teams that make up the new Women’s Premier League have been sold to local investors for more than £465 million. This is a remarkable amount, even in India where men’s cricket teams command staggeringly high valuations and life changing for India’s women cricketers who have struggled financially to make ends meet. We hear from BBC Mumbai Sports Reporter Janhavee Moole how it could also change the game for women cricketers around the world.

If you were listening to Woman's Hour last Wednesday you will have heard me speaking to two of our judges for the Woman's Hour Power List - one of Britain’s most celebrated British Paralympians of all time, Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson and Cricket World Cup winner turned broadcaster Ebony Rainford-Brent. Today you will hear from our third judge Sam Quek - Sam was as part of the squad who won Britain’s first ever hockey gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She was also won gold at the European Championships in 2015. Now she is a team captain - the first female team captain - on BBC1's Question of Sport.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager


MON 11:00 Learning From the Great Tide (m001hp11)
On the night of 31st January 1953, the combination of a high spring tide and a storm over the North Sea caused a devastating surge of water to sweep across the East Coast and up the Thames Estuary.

It was one of Britain's worst natural disasters in the 20th century - 307 people lost their lives in England and over 1,800 in the Netherlands - and yet it has largely been forgotten in the UK.

It also inspired one of the great works of English social history, The Great Tide by Hilda Grieve, which tells the story of the flood in Essex, and the extraordinary response of its local communities and emergency services.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the flood, BBC Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt asks what lessons were learned. We’re better protected now as a result of the disaster but, as our coastal defences begin to age and sea levels continue to rise due to climate change, are we prepared for the next tide?

Features archive from "Essex Floods" from Essex Sound and Video Archive.

Producer: Patrick Bernard

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001hnn3)
The French correction?

The French work fewer hours, take longer holidays and retire earlier than UK employees, but they are also more productive and their economy is therefore roughly the same size as ours. How do they do it?

As the UK looks for a way out of its sluggish economic growth, Evan Davis asks what we can learn from our neighbours. Why is it that for each hour worked a French employee produces almost 20 per cent more than a British one?

GUESTS

Olivier Morel, board member of the French Chamber of
Great Britain and partner at Cripps.

Rebecca Riley, professor of practice in economics at
King’s Business School, London, and member of The Productivity Institute.

and

Neil Coales, managing director of Agilité Solutions, Paris.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Producers: Simon Tulett and Julie Ball
Researcher: Marianna Brain
Editor: China Collins
Sound: Rod Farquhar and Graham Puddifoot
Production Co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001hwz7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001hwz9)
Stolen house sales, Air fryers, Energy efficiency standards

We return to the extraordinary story of how criminals are trying to use whatever means possible to sell the homes of complete strangers. Our reporter, Shari Vahl, reveals how some criminals are setting up as estate agents to sell houses, without any checks on whether they're legitimate. It's a legal requirement for estate agents to register with one of the two government authorised schemes - the Property Redress Scheme (PRS) or the Property Ombudsman. We uncover how these two official bodies, aren't doing any checks on those registering with their schemes.

There's been a lot of hype around air fryers for some time now. They're seen as a healthy, cost effective way to get the same results you'd see in a deep fat fryer or a conventional oven. Sales continue to soar with more people investing in them to bring down their energy bills during the cost of living crisis. We speak to home cook, Clare Andrews, who set up an Instagram account, AirFryerUK, after being given an air fryer during the 2020 lockdown. Her first cookbook, The Ultimate Air Fryer Cookbook, comes out next week. We also hear from Dr Christian Reynolds from the Centre for Food Policy at City University in London.

We ask whether Government plans to raise minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rental sector in England and Wales have been abandoned. The plan was to bring in new targets, making it compulsory for all new tenancies to have an energy performance rating of at least a C by 2025. We speak to Richard Blanco of the National Residential Landlords Association about the 2025 deadline and if it's still realistic for landlords to make the necessary improvements to their properties in time.


Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes


MON 12:57 Weather (m001hwzc)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001hwzf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 Understand: The Economy (m001hwzj)
Series 1

The Economy: 11. Pricing and discounting

On one hand, we’ve all experienced the things we buy getting more expensive, from the price of fuel to a tub of butter. On the other hand, retailers desperately try to entice us to buy with discounts. Shops seem to constantly have their ‘best ever’ sales and there are days like ‘Black Friday’ when prices are slashed.
How can prices go up and up, and at the same time drop?

In this episode, Felicity Hannah speaks to Rupal Patel, Economist at the Bank of England, to de-mystify how prices work and figure out who has the power in the buyer seller relationship. Dr Victoria Bateman, economic Historian from the University of Cambridge brings us the history of bulk buying.

