SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2024
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001v44n)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 The Wager by David Grann (m001v3vz)
Book of the Week: Episode 10 - The Court-Martial
David Grann's account of shipwreck, mutiny and survival concludes. The day of reckoning arrives and the lives of all the surviving castaways hangs in the balance. Luke Treadaway reads.
David Grann, the internationally best-selling and award winning writer, brings us the story of the treacherous events that took place on the Wager, an eighteenth century British warship, when it was lost at sea. Grann's enquiry into this story of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder sheds light on what happened when the Wager's crew were stranded on an uninhabitable island thousands of miles from home. The fate of those few men who made it home, reveals shocking insights into Great Britain's justice system in the Age of Empire.
David Grann is the author of The Lost City of Z, and Killers of the Flower Moon which is now a Hollywood blockbuster.
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001v44x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001v453)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001v45b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001v45l)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001v45v)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
SAT 05:45 The Banksy Story (m001nvql)
2. Love & Death & BMX
James Peak isn't an art critic, or even a journalist. He's a Banksy super-fan, and in this series he, and his soundman Duncan, get closer than close to Banksy's secret world - telling the story of the graffiti kid who made spraying walls into high art, the household name who is completely anonymous, the cultural phenomenon who bites the hand that feeds him.
James persuades a member of Banksy's secret team – someone who worked closely with the artist when they were starting to cut through – to talk about the experience. The story that results is a rollercoaster ride.
In this episode, James finds someone from Banksy's secret team, but will they talk?
Written, Produced and Presented by James Peak
Sound & Commentary: Duncan Crowe.
Voices: Keith Wickham & Harriet Carmichael
Music: Alcatraz Swim Team & Lilium
Series Mixing: Neil Churchill
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams
With special thanks to Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Patrick Nguyen, John Higgs and Steph Warren.
An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001vc85)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m001v40x)
Return of the Derry Girl
Derry/Londonderry has a conflicted past but is fiercely loved and celebrated by its inhabitants. In the 21st century, it's shaping a new identity and redefining itself. The success of the hit TV sitcom 'Derry Girls' has breathed new life into the civic vision of the city and its surrounding landscape, shining a global spotlight on a place so often defined only by its troubled history. Marie-Louise Muir is native to the city and has resettled there after years of living away. In this programme, she discovers the new atmosphere of pride which is emerging and explores the new narrative of the city and its surroundings.
Produced by Ruth Sanderson
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001vc87)
13/01/24 German farmer protests; Fairness in supply chain; Soy and insects in animal feed; Mid-winter British strawberries.
Farmers in Germany have been protesting about plans to cut subsidies on diesel. The cuts were introduced to fix a budget row after the German's government's budget was ruled illegal. The proposal has now been watered down so the subsidy on agricultural fuel will be gradually phased out but that's done little to reassure farmers.
The long running row over wild camping on Dartmoor continues. One of the landowners has won the right to appeal to the Supreme Court over a ruling, from the High Court, that wild camping is allowed on Dartmoor. He argued that camping shouldn't be allowed because it isn't 'open air recreation' - which is permitted under the Dartmoor Commons Act.
Increasing the supply of green energy is one of the major targets for the UK to reach its climate commitments. Wind and solar farms both contribute to that but getting the power to where its needed means more pylons and underground cabling being built, often through rural areas and that's causing concern.
All week on Farming Today we've been looking at animal feed. Soya has become a staple in feed - it's high protein and relatively cheap, but it's imported and can come from areas of deforestation so farmers are looking for alternatives. We visit a feed-manufacturer in Aberdeenshire producing a soy-free animal feed, using oil seed rape as a source of protein. Insects are another possible source of protein. Farmers in the EU can now use them in animal feed, but it's not yet allowed here in the UK. We've been to the labs of FERA Science in York to meet scientists researching the use of insects in animal feed.
Robots and AI technology at the heart of a vertical farm in Lincolnshire growing British strawberries mid winter.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001vc89)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001vc8c)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001vc8f)
Michael Mosley, Julie Felix, Gabriella Cugno, Owain Wyn Evans
Bestselling writer, self-experimenter and host of Just One Thing, Michael Mosley is a man so keen on giving the nation ‘just one thing’ to do to improve our lives, that we’re soon going to run out of hours in the day to incorporate them all.
If the very thought of handmade chocolates makes you salivate, prepare to drool, because the master chocolatier behind the new Wonka film, Gabriella Cugno reveals how useful a chocolate teacup actually is.
And Julie Felix, Britain’s first professional Black ballerina who has been named in the New Year's Honours list, describes how after being told in 1970’s Britain that she had the wrong skin colour for ballet she pirouetted across the Atlantic to America where her career took off.
Plus, the Inheritance Tracks from a man of many jobs; weatherman, turned drummerman, turned Radio 2 early riser...Owain Wyn Evans.
Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Greg James
Producer: Ben Mitchell
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m001vc8h)
History of Kung Fu
In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Leon Rocha and comedian Phil Wang to learn all about the surprising history of kung fu, from ancient China to the present day. Rooted in ancient Chinese exercises designed to promote long life, kung fu was pioneered by the monks of the Shaolin temple before spreading throughout China. But how did peaceful Buddhist monks come to create a martial arts style that would gain global popularity? From the mountains of medieval China to the movie screens of Hollywood, via plundering pirates and legendary nuns, this episode explores the historical development of Chinese martial arts.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Jon Mason
Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
SAT 10:30 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m001nwnx)
Series 2
Shrewsbury to Pwllheli
Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys across the country with a trip from Shrewsbury to Pwllheli on the Cambrian coast line.
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, among his many fellow travellers, Alexei miraculously finds Barry, an old school friend from Liverpool; Denise, who has been given an extraordinary set of directions in order to deal with the complex arrangements for her holiday; Geoff, who on a whim, decided to buy one of the UK's oldest cinemas, in a tiny Welsh seaside town; Isabel, who is off to monitor dolphins - and Margaret, who has been going to the same spot on the Cambrian coast for her holiday every year for more than 50 years - and now her extended family is following the same tradition.
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001vc8k)
George Parker, political editor of the Financial Times, assesses the latest developments at Westminster as the Prime Minister authorises air strikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and pays a surprise trip to Ukraine. George speaks to former UK ambassador to Washington and former national security adviser, Lord Darroch, about the military action and the global security situation. With the Post Office scandal taking centre stage in Parliament this week George brings together Conservative MP and former postal services minister, Paul Scully, and SNP MP and chair of the Post Office All Party Parliamentary Group, Marion Fellows. Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Labour's Dame Angela Eagle debate the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility in shaping economic policy. And, as Rishi Sunak pitches himself as the continuity candidate ahead of a general election, George speaks to John Major's former political secretary, Lord Hill, and Keir Starmer's former director of policy, Claire Ainsley, about whether the 1992 election provides any lessons for the main parties.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001vc8m)
Japan: Learning Lessons from Earthquakes
Kate Adie introduces stories from Japan, the USA, the Thailand-Myanmar border, Barbuda and Guinea-Bissau.
The earthquake which shook Japan on New Year's Day brought considerable damage to the mostly-rural Noto peninsula. One noticeable pattern amidst the destruction was how much more robust modern buildings had proved to be over older, wooden homes. Jean Mackenzie reflects on Japan's evolving ability to cope with earthquakes.
Every four years, the citizens of Iowa welcome a political circus to town - as national and international media, political grandees and pollsters flood in to cover the Iowa caucuses. Justin Webb explains how and why Iowa has such a special role in the electoral process.
Although the world's attention may have shifted away from Myanmar's internal conflict, there are still several serious regional insurgencies raging against its ruling military regime. This fighting causes casualties - many of whom now have to seek health care outside Myanmar. after hospitals were targeted. Rebecca Root reports from a clinic on the Thailand-Myanmar border trying to treat Myanmar's sick and wounded.
The tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda is beautiful and relatively undeveloped - but for how long? Caroline Bayley visited this idyllic spot to delve into a local dispute over a new airstrip and resort complex which could change its ecosystem and culture for ever.
Despite their scruffy appearance and lack of cuteness, vultures have value - particularly in West Africa. They can help fight disease - and some people in Guinea Bissau believe their body parts work as cures. Sam Bradpiece explains why Guinea Bissau's government has moved to protect them.
Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001vc96)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001vc59)
Fake Job Offers and Pension Pots
New figures given to Money Box show there has been a big increase in the amount of money being stolen through fake text messages offering people jobs. These recruitment scams are usually sent via text or WhatsApp and offer high pay, easy hours and the chance to work from home. Last year 126 people contacted Action Fraud saying they'd been victims of this type of scam with £977,000 stolen from them. That is 50 times as much as was reported the year before. What do you need to look out for?
Storm Henk was the 8th storm of this season and more could well be on the way. As the flooding costs for insurers rise, home insurance premiums move up with them. According to the Consumer Intelligence Home Insurance Price Index they had already risen 36% by last October. We'll explain all you need to know about flood insurance.
When you pay into a pension you expect it to be there for you when you retire. We investigate one listener's case who discovered her pension company had taken all her money in charges.
And Paul Lewis asks listeners how they buy their music? Email moneybox@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Sandra Hardial
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday 13th January, 2024)
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m001v41b)
Series 113
Episode 2
Andy Zaltzman quizzes the week's news. Providing all the answers are Ian Smith, Geoff Norcott, Shaparak Khorsandi and Ayesha Hazarika
In this episode Andy and the panel dive into a news story that seemingly took over 20 years to be delivered and look ahead to the big elections coming up in 2024 both at home and abroad.
Written by Andy Zaltzman
With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Mike Shephard and Jade Gebbie
Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m001vc8r)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001vc8t)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001v42d)
Sarah Champion MP, Baroness Fox, Kevin Hollinrake MP, Henri Murison
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Chester Cathedral with a panel including the chair of the International Development Select Committee Sarah Champion MP, the Director of the Academy of Ideas Baroness Claire Fox, Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake MP and the Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Henri Murison.
Producer: Robin Markwell
Lead broadcast engineer: Mike Smith
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001vc8w)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week
SAT 14:45 The Banksy Story (m001nw23)
3. Santa's Ghetto
James Peak isn't an art critic, or even a journalist. He's a Banksy super-fan, and in this series he, and his soundman Duncan, get closer than close to Banksy's secret world - telling the story of the graffiti kid who made spraying walls into high art, the household name who is completely anonymous, the cultural phenomenon who bites the hand that feeds him.
James persuades a member of Banksy's secret team – someone who worked closely with the artist when they were starting to cut through – to talk about the experience. The story that results is a rollercoaster ride
In this episode, an incident at the Christmas Santa's Ghetto exhibition helps Steph prove herself to Banksy.
Written, Produced and Presented by James Peak
Sound & Commentary: Duncan Crowe.
Voices: Keith Wickham & Harriet Carmichael
Music: Alcatraz Swim Team & Lilium
Series Mixing: Neil Churchill
Executive Producer: Philip Abrams
With special thanks to Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Patrick Nguyen, John Higgs and Steph Warren.
An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 15:00 Electric Decade (m000ntsc)
USA by John Dos Passos
Episode Two
USA is an epic saga following a group of characters through the opening decades of the 20th century, in a grand sweep that takes us from post-war boom to Great Depression bust.
It has modernist flair, a sharp social eye, and a profound humanity. We follow key individuals, drawn from all walks of life, as their paths cross to creating a complex and moving tapestry of American society.
One by one, we are introduced to the players, and we learn about each in depth from infancy to maturity. We see them growing up, negotiating adolescence, looking for love and finding their place in the world, meeting each other as fortune dictates, and following their destiny to success or failure.
Dramatised by Robin Brooks from John Dos Passos's USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel, 1919 and The Big Money
Episode Two: Janey Williams, Eveline Hutchins, Richard Savage, Daughter.
Janey Williams’s fate becomes tangled with that of Moorehouse. Eveline Hutchins shows us her side of the story. Daughter is a spoilt Texan belle with a wild tomboy streak. Richard Savage is a young man in a hurry. With the end of the war, as the Paris peace conference exerts its pull, we see how their lives collide.
Cast:
John Ward Moorehouse ..... Tom Bateman
Eleanor Stoddard ..... Tanya Reynolds
Eveline Hutchins ..... Hannah Genesius
Janey Williams ..... Sheila Atim
Richard Savage ..... Luke Thallon
Daughter (Anne Elizabeth) ..... Kelly Burke
Jack Washburn ..... Christopher Ragland
Bud ..... Gabriel Freilich
Gertrude Staple ..... Laurel Lefkow
Jerry Burnham ..... Will Howard
Freddy Sergeant ..... Calam Lynch
Other parts played by members of the company.
Producer / Director - Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design & Music Arrangement - Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Manager - Lucy Barter
Broadcast Assistant - Georgia Brown
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001vc8z)
Weekend Woman’s Hour - Cush Jumbo, Spice Girls Stamp, Assisted Dying
Cush Jumbo is the award-winning actor known for her roles on the stage and screen, from The Good Fight to Macbeth. She joins Clare McDonnell to discuss starring in - and executive producing – the new crime thriller series Criminal Record. Cush stars as DS June Lenker, a police detective locked in a confrontation with an older detective, played by Peter Capaldi, over a historic murder conviction.
For the first time, Royal Mail has dedicated set of stamps to a female pop group, to commemorate 30 years since the Spice Girls formed in 1994. Lauren Bravo, a culture journalist and author and DJ Yinka Bokinni joined Emma to talk about it.
Last week on Woman’s Hour we heard the candid admission by the former Labour MP and Government Minister, Dame Joan Ruddock that she was ready to end her terminally ill husband's life using a pillow in a bid to end his pain. Her husband the former MP Frank Doran had been suffering from end stage bowel cancer in 2017, and she struggled to get him pain relief medication in the hours before he died. She is now calling for a free vote in the Commons to legalise assisted dying. The public debate around the subject has been revived in recent months by leading figures such as Esther Rantzen - who revealed that she is considering travelling to a Dignitas clinic in Switzerland if her cancer worsens. But others such as Baroness Ilora Finlay, a cross bench peer in the House of Lords and a palliative end of life care expert, are cautioning against a law change. She believes improved access to care and pain relief is the answer when people are dying rather than the taking of lethal drugs. She joins Clare McDonnell to reflect on the new push for a law change.
Shere Hite - a name many people will remember, but some may not know. She was a pioneering feminist sex researcher who published her ground-breaking book, The Hite Report: A National Study of Female Sexuality in 1976. The book was seen by many as radical, changing prevailing notions about female sexuality. Shere went on to write and publish several more books, but endured intense and lasting criticism in the US, and eventually moved to Europe and renounced her American citizenship in 1995. She died in 2020. Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated Director, Nicole Newnham felt that despite how influential Shere had been in life, that she has since been forgotten. So Nicole produced the documentary, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, which is released in UK cinemas on January 12th. She joins Krupa to discuss it.
As the number of pupils missing a significant amount of their education is about double the level it was before the pandemic, Clare is joined by Ellie Costello, the executive director of Square Peg, a not-for-profit which helps families that struggle with school attendance.
SAT 17:00 PM (m001vc95)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread Presents (m001v3z4)
Toast - Sunny Delight
Why did sales of the best-selling soft drink, Sunny Delight, suddenly bomb in the 1990s?
While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up… Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers.
In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington, examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did it fail? What can we learn from it today?
In this episode, Sean learns why sales of Sunny Delight faltered in the UK after an extraordinarily successful launch.
Sean speaks to some of the people who worked on the brand, hearing how it became a hit before a series of unfortunate coincidences undermined its popularity.
The self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, is alongside him, analysing the missteps that changed Sunny Delight's fortunes.
'Sunny D', as it is known today, is still sold in some UK supermarkets. It has different owners and ingredients but it has never matched the incredible sales figures which it achieved in its early days.
You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
Feel free to suggest topics which we could cover in future episodes
Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in February. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.
Toast is produced by Jon Douglas and Viant Siddique and is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vc9f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001vc9n)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vc9x)
Taiwan's president-elect has vowed to defend the self-governing island from Chinese intimidation. Beijing says it opposes what it calls the island's separatist movement.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001vc5f)
Matt Lucas & Elis James, Trinny Woodall, Martin Jarvis, Urooj Ashfaq, Bill Ryder Jones, Marika Hackman, YolanDa Brown
Clive Anderson and YolanDa Brown are joined by Matt Lucas & Elis James, Trinny Woodall, Urooj Ashfaq and Martin Jarvis for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Bill Ryder Jones and Marika Hackman.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m001vc47)
Colleen Hoover
The ‘New Adult’ romance author topping book charts, and breaking records - she’s even outsold the Bible. Who is Colleen Hoover?
The small-town Texan turned hit novelist is a TikTok sensation. Young women film themselves sobbing as they read her books, and queue for hours to meet her. Her meteoric rise to fame, from a small trailer on the family farm, reads like one of her stories. And now, her hit novel - ‘It Ends With Us’ - is set to hit the silver screen.
