SATURDAY 17 DECEMBER 2022

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001g3bx)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney (m001g3c1)
Episode 5

An intimate and unflinching account of the life and death of Rob Delaney’s young son Henry, told with honesty, humour and much, much love.

Reunited, the Delaney family make the most of the time they have left at home with Henry.

Written and read by Rob Delaney
Abridged by Clara Glynn
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

Rob Delaney is an American comedian, actor and writer who co-created and co-starred in the BAFTA-winning comedy "Catastrophe".


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g3c5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g3c9)
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 (m001g3cg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001g3ck)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g3cr)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

It should come as no surprise that, as a poet, I’m obsessed with words. They are beautiful and tricksy things which can be used to inspire and to wound. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, ‘uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.’

I am fascinated by how a word’s meaning can change over time. Consider the word ‘nice’. Down the centuries its meaning has shifted several times. In the Middle Ages, it meant ‘silly’, but by the early modern period it had come to mean fastidious. In the eighteenth century, its meaning shifted again, from ‘precise’ to ‘agreeable’ or ‘pretty’. The change was so noteworthy that, in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Henry Tilney teases Catherine Morland for using the new fashionable sense of the word.

In our own time, I’m amazed by how rapidly the word ‘woke’ has shifted from its initial use. The term emerged in African-American culture meaning ‘alert to racial prejudice and discrimination’. About ten years ago, this meaning expanded positively to include awareness of sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Now, as far as I can see, it is used as a catch-all negative term to dismiss anyone who is progressive or inclusive.

Whatever one might think about these shifts in meaning, they remind us that language is never static and can be used for any number of purposes, good and bad. Samuel Butler said, ‘Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we’ve got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst.’

Holy God, help us this day to use words to speak truth and model love; to build up rather than to tear down, and to seek all that makes for peace.

Amen


SAT 05:45 Four Thought (m001g335)
On Regret

Author Rachel Genn describes her fascination with regret. Rachel tells stories of regret, beginning in her earliest childhood. “An early adopter of regret,” she says, “I was displaying the prodigy’s irritating flair for it.”

Producer: Giles Edwards


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001g8d1)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001g398)
Belfast's Alleyways and Orchards

Arts consultant Amberlea Neely and architect Aisling Rusk are on a mission to re-imagine Belfast's residential alleyways. Originally built over a century ago to allow access for coal deliveries, sewage systems and bin collections behind the city's high-density red-brick terraces, the alleys became neglected and derelict - spaces for fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour. In recent years, residents of some streets have got together and turned their back entries, as they are often known, into pleasant lanes, festooned with flowers and used for neighbourhood parties and even arts events. The movement grew during the Covid lockdowns when people became aware of the value of the fresh air in the open spaces just beyond their back doors.

There have been similar alleyway greening transformations in other British cities, like Manchester and Liverpool, but Amberlea and Aisling have a more ambitious vision. They're campaigning for these hidden thoroughfares to become a vital part of Belfast's green infrastructure - safe play areas and traffic-free walking and cycling routes. They set up a project called "9ft in Common" – the average width of a typical Belfast alleyway - and spent months walking the city's entries to draw up a digital map of the network.

In this unlikely setting for Open Country, Helen Mark explores the momentum behind the movement. She talks to Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland about planting apple “orchards” in the alleyways and giving residents horticultural advice. She visits Wildflower Alley, one of the city's first and most successful neighbourhood projects, which now features in tourist trails, and hears from residents about what these once neglected spaces now mean to them.

Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Kathleen Carragher


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001g8d3)
45,000 visas will be made available for seasonal agricultural workers to come to the UK next year - that’s 5,000 more than this year, but short of the 55,000 the National Farmers Union says are needed. The visas allow people to come to the UK for six months and the government says the number will be kept under review with the possibility of a further 10,000 visas if necessary.

The Government has announced what it describes as an ambitious suite of environmental targets. Under the Environment Act they should have been announced by the end of October. The coalition group Wildlife and Countryside link, which represents more than 60 organisations, has welcomed the announcement, but says that without targets for protected spaces and overall water quality ‘it's a job half done’.

Guernsey could become the first part of the British Isles to ban farmers using the herbicide glyphosate. The plan to completely ban the product from the island is facing opposition from some politicians and farmers. However Bayer, the company which makes glyphosate, says it fully stands behind its glyphosate-based products which, it says, pose no hazard to health and are one of the most thoroughly studied products of their kind.

Nearly a third of all the milk produced in the UK goes in to making cheese and according to the latest figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), so far this year, we have imported £1.3 billion worth of cheese but we've also exported more than half a billion pounds worth. We talk about cheese makers great and small, from big dairies which export around the world, to small artisan producers who've overcome adversity to win medals for their cheese.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001g8d5)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001g8d7)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001g8d9)
Sally Phillips

Nikki Bedi and Richard Coles are joined by comedian, writer, presenter and disability rights campaigner Sally Phillips whose career covers some of the most successful British comedies of all time, including I'm Alan Partridge and Miranda, as well as Hollywood movies like Bridget Jones. Her new series My Life At Christmas features interviews with big name stars to find out what Christmas means to them.

Nadiyka Gerbish joins live from Ukraine to talk about how her country celebrates Christmas, especially with the constant threat of blackouts. Alex Pine tells us about his career as a bestselling crime writer, heavily influenced by his early life as a street trader which featured many brushes with the law. Scotty Mills is the highest-ranking black officer in the history of the Royal Marines and led Britain's Commandos around the world, before going on to a career which has included being an author, inspiring others with his approach to leadership, and advising the England men's football team, playing a huge part in their recent success.

This week's Inheritance Tracks come from Hollywood actor Kate Hudson who stars in the new film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Kate chooses Bruce Springsteen's The Promise and Bob Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate.

And we have a special Thank You from screenwriter and children's author Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Producer: Tim Bano and Annette Wells


SAT 10:30 Soul Music (m001g8dc)
Nessun Dorma

'None shall sleep'.

Jon Christos watched the Italia 90 World Cup with his Dad and says that the live performance of 'Nessun Dorma' by Pavarotti at the tournament was the only time he ever saw his Dad cry.

Beatrice Venezia conducted 'Nessun Dorma' at the 'Puccini day' she created in Lucca in 2018. She also conducted Andrea Bocelli's performance of the aria at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022.

Pavarotti's daughter Cristina talks about the impact this aria had on her father's life and how his 1990 performance of 'Nessun Dorma' inspired many people to become interested in opera.

Sir Bobby Robson's son Mark Robson was at Italia 90 and talks about the pride he felt seeing his Dad lining up with the England team for the semi-final against West Germany. It was also sung at Sir Bobby's memorial service in Durham Cathedral.

Broadcaster and author Alexandra Wilson explains that the opera Turandot is the story of Prince Calaf who falls in love with the titular Princess. In 'Nessun Dorma' Calaf expresses his determination to win her hand, ending with that extraordinary refrain "Vincerò!" or "I will win".

Paul Potts won 'Britain's Got Talent' in 2007 performing 'Nessun Dorma' and recalls singing it to over a million people at the Brandenburg Gate on New Year's Eve in 2010.

When Italy locked down in March 2020, hairdresser Piero d'Angelico played 'Nessun Dorma' from a five-story window above Cambridge railway station to show solidarity with his home country and the Italian community in his adopted city.

Voiceovers by Mike Ingham and Rebecca Braccialarghe.

Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio in Bristol
Technical Producer: Michael Harrison
Editor: Emma Harding


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001g8df)
The Political Editor of the Financial Times, George Parker, looks back on events in a frozen week in Westminster. He brings together Conservaive MP Simon Clarke, the former Levelling Up Secretary, and Jack Straw, the former Labour Cabinet minister and adviser to the Callaghan government, to discuss the mounting number of strikes and whether there are any parallels with the 'Winter of Discontent' in 1978-9. In a rare interview, Lord Macpherson, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2016, reflects on the tumultous economic events of the last few months and whether so-called Treasury orthodoxy has returned.

Also in the programme, the Labour MP for Canterbury, Rosie Duffield, and Jack Brereton, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, discuss migrant Channel crossings and the pressures on the asylum system. Finally, Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, reveals why she writes over 3,000 Christmas cards each year.

Editor: Peter Snowdon


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001g8dh)
Haiti on the Verge of the Abyss

Kate Adie presents stories from Haiti, Germany, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Sweden.

Orla Guerin reports from Haiti where gangs now control an estimated 60 per cent of the capital and surrounding areas. Hundreds of people have been killed amid reports of kidnapping, gang rape and torture.

After a far-right coup on the German government was foiled in recent weeks, Jenny Hill visits one of the 'German kingdoms' which espouse the same conspiracy theories as those who were recently arrested.

56,000 children in Sri Lanka are suffering from severe malnutrition, according to the UN. Archana Shukla visits a tea plantation in central Sri Lanka where several families are having to cut back on food amid inflation and shortages.

Morocco's World Cup performances have surprised many and led to euphoria on the streets of Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech. And, despite France beating them in the semi-finals, the team's earlier successes have changed how Moroccans are seen - and how they see themselves, says James Copnall.

And finally, Maddy Savage visits the Sami reindeer herders of Sweden's north to hear how the country's switch to more renewable energy presents additional challenges for this community.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Iona Hammond


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001g8x5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001g8dm)
Scottish Budget and Cold Weather Payments

We discuss this week's Scottish Budget, from income tax to benefits. Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced that everyone earning more than £43,662 in Scotland will have to pay more income tax next year. It's as the higher rate of tax increases from 41p to 42p in the pound in April, and the top rate from 46p to 47p. We'll get reaction to that from people in Glasgow and analysis from Emma Congreve an economist who is Deputy Director at the Fraser of Allander Institute in Strathclyde.

This month, we've seen freezing temperatures which, for millions of households, have triggered Cold Weather Payments. These are paid to some people in low income households who get means-tested benefits to help pay their higher energy bills during a cold snap. Payments of £25 are made automatically when the average temperature in an area is recorded or forecast to be at zero degrees celcius or below for seven consecutive days. We discuss who's eligible and how it works.

Interest rates rose again this week for the ninth time in a row - from 3% to 3.5%, its highest level for 14 years. The decision will increase monthly mortgage payments for some homeowners at a time when many people are struggling with all the other rises in the cost of living. The Bank of England predicted this week that people with mortgages who need to refinance next year to a new fixed rate will face an average monthly increase of around £250 - that's £3000 a year. What does that mean for you?

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Clare Worden and Dan Whitworth
Researcher: Sandra Hardial
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12noon, Saturday 17th December, 2022)


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m001g39k)
Christmas Specials 2022

Episode 2

The content of Matt Hancock’s Covid diaries, the reason why Sir Keir Starmer may soon be out of a job, and a behind-the-scenes look at the King's preparations for his Christmas message.

Performed by Jon Culshaw, Lewis MacLeod, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Naomi McDonald and Anil Desai.

Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Sarah Campbell, Tom Coles and Ed Amsden, James Bugg, Cody Dahler, Toussaint Douglass, Robert Darke, Sophie Dickson, Katie Sayer, Peter Tellouche and Edward Tew.

Produced and created by Bill Dare.
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001g8dp)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001g8dr)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001g39x)
Mary Bousted, John Glen MP, Stephen Kinnock MP, Nick Timothy

Alex Forsyth presents political debate and discussion from Compton Verney, Warwickshire with the General Secretary of the National Education Union Mary Bousted, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen MP, the Shadow Minister for Immigration Stephen Kinnock MP and the columnist and former Joint Downing Street Chief of Staff Nick Timothy.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Tom Earle


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001g8dt)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?


SAT 14:45 39 Ways to Save the Planet (m0010ntb)
Better Batteries

Batteries are powering the electric car revolution, but can we make them longer lasting, faster charging and smaller and lighter? Beyond electric cars and other vehicles, the more applications means more renewable energy can be stored and used, driving us away from fossil fuels. Tom Heap visits UKBIC - the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry - a vast facility to develop better batteries. He dons full protective gear to see some of the processes involved in making batteries and testing new chemistries and engineering. He speaks to Isobel Sheldon from British Volt about the goals and potential that could be realised by improving batteries and climate scientist Dr Tamsin Edwards assesses how much carbon dioxide this could potentially save.

Producer: Anne-Marie Bullock
Researcher Sarah Goodman

Produced in association with the Royal Geographical Society. Special thanks for this episode to Dr Solomon Brown from the University of Sheffield and Dr Carlos Fernandez at Robert Gordon University.


SAT 15:00 Drama (m001g8dw)
The Willows

Bill Pullman (The Sinner, Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping) and Julian Sands (Warlock, Gothic, A Room With A View) play two old friends who take a midsummer canoe trip down the Danube.

Since they last met they've been through a war and a flu pandemic, but now life is opening up again and this river trip is a balm for the soul, at least at first.

Before long, they find themselves in a dreamy, shifting landscape of sandbanks and half-submerged forests of willows. They camp for the night on an island in the middle of the marshes but soon strange things begin to happen. The river seems to claw away the banks making the island smaller, eerie sounds are heard on the wind, and they feel a mounting sense of dread.

By morning, their canoe and oars have inexplicably been damaged. Marooned on this ever-shifting island of willow bushes, they find themselves menaced by forces they cannot understand.

Algernon Blackwood's novella, described by H P Lovecraft as the best supernatural tale in the English language, is adapted by Stef Penney.

Cast:
Gus . . . Bill Pullman
Michael . . . Julian Sands
Mother . . . Vesna Stanojevic
Innkeeper . . . Velibor Topic

Music composed by John Biddle
Sound Design by Iain Hunter

Artwork by Layrensij Ursa

Produced and directed by Kate McAll

A Rhiannon Media production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001g8dy)
Claudia Winkleman, Nurses' strike, Baroness Kidron and Online Safety Bill, Iran diaries, Actor Naomi Ackie, Medieval women

How to hang the loo roll to where to store the mustard - TV presenter Claudia Winkleman on the domestic tasks that need to done a certain way in the home.

The Health Minister Helen Whately on what the government is doing to resolve the row over nurses' pay.

The latest on the online harms bill with Baroness Beeban Kidron, the founder of the 5Rights Foundation which campaigns to make the digital world safer for children and young people.

British actor Naomi Ackie on playing Whitney Houston in new film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance.

Following the death in custody of 22 year old Mahsa Amini who had been detained by the Iranian morality police for not wearing her headscarf correctly, we hear the anonymous diaries of female protestors in the country.

The discovery of an ancient female burial site in Northamptonshire has been described as one of the most important finds ever discovered in Britain. This woman is thought to be a Christian leader of significant wealth and her jewellery is considered an outstanding example of craftsmanship for this early medieval period. Lyn Blackmore, from the Museum of London and Irina Dumitrescu, Professor for Medieval English Literature at the University of Bonn discuss.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Dianne McGregor


SAT 17:00 PM (m001g8f0)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m001g38n)
Batteries

In the run up to Christmas, many parents will be checking on their battery supplies ahead of Santa bringing gifts that require them. But do branded batteries, that promise more power and longer life at a higher price point, really deliver it?

Listener Peter got in touch asking just that, as well as whether batteries have an expiry date?

Greg Foot recruits some year 7 pupils and their teacher to help him perform a test to find out, and speaks to one of the country’s leading scientists about what gives a battery more power, or helps it store more energy.

You can also hear more about the difference between single use, and rechargeable batteries in our longer podcast episode on BBC Sounds.

This series, we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001g8f2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001g8f5)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g8f9)
A woman has died after a crush outside a concert at the Brixton Academy in London. And, doctors have warned it will be hard to cope with Wednesday's strike by ambulance staff.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001g8ff)
Mackenzie Crook, Ben Miller, Nneka Okoye, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Antonio Forcione, The Soul Dogs, George Egg, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and George Egg are joined by Mackenzie Crook, Ben Miller, Nneka Okoye and Isata Kanneh-Mason for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Antonio Forcione, The Soul Dogs feat. Lifford Shilingford and Isata Kanneh-Mason.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001g8fk)
Wes Streeting

As nurses strike and the Health Service faces winter pressures, Mark Coles looks at the life and career of Shadow Health Secretary and Labour MP for Ilford North, Wes Streeting.

Friend and colleagues reveal how childhood poverty and a cancer diagnosis have shaped the views and aspirations of the man tipped to be a future leader of the Labour party.

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Ben Cooper and Diane Richardson
Editor: Simon Watts
Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0dcngpx)
Series 25

The Deep Space Network

Brian Cox and Robin Ince visit Canberra for the first of 4 special episodes recorded in Australia. This week they visit the amazing Canberra Deep Space Communication Centre where scientists communicate with, and track the 200 or so spacecraft that are currently exploring our vast solar system and even beyond. They are joined by Astrophysicists Mark Cheung and Alan Duffy, Nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt and comedian Alice Fraser as they track legendary space craft like Voyager, still sending back messages from deep in space some 40 plus years after it first launched. They discover how despite these incredible missions we still don't know what 97% of our universe is made of, and how so many of these explorations are vital to our understanding of one very important planet - our own.

Producer: Caroline Steel
Executiver Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001g8fr)
Richard Rogers, Catalyst

Tom Dyckhoff looks back through the archive at the life and work of Richard Rogers, the architect who changed the face of modern Britain.

When Rogers died in December 2021, he was arguably the most accomplished architect on the planet, known for designing spectacular, hi-tech buildings - flamboyant experiments like the Pompidou Centre and Lloyds of London, their guts on the outside - and municipal centrepieces like the Millennium Dome and the Senedd in Cardiff. But he also challenged and refined our ideas about public space.

It wasn't just about buildings. Throughout his career, Rogers spoke of an ethical underpinning to his work – he talked of city spaces for people and of architecture at the heart of a vibrant civil society. This became most clearly articulated when he was Chair of New Labour's Urban Task Force, which advocated a 'cities-first' policy, putting the brakes on building in the suburbs in favour of focusing construction on the centre of towns and cities.

Since the late 1970s, when the Pompidou Centre and its attendant public square was completed, British cities have changed hugely. Strange and spectacular buildings now seem to be the norm, as are mixed use, post-industrial developments. Richard Rogers was a herald of what was to come. The skateboarders clattering around Central Square in Cardiff or the families around the sandpit on the South Bank in summer might not realise it, but, in a sense, they're living in Richard Rogers' world. In some ways we all are.

Featuring: Huw Clarke, Gillian Darley, Norman Foster, Alice MacGillivray, Douglas Murphy, Anne Power and Ruth Rogers.

With grateful thanks to Joseph Henry and Victoria Lane.

For more information about Maggie's, go to: www.maggies.org

Producer: Martin Williams


SAT 21:00 No Place But the Water (m001bbx6)
The Library of Everything: Part 3

Final series of Linda Marshall Griffiths' climate emergency drama set in a flooded future world.

Following an emotional reunion with her mum, Jessie goes in search of her dad and Birdie. In the Floating City, Cal finds himself in imminent danger. Meanwhile, with The Angel's help, Birdie gets closer to finding the Library of Everything - but will she be able to open it?