Everything you need to know about the economy and what it means for you. This podcast will cut through the jargon to help you understand the complicated terms and phrases you hear on the news. Inflation, GDP, National Debt, energy markets and more. We’ll ensure you understand what’s going on today, why your shopping is getting more expensive or why your pay doesn’t cover your bills.

Guest: Rupal Patel, Economist at the Bank of England and co-author of ‘Can’t we just print more money? Economics in Ten Simple Questions’
Producer: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Researcher: Beth Ashmead-Latham
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Clare Fordham
Theme music: Don’t Fret, Beats Fresh Music

A BBC Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001hwv4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001hws2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001hwzn)
Series 36

Heat 5, 2023

(5/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes three music lovers to Salford's MediaCityUK studios, to compete in another heat of the widest-ranging music quiz of them all. They'll have to prove their knowledge of everything from Bach to Bowie and from Handel to Harry Styles. This week's contenders all hail from the north of England, and as usual they'll be asked an individual set of questions on an unseen special topic for which they haven't prepared, as well as on general musical knowledge.

Competing today are
John Dyer from Huddersfield
Diane Hallagan from Leeds
Terry Norris from Liverpool.

The winner will take another of the places in the 2023 semi-finals, and a crucial further step towards the title of 36th BBC Counterpoint champion,

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001hwtf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 A Kiss (m001hnlt)
"The memory of a kiss is so wonderfully unstable..."

In conversation with Caroline Bird, Richard Scott and Fleur Adcock, the poet Rachel Long explores the craft of writing a kiss.

How might we hold the wordless intimacy of the act - its blurring of selves and disrupted time?

In this documentary we weave between fragmentary memories - sensual, funny, erotic... the kisses we describe over and over, the kisses we keep a secret.

Also featuring glimpses of kisses from Nadia Molinari, Ian Rawlinson, Sayre Quevedo and Laura Barton amongst others.

Photo credit: Amaal Said

Presented by Rachel Long
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001hwzv)
Same-Sex Marriage

'My faith has been a constant in my life through good times and bad. There have been times where I've received death threats for being gay. But could I get married in a gurdwara? No.'

For Jasvir Singh CBE, barrister and community activist, his Sikh faith has always been the cornerstone of his life. But when he got married in 2022 to his partner Nick. he couldn't have a religious ceremony. Speaking openly for the first time, he tells Aleem Maqbool about his relationship with his faith and his sexuality.

Nine years after legislation was passed in England and Wales legalising same-sex marriage, for many religious institutions it's an intractable issue. Aleem is joined by a panel to discuss why many religions won't conduct a marriage ceremony for same-sex couples.

Gurmel Singh is the Secretary General of the Supreme Sikh Council in the UK, Helen Lamb is on the Evangelical Council in the Church of England and Bhavit Mehta is a producer of cultural events and a practicing Hindu, who has conducted a Hindu marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple.

Producer: Rebecca Maxted
Assistant Producer: Vishva Samani
Editor: Tim Pemberton

Photo Credit: Lex Fleming Photography


MON 17:00 PM (m001hwzz)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O' Clock News (m001hx03)
Powerful earthquakes have flattened buildings across a wide area of both Turkey and Syria, killing more than two thousand five hundred people.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m001hx07)
Series 90

Mods and Rockers, The Perfect Mullet and Deep Sea Diving

Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Jan Ravens, Tony Hawks and Desiree Burch to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.

The long-running Radio 4 national treasure of a parlour game returns this week with subjects ranging from The Perfect Mullet to Deep Sea Diving.

Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia

A BBC Studios Production


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001hwx5)
Elizabeth is keen to clear the air with David but he’s proving hard to pin down. Freddie understands that Elizabeth wants to make amends, but when he suggests that Elizabeth might need to give David more time, Elizabeth says it’s been going on for too long. She’s missing him. Freddie asks for some proper management experience and after a tricky meeting with the volunteer guides, Elizabeth asks him to speak to Cliff who is causing problems. Freddie’s attempt to rein in Cliff isn’t successful and he asks Elizabeth to have a try but she reminds him that he agreed to take this on. She has every faith that he will manage it.

