SATURDAY 29 JANUARY 2022
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0013sxz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Worn by Sofi Thanhauser (m0013swf)
Wool
Sofi Thanhauser loves clothes.
She has travelled across the world to meet people making linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool to get to the heart of an industry which is worth four times the global arms trade.
In Worn: A People’s History of Clothing, Sofi examines what’s changed in the history of fabric production and explores local stories of craft, labour and industry. She wants to know how and why we moved from a system of making fabric for ourselves to a complex one that sullies creativity, the environment and worker rights.
Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production around the world doubled. This was possible because clothing had become almost completely disposable. But fast fashion’s evils aren’t new problems, textile making has been damaging our environment for centuries.
In this final episode, Sofi charts the history of wool from 19th century Wyoming shepherds to the Navajo women preserving their culture of weaving today. It’s a history that has been, at times, brutal and violent.
Read by Lanna Joffrey
Abridged and produced by Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013sy1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013sy3)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013sy5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0013sy7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0013sy9)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
SAT 05:45 The Death of Nuance (m000qmp7)
Across the Divide
Oliver Burkeman has noticed that even if wants to have a conversation with someone who disagrees with him, it’s harder and harder to find them.
In this episode Oliver talks with Robert Talisse, about his research into how society has become so polarised along the political divide that he could tell at a glance which political view you ascribe to by the coffee you drink, the car you choose buy, or where you would choose to relax on a day off, and how our innocent desire to make a pleasant little slice of the world for ourselves to live in is leading to an ever more fractured society.
And Oliver hears from two friends, Guardian journalist Poppy Noor, and her friend Ronan Walsh, who are best friends despite having very different political views, despite the modern polarized world pressuring them to split apart.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0013zbv)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0013rnw)
California's Giant Cousins
Not far from Offa's Dyke in mid-Wales there stands a grove of Coast Redwoods - the oldest and largest of its kind in Europe. Brought over from their native California in the 1850s, the trees - which are still in their infancy - tower above others nearby. The author Tracy Chevalier ('Girl with a Pearl Earring') visited these woods with her husband, plant writer Jonathan Drori, 30 years ago. In her 2016 novel, 'At the Edge of the Orchard' she tells the story of how the trees were collected and brought to Wales by her hero Robert Goodenough. The Redwood Grove stands next to a pinetum which includes other varieties of Redwood, Fir, Cedar and Cypress. It is here that the infamous Leylandii tree was first registered, after two varieties of Cypress, which would not meet naturally in the wild, cross pollinated, creating the fast-growing evergreen. In his book, 'Around the World in 80 Trees', Drori tells the story of how the tree went on to be the source of so many neighbour disputes. In 1958 the Redwood and Pinetum was donated to the Royal Forestry Society by Charles Ackers, who planted many more Coast Redwoods on the site in the 1930s. His daughter, Torill Freeman recalls visits to the woods as a child, and explains why her father dedicated the woods to her mother.
Presented by Felicity Evans
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
Photo Credit: Website photo taken by Jonathan Drori
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0013zbx)
29/01/22 - Farming Today This Week: Food labelling, tree planting and shellfish deaths
Do you read the labels on meat, cheese and veg before putting them in the shopping basket and if so, what do you want to know? The calories? The nutritional content? Where it's come from? It's carbon footprint? We look at what information could be included on food labels and the challenges involved in doing that.
The Forestry Commission launched a new drive to get more farmers to plant trees, with grants of up to 10 thousand pounds per hectare and free specialist advice. We ask if the Government's tree planting targets are still achievable.
And it’s three months now since we first heard reports of dead crabs and lobsters washing up on beaches across the North East of England. At the time the Environment Agency said investigating the source of the deaths was ‘a top priority’, but since then, thousands of shellfish have died, and those deaths are still unexplained. Now fishermen say they’re losing their livelihoods, and they want the Government to help.
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
SAT 06:57 Weather (m0013zbz)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m0013zc1)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0013zc5)
Claire Sweeney
Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0013zc7)
Series 35
Home Economics: Episode 51
Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits. This week, he's joined by Rob Owen Brown, Rachel McCormack, Jeremy Pang and Professor Barry Smith.
As the calendar equivalent of a Monday morning wraps up, the team divulge the meals they had to endure growing up, as well as debating whether stuffing should contain meat, and pondering over recipes for leftover gin-soaked sloes.
In the guest seat this week, the daughter of renowned Chinese chef-restaurateur Bill Poon, Amy Poon, regaling the panel with tales of mythical beasts and their taste for sweet treats as she looks towards the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.
And Professor of sense-related profundity, Barry Smith, leaves the panellists a little sour-faced with this week's experiment. Grab a sour sweet to take part!
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m0013zc9)
Paul Waugh of The i paper is joined by Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh and Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett to discuss allegations of rule-breaking parties in Downing Street and what they mean for the Prime Minister's future. Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler assesses the role of civil service inquiries in determining Prime Ministerial fates. Dr Hannah White of The Institute for Government discusses whether the so-called 'partygate' row is symptomatic of a wider political problem. And two veteran political journalists - Michael Crick and Libby Wiener - debate political resignations and where this crisis will end up.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0013zcc)
Fear and Fatalism in Kiev
More than a hundred and twenty thousand Russian troops are sitting on Ukraine’s border, with talks still underway to reduce tensions, but no sign of success so far. Yet Ukraine has already experienced Russia's invasion of Crimea, and Russian backed troops taking over an eastern region of the country. When James Waterhouse arrived to take up his new post as Kiev Correspondent, he found local people sometimes fearful, but also rather stoical in the face of this threat.
The face-off between Ukraine and Russia has in turn provoked division, over how the US and Europe should respond if Russian troops were to cross the border and invade. This debate is particularly acute in Germany, which has traditionally avoided getting involved in conflicts abroad. As Jenny Hill explains, that is in part because of the country's history, and specifically the Second World War. The death toll Germany inflicted on both Ukraine and Russia means some in the country argue that they should not intervene there now.
Children from Romania continue to be coerced into a life of prostitution - hundreds every year, it seems. Many of the adult prostitutes on the country’s streets started out when they were girls, and many of these are then trafficked abroad. Jean Mackenzie has found that even children from responsible and loving homes are not protected from those determined to make money out of them.
It was a mark of pride for Cameroon, when the country was chosen to host football’s Africa Cup of Nations. Some did have doubts, given that Cameroon still has a major insurgency going on, led by people in the English-speaking part of the country who want to secede. Yet when disaster befell the tournament, it was not of a military kind, but fans being crushed as they tried to get into a stadium in Cameroon’s capital. Nick Cavell was watching the match that day.
Politics in Senegal is a lively affair. When the country held local elections last week, one mayoral candidate in the capital had previously been jailed for corruption, and an opposition candidate had been arrested on a rape charge. Meanwhile, the country’s previous president has accused the current president of coming from a cannibal family, with parents who ate babies. However, it is not only the candidates who make for colourful characters. When Lucinda Rouse rented a room in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, she found herself living above the home of a community leader with considerable political influence.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0013zdl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0013z0w)
Heir Hunters
Long lost, wealthy relatives who’ve sadly died but for whom you “might” be the next of kin – too good to be true or the real thing? We explain how to spot the difference and how to tell the good heir hunters from the bad.
A disabled mother of two is being denied Healthy Start vouchers for her young children because she is on the wrong benefit. The vouchers provide more than a thousand pounds over four years to help low-income mothers buy milk and food for their growing children. But disabled people on a benefit called Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) only get the vouchers while they are pregnant.
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales shows a massive rise in the amount of fraud being carried out against victims – up by more than a third to 5.1m cases between October 2020 and September 2021.
Inflation is already at levels not seen for a generation and this week food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe highlighted how she believes the real figure can be even worse for people on low incomes. So how was inflation first calculated, what are the different ways it’s been measured in the past, how do they compare to the here and now and should it be changed for the future?
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Chris Flynn
Producer: Dan Whitworth
Researcher: Drew Miller-Hyndman and Sandra Hardial
Editor: Emma Rippon
Email story ideas and questions to moneybox@bbc.co.uk or tweet @Moneybox
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m0013sxj)
Series 107
Episode 5
Andy Zaltzman and the News Quiz satirise the week's news from the UK and beyond.
This week Andy is joined by Nish Kumar, Rachel Fairburn, Neil Delamere and Isabel Hardman. They try to make sense of a week of war mongering and cake ambushes.
Chair's Script: Written by Andy Zaltzman
Additional Material: Written by Alice Fraser, Heidi Regan, Rhiannon Shaw and Tasha Dhanraj.
Production Coordinator: Katie Baum
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: James Robinson
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 12:57 Weather (m0013zch)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m0013zck)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0013sxn)
Michelle Donelan MP, Marvin Rees, Alice Thomson, Dale Vince
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from the church of St Philip and St James in Leckhampton with a panel including the Conservative MP and Minister for Higher and Further Education Michelle Donelan, the Labour Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees, columnist and interviewer for The Times Alice Thomson and the founder of Ecotricity Dale Vince.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0013zcm)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000qy43)
Wood for Good
BBC Radio Four presents 39 ideas to relieve the stress that climate change is exerting on the planet.
Trees soak up carbon dioxide, trees store carbon dioxide. So why not build with wood instead of concrete and steel? The usual reason is strength, but Dr Michael Ramage at Cambridge University has what he thinks is the answer- cross-laminated timber. It's strong enough to build a skyscraper and replaces lots of that carbon from conventional building. Tom Heap and Dr Tamsin Edwards take a look at the global possibilities of cities built of wood.
Producer : Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Dr Harry Kennard from University College London.
SAT 15:00 Drama (m000sq8w)
The Beautiful and Damned. Part 2
F Scott Fitzgerald's novel which charts the Jazz Age via a glamorous but doomed marriage.
Anthony Patch and his wife, Gloria Gilbert, are the essence of glamour: a golden couple, spoiled and selfish, who descend through the wild partying of the Jazz Age into despair and alcoholism.
Part Two
Anthony Patch ..... Joel MacCormack
Gloria Gilbert ..... Jessica Hardwick
Fred Passmore ..... Rhashan Stone
Maury Noble ..... David Sturzaker
Joseph Bloeckman ..... Tom Mothersdale
Muriel Kane ..... Melody Grove
Adam Patch/Bounds ..... Ben Onwukwe
Haight/Percy ..... David Seddon
Adapted by Robin Brooks
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0013zcp)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Dr Koshka Duff, Tareena Shakil, 'Corona Lisa', Midwife Shortage, Six The Musical
Dr Koshka Duff, an assistant professor of politics at Nottingham University has received an apology and compensation from the Met Police after officers were caught on CCTV using sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language during a 2013 strip search. In her first broadcast interview since the apology, she speaks to Emma about that experience and why it has taken so long to get an apology.
Chloe Slevin, a 3rd year nursing student at University College Dublin has been painting well-known masterpieces - with a Covid-19 twist. Her latest creation? The 'Corona Lisa' which sees the famous Mona Lisa in full PPE, which she plans to auction off for charity. She joins Emma to talk about all about her paintings.
