SATURDAY 25 MAY 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001zdvh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton (m001zdt2)
Episode 5: We Know Too Much

Caroline Crampton explores the history of hypochondria, drawing together cultural history and moving personal memoir.

When she was 17, Caroline Crampton developed a blood cancer which was diagnosed when a tumour appeared on her neck. After several rounds of gruelling treatment, including chemotherapy and weeks in an isolation ward, the doctors announced that her cancer was cured. But – understandably – Caroline herself was not so sure. Ever alert to new symptoms, feeling anxiously for new tumours on her neck, she worries continually that the cancer has returned.

‘The fear that there is something wrong with me, that I am sick, is always with me.’

This personal experience becomes the starting point for an exploration of the history of hypochondria or health anxiety, from the ancient Greeks to the modern wellness industry. It is, she says, ‘an ancient condition which makes itself anew for every age’.

In this episode, Caroline explores how the internet feeds health anxiety, ‘acting like a megaphone for a hypochondriac’. She tells the story of how Tik Tok videos produced during lockdown sparked an epidemic of symptoms, around Tourette’s syndrome in particular. And she reflects on what she’s learned in the five years spent researching the history of hypochondria:

"There are no perfect neat endings, no matter how much our instincts tell us to seek them out. During an early discussion about the book, someone asked me whether I would be giving it a happy ending. “Perhaps you could talk about the cure for hypochondria?” she said, hopefully. I think I made a joke, probably something about how it would make for a better story if I died from one of my imaginary ailments…"

Caroline Crampton is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Granta, the New Humanist, and the Spectator. Her previous book The Way to the Sea (2019) is a journey down the Thames from source to sea. She hosts the Shedunnit podcast about detective fiction.

The reader, Tuppence Middleton, is a British actress known for her stage and screen roles in Downton Abbey, The Imitation Game, His Dark Materials and The Motive and the Cue.

Find all the latest books at the bottom of the Sounds homepage. Just click on the Books collection.

Produced and abridged by Elizabeth Burke and Heather Dempsey
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
This is an EcoAudio certified production.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001zdvk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001zdvm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001zdvp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001zdvr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001zdvt)
What is Pentecost?

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Haydon Spenceley

Good morning.

Just under a week ago we marked Pentecost in the Christian year. Pentecost is one of those things that a lot of people have heard of or heard about but not many people can put their finger on what it actually is. Pentecost for the church marks the completion of Jesus’s promise to send the holy spirit both to be with and to guide those who love God. Like so many things in the Bible it can seem like something for ‘then’ rather than now. But wouldn’t it be something pretty special, splendid even if, after all, we’re not really on our own.

From the very first in life we rely on other people. I’ve been doing that all my life and however hard I try not to I find I’m consistently reliant on others to do some pretty straightforward things. Recently a taxi driver complained about my being a wheelchair user, swore at having to put my chair in his boot and then muttered darkly about the state of the road outside my house. But while I was his passenger I was both a client and also somewhat reliant on him and at his mercy. His mood magically changed on arrival at my destination when it turned out other people were also there. For a brief moment though I was aware of my vulnerability and a rising anxiety.

Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit means that wherever the Christian person goes, God is with them. They are never alone. What a gift, as it was for me during my taxi journey, to know that kind of peace.

Father, help me to know your peace today and to share it with those I meet so that the world can be a better place for all.

Amen


SAT 05:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001zdvw)
Yoga

Although yoga is thought to have been practised for over 5,000 years, its myriad benefits for our health and wellbeing are still being uncovered. Professor Rima Dada from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi reveals the extraordinary findings into the benefits of yoga - how half an hour a day can slow down ageing at a cellular level by protecting your mitochondria and your DNA. It can also improve your brain health and even reduce symptoms of depression. Just a few sessions are enough for our volunteer James to catch the yoga bug!

Series Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Editor: Zoë Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001zlv1)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001zdwn)
Bats on Punts

Martha Kearney is in Cambridge to explore wildlife at night. She takes an evening trip on a punt to see and hear the creatures which come out after the tourists have gone to home bed. She learns about the bats which at this time of year are just emerging from hibernation - hungry and on the hunt for insects. They swoop low over the waters of the Cam, their echo-location picked up and relayed for human ears by the clicking of a bat detector. A bat enthusiast from the Wildlife Trust tells Martha about bats' habits and identifies the species flitting through the trees around them.

Punts have not always been used in this benign way around wildlife. At the Museum of Cambridge, Martha is shown a punt gun - a huge weapon which was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It would have been mounted on a punt, with the huntsman paddling into a flock of wildfowl in order to shoot them in large numbers for food.

Martha also visits Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where a long-running moth research project is in progress. She watches as a moth trap is set out in the evening, and then returns early the next morning as a team of volunteers checks which moths have turned up in the trap, before releasing them back into the wild. She learns about the importance of these nocturnal species, and asks why night-time creatures like bats and moths always seem to get such a bad press.

Produced by Emma Campbell


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001zlv3)
25/05/24 Farming Today This Week: The Chelsea Flower Show; what farmers want from a new government

This week as the Prime Minister sets the date for the General Election, we ask what farmers will be looking for.
And as antidote to all the politics, we bring you flowers. All week we've been taking time to enjoy the blooms, inspired by the Chelsea Flower Show.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001zlv5)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001zlv7)
Justin Webb and Simon Jack present news and interviews

Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001zlv9)
Hay Festival - Mishal Husain, Stephen and Anita Mangan, Conn Iggulden, Kiell Smith-Bynoe

We’re kicking off the festival season in style, and in the sun, with three very different books… but who’s authors have more in common than you may think.

This week’s events haven’t stopped Mishal Husain making her way to us this weekend – for what will surely be the only down time she’ll have over the next 6 weeks. Mishal’s new memoir charts her families experiences through partition and the events which have allowed her to become one of the UK’s most trusted journalists.

Stephen and Anita Mangan have promised not to steal each other's pocket money or put bubblegum in each other’s hair and behave for the next hour. The brother and sister writing duo have cracked the code for what it takes to work with your sibling having written 5 books together – but it was their debut work that allowed them to channel familial grief.

The emperor of historical fiction, Conn Iggulden, has taken a break from playing his fiddle whilst ancient Rome burns to join us in the Hay-on-Wye countryside. But for someone who has made a living from writing about the history – it's the story of his parents who both lived it and taught it that perhaps should

All that plus the Inheritance Tracks of the actor, comedian and new host of the Great British Sewing Bee – Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

Presenters: Huw Stephens and Kiri Pritchard-McLean
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (m001zlvc)
Siobhán McSweeney: Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, Spain

Siobhán may have played a nun on Derry Girls but insists she’s not religious. Although on her walk she found peace, transcendence and… guilt-free pints. Shaun on the other hand thinks he might find he needs a lie down, but perhaps the guilt-free pints can persuade him. And resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence is packing her bags with facts for this one.

Your Place Or Mine is the travel series that isn’t going anywhere. Join Shaun as his guests try to convince him that it’s worth getting up off the sofa and seeing the world, giving us a personal guide to their favourite place on the planet.

Producers: Beth O'Dea and Caitlin Hobbs

Your Place or Mine is a BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001zlvf)
Series 44

Aberystwyth

Jay Rayner and his rabble of food experts are in Aberystwyth to advise on all your culinary conundrums.

The panel discuss the best vegetarian fillings for sushi, and their favourite form of breakfast tomato. They also address the truly difficult question - how many layers should the perfect burger have?

Alongside the panel chitchat, recipes and debates, Jay talks to local chef and forager Nathan Davies about the taste, texture and uses of birch syrup.

Later in the show, we hear from Latifa Najjar, head of the Syrian Dinner Project charity, about the comforting Syrian dish, maqluba.

Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Executive Producer: Ollie Wilson

A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001zlvh)
The BBC's Deputy Political Editor, Vicki Young, hosts a live edition of The Week in Wesminster, in the week the general election was announced.

Joining her in the studio: The Spectator's Political Editor, Katy Balls, the Financial Times' Political Editor, George Parker, and Guardian columnist and writer, Gaby Hinsliff.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001zlvk)
Myanmar's Jungle Revolutionaries

Kate Adie introduces stories from Myanmar, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mexico.

In Myanmar, tens of thousands of people have been killed since the military seized power in a coup in 2021, halting the country’s tentative transition to democracy - a further 2.5m people have been displaced. Quentin Sommerville has spent a month in the east of the country, living alongside resistance groups fighting the junta the jungles of Karenni state on the border with Thailand, and Shan state, which borders China.

In a visit to Kyiv this week, Germany’s foreign minister urged Western governments to supply more air defence weapons to protect Ukrainians from what she described as 'the rain of Russian missiles.' Jonathan Beale met with a Ukrainian military unit known as The Peaky Blinders, which is defending territory near Kharkiv with armed drones.

The world’s largest inland body of water, the Caspian Sea, is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent travelled to Mangystau, in western Kazakhstan, to find out why this is happening, and how it’s affecting the people and the wildlife along its coastal communities.

In the city of Tijuana. right on the Mexico-US border, 3,000 men are incarcerated in La Mesa Prison, living six to a cell, and sharing a tiny bathroom. It’s a claustrophobic and monotonous regime, so any distraction is welcome - and that might come in the form of a visit from a group of mostly elderly nuns. Linda Pressly joined them on a mission to provide spiritual support – and some small comfort.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Sophie Hill


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001zlvm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001zlvp)
General Election and Fraud report

What are the financial issues that you will be considering when you decide how to cast your vote in the General Election in July?
Research shows that the economy and inflation are two big issues on our minds - we'll hear from some potential voters on what they'd like to see.

New figures from UK Finance, which represents banks and other finance firms, revealed that in 2023 a record number of people lost more than £450 million to thieves who tricked them, manipulated them and then drained their bank account. The slightly better news is that more of them got their money back. We'll delve into the details.

And almost three quarters of a million tax credit renewal letters are hitting people's doormats over the next few weeks - and thousands of people will need to act or face losing their payments. What should you do if that’s you?

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth, Sandra Hardial and Neil Morrow
Studio Producer: Craig Henderson
Editor: Jess Quayle

(This programme was first broadcast Saturday 25th May 2024)


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m001zdtx)
Series 24

Episode 5

Recorded at the Hay Festival 2024. Mordant topical satire from the usual team with voices by Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey and Jess Robinson.

With writing from Tom Jamieson, Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden & Tom Coles, Rob Darke, Edward Tew, Sophie Dixon, Sarah Campbell, Cody Dahler, Joe Topping, Rachel Thorne and Christopher Donovan.

Producer: Bill Dare
Exec Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Dan Marchini
Sound Designer: Rich Evans


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001zlvr)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001zlvt)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:15 Any Questions? (m001zdv3)
Anneliese Dodds MP, Kate Forbes MSP, Alister Jack MP, Christine Jardine MP, Lorna Slater MSP

Alex Forsyth presents political discussion from Gairloch Community Hall with the Chair of the Labour Party Anneliese Dodds MP, the Deputy First Minister at Holyrood Kate Forbes MSP, the Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Scotland at Westminster Christine Jardine MP and the co-leader of the Scottish Greens Lorna Slater MSP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Ken Garden


SAT 14:15 Any Answers? (m001zlvw)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.


SAT 15:00 The Archers (m001zdtz)
Guests gather at Helen’s house ready for Joy’s surprise birthday party, where Kirsty confesses to Elizabeth that George has taken over looking after Rex’s pigs while he’s away. Joy’s overwhelmed when she arrives – she couldn’t have better friends. Mick has another surprise for her – he’s landed a job on the Grey Gables security team. When Joy hears they’d tried to invite Rochelle and her children to the party, she snaps at Mick telling him he had no right to steal her address book and knock on people’s doors. Mick wonders why he hasn’t met Rochelle before, especially since the accident. Joy’s enraged when Mick adds that Rochelle’s supposed to care for Joy. and upset mick heads off. Joy tells awkward Elizabeth that Rochelle’s been a fabulous daughter to her. How dare Mick think otherwise.

