SATURDAY 13 AUGUST 2022
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0019zb5)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Teller of the Unexpected: The Life of Roald Dahl by Matthew Dennison (m0019zb7)
Episode 5
A new biography by Matthew Dennison of the creator of many much-loved literary characters.
The familiar image of Roald Dahl is that of an old man, a tall, stooping figure usually dressed in a long cardigan, a rug over his knees in his writing hut. But one of our greatest storytellers was, as a young man, a dashing, very tall, handsome chap who women were very much drawn to.
He was brought up by his feisty Norwegian mother, and her love of the country myths and folk tales of the North influenced his writing. A flying accident which nearly killed him ended his war career, which was followed by time in Washington, where he began his writing career with short stories. There he met the beautiful actress Patricia Neale and began a family. Tragedy struck when his elder daughter died from measles, his baby son was nearly killed in a road accident in New York, and his wife suffered a near fatal stroke from which he almost single-handedly forced her back into good health. For all his life he remained unafraid to court controversy, or to make his views known forcefully.
The reader is Owen Teale, an award-winning stage actor who has appeared in plays such as Under Milk Wood, Macbeth and A Doll’s House for which he received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He is also well known as a screen actor including, on television, roles in Line of Duty, A Discovery of Witches, Spooks, Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. On the big screen, his appearances include Save The Cinema, Dreamhorse, Tolkien and The Last Legion.
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Directed by Celia de Wolff
Sound Design by Lucinda Mason Brown
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0019zb9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0019zbc)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0019zbf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0019zbh)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0019zbk)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
In 1730 a small group of women took on the forces of the Maharaja of Marwar. It was a most improbable conflict, but one that eventually lead to the death of 363 people. It is now known as the Khejarli massacre, and it’s marked with monuments, memorials, and annual remembrance. We could imagine people fighting over land, but this was about trees - Khejri trees.
The Maharaja’s men were sent to cut down a forest. What they didn’t anticipate was the response of the first locals they met, Amrita Devi Bishnoi and her daughters. When the women heard that the soldiers wanted to cut down the trees, they rushed to hug them in protection. For the Bishnoi people the trees were sacred. All life was sacred, and they couldn’t bear the idea of losing their connection with their trees. And so, the women were killed by the soldiers. Was this extreme environmentalism? Not for the Bishnoi. For them it was perfectly normal to protect living beings, and especially their sacred trees. Not so for the soldiers.
Bishnoi people rushed from villages all around and hundreds were killed before the soldiers realised that they were making a terrible mistake. They couldn’t understand what the fuss was about the trees, but the people’s sacrifice woke them up, and when word got back to the Maharaja he was mortified, and did his best to make restitution.
The Bishnoi women represented an early form of environmental advocacy, and highlighted a facet of Indian heritage that broadens our idea of environmental protection.
When we think of the environment, we often think that we are the masters of nature. The Bishnoi thought themselves servants of nature. Lord, thank you for trees, who give shade, shelter, food, medicine, and joy. They never complain, no matter how much we take. Let us learn from their tolerance, and learn to take little.
Hare Krishna.
SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m0019z43)
Somewhere, not Nowhere
Jonathan Evershed argues that we should re-imagine how we think of the Irish Sea.
Jonathan is a political anthropologist who has been studying the relationship between Ireland and his native Wales since Brexit. And he believes it's time to start thinking of the Irish Sea not just as a space between the two, but as an important place itself - a place with its own history and natural history.
In this talk, Jonathan invites us to join him on cliffs, in ports and on ferries, looking at the Irish Sea, as he asks us to think differently about it.
Producer: Giles Edwards
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001b3wn)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0019z2v)
Finding Balblair
Helen Mark is in Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, where she discovers the "lost" village of Balblair, visits the spectacular Corrieshalloch Gorge and tours the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum.
Presented by Helen Mark
Produced by Kathleen Carragher
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001b3wq)
13/08/22 Farming Today This Week: Crop fires, Livestock welfare, Rydal Show
As drought is declared across several parts of England, fires have been breaking out on arable farms where the harvest is well underway. Farm insurer NFU Mutual says so far this month it's already received more than 150 reports. We speak to some affected farmers - including one who says she could not call 999 when she first spotted a fire because there was no signal on her mobile phone.
The hot weather is also a challenge for livestock farmers - who need to keep animals cool and fed when grass is parched. The British Poultry Council says the extreme temperatures have "led to very high mortality events in some poultry flocks". The campaign group Compassion in World Farming is warning farmers to take extra measures to protect livestock, and is calling on the Government to suspend journeys for farmed animals unless absolutely necessary.
And away from worries about the hot dry weather, it's full steam ahead for farm and country shows at the moment. Caz Graham visits the 118th Vale of Rydal Sheepdog Trials & Hound in the heart of the Lake District to see what was happening there.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001b3ws)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001b3wv)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001b3wx)
Dave Gorman
Dave Gorman joins Nikki Bedi and Adil Ray ahead of his latest tour. The comedian gave up a bright future in maths to become a stand-up. He first found fame asking Are You Dave Gorman and, aided by a powerpoint, has been on a mission to prove Modern Life Is Goodish. He’s also recently become a crossword setter.
Sanjar Qiam is a master kite-maker from Kabul. To mark the anniversary of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Sanjar is launching a kite-flying festival across the UK to celebrate Afghan culture and bring people together.
Helen Linsell hated ballet lessons as a child but has spent her entire career encouraging others to dance. As the artistic director of Dance United Yorkshire, Helen works on dance projects with disadvantaged community groups, watching people grow in confidence through the power of movement. This dance-powered boost is something that Helen knows first-hand, from her own journey from shy and struggling adolescent to confident and courageous adult.
Kate Nash shares her Inheritance Tracks: Delirium Tremens by Christy Moore and Stay Wild by Shuga.
Writer Susie Boyt has published seven novels to date and her memoir My Judy Garland Life was also adapted for the stage. Susie talks about why fiction was important to her from a young age, and how her mother inspired her latest work Loved and Missed.
The Fly With Me festival is happening at various locations on Saturday 20 August 2022. For more information go to goodchance.org.uk/flywithme
Producer: Claire Bartleet
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001b3wz)
Series 37
York
Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel programme from York. On this week's panel are Rachel McCormack, Jeremy Pang, Paula McIntyre and Dr Annie Gray.
This week the panellists talk Yorkshire puddings and discuss which size tray is best. They also debate whether white chocolate is really chocolate, and Nestlé archivist Alex Hutchinson is on hand to explain the origins of this divisive confectionary.
The team is joined by Suzy Garraghan, Tea Buyer for Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, who discusses how they select the best tea to suit the local Yorkshire water, and the panel shares its favourite tea-based recipes.
Producer - Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer - Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Briefing Room (m0019z38)
The Cost of Living Crisis
There are growing calls for emergency measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Energy bills are now predicted to be hundreds of pounds higher than was expected just a few weeks ago. The Bank of England has increased interest rates, and warned of the twin threat of inflation and a recession.
What policy options does the government have? How can ministers get help to the growing numbers of people forced to choose between heating and eating.
Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:
Felicity Hannah, consumer affairs journalist and BBC Moneybox presenter
Nicole Sykes, director of Policy and Communications, Pro Bono Economics
Nick Eyre, professor of Energy and Climate Change, Oxford University
Gemma Tetlow, chief economist, Institute of Government
Duncan Weldon, economist and author of Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001b3x1)
Colombia's countryside not yet at peace
Kate Adie introduces dispatches from Colombia, Taiwan, Tunisia, Iraq and Germany.
Colombia's first-ever left-wing President, the former guerrilla fighter Gustavo Petro, has been sworn in, and questions about the country's peace dividend have sharpened. With the long-running insurgency disarmed, many Colombians hoped they’d soon be able to breathe more freely. Katy Watson visited the Cauca valley, where the benefits of peace have yet to trickle down to the grassroots.
The recent furore over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was a sharp reminder of just how much of a regional flashpoint this island's status can be. Rupert Wingfield Hayes knows this part of the world well – and he's seen its Taiwanese democracy evolve over several decades.
Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings just over a decade ago. The country ejected its long-time leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and brought in a full parliamentary democracy, but since then it's seen prolonged political stalemate and infighting. The current President, Kais Saied, wrote a new framework which hugely extends the powers of his own office, which was approved by an apparently overwhelming majority at the polls. But the BBC's Middle East correspondent Anna Foster found that not everyone was celebrating.
In Baghdad, followers of the Shia cleric-cum-politician Muqtada al-Sadr took over the main parliament building recently. But having central government at a standstill leaves the prospect of finding solutions to Iraq's multiple social problems even further out of reach. The Sadrists insist their leader has the answers and should be enabled to govern unobstructed - Lizzie Porter talked to the demonstrators about what they really want.
The energy squeeze applied by rising fuel prices are being felt particularly sharply in Germany, which has historically depended on cheap gas from Russia. Some German regions are now proposing new limits on energy usage. Jenny Hill is in Bavaria, where frugal plans for the winter are very much on the minds of local politicians.
Producer: Polly Hope
Production Co-Ordinator: Iona Hammond
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001b3zn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Surviving the Cost of Living (m001b3vw)
Holly and Scott
What can people struggling through today's cost of living crisis learn from those who lived through previous hard times?
Holly, in Gateshead, has been struggling to keep up with rising prices. She lives with her daughter Harley and boyfriend Kevin, and says that during the last few months, she has struggled to afford to put food on the table.
She says she feels terrified about the coming winter, and wonders how she will keep her daughter warm in the colder months.
She's meeting Scott, who left school and started work in the 1980s, a time of mass unemployment. He lived hand to mouth for years, taking home wages from odd jobs that barely covered his bills. He knows what it's like to be on the breadline - so by sharing his experiences, can he help Holly navigate today's cost of living crisis?
SAT 12:30 Party's Over (m0019z9n)
Series 2
Changing of the Guard
What happens when the prime minister suddenly stops being prime minister? One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'
"I can't just disappear like Gordon Brown. They say he barely gets out of bed now. Just sits there doing word-searches and eating Kit Kat Chunkies. Miserable. I hate the chunky ones." Former British Prime Minister Henry Tobin
This week, a security breach leads to MI5 sending Henry a new personal protection officer.
Starring Miles Jupp, Ingrid Oliver, Emma Sidi, Justin Edwards and Mali Ann Rees.
Written by Paul Doolan and Jon Hunter
Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound recordist and designer: David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production
SAT 12:57 Weather (m001b3x5)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001b3x7)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0019z9v)
Diane Abbott MP, Alistair Carmichael MP, Paul Johnson, Rachel Maclean MP
Luke Jones presents political debate and discussion from the Steam Museum in Swindon with Labour MP Diane Abbott, Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael MP, the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Johnson and the Conservative MP Rachel Maclean.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Benton
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001b3x9)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000z01y)
Hot Shower, Cool Planet
Why use gas or electricity to heat your water when the power of the sun will do it for free? Faisal Ghani, a young Bangladeshi-Australian engineer, has invented a deceptively simple glass pyramid that takes cold water in at the bottom and supplies hot water from the top. He believes it can bring cheap, hot water to every home around the Equator. In the first of a new series packed with carbon-busting ideas Tom Heap visits Faisal at his Dundee production line to hear about his plans to bring hot showers to the world. Climate scientist, Dr Tamsin Edwards of King's College, London, helps Tom calculate just how much carbon hot water from the sun can save.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
Researcher: Sarah Goodman
Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Dr Nazmi Sellami of Robert Gordon University, Professor Chris Sansom of Cranfield University and Professor Henning Sirringhaus from the University of Cambridge.
SAT 15:00 Drama (m000cbtv)
Three Sisters Rewired
Episode 1
A radical reworking of Anton Chekhov’s classic Three Sisters for BBC Radio 4, written and directed by Jenny Sealey and Polly Thomas.
On an isolated farm in 21st century Yorkshire, three sisters struggle to survive on a financially draining farm, with intermittent internet, and a pervading sense of dislocation from the real world.
With the titular three sisters played by three Deaf actors – Genevieve Barr, Lara Steward and Alexandra James – Three Sisters Rewired breaks new ground, reimagining the story through the prism of deafness, exploring isolation and stagnation in the modern world.
Three Sisters Rewired is about how we listen or don’t listen, how whether we are deaf or not, we all have selective communication, closing our ears and eyes to the world around us.
The cast is a mix of Deaf, disabled and non-disabled actors. The flute is played by Deaf flautist, Ruth Montgomery, who taught herself to play through the vibrations of the instrument. Three Sisters Rewired is another bold contemporary audio drama from the combined talents of the Graeae Theatre and Naked Productions team - Chekhov as never before.
Episode 1
We meet Olivia, Maisie and Iris on Iris’ 20th birthday. Olivia, the eldest, is single and a teacher in an all girls school; Maisie works the farm, and is unhappily married to local teacher, Kevin; Iris is a vlogger, hoping army boy Tyrone – or maybe Sean - will take her to the bright lights of London. Angus, their brother, is a thwarted Quietism academic, trapped by his love for local small- town girl Natalie.
Cast
Olivia………………Genevieve Barr
Maisie ………………..Lara Steward
Iris…………………Alexandra James
Angus…………….Jonathan Keeble
Natalie……………Steph Lacey
Anna………………Kay Purcell
Victoria……………Alexandra Mathie
Tyrone…………….Tachia Newall
Sean………………Chris Jack
Original music by Alice Trueman
Flute played by Ruth Montgomery
Written and directed by Polly Thomas and Jenny Sealey, inspired by Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters
Sound design and produced by Eloise Whitmore
Sign Language Interpreters – Jude Mahon, Beverly Roberts, Kate Labno, Jan Guest
Executive Producer - Jeremy Mortimer
A Naked/Graeae Theatre production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001b3xc)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Leah Williamson, Women and Partition, Afghan women's radio
Having led the England women’s team to Euro 2022 victory, the Lionesses' captain, Leah Williamson, reflects on the Euro 2022 victory and answers young listeners' questions.
The Armed Forces are not reaching their targets in terms of recruiting women. The MOD is hoping to increase the proportion of women in the armed forces to 30% by 2030 but they have not met the target set for 2020. We discuss with Lauren Godier-McBard and Ria Jackson.
It's the end of an era - the actor playing Peggy in The Archers is hanging up her mic at the age of 103. June Spencer has played the matriarch since 1951. Her last appearance was on Sunday's omnibus edition. Felicity Finch who plays Ruth Archer, shares how the rest of the cast has reacted to the news.
It’s been described as one of the most seismic events of the 20th century, but how did the Partition of India affect women? The split led to violence, disruption and death with women facing kidnapping, rape and forced suicide. It was a time of huge destruction and disruption but it was also a time of courage, compassion and survival of the women who overcame trauma to somehow rebuild their lives. We hear from Shruti Kapila, Professor of Indian History at Cambridge University and Ritu Menon, feminist publisher and writer, and author of Borders & Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition.
BBC Afghan have a new radio programme called 'Women' which focuses on women and girls, especially those in rural areas. It's presented by Shazia Haya in Pashto, and Aalia Farzan in Dari who fled their home country last August when the Taliban retook control. Faranak Amidi is the presenter of World Service's The Fifth Floor and caught up with Shazia and Aalia.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Lisa Jenkinson
SAT 17:00 PM (m001b3xf)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Boris (p0cn8rx8)
6. Brexit and Foreign Secretary Years: Tablecloth Tug of War
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. A bit of a mouthful. To most people - and there are those that hate it - he’s simply Boris
This series tells the story of Boris Johnson - from boy to man to Prime Minister. In each episode, Adam Fleming talks to a range of people who’ve known, watched, worked or dealt with him.
In the sixth episode, we hear about his involvement in the Vote Leave campaign and his time as Foreign Secretary.
Guests:
Sir Alan Duncan, former Conservative MP who served as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas from 2016 to 2019 and author of 'In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister'
Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of the Spectator and author of 'Why We Get the Wrong Politicians'
Will Walden was Boris Johnson's Director of Communications and External Affairs and his Chief Spokesman during his second term as mayor.
Producers: Ben Carter, Natasha Fernandes and Lucinda Borrell
Series Editor: Emma Rippon
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Studio Engineer: Rod Farquhar
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001b3xk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001b3xm)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b3xp)
Suspect in attack on the novelist Salman Rushdie is to be charged with attempted murder
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001b3w0)
Alan Cumming, Rich Hall, Amanda Thomson, Luca Cupani, Arthur Smith, Kitti, Hamish Hawk, Michelle McManus, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Michelle McManus are joined by Alan Cumming, Rich Hall, Luca Cupani, Amanda Thomson and Arthur Smith for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Kitti and Hamish Hawk.
SAT 19:00 Witness (b0639www)
Eichmann in Argentina
In 1960, the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, was abducted in Argentina and smuggled to Israel to face trial. He had been living in Buenos Aires under an assumed name. During his time in Argentina, he had spent hours talking to Willem Sassen a Dutch journalist and Nazi sympathiser. His daughter, Saskia Sassen, remembers.
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001b3xs)
Goldie
Born Clifford Joseph Price, Goldie was brought up in care homes and with foster families in the west Midlands. After establishing himself as a graffiti artist, he began to make dance music and, with his 1995 debut album Timeless, was a pioneer of the drum’n’bass sounds that dominated club culture throughout the decade. Alongside work as a DJ around the world, Goldie has also taken on various acting roles, including in the James Bond film the World Is Not Enough and, on television, playing a gangster in Eastenders. He was also runner-up in the 2008 reality show Maestro, in which contestants learned to conduct a symphony orchestra. The following year, he was the subject of a television documentary in which he composed a piece of contemporary classical music that was performed at the BBC Proms.