BIRDIE ..... Poppy O’Brien
GIL ..... Rupert Hill
CALEB ..... Cel Spellman
ALEX…..William Ash
JESSIE ..... Sade Malone
LEO.....Hamish Rush
MAURICE.....Pearce Quigley
LAURIE.....Jenny Platt
THE ANGEL.....Remmie Milner

Written by Linda Marshall Griffiths
Produced and Directed by Nadia Molinari
Sound Design by Sharon Hughes

Programme consultants: Dr James M Lea; Dr Ian Dawson; Dr. Andrew F. Field.

A BBC Audio Drama North Production

The drama uses 3D spatial audio; please listen on headphones for a unique immersive experience.


SAT 21:45 Excuse Me, Are You John Shuttleworth? (m000qjnk)
Episode 1

Radio 4 fans need no introduction to singer/organist John Shuttleworth, who has been a firm favourite on the station for some years now. But say the name Graham Fellows and many listeners won’t know who you’re talking about – including John Shuttleworth himself!

Graham Fellows is an actor, musician and character comedian who has been in showbusiness for 40 years and, after hiding behind the masks of made-up people, it’s time he revealed himself.

This two-part series is an honest account of Graham’s life to date - sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving and often disarmingly honest - which will give a real sense of the man behind the mask. Each show will be punctuated with witty and moving songs performed on pedal harmonium and Graham will share which songs he kept for himself and which he gave to his characters, and why.

There will, on occasion, be interjections from some of Graham’s characters, particularly John Shuttleworth, as these lives are so intertwined. In fact, John is such a well-developed character that he can interject when Graham least expects it!

Part One finds Graham greeting John on Christmas Eve before he begins to share his story, although John doesn’t know who he is or why he’s there and assumes he’s a carol singer. But Graham wants to take us back to 1977 when he first started Drama school and came up with a riff that led him to his first character – Jilted John.

From here we follow Graham’s life as a jobbing actor in Coronation street, a theatrical landlord to Hollywood star Mark Rylance, and a role in the film Morons from Outer Space.

Then Graham lands a song publishing deal for his first solo album, Love at the Hacienda, and to celebrate the deal and amuse the record company he recorded a comedy demo tape, in which he pretended to be a naff singer/songwriter looking himself for a song publishing deal. His publisher loved it and the solo career was put on hold.

The show ends with the song that explains Graham’s love for audio recording and, in particular, reel to reel tape recorders which is how he came to start talking to himself and eventually created the world of John Shuttleworth, his family and friends.

A Chic Ken production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m001g8fw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (m001g331)
What do we work for?

Forget the advent calendar, it’s a ‘strike calendar’ we need to prepare for Christmas this year. Behind today’s window lurks not a festive chocolate but a list of public service stoppages; not a robin on picket fence, but a postie on a picket line.

Seasonal jokes aside, perhaps the heavy flurry of industrial action is a symptom of a deeper unease about the value we place on work.

Critics of the strikes believe we have lost a sense of duty in our public services, that the public service ethos no longer means very much, and that work today is largely contractual rather than covenantal. Supporters of the strikes say there is nothing self-interested about wanting to earn a fair wage and that it’s about recognising the value of public servants, over and above symbolic gestures like doorstep clapping.

Some think we’ve placed too much emphasis on wealth as a measure of worth and that work should be about seeking to do something well, regardless of the monetary reward. Others believe that argument is laden with class-based assumptions and point to the disproportionately high salaries of bosses compared to their low-wage employees who don’t have the choice to be romantic about the idea of a vocation.

What do we work for?

Producer: Dan Tierney.


SAT 23:00 Nature Table (m001g2y7)
Series 3

Episode 3

Join comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins as she hosts Nature Table: a comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.

Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.

Recorded at ZSL London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests: Yussef Rafik (Zoologist), Dr Karim Vahed (Entomologist & Conservation Biologist) and comedian Lucy Porter.

Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Jon Hunter, Jenny Laville and Nicky Roberts
Additional material by: Kat Sadler

Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Producer: Simon Nicholls
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Researcher: Catherine Beazley

Sound Recordist & Editor: Jerry Peal
Music by: Ben Mirin
A BBC Studios Production


SAT 23:30 The Poetry Detective (m001g321)
Not in Love Poems

The Poetry Detective is a radio show about how poetry sits in peoples’ everyday lives. Each week, Vanessa Kisuule meets people with a story about a poem that’s important to them and then she goes digging for more information. Who wrote it and in what context, and how does it do what it does?

From weddings to Valentine’s Day cards, poetry and romance go hand-in-hand. We go to poetry to woo, to wed and to mark our love. We look to poetry not only for a reflection of how we feel but also to shape an ideal of what love could, or should be. But what about love thwarted and unrequited, love promised and never found? People living without romantic love, or finding love but struggling to accept it? Can poetry speak to the loveless as well as the lovers?

"What would it look like if we didn't place romantic love as the organising principle of our lives? Could life be good anyway?" Amy Key is the author of two poetry collections and her first non-fiction book, Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Love and Making a Life, will be published in Spring 2023. She talks to Vanessa about a treasured anthology of haiku by Japanese women. Can these tiny, potent poems - written between the 17th century and the present day - help us reckon with longing?

"I'm reading this poem, it's a sign". Audrey Lee tells Vanessa about falling for her friend as an undergraduate and yearning to be more than friends with him. She didn't want to mess up their friendship and swallowed her feelings for the duration of their time at college together. One day, she happened on a poem by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Frank Bidart that felt like a call to action. A poem of unspoken desire finally spoken. And she bit the bullet and sent it to her friend.

And Chlo Samuel talks about finding a lovely boyfriend, but then struggling to allow herself to be loved. After years of living with anorexia and life throwing its worst at her, she felt unworthy of happiness and security. She talks about a poem that came into her life at the exact moment she needed it. "It felt like permission to put the things that had happened to me in a basket, say "I'm not defined by these". I can start again,"

And we hear from Ellen Bass, the Santa Cruz-based author of that poem. She talks about the lines of Tolstoy that inspired the poem and how writing it was as transformative for her as reading it was for Chlo.

Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

SUNDAY 18 DECEMBER 2022

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001g8g0)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Torn (m001bc1j)
The stories behind the clothes we wear

Wax Print

The story of wax print fabric begins not in Africa where the fabric is adored today, but on the island of Java in Indonesia. That’s because, in the 18th century, a Dutch entrepreneur Pieter Fentener van Vlissingen received a curious piece of cloth from his uncle who lived on Java. It had been dyed by a Javanese artisan using a nibbed bamboo stick to create imperfect lines and dots that are set to the fabric with beeswax. Pieter sets about mechanising the technique and finds buyers in West and Central Africa.

In the third episode of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford sets out to find out if wax print fabric can really be considered African if the original design comes from Asia and the manufacturing process is the result of European industrialisation. He asks those who wear wax print in West and Central Africa what it means to them that their most recognisable fabric is a product of colonialism.

From the Togolese businesswomen who set up workshops and imported printing machines to supply the region with wax print in the 1950s, to their foremothers who bartered with European fabric merchants in the 19th century, and the tailors who sew clothes for millions of people in West and Central Africa today, wax print is African. But the fact that none of the major wax print producers are fully African-owned has led some designers on the continent to shun its use in favour of indigenous fabrics.

With filmmaker Aiwan Obinyan, interior designer Mablé Agbodan and historical records from the Dutch wax print company Vlisco.

Presenter: Gus Casely-Hayford
Executive Producer: Rosie Collyer
Assistant Producer: Nadia Mehdi
Researcher: Zeyana Yussuf
Production Coordinator: Francesca Taylor
Sound Design: Rob Speight

A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:30 Short Works (m001g38r)
Angels on Regent Street by Christine Dwyer Hickey

An original short work for BBC Radio 4 by the Irish author Christine Dwyer Hickey. As read by Stuart Graham.

Christine Dwyer Hickey is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Twice winner of the Listowel Writers' Week short story competition and a winner of the Observer/Penguin short story award, her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies world-wide. Her most recent novel The Narrow Land was awarded the prestigious 2020 Walter Scott Prize as well as Novel of the Year at the Dalkey Literary Awards. Her novel Tatty was also selected as 2020 Dublin One City One Book Choice. She is an elected member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of arts.

Reader: Stuart Graham
Writer: Christine Dwyer Hickey
Producer: Michael Shannon
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

A BBC Northern Ireland production.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g8g4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g8g8)
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 (m001g8gd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001g8gj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001g8gn)
St Mary’s Church in Helmingham, Suffolk

Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary’s Church in Helmingham, Suffolk. Originally the Estate Church for Helmingham Hall, the church has a ring of eight bells that were cast in 1815 by Thomas Mears of London to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The tenor weighs seventeen and three quarter hundredweight and is tuned to the note of D. We hear them ringing Yorkshire Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001g8fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001g8j6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01ph59q)
Letting Go

Mark Tully asks when it is right to relinquish our dreams and how best to leave grief behind? From sporting defeat to the loss of a loved one, this programme looks at the benefits of knowing when to let go, and the consequences of not doing so.

Readings explore the notion of letting go of worldly successes and status symbols in preparation for retirement; the pain of bereavement as the gradual process of forgetting begins; a Hindu tradition of renouncing material possessions and family connections before death; and the joy of finally accepting defeat.

Music featured in the programme includes an excerpt from an opera unfinished by Claude Debussy which he finally let go of by pretending to have burned the score.

And in poetry, Naomi Shihab Nye suggests that if we don't lose things - let them go - we will never, "learn the tender gravity of kindness".

Producer: Adam Fowler
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b090xs6y)
Octopus

Brett Westwood meets an octopus: perhaps the closest thing to an alien life form on earth. Three hearts, copper blood, autonomous arms, a parrot's beak - and a formidable intelligence to match. The sea monster of historical myth is now emerging as an animal worthy of respect and understanding.
Contributors: (in tentacle only) Luna, Giant Pacific Octopus; Rachel Farquar, Aquarist at Bristol Aquarium; Russell Arnott, educational presenter and consultant for Incredible Oceans; Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus and Peter Godfrey-Smith, philosopher and author of Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life.

Originally broadcast in a longer form on 15th August 2017
Original Producer : Beth O'Dea
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes

Photo of Luna the Giant Pacific Octopus courtesy of Bristol Aquarium.


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001g8jj)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001g8js)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001g8k1)
Jesus Rock; The Morality of Striking; Clemency for Prisoners

What is the case for offering clemency to people in jail? This week, the Pope called on world leaders to make a gesture of clemency to prisoners in the run up to Christmas. For some, it represents an opportunity for healing for both the perpetrator and the victim, but for others it is a step too far. Why shouldn't prisoners simply serve their full sentence? We discuss the issue with former cabinet minister and ex-prisoner, the Rev Jonathan Aitken and former prison governor Brendan O’Friel.

The UK is facing a wave of strikes, including action by "key workers" such as nurses and ambulance drivers. What is the moral and religious basis for the "right to strike" and what are its limits, if it seriously disrupts the lives and welfare of others?

In a week when the reality of people seeking asylum led to tragic consequences and the Government announced new measures to stop illegal Channel crossings, we speak to Lord Carlile, who is leading an independent commission, exploring ways of improving the current asylum system.

As the battle for the Christmas Number One heats up, we speak to the unlikely duo of a Church of Scotland minister Rev Neil Urquhart and Roman Catholic Priest, Father Willie Boyd, aka The Shoes Brothers, about their newly released single ‘Jesus Rock’ and why they hope it will bring communities together.

Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Emily Buchanan
Editor: Helen Grady

(Image courtesy of Limelight Media).


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001g9sk)
Missing People

Beneficiary Nicki Durbin makes the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity, Missing People.

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 ‘Missing People’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Missing People’.
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: 1020419


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001g8kd)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001g8kt)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001g8l5)
More Than Christmas

Rev John Davey reflects on the difference between light and darkness and how our celebrations at this time of year often ignore the darkness, but Christmas is not just festive and fun, but more personal and more powerful- More than Christmas.

Led by the Rev Emily Hyland.
Isaiah 9:2-7; John 1:1-14
Silent Night (arr. Barry Rose)
Hush my dear (Gabriel Jackson)
Midwinter (Bob Chilcott)
The hands that first held Mary’s Child (Dan Forrest)
Wexford Carol (Trad Irish arr Elaine Hagenburg)
A Christmas Blessing (Philip Stopford)

With the Chapel Choir of Methodist College, Belfast, directed by Ruth McCartney. The organist is Graeme McCullough.
Producer: Bert Tosh


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001g3b1)
The End of Winter

As meteorologists tell us that the chance of snow is decreasing year on year, Sara Wheeler reflects on a future where younger generations may never get to experience snow - and what that means for a season so ingrained in our lives and culture.

'Winter is deeply embedded in the English language - the white stuff of metaphor', she writes.

'But if climate change blanches the seasons, one wonders what the as yet unborn writers will reach for when they try to put the unsayable into words.'

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


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jc69f)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 1 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas.

On the first day of Christmas so the song goes, a true love sent a partridge in a pear tree. As actress Alison Steadman suggests as ground birds, partridges are not known for their amorous arboreal perching. Why a partridge in a tree could have many meanings, but given the song is of possible French origin, the French or red-legged partridge seems an ideal candidate as sitter in a pear tree.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Lynn Martin.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001g8lj)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001g8ls)
Writer, Liz John
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Director, Marina Caldarone

Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Toby Fairbrother ….. Rhys Bevan
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy ….. Angus Stobie
Martyn Gibson ….. Jon Glover
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Hannah Riley ….. Helen Longworth
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
Lottie ….. Bonnie Baddoo


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001g8m4)
Steven Spielberg, director

Steven Spielberg is the most successful director of his generation and the highest-grossing director of all time: his films have taken more than $10 billion worldwide. From Jaws to E.T. and Jurassic Park to Schindler’s List, his storytelling has captivated audiences around the world.

Steven grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he started making films as a young boy. In 1958 he made a short Western which won him a Boy Scout merit badge. He screened it to his entire Scout troop and their laughter and applause got him hooked on film making.

In 1971 he directed a television movie called Duel about a motorist who is pursued by a murderous truck driver. The film attracted good reviews from critics, and before the age of 30, Steven had directed his first global hit: Jaws grossed $471 million worldwide and is credited as heralding the arrival of the blockbuster era. He now says Jaws was ‘a free pass into my future.’

He has won three Academy Awards, and has received eight nominations for best director. The Fabelmans, his most recent film, is a semi-fictionalised account of his own coming of age, drawing on his film-making experiences as a child.

Steven is married to the actor Kate Capshaw, who starred in his film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and they have seven children.

DISC ONE: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Gene Pitney
DISC TWO: Fugue in G minor, BMW 578 – “The Little” arranged by Leopold Stokowski, composed by J.S Bach, performed by Philadelphia Orchestra and conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin
DISC THREE: Michelle by The Beatles
DISC FOUR: What the World Needs Now Is Love by Jackie DeShannon
DISC FIVE: Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra
DISC SIX: The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen
DISC SEVEN: Somewhere, composed by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, performed by Reri Grist
DISC EIGHT: Coolhand by Buzzy Lee

BOOK CHOICE: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
LUXURY ITEM: H-8 Bolex camera
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Coolhand by Buzzy Lee

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001g8zm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001g2ym)
Series 78

Episode 5

The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Theatre Royal Newcastle. On the panel are John Finnemore, Pippa Evans, Fred Macaulay and Rory Bremner with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano.

Producer - Jon Naismith
It is a BBC Studios production


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001g8mr)
The Forgotten Foods of Christmas

Dan Saladino and food historian Ivan Day rediscover lost flavours from Christmas past with a feast that features chestnuts from an Italian forest, a cheese from the Yorkshire Dales and a once revered meat sourced from the Cumbrian fells.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001g8n0)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001g8nc)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Faith in Music (m000qlss)
Leonard Bernstein

Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan considers Leonard Bernstein's complex faith life and religious roots as a 20th-century composer living at a time of great change in the USA.

Marin Alsop once wrote: "The question of faith is woven through every Bernstein piece - even when there is no obvious religious component. For Bernstein, the crisis of the 20th century was a crisis of faith".

James talks with conductor Marin Alsop who was a student of Bernstein's. Also to Joshua R. Jacobson, one of the foremost authorities on Jewish choral music and Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Northeastern University. And to Bernstein biographer Humphrey Burton.

Over the centuries, composers have created musical masterpieces which many listeners have come to regard as spiritual touchstones. For example, Tallis's motet Spem in alium; Wagner’s opera Parsifal; Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius; Bernstein's Mass. But what did these composers actually believe about God, faith, compassion, an afterlife and redemption? And do we need to in any way share these beliefs in order to have a spiritual experience as listeners to their music? Answers to these questions are complex, fascinating and challenging.

Producer: Rosie Boulton
A Must Try Softer Production


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001g38m)
B&NES

How can we prepare our green spaces for the next two decades of climate change? What is regenerative gardening? And is there a plant that causes disagreements in your household?

Joining Peter Gibbs on the panel in Bath this week are curator Matthew Pottage and garden designers Juliet Sargeant and Chris Beardshaw.

Also on the programme, we visit the calm and reassuring solitude of the potting shed, where Matt Biggs offers a masterclass in dividing a mint plant to guarantee you get the most out of those fragrant shoots.

Producer - Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
Executive Producer - Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Property of the BBC (m001f50h)
Three Documents

In a week of programmes for the BBC centenary, historian Robert Seatter selects three objects from the BBC’s archive store and tells the stories behind their creation - what they tell us about the changing history of the organisation, about expansion of the media and the nation at large. Robert’s choices are unexpected, revelatory and sometimes, with the cruel benefit of hindsight, funny. In this opening episode, Robert reveals the contents of three key documents from the archive.

i) Lord Reith’s job application: John Reith, the BBC's founder, applied to become the first General Manager of the British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) after seeing an advertisement for the role in The Morning Post newspaper. There is no application form as such, simply a covering letter and CV, which is entitled 'Attachment'.

ii) Desert Island Discs proposal letter written by Roy Plomley in his pyjamas apparently the evening of 3rd November 1941.

iii) And David Bowie’s audition rejection letter. David Bowie and the Lower Third band came before the BBC selection panel in November 1965 and performed seven numbers. Only two of which met any level of approval. The panel did not hold back. He was "devoid of personality”, and “amateur sounding”. His sound was “not particularly exciting” and he would "not improve with practice”.

Robert explores themes of language and protocol of the early BBC, the formats that endure and the power of the industry gatekeepers of the time. Robert is joined by Bowie biographer Kevin Cann.

The Reader was Roger Ringrose.

Producer: Mohini Patel


SUN 15:00 Drama (m000qjf9)
Star Child

A brand new nativity story. Award-winning dramatist Patrick Barlow’s comedy drama tells the time-honoured nativity story in a fresh, compelling and unique way.

