SATURDAY 18 MARCH 2023

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001k19l)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Breaking Mississippi (m001k12d)
5. A Call to Arms

This is the explosive inside story of James Meredith's battle to smash the system of white supremacy in the most racially segregated state in 1960s America.

By becoming the first black person to apply to the all-white university of Mississippi – Meredith will draw in the KKK and JFK – and trigger the largest number of troops ever deployed for a single disturbance on US soil.

Across 10 episodes and with US public radio journalist Jenn White as our guide - James Meredith takes us from his childhood in rural Mississippi where racism runs deep – to a pivotal flashpoint in US civil rights history that will be described as the last battle of the American Civil War.

This could be our last opportunity to hear James Meredith tell this story in his own words and in a way that's never been heard before.

Episode Five: A Call to Arms

As increasing numbers of armed segregationists head for the Oxford campus - President Kennedy and the Mississippi Governor talk in secret.

Presenter: Jenn White
Producer: Conor Garrett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Anne Smith
Audio Engineer: Gary Bawden
Original Music Score: Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris. Recorded @ North Street West

Archive reproduced with the kind permission of: The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Mississippi State University, JFK Library, Getty Images, Huntley Film Archives, British Pathé Ltd, F.I.L.M Archives, Efootage, Historic Films, The Clarion Ledger – USA Today Network.
With special thanks to the University of Mississippi.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001k19s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001k19z)
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 (m001k1b6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001k1bf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001k1bn)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Lorna Farrell, a Christian author and disability activist.


SAT 05:45 Lent Talks (m001k0xr)
The People's Prayer - On Earth as in Heaven

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a distinguished astrophysicist who spends her life looking to 'the heavens', studying the process of star and planet formation in our galaxy. Her scientific work is underpinned by the same sense of awe, wonder and humility that enriches her Christian faith. In this episode, she considers the line from the Lord's Prayer, 'on earth as in heaven', as it relates to her life and work.

In this series, six people reflect on Jesus' ministry, teaching and Passion from a deeply personal perspective focussing on words from The Lord's Prayer. These are words shared across Christian denominations but they go further; they are part of our culture and tradition. They express universal themes that speak to the hopes and dreams of humanity, bringing together both spiritual and physical needs.

It could really be thought of as The People’s Prayer.

Producer: Dan Tierney


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001k7py)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m001k11k)
To the Ring of Brodgar

On a windy hike from the Stones of Stenness to the Ring of Brodgar, Clare discovers Orkney's standing stones are as impressive and mysterious as Stonehenge. Her guide is Sandra Miller from Historic Environment Scotland. Their route takes them past the Watchstone and across the Brodgar Peninsula which has a fresh water loch on one side, and a salty one on the other. Sandra, born and brought up on Orkney, shares her love of the landscape and its history on a dramatic wintery day of high winds and hail storms.

This is the second of three consecutive Orkney walks within this series of Ramblings, next week Clare is off to the Broch of Gurness.

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer, for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001k7q0)
18/03/23 Farming Today This Week: rows over sheep; Dutch farmers winning elections; exploited migrant workers.

This week sheep have been causing a bit of a stir, with those both pro and anti trading arguments on social media. We discuss the tensions between where sheep are, should be, should not be and who decides, with environmentalist Ben Goldsmith and the National Sheep Association's Phil Stocker.
Farmers on Dartmoor say they've been told they must radically reduce the number of sheep and other livestock on common land if they want to remain in government schemes. Natural England has written to commons associations offering rollovers of existing Higher Level Stewardship Schemes, but farmers say these new agreements require the number of animals on the land in the summer must be reduced, on some commons by an average of 75%.
Many farmers here are watching what's happening in the Netherlands, where a farmers' party has stunned Dutch politics, and is set to be the biggest party in the upper house of parliament after provincial elections. The Farmer-citizen movement (BBB) was only set up in 2019 in the wake of widespread farmers' protests. As we reported last month, the Dutch government wants to reduce livestock numbers near protected countryside, to reduce emissions. It has said it will force buyouts of the 3,000 worst polluting farms, if voluntary measures fail. The Dutch PM described the result as a ‘clear message from voters’.
An investigation by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the GLAA, has fund that hundreds of workers in meat processing, recruited from Nepal, were exploited and found to have paid £12,000 to find a job. Such fees are illegal in the UK.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001k7q2)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001k7q4)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001k7q6)
Spencer Matthews and Rachel Parris

Nikki Bedi and Shaun Keaveny are joined by Spencer Matthews, who gained fame in the reality tv series Made In Chelsea. Now an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Spencer has made a documentary which shows him looking for his brother who went missing on Mount Everest over 20 years ago.

Comedian Rachel Parris joins us, talking about the power of seeking advice and how it has influenced her life.

Dilly Carter is a straight-talking organiser who can be seen on TV as a decluttering expert. After spending her early years in a Sri Lankan orphanage Dilly was adopted and brought to England where her household was chaotic, inspiring her need to tidy. She'll tell her story.

How many of us have sat around thinking of an app that would make us millions? That’s what Dhiraj Mukherjee did - with the help of friends, when they came up with the idea of Shazam, the music identification service. He joins us to tell us how he got there, and how it wasn’t quite as simple as it might seem.

We also have the inheritance tracks of Anneka Rice who chooses Joan Baez There but for fortune and Nina Simone, Feeling Good.
And your Thank you!

Producer: Corinna Jones


SAT 10:30 Rewinder (m001k7q8)
Sardine Lie Detector

Greg James has renewed his access-all-areas pass to the BBC Archives and is ready to track down audio gems, using listener requests, overlooked anniversaries and current stories as a springboard into the vast vaults of past programmes.

As Liverpool prepares to host this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Greg heads back 1982 when Eurovision came to Harrogate in North Yorkshire. With Norway reeling from a 'nil points' loss in 1981, they employ a secret weapon to guarantee a Eurobeating hit. Will it work?

At this year's Oscars ceremony, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to be named Best Actress. Greg finds a brilliant interview from 2004 where Michelle describes doing all her own stunts throughout her decades-long career - and the many injuries that she has sustained as a result.

An email from a listener recalls a cherished memory from her childhood with her late father, and sends Greg to 1954 to embark on a Journey Into Space. Another listener asks to revisit Blue Peter in 1972, where a smartly dressed Peter Purves hops down the Tube and shows viewers how to survive if they get stuck on the tracks.

Following on from last week's look at unexpected prizes, Greg finds a letter from 1923, just a few months after the BBC began, with one of the first prizes it ever awarded. He also uncovers correspondence from the 1950s when BBC execs try to come up with exciting prize ideas. Did they really try to give away a house?

And it's 75 years since the first permanent self-service supermarket opened in the UK. Greg goes wild in the aisles, discovering strange lie detector experiments on unsuspecting customers in the 1960s, the first petrol station supermarket, and a surprise (surprise) appearance from Cilla Black.

Producer: Tim Bano


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001k7qc)
George Parker, political editor of the Financial Times, discusses the week's biggest political stories with guests. Dame Angela Eagle MP, a former Labour treasury minister, and Conservative MP Anthony Browne assess the Budget. Alexander Downer, former Australian foreign minister, and Bronwen Maddox, director of Chatham House, take a look at the Aukus deal and China. The Parthenon Sculptures are debated by Ben Bradshaw MP, former Labour culture secretary, and Emily Sheffield, ex-editor of the Evening Standard newspaper. Plus an interview with Lord Heseltine ahead of his 90th birthday on Tuesday.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001k7qh)
Kidnapped in DR Congo

Kate Adie presents stories from DR Congo, Mexico, Hungary, Argentina, and South Africa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing multiple conflicts over territory, ethnic tensions and minerals. In the last month, fighting between the M23 rebel group and the government is believed to have displaced around 300,000 people. But the presence of other armed groups is making the situation even more perilous. One group, the Allied Democratic Forces, has reportedly killed more than 60 people in recent weeks, and kidnapped many others. Hugh Kinsella Cunningham spoke to one woman who had recently escaped captivity in Beni territory.

The Mexican port of Manzinillo has become a battleground for cartels, as it's where many of the raw materials for drugs such as Fentanyl are imported from Asia. Linda Pressly meets the town's mayor who is trying to turn the tide of crime - and hears of the personal sacrifices she has to make to keep safe.

Hungary has faced criticism for its progress on women's rights, but in specific areas of women's healthcare it is leading the way. Rosie Blunt was in Hungary to access care for her endometriosis and found the support on offer was second-to-none.

Off the beaten track in north-West Argentina, John Kampfner explores the high peaks and brightly-coloured lagoons that are home to vast numbers of flamingos. He also makes a curious discovery in a local museum, with deep cultural ties to the mountains.

Which is the harder language to learn - Welsh, or Xhosa? BBC Wales sports reporter Gareth Rhys Owen recently took a trip to South Africa, where he met rugby legend Makaya Jack – and also met his match when it came to deciding whose mother tongue was hardest to master.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Researcher: Beth Ashmead
Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001k7qn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001k7mn)
Romance scam refund and prepayment meter penalty

A Money Box investigation has resulted in a £150,000 refund for a vulnerable romance fraud victim, after their bank initially refused to reimburse. The victim's family were told that a voluntary code, known as the Contingent Reimbursement Model or CRM, designed to protect victims of fraud would not apply in their case, because the payments had been made to an international bank account. We look at what, if anything, banks can do to prevent payments to criminal accounts overseas.

In the Spring Budget the Chancellor promised to end the so-called prepayment meter penalty, where customers currently pay an extra £45 compared to direct debit customers. We look at how the new policy will work, and if it's feasible to level the playing field between pre-payment meter customers and direct debit customers long term. And where does this leave customers who pay by cash or cheque?

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced another extension to the Help to Buy Equity loan scheme. For many buyers this extension came at the last possible moment, the previous deadline was the 31st March and some stood to lose their sales. Other buyers had already received their deposits back and won't benefit from the two-month extension. We hear from a buyer and a conveyancing solicitor.

Presenter: Dan Whitworth
Reporter: Aruna Iyengar and Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner
Editor: Beatrice Pickup


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (m001k16d)
Series 62

Episode 1

Steve Punt presents the week via topical stand-up and sketches. He's joined by Rhys James with a full proof guide to surviving the cost of living crisis, Laura Lexx talking us through the latest hope to combat climate change & Ed MacArthur plays us out with a moving song from Andy Murray's Indian Wells Post Match Conference: The Musical.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Hugh Dennis, Sarah Campbell, Cameron Loxdale, Luke Beddows & Kate Dehnert.

Voice actors: Gemma Arrowsmith & Jason Forbes

Sound: Marc Willcox & John Hemingway
Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001k7qs)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001k7qy)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001k17y)
Victoria Atkins MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Theo Paphitis and Nick Thomas-Symonds MP

Alex Forsyth presents political debate and discussion from Danehill Memorial Hall in East Sussex with Victoria Atkins MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Theo Paphitis and Nick Thomas-Symonds MP.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Lead broadcast engineer: Andy Lenton


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001k7r4)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 Drama (b078mc9p)
John Osborne - Look Back in Anger

Richard Wilson directs this dramatisation starring David Tennant as Jimmy Porter.