Tareena Shakil is the first British woman to be found guilty of joining the so-called Islamic State. She was jailed for travelling to Syria with her son - who was a one year old baby at the time, in 2014. She speaks to Anita about why she left the UK to join a terrorist organisation - and why she's speaking out.
Midwives are being ‘dangerously overworked’ according to a former NHS midwife. Piroska Cavell, who worked for years across the UK as a midwife and Dr Mary Ross-Davie from the Royal College of Midwives speak to Emma about the challenges facing midwives working on the frontline:
Plus do you remember the rhyme for Henry VIII's six wives? Well a musical about them has just opened on Broadway following rave reviews on the West End. Six the Musical follows all six wives, as they take the microphone in a ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ style sing-off. Co-director Lucy Moss, co-director and co-writer of the show, and Tsemaye Bob-Egbe, who plays Henry VIII’s fifth wife Katherine Howard, join Emma to discuss its success.
SAT 17:00 PM (m0013zcr)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m0013zct)
The Jacob Rees-Mogg Leadership Crisis One
Nick Robinson talks to Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg about the Prime Minister's survival, cake, dead cats and banned words
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0013zcw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m0013zcy)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013zd0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001419x)
Christopher Eccleston, Emeli Sandé, Richard Strange, Tudur Owen, Soft Lad, Annie MacManus, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Annie MacManus are by Christopher Eccleston, Emeli Sandé, Richard Strange and Tudur Owen for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Emeli Sandé and Soft Lad.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m0013z0c)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
SAT 19:15 Rethink (m00132tj)
Rethink Population
What Japan can teach us
Amol Rajan and his guests look at Japan where almost a third of the population is aged 65 or over. What does that mean for Japan's economy, and its future? And what can other ageing countries learn from its experiences so far?
GUESTS
Kathy Matsui, partner at venture capital fund MPower
Celia Hatton, Asia-Pacific Editor for the BBC
Bill Emmott, Chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, former Editor of the Economist
Noreena Hertz economist and author of 'The Lonely Century'
Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producer: Lucinda Borrell
Editor: Kirsty Reid
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m0013zd2)
Paris-Zurich-Trieste: Joyce l'European
The Irish cultural industries have in recent decades managed to turn James Joyce into a valuable tourist commodity - 'a cash machine', 'the nearest thing we've got to a literary leprechaun.'
Joyce would surely have disapproved. "When the soul of man is born in this country," he wrote, "there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets." That is precisely what he did, leaving Ireland behind and living more than half his life across Continental Europe.
As Anthony Burgess put it, "Out there in Europe the modernistic movement was stirring," and by placing himself in the cultural cross-currents of cities like Trieste, Rome, Zurich, Paris & Pola, where he experienced the early rumblings of Dada, Psychoanalysis, Futurism et al, Joyce became a part of an endlessly plural social and linguistic explosion, far removed from the monolithic oppressiveness of Ireland.
Backed up by interviewees including Colm Tóibín, John McCourt and Liv Monaghan and illustrated by rich archive recordings, Andrew Hussey argues it was the deliberate rupture of leaving home - taking up "the only arms I know - silence, exile and cunning" - that allowed Joyce to develop the necessary breadth of vision and literary skill to write his greatest works. The Dublin of Ulysses itself becomes, according to Tóibín, 'a Cosmopolis... another great port city like Trieste."
For Hussey, who has himself lived and worked as a writer in Paris for many years, Joyce was not only a great pathfinder, he also offers an inspiring trans-national vision of Europe and the world just at a time when borders are tightening and the darker shades of nationalism are once again looming large.
Produced by Geoff Bird
SAT 21:00 Tumanbay (m0002rk4)
Series 3
Dark Enterprises
Having bought off the armies of the Balarac with its last reserves of gold, Tumanbay seems secure once more. But there is treachery lurking in the shadows in the form of Cadali, the recently returned vizier, who has his own ambitions to take over the empire.
Meanwhile, the prophet boy Frog (Finn Elliot) is a stowaway on the Balarac’s ships, his mission to kill their leader, the blind Grand Master (Anton Lesser), who he believes is destined to harm the girl he loves. Heaven and Bavand, returning from a slave purchasing voyage, encounter a ship caught on the rocks. It is an encounter that will change Heaven’s fortunes.
Cast:
Gregor........Rufus Wright
Manel........Aiysha Hart
Cadali........Matthew Marsh
Grand Master, Amalric........ Anton Lesser
Bavand........Peter Polycarpou
Alkin........Nathalie Armin
Herod........Amir El-Masry
Selim........Farshid Rokey
Heaven........Olivia Popica
General Qulan........Christopher Fulford
Frog........Finn Elliot
Akiba........Akin Gazi
Prophet Women........Dolya Gavanski
Balarac Captain........Antony Bunsee
Balarac Sergeant........Alexander Arnold
Madam........Annabelle Dowler
Courtier........Nadir Khan
Guard........Vivek Madan
Tumanbay is created by John Scott Dryden and Mike Walker and inspired by the Mamluk slave rulers of Egypt.
Original Music by Sacha Puttnam
Sound Design by Eloise Whitmore
Sound Recording by Joe Richardson
Additional Music by Jon Ouin
Produced by Emma Hearn, Nadir Khan and John Scott Dryden
Written and Directed by John Scott Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:45 Sandi Toksvig's Hygge (m0012sx2)
Series 2
David Blunkett
Joining Sandi Toksvig in her cosy log cabin today is former Home Secretary and Sheffield MP David Blunkett. Over a glass of burgundy they explore the concept of Hygge and chat about guide dogs behaving badly, the Peak District, tolerance of different opinions, mishaps in braille and the guilty pleasure of an open fire.
Starring... Sandi Toksvig
Guest...David Blunkett
Additional material...Rajiv Karia and Tasha Dhanraj
Producer...Julia McKenzie
Production coordinator...Katie Baum
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 22:00 News (m0013zd4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m0013rc5)
Ukraine - to intervene or not to intervene.
President Putin insists that he has no intention of invading Ukraine. In amassing troops and weapons along the border, the Russians are merely ‘protecting their national interests’. Meanwhile NATO, the US-European military alliance, is busy reinforcing its eastern member states with ships and planes. Our own Prime Minister has issued dire warnings that Russia will not be allowed to harass a smaller neighbour in this way. So, who is right? Is there a moral imperative for us to protect a fledgling democracy that seems to be under threat? What, if anything, can we – or should we – do to support Ukraine? And what moral arguments do we have, to help us decide?
Perhaps this is just aggressive posing by both sides that will drift on and die down. But what if it becomes something more? What if it embroils us in a European war? And if that happens, who will be to blame? Given the record of the UK and the West in Afghanistan and Iraq, do we even have the appetite for another foreign intervention? Is the very idea morally dubious? And, in any case, doesn’t the size of Russia’s nuclear arsenal make it impossible for us to call Putin’s bluff? With Global Governance Professor Mary Kaldor; Russia Expert Keir Giles; Newspaper Columnist Simon Jenkins and Kyiv University Political Scientist Taras Kuzio.
Produced by Olive Clancy
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m0013r1f)
Series 35
Heat 5, 2022
(5/13)
The contenders answering Paul Gambaccini's challenging music questions this week all come from London and the south-east. As always, they'll need to demonstrate the range of their musical knowledge, and identify extracts from many eras and styles, to be in with a chance of competing in the semi-finals in a few weeks' time. Stephen Sondheim and the music of classic Westerns may be up their street, but how will they fare with Dua Lipa, Sinatra, or classic album covers?
Because of precautions against the spread of the omicron variant of Covid-19, the programme was recorded remotely with the contestants competing from home.
Taking part are
Emily Channon from London
Lillian Crawford from Kent
Damian Evans from London
Assistant Producer Stephen Garner
Producer Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Uncanny (m0013zd6)
Case 15: Bloody Hell Ken
In this season finale, Danny returns one more time to Ken's terrifying haunting in Room 611, discovering new evidence and new witnesses to the terrifying events at Alanbrooke Hall, plus there will be major revelations about some of the other cases this series. Can these supernatural mysteries be solved?
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editor and Sound Designer: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Lanterns on the Lake
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 30 JANUARY 2022
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0013zd8)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The East Coast Listening Post (m0006ds4)
Series 2
Tattoo
Jenna and Dana meet Bella Watson, a woman who drunkenly got a union jack tattoo on her forehead whilst on vacation with friends. Whilst learning about Bella’s life, it comes to light that Bella was goaded into getting the tattoo to prove to a bully that she wasn’t a ‘wet’. Bella arranges to meet her bully to forgive them.
The East Coast Listening Post was written and performed by Celeste Dring and Freya Parker, with performances from David Elms and Kat Bond. The original score was composed by Owain Roberts. The script editor was Matthew Crosby. The East Coast Listening Post was produced by Suzy Grant and is a BBC Studios production.
SUN 00:30 The Poet and the Echo (m0013sx6)
The Town Marshal
Writers choose poems as inspiration for an original short story.
Episode 3/3
The Town Marshal
While running a training session, a prison officer is confronted by an unusual event that questions his role.
A powerful story inspired by Edgar Lee Masters briefly banned Spoon River Anthology. By Phil Crockett Thomas.
Credits
Writer: Phil Crockett Thomas
Reader: Carl Prekopp
Producer: Naomi Walmsley
A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013zdb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013zdd)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013zdg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0013zdj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0013z12)
The church of St Michael, Huyton in Merseyside
Bells on Sunday comes from the church of St Michael, Huyton in Merseyside. The church has a ring of six bells, the oldest of which is dated 1606 and was cast by Henry Oldfield of Nottingham. In 1929, all the bells were retuned and rehung in a new frame by Taylor of Loughborough. The tenor bell weighs fourteen and three quarter hundredweight and is in the note of E flat. We hear them ringing Spliced Surprise Minor.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m0013z0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m0013yz2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m00148j5)
Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0013yz4)
Chiddinglye Farm, Sussex
Anna Louise Claydon visits Chiddinglye Farm in West Sussex. The estate has a history which goes back over a thousand years, but now has diversification projects for a 21st century future. Anna meets the owner, Lord Limerick, to hear about his plans for the farm, and also talks to the ranger and the farm manager. She meets the founder of the 'Garden Army', which is helping to restore the ruined Edwardian kitchen garden to its former glory. She finds out how old farming methods, a former tour bus, and a flock of chickens are all playing a part in transforming the land - and discovers that the project is as much about 'growing' people as growing vegetables. At the furthest part of the estate, Anna heads out into the bracken to visit a secret character, also playing his part on the farm.
Produced and presented by Anna Louise Claydon
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0013yz6)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0013yz8)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0013yzb)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0013yzd)
Self Help Africa
Science, natural history and environmental broadcaster Liz Bonnin makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Self Help Africa.
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 ‘Self Help Africa’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Self Help Africa’.