A magic star appears in the sky. A lonely village seamstress meets an anxious angel and a kindly donkey. Two shepherds go on a dangerous mission. Three bickering wise women bring news to a paranoid, psychotic king. And a bolshie girl gives birth to a baby.

All feature as Patrick Barlow retells the Christmas story as we’ve never heard it told before.

Starring Jim Broadbent, Maggie Steed, Sophie Thompson, John Ramm and newcomers Robert Lennon and Nell Barlow.

All the joy and comfort of the Christmas story, with Patrick Barlow’s own special twist - funny, original, touching. This is something special for all the family in these uncertain times. Star Child offers love, hope and light in a world of darkness.

Based on an original play by Patrick Barlow, adapted by Patrick Barlow with Clemmie Reynolds.

Cast:
God & Herod – Jim Broadbent
Gabriel, Innkeeper & Shem – John Ramm
Sara, Lilith & Angel – Maggie Steed
Mary & Shabnan – Nell Barlow
Joseph, Steward & Ham – Rob Lennon
Parsley, Sushila & Babbling Brook – Sophie Thompson
Children – Louie, Bonnie, Sonny, Noah & Beatrix Barlow

Director: Patrick Barlow
Producer: Liz Anstee

A CPL production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001g8nm)
Katherine Rundell and The Golden Mole

It’s been a prolific year for The Golden Mole’s author, Katherine Rundell, who last month became the youngest ever winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for Super-Infinite, her biography of the Renaissance poet John Donne. She also published The Zebra’s Great Escape, one of many children’s books she’s written which include her award winning The Explorers and Rooftoppers. Katherine talks to Chris Power today about The Golden Mole and Other Living Treasures, a collection of impassioned essays on the world's endangered animals. Exploring how she blended art and science, poetry and natural history through writings from Pliny, Aristotle, TS Eliot, Hemingway, Russian fairy tales and Greek mythology to inspire her readers about the beauty of the natural world and the fragility of its existence. Katherine also shares her favourite fictonal stories about animals, including a reading from The Sheep Pig by Dick King-Smith.

Also exploring the fragility of our natural world, Chris talks to the Icelandic writer Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. Her latest novel Animal Life, translated by Brian FitzGibbon, blends themes of the natural and human worlds as surprisingly as The Golden Mole. It’s told through the eyes of Domhildur, a midwife who has just delivered her one thousand nine hundred and twenty-second baby in the days before Christmas as a deadly storm approaches the island. Domhildur's exploring her grand aunt's collection of philosophical essays, from the local history of midwifery to the encroaching impact of climate change, which circle around the delicate equilibrium of life. And looking ahead to the best books of next year, Mo Hafeez, editor at Faber and Faber, shares his enthusiasm for Kathryn Scanlan’s novel Kick the Latch, in bookshops from January.

Book List – Sunday 18 and Thursday 22 December

The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell
The Zebra’s Great Escape by Katherine Rundell
The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain edited by Katherine Rundell
The Sheep Pig by Dick King-Smith
Moon Pops by Baek Hee-Na
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell (published in 2023)
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
Animal Life by Audur Ava Olafsdottir


SUN 16:30 Edward Thomas and the Song of the Path (m001g8nx)
Edward Thomas was a great writer, a great walker, and he loved to sing. In 1907 these attributes came together when he compiled The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air.

Two contemporary walkers, Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn, one a terrific writer and the other a wonderful actor and musician, met through their love of Thomas's work. They set off with copies of The Pocket Book in their pockets, trying it out, walking in the footsteps of Thomas himself, near his home at Steep. They have been walking companions for years; they often sing as they go. And they have written songs together. So, along the way they create a new song.

The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air includes poems by Yeats, de la Mare, Masefield, W. H. Davies (the Super-Tramp) and Housman. Macfarlane and Flynn recite from what is, Thomas wrote, a volume for those 'who like a book that can always lighten some of their burdens or give wings to their delight, whether in the open air by day, or under the roof at evening.

Just as important are the songs - sailor songs, folk songs supplied by Cecil Sharp, Westmoreland songs. They sing some of these, delving into an overlooked aspect of Edward Thomas's nature and work, his interest in folk traditions and the lives of the working people he met while walking.

Working on their new song Macfarlane and Flynn walk up a songline, interrogating the ancient connections between walking, poetry and singing.They might stray from the path, too - musically and geographically. There's a noble tradition, of course, of poems and songs about rights to the land and what it offers, 'The Manchester Rambler', for instance, by Ewan McColl, who wrote it after taking part in the mass trespass of Kinder Scout in 1932.

Producer: Julian May


SUN 17:00 What’s a Tory? (m001g362)
In just three years since Boris Johnson’s landslide election victory in 2019, the Conservative party has descended into turmoil and division. After months of turbulence, the UK’s historically most successful party faces a challenging winter, with polls suggesting it’s headed for defeat at the next election. Lewis Goodall talks to insiders and party figures about the ideological tensions underlying the party’s struggles. Why has the party burned through so many prime minsters in 12 years? Why are Conservatives so divided about the post-Brexit future? Why are there such wrangles over issues like housing and planning?

What do Conservatives stand for and who are they for?

Guests include former Cabinet ministers William Waldegrave, David Gauke and David Frost, historians Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite and Robert Saunders and activists in key battleground seats.

Producer: Leala Padmanabhan


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001g8fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001g8p5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001g8ph)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g8pn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001g8pv)
Catherine Bott

A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001g8q0)
Adil comes across Lily in the grounds of Grey Gables, and warns her off the closed site. Lily explains she was checking it out for a uni project, and Adil’s curious. They discuss Lower Loxley and Adil gently winds her up. Lily’s not amused, but accepts his permission to continue wandering the grounds if it’s helpful. They discover they’re in the same choir – Jolene’s. Adil is a late joiner, and asks flippantly whether Jolene is the battleaxe she’s made out to be. Lily points out with satisfaction to blundering Adil that Jolene’s her aunt, and is brilliant. Adil’s suitably humbled.

Alice and Brian are sorting the last of their Christmas cards. Alice needs to think of some wording for her card to Chris’s parents. She’s pensive about her divorce, which is finally through. Chris hasn’t mentioned it. Brian thinks that’s for the best, but Alice feels it’s a big deal. It’s the end of an era, and Chris seems to feel nothing. Brian reckons feelings in these circumstances are overrated. Alice should focus on Martha, and what’s happening in the real world.

In the Bull, Harrison wants the lowdown from Rex on how strict a choirmaster Fallon is. Awkward, Rex avoids answering. When Ed joins them, Rex behaves even more oddly, freezing out Ed. When Harrison leaves, Rex confronts Ed – he knows what he’s been up to at night in the woods and has seen everything. Bewildered, Ed thinks Rex is overreacting as the misunderstanding deepens. But Rex demands Ed’s woodland activities stop, or he’ll tell Harrison.


SUN 19:15 The Confessional (m001g9sm)
Series 3

The Confession of Neil Dudgeon

Another edition of Stephen Mangan’s series of soul-searching, self-abasement and moral pratfalls. Each week, Stephen invites a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional booth to make three confessions. This is a cue for some rich and varied story-telling and surprising insights as the confessions are put under the microscope. It’s certainly a way to find out what really makes a person tick and have a good laugh while we’re at it.

The series continues with the Midsomer Murders star Neil Dudgeon, a consummate raconteur.

Presenter: Stephen Mangan
Additional material by Nick Doody
Producer: Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Voices in the Valley (p0d8kmgn)
8: The Sisters

Ten chilling strange tales from the British folk-horror author Andrew Michael Hurley.

The village of Barrowbeck, in the north of England, has a reputation for strangeness. It is a place that brings out the sin in people. But despite the dark, the cold, the isolation, people have managed to live there for centuries - until the river finally got the better of them. And now the past voices of Barrowbeck want to tell their tales...

Today: As winter descends, a writer finds herself at a Barrowbeck guest house run by two rather odd sisters...

Writer: Andrew Michael Hurley
Reader: Tamsin Greig
Producer: Justine Willett


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001g390)
BBC News International Editor Jeremy Bowen joins Andrea Catherwood to talk about his experiences reporting in Ukraine and respond to listener comments on how the BBC is covering the conflict.

Listeners give us their views on Mishal Husain’s interview with RMT leader Mick Lynch on the Today programme.

We hear from Sebastian Baczkiewicz and Paul Cornell, writers of the new Radio 4 drama Splinter Cell: Firewall, set in the world of a best-selling video game.

And Mohit Bakaya, Controller of Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra, responds to listeners’ questions and comments on the schedule changes at Radio 4 Extra.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood

Produced by Gill Davies

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001g38w)
Joyce Bryant, George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, Dame Clare Marx, Joseph Kittinger

Matthew Bannister on

Joyce Bryant (pictured), the American singer who was named by Ebony magazine as one of the five most beautiful black women in the world.

Squadron Leader George 'Johnny' Johnson MBE, the last surviving airman who took part in the Dambuster raids.

Dame Clare Marx, the first woman to be elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Joseph Kittinger, who held the record for the world’s highest skydive for over 50 years. He jumped from 19.5 miles above sea level.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Jim Byers
Interviewed guest: Andrew Reed
Interviewed guest: John McDonald

Archive clips used: Metromedia Television, WNEW-TV interview with Joyce Bryant; Benedict Bogeaus Production, Mr Ace (1946) film clip; BBC News 24, HARDtalk- George ‘Johnny’ Johnson interview 05/01/2018; Associated British Picture Corporation, The Dam Busters (1955) film clip; BBC Radio 3, Private Passions 24/04/2022; BBC One, Hi-De-Hi! 26/02/1981; BBC Radio 4, The Men Who Fell to Earth 31/03/2009; 1895 Films, Apollo – Missions to the Moon (2019) documentary clip.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001g8dm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001g9sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Britain's Communist Thread (m001fn42)
The Party's Over

Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century-long thread of communism in Britain.

Like fascism, we often think of communism as alien – as an external threat – a threat to the British way of life. But what happens if we challenge that a little, and think about communism as a British story?

Today’s programme explores the final years of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and the lingering appeal, for some, of the idea of – and the word – communism.

Featuring:
Geoff Andrews, historian and author of Endgames and New Times: The Final Years of British Communism 1964-1991
Beatrix Campbell, writer and activist
Dalia Gebrial, writer and academic
Robert Griffiths, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain
Noah Russell, student and activist

With grateful thanks to Kevin Morgan.

Producer: Martin Williams


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001g8qb)
Carolyn Quinn discusses the current strikes and the government's Rwanda policy with former cabinet minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg, shadow cabinet minister Thangam Debbonaire and the director of the Institute for Government, Hannah White. The UK editor of Politico, Jack Blanchard, brings additional insight and analysis. The programme includes an interview with Sir Graham Brady - chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee - about the year in which he became an unexpected political celebrity.


SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001g8ff)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01ph59q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]

MONDAY 19 DECEMBER 2022

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001g8qq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Contains Strong Language Live from Birmingham (m001c2cm)
Poet Luke Wright explores the city of Birmingham with four poets who have been inspired by it. Helping him to navigate his way around the city is Roy McFarlane, the former poet laureate of Birmingham and currently the Canal and River Trust’s Canal Laureate, Liz Berry who hails from the Black Country but for the last nine years has made Birmingham her home, Nafeesa Hamid who was born in Pakistan but bred in Birmingham and a true son of the city, Benjamin Zephaniah.

Produced by Cecile Wright


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001g8gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g8qz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g8r5)
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 (m001g8rc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001g8rl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g8rs)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ and I suspect many of us believe it’s true. It has some academic credibility. Aristotle compared the mind to a wax tablet, saying that when we’re young the wax is hot and pliable; as we age it become cooler and less flexible. Modern science has taken up this idea with the suggestion that the young brain displays ‘neuroplasticity’.

At the same time, there’s evidence that older minds can remain incredibly flexible. I love the story of John Basinger who, aged 58, decided to learn the ten and half thousand lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost. He was nearly seventy by the time he achieved it.

Learning, I think, takes a lot more than brains. As John Basinger reminds us, it requires dedication, but, in my experience, learning also requires a willingness to listen to others. It’s never merely an intellectual matter. For example, one area where listening has been crucial for me is in my understanding of the rich variety of transgender people.
I don’t mind confessing that it wasn’t until I got to know some people who identify as ‘non-binary’ that I began to accept that there are people do not fit into one or other gender. This confession is all the more embarrassing because I’m a trans woman who transitioned thirty years ago. I should know better.

Jesus invites us to love our neighbours as ourselves. It was by building relationships with people in some ways the same as and in other ways different to myself that I learned to be a better neighbour.

God of friendship, teach us to love our neighbour as ourselves; break down the walls of fear and difference and show us the riches of your diverse world.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001g8rz)
19/12/22 Defra report on risk of pheasants spreading bird flu, Christmas meat boxes

A new report says releasing game birds during an avian flu outbreak increases the risks to wild birds - what will that mean for shoots?


MON 05:56 Weather (m001g8s4)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jd328)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 2 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman discusses at the time of the song's creation, across England the soft call of the turtle dove would have sent amorous sounds to many a loved one, though not at Christmas of course. These days however the soft dove call that a true love would most likely hear is that of the collared dove.

Producer: Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Mediocreimage.


MON 06:00 Today (m001g90x)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001g915)
Dance Pioneers

George Balanchine is one of the most revered and influential choreographers of the twentieth century. In this first major biography about his life Jennifer Homans offers an intimate portrait of the man who co-founded the New York City Ballet and brought the art form so spectacularly into the modern age. She explores his life and legacy, revealing a complicated genius who was inspired to choreograph dances from subjects as diverse as Spinoza’s philosophy to Orthodox icons, disrupting the norms of ballet and pushing the dancers into creative worlds of abstraction.

Wayne McGregor is a contemporary titan of the dance world. He has just returned from Toronto where his ballet based on Margaret Atwood’s post-apocalyptic book, MADDADDAM, had its world premiere in a joint production for The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada. Wayne McGregor’s own dance company is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary and since its inception has been the experimental and creative forum for Wayne’s innovative choreographic style.

Ballet Black was founded by Cassa Pancho just over twenty years ago in response to the lack of racial diversity in ballet and offers dancers of Black and Asian descent a platform to showcase their talents. The company has gone from strength to strength, continually overturning stereotypes and transforming the landscape of classical dance. In March 2023 the company will perform ‘Pioneers’ at the Barbican, comprising new and original work by award-winning choreographers Will Tuckett and Mthuthuzeli November.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Music credits: Wayne McGregor's MADDADDAM, Act 1 (except), original score by Max Richter. A co-production between the National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet, inspired by the trilogy by Margaret Atwood.
‘Then or Now’. (ballet choreographed by Will Tuckett. The poetry of Adrienne Rich with music by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, arranged by Daniel Pioro. The poetry reading is by Michael Shaeffer.)
Simon Rattle / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Stravinsky: Apollon Musagete (Second Tableau, variation of Calliope


MON 09:45 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g91r)
1: The Thing in the House

Lucy Worsley reads her account of the extraordinary life of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie.

Born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do, Agatha Christie became the most prolific detective novelist during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and went on to become the best-selling author of all time.

Here Worsley paints a picture not only of an unlikely heroine, a pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, whose dazzling career included some of the greatest works of crime fiction, but also of a woman whose life was marked by significant losses and reversals of fortune, not to mention dark secrets and uncomfortable truths. From her idyllic Victorian childhood, to her rocky marriage, to her great literary successes with Poirot and Marple, to her mysterious and infamous disappearance at Harrogate, Worsley presents a life fascinating for its mysteries and passions.

Today: Worsley recounts Christie's blissful early years in Torquay, until the family tragedy marked the end of her idyllic childhood.

Read and written by: Lucy Worsley, OBE, is Chief Curator at the charity Historic Royal Palaces. She also presents BAFTA award-winning history documentaries for the BBC. Her bestselling books include Queen Victoria; Jane Austen at Home; The Art of the English Murder; and If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home.
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Photographer: Robert Shiret


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001g91k)
Jane Horrocks, Frances O'Grady, Iran, French women

Actor Jane Horrocks joins Krupa Padhy to discuss her new Radio 4 drama about her relationship with the singer-songwriter and actor Ian Dury. Jane had been looking back at her early adulthood, coming across old love letters from Ian and her own diary entries which inspired her to create the drama about their tumultuous one year relationship.

We speak to Frances O'Grady, the outgoing General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress who leaves after a decade in the job. She talks to Krupa Padhy about the current wave of industrial action across the public sector, the highs and lows of the job and her plans for the future as she prepares to join the House of Lords as a Labour Party peer.

Following ongoing nationwide protests, the Iranian government has intensified its crackdown. Two men have been executed since the beginning of the month, and local human rights activists say at least 328 people have been killed and nearly 15,000 others have been detained, as of last month. One of those arrested at the weekend is Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s best known actresses. Krupa is joined by Saba Zavarei from the BBC Persian Service and Dr Rowena Abdul Razak who teaches international history at the London School of Economics and specialises on Iran.

When you hear the phrase 'the French woman' what comes to your mind? Maybe you think of a sexy accent, fashionable clothes, perhaps the word 'chic'? With the return of Netflix's Emily in Paris we wanted to look at the stereotype of the French woman. Do these ideals hold or is it, to borrow a French word, just a cliché? To discuss Krupa is joined by the Director Charlotte Seegers whose film She's French explores these ideas, and also by the UK based French journalist Marie Le Conte.


MON 11:00 The Untold (m001g91s)
Can Kwame keep his club open?

The Jago is one of the few black-owned clubs left in Dalston, East London. When Kwame took it over in 2018 his idea was to make it a space for community – whether giving grassroots musicians and DJs a place to start nights or providing a food bank for local residents. But as the cost of living starts to bite, a noise complaint that could cost thousands to resolve makes Kwame wonder whether he can afford to keep the club open while staying true to his values.


MON 11:30 Michael Morpurgo's Folk Journeys (m000p6fn)
Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore

The author Michael Morpurgo (War Horse, Private Peaceful) explores the ways in which folk songs have reflected timeless human experiences, both in the past and today.

With help from singers, songwriters and other passionate experts, Michael admires the indelible stories within classic songs that deal with migration, war, protest and love.

Over the four themed episodes, Michael considers the locations and historical contexts that gave rise to much-loved traditional songs, and finds out how the same topics are inspiring new folk songs in the 2020s.

In the final episode, Michael considers a song of migration, Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore.

With Karine Polwart, Martin Simpson, broadcaster Martin Logan, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Georgina Boyes, Julie Matthews and Chris While.

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001g93d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 The New Gurus (m001g9sp)
1. The Birth of the New Guru

In 2011, some mourners at Steve Jobs’ memorial service were confused by his final gift to them – a book called Autobiography of A Yogi. Others understood his message perfectly - the Apple founder had spent his entire life searching for his own guru. Instead, by creating the iPhone, he became one. But did Jobs’ personal quest for enlightenment also help create the modern guru?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley
Story consultant: Geoff Bird
Original music composed by Paper Tiger
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


MON 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001fmrj)
Razors

It’s something most of us will have used at some point, and a product that has been around for decades in various forms. But do all the advertised fancy features, pivoting heads, multiple blades and higher price tags, really make a difference to your shave?