Harrison tells Fallon that they need to talk. Harrison can’t believe that the miscarriage isn’t affecting Fallon, Harrison can’t think of anything else. He hopes Alice goes to prison for what she’s done. When Fallon reminds Harrison that he knows Fallon doesn’t’ want children, Harrison explains he thought he could live with it, but that was before Fallon got pregnant. He needs to grieve that baby. He wonders if the accident hadn’t happened, they would just have got on with the pregnancy. Fallon is very clear that this wouldn’t have been the case – she doesn’t want children. They are both on the edge of tears as Harrison heads upstairs saying he doesn’t think he can take this. Fallon can’t either.


SAT 15:15 Brief Lives (m001747y)
Series 12

Episode 1

Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly (1/2)
Sarah and Frank are finally going to do the grown up thing and get married. But things get complicated when Sarah loses a work file that could put her in danger and Frank has a visitor from his past. Maybe Fat Doug can help?

Frank........David Schofield
Sarah..........Kathryn Hunt
Fat Doug.......Eric Potts
Johnnie..........Greg Wood
Jade.................Erin Shanagher
Michael..........Tachia Newell
Director/Producer Gary Brown.

Brief Lives has been running since 2007 and signs off after 12 series and 58 episodes.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001zlvy)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: British cyclist Lizzy Banks, Show-women, Love bombing, Infected blood scandal

On 28 July last year the British cyclist Lizzy Banks received an email from UK Anti Doping to say she had return two Adverse Analytical Findings. The letter stated she faced the prospect of a two-year ban unless she could establish the source. Thus began a ten-month journey investigating, researching and writing submissions to establish how the contamination event occurred. Absolved of any blame, having proved on the balance of probabilities that her test was contaminated, Lizzy speaks to Nuala McGovern about how the process destroyed her mentally, emotionally and professionally.

Olivier award-winning theatre maker Marisa Carnesky is taking over an entire street at this years’ Brighton Festival with her show, Carnesky's Showwomxn Sideshow Spectacular, honouring the forgotten women of the circus. Marisa shares with Anita Rani the lost history of ground-breaking women magicians, aerial artists and sword climbers and how their stories are being explored through a new generation of performers.

Do you know what love bombing is? One of our Woman’s Hour listeners Lynn got in touch to say it’s something we should be discussing. She joins Nuala McGovern alongside relationship therapist Simone Bose to explain more about what love bombing is, and how we can all look out for the warning signs.

The long awaited final report of the public inquiry into the infected blood scandal was published this week, The inquiry was announced in 2017 after years of campaigning by victims. From the 1970s to the early 1990s, approximately 30,000 people were infected with blood contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. Over 3,000 have since died, with one person estimated to die every four days in the UK. The affected groups include those who received infected blood via blood transfusions, such as women following childbirth, and individuals with haemophilia—predominantly males—and others with similar bleeding disorders who received contaminated blood products. Around 1,250 people with bleeding disorders, including 380 children were infected with HIV. Fewer than 250 are still alive today. Some transmitted HIV to their partners. Nuala McGovern speaks to Clair Walton, who gave evidence to the inquiry. She has been campaigning for years for the wives and partners who became infected to be heard and acknowledged.

Clara Schumann was one of the greatest female musicians of the 19th Century – a virtuoso performer who gave over 1,500 concerts in a 60 year career, all while raising eight children and financially supporting her household. Concert pianist Lucy Parham and actress Dame Harriet Walter join Anita Rani to discuss their concert I, Clara which celebrates the ground-breaking life and work of Clara Schumann in her own right.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Louise Corley


SAT 17:00 PM (m001zlw0)
Record numbers of MPs stand down

As many long standing MPs are leaving Parliament, Caroline Wyatt asks how the new intake of MPs could change the Parties.


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001zlw2)
The Caitlin Moran One

Bestselling author and columnist talks to Nick Robinson about why, after years of writing about women and girls, she decided to turn her attention to problems with boys and young men with her latest book "What About Men?"

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001zlw4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001zlw6)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001zlw8)
Labour has defended its proposals on workers' rights, after a union leader said they had "more holes than Swiss cheese".


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001zlwb)
Jan Ravens, Viv Groskop and Tiff Murray with music from The Will Barnes Quartet and Aleighcia Scott

Clive is joined by impressionist Jan Ravens (who brings along Liz Truss and Theresa May) chatting about the challenge of developing an impersonation and what happens when the politician who forms part of your act gets the boot...
Award-winning novelist Tiffany Murray describes her unusually starry childhood at the residential recording studio Rockfield. It includes a childhood visit from David Bowie and being woken by Freddie Mercury singing "Galileo" - as revealed in her new book My Family and Other Rock Stars.
Viv Groskop chats about her One Ukrainian Summer a memoir about falling in love and coming of age in the former USSR.
The Will Barnes Quartet and Aleighcia Scott provide the music.

Presented by Clive Anderson
Produced by Kevin Core


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001zlwd)
Ann-Marie Powell

Ann-Marie Powell, is the exuberant and colourful, garden designer, whose' Octavia Hill 'Garden was one of the eight main gardens in competition at the Chelsea Flower Show this year.

After dropping out of college she spent six months travelling in India, Nepal and New Zealand, which inspired her to take up gardening. Attending Capel Manor horticultural college her first job was working in sales for a large nursery. But Ann-Marie's colourful personal style and outgoing personality led her employer to encourage her to apply for a job as a presenter on a TV gardening show. She soon blossomed into a popular gardening show host working with fellow gardeners like Carol Klein, Joe Swift and gardening supremo, Monty Don.

In addition to running her own successful garden design business from the home she shares with her husband and two boys, on the Hampshire borders, she feels it's important that everyone should have access to green spaces, no matter where they live. During lockdown her Instagram page 'My Real Garden' was a big hit broadcasting garden tips and advice everyday.

Presenter: Mark Coles

CONTRIBUTORS

Julian Bundy - Husband
Angela Halksworth - Co-owner, Tendercare Nurseries
Janet Morgan - Friend
Jane Owen - Garden Designer
Mark Straver - Hortus Loci
Cleve West - Award winning Garden Designer
Tamsin Westhorpe- Gardener and Horticulture Writer

CREDITS

Gardens, Weeds and Words Podcast - Presented by Andrew O'Brien
Real Gardens - Channel 4
RHS
National Trust
My Real Garden - Instagram - Ann-Marie Powell

PRODUCTION TEAM

Producers: Julie Ball and Diane Richardson
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound: David Crackles


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001zdw4)
Lily Allen

Renowned for the autobiographical candour of her lyrics, Lily Allen has sung about the pitfalls of fame, drugs, broken relationships and motherhood. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for her debut album Alright Still and after the release of It’s Not Me, It’s You in 2010 won a Brit Award and three Ivor Novello Awards, including Songwriter of the Year. In 2021 she embarked on a stage acting career starring in 2.22 A Ghost Story, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award. More recently, with her childhood friend Miquita Oliver, she launched her BBC podcast series Miss Me.

Talking to John Wilson, Lily recalls a sometimes sad and troubled childhood. Her father, the actor and comedian Keith Allen, had left the family home when she was four, and her film producer mother Alison Owen was often away working. She chooses as her first formative experiences a school concert in which she performed the song Baby Mine from the Disney movie Dumbo and captivated the audience. She recalls how the first started writing and recording her own songs, and built up a fanbase with the on-line platform MySpace. She chooses, as key musical influences the 1979 song Up The Junction by Squeeze, and the 2004 album A Grand Don’t Come For Free by Mike Skinner, otherwise known as The Streets. Lily Allen also reflects on the pressures of juggling life in the spotlight with motherhood, and how theatre acting has offered her a new creative challenge.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001zlwg)
Watching Us, Watching You

Long before social media, reality TV and culture wars as entertainment, the BBC's Community Programme Unit - commissioned by David Attenborough - set out to create an ‘anthropology of everyday life’. Writer and broadcaster Ellen E Jones tells the story of the birth of a new generation of broadcasting.

The CPU was a 40-year experiment in breaking down the barriers between the national broadcaster and the nation. It all started in 1972 with an Open Door, through which we were suddenly able to see ourselves very differently.

There is one film from the CPU’s Open Door series that has lived on as a touchstone for understanding representations of race and racism on TV. It Ain't Half Racist, Mum was produced in 1979 and paired the revered cultural theorist Stuart Hall with actress Maggie Steed. Together they turned their attention to the casual prejudices which were part of the everyday media landscape. Ellen discusses its legacy with Maggie Steed and Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka.

By the mid-90s, times had changed for the Community Programme Unit and technology had too. There was still no social media, but there were camcorders - and that presented a great opportunity to liberate public access television from the stuffy studios and take it to the masses. It was time to meet the nation, on their own terms. Mandy Rose was the co-producer of Video Nation and she reveals how it changed her and paved the way for social media. Ellen travels to Arisaig in the West Highlands to talk with Ian MacKinnon, one of Video Nation’s most prolific contributors, about his films on everything from the meaning of life to The Full Monty.

Now, 45 years on from It Ain't Half Racist, Mum and 30 years since filming began on Video Nation, Ellen revisits some of the most surprising and impactful contributions from this rich, accessible and underappreciated archive. She reassesses public access television as a tool for listening to the national mood and facilitating more nuanced discussions about the absurd, profound and divisive aspects of life.

Producer: Freya Hellier
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Shadow War: China and the West (m001zlwj)
Shadow War - Omnibus, Part 2

Could growing tensions lead to conflict? The rise of China is the defining challenge of our times – how far to co-operate, compete or confront? But has the West taken its eye off the ball? BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera looks at the points of friction in recent history, from espionage to free speech, the battle over technology and claims of political interference. This is a story about the competition to shape the world order. He speaks to politicians, spies, dissidents and those who’ve been caught up in the growing tension between China and the West.

Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore (Naked Productions)
Programme Coordinator: Katie Morrison
Series Editor: Penny Murphy


SAT 22:00 News (m001zlwl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m001zdt0)
The Fight to Improve School Food in 2024

Sheila Dillon hears stories of how headteachers are transforming food in their schools in difficult economic conditions, as well as how flagship universal free primary school meal policies in Scotland and London are playing out so far.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.


SAT 23:00 Michael Spicer: No Room (m001z7ff)
3. Green

Politics and food cause indigestion.

Michael Spicer whips up his take on current events, alongside character-filled sketches which brilliantly capture everything that provokes us - culture, politics, work...and other people. Michael is famous for his Room Next Door government advisor character whose withering take downs of politicians have amassed more than 100 million views and helped keep his audience sane in fractured times.

Writer, Performer and Co-Editor: Michael Spicer

Composer and Sound Designer: Augustin Bousfield

Producer: Matt Tiller

A Tillervision production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:15 Michael Spicer: No Room (m001z7fg)
4. Purple

Train stations, cars and the secret to being a winner in life.

Comedian Michael Spicer's series features an up-to-the-minute take on current events, alongside character-filled sketches which brilliantly capture everything that provokes us - culture, politics, work... and other people.

Michael is famous for his Room Next Door government advisor character whose withering takedowns of politicians have amassed more than 100 million views and helped keep his audience sane in fractured times.

