The Secret Barrister is an anonymous junior barrister specialising in criminal law, and author of the award-winning blog of the same name. In this frank, funny and sometimes shocking memoir of their career to date, they give a revealing account of their progress to the Bar, their introduction to the legal system, and their dawning perception of the crisis at the heart of the profession and the failures of the creaking criminal justice system.
From hilarious descriptions of their first encounter with the arcane traditions of the Inns of Court and the cut-throat competition for pupillage, to entertaining accounts of some of the more memorable characters encountered along the way and hard-hitting criticism of the failures of the law, this is a wry, clear-eyed account of an outsider’s entry into a closed and all-too-often frustrating world.
Asking questions about what we understand by justice, and making an impassioned argument for reform of the criminal justice system, the Secret Barrister writes of a profession where ideals and good intentions are undermined daily by debilitating funding cuts, shocking under-resourcing and the short-term demands of political expediency. The book is both a highly personal story and a rousing call for root and branch reform, and pulls no punches in what it reveals of how society deals with crime and punishment.
In 2016 and 2017, the Secret Barrister was named Independent Blogger of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, and in 2018 they were named Legal personality of the Year at the Law Society Awards. You can follow the Secret Barrister at https://thesecretbarrister.com
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Janet Fife, retired vicar and one of the first women to be ordained.
When I read Anne Frank’s Diary I was the age she was when she wrote it. Though at the time I didn’t understand much of the context, it made a big impression on me - as it has on so many people. What accounts for the enormous impact of the Diary of Anne Frank?
There is the drama of the situation: people, including 3 children, hiding from the Nazis, with all the alarms and tedium that entailed. There is the pathos of knowing that the young author died in a concentration camp. The Nazis stamped the Jews with serial numbers and exterminated them en masse. Anne wrote of quarrels with her roommate; sexual awakening, falling in love. She was just like us.
It’s human nature to suspect or dislike people who seem different from us. Anne Frank shows us that our differences are not so great after all.
As a British child growing up in the USA, I was always a bit different from my classmates. That was sometimes uncomfortable, but valuable experience. I have always been aware that there is more than one way to look at things.
In our white Chicago suburb, there was one form of segregation: Catholics and Protestants didn’t mix. We went to separate schools and remained suspicious of each other. It wasn’t until I had Catholic friends that I realised how much we had in common.
Now more than ever we need to value those who are different. As Matthew Syed wrote in his book ‘Rebel Ideas’: ‘When we are confronted by complexity, and the environment is changing at a rapid pace, cognitive diversity is crucial for making wise decisions.’
Creator God, help us to value every person you have made, and be open to learning from each other.
In this episode, Michael explores the extraordinary effects of beetroot on your body and brain – from helping lower blood pressure to keeping your brain healthy as you age. He speaks to Professor Andy Jones from the University of Exeter who has found that simply drinking a shot of beetroot juice can improve your endurance during intense exercise by 16%, and finds out why these bright red jewels can have such significant benefits on your heart, your muscles and your brain.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Helen Mark visits a field on the edge of Bath, once used as the burial ground for Bath Union Workhouse. Over 3100 bodies of people who died in poverty between 1858 and 1899 were buried here in unmarked graves. For over a hundred years, the site has been unrecognised and those buried here forgotten.
Now a group of local residents, artists, and descendants of those buried here are remembering what happened. Helen hears how the group is planting trees and wildflowers, putting up a plaque, and commemorating the lives of people who were buried anonymously.
Delays to import checks, global vegetable oil shortage and farmers fighting pollution
Checks on goods coming into the UK from the EU will no longer be introduced this year. Checks on our EXPORTS have been in place since January 2021, and IMPORT checks had been due to come in, in July - having been delayed three times already. This time though, the Brexit Opportunities Minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said the Government will now review how to implement the checks "in an improved way" and that "the new controls regime will come into force at the end of 2023" suggesting that goods entering the UK will face a very different inspection regime from those leaving the UK for the EU.
The majority of the UK's sunflower oil comes from the fields of Ukraine and disruption to exports because of the war has led to shortages - with some supermarkets limiting how much sunflower oil customers are allowed to buy. Meanwhile, Indonesia has banned the export of it's palm oil to keep domestic prices there low...leading to a global vegetable oil shortage. That in turn has lead to an increased demand for alternatives - like rapeseed oil - and the price of oil seed rape, the crop it comes from, has shot up…good news for the farmers who grow it.
And we meet a group of farmers trying to fight pollution from their land, and protect a chalk stream habitat.
Sara Davies MBE joins Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi. The Dragons' Den investor started her multi-million pound business as a student and topped the leaderboard during her time on Strictly Come Dancing. Sara talks about her path to success and passion for crafting.
Five years ago Jonny Cotsen decided to explore his deaf identity, after a life of adapting to be part of the hearing world. A qualified graphic designer and teacher, Jonny also changed careers to pursue his childhood ambition of performing.
Catherine Carr and her siblings were separated as children. Now, with relationships repaired and large bodies of water having passed under the bridge, Catherine is still fascinated by sibling relationships of all shapes and sizes.
Gary Wilmot shares his Inheritance Tracks: Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin and Summer Breeze performed by The Isley Brothers.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith was nicknamed 'the English Neymar' as a talented teenage footballer. But becoming a dad at 17, losing his mum in his early 20s and the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire have all played a part in him taking a completely different path. Now, at the age of 24, he is a garden designer and soon to exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show.
We Can All Make It by Sara Davies is out now.
in Wales), and then available via the BBC iPlayer.
Catherine Carr's Relatively Podcast is available now.
Gary Wilmot is in Wicked which is booking until 27 November 2022 at the Victoria Apollo Theatre in London.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith is making his debut at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, with Grow2Know.
Jay Rayner hosts a culinary panel show packed full of tasty titbits. Joining him this week to answer questions from hungry listeners are Andi Oliver, Jeremy Pang, Anna Jones and Dr Annie Gray.
With May Day celebrations happening across the globe, the team discusses elaborate ways of presenting food. From phoenix-shaped chicken to human-sized trifles, it seems these panellists go all out! They'll also be talking about the traditional Irish dish Colcannon, as well as debating their favourite pasta fillings, including some unusual sweet options - apple pie dumplings anyone?
Resident food historian Dr Annie Gray regales us with the history of mealtimes, surmising that “mealtimes are a cultural construct, there are no rules - eat what you want to! Enjoy it!” A motto we can all get behind.
Pippa Crerar of the Daily Mirror is joined by the former Leader of the House of Commons, Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, and Pete Wishart MP from the SNP to discuss the role of the independent panel set up to deal with sexism and harrassment in Parliament. Following a speech by the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss about the West's response to the war in Ukraine, the Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP and the Conservative MP Alicia Kearns MP debate Britain's place in the world. The Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Cramer discusses efforts to strenghten to protect whistleblowers. With only days to go before local elections in England, Scotland and Wales and elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, the Conservative peer and polling expert Lord Hayward and Professor Rosie Campbell from Kings College London preview what the results will mean for the parties.
The former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez was voted out of power in January, and within weeks was arrested, accused of being part of a major international drugs ring. This month, Mr Hernandez was extradited to the US, where he will face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering - charges he denies. Meanwhile, back in Honduras, police say they are now trying to destroy the drug industry, and invited our correspondent Will Grant along to show how.
A British man was killed this week while fighting in Ukraine, emphasising the international aspect of the crisis. Thousands of foreigners have travelled to Ukraine to take up arms, encouraged by the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky. But why would someone travel to a distant country, to fight in towns and cities they may have struggled to find on a map? Hugh Barnes found a wide variety of reasons - and people - who have answered the call.
Across Ukraine, there are reminders of the warm relationship the country once had with its neighbour, Russia. The southern city of Odessa had a particular closeness, many of its population being native Russian speakers. But Odessa has been hit by Russian missiles, and with significant civilian casualties. Jen Stout tried to find out what local attitudes are now.
One of the tragedies of climate change is that those who will suffer worst from its consequences are often those who played little role in causing it. The island nation of Sao Tome and Principe is particularly exposed, a poor place made poorer still by environmental damage. Now it may have a chance to alleviate some of that poverty, by selling the oil which some believe lies under its ocean. Yet it is burning oil which has caused the country's climate problems in the first place, presenting a dilemma which Tamasin Ford witnessed first hand.
As Emmanuel Macron savours victory in the French election, some will be putting it down in part to the studied attempt to change his image and look more casual. Often depicted as stuck up and aloof, Monsieur Macron appeared in a much-publicised, and indeed much-mocked photograph, with no jacket and an open-neck shirt. However, while the re-elected President may have swapped his tie for tufts of very-visible chest hair, the same cannot be said of his staff. Indeed, the 'Macronistas' seem keen to preserve France’s international reputation for sartorial suaveness. Our correspondent, Hugh Schofield, found himself wondering whether he should follow their lead.
Some government guidance to give some people a £150 council tax rebate in April to help with record energy bills has been changed. The treasury says it was always clear, including its press notice and the leaflet which went out to millions of households, that the £150 council tax rebate to help with the cost of living would be paid “from” April. More on this story.
More than two million people who rely on six means-tested state benefits are going to be moved to the newer benefit Universal Credit over the next couple of years. Just over half of them will be better off on Universal Credit, but the government estimates 900,000 people will be entitled to less money. The Department for Work and Pensions says Universal Credit is a dynamic system which adjusts as people earn more or indeed less, and simplifies the safety net for those who cannot work.
And, we'll hear from an 83-year-old grandmother who says her financial independence has been taken away after extra security measures her bank brought in mean she can no longer shop online. It's part of new procedures were imposed across the banking industry.
Andy Zaltzman reflects on a week of headlines in the company of guests Andy Hamilton, Spectator journalist Isabel Hardman, French stand-up comedian Celya AB and host of BBC Radio Scotland's 'Breaking the News', Des Clarke.
The panel look forward to the local elections in the UK next week and there's an intruder at the snooker.
Dr Stephen Farry MP, John Finucane MP, Claire Hanna MP, Mike Nesbitt, Edwin Poots
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from the Ulster Transport Bowling Club in Jordanstown with the Deputy Leader of Alliance Dr Stephen Farry MP, Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, SDLP MP Claire Hanna, the former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt and the former DUP leader Edwin Poots.
There's a dirty secret around the back of your fridge. The world's freezers, fridges and air conditioning units are chilled by gases that have planet-warming properties that are hundreds or even thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Disposed of properly they're not a problem but in much of the developing world these gases- legal ones and even more dangerous illegal gases- are simply vented to the atmosphere when the cooling units are dumped or recycled.
In the first of ten more programmes highlighting the world's best carbon-busting ideas, Tom Heap meets the fridge detectives hunting the planet for the worst offenders and safely disposing of their dangerous gases.
Dr Tamsin Edwards of King's College, London, armed with statistics gathered by the Royal Geographical Society, joins Tom to add up the numbers and calculate the carbon impact of the fridge detectives.
Produced in conjunction with the Royal Geographical Society. Particular thanks for this episode to Dr Luke Western and Dr Daniel Say of the University of Bristol and to Professor John Pyle of the University of Cambridge.
Zadie Smith is one of Britain’s most notable living novelists. Her first work, White Teeth, completed while the author was still a student, became an instant hit when it was published in 2000. Soon enough, she came to define what it was to live in Britain – and particularly London – at the turn of the new millennium.
Music has always coursed through Zadie Smith’s works. At university she worked as a jazz singer while her 2016 novel Swing Time, long listed for the Booker Prize, explores her love of music and dance. In the latest of our collaborations with great writers, Zadie joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra for this entertaining concert. And there's even the opportunity to hear Zadie sing!
This is a shortened version of the full concert, recorded on Earth Day, 22nd April at The Barbican, edited for broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The full concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in the coming months.
TV presenter Julia Bradbury, Dame Margaret Beckett, Aunties, Porn in Parliament, BMX champion Bethany Shriever, Jude Rogers
The TV presenter Julia Bradbury on her TV documentary and life after her breast cancer diagnosis.
The longest serving MP, Dame Margaret Beckett on standing down as an MP in the next election.
The "aunties" - the older women in the community who we should respect but for some may be judgemental as well as motherly. Podcaster and writer Tolly Shoneye and Anchal Seda discuss.
The Attorney General and cabinet member Suella Braverman on the allegations that an unidentified Conservative MP has been accused of watching porn in the House of Commons.
BMX Olympic and world champion Bethany Shriever on being named Action Sportsperson of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.
Music journalist Jude Rogers on her new book The Sound of Being Human, part memoir, part exploration of how music is interwoven into our lives from before birth to beyond the grave.
One of your most requested ‘wonder-products’ so far. Heat pumps are promising to not only make our houses greener but to also cut our energy bills. But will they?
The Government says every home could have one and have reintroduced grants to help buy them. However Nick wants to know if an air source heat pump would be suitable for the 1930s house he’s about to move into with his family. Given the higher cost of the unit and the extra insulation he needs, will he actually be better off with a new combi boiler instead?
Greg speaks to experts, does a survey on his own home and gets Nick answers so he can decide if a heat pump, for him, would be the best thing since sliced bread.
Do you have a suggestion of a ‘wonder-product’ making a bold claim that Greg can investigate next?
Send us your suggestions to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or send it to Greg direct on twitter or instagram where he’s @gregfoot
The Devon MP tells the BBC he watched pornography twice in the House of Commons, the first time by accident.
Alison Steadman, Ardal O'Hanlon, Cherrelle Skeete, Holly Walsh, Kurt Vile, Honeyglaze, Scottee, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Scottee are joined by Alison Steadman, Ardal O'Hanlon, Cherrelle Skeete and Holly Walsh for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Kurt Vile and Honeyglaze.
Her multi-media work celebrates the achievements of women in music and art, challenges racial and sexual bias and asks how our cultural institutions can become more inclusive.
From pastels to a cappella, Mark Coles profiles the life and career of Sonia Boyce, winner of this year's Venice Biennale, international art exhibition.
Sonia Boyce’s winning entry entitled 'Feeling Her Way' features the improvisations of five black female musicians, Poppy Ajudha, Jacqui Dankworth MBE, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram and composer Errollyn Wallen CBE.
Inua Ellams, the Nigerian-born, award-winning poet, playwright and performer, talks to John Wilson about the most important influences and experiences that have inspired his own creativity. Inua won huge acclaim for his play the Barbershop Chronicles, which was a sell-out twice at the National Theatre and went on to tour the UK. His adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters reset during the Biafran war - also for the National - is now on the A Level syllabus, and he is the author of several books of poetry including The Half God Of Rainfall.
Inua was born in Plateau State, Nigeria, moved to Britain as a child, and also spent time in Dublin during his teens. He recalls growing up in a dual faith household, with his Christian mother and Muslim father. Initially inspired by the tales of heroism he discovered in X-Men comics, he became a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. He reveals that the 2001 album Amethyst Rockstar, by the American hip hop poet Saul Williams, was a huge inspiration on him as a writer and performer. Inua also talks movingly about his recent British citizenship which, despite being at the heart of the British theatrical establishment, took many years of struggle to secure.
Former BBC Moscow Correspondent Tim Whewell examines how the tumult in Russia in the 1990s forged much of the system we see today. He charts the dramatic and sometimes absurd rise and fall of Boris Yeltsin amidst dubious elections. He recalls the hopes of the reformists who foresaw the creation of a democratic and open society, and the economists who thought shock therapy would create rapid growth. Instead, there was a dramatic economic collapse and a sense of disorientation for many ordinary Russians. The oligarchs grabbed the commanding heights of the economy at knock-down prices. Meanwhile there were other shifts - such as the explosion of a vigorous and initially free-ish media, alongside a state-backed revival for the Orthodox Church. The Russian military was depleted and ill-equipped and was humiliated in a civil war in the republic of Chechnya. The decade ended with the seemingly off-the-cuff decision to hand power to Vladimir Putin - starting a radically different direction for Russia. This programme is part of Radio 4's season looking back at the 1990s.
Crime drama based on the characters from the best selling novel by the multi-award winning writer, GF Newman. This second series runs from 1961 to 1970.
Spanning six decades, the saga plots the course of one family against the back-drop of a revolution in crime as the underworld extends its influence to the very heart of the establishment, in an uncomfortable relationship of shared values.
At the start of the 1960s, Joey Oldman acquires crafty Arnold Goodman as his solicitor, and buys shares in the civil engineering firm owned by the corrupt Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples.
Prospering with the help of venal bankers, and growing more devious, he and his wife Cath join Macmillan's Conservative Party. They strive without success to keep their son Brian free of the influence of Jack Braden (Cath's brother) as he takes their 'firm' from running illicit clubs, where they entertain politicians and judges, to armed robbery. All the while, Jack and Brian struggle to keep free of the police and further entanglements with the law, the Kray twins and the Richardsons.
An elite band of policemen is formed to tackle the criminal 'firms' and corrupt police officers.
Jon Holmes's The Skewer remixes the news into a satirical soundtrack This week - The Terrors of the Earth, Tom Cruise v Alan Titchmarsh, and a questionable pint of Starmerpramen.
Two people who share a common experience meet for the first time. Each has a gift for the other - an object that unlocks their story. With the help of presenter Catherine Carr, they exchange personal experiences and uncover the differences between them.