Ruairi’s sleeping on the sofa at The Nest. As he talks about his relationship with Julianne, Alice tries to piece it all together. Ruairi comes clean about their arrangement and how he and Julianne first met. Alice is stunned and then horrified when she learns the transaction between Ruairi and Julianne included sex. Ruairi continues to point out the benefits it brought him. Upset Alice leaves the house and heads to the garden to clear her head and sort out some Stables’ work. When Ruairi joins her there, Alice wants Ruairi to understand that he is being exploited. She suggests the changes he could make to have a more affordable lifestyle and Ruairi admits to no longer having any student friends. Alice reminds him that so many people love him. She asserts she’s there for him, just like Jennifer was.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001hx0c)
Costume designer Sandy Powell, playwright Chris Bush, Donatello sculptures at the V&A

Sandy Powell is the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship. She talks to Tom Sutcliffe about collaborating with directors Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes and designing costumes for films including Velvet Goldmine and Shakespeare in Love.

Postponed the pandemic, and after a second run at the Crucible in Sheffield, the musical At the Sky’s Edge at last reaches the National Theatre in London. Playwright Chris Bush tells Tom Sutcliffe about the new production of her love letter to Sheffield which, through the stories of the famous park Hill Estate, tells a history of modern Britain.

‘The greatest sculptor of all time’ is the claim as an exhibition of the work of Donatello is about to open at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Curator Peta Motture and art critic Jonathan Jones discuss how his creativity was a driving force of the Italian Renaissance.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Julian May


MON 20:00 Taiwan: Hyper-democracy (m001hx0j)
Taiwan is one of the world's youngest democracies. The first fully democratic presidential election was held as recently as 1996. But it's now being heralded as a place where digital technology is giving citizens a sense of direct engagement with political systems and law creation. They have a Minister of Digital Affairs, Audrey Tang, who has brought his computer software programming expertise learned in Silicon Valley to bear on the way in which ideas, petitions and suggested law reforms can be promoted by way of a website which boasts millions of users.
The BBC's former Taiwan Correspondent Cindy Sui revisits the Island to try and measure the success of the website called 'Join' at a time when Taiwan faces very direct international pressures. But she also explores more established systems of local democracy, including the system of community chiefs or Li Zhangs and the 24 hour hotlines with their promise of a speedy response to any inquiry or report about issues closer to home.
Western democracies have faced harsh criticism in recent years about sections of their populations feeling that their voices aren't being heard. Does Taiwan have lessons for its more established Democratic colleagues, and if it does, are they in the field of high tech or grass roots representation?

Producer: Tom Alban


MON 20:30 Analysis (m001hx0q)
Blaenau Ffestiniog and the Foundational Economy

In the search for stability and growth, policy and debate often focuses on looking for multi-million pound inward investment, or industries with big ideas such as technology and manufacturing. But these businesses, which often rely on sophisticated technology to produce tradeable and exportable products, only make up a small proportion of the UK economy. Instead the “Foundational Economy” - things like food production and processing, retail, health, education, housing and welfare, contribute to a much larger proportion of spending. They account for around four in ten jobs and £1 spent in every three in Wales.
Wales has been a global pioneer in supporting the “mundane” but crucial Foundational Economy, shaping policies around it. They’ve establish a dedicated ministerial board, and have a £4.5m fund, supporting a series of experimental projects testing the importance and potential of the Foundational Economy. But can it ever be big enough or bold enough to transform the state’s finances?
Clare McNeil visits the former Slate mining capital of the world - Blaenau Ffestiniog - to investigate whether these projects can provide sufficient stability and growth, and if the rest of the UK should focus on the mundane to develop the economy.

Presenter: Clare McNeil
Producer: Jonathan IAnson
Editor: Clare Fordham


MON 21:00 Is Psychiatry Working? (m001hp48)
Diagnosis

Although psychiatry helped writer Horatio Clare when he was in crisis, some people in difficulty, their families, clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists themselves will tell you there are serious questions about the ways psychiatry understands and treats some people in trouble. And so this series asks a simple question: is psychiatry working? In the following series, accompanied by the psychiatrist Femi Oyebode, Horatio traces a journey through crisis, detention, diagnosis, therapy, and recovery. In this episode, they consider the role and place of diagnosis in psychiatry.

If you need support with mental health or feelings of despair, a list of organisations that can help is available at BBC Action Line support:

Mental health & self-harm: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1NGvFrTqWChr03LrYlw2Hkk/information-and-support-mental-health-self-harm
Suicide/Emotional distress: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/information-and-support-suicide-emotional-distress

or you can call for free to hear recorded information on 0800 066 066.

Presenters: Horatio Clare and Femi Oyebode
Producer: Emma Close
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound Mix: James Beard


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001hwyw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001hx11)
Huge earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria

Also:

Manchester City charged by Premier League over financial irregularities.

Rishi Sunak to reshuffle government tomorrow.


MON 22:45 My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor (m001hx13)
Episode 6

September 1943, German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumours fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain.

