SATURDAY 20 JANUARY 2024
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001vc05)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 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
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vc09)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vc0f)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vc0m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001vc0r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vc0w)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Women’s Bible
Good Morning.
On this day back in 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman ever to testify before the US Congress, on the issue of votes for women. She was an abolitionist and an ardent campaigner for women’s rights, - and a harsh critic of how the Bible was interpreted by men, so much so that she published the Women’s Bible in 1895! She believed the Bible had been written- and interpreted- to subordinate women, and that it was a product of its time. Her views shocked many people. Nevertheless, the Woman’s Bible was hugely popular, running to seven editions in six months! It caused a storm - but her methodology, using textual and historical criticism, was already gaining traction amongst academics. She read the Bible through feminist eyes, convinced that its- to her- most offensive passages had been written by men in a less enlightened age!
Nowadays, few people, other than fundamentalists who regard the Bible as being literally the word of God, would turn a hair. Academic biblical criticism has flourished for well over a hundred and fifty years. Historical analysis is commonplace. Different versions of the same text, such as the 10 Commandments, demonstrate that attitudes changed and developed - the later version suggests a wife is more valuable than a house!
Stanton established the foundations for modern feminism, alongside critical religious thinking. She wanted slavery abolished, votes for women, girls to be educated like boys and marriage to be between equals, with no one partner obeying the other. Through her campaigns, over a hundred and fifty years ago, she changed social attitudes, for women and men alike. And that led to progress. She deserves memorialising. God, let us remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and all others who changed our world for the better, however hard it was for them to do so.
SAT 05:45 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 06:00 News and Papers (m001vky9)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 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.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001vkyf)
20/01/24 Environmental targets; Neonicotinoids; Risk of animal disease at ports; LAMMA show and AI drone mapping; Kaleb's rap.
The Government is doing too little, too slowly, to meet its own environmental ambitions and statutory commitments, according to a report published by the Office for Environmental Protection.
Neonicotinoid pesticides have been approved for emergency use for the fourth year in a row. That's an exemption to a ban that's been in place in the UK and the EU since 2013. The seed treatment for sugar beet seed makes them resistant to a crop virus spread by aphids called virus yellows. Environmentalists say the pesticide poisons the soil and water courses, and affect plants and the bees that feed on them. Farmers say the regulations around them are stricter in the UK than in Europe but the way forward is to develop breeds of plant that are resistant to the aphids.
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 post-Brexit inspections of commercial traffic from Dover to an inland site.
The LAMMA Show took place in Birmingham this week with 600 exhibitors show casing the very latest in farm machinery and innovation, everything from specialist soil-aeration machinery to farm solar energy systems, and of course, enormous tractors.
Drone tech is often touted as the next big thing in agriculture. But how useful is it? Plymouth University is working on a project to map biodiversity on farm using artificial intelligence.
Kaleb Cooper, the star of the TV series "Clarkson's Farm" has recorded a rap to raise money for RABI - the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001vkyk)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001vkyp)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001vkyw)
Sathnam Sanghera, Libby Jackson, Darren Edwards, Keith Brymer Jones
Extending our knowledge of Imperial frontiers - journalist, author and Empire educator Sathnam Sanghera’s reveals why tea is the best medium to discuss the British Empire.
Crossing the final frontier with Libby Jackson - she boldly explores where none of us are likely to as The Head of Space Exploration at the UK Space Agency.
And the record-breaking Darren Edwards keeps crossing endurance frontiers after announcing his next challenge is to become the first disabled adventurer to complete the longest sit-ski expedition across the Antarctic.
All that plus the Inheritance Tracks of ceramic designer and Great Pottery Throw Down judge, Keith Brymer Jones.
Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Greg James
Producer: Ben Mitchell
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m001vkz0)
The Bloomsbury Group
For the 100th episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Jane Goldman and comedian Suzi Ruffell as he travels back a century to1920s London to learn all about the members of the Bloomsbury Group. A collection of intellectuals and artists active in London in the early twentieth century, the Bloomsbury Group included such luminaries as Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and John Maynard Keynes. From their origins at the University of Cambridge to their bohemian lifestyle in London in the 1910s and 20s, and taking in their political work, artistic output, and boundary-pushing relationships, this episode explores the lives, loves and cultural impact of Bloomsbury Group members.
