SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2022

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001d5s3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 Edible Economics by Ha-Joon Chang (m001d5n1)
Chocolate

In Edible Economics, Ha-Joon Chang is inspired by his passion for food to reflect on why economics matters - or, as he puts it, “a hungry economist explains the world”.

Over five episodes he zooms in on garlic, bananas, okra, rye and chocolate, using the histories behind familiar foods - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theories. Witty and thought-provoking, Professor Chang sets out to challenge ideas about the free-market economy which he believes have been too easily accepted for decades.

Today - chocolate.

As Ha-Joon Chang says, “I have a confession to make. I am an addict. My habit started in the mid-1960s, when I was a toddler (yes, I was precocious). The illegal substance that I first got hooked on was smuggled out of American military bases and sold on the black market in the South Korea of my childhood. It was called M&M’s.

Black market in M&M’s? I am not making it up. At the time in Korea, the importing of foreign goods other than the machines and raw materials directly needed for the country’s industrialization was banned – passenger cars, TVs, biscuits, chocolates, even bananas, you name it. Smuggling in things like cars and TVs from abroad was very difficult, but enterprising Koreans smuggled smaller consumer items on a large scale out of the American military bases that dotted the country at the time (we still have some). Chocolate was one of the most popular items…”

Reflecting on the history of chocolate, Professor Chang reveals that Switzerland is, surprisingly, the most industrialized economy in the world. This leads him to puncture some common myths about “the post-industrialized society”, and to argue that the belief we now live in a post-industrial economy has been extremely harmful, as it has given policy-makers a convenient excuse for not doing anything about the decline of the manufacturing sector.

Professor Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at SOAS University of London, and is one of the world's leading economists. His books include Economics: The User's Guide, Bad Samaritans and 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism.

Reader Arthur Lee is a British actor of Korean descent who made his international debut on HBO Cinemax’s Strike Back in 2015 and who recently appeared in Doctor Who. Arthur grew up mostly in London, but also spent several years in South Korea advancing his knowledge of Korean language and culture.

Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001d5s5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001d5s8)
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 (m001d5sd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001d5sg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001d5sj)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

Today marks the beginning of the festival of Diwali, which is celebrated by various Eastern traditions, including Hinduism. There are five days of festivities culminating in a welcoming of the new year for communities belonging to Gujarat in the north of India.

Diwali is a centred around worship of the goddess Lakshmi who is representative of all types of wealth, including monetary wealth. One might ask how a tradition which values spirituality so highly can include the worship of something mundane like wealth. The fact is that we need wealth in order to live and get by in this world; as Hindus we are encouraged to recognise that wealth is as much part of God’s creation as anything else, and therefore worthy of worship. A holistic vision enables us to live life happily. We are encouraged to acknowledge our needs and desires so that we might work to fulfil them, rather than living in denial.

Lakshmi is depicted in various forms, all representing different types of wealth. The first is known as ‘Ādi Lakshmi’, literally meaning, ‘the first’. The goddess is seen as the origin of creation, and isn’t it true that in order to create anything, we need wealth in the form of resources?

She also appears as the goddess of harvest and grains; of patience; of power and strength; of progeny, courage, victory, and knowledge – all of these being different forms of wealth that we seek which help us in life.

With Her blessings, may we recognise the presence of Lakshmi in our lives. May we be grateful for the wealth we have; in whatever form it exists. May She bless us with abundance to share what we have with those who are in need.

Namaste, Hari Om.


SAT 05:45 One to One (m0017khg)
The Beat of Change: Faranak Amidi and Eris Drew

Faranak Amidi, World Service radio presenter and women's affairs reporter, talks to DJ Eris Drew about how rave culture triggered massive changes in each of their lives. For Faranak, it meant rebelling against the strict culture of her home country of Iran, and finding a new life elsewhere. And for Eris, it meant even more profound questions about identity. But what is it about the "motherbeat", as Eris calls it, that makes it so powerful?

Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001dd5y)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001d58y)
Frampton Country Fair

The terrier racing is the highlight, "because they are so badly behaved". But before then there are the otters, plus the otterhounds, hunting from horseback with an eagle, and impressive gundog displays. The Frampton Country Fair has been running since 1986, set on the Frampton estate near the River Severn in Gloucestershire. Miles Warde speaks to everyone behind the scenes - including Rollo Clifford, Lib Smith and Sharon Sugars - and many of the exhibitors taking part. Expect a proud and defiant spirit about countryside pursuits.

Produced in Bristol by Miles Warde


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001dd60)
22/10/22 Farming Today This Week: Bird flu, education and political uncertainty.

We reflect on what political turmoil means for farmers trying to plan their businesses. Farmers plan in decades and like certainty when the're making those plans; that's been in short supply this week. With a new Prime Minister incoming will the Environment Secretary retain his job? Will the current agricultural policy be the policy be the policy by this time next week?
We also hear the latest on the worst outbreak of bird flu the UK has ever seen, and talk about agricultural education.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001dd62)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001dd64)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001dd66)
Michael Ball

Michael Ball joins Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles. In a career spanning over 30 years the singer, actor and presenter has appeared in musicals from Les Miserables and Aspects of Love, to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Phantom of the Opera, winning Olivier Awards for his roles in Hairspray and Sweeney Todd. Michael's debut novel is a love letter to the theatre.

As a boy, Hamed Amiri fled Herat with his parents and two brothers after the Taliban put out an execution order for his mother. Their journey from Afghanistan to the UK was made more complicated as his eldest brother had a heart condition. 20 years later, his story of displacement has been made into a play, shedding light on the plight of refugees.

Donna Ashworth started a social media account to share inspirational quotes but after posting her poems anonymously she’s now a bestselling writer.

Gabby Logan shares her Inheritance Tracks: Reach Out I'll Be There by the Four Tops and One Day Like This by Elbow.

Ranvir Singh is an award-winning presenter and former political editor for ITV’s Good Morning Britain. She talks about her path to broadcasting and why riddles are featuring in her future.

The Empire by Michael Ball is out now, Ball & Boe Together In Vegas is out on October 28th and Aspects of Love is booking from Friday 12 May 2023 until Saturday 11 November 2023 at London’s Lyric Theatre.

The Boy with Two Hearts is at the National Theatre and runs until 12 November.

The books Love, Life and Loss by Donna Ashworth are out now.

Gabby Logan’s memoir The First Half is out now.

Riddiculous starts on Monday 24th October at 3pm on ITV.

Producer: Claire Bartleet


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001dd68)
Series 38

Ely

Jay Rayner and a panel of experts are in Ely, Cambridgeshire. Ready to take on your kitchen conundrums are Anna Jones, Sophie Wright, Paula McIntyre and Dr Annie Gray.

This week the panel gets to the crunch with some Fenland celery. Annie explains how to serve it ‘frizzled’ like the Victorians, and local grower Ivaylo Kostadinov lets us in on a celery-based special effects secret.

The panellists also suggest what to do with a glut of quinces, and share their favourite dried mushroom recipes. On hand to advise are mushroom farmers Aly Kassam and Lisa Richards.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001dd6b)
Ben Wright and guests reflect on a dramatic week in Westminster following Liz Truss's announcement that she will resign as prime minister. The panel includes the political editor of the Financial Times George Parker, Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley and Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001dd6d)
Nigeria's Flood-hit State

Nigeria is suffering its worst flooding in a decade with 1.4 million people displaced and more than 600 killed. There are now concerns that the country may face catastrophic levels of hunger. The BBC’s West Africa correspondent, Mayeni Jones, visited flood-hit Kogi state and reflects on what her journey revealed about the state of the country.

The Netherlands is currently lurching from crisis to crisis - including a tense debate over how to accommodate thousands of asylum seekers. In recent weeks, judges ordered the Dutch government to raise the standards in the reception of refugees in line with the European minimum. Anna Holligan visited a reception centre in the country's rural north.

Many who fled Iran after the revolution in 1979 had to find their way in new countries, including Israel. Suzanne Kianpour met with a singer who left Iran for Israel as a child and spoke to her about how she managed to adjust to the different culture and her desire to build bridges between enemy countries.

Bhutan has kept its borders firmly closed for two and a half years. Now it’s re-opened to tourists, and an additional daily tourist tax is set to make it a much more exclusive. Locals who cater for less extravagant budgets are being hit hard, says Michelle Jana Chan.

it was just a normal Friday afternoon when tragedy struck the village of Creeslough in county Donegal in Ireland. An explosion at a petrol station killed ten people - with police describing it as a tragic accident. Members of the local community have pulled together in their grief with small acts of kindness, says Chris Page.

Presenter: Kate Adie
Producers: Serena Tarling and Ellie House
Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond
Editor: Emma Rippon

Photo credit: Ayo Bello, BBC


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001dd6h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001dd6m)
Energy Saving Special

The Money Box team concentrates on the biggest cost of living fear that people bring to the programme - how will I pay my energy bills when the price of everything else is rising so rapidly and support may be withdrawn.

We'll ask what another new Prime Minister and the government’s scrapping of the Energy Price Guarantee after April mean for those facing fuel poverty?

Our reporter Dan Whitworth visits the Energy House at the University of Salford. It’s a Victorian terrace house built inside a warehouse to test energy efficiency. Listen out for top tips on how to save money on energy costs in the home.

And our experts will answer listener's questions on energy saving - from whether to keep your heating on all day to the most energy efficient ways to cook.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Eimear Devlin and Star McFarlane
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast Saturday 22nd October, 2022)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m001d5qy)
Series 109

Episode 6

With the magic of the internet, for our final episode of this series Andy is joined by a panel from all over the world. It's Alex Massie representing the UK, Celya AB for France, Alice Fraser for Australia and Anuvab Pal for India.

It's been a truly chaotic week in Westminster. The panel look at Liz Truss' resignation as Prime Minister and reflect on how the UK political scene is viewed on the global stage.

Hosted and written by Andy Zaltzman with additional material from Alice Fraser, Tasha Dhanraj, Eleri Morgan and Cameron Loxdale.

Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Co-ordinator: Ryan Walker-Edwards

A BBC Studios Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001dd6r)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001dd6w)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001d5rj)
Professor Sir John Curtice, Blair Jenkins, Robert Jenrick MP, John Nicolson MP, Emily Thornberry MP

Adam Fleming presents political debate from Orchardhill Parish Church, Giffnock with the Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde Sir John Curtice, the journalist and former chief executive of Yes Scotland Blair Jenkins, the Conservative MP and Minister of State in the Department of Health and Social Care Robert Jenrick, the SNP MP and Culture Spokesperson at Westminster John Nicolson and the Labour MP and Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Ken Garden


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001dd70)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m000z6x8)
Black Gold

Biochar is an idea thousands of years old but one that seemed to have been (foolishly) lost by many along the way.

Like charcoal, biochar is made by baking wood in the absence of oxygen and then quenched. It can then be ground down and worked into the soil to improve fertility and crop yields. It's believed to have been applied thousands of years ago in the Amazon, to generate the Terra Preta.

The biochar locks in much of the carbon captured by the trees and stabilises it. Tom meets Forester Dave Faulkner and his team at Whittlewood to see the productions process in Northamptonshire.

Meanwhile, Josiah Hunt experimented with the process in Hawaii and now supplies across California. As well as capturing carbon and improving the soils, he says they're removing liability wood to reduce forest fires and are helping to produce green electricity.

Can this ancient process help bring new hope?

Producer Anne-Marie Bullock
Researcher Sarah Goodman

Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Professor Stuart Haszeldine and Dr Ondřej Mašek from the University of Edinburgh and the UK Biochar Research Centre.


SAT 15:00 The Tomb (m001dd74)
Episode 1

After decades of searching the Valley of the Kings, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his newly appointed Egyptian assistant Shafiq Tadros uncover a step leading to the tomb of Tutankhamun. Funder Lord Carnarvon and his daughter Lady Evelyn arrive and an unauthorised inspection of the tomb takes place. Decades later a chance meeting on the streets of Paris with an Egyptian student causes Shafiq to excavate his own story.

In November 1922 the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb became the biggest news story in the world. Virtually untouched for over three thousand years, the tomb contained priceless artefacts including a solid gold coffin, thrones, archery bows, trumpets and fresh linen underwear. Egypt, newly liberated from British rule, hailed the discovery of Tutankhamun as a symbol of its glorious rebirth as an independent nation. But who should control the terms of the dig, and who should keep the treasure?

Original drama based on true events. Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.

Cast
Shafiq ….. Noof Ousellam
Howard Carter ..... Neil Stuke
Fahima ….. Sarah Agha
Mounira ….. Helene Maksoud
Ahmed ….. Rami Nasr
Abdullah ...... Liran Nathan
Telegraph Clerk ….. Ajjaz Awad
Evelyn ..… Isabella Inchbald
George Carnarvon .…. Tim McMullan
Boy / Saleh ….. Ali Khan

Producer: Joby Waldman
Director: Steve Bond and Joby Waldman
Music and Sound design: Sami El-Enany
Sound Recording: Steve Bond
Script Advisor: Monica Hanna
Language Consultant: Kareem Elshehawy
Production Assistant: Louis Blatherwick
Production Coordinator: Darren Spruce
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer

A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001dd7b)
Actor Geena Davis. Harry Dunn's Mother. Choreographer Jasmin Vardimon.

Geena Davis is a two-time Academy award-winning actress, known for her role as Thelma in Thelma & Louise, among countless other parts she has played. She joins Jessica Creighton to talk about her impressive career as an actress, athlete and model – as well as why she’s such a champion of female representation in media, and why she chose the title of her new memoir, ‘Dying of Politeness’.

Anne Sacoolas on Thursday admitted causing the death of 19 year old motorcyclist Harry Dunn in August 2019. Harry’s mother Charlotte spoke to Anita Rani about how she’s feeling after the trial, and how her and Harry’s family have kept up the fight for justice over the last three years.

Choreographer Jasmin Vardimon talks to Jessica Creighton about her new production, ALiCE, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, and looks at how current cultural themes that we wouldn’t expect, including how women change through puberty and the menopause, are central to the classic story.

Domestic abuse figures in England and Wales are going up. Woman’s Hour has been hearing about sides of the issue we don’t really talk about. Winifred Robinson, presenter of the Radio 4 series, ‘Boy in the Woods’ talks to Krupa Pahdy about what it is that makes women want to stay with their abusers – and filmmaker Deeyah Khan tells Jessica Creighton about her new documentary, ‘Behind the Rage’, which focuses on the men who are violent towards their partners.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lottie Garton


SAT 17:00 PM (m001dd7g)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001dd7l)
The David Frost One

Nick Robinson talks to Conservative peer David Frost, the former chief Brexit negotiator, about Boris Johnson's potential return as Prime Minister, the downfall of Liz Truss and how he went from foreign office diplomat to Brexit architect


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001dd7s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001dd7z)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001dd84)
Boris Johnson has spent the day trying to rally support to join the Conservative leadership contest -- and possibly re-enter Downing Street.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001dd8c)
Sara Pascoe, Benedict MacDonald, Dreda Say Mitchell, Elf Lyons, HipHarpCollective, George Riley, Bidisha, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Bidisha are joined by Sara Pascoe, Benedict MacDonald, Dreda Say Mitchell and Elf Lyons for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarpCollective and George Riley.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001dd8k)
Jeremy Hunt

The chancellor, Surrey-based entrepreneur and protege of David Cameron. He served as Foreign and Health Secretary while twice challenging - unsuccessfully - for the Conservative Party leadership. In just a few days he tore up most of the prime minister's economic policy. Now he has to try and restore the government's credibility with the markets while attempting to deal with the impact of the cost of living crisis. With Timandra Harkness. Produced by Bob Howard

Researchers: Alice Struthers, Ellie House, Matt Toulson
Production Co-ordinators: Helena Warwick-Cross and Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: James Beard
Editor: Bridget Harney


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001dd8r)
Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat is the world’s foremost Iranian-born artist. Best known for her black and white portraits of veiled women, often with hands and faces overlain with intricate Farsi calligraphy, she works primarily as a photographer and filmmaker. A winner of one of the biggest international arts prizes, the Praemium Imperiale, she has shown art in galleries all round the world - except in Iran, as she has lived in exile in America since 1996. As human rights protests continued in Iran, a huge artwork by Shirin, called Women Life Freedom, was shown on billboards at London’s Piccadilly Circus where a rally was staged in support of Iranian protesters.

Shirin Neshat tells John Wilson about her upbringing in an artistic, liberal family who lived amidst the conservative and religious Iranian city of Qazvin. She recalls how she was studying art at the University of California, Berkeley, when the Islamic Revolution took place in 1979. With new restrictions imposed on women, including the mandatory veil, she decided to remain in America. Returning to Iran for the first time in 1990, she was shocked by the changes and began to make artworks in response, primarily exploring the theme of power and oppression in two series of works entitled Unveiling and Women Of Allah. Shirin also reveals the huge influence on her work of the Iranian poet and filmmaker Forugh Farrokhzad, who was killed in a car accident in 1967 aged just 32.

Producer: Edwina Pitman

Extracts from The Wind Will Carry Us by Forugh Farrokhzad, read by Shahrbanou Nilou


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001dd8y)
The Battle of the Brows

In January 1923, one of the earliest outside broadcasts from the newly formed BBC took place - The Magic Flute performed at Covent Garden by The British National Opera Company. The programme was a statement of intent by the early BBC as broadcasting was a revolutionary way in which culture could be brought to many people through their new wireless sets. Ever since its foundation 100 years ago, the BBC has been an arena in which debates have played out about what sorts of culture the British people want or need.

In 1932, a BBC broadcast by the writer J.B. Priestley brought The Battle of the Brows to the airwaves. With a combative, sometimes abrupt, tone, Priestley's talk To A Highbrow poked fun at the tastes and manners of the cultural elite. It provoked a furious response from Virginia Woolf, one of Priestley’s targets - and an unapologetic ‘highbrow’. Woolf’s impassioned response revealed the depth of feeling around the question of what was worth valuing in culture. Radio, cheaper printing techniques and ongoing education reforms had expanded opportunities for cultural access. The mudslinging represented far wider anxieties about modern Britain.