Jeremy Schwartz and Alex Murray both achieved high status in their careers - Jeremy as a chief executive for major companies, Alex as a senior officer in the Royal Marines.
In their encounter, the two men explore what status has meant to them throughout their lives, how it affects their identity and what the consequences are of walking away from it or chasing it.
Jeremy describes how his father’s refugee experience shaped his attitude towards success. His father escaped the Nazis in Vienna and came to London. Seeing the gap between the status his father was capable of achieving and what he actually achieved in the UK was a driving force in Jeremy’s own life: “I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I saw the pursuit of status as important.” He enjoyed success in management at major brands such as L’Oreal, Coca Cola, Sainsburys and The Body Shop. His marketing talent helped shape some of the most effective brands of the past 30 years.
For him, status is a complex blend of wealth, power and respect. But, in his 50s, Jeremy left his last CEO role and has not been able to secure a job at that level since. He reveals how the loss of that title or “calling card” has a profound effect on self worth. But in the end, it’s made him reflect on the value of status: “In the end it is about the impact you can make in life.”
Alex Murray left the Royal Marines with rank and kudos, but life outside the military was a struggle. He could not find fulfilment in the corporate world but was trapped by his expectations of money and status: “I just thought that someone with my background and what I’d done ought to be earning a certain amount. It took 10 years to realise you only have one shot at this life, and you need to make it count.”
His wife saw a job in the prison service advertised in the paper. “You’re good at looking after lads,” she said. He applied and got it. He’s now studying for a Masters in running prisons alongside doing this job. Alex says he had to get over wanting the status of a highly paid career and accept that true satisfaction for him lies in a job without high status: “I just wanted to do something where I could feel like I was making a difference.”
Why could you get tangled up by a bachelor boy, a Dawley man, a Fabian woman, a wonderful salad and a new watcher of the skies?
The teams from the North of England and the Midlands have to untangle this and many other puzzles in this week's contest, with the Midlands hoping to take another scalp following their victory over Wales a few weeks ago. Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras appear for the North, with Frankie Fanko and Stephen Maddock representing the Midlands.
Kirsty Lang asks the questions and awards the points. As always, there's a generous scattering of question ideas provided by RBQ listeners, and Kirsty will have the answer to the teaser puzzle that went unanswered at the end of the previous edition.
The Language Exchange is a place where poets and scientists meet to share language & ideas and create new work. This week Anthony Anaxagorou meets Maggie Aderin-Pocock.
For Anthony Anaxagorou, a good poem is one that orbits you. To help him write a new poem with gravitational pull he is going to sit down with space scientist, science communicator and presenter of the BBC’s The Sky at Night, Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Together they will look to the stars as Maggie tells Anthony about the technology that has helped us see what's out there.
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize.
SUNDAY 01 MAY 2022
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0016x09)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Witness (b03pdh78)
The First Panda in the West
In 1936 American socialite Ruth Harkness and her Chinese-American guide, Quentin Young, captured a giant panda cub in the forests of China. Ruth Harkness took the panda to the USA and kept it in her New York flat, before selling it to a Chicago zoo. It was the first time the animal had been seen outside China and panda-mania ensued. It was named 'Su-Lin' and celebrities such as Shirley Temple and Al Capone flocked to see it. Hear from Quentin Young's neice, Jolly Young, about the expedition in search of the panda.
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SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0016pnz)
Dance of the Wild
In the Alpujarras - while her daughter is at school - Anya visits a house sometimes stayed in by Gerald Brenan, who used to live in this remote mountainous region, receiving Bloomsbury guests. Once, he was visited by Virginia Woolf.
Writer and artist Amanthi Harris was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Colombo, before moving to London. Her novella Lantern Evening won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions Prize in 2016. Her novel, Beautiful Place, was published in 2019.
Writer: Amanthi Harris
Reader: Aiysha Hart
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0016x0c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0016x0f)
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 (m0016x0h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0016x0k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0016wy2)
The Great Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford
Bells on Sunday comes from the Great Tower of Magdalen College, Oxford. Magdalen College was founded in 1458 by William of Waynfleet, and the Great Tower was completed in 1509. The tower contains ten bells, with a tenor weighing 17 hundredweight and tuned to E. The oldest of the bells dates from c1410, actually predating the foundation of the college by almost 50 years. The tower is most famous for the annual May Morning celebration, when thousands gather at
6am on the streets to hear the college choir sing from the roof the Hymus Eucharisticus followed by the bells ringing out. We hear them ringing Grandsire Caters.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m0016wx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m0016ww0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01kjjnl)
Being Good
Some recent studies have shown that modern obituaries are unlikely to comment on a person's goodness. The phrase, "she or he was a good man or a good woman" is found less often than it used to be. In an edition of Something Understood called 'Being Good', Mark Tully considers why this should be so. Does it mean that we are no longer concerned about personal goodness and, if so, what are we concerned about when we judge a person's achievements in life? Do we undervalue the idea of being good? And is goodness enough on its own? Nelson Mandela has said, "A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special." This programme explores the values of a moral approach to life and the importance of valuing the good in others.
Mark draws on the expertise of Professor Simon Blackburn, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, and author of the ethical study "Being Good". The programme is also illustrated by readings from the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, E.V. Lucas and Yi Fu Tuan with music ranging from Edward Elgar and Wladislaw Szpilman to the Canadian band Emerson Drive.
The Readers are Philip Franks and Grainne Keenan.
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0016ww2)
Woods and Flowers
Verity Sharp visits the Woodland Farm in Pembrokeshire to meet Linda Screen and Steve Atkins. Following the tragic death of Linda’s daughter in 2013 to cervical cancer, Linda and Steve have been channelling her memory through their work at this 35 acre holding - while also bringing up their grandson. Half of the farm is woodland, managed for wildlife and coppicing, providing an income from charcoal made on a ring kiln. Another part of the business is seasonal cut flowers, grown on site and enhanced by foliage foraged from around the farm. Linda’s inspiration for growing and arranging flowers is the natural world around her and, although the pandemic hit hard, this year her order book for weddings is steadily filling up as social gatherings at last begin to gain traction.
Run using the principles of permaculture, everything at the Woodland Farm is about joined-up thinking and low impact living. The by-products of charcoal make compost for growing the flowers, there’s a large pole barn built from timber and materials sourced from within a five mile radius, and the couple are also in the middle of building a 'rural enterprise' dwelling on site. As they say, life is short. That's something which was brought home to them so brutally nine years ago, but a fact that’s also now driving them to make the most of every day with optimism and creativity.
Produced and presented by Verity Sharp.
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0016ww4)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0016ww6)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0016ww8)
Ukrainian refugee visa delays; Eid prayers at Blackburn Rovers; On the frontline of the cost of living crisis.
For the fist time, Muslims in Blackburn will be able to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr at their local football ground. Blackburn Rovers will be hosting Eid prayers on their Ewood Park pitch. The town has a growing Muslim population and, as he tells our presenter William Crawley, the club's Integration and Development Manager Yasir Sufi hopes this new initiative will inspire a new generation of fans to be a part of the Rovers FC family.
With food prices continuing to rise, we hear about the stark realities of providing for those in need, with Helen Carroll, Foodbank Manager for the multi-faith charity 'Spirit of Springburn' in Glasgow and Reverend Dean Roberts who runs the Parish Trust, an independent Christian charity in Caerphilly, South Wales. We also hear from the Bishop of Durham the Rt. Rev Paul Butler, Leader for the Lords Spiritual on Welfare Reform, who's calling for the Government to strengthen the social security system, to keep up with the true cost of living.
Religious groups here and in Poland are frustrated by visa delays for Ukrainian refugees. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is one of many British Jews who's sponsored Ukrainian refugees only to find they've been stranded by bureaucracy.
As Ripon Cathedral celebrates its 1350 year anniversary, reporter Andrew Fletcher explores the life of its founder, St Wilfrid, and discovers why he remains so relevant today.
And we ask - are Science and Religion incompatible ? More than five thousand adults think so, according to a recent survey. So why does this perception persist ? William looks for answers with Dr Stephen Jones, Lecturer in Sociology of Science and Religion at the University of Birmingham.
Producers: Jill Collins and Dan Tierney
Editor: Helen Grady
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0016wwb)
Over The Wall
Dr Ranj presents the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the children's charity Over The Wall.
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 ‘Over The Wall’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Over The Wall’.
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: 1075361
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0016wwd)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0016wwg)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0016wwj)
Meaning Matters
A service from Northern Ireland in which Pastor Andrew Roycroft reflects on our need and desire for meaning in life. With the New Irish Choir. and Orchestra, directed by Jonathan Rea
Led by Bishop Ken Clarke.
Ecclesiastes 12.1-8
John 1.1-14
All people that on earth do dwell (OLD 100th)
I heard the voice of Jesus say (KINGSFOLD)
Run to the Father (Matt Maher, Ran Jackson, Cody Carnes)
God so loved the world (Chilcott)
The goodness of Jesus (CityAlight)
Christ our hope in life and death (Keith Getty, Matt Boswell et al)
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0016wwl)
Reconsidering Cannabis and the Law
Will Self presents a very British solution to the issues surrounding the legalisation of marijuana.
Considering the pervasiveness of cannabis in the UK, he says the question that should currently be preoccupying us as a society is not whether marijuana should be legalised, but how.
"My model here would be the old Tote," he says, "a form of nationalised gambling that for many years mitigated its worst effects by limiting opportunities and hence possible losses."
He says that we must avoid the "commercialised free-for-all that's emerging in the US and parts of Canada."
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378wz1)
Bullfinch
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the Bullfinch. The males have rose-pink breasts and black caps and are eye-catching whilst the females are a duller pinkish-grey but share the black cap. Exactly why they're called Bullfinches isn't clear - perhaps it's to do with their rather thickset appearance. 'Budfinch' would be a more accurate name as they are very fond of the buds of trees, especially fruit trees.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0016wwn)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0016wwq)
Writer, Sarah Hehir
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
Ed Grundy …… Barry Farrimond
Ian Craig ….. Stephen Kennedy
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kathy Perks ….. Hedli Niklaus
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Tam Brownlow ….. Bryony Hannah
SUN 11:00 The Reunion (m0016wws)
The Silver Jubilee
Kirsty Wark reunites key people involved in The Queen's silver jubilee of 1977 when communities were alive with streets parties and the nation turned red, white and blue.
The late '70s, industrial unrest continued to rumble, inflation was at 15% and the dole queue was long. What the nation needed was a huge party. At the start of the year, the appetite for celebrations was underwhelming. But in the spring of 1977, the Queen embarked on a huge tour of the commonwealth, visiting 36 countries including all four corners of the United Kingdom and getting the public in the mood for a summer of celebrations.
Elsewhere, anti-royalists staged their own spectacles including the notorious punk band the Sex Pistols who performed their hit record God Save The Queen on a boat which sailed past the Houses of Parliament. They were eventually stopped in their tracks by the police.
Kirsty is joined by veteran Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter who describes the “electric” atmosphere on The Mall, where thousands had camped out overnight to get a better view as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh passed by in the Golden State Coach. Royal biographer Hugo Vickers describes how he worked in the office of the London Celebrations Committee which set in motion local street parties and glamorous cultural events. Mary Pearson, whose father Sir Martin Charteris was the Queen's Private Secretary, attended many of those events and sat of the wall of Clarence House gardens to watch the Queen process through the crowds to a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 11:45 Living with the Gods (b09bfnhc)
Here Comes the Sun
Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world, and focuses on light.
He experiences the sunrise whilst inside the monumental stone passage tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, a structure older than Stonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt. Here, on the winter solstice, thanks to the design of the tomb, a bright, narrow beam of sunlight reaches deep inside the structure.
He also considers the story of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, whose decision to hide herself in a cave plunged the world into darkness, and reflects on how - centuries later - the image of rising sun became closely linked with Japanese national identity.
Producer Paul Kobrak
The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph: (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m0016wwv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (m0016pk6)
Series 28
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.
Lucy Porter, Holly Walsh, Tony Hawks and Alan Davies are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as scouting, hair, South Korea and Nicolas Cage.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m0016wwx)
SPAM: food + war + memory in a can
No other tinned meat has had the worldwide cultural impact of SPAM. Though often denigrated in this country, it is celebrated across the world particularly in the Asia-Pacific where it became integrated into food cultures after The Second World War.
Jaega Wise explores this love of SPAM with Hawaiian chef Sheldon Simeon. She also meets Becky (Hanguk Hapa) in New Malden to talk about Budae Jjigae (army base stew), a dish born out of necessity, it is now a national comfort food.
SPAM also saw big increases in sales in the pandemic. As well as being a shelf stable and practical food, did our war nostalgia play a part in our renewed interest? Jaega talks to historian Dr Kelly Spring about how SPAM, gifted to Britain during the Second World War by the American’s, was initially received.
She also talks to Dr Duane Mellor from Aston University about the science and nutrition of tinned meat.
Archive of Stan Suffling and Walter Price is from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.
Presenter: Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0016wwz)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0016wx1)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (m0016wx3)
Adapting and Nurturing
Fi Glover presents four conversations between strangers.
This week: Andy and Jen share their experience of the Falklands War, living with PTSD and with guilt; Andy and JR discuss their struggles to start a family and the stigma attached to male infertility; Emma and Colin compare notes on fostering and adoption; and French ex-pats Richard and Kemal talk about adapting to the life and culture of the UK.
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 (m0016pnx)
West Maldon, Essex
Peter Gibbs and the panel are in West Maldon, Essex. Christine Walkden, Bob Flowerdew, and James Wong are answering the horticultural questions.
This week the panellists puzzle over a mimosa that won't flower and try to diagnose a poorly potted olive tree. They also suggest some brilliant evergreen trees to replace a topiaried conifer.
Away from the questions, James Wong heads to Kew where he speaks with researcher Dr James Borrell about a banana-like plant that has the potential to feed millions.
Producer: Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 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
SUN 15:00 Foreign Bodies (b0bf5034)
Grain of Truth
The Blood Painting
Taut crime thriller by leading Polish writer, Zygmunt Miloszewski, dramatised for radio by Mark Lawson. War time intrigue and modern politics mesh in a murder mystery.
The complexities and frustrations of the modern Polish legal system are the setting for this bestselling crime novel, featuring long suffering State Prosecutor Szacki who finds himself trapped in a limbo land of half-truths and secrets from post-Communist Poland. Will he prove himself to be a redoubtable seeker of the truth or will he compromise?
Episode 1: The Blood Painting
Szacki is finding small town Poland a little dull but a bizarre murder case soon throws him back into action. The crime scene is littered with grotesque clues suggesting that the murder is mirroring an infamous Jewish blood libel, drawing on historical anti-Semitism.
The writer:
Zygmunt Milosewski is a leading Polish writer. The Teodor Szacki series is hugely popular in Poland and the book series is currently being filmed.
The translator:
Antonia Lloyd Jones is a full time translator of Polish literature. She won the Found in Translation Award 2008 for the English version of The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle and is a committee member of the UK Translators Association.
The dramatist:
Mark Lawson is a well-known writer, critic and journalist.
Warsaw backgrounds - Zofia Morus
Polish language advisor - Antonia Lloyd Jones
Producer/director................Polly Thomas
Sound design.................... Eloise Whitmore
Production coordinator..............Sarah Kenny
Executive producer...............John Dryden
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m0016wx5)
Nick Harkaway
Nick Harkaway answers listener questions about his extraordinary novel Angelmaker. A blend of fantasy, thriller and adventure the novel tells the stories of a young, disillusioned clock maker Joe Spork, former spy, ninety year old Edie Bannister, and the strange events that bring them together.
Next month's book: Ordinary People by Diana Evans. Email bookclub@bbc.co.uk to ask a question.
SUN 16:30 Just William… and Richmal (m0016wx7)
Somewhere in a small English village, a boy with unkempt hair and dirty knees, falling-down socks and wild hair, is righting wrongs and causing havoc – and is forever 11.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication in May 1922 of the first collection of Just William stories by Richmal Crompton. Over the next 50 years, Crompton published 37 more books in which the world changed but William Brown never did.
Often thought of as children’s books, the Just William stories were originally written for adults, and have an overlooked comic legacy. Through the eyes of a small boy, Crompton satirised the absurdities and hypocrisies of adult life, with a flair and wit closer to PG Wodehouse than Enid Blyton, and an influence extending through work as disparate as The Likely Lads by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Edward Rowett considers how and why these books continue to delight. Just William is a major comic influence on his own work and comedy ambitions – but he swears he has never painted a dog blue, blackmailed a sauce magnate, or accidentally abducted a Sunday school.
He discovers another possible source for the inspiration of William Brown and finds himself increasingly intrigued by Richmal Crompton herself.
He analyses Crompton’s prose and talks to fellow devotees Neil Gaiman, Caitlin Moran, Liam Williams and, of course, the voice of William for so many, Martin Jarvis. Dr Jane McVeigh author of a new literary biography of Richmal Crompton, Just William: A Literary Life, shows Edward around the Richmal Crompton archive.
Edward Rowett is a comedy writer and performer. Since 2015, he has written four series of the award winning comedy Reluctant Persuaders for BBC Radio 4.
