SATURDAY 06 MAY 2023
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001ljwc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Among Others by Michael Frayn (m001ljwd)
Episode 5
A five-part adaptation of Michael Frayn's new autobiography, Among Others.
Michael’s acquaintances haven’t always been other people. How has he got along with his own body over the years? He examines the person he’s known best and longest in his life. Himself.
In these forensic, often comic revelations he assesses himself not as a person, but as a physical object. A Mantower - looking down from a hundred floors up. Closest acquaintance of all, his own body, a companion on life's road at least as idiosyncratic and puzzling as everyone and everything around it. With his inimitable brand of humorous philosophy, Frayn comes to some surprising conclusions.
The reader, Martin Jarvis, is a long-term collaborator with Michael Frayn on BBC programmes, including Magic Mobile, Pocket Playhouse, Matchbox Theatre, Speak After the Beep and Jarvis’s Frayn.
Author: Michael Frayn
Reader: Martin Jarvis
Music: A-Mnemonic
Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001ljwm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001ljwr)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001ljwt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001ljww)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001ljwy)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster Anna Magnusson.
SAT 05:45 Please Protect Abraham (m001g2xz)
6. The Parcel
Abraham returns to Hackney, but a series of events that begin with an innocuous delivery lead him to believe that his true identity has been revealed. The family are desperate to leave the area.
Presenter and Original Research: Sam Holder
Series Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Story Consultant: Robert Awosusi
Additional Research: Christy Callaway-Gale
Theme music written and performed by Rebekah Reid and Tapp Collective.
Original music compositions by Femi Oriogun-Williams
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001lqkm)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001ljj7)
Rhondda valley: a landscape of change
The landscape of south Wales has been shaped and defined by coal. In this programme, Helen Mark explores the Rhondda valley – finding out about is history and asking what its future may look like, now the heavy industry has gone. She visits a disused railway tunnel which once carried coal from the mines to the port of Swansea, but which has been closed and sealed off for decades. Now a group of enthusiasts is campaigning to re-open the tunnel as a tourist attraction. They have ambitions plans for it to become the longest cycling tunnel in Europe, with hopes that it could also function as an exhibition space, miniature concert hall and even a wedding venue. Helen puts on her safety helmet and is lowered down through a shaft into the tunnel, to see for herself how the structures of the past could take on a new life in the future.
Produced by Emma Campbell
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001lqkr)
06/05/23 Farming Today This Week: Beef and climate, horticulture strategy scrapped by Government
The Climate Change Committee, the independent body which advises all of the UK governments on climate change, says that to meet targets on lowering emissions, we need to eat and farm less beef.
We hear how researchers and farmers have been working to reduce the carbon footprint of beef.
There will not be a government horticulture strategy in England. One was promised last June as part of the Government Food Strategy, which committed to developing a 'world-leading horticulture strategy for England’. But despite recent shortages of some vegetables in the supermarkets, this week the Farming Minister confirmed it would "not be developing a published strategy...as originally envisaged".
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001lqkt)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001lqkw)
Join Mishal Husain live outside Westminster Abbey ahead of the Coronation of King Charles III. Mishal will be speaking to the historian Sir Simon Schama, hearing Mary Berry's reflections on the late Queen's Coronation and she'll be speaking to the campaign group Republic.
Amol Rajan will be joined by the BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason to look at the local elections results.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001lqky)
AJ Pearce, Ian Holloway, Magdalena Osinska, Douglas Stuart
Bestselling novelist AJ Pearce, whose work has been inspired by a personal collection of women’s magazines and journals dating back to 1761! Her new book, "Mrs Porter Calling", is the third in her Emmy Lake Chronicles, set in London during The Second World War.
Ian Holloway, the celebrated football manager and pundit, whose post-match interviews do wonders for the English language, reveals what it was like balancing the abuse he received on the pitch with coming to terms with raising three children who were born profoundly deaf.
The next big thing from Aardman Animations, Magdalena Osinska, charts how her journey from Warsaw to Bristol has led her to writing and directing her very own stop-motion Star Wars film - "I Am Your Mother".
The Booker Prize winning author Douglas Stuart shares his Inheritance Tracks.
Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Peter Curran
Producer: Ben Mitchell
SAT 10:00 The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla (m001lql0)
Full coverage of the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla, including the service at Westminster Abbey and ceremonial processions.
SAT 14:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m0017k9j)
Bee Brain Intellect
Dr Erica McAlister of London's Natural History Museum takes a look at some of the entomological pioneers, whose groundbreaking observations and experiments have led to some truly innovative developments.
Bees may have tiny brains, but they are surprisingly clever. They can learn from their environment to gain a reward, and then teach other bees to do the same. Dr Erica McAlister examines the pioneering work of African American biologist and civil rights activist Charles Henry Turner, who during the early 20th century conducted painstaking research into honeybee foraging, orientation and intelligence. His long overlooked work has led modern day researchers to question whether bigger brains are always better.
With contributions from Dr Jessica Ware, entomologist, (American Museum of Natural History), Prof Martin Giurfa neurobiologist, (Centre de Biologie Intégrative de Toulouse), Prof,.Lars Chittka zoologist (Queen Mary, University of London), engineer Farrell Helbling, (Cornell University)
Producer Adrian Washbourne
SAT 15:00 Drama (m0011bxm)
In the Shadow of Man
In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall, first published in 1971, is the seminal account of Jane’s first ten years with the chimpanzees of Gombe. Her revelatory observation in 1960 that chimpanzees make and use tools forever redefined our understanding of the relationship between humans and other animals. The drama starring Jeany Spark, by award-winning playwright Sarah Woods, takes us deep into the Tanzanian forests with Jane, telling us of the remarkable discoveries she made as she came to know the chimps and they came to know her. A conversation between Sarah and Jane weaves through the drama, as Jane reflects on the past, the present - and the future. Today Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, is Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a UN Messenger of Peace.
Young Jane.....Jeany Spark
Vanne.....Marilyn Le Conte
Rashidi.....John Kamau
Hugo.....Geoffrey Breton
Dominic.....Ery Nzaramba
David.....Sam Dale
Production co-ordinator.....Lindsay Rees
Sound design..... Nigel Lewis
Director.....Emma Harding
Producer.....James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales production for BBC Radio 4.
Photo of Jane Goodall in Gombe by Hugo van Lawick
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001lql4)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Maternal mental health; Actors Laura Dern and Diane Ladd & Comedy drama Black Ops
An estimated one in five new and expectant mums develop perinatal mental illnesses such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists. While every pregnant woman should be screened for mental health issues at their 10-week antenatal appointment, new data from NHS England shows one in six NHS Trusts are struggling to report if they are following the clinical guidelines. We hear from the Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist Dr Trudi Seneviratne and Hayley Johnson a mum of two who experienced debilitating anxiety after the birth of her second child.
When Sheilagh Matheson and her husband offered to house a mother and her daughters fleeing from Ukraine little did she know that the girls were musical prodigies and that their music would stop passers-by in the street. Sheilagh and 17-year-old Khrystyna tell us their story.
The book ‘Honey, Baby, Mine’ is a new joint project of mother/daughter actors Diane Ladd, and Laura Dern Working. It's based on a series of walks and talks taken when about four years ago Diane faced a serious threat to her health.
Why does rejection hurt so much? The writer Kate Wills tells us about how her fear of rejection has held her back in life, and an experiment she did to try and cure it. Plus we hear from the Chartered psychologist Fiona Murden.
The new BBC comedy drama Black Ops centres around Dom and Kay, two Police Community Support Officers in East London who join the Metropolitan police in the hope of cleaning up their neighbourhood. Instead they find themselves working undercover to infiltrate a criminal gang. We hear from its star, Gbemisola Ikumelo,
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Beverley Purcell
SAT 17:00 PM (m001lql6)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 The Week in Westminster (m001lql2)
Anne McElvoy analyses the results of the local elections - and their potential impact on politics at Westminster - with a panel of journalists: Harry Cole, political editor of The Sun; George Parker from the Financial Times; and Sonia Sodha - columnist at The Observer.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001lql8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001lqlb)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lqld)
Charles the Third has been crowned King.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001lqlg)
Richard E. Grant, Sandie Shaw, Emer Kenny, Bishi, LA Priest, Operation Mincemeat the Musical, YolanDa Brown, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and YolanDa Brown are joined by Richard E. Grant, Sandie Shaw, Emer Kenny and Bishi for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from LA Priest and Operation Mincemeat the Musical.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m001lqlj)
Pretty Yende
South African opera star Pretty Yende is performing her biggest gig yet at the Coronation. She was personally selected by the King to sing at the service in Westminster Abbey.
Growing up in the small rural town of Mpumalanga, Yende’s passion for opera began when she saw a British Airways advertisement featuring the Flower Duet by Delibes. She asked her teacher about it, who advised her to join the school choir.
Abandoning her initial plans to become an accountant, Pretty Yende went on to study at La Scala in Milan before making her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in 2013, in the role of Adèle in Rossini's Le Comte Ory. A last-minute substitute, Yende had only weeks to prepare for the part. She tripped as she went out on stage, but picked herself up and carried on, going on to receive a standing ovation.
Mark Coles talks to family and friends about one of the rising stars of opera.
Credits:
Title: I Feel Pretty (from the musical West Side Story)
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Music by Leonard Bernstein.
Presenter: Mark Coles
Production Team: Georgia Coan, Julie Ball, Osman Iqbal
Editor: Simon Watts
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production Co-ordinator: Sabine Schereck
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001lqll)
Baaba Maal
Now one of West Africa’s most internationally acclaimed musicians, Baaba Maal trained at a Paris conservatoire and went on to become a kind of musical ambassador, taking stories of his homeland all around the world. He has collaborated with Brian Eno and film composer Hans Zimmer, recorded an album with Mumford and Sons, and was a key member of the Africa Express touring project led by Damon Albarn. A festival favourite, Baaba Maal has energized crowds at Glastonbury and the BBC Proms alike. More recently, Marvel fans know him as the voice of Wakanda, having sung on the Black Panther movie soundtracks.
Baaba Maal talks about his early life in Senegal where, as the son of a fisherman, he wasn’t expected to become a singer. He discusses the role of the griot in Senegalese storytelling and musical culture. He recalls early song-gathering trips around West Africa with his friend and collaborator Mansour Seck, his formal musical training in Paris, the powerful voice of Senegalese singer Sory Kandia Kouyaté, and meeting Nelson Mandela.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m000vwtl)
What’s Going On Now?
Fifty years ago, Motown legend Marvin Gaye released What's Going On - a landmark album that forever changed the sound and subject matter of popular music.
Emeli Sande explains why the album still has relevance and resonance in the 21st century, both musically and politically - an enduring art form that continues to make a statement on behalf of a disenfranchised generation.
The programme combines archive interviews with Motown legends who worked with Marvin Gaye, including Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Lamont Dozier and Mary Wilson, with contributions from artists inspired by his masterpiece, such as Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Lionel Richie, Nitin Sawhney, Seal and Corinne Bailey Rae,
There's no contemporary piece of music or art which does more to reflect the emotions and situation of a generation with as much clarity and power as What's Going On and, five decades after its release, Marvin Gaye's opus remains one of the most acclaimed and influential albums recorded.
A Zinc Media production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (b0b89kbz)
Series 4
04/07/2018
It's the 1980s and Brian Oldman is back in jail for a crime he didn't commit. He suspects, but cannot prove, that Joseph Oldman, now Joseph Olinska MP, was the perpetrator.
GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's a tale revealing the nexus of crime, business and politics woven through the fabric of 20th century greed as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.
Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending both Lord Goodman and Margaret Thatcher.
The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 21:45 From Fact to Fiction (m001ljv4)
Coronation Chicken by Ben Cottam
It's not every day a chicken appears on your doorstep. And if you're not local, you might wonder where it's come from. Is it a fugitive seeking shelter, or a sort of monster, a so-called frankenchicken, that seems to be growing exponentially?
And why doesn't Laura seem to care?
Ben Cottam's work for radio includes the drama series THE LATVIAN LOCUM, the sitcom PLUM HOUSE, as well as the ghost stories THE RECEIVER OF WRECK and THE SIGNALMAN. He has written and presented documentaries and features for BBC Radio 3 such as CAVE LIFE FOR BEGINNERS and WALKING THE CAUSEWAYS. He is currently adapting Powell & Pressburger's classic film A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH as a two-part audio drama, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 later in 2023.
Writer...Ben Cottam
Reader...Tim Downie
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery
SAT 22:00 News (m001lqln)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Bringing Up Britain (m001ljl8)
Series 16
Friend or Parent
With the emergence of different parenting styles like attachment parenting and free-range parenting, the line between being a parent and a friend is becoming increasingly blurred.
Some parents think being a friend to their child will make parenting easier, that the child is more likely to do what they want because they are friends. Others believe this strategy will confuse the child and that children need firm boundaries.
Angela Mutanda explores some key questions: how do I find the right balance between parenting and friendship when it comes to my child? Will being a friend to my child make parenting easier? What are the dangers of being a friend to my child rather than a parent?
She meets a mum-of-two, a 14-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son, who is struggling to find the best way to parent each one and looking for advice from the experts.
The Guests:
Catherine Hallissey, chartered psychologist based in Ireland
Jennifer Symonds, Associate Professor of Education, University College Dublin
Alun Ebenezer, founding headmaster of Fulham Boys School, London
Jenny Warwick, BACP registered counsellor in Sussex.
Producer: Mohini Patel
SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (m001lj7v)
Programme 4, 2023
(4/12)
Why might going on location help you move towards an order of chivalry, a reward for extreme sycophancy and a public body that caused a fuss for Truss?
A question like this can surely only belong on Round Britain Quiz, and host Kirsty Lang will be hoping the panellists from the Midlands and Northern Ireland can tackle it with their usual flair. Frankie Fanko and Stephen Maddock are the regular Midlands team, looking for their first win of the series, while Paddy Duffy and Freya McClements of Northern Ireland will aim to notch up another victory after they beat Wales last week.
As usual, several of the questions have been suggested by Round Britain Quiz listeners, and Kirsty will also be supplying the solution to the teaser she left unanswered at the end of the previous show.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Uncanny (m001lqlq)
S2. Case 5: Uncanny Live at UncannyCon
Danny is joined by actor and presenter Laura Whitmore and Uncanny expert Ciaran O'Keeffe to discuss some brand-new listener cases, recorded live at the first-ever Uncanny Fan Convention, a day-long festival devoted to all things supernatural.
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editor and Sound Designer: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Lanterns on the Lake
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 07 MAY 2023
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001lqls)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Revolutionary Letters (m001lj0f)
Like a match struck in the darkness, the poet Diane di Prima's Revolutionary Letters offer a practical guide to revolution in the face of social injustice and environmental collapse.
"In the New York of the 1950s, where I came of age as a poet, one wrote one's dreams, but didn't try to make them happen. To bring about what could be..."
A prolific writer, scholar and teacher, Diane di Prima's work dances across forms and approaches. Often associated with the writers of the Beat Generation (her good friend Allen Ginsberg called her "a genius" who was "heroic in life and poetics"), she fiercely resisted being labelled as part of the movement unless its definition could be expanded - extending through time to include writers like Baudelaire and other poets who had set up camp to live outside of the dominant culture. By the end of the '60s she had moved to San Francisco, "to take a shot at creating the world as we dreamed it".