The BBC further entered the fray with the launch of the Third Programme in 1946, established to build on the BBC's founding mission to 'forge a link between the dispersed and separate listeners and the symbolic heartland of national life'. Yet it was selective from the start and, for some, the Third Programme was an intellectual and cultural haven - for others, it was 'highbrow' trendsetting of the worst kind.

In The Battle of the Brows, which marks a century of the BBC, Philip Hensher delves into the archival history of a culture war that swept the broadcaster up in its wake. He explores how we rank and value culture and how debates over 'high' and 'low' culture have played out at the BBC and beyond, since the 1920s.

With Melvyn Bragg, Melba Cuddy-Keane, William Davies, David Hendy, Charlotte Higgins, Fiona Maddocks, James Marriott, Chi-Chi Nwanoku, Will Self and Ed Vaizey.

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald and Sarah O’Reilly
Historical Consultant: William Davies
Readers: Rebecca Crankshaw and Will Huggins

A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 No Place But the Water (m000llx1)
Part 1

Linda Marshall Griffiths' drama series set in a flooded future world.

There is a hotel on the edge of the water, run by a messy family of dreamers in the middle of nowhere. There is also a pig called Barking. But the food is running out and Birdie thinks they are being watched.

When there is no place but the water, where do you go?

JESSIE ..... Sade Malone
BIRDIE ..... Poppy O’Brien
THE ANGEL ..... Vinette Robinson
MAURICE ..... Pearce Quigley
GIL ..... Rupert Hill
LAURIE/SELENE ..... Jenny Platt

Directed by Nadia Molinari
Sound Design by Steve Brooke

Programme Consultants: Dr James M Lea and Dr Ian Dawson

‘No Place but the Water’ is a speculative drama series that explores what the world might look like after the Western Antarctic melts and also asks questions about how we offer hospitality to refugees, how we live closer to the planet when we are forced to and what exactly becomes vital when very little remains. It captures a magical-realist world that is also filled with ghosts. There is a sense of danger, not only of the rising water but also that some terrible act has already happened on the island before their arrival. The hotel itself is a character, sometimes offering its secrets but also stalking the family with its sighs and bells, secret places and shadows of what happened in the past. Ultimately the family discover that the hotel and the forest beyond it, hold the hope of a new kind of life.


SAT 21:45 Life at Absolute Zero (b08n233n)
Series 2

Houseroom

Lynne Truss observes the inhabitants of Meridian Cliffs, a small wind-battered town on the south coast of England.

Retired driving instructor Terry lives alone with his elderly Jack Russell, Thelonius, and his large collection of jazz records. When daytime TV's Got Any Stuff? comes to town looking for people with unwanted items to take part in the show, it provokes Terry into doing something he's been putting off. His mother died a while ago and her belongings are piled up in his garage. In among the ancient tea towels and assorted plastic ash trays, Terry finds a battered yellow suitcase whose contents take him by surprise.

Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News (m001dd93)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Behind the Crime (m0019r5b)
Behind the Crime: Chris

As a society, we send close to 100,000 people to prison each year. Criminal behaviour costs the country around £60 billion every year, according to Home Office research.

Is it possible to prevent crime by understanding the root causes of offending behaviour?

Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons.

Their role is to help people in prison to look at the harm they’ve caused to other people, understand why it happened 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 the life of someone whose crimes have led to harm and, in some cases, imprisonment.

In this opening episode they talk to Chris, who received a prison sentence for a reckless arson. He was released in 2017.

On the face of it, Chris was a drug abuser with a track record of violent offences and robberies. In this remarkable interview, he describes himself as a ‘one-man crime wave’.

The job of the forensic psychologists is to dig deep into Chris’s story, to understand the sequence of external influences that got Chris to the point where he was causing harm to himself, to others and to society as a whole.

Today, Chris has built a career for himself as a printer and a poet. He works for The Archer Project, a charity that supports homeless people in Sheffield.

For details of organisations that can provide help and support, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (m001d52d)
Heat 12, 2022

Four contenders join Russell Davies in the twelfth heat of the series, to determine who will take the last of the places in the semi-finals which begin next week. The general knowledge questions come thick and fast: who created the fictional detective Adam Dalgliesh? Which river does the city of Munich stand on? Which was the first animated Disney film to be dubbed into Zulu? The competitors have ten seconds' thinking time, but only if they get the question right do they get another.

Appearing today are
Helen Blackburn from Midlothian
Marianne Fairthorne from London
Hadrian Jeffs from Long Stratton in Norfolk
John Webley from the New Forest

The winner will take a place in the semi-finals, but there may be a place in the semi-finals for a runner-up if they can accumulate enough points at this crucial stage in the tournament.

There will also be a chance for a listener to Beat the Brains with questions he or she has devised.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Xanadu (m001d4zb)
As we approach 250 years since the birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature Daljit Nagra explores the worlds contained within one of Coleridge's most famous poems, Kubla Khan. It's a poem that allows its readers to travel in their imaginations to a distant, visionary land. Daljit speaks to readers and scholars around the world as he journeys through the celebrated poem, line by line.
Presenter: Daljit Nagra
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio manager: Ilse Lademann

SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2022

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001dd9b)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Living with the Gods (b09gkk3r)
Living with Each Other

Neil MacGregor concludes his series about shared beliefs. He began with the Lion Man, an object created 40,000 years ago, and now reflects on the present, on the future and on hope

Producer Paul Kobrak

The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh.
Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.


SUN 00:30 The Poet and the Echo (m001d5q0)
The Grey Eagle

Harry-Josephine Giles draws inspiration from Fiona MacLeod's poem 'The Vision'. The Grey Eagle is a warm story of transformation and discovery through the streets of Venice and the hills of Scotland, and its impact on a treasured friendship

Read by Matthew Zajac
Written by Harry Josephine Giles
Produced by Naomi Walmsley


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001dd9j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001dd9r)
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 (m001dd9y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001ddb4)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001ddbb)
St Mary-Le-Bow on Cheapside in London.

Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary-Le-Bow on Cheapside in London. The sound of Bow bells is famously associated with Dick Whittington and in the medieval nursery rhyme “Oranges and Lemons”. To be born within the sound of Bow bells is the sign of a true Cockney. Today the tower houses a ring of twelve bells cast in 1956 by the Mears and Stainbank Foundry of Whitechapel. The tenor weighs forty one and three quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of C. We hear them ringing Stedman Cinques.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001dd8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001dd6j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01nx326)
In the Fullness of Time & At the End of the Day

Irma Kurtz considers the origins and uses of clichés.

She finds that, although many of our most often used clichés originated with Shakespeare, newly minted clichés appear every day. She reflects that clichés can be convenient truisms that keep us linked to our heritage and community - but also potentially dangerous generalisations.

To help explain her thesis we hear readings from the works of Shakespeare, Bernard Levin and Daisy Ashford, and music from Ravel, Cole Porter and Frank Loesser.

The readers are Liza Sadovy and Col Farrell.
The producer is Ronni Davis.
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001dd6n)
BBC Food & Farming Awards finalist: Griffiths Eggs

In a fully automated packing shed in Shropshire a collection of robots and their human helpers grade and pack a billion eggs every year. This site is owned and run by the Griffiths family, who have been breaking the mould in egg production for decades. They specialise in producing eggs from hens kept indoors. After the ban on battery cages came into force, they invested millions in new 'colony' cages. Now, just a decade later, they are pulling out the colony cages and putting up new cage-free apparatus. It's an attempt to get ahead of the game as the supermarkets plan to phase out selling caged eggs completely. To ensure the system is the best it can be, they've employed chicken welfare experts to monitor their hens and advice them on best practice. Another ground-breaking move has seen them build a muck-burner - using chicken poo, which can cause pollution when spread on the land, to make heat and electricity instead.

Griffiths Eggs has been chosen by Charlotte Smith as one of her three finalists in the "Farming for the Future" category of this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards. In this programme, Charlotte visits the farm to hear about the family's penchant for innovation.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001dd6s)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001dd6x)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001dd71)
Politics and Trust; Sikh Community Kitchens; Poetry and Faith

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has published its final report. One of the key recommendations is for mandatory reporting of child sex abuse, even if that abuse is disclosed to a priest in a confessional. So, what are the implications for those churches with a confessional tradition where confidentiality is sacrosanct? William speaks to bishop Paul Mason, the lead on safeguarding for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The Sikh community kitchens known as ‘Langar’ are coming under pressure in the current cost of living crisis. As energy and fuel prices continue to rise, so does the demand for free food. Our reporter Nina Robinson visited a Gurdwara in Coventry to see how they are coping as they prepare to feed more than five thousand people over Diwali.

The theologian, poet and former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Rowan Williams has gathered together one hundred poems from the last one hundred years which explore the themes of faith and belief, in ‘A Century of Poetry’. He discusses with William how can poetry help us in our spiritual journeys.

And as the Conservative Party get set to appoint a replacement to Liz Truss as the next prime minister, William considers whether the notion of the common good has been lost in the melee of competitive politics, with Daniel Greenberg, the newly appointed Parliament commissioner for standards, Ann Widdecombe, former MP and Dr Alan Smith, bishop of St. Albans and convenor of the Lords Spiritual

Producers: Jill Collins and Louise Clarke-Rowbotham
Editor: Helen Grady


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001dd75)
Willow Foundation

Arts presenter John Wilson makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Willow Foundation.

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 ‘Willow Foundation’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Willow Foundation’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Registered charity number: 1106746


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001dd79)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001dd7f)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001dd7k)
A century of spiritual reflection

The first of four programmes from high peaks across the nations of the United Kingdom marking the centenary of the BBC.

Radzi Chinyanganya and Reverend Grace Thomas embark on a pilgrimage up Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England. Grace will be paying attention to the environment looking at how we can develop opportunities for acts of hope – such as simply getting our hands in the dirt and planting seeds. Grace believes we have to act even if only in a small way in this climate emergency. As Radzi and Grace walk, talk and enjoy the view there will be some reflection on religious broadcasting at the BBC over the past 100 years. This will be a spiritual ramble with prayer, music and thoughtful conversation.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001d5rq)
Investigation of a Dog

Will Self ponders the close connection between man and dog, as his dog nears the end of his life.

He reflects on lessons learnt: 'You've taught me such a lot these past fifteen years, I wonder, old friend, what you have to teach me now that you're dying?'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Iona Hammond
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09ly0qg)
Kathy Hinde on the Common Crane

Audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde has always loved cranes, ever since she learned to make origami cranes as a child. Here she recalls a magical sunrise watching a balletic performed by dancing Common Cranes.

Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Tony McLean.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001dd7q)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001dd7x)
Writer: Nick Warburton
Director: Rosemary Watts
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Alan Franks … John Telfer
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell
George Grundy …… Angus Stobie
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Jakob Hakansson… Paul Venables
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Joy Horville… Jackie Lye
Lee Bryce … Ryan Early
Martyn Gibson…Jon Glover
Mia Grundy…Molly Pipe
Natasha Archer… Mali Harries
Paul Mack… Joshua Riley
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Mick …Martin Barrass


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001dd83)
Rick Rubin, music producer

Rick Rubin is a multiple Grammy-winning record producer who has worked with a wide range of artists including Adele, the Beastie Boys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He also reinvigorated the career of Johnny Cash in the 1990s, with a series of acclaimed stripped-back albums, introducing the legendary Man in Black to a new audience.

Rick was born on Long Island in New York in 1963. As a teenager, his first love was punk, but he soon became entranced by New York’s emerging rap scene and started hanging out in hip hop clubs to discover more about what was then considered to be an underground form of music. In 1984 he co-founded Def Jam Recordings from his dorm room at university and produced rap records for T La Rock and LL Cool J.

Together with his business partner, promoter Russell Simmons, Rick took rap into the mainstream by putting rappers Run-DMC and rock band Aerosmith together to cover Aerosmith’s Walk This Way. It enjoyed international success and became hip hop’s first crossover hit.

In 1993 Rick approached the country singer Johnny Cash about working together. By that time Johnny, who was in his sixties, had been dropped by his record label and was performing at dinner theatres to small audiences. In his mind his career was over. Rick persuaded him to record again and released the album American Recordings in 1994. Lauded by the critics, the album led to a creative collaboration that lasted until Johnny’s death in 2003.

Rick's more recent work includes the album The New Abnormal by the Strokes, which won the band their first ever Grammy last year.

DISC ONE: Across the Universe by The Beatles
DISC TWO: …And at the Hour of Death by Víkingur Ólafsson
DISC THREE: Rockaway Beach by The Ramones
DISC FOUR: Us V Them by LCD Sound System
DISC FIVE: I Believe in You by Neil Young
DISC SIX: Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling by Thomas De Hartmann
DISC SEVEN: The Dangling Conversation by Simon & Garfunkel
DISC EIGHT: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack

BOOK CHOICE: The Red Book by Carl Jung
LUXURY ITEM: Tarot cards
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling by Thomas De Hartmann

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001dd89)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 It's a Fair Cop (m001d54m)
Series 7

Vulnerable Adult

In this week's case Alfie and his audience of deputies have learnt of an old man in the community whose had a stroke of luck and got himself a much younger lady friend. His daughter though, is worried that this woman maybe taking advantage of her dad.

What is the right move, both legally and morally?

Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Producer: Sam Holmes

A BBC Studios Production


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001dd8h)
Wine in a Changing Climate

As rising temperatures supercharge the UK wine industry, Jaega Wise finds out what this means for winegrowing at home and abroad, and the mixed blessing climate change presents.

She finds out how winegrowers, viticultural scientists and wine trade experts feel about the double-edged sword of climate change, and what the future might look like for the industry both in the UK and further afield.

In Sussex, we hear from winemaking duo Dermot Sugrue and Ana Dogic about their estate Sugrue South Downs, and how warmer temperatures have improved the ripening capacity of the grapes used to make their award-winning sparkling wines – putting them on a par with Champagne according to some.

Wine critic Jancis Robinson has tasted the benefits of climate change on English and Welsh wine over the course of her career, and believes parts of England now have the climate to produce excellent red wines too. Noble Rot’s Dan Keeling, meanwhile, explains why he’s excited for the future of UK sparkling wine, and why some producers now stand their ground next to world-class Champagnes in blind tastings.
Viticulture climatologist Dr Alistair Nesbitt shares the findings of a recent study looking at the next two decades of wine production in the UK. He believes we will begin to see more and more UK still white and red wine on shelves in years to come, and argues that sustainable winemaking plays a crucial role in the industry’s response to climate change.

Producer Robbie Armstrong heads to Bordeaux to find out how one of the world’s largest and most famed wine regions is adapting, following a year that saw extreme drought, wildfires and the use of irrigation for the first time in decades. He speaks to a leading researcher at the Institute of Vine and Wine Science about their experimental vineyard, and a winemaker planting grape varieties that are better adapted to rising temperatures.

Presented by Jaega Wise.
Produced by Robbie Armstrong.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001dd8p)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001dd8w)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 The Coming Storm (p0bchs4q)
7. Welcome to the Future

QAnon and the plot to break reality...

The Q Shaman, the man with the furs and horns who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is in jail. The movement he came to symbolise appears defeated. But in a small South Carolina seaside town, ‘establishment’ Republicans are fighting a losing battle for the soul of their party, after one of the bloggers who mainstreamed the QAnon conspiracy theory has been elected to a powerful local position.

Across America, people who believe Donald Trump’s parallel narrative about a stolen election are trying to take over the levers of democracy. Was this the plan all along?

Producer: Lucy Proctor
Presenter: Gabriel Gatehouse


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001d5pw)
Balkeerie, Scotland

Kathy Clugston and the team are in Balkeerie, Scotland. Fielding questions from the audience this week are Matt Biggs, Kirsty Wilson, and Chris Beardshaw.

From the land of thistles and bluebells, the panellists share some fruity suggestions for establishing an orchard, dig up some design ideas to create colour and interest throughout the winter, and discuss where to begin when carrying out their sometimes long list of gardening tasks.

Away from the questions, Chris Beardshaw visits the new parterre at the sprawling Pitmedden Garden.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman

Assistant Producer: Aniya Das

Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 What Really Happened in the Nineties? (m0016y5m)
5. Tech

Here we are in 2022 navigating cancel culture, Brexit, identity politics, war in Europe.

How did we get here? Did we miss something? Robert Carlyle, who played the wildcard Begbie in the '90s hit Trainspotting, is here to show us that we did. That the world we live in was shaped by the forgotten decade: the 1990s.

From Hong Kong to Moscow, Cool Britannia to No Frills flights, we travel back in time to key moments in the '90s that reverberate today in unexpected ways.

Episode 5: Tech

Robert Carlyle uncovers a conflict in the 90s that we may not have been aware of – the crypto-wars between the so-called cypherpunks and the United States government. The fight was over online privacy and it was won by a computer programme called Phil Zimmermann, who faced four years in jail for releasing software called Pretty Good Privacy. As Jamie Bartlett, the author of The Missing Cryptoqueen explains, if it wasn’t for Phil, we wouldn’t be able to communicate securely online today.


Producer: Stephen Hughes
Sound Designer/Composer: Phil Channell
Consultant: Jamie Bartlett


SUN 15:00 Working Titles (m001dd91)
Miss Nobody: Part 1

Miss Nobody episode 1/2
by Ethel Carnie, dramatised by Mary Cooper
A musical adaptation, following the lives of two working women in 1911 Lancashire. Author and activist, Ethel Carnie narrates, she wants to teach the women to strive for more in their working lives. She creates Carrie - a shop worker, and her friend Rachel - a mill worker, and over two episodes we journey with them as they both search for something better, in their own ways. By turns, joyful, stark, thought provoking, and inspiring, it is a universal story of working women's emancipation. Carrie takes a trip to the countryside on her one day off, and by chance meets Farmer Robert Gibson, a meeting which will change her life forever. Rachel in Manchester is pursuing her socialist activities and trying to unionise the women in the mill.