The archive recording of Terry Pratchett was made by The Oxford Story Museum and is used with the kind permission of his Estate.
Just William Live was produced Roz Ayres for Jarvis & Ayres Productions for BBC Radio 4 and used with the kind permission of Jarvis & Ayres.
With thanks to Kornelia Cepok, Archivist, University of Roehampton Library.
Presenter: Edward Rowett
Reader: Janet Ellis
Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound: Shane O’Byrne at The Soundhouse
Location Recording: Nick Manasseh
A Dora production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 Connections (m0016h3z)
Douglas Alexander examines whether recent crises - from Covid to the Ukraine war - have helped bring people together or driven them apart. In the more digital, hybrid world many of us have now glimpsed, will we have more time and more friends, or are we fated to feel that, in the real world, we are living among strangers? As we emerge into a post pandemic world already being shaped by a European conflict and the refugee and cost-of-living crises, it has brought in its wake, Douglas asks what we are learning about what really matters most in life. He visits the Cyrenians, Edinburgh's homelessness charity, and meets individuals who have opened their homes to Ukrainian refugees. And he talks to leading thinkers including social geographer Danny Dorling, anthropologist Robin Dunbar, economist Minouche Shafik and Emily Morrison of the Institute of Community Studies. Douglas Alexander is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and was member of the Cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Before Covid struck, he examined the forces which could bring Britain closer together in his Radio 4 documentary "A Culture of Encounter".
Producer: Phil Reevell
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Sound: James Beard
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
SUN 17:40 Profile (m0016wx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0016wxc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0016wxf)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016wxh)
A UN operation begins to evacuate civilians trapped in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0016wxk)
Myfanwy Alexander
It’s Mayday weekend, the birds are singing, the lambs are bleating at the top of their voices and there’s a scent of violets on the breeze. Come wander along the radio byways, finding stories and characters from Machynlleth to Mariupol, so join Myfanwy in her Montgomeryshire garden...There may be cake.
Presenter: Myfanwy Alexander.
Producer: Emmie Hume
Production Coordinator: Elodie Chatelain
Studio Manager: John Benton
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0016wxm)
Pat sympathises with Kathy over the Grey Gables news; it must be very sad for her. Kathy admits she loves Grey Gables, and her job, and was hoping not to retire for at least another couple of years. It’s a nightmare and she reckons Oliver’s handled it badly. There’s been no consultation period. She’s determined to have it out with him, and Mr Shah.
Oliver’s very down about the news he’s had to give the staff – they’re his friends and he feels he’s let them down. Adil reassures him; Grey Gables will be reinvented, better and with more opportunities than before. That’s little comfort to the staff right now, declares rueful Oliver. They agree it would be good to open the bar for the staff as part of their send-off. As Oliver tries to negotiate a better severance deal for Tracy with Adil, they’re interrupted by Kathy, come to express her indignation at the way everyone’s been treated. As she angrily sets out her case, Adil floors her by offering her a job – she’d be a perfect liaison officer overseeing the transition from old Grey Gables to new.
Kathy shares her news with Pat. Apparently Oliver had furnished Adil with glowing reports on Kathy and Adil had seen her feistiness as a positive. She’s torn. Clearly Adil genuinely believes in the project, and she feels she could work with him. But it doesn’t look good if she takes the job. She doesn’t know what to do.
SUN 19:15 Stand-Up Specials (m0016wxp)
Stephen Bailey: One of Many
Stephen Bailey is a lightweight boxer who lost a fight to Conor McGregor, he's an investor with £84 million in the bank, he's Axel Rose's stepfather and if you keep scrolling, he's also a comedian from Manchester.
Stephen is seriously contemplating changing his name in 2022, as he believes being Stephen Bailey is hindering his success - after all, a name change is one of the oldest tricks in showbiz. If the name maketh the man, it's made a lot of Stephen Baileys and the rest of them are always doing something more newsworthy than our Stephen.
This is a bespoke stand-up special about identity, where Stephen will work out whether you can change your whole life, just by changing your name.
Written and performed by Stephen Bailey
Production Coordinator: Katie Baum
Produced by: Georgia Keating and Hayley Sterling
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Spring Stories (m0016wxr)
Winter Kept Us Warm
"It was all the way back in November and cold, cracking cold, when I ran out of the house without money or jacket. Ran until I had to press my hand to my side to contain the pain... This was some time ago now. Ahead, there would be weird weather, some sorrow, but there would also be bright spots, joy, moments to sit in and savour."
An original short story for radio. Written by Allan Radcliffe, performed by Steven Cree, and produced by Becky Ripley.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0016pp3)
What is going on in the mind of Vladimir Putin? A new Radio 4 series has been trying to answer that question. Roger Bolton asks the Presenter of ‘Putin’, Jonny Dymond, if he thinks he knows, and puts listener reaction to him
Neil MacGregor discusses his latest Radio 4 series The Museums that Make us. What does he think museums are for?
And two non-radio listeners are exposed to a French and Saunders radio comedy. Did they enjoy the experience?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0016pp1)
Yvonne Blenkinsop (pictured), Dr Margaret Carswell, Mikhail Vasenkov, Denise Coffey
Matthew Bannister on
Yvonne Blenkinsop, one of the four so-called 'Headscarf Revolutionaries' from Hull who campaigned for better safety regulations on fishing trawlers after three were lost at sea in 1968.
Margaret Carswell, the doctor and ornithologist who treated survivors of the Ugandan civil war and in her spare time compiled the definitive guide to the country’s bird population.
Mikhail Vasenkov, the Russian spy who assumed a South American identity and lived undercover in the United States for decades.
Denise Coffey, the talented comic actor who made her name in the TV show 'Do Not Adjust Your Set'.
Producer: Emily Finch
Interviewed guest: Nell Carswell
Interviewed guest: Grace Carswell
Interviewed guest: Gordon Corera
Interviewed guest: Dr. Brian W. Lavery
Interviewed guest: Humphry Barclay
Interviewed guest: Michael Coveney
Interviewed guest: Miriam Margolyes
Archive clips used: British Pathé, Hull - Trawlers Lost At Sea - Wives Demand Stricter Safety Measures 1968; BBC World Service, Witness - Hull's Headscarf Revolutionaries 12/02/2018; BBC TV, Look North - Yvonne Blenkinsop gets freedom of the city of Hull 20/12/2018; YouTube, Triple Trawler Disaster - Hull 1968; xeno-canto, XC292779 Speckled Tinkerbird / XC291649 Woodland Warbler; BBC World Service, Witness - The Fall of Idi Amin 29/04/2014; BBC News 24, Russia/US Spy Swap 09/07/2010; Rediffusion, Do Not Adjust Your Set Ep 05 25/01/1968; BBC Radio 4 Extra, Alison and Maud 20/05/2009.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0016wxt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0016wwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 The Digital Human (m000p6fq)
Series 21
Monstrous
The monsters we create have always given us insight into what we're scared of in the world around us. Whether that's zombies igniting fears around racial tensions in the United States of the nineteen sixties or Dracula articulating a fear of the other and of immigration at the end of nineteenth century.
Aleks Krotoski asks what those monsters born in tech tell us about our fears today.
Producer: Peter McManus
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0016wxw)
Carolyn Quinn is joined by the Conservative MP and Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman; the Labour Party Chair and Shadow Secretary for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds; and the SNP's deputy Westminster leader, Kirsten Oswald. They discuss the extent of sexual misconduct and bullying at Westminster and how to deal with it, and look ahead to the forthcoming elections across the UK. John Stevens - deputy political editor of the Daily Mail - brings additional insight and analysis. The programme also includes an interview with Professor Jon Tonge, previewing the prospects for the main parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections.
SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m0016wxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01kjjnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 02 MAY 2022
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0016wy0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m0016pr2)
Prison Protest
Prison protest: Laurie Taylor explores the way in which prisoners have sought to transform the conditions of their imprisonment and have their voices heard. Nayan Shah, Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at the University of Southern California, considers the global history of hunger strikes from suffragists in the US and UK to Republican prisoners in Northern Ireland and anti apartheid campaigners in South Africa. What is the meaning and impact of the refusal to eat? They’re joined by Philippa Tomczak, Director of the Prisons, Health and Societies Research Group at the University of Nottingham, and author of a study which examines the way in which the 1990 riots at HMP Strangeways helped to re-shape imprisonment. Was the change lasting or significant?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0016wy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0016wy4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0016wy6)
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 (m0016wy8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0016wyb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0016wyd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Janet Fife, retired vicar and one of the first women to be ordained.
Good morning.
’30 years younger? The science of age reversal;’ ’11 steps to looking younger.’ We see articles with similar headlines every day. But why aren’t we content with looking the age we are?
Children are in a hurry to be grown up. Older adults want to be younger .In the average lifespan of 80 years, it’s a shame to waste most of it wishing our lives away.
All around us we see evidence of changing seasons. The moon waxes and wanes, tides flow and ebb.
I used to be a trustee of a retreat house on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. For me and many of our visitors, having to live within the natural framework of the tides was part of what we gained from our spiritual retreats. There are always visitors to Lindisfarne who refuse to submit to the incoming tide and pay the price. ‘I drove into the North Sea’ doesn’t wear too well with insurance companies.
Our lives too have tides and seasons: times of success and failure, gain and loss, fruitfulness and futility, health and illness. There is contentment in learning to live within them.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.
Creator God, help us to accept and be at peace with the seasons of our lives.
Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0016wyg)
Old Knowledge, New Innovations: The farming scholars taking on the world
Anna Hill joins more than a hundred young international farmers who are visiting the UK as part of their Nuffield Farming Scholarship programme.
They take a year out of farming to travel and investigate a project which they want to put into action. Anna hears about cutting carbon in Australia’s beef herd; regenerative farming in Zimbabwe; getting Japanese dairy cows out into woodland pasture and dairy farming with no milking parlour in the UK.
The scholars also visit historic Holkham Hall in Norfolk, to see how an agricultural innovator two hundred years ago was finding a fresh way forward.
Presented and produced by Anna Hill for BBC Audio Bristol.
MON 05:56 Weather (m0016wyj)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbyj8)
Tawny Owl
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents young Tawny Owls. Most of us know the "hoot" and "too-wit" of Tawny Owls but might be puzzled if we heard wheezing in the woods, the sound of the young.
MON 06:00 Today (m0016x84)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0016x86)
Curiosity, ingenuity and experimentation
Wonder at the natural world has inspired people and fuelled curiosity for millennia. The ancient Greek Theophrastus had interests that spread far and wide, from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics. But although he was Aristotle’s friend and collaborator, and his notes on botany inspired Linnaeus, his name has mostly been forgotten. The writer Laura Beatty’s new book, Looking for Theophrastus, aims to rescue him from obscurity.
The scientist, Suzie Sheehy, still feels a childlike wonder at the way physics seems to be able to describe everything – from the smallest subatomic particle to the scale of the Universe. In The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments That Changed Our World, she looks back at the people who engineered ground-breaking experiments, and the human ingenuity, creativity and curiosity, as well as luck and serendipity that propelled them forward.
While physicists attempt to describe and define the universe, the workings of the human mind still remain a challenge to scientists and philosophers. In The Book of Minds, the science writer Philip Ball looks at what we know about the minds of other creatures, from octopuses to chimpanzees, and of the workings of computers and alien intelligences. By understanding how minds differ, he argues, the better we can understand our own.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016x88)
Becoming a GP
The Cure for Good Intentions is about a life-changing decision. Sophie Harrison left her job as an editor at a prestigious literary magazine, and put herself through medical school and hospital training before eventually becoming a GP.
From peaceful office days spent writing tactful comments on manuscripts, she entered a world that spoke an entirely different language. The scenes were familiar from television and books – long corridors, busy wards, stern consultants, anxious patients – but what was her part in it all? Back in the community as a new GP, the question became ever more pressing.
This is a book about how a doctor is made. Sophie asks what a doctor does, and what a doctor is. What signifies a doctor? A bedside manner? A mode of dress? A stethoscope? A firm way with a prescription pad? What is empathy and what does it achieve? How do we deal with pain, our own and other people’s?
After leaving journalism for medicine, Sophie discovers there are a surprising number of skills that can be used in both professions. She offers useful insights into how challenging it can be for doctors to interpret the public. And her background also gives her a literary appreciation - she refers to medicine in literature and contrasts it with her own experiences.
In Episode 1, Sophie Harrison works her way through medical school and then wonders about which kind of doctor she wants to become.
Read by Tamsin Greig
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Produced by Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Onur Pinar
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0016x8c)
Women and Folk Music
This May bank holiday Emma looks at women and the tradition of folk music. You may have a stereotypical image of a woman in a floaty dress walking through a flower meadow - but we want to challenge that. From protest songs and feminist anthems - it's not all whimsy in the world of folk.
Emma talks to Peggy Seeger who has enjoyed six decades of success with her music. Peggy was married to the singer Ewen McColl. He wrote the song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" for her. Together they revitalised the British Folk Scene during the 50s and 60s, working on the BBC Radio Ballads; ground-breaking documentaries - which wove a story from the words of real people working in the mining and fishing industry or building the M1 motorway with sound effects, and songs. Now 86 years old, Peggy's own songs have become anthems for feminists, anti-nuclear campaigners and those fighting for social justice.
Emma examines the uncomfortable elements of folk music, and how artists are finding ways of reinterpreting old songs, or writing new ones to represent missing narratives and stories. Who were the female tradition-bearers, writers and performers and the often forgotten collectors - those who would record and notate traditional songs handed down orally from generation to generation? And what is being done to improve the gender equality and diversity in folk music?
Emma is joined by:
Peggy Seeger http://www.peggyseeger.com/about
Fay Hield https://fayhield.com/about.html
Anne Martin https://www.annemartin.scot/
Amy Hollinrake https://www.amyhollinrake.com/about
Rachel Newton http://www.rachelnewtonmusic.com/about.html
Grace Petrie https://gracepetrie.com/
Angeline Morrison https://linktr.ee/angelcakepie
Peggy Seeger and Grace Petrie will be playing at Norfolk & Norwich Festival's 250th anniversary later this month.
MON 11:00 The Untold (m0016x8f)
A Doctor Goes Home
In 2019 Abhi Gotadki came to the United Kingdom from New Zealand to pursue his dream of becoming a GP. This meant leaving behind his wife and daughter but they decided it was best for all of them for Abhi to complete his training. In March 2020 with the Covid pandemic gathering pace New Zealand introduced some of the strictest border controls anywhere in the world leaving Abhi in the UK with no means of seeing his family. Now with New Zealand's borders open once again Abhi has booked his flight home. It will be the first time he's seen his wife and daughter in over two years. Producer Toby Field follows Abhi during his final weeks in the UK and finds out how he turned this situation around and put his energy into helping others.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Toby Field.
MON 11:30 Don't Log Off (m0016x8h)
Blown Away
Alan Dein returns with his globe spanning encounters via the internet with complete strangers & now, often, old acquaintances. It is ten years since Dein began roaming the internet via social media to encounter the lives of others. Anyone, anywhere keen to share their world and their stories. In that time many have befriended the programme from Russia & the Ukraine. Now war has smashed everything apart & Alan hears from those who have seen their lives changed utterly.
Producer-Mark Burman
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0016x8k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m0016x8m)
Passports, Barbies, Pensions
With warnings that holiday makers could be out thousands of pounds on trips they can't make because of delays in processing passports, we catch up with You and Yours listeners to find out how the system was for them.
Ever walked out on a job to go your own way and then regretted it? IT's called being a boomerang employee - and there are more of them than ever before post-covid. Did going it alone pay off?
We catch up with people trying to find their old work pensions. With warnings that many of us could have on average around £12,000 locked away in pensions started by previous employers - we'll tell how to find it and what to do with when you've unlocked it.
Some of the big players in online gaming are thinking of bringing in more adverts to their free-to-play games. Microsoft and Sony say visual ads could be coming. We ask gamers if they are happy to still play for free if the ads do arrive
And why is Barbie still as popular as ever? 63 years since the doll was launched, we look at the enduring demand for Barbies.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KATE HOLDSWORTH
MON 12:57 Weather (m0016x8p)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0016x8r)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
MON 13:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016x8t)
1. Cool Britannia
Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.
How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s. From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.
Episode 1. Cool Britannia
As government ministers promote the Levelling Up agenda, redistributing investment from London and the South East to the North and Midlands we return to the capital in the 1990s when 'Swinging London' started to become a symbol of unequal Britain. Cultural and economic forces converged as London reinvented itself in the '90s. Britpop, Young British Artists, fashion designers, gastro pups, coffee culture all propelled the capital into what Vanity Fair coined "Cool Britannia".
Robert guides us through this tumultuous decade when competing visions were unleashed about what the cities and the country should become.
Featuring Geoff Mulgan, Iain Sinclair and Helen McCarthy
Historical Consultant Helen McCarthy
Music and Sound Design Phil Channell
Producer Neil McCarthy
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0016wxm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m0016x8x)
Belgrano. Part One
By Richard Monks
A two-part drama for Radio 4
Forty years on from the Falklands War we revisit the true story of Clive Ponting, a top civil servant, who leaked documents about the sinking of the Argentinian Cruiser, General Belgrano. Ponting was put on trial but sensationally acquitted by the jury despite his breach of the Official Secrets Act.