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Ellie House and Diane Richardson
Editor: Richard Vadon
Studio Manager: Neil Churchill
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Katie Morrison, and Janet Staples
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001vcbc)
Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell’s books have sold over 120 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. She’s authored dozens of New York Times bestsellers. For over thirty years her protagonist, the forensic scientist Kay Scarpetta has been investigating murders across America, tracking down criminals by analysing evidence left on the bodies of victims. Cornwell has won the Sherlock Award, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. She's also authored two books on the identity of Jack the Ripper. Her latest Kay Scarpetta novel is Unnatural Death.
Patricia talks to John Wilson about her challenging childhood and upbringing in North Carolina. She reveals the influence of two works of literature on her own writing; Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, an ancestor of Cornwell's; and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. She also talks about her interest in the Parthenon Sculptures and her fascination with the identity of Jack the Ripper.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m00045t1)
Remembering Christopher Hitchens
The life and times of Christopher Hitchens told through archive and interview. Presented by D D Guttenplan and featuring Martin Amis, Stephen Fry, Ian McEwan and Tony Blair.
By the time of his death in December 2011, at the age of 62, Christopher Hitchens had become possibly the most famous journalist in the world.
He started his career as a Trotskyist pamphleteer, writing on workers’ self-management in Algeria for the journal International Socialist. He ended as the most eloquent propagandist for the Iraq war. Yet, far from damaging his reputation, this swerve to the right only added to his notoriety.
Hitchens became a fixture on both British and American television, a feared debater, and the author of the atheist credo God is Not Great. He remains one of the most distinctive and influential voices of our era.
D D Guttenplan, Editor at Large for The Nation magazine, speaks to some of Christopher Hitchens’ friends and family in an effort to unwrap the enigma behind this most public of public men.
Marking what would have been Hitchens’ 70th birthday, Guttenplan looks behind the myth of "the Hitch" - a man who drank whiskey like water, smoked cigarettes as if his life depended on it, and wrote - so it was said - faster than most could read.
Guttenplan examines how Hitchens stumbled out of Oxford with a third class degree and became the very model of a public intellectual, playing devil’s advocate against the canonisation of Mother Theresa, pursuing Henry Kissinger, arguing about God with Tony Blair, and arguing against God with Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins - all while making himself a seemingly indispensible feature of the political landscape.
An SPG production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m00140bq)
Fake Psychic (Part 2)
Written and reported by Vicky Baker
Drama by Nick Perry
If you wanted to speak with the dead in 1960s America, there was one man who was ready to help. For more than a decade, Lamar Keene was at the top of his game, becoming known as the Prince of Spiritualists. Then, quite suddenly, he turned his back on it all.
Lamar Keene went public and revealed his whole operation had been one big con. He not only implicated himself but claimed that he had been part of an underground network, which had conspired to defraud the unsuspecting public. He called it the “psychic mafia”, and said that his confession made him a marked man.
In a series that mixes documentary with drama, Vicky Baker (Fake Heiress) takes a deep dive into Lamar Keene’s stranger-than-fiction life story.
Lamar . . . . . Edward Hogg
Raoul . . . . . Tom Mothersdale
Mable . . . . . Susan Brown
Florence . . . . . Barbara Barnes
Joe . . . . . Nathan Osgood
Jeff . . . . . Shaun Mason
Don . . . . . Michael Begley
George . . . . . Neil McCaul
Lona . . . . . Jasmine Hyde
Ruthie . . . . . Tillie Murray
Betty . . . . . Christine Kavanagh
Sound: Peter Ringrose
Producer: Sasha Yevtushenko
SAT 21:45 Short Works (m001v3zs)
Coal Country Beauty Queen by Anna Bailey
Coal Country Beauty Queen, a new story from Anna Bailey.
US Army veteran Nate looks back at his life, and at what could have been.
Reader: Matthew Needham
Producer: Nicola Holloway
SAT 22:00 News (m001vcbr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Screenshot (m001v422)
American Elections
In the year of a Presidential election, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode investigate the murky world of American Elections on screen.
Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 Presidential election, inspired many film lovers to reconnect with two films - John Frankenheimer’s 1962 political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, and David Cronenburg’s 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi horror The Dead Zone. Both films are steeped in subterfuge, conspiracy and corruption.
Mark speaks with politically engaged comedian Greg Proops to ask why two movies from the 20th century seem so relevant to 21st century politics. Former Obama speech writer turned podcaster Tommy Vietor talks with Mark about the relationship between fictional presidents and real life PR.
Ellen takes a look at the iconic and beloved drama The West Wing, and how it affects real world opinions on American politics and presidents. She speaks with West Wing writer Paul Redford to talk about what this portrayal of the perfect President does to real life democracy and the mindset of the electorate. Does it give us something to aim for? Or might it distract us from what’s really going on?
And Professor Kristina Riegert talks about the wealth of academic research that The West Wing has been the focus of - political compromise is just as essential on screen as it is in real life.
Producer: Freya Hellier
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001v3fn)
Series 37
Heat 5, 2024
(5/13)
Another three music lovers join Paul Gambaccini at the Radio Theatre in London for the latest of this year's heats in the wide-ranging music quiz. They'll have to prove the breadth of their music knowledge to stand a chance of winning a semi-final place. As part of the quiz they will each have to choose a completely unforeseen special topic on which to answer individual questions.
Taking part are
Graham Jones from Milton Keynes
Hannah Reilly from Renfrewshire
David Stainer from Hertford
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Stand-Up Specials (m00132k3)
George Fouracres: Black Country Gentlemon
A stand-up special from celebrated comedy star George Fouracres (Daphne, Pls Like, Raised by Wolves), who tells his story of growing up living with his Grandad and brothers in Wolverhampton.
Expect tales of wearing a bowtie on childhood trips to McDonalds (always dress for dinner), being woken up at
4:30am by his Grandad’s screeching mynah bird in the kitchen and really really wanting to become a priest. This is the story of George's love for the Black Country and how his eccentric upbringing has made him a true Black Country ‘Gentlemon’.
Producer: Richard Morris
Production co-ordinator: Beverly Tagg
This programme was first broadcast in March 2022
A BBC Studios Production
SUNDAY 14 JANUARY 2024
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001vcc4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Across the Divide (m001slnq)
Gaza and Southern Israel
Families from the many sides of the Gaza/Israeli dispute share and reflect on their own personal histories and day-to-day existence.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vcck)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vccv)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vcd5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001vcdf)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001vc5z)
St Mary’s church in Coddenham, Suffolk
Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary’s church in Coddenham, Suffolk. The Grade One listed church building has medieval origins with major phases of development in the 14th and 15th century including construction of a bell tower. Today that tower houses a ring of eight bells. The Tenor bell weighs fourteen hundredweight and is tuned to F sharp. We hear them ringing Oxford Bob Triples.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m001vc47)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001vc2y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b05wnjjk)
Feeling Groovy
The jazz musician Django Bates has a professional instinct for finding his way into 'the groove'. In 'Feeling Groovy', he reflects on what that means, both musically and in reference to our daily lives - that sense of all things being possible, of being at one with the world.
He draws on the experience of other musicians - such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Morton Feldman - as well as the poetry of Elizabeth Jennings and the writings of James Baldwin. He also visits Air Studios in London to talk to legendary mastering engineer Ray Staff about the particular appeal of vinyl grooves.
The readers are Jacqueline King and Cleveland Watkiss.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001vc30)
Three Women in Beef
Anna Hill meets three women from three different generations, working together to produce organic beef on a small farm in Suffolk. She hears how two of them are first-time farmers, brought into agriculture by circumstance. The farm manger, a single mother, used to work in a concrete factory, but took a job on the farm to make ends meet when she was out of work. She later recruited her niece, who had started a course in tourism but decided it wasn't for her, and now says she loves her cows and wouldn't work anywhere else. Meanwhile the farm owner, now in her 80s, still does the paperwork, pays the bills and runs the business. It's a tale of co-operation, compassionate animal welfare, and faith in the strength of women to get the job done.
Produced and presented by Anna Hill
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001vc32)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001vc34)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001vc36)
The ethics of surrogacy
Pope Francis has called for a global ban on surrogacy, saying it is the commercialisation of pregnancy and a threat to human dignity. Edward Stourton hears the experiences of a couple and their surrogate and explores the ethics of surrogacy with Christian ethicist Dr Helen Watt and fertility lawyer Natalie Gamble.
The Houthis in Yemen have been carrying out a campaign of drone and missile attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, prompting US and UK air strikes this week. But who are the Houthis? What do they believe? International relations professor Simon Mabon explains the theology and ideology behind this Shia Islamist group.
In recent decades, Ireland has seen the most extraordinary decline in Catholicism, with far fewer people regularly attending Mass. There's also a crisis within the clergy as the supply of vocations has dwindled. The average age of Catholic priests in Ireland is 70, for nuns it's over 80. Two new documentaries from the Irish broadcaster, RTE examine the possibility that both professions could be in terminal decline.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Austrian composer, Anton Bruckner. He became a prominent figure in 19th century music, famous for his sacred works and his symphonies. The writer and composer, Stephen Johnson reflects on how Bruckner's Christian faith inspired his work and how writing music to the glory of God helped Bruckner to manage his mental health problems.
Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell and Alexa Good
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vbvs)
The Charlie Waller Trust
Broadcaster Mark Durden-Smith makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Charlie Waller Trust.
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 ‘The Charlie Waller Trust’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Charlie Waller Trust’.
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.
Charity Number: 1109984
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001vc38)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001vc3b)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001vc3d)
Calling
From St Olave's Church York; leader and preacher The Revd Canon Liz Hassall. The service takes the theme of calling, applying the idea of vocation to all of life. Music: The Call (Richard Lloyd); Hail to the Lord's Anointed (Cruger); Gloria (Richard Shephard); Revelation 5: 1-10; Psalm 139: 1-5 and 12-18; John 1: 43-51; Agnus Dei (Mass for 4 voices, Byrd); O Jesus, I have promised (Wolvercote); Director of Music: Keith Wright; Assistant Director of Music (and organist): Maximillian Elliott; Producer: Philip Billson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001v42s)
In the Grey Zone
Mark Damazer says we need to find a different vocabulary to define political leadership and achievement.
'The rhetoric that accompanied Alistair Darling's death,' Mark writes, 'raises some age-old questions about the way we think and judge our political masters'.
He questions why 'this torrent of respect, admiration and affection' can only happen when a politician dies. 'You simply don't talk this way about any living politician', he says, 'unless you're a cultist'.
The present way of judging politicians, he believes, gives us little idea who is any good at getting the job done.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0v9m)
Magnificent Frigatebird
Michael Palin presents the magnificent frigatebird a true oceanic bird, and resembling a hook-billed, pterodactyl of a seabird.
Magnificent frigatebirds are some of the most accomplished aeronauts of the tropical oceans. Their huge wingspans of over two metres and long forked tails allow them to soar effortlessly and pluck flying fish from the air, and also harass seabirds. These acts of piracy earned them the name Man-o' War birds and attracted the attention of Christopher Columbus.
Magnifcent Frigatebirds breed on islands in the Caribbean, and along the tropical Pacific and Atlantic coasts of central and South America as well as on the Galapagos Islands. Frigatebird courtship is an extravagant affair. The males gather in "clubs" , perching on low trees or bushes.
Here they inflate their red throat-pouches into huge scarlet balloons, calling and clattering their bills together as they try to lure down a female flying overhead. If they're successful, they will sire a single chick which is looked after by both parents for three months and by its mother only for up to 14 months, the longest period of parental care by any bird.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001vc3g)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001vc3j)
Contemporary drama in a rural setting
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001vbq7)
Guli Francis-Dehqani, Church of England Bishop
The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani is the Bishop of Chelmsford. She also sits in Parliament as a Lord Spiritual and last year she played a prominent role in the Coronation, administering Holy Communion to the King and Queen.
She was born in Isfahan, central Iran, the youngest of four children to Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, the first ethnic Iranian Anglican Bishop of his country, and his wife Margaret. In 1980, in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, her family were targeted and forced to leave the country. She arrived in the UK aged 13 as a refugee. Four decades on, Guli has yet to set foot on Iranian soil.
She was ordained as a deacon in 1998 and a priest the following year. She was consecrated a bishop in November 2017, making her the first woman from a minority ethnic background to be ordained as an Anglican bishop in the UK.
She is the lead Bishop for Housing for the Church of England and is a contributor to BBC Radio 4s Thought for the Day. She is married to Lee, who is a priest, and they have three children.
DISC ONE: Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: VI. Libera me. Composed by Gabriel Fauré and performed by Stephen Varcoe (baritone), The Cambridge Singers, conducted by John Rutter
DISC TWO: Morgh-e Sahar - Homayoun Shajarian and Dastan Ensemble
DISC THREE: Ride on Time - Black Box
DISC FOUR: Miniatures for Piano Trio. Set 2: No. 4, Romance. Composed by Frank Bridge and performed by Alexander Chaushian and Ashley Wass
DISC FIVE: Variations on Bahram’s Melody. Composed by Bahram Dehqani-Tafti and performed by Gabriel Francis-Dehqani with Fiona Sweeney, Krystof Kohout and Will Harmer
DISC SIX: Take me to Church - Sinead O’Connor
DISC SEVEN: Sovereign Light Café - Keane
DISC EIGHT: Mahi - Golnar Shahyar, Mahan Mirarab, (feat. Luis Guerra)
BOOK CHOICE: The Book of Kings
LUXURY ITEM: Photo albums
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48: VI. Libera me. Composed by Gabriel Fauré and performed by Stephen Varcoe (baritone), The Cambridge Singers, conducted by John Rutter
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001vc7j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (m001v3h3)
Series 92
1. A Double Date with Prince Rainier, Hilda Ogden and Sophia Loren
Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Daliso Chaponda, Kerry Godliman, and Zoe Lyons to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.
The long-running Radio 4 panel game is back for a new series with subjects this week ranging from How To Impress At Wine Tasting To Commemorative Plates.
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001vc3n)
Eating for Two?
Jaega Wise is on a mission to find out what she should really be eating while pregnant - from conception to birth.
Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001vc3q)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001vc3s)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Gangster (m001vc3v)
Catching the Kingpins
Catching the Kingpins: 2. Threat to Life
It's April 2020, and the Metropolitan Police are overwhelmed with messages hacked from the EncroChat network.
Buried among the millions of texts and photographs, are the outlines of a murder plot. An anonymous EncroChat user is trying to source a gun and some ammunition for a drive by shooting.
Will the police discover the messages before it’s too late? And will they be willing to risk the secrecy of the entire EncroChat operation by arresting someone on EncroChat evidence alone?
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Series Producer: Andrew Hosken
Editor and Executive Producer: Innes Bowen
Catching the Kingpins is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001v3z9)
Chess Valley
Is it better to propagate house plants in water or straight into soil? Is crop rotation necessary? What could I grow under my row of standard Bay Trees?
Kathy Clugston is in Chess Valley, Hertfordshire for this week's programme, along with her panel of horticultural experts = proud plantsman Matt Biggs, grow your own guru Bob Flowerdew, and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood.
Later, Juliet Sargeant transports us all the way to Zanzibar, East Africa, as she gives us a masterclass on the wide variety of spices the island has to offer and how you could potentially grow them in your own garden.
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
Executive Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001vc3z)
Our Man in Havana - Episode 2
In the series that takes a look at books, plays and stories and how they work, John Yorke explores Graham Greene’s dark, comic classic, Our Man in Havana.
Set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, Our Man in Havana is a comic spy caper with a dark heart. In this the second episode on the novel, John considers what impact the place had on the work, and how Greene’s fictional locations became known as ‘Greeneland’. He also examines how Greene’s attitude to the question of loyalty, a recurring theme in his writing, is central to this book.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for nearly 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 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:
Christopher Hull, Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies at Chester University and author of Our Man Down in Havana
Sarah Rainsford, BBC Foreign Correspondent, author of Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba
Reading by Matthew Gravelle
Credits:
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Publisher - Vintage Digital; New Ed edition (2 Oct. 2010)
Archive - Radio 4’s A Writer At Work on 15/8/1969.
Produced by Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound by Sean Kerwin
Researcher Nina Semple
Production Manager Sarah Wright
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001vc43)
Our Man in Havana - Episode 2
Episode Two
James Wormold meets Milly's ardent admirer, the sinister Captain Segura and M16 have sent Beatrice Severn from London to Havana to work with James. Things begin to take a worrying turn and suspicion beings to fall on Doctor Hasselbacher.