Ethel Carnie - Jenny Platt
Carrie - Evie Hargreaves
Rachel - Helen O'Hara
Robert - Conrad Nelson
Sarah/Gran - Alexandra Mathie
Mrs. Martin/Jane - Fionnuala Dorrity
Charlie/Socialist - Chris Hannon
Jenny - Poppy O'Brien
Singers: Janet Swan, Rosie Swan, Jules Gibb, Katherine Watson, Grainne Gordon,
Victoria Knott, Mark Mukerji and Huw Johnson and all members of the cast.
Accordion - Hannah James
Music composed, arranged and played by Rowan Rheingans,
Production co-ordinators Pippa Day and Vicky Moseley
Sound by Simon Highfield, and Sharon Hughes
Produced and directed by Pauline Harris


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001dd96)
Writing Nature

A special recording of Open Book at the Southbank in London. Johny Pitts and Octavia Bright are joined on stage by authors Sarah Hall, Mya-Rose Craig, Fiona Mozley and Dorthe Nors, sharing their literary response to the natural world.
From the inspiration they draw from nature, to the challenges of capturing it in words, to the power of setting in fiction, a wide-ranging conversation about how writers evoke and celebrate our environment, without ignoring the challenges we all face.

Book List – Sunday 23 October and Thursday 27 October

A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors: Translated by Caroline Waight
The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
Birdgirl by Mya-Rose Craig
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
I Belong Here by Anita Sethi
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot


SUN 16:30 Reading the Air (m001dd9d)
“I mustn't speak, neither must I breathe. It really is something sacred coming towards me...”

In the depths of mid-winter, in the corner of a field on the Wiltshire-Dorset border, naturalist and writer Chris Yates has taken up his position. A fisherman for over 60 years, his rods and reels are gathering dust at home. Now in his mid 70s, he’s let go of his lifetime’s obsession to follow something new - the wintering hen harrier.

Chris now spends his winters in search of this most elusive of birds. We join him over two days as he looks to the skies, reading the air for clues as to when and where “the illustrious one” might just make an appearance. Even the briefest of sightings fills him with joy.

We follow Chris along a wind-whipped hillside and through tree-chattering woods, hoping to catch a glimpse of the harrier’s slow-motion flight, and all the while delighting in the sights and sounds of an English mid-winter landscape.

Photo; Dan Shepherd

Original music; Ozzy Moysey (double bass), Phil Smith (piano) and Joel Whitaker (cello)

Produced by Dan Shepherd and Phil Smith

A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001d5kl)
Is the Patient Breathing?

From the harrowing 999 calls of people waiting for an ambulance to the paramedics stretched to breaking point, File on 4 goes on the frontline of the ambulance crisis.
Rachel Stonehouse speaks to the family of one man who died after waiting nearly 11 hours for an ambulance and the wife who desperately tried to keep her husband alive after an ambulance failed to turn up on time.
She goes out on shift with hard pressed paramedics and sees the steps which are being taken to try to reduce delays in handing over patients at hospital - blamed as one of the main factors behind poor response times.
In August alone, 138,000 hours were lost to handover delays in England. That equates to nearly 150 patients who could not be attended by an ambulance every hour of every day in that month.
The government says it is committed to easing pressure on the ambulance service - by discharging more patients in hospitals, increasing the number of 999 call handlers and creating more beds.

Reporter: Rachel Stonehouse
Producer: Paul Grant
Research: Scott Hesketh
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Editor: Carl Johnston


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001dd8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001dd9l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001dd9s)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ddb0)
Rishi Sunak has formally entered the Conservative leadership contest.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001ddb5)
Jake Yapp

A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001ddbc)
It’s the Team Chase at the Stables; the opening of the cross-country course. Mia is asking questions about the horses. She seems very engaged with it. Her interest grows in the work of the Stables, though Alice says there are no job opportunities there just now. Mia’s a bit shocked by some of the riders’ use of the whip. Mia also talks to Oliver about the Hunt Ball which is on again at last. When she learns there could be work available there, she tells Oliver she might be keen.

Elizabeth is impressed with the whole event. Elizabeth and Oliver think the return of the Hunt Ball is something to celebrate, though we hear that Peggy is not in celebratory mood. She’s boycotting St Stephens over the stained-glass window saga.

Meanwhile Beth is surprised when Chelsea turns up on the doorstep. She’s looking for Ben, who isn’t there, but Beth is welcoming. When Ben arrives, it’s difficult for Chelsea. She tells him she’s decided to have a termination. It will have to be next week, because she’s decided late. Ben is quiet. He tells Chelsea how brave she is, and says he wants to come with her. But Chelsea doesn’t want him to – her mum will be there, and she doesn’t know he’s the father. Later with Beth, Ben is tense. Beth is trying her best to back him up, but Ben is volatile. He despises himself. He can’t bear to talk about it, and leaves.


SUN 19:15 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m001ddbh)
The Love Language Problem

Do you know what ‘love language’ is – and what’s yours? Do you envy people, the homes, lifestyles and careers? Have you experienced strategic untruths on someone’s dating profile? All these subjects have been sent in by our listeners and are given the Marian and Tara treatment in the latest instalment of their popular advice podcast.

The first series was welcomed by listeners and critics.
"Both are warm and kind enough to not only be funny but also offer genuinely thoughtful, if left-field, advice." (Miranda Sawyer, The Observer)
"Keyes and Flynn are my new favourite double-act." (Jane Anderson - Radio Times)
"I found their compassion endlessly soothing." (Rachel Cunliffe - The New Statesman)

Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, these two friends have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve the biggest - and smallest - of their listeners' problems.

From dilemmas about life, love and grief, to the perils of laundry or knowing what to say at a boring dinner, we’ll find out what Marian and Tara would recommend - which might not solve the problem exactly, but will make us all feel a bit better.

Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world, the hosts invite you to pull up a chair at their virtual kitchen table as they read and digest their inbox.

Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.

Producer: Steve Doherty.
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


SUN 19:45 The Performance of My Life (m001ddbm)
Land of My Fathers

Alone in their dressing room and away from the glare of the spotlight, this is the precious time when an actor has the chance to reflect on the most momentous events of their lives on the stage.

In this series of single-voice narratives, five of our most celebrated stars of the late 19th and early 20th century theatre share memories of the performances that changed their lives forever.

The stories are, by turn, touching, hilarious, emotionally-charged, heart-warming and poignant. Each of them, in their own way, is delightfully counterintuitive – familiar characters maybe, but each with an unfamiliar story to tell.

In Land of My Fathers, the year is 1930 and we find ourselves in a draughty chapel schoolroom in the Rhondda Valley, where the great American social activist, actor and singer Paul Robeson, is waiting to join the local male voice choir in a very special performance.

Writer: Roy Apps
Reader: Paterson Joseph
Director: Celia de Wolff
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001d5q8)
Andrea Catherwood explores True Crime on Radio 4 in discussion with Winifred Robinson, the presenter of The Boy in The Woods, and commissioning editor Dan Clarke.

As celebrations continue for the BBC's 100th anniversary, licence fee payers air their views on its future.

Also, listeners react to that Miriam Margolyes moment on the Today programme and our Vox Box reviewers Cushla and Lee give their thoughts on the World Service Outlook series, Hip-hop, lies and the ultimate prize. It tells the extraordinary story of two Scottish rappers Silibil n' Brains who made it in the music business by living a lie.

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


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001d5q4)
Ian Hamilton KC, Audrey Evans, Parvatiben Solanki, Robbie Coltrane OBE

Matthew Bannister on

Ian Hamilton KC, the Scottish lawyer who, as a student, took part in removing the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey and returning it to Scotland.

Professor Audrey Evans, the paediatric oncologist who founded a global network of homes where the families of her young patients could stay during their treatment.

Parvatiben Solanki, who teamed up with her husband to launch Garavi Gujarat, one of the biggest selling Asian news magazines outside India.

Robbie Coltrane OBE (pictured), the actor best known for playing Hagrid in the Harry Potter films and the criminal psychologist 'Fitz' in Cracker.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Kevin Drummond KC
Interviewed guest: Richard Durham
Interviewed guest: Shailesh Solanki

Archive clips used: crisden1/ YouTube Channel, Òran na Cloiche performed by Ruairidh Caimbeul 14/07/2010; Infinity Features Entertainment/ The Mob Film Company/ Alliance, Stone of Destiny (2008) movie clip; BBC World Service, The History Hour - How I took the British Coronation Stone 29/12/2018; British Pathé, ‘The Stone’ Returns 1951, AP Archive, Stone of Scone Is Returned After 700 Years In UK 21/07/2015; Modern Hero/ YouTube Channel, Meet Dr. Audrey Evans 27/05/2017; RMHC/ YouTube Channel, Ronald McDonald House Charities 16/07/2020; BBC One, Black Adder the Third, Ink and Incapability 05/06/1987; BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs – Robbie Coltrane 09/02/1992; BBC News Scotland 10/04/2014; BBC Scotland, Tutti Frutti – The Boy Can’t Help It 03/05/1987; Eon Productions/ United Artists, GoldenEye (1995) movie clip; A+E Networks/ Granada Television, Cracker – Murder On The Train 27/09/1993; Hat Trick Productions, Clive Anderson Talks Back – Robbie Coltrane interview 29/10/1993; Warner Bros./ Heyday Films/ 1492 Pictures, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (2001) movie clip; Casey Patterson Entertainment/ Pulse Films/ Warner Horizon Unscripted Television, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts (2022); Warner Bros./ Heyday Films/ 1492 Pictures, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002) movie clip.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001dd6m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001dd75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (m001d552)
How Xi Jinping did it

Just over a decade ago, President Xi Jinping was a virtual unknown. Few would say that now. In ten years, he’s reworked the Chinese Communist party, the military and the government so that he’s firmly in control. He’s also vanquished all of his obvious rivals. And now, he’s about to extend his time in office. Some say Xi might stay in the top job indefinitely. So how did Xi Jinping do it? Celia Hatton, the BBC’s Asia Pacific Editor, speaks to fellow China watchers to find out.

Producer: Rob Walker
Editor: Clare Fordham
Researcher: Ben Cooper
Studio Manager: James Beard
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross

With special thanks to Kerry Allen.

(Photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the art performance celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021. Credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001ddbr)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001dd8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01nx326)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]

MONDAY 24 OCTOBER 2022

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001ddby)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m001d5js)
Protests

Protests: from Occupy to MeToo and the current situation in Iran. Laurie Taylor is joined by Sara Burke, Senior Policy Analyst at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung political foundation in New York, and co-author of a recent study which analyses the myriad protests which have shaken the world since 2010. She explores their main causes, which include the perceived failures of democracies, as well as the oppression of women and economic inequality. Which protests are likeliest to achieve success and how do we measure success, in the first place?

They're joined by Maryam Alemzadeh, Associate Professor in the History and Politics of Iran at the University of Oxford, who discusses the characteristics and trajectory of the women-led protests in Iran.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001ddbb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001ddc2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001ddc6)
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 (m001ddcb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001ddcg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001ddcm)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

Today is Diwali; for those who celebrate, it is marked with a worship of the goddess Lakshmi, and of course with plenty of food and festive gatherings with loved ones.

The word ‘Diwali’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Dīpāvalī’ which means “row of lights”. As we ready ourselves for another winter season, we witness the days growing shorter and darkness slowly encroaching on our afternoons.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Diwali, I find, is one that seems very obvious and yet is full of nuance. As the sun sets, many households will be lighting small lamps filled with oil or ghee all around their homes. Houses are filled, literally, with rows of lights.

The cheerful flickering of these tiny flames is a sight that brings great joy, not only because it is associated with celebrations of delicious food and joyous meetings with family and friends, but because it’s a reminder that even in times of darkness, each of us carries a light within ourselves.

In the Bhagavad Gita, a well-known Hindu scripture, Shri Krishna tells his dear friend Arjuna, that He remains as the light of knowledge within the hearts of those who love Him. He tells us that even when the world seems dark and we are unsure of our path, we can find our way if we have the light of love and knowledge in our hearts and minds.

How do we kindle this light within ourselves? The simple advice given is to spend time in the company of those who have it. To develop love, we keep the company of those who are not afraid to give love to the world around. If we seek knowledge of the Divine, we remain with those whose lives are surrendered to that.

With God’s grace, may we always be in good company. May our minds remain elevated through love and understanding.

Namaste, Hari Om.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001ddct)
24/10/22 - River Wye pollution, sugar beet campaign and UK seed and nut production

Pollution levels in our rivers are now so bad that tens of thousands of planned new homes in England and Wales are on hold - a BBC Wales investigation has found. One of the causes is phosphate - an essential and major nutrient for crops and animals, but damaging to our eco-systems if too much gets into rivers and streams courses. That's what's happened along the River Wye, where as we've reported, the high number of chicken farms is being blamed - but farmers say they're being unfairly targeted.

Sugar beet yields are likely to be down on the annual average this year as the campaign gathers pace after a delayed start in some areas, by campaign I mean the harvest. Some farmers are finding the beets smaller this year because of the summer drought, and some of the processing factories opened later to allow the crop more time in the ground.

And could a growing demand for seeds and nuts for human consumption provide new opportunities for British farmers?

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


MON 05:56 Weather (m001ddd0)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkt3d)
Leach's Storm Petrel

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

Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Leach's Storm-Petrel. Only the most far-flung islands around our coasts provide sanctuary for Leach's Storm-Petrels, one of the most difficult of our breeding birds to see. Chris Watson tells the story of a perilous 2am climb he made to record the sounds of Leach's Storm-Petrel's in their breeding burrows on cliff ledges on the Island of Hirta in the St Kilda group.


MON 06:00 Today (m001ddd4)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001ddd6)
Zombies, exiles and monsters

The Man Booker prize winning novelist George Saunders turns to short-stories for his latest book, Liberation Day. From workers dressed as ‘ghouls’ in an underground amusement park to brainwashed political protestors and story-telling slaves his protagonists underscore what it means to live in community with others. George Saunders tells Tom Sutcliffe how his stories veer from bizarre fantasy to brutal reality.

The move from fantasy to stark reality can be seen in the history of Russians living in exile in Paris after the Revolution in 1917. Helen Rappaport’s After the Romanovs details how former princes, used to a life of luxury, could be seen driving taxicabs. While some emigres, like Diaghilev and Chagall, found great success in this new world, others became trapped in a cycle of poverty and homesickness for a country that was no longer theirs.

The BFI and UK-wide horror film season In Dreams are Monsters celebrates how monstrous bodies of all kinds have been represented on screen over the past hundred years. Curator Anna Bogutskaya explores the symbolism and emotional impact of ghosts, vampires, witches and, arguably the most politicised of all cinematic monsters, the zombie – a terrifying, dead-eyed blank canvas for social commentary.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddd8)
Book of the Week: Ep 1 - How Climate Works

Selected essays from a unique book created by Greta Thunberg where over 100 scientists, writers, activists and thinkers share their expertise with the aim of combatting the climate crisis. Today, we hear from Greta Thunberg, the science journalist, and author of The Ends of the World, Peter Brannen and the writer and commentator on environmentalism, and author of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, Elizabeth Kolbert. Greta Thunberg, Kyle Soller and Kelly Burke read.

Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of climate change.

Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake by partnering, with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers, journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own views on what she’s learned and what’s next.

The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.

You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th October on BBC2.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001dddc)
Artist and conservationist Sophie Green, Deepfake porn, British gymnastics

In China, the leader Xi Jinping has moved into a historic third term in power. He has just revealed his senior leadership team at the 20th Communist party congress in Beijing, and for the first time in 25 years, no women were included. We discuss what this means for women in China.

A new BBC documentary looks at how deepfake technology is being used to create hardcore pornography of women without their consent. Presenter of the documentary Jess Davies and leading deepfake and synthetic media expert Henry Ajder join Krupa, alongside campaigner Kate Issacs who has been impacted by this form of image-based sexual abuse.

In the next episode of Friends Forever? Dan and Nat have been best friends for 20 years but romantic relationships have put a strain on their friendship. How do you cope if you think your mate's boyfriend is bad for her? Jo Morris explores the tricky business of having a best mate and a partner.

British Gymnastics have just published ‘Reform 25’, their 40 point response to the Whyte Review. The report was highly critical of the organisation saying it was enabling a toxic culture that prioritised profit over the wellbeing of young athletes, and encouraged an era in which they were subjected to shocking levels of emotional and physical abuse. Sarah Powell the new CEO of British Gymnastics joins Krupa Padhy, along with Claire Heafford, co-founder and campaign director of Gymnasts 4 Change.

Sophie Green is an artist and conservationist. In her paintings she highlights some of the planet's most endangered animals and next month her work will be showcased in a new exhibition called Impermanence at the Oxo Tower Gallery in London.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore


MON 11:00 The Untold (m001dddf)
Follow the Dream

With a record number of people crossing the English Channel at the hands of smugglers, Mana's tale has an added sense of urgency. She has been recording on and off since making that journey and shares the ups and downs she's had to deal with as she settles into her new life.

Since reaching the UK she's made new friends and has set herself some ambitious goals in life, including making it into a mainstream film as an actress. If it sounds far fetched, then you don't know Bit Bok. She's courageous because she's had to be. As the family's only English speaker, she was left to negotiate with some of the most ruthless smugglers imaginable. At every turn she's had to confront problems and find creative solutions to keep her family going.

Producer: Sue Mitchell
Additional Reporting: Rob Lawrie


MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001d5b0)
Dealing in Defence

Evan Davis looks at the UK's defence industry to find out how it is responding to the war in Ukraine and whether socially conscious investors are beginning to change their minds about the sector.

Guests:
Dean Rosenfield, Head of Saab UK
Kevin McNamee, CEO of Denroy Group Ltd
Kevin Craven, CEO of ADS Group

Presenter: Evan Davis
Production Coordinators: Siobhan Reed & Helena Warwick-Cross
Producer: Julie Ball & Nick Holland
Editor: Tara McDermott


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001dddh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001dddk)
Crowdfunding energy bills, Broadband woes, TV subscription cancellations

Struggling households are turning to crowdfunding to help pay their bills. Just Giving says they’ve seen thousands of new fundraisers associated with the cost of living crisis launched this year. Rebecca Wilks tells us why she chose to ask the public for help.