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: 298830
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0013yzg)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0013yzj)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0013yzl)
Chinese Christianity
A service for Chinese New Year from the Manchester Chinese Christian Church. Led by Dr Shermaine Pan this service reflects on what the Chinese New Year means to members of the English, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese Christian Community in Manchester and on the origins of Chinese Christianity in the UK. The preacher is Pastor Kim Lau. Reading: Romans 8: 9 – 17.
Producer: Alexa Good
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0013sxq)
Leaving the Ivory Tower
As she leaves academia, Rebecca Stott says an audit culture is stifling universities.
"Once universities had been turned into businesses and forced to compete with each other for students and fees, scores and league tables followed. And now we are assessed and monitored all the time too. It has eroded trust....When a seminar works you can feel the electricity crackle...You can't bottle this or record it or give it a score or sell it because it happens in the moment and in the room. "
Sound Engineer :Peter Bosher
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Producer: Sheila Cook
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwy1y)
Golden Plover
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Golden Plover. If, among a flock of lapwings circling over a ploughed field, you see smaller birds with wings like knife-blades and bell-like calls ... these are golden plovers.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0013yzn)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0013yzq)
Writer, Sarah Hehir
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley
Beth Casey ….. Rebecca Fuller
Iris Casey ….. Susan Jameson
Shula Hebden Lloyd ….. Judy Bennett
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
SUN 11:00 Desert Island Discs (m0013yzs)
Lyse Doucet, journalist
Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s award-winning chief international correspondent, reporting from a range of postings including in Kabul, Islamabad, Tehran and Jerusalem for nearly 40 years.
Lyse was born in Bathhurst, New Brunswick, in eastern Canada and after graduating with a master’s degree from the University of Toronto she set her sights on becoming a journalist. She took her first step by signing up with the volunteer agency Canadian Crossroads International which offered her a placement in Ivory Coast, West Africa.
In 1982 the BBC set up a West Africa office and Lyse began filing reports as a freelance journalist. After stints working in London and Pakistan she made her first visit to Kabul in 1988 and covered the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. This trip was the beginning of her long association with the country – a country she now calls her ‘second home’.
In 1989 she became the BBC’s Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent and later on in her career she reported from India and Indonesia in the aftermath of the tsunami. In 2011 she played a leading role in the BBC’s coverage of the Arab Spring, reporting from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
She was appointed an OBE in 2014 for services to British broadcast journalism and in 2019 she was admitted to the Order of Canada.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
SUN 11:45 New Year Solutions (m0001w3q)
Space
As global warming threatens the future of our society, Jo Fidgen tackles the ways in which ordinary people can make a difference.
We're often told that we could help the environment by driving less, eating less meat, or using less water.
But in the face of a challenge as significant as global warming, how big a difference can small changes really make? And what would the world look like if we took those solutions to their logical extremes?
Too many of us are living in spaces that are too big, too cluttered and too inefficient. The alternative is to share more, to live more communally, and to free up space by getting rid of the things we don't need. And according to some, re-imagining our homes is not only essential for sustainability, but a step towards being happier too.
Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0013z5p)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (m0013r1n)
Series 27
Episode 3
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Alan Davies, Lucy Porter, Lou Sanders and Justin Edwards are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as beds, marsupials, blood and Jackie Chan.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0013yzx)
Wassail! Wassail! A celebration of cider, orchards and song
Dan Saladino goes in search of the history, meaning and spirit of wassails and cider. In Somerset he takes part in a village wassail sung door to door and one sung in an orchard.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0013yzz)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0013z01)
Radio 4’s look at the week’s big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m0013z03)
Past, Present and Future
Fi Glover presents three conversations between strangers.
This week: a catch-up conversation between Fi and nurses Liz and Lucy about the trials of nursing during the pandemic (the original chat went out on
30.05.21); Francesca and Hannah both have Down’s syndrome and share a love of dance and a desire to live independently; and Tiegan and Martin reflect on their differing experiences of learning to manage their birth families.
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation lasts up to an hour and is then edited to extract the key moments of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in this decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Mohini Patel
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0013sx4)
GQT at Home: Trees with Knees
Gardening programme featuring a group of green-fingered experts, chaired by Kathy Clugston. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness, and Bob Flowerdew dispense the horticultural counsel.
This week, the panellists tell us what to look for when purchasing a new pair of secateurs. They also talk through how best to use your garden compost, and share planting ideas for a protective hedge around a listener's coastal allotment.
We resume our great trees of GQT features with Anne Swithinbank, who this week delights us with a tree that has knobbly knees - Taxodium distichum.
Meanwhile, Cherry Carmen shares her favourite plants for winter colour to entice us outside on those short winter days.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Seventh Test by Vikas Swarup (b04471qc)
The Ring
Sapna Sinha works as a sales assistant in a TV showroom in New Delhi. Being the only bread-winner in the family she works long hours to provide for her widowed mother and younger sister. But then a man walks into her life with an extraordinary proposition: pass seven "life" tests of his choosing and she will have wealth and power. At first the tests seem easy, but things are not quite as they seem. Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
4) The Ring
A thriller set in India from the author of "Slumdog Millionaire".
Bollywood actress Priya Capoor arrives at the showroom to promote a new range of TV's. But when her diamond ring goes missing, the suspicion falls on Sapna.
Dramatised from Vikas Swarup's best-selling novel "The Accidental Apprentice".
Writers:
Vikas Swarup is an Indian diplomat and a best-selling novelist. His first novel "Q & A" was made into the Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as well as Sony Award winning radio drama serial for BBC Radio .
Ayeesha Menon dramatized Vikas Swarup's other novels SIX SUSPECTS and Q & A, which won a Sony Award for Best Drama. She also wrote for Radio 4 THE MUMBAI CHUZZLEWITS, UNDERCOVER MUMBAI, THE CAIRO TRILOGY and MY NAME IS RED. Her stage play PEREIRA'S BAKERY AT 76 CHAPEL ROAD, which was developed with the Royal Court Theatre, was recently staged by the Curve Theatre, Leicester.
John Dryden wrote the original three-part dramas series SEVERED THREADS, THE RELUCTANT SPY and PANDEMIC, which won the Writer's Guild Award for best radio drama script. His dramatisation of BLEAK HOUSE won a Sony Award for Best Drama. Other dramatisations include A SUITABLE BOY, A HANDMAID'S TALE and FATHERLAND one of the most repeated dramas on R4 Extra.
Production:
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Editing Assistant - Varun Bangera
Script Editor - Mike Walker
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Music - Sacha Putnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon and John Dryden from the novel "ACCIDENTAL APPRENTICE" by Vikas Swarup.
Director - John Dryden
Producer - Nadir Khan
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 15:00 Drama (m0013z05)
Pale Fire
Dramatised by Oliver Emanuel
Presented as a poem with a foreward and commentary, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire is a postmodern masterpiece about a poet, a regal commentator and a would-be assassin. It defies all convention.
Set in 1959 and reimagined here as an audio documentary, Pale Fire tells the story of Charles Kinbote as he tries to prove his machinations have inspired a poetic masterpiece.
Have they? And who truly is Charles? A delusional academic, an exiled king or both?
Cast:
Charles … Grant O’Rourke
John … Michael Nardone
Gradus…Finn den Hertog
Odon…Robin Laing
Gordon…Thierry Mabonga
Sybil…Renee Williams
Sound by Kris McConnachie, Joanne Willott, Niall Young
Directed by Kirsty Williams
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m0013z07)
Gary Shteyngart's tragic comedy set in lockdown, Richard Beard on Time, East Side Voices
Johny talks to the Russian-American writer Gary Shteyngart, author of the bestselling Super Sad True Love Story, about his latest novel Our Country Friends. The book is set in March 2020 when a group of friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. His unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a young flame-thrower of an essayist, originally from the Carolinas; and a movie star, The Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. With a nod to the plays of Anton Chekhov, and the satires of Nikolai Gogol, Gary Shteyngart talks about writing funny, satirical fiction in real-time during the pandemic.
Professor Richard Beard turns his academic eye to time in fiction. In the second part of his new series looking at the processes of writing, he discusses the challenges of writing fiction in the present.
We hear about a new collection of essays and poetry exploring East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain today. East Side Voices is a rich documentation of experiences; from the frontlines of the NHS in the midst of Covid, to the history of Chinese Seamen, to the discomfort of a family portrait. It brings together powerfully human stories with literary poise. Johny is joined by the book's editor, Helena Lee, and by one of its contributors, novelist Tash Aw.
Book List – Sunday 30 January and Thursday 3 February
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart
Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
The Big Chill by Doug Johnstone
Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner
1984 by George Orwell
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Mean Girls by Tina Fey
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
East Side Voices by Helena Lee
Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw
SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (m0013z09)
Claudine Toutoungi
Claudine Toutoungi chats to Roger about the poetry she has chosen for the programme, including work by Roger Robinson, Kei Miller and Edward Lear. She also reads her own poem, written during a bout of insomnia.
Producer Sally Heaven
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m0013rsc)
Deadly Delays: The Ambulance Crisis
Record ambulance delays are leaving patients waiting hours for emergency care to arrive with waiting times increasing every month. Some patients wait hours at home, many wait outside the hospitals for a bed to become available, but for a small number, ambulances are arriving too late and patients are dying while waiting for help to arrive. In this episode of File on 4 we hear how the crisis is impacting both patients and ambulance staff.
In a series of six devastating 999 calls over one hour we hear how ambulance delays in Manchester changed the lives of one family forever, while paramedics and 999 call handlers chart the huge strain on the ambulance service through Christmas and New Year via personal audio diaries which reveal their innermost thoughts, concerns and experiences as they battle through the crisis.
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Annabel Deas
Researcher: Scott Hesketh
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m0013z0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0013z0f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0013z0h)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013z0k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0013z0m)
Guvna B
The best of BBC Radio this week.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0013z0p)
Kate heads down the wrong path and Brian argues his point.
SUN 19:15 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m0013z0r)
The Surprise Party Problem
Marian and Tara tackle awkward in-laws, unrequited love and a surprise party, swipe fatigue, ageing parents and much more.
Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million of her books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, they have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve your biggest - and smallest - of problems.
From dilemmas about life, love and grief, to the perils of laundry or knowing what to say at a boring dinner, we’ll find out what Marian and Tara would recommend - which might not solve the problem exactly, but will make us all feel a bit better.
Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world, the hosts invite you to pull up a chair at their virtual kitchen table as they read and digest their inbox.
Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.
Producer: Steve Doherty.
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
SUN 19:45 Bright Lights, Dead City (m0013z0t)
Episode 4. Writers’ Retreat
An American film crew descends on a Northern Irish city to make a lavish prestige drama series about the Troubles called ‘Dead City’, inspiring the locals to get involved in the production, only for filming to be halted by the mysterious disappearance of the lead actress.