Diplomats, refugees and escaped Allied prisoners risk their lives fleeing for protection into Vatican City, the world's smallest state at one fifth of a square mile and a neutral, independent country within Rome.

A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous priest is drawn into deadly danger. By Christmastime, it’s too late to turn back.

Based on the extraordinary true story of the Rome Escape Line and Father Hugh O’Flaherty who, in the 1930s and 40s, was a long-time resident of the Vatican, a seminary teacher, and an amateur historian of Rome. Records show that he was forbidden by the Pope to assist escaping prisoners of war and also that his own government and the Irish Church were adamant that the neutrality of the young nation of Ireland should not be compromised in any way by actions which appeared to support the Allies against the Nazis.

Only in recent years have some of these documents been released and historians are still poring over the archive. The author Joseph O’Connor admits that he has made free with much of the characterisation and detail but he has also used some of the writings of Hugh O’Flaherty and his records which were shared with him by the Monsignor’s niece and nephew. Including an audio recording of the 1963 edition of This is Your Life which featured another real life character, Major Sam Derry.

Cast:
Jot Davies (Narrator)
Joseph Balderamma (Enzo)

Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001hp3l)
Snap Crackle and Every Little Helps - the language of food advertising

Giles Poyner has worked in marketing and advertising for over twenty years and has worked on some of the biggest global brands. He explains how when it comes to marketing food and drink words really do matter. From taking every day slogans that we then associate with a brand to employing iambic pentameter to create taglines that stick in the customer's head. Although companies are using ever more sophisticated means to sell their products, clever slogans have been around for longer than we think. Almost 100 years in fact.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001hx15)
Susan Hulme reports as a Foreign Office Minister promises UK help for victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Also, MPs debate the latest NHS strikes.

TUESDAY 07 FEBRUARY 2023

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001hx17)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Let Me Tell You What I Mean: A New Collection of Essays by Joan Didion (m001hwyz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001hx19)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001hx1c)
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 (m001hx1g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001hx1l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001hx1q)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Revd Dr Emma Whittick, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s Chaplain at Lampeter and Carmarthen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001hx1w)
A major chicken producer claims it will clean up its use of manure alongside the River Wye but its plan won't be fully implemented till 2025. Avara Foods has 120 farms producing 16 million chickens for it within the River Wye catchment. It's faced criticism for failing to ensure the farms do not contaminate the river by spreading chicken manure on their land. Now the company says it will bring in a new regime which will regulate the use of the farms' manure much better and will not "contribute to excess phosphate in the Wye" by 2025. Nicola Cutcher from the Guardian has had exclusive access to Avara - she told us what the new company plan is.

All week we're talking about peat. Commercial growers are still allowed to use it for now, but from next year, domestic gardeners won't be able to buy it. Retail sales are being banned to help the government reach its net zero targets, as peatlands are the UK's largest carbon store. Organic growers would like to be ahead of any mandatory targets but for commercial nurseries that rely on machines to plant blocks of plants, it's going to be a challenge.

A farmer from Nottinghamshire hopes he's found a solution to the lack of affordable housing in the rural area where he lives. He’s built one of the most energy efficient groups of dwellings in the country and they’re only available for local people to rent.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02twpwl)
Kingfisher

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

The Ancient Greeks knew the kingfisher as Halcyon and believed that the female built her nest on the waves, calming the seas while she brooded her eggs: hence the expression Halcyon days, which we use now for periods of tranquillity.

Kingfishers can bring in over 100 fish a day to their large broods and the resulting collection of bones and offal produces a stench that doesn't match the bird's attractive appearance.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001hwwj)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001hwwl)
Adrian Smith on the power of Bayesian statistics

How a once-derided approach to statistics paved the way for AI. Jim Al-Khalili talks to pioneering mathematician, Professor Sir Adrian Smith.

Accused early in his career of ‘trying to destroy the processes of science’, Adrian went on to prove that a branch of statistics (invented by the Reverend Thomas Bayes in 1764) could be used by computers to analyse vast sets of data and to learn from that data.

His mathematical proofs showed that Bayesian statistics could be applied to all sorts of real world problems: from improving survival rates for kidney transplant patients to tracking Russian submarines. And paved the way for a dramatic explosion in machine learning and AI.

Working as a civil servant (2008-2012) he helped to protect the science budget in 2010, transforming the landscape for scientific research in the UK. And he has been vocal, over many years, about the urgent need to make sure children in the UK leave school more mathematically able.