This year almost a million households have cancelled their streaming services. We hear from one mum who’s had to break the news to her children that they can only keep one of their on-demand services. Plus we find out what tricks the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime are using to try and keep you hooked.

And is your broadband slowing you down? Nine million of us think we’re not getting what we pay for when it comes to internet speed. Ernest Doku from USwitch explains how you can check whether your broadband is performing as well as it should be.

Producer: Anna Hodges
Presenter: Winifred Robinson


MON 12:57 Weather (m001dddm)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001dddp)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 How to Raise a Trillion (m001dddr)
Direct Taxation

In April 2020, the total managed expenditure of the UK Economy broke through the trillion pound barrier for the first time. Estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility put the 2022/23 figure at £1,087 billion, equivalent to around £38,000 per household or 43.2 per cent of national income.

In this series, Martha Kearney and BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David break down the income side of the UK’s balance sheet and look at how different forms of taxation, borrowing and the expectation of economic growth are likely to contribute to the way we pay for economic recovery.

Producers: Emilia Jansson, Jeremy Neumark Jones, David Prest.
Sound Design: Alice K. Winz
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 World at One (m001dysy)
News, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 14:15 The Archers (m001ddbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:30 Imagined Worlds (m001d5hk)
The Chair of this year's Booker Prize jury, Neil MacGregor, explores what this year's crop of novels submitted for the prize tells us about the literry imagination and psyche after two extraordinary years dominated by the covid pandemic. What imagined worlds have this year's shortlisted novelists created and what do they tell us about the times we are living through? Neil and his fellow jury members academic and broadcaster Shahidba Bari, historian Helen Castor, Novelist and critic M. John Harrison and the novelist, poet and professor Alain Mabanckou, talk about the threads linking the diverse novels on the shortlist.
They discuss the power of long memory, the resonance of past events lived out in the present, religion and the world beyond conventional truth and the reality that rather than instant response to the extraordinary, it seems that novelists have been at their most compelling when dealing with themes and events that have, as one jury member put it, had time to 'cure and for rage to be suitably polished'.
Recorded before the prize winner decision is made, we hear something of the agonising process of ordering the inherently disordered.

The Shortlist includes:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, the energetic and exhilarating joyride story of an uprising, told by a vivid chorus of animal voices that help us see our human world more clearly.
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan. A tender tale of hope and quiet heroism which is both a celebration of compassion and a stern rebuke of the sins committed in the name of religion.
Treacle Worker, by Alan Garner. The story of an introspective young mind trying to make sense of the world around him.
The Trees by Percival Everett, in which a violent history refuses to be buried, combining an unnerving murder mystery with a powerful condemnation of racism and police violence.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. Shehan's rip-roaring epic is a searing, mordantly funny satire set amid the murderous mayhem of a Sri Lanka beset by civil war.
And
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. Bestselling author Elizabeth Strout returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any time.

Producer: Tom Alban


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (m001dddv)
Semi-final 1, 2022

The 2022 season of the prestigious general knowledge tournament enters the semi-final stage, with the first set of heat winners returning to compete for a place in the Final.

The competition promises to be fierce, as the contenders grapple with questions such as which New York thoroughfare is known as the Avenue of the Americas, who is currently Team GB's youngest ever Olympic medal winner, and which multiple Grammy-award-winning composer and record producer has the middle name Delight?

Appearing in today's semi-final are
Dan Afshar from London
Isabelle Heward from Lincolnshire
Gill Taylor from West Yorkshire
Ian Wilkinson from Hull.

Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001dd8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Journey of a Lifetime (m001dddy)
On a Mission

Lynne Anderson is this year's winner of the 'Journey of a Lifetime' travel bursary where the Royal Geographical Society -in conjunction with Radio 4 - awards £5000 to someone with a brilliant idea for a radio adventure.

Lynne used to be a missionary in the Mormon church. The church became a integral part of her life until she left it years later having suffered a faith crisis. Returning to Salt Lake City 20 years on for a reunion of her former mission sisters, Lynne is forced to face her past and lay some ghosts to rest.

Traveling onwards through the US state parks of Utah, whose modern history is intertwined with the Mormons, she finds inner peace in the majesty of nature. Ending up in Las Vegas, the chaos of Sin City is a far cry from the conservatism of Salt Lake City and the sublime landscapes surrounding it.


If you’d like to apply for this exciting award, all the information you need is on the Royal Geographical Society website. Follow link below.

Producer Neil McCarthy
Photo credit Lynne Anderson


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (m001ddf0)
Series 26

Disinhibition

Aleks Krotoski explores whether disinhibition, often associated with toxic online behaviours such as trolling, may also have benefits in our digital world?

Since the early days of the internet, research into disinhibition, including John Suler’s much-cited paper on the ‘online disinhibition effect’ has recognised that benign disinhibition not only exists alongside toxic but deserves equal consideration. Yet somehow, our fascination with the negative often drowns out more nuanced perspectives. In this episode of the Digital Human, Aleks investigates scenarios where disinhibition might be helpful, examines factors which positively facilitate it and asks whether assumptions that aggressive online behaviours are a result of disinhibition might be a misdiagnosis of the problem.

Producer: Lynsey Moyes
Researcher: Juliet Conway

Contributor Biographies:

Ani de la Prida is a psychotherapist and creative arts counsellor and teaches at the University of East London, where she did her master's degree research on the use of digital media in arts therapy. Ani also the founder and course director of the Association for Person-Centred Creative Arts.

Tom Postmes is professor of Social Psychology at the University of Groningen. He completed his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. In his research Postmes shows how everyday interactions can lead to such collective behaviour.

Judith Donath is a writer, designer and artist whose work examines how new technologies transform the social world. Author of The Social Machine (MIT Press, 2014), she is currently writing a book about technology, trust and deception.

Caitlin McGrane is a feminist activist, researcher and academic based in Melbourne, Australia. She works for Gender Equity Victoria leading a project enhancing online safety for women working in the media.

Catherine Renton is a freelance writer and culture reviewer based in Edinburgh.


MON 17:00 PM (m001ddf2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ddf4)
Rishi Sunak will become the UK's third prime minister in as many months.


MON 18:30 It's a Fair Cop (m001ddf8)
Series 7

Student Officer

In this week’s episode, copper turned stand up Alfie Moore, takes us through the 10 week journey of training a new recruit, preparing them to be a bobby on a beat.

When Alfie took young recruit Zoe under his wing on the streets of Scunthorpe, neither of them knew how that journey would end. How would you deal with the situations that a student officer faces? Unruly kids, difficult drivers, and the real threats of physical violence.

Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Producer: Sam Holmes


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001ddfc)
Ruth and Pip haven’t seen much of Ben and Beth recently. When they do see Ben he’s always in a rush and doesn’t answer his phone. They photograph the bed and breakfast room for the website. It’s looking good, apart from a dreadful watercolour by Leonard. Later, when Jill drops a hint to say Leonard should have the first night there, they realise they’ve been had. Leonard has arrived with his overnight bag. And it’s the room next to Jill’s…
Rex has taken the boat to a quiet spot. He’s fishing, and remembering Bert, who died a year ago. Ben comes by, having just come off his bike. He’s not hurt, but he’s having to push the bike. Rex says he’s got a spare rod if Ben would like to join him. They reminisce about Bert, who valued and liked Ben. Ben finds that hard to hear. He’s bitterly self-deprecating; Bert was wrong about him. Rex is concerned, and asks if Ben’s ok. Ben says he’s fine, there’s nothing to tell.
Chelsea’s trying to do some coursework, but Jazzer can see that her mind is elsewhere. He’s concerned about her, so he stays with her. He helps her to think it through. She tells Jazzer that it’s been so hard, but she knows she’s doing the right thing by ending the pregnancy. She’s scared though. Jazzer tells her to let the doctors and nurses know how she’s feeling when the time comes. He’s kind and comforting, and encourages her to sleep.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001ddfh)
Taylor Swift and Arctic Monkeys

Taylor Swift and the Arctic Monkeys both released their debut albums in 2006. Their latest studio albums, Swift’s tenth, Midnights, and Arctic Monkeys seventh, The Car, have just been released. Laura Barton reviews them and compares their unexpected similarities.

As new exhibition The Horror Show! opens at Somerset House, horror in art and film is discussed by the exhibition's co-curator Jane Pollard and BFI film programmer Michael Blyth.

May Sumbwanyambe on his new play Enough of Him which explores the 18th century story of Joseph Knight, an African man enslaved by plantation owner Sir John Wedderburn and brought to Scotland to serve in his Perthshire mansion.

Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Harry Parker


MON 20:00 Uncaged (m001ddfm)
1: The Animal

From royal menageries of the ancient world, through medieval travelling animal shows, via the scientific establishments of the early 19th century and the classic Victorian zoo. Since civilisation began, humans have been catching, keeping, and displaying wild animals. They’re places of science, and spectacle. A fun day out with the kids. A chance to see Wild Things, safely contained, not far from the gift shop. Our relationship with the zoo has always been multi-faceted, and often controversial.

Today, the traditional zoo is being transformed, into bio-parks; conversation centres; animal sanctuaries. The barred cages are gone, and so are the elephant rides and the performing seals. Instead, interactive displays provide animal facts, and spell out our role in the world-wide destruction of habitats. Don’t worry, you can still get an ice-cream.

Emily Knight has always felt conflicted. An animal lover since childhood, she can think of no greater thrill than a close encounter with a wild thing. But the ‘wildness’ of the animals of the zoo is compromised, sanitised and reduced. In this series, she’ll discover where zoos came from, and where they’re going. She’ll wonder if we’re doing right by the animal inhabitants. And ask: is there any philosophical justification for keeping them captive in the first place?

In this first episode, we travel from the ancient worlds of Egypt, Greece, Babylon and Assyria. We visit the Roman Colosseum where animals are made to fight each other – and humans. We witness the splendour of Montezuma’s animal collections, and the spectacle of the medieval menagerie in the Tower of London, where polar bears swum in the Thames and elephants drank wine. And we’ll march alongside the radicals of the French Revolution, and discover how animals became a focal point for arguments about liberty.

Produced and Presented in Bristol, by Emily Knight


MON 20:30 Analysis (m001ddfv)
Can Effective Altruism really change the world?

If you want to do good in the world, should you be a doctor, or an aid worker? Or should you make a billion or two any way you can, and give it to good causes? Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried argues this is the best use of his vast wealth. But philosophers argue charitable giving is often driven not by logic, but by a sense of personal attachment. David Edmonds traces the latest developments in the effective altruism movement, examining the questions they pose, and looking at the successes and limitations.


MON 21:00 Wild Inside (m001d5dw)
The Alpaca

Alpacas may have been domesticated for thousands of years but their native lands are the steep hostile mountains of South America where they continue to thrive far from the modern luxuries of animal husbandry. Prof Ben Garrod and Dr Jess French delve deep inside this hardy herbivore to unravel the anatomy and physiology that’s secured the success of this extraordinary member of the camelid family of camels, llamas and vicugna

Producer Adrian Washbourne


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001ddd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001ddfz)
Rishi Sunak will be new Prime Minister

In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


MON 22:45 Sleep Well with Michael Mosley (m001dg4r)
Breathe

Get comfortable, let go of the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new sound-filled podcast series, designed to help you drift off, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven sleep technique and takes a deep dive through some incredible sleep-related bodily mechanisms.

It’s something that the great teachers of meditation and yoga have known about and used for millennia, but science has only really just caught up with: slowing the breath. Via a tiny cluster of cells in the brain, this simple act can send us into a more relaxing, peaceful state and towards sleep.

Guest: Ian Roberston, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin.

Producer, sound design and mixing: Richard Ward
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 The Witch Farm (m001ddg1)
Episode 2: The Watcher

Danny meets our star witness – the real-life Liz Rich, to learn more about the frightening reality of living inside what has been called Britain's most haunted house. Back in 1989, we hear how the haunting intensifies, as Bill and Liz feel a sinister presence that appears to be taking over their lives, but is it real, or is it in their heads?

The Witch Farm reinvestigates a real-life haunting – a paranormal cold case that has been unsolved for nearly 30 years - until now. Set in in the beautiful, remote Welsh countryside, this terrifying true story is told through a thrilling blend of drama and documentary.

Written and presented by Danny Robins, creator of The Battersea Poltergeist, Uncanny and West End hit 2:22 – A Ghost Story, The Witch Farm stars Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Alexandra Roach (No Offence), with original theme music by Mercury Prize-nominated Gwenno. This 8-part series interweaves a terrifying supernatural thriller set in the wild Welsh countryside with a fascinating modern-day investigation into a real-life mystery.

Cast:
Bill Rich ..... Joseph Fiennes
Liz Rich ..... Alexandra Roach
Wyn Thomas ...... Owen Teale
Laurence Rich ..... Jonathan Case
Mr Jones ..... Ioan Hefin

Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow
Sound design by Charlie Brandon-King and Richard Fox
Music by Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Gwenno
Researcher: Nancy Bottomley
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
Directed by Simon Barnard

Consultant was Mark Chadbourn, author of the book on the case 'Testimony'

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001ddg3)
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.

TUESDAY 25 OCTOBER 2022

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001ddg7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001ddgd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001ddgn)
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 (m001ddgv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001ddh0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001ddh9)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

Today marks the fourth day of the festival of Diwali, celebrated with worship known as ‘Govardhan puja’ and ‘Annakut’.

The Bhagavata Mahapurana, a Hindu scriptural text, tells the story of the life of Krishna. As a young boy, every year in the autumn season, he witnessed in his village worship being offered to Indra, the deity of rain.

Seeing that Indra was becoming increasingly arrogant in his demands, Krishna suggested to the villagers that they ought to pay their respects to nature, particularly to the Govardhan mountain near their village, rather than to Indra. Incensed at the insult, Indra caused a terrible storm over the village that gave rise to great flooding. The young Krishna, in order to provide shelter for the villagers, picked up the mountain and held it on his little finger so that they all could stand underneath it.

Having been saved from the deluge, the villagers offered their worship to the mountain and were blessed in turn. Accordingly, this day is celebrated by cooking ‘mountains’ of food (referred by the name Annakut), which is then offered to God. After the worship is complete, the food offered is then called ‘prasāda’: it is taken and consumed with an attitude of acceptance and gratitude.

Love is an incredibly powerful force; when action is performed with love for a higher ideal, it is called ‘karma yoga’, in the language of the Bhagavad Gita. The story of the Govardhan mountain and the practice of Annakut is to remind us of the importance of love for God in every action we perform, and in accepting the results of our actions that come back to us.

May we remember the Lord, who gives us the capacity for action, in everything that we do. May our love sweeten our acceptance of life with gratitude and humility.

Namaste, Hari Om.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001ddhn)
Avian flu vaccines, Hodmedods, BVD in Northern Ireland

As avian flu cases continue to rise across the country, poultry producers across Great Britain are following strict guidelines on biosecurity measures to prevent its spread. Farmers have been asking to be allowed to vaccinate their birds - we look into the details of why that's not currently permitted.

We visit Hodmedods, which was set up 10 years ago in Norwich. It aims to bring alternative crops to market and recruits farmers locally to grow for them while also finding markets for those products.

And there is anger and frustration from farmers in Northern Ireland at what they see as a failure by the Department of Agriculture to act on Bovine Viral Diarrhoea. There's been a programme running since 2016 to try and get rid of it and the number of cases had been going down. But over the past year, there's been a turnaround and the number of infected cattle is rising again.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio by Heather Simons


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378x67)
Arctic Skua

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

Michaela Strachan presents the arctic skua. Arctic Skuas are the pirates of the bird world and cash in on the efforts other seabirds make to find food. They are elegant birds with long angular wings, projecting central tail feathers and a hooked bill. The dashing flight of an Arctic Skua as it chases a hapless gull is always thrilling to watch.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001ddmf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Long View (m001ddmv)
Short-Lived Leaders

As Liz Truss resigns after 44 days in office, the shortest serving Prime Minister in UK history, Jonathan Freedland takes the Long View of short-lived leaders; from Emperor Didius Julianus in AD 193 to Prime Minister Lord Goderich in 1827.

Contributors:
Professor Tim Cornell, Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester
Dr Luke Blaxill, Political historian at Oxford University

Producer: Sarah Shebbeare


TUE 09:30 Flight of the Ospreys (m001ddn5)
Lift Off

Scotland's ospreys are about to set off on their epic Autumn flight to West Africa. For the next ten weeks Emily Knight will be joining a team of conservationists following these beautiful birds of prey from Loch Garten to Ghana.

The crew, headed up by biologist Sacha Dench, aims to discover much more about the journey that the ospreys make and the challenges they face along the way. Climate change is making weather patterns less predictable, crucial wetlands on their route are being poisoned by pesticides and depleted by drought and the birds have the unfortunate habit of electrocuting themselves when they land on powerlines with freshly caught fish.

Before the team tackle the long trek across multiple borders they need to get up to speed on desert survival and conflict avoidance. Emily Knight joins them at their Highland base camp for their crucial training and a meeting with the guru of osprey conservation and re-introduction, Roy Dennis.

Producers: Emily Knight and Alasdair Cross


TUE 09:45 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddnp)
Book of the Week: Ep 2 - Our Changing Planet

Greta Thunberg and the climate scientists Katherine Hayhoe, Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University, and Tamsin Edwards, climate scientist at King's College, London, and IPCC lead author, address extreme weather and increases in global warming. In their essays they explore what this means for the future of our planet. Greta Thunberg, Kelly Burke and Fiona Skinner read.

Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of climate change.

Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake, by partnering with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers, journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own views on what she’s learned and what’s next.

The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.

You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th October on BBC2.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001ddp1)
New PM priorities, Libby Squire's mum, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, Gothic fashion

Twenty-one year old university student Libby Squire disappeared after a night out with friends in Hull in January 2019. Last year 24 year old Pawel Relowicz was jailed for 27 years for her rape and murder. A new Sky documentary 'Libby, Are You Home Yet?'available to watch on Sky Crime from 27th September and streaming service Now explores the case. Libby's mother Lisa joins Jess to explain why she wants to meet her daughter's killer, and the need for earlier intervention in 'lower level' sexual offences. Photo credit Sky.