Writer, Performer and Co-Editor: Michael Spicer

Composer and Sound Designer: Augustin Bousfield

Producer: Matt Tiller

A Tillervision production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Round Britain Quiz (m001zdjb)
Programme 11, 2024

(11/12)
The Midlands and the South of England teams join Kirsty Lang for the penultimate contest in this series of the cryptic quiz. For the final time this year, Frankie Fanko and Stephen Maddock face Paul Sinha and Marcus Berkmann.

Today's questions are:

Q1 In Edinburgh someone shows you to your seat at a wedding. In Poole you're in a place that sends warnings to ships. In Manchester you'd find Simon & Garfunkel's last album with the middle missing. So where has a herb recently become a prison?

Q2 Someone who put his signature on a urinal, two people of very different heights, and Robert John Lange: what kind of dog might they all own?

Q3 (from Daniel Kitto) Music: Why might these all lead to recognition?

Q4 The Hasmonean dynasty, the sweetest innovation of Catherine de Medici, Yankee Doodle's feathered cap, and somewhere you'd go to gamble in China: shouldn't they be Scottish?

Q5 Why do Stravinsky's operatic Turk, an artistic hobby-horse, Cass Elliot and an Ottoman royal tutor appear to be caught in a lava flow?

Q6 Music: Why might you unearth this piece of music, and Bathsheba's feckless husband, and the creator of Z-Cars, at Hissarlik?

Q7 (from Isabel Evans) What links a Scottish dialect and one used by Dante and Petrarch, a sporting individual, and a chemical bond? And why might all of this interest a hermit near Aleppo?

Q8 (from Tom Peach) If the sports stars Michael Slater, Lionel Messi and John Milburn invited you for dinner, who might be on the menu?

Producer: Paul Bajoria

SUNDAY 26 MAY 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001zlwn)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Open Book (m001zdj8)
Sarah Perry

Sarah Perry talks to Shahidha Bari about her new book, Enlightenment.

Plus authors Rosie Andrews and Bridget Collins on combining history, myth and imagination in their new novels: Rosie's The Puzzle Wood, and Bridget's The Silence Factory.

And author Abir Mukherjee on his Book I'd Never Lend - The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Emma Wallace

Book List – Sunday 19 May

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins
The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Hunted by Abir Mukherjee


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001zlwq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001zlws)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001zlwv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001zlwx)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001zlwz)
The Parish Church of St Matthew in Blackmoor Hampshire

Bells on Sunday comes from the Parish Church of St Matthew in Blackmoor Hampshire. The church was built in the late 19th century to a design by the Victorian Architect Alfred Waterhouse, more famous for his designs for the Natural History Museum in London and Manchester Town Hall. The tower houses a ring of six bells cast by the John Warner foundry of Cripplegate London in 1870. The Tenor weighs eight hundredweight and is tuned to the note of A. We hear them ringing Norwich Surprise Minor.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m001zg5s)
The UK's First Blind Overseas Ambassador; Travelling Tips & Tricks

Victoria Harrison is the UK's first totally blind ambassador to be posted overseas. In August she will take up the role as Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia, and will be accompanied by her guide dog Otto. Victoria tells Peter about how she got into the diplomatic service, coming up against peoples perceptions of visual impairment and her capabilities to be a diplomat, and about the positive interactions that can stem from being blind when negotiating with others who may have very different political views.

Visually impaired globe-trotters Dawn Hopper, Hayley Kennedy and Amar Latif share their tips and tricks for efficient travel when you are visually impaired and about some of the sometimes surprising cultural differences they have experienced.
Hayley Kennedy is considered to be the only disabled person, let alone visually impaired person, to have travelled to every country recognised under the United Nations. Amar Latif founded the assisted holiday company for visually impaired people 'Traveleyes', and Dawn Hopper has family in both Switzerland and Spain, and travels regularly with her new guide dog Micky.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate 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 is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001zmm2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Thinking Allowed (m001zk1g)
Richard Sennett

Richard Sennett, leading cultural and social thinker and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, talks to Laurie Taylor. Growing up in a housing project in Chicago, he originally trained in music. An accident put paid to his cello playing and he turned to sociology. Over five decades he’s documented the social life of cities, work in modern society and the sociology of culture. His latest study explores the relations between performing in art (particularly music), politics and everyday experience. It draws personally on Sennett's early career as a professional cellist and explores the dangerous and ambiguous nature of performance, from the French theorist, Michel Foucault's hypnotic lectures to the demagoguery of contemporary politicians. He describes the tragic performances of unemployed dockworkers in New York City in the 1960s, as they competed for a dwindling number of jobs, and Aids patients in a Catholic hospital doing a reading of As You Like It and displaying defiance in the face of death and religious disapproval.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001zmm4)
Magic mycelium

Alisha Fuller-Armah swapped a life in the luxury hospitality business in Jamaica for mushroom growing on Scotland's west coast. A self-taught grower, she built her mushroom business from scratch and now supplies top chefs and well-known retailers. She tells Ruth Sanderson her amazing story and talks about the enticing charm, and life lessons, of growing gourmet fungi.

Produced and presented by Ruth Sanderson


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001zmm6)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001zmm8)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001zmmb)
Religion & Voting Behaviour in a General Election

How much does Religion influence voter behaviour in a General Election? We get the lowdown from Sir John Curtice Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University after a report from the religious think tank Theos claimed it could be a significant factor in July.

We've had some feisty feedback from listeners on the subject of hymns as 'baby-food' a topic inspired by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who suggested choices at weddings were inspired by childhood and lacking in theological depth.

The Church of England has apologised after another delay to the review into how it handled allegations of abuse relating to the late John Smyth. Smyth was former chair of the Iwerne Trust which ran Christian Summer holiday camps but died before he could stand trial. Edward will hear from a survivor who is withdrawing from the process because of the delays.

Art expert Dr Siobhan Jolley talks Edward through the Martyrdom of St Ursula, currently on display as part of the Last Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery and explores the religious depth of Caravaggio's work.

Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producers: Catherine Murray & James Leesley
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001zmmd)
Breck Foundation

Lorin LaFave started Breck Foundation in her son's name after he was brutally murdered by an online groomer. The charity visits schools across the UK to teach children, parents and teachers how to recognise the first signs of grooming and be alert to the dangers.

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 ‘Breck Foundation’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Breck Foundation’.
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: 1168384


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001zmmg)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001zmmj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001zmml)
City Church Cardiff

A service for Trinity Sunday, led by Rev'd Catherine De Souza and Rev'd Dominic De Souza, pastors of City Church Cardiff. The service explores what the Trinity can tell us about the nature of God, and the lessons for human relationships. The service includes readings from Genesis 1 verses 1-2 & 26-27 and Psalm 139 verses 7-10.

The music includes:

Everlasting God
Holy Holy Holy
King of Kings
There is a Redeemer
Spirit Break Out
How Great is Our God


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001zdv5)
Permanently Restless

Sara Wheeler asks whether trying to get away from it all is a futile endeavour.

'We go to all that trouble', writes Sara, 'up at 4.30, cancelled planes and trains and bent tent poles - only to find ourselves, boring as ever, glum and pink on a beach or glum and damp in a Welsh cottage!'

But there are still good reasons, Sara argues, why so many of us want a change of scene. And so 'off we go, in large numbers. At every opportunity'.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Katie Morrison
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m001zmmn)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001zmmq)
The Tories' plan for national service

The Tories say they will bring back national service if they win the general election. Plus D-Day memories. Paddy O'Connell presents.


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m001zm9g)
John Boyne, writer

The Irish writer John Boyne is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for younger readers.

He was born in Dublin in 1971, and had ambitions to become a writer from an early age. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. From the mid-1990s, he spent seven years working at a bookshop in Dublin, while trying to launch his literary career.

Many of his books have historical settings: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of two boys – one German, one Jewish – during the Holocaust; other books have taken inspiration from the Mutiny on the Bounty and Tsarist Russia. More recently, he’s addressed sexual and physical abuse within the Catholic church in Ireland, drawing in part on his own experiences at school.

He lives in Dublin, not far from where he grew up.

DISC ONE: Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel
DISC TWO: The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews
DISC THREE: Elton's Song - Elton John
DISC FOUR: Take on Me - A-ha
DISC FIVE: Lullaby for Cain (Instrumental) - Sinéad O'Connor
DISC SIX: Extract from String Quartet No. 4, composed by Noah Max and performed by The Tippett Quartet
DISC SEVEN: Make Your Own Kind of Music - Mama Cass
DISC EIGHT: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

BOOK CHOICE: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
LUXURY ITEM: A cinema screen showing The Devil Wears Prada
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001zmms)
Writer: Liz John
Director: Jeremy Howe
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Ben Archer…. Ben Norris
David Archer…. Timothy Bentinck
Tom Archer…. William Troughton
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Neil Carter…. Brian Hewlett
Vince Casey…. Tony Turner
Mick Fadmoor…. Martin Barrass
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd…. Michael Lumsden
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter…. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter…. Toby Laurence
Lily Pargetter…. Katie Redford
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Inspector Norris…. Bharti Patel


SUN 12:15 Profile (m001zlwd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001zdfd)
Series 81

Episode 2

This series of Radio 4's multi award-winning ‘antidote to panel games’ promises more homespun wireless entertainment for the young at heart.

This week the programme pays a return visit to the New Theatre in Oxford where Rachel Parris and the Reverend Richard Coles are pitched against Tony Hawks and Alexander Armstrong, with Jack Dee in the chair.

At the piano - Colin Sell
Producer - Jon Naismith

A Random production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001zmmv)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001zmmx)
Election 2024: What is the plan for extreme weather?

Election 2024: as the parties set out their stalls, a look at some of the issues that are not front and centre of the campaigns. What should an incoming government do about extreme weather events? Plus South Africa goes to the polls in one of the most significant elections for the country in a generation.


SUN 13:30 Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe (m001zlz9)
When Bury FC was expelled from the Football League after 125 years, the government commissioned a fan-led review of football's financial stability. Centring the importance of football clubs to hundreds of local communities, it recommended tough new rules about governance and ownership of football clubs. Five years on and with both Labour and the Conservatives supporting the creation of a new regulator, Scunthorpe United has become a case study for why politicians think they need to step in. A succession of owners, a string of relegations and a more than gloomy balance book left the North Lincolnshire town wondering what life without its football club might look like. But the efforts of the local community led to a small piece of hope. For Radio 4, lifelong Scunthorpe fan and BBC political journalist (in that order) Jack Fenwick tells the inside story of how it all went so wrong and what happened next.

Presenter and producer: Jack Fenwick


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001zdtl)
Chelsea Flower Show 2024: Postbag Edition

Do I need to worry that I don't have slugs in the garden? How do I stop my buddleia from growing out of control? Is there a ground cover that can prevent weeds from growing in my yard?

Kathy Clugston is joined by experts Matthew Wilson, Anne Swithinbank and Pippa Greenwood as they navigate this year's Chelsea Flower Show. While enjoying the various exhibitions through out the Chelsea grounds, the panel also dip into the GQT inbox to answer some of your horticultural queries.
 

Throughout the programme we hear from roving reporter Peter Gibbs, as he speaks with the founders of She Grows Veg, Lucy Hutchings and Kate Cotterill, about the rise in popularity of heirloom vegetables. And later he gets tips on how to create a child-friendly garden by speaking to garden designer Harry Holding.

Producer: Dom Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001zmmz)
The Raiders - Episode 1

In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke explores S R Crockett’s forgotten bestseller, a swashbuckling adventure story set in his native Galloway in south west Scotland.

Written in 1894, Crockett’s novel is part romance, part action thriller, and part historical fiction. The action takes place in 1715, during the reign of George I, a time when Galloway was awash with pirates, smugglers, cattle rustlers, gypsies and bandits. John suggests it was the Mission Impossible, if not the Fast and Furious, of its day.