In 2020, he became President of the UK's prestigious national science academy, The Royal Society.
Producer: Anna Buckley


TUE 09:30 One to One (m001hwwn)
Critics and the Criticised: Luke Jones meets Simon Godwin

Imagine this: you've spent months, years even, working on a show. Now it's press night. Sat in a silent row, or peppered around the theatre, are the people whose life's work is to criticise yours - the critics. So what’s it like when your lovingly crafted new play opens and you see them out there, ready to tell the world what they think of it? Top theatre director Simon Godwin, who's worked at the National Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic and is now at Washington DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company, bares his soul about how it really feels when the lights go down and the little notebooks come out.

Presenter: Luke Jones
Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton


TUE 09:45 Let Me Tell You What I Mean: A New Collection of Essays by Joan Didion (m001hwxy)
Episode 2

Eight essays selected from the 'Let Me Tell You What I Mean' essay collection that offer a glimpse into the mind and process of the iconic and influential writer: Joan Didion.

Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in our selection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about topics ranging from Nancy Reagan to Robert Mapplethorpe. Here are subjects Didion has long written about – the press, politics, California, women, the act of writing, and her own self-doubt.

Joan Didion began her career in the 1950s after she won an essay contest sponsored by Vogue magazine. She came to prominence with a series of feature articles in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post that explored postwar America followed by celebrated novels 'Play It as It Lays' and 'A Book of Common Prayer'. Focusing on California and the chaos of the 1960’s, Didion successfully established herself as an advocate of New Journalism. Didion passed away in December 2021, aged 87. It was this same year that this essay collection was published.

Here Joan Didion reflects on a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and a trip to San Simeon.

Getting Serenity, 1968
A Trip to Xanadu, 1968
Read by Laurel Lefkow
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Lorna Newman

BBC Action Line:
If you’ve been affected by addiction, help and support is available here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1kS7QTDB16PWkywhsXJLzxz/information-and-support-addiction-alcohol-drugs-and-gambling.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001hxsd)
David Carrick sentencing, Shamima Begum story, Danielle Deadwyler, Carmel McMahon

Former Police Officer David Carrick will be sentenced this morning. BBC correspondent Helena Wilkinson joins Nuala.
Shamima Begum left the UK in 2015. Now, for the first time, we have a better idea of what she might have been doing in the four years between then and her re-appearance in a camp in Syria in 2019. We know that she has married an IS fighter, had three children and lost three children in the last eight years – but what else happened? Nuala McGovern is joined by the BBC’s Josh Baker, host of the podcast I’m Not A Monster: The Shamima Begum Story and Dr Gina Vale, a lecturer of Criminology at the University of Southampton who specialises in terrorism.
Danielle Deadwyler's extraordinary portrayal of the civil rights activist Mamie Till-Mobley in Chinonye Chukwu’s Till (2022) has earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Leading Actress. The film tells the true story of Mamie’s pursuit of justice after her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, was tortured and lynched in 1955. Danielle joins Nuala McGovern to discuss grief, Mamie’s legacy, and the ongoing fight for civil rights.
As low-slung trousers come back into fashion and high-waists are all the rage we ask how fashion, age and generation determine where our trousers sit and how we feel about it. Hannah Rogers Assistant Fashion Editor for The Times joins Nuala.
In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying $500, two suitcases and a ton of emotional baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and present.  Carmel has now written a book, In Ordinary Time: Fragments of a Family History.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore


TUE 11:00 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m001hwwq)
Series 21

The Mind Numbing Medicine

This episode will render you oblivious, conked out and blissfully unaware. It’s about anaesthetics: those potent potions that send you into a deep, deathly sleep. Listener Alicia wants to know how they work, so our sleuths call on the expertise of consultant anaesthetist Dr Fiona Donald. Fiona shares her experience from the clinical frontline, and explains what we do and don’t know about how these chemicals work their mind-numbing magic.

We hear about ground-breaking research led by Professor Irene Tracey, which reveals how a pattern of slow brain waves can be used to determine the optimum dosage of these dangerous drugs.

And finally, Drs Rutherford and Fry wonder: what does all this tell us about normal consciousness? Professor Anil Seth shares how we can use brain tech to measure different levels of conscious awareness – from sleepy to psychedelic.

Presenters: Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford
Producer: Ilan Goodman


TUE 11:30 In Time to the Music (m001hwws)
The House of the Rising Sun

In Time to the Music is the story of a piece of music, song, an air or melody travelling through time as a folk tune, a theatre melody, a hymn, a composition, a symphony - reinterpreted across years, centuries or millennia through revival, musical revolution, social fashions or archaeological discovery. 