As Rishi Sunak becomes the UK's first British Asian Prime Minister and the third leader in seven weeks, what will be his priorities and how will that impact issues that particularly affect women? Jess speaks to Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, the Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, and BBC political correspondent Ione Wells.

A key theme of this years COP27 climate summit is expected to centre around who pays for damage already being seen in countries across the world. It's a major concern for the climate activist Vanessa Nakate. Vanessa is 25, she's from Uganda and, inspired by Greta Thunberg’s school strikes in Sweden, launched her own climate movement in 2019 protesting outside the gates of the Ugandan parliament. Now a UNICEF ambassador she joins Jessica to discuss her book, A Bigger Picture, and what she wants to hear from world leaders ahead of COP27.

For an occasional series called Girl’s World Ena Miller went to talk to girls at their schools about their lives and how they express their opinions. Alice and India are 13 and they go to school in Stroud.

Are you or have you ever been a Goth? Black clothes, eyeliner, big boots, lashings of lipstick' ...sound familiar? Fashion librarian Katie Godman's book 'Gothic Fashion - From Barbarian to Haute Couture' traces the roots of this long-lived, popular and adaptable look. She joins Jess and listeners share their stories of when and why they went Gothic.

Presenter: Jessica Creighton
Producer: Dianne McGregor


TUE 11:00 The Treasury Under Siege (m001dfff)
The Treasury has been under siege. Attacks on Whitehall’s most powerful and prestigious department escalated during the Tory leadership campaign of the summer, when the former prime minister Liz Truss and her supporters blamed 'Treasury orthodoxy' for holding the UK back, suppressing growth and productivity.

The Truss team attacks spectacularly backfired after the collapse of their ill-fated mini budget and all the convulsions which followed, but criticism of the Treasury has echoed through the ages. Sceptics say the 800-year-old institution, which sets economic policy and controls the UK's finances, is too powerful, too obsessed with bean-counting, too cautious, too short-termist and arrogant. There have been several attempts to reduce its influence – but the Treasury has fended them off .

Mark Damazer, a former controller of Radio 4 and BBC News executive, talks to insiders who have been at the heart of the Treasury to ask why it attracts so much criticism and what constitutes the orthodoxy that the critics want to challenge. Do wily civil servants use their influence to dilute the political will of elected politicians ? What lies behind the institution’s mystique ?

And, following the extraordinary unravelling of the Truss and Kwarteng premiership, we explore how 'Treasury orthodoxy' is striking back.

Guests include former Chancellor George Osborne, ex ministers Michael Gove and Justine Greening, Treasury historian and former Labour minister Ed Balls and two men with experience at the top of the civil service, Gus O’Donnell and Nick Macpherson.

Producer: Leala Padmanabhan


TUE 11:30 What Happened to Ricky Reel? (m001dptq)
A quarter of a century ago, Ricky Reel was on a night out with friends in Southwest London. Seven days later his body was found in the River Thames. His mother, Sukhdev Reel, has always maintained her son was killed in a racist attack. The family discovered the boys had been racially abused that night, leading to a fight between Ricky and his friends, and two white youths. Sukhdev is still campaigning for the Metropolitan Police to re-investigate her son’s death.

The actor and presenter Ameet Chana goes back to find out what happened to Ricky Reel and see if Sukhdev can find the answers she desperately wants. Ameet was cast in a reconstruction of Ricky's last night for a BBC documentary in 1998 and it’s a case that has stayed with him.

Two investigations were carried out by the Metropolitan Police in the 1990s and both concluded the death was likely to be an accident. In 1999, an open verdict was recorded and although the investigation into the death of Ricky remains open, it is no longer active as the Metropolitan Police maintain there are no further lines of inquiry left to follow.

To assist with the case, Ameet seeks the help of a former Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police, Clive Driscoll, who was one of the main detectives to finally secure a conviction in the Stephen Lawrence case. Clive advises Ameet to go back and speak to the original investigators and find Ricky's friends. Will they shed any more light?

Also contributing in the programme are KC Michael Mansfield, and Suresh Grover from The Monitoring Group and coordinator of the Justice for Ricky Reel Campaign.

Produced by Perminder Khatkar
Executive Producer: Louise Orchard
A 2 Degrees West production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001ddpf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001ddpr)
Call You and Yours: What's it like in the care system right now in your experience?

Call You and Yours: What's it like in the care system right now in your experience?

The regulator says the health and social care system in England is gridlocked.

It's a similar story in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Waits for hospital beds are at record highs because patients can't be discharged for care in the community.

Half a million people are now waiting for council-funded care in England alone - an increase from just under 300,000 in a year.

Staff shortages are causing major problems - do you run or work in a care home? Do you or someone you love need care?

What's it like in the care system right now in your experience?

Email: youandyours@bbc.co.uk. Leave a phone number so we can call you back.

After 11am you can ring 03700 100 444.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001ddq2)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001ddqd)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


TUE 13:45 How to Raise a Trillion (m001ddqr)
Indirect Taxation

In April 2020, the total managed expenditure of the UK Economy broke through the trillion pound barrier for the first time. Estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility put the 2022/23 figure at £1,087 billion, equivalent to around £38,000 per household or 43.2 per cent of national income.

In this series, Martha Kearney and BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David break down the income side of the UK’s balance sheet and look at how different forms of taxation, borrowing and the expectation of economic growth are likely to contribute to the way we pay for economic recovery.

Producers: Emilia Jansson, Jeremy Neumark Jones, David Prest.
Sound Design: Alice K. Winz
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001ddfc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m001ddr0)
Hot Drafts

Highly excited to be starting a new job at the heart of government, 30-something Pip (Macy Nyman) is appalled to be late - trains, buses, roads are all cancelled or jammed. Nobody knows why, this isn’t a planned strike day.

At the Cabinet Office, Pip is directed to the Speechwriters’ Room. There, the enthusiastic new recruit finds Snick (Tom Glenister) amid a litter of cold pizza and drink bottles. Snick blearily explains that this really was a work event, an “all nighter” by the speech-writing team. He couldn’t get home last night because, for some reason, transport seemed to be mucked up. Other members of the team arrive - Alex,(Alec Jennings), Head of the Unit, supervises the creation of a number of “hot drafts” - speeches for The Boss on imminent events, factory openings, the death of a public figure etc - and “cold drafts” - lines for potential eventualities such as a terrorist atrocity, a natural climate disaster, the threat of a nuclear attack and so on.

In real-time, the team improvise and critique a series of speeches for these occasions, arguing over what can and can’t be said, even whether anything can be said.

Mark Lawson's play explores the serious issues of the limits of political rhetoric and government control of populations, in a digital, cynical age.

Cast:
Alex......................Alex Jennings
Pip.........................Macy Nyman
Dr Jason...............Jane Slavin
Snick......................Tom Glenister
Deep......................Avita Jay

Written by Mark Lawson
Directed by Eoin O’Callaghan
A Big Fish Radio production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001dd68)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m001ddr9)
The Lost World of Ice

The world's glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. 2022 has been a particularly disastrous year in the Swiss Alps, where new figures show that glaciers have lost 6% of their total volume of ice during this summer's heatwave. Three glacier-measuring stations have had to close this year, as there simply isn't enough ice left to measure.

In this programme, Jheni Osman travels to the Alps to see for herself how much the glaciers are retreating. She meets up with Swiss archaeologists, trying desperately to save ancient artefacts which are now emerging from the melting ice, after thousands of years frozen in time. She talks to a mountain leader, who explains that routes used by generations of hikers and mountaineers are now closing, as melting ice makes more and more of them too dangerous to walk on.

Jheni asks the head of Switzerland's glacier monitoring team whether anything can be done to save the remaining ice from eventual destruction. She also talks to a cartographer at University College London, who shows her how maps are having to be re-drawn, and even international borders re-considered, to take into account our vanishing glaciers.

Produced by Emma Campbell


TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m001ddrp)
Secrecy in the Court of Protection?

How can a court decide that a young woman is to have medical treatment without her knowledge or that of her mother or guardian? The Court of Protection - which rules on cases involving 'protected' persons who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves - sometimes holds 'closed hearings' that are secret to one or more of the parties, and to the public. Why are those hearings used, and can it ever be justified for the secrecy to lead to public misinformation?

The law now treats animals very differently than in the past. A new book describes how in medieval Europe, they could even be prosecuted - in one case, a pig was actually sentenced to death for the murder of a child.

But nowadays cases involving animals focus on their welfare. A campaigning organisation has been granted a court hearing to examine if the breeding of Britain’s fast-growing broiler chickens is detrimental to their health and welfare, and therefore in breach of the law.

Nearly 3000 prisoners are continuing to serve more than their original sentence - sometimes over a decade more - because they are subject to “Imprisonment for Public Protection”. Some have never been released, others have been recalled to prison, even though IPP sentences were abolished in 2012. The Justice Select Committee has now called on the Government to review these sentences, with the aim of release for most. Members of the House of Lords agree, saying this form of detention is unjust.

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
Production coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Simon Watts


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001dds3)
Patience Agbabi and Andy Miller

Poet Patience Agbabi and the writer and podcaster Andy Miller advocate for their favourite books. Andy wrote a memoir about reading fifty great books, so it can't have been an easy choice. He plumps for My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. Patience loves The Animals in that Country, Laura Jean Mackay's novel which starts with a pandemic but soon moves in to less familiar territory. Harriett talks about A Month in Siena, Hisham Matar's memoir of art, architecture and life.

Producer Sally Heaven


TUE 17:00 PM (m001ddsk)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ddsx)
Rishi Sunak has become the Prime Minister and been naming his Cabinet. Speaking outside Downing Street, he promised to unite the country with actions, not words.


TUE 18:30 The Missing Hancocks (m000cc7h)
Series 4

Prime Minister Hancock

The Missing Hancocks recreates those episodes of the classic Hancock's Half Hour that have been wiped or lost from the archive.

The first modern sitcom, Hancock's Half Hour made stars of Tony Hancock, Sid James and Kenneth Williams, and launched Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as one of the most successful comedy-writing partnerships in history. But 20 episodes of the show were missing from the BBC archives. Now, after four highly successful series, the final batch of those episodes have been lovingly re-recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.

Tonight's episode: Hancock stands for Parliament, with no success whatsoever. But in his dreams he's swept to power on a landslide, and the country salutes......Prime Minister Hancock.

Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, and with the classic score re-recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, the show stars Kevin McNally, Kevin Eldon, Simon Greenall, Robin Sebastian and Susy Kane. Prime Minister Hancock was first broadcast on the 31st May, 1955.

Produced by Neil Pearson & Hayley Sterling.

Written by Ray Galton & Simpson

Music recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Levon Parikian.

A BBC Studios Production.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001ddtb)
Chelsea is at the hospital for tests and a consultation before the termination, which is next week. Ben arrives in the waiting room. Chelsea tries to cover, but Ben tells shocked Tracy that he is the father. There’s a strained conversation between Ben and Tracy while Chelsea has a blood test, then they all go in to see the doctor together. All are shocked and upset by what Chelsea will be facing. Chelsea says it’s her own fault for leaving it too late. Tracy and Ben are both very anxious. Privately, Tracy thanks Ben for his support, he’s doing well. Ben says he’s there for Chelsea. Tracy promises she won’t tell Ben’s family, or Jazzer, that he is the father. Ben says whatever Chelsea wants is what matters.
Competition and speculation have been rife in the village over the soil test results. Kirsty’s now looking through the results, which are fascinating. Bridge Farm has some surprises coming. She thinks she’ll display them in the pub rather than email them out – a more relaxed approach. Meanwhile, Rex has trouble of his own. He’s told Kate about them doing outdoor yoga and meditation, and she’s spitting fire about the Rewilding taking business from her. Kirsty listens to Kate rail, then says they were going to offer her first refusal on the sessions, but she’s clearly not interested. Wrongfooted, Kate tries to backtrack. Kirsty tells her she can be the witch on their Halloween walk. They’re desperate to find someone.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001ddtj)
Eliza Carthy, Ruben Östlund, Brutalist Architecture

Eliza Carthy is celebrating 30 years as a professional musician with a new album, Queen of the Whirl. She talks about this, the legacy of her musical family – as the daughter of Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy – the way traditional music develops, and her own song-writing, and performs live in the Front Row studio.

Double Palme d'Or winning Swedish director Ruben Östlund tells Samira about his first English language film, Triangle of Sadness - a satire on the fashion industry, influencer culture, and the world of the super-rich.

Plus the threat to brutalist architecture. Last year the Dorman Long Tower in Redcar was demolished, and now the Kirkgate Shopping centre in Birmingham is condemned too. Brutalist architecture provokes both love as well as hate, but around the country its buildings are in peril. Author John Grindrod and Duncan Wilson from Historic England discuss how much is being lost, and if it matters.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May

Photo: Eliza Carthy. Credit: Elodie Kowalski


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001ddtn)
Roblox: A Dangerous Game?

Before Covid the US gaming platform Roblox was one of many online games children played. Following lockdown and millions of children isolating at home, the company now has a market value of $22bn and is the most popular gaming platform for British children. But is the platform doing all it can to protect them? Concerns have been raised about financial exploitation, grooming, gambling and access to inappropriate content.
Reporter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Jim Booth
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001ddts)
The Court Hearing About Access Services in Supermarkets; Parliamentary Eye Health Event; Swimming

Access services in supermarkets are, for some blind and visually impaired people, an essential service to gather the exact groceries you need. Services like assisted shopping, where a member of staff takes you around the store gathering items for you, are offered by a lot of supermarkets but some were suspended during the pandemic. Auriol Britton decided to take Sainsbury's Supermarkets to court when she had a problem with her local store in Bristol, primarily based on the suspension of their assisted shopping service. We invited Auriol onto the program to outline the problem she had and what happened in court.

Demand for eye services is rising rapidly and the NHS is struggling to keep up. Well, The Eyes Have It is a partnership between the Macular Society, Fight for Sight, The Royal College of Ophthalmologists and other sight loss organisations and they held a parliamentary a drop-in event at Westminster last week. They are calling for a national eye care plan to tackle the problems patients are facing. Our reporter Fern Lulham provides the details. (NB - Dr Peter Hampson is from the Association of Optometrists.)

And swimming can be a great form of exercise for blind and visually impaired people but keen swimmer Aletea Sellers contacted us when she had a problem in getting access provisions put in place at her local swimming pools. She tells us the responses she got, good and bad.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
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 check 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 Inside Health (m001ddtx)
GP Records, Serotonin & how we get cancer

Do you want to see your GP records at the touch of a button? That’s the plan in England, but doctors warn us freely opening them up to everyone is not safe. And we’ll explore a study that’s transforming our understanding of how cancers develop and bring clarity to the confusion around antidepressants after a study showed low serotonin levels were not the cause of depression.

PRESENTER: James Gallagher
PRODUCER: Beth Eastwood


TUE 21:30 The Long View (m001ddmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001ddv1)
Rishi Sunak’s first day as PM

In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


TUE 22:45 Sleep Well with Michael Mosley (m001dg4v)
Use the morning light

Get comfortable, let go of the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new sound-filled podcast series, designed to help you drift off, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven sleep technique and takes a deep dive through some incredible sleep-related bodily mechanisms.

The light of the morning can be a powerful ally when it comes to the evening and falling asleep. Also, special eye sensors that have nothing to do with vision, a master timekeeper in the brain that’s smaller than a grain of rice, and the hormone of night.

Guest: Dr Christine Blume, psychologist and sleep researcher at the Centre for Chronobiology in Basel, Switzerland.

Producer, sound design and mixing: Richard Ward
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m001ddbh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Sunday]


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001ddv5)
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.

WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2022

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001ddv9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001ddvc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001ddvf)
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 (m001ddvk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001ddvp)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001ddvt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

The final day of Diwali is celebrated today, known as ‘Bhai Dooj’. It is a day when the relationship between siblings is celebrated, particularly between brothers and sisters. In the various stories associated with the occasion, there is a reunion between siblings long separated who are delighted to once again be in each other’s company; having not had the opportunity to meet for a long time, they promise to reunite every year on this particular day.

Families can be complicated; relationships with parents, siblings, children, partners, are rarely without their challenges. Particularly in some cultures, the basic unit of society isn’t counted as the individual but as the family, making it all the more important.

Sometimes our families aren’t the ones we are born into; sometimes, they are the family that we choose. They’re the people we surround ourselves with who accept us as we are, wish the best for us, and are not afraid to tell us where we’re going wrong. Above all, they love, unconditionally. Sometimes, those people are the ones related to us by blood.

On this day of ‘bhai dooj’, the celebration of siblings, I remember that there’s no one who can bring out the worst in you more than someone who remembers what you looked like in nappies. And yet to be in their company brings only a deep sense of gratitude and relief - to have people in your life who have seen you at your worst and still believe in the version of you that is you at your best.

May we be grateful for our family, whatever shape it takes, and may God grant us the virtues needed to be good to our family in turn.

Namaste, Hari Om.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001ddvz)
26/10/22 - Shellfish deaths, pumpkins and nuts from agroforestry

A committee of MPs hears concerns that a toxic chemical trapped in estuary sediments could have killed shellfish off the North East Coast of England. The issue was raised in evidence given to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. The group was told by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - which investigated the deaths for DEFRA - that a combination of two algal blooms was to blame.

Time was when a traditional British Halloween involved little more than apple-bobbing and maybe a carved pumpkin for one night only. Nowadays it's a huge industry worth more than £600 million pounds. We visit Richard Bower, who grows 20 acres of pumpkins on his farm in Staffordshire, and now makes over £200,000 from his pick-you-own experience.

And agroforestry - where trees are integrated to arable fields or pasture - could mean for some, producing nuts alongside more traditional field crops. So is there a market for UK grown nuts?