The drama examines what drove Ponting to turn his back on Whitehall and why he walked free from court despite the judge directing the jury to convict him. The writer, Richard Monks, drew on Government Papers, newspaper reports, interviews and court transcripts as well as Ponting’s own account for the drama.
The drama includes some imagined scenes and characters.
Clive Ponting ..... John Heffernan
Sally Ponting .... Ruth Everett
Richard Mottram ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Ffion ..... Dorothea Myer-Bennett
Tam Dayell/Michael Heseltine/Inspector Hughes ..... Ewan Bailey
Peter Blaker/Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse ..... Neil McCaul
Wreford-Brown/John Stanley ..... Michael Begley
John Nott/Inspector Broome ..... Matthew Durkan
Jerry Wiggin/Second Officer ..... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Cleaner/P.A. ..... Rebecca Crankshaw
Directed by Sally Avens
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m0016x8z)
Programme 6, 2022
(6/12)
Kirsty Lang welcomes the pairs from Scotland and Northern Ireland to the Round Britain Quiz library this week. Val McDermid and Alan McCredie take on Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements, both teams still looking for their first win of the 2022 season.
It will help them if their memory banks contain details of soap operas, Victorian literature, 80s pop songs and landmarks in Prague - but they still face the task of making the necessary connections to arrive at the full answers. Kirsty provides prompts along the way, but deducts points according to how much help she has to give.
The programme includes questions based on ideas sent in my RBQ listeners in recent months.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m0016wwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 What's Left of Kerouac? (m0016pv9)
Looking for Jack Kerouac in his hometown on his one hundredth birthday.
The writer Jack Kerouac was known to have a clear, almost photographic memory. He claimed to remember the day on which he was born: March 12th 1922, a late afternoon in Lowell, Massachusetts.
“It was a strange afternoon.” he wrote. “Red as fire.”
As is the way, Lowell – and the world – has changed since Jack’s day.
The network of canal-side mills and factories, which turned the town into the cradle of the industrial revolution in America, are long abandoned. Broken windows have given way to restoration and redevelopment. Like many post-industrial towns, Lowell is undergoing an extended transition towards a future which is still unclear.
In a world where Jack Kerouac’s books don’t quite resonate they way they once did.
His novel On the Road – a paean to wanderlust, open-mindedness, and the music of language – broke the mould of American literature. And it brought with it a new dimension for teenage expression. In the words of Kerouac’s friend William Burroughs, On the Road "sold a trillion pairs of Levis and a million espresso machines". That subcultural selling power endured for decades.
But now?
The advertisers don't seem to come calling at Kerouac's door any longer. His image and the aura he conjured no longer 'sell' in the way they used to.
His values were always questionable, some might say, his writing naïve.
The story goes that when On the Road was published, Kerouac went to bed obscure and woke up famous. That fame – as avatar for the Beat Generation – would be his undoing. Far from being a firebrand or a spokesman, he was a conservative and reserved man, a Buddhist-Catholic and a patriot. And in the end: drink-sodden, reactionary and sad.
His youthful work stands in a lineage of American transcendentalism that goes back to Whitman, Thoreau and beyond. His real subject was, in part, America itself.
And that is still the best place to find him. So this programme will be rooted in Lowell, as the city celebrates the centenary of its most famous son.
Holly George Warren is in town to begin research in Kerouac's archive for her forthcoming biography; writers Geoff Dyer and AM Homes reflect on their feelings toward Jack Kerouac today; and we hear from a variety of citizens of Lowell about what’s left – for today and for the future – of Kerouac and of Lowell itself.
Readings by Kerry Shale.
Recording assistance by Avishay Artsy.
Producer: Martin Williams
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m0016x92)
Who Are the Uyghurs?
As Muslims around the world celebrate Eid, Ernie Rea hosts a panel on the beliefs and culture of the Uyghurs, a majority Muslim people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, North West China. Human rights organisations have accused China of committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghur people and the US government has accused the Chinese government of genocide.
For over eight years, there have been reports of mass surveillance of the Uyghur population and abuses including forced incarceration in 're-education camps' and sterilisation against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. The Chinese government have consistently denied accusations of abuse and insist their camps are vocational facilities, and to combat terrorism.
Ernie Rea explores the faith of the majority Muslim Uyghur people. What could be lost from their language, culture and heritage?
Ernie is joined by experts on the region, Dr Jo Smith Finley and Dr Rian Thum. Rahima Mahmut, a Uyghur Muslim. grew up in the region and is the UK Director of the World Uyghur Congress. And Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur poet and linguistic scholar, tells his story of incarceration in Xinjiang.
Producer: Rebecca Maxted
MON 17:00 PM (m0016x94)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016x96)
Hundreds more migrants have attempted to reach the UK in small boats.
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m0016x99)
Series 28
Episode 5
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.
Henning Wehn, Zoe Lyons, Sindhu Vee and Marcus Brigstocke are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as colours, ice cream, apples and alcoholic spirits.
Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0016x9f)
Roy doesn’t know where to turn and there’s a shock for Pat.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0016x9k)
Caryl Lewis, Gwenno, Anthony and Kel Matsena
Huw Stephens, familiar to listeners to Radio Cymru and Radio Wales presents a multilingual, multicultural Bank Holiday edition of Front Row from Cardiff.
Caryl Lewis is a mighty presence in Welsh literature, author of more than 25 books. Her novel Martha, Jac a Sianco is a modern classic, taught at A Level. She wrote the screenplay for the film – and won 6 Welsh Baftas. She wrote for the television series Y Gwyll - Hinterland in English - inventing Cymru Noir, so noir it was shown on Danish television. She was also the main writer of Hidden, screened in 60 countries. Until now all her work has been in Welsh but she wrote her new novel, Drift, in English. Nefyn lives on the Welsh coast, near a military base. She gathers what the tide carries in and her world changes when she finds Hamza, a Syrian cartographer, washed up. Caryl tells Huw about her modern and ancient story, and why she chose to write it in English.
In 2009 the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger declared Cornish extinct. But musician Gwenno Saunders was alive then, and she grew up speaking it. Most of the songs on her new album, Tresor, are in Cornish - the others in Welsh. Gwenno explains why, and performs two songs, one in each language.
Choreographers Anthony and Kel Matsena were born in Zimbabwe, in a culture where everyone dances. They moved to Swansea as boys and were nurtured by the people there, and Wales as a whole. They take a break from rehearsing their new work, Shades of Blue, which will premier at Sadler's Wells, to talk about this and Codi, a piece for the National Dance Company Wales that is inspired by Welsh mining communities, and about Brothers in Dance, a BBC documentary film charting their journey.
Presenter: Huw Stephens
Producers: Nicki Paxman and Julian May
MON 20:00 Mother, Nature, Sons (m0016pn4)
Writer Nell Frizzell has spent years agonising about whether climate change should stop her from having a second child. She invites listeners to join her as she strives to make an intensely personal decision about her future.
As the biological and doomsday clocks tick away, Nell calls upon friends, campaigners and experts at different stages of life to explain their reproductive decisions, in the hope that the path to a conclusion will reveal itself.
Nell speaks to Dr Matt Winning, comedian and author of Hot Mess, a book about raising a baby and understanding climate change. She also hears from musician Blythe Pepino, who formed and then disbanded the campaign group BirthStrike, and Les Knight, a campaigner for the extinction of the human race. Finally, she interviews reproductive epidemiologist Dr Shanna Swan, whose book Count Down predicts the potential end of natural conception.
Produced by Elly Lazarides
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0016pv5)
The Accordion Wars of Lesotho
A form of oral poetry accompanied on the accordion is the basis of a wildly popular form of music in Lesotho, southern Africa. But jealousy between Famo artists has triggered warfare that’s killing hundreds. Some of the genre’s best-known stars became gang bosses, and their rivalry has helped make rural, stunningly beautiful Lesotho the murder capital of Africa, with the sixth highest homicide rate in the world. Musicians, their relatives, producers and DJs have all been gunned down. Whole communities live in fear, and are now demanding action from politicians and police who are accused of protecting the Famo gangsters. Tim Whewell tells the story of a style of music that developed among Basotho migrant workers in the tough world of South African mines. He meets some of Famo's greatest artists - now disgusted by the violence - and talks to the families of victims of a cycle of revenge that the authorities appear unable to end.
Presented and produced by Tim Whewell.
MON 21:00 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
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m0016x86)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0016x9r)
Fresh attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m0016x9w)
Episode One
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"Ugh. First day of New Year has been day of horror. Cannot quite believe I am once again starting the year in a single bed in my parents’ house."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m0016pt3)
Weather Words
It's Gone Dark Over Bill's Mother's
In Britain talking about the weather is a good neutral way to start conversation. Because we have such varying weather conditions (three seasons in one day) there is always something to marvel at or grumble about. But around the world sayings and descriptive words for clouds, winds, rainfall and dry spells are also popular. Michael Rosen is joined by lexicographer, Harry Campbell, who compiled a Compendium of Weather to discuss the various ways we like to talk about it from the North East of Scotland to the South West of England via Wales and Northern Ireland. Snel winds, dreich days and nesh climates all feature along with some of the hundreds of contributions sent in by listeners from around Britain.
Producer for BBC audio in Bristol, Maggie Ayre
MON 23:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m000t4t3)
Laura Barton's Seventeen
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
At the age of seventeen we stand on the cusp of adulthood, on the edge of new autonomy, freedom, beginning. It is the age, too that has preoccupied songwriters from Chuck Berry via the Beatles and Stevie Nicks to Olivia Rodrigo, who this year - at the age of seventeen - had a global hit with a song about getting that symbol of maturity, her driver's licence.
Laura talks to Janis Ian, herself on the edge of 70, and Sharon Van Etten, who's just turned 40, about the 'seventeen' songs they've written, as well as the music journalist David Hepworth, founding editor of Just Seventeen magazine, about what makes seventeen the pivotal age for pop music.
(Including extracts from Lost in Vegas with George and Ryan and Take 5 with Chit Chat on MAX TV)
Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen
Joan Jett - I Love Rock n Roll
Olivia Rodrigo - Drivers License
Jackie DeShannon - When You Walk in the Room
The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There
Janis Ian - At Seventeen
Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
Meat Loaf - Paradise by the Dashboard Light
The Cars - Let's Go
Abba - Dancing Queen
Ladytron - Seventeen
The Regents - Seventeen
The Flamingos - Only Seventeen
Ray Coniff - Seventeen
Fontane Sisters - Seventeen
The Supremes - He's Seventeen
The Crystals - What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen
St Etienne - When I was Seventeen
Frank Sinatra - It Was a Very Good Year
Elton John - Between Seventeen and Twenty
David Gates - Love is Always Seventeen
The Magic Numbers - Only Seventeen
Emilio - Seventeen
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Photograph of Sharon Van Etten, credit Laura Crosta)
TUESDAY 03 MAY 2022
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0016xb1)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016x88)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0016xb5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0016xb9)
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 (m0016xbg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0016xbk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0016xbp)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev Janet Fife, retired vicar and one of the first women to be ordained.
Good morning.
One Sunday my late colleague Stephen introduced the general confession with the words: ‘Before we confess our sins, let’s take a few moments to thank God for the things we’ve got right this week.’ Stephen, a psychotherapist, explained afterwards, ‘A lot of people beat themselves up for their shortcomings; I wanted to focus on the positive.’
Christianity has an unfortunate reputation for pushing guilt onto people. I’m afraid there’s some truth in that; if you reduce Jesus’ mission to forgiving sins, its necessary to convince people they are sinners who need forgiveness. But though the forgiving of our sins is an important part of what Jesus achieved, it’s not the whole story. Why spend three years preaching and teaching, when he could have achieved his aim by dying in the first week of his public ministry?
Jesus taught us how to live. He told us that God cares about the poor, the humble, the grieving, the merciful. He told us to treat others as we would like to be treated. He said it’s more important to love God and each other than to live by a rigid set of rules. He spent time down the pub with low lifes, eating and drinking and enjoying himself.
Hymn writer Isaac Watts, who wrote the much loved hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous cross’, also wrote these lines:
The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.
Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.
Loving God, thank you for the beauty around us, the love we share, and the things we get right.
Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0016xbr)
Campaigners say a fine imposed on a skipper for illegal dredging is too low and won't deter unscrupulous fishermen. A couple of weeks ago, Alex Murray was found guilty of dredging for scallops in a Marine Protected Area off Scotland’s northwest coast in summer 2019. The marine conservation charity Open Seas says the £32
11.43 he received is less than a good day's catch. They are calling for tougher sentences.
A new farmer cooperative's been launched. The Environmental Farmers Group believes it's the first co-op of its kind. It's been developed by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and comprises 72 farmers over 40 thousand hectares across the Hampshire Avon Valley. It aims to deliver environmental public goods, like clean water and improved biodiversity, that are core to the government's new farming policy.
Harvesting lettuce is back-breaking and delicate work. Engineers are developing a lettuce harvesting machine to make the job easier and more appealing to seasonal workers. We visit a field demonstration of a mechanised picker on a farm in Shropshire.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwvdy)
Redshank
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 Redshank. Redshanks spend the winter on our estuaries and wetlands, taking food from the surface of the mud and probing the ooze for creatures which live beneath.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0016xj0)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Positive Thinking (m0016xj2)
Making Planning Work for Everyone
Sangita Myska goes in search of the innovators with big solutions to some of our most intractable problems.
The government has pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s to ease the country’s housing crisis and increase home ownership, but that target is not being met. According to some experts the problem is that the system isn't equipped to deal with the amount of local opposition proposed developments generate. But what if there was a way to build consensus so that everyone felt their opinion was being heard?
Architect and game designer Ekim Tan believes the key could be in game play - bringing all the stakeholders together to play games involving design, policy and budgets. Her method has been tried in cities all over the world, could it work here?
Our expert panel:
David Rudlin, urbanist, master planner and Principle at Urbed design and research consultancy
Rosie Pearson, Chairman of the Community Planning Alliance
Dr Zac Baynham-Herd, Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team
Producer: Ellie Bury
TUE 09:30 One Direction (m0016xj4)
East
Author Jerry Brotton presents a five-part series exploring each of the four cardinal directions in turn – north, east, south and west – and the possibility that, in the age of digital mapping, we are being left disoriented.
Throughout history the cardinal directions have been crucial to virtually all societies in understanding themselves in relation to the wider world. More than points on a compass, they are ideas in their own right – creating their own political, moral and cultural meanings. They’ve shaped how we divide the world geopolitically into East and West (Orient and Occident) while contrasting the ‘Global South’ with the industrialised ‘Global North’ drives much current development policy, especially around climate change.
In Part 3 of this series, Jerry looks East. It’s the direction of the sunrise, emblematic of the human life cycle; a symbol of birth and the beginning of life’s journey encapsulated in one day, ending with twilight and the setting of the sun. Over centuries the West - with which it forms an axis - came to be understood in direct relation to the East. It created a stereotype of the East - or Orient - as not just an idea, but a fantasy of beguiling mystery, also despotic and irrational. Meanwhile places to the east of Europe developed their own assumptions about the West, with China asserting its geopolitical power by drawing on the iconography of the east: rebirth, renewal and the rising sun.
So why is north at the top of most world maps? The four cardinal points on a compass are defined by the physical realities of the magnetic North Pole (north-south) and the rising and setting of the sun (east-west) but there is no reason why north is at the top of maps, any other cardinal point would do just as well. The convention was developed by the western world. So why not put west at the top? Well, early societies refused to privilege the west because it was the direction of the sunset, where darkness and death reigned. For medieval Christianity, east was at the top, because that was the direction of the Garden of Eden, shown on many mappae-mundi. On early Islamic maps south was at the top, while Chinese maps used north because the emperor looked 'down' southwards and everyone else looked 'up', north.
Series contributors include Google spatial technologist Ed Parsons, historian Sujit Sivasundaram, neuroscientist Hugo Spiers, author Rana Kabbani, director of the China institute at SOAS Steve Tsang, former head of maps at the British library Peter Barber, barrister and specialist in equality law Ulele Burnham, historian and sinologist Timothy Brook, author Irna Qureshi, geographer Alistair Bonnett, wayfinder and science writer Michael Bond, librarian at Hereford Cathedral Rosemary Firman and historian of Islamic maps Yossef Rappaport.
Presenter: Jerry Brotton
Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:45 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016xj6)
The Dead
The Cure for Good Intentions is about a life-changing decision. Sophie Harrison left her job as an editor at a prestigious literary magazine, and put herself through medical school and hospital training before eventually becoming a GP.
From peaceful office days spent writing tactful comments on manuscripts, she entered a world that spoke an entirely different language. The scenes were familiar from television and books – long corridors, busy wards, stern consultants, anxious patients – but what was her part in it all? Back in the community as a new GP, the question became ever more pressing.
This is a book about how a doctor is made. Sophie asks what a doctor does, and what a doctor is. What signifies a doctor? A bedside manner? A mode of dress? A stethoscope? A firm way with a prescription pad? What is empathy and what does it achieve? How do we deal with pain, our own and other people’s?
After leaving journalism for medicine, Sophie discovers there are a surprising number of skills that can be used in both professions. She offers useful insights into how challenging it can be for doctors to interpret the public. And her background also gives her a literary appreciation - she refers to medicine in literature and contrasts it with her own experiences.