Goldie’s choices for This Cultural Life include hearing David Bowie’s 1969 Space Oddity when he was in care, and relating to its theme of isolation and abandonment. He also talks about the huge influence of seeing the 1983 documentary Style Wars, about the emerging hip hop scene in New York in the early 1980s, and the role of graffiti artists in reclaiming the subway trains and the walls of railway yards as their unofficial galleries. Goldie also reveals that the American jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny is one of his biggest influences, despite working in a very different musical field.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001b3xv)
Tobacco and Me
How much has the tobacco industry changed over the last 50 years? Peter Taylor uses his own remarkable archive to chart its history and scrutinises the current claim by big tobacco players that they’re now working towards a smoke-free world.
Back in the 1970s multinationals like Philip Morris, which produces Marlboro, the biggest selling cigarette brand in the world, even denied the very basic scientific evidence linking their products to a host of fatal diseases. Peter, then a young TV reporter, investigated the industry in a series of hard-hitting documentaries. Today, Philip Morris International (PMI) is transformed, outlining a strategy over the next decade to stop manufacturing and selling cigarettes. The programme features a rare interview with Philip Morris Executive Chairman Andre Calantzopoulos, the man behind this transformation. He explains PMI’s long-term plan to create “a smoke-free world.”
But can PMI and the industry really be trusted? Is the transformation real or is it just another highly sophisticated public relations campaign to keep former smokers addicted to nicotine? Peter has tracked the epic battle between Big Tobacco and public health for fifty years, and as he reveals, it's a story with a powerful personal connection.
Producer Jim Frank
Editor: Sam Collyns
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples
SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (b087qjd8)
Series 3
Episode 2
Brian Oldman has managed to gain release from Brixton prison through various nefarious means, while Joseph (Toby Jones) continues to move in ever higher circles in the Tory party.
GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's a tale revealing the nexus of crime, business and politics woven through the fabric of 20th century greed as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.
Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending both Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher.
Written by G F Newman
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill Production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 21:45 Writing Lives (b046j87f)
Treats, by Natalie Smith
Writing Lives is a series of short stories by writers new to Radio 4 and based on personal experience.
In 'Treats' by Natalie Smith, a 21 year old woman is leaving home in Manchester for a new job in Southampton in the early Eighties. As the bus moves out of the city, she opens a letter that makes her re-evaluate her past.
Natalie Smith is a South-West based playwright and short story writer. This is her first commission for BBC Radio 4.
Read by Christine Bottomley
Producer: Paul Dodgson
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 22:00 News (m001b3xx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Rethink (m0018x0s)
Rethink the World Order
Aid
After millions of people were displaced from central Europe because of the war in Ukraine, Amol Rajan and guests discuss what we have learned from this latest humanitarian crisis which could help us deal with mass movements of displaced people in the future. Have attitudes in the West been different towards Ukrainian refugees than those fleeing previous conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan? And how might we develop global strategies to cope with mass migration in the future, caused by conflict or climate change?
Joining Amol Rajan are:
Professor Stefan Dercon, professor of economic policy at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford.
Douglas Alexander, former Secretary of State for International Development in the UK.
Sir Mark Lowcock, previously headed up the United Nations Emergency Relief and Humanitarian response teams.
Shaza Alrihawi, Syrian refugee and chair of the Global Refugee-Led Network.
Presenter: Amol Rajan
Producers: Emma Close, Lucinda Borrell, Jim Frank
Researcher: Marianna Brain
Studio Manager: James Beard
Sound mix: Rod Farquhar
Editor: Nicola Addyman
SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m0019yy6)
Heat 2, 2022
Another four contenders join Russell Davies at London's Radio Theatre, to decide who takes another of the places in the semi-finals of the 2022 series.
Sport, the human body, medieval literature, opera, European politics, crime fiction, cinema and chemistry are just some of the subjects on which the contenders can expect to be tested today. As always, they will also face questions from a listener hoping to Beat the Brains, in the interlude in which they pool their knowledge to work as a team.
The contestants in today's heat are:
Dan Afshar from Kingston-on-Thames
Julie Aris from East Sussex
Shelley Nix from London
Linda Preece from Swansea
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Tongue and Talk: The Dialect Poets (m0019ywc)
Cornwall
In the final episode of the current series, Cornish born and bred actor Stacey Guthrie explores dialect and dialect poetry across Cornwall.
Stacey meets various poets from different parts of Cornwall and hears how the dialect differs between east and west and whether you're near the coast or inland.
During the programme we find out how Cornwall's links with the sea, fishing and other industries like tin mining, have influenced the way people speak. We also hear how the Cornish language has seeped into English language dialect in the duchy.
Stacey meets various bards and poets along the way, including Pol Hodges, Will Coleman, Bert Biscoe, Mick Paynter, Meg Chapman and Moe Keast.
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
SUNDAY 14 AUGUST 2022
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001b3xz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Living with the Gods (b09f2cxt)
Change Your Life
Neil MacGregor continues his series about the expression of shared beliefs with a focus on images which seek to change the viewer's behaviour.
A small coloured wood-cut, created in the Netherlands around 1500, offers a particularly gruesome rendering of Christ's crucifixion. Christ is pictured with blood pouring from his torso, his head, his legs and his outstretched arms. These are not realistically arranged droplets; instead we see a flurry of vertical red strokes, tightly packed together and evenly spaced. Neil MacGregor reflects on the purpose of this image.
He also considers a serene figure of the Buddha, a halo behind his head, already in his enlightened state.
Producer Paul Kobrak
Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.
SUN 00:30 Short Works (m0019z98)
Straight Fire by Gurnaik Johal
Four young men on a stag weekend: a summer expedition of camping, wild swimming and cooking over an open fire. As they bicker and tease, test and taunt one another, Straight Fire explores the shared histories that bind them, and the cracks in their relationships. It's story about heritage, fatherhood and masculinity which culminates in a shocking act.
Straight Fire is written by Gurnaik Johal, who won the 2021/22 Galley Beggar Press short story prize, and has recently published his first collection. We Move.
The reader is Antonio Aakeel.
Producer: Nicola Holloway
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b3y1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b3y3)
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 (m001b3y5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001b3y7)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001b3w4)
All Saints Church in Maidstone in Kent.
Bells on Sunday comes from All Saints Church in Maidstone in Kent. Overlooking the River Medway, the 15th century church, with its tower standing over the south west porch, houses a peal of ten bells with a tenor weighing thirty two hundred weight, tuned to C sharp. In 1957, Taylor’s Foundry of Loughborough recast the present ring of ten from the metal of a similar ring originally cast by the Whitechapel Foundry of London in 1784. We hear them ringing Grandsire Caters.
SUN 05:45 Witness (b0639www)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001b3t4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0128hrw)
Gardens
Mark Tully celebrates the healing power of gardens. In July 2011, he talked to Rev Lizzie Hopthrow, Chaplain of the Pilgrims` Hospice in Canterbury, about how her hospice garden brings hope to patients and their families.
With poetry from 14th century Persia, to contemporary writers Karl Capek and Diana Athill, and music by de Falla, June Tabor and Stevie Wonder.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001b3t7)
Wild East
It's called "Wild East": three big landowners are putting 20 percent of their land back to nature and asking people all over East Anglia to join them. Anna Hill meets the farmers who are managing hundreds of acres for wildlife as well as food production, and hears how they've been joined by local communities and individuals who are pledging pockets of land to create more space for nature. The pledgees' patches of land - from corners of gardens to school playgrounds - are put on the interactive "Map of Dreams", forming a network of wildlife corridors. In one of the most intensively farmed parts of the country, Wild East is encouraging farmers and residents to create messy edges, no-mow gardens, woodlands and community meadows. Their aim is to regenerate an abundance of wildlife that's been missing for generations.
Produced and presented by Anna Hill
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001b3t9)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001b3tc)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001b3tf)
The stabbing of author Salman Rushdie has again ignited the debate around freedom of speech and religious sensibilities. At this stage it's not known why the 75-year-old was attacked. The broadcaster and journalist Mobeen Azhar, who produced the podcast Fatwa, joins us to talk about the background to the threats made against Salman Rushdie after the publication of his book "The Satanic Verses" in 1988.
It is already a whole year since the Taliban took over again in Afghanistan. Thousands of refugees were able to come to the UK - but a year on, up to 10,000 are still living in cramped hotels, while for those left in Afghanistan, life is even more precarious. Marzia Babakarkhail, who was a judge in Kabul, came to the UK in 2008 after the Taliban tried to assassinate her twice. She arrived with no English, but joins us to explain how now she works for the Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams on immigration and asylum seeker cases - and earlier this year ran to be a local councillor.
We've talked before about the cost of living crisis, but as prices continue to rise, now religious buildings are also facing huge bills. One Methodist minister tells us that in the last year, his monthly electricity bill has risen from £70 to £1000 a month. New research from the Theos think tank finds many religious organisations are having to make difficult decisions about the services they will still be able to offer.
And with many of us overwhelmed by constant stories of environmental or economic crisis, not to mention worries about physical or mental health, the Medicine Festival in Berkshire next weekend sounds like the perfect antidote. Its aim is to envision a more enlightened, peaceful and sustainable world and provides a platform for so called 'indigenous wisdom keepers' to share their teachings, ceremonies and traditional technologies.
Presented by Emily Buchanan.
Produced by Amanda Hancox and Julia Paul.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001b3th)
Prospect Burma
Actor and comedian Ed Byrne makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Prospect Burma.
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 ‘Prospect Burma’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Prospect Burma’.
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: 1167686
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001b3tk)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001b3tm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001b3tp)
Sounds of Edinburgh Festival on the Royal Mile
Fr John McLuckie of Old St Paul's Episcopal Church marks the Edinburgh Festival from the heart of the city, and with Rev Jaime Wright reflects on how we can celebrate in a broken world.
In Matthew's Gospel, the Beatitudes pose the kind of challenging juxtapositions we often confront in our own experience.
John explores how, against a backdrop of pain and anxiety, we can find strength in sharing joy and celebration.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0019z9x)
The Samsara of Salmon
John Connell goes fishing in northern Spain, home to one of the oldest populations of Atlantic salmon in the world.
But he discovers a world on an ecological edge - with water at dangerously low levels, distraught fishermen and virtually no fish.
'What is a fish without a river?' he asks. 'Indeed what is a river without a fish?'
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxq8)
Montezuma Oropendola
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Panamanian Montezuma oropendola. In a clearing in the humid rainforest in Panama a tall tree appears to be draped in hanging baskets. These are the nests of a New World blackbird, Montezuma oropendola. The male produces an ecstatic bubbling liquid call as he displays to females, reaching a crescendo whilst bowing downwards from his perch, spreading his wings and raising his tail. They weave long tubular basket-like nests from plant fibres, which they suspend in clusters from tall trees. Colonies can contain up to one hundred and seventy nests, but more usually number about thirty.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001b3tr)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001b3tt)
Writer, Keri Davies
Director, Kim Greengrass
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Russ Jones ….. Andonis James Anthony
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Adil Shah ….. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (m001b3tw)
Grange Hill
The most popular faces from the early days of pioneering children’s drama Grange Hill are reunited. Todd Carty, Susan Tully and Lee MacDonald take Kirsty Wark back to school.
When Grange Hill hit our screens in 1978 it was the first time ordinary British schoolchildren had seen characters like themselves reflected on screen. Phil Redmond’s pioneering drama, set in a fictional north London comprehensive school, ran for 30 years, making it one of the longest-running programmes on British television.
Controversial storylines included racism, periods, bullying and drugs. Inevitably there were complaints. Teachers and parents were scandalised by the upstart pupils who spoke back to teachers and agitated to ban school uniform. It didn’t stop the BBC instantly commissioning a second series with double the number of episodes.
Todd Carty, who played heartthrob Tucker Jenkins, got fan mail by the sack-load and won his own spin-off series Tucker’s Luck. Susan Tully, who played the bright but troubled Suzanne Ross, nearly left the series early after her Dad lost his job.
Lee MacDonald played Zammo McGuire who famously got hooked on heroin. The plotline sparked the recording of the hit anti-drugs single Just Say No by cast members and prompted an invite to the White House.
Also joining Kirsty is Erkan Mustafa whose character Roland Browning was bullied for his size, and Simone Nylander whose famous line; “I just want to help you Ro-land” became a national catchphrase.
Many of the cast went on to find fame in other long-running British dramas, most famously Tully and Carty who played siblings Michelle and Mark Fowler in Eastenders. For others though, the mass adulation ended once they walked through the gates of Grange Hill for the last time and back to real life.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001b40m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m0019yyh)
Series 77
Episode 5
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Theatre Royal Nottingham. On the panel are Fred MacAulay, Jon Culshaw, Vicki Pepperdine and Milton Jones with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001b3v0)
Fried Chicken: a story of race and identity
Since the American Civil War to the present day, fried chicken has been used to create negative stereotypes of black people. These stereotypes and this history has seeped into today’s consciousness which has established a complicated relationship between chef and author Melissa Thompson and the food item. It’s a relationship which she wrote about and she joins Jaega Wise to explore her feelings and attitudes towards this fried dish.
Food historian Adrian Miller looks at the presence of fried chicken on the plantation fields in the Deep South and explains how the racial connotations of fried chicken and black people materialised in America.
We hear from Dr Kehinde Andrews who details the importance of having shared collective experiences of food and culture within communities. Dr Andrews explains how this experience strengthens the connection amongst people when faced in situations of being ‘othered’.
Melissa pairs up Maureen Tyne at her Caribbean food establishment in Brixton, South London. Maureen shows Melissa how she makes her special recipe for fried chicken and shares her love for the meal.
Presenters: Jaega Wise and Melissa Thompson
Produced by Candace Wilson
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001b3v2)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001b3v4)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Black Roots (m00180kt)
Episode Three - DeFord Bailey, the harmonica and country music in Nashville
String bands, hoedowns, square dances, old-time fiddle and banjo styles, these sounds were a dominant strand in African American roots music from the 17th century onwards. Despite this, many people think that such music comes solely from dungaree-wearing, white rural folk. Country might appear to be the whitest of all music genres, but it has some surprising roots.
How have these black roots been whitewashed from the history of American folk and country music? How have folk and country been positioned as white genres? What does black Americana sound like today?
In this episode, acclaimed musician Rhiannon Giddens explores the home of country music in Nashville to see how black people shaped this genre. How black is Nashville and its music history? Rhiannon uncovers the story of one of the biggest stars of the early country era - the African American ‘Harmonica Wizard’ DeFord Bailey. He was one of the most beloved performers at the Grand Ole Opry and the first black star of the radio age.
Featuring Frankie Staton, Pamela E Foster, Dom Flemons, David C Morton, Phil Jamison and Alice Randall.
Presented by Rhiannon Giddens
Produced by Tom Woolfenden
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0019z96)
Morden Hall Park: Postbag
Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Morden Hall Park, London. Christine Walkden, Matt Biggs and Juliet Sargeant answer the horticultural questions.
This week, the panellists suggest some cascading plant ideas for a flat roof, as well as offering up tips for starting an orchard and musing over the fascinating history of growing holly next to oak trees.
Horticulturalist at Morden Hall Park, Jade Wall, takes the team on a tour round the park's Edwardian rose garden, willow wood, and the wetland fed by the river Wandle.
Producer: Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 The Five Faces of Leonardo (m0004l8d)
Leonardo's City
Melissa Sterry, the design scientist behind the concept of Bionic City, visits Milan to discover the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci.
For Melissa, the trip is as much about the legacy Leonardo has left to urban planning as it is about seeing his iconic painting The Last Supper. She visits some of the most important Da Vinci sites in Milan including the Ambrosiana Library which houses the largest collection of Leonardo's drawings and writings, and the Codex Atlanticus focussing on his talents as engineer, scientist and inventor.
Melissa discovers a connection with the Renaissance polymath in the use of the natural world to influence built environments.
Meanwhile at Windsor Castle print room, which houses another of the world's major collection of Leonardo papers, head of prints and drawings Martin Clayton shows maps which demonstrate his city planning talents.
Producer: Sara Parker
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama (m001b3v6)
Brick Lane
Part Two of a new adaptation of Monica Ali’s bestselling novel, dramatised by Tanika Gupta.
It’s 2001 and Nazneen has been living in London for nearly 20 years. Her daughters Shahana and Bibi are growing up, and life hasn’t turned out as expected for Chanu.
As tensions rise on the estate, Nazneen meets Karim. Their connection deepens, but Chanu is laying plans for the family to return to Bangladesh. Can Nazneen finally decide to take charge of her destiny?
CAST
Nazneen ..... Anneika Rose
Chanu ..... Zubin Varla
Razia ..... Chetna Pandya
Hasina ..... Hiftu Quasem
Karim ..... Nikesh Patel
Mrs Islam ..... Nina Wadia
Tariq ..... Ragevan Vasan
Shahana ..... Rameet Rauli
Bibi ..... Riti Suthar
Secretary ..... Gavi Singh Chera
Dramatized by Tanika Gupta
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Caleb Knightley, Ali Craig and Pete Ringrose
Production Co-ordination by Luke MacGregor
Production Assistance by Hannah O'Reilly
Tanika Gupta
Tanika Gupta MBE FRSL is a prolific radio, stage and film writer, having written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK, over 30 radio plays and numerous television dramas. In the past year, her stage play The Empress was added to the GCSE curriculum, alongside her adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House.
Brick Lane
Monica Ali's debut novel Brick Lane was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003. In the same year Ali was named as one of Granta's 'Best of Young British Novelists'.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001b3v8)
Ross Raisin
Of course every edition of Open Book celebrates reading, but in this week's programme, Octavia Bright explores wider and sometimes less comfortable versions of the experience.
Her guest in the studio is Ross Raisin, who talks about his new novel, A Hunger. It tells the story of Anita, a middle-aged woman who is trying to achieve her goal as a top-end chef while also caring for her husband who has early-onset dementia and processing emotions which cover both childhood grief and maternal guilt.