Wormold ….. Rory Kinnear
Beatrice ..... Emily Berrington
Hasselbacher ..... Kenneth Collard
Milly ..... Kitty O'Sullivan
Hawthorne ….. Miles Jupp
Captain Segura ..... Joseph Balderrama
Carter ..... John Lightbody
Teresa/Iris ..... Rhiannon Neads
Chief/Dr Braun ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Sanchez/Waiter/British Ambassador ..... Martin Marquez
MacDougall/Joe/Policeman 2 ...... Josh Bryant-Jones
Rudy/Policeman 1 ..... Jot Davies
Mistress of Sanchez/Ambassador's Assistant ..... Jessica Turner
Directed by Tracey Neale
James Wormold's wife has left him and he is now scraping a living as a vacuum cleaner salesman and looking after Milly, their teenage daughter to whom he is completely devoted. Milly is being educated by nuns, but Wormold has lost any faith he might once have had. At a difficult age, torn between her devout Catholicism and burgeoning sexuality Milly talks religion, but enjoys her new-found power over men who find her attractive. Her most ardent admirer is the sinister Captain Segura whose bloody reputation goes before him. Wormold is not at all happy about this state of affairs. He is approached by a British intelligence officer named Hawthorne who offers him money to spy for his country. Struggling for money, Wormold accepts the offer - the trouble is he doesn't know the first thing about spying nor does he have any useful contacts or information. Loathe to give up his new source of income he hits on the idea of inventing intelligence and fellow agents he has recruited. However, some of the names he chooses are those of real people living in Havana. Knowing that MI6 will lose interest unless he spices up his reports, Wormold sends sketches of vacuum cleaner parts, claiming they are a secret communist nuclear base in the mountains. It's all going swimmingly till MI6 send him an assistant and wireless operator, Beatrice. Now he has to keep his misinformation from her as well as his paymasters! But when a news story reports that one of Wormold's fictitious sources is killed in a car accident the story takes a weird and dark turn. Wormold thinks the KGB must have discovered he is an M16 spy and now they too believe his reports. Way out of his depth Wormold is now on a desperate mission to save his other sources whilst not being killed himself.
Our Man in Havana sees Graham Greene at his satirical best taking pot-shots at "Britain's self-delusion about its standing in the world”. With the world's attention focused on the standoff between the USA and Russia, Greene cleverly saw that comedy was one of the best ways of highlighting some of the absurdities of the Cold War. A high watermark of what Greene called his 'Entertainments', the novel is a joyful farce that still hits its satirical targets in Whitehall today.
Jeremy Front is an award winning dramatist whose work includes 'Sword of Honour', 'Brideshead Revisited' and Greene's 'Stamboul Train' as well as his much-loved Radio 4 series: 'Charles Paris Mysteries'.
Writer - Graham Greene
Adapted by - Jeremy Front
Produced and Directed by Tracey Neale
Technical Producer - Keith Graham
Production Co-Ordinator - Ben Hollands
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001vbw6)
Hisham Matar
Chris Power talks to the writer Hisham Matar about his new novel My Friends. His previous books, including the Booker shortlisted In the Country of Men, Anatomy of a Disappearance, and the Pulitzer Prize winning The Return, have dealt with the difficulty of living in the shadow of oppressive regimes. My Friends describes the relationship between three exiled friends from Libya - Khaled, Mustafa and Hosam - over several decades from the 1980s to the 2010s and the terrible events which were to shape the young men's lives in the UK.
And we hear about two new psychological thrillers which take us into the glamour and underworld of stage and film. Chris MacDonald’s The Actor follows Adam who, on the brink of winning an Oscar, is haunted by his past life at a toxic drama school. Here In The Dark, by New York Times culture critic Alexis Soloski, follows theatre critic Vivian who gets caught up in a real-life missing person story which outdoes for drama the plays she spends so much of her time evaluating and eviscerating.
Book list - Sunday January 14 and Thursday January 18
In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
The Return by Hisham Matar
My Friends by Hisham Matar
The Actor by Chris MacDonald
Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Theatre by William Somerset Maugham
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Shadow Play by Joseph O’Connor
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
SUN 16:30 Moving Pictures (p0ggs5gk)
Ambulance Call by Jacob Lawrence
Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.
This episode explores Ambulance Call by the great American artist, Jacob Lawrence. We're on the sidewalk in Harlem, New York, in the 1940s. A crowd gathers as a patient is stretchered away. But not just a crowd - a community... captured in all its tender humanity by one of its own. Lawrence notices the everyday moments that are so often overlooked and gives them back to us in bold, brilliant style.
To see the high-resolution image of the painting made by Google Arts & Culture, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the link to explore Ambulance Call.
Interviewees: Austen Barron Bailly, Jen Padgett, Turry Flucker, Leslie King-Hammond and Brittany Webb.
Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald
Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4
Picture credit: Jacob Lawrence, Ambulance Call, detail, 1948, tempera on board. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2023. Image courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m000f5hb)
Second Class Citizens: The Post Office IT Scandal
The story of the Post Office IT scandal has gained new momentum in the wake of an ITV dramatisation about how dozens of subpostmasters were falsely accused of theft and fraud and hauled through the courts. After 20 years, campaigners won a legal battle to have their cases reconsidered and in 2019 the Post Office lost a High Court battle and agreed to pay nearly £60 million to more than 550 of its staff. Some ended up in prison, others bankrupt - many more have been left with their health and reputations in ruins. A public inquiry is ongoing, but many victims are still fighting to have their convictions overturned or to secure full compensation.
In this episode of File on 4 - updated since its first broadcast in February 2020 - Hayley Hassall meets some of those whose lives were destroyed. She returns to the Post Office in the East Riding seaside town of Bridlington with former subpostmaster Lee Castleton. There are still buckets and spades in the otherwise empty shop - a business he'd taken on after deciding to give up his job as a stockbroker for a better quality of life. She hears from Tracy Felstead who was convicted of fraud and sent to Holloway Prison when she was just 19 years old.
One whistleblower reveals how he warned the Post Office the Horizon system was unsafe and, in his first ever interview, forensic accountant Ron Warmington reveals how he struggled to get straight answers from Post Office management after he was brought in to carry out an investigation.
Reporter: Hayley Hassall
Producers: Mick Tucker and Nick Wallis
Editor: Carl Johnston
SUN 17:40 Profile (m001vc47)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vc4c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001vc4h)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vc4p)
Lord Cameron says airstrikes have sent an unambiguous message to Houthi rebels
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001vc4t)
Luke Wright
You won’t be surprised that we'll hear difficult stories from sub-postmasters, but there’s also Victoria Wood and excited delirium. Margaret Thatcher being saucy with Christopher Hitchens, murderous crows, Dogger, Malin and Finisterre. One hundred years of Labour, a Derry Girls mural, the writers' room of The West Wing, and a little boy in Michigan being utterly, utterly wrecked by the beauty of ABBA.
Presenter: Luke Wright
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001vc4y)
At the Tearoom Fallon and Emma dread their catch-up meeting with Natasha. Her music choices have been driving them mad! They draw up a list of talking points. Chat turns to Ed’s lambing and Emma mentions that he’s worried about all of the rain. It means the Grange Farm fields are too wet for grazing. Unfortunately the higher dry ground is the land that Oliver’s just sold. Later Emma and Fallon broach a few suggestions to Natasha on how to improve things at the Tearoom, but she brushes them aside. Fallon and Emma think the vintage music that’s always been played worked really well but Natasha wants to try out a few more types of music. They can survey the customers to see what they think.
Lilian and Tony are at The Dower House sorting through boxes of Peggy things that won’t fit at The Laurels, including Peggy’s cottage teapot, which Lilian lays claim to. They’re interrupted by a phone call from Brian who has something else that won’t fit in there – Hilda the cat. There’s been some complaints at The Laurels including from the woman next door to Peggy who says Hilda sits in her doorway staring at her. When Brian asks where he should unload Hilda’s things, shocked Lilian clearly states that she won’t be looking after her. Especially after Hilda knocks over and breaks the prized cottage teapot. Lilian suggests Tony, but he’s equally forceful in his refusal to take Hilda on. Brian puts his foot down, refusing to leave until either Tony or Lilian agree to take her.
SUN 19:15 POV (m001vc51)
POV: You're listening to a brand-new sketch show that takes the comics making brilliant videos for social media and gets them to write brand new audio-only sketches, mixing them all up with rich, immersive sound design.
Featuring Rachel Fairburn, Daniel Foxx, Matt Green, Rosie Holt, Emma Jones, Kelechi Okafor & Vinny Thomas
Sound design by Rich Evans at Syncbox Post
Produced by Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:45 Bodies of Water (m001vc55)
2: Avocado Suite
The next in a series of short stories from the award-winning author of Send Nudes, all taking their inspiration from water.
From an escape to the ocean to a fight by the Trevi Fountain, from an out-of-depth swimmer to a pond-side confession, these stories are all inspired by the transformative power of water.
Today: an awkward bath for two frees a man from years of grief and guilt...
Reader: Nikesh Patel
Writer: Saba Sams is a British writer. Her debut collection of short stories Send Nudes appeared in 2022 and won the Edge Hill Prize. One of the stories in the book, 'Blue 4eva', won the 2022 BBC National Short Story Award.
Producer: Justine Willett
SUN 20:00 More or Less (m001v3hy)
Deaths, taxes and missing cats
Did London see a 2500% increase in gun crime? Are taxes in the UK the highest since the 1950s? Did the UK have high excess deaths from Covid, compared to the rest of Europe? Do three cats go missing every second in the UK?
Tim and the team investigate a few of the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Nathan Gower
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001v408)
Camila Batmanghelidjh, Sir Roy Calne, Glynis Johns, J.P.R. Williams
Matthew Bannister on
Camila Batmanghelidjh who founded the charity Kids Company to help disadvantaged children. The charity collapsed amidst controversy, although she was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Sir Roy Calne, the surgeon who carried out the UK’s first successful liver transplant operation. He was also a talented artist.
Glynis Johns, the actor best known for playing the suffragette Winifred Banks in the film of Mary Poppins.
JPR Williams, one of the greatest full backs in rugby history, who made many appearances for Wales and the British & Irish Lions. Sir Ian McGeechan pays tribute.
Interviewee: Steve Chalke
Interviewee: Tim Rayment
Interviewee: Professor John Wallwork
Interviewee: Peter Jackson
Interviewee: Sir Ian McGeechan
CORRECTION: in this episode, Professor John Wallwork is credited as a former Chairman of Royal Papworth Hospital, NHS Foundation. He was in fact the current Chairman at time of recording.
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Camila Batmanghelidjh interview, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 27/10/2006; Camila Batmanghelidjh interview, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, 12 Feb 2016; Camila Batmanghelidjh interview, Listed Londoner, BBC Radio London, recorded 01/2013; Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, Podcast, 25/02/2021; Sir Roy Calne interview, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 01/03/1996; Sir Roy Calne interview, History of transplantation, ISN Video Legacy Project, 2003; Glynis Johns interview, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4,
24.04.1976; JPR Williams try, Wales v England 1976, 5 Nations championship, Guinness Six Nations YouTube channel, uploaded 06/03/2020; JPR Williams drop goal 1971, British & Irish Lions, uploaded 13/03/2017; JPR Williams needed stiches during match, Bridgend v New Zealand, 1978;
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001vc59)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vbvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001vc5f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001vc5l)
Ben Wright asks whether airstrikes will deter further Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and previews the Commons debate on the Rwanda Safety Bill, with Conservative MP Matt Warman; Labour frontbencher, Fleur Anderson; and Professor of Foreign Affairs, Anand Menon, from the UK in a Changing Europe think tank. The Financial Times political editor Lucy Fisher brings insight and expert analysis, and the programme also includes and interview with Baroness Gabby Bertin - recently appointed by the government to chair a review of the pornography industry.
SUN 23:00 Archive on 4 (m001j3dc)
My Sylvia Plath
Emily Berry presents a personal meditation on the poetic life and afterlife of Sylvia Plath.
The American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath is a cultural phenomenon. No other modern writer has been quite so mythologised – and pathologized. Her writing and her life (and the way the one seems to admit intimacies about the other) have, in the years since her death in February 1963, become knotted into legend. She is a proto-feminist, a dutiful daughter, an ambitious ex-pat, a wronged wife, an avatar of psychosis or suicide. And a biographical subject par excellence. Her varied writing – sometimes richly allusive and lyrical, sometimes fierce and taboo-breaking – seems to languish in the shadow cast by her biography and the perceived drama of her marriage and young death.
Beyond these refractions, she remains a potent influence on generations of readers and writers, who often forge deeply personal connections with, as it were, their own Sylvia Plath.
Poet Emily Berry is one of those who has been inspired by Sylvia Plath – by the influence and example of her writing and, sometimes, a fascination for her life story. In My Sylvia Plath she reflects, personally and poetically, on that inspiration and the enduring power of Plath’s writing. She hears from those who knew the poet personally: friends, who naturally have their own Sylvia Plath, glimpsed across time and with the fragility of memory; and others, like Emily, who have been influenced by Plath’s work, their writing lives animated by a Sylvia Plath created and recreated in their own likeness.
The BBC archive contains several recordings made by Sylvia Plath – poems, interviews and commentary – which capture something more rounded than the popular image often allows. The sharp and singular voice of her later poems is there, but so too are her memories of childhood, funny reflections on the eccentricities of the English and glimpses of a tension between the working life and domestic life of a poet who, in her own time, was likely to be consigned to the role of Mrs Ted Hughes – and whose Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize.
Featuring Jillian Becker, Heather Clark, Sarah Corbett, Ruth Fainlight and Shane McCrae.
With thanks to Pamela Lorence.
Producer: Martin Williams
MONDAY 15 JANUARY 2024
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001vc5s)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (m001v3mb)
The Power of Song
The power of song: Laurie Taylor talks to James Walvin, Professor of History Emeritus at the University of York and author of a new study which explores the cultural history of "Amazing Grace," one of the transatlantic world's most popular hymns and a powerful anthem for humanity. How did a simple Christian hymn, written in a remote English vicarage in 1772, come to hold such sway over millions in all corners of the modern world? Also, Angela Impey Professor of Enthomusicology at SOAS, argues that songs in South Sudan can be key platform for truth-telling, often invested with greater moral force than other forms of communication in the context of 50 years of civil war. What role can songs play in the struggle for peace and justice?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001vc5z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vc66)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vc6g)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vc6m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001vc6v)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vc71)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001vc77)
The floodwater may have receded from much of the countryside - but now farmers are counting the cost. Over the past few months its been wet - and farmers across the country have been telling us what that means for their businesses
One major supermarket, Tesco, has said it will be temporarily accepting smaller vegetables from farmers affected by flooding. It's relaxing its size requirements on cabbages, cauliflowers, leeks and sprouts. We spoke to a grower, and the British Growers Association for reaction.
Farmers in Norfolk are meeting to discuss Bluetongue. There are now 50 cases of the disease in Kent and Norfolk, where control zones have been set up to try to limit the spread. Its a virus which is spread by biting midges - because of the warm Winter they've been active until quite recently - and it affects cattle, sheep, goats and deer. So far all the cases have been in animals which haven't showed any symptoms but have been picked up in blood tests.
Phil Stocker, the Chief Executive of the National Sheep Association explains why farmers are meeting.
It's LAMMA the massive farm machinery show which started in a field in Lincolnshire but now fills halls at the NEC in Birmingham. we'll be there later this week to see what new, and what's selling, and all week we're going look at farm machinery. to me that mainly means tractors and combines but Steven Howarth Agricultural Economist at the Agricultural Engineers Association points out, there is more to it than that.
MON 05:56 Weather (m001vc7f)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv6d)
Merlin
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the merlin. These diminutive falcons nest in deep heather on moorland, mainly in the north and west. In winter they also hunt over open country, hillsides and coastal marshes. The male merlin or jack is our smallest falcon, about the size of a mistle thrush.
MON 06:00 Today (m001vc9p)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001vcb0)
Climate resolutions
The data analyst Hannah Ritchie challenges the doomsday climate scenarios dominating the headlines to argue for a more hopeful outlook. In Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet she uses the data to show what progress has been made, and what actions will have the most impact in the future.
Capitalism, consumerism and unfettered growth are often blamed for the climate crisis, but the Bloomberg journalist Akshat Rathi believes that capitalism is the best means we have to tackle the issues in time. In Climate Capitalism he meets the business people and politicians from around the world who are finding innovative ways to go green.
The oceanographer and Joint Director of the UK National Climate Science Partnership, Professor Michael Meredith often works in one of the most difficult and least understood areas of the planet - the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic. He believes that while individual actions and choices are important to tackle climate change, only stronger worldwide governance can slow the irreversible effects of ice sheet decline and rising sea levels.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd4l)
13. Inside the Machine
The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?
Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vcbs)
Having more children after 40, Gladiators, Nikki Hayley profile
The first female Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale has died at the age of 83. She was a huge trailblazer when it came to breaking down barriers for women in radio. To mark her death, we hear a clip from 2007 when Annie spoke to Martha Kearney on Woman’s Hour.
Two female journalists who spent over a year in prison for covering the death of Mahsa Amini have been released on bail by Iranian authorities. Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi are appealing against their jail sentences and will remain out of prison until a decision is made. Emma Barnett is joined by Women's Affairs Journalist for the BBC World Service Ferenak Amidi to hear more.
From Kourtney Kardashian to Sienna Miller, there’s been lots of recent examples of women who have kids early on in life, and then try to conceive with a new partner in their 40s and beyond. Journalist Grace Ackroyd has written candidly about her experience of this – she talks to Emma about having children again at a new stage in life, and the challenges she’s faced.