In this first episode, John considers how Crockett’s engaging, humorous, pacy style of writing drives the adventure on, and the appeal of his unusually feisty female characters.

John is joined by Cally Phillips, the founder of the Galloway Raiders website, the home of all things Crockett, and Clara Glynn who has adapted The Raiders for BBC Radio 4. Together they discover that, beneath the fast-paced action, Crockett is shining a light on bigger issues - how a young man tests his mettle, the meaning of leadership and how it is possible to life a moral life outside the law.

John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters.

Contributors:
Cally Phillips, founder of The Galloway Raiders website
Clara Glynn, adapter of The Raiders for BBC Radio 4

Reading by Kyle Gardiner

The Raiders by S R Crockett, from The Galloway Raiders website https://www.gallowayraiders.co.uk/

Produced by Jane Greenwood
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Sean Kerwin
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001zmn1)
The Raiders

Part 1

By SR Crockett. Adapted for radio by Clara Glynn.

Dubbed "Scotland's forgotten bestseller", The Raiders is an action romance set in the wild country of Galloway.

Part One

Patrick ..... Kyle Gardiner
May ..... Jessica Hardwick
Silver Sand ..... Sandy Grierson
Eppie ..... Laura Lovemore
Richard Maxwell/Ivie ..... Kenny Blyth
Kennedy ..... Reuben Joseph
Will ..... James Rottger
Gil ..... Robin Laing
Granny Eggface ..... Anne Lacey
Marion ..... Rosie Smith

Literary Consultant: Cally Phillips

Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001zmn4)
Maggie Nelson

Octavia Bright talks to celebrated American author Maggie Nelson about Like Love, an anthology of her essays which explores art and friendship and criticism. Nature writer Nicola Chester introduces a new prize for climate fiction, which she is judging and she's joined by Jessie Greengrass whose novel, The High House, is set in a near-future England devastated by flooding. And a reading recommendation for June.

Presenter: Octavia Bright
Producer: Nicola Holloway

Book List - Sunday 26 May 2024

Like Love by Maggie Nelson
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
On Freedom by Maggie Nelson
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
Weather by Jenny Offill,
Solar by Ian McEwan
Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
The High House by Jessie Greengrass
One Of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon


SUN 16:30 Round Britain Quiz (m001zmn6)
Programme 12, 2024

(12/12)

Kirsty Lang welcomes back the North of England and the Scots for the closing match of the 2024 series. With the results very tight this year, Scotland could take the overall series title if they win today. Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras face Val McDermid and Alan McCredie.

Today's questions:

Q1 Which Borough Treasurer's list might include the main thoroughfare of any town, the companion of Mr Smith and Mr Jones, something you might attach to the collars of felines, and (very nearly) where orphan Anne Shirley grows up?

Q2 What would French women conclude about mitochondria and other structures in a cell, the strait connecting the Aegean with the Sea of Marmara, and Britain's most common bats?

Q3 (from James Francis) Music: Why might all of these please a cat?

Q4 The common origin of romantically-inclined geriatrics, an expression of pity for people or creatures, an object made from cowhide and an ancient town on the Clyde, is anything but colourful. Can you explain why?

Q5 If I gave you an old-fashioned tanner, the town where Henry James died, a lot of Lockheed SR-71s and Piscine Molitor Patel, could you give me the rest of the song?

Q6 Music: Why might these three do their bit for the environment?

Q7 (from Simon Dooker) How could the following be said to contribute to an English Victorian poet's most famous work: an American baseball legend, the home ground of Solihull Moors, the colour of Carly's conceited lover's scarf, Rumer's coming-of-age classic, and what a fabled runaway duo dined on?

Q8 (from Frank Paul) How often would you expect accurate information from items belonging to the following: a deceased relative who lived to be 90, the bride whom Compeyson jilted, and those obeying the first words of 'Funeral Blues'?

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct4xf1)
The Hindenburg airship disaster

In 1937, the Hindenburg airship burst into flames during its mooring in New Jersey, in the US, killing 35 of the 97 passengers and crew.


SUN 17:10 The Tourist Trap (m001zddg)
Episode 1

The travel industry is booming with millions more people holidaying abroad each year. In this first episode of The Tourist Trap, seasoned BBC TV travelogue presenter Rajan Datar focuses on the relentless rise of global tourism and the impact that’s having on local communities. He hears how the Indian travel market is gearing up to conquer the world. He visits the Austrian village that regularly gets swamped by ten times as many tourists as there are residents. He is in Venice as it begins charging visitors to enter the city on certain days. He’ll also be hearing how people have come to the end of their tether in Tenerife. Are we now in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs – ruining the very natural beauty and attractions that we seek out so keenly?

Produced by Bob Howard.


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001zmn9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001zmnc)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001zmnf)
The Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has ruled out putting up income tax, or national insurance, if Labour wins power at the general election.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001zmnh)
Mike Sweeney

This week on our travels through the world of radio we'll be singing the blues, exploring the benefits of exercise on your mental wellbeing, checking if Mike's sense of humour chimes with your own... and finding out - in the most emotional and poignant way - the human cost of the infected blood scandal.

Presenter: Mike Sweeney
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Paul Holloway


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001zlz2)
Harrison greets Fallon as he returns from church and they chat awkwardly, with Harrison apologising for leaving his bedding where he slept, on the sofa. Fallon's finishing up mowing the grass and Harrison's off to training ahead of the T20 cricket. Before he goes, he mentions Philip Larkin’s poem – The Mower. He offers to read her the last line but she suggests he send it to her instead.

At the Tearoom Chelsea isn’t looking forward to playing but Pat gives her a pep talk and some fielding practice, using a cheese scone. Fallon arrives and confesses that Harrison, likewise, isn’t enthusiastic: he’s a bit embarrassed about his bad grace and sledging in the match against Leyton Cross.

Tracy takes Harrison to task as he hammers in the stumps. He agrees that he should email the other captain to apologise, and say sorry to Pat. But when he tries to talk to Tracy about the team vice-captaincy she gives him short shrift. He tells her George doesn’t want the job and she agrees to think about it. During the match she’s on fire, bowling a hattrick of wickets to help her team trounce the men. Harrison takes the opportunity to seek out Pat and offer a heartfelt apology.

Fallon turns up with leftover cake Natasha has sent for the teams to enjoy. She agrees to stay for one drink as 'Tracy’s Tigers' lift the Mark Hebden trophy and Tracy announces her new role as vice-captain. Fallon tells Harrison she read Larkin’s poem and took hope from the ending: ‘we should be kind while there is still time.’


SUN 19:15 The Beauty of Everyday Things (m001zmnk)
Poet Ian McMillan has a gift for the art of small pleasures; the joy of close observation; revelling in everyday things, places and encounters; describing and re-describing them endlessly. In the company of fellow poets Helen Mort, Steve Ely and Dave Green he takes us to ordinary places that fascinate him: a railway platform with a striking red bench, on a bus journey, to a village cafe, and a local museum of curiosities; where we discover they can be portals into different ways of thinking, of feeling, and of being, where anything can happen, where the ordinary can become the extraordinary if we simply open our eyes and our ears.

Presented by Ian McMillan

Produced by Cecile Wright


SUN 19:45 Why Do We Do That? (m001g38h)
Why Do We Wear Make-Up?

Make-up has a long history - from the surprising use of lipstick in ancient Greece to today's Tiktok trends - and though fashions may have changed, some things, like red lips, cheeks, and defined eyes, keep cropping up. So in this episode, Ella Al-Shamahi investigates if there is any biological basis to make-up? Joined by Journalist and BBC Radio 1 presenter Katie Thistleton, and psychologist Professor Richard Russell, Ella discovers fascinating research on how make-up can change the way we perceive faces and ponders on a slightly strange theory about make-up and orgasm.


SUN 20:00 Word of Mouth (m001zdwq)
The Irish Language

In conversation with Michael about his book "32 Words For Field" Manchán Magan reveals Ireland's deep connection with the landscape expressed through the Irish language. The author traces his country's relationship with the natural world and its corresponding belief system that encompasses the 'otherworld'. He lists many similarities between Irish and Sanskrit and even Arabic - suggesting a link between the ancient Islamic word Shamrakh and the Irish Seamróg (shamrock). It's a fascinating discussion of a rich and poetic language that survives in traditional communities on the west coast and is being enthusiastically revived in the cities. Manchán also lists the many words that we use in English that have come from Irish and Scots Gaelic: words like 'bog' 'whisky' 'hooligan' and Tory.
We also learn a bit of Hiberno-English along the way.

Producer: Maggie Ayre for BBC Audio Bristol

A longer version of this programme is available on the podcast


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001zdtq)
Sir Tony O'Reilly, President Ebrahim Raisi, Penny Simkin, Professor Alasdair Geddes

Matthew Bannister on

The Irish rugby star and businessman Sir Tony O’Reilly. He made billions but ended up bankrupt.

The hardline President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi.

Penny Simkin, who championed the role of birth doulas to help mothers during and after labour.

Professor Alasdair Geddes, the infectious diseases expert who diagnosed the world’s last ever case of smallpox – in Birmingham.

Producer: Ed Prendeville

Archive used:
Penny Simkin, YouTube upload, PSfromPenny, 27/10/2009; Penny Simkin, YouTube upload, PSfromPenny, 22/03/2011; Today Programme, Radio 4, BBC, 20/05/2024; Newshour, BBC World Service, 20/05/2024; News report by Philip Hayton, Sound Archive, BBC Radio 4, 11/02/1979; Ebrahim Raisi interviewed by Lesley Stahl, CBS Interactive Inc., YouTube upload, 60 Minutes, 19/05/2024; BBC profile on Tony O’Reilly, 24/01/1975; Conversation Piece, Radio 4, 02/12/1985; People in profile, Radio Ulster, 06/09/1980; The Last Case of Smallpox in the UK, BBC News, 31/08/2016


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001zlvp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001zmmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001zlvk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001zmnm)
Ben Wright is joined by the Transport Minister, Anthony Browne; Shadow Skills Minister, Seema Malhotra; and Rob Ford, Professor of Political Science at Manchester University. They discuss the key themes of the unfolding election campaign, including Conservative plans for a new national service, and Labour's position on tax and spending. The programme includes a "farewell" interview with the departing red wall Tory MP, Dehenna Davison. And the BBC's Disinformation Correspondent, Marianna Spring, explains how she'll be investigating what comes into voters' social media feeds over the weeks leading up to polling day.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m001zdw0)
Empress Dowager Cixi

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) started out at court as one of the Emperor's many concubines, yet was the only one who gave him a son to succeed him and who also possessed great political skill and ambition. When their son became emperor he was still a young child and Cixi ruled first through him and then, following his death, through another child emperor. This was a time of rapid change in China, when western powers and Japan humiliated the forces of the Qing empire time after time, and Cixi had the chance to push forward the modernising reforms the country needed to thrive. However, when she found those reforms conflicted with her own interests or those of the Qing dynasty, she was arguably obstructive or too slow to act and she has been personally blamed for some of those many humiliations even when the fault lay elsewhere.

With

Yangwen Zheng
Professor of Chinese History at the University of Manchester

Rana Mitter
The S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School

And

Ronald Po
Associate Professor in the Department of International History at London School of Economics and Visiting Professor at Leiden University

Producer: Simon Tillotson
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Reading list:

Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China (first published 1956; Open Road Media, 2013)

Katharine A. Carl, With the Empress Dowager (first published 1906; General Books LLC, 2009)

Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (Jonathan Cape, 2013)

Princess Der Ling, Old Buddha (first published 1929; Kessinger Publishing, 2007)

Joseph W. Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (University of California Press, 1987)

John K. Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History (Harvard University Press, 2006)

Peter Gue Zarrow and Rebecca Karl (eds.), Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing China (Harvard University Press, 2002)

Grant Hayter-Menzies, Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling (Hong Kong University Press, 2008)

Keith Laidler, The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China (Wiley, 2003)

Keith McMahon, Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)

Anchee Min, The Last Empress (Bloomsbury, 2011)

Ying-Chen Peng, Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi’s Image Making (Yale University Press, 2023).