The Writer
Séamas O'Reilly is a columnist for the Observer and has written about media and politics for the Irish Times, New Statesman, Guts, and VICE. His memoir 'Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?' was an Irish Times Number One Bestseller and was awarded the Dubray Biography of the Year Award at the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards.
Reader: Dearbháile McKinney
Writer: Séamas O'Reilly
Producer: Michael Shannon
Exec Editor: Andy Martin
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (m0013r9w)
Should you follow the 5 second rule? And does inflation hit the poorest harder?
Food writer Jack Monroe sparked national debate this week when she tweeted about food price hikes on the cheapest goods in supermarkets - but does inflation really hit low income households hardest?
Social media and some news outlets have spread claims this week that only around 17,000 people have actually died of Covid. We debunk.
We test the truth of the five second rule - is it a good idea to eat watermelon within five seconds of dropping it on the floor? And can you think yourself better?
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0013sx8)
Meat Loaf (pictured), André Leon Talley, Jana Bennett, Kristin Baybars
Matthew Bannister on
Meat Loaf, the rock opera singer best known for his album Bat Out Of Hell.
André Leon Talley, the fashion editor who played a leading role at US Vogue magazine and supported the careers of many designers.
Jana Bennett, the BBC executive who led the transformation of TV science programmes and oversaw the Corporation’s move into the digital age.
Kristin Baybars, whose beautiful doll's house furniture and other toys were sought after by children and adults alike.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Dana Thomas
Interviewed guest: Mark Thompson
Interviewed guest: Lorraine Heggessey
Interviewed guest: Susila Baybars
Interviewed guest: Janet Richardson
Archive clips used: BBC Four, Meat Loaf: In and Out of Hell 21/01/2022; CNBC News, assassination of John F. Kennedy 22/11/1963; BBC Radio 5Live, Afternoon Edition 07/09/2016; Twentieth Century Fox / Michael White Productions, The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975; Radio 4 Last Word 09/05/2021; Fox 2000 Pictures / New Regency Productions / Linson Films, Fight Club 1999; BBC Radio 4, Front Row 12/01/2010; BBC One, Good Morning with Anne and Nick 27/10/1995; CBS, The Late Late Show with James Corden 25/01/2022; BBC Natural History Unit / Impossible Pictures / Discovery Channel, Walking With Dinosaurs 1999; BBC / The Learning Channel, The Human Body 1998, YouTube / National Theatre, Jerry Springer (The Opera) - National Theatre 50th Birthday Show 06/07/2014; André Leon Talley Full Address Oxford Union 08/05/2013; Entertainment Tonight Canada, tribute to André Leon Talley; BBC Radio 5Live, Emma Barnett with André Leon Talley 11/06/2020; Los Angeles Times / YouTube Channel, André Leon Talley On Growing Up 10/09/2017; BBC News, Kristin Baybars news report 17/01/2017; London Dollshouse Showcase, Kristin Baybars & her Aladdin's Cave 2016; BBC One Play School 06/01/1978; Talkback Thames / BBC, QI S02 E04 22/10/2004.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0013z0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0013yzd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Short Cuts (m000z5j6)
Tenderness
Josie Long presents short documentaries and audio adventures about finding tenderness. Conversations with cats, the sound of a piano drifts through the night and a memory of old, lost love.
Cat Chat
Produced by Danny Greenwald
The Piano
Produced by Sofia Saldanha
Originally made for Centro de Dramaturgia e Argumento (CeDA) and Antena 2
Marianne
Marianne Ihlen interview recorded by Alan Hall
Originally broadcast in the BBC Radio 4 documentary Leonard and Marianne
Jan Christian Mollestad was talking on CBC's 'As It Happens'
www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens
Curatorial team: Alia Cassam and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Executive Producer: Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0013z0y)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Think with Pinker (m0013rp0)
Headlines and trendlines
The media fills our minds with vivid images of rare events from plane crashes to terrorist attacks. In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker explores how we can stop the news from distorting our understanding of the world.
He’s joined by:
James Harding a former editor of The Times and director of BBC News, and now the co-founder of Tortoise Media.
Anna Rosling Rutland, co-founder and vice president of the Gap Minder Foundation and co-author with Hans and Ola Rosling of “Factfulness; Ten Reasons Why We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”
Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The open University
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (m00148j5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 31 JANUARY 2022
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0013z10)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0013rbs)
Extremism
Extremism: Laurie Taylor talks to Julia Ebner, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, about her experience of going undercover amongst political extremists, including neo Nazis, Islamic jihadists and anti feminists. Also, Daniel Koehler, founding Director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS) discusses the side-switchers and defectors who migrate across extremist groups and ideologies. Ray Hill is a positive example of a former British fascist, turned informant on the far right. Unlike Sascha Lemanski, a German far right activist who crossed over into Islamic jihadism. Can an understanding of the phenomenon of side-switching help us understand the way in which people become radicalised and help combat terrorist violence?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0013z12)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013z14)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013z16)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013z18)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0013z1b)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0013z1d)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0013z1g)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
MON 05:56 Weather (m0013z1j)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0938p7l)
Tara Robinson on the Barn Owl
After years of inactivity, Tara Robinson describes an unexpected barn owl encounter in a fallen nest box in her own back garden for this Tweet of the Day.
Producer: Mark Ward
Picture: Tim Felce.
MON 06:00 Today (m0013zh6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0013zh8)
Bullish masculinity
The award-winning poet Fiona Benson retells the Greek myth of the Minotaur, upending the legend of the dashing male hero slaying the monster in the labyrinth. In a series of poems in her new collection Ephemeron we hear from the bull-child’s mother – the betrayed and violated Pasiphae. Benson tells Helen Lewis she wanted to explore male and female desire, and the extraordinary cycles of violence and abuse of power in the Greek myths.
The cultural historian Ivan Jablonka has taken his native France by storm with his history of Masculinity – From Patriarchy to Gender Justice, translated by Nathan Bracher. In it he asks what it means to be a good man? Using examples from the past he explores the origins and structure of male dominance. He argues that it’s time that men took more responsibility and fought harder for genuine equality.
The political philosopher Nina Power is more circumspect about the demonisation of men, which she believes is now rampant in today’s society. In What Do Men Want, Power looks at what happens when men feel beleaguered and retreat to the ‘manosphere’, and she explores ways in which men and women can live together more harmoniously.
The number of people living alone has increased over the last decade, but it’s still a path that goes against what society expects, according to the entrepreneur and Founder of the lifestyle magazine, About Time, Angelica Malin. She became single at the beginning of lockdown and has now brought together 30 women to explore what single womanhood means in the modern age, in Unattached.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013zjr)
Episode 1
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Having been dominated by the Ottoman Empire for the best part of five centuries, Albania became independent and then briefly a monarchy ruled by the self-appointed King Zog in the early 20th century.
After being occupied first by the Italians and then the Germans in World War II, a new republic was created in 1945. Under the leadership of the dicatator, Enver Hoxha, Albania became the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. It was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police.
To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict.
As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
The music used is from the famous Albanian song "A Pickaxe in One Hand, A Rifle in the Other" (Ansambli Amator Artistik I Qytetit Të Tiranës "Në Njërën Dorë Kazmën, Në Tjetrën Pushkën") recorded by the Amateur Art Ensemble in 1968. The first few bars of the song were also used as the interval signal on Radio Tirana.
Written and read by Lea Ypi
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0013zhd)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 11:00 The Wedding Detectives (m00120sy)
Episode 5
Wedding albums capture the happiest day of a couple’s life. But what happens when those pictures are lost? Wedding album collector Charlotte Sibtain and journalist Cole Moreton uncover the stories behind the photographs and try to reunite them with the family.
This time, Charlotte has found a wedding photograph on the internet of a Second World War bride and groom. The only clues they have are their first names and the name of the chapel. Charlotte and Cole discover that, a year later, Bill, an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain, will be part of a brave but disastrous rescue mission in the Mediterranean that Churchill praises for its heroism.
Can the Detectives track down the bride’s family and return the photo?
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:30 Loose Ends (m001419x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0013zk7)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 12:04 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zhj)
6: But he was not mad, was he?
As part of Radio 4's celebration of the centenary of the birth of Modernism, Sian Thomas reads Virginia Woolf's classic Modernist novel, set over a single day in 1923.
It is midday, and with preparations for Clarissa Dalloway's party underway, life carries on across London. As the Warren Smiths make their way to see another doctor about Septimus' health, the admirable Hugh Whitbread and Richard Dalloway are en route to lunch with Lady Bruton...
Reader: Sian Thomas
Author: Virginia Woolf
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:18 You and Yours (m0013zhl)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m0013zhn)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0013zhq)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 1922: The Birth of Now (m0013zhs)
The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, and Egyptomania
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today.
6. The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922, and this fuelled the Egyptomania that swept across Europe and America, influencing diverse aspects of culture from dance to music to architecture. Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre opened in Hollywood in this pivotal year, and the craze for the Egyptian style can still be seen in many British buildings from cinemas to pubs. Matthew explores how this exemplifies Modernism’s fascination with the distant past, the roots of civilisations, and their relics - with the historians Debbie Challis and Roger Luckhurst. Also, Egypt gained full independence from Britain in 1922, and the disintegration of Empire was another catalyst of Modernism.
Producer: Eliane Glaser
Readings by Rebecca Crankshaw and Michael Begley
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0013z0p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 United Kingdoms (m0013zhv)
A ground-breaking series capturing contemporary life across the UK with bitesize dramas, monologues, poetry and song. Each episode features five short works by writers from across the UK, and each programme responds to a different theme. In this episode - Rewinding.
Chorlton cum Hardy - an interview with Wyllie Longmore
Manchester acting and teaching legend Wyllie Longmore, considers what rewinding means to him, from his Jamaican childhood to his English training and career, and now as a grandparent. What is legacy. for this classical trained man, who spans cultures?
Sound design by Jon Nicholls.
Produced by Polly Thomas and Yusra Warsama.
Penrhos, Anglesey
Audio poem in the voice of a community about a much-treasured natural landscape under threat of development, recorded on location.
Written by Ness Owen and performed by Ness Owen, Sian Miriam and Owen Arwyn
Sound design by Nigel Lewis
Produced by Emma Harding
Holywood
Top of the Pops was an iconic and inspirational show for millions of young people in and around the UK, but for one little Indian girl from Holywood, County Down in Northern Ireland, her adoration for this eclectic pop culture threatened to destroy the relationship between her and her Indian mother, known as Ma ji.
Written and performed by Lata Sharma
Sound Design David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff
Dunfermline
A teenage tragedy casts a long shadow for two old friends.
Written by Jane Livingstone
Performed by Simon Donaldson and Robin Laing
Sound design by Joanne Willott and Niall Young
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane
Cromer
In the beginning, there is Adam and Eve. They date and make each other mixtapes after meeting at an 80s night in Cromer. Then Eve tells Adam something that mixes up their lives forever. An LGBTQ themed comedy drama about gender identity, pop music and making mixtapes.