We examine why certain tunes have managed to reach out over time, across genres, class, race and continents, how some are reimagined by oppressors even though they were written by its oppressed, how melodies from earlier periods are borrowed by subsequent composers, and how these illusive musical engravings change genre - from hymn to reggae, from court song to rock and roll - all with the passage of time.

The third episode explores the journey of The House of the Rising Sun - was it based on a 17th-century broadside ballad that travelled from northern England to the Appalachian Mountains in the US? Some version of it or a similar ballad passed down through generations until it was captured in a recording by celebrated musicologist Alan Lomax in the 1930s. It was a key song in the folk revival of the 1960s before becoming a hit for The Animals in 1964. The programme also examines other music that has travelled through time.

Featuring musicologists Professor Laura Tunbridge, Professor Richard Dumbrill, singer Ian Shaw and pianist and educator Gareth Williams.

Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon

Assistant Producer: Saul Sarne

Producer: Nick Romero

A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001hwwv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001hwwx)
Call You and Yours - What are you spending your money on this year?

What are you spending your money on this year?

The Bank of England is optimistic about the UK economy which depends a lot on retail sales. Christmas spending was higher than expected and more flights were sold in January than before the pandemic.
What's your attitude to spending this year? Might you buy - clothes, meals out, a house, a holiday, a car?
Or are you too broke or too cautious for that?

What are you spending your money on this year?

Call us on 03700 100 444. Lines open at 11 am on Tuesday 7th February. You can also email us now at youandyours@bbc.co.uk. Don't forget to leave a phone number so we can call you back.

PRODUCER: JAY UNGER
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001hwwz)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001hwx1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


TUE 13:45 Understand: The Economy (m001hwx3)
Series 1

The Economy 12. Credit

Collectively, our individual financial decisions have a big impact on what the wider economy does. That includes how we manage our own money, including what we buy and how we buy it. One way we make large purchases, smooth out big bills and sometimes just spend some cash we can’t afford - is credit. In this episode Dr Victoria Bateman looks back to the Tallyman in the 19th century, a very early way of shopping with credit. We’ll explore what exactly credit is and how we use it.

Everything you need to know about the economy and what it means for you. This podcast will cut through the jargon to bring you clarity and ensure you finally understand all those complicated terms and phrases you hear on the news such as Inflation, GDP, National Debt, energy markets and more. We’ll ensure you understand what’s going on today, why your shopping is getting more expensive or why your pay doesn’t cover your bills.

Guest: Prof John Gathergood, Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham
Producer: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Researcher: Beth Ashmead-Latham
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Editor: Clare Fordham
Theme music: Don’t Fret, Beats Fresh Music

A BBC Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4.

This programme has been edited to change a section of music.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001hwx5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m000qjgf)
From Shore to Shore

From Shore to Shore 漂洋过海

An audio adaptation of the successful touring theatre show which chronicles the complex lives of migrants from China. Mary Cooper and multilingual collaborator MW Sun worked with Chinese communities in Leeds and West Yorkshire, where some people spoke for the first time of events which had shaped their lives and which had not been previously told, even to their children. Stories of love and loss, struggle and survival, create a powerful universal drama. The theme of separation from the mother - and by extension, the motherland - was a feature of all these interviews, with the oldest interviewee aged 87 and the youngest aged 12.

Cheung Wing/Old Tyke/Bailiff - Ozzie Yue
Young Cheung Wing - Hayden Zhenxi Yu
Adolescent Cheung Wing/Bob/Doctor - Paul Chan
Mei Lan/Neighbour/Teacher - Michelle Yim
Yidi/Kam Fa - Luna Dai
Yidi's Ma/Ma/Por Por/Mei Lan's Ma - Alice Lee
Yidi's Dad/Trader/Uncle/Mei Lan's Dad - Windson Liong

Written by Mary Cooper with MW Sun
Directed for theatre by David Tse for On The Wire Theatre
Produced and directed for BBC Audio by Pauline Harris
(Photography by Lee Baxter)


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001hwqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso (m0014x0m)
Episode 2

When the Brillante Virtuoso, a massive, decrepit oil tanker, was attacked and badly damaged off the coast of Yemen in 2011, it seemed at first like just the latest in a spate of daring raids launched by Somali pirates in an increasingly lawless region. On the surface it was a shocking but straightforward crime. In reality, it was anything but.

Over the next decade, the scandal swirling around the ship would come to involve lies on an industrial scale, corruption, violent threats, Greek Shipowners, Yemeni power brokers, British lawyers, Filipino sailors, the murder of a British man that remains tragically unsolved, and his family's fight to unravel a web of organised crime.