Gladiators is back on our TV screens. The BBC’s reboot of the super popular 90s series was launched this weekend, with new games added to the show. We’ll hear the first impressions from one of the original Gladiators – Diane Youdale, better known as ‘Jet’, who joins Emma to talk about her own experience and advice she would give to the new female gladiators.
Ahead of the US election this year, one woman has begun to challenge Donald Trump in the polls for who will be the Republican representative. To find out more about Nikki Haley, Emma is joined by Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House, and Julia Manchester, national political reporter at The Hill who is reporting live from this week’s Iowa caucuses.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lottie Garton
MON 11:00 Black, African and British (m001vcc5)
Black, African and British in Belief
Black, African Brits are one of the UK’s fastest growing communities. In the last census 1.5 million people said they were Black, African and British – it’s a community that’s tripled in size in the last twenty years. British Nigerian broadcaster Jumoké Fashola travels across the country to ask what it means to be Black, African and British and to explore how these communities are shaping British politics, faith, business and culture today.
Episode 2: Black, African and British in Faith and Belief
In our cities, towns and villages Britain’s Black African churches, mosques and places of worship are helping to reshape our understanding of faith, community and belief. At a time when fewer people than ever in UK consider themselves as religious and Christianity in the UK is in decline with smaller and older congregations, it is often African migrants that are keeping churches open. These faiths, denominations and traditions are hugely diverse and are informed by different communities – whether Nigerian, Ghanaian, Somali, Sudanese or the many other peoples from across the African continent who now call Britain home.
You can find worshippers not just in traditional church buildings, temples or mosques but in former bingo halls, old shops, in warehouses on industrial sites or in small rooms in people’s homes. Congregations can range from less than a handful of people to mega-churches with thousands in attendance.
Jumoké speaks to faith leaders, worshippers and believers about how African migration is redefining how we think about belief and community.
The Rev’d Doctor Israel Olofinjana talks to Jumoké about the ‘reverse mission’ and the determination of African-led churches to bring Christianity back to the centre of British life.
The Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover and the Bishop in Canterbury talks to Jumoke about what finding a place of worship can mean for African migrants.
Community activist Ali Abdi takes Jumoké on a tour of Cardiff’s Butetown and shares how his community work to support the Somali community is driven by his faith.
Pentecostal Pastor Akinola Abiona welcomes Jumoké to a Sunday service and tells us about the role he believes the church can play in providing social support in local communities.
Father Paul Hutchins of Holy Trinity Blakely explains how his parish in Manchester has been revitalised by African migration.
You can join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #BlackAfricanBritish
MON 11:30 Analysis (m001slsl)
What's the future of nudge?
The term nudge has become a byword for the application of behavioural science in public policy, changing how governments the world over create policies designed to encourage, or nudge, people to make choices that better benefit themselves and society as a whole.
Over the last fifteen years much has been learned about what works, as well as what doesn’t, when it comes to this way of supporting us in making decisions about our health, our money and how we lead our lives.
Magda Osman is Principal Research Associate at the Cambridge Judge Business School, The University of Cambridge, and Visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School. Through her work she has examined the problems, and the opportunities, with this way of creating policy. She talks to those working in the field of behavioural change and examines what has been discovered over the last fifteen years, what concerns remain around this way of doing things and what the future is for the behavioural change methods known as nudge.
Presenter: Professor Magda Osman
Producer: Steven Hobson
Editor: Clare Fordham
Contributors:
Dr Michael Hallsworth, Managing Director, Behavioural Insights Team Americas
Colin Strong, Head of Behavioural Science, Ipsos and Professor of Consumer and Behavioural Psychology, Nottingham University Business School
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy
Laura Dodsworth, author and journalist
Professor Neil Levy, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Katy Milkman, James G. Dinan Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001vcjx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001vccy)
Fake Car Hire Companies, M&S and First-time Buyers
Criminals are using fake car hire firms to register vehicles at unsuspecting victims' addresses to foot the bills for parking penalties, driving in bus lanes and flouting Birmingham's Clean Air Zone. Nobody it seems, is immune to falling prey to this fraud. We meet a listener who's never had a driving licence, or a car, but hundreds of letters from debt collectors chasing these charges.
One of the appeals of streaming subscriptions was the lack of irritating ad breaks during must watch shows. That's starting to change, and very soon. Amazon will introduce adverts to its Prime Video service next month. If you don't want to see them, you'll have to pay more. We find out why it’s doing this and what viewers think.
Is M&S cool now? For decades, it’s been dogged by negative stereotypes amongst women old and young of selling frumpy and basic clothes. The struggle to change that has preoccupied the firm for a quarter of a century. Now, the retailer is once again the UK's biggest single seller of womenswear by value. We get the inside story of this remarkable turnaround from the woman who masterminded it.
Finally, from 2021's frenzied race for space to last year having the lowest number of first time buyers in over a decade, the housing market has been on something resembling a rollercoaster. Could stability now be back on the cards? Estate agents and Rightmove think so. Mortgage lenders are offering more and cheaper deals with further reductions to come. We hear how those trying to get on the first rung of the property ladder are finding it now.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz
MON 12:57 Weather (m001vcd7)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001vcdj)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
MON 13:45 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vcdq)
What's Going On?
In major countries across Western Europe, the radical right is making an impact at the ballot box.
From the success of the PVV in the Dutch General Election, to progress for Marine le Pen's National Rally in France, commentators have described a populist surge ahead of European Parliament elections in June.
But what's less well covered is the fact that in some major countries in Europe, radical right parties attract the young more than they attract the old.
This can be a surprising revelation, as it's a popular notion that young people arrive at the ballot box somehow automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we inevitably become increasingly right wing.
But Professor James Tilley is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not this straightforward.
Across five episodes he'll investigate how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001vc4y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001vcbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Saturday]
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001vcdx)
Series 37
Heat 6, 2024
(6/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes three more amateur music lovers to the Radio Theatre in London for the latest contest of the ever-popular music quiz. Competitors from around the UK face Paul's questions on the widest possible range of musical styles and eras, from the classical repertoire to jazz, Broadway musicals, film and game themes, and seventy years of the pop charts.
Taking part are
Susan Booth from Kent
James Bingham from County Wicklow
Vanessa MacNaughton from London.
Today's winner will take another of the places in the semi-finals and will return in February.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001vc3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 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 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001vcf5)
Stem Cell Steaks and the Scriptures
Is cultured or cultivated meat, grown from animal stem cells, kosher or halal?
That's what some religious leaders and scholars are starting to consider as we search for more sustainable solutions to feeding the world. Didier Toubia is the CEO of Aleph Farms, one company in Israel that has sought religious approval for its steak, grown from the stem cells of a black angus cow. They have also submitted an application to the Food Standards Authority in the hopes of bringing their products to the UK.
A written ruling by the Chief Rabbi of Israel declared that their lab-grown meat could be considered Kosher. Aleem Maqbool has questions, and is joined by a panel of livestock farmers to discuss the relationship between faith, farming and the future of meat.
Dr Lutfi Radwan is from Willowbrook Farm in Oxfordshire, which claims to be the first halal and tayib farm in the UK, Bridget Down is a Methodist preacher and famer in Devon and Achyuta Masoumi is from Bhaktivendanta Manor near Watford, an estate and Hare Krishna temple which includes a cow sanctuary.
Producer: Rebecca Maxted
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser
MON 17:00 PM (m001vcf9)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vcfk)
It said vulnerable girls were left at the mercy of paedophile gangs in Rochdale
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m001vcfp)
Series 92
2. A Hundred Boy Scouts from Liechtenstein
Sue Perkins challenges Paul Merton, Lucy Porter, Angela Barnes and Eshaan Akbar to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation.
The long-running Radio 4 panel game is back for a new series with subjects including Skimming Stones, The Great Fire of London, and Why I Didn't Make It As A Professional Sprinter.
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
MON 19:00 The Archers (m001vcfq)
Lilian turns up at Blossom Hill Cottage to see Brian with Hilda the cat in tow. Lilian can’t keep her – she’s been driving all of them up the wall, including Justin and Ruby. Brian tries to get out of having her, but Lilian’s determined to off-load Hilda. The only problem is the latch wasn’t properly closed on Hilda’s basket and she’s now run off. They look everywhere for her and eventually find her pining for Peggy at The Lodge’s back door. Brian’s forced to take her in but stresses that Hilda had better not get too comfortable, as she won’t be there for long!
Clarrie’s helping Ed with lambing at Grange Farm, but Ed despairs when a ram lamb doesn’t survive. Alistair turns up to see how they’re getting on and ends up helping with a ewe’s problematic twin birth. Unfortunately one of the rams doesn’t make it which adds to Ed’s despondency. Alistair’s understanding when Ed’s upset about how badly it’s all going when he’s been doing everything right. Later Ed’s snappy with Clarrie and then explains his worries that the fields won’t be dry in time for when the ewes and lambs need to be out. He’s sick of living on a wing and a prayer and wonders whether he made a mistake taking on the Texels in the first place. Ed doesn’t know how he’ll be able to afford getting the tree surgery business off the ground. Clarrie puts it all down to the winter blues – once spring comes, Ed will be back on his feet.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001vcgq)
Jonathan Glazer, history of radio drama, Molly Tuttle
British director Jonathan Glazer tells Tom Sutcliffe about The Zone of Interest, his award-winning new film about Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss and family’s involvement in the Holocaust which is on wide release from February 2nd but there's previews in select cities on January 20th.
Today is exactly 100 years since the BBC broadcast what is widely believed to be the first play for radio, A Comedy of Danger, set in a Welsh Coalmine. Ron Hutchinson has written an audio drama telling the story behind the story, A Leap in the Dark, which he is now adapting for a stage production at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme. He is joined by cultural historian David Hendy to discuss the significance of this ground-breaking moment a century later.
Molly Tuttle won a Grammy award for best bluegrass album last year, and is nominated again this year. She plays live in the studio.
MON 20:00 Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister (m001vcgv)
It's a hundred years since Ramsay MacDonald assumed office as Labour’s first Prime Minister. The illegitimate son of a farm labourer and servant girl, he was the lowest born of any PM, and brought with him a Cabinet including miners, railwaymen and steel workers the like of which had never been seen in British government. Would this result in Britain being transformed into a proletarian utopia, as many in the upper classes genuinely feared? Or would idealism give way to moderation as Labour sought to prove it wasn’t, in Winston Churchill’s words, unfit to govern?
With contributions from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Ramsay's granddaughter Iona Kielhorn, and historians Richard Toye and Anne Perkins.
Presenter: David Torrance
Producer: Liza Greig
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Clark
BBC Scotland Productions
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (m001v3y1)
The Struggle for Barbuda's Future
Campaigners on the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda are locked in a battle over its development by foreign investors who are building exclusive resorts for wealthy clients. The development of Barbuda into a high-end tourist destination is supported by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, who say it’s essential to create jobs and for the economic future of the island. But others argue that it will fundamentally change the island’s ecology and unique way of life. Caroline Bayley travels to Barbuda for Crossing Continents to speak to both sides in the heated debate over the island’s future.
Photo: The pristine coastline on Barbuda's south coast, which has become the main focus for new luxury developments (BBC).
Reporter: Caroline Bayley
Producer: Alex Last
Sound mix by Rod Farquhar
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Series Editor: Penny Murphy
MON 21:00 The New New Town (m001v3g0)
In 1947, East Kilbride became Scotland's first designated 'New Town'. But it hasn't aged well. In new proposals, 1/3rd of the town centre is earmarked for demolition. Can it work?
Post-war planners broke the mould when they created East Kilbride. This 'new town' was the result of utopian thinking and a reaction against what had gone before; primarily densely-packed, unsanitary and run-down tenements. It started out as a way to empty out the city centre of nearby Glasgow. But for residents of a new town, it wasn't just the location that took some getting used to. It was a new way of life too...
In East Kilbride, as with the four other Scottish New Towns that followed, the focus was on shopping and car use. The retail sector was the middle of the donut, with a ring of residential housing on the outside. Linking the two were roundabouts. Lots and lots of roundabouts - hence the nick name 'polo mint city.'
Navigating a new town meant owning your own car. Public transport, and even pavements, were less prioritised. Today, this feels anomalous to our net zero goals. Back in 1947, it led to the construction of Scotland's biggest undercover retail space, which doubled as the 'town centre'.
Today, this once thriving destination is ghostly quiet. Almost 100 units are vacant and there's over half a million square foot of empty floor space. Clearly, change is needed, but how? One solution is to start over, replacing the empty department stores with homes and open air public spaces.
This programme looks at what it meant to grow up in a New Town the implications of this urban overhaul, and how it reflects on the broader questions we're currently addressing about car travel, community and engagement with our town centres.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001vcb0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vch1)
Houthi rebels hit US-owned container ship off the coast of Yemen
Live in Iowa, the first state to decide on a Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election
Are coral transplants the key to keeping coral reefs in the Caribbean alive?
MON 22:45 The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (m001vch5)
Episode 1
In Allan Radcliffe’s moving portrayal of grief in all its complexities, a young art teacher searches for a scene from childhood as he struggles with a bereavement.
Read by Richard Conlon
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (m001v3jp)
Writing Comedy with Isy Suttie
Isy Suttie is an actor and comedian best known for her role in Peepshow and her one woman show Love Letters on Radio 4 as well as many other shows and podcasts. Here she talks to Michael Rosen about writing her comedy and what informs it. She grew up in Matlock in Derbyshire and a deep love as well of knowledge of the place and its people find their way into her humour. Words ending in consonants too are much funnier than those ending in a vowel she says. And as for learning Welsh to impress her partner her song written to show off her language skills to him is a linguistic masterpiece!
Producer: Maggie Ayre
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vch9)
Sean Curran reports as Rishi Sunak takes MPs' questions about missile strikes following Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
TUESDAY 16 JANUARY 2024
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001vchf)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd4l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vchp)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vcht)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vchy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001vcj2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vcj4)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001vcj6)
16/01/24 No reason to subsidise agriculture? Cuts to woodland creation in Scotland. Methane tractors.
A member of the Welsh Senedd Mike Hedges suggests that subsidies for farmers could be used elsewhere. We hear reaction from farmers.
The Scottish Government's admitted it won't be able to plant enough trees to meet its climate and nature targets, following cuts of £32 million to grants for planting new woodlands.
This week, as farmers gather in Birmingham for the machinery show LAMMA, we're talking about the latest developments in field hardware. Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas, and is produced by cows burping and farting, but it's also produced by slurry. Using diesel-guzzling machinery in the field contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, so how about using methane from farm slurry to fuel tractors instead?
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dwxfp)
Siskin
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Siskin. Siskins are visiting our gardens as never before. These birds now breed across the UK and cash in on our love of bird-feeding. They are now regular visitors to seed dispensers of all kinds.
TUE 06:00 Today (m001vcbw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Things Fell Apart (m001vccn)
S2. Ep 2: We’re Coming After You, Honey
How a chance encounter in a yacht club in the early 2000s between a bartender and a very wealthy couple with a daughter sick with a mystery disease ended with the creation of the first great covid conspiracy theory.
Written and presented by Jon Ronson
Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
Original music by Phil Channell
TUE 09:30 Naturebang (m001gx15)
Great Tits and Group Think
You may think 'culture' is one of those peculiar things unique to humans, like dancing to pop music or yelling at the TV. But you'd be wrong. Animals may not flock to the Opera, but they absolutely do have 'culture'; habits; traditions; ways of doing things that are passed down from one generation to the next. Animal culture has been studied in fish, mammals and even insects, and one of the longest-running studies is on a bird you might have spotted flitting around your garden, the humble Great Tit.
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight head into the woods, armed with delicious peanuts, to find out more about Great Tit culture. It turns out that these enigmatic birds have long traditions which are shared among the community, and once formed, they can be hard to break, even if they're not serving the birds needs any more. Innovative experiments with puzzle-boxes show that old habits die hard. The one thing that can break the deadlock of tradition and bring back innovative thinking is the arrival of new birds - ones which aren't beholden to the prevailing culture.
In the human world, it's well known that an influx of immigrants can have a profound effect on the prevailing culture, often bringing new ways of thinking and innovations in technology, or brand new cuisines. Becky and Emily explore one extraordinary example of this that emerged from the horrors of the Second World War. As German-Jewish scientists fled the anti-Semitic persecution of the Third Reich, they arrived on American shores with plenty to offer the established scientific culture.
Featuring Michael Chimento, post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, and Professor Petra Moser, professor of Economics at NYU Stern. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
TUE 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd43)
14. The Prosecution Spree
The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?
Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.
In Episode 14, we hear how the Post Office disregarded red flags about Horizon when it rolled the system out, and how flawed and incomplete prosecution policies set the stage for the mass prosecution of many innocent Sub Postmasters.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vcd8)
Domestic abuse and brain injury, Calvin Klein advert, Exhaustion
Up to one in two survivors of domestic abuse in the UK may be living with an undiagnosed brain injury. That's according to a new report by the charity Brainkind. Emma Barnett is joined by Steffy Bechelet from Brainkind and Dr Annmarie Burns, a Consultant Clinical Neuro-psychologist.