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b097918s)
Bruce Winney on the Red Kite

Bruce Winney from BirdLife International remembers seeing red kites overhead whilst driving in Harrogate, after years of absence from the skies.

Producer: Eliza Lomas
Photograph: PLFoto.


WED 06:00 Today (m001ddwz)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m001ddx6)
Apocalypse... now?

Steven Brosnan found himself in a bit of a rut, living at home and moving from job to job. Then, in 2012, on his 22nd birthday catastrophic events take place; rather than enjoying a pop concert with his brother he finds himself having to make apparent life-or-death decisions. Ten years later he tells Dr Sian Williams his unique story and the unexpectedly positive consequences those 48 hours had on his outlook.

Producer: Thomas Harding Assinder with Edgar Maddicott


WED 09:30 One Dish (p0cjyhbm)
Kala Channa with Asma Khan

Cookbook author, restaurateur and chef Asma Khan is Andi Oliver’s guest, and she’s brought one of the most important dishes in her life to the table - kala channa.

This stewed, spiced black chickpea dish from India is traditionally eaten in Asma’s family after fasting during Ramadan - although Asma prefers to start with a few samosas first.

Andi and Asma talk about the history of kala channa as an important crop in India, reflect on how access to Indian ingredients has improved over the past couple of decades, and reveal the difference using fresh garam masala can make to the dish.

And Kimberley Wilson is on hand to explain the science of expanding ‘magic’ dried beans.

Asma also shares a great tip for building up the deeply flavoured layers of heat in her Kala Channa, and admits a surprising thing she loves to do with the leftovers.

Food Scientist: Kimberley Wilson
Food Historian: Neil Buttery
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
Exec Producer: Hannah Marshall
Sound Design: Charlie Brandon-King
Assistant Producer: Bukky Fadipe

A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4


WED 09:45 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddxj)
Book of the Week: Ep 3 - Climate Change and Us

Selected essays from Greta Thunberg's collaborative book take us to countries where the effects of global warming are already a harsh reality. We hear Greta Thunberg read from her piece, and then we turn to the investigative reporter Abrahm Lustgarten, the Sami journalist Elin Anna Labba and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an indigenous woman, geographer and UN Sustainable Development Goals advocate. The readers are Kyle Soller, Fiona Skinner and Weruche Opia.

Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of climate change.

Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake, by partnering with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers, journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own views on what she’s learned and what’s next.

The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.

You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th October on BBC2.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001ddxt)
Hygiene Poverty, Hanna Flint, Lumberjills

The new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed his team of top ministers but out of 31 members there are only seven women in his team. The BBC’s Leila Nathoo joins Jessica alongside Dr Meryl Kenny.

Film critic and journalist Hanna Flint has been covering film and culture for nearly a decade. She's now written a book, Strong Female Character: What Movies Teach Us in which she reflects on how cinema has been the key to understanding herself and the world we live in. She joins Jessica Creighton in the studio.

The latest inflation figures show the cost of household items like shower gel, toothpaste and shampoo rose by up to 11% from the same time last year. It's led to 3.2 million people saying they are no longer able to afford hygiene products. Ruth Brock is Chief Executive of the charity The Hygiene Bank and joins Jessica alongside Bryony, a mum from the South of England, who explains how it's impacting her.

Flo & Joan are the multi-award winning British musical comedy duo Nicola and Rosie Dempsey. They cover everything from women’s safety to dating apps to mental health through their witty and irreverent comedy songs. Their sell-out 140-date international tour, Sweet Release, has just been extended. They will be performing for us live in the studio.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Women’s Timber Corps - or ‘The Lumberjills’ as they were affectionately called. During World War Two Britain was so desperate for wood it was forced to step-up home-grown timber production. But with a lack of men to saw, manage and count the trees, meant that women from all over the UK stepped into the roles. Joanna Foat, author of Lumberjills: Stronger Together joins Jessica.

Presenter: Jessica Creighton
Producer: Emma Pearce


WED 11:00 Uncaged (m001ddfm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Meet David Sedaris (m000v2xd)
Series 8

Instalment 5

What with the whole world grinding to a viral halt and everything, this special series of essays and diary entries is recorded at the Sussex home of the world-renowned storyteller.

In 2021, it's 25 years since David Sedaris first shared his very particular world view with the listeners to BBC Radio 4, having brought us The SantaLand Diaries back in 1996. In this eighth series of Meet David Sedaris, he continues to entertain with sardonic wit and incisive social critiques.

David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humour writers and, in 2019, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that he's a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

Sedaris's first book, Barrel Fever (1994), which included The SantaLand Diaries, was a critical and commercial success, as were his follow-up efforts, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997) and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). He became known for his bitingly funny recollections of his youth, family life and travels, making semi-celebrities out of his parents and siblings.

David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. His latest international best-selling book is a collection of stories entitled Calypso. A feature film adaptation of his story C.O.G. was released after a premier at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

This week:
1. Don't Think About Sex Robots
2. Haven't We Met?
3. On Hoarding
4. Crystal Ball
5. Jazz Hands
6. Getting There
7. Skirt
8. Goldenheart

Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m001ddy0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001ddy5)
Car finance; RIP Help to buy; Work from pub

We've been hearing a lot about how rising interest rates and double-digit inflation is making many homeowners worry about how they're going to meet their next mortgage payment. But what impact is the soaring cost of living having on our ability to pay back that other big purchase we finance....our car? No less than 90 percent of new car sales in the UK are now funded by some kind of finance, with PCP - or personal contract purchase - agreements being the most popular. But rates are starting to rise, forcing people to think now about what to do when their agreements come to an end.

Meanwhile first time buyers are being hit with the double whammy of high mortgage rates and the end of the Government's Help to Buy scheme. Launched by the then Chancellor George Osborne under Prime Minister David Cameron, the scheme has helped hundreds of thousands of people to climb on to the property ladder by keeping down the cost of deposits for new homes. With Help to Buy ending on Monday October 31 at 1800, and mortgage deals designed for first time buyers dropping 60% since January, has there ever been a worse time for first time buyers to secure a home?

You've heard of Work from Home - now comes Work from the Pub. With one study estimating that up to 50 pubs are closing every MONTH across England and Wales, landlords and chains are coming up with new ways of drumming up trade. A number have introduced a range of promotions aimed at encouraging customers to use their local boozer as a temporary office. We've been looking at the pros and cons.....

And millions of energy customers have just been given an even greater financial incentive to cut back on their power usage. The value of discounts on electricity bills for households that cut peak-time use is to be raised, as part of new scheme being launched by the National Grid next month designed to prevent rolling power cuts this winter. Households with smart meters will now be paid £3 per kilowatt hour instead of 52p, if they avoid high-power activities like cooking when demand is high. Several energy companies plan to take part in the scheme, including Octopus Energy, which also participated in a trial with the National Grid's electricity system operator earlier in the year. We hear from a customer who was a part of the trial and can explain how it works.

PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: CRAIG HENDERSON


WED 12:57 Weather (m001ddyc)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m001ddyl)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


WED 13:45 How to Raise a Trillion (m001ddyr)
Taxing Business

In April 2020, the total managed expenditure of the UK Economy broke through the trillion pound barrier for the first time. Estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility put the 2022/23 figure at £1,087 billion, equivalent to around £38,000 per household or 43.2 per cent of national income.

In this series, Martha Kearney and BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David break down the income side of the UK’s balance sheet and look at how different forms of taxation, borrowing and the expectation of economic growth are likely to contribute to the way we pay for economic recovery.

Producers: Emilia Jansson, Jeremy Neumark Jones, David Prest.
Sound Design: Alice K. Winz.
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m001ddtb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Dangerous Visions (m000s2kl)
Welcome to MedPatch

Dangerous Visions: Welcome to Medpatch by Kevin Core

It is the day after tomorrow. The NHS is history and the Artificial Intelligence health app Medpatch has ushered in a new era of diagnosis and treatment. As ex-health workers adjust to a vanished career, Jenna, a former doctor, finds herself employed on a new frontier of public health. And she’s about to make a discovery. Thriller about healthcare and technology.

Jenna........................Ophelia Lovibond
Medpatch/Lauren.....Meera Syal
Luke............................Joe Bannister
Dean............................James Cooney
Sash..............................Verity Henry
Jake..............................Kenny Blyth

Director/Producer Gary Brown

Drawing on the revolution in remote, smartphone led diagnostics and advances in health AI, it’s a thriller about how much of ourselves we’re willing to hand to the private sector. And as corporations vie to become the Google of Health - Welcome to Medpatch considers questions about technology and healthcare which may have to be answered sooner than we think.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m001ddyz)
Money Box Live: Your spending habits

Food prices are rising at their fastest rate for more than 40 years. Figures out this week from the Office of National Statistics the price of budget food is up 17% in the 12 months to September - with big increases in the cost of basic ingredients like bread, pasta, cooking oil and tea.

Add spiking transport, rent, mortgage and energy costs to that - and the squeeze on household finances couldn’t be clearer.

We’re looking at what the higher cost of living is doing to our spending behaviour. We’ll be hearing how some of you are keeping costs down - and also looking at potential options for financial support.

Charmaine Cozier will be joined by experts, Krystle McGilvery, a Behavioural Finance Consultant, and Michael Clarke, Head of Information Programmes at Turn2us.

Email us now with your experiences to moneybox@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier
Producer: Amber Mehmood
Researcher: Star McFarlane
Editor: Justin Bones

(First broadcast 3pm, Wednesday 26th October, 2022)


WED 15:30 Inside Health (m001ddtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m001ddzd)
The NHS

The NHS and the 'sick note': Laurie Taylor talks to Gareth Millward, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Odense, and author of a new study which explores the history of the British welfare state via the story of the ‘sick note’. It turns out that the question of ‘who is really sick? was never straightforward. At various times, it was understood that a signed note from a doctor was not enough to 'prove' whether someone was really sick, yet with no better alternative on offer, the sick note survived in practice and in the popular imagination - just like the welfare state itself.

They’re joined by Sally Sheard, Professor of History at the University of Liverpool, who charts the cultural history and changing understandings of healthcare and the NHS in Britain.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001ddzr)
The BBC: Another 100 years?

If you turned on your wireless set 100 years ago, what would you have heard? Katie Razzall looks back at the earliest days of the BBC as it celebrates its centenary, hearing how the idea of a single, national broadcaster came into being.

Early broadcasts involved reading out railway timetables and mocking up Big Ben's chimes on tubular bells, but very quickly the power of wireless broadcasting became apparent. From debates about the difficulties of enforcing the licence fee to fraught deals with newspapers and live performers who feared competition and losing audiences to the newly-formed BBC, some of the discussions have never gone away. But will the BBC last another century?

Guests: Mark Damazer, executive at the BBC for more than 30 years, including as controller of Radio 4; Jean Seaton, professor of media history at the University of Westminster and an official historian of the BBC; Paul Kerensa, broadcaster on BBC Radio Essex and producer of the podcast British Broadcasting Century, which tells the story of the BBC from the beginning; Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School.

Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Tim Bano


WED 17:00 PM (m001df04)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001df0j)
At his first PMQs, Rishi Sunak defended Suella Braverman's return as Home Secretary. He also reintroduced the ban on fracking in England.


WED 18:30 Rob Newman (m001df0w)
Rob Newman On Air

Episode One: On Cue

In a hilarious blend of stand-up and sketches, multi-award-winning comedian Rob Newman addresses the challenges of an international marriage, describes his disastrous attempt to replace conversation with indexed cue-cards, and depicts an epic clash between The Frowning Man and the Cosmic Smile. Co-star: Claire Price.

Written by and starring Rob Newman
With Claire Price
Original music by Boo Hewerdine and Chris Pepper
Recorded by David Thomas
Produced by Jon Harvey and Eloise Whitmore
Exec Producer: Polly Thomas

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m001df18)
Kate is trying to wriggle out of being the witch for the Rewilding Halloween event – but has failed to find anyone else. Gleeful Kirsty tells her she’ll have to do it. Kate says she’d rather be a mother-earth kind of witch than a green evil one. But Kirsty wants the classic. Kate complains to Lilian, while they watch Eddie poring over the soil results in the pub. He’s not happy with the Grange Farm score. Kate tells Lilian that Kirsty wants the tired old interpretation of witches, rather than representing them as the wise women they were. When Lilian cackles with laughter though, it gives Kate an idea. Lilian says no, but Kate is not above begging her. She tells Lilian her whole business is at stake, and Lilian finally relents. She’ll be the witch. What exactly does she have to do?
Tracy is stressed about what Chelsea’s having to go through, and Jazzer is very supportive. He asks her gently if she’s okay with it herself, and Tracy says she just wants what Chelsea wants. When she asks Jazzer how he feels, he opens up a bit. He knows she’s not ready for a child, and he’s not one for having kids no matter what. But he finds it hard that there’s the beginnings of a baby right now, and next week, there won’t be. He’s not sure he could do it if the decision was his. Tracy is touched. It will be tough, but they’ll get through it together.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m001df1g)
Turn It Up: The Power of Music exhibition; The Turner Prize at Tate Liverpool; Linton Kwesi Johnson

Art critic Laura Robertson reviews this year's Turner Prize show at Tate Liverpool.

Presenter Nick Ahad pays a visit to the immersive exhibition, Turn It Up: The Power of Music at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.

Laura Robertson brings us up to date on the latest arts news, from the delayed funding announcement by Arts Council England, to Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof gallery's response to rising energy costs.

Plus Nick Ahad speaks to the pioneering dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson about his new collection, Selected Poems.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Image: The Musical Playground in Turn It Up The Power of Music exhibition © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum Group


WED 20:00 Life Changing (m001ddx6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 20:30 Net Zero: A Very British Problem (m001bzzy)
Heat

The UK is a global success story when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. Committed to reaching net zero by 2050, we've surpassed targets for 2012, 2017 and - already - 2022. We are ahead of all EU countries and other leading economies.

On paper we look good, but it's about to get a lot tougher…

The carbon savings we've made so far have been the easy ones. To reach Net Zero, we need to start changing the way we live and work. We need to rethink our homes, our heating, our transportation and our food. We can’t reach net zero without these changes impacting on each and every one of us.

In this series, comedian and environmental economist Matt Winning looks at the ways in which unique aspects of British culture have shaped how we generate carbon, how we've managed to reduce emissions, and the challenges we now face to eliminate them completely. Travelling around Britain - from terraced houses to the tiniest of crofts, and from golf courses to cement factories – Matt reveals how our energy consumption is bound up with who we are.

The big question now is: can we change?

*CORRECTION*
Barbara Lantschner is Associate Director of John Gilbert Architects, not John Cooper, as stated in the programme

Producer: Victoria McArthur
Presenter: Matt Winning
Researcher: Rachael Fulton
Sound mix: Ron McCaskill
Senior Producer: Peter McManus
Based on an original idea by: Kate Bissell & Glyn Tansley


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m001ddr9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001ddzr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001df1n)
Rishi Sunak’s first PMQ’s as leader

In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Sleep Well with Michael Mosley (m001dg4z)
Enjoy your bed

Get comfortable, let go of the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new sound-filled podcast series, designed to help you drift off, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven sleep technique and takes a deep dive through some incredible sleep-related bodily mechanisms.

There are some simple yet powerful steps you can follow to form new and positive connections around bedtime habits, your bed... and sleep itself. An encounter with a chemical that’s in every cell in the body - and which makes us drowsy.

Guest: Dr Colleen Carney, Director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

Producer, sound design and mixing: Richard Ward
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 The Hauntening (m001df1t)
Series 4

Dead Funny

Travel through the bad gateway in this modern ghost story as writer and performer Tom Neenan discovers what horrors lurk in our apps and gadgets. In this episode, there seems to be a problem with the studio audience – because there shouldn’t be one.

Modern technology is terrifying. The average smartphone carries out three-point-three-six billion instructions per second. The average person can only carry out one instruction in that time. Stop and think about that for a second. Sorry, that’s two instructions - you won’t be able to do that.

But what if modern technology was... literally terrifying? What if there really was a ghost in the machine?

Starring:
Tom - Tom Neenan
Heidi - Jenny Bede
The Archivist - Geoffrey Whitehead
The Barman - Morgan Jones

Written by Tom Neenan

Produced and directed by David Tyler

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001df22)
Series 7

Episode 7

Jon Holmes's multi-award-winning satire. This week - the Rishi Sunak Memory Wipe, Tory Cabinet Swap Shop, and The Cost of Living Witch Farm.

An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001df26)
Rishi Sunak's first PMQs.

THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2022

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001df2d)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001df2l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001df2s)
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 (m001df2y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001df31)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001df33)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

After five days of celebrations, the festivities of Diwali are concluded. With it, many also we celebrated the new year.

Just as there are numerous Hindu festivals throughout the year, there are also many celebrations of the new year in the Indian calendar whether solar or lundar. Needless to say, we love an excuse to have a celebration, and our festivals certainly grant us that.

As well as being a means to meet with loved ones, pass on cultural practices, enjoy good food, and have a rest, festivals also serve a deeper purpose. Just as we set reminders for ourselves to complete certain tasks, festivals are a reminder to re-examine our thoughts and re-focus on our goals.

The new year is celebrated all over the world with great joy, whether on the 1st of January or another date. It’s an occasion to examine the year gone by, to celebrate successes and learn from challenges. It is an opportunity to make resolutions for the year ahead.

It is beautifully said that that which is ever new alone is beautiful and true. With our pace of life, we get tired of things easily. Things soon become ‘old’ and we are quick to discard them. What is it that feels ever fresh to us? When is it that things appear new?

Sometimes, the date changes, and yet we feel everything is exactly the same. Things don’t really change until we change, and we don’t change until our thoughts change. Changing someone else’s mind might be near impossible but changing our own is a challenge worth taking on.

May we have the courage to examine our own thoughts. May we have the honesty to acknowledge when things need to change. May we have the strength and wisdom to make the change.