Journalist Nick Wallis follows a story that goes all the way from the bleeding edge of the Arab Spring to the heart of the City of London.

Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
Sound Design: Leonie Thomas

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001hxsg)
Subtitles

Karli Witkowska is the subtitler behind films and TV shows including Stranger Things. She explains to Michael how descriptions such as 'tentacles wetly squelching' enhance the experience of Deaf and hard of hearing viewers as well as being entertaining in themselves.

Producer Sally Heaven


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001hwx7)
Adrian Chiles and Martyn Ware

This week broadcaster and writer Adrian Chiles and musician and sound artist Marty Ware join Harriett Gilbert with their reading suggestions. Martyn nominates A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess which he says has influenced his career as a musician. He even named his band Heaven 17 from a reference in the book. If you can get past the brutality and violence it's a novel that throws up many moral questions about the nature of good and evil. Both he and Adrian Chiles are fascinated by the use of Russian language throughout the book.
Adrian Chiles chooses Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s it's a slow burn love story of a couple who meet at a writers' conference and begin exchanging letters that lead to a deepening friendship and feelings before they make their way to the glamour of New York City.
Nina Simone's Gum by musician Warren Ellis receives a resounding Hooray and thumbs up from both Adrian and Martyn as Harriett's choice. It's an eclectic book about the importance and emotion of objects centred around Ellis' custodianship of a piece of chewing gum discarded by the singer Nina Simone at one of her final British concerts. Ellis spotted her take out the gum and put it on a towel on the piano before beginning her concert at the Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre which was being curated by Ellis' friend and bandmate Nick Cave. After the singer left the stage Warren Ellis jumped onto the stage and took the towel and kept it safe for twenty years in an almost shrine like setting before releasing it into the world and realising the emotional power such an object holds.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Maggie Ayre


TUE 17:00 PM (m001hwx9)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O' Clock News (m001hwxc)
Rescue efforts continue across Turkey and Syria following a catastrophic earthquake that rocked the region.


TUE 18:30 Phil Ellis Is Trying (m0008268)
Series 2

Rugrat

When Phil hears a ruckus in Johnny's memorabilia shop downstairs, he goes to investigate, only to discover the mayor of Parbold, who gives Phil a much-needed job: to discover if her husband is having an affair. This undercover work takes Phil, Polly and Johnny across town to investigate Parbold's seedy underbelly. It may be a case Phil is desperate to crack, but will he like what he finds?

Written by Phil Ellis and Fraser Steele.

Starring:

Phil Ellis as Phil
Johnny Vegas as Johnny
Amy Gledhill as Polly/Miss Ecuador
Terry Mynott as Keith/Geoff
Katia Kvinge as Ellie
Andrew Ellis as Dave
Sunil Patel as Steve
and with special guest star Desiree Burch as the Mayor of Parbold

Produced by Sam Michell

A BBC Studios production


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001hwxf)
With Justin failing to turn up for his shift at the Village Shop, Susan is struggling. Joy clocks this and toys with Susan’s need for more support. When Susan asks her politely if she will volunteer Joy heartily agrees and starts her trial shift immediately. Susan tells Joy off for holding up David but David puts her straight saying he’d asked Joy for advice on buying a new suit for Jennifer’s funeral. Susan acknowledges with Joy that she was too quick to judge. Joy’s thrilled that she’s passed her trial shift and will be added to the rota.
Freddie catches up with David in The Bull sharing his woes about the Lower Loxley tour guides. Freddie lines up to David to have dinner with Elizabeth on Thursday. She’s missing him and Freddie wants it to be a surprise for her.

By chance Kate discovers Stella’s in need of help with tree planting because Ed’s going to be late. Kate volunteers to help out, but Stella’s keen to wait for Ed. Kate’s insistent and Stella reluctantly accepts her offer. After getting stuck in Kate voices the strong connection she feels with the Home Farm land. Later, Kate enthuses to Jacob about helping Stella at Home Farm. She felt really at peace there, more so than with Spiritual Home. Jakob repeats his warning of rushing into big decisions but Kate thinks she can see the truth of things and going back to where she started appeals to her.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001hxsj)
Les Dennis and Mina Anwar, writer Tania Branigan, Kerry Shale on Yentl

Mina Anwar and Les Dennis discuss their new production of Spring and Port Wine at the Bolton Octagon. They explain why the 1960s classic play about a family in Bolton, and tensions between the generations, still has resonance today.

Writer Tania Branigan talks about her new book Red Memory. Based on her research as a journalist in China, it tells the story of the Cultural Revolution through the memories of individuals including a composer, an artist and a man who denounced his own mother.