How often do you feel weary and depleted? Or perhaps just plain exhausted? Anna Schaffner knows these feelings well. Now a coach specialising in helping the exhausted, in her previous life as an academic, as a Professor of Cultural History at the University of Kent, she suffered from burnout. She has now written a book, Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary.
Since 1 January, working parents in England have been able to apply for a code to access new free childcare hours for two-year-olds, which will then kick in on 1 April. The scheme is part of a significant investment in childcare announced by the Government. But one campaigning organisation has found that parents are facing major challenges in securing a code. Joining Emma is Lauren Fabianski from the campaign group Pregnant then Screwed who carried out the survey.
After the Advertising Standards Authority banned a Calvin Klein poster featuring the singer FKA twigs for presenting her “as a stereotypical sexual object”, we’re asking, what determines whether an advert is objectifying? Sarah Golding, the CEO of The&Partnership and journalist Rebecca Cope join Emma.
Last week, Jade Robertson woke up to find that one of the dresses from her fashion brand Little Lies had sold out overnight – after Taylor Swift was spotted wearing it. Jade joins Emma to talk about what this means for her and her fashion brand.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore
TUE 11:00 Wild Inside (m001vcdk)
The Red Kangaroo
Wild Inside returns for a new series to take a look at some of our planet’s most exceptional and unusual creatures from an entirely new perspective: the inside. Whilst we can learn a lot from observing the outside, the secrets to the success of any animal – whether they swim, fly, or hop – lies in their complex internal anatomy. How do these wild animals survive and thrive in harsh and changing environments? To truly understand we need to delve inside.
Professor Ben Garrod, evolutionary biologist from the University of East Anglia, and expert veterinary surgeon Dr Jess French, open up and investigate what makes each of these animals unique, in terms of their extraordinary anatomy, behaviour and their evolutionary history. Along the way, they reveal some unique adaptations which give each species a leg (or claw) up in surviving in the big, wild world.
The series begins with an icon of the outback – known best for its hopping, boxing, and cosy pouch – the red kangaroo. Despite the immense heat and lack of water, these marsupials dominate Australia, with their evolutionary history driving them to success. From the powerful legs which allow them to hop up to 40km an hour, to an unexpected reproductive system that keeps their populations plentiful, Ben, Jess and marsupial expert Dr Jack Ashby reveal a mammalian anatomy which holds many surprises.
Further episodes :
2: Sometimes ominously called the lamb vulture – the Bearded Vulture is a bird of legend but survives on an astounding diet of up to 90% bone. And its anatomy reflects its unusual dinner.
3: The formidable sap sucking aphid which at less than 3mm long is the scourge of many crop growers worldwide, outwitting the plants it feeds on, whilst cloning itself to produce identical offspring every 20 minutes.
4: Found lounging in their thousands on coastlines along the western coats of North and Central America – the California Sea Lion is a master of land and sea.
Co-Presenters: Ben Garrod and Jess French
Executive Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Producer: Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
TUE 11:30 The Failure of the Future (m001vcdr)
Building Utopias
For decades, artists, scientists and philosophers have dreamed up utopias that aim to transform the way we live. But why did they not become the future we are living in today? Is there something in those “what-might-have-beens” that’s worth returning to?
Writer and artist Johny Pitts explores a series of failed visions of the future. But rather than discarding them with the sands of time, he asks what we can learn from those past projections. And might the rubble of these forgotten worlds contain gems that could propel us towards a brighter tomorrow?
For Johny, there was a time when he felt he was living inside the future - 1980s Japan. From flying cars to floating cities, Japan seemed to be mapping out an advanced reality that could shape the future that the rest of the world might live in. And yet, that didn't come to fruition. Across four episodes, Johny picks four key aspects of that alluring era - times of supreme innovation - when a new path was being carved out. Which ideas inside these imagined futures might be worth resurrecting?
In Episode 1, recorded before the earthquake in Japan on 1st January 2024, Johny reviews the idealistic plans of Japanese urban planner Kenzo Tange and the architects he collaborated with who were known as The Metabolists. They set out to create a blueprint for global cities and their work rescued entire cities from total devastation. By reviewing their goal of creating a blueprint for all global cities, Johny asks whether aspects of their forward-thinking ideas are worth harvesting for our own future.
Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer and sound design: Anishka Sharma
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producer: Phil Smith
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001vcjv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001vcf6)
Call You & Yours: Prescription Medicine Shortage
Are you having difficulty getting hold of prescription medicines?
There are drug shortages and some pharmacies are running out of some drugs. They include medicines for cancers, ADHD and diabetes.
If it's affected you please get in touch.
Email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call us on 03700 100 444
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001vcfb)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001vcfg)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
TUE 13:45 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vcfl)
Getting Older
How does age shape the way we vote?
Professor James Tilley meets some mainstream voters who buck the left wing youth trend in the UK - young Conservatives.
He wants to find out how peer pressure does, or doesn't shape, our behaviour. And what role does psychology play in helping us choose a party?
When it comes to the relative popularity of some radical right parties in Europe with the young, does their edgier status make them more attractive to developing brains drawn to risk?
The series considers the popular misconception that young people inevitably arrive at the ballot box automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we will become increasingly right wing.
But Professor James Tilley is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not straightforward.
Across five episodes he investigates how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001vcfq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001vcft)
Talawa Stories: Copper & Lead
Talawa Stories from the UK’s outstanding Black Theatre Company presents a story with an explosive secret that threatens to shatter a young Black couple’s love – and bodies – forever.
It’s 1978 and a group of young women hit the town looking to shake off the blues of the Winter of Discontent. Ending up in a steamy club, the night is ripe with sweat, jerry curls and anticipation. It’s there that Nancy meets Jeremiah, a charming Jamaican Brummie and she falls head over heels.
Soon enough, they’re married with a home and two children, but one of them is hiding something - a secret with the potential to shatter their lives, and bodies, forever.
lydia luke’s fiction is a poetic exploration of love, sacrifice and loss, offering an alternate history on the backdrop of one of the harshest winters the UK has ever seen. Tackling ideas around belonging, medical negligence and disposability, copper & lead is an intimate depiction of Black life in the Midlands with a speculative twist.
Cast (in order of appearance):
Nancy – Petra Letang
Joyce – Phoebe McIntosh
Friend 1, 2, 3 & Doctor – Alison A Addo
Jeremiah – Karl Collins
Agnes – Mellieha Mazombwe
Creative team:
Writer – lydia luke (she/her)
Director – Phillip J Morris (he/him)
Series Producer – Alison Holder (she/her)
Executive Producer – Caroline Raphael (she/her)
Sound Design – Lucinda Mason-Brown (she/her) and David Chilton (he/him)
Dramaturg – malakaï sargeant (they/them)
Production Coordinator – Alex Lynch (he/him)
Talawa New Work Producer - David Gilbert (he/him)
Casting Assistant – Melissa Vitalis Smith (she/her)
A Talawa Theatre Company production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m001vcfw)
Series 37
Instructions
A pamphlet from the 1980s illuminates the world we live in now, a musical invitation for your domestic space, and some dazzling canine choreography for your ears. Josie Long presents short documentaries based around instructions.
How to Listen... including How Not To, How You Ought To, and How You Won't (Extract)
Written by Stephen Potter and Joyce Grenfell
Produced by Stephen Potter
Originally broadcast on BBC Third Programme in 1946
Hot Dogs!
Presented by Alan Smith
Produced by Steve Urquhart
Originally broadcast on Alan Smith's Mid Morning Show, BBC Radio Cumbria in 1999
Hell Rubs and Sobs
Produced by Sami El-Enany
How To Look 30 When You're 30
Produced by Jesse Lawson
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Doctor, Doctor (p0gy7btw)
Peter Greenhouse
Doctor Doctor reveals the stress, excitement and challenges facing a 21st century medic. These are life-affirming stories of highs and lows, of commitment, bravery, skill, heartache and love.
Dr Phil Hammond dissects the medical lives of professionals at all levels of the health service: surgeons, intensive care nurses, NHS executives, junior doctors, psychiatrists - fascinating jobs, the titles of which we know very well, but our understanding of which may be lacking.
Dr Phil’s guests range from the recently qualified to the recently retired, from well-known medical grandees to unknown regional heroes, covering all specialties in hospital and community.
Producer: David Morley
Original Music by Chris O'Shaughnessy
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (m001vcfz)
A Life in Lexicography
Grant Barrett is a lexicographer, linguist, author, editor, founder of Wordnik and Head of Lexicography at Dictionary.com. He also co-hosts A Way With Words, a phone in show about language, which airs coast to coast across the United States.
He and Michael discuss the joy of flicking through a dictionary with friends vs the fast return of an online look-up, the history of dictionaries, and Grant's favourite area of language: sociolinguistics - "where the rubber meets the road", as he puts it.
Producer: Ellie Richold
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001vbpx)
Actor Niamh Cusack on the life of poet Mary Oliver
The Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver died in 2019. She was best known for her poetry that reflected her love of the natural world and her famous poem 'Wild Geese' is said to have literally saved people's lives with its message of hope and redemption. An abusive childhood led the young Mary to escape into the woods near her home in Ohio where she discovered a love of nature that was to sustain her throughout her life. She found love with the photographer Molly Malone Cook and they lived happily for many years in Provincetown Massachusetts. Her life and work are greatly admired by many including this week's guest the actor Niamh Cusack and Mary's friend Baroness Helena Kennedy.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
Extracts of Mary Oliver from The Onbeing Project with Krista Tippett and from a conversation with Coleman Barks for the Lannan Foundation
TUE 17:00 PM (m001vcg1)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vcg5)
Fujitsu said it has a "moral obligation" to contribute to sub-postmasters' compensation
TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001vcg7)
Series 2
Episode 3: Dad's Army v Spice Girls
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 Darren Harriott and Zoe Lyons.
Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Darren Harriott and Zoe Lyons
Devised and written by Jon Harvey & Joseph Morpurgo
With additional material from Laura Major
Researcher: Leah Marks
Recorded and mixed by David Thomas
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 (m001vcg9)
Adil tells Azra that he’s making sure Grey Gables is all tip top before he leaves. When Azra asks where he’s going, Adil says he’ll explain tonight when they meet for dinner. Adil bumps into uniformed Brad and tells him that he thinks tomorrow’s soft opening will go well. Brad becomes uncomfortable when Adil assigns him to host Lily’s work experience visit at Grey Gables. Brad eventually admits that he thinks Lily fancies him; it’s no coincidence that she’s doing work experience there. Brad’s worried that Lily might try something, and Mia might find out. Adil advises Brad to be open and explain the situation to Mia.
Emma and Fallon are being driven mad by the trial Tearoom music. Rebecca from the Borchester Echo arrives unannounced and asks what it’s like working there under the new people. Fallon and Emma are discreet, but Rebecca overhears them discussing how much they dislike the new music. Rebecca comments that it looks like mutiny at the all-new Tearoom and then reveals who she works for. Emma remembers how Rebecca twisted her parents words when she interviewed them about Philip Moss. Natasha overhears the conversation and takes Rebecca to one side. All Natasha cares about is that Rebecca does the job she’s being paid for – sponsored content on Natasha’s new look café. She suggests that Rebecca concentrates on writing the article she’s been commissioned for. Later when Fallon and Emma start to apologise, Natasha interrupts them saying it’s fine if they don’t like the music, they can trial some other choices.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001vcgc)
Poor Things, Jodie Comer, RSC new season, TS Eliot poetry prize
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos talk about their award-winning film Poor Things, based on Alasdair Gray’s novel
Jodie Comer is a new mother struggling to survive after an environmental catastrophe in another new film The End We Start From – Samira Ahmed talks to its director Mahalia Belo.
The new joint artistic directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans have announced their inaugural season of productions – including a stage version of Hanif Kureishi’s Buddha of Suburbia and Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet.
And Jason Allen-Paisant who’s won this year's TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, for his work Self Portrait As Othello.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Eliane Glaser
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001vcgf)
Lethal Weapons: The Blank-Firing Guns Converted to Kill
Handguns which fire blanks are being converted into deadly weapons by criminals. File on 4 has discovered they're now being used more often than real handguns. Adrian Goldberg meets victims of gun crime and explores the UK's trade in illegal firearms. He discovers how easy it is to buy a blank firing pistol which can be illegally converted into a lethal weapon in 20 minutes, and hears from a former gangster who warns the law has too many loopholes.
The UK has some of the strictest firearm laws in the world. So as some criminals struggle to obtain genuine guns, they're now getting blank-firing weapons converted into deadly weapons. As reporter Adrian Goldberg discovers how easy it is, gun campaigners call for tighter regulations around the manufacture and sale of blank firing weapons.
Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Paul Grant
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001vcgh)
Representation in Parliament
With a general election a certainty at some point this year, two recent developments have alarmed organisations representing disabled people. Before 2020, there was a fund that provided financial aid to disabled people running for elective office, but that fund has not yet been reinstated. And also: its being argued that in the Prime Minister's latest cabinet reshuffle, the role of Minister for Disabled People has been downgraded.
We discuss what these developments mean for visually impaired people. Helping us do that is Lord Blunkett, Steve Darling, who will be running to be the MP of Torbay this year, Lia Nici, who will be running for MP of Great Grimsby & Cleethorpes and Anna Tylor, Chair of the RNIB.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate 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 is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m001vcgk)
Bladder, bowels and sex: Learning to live after my mountain accident
In 2016, Niall McCann was left with a bruised spinal cord when he crashed his speed glider into the side of a mountain at 50mph.
He shares his journey to recovery and some unexpected life lessons he has had to navigate, from soiling himself in inconvenient places and not being able to control his flatulence, to having to re-learn how to have sex again.
We also hear from a Brecon Mountain Rescue medic on what looked like an “unsurvivable” situation and Niall’s surgeon on fixing his “exploded” spine.
Presenter: Smitha Mundasad
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Holly Squire
TUE 21:30 Things Fell Apart (m001vccn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vcgm)
MPs back government's "Stop the Boats" legislation
Calls for universities to rethink how they define plagiarism
The secret far-right meeting that's caused days of protests in Germany
TUE 22:45 The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (m001vcgr)
Episode 2
In Allan Radcliffe’s moving portrayal of grief in all its complexities, a young art teacher searches for a scene from childhood as he struggles with a bereavement.
As he grieves, Jamie looks back on his relationships; with his parents, with art and with boyfriend Alex.
Read by Richard Conlon
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 23:00 Now You're Asking with Marian Keyes and Tara Flynn (m001vcgw)
The Celebrity Selfie Problem
What do you do when a celebrity says no to your polite request for a selfie ... and what are para-social relationships, anyway? You've left your old job and none of your old colleagues have kept in touch ... what should you do? You've spotted a plant you like the look of ... is it really so bad to lean over and take a cutting? In the final episode of this series, Marian and Tara cast an eye over their email inbox and issue a few thoughts and opinions.
Marian Keyes is a multi award-winning writer, with a total of over 30 million of her books sold to date in 33 languages. Her close friend Tara Flynn is an actress, comedian and writer. Together, these two friends have been through a lot, and now want to use their considerable life experience to help solve your biggest - and smallest - of things that keep us awake at night.
Previous series were welcomed by listeners and critics: "Both are warm and kind enough to not only be funny but also offer genuinely thoughtful, if left-field, advice." (Miranda Sawyer, The Observer) "Keyes and Flynn are my new favourite double-act." (Jane Anderson - Radio Times) "I found their compassion endlessly soothing." (Rachel Cunliffe - The New Statesman)
Recorded in Dublin with emails received from listeners around the world.
Got a problem you want Marian and Tara to solve? Email: marianandtara@bbc.co.uk.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vch0)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 17 JANUARY 2024
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001vch4)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sd43)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vchd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vchj)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vchn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001vchs)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vchx)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001vcj1)
Farmers attending a' forum' on Monday night, to discuss land management issues in the Cairngorms National Park, ended up holding a demonstration about beaver re-introduction...because the farmers feel they aren't being listened to.
The Scottish government has been allowing the reintroduction and translocation of beavers into new catchments for several years. The government's nature agency, NatureScot identified The Cairngorms National Park as a good habitat, so the Authority made the application.
They also held a consultation between April and October last year, making site visits, meeting farmers and communicating with the public. The Park Authority say they made concessions to farmers including agreeing to clear up problems caused by beavers. Approval for beaver introductions was granted by NatureScot and several pairs were introduced at the end last year.
We speak to the Cairngorms National Park Authority, and local livestock farmer Robert MacDonald.
The LAMMA agricultural machinery show starts today in Birmingham - so all this week we're looking at hardware helping hands...
With the price and availability of labour being a constant issue for farmers, automation is often touted as the solution.
In the dairy industry robot milking parlours have been around for some time...and some farmers rely on them... but are they really the future for everyone?
Stuart Oates has been to meet AJ and Polly Williams who milk 110 organic cows over 330 acres on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall - they put in their two robots 5 years ago...