Premiering in 1956, John Osborne's classic play that launched the Angry Young Man movement has lost none of its bite and still disturbs and questions in equal measure.

Jimmy Porter...............David Tennant
Alison..........................Nancy Carroll
Cliff.............................Daniel Evans
Helena.........................Claire Price
Colonel........................Sir Ian McKellen

Director: Richard Wilson

Producer: Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in April 2016.


SAT 16:15 Woman's Hour (m001k7rb)
Paris Hilton, FGM report, Annie Lennox, Country-pop duo Ward Thomas

Paris Hilton has been called ‘the first influencer’ and is known for being an ‘it-girl’. But behind the paparazzi pictures there’s a darker story. Now for the first time, Paris is telling her story in her own words in her new book Paris: The Memoir. She joins Anita Rani to talk about her life, why she wanted to write her story now, and being a new mother.

A major report has been published looking into the experiences of survivors of FGM in accessing post-FGM healthcare in the UK. Nuala McGovern speaks to Dr Laura Jones, University of Birmingham, one of the lead authors on the report; Mama Sylla, a survivor of FGM who has been recognised by the government for her work in raising awareness of FGM and Juliet Albert, Specialist FGM Midwife at Imperial College.

Multi-award winning singer-songwriter Annie Lennox has been using her voice for activism for the last 15 years. Now, she is fighting to get garment workers across the world a living wage. In a Woman’s Hour exclusive, Anita Rani speaks to her about her charity, The Circle, her belief in Global Feminism, and what it was like to meet Joni Mitchell. They are joined by Kalpona Akter, an ambassador for The Circle who worked in a garment factory when she was just 12 years old.

Ward Thomas are an English modern country-pop duo, composed of twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy. They join Nuala McGovern to talk about their UK tour and brand new album, Music In The Madness, as well as the stigma around country music and how it’s changed.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lottie Garton


SAT 17:00 PM (m001k7rg)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m001k111)
Toothpaste

Do toothpastes promising to repair enamel and help with sensitive teeth really work?

We've all been there - you go down the supermarket aisle to grab toothpaste and suddenly you’re faced with an ocean of the stuff, all promising to do different things. Buzz-phrases like ‘protect’ and ‘repair’ all vie for your attention. But just what are the ingredients in all these different toothpastes? And do they live up to the marketing hype?

In this episode we hear from three listeners keen to find out: Bernadette has sensitive teeth, Deirdre is concerned about her enamel and Melvyn wants to protect his gums. Can presenter Greg Foot find a toothpaste that will work for them and leave them all smiles?

This series we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad, and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001k7rl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001k7rp)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001k7rv)
Peter Murrell has resigned after the SNP misled the media on the size of its membership


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001k7n1)
Frank Skinner, Sophie Okonedo, Sam Brown, Gurdeep Loyal, Daoiri Farrell, Say She She, George Egg, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and George Egg are joined by Frank Skinner, Sophie Okonedo, Gurdeep Loyal and Sam Brown for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Daoirí Farrell and Say She She.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001k7lw)
Rachel Reeves

Shadow chancellor and former economist Rachel Reeves, who was a national chess champion aged 14.


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0f1wdjy)
Series 26

How Far Can the Human Body Go?

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by biomechanist Polly McGuigan, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod, comedian Russell Kane and Olympic gold medalist Sally Gunnell to find out how good humans are at endurance. Could anyone win a gold at the Olympics? Could a human outrun a cheetah? And have we reached the absolute limits of human endurance?

Producer: Caroline Steel
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001k7s1)
Writing Our Mothers

‘Mothers have such a weight of idealisation and expectation landed upon their bodies and their minds and what women writers can do is to take that apart and explore
its underbelly,’ says feminist writer Jacqueline Rose.

Whether worshipped or vilified, treated as lifetime confidantes or rarely trusted, the mothers we meet when we write them are re-inventions. Some may be closer to the
truth than others. Many of them will have roots in the life experiences of the daughter-writer. Virginia Woolf, who lost her mother at the age of 13, said she was obsessed with writing her mother. Eventually she also argued that it was ‘the occupation of the woman writer to kill’ what she called ‘The Angel in the House’ – the perfect, self-sacrificing mother – who may well have been her own maternal influence.

Drawing on interviews with Maya Angelou, we hear how for her to write her mother was to ‘write about a hurricane in its perfect power’. She describes how the influence of a mother who ‘abandoned’ her as a child forced her most urgent examinations of class, race and, importantly love. In another frank interview with Marguerite Duras from 1968, she describes writing as a search for connection with her raging and ‘mad’ mother. For Sylvia Plath, the process of writing about becoming a mother herself in the 1950s produced work of a psychic intensity rarely seen before.

What the archive ultimately reveals is that a mother, whether present or absent, loving or cruel, might be as formative an influence on a writer’s work, as in life. ‘When I read about motherhood, I want to be shaken loose from whatever limitations I have when I think about what that means,’ says the writer Siri Hustvedt.

With contributions from Susie Orbach, Jacqueline Rose, Kit de Waal and Siri Hustvedt, and narration from Amaka Okafor.

Produced by Sarah Cuddon
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Archive sources:
Desert Island Discs with Arundhati Roy (2017)
A Chance to Meet ... Edna O'Brien (1971)
Sylvia Plath, Peter Orr interview (1962)
Audre Lorde, Pacifica Radio Archives and Academy of American Poets www.poets.org
Maya Angelou, BBC News (1985)
Jeannette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (BBC, 1990) and Face To Face (BBC, 1994)
Marguerite Duras, Worn Out With Desire To Write (1985)
Toni Morrison, Brief Encounters (BBC, 2001)
Jackie Kay, Book of the Week (The Waters Company for BBC R4, 2015)
Elena Ferrante, Lying Lives of Adults (BBC, 2020)


SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (b0b7dlw2)
Series 4

Episode 1

It's the 1980s and Brian Oldman is back in jail for a crime he didn't commit. He suspects, but cannot prove, that Joseph Oldman, now Joseph Olinska MP, was the perpetrator.

GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's a tale revealing the nexus of crime, business and politics woven through the fabric of 20th century greed as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.

Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending both Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher.

The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.

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


SAT 21:45 The Skewer (m001k0y0)
Series 8

Episode 6

Jon Holmes' award-winning satire twists itself into current affairs. This week - PoliceMen Behaving Badly, Suella Braverman Thinks of a Number with Johnny Ball, and Gary, Gary, Gary.

Producer: Jon Holmes

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m001k7s5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m001k0xp)
Is pacifism admirable, immoral, or just impractical?

Is pacifism virtuous, admirable, impractical, immoral or stupid?

War and militarism are in the news every day. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced an extra £11bn in defence spending over the next five years, to counter threats from hostile states. It comes alongside news of a new defence pact with the US and Australia in response to Chinese military power. The war in Ukraine has seen advanced weapons rushed in by Western countries to support the fight against Russia. But alongside the talk of battles and territory won and lost, there is also talk of the horrors of war. There are renewed demands for peace, and some say it should be peace at any price. In Germany, protest marchers assert that sending more weapons to Ukraine pours fuel on the fire, causing more death, misery and destruction. They claim to detect a change of mood and point out that the latest film adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a 1929 novel by the German pacifist, Erich Maria Remarque, has just picked up four Oscars to add to its 14 Baftas.
Western leaders insist that Russia most lose the war, and be seen to lose, but is it really better to create more bloodshed, sacrifice more lives, in order to achieve something closer to justice? Forcing Ukraine to negotiate now and inevitably cede territory could bring the violence to an end and start the process of rebuilding. Or is that “giving in” and encouraging further aggression by Russia and others? Is pacifism virtuous and admirable? Immoral and stupid? Or is it, perhaps just impractical? What is the moral case for choosing peace over justice?

Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: William Crawley
Editor: Gill Farrington


SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001k0cp)
Series 36

Semi-final 1, 2023

(10/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes back three of this season's heat winners for the first of the 2023 semi-finals.

With a place in the Final at stake, the competition hots up, and the competitors will need to be on their mettle, fielding Paul's questions on everything from Verdi and Leonard Bernstein to will.i.am and Taylor Swift. They'll also have to pick a special musical topic on which to answer individual questions, with no prior warning of the subjects on offer today.

Appearing in the semi-final are:
Claire Barrow from Honiton in Devon,
Anthony Fish from Pontypool,
Dave Workman from London,

The winner will return for the 2023 Final in a few weeks' time.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed (m001k0nl)
Olive Senior

Olive Senior gets the prize as the guest who has travelled the furthest to join Simon Armitage in his writing shed in West Yorkshire. Born in rural Jamaica in Cockpit County, Olive currently lives in Toronto, Canada. At 19 she joined the staff of the Jamaican Gleaner, the main newspaper, where she interviewed visiting celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor.

Poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction writer Olive says she has read everything that comes in front of her all her life. Her latest collection, Hurricane, references a weather hazard that all Jamaicans have to live with. She left Jamaica after Hurricane Gilbert hit the Island in 1988.

Growing up surrounded by books written by British writers, Olive discusses her love-hate relationship with Dickens, and following the death of Queen Elizabeth, a much-loved monarch in Jamaica, ponders the future relationship between the monarchy and Commonwealth countries.

Produced by Susan Roberts

SUNDAY 19 MARCH 2023

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001k7s9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Understand: The Economy (m001fxdr)
Series 1

The Economy: 10. Inequality

Why are the rich, rich and the poor, poor, and was it always this way? Tim Harford explains what’s happened to inequality over the last 100 years in the UK and why things might be better than you think. Economic historian Victoria Bateman explains the surprising effect The Great Plague had on income and gender equality.
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. Inflation, GDP, Interest rates, and bonds, Tim Harford and friends explain them all. 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. We’ll also bring you surprising histories, from the war hungry Kings who have shaped how things are counted today to the greedy merchants flooding Spain with Silver coins. So if your eyes usually glaze over when someone says ‘cutting taxes stimulates growth’, fear no more, we’ve got you covered.

Guest: Xiaowei Xu, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies

Producer: Phoebe Keane

Researchers: Drew Hyndman and Kirsteen Knight

Editor: Clare Fordham

Theme music: Don’t Fret, Beats Fresh Music

A BBC Long Form Audio Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Blackspot (b08gwn80)
Specially commissioned short stories by some of Ireland's most exciting writers.

When his parents leave teenager Simon alone at home for a week, he tries to make the most of his new-found freedom. However his idyllic existence cannot last long. As read by Aoife Duffin (Moone Boy, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing).