Her Revolutionary Letters were a series of poems designed to hold their own when shouted on marches, at demonstrations or from the steps of City Hall, like a set of incantations for transforming yourself and the world around you.
"The only war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it..." - Rant, Revolutionary Letter no. 75
In this documentary, we hear from the writers Eileen Myles, Chris Kraus and the poet laureate of San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin. Alongside Diane's daughter Dominique DiPrima, her widower Sheppard Powell and her assistant of 17 years, the poet Sara Larsen. Featuring archive from the Gloucester Writers Center and her inaugural address, titled Poetry as Spiritual Practice, from the San Francisco Public Library.
Photo credit: Sheppard Powell
Original music composed by Phil Smith
Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lqlv)
The latest shipping forecast
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lqlx)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lqlz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001lqm1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001lqm3)
Westminster Abbey
Bells on Sunday comes from Westminster Abbey where the coronation of His Majesty King Charles the third took place, the 40th reigning monarch to be crowned at Westminster since William the Conqueror in 1066. The first recorded information concerning Abbey bells was an instruction in 1250 to an Edward of Westminster to make for the Abbey a bigger bell than any of those he had made previously. Today the Abbey has ten bells cast in 1971 by the Whitechapel Foundry with a tenor bell weighing thirty and a quarter hundredweight tuned to D. We hear the bells ringing Stedman Caters.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m001lqlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001lr1n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m001lr1y)
Something Understood - a meditative reflection, illustrated with readings and music.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001lr26)
A Batch Made in Heaven
Ruth Sanderson meets the baker and farmer working together to make better bread. Andrew Whitley is a bread campaigner. His aim is to encourage and educate consumers, in order to get people making and eating the best possible bread they can - bread that’s delicious, nutritious and inexpensive to bake. Andrew has teamed up with Sam Parsons, farm manager of the Balcaskie Estate in Fife in order to grow grain packed with nutrients, which will be milled on the estate into flour. Currently Scotland grows very little grain which is destined for baking - Andrew and Sam are seeking to change that. Is theirs a batch made in heaven?
Produced and presented by Ruth Sanderson
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001lr2c)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001lr2j)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001lr2n)
Coronation composer, Shamanism in the UK, Toy ducks in the baptismal font
Roxanna Panufnik is one of 12 composers asked by the King to write an original work for the Coronation. In doing so, she follows in the footsteps of the likes of Purcell, Handel, Parry and Elgar. She tells William Crawley about her choral setting of the ‘Sanctus’, based on a text from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The last census revealed a sharp increase in the number of British people who claim to follow Shamanism. This has prompted concerns from experienced practitioners that their ancient beliefs are being appropriated by those whose motives are not purely spiritual. Amber Haque has been to Glastonbury to find out more about the practice of Shamanism in the UK.
It's being called “duckgate”. One vicar caused a storm on Twitter after posting a picture of a toy rubber duck in the font when she was baptising a baby. The Reverend Lex Bradley-Stow wanted to make the child feel at ease, while traditionalists have responded by saying it trivialises the sacrament. Let us know your thoughts by emailing Sunday@bbc.co.uk, or Tweeting us @BBCR4Sunday.
Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Dan Tierney and Bara'atu Ibrahim
Editor: Helen Grady.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001lr2s)
R4 Appeal Fund
Television and radio presenter Nikki Bedi makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the Radio 4 Appeal Fund.
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 ‘Radio 4 Appeal Fund’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Radio 4 Appeal Fund’.
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: 327489
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001lr2x)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001lr31)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001lr35)
Called to Serve
Yesterday King Charles III was crowned in Westminster Abbey. One of the major themes of the Coronation has been service of others. In this act of worship from Newcastle Cathedral the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley reflects how themes of Christian service are earthed in the bible and in her local community.
Leaders: the Dean of Newcastle, Dr Jane Hedges with Canon Clare MacLaren (Precentor). Director of Music: Ian Roberts; Organist: Kris Thomsett; Producer: Philip Billson
Teach me, my God and King (Sandys); Psalm 121 (Fisher); Mark
10:35-37 & 41-44; Jubilate in Bb (Stanford); 1 John
3:16-23; Brother, sister, let me serve you (All for Jesus); Behold O God our defender (Scott); Longing for light, we wait in darkness (Bernadette Farrell).
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001ljw0)
On Ascent
The coronation in 1953, which heralded a new Elizabethan age, was accompanied by that most famous of mountaineering exploits - the conquering of Mount Everest.
'This weekend,' writes Sara Wheeler, 'we are not, perhaps regrettably, expecting celebratory rocket-runners from Mars announcing touchdown on the red planet.'
But, Sara suggests, the new Carolean age should be about collective effort rather than focussed on individual achievement.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx91j)
Tree Sparrow
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Tree Sparrow. With its russet cap, white cheeks and smarter appearance, the tree sparrow looks like a freshly-scrubbed house sparrow. Unlike house sparrows whose sexes look very different, the male and female tree sparrows are identical.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001lr39)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme presented by Paddy O'Connell
Reaction to the King's coronation.
Paper review with guests, Adjoa Ando, Lucy Fisher and Simon Heffer.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001lr3f)
Writer, Caroline Harrington
Director, Rosemary Watts
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee
Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley
Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Sykesy ….. Jasper Carrott
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001lr3k)
Professor Peter Hennessy, historian
Professor Peter Hennessy is one of the UK’s leading contemporary historians. He has written acclaimed and important books about politics, the civil service, the intelligence agencies and the British constitution on which he is an expert.
Peter was born in London in 1947 and read history at St John’s College, Cambridge. He started writing for the Times in the mid-1970s, covering the inner workings of Whitehall whose activities at that time were shrouded in secrecy. Peter says he approached his journalism like an amateur anthropologist trying to discover more about an unknown culture. His reports were viewed with suspicion by some members of the civil service and Harold Wilson, the then prime minister, issued an edit banning them from talking to him.
In 1986 Peter co-founded the Institute of Contemporary British History, and in 1992 he moved from journalism to academia at Queen Mary, University of London where he is Attlee professor of contemporary British history. He is a fellow of the British Academy and was made a crossbench life peer in 2010. During the COVID-19 pandemic he started keeping a diary which he describes as an “aid to humility” with the aim of assessing post-world war history as BC (Before Covid) or AC (After Covid).
Peter lives in London with his wife Enid.
DISC ONE: Slow Train - Flanders & Swann
DISC TWO: Italian Concerto in F, BWV 971, composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by George Malcolm
DISC THREE: Why Don’t Women Like Me? - George Formby
DISC FOUR: Schubert String Quintet In C Major,D. 956 - 2. Adagio, composed by Franz Schubert, performed by Robert Cohen (cello) and Amadeus Quartet
DISC FIVE: The Elements - Tom Lehrer
DISC SIX: London Girls - Chas & Dave
DISC SEVEN: Skye Boat Song - The Pipes and Drums Of Leanisch
DISC EIGHT: How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place, composed by Johannes Brahms, performed by Festival Choir And Orchestra, conducted by Thomas D. Rossin
BOOK CHOICE: Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes
LUXURY ITEM: A fountain pen, ink and paper
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: London Girls - Chas & Dave
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001lr3p)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m001lj86)
Series 91
5. Humble Pie, Nuns and Dry Shampoo
Sue Perkins challenges Gyles Brandreth, Jan Ravens, Tony Hawks and Rachel Parris to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.
The long-running Radio 4 national treasure of a parlour game is back for a new series with subjects this week ranging from Humble Pie to Dry Shampoo.
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
A BBC Studios Production
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001lqtz)
Coronation 2023 – How is Food Bringing us Together?
As people around the country gather to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, Jaega Wise finds out how food is bringing communities together. Jaega joins a community lunch in Kidlington, run by the Cherwell Collective, to talk to its founder, Emily Connally, about their coronation lunch. She also asks Lucy Scott of the pay-as-you-can bakery Lil’s Parlour in Birmingham, all about why she wanted to bring her community together around food to celebrate the big day.
Also in the programme, food historian, Polly Russell, discusses how food has been used to mark coronations from the 1500s to today, and chef Ken Hom talks us through the inspiration for his coronation lamb dish.
Presented by Jaega Wise and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001lr3x)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001lr43)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Hear My Voice (m001l28j)
Hannah Conway is an award-winning composer who has turned her energies towards giving a platform to people who have lost their voice. In some cases the loss is dramatic, from the necessary removal of their larynx, and in others gradual through illnesses like Parkinson's or Motor Neurone Disease. Hannah talks about how she and her collaborators who have a lived experience of voice loss, come together to create songs and installations which allow the rest of us to understand why the voice matters so much, how it defines our personality, and how even without it, musical expression is both possible and powerful.
In the course of the programme we meet Tanja Bage, who had her voice box removed within a week of being diagnosed with throat cancer, and Paul Jameson whose voice deteriorated more gradually as a result of his MND (Motor Neurone Disease). Both Paul and Tanja worked with Hannah and her colleague Hazel Gould to come up with lyrics and music that combined their voices with those of trained singers. The resulting duets, with the relationship between the two voices and the words garnered from several hours of conversation, make for intensely intimate chamber songs.
Hannah has also worked her music into installations, with a new project to have them running in four hospitals across the UK. The Willow Tree project will continue another element of the SoundVoice project, and that is the way the medical professionals involved in voice and automated voice recovery have been closely involved with both patients and artists. The result, as explained by Martin Birchall, Professor of laryngology at UCL, is that research into improvements in voice technology has been given a powerful insight into what it is that those with voice loss want and need most from whatever speech capacity is available to them.
Producer: Tom Alban
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001ljv0)
Worcester
Why haven’t my apple trees come to blossom? Which flowering plants can I grow in clay soil? Are bug hotels beneficial?
From diseases to daffodils, the sprightly GQT squad are prepped to provide all their green-fingered guidance from Worcester. Raring to expunge a multitude of wilt-induced worries are RHS Wisley whiz Matthew Pottage, passionate plantsman Matthew Biggs, and ardent landscape architect Bunny Guinness.
Also, GQT regular Juliet Sargeant encourages us to step-over the hurdle of windy weather conditions with a masterclass on growing stepover apple trees.
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Producer: Daniel Cocker
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001lr47)
Anna Karenina - Episode 2
The series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work. John Yorke explores the themes at the heart of Leo Tolstoy’s great nineteenth century novel, Anna Karenina.
In the second of three episodes, John looks at the secondary great love story in the novel, that of Kitty and Levin, and how it is built into and reflects the structure of the story. As Anna and Vronksy’s affair plays out under the disapproving gaze of St Petersburg society, Levin and Kitty take a different path to happiness, seeking meaning and fulfilment within the boundaries of convention.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday/Saturday Drama series.
From EastEnders to the Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods.
As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy, John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.
Contributors:
Rosamund Bartlett, Tolstoy biographer and translator of new Oxford World Classics edition of Anna Karenina.
Dr. Sarah Hudspith, Associate Professor in Russian at the University of Leeds
Linda Marshall-Griffiths, writer and adapter of new radio drama of Anna Karenina
Readings by Jules Wilkinson
Credits:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, trans. Constance Garnet, 1901 William Heinemann
Produced by Lore Windemuth
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Sound by Ian Hunter
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Love Stories (m001lr4b)
Anna Karenina - Episode 2
Tolstoy's powerful drama of love, desire, transgression and retribution dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths. Presented as part of the BBC Radio 4's 'Love Stories' series.
Anna and Vronsky embark on a passionate love affair but Anna's husband Karenin will not let her go without a fight. While Levin, heartbroken after Kitty's rejection, retreats to the country.
ANNA KARENINA.....Kate Phillips
ALEXEI VRONSKY.....Alfred Enoch
ALEXEI KARENIN.....Rory Kinnear
KONSTANTIN 'KOSTYA' LEVIN.....Sacha Dhawan,
KATERINA 'KITTY' SHCHERBATSKAYA.....Anneika Rose
DARYA 'DOLLY' OBLONSKAYA.....Rosalie Craig
STEPAN 'STIVA' OBLONSKY....Adetomiwa Edun
MIDWIFE..... Georgie Glen
PORTER.....Hasan Dixon
Dramatised by Linda Marshall Griffiths
Directed by Nadia Molinari
Sound design by Sharon Hughes
A BBC Audio Drama North Production
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m001lr4d)
Sarah Winman: Tin Man
James Naughtie and readers are joined by novelist Sarah Winman, answering questions about her novel Tin Man.
It's a moving and intimate portrait of three characters, Michael, Ellis and Annie. They variously fall in love, and fall out of touch, but are always deeply connected.
Tin Man is a short and powerful novel about love, loss and kindness.
Our next Bookclub recordings are with
Mary Lawson, discussing her novel Crow Lake, at 1300 on 24 May at BBC Broadcasting House in London.
Julian Barnes discussing Arthur and George at 1830 on Tuesday 13 June at BBC Broadcasting House, London.
email bookclub@bbc.co.uk to take part
SUN 16:30 Bird Brain of Britain (m001lr4g)
Russell Davies welcomes a panel of celebrity experts and bird lovers to a one-off quiz special from The Wildfowl & Wetland Trust's Slimbridge wetland centre in Gloucestershire. With interest in birds and awareness of the risks to their lives and habitats on the increase in recent years, we're celebrating their role in our life and culture. Birds have fascinated artists, musicians and writers throughout history, and we'll find out how many famous bird references our experts can recognise - as well as how much they know about the bird life around us.
Taking part are
Fyfe Dangerfield, musician
Kate Humble, writer and broadcaster
Lucy Lapwing, naturalist and campaigner
Kitty Macfarlane, singer and songwriter
There are sure to be plenty of surprises, fascinating facts and familiar voices - and the winner will be able to preen themselves at being named BBC Bird Brain of Britain.
Producers: Stephen Garner and Paul Bajoria
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001ljjm)
Oiling Putin’s War?
File on 4 investigates the secretive world of oil shipping, dark fleets and camouflaged cargos. Sanctions were supposed to hit President Putin in the pocket, weakening his military capabilities. But have they simply created new markets and new millionaires? And why can a company in Essex enable Russian oil to move around the world without attracting the attention of the authorities?
Reporter: Paul Kenyon
Producer: Jo Casserly
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m001lqlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001lr4j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001lr4l)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lr4n)
The government has defended the police response to protests during the Coronation, amid complaints that officers who arrested dozens of people in London yesterday went too far.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001lr4q)
Jon Kay
Jon has been working on the Coronation for BBC News this week - so he’ll start the programme with some sparkling gems, jewels and behind-the-scenes stories from the wider BBC radio coverage. But if you’ve already had your fill of Coronation quiche - don’t worry - he's chosen plenty of alternative audio highlights from the week as well...including a Cornish comedy, a celebration of the fry-up and sequinned excitement from Liverpool, as Eurovision arrives.