Written by James McDermott
Performed by Misha Butler
Sound Design David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Produced by Celia de Wolff
Programme illustration by Eleanor Hibbert
Original music composed by Niroshini Thambar
Curated by Celia de Wolff for Pier Productions, BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland and Naked Productions for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m0013zhx)
Series 35
Heat 6, 2022
(6/13)
The three music lovers facing Paul Gambaccini's questions will, as always, have to demonstrate the breadth of their musical knowledge if they're to stand a chance of winning a place in the semi-finals this year - and perhaps go on to take the 35th annual Counterpoint champion's title in the spring. Questions today come thick and fast on everything from Elgar to U2, and all musical points in between.
The competitors also have to choose a category on which to answer their own set of questions for which they've had no warning and no time to prepare. Will they choose to answer on Quincy Jones, classical brass, or perhaps take a chance on Abba?
Appearing this week are
Tim Davies from North Lincolnshire
Liz Langley from High Wycombe
Rebecca Pasha from North Buckinghamshire
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m0013yzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Taxi Drivers (m0013tfk)
Episode 1
The late painter, Lucian Freud once referred to himself as the passenger who knows where he wants to go and his printmaker as the driver who knows how to get him to his destination.
Scottee - himself an artist and performer, as well as broadcaster - takes a closer look at the relationship between artists and the makers who assist them and discovers the different 'language' required of materials, particularly in sculptural practice. Also, he looks to art history to question the idea of brand-building and the origins of the idea of the lone artistic genius.
With contributions from Sir Antony Gormley and his Foundry Manager Mick Booth, artist Christine Borland, glass-maker Jin Won Han, artist Thomas J Price, contemporary art historian Dr Danielle Child and curator Nabila Abdel Nabi.
Produced by Hannah Dean
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 My Name Is... (m000z01j)
My Name Is Philip
Philip Price has become increasingly worried about where he will live when he and his wife retire in the next few years.
After raising three children and working their entire lives, Philip and his wife have not been able to save money for their retirement. The toll on Philip’s body working as a septic tank driver has been terrible, and he can’t continue past retirement age in such a labour intensive job. The couple have come to the drastic decision to move into a converted campervan as they will no longer be able to afford their rent on a state pension.
Philip wants to know why he has to make the move into a van and what support is in place for retirees like him. Shouldn't retirement be about relaxing and not worrying about housing security?
He’s determined to find out how he can have a good retirement and what help is out there for others in his situation.
Producer: Emily Finch
Assistant Producer: Jill Achineku
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 17:00 PM (m0013zj0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013zj4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m0013zj6)
Series 27
Episode 4
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Richard Osman, Henning Wehn, Holly Walsh and Ria Lina are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as mistakes, bicycles, dogs and death.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0013zj8)
Alice makes a dramatic decision and Susan bonds with an unexpected person.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0013zjb)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
MON 20:00 This Union: Being Welsh (m0013zjd)
Episode 2
BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen returns home to Wales in search of what it means to be Welsh.
Around three million people live in Wales, and their view of being Welsh depends on where they live, what they do, how much they earn, and whether they live their lives in English or Welsh.
Jeremy is sometimes made to feel he’s not Welsh enough. He doesn't speak Welsh and hasn't lived in Wales for a long time. But he doesn't believe that dilutes his Welshness at all. In this episode, he wants to understand how Wales' geographic boundaries have shaped different cultures and distinct identities across the nation. With contributions from Rhys Jones, Marion Loeffler and Aled Roberts.
Produced by Glyn Tansley
MON 20:30 Analysis (m0013zjg)
Universal Vaccines
Can scientists develop a vaccine which can combat the coronavirus and all its variants? There have been three lethal outbreaks caused by coronaviruses this century: SARS in 2002, MERS in 2012 and now SarsCov2. Scientists predict we will eventually encounter SarsCov3. That’s why the race is on to develop a universal vaccine to combat the coronaviruses and variants we know about, and the ones we have yet to confront. But attempts to create a universal vaccine for viruses such as influenza and HIV have been going on for decades - without success.
Before 2020, proposals to create a vaccine against coronaviruses were not thought important enough to pursue since many just cause the common cold. Now that we understand their real threat, can scientists succeed in creating a vaccine to fight this large family of viruses,?
Produced and presented by Sandra Kanthal
Editor: Emma Close
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Jacqui Johnson
Sound: James Beard and Rod Farquhar
MON 21:00 The Coming Storm (p0bchpyg)
4. Q Drops
QAnon and the plot to break reality...
In Oct 2017 Donald Trump says something weird in a room full of military figures: “Maybe this is the calm before the storm.”
A few weeks later a poster on 4chan who calls himself Q starts to tell a crazy story about a coming storm, in which Trump is engaged in an epic battle against a cabal of satanic paedophiles who have hijacked the American Republic.
A group of bloggers mainstream the theory and it starts having a life of its own with real world consequences. Qanon is born. But who is directing it?
Producer: Lucy Proctor
Presenter: Gabriel Gatehouse
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0013zh8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0013zjk)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zhj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m0013rry)
It's language, Jim, but not as we know it
Could aliens 'speak' in chemicals? Could they converse in electricity? Would they be able to hear us? In the absence of a Star Trek-style universal translator, how would you talk to an alien newly arrived on Planet Earth?
Dr Hannah Little is a science communicator, linguist and comedian. She joins Michael Rosen for some fascinating thought experiments on extraterrestrial communication and animal interactions closer to home. What might all this tell us about how human language first appeared, and why does it matter?
Produced by Sarah Goodman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0013zjm)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
TUESDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2022
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0013zjp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013zjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013zjv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013zjx)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013zjz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0013zk1)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0013zk3)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0013zk5)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03thsg9)
Waxwing
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
John Aitchison presents the waxwing. Waxwings are winter visitors from Russia and Scandinavia where they breed in conifer forests. They head south to feed on berries and other fruits, and if these are in short supply on the Continent, the birds flood into the UK. It happens every few years or so and the sight of these punk-crested plunderers swarming over rowan and other berry-producing trees is sure to attract your attention.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0013zn8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Room 5 (m0013znb)
4: Joel
‘I stare at my own reflection, trying to remind myself that I’m not dead.’
Joel never understood why he felt different to other people. Then a revelation in India sets him on a journey to find answers.
In Room 5, Helena Merriman interviews people who - like her - were changed by a diagnosis.
Written, presented and produced by Helena Merriman
Composer: Jeremy Warmsley
Sound Design: Steve Bond
Production Co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Editor: Emma Rippon
Commissioning Editor: Richard Knight
#Room5
End song: Miffed by Tom Rosenthal
If you have a story you’d like to share you can email: room5@bbc.co.uk
TUE 09:30 The Political Butterfly Effect (m0012s9s)
The Guardian's Media Editor Jim Waterson explores how different the world would look were it not for the occasional, well-timed flap of a butterfly's wings.
TUE 09:45 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013znd)
Episode 2
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Having been dominated by the Ottoman Empire for the best part of five centuries, Albania became independent and then briefly a monarchy ruled by the self-appointed King Zog in the early 20th century.
After being occupied first by the Italians and then the Germans in World War II, a new republic was created in 1945. Under the leadership of the dicatator, Enver Hoxha, Albania became the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. It was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police.
To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict.
As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
The music used is from the famous Albanian song "A Pickaxe in One Hand, A Rifle in the Other" (Ansambli Amator Artistik I Qytetit Të Tiranës "Në Njërën Dorë Kazmën, Në Tjetrën Pushkën") recorded by the Amateur Art Ensemble in 1968. The first few bars of the song were also used as the interval signal on Radio Tirana.
Written and read by Lea Ypi
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0013zng)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 The Coming Storm (p0bchqwh)
5. Blowback
QAnon and the plot to break reality...
A British spy is hired to dig dirt on Donald Trump’s Russia connections. His sources tell him Trump is a Russian agent, a puppet of the Kremlin.
America is gripped by this story. Half are convinced the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in order to defeat Hillary Clinton. But the other half believes the investigations into Russian collusion are a hoax, a conspiracy by the establishment to unseat a democratically elected president.
The QAnon community takes up this second narrative, in which a renegade General becomes a martyr and a figurehead.
Producer: Lucy Proctor
Presenter: Gabriel Gatehouse
TUE 11:30 One Ring to Bind Them (m0013znk)
Pro-wrestler Matt Powell, AKA Mad Dog Maxx, explores the history of British wrestling and its recent resurgence, especially in the Midlands.
Mad cap professional wrestling was huge in the 1970s and 80s. Characters like Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy became a firm fixture on television with ITV devoting Saturday lunchtimes to the clashes between the titans. The public loved it, viewing figures were huge and these were massive stars. But in 1988, ITV pulled the plug and wrestling seemingly fell into obscurity.
However, in one corner of England it never really went away and, four decades on, wrestling isn’t just remembered, it’s surviving and thriving.
Matt Powell is someone whose love of those literally larger than life characters became such an obsession that, for the past few decades, he's been emulating them as a top wrestler himself. He introduces us to a world that is far from a fad of the past but a sport inspiring cross generational participation and interest in the heart of Britain.
Young men of the Midlands have found a focus with the sport. In an area that was plunged into the post-industrial world when local industries collapsed, wrestling has given them structure and life goals.
Women are getting in on the act too. Elise is a mother of six who sees herself as an inspiration to other women. She took up wrestling - reluctantly - in her 40s, and says if she can do this, anyone can. Her daughter Hayah has followed her into the ring. She's 16, was born to be a wrestling 'villain', and is already booked for a season training in Japan once the pandemic passes.
Matt also meets Nuneaton’s Scrubber Daly, former tag-team partner for the legendary Giant Haystacks. who started wrestling in 1983. Scrubber learned from renowned actor and wrestler Pat Roach, who listeners may remember from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) and who ran a course for wrestlers in Birmingham. It was so brutal that, out of the 136 people to start the course, only two completed it.
Recorded on the road in the West Midlands including the Black Country, we get to the very crux of what it both means to be a professional wrestler and how the sport is helping create a community which embraces and unites people from many different backgrounds.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0013znm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:04 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013znp)
7: "It is the flesh."
To celebrate Radio 4's Modernism series, Sian Thomas reads Virginia Woolf's most celebrated novel, set over one day in London in1923.
With preparations for the party underway, Clarissa Dalloway's daughter Elizabeth and the devote Miss Kilman endure a rather emotional and bruising afternoon tea ...
Reader: Sian Thomas
Author: Virginia Woolf
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:18 You and Yours (m0013znr)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0013znt)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0013znw)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 1922: The Birth of Now (m0013zny)
Nosferatu and Modernist Horror
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today.
7. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. F. W. Murnau's 1922 gothic masterpiece is the first vampire movie. It is German Expressionism in cinematic form and still influences contemporary film-makers. It’s also a film about disease: Count Orlok - a rip-off of Dracula that got Bram Stoker’s family lawyers on the case – brings plague to Mittel Europe. What does this disease mean, in a Europe that has just survived war and pandemic? Matthew Sweet and guests including Dana Gioia, the award-winning poet and critic who wrote the libretto to composer Alva Henderson's Nosferatu: The Opera, first produced in 2004, and the literary scholars Roger Luckhurst and Lisa Mullen.