Sarah Pike Conger, Letters from China: with Particular Reference to the Empress Dowager and the Women of China (first published 1910; Forgotten Books, 2024)

Stephen Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (Atlantic Books, 2019)

Liang Qichao (trans. Peter Zarrow), Thoughts From the Ice-Drinker's Studio: Essays on China and the World (Penguin Classics, 2023)

Sterling Seagrave, Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China (Vintage, 1993)

Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (first published 1991; W. W. Norton & Company, 2001)

X. L. Woo, Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine (Algora Publishing, 2003)

Zheng Yangwen, Ten Lessons in Modern Chinese History (Manchester University Press, 2018)


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m001zdtn)
Dŵr by Catrin Kean

An original short story by Catrin Kean. A woman is late for her father's funeral. She hardly knew him, but she spends the night in his empty house, trying to feel his presence.

Catrin Kean won the 2021 Wales Book of The Year Award for her debut novel "Salt".

Reader: Catrin Stewart
Sound: Nigel Lewis
Producer: John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production

MONDAY 27 MAY 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001zmnp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Crossing Continents (m001zg5v)
The Caspian Crisis

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world. Bordered by Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan it spans 371,000 square kilometres and bridges Europe and Central Asia. It’s fed mainly by Russia’s Volga and Ural rivers and the sea is not only rich in oil and gas but is also home to numerous rare and endemic species, including the Caspian seal and 90% of the world’s remaining wild sturgeon. But the Caspian Sea is in crisis. Climate change and the damming of Russia’s rivers are causing the coastline to recede at an alarming rate. The sea’s levels have fallen by a metre in the last 4 years, a trend likely to increase. Recent studies have shown that the levels could drop between 9 and 18 metres by 2100. Last June Kazakh government officials declared a state of emergency over the Caspian. Iran has also raised the alarm with the UN. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent travels to Kazakhstan for Crossing Continents to report from the shores of the Caspian Sea on what can be done to prevent an environmental disaster.

Presented by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
Produced by Caroline Bayley
Editor, Penny Murphy
Sound Engineer, Rod Farquhar
Production coordinator, Gemma Ashman
Dombyra played by Yelnar Amanzhol


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001zlwz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001zmnr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001zmnt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001zmnw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001zmny)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001zmp0)
New week choices

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Haydon Spenceley

Good morning.

As we look forward to a new week, choices lie ahead. Prioritising can be a real challenge. So many things seek our attention, our focus, competing for time, making us feel even more busy than we actually are. We can feel compressed, crowded, squashed, perhaps even somewhat paralysed, in deciding which things matter and should have first place on our to do lists. So much so that it is easy to actually get through a good part of a day so concerned about picking the right thing to do that we don’t actually do anything at all. I don’t know if I’m the only one who has this problem.

God seems to ask those seeking to know how to make the most of their time to look at some key aspects of life in their decision making. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

Acting justly looks very different in each situation and circumstance, but I am reminded that justice means putting others before ourselves, having a well-balanced love of God, self and neighbour (they all have to be equal to really work well). That’s a good start. Justice doesn’t involve hurting or putting others down. Loving mercy means seeking to actively forgive and encouraging others to do the same.

Walking humbly with God means knowing who we are and whose we are, where our life and breath comes from. I’d love to get those things right more often than I do, starting today.

Father help me to trust you, to act for justice, to rejoice in mercy and being merciful, and to know I am your son and walk hand in hand with you today.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001zmp2)
27/05/24 The D-Day farms

To mark the 80th anniversary of Vernon Harwood tells the story of Britain's D-Day farms.

As dawn broke on the morning of the 6th June 1944 thousands of Allied ships and landing craft carrying more than 150,000 troops approached the beaches of Normandy in Northern France as the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare got underway. Meanwhile the airborne assault involved more than 11,000 aircraft making it the single largest aerial operation ever seen. D-Day had arrived. Code-named Operation Overlord, it would eventually result in the liberation of Western Europe, the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and the end of the Second World War. But what part did the fields, farms and country estates of England have in the success of the Allied invasion?

Landowners, farmers and their families played a vital role in the crucial months leading up to D-Day. Large parts of rural England were taken over by the military and transformed in the process.

The journey starts at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth where the museum archives and exhibits help reveal the background to this complex strategic and logistical exercise. At Chavenage House in Gloucestershire, the Lowsley-Williams family moved out of their home to make way for an American unit working on ‘ultra-secret’ maps. The Hampshire village of Southwick hosted General Dwight D. Eisenhower while U.S. troops helped with the haymaking and in Dorset an historic farm at Tarrant Rushton was flattened in favour of an airfield.

Produced and presented by Vernon Harwood.


MON 05:57 Weather (m001zmp4)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m001zly9)
Martha's Rule adopted in 140 hospitals

Martha’s mother talks about the new system for second opinions. Plus election latest.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001zlyc)
Reading the Bible

The American author Marilynne Robinson is celebrated as a writer of fiction and non-fiction that raises philosophical questions about how to live an ethical life. In her latest book, Reading Genesis, she explores the stories in the Bible and God’s promise of enduring covenant with humanity.

The writer Naomi Alderman grew up with stories from the Old Testament, and although no longer a believer, attests to the power and strangeness of these ancient stories. She wishes they were as popular as the Greek myths.

The poet Malika Booker grew up in Guyana where she says the King James Bible was ubiquitous. Its language has influenced her own work, and in recent years she has set herself the task of creolising the Bible, infusing its stories with the cadences of home.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m001zlyf)
Saved from the skip

Rachel Burden hears from Kate Taylor-Smith who co-founded Second Life, a recycling shop. The community interest company started after the local tip was closed, and also acts as a hub and meeting place for the village, as well as giving out grants to community sustainability initiatives.

Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us sitting in your local cafe and celebrating the people making the world a better place.

We're all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life, not everything works and there are struggles along the way. But it's always worth a go.

You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Rachel Burden
Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Researcher: Katie Morgan
Editor: Clare Fordham


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001zlyh)
Muses

From the Pre-Raphaelites to Picasso, Vermeer to Freud, some of the most famous Western artwork involves an artist’s muse. So who are the muses who have inspired great art? How do they embody an artist’s vision? And why has the muse artist relationship led to abuse of power? Nuala speaks to art historian and author Ruth Millington and to writer, curator and podcaster Alayo Akinkugbe.

Penelope Tree was one of the most famous models of the 1960s and the muse of her then boyfriend, the photographer David Bailey. Despite appearing on the cover of Vogue and being credited by Bailey with kick-starting the flower-power movement, Penelope’s life became increasingly difficult as their relationship began to flounder. These events have inspired Penelope’s loosely biographical novel Piece of My Heart and she joins Nuala to discuss her depiction of life as a ‘60s muse.

In ancient Greek mythology, the nine muses are the inspirational goddesses of the arts, science and literature. So who are the nine muses? Nuala speaks to classicist Professor Edith Hall.

Dora Maar was as a photographer, painter and poet but is probably most famous as Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse. Author Louisa Treger captures the complexity of this artist and muse relationship in her novel The Paris Muse and joins Nuala to discuss how the inspiration Dora offered Picasso nearly destroyed her.

We hear from Liza Lim, a Melbourne-based composer who collaborated with violinist and researcher Karin Hellqvist on a composition called ‘One and the Other (speculative Polskas for Karin)’, exploring Karin’s relationship to her heritage and Swedish musical traditions.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Laura Northedge
Editor: Deiniol Buxton


MON 11:00 The Tourist Trap (m001zlyk)
Episode 2

The travel industry is booming with millions more people holidaying abroad each year. In this second episode of The Tourist Trap, Rajan Datar explores the impact of climate change on tourism, alternatives to air travel and what can be done to protect places from the impact of mass tourism. He talks to two British tourists who escaped the wildfires in Greece last summer and its impact on their future holiday plans. He hears how two very different people have given up plane travel. He visits the beautiful Alpine countryside of Bohinj in Slovenia as it tries to protect its way of life from the impact of over-tourism. Rajan then takes the night train from Venice to Vienna to see if that’s a comfortable and convenient alternative to flying.


MON 11:45 D-Day: The Last Voices (m001zlym)
Episode 1: The Big Secret

D-Day: The Last Voices brings together a rich collection of historical audio testimonies recorded with those who fought in the invasion of Normandy, alongside extraordinary new interviews with the last surviving veterans, to tell their story of D-Day as it unfolded.

Presented by Paddy O’Connell, each programme charts a distinct chapter of the complex, visceral and moving story of the invasion, from subterfuge and secret planning, to the approach of H-Hour, the landings by air and sea, and on into the battles beyond the beaches.

Commissioned as a collaboration with D-Day: The Unheard Tapes for BBC Two, and drawing on the same longitudinal access and research, the series tells the story of D-Day through the last voices of those who lived it, leading us through their personal experiences of the invasion. Supported by the historical recordings of those who were there with them – this is their story, told in their own words.

The series begins in June 1944, as more than two million troops from over a dozen countries assemble across Southern England for a mission so secret, they don’t yet know it will be D-Day, the start of Operation Overlord, to take France and attempt to push back the Nazi occupation of Europe. Allied soldiers train for top secret missions, by air and sea, and receive their mission objectives in sealed camps.

This episode charts the story of the reveal of D-Day to Allied troops, as they learn they will be part of what will become the largest seaborne invasion in history. An operation of such complexity and risk, nothing of this scale had ever been attempted before, the stakes are unimaginably high.

Paddy O’Connell, whose father took part in Operation Overlord as a Royal Marine Commando, interweaves the powerful and striking archive recordings of those who were there, with unique and extraordinary interviews with some of the last surviving veterans on the eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Meeting two former WRENS - Christian Lamb who helped draw the D-Day maps in Whitehall, and Pat Owtram who spoke German and was based on the Dover Cliffs scanning for morse code from Occupied France, we are led through the enormous scale of the landings as 156,000 troops prepared for the impending invasion.

In archive recordings of the past, we hear from those who were there too, on landing craft and on ships, driving tanks or learning they would be part of the first waves onto the beaches.

As the hour of leaving for Normandy approached, commanders trusted in their training, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers set sail or took flight for the French coast under the cover of darkness.

Featuring:
Geoffrey Weaving
Christian Lamb
Pat Owtram
Gordon Prime
Warwick Nield-Siddall
Ivan Lambert
Ray Nance
James Kelly
Stanley Scott
John Capon
James Sink
Roy Crane
John Clegg
William Dunn
James Stagg

Written and presented by Paddy O’Connell
Produced by Paul Kobrak
Technical production by Richard Courtice
Sound design by Roy Noy, Tom Chilcot, Alex Short, Adam Palmer, Paul Donovan
Music composed by Sam Hooper

Production Executive – Anne-Marie Byrne
Archive Assistant Producer – Hannah Mirsky

Archive: BBC News, Fremantle, Paddy O’Connell, made in partnership with Imperial War Museums.

Executive Producers - Morgana Pugh and Rami Tzabar

A Wall to Wall Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001zlyq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001zlys)
Suburban Pubs, BBC Proms Tickets, Driving Tests

The way we work has changed in recent years, more of us are working from home full-time or for a few days a week. So is that changing the way we spend our money, and are businesses taking note? Well in a recent announcement Heineken, who run around 2400 pubs in the UK, said they will be re-open and refurbishing around 60 pubs that are predominantly in suburban areas.
Our reporter, Bob Walker, will be investigating how it’s not just Heineken that are banking on the revolution in our workplace.