Namaste, Hari Om.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001df35)
Dairy farmers are taking a calculated business risk not to invest to stop pollution because the chances of being fined are so tiny. That's the findings of an Environment Agency report looking into river pollution, revealed by a freedom of information request by the Guardian. Two thirds of farms in Devon were found to be causing pollution when inspected by the Environment Agency; the inspections were carried out on 187 farms between 2016 and 2020. We ask the National Farmers' Union what's going on.

A full in tray greets the new Secretary of State for the Environment as she settles into the job; Therese Coffey is back at Defra where she served as a junior minister for three years.

We're looking at the growing demand for nuts and seeds this week and chia is one of the newest crops being grown here in the UK. It can be eaten as a seed or the oil can be extracted and used in vegan supplements and make up.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bkfz4)
Rock Dove

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

Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Rock Dove. The birds that Woody Allen once described as "rats with wings" are for many the bane of urban life. Feral pigeons, as domesticated rock doves are known, live closely alongside us. But the same species has, over millennia, been cosseted by pigeon fanciers, used to deliver wartime messages and been housed in dovecotes.


THU 06:00 Today (m001df46)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001df48)
Wilfred Owen

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated British poet of World War One. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) had published only a handful of poems when he was killed a week before the end of the war, but in later decades he became seen as the essential British war poet. His works such as Anthem for Doomed Youth, Strange Meeting and Dulce et Decorum Est went on to be inseparable from the memory of the war and its futility. However, while Owen is best known for his poetry of the trenches, his letters offer a more nuanced insight into him such as his pride in being an officer in charge of others and in being a soldier who fought alongside his comrades.

With

Jane Potter
Reader in The School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University

Fran Brearton
Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast

And

Guy Cuthbertson
Professor of British Literature and Culture at Liverpool Hope University

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001df4d)
Book of the Week: Ep 4 - Action Taken

Greta Thunberg reads from her essay, and then we turn to Kevin Anderson, the Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the Universities of Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen, and Amitav Ghosh, the award winning author of sixteen books of fiction and non-fiction, look at the actions taken so far to limit change. Read by David Hounslow and Vincent Ebrahim.

Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of climate change.

Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake, by partnering with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers, journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own views on what she’s learned and what’s next.

The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.

You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th October on BBC2.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001df4j)
Rogue refuges update, Una Marson, Agony aunts, Iran

In a shocking report out today MPs say too many women who’ve survived domestic abuse are ending up in appalling accommodation operated by rogue landlords who exploit housing benefit loopholes to cash in on a ‘gold rush’ of taxpayers’ money. Some women and their children find themselves housed in mixed-sex provision, or even alongside their perpetrators. The current rules mean anyone can set up what is called Exempt Accommodation if they offer care, support, or supervision that is ‘more than minimal’. One provider left a loaf of bread and some jam to achieve that standard. Others say fitting CCTV is enough to qualify. The All Party Parliamentary Select Committee on Levelling Up Housing and Communities make a number of recommendations aimed at stopping unscrupulous operators getting enhanced housing benefit without providing the wraparound support and staff they’re meant to offer survivors of domestic abuse. Krupa Padhy talks to the Chair of the Committee Clive Betts Labour MP and Becky Rogerson, CEO of Wearside Women in Need.

In 1691, a journalist called John Dunton was having an affair and realised there was no one he could ask for advice about it without revealing his identity. Realising his situation couldn’t be unique, he invited readers of his newspaper to submit their problems. Today agony aunt columns are the mainstay of the back pages of our newspapers and magazines. But why do we still seek comfort from the written advice of strangers? Krupa Padhy is joined by best-selling author and Sunday Times Style agony aunt Dolly Alderton, and author of ‘Never Kiss A Man in a Canoe,’ Tanith Carey.

Yesterday marked 40 days since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”. Thousands of mourners gathered near Amini’s grave in her hometown of Saqqez where Iranian police reportedly fired live rounds and tear gas at the crowds. Protests have taken place across the country since Mahsa’s death on 16th September and women have been at the forefront of the movement, removing their headscarves and cutting their hair in public in solidarity. Faranak Amidi, the BBC's Near East women affairs reporter, joins Krupa.

On Woman’s Hour we talk about girls a lot, how we raise them, keeping them safe, their mental and physical health but we don’t often talk to them. For an occasional series called Girl’s World, Ena Miller went to talk to India and Alice at their school about their lives, the things they think about, chat about and worry about. She took along her teenage diary to jog her memory about the secret world of the teenage girl.

When Una Marson became the BBC's first black radio producer and presenter in the 1940s, she brought Caribbean voices and culture to a global audience. Krupa speaks to actor Seroca Davis on playing Una in BBC2’s documentary-drama ‘Una Marson, Our Lost Caribbean Voice’.


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m001df4n)
Brazil votes on the Amazon's future

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from Brazil, Taiwan, Zambia, Sweden and the USA.

On Sunday Brazilians vote in the final stage of their presidential election, and the slate offers a very clear choice. Meanwhile, the indigenous peoples of Brazil are facing a host of outside threats, as illegal gold miners flood into their traditional lands to seek their fortunes. While the mining process itself damages the forest, the social effects are also insidious. Katy Watson has been to the world's largest indigenous reserve, territory of the Yanomami people, to hear how the gold rush is playing out.

The issue of Taiwan's identity is one of the most vexed geopolitical questions around. On the Chinese mainland, there's no doubt - Taiwan is historically part of China and reunification should happen as soon as possible. On the island itself, most people have very different views. In Taipei, Zeinab Badawi considers the past, present and future of a possible flashpoint for regional conflict.

Food prices have been rising almost everywhere, in the wake of the war in Ukraine and several seasons of drought and natural disaster in many of the world's usual 'breadbaskets'. Some feel the effects far more keenly than others. In Zambia, the soaring cost of bottled gas and vegetable oil means even the simplest snack is now out of reach for some. Qasa Alom stopped off in a small town to talk about the price of potato chips with a woman who earns her living selling them from a stall.

Most stereotypes of Sweden revolve around ABBA and Ikea, a strong welfare state and political moderation. But the results of the most recent general election shook those certainties, as a far-right nativist party, the Sweden Democrats, gained over a fifth of the votes and became a key part of the new right-wing coalition in government. Matilda Welin's been wondering if it's time for Swedes and others to rethink what the country's really about.

Can the United States of America ever really make amends for the sins of its past? Paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved people was a central demand for the Black Lives Matter movement. Calculating the best way to pay out is a challenge to communities and institutions. Mike Wendling reports from Evanston, Illinois, on one scheme which has made some first steps.

Producers: Serena Tarling and Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Iona Hammond


THU 11:30 Music to Scream to - The Hammer Horror Soundtracks (m001df4s)
Curse of the Werewolf, The Brides of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell – films from the height of Hammer Films’ prolific output in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many of the horrific music soundtracks, carefully calibrated to set the pulse racing, were composed by leading British modernists of the late 20th century. Hammer’s music supervisor Philip Martell hired the brightest young avant-garde composers of the day – the likes of Malcolm Williamson (later Master of the Queen’s Music), Elisabeth Lutyens, Benjamin Frankel and Richard Rodney Bennett made a living scoring music to chill the bones to supplement their concert hall work.

Prising open Dracula’s coffin to unearth the story of Hammer’s modernist soundtracks, composer and pianist Neil Brand explores the nuts and bolts of scary music – how it is designed to psychologically unsettle us – and explores why avant-garde music is such a good fit for horror. On his journey into the abyss, Neil visits the haunted mansion where many of the Hammer classics were made, at Bray Studios in Berkshire, and gets the low-down from Hammer aficionado Wayne Kinsey, film music historian David Huckvale, composer Richard Rodney Bennett, and one of Hammer’s on-screen scream queens, actress Madeline Smith.

Producer: Graham Rogers


THU 12:00 News Summary (m001df4x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001df51)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


THU 12:32 All Consuming (m001df55)
VR and the Metaverse

From an illusive science fiction dream in the 1980s, to very real headsets in homes across the world today - virtual reality is making a genuine impact on our lives and social interactions.

Amit Katwala and Charlotte Williams immerse themselves in the virtual world to find out where the innovative technology is leading, checking in on today’s prototypical “metaverse” and VR’s growing influence on art, entertainment and science.

We hear from Dr Alastair Smith about VR’s revolutionary uses in the study of psychology, Dr Trudy Barber sheds a light on the social connections forming inside the metaverse, while interactive experience director May Abdalla invites us into the world of her award-winning VR project, Goliath: Playing with Reality.

Presented by Charlotte Williams and Amit Katwala
Produced by James Tindale
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:57 Weather (m001df58)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m001df5d)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


THU 13:45 How to Raise a Trillion (m001df5j)
Borrowing

In April 2020, the total managed expenditure of the UK Economy broke through the trillion pound barrier for the first time. Estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility put the 2022/23 figure at £1,087 billion, equivalent to around £38,000 per household or 43.2 per cent of national income.

In this series, Martha Kearney and BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David break down the income side of the UK’s balance sheet and look at how different forms of taxation, borrowing and the expectation of economic growth are likely to contribute to the way we pay for economic recovery.

Producers: Emilia Jansson, Jeremy Neumark Jones, David Prest.
Sound Design: Alice K. Winz.
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers (m001df18)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (m000nm66)
The Timbermoor Imp (Part 1)

A Hallowe'en adventure for the immortal mediator. Pilgrim donates an impossibly valuable artwork to Timbermoor museum, to keep it open and maintaining a particular shabby exhibit.

Cast

William Palmer ..... Paul Hilton
John Wayne ..... Stefan Adegbola
Rabbit Owens ..... Louis Jay Jordan
Amy Lister ..... Charlotte East
Piper Lawrence ..... Katie Redford
Vaughan Richards ..... Luke Nunn
Eddie/Mr Buttoner ..... Roger Ringrose
Sally Mop ..... Jane Whittenshaw
Janice Wayne ..... Ellie Piercy
Ginger Richards ..... Emma Handy

Writer, Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directors, Marc Beeby and Jessica Dromgoole


THU 15:00 Open Country (m001df5n)
The Plock

The Plock of Kyle is a promontory on the North West coast of Scotland, beside the Skye Bridge and close to the villages of Plockton and Kyle of Lochalsh. This old community parkland is a striking landscape with native woodland, meadows and rocky coastline, but it is an area tourists tend to just drive through to get to Skye. Helen Mark discovers how a local community trust is working on projects designed to put Plock on the map. There are plans to reconstruct a village, based on archaeological evidence of the Vikings presence in the area. Park ranger, Heather Beaton, gives Helen a tour of the Plock's newly restored meadows, ponds and nature trails. She extols the benefits of scything and gives Helen a lesson on how to improve her skills. Heather aims to hold an annual scything festival.

Helen also ventures under the Skye Bridge, to the small island of Eilean Ban, which was the final home of naturalist and writer Gavin Maxwell, author of The Ring of Bright Water. Otters are regularly spotted around the island and a small museum maintained by a local trust commemorates his life story.

Many local people still recall the heady days of protests over the cost of tolls on the impressive Skye Bridge when it opened in 1995. Helen talks to leading rebel and Highland councillor, Drew Millar, who remembers driving sheep across the new bridge in protest and spending a night in jail for non-payment. Thirty people were convicted of non-payment. After nearly a decade of dissent, the protestors finally won and the tolls were dropped. Drew says the protest shows that peaceful civil disobedience can be successful.

Produced by Kathleen Carragher


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001dd75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m001dd96)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 Made of Stronger Stuff (p0bsx5yx)
Amygdala

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. To finish this series, they're in the brain getting acquainted with the amygdala.

Is the amygdala really the home of fear? Kimberley and Xand meet someone who has had theirs removed, discovering the true nature of this part of the brain, and how it can give us a roadmap to dealing with our everyday anxieties.

Producer: Georgia Mills
Mixer: Tom Brignell
Researcher: Leonie Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001df5x)
Turtle Voices, a Pandemic Retrospective and a Nose-Picking Primate

New recordings featuring the voices of 53 species of turtle, caecilian and tuatara previously thought to be silent have illuminated the evolutionary origins of vocal communication. Gabriel Jorgevich-Cohen a PhD student at the University of Zurich has travelled the world collecting recordings and summarised his findings in Nature Communications this week. He spoke to BBC science correspondent Georgina Rannard who explains his findings, what they mean, and shows us some of her favourite turtle sounds.

What was it like to advise the government during the height of the pandemic? How soon did experts realise the colossal impact Covid would have? Were mistakes made? The latest in our series of interviews with those shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Book prize, Vic sat down with co-authors Sir Jeremy Farrar and Anjana Ahuja to talk about their book Spike: the Virus vs the People.

Anne-Claire Fabre Assistant Professor at the University of Bern and Curator of mammals, Natural History Museum Bern turns her scientific curiosity toward a surprising and perhaps perturbing behaviour in one of her research animals as she spoke to us about her paper published in the Journal of Zoology this week. Whilst investigating the Aye Aye, a nocturnal primate with two long thin fingers Anne-Claire witnessed the creature putting them to good use picking its nose and went on to uncover a big gap in our understanding of this icky behaviour.

Presenter Victoria Gill
Producer Emily Bird


THU 17:00 PM (m001df62)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001df67)
Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of not caring very much about climate change, after Downing Street said the Prime Minister would not be attending the COP 27 Climate Conference.


THU 18:30 Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (m001df6c)
Series 4

The Revolving Door

Alexei contemplates the revolving door between politics and big business and makes a case for becoming the UK’s defence minister.

A mixture of stand-up, memoir and philosophy from behind the counter of an imaginary sandwich bar.

Written and performed by Alexei Sayle.

Producer: Joe Nunnery

A BBC Studios Production


THU 19:00 The Archers (m001ddxy)
Brad, Chelsea and Mia are at a training session for new staff at Lower Loxley. Brad asks Mia to go easy with Chelsea; she’s having a bad time. Chelsea’s astonished when Mia is nice to her as they work together in the cloakroom. Mia admits she’s sometimes a cow, but she’s not going to put more pressure one someone who’s already feeling it. Banter ensues. Later the three of them find some gruesome pictures of the hunt, and Mia suddenly wonders if there’s something they could do to mess up the Ball. She’s sure they could do it without getting caught.
Ruth goes to the rewilding to discuss the Brookfield soil results. When Kirsty goes to walk Lilian round the Halloween Trail, Rex chats to Ruth. He asks if Ben’s okay. When Ruth wonders why, he tells her how distracted Ben was when they were fishing together. Ruth’s alarmed at what he says. She was planning on taking them a meal soon – she’ll do it tomorrow.
Meanwhile Lilian’s having misgivings about being a witch in the cold, dark rain. Kate is anxious, and Lilian tells her she knows why. This is all about sucking up to Kirsty to get in her good books and get some work. Kate admits it. Lilian bites the bullet for her niece. On the walk-through of the trail, Kate tags along, but is studiously ignored when she tries to fish about the yoga sessions. Then Lilian trips over something – it’s an old bottle, with an intriguing message inside it.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m001df6h)
Tammy Faye musical, Paul Newman's memoir, Daniel Arsham, Simon Armitage

Reviewers Karen Krizanovich and David Benedict give their verdicts on Tammy Faye, A New Musical at the Almeida Theatre in London, starring Katie Brayben, and from the combined creative forces of Elton John, Jake Shears, James Graham, and Rupert Goold. Plus they review Paul Newman, The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man - a memoir of the film star created from recently rediscovered transcripts of conversations Newman had in the 1980s.

The Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, reads his poem to mark 100 years of the BBC.

And the American artist Daniel Arsham is known for sculptures which look like archaeological remains or as he describes them “future relics.” As an outdoor exhibition of his work opens at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Luke Jones finds out what inspires his work.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Emma Wallace


THU 20:00 Law in Action (m001ddrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m001df6m)
The business of being a GP

Since the very beginning of the NHS, GP surgeries have been, in effect, businesses with contracts to do the work the Health Service needs. But in recent decades, patient numbers have grown, surgeries have become larger and the services offered more varied. Many GP surgeries now employ administrative staff, nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics, as well as doctors.

What's it like to be a clinician and run a small business at the same time? What are the pressures? How do you get the books to balance? And how do you attract more people to join one of the front lines of the NHS? Evan Davis and guests discuss.

GUESTS
Dr. John Lynch, GP Partner, Framfield House Surgery, Woodbridge Suffolk
Dr. Matt Noble, GP Partner, GP@hand, Bablyon Health a 'digital first' practice
Dr. Yazmin Razak, Single GP practitioner, North Kensington
and Dr. Rebecca Rosen, Senior Fellow, Health Policy at the Nuffield Trust and part-time GP, South London

Producers: Julie Ball and Kirsteen Knight
Researcher: Louise Byrne
Sound Engineers: Graham Puddifoot and Rod Farquhar
Editor: Simon Watts


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001df5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001df48)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001df6s)
UN: COP 26 pledges were not enough

In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Sleep Well with Michael Mosley (m001dg4x)
Warm up to cool down

Get comfortable, let go of the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new sound-filled podcast series, designed to help you drift off, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven sleep technique and takes a deep dive through some incredible sleep-related bodily mechanisms.

A simple hack for the temperature-related, sleep-preparing systems of the body. Plus dilating blood-vessels, shapeshifting and taking a hot bath.

Guest: Anna Wirz-Justice, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Chronobiology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Producer, sound design and mixing: Richard Ward
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Fed or Dead (m001df6v)
Kyle Morris and his team of cyclists were already busy during the Covid pandemic, delivering takeaway food to houses throughout Cardiff – and then a Zombie apocalypse landed as well.

The job got tougher, there was quite a turnover of delivery personnel, and the phrase, “Your meal will be free if delivered after 30 minutes”, became a thing of the past.

Join Kyle and his latest team – Sian, Tahir, Spoiler and Gwyn – as they pedal their way across the Welsh capital, dispensing food to the living, and creative violence to the dead. Along the way, you’ll meet some of the ordinary folk, doing their best to survive in a world that’s gone to hell - PC Keith Pugh of Rot Squad, Jackie Morris (the Ely wolverine) and Bampy Joe, Splott’s oldest zombie.

Despite all the dangers, there’s enough fun to be had among the living and the dead - and just confirms the words of that old rock song, Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be.