In Episode 2, Sophie Harrison contemplates the modern doctor’s role in death and dying, and our fear of this inevitable process.
Read by Tamsin Greig
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Produced by Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Onur Pinar
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0016xj8)
Candice Carty-Williams, Russian Feminist Protestors, Roe v Wade
Candice Carty-Williams described her very successful first novel Queenie as 'the black Bridget Jones'. In the opening chapter of her new novel People Person absent father Cyril climbs into his gold jeep and drives around London collecting the five half-siblings he has sired, introduces them all for the first time and buys them an ice-cream. Candice has called this her ‘daddy issues’ book and in it she celebrates families of all sorts. Her aim, she says, is to make visible the people she knows and the experiences she has had. She joins Emma in the studio.
Overnight - according to a leaked draft of a court document - we learnt that the US Supreme Court could be about to overturn the nationwide right to an abortion. The New York Times writer Amanda Taub tells us what this means for women in America.
Despite laws preventing protest or even coverage of the war, many women and female-led groups in Russia have found a way to express their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. One of them is the Feminist Anti-War Resistance, which has over 32,000 followers on the social media app Telegram. We’re joined by one of their founders, Ella Rossman, who also researches Russian feminist activism at UCL.
The latest in our series 'Threads' about the feelings and memories associated with the clothes we just can't part with. Listener Vanessa joins Emma to tell her story.
A new 3D female anatomy model is being used to better treat women. The new digital tool will provide a better understanding of the female anatomy and help to prevent women getting incorrectly diagnosed. Professor Claire Smith is using it with her students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce
TUE 11:00 Putin (p0byc356)
8. The Splinter
Master strategist or opportunistic gambler? Vladimir Putin styles himself as a judo master – an expert in spotting weakness in his opponents and then exploiting it. To figure out what we can learn from his attempts to call time on liberal democracy and Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, Jonny Dymond is joined by:
Henry Foy, European diplomatic correspondent for the Financial Times and a former Moscow bureau chief
Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the New School in New York
Misha Glenny, author of ‘McMafia’ and rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna
Production coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Sandra Kanthal, Joe Kent
Series Editor: Emma Rippon
Commissioning Editor: Richard Knight
TUE 11:30 Mary Portas: On Style (m0016xjc)
Style with Substance, Online
What does style with substance mean in a digital world? Mary Portas find out how an estate agent became an Instgram sensation, speaking to The Modern House's Matt Gibberd about using editorial techniques to sell houses, and about his five design principals - space, light, materials, nature, and decoration. Glassette co-founder Laura Jackson on curating homewares, her focus on sustainability, and revolutionisng the way we buy art online. We also hear from Kai Collective's founder Fisayo Longe on how Instagram is the new high street, and we visit HEWI to hear about second-hand luxury.
Presenter: Mary Portas
Producer: Jessica Treen
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0016xjf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m0016xjh)
Call You and Yours: How have you changed your supermarket shop to beat rising grocery costs?
Winifred wants to know how you've changed your shopping habits to deal with the rising cost of groceries?
Research shows that the average shopping bill could go up by an average of £271 this year as prices continue to rise.
That's on top of rising fuel and petrol prices.
Have you switched where you shop?
Have you stopped buying certain things to bring down costs?
Have you got any tips for reducing your supermarket receipts?
How are you coping with rising prices of essentials like milk, lamb, savoury snacks and even dog food?
Email us and leave your contact number youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Or after 11 on Tuesday, call us 03700 100 444
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: CATHERINE MURRAY
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0016xjk)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0016xjm)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016xjp)
2. Russia
Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.
How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.
From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.
Episode 2: Russia
Robert Carlyle reveals how talks between Russia and the West in 1990 about Germany's re-unification has lead to the war in Ukraine. Was President Gorbachev really promised that NATO would not move one inch east, as Vladimir Putin recently claimed ? We hear from historians Margaret MacMillan and Mary Sarotte, author of Not One Inch, and from eye-witness Bob Zoellick, former United States Deputy Secretary of State.
Producer: Stephen Hughes
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Professor Margaret MacMillan
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0016x9f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m0016xjr)
Belgrano. Part 2
by Richard Monks
Forty years on from the Falklands War we revisit the true story of Clive Ponting, a top civil servant, who leaked documents about the sinking of the Argentinian Cruiser, General Belgrano. In Part 2 of the drama Ponting is put on trial. The verdict caused a sensation and ultimately led to changes in the Official Secrets Act.
The writer, Richard Monks, drew on Government Papers, newspaper reports and court transcripts as well as Ponting’s own account for the drama.
The drama includes some imagined scenes.
Clive Ponting ..... John Heffernan
Sally Ponting .... Ruth Everett
Brian Raymond ..... Sam Troughton
David Leigh ..... Joseph Kloska
Richard Mottram ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Bruce Laughland ..... Neil McCaul
Mr Amlot ..... Michael Begley
Mr Justice McCowan ..... Matthew Durkan
Clerk ..... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Bow Street Judge ..... Chris Jack
Librarian/Hotel Manager. ..... Rebecca Crankshaw
Directed by Sally Avens
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m0016wz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m0016xjt)
Green Power in the Far North
Green industry is heading to Scandinavia's far north. Fossil fuel-free steel and clean, green wind energy are in great demand but what does this rapid development mean for the indigenous people of the region? Richard Orange reports from Sweden.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m0016xjw)
Nathan Filer on the ways we talk about mental health
Nathan talks with Michael about words we use when talking about mental health.
Producer Sally Heaven
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m0016xjy)
Gil Scott-Heron
Described by those who knew him as a 'Revolutionary Man of Peace' Gil Scott-Heron transformed the musical landscape of the 1970's. In 2021 he was posthumously inaugurated into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honoured with an Early Influencer Award. Today, Garden Designer Joe Swift - who witnessed Gil's legendary concerts - shares his passion for the artist who 'spoke truth' and educated a generation through his music. Joe is joined by Malik Al Nasir who worked with Gil and became his protégé, developing a life long friendship following a chance encounter at a concert. Malik is author of 'Letters To Gil' a memoir of his own life and the time he spent with Gil Scott-Heron.
Presented by Matthew Parris
Produced by Nicola Humphries
TUE 17:00 PM (m0016xk0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016xk2)
The first evacuees from the steelworks in Mariupol have arrived safely in Zaporizhzhia. And the Home Secretary is facing legal action over delays in issuing visas to Ukrainians.
TUE 18:30 Just William - Live! (m0004mdb)
William and the School Report
Award-winning Martin Jarvis performs the first of two Richmal Crompton comic classics, live on-stage. It's Just William as stand-up!
It’s the last day of term. William is depressed. He’s got to have holiday coaching unless his school report is a really good one.
It isn’t. It’s the worst he’s ever had.
As he walks slowly home through the woods he meets an old lady. She’s lost. It’s his father’s aunt who is coming to lunch at his house. Then William has one of his most brilliantly lateral ideas.
A packed house at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey rocks with laughter as Martin Jarvis performs as William and the batty aunt.
Director: Rosalind Ayres.
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0016xk4)
Stella confides to Jolene she’s thinking of getting a dog – she has ‘empty Bungalow syndrome’. Pip joins them full of the news that Brookfield has finally settled on cattle mattresses. It will save them having huge amounts of straw bedding. Stella guesses this means her ‘muck for straw’ deal is off. She’s happy though; she’s not keen on muck spreading as a method and can easily find another buyer for Home Farm straw. A result!
Later Pip informs Stella there’s unrest among some residents about the proposed movement of slurry from Brookfield to Home Farm. They agree it won’t cause any of the potential problems raised at parish council, but Pip reckons some in the village will need convincing.
Adil agrees to a bonus payment for Ian, but when he finds out about Tracy’s recent Grey Gables bedroom misdemeanour, he tells Oliver she doesn’t deserve an extra payment. Roy apologises to Adil for his recent rudeness, and is forced to take back his declaration that he wouldn’t work for him and has no loyalty to Grey Gables. He’s heard about the job opportunity and would like to be considered. Adil promises to add Roy to the list of interested candidates.
Jolene brings biscuits in a gesture of support for the staff. Sad Tracy’s grateful. Roy mentions a farewell for Kathy on Thursday when they have the hotel bar. Jolene agrees wryly to supply some old photos she’ll get from Kenton. Oliver hopes he and Tracy can still be friends. Tracy tells him he’s sacrificed friendship for money. She needs nothing from him.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0016xk6)
Nathaniel Price, Alex Heffes, Actors and AI
Nathaniel Price discusses his drama First Touch, opening at the Nottingham Playhouse, about an aspiring young footballer growing up in Nottingham in the 1970s. Inspired by real life events, it explores the ways predatory abusers exploit positions of power within a community, in this case how the actions of a paedophile football coach almost go undiscovered because of the control he exercises in the football careers of his victims.
In the wake of the campaign, Stop AI stealing the show, launched by Equity in response to the rise of the use of Artificial Intelligence in the entertainment industry, Front Row asked Paul Fleming, General Secretary of Equity, Dr David Leslie, Director of Ethics and Responsible Innovation at the Alan Turing Institute, and Dr Mathilde Pavis, senior law lecturer at Exeter University, to discuss the questions raised by the use of AI to enhance, extend, and replace human actors.
BAFTA nominated film composer Alex Heffes has scored films including The Hope Gap, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Touching the Void. Now he’s releasing a solo piano recording, Sudden Light, reinterpreting his cinematic orchestral scores after an accident that almost put an end to his piano-playing.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Simon Richardson
TUE 20:00 The Fate of Russia's Soldiers (m0016xk8)
Most Russians are getting a distorted picture of what Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Even the use of the words “war” or “invasion” is prohibited and state-controlled TV does not acknowledge that Russian troops are attacking civilians. Russian soldiers aren't allowed to call home from Ukraine, and the military authorities are tight-lipped, even when their soldiers are taken prisoner. So how can Russian families find out what's become of their sons? Some search for help through a Ukrainian website, which posts pictures and videos of dead and captured Russian soldiers on the internet. Tim Whewell follows the stories of two Russian families - one from western Russia whose son was taken prisoner in the early days of the war. And one from the very far east whose family worry about how his frame of mind is holding up against the relentless onslaught of anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
Producers for Radio 4 Monica Whitlock and Arsenii Sokolov
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0016xkc)
Guide Dog Refusals at Indoor Establishments; NaviLens
In recent years, charity Guide Dogs have published research that found 75% of guide dog owners had experienced some form of refusal of entry. Unfortunately, guide dog refusals are still very common and so we look into what steps you can take if it happens at an indoor establishment, for example: restaurants, shops, garden centres etc. We speak to a guide dog owner about his recent experience when being refused entry into a restaurant and to Clive Wood, the Lead Regional Policy and Campaigns Manager at Guide Dogs.
If you're a savvy smartphone user, you may have heard of NaviLens. It is an app that enables visually impaired people to detect and scan special QR codes from a distance. On detecting the code, the app then makes the information contained within it accessible. It can dictate what you are facing toward, read signage at busy train stations and its also attached to many beauty and food products, enabling you to hear the ingredients. The RNIB's Marc Powell explains how it could be a potentially useful tool for blind or low vision smartphone users.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: pictured is a golden Labrador guide dog helping a man descend some stairs. The image is blurred in places, representing how the legalities surrounding guide dog refusals are sometimes confused and misunderstood.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m0016xkh)
Dreams and dreaming; brain scans for personality traits; extrovert listening
Many of us tend to dismiss dreams as merely the churning of the brain— but for much of human history, dreams were taken very seriously. Claudia Hammond speaks to Brazilian neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro who in his new wide ranging book The Oracle of Night wants to recapture that seriousness of dreams and the science of dreaming, drawing upon on his extensive career researching everything from sleep and memory to psychedelic drugs.
As brain scans have become more detailed in recent decades, MRI or magnetic resonance imaging - has revealed correlations between brain anatomy or function and illness, that have suggested new ways to diagnose and treat psychiatric, psychological and neurological conditions. But why has the promise been so slow to turn into reality? Claudia Hammond is joined by Sophie Scott, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and also by neuroscientist Scott Marek of Washington University in St Louis. His new research offers some insights into why.
Good listening is truly hearing what the other person has to say without putting your own layer of experience on top of it. But who’s best at it – extroverts or introverts? Today’s studio guest, Prof.Catherine Loveday of the University of Westminster weighs up the latest evidence.
Producer Adrian Washbourne
TUE 21:30 Positive Thinking (m0016xj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0016xkm)
Leak suggests Supreme Court will overturn Roe v Wade
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m0016xkr)
Episode Two
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"Daniel will be back in the office today. I shall be poised and cool and remember that I do not need men in order to be complete, especially not him."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
TUE 23:00 Fortunately... with Fi and Jane (m0016xkw)
231. The Pad on the Gusset, with India Rakusen
This week on Fortunately, Fi and Jane chat to the journalist and presenter India Rakusen, host of the 28ish Days Later podcast on BBC Sounds. The series explores what we really know about the menstrual cycle. India shares some insights with Garvey and Glover, who discuss their own experiences and recount Jane's only idea from the last six years. Before India drops by there is a full debrief from the senior partner's lunch with Ken Follett and Fi is the very brief owner of some white satin trousers.
Get in touch: fortunately.podcast@bbc.co.uk
TUE 23:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m000td0t)
Laura Barton's Happy Sad
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
In this second episode, Laura asks why so many of us love listening to sad music. What makes music sound sad? And how does it make us happier?
She talks with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, bow in hand, about his instrument’s plaintive tone, consults psychologist William Forde Thompson and music critic of The New Yorker, Alex Ross, and she analyses the descending ostinato bass line that underpins Dido’s Lament, one of the most piercingly mournful pieces of the baroque era, and asks Ane Brun why she reconfigured it as an ascending riff in Laid to Earth.
Music:
Gorecki - Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
Antony and the Johnsons - Another World
Ane Brun - Another World
Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa
Dowland - Lachrimae Pavan
Muzsikas - Paszdondak
Mariza - Gente da Minha Terra
Smog - Left Only With Love
Bob Marley - Chances Are
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Bach - Chaconne in D minor (2nd Partita)
Purcell - Dido's Lament (Laid in Earth)
Ane Brun - Laid in Earth
Bob Dylan - Simple Twist of Fate
Ane Brun - Last Breath
Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason, credit: Jake Turney)
WEDNESDAY 04 MAY 2022
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0016xky)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016xj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0016xl0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0016xl2)
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 (m0016xl4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0016xl6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0016xl8)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Janet Fife, retired vicar and one of the first women to be ordained.
Good morning.
43 years ago the UK had its first woman prime minister. 28 years ago the Church of England ordained its first female priests; I was among them. Those ordinations were joyous occasions. We knew that we were making history and blazing a trail for other women and girls. It was a good feeling.
Amid the joy, however, there were shadows. There were people for whom our ordination was a source not of happiness but of pain. We were mindful, too, of all the women for whom the Church’s decision came too late, whose vocation to the priesthood was never recognised. That was both their loss and the Church’s.
All too many people know the frustration of not finding an outlet for their abilities. My parents, intelligent people, were denied an education because they came from poor families. My mother had to leave school at 14, and my father at 16, to go out to work. That was a common enough story in their day.
People of all ages are still disadvantaged for reasons such as gender, disability, ethnicity, class, financial status, or sexual orientation. Those able to exercise their talents to the full have always been a privileged few.
In the Parable of the Talents Jesus taught that we will be required to give good account of our abilities and resources. We are not held responsible for the circumstances which hinder us, however painful we may find them. It is the willingness to be of service that God honours. As the poet John Milton wrote: ‘They also serve, who only stand, and wait.’
Faithful God, help us to use our own gifts for the good of all; to encourage others to exercise their talents; and to be thankful for those who serve us.
Amen.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0016xlb)
04/05/22 - Lump Sum Exit Scheme, native crayfish, UFU elections and electric tractors
Under the Government's Lump Sum Exit Scheme farmers must relinquish their land to claim the payment. They can either sell it, gift it or rent it out for a minimum of 5 years. After 5 years they can then take the land back in hand - so will the scheme really help free up land for new entrants?
The Ulster Farmers Union has a new President. Livestock farmer David Brown from County Fermanagh was voted in by union members at their AGM.
And we hear about the challenges of making an electric agricultural vehicle.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Heather Simons
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkwnn)
Andean Cock-of-the-Rock
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Andean Cock-of-the-rock from Peru. Deep in a cloud forest a female awaits the display of her displaying males. Gathered in front of her several head-bobbing wing-waving males, these males are spectacularly dazzling; a vibrant orange head and body, with black wings and tails, yellow staring eyes, and ostentatious fan-shaped crests which can almost obscure their beaks. Male cock-of-the rocks gather at communal leks, and their performances include jumping between branches and bowing at each other whilst all the time calling loudly. Yet, for all the males' prancing and posturing, it is the female who's in control. Aware that the most dominant and fittest males will be nearest the centre of the lekking arena, it's here that she focuses her attention.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
WED 06:00 Today (m0016xpz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m0016xq3)
The castle
Mikey Allen is on a tour of duty to Afghanistan when he is caught up in a landmine blast. He is physically unharmed but witnessing the event leaves him with mental scars that look set to destroy his life. He finds a way to combat the trauma that is both majestic and unique. He tells Jane Garvey his story.