It’s been a record year for The Proms, with over 100,000 tickets selling online in the first day. For those that missed out on tickets they not only have the disappointment of missing the event, they also have the frustration of tickets appearing on resale sites for hundreds if not thousands of pounds. We’ll be speaking to one music fan that wasn’t lucky, and also to a ticketing expert who can tell us what needs to be done to prevent this profiting from ticket reselling.

And are you trying to pass your driving test but having to wait a long time for a date to do it? A recent Freedom of Information Request showed that 45% of test centres have similar or worse delays than before the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ll be talking to the CEO of RED Driving School and a driving instructor who has many students ready to take their tests but not slots available for them to take it.

You can contact You & Yours by emailing youandyours@bbc.co.uk or using the hashtag #youandyours

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Dave James


MON 12:57 Weather (m001zlyv)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001zlyx)
Nato Secretary General calls for allied weapons to be used inside Russia

Nato's secretary seneral says allied weapons should be used inside Russia. Also, Keir Starmer lays out Labour's plan in his first major campaign speech.


MON 13:45 Shadow World (m001zlyz)
Thief at the British Museum

Thief at the British Museum: 1. The Man with the Cardboard Box

People have called Dr Ittai Gradel a kind of Sherlock Holmes, if Holmes were Danish and obsessed with gems. He’s an antiquities dealer with an eye for stolen goods who will help unlock the mystery at the heart of this story.

When Katie meets him in London, he’s got something to show her - two ancient gemstones he believes belong to the British Museum.

But this whodunnit begins more than a decade ago as a man with a cardboard box wanders into an antiques market. He has some valuable treasure to sell.

Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producers: Darin Graham, Ben Henderson and Larissa Kennelly
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Mix and sound design : James Beard
Composer: Jenny Plant
Exec-producer: Joe Kent
Investigations Editor: Ed Campbell
Series Editor: Matt Willis
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

Archive: Sky News Australia


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001zlz2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (m001zlz4)
2024 Special

This year's show is all about the village John has moved into since last year's show - and the very big, collective decision that they made last night.

Written and presented by ... John Finnemore
Ensemble ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Ensemble ... Simon Kane
Ensemble ... Lawry Lewin
Ensemble ... Carrie Quinlan

Original music composed by ... Susannah Pearse
Theme tune arranged by ... Susannah Pearse
Theme tune performed by ... Susannah Pearse & Sally Stares

Studio managers ... Chris Maclean & Jon Calver
Sound design ... Rich Evans
Production coordinator ... Katie Baum
Executive producer ... Richard Morris
Producer ... Ed Morrish

An EcoAudio certified production
A BBC Studios Audio production


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m001zlz6)
Mary Portas on Anita Roddick

Dame Anita Roddick started The Body Shop in Brighton as a way to earn a living while her husband was travelling the Americas by horseback. Her idea for ethically-sourced beauty products which were initially sold in urine sample bottles soon flew. The first shop that she began with a £4,000 loan and painted green to disguise the damp on the walls then developed into a global empire which was eventually sold to L'Oreal for £652m in 2006.

Retail consultant and broadcaster Mary Portas has chosen Anita Roddick as her Great Life for her extraordinary creativity, her playfulness and her innovation. She is joined by Anita Roddick's daughter Sam who now works with the Roddick Foundation which distributes some of her fortune to charitable causes. They reflect on how Anita Roddick put principles ahead of profit. She championed cruelty-free beauty and drew inspiration from her international travels to bring exotic-sounding products to the High Street. She pioneered the introduction of creches at work and used her shop windows to promote the environmental campaigns she believed in, leading her to be dubbed the "Queen of Green". They discuss her legacy and ask whether there is still a place for The Body Shop today.

Archive includes Anita Roddick talking on the Nine O' Clock News on 16th April 1984 and from the BBC Life And Times television programme from 2000. It also features Peter Kyle MP talking about his time working for Anita Roddick on the Political Thinking Podcast from 2003.

Presenter: Matthew Parris
Producer: Robin Markwell for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol


MON 15:30 History's Secret Heroes (p0hm0rk0)
19. The Enigmatic Emily Anderson

Emily Anderson led a double life. This shy musicologist from Galway was also a top codebreaker for the British, whose work would play a crucial role in Allied victory.

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Suniti Somaiya
Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts


MON 16:00 Stoppage Time for Scunthorpe (m001zlz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001zlvf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m001zlzc)
Prisons 'near to complete chaos'

As the Government presses ahead with its early release scheme, the president of the Prison Governors' Association tells PM about violence and overcrowding behind bars.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001zlzf)
He urged voters to back Labour in his first major speech of the election campaign


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001zlzh)
Series 81

Episode 3

The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a visit to the King George’s Hall in Blackburn. Marcus Brigstocke and Henning Wehn take on Vicki Pepperdine and Tony Hawks with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell provides piano accompaniment.

Producer - Jon Naismith.

A Random production for BBC Radio 4


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001zlzk)
Lilian and Oliver chat as he takes an early bank holiday ride before another busy day. Oliver asks after Alice who is still staying with Ruairi in London. Lilian wishes she could have done more before everything got so out of hand. She feels guilty about encouraging Alice’s relationship with Harry. And she fears things might be awkward at The Bull after the crash. Later, Lillian awkwardly broaches the subject of Alice and Fallon with Jolene, who has no problem with her being supportive towards her niece – family is family. Lilian apologises and all is well between them. She insists on helping Jolene with queueing customers.

Vince asks after Fallon and orders a pint of Shires. Jolene offers him a taste of bread beer. He makes Jolene laugh when he asks for a shot of butter as a chaser. He takes a call from Freddie who tells him another customer is missing meat from their order. Jolene overhears, telling Vince that Wayne was also missing some steak from a recent delivery. Freddie gets Casey Meats driver Jason to give him a lift to the customer who complained. Jason’s working the bank holiday for the overtime cash: his twin daughters want to go skiing. He asks if Freddie can put a bit more overtime his way. Later in the canteen, they chat. Freddie has to change the subject when he almost lets slip that his family owns Lower Loxley. He’s summoned by Vince who tells him that there is no mistake in the online distribution system and they need to get to the bottom of the problem quickly.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001zlzm)
Hay Festival 2024 - Young Adult Fiction

In a special edition of Front Row recorded at this year's Hay Festival, school children and young people put questions to four giants of Young Adult Fiction.

Anthony Horowitz has written books for both adults and younger readers, but here discusses his iconic creation Alex Rider. Manon Steffan Ros won last year's Carnegie Medal, the first translated book to read the prize having originally been written in Welsh. Alex Wheatle is the author of the hugely popular Crongton Knights series, having written his first novel Brixton Rock in prison. And Frances Hardinge is the only children's author other than Phillip Pullman to win the Costa Prize Book of the Year with the Lie Tree, as well as being the other behind other much loved YA novels including Fly By Night.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham


MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001zdws)
How much trouble are UK universities in?

David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the current financial crisis facing UK universities and ask what can be done about it.

Guests:

Branwen Jeffreys, BBC Education Editor
Nick Hillman, Director of The Higher Education Policy Institute
Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford and member of the Migration Advisory Committee
Alan Manning, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics

Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight, Miriam Quayyum and Ben Carter
Editors: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineers: Neil Churchill


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m001zdwv)
Micro Nuclear Reactors

Guest presented by Liz Bonnin.

As the UK strives to achieve net zero by 2050, nuclear energy is looking more and more likely as a key player in reaching this goal. But it’s not just massive power plants like Hinkley point C - there’s are newer smaller reactors on the scene: small and micro modular reactors. 100 to 1000 times smaller than a conventional reactor, faster to build, and put together entirely in a factory before being shipped out, theoretically, anywhere: are micro modular reactors the future of nuclear energy or too good to be true? Dean of Engineering at the University of Liverpool, Eann Patterson, has just published a paper proposing a fleet of micro modular reactors to bear the burden of our energy load and he joins us to discuss the reality.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Science writer, broadcaster and now egg expert Jules Howard joins us to answer this age old question. His book Infinite Life tells the story of how the egg propelled evolution – whether it’s bird, insect, or mammal.

This month, scientist Alexandra Freeman’s appointment to the House of Lords was announced. With a background in risk and evidence communication, Alexandra tells us why she applied, what she hopes to achieve, and how the public can get involved.

Presenter: Liz Bonnin
Producers: Hannah Robins, Ella Hubber, Sophie Ormiston
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m001zlyc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m001zlyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001zlzp)
Deadly strike on Rafah a tragic mishap, Netanyahu says

Israel's Prime Minister says the deaths of dozens of civilians in an air strike in southern Gaza was a tragic mishap. We hear from an eyewitness and, as international condemnation grows, we get a response from the Israeli government.

Also tonight:

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have been trading blows on the campaign trail - we have the latest.

A rare account from a Ukrainian soldier held captive by Russia.

And the change to plastic bottle caps that's been getting some people in a twist: what's behind the tethered bottle tops - and will it have a positive impact on the enivronment? We find out.


MON 22:45 Long Island by Colm Toibin (m001zlzr)
1: 'I am not the father.'

Niamh Cusack reads the heartbreaking sequel to Colm Toibin's bestselling novel, Brooklyn, set twenty years on.

Since leaving Brooklyn, Eilis and Tony have built a happy and secure life in Long Island. The future looks good - until one day a stranger knocks on the door, and everything changes.

Feeling very far from home, Eilis starts to question the life she's created. Her questions lead her back to Ireland, and to those she left behind, as she wonders whether it's too late to take a different path?

Author: Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Brooklyn, The Master and The Magician, and two collections of stories. He has been three times shortlisted
for the Booker Prize. Tóibín was appointed the Laureate for Irish Fiction 2022-2024.
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Reader: Niamh Cusack is an acclaimed stage and screen Irish actor.
Producer: Justine Willett


MON 23:00 Limelight (m00114tk)
Harland

Harland - Episode 2: Wednesday

Lucy Catherine's supernatural thriller set in the new town of Harland. A girl has disappeared. A sink hole has entirely swallowed her home. DI Ward continues to investigate.

Sarah ..... Ayesha Antoine
Dan ..... Tyger Drew-Honey
Sadie ..... Melissa Advani
Lori ..... Grace Cooper Milton
Jess ..... Lizzie Mounter
Lindsay ..... Jasmine Hyde
Pete ..... Michael Begley
Aldo ..... Sam Dale
DJ ..... Justice Ritchie
Newsreader ..... Joseph Ayre

Sound design by Caleb Knightley
Directed by Toby Swift


MON 23:30 Lights Out (m001g2zn)
Series 5

Accounts and Accountability

Across the course of a single day, a documentary-maker hosts an open-call audition for subjects to star in her next project. Accounts and Accountability offers a dive into the ethics of buying and selling true stories.

With music composed by Eliza Niemi
Sound Recording by Fivel Rothberg
Assistant Producers: Kristine White, Kyle Damiao, Jose Salazar and Emma Rose Brown
Special thanks to Sean Hanley, David Pavlovsky, and Kelly Anderson

Produced by Jess Shane
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

TUESDAY 28 MAY 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001zlzv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 D-Day: The Last Voices (m001zlym)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001zlzx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001zlzz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001zm01)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001zm03)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001zm05)
Ice cream vans on cloudy days

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Haydon Spenceley

Good morning.