Octavia also talks with the American-Filipina writer, Elaine Castillo, about her radical call for a more expansive definition of what both reading and writing might involve in her new book of essays entitled How To Read Now. In it, she calls for new readings of received classics by authors from Homer to Joan Didion, while also suggesting how contemporary writers might examine their own preconceptions about who will read their books.
And Joanna Lee provides an Editor's Pick recommendation in the new novel by French-Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin, The Pachinko Parlour.
Producer Beaty Rubens
Book List – Sunday 14 August and Thursday 18 August
A Hunger by Ross Raisin
God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin
The Natural by Ross Raisin
Waterline by Ross Raisin
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin: Translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo
Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison
SUN 16:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m001b3vb)
Series 8
Pompeii
It seems that classical scholars are wrong about the date of the volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii almost two thousand years ago. It's taken a few ripe pomegranates and some squashed grapes, carbonised by pyroclastic flow, to change our minds about this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The eruption was definitely in the year 79, but the month? Most written sources mistakenly suggest it was August but if you know your fruit, you will know that pomegranates and grapes ripen in the autumn in Italy. So the presence of these fruit in the remains of the city suggest the eruption must have taken place later in the year.
Natalie draws on the blisteringly dramatic account of the disaster by Pliny the Younger, writing to his friend, the historian Tacitus. She talks to archaeologist Dr Sophie Hay, who has spent nineteen years living and working in Italy and is a leading expert on the site. There are poignant details: many bodies discovered there were carrying keys, because people expected to be able to return to their homes once the eruption had subsided. Others had pillows wrapped around their heads to protect them from the pumice and lava raining down on them as they tried to escape.
‘Rock star mythologist’ and reformed stand-up Natalie Haynes is obsessed with the ancient world. She explores key stories from ancient Rome and Greece that still have resonance today. They might be biographical, topographical, mythological or epic, but they are always hilarious, magical and tragic, mystifying and revelatory. And they tell us more about ourselves now than seems possible of stories from a couple of thousand years ago.
With guests Dr Sophie Hay and Professor Llewelyn Morgan
Producer Mary Ward-Lowery
SUN 17:00 From Kabul to Manchester (m0019z11)
Documentary following children and their parents who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, as they adjust to a new life living in Manchester.
Last year, Broadoak School in Partington, Greater Manchester, found itself welcoming 57 new pupils from Afghanistan as well as four teachers. They had all fled the country and arrived in the UK after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Emily Wither spent several months with the children, parents, teachers and support workers as the families tried to adjust to a new life and learn a new language, all while living in a hotel as they wait for suitable housing in the UK.
The teachers and students speak of their heartbreak at leaving behind much loved friends and family remaining in Afghanistan who say their lives have changed beyond recognition, and through phone calls home, we hear some of the realities of living under Taliban rule. Meanwhile in Manchester, 12-year-old Irfan and 15-year-old Freshta make English friends, chat about Manchester United and take maths exams, while wondering what the future holds for them in their new home.
Reporter: Emily Wither
Producer: Emma Forde
Sound editor: Richard Hannaford
Translator: Shekiba Habib
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Editor: Nicola Addyman
SUN 17:40 Witness (b0639www)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001b3vf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001b3vh)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b3vk)
Dozens of charities call for government action on energy bills.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001b3vm)
Laura Barton
Writer and broadcaster Laura Barton selects this week's highlights from BBC Radio.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001b3vp)
Pat and Joy take in the atmosphere of the CotsTravaGanza festival as they set up their juice stall. Joy’s keen to bump into someone famous. She gets chatting to Mick, who pretends to be a well known musician. Joy’s face falls when he admits he’s actually one of the stewards. Mick mans the stall while Joy goes to get what she needs to clear up a juice spillage. While she’s gone, Toyah Willcox approaches. Mick hopes Toyah will come back; he knows someone who’ll be gutted she’s missed her.
Pat gets chatting to a woman and tells her about the Ambridge fete. She then goes into detail about how she’s a big fan of Toyah Willcox who’s performing at the festival. Only when it’s too late does she realise she’s been talking to Toyah herself! Later Pat recounts her encounter to Joy. Mick reappears and subtly hands over his phone number. Joy’s confused but to Pat it’s clear that Mick wants Joy to call him.
Susan points out to George that recent illegal acts in Ambridge amount to a crime wave. George asserts his innocence on all counts. He can’t believe his own grandmother thinks he could be the culprit. Susan’s shocked to hear that George knows she’s served a prison sentence and that he thinks it gives her credibility. Susan makes it clear to George what an unpleasant experience being in prison was. She hopes it will make George want to stay out of trouble, but the lesson he takes is simply not to get caught.
SUN 19:15 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m001b3vr)
Series 1
Hull Liverpool
Author, actor and comedy icon, Alexei Sayle takes his last journey in the series travelling around the country by rail. Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers in a quest for conversations that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.
There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also reveals the stories and memories of his career and childhood.
Alexei has a lifelong ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard and so the Sayle family benefited from free travel in the UK and across Europe. As a boy, Alexei and his family roamed far and wide from the family home in Anfield, Liverpool. At a time when most people thought an exciting trip by train was to Brighton or Blackpool, Alexei travelled thousands of miles to mysterious towns with unpronounceable names in far flung corners of the continent.
In each programme in the series, Alexei embarks on a rail journey, taking pot-luck on who he might meet and inviting them to have a conversation with him. In this episode, Alexei travels on the Hull-Liverpool line and meets Oscar who hopes to become a barrister specialising in human rights cases, Nick and Rachel who have taken up a more simple life after Nick’s stressful career as a consulting engineer working on huge projects like the Shard in London, and mother and daughter Jill and Isobel who tell Alexei how their lives have changed after they both lived through the Ariana Grande concert bombing in Manchester.
And finally, as the last episode in the series ends in Alexei’s home town of Liverpool, he recalls a moving story about his mum, Molly.
A Ride production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Three Fires (m001b3vt)
Episode 5: Girolamo Aflame
This five-part serial from award-winning crime writer Denise Mina takes a dark, contemporary look at Renaissance-era Florence. In a corrupt city riven by factionalism, wealth inequality and suffering from a rampant outbreak of plague, the pressure is building.
The Trial by Fire was supposed to take the heat out of an angry city but, after the spectacle descended into chaos, factions in Florence find themselves further apart than ever.
Written by Denise Mina
Read by Kieran Hodgson
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0019z9d)
Radio 4 Drama Commissioner Alison Hindell answers comments from listeners, discusses the changing nature of audio drama and responds to criticism of a drama about David Cameron written by his former director of communications.
There has been strong reaction to comments made on the Today programme about the Hillsborough disaster, which were not robustly challenged by the presenter.
And a husband and wife critique the World Service programme and podcast, Dear Daughter.
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0019z9b)
James Lovelock, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Roy Hackett MBE, Dame Olivia Newton-John
Kirsty Lang on
James Lovelock (pictured), the scientist and inventor who came up with the Gaia theory.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.
Roy Hackett MBE, who led the Bristol bus boycott in 1963.
Dame Olivia Newton-John, the singer and actor who starred in Grease.
Producer: Emily Finch
Interviewed guest: Bryan Appleyard CBE
Interviewed guest: Paul Martin
Interviewed guest: Lynn Mareno
Interviewed guest: Professor Kehinde Andrews
Interviewed guest: Holly Thomas
Archive clips used: Web of Stories - YouTube channel, James Lovelock - The Gaia Theory (11/17) 17/08/2017; BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs - James Lovelock 17/11/1997; AP Archive, USS Cole Attacked 12/10/2000; BBC News, Bombings in New York 11/09/2001; BBC Two, Newsnight - London Bombings 07/07/2005; BBC Radio 4, Six O'clock News 06/10/1981; AP Archive, Muslim Extremists Trial 15/12/1982; PBS News Hour, President George W. Bush - First US strikes in Afghanistan 07/10/2001; CBS News, Biden announces death of Ayman al-Zawahiri 02/08/2022; BBC Ideas, Why I'm still fighting racism at 90 24/01/2019; BBC One, Paul O'Grady's Working Britain 15/08/2013; BBC World Service, Witness - Bristol Bus Boycott 10/10/2019; BBC One, Parkinson - Olivia Newton-John interview 02/12/1978; Paramount Pictures/Robert Stigwood Organisation (RSO)/Allan Carr Production, Grease (Film clip) 1978.
SUN 21:00 Surviving the Cost of Living (m001b3vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001b3th)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Princess (p0cjqv1z)
Maddie Moate on Princess Leia
TV presenter Maddie Moate and author and lecturer Dr Rebecca Harrison explore the princess that changed sci fi - Princess Leia. The princess who was also a general and a member of the Rebel Alliance. We hear about the origin of her iconic hair style, how she persuaded studios that women would watch science fiction movies and the battles Carrie fisher had with the studio.
Produced by Audio Always
Producer: Ailsa Rochester
Editor: Jo Meeks
Sound: Tom Rowbotham
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001b3vy)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001b3w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b0128hrw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 15 AUGUST 2022
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001b3w2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m0019z41)
29. Fooling the Opposition
In 1980, underdog English table tennis player John Hilton stunned audiences with his style of play, effortlessly confounding talented European opponents.
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew puts his tactics under the microscope to discover how Hilton used deception to fool his opponents, and use their strengths against them.
Deception in sport, Matthew argues, is not underhand, so long as it’s within the rules - and it’s everywhere. With the help of sports psychologist Dr Robin Jackson and goalkeeper Chloe Morgan, Matthew examines the high velocities and ultra-fast reaction times of elite sport which make deception so prevalent, and effective.
And he charts the rise of data analysis in British sport, from its strange origins on the football terraces to today’s high tech data collection and teams of analysts. Swathes of data mean today’s athletes can set out more informed than ever about their opponents. But as Matthew discovers, this doesn’t necessarily make them immune to deception. In fact, it could make them more vulnerable.
With former European table tennis champion John Hilton; Dr Robin Jackson, reader in Sport Psychology at Loughborough University; Crystal Palace Women’s Goalkeeper Chloe Morgan; Statistician Richard Pollard; and Maria Konnikova, journalist and author of The Confidence Game.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Pippa Smith
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001b3w4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b3w6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b3w8)
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 (m001b3wb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001b3wd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001b3wg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
In these days of so much talk about leaders, I remember once asking my father-in-law, Sefton, about his idea of leadership. He replied that when someone invites others to leave a room, and they follow, that’s a leader. “Otherwise”, he said, “it’s just someone going for a walk”. I liked that. He went on to say that there were many leaders, but few good leaders, or as he said it, “leaders who are good”.
The Ramayana, a poem beloved of many Hindus, was spoken in response to the question, “Who is the best of leaders?” Valmiki, the speaker was happy to tell the story of Rama, a prince of Adhyodia. Rama was asked by his father to renounce his claim to the throne on the eve of his coronation. Rama did it without a second thought. Wait a minute. If he renounced the throne, how was he to become the best of leaders? Well, simply put, Rama wasn’t interested in power or image, but in doing the right thing – in character.
The idea of being king, while disrespecting his father’s wishes, didn’t cross his mind. That would have meant that his kingship was built on disrespect, and hurt, and that was unthinkable to Rama. He wouldn’t set such an example to others, and this, Valmiki was teaching, is good leadership. Rama’s example, in this and many instances, has inspired for many generations. The comedian Groucho Marx, once quipped, “I have principles, and if you don’t like ‘em, I got other ones”. Rama was trustworthy because he followed his principles, and thus had self-respect.
Dear Lord, we’re all called to lead someone in life, as mothers, fathers, teachers, politicians, or friends. Whatever the result of our efforts may we act with kindness, with clear principles, with support for those who do good, and mindful of setting a good example.
Hare Krishna.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001b3wj)
15/08/22 Broccoli crop at risk after water abstraction ban; thin pasture for cows; sheep
Farmers in Fife, a prime location for growing vegetables and soft fruit, have had to stop using water from the catchment of the River Eden to irrigate their crops. The National Farmers' Union of Scotland calls it “a devastating blow for vegetable growers.” We hear from a grower who says it'll put his broccoli crop at risk.
Some cattle farmers are finding the grass is so dry and thin, there’s just not enough nutrition in it to feed their livestock which means many have been already forced to break into their winter feed stocks, even in the famously lush fields of the West country.
And we kick-off our week focusing on sheep with a specialist from SAC Consulting, Kirsten Williams. The sheep industry was worth around £1.3 billion in 2020, according to the National Sheep Association, it’s a mainstay of British farming and it’s facing challenges aplenty.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
MON 05:56 Weather (m001b3wl)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlmf8)
Blue Jay
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the North American blue jay. The loud warning screams of blue jays are just part of their extensive vocabulary. These birds are intelligent mimics. Blue jays are neat handsome birds; lavender-blue above and greyish below with a perky blue crest, black collar and white face. But the blue jay is not blue, but black. Its feather barbs contain a dark layer of melanin pigment; the blue we see is caused by light scattering through modified cells on the surface of the feather barbs and reflected back as blue. Common over much of eastern and central North America, blue jays will move in loose flocks to take advantage of autumnal tree mast. A single blue jay can collect and bury thousands of beechnuts, hickory nuts and acorns (in a behaviour known as caching) returning later in the year to retrieve these buried nuts. Any they fail to find, assist in the natural regeneration of native woodlands.
MON 06:00 Today (m001b3yh)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 How to Play (m001b3yk)
Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with Jörg Widmann and the BBC SSO
Clarinettist Jörg Widmann and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra invite us behind the scenes at Glasgow City Halls as they get ready for a performance of Mozart’s beloved Clarinet Concerto. We hear the insider’s perspective on how they bring this monumental piece to life on stage, and the players share the joys and challenges of living inside this music. Jörg is joined by conductor Thomas Dausgaard and lead violinist Laura Samuel, with further insights from clarinettist Berginald Rash.
Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Cardiff
Photo credit: Marco Borggreve
MON 09:30 NatureBang (m0013hxx)
Octopuses and the Mind-Body Problem
What is this thing we call "consciousness"? It feels like a non-physical thing that somehow exists as a separate entity to our physical body. We might think of it as being located up in our brain where our internal chatter is generated, but the 'mind' still somehow feels separate to the 'brain'.
Then along comes an octopus to complicate the matter. Octopuses clearly have consciousness and high intelligence. But the last common ancestor between us and them is a flatworm that trawled the sea floor about 750 million years ago, so it's not surprising that their brains have evolved to be very different to ours. In fact, some people say they have nine brains. This is due to a complex neural network that runs throughout their body, meaning they have the ability to make different decisions from all eight arms without having to send messages back up to the central brain.
So how can the mind of an octopus be seperate to its body? And does this mean that our mind and body are also one and the same?
Featuring writer Sy Montgomery, author of 'The Soul of an Octopus', and philosopher Julian Baggini, author of 'How the World Thinks'.
MON 09:45 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b3ym)
I Will Die
The author of My Name Is Leon reads her memoir of an unpredictable childhood in 1960s Birmingham.
Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.
Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.
Photo credit: Sarah Lee
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001b3yq)
Women in Afghanistan one year after the Taliban took control, Children's Commissioner Rachel de Souza
It has been a year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The country is in economic crisis, there are droughts and the lives of women and girls have been impacted hugely. Emma is joined by an expert panel including the first female deputy speaker for the Afghanistan Parliament Fawzia Koofi, the former Women’s Minister Hasina Safi and Samira Sayed Rahman, from the International Rescue Committee. They will discuss access to education for girls, what role the international community should play and the situation for Afghan refugees in the UK.
Over the weekend we learnt the Crown Prosecution Service - the CPS - said it isn't going to be prosecuting any of the people who were arrested at a vigil for Sarah Everard who was murdered last year. We hear from Barrister Pippa Woodrow of Doughty Street Chambers in London who's represented two of the women in this case.
The government says it wants to improve how victims are treated in the criminal justice system across England and Wales. As part of that aim, there's a draft Victims Bill. It wants to give more weight to what a victim of crime says, improve support for victims so they can recover better, and make it easier for victims to maintain contact with the criminal justice system and stay connected. But the Children's Commissioner says the experience of children as victims needs special attention in this Bill, as they have different needs to adults. The Children's Commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, tells us more.
Plus are you pro-pocket? Data shows the majority of women want them, but clothes don’t always have them. We’re joined by comedian Tiff Stevenson to talk about her love for them and fashion historian Amber Butchart, who delves into their history.
Presenter Emma Barnett
Producer Beverley Purcell
MON 11:00 My Name Is... (m001b3ys)
My Name Is Ashok
When Uganda's Asians fled Idi Amin and his men fifty years ago, many settled in Leicester. Ashok Patel was just thirteen and he still remembers how these refugees changed his school and his city, particularly the Golden Mile, a stretch of banks and shops and restaurants where he grew up. He wants to know why the community was expelled and what happened next. His first interviewee is his wife. Both she and her sister Sunita say that watching similar flights - from Syria and Ukraine - is a horrible reminder of those traumatic times.
"I've always been curious why communities are fighting each other - not just here but right around the world. Why is it we can't all get on?"
Gripping inside contributions from Manzoor Moghal, who knew Idi Amin and met him for supper after the president had fled to Jeddah; Ugandan Asian, Priti Raithatha, who says the community was partially responsible for their fate; and the captain of a Leicester golf club, Dixit Chauhan, who has been organising a tournament with the Ugandan members of Kampala golf club.
Manzoor Moghal is the author of Idi Amin: Lion of Africa
The producer is Miles Warde
MON 11:30 The Frost Tapes (p0cl4t9c)
Andrew Lloyd Webber
David Frost was the 20th century’s most prolific interviewer, a master of conversation with a remarkable talent for getting people to open up and spill their souls. Many of his conversations, however, have been lost - until now. Presented by his son, broadcaster Wilfred Frost, The Frost Tapes joins David as he interviews the greatest entertainers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
With the piano at his fingertips, Andrew Lloyd Webber would sit down with David Frost nine times between 1969 to 2007. Along the way, the composer got deep - explaining how “Cats” nearly ruined him, plus the scandalous inspiration behind “Phantom of the Opera.”