Presenter: Jon Kay
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001lqtv)
Leonard and David discuss King Charles’ Coronation yesterday. Leonard’s been watching the highlights with Jill and loved all the bellringing. He’s volunteered for a repair café in Penny Hassett as part of the Big Help Out tomorrow. David will be going to the Coronation Illumination at Bridge Farm. Leonard worries about being unfunny and boring. David beats about the bush, but essentially confirms Leonard’s opinion of his deficiencies. At The Bull, Eddie cajoles Leonard into being his partner in a comedy double act representing the UK in Ambridge’s Eurovision show. When David joins them later, Eddie and Leonard try out a couple of jokes they’ve rehearsed, but Leonard is hopeless. Nevertheless, Eddie’s determined he’s going to make Leonard funny.
At Bridge Farm, Helen tells Eddie and David how pleased they are with the beneficial effects the Coronation Illumination is having on all aspects of their business. It’s good PR for Justin too, though Eddie is sceptical about Justin’s motives, following his subterfuge over the EV charging station. David thinks Bridge Farm’s enterprise shows up the lack of new ideas at Brookfield. Rebecca, a reporter from the Borchester Echo, approaches Helen to ask her for an interview. Helen’s hackles rise when Rebecca recognises her as Helen Titchener. Helen warns Rebecca off anything to do with that part of her life and won’t have her photograph taken. David steps in to have his picture taken with the lights. But when David tries to steer Rebecca on to the subject of Brookfield she’s not interested and talks to Helen about her cheesemaking.
SUN 19:15 Mark Steel's in Town (m00027yp)
Series 9
Carlisle
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 with the ninth series of his award-winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
In this episode Mark visits Carlisle on the Scottish border and discovers why the whole place stinks of biscuits. He also comes across a cursing stone.
Written and performed by Mark Steel
Additional material by Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator, Hayley Sterling
Sound Manager, Jerry Peal
Producer, Carl Cooper
Picture Credit, Tom Stanier
SUN 19:45 On Portobello Prom (m001lr4s)
Rain and Vanilla Ice Cream
When Rosie isn't enjoying taking photos of tourists she uses rainy days to visit Violetta at Ferrari's, her parents' cafe and where Violetta is perfecting vanilla ice cream. Rosie is more than happy to be the taste tester. However, trouble is brewing. When Violetta's dapper cousin Giorgio appears on the scene it becomes clear that she has secrets that will threaten both their idyllic life on Portobello Prom and her ice cream innovation.
A charming five-part story from Sara Sheridan about young love, big decisions and life On Portobello Prom.
Read by Jessica Hardwick
Written by Sara Sheridan
Produced by Naomi Walmsley
Based on Sara Sheridan's short story 'On Portobello Prom' originally published in 'The People's City'
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001ljvd)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001ljv8)
Harry Belafonte, Jerry Springer, Valerie Winn, Kate Saunders
Matthew Bannister on
Harry Belafonte, the singer and actor who was also a leading civil rights campaigner.
Jerry Springer, whose TV talk show was once voted the worst in history – but was watched by millions around the world.
Valerie Winn, the runner who became the face of a campaign to allow women to compete in top level middle distance races.
Kate Saunders, the novelist, journalist and critic who won the Costa Prize for Children’s Literature for her book Five Children on the Western Front.
Interviewee: Michael Shnayerson
Interviewee: Amanda Craig
Interviewee: Wendy Sly
Interviewee: Jene Galvin
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Harry Belafonte, Desert Island Discs, BBC Home Service, 06/10/1958; "Sing Your Song": Remembering Harry Belafonte, Who Used His Fame to Help Civil Rights Movement, Democracy Now, YouTube uploaded 26/04/2023; Harry Belafonte interview, Film Night, BBC Archive originally broadcast 15/04/1972; Civil Rights, British Pathe, uploaded YouTube 25/11/2016; Harry Belafonte interview, PBS Newshour, PBC, YouTube uploaded 15/11/2011; Kate Saunders introduction on Have I Got News For You, BBC ONE, 28/09/1990; Jerry Springer , Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 06/11/2009; Jerry Springer resigns from Cincinnati city council in 1974, WCPO, YouTube uploaded 28/04/2016; Jerry’s Final Thought Brings Him To Tears, Jerry Springer Show, YouTube uploaded 21/09/2015; When Paxman met Springer, BBC Newsnight, 26/02/2014;
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001ljgz)
Money Box Live: The King's Cash
To mark the Coronation of King Charles III our presenter Adam Shaw gets exclusive access to the Royal Mint to witness how new £2 commemorative coins are produced and to see its extensive archives. In this programme, we discuss how different monarchs have affected our money and what the future might hold for the physical cash that we carry in our pockets. To help explore the Crown and our currency, Adam is joined be a panel of experts, Dominic Chorney, an Ancient Coin Specialist at Baldwin's, Catherine Schenk, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Oxford and Jennifer Adam, Curator at the Bank of England Museum.
Presenter: Adam Shaw
Producer: Amber Mehmood
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
3pm, Wednesday 3rd May, 2023)
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001lr2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Short Cuts (m000sz2h)
Moonlight
Short documentaries and adventures in sound which take place under the light of the moon, presented by Josie Long. From a night swim across a freezing cold lake to the writer Courttia Newland on astral projection.
Home In Darkness
Featuring Courttia Newland
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe and Redzi Bernard
The Night Swimmer
Featuring the voice of Marilyn Korzekwa and the sounds of Lake Superior
Produced by Kalli Anderson and Kaija Siirala
Music: By Micah Smith, Jordy Walker and Off World
Re: The Moon
Written and produced by Ross Sutherland
Originally made for Imaginary Advice
Production team: Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001lr4y)
Leila Nathoo reflects on the Coronation and analyses the local election results with Conservative backbencher Anthony Browne; Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds; and the public opinion expert Joe Twyman from Deltapoll. Journalist Rosa Prince - editor of Politico's London Playbook - brings additional insight and analysis. The programme also includes an interview with Baroness Angela Smith, sharing the experience of watching the Coronation ceremony from inside Westminster Abbey.
SUN 23:00 Loose Ends (m001lqlg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (m001lr1y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 08 MAY 2023
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001lr51)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m001ljhx)
Dance Culture
Dance Culture: Laurie Taylor takes a journey through the dancefloor with the music writer, Emma Warren, whose latest research combines social history and memoir to answer the question 'why do we dance together?' Also, Melin Levent Yuna, a sociologist and anthropologist at Acibaden University, explains why Istanbul has become the Tango capital of the world, after Buenos Aires, in spite of its conservative government.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001lqm3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lr53)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lr55)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lr57)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001lr59)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001lr5c)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001lr5f)
08/05/23 - The Crown and the Countryside
As a new King is crowned, Vernon Harwood looks at the role Charles III has played in shaping and supporting farming in the UK. From his first major speech on the environment as a young Prince of Wales in 1970, to his unconventional and often criticised organic farming methods in the 1980s, he continues to be concerned about the future for upland farmers and the profitability of small family businesses.
We hear insights from the King’s former Farm Manager in Gloucestershire, the Cumberland Bed-and-Breakfast owners who formed a lasting friendship with the monarch and the fifth-generation Exmoor farmer who sees first-hand the impact the Prince’s Countryside Fund has on isolated communities.
For decades Charles was a passionate and sometimes forthright voice supporting everything from traditional country crafts to Britain’s native farm breeds. But with new responsibilities as sovereign, what now for the man dubbed ‘Britain’s most famous farmer’?
Produced and Presented for BBC Audio in Bristol by Vernon Harwood
Archive material used in this programme:
Conservation Year Speech in Cardiff; BBC Radio 4 Wales, 19/02/1970
Rethinking Food & Farming – Farming Today; BBC Radio 4, 26/06/2020
Royal visit to Cumberland – Six O’Clock News; BBC Radio 4, 25/09/2001
Highgrove event – Country Matters; BBC Radio Gloucestershire, 26/07/2015
MON 05:56 Weather (m001lr5h)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dv7fc)
Blue Bird of Paradise
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the blue bird of paradise. The crow sized blue birds of paradise provide a spectacular flash of blue in the Papua New Guinea rainforests yet it is the males dazzling courtship performance which grabs a female's attention. Tipping forward from his perch he hangs upside down fluffing out and shimmering his gauzy breast feathers. As if this weren't enough, as the female approaches, he increases the frequency of his calls to produce a hypnotic mechanical buzzing, more like the song of a giant cicada than any bird.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
MON 06:00 Today (m001lqsr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001lqsw)
Monster artist/monstrous art?
What to do with the art of monstrous men? That’s the question Claire Dederer grapples with in Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. She wonders whether she can or should continue to love the work of Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, Hemingway and Picasso? And if it’s possible to divorce the art from the artist.
How do we now view the glorious, technicolour paintings of Paul Gauguin’s works from Tahiti? The writer Devika Ponnambalam has imagined the life of one of his muses Teha’amana in her latest novel, I Am Not Your Eve. Gauguin was 43 when he first arrived on the island in 1891 and made numerous teenage girls his ‘unofficial wives’.
The science writer Michael Bond is interested in the psychology behind fandom. In his book Fans he looks at the pleasure of tribalism and sense of belonging, but also what happens when one’s hero falls short, and the cognitive dissonance needed to continue to stay true to a monstrous genius.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lqt0)
Episode 1
"A watchmaker’s world is not much bigger than a thumbnail.
I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself."
Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways.
In Hands of Time watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers welcomes us into the hidden world of watchmaking, offering a personal history of watches that spans centuries and continents. From her workshop bench, Rebecca explores the ways in which timekeeping has indelibly shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politics, exploration and mortality.
Episode one takes us back to some of the earliest civilisations and our ancestors' inventions for telling the time.
Written by Rebecca Struthers
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Phoebe Pryce
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001lqt4)
Julian of Norwich and the power of inspirational words in tough times
Words to live by and finding hope in the face of terrible suffering, the life of the anchoress or hermit Julian of Norwich, the power of walking and nature to heal and art that replaces adverts with words of love – all part of this special Bank Holiday Woman’s Hour.
650 years ago a woman we only know as Julian of Norwich produced a book written while she was voluntarily walled up in a hermit’s cell which challenged the ideas of the time about sin and suffering. It presented a radical vision of love and hope that “All Shall Be Well and All Shall Be Well and All Manner of Thing Shall be Well”. We hear about her life, how it has helped one woman through cancer treatment and inspired the lives of others, and we hear from listeners about the words that they turn to for motivation and encouragement.
Nuala McGovern speaks to Claire Gilbert author of a new novel I Julian; Dr. Hetta Howes senior lecturer in medieval and early modern literature at City, University of London; Sally-Anne Lomas Trustee of The Friends of Julian and creative director of The Cloth of Kindness project and to Faye Smith founder of Hope Walking. And, the British Kenyan artist Grace Ndiritu explains why she emblazoned the words 'Wherever you are I hope you have found peace' on 30 billboards around Birmingham.
Producer Caroline Donne
MON 11:00 Blood on the Dance Floor (p0fhqxb6)
3. Glitter in the Chips
The untold story of the murder of a gay police officer in Northern Ireland in 1997
Belfast 1997. But not just any part of Belfast, gay Belfast. A place you've probably never heard of before. Cigarette smoke, aftershave and expectation fill the air in the only gay bar in the country. Sat having a drink on a night out is Darren Bradshaw. He was just 24 years old when he was shot dead in front of hundreds of people. His brutal murder by terrorists sparked fears of a return to all out violence as the new Labour government under Tony Blair sought to bring peace to Northern Ireland - on the road to the Good Friday Agreement.
This is the untold story of his life and murder. A story of both love and eventually betrayal.
Presenter Jordan Dunbar grew up in the city, he was a comedian and drag performer on the Belfast scene and yet this murder and Darren's life was never talked about. As a child of the ceasefire, his knowledge of LGBT life in Northern Ireland all came after the Good Friday Agreement. His history was based on the Loyalist and Republican - the Orange or Green versions and the rainbow had never come up.
Following Darren's story brings to life the struggle of being gay in The Troubles, how Belfast got its first Pride parade only in 1991 and it's very first gay club in 1994 -The Parliament bar where Darren was tragically shot dead.
It's a community surviving as well as thriving against a backdrop of violence and discrimination. He meets the original drag queens, DJs and club pioneers determined to claim back the city centre from the terrorists and create a safe place of their own.
Determined to piece together for the first time how Darren was killed that night and why, Jordan uncovers stories of bigotry, bravery and betrayal.
Reporter: Jordan Dunbar
Series Producer: Paul Grant
Researcher: Patrick Kiteley
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editors: Richard Maddock and Dylan Haskins
Editor and Executive Producer: Carl Johnston
MON 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (p0f7q7tz)
18. Catherine Flannagan & Margaret Higgins
Lucy Worsley investigates the historical crimes of women from a contemporary, feminist perspective.
In this episode, Lucy is joined by award-winning crime writer Lynda La Plante CBE to investigate the case of two sisters, Catherine Flanagan and Margaret Higgins. They’re part of the Irish immigrant community in Liverpool, living near the docks in a crowded, working class area, doing many different jobs to make ends meet. Professor Rosalind Crone from the Open University visits the Museum of Liverpool to find out what life would have been like for the sisters, tracing their steps as they moved around different houses in the area.
By 1881, Catherine is a life insurance broker and also a widow. Margaret is married, but her husband, Thomas Higgins, falls ill and dies. Thomas has life insurance policies so, after his death, Margaret and Catherine receive a generous payment. But Thomas’ death doesn’t make sense to his brother Patrick, who calls for a post mortem. Traces of arsenic are detected in the body and Margaret is arrested. But as the police arrive, Catherine escapes. She disappears into the warren of Liverpool’s streets and ends up in the east of the city.
After ten days on the run, Catherine is found and brought to trial with her sister. Did the sisters work together, or was one of them pressuring the other? Were the sisters actually part of a female syndicate, murdering people for monetary gain?
Lucy asks how similar this is to investigations today. Do close knit communities in cities still help each other evade the police?
Producer: Hannah Fisher
Readers: Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Series Producer: Julia Hayball
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001lr65)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001lqtl)
Criminal Customers; Bold Glamour; Dining Deposits
Filters have become ever more sophisticated and now some are so realistic that it's hard to know one being used at all. The latest to cause a stir is called the Bold Glamour Filter on TikTok. We hear the views of some people on TikTok and Winifred Robinson speaks to a young woman who says filters such as these are part of the reason why she has had enhancements to her face. She also talks to Dr Glyn Estebanez, an aesthetic surgeon with clinics in Chester and London, about the things he's hearing from patients.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM
MON 12:57 Weather (m001lqtq)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001lqts)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
MON 13:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jkk3)
1. Off Balance
In the spring of 2023, twenty years after the Americans, the British and their allies invaded to overthrow Saddam Hussein, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen was reporting from Iraq for the BBC. He described the invasion as 'a catastrophe'.
Taking you to some of the most difficult stories Jeremy and other journalists have covered; in this episode - why impartiality is not about trying to get perfect balance, the truth lying somewhere in the middle. Often it does not.
Jeremy speaks with: journalist Rana Rahimpour who was born in Iran but left when she was 25 to work for the BBC; former BBC bureau chief Milton Nkosi, who grew up under apartheid in Soweto, South Africa; journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot, and CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001lqtv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001lqll)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Saturday]
MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m001lqtx)
Programme 5, 2023
(5/12)
Kirsty Lang asks the questions, as Marcus Berkmann and Paul Sinha of the South of England take on Val McDermid and Alan McCredie of Scotland. Can the South of England, the defending champions, keep a clean sheet in their second appearance of the series?