Listener Tim got in touch, asking just that, as well as whether all the extras on razors these days also have an impact on the environment?

Greg Foot focuses on modern cartridge razors in this episode, and cuts through the marketing hype to get answers, by speaking to a leading Dermatologist, as well as one of the top scientists at one of the largest razor manufacturers, Gillette.

This series, we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth


MON 12:57 Weather (m001g920)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001g922)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


MON 13:45 Living with the News (m001fp72)
In this series Oliver Burkeman argues that not only is the way we've come to consume news bad for us, it actually distorts our ability to be informed, hindering society rather than enabling it. Through our preoccupation with the news we might ultimately contribute to making the world worse!

But how did we get here? In this episode we explore the problem of how we became addicted to the news and why it's so bad for us. Starting with the origins of the modern concept of news tracing its evolution through the ‘penny press’ of 19th century New York to 24-hour rolling news to social media and ultimately to Donald Trump, daily COVID briefings and the war in Ukraine.


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001g8q0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (m000qmpc)
That Dinner of '67

In 1967, as race riots swept the streets of America and the Supreme Court considered a landmark case about interracial marriage, Hollywood director Stanley Kramer started filming Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner about a pair of young lovers - one black, one white - seeking the blessing of their concerned parents before getting married.

He had assembled a stellar cast of Oscar winners Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn, with Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton making her film debut.

This was a light-hearted, witty film but about a deadly serious subject. It was also the final act of one of Hollywood’s greatest true love stories as, after a love affair that had lasted 26 years and nine movies establishing them as one of the all-time great Hollywood double acts, it was also to be Tracy and Hepburn’s final film together.

Spencer was dying but determined that his final film with his beloved Kate would be both important and a masterpiece.

Tracy-Ann Oberman’s moving and timely play tells a story about love, a classic movie and the impact it had on a divided America.

Written by Tracy-Ann Oberman, with David Spicer

Cast:
Spencer Tracy - Kenneth Branagh
Sidney Poitier - Adrian Lester
Stanley Kramer - David Morrissey
Katharine Houghton - Daisy Ridley
Kate Hepburn - Tracy-Ann Oberman
Ray - Matt Addis

Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Nature Table (m001g924)
Series 3

Episode 4

Join comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue Perkins as she hosts Nature Table: a comedy ‘Show & Tell’ series celebrating the natural world and all its funny eccentricities.

Nature Table has a simple clear brief: to positively celebrate and promote the importance of all our planet’s wonderfully wild flora and fauna in a fun and easily grasped way... whilst at the same time having a giggle.

Recorded at ZSL London Zoo, this week Sue Perkins is joined by special guests: Lucy Cooke (Zoologist), James Wong (Ethnobotanist) and comedian Felicity Ward.

Written by: Catherine Brinkworth, Jon Hunter, Jenny Laville and Nicky Roberts
Additional material by: Kat Sadler

Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Producer: Simon Nicholls
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Researcher: Catherine Beazley

Sound Recordist & Editor: Jerry Peal
Music by: Ben Mirin

A BBC Studios Production


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001g8mr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Susurrations of the Sea (m00193ng)
The Susurrations of the Sea is a collaboration between the poet Katrina Porteous, who lives right next to the North Sea in Beadnell, Northumberland; radio producer Julian May, who grew up close to the Atlantic in Cornwall; and with the sea itself. They gather the variety of its sounds, from gentle susurrations as the tide moves over mud, to the steady roar of surf and mighty waves crashing onto rocks.

They weave these with the words of people who, more than most of us, listen to these sounds. Melissa Reid is a visually impaired competitive surfer at Porthtowan in Cornwall. The writer Lara Messersmith-Glavin grew up on a salmon seiner, fishing out of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Lara recalls how the sounds of the sea brought fear as well the comfort. David Woolf, in Orkney, who works on wave energy projects, tells the life story of a wave, and considers the role of the oceans in the climate crisis. Stephen Perham, rowing his picarooner out of Clovelly harbour, shows how, when fishing for herring without an engine or any modern equipment, learning the sounds of the sea is essential.

The susurrations of the sea are culturally important, finding their way into language and music. At his piano the musician Martin Pacey illustrates how Benjamin Britten captures these in his Sea Interludes, and how these reflect mood and character. For Stephen and Katrina the words people use to describe that sea are themselves sea susurrations.

Katrina writes a new sequence of poems in response to the sounds of the sea and these run through the programme like breaking waves, a choppy sea and an ocean swell.

Producer: Julian May


MON 16:30 Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics (m001g927)
The Curse of Mendel

A key goal of eugenics in the 20th century was to eliminate genetic defects from a population. Many countries pursued this with state-led programmes of involuntary sterilisation, even murder. We unpick some of the science behind this dark history, and consider the choices and challenges opened up by the science today.

In the mid-19th century, an Augustinian friar called Gregor Mendel made a breakthrough. By breeding pea plants and observing how certain traits were passed on, Mendel realised there must be units - little packets - of information determining characteristics. He had effectively discovered the gene.

His insights inspired eugenicists from the 1900s onwards. If traits were passed on by specific genes, then their policies should stop people with ‘bad’ genes from having children.

Mendel’s ideas are still used in classrooms today - to teach about traits like eye colour. But the eugenicists thought Mendel's simple explanations applied to everything - from so-called ‘feeblemindedness’ to criminality and even pauperism.

Today, we recognise certain genetic conditions as being passed on in a Mendelian way. Achondroplasia - which results in short stature - is one example, caused by a single genetic variant. We hear from Professor Tom Shakespeare about the condition, about his own decision to have children despite knowing the condition was heritable - and the reaction of the medical establishment.

We also explore how genetics is taught in schools today - and the danger of relying on Mendel’s appealingly simple but misleading account.

Contributors: Dr Brian Donovan, senior research scientist at BSCS; Professor Tom Shakespeare, disability researcher at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Dr Christine Patch, principal staff scientist in Genomic Counselling in the Society and Ethics Research group, part of Wellcome Connecting Science.

Music: Jon Nicholls
Presenter: Adam Rutherford
Producer: Ilan Goodman


MON 17:00 PM (m001g929)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g92f)
The High Court has ruled that a plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful. And, a global pact to protect biodiversity has been agreed at landmark UN summit.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001g92h)
Series 78

Episode 6

Back for a second week at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, panellists John Finnemore, Pippa Evans, Fred Macaulay and Rory Bremner compete amongst one another, with Jack Dee the unimpressed umpire. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.

Producer - Jon Naismith
It is a BBC Studios production


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001g8sg)
Ben’s helping to clear up in the Brookfield Barn. Ruth hopes it’s not too much for him, but Ben maintains he’s fine. Ruth asks if he’d like to join her at choir practice later. Ben declines. He asks Ruth about his dad, who he feels is acting a bit strangely around him. Ruth explains David feels he didn’t deal well with Ben’s situation when it happened. Ben doesn’t want him to feel guilty – he needs a proper chat with his dad. Ruth reminds Ben David’s still haunted by guilt over the death of Nigel. Ruth assures Ben they’re both there for him, and Ben acknowledges his dad probably understands him better than most. Ed calls round with some edible decorations from Emma, and Ben enjoys the opportunity for a normal chat. Ben’s pleased Ruth’s joined a choir, resolving to be there to support her.
Ed tells Emma that Rex caught everything they did in the woods on camera. Emma’s mortified. What if he shares the footage? Much as she doesn’t want to, she feels she has to face Rex, in the hope he’ll be so embarrassed he’ll hand over the material. Later at choir practice Rex sees Emma and tries to escape. Fallon thinks that maybe he’s ill, his performance was so bad. Emma catches up with him and attempts to explain about the logging, but only succeeds in making things worse. Rex gets totally the wrong end of the stick, and believing Emma’s condoning what he sees as an affair between Ed and Fallon, he quits Fallon’s choir.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001g92k)
Lucy Prebble, immersive experiences, what next for ENO

Lucy Prebble, acclaimed playwright and Succession screenwriter, talks to Tom about the return of I Hate Suzie Too, her TV collaboration with Billie Piper about a B-list celebrity making a reality TV comeback, following an intimate phone hacking scandal.

Immersive and interactive exhibitions, performances and ‘experiences’ are everywhere, from the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Reel Store in Coventry to a Peaky Blinders experience in London. Tom is joined by author Laurence Scott and art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnson to ask if we’ve reached peak immersion.

After having its funding slashed and being told it must move out of London, where does the English National Opera go from here? Manchester has been mooted, although there are reports that the Arts Council may be about to grant the ENO a reprieve. The company’s chief executive Stuart Murphy will give us an update, and we’ll hear from Richard Mantle, chief executive of Leeds-based Opera North, which tours to cities including Greater Manchester. And Manchester-based opera singer Soraya Mafi, who has performed with ENO, explains what the move might mean to her.

Image: Billie Piper as Suzie Pickles in I Hate Suzie Too
Photographer: Tom Beard
Copyright: Sky UK Ltd.


MON 20:00 Putin (m001g92m)
13. No Way Out?

In the final episode of the latest series of Putin, Jonny Dymond and three expert guests examine how the Russian president shaped the war in Ukraine between March and October 2022, and how the war has begun to shape him.

With Russia’s military position weakened by fierce Ukrainian counter-attacks, how much pressure is Vladimir Putin really under? Is there any way out for Putin, or might an increasingly difficult war proving his undoing?

Guests:

Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russia Editor
Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at the New School in New York
Dr Mark Galeotti, author of Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine

Production coordinators: Helena Warwick-Cross and Siobhan Reed
Sound engineer: Graham Puddifoot
Producer: Nathan Gower
Researcher: Octavia Woodward
Series Editor: Simon Watts


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001g384)
Hungary’s power dilemma

Paks, a small Hungarian town on the shore of the River Danube an hour or two south of Budapest has prospered from its nuclear power station, built by the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. Hungary has prospered too. Paks provides some 40 per cent of the country’s power requirements. But the four reactors are now approaching the end of their lives and are scheduled for closure in 2032; so in 2014 agreement was reached with Russia to build two more, with the help of a Russian loan, Russian engineers, and a small army of Ukrainian welders.

But the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army in February 2022 has thrown these plans into disarray. Construction has begun, in the sense that bulldozers have been clearing the ground. But the project is already delayed, and there are those who believe that the new reactors will never be built. As Nick Thorpe discovers, people who thought they had a job for life in Paks are worried about their future and the future of a town whose lively shops and restaurants owe everything to the nuclear industry. Now the centre-piece of prime minister Viktor Orban’s energy empire, Paks may soon become the country’s rustbelt.

Presenter: Nick Thorpe
Produced by Tim Mansel
Studio mix by Neil Churchill
Production coordinator Iona Hammond
Series editor: Penny Murphy


MON 21:00 Phantoms in the Brain (m001g34w)
‘I'm tired of feeling a prisoner to my thoughts’ – Moksha’s story

In this episode, we meet Moksha, a doctor so debilitated by obsessive-compulsive disorder that he drives at least 50 miles home every day to avoid using the college toilets. He won’t eat or drink anything during weekend-long shifts, so he doesn’t have to use the hospital bathroom. He scrubs his skin with toxic cleaning products to try to rid himself of germs, sustaining chemical burns. Medication provides no relief, but cutting-edge technology - electrodes implanted deep within his brain to change electrical activity - successfully treats his condition, easing his symptoms.

We also hear from Matthew, whose many years of depression have been associated with feelings of inflammation or infection in his body; and we talk to neuroscientists leading research into how the immune system may influence brain functioning.

These cases cast light on the artificial distinctions between mental and physical health, and how psychological conditions have a basis in chemical or electrical changes in the brain.

Presenter: Professor Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Sound: Neil Churchill

Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Clare Fordham

Image: Amy Hiley amyhileyart.com


MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001g915)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001g92q)
Jan 6th Committee final report

Also:

High Court rules in favour of government's Rwanda policy.

COP 15 UN biodiversity summit reaches landmark deal.

Dutch apology for role in colonial slavery.


MON 22:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001g92t)
Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths

Murder at the Villa Rosa (Part 1)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths
An author who has travelled to the Amalfi coast with murder on his mind barely notices the genteel old lady who is also a guest at the villa...

Read by John Heffernan
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Marking 45 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors who also happen to be Christie devotees.


MON 23:00 Lights Out (m001g9ss)
Series 5

Greenham Convictions

It's 40 years this month since 30,000 women 'embraced the base' at RAF Greenham Common, Berkshire in protest at the proposed siting of cruise missiles there. For some of them, the Women's Peace Camp became home and the RAF base the scene of countless actions, as political convictions led inevitably to arrests, court appearances and imprisonment.

Lyn Barlow served something between 15 and 20 sentences - she lost count - and Sue Say at least eight. Mild-mannered former teacher Mary Millington has journals documenting her numerous prison terms. Greenham Convictions traces why these women put not just their bodies but "their entire beings" on the line for a cause - and at what price.

With thanks to Rebecca Mordan of Greenham Women Everywhere.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001g92y)
Sean Curran reports as the Home Secretary says the Rwanda policy has been vindicated after the High Court ruled that the plan to send some asylum seekers there is lawful.

TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER 2022

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001g932)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g91r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g936)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g93g)
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 (m001g93q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001g940)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g94c)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

It surprises some people when I admit that I, a Christian priest, am not a huge fan of Christmas. Of course, what I really mean is that I struggle with the tinselly, excessively commercial version of Christmas. Rather, I want the focus to be on the birth of Jesus Christ. However, for all that, I do like a good Christmas movie. While some people are fans of Elf or Die Hard, for me, the ultimate Christmas film is Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, which had its premiere on this day in 1946.

It tells the story of George Bailey who spends his entire life giving up on his big dreams for the good of his small town. However, on Christmas Eve, he falls into despair as he faces losing everything due to the machinations of the wicked millionaire Mr. Potter. Bailey wishes he’d never lived. Then a miracle happens: his guardian angel, Clarence, falls to Earth and shows George how his town, family, and friends would have turned out if he had never been born. He discovers how much he means to so many people. He realises that even if he lost every material thing, he has everything to live for.

St Paul speaks of how the church is, like a body, made up of many different parts. Not everyone gets to play a glamorous or exciting part. None the less no body can function without each of its parts working together. That’s true of society too. Frank Capra’s classic film captures this truth. I may not know exactly the impact I have on the common good, but when I embrace my part I can make a huge difference.

Living and loving God, show us how to work for the common good and weave us into your community of love.

Amen.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001g94r)
Wildlife and conservation groups have criticised the government for the late publication of legally binding targets for environmental protection. The Wildlife Trusts and the Soil Association say failing to set key clean water targets is unacceptable and they also criticise a reduction in overall tree planting targets. However, DEFRA says the targets, which are requirements under the Environment Act "will drive forward action to tackle climate change, restore our natural capital and protect our much-loved landscapes and green spaces."

A new deal to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and protect 30% of land and oceans across the world by 2030, has been agreed by almost 200 countries at the UN biodiversity summit, COP15. The Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the UK played a leading role in negotiations and the UK pledged up to 29 million pounds to help developing countries meet the ‘30by30’ land target and other projects.

Preliminary results of a new paper which has yet to be peer-reviewed, is reporting that the number of earthworms in soil may have reduced by a third over the last 25 years. The study by British Trust for Ornithology researchers collated 100 years of data.

The Soil Nutrient Health Scheme is being rolled out by the Department for Agriculture in Northern Ireland and the Agri Food and BioSciences Institute, taking soil samples from 700,000 fields to provide farmers with detailed information on their soil.

All week we’re focusing on rural communities at Christmas. It's a time of year when we often spend a little more on food and at the Penllyn Estate in Cowbridge in Wales is encouraging shoppers to buy local produce over the festive season.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jdxn5)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 3 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman discusses working out what the actual bird is on the third day of the song could prove a headache. The original three French hens mentioned in the song could be of course domestic chickens or hens in France, but not, I suggest, French Hens, a species which as far as we know doesn't exist. It's thought then our domestic chickens are descendants of junglefowl, forest dwelling members of the pheasant family from southern Asia. Of all the junglefowl, it is the red junglefowl that is believed to be the primary ancestral source of our humble hen.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Graham Ball.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001g8qf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Room 5 (m001g8qp)
Series 2, Ep 7: Ruth

On taking psychedelics to treat depression.

Ruth‘s lying on a hospital bed. There’s calm music, she’s wearing an eye-mask and in her hand - a single white pill. It contains an illegal chemical which some doctors are convinced could revolutionise the way we treat depression. Ruth’s struggled with depression since she was a child. She’s tried everything - and for her, this is her last chance. Ruth swallows the pill, the chemicals flow into her bloodstream and then - her psychedelic trip begins.

In Room 5, Helena Merriman shares stories of real-life medical mysteries, interviewing people who - like her - were changed by a diagnosis.

Written, presented and produced by Helena Merriman
Composer: Jeremy Warmsley
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore

Production Co-ordinator: Janet Staples
Researcher: Drew Hyndman
Editor: Emma Rippon

#Room5

End song: Miffed by Tom Rosenthal


TUE 09:30 Flight of the Ospreys (m001g8qy)
The hunt for 4K

Scotland's ospreys are approaching Guinea-Bissau on their epic Autumn migration. A team of conservationists, led by biologist and adventurer Sacha Dench, is following them on their 5000km odyssey. Sacha wants to raise awareness of the multiple threats that migrating birds face in a time of rising populations and a warming climate.

Emily Knight hears from Sacha as the ospreys and their support team approach the end of the journey, and go on the hunt for celebrity osprey 4K, who they've been trailing all the way from Leicestershire.

Produced by Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight


TUE 09:45 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g8r4)
2: Man Magnet

Lucy Worsley reads her account of the extraordinary life of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie.

Born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do, Agatha Christie became the most prolific detective novelist during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and went on to become the best-selling author of all time.

Here Worsley paints a picture not only of an unlikely heroine, a pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, whose dazzling career included some of the greatest works of crime fiction, but also of a woman whose life was marked by significant losses and reversals of fortune, not to mention dark secrets and uncomfortable truths. From her idyllic Victorian childhood, to her rocky marriage, to her great literary successes with Poirot and Marple, to her mysterious and infamous disappearance at Harrogate, Worsley presents a life fascinating for its mysteries and passions.

Today: after finding herself in demand among the colonials of Egypt, Agatha marries a dashing pilot, and decides to try writing a detective novel...