The Frost Tapes is a production of Paradine Productions and Chalk & Blade.
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001b3yw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001b3yy)
Energy Special - How much will it cost and what can you do about it?
Energy Special - How high could prices go and what is fuel poor? Also, breaking down the cost of home energy, are solar panels the answer and you tell us how you see it.
MON 12:57 Weather (m001b3z0)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001b3z2)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
MON 13:45 Larkin Revisited (m001b3z4)
To the Sea
Across ten programmes and ten poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits Philip Larkin's work in his centenary year.
Episode 6:
Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'To the Sea', a poem which describes how everything 'crowds under the low horizon' at the beach in high summer.
Larkin wrote once that holidays stemmed from 'a romantic notion that it will all be better at Frinton or Venice', but this is one of his most celebratory poems. Does 'To the Sea' still speak to us today?
Producer: Faith Lawrence
Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001b3vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (m000my7h)
Bones
Zosia Wand's intimate and compelling drama set in real time on the sands of Morecambe Bay.
A Polish mother and her teenage daughter fight over a shameful family secret on the perilous sands. Can they confront the truth before the tide cuts them off? A play about heritage, slippery memories and the secrets we keep to survive,
Bones explores how it feels to be a migrant and the emotional impact on the generations that follow.
MARIE.....Daniela Denby-Ashe
KATHERINE.....Miranda Dobson
Directed by Nadia Molinari
A BBC Audio Drama North production
Bones was originally developed through the Royal Court’s Writers Group (North).
The broadcast is accompanied by a specially commissioned film created by artist Hannah Fox and film maker Rich Berry - Reel Things for BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Cumbria which can be viewed on the website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08svf7v where you can also find information about other programmes in the festival.
For further information about the making of the drama please go to www.zosiawand.com
MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m001b3z6)
Heat 3, 2022
Once again Russell Davies and contestants enjoy the pleasure of stored-up knowledge, in an age when there's seemingly an app to provide the answer to any question. In the third heat, Russell Davies welcomes the contenders to MediaCityUK in Salford. At least one of them will go forward to the semi-final stages of this year's knockout tournament for the prestigious quiz title Brain of Britain 2022.
Taking part today are:
Gill Austen from Drumnadrochit in the Scottish Highlands
Jamie Hall from Manchester
Darren Martin from Chorley in Lancashire
Rebecca Mathis from Newbury in Berkshire.
A Brain of Britain listener will also discover whether he or she has won a prize by stumping the contestants in 'Beat the Brains'.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001b3v0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Recalculating Art (m0019z2b)
Art by women is literally undervalued. The highest price achieved by a contemporary female artist is $12.4m, while it is $91m for a man. If a painting is signed by a man it goes up in value, signed by a woman it goes down.
We might expect this historically, but as the majority of art students today are women, why is there such a gender value gap now?
To untangle this mystery, Mary Ann Sieghart enters a thrilling world of glitzy, high-stake auctions and make-or-break gallery decisions. She lifts the lid on the opaque world of art valuation, explores how punters react to genderless AI art, and uncovers historic collusion and contemporary bias. She asks if male artists are actually better than women and why, in the bible of the art world today, there is just one woman mentioned, as a footnote.
Pinning down work being done to level this playing field, Mary Ann talks to the galleries showing more works by women, discovering powerful women shifting the attention and canny investors who are realising maybe it is just the right time to buy.
Featured in the programme are: Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern; Prof of Finance, Renee Adams; from Sotheby’s Helena Newman and Marina Ruiz Colomer; philanthropist Valeria Napoleone, Bellatrix Hubert from David Zwirner gallery; author Helen Gorrill, art curator Naomi Polonsky, and the London Art Fair.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001b3z9)
Modesty Uncovered
Modest clothing is a multi-billion dollar trend, with designers seeking inspiration from cultures where dressing modestly is the norm. There are millions of images tagged as #modestfashion on Instagram or Tik Tok, from prairie dresses to designer hijabs. Ernie Rea explores the religious reasons from the Abrahamic faiths about why some cover up, and asks if our ideas of modesty are changing.
He's joined by Dr Shuruq Naguib a lecturer of Islamic Studies at the University of Lancaster, Dr Lindsay Simmonds a research fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies and Molly Boot, a theologian training for ministry in the Church of England. They discuss what rules they apply to the way they dress and the historic and scriptural basis for their understanding of modesty. What is the requirement of men to dress modestly in faith traditions and what role do sexuality, shame and purity have in the way some people of faith understand they have to dress?
Plus, cultural journalist Hafsa Lodi explains why, for her, the modest fashion industry poses a paradox, and we hear from male blogger Zaahid.
Producers: Rebecca Maxted and Katharine Longworth
Assistant Producer: Josie Le Vey
Editor: Helen Grady
MON 17:00 PM (m001b3zc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b3zf)
Moderna's new jab - which protects against Omicron and the original coronavirus strain - will be used in the Autumn booster programme.
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001b3zh)
Series 77
Episode 6
Back for a second week at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham, panellists Fred MacAulay, Jon Culshaw, Vicki Pepperdine and Milton Jones compete amongst one another, with Jack Dee the unimpressed umpire. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m001b3zl)
Lynda and Stella meet while walking their dogs. Stella offers to help out with anything for the fete. Later, Stella tells Pip that Lynda has assigned her to replace Alan, who’s away, in the Dunk the Vicar event. Stella asks for clarification which Pip finds hilarious, and Stella gets annoyed. She reveals that she has a fear of water. Pip encourages her to tell Lynda she can’t do it, but Stella is unsure so Pip offers to go with her. Stella has a crisis of confidence, and faced with formidable Lynda she can’t go through withdrawing from Dunk the Vicar. Stella feels useless and Pip offers to help her out. They’ll go to a swimming pool together to try to get her used to water.
Tracy thanks Chelsea for owning up to scratching Gemma’s car, and Chelsea apologises for not thinking through her actions. Under Russ’s supervision, she’s written a letter to Gemma apologising for what she did. Out of earshot from Chelsea, Tracy worries about what will happen when she hands the letter over. Jazzer checks in with Tracy at work. To Tracy’s surprise Gemma’s not said anything to her since she gave her the letter. They hope this means it’s all blown over. Back at home the relief felt by Tracy, Jazzer and Chelsea that the letter seemed to do the trick is short lived. Tracy receives an email threatening a private prosecution against Chelsea. Jazzer thinks Jim can help but Tracy feels overwhelmed by it all. Jazzer promises they’ll sort it.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001b3zp)
Jacob Collier and Lizzy McAlpine, Abdul Shayek and Ishy Din, Threats to writers
Jacob Collier has won a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. In fact, he has five Grammys altogether. He’s back home in London after his recent UK tour and has just brought out a new single, Never Gonna Be Alone. Jacob and his musical collaborators Lizzy McAlpine and Victoria Canal perform the song live in the Front Row studio.
Following the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie at the weekend, the writer, human rights activist and PEN International president, Burhan Sönmez, considers the threats faced by writers across the world, from individuals on social media to imprisonment and torture by the state.
15th August 2022 is the 75th anniversary of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan. We speak to director Abdul Shayek and writer Ishy Din about their play, Silence, which is adapted from Kavita Puri’s book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, about how they dramatise the real-life stories of those who witnessed this brutal moment in history.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Photo: Lizzy McAlpine and Jacob Collier / Credit: Mogli Maureal
MON 20:00 Perfect Pitch (From Choir Stalls to Cricket Balls) (m001b3zr)
BBC cricket reporter Eleanor Oldroyd explores the unlikely connections between cricket and choral music. She is joined by England great Sir Alastair Cook, World Cup winner Ebony Rainford-Brent, and former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd, all of whom credit their cricketing success to their early experiences of singing in choirs.
Producer: Ben Collingwood
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m0019z28)
After the ‘Narco-President’: Rebuilding Hope in Honduras
When the president stands accused of drug trafficking, what hope is there? From 2014, for eight years Juan Orlando Hernandez ruled Honduras like his personal fiefdom. A Central American strongman comparable with some of the worst from decades past, under his presidency Honduras began a rapid descent into a so-called “narco-state”. The allegations against his government soon started to mount up: human rights violations, corruption and impunity; accusations of torture and extrajudicial killings by the police and military. And at its heart, the claim by US prosecutors of a multi-million dollar drug smuggling ring, overseen from the presidential palace itself. Just weeks after he left power in January 2022, Juan Orlando Hernandez was arrested and extradited to the US to face drug trafficking charges. American prosecutors allege he used his security forces to protect some drugs shipments and eliminate competitors.
Will Grant, the BBC’s Central America Correspondent, finds out what life was like under the disgraced president and meets some people trying to instil a little hope in a nation which hasn’t had any for a long time. He meets Norma, the mother of Keyla Martinez, who was killed in a police cell. Initially, the police said she had killed herself but hospital reports later proved this wasn’t the case. Now, can Norma Martinez’s campaign for justice bring a sense of hope to those who don’t trust the authorities and have endured years of rampant corruption and police impunity?
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Fixer in Honduras: Renato Lacayo
MON 21:00 Clearing the Air (m0019yzy)
In December 2020 Southwark Coroner's Court found that air pollution "made a material contribution" to the death of Ella Kiss-Debrah. Ella died in February 2013 at the age of nine after over two years of severe asthma attacks and cardiac arrests that led to multiple hospital visits.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, Ella’s mother, spent seven years after her daughter’s death trying to find the answers as to why her previously healthy child had suddenly become so gravely ill. An initial inquest found no connection to air pollution and at no point was air pollution mentioned as a potential factor in the time that Ella was ill.
Eddie Nestor speaks to Rosamund and the key people involved in fighting for a second inquest and ultimately setting this hugely significant legal precedent.
We also explore what comes next. How could the law be changed to reduce our exposure to invisible pollutants? What can government at all levels do to make the air we breathe less toxic? Is pressure from the public necessary to make drastic change happen?
Producer: Steve Hankey
Presenter: Eddie Nestor
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 21:30 How to Play (m001b3yk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001b3zt)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
MON 22:45 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (m001b3zw)
Episode 1
Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.
At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.
Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m0019z0j)
A Murmuration of Starlings
Most groups of wildlife can be described as a flock or a herd, a swarm or a shoal – but where is the fun in stopping there? From an army of ants to a dazzle of zebras, an exultation of larks to a murder of crows, the English language is brimming with weird and wonderful collective nouns to describe groups of animals and birds.
Michael Rosen talks to Matt Sewell, author of 'A Charm of Goldfinches', about some of the more obscure examples that have made their way into common usage as collective nouns for creatures of the land, the sea and the air...
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Becky Ripley
MON 23:30 You're Dead To Me (p07n8q35)
The History of Football
Where did football come from? Was it really invented in China or is the truth a little closer to home?
Why was knife crime such a problem for football hundreds of years ago? And what’s the real truth behind the history of the women’s game?
Public historian Greg Jenner joins comedian Tom Parry and historian Professor Jean Williams to teach you the true history of the beautiful game. It’s history for people who don’t like history!
Produced by Dan Morelle
Scripted by Greg Jenner
Researched by Emma Nagouse, assisted by Eszter Szabo and Evie Randall
A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2022
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001b3zz)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b3ym)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b401)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b403)
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 (m001b405)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001b407)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001b409)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
Sometimes, when I speak in public, I’m challenged by claims that we can be good without God. This has never been a difficulty for Hindus, so I challenge back that I don’t have a problem with that – and no matter our faith or belief we should agree on a few good things – like charity.
In the Bhagavat, a very influential Hindu book, we hear of Bali Maharaja, a powerful king, who had no interest in God. He was a good leader, a principled man, famed for his generosity and care for others. Vishnu, in this case God, visited Bali disguised as a dwarf priest and asked for three steps of land. It seemed a small request as he had such a little stride. Bali was happy to grant Vishnu’s wish, but realised all wasn’t as it seemed when, with one step, the dwarf engulfed the earth, and with the second he pierced the outer limit of the Universe. Bali realised that he was being pranked – by God. But Bali refused to go back on his word. With one step outstanding, and nothing else to offer but himself, Bali asked Vishnu to place his final step on his head.
For Bali Maharaja the act of giving was a principle of such importance that there was no sacrifice he wouldn’t make to sustain it. That’s a good man. Someone you could trust, and even though he lived a life ignoring God, God didn’t ignore him.
This morning’s prayer is a rewording of two ancient prayers. One is from the Taittiriya Upanisad and the other from the poet Kabir. We came into this world with fists closed and we go away with open palms. So, while living, open our hands and give liberally; give with faith; give with understanding; give with sensitivity, and give with a feeling of abundance.
Hare Krishna.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001b40c)
16/08/22 Seasonal workers, Sheep's milk cheese, Drought support
Claims that seasonal workers from Indonesia have taken on debts of up to £5000 to pick British fruit are to be investigated by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA). An investigation by The Guardian found some were charged by unlicensed recruitment brokers for unnecessary tests and training, and are now struggling to recoup the costs.
Farmers are to be told this week if they will be allowed to cut and graze areas of land which have been protected under Countryside or Environmental Stewardship schemes. The Rural Payments Agency is planning to relax some of the rules farmers follow for payments since the dry weather has reduced the amount of feed available for livestock.
Plus sheep milk cheese. It's still relatively rare to milk sheep in the UK. We visit one farm that's aiming to make its operation more sustainable.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0t44)
Kea
Michael Palin presents the kea from a windswept mountain in New Zealand. A a snow-capped mountain in New Zealand's South Island are not a place where you'd expect to find a parrot, least of all a carnivorous one (and with a penchant for rubber). But this is the home of the kea.
Keas are curious birds in every sense of the word. Drab greenish brown, they're the world's only Alpine parrot. When they can find them, keas eat fruits and berries, but also, especially in winter they descend from the higher slopes and scavenge on animal carcasses at rubbish dumps, cracking bones with their sharp beaks to reach the marrow. They will even attack live sheep, stripping the fat from their backs and damaging vital organs. Although this habit is rare and is now understood to be largely restricted to injured sheep, it led to widespread persecution of the birds and a bounty was paid on the head of each bird killed which led to widespread declines so that keas became endangered.
Today Keas are legally protected. In their mountain homes, the parrots survive to entertain and exasperate tourists as they clamber over cars, strip rubber seals from windscreens and remove wiper-blades ... curious birds indeed.
TUE 06:00 Today (m001b40p)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Across the Red Line (m001b40r)
Can going on strike any longer be justified?
Anne McElvoy returns with a new series of the show that invites people who disagree on an issue to debate - and then to listen to each other.
The cost of living is rising. There is talk of a summer of industrial discontent. But in an economy that has radically changed since the trade unions' 1970s heyday, can going on strike still be justified? Are there better ways to resolve disputes, or does the right to strike remain crucial?
Ex-trade union leader and former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson meets economist Andrew Lilico to debate - and then conflict resolution specialist Gabrielle Rifkind invites each of them to find out more about what has shaped their opponent's worldview and beliefs, to see if they can reach a deeper understanding of the other's position.
Producer: Phil Tinline
TUE 09:45 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b42b)
Hallelujah
The acclaimed author of My Name Is Leon continues to read from her memoir about her unpredictable childhood in 1960s Birmingham. Today, she is in a quandary when her childhood desire to sing the Hallelujah chorus brings her into conflict with her Jehovah's Witness upbringing and the forbidden.
Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.
Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.
Photo credit: Sarah Lee
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001b40w)
Musician Self Esteem, Baroness Minouche Shafik and Female Astronomers
Self Esteem is creating pop with purpose, tackling the patriarchy, sexual abuse and toxic relationships to a fun danceable beat. She is nominated for this year's Mercury Prize for her second album Prioritise Pleasure and joins Emma in the studio.
The cost of living crisis has been a central point of contention between the two candidates vying to be our next Prime Minister. Emma is joined by Baroness Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics. Previously deputy governor at the Bank of England - touted by many as the favourite to have replaced Mark Carney as the Governor of the Bank when he stood down in 2019, instead Andrew Bailey took the role and recently declared a recession is likely.
Before 1900, a woman who wanted to study the stars had to have a father, brother, or husband to provide entry. Now in a new book ‘The Sky Is for Everyone’, thirty seven leading women working in the field of astronomy, who have broken down barriers tell their personal stories of scientific success. Two of the women featured in the book are Cathie Clarke, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge and Professor Carole Mundell, the Hiroko Sherwin Chair in Extragalactic Astronomy, Head of Astrophysics at the University of Bath, and President of the UK Science Council.
It’s been two weeks since the Lionesses brought home the Euro 2022 trophy. Last week the England Captain Leah Williamson spoke on this programme about the importance of ensuring girls have the chance to play football. Emma is joined by Richard, not his real name, whose daughter played for the Crystal Palace junior team but has recently heard her team has been cut.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce
TUE 11:00 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m001b40y)
Series 20
The Case of The Missing Gorilla
DO WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?
Good! But how does that work!?
Our intrepid science sleuths explore why some things immediately catch your eye - or ear - while others slip by totally unnoticed. Even, on occasion, basketball bouncing gorillas.
Professor Polly Dalton, a psychologist who leads The Attention Lab at Royal Holloway University, shares her surprising research into ‘inattentional blindness’ - when you get so absorbed in a task you can miss striking and unusual things going on right in front of you.
Dr Gemma Briggs from the Open University reveals how this can have dangerous everyday consequences: you are four times more likely to have a crash if you talk on the phone while driving - even handsfree.