They'll need all their powers of concentration and lateral thinking as they grope for the connections between female goalkeepers and Dante's Inferno, a former political party leader and the Bash Street Kids, and Captain Ahab and the Ronettes. The programme includes the usual generous scattering of questions suggested by Round Britain Quiz listeners.
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001lqtz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Poison in the Womb (m001jsq1)
Kerry Hudson explores the ripple effects of a drug given to pregnant women throughout the 20th century, not only on them but their children, in a scandal activists call the 'silent thalidomide'.
Diethylstilbesterol, or DES, was prescribed to women in Britain from 1940 to the 1970s - initially expectant mothers to prevent miscarriage (though quickly found to be ineffective) and later to dry up milk supply in forced adoptions or where mothers had to quickly return to work.
Sources estimate that anything from 10 thousand to 300 thousand women in Britain were prescribed the drug, and in the US that rises to around 5 million. It was only in 1978 that it was banned after being found to increase the likelihood of cancer.
But DES didn't just impact the 'DES mothers' who were initially prescribed the drug. Studies show the impact is generational; daughters and granddaughters seem to be at higher risk too. Research has found that there's an increased likelihood of developing breast and cervical cancer. A third of DES daughters are thought to have been born with or developed some form of abnormality of the cervix, uterus or fallopian tubes, resulting in an increased risk of infertility, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages and premature births. DES daughters are 50 per cent more likely to start the menopause early. Some studies even suggest that sons and grandsons of 'DES mothers' are at greater risk of testicular cancer.
Around the world there have been court cases, public apologies and compensation pay-outs, yet in the UK, where the drug was invented, it's barely known about. Kerry wants to know why, while the last victims given the drug are still with us and their offspring have answers to why their health has been so inexplicably blighted.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001lqv2)
fAIth
Artificial intelligence influences how we interact with everything – and religion is no exception.
AI technology is increasingly being incorporated into religious worship. Robot priests are delivering sermons, chatbots are reciting prayers, robot monks are spreading wisdom and robotic arms are carrying out ceremonies.
Aleem Maqbool speaks with robotics specialist, Gabriele Trovato, creator of SanTO, a robotic Catholic priest that delivers sermons, gives advice and joins worshippers in prayers.
This sparks a discussion on whether AI will transform how people experience religion and the potential outcomes involved.
Aleem is joined by:
Professor Subramanian Ramamoorthy - Chair of Robot Learning and Autonomy and Director of the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner - Rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue and former Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism
The Right Reverend Steven Croft - Bishop of Oxford, member of the House of Lords Select Committee on AI and a founding board member for the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation
Assistant Producer: Linda Walker
Producer: Alexa Good
MON 17:00 PM (m001lqv4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lqv8)
The Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines has called for the King's removal as its head of state.
The Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines has become the latest leader of a Caribbean country to call for the King's removal as its head of state.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m001lqvb)
Series 91
6. Columbo, Keanu Reeves and Vertigo
Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Shaparak Khorsandi, Daliso Chaponda and Heidi Regan to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.
The long-running Radio 4 national treasure of a parlour game is back for a new series with subjects this week ranging from Columbo to Vertigo.
Production co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
Sound editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
A BBC Studios Production
MON 19:00 The Archers (m001lqmv)
Adil is miffed with Lynda for making him move out of Ambridge Hall for two nights to accommodate celebrity judge Rylan for Ambridge’s Eurovision show. In response Adil threatens to move out permanently. Desperate Lynda calls Lilian, persuading her to take Adil in. Later, when Lilian gives Adil a guided tour of the Dower House, with Lynda in tow, he is very impressed. A little too impressed for Lynda’s liking, but at least her problem is solved.
Concerned about the content of some of the proposed acts in the Eurovision Show Lynda has arranged a mini-dress rehearsal on Wednesday to vet them for anything unsuitable. Kirsty will be rehearsing her Spanish act with Helen tonight, and accepts Joy’s offer to provide them with some feedback. At the rehearsal, Joy enthusiastically eats the cakes Helen’s made. Kirsty then tells Joy about the Rogation Sunday service Alan will be celebrating at Bridge Farm before Helen rushes in, panic stricken – Jack’s seen a man on their drive! It turns out to be Mick retrieving Ena the cat from under Helen’s car – panic over. Helen chastises herself for getting so upset and Kirsty offers to stay the night, as Lee’s away. Later, while watching a film together, Kirsty reassures Helen she can get through this. With the ever present threat of Rob’s return Helen’s finding it hard to be positive. However, when Kirsty offers the prospect of Helen’s Eurovision fritters with Spanish style hot chocolate as a distraction, Helen declares she’s the perfect friend.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001lqvd)
Eurovision comes to Liverpool
Recorded at the Hornby Library inside Liverpool Central Library, in front of a live audience, as Liverpool gears up to host The Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Ukraine.
Two novelists from The Big Eurovision Read, a list of 12 books from The Reading Agency and BBC Arts talk to Nick Ahad about the unifying power of music: Pete Paphides on his autobiography Broken Greek, A story of chip shops and pop songs, and Matt Cain tells us about his novel The Madonna of Bolton.
Yemeni British poet and activist Amina Atiq performs her poem Daifa, commissioned for the Big Eurovision Welcome concert.
Former conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko is one of the city’s Citizens of Honour. He’s returned to the city for a concert with the orchestra. He explains how music can be a unifying force and why he has suspended his work in Russia.
There’s music from the Liverpudlian electro pop band Stealing Sheep, along with local singer songwriter Natalie McCool, who open the EuroFestival with Welcome to Eurotopia.
And Ukrainian singer and musician Iryna Muha performs her next single Come Back.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Andrea Kidd
MON 20:00 The Truth Police (m001lqvg)
For years, science has had a dirty secret; research has been dogged by claims and instances of fraud, malpractice and outright incompetence. Suspicious-looking data sets, breakthrough results that can’t be replicated, eyebrow-raising statistical sleights of hand - science has been undergoing something of an existential crisis.
And at the forefront of keeping science honest has been a bunch of outsiders, some of them with no formal academic positions, no salaried posts, double-checking the published claims of researchers and academics. Their work is not without controversy, especially when they go public; nevertheless, they’ve achieved impressive results.
Presenter Michael Blastland meets some of these ‘Truth Police’, discovering their methodology and their motives, as well as asking how scientific institutions are reacting to the deep issues they have brought out into the light.
Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Nathan Gower
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001ljcx)
Kenya's Free Money Experiment
Thousands of Kenyan villagers are being given free cash as part of a huge trial being run by an American non-profit, GiveDirectly.
Why? Some aid organisations believe that simply giving people money is one of the most effective ways to tackle extreme poverty and boost development. After all, they argue, local people themselves know best how to use the funds to improve their lives. But does it work? Is it really a long term solution?
In 2018, the BBC visited a Kenyan village whose residents received money at the start of the trial. Five years on, Mary Harper returns to see what’s changed.
Photo: Woman frying fish in village in western Kenya (BBC)
Reporter: Mary Harper
Producer: Alex Last
Studio Manager: Graham Puddifoot
Series Editor: Penny Murphy
Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
With special thanks to Fred Ooko
MON 21:00 Supersenses (m001ljc4)
Smelly People
We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change not only how we interact with the world around us, but is allowing us to see, hear, smell, taste and even touch things we never imagined possible before.
An artifical intelligence revolution is super-charging sensing technology, promising us eyes with laser precision, ears that can distinguish every sound in a mile's radius and noses than can sniff out the early signs of forest fires before the first flame forms.
Evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Professor Ben Garrod, is off to meet some of these sensory innovators and technological pioneers. The archaeologists, ecologists and medics, who are turning our world upside down and inside out.
Could these new technologies and natural evolutions be redefining what it is to smell? Ben takes us through the amazing adaptations, and technological developments that could help broaden how we think of our noses.
Produced by Robbie Wojciechowski
Presented by Professor Ben Garrod
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001lqsw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001lqvm)
Met Police “regrets” arresting anti-monarchist protestors
Also:
Russia launches one of its biggest attacks on Ukraine in months.
And
Syria allowed to rejoin the Arab League.
MON 22:45 Victory City by Salman Rushdie (m001lqvr)
Episode Six
"On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about the kingdom of Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax, as a message to the future."
The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children is a gripping magic realist epic about the power of storytelling. In the wake of a battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world.
Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
Read by Dinita Gohil
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001ljg4)
Women's Words
Dr Jenni Nuttall talks to Michael about the words used by and about women since the beginnings of language. Including some words we should never have lost.
MON 23:30 Headwaters (m00146w9)
A 21st-century dip into literary stream of consciousness. This narrative technique attempts to depict in words the multitudinous thoughts and feelings passing through the human mind. It first gained prominence among Modernist writers as they attempted to represent life in the increasingly complex industrialized world of the 1920s. The technique has never run dry, but now, a century later, stream of consciousness is proving a fresh wellspring for young writers as they attempt to convey life in our comparably challenging, fragmented and frenetic online age.
Rebecca Watson is one such writer, and her first novel, "little scratch", has already attracted much praise for its depiction of the thoughts and feelings of a young woman over a deceptively simple single day. It was shortlisted in 2021 for the Goldsmiths Prize, which rewards innovation and creative daring in the novel.
Rebecca traces the technique back to its headwaters, hearing from academics and fellow authors about the American psychologist William James, the French philosopher Henri Bergson, and the key writers - Virginia Woolf, T S Eliot and James Joyce - who, a hundred years ago, made it their own, in works such as Mrs Dalloway, The Waste Land and Ulysses.
This documentary , flowing with archive and music, itself follows the associative leaps characteristic of stream of consciousness. It is particularly timely in an era when the onslaught of social media frequently feels overwhelming and the term “streaming” is itself becoming a dominant metaphor for how we live our lives.
Contributions from Philip Davis, Sandeep Parmar, Michael Whitworth, Sara Baume and Mike McCormack.
Producer: Beaty Rubens
TUESDAY 09 MAY 2023
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001lqvw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lqt0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lqw0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lqw6)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lqwd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001lqwj)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001lqwn)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001lqws)
09/05/23: Farm robots; technology investment; agricultural tourism
A British farm robot firm is fighting for survival after a major investor pulled out. The co-founder of the Small Robot company Sam Watson Jones tells Charlotte that they are now aiming to raise one and a half million pounds through crowdfunding.
Dr Belinda Clarke the director of Agri TechE - an organisation which brings together farmers, scientists, and entrepreneurs - says it is a challenging sector in which to attract investment.
And a look at agritourism - the farm based holiday experiences on offer up and down the country – today a luxury romantic "Hideaway" farm stay business near Dundee.
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Alun Beach
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (m0002lhk)
Dominic Couzens on the Goldfinch
For natural history writer, speaker and tour leader Dominic Couzens the impeccably turned out goldfinch is the avian glitterati, bird royalty, star quality on the feeders. Yet it was an encounter with 400 goldfinch feeding on thistle seed heads which captivated Dominic.
Producer Andrew Dawes
TUE 06:00 Today (m001lqm5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The New Gurus (p0fh4dvx)
Bonus Episode: Gigachads and Sigma Wolves
After The New Gurus was released, there was one question Helen Lewis was asked far more than any other: why are so many gurus men? Stuck for an answer, she journeys into the world of the Manosphere - home to 'Gigachads' and 'Sigma Wolves'.
Joining Helen on her journey is a reporter who once got (consensually) punched by the world's most Googled man, Andrew Tate, plus the former Love Island contestant and now successful podcaster, Chris Williamson. Helen also takes to the mat to find out why three of her original subjects - Sam Harris, Joe Rogan and Russell Brand - all studied the same hardcore martial art.
What do men want? The answer, it seems, is very long podcasts.
Producer: Tom Pooley
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith
Original music composed by Paper Tiger
A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:30 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m0017kj2)
The Ultimate Upcycler
Dr Erica McAlister of London's Natural History Museum takes a look at some of the entomological pioneers, whose groundbreaking observations and experiments have led to some truly innovative developments.
Erica examines the innocuous wasp-like Black Soldier fly which for centuries was regarded as a serious agricultural pest in North America’s southern states. Its reputation underwent a compete rewrite thanks to the close observations of artist and entomologist Charles Valentine Riley. Its larvae have a remarkable ability to shred, devour and transform nearly any kind of organic waste into high-quality edible protein. They are now the ‘crown jewels’ of a fast-growing insect-farming industry – addressing a growing need to find cheap, clean reliable protein.
With contributions from Donald Weber biographer of CV Riley , entomologist Prof Jeff Tomberlin (Texas A+M University), Keiran Whittaker (CEO Entocycle), Katharina Unger (CEO Livin Farms)
Producer Adrian Washbourne
TUE 09:45 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lqm8)
Episode 2
"A watchmaker’s world is not much bigger than a thumbnail.
I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself."
Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways.
In Hands of Time watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers welcomes us into the hidden world of watchmaking, offering a personal history of watches that spans centuries and continents. From her workshop bench, Rebecca explores the ways in which timekeeping has indelibly shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politics, exploration and mortality.
Written by Rebecca Struthers
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Phoebe Pryce
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001lqmc)
Bel Powley, UTIs, Thai Elections, Theatre for Teenagers, Under Pressure
Most of us are familiar with the story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who wrote a diary while hiding from the Nazis with her family, in Amsterdam during the Second World War. You are probably less familiar with the name of the woman who agreed to keep them safe in those secret attic rooms. Miep Gies was Otto’s secretary, and when they were eventually located and sent to their deaths, it was Miep who found Anne’s diary and kept it. A new TV series tells the whole story from Miep’s perspective, and she is played by the British actor Bel Powley. Bel joins Nuala to talk about playing an ordinary woman who displayed extraordinary courage.
Plans have been announced to allow more patients to use high street pharmacies for some common drug prescriptions and routine tests to ease the pressure on busy GPs. Pharmacies are being asked to take on the prescribing of drugs for seven common ailments, including sore throats, earaches, shingles and urinary tract infections or UTIs. Women are up to 30 times more likely to get a UTIs than men. Half of women will have at least one in their lifetime and 20% will have more than one. So is easier access for women for UTI treatment a positive move? Mary Garthwaite, a former consultant urologist and chair of the Urology Foundation joins Nuala to discuss.
As voters in Thailand head to the polls on Sunday for a general election, who are the frontrunners and what are the issues that female voters care about? Women played a key role in the 2020 pro-democracy protests and many are seeing the election as a way to challenge the power of patriarchal institutions such as the military and the monarchy. The current Prime Minister has been trailing behind opposition candidates in the polls, including Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who gave birth just two weeks ago. Nuala is joined by Jonathan Head, the BBC's South East Asia correspondent, to discuss.
We hear the next in our series about how relationships are changed and put under strain when life happens. Zoe and James talk about how 'Ed' which is what they call Zoe's eating disorder has affected them since they got together as a couple when they were at school. Zoe's anorexia was 'atypical' - her weight wasn't low but she was in the grip of anorexia, all the behaviours and disordered thinking were there - her body was under terrible stress and she was regularly collapsing. Only James was really aware of what was going on, a fact that put their relationship under pressure. Jo Morris went to meet Zoe and James in Lincolnshire and they tell their story.