Producer: Julian May
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0013zj8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0013zp0)
Fake Psychic
Written and reported by Vicky Baker
Drama by Nick Perry
If you wanted to speak with the dead in 1960s America, there was one man who was ready to help. For more than a decade, Lamar Keene was at the top of his game, becoming known as the Prince of Spiritualists. Then, quite suddenly, he turned his back on it all.
But Lamar Keene didn't go quietly. He published a tell-all expose in which he confessed that he was little more than a conman, a psychic fraudster, who manipulated people in their most vulnerable moments. And in doing so, he catalogued the many physical and psychological tricks he used to separate his followers from their money.
It wasn’t just his own carefully-crafted reputation that Lamar Keene sought to destroy. He wanted to blow the whistle on the whole industry. He claimed that he had been part of a national underground network that included many other psychics, clairvoyants and mediums, who combined forces to fleece the unsuspecting public. He called it the “psychic mafia,” and said that his confession made him a marked man.
But how much can we trust the revelations of a self-confessed conman? How much of Lamar Keene’s extraordinary story is really true? And what can it tell us about how our emotions affect belief and our susceptibility to misinformation?
In a series that mixes documentary with drama, Vicky Baker (Fake Heiress) takes a deep dive into Lamar Keene’s stranger-than-fiction life story.
The series includes extracts from the book Psychic Mafia by Lamar Keene as told to Allan Spraggett, published by 1878 Press.
Lamar . . . . . Edward Hogg
Raoul . . . . . Tom Mothersdale
Dorothy . . . . . Lorelei King
Andrija . . . . . Michael Begley
Tom . . . . . Neil McCaul
Lona . . . . . Jasmine Hyde
Ruthie . . . . . Tillie Murray
Lillian . . . . . Christine Kavanagh
Warden . . . . . Chris Jack
Sound: Peter Ringrose
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0013zc7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 The Long View (m0013zp2)
The Long View of the Future
The Harms of Social Media
Jonathan Freedland explores historical parallels to concerns around the harms of social media today. What can history tell us about those worries might be addressed?
Jonathan looks for historical precursors to fears around the harms of social media platforms. He examines the controversial unstamped press in the Victorian era, the rise of the motor car and road safety in the early 1900s as well as the role of whistle-blowing in exposing the tobacco industry in the second half of the 20th century.
Producer: Laurence Grissell
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m0013zp4)
Remembering Mother Tongues
Michael Rosen asks Julie Sedivy about what happens when we lose our first language.
Julie Sedivy's family left their home country, the former Czechoslovakia, when Julie was a small child. They arrived in Canada as refugees with no English. Michael and Julie discuss the role of language within Julie's family story: how young children assimilate, how parents adapt and what can learned from these family experiences for the whole of society.
Julie Sedivy is a Canadian writer and language scientist, whose book on losing and reclaiming her first language is called Memory Speaks.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m0013zp6)
Alan Titchmarsh and Amanda Owen
'How can you feel fed up?' when you read PG Wodehouse is Alan Titchmarsh's answer when asked why he chose Summer Lightning. Harriett remarks that Wodehouse has been chosen on the programme twice in the last year and wonders if many of us are seeking the simplicity of Wodehouse's writing about the pre-internet days of rural Shropshire as 'comfort reading' during worrying times.
Amanda Owen is best known as the Yorkshire shepherdess who runs a remote hillfarm and whose family life is featured on television's Our Yorkshire Farm. She is also a writer and has appeared on BBC 4's Winter Walks. Perhaps unsurprisingly her choice of a good read is the account of her role model Hannah Hauxwell whose life story is told in Seasons of My Life. Hannah lived a solitary existence without water and electricity on a farm high in the Yorkshire Dales. When television director Barry Cockroft made a programme about her in the 1970s she received fame and recognition as an extraordinary woman from a bygone age.
Most of us probably haven't given a lot of thought to the act of the handshake. Perhaps we only really considered its importance after we were told not do do it at the start of the pandemic. Harriett's choice of book is the fascinating and witty exploration of The Handshake by Ella Al-Shamahi.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
TUE 17:00 PM (m0013zp8)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013zpb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Tudur Owen: United Nations of Anglesey (m0013zpd)
Episode 2
In 1978 a Japanese film crew came to 11-year-old Tudur Owen’s farm on Anglesey to make a programme about his life for a TV show called Children of the World. Then a Patagonian gaucho turned up. As did a man claiming to be a geology student called Hector. But were they all what they seemed?
Written and narrated by Tudur Owen with additional voices from Lisa-Jên Brown, Richard Harrington, Gwenno Hodgkins and Yuriko Kotani.
Script editor: Gareth Gwynn
Production co-ordinator: Katie Baum
Sound design: David Thomas
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0013zpg)
Chris is forced to let go and Ian hatches a plan.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0013zpj)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0013zpl)
Missing Evidence
Mike Cowan investigates the consequences for victims of crime and those accused of offences when crucial evidence goes missing or is lost by police forces. He speaks to a man who says he is trying to clear his name but vital evidence has been lost.
Reporter: Mike Cowan
Producer: Jim Booth
Editor: Nicola Addyman
Additional research: Wil Crisp and Sophie Eastaugh
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0013zpn)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m0013zpq)
A weekly quest to demystify the health issues that perplex us.
TUE 21:30 Room 5 (m0013znb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0013zps)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013znp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m0013zpv)
220. Poly-Interests and Chicken Stock Surpluses, with Rick Edwards
On this week's podcast, Fi and Jane chat to the new 5 Live Breakfast host Rick Edwards. Fi quizzes Rick on his interesting career in presenting, from Tool Academy to science podcasts. He also updates them on his mission to read a book a week in 2022 and the charms of pétanque. Before Rick joins the meeting, there's online craze explanations, and the dinger makes a return.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0013zpx)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
WEDNESDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2022
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0013zpz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013znd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013zq1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013zq3)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013zq5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0013zq7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0013zq9)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0013zqc)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sby29)
Grey Heron
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Grey Heron. The Grey Heron makes a loud croaking sound, often standing in an ungainly way on a tree-top which it might share with many others for nesting - the heronry.
WED 06:00 Today (m00140b2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m0013zsn)
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
WED 09:30 The Death of Nuance (m000qmp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
WED 09:45 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m00140b4)
Episode 3
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Having been dominated by the Ottoman Empire for the best part of five centuries, Albania became independent and then briefly a monarchy ruled by the self-appointed King Zog in the early 20th century.
After being occupied first by the Italians and then the Germans in World War II, a new republic was created in 1945. Under the leadership of the dicatator, Enver Hoxha, Albania became the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. It was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police.
To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict.
As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
The music used is from the famous Albanian song "A Pickaxe in One Hand, A Rifle in the Other" (Ansambli Amator Artistik I Qytetit Të Tiranës "Në Njërën Dorë Kazmën, Në Tjetrën Pushkën") recorded by the Amateur Art Ensemble in 1968. The first few bars of the song were also used as the interval signal on Radio Tirana.
Written and read by Lea Ypi
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00140b6)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 This Union: Being Welsh (m0013zjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Oti Mabuse's Dancing Legends (m00140b8)
Charleston dancer Josephine Baker
Swing dancer and choreographer Ryan Francois joins Oti Mabuse to talk about his career and dancing inspiration. Ryan created the dance routine The Jitterbug Stroll, popular with Lindy Hop dancers. He also worked as a specialist Charleston choreographer on the Strictly Come Dancing show.
For Ryan, when he looks at Charleston and Jazz , there is only one name who epitomises what the dance genre is all about- Josephine Baker.
Baker became a cultural icon in France during the 1920s and 1930s and had headline shows across Europe. Her impact is still felt nearly fifty years after her death, and her style is recognised by modern entertainers.
Ryan and Oti delve into the life of this dancing legend with archive clips and the expert help of author Sherry Jones.
Oti also joins choreographer Jenny Thomas in the dance studio to have a go at Charleston dancing in the style of Josephine Baker.
Presenter: Oti Mabuse
Producer: Candace Wilson
Production Team: Emily Knight and Rema Mukena
Editors: Kirsten Lass and Chris Ledgard
A BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m00140bb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 12:04 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m00140bd)
8: "He is dead."
To celebrate Radio 4's Modernism season, Sian Thomas continues Virginia Woolf's classic Modernist novel, set over a single day in London in1923.
With preparations for Clarissa Dalloway's party underway, other lives across London are in turmoil. Septimus and his wife share a brief moment of happiness, before tragedy strikes...
Reader: Sian Thomas
Author: Virginia Woolf
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:18 You and Yours (m00140bg)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m00140bj)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m00140bl)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 1922: The Birth of Now (m00140bn)
Hosho, the First Aircraft Carrier, and HMS Queen Elizabeth 11
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today.
8. The Hosho Aircraft Carrier
Japan’s Hosho was the first purpose-built aircraft carrier, launched in December 1922, combining land (well, something solid), sea and sky, and drawing on the Modernist fascination with speed and technology - think of the Italian Vorticists - for the purposes of war. It took part in the Shanghai Incident, much later, 1932, bombing Shanghai, as a show of national strength. And that’s what aircraft carriers do today. Britain has invested in its largest warships ever, aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth II, recently returned from making the UK’s presence felt around the world, and HMS Prince of Wales. Matthew speaks to engineer naval architect Professor David Andrews and Japanese historian Dr Satona Suzuki about them, and considers the symbolic significance of the aircraft carrier.
Producer: Julian May
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0013zpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m00140bq)
Fake Psychic
Written and reported by Vicky Baker
Drama by Nick Perry
If you wanted to speak with the dead in 1960s America, there was one man who was ready to help. For more than a decade, Lamar Keene was at the top of his game, becoming known as the Prince of Spiritualists. Then, quite suddenly, he turned his back on it all.
Lamar Keene went public and revealed his whole operation had been one big con. He not only implicated himself but claimed that he had been part of an underground network, which had conspired to defraud the unsuspecting public. He called it the “psychic mafia”, and said that his confession made him a marked man.
In a series that mixes documentary with drama, Vicky Baker (Fake Heiress) takes a deep dive into Lamar Keene’s stranger-than-fiction life story.
Lamar . . . . . Edward Hogg
Raoul . . . . . Tom Mothersdale
Mable . . . . . Susan Brown
Florence . . . . . Barbara Barnes
Joe . . . . . Nathan Osgood
Jeff . . . . . Shaun Mason
Don . . . . . Michael Begley
George . . . . . Neil McCaul
Lona . . . . . Jasmine Hyde
Ruthie . . . . . Tillie Murray
Betty . . . . . Christine Kavanagh
Sound: Peter Ringrose
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko
WED 15:00 Money Box (m00140bs)
A panel of experts answer calls on personal finance.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m0013zpq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m00140bv)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m00140bx)
Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this is the programme about a revolution in media.