Drs Rutherford and Fry also hear from stroke survivor Thomas Canning, who developed the tendency to ignore everything on the left side of space, despite his vision being totally intact. And Dr Tom Manly, from the University of Cambridge’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, helps our sleuths unpack the neuroscience of this fascinating condition.
Producer: Ilan Goodman
Contributors: Professor Polly Dalton, Dr Gemma Briggs, Dr Tom Manly
TUE 11:30 In Suburbia (m001b411)
Light and Shade
In spite of the fact that so many of us live, and choose to live, in Suburbia, it's still described as, at best a cultural backwater, and at worst a cultural desert. Indeed the cultural output of suburbia is often songs and novels and films that describe a striving to escape from this land between the city and the country, or in cultural terms between rural Idyll and Bohemia. Ian Hislop has long been fascinated by this cultural snobbery, and in three programmes he talks to leading cultural figures who either come from or celebrate Suburbia and Suburban life.
Hanif Kureishi, author of 'The Buddha of Suburbia' is a not so proud son of Bromley, comedian Lee Mack is star and writer of the suburban comedy 'Not Going Out' which is now the longest running sitcom on British television and still uses the familiar tropes of suburban aspiration, gentle class conflict and stability to garner laughs, and JC Carroll of The Members is the composer whose punk anthem 'The Sound of the Suburbs' made the tedium of car washing and noisy neighbours a badge of honour. All of them discuss their mixed feelings about suburbia, if and how it's changing, and why it remains a place where so many people aspire to live.
In this second programme in the series Ian talks to Darren Evans, the suburban artist and JC Carroll tells him how The Sound of the Suburbs came to be written.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001b48h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001b415)
Call You and Yours - How are you coping with childcare at the moment?
How are you coping with childcare at the moment? The UK has the second most expensive childcare costs in the world. There are parents left without childcare at short notice because a lot of nurseries are closing down. That's due to rising costs and staff shortages. Are you struggling to find a nursery in your area? Do you run a nursery and can't get the staff? How are you coping with childcare at the moment? You can email us about that right now. youandyours@bbc.co.uk or from
11am on Tuesday you can call us – 03700 100 444
PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson
PRODUCER: Jay Unger
EDITOR: Pete Wilson
STUDIO MANAGERS: Nat Stokes and Chris Hardman
AP: Linda Walker
Production Co-ordinator: Jessica Bellamy
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001b417)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001b419)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Larkin Revisited (m001b41c)
Going, Going
Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.
Episode seven:
Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'Going, Going', which invokes an England the poet fears will soon disappear ('The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,/The guildhalls, the carved choirs.) Does this poem's tone and language still resonate with us today? Can 'Going, Going' be seen as an eco-poem?
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001b3zl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m000nzq8)
Sunrise
Early one morning, Prakash is showing his research to Professor Akram, senior research scientist in India’s atomic energy programme. It’s brilliant, possibly ground-breaking, but Professor Akram is distracted, his mind is somewhere else.
He asks him to sit with him by the window in his laboratory and look out at Delhi’s unfolding sunrise. Akram is worried about a meeting that is currently taking place with a Government Minister about the direction of the atomic programme and which is causing him to have a crisis of faith in the work he has been pursuing his entire life, work which will be taken up by Prakash.
Fifty years later, Prakash gazes out of a similar window at the early morning vista of Delhi and remembers the events of that momentous day.
Sunrise is an original drama for radio by film director and screenwriter Amit Gupta.
Cast:
Professor Akram VINCENT EBRAHIM
Prakash NIKESH PATEL
The Government Minister NEIL D'SOUZA
Dr Divya Mishra AYESHA DHARKER
Sheena, daughter of Prakash SHEENA BHATTESSA
Studio Manager and Editor MARK SMITH
Director NICOLAS KENT
Producer NICHOLAS NEWTON
A Promenade production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001b3wz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 Made of Stronger Stuff (p0bmx6kg)
Kidneys
Psychologist Kimberley Wilson and Dr Xand van Tulleken take a journey around the human body, to find out what it can tell us about our innate capacity for change. In this episode, Kimberley and Xand are looking at our kidneys, and the enormous societal problems caused by this fist-sized organ.
Together they bust some detoxing myths, hear about the dangers of the billion dollar illegal organ trade, and whether an artificial kidney might be on the way.
Also - how many glasses of water do we really need in a day?
Producer: Georgia Mills
Researcher: Leonie Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001b41g)
Like
Carmen Fought is a Californian Valley Girl, born and bred and she's, like, there's nothing wrong with using 'like.' And Michael's, like, come on Word of Mouth and tell us why.
Producer Sally Heaven
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001b41j)
Ravi Shankar, India's famous sitar player
Ravi Shankar was born in India in 1920 and came to prominence just as India gained independence from Britain in 1947. He was initially a dancer and then a virtuoso sitarist and composer, and became famous internationally because of his collaborations with Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison and the Beatles.
Bobby Seagull's parents came from Kerala, and while Ravi Shankar's music came from the north, Bobby still remembers hearing him play growing up. There are early clips of Ravi Shankar explaining the sitar, plus George Harrison's account of their North American tour. Joining the conversation is biographer Oliver Craske, author of Indian Sun who knew Ravi well. He counts up in the programme how many relationships Ravi may have had.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
TUE 17:00 PM (m001b41l)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b41q)
Ministers were told of torture concerns weeks before trying to send refugees to Rwanda
TUE 18:30 Alone (m001b41s)
Series 4
Episode 1- Best Upstairs Neighbour Ever
A sitcom, written by Moray Hunter and starring Angus Deayton, Abigail Cruttenden, Pearce Quigley, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron, about five, mainly single, middle aged neighbours living in flats in a converted house in North London.
Mitch (Angus Deayton) is a widower and part-time therapist who is looking to put his life back together now that he is single and living with Will (Pearce Quigley), his younger, more volatile half-brother. Mitch is currently in a new relationship with Ellie (Abigail Cruttenden) who is a somewhat shy, nervous and sensitive schoolteacher. Overly honest, frustrated actress Louisa (Kate Isitt), and socially inept IT nerd Morris (Bennett Arron) complete the line-up of mis-matched neighbours.
In the series opener, Best Upstairs Neighbour Ever, Mitch and Ellie are trying to work out ground rules for their relationship, with matters such as the frequency of present-giving, meeting up and overnight stays on the agenda. Morris meanwhile fancies a group Sunday roast, if someone else will cook it, and Will and Louisa are just trying to get used to the fact that Mitch and Ellie are now a thing.
Cast:
Angus Deayton - Mitch
Abigail Cruttenden - Ellie
Pearce Quigley - Will
Kate Isitt - Louisa
Bennett Arron - Morris
Written by Moray Hunter
Directed by Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
Script Edited by Ian Brown and James Hendrie
Edited and Studio Managed by Jerry Peal
Production Manager - Sarah Tombling
Production Runner - Kareem Elshehawy
Recorded at The Shaw Theatre, London
Based on an original idea developed in association with Dandy Productions
Producer - Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001b41w)
Pip’s noticed an improvement in Rosie’s wellbeing recently, but Toby’s downbeat. He’s been thinking about moving out, but at the same time is saddened by the thought of leaving Rosie. Pip’s confident they could make it work. Toby reveals his dad has offered him a job in his wine import business – he’d have to leave Ambridge. He’s ready to turn his dad’s offer down but Pip challenges him to think again. She reassures him that he can still very much be in Rosie’s life while living and working away.
Tracy’s called in to speak to HR at the chicken factory. She’s shocked to learn that Gemma’s accusing her of bullying. Tracy tries to explain that it’s the other way round, but she struggles to put specific examples into words. When the car scratching incident comes up, Tracy’s position looks pretty weak. HR manager Ray asserts that he’s there to listen, but it’s hard for him to do much with the general instances Tracy’s given him. Gemma’s said she’s scared to work with her. What Ray can tell her is that Gemma isn’t keen to prosecute Chelsea. Her feelings are exacerbated by the difficulties between her and Tracy. Tracy sees that the problem is perceived as being her. She can’t afford to lose the job, but Gemma’s not going to leave her any choice. Later Tracy tells Jazzer and Chelsea that the lawsuit for the car damage has been dropped. She lies that her and Gemma will now work different shifts. Chelsea doesn’t have to worry, it’s all been sorted.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001b41y)
Anne-Marie Duff on Bad Sisters, Returning the Benin Bronzes, Public Service Broadcasting's Prom
Anne-Marie Duff talks to Samira about her new Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters, where she plays one of five sisters who is trapped in a coercive marriage, from which her sisters plot to free her by any means necessary.
Is the Horniman Museum’s decision to return their Benin Bronzes to Nigeria a watershed moment for UK museums? We speak to Errol Francis, artistic director of Culture&, Dan Hicks, author of The Brutish Museums, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, who is leading an All-Party Parliamentary Group examining issues around African repatriation and reparations.
J Willgoose Esq. from the band Public Service Broadcasting reveals how they are creating a special performance called This New Noise to mark the centenary of BBC Radio at the BBC Proms.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paul Waters
TUE 20:00 The Church of Social Justice (m001b420)
Helen Lewis was raised a Catholic, but is now an atheist - and has also spent the last ten years writing about feminism. Recently, she was asked if she thought feminism had replaced religion in her life.
It's a timely question, since the British Social Attitudes Survey says that the decline of religious belief is “one of the most important trends in post-war history”. But have we really become less religious? Or has our hunger for truth and meaning simply transferred itself to social justice politics? In this programme, Helen Lewis considers the religious overtones of the “culture wars”. On both left and right, she finds unquestionable doctrines, charismatic preachers, blasphemy and heresy - and the promise of salvation.
Talking to religious leaders, atheists, and voices from across the social and political spectrum, Helen considers the parallels - both good and bad - between traditional religion and modern social justice movements. Helen is also on the hunt for some answers. Can we take the religious fervour out of politics? Or — and this is hard for an atheist like Helen to accept — should we encourage a revival of traditional faiths to fulfil our spiritual impulses?
With contributions from:
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner at Bromley Reform Synagogue.
Canon Brian McGinley, parish priest of Our Lady Queen of Peace and St. George's parishes in Worcester.
John McWhorter, Linguist and author of, ‘Woke Racism’.
Elizabeth Oldfield, former head of Theos, a religious think tank.
Journalist Tomiwa Owolade.
Activist and author Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.
Victoria Turner, editor of ‘Young, Woke and Christian’.
Minister Alex Clare-Young
And….Reg and Jill Lewis, Helen’s parents.
Presenter: Helen Lewis
Assistant Producer: Max Bower
Editor: Geoff Bird
A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001b422)
Wine and Architecture Courses
Who doesn't love a good glass of wine? Well, when we found out that the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in London have their first blind teacher Richard Lane, we thought we ought to go sit in on a class and get educated about the world of wine. We hear from Richard about his journey from being a student at WSET to becoming a wine educator there and we caught up with Harry Meade, who is himself blind, and one of Richard's pupils. We asked Harry how it fared having a visually impaired teacher.
We rightly hear a lot about how we live in a highly visual world and part of that encompasses architecture and the built environment. Our reporter Fern Lulham paid a visit to a course called Architecture Beyond Sight at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. The aim of the course is to include visually impaired people within the design and making of architecture from the very beginning. Fern even tried her hand at using some of the large power tools available in the classroom...
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: William Wolstenholme
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image. He is wearing a dark green jumper with the collar of a cheque shirt peeking at the top. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo, across Peter's chest reads 'In Touch' and beneath that is the Radio 4 logo. The background is a series of squares that are different shades of blue.
TUE 21:00 Pandemic 1918 (m000j2ty)
Episode 1 - Origins, symptoms and spread
Leading virologist Professor John Oxford presents a three part series on the origin, spread and reaction to the Pandemic that devastated much of the planet just over 100 years ago.
The so-called Spanish flu of 1918/19 is estimated to have killed more than 50 million of the 500 million people it infected, including 228,000 in the UK. It was the planet's biggest single natural human catastrophe - a flu pandemic that killed more people than both world wars put together in a fraction of the time. And yet this huge moment in history remains largely under the radar.
In three programmes, he charts the story of how the 1918/19 flu pandemic affected the UK and the world.
In Episode 1, he looks at the much debated origins of the H1N1 strain of flu. There are three theories - firstly it incubated in an army camp in the United States, secondly it originated from China, and thirdly (John's theory) that it probably began a couple of years earlier inside a military camp near the Western front in France. The real truth about the origin remains a conundrum to frustrated scientists.
John also looks at the symptoms, some of them remarkably similar to the ones we see today with coronavirus. Both diseases affect the respiratory system and lead to coughs and fevers but there are specifics which make them both unique. The H1N1 strain of the flu would turn people a strange purple colour, give them severe headaches and, in many cases, delirium. In 1918, a secondary disease like bacterial pneumonia could not be treated with antibiotics.
This particular strain of the flu tended to affect younger, fitter people. Around half of all those who died were in their 20s to 40s. Pregnant women died and so did their children. It's thought many elderly people had built up immunity from previous serious outbreaks of flu in the 1800s.
Through powerful testimony we hear how the spread of the disease was stark and affected the whole world in extremely quick time. Ships and trains became the incubators and it's believed the flu was first brought into Britain by soldiers returning to Scotland. It wasn't unusual for a soldier who had survived four years of bloody conflict to return from the front on a Monday and be dead by Thursday. Whole families were wiped out by the Spanish flu.
In every part of the world, the fear of death was palpable. Professor Howard Phillips, Professor of History (Capetown University, South Africa), tells the programme, 'It all happened at dramatic speed. One man wrote, "I wonder if humanity will survive". In that situation, hearing a sneeze would have been spine-chilling.'
And in a frightening reminder of how pandemics evolve, John explains how the killer flu came in three waves - firstly in the spring of 1918, then in the autumn of the same year and again in early 1919. Armistice celebrations at the end of the First World War helped to make the second wave even more deadly than the first.
Episode 2 looks at how the authorities in the UK and around the world reacted to the flu in different ways and how misinformation played its part. Episode 3 examines the long term impact on people, communities and on general health.
Produced by Ashley Byrne and Iain Mackness
A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 21:30 Across the Red Line (m001b40r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001b424)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (m001b426)
Episode 2
Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.
At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.
Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:00 Daliso Chaponda: Citizen of Nowhere (m0010x30)
Series 3
Black History
Episode 3 Black History
Malawian comedian Daliso Chaponda is back with a third series of his Rose D’Or nominated show where he examines divisive global issues.
Over the course the two previous series Daliso has covered colonialism, slavery, political corruption, charity, immigration, cultural relativism, dictators, and how different countries deal with the sins of their past.
In this third episode of the new series, through comedy routines and guest interviews, Daliso will be tackling the subject of ‘Black History'.
Performer… Daliso Chaponda
Writer… Daliso Chaponda
Guest… Nabil Abdulrashid
Additional Material… Scott Bennett
Theme tune - 'Timalira' by Lawi
Production Coordinator... Mabel Wright
Producer… Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios Production.
TUE 23:30 Bridget Christie: Mortal (m000vp48)
Afterlife
Episode 4 - The Afterlife
Following on from her hugely successful, award-winning previous series – ‘Minds The Gap’ and ‘Utopia’, Bridget now turns her attention to Mortality, covering ‘Birth’, ‘Life’, ‘Death’ and ‘The Afterlife’.
Like many of us forced to work from home during lockdown, Bridget has recorded this series herself in her house, and in her local park, on a pre-sanitised recording device sent to her in the post. Batteries weren’t included. She had to buy them all herself.
In a collection of informative, personal and absurd recordings, she confronts the difficult questions most of us spend our lives avoiding - all whilst being interrupted by cats, bad WiFi, life admin and her own dead self from beyond the grave.
If you are mortal, then this is the show for you.
Written and performed by Bridget Christie
With guest appearances from her sister Eileen and her friend Ash.
Producer... Carl Cooper
Sound Mixer... Olga M. Reed
Bridget Christie: Mortal is a BBC Studios Production
WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2022
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001b428)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b42b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b42d)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b42g)
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 (m001b42j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001b42l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001b42n)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
My friend, Dr Ranjan, when rising from bed each day, and before he put his feet to the ground, reached down and touched the earth while reciting a mantra. He was a research scientist who worked in India, Sweden, and Oxford, and his field, at a time when it was unfashionable, was in environmental science. The Sanskrit mantra he chanted, with a lilting melody, he had learned when he was a child.
Dr Rajan said this mantra was one of his inspirations in his choice of career. He also said he found motivation in the epic poem Ramayana. This poem depicts Lord Rama, one of God’s avatars, living mainly in a forest, and is resplendent in interactions with mountains, rivers, trees, herbs, and the sea – as well as with animals, birds, and even insects. Rama is God in the world, the natural world. At one stage he had to build a bridge to Lanka to rescue his wife, Sita. Bears, monkeys, birds, and fish joined in the attempt, as did a small squirrel. The squirrel could contribute little, throwing pebbles and sand at the bridge of massive boulders, and attracted the laughter of others. Rama stopped the laughter by telling the squirrel how much he valued his efforts, as the sand was binding the larger stones in place.
Rama accepted everyone’s service and interestingly here identities of being human, animal, bird etc. were of no significance to him. All were equal in His eyes, and worthy of his love. He wasn’t speciesist. Imagine if our environmental policies considered all living beings as equally valuable, not just human beings? A new approach to respect, and even citizenship.
Dr Rajan’s morning mantra was, “I bow to mother Bhumi, mother Earth, whose body is made of mountains and forests, and who is clothed by the oceans. You are God’s consort, and the mother who feeds us all. Please pardon me for touching you with my feet”.
Hare Krishna.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001b42q)
17/08/33 - A prototype land use framework, seasonal farm safety, rare breed sheep
The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, an independent charity, has spent the last three years working with local and national stakeholders, seeking a practical way to develop a Land Use Framework for England. They’ve just published their latest report, and Caz Graham speaks to Tom Burston, the Commission's director of policy and research, to find out more.