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mzv53)
Mandarin Duck
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the story of the Mandarin Duck. A drake mandarin has orange whiskers, red bill, a broad creamy eye-stripe and an iridescent purple chest, set off by a pair of extraordinary curved orange wing feathers which stand up like a boat's sails. Today there are seven thousand birds living in the wild and the numbers are increasing.
WED 06:00 Today (m001vclb)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m001vbxy)
Life expectancy, inheritance tax and the NHS vs winter
We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles through a double wave of Covid and flu infections.
Do only 4% of people pay inheritance tax? Paul Lewis sets out the figures.
And what do the latest life expectancy figures tell us about how long we’re going to live?
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Kate Lamble
Producers: Nathan Gower and Debbie Richford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Graham Puddifoot
Editor: Richard Vadon
WED 09:30 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001vclt)
Take Vitamin D
During the winter months, here in the UK, days are short and there isn’t enough sunlight for most of us to make the vitamin D we need. Taking a tiny vitamin D supplement is a minute change that could have a huge impact on our health. Professor David Llewellyn from Exeter University explains to Michael that vitamin D helps clear abnormal proteins, such as amyloid plaques and tau, from the brain, which may help protect you from dementia. Having enough vitamin D can also boost your immune systems, making that common cold easier to recover from. It could even lift your mood! Volunteer Baljit tries making vitamin D a habit.
Series Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Science Producer: Catherine Wyler
Researcher: Sophie Richardson
Researcher: Will Hornbrook
Production Manager: Maria Simons
Editor: Zoe Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001scw7)
15. Breaking Lee Castleton
The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?
Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.
In Episode 15, we hear how the Post Office ruined the life of Lee Castleton, a Sub Postmaster based in Bridlington who was taken to court over debts he says came from the Horizon computer system. New evidence reveals that the Post Office failed to investigate Lee's claims of computer errors in depth before taking him to court, and shows that evidence that may have cast doubt on Horizon was known about but not provided at the trial.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vcmh)
Jameela Jamil, Claudia Winkleman, Abortion buffer zones, Female Israel border soldiers
The actress Jameela Jamil talks to Emma Barnett about her crusade for gentle exercise and body positivity as well as her new strategy for how she communicates on social media. She’s become one of the internet’s most prominent activists holding the beauty industry and celebrity culture to account for their unrealistic ideals with her provocative online posts. Her outspoken views have led to widely publicised social media spats which she says have left her with the desire to post with more “grace and empathy”. Best known for her role as Tahini in the Netflix series The Good Place she also hosts the podcast iWeigh which declares its “radical inclusivity” agenda where guests talk about what they “weigh” or value in life as opposed to their physical weight.
New draft guidance from the Home Office appears to water down previously voted on laws about Safe Access Zones around abortion clinics. To talk about what this could mean for women seeking an abortion, and why the changes might be made, Emma is joined by Jo Gideon, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central and Louise McCudden from MSI Reproductive Choices.
They were known as Israel’s “eyes on the border.” These were female Israeli border soldiers - who raised concerns about suspicious Hamas activity on the Gaza border in the run up to the October 7 attack - but those concerns went unheard by higher ranking officers. Hamas killed at least 1,200 people in that attack and took about 240 hostages. Since then, more than 23,000 civilians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Emma discusses with the BBC’s Alice Cuddy who reported on these soldiers and Mary Ann Sieghart, the journalist and author of “The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men and What We Can Do About it”
The Traitors is back, we’re a few episodes into this second series of the hit reality TV show and things are hotting up at the Scottish castle, where a bunch of strangers are divided into traitors and ‘Faithful’ then compete to win up to £120,000. Claudia Winkleman is the host who hand picks the traitors. She joins Emma.
Presented by Emma Barnett
Producer: Louise Corley
WED 11:00 Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister (m001vcgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m001vcms)
22. Marie Christensen - Murderous Matron
It’s the 14th September 1896, just a short distance from Brisbane, on Australia’s east coast, and the sun is rising on Minjerribah Island, the ancestral land of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait ‘Quandamooka People’. It’s an area rich in Aboriginal culture. It’s also a colonised area, steeped in racism and division, and this is where the murder of six year old ‘Cassey’ takes place.
To investigate this tragic crime and its contemporary resonances, Lucy Worsley is joined by Guest Detective Vanessa Turnball Roberts. Vanessa is a proud Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul First Nations woman, a Law Graduate and recipient of the Australian Human Rights Medal for her work around the adoption laws and forcible removal of First Nations children.
Lucy hears that our case begins at ‘Myora Mission School’, an institution set up by white settlers who wish to establish a ‘reformatory’ for Aboriginal children. In reality, it’s part of a wider ‘management’ system aimed at controlling the First Nations population. The children are being trained in domestic duties to work as servants for white families. There’s also evidence that some of the children – including six-year-old Cassey - have been forcibly taken from their homes.
Whilst the children are under the supervision of their matron – a Dutch settler called Marie Christensen – Cassey is killed. Marie’s cruel and fatal actions are witnessed by First Nations women Budlo Lefu, Topsy Mcleod and Polly Turnbull who bravely speak out on Cassey’s behalf.
Professor Rosalind Crone from the Open University travels to Australia to visit the site of the Mission School and meet local tribal elders.
As the tragic murder unfolds, Vanessa explains that the subject which really underpins everything in this case, is Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’, the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities. Although this began during the earliest days of white settlement, Vanessa – herself, a survivor of the ‘Family Policing System’ – reveals, it is not a thing of the past.
Produced in partnership with the Open University.
Producer: Nicola Humphries
Readers: Paula Delany-Nazarski, Clare Corbett and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Series Producer: Julia Hayball.
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4
With thanks to The Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-In-Council and North Stradbroke Island Museum on Minjerribah
New episodes will be released on Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. But if you’re in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds.
BBC Sounds - Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K
WED 12:00 News Summary (m001vct1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001vcnb)
Fake Vets; Loan Charge, Car Finance Mis-selling
New figures reveal there's been huge surge in dog fertility clinics many of which are offering services which should be only performed by, or under the supervision of, registered vets. We hear how vets are dealing with the aftermath of the treatment dogs receive in these clinics and an animal rescue centre manager tells us she's having to put down more and more dogs because of the way in which these clinics are operating.
Ahead of a debate in parliament we'll be discussing the Loan Charge, a controversial tax measure which has been linked to a number of suicides. We'll be hearing from someone about what happened when she found out she owed HMRC approximately £100,000 and why she doesn't believe the Loan Charge is justified or fair.
And millions of drivers could be in line for compensation as a result of an FCA investigation into car finance mis-selling. We hear from one person who believes he might be one of them - plus the FCA tell us more about what their investigation could achieve.
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: CATHERINE EARLAM
WED 12:57 Weather (m001vcnk)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m001vcnq)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
WED 13:45 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vcns)
The Next Generation
Do you still listen to music from your youth?
If you do, it's because your current world view has been shaped by the formative experiences of young adulthood - and the first political decisions we make can stick with us in the same way.
This is relevant to the question of who votes for the radical right now - because older voters formed their preferences back when the centre was dominant.
Bur aren't we supposed to become more right wing as we age? It's a story of generations - and it makes up the complicated stew of our motivations at the ballot box.
The series considers the popular misconception that young people enter the political world automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we will become increasingly right wing.
But Professor James Tilley is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not straightforward.
Across five episodes he investigates how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001vcg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (m001vcnw)
Series 3
3. A Pint with Pals
by Frances Poet with monologues by Eileen Horne
Part Three – A Pint with Pals
Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, assessing and treating perpetrators of serious crime.
This gripping drama explores the psychological impact of murder on teenage perpetrators and follows the fortunes of participants in a Long Sentence therapy group.
How do you cope with the extreme grief behind bars?
Dr Alex Bridges ….. Lolita Chakrabarti
Anthony ….. Lorn Macdonald
Finn ….. Reuben Joseph
Twitch …. Brian Ferguson
Simon ….. Shaun Mason
Dani ….. Elysia Welch
Dead Elvis….Andy Clark
‘Autopilot’ composed by Jill O'Sullivan & Lee and performed by Jill O'Sullivan & Louis Abbott as part of the Vox Liminis' Distant Voices project.
Sound Design: Fraser Jackson
Series Consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead
Series format created by Lucia Haynes, Audrey Gillan, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.
Thanks to Victoria Byrne, Barlinnie Prison, Vox Liminis Distant Voices Project and Prof Fergus McNeill.
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams
A BBC Scotland Production directed by Kirsty Williams
WED 15:00 Money Box (m001vcp1)
Money Box Live: Flooding and Insurance
Flooding damages property, lives and can be incredibly financially damaging as well.
There was £352 million pounds in insurance claims for damaged homes following storms Babet, Ciaran and Debi at the end of last year according to the Association of British Insurers. We don't yet know the financial fall out of January's storm Henk - the eighth named storm of the season - but as the climate changes, insurers expect even more of this kind of weather.
So what is flooding costing homeowners and businesses and what is the best advice if you've been affected?
Felicity Hannah visits a flat owner in Worcestershire and we hear from the man who spent £80,000 taking matters into his own hands.
This week we're joined by Heather Shepherd from the charity the National Flood Forum as well as Laura Hughes, Manager of General Insurance at the Association of British Insurers, which represents the industry.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Sara Wadeson
(This episode was first broadcast on Wednesday the 17th of January on Radio 4 at
3pm)
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m001vcgk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m001vcp8)
The Passport
THE PASSPORT: Laurie Taylor explores the cultural history of an indispensable document which has given citizens a license to travel and helped to define the modern world. Patrick Bixby, Professor of English at Arizona State University, delves into the evolution of the passport through the tales of historical figures, celebrities, artists, and writers, from Frederick Douglas to Hannah Arendt. How has the passport become both an instrument of personal freedom as well as a tool of government surveillance? They’re joined by Kristin Surak , Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the LSE and author of a new study which investigates the routes taken by wealthy elites in pursuit of a ‘golden passport’. Through six years of fieldwork on four continents, she discovered how the sale of passports has transformed into a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001vcpl)
Hashtags and hijacking
On the day the United States designates the Houthis as a terror group, we explore how the organisation hones its message through music, video and poetry on social media. Also on the programme, we hear an update on the sale of The Telegraph and The Spectator and what the success of the BBC reboot of Gladiators tells us about a resurgence of 'event TV'.
Guests: Nic Robertson, International Diplomatic Editor, CNN; Chris Williams, Business Editor, The Telegraph; Hisham Al-Omeisy, Yemeni analyst and Senior Advisor, European Institute for Peace; Hannah Porter, independent Yemen researcher; Abi Watson, Senior Media Analyst, Enders Analysis; David Brown, TV critic, The Radio Times.
Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Simon Richardson
WED 17:00 PM (m001vcpv)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vcq7)
A review is underway into the deaths of Bronson and Kenneth Battersby
WED 18:30 Clare in the Community (m0008y51)
Series 12
I Predict A Riot
Clare's found herself in the middle of a riot at the women's prison. It's categorically not her fault, and she is not their leader, OK? Back in the Sparrowhawk office, Joan is convinced there's something strange going on.
Starring Sally Phillips as Clare Barker, the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution.
A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
We join Clare in her continued struggle to control both her professional and private life. In today's Big Society there are plenty of challenges out there for an involved, caring social worker. Or even Clare.
Written by Harry Venning and David Ramsden
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios production
Clare.....SALLY PHILLIPS
Brian.....ALEX LOWE
Queen Pin.....NINA CONTI
Simon....ANDREW WINCOTT
Libby.....SARAH KENDALL
Joan ..... SARAH THOM
Cilla.....GBEMISOLA IKUMELO
Ginger.....EMMA SIDI
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001vbtf)
Clarrie, Eddie and Emma are all worried about Ed, particularly when the grazing fields are still water-logged. There won’t be anywhere for the ewes and lambs to go. Emma explains that she’s asked Oliver for details of Miles’s solicitor to ask if they can temporarily use the land for grazing. Eddie says they should use it anyway, but Clarrie advises waiting to hear what the solicitor says. Emma discusses the Tearoom mentioning that Rebecca from The Echo will be coming back next week with her photographer to do a write up on the Tearoom. Emma feels bad about how critical she and Fallon were about the music.
Adil greets Lynda in Grey Gables’ new foyer while Robert drops off their bags in the room. Adil thinks there’s no-one better to test Grey Gable’s first day than the Snells, whose stay is on the house. Lynda admires the new-look Grey Gables and Adil confirms that he’s leaving today. Lynda bumps into Azra in the Spa Rooms remarking how spacious and comfortable their room is. They chat about Adil and Azra mentions that she’s taking over Adil’s allotment while he’s away. Lynda offers to help there with Robert. Later Azra catches Adil as he’s packing his car. He tells her he’s going to his grandfather’s farm in Rawalpindi and he’ll stay with Azra’s husband Akram. When Azra points out that’s news to her, Adil explains he’s going to surprise Akram too. Azra and Adil say they love each other, and Adil shares he’ll be back when his next project comes in.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001vcqf)
Daniel Kaluuya, the arts in Wales, shelving big budget films discussion, Jane Jin Kaisen
Daniel Kaluuya on making his debut as a director and screenwriter with his new film, Kitchen - a dystopian thriller set in London twenty years from now.
Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Wales, on the surprising and controversial decision to stop funding National Theatre Wales. Plus, as his organisation faces a 10% budget cut, he talks about the impact on the creative sector in Wales.
Late last year, the decision by Warner Bros. to shelve a $70 million film which had been completed and scheduled for release in 2023 sent shockwaves throughout the industry. Film producer Stephen Woolley and Tatiana Siegal, Executive Editor, Film & Media at Variety, discuss what this reveals about the current state of filmmaking in Hollywood.
Korean Danish artist Jane Jin Kaisen describes her work as giving aesthetic shape to histories that in different ways and for different reasons have been silenced or marginalised. As her solo exhibition at esea contemporary in Manchester prepares to open, the director of the gallery, Xiaowen Zhu, reflects on a show which weaves personal and political stories rooted in Jeju Island, South Korea.
Presenter Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m001vcqm)
Is it time to allow assisted dying?
Nearly a decade since MPs in Westminster voted against allowing terminally ill people to end their own life, assisted dying is climbing back up the political agenda. The Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish the first report of its kind on the subject after a year-long inquiry. Meanwhile, the Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said there are "grounds for changing the law”, UK medical bodies continue to drop their opposition to the idea, and polls suggest around two-thirds of the public are in favour.
Assisted dying raises profound moral questions which shake the core of our humanity. What does it mean to live – and to die – well? Is it more dignified to live with suffering or to die without it? If life is a sacred gift, and a marker of our equal dignity, should we, or anyone else, be able to control when it ends? If death is the most dignified response to suffering, how much suffering is too much, and who should decide?
Those who describe constant physical pain and a loss of bodily autonomy say that isn’t living at all. Should we be guided principally by compassion in these situations? Or does the good intention of irradicating suffering risk a chilling effect in which people are pressured into re-appraising whether their lives are worth living?
Is it time to allow assisted dying?
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Inaya Folarin Iman, Matthew Taylor, Giles Fraser
Witnesses: Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Professor Kevin Yuill, Zoe Hyatt Marley, Dr Miro Griffiths
Producer: Dan Tierney.
WED 21:00 When It Hits the Fan (m001vcqt)
Post Office PR, Boeing and the King's new biography
David Yelland and Simon Lewis discuss the aggressive PR strategy that was part of the Post Office scandal. When does defending your brand become toxic PR?
They also look at Boeing’s reputational crisis following the Alaska Airlines blowout and why trust is central to public relations.
And the King’s new biography – the Palace is being more open, which is a good PR move, but are there risks attached?
Producer: Eve Streeter
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: William Miller
Researcher: Sophie Smith
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur production for BBC Radio 4
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001vcpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vcr0)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
WED 22:45 The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (m001vcr7)
Episode 3
In Allan Radcliffe’s moving portrayal of grief in all its complexities, a young art teacher searches for a scene from childhood as he struggles with a bereavement.
Jamie remembers his mother’s quirks and the terrible day he learned of her unexpected death, not long after his father’s passing.
Read by Richard Conlon
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
WED 23:00 We Forced a Bot to Write This Show (m001vcrf)
5: Porn, Batman, and Downing Street.
We forced Artificial Intelligence to digest massive amounts of human media and then write its own versions. Everything from The One Show, Game of Thrones, Friends, Songs of Praise and more via movies, fables, adverts, Shakespeare, poetry and, er, gardening tips (and much much more) are all forever ruined by technology.
We take the scripts, push them word-for-word into the mouths of actors, and the result is absurdly, joyously - and then absurdly again - hilarious.
This is the comedy that conclusively proves that AI is an absolute idiot.
Based on materials by Keaton Patti.