What was your experience with theatre when you were at school? Was there that one show you saw that inspired you and that you’ll never quite forget? Playwright Hannah Lavery and writer and actor Sarah Middleton have recently taken to the stage with their respective plays, Protest, and SHEWOLVES, which are aimed at teenagers and ensuring that young women’s voices are heard on the stage. They join Nuala to discuss the impact theatre can have on young people.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Hanna Ward
TUE 11:00 Supersenses (m001lqmf)
Remote Touch
We've been building computers to think like us for years, but our ability to replicate human senses has been impossible. Until now. This technological revolution is starting to profoundly change not only how we interact with the world around us, but is allowing us to see, hear, smell, taste and even touch things we never imagined possible before.
An artifical intelligence revolution is super-charging sensing technology, promising us eyes with laser precision, ears that can distinguish every sound in a mile's radius and noses than can sniff out the early signs of forest fires before the first flame forms.
Evolutionary biologist and broadcaster Professor Ben Garrod is off to meet some of these sensory innovators and technological pioneers - the programmers, robotics engineers and neuroscientists, who are turning our world upside down and inside out.
Could these new technologies and natural evolutions be redefining what it is to touch? Ben takes us through the amazing adaptations, and technological developments that could help touch become digitised.
Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Presenter: Professor Ben Garrod
TUE 11:30 Sound Towns (m001lqmh)
Newport
Great music is born from a collision of societal and political change. This series explores the origin stories of some of the UK's most vital musical movements.
The UK's turbulent societal and political changes sparked the most electrifying moments in modern music history. These aren't the stories you know. They're the moments that came before. Each episode is a world in and of itself, and it'll get as close to the music as possible.
First up, Newport...
Emerging around the time of Britpop, but far cheekier and less preening, Cool Cymru produced Super Furry Animals, Catatonia and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, but this would never have happened without the DIY scene in Newport.
It started with a photocopied celebration of local noisemakers The Cowboy Killers and The Flemgods, and ended in the mid-1990s with the New York Times' eminent rock critic Neil Strauss declaring the Gwent town to be "the New Seattle". Local MP Paul Flynn picked up on the buzz, tabling an Early Day Motion in Parliament congratulating Newport's fine roster of musicians. Suddenly, every record label was sending scouts to check out the Newport scene. But like all the best musical beginnings, the scene in Newport was happenstance rather than intent, and unlike the 'Cool Cymru' bands who came after, they were merely using the tools they had at their fingertips - a perfect encapsulation of the DIY ethos.
Producer: Victoria McArthur
Narrated by: Patrick Jones
Researcher: Juliet Conway
Sound mix: Lee McPhail
With heartfelt thanks to documentary maker Nathan Jennings, for his invaluable help and advice regarding all things Newport music-related, and for providing the interview with Benji Webbe.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001lqml)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001lqmn)
Call You and Yours: How have bank closures affected you and the place where you live?
On today's Call You and Yours, we're asking - how have bank closures affected you and the place where you live?
Almost half of all bank branches in the UK have closed - that's since 2015. When the bank goes, the cash machine often goes with it. Nearly a quarter of free to use ATMs have gone in the last five years leaving some people struggling to get cash.
According to the consumer group, Which?, around 54 banks and building society branches have closed every week since January 2015. We want to know how these closures have impacted you and your communities.
Are you struggling to access and manage your cash?
Are you left with empty buildings on your high street because your local bank branch has closed?
How is it affecting local businesses?
You can call us from
11am on Tuesday 9th May on 03700 100 444. You can also email us youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Don't forget to include a phone number so we can call you back.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001lqmq)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001lqms)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
TUE 13:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jkt1)
2. Not in your shoes
What happens when the world is divided about the rights and wrongs of a conflict, and a story generates a lot of heat?
Nothing does that more than the most contentious story Jeremy Bowen has covered: Israelis and Palestinians.
BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen speaks with: BBC Gaza producer and journalist Rushdi Abu Alouf, journalist Shlomi Eldar and Emily Bell - professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, a director of the Guardian Media Group and former editor-in-chief across the Guardian’s websites.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001lqmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (m001lqmx)
Leaving (Part 1)
by Tessa Gibbs
A darkly funny family drama about love, loss and legacy - and why doing the right thing can seem like the wrong thing to do.
Part One.
Catriona ..... Georgie Glen
Isla ..... Anita Vettesse
Drew ..... Robin Laing
Esme ..... Anneika Rose
DS Wallace ..... Kyle Gardiner
Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001lqmz)
Series 40
Plymouth
Jay Rayner hosts this week's culinary panel show from Plymouth. Joining Jay are food writers Melissa Thompson and Tim Hayward, Cardiff-based chef Angela Gray, and food historian Annie Gray.
During a quickfire Q and A, Jay and the panel discuss a flurry of culinary queries from an audience of avid foodies. Inspired by the city’s ocean air, the panellists consider a range of seaside suggestions, whether it be quick tips for slow-cooking or nailing a charcoal-fuelled feast. They offer advice on cooking with gin, and answer perhaps the most pressing of culinary questions - what to cook for my vegan son?
Also, beach barbecue connoisseur Simon Stallard gives us the dos and don’ts of perfecting the art of wood-fired cooking.
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (m001lqn1)
Gardens of the Future
Climate resilient gardens are a feature of this month's Chelsea Flower Show, but how can the experts help the typical British gardener prepare for the future? To find out, botanist James Wong asks whether the way we garden could protect us against the effects of climate change, and if we can protect our gardens against more unpredictable weather patterns?
James joins Chelsea designer Tom Massey as he chooses plants for a mould breaking show garden. He learns tips for dealing with more unpredictable conditions at the Royal Horticultural Society's flagship Wisley garden, and from climate savvy gardener Kim Stoddart in West Wales. In the heart of London, amid the brutalist concrete of the Barbican centre, James meets Professor Nigel Dunnett, and considers how plants could make human habitats more liveable during heatwaves and heavy rain.
Producer: Sarah Swadling
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001lqn3)
The Language of Fascism
Michael Rosen speaks with Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor at Yale University to discuss the language of fascism. They discuss propaganda, slogans and ‘vermin terminology’ as well as how fascist language changes according to culture, geography and time.
Presented by Michael Rosen and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001lqn5)
Sir Edward Coke, prosecutor of Guy Fawkes
Edward Coke was born in Norfolk in 1552. He's best known as a judge and Parliamentarian, the link says Jesse Norman between Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. He was also, the programme claims, an occasionally appalling human being who used his own daughter in a marriage deal to buy himself favour with the King. Joining Jesse Norman in studio, often backing up his claims for Coke's greatness, is Dr Alexandra Gajda of Oxford University.
Jesse Norman is a government minister, former paymaster general and one time financial secretary to the Treasury.
The presenter is Ian Hislop, the producer Miles Warde
TUE 17:00 PM (m001lqn7)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lqn9)
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has defended his officers' actions, after anti-monarchy protesters were detained for hours, then released without charge
TUE 18:30 Wosson Cornwall (m001lqnc)
Series 1
3. It's Caroline Quentin's 'My Quaint Cornwall'
Dawn French and Edward Rowe star in a new sketch show with a Cornish flavour. Park the clichés and open your eyes to the reality of this wondrous funny and feral land.
This week Jess and LJ find themselves giving dubious marriage advice. We also meet Jack Rowe - 26 times Ferret Trouser Legging Champion and take a look at new gritty Cornish detective drama, "The Tamar... Bridge."
Recorded in front of an audience at the Acorn Theatre in Penzance, Wosson Cornwall? is a sketch show celebrating everything that makes real contemporary Cornwall a culturally rich and funny place - its people, its history and its modern way of life.
This is the third episode in a four part series with an entirely Cornish cast and writing team.
The cast includes Dawn French (Vicar of Dibley / French and Saunders), Edward Rowe (star of Bafta-winning film BAIT and HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon), Tamsyn Kelly (ITV2’s Stand Up Sketch Show, BBC New Comedian of the Year Award finalist 2021), Joanna Neary (Channel 4 sitcom Man Down and Gary Oldman film The Darkest Hour), Anna Keirle (award-winning Cornish stand-up, actress and writer) and award-winning actor Ciaran Clarke.
Written by James Henry, Morwenna Banks, Max Davis, Gareth Edwards, Nick Griffiths, Jane Harvey, Anna Keirle, Tamsyn Kelly, Edward Rowe Rosie Sosic and Alex Smith.
Script Editor: James Henry
Music: The Jolly Strumpets
Production Co-ordinator: Tamara Shilham
Sound Design: David Thomas
Produced by Simon Nicholls
A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001lqnf)
Jazzer’s in a good mood after pranking Martyn Gibson at work. He practises his Azerbaijani wrestling moves with Tracy ahead of tomorrow night’s Eurovision Show mini-rehearsal. Brad thinks it’s gross and embarrassing, nothing like the showmanship in World Wrestling Entertainment. Jazzer and Tracy determine to make it more of a spectacle, whipping themselves up by swapping insults. But then Tracy loses it and slams Jazzer against the sideboard, which leads to Jazzer storming out in high dudgeon. Later, Tracy’s dragged Brad to The Bull to do his homework while she’s serving. Jim’s dismayed to hear about the friction between Jazzer and Tracy. He mollifies Tracy by telling her that Jazzer thinks he’s the luckiest man alive to be marrying her. He’s grateful every day. Later, Tracy’s discussing with Brad what he should wear to the wedding, when Jim rushes in. It’s Jazzer - there’s been an accident!
Elizabeth’s impressed by Freddie’s Let It Grow gardening initiative in the grounds at Lower Loxley. Brad’s impressed by Freddie’s plans for putting together a mini-mix of Swedish bangers for the Eurovision Show. Later, Elizabeth confronts Freddie with evidence that the controversial painting of the ship’s officer has been badly damaged during its removal process. Freddie is stunned that Elizabeth thinks he deliberately cut it. Freddie insists it wasn’t him, eventually managing to convince Elizabeth. But now they will have to get a restorer in to repair it at great expense – and she dreads to think what the trustees will have to say about the matter.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001lqnh)
Dennis Potter’s newly discovered play, Cathi Unsworth on goth culture, artist Isaac Julien
Samira Ahmed speaks to John Cook, Professor of Media at Glasgow Caledonian University about his discovery of a previously unknown early version of the seminal screenplay The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter. Samira is also joined in the studio by Ken Trodd, who co-produced The Singing Detective for television.
Music writer Cathi Unsworth discusses her new book, Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth, which explores the enduring influence of Goth counterculture.
And the artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien reflects on his major retrospective, What Freedom is to Me, at Tate Britain.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001lqnk)
Sex education: Too much too young?
File on 4 investigates claims that children are being taught graphic and age-inappropriate material as part of their Relationship and Sex Education.
The government has brought forward a review into how sex education is taught in schools in England following concerns that children across the country are being taught lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely and 72 genders as part of their RSE.
We speak to teachers, parents, children and sex education providers to try and discover what's really happening in schools and where there are instances of bad practice, we ask if they're part of a systemic national problem in sex education or extreme examples used to push a political moral agenda.
Reporter: Kate West
Producer: Hayley Mortimer
Researcher: Shona Elliott
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Carl Johnston
Archive credits: This Morning, Good Morning Britain, TalkTV, GB News, Life Begins, Huntley Film Archives
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001lqnm)
Energy Account Health; Flying with Your Guide Dog
Helen Pownall contacted In Touch with the aim of warning other visually impaired people to keep an eye on their energy accounts. This was prompted when her visually impaired mother in law accumulated a credit of nearly five thousand pounds and she was no longer was receiving her bills in large print. Helen Pownall provides more information and we get advice from energy price comparison experts The Energy Shop.
The Civil Aviation Authority is reviewing their policies on accessible air travel; this encompasses guide and assistance dogs. We hear from the European Guide Dog Federation on what they'd like to see happen as a result and to the CAA, on what exactly they are looking at.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
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.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m001lqnp)
Do lonely brains see the world differently?
Ground-breaking discoveries in neuroscience, psychology and mental health are shared in scientific journals. And this gives them a stamp of approval. Before publication, articles go through rigorous checks by other experts in the field to assess if methods are watertight and the science stacks up. But sometimes, that might not be the case...
Claudia Hammond investigates an unsuspecting vehicle for misinformation: articles that look just like those used to share new discoveries but instead contain content which might not be up to scratch. In fact, some have previously been shown to accept complete fiction. Bradley Allf, PhD candidate at North Caroline State University, explained how he tested the boundaries for getting fabricated data published online, and science journalist, Ruairi Mackenzie, recounts his experience attending a scientific conference which seemed a bit bizarre.
We hear from one of the groups who have reached the final of the All in the Mind Awards 2023. After losing her son Finn to miscarriage in late 2021, Anna hid. She felt like no one would understand the grief she was feeling, which was exacerbated by PTSD. But one grey morning, she left the house for the first time to go to her local park and meet Chelsie from Matilda’s Mission. This charity, set up in 2022, aims to help individuals who have experience baby or child loss by organising a range of events for parents, grandparents and siblings. Chelsie experienced the loss of her first daughter Matilda in 2019, and wanted to bring people together with similar lived experience in the Lancaster area.
Could brains of people who feel lonely see the world in a different way? That is the question a new study tried to answer. Daryl O’Connor, professor of health psychology at the university of Leeds, gives an insight into how this processing might increase loneliness risk and also describes how mindfulness and compassion focused therapy may help refugees with symptoms of PTSD and depression.
Produced in partnership with the Open University.
Producer: Julia Ravey
TUE 21:30 The New Gurus (p0fh4dvx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001lqnr)
Donald Trump found guilty of sexual abuse
Also:
15 dead after Israeli attack on Islamic Jihad.
And
Imran Khan arrested.
.
TUE 22:45 Victory City by Salman Rushdie (m001lqnt)
Episode Seven
"On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about the kingdom of Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax, as a message to the future."
The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children is a gripping magic realist epic about the power of storytelling. In the wake of a battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world.
Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
Read by Dinita Gohil
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
TUE 23:00 The Confessional (m0011415)
Series 2
The Confession of Shaparak Khorsandi
Stephen Mangan takes another confession in the comedy chat show about shame and embarrassment.
Each week, Stephen invites a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional box to make three confessions. This is a cue for some rich and varied storytelling, and surprising insights. Settle back for more revelations of guilt and mortification.
This week, Stephen interviews Shaparak Khorsandi, a self-styled ‘spit and sawdust stand-up’ whose career also embraces success as a satirist, novelist and screen-writer. She recently received the prestigious James Joyce Award from Dublin University. She reveals a secret act of vandalism in her primary school loos, a story of hand cuffs and impulsive behaviour, and a tendency for taking comic retribution.
Other guests in this series include Olivia Williams, Anthony Horowitz, Ed Byrne, Konnie Huq and David Quantick.
Written and presented by Stephen Mangan
With extra material by Nick Doody
Produced by Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001lqnw)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 10 MAY 2023
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001lqny)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lqm8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lqp0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lqp2)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lqp4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001lqp6)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001lqp8)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001lqpb)
DEFRA's IT systems are outdated and inefficient, with two thirds of transactions every year still needing paper forms. That's according to a report published by the Public Accounts Committee of MPs, which says a multi-million pound "complete overhaul" is needed, to ensure air quality, safe food and water supply. The Department and it's agencies, provide services ranging from permits to move animals, and monitoring air quality, to paying grants.