Read and written by: Lucy Worsley
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Photographer: Robert Shiret


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001g8rf)
Nurses on strike, comedian Cally Beaton, teacher Andria Zafirakou, root smudging

Two nurses, Heather who is a Specialist Community Nurse for a London NHS Trust and Mary, who works as an A&E nurse in Leeds, explain why they are joining the picket line today.
Cally Beaton had a high-flying career as a TV executive. But she swapped the boardroom for the comedy club after receiving career advice from none other than Joan Rivers. Cally joins Jessica Creighton to describe how she has now achieved her comedy goal by making her debut appearance on the Christmas Special of Live at The Apollo’ at the age of 53.
Breaking up for the Christmas holidays is exciting for a lot of children but for some it means a stop to one guaranteed warm meal a day in a heated place. We’re joined by teacher Andria Zafirakou, who’s seeing children come to school hungry and unwashed.
Lockdown caused a lot of us to change our habits permanently including when it comes to our hair. Lots of people let their natural grey take over – and now there’s even a trend emerging where people are purposefully showing their roots. Hairdresser Sofia Sjoo joins Jess.
For those who are grieving the loss of a loved one - Christmas time can be a very difficult period – even more so when it’s the first Christmas without them. One listener got in contact us with to suggest that we feature an item at this time on how to talk to parents whose child or children have died. Ruth’s son Fergus was just twelve years old when he died of cancer in May this year. She joins me now.

Presenter: Jessica Creighton
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore


TUE 11:00 Phantoms in the Brain (m001g8rm)
'My mind keeps saying to me I was dead' – Daljit’s story

In this episode, we meet Kirsty, a young, fit and healthy mum, who is suddenly paralysed and incontinent. Multiple tests are unable to find any obvious cause. She is eventually diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND) - where the structure of the brain is entirely normal, but the way it functions goes awry. Its origins are in her childhood and more recent psychological trauma.

We also hear from Callum, who, almost overnight, develops seizures and walking difficulties. Again, no clear neurological cause can be found. His symptoms have been triggered by a viral illness. We learn how FND is not always associated with stress or trauma, but can be related to physical illness.

And we speak to Daljit, whose memory issues, jerking and stuttering lead to his wife's discovery of his dark and traumatic past experiences.

We’ll hear from psychiatrists and neurologists about what we understand about the nature and origins of FND, and how these symptoms are not "psychosomatic" or "all in your head". And how early recognition and diagnosis can lead to full recovery.

Presenter: Professor Guy Leschziner
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Sound: Rod Farquhar

Production co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Clare Fordham

Image: Amy Hiley amyhileyart.com


TUE 11:30 Laura Barton's Notes on Music (m001g8rt)
Episode 2: Bells

The music writer Laura Barton presents a seasonal edition of her series of meditations on different aspects of music.

Today it's the turn of bells and the change-ringing that is particularly English in its origins and feels at one, according to the poet John Betjeman and the musician Virgina Astley, with the landscape of this island.

Laura visits All Hallows in Twickenham, Surrey where Stephen Mitchell and his bellringers demonstrate what's possible with a peal of ten bells. She even has a go. And she relates the timbre of the bells to the music of Jonathan Harvey whose Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco is drawn from samples of his son's treble voice and the largest bell at Winchester Cathedral.

Music:
Virginia Astley – From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Purcell – Rejoice in the Lord always (Brandenburg Consort)
Jonathan Harvey – Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
John Betjeman – Myfanwy at Oxford
Virginia Astley – From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

(Including a recording of St Paul's Cathedral's muffled bells on the day of the Queen's funeral, courtesy of Joe Harvey-Whyte.)

Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001g8s0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 The New Gurus (m001g9sz)
2. Taking the Urine

Will Blunderfield grew up, he says, an unhappy, unhealthy kid. Now he feels great — as a “wild naked man” who drinks his own urine.

Across the world, wellness is a multi-billion pound industry, even though some of its practices are unproven, extreme or even harmful. So why are so many people unimpressed with what 21st century medicine can offer them, and turning to internet gurus instead?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley
Story consultant: Geoff Bird
Original music composed by Paper Tiger
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


TUE 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001fwfc)
Perfume

Smelling good can come with a hefty price tag with the price of perfumes often getting into the hundreds of pounds. But what if there was a cheaper alternative?

Listener Callum got in touch because his bottle of expensive perfume is about to run out. Presenter Greg Foot turns his nose to the task, testing so-called 'clone' perfumes which claim to get as close the originals as to be indistinguishable - but for a fraction of the cost. Speaking to an expert perfumer he finds out exactly how the clone houses copy the ingredients of designer perfumes and whether they last as long.

Do they pass the sniff test? Are they the best thing since sliced bread or just marketing BS?

This series, we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001g8s6)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001g8sb)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


TUE 13:45 Living with the News (m001fp75)
Oliver Burkeman asks if our consumption of news is so problematic is abstinence the only solution? But then how can you be a responsible, contributing member of society if you don’t know what’s going on?

There's also the 'if you're not outraged, your not paying attention' crowd. Whether its the latest forecast for climate change or how AI is further inveigling its way into our lives - there's real social pressure to be up to speed on the latest cause célèbre, with the implication that if you're not, somehow you're letting the side down.

How do you resist that and not fall into the trap of being in a constant fury about the world around you?


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001g8sg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (m000cl3y)
A Time to Dance

Dramatist Lucy Gannon invites us into her retelling of the Christmas tale, a story which surprised her in the writing. While she was expecting the gentle story we all know, she instead discovered something altogether different.

In ‘A Time to Dance’ we meet two helpless people facing an uncertain future… and an unexpected stranger - an elderly shepherd, who has carried guilt and grief for a lifetime.

Starring Nikesh Patel (Indian Summers; Four Weddings) as Joseph, and Karl Johnson (Mum; Hot Fuzz) as Isaac.

Lucy Gannon’s numerous credits range from Soldier, Soldier and Bramwell to Dad, Lewis, Frankie, The Best of Men and The Children, not to mention a host of theatre and radio credits. She was awarded the MBE for services to drama in 1996. Her R4 drama Fat Little Thing won the Writers’ Guild award for best radio drama in 2017.

Written by Lucy Gannon
Produced and Directed by Allegra McIlroy

Cast:
Isaac ….. Karl Johnson
Joseph ….. Nikesh Patel
Mary….. Scarlett Courtney
The Narrator - Jessica Turner
Heli ….. Clive Hayward
Ben ….. Will Kirk
Sam….. Greg Jones
Angel….. Shaun Mason
Innkeeper’s wife ….. Lucy Reynolds

Sound design ….. David Chilton

A Time to Dance is a BBC NI Production


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001g8sl)
Series 33

Season's Greetings

Josie Long presents short Yuletide documentaries and festive audio adventures.

Two women discover their families are tied by the true story behind the classic film It’s A Wonderful Life, and a Ukrainian singing group in Canada remembers loved ones through Christmas songs as war continues in their homeland.

Also, a profile on Father Christmas and a nativity criticism session with its young cast.

Profile on Father Christmas
Featuring Raymond Briggs and Janet Cohen
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1981

Seneca Falls
Featuring Elizabeth Kress and Kathy Williamson
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft

Nativity Criticism
Featuring Harold Williamson and children from two schools in Sunderland
Produced by Michael Barton
From an episode of Children Talking called The Spirit of Christmas. First broadcast on Boxing Day 1963.

Can We Come Carol?
Featuring Natalia Telentso
The singers are Eli Camilo, Natalia, Carlos, Olga, Vera, Olessia, Briga, Anna and Mira from the Montreal Koliada group that was co-founded by Natalia and Eli.
Produced by Mira Burt-Wintonick

Produced by Andrea Rangecroft
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:30 A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand (m001g8sq)
Series 2: Can I Change?

3. Nature via nurture

Most of us would like something about ourselves or our lives to be different, but how easy is it to actually change?

Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken are looking at whether people can change and how they do it. Exactly how much of any aspect of personality is genetic destiny and how much are we shaped by the world around us?

Chris wants to be a better doctor, friend, husband and father. But most urgently he wants to be a better brother, and is determined to improve his relationship with Xand. They’re best friends and talk to each other every day, but they are also business partners who find it very hard to work together without having a visceral row.

Chris wants to change how he relates to his brother and believes it is possible, but Xand is less convinced that we can or that he needs to change. In this series, Chris confronts that pessimism.

In episode 3 - Nature via Nurture - the psychologist Wendy Johnson explodes some home truths around the great nature vs nurture debate. The twins speak to their younger brother J about some changes he’s been trying to implement in his own life that he hopes will improve the way he interacts with his kids. It leaves Chris wondering what he needs to exploit to continue trying to convince Xand to improve their relationship.

Presented by Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Produced by Hester Cant and Alexandra Quinn
Series Editor: Jo Rowntree
A Loftus Media and van Tulleken Brothers Ltd production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:00 Mothers and Sons of Ukraine (m001g8sv)
Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief International Correspondent, introduces three Ukrainian mothers who found refuge in the UK as they make precious calls with their sons back home in Ukraine.

Recorded over two months at the end of 2022, the mums and sons let us in on conversations about their new realities.

Sons confide about the cold, the darkness, curfews, the grandparents they’re helping to look after – too old and frail to leave - and their determination that all will be well. Snow has already fallen and power outages are frequent.

The mums talk about their hosts’ kindness, the generosity of strangers, their worries for loved ones back home, their longing for the war to be over.

Across these divides and separation, the approaching winter and future uncertainty, their love crackles undimmed down the line.

Producers: Ruth Abrahams and Nina Bielova
Translator: Olga Gorval
Readers: Tania Kharchenko, Andriy Kravets, Nataliya Skofenko, Irena Taranyuk, Dzhafer Umerov, Gregory Zhygalov

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001g8sz)
Noddy Holder on Chuck Berry

In 1972 Chucky Berry was onstage in Coventry. Seeking some audience participation Chuck launched into a cover of an unusual novelty record called 'My Ding-a-Ling'.

One of the men who can be heard in the crowd singing about their "Ding-a-Ling' was Noddy Holder whose band Slade were supporting Berry on his UK tour. This track became Berry's only UK number one and by default, one of Noddy's seven. Paul Gambaccini also saw Berry live in the 1970s and remembers him playing hits like 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'Maybellene', but never performing for a minute longer than the agreed contracted length of his set.

Paul and Noddy join Matthew Parris to discuss the life of this influential pioneer who along with Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard is said to have invented rock n roll. They talk about Berry's musical influences, his rise to stardom, his shrewd approach to business and some of the darker moments that blight Berry's legacy.

Produced by Toby Field for BBC Audio, Bristol.


TUE 17:00 PM (m001g8t4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g8t9)
The NHS Confederation says the service has entered "dangerous territory", members of the armed forces have been put on standby to cover for the action


TUE 18:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (m000q8ym)
Series 5

Lagom Lockdown

Adam Riches returns in The Cold Swedish Winter, Danny Robins' series of comedy and culture shock.

Recorded partly on location in Stockholm, and at times simultaneously between three countries, this romantic comedy features a line-up of some of Sweden’s best known comic actors.

British comedian Geoff has settled with his Swedish partner, Linda (Sissela Benn), in the frozen north in the tiny, unpronounceable town of Yxsjo. This year he's up against British and Swedish views of viruses, his mother's (Mel Hudson) endless calls, cross country skiing, a predatory American cousin and, of course, his redoubtable in-laws, Sten and Gunilla (Thomas Oredsson and Anna-Lena Bergelin).

We join his family as spring breaks and Sweden faces lockdown, taking a very different path to its European neighbours.

Full Cast
Geoff ..... Adam Riches
Linda ..... Sissela Benn
Sten ..... Thomas Oredsson
Gunilla ..... Anna-Lena Bergelin
Jean ..... Mel Hudson
Ian ..... Danny Robins
Henning ..... Thomas Eriksson
Soran ..... .Farshad Kholgi
Customs Guy ..... Fredrik Andersson
John ..... Harry Nicolaou

Written by Danny Robins
Directed by Frank Stirling

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001g8th)
Susan finds Brian outside Home Farm. They acknowledge the difference that change brings, with Brian raising Alice’s sensitivity over her recent divorce. Susan asserts it’s good for them all to have clarity, and Alice and Chris will be able to move on. She’s less than impressed when she discovers later that Brian’s invited Chris to Willow Cottage for Christmas lunch. She feels it muddies the waters now the divorce is through. Brian protests that as Martha’s father, Chris is still family, but Susan counters that he’s her son and she’d made her own arrangements with him. Brian points out that it’s up to Chris which invitation he accepts.
Disconcerted Fallon’s determined to learn why Rex is being so off with her. Rex starts to rant about her sordid affair with Ed. He insists Emma’s confirmed it, and he has it all on camera. Bamboozled Fallon thinks Rex has gone mad. Emma approaches and Rex disappears. Fallon and Emma exchange stories about what they’ve each been accused of, and Emma twigs that their similar coats have caused a catastrophic case of mistaken identity. Fallon laughs, but Emma despairs. Fallon suggests an intervention before things get any more out of hand. Emma, Ed and Fallon explain the truth to Rex. Rex feels an idiot. He discloses that Tony also saw the footage. There are apologies all round. Rex promises to delete the footage. Fallon agrees not to tell Harrison, if the stolen wood’s returned to the rewilding site. Rex promises to put Tony straight, confident he won’t tell a soul.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001g8tq)
Terry Hall remembered, state of UK theatre, board games of the last 40 years

Terry Hall of The Specials remembered after his sad passing. We hear him talking to John Wilson in 2019, and Pete Paphides looks back on his life and music.

Plus, the state of UK theatre and its future outlook. Samira is joined by Nica Burns, co-owner of Nimax, who runs seven West End theatres and recently opened Soho Place - the first new theatre to open in the West End in 50 years; plus Matthew Xia - Artistic Director of the Actors' Touring Company; and Matt Hemley – Deputy Editor of the industry newspaper The Stage.

And the best board games of the past 40 years. For many, Christmas would not be complete without one. Ancient forms like chess, oware or backgammon, and more modern classics including Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo, have been joined in the last 40 or so years by new inventions such as Rummikub, Catan and Ticket to Ride - all winners of the German prize Spiel des Jahres, or Game of the Year, which started in 1979. James Wallis, author of a book on board games, Everybody Wins, explains the enduring popularity of the pastime and why he thinks the games are an artform.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Tim Prosser


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001g8tz)
Cost of Living Forcing Children into Care

The cost of living crisis is placing huge pressure on families across the country, many of whom were already living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet.
Now social services say the pressure on parents is causing a significant increase in family breakdowns and the number of children being taken into care.
Reporter Paul Connolly speaks to parents who fear the cost of living crisis could see them lose their children and investigates whether enough is being done to prevent families breaking down.
File on 4 hears from social workers on the frontline who say more and more children are falling into extreme poverty and face a daily battle to help their parents keep them safe.
The programme uncovers new data which reveals the increasing pressure the cost of living crisis is placing on children's social care and asks what the future holds for a service already struggling to meet demand.

Reporter: Paul Connolly
Producer: Ben Robinson
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Carl Johnston


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001g8v7)
A Very Merry (In Touch) Christmas

The festive period can be very visual and with this in mind, charity Guide Dogs and entertainment production company The Ministry of Fun, teamed up to design a sensory Santa's grotto for visually impaired children. We sent along our resident child at heart, Fern Lulham to participate in the fun.

For many years, blind and partially sighted people have been left behind when it comes to accessing the big blockbuster video games (also referred to as AAA games). Thankfully, developers have woken up to this fact and so producer Beth Hemmings and totally blind gaming consultant, Brandon Cole review some of the biggest games that blind and partially sighted people could play this holiday season.

We also have a very special studio guest. He's blind, he's funny and an all round entertainer. Any guesses? Tune in to find out!

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Paul Holloway
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.

Video Game Clip Credits:
God of War: Ragnarök game trailer - Play Station official
God of War: Ragnarök in-game accessibility features - Brandon Cole on Twitch
The Last of Us, Part 1 in-game accessibility features - PlayStation official
As Dusk Falls game trailer - GameSpot Trailers and Xbox official


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m001g8vf)
Fergal Keane and PTSD

Fergal Keane describes living with PTSD. For thirty years, Fergal covered some of the most brutal wars for the BBC, including Rwanda, Iraq and Ukraine.

Despite having PTSD, he kept going, taking more and more risks until witnessing a massacre in Sudan, he realised he couldn't do it anymore, that for him going to war had become an addiction. He talks to Claudia about his ongoing work, recovering from PTSD.

Professor Daryl O'Connor's new research finds that people who got Covid-19 early in the pandemic were twice as likely to experience depressive symptoms than those who didn't.

And Dr Gillian Sandstrom on why men ask 2.4 more questions than women at conferences.


TUE 21:30 Room 5 (m001g8qp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001g8vm)
Concern over tomorrow's ambulance workers strike

Also tonight:

Taliban to ban women from going to university in Afghanistan.

And a 97-year-old German woman is sentenced for her role in the Holocaust


TUE 22:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001g8vt)
Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths

Murder at the Villa Rosa (Part 2)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths
After surprising himself by sharing career doubts with Miss Marple, writer Felix Jeffries finds himself easily distracted by his fellow guests on the Amalfi coast.

Read by John Heffernan
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Marking 45 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors and Christie devotees.


TUE 23:00 Rhys James (m000c9sf)
Rhys James Isn't...

Rhys James Isn’t… 'B'

In an attempt to become more politically engaged, comedian Rhys James tries on opinions like clothes to see how they fit. This week he’s putting his right leg in first.

Last week he was a wishy-washy liberal. Now a week older and more right wing, Rhys asks: can we really be arsed to save the planet… Is it actually woke to teach LGBT+ issues in schools… Are gender-neutral toilets worth it… and Is Facebook really spying on us or do people just want to feel important?

Written and performed by – Rhys James
Produced by – Carl Cooper

Production Co-ordinator – Gwyn Rhys Davies

A BBC Studios production


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001g8w3)
Susan Hulme reports as senior MPs question Rishi Sunak on health service strikes and Ukraine.

WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2022

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001g8w8)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g8r4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g8wd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g8wl)
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 (m001g8ww)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001g8x6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g8xc)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

I suspect I am not alone in finding this time of year a little challenging. For me, it’s the lack of light and the shortness of the days. Today, is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In London, the shortest day offers just eight hours of daylight; that’s nearly nine hours shorter than the longest day. The brevity of daylight simply makes me want to hibernate until the spring.

Perhaps the sheer lack of light and the length of the nights is one reason why the Solstice has long been connected in the northern hemisphere with religious festivals. In Rome, Saturnalia took place around the time of Solstice and, in early medieval England, the Venerable Bede asserted that the Solstice was a major festival for people from Scandinavia. In Iran, there is the tradition of Yalda Night, when friends gather to eat, drink and read poetry on the longest night of the year. It is perhaps unsurprising that Christmas as a festival which celebrates Jesus as the Light of the World should become associated too with the arrival of the Solstice.

The world 'solstice' comes from the Latin solstitium meaning 'Sun stands still'. I rather like the poetry of that phrase. It indicates that at solstice we come to the still turning point of the year. The sun, on which we all depends, seemingly stops and then at the winter solstice the world begins to open up again and the days grow longer till spring comes. For Christians, of course, Jesus is the still turning point of the world. He is ‘the sun of righteousness.’ For all of us, though, solstice signals both the darkest day and the promise of brighter days to come.