Please be aware that this interview references suicide.
If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free to hear recorded information on 0800 066 066.
WED 09:30 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m0016xq7)
Eccentric Exercise
In this episode, Michael reveals how the part of your workout that often feels easier - running downhill after a brutal run up to the peak, or lowering down weights rather than lifting them up - is one of the quickest ways to improve your strength and enhance your workout. It’s the flip side of a lot of movements you’ve already been focused on. To find out more, he speaks to Prof Tony Kay at the University of Northampton who delves into the bizarre benefits of Eccentric Exercise. He reveals why the muscle-lengthening phase of exercise is more effective than the muscle-contracting phase… and how lengthening your muscles is the key to stronger muscles, bones, a healthier heart, and could even help burn more calories than a seemingly tougher workout when you’re finished.
WED 09:45 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016xqc)
The Observations
The Cure for Good Intentions is about a life-changing decision. Sophie Harrison left her job as an editor at a prestigious literary magazine, and put herself through medical school and hospital training before eventually becoming a GP.
From peaceful office days spent writing tactful comments on manuscripts, she entered a world that spoke an entirely different language. The scenes were familiar from television and books – long corridors, busy wards, stern consultants, anxious patients – but what was her part in it all? Back in the community as a new GP, the question became ever more pressing.
This is a book about how a doctor is made. Sophie asks what a doctor does, and what a doctor is. What signifies a doctor? A bedside manner? A mode of dress? A stethoscope? A firm way with a prescription pad? What is empathy and what does it achieve? How do we deal with pain, our own and other people’s?
After leaving journalism for medicine, Sophie discovers there are a surprising number of skills that can be used in both professions. She offers useful insights into how challenging it can be for doctors to interpret the public. And her background also gives her a literary appreciation - she refers to medicine in literature and contrasts it with her own experiences.
In Episode 3, having decided on General Practice, Sophie Harrison equips her new doctor’s bag and her new doctor’s mind with the tools she’ll need. She focuses on a particularly vital doctors’ tool - the Observations.
Read by Tamsin Greig
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Produced by Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Onur Pinar
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0016xqh)
As Anne Robinson announces she's stepping down as the host of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown, Emma Barnett catches up with her. Robinson was the first female to ever host the show, with 265 episodes under her belt since she joined just a year ago. After a career as a national newspaper journalist, she found fame in 2000 hosting the BBC quiz show The Weakest Link. Her acerbic wit led to her becoming labelled the “Queen of Mean”.
For months now the apparent increasing shortage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has caused uproar, igniting debates in Parliament and triggering the appointment of an HRT tsar. A Channel 4 documentary earlier this week on the subject also talked about the use of testosterone to help with some menopausal symptoms. Dr Paula Briggs, Chair Elect of British Menopause Society and Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health at Liverpool Women’s Hospital discusses her concerns and unpicks the potential impact of using testosterone.
The homelessness charity Shelter has found that nearly 230,000 private renters in England have been served with a formal no-fault eviction notice, known as a 'Section 21 eviction' in the last three years, since the Government first committed to scrap this form of eviction in April 2019. The charity has also found that while women and men are equally served these kinds of evictions by their landlords, they impact women more. Shelter is calling for the government to ban these kinds of evictions. Its Chief Executive Polly Neate joins Emma as does Lily, who was served a no-fault eviction notice in January 2022.
Do you grow flowers in your garden? Have you ever thought about specifically growing flowers like you’d grow vegetables - in rows so you could pick them in order to have flowers for your home? It's a trend which has grown over the past 10 years amongst gardeners. Growing your own flowers means you can enjoy seasonal bouquets at a fraction of the cost of shop-bought blooms. Emma finds out more from Milli Proust, writer and floral designer in West Sussex , whose book Seed to Bloom is out in June, and Georgie Newbery - a flower farmer and founder of Common Farm Flowers in Somerset.
Increasing numbers of women are reporting problems after having thread lift treatments, often known as “lunchtime facelifts”. Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners of non-surgical cosmetic treatments, which campaigns to improve safety standards, says the number of complaints about the treatments by unregulated practitioners have more than doubled in the past year. Emma talks to its Director Ashton Collins.
Presenter - Emma Barnett
Producer - Alison Carter
WED 11:00 Art of Now (m000dfp9)
The Algorhythms of Epilepsy
One in a hundred people in the UK have epilepsy - a secret and stigmatised condition.
Acclaimed artist Susan Aldworth has spent much of the past ten years working with neuroscientists and people with epilepsy to find out about the experience within the brain - and give it form outside.
A new technology called opto-genetics, still at an experimental stage, is a form of gene therapy that uses naturally occurring light-sensitive proteins, together with a device implanted in the brain, to monitor and stop some types of epileptic seizures.
As part of the project, scientists have turned to Aldworth to explore some of the personal and ethical issues around this potential treatment, also giving a voice to those who live with the debilitating and often lethal condition.
One hundred people living with epilepsy have written their testimonies, and for the past six months they have been embroidered onto items of Victorian clothing by volunteers from all over the UK. The underwear is then to be attached to a clunky moving pulley system which will move in the patterns of neurons during an epileptic seizure.
The algorithms of an epileptic brain will be fed into a computer programme which will move motors connected to the clothes in random patterns, ending with a fit.
The noisy system of the motors and pulleys will form the soundtrack to the work over which the chilling screeches recorded from a fitting brain will soar.
Aldworth's work is part of a scientific research project called CANDO, and opens at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle on January 18th 2020 and runs until May.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall
Music by Barney Quinton
www.susanaldworth.com
exhibition link: https://hattongallery.org.uk/fascinating-exhibitions-explore-epilepsy-and-the-science-of-optogenetics
WED 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m0016xqm)
2. Madeleine Smith
Lucy Worsley investigates the crimes of Victorian women from a contemporary, feminist perspective.
In this episode, Lucy explores the case of a young lady called Madeleine Smith. Part of high society in Glasgow in the 1850s, she was living the ideal life, attending balls and concerts, promenading around the shopping districts and spending her summers at her family’s large country home.
But she was hiding a shameful secret - a clandestine love affair with a man ten years her senior and well below her station. His name was Pierre Emile L’Angelier, a warehouse clerk from Jersey. They met, wrote letters to each other regularly, and soon their relationship turned intimate. But when he found out she was soon to be married to a suitable match arranged by her parents, things turned sour.
While Madeleine was burning the letters she received from Pierre Emile, he kept hers and threatened to send them to her father to expose their relationship. In a panic, Madeleine begged to meet so he could return her letters.
On the evening of 22nd March 1857, Pierre Emile left his lodgings, allegedly to visit Madeleine. When he returned home, he became ill and died of arsenic poisoning. Police traced Madeleine through an entry in his diary, and she was arrested. She was put on trial for his murder and her letters, intended only for the eyes of her lover, were read out for all to hear.
Presenter Lucy Worsley is joined by award-winning crime writer Denise Mina to piece together this curious case. Was Madeleine a manipulative young woman who wanted a bit of fanciful fun before marriage? Or was she naïve and innocent, swept off her feet by a controlling older man? And was she guilty? Or was the outcome of her trial determined by her class, gender and societal expectations of women?
Together with historian Rosalind Crone from the Open University, they visit the alleged scene of the crime to investigate if Madeleine could have possibly poisoned Pierre Emile L’Angelier that fateful evening in 1857. Lucy and Rosalind also visit some of Madeleine’s real letters at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow learning that, perhaps, a younger upper middle class Victorian lady may not have been as prim and proper as history would have us believe.
Producer: Hannah Fisher
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4
WED 12:00 News Summary (m0016xqr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m0016xqv)
Instagram fraud, swimming pools under threat, shapewear, travel money
As accusations continue to grow that social media giant, Meta is enabling Instagram online fraud, our reporter Shari Vahl looks at how small businesses are being affected and how the proposed online harms bill legislation could help. We hear from MP Kevin Hollinrake from the Treasury Select Committee.
With warnings that rising energy bills could affect the future of local swimming pools, we talk to swimmers in Liverpool about their thoughts on paying more and hear from the Chief Executive of Swim England, Jane Nickerson, about calls for more support from the government.
After two years of restrictions, travel abroad is back for many, despite the cost of living crisis. The Post Office says they’re seeing signs of ‘pent-up demand’ for travel amid a surge in currency sales for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. We look at bank charges and fees while on your spending and the options for pre paid cards.
And, Shapewear has traditionally had a somewhat unglamorous reputation - but now with celebrities like Lizzo and Kim Kardashian championing their own brands, is the shapewear industry changing shape?
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: LINDA WALKER
WED 12:57 Weather (m0016xr0)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0016xr4)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016xr7)
3. Gender
Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.
How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the 90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.
From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the 90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.
Episode 3: Gender
When Harry Styles donned a dress for the cover of Vogue Magazine it caused a storm in an online teacup. Some commentators said it was the end of masculinity as we know it. Pretty much the same thing was said when David Beckham wore a sarong in public in 1998. Robert Carlyle asks if gender politics has changed much in three decades, as he takes us back to the era of the New Lad and Ladette. Along the way he hears from journalist Sean O'Hagan, who coined the term New Lad, Natasha Walter, author of The New Feminism and Professor Helen McCarthy.
Producer: Stephen Hughes
Actors: Matthew Durkan and Alexandra Hannant
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Professor Helen McCarthy
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0016xk4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000ls9h)
The Infinity Pool
By Nalini Chetty. Treat your loved ones to the perfect spa retreat. Afternoon tea, fizz, a treatment of your choice, and full use of the facilities. Optional extras include - sibling rivalry, unspoken grief, and the sort of fierce love that can only accompany the impending death of a loved one.
Maggie…………………………… ...........Anne Kidd
Greer............................................ ..........Jessica Hardwick
Isla............................................................ Samara MacLaren
Waitress/Manager/ Therapist……. LouiseMccarthy
Producer/director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland
WED 15:00 Money Box (m0016xr9)
Growing Your Own
How much does it cost to rent an allotment? What food can you grow if you don’t have a garden? And can you really save money by growing your own food?
Felicity Hannah chats to Sheila, Rebecca, Ross, Paul, and Jess about their growing questions and experiences. As always our expert panel is on hand to answer their questions and give their green fingered tips.
Panel:
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones – The Black Farmer
Russell Attwood – The National Allotment Society
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m0016xkh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m0016xrc)
Psychiatry: a social history
Psychiatry: Laurie Taylor explores the social history of modern psychiatric practice. He's joined by Andrew Scull, Emeritus Professor in Sociology at the University of California and author of a magisterial study which asks if we are any closer to solving serious mental illness than we were a century ago. He traces the history of psychiatry's attempts to analyse and mitigate mental disorders: from the era of the asylum and psychosurgery to the rise and fall of psychoanalysis and the drugs revolution. Why is this history littered with examples of 'care' which so often resulted in dire consequences for the patient?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m0016xrf)
Reporting on the abuse of power
Two stories about power – and how it can be abused. The first is the tale of an MP caught looking at porn in the House of Commons and what it might tell us about the culture of political reporting at Westminster. The other is the joint BBC and The Guardian investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by the DJ Tim Westwood. Also in the programme, the future of tech regulation in the UK.
Guests: Chi Chi Izundu, Reporter on "Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power", Katie Ferguson, Deputy Political Editor at The Sun, Eleanor Langford, Political Reporter at Politics Home, Margot James, former government minister, Philip Marsden, Professor of Law and Economics at the College of Europe and Kate Beioley, Legal Correspondent at the Financial Times.
Presenter: Katie Razzall
Sound engineer: Duncan Hannant
Producer: Helen Fitzhenry
WED 17:00 PM (m0016xrh)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016xrk)
The European Commission president has announced plans for a ban on Russian oil imports.
WED 18:30 The Confessional (m000w3mf)
Series 1
The Confession of Marian Keyes
Actor, comedian and broadcaster Stephen Mangan presents a comedy chat show about shame and guilt.
Each week Stephen invites a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional box to make three 'confessions'. This is a cue for some remarkable storytelling, and surprising insights.
We’re used to hearing celebrity interviews where stars are persuaded to show off about their achievements and talk about their proudest moments. Stephen is not interested in that. He doesn’t want to know what his guests are proud of, he wants to know what they’re ashamed of. That’s surely the way to find out what really makes a person tick. Stephen and his guest reflect with empathy and humour on things like why we get embarrassed, where our shame thresholds should be, and the value of guilt.
This week the prolific novelist and writer Marian Keyes confesses, from her home in Dublin, details of a disservice she did that still haunts her 20 years after the event. She also tells tales of a lost glove and of Joan of Arc at a fancy dress ball.
Other guests in this series include Dr Phil Hammond, Cariad Lloyd, Joan Bakewell, Suzi Ruffell, Phil Wang and Alastair Campbell.
Written and presented by Stephen Mangan
With extra material by Nick Doody
Devised with Dave Anderson and produced by Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0016xrm)
Natasha unveils her new pad to Pat – it’s April Cottage! Pat declares Kathy a dark horse, while Natasha hopes this might be a nice surprise for Pat. But Pat’s quiet, and a little bit shocked. She tells Kathy they were all getting on alright at Bridge Farm, and Natasha will need all the help she can get once the babies arrive. It seemed ideal having them at the farm. Kathy apologises for upsetting Pat’s plans, but Pat says there’s no need. She’s just being selfish and can see Tom and Natasha will be thrilled to have their own place again. She declares she’ll miss Kathy terribly.
Eddie reckons Ed’s got a good bunch of lambs for showing this year, but notices they’re not as good looking as usual. Ed admits he’s been concentrating more on the Texels’ liveweights and meatiness than their faces. Eddie helps him to choose a suitable handsome specimen for the Borchester Show.
Miserable Oliver confides to Eddie he’s been keeping Grey Gables afloat from his own pocket – when Adil came along it was too good an offer to resist. Eddie doesn’t have a good word for Adil, but Oliver insists the new owner’s vision is well intentioned and chimes with him. He’ll miss everyone at Grey Gables, and hopes they’ll forgive him. He thought they’d appreciate his view that the buyer’s offer would be something Caroline would have wanted. Eddie counsels him to give them time; they’ll come round. Oliver wishes he could believe that.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0016xrp)
Deesha Philyaw, Tristan Sharps, County Durham bid for City of Culture
This year’s Brighton Festival has two guest directors for the first time in its history. One of them, Tristan Sharps, artistic director of Brighton based theatre company dreamthinkspeak, joins Elle to discuss the literary inspiration behind his immersive production, Unchain Me, and his collaboration with fellow guest director, Syrian architect Marwa Al-Sabouni.
Deesha Philyaw’s debut collection of short stories - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies - arrives in the UK garlanded with prizes including the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Deesha joins Front Row to discuss turning the lives of the black women she grew up with into art.
Philippa Goymer explores the various attractions of County Durham that it hopes will earn it the title of City of Culture.
Photo: Deesha Philyaw
Photo credit: Vanessa German
WED 20:00 Generation Change (m00173tv)
From Black Power to Black Lives Matter
Samira Ahmed and Katherine Rake bring together activists from two different generations to reflect on the challenges of addressing individual and system wide-change in anti-racism campaigning.
Activist Leila Hassan Howe led a 20,000 strong protest against police racism and state indifference after the 1981 New Cross Fire killed 13 young black partygoers. Her partner Darcus Howe was one of the Mangrove Nine.
Joshua Virasami, author of How to Change, came through the Occupy movement to become a leading organizer with Black Lives Matter UK.
Growing up in a British Bangladeshi household in London in the 1970s, and experiencing the daily violent presence of the National Front in her neighbourhood, inspired Dr Halima Begum into a life of activism. She’s now chairman of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality think tank.
Whitney Iles is still only in her thirties but has spent ten years working inside prisons with young people whose lives have been affected by violence. Today she’s an outspoken campaigner trying to remove racial bias from the criminal justice system.
They compare their different tactics and approach to campaigning and discover what they can learn from each other.
Samira is joined by social change consultant Katherine Rake, former Chief Executive of The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for gender equality and women's rights.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Emily Williams
Programme consultant: Katherine Rake
Editor: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 20:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m0016xq7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m0016xjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m0016xrf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0016xrr)
Russian launches “all-out assault” on Azovstal
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m0016xrt)
Episode Three
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"Can officially confirm that the way to a man's heart these days is not through beauty, food, sex, or alluringness of character, but merely the ability to seem not very interested in him."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
WED 23:00 Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair (m0016xrw)
Series 7
Visiting Time
Written by Jenny Eclair
Performed by Felicity Montagu
Producer ..... Sally Avens
Julia has always been a disappointment to her mother whilst her sister have always shone, but as her mother becomes increasingly incapacitated Julia finds a way to redress the balance.
Felicity Montagu is best known for her role as Lynn, Alan Partridge's long suffering assistant. She has recently been seen in 'Landscapers' with Olivia Coleman and David Thewlis.
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m0016xry)
Series 6
Episode 5
Jon Holmes remixes the news with The Skewer. This week, Tractor Porn, The Legend of The Protective Care Home Ring and Dolphins At War.
An Unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m000tlv5)
Laura Barton's One True Love
The music writer Laura Barton presents a triptych of meditations on the enduring qualities, appeal and intent of pop music.
For Laura, there's never been any artist to compare with Bruce Springsteen. But what lies at the heart of the enduring appeal of a musician like Bruce? Is he really more, much more than cars and girls? And why do we often invest so much in the work of one recording artist?
All songs performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band:
I'm on Fire
The E Street Shuffle
4th of July, Asbury Park
Backstreets
Bobby Jean
Racing in the Street
No Surrender
Because the Night (Live)
Born to Run
Stolen Car
Valentine's Day
The River
Thunder Road
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Something in the Night
Dancing in the Dark
With archive from BBC Sound Archives
and spoken introductions from Springsteen on Broadway
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
(Photo: Laura Barton, credit Sarah Lee)
THURSDAY 05 MAY 2022
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0016xs0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016xqc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0016xs2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0016xs4)
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 (m0016xs6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0016xs8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0016xsb)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Janet Fife, retired vicar and one of the first women to be ordained.
Good morning.
A minister asked his congregation for their favourite Bible verses. Most of them cited well-known passages like the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my Shepherd, or the hymn to love from 1 Corinthians. 13. One woman spoke up: ‘It came to pass.’ There was a pause. ’What’s the rest of it?,’ promoted the minister. ‘That’s the whole thing,’ the woman replied. ‘When I’m having a hard time I say to myself, “It came to pass.” This won’t go on forever.’
Here in the UK we’re surrounded by evidence that ‘crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane.’ Some of us live near an old stately home or the ruins of a castle or abbey. I live in Whitby, where what’s left of the Norman abbey dominates the town.
One of the benefits of getting older is that we can look back at some of the things that worried us years ago and realise they didn’t turn out so badly after all. However difficult life seemed at the time, we coped, and survived, and perhaps learned new skills. Facing a new recession and bigger bills, we may be able to dig out old, cheap recipes and money-saving hacks. At the very least, past griefs and battles can teach us empathy for people going through a hard time now.
In this ever-changing world, what really matters? Governments, jobs, and recessions come and go, but love and kindness last for ever.
St Paul wrote: ‘Faith, hope, love abide, these three - but the greatest of these is love.’ And ‘what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’
Eternal God, Thank you that you are with us through all the changes and chances of this Life.
Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0016xsd)
We're at the farm machinery show LAMMA, which showcases the latest agricultural machinery services and equipment, and this year it's celebrating its' 40th anniversary.
We hear from those attending about the rising costs despite farmers are facing and the impact this might have on affording farm machinery, the potential trade opportunities within the farm machinery sector and how agricultural machinery can offer a career to young entrants.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced for BBC Audio by Caitlin Hobbs
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0vp4)
Mauritius Kestrel
Michael Palin presents the Mauritius kestrel from the island of Mauritius. Today the calls of several hundred Mauritius kestrels ring out across the forests and farmland of the island, so it's hard to believe that as recently as the early 1970s, only four birds could be found in the wild.
These smart chestnut falcons were almost wiped out by a cocktail of threats ...destruction of their evergreen forests, pesticides and the introduction of predators such as monkeys, mongooses, rats and cats. When a species is so critically endangered there aren't many options, and conservationists decided that their only choice was to take some of the wild Mauritius kestrels into captivity.
By 1993, 300 Mauritius kestrels had been released and by November of that year there were as many as 65 breeding pairs in the wild. Now the kestrels are back, hovering above the landscapes that nearly lost them forever.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
THU 06:00 Today (m0016xtw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0016xty)
The Davidian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of David I of Scotland (c1084-1153) on his kingdom and on neighbouring lands. The youngest son of Malcolm III, he was raised in exile in the Anglo-Norman court and became Earl of Huntingdon and Prince of Cumbria before claiming the throne in 1124. He introduced elements of what he had learned in England and, in the next decades, his kingdom saw new burghs, new monasteries, new ways of governing and the arrival of some very influential families, earning him the reputation of The Perfect King.
With
Richard Oram
Professor of Medieval and Environmental History at the University of Stirling
Alice Taylor
Professor of Medieval History at King’s College London
And
Alex Woolf
Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St Andrews
Producer: Simon Tillotson
THU 09:45 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016xv0)
Surgery and Medicines
The Cure for Good Intentions is about a life-changing decision. Sophie Harrison left her job as an editor at a prestigious literary magazine, and put herself through medical school and hospital training before eventually becoming a GP.
From peaceful office days spent writing tactful comments on manuscripts, she entered a world that spoke an entirely different language. The scenes were familiar from television and books – long corridors, busy wards, stern consultants, anxious patients – but what was her part in it all? Back in the community as a new GP, the question became ever more pressing.
This is a book about how a doctor is made. Sophie asks what a doctor does, and what a doctor is. What signifies a doctor? A bedside manner? A mode of dress? A stethoscope? A firm way with a prescription pad? What is empathy and what does it achieve? How do we deal with pain, our own and other people’s?
After leaving journalism for medicine, Sophie discovers there are a surprising number of skills that can be used in both professions. She offers useful insights into how challenging it can be for doctors to interpret the public. And her background also gives her a literary appreciation - she refers to medicine in literature and contrasts it with her own experiences.
Episode 4 finds Sophie Harrison reflecting on the differences between ‘the adventure of surgery’ and solving patients’ problems with medicine.
Read by Tamsin Greig
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Produced by Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Onur Pinar
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0016xv2)
Adele Roberts, Homes for Ukraine - Judith and Oksana, Sylvia Young, Ruth Dodsworth
Radio 1’s Adele Roberts won Radio Times’ Moment of the Year award at the Audio and Radio Industry Awards this week, for the moment when she spoke to her listeners about being diagnosed with bowel cancer. She joins Emma to talk about her ongoing treatment and how she’ll celebrate when it’s done.
Judith Hutchinson has been trying to house Ukrainian citizen Oksana Melashchuk and her two children for several weeks now. Oksana’s visa finally came through yesterday, and both women are able to join Emma from Judith’s house in Hampshire.
This week a law professor wore an identical dress to the Queen of Spain while receiving an award from her. Have you ever turned up to an event in the same outfit as someone else? Were you mortified or did you style it out? We hear your experiences and Emma asks Lisa Armstrong, head of fashion at The Telegraph for her tips on how to handle it.
50 years since its humble beginnings in the East End of London, the Sylvia Young Theatre School has worked with and trained the likes of Dua Lipa, Daniel Kaluuya and a ‘very naughty’ Amy Winehouse. Now 82, Sylvia Young tells us how the school got its name, why she expelled her own daughter and offers a few insights into her long list of notable alumni.
It’s been just over a year since the former husband of ITV presenter Ruth Dodsworth was jailed for coercive controlling behaviour and stalking. In a new ITV Tonight programme ‘Controlled by My Ex Partner? The Hidden Abuse', Ruth explores the crime of coercive control and what needs to be done to stop it.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m0016xv4)
Mexico: The Yaqui Fight Back
Resistance and division among Mexico’s indigenous Yaqui people. Anabela Carlon is a legal advocate for the indigenous Yaqui of Sonora – a fierce defender of her people’s land. She is no stranger to the immense dangers that face her in northern Mexico, a region dominated by organised crime. In 2016, she and her husband were kidnapped at gunpoint by masked men. And now one of her biggest cases is representing the families of ten men from her community who disappeared last year.
In Mexico, the Yaqui of Sonora are known as, ‘the undefeated’. In spite of being hunted, enslaved and exiled, they are the only indigenous group never to have surrendered to Spanish colonial forces or the Mexican government. Somehow, eight communities survived along the River Yaqui. But there are deep divisions. Most of all, over whether a gas pipeline should be allowed on their land. Anabela Carlon is adamant it will not happen.
Presenter: Linda Pressly
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Producer in Mexico: Ulises Escamilla
THU 11:30 Art of Now (m000dy52)
Recovery
A studio in London where survivors of torture are using art to help with their recovery.
Located in Finsbury Park, the charity 'Freedom from Torture' helps survivors of torture rebuild their lives.
On Thursday afternoons the art studio at Freedom from Torture opens to clients undergoing therapy to create art and express themselves.
Ronce was a political prisoner in the Democratic Republic of Congo and fled to the UK. As an asylum seeker in the UK he is unable to work. His art keeps him going.
Neil McCarthy talks to Ronce and other survivors at the art studio to hear how these sessions are helping them leave a traumatic past behind.
Producer Neil McCarthy
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0016xv6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m0016xv8)
Gap Finders - Aron Gelbard
Today's guest is Aron Gelbard, the co-founder and chief executive of Bloom and Wild.
Born in France, Aron came to London with his family at the age of five. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, he felt he, too, would one day find his niche in business. He studied modern languages at Oxford and then worked for several years at big corporate consultancy firms with retail and technology clients. He was particularly interested in e-commerce.
He started Bloom and Wild, an online flower delivery start up in 2013. In his first week, he made just seven deliveries. Nine years on, the business is one of the leading online flower deliveries companies in Europe. The company prides itself on high customer satisfaction and making and receiving flowers the joy that it should be.
Bloom and Wild is best known for making it possible to send flowers in well under a minute on a smartphone, and for delivering flowers through people’s letterboxes. The company recently acquired two other businesses, in Europe including Amsterdam based Bloomon and Paris-based Bergamotte.
We explore the ways in which Aron wanted to disrupt the flower delivery market and the hopes he has for the future following the company's massive growth.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes
(Photo: Aron Gelbard, Founder of Bloom and Wild. Credit: Tom Griffiths)
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0016xvb)
Running Shoes
They cost anything from less than £20 to more than £250. So how do you pick the right pair? And will paying more make you run faster?
With the ‘Couch to 5K’ app breezing past 5 million downloads, and marathon season well underway, two listeners ask Greg: What will they get for the extra money? A shoe more suited to their running style? More cushioning and fewer injuries? And will a top of the range pair with a carbon plate in the sole make them faster?
Greg Foot gets the answers from biomechanist, Dr Hannah Rice and sports technologist Professor Mike Caine. Plus, running writer, journalist and world record holder [for the fastest marathon in a full body animal costume (female)], Kate Carter.
This season we’re testing YOUR suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an advert, trend or fad and want to know what the evidence says drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or drop Greg a message direct on his social media where he’s @gregfoot
Presenter: Greg Foot
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz
THU 12:57 Weather (m0016xvd)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0016xvg)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016xvj)
4. Internet
Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.
How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.
From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.
Episode 4: Internet
As a new bill goes through parliament that hopes to ensure online safety, Robert Carlyle takes us back to a time when the internet seemed like a force for good, an online utopia where friends could re-unite. But, as he reminds us, the 90s was also the decade that witnessed the first prosecution for cyberstalking and when the term trolling was coined. Professors Helen McCarthy and John Naughton take us back to the days of AltaVista, Ask Jeeves and the cyber-cafe. We hear from Keith Teare, one of the people behind the world's first cyber-cafe called Cyberia, who explains why they never made a profit, despite having coffee shops across the world and online dating site.
Producer: Stephen Hughes
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Professor Helen McCarthy
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0016xrm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000h1mb)
The Kubrick Test
Kerry Shale’s drama tells the true story of his encounter with one of cinema’s most influential figures.
Stanley Kubrick is undoubtedly one of the greatest film makers of all time with a succession of masterpieces from A Clockwork Orange to 2001, Dr Strangelove to The Shining. He’s also known for an exhaustively detailed working process and utter lack of compromise.
For many years, the great director’s methods were shrouded in mystery. So when, in 1987, a young actor gets an invitation to enter Kubrick’s hidden world, he leaps at it. And, of course, gets more than he bargained for.
Kerry Shale plays himself in this darkly comic reflection on the nuts and bolts of true genius.
Cast:
Kerry Kerry Shale
Leon Robert Emms
Kubrick Henry Goodman
Written by Kerry Shale
Based on a script by Jeremiah Quinn
Sound Design by Alisdair McGregor
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0016xvl)
Oliver Jeffers in Outer Space
In the first of a new series, Clare is in Derry-Londonderry to meet the celebrated children’s author and artist, Oliver Jeffers. As part of a free nationwide arts project called Unboxed, he’s created a 10 kilometre sculpture trail, designed as a scale model of the solar system. It starts at Bay Road Park and runs alongside the River Foyle. The trail, ‘Our Place in Space’, is there until 22 May 2022 before moving to Belfast, Cambridge, and the North Down Coastal Path.
Oliver says he’s a ‘pretty serious rambler’: he walked everywhere when he lived in New York City, and once led three-day hikes in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.
Explaining his inspiration for the project, he says: “If we could look back at Earth from the vastness of the solar system, what would we feel? Wouldn’t squabbles look stupid from Saturn? Wouldn’t violence seem senseless from Venus? Forget about ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, from the perspective of Pluto, it’s just US!”
Oliver Jeffers collaborated with the Nerve Centre and Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast to design the trail which has its own free interactive App to download.
Grid Ref for their starting point: NV 611 818
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0016wwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m0016wx5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket (m000xkyc)
Planet B
Why does Elon Musk believe he can save the world by colonising Mars? When PayPal was bought for $1.5 billion, Elon Musk and other company founders made huge personal fortunes. Musk used his to start the rocket company, SpaceX. He also began talking about very big plans for the future of humanity. He wanted humans to become ‘a multi-planetary species’ and said he was accumulating resources to 'extend the light of consciousness to the stars’. Soon he was talking about humans moving permanently to Mars. Future-of-humanity questions used to belong to religion and philosophy. Under ‘Muskism’ they belong more to engineering and entrepreneurship. Jill Lepore traces the history of Silicon Valley's fascination with existential catastrophism. In the second of five programmes, strap in to head to Mars.
The Evening Rocket is presented by Jill Lepore, Professor of American History at Harvard University and staff writer at The New Yorker. Her latest book is If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future. She is also the host of The Last Archive, a podcast from Pushkin Industries.
Producer: Viv Jones
Researcher: Oliver Riskin-Kutz
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Mixing: Graham Puddifoot
Original music by Corntuth
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0016xvn)
Precious Metals, Earlier Eggs, and Meaningful Meteorites
With the cost of living spiralling, many are probably thinking more about the price of food than lithium, titanium, copper or platinum. But the volatility in the global market for these materials - partly because of the pandemic and geopolitical unrest - is causing 'chaos' in the technology supply chain. Elizabeth Ratcliffe, Royal Society of Chemistry, tells Vic that many of us are unwittingly stockpiling these precious metals in our homes, in our old phones and defunct computers, because we don't know what to do with them. Reporter Samara Linton visits N2S, a company in Bury St Edmunds which has found a way to recycle the precious metals and other scarce elements in discarded circuit boards using bacteria.
This week more evidence that spring is springing earlier, as Vic heads to what might be the most studied woodland in the world: Wytham Woods in Oxfordshire. Ella Cole, Oxford University, explains how climate change is causing birds to lay eggs three weeks earlier than they did in the 1940s. And Chris Perrins, of Oxford University, shares his thoughts on the changing woodland.
And from new life to the very stuff of life. Could the building blocks of DNA have first been delivered to earth on a meteorite? In a paper in Nature Communications, scientists announce the discovery of the last two of the five key nucleobases locked in meteorites dating to the formation of the solar system. Samples of the Murchison Meteorite, a specific type of soft, loamy rock (CM2 carbonaceous chondrite) that fell to earth in 1969, have been re-examined, and the confirmation extends the ongoing debate around the nature and composition of terrestrial life's original crucible. Sara Russell, Professor of Planetary Sciences at London's Natural History Museum, helps Vic unravel the complicated and surprisingly controversial history of space rocks and primordial soup.
Presented by Vic Gill
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Reporter: Samara Linton
THU 17:00 PM (m0016xvq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016xvs)
The Bank of England has warned that the UK economy is likely to shrink. And the World Health Organisation says about fifteen million people died because of the pandemic.
THU 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m0016xvv)
Series 1
Round three: Four-Letter Words
The problem with quizzes is that the same questions keep coming up, like “Who was the first US President to be assassinated?”*. So the more quizzes you do the more predictable they get.
Luckily, here comes quizzer, comedian and Rose d’Or winner Paul Sinha with his new series, Paul Sinha’s Perfect Pub Quiz. In each episode he will invite the audience to tell him their favourite quiz questions, before offering up not just different and surprising questions, but also the fascinating stories behind the answers.
It’s facts, jokes, stories and puns – just the way you like them.
The answers to every question this week are four-letter words - such as 'quiz', not the ones you're thinking of.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material Oliver Levy
Additional questions The Audience
Original music: Tim Sutton
Sound engineer: Jerry Peal
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4
*Abraham Lincoln, as you well know.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0016xvx)
Roy hasn’t heard from Adil about the job at Grey Gables. He tells Kirsty he thinks he won’t be offered it and imagines Adil doesn’t want him. Their conversation stops when Tracy appears, followed a while later by Jolene with donations of food from Fallon for the staff party. As the event gets into full swing Roy introduces the surprise farewell tribute to Kathy, presenting her with a memory book. Quietly Kirsty and Tracy reminisce fondly about their years at Grey Gables. Tracy doesn’t know what she’ll do without it. This party feels like a funeral. She’s lost a good friend in Oliver and it hurts.