Cast:
Kyle - Gary Slaymaker
Jackie - Miriam Isaac
Tahir - Memet Ali Alabora
Gwyn - Rhodri Meilir
SIan - Gwen Watson
Spoiler - Dan Thomas
Sergeant Thomas - Dai Lloyd
PC Keith Pugh - Aled Richards

Other characters played by the cast.

Recorded and edited by Daniel Rhys Lawrence at Seindon Studios, Cardiff
Production Coordinator - Aled Richards
Written by Gary Slaymaker
Produced by Dai Lloyd and Gary Slaymaker

Only two zombies were injured in the making of this programme...well, not so much injured as 'had their heads blown off with shotguns'.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001df6x)
Susan Hulme reports as MPs continue to ask questions about the reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary.

FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER 2022

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001df6z)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001df4d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001df71)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001df73)
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 (m001df75)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001df77)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001df79)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya

Good morning.

After days of celebrating the joyous festival of Diwali, we return to our routines. Despite the enjoyment we experience at the time, festive occasions sometimes leave us feeling overwhelmed.

In the tradition of Advaita Vedanta, a school of thought within Hinduism, great emphasis is placed upon the quality of balance. Balance exists in the external world, and balance is required in our internal world.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna teaches Arjuna that success is assured to one who practices moderation in all things including food, sleep, and activity. It is observed that when we are seeking balance, it is because we see the excess of a particular thing. Of course, it could be the reverse but often it is the overindulgence in something which pushes us to rethink our habits.

One of the practices which Shri Krishna talks about in the Bhagavad Gita is known as ‘tapah’ in Sanskrit. It indicates that practice, whether physical or mental, which helps us to grow from our previous state to one more elevated. It implies discipline: to not give in to the baser tendencies of the body and mind, but to hold ourselves to a greater standard than one we currently adhere to.

Essentially, this means any practice which helps us to bridge the gap between who we are, and who we want to be. Inherent to this is the understanding that we can bring about change, even when we feel it is impossible. We can achieve perfect balance and live in harmony with ourselves and everyone around us.

May we be empowered and inspired to bring balance to our lives through discipline and wisdom. May our equanimity bring peace within and to the world around us.

Namaste, Hari Om.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001df7c)
28/10/22 Red Tractor scheme 'a farce', growing hemp, agroforestry

The Red Tractor farm assurance scheme is "a farce" according to clean water campaigners. We reported yesterday on Environment Agency inspections of dairy and beef farms in Devon between 2016 and 2020. In a report revealed by the Guardian, the EA found that the majority of the 187 farms were polluting on the day of inspection, and were not complying with rules on storing and spreading slurry. Most of those farms were in the Red Tractor scheme, a label that tells consumers means "the food you buy has been responsibly sourced, safely produced and comes from crops and animals that have been well cared for".

All this week we've been talking about nuts and seeds and hemp is growing in popularity. Farmers have to get a licence to grow it, so while it's a good cover crop and its seeds can be used for oil or protein powder, you won't find many fields of it.

We visit one of three finalists in the Farming for the Future category of this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards. Wakelyns is a 56 acre agroforestry farm in Suffolk, growing fruit or nut trees in rows in fields of crops, providing shelter, biodiversity and an added food crop alongside cereals.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k7330)
Tawny Owl (Winter)

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

David Attenborough presents the Tawny Owl. Tawny owls are our most urban owls, often living close to the centre of towns and cities, so long as there are hollow trees or old buildings in which they can nest.


FRI 06:00 Today (m001ddw1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001dd83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg (m001ddw5)
Book of the Week: Ep 5 - What Next?

Today's selected essays on climate change are by Greta Thunberg, the Kenyan environmentalist and activist, Wanjira Mathai and Robin Wall Kimmerer, writer and founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment in the US. Here they explore ways to create a more hopeful future for our planet. We also Greta Thunberg, Weruche Opia and Nancy Crane read.

Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of climate change.

Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake, by partnering with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers, journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own views on what she’s learned and what’s next.

The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.

You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th October on BBC2.

Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001ddw9)
Childcare in the UK: does it need an overhaul?

According to the OECD, the UK is the third most expensive country for childcare. An estimated 1.7 million women in England are prevented from doing more hours of work by childcare issues, while a UNICEF report this week shows that almost 1 in 5 parents on low incomes are skipping meals to pay for it. On Saturday, 12,000 mums will descend on 11 locations across the UK to demand government reform in a ‘March of the Mummies’ organised by the campaign group Pregnant then Screwed. Its founder Joeli Brearley tells us why.

From tax-free childcare to the 30 free hours offer, why do we have the childcare policies that we do? Who are they supposed to target and who really benefits? We discuss with Christine Farquharson, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Megan Jarvie, Head of Family and Childcare at the charity Coram.

The number of childcare providers in England has dropped by 4000 between March 2021 and March 2022. A survey of 2,000 early years providers in March found 30% were currently operating at a loss, while 34% said they expected to be in 12 months' time. Meanwhile a 2020 report from the Social Mobility Commission shows that one in eight nursery workers earned less than £5 an hour. To discuss the challenges facing the sector, we speak to Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance and Jennie Bailey, owner of a nursery in Hampshire.

What are the opportunities and challenges of employing working parents? Elaine Stern is a mother of three and owner of a marketing and production agency employing 35 workers. She discusses how requests for flexible-working or a lack of accessible affordable childcare can impact on business.

How can we arrive at an accessible, affordable, high quality childcare system in the UK? We ask our panel, including Jemima Olchawski CEO of the Fawcett Society, whether government proposals to deregulate the childcare sector will work, how other countries compare to the UK, and whether the sometime conflicting needs of parents, children, providers and employers can be reconciled.

Presenter: Elaine Dunkley
Producer: Lucy Wai
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Joeli Brearly
Interviewed Guest: Megan Jarvie
Interviewed Guest: Christine Farquharson
Interviewed Guest: Jennie Bailey
Interviewed Guest: Neil Leitch
Interviewed Guest: Elaine Stern
Interviewed Guest: Jemime Olchawski


FRI 11:00 Fallout: Living in the Shadow of the Bomb (m001ddwg)
Episode 3: Secrets of Maralinga

The atomic weapons tests that took place in Maralinga, South Australia between 1956 and 1963 included two major series, Operation Buffalo and Operation Antler which forged the way to Britain's first hydrogen bomb, later detonated off Kiritimati - Christmas Island - in the South Pacific.

Hundreds of so-called Minor or Safety Trials also took place in Australia, contaminating the environment with plutonium and other radioactive debris - the true extent of which was only uncovered much later on.

As well as the lasting impact on both Australian and British service personnel (including presenter Steve Purse's own father), these trials also caused immeasurable cultural damage to the Maralinga Tjarutja and other first nations groups, many of whom were forcibly removed from their traditional lands.

With Brian Tomlinson, a former 'sapper' who was stationed at Maralinga during operation Antler; former RAAF-serviceman and whistle blower, Avon Hudson; and Karina Lester, the daughter of the late aboriginal campaigner, Yami Lester.

Presented by Steve Purse
Produced by Hannah Dean
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 11:30 Beta Female (m001ddwn)
Series 2

The Psychic

Sitcom by Amna Saleem, starring Kiran Sonia Sawar. A visit to a psychic goes predictably well for Amna, Nora and Sunnah.

Kiran Sonia Sawar ... Amna
Evelyn Lockley ... Nora
Layla Kirk ... Sunnah
Nadia Kamil ... The Psychic
Sanjeev Kohli ... Kelly
Atta Yaqub ... Issa
Sudha Bhuchar ... Mum

Production co-ordinator Lily Hambly
Producer Ed Morrish

Sound design by Rich Evans at Synbox Post

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001ddww)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Archive on 4 (m001dd8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


FRI 12:57 Weather (m001ddx7)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m001ddxg)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.


FRI 13:45 How to Raise a Trillion (m001ddxq)
Economic Growth

In April 2020, the total managed expenditure of the UK Economy broke through the trillion pound barrier for the first time. Estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility put the 2022/23 figure at £1,087 billion, equivalent to around £38,000 per household or 43.2 per cent of national income.

In this series, Martha Kearney and BBC Economics Correspondent Dharshini David break down the income side of the UK’s balance sheet and look at how different forms of taxation, borrowing and the expectation of economic growth are likely to contribute to the way we pay for economic recovery.

Producers: Emilia Jansson, Jeremy Neumark Jones, David Prest.
Sound Design: Alice K. Winz.
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001ddxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001dg51)
Harland - Series 2

Harland - 1. Mōnandæg

Lucy Catherine's supernatural thriller returns to the new town of Harland. 16 months have passed and no trace has been found of Detective Inspector Sarah Ward. She was last seen disappearing into the brooding sinkhole that swallowed a housing estate. Tyger Drew Honey stars as Dan, the lowly CCTV operative determined to solve the mystery.

Dan ..... Tyger Drew-Honey
Lindsay ..... Jasmine Hyde
Morris ..... Rupert Holliday Evans
Serena ..... Chloë Sommer
Bob ..... David Hounslow
Sarah ..... Ayesha Antoine
Janice ..... Fiona Skinner
Other parts played by Joanna Monro, Jonathan Forbes and Tom Kiteley

Sound Design by Caleb Knightley
Directed by Toby Swift

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Why Do We Do That? (m001dgcr)
Why Is Heartbreak So Painful?

In this episode, Ella Al-Shamahi delves into the origins of a broken heart. Words or phrases that use ‘heart pain’ to describe emotional pain appear in many languages, suggesting it is present in many cultures. Studies show that looking at photos of ex-partners within six months of a break-up triggers the same areas of the brain as physical pain. And as odd as it sounds, just like with physical pain, painkillers can act on feelings of a broken heart. So why is it so painful? TV and Radio Presenter Clara Amfo comes on to talk about love, break-ups and heartbreak. Dr Freddy van der Veen, Associate Professor of Psychology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam reveals the very real signals that travel from our brain to our heart, which may have served an evolutionary purpose.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001ddy4)
From the Archives: Autumn Advice

Kathy Clugston looks back over 75 years of autumn gardening advice on this special archive edition of GQT.

As the leaves fall from the trees and flowers are no longer in bloom, there is still much to be done in the garden. Whether you are looking for a way to add some colour into your borders during the colder months or are wondering how to prepare plants for the upcoming frosts – our horticultural experts are here to help.

Past panels share their knowledge on everything from how to get bright red Poinsettia in time for Christmas to how to overwinter your fruit and vegetable plants.

Producer: Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer: Bethany Hocken
Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 The Poet and the Echo (m001ddy9)
Dawn

Writers choose poems as inspiration for new stories.

Episode 3/3

Dawn

Two young women struggle to find places within a society that denies their freedom.

A bold tale from performance storyteller Mara Menzies, inspired by African poet Gladys Casely-Hayford's unexpected take on a topic much loved by poets.

Credits

Written and performed by Mara Menzies
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001ddyh)
Dame Carmen Callil, Ivy Jo Hunter, Kathleen Booth, Dietrich Mateschitz

Matthew Bannister on

Dame Carmen Callil (pictured), the Australian-born publisher who founded the feminist Virago Books.

Ivy Jo Hunter, known as the 'forgotten man of Motown', he co-wrote Dancing In The Street for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

Kathleen Booth the mathematician and pioneering computer designer.

Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire who turned the Red Bull energy drink into a global success by sponsoring sports clubs and daring stunts, including backing two Formula One motor racing teams.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Harriet Spicer
Interviewed guest: Graham Betts
Interviewed guest: Ian Booth
Interviewed guest: Amanda Booth
Interviewed guest: Nina Baker
Interviewed guest: Chris Medland

Archive clips used: BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs – Carmen Callil; Audible Audio/ Spoken Realms, My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin 30/03/2021; The Red Bull Company, Rapunzel commercial 1991; BBC One, Formula 1 – The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 14/11/2010; Red Bull Stratos, Red Bull Space Dive 14/10/2012; TikTok.com @pianograndad – Alan Melinek.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001ddyn)
Andrea Catherwood explores what it’s like to report on an unprecedented week in politics with Deputy Political Editor of BBC News, Vicki Young, who responds to audience comments on the news coverage.

Alexei Sayle joins Andrea to discuss impartiality in comedy and listeners give us their views on his Imaginary Sandwich Bar, back for a fourth series on Radio 4.


Toby Jones and his brother Rupert are in the Vox Box this week to listen to their dad, actor Freddy Jones’s Desert Island Discs, recently uncovered in a haul of more than 90 lost editions of the programme.

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


FRI 17:00 PM (m001ddyw)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001ddz4)
Elon Musk has completed his multi billion pound takeover of Twitter.


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m001ddzj)
Series 61

Episode 1

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. They're joined by Cally Beaton, Emmanuel Sonubi and Christy Coysh.

Cally takes inspiration from primates, Emmanuel fights his news addiction, and Christy delivers a ballad to a national icon.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Catherine Brinkworth, Alex Kealy, Peter Tellouche and Jade Gebbie.

Voice actors: Gemma Arrowsmith and Ed Jones

Sound: Marc Willcox and Gary Newman
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Producer: Rajiv Karia
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls

A BBC Studios Production


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001df03)
Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Beth Casey ….. Rebecca Fuller
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Oliver Sterling ….. Michael Cochrane


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m001df0h)
From the Bald Mountain to Puerto Rico with Anne Dudley and Patrick Rimes

Anne Dudley, composer and co-founder of The Art of Noise, and Welsh traditional musician Patrick Rimes join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks to the playlist, including a tender but rather unlikely love affair and a New Orleans classic.

Presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
Producer Jerome Weatherald

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Hideaway by Jacob Collier
Un petit poisson, un petit oiseau by Juliette Gréco
When the Saints Go Marching In by Louis Armstrong
Ché Ché Colé by Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón

Other music in this episode:

Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev
O, wie will ich triumphieren by Mozart
Night on Disco Mountain by David Shire
When All the Saints Come Marching In by Paramount Jubilee Singers


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001df0v)
Dame Angela Eagle MP, Helen Morgan MP, Adam Price MS, Sam Rowlands MS

Ben Wright presents political debate and discussion from FSC Rhyd-y-creuau, Betws-y-Coed, with the Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle, the Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan MP, the leader of Plaid Cymru Adam Price MS and the Conservative Local Government spokesperson in the Senedd Sam Rowlands MS.

Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Phil Booth


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001df13)
Darkness Made Visible

As warnings are sounded of possible power cuts and lights going out this winter, Rebecca Stott reflects on our relationship with darkness.

She looks at how our ancestors experienced the dark and our enduring fascination with celebrating the dark season of winter.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Iona Hammond
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (b01n0spx)
Dear Adolf - Letters to the Führer

Christopher Cook examines a unique set of recordings from the vaults of the American Jewish Committee that strove to define America's war aims and values.

For 6 weeks, in 1942, the airwaves of NBC hummed with the voices of Hollywood stars such as James Cagney, Raymond Massey and Helen Hayes addressing the Führer in the guise of ordinary citizens. Ever since the trauma of Pearl Harbor, thousands of letters had poured into radio networks and newspaper offices expressing support, anger and defiance at the new war America was now fighting. These letters earned themselves the sobriquet of 'Dear Adolfs' and Pulitzer prize winning writer Stephen Vincent Benet drew on their inspiration for six fictional missives to Hitler.

But the backstory of these and other broadcasts from the AJC is as compelling as the star names chosen to speak for the people of America. Formed in 1906, the American Jewish Committee was a response to the plight of Eastern European Jewry then suffering a wave of pogroms. Avowedly 'unpolitical', in so far as it eschewed the major movements then gripping the Jewish world (Socialism, Zionism and Communism) it sought to defend Jewish life both in the U.S. and the heartlands of Eastern Europe and to engage in inter faith dialogue at home. At its heart was advocacy of a loyal American Jewish citizenry and a desire to overcome prejudice.

By the late 1930s the A.J.C. took to the airwaves to use the power of radio. Producing thousands of radio messages and programmes aimed at fighting bigotry on the home front and promoting democratic values for a diverse number of programmes. This was a time of rising antisemitism, domestically and abroad with the German American Bund holding mass rallies in Madison Square Gardens and the siren voice of radio demagogue Father Coughlin railing against 'internal enemies'.

Series like Dear Adolf and a gripping dramatization of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, made just months after its destruction, are just a few of the archival gems of the A.J.C. spanning two decades of attempts to counter prejudice and imbue ordinary Americans with the spirit of tolerance.

Producer: Mark Burman.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001df19)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Sleep Well with Michael Mosley (m001dg54)
Listen to your body

Get comfortable, let go of the cares of the day and take a sonic journey with Dr Michael Mosley. In this new sound-filled podcast series, designed to help you drift off, each episode focuses on a scientifically-proven sleep technique and takes a deep dive through some incredible sleep-related bodily mechanisms.

With sleep, because one size doesn’t fit all, you can benefit by listening more to your body and letting go of expectations. We invite you to meet a whole cast of biological characters that work together to pave the way to sleep.

Guest: Professor Nicole Tang, Director of the Sleep and Pain Lab at the University of Warwick.

Producer, sound design and mixing: Richard Ward
Assistant Producer: Gulnar Mimaroglu
Editor: Zoe Heron
Specially composed music by Richard Atkinson (Mcasso)
A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 Americast (m001df1h)
How crime is shaping the US elections

There are less than two weeks to go to the midterms. The Americast team look at why Republicans have seized upon the issue of crime and what the Democrats are trying to do to counter that.

Professor of Criminology Charis Kubrin, talks the team through the perceived and real threat of crime in the US and the BBC’s
Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent Marianna Spring, looks at how our ‘undercover voters’ are being targeted ahead of election day.

Americast is presented by North America editor Sarah Smith, Today presenter Justin Webb and North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher.

Find out more about our ‘undercover voters’ here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-62742687

Email Americast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, to +443301239480

This episode is made by Phil Marzouk and Alix Pickles. The studio director is Emma Crowe. The assistant editor is Louisa Lewis. The senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001df1p)
All the news from today's sitting at Westminster.