God of light, illumine our paths today. Lead us into hope, promise and joy. Show us the way ahead.

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001g8xh)
Fishing quotas for 2023 have been published. The government says the deal will mean a further £282 million in fishing opportunities in UK waters - £34 million more than 2022. In the run-up to Brexit it was the fishing industry which was told a new era of prosperity would be theirs, so is that happening? We speak to Barrie Deas, the Chief Executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations.

Rural communities in Ukraine are having to rely on all their resilience this year. The invasion by Russia has sent the farming year into unprecedented chaos, with some corn combining only just finishing and the total harvest just over half the usual amount. The current challenge for farmers, as well as many Ukrainian residents, is electricity supply. Farmers need it for milking, grain drying, storing vegetables and heating indoor livestock buildings.

Christmas is usually a time to come together and celebrate. But, if you're a young person in an isolated rural area it can be really hard to get out and meet people, especially if you don't have transport. We speak to Dereham Young Farmers' Club recruiting new members at their local Christmas Market.

Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jf4qb)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 4 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman discusses, on the fourth day of the song, a true love is sent four calling birds. Given that most birds call, which quartet of birds could be calling? Possibly the four calling birds could refer back to colly, a derivative of the older col, roughly translated as coal. In other words, birds as black as coal. But which black bird would capture a wooing heart?

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: John Quine.


WED 06:00 Today (m001g94d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 The Reith Lectures (m001g956)
The Four Freedoms

4. Freedom from Fear

In the last in a series of four lectures examining what freedom means, the foreign affairs and intelligence expert Dr Fiona Hill gives her BBC Reith Lecture on Freedom from Fear. Dr Hill is one of the world’s leading experts on Russia, and served as director for European and Russian affairs on President Trump’s National Security Council, and in senior intelligence roles for both Presidents Bush and Obama. She will talk about the fear she felt growing up as teenager in the Cold War and living with the threat of nuclear war. Then, she says, the culture of fear was about the Soviet Union, a largely unknown enemy. 40 years later, have we come full circle? She also analyses Russia's war in Ukraine, and what it means for the world.

The programme and question-and-answer session is recorded at John Hopkins University in Washington DC in front of an audience. The presenter is Anita Anand.

The year's series was inspired by President Franklin D Roosevelt's four freedoms speech of 1941 and asks what this terrain means now. It features four different lecturers:
Freedom of Speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Freedom to Worship by Rowan Williams
Freedom from Want by Darren McGarvey
Freedom from Fear by Fiona Hill

Producer: Jim Frank
Sound Engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001g95z)
ADHD in women, Prof Lucy Easthope, Debbie

The number of female patients being prescribed medication for ADHD has more than doubled in recent years. The reasons for this include time spent at home during lockdown really getting to know ourselves and, increasingly, videos on social media sites. #ADHDinwomen has 2.3 billion views on TikTok. To discuss this Hayley is joined by Dr Jo Steer, a Clinical Psychologist and Josie Heath-Smith who discovered she had ADHD after watching videos online.

Today sees ambulance workers across most of England and Wales walk out over pay, joining nurses, rail and postal workers who have been on strike in recent weeks. Health chiefs have warned of "extensive disruption" and a health minister has said people should take "extra care". One woman who has been keeping a close eye on all of this is Professor Lucy Easthope, Professor of Risk and Hazard at Durham University, co founder of the After Disaster Network and author of When The Dust Settles - she joins Hayley Hassall on the programme.

The Taliban has banned women from attending universities in Afghanistan. Hayley Hassall is joined by the Diplomatic Correspondent for The Times, Catherine Philp, who has recently returned from Afghanistan.

The 23-year-old singer Debbie is one to watch. Signed to the same record label as the rapper Stormzy, she features on his latest album This Is What I Mean. Debbie joins Hayley Hassall to discuss growing up with gospel music and how her pop career blossomed while studying finance at university.

According to new research from the homeless charity Shelter 1 in every 100 children in England will wake up homeless this Christmas. CEO of Shelter Polly Neate joins Hayley Hassall to explain why and what she thinks needs to be done.

Presenter: Hayley Hassall
Producer: Emma Pearce


WED 11:00 Putin (m001g92m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Oti Mabuse's Dancing Legends (m001g96b)
The Nicholas Brothers

Oti Mabuse explores the dancers and choreographers who have made an impact on the world of dance.

In today’s episode, the Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams joins Oti to look back on her career and nominate her dancing legend. Michelle has toured in arenas around the world performing to millions of fans, and has appeared on stage on Broadway and in the West End.

She’s been inspired by the pioneering work of the Nicholas Brothers and celebrates their legacy with Oti. The tap dancing duo performed astounding dance routines on screen which are still entertaining audiences more than seventy years later. Their acrobatic performance in the 1943 movie Stormy Weather clearly showed their brilliance, and Michelle and Oti explore their career with archive clips and the expert help of author Constance Valis Hill.

Oti is joined in the dance studio by tap dancer Junior Laniyan as she learns a dance routine inspired by the style of the Nicholas Brothers.

Presenter: Oti Mabuse
Producer: Candace Wilson
Editor: Chris Ledgard
A BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m001g9sx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 The New Gurus (m001g9sv)
3. Fitter, Happier, More Productive

As an author, broadcaster and journalist, Helen Lewis is drowning in deadlines. Join her race against the clock to see if productivity gurus can help her optimise her workflow, change her habits, and consume entire books in 15 minutes.

That is, if she can stop checking her phone long enough to pay attention.

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley
Story consultant: Geoff Bird
Original music composed by Paper Tiger
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


WED 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0018hjr)
Air Fryers

It seems like everyone’s talking about air fryers. They were recently dubbed the product that defined 2021, with sales up by 400%. But how do they fry with air?

Listener Sally in Harrogate has another question too: at a time when the cost of living is rocketing will cooking with an air fryer save her money?

And, because they use little to no oil, is cooking food in an air fryer also “healthier”?

Greg Foot investigates, speaking to a food scientist at Imperial College London and the BBC’s Good Food Magazine, to find out whether the claims being made around air fryers live up to the hype or are just marketing BS.

This series, we’re testing your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there's any evidence to back up a claim drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban


WED 12:57 Weather (m001g96v)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m001g973)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


WED 13:45 Living with the News (m001fp77)
Oliver explores if our engagement with the news is a symptom of damage to public life?

One of the consequences of our obsession with the news is how we now feel more involved with it. In this episode we see how that plays out and can actually contribute to making a situation worse.

Commenting on a story or tweeting about it and makes us feel that on some level we are involved in it. That involvement can really push our buttons if it's an issue we already feel strongly about.

When that strength of feeling spills out of the comment section and into the real world nobody wins.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m001g8th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (m001g97b)
Love Pants: Ian Dury & Jane Horrocks

In 1987 the legendary singer and songwriter Ian Dury and actor Jane Horrocks began a relationship while working together on the Jim Cartwright play Road. It was at turns loving and acrimonious as it switched quickly from light to darkness and back again.

This is the story of their love affair told through recently re-discovered letters from him, her diary entries of the time, and specially commissioned music by Micky Gallagher (Ian Dury and The Blockheads, The Clash)

The programme also features some of Dury's extraordinary songs - What A Waste, Reasons To Be Cheerful, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, Clever Trevor, My Old Man and material from Mr Love Pants, his final album before his death in 2000. There's also a live recording of Spasticus Autisticus which Dury described as "a war cry" when he appeared on Desert Island Discs. The song was performed by Orbital/Graeae Theatre Company and broadcast worldwide by the BBC at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Jane Horrock's diary details the relationship through a conflicted lens - beautiful and direct descriptions of joy and heartache, romance, fear, boredom and comedy. Some of Dury's letters to Horrocks read like a song chorus or a poem.

There are vivid cultural references to the times - from Sylvia Plath's grave to Terrence Trent D'arby, and the film Barfly.

Ian Dury's letters are read by Jud Charlton in an uncanny facsimile of the late singer's voice and character, and Jane Horrocks reflects on bringing her memories, the letters and her diaries together after 35 years, concluding that here was a friendship trampled by a sometimes toxic love affair.

Devised by Jane Horrocks
Produced and Directed by Peter Curran
Sound Design: David Thomas
A Foghorn Company production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (m001g97j)
Money Box Live: Cost of Living and Charities

Christmas is a time for giving and often that means charitable donations. New research from the Charities Aid Foundation suggests fewer people are supporting good causes because of the rising cost of living putting pressure on their finances.

In this episode of Money Box Live, we’re talking to charity founders about how the finances of their organisations are impacted. We'll also be joined by Caron Bradshaw, the CEO of the Charity Finance Group, and Alison Taylor, CEO of CAF Bank, from the Charities Aid Foundation.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Amber Mehmood
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 3pm, Wednesday 21st December, 2022)


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m001g8vf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m001bl0r)
The Internet - how it shapes the past and the future

The Internet and time – how the World Wide Web has transformed our understanding of history as well as the future.

Laurie Taylor talks to Jason Steinhauer, public historian and Global Fellow at the Wilson Centre, Washington, DC, whose latest study argues that the tangled complexity of history that we see via Instagram and Twitter is leading to an impoverished, even a distorted knowledge of the past. Algorithms play in a big role in determining the versions of history which we are seeing. Content does not rise to the top of news feeds based on its scholarly or factual merits. Political agendas and commercial agendas are almost always at play. So how can we become more discerning consumers of historical knowledge?

They're joined by Helga Nowotny, Professor Emerita of Social Studies of Science a ETH Zurich, whose research suggests that our dependence on predictive algorithms might be closing down the horizon of our future, giving us a feeling of control whilst narrowing our choices.

Producer: Jayne Egerton


WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001g97q)
Inside the mind of Elon Musk

Since taking charge of Twitter in October, Elon Musk has temporarily banned some journalists from the platform, overhauled the verification system, reinstated Donald Trump's Twitter account and laid off more than half Twitter's workforce. Now, following a Twitter poll, he plans to stand down as the company's CEO. But why does it matter for the wider media, culture and society?

Guests: Kara Swisher, leading technology journalist and presenter of the podcast On with Kara Swisher; Rebekah Tromble, Director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University; Dex Hunter-Torricke, VP Global Communications & Public Engagement, Meta Oversight Board; John Gapper, business columnist at the Financial Times.

Presenter: Ros Atkins

Studio engineer: Giles Aspen

Producer: Dan Hardoon


WED 17:00 PM (m001g97v)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g983)
Ambulance staff across England and Wales have taken part in their first major strike in decades - with a further walkout planned for next week.


WED 18:30 Henry Normal: A Normal... (m001g987)
Home

"Shove up National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal" Simon O'Hagan - Radio Times

Join Henry Normal for the tenth instalment of his acclaimed, occasional series in which the acclaimed, occasional writer tackles those subjects so big only radio can possibly contain them.

So far Henry has covered ‘Family’, ‘Life’, ‘Love’, ‘Imagination’, ‘Nature’, ‘The Universe’, ‘Communication’ ‘Ageing’ and ‘Community’; and this latest episode is all about ‘Home’. Through poetry, stories, jokes and quotes, he will be examining how 'home' is more than just a place and talking about what it really means to us.

Recorded in Rye, East Sussex, where Henry now calls home.

Henry Normal is a multi-award-winning writer, producer and poet. Co-writer of award-winning TV programmes such as The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, Coogan’s Run and Paul Calf, and producer of, amongst many others, Oscar-Nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey and Alan Partridge.

He’s published eight collections of poetry including his most recent ‘The Beauty Within Shadow’. Plus his memoir written with Angela Pell ‘A Normal Family’ everyday adventure with our autistic son.

Praise for previous episodes in this series:
-"It's a rare and lovely thing: half an hour of radio that stops you short, gently demands your attention and then wipes your tears away while you have to have a little sit down"
-"It's a real treat to hear a seasoned professional like Henry taking command of this evening comedy spot to deliver a show that's idiosyncratic and effortlessly funny"
-"Not heard anything that jumps from hilarious to moving in such an intelligent, subtle way as Henry Normal's show"

Written and performed by Henry Normal
Production Coordinator - Katie Baum
Sound manager - Jerry Peal
Produced by Carl Cooper

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m001g98c)
Kate’s helping Jakob with his move into Rookery Cottage, though Jakob’s finding her assistance a bit much. He makes it clear that this is his space now, even though she used to live here, and he’d like to be left alone to arrange his things. Kate’s offended and upset to be left out of the equation.

David’s feeling the pressure of having to cook the Christmas lunch. He’s steering away from turkey and towards the more familiar territory of beef. Ben assures him they’re all there to help. They both quietly acknowledge the elephant in the room – that Jill won’t be there to steady the culinary ship. Ben announces he’s going into the village. David worries he’s hiding hurt, but Ben reassures him. He knows everyone’s doing their best to look out for him, and there’s no right or wrong. He just has a little errand to attend to, and will be back later.

Lily wonders to Jolene what Jill’s Christmas plans are. Jolene doesn’t know. Lily invites everyone to Lower Loxley, but discovers later from her gran that she’ll be spending Christmas at Leonard’s. Lily’s worried about her duet with Adil. She admits she doesn’t like him. Perplexed Jolene begs her to try and manage until after the choir performance. Lily offers to do a solo, but Jolene would prefer Lily to step back so that someone else can duet with Adil – maybe even Jolene herself.

Ben visits Jill, and there’s a tearful reunion. Jill’s ashamed, and apologises. Ben protests there’s nothing to forgive, and they embrace.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m001g98h)
Marie Kreutzer on the film Corsage, Film director Mike Hodges remembered, Artistic buzzwords, The T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry

Film director Marie Kreutzer on her new period drama film, Corsage, about the rebellious Elisabeth, 19th-century empress of Austria and queen of Hungary.

Matthew Sweet joins Front Row to mark the work of Mike Hodges, the celebrated director of the classic films Get Carter and Flash Gordon, whose death has just been announced.

When does an 'art-speak' buzzword, such as 'immersive' or 'liminal,' add to our aesthetic landscape and when does it get in the way? Times critic James Marriott and the artist Bob and Roberta Smith discuss how words shape our experience of art.

And, ahead of the announcement of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in January, we hear a poem from nominee Fiona Benson’s shortlisted collection Ephemeron.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Image: Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the film Corsage Photographer credit: Felix Vratny


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m001g98m)
Kindness

Thousands of complaints have been made to the press regulator about Jeremy Clarkson’s column in the Sun newspaper, in which he expressed his hatred of Meghan Markle. His critics say he crossed a line in portraying her as someone who should be treated as less than human. He says he was making a clumsy TV reference and he’s “horrified to have caused so much hurt”.

For some, this is symptomatic of a wider culture which rewards extreme and unkind opinions, and that a right to free speech in a newspaper includes an obligation to uphold certain moral standards. Others say mainstream media commentators (and their editors) have no duty to be kind, only to tell the truth or present an honestly-held opinion.

Kindness, courtesy and respect are notable by their absence in our so-called ‘culture wars’. Kindness can be seen as twee, while rudeness can be applauded. We might appeal superficially to kindness, but it can often be secondary to values of honesty, justice and responsibility. For some, the unkindness in our culture is a systemic problem, demanding a radical change in our technological, social and political structures. For others, it is fundamentally a human problem, requiring us to draw deeply from the well of ancient wisdom.

The Christmas season approaches, when the ideal of goodwill is tested by the messy reality of human relationships. Is kindness the greatest virtue? What will it take for us all to be a little bit kinder? With Nana Akua, Alice Watkins, Edith Hall and Emily Kasriel.

Producer: Dan Tierney.


WED 20:45 Four Thought (m001g98r)
Moral Animals

Philosopher Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert describes a change in how philosophers are beginning to think about the moral capacity of animals, and asks us to think differently about our pets. Beginning with her own pet dog showing compassion for her when she is injured, Virginie explains why new research may fundamentally affect some of what we have long held to be true about animals.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


WED 21:00 A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand (m001g8sq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001g97q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001g98v)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


WED 22:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001g98x)
Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths

Murder at the Villa Rosa (Part 3)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths
As Felix struggles with writer's block - and the effects of homemade limoncello - he starts to suspect that something strange is going on at the villa.

Read by John Heffernan
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Marking 45 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors who also happen to be Christie devotees.


WED 23:00 Sandi Toksvig's Hygge (m000q8zk)
Series 1

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Rose & Rosie

‘Hygge’ (pronounced hoo-ga) along with ‘tak’ (the word for ‘thank you’ that we learnt from watching Borgen and other Scandi dramas) is one of the few Danish words to have become known to us in the UK.

It’s a word that means comfort, contentment and cherishing the simple pleasures in life. In lifestyle magazines it’s faux fur throws, cups of hot cocoa and scented candles; but to the Danish it has simpler and less commercial roots. As these cold Winter nights draw in after a difficult year of scant comfort, it feels like we all need some hygge and legendary Dane, Sandi Toksvig, will do her best to bring it to you.

Broadcasting from her wooden cabin near a lake deep in the Danish countryside Sandi will explore the concept of "hygge" with BBC Stargazing's Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock who helps point out the constellations we can see when there is no light pollution and Youtubers Rose and Rosie who try to embrace digital detoxing and the joys of glamping.

Guests for the series are Grayson Perry, Alan Davies, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Bridget Christie, Clive Myrie, Sindhu Vee, Professor Brian Cox, Zoe Lyons and presenters and podcasters Rose and Rosie . We look forward to you joining Sandi in her cabin (there will be mulled wine).

Host...Sandi Toksvig
Producer...Julia McKenzie
Material for Sandi's script opening script... Simon Alcock and Charlie Dinkin
Production Coordinator...Carina Andrews
Sound Recordist and Editor...Rich Evans
A BBC Studios Production


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001g98z)
Mark D'Arcy reports as peers question Suella Braverman about her asylum policy - and looks back on the year of three prime ministers.

THURSDAY 22 DECEMBER 2022

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001g991)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g993)
3: Mrs Christie No Longer

Lucy Worsley continues her biography of the extraordinary life of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie.

Born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do, Agatha Christie became the most prolific detective novelist during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and went on to become the best-selling author of all time.

Here Worsley paints a picture not only of an unlikely heroine, a pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, whose dazzling career included some of the greatest works of crime fiction, but also of a woman whose life was marked by significant losses and reversals of fortune, not to mention dark secrets and uncomfortable truths. From her idyllic Victorian childhood, to her rocky marriage, to her great literary successes with Poirot and Marple, to her mysterious and infamous disappearance at Harrogate, Worsley presents a life fascinating for its mysteries and passions.

Today: Worsley shines a new light on Agatha's mysterious eleven-day disappearance in 1926....