A viral video on social media has sparked discussions around on-farm safety during harvest season. Off the back of the incident where a man apparently stood in front of a combine harvester, Caz speaks to Stephanie Berkeley from the Farm Safety Foundation.
And Castlemilk Moorits are one of our native sheep breeds, they have a fascinating history and their fleece is highly prized by hand spinners. But with only just over a thousand in the whole of the UK, they’re officially at risk. Mariclare Carey-Jones meets the Welsh Representative of the Castlemilk Moorit’s Society, Vicky Phillips, and her flock.
Presented by Caz Graham; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dvrt1)
Bar-headed Goose
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the Central Asian bar-headed goose. The bar-headed goose is a high-flier of the bird world. Bar-headed geese are migrants which undertake one of the most arduous journeys of any bird. They breed mainly in the remote lakes of the Tibetan Plateau, but overwinter on the plains of northern India. But to get there, they have to cross the World's highest mountain range, the Himalayas, a height of over 20,000 feet.
WED 06:00 Today (m001b433)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Sideways (m001b435)
The Woman in the Portrait
Matthew Syed follows the story of Bernice Bennett, a woman driven to uncover the truth behind a treasured family portrait.
When Bernice was growing up, she was always told how much she looked like her grandmother, Mattie Kemp Alexander. Looking at her grandmother’s portrait, she saw her own eyes looking back. This woman’s face was familiar, and yet Bernice knew so little about her. Feeling the call to know more, Bernice set out on a journey to uncover the stories of her family tree.
Through the course of her investigations, Bernice uncovers the traumas etched into her family’s past and is drawn into America's legacy of slavery. Her discoveries are painful, but they also lead to some surprisingly joyous new relationships and renewed understanding of her own identity.
So why do we search for the secrets of the past, when we know how much the truth may hurt?
Genetic Counsellor Brianne Kirkpatrick talks about how people might prepare themselves for what they could find in their family histories, and genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith explores how the traumas experienced by our ancestors can ripple through to the present day.
Contributors:
Brianne Kirkpatrick - Genetic Counsellor
Nicka Sewell-Smith - Genealogist
Bernice Alexander Bennett - Genealogist
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Sandra Labady
Executive Producer: Claire Crofton
Researcher: Nadia Mehdi
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander
Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:30 Four Thought (m001b437)
Who Tells the Story?
Chloe Juliette welcomes the movement for those with 'lived experience' of public services to share their stories, but says more stories are needed.
In this extraordinary talk Chloe, a social researcher who has experienced the care system and been invited many times to share those experiences with professionals, takes us inside one of those talks. She tells us the stories she shares with professionals, and explains why she feels now is the time for more voices to join the conversation.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
WED 09:45 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b442)
Hunger
Acclaimed author Kit de Waal reads from her memoir about her childhood. Today, a new car is the cause of tears and further chaos at home. Meanwhile, among the Jehovah's Witnesses events take an unexpected turn when sex is up for discussion.
Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.
Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001b43c)
Alison Rodgers, Dan Scorer, Ros Coward, Anita Anand, Sarah Class, Tracey Cox, Dr Tristram Wyatt
If you’re a social media user you may well be familiar with the concept of vabbing – vaginal dabbing – where you use vaginal fluid as a perfume behind the ears and neck. Proponents claim it acts as an aphrodisiac to would-be lovers by spreading pheromones. Emma Barnett talks to sex expert Tracey Cox and the evolutionary biologist Dr Tristram Hunt. Have you tried it? Does it work? And is it sanitary?
Adam Downs is one of 15 people with learning disabilities who is in a high security hospital. He is currently at Rampton Secure Hospital with serial killers, murderers and paedophiles even though he has never been convicted of an offence. Ex-patients include killers Charles Bronson, Ian Huntley and Stephen Griffiths. His mother Alison Rodgers and Dan Scorer from the learning disability charity Mencap talk to us about their campaign for him to be cared for in the community. They say at least 2000 people with learning disabilities and or autism are currently being detained in inpatient hospital units in England and the Government is not reaching the targets they set.
It’s almost 25 years since Diana Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris. She once famously said “being a princess isn’t all it’s cracked up to be” so what is the life of a princess in the modern royal family and how are our perceptions of that role influences by fiction and culture. Emma Barnett talks to Anita Anand the presenter of the Radio 4 series “Princess” which looks at famous historical and fictional princesses and also to writer and journalist Ros Coward who’s co-authored a new book “Diana: Remembering the Princess”
Award winning musician Sarah Class who has composed and produced the music for the series ‘BBC Africa’ narrated by Sir David Attenborough, plays live in the studio ahead of her appearance at the Earth Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 27th August, as part of the BBC Proms series.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
WED 11:00 Perfect Pitch (From Choir Stalls to Cricket Balls) (m001b3zr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Princess (p0cjqwlv)
Anjli Mohindra on Sophia Duleep Singh
Anita Anand explores the story of Sophia Duleep Singh; the daughter of a deposed Maharaja, goddaughter of Queen Victoria and a suffragette on the frontline of some of the most violent battles for women's rights. Anita Anand discusses her remarkable life with Actor Anjli Mohindra and Dr Priya Atwal.
Produced by Audio Always
Producer: Ailsa Rochester
Editor: Jo Meeks
Sound: Tom Rowbotham
WED 12:00 News Summary (m001b49x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001b49z)
Problem Gambling, Rising rents & Fake Companies
A leading gambling firm is hit with a record fine for failing to deal with excessive betting. We get reaction from a campaigner.
Inflation and private rents are both up. We find out from tenants what rising rents mean for them and how people who live alone are coping.
Plus we hear more from victims of the bogus scandal we uncovered last week.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Craig Henderson
WED 12:57 Weather (m001b4b1)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m001b4b3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Larkin Revisited (m001b4b6)
Bridge for the Living
Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.
Episode eight:
Simon Armitage explores extracts from Philip Larkin's 'Bridge for the Living', which ends with an unusually uplifting final verse for a Larkin poem: 'Reaching for the world as our lives do/As all lives do ... Always it is by bridges that we live.' 'Bridge for the Living' was a commissioned poem, set to music by the composer Anthony Hedges to mark the opening of the Humber Bridge.
Commissioned poems don't always survive the moment of their making - so does this one deserve our attention in 2022?
And why did Larkin call it 'Bridge for the Living'?
Producer: Faith Lawrence
Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001b41w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m000p1gs)
Franklin
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Harriet Glickman, a high school teacher in California, writes to Charles M Schulz, creator of the USA's most widely published comic strip, 'Peanuts', about the possible inclusion of a 'Negro character' in the strip. ' What she suggests, appeals to Schultz, ,but he also finds it morally troubling..
Based on a true story.
Charles Schulz ('Sparky') ..... Trevor White
Joyce Schulz ..... Clare Corbett
Morrie Turner/Ken ..... Danny Sapani
Alan Saunders/Larry ..... Roger Ringrose
Harriet Glickman ...... Charlotte East
Teacher ..... Ian Dunnett Jr.
Radio ..... Luke Nunn
Written by Simon Bovey
Directed by Marc Beeby
WED 15:00 Surviving the Cost of Living (m001b3vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 Pandemic 1918 (m000j2ty)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m001b435)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001b43p)
Have soaps run their course?
The end of both Holby City and Neighbours in the space of a few months suggests that something is wrong in the world of soaps. Viewers have been declining for years as soaps face competition from structured reality shows, streaming services and social media content. But millions still sit down every evening to see the ups and downs of the lives in Walford, Weatherfield and beyond, and EastEnders remains one of the most watched programmes on BBC iPlayer.
So what role do soaps play in media landscape today? Should we expect the Queen Vic to be pulling its last pint, or are there many more births, deaths, marriages and everything in between still to come in the unpredictable world of soap operas?
Sir Phil Redmond is the creator of Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks. Charles Collingwood has played Brian in The Archers since 1975. Emma Bullimore is a TV critic and soap fan. Daniel Kilkelly is soaps editor for entertainment news website Digital Spy.
Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Tim Bano
WED 17:00 PM (m001b4bc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b4bf)
Soaring food prices push inflation to its highest level for 40 years
WED 18:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0b9zbpj)
Series 1
Katherine Ryan and Greg James
Joe Lycett explores the nation's weird and wonderful obsessions by getting to know a selection of famous and not so famous guests. Joining Joe on the sofa this week, comedian Katherine Ryan shares her love of the Kardashians, whilst Radio 1 DJ Greg James introduces Joe to the world of cricket. Joe also welcomes members of the public to share their secret passions, as well as this week's VOP (very obsessed person), Mattie Faint the curator of The Clown Gallery and Museum.
Joe Lycett's Obsessions was written and performed by Joe Lycett, with material from James Kettle and additional material from Laura Major and Mike Shepherd. The production coordinator was Hayley Sterling. The producer was Suzy Grant and it was a BBC Studios production.
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001b43h)
George’s plans leave a bad taste for Ed, and Lilian cuts to the chase.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001b43k)
Gregory Doran and the RSC, WASWASA – Whispers in Prayer performance, Taiwan's new cultural landmark
When Gregory Doran was appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2012, his stated ambition was for the company to stage the entire canon of plays in the First Folio, the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays. Ten years on and having just completed his plan, with the premiere of a new production of All's Well That Ends Well, he joins Nick Ahad to reflect on the changing nature of his relationship with the Bard.
Nick visits Birmingham to see the rehearsals for WASWASA – Whispers in Prayer, an art installation and performance by artist Mohammed Ali which explores the act of Islamic prayer in a secular society.
Taiwan has a new cultural landmark, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre. Arts critic Debra Craine was in the Taiwanese capital for the opening of the state of the art building, designed by Dutch architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten. Debra joins Nick Ahad to discuss why the Taipei city government commissioned the £185 million complex for theatre, dance and opera.
Presenter Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Image: Gregory Doran in rehearsals, 2021 Photographer credit: Ellie Kurttz/ RSC
WED 20:00 Behind the Crime (m001b43m)
'Ian'
Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons.
Their role is to help people who have committed crimes to look at the harm they’ve caused to other people, understand why, and work out how to make changes to prevent further harm after they’ve been released.
In Behind the Crime, they take the time to understand someone whose crimes have led to harm and in some cases, imprisonment.
In this final episode they talk to Ian*, who pleaded guilty to the offence of indecent exposure. Ian received a non-custodial sentence, was placed on the register of sex offenders and was ordered to attend a sex offender treatment programme.
Ian’s story is one of a compulsion that started early in childhood and continued into his adult years. By talking through the key moments in Ian’s life and upbringing, we can start to understand how he, and others, reach the point where they cause harm through shameful acts that cause disgust to society.
Ian's conviction led to him seeking further help to curb his compulsions, and he has successfully learned how to live safely. His behaviour has been under control for over ten years, and his successful treatment may have prevented further, far more serious harm happening in the future.
Ian engaged with a specialist charity called StopSO, which offers treatment to perpetrators and offers support for survivors of sexual offending. www.stopso.org.uk
*Ian’s name has been changed to protect his identity.
A warning that some people may find this programme distressing.
For details of organisations that can provide help and support, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline
Producer: Andrew Wilkie
Editor: Hugh Levinson
Behind the Crime is a co-production between BBC Long Form Audio and the Prison Radio Association.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (m001b437)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 today]
WED 21:00 Made of Stronger Stuff (p0bmx6kg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001b43p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001b43r)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (m001b43t)
Episode 3
Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.
At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.
Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:00 Misguided Meditations (m001b43w)
Episode 2 - Wintery Wonderland
The self-care and mindfulness trend is booming. With the popularity of apps like Calm, Headspace, and Breethe, the well-being meditation genre is ripe for satire. Misguided Meditations is a loving spoof of the popular guided meditation sleep stories.
So breathe in…then breathe out…and enjoy each episode led by our narrator Mina Anwar, that will take you on a delightfully surreal late-night adventure that descends into a total nightmare cringe-fest. A trip to the enchanted forest might result in someone naked in front of their entire class having forgotten their homework. A midnight dip in the mermaid lagoon might be ruined by an encounter with the cursed starfish of procrastination. Oh, and we couldn't miss Fluffy Bunny Island – whose inhabitants ask hard-hitting questions about your life choices.
Written by Joanne Lau.
Starring Mina Anwar.
Produced by Gus Beattie.
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:15 Welcome to the Neighbourhood with Jayde Adams (m001b43y)
8. Ivo Graham
Jayde Adams and guest Ivo Graham dive into the feisty world of community apps and messageboards, sifting through the angry neighbourhood bins to find disgruntled comedy gold. They uncover the story of a building's residents turning on their own concierge, and where the middle-aged go to dance in Canterbury.
From biggest beefs to weirdest news, Jayde discovers a hotbed of (largely unintentional) hilarity with graffiti-daubed wheelie bins, stray cats, e-scooters and more.
Jayde and the production team would like to hear about what's riling up the neighbours around Britain. Are your groups kicking off? Listeners can submit screenshots of the funniest and freakiest posts and threads to welcometotheneighbourhood@bbc.co.uk.
Presenter: Jayde Adams
Producer: Cornelius Mendez
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Alex Edelman's Peer Group (m000wjqx)
Series 4
New Relationships to Old Things
Alex Edelman is a comedian who spends his life travelling the US and the world. So when his parents come to sell the family home he thinks nothing of it. That is until lockdown happens and he realises he might have more emotional investment in the house, and the things he left behind, than he had at first thought.
Written by Alex Edelman and Max Davis
With special thanks to
Josh Weller
Alfie Brown
Rajiv Karia
Tasha Dhanraj
Danny Jolles
and
Hannah Einbinder
Producer is Sam Michell
It is a BBC Studios Production
THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2022
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001b440)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b442)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b444)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b446)
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 (m001b448)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001b44b)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001b44d)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
I’m old enough to remember the seventies and the fuel crisis, unemployment, rising prices, and recession. I was young and can’t claim to understand half of what was going on, but it was my introduction to geopolitics. I heard how people controlling oil from Arabia could influence prices in the shops of my little home town of Wexford.
We had the government advising people to share a bath, and my father showing us how to use less toilet paper. It was a difficult time, but it passed and we went on to lead full and happy lives – until the next difficult time. The latest is war in Europe, rising food prices, another fuel crisis, political uncertainly. But nothing is forever, and maybe being secure or happy isn’t always measured by comparing it to distress. We’ve endured before, many times historically, and in living memory – in fact, just one pandemic ago.
In Hindu thought the world works in cycles. There will be summer, and then winter. There is joy and suffering. Nothing in the world lasts forever, and both the ups and downs are part of life. We can survive well in both, and become strong in both. We’ll have difficulty if we can’t accept the down part of the cycle. If we can accept it as part of life, an important part, we can learn much, and contribute more.
Lord, if we can accept the storms of the world, with your help, and not be disturbed by blasts of grim news, we can be a more peaceful presence in our relationships. If we can wake up, dress up, and show up each day we might encourage others to keep going until night passes. Because it always does.
Hare Krishna.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001b44g)
18/08/22 Rules relaxed to help farmers feed livestock in drought, sheep in the uplands.
There’s been some very welcome rain in parts of the country. But the on-going drought has made life very difficult for farmers. Some don’t have enough grass in their fields to feed their livestock and are using up winter stores already. Now George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, has announced that Defra is relaxing some of the rules for agri-environment schemes, meaning farmers who are paid for managing some of their land for nature, like wildflower margins around fields, will be allowed to cut or graze it earlier than usual. But what will this mean for the wildlife it's supposed to support?
Continuing our week looking at sheep, Caz Graham visits a Cumbrian hill farmer in the northern fells of the Lake District, to hear his frustration at the length of time it’s taking to get the post-Brexit farm support schemes up and running. Farm incomes in the uplands rely heavily on the old EU Basic Payment Scheme, and many are worried how they will survive after they are phased out completely in 2027.
Sheep farming is controversial, with some conservationists thinking the uplands would be much better off without them. We speak to Professor of Upland Landscapes at the University of Cumbria in Ambleside, Lois Mansfield.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkxh9)
Common Hawk Cuckoo
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the common hawk cuckoo from the Bengal region. The repetitive call of the common hawk-cuckoo, otherwise known as the brain-fever bird, is one of the typical sounds of rural India and on into the foothills of the Himalayas. Its name partly derives from its call sounding like "brain fever" but also what one writer called its repetition being a "damnable iteration". It looks like a bird of prey, and flies like one too, imitating the flapping glide of a sparrowhawk in the region, known as the shikra, often accompanied by mobbing small birds. Unwittingly as they mob her, birds like babblers betray their nest, into which the cuckoo will lay her egg.
THU 06:00 Today (m001b44l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Positive Thinking (m001b44n)
Can an avatar cure loneliness?
According to a recent survey by the Mental Health Foundation, as many as one in four UK adults admit they feel lonely either some or all of the time.
Sangita Myska asks if one solution be a chatbot. Our innovator Eugenia Kuyda thinks so. Originally from Russia, she is the founder and CEO of Replika, a company that is building Artificial Intelligence to help people feel better.
Loneliness has a significant affect not only on mental health, but also on physical health. In fact, studies show that it can take years off a lifespan. Kuyda started Replika to cope with grief and loneliness herself. After the tragic death of a close friend, she fed thousands of their text message exchanges into an AI model to recreate him virtually.
The therapeutic effect that she felt in grief was mirrored by others when she made the chatbot public. Users began to share personal and emotional information with this new companion, and now Replika has 20 million users in the English-speaking world.
Kuyda claims that the happiness and wellbeing of its users is central to her business model. But what are the risks to vulnerable people? Are we ready to place our care in the hands of an algorithm?