Sara Baume's debut novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither won the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial prize for fiction. She has also won the Davy Byrne’s Short Story Award, the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature, an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer, and the 2016 Kate O’Brien Award.

Reader, Aoife Duffin
Writer, Sara Baume
Producer, Michael Shannon


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001k7sf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001k7sk)
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 (m001k7sp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001k7st)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001k7n9)
The church of St Botolph in the village of Stoke Albany, Northamptonshire.

Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Botolph in the village of Stoke Albany, Northamptonshire. The original church was established before the Norman Conquest and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The current building dates from the late 13th century with 19th century restorations. The church had five bells cast by Robert Taylor of St Neots in 1790. These were augmented in 1888 to a ring of six bells by the John Taylor foundry of Loughborough. The tenor bell weighs ten hundredweight and is in the note of A. We hear them ringing Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001k7lw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001k7k3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04fy1c7)
The prince who walked out of his fairy tale

Siddhartha is the name of a prince who became the Buddha.

He was born in present day Nepal, sometime around 563 BC, and he grew up as a prince enjoying a comfortable existence for the first 29 years of his life. It was then, as a married man with an infant son, Siddhartha abandoned his palace and set off for a wandering life with a band of ascetics seeking spiritual fulfillment.

In 'The prince who walked out of his fairy tale', Samira Ahmed pieces together the story of Siddhartha - the Sanskrit name meaning 'He who achieves his goal'. She tells the story of how Siddhartha abandoned future kingship after the shocking discovery of old age, sickness and death. She tells of how he took up and then discarded extreme asceticism and how, after six years of penance, he sat unmoving under a tree until he gained Nirvana or perfect enlightenment and became known as the Buddha.

Samira Ahmed looks at the appeal of the image of the seated Buddha and the spread of Buddhist ideas into the West. She considers how writers and thinkers have imagined the experience of enlightenment, and explores how others have interpreted the relevance of the Buddha's key ideas for today's fast moving materialistic life. With readings, poetry and music – including Tibetan chant, Herbie Hancock, Bengali film soundtrack, and Wagner.

Producer: Anthony Denselow
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b08v09c7)
Hare

There is a roof boss in a church in Devon of three hares running after one another in a circle. Whilst three hares can be clearly seen and each hare has two ears, when you count the ears there are only three. What does this motif mean and where else can it be found? All is revealed when Brett Westwood goes in search of the truth about the elusive and magical Mad March Hare, learns about an ancient coin bearing the image of a hare, and has an unforgettable encounter with several wild hares on a Norfolk farm.

First broadcast in a longer form 20/06/2017
Original producer for BBC Audio in Bristol Producer Sarah Blunt.
Archive producer for BBC Audio in Bristol Andrew Dawes


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001k7k6)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001k7k8)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001k7kb)
Pope Francis is cracking down on an old Latin form of the Catholic mass. The Tridentine Rite has become an unexpected battleground in a Catholic culture war over the future direction of the church. Now bishops must seek permission directly from the Vatican before it can be celebrated, those who love the old mass fear it could soon disappear from church life altogether. Reporter Orla O’Brien talks to both sides in this bitter 'liturgy war'.

It's 20 years since coalition forces began airstrikes in Iraq. The hostilities damaged many religious and historic sites sacred to both Jews and Muslims, and saw artefacts stolen from the country. Dr Rozhen Kamal Mohammed heads up a team that works alongside religious groups to recover and restore this vital heritage, and she updates us on the work that’s been done and the problems they are encountering.

New academic research has uncovered the spiritual lives of some sex workers. Although many spiritual texts represent sex work in a negative way, 11 workers of different religions, interviewed by an academic from Nottingham Trent University, believe their faith is compatible with their spirituality and use their religion in different ways in their work.

This month marks three years since the first Covid lockdown. Young people especially found it hard to deal with their mental health during lockdown. Now a documentary called "Young in Covid: Routes to Recovery", explores how a group of young people in Bradford used faith as a means to cope with the effects of the pandemic. Jassa Singh and Marium Zumeer speak to us about handling sickness, bereavement and finding an anchor in their Sikh and Muslim faiths.

Presented by William Crawley.
Produced by Bara'atu Ibrahim and Julia Paul.
Studio managers: Sue Stonestreet and Simon Highfield
Production co-ordinator David Baguely
Edited by Helen Grady.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001k7kd)
Comic Relief

Broadcaster Emma Willis makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Comic Relief.

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 ‘Comic Relief’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Comic Relief’.
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: 326568


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001k7kg)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001k7kj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001k7kl)
Forgiveness

From Guildford Cathedral on Mothering Sunday, the Lent theme of the Lord's Prayer focuses on the phrase 'As we forgive'. The preacher is the Bishop of Guildford, The Right Revd Andrew Watson, who draws on the story from Luke's Gospel of the woman who bathed Jesus' feet with her tears, causing Jesus to speak of the parable of the two debtors. The service is led by Canon Gilly Myers, and the Cathedral choir joins the congregation in singing hymns reflecting the theme of forgiveness, including 'Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us', and 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind'.

Organist and Master of the Choristers: Katherine Dienes-Williams; Sub-Organist: Richard Moore; Producer: Ben Collingwood.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001k18b)
Amaryllis

After being given an amaryllis as a gift, Howard Jacobson wonders why he's never stared at a flower...until now.

He ponder his life-long ignorance of flowers. Growing up, the family garden was a dumping ground for his dad's old trucks; seeds were something you fed to a budgerigar.

'And wasn't there a flower called An Enemy?' Howard asks. 'There you are then. I've had enough of those in life without finding more in the garden'.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378wy3)
Common Redstart

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Michaela Strachan presents the common redstart. Redstarts are summer visitors from sub-Saharan Africa. The males are very handsome birds, robin-sized, but with a black mask, white forehead and an orange tail. John Buxton gave us a fascinating insight into their lives when, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he made a study of them.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001k7kn)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001k7kq)
Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Marina Caldarone
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Usha Franks ….. Souad Faress
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Paul Mack ….. Joshua Riley
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Sykesy ….. Jasper Carrott


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001k7ks)
Liz Carr, actor and activist

Liz Carr is most widely known for her role as the forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery in the long-running BBC TV drama Silent Witness. She appeared in more than 70 episodes, from 2013 until 2020. Last year she won the Olivier award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the National Theatre production of The Normal Heart. Her role was inspired by Dr Linda Laubenstein, a pioneer in the treatment of AIDS and a wheelchair user: Liz was the first wheelchair user to play the part, almost four decades after the premiere.

Liz was brought up in Bebington, Merseyside. One of her early stage roles was as the Cowardly Lion in a primary school production of The Wizard of Oz. She became a wheelchair user at the age of 11, after a protracted illness.

She studied Law at Nottingham University and after graduation worked as a disability rights adviser. She also became a disability rights activist, and more recently has been a campaigner against the legalisation of assisted dying.

When she was 30, Liz decided on a career change after taking part in a drama course with the Graeae Theatre Company. She became a stand-up comedian and a member of various comedy groups, and moved on to theatre and television work, including recent roles in the TV dramas The Witcher and Good Omens.

Liz lives in London with her wife.

DISC ONE: Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland
DISC TWO: Beautiful Dreamer - Sheryl Crow
DISC THREE: Sit Down - James
DISC FOUR: Rollin’ Thunder - Ian Stanton
DISC FIVE: 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
DISC SIX: Something Good - Julie Andrews
DISC SEVEN: Palliative Clare (from Assisted Suicide The Musical) - Claire Willoughby
DISC EIGHT: I Feel Love - Donna Summer

BOOK CHOICE: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
LUXURY ITEM: A pair of ruby slippers
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Sit Down – James

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001k7mv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (m001k0d5)
Series 17

Episode 4

John Lloyd and Anna Ptaszynski welcome comedian Alasdair Beckett-King, athlete Dame Sarah Storey and artist Hannah Rose Thomas to the Museum for an episode full of fitness, fantasy and fake moustaches.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Turner, Mandy Fenton and Lydia Mizon of QI.

Producer: Sam Holmes & Leying Lee
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound: David Thomas

A BBC Studios production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001k7kx)
Hospital Food: Agents of Change?

Hospital food has long had a bad reputation, but after several high profile campaigns, are things finally starting to improve?

In England, new regulations are being implemented which are hoped to transform the meals being served, reduce waste, and make sure staff have access to good food 24/7. 60% of hospitals are already said to be complying - will the rest be able to catch up?

But with many hospitals now functioning without real kitchens - can frozen or chilled meals that are simply re-heated in hospital be a part of that? Apetito, one of the biggest caterers, believes they can be, and invited Sheila Dillon to see how they prepare tasty and nutritious food in bulk.

While in Cambridge, Sheila meets those working on a brand new Children's Hospital and hears how they want good food to be central to the hospital's philosophy. It plans to give patients and their families access to more dining spaces to avoid children eating meals in bed (when possible), and it plans to have it's own kitchens cooking food from scratch.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001k7l0)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001k7l3)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Desperate Calls (m001k7l7)
Desperate Calls charts for the first time how someone with a gambling addiction behaves, and how the industry is failing them.

Matthew is a teacher from South Wales with a young family and a network of close friends. He seemingly lived a normal, happy life to the people around him, but secretly he was hiding another life, where he gambled - growing angry, lying to his loved ones and ultimately leaving him with tens of thousands of pounds of debt.

We've changed Matthew's name to protect his identity.

Matthew's descent into addiction is heard in the phone calls he made to William Hill customer services. Matthew was able to get hold of these phone calls when he asked William Hill to send him all his personal data. In this data was a folder, with all the phone calls he ever made.

Matthew shared these calls with BBC Journalist Lydia Thomas.

You hear how Matthew is desperate for cash, constantly asking to withdraw it to his local William Hill shop using a facility called Quick Cash (which is now renamed CashDirect), he frantically places bets driving home from work at the school, he grows angry when he can't get his winnings fast enough, and he shouts and insults the customer service agents when he can't get what he wants.

Listening back to the phone calls Matthew tells Lydia how this happened why his behaviour changed so dramatically, and reflects on the person he is in the calls. We also uncover the failures of William Hill and the gambling industry to protect people like him.

PRESENTER: Matthew
PRODUCER: Lydia Thomas
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Josie Le Vay


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001k14l)
South Downs

Which herbs put you at ease? Which exotic fruits might it be possible to grow in our gardens in the future? Are there any themed gardens you dream of creating?  

The GQT panellists are back in Ditchling to answer these questions and more in front of a live audience. Ready to share their smart solutions to all your plant predicaments are RHS Wisley curator Matthew Pottage, horticultural pathologist Pippa Greenwood, and garden designer Juliet Sargeant. 

Alongside the questions, horticulturist and garden designer Cherry Carmen gives us plenty to pond-er with her tutorial on preparing your pond for spring.