Meanwhile Roy takes Kathy through a host of memories, Grey Gables and otherwise, including the time when Joe Grundy was in residence at the hotel and chaos ensued. Roy praises Kathy’s calm control over the years, and Kathy thanks him, in turn hailing the resilience of the staff.
Later Kathy and Jolene chat. Kathy apologises for being distant at Elizabeth’s party. She thanks Jolene for digging out the old photos of her for her memory book. They agree to forgive and forget the past, and bid each other a fond farewell.
Kathy, Roy and Kirsty agree it’s been a sad day. Grey Gables may be empty but it’s full of ghosts. As they close the door for the final time, it’s the end of an era.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0016xvz)
PJ Harvey, Radical Landscapes exhibition and TV show The Terror-Infamy reviewed
Singer songwriter PJ Harvey tells us about Orlam, her narrative poem set in a magic realist version of the West Country - a rural, and at times gothic, coming-of-age story and the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades.
Radical Landscapes is the name of a new exhibition exploring human connections with the landscape, at Tate Liverpool. The Terror-Infamy is a drama on BBC2 depicting the internment camps in the US where those of Japanese heritage were kept after Pearl Harbour - and a strange spirit is abroad. Writers and critics Tahmima Anam and Laura Robertson join Front Row to review both.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Kirsty McQuire
PJ Harvey picture credit: Steve Gullick
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0016xw1)
How has the war in Ukraine changed German politics?
In late February, German chancellor Olaf Scholz described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a ‘Zeitenwende’ - turning point - sparking the biggest shift in German foreign policy since the Cold War.
The highlights included a 100bn euro package to boost the military and meet Nato’s 2 per cent of GDP defence spending obligation, send weapons to Ukraine and end his country’s dependency on Russian energy.
A surprisingly bold plan from a man many had thought was - like many of his predecessors - naturally cautious. He drew applause at home and abroad, but two months on there is sense that Scholz is wavering.
Can he, and will he, see his plan through?
Joining David Aaronovitch in the briefing room are:
Sir Paul Lever, former British Ambassador to Germany and author of Berlin Rules: Europe and the German Way
Professor Markus Ziener, Helmut Schmidt Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States
Daniela Schwarzer, Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations
Sophia Besch, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform
Producers: Octavia Woodward, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Production Co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed and Sophie Hill
Studio Manager: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 20:30 Life Changing (m0016xq3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m0016xvn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m0016xty)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0016xw4)
Polls close in elections across the UK
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
THU 22:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m0016xw6)
Episode Four
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"Three hours and thirty-five minutes between waking and leaving house is too long. In future must get straight up when wake up and reform entire laundry system."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
THU 23:00 Local Elections 2022 (m0016xw8)
Coverage of the 2022 local elections.
FRIDAY 06 MAY 2022
FRI 06:00 Today (m0016y52)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m0016wws)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Cure for Good Intentions by Sophie Harrison (m0016y54)
Pain
The Cure for Good Intentions is about a life-changing decision. Sophie Harrison left her job as an editor at a prestigious literary magazine, and put herself through medical school and hospital training before eventually becoming a GP.
From peaceful office days spent writing tactful comments on manuscripts, she entered a world that spoke an entirely different language. The scenes were familiar from television and books – long corridors, busy wards, stern consultants, anxious patients – but what was her part in it all? Back in the community as a new GP, the question became ever more pressing.
This is a book about how a doctor is made. Sophie asks what a doctor does, and what a doctor is. What signifies a doctor? A bedside manner? A mode of dress? A stethoscope? A firm way with a prescription pad? What is empathy and what does it achieve? How do we deal with pain, our own and other people’s?
After leaving journalism for medicine, Sophie discovers there are a surprising number of skills that can be used in both professions. She offers useful insights into how challenging it can be for doctors to interpret the public. And her background also gives her a literary appreciation - she refers to medicine in literature and contrasts it with her own experiences.
In Episode 5, Sophie deals briefly with the Covid pandemic, and examines pain and how best to describe and assess it. Finally, and with energy and hope, she sums up what she has learned going through her medical training and emerging into the doctor’s world.
Read by Tamsin Greig
Abridged by Anna Magnusson
Produced by Pippa Vaughan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Photo © Onur Pinar
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0016y56)
Artificial wombs, exam stress, and celebrating the role of grandmothers
Childbirth is something that more than 80% of women go through in their lifetime. But could that be about to change? Sci-Fi author Helen Sedgwick thinks we’re just a generation away from external, artificial wombs being used for childbirth. But what does this mean for the concept of motherhood and a woman’s place in society? Anita is joined by Helen and designer of an artificial womb Lisa Mandemaker.
Exam season is upon us - Highers have begun in Scotland and A-levels and GCSEs start on the 16th May and finish on the 28th June, but maybe your kids have end of year exams coming up too. As a parent what is the best way to support your child? Especially if they have important exams looming but are doing everything they can to pretend that they don’t? Or perhaps you have the opposite problem and your child is paralysed with anxiety. How do you engage the teenage brain and support your child with their revision? Anita is joined by Dr Jane Gilmour, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
What does your grandmother mean to you? The South African musician Toshi has released a new song – Khokhoba – which means ‘getting old’ in her native language of Xhosa. The song is dedicated to her grandmother and we hear about the spiritual and societal role that elderly women and grandmothers play in the Xhosa culture.
Sex Parties have gone from being fringe underground raves to large, well-established sell-out club nights, in the last few years! Why are we seeing a resurgence the sex party? We hear from Dr Kate Lister, Sex Historian and Author of A Curious History of Sex & Miss Gold, who runs One Night Parties, a sex party in London. They discuss how Covid-19 has changed the way we approach sex, the female gaze and hedonism through history
FRI 11:00 Afterlives (m0016y58)
Afterlives: Ruth and Lisette
Ruth and Lisette - two women consider the legacy of becoming disabled on the threshold of adulthood.
Ruth Fairclough was 17 when she sustained a paraplegic injury. After five weeks of bed-rest she found "freedom" when she was given her wheelchair. However, her childhood dream of joining the army had to be abandoned and, over 20 years later, she looks back at the new path she deliberately forged for herself.
As a mathematician, she saw her future as a problem to be solved and set about ticking the boxes that she believed would make her life worthwhile. One thing that wasn’t on Ruth’s agenda pre-accident was children. Her two girls are now both older than she was when she had the accident – and seeing her older daughter now makes her weep, "because that should have been me".
Lisette Auton is a disabled writer, activist and spoken word artist. She describes the wasted years after she became ill when she was 21. Now, she has lived half her life with impairment and half without. Learning to accept her body more and regaining her creativity opened up the world for her again. She says that, until speaking to Ruth, she had never honestly asked herself the question of whether she would want her mobility back – but says that she is happy just the way she is.
The two women share their frustrations and how they’ve learned to appreciate a different kind of life - how they celebrate themselves, living without comparing themselves to others and recognising that ultimately none of us are perfect or do all the things we would like or have once planned.
The documentary features Ruth’s return to playing the piano after nearly 30 years and the music that has helped Lisette navigate life after illness, in a programme with some tears and plenty of laughter.
Produced by Anna Scott-Brown
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 11:30 Whatever Happened to Baby Jane Austen? (m0016y5b)
Series 1
Episode 5
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders star as respected novelist Florence and movie star Selina, in a sparkling comedy series about two sisters at war, by Veep writer David Quantick.
Florence has mixed feelings when Selina tells her she’s moving out as she’s sold the movie rights to her book and is rich again. But disaster strikes as Selina trashes a national treasure on a live TV appearance. And daughter Lucy cancels her round-the-world yacht voyage to confront the sisters with a devastating question…
Cast:
Florence - Dawn French
Selina - Jennifer Saunders
Mrs Ragnarrok – Rebecca Front
Lucy - Lisa McGrillis
All the men - Alistair McGowan
Written by David Quantick
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0016y5d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Archive on 4 (m0016x05)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0016y5h)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0016y5k)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
FRI 13:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016y5m)
5. Tech
Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.
How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.
From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.
Episode 5: Tech
Robert Carlyle uncovers a conflict in the 90s that we may not have been aware of – the crypto-wars between the so-called cypherpunks and the United States government. The fight was over online privacy and it was won by a computer programme called Phil Zimmermann, who faced four years in jail for releasing software called Pretty Good Privacy. As Jamie Bartlett, the author of The Missing Cryptoqueen explains, if it wasn’t for Phil, we wouldn’t be able to communicate securely online today.
Producer: Stephen Hughes
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Jamie Bartlett
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0016xvx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Lusus (m00176y6)
1. Doppelgänger
Noa (Patsy Ferran) a young Gen Z Urbanite, suffers from continual FOMO. There is always someone somewhere doing something better than the choice she has made. When trying to keep a birthday arrangement with her mum and sister and attend a fun night out with successful friends, her wish to be in two places at the same time turns deadly.
Cast
Episode 1
No - Patsy Ferran
Jen - Susannah Fielding
Mindfulness Narrator - Caroline Faber
Ash - Lainey Lipson
Evie - Karima McAdams
Club Hostess - Nantaara Jafri
Smoker - Jacob Jackson
Mum - Sara Jackson
Taxi Driver - Avril Poole
Bus Driver/Drunk - Paul Fulberg
Kevin - Henry Newton
Crew
Production Company - Clarence Beeks
Co-Creator/Writer - Samantha Newton
Co-Creator/Director - Rachel Zisser
Executive Producer - Sara Johnson
Executive Producer - Daniel M Jackson
Producer - Hannah Charman, Sister Music
Casting Director - Sophie Kingston-Smith
Casting Assistant - Lainey Lipson
Composer - Na’ama Zisser
Vocalists - Tomer Damsky, Aya Gavriel, Ron Sheskin, Quantum Choir
Sound engineer - Laura Blake
Sound engineer - Charlie Braham
Sound engineer - Gareth Wood
Sound Recording - The Sound Company
Vocalist Recording - Marco Milevski, Mazkeka Studio
Sound Design - King Lear Music & Sound
Lead Sound Designer - Dugal Macdiarmid
Asst Sound Designer - Ned Sisson
Asst Sound Designer - Lauren Cooper
FRI 14:45 Living with the Gods (b09bfns5)
Dependence or Dominion?
Neil MacGregor continues his series on the expression of shared beliefs in communities around the world and across time. He focuses on the natural world and seasonal change: the Yupik people of Alaska depend on the seal, and ancient Egyptians looked to the god Osiris to bring fertility to their arid land. Both societies, in radically different climates, devised practices that acknowledged the fact of their dependence on the natural world - and engaged everybody with the responsibility of co-operating with it.
Producer: Paul Kobrak
The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph: (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0016y5p)
Ludlow
Kathy Clugston and the panel are in the village of Ludlow. Fielding gardening questions from the audience this week are Bunny Guinness, Matthew Pottage and Matt Biggs.
From old wives' tales to No Mow May, the team covers good ground in this week's GQT. Bunny, Matthew and Matt offer their guidance on growing bonsai - which species make for the best results? They also suggest tips for lifting the canopy of a cherry tree and share some spectacular design ideas for planting in alleyways.
Beyond the questions, and in honour of National Plant Health week 2022, Pippa Greenwood visits the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to view their secret weapon against unwelcome plant pests.
Producer: Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0016y5r)
Apologia: a lone astronaut, on watching the world end by Jessie Greengrass
Deep in the cosmos, a very long way from home, an astronaut prepares to say goodbye to planet earth. Sent off on a mysterious quest to find other worlds he will now never return to his own.
As the moment of Earth's destruction approaches so does his moment of reckoning.
Consumed by love and longing for his wife and children, he questions whether he has loved them well enough. He knows that in leaving them behind to embrace a life of exploration, he was turning away from the terrors, but also the joys, of fatherhood, the agonies, but also the ecstasies of intimacy. Remembering how he was unable to bear his children's slightest suffering, and inventing any excuse to absent himself when they were ill or hurt, he wishes he could make amends.
But now it is too late.
Apologia is a heart-rending meditation on loneliness and loss and the perils of turning away from love.
Written by award-winning author Jessie Greengrass
Read by actor Billy Howle
Produced by Karen Holden
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0016y5t)
Colonel Alan Jenkins, Mary Monson, Elspeth Barker, Art Rupe (pictured)
Matthew Bannister on
Colonel Alan Jenkins, the Gurhka officer who was the last living Westerner to have travelled to independent Tibet.
Mary Monson, the solicitor who devoted her career to helping the poor and disadvantaged.
Elspeth Barker, the novelist and critic who lived a colourful life surrounded by animals in a Norfolk farmhouse.
Art Rupe, the American record producer who helped to launch the careers of Little Richard and Sam Cooke.
Producer: Neil George
Interviewed guest: Nigel Warren
Interviewed guest: Roger Croston
Interviewed guest: Joseph Kotrie Monson
Interviewed guest: Raffaella Barker
Interviewed guest: Geoff Barker
Archive clips used: BBC TV Archive, Jungle Green - Borneo 24/12/1964; BBC Radio Manchester, Trump's tour bus 13/07/2018; Mary Monson Solicitors - YouTube channel, client care philosophy 18/02/2014; BBC Radio 4, O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker 14/10/1992; BBC Radio 3, The Verb - Life, Nature & Literature 10/04/2004; CBS, Alan Freed Rock & Roll Dance Party 1957.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m0016y5w)
Are there some words which should never be broadcast, even if they are used by Bob Dylan in one of his songs?
BBC Radio 6 Music has edited the use of the n-word from his 1976 anti-racist song Hurricane, about the imprisonment of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.
In Feedback this week, Sir Trevor Phillips and Marverine Cole give contrasting views about the use of this most offensive of words, particularly in music.
And can two non-radio listening music fans be won over by Radio 4's Add to Playlist, hosted by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m0016y5y)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0016y60)
The Tories lose hundreds of seats as Liberal Democrats make big gains
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m0016y62)
Series 108
Episode 3
Andy Zaltzman is joined by a panel of comedians and journalists from all around the UK to reflect on a week in which much of the country went to the polls.
Diona Doherty is in Northern Ireland, Tudur Owen Zooms in from North Wales, journalist Ayesha Hazarika represents Scotland and Ian Smith flies the flag for Yorkshire and England.
Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Katie Baum
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 Past Forward: A Century of Sound (m0013955)
England v Argentina 1998
On 30th June 1998 the news featured the build up to a certain FIFA World Cup football match – England v Argentina – on which the life and career of a young David Beckham would turn. Greg talks to Liza Betts and Jonathan Hirshler about the aftermath.
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.
Producer: Dan Potts
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m0016y64)
Indigenous film
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the history of indigenous and native people on screen.
In 1922, silent film Nanook of the North was released. Written, directed and filmed by a white man, the docudrama claimed to show the daily life of an Inuit hunter and his family in the Canadian Arctic - but all wasn't quite as it seemed. A century on, Screenshot explores the representation of indigenous people on screen, and who gets to tell their stories, with film critic Jesse Wente who founded the Indigenous Screen Office.
Ellen also talks to director Leah Purcell about reimagining the Australian classic, The Drover's Wife, as an Indigenous, feminist Western.
And Mark speaks to the producers of Waru, Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, about their quest to bring Maori and Pasifika stories to a wider audience.
Producer: Marilyn Rust
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0016y66)
Bim Afolami MP, Dame Margaret Beckett MP, Helen Morgan MP, Matthew Parris
Chris Mason presents political debate and discussion from the Highfields School in Matlock with the Conservative MP Bim Afolami, Labour MP and former Foreign Secretary Dame Margaret Beckett MP, the Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan and the journalist and broadcaster Matthew Parris.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Benton
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0016y68)
Basic Instincts in the House of Commons
In the aftermath of recent headlines coming out of the Commons, Sarah Dunant explores sexual equality through the ages.
She looks in particular at the idea that 'women are temptresses who cannot - by definition of their sex - be trusted'.
"So ingrained is this within Christian culture," Sarah writes, "that it defined attitudes towards women for millennia".
Biblical accounts, renaissance sculpture, fairy tales and politics are all put under the spotlight.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016x8t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:45 on Monday]
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0016y6c)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m0016y6f)
Episode Five
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"Daniel is still being gorgeous. How could everyone have been so wrong about him? Head is full of moony fantasies about living in flats with him and being trendy Smug Married instead of sheepish Singleton."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
FRI 23:00 The Likely Dads (m0016y6h)
Series 2
Success and Failure
Host Tim Vincent and regular panelists Mick Ferry and Russell Kane are back. This time they're discussing their successes as Dads and admit to some of their biggest failings.
What would they say their biggest success has been in raising their children? What's it like when your children achieve a level of success most could only dream of? Is there anything they found they really struggled with? And is there anything they feel they may have let their children down with?
"Mick and Russell's Dad Off" sees our two regular Likely Dads reveal how they'd handle certain hypothetical parentings scenarios - meanwhile the panel is asked to deduce the source of some anonymous facts from within the group. This week, our panellists are asked to decipher which of our Likely Dads once called the local maternity unit to speak to the "milk-bank".
Joining Tim, Mick and Russell this week are broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake and comedian Dominic Holland.
Producers: Kurt Brookes and Ashley Byrne.
A Made In Manchester roduction for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:30 Great Lives (m0016xjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]