It’s nearly 40 years since Barbra Streisand’s film Yentl was released. Based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, it follows a young woman who lives as a man so that she can study the bible. Kerry Shale, who had a part in Streisand’s film, discusses returning to Singer’s story to adapt it for a new Radio 4 drama, Yentl the Yeshiva Boy.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner

Image Credit: Pamela Raith Photography


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001hwxh)
Living with Andrew Tate

A British woman tells File on 4 about her relationship with controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate, claiming that he pressurised her to work for his webcam company and that he was controlling and violent towards her. Tate is currently in detention in Bucharest along with his brother, Tristan, facing allegations of people trafficking and rape, which both men deny. Prosecutors allege that Andrew Tate recruited victims by seducing them and falsely claiming he wanted a relationship or marriage. 'Sophie' tells File on 4 what happened to her and other women who worked in Romania as webcam girls for Tate. The programme also interrogates Tate's claims that he's a self-made 'trillionaire' and asks whether his boasts around his vast wealth are all that they seem.

Image credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Producer: Hayley Mortimer
Reporters: Georgia Coan and Paul Kenyon
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Production team: Tim Fernley and Jordan King
Editor: Carl Johnston

*Since this episode of File on 4 was originally broadcast, lawyers acting for Andrew Tate have said that he denies all the allegations made against him in the programme.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001hwxk)
The New Principal of New College Worcester, Smaller Guide Dog Organisations

New College Worcester is a residential and day school for pupils who are blind or partially sighted. In September 2022, they appointed a new principal, Rachel Perks. We invited her onto In Touch to talk about her ambitions for the role, what the future holds for the school and about the school's recent Ofsted reports.

We take a look at some of the smaller guide dog organisations, whose aims are to help beat the backlog for those waiting for a new guide dog. Neil Ewart is from The Seeing Dogs Alliance and he tells us about what their organisation offers and how it differs from the UK's leading organisation. Stephen Anderson received his first guide dog from The Seeing Dogs Alliance and he tells us what that process was like. And Abigail Hughes is from Pawtected. Pawtected encourage their members to self-train their pet dogs into assistance dogs. She explains how the process works.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole

Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m001hwxm)
Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m001hwwl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001hwxp)
Turkey/Syria earthquakes – 7000 now dead

Also:

Microsoft’s big move into AI.

Biden State of the Union address.


TUE 22:45 My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor (m001hwxr)
Episode 7

September 1943, German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumours fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain.

Diplomats, refugees and escaped Allied prisoners risk their lives fleeing for protection into Vatican City, the world's smallest state at one fifth of a square mile and a neutral, independent country within Rome.

A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous priest is drawn into deadly danger. By Christmastime, it’s too late to turn back.

Based on the extraordinary true story of the Rome Escape Line and Father Hugh O’Flaherty who, in the 1930s and 40s, was a long-time resident of the Vatican, a seminary teacher, and an amateur historian of Rome. Records show that he was forbidden by the Pope to assist escaping prisoners of war and also that his own government and the Irish Church were adamant that the neutrality of the young nation of Ireland should not be compromised in any way by actions which appeared to support the Allies against the Nazis.

Only in recent years have some of these documents been released and historians are still poring over the archive. The author Joseph O’Connor admits that he has made free with much of the characterisation and detail but he has also used some of the writings of Hugh O’Flaherty and his records which were shared with him by the Monsignor’s niece and nephew. Including an audio recording of the 1963 edition of This is Your Life which featured another real life character, Major Sam Derry.

Cast:
David Holt Sam Derry
Jot Davies (Narrator)
Fenella Woolgar (Marianna De Vries)
Ben Onwukwe (John May)

Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 Tudur Owen: Zoo (m000k91c)
Episode 2

Last year Tudur Owen brought us 'Where on Earth is Anglesey?', a Radio 4 series that introduced us to his homeland, Ynys Môn and hinted at the rather unconventional goings-on there. One such eccentric event is the incredible but true story of how he and his family somewhat unwittingly became the owners of what the News of the World would go on to describe as “The Worst Zoo in Britain”.

Join Tudur for an engrossing caper about a corrupt animal wrangler, a family on the brink and a climactic wallaby chase across the Menai Strait.

All the events in this story are almost true.

Written and performed by Tudur Owen
Script Editor: Gareth Gwynn
Additional voices: Lisa-Jên Brown and Fergus Craig

Sound Engineering and Design by David Thomas
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001hwxt)
Sean Curran reports as the foreign secretary answers MPs' questions about UK aid for victims of the Turkish earthquakes.