Read and written by: Lucy Worsley
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Photographer: Robert Shiret


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g995)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g997)
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 (m001g999)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001g99c)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g99f)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

In December, 1877, a young man came into the office of the Scientific American, and placed before the editors a small, simple machine about which very few remarks were offered. The visitor without any ceremony whatever turned the crank, and to the astonishment of all present the machine said: 'Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?' The machine thus spoke for itself, and made known the fact that it was the phonograph...‘ Thus, ran the announcement on this day in 1877 for a revolutionary device: Thomas Edison’s phonograph.

As a music lover, I find it quietly moving that the phonograph set off the chain of development without which I would not have my favourite recordings of composers and modern artists. Edison’s invention was the grandfather of all those sound recordings we take for granted. It enables us to step across time to hear the past in the present.

Then, again, those who, at this point in December, are sick of hearing Christmas tunes played everywhere might quietly regret Edison’s innovation. Certainly, the classic and ubiquitous Christmas playlist, on in every shop and café and public place, is likely to have worn a little thin by this point.

These annual repetitions of festive music are, I think, akin to rituals. In the church, we sing the same carols and use the same liturgy year by year. Equally, the repeated playing of old recordings of White Christmas are there to bring comfort and festive cheer. In both church liturgy, as well as those festive recordings Edison’s invention made possible, I’m reminded of the persistence of hope in a troubled world.

God of grace, abide with us when the world seems dark; remind us that creation is shot through with hope, faith and love, through your son Jesus Christ.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001g99h)
Conservation groups have criticised next year's fishing quotas. The Government described this week's agreement with the EU on how much fish can be caught in UK waters as ‘a further £282 million in fishing opportunities’ and the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations were pleased that quotas had been increased after fish stocks improved - for instance cod is up 160 per cent. However some marine conservation groups, like Blue Marine, say scientific advice is being ignored and 28 per cent of fish stocks are still being over-fished.

During the pandemic, people in one village in Wiltshire set up a community group in a cafe, handing out food, offering help and friendship. When lockdown ended and the cafe needed its premises back, the volunteers moved to the village hall; when the village needed its hall back, they moved to the Scout hut; when the Scouts needed their hut back they decided they really needed a place of their own - and now they've got a new HQ, on a double decker bus. The charity - Positive Community Action will now take a mobile food bank and friendship cafe to rural areas.

A new study says it's more cost effective for farmers to concentrate food production on some land and dedicate other areas to wildlife and biodiversity. There's long been a debate as to which is the most effective - land sharing or land sparing. Land sharing is where farmers make space for nature alongside farming. Land sparing is where they farm some areas and leave other land solely for nature. Research from Cambridge, Glasgow and Leeds universities says its more cost effective to pay farmers to create woodland and wetlands on some land and concentrate food production elsewhere.

Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jgnf4)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 5 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and, for many, a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As actress Alison Steadman outlines the refrain Five Gold Rings in the song is a recent thing, having emerged as an Edwardian addition to the song when Frederic Austen composed the music we know and love today. Yet in the century before that, a small colourful bird captivated Victorian society like no other. The goldfinch.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: Janet Sharp.


THU 06:00 Today (m001g9c6)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001g9cv)
Persuasion

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen’s last complete novel, which was published just before Christmas in 1817, five months after her death. It is the story of Anne Elliot, now 27 and (so we are told), losing her bloom, and of her feelings for Captain Wentworth who she was engaged to, 8 years before – an engagement she broke off under pressure from her father and godmother. When Wentworth, by chance, comes back into Anne Elliot's life, he is still angry with her and neither she nor Austen's readers can know whether it is now too late for their thwarted love to have a second chance.

The image above is from a 1995 BBC adaptation of the novel, with Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds

With

Karen O’Brien
Vice-Chancellor of Durham University

Fiona Stafford
Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford

And

Paddy Bullard
Associate Professor of English Literature and Book History at the University of Reading

Producer: Simon Tillotson


THU 09:45 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g9lb)
4: Rebirth

Lucy Worsley continues her biography of the extraordinary life of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie.

Born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do, Agatha Christie became the most prolific detective novelist during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and went on to become the best-selling author of all time.

Here Worsley paints a picture not only of an unlikely heroine, a pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, whose dazzling career included some of the greatest works of crime fiction, but also of a woman whose life was marked by significant losses and reversals of fortune, not to mention dark secrets and uncomfortable truths. From her idyllic Victorian childhood, to her rocky marriage, to her great literary successes with Poirot and Marple, to her mysterious and infamous disappearance at Harrogate, Worsley presents a life fascinating for its mysteries and passions.

Today: after her divorce, Agatha sets out alone on a trip to Iraq, where adventure and perhaps love are on the cards...

Read and written by: Lucy Worsley
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Photographer: Robert Shiret


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001g9dm)
Returning to your childhood bedroom at Christmas, Iranian dolls, Lilia Giugni

Over the festive period, many people will be returning to stay in the home they grew up in. But when is the right time to clear out a childhood bedroom after its occupants have left home? Should you turn it into a study, pottery studio, or holiday rental the moment the kids have stepped out the door? Or preserve it as a shrine filled with old A Level notes, soft toys, and 90s posters?

The protests in Iran are now entering their fourth month with no sign of abating. They were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who died in custody after being detained by morality police. But Woman's Hour has been in touch with one group of women who are rebelling in a quieter way, with the revival of a simple but ancient tradition. The tradition of making handmade dolls to pass from generation to generation. It's therapeutic, but still proving to be a small but powerful act of defiance. Tanaz Assefi, an artist originally from Iran, is in touch with a woman inside the country who's been travelling around towns and villages collecting handmade dolls.

How have women been affected by the digital revolution of the last 30 years? Lilia Giugni will be joining Krupa Padhy to talk about her book "Threat: Why Digital Capitalism is Sexist and How to Resist".

Plus the latest on the progress of the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill. And one day after excluding women from university, we find out more about reports that the Taliban have banned girls from primary schools, effectively instituting a total ban on education for women and girls.

Presenter Krupa Padhy
Producer Clare Walker.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001g9f4)
Spain's Flamenco on the Edge

To many of us, the passionate music and dance known as flamenco is an important marker of Spanish identity, and perhaps even synonymous with it. So much so, that UNESCO has recognised the art form as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Yet its place within the country of its birth is both more complicated – and more precarious - than this might suggest.

During the Covid lockdowns, a third of all flamenco venues closed down, and with many yet to reopen, training opportunities for new artists remain in short supply. The pandemic has also exacerbated the struggle of many singers and dancers to make ends meet. Meanwhile, to the outrage of purists, other practitioners see a future in fusing traditional flamenco with new, more commercially viable genres, such as pop and hip-hop. Still others see flamenco as a stereotype, and unhelpful to their country’s modern image.

For Crossing Continents, the BBC’s Madrid correspondent Guy Hedgecoe takes us on a colourful journey, reflecting on flamenco’s intriguing origins among the downtrodden folk culture of southern Spain, its difficult present, and its possibly uncertain future.

Presenter: Guy Hedgecoe
Producer: Mike Gallagher
Studio mix by: Rod Farquhar
Production coordinator: Iona Hammond
Series editor: Penny Murphy


THU 11:30 Moving Pictures (m0012qxq)
Mystic Nativity by Sandro Botticelli

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces, using your phone, tablet or computer.

Each 30-minute episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork - and you're invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity' is a Christmas card favourite... which is strange, because it's a painting about the end of the world. In the 1490s, Florence was in the grip of the puritanical preacher Girolamo Savonarola, who called on its citizens to throw their 'decadent' belongings on the Bonfire of the Vanities. Botticelli may well have seen his own paintings burn. Yet this cryptic Renaissance masterpiece contains clues that suggest the artist found hope in the friar's apocalyptic visions. A closer look at one of the most beautiful and deeply mysterious paintings in the National Gallery's collection.

To see the high-resolution image, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures and follow the link to explore 'Mystic Nativity'.

Interviewees: Jennifer Sliwka, Caroline Campbell, Leslie Primo and Jonathan Nelson.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian
Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Engineer: Mike Woolley

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.

Picture credit: NG1034: Sandro Botticelli, Mystic Nativity, about 1445–1510 (detail). © The National Gallery, London.


THU 12:00 News Summary (m001g9wp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The New Gurus (m001g9ws)
4. White Women's Tears

The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement brought renewed interest in corporate diversity gurus. But Regina Jackson and Saira Rao were ahead of the curve, pursuing their own unique anti-racist education programme.

Tired of talking to individual white women about their racism, they decided to invite a group of them for dinner, and confront them with their bias and bigotry. There was one rule - no crying.

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley
Story consultant: Geoff Bird
Original music composed by Paper Tiger
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0019kk3)
Massage Guns

Can massage guns from the likes of Theragun, Pulse Roll and others brands, help you warm up before exercise and recover more quickly after it?

Massage guns are one of the biggest-selling fitness devices of the past few years. They have a vibrating silicone head that delivers percussive pressure onto the muscle.

Manufacturers claim ‘vibration’ therapy increases bloodflow and helps the user warm up before exercise, perform better during it AND ease soreness afterwards. But does it?

Listener Clare got in touch after she bought one following a tip-off from a friend that they could help relieve aches and pains after a run (including a bad back) as well as her husband’s sore shoulder.

Greg Foot finds out if those claims are true by speaking to manufacturers, leading physiotherapists and scientists involved in the latest research.

This series, we’re testing your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there's any evidence to back up a claim drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban


THU 12:57 Weather (m001g9g5)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m001g9gf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


THU 13:45 Living with the News (m001fp79)
Oliver explores the impact of looking elsewhere for news. If you avoid the mainstream outlets how does that shape your view of the world and what's important.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m001g98c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (m001g9gq)
Christmas Wings

By Katie Redford

Joe and Fran, two primary school teachers, watch the nativity play from the wings. The kiss they shared at the Christmas party the night before is all they can think about. But between the nativity and the ever over-enthusiastic Miss Pear, any more moments alone will be gold dust.

Joe ..... Nikesh Patel
Fran ..... Fiona Button
Miss Pear ..... Joanna Monro

Directed by Tracey Neale

It’s December 22nd and the day of the school Nativity. Joe Needson is preparing his pupils for their “Christmas Extravaganza” with some strong words of encouragement. He tucks himself away in the wings, ready for the show to begin. However, sitting in the wings is his fellow teacher, Fran Rayner. She desperately needs a minute to escape and by being in the company of Mr Needson she finds 44 of them.

The night before was the staff Christmas party and due to cheap wine and cocktails and not enough Pringles to line their stomachs they shared a stolen kiss which neither of them can get out of their heads. When we meet them, it’s the first time they’ve spoken to one another since the night before. It's clear they have chemistry and as their conversation continues, we realise that both have troubles they are trying to cope with. Just when we think they might address the elephant in the room - that stolen kiss - Miss Pear, overly enthusiastic at the best of times, keeps interrupting at various moments throughout their heart to heart. The ringing bells on her Christmas wings giving advance warning.

During the nativity, we hear the gentle, heart-warming sounds of the children’s nativity as a backdrop for various revelations from both a woman who feels trapped and a man whose loneliness is palpable. But the expectation of Christmas is that we should all be happy. We cover up the dark days and nights with tinsel and fairy lights. But Christmas is also a magical time and will Joe and Fran address what happened at the staff party, or will Miss Pear put a stop to that?

The Writer:
Katie is a writer and actor from Nottingham. She is a BAFTA Rocliffe TV Comedy winner and was also part of the BBC Comedy Writersroom. Her short film ‘Ghosted’ starring Alison Steadman, which she wrote and produced, received the BFI Network award in association with Film Hub Midlands. She has various scripts in commissioned development for TV and is currently listed on the BBC New Talent Hot List. Yellow Lips, nominated for the Richard Imison Award at this year's Audio Drama Awards, was her debut drama for Radio 4.

Cast:
Nikesh Patel, The Devil's Hour (Amazon) and Starstruck (BBC/HBO) and has just completed filming on The Critic.
Fiona Button, Trying (Apple TV/BBC Studios) and Out of her Mind (BBC2) and The Split (BBC1)
Joanna Monro, Rosie in Mamma Mia (West End & International Tour) and Home Front (BBC Radio 4)

Production Team:
Tracey Neale (Producer & Director) Ben Holland (Production Co-Ordinator) and Cal Knightley, Peter Ringrose and Jenni Burnett (Technical Team)


THU 15:00 Open Country (m001g9gz)
St Just in Midwinter

Helen Mark tries to live in the moment at a deserted cliff edge chapel, hears carols that have deep ties to Cornwall's tin mining heritage, and comes face to face with hell's snarling jaws as she visits the town of St Just in Penwith.

In the heart of the town is the "plen-an-gwari", one of the last of the Cornish medieval amphitheatres built to host a sequence of religious mystery plays, the Ordinalia. Centuries after their suppression, the plays were revived in the 2000s as a community-wide venture that once again brought them, and the "plen", to the centre of community life. Helen meets Graham Jobbins, Mary Ann Bloomfield and Isobel Bloomfield, the family playing a central part in ensuring the tradition continues.

Out on the cliffs nearby, Kari Herbert leads Helen on a midwinter walk which uses the natural landscape of cliffs and sea to inspire a meditation on the turning of the year. And at the Miner's Chapel we hear how the tin mines which once dominated the area gave rise to a tradition of local carolling that survives to this day, with Alan Cargeeg and his fellow singers.

Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001g9sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m001g8nm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0dcngpx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001g9h7)
A Scientifically Superior Christmas Dinner

How many Scientists does it take to cook Christmas dinner? Marnie seeks help from a food scientist, a geneticist, a doctor and a botanist to create the perfect festive feast.


THU 17:00 PM (m001g9hf)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g9ht)
The Scottish Parliament has approved legislation which allows a self-identification system for people who want to change their legal gender.


THU 18:30 ReincarNathan (m001g9j0)
Series 3

Snowshoe Hare

Nathan Blakely was a popstar. But he was useless, died, and was reincarnated. The comedy about Nathan’s adventures in the afterlife returns for a third series, starring Daniel Rigby, Ashley McGuire and guest-starring Elis James as Gary Grape.

In the season finale, Nathan is brought back to life as a Showshoe Hare in the Rocky Mountains. And this time he’s got a friend - a hare called Gary Grape, a reincarnation of Nathan’s arch nemesis from his human days. Can Nathan get Gary to forgive him for being such a terrible human being and finally get to Elysium? Will he ever learn to do the right thing and make it back to human again?

Cast:
Ashley McGuire - Carol
Daniel Rigby – Nathan
Elis James – Gary Grape

Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker

Producer: Harriet Jaine

Sound: Jerry Peal

Music Composed by: Phil Lepherd

A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m001g9j8)
Who’s ready for a quick duet? Kate remembers Christmases past.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m001g9jj)
The Pale Blue Eye and Happy Valley reviewed, Artist Alexander Creswell

Critics Tim Robey and Rhianna Dhillon join Front Row to watch the murder-mystery gothic horror film The Pale Blue Eye, starring Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson and Harry Melling, as Edgar Allan Poe, and the return of Happy Valley starring Sarah Lancashire and written by Sally Wainwright for what will be its final series.

After the Windsor Castle fire in 1992, the artist Alexander Creswell was commissioned by the Queen to initially chart the destruction and five years later to capture the restoration of the castle. It was the only series of paintings that the Queen ever commissioned. Alexander Creswell reflects on the commission that led to him creating twenty-one watercolour paintings. The series is not currently on public display, but can be viewed on the Royal Collection Trust website.

Picture credit of Harry Melling and Lucy Boynton in The Pale Blue Eye: Scott Garfield/Netflix © 2022

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Sarah Johnson


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001g9jq)
Can we colonise the Moon?

The first mission in NASA’s Artemis space programme returned to Earth earlier this month, after a journey of over 1.3 million miles around the Moon and back. Over next few years NASA will launch Artemis missions two and three, with the help of the European and Japanese space agencies, as well as Elon Musk's Space X. The aim is eventually to build a permanent base for scientific - and possibly economic development - on the Moon.
Meanwhile, China is pursuing a lunar exploration programme of its own.
So why is the Moon back in fashion? And is the world in the grip of a new space race?

Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:
Rebecca Morelle, BBC Science Correspondent
John Zarnecki, Emeritus Professor of Space Sciences at the Open University
Jack Burns, Professor of Astrophysics and Professor of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder
Joanne Wheeler, Space Lawyer
Bleddyn Bowen, Associate Professor of International Relations, Space Policy/Warfare Expert, University of Leicester

Producers: Daniel Gordon, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter.
Editor: Simon Watts.
Studio Manager: Neil Churchill.
Production co-ordinator Sophie Hill.

PHOTO CREDIT: The launch of NASA's Artemis 1 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida (Getty Images)


THU 20:30 Only After Dark (m001g9k0)
At the Docks

The non stop 24/7 world of freight is an intrinsic part of our global economy with goods being moved around the world to satisfy the demands of the market place. At the Freightliner Terminal at Southampton Docks, the staff there work all through the night transferring shipping containers from huge ships onto trains which then take them to various parts of the UK. It's a strange and alien place poplulated by Sci-fi-esque machines, enormous cranes and powerful trains. But all operated by a loyal and committed group of people who take deep pride in the contribution they make to the smooth running of the daytime world. Dan Richards spends the night with the staff there and gets an insight into how our stuff gets to where it's meant to be.

Presented by Dan Richards
Produced in Aberdeen by Helen Needham
Mixed by Ron McCaskill
Original Music Composition by Anthony Cowie


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001g9h7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001g9cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001g9kd)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


THU 22:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001g9kl)
Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware

Miss Marple's Christmas (Part 1)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware
All Miss Marple wants for Christmas is a quiet, peaceful celebration. Accepting her friend Dolly Bantry's invitation to Gossington Hall puts paid to that. A crime will be committed and as the guest list grows, the mystery deepens.

Read by Georgie Glen
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Marking 45 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors who also happen to be Christie devotees.


THU 23:00 Michael Spicer: Before Next Door (m001g9kx)
Series 2

The Christmas Episode

It’s nearly Christmas 2019, so here’s our Yuletide special. Michael’s wife Roberta thinks he should stand up for himself for a change - which he does at first by stopping any attempts to make the episode excessively festive. But Michael fails to speak up when Josephine announces that a new dividing wall is being built in the office and, with resentment building, Michael’s new junior, Liam, plans to tear it down.

Roberta is hustling for media opportunities to plug Michael’s forthcoming live show. She wants it to become a full tour that catapults him into the category of ‘comedians who actually earn a living'. Michael is persuaded to do a radio panel discussion because childhood comedy hero, Sir Terry McVey, is taking part.

Sir Terry invites Michael to his festive bash which is a total let-down because of the ageing comedian’s anti-woke waffling. This presents Michael with another opportunity to put his foot down which he takes, ensuring a premature exit to a disastrous evening.