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001k7lc)
Confessions of a Justified Sinner

John Yorke delves into James Hogg’s masterpiece of Gothic horror, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Presented as a ‘found document’, the confessions give a chilling insight into the mind of a murderer. This novel is a horror story, a mystery thriller, a psychological study of religious extremism, and at its heart lurks a serial killer. Despite being first published in 1824 it still has all the contemporary resonance, in the view of renowned crime writer Ian Rankin, to make a 21st century blockbuster movie.

John shares a lifetime of experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the secrets behind the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. He has been working in television and radio for nearly 30 years.

From East Enders 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.

Contributors
Professor Kirsteen McCue Professor of Scottish Literature and Song Culture (Scottish Literature), Glasgow University
James Robertson Author of The Testament of Gideon Mack among other novels

Reader: David Rankine
Researcher: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Producer: Mark Rickards
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama (m001k7lh)
Confessions of a Justified Sinner

The supernatural and psychological fuse together in James Hogg’s seminal novel about a young man radicalised by religious fervour, reimagined by Robert Forrest.

Robert Colwan believes that some people, including himself, are predestined to go to heaven regardless of their behaviour on earth.

If you have no price to pay for the crimes you commit, how murderous can you become?

And what, if anything, does that do to your psyche?

Cast:

Robert … Lorn Macdonald
Arabella … Shauna Macdonald
Bella …Wendy Seager

Studio Recordings by Niall Young
Sound Design and Original Music by Fraser Jackson

Directed by Kirsty Williams


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001k7lm)
Eleanor Catton

Eleanor Catton became the youngest ever winner of the Booker Prize for her novel The Luminaries; a story of love, murder and revenge set during New Zealand’s 19th century Gold Rush and ten years on her new novel is equally ambitious, Birnam Wood is an eco-thriller that pits big tech against environmental activism.
The novel takes its title from Macbeth but within the book Birnam Wood are a group of guerrilla gardeners who plant crops in places on the sides of roads, behind buildings, in neglected gardens. After a landslide leaves a large farm and its environs abandoned, Mira, the group’s leader, spots a perfect opportunity for the collective to take a step up when she becomes involved with Robert Lemoine, an American tech billionaire who has plans for a collaboration, but can they trust him? Eleanor talks to Chris Power about morality, deception and why she loves a high body!

And historian Lucy Worsley picks Jean Plaidy's The Young Elizabeth as her Book I'd Never Lend.

Book List
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael Sandel
The Young Elizabeth by Jean Plaidy
The Young Florence Nightingale by Jean Plaidy
The Young Mary Queen of Scots by Jean Plaidy
Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley


SUN 16:30 The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed (m001k7lr)
Glyn Maxwell

Glyn Maxwell grew up in Welwyn Garden City, which is where his conversation with Simon Armitage in the shed begins. His mother was in the original stage production of Under Milk Wood, so the young Maxwell was soon staging his own plays in the garden of his parents' house. Simon attended the first of these. They soon found themselves travelling together to make radio programmes and to write new poetry. Iceland came first, followed by the more challenging environment of the Amazon rainforest.

Join them in the shed as they look back on those times and also look forward to what's coming next, including eyeing up the garden around the shed as a possible site for a new drama...

Produced by Susan Roberts


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001k0qx)
Punished for being mentally ill

Suicide or attempted suicide is not a criminal offence. But, as Adrian Goldberg discovers, mentally ill people are still being punished for attempts to take their own lives. They can be charged with 'intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance,' 'railway trespass' or 'obstruction of highways.' File on 4 hears from people who believe they should have been given care and compassion rather than face criminalisation. The programme also investigates concerns over a scheme called Serenity Integrated Mentoring, or SIM, which was adopted by many NHS mental health trusts in England. It was designed to enable police and hospitals to cope with patients who regularly call the emergency services or arrive at hospitals having self-harmed, attempted suicide, or threatened to take their own life. When tagged under the system, patients can be denied care, prevented from seeing doctors or psychiatrists, and sent home.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Vicky Carter
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Production Manager: Sarah Payton
Production Coordinators: Tim Fernley and Jordan King
Editor: Carl Johnston

Details of organisations offering information and support with mental health or feelings of despair are available at:
www.bbc.co.uk/actionline


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001k7lw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001k7m0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001k7m4)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001k7m8)
A deal to rescue the troubled bank, Credit Suisse, looks likely to be confirmed


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001k7md)
Peter Curran

Writer, producer and broadcaster Peter Curran with a personal selection of highlights from the past week of BBC radio. Our 45-minute universe will expand from the production secrets of Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, to the sound of music legend Van Morrison, the lonely hearts of prisoners and guards, the poetry of Michelangelo, the vanity of scientists, and Margaret Atwood on the subject of a dead cat.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001k7mj)
Adam welcomes Debbie, who apologises for leaving in haste after the funeral. She’s enjoyed spending some time in Scotland with her father, Roger. She’s thrown by Brian’s intention to move from Willow Cottage. Adam remarks wryly that they all are. He shows Debbie the Bridge Farm edible garden, which impresses her. Debbie’s amazed Brian agreed to a new disc drill at Home Farm. Adam admits it was him, not Brian, who gave Stella the final go ahead to purchase. They both agree they’re happy at where they find themselves, even though it’s strange not having family involved so much in the farm. The loss of her mum, and the family home, has made Debbie realise how much where you come from matters. Adam tells her he’s started looking for his birth dad.
Adam reports to David that he, Kate and Alice have been to lay flowers on Jennifer’s grave for Mother’s Day. Later as David stocks up on chocolate to see him through lambing, Jim raises the EV charging station. It would add weight to their campaign if David got on board. David sighs that he’ll sign the petition but no more. Justin doesn’t think David should be hounded; the station application isn’t his responsibility. Whose is it then, challenges Jim. Justin insists it’s not unusual for companies not to make themselves obvious at this stage. Jim maintains that Brookfield is part of the problem. Justin warns David he might have trouble from Jim. Then Justin makes a call, advising the recipient he’s kept Damara’s name out of it.


SUN 19:15 The Ultimate Choice (m001k78j)
Series 1

Episode 5

Steph McGovern heads to Leeds to ask some seriously funny minds for their definitive answers to the great questions of our age. Or not. Welcome to the world's most devious game of Would You Rather? With guests Daliso Chaponda and Chris McCausland.

Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Daliso Chaponda and Chris McCausland.
Devised and written by Jon Harvey & Joseph Morpurgo
With additional material from Laura Major
Researcher: Leah Marks
Recorded and mixed by David Thomas
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Ed Morrish and Polly Thomas

Photo: Carolyn Mendelsohn

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:45 Funny Bones (b06f54s1)
Mary and the Fairy

A series of original stories in which Irish writers showcase their funny bones.

In this fantastically funny series, Yasmine Akram tells a tale of young woe and magical intervention. Tara Flynn takes us into the world of competitive baking and zombie hordes in 'Fete Worse than Death'. Finally, a trip to the cinema takes a surprising turn in a new story by comedian Maeve Higgins.

Writer, Yasmine Akram
Reader, Yasmine Akram
Producer, Jenny Thompson


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001k155)
Andrea Catherwood and Chief Executive of UK Music Jamie Njoku-Goodwin discuss how the audience will be affected by BBC plans to axe the BBC Singers and reduce staff posts in BBC orchestras in England.

Radio 4’s Antisocial presenter Adam Fleming and producer Lucy Proctor talk about the programme and respond to listeners’ comments.

Refugees Andriy and Olga are in the Vox Box to give us their take on how the Today programme covers the war in Ukraine.

And we hear a selection of listeners. comments on the issues of impartiality and independence at the BBC.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001k14v)
Chaim Topol, Zandra Flemister, Bill Tidy MBE, Avis Fawcitt

Matthew Bannister on

The actor and singer Chaim Topol (pictured), best known for his performances in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Zandra Flemister, the first African American woman to work as a Secret Service special agent.

The prolific cartoonist Bill Tidy MBE who created the Cloggies and The Fosdyke Saga.

Avis Fawcitt, the Leicestershire music teacher who devoted her life to the Orphean Youth and Concert Orchestra.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: John Collinge
Interviewed guest: Sylvia Tidy-Harris
Interviewed guest: Sir Tim Rice
Interviewed guest: Ian Stewart

Archive clips used: BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs – Chaim Topol 15/10/1983; BBC Radio 4, In The Public Eye 28/12/1967; Batjack Productions/ The Llenroc Productions/ The Mirisch Corporation, Cast A Giant Shadow (1966) film clip; Eon Productions, For Your Eyes Only (1981) film clip; Starling Films/ Famous Films (II)/ Dino De Laurentis Company, Flash Gordon (1980) film clip; The Mirisch Production Company/ Cartier Productions, Fiddler On The Roof (1971); BBC Radio 4, The World This Weekend, South Asian Earthquake 09/10/2005; BBC Radio 4 Extra, The Fosdyke Saga – Tripe War 21/07/2018; BBC Two, One Man’s Week – Bill Tidy 16/04/1975; BBC Radio 4, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue 21/01/1989; Jeremy Oakley personal archive, Avis Fawcitt actuality and music.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001k7mn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001k7kd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m001k0dj)
King Charles' Challenge

The Queen’s funeral appeared a resounding reassertion of our enduring commitment to monarchy, but was it a tribute to her rather than the institution? As the coronation approaches, polls suggest support is at its lowest ever, and the King faces difficult questions on several fronts.
As supreme Governor of the Church of England, congregation numbers are falling and divisions are deepening over its stance on gay marriage.
The union is under threat – what would the monarchy mean if Scotland votes for independence and Northern Ireland joins the Republic?
Commonwealth countries from the Caribbean to the Pacific are asking whether it still makes sense to keep a king in London as their head of state.
The coronation will be a grand reminder of our history, but hanging over everything is a dark chapter in that history; the monarchy’s role in the slave trade. If the King is to represent all his subjects, does he need to say sorry? And what about reparations?

Edward Stourton will unravel the challenges and ask how the King meets them.

Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producer: Jonathan IAnson
Editor: Clare Fordham


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001k7mw)
Nick Watt looks ahead to Boris Johnson's appearance before the Commons Privileges Committee and considers the government's policy of sending some migrants to Rwanda, with Conservative MP Conor Burns; Labour peer Jenny Chapman; and the Lib Dems' Treasury Spokesperson, Sarah Olney. They also discuss the key measures in the recent Budget and the Prime Minister's deal with the EU on trading arrangements for Northern Ireland. The political editor of the Daily Mail, Jason Groves, provides additional context and analysis.


SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001k7n1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04fy1c7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]

MONDAY 20 MARCH 2023

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001k7n5)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Sideways (m001k0x5)
43. Do I really sound like that?

Julie Matthias is in the middle of a regular shift at her hairdressing salon when she begins to feel really strange.

Julie is taken to hospital with the symptoms of a stroke, but doctors can find no evidence she has had one. Initially, Julie is unable to speak properly at all. But when her voice returns, friends start to notice something strange. Julie’s standard Southern British accent, typical for the Medway area of Kent where she lives, has disappeared. In its place is a new voice, a new accent, which leads strangers to think she's from another country entirely.