We visit a pop-up campsite on a farm in Cornwall. Until the end of 2021, landowners and farmers, were granted temporary licences to run pop-up sites for 56 days, using facilities which could be dismantled at short notice. Last year those rules changed again, back to the standard 28 days. Operators are now waiting to hear the outcome of a consultation, which could allow temporary sites to operate for longer.
And Spalding Flower Parade used to take place each year to celebrate the tulip growing industry in Lincolnshire. But as tulip growing decreased and more flowers were imported, the parade died out, and the last one was held in 2013. Now,10 years on, the parade is back - and more than a million tulips are being cut, to adorn the floats for the event.
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09vzn2j)
Matt Merritt on the Curlew
Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine revels in sounds of approaching spring as the call of the curlew once more fills the air in this Tweet of the Day.
Producer Maggie Ayre
Photograph: Anthony Pope.
WED 06:00 Today (m001lrcg)
Join Nick Robinson and Martha Kearney as a civil case finds that Donald Trump sexually abused a woman nearly 30 years ago. We hear from a lawyer representing other women making allegations against Trump and from a leading Republican.
A baby has been born in the UK for the first time by using a pioneering IVF technique that uses the DNA from three people.
There's a new warning about prescribing anti depressants for chronic pain relief. We speak to one of the country's top pain experts.
Correction: We want to make clear that the journalist mentioned in an interview around 1hr 50mins into this episode is Evan Gershkovich, who works for The Wall Street Journal – not as stated in the live programme.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m001lrcq)
Speechless
Being a TV news anchor was everything to Polly Evans until she was forced to re-evaulate her identity. Her turning point happened in the spotlight – in front of an audience of hundreds of thousands – when she felt deeply exposed and humiliated. It was caused by a physical condition called Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia, but Polly’s journey since then has been one of self-knowledge and finding fulfilment in other ways, including a new career.
She braves the studio for the first time to tell this story to Dr Sian Williams.
WED 09:30 Please Protect Abraham (m001g358)
7. Just Pray
They remember it in vivid detail. The images have stayed in their minds for years. Abraham’s friends and family come together to retrace the events of a night that changed all of their lives.
Presenter and Original Research: Sam Holder
Series Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Story Consultant: Robert Awosusi
Additional Research: Christy Callaway-Gale
Theme music written and performed by Rebekah Reid and Tapp Collective.
Original music compositions by Femi Oriogun-Williams
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:45 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lrd0)
Episode 3
"A watchmaker’s world is not much bigger than a thumbnail.
I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself."
Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways.
In Hands of Time watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers welcomes us into the hidden world of watchmaking, offering a personal history of watches that spans centuries and continents. From her workshop bench, Rebecca explores the ways in which timekeeping has indelibly shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politics, exploration and mortality.
Written by Rebecca Struthers
Abridged by Jill Waters
Read by Phoebe Pryce
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001lrd6)
Malorie Blackman, Trump verdict, Kitemark for female-founded firms, Netball
Just Saying’ is a memoir by the bestselling author Malorie Blackman, former Children’s Laureate, best known for her Noughts & Crosses series for young adults. Malorie received eighty-two rejection letters before she finally found a publisher. Seventy published books later it is no exaggeration to say that Malorie Blackman has changed the face of British literature forever. Malorie joins Nuala to discuss her life and works.
Donald Trump says he will appeal the verdict of a New York jury in a civil case that found he sexually abused and defamed a woman. The woman in question E Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist, claimed the former US president attacked her in a department store in the mid 1990s. The civil trial rejected her claim of rape and in total the jury ordered Trump to pay five million dollars in damages to Carroll. Emma Long, Associate Professor in American History and Politics at the University of East Anglia joins Nuala.
The campaign group Buy Women Built is launching a kitemark to add to products made by female-founded firms to help boost their sales. This means that when you shop, you will be able to spot and buy from brands created by women - and in turn help their revenue. Nuala is joined by the founder of Buy Women Built, Sahar Hashemi OBE and Lemon Fuller, founder and CEO of Lemonade Dolls, a UK underwear start-up that is part of the Buy Women Built community.
England Netball have recently launched a new initiative aimed at supporting women and girls to play the sport at every life stage, by normalising conversations around pelvic health, the menstrual cycle and the menopause, and through offering guidance and support to all those involved in the game.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore
Studio Manager: Gayl Gordon
WED 11:00 The Truth Police (m001lqvg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 A Very British Cult (p0fdl4wz)
6. Control
We meet Simon, who ended up deep in Lighthouse, recruiting for them, monitoring their critics and living with his mentor. But one day Simon says he realised he was actually in a cult, and he had no choice but to pack his bags and run.
What happens when a life coach takes over your life? Catrin Nye and her team expose control, intimidation and fear at a sinister life coaching company.
Reporter: Catrin Nye
Written by: Jamie Bartlett and Catrin Nye
Producers: Osman Iqbal, Natalie Truswell, Ed Main & Jo Adnitt
Researcher: Aisha Doherty
Executive Producer: Ravin Sampat
Sound Mixing: James Bradshaw
Original Music by: Phil Channell
Commissioner: Rhian Roberts
WED 12:00 News Summary (m001lrdt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001lrf6)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m001lrfq)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m001lrg1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
WED 13:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jkrn)
3. All for nothing
Journalism can mean pushing your way into peoples’ lives at their worst moments.
Without a good a reason, it’s tourism. Or war porn. People disagree on what that reason is.
Reflecting on his reports from the Siege of Sarajevo, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen asks if it is enough to just report it straight.
Jeremy speaks with: journalist and environmental activist George Monbiot; Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose 1619 project won the Pulitzer Prize; former BBC correspondent Michael Buerk who speaks of his concerns following his coverage of the Ethiopia famine and two journalists Jeremy was with in Sarajevo: former Reuters journalist Sabina Cosic, and CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001lqnf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (m001lrgc)
Leaving (Part 2)
by Tessa Gibbs
A darkly funny family drama about love, loss and legacy - and why doing the right thing can seem like the wrong thing to do.
Part Two
Drew and Isla are still being held by the police.
Catriona ..... Georgie Glen
Isla ..... Anita Vettesse
Drew ..... Robin Laing
Esme ..... Anneika Rose
DS Wallace ..... Kyle Gardiner
Murdo .... Simon Donaldson
Produced/Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4WLs5NlwrySXJR2n8Snszdg/information-and-support-suicide-emotional-distress
WED 15:00 Money Box (m001lrgp)
Money Box Live: Making Sense of Mortgages
The Bank of England is expected to hike interest rates for the 12th month in a row this week and deposit-free mortgages are back after a 15-year-long absence from the market that stretches back to the financial crisis. We find out how they’ll really work, who can benefit from them and what interest rates mean for you whether you’re a renter, homeowner or prospective new buyer.
The experts in this podcast are, Nick Mendes, Mortgage Technical Manager at John Charcol, Charles Roe, Director of Mortgages at UK Finance and Rachel Springall, Finance Expert at Money Facts.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Amber Mehmood
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
3pm, Wednesday 10th May, 2023)
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m001lqnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m001lrh2)
Taste and Lifestyle
Taste and Lifestyle: Laurie Taylor talks to Ben Highmore, Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, whose latest study explores the ways in which consumer culture remade the tastes of an emerging middle class – from pine kitchen tables to Mediterranean cuisine. Did this world of symbolic goods create new feelings and attitudes?
Also, Michael McMillan, Associate Lecturer for Cultural and Historical Studies at the London College of Fashion, discusses the migrant experience of African-Caribbean families setting up home in the UK in the mid-20th century. How did the artefacts and objects which dressed the West Indian front room provide an outlet for feelings of displacement and alienation in a society where they weren't always made to feel 'at home'?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001lrhl)
Jeremy Bowen: seeing through the fog of war
Jeremy Bowen, BBC News' International Editor, talks about his career and new Radio 4 series, Frontlines of Journalism, which explores the obstacles that stand between journalists and the truth.
Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Simon Richardson
Studio Engineers: Andrew Garratt and Sue Maillot
WED 17:00 PM (m001lrj1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lrjg)
The publisher of the Mirror -- accused of phone-hacking on an "industrial-scale" -- has apologised to Prince Harry at the start of a seven-week trial.
WED 18:30 Lemn Sissay's Social Enterprise (m000c4vm)
Episode 3
Every year since 2013, the poet, broadcaster and author Lemn Sissay has arranged a Christmas dinner for people aged 18-25 who have left the care system and have no one with whom to have Christmas dinner. No one to give presents or receive them. No-one on the other end of the cracker.
This is not a charity. It isn't even an organisation. It's a project Lemn undertook because he understands how it feels - at 18 he was released from a children's home and given an empty flat in Wigan, with no-one in the world who had known him for longer than a year.
Lemn Sissay’s Social Enterprise is a four-part series for BBC Radio 4, considering what these dinners have taught him about charity, social enterprise, and people, through stand-up, interview and poetry.
This week he explores the idea of food - with the help of Nick Cole, the UK project director for Operation Christmas Child, and comedian Jason Cook.
Written and performed by Lemn Sissay
Guest: Nick Cole.
Guest: Jason Cook
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001lrj0)
A car ran into Jazzer last night and broke his ankle, and now his leg’s in plaster. Jazzer makes out it isn’t that serious, but Tracy is mortified. He could have been killed and it all started when she got carried away and slammed him into the sideboard… Tracy worries about Jazzer going on sick pay. Plus, they’ll have to pull out of Eurovision. She thinks they should put off the wedding as well, but Jazzer insists being in plaster won’t stop him getting married. When Jim arrives to check on the them, Jazzer and Tracy thank him for helping them after the accident. When Jazzer tells Jim it was an electric vehicle that hit him, it reinforces Jim’s views about the wrongness of building an EV charging station in Ambridge. If the car had hit Tracy or a child instead of Jazzer he wouldn’t be so blasé. Jim promises Jazzer they’re not going to take this lying down.
At the Eurovision mini-rehearsal Tracy has to explain to Lynda and Harrison about not being able to do the show. Tracy then stays to watch Eddie and Leonard perform their comedy double act, which turns out to be a sketch featuring Mrs Smell MBE and Sergeant Worms. Lynda and Harrison are gobsmacked by the impersonation, but Tracy thinks it’s hilarious. When they finish Eddie and Leonard fear at first they may have gone too far, but are delighted by Harrison and Lynda’s positive reaction. As Eddie says, even if Leonard isn’t funny as himself, he’s comedy gold as Harrison.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001lrjv)
Author Louise Kennedy, Royal patronage in the arts, beatboxer SK Shlomo
Louise Kennedy's debut novel Trespasses has been shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. Set in Belfast in 1975 at the height of the Troubles it traces the love affair between a young Catholic schoolteacher and an older man, a married Protestant barrister. Front Row will be talking to the authors on the shortlist in the weeks before the announcement of the prize on June 14th.
Musician and beatboxer SK Shlomo has collaborated with Björk, performed with Damon Albarn, Ed Sheeran and Rudimental, became World Looping champion and artist in residence at London’s Soutbank centre and played Glastonbury. They discuss their new show, which explores coming back to performance after struggling with their mental health.
And how might the patronage of King Charles III impact the arts? Art critics Jonathan Jones and Ruth Guilding discuss the history of Royal patronage and what his tastes may mean for culture in the coming years.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Harry Parker
WED 20:00 Bringing Up Britain (m001lrk5)
Series 16
Should I get my child tested for ADHD?
Rumours abound that fuelled by the pandemic and TikTok videos, parents are rushing off their feet to get a diagnosis for their children.
But do more children have ADHD and what should you think about when considering taking your child for an assessment? Is it always the right thing to do?
Anjula Mutanda meets mum Fran who worries her 13 year old daughter might have ADHD. She fidgets, can’t concentrate and is getting into trouble at school.
She is in two minds about taking her daughter for an assessment: NHS waiting lists are long and school haven’t mentioned it. And she is concerned about putting her on the medication so young – is it addictive, what are the side effects? On the other hand, are the downsides of never being diagnosed if you do have ADHD?
To help Fran decide, Anjula discovers what ADHD really is, where is comes from and why more boys seem to have it than girls. She finds out about the pros and the cons of medication and how yoga and cycling might help.
Anjula is joined by: Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Kings College London; Dr Jane Gilmour, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Dr Max Davie from ADHD UK, Consultant Adolescent Psychiatrist and CAMHS lead for North of Scotland Dr Kandarp Joshi, Dr Ellie Dommett from King's ADHD Research Lab and Assistant Head Teacher Sarah Finch.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
WED 20:45 Metamorphosis - How Insects Transformed Our World (m0017n26)
Namib Fog Harvesters
Dr Erica McAlister of London's Natural History Museum takes a look at some of the entomological pioneers, whose groundbreaking observations and experiments have led to some truly innovative developments.
Namib Desert beetles have evolved in a very special environment, where the only source of water exists in the air. For decades researchers tried to figure out what gave the beetles a unique superpower of drinking without water. Dr Erica McAlister hears how desert ecologist Mary Seely unravelled the mystery by discovering an ingenious series of structures on their wing scales to trap night-time fogs as they emerged to bask on the tops of sand dunes during these nocturnal pea soupers. It’s now inspiring engineers to develop industrial sized fog harvesting systems for collecting water in some of the most arid areas of the planet
With contributions from Max Barclay (Curator of beetles Natural History Museum, London) , physiologist Duncan Mitchell, (University of the Witwatersrand), ecologist Mary Seeley, physiologist Prof Andrew Parker (Oxford University)
Producer Adrian Washbourne
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (m001lqn1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001lrhl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001lrkh)
Archbishop of Canterbury attacks government migrants policy
Also
Another rise in interest rates.
And the Canadian MP who says his family was intimidated by the Chinese.
WED 22:45 Victory City by Salman Rushdie (m001lrkr)
Episode Eight
"On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about the kingdom of Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax, as a message to the future."
The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children is a gripping magic realist epic about the power of storytelling. In the wake of a battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world.
Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
Read by Dinita Gohil
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
WED 23:00 Jamie MacDonald: Life on the Blink (m001lrl1)
Series 2
Kermit the Nob
Jamie MacDonald is a Glaswegian stand-up comedian who lives with his blindness, despite those around him sometimes losing sight of what’s important in life.
Jamie examines pre-conceptions about disability, challenges stereotypes, and takes a hilarious trip down memory lane to see how far things have come.
In this episode Jamie shares stories of his time at school and the teachers that had a big influence on him, particularly when learning French. He also crystallises his experience of strangers asking the most ignorant questions about his sight.
Produced by Julia Sutherland
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Nurse (m0001ff1)
Series 3
Episode 6
Episode 6
Written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings.
Bittersweet comedy drama about a community mental health nurse.
It’s Nurse Elizabeth’s last week on the job. Billy has stolen a leaving present for Nurse Elizabeth, which she feels unable to accept. Cat Lady April has got rid of all of her cats, a move which makes Elizabeth frankly anxious.
Starring Paul Whitehouse & Esther Coles, with Rosie Cavaliero, Simon Day and Cecilia Noble.
Produced by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings; Associate Producer Tom Jenkins.
A Down The Line Production
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001lrlc)
News from Westminster with Sean Curran, including the highlights from PMQs.
THURSDAY 11 MAY 2023
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001lrln)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lrd0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lrlx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lrm4)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lrm8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001lrmd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001lrmj)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001lrmn)
The sun sets on the Government’s ‘sunset clause’ which would have meant thousands of laws inherited from the EU disappearing at the end of the year. The Wildlife Trusts welcome the news.
Avian flu has had a devastating impact on seabird populations. Today though, some rare good news: the Noss National Nature Reserve just off the east coast of Shetland is reopening to the public after closing last year due to the virus.
As part of our week looking at rural tourism, we visit a b&b in Devon which has been inspired by an Italian agriturismo, a farm where the food grown is part of the accommodation experience.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09l226r)
Andy Radford on the Green Woodhoopoe
Professor Andy Radford, a Behavioural Biologist at the University of Bristol describes the role of sound when it comes to competing choruses of Green Woodhoopoes.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Nigel Voaden.
THU 06:00 Today (m001lrcp)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001lrd7)
The Shimabara Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Christian uprising in Japan and its profound and long-term consequences.
In the 1630s, Japan was ruled by the Tokagawa Shoguns, a military dynasty who, 30 years earlier, had unified the country, ending around two centuries of civil war. In 1637 a rebellion broke out in the province of Shimabara, in the south of the country. It was a peasants’ revolt, following years of bad harvests in which the local lord had refused to lower taxes. Many of the rebels were Christians, and they fought under a Christian banner.
The central government’s response was merciless. They met the rebels with an army of 150 000 men, possibly the largest force assembled anywhere in the world during the Early Modern period. Once the rebellion had been suppressed, the Shogun enforced a ban on Christianity and expelled nearly all foreigners from the country. Japan remained more or less completely sealed off from the rest of the world for the next 250 years.
With
Satona Suzuki
Lecturer in Japanese and Modern Japanese History at SOAS, University of London
Erica Baffelli
Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester
and
Christopher Harding
Senior Lecturer in Asian History at the University of Edinburgh
Producer Luke Mulhall
THU 09:45 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lrmf)
Episode 4
"A watchmaker’s world is not much bigger than a thumbnail.
I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself."
Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways.
In Hands of Time watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers welcomes us into the hidden world of watchmaking, offering a personal history of watches that spans centuries and continents. From her workshop bench, Rebecca explores the ways in which timekeeping has indelibly shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politics, exploration and mortality.
Written by Rebecca Struthers
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Phoebe Pryce
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001lrf5)
Operation Identify Me, Iran, Rosie & Chris Ramsey, Race Across the World
Masih Alinejad, Iranian American journalist, women's rights campaigner and a Time Woman of the Year 2023, is an outspoken critic of the Iranian government. She joins Anita to talk about her fight for women's rights in Iran.
The winners of Race Across The World on BBC1, where travellers made it to a destination, choosing any route they liked, but with no flights or phones allowed. For this third series, those involved travelled from West to East Canada. Cathie Rowe and Tricia Sail celebrate their triumph.
For the first time, Interpol have released a list seeking information about 22 unidentified murdered women, whose names are a mystery. Anita is joined by BBC journalist Alice Cuddy to explain why this is happening, and forensic scientist Carina Van Leeuwen who is passionate about giving these women a name.
Rosie and Chris Ramsey, top podcast couple, join Anita to talk about the perils of producing a podcast when you’re married with children and you’re airing your dirty laundry in public for laughs, and their remarkable success including a new BBC1 series, 'The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show'.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Studio manager: Duncan Hannant
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001lrfp)
Searching for my son
In the chaos following Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February, Omar was separated from his son Ahmed after both were pulled alive from the collapsed ruins of their home. Omar's wife and older son were killed. But he believes Ahmed could still be alive.
Many children went missing in the aftermath of the earthquake. Some ended up in hospitals or childrens’ homes on the other side of the country and families have spent months trying to locate them. But for many of the estimated 3.5 million Syrian refugees, searching for lost loved ones is even harder - there are language barriers, a lack of money and they often don't have official I.D cards.
Omar has enlisted the help of Nadine, a fashion designer before the quake, whose now trying to reunite Syrian families. She and her team find both success and heartbreak. Emily Wither follows Omar, a Syrian refugee, as he searches for his son.
Presenter: Emily Wither
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Producers in Turkey: Zeynep Bilginsoy, Musab Subuh
Studio mix: Graham Puddifoot
Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Penny Murphy
(Omar pastes a poster of his son on a lamppost near his destroyed home. It reads: ‘Missing’. Credit: Musab Subuh)
THU 11:30 Great Lives (m001lqn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001lrs2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001lrgd)
Gap Finder - Cat Fletcher of Freegle
Today's Gap Finder is Cat Fletcher. She has helped save thousands of tons of stuff from going into landfill by creating a platform where people who have stuff they don't want can give it away for free to people who would like to receive it.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRDUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001lrgq)
Snoring Products
Research suggests four in 10 of us do it and it can even get so bad it’s been blamed for the breakdown of relationships. Snoring can be a living nightmare for you and your partner. But what if there was something that works to give you – and the people around you – a more peaceful night’s sleep?
Listener Neville got in touch with a recording taken by his wife of him snoring – and it’s pretty loud! He’s seen various solutions from throat sprays to nasal strips and even a chinstrap which literally keeps your mouth shut while you sleep. But do any of them actually work? Are they the best thing since Sliced Bread – or marketing BS?
I speak to experts to find out including an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon and a scientist who’s looked into the extreme end of snoring.
Once again 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 WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.
PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban
THU 12:57 Weather (m001lrh3)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001lrhk)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Sarah Montague.
THU 13:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jl28)
4. Rules and habits
For BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen, good reporting involves empathy. But the job of a foreign correspondent means being an outsider.
Detachment was once considered a journalistic virtue, but does lived experience allow you to tell a story more accurately? Is who we are an obstacle to getting to the real story?
Jeremy speaks with: Dean Baquet - until 2022 the executive editor of the New York Times; Emily Bell - professor of the Columbia University Journalism School and a director of the Guardian Media Group; Nikole Hannah-Jones whose 1619 project won the Pulitzer Prize; former Reuters journalist Sabina Cosic and former BBC bureau chief Milton Nkosi.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001lrj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (m000rc51)
Domino
Three generations of men from one family play dominos. But this is more than a game - it is a struggle for power. Rudolph Walker, Paterson Joseph and Stefan Adegbola star in Archie Maddocks' drama of long-buried resentments and dark secrets.
Directed by Emma Harding
Horsea.....Rudolph Walker
Quashie.....Paterson Joseph
Rico.....Stefan Adegbola
August.....Damian Lynch
Nurse/Resident.....Jane Whittenshaw
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001lrjf)
Wartime Secrets of Coleshill
Helen Mark visits Coleshill in Oxfordshire to learn about its wartime secrets. In 1940, with fear growing that Britain could be invaded by the German army, the estate became the training headquarters for a secret underground army. Over the next four years, thousands of country men - such as farmers, gamekeepers and foresters - were trained in underground resistance. They lived outwardly ordinary lives, but their job was to spring into action in the event of invasion, disappearing into bunkers buried in the landscape and emerging to disrupt the invading army through sabotage and hand-to-hand combat. Their life expectancy would have been around two weeks.
With its quiet countryside location, far from military targets but near good transport links to London, Coleshill was the perfect place for this top-secret training base. High walls around the estate also kept its activities shielded from prying eyes. Even after the war the cloak of secrecy persisted, and today most people have never heard of the role Coleshill played in Britain's wartime history.
Helen climbs down into a replica of the original underground operational base, used for training recruits, and finds out what life would have been like for these 'Auxiliary Units' or 'Auxiliers', as they were known. Sworn to secrecy, many never spoke of their experiences and took their knowledge with them to the grave. The feared German invasion never happened, so their services were not called on for real, and in many cases even their families never knew what the Auxiliers had signed up for. Now many people are piecing together their family histories and are keen to find out whether their fathers, grandfathers or uncles may have been part of one of the best-kept secrets of World War II.
Produced by Emma Campbell
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001lr2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m001lr4d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Princess (p0ff3d27)
Merida
Anita Anand is joined by the actor Carrie Hope Fletcher and Brenda Chapman, the animator, screenwriter and director of the Pixar movie Brave.
They discuss why Merida was such a monumental animated Princess and what makes the film’s portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship so revolutionary.
Producer: Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Editor: Ailsa Rochester
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001lrjz)
Can we prevent natural disasters?
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and hurricanes all have the power to cause deadly destruction. One event can lead to another, causing a chain reaction of devastation that can take years to rebuild from.
But do all natural events have to turn into a disaster? Is there anything we can do to mitigate their impacts? Gaia Vince speaks to Anastasios Sextos, Professor of Earthquake Engineering at the University of Bristol to find out how we can engineer buildings to withstand earthquakes, and Bruce Malamud, Executive Director of the Institute of Hazard Risk and Resilience at Durham University, to learn how we can build models to forecast the risk of a natural disaster occurring.
Lucy Easthope is a leading advisor on emergency planning and disaster recovery and a Professor in Hazard and Risk at Durham University. She joins Gaia in the studio to discuss her experience of being one of the first responders to disasters and how in fact, the way they unfold is more predictable than we might think. Ilan Kelman, Professor of Disasters and Health at UCL, also joins them to discuss the importance of social resilience, long-term planning and effective alert communication in managing and mitigating the aftermath of these events.
Presenter: Gaia Vince
Producer: Hannah Fisher
THU 17:00 PM (m001lrkc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lrkx)
One of UK's worst performing train operators is stripped of franchise and nationalised. Bank of England raises interest rate to 4.5%. UK supplies Ukraine with long range missiles.
THU 18:30 It's a Fair Cop (m000gn61)
Series 5
1. Police Complaints
There were over 30,000 complaints against the police last year. Some extremely serious, some trivial but all needed to be recorded. In this week's real case, Alfie finds himself the somewhat reluctant copper in charge of the station front desk as a procession of members of the public present him with their pressing problems.
Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001lrb2)
Elizabeth tells Freddie that a trustee, Brandon, is coming to discuss the damage to the painting. Freddie asks to come to the meeting too, since he’s got nothing to hide. When Brandon arrives, he disarms Freddie, who had expected an old crusty, by showing a keen interest in Freddie’s DJing. Elizabeth tells Brandon she takes full responsibility for the damage caused, but under questioning has to admit she had no oversight of the removal procedure itself – Freddie was in charge. Brandon’s disappointed at Elizabeth misleading him. Knowing Freddie’s issues with the painting, Brandon suspects Freddie’s diligence in supervising its removal. Furthermore, following wider discussions between the trustees, Brandon doesn’t think Freddie is ready to take over Lower Loxley in two years’ time as planned. Therefore, he is going to recommend they review the age at which Freddie inherits. Freddie reacts badly. Despite Elizabeth’s attempts to reassure him, Freddie declares he's had enough of trying to prove himself at Lower Loxley. He’s done with it.
Lilian welcomes Adil to the Dower House and they discover a shared appreciation of electric vehicles, before Lilian sets off in her own for lunch with a friend in Exeter. Later, frazzled Lilian returns after a nightmare journey back due to charging issues. Adil confesses it’s the anniversary of his wife Sabha’s death in a hit and run incident. He found Jazzer’s accident quite triggering. Lilian is very understanding and sympathetic, after losing Jenny and being made a widow herself many years ago. Adil is very grateful for her support.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001lrl7)
June Givanni on the PanAfrican cinema archive, Gwen John at Pallant House Gallery reviewed
In 2021, June Givanni was presented with the British Independent Film Awards Special Jury Prize for what was described as “an extraordinary, selfless and lifelong contribution to documenting a pivotal period of film history” with her extensive archive focussed on African and African diaspora cinema. The archive is now the subject of a new exhibition - PerAnkh: The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive. June joins Front Row to discuss turning her personal passion into a public resource.
Gwen John: the modern painter of interiors and solitary women, was once in the shadow of the men in her life - brother Augustus, Rodin, and Whistler. Critics Hettie Judah and Ben Luke review a new exhibition of her work at Pallant House Gallery, which considers her art and life, and her status as one of the most significant artists of the early 20th century. They also review Claire Kilroy’s novel Soldier Sailor: a searing portrait of new motherhood.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Eliane Glaser
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001lr9s)
The Online Safety Bill
The Online Safety Bill is a new set of internet laws to protect children and adults. It will place more responsibility on the technology giants to monitor content. Will it succeed?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Joshua Rozenberg, legal commentator and presenter of Radio 4’s Law In Action programme
Lorna Woods, Professor of Internet Law at the University of Essex
Victoria Nash is the Director, an Associate Professor, and Senior Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute
Gina Neff is the Executive Director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at the University of Cambridge
Produced by: Kirsteen Knight, Claire Bowes and Ben Carter
Edited by: Richard Vadon
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinators: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill
THU 20:30 The Patch (m001jt22)
Feltwell
One random postcode and a story you probably haven't heard before.
The postcode generator leads to Feltwell - a rural Norfolk village which is host to a small US military base, RAF Feltwell. The sky above the village is filled with the sound of military fighter jets. There are thousands of US military personnel living in this area. RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, and RAF Feltwell, all within a ten mile radius of the village, have been US Air Force bases for decades. Of the three bases, RAF Feltwell is the least notable, except for the three huge golf ball-like domes which sit on the base, their curved tops peaking out over the rooftops of the village. What are the domes doing here? The story takes us to The Pentagon and outer space...
Produced and presented by Polly Weston
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Made in Bristol by BBC Wales and West
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001lrjz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001lrd7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001lrlq)
US replaces immigration scheme
Also on the programme: Pakistan Supreme Court says arrest of former Primer Minister Imran Khan is illegal; and children left in tears by reading exam
THU 22:45 Victory City by Salman Rushdie (m001lrlz)
Episode Nine
"On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about the kingdom of Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax, as a message to the future."
The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children is a gripping magic realist epic about the power of storytelling. In the wake of a battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world.
Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
Read by Dinita Gohil
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
THU 23:00 Henry Normal: A Normal... (m0018x47)
Community
Henry Normal: A Normal... Community
"Shove up National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal"
Simon O'Hagan - Radio Times
The ninth instalment in this acclaimed, occasional series in which acclaimed, occasional writer Henry Normal uses poetry, stories and comedy to tackle those subjects so big only radio can possibly contain them.
So far Henry has covered ‘Family’, ‘Life’, ‘Love’, ‘Imagination’, ‘Nature’, ‘The Universe’, ‘Communication' and Ageing'; in this new episode, recorded in front of a live audience in his home city of Nottingham, he will be talking about 'Community'.
-
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.
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
Production Coordinator - Beverly Tagg
Sound manager - Jerry Peal
Produced by Carl Cooper
A BBC Studios production
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001lrm5)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
FRIDAY 12 MAY 2023
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001lrm9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lrmf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001lrmk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001lrmp)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001lrmr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001lrmt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001lrmw)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with writer and broadcaster, Anna Magnusson.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001lrmy)
12/05/23 Surplus of wheat and barley being stored on farms, whisky tourism, Balmoral Show
Farmers' barns are full of stored wheat and barley which was produced at high cost last summer, but now can only be sold at a loss. We hear what that could mean for grain markets.