Cast: Michael Spicer with Ellie Taylor, Joanna Neary, Greig Johnson, Alison Ward, Jason Forbes, Jamie Borthwick, Peter Curran and Michael Fenton Stevens

Writer: Michael Spicer
Producer: Matt Tiller

A Starstruck and Tillervision production for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:30 You're Dead To Me (p07xl3bm)
The Victorian Christmas

Why do we celebrate Christmas with cards, crackers and a tree? Join us as we travel back and explore the weird and wonderful history of the Victorian Christmas.

Just who the Dickens had the idea to bring trees indoors? Can a soft-drinks firm really take credit for Father Christmas’s red suit? And why did the Victorians send each other such bizarre Christmas cards?

Greg Jenner is joined in the studio by historian Dr Fern Riddell and comedian Russell Kane.

Produced by Cornelius Mendez
Scripted and researched by Greg Jenner

A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4

FRIDAY 23 DECEMBER 2022

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001g9l4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g9lb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001g9lj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001g9lq)
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 (m001g9lv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001g9lz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001g9m3)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Rachel Mann

Good morning.

Today, on this last Friday before Christmas, I want to reflect on the power of waiting and expectation.

When I was a small child I wasn’t very good at it. Forty-plus years ago in the days before Christmas I would already be counting down the hours to the arrival of Santa. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the prospect of having a full stocking of goodies. My heart ached with expectation, catching glimpses of Santa Claus out of the corner of my eye as we prepared for the big day.

As an adult, I’m a little less naïve. I am more inclined to make harsh judgments about the commercial nature of Christmas. I fear that at times in my adult life I’m less like a person looking for the arrival of gifts and more like the Ice Queen in C.S.Lewis’s Narnia where ‘it is always winter but never Christmas.’

Of course, as a Christian, I want to be full of expectation. I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the weeks before Christmas are the season of Advent. It is a season of fasting and prayer, a preparation, not only for the celebration of Jesus’s birth at Christmas, but of his return at the end of time. It is a season full of waiting, expectation and hope.

Both the child and the adult versions of me share excitement and expectation about Christmas. If I no longer think Santa will bring me a longed-for gift, I wait excitedly for the feast of Jesus’ birth. I wait for peace on earth and goodwill to all. I think such things are worth waiting and longing for.

God of Peace, as Christmas nears, fill my heart with hope and may your world know the love which heals broken hearts.

Amen.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001g9m7)
Potatoes are being sold for less than it costs to produce them in some supermarkets as part of a Christmas promotion. Good news for consumers facing a cost of living crisis, but farmers fear it devalues the product.

And it really wouldn’t be a proper Christmas lunch without pigs in blankets, but the price of producing them is coming at a cost to the farmers themselves.

All this week we've been celebrating the work rural communities do to help their neighbours - today we're in the picturesque village of Great Rissington in the Cotswolds for a Christmas tree festival.

The government is to spend £5 billion on improving England's rivers over the next five years. The Environment Agency has announced eight River Basin Management Plans which will update existing plans and, it says, 'tackle the impacts of pollution and climate change'.

Campaigners point out there have been two sets of plans before this but currently only 16 per cent of England's rivers and lakes are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards, Charlotte talks to a campaigner from the Wildlife Trusts.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith
Producer: Alun Beach
Editor: Dimitri Houtart


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09jqxqp)
Alison Steadman - The Twelve Tweets of Christmas 6 of 12

During this season of goodwill our thoughts turn to crackling fires, being with the family and for many a song or a carol to bring merriment to the colder days. Tweet of the Day has been entertaining early morning listeners to the Radio 4 schedule every day since 2013, but this Christmas we will delight in an avian offering of the well known song the Twelve Days of Christmas.

As preparations for Christmas gather pace, what better for a true love than to supply a laying goose for the family table? Though six geese a-laying may be a gaggle too much in some households. As actress Alison Steadman discusses a strong contender for the goose-a-laying could well be the gregarious greylag goose, the wild ancestor of many a farmyard goose today.

Producer : Andrew Dawes
Photograph: John Dixon.


FRI 06:00 Today (m001g9k1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001g8m4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (m001g9kq)
5: Have a good time, darling

Lucy Worsley continues her biography of the extraordinary life of the 'Queen of Crime', Agatha Christie.

Born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do, Agatha Christie became the most prolific detective novelist during the Golden Age of detective fiction, and went on to become the best-selling author of all time.

Here Worsley paints a picture not only of an unlikely heroine, a pioneering and thoroughly modern woman, whose dazzling career included some of the greatest works of crime fiction, but also of a woman whose life was marked by significant losses and reversals of fortune, not to mention dark secrets and uncomfortable truths. From her idyllic Victorian childhood, to her rocky marriage, to her great literary successes with Poirot and Marple, to her mysterious and infamous disappearance at Harrogate, Worsley presents a life fascinating for its mysteries and passions.

Today: after great fame, Agatha finds a certain kind of freedom as she hits her sixties...

Read and written by: Lucy Worsley
Producer: Justine Willett
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Photographer: Robert Shiret


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001g9kp)
Janelle Monae; Zara Aleena's aunt - Farah Naz; Marathon runner Christine Hobson, folk singers Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones

Photo credit: John Wilson/Netflix

The Grammy nominated singer and actor Janelle Monae joins Krupa to discuss playing the role of Andi Brand in Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. They also discuss politics, including Janelle's thoughts on the rights of marginalised groups in the US as well as fashion and Janelle's love of dressing in the nude on holiday.

In the early hours of June 26 this year aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, 35, was sexually assaulted before she was killed by a man who had been released from prison less than two weeks before. She was attacked as she walked home from a night out along busy Cranbrook Road in Ilford, east London, an area she knew well and where she felt “safe”. Krupa speaks to Zara’s aunt – Farah Naz – about Zara, losing her and the family’s reaction to the murderer being allowed to stay in his cell rather than come to court to be sentenced last week.

Sixty nine year old Christine Hobson from West Yorkshire has become the oldest woman to complete the Antarctic Ice Marathon. Braving the extreme weather conditions with minus 50C temperatures, she completed the marathon last Wednesday in just eight hours and 33 minutes. She has also now achieved the incredible feat of having run 117 marathons on seven continents.

The fiddler and folk singer Bryony Griffith and singer, instrumentalist and percussive step dancer, Alice Jones are established solo artists at the heart of the UK folk scene. They have joined forces and earlier this year they released an album of Yorkshire songs and folklore: “A year too late and a month too soon” - which went to No.6 in Mojo folk albums of the year. They join Krupa Padhy live in the studio to discuss the tradition and to perform a Yorkshire Christmas song - Early Pearly, which they've recorded to raise funds for homeless charities.

Presented by Krupa Padhy
Producer: Louise Corley


FRI 11:00 The Truth about Jazz (w3ct43qq)
The voice of America

Clive Myrie hears more about how jazz was used as a form of 'soft power' by the American establishment, via Voice of America radio broadcasts beyond the Iron Curtain. The State department was persuaded to send America’s biggest stars overseas to promote US music, and the tours would bring jazz to new audiences all over the world. The programme looks at how Martin Luther King inspired jazz musicians in life and death Clive hears how a 16-year-old Danny Scher persuaded Thelonius Monk to play to a predominantly white audience at his high school in California in the late 60s.

Producers: Ashley Byrne and Wayne Wright.
The Truth About Jazz is a Made in Manchester Production and was originally produced for the BBC World Service


FRI 11:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m0012nt8)
Conversations from a Long Marriage at Christmas again

Once more, we are party to Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam’s Christmas plans, in Jan Etherington’s award-winning, two-hander comedy, produced by Claire Jones.

We join them as Joanna breathily compliments Roger - ‘How do you get it so perfect every time?’ His reply ‘Hot goose fat and regular tossing’ reveals that they are enjoying his signature roast potatoes. They’re spending a quiet Christmas with Peter and Sally but this snowballs into an extravagant houseparty when Peter is offered a rich friend’s country pile and invites other couples.

Their recently widowed friend, Marian, is anticipating her pregnant daughter, Rosie’s, arrival but as Rosie cancels and Peter changes the arrangements yet again, Joanna picks up a flyer which offers her and Roger ‘a kind and important Christmas, rather than a glitzy gorgefest’. Can they get back to a Christmas they actually want?

Starring Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam.
Written by Jan Etherington. Production co-ordinator Beverly Tagg.
Produced and directed by Claire Jones.
A BBC Studios Production.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001g9mj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Archive on 4 (m001g8fr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


FRI 12:57 Weather (m001g9ld)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m001g9ll)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.


FRI 13:45 Living with the News (m001fp7c)
So what’s the right balance if going cold turkey isn't the solution. For Oliver it's about being selective. Choose the issues you want to engage with and do something to move the needle. But understand it means your job then becomes not to engage with other problems. It's not being callous, it's about recognizing you're a finite human being in a world where bad news is infinite.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001g9j8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001g9lr)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Firewall

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Firewall, Episode 4

By James Swallow
Dramatised by Paul Cornell

Episode 4

A thrilling landmark adaptation set in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell universe. Veteran Fourth Echelon agent Sam Fisher, and his daughter Sarah, attempt to infiltrate Brody Teague's T-Tech building in Lisbon. Will they be fast enough to disrupt his destructive global plans?

Recorded in 3D binaural audio; please listen on headphones for a more immersive experience.

Sam Fisher ..... Andonis Anthony
Sarah Fisher ..... Daisy Head
Anna Grímsdóttir ..... Rosalie Craig
Charlie Cole ..... Sacha Dhawan
Brody Teague ..... Will Poulter
Samir Patel ..... Nikesh Patel
Stone ..... Mihai Arsene
Eighteen ..... Olga Fedori
First Pilot /Guard.....David Hounslow
Second Pilot /Guard ..... Roger Ringrose

Sound design by Sharon Hughes
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Series Co-Produced by Nadia Molinari, Lorna Newman, Jessica Mitic

A BBC Audio Drama North Production


FRI 14:45 Why Do We Do That? (m001g9lw)
Why Doesn't Everyone Clear Up?

It’s a familiar problem with any shared household - there’s always someone who doesn’t do their fair share. Studies have shown that when people with different thresholds live together, the person with the lower tolerance for mess cleans up more, quickly leading to resentment and conflict. So why do some people clean up more than others? What needs to happen for everyone to pull their weight? Evolutionary science has some answers. Ella Al-Shamahi speak to Dr Nicola Raihiani, Professor of Evolution and Behaviour from University College London, to find out about free riders, cheaters and public goods, and how evolutionary scientists view cooperation challenges. Great British Bake Off star Michael Chakraverty shares his own anecdotes of untidy flatmates and failed attempts to enhance cooperation.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001g9m0)
Norwich

Will dividing a large plant help bring it back to life? What’s the story behind the Norwegian spruce that each year adorns Trafalgar Square in London? And how do you encourage a cactus to flower?

Joining Kathy Clugston to solve your horticultural conundrums are grow-your-own expert Bob Flowerdew, designer Matthew Wilson and orchid enthusiast Anne Swithinbank.

Each year for 75 years the people of Norway have gifted the UK a large Christmas tree. Gardener Matt Biggs and GQT producer Dan Cocker head to Trafalgar Square to discover the origin story of this tradition. Sharing in the history are the UK Ambassador to Norway, Richard Wood, and Mayor of Oslo, Marianne Borgen. They also turn to expert Matthew Pottage for debunking what makes a “good tree”.

Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Aniya Das
Executive Producer: Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001g9m4)
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

In Susanna Clarke's specially commissioned wintry short story, the award-winning writer takes us back to the nineteenth century and introduces us to Merowdis who seeks answers when she enters hallowed woodland with her dearest friends. Sophie McShera reads.

Susanna Clarke won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2020 with her second novel, Piranesi. She is well known for her novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which was adapted for BBC television in a major production, and her short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu.

Produced by Elizabeth Allard


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001g9m8)
Victor Lewis-Smith, Maureen Doherty, Pablo Milanés, Ailsa Irving

Matthew Bannister on

The columnist, broadcaster, producer, musician and outrageous hoaxer Victor Lewis-Smith (pictured).

Maureen Doherty, the designer who worked with Issey Miyake and founded the influential fashion brand Egg. Edmund de Waal pays tribute.

Pablo Milanés, the Cuban musician who was one of the founders of the nueva trova singer/songwriter movement.

Ailsa Irving, who started and ran the UK Endometriosis Society after a long battle to get her own symptoms diagnosed.

Producer: Neil George

Interviewed guest: Graham Pass
Interviewed guest: Edmund de Waal
Interviewed guest: Robin Denselow
Interviewed guest: Rob Irving
Interviewed guest: Emma Cox

Archive clips used: BBC Two, Inside Victor Lewis-Smith 06/12/1993; YouTube, Opera Spoof by Victor Lewis-Smith; BBC Radio 4, You and Yours - the revival of Brylcreem 02/12/1985; BBC Radio 4, Midweek 21/05/1986; BBC Radio 4 Extra, Victor Lewis-Smith s1e08, 05/10/2017; Associated Rediffusion Productions Ltd/ Victor Lewis-Smith, Mary Whitehouse Sketch; YouTube, Victor Lewis-Smith - BBC Reception General Pinochet Prank Call; BBC Radio 4, Loose Ends - Victor Lewis-Smith 01/01/1987; BBC Radio 1, Victor Lewis-Smith Christmas Message, 26/12/1989; YouTube/ CriticalPast channel, Fidel Castro and his army fight against Batista's forces 12/06/2014; Juan Pil Vila, Pablo Milanés documentary (2017).


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001g9mb)
Listeners get the chance to speak directly to the Radio 4 Controller, Mohit Bakaya, as he joins Andrea Catherwood to answer questions and comments from the audience.

We hear about your highlights and lowlights over the past year and we get a sneak peak at Mohit's plans for Radio 4 in 2023.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood

Produced by Gill Davies

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 17:00 PM (m001g9md)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001g9mm)
Nurses in England say they will go on strike at more hospitals next month, if the government refuses to enter talks about pay. Nurses are also set to walk out in Scotland.


FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m001g9mp)
Christmas Specials 2022

Episode 3

Could Theresa May make a comeback? Who could be Twitter’s new CEO? And what will King Charles say in his first Christmas message? All these questions are answered in the final Dead Ringers of the year.

Performed by Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Naomi McDonald and Anil Desai

Written by Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Sarah Campbell, Tom Coles and Ed Amsden, Edward Tew, Cody Dahler, Robert Darke, Sophie Dickson, Katie Sayer.

Produced and created by Bill Dare.
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001g9mr)
Writer, Naylah Ahmed
Director, Peter Leslie Wild
Editor, Jeremy Howe

Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin
Rex Fairbrother ….. Nick Barber
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy ….. Angus Stobie
Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables
Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery
Lily Pargetter …. Katie Redford
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
Adil Shah ….. Ronny Jhutti
Choir singers ..... Members of the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001g9mt)
Christmas TV traditions

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how a couple of Christmas TV traditions have developed over the years - the made-for-TV Christmas romcom and the festive ghost story.

Inspired by The Hallmark Channel's first ever gay Christmas film, Ellen speaks to made-for-TV film aficionado Linda Holmes. They discuss what The Hallmark Channel is and why it has taken until 2022 for the channel to feature a gay lead in one of its films. Ellen also speaks to critic Caspar Salmon about what the recent increase in queer Christmas romcoms might mean for LGBT+ audiences.

And Mark explores how the ghost story became a British TV Christmas staple, talking to writer and director Mark Gatiss about the 1968 film Whistle and I'll Come to You, which inspired the A Ghost Story for Christmas series, continued by Gatiss to this day. Mark then speaks to composer Rachel Portman about her score for the chilling 1989 ITV adaptation of Dame Susan Hill's The Women in Black.

And Tangerine and Red Rocket director Sean Baker shares what he'll be watching this festive season.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 News Review of the Year (m001gc24)
2022

It's been a momentous year, with news that we had hoped to never hear again: war in Europe, double-digit inflation, a crash of the pound. There's been unprecedented political turmoil with three Prime Ministers: Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.
And an era has come to an end: after celebrating a unique 70 years on the throne, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, and was succeeded by her son, King Charles III.
There's been joy, too. England's Lionesses won the European football championships, putting an end to decades of wait and heartache. And while the men didn't "bring it home", both the England and Wales teams delighted their fans during the World Cup in Qatar.

Adam Fleming is joined by four senior BBC journalists to look back over an extraordinary year of news: Political Editor Chris Mason, Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet, Technology Editor Zoe Kleinman and Newsnight's Economics Editor Ben Chu.

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Matt Toulson
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples
Sound: Mike Regaard (recording) and Neil Churchill (mix)
Editor: Lizzi Watson


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001g9mw)
Turf, Babe and Me

John Connell looks forward to becoming a father for the first time, with the help of three poets: Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin.

As he collects the turf and attends to his organic farm, he ponders what of this he'll pass onto his child.

And he wonders if his new son or daughter will have any truck with Heaney's 'cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap of soggy peat'.

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


FRI 21:00 Neil Gaiman and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (m000cl2r)
Playing in the Dark (Part 1)

Neil Gaiman is one of the great storytellers of our time, his work loved by fans of all ages in books, films, on TV and in the theatre.

In this first part of a very special concert (the second part is broadcast on New Years's Day), he joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mihhail Gerts, for a walk on the dark side, reading from his best-selling books, weaving together his dystopian visions with music to thrill and excite the senses.

He is joined on stage by Amanda Palmer who reads Gaiman's poem The Mushroom Hunters and Simon Butteriss for a stunning rendition of The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe.

This is an edited version of the full concert, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 23 December 2019.

All written works: Neil Gaiman
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mihhail Gerts
Producer for BBC Radio 4: Steve Doherty
Producer for BBC Symphony Orchestra: Ann McKay
General manager, BBC Symphony Orchestra: Paul Hughes

A Giddy Goat and BBC Symphony Orchestra production for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4

Music played in part one of the concert:
ARNOLD: Good Omens (Opening Titles)
GILBERT/SULLIVAN: The Nightmare Song from Iolanthe
BISCHOFF: Underscore to The Mushroom Hunters
SIBELIUS: Valse Triste
DUKAS: The Sorcerer's Apprentice


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001g9my)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001g9n0)
Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware

Miss Marple's Christmas (Part 2)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware
St Mary Mead's most insightful resident is visiting her friend Dolly Bantry for a traditional Christmas celebration, with nephew Raymond and his wife in tow. As the motley collection of guests get to know each other, the festive peace at Gossington Hall is about to be shattered.

Read by Georgie Glen
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Marking 45 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors who also happen to be Christie devotees.


FRI 23:00 Uncanny (m001g9n2)
Christmas Special

It’s the season for ghost stories, and Danny Robins is back with another real-life tale of the paranormal in this special Uncanny episode that sees a family Christmas turned upside down.

A young child and his mother share a council house in a Scottish village, but as objects start to inexplicably move they get the feeling that they are not alone. Who is the mysterious presence haunting their dreams? The roots of the answer lie in something that happened years before and is utterly terrifying...

Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editor and Sound Designer: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Lanterns on the Lake
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 23:30 Great Lives (m001g8sz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]