WED 17:00 PM (m00140bz)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00140c1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m000dgy5)
Series 1
Episode 1 - Why Didn't You Ask Me to Dance?
Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play a couple who have been married ‘for ever’. Children of the Sixties, they’re still free spirits, drawn together by their passion for music and each other. Their warm and witty conversations dance around everyday chores and appointments as well as dealing with problems within long-held friendships, and tackling their own frustrations with each other. But underlying it all is their enduring love for each other and their desire to keep the passion alive.
This week they’re invited to a party with old friends but return home with a burning question: why didn’t you ask me to dance?
Written for Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam by award-winning comedy writer and journalist Jan Etherington, who’s been married for 35 years to Gavin Petrie, with whom she created many hit radio and TV series (Second Thoughts, Next of Kin, Faith in the Future, The Change). Conversations from a Long Marriage is her first solo narrative comedy series.
Produced by Claire Jones
A BBC Studios production
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0013zlx)
Jennifer tries to do the right thing and Kenton may have found the answer to his prayers.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m00140c3)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m00140c5)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze
WED 20:45 Witness (b01mhtd0)
Nehru and Edwina
As India gained its independence from Britain, the last Viceroy's wife was falling in love. Edwina Mountbatten's younger daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks remembers her mother's deep love for India's first post-independence leader. She talks to Witness about Pandit Nehru's charm and sense of fun, and the correspondence that continued until Edwina Mountbatten died.
WED 21:00 Sketches: Stories of Art and People (m000cc12)
Come Together
Writer Anna Freeman presents stories of coming together to make art. A patchwork blanket in Birmingham brings together the migration journeys of refugee women around the city. A collective of homeless singers and performers come together to turn the story of La Bohème on its head. And musician Spencer Flay talks about his need to separate himself from others in order to write his songs - by climbing up into the cabin of a crane. Spencer was discovered by the BBC after he uploaded his music to BBC Radio Bristol’s Upload programme – a show where anyone can upload the music, poetry or fiction they are creating. Find out more at bbc.co.uk/upload
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Becky Ripley.
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m00140bx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m00140c7)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m00140bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (m00140c9)
Series 9
Episode 4
Bed-bound wit, philosophy and story telling from Patrick Marber and Peter Curran.
Curran relates the story of his head being used instead of a golf ball. Marber invents a new language combining Yiddish and Cockney Rhyming Slang, but which doesn't rhyme.
Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 The John Moloney Show (m001484m)
Series 5
The Process of Ageing
The Godfather of British stand-up, John Moloney, returns to the live stage to share his musings on modern life.
This week, John has time to take an alliterative look at his current dotage of 55. Age comes to us all, but to some more than others it seems. John meets his younger self to warn him of the pitfalls of getting older, and the recent events that have shaped all our lives.
Written and performed by John Moloney
Produced by Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m00140cc)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
THURSDAY 03 FEBRUARY 2022
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m00140cf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m00140b4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00140ch)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00140ck)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00140cm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m00140cp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00140cr)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m00140ct)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09388dz)
Tara Robinson on the Common Tern
Theatre director Tara Robinson on the arctic tern and her grandfathers passion for birdwatching in today's Tweet of the Day.
Producer: Mark Ward
Picture: Dale Ayres.
THU 06:00 Today (m0013zl6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0013zl8)
The Temperance Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the momentum behind teetotalism in 19th Century Britain, when calls for moderation gave way to complete abstinence in pursuit of a better life. Although arguments for temperance had been made throughout the British Isles beforehand, the story of the organised movement in Britain is often said to have started in 1832 in Preston, when Joseph Livesey and seven others gave a pledge to abstain. The movement grew quickly, with Temperance Halls appearing as new social centres in towns in place of pubs, and political parties being drawn into taking sides either to support abstinence or impose it or reject it.
The image above, which appeared in The Teetotal Progressionist in 1852, is an example of the way in which images contained many points of temperance teaching, and is © Copyright Livesey Collection at the University of Central Lancashire.
With
Annemarie McAllister
Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Central Lancashire
James Kneale
Associate Professor in Geography at University College, London
And
David Beckingham
Associate Professor in Cultural and Historical Geography at the University of Nottingham
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013zlb)
Episode 4
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Having been dominated by the Ottoman Empire for the best part of five centuries, Albania became independent and then briefly a monarchy ruled by the self-appointed King Zog in the early 20th century.
After being occupied first by the Italians and then the Germans in World War II, a new republic was created in 1945. Under the leadership of the dicatator, Enver Hoxha, Albania became the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. It was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police.
To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict.
As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
The music used is from the famous Albanian song "A Pickaxe in One Hand, A Rifle in the Other" (Ansambli Amator Artistik I Qytetit Të Tiranës "Në Njërën Dorë Kazmën, Në Tjetrën Pushkën") recorded by the Amateur Art Ensemble in 1968. The first few bars of the song were also used as the interval signal on Radio Tirana.
Written and read by Lea Ypi
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0013zld)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m0013zlg)
Insight and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world.
THU 11:30 Taxi Drivers (m00145lc)
The late painter Lucian Freud once referred to himself as the passenger who knows where he wants to go and his printmaker as the taxi driver who knows how to get him there.
In this episode, the artist, performer and broadcaster, Scottee learns more about that important but sometimes mysterious role of 'artist assistant' and discovers that some relationships are more intimate than others.
He visits the studio of Turner Prize nominated artist Angela de la Cruz and meets some of her studio team (Mariana Lemos, Demetrius Georghiou and Maisie Maris) who are currently working towards an exhibition of Angela's work in Madrid. He also has conversations with Jerry Gorovoy, long-time assistant to Louise Bourgeois, and artist and former assistant Rebecca Partridge. We also hear more an artist assistant who'd prefer to remain anonymous and from contemporary art historian Dr Danielle Child.
Produced by Hannah Dean
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0013zlj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 12:04 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zll)
9: "How delightful to see you!"
To celebrate Radio 4's Modernism series, Sian Thomas reads Virginia Woolf's most celebrated novel, set over one day in London in1923.
Clarissa Dalloway's party has finally begun, and, as the guests gather, it is rumoured that the Prime Minister is coming....
Reader: Sian Thomas
Author: Virginia Woolf
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:18 You and Yours (m0013zln)
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
THU 12:57 Weather (m0013zlq)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0013zls)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 1922: The Birth of Now (m0013zlv)
Pirandello's Henry IV and the Idea of Truth
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today.
9. Pirandello’s Henry IV, first produced in 1922, is a play about a man who believes himself to be the Holy Roman Emperor, and lives in a fake palace with courtiers (in reality he’s sane and knows that he is being humoured). It’s the Truman Show with a great twist and illuminates the confusion and uncertainty of the 1920s - a decade full of swirling ideologies and manifestos, some distinctly fascist in character. The play, which has been translated by Tom Stoppard, has strong resonances in our own time, too: an era in which truth has become an oddly personalised concept. Matthew Sweet discusses truth, reality and fascist ideologies in 1922 and now with guests including the drama critic Michael Billington, who has probably seen more productions of the play thtn anyone, and the historian Roger Griffin.
Producer: Julian May
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0013zlx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m0008r5v)
This Changeling Self
Linda Marshall Griffiths' magical story of love and loss recorded on location at the Edinburgh Festival inspired by the Scottish myth 'Tamlin and the Fairy Queen.'
The festival was always a place she liked to wonder. She could be there in full view and no-one thought she was more than a performer. She could catch people out, half-drunk some of them would do anything, go anywhere. And she took them. She used it as a time to cross over, let them have some of the songs she kept, some of the stories she knew. But this man, this one she wanted to keep.
SHE.....Christine Bottomley
HE.....Sacha Dhawan
BROTHER.....Rupert Hill
GIRL.....Kay McAllister
Directed by Nadia Molinari
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0013zlz)
The Golden Road, Pembrokeshire
Clare explores part of a challenging route in the Preseli Hills taken by hardy cattle drovers who, over generations, would walk herds of two to three hundred animals from Pembrokeshire to livestock markets in London. With her is Nick Gammage who, in the summer of 2021, spent 17 arduous days completing the entire 250 mile trek. They begin their walk at Grid Ref SN075321 and head east along one of the most popular walks in the area, the Golden Road, which stretches for seven miles along the length of the Preselis.
Nick spent childhood holidays in Pembrokeshire and remembers hearing stories of the Welsh Black cattle and their drovers. In the rain, steam could be seen rising from the hot animals whose feet were shod to protect them on their journey. Now retired and looking for new adventures, he decided to set himself this challenge which he started with a broken toe, and a tent which he hoped he wouldn’t have to use.
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0013yzd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m0013z07)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Think with Pinker (m0013zm1)
Being right
Why getting it right might mean admitting you're wrong.
What if we were to replace intellectual combat with genuine discussion and treat beliefs as hypotheses to be tested rather than treasures to be defended?
In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker is joined by:
Julia Galef of the Center for Applied Rationality and author of ‘The Scout Mindset’
Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of ‘Cognition and Raising Kids who Read’
Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent
Editor: Emma Rippon
Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0013zm3)
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0013zm5)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013zm7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Plum House (b0b52cms)
Series 2
Thief Encounter
Comedy about the inept staff at a historic house. Starring Simon Callow, Jane Horrocks and Miles Jupp.
Every year, thousands of tourists flock to the Lake District. But one place they never go to is Plum House - the former country home of terrible poet George Pudding (1779-1848). Now a crumbling museum, losing money hand over fist, it struggles to stay open under its eccentric curator Peter Knight (Simon Callow). Tom Collyer (Tom Bell) tries and fails to get the museum back on track, alongside the hopelessly out of touch deputy Julian (Miles Jupp), corner-cutting gift shop manager Maureen (Jane Horrocks), put-upon education officer Emma (Louise Ford), and enthusiastic but dim-witted caretaker Alan (Pearce Quigley).
Peter and Julian are determined to retrieve a valuable pudding artefact and they've enlisted the help of a crooked connection to do so. Emma and Tom try to keep everyone on the straight and narrow - but Maureen finds herself mysteriously drawn to the shady visitor.
Written by Ben Cottam and Paul McKenna
Produced by Sarah Cartwright
Directed by Paul Schlesinger
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0013zm9)
Writer, Keri Davies
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ….. Angela Piper
Phoebe Aldridge ….. Lucy Morris
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Amy Franks ….. Jennifer Daley
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Roy Tucker ….. Ian Pepperell
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0013zmc)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0013zmf)
David Aaronovitch presents in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m0013zmh)
Evan Davis chairs a discussion providing insight into business from the people at the top.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0013zm3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0013zl8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0013zml)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zll)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
THU 23:00 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m0013zmn)
Birmingham to Edinburgh
Alexei Sayle takes a train journey and breaks the golden rule of travelling by train in the UK - he actually talks to his fellow passengers.