In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed wants to understand how our accents evolve, and what happens when they change.

Charting Julie’s journey to understand the condition she has developed, and why her accent has disappeared, Matthew uncovers the intricacies of our accents and how they form a part of our identity.

Delving into our obsession with accents, and the stereotypes we associate with them, Matthew discovers how our accents change throughout our lives, and how this can impact the way we are treated. As it turns out, the accent is not just in the voice of the speaker, but crucially, in the ear of the listener too.

With Jane Setter, Professor of Phonetics at the University of Reading; Nick Miller, Emeritus Professor of Motor Speech Disorders at Newcastle University; and Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer in Language, Linguistics and Communication at the University of Manchester.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Pippa Smith
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Naomi Clarke
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001k7n9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001k7nf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001k7nk)
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 (m001k7np)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001k7ns)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001k7nx)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Lorna Farrell, a Christian author and disability activist.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001k7p1)
20/03/23 Calls to re-open inquiry into shellfish deaths; shellfish industry; seasonal workers

Fishing crews on Teesside say the government must re-open inquiries into the die-off of crabs and lobsters, they say further dredging in the area is causing problems and is now affecting prawn catches. Thousands of crustaceans washed up on beaches in the autumn of 2021, and subsequently catches are massively down. Fishermen blame old industrial chemicals released by dredging. DEFRA first blamed algae and then after an inquiry said dredging was not to blame and the deaths were 'most likely' down to a new disease or parasite. Fishermen from the North East Fishing Collective also say existing schemes to support the local fishing industry won't help the small boats.

Shellfish producers are still struggling with changes in the wake of Brexit and also face difficulties because of measures designed to protect native oysters.All this week we're looking at shellfish, from farming to exporting. The Shellfish Association of Great Britain says some parts of the industry are doing well, but for others it's much harder.

A taskforce has been launched to safeguard the rights of seasonal workers. Retailers, growers, recruitment companies and employment experts have joined forces to improve the situation of people recruited abroad to work on UK farms. This year there are 45,000 visas available under the seasonal workers scheme, allowing people to come here for 6 months to work on farms or in food processing, with 10,000 more available if needed. However there have been concerns about the way the people are recruited and the potential for them to be exploited. The Seasonal Workers Scheme Taskforce believes they can make a difference.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


MON 05:56 Weather (m001k7p5)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09r7vd0)
Penny Anderson on the Garden Warbler

Ecologist Penny Anderson learns how to differentiate between the songs of Blackcap and Garden Warbler when to her delight she hears a Garden Warbler singing in the scrub patch in her garden.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: James Hanlon.


MON 06:00 Today (m001k7qd)
Join Mishal Husain and Justin Webb as, twenty years on, Today reflects upon the invasion of Iraq. Hear a special report from the BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen, who has returned to the country to examine the impact of the war.

Former health tsar Henry Dimbleby explains why he's resigned over what he says is the government's "insane" failure to act on obesity.

And to mark the equinox listen to a special recording of the sound of spring.

This episode of Today was edited by Laura Cooper and Kirsty Mackenzie. The studio director was Ben Andrews.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001k7qj)
Humanism - what is it good for?

The writer Sarah Bakewell explores the long tradition of humanist thought in her latest book, Humanly Possible. She celebrates the writers, thinkers, artists and scientists over the last 700 years who have placed humanity at the centre, while defying the forces of religion, fanatics, mystics and tyrants.

But placing humans at the centre isn’t without problems – critics point to its anthropocentric nature and excessive rationalism and individualism, as well its Euro-centric history. The philosopher Julian Baggini guides the listener in unpicking the tenets of humanism. His latest books is How to Think Like a Philosopher: Essential Principles for Clearer Thinking.

Humanism may have relegated the divine to the side lines, but for the characters in Leila Aboulela’s novels faith and devotion are integral to their sense of themselves. In her latest book, River Spirit, set in Sudan in the 1880s, her young protagonists struggle to survive and find love amidst the bloody struggle for Sudan itself.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Breaking Mississippi (m001k7qm)
6. Battlefield Mississippi

This is the explosive inside story of James Meredith's battle to smash the system of white supremacy in the most racially segregated state in 1960s America.

By becoming the first black person to apply to the all-white university of Mississippi – Meredith will draw in the KKK and JFK – and trigger the largest number of troops ever deployed for a single disturbance on US soil.

Across 10 episodes and with US public radio journalist Jenn White as our guide - James Meredith takes us from his childhood in rural Mississippi where racism runs deep – to a pivotal flashpoint in US civil rights history that will be described as the last battle of the American Civil War.

This could be our last opportunity to hear James Meredith tell this story in his own words and in a way that's never been heard before.

Episode Six: Battlefield Mississippi

With several hundred Federal Marshals facing a growing white mob on campus - the stage is set for what will be described as the last battle of the American Civil War.

Presenter: Jenn White
Producer: Conor Garrett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Anne Smith
Audio Engineer: Gary Bawden
Original Music Score: Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris. Recorded @ North Street West

Archive reproduced with the kind permission of: The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Mississippi State University, JFK Library, Getty Images, Huntley Film Archives, British Pathé Ltd, F.I.L.M Archives, Efootage, Historic Films, The Clarion Ledger – USA Today Network.
With special thanks to the University of Mississippi.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001k7qr)
Reality TV star Georgia Harrison on 'revenge porn', ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’, Fairness in sport, Romance on the bus.

Known for shows like Love Island and The Only Way is Essex, social media influencer Georgia Harrison talks to Nuala McGovern about her new TV documentary. It follows her successful legal battle against her former partner who filmed and shared a sex video of the two of them without her consent on the OnlyFans website

A couple’s creative bus stop marriage proposal has captured the hearts of social media users, after Nuala spotted and shared it last week. We hear from Alice Ehrlich who tweeted her to say “this bus stop is where it’s at”  after she got on a bus from that same stop and sat next to a man she'd go on to marry...

At the heart of the debate on whether transgender women athletes should compete in women's sport involves the complex balance of inclusion, sporting fairness and safety. It's likely to be firmly under the spotlight again in the coming weeks as World Athletics is expected to make a much anticipated decision on whether they will continue to allow transgender women to compete in female international track and field events. The BBC’s Alex Capstick will give us the latest and Nuala is joined by Dr Seema Patel from Nottingham Trent University and former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies to discuss.

In 2007, when she was just 19 years old, Reyhaneh Jabbari was sentenced to death for the murder of the man who tried to rape her. She spent seven years on death row, dying at the age of 26. She is heralded as a symbol of resistance for women in Iran and now a new documentary tells her story. ‘Seven Winters in Tehran’ brings together secretly filmed footage, and testimonies from family and friends Nuala talks to the director of the film Steffi Niederzoll and Reyhaneh’s mother Shole Pakravan.

Presenter Nuala McGovern
Producer Beverley Purcell


MON 11:00 How Ukraine Made Us Care (m001jbzc)
Since the 24th February 2022, in village halls and Twitter bios, the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag has become a familiar sight. Over 150,000 Ukrainian refugees have found temporary homes in the UK, many hosted by sympathetic British families inspired by coverage of the war. In Ukraine, Boris Johnson’s notoriety has led to streets and babies being named in his honour. And more recently, Britain made headlines by supplying Ukraine with a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks.

How did the UK come to be Ukraine’s biggest ally on the world stage? And how did Ukraine marshal such a massive wave of public support in the UK? Ash Bhardwaj explores what might be the most successful information campaign in history. In this documentary, Ash talks to the Ukrainians on the front lines of the information war, as well as the Brits best placed to turn support into arms.

From President Zelensky’s speeches invoking Shakespeare and the Battle of Britain to the gallows humour of viral TikToks about life in a war zone, he explores how over the past year Ukraine has cut through years of Russian disinformation and found a way to tell its story.

Presenter: Ash Bhardwaj
Producer: Artemis Irvine
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4


MON 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m001k7qx)
11. Christiana Edmunds

Lucy Worsley looks at the crimes of Victorian women from a contemporary, feminist perspective.

In the first case in her new series, Lucy explores the story of Christiana Edmunds, a respectable spinster who embarks on a mass poisoning spree when the man she loves fails to return her affection.

Lucy is joined by Dr Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist who has worked for many years at Broadmoor Hospital. Gwen offers fascinating insights into one of the most remarkable, and bizarre, cases of the Victorian era, a story of thwarted passion, lethal confectionery – and a very dangerous Lady Killer indeed.

When Christiana Edmunds and her elderly mother move to Brighton after a series of family bereavements, Christiana develops a dangerous romantic obsession with her doctor, Charles Beard, bombarding him with love letters. Happily married with small children, he asks Christiana to leave him alone, and she takes drastic action: she tries to kill his wife Emily with a chocolate she has poisoned with strychnine. Emily survives but to cover her tracks Christiana comes up with a devious, clever and deadly plan.

Rosalind Crone, Professor of History at the Open University, visits Brighton to explore how Christiana Edmunds procured her poison and presided over a reign of terror in the town in the early 1870s; and she goes to the Sussex County Archive to find out how the case gripped the public imagination and sent the press into a frenzy.

Lucy wants to know what might have caused Christiana to become a stalker and a poisoner? Was she driven mad by the boredom of her middle-class spinster life or was she just clever and devious? What would a psychiatrist, and a court of law, make of her today?

What does the case of Christiana Edmunds tell us about the lives of Victorian women, and about the lives of women today?

Producer: Jane Greenwood
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Series Producer: Julia Hayball

A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001k7r2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001k7r8)
Parking tickets, loyalty cards and flat-faced dogs

A year ago, the government announced changes to the way private car parks are managed including a cap on the maximum fine amount. But they're not in place yet, following a legal challenge from some parking companies. We'll hear why the industry thinks £50 isn't enough to stop people parking where they're not supposed to. Meanwhile, as a new campaign is launched urging people to think twice before buying flat-faced dogs like pugs, is the trend starting to level off? Avanti has been given an extension on its deal to run train services in the North West of England. We ask what that means for passengers. Also - how changes to the Boots Advantage Card point to a new approach by retailers to keeping our custom, and - three years on from lockdown - who's still wearing their tracksuits?
PRESENTER: FELICITY HANNAH
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


MON 12:57 Weather (m001k7rf)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001k7rk)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On (m001k7rq)
6. The Day After

Saddam’s regime in Iraq was removed quickly. But what came after proved disastrous as the country was plunged into chaos and violence. Was it always inevitable?

Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Producers: Ellie House, Claire Bowes
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore, Naked Productions
Production coordinators: Janet Staples, Brenda Brown
Series Editor: Penny Murphy


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001k7mj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (m001k7rt)
7 Ghosts

A contemporary ghost story that uses the supernatural to explore human relationships and connections, with a love story and historic injustice at its heart.

The drama explores the way the past shapes the present, and how someone’s present happiness might literally be built on someone else’s despair. The haunting of one London townhouse becomes a powerful metaphor for the varied legacies of slavery.

The seven ghosts in the drama are all different kinds, from different eras. Some are funny, some are sad. Some intervene in the world of the living. Some are unable to make contact and simply watch. Some we hear as they become a ghost. We even hear a ghost telling ghost stories.

The drama starts with a man going to bed on his own. Suddenly a woman is there. It’s his wife, but how did she get in? It’s impossible. It’s scary and emotional - they haven’t seen each other since the terrible car accident and the funeral. He can’t believe he can see her again. He wept for months because he missed her so much. He tries to touch her but of course his hand passes through her. We assume she’s a ghost come to visit him but, as the drama unfolds, we delve into the complexities and unexpected twists of the ghost world and how it connects with the living.

The writer, Dan Rebellato, is a leading dramatist and professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway University. He has written 19 individual dramas for BBC Radio 4, and has been shortlisted multiple times for Sony, BBC Audio and WGGB Awards. His last Radio 4 drama, You & Me, won Silver at the ARIAS 2022. He was the lead writer who masterminded the epic 20 hour Emile Zola epic on Radio 4 2015 – 2016. He has had stage commissions for Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Plymouth Drum, Suspect Culture and Graeae, Soho Theatre and National Theatre.

Cast:
David………………....................................Kobna Holdbrook Smith
Sarah…………………................................. Ani Nelson
Sir William…………………………….. .......David Annen
Lord Havers and Ejikeme…………….Don Gilet
Charlotte and Caroline Tobin………Sarah Berger
Robert and Elliot………………………....Max Runham
Florence and Isabelle………………… Fanta Barrie.

Producer …………………………….....Polly Thomas
Trainee Producer……………………Jelena Budimir
Sound Designer……………………..Eloise Whitmore
Original music………………………..Jeremy Walmsley
Illustration……………………………..Tessie Orange-Turner
Production Manager……………..Darren Spruce
Executive Producer………………Eloise Whitmore

Written by Dan Rebellato.

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001k7ry)
Series 36

Semi-final 2, 2023

(11/13)
The second batch of heat winners from the 2023 series line up at London's Radio Theatre for a semi-final contest, which will determine which of them goes through to the 36th Counterpoint Final.

Which cellist played at the wedding ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? Which new opera was premiered in 2022 based on a book by Virginia Woolf? Which Prince songs have been no.1 hits for other artists? The competitors will need to muster their knowledge of music across many different genres - and there are plenty of musical extracts to identify along the way.

Today's contest is between:
Jo East from Orpington in Kent,
Kathryn Johnson from Northwood in Middlesex,
Shanine Salmon from Croydon.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001k7kx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Talking of Michelangelo - the Poet (m001k10m)
In 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' T. S. Eliot writes:

'In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.'

It is, we assume, his sculpture or painting the women are discussing. But Eliot, the poet, might have Michelangelo's, verse in mind; Buonarroti Michelangelo wrote more than 300 poems.

Michelangelo's achievement in other fields overshadows his contribution to literature. But there might be another reason. When he was 57 Michelangelo met Tommaso de' Cavalieri, who was 24, and wrote a sequence of love sonnets addressed to him - the first sequence of poems addressed by one man to another since classical times. It predates Shakespeare's 'fair youth' sonnets by half a century. But when his grandnephew published Michelangelo's poems for the first time, in 1623, he changed the pronouns to the feminine.

400 years later the poet Andrew McMillan investigates Michelangelo's poems, talking to Dr Ambra Moroncini, who, as Senior Lecturer, teaches them at the University of Sussex; to Professor Konrad Eisenbichler who, as well as literature, taught a course on sexuality and gender in the Renaissance at the University of Toronto.

Colin Matthews, who was Benjamin Britten's assistant, talks about his 'Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo'. The composer's setting was a love gift to his partner, Peter Pears.

McMillan discovers growing interest in Michelangelo's poems today, especially among queer writers. Alex Cocker has just published 'Say, Spirit' in which they make versions of the sonnets, each three times, in the voices of three imagined translators.

They all talk of Michelangelo - the poet - and we hear his poems, translated by James M. Saslow, read by Sir Simon Russell Beale.

Presenter: Andrew McMillan
Producer: Julian May


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m001k7s4)
Series 28

Retreat

When the world feels as overwhelming as it has in recent years, it can be hard to fully disengage. Aleks Krotoski discovers the value of retreat, both on and offline.

We take a trip to the the Highlands of Scotland, visiting a tiny, powerless bothy on the Inschriach Estate. Writer Dan Richards found that this isolated retreat allowed him to process a traumatic near-death experience when nothing else helped.

Artist Laurel Schwulst invites us into the 'Firefly Sanctuary' in Brooklyn, New York. It's her apartment, so it's a personal sanctuary, but it's also a sanctuary for strangers. She shares it online via an appropriately relaxing lo-fi website. It's a sanctuary in a URL.

Author and memoirist Katherine May defined her own personal retreat from the world as, 'wintering'. A series of difficult life events pushed her into retreat from the world. At first, she felt overwhelmed by the feeling of the world continuing without her, until she learned to surrender to her own personal 'winter' and saw the value in disconnecting for a while.

In East Lothian, a twice-weekly trip to the Macmerry Men's Shed provides a consistent, revitalising sense of retreat. The largely elderly members derive enormous benefits from being seen and seeing others, and their visits allow them to escape from their day-to-day lives and worries, if only for a few hours at a time.

Producer: Victoria McArthur
Presenter: Aleks Krotoski
Researcher: Emily Esson


MON 17:00 PM (m001k7s8)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001k7sd)
A major review warns the world will likely pass dangerous temperatures next decade.


MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (m001k7sj)
Series 17

Episode 5

John Lloyd and Anna Ptaszynski welcome journalist Isabel Hardman, cop turned comedian Alfie Moore and physicist Dr Jessica Wade to the museum this week for an episode full of discovery, deception, and a very frustrated bee.

The Museum’s exhibits were catalogued by Mike Turner, Mandy Fenton and Lydia Mizon of QI.

Producer: Sam Holmes & Leying Lee
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound: David Thomas

A BBC Studios production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001k7sn)
Clarrie’s not liking the new window in the Bridge Farm dairy at all. Susan soothes her. They’ll get used to it and it will be good for business. She suggests they have a practice with the microphone, and poses Clarrie some sample questions. Clarrie gets flustered and can’t answer any of them. They swap places – Susan will show Clarrie how it’s done. However Susan doesn’t do much better at the hands of Clarrie’s questioning. Clarrie’s smug, but Susan reckons it’ll be fine when they’re doing it for real.
Ruth and David have their hands full – a lamb’s had a dog bite, and Ben’s deserted his B&B duties in favour of visiting Sykesy. Things go from bad to worse when Ben returns to break the news there’s a disturbance at the entrance to the farm. It’s a demonstration against the EV charging station, led by Jim. The placards read ‘Stop the Brookfield car park’ and ‘Brookfield collusion concretes countryside’. David lays into Jim, while Ben tries in vain to mediate. David calls the police, who won’t attend unless they break the law. Jim maintains the protest is peaceful, and David notes they’re being careful not to trespass. Jim’s called the press. Ben suggests they let him have his publicity photo and then he’ll go, but David doesn’t want Brookfield’s name dragged through the mud. He moves a stack of bales between Jim’s protest spot and the farmhouse, ensuring the house is protected from view and Jim won’t get his picture. Jim promises David he hasn’t heard the last of this.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001k7ss)
Lisa O’Neill performs live, Dance of Death from the National Theatre of Norway

Irish singer songwriter Lisa O’Neill talks to Samira Ahmed about her latest album, All Of This Is Chance, and performs live in the Front Row studio.

The National Theatre of Norway have brought their production of Strindberg’s Dance of Death to the UK. Director Marit Moum Aune explains what led her to delve into the work of Strindberg, and acclaimed Norwegian actor Pia Tjelta reveals how she connected to her character.

Africa’s biggest film festival, FESPACO, has just taken place in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. The biannual festival is a showcase for African talent and a marketplace for the industry. Film curator Carmen Thompson talks Samira through the upcoming African films to look out for.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Tim Prosser


MON 20:00 The Great Inflation (m001k7ll)
A hundred years ago, Germany was in the grip of the worst hyperinflation the world has ever seen. Nothing before or since has matched the speed and precipitous fall of the Reichsmark.

It lost 99.9% of its post-war value in 1923, and this unimaginable loss of confidence in the currency left the German government and population reeling.

We’re all familiar with the famous photographs of wheelbarrows full of cash to pay for one bus ticket, children playing with wads of notes as building blocks, families pasting trillion-mark banknotes onto their walls, more useful now as wallpaper than money. But what was it really like to live through that year of horror? Lenin reputedly said that ‘if you want to corrupt a country you must start by corrupting its currency’.

The consequences of 1923 were not just misery, suffering and starvation but also a moral degeneration - the excesses of the tail-end of the Weimer Republic and the political catastrophe which followed.

Allan Little goes to Germany to investigate the causes and consequences of hyperinflation. Who were the losers? Who were the winners – making fortunes out of the total collapse of the country? Allan examines how the collective memory of this traumatic experience in 1923 has shaped German fiscal, economic and social policy ever since.

The deutschmark became the symbol of stability, pride and confidence for a nation who couldn’t celebrate its war heroes or recent history. How have generations of German policy makers, with their abhorrence of debt and stringent adherence to sound money, influenced European Union fiscal and social policy?

The lingering effects of that cataclysmic year, a century ago, can still be felt in German society today.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 20:30 Analysis (m001k7sw)
Is Britain exceptional?

Is Britain Exceptional? Historian, author and Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel believes so, and sifts through the layers of Britain’s culture, politics and religious history to find the roots for the nation’s scientific, intellectual and cultural dynamism and the germ for today’s culture wars.
With the help of leading historians, political activists and scientists, Zoe examines whether Britain's obsession with the glories of 'our finest hour': WWII determined a version of history that eclipsed inconvenient truths that contradict our national myths and identity. She asks whether Britain's 'long island story' has really been as unruptured and stable as commonly believed, revealing a much more compelling Britishness forged out of military conflict abroad and religious and political turmoil at home.

Does the secret to Britain's historical dynamism in scientific discovery, philosophy and culture reside in dissent from religious and political orthodoxy, rather than unstinting allegiance? Has the hidden history of religious noncomformity - a rebellion within a rebellion - been the hothouse encouraging creative genius to flourish?
Zoe meets the modern-day heirs to noncomformity to examine how Britain's unwillingness to put culture at the heart of our holdall national identity has led to tolerance and cultural diversity on the one hand, but also an acceptance of inequality. This might be the cause of our lost sense of who we are and what Britain is now for; perhaps we need to learn from and incorporate our unexamined history to shake off self-loathing, embrace eccentricity and regain the creative dynamism we now lack.

Presenter: Zoe Strimpel
Producer: David Reid
Editor: Clare Fordham


MON 21:00 Troubled Water (m001k7sy)
Are We Running Out of Water?

How clean is the water in our rivers? In this episode presenter James Gallagher talks to people who swim in them, and are worried they could be putting their health at risk. He speaks to a recreational fisherman who spends his spare time as a so called citizen scientist monitoring his local river for pollutants. James then meets up with Yvette de Garis the Head of Environmental Engagement with Thames Water, and asks her why there is sewage in our rivers and what the company is doing to stop it happening.

Presenter: James Gallagher

Producer: Alun Beach

Executive Producer: Martin Smith


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001k7qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001k7t1)
Twenty years on from Iraq invasion

Also on the programme:

The death of a head teacher prompts calls for Ofsted inspections to be paused. We speak to a former education secretary.

A major UN report warns that if the catastrophic effects of global warming are to be slowed, there will need to be radical reductions in the use of fossil fuels. But the UN's top climate official tells us there is still time to act.

And a heated debate on whether the Elgin Marbles should be loaned to Greece by the British Museum.


MON 22:45 Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry (m001k7t3)
Episode 6

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

The Author
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. The 2018-21 Laureate for Irish Fiction, his novels have twice won the Costa Book of the Year award, the Independent Booksellers Award and the Walter Scott Prize. He had two consecutive novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, A Long Long Way (2005) and the top ten bestseller The Secret Scripture (2008), and has also won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in County Wicklow.

Reader: Stanley Townsend
Author: Sebastian Barry
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


MON 23:00 I Feel Therefore I Am (m001j43d)
From Facts to Feelings

Where once facts, evidence and rationality were the path to knowledge, now the logic of feeling, of ‘my truth’ and ‘lived experience’ offers an alternative. Do we know our world through objective facts, or through subjective feelings?

It’s become easy to explain this fault line as something peculiarly modern, a cocktail of culture wars and social media frenzy. But is this right? Could there be a longer, deeper and more complicated story? The history of the rational Enlightenment is familiar, but we don’t talk so much about how and why we might have come to privilege personal feelings and experiences.

Professor Abigail Williams begins with the cultural notion that personal feelings matter and individual experience might in some ways be the ultimate truth. From the cult of sensibility to the birth of Romanticism, Freud's couch to Oprah Winfrey's celebrity interviews, how does feeling offer a different way of seeing the world?

Producer: Julia Johnson
Presenter: Abigail Williams
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001k7t5)
Susan Hulme reports as MPs debate rail delays - and strikes.

TUESDAY 21 MARCH 2023

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001k7t7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Breaking Mississippi (m001k7qm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001k7t9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001k7tc)
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 (m001k7tf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001k7th)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001k7tk)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Lorna Farrell, a Christian author and disability activist.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001k7tm)
21/03/23 Henry Dimbleby stands down from Defra; Mussels; Bovine TB in people.

The government's "Food Tsar" Henry Dimbleby has resigned as the lead non executive director at DEFRA after what he called an "insane" lack of action on obesity. His National Food Strategy was comprehensive but many aspects of it were ignored. This week he publishes a book called "Ravenous", which pulls together his blueprint for government, the food industry, health and land use. He's calling for a Good Food Bill.

All week we're talking about the future of the shellfish industry including crabs, lobsters, shrimps and bivalves, like mussels. One of the leading growers of mussels in Wales is Deepdock Mussels based along the waters of the Menai Strait off Angelsey. The company says since Brexit, the water monitoring for cleanliness is interpreted differently by the UK government than EU member states, and it puts them at a disadvantage.

We often talk about bovine TB affecting cattle, but researchers from the University of Bristol are trying to understand why the incidence of people catching the bovine strain of TB are increasing and whether farmers are particularly at risk. 20 years ago there were about 20 cases of bovine TB in people a year - more recent figures record about 40 cases a year and in the South West in particular, show about 8% of all cases of TB in people are caused by the bovine strain, known as M. bovis. Heather Simons went to an event where farmers were doing a blood test as part of the research project - in return for a free lunch.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b096j14l)
Stephen Moss on the Bittern

In the third of five recollections about his encounters with birds, writer and wildlife programme-maker Stephen Moss recalls the first time he saw a Bittern - a bird which whilst it produces a loud booming call can be quite elusive.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Czech Conroy.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001k7tp)
A damning report has found "institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia" within the Metropolitan Police. Today's Mishal Husain and Nick Robinson, are joined by the report's author Baroness Louise Casey in her first interview, and the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Is the way we inspect schools is fit for purpose? We speak to the former head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw.

And the comedian Omid Djalili, whose parents are from Iran's Baháʼí Faith community, discusses Nowruz - Persian new year.

This episode of Today was edited by Laura Cooper and Jade Bogart-Preleur. The studio director was Pete Wise.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001k7tt)
James Jackson on understanding earthquakes and building resilience

Since 1900, our best estimates suggest that earthquakes have caused around 2.3 million deaths worldwide; we saw the devastating effects of one just recently, in Turkey and Syria. And as scientists have been at pains to point out over the years, there is no reliable short-term warning system.

But thanks to the work of people like James Jackson, an Emeritus Professor of Active Tectonics at the University of Cambridge, we are finding new ways of understanding and withstanding seismic activity.

James tells Jim Al-Khalili about his career travelling the world in search of quake sites and fault lines – trialling new technology and techniques in a quest to understand the processes that shake and shape our planet’s surface; and working out how this information can help vulnerable cities become more resilient to quakes in future...

Produced by Lucy Taylor.


TUE 09:30 One to One (m001k7tw)
Angellica Bell meets Alice Bearn

Presenter Angellica Bell talks to therapist Alice Bearn about starting new chapters in life. From cycling, to running to finding a new job - what are the barriers to making change?

Producer: Melanie Pearson
A BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 09:45 Breaking Mississippi (m001k7vg)
7. No Man's land

This is the explosive inside story of James Meredith's battle to smash the system of white supremacy in the most racially segregated state in 1960s America.

By becoming the first black person to apply to the all-white university of Mississippi – Meredith will draw in the KKK and JFK – and trigger the largest number of troops ever deployed for a single disturbance on US soil.

Across 10 episodes and with US public radio journalist Jenn White as our guide - James Meredith takes us from his childhood in rural Mississippi where racism runs deep – to a pivotal flashpoint in US civil rights history that will be described as the last battle of the American Civil War.

This could be our last opportunity to hear James Meredith tell this story in his own words and in a way that's never been heard before.

Episode Seven: No Man's Land

As the teargas clears, there are more US army troops on campus than there are students and Meredith is being subjected to relentless harassment and intimidation.

Presenter: Jenn White
Producer: Conor Garrett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Production Co-ordinator: Anne Smith
Audio Engineer: Gary Bawden
Original Music Score: Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris. Recorded @ North Street West

Archive reproduced with the kind permission of: The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Mississippi State University, JFK Library, Getty Images, Huntley Film Archives, British Pathé Ltd, F.I.L.M Archives, Efootage, Historic Films, The Clarion Ledger – USA Today Network.
With special thanks to the University of Mississippi.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001k7v0)
The Baroness Casey Review with Dame Lynne Owens & Claire Waxman, Dance your way home, Narcissistic mother

Baroness Louise Casey has today published the final report on her review into the Metropolitan Police. Joining Nuala McGovern to discuss the findings are a female metropolitan police officer, Deputy Commissioner of the Met Police Dame Lynne Owens and London Victim's Commissioner, Claire Waxman, who works alongside the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that victim's voices are heard and discriminatory barriers are tackled.

The music journalist Emma Warren has written Dance Your Way Home - part-cultural history, part-memoir – which looks at the ordinary dancing we might do in our kitchens when a favourite tune comes on and speaks to the heart of what it is that makes us move. She joins Nuala to discuss why dance is a language that connects and resonates across time and space.

In the first of a new series 'Narcissistic Mothers' Ena Miller meets 'Charlotte' who had a revelation in therapy - she now believes her late mother was a narcissist. How did that shape her life?

Presented by Nuala McGovern
Producer: Louise Corley


TUE 11:00 The Spark (m001k7v2)
Annie Duke and quitting

Annie Duke, ex-poker player and decision strategist, on how to choose when to quit.

Duke, the author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, tells Helen Lewis how she has set out to understand and challenge our inherent bias towards sticking with what we know, and keeping going even when all the signs are telling us to stop. This ranges from leaving jobs and relationships, to mountaineering, to politicians' decisions on war. Duke tells Helen how her analysis also draws on her personal experience - from quitting her PhD, to learning when to fold in poker. She argues not that 'quit' is always the right decision, but that it deserves an equal seat at the table with 'grit'.

Producer: Phil Tinline


TUE 11:30 Rethinking Music (m001k7v4)
Sounding the Future

What could the future of music education in the UK look like? In the final part of the series Soweto Kinch looks at how to keep music education relevant to today's world and tomorrow's musicians.

How are we going to ensure that systemic barriers to music are reduced? We visit Tomorrow’s Warriors, a jazz scheme in London that has diversity at its core, and is building bridges with conservatoires and the industry. The charity Youth Music argues that the curriculum could better cater to the young people of today by reflecting their passions and making it more relevant to today’s world. Ben Turner, a former classroom music teacher, tells us how his cohort of students completely changed his approach to education, and how a lunchtime Rap Club ended up forging a path for them into the industry. At DJ School UK in Leeds, we dig into the inclusivity of technology, and reconsider the way music is taught. Soweto asks how access to music and the way we teach it could change the cultural landscape of Britain.

Soweto Kinch looks at music education across the UK and assesses how cutbacks and policy changes over the years are playing out. What impact is decades of underfunding going to have on our economy, culture, and children's development? How are new National Plans for Music announced last year going to address the situation across the UK? Reflecting on his own route to music, Soweto asks what music education could look like, and how much it matters if we don't get it right. Contributors include Nicola Benedetti, Anna Meredith, Nubya Garcia, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, Jamie Njoku-Goodwin and a range of music professionals and providers across the UK.

Produced by Megan Jones and Amelia Parker

Photo: Tomorrow's Warriors (credit Graeme Miall)


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001k7vl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001k7v8)
Call You and Yours - Do you volunteer?

Following the launch of The Big Help Out, an initiative to encourage people to get involved with volunteering as part of the coronation of King Charles, the question we are asking on this week's Call You and Yours is:

Do you volunteer?

The voluntary sector has a workforce which is almost a million strong according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and it has grown by more than a quarter in the past decade.

Are you one of those people dedicating your time and skills to a charity or your local community? What motivates you to do it and what do you get out of it?

Or are you someone who has been helped by volunteers - what impact has it had on your life?

We want to hear from you.

Email us now: youandyours@bbc.co.uk and do leave us your phone number so we can call you back.

And from 11am on Tuesday the 21st of March you can call us on 03700 100 444.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001k7vb)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001k7vf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


TUE 13:45 Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On (m001k7vk)
7. Terror

The invasion of Iraq was supposed to be about dealing with security threats but the chaos would turbo-charge extremism both within Iraq and in the UK. How far did Iraq make the threats worse and were warnings ignored?

Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Producers: Ellie House, Claire Bowes
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore, Naked Productions
Production coordinators: Janet Staples, Brenda Brown
Series Editor: Penny Murphy


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001k7sn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Deacon (m001k7vp)
Deacon: A Reckoning

By Edson Burton. The enigmatic drifter is back to help a troubled soul. James Persad has lost his wife Mavis, and he too seems lost. Can Deacon help? New supernatural drama starring Don Warrington and Ram John Holder.

CAST
Deacon - Don Warrington
James Persad - Ram John Holder
Mavis - Sutara Gayle
Michael - Lee Mengo
Ryan - Tristan Slowley
Youth - Hasan Dixon

Sound Design - Nigel Lewis
Producer - John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001k7vr)
Series 34

Dig for Joy!

Listen to the music of decomposing mushrooms, look through a photographer's lens at a surprising streak of streaking in the 1970s, and explore the world of a Danish hospital clown who opens up a pocket of a different reality.

Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about the joys that lurk beneath the surface of things.

Mushroom Music
Featuring Mati Araoz
Produced by Seb Masters

A Different Reality
Featuring Boaz Barkan
Produced by Nanna Hauge Kristensen

The Streak!
Featuring Ron Harr
Including original compositions by Alan Goffinski
Produced by Alan Goffinski

Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m001k7p0)
Jobs for a Green Future

UK commitments to phase out gas boilers and petrol cars may be good news for the environment, but do we have the skill to realise our ambitions? Where are all the trained workers able to fit heat pumps in our homes and electric car chargers along our roads? In this programme, Tom Heap joins trainees as they learn the skills they'll need in a greener economy, and asks how we will staff up the next industrial revolution.

Presented by Tom Heap and produced by Emma Campbell.


TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m001k7vt)
The State of Prosecutions

New evidence shows that if a rape case actually comes to court, then - despite popular perceptions - juries are more likely to convict than not, says Professor Cheryl Thomas of UCL.

The UK’s forensic science used to be considered the gold standard, but no longer. The risk of miscarriages of justice is growing. And now a new Westminster Commission is trying to find out what went wrong. Joshua talks to its co-chair, leading forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop CBE, and to criminal defence barrister Katy Thorne KC.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill KC speaks to Joshua about all this, and about his record as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. Max Hill also breaks the news that he will not seek a second term.

From Epstein to Trump: are America’s rich and powerful above the law? The former New York prosecutor and now CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig argues that they are, and has just written a book about this: 'Untouchable — How powerful people get away with it'.

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
Editor: Simon Watts
Sound engineer: James Beard
Picture credit: Nicholas Posner


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001k7vw)
Katherine May and Liz Berry

Author Katherine May and poet Liz Berry talk to Harriett Gilbert about their favourite books. Liz loves A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa, a powerful blend of memoir and literary investigation where the past bleeds into the present. Katherine is inspired by These Wilds Beyond Our Fences by Bayo Akomolafe, framed as letters from the author to his young daughter as he tries to make sense of the world that she has been born into. And Harriett chooses Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, a triumphant feminist fable and sweet revenge comedy which celebrates the life and times of protagonist Elizabeth Zott.

Comment on instagram: @agoodreadbbc
Produced by Becky Ripley


TUE 17:00 PM (m001k7vy)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001k7w2)
A review says a "boys club" culture is rife and the force may have to be broken up if it doesn't improve


TUE 18:30 Mark Watson Talks a Bit About Life (m001k7w5)
Series 4

Saturday's Child Is...

Multi-award-winning comedian and author Mark Watson continues his probably doomed, but luckily funny quest to make sense of the human experience.

This series is about time - the days of the week, the stages of our existence - and the way we use it to make sense of things. We've been making our way through the working week and tonight we reward ourselves with the weekend. Saturday's child 'works hard for a living'. But is that really what life's about? Would it be better to simply smell the flowers, like Sunday's child? Also, why did Mark recently claim to have been in prison?

Expect jokes, observations and interactions galore as is Mark aided, and sometimes obstructed, by the sardonic musical excellence of Flo & Joan. There's also a hand-picked comedy colleague each week - tonight, we close it out with Zoe Lyons.

Producer: Lianne Coop

An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001k7mc)
Harrison drops into the vet surgery and tells Paul about the spate of dog attacks on sheep. Paul promises they’ll do their bit to spread the word among their clients regarding keeping dogs on a lead. Paul knows from Denise that Harrison played Jesus in the Ambridge Mystery Plays. He asks if there are any other productions planned that he could get involved in. Harrison has to disappoint him. There’s nothing doing at the moment. However he suggests Paul might want to get involved in the Eurovision committee celebrating the event. Paul declares he loves everything Eurovision – count him in!
Debbie’s slightly perturbed by the amount of decluttering Brian’s doing prior to his move. She suggests he join her for dinner at Kate’s later as he has no plans, but Brian’s happy to be on his own tonight. When Debbie calls at the shop, Joy confirms with Justin that she’s Jennifer’s daughter. Remembering how seeing her mum’s scarf upset Alice, Joy rushes past Debbie. She’s wearing it again and is keen for it not to have the same effect. Debbie’s puzzled by Joy’s evasion. Joy heads to Brian’s to return everything of Jennifer’s she bought at the bring and buy, including a brooch. Brian insists she keep it. He’s helping her with the catch when Debbie walks in and misinterprets the situation. Brian protests his innocence, but Debbie’s seen it all before, and doesn’t believe him. When Joy explains the brooch was Jennifer’s, it makes things worse. Debbie declares Brian doesn’t change. She's just grateful her mum doesn’t know.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001k7w9)
Danny Lee Wynter and play Black Superhero; badly behaved theatre audiences; violinist Pekka Kuusisto

Are theatre audiences behaving badly? After recent complaints, we discuss expectations of audience etiquette. Tom is joined by: Dr Kirsty Sedgman, Lecturer in Theatre at University of Bristol, researcher of audiences, and author of The Reasonable Audience: Theatre Etiquette, Behaviour Policing, And The Live Performance Experience; Lyn Gardner, theatre critic and Associate Editor of The Stage; and by front of house worker Bethany North.

British composer Anna Clyne and Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto discuss their new collaborations, including this week’s premiere of Anna’s clarinet concerto, Weathered, at the Royal Festival Hall in London, which Pekka will conduct. Plus they talk about their forthcoming partnership at the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in which Anna and Pekka will serve as Composer-in-Residence and Artistic Co-Director respectively.

Plus, actor turned playwright Danny Lee Wynter on his new play Black Superhero at the Royal Court Theatre in London – revealing a world where fantasy and reality meet with devastating consequences.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Simon Richardson

(Main image credit: Ajamu X)


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001k7wf)
Rental Health: The Social Housing Perfect Storm?

Social housing providers say they are under more financial pressure than ever before.
The sector has warned long-term Government funding cuts and the cost of improving homes to meet new fire safety laws, have now been compounded by high inflation, to create a perfect storm of pressure.
But is it vulnerable tenants who are paying the price?
File on 4 investigates record complaints about social housing providers and hears allegations of "degrading" treatment by some social housing providers.
Reporter Iona Bain also uncovers failings by a housing provider which led to raw sewage flooding into residents' flats.

Reporter: Iona Bain
Producer: Ben Robinson
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Clare Fordham


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001k7wl)
NHS Backlogs and Avoidable Sight Loss; The CSUN Assistive Technology Conference

New data suggests that hundreds of ophthalmology patients are experiencing avoidable and irreversible harm to their vison by not being able to access NHS appointments. Over 70% of optometrists in the UK have also said they have seen a patient in the last six months who had experienced a delay to treatment of 12 months or more. Ophthalmology within the NHS is one of the biggest outpatient specialty and is experiencing severe pressure under patient need. So could a nationalised eye health strategy from Government be the answer? The Association of Optometrists and the Macular Society think so. We speak to Farah Topia, Optometrist and Clinical Advisor for the AOP and to the Macular Society's chief executive, Cathy Yelf.

The CSUN Assistive Technology Conference in California concluded last week. It is the world's largest event dedicated to exploring new ways technology can assist people with disabilities. Dave Williams from the RNIB was in attendance and he tells us what kind of exciting new technologies are in development.

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 (m001k7mm)
Did Covid turn us into teeth grinders?

James Gallagher finds out if we've turned into a nation of grinders after reports from dentists of increased clenching and cracking of teeth. Margaret McCartney answers your feedback about the new weight-loss drug, exercise for your back, sperm counts and then goes for retail therapy with James to discover how useful shopping data could be for understanding our health.


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m001k7tt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001k7wq)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry (m001k7wv)
Episode 7

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

The Author
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. The 2018-21 Laureate for Irish Fiction, his novels have twice won the Costa Book of the Year award, the Independent Booksellers Award and the Walter Scott Prize. He had two consecutive novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, A Long Long Way (2005) and the top ten bestseller The Secret Scripture (2008), and has also won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in County Wicklow.

Reader: Stanley Townsend
Author: Sebastian Barry
Abridger: Rowan Routh
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland Production.


TUE 23:00 Please Use Other Door (m00146x2)
Series 1

Episode 1

Highlights from the first show include a series of sketches in which a goose has enrolled as a police officer, somehow getting through the very tight vetting procedures. There’s a character sceptical about time, and a doll-baby so realistic she’s more of a nightmare than a toy.

Performed by; Gabby Best, Will Hartley, Chris Ryman, Rebecca Shorrocks, Witney White and Toby Williams

The series of four is written by; Kat Butterfield and Dan Audritt, Sophie Dickson, Laura Major, Rob Darke, Alex Nash and Sam South, Ed Amsden and Tom Coles, Cody Dahler, Toby Williams, Ed Tew, Anna Goodman, Imogen Andrews, Matt Harrison, Carwyn Blayney, Natasha Dhanraj, Alice Etches and Nathalie Antonia, Chris Ryman, Simon Alcock, Leigh Douglas, Chazz Redhead, Paul F Taylor, Jo Wiggins, Cameron Loxdale, Lewis Cook, Owen Petty, Tom Oxenham, Rebecca Heitlinger and Bill Dare.

Production Co-ordinators Beverly Tagg and Sarah Sharpe
Sound Design Rich Evans
Music composed by Bill Dare and produced by Iona C Vallance
Artwork Lucy Jagger

Produced and created by Bill Dare
BBC Studios Production


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001k7wz)
Sean Curran reports on MPs' reaction to the Home Secretary's statement on the Casey Review into the Metropolitan Police.