Contributors include:
Louis Stupple-Harris, a researcher on emerging technologies at Nesta, an innovation agency for social good
Lina Mookerjee, a psychotherapist based in Carlisle
Verena Rieser, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh and co-founder of the conversational AI company ALANA.
Producer: Dom Byrne
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 09:30 The Bear Next Door (m0016pjn)
Lithuania
Five cultural figures from the front line of Russia's border with Europe - Lithuania, Finland, Moldova, Latvia and Estonia - explore their national psyche in uncertain times. Their words weave with sounds and encounters from their home city as they explore their country's history, ambitions and distinctive character in the 21st century.
Our essayists across the series include a rapper and media commentator, a former President, a celebrated art critic, a dystopian novelist, and a distinguished literary director.
Today - Lithuanian spoken word artist Žygimantas Kudirka considers the strange and sobering history of his home nation, where surreal is beautiful.
---
Speakers featured are:
Žygimantas Kudirka (Lithuania) - rapper, spoken word artist and media commentator
Emmi Itaranta (Finland) - novelist and commentator; author of the dystopian novel Memory Of Water;
Paula Erizanu (Moldova) - arts critic, political commentator and former Culture Editor of The Calvert Journal;
Nora Ikstena (Latvia) - literary director and author of the novel Soviet Milk about female experience in Soviet-occupied Latvia;
Toomas Hendrik Ilves (Estonia) - former Estonian president and writer on digital democracy.
Producer: John Beauchamp
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam
A Free Range and Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 09:45 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b44q)
A Reckoning
Acclaimed novelist Kit de Waal continues to read from her childhood memoir. Today, the acrimony between her parents worsens, but new opportunities also open up for Kit.
Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.
Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.
Photo credit: Sarah Lee
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001b44s)
Britain's secret war babies, Naomi Stadlen, Health impacts of anal sex
Mary Phillips was born to a white British mother and an African American GI father – who she never met. She was one of around two thousand mixed-race children born into white, rural communities after the second world war. She joins Emma Barnett to tell the story of how she found her four half siblings in America, decades later, and what she found out about her father.
Who do Conversative-voting young women want to be their next Prime Minister? Woman's Hour can reveal new data from Ella Robertson McKay, National Chair of the Conservative Young Women group.
New research shows increasing numbers of young women in the UK are suffering injuries and other health problems because of the growing popularity of anal sex among straight couples. Emma Barnett talks to one of the authors of the report, Lesley Hunt who is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and also to Claudia Estcourt, from the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV.
In her three books about mothering, the psychotherapist Naomi Stadlen has made visible the work, loving and teaching that mothers do. She joins Emma who herself has a much-thumbed copy of Naomi's first book 'What Mothers Do - especially when it looks like nothing'.
The dating app Tinder is celebrating its tenth birthday. The launch of the app in 2012 and other digital platforms has changed how many people meet their long or short term partners. But not everyone thinks online dating has improved romance for the better. Aurora Townsend is the founder of Planet Theta and George Rawlings is co-founder of Thursday.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001b44v)
Moldova - East or West?
Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, the former Soviet Republic of Moldova has recently been awarded EU candidate status.
In an echo of what happened in Ukraine, Moldova lost a chunk of its eastern territory to separatists in a short war 30 years ago. The separatists were backed by elements of the Russian army. Since then Transnistria has remained a post-Soviet “frozen conflict.”
In recent months almost 500,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Moldova – the highest per capita influx to a neighbouring country. Up to 90,000 have remained in Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries. The republic’s president has warned that President Putin has his sights set on her country. Tessa Dunlop travels to Moldova to hear what Moldovans think about the war in Ukraine and their country’s future.
Produced by John Murphy
(Image: A Russian armoured vehicle at the border crossing with the breakaway enclave of Transnistria in the village of Firladeni, Republic of Moldova. Credit: BBC/John Murphy)
THU 11:30 Art of Now (m0000nds)
Visual Assault
Artist and photographer Zoe Buckman recently installed a giant neon uterus with boxing gloves overlooking Hollywood. It’s feminist and it’s fierce.
In the wake of a turbulent year for women and women’s rights, Zoe sets off to find out how other female artists around the world are reacting and responding to sexual discrimination and violence.
Installation artist Mireille Honein suspended wedding dresses by nooses on Beirut's beachfront to draw attention to a law which allowed rapists to escape punishment if they married their victim.
The Saudi artist Ms Saffaa plasters walls with murals and portraits of Saudi activists in protest at her country’s guardianship laws.
In her studio in Brooklyn, Zoe brings together artist and photographer Lorna Simpson, and sculptor Patricia Cronin in a conversation about how far art can go in breaking boundaries, if it can make others listen, and if it can bring about change.
Presenter: Zoe Buckman
Producer: Georgia Catt
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001b44x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001b44z)
Gap Finders - Caroline Kennedy Alexander
Today's Gap Finder is Caroline Kennedy Alexander. She founded LoveRose Lingerie, a luxury post-surgery underwear brand for women who've had breast cancer.
The Edinburgh-based entrepreneur and designer created LoveRose Lingerie after being disappointed by the lack of attractive lingerie available following her own double mastectomy in 2015. Caroline is one of six sisters, four of whom have had breast cancer, and very sadly two sisters have passed away. The brand is named in tribute to Caroline’s late sister Rose, who was a lover of fashion.
Caroline launched the company in 2020 after developing the brand over a couple of years with market research among women who had breast cancer. The collection includes matching bras with knickers and gowns, made with silk and no underwiring.
Caroline appeared on Dragon's Den this March, and although she didn't get funding on the show, it has been instrumental in securing funding from other investors since. They're now focusing on expanding the range of underwear and offering more affordable options.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Miriam Williamson
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001b451)
Compression leggings, Bath salts, Water softeners and filters
Can compression leggings improve performance and help your limbs recover after exercise? Do magnesium bath salts really help soothe aching muscles? And do water softeners and filters really help save us money on our appliances by preventing scale from building up in our pipes?
With Greg still in Edinburgh for the Festival, we’re sticking with last week’s format and investigating THREE of the wonder-products you’ve sent us on WhatsApp in a "triple slice" of quick investigations.
First up, Listener Sarah from North Devon wants to know if buying expensive compression leggings can really help improve her exercise performance and speed up her recovery. Greg speaks to one of the UK’s leading researchers on compression garments, Dr. Jess Hill, to find out the science behind them – and when we should wear them.
Second is listener Rosie from Sheffield who wants to know if magnesium or 'Epsom' bath salts really can help soothe aching muscles – so Greg chats to leading expert on magnesium, Dr. Lindsy Kass from the University of Hertfordshire to find out what it does in our bodies, and if we can actually absorb it through our skin.
And third, Listener Matthew from Suffolk wants to know if Water Softeners and filters can improve water quality, if they’re necessary, and if they can save us money on our household appliances by preventing the build up of scale. Greg chats to internationally recognised expert in drinking water Vanessa Speight - to find out.
Keep your suggestions coming for wonder-products you’d like us to investigate. Send them over on email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or as a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.
PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth
THU 12:57 Weather (m001b453)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001b455)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Larkin Revisited (m001b457)
Aubade
Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.
Episode nine:
Simon Armitage explores 'Aubade', a Larkin poem which invites us to contemplate 'Unresting death, a whole day nearer now', and considered to be one of his most powerful.
Simon is joined by the poet Glyn Maxwell, the poetry editor of the Times Literary Supplement Camille Ralphs (both of whom read the poem for us in the small hours, when the poem is set), and by Stephen Bush, associate editor of the Financial Times, to see how Larkin's unflinching look at non-existence lands in 2022.
Producer: Faith Lawrence
Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001b43h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m001b459)
Knock of the Ban-Sithe
A contemporary ghost story based on Gaelic folklore. Three siblings return to the family croft on the Isle of Lewis to visit their dying mother – but their childhood home is haunted by unsettling memories and fears as they wait through the night for the arrival of the dreaded Ban-Sithe.
By Kenny Boyle.
Kirstin………..Helen Mackay
Mairi………….Sophia Mclean
Calum……….Kenny Boyle
Peggi………..Mairi Morrison
Titan…………Aora
Producer/director: Bruce Young
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001b45c)
Cornwall with Helen Glover
Helen Glover returns to her beloved childhood patch of Newlyn and Penzance in Cornwall to explore the area where she grew up and discover how it’s changed since she was a girl.
Helen is a double Olympic gold-medal winner and her love of physical activity and the outdoors was shaped by her childhood environment. She recalls running along the prom as part of her training as a schoolgirl athlete, and reflects on fond memories of her Dad’s small but legendary ice-cream business, wheeling supplies up down the road in an old pram. Helen also visits the Penlee Lifeboat with long-time RNLI Coxswain, Patch Harvey and meets the Battery Belles, an outdoor swimming group who plunge into the sea every morning. She considers how the cliffs she’s known all her life are gradually changing through relentless erosion, and speaks to the director of an art school who ran a mass painting event to raise awareness and funds to protect the landscape he loves. She also meets an artist who had a very near miss when the cliff he was painting under collapsed shortly after he left. Helen also reflects on the sad fact that her favourite beaches are now littered with plastic, and catches up with a young beach cleaner who devotes hours to picking up and making art from other people’s waste.
Contributors include: Tina Riggall of the Battery Belles; Landscape painter Paul Lewin; Henry Garfit of the Newlyn School of Art; Patch Harvey, RNLI; Louis-Matisse litter picker and artist. Please scroll down, on the R4 Open Country webpage, for related links.
Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol - Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001b3th)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m001b3v8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry (m001b40y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Tuesday]
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001b45f)
A Possible Sequel to the Dinosaur Armageddon
Did the Chicxulub meteor that did for the dinosaurs have a smaller companion? Dr Uisdean Nicholson and Professor Sean Gulick talk to Vic Gill about the newly discovered Nadir Crater. Located on the other side of the Atlantic, it’s raising questions about whether Earth was bombarded with not one, but two, meteors on the day the dinosaurs were wiped out.
Back in January, the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcano in Tonga erupted explosively, triggering a massive tsunami across the Pacific. Now, engineers are remotely scanning the volcano from 16,000km away in Essex. Ashley Skett from SEA-KIT International and Dr Mike Williams from NIWA describe how a robotic vessel is mapping the Tongan seabed.
And we get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding a 500-million-year-old fossil…quite literally. The microscopic, fossilised beast, which has no anus, was previously thought to be our earliest known ancestor. Emily Carlisle from the University of Bristol explains how the theory was debunked.
Presented by Victoria Gill
Reporting by Emily Bird
Produced by Alex Mansfield
THU 17:00 PM (m001b45h)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b45k)
The proportion of top A-level grades falls from last year but is higher than in 2019
THU 18:30 Michael Spicer: Before Next Door (m000xmg7)
Series 1
Marketing Genius
What happens when a socially awkward and neurotic part-time comedian becomes a global internet sensation? After an acclaimed pilot, Michael Spicer gets a full series of Michael Spicer: Before Next Door to chart his real-life progress. Of sorts.
Should this married father of two quit as a copywriter for a kitchen worktop company to follow a calling that shows no sign of paying the mortgage, the bills or for a variety of bafflingly expensive anthropomorphic steam trains? Or should he keep juggling the increasingly unmanageable balls of office work, family life and comedy?
As Michael’s Room Next Door videos amass tens of millions of views online, he finally wins plaudits for his comedy. But it also leads to awkward encounters with fans, stressful award ceremonies and an audition to play an upbeat cheese string. Michael’s wife Roberta pushes him to take chances, wanting him to build on his success while also being desperate to leave her own disappointing job and manage him full-time.
After twenty years of making comedy under the radar, can an ordinary person like Michael successfully navigate the unpredictable road to fame? Only you can decide. By listening to the show. Please.
Cast: Michael Spicer with Ellie Taylor, Joanna Neary, Peter Curran, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Greig Johnson.
Writer: Michael Spicer
Producer: Matt Tiller
A Starstruck and Tillervision Production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001b45n)
Pip and Stella go to a swimming pool but Stella stalls when it comes to actually getting in. She explains to Pip that her fear of water began when she got stuck underwater in a kayak while on a family holiday. Pip reminds Stella that she’s looking out for her, and they get in. Stella succeeds in putting her head underwater for five seconds for which she is hugely proud of herself. Once out of the water Stella considers signing up for swimming lessons and affirms that she will go through with Dunk the Vicar at the Fete. Their conversation turns to Toby’s departure. Stella advises that Pip needs to trust Toby to maintain contact with Rosie while not living in Ambridge.
Pat interrogates Joy for an update on Mick after he handed over his number at the festival. They’ve been in touch by text and they’re meeting for a drink at The Bull later. But Joy’s regretting making that plan and considers backing out. Pat offers to go with her as a chaperone. At The Bull, Mick and Joy talk incessantly and laugh while Pat struggles to be part of the conversation. Mick reveals that Toyah came to the juice stall while he was overseeing it for Joy. Even though she didn’t meet her, Joy’s pleased that at least one celebrity came to the stall. Mick and Joy continue to laugh with one another and Pat announces she’s heading home. When she asks Joy if she wants a lift, Joy says she’s fine where she is.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001b45q)
Shelea, Reviewing Official Competition and Red Rose, Gus Casely-Hayford
The BBC Proms is celebrating what would’ve been Aretha Franklin’s 80th birthday, and leading the tribute is American singer-songwriter Sheléa. She's a protegee of Quincy Jones who also found a mentor in Stevie Wonder, and names Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston as some of her inspirations. Sheléa shares Aretha Franklin’s influences of gospel, jazz and soul, and her skills to play the piano and turn her voice to a variety of styles. She performs live in the studio and demonstrates the power of Aretha’s voice as well as her own.
For our Thursday review Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Olivia Laing have been watching Official Competition, a comedy film starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez which takes aim at the film industry and its stars, and Red Rose, a BBC3 teen horror drama set in Bolton looking at the power of smartphones to shape young lives.
Torn is a new BBC Radio 4 series exploring ten key moments in the history of fashion, from the allure of mauve to the rebellion of mini-skirts. Presenter Gus Casely-Hayford, curator, historian and the inaugural director of V&A East, joins Shahidha for a whistlestop tour of fashion’s cultural hits and environmental misses over five centuries.
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Sarah Johnson
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001b45s)
Fighting drought
Despite recent heavy rainfall, much of England is experiencing drought conditions. Both rivers and reservoirs are running low, and the water companies have told millions to stop using their hosepipes.
Scientists warn that the current difficulties are only a glimpse of the much tougher challenges the UK will face in the future because of climate change. They estimate that there's a one-in-four chance of a drought which is so severe that drinking water has to be restricted.
Joining David Aaronovitch in The Briefing Room are:
Sir John Armitt, Chairman of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission
Dr Heather Smith, Senior Lecturer in Water Governance at Cranfield University
Jean Spencer, Director of The Water Industry Forum
Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University
Producers: Bob Howard, Kirsteen Knight and Simon Watts. Editor: Richard Vadon. Studio Manager: Graham Puddifoot. Production co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed & Helena Warwick-Cross
PHOTO CREDIT: A reservoir on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in August 2022 (Getty Images)
THU 20:30 The Digital Human (m0011l0y)
Series 24
Fleeting
Aleks Krotoski asks if how we use technology has affected our attitudes to ephemerality and the transience of things.
Producer: Peter McManus
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001b45f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Positive Thinking (m001b44n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001b45v)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (m001b45x)
Episode 4
Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.
At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.
Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:00 Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (p0c5wdbc)
Guy Garvey: New York City, USA
Award-winning musician and lead singer of Elbow, Guy Garvey has toured the world, but his destination of choice is New York City. The undeniably impressive Manhattan Island certainly has the architecture, culture and people to inspire a songwriter - but can Shaun get over the lack of a decent curry or a cup of tea?
Your Place Or Mine is the travel podcast that isn’t going anywhere - not until guests can convince Shaun Keaveny it’s worth getting off the sofa for. Each week a familiar face will try to persuade Shaun and resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence that jetting off to their favourite destination is worth the hassle.
Across the series listeners will be able to figuratively globe-trot to a new destination, as guests share a personal guide to their favourite place on the planet. Iszi will be on hand to check out the facts during the podcast’s metaphorical tour of its visitors’ much-loved locations.
With all the missed travel these past two years, Your Place Or Mine will explore whether getting back on a plane is too much for our wallets and limited carbon budgets, or if seeing the world and experiencing global cultures is something we can’t afford to miss.
Your Place or Mine is a BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
Producers: Proinsias O’Coinn and Jen Whyntie
THU 23:30 Dr Phil's Bedside Manner (m000zmjl)
Series 1
Worcestershire Royal Hospital
An innovative mix of comedy performance and documentary in a series presented by Dr Phil Hammond.
As a doctor and a comedian, Phil knows that humour and laughter are vital coping mechanisms in the NHS, as he travels the UK on a mission to listen to the beating heart of a national institution.
The programmes are an adventurous, hilarious, thought provoking mix of humour and happiness, tragedy and reflection as the personal thoughts, opinions, experiences and hopes of people who work for and use the NHS are revealed.
In this programme, Phil visits the Worcestershire Royal Hospital and speaks to porters and patients, visitors and volunteers, managers and medics - and performs a free stand-up comedy show for the staff, based on the stories of the people he has met.
A Ride production for BBC Radio 4
FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2022
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001b460)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b44q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001b462)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001b464)
BBC Radio 4 presents a selection of news and current affairs, arts and science programmes from the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001b466)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001b468)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001b46c)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Good morning.
Today is Janmashtami, the festival celebrating Krishna’s birth. Temples all over the UK prepared for weeks, even months, for this most jolly of Hindu celebrations. Even though Diwali is trumpeted as the Hindu festival, if we look under the hood, Janmashtami is the one that attracts the crowds. One UK temple expects to attract more than 60,000 devotees today.