I spent the first portion of my life as something of an eternal student. Some people in my family are still waiting for me to get a proper job. One of the beauties of studying a fair amount was that in the summer time I could spend a good portion of my non-studying time watching cricket. This is not something that everyone enjoys, I know, but there’s something calm, rhythmic and almost meditational about some aspects of a County Championship Cricket match that other forms of the game and other sports just can’t replicate.

It does us good to draw aside and focus on life at a different speed for a while. I find cricket does that for me, even if my working pattern now means I don’t actually get to watch much of it! There’s something about the calm and contented hum of spectators around a cricket ground, punctuated by an ice cream van optimistically turning up on a cloudy and windy day which reminds me that productivity and pace isn’t everything. There’s a good deal more to life.

This, of course is not a universally held or even all that popular opinion. I know this because all around me and often within myself I am reminded that I am not doing enough and what I am doing is not being done fast enough. Except that isn’t right, is it? God declares those who love him to be enough just because they are, because he says so, not because of how much or how fast we work or produce things. Perhaps a good reminder for us all as we head into today.

Lord, thank you that I am enough because you declare it to be so. Help me to trust and follow you today.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001zm07)
Environmentalist Ben Goldsmith blames sheep grazing for turning the UKs National Parks into ‘dead zones’.

Neil Heseltine the chair of National Parks England responds, and explains what role he sees for these institutions.

One of the two scientists who was instrumental in creating a back-up vault of the world’s crop seeds to protect global food security, explain how it works.

Presented by Charlotte Smith

Produced by Alun Beach


TUE 06:00 Today (m001znlk)
28/05/24 - Emma Barnett and Justin Webb

News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Being Roman with Mary Beard (m001zngp)
10. A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine

An obscure carved stone dug up from a vineyard in southern Italy tells the story of a pair of publicans- the delightfully named Calidius Eroticus and Fannia Voluptas- and their bawdy adventures in the pub trade. Fans of Frankie Howard, the Carry On films and the sitcom Plebs will instantly feel at home with the Roman sense of humour, but these two characters have so much more to offer than lame jokes and a glass of rough wine- they’re our window into the fascinating bar culture of the Romans.

Most urban Romans had neither the facilities nor the time to cook their own food so meals were eaten and drinks drunk from bars. New discoveries at Pompeii reveal the complex stratification of the culture, from the most basic takeaways to dining rooms that mimicked the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Cast: Robert Wilfort and Tyler Cameron

Expert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University, Claire Holleran, Exeter University and Sophie Hay, Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Special thanks to Antonio Valerio of Campi Valerio and Museo Archeologico di Santa Maria delle Monache, Isernia

Translations by Mary Beard


TUE 09:30 All in the Mind (m001zngr)
Grief, summer seasonal affective disorder, and anxiety in older people

In this episode, Claudia Hammond goes to the Chelsea Flower Show to speak to garden designer Katherine Holland. She credits gardening with helping to ease her grief following the death of her mother. Her Grief Kind garden features a meeting space with three chairs set around a coffee table, to encourage conversations about grief and will include a rotating display of personal objects symbolising loved ones who have died. Professor Catherine Loveday, a psychologist and neuroscientist from the University of Westminster, joins Claudia in the studio to discuss how objects can help us form links in our brains and remember our loved ones.

Many of us breathe a sigh of relief when the weather warms up and the sun pops out, but one listener actually finds their mood worsens during the summer. Catherine and Claudia discuss the little-known condition of summer seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Finally, we hear from Professor Andrew Steptoe, a psychologist and epidemiologist from University College London. He heads up the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which has been running for 20 years. He has found that older people's anxiety levels have remained high following the pandemic. Claudia and Catherine unpick a few of the issues and stereotypes that some people may face.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
Studio Manager: Neva Missirian
Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire
Editor: Holly Squire


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001znlr)
Ruth Jones, Women and renting, Couples who disagree about having children

Ruth Jones is live in the Woman’s Hour studio to talk about playing the Mother Superior in a West End production of Sister Act. She discusses getting out of her comfort zone by appearing on stage for the first time since 2018 and working on her fourth novel. Plus what can fans of Gavin and Stacey expect from the Christmas special?

What happens in relationships when one person wants a family and the other definitely doesn’t? Is missing out on the chance to have children a deal-breaker? Or do some couples decide to stay together, with one person choosing the relationship over a baby? As BBC Radio 4 drama The Archers explores the dynamics between a couple in this situation, Nuala McGovern hears from Joanna Van Kampen who plays Fallon Rogers in The Archers and relationship therapist Cate Campbell.

With the cost of renting and living on the rise, housing insecurity is an increasingly harsh reality for many. A survey by Shelter and YouGov found that 54% of women feel that being a renter has held them back. Three young women—Aimee, Rhiannon, and Rebecca—talk about the significant challenges they’ve faced in the rental market, and how this has affected their lives, plans, and sense of stability. Nuala is also joined by Jenny Lamb from Shelter to talk about how to best negotiate renting.

Marina Gibson, a leading female angler who runs the Northern Fishing School in North Yorkshire, has called on the Flyfishers’ Club in London to finally open its doors to women. The club, which was established in 1884 and counts the King as a patron, describes itself as a club for gentleman interested in the art of flyfishing. Marina explains why she wants women to be able to join, and how her love of fishing led to a career change.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Olivia Skinner


TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m001zdv1)
Series 9

Natalie Duncan and Neil Brand take us on a manic journey

Add to Playlist returns for its ninth series and Jeffrey is joined by a new co-host, the violinist and composer Anna Phoebe.

To kick off the new six-part series, Jeffrey and Anna are joined in the studio by the composer and silent film specialist Neil Brand and jazz singer and composer Natalie Duncan, who create a playlist of five tracks which take us from a manic Monday to Blondie’s biggest-selling single, via Sergei Prokofiev’s children’s masterpiece.

Cerys Matthews is taking a temporary pause from presenting the programme in order to pursue other musical and literary projects.

Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Manic Monday by The Bangles
The Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams
Peter and the Wolf: The Duck, Dialogue with the Bird, Attack of the Cat by Sergei Prokofiev
Matte Kudasai by King Crimson
Call Me by Blondie

Other music in this episode:

Mr Vain by Culture Beat
Manic Monday by Apollonia 6
Manic Monday by Prince
Apparition on the Train from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams
Double Trouble from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams
I Put a Spell on You by Nina Simone
Move on up a Little Higher by Mahalia Jackson


TUE 11:45 D-Day: The Last Voices (m001znly)
Episode 2: Out of the Skies

D-Day: The Last Voices brings together a rich collection of historical audio testimonies recorded with those who fought in the invasion of Normandy, alongside extraordinary new interviews with the last surviving veterans, to tell their story of D-Day as it unfolded.

Presented by Paddy O’Connell, each programme charts a distinct chapter of the complex, visceral and moving story of the invasion, from subterfuge and secret planning, to the approach of H-Hour, the landings by air and sea, and on into the battles beyond the beaches.

Commissioned as a collaboration with D-Day: The Unheard Tapes for BBC Two, and drawing on the same longitudinal access and research, the series tells the story of D-Day through the last voices of those who lived it, leading us through their personal experiences of the invasion. Supported by the historical recordings of those who were there with them – this is their story, told in their own words.

As night falls on 5th June 1944, 18,000 men ready themselves to leave Britain and embark on their missions. They will be the first in behind enemy lines on D-Day.

In parachutes, planes and gliders, they set off, and approach the Normandy coast as night gives way to the early hours of 6th June, marking the beginning of D-Day itself. Dropping in their thousands, many find they land far from their targets, alone, wounded or dying as their parachutes become waterlogged in flooded fields.

12,000 aircraft drop them in, and pilots and soldiers within with those aircraft lead us through the story, some of whom make the jump, describing in visceral and revealing detail how dangerous and tense their mission was.

At the Bénouville Bridge on the Orne Canal, later known as “Pegasus”, a glider breaks apart as it lands and Major John Howard, Eddie Edwards and Wally Parr from the British Airborne recount their crash landing. Taking targets like this bridge is an essential part of the operation, for protecting the wider invasion zone and the beaches. In just a few short hours, the biggest amphibious landing in history will commence.

Featuring:
Geoffrey Weaving
Bernard Morgan
Marie Scott
Joe Cattini
Ray Nance
Terence Otway
Des O’Neill
Eddie Edwards
John Howard
Wally Parr
Victor Newcomb
Nat Hoskot
Warwick Nield-Siddall
William Dunn

Written and presented by Paddy O’Connell
Produced by Paul Kobrak
Technical production by Richard Courtice
Sound design by Roy Noy, Tom Chilcot, Alex Short, Adam Palmer, Paul Donovan
Music composed by Sam Hooper

Production Executive – Anne-Marie Byrne
Archive Assistant Producer – Hannah Mirsky

Archive: The D-Day Story Portsmouth, BBC News, Paddy O’Connell, made in partnership with Imperial War Museums.

Executive Producers - Morgana Pugh and Rami Tzabar

A Wall to Wall Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001znm4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001znmb)
Call You & Yours: Local Spending

Call You & Yours Are you spending more money locally, and on what?

Shopping closer to home is a legacy of the pandemic. Working from home is part of it but so is loyalty to local traders.

Have your shopping habits changed? Are you spending less money in towns and city centres and more on your doorstep?

You can email us about that now. To youandyours@bbc.co.uk - and please add your phone number so we can call you back.

From11am on Tuesday you can call us on 03700 100 444.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson

Producer: Kevin Mousley


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001znmj)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001znmn)
Conservatives promise a 'Triple Lock Plus' for pensioners

We examine the Conservative party's pledge for pensioners, and hear from Rishi Sunak's constituents in North Yorkshire. Plus, the latest from Rafah.


TUE 13:45 Shadow World (m001znms)
Thief at the British Museum

Thief at the British Museum: 2. White Paper Dots

A mysterious seller appears with a seemingly endless supply of ancient, precious gems at bargain prices. Collector and dealer Ittai Gradel snaps them up. But then a strange series of events starts to unfold.

From his home in rural Denmark, Ittai becomes suspicious about what is happening hundreds of miles away at the heart of the British Museum.

Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producers: Darin Graham, Ben Henderson and Larissa Kennelly
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Mix and sound design: James Beard
Composer: Jenny Plant
Exec-producer: Joe Kent
Investigations Editor: Ed Campbell
Series Editor: Matt Willis
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001zlzk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001znmw)
Flixborough 74

By Helen Cross. Real-life interviews and drama combine to mark fifty years since the Nypro disaster, in the small village of Flixborough in North Lincolnshire.

At 4.53pm on 1st June 1974, an explosion ‘of warlike dimensions’ silenced the nearby town of Scunthorpe. One of the UK's worst ever chemical explosions, it turned the Nypro chemical plant at Flixborough into a wasteland, burning for ten days and scorching surrounding fields. Two hundred houses were destroyed, over a thousand properties damaged and sending a toxic gas cloud drifting towards Yorkshire. Thirty-six people were seriously injured and twenty-eight men died.

This drama-documentary interweaves the testimony of people who were directly affected by the disaster with a fictionalised reconstruction of key preceding events.

Everyone in Scunthorpe – and for fifty miles around - knows exactly where they were when Nypro went up. The writer and producer both lived nearby as children. They both heard the explosion and remember the trauma of its aftermath on local people. The disaster shocked the nation, and led to extensive, hitherto unacceptably strict developments in health and safety legislation.

Pete and Les are trying to restart the reactors at the Nypro chemical works when they notice a rise in pressure. Peggy and Arlene are having fun at the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Gala, unaware of how their world is about to change.