On a journey from Birmingham to Edinburgh, he shares their funny and moving moments, their favourite jokes, their tales of weddings, work, funerals and holidays, and explores the lives of strangers by simply asking the questions that we might want answered - if only we were there too.
Along with the unplanned conversations, Alexei gives us his reaction to everything he can see as it passes his carriage window. Perhaps it’s the stunning coastline north of Newcastle or the remains of Britain’s industrial heritage as he chugs through the Midlands. After all, there must be a little bit of Alexei’s DNA devoted to the railways - his father was a railway guard and Alexei travelled thousands of miles by train as a child.
A Ride production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0013zmr)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament.
FRIDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2022
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0013zmt)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013zlb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0013zmw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0013zmy)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0013zn0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0013zn2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0013zn4)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with Father John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0013zn6)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv81)
Blue Tit
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the blue tit. The perky blue tit is a stalwart of garden bird-feeders. This popular British bird has a blue cap and wings, olive green back and yellow belly. The male and females look identical to us but blue tits can clearly tell each other apart, find out how in this episode.
FRI 06:00 Today (m0013zrq)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0013yzs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi (m0013ztf)
Episode 5
Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Having been dominated by the Ottoman Empire for the best part of five centuries, Albania became independent and then briefly a monarchy ruled by the self-appointed King Zog in the early 20th century.
After being occupied first by the Italians and then the Germans in World War II, a new republic was created in 1945. Under the leadership of the dicatator, Enver Hoxha, Albania became the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. It was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police.
To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.
Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared, and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict.
As one generation's aspirations became another's disillusionment, and as her own family's secrets were revealed, Lea found herself questioning what freedom really meant.
The music used is from the famous Albanian song "A Pickaxe in One Hand, A Rifle in the Other" (Ansambli Amator Artistik I Qytetit Të Tiranës "Në Njërën Dorë Kazmën, Në Tjetrën Pushkën") recorded by the Amateur Art Ensemble in 1968. The first few bars of the song were also used as the interval signal on Radio Tirana.
Written and read by Lea Ypi
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0013zrv)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 Terrorism and the Mind (m001421m)
Talking to Terrorists
What are researchers learning about the prevalence of mental illness among convicted terrorists, and the role it might play in their actions?
Raffaello Pantucci investigates a growing body of research, speaking to academics and security officers who have conducted research in the UK, Europe, the USA and Israel.
He asks if the changing nature of terrorism in the West, from planned group attacks by the likes of Al Qaeda to isolated incidents often involving lone actors, is evidence that poor mental health is a growing factor in people's behaviour.
FRI 11:30 Fags, Mags and Bags (m0013zrx)
Series 10
1. Racismpallooza
The hit Radio 4 series Fags, Mags & Bags returns in a landmark tenth series with more shop based shenanigans and over the counter philosophy, courtesy of Ramesh Mahju and his trusty sidekick Dave.
Set in a Scots-Asian corner shop, and written by and starring Donald Mcleary and Sanjeev Kohli, the award winning Fags, Mags & Bags has proved a huge hit. This brand-new series sees a return of all the show’s regular characters, with some guest appearances along the way.
In this episode, Ramesh tries to help Mrs Birkett who is being pursued by the immigration services.
Cast:
Ramesh: Sanjeev Kohli
Dave: Donald Mcleary
Sanjay: Omar Raza
Alok: Susheel Kumar
Malcolm: Mina Anwar
Mrs Birkett: Stewart Cairns
Bishop Briggs: Michael Redmond
Mrs Begg: Marjory Hogarth
Producer: Gus Beattie for Gusman Productions
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001416s)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:04 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zs2)
10: For there she was
As part of Radio 4's celebration of the birth of Modernism a hundred years ago, Sian Thomas reads the final part of Virginia Woolf's classic Modernist novel, set over a single day in 1923.
With the party now in full swing, and as friends both old and new gathered together, Clarissa Dalloway cannot but help think back to the past...
Reader: Sian Thomas
Author: Virginia Woolf
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:18 You and Yours (m0013zs4)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0013zs6)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0013zs8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 1922: The Birth of Now (m0013zsb)
Einstein, relativity, time, and indigenous Australian modernism
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today.
10. Einstein, relativity, time, and indigenous Australian art.
In 1922, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize. In that same year, his work was popularised with the publication of Easy Lessons in Einstein. Time was shown to be a relative quality - and there is a link here to the indigenous Australian conception of time, which is also not a constant.
Mick Kurbarkku was born in 1922 near the aboriginal settlement Maningrida in northern Australia. He grew up among the rock-shelters in the Mann River District, without contact with white Australians. Kurbarkku was taught the painting methods for traditional rock art paintings by clan elders, who recognised his talent. He later used these techniques and motifs in his own art, becoming the most prominent painter in what is known as Kuninjku Modernism. His work draws on ancient tradition but is modern. This approach coloured his life: Kurbarkku was an instigator of the Homeland Movement, in which aboriginal people move from towns and cities creating small, often remote settlements. This is an assertion of identity, a contemporary reaction to policies of assimilation that have not served aboriginal Australians well. Matthew hears from, Margo Neale, Senior Indigenous Curator at the National Museum of Australia, about Australian aboriginal ideas of time, their relationship with Einstein's idea of relativity, and the expression of these in aboriginal art being created today.
Producer: Julian May
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0013zm9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (m0013zsd)
Twenty Odd
Samuel Fergus is 53 and the editor at a Newcastle publishing house. Their star author is Clara Dove who writes bodice rippers. When her 24 year old son Alfie, drops out of studying for his literature MA, she gets a job created for him at her publishers.
The last thing anyone is expecting is that Alfie falls for his new boss. At first Samuel does not believe the romantic interest but, as things develop, everyone is thinking, if they start a relationship, will they and the people in their lives accept and cope with such an age gap?
The role of Sam is played by former Emmerdale star Rajat Matthew Bose who had a similar experience in his twenties. Coronation Street and Loose Women star Denise Welch plays feisty author Clara Dove, who has very mixed reactions to her young son dating her editor, who is the same age as her.
Cast:
Sam … .…………………Rajat M Bose
Alfie ………………….….Elijah Young
Clara ……………. ……. Denise Welch
Jon …..…….………….. Donald McBride
Devon ………………… Philip Meeks
Written by Philp Meeks.
Produced and directed by Turan Ali
A Bona Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4
Twenty Odd is the second of three LGBTQ+ short dramas commissioned by Radio 4 for this Friday half hour slot from queer BAME production company Bona Broadcasting. The other two dramas are written by Rikki Beadle-Blair (Whoopsie, 3rd December 2021 and available on BBC Sounds) and a new lesbian drama, The Road and the Miles to Dundee, written by internationally acclaimed crime writer Val McDermid (25th March 2022).
FRI 14:45 The Art and Science of Blending (m0004dzy)
Whisky
Blending is a distinctly human act: other creatures don’t experiment in this way. So in this series we’re looking at four blended products – whisky, tea, perfume and champagne – to find out why we blend things, and why some blends work when others don’t. What do we hope to gain? What do we fear losing? And is blending an art … or a science? Barry Smith, a philosopher, tries to answer these questions by consuming rare teas, fine whiskies and perfect champagnes … so that you don’t have to.
In this programme he heads to Scotland to discover the secrets to blending whisky.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0013zsg)
GQT at Home:
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts, chaired by Kathy Clugston. Fielding questions from across the country this week are Juliet Sargeant, James Wong, and Pippa Greenwood.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0013zsj)
Headless Chicken
Lowri and Adam run a smallholding in Wales, where they raise chickens for slaughter. But one chicken, Satay, seems to defy the laws of nature.
An original short story by Rachel Trezise, read by Alexandria Riley.
Sound by Catherine Robinson
Produced by Emma Harding
A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0013zsl)
Matthew Bannister tells the life stories of people who have recently died, from the rich and famous to unsung but significant.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m0013zsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m0013zsq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0013zsv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m0013zsx)
Series 107
Episode 6
Andy Zaltzman presents a look back at the week's headlines
FRI 19:00 Past Forward: A Century of Sound (m00132y4)
Porton Down
Greg Jenner looks at a 1962 clip of the government laboratory Porton Down and asks Guardian journalist Rob Evans whether it tells the whole story, explores the medical ethics of the cold war era with Agnes Arnold-Forster, and looks at how more deferential times helped secrets to be kept for so long
Marking the centenary of the BBC, Past Forward uses a random date generator to alight somewhere in the BBC's vast archive over the past 100 years. Public historian Greg Jenner hears an archive clip for the first time at the top of the programme, and uses it as a starting point in a journey towards the present day. The archive captures a century of British life in a unique way - a history of ordinary people’s lives, as well as news of the great events. Greg uncovers connections through people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022, pulling in help from experts and those who remember the time – and sometimes the speakers themselves, decades later - along the way. What he discovers are stories, big and small, that reveal how the people we were have shaped the people we have become.
Produced by Megan Jones for BBC Wales
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m0013zsz)
Music Programme on Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0013zt1)
Conor Burns MP, Professor Deirdre Heenan
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from The Portico of Ards in Portaferry with a panel which includes the Minister of State for Northern Ireland Conor Burns MP and the Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University Deirdre Heenan.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Benson
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0013zt3)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 1922: The Birth of Now (m0013zt5)
Tutankhamun and Egyptomania; Nosferatu; The First Aircraft Carrier; Einstein, Time and Aboriginal Modernism
1922: The Birth of Now - Ten programmes in which Matthew Sweet investigates objects and events from 1922, the crucial year for modernism, that have an impact today. An omnibus edition of four programmes broadcast this week.
The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922. Egyptomania swept Europe and America, influencing culture from dance to architecture. The craze for the Egyptian style can still be seen in many British buildings. Matthew explores modernism’s fascination with the distant past, the roots of civilisations.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. FW Murnau's 1922 gothic masterpiece is the first vampire movie and still influences film-makers. It’s also about disease: Count Orlok brings plague to Mittel Europe. What does this mean, in a Europe that has just survived war and pandemic? Matthew is joined by the poet Dana Gioia, who wrote the libretto of Nosferatu: The Opera, first produced in 2004, and literary scholars Roger Luckhurst and Lisa Mullen.
The Hōshō: Japan’s Hōshō was the first purpose built aircraft carrier, launched in 1922, exemplified modernist fascination with speed and technology - for the purposes of war. Britain has invested in its largest warships, aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth II and HMS Prince of Wales. Matthew considers the symbolic significance of the carrier.
Einstein, relativity, time, and indigenous Australian modernism: In 1922, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize. Time was shown to be a relative quality - Matthew hears from, Margo Neale Senior Indigenous Curator at the National Museum of Australia, about Australian aboriginal ideas of time, their relationship with Einstein's idea of relativity, and the expression of these in aboriginal art being created today.
Producers: Eliane Glaser and Julian May
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0013zt7)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (m0013zs2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 today]
FRI 23:00 A Good Read (m0013zp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0013zt9)
Today in Parliament
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament