SATURDAY 29 JULY 2023
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001p248)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Attack Warning Red! by Julie McDowall (m001p20h)
Episode 5
The atomic bombs of 1945 changed war forever. The awesome power of the blast and its deadly fallout meant home in Britain fell under the nuclear shadow, and the threat of annihilation coloured every aspect of ordinary life for the next 40 years.
Families were encouraged to construct makeshift shelters with cardboard and sandbags. Vicars and pub landlords learned how to sound hand-wound sirens, offering four minutes to scramble to safety.
Thousands volunteered to give nuclear first aid, often consisting of breakfast tea, herbal remedies, and advice on how to die without contaminating others. And while the public had to look after themselves, bunkers were readied for the officials and experts who would ensure life continued after the catastrophe.
Today we may read about the Cold War and life in Britain under the shadow of the mushroom cloud with a sense of amusement and relief that the apocalypse did not happen. But it is also a timely and powerful reminder that, for as long as nuclear weapons exist, the nuclear threat will always be with us.
Mark Haddon describes the book as 'Simultaneously horrifying, weirdly nostalgic and darkly hilarious"
Written by Julie McDowall
Read by Jasmine Hyde
Abridged by Polly Coles
Directed by Eoin O’Callaghan
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p24j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p24s)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p250)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001p256)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p25b)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Goodmorning. I always loved visiting my grandma. We didn’t get there very often – it was a long way away – so seeing her was a real treat.
But, truth to tell, it could be quite stressful too. In the weeks leading up to our visit every object in her two room flat would have been dusted and polished within an inch of its life and from the moment we arrived she would be whizzing about the place producing food and drinks and generally spoiling us.
The trouble was, we never really got the chance to sit still and simply enjoy her company – which was what we’d actually come for.
And I thought of her when I discovered that today in many Christian traditions, the church remembers Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus and their very famous story – Lazarus dies, Jesus is sent for, He comes, raises Lazarus and visits their house where Mary sits at his feet to listen and Martha gets in a tizzy rushing about trying to entertain her guest.
Apart from that story we know nothing about Lazarus.
His sister Mary is a mysterious figure. What is clear is that she was a follower of Jesus – and when she had the chance to spend time with Him she was going to grab it with both hands.
Many of us would find Martha’s reaction perfectly reasonable – treating Jesus as an honoured guest.
But Jesus gently rebuked her – essentially telling her that all that busyness was actually a wasted opportunity when she could be spending time with Him and He with her.
God wants us to enjoy His company, not wear Him out with our busyness. Which strikes a very strong chord with me.
Lord, may we never forget that, whether with You or with those we love, time together is one of our most precious gifts. Help us to use that gift wisely. Amen
SAT 05:45 Living on the Edge (m001p1rx)
Portrush
Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.
Today: Lisa Abernethy shows Richard King around the RNLI station in Portrush.
Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.
In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001p6w4)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001p23l)
Stories of Sea and Stone
The town of Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast has long been associated with fossils. In this programme, Rose Ferraby finds out about new geological research which sheds light on changes to the marine landscape of thousands of years ago - and asks whether it has lessons to teach us for the future. She meets a geologist and a marine biologist who tell her about the latest research, and talks to an expert on Whitby jet to find out how this unique type of fossil has become so linked with the town. She also visits the town's newly-established lobster hatchery, where work is underway to hatch out and release hundreds of thousands of juvenile lobsters in order to conserve marine stocks.
Producer: Emma Campbell
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001p6wd)
Farming Today This Week: Panel debate from the Royal Welsh Show
Anna Hill hosts a special panel debate on the subject of land use in Wales, in front of an audience at the Royal Welsh Show.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001p6wn)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001p6wx)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001p6x7)
Peggy Seeger, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Ruth Birch, Dave Mustaine
Peggy Seeger is often described as the godmother of folk. She was married to Ewan McColl who led the British Folk Revival in the late 50s and 60’s and wrote The First Time Ever I Saw your Face, for her. Peggy’s been singing since the age of two; has played guitar, banjo, piano, electroharp, the concertina and Appalachian dulcimer. All of this is not surprising given she’s a member of the North American musical Seeger family.
Many songwriters have penned the lyrics – Love Changes Everything and in Ruth Birch’s case – it certainly did. Ruth was forced to leave the job she loved after the "horrific" experience of being interrogated by military police over her sexuality. She was an analyst in the Intelligence Corps having joined the Army in 1987 – where it was illegal to be gay until the year 2000 - and was investigated over her same sex relationship with Ju - who was an officer as they served together in Northern Ireland in the 1990s.
Dame Tanni Grey Thompson is one of the country’s greatest sports stars. A Baroness, gold medals aplenty, sits on the board of many organizations, TV and radio presenter and Mastermind veteran. Need we say more.
All that – plus the Inheritance Tracks of metal music icon Dave Mustaine.
Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jason Mohammad
Producer: Ben Mitchell
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (p0cj53jr)
Ancient Athenian Democracy
Greg Jenner is joined in Ancient Greece by special guests Professor Michael Scott and comedian Alice Fraser as they examine the start of democracy with the Athenians.
Aside from it obviously being a system that only benefited men, we will take a closer look at the fundamental issues that still apply today, why you’d want to avoid red ropes and broken pots, and just why the Romans disliked the very idea of it.
Research by Rosie Rich
Written and produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow
Project Management: Siefe Miyo and Isla Matthews
Audio Producer: Abi Paterson
A production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001p6sb)
Series 41
Henley on Thames
Jay Rayner hosts this week's culinary panel show from the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames. Joining Jay are materials expert Zoe Laughlin, specialist in contemporary African food Lerato Umah-Shaylor, best-selling food writer Ixta Belfrage, and double adorned Michelin star chef Tom Kerridge.
Jam packed into a swift 30 minutes, the panel discusses an array of culinary condiments and combinations. Whether it's the must-haves of pub snacks, or the heated subject of the ‘slate’ plate, Jay and his panel of kitchen experts indulge in a variety of food-based debates.
As the panel ponders the best alternative uses of tahini, Jay chats to John Maillard from Johnny Hot Stuff about the process of creating a perfectly balanced hot sauce.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001p20w)
Can we meet the net zero challenge?
As wildfires tear across southern Europe the need for urgent action on climate change becomes ever clearer. Reducing carbon emissions is a global challenge but can we meet it?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Attracta Mooney, climate correspondent at the Financial Times
Jemma Conner, Research Manager at YouGov
Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of Research for Cambridge Zero and Director of the Centre for Cambridge Climate Repair
Frederic Hans, climate policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute
Produced by: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Claire Bowes
Edited by: China Collins
Sound Engineer: James Beard
Production co-ordinator: Debbie Richford and Sophie Hill
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001p6z8)
Israel's culture war over the Supreme Court
Kate Adie introduces correspondents' and reporters' stories from Israel, Ukraine, Lebanon, the Czech Republic and Ghana.
This year has seen the streets of Jerusalem thronged with protests and demonstrations over the Netanyahu government's plans for legal and constitutional reforms, limiting the powers of Israel's Supreme Court. Paul Adams examines the wider social schism underlying political divides over the Court's role.
The Russian missile attack on the Ria pizzeria in Kramatorsk on Tuesday the 27th of June 2023 killed 13 people and injured over 60 more. Colin Freeman had been waiting to eat there that evening - but was called away less than an hour before the place was hit. He reflects on what Russia targets in Ukraine - and how.
With wildfires ripping through forested hillsides all around the Mediterranean, Lebanon is watching nervously. Its own woodlands - oak, cedar and pine - were badly burnt by forest fires in 2021, but experts hope that enlisting the help of local goat and sheep herders might prevent worse outbreaks this year. Lemma Shehadi explains.
Frank Gardner, the BBC's Security Correspondent, has visited Prague many times over the past 40 years - and was recently there to hear the head of Britain's MI6 speak in public about the modern world's security concerns. He remembers scenes from 1983 and 1990 - and an entirely different Europe.
And in Ghana, Naomi Grimley goes on a flight of fancy - with some of the species of bats to be found in and around Accra. As a global health reporter, she used to see them more as a reserve for possible disease outbreaks, but some of the passionate bat researchers and academics at the University of Accra opened her eyes to the animals' more appealing qualities.
Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production Co-ordinator: Sabine Schereck
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001p6zq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001p6nh)
Care Homes, Consumer Duty and Stamps
Care home leaders are the latest group criticising the Government for failing to get £400 of winter fuel help to the people entitled to it. The Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Fund was supposed to help nearly one million households who don't pay an energy supplier directly. 20,000 households in care homes got this money, but according to new BBC Verify analysis for this programme that suggests 1 in 7 who were eligible, didn't. The government says it spent billions of pounds helping millions of households last winter with their energy bills, covering nearly half the cost of a typical household's bill.
On Monday major changes begin in the way we are sold financial products and services by regulated firms like banks, insurers, advisers. Not only will they have to stick to the 20 year old rules about treating customers fairly. They will be subject to a new Consumer Duty. What is it and what does it mean?
A scheme which offers debt advice and help with money problems through doctors’ surgeries, is being extended thanks to some new funding. We first reported on the trial two years ago. Since then the Centre for Responsible Credit which runs the scheme says hundreds of people have been helped to access hundreds of thousands of pounds in support.
Plus, from 1st August most old first and second class stamps without barcodes are no longer valid. What should you do if you still have any old stamps?
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast,
12pm Saturday 29th July, 2023)
SAT 12:30 The Newsmakers with Rachel Parris (m001p24y)
The first of our satirical specials this summer. The Newsmakers is an interview show where host Rachel Parris will deliver her views on the week's news and then talk to the people at the centre of those stories, from journalists to MPs to yacht-attacking orcas - all of whom are fictional, and played by comedians.
Presented by Rachel Parris
Guests:
Rosie Holt
Nim Odedra
Sam Pamphilon
Michael Spicer
Bilal Zafar
Additional material: Erika Ehler, Gareth Gwynn & Robin Morgan
Recorded and edited by David Thomas
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m001p704)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001p70d)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001p22q)
Julian Dunkerton, Andrew Griffith MP, Charlotte Pickles, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Charfield Village Hall in Gloucestershire with Julian Dunkerton, Andrew Griffith MP, Charlotte Pickles, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001p70r)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week
SAT 14:30 Drama on 4 (b0bgvdmf)
Unmade Movies
Dennis Potter's The White Hotel
The world premiere of Dennis Potter’s unproduced screenplay of DM Thomas's award-winning novel, starring Anne-Marie Duff and Bill Paterson. The drama is introduced by a short documentary.
Circus performer Lisa visits Dr Probst, a celebrated Berlin psychoanalyst, to discover the cause of the mysterious pains she is experiencing in her left breast and pelvis. As Probst attempts to unravel the true cause of her pains, he is sure that the answer to Lisa’s condition lies in her past and her realisation, after her mother and uncle are killed in a hotel fire, that the two of them were having an affair.
When Lisa allows Probst to read her secret journal, he is stunned by her erotic fantasies and sexually charged description of an imaginary relationship with a lover at a white hotel, a grand baroque spa.
Their passionate lovemaking seems to provoke strange disasters - premonitions of the catastrophe that will soon overwhelm Lisa and Kolya.
Lisa initially plays along with Probst’s investigations of her past, but eventually reveals that she also experiences unsettling premonitions. “I see what is going to happen. And what is going to happen cannot be endured.”
Is her trauma really the result of childhood memories, or could it be a dark premonition of the future?
The drama is preceded by a short documentary, The Long Road to the White Hotel, telling the story of the many failed attempts to bring DM Thomas’s novel to the screen and the making of the Radio 4 drama of Dennis Potter’s screenplay.
Cast:
Lisa.........................................Anne-Marie Duff
Probst....................................Bill Paterson
Narrator................................Simon McBurney
The Lover.............................David Gyasi
Victor.....................................Nigel Lindsay
Aunt Magda........................Morwenna Banks
Vera / Old Woman /
Wife........................................Jasmine Jones
Various..................................Wayne Forester
Officer / Captain /
Maître d′ / Old Man.............Nick Underwood
Kolya.......................................Felix Jamieson
Little Lisa................................Tillie Murray
Written by DM Thomas
Original Screenplay by Dennis Potter under licence from Briarpatch Limited L.P
Directed by Jon Amiel
The Long Road to the White Hotel feature by Overtone Productions.
Producers: Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui
A Dancing Ledge production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:15 Woman's Hour (m001p712)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Men and stopping sexist behaviour, Grenfell play, Date Stacking
What role should men play in stopping sexist behaviour? Several campaigns have aimed to tackle this, the most recent being the Mayor of London’s Maaate initiative. To discuss we're joined by Karen Whybro, a woman’s safety consultant and Graham Goulden, the former Chief Inspector at Police Scotland who now offers training to organisations to improve team culture.
This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire where 72 people lost their lives. A new play created from interviews conducted with a group of survivors has opened at the National Theatre. Grenfell: in the words of survivors follows the lead up to the disaster, the night of the fire, and the Grenfell Inquiry which followed, and is still ongoing. We're joined by its writer Gillian Slovo and actor Pearl Mackie.
‘Date stacking’ is the latest trend being tried by single people to find love, quickly. The concept, designed to save time by squeezing in several dates in the space of a few hours, went viral on TikTok earlier this year. But can you really decide if you like someone while preparing for the next date? We discuss the pros and cons with journalist Roisin Kelly and dating strategist Johnny Cassell.
Anna Sewell was the author of Black Beauty, one of the bestselling novels of all time. Despite suffering ill health throughout her life, she managed to rouse the conscience of Victorian Britain and make her mark upon the world. Dr Celia Brayfield tells us about her life and the impact of the book on animal rights.
How much time would it take to photograph every single item in your home? Photographer Barbara Iweins spent four years documenting the 12,795 objects she owns. She explains the inspiration behind the project.
Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Sarah Crawley
SAT 17:00 PM (m001p71f)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 All Consuming (m001p22b)
Glasses
From the first spectacles that perched on noses around 750 years ago to AI-enhanced glasses for the visually impaired, we have been harnessing science - and design - to help us see for centuries.
Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala peer into the wonders of glasses that bring the world into focus for an estimated 4 billion adults around the world.
We visit the UK’s largest collection of eyewear - the British Optical Association Museum where we meet curator, Neil Handley. Jessica Glasscock, author of Making a Spectacle, reveals how the Harlequin frame – better known as the cat eye frame - transformed glasses for women in the US in the 1930s.
Meanwhile, historian Jo Gooding explores the role of the British welfare state in influencing glasses styles and the unintended consequences that arose from state provision.
For the UK consumer, things changed dramatically in the 1980s and Graham Daldry, former Creative Director of Specsavers shares the secrets of the winning ‘Should’ve gone to…’ campaign. And taking us to the next level, Karthik Mahadevan, the Founder and CEO of Envision gives us a demo of glasses that use AI and camera technology to assist people who are severely visually impaired.
Presenters: Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001p71v)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001p723)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p72c)
Environmental groups say they will "not stand by" if ministers water down green policies
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001p6nk)
Freema Agyeman, John O'Farrell, Dr Xand van Tulleken, Ravinder Bhogal, Lady Nade, Saramaccan Sound, Sara Cox, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by Freema Agyeman, John O'Farrell, Dr Xand van Tulleken and Ravinder Bhogal for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Lady Nade and Saramaccan Sound (Suriname)
SAT 19:00 Profile (m001p6z7)
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving Prime Minister, but his government’s plans for judicial reform have triggered one of the most serious crises of his political career.
Timandra Harkness looks at the life of the man who has won six elections and who is known to his supporters as 'King Bibi'.
Credits:
The Hoover Institution: “Bibi: My Story,” Benjamin Netanyahu On His Life And Times
The 92nd Street Y: Benjamin Netanyahu and David Rubenstein in Conversation
Presenter: Timandra Harkness
Production: Sally Abrahams, Diane Richardson, Alix Pickles
Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Sound Engineer: James Beard
Editor: Damon Rose
SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0fwwxpv)
Series 27
Ancient DNA Secrets
Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Horrible Histories alum Ben Willbond, ancient DNA experts Prof Turi King and Dr Tom Booth and Nobel prize winner Sir Paul Nurse, as they uncover some of the incredible revelations being revealed through study of ancient DNA. The discovery of the skeleton of Richard III under a Leicester car park made headlines around the world.Turi King talks about her involvement in identifying the regal remains using DNA extracted from his teeth and how she was able to prove that these ancient bones really did belong to King Richard. The panel also hear about a mysterious box of bones found in Winchester Cathedral purporting to date from the 8th and 9th century that could belong to some of our ancient Anglo Saxon kings and queens of England, including those of King Canute and his wife Queen Emma. Could the study of ancient DNA change our understanding of history, and perhaps even upset the line of succession?
New episodes are released on Saturdays. If you're in the UK, listen to the full series first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3K3JzyF
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001p6zx)
Shticks and Stones: Jewish Comedy and Anti-Semitism
David Schneider delves into the archives to explore what makes Jewish humour distinct and how it reacts in times of rising antisemitism.
We begin in 1903 with the American-born comedian Julian Rose, whose star began to fall as US audiences grew tired of the Jewish stereotypes in his act. He moved to Britain where he became a popular act, billed on BBC Radio in the mid-1920s as "Our Hebrew Friend."
David will also excavate the vibrant Yiddish theatre scene thriving in the East End at the same time that Julian Rose played the Palladium. During WWII musical comedies combined British patriotism and zionism to offer vital escapism from the horrific genocide playing out in mainland Europe.
As he examine the huge success of Jewish comedians in the US in the decades following the war with stars like Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks and Danny Kaye, whose influence dominated our idea of Jewish comedy even in the UK, David seeks to understand what defines Jewish humour and why it captured the mainstream in the later 20th century.
Revisiting classic scenes from Mel Brooks' The Producers, Seinfeld, and later Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat David traces the red lines between triumph and tastelessness, and how Jewish comedians have used taboo topics to expose and ridicule antisemitism.
And David takes in the contemporary landscape of British Jewish comedy. We'll look at the success of the sitcom Friday Night Dinner and meet a generation of younger British comedians, such as the comperes of popular LGBTQ+ Jewish night Buttmitzvah who proudly discuss their Jewish identities onstage in the face of rising antisemitism.
Featuring David Baddiel, Robert Popper, Judy Gold, Devorah Baum, Katie Power, David Rose, Talie Reese, Katie Price, Tom Joseph, Alex Eisenberg and Candy Gigi.
Featuring clips from:
Seinfeld - NBC, West Shapiro Productions, Castle Rock Entertainment.
Levinsky at the wedding - Julian Rose, Columbia Records
Yiddishe Jazz - Julian Rose, Edison Records.
Ich Such a Job - Joseph Sherman
The King of Lampedusa - by SJ Harendorf, performed by David Schneider and Shane Baker.
The Court Jester - Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, Dena Enterprises, Paramount Pictures
Rumenye Rumenye - The klezmer conservatory band, Rounder Records, Concord music group
Caesar’s Hour - Clark Jones, NBC, Shellrick productions
Jewish or Goyish - Lenny Bruce, UMG, Fantasy Records
The Producers - Sidney Glazier, Crossbow Productions Embassy Pictures, Mel Brooks
Curb Your enthusiasm - Larry David, HBO.
Judy Gold - at the 2014 Just for Laughs festival
Saturday Night Live - Broadway Video, NBC
The Real Mccoy - BBC2, BBC TV
Knowing Me, Knowing Yule - Talkback Productions, BBC 1
Grandma’s House - Tiger Aspect productions, BBC 2
Friday Night Dinner - Popper Pictures, Big Talk productions, Channel 4
Tracey Ullman breaks the news - BBC Studios, BBC 1
Borat - Sacha baron Cohen, Larry Charles, Four by Two Films, 20th Century Fox,
Katie Price at the covent garden comedy club - A Rush of Laughter
Links and Further Reading:
‘Hebrew Acts in the British Music Hall: The Career of Julian Rose’, Daniel Appleby, Jewish Historical Studies https://www.jstor.org/stable/48733572
Information on the New Yiddish Theatre at the Adler Hall https://www.jewisheastend.com/yiddishtheatre.html
Curb Your Judaism - Radio 4 Extra
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015n6q1
SAT 21:00 GF Newman's The Corrupted (m000hhtb)
Series 5
Episode 5
It's the 1990s and Brian Oldman is still in jail for a crime he didn't commit.
He found a man in jail able to prove his innocence - but that man was soon found dead in his cell. He suspects that Joseph Oldman, now Sir Joseph Olinska MP, organised the killing.
GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman/Olinska 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 a nexus of crime, business and politics that’s 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. Now ennobled and on the board of Lehman Brothers, Joseph intends to extend his business interests into Russia with the help of Boris Yeltsin and his cronies. John Major is now the Prime Minister and a young man from the left, Tony Blair, also seems keen on making Joseph’s acquaintance. Meanwhile, Joseph is trying to divorce his first wife, Catherine.
The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.
Sir Joseph Olinska Toby Jones
Brian Oldman Joe Armstrong
George Carmen/Tony Blair Nigel Cooke
Brian Perry/DAC Henderson Nicholas Murchie
Warder Peters/Judge Kelman Paul Kemp
Leah Cohen Jasmine Hyde
Sir Ralph Courtney Nick Sampson
Margaret Courtney Flora Montgomery
Alex Murray/Inspector Vallins John Hastings
Nurse Moriarty/Reggie Kray Lucas Hare
Eddie Richardson Charles Davies
Pongo Damian Lynch
Sonia Hope/Rita Sarah Lambie
Julian Tyrwhitt Jonathan Tafler
Lord Carson Jamie Newall
Jack Braden John Hollingworth
Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 21:45 The Skewer (m001p1xb)
Series 9
Episode 6
Jon Holmes's comedy current affairs concept album remixes news into award-winning satirical shapes. This week - Hot Greece, Making Banking Plans For Nigel, and Oppenheimer meets Ed Davey's cardboard cannon.
Created and produced by Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:00 News (m001p707)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Add to Playlist (m001p22d)
Debbie Wiseman and Sam Sweeney head from the slopes to the ice
Film and TV composer Debbie Wiseman OBE and musician and fiddler Sam Sweeney, formerly of the folk group Bellowhead, join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they choose the next five tracks, in the penultimate episode of the current series.
This week's journey takes us from a popular Sunday evening TV theme to an Etta James classic via the 1984 Winter Olympics.
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Pop Goes Bach (the Ski Sunday theme) by Sam Fonteyn
We Will be Absorbed by Spiro
Ponto Das Caboclas by Moça Prosa
Boléro by Maurice Ravel
I’d Rather Go Blind by Etta James (Jeffrey)
Other music in this episode:
Mack the Knife by Louis Armstrong
Alleluia by Debbie Wiseman, sung by The Ascension Choir
A far l'amore comincia tu by Raffaella Carrà
Bach Street Prelude. performed by Vanessa-Mae
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
These Arms of Mine by Otis Redding
I've Been Wrong So Long by Bobby Bland
SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (m001p1lj)
Series 13
Keele University
Coming this week from Keele University, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.
The specialist subjects this week are film studies, medicine and law so the questions involve catabolics, contracts and Carry On up the Costa Plonka. And if you thought there were only eight states and territories in Australia, prepare to be mildly amazed.
TThe show is recorded on location at a different university each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.
In this series, the show goes to Exeter, Strathclyde, Keele, King’s College London, Portsmouth, and Somerville College, Oxford.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:30 Yeti (p0fxt7q3)
5. The Yeti Jewellers
Yeti enthusiast Andy is in Nepal where he’s stumbled across a photo of strange footprints in the snow. Could these belong to a yeti?
Andy tracks down the photographer who tells him he’s seen footprints several times. He says yetis are often seen by nomads who make necklaces from yeti hair.
Can Andy track down these nomads and get hold of some yeti hair? This means travelling up to the remote district of Lo Mantang, hot on the trail of yeti evidence.
In this 10-part documentary series, Andrew Benfield and Richard Horsey travel through India, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan in search of stories of yeti sightings and encounters. They hear from villagers, yak herders, sherpas and mountaineers, who give surprisingly consistent descriptions of a mysterious, large, hairy creature. This series takes us on a journey deep into Himalayan culture as the presenters grapple with their own inner demons to try to make sense of the yeti myth.
Producer: Joanna Jolly.
Executive Producer: Kirsten Lass.
Sound designers: Peregrine Andrews and Dan King.
Composer of original music: Marisa Cornford.
Assistant Producer Maia Miller- Lewis.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUNDAY 30 JULY 2023
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001p70j)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Playing at Power (m001p1pr)
In 1971, actor Richard Burton was invited by Josip Broz Tito, Former President of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to play him in the partisan film, Battle of Sutjeska (1973).
The film, Battle of Sutjeska, tells the story of the greatest engagement of the Yugoslav Partisan War.
The potential for this relationship between actor and politician, both interested in each other’s roles in life, to become fast friends seemed a surety. Yet, the realities of running a country and being a leading man meant the relationship was doomed from the start.
Through interviews, film archive and extracts from Burton’s diary, Matthew Sweet explores how celebrity and politics, art and power collided on a film set.
With contributions from Professor Chris Williams, Professor Gethin Matthews, Slavko Stimac, Filmmaker Mila Turalijic and Journalist Jurica Pavicic.
Richard Burton’s Diary extracts are read by Johnny Flynn
Archive from Filmski Centar Sarajevo, BBC Photo Archive, Richard Burton Archives at Swansea University.
Special thanks to Sally Burton.
Presenter: Matthew Sweet
Producer: Mollie Davidson
Executive Producer: Richard Power
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p70v)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p716)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p71j)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001p71z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001p6nr)
St Michael's, Angersleigh, near Taunton in Somerset
Bells on Sunday comes from St Michael's, Angersleigh, near Taunton in Somerset. St Michael's 14th Century tower houses a peal of 6 bells, three of which are 15th century. The tenor weighs twelve hundredweight and tuned to A flat and was cast in London in 1499. We hear them ringing Grandsire Doubles
SUN 05:45 Profile (m001p6z7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001p6m8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b012wckp)
Rabindranath Tagore: Unity in Diversity
For the 150th anniversary of the birth of visionary polymath Rabindranath Tagore in 2011, Mark Tully presents a special edition of Something Understood exploring Tagore's vision of the unity of all creation.
Tagore was a Nobel prize winning poet, author, musician artist and philosopher. He argued for the essential 'oneness' of humanity and aimed to heal the divisions between East and West, science and spirituality and man and nature. Mark Tully asks what we can learn from Tagore's belief that 'truth implies unity, a unity expressed through many and varied manifestations, a unity which, when we are able to realise it, gives us freedom'.
Mark speaks to Vandana Shiva, a philosopher, physicist, and globally renowned environmental campaigner, who explains her understanding of Tagore's concept of the universal.
We hear music from around the world - from sarode player Wajahat Khan to Purcell's 'Ode to St Cecelia'. And we learn that Gustav Holst immersed himself in Hindu mysticism and spirituality. His series of choral hymns from the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Hindu scriptures, was the outcome of that experience. Readings come from William Cullen Bryant - an American romantic poet inspired by the wildness of the forest, Jean-Paul Sartre and, of course, from Tagore himself.
Producer: Jo Coombs
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001p6mg)
Feeding the city – and its dreams
On the western edge of Edinburgh land is in short supply, but a team of enthusiasts has taken over 100 acres of prime farmland that has, remarkably, remained undeveloped. Staff and volunteers at Lauriston Farm are learning how best this place – which was only saved by its view – can be used to feed local people, and feed the need for nature and outside space. But just how do you make a farm pay when, so far, it’s just a market garden a few allotments and a heap of dreams?
Produced and presented by Richard Baynes
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001p6mj)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001p6ml)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001p6mn)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001p6mq)
Hand in Hand International
Sandi Toksvig makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Hand in Hand International.
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 ‘Hand in Hand International’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Hand in Hand International’.
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: 1113868
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001p6ms)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001p6mv)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001p6mx)
'Human'
For three weeks each summer twelve thousand Christians gather in the beautiful setting of the Lake District town of Keswick. The theme of the Keswick Convention this year is 'Human.' Preacher Efrem Buckle, of London City Mission, speaks of his experience of helping disadvantaged people in the nation's capital find that God values their individuality and humanity, exploring biblical texts from Genesis 3 and Matthew 26. Keswick Ministries exists to inspire and equip Christians to love and live for Christ in his world. With Emu Music directed by Philip Percival. Producer: Philip Billson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001p22z)
Freddie Mercury's Moustache Comb
Stephen Smith on our fascination with the belongings of the rich and famous... or infamous.
'Years ago, after the fall of the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu,' writes Stephen, 'I entered his by now ransacked hunting lodge and made off with the late president's ....coat hanger. That's right: Ceausescu's coat hanger.'
As the possessions of the altogether more savoury personality, Freddie Mercury, go on show next week before they are auctioned, Stephen ponders why we aspire to have and to hold something which belonged to a notable figure.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Editor: Bridget Harney
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b08y1f9c)
Danielle Meyer on the Gannet
RSPB community and volunteer development officer Danielle Meyer recalls working with gannets on Bempton cliffs in Yorkshire.
Producer Tom Bonnett.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001p6mz)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001p6n1)
Writer, Keri Davies & Tim Stimpson
Director, Dave Payne
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer ….. Blayke Darby
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Pip Archer ….. Daisy Badger
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early
Ed Grundy ….. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ….. Emerald O'Hanrahan
George Grundy ….. Angus Stobie
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Will Grundy ….. Philip Molloy
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell
Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Hannah Riley ….. Helen Longworth
Rob Titchener ..... Timothy Watson
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001p6y1)
Toto Wolff, Formula 1 executive
Toto Wolff is CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes Formula 1 motor racing team. He has led the team to an unprecedented seven consecutive drivers’ championships – six with Lewis Hamilton - and eight consecutive constructors' championships. He is the most successful manager in Formula 1 history, and arguably one of the most successful managers in any sport.
Toto was born Torger Wolff in Vienna. When he was eight his father was diagnosed with a brain tumour and died when Toto was 15. Toto found himself looking after his mother and sister from a young age which he believes contributed to the strength of character he developed as an adult.
Toto's original ambition in motorsport was to be a driver, and he started competing in his late teens. Following the deaths of drivers Ayrton Senna and then Roland Ratzenberger, his sponsor withdrew support, which forced him to give up his dream. He turned his attention to business and made a fortune as an entrepreneur.
In 2009 he bought a stake in the Williams Formula 1 team and four years later bought a 30% stake in the Mercedes team.
Toto is married to the former racing driver Susie Stoddart and they divide their time between the UK and Monaco. Their six-year-old son Jack is already showing an interest in karting.
DISC ONE: Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
DISC TWO: Mama - Genesis
DISC THREE: Money Can’t Buy It - Annie Lennox
DISC FOUR: Iron Sky - Paolo Nutini
DISC FIVE: We Are The Champions – Queen
DISC SIX: Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
DISC SEVEN: Fallen - Lauren Wood
DISC EIGHT: The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
BOOK CHOICE: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
LUXURY ITEM: Diving fins and a mask
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Fallen - Lauren Wood
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001p6yf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001p1lw)
Series 79
Episode 3
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Regent Theatre, Ipswich. On the panel are Vicki Pepperdine, Omid Djalili, Andy Hamilton and Henning Wehn with Jack Dee in the umpire’s chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001p6yx)
Feeding Your Brain: A Users Guide.
Dan Saladino and psychologist Kimberley Wilson explore the latest science about food, mental health and boosting our brain power.
Featuring Professor Michael A Crawford (Imperial), Professor Felice Jacka, Professor Felice Jacka of the Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University, Australia and Professor Ted Dinan, psychiatrist at University College Cork. Also, from the Radio 4 archive, Dr Bernard Gesch, Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford (featured in The Food Programme 2005), Dr Simon Dyall, nutritional neuro-scientist at the University of Roehampton (Just One Thing) and Allesandra Borsini, Senior Research Fellow at Kings College (All In The Mind).
Produced by Dan Saladino
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001p6zf)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001p6zw)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Director of Me (m001p706)
Faris
How do you manage your mental health when you cannot control the direction of your mind?
Director of Me follows three people with diagnosed mental health conditions through a month in their lives. Each episode pivots around self-recorded audio diaries as they reflect on what it is like to inhabit and manage their minds. .
Each programme incorporates specially composed music, worked up in collaboration with each person to illustrate how they experience their mental health conditions.
In this final episode, we meet Faris, who is in his mid 30s. He’s a make-up artist, musician and cat-parent; a friend and grandson and a refugee, having come to the UK as an unaccompanied child asylum seeker. Faris lives with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), generalised anxiety disorder and depression, alongside chronic physical pain. Faris discusses the childhood trauma that has led to his condition, and how it affects him now including the suicidal thoughts he copes with.
“When I was younger I wasn't a fan of being diagnosed, I didn't like labels. But as I grew older, I understood what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder means, and a lot of it made sense; and it’s undeniable the effect it has on you.”
This episode was recorded by Faris.
Producer: Catherine Carr
Assistant Producer and Composer: Maia Miller-Lewis.
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree
With thanks to Mind for their support.
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001p23d)
Hayward's Heath
How do I look after an unhappy looking fatsia? Do plants grow better under stress? What’s causing my roses to shrivel and die?
This week, Peter Gibbs is in Haywards Heath to answer gardening questions from our audience at the extraordinary Borde Hill Gardens. He's joined by pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood, garden designer Kirsty Wilson and plantswoman Christine Walkden.
Later in the show, Matthew Wilson goes back to basics and gives his top tips on how to properly plant a plant.
Producer: Dom Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001p70h)
Venice
Hailed as the best non-fiction account of the city, Venice was published in 1960 and became an international best seller. It was the first in a series of city ‘portraits’ by Jan Morris that included Oxford, Hong Kong and Trieste. She went on to publish over 40 books including her monumental account of the British Empire, Pax Brittanica.
John Yorke delves into how Jan Morris defied boundaries in Venice and explores why Morris’ first impressions of the city in 1945 were so powerful to her. He also listens to other readers of Venice who talk about Morris’ vivid description and playful wit. And Jan Morris herself refers to the city of Venice as a touchstone in Conundrum, her account of her gender reassignment in the 1970s.
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 dramatised 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:
Sara Wheeler – writer and author of a new biography about Jan Morris due out in 2026.
Rachel Spence – arts journalist and poet and author of Venice Unclocked.
Credits:
Venice by Jan Morris, published by Faber, 3rd revised edition 1993
Conundrum by Jan Morris, published by Faber, revised 2001
Archive clips of Jan Morris from Radio 4’s Bookclub, originally recorded in June 2008.
Archive clip of Michael Palin from Archive on 4 - Jan Morris: Writing a Life, originally recorded in January 2022.
Venice sound bed from recordings by producer, BBC Sound FX library and BBC Radio 3’s Slow Radio: Venice Between the Bells.
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Producer: Julian Wilkinson
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Iain Hunter
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001p70s)
The Venice Conundrum
Jan Morris, who died in 2020, led an extraordinary life and was considered one of Britain's best loved travel writers. In Robin Brooks's dramatisation, two of her works are intertwined - 'Conundrum', the story of her transition from man to woman, and 'Venice', her most famous travel book.
Jan Morris’s Venice is widely regarded as one the finest travel books ever written, and what better way to take the listener on a longed-for escape into that magical city and its past.
However, underneath the mysterious surface of the city conjured in Morris’s work lies a hidden theme. Morris wrote Venice as a married family man, but all the time she was grappling with the life-long knowledge that she had been born in the wrong body and, not long after publishing Venice, she embarked on her ten-year transition.
So we use Venice as a gilded literary barge on which to float Conundrum, Morris’s beautifully written and very moving account of her transition.
Cast:
JAN MORRIS.....EDALIA DAY
THE TRAVELLER......THEO FRASER STEELE
THE VOICES.....JULIAN HARRIES, LEON BEDWELL, MARY MALONE, GILIAN CALLY, PETER HAMILTON DYER, BUNNY COOK,
NIGEL CAMPBELL, PATRICK BROWN
Written by Robin Brooks
Based on the works of Jan Morris
Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design by Alisdair McGregor
Associate Director, Phoebe Brooks
Broadcast Assistant, Hermione Sylvester
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001p713)
Birmingham
Johny Pitts explores Birmingham's literary heritage and contemporary writing scene, beginning with Natalie Marlow and Kate Mascarenhas who show him some of the evocative locations beneath the city's layers of history which inspired their new interwar-set novels.
Ash Bayliss takes him on a tour of Middle-earth, also known as Sarehole Mill in Hall Green, the childhood home of JRR Tolkien which inspired The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Possibly its most highly-regarded and well-known authors working today, Kit de Waal reflects on what it means to be a writer from Birmingham - or more specifically one from Moseley.
And finishing the journey in Digbeth, home of new independent bookshop Voce and publisher Floodgate. Editors Garrie Fletcher, Peter Haynes and Nigel Proctor explain how this ever-evolving, post-industrial part of town is such a rich source of inspiration for a new short collection.
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham
Book List
Needless Alley by Natalie Marlow
Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas
The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe
Changing Places by David Lodge
Party Going by Henry Green
Living by Henry Green
Loving by Henry Green
My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
Without Warning and Only Sometimes: Scenes from an Unpredictable Childhood by Kit de Waal
Digbeth Stories, edited by Garrie Fletcher, Peter Haynes and Nigel Proctor
SUN 16:30 The Dawn-Care (m001p71h)
Helen Mort explores the Old English word 'uhtceare', which meant anxiety at early morning, or 'dawn-care'.
In Old English 'uht' is the name for the last part of the night, the empty chilly hours just before the dawn, and so a particularly painful time for grief and loneliness. The word appears in the 10th century poem 'The Wife's Lament', and this programme looks for the causes of the affliction then and now.
Historian Janina Ramirez helps Helen try to imagine the world the speaker in 'The Wife's Lament' was living in, how exile from their Anglo-Saxon community seems to be feeding uhtceare, and how the poem presents many riddles. Medievalist Eleanor Parker suggests that the speaker, caught up in a warrior culture, has been left behind to grieve her husband, with words now her only form of protection.
Author and adventurer Maria Coffey finds resonances in the poem, and discusses with Helen whether the hours before dawn - without daytime distractions - can also strip back something and reveal the world as it is to us. Left behind to wait for news of a missing loved one - Maria's partner Joe Tasker disappeared on an expedition to Mount Everest in 1982 - an inescapable truth set in at
4am one night.
Helen's own poem, written during pre-dawn wakings, forms the spine of the programme, and she talks to poets Sharon Olds and Hannah Lowe about the cares that surface in the small hours of the night. Do these sleepless hours help or hinder their work? Are there are ever creative solutions to be found in the constant churning over of problems?
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001p1tl)
Modern Slavery in the Care Sector
With the number of potential modern slavery cases in England and Wales at a record level, File on 4 investigates how vulnerable people are being targeted and exploited by organised crime groups for cheap labour.
Police estimate that there are tens of thousands of victims of modern slavery in the United Kingdom, being forced to work and live in inhumane conditions with little hope of escape.
Investigators whose job it is to protect workers from exploitation reveal to File on 4 that the care industry has become their top priority in the past 18 months.
Datshiane Navanayagam finds out why and asks whether the systems in place to support victims are working.
Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam
Producers: Matt Pintus and Phil Marzouk
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Production Manager: Sarah Payton
Digital Producers: Melanie Stewart-Smith and Georgia-Mae Browne
Technical Producer: Cameron Ward
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m001p6z7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001p71w)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001p726)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p72k)
Rishi Sunak has ordered a review of what he called anti-car measures. And, at least 30 people have been killed in north-western Pakistan in a suspected suicide bombing.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001p72s)
Phil Maguire
For Pick of the Week, Phil set himself a challenge to choose clips that are helpful. Solutions focused radio that features problem solving people, harm healers, riddle resolvers, conflict calmers. There's all sorts from Alexei Sayle to Banksy, Lemn Sissay to Lauren Laverne, Elis & John to Jeremy Vine. And, of course, some Sinead O'Connor.
Presenter: Phil Maguire
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinators: Lydia Depledge-Miller & Julie Downing
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001p6n9)
Adil’s preparing for some Sunday work; he buys peppermints to cheer him. Joy reminds him it’s the fête next Sunday. Lynda joins them and declares she’s looking forward to putting her feet up this year. Privately, Joy admits to Lynda she’s not happy with the Grundy fête arrangements. Lynda asserts they need to learn to live with it not being as polished this year. But Kirsty too calls on Lynda’s services; she and Rex have a rewilding display planned, and they’re not sure what’s going on. Lynda agrees to have a word with Eddie. Later, she reports to Joy that she was fobbed off by the Grundys. She fears something fishy’s going on. Joy tells her the Hollerton Silver Band has been cancelled, which is enough for Lynda to feel the need to recruit an undercover operative. Joy suggests Brad Horrobin.
Kirsty and Tom chat about Johnny’s new adventure, and explore how they feel about the news that Rob’s dying. For Tom, it’s a good thing, though sometimes he wonders if it’s real, or if it’s a set-up. Kirsty’s questions prompt Tom to ask Helen how she’s doing. Helen says she’s okay; it’s time to focus on the farm again. She suddenly remembers she needs to put in her bid to supply Grey Gables with cheese, and renew her supplier accreditation before it lapses. They meet with Adil, who’s just dismissed his recently appointed Head of Food. Adil disappoints them; he already has a mozzarella supplier. Helen declares she won’t give up. She’ll get this contract signed and sealed.
SUN 19:15 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m001p6nc)
Series 2
Cheltenham to Maesteg
Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys across the country with a trip from the regency elegance of Cheltenham to Maesteg, deep in the heart of the former mining communities of South Wales.
Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.
Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the thoughts and moods of the great British travelling public. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.
Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.
In this programme, Alexei meets hospital worker Kevin who, on his days off, takes pot luck at his local train station ticket office and simply asks for a trip to somewhere interesting. Jenny tells Alexei how her years in the middle east changed her life, Donna and Paul take Alexei into the addictive world of murder mystery weekends, Ruth tells of her memories of her childhood in a mining community, and Julie and David describe to Alexei how, for nearly 50 years, they have run a general store in the Welsh valleys - now the only shop left in the village.
A Ride production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Golden Eggs (m001p6nf)
Crinkum Crankum
Five British Asian writers take folktales or traditional stories and rework them in contemporary settings.
Episode 3: Crinkum Crankum by Amanthi Harris.
Inspired by the tale of the Crinkum Crankum tree. Anya goes on a course to learn the art of oral storytelling.
Writer and artist Amanthi Harris was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Colombo, before moving to London. Her novella Lantern Evening won the Gatehouse Press New Fictions Prize in 2016. Her novel, Beautiful Place, was published in 2019.
Writer: Amanthi Harris
Reader: Aiysha Hart
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001p245)
Radio 4’s Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin is under the Feedback microscope this week. John Sudworth was the BBC’s China Correspondent during the virus outbreak. He joins Andrea Catherwood to answer your comments on his series investigating where Covid came from.
Two young listeners are in the Vox Box to review the World Service’s The Forum on The Evolution of Teenagers. The Forum’s Producer Jo Impey responds to what they have to say.
And we hear your take on the Today programme’s coverage of the Nigel Farage versus Coutts Bank saga.
Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001p23x)
George Alagiah, Sinead O'Connor, Ann Clwyd, Tony Bennett, and Trevor Francis
John Wilson on
George Alagiah, the BBC Journalist and Presenter is remembered by his colleagues Sophie Raworth and John Simpson.
Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer who won worldwide fame with Nothing Compares 2 U.
Ann Clwyd, the former Labour Member of Parliament who held frontbench posts in opposition, and campaigned on behalf of Welsh miners and Iraqi Kurds.
Tony Bennett, the consummate crooner who sold 50 million records with hits including I Left My Heart In San Francisco. His son and manager Danny Bennett pays tribute.
Trevor Francis, the former England footballer who became Britain’s first £1million player when he joined Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.
Interviewee: Sophie Raworth
Interviewee: John Simpson
Interviewee: Danny Bennett
Interviewee: Jo Stevens MP
Interviewee: Linda Christmas
Interviewee: Tony Woodcock
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
George Alagiah report on the World Bank, Breakfast Time, BBC One, 27/04/1989; George Alagiah report on 40th Anniversary of Ghana independence, BBC News, 22/11/1997; George Alagiah interview, BBC Radio 5 Live, 27/08/2019; Sinead O Connor interview, MasterTapes (Side A), BBC Radio 4, 15/12/2014; Sinead O’Connor interview, MasterTapes (Side B), BBC Radio 4, 16/12/2014; Ann Clwyd question in House of Commons, PMQ’s, BBC One, 24/01/08; Ann Clwyd interview at Tower Colliery Protest, BBC News Wales, 15/04/94; Ann Clwyd interview, Iraq War 10 Years On, BBC News Wales, 26/03/13; Tony Bennett interview, Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 02/07/2011; Trevor Francis interviews, BBC News, 02/10/1972; Trevor Francis goal, Nottingham Forest v Malmo, BBC Sport, 30/05/1979; Brian Clough interview, BBC News, 30/05/1979.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001p6nh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001p6mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001p6nk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001p6nm)
Nick Watt is joined by the Conservative MP and chair of the One Nation group, Damian Green; Shadow Leader of the Commons, Thangam Debbonaire; and Professor of Politics, Matt Goodwin. They discuss forthcoming government announcements on energy, and whether either of the main parties has the right policies in place to achieve the net zero target. They also talk about controversial measures to limit car use in towns and cities. Nick interviews the former Tory Cabinet minister and head of the Climate Change Committee, Lord Deben - who tells him Margaret Thatcher would have been in the forefront of tackling climate change. Rosa Prince - editor of Politico's London Playbook - brings additional insight and analysis.
SUN 23:00 Moral Maze (m001p1w6)
Is idleness good for us?
School’s out for summer. For many, holidays are a chance to rest, unwind and empty the mind of work. For others, the long break brings additional pressures and stresses, such as childcare. It’s a period when inaction and inactivity are to be celebrated and envied.
What does that reveal about our priorities? During the pandemic, many people got a glimpse of what it was like to live more simply. Aristotle writes that the greatest possible human good is contemplation, a life lived remote from endless activity. Economics has taught us that our time is money, which is a necessity. But for some it has turned human beings into ‘human doings’ – units of productivity. The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote “In Praise of Idleness” in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, in which he called for nothing less than a total re-evaluation of work – and of leisure.
Throughout history, however, idleness has, more often than not, had a bad press. St Benedict described it as “the enemy of the soul”. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins – a failure to do what should be done. The greatest danger of idleness, some believe, is that it can slide from a state of inaction to a state of purposelessness. That’s why Christianity has long seen the positive moral value, the character-building nature, of hard work.
Is idleness good for us?
Producer: Dan Tierney.
MONDAY 31 JULY 2023
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001p6np)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m001p1tt)
48. Love Thy Villain
Three different women, who lead three very different lives, but all became villains...or did they?
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores what happens when we indulge in the darker, supposedly more "villainous" parts of ourselves. He looks at the TikTok trend for embracing your so-called villain era and what might happen when we shake off expectations and niceties.
With comedian Chelsea Birkby, musician Mala Waldron, Amanda Lovett who became part of the hit TV show Traitors, Dr Margrethe Brun Vaage, and author and executive coach Rachel Simmons.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Leigh Meyer
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound design and mix: Rob Speight
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru.
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001p6nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p6nt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p6nw)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p6ny)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001p6p0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p6p2)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Good morning. Anyone who has dealings with teenagers – or remembers being one – will know that having the right haircut is a major concern.
It certainly was for me and, having found a barber who appeared to share my views on the matter when I was 14, I continued to get my hair done there until I eventually moved too far away for it to be practicable.
The actual owner of the shop, Alec, was an interesting character – he rarely cut any hair himself. Instead, He sat at the desk by the door and dreamed up money making schemes.
And it was as a result of one of these that I walked in to the shop one Saturday morning to find all the barbers – except Alec himself – with luxuriant mops of hair. Which was odd since at least two of them had been bald the last time I saw them.
Alec had got his hands on a job lot of wigs. And he thought that the best way to sell them was to let the public see how great they were. His sheepish looking staff might have had a rather different view, but the principle still seems to me to be a sound one.
And I think there’s a lesson here for all of us. In the context of the church I’m often reminded of what the German Philosopher Nietzsche said: “I will believe in the Redeemer when the Christians look a little more redeemed”.
More generally any community will tend to be seen in the light of what it actually does rather than just what it says. So much of the public discourse these days is about disapproval.
The early church drew people to it because it was a joyful and accepting community. People saw that and wanted it for themselves.
Maybe it’s time that all of us had a hard look at how our behaviour actually reflects the values we claim.
Lord, we are so blessed to have you in our lives. Help us to show and share our joy with others that they may see it and want it for themselves. Amen
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001p6p4)
31/07/23 Imported eggs up, rural services in crisis, sea temperature rises
Imports of eggs are up 276%. The latest figures from the Government show that just under 7 million dozens of eggs were brought into the UK in May, giving that massive year-on-year increase. British egg producers say they're not surprised; facing increases in the price of feed and restrictions because of avian flu, they warned last year that retailers weren't paying enough and that was forcing people to either cut the number of laying hens they kept or give up altogether. That led to shortages on supermarket shelves and the appearance of Italian eggs instead of British ones.
This week here on Farming Today we're going to be looking at rural services. From GPs and buses to shops and pubs, getting and keeping basic services in the countryside can be problematic. We'll find out why that's still the case and what communities are doing to get round the barriers. In England 13 rural organisations have come together to form the Rural Coalition, calling for a rural strategy, fairer funding and investment in infrastructure, so people in the countryside are not, as they put it,' unfairly disadvantaged'.
The sea off England's north east coast is getting hotter, and that's bad news for wildlife. It causes huge problems for birds, fish and plant life. Scientists and wildlife experts say they are seriously worried.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
MON 05:56 Weather (m001p6p6)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08xcpkw)
Paul Brook on the Garden Warbler
Paul Brook discusses watching a garden warbler for Tweet of the Day.
Producer Maggie Ayre.
MON 06:00 Today (m001p6wm)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 The NHS: Who Cares? (m001p6wy)
Road to Recovery
Anaesthetist Dr Kevin Fong, tells the story of the NHS today and the challenges it faces, from the perspective of the people who deliver the care. In the last episode, Kevin reveals how solutions devised by the workforce during the pandemic could be key to the future success of the NHS.
The National Health Service is the world’s oldest public health system and one of the largest employers on the planet. So, if you want a masterclass in how to face down a challenge that should have been insurmountable, you need look no further than the thousands of teams, working in every corner of the NHS during COVID. It’s here where teams used their frontline experience to solve problems from the bottom up.
So could these locally-sourced solutions also help to tackle wider problems across the service, like reducing costs, while also addressing key issues like staff burnout and the steady flow of people leaving the NHS?
Written and Presented by Dr Kevin Fong
Producers: Beth Eastwood & Emily Bird
Series Producer: Beth Eastwood
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4
MON 09:30 Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On (m001k11f)
4. The Inspectors
While politicians were making bold claims about weapons of mass destruction, inside Iraq UN inspectors were hunting for them and finding nothing. Why did this not stop the march to war?
Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Producers: Ellie House, Claire Bowes
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore, Naked Productions
Production coordinators: Janet Staples, Brenda Brown
Series Editor: Penny Murphy
MON 09:45 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p720)
Episode 1: Return to Bereh
In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.
Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.
As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.
Episode 1:
Return to Bereh: Victoria’s questions about her missing uncle stir up old family fears and evasions.
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.
The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.
Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001p6xp)
Author Jane Fallon, Two mothers talk about daughters' deaths, Netball World Cup, Young women and loneliness, Nouhaila Benzina
In 2018, two new mothers died weeks apart after giving birth in two Kent hospitals from a herpes infection. Kimberley Sampson and Samantha Mulcahy both had c-sections and contracted herpes before or around the delivery of their babies. That’s according to an inquest into their deaths that has just concluded - that their mothers, Nicola Foster and Yvette Sampson, say doesn’t give enough answers as to what actually happened. Both Nicola and Yvette joins Nuala to talk about their daughters and what’s next in their fight for the truth.
Morocco defender Nouhaila Benzina has made history by becoming the first player to wear a hijab at a World Cup. Nuala discusses with Shaista Aziz, co-director of the Three Hijabis, a trio of British Muslim women working to make football free of racism and discrimination.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Jane Fallon was a multi-award-winning television producer behind shows such as This Life, Teachers and 20 Things to Do Before You’re 30. She has written a dozen best-selling novels including Getting Rid of Matthew and Got You Back, which is being made into a musical with music by Roxette. She joins Nuala to discuss her latest book, Over Sharing, and its themes of influencers, projecting the perfect life on social media, fake profiles, revenge and 'frenemies'.
All this week on the programme we’re looking at loneliness and in particular loneliness among young women. This is because the stats tell us that young people are the age group most likely to say they are lonely – and women of any age are more likely to say they are lonely than men. Today Nuala is joined by two women who tell us about their experience of loneliness. Beth McColl is 30 and Rachael Devine is 33.
The Women’s Netball World Cup is underway in Cape Town. It’s the first time the competition has been held in Africa - and will see 16 teams battling it out for a place in the final on 6 August. Broadcaster Kath Merry is in South Africa following all the action, and updates Nuala McGovern on the latest news.
Presented by Nuala McGovern
Producer: Louise Corley
MON 11:00 History on the Edge (m001p77p)
The Tinker Experiment
Anita Anand goes on the trail of stories from the recent past that have somehow fallen through the cracks of history.
In this episode, Anita travels to Scotland on the trail of what’s become known as the 'Tinker Experiment’. Following World War 2, the aim of the authorities, helped by the Church of Scotland, was to get gypsy travellers to leave their nomadic traditions and lives behind for a settled life in mainstream society. There, they'd have a chance of education for their children who could be removed into care if they didn’t comply with the required 200 days attendance at school.
Anita travels to Bobbin Mill near Pitlochry where, in 1946, the McPhee family and other gypsy travellers were moved into an old wartime hut converted for four families. The accommodation was small and overcrowded for the nine McPhee children and their parents, and was without amenities such as electricity. There was also asbestos in the walls which wasn’t removed until the 1980s.
At Bobbin Mill, Anita meets Shamus McPhee and three of his sisters who still live on the site. Old holiday chalets have in recent years replaced the hutted accommodation and they now have electricity and running water. Yet the family still suffer hardship and discrimination despite having been to university and contributed to society. Prejudice against gypsy travellers runs so deep among the settled community that they've found it difficult to get work if they reveal their background. And - having fallen between the settled and the nomadic ways of life - none of them has found a life partner or had children.
The McPhees are now seeking an apology from the Scottish Government as they feel their lives have been blighted by the Tinker Experiment.
Producer: Sara Parker
Executive Producer: Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001p246)
Does Funny Sell?
Is humour the most effective way to get your product noticed? If so, why does it seem that the use of comedy in advertising is in decline? Recent research by Kantar found that 90% of consumers were more likely to remember and purchase a brand if the advert made them smile. So why the downturn? Are multi-national brands looking for a one size fits all approach, or are brands frightened of offending potential customers? Evan Davis and guests discuss.
PRESENTER: Evan Davis
GUESTS
Rory Sutherland, VP, Ogilvy UK
Lucy Greeves, Author and Creative Strategist
Dom Dwight, Marketing Director, Taylors of Harrogate and Yorkshire Tea
ADVERT CLIP: Yorkshire Tea - Induction Training with Sean Bean
Courtesy of Taylors of Harrogate, Yorkshire Tea
Creative: Lucky Generals Advertising Agency
PRODUCTION TEAM
Producer: Julie Ball
Editor: China Collins
Sound: Graham Puddifoot
Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001p787)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001p78v)
Rail ticket offices, Will warning, Rental homes' energy efficiency
The House of Commons Transport Committee are asking the public to let them know what they think about the proposals to close railway ticket offices. The railways in the UK cost the taxpayer billions and operators say they must make savings but is this the way to go?
As the housing market continues to be sluggish and buying 'chains 'remain brittle, some sellers have turned their back on people who need mortgages and are only prepared to sell to cash buyers.
The online platform Etsy has a new algorithm and sellers say it’s causing chaos by holding onto money they are owed for weeks and weeks.
There's been an increase in people being pressured to sign up to expensive will writing and probate services, so much so the Competition and Markets Authority are worried and want the public to tell them if they have been approached by or have used one of these services that typically charge thousands of pounds for work that often should not cost more than a £200.
More people in the private rental sector are living in fuel poverty, according to the charity National Energy Action. This despite a government campaign launched in 2018 to persuade landlords to improve the energy efficiency of their lets. Landlords complain that the government plans lack clarity and the assessment system for a home's energy performance is flawed.
A new law requiring organisations regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to become better at looking after consumer interests has become law - but what does it mean?
MON 12:57 Weather (m001p79f)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001p79z)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
MON 13:45 New Storytellers (m001p7bf)
The Final Fanfayre
It's 1974 and, half a decade after The Beatles and Elvis Presley dominated the charts, a new generation of artists were capturing the hearts and minds of the nation’s young female fans - The Jackson 5, The Bay City Rollers, and above all David Cassidy and The Osmonds.
The Final Fanfayre is a different kind of fan story. Fanfayre were a band of Osmond fans made up of two sets of sisters – Ali (15) and Bev (11), and Lou (16) and Anne (13). They played Osmond songs and loved the group so much that, when an opportunity to audition to be their European Fanclub band arose, the four youngsters from Middlesbrough applied - and won!
It's 2023 and, 50 years on, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini reflects on fandom in the mid-70s, as sisters Ali and Bev reminisce about their time in Fanfayre and what it was like to be part of the group and travel to a London studio to record their single, Donny's Girl.
New Storytellers presents the work of new radio producers and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2023 for the Best Student Radio Feature. These awards are presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The series is introduced by Charles’ daughter, Sara Parker, an award-winning radio producer in her own right.
The Final Fanfayre was produced by Dom Brown who is studying MA Radio, Audio and Podcasting at the University of Sunderland. The judges said of his feature, “What a blast!” “An Interesting subject, well put together” and “Evocative of the time. This simple piece works brilliantly because of the sheer power of the women’s reminiscences.”
Producer: Dom Brown
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001p6n9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001p7c0)
Exposure
By Hayley Wareham
A frank drama that looks at what happens when an intimate photo falls into the wrong hands. As the image circulates, and the story evolves, is justice, forgiveness or revenge the answer?
CAST
Kate ..... Kymberley Cochrane
Emma ..... Jadie Rose Hobson
Patrick ..... Kwabena Ansah
Nadi ..... Yasemin Özdemir
Jonesy ..... Will Kirk
Written by Hayley Wareham
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Martha Littlehailes, Jenni Burnett and Anne Bunting
If you have been affected by revenge porn, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline
MON 15:00 The 3rd Degree (m001p7ck)
Series 13
King's College London
Coming this week from King’s College London, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.
The specialist subjects this week are law, cosmology and culture, media and creative industries so there are questions about a giant spider, a silver hammer and why it's no longer illegal to commit champerty. Also, there are not one but two questions about Audrey Hepburn and stamps. How can you resist?
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow and Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.
In this series, the show goes to Exeter, Strathclyde, Keele, King’s College London, Portsmouth, and Somerville College, Oxford.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001p6yx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0fwwxpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Saturday]
MON 16:30 Soul Music (m0017k0j)
Purple Rain
"I never meant to cause you any sorrow,
I never meant to cause you any pain..."
True stories of what Prince's epic ballad means to different people around the world, from the very first jam in 1983 to the global hit that reigns over us today.
Bobby Z, the drummer from Prince and The Revolution, remembers the buzz of the first ever performance of Purple Rain, and how the recording from that night lives on. Susan Rogers, Prince's recording engineer, tells stories from the Purple Rain tour, when the crew took bets on how long Prince's guitar solos would last. Comedian Sindhu Vee first heard the song as a teenager growing up in India and was knocked sideways by it. Weather reporter Judith Ralston describes the beautiful and rare weather phenomenon of purple rain. Social historian Zaheer Ali sees the song as a cry out for change, bringing audiences from different backgrounds together in cross-genre harmony. And finally, an intensive care hospital nurse played Purple Rain to Kevin Clarke while he was in a coma, because his sister knew he loved the song and hoped it might pull him through.
Produced by Becky Ripley
MON 17:00 PM (m001p7d5)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p7df)
Rishi Sunak has insisted the decision won't de-rail Britain's path to net zero
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (m001p7dp)
Series 79
Episode 4
Back for a second week at the Regent Theatre, Ipswich, panellists Vicki Pepperdine, Omid Djalili, Andy Hamilton and Henning Wehn compete amongst one another, with Jack Dee the unimpressed umpire. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m001p6s6)
Lynda’s delighted to discover Brad’s treasurer on the fete committee. As he begins to divulge information and she discovers there are no minutes of the meetings, she encourages him to share more. Brad protests that he only does the figures, but Lynda declares he has a duty of truth. She convinces him they can save the fete between them. He admits two bands have been cancelled, and there are no favourites like the tombola. They’re set to make a loss. Lynda asks if anything at all is likely to come off, and Brad tells her there are some planned ferret attractions at the fete – in fact most of it is ferret based. Lynda galvanises; they have to act. She persuades Brad to provide more information which she can use to confront Eddie. Brad’s horrified; they’ll know it’s him who’s grassed and he’ll be banished from the family! Lynda reassures him. She’ll see to it that Eddie’s far too busy to even question him.
Helen has another go at persuading Adil to take Bridge Farm cheese at Grey Gables. He admires the samples before declaring Helen can send over some figures for Borsetshire Blue, but for the hard cheese, he’s already sorted. Helen’s despondent. Tom worries about the veg too – their connection with Grey Gables may soon be over. They have to win Adil round; it’s clear none of the deals he mentioned are signed off yet. Tom picks up that Adil likes the personal touch; he reckons he can charm him by being his new best mate.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001p709)
West End producer unmasked, Reassessing the poetry of Virgil, Adjani Salmon on Dreaming Whilst Black
Adjani Salmon is the writer of the award-winning web-series Dreaming Whilst Black, now on BBC Three. He tells Tom Sutcliffe about the reality and his fictional portrayal of the everyday struggles of being an aspiring filmmaker.
Also on Front Row - the Aeneid, the epic poem written by Virgil more than 2000 years ago. As well as being one of the great works of classical literature, it's also one of the earliest examples of a work commissioned as political propaganda. Maria Dahvana Headley - the writer behind Vergil! A Mythological Musical, a new audiobook that fuses the life of the poet with that of his greatest work, and Sarah Ruden, who recently updated her translation of the Aeneid and publishes a new biography of the poet in October, discuss why the Aeneid still packs a punch today.
And - the Twitter sensation known only as West End Producer, has finally removed his mask and revealed his true identity - one of the theatre industry's biggest secrets. He's... actor Christian Edwards and he's telling Tom about life behind the mask and why he did it.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Harry Parker
MON 20:00 Intrigue (p0fvd1km)
Burning Sun - Ep 6: The Reckoning
The K-pop stars are jailed for their crimes and some women hope this and other sex abuse scandals might finally spark a real social change. Instead, all it does is fan the growing divisions between men and women. Then the gender war goes mainstream and plays out during the recent presidential election.
For the first time, we give the definitive account of the sex scandals that brought down some of Korea’s biggest K-pop stars. It’s a tale of depravity, power and excess - hidden behind a facade of wholesome pop music.
Co-creator, presenter and writer: Chloe Hadjimatheou
Local Producer: Lee Hyun Choi
Assistant Producer and researcher: Loonie Park and Jeong-One Park
Translator and researcher: Jinny Yeon
Music: Tom Haines at Brain Audio
Sound Design: Carlos San Juan at Brain Audio
Co-creator and executive producer: Kavita Puri
ACTORS
Kang Kyung-Yoon: Julee Cerda
Goo Hoin: Jun Noh
Choi In-Ho: Je Seung Lee
Drama director: Anne Isger
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001p21d)
Botswana: Living with elephants
The battle to keep the peace between people and elephants in northern Botswana.
The earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, is an endangered species. Poaching, habitat loss and disease have decimated elephant populations. But not in Botswana, which has the world’s biggest population of elephants. In the north of the country, in the area around the remarkable Okavango Delta (the world’s largest inland delta), elephant numbers are growing and they outnumber people. This can pose serious problems for the human population, particularly local subsistence farmers. A crop raid by elephants can destroy a family’s annual food supply overnight. Elephants also pose a risk to life in their daily commute between their feeding grounds and their water sources.
John Murphy travels to the top of the Okavango Delta, to see what efforts are being made to keep both people and elephants safe, and to persuade locals that these giant animals are an asset not a liability. He also explores threats from further afield to this green jewel in the desert, the Okavango Delta, which animals and people alike depend on.
Presenter: John Murphy
Producer: Charlotte Ashton
Studio Mix: Rod Farquhar
Editor: Penny Murphy
MON 21:00 The Trouble with Sheep (m001p1q6)
Sheep have been instrumental in creating some of the UK’s most iconic upland landscapes – from the sweeping fells of the Lake District, to the moors of Devon and Cornwall. These humble animals have left their mark on our language, our place names and even our architecture. But upland sheep are under fire.
As the farm subsidy system changes post Brexit, it’s getting harder to make money out of them. The wool is now less than profitable, and lamb consumption has decreased. Meanwhile, sheep are being criticised by many environmentalists, who say they have degraded upland habitats.
In this programme, Charlotte Smith travels from Dartmoor to North Wales, exploring the places and meeting the people who have been formed by sheep…and asking what their future holds.
What is the trouble with sheep? Answers range from being picky eaters, to getting bad press!
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
MON 21:30 The NHS: Who Cares? (m001p6wy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001p70t)
UK government grants new oil and gas licences
EU Environment Commissioner says UK appears to be backtracking on net zero commitments
Denmark and Sweden consider a ban on Koran-burning protests - after a global backlash
MON 22:45 Money by Martin Amis (m001p715)
6: I was a mean kid
Bertie Carvel continues Martin Amis's electrifying, and savagely funny novel of 1980s excess, featuring the self-destructive anti-hero John Self.
John Self is a consumer extraordinaire.
Rolling between London and New York he closes movie deals and spends feverishly, all the while grabbing everything he can to sate his massive appetites: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography and mountains of junk food.
But John’s excesses haven’t gone unnoted. Menaced by a phone stalker, his dangerously excessive lifestyle is about to bring him face-to-face with the secret of his success.
Today: reeling from the disastrous script for his movie, John Self jets back to London and his errant girlfriend, Selina...
Writer: Martin Amis
Reader: Bertie Carvel
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001p1s7)
Audio description: putting art into words
Lonny Evans audio describes in theatres and museums, and Terry James, who is vision impaired, trains audio describers. They talk to Michael about their work.
Producer Sally Heaven
MON 23:30 Rewinder (m001kgbx)
Endless Pips
Greg James dives into the BBC Archive to track down audio gems, using listener requests, overlooked anniversaries and current stories as inspiration.
After the government announced that it will test its emergency alert system on mobile phones, Greg returns to the nervy days of the Cold War, uncovering the recordings to be played on the radio in case of nuclear attack. He also hears about less alarming emergencies, including the time that a steamy gym shower forced Terry Wogan off air.
In the time before 24-hour broadcasting, the BBC filled dead hours with the famous test cards as well as Trade Test Colour Films, short documentaries on a variety of subjects, for the benefit of TV engineers and retailers. The BBC didn't want these filler films to actually be entertaining - after watching a few, Greg doesn't think they've got anything to be worried about.
As we try to predict how AI will shape our future, Greg looks to the past and hears the sometimes strange, often amazingly prescient predictions of young people as they imagine tech in the year 2000.
Miss Havisham and Pip hit our TV screens once again so Greg revisits previous adaptations of Great Expectations, and uncovers a huge conspiracy: the BBC seems to adapt the Dickens novel every ten years, going right back to 1959!
And as Pink Floyd's seminal album Dark Side of the Moon turns 50, Greg goes loopy about the use of tape loops on the track Money. He explores other influential loops including the Are You Being Served theme - then he cranks up an old reel-to-reel tape machine, digs out some magnetic tape, and creates his own loop... and creates his own loop... and creates his own loop...
Series archivists: Michael Cosgrave and Colin Waddell
Producer: Tim Bano
TUESDAY 01 AUGUST 2023
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001p71n)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p720)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p729)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p72j)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p72r)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001p72y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p735)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Good morning. When he was very young, my eldest grandson was taken to the theatre. It was to see a performance of Annie.
He was very quiet until the interval, when he turned to his mother and announced “Those people are all pretending. But the dog is real”.
My initial response was to mentally file that under ‘cute things kids say’.
But it wouldn’t go away. And the more I thought about it the more it seemed to me to be quite a challenging thought.
To put it simply, I found myself – and still do – wondering just how ‘real’ I am.
But being real comes at what we regard as a cost.
In an age when our privacy seems increasingly threatened many of us worry about how vulnerable and open to exploitation that makes us. But sometimes we just worry that if people were ever to see the real us, they would somehow think less of us than of the people we try to be and that we think others want us to be. It’s hard work.
But it may explain why some people find faith hard – a relationship with a God who actually knows us better than we know ourselves can be a bit worrying. That we’ll also find in that relationship a level of acceptance that goes beyond anything we could ever imagine somehow gets lost in the overall anxiety.
But the core of that relationship is that with God there is no need to pretend. We’re accepted as we are and we’ll be most fully ourselves as we strive to love one another with that same openness.
And the more open we are the more others will be willing to take the risk of being open with us. And that surely is worth a risk or two.
Father God, may we be inspired by your love and acceptance of us to risk showing more love and acceptance of ourselves and of one another. Amen.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001p73k)
01/08/23 Wild camping on Dartmoor; community shops; new tech
The Court of Appeal allows wild camping to come back to Dartmoor.
How community shops can take place of village shops.
And Anna discovers what a spornado is at a tech tent at the Norfolk Show.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b0901fq9)
Frank Gardner on the Golden Oriole
In this Tweet of the Day, BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner recalls the song of a golden oriole in a Bahrain date grove.
Producer Tom Bonnett
Photograph: Ashutosh Jhureley.
TUE 06:00 Today (m001p6rc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Rethink (m001p6rf)
Rethink Work
The Work Revolution
There is a revolution under way in Britain's labour market.
Since COVID-19 - which is where RETHINK on Radio 4 began - there has been extraordinary upheaval in Britain’s workforce.
The number of people who are economically inactive - working-age adults who are not in work or looking for jobs - has soared by over half a million, to nearly 9 million. The number of people who are long-term sick, meanwhile, has risen by over 350,000, to 2.5 million.
At the same time, there are almost more jobs going than ever - and more people arriving in Britain than ever.
The labour market now encompasses three peculiar economic bedfellows: mass joblessness, mass worker shortages, and mass immigration. What is driving this and what should the policy response be?
Amol Rajan discusses with a panel:
Vince Cable - former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010-2015, and author of How to Be a Politician
Fraser Nelson - editor of the Spectator, and columnist for The Daily Telegraph
Ben Habib - former Brexit party MEP for London, chief executive of the First Property group
Dr Miatta Fahnbulleh - chief executive of the New Economics Foundation
TUE 09:45 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p6rj)
Episode 2: In the Archives
In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.
Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.
As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.
Episode 2
In the Archives: After a frustrating visit to the Regional Archive Bureau, a chance encounter in a church leads Victoria to an archive of a different kind.
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.
The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.
Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001p6rm)
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Air pollution and pregnancy, BookTok, Loneliness and health
Frances Haugen is the former Facebook employee turned whistleblower who extracted more than 22,000 pages of documents from the company revealing its inner workings. She believes they show the company prioritising profit over the safety of its users. Frances has since campaigned for greater transparency and accountability for social media firms, giving evidence to the US Senate as well as MPs here in the UK. And she's written a book, The Power of One, about her experience. But what has prompted one woman to take on one of the biggest companies in tech? And what has been the personal cost?
All this week on Woman’s Hour we are discussing the topic of loneliness as women and young people are statistically more likely to experience it. Today Nuala speaks to the psychiatrist Dr Farhana Mann from UCL about the impact of loneliness on our health.
A new community has formed on TikTok where content creators share their top reading recommendations and bring plots to life. BookTokkers are mainly female, as are their followers. With the social media giant now launching its own book awards, just how influential is the BookTok community to both followers and the publishing industry? Nuala is joined by Holly McLoughlin, who posts as “the caffeinated reader” and Assistant Literary Editor for The Times Susie Goldsbrough.
New research has found that almost half of black mothers living in London do not feel sufficiently educated on the impact of air pollution during pregnancy, despite 89% of respondents feeling concerned about air pollution in their local area. Nuala speaks to Dr Karen Joash is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Imperial College NHS Trust and expert adviser to Global Black Maternal Health, a platform that aims to connect and empower black maternal health movements across the world.
Lucy Bronze MBE is the most capped Lioness playing in the Women’s Football World Cup this year. Her mum, Diane, recorded a special message for Woman's Hour wishing Lucy and the team good luck ahead of England’s last group stage game against China today.
TUE 11:00 Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer (m001p6rp)
The Cheating Amoebas
Dr Kat Arney explores cancer through the lens of evolution. Why do we get cancer?
In this episode we find out that far from being a new disease, cancer is embedded deep in almost every branch of the tree of life, from the very earliest organisms through to today, and in most species from aardwolves to zebras.
Kat explores how the origins of cancer are inseparable from the history of life itself, with the help of some ancient mummies, cheating amoebas, lazy bees and naked mole rats.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Beth Sagar-Fenton
Edited by Chris Ledgard
TUE 11:30 The Balsall Heath Bohemians: Stewart Lee celebrates the Birmingham Surrealists (m001p6rs)
Stewart Lee takes us into a world of life-sized chess pieces, alcohol-guzzling nuns and crucified naked bespectacled men. The story of British Surrealism began, not in Bohemian north London, but in a Birmingham suburb.
Today, the tradition continues with Birmingham artist Cold War Steve, whose work is featured on the website. His detailed collages evoke the surrealist world of the original Birmingham Surrealists.
The seminal moment for British Surrealism was the 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition when Salvador Dali donned a diving suit and walked through Piccadilly. But art historian and critic Ruth Millington reveals that the actual crazy beating heart of British Surrealism had already begun. A Birmingham group of artists refused to take part in that Exhibition, viewing the other British artists chosen as ‘overnight surrealists'.
The Birmingham group, including Conroy Maddox and John Melville, were the first and truest expression of the movement in the UK, meeting in the Kardohmah café in New Street and the Trocadero pub in Temple Street.
Later joined by Emmy Bridgwater and zoologist Desmond Morris - who left a giant elephant skull in Broad Street - they frequented Maddox’s house in Balsall Heath. Inside were life-size chess pieces and wallpaper handprinted by an adapted washing mangle. They held parties where communists, Caribbean immigrants and naked women in high heels smashed pottery underfoot.
Activities included Maddox being crucified, naked and bespectacled while a nun drank from a two pint bottle of local brew Mitchell and Butler. Maddox wanted to replicate this in shop windows in Birmingham but the Council refused.
Stewart Lee explores the creative explosion in the Surrealist court of Birmingham and the art it produced.
Artwork above by Cold War Steve.
A True Thought production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001p6rv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001p6rx)
Call You and Yours: How will plans to close rail ticket offices affect you?
On today's Call You and Yours, we're asking - how will plans to close rail ticket offices affect you?
Train operating companies say only 13 percent of tickets were sold at ticket offices last year - most people now book their tickets online. Under the proposals, most ticket offices in England would close. There are currently more than a thousand stations with ticket offices, most staffed part time.
How would their closure affect you?
You can call 03700 100 444 from 11 am on Tuesday August 1st. You can also email youandyours@bbc.co.uk
Don't forget to include your phone number so we can call you back.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001p6rz)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001p6s1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
TUE 13:45 New Storytellers (m001p6s3)
Harassment Architecture
The homeless community is targeted by features in the cityscape that are invisible to many of us.
Many argue that anti-homeless architecture enforces a certain type of ‘acceptable’ use of public space. Benches, bus stops and back alleys have been redesigned - leading some to say that homeless people are harassed into living in evermore hidden and dangerous places. A culture of resistance on the streets is fighting back.
In Harassment Architecture, Charlston draws from his first-hand experience of being homeless and disabled to reflect on how he and others like him are instructed, and often forced, to navigate urban environments. He questions the purpose and value of hostile design through recalling his own testimonies, and the hardship he has encountered. He now uses architecture as a tool in campaigning for radical solutions.
New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of this year’s Charles Parker Prize 2023 for the Best Student Radio Feature. Harassment Architecture was made by Goldsmiths MA student George Ruskin, and the judges commented, “What is excellent about this piece is the perspective. It makes the listener see the world from one – singular – point of view, with wonderful stereo illustrations to bring the words to life.”
Producer: George Ruskin
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001p6s6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0012s9v)
What’s Love Got to Do with it?
Tina and Turner are the perfect couple. Like everyone else, they use an app called Q to manage their love and sex life. Via their smart watches, Q can track everything from their body temperature to their work diary, using extensive data and ever-responsive algorithms to understand their mood, desires and turn offs, and cue their partner to act accordingly.
But when Tina and Turner decide to ‘go analogue’ and delete Q, it’s far from plain sailing. Can they find happiness without the app?
A near-future comedy about data and dating.
Developed through the Wellcome Trust Experimental stories scheme.
Tina ..... Georgie Fuller
Turner ..... Edward Easton
The Narrator ..... Gwyneth Keyworth
Georgie ..... Elinor Coleman
Rob ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr
The Groom ..... Justice Ritchie
With special thanks to Dr Ricky Nathvani and Maxine Mackintosh.
Written by Tom Wainwright
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound Design by Pete Ringrose
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001p6sb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 A Very British Cult (p0fdl26y)
4. Getting Out
The investigation is finding out more and more strange things about Lighthouse. We hear what happens when people start to question what is happening. Catrin speaks with Erin who raised concerns about Lighthouse and was accused of being "a cynical little old witch".
Meanwhile Lighthouse is getting increasingly obsessed with its critics and former members.
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
Archive clips from Stanley Milgram, Solomon Asch Conformity experiment re-enactment, 1974: copyright Alexandra Milgram and Alexander Street.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001p6sn)
The stories behind our names
Michael Rosen talks to journalist Sheela Banerjee about the family and cultural histories revealed by our names. In her book What’s in a Name? Friendship, Identity and History in Modern Multicultural Britain, she takes a deep dive into her own personal and family names and those of her friends. Names turn out to be excellent prisms through which to view history and the stories she uncovers are surprising and poignant.
Producer Beth O'Dea, BBC Audio Bristol
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001p6sx)
Susie Dent on Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German writer whose books explored themes around family, beauty and the creeping threat of fascism in Europe. Mann's best-known 'Death in Venice' revealed the author's attraction to young boys and it was turned into a film in 1971 starring Dirk Bogarde. Mann moved to Switzerland before the outbreak of the Second World War and lived in exile in Europe and the USA for the rest of his life. From his home in California he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Einstein and Brecht, and he recorded broadcasts for the BBC urging the German people to rise up and over throw Hitler. He was married and had six children, two of whom took their own lives.
Lexicographer and word expert on 'Countdown' Susie Dent says German was her first love and she first-read Mann whilst studying at University. She loves the tension in his work between the pull of one's senses and the desire to stay aloof and detached. Susie and Matthew are joined by Karolina Watroba, Research fellow in German and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford. Karolina was born in Poland where Mann is a huge cultural icon and she first read 'The Magic Mountain' in the summer before she went to University.
Future subjects in the series include Hattie Jacques and Stamford Raffles, founder of London Zoo and Singapore.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Toby Field
TUE 17:00 PM (m001p6t5)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p6tf)
Experts predict prices will drop further in the coming months
TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001jkhs)
Series 1
Episode 2: Barry White v Hannibal Lecter
Steph McGovern asks some seriously funny minds to offer definitive answers to the great questions of our age. Or not. Welcome to the world's most devious game of Would You Rather? With guests Amy Gledhill and Andrew Maxwell.
Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Amy Gledhill and Andrew Maxwell
Devised and written by Jon Harvey & Joseph Morpurgo
With additional material from Laura Major
Researcher: Leah Marks
Recorded and mixed by Jerry Peal
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Ed Morrish and Polly Thomas
Photo: Carolyn Mendelsohn
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001p6tp)
Mia and Kirsty are prepping for the rewilding stall at Sunday’s fete. Chelsea turns up and Mia’s on the defensive. But Chelsea insists she’s there to volunteer her help. She reckons it would give them an opportunity to chat. But Mia rebuffs her olive branch, declaring her offer to paint nails at the stall is off-brand. Chelsea retreats. Mia seeks Kirsty’s advice. She explains that Chelsea’s confrontational and they don’t get on, but she’s Brad’s sister, and the siblings are close. What would Kirsty do? Later Chelsea comes to Kirsty with exactly the same issue. Mia’s an up herself eco-geek and they’re totally different people, but she’s Brad’s girlfriend and she doesn’t want to hurt him. So does she just put up with Mia? Kirsty points out the thing they have in common – both of them care about Brad. Perhaps they can learn to put up with one another.
Tom begins his charm offensive on Adil, leaving Alistair baffled. Tom asks Adil if he’d like to join the cricket team to fill absent Johnny’s place. Adil protests he’s no good, but Tom offers to throw him a few balls on the Green as a trial, and then stand him coffee and cake at lunch. After a few tips hopeless Adil makes contact with the ball just once – and hits a plant pot at Greenacres. Alistair points out it’s Jim’s prizewinning hydrangea, in a replica Grecian urn which is now broken. Tom immediately takes the blame, but Adil knows what he’s up to, and declares the charm technique won’t work.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001p6tx)
The Booker Prize longlist; Freddie Mercury's costume archive, Scottish theatre
As the Booker Prize longlist is announced, literary critic Alex Clark takes us through the contenders for the £50,000 literary award for fiction, to be announced on 26th November.
In September, a treasure trove of personal items belonging to Freddie Mercury - from fine art to furniture and fashion - will be sold at auction. In the run up to the sales, the collection will go on display to the public at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries. Ahead of the exhibition, Samira gets an exclusive tour of Freddie’s on and off-stage wardrobe by entertainment memorabilia specialists, Wallace and Hodgson.
A new report into Scottish theatre is calling for a commercially driven theatre company specialising in new work to be established in Scotland. To find out why, we’re joined by David Brownlee, chief executive of the arts data specialists Data Culture Change, theatre critic of the Scotsman Joyce MacMillan, and Patricia Stead who's executive director and Joint CEO of the Tron Theatre company in Glasgow.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001p6v6)
The Wolf of Crypto
Set in the belly of rural England, the small village of Winchmore Hill is a far cry from the world of privileged tech bros and slick silicon valley investors, often associated with crypto currencies. Yet in 2021, this community just north of Slough became the recruiting ground for a crypto investment called Koda.
Thanks to the gregarious pub landlord, who promoted the coin and ran crypto nights, a big chunk of this community where everyone knows everyone put money into the currency. They invested thousands of pounds, in some cases their life savings, but when the currency plummeted months later, they lost it all, leaving the community utterly devastated.
Lucinda Borrell explores the lasting impact on this small village, and asks why this particular crypto coin became so appealing in the first place.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001p6vj)
A Successful Judicial Review; Renting with a Guide Dog
Dr Yusuf Osman was frequently getting information from the Department for Work and Pensions in a form that was inaccessible to him. This led to him to bringing a judicial review and he won it. Yusuf, along with the RNIB's Senior Legal Advisor Samantha Fothergill, describe what the ruling means for him and other visually impaired people.
Finding somewhere to rent at the moment really isn't easy, with low availability and soaring prices, but having a guide dog shouldn't be a factor that makes it more challenging. The right to have one in a rental property is enshrined in law, but Aleksandra Edwards has been looking for somewhere in the West Midlands for around two years and suspects that her guide dog could be a factor. She and Chris Theobald from Guide Dogs UK tell us more about this problem - that appears to be on the increase.
If you would like to submit your opinions to the consultations about the closure of the remaining ticketing offices at railway stations, you can call:
Transport Focus & London TravelWatch on: 0300 123 2350 (up until 1st of September)
The Transport Select Committee on: 020 719 2226 (up until 16th August)
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 Rethink (m001p6rf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:45 An Almanac for Anxiety: In Search of a Calmer Mind (m001p6vt)
Episode 5 - Earth
Anxiety is the most common form of mental illness in the UK, with nearly a fifth of people experiencing it over the course of a year. Although it is often treated through medication, there are many alternative ways which are proving to be very effective in reducing anxiety amongst some people. In this series, we explore how connecting with the elemental forces of nature helps people with a range of mental illnesses to feel better. We also learn about the current academic research behind these methods.
In Episode 5 - Earth - we visit the Horticultural Therapy Trust allotment in Plymouth and discover how gardening can be soothing for people with severe mental illnesses. We also hear about how putting our hands in the earth can be good for our gut microbiome and potentially our mental health.
Produced and Presented by Helen Needham
Research by Anna Miles and Maud Start
Original Music by Anthony Cowie
Mixed by Ron McCaskill and Malcolm Torrie
A BBC Scotland Production made in Aberdeen for BBC Radio 4
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001p6w1)
Trump charged with four counts over 2020 election
Donald Trump has been charged with four counts after a grand jury examined his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result. We get the latest from Washington DC.
Also on the programme:
The first French evacuation flight has left Niger - after last week's military coup in the West African country became an angry revolt against the former colonial power. We speak to an MP from President Macron's party.
The government has formally acknowledged that the mass murder of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State group was a genocide. We get reaction from the Yazidi Nobel Peace Prize Winner - Nadia Murad.
TUE 22:45 Money by Martin Amis (m001p6wb)
7: I can butch this out
Bertie Carvel continues Martin Amis's electrifying, and savagely funny novel of 1980s excess, featuring the self-destructive anti-hero John Self.
John Self is a consumer extraordinaire.
Rolling between London and New York he closes movie deals and spends feverishly, all the while grabbing everything he can to sate his massive appetites: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography and mountains of junk food.
But John’s excesses haven’t gone unnoted. Menaced by a phone stalker, his dangerously excessive lifestyle is about to bring him face-to-face with the secret of his success.
Today: After learning of Selina's duplicity, John Self throws himself into further gluttony, alcohol and pornography - this time in London.
Writer: Martin Amis
Reader: Bertie Carvel
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 23:00 Witch (p0fpbvtf)
10. Palms of Silver
The witch has held a place firmly in our imagination for centuries – from whispered warnings in folklore to pop-culture driven heights. But what does it mean to be a witch now?
Presenter India Rakusen, creator of the podcast 28ish Days Later, is on a journey to find out.
India explores the business end of witchcraft, and the murky ways in which people and companies might profit from the idea. From crystals and witch kits, to tarot readings and a high-flying 'industrial intuitive', what are the ethics behind making money from magic?
Scored with original music by The Big Moon.
Presenter: India Rakusen
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands
Producer: Elle Scott
Producer: Lucy Dearlove
AP: Tatum Swithenbank
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Sound Design: Olga Reed
A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Rewinder (m001np1x)
A Trout Called Barbie
Greg James, host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show and proud radio nerd, heads into the BBC archives to deliver a selection of prime audio, using stories of the week and listener requests as his launch-pad.
The Barbie film hits cinema screens later this month, with Margot Robbie in the title role. Greg discovers interviews with Barbie's original creators captured in a 1997 radio documentary, along with their daughter who happened to be called...Barbara.
As the global Formula 1 circus arrives in Silverstone this weekend for the British Grand Prix, Greg looks back at the history of British F1. He finds an excited report from the first F1 world championship race, held at Silverstone in 1950 (speeds of up to 90 mph!) and remembers two of the greats of British racing: Sir Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, also known as The Racing Dentist.
A listener request takes Greg to radio nerd paradise as he finds out about the earliest jingles used on BBC radio. From Live and Kicking to Radio 4's Today, via Kenny Everett, The Beatles and Elton John, Greg gets lost in the strange world of extraordinary radio jingles.
And as a law is passed in South Korea making its population younger, Greg tries to discover the secret to eternal youth...does it lie in trying to recreate childhood, as train enthusiast Victor Martin did by building a lifesize replica of a railway signalling station in his garden? Or maybe it's more scientific: a 1968 documentary by Lord Snowdon heads to a Swiss clinic where they're doing iffy things with sheep...
Producer Tim Bano
WEDNESDAY 02 AUGUST 2023
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001p6wq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p6rj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p6x1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p6xb)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p6xq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001p6y5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p6yl)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Good morning.
I’m very lucky to live close to an old-fashioned hardware store. It’s a real asset to the community - crammed with fascinating stuff, and if I need a specific replacement for a screw, a bolt, a hinge an obscure bit of plumbing or an electrical fitting – it’ll be there.
But there is one small issue. For years, I’d go in every time determined to find what I want and proceed to rummage hopelessly around the shelves until eventually I had to give up and ask the owner - who knows exactly where everything is and would put his hand on it immediately.
I’ve learned. These days I just march up to the counter and ask – it saves an awful lot of time, and, I admit, a certain amount of embarrassment.
Why is it, I wonder, that we so often in our lives approach every situation determined that we’ll solve it ourselves. The popular joke that men will get hopelessly lost rather than ask for directions isn’t far from the truth about many areas of our lives.
And that includes prayer. In too many situations I don’t think I’m alone in rushing into prayer to ask God to bless my plans.
Simply asking Him to point me in the right direction is too often a last resort.
“Pray then plan” can be a really good strategy. Whether or not we hear a voice from heaven, every one of us can ask whether our plans reflect God’s values and treat our neighbours as we would want to be treated ourselves – the answers to those two would knock many of my less sensible plans on the head from the outset.
Father God, keep us from thinking that we always know best. Help us to recognise that getting help from someone wiser is true wisdom – especially when that person is you. Amen
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001p6z2)
02/08/23 Wet weather and harvest; recruiting and retaining rural GPs; turning chicken manure into biochar
Last month was the sixth wettest July on record according to the Met Office. But just how has the weather impacted farmers trying to harvest?
Plus, the challenges of recruiting and retaining GPs in rural communities, and the company looking to turn chicken manure into biochar to prevent river pollution.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qkcg)
Great Reed Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Brett Westwood presents the great reed warbler. As you'd expect from their name, Great Reed Warblers are a much larger version of the Common Reed Warbler and breed in Continental Europe where their very loud song echoes around reed-beds, it can be heard up to half a kilometre away. We can hear one or more singing Great Reed Warblers in the UK each spring.
WED 06:00 Today (m001p7jt)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Rethink (m001p7k5)
Rethink Work
Working Culture
With the Great Resignation of older workers leaving the workforce, the sharp rise in long-term sick, and the explosion in working from home, the culture of the workplace has been radically reformed. Will new habits and working patterns become embedded, or will new technologies including AI upend things again?
Amol Rajan discusses with a panel of experts:
Luke Johnson - entrepreneur, investor and writer, former Chairman of Pizza Express, Channel 4, and current Chairman of Start-up Britain.
Paul Johnson - director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Heejung Chung - labour market & welfare state researcher and Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, at the University of Kent
Sereena Abbassi - Equity and Inclusion practitioner, former Worldwide Head of Culture and Inclusion at M&C Saatchi
WED 09:45 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p7lj)
Episode 3: On the Trail of Nikodim
In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.
Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.
As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.
Episode 3
On the Trail of Nikodim: a visit to her great-grandfather’s village brings Victoria closer to the missing Nikodim.
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.
The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.
Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001p7km)
Accusations against Lizzo, Power Lister Jodie Ounsley, Concepts of renaissance beauty, Loneliness, Rock Follies musical
The singer Lizzo, and her production company, are being sued by three former dancers. They have been accused of sexual and racial harassment, disability discrimination, false imprisonment and creating a hostile work environment. Tom Murray, Senior Culture Reporter for the Independent, tells Nuala exactly what’s in the lawsuit.
Rock Follies was a 1970s TV series about an all-female rock band, The Little Ladies, trying to make their mark on a male-dominated music industry. A new musical adapted from the TV series is currently on in Chichester. Nuala is joined by Rula Lenska who played Q in the original TV series and Zizi Strallen who has taken on the stage role.
Jodie Ounsley is the world’s first ever deaf female rugby sevens international player, and she was part of the Woman’s Hour Power List of women in sport. She also uses TikTok to show others what it’s like to live with hearing loss. She joins Nuala to talk about being on the Power List, as well as being one of the brand new Gladiators.
All this week we’re looking at loneliness, and today we’re asking: what impact does it have on society at large? To discuss Nuala is joined by Noreena Hertz, an economist and author of The Lonely Century, where she explores how increasing isolation has consequences for our economy and our democracy.
Would you use fig and pine nut hand scrub? Or perhaps some tree gum anti-wrinkle cream? Just a few of the 16th century beauty recipes Professor Jill Burke has included in her new book How to be a Renaissance Woman. Jill joins Nuala to talk about sixteenth-century women’s body anxieties and the men who wrote them beauty tips.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lottie Garton
WED 11:00 Intrigue (p0fvd1km)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 History's Secret Heroes (p0fqnm9h)
10. Arslan Rezniqi and the Besa Code
Albania was one of the few European countries to have a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than it had at the beginning. What role did Arslan Rezniqi, a Kosovan Albanian merchant, play in this?
Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.
A BBC Studios Podcast production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
Producer: Amie Liebowitz
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
WED 12:00 News Summary (m001p7ln)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001p7l4)
Negative budgets, Rural GPs, Childminder troubles
A trend is emerging which is worrying agencies like Citizens Advice whereby people are finding they simply cannot balance their monthly budgets and are constantly getting into more debt. It's become known as 'negative budgets' and it's a trend that is rising fast. In 2019, just over a third of Citizens Advice debt clients were in a negative budget. Today it’s over half and the number is rising. Citizens Advice believe it is a generational problem that will define the priorities of any government for at least the next decade.
We examine whether a government plan to extend child minding help for parents is causing more minders to quit. Working parents of three and four-year-olds are currently eligible for 30 hours of government-funded childcare during term time. From September, 15 hours of free childcare will be made available to children from nine months upwards. And by September 2025, this will be extended to 30 hours. The government says it's the biggest investment in childcare history. However, childcare providers are warning that the average rate paid per child for these free hours is not enough to cover the cost.
Average annual energy bills fell by 17% last month - and fixed deals are returning. The question is - to fix or not to fix? We hear from a couple of experts as fixed deals return through a number of energy suppliers including British Gas, EDF, E.on, Octopus Energy and Ovo.
And we report from Wales on the problems of retaining rural GPs. If you live in the countryside, you probably rely on your GP more than those living in towns near walk in centres and other health clinics. But attracting enough doctors to run surgeries in rural areas is difficult. The number of trainees is rising, thanks to an incentive scheme. But some GPs say it needs to change to encourage them to stay longer.
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: CRAIG HENDERSON
WED 12:57 Weather (m001p7lb)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m001p7lf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
WED 13:45 New Storytellers (m001p7lk)
Out at Sea, Out of Mind
Take a deep dive into the sonic realms of the sea. With natural soundscapes recorded beneath the surface, this is a journey of discovery into how important sound is for all sea creatures - from whales, dolphins, and porpoises, to the smallest invertebrates, sound is an essential part of their being.
Since the discovery that whale song can be heard across entire oceans, many researchers have been exploring how human-produced sounds and frequencies may affect communication among the mammals. But as we on the surface can’t hear the sounds beneath the sea, we can be oblivious to the devastating effects some of these noises can have on underwater life. As humans we bring to the vast arena of the oceans much louder sounds than would occur naturally on the evolutionary scale - shipping, sonar used for underwater navigation, and the loud seismic gun testing blasts produced when surveying the ocean bed for oil and gas.
Do we need to start listening to our oceans?
With contributions from: Professor Volker Deecke, marine pollution consultant Tim Deere-Jones, researchers Sarah Dickson, Jordan Burgess, Jo Garrett, and writer Jay Richardson.
This series of New Storytellers features the winners of this year’s Charles Parker Prize 2023 for the Best Student Radio Feature. Out at Sea, Out of Mind was produced by recent University of Sunderland MA Radio, Audio and Podcasting student Lottie Steele and the feature is, in the words of the judges, “skilfully creative” and “expertly montaged so that there is a great sense of flow”. And they admired the “beautiful use of sound and music. A shocking and important programme.”
Producer: Lottie Steele
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001p6tp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0013rnr)
Bangla Bantams
Bangla Bantams
by Kamal Kaan and Mary Cooper
This moving and inspiring drama focuses on a fictionalised family, based on the true story of how a Bradford women's community group became part of the Bangla Bantams supporters group for Bradford City Football. When Nessa's son-in-law proposes her Ladies group come and watch the football live, she thinks he's crazy.
Her best friend, Farida thinks differently.
Nessa - Sudha Bhuchar
Farida - Nina Wadia
Lippy - Farzana Dua Elahe
Rukon - Darren Kuppan
Sabina - Natalie Davies
Dave/Football staff - Russell Richardson
Production Co-ordinator - Rachael Brown
Sound - Simon Highfield
Producer/Director - Pauline Harris
WED 15:00 Money Box (m001p7lp)
Money Box Live: The Mortgage Dilemma
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates again this week, for the fourteenth consecutive time. The increase will hike the monthly repayments for anyone on a variable rate mortgage, for those trying to re-mortgage after coming off a fixed-rate and for first time buyers with new home loans.
In this podcast we look at the dilemmas created by high borrowing rates. The experts in this podcast are Sonya Matharu, Senior Mortgage Broker at The Mortgage Mum and Tom Bill, Head of UK Residential Research at Knight Frank.
Presenter: Sam Fenwick
Producer: Amber Mehmood
Researcher: Luke Smithurst
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
3pm, Wednesday 2nd August, 2023)
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m001p7ls)
Could weight-loss drugs treat addiction?
Barely a day goes by without more headlines around new weight-loss drugs, from the issue of global shortages, to investigations into suicide risk, and debate over just how long people will need to be on them. But in this episode of Inside Health we’re going to look at something slightly different - and perhaps unexpected.
James Gallagher meets lifelong dieter Cheri who has lost just over three stone on semaglutide but she’s also noticed other effects from her weekly injection; a calmer mind and a complete lack of desire for her much-loved vapes. She wants to know what’s going on – so we seek out some scientists to help us get to the bottom of it. From the evidence gathered so far, are there hints that these drugs could offer potential to treat serious addiction?
And have you ever heard of “bed rotting”?
It doesn’t sound particularly enticing - but James gives it a go in the name of science and we explain all in the programme with the help of two experts.
What health questions do you want us to answer? Email the team at insidehealth@bbc.co.uk
Declared interests:
Professor Giles Yeo: "I have a PhD student part-funded by Novo Nordisk. I consult for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly."
Dr Tony Goldstone: "I have previously been a member of Data Safety Monitoring Board for clinical trials of Liraglutide for obesity by Novo Nordisk, and have received an honorarium as a conference speaker from Novo Nordisk."
Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Erika Wright
Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris
Studio Producer: Duncan Hannant
(Photo: Cheri Ferguson with her Ozempic pen. Credit Cheri Ferguson)
WED 16:00 Sideways (m001p7lv)
49. Inside Marjorie's Parlour
Every Sunday afternoon for over 30 years now, Marjorie Eliot has played a jazz concert in her Harlem apartment for anyone who comes. It all began on a Sunday morning back in 1992, after she was faced with an unimaginable loss.
In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores how music has allowed Marjorie Eliot to look for joy within the deepest of losses. And through the history of jazz itself, he tries to understand how music can become such a powerful, even transcendental force.
With actress, playwright and musician Marjorie Eliot; singer, composer, actor - and Marjorie’s son - Rudel Drears; and Dr Tammy Kernodle, musicologist and Professor of Music at Miami University in Ohio.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Jake Otajovic
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Executive Producer: Max O'Brien
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001p7lx)
The Hegarty Effect
Advertising executive Sir John Hegarty has created campaigns for some of the world's most famous brands including Levi's, Lynx, and Audi. He was a founding partner of Saatchi and Saatchi before co-founding his own firm, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, in 1982. But he believes that advertising today has lost sight of creativity, in its relentless focus on data and targeted advertising. He joins Ros Atkins to discuss his career, his theory of creativity, and the future of his industry.
Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Dan Hardoon
WED 17:00 PM (m001p7lz)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p7m3)
The former president's supporters have been defending him following the criminal charges
WED 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (m0005mw2)
Series 8
Episode 3
John Finnemore returns to Radio 4 with an eighth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined by his regular ensemble cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
This episode, contains some handy mnemonics, an unilluminating interview, and a de-illuminating editor's note. Support for John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme comes from all the usual companies who support podcasts.
John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described by The Radio Times as "the best sketch show in years, on television or radio", and by The Daily Telegraph as "funny enough to make even the surliest cat laugh". Already the winner of a Radio Academy Silver Award and a Broadcasting Press Guild award, this year Souvenir Programme won its second BBC Audio Drama award.
Written by & starring ... John Finnemore
Cast ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Cast ... Simon Kane
Cast ... Lawry Lewin
Cast ... Carrie Quinlan
Production Coordinator ... Beverly Tagg
Producer ... Ed Morrish
A BBC Studios production
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001p796)
Eddie enthuses to Mia about the ferret themed fete. Mia points out some shortcomings she’s heard about. Eddie declares these are all blips – inevitable when working within a budget. He spots Lynda approaching and tries to hide, but she spots him. Lynda challenges him about the fete, suggesting it’s chaos. Defeated, Eddie admits it’s all got away from him. He can’t see a solution. Lynda suggests they join forces. With Eddie’s ideas and her organisational skills, all will be well.
Chelsea bumps into Stella on her way to the rewilding site. They’re joined by Paul, who wonders about Weaver doing a photo shoot for a feature on rescue dogs – he’d be perfect. Chelsea thinks Stella should jump at it. After some hesitation Stella agrees, however Weaver isn’t the perfect model.
Mia and Chelsea work together on the labels for the rewilding stall. They talk about Brad, both noting aspects of his personality. Chelsea’s surprised Mia’s observed so much, feeling that as Brad’s sister, she herself should know him best. She doesn’t want him messed about. Mia assures her she won’t – she doesn’t want Brad hurt or laughed at either. The pair agree they’re on the same page.
Helen wants to rebrand Sterling Gold to Grey Gables Gold for Adil. Pat thinks it’s selling out, but Helen’s determined to do anything to keep the cheese business afloat. Pat suggests a compromise, which Helen agrees to think about. If she can win back the cheese agreement with Adil, everything else will fall into place.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001p7m6)
Welsh Fleabag, Social media and comedy in Edinburgh; Moon Palace in Leeds
A new Welsh version of the comedy hit Fleabag is about to premiere at the National Eisteddfod in Boduan. Branwen Davies’ adaptation of the one-woman show for Theatr Clywd has been given the thumb’s up by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who wrote and starred in the original version ten years ago at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was later turned into an award-winning BBC television series. Davies says she wanted to create a Welsh voice for Fleabag rather than do a word-for-word translation. Her Fleabag talks about her interactions with men in English – but it’s the Welsh language she shared with her dead mother that reveals her most honest and vulnerable moments.
Just over halfway through Leeds2023, the city's year-long celebration of culture, Nick visits one of the major commissions - Moon Palace. A new social sculpture and working mobile observatory created by artists Heather Peak and Ivan Morison. They took inspiration from the man known as the "father of civil engineering", John Smeaton, who was born in East Leeds nearly 300 years ago and as well as building his own observatory, designed and built many bridges, canals, water mills, and lighthouses across the UK.
And how is social media transforming comedy? Comedian Abi Clarke who’s in Edinburgh did standup for a year but gained more than 900,000 followers on TikTok after posting sketches since the pandemic. Comedy promoter Toby Jones believes it’s a bigger revolution than television and takes comedy directly to consumers, helping to improve diversity and build audiences without so much financial risk.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m001p21m)
Barbie and the patriarchy
What is 'the patriarchy' and does it still exist in the UK today?
The Barbie movie’s portrayal of the patriarchy and a world in which men have all the positions of power has triggered debate on social media around whether the UK is a patriarchal society.
According to Barbie's friend Ken, patriarchy is when “men on horses run everything”. According to history, Marxist scholars first described the patriarchy as a system that favoured men over women and characterised it as integral part of the capitalist system.
Years later, in the 1970s, it became a focal point for feminist activists who campaigned for equal rights and representation for women. In Britain today, though, when many of the laws that gave more power to men have been overturned, is there still a system in place that gives men more power than women? Is the word useful?
We explain the history of the phrase and fact-check the ways in which people across the debate measure gender equality.
Contributors:
Charlotte Proudman, campaigner and barrister specialising in gender based violence cases
Mike Bell, creator of the website Equi-law which researches disadvantages experienced by men and boys
Lucy Delap, Professor of Modern British and Gender History at the University of Cambridge
Kelly Beaver, CEO for UK & Ireland at Ipsos
WED 20:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001gx56)
Swap Out Sugar
Cutting back on free sugars can not only do wonders for your waistline and your oral hygiene, surprising research shows it could also improve your memory and help your brain. But it can be hard to resist those sugar cravings! In this episode, Michael Mosley is joined by Dr Evelyn Medawar from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, who has been studying the effects of our gut microbiome on our eating preferences, and reveals a potential tip to help crack sugar cravings. The secret lies in dietary fibre, like that found in fruit. So, trade your sweet treats for fruit and learn how this healthy switch can transform your brain, biome and your life.
WED 21:00 Rethink (m001p7k5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:45 Living on the Edge (m001p7md)
Skegness
Ten coastal encounters, presented by Richard King.
Today: with John Nuttall and his donkeys on Skegness beach.
Not simply town or countryside, the coastline is a place apart – attracting lives and stories often overlooked.
In these ten programmes, the writer Richard King travels around the UK coast to meet people who live and work there – a sequence of portraits rooted in distinct places, which piece together into an alternative portrait of the UK: an oblique image of the nation drawn from the coastal edge.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001p7mk)
Trump indictment analysed ahead of court appearance
Foreign Office assessment finds thousands of women will die because of cuts to the overseas aid budget
The Queens Park Rangers manager on his double life as a rock singer
WED 22:45 Money by Martin Amis (m001p7mr)
8: I don't seem to be able to...
Bertie Carvel continues Martin Amis's electrifying, and savagely funny novel of 1980s excess, featuring the self-destructive anti-hero John Self.
John Self is a consumer extraordinaire.
Rolling between London and New York he closes movie deals and spends feverishly, all the while grabbing everything he can to sate his massive appetites: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography and mountains of junk food.
But John’s excesses haven’t gone unnoted. Menaced by a phone stalker, his dangerously excessive lifestyle is about to bring him face-to-face with the secret of his success.
Today: After an eye-watering night at the opera with Martina, John Self is finally getting closer, though not close enough, to his old crush
Writer: Martin Amis
Reader: Bertie Carvel
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 23:00 Bunk Bed (m001p7my)
Series 10
Episode 3: The return of Kathy Burke
Late at night, in the dark and in a bunk bed, our tired minds can wander through strange territory before we drift off.
Kathy Burke reflects on winning Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and fancying Gordon Brown. Peter Curran and Patrick Marber butt heads about the seductive power of politics
'Bunk Bed is funny, strange, enchanting, and beautifully put together.' - The Observer
'Bunk Bed is beloved by broadsheet critics, but don't let that put you off....' - Metro
Produced by Peter Curran
A Foghorn production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001p7n2)
Series 9
Episode 7
Jon Holmes's comedy current affairs concept album remixes news into award-winning satirical shapes. This week - Bad Blood, Trump's Troubles, and Jordan Henderson of Arabia.
Created and produced by Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000j35w)
Series 1
The Vicar of Dibley - with Dawn French and Richard Curtis
TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.
In this episode, Dawn French and Richard Curtis discuss their much-loved sitcom 'The Vicar of Dibley'.
They explain how to make a fundamentally nice character funny, ponder Richard’s curious appetite for writing quite so many weddings, and Dawn’s strangest ever Vicar of Dibley gig.
With Peter and Jon as our guides, discover how the Dawn and Richard went about making a great bit of TV comedy.
Who came up with it?
How did it get written?
Plus, backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, with the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.
Producer: Owen Braben
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in May 2020.
THURSDAY 03 AUGUST 2023
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001p7n6)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p7lj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p7nb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p7ng)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p7nn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001p7ny)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p7p7)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Good morning. I wish I could remember who said that Shakespeare was OK but it had far too many quotations.
The same could be said about the first twenty one verses of the third chapter of John’s Gospel which is pretty crammed with key texts that generations of Sunday school children were set to memorise.
Intriguingly, these vital teachings by Jesus were given in a private conversation rather than in public, and the person with whom Jesus was talking was Nicodemus, a religious leader who came secretly to find out for himself just who this man was.
Nicodemus, who is celebrated in many churches on this day, only appears three times in the Bible – all in John’s Gospel and he’s presented as a sympathetic figure – who recognises something special about Jesus, tries to speak up for Jesus and eventually appears at the crucifixion and helps with the burial.
He’s the patron saint of curiosity. And that, it strikes me makes him someone we might value more.
Increasingly, public dialogue is governed by dogmatic – and often highly dubious – statements that are presented as facts. And many of us prefer to accept this stuff – whether because it’s easy to understand or re-enforces our prejudices or simply annoys people who we don’t like.
The driving force of human development has been the curiosity that drives discovery and invention. Nicodemus, fuelled by his curiosity asked some key questions that no-one else had and got answers that are still challenging us today.
Perhaps if more of us followed his example and tried not to form opinions until we actually had some solid information to work with, I’m pretty confident that the world would be a better place.
Father, may we be like Nicodemus, willing to ask tough questions – even if the answers may not be easy or comfortable, the truth can set us free. Amen.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001p7pj)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04mlvyz)
Great Snipe
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Chris Packham presents the superbly camouflaged great snipe of Eastern Europe. A thin drizzle of tinkling notes mingled with rhythmic tapping drifts across a Polish marsh in spring a sign that great male snipes are displaying. Great snipe are wading birds with short legs and very long two-toned bills, which they use to probe bogs and wet ground for worms. Across much of Europe having newly returned from its sub-Saharan wintering grounds a number of northern and eastern European marshes, set stage as breeding sites for the larger, great snipe. They court females at traditional lekking or displaying grounds where several males vie for attention. Perched on a small mound, males gather at sunset to fan their white outer tail feathers, puff out their chests and produce a medley of very un-wader-like calls. The females, looking for a mate, are attracted to the dominant males at the centre of the lek.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
THU 06:00 Today (m001p742)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Rethink (m001p74g)
Rethink Work
Jobs of the Future
What should political and business leaders be doing to prepare for the job market of the future? Amol Rajan discusses with a panel of experts:
David Goodhart - journalist and fellow at Policy Exchange think tank, author of Head Heart Hand - Why Intelligence Is Over-Rewarded, Manual Workers Matter, and Caregivers Deserve More Respect
Michael Barrington Hibbert - CEO of executive search firm Barrington Hibbert Associates and founder of the 10,000 Black Interns initiative
Kate Bell - Former Head of Economics, and now Assistant General Secretary of the TUC
Abby Gilbert - director of praxis at the Institute for the Future of Work
THU 09:45 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p74w)
Episode 4
In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.
Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.
As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.
Episode 4
Case number 1056846: Victoria is given the official file on her great uncle Nikodim’s imprisonment, but told to read between the lines.
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.
The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.
Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001p75d)
Loneliness, Lucy Calcines, Nicole Travolta, Kids at risk
All this week on the programme we are looking at the topic of loneliness. Women are statistically more likely to be lonely and so in today's programme we will look at ways to cope with those feelings and if it's possible to reframe them. Anita is joined by Radio 4's All in the Mind presenter Claudia Hammond and author of Alonement, Francesca Specter.
The comedian Nicole Travolta is taking her one-woman show Doing Alright to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It chronicles her life as a compulsive shopper, how she freed herself from debt, shame and the weight of a famous last name, one spray tan at a time. When she is not dressed up in a wig doing impressions, she can also be found performing comedy around LA.
The children’s charity NSPCC says that its Helpline received over one thousand contacts last year about children experiencing coercive and controlling behaviour, a form of domestic abuse. The school summer holidays can be a particularly difficult time for some of these children. If you are worried about someone, what should you do? Anita is joined by Paddi Vint, Development Manager for the NSPCC and a woman we call Margaret, who experienced coercive control in a previous relationship.
The Cuban-Spanish singer-songwriter Lucy Calcines joins Anita to sing live, ahead of her headline performance at the UK’s largest Latin music and dance festival this weekend. She shot to fame after her appearance on the Voice TV show in 2020, when she achieved a four chair turn by superstar coaches Meghan Trainor, Sir Tom Jones, Olly Murs and will.i.am. Anita will also be joined by the festival organiser, Amaranta Wright, to talk about all things Latin.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rebecca Myatt
Studio manager: Bob Nettles
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001p75t)
Returning to Romania
Millions of people left Romania after it entered the EU in 2007. They were haemorrhaging doctors at such a rate they had to shut entire hospitals and losing so many builders they had to cancel major infrastructure projects. By 2015, nearly 20% of the population lived abroad. Now their government wants them to come home. They’ve doubled health care salaries, offered tax breaks to builders and dished out thousands of Euros in grants for returners who start up a business. And in 2023, with Romania projected to have one of the fastest growing economies in the EU, the migration tide could finally be turning.
Dr Tessa Dunlop travels to Transylvania to meet Alina, who was persuaded to leave the UK by a grant that helped her start up a leather clothing business. Adrian, co-owner of an app design company, relishes the high tech salary he can earn and the relatively low living costs in Romania. Dan, a foetal medicine specialist left the UK after nearly a decade working for the NHS, hoping to improve Romania’s maternity wards. In some sectors, though, there are still shortages. Builder Ion can't find the Romanian talent he could easily recruit in Italy. Perhaps not enough has improved, yet, to tempt lower paid workers home.
Producer: Phoebe Keane
Editor: Penny Murphy
THU 11:30 Great Lives (m001p6sx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001p767)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001p76m)
Gap Finders: Lucy & Yak's, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick
Walk into any café in a university town or city and you’ll spot them straight away. With their trademark square labels, bright colours and occasional patterns, Lucy & Yak’s dungarees are practically a uniform amongst certain sections of Britain’s Gen Z. It’s a booming business. Established in 2017, the firm racked up sales of £27 million in the last year alone.
It wasn’t always like this. Nor was it the result of meticulous planning or strategizing. For a start, neither of the company’s founders, Lucy Greenwood and Chris Renwick had any background in design.
Instead they met whilst working as car sales people in Newcastle over a decade ago before they quit their jobs and went travelling. Money was running out, but a chance encounter with a German couple in New Zealand made them realise that life without a boss was more than possible.
Coming home, a nomadic stint in a campervan led to the unlikeliest of discoveries: a gap in a market. One that now sustains 200 jobs in a company spanning 6 shops, a giant warehouse in Barnsley, a Brighton HQ and half a dozen factories in India.
We hear their story of how they made it happen along with the hard decisions they’ve taken along the way. We find out how the couple balance sustainability and ethics with operating at scale in today's ruthlessly competitive fashion industry. Finally, we look ahead to the future and discover where they plan to go next.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz
THU 12:33 All Consuming (m001p770)
Houseplants
Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala go mushy for houseplants in this episode of All Consuming where they explore our culture of consumption.
Philodendrons, Hoyas, Monsteras - the list of plants available to consumers is now almost endless and these green companions became a crucial part of our home during lockdown when we craved the outdoors.
In recent years, our love for houseplants has seen the plant market explode - but at what cost?
Charlotte and Amit meet Jacob James, a seller of rare plants at the Royal Chelsea Flower Show, who reveals that there’s been a recent crash in rare houseplant prices.
We check in with historian Catherine Horwood to find out how houseplants first entered the home and ecologist Dr Adam Cross gives us a fly’s eye view of a rare carnivorous plant.
Amateur biologist Sebastian Cocioba tells us how he hacks orchids for a special Mother’s Day present.
Presenters: Amit Katwala and Chalotte Stavrou
Producer: Emily Uchida Finch
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 12:57 Weather (m001p77h)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001p782)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment, with Jonny Dymond.
THU 13:45 New Storytellers (m001p78m)
Disappearing Birds
House martins live on our homes in summer and, in winter, they disappear. No one knows where they go. But now these mysterious birds are red listed. They’re rapidly declining more and more each year. Disappearing Birds tells the story of how people all over the UK are working hard to save them.
This series of New Storytellers is presenting the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature 2023. Petra Robyn Jones, the producer of this winning feature, is a recent graduate from the University of the West of England’s MA course in Journalism (Audio, Documentary and Podcast). The judges remarked that her programme on house martins, celebrated their beauty and examined their declining numbers through a group of persuasive speakers - it was “well executed with good use of sound...The stories are engrossing and touching: Moving, insightful, surprising and sometimes shocking.”
Producer: Petra Robyn Jones
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001p796)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 The Citadel (m001p79r)
Series 9
Episode 2
The Citadel by Tom Needham based on the book by A J Cronin.
Episode 2
Andrew and Christine are worried that they might have lost their baby. Meanwhile Denny is infatuated with aristocratic birth control campaigner Frances Pemberton. But are her aims benign?
Denny................................Matthew Gravelle
Manson.............................Richard Fleeshman
Christine...........................Catrin Stewart
Frances..............................Emily Pithon
Dai/Father Michael.......Stephen Marzella
Olwyn.................................Sacha Parkinson
Gwynnie............................Juno Robinson
Production Co-ordinator - Jessica Bellamy
Tech Team- Sue Stonestreet, Simon Highfield
Sound Design - Sue Stonestreet
Producer/Director - Gary Brown
A BBC Audio Drama North Production.
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001p7b9)
The Isle of Man
Thousands of years ago, large parts of Britain were covered with temperate rainforest - also known as "Atlantic woodland" or "Celtic rainforest". It's a habitat which needs high rainfall and low annual variation in temperature, so the western fringes of the British Isles provide perfect conditions. But temperate rainforest has been largely destroyed over the centuries and there are now only fragments of it left. One of the few surviving areas is in the Isle of Man, where work now is underway to expand and restore this unique habitat, thanks to a £38 million grant. At Creg y Cowin over 70 acres will be planted with native tree species, with around 20 acres left to regenerate naturally. Helen Mark visits the island to learn about this project and meets the Wildlife Trust volunteers involved in the early stages of getting the work underway. She also finds out about "tholtans" - abandoned agricultural dwellings which are a feature of the landscape of the Isle of Man. She meets a couple who are trying to document as many of these ruined buildings as possible, and finds out about links between the landscape and the Manx language.
Produced by Emma Campbell for BBC Audio Bristol
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001p6mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m001p713)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Walt Disney: A Life in Films (p0fxbrmf)
6. Cinderella
Through the stories of ten of his greatest works, Mel Giedroyc examines the life of Walt Disney, a much mythologised genius. A man to whom storytelling was an escape from an oppressive father and a respite from periods of depression.
His name is truly iconic, but how much do we really know about this titan of the entertainment industry? Who was the real Walt and why did a man who moulded Western pop culture in his image end up on his deathbed, afraid that he’d be forgotten?
In this episode, Mel explores Cinderella, one of Walt’s most revered animations. The movie magically appeared on screens in 1950, emerging not from a pumpkin carriage, but from a period of the Disney studio’s most profound instability yet.
Walt had unwavering faith that salvation was just one Snow White-sized mega hit around the corner and in Cinderella he delivered it. It’s a film filled with romance and wonder, but as Mel discovers, Walt’s own love life wasn’t always a fairy tale.
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001p7c4)
Reality check: carbon capture and storage
This week the UK government announced that around 100 new oil and gas licences for the North Sea will be issued. At the same time the Prime Minister said the government would back two new carbon capture and storage plants, one in Aberdeenshire and one in the Humber. Victoria Gill speaks to Angela Knight, former chief executive of Energy UK, about what this decision means for the UK’s aim of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. She then discovers more about the capabilities of carbon capture and storage from Paul Fennell, a professor of clean energy at Imperial College London.
Next Victoria travels to the sunnier shores of Spain where orcas have been ramming fishing boats. She speaks to one of the sailors who witnessed an attack. To find out more about the orcas’ behaviour, she interviews Dr Luke Rendell, a whale and dolphin expert from the University of St Andrews.
We then move to Skomer, off the coast of West Wales. This important seabird colony has recently recorded an avian flu outbreak. Reporter Roland Pease speaks to Lisa Morgan from the Wildlife Trust for South and West Wales.
To finish the show Dr Stuart Farrimond is back with the final instalment of his science of gardening series.
Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Hannah Robins
Research: Patrick Hughes
Editor: Richard Collings
THU 17:00 PM (m001p7cn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p7cy)
The Bank has also warned that rates would remain "higher for longer"
THU 18:30 Ed Reardon's Week (m001p7d8)
Series 15
4. Ed in Paris
Ed’s friend, and nemesis, Jaz Milvane is to be offered a peerage and is hoping he can use the title ‘Jaz Milvain of Tinsletown’. Ed meanwhile is thrilled when a French publisher asks for the rights to his seminal first work of fiction ‘Who Would Fardels Bear’, and invites him to Paris to discuss the novel on the publisher's Youtube channel. Finally, he can be recognised as the true giant of the socialist realist movement he is, without the taint of Jaz’s awful film adaption ‘Sister Mom’. There is also the added advantage of affording him the opportunity to take Maggie on a romantic ‘Citybreak’.
Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas
Ping - Barunka O’Shaughnessy
Jaz Milvane - Phillip Jackson
Maggie - Pippa Haywood
Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead
Olive - Sally Grace
Winnie - Ellen Thomas
Radio Presenter - Nicola Sanderson
Claude - Rachel Atkins
Written by Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis
Production Co-ordinator - Katie Baum
Sound - Jon Calver
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001p7dj)
Out for an evening walk, Mia updates distracted Brad on George moving out of Little Grange and setting his sights on No.1 The Green, and the hash Eddie’s made of organising the fete. But Brad isn’t listening. He has a confession to make. He’s betrayed the whole Grundy family by answering Lynda’s many questions about the fete, and now Eddie’s in trouble. Mia reckons Eddie would have been found out anyway; Brad shouldn’t worry. And no-one will say anything as it’s all turned out fine. But Brad insists Eddie will find out who dobbed him in, and he’ll be for it. He knows these situations; the truth always comes out. He intends to confess to Eddie. Mia reiterates Brad’s done nothing wrong; in fact his actions saved the fete. Brad’s adamant – he’ll talk to Eddie first thing tomorrow.
Stella and Ruth watch the barley harvest at Home Farm. Ruth offers to take Weaver back to the bungalow and feed him. As she takes his lead Stella’s distracted by a call from Alistair. Ruth loses control of Weaver, who runs off. It’s soon clear he’s been hit by Ed’s trailer. In the vet surgery Stella awaits news. She insists to Ruth that it wasn’t her fault; a hare had caught Weaver’s attention. Ruth says Ed feels awful too, but again Stella reassures her. Alistair confirms that as a greyhound, Weaver would have a high prey drive and it’s doubtful anyone could have stopped him. He’s being treated, but Stella needs to be prepared for a difficult decision.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001p7dr)
Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha; Joy Ride film and Ann Patchett’s novel Tom Lake reviewed; composer Carl Davis
The South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha talks to Front Row ahead of returning to the Proms this Saturday to sing Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the National Youth Orchestra.
Critics Sharlene Teo and Max Liu review Joy Ride, the feature film debut of Adele Lim, who also wrote Crazy Rich Asians - and also Ann Patchett’s new novel Tom Lake, a story about how we tell the story of our lives – and how we fill the inevitable gaps.
And the composer and conductor Carl Davis has died. His film and television successes include the themes for the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, ITV's landmark history series the The World At War, and the TV adaptation of Far Pavilions. He wrote part of the Liverpool Oratorio with Paul McCartney to mark the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s 150th anniversary. The composer and author Neil Brand joins us to celebrate the work of Carl Davis.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Paul Waters
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001p7dw)
Is it Saudi's century?
With vast financial resources and a new found desire to engage in regional and global diplomacy, Saudi Arabia has got the world's attention. But just how powerful can it become?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent
Quinn Slobodian, Professor of History at Wellesley College and author of Crack-Up Capitalism
Simon Chadwick, Professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris
Cinzia Bianco, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
Safa al-Ahmad, Saudi journalist and documentary maker
Produced by: Ben Carter, Diane Richardson and Kirsteen Knight
Edited by: Richard Vadon
Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown and Sophie Hill
THU 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m001p7c4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:00 Rethink (m001p74g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:45 In the Loop (m001p7f1)
5. Particle Accelerator
…a circle has no beginning and no end. It represents rebirth and regeneration, continuity and infinity. From wedding rings to stone circles, in poetry, music and the trajectories of the planets themselves, circles and loops are embedded in our imaginations.
In this five-part series poet Paul Farley goes walking in circles in five very different ‘loopy’ locations. He visits a stone circle, a roundabout and a rollercoaster to ask why human beings find rings and circles so symbolic, significant and satisfying.
Paul has circular conversations with mathematicians and physicists, composers and poets, each one propelling him into a new loop of enquiry. And that’s because a circle has no beginning and no end…
Paul's final circle is 27 kilometres in circumference and lies deep beneath the Swiss/French border. The Large Hadron Collider is a ring of supercooled magnets which accelerates subatomic particles to unimaginable speeds and smashes them together. Melissa Yexley and Simon Albright from CERN are Paul’s guide to an extraordinary loop which is revealing the secrets of the Universe. Physicist Paddy Regan explains the cosmic forces which keep our planet locked in orbit around the Sun. And we close the loop with dance teacher Karen Michaelsen as we explore the power of linking hands and dancing in circles.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001p7f5)
Trump pleads not guilty in Washington court
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty in a courtroom in Washington to four charges over allegations he plotted to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. We are live in the US capital.
Also on the programme:
Is there something else out there? We speak to a former military official about why he testified to Congress - claiming the US government knows much more about UFOs than it is telling the public.
And as Volvo announces its ending production of its estate cars, Richard Hammond laments the demise of an icon.
THU 22:45 Money by Martin Amis (m001p7fb)
9: 'Where's the money?'
Bertie Carvel continues Martin Amis's electrifying, and savagely funny novel of 1980s excess, featuring the self-destructive anti-hero John Self.
John Self is a consumer extraordinaire.
Rolling between London and New York he closes movie deals and spends feverishly, all the while grabbing everything he can to sate his massive appetites: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography and mountains of junk food.
But John’s excesses haven’t gone unnoted. Menaced by a phone stalker, his dangerously excessive lifestyle is about to bring him face-to-face with the secret of his success.
Today: After a disastrous visit from Selina, John Self finally finds himself face-to-face with Frank the Phone...
Writer: Martin Amis
Reader: Bertie Carvel
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 23:00 Damien Slash (m001p7fh)
Damien Slash: Select All
Episode 2
The BBC's new content delivery system, the BBC AiPlayer, served Damien Slash with a ban for choosing to 'Select All'. Getting back into his account, can he outrun the law and enjoy as much sketch comedy content as he can?
While the system is tracking him down, the AiPlayer continues to spit out sketches, characters and songs. We go behind the scenes at a North London Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) society, eavesdrop on an author reading from his widely-loved works at the Barbican, and hear clicktivist Xavier Landing's one-man crusade to save the planet from climate breakdown. As always in the modern world unlocking more content means sitting through ads, this time for the VR protest experience, the new trauma exposure therapy of DisturbiSpa, and Dave's hit new comedy series, Comedians In A Warzone.
Written and performed by Daniel Barker
Additional Material from Tom Savage
Guest voice appearances from Natasia Demetriou
Sound design by Rich Evans
Production Coordinator - Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
THU 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000jh1m)
Series 1
Absolutely Fabulous - with Jennifer Saunders
TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.
In this episode, Jennifer Saunders discusses her BAFTA and Emmy award winning hit Absolutely Fabulous.
She reveals the inspiration for Edina Monsoon, why recordings of the show were always finished by
9.30 pm (clue: the BBC bar closed at 10), and what might charitably be described as Jennifer’s “last minute” approach to script delivery!
With Peter and Jon as our guides, discover how Jennifer went about making a great bit of TV comedy. From the ideas stage through writing and commissioning to casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.
We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.
Original Absolutely Fabulous clips written by Jennifer Saunders
Based on an original idea by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
Producer: Owen Braben
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in May 2020.
FRIDAY 04 AUGUST 2023
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001p7fm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p74w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001p7fr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001p7fw)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001p7g0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001p7g4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001p7g8)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with George Craig, a Methodist local preacher in Cardiff.
Good morning. In the east of France – not far from the Swiss border - is the small town of Ars-sur-Formans. Pretty much its only claim to fame is that it was where a man called Jean Vianney was the parish priest for over 40 years from 1818 until he died on this day in 1859.
But Father Vianney was no ordinary priest. He became beloved by his parishioners for his ministry as a confessor and eventually his fame drew literally thousands of people to his small village and in the last 10 years of his life he would spend 16 – 18 hours a day in the confessional dealing with the crowds, The burden was enormous and on more than one occasion he actually tried to run away, only to be caught and brought back.
When he died, his grief-stricken parishioners were so reluctant to lose him that they decided to keep his body from burial and preserve it, and he can still be seen today in a huge glass case at the back of his old parish church. Vianney was made a saint in 1925 and made the patron saint of parish priests in 1929.
Vianney was clearly loved – revered even – but the human cost to him didn’t seem to register with his parishioners and followers. They wanted the ministry whatever the cost to the minister – even after death they wouldn’t let him go.
For a society like ours which treats celebrities as entertainment, apparently getting equal enjoyment from their triumphs and their tragedies, there’s a lesson here I think.
Even famous people are still people and maybe if more of us recognised and put less relentless pressure on them, fewer of them would have lives that crash and burn.
Lord God, we thank you for the achievements of exceptional people, but pray for compassion for them that acknowledges the human cost that comes with those gifts. Amen.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001p7gg)
04/08/23 Delays to post-Brexit import checks; salmon stocks; mobile libraries in rural communities
Farmers react to post-Brexit checks being delayed again on EU food coming to the UK.
Fishermen describe the "catastrophic" decline in salmon stocks in UK rivers over the last 30 years.
And the difference mobile libraries can make to remote rural communities.
Presented by Steffan Messenger and produced by Rhiannon Fitz-Gerald.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04hkyr5)
Greater Honeyguide
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the greater honeyguide of sub-Saharan Africa. A loud repetitive "it's - here" – "it's -here" is a sound the greater honeyguide only makes to humans in an extraordinary co-operative act between humans and bird. Relatives of woodpeckers they are one of the few birds which can digest wax and also feed on the eggs, grubs and pupae of bees. A greater honeyguide knows the location of the bee colonies in its territory and is able to lead honey-hunters to them. Once it has successfully guided its helpers to a nest, it waits while the honey-hunters remove the comb. Then it moves in to snap up the grubs and wax from the opened nest. So reliable are honeyguides that the Boran people of East Africa save up to two thirds of their honey-searching time by using the bird's services and use a special loud whistle (called a fuulido) to summon their guide before a hunt.
Producer : Andrew Dawes
FRI 06:00 Today (m001p7m7)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001p6y1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story by Victoria Belim (m001p7nr)
Episode 5
In 2014, as the Russian state is annexing Crimea and deploying troops along the border with Ukraine, Victoria Belim decides to make a journey back to the village in central Ukraine where she spent much of her childhood, to see her grandmother Valentina.
Before the trip, she’d come across a line in her great-grandfather’s diary mentioning a brother whom no one in the family had ever spoken about, or seemed prepared to speak about even now, many decades later.
As Victoria begins to explores her family’s complicated history, the fate of this missing relative comes to symbolise not just her own family’s complicated background but her country’s troubled relationship with its Soviet past. In her attempt to uncover what happened to her great uncle Nikodim, all roads in the end seem to lead to an elegant building with a dark past known locally as The Rooster House.
Episode 5:
He Left No Note: Learning about what happened to her great uncle allows Victoria to begin to come to terms with a much closer, and more painful loss.
Victoria Belim is a writer, journalist and translator of Persian literature and poetry. She was born in Ukraine and moved to the USA when she was 15. She now lives in Brussels.
The reader is the Ukrainian-British actor, writer and director Vera Graziadei.
Producer: Sara Davies
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Sound Engineer: Sean Kerwin
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001p7mh)
Netball World Cup, Comedian Georgie Grier, Can design heal loneliness?
Actor and writer Georgie Grier has shared a post on social media after her opening show at the Edinburgh Fringe had just one person in the audience. She’s had replies of support and encouragement from thousands of people, including comedian Jason Manford. She joins Anita to talk about what it was like to perform to one person, and how she feels about the reaction she’s getting.
The Women’s Netball World Cup is hotting up and Anita is joined by the BBC’s Katharine Merry to look ahead to Sunday’s final. She also tells us how netball is impacting girls in the host city of Cape Town.
All this week we’ve been talking about loneliness. Today we ask: Is it possible to design cities and public spaces with social connection at their heart? Anita is joined by Erin Peavey, an architect and well-being design leader at HKS and by Joanna Yarrow, a Non-Executive Director at property developer Human Nature.
What do you consider before buying an item of clothing? The cost? The brand? Journalist and TikTok creator Andrea Cheong says we’ve never been taught how to shop and that breaking up with fashion is like leaving behind a bad boyfriend. Andrea joins Anita to discuss her new book Why Don’t I Have Anything to Wear?
Woman’s Hour has been closely following the Women’s Football World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this year. Dr Kerry Peek has also been keeping a close eye on the action – but for different reasons. She is one of the ‘concussion spotters’, who for the first time in the women’s game have been deployed to monitor players for head injuries during matches. She joins Anita Rani to explain her research into why women footballers sustain more concussions than men.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Emma Pearce
FRI 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001p7dw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Thursday]
FRI 11:30 Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children (m001p7mp)
Series 2
1. Labels
Are your children ‘Coldplays’ or ‘Zappas’? In the first episode of comedian Ashley Blaker’s new series about raising children with special educational needs, he addresses labels, including his own terminology to differentiate between his kids.
Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children is a mix of stand-up and observational recording featuring the voices of Ashley's real family. The series brings a whole new perspective to the subject of parenting. Three of Ashley’s children have a diagnosis – two boys with autism and ADHD, and an adopted girl with Down Syndrome – and Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children sensitively finds the funny in raising children with disabilities.
Ashley Blaker is a comedian who has performed two Off-Broadway shows, tours on five continents, and is author of ‘Normal Schmormal: My occasionally helpful guide to parenting kids with special needs’.
He is joined by Shelley Blond (Peep Show, Cold Feet and the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider), Kieran Hodgson (Three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and now known to all for his online parody of The Crown), and Rosie Holt (another star of lockdown who has put out many viral videos, most often as her character, The Woman).
Also appearing as themselves are Ashley’s own children - Adam (19), Ollie (18), Dylan (15), Zoe (14), Edward (13) and Bailey (9).
Written and performed by Ashley Blaker
Also starring Shelley Blond, Kieran Hodgson, Rosie Holt, as well as Adam, Ollie, Dylan, Zoe, Edward and Bailey Blaker.
Produced by Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001p7p2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001p7n5)
'Woke' capitalism
Should companies weigh-in on sensitive social issues?
After a Costa Coffee van featured artwork of a trans man with mastectomy scars, there have been calls to boycott the chain on social media. And there’s been controversy over banks rejecting customers because of their political views. Are businesses trying to make the world better or just more money? And is it the place of companies to fight what they see as social injustice?
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001p7n9)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001p7nf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
FRI 13:45 New Storytellers (m001p7nk)
Our Dad
Growing up in the shadow of violence and alcohol abuse can leave you with questions. So, what happens when a child becomes an adult and tries to answer them?
Weaving through displaced memories, this documentary explores the experiences of four siblings with one distinct focus - their father. When time and context shifts, what remains is shame, uncertainty, and the inexorable search for clarity. An upended audio mystery, this piece follows the life of an abusive man from the perspectives of four of his children. The narrator, switching between the roles of daughter and journalist, takes a gruelling journey into the past, re-discovering what she thought she knew about the person she once loved most.
"This is a story. Well, it did really happen. But this is the kind of story that you wish didn’t. This is the story of our dad."
New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and Thea Rickard's feature won the Gold Award of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature in 2023. The award is presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the ground-breaking Radio Ballads featuring voices of communities unheard at the time, with musical narratives by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
The judges of the prize, made up of producers, critics and commissioners, praised Thea's top prize winning work as “captivating and horrifying”, “well-written and considered,” “a properly structured and layered piece.”
Producer: Thea Rickard
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001p7dj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (p0fypqpb)
Bitter Pill
Bitter Pill - 5: Face the Fear
An audio drama series about memory and trauma.
After a traumatic car crash, Mary joins a clinical drug trial that promises a cure for PTSD. The medication triggers intense flashbacks of the accident that left her fiancée comatose. But is Mary simply remembering the event, or reliving it? And if she is actually returning to the past, does that mean she can change her future?
Cast:
Mary ….. Séainín Brennan
Jackie ….. Charlotte McCurry
Carl ……. Shaun Blaney
Eoin ….. Seamus O’Hara
Jackie’s Mum ….. Carol Moore
Warren ….. Martin McCann
All other roles were played by the cast and crew.
Writers ….. Michael Patrick & Oisín Kearney
Producer ….. Michael Shannon
Executive Editor ….. Andy Martin
Music composed by Denis Clohessy.
Sound Design by Bill Maul.
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
FRI 14:45 Witness (b01n0vh2)
Arafat goes to the United Nations
In the autumn of 1974 a young Palestinian was sent to New York to pave the way for Yasser Arafat to make a speech at the United Nations .
His name was Nabil Sha'ath, and he was only given the mission because no other member of the Palestinian leadership agreed to go.
When Arafat arrived in America, he was greeted with noisy opposition - but his plea for an independent Palestinian state was to go down in history.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001p7p4)
Worsley
Is it worse to over water or under water hanging baskets? Does rhubarb have a life expectancy? Are south facing gardens worthy of the hype?
Kathy Clugston and the GQT team are in Worsley, at the stunning gardens of RHS Bridgewater to answer more horticultural queries. Joining her this week are garden designer Bunny Guinness, proud plantsman Neil Porteous and Marcus Chilton-Jones, curator of RHS Bridgewater.
Peter Gibbs visits Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where Head of Garden Design, Richard Wilford gives him a sneak preview of the brand new design of their famous herbaceous border.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001p7pf)
She Named Us
An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from Northern Irish writer Matthew McDevitt. Read by Nigel O’Neill.
Matthew McDevitt was the recent recipient of the Element Pictures NI Writer’s Award. He was a participant in the BBC Writersroom’s Drama Room and Belfast Voices schemes. His credits include BBC NI’s ‘Soft Border Patrol’, Radio Ulster’s ‘Lock In’ and the Radio 4 short story ‘Handy Number’. Matthew also has a series of failed musical projects behind him that may or may not have been "ahead of their time".
Writer: Matthew McDevitt
Reader: Nigel O’Neill
Producer: Michael Shannon
Editor: Andy Martin
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001p7pn)
Kirsty Lang on: Richard Barancik, the last known surviving member of a World War II allied unit - The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section - known as the Monuments Men and Women.
Yvonne Littlewood MBE, the first woman to become a television producer and director in the BBC Light Entertainment unit.
Edward Sexton, the Saville Row master tailor.
And Dr Christian Carritt who set up her own GP practice in 1950s London.
Interviewee: Robert Edsel
Interviewee: Cathy Graham
Interviewee: Liz McLoughlin
Interviewee: Dominic Sebag-Montefiore
Interviewee: William Cohen
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001p7px)
Is the BBC getting climate change right? Andrea Catherwood is joined by the BBC's Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt to answer your comments.
Radio 3’s Katie Derham takes Andrea on a backstage tour of the Royal Albert Hall and hears what listeners have to say about this year’s Proms.
The latest listening figures came out this week and it’s not good news for the BBC. Matt Deegan, Creative Director of Radio Consultancy firm Folder Media, unpicks the statistics.
Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Gill Davies
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m001p7q6)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001p7qp)
The prominent Russian opposition leader has been sentenced for a further 19 years
FRI 18:30 What Are You Talking About? (m001p7r0)
The second of our satirical specials this summer. Hosted by Rhys James (Mock The Week, The Now Show), ‘What Are You Talking About?’ investigates the major issues of the week before solving them perfectly forever. Rhys is joined by a gaggle of comedy’s fastest rising stars; Alasdair Beckett-King, Celya AB, Alex Kealy and Katie Norris; to look at the news and ask ‘Why?’, ‘How come?’ And ‘Why though?’
Hosted and written by Rhys James with additional material from Adam Hess, Zoë Tomalin and Cody Dahler.
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Baum
Recorded and edited by David Thomas
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001p7rg)
Writer, Nick Warburton
Director, Jess Bunch
Editor, Jeremy Howe
Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch
Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas
Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore
Tom Archer ….. William Troughton
Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison
Mia Grundy ….. Molly Pipe
Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay
Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Paul Mack ….. Joshua Riley
Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler
Stella Pryor ….. Lucy Speed
Adil Shah ….. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m001p7rt)
Sir Richard Stilgoe takes us from Folsom Prison to the Berlin Wall
In the final episode of the current series, Sir Richard Stilgoe joins Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the final five tracks, taking us from a live recording in California's Folsom Prison to a massive 1980s pop classic via a celebration of freedom with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Drummer Jeremy Stacey is also on hand to fill us in on the changing fashions of laying down the beat.
Add to Playlist returns to Radio 4 on 13th October
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Folsom Prison Blues (Live) by Johnny Cash
Ode to Joy (Freedom) from Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
Monkey Wrench by Foo Fighters
What’s Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner
Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja / The Birdcatcher am I indeed from The Magic Flute by Mozart
Other music in this episode:
Bad Guy by Billie Eilish
I’d Rather Go Blind by Etta James
Crescent City Blues by Gordon Jenkins, sung by Beverly Mahr
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live) by Nirvana
Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc
Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) by Kate Bush
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001p7s4)
Jamie Driscoll, Richard Holden MP, Alison McGovern MP, Jill Rutter
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Saltburn Community Theatre, Saltburn with the North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, Transport Minister Richard Holden MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Alison McGovern MP and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government Jill Rutter.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Lead Engineer: Michael Smith
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001p7sd)
The Tourist Trap
This week, UNESCO recommended that Venice should be added to its list of World Heritage in Danger, citing its failure to adequately protect the city from overwhelming tourism and the impact of climate change.
As unprecedented numbers of tourists are visiting Europe, Sarah reflects on how historic cities can manage the challenges of overtourism.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Bridget Harney
FRI 21:00 A Very British Cult (p0fdl26y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 21:30 Windrush: A Family Divided (m001mssr)
Part Two: Identity and Culture
In the second part Robert and Jennifer Beckford unravel the intricate layers of the Windrush legacy through the prism of identity and culture.
Robert argues that moving to the UK was a transformative experience for not only the Windrush generation but for the whole of British society, helping create a new vibrant British culture. He cites the influences of Caribbean heritage people in music, film, sport and language in Britain. To help make his case he asks Jennifer to meet with Jamaican born England footballer John Barnes.
In contrast, Jennifer asserts that Caribbean culture in the UK is defined by stereotypes and the communities achievements in science and industry are overlooked and they received a hostile environment in return. She asks Robert to meet with Barbara Blake-Hannah - the first female black news reporter in the UK, who went back to Jamaica after just eight years, due to racist abuse.
Robert and Jennifer also hear the views of second and third generation British Caribbean's on how they feel about their identity. Are they British, Caribbean or is it possible to be both?
Finally, Robert travels to Manchester to speak to Tony Downie, who came to the UK as a child of Windrush. He served in the British military until his world was turned upside down after being threatened with deportation during the Windrush scandal.
Will Tony's shocking story change Roberts view on the Windrush generation and benefits of being in the UK?
Produced by Rajeev Gupta
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001p7sn)
In-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Money by Martin Amis (m001p7sx)
10: Well, you've got to laugh
Bertie Carvel continues Martin Amis's electrifying, and savagely funny novel of 1980s excess, featuring the self-destructive anti-hero John Self.
John Self is a consumer extraordinaire.
Rolling between London and New York he closes movie deals and spends feverishly, all the while grabbing everything he can to sate his massive appetites: alcohol, tobacco, pills, pornography and mountains of junk food.
But John’s excesses haven’t gone unnoted. Menaced by a phone stalker, his dangerously excessive lifestyle is about to bring him face-to-face with the secret of his success.
Today: John Self learns some hard truth - about fathers and sons, his ill-fated movie, life and money...
Writer: Martin Amis
Reader: Bertie Carvel
Abridger: Katrin Williams
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 23:00 Americast (m001p7t3)
Americanswers: Can Trump Still Win Again?
As Donald Trump pleads not guilty over the Capitol riot, will his third criminal indictment impact his election chances?
Is the ex-president allowed to use campaign money to fund his legal battles? Could he really be president from jail? And is there no-one in the Democratic Party who will challenge Joe Biden?
We’re back (and Justin has woken up!) to answer questions from Americasters with the help of political correspondent Liz Landers, who's standing in for Anthony (but doesn’t have his pink suit).
HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Sarah Smith, North America editor
• Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent
GUEST:
• Liz Landers, political correspondent
GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast
Find out more about our award-winning “undercover voters” here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.
This episode was made by Daniel Wittenberg, with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Hayley Clarke. The technical producer was Philip Bull and the editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
FRI 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m000jq99)
Series 1
Blackadder - with John Lloyd and Tony Robinson
TV veterans Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman talk to the writers, producers, and performers behind Britain’s biggest TV comedy hits, and hear the inside story of how they brought their programmes to the screen.
In this episode, John Lloyd and Sir Tony Robinson discuss the modern comedy masterpiece that is Blackadder.
The duo reveal the endless problems they had when making the first series ("the show that looked a million dollars and cost a million pounds”), and the importance of failure. They also open up about the tensions amongst the team, the “ladder of stupidity” in Blackadder’s world, and the real story behind that famous final scene.
With Peter and Jon as our guides, discover how the John and Tony went about making a great bit of TV comedy.
Who came up with it?
How did it get written?
We’ll talk about the commissioning, the casting, and the reception the show received when it first aired.
We’ll do our very best to winkle out some backstage secrets straight from the horse’s mouth, as we hear the unvarnished truth from the people who were there, and who put these iconic shows on the telly.
Original Blackadder clips written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
Producer: Owen Braben
Made for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Expectation Productions, and first broadcast in June 2020.