All week we're hearing about rural tourism: a Northumberland tourist attraction and whisky distillery is using local farmers to supply the barley for the whisky.
It's show time again, and one of the first of the season is the Balmoral Show in Northern Ireland. It's a highlight in the agricultural calendar, important for socialising and showing off the hard work farmers put in, but post-Brexit it's also become a focal point for trade in breeding stock.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0423fpl)
Whimbrel
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the story of the whimbrel. Whimbrels are sometimes known as 'seven whistlers' from the number of notes in their call and in parts of the English midlands these sounds in the darkness gave rise to a folk tale about the six birds of fate which flew around the heavens seeking the seventh. When they were all reunited, went the story, the world would end. Mercifully, it wasn't true but it was our ancestor's way of interpreting the mystery of nocturnal migration.
FRI 06:00 Today (m001lr9l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001lr3k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Hands of Time by Rebecca Struthers (m001lr9n)
Episode 5
"A watchmaker’s world is not much bigger than a thumbnail.
I spend whole days working on mechanisms which can contain hundreds of tiny components. Each of them has a specific task to perform. Every morning when I sit at my bench, it is an adventure into a new timepiece with its own history to lose myself in. And in their history, we can find the history of time itself."
Timepieces are one of humanity’s most ingenious innovations. Their invention was more significant for human culture than the printing press, or even the wheel. They have travelled the world with us, from the depths of the oceans to the summit of Everest, and even to the Moon. They regulate our daily lives and have sculpted the social and economic development of society in surprising and dramatic ways.
In Hands of Time watchmaker and historian Rebecca Struthers welcomes us into the hidden world of watchmaking, offering a personal history of watches that spans centuries and continents. From her workshop bench, Rebecca explores the ways in which timekeeping has indelibly shaped our attitudes to work, leisure, trade, politics, exploration and mortality.
Written by Rebecca Struthers
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Read by Phoebe Pryce
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001lr9q)
Maureen Lipman, Kate Ferdinand, Power Lister Rimla Akhtar, Women ambassadors
In her latest stage role Dame Maureen Lipman plays Rose in a one-woman memory play with its Jewish heroine sitting Shiva – mourning for the many dead, and moving through Jewish twentieth century history. On stage alone for two hours, her performance has already sparked two sell out runs in London and Manchester, and now she’s back in the West End for a month. Maureen joins Anita live in the Woman’s Hour studio.
Blended families are created for all sorts of reasons. Because of break-ups or the death of a parent, through fostering or adoption. Kate Ferdinand married the former footballer Rio Ferdinand in 2019, four years after his first wife Rebecca and mother of their three children, had died. Now Kate has written How to Build a Family, the book she wished she'd had when she started out being a step mum.
Woman’s Hour Power List Leader Rimla Akhtar joins Anita to talk about her ground-breaking work in the world of women’s sport. She was ranked by Forbes and The Independent as one of the most powerful women in international sports, and was awarded an OBE in 2021 for her contribution to diversity and equality in sport.
What is it really like to be a female ambassador? A new Netflix show, The Diplomat, has got people talking about the role. It stars American actress, Keri Russell, as a new US ambassador to the UK, parachuted into the role in the midst of a crisis. It debuted at No 1 on Netflix’s weekly global Top 10 list. So, we wanted to know - is the life of a real diplomat as exciting? What do they get up to? We are joined by former ambassadors Jules Chappell and Laura Clarke to find out.
FRI 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001lr9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Thursday]
FRI 11:30 Ed Reardon's Week (m000x6bc)
Series 14
The Jethro Tree
Episode 3: The Jethro Tree
Ed revisits an old haunt when his daughter, Eli, asks him to join her and her fellow protestors at The Blackstone Oak, an ancient tree threatened by the HS2 network. Things take a complicated twist when Jaz turns up to shoot a promotional film for the development, Ed is approached to be the face of the film, and the lead protestor turns out not to be who she says she is.
Cast list ep 3
Ed Reardon………..Christopher Douglas
Eli………………………Lisa Coleman
Ping…………….……..Barunka O’Shaughnessy
Spike………………….Kathryn Drysdale
Jaz Milvain…….……Philip Jackson
Frank…………………Simon Greenall
Geoff/Cliff ………….Dan Tetsell
Bernice………………..Nicola Sanderson
Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis
Production Co-ordinator: Cherlynn Andrew-Wilfred
Sound Recordist and Editor: David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production first broadcast in 2021
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001lr9v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Archive on 4 (m001jc0d)
Oh Yoko!
“Dragon-lady”. “Witch”. “The woman who broke up the Beatles”. These are some of the labels that have been commonly used to describe Yoko Ono, a pioneering musician, artist, and activist who can plausibly claim to be one of the most maligned and misunderstood figures in the history of popular culture.
On this edition of Archive On 4, marking her 90th birthday, you’ll hear Yoko Ono on her own terms, in her own words.
Host Jennifer Lucy Allan, a music writer and broadcaster specialising in experimental sound, also assembles a collection of Yoko's peers, friends, and admirers.
Art historian Reiko Tomii reveals how the deprivation and danger of wartime Japan formed Yoko’s artistic worldview.
Sound artist Tomoko Hojo explores how an audience becomes Yoko Ono’s co-collaborator.
Fluxus poet Nye Ffarrabas remembers baring her bottom for one of Yoko’s seminal works.
Rock star Peaches reflects on Yoko Ono’s infamy.
Music writer David Keenan asserts that Yoko is "the best Beatle".
Producer: Mae-Li Evans
Executive Producer: Jack Howson
Sound Mix: Mike Woolley
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
BBC archive interviews featured:
Late Night Line-Up (BBC 2 - 1967)
Parkinson (BBC 1 - 1971)
Andy Peebles (BBC Radio 1 - 1980)
Face To Face (BBC TV - 1998)
Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4 - 1998)
Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (BBC 1 - 2003)
Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4 - 2007)
Andrew Marr Show (BBC 1 - 2007)
The First Time (BBC Radio 6 Music - 2016)
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001lr9y)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001lrb0)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Edward Stourton.
FRI 13:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jlbp)
5. The why is as important as the what
In early March 2022, days after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen was in Kyiv.
Back in the hotel after a day of reporting, the enormity of what was happening prompted an emotional reflection.
Jeremy speaks with: Piers Morgan, Emily Bell - Professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism and a director of the Guardian Media Group, Dean Baquet - until 2022 executive editor of the New York Times, journalist and environmentalist George Monbiot and CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001lrb2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001lrb4)
An Eye for a Killing
An Eye for a Killing – 3. The Innocent and the Guilty
Welcome to hell. The true story of Scotland’s notorious serial killers, Burke and Hare.
In his prison cell, William Burke confesses to a journalist that he took part in 16 murders in the space of ten months.
Jamie Wilson, a young boy living by his wits on the streets of Edinburgh, is one of the victims murdered by Burke and Hare. Neither man is charged with his death – but Jamie’s relatives continue to seek justice.
In the witness box at the High Court, Hare’s wife, Margaret, also accuses Burke of killing Madgy Docherty - who had travelled from Ireland to Edinburgh in search of her son.
Powerful five-part drama-documentary series from BBC Radio 4 with bonus scenes on BBC Sounds.
Written and dramatised by Colin MacDonald.
Narrator ….. Jack Lowden
Burke ….. Gavin Mitchell
Galbraith ….. Andy Clark
Jamie ….. Kyle Gardiner
Bobbie ….. James Rottger
Margaret Hare ….. Lucianne McEvoy
Madgy Docherty ….. Maureen Carr
Robert Knox ….. Simon Donaldson
Sir William Rae ….. Stuart McQuarrie
Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/director: Bruce Young
FRI 14:45 One to One (m001h497)
Grief: Ramita Navai and Richard Osman
As a journalist who investigates human rights abuses and conflict in countries that can be tricky to operate in, Ramita Navai is good at compartmentalising the trauma she's seen and feels mentally resilient. But when her own father died three years ago, she was - and still is - overwhelmed by the grief.
She talks to bestselling author and friend, Richard Osman about his experience of grieving for his estranged father compared with her own.
Produced by Caitlin Hobbs for BBC Audio.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001lrb6)
Portstewart
Can weeds replicate the genes of the plants around them? How do you grow a perfect hot chilli? Are some gardeners naturally green-fingered?
Kathy and her insightful team of gardeners are on the windswept coast of Portstewart in Northern Ireland. Ready to share their horticultural knowledge are self-proclaimed botanical geek James Wong, passionate plantsman Neil Porteous, and experienced garden designer Kirsty Wilson.
Later, Kirsty visits Glenarm Castle to have a chat with Andrea and her prickly companion Precious about what we can do in our own gardens to keep hedgehogs safe.
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Producer: Daniel Cocker
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 From Fact to Fiction (m001lrb8)
Curry Nation Chicken
Kamal found the coronation deeply moving - the spectacle, the pageantry and especially the hats. But now that the bunting is packed away her attention turns to righting an old wrong, with the help of her trusty frying pan.
Writer Sanjeev Kohli creates a fictional response to the week's news.
Read by Mina Anwar
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Writer, actor and presenter Sanjeev Kohli co-writes and co-stars in the Radio 4 comedy, 'Fags, Mags and Bags'. Television appearances include Channel 4's 'Fresh Meat', and 'Still Game' and 'Magpie Murders' for the BBC.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001lrbb)
Grace Bumbry, Don Short, Dame Rosemary Cramp, Wee Willie Harris
Matthew Bannister on
The opera singer Grace Bumbry who broke down barriers by becoming the first black performer at the Bayreuth Festival.
Don Short, the showbusiness journalist who coined the term “Beatlemania” and became good friends with the Fab Four.
Dame Rosemary Cramp, the archaeologist who deepened our understanding of the Anglo Saxon period.
And Wee Willie Harris, the flamboyant rock’n’roller name checked in Ian Dury’s song “Reasons To Be Cheerful”
Interviewee: David Brewer
Interviewee: Daisy Dunn
Interviewee: Professor Joanna Story
Interviewee: Jonathan Wingate
Interviewee: Tony Thorpe
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Royal Visit to Kenya - First Stage of the Commonwealth Tour, British Pathe, 1952; A taste of Beatlemania in the 1960s, CBS News, CBS YouTube channel, uploaded 21/01/2014; Don Short interview about the writing of his memoir 'The Beatles and Beyond', The Surrey Edit, YouTube uploaded 24/03/2020; Rosemary Cramp interview, On Site, BBC Radio, 03/09/1967; Professor Rosemary Cramp interview, PM, BBC Radio 4, 29/05/1979; Rosemary Cramp, Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, talks to Sue Macgregor about her life and work, BBC Radio 4, 08/12/1988; Meet The Archaeologist: Rosemary Cramp, YouTube uploaded 04/07/2014; Wee Willie Harris – Still Rocking, Celluloid Tapestry, YouTube uploaded 29/06/2023.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001lrbd)
Andrea Catherwood is joined by Jonathan Munro, BBC's Director of Journalism, to answer listeners’ comments on BBC Radio coverage of the coronation of King Charles III.
Jamie Bartlett discusses how he went about telling the extraordinary story in the BBC Sounds podcast Believe in Magic.
And listeners respond to the new evening schedule at 6 Music that brings changes to the Gideon Coe and Marc Riley shows.
Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m001lrbg)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001lrbj)
The head of the Wagner mercenaries says Russian soldiers are fleeing positions near a key battleground in east Ukraine; Moscow insists its forces around Bakhmut are standing firm.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m001lrbl)
Series 111
Episode 3
Andy Zaltzman quizzes the week's news. Providing the answers, hopefully, are Susie McCabe, Ian Smith, Andrew Doyle, and deputy political editor at ITV News, Anushka Asthana. This week features another troublesome priest, some bash-full policemen, and the rarest of all political animals, a happy Lib Dem.
Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-ordinator: Dan Marchini
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios Production
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001lrbn)
Writer, Keri Davies
Director, Gwenda Hughes
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris
David Archer ….. Timothy Bentinck
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley
Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe
Jazzer McCreary ….. Ryan Kelly
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Elizabeth Pargetter ….. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence
Adil Shah ….. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
Brandon ….. Samuel James
Mick ….. Martin Barrass
Rebecca ….. Rose Robinson
Rylan ..... Rylan Clark
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001lrbq)
Girls coming of age on film
As Judy Blume’s classic YA novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is adapted for the big screen, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore how a recent wave of coming of age films have looked at the subject from a teenage girl’s perspective.
Ellen speaks to critic Hannah Strong about the coming of age films that made her feel seen as a teen, from The Virgin Suicides to Welcome To The Dollhouse. She also talks to director Domee Shi about the inspiration for her 2022 Pixar film Turning Red.
And Mark talks to filmmaker and actor Marielle Heller about her directorial debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and why making a coming of age film can be a coming of age experience in itself.
Plus Nida Manzoor, director of teen comedy-drama Polite Society, shares her favourite teen girls on screen in Viewing Notes.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001lrbs)
Minette Batters, Dame Meg Hillier MP, Danny Kruger MP, Danny Sriskandarajah
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Marnhull Village Hall in Dorset with the NFU President Minette Batters, the Labour MP and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Dame Meg Hillier, the Conservative MP Danny Kruger and the CEO of Oxfam Danny Sriskandarajah.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001lrbv)
Dust to Dust
Rebecca Stott ponders the nature of dust, as Spring sunshine sharpens the sight of it gathering in the old house she is restoring. She reflects on the social history of Spring cleaning as traditionally women's work, and sees in the complex substance and symbolism of dust a reflection of our own mortality.
"We don't come to dust alone, we come to dust together and in history. And the dust we make as we move slowly through life into old age, mingles with the historic dust that the much loved houses we pass through and its previous occupants have made through time - in my case the dust of horsehair and deathwatch beetles and lead and lime."
Producer: Sheila Cook
Sound Engineer: Peter Bosher
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
FRI 21:00 Frontlines of Journalism (m001jlfc)
Frontlines of Journalism: Omnibus. Pt 1
Jeremy Bowen presents stories from the frontlines of conflict– and journalism itself.
Today’s journalists are no longer seen as non-combatants in battles – be they in real war zones or engaging in political and cultural reporting.
For the past four decades BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has reported from the frontlines of some of the most complex, contentious and contested conflicts in the world.
Now he reflects back on some of the most difficult stories he’s covered, and speaking with other journalists from around the world, explores some of the obstacles that get in the way of what the Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein described as 'the best obtainable version of the truth'.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001lrbx)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Victory City by Salman Rushdie (m001lrbz)
Episode Ten
"On the last day of her life, when she was two hundred and forty-seven years old, the blind poet, miracle worker and prophetess Pampa Kampana completed her immense narrative poem about the kingdom of Bisnaga and buried it in a clay pot sealed with wax, as a message to the future."
The new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight's Children is a gripping magic realist epic about the power of storytelling. In the wake of a battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga - literally 'victory city' - the wonder of the world.
Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
Read by Dinita Gohil
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
FRI 23:00 Americast (m001lrc1)
Americast delves into the issues and controversies that define the US as a nation
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001lrc3)
Mark D'Arcy reports on the debate over EU law, help for victims and the MP afterlife.