Forcing A Bot To Write This Show are:
Jon Holmes
Sarah Dempster
Gareth Ceredig
Performed by:
Isy Suttie
James Lance
Lauren Douglin
Esmonde Cole
and
Craig Parkinson as The Narrator
Olivia Williams as The Storyteller
Original Music by Jake Yapp. Lyrics: Holmes / Ceredig / Patti
Produced and Directed by Jon Holmes
Technical Wizardry: Tony Churnside
Production Co-ordinator: Laura Grimshaw
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:15 Sarah Keyworth - Are You a Boy or a Girl? (m000p7b2)
Series 1
1: Pink and Blue
In her first BBC stand-up series, award-winning comedian Sarah Keyworth explores her personal journey with gender fluidity.
Join Sarah as she looks back on her own funny, ridiculous and bizarre experiences, as she attempts to shed light on why gender still remains such an important issue in the 21st Century.
In this opening episode, Sarah looks at very early gender posing questions such as why exactly is pink girly?
Why does it matter if children's clothes are gender neutral?
And do boys and girls really have different feet?
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
A BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2020.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vcrj)
Sean Curran presents as MPs take part in a crunch vote on Rishi Sunak's Rwanda plan. Plus: reports on Prime Minister's Questions, Northern Ireland and drug shortages.
THURSDAY 18 JANUARY 2024
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001vcrl)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m001scw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vcrq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vcrs)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vcrv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001vcrx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vcrz)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001vcs1)
18/01/24 Government is too slow on its environmental ambitions, says OEP report; LAMMA Show, waxwings
The Government is doing too little, too slowly, to meet its own environmental ambitions and statutory commitments, according to a report published today. We hear from the Office for Environmental Protection.
The LAMMA Show, taking place in Birmingham today, has 600 exhibitors showcasing the very latest in farm machinery and innovation, everything from specialist soil-aeration machinery to farm solar energy systems, and of course, enormous tractors.
Birdwatchers from across the UK have been flocking to a Derbyshire beauty spot to catch a glimpse of an exotic visitor. There have been near record sightings of the colourful waxwing this winter. They’ve been seen in one spot in the Peak District in their largest numbers since way back in 1970.
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04dw7qv)
Black Stork
Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.
Sir David Attenborough presents the globally widespread but secretive black stork. High up in a forest canopy, the black stork is a large but fairly secretive and mostly silent bird. They are also strong migrants capable of sustained flight, flying up to 7,000 kilometres or more, often over open seas. Black storks are summer visitors to eastern Europe and breed from Germany across Russia to Japan. A small population is resident in Spain, but most birds migrate south in winter to Africa, India or China. Unlike their relative the more flamboyant and colonial nesting white stork, black storks are a solitary nester. It is at this time of the year adults can produce a few grunts or bill clapping sounds during courtship, the young however are far more vocal at the nest.
THU 06:00 Today (m001vbmr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001vbnb)
Nefertiti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who inspired one of the best known artefacts from ancient Egypt. The Bust of Nefertiti is multicoloured and symmetrical, about 49cm/18" high and, despite the missing left eye, still holds the gaze of onlookers below its tall, blue, flat topped headdress. Its discovery in 1912 in Amarna was kept quiet at first but its display in Berlin in the 1920s caused a sensation, with replicas sent out across the world. Ever since, as with Tutankhamun perhaps, the concrete facts about Nefertiti herself have barely kept up with the theories, the legends and the speculation, reinvigorated with each new discovery.
With
Aidan Dodson
Honorary Professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol
Joyce Tyldesley
Professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester
And
Kate Spence
Senior Lecturer in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Emmanuel College
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Dorothea Arnold (ed.), The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996)
Norman de Garis Davies, The Rock Tombs of el-Amarna (6 vols. Egypt Exploration Society, 1903-1908)
Aidan Dodson, Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb and the Egyptian Counter-reformation. (American University in Cairo Press, 2009
Aidan Dodson, Nefertiti, Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt: her life and afterlife (American University in Cairo Press, 2020)
Aidan Dodson, Tutankhamun: King of Egypt: his life and afterlife (American University in Cairo Press, 2022)
Barry Kemp, The City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti: Amarna and Its People (Thames and Hudson, 2012)
Dominic Montserrat, Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 2002)
Friederike Seyfried (ed.), In the Light of Amarna: 100 Years of the Nefertiti Discovery (Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussamlung Staatlich Museen zu Berlin/ Michael Imhof Verlag, 2013)
Joyce Tyldesley, Tutankhamun: Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma (Headline, 2022)
Joyce Tyldesley, Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon (Profile Books, 2018)
Joyce Tyldesley, Nefertiti: Egypt’s Sun Queen (Viking, 1998)
THU 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sdwt)
16. Closed Ranks
The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?
Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.
In Episode 16, we hear how newly revealed documents show that the Post Office rejected even internal calls for an independent investigation of Horizon. They instead commissioned a deliberately one sided internal report which never even considered evidence of errors. This report was nevertheless used to justify dismissing Sub Postmasters' concerns and maintaining an aggressive prosecution strategy.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vbp1)
Jodie Comer, Olivia Attwood, Da'Vine Joy Randolph
The actor Jodie Comer became a household name playing the glorious baddie Villanelle in BBC drama Killing Eve, and she has gone on to win multiple awards for her work on screen and stage. She joins Emma Barnett now to talk about her latest film, The End We Start From. Think 28 Days Later meets The Day After Tomorrow with a twist – the protagonist is a new mum, who has to navigate a flooded Britain with her baby.
Football commentators Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward are reported to be considering legal action against Joey Barton for his recent online criticisms of them. Eni Aluko has released a video on her Instagram speaking about the effect it has had on her. Where is the line between sexist bullying online and freedom of speech? Emma speaks to Henry Winter, Chief football writer at The Times and Seyi Akiwowo, founder of Glitch UK, a charity working to end online abuse, and author of How to Stay Safe Online.
Olivia Attwood knows more than most about the financial – and emotional – cost of cosmetic treatments. The former Love Island contestant and star of The Only Way Is Essex has been open about the surgeries and 'tweakments' she has had. In her new ITV series The Price of Perfection, she goes behind the scenes to watch butts being lifted, lips being filled and breasts being enlarged. But she wants to make sure that teenage girls don’t make the mistakes she herself made.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph has just won this year’s Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Mary Lamb in Alexander Payne’s new film The Holdovers. It’s about a teacher, pupil and head cook who end up spending Christmas together at a New England boarding school in the early 1970’s. Mary is grieving the loss of her son, who has been killed in Vietnam. Da’Vine has been tipped for more awards recognition to come, and she joins Emma in the Woman’s Hour studio.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001vbpd)
Bulgaria: the people smugglers
Migration is high on the political agenda in countries across Europe, as the number of asylum seekers rises once more. As well as those who risk life and limb on flimsy boats in the Mediterranean, thousands more come via the Balkans, many of them through Turkey and across the border into Bulgaria. They don’t stay there long. Their preferred destinations are further west, Germany perhaps or Britain. And while the migrants’ stories have become well-known in recent years, we hear relatively little from the people who enable their journeys, the people smugglers.
For Crossing Continents, Nick Thorpe has been to the north-west of Bulgaria, where it meets Serbia to the west and Romania across the Danube to the north. There he meets two men who worked as drivers for a smuggling organisation, shuttling migrants from Sofia, the capital, to the border.
Presented by Nick Thorpe
Produced by Tim Mansel
THU 11:30 Great Lives (m001vbpx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001vcm6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001vbqs)
Gap Finders - Ramona Hazan from Ramona's
Ramona Hazan's journey to be a major player in the food industry hasn't been a traditional one.
Ramona came to live in London over 20 years ago from South Africa working as a computer engineer, but wanted to start a business and thought it should be in food.
She thought Mediterranean food in the UK wasn't that great or readily available, and coming from a Turkish and Egyptian background she started making her own houmous. Ramona would soak vats of chickpeas around her flat, and despite not being a very good cook came up with a recipe that her friends devoured.
She approached delis and restaurants who started stocking her food -which expanded into falafels and other dips.
Her brand was then called "Me Too" and supermarkets started stocking it in the world food aisles.
But just as the brand was growing in sales the #MeToo movement began and she had to change the name- hence RAMONA'S was born.
The rebrand involved changing the packaging to be much more vibrant and standing out, and supermarkets started selling it in the main fridges next to the own brand houmous.
Now the business is valued at £5million, and sales are booming.
Ramona joins Winifred to tell her the joys and trials of getting her products off the ground.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread Presents (m001vbr5)
Toast - Club 18-30
Why did the package holiday brand, Club 18-30, disappear?
While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up… Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers.
In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington, examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did it fail? What can we learn from it today?
In this episode, Sean learns why Club 18-30 fell out of favour.
Its package holidays for young people were a hit for decades so why couldn't it keep going?
Sean speaks to holidaymakers who remember their Club 18-30 experiences well.
A former manager explains how they hoped to keep the brand going and why that proved impossible.
Alongside them all, analysing the business' fortunes is the self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White.
You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
Feel free to suggest topics which we could cover in future episodes
Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in February. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.
Toast is produced by Jon Douglas and Viant Siddique and is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
THU 12:57 Weather (m001vbrl)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001vbs2)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
THU 13:45 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vbsn)
The Marketplace of Politics
How do parties succeed with the young? Or attract older voters?
The answer lies in the methods politicians use to gain attention. It's a political marketplace, and key to understanding the appeal of radical parties is Sara Hobolt's idea of the political entrepreneurs - groups who disrupt the landscape and exploit a gap in the electoral market.
How do these newer challenger parties upend the status quo and win our votes?
The series considers the popular misconception that young people enter the political world automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we will become increasingly right wing.
But Professor James Tilley is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not straightforward.
Across five episodes he investigates how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001vbtf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001vbtx)
The Call
The Call by Ron Hutchinson is inspired by, but not based on, a recent story which came out of Gaza.
Ron Hutchinson locates his drama in a non-specific location. A woman caller wakens a college professor just before dawn. She says she works for the Intelligence Services and that he, the teacher, is to stay on the phone as he is to evacuate all the neighbours in his block after which it is going to be destroyed by a missile.
He is to remain calm and follow instructions - he is assured the missile will not be launched until he has cleared all 40 apartments but that the evacuation will be entirely his responsibility; his neighbours' lives are in his hands.
What ensues is a terrifying game of cat and mouse, of coercion and intimidation, and yet there may be more to this man than meets the eye - he may not be the benign teacher his close neighbours imagine him to be. Just who is the victim and who the tormentor in this telephone call? This is the question this drama poses and one which only the listener can answer.
Cast - Paul Rhys, Jane Slavin, Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Director: Eoin O'Callaghan
A Big Fish production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001vbvd)
Mabel's mountain trip with hares
"In the winter when the snow is there it's a different world, escaping into the silence. It has a hint of the forbidding too because you feel you're going on true adventures." Andrew Cotter.
It's almost two years now since Iain Cameron and Andrew Cotter took producer Miles Warde on a lengthy summer mountain hike. They all agreed they'd love to come back in the winter, in the snow, kitted out and accompanied by at least one of Andrew's famous dogs. Olive stayed at home for this one; but buoyed up by endless biscuits and chicken bits, Mabel made it over four Munros in the ice and snow near Glenshee. It was a grand day out.
Andrew Cotter is a sports broadcaster and author of Olive, Mabel and Me. His friend Iain Cameron is a snow patch researcher and author of The Vanishing Ice.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vbvs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m001vbw6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Invention Of... (m001s62t)
Turkey
A Balancing Act
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde take a ride over the Bosphorus to see the old Hyderpasha railway station - the Asian bulkhead of the Berlin to Baghdad railway which opened in 1909. The Ottoman alliance with Germany had implications for the Middle East that are still being felt to this day.
"This was a place of intrigue, spies and glamour. For four and half centuries Istanbul had been the centre of the empire, right up until the end of the first world war. At which point the empire was divided up, broken up, partitioned into mandates – Syria and Lebanon under the French, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq to the British, this based on the famous Sykes-Picot line agreed in 1916. The Ottoman empire had joined the wrong side in the war, and was going to pay. You could say this region is still paying, such has been the failure of those lines drawn in the sand."
Contributors include Soli Ozel of Kadir Has University; Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans; and Suzy Hansen whose Notes on a Foreign Country was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001vbwm)
A New Volcanic Era?
As lava consumes homes on the Reykjavik Peninsula in Iceland, evacuated communities have been witnessing eruptions shifting and intensifying. We take a look at the latest science that’s helping teams on the ground accurately predict where the danger is coming from, helping people to stay safe. Our go-to volcanologist, Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya, and her colleague, Professor Andrew Hooper, from the University of Leeds tell presenter Victoria about these new technological advancements, and ask the crucial question: are we entering a new millennium of volcanic activity in Iceland?
When looking at clear ocean water, you might assume that, aside from fish and some algae, there isn’t much living in it. But Prof Carlos Duarte knows it is full of life. In fact, his new study shows just how many different microbes – bacteria, viruses & fungi – live in all parts of our ocean. He and his team at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have created the largest ocean genome catalogue to date. Prof Mark Blaxter from the Wellcome Sanger Institute joins us to discuss this new study, the benefits of hypothesis-free science, and why he believes cataloguing the code of life of all the species on earth is an important endeavour.
And, lastly, an old dinosaur fossil in New Mexico has been re-examined. What was believed to be of the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex may have been a different species all along. But not all palaeontologists agree. How do scientists even tell a dinosaur species from a fossil? Prof Stephen Brusatte tells Vic that it’s all about comparing bones.
Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard, Hannah Robbins
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
THU 17:00 PM (m001vbwz)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vbxl)
The Prime Minister said the backlog of cases had been cleared when thousands remained
THU 18:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m000hfyw)
Series 1
3: The Environment
Stand-up Ellie Taylor has some opinions she'd like to get off her chest. In this episode she looks at the environment and wonders whether the planet really is worth saving. She discusses her views with help from the studio audience and her side-kick Robin Morgan. She also welcomes on a special expert guest to talk about how to survive the end of the world...the first man to walk the length of the Amazon, explorer Ed Stafford.
Ellie Taylor's Safe Space is produced by Sam Michell and is a BBC Studios Production.
This programme was first broadcast in 2020
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001vbvy)
Brian arrives at Susan’s with Hilda in tow and tries to convince her that one of her ‘six things at sixty’ might be to have a pet. But Hilda runs off when she’s let out of her basket. Susan says she’ll help to find her but makes it clear to Brian that Hilda is his cat now and she doesn’t want her. Later Brian finds Hilda outside The Lodge and resigns himself to being her keeper.
Fallon apologises to Natasha about what happened with Echo journalist Rebecca the other day and thanks Natasha for having their backs. Natasha admits that she and Tom can be like two bulls in a China shop. It’s because they’re so enthusiastic now that the Tearoom’s under the Bridge Farm brand. Fallon’s relieved when Natasha explains she’s paid back everything that she and Tom owe for coffees and cakes in the Tearoom. Talk turns to children and Fallon says she doesn’t want any; she’s happy enough looking after Harrison’s nieces. Natasha asks Fallon’s advice about the Tearoom music and agrees to revert back to the old music; all she wants is what’s best for business.
Clarrie and Eddie check Grange Farm land to see if it’s dry enough for the sheep, but it’s completely waterlogged. They move to the auctioned land which is dryer and Eddie suggests asking Helen to contact Miles to ask if Ed’s sheep could temporarily graze there, as Miles’s solicitors have refused. Clarrie’s really not keen on the idea, but she agrees to do it, for Ed’s sake.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001vbxv)
Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne on The Holdovers and reivews of The Vulnerables and The Artful Dodger
Actor Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne on The Holdovers, their award-winning film about the unlikely friendship between a curmudgeonly teacher, a grieving mum and a troubled teen that forms when they’re stuck together over Christmas at a New England prep school.
Critics Stephanie Merritt and Max Liu review a new novel, The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez. Nunez has won many prizes for her fiction and in The Vulnerables turns her attention to the pandemic through a tale that focuses on a woman, a parrot, and a Manhattan penthouse apartment.
They also review the new Disney+ television series, The Artful Dodger, in which Jack Dawkins has moved to Australia leaving behind his youthful pickpocketing and becoming a respected doctor. However the arrival of Fagin threatens to return him to criminality.
Presented by Tom Sutcliffe
Produced by Olivia Skinner
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001vbrr)
Why is local government in such trouble?
It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the Government for £15m of emergency funding to avoid effective bankruptcy. Also this week new figures have been released showing just how much debt some local authorities hold. And it’s a lot.
Since 2021 there have been six councils which have declared themselves effectively bankrupt. Given the responsibilities of local government that feels serious for many of us.
So what are the financial pressures facing councils and why?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:
Aileen Murphie, specialist adviser to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee and former National Audit Office Director
Tony Travers, visiting Professor at the LSE’s Department of Government
Kate Ogden, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonald
Production Co-ordinators: Sophie Hill
Sound: Andy Fell
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m001vby3)
Bringing your 'whole self' to work
It’s become the mantra of many employers, and the expectation of some employees, but what does bringing your whole or authentic self to work actually mean, and should employers encourage it?