Les...John Godber
Peggy...Jane Thornton
Arlene...Martha Godber
Pete...Peter Caulfield
Sports Commentator...James Hoggarth
Narrator...Helen Cross
Sound Design...Mary Ward-Lowery and Ilse Lademann.
Music by Ben Nicholls.
Director...Mary Ward-Lowery

We would like to thanks Paul and Joyce Freear, Andrew Green, Margaret and David Humphries and Ian Johnson for their generous assistance in the making of this programme.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001znn0)
Lost

Evaporating answers, mysterious music and disappearing dialects - Josie Long presents short documentaries about things in danger of becoming lost.

Pot-8-Toes
Featuring Billy Butler and Wally Scott
Originally broadcast in Hold Your Plums on Radio Merseyside

A Corner Seat in a Smoker, Facing the Engine
Produced by Robin the Fog

Echoes of Cockney
Produced by James Trice

Panchiko
Produced by Tom Whalley

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


TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m001znn4)
Garden Utopias

Garden Utopias: Michael Gilson, Associate Fellow of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, takes Laurie Taylor behind the privet hedge, to explore the suburban garden and the beautification of Britain. How did millions of British people develop an obsession with their own cherished plot of land? Although stereotyped as symbols of dull, middle class conformity, these gardens were once seen as the vanguard of progressive social change, a dream of a world in which beauty would be central to all of our lives.

Also, JC Niala, anthropologist, allotment historian and writer, discusses 36 months of fieldwork on allotment sites and guerrilla gardened streets across Oxford and suggests these are places where urban gardeners imagine, invent, and produce a hopeful future within their city.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


TUE 16:00 Michael Sheen Gets Into Character (m001znn8)
Fragility

Michael Sheen explores the strange art of acting.

Today, there's a lot of talk about the "fragility" of young actors and audiences. But has that fragility always existed? And is it in fact necessary to the task of getting into character?

In the final installment of this series, Michael finds out what it's like to be a young actor today, in an industry that has changed so much since he started out.

As the world of acting evolves, are the teachings of Stanislavski and Adler still relevant? Mia McKenna-Bruce is a 26 year old actress who has never been to drama school but has just won a BAFTA. She tells Michael how she developed her own unique way of getting into character. Meanwhile, Brandon Grace remembers his struggle to break into drama school as a working class actor.

On-set therapists and intimacy co-ordinators are becoming the new normal. Many actors and directors worry that these mediators will dampen "the spark." Dramatherapist Lou Platt tells us how an actor getting in touch with their inner child helped them to learn their lines, while intimacy co-ordinator David Thackeray explores the freedom of performance that can be found within the choreography of movement.

Produced by Alice McKee for BBC Audio.


TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m001znnd)
General Election PR strategy and the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry

David Yelland and Simon Lewis debate the first of a series of PR reviews into the up and coming general election. Starting with Rishi Sunak's announcement in the rain last week, they'll be looking at how the parties launched their campaigns, their use of campaign videos and slogans, and how and when the press decide to take sides.

They also discuss how PR has been put on the stand at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry.

New to When It Hits The Fan, if you have a “Quick Wins” question for Simon and David about managing your personal PR, send them a voice note on WhatsApp with the word “Fan” to +44 3700 100444 followed by your question.

Producer: William Miller
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 17:00 PM (m001znnj)
PM introduces its General Election Tombola, picking some of the constituencies it will visit during the campaign. Also, cloud measuring and the latest on the Trump trial.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001znnn)
Many displaced Palestinians are still sheltering in Rafah from the conflict


TUE 18:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (m000czy3)
Series 2

Clara Amfo and Carol Kirkwood

Joe Lycett's second series, exploring the nation's weird and wonderful obsessions by getting to know a selection of famous and not so famous guests.

Joining him on the sofa is weather presenter Carol Kirkwood, who shares her obsession with a cat called Donald, whilst Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo reveals her love of trainers.

Joe also welcomes members of the public to share their secret passions, as well as this week's VOP (very obsessed person), Paul Fraine, who introduces Joe to the world of Live Action Role Play.

Written and performed by Joe Lycett.

With material from James Kettle and additional material from Catherine Brinkworth and Kat Sadler.

Produced by Suzy Grant.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in January 2020.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001zng4)
Lynda and Robert are in the attic sorting through some of the Edwardian furniture her mother left them. She wants to bring some down from there, but there’s barely enough room with all the things they’re already using. She spots a chest of Robert’s father’s military memorabilia, including the medal he tried to give to Freddie. There should be an event in Ambridge to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, says Linda. And she has an idea. Over tea on the lawn she suggests that they have a living history museum evening at Ambridge Hall. Robert will start with an account of the D Day landings. Then visitors can watch demonstrations of different aspects of the war. Chelsea could do wartime hairstyles and fashions, and Tony or Pat talk about wartime foods. Fallon could do Blitz baking! At the Tearoom with Robert, Lynda broaches the subject. Chelsea is keen and Fallon recalls a great aunt who served in Egypt during the war.

Lilian asks Jakob to take a look at a horse called Cinnamon, a new arrival at the Stables, who is a bit under the weather. But Lilian can’t find his stables contract, which Alice would have filled in. It has details of his health and vaccinations. When they go to see Cinnamon – who following protocol for new arrivals is still in the quarantine field - they notice he's not in a good way: lethargic and not wanting to lift his head. Jakob is going to send off some samples for tests. It doesn’t look good, but they’ll have to wait for the results to come back.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001znns)
Bernard Butler, Kafka, Benedict Cumberbatch

Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch talks about his new series Eric, where he plays a troubled puppeteer in 80s New York whose life and marriage unravel when his young son disappears and the only help he has to find him is from a giant imaginary monster who follows him everywhere. Created by British screenwriter Abi Morgan, the show opens on Netflix on Thursday.

Bernard Butler's first solo album in 25 years - Good Grief - is released on 31st May. He plays his latest single and reflects on a career that has involved highly successful collaborations with an eclectic range of artists including Duffy, Jessie Buckley, Tricky and The Libertines.

100 years after his death, Franz Kafka’s papers are on display at a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The curator Carolin Duttlinger discusses Kafka’s ongoing significance with the novelist Joanna Kavenna.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Torquil MacLeod


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001zdqk)
Detained and Restrained: Britain's Vulnerable Kids

The most senior family court judge in England has described the growing use of Deprivation of Liberty orders for vulnerable children as a 'crisis.' File on 4 hears from young people who were held under the order supposedly for their own safety. But they say they were under constant supervision, denied access to their phones and the internet and kept away from their families. Some say they were subjected to physical restraints and even supervised when they were having a shower. And one teenager who was on a Deprivation of Liberty order tells the programme he preferred being in prison.

Reporter: Ashley John-Baptiste
Producer: Phil Marzouk
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Production coordinator: Ellie Dover
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001znnw)
Accessibility of Ticketmaster and Sonos Speakers

Technology often supports blind and visually impaired people to achieve independence. However, the process can also work in reverse - hindering rather than helping. We speak to listeners about their experience of booking to see their favourite acts using Ticketmaster.

And is an update to an app always good news? Maybe not if you're a blind user of Sonos speakers. We look at what's caused the upset and hear what Sonos is doing to put things right.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings/Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole

Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate 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 is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 The Law Show (m001zdr2)
Protest, Lasting power of attorney and the Green belt

Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan that gives you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making the news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. Whether it’s unpicking a landmark legal ruling, explaining how laws are made or seeking clarity for you on a legal issue, The Law Show will be your guide.

This week:

Protest law has been tightened up a lot in the last year, giving the police more leeway to stop disruption. But parts of the new powers have now been deemed unlawful by the High Court. So what is and isn't legal when it comes to protest? And how should the police handle protesters? Joelle explores all this with barrister Dr Sam Fowles and with Andy Walker from the College of Policing.

Is it legal to build on greenbelt land? Campaigners in Greater Manchester are taking legal action after Bury council announced plans to build 1500 homes on greenbelt.

And: why you may need a "Lasting Power of Attorney", even if you're married. If your spouse were to be incapacitated, being next of kin is not enough to make financial or health decisions about them. Social media's "legal queen", solicitor Tracey Maloney, talks us through how and when to get an LPA.

Producers: Ravi Naik and Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production coordinator: Maria Ogundele


TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m001znny)
The Decisions That Made Me A Leader

The Decisions That Made Me A Leader: The Depop Story

Simon Beckerman is the founder of Depop, a platform where people can buy and sell pre-loved fashion, it currently has around 35 million registered users. He sold the company to Etsy for £1.25 billion in 2021.

Simon grew up in Italy to British and Italian parents who he describes as rebels in their own way and even as a teenager he knew he had to build his own business because ‘I was unemployable’

His latest business, is DELLI a food app connecting independent retailers with consumers.

Evan asks about the key personal and business-related decisions that got him to where he is today.


The Decisions That Made Me A Leader is a mini-series from The Bottom Line. It features one-on-one interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders, including Duncan Bannatyne, Martha Lane Fox, and the boss of Depop, Simon Beckerman. All of these episodes are available on BBC Sounds and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader. You can also watch the series on BBC iPlayer. To find the series, just search: The Decisions That Made Me A Leader.

Host: Evan Davis
Producers: Paige Neal-Holder and Farhana Haider
Assistant Editor: Matt Willis
Senior News Editor: Sam Bonham
Commissioning Editor: Hugh Levinson

A BBC News Long Form Audio production.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001znp0)
Diane Abbott has Labour whip restored

The BBC has been told that Diane Abbot, the UK's first black female MP, has been allowed back into the Parliamentary Labour party after race row probe, but will she stand in the election?

Also in the programme:

As Israeli tanks reach the centre of the southern Gazan city of Rafah, there are reports of an attack on a camp for displaced Palestinians in the west of the city. We hear from a British doctor in the area about the worsening conditions there.

And, how AI is helping to find a female partner for a lonely male tree?


TUE 22:45 Long Island by Colm Toibin (m001znp2)
2: 'I'm going to Ireland.'

Niamh Cusack reads the long-awaited and heart-breaking sequel to Brooklyn, set twenty years on.

Since leaving Brooklyn, Eilis and Tony have built a happy and secure life in Long Island. The future looks good - until one day a stranger knocks on the door, and everything changes.

Feeling very far from home, Eilis starts to question the life she's created. Her questions lead her back to Ireland, and to those she left behind, as she wonders whether it's too late to take a different path?

Today: when her mother-in-law threatens to adopt Tony's illegitimate baby, Eilis feels herself being called back to Ireland...

Author: Colm Tóibín
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Reader: Niamh Cusack
Producer: Justine Willett


TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m001znp4)
Series 4

S4. Case 5: The Mystery of Willow Creek

Alaskan huntsman Fred and his cousin and uncle are trapped in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, seemingly surrounded by terrifying creatures, resembling the local folk stories about Bigfoot or “the Hairy Man”. Can they escape with their lives?

Also, Danny ventures to Humboldt County, site of some of America’s most famous alleged Bigfoot sightings, to talk to resident Native Americans about their ancient beliefs in these creatures and their own experiences. Is this a great American myth or could there really be a secret, undetected species living in the USA?

Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Deborah Hyde and Lyle Blackburn
Editing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme music by Lanterns on the Lake
Script editor: Dale Shaw
Development producer: Sarah Patten
Production manager: Tam Reynolds
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Lights Out (m000p6gc)
Series 3

How Do You Sleep at Night?

A dreamlike glimpse at our collective consciousness in this documentary composed entirely of questions.

Featuring Caroline Bird, Ross Sutherland, Axel Kacoutié, Rachel Long, Juliet Jacques, Melissa Harrison, Pejk Malinovski, Rikke Houd, Jazmine Green, Sara Brooke Curtis, Rebecca Tamás, Joe Dunthorne and Bertie Warmsley.

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