The reason they come is because Krishna is the most popular of the many Hindu deities. When I first heard of Hinduism, I heard that they worship many Gods. When I first encountered Hinduism, I found that they worship one God in many different ways – which, for me, was very different, and it was a different way of appreciating God. In that way we look for the aspect of God that attracts our heart, and devote ourselves to him, or her. It seems God’s a bit woke.
Krishna is very attractive. He’s a child, full of beauty, and love, and fun. He’s also a rascal. Once, the story goes, he stole the butter the dairymaids made, and when they caught him, with butter smeared over his chubby little face, he denied it. What a scallywag. The dairymaids, the Gopis, brought him to his mother but as they did, they fell in love with him again, and when they reached his mother, Yashoda, she wanted to chastise him, but could only smile at her adorable boy, with tears of love in her eyes. That never happened to me when I was caught stealing.
I think that’s the appeal of Krishna. He reminds us that love is the heart of religion.
It seems strange to think of God as being young, and in the stories, no one realises he is God, they just love him, and he just loves them. And we go to the temple to share in that love.
Dear Lord, please feel free to make my heart soft like the Gopi’s butter, and then steal it.
Hare Krishna.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001b46h)
19/08/22 Eco food labelling, sheep on drought resistant lucerne, farm shop closes
Researchers at Oxford University have come up with a new way of assessing the eco-credentials of supermarket food, which could lead to a new eco-label.
They’ve estimated the environmental footprint of 57000 food products in the UK, ranging from beef to biscuits to ready meals and fizzy drinks. There’s an algorithm and scoring system to rank food, and ready meals and sausage rolls are logged as 90% less harmful than beef and lamb. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs has welcomed the initiative. But it has its critics who argue it’s too simplistic and that algorithms and broad estimates are too blunt a tool in the complex world of global food.
All week we’ve been looking at sheep farming. Sheep are typically farmed on land which is no good for growing crops, like the high Lake District fells where we were yesterday, but some farmers are adding sheep into the arable rotation on their farms in order to improve soil health with a bit of natural fertiliser, manage weeds and provide another income stream. But having enough grass for sheep to graze in dry areas like East Anglia can be a challenge - so a sheep farmer in Norfolk has swapped grass for lucerne which is a legume plant valued for its drought tolerance, and used to feed sheep in New Zealand.
With inflation exceeding 10% for the first time since 1982, more and more small businesses are counting the cost. One family-run farm-shop near York has told us they’re ‘devastated’ at having to close after nearly a quarter of a century serving the community. They simply can’t afford their soaring energy bills.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0gsc)
Saddleback
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Liz Bonnin presents the formerly widespread saddleback of New Zealand. It's loud, piping and whistling calls once resounded throughout New Zealand's forests, but now the saddleback is heard only on smaller offshore islands. This is a bird in exile. About the size of a European blackbird, saddlebacks are predominantly black with a rust-coloured saddle-shaped patch on their backs. In Maori culture this mark came from the demi-God Maui who, after trying to catch the sun, asked the saddleback to fetch water. The bird refused, so hot-handed Maui grabbed it and left a scorch mark on the bird's back. As well as this chestnut saddle, the bird has two bright red wattles at the base of its beak which it can dilate when it displays. It also has an extensive vocabulary and one of its calls has earned it the Maori name –"Ti-e-ke".
FRI 06:00 Today (m001b476)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m001b3tw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Without Warning and Only Sometimes, by Kit de Waal (m001b47z)
Reading
The acclaimed author of My Name Is Leon reads from her childhood memoir. Today, Kit de Waal finds answers in unexpected places after leaving home, and living through two unsettling and anxious years.
Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.
Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001b47b)
Sharon Horgan, Sport and periods, Fangirls
The British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith had to stop running at the European Championships this week because of cramp. She said it was because of her period, and now she's calling for more research into periods and sporting performance. Hepatahlon Olympic Bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton comes onto the programme, as well as Dr Richard Burden who's co-lead on Female Health & Performance at the English Institute of Sport
We talk to Sharon Horgan and Eve Hewson, about a new black comedy series they're in called Bad Sisters. It's all about five Irish sisters, and four of them hate their brother-in-law. They're desperate for the fifth sister to be rid of him. What will they do?
We speak to Lena Kulakovska, who escaped Ukraine when she was 36 weeks pregnant and is now safely settled in Devon. She's just had a baby daughter, so what are her plans for her and her three young children?
We hear once again from listener Titania. She sent us an email when we put the call out to tell us how it feels to reach the age your Mum was when she died. We hear her story.
And we start a new series about fangirls. This week we go beyond the stereotype of the hysterical girl who's obsessed with someone famous. We ask instead what does being a fan bring to your life? We're joined by playwright and songwriter, Yve Blake, who's created the award-winning musical FANGIRLS and Hannah Ewens, a writer at Rolling Stone, former fangirl and author of Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture.
FRI 11:00 The Spark (m001b4fb)
Louise Perry v the Sexual Revolution
Helen Lewis returns with a new series of encounters with innovative thinkers.
In this episode, she meets Louise Perry, author of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.
The liberalisations of the 1960s brought significant new freedom to women's lives. But Perry argues that this has now combined with the more recent impact of online pornography, which is both ubiquitous and frequently violent. The result, she suggests, has been toxic, particularly for young women.
In a forthright exchange, Perry sets out why she thinks an over-emphasis on the virtues of freedom has stymied feminist thinking on this. And why, from the advice given by women's magazines, through the legal responsibilities of online platforms, to the expectations society places on young men - there now needs to be radical change.
Producer: Phil Tinline
FRI 11:30 Mucking In (m001b4fd)
Series 1
Feeling Sheepish
Cicely is invited to go to Paris to see one of her piano students perform in a competition and asks Ben to join her. He needs to take some time away from the farm, to look after his health, but he refuses. He can’t take time off, he says, even with a bad back, because the landlady, Natalie Truss, is looking for an excuse to take the farm away from him.
It’s not just Cicely who is upset, however, because Beatrix and Archie were looking forward to playing at farmers while the grown-ups were away, In fact in a fit of enthusiasm, Beatrix jumps the gun and instigates a fight with the landlady over a broken gate. As always, it’s Archie who has to manage the fallout.
By Sue Limb and Betsy Vriend
Cast:
Alison Steadman – Cicely
Nigel Planer – Ben
Morwenna Banks – Beatrix
Tony Gardner – Archie
A Little Brother production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001b4fg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001b4fj)
Fast fashion and class
The argument about whether shopping "sustainably" is a privilege not everyone can afford.
People online are debating whether contestants from ITV’s Love Island should be signing mega-bucks deals with clothes companies that sell people stuff cheaply and often - so-called fast fashion. Others claim it's a bit rich for the well-off to lecture everyone else about what's in their wardrobe? We’ll look at how fast fashion got turbo-charged, see if the stats on climate change and fashion add up, explore how fashion and social class have interacted over the years, and ask if “sustainable fashion” is an oxymoron.
Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Maybin & Josephine Casserly
Researcher: Ellie House
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Music: Oskar Jones
Editor: Emma Rippon
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001b4fl)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001b4fn)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
FRI 13:45 Larkin Revisited (m001b4fq)
The Whitsun Weddings
Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.
Episode ten:
Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' - considered by many to be the poem that best represents his unique talent.
In this programme Simon, and his fellow poets Daljit Nagra and Sinéad Morrissey celebrate Larkin's attention to detail - his particular gift for description, and consider whether the journey Larkin takes us on across the poem still resonates in 2022.
Producer: Faith Lawrence
Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001b45n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001b4fs)
Exemplar
Exemplar - Episode 1
A modern-day thriller set in the north east of England. Starring Gina McKee as Jess, a lone wolf scientist with a troubled past whose passion for sound makes her the UK’s leading audio forensic examiner. Together with her new trainee, Maya, she undertakes a different sound challenge in every episode.
In Episode 1 Jess attends the scene of a young woman’s apparently accidental death to create an audio exemplar to match a recording from a voice activated speaker. Mysterious voice messages about the past from her mother Judith add to the tension.
Exemplar is rooted in factual research and based on an idea from Ben and Max Ringham, and written by Ben Ringham, Max Ringham and Dan Rebellato.
Exemplar: an audio recording made by a forensic analyst to recreate the precise audio conditions of a piece of evidence in a criminal or civil case
Jess ..... Gina McKee
Maya ..... Shvorne Marks
Aoife ..... Fenella Woolgar
Judith ..... Barbara Marten
Nathalie ..... Chetna Pandya
Dylan ..... Don Gilet
Writers: Ben and Max Ringham, with Dan Rebellato
Showrunner: Dan Rebellato
Audio forensic consultant: James Zjalić
Sound recordist: Alisdair McGregor
Studio assistant: Oyin Fowowe
Production coordinator: Darren Spruce
Sound design: Lucinda Mason Brown and David Chilton
Original music/Sound consultants: Ben and Max Ringham
Directors: Polly Thomas and Jade Lewis
Executive producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:45 Living with the Gods (b09f39tm)
Rejecting the Image
Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues with a reflection on faiths which focus on the word rather than the image.
A striking cobalt blue mosque lamp, from around 1570, shows an Islamic way of doing honour to the word: calligraphy. In Jewish religious ceremonies a yad - a small silver rod with a little hand and a pointing index finger - is used to follow the text during readings from the Torah, to avoid any damage to the delicate parchment.
Producer Paul Kobrak
Produced in partnership with the British Museum
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001b4fw)
East Sussex
Peter Gibbs and the team visit East Sussex. Matthew Pottage, Christine Walkden and Ashley Edwards answer the audience's questions.
This week the panellists suggest some low-growing flowering shrubs for a large pot, as well as plants they would be happy growing in the chalky soil typical of East Sussex. They also diagnose a poorly plum tree, and suggest how to get a naughty Monstera back in line.
Away from the hall, as we are in the midst of wedding season, we asked floral designer Hazel Gardiner to share her top tips for arranging and growing your own wedding flowers.
Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Aniya Das
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001b4fy)
Un Hôtel Tranquille
An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the writer Olivia Fitzsimons. As read by Aoibhéann McCann.
Olivia Fitzsimons is from Northern Ireland and now lives in Wicklow but never lost her accent. She studied History at Trinity College Dublin and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray Press) is her first novel and was an Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair Winner in 2020. She has received a Literary Bursary from The Arts Council and a SIAP award from Northern Ireland Arts Council. Her short stories have been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Short Story Prize and The Benedict Kiely Short Story Award. She has two feature films in development and is currently working on her second novel.
Writer: Olivia Fitzsimons
Reader: Aoibhéann McCann
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001b4g0)
Lamont Dozier, Joan Lingard, Issey Miyake, Edana Minghella
John Wilson on
Lamont Dozier (pictured), who wrote dozens of hits for Motown Records.
Joan Lingard, the author of the popular Kevin and Sadie books set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer who survived the atomic bomb.
Edana Minghella, the mental health researcher and jazz singer.
Producer: Emily Finch
Interviewed guest: Eddie Holland
Interviewed guest: Adam White
Interviewed guest: Shelly Clark
Interviewed guest: Lindsey Fraser
Interviewed guest: Dana Thomas
Interviewed guest: Dai Fujiwara
Interviewed guest: Dominic Minghella
Interviewed guest: Jo Brand
Archive clips used: Radio 4, Front Row - Brian and Eddie Holland interview 25/12/2019; BBC Radio 1, David Jensen Show - Lamont Dozier interview 29/02/1984; Radio 4, Joan Lingard interview 01/01/1984; BBC Two, Maggie episode 1 17/02/1981; British Pathé, Atomic Bomb Destruction in Japan (1945); INA Société/YouTube Channel, Mai 68 et l'éducation (1968).
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001b4g2)
A BBC correspondent recently returned from Afghanistan, Yogita Limaye, tells Roger Bolton what it's like to report from the country, and what restrictions are placed on her by the Taliban.
The former government minister Rory Stewart explains what he is hoping to achieve in his Radio 4 series The History of Argument.
And two listeners are up with the lark to listen to Farming Today on Radio 4. Was it worth it?
Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Kate Dixon
Executive Producer: Samir Shah
A Juniper Connect production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m001b4g4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001b4g6)
A court in the United States has given a life sentence to one of the most notorious terrorists of modern times for his role kidnapping and murdering hostages in Syria.
FRI 18:30 Party's Over (m001b4g8)
Series 2
Sister Act
What happens when the Prime Minister suddenly stops being prime minister? One day you're the most powerful person in the country, the next you're irrelevant, forced into retirement 30 years ahead of schedule and find yourself asking 'What do I do now?'
"I can't just disappear like Gordon Brown. They say he barely gets out of bed now. Just sits there doing word searches and eating Kit Kat Chunkies. Miserable. I hate the chunky ones." Former British Prime Minister Henry Tobin
This week, Henry receives an unwanted family visit.
Starring Miles Jupp, Ingrid Oliver, Emma Sidi, Justin Edwards and Ruth Bratt.
Written by Paul Doolan and Jon Hunter
Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound recordist and designer: David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001b47g)
Writer, Nick Warburton
Director, Julie Beckett
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Toby Fairbrother ….. Rhys Bevan
Will Grundy ….. Phillip Molloy
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Ed Grundy …… Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
George Grundy …… Angus Stobie
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Mick ….. Martin Barrass
Ray ….. Mark Carey
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001b47j)
Hay Festival 2022
From the Old Testament to Captain Underpants, via Jane Austen and pulp fiction, the relationship between the page and the screen is unbreakable. But the journey from book to screenplay can be a long and winding road that is sometimes paved with gold, and often filled with detours and potholes.
To get under the skin of literary adaptations, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones decamped to the Hay literary festival where the book world’s biggest names gather to enjoy discussion and sharing ideas.
Cressida Cowell, author of the popular How To Train Your Dragon series, talks about the joyful process of seeing her characters come alive in a huge franchise comprising animated movies, TV series and a video game.
When her first novel Brick Lane was turned into a film in 2007, Monica Ali was not involved in the adaptation. Now, 15 years later, Monica is writing the screenplay of her latest novel Love Marriage and she talks to Mark and Ellen about the new skills she has learned along the way.
After many close calls with producers, Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Candy House) knows about the mercurial nature of having work ‘optioned’. She discusses her favourite literary adaptations and shares a cinematic piece of writing by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Also, broadcaster and writer Jeffrey Boakye takes a spin with an 80s classic movie to reveal the deeper issues at play in Dirty Dancing.
Producer: Freya Hellier
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001b47l)
Tracy Brabin, David Haythornthwaite, Helen Pidd, Mark Spencer MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate and discussion from Morecambe Winter Gardens with the Labour mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin, the businessman and Chairman of AFC Fylde David Haythornthwaite, the North of England editor at The Guardian Helen Pidd and the Leader of the House of Commons Mark Spencer MP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Owain Williams
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001b47n)
The New Age of Empire
Linda Colley argues that President Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a wake-up call which should remind people that the days of empire are far from over. And these enduring imperial habits, she says, are evident in some unexpected quarters - not just in places like Russia and China.
'When Donald Trump floated the idea of the US purchasing Greenland in 2019, this was widely dismissed as just another Trumpian eccentricity', she writes.
'But this 'real estate deal' as the former president characteristically described his Greenland project, was actually in line with large portions of American history'.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 Larkin Revisited (m001b47q)
To the Sea, Going Going, Aubade, The Whitsun Weddings
Through a selection of iconic Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001b47s)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (m001b47v)
Episode 5
Katja Oskamp’s humorous and life-affirming novella takes us to a small beauty salon in a suburb of eastern Berlin. The salon is in Marzahn, a large housing estate built in the days of the German Democratic Republic, with vast towers and walkways.
At the start, our narrator reflects on how, at the age of 44, her life has become stagnant. Her daughter has left home, her partner is unwell and her writing career has stalled. She decides to retrain as a chiropodist and soon finds herself tending to the mostly elderly community who inhabit the high-rises.
Through the regular visits of her clients, she gradually becomes acquainted with their lives – their loves and their losses, their hardships and declining health – as well as their feet. As the years pass, our narrator starts to enjoy the rhythm of her new life and finds an unexpected fulfilment in her work, alongside her stalwart colleagues, Tiffy and Flocke.
Marzahn, Mon Amour is fiction, but is based on the author’s own experiences as a chiropodist in the district of Marzahn. It is translated from the German by Jo Heinrich
Reader: Monica Dolan
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Alexa Moore
Sound Designer: Matt Snowden
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (m001b41j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Sarah Kendall: Talking Story (m000xfhh)
Nikesh Shukla
Sarah Kendall started her career as a stand-up comedian in the late 90s in Australia. After 15 years performing stand-up comedy in comedy clubs and at festivals around the world, Sarah moved away from the more traditional joke telling aspect of the job and transitioned into storytelling.
Sarah wanted to create something on stage that felt like the sort of films she loved to watch, so she wrote an hour-long show that was one single story as opposed to a series of jokes and routines. She reimagined her teenage years as though they had been directed by John Hughes, giving her memories a full, cinematic makeover.
She found, in telling these personal stories, that she was connecting with her audience in a way that was more meaningful to her and in a way that she wasn’t able to with the jokes and routines in her previous shows. What is it about stories that brings people together. How do we use stories to make sense of life?
In this series, Sarah will be talking to three different storytellers about what ‘story’ means to them and about how they developed their own style of storytelling in their respective mediums.
In this episode, Sarah talks to author Nikesh Shukla about the importance of truth in storytelling.
Sarah’s live storytelling shows have been adapted for BBC Radio 4 and have formed two seasons of her series - ‘Sarah Kendall: Australian Trilogy’. The show went on to win numerous awards including the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award. Since then, Sarah has gone on to write and star in the award winning and BAFTA nominated sitcom ‘Frayed’.
Presenter - Sarah Kendall
Guest - Nikesh Shukla
Producer - Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Studios production