Evan Davis and guests discuss the pros and cons of a workplace culture in which employees are encouraged to share their personal beliefs, politics and vulnerabilities with colleagues. What impact does it have on employee satisfaction and business productivity? And, at a time of great political and cultural polarisation, how do you prevent the ‘whole self’ ethos stirring up trouble?
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001vbwm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001vbnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vbyf)
Fighting intensifies in southern Gaza
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told the US he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, once the conflict in Gaza comes to an end. It comes amid an intensification of the violence in Gaza and the West Bank - we report from both.
Also on the programme:
Two men who were sent to prison because of evidence from a corrupt police officer have had their convictions posthumously quashed. We hear from one of their sons.
A report into one of the worst school shootings in US history has described the police response as a failure. We hear from the father of a ten-year-old boy who survived being shot in the attack.
THU 22:45 The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (m001vbym)
Episode 4
In Allan Radcliffe’s moving portrayal of grief in all its complexities, a young art teacher searches for a scene from childhood as he struggles with a bereavement.
Jamie’s landlady might have found the old cottage where he spent a rare childhood holiday with his late parents.
Read by Richard Conlon
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m001vbyx)
Does Starmer need Scotland to win the general election?
Does the route to a Labour election victory at the next general election run through Scotland?
With Nick in Glasgow this week we turn our attention to the role Scotland will play in deciding who takes the keys to No 10. Will it be a referendum on 14 years of Conservative UK government or 17 years of the SNP in Holyrood? Has Labour historically had to rely on winning big in Scotland to get a majority across the UK?
Amol and Nick hear from polling guru Prof Sir John Curtice and former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, now in the House of Lords and a political commentator.
Also – we hear the inside story from Amol after a University Challenge question went viral and led to a remix craze.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.
If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producer is Hazel Morgan. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Matt Hewitt.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vbz3)
MPs vote to outlaw the Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir.
FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2024
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001vbz9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sdwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vbzq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vbzx)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vc02)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001vc06)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vc0b)
A reflection and prayer to start the day with Pastor Andrew Roycroft
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001vc0h)
19/01/24 Biosecurity fears following cuts for border checks, AI drone mapping, Rare Earth first episode
Farmers warn that cuts to, and changes in, inspections at the Port of Dover raise the risk of animal disease being brought into the UK. The Government wants to cut the budget for spot checks for illegal meat in cars and coaches by 70%, and later this year plans to move the new inspections of commercial traffic from Dover to an inland site. These are the border controls which are being brought in post Brexit; they've been postponed five times but are due to start in April.
Drone tech is often touted as the next big thing in agriculture. But how useful is it?
What happens if we leave nature alone? That's the starting point for the first edition of a new programme here on BBC Radio 4 which starts later today: Rare Earth.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcfq)
Stock Dove
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Kate Humble presents the stock dove. Perhaps 'stock pigeon' would be a better name, because they're like slightly smaller versions of the woodpigeon. Unlike their bigger relatives they have no white marks on their wings or neck and are more blue-grey in colour. When they fly, they look dumpier ...stockier you might say. Unlike woodpigeons, stock doves haven't taken to a life in town and they're mainly birds of wooded farmland.
FRI 06:00 Today (m001vbpr)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001vbq7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Great Post Office Trial (m001sdw1)
17. Facing the Music
The Post Office Horizon Scandal has been called the widest miscarriage of justice in modern British history, with the number of former Sub Postmasters whose convictions have been overturned now over 60. Those who suffered prosecution or financial ruin due to errors on the Post Office's Horizon computer system want answers. How could this have happened? Who is responsible?
Continuing the series that has helped expose the scandal since 2020, Nick Wallis draws on interviews, documents and the extraordinary revelations spilling out of the ongoing public inquiry. For the first time, the public is getting real insight into what was really going on inside the Post Office.
In Episode 17, Nick explores how senior Post Office lawyers and managers reacted in 2013 to the biggest challenge to the Horizon system yet. After MPs forced an independent investigation which identified bugs in Horizon, the Post Office publicly backed their computer system and reaffirmed their faith in the prosecutions they had conducted. But behind the scenes, all hell was breaking loose.
Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Executive Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vbr9)
Vicky McClure, Mean Girls, Women’s Health Strategy update
Vicky McClure is back on our screens as explosives expert Lana Washington in a new series of Trigger Point. Well known for her stand-out roles in Line of Duty and This is England, Vicky also set up the Dementia Choir, and recently received a MBE for services to drama and charity.
The classic teen drama film Mean Girls has been remade as a musical film and it opens in the UK today. Author Holly Bourne, who writes young adult fiction, and film critic Christina Newland discuss its enduring themes.
2024 will be the biggest year ever for democracy as more than four billion people across the world go to the polls. To mark this historic milestone, the FT has launched Democracy, 2024, a short film series to examine what democracy will look like in the year ahead. Anita Rani talks to FT editor Roula Khalaf and the comedian Aditi Mittal, who has contributed to the series.
Dame Professor Lesley Regan, the Women’s Health Ambassador for England, gives an update on the progress of the Government’s Women's Health Strategy.
And the latest on the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan with BBC journalist Zarghuna Kargar.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Emma Harth
FRI 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001vbrr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Thursday]
FRI 11:30 You Heard It Here First (m001kh6w)
Series 1
Episode 1
Chris McCausland asks a panel of comedians to live in an audio only world, deciphering brainteaser sound cues for points and pride whilst trying not to muck about too much along the way.
In this episode, contestants try to figure out what on earth is being advertised on the TV, guess what famous objects or locations children are trying to describe, and work out the age of women based solely on the sound of their voice.
The competing comedians are Rhys James and Donna Preston, taking on Alasdair Beckett-King and Ria Lina.
Producer: Sasha Bobak
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Sound editor: Jerry Peal
Theme music ‘Colour me Groovy’ by The Rich Morton Sound
Recorded at the Backyard Comedy Club, Bethnal Green
This episode was first broadcast in March 2023.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001vbs7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m001vbsp)
Is Nature Better Off Without Us?
Rare Earth is a new weekly podcast and radio show from BBC Radio Four which digs deeper into the biggest issues for our planet. Each week, environmental journalist Tom Heap and physicist Helen Czerski will tackle a major story about our environment and wildlife, work out how we got here and meet the brave and clever people with fresh ideas to help us- and nature- thrive.
Helen and Tom won’t shy away from the big stuff- temperatures rising while wildlife declines- but this won’t be a weekly dose of doom laden predictions and tortured hand-wringing. Rare Earth is here to celebrate the wonder of nature and meet the people determined to keep it wonderful.
In the first edition Tom and Helen ask how we can bring nature back from the brink. Should we simply abandon great swathes of countryside and let nature reclaim it on its own terms or must we balance the competing demands on our land and micro-manage species and habitats for the best outcomes? Tom meets the herd of bison helping to re-wild a woodland in Kent and visits the Holkham Estate in Norfolk where the government's Landscape Recovery pilot project is funding the transition of intensive farmland into wetlands and passageways for nature.
They're also joined by Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment and by Rebecca Wrigley, Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain.
Produced by Alasdair Cross for BBC Audio Bristol in conjunction with the Open University
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001vbtk)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001vbv1)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
FRI 13:45 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vbvj)
None of the Above
Conversations about the young people and politics, left or right, often miss out an important fact.
They are are much less likely to vote.
As political scientist Rob Ford notes - "The young are very keen on protest politics. The old vote. Guess who gets what they want out of the politcal system?"
Continuing his look at how age influences our vote, Professor James Tilley addresses the popular misconception that young people enter the political world automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we will become increasingly right wing.
James is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not straightforward.
Across five episodes he investigates how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001vbvy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001vbwc)
Cobalt
Cobalt - Episode 2
Maita goes to see her dad for her birthday, but he's not in...and there's something strange about his flat. When she goes to look for him down the docks where he works, she discovers there is more than just her dad that has gone missing. Convinced he has gone back to Zimbabwe, she drops everything and follows him there.
Series creators Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell
Episode 2 by Darragh Mortell
ORIGINAL MUSIC by Kaidi Tatham
CAST
Maita - Saffron Coomber
Julian - John Pfumojena
Mum - Caitlin Richards
Gurai - Chipo Kureya
Derek - John Lightbody
Taxi Driver/ Barman - Dalumuzi Moyo
Highfield Resident - Bevin Magama
Newsreaders and TikTokers - Kitty O'Sullivan, Rhiannon Neads & Tyler Cameron
Sound: Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
Director: John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production
FRI 14:45 Child (m001vbws)
2. Source of Life
All around the world, the placenta is revered in rituals - but in many places it’s mainly seen as medical waste. What is this incredible organ, who does it belong to and how does it feed, grow and protect a baby?
India Rakusen speaks to placenta expert Margherita Turco, before diving into the world of what the foetus is really protected from. When you become pregnant there’s a long list of things you apparently should and shouldn’t consume, but how much information are we given and what’s being left out? Philosopher Quill Kukla explains.
Presented by India Rakusen.
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Executive producer: Suzy Grant.
Original music composed and performed by The Big Moon.
Mix and Mastering by Olga Reed.
A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001vbx3)
Postbag: Ham House and Garden
Could the panel share some gardening tips for wheelchair users? How do I start growing mulukhiyah in my garden? Which hedges could I grow that are resistant to ermine moths and offer privacy?
Peter Gibbs is joined by his eager team of horticultural experts as they dig through the GQT inbox and answer your gardening queries. On the panel this week are landscape architect Bunny Guinness, head gardener of Horatio’s Garden Ashley Edwards and curator of RHS Wisley Matthew Pottage.
This week they visit Ham House and Garden in Richmond where head gardener John Myers gives them a tour of their unique horticultural treasure trove.
Later, Peter and the panel discuss the fundamentals of a kitchen garden and give tips on non-typical fruit and vegetables you could grow in your garden.
Senior Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001vbxd)
My Grandmother's Degree
Amira Ghazalla reads a new short work from Leila Aboulela, as a woman remembers a childhood gift from her vibrant and beloved grandmother.
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
Leila Aboulela is the first-ever winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. Nominated three times for the Orange Prize (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction), she is the author of novels, including Bird Summons, The Kindness of Enemies, The Translator (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Minaret and Lyrics Alley, Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards. Her collection of short stories Elsewhere, Home won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year. Leila’s work has been translated into fifteen languages, and her plays The Insider, The Mystic Life and others were broadcast on BBC Radio. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and now lives in Aberdeen, Scotland.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001vbxp)
Annie Nightingale, Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg, Bryan Ansell, Charlie Allan
Matthew Bannister on
Annie Nightingale who was Radio 1’s first female presenter and its longest serving DJ. Her son remembers meeting Jimi Hendrix over breakfast in her kitchen and the 72-hour-party at her home featuring some of the biggest names of the dance music scene.
Isca Salzberger-Wittenberg, the psychoanalyst who changed the approach to treating young people’s mental health.
Bryan Ansell, the games designer who co-created Warhammer and helped lead the growth of the Games Workshop company.
And Charlie Allan who was a Scottish farmer, an economist, a broadcaster and a caber tossing champion.
Interviewee: Alex Nightingale
Interviewee: Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg OBE
Interviewee: Dr Valerie Sinason
Interviewee: Sir Ian Livingstone CBE
Interviewee: Susie Malcolm
Interviewee: Frieda Morrison
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Annie Nightingale 1940-2024, BBC Radio 1, 14/01/2024; Annie Nightingale, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 24/07/2020; Interview with Annie Nightingale, Sussex-BBC Centenary Interview part of the Connected Histories of the BBC project. You can hear the interview in full by going to the Connected Histories of the BBC website at www.connectedhistoriesofthebbc.org ; Annie Nightingale interview about her Request Show, BBC Radio 1, Vintage, 22/12/2018; Old Grey Whistle Test, 100 Voices, BBC Four, 23/02/2018; Dungeons and Dragons News report, BBC News South East, 06/10/1983; Fantasy Board Games report, BBC Breakfast, BBC News 20/08/1984; Warhammer 40000, Darktide, Soundtrack, Fatshark Youtube channel, uploaded 18/11/2022; Charlie Allan sings, Blue Grey Coo and Other Bothy Ballads, Ardo Pedigree Cattle, published 1979; Charlie Allan - A Tribute to a North East Man O' Pairts, BBC Radio Scotland, 03/01/2024;
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m001vbxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m001vby6)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vbyd)
Unions said the decision to slash almost 3,000 jobs is "devastating" for the industry
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m001vbyl)
Series 113
Episode 3
Andy Zaltzman quizzes news from Swansea this week. Providing all the answers are Lucy Porter, Robin Morgan, Tadiwa Mahlunge, and Ayesha Hazarika.
In this episode Andy and the panel have a look at some broken geopolitical New Year's resolutions and how life seemingly both began and is now struggling in Wales.
Written by Andy Zaltzman
With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Cameron Loxdale, and Callum Jones
Producer: Sam Holmes
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001vbys)
Writer: Naylah Ahmed
Director: Pip Swallow
Brian Aldridge…. Charles Collingwood
Helen Archer …. Louiza Patikas
Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries
Tony Archer ….. David Troughton
Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde
Clarrie Grundy …. Heather Bell
Ed Grundy …. Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy …. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
Mia Grundy …. Molly Pipe
Brad Horrobin …. Taylor Uttley
Joy Horville …. Jackie Lye
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Azra Malik …. Yasmin Wilde
Rebecca Price…. Rose Robinson
Fallon Rogers …. Joanna Van Kampen
Adil Shah …. Ronny Jhutti
Lynda Snell …. Carole Boyd
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001vbyy)
British Dystopias
Forty years on from 1984 and the release of the John Hurt-starring big screen adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore dystopian visions from British film and TV.
Mark speaks to film critic Kim Newman about the literary roots of the dystopia, from 1984 to A Clockwork Orange. And he talks to actor Brian Cox about how, in a career that has included roles as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Logan Roy, the prophetic 1968 TV play The Year of The Sex Olympics remains one of the projects he is most proud of.
Meanwhile, Ellen talks to Ngozi Onwurah, the director of landmark film Welcome II The Terrordome. Released in 1995, the radical British dystopian tale was the first feature directed by a black woman to get a UK cinema release. Ellen and Ngozi discuss why Welcome II The Terrordome was so prescient.
And Ellen also speaks to Kibwe Tavares, who co-directed new film The Kitchen, about a dilapidated housing estate in a near-future London, with Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya.
Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001vbz4)
Anita Boateng, Caroline Lucas MP, Steve Reed MP, Michael Tomlinson MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Uckfield Civic Centre, East Sussex with former Conservative special adviser Anita Boateng, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Labour's shadow environment secretary Steve Reed MP, and the minister for countering illegal migration Michael Tomlinson MP.
Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Andy Lenton
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001vbzb)
Identity and Theft
AL Kennedy on the recent theft of her backpack and how misfortune can help us reclaim who we really want to be.
She reflects on how an an accident of birth - being white, able-bodied, heterosexual, being baptised a Christian and having English as a first language - has put her in 'a position of completely unearned privilege' when asking for help.
But 'in a decade when so many people, in so many places, have lost everything,' Alison ponders the role we all have in helping people whose needs aren't being met.
'I believe in helping', she writes. 'I didn't lose that worldview in my backpack.'
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m001jkb5)
Dramatic Beats
Best known for his prize winning poetry, Michael Symmons Roberts has also written numerous radio dramas over the years, and is a passionate advocate for one of the great cornerstones of British radio for the past one hundred years.
During that period the BBC has commissioned more drama than any other organisation, leading one former head of the corporation’s drama department to describe it as "the National Theatre of the Air.’
In this edition of Archive On 4, Michael selects dramas from across the century that reflect the many features of the genre that help distinguish it from other narrative forms, noting just how many of our greatest writers have been attracted to try their hands at radio drama.
He begins his selection with the first ever surviving drama script written specifically for radio, A Comedy of Danger, set in the pitch black of a coal mine. To help them appreciate this whole new way of enjoying a play, listeners were encouraged to turn out their lights during the broadcast.
Guests include Caroline Raphael, Susan Roberts, Professor Tim Crook and Ayeesha Menon.
Produced by Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vbzh)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (m001vbzp)
Episode 5
In Allan Radcliffe’s moving portrayal of grief in all its complexities, a young art teacher searches for a scene from childhood as he struggles with a bereavement.
After the loss of his parents, Jamie struggles with the implications of a life spent trying to please his family.
Read by Richard Conlon
Abridged by Rosemary Goring
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 23:00 Americast (m001vbzw)
The Election Trail: From Iowa to New Hampshire
Hot on the heels of the Iowa caucus, Republican candidates Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis prepare for the next primary showdown in New Hampshire.
Sarah and Justin unpack if it could prove to be a tougher test for Trump and a way back into the race for the other candidates.
And, why are the Democrats infighting after Biden’s idea to bump the state from its prized primary calendar slot?
HOSTS:
Sarah Smith, North America editor
Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
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 George Dabby with Catherine Fusillo, Madeleine Drury, Maia Davies and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vc01)
Alicia McCarthy reports on measures to make stealing pets a specific criminal offence.