Research by: Madeleine Bracey, Andrew Himmelberg, and Josh Rice
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 (m001p10h)
Series 2
Birmingham to Stansted Airport
Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys across the country with a trip from Birmingham to Stansted Airport
Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.
Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the thoughts and moods of the great British travelling public. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.
Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.
In this programme, Alexei meets Adam, a student at Cambridge on his way back to college with his mum Helen. Adam introduces Alexei to the mysterious world of competitive Pokemon. Among his many fellow travellers, Alexei also meets Holly who lives in Bali and is dedicated to studying and saving sharks; Megan, who was born in Arizona and is on her way to her first ever key note speech at the prestigious Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge and Katrin and Klara who have been on holiday in the UK, are flying home to Germany from Stansted, and are great fans of English humour.
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001vkz7)
Paul Waugh, chief political commentator of the i Newspaper, assesses the latest developments in Westminster.
In a week of challenges for the Conservative Party over their Rwanda plan, Paul is joined by Sir John Hayes MP and Labour's Baroness Hayter, to discuss what happens next.
Meanwhile in the small Swiss town of Davos, government ministers and tech billionaires rub shoulders to discuss global challenges. Former Downing Street Director of Communications, Guto Harri, is joined from Davos by the Financial Times' Gillian Tett to discuss what it's all about.
Gareth Davies, Comptroller & Auditor General of the National Audit Office sets out the challenges facing government following his speech to Parliament this week.
And finally, in a week of polls, Deltapoll's Joe Twyman and Sophie Stowers from UK in a changing Europe, discuss how seriously we should take the polls as we prepare for a general election this year.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001vkzm)
Taiwan's Defiant Message To China
Kate Adie presents stories from Taiwan, Ecuador, Germany, Georgia and Indonesia
The pro-sovereignty candidate William Lai won Taiwan's presidential election this week. Our correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes charts the key moments that led to this historic vote, as Taiwan's voters sent a signal to Beijing.
Will Grant has been in the Ecuadorean city of Guayaquil which experienced a sudden descent into violence after two gang members escaped from prison, and a TV station was raided during a live broadcast. He meets one family who encountered tragedy in the crossfire.
In Germany, Jessica Parker recounts her encounters at some of the nationwide tractor protests which blocked streets in towns and cities this week, as farmers took a stand against the removal of tax relief on diesel - but that's not the only thing German voters are angry about.
Amelia Stewart visits a family trying to revive Georgia's once-thriving tea industry, which supplied 95 per cent of tea to the former Soviet Union. She visits Racha, in the country's north-west and hears how it's providing a welcome source of income for locals.
And finally we travel on Indonesia's new high-speed 'Whoosh' railway. Funded by Chinese loans, the train runs from Jakarta to the economic hub, Bandung. Such infrastructure projects are one way for China to exert influence via its Belt and Road Initiative - but does the train live up to the hype? Nick Marsh takes a ride.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001vl00)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001vl0j)
Pension Scams & HMRC and Fuel Vouchers
Some people who have been defrauded out of some or all of their pension fund are now being chased by HM Revenue & Customs for tax on money they no longer have. They were persuaded by advisers to cash in their pension and invest it in schemes that promised big returns. In fact they were often fake and some or all of their money disappeared. But HMRC is demanding tax on this missing money because they cashed in their pension too early. A campaign group based in Parliament is calling for a change in the law to protect them from what it calls the largest tax scandal in British history. In response, HMRC told Money Box “We do not tax pension savings lost to fraud. What we do tax are amounts that people release, or attempt to release, from their pensions where not authorised in law. It is our responsibility to collect the tax people legally owe and maintain a fair tax system for all. We sympathise with people who may have lost money by entering such arrangements and handle these situations on a case by case basis. We take the wellbeing of all taxpayers seriously and do everything we can for those who engage with us to get their tax affairs in order, including by offering affordable payment plans.”
As temperatures hit a new low this week one charity is nearly doubling the size of the vouchers it gives to those who can't keep warm. We'll speak to the Fuel Bank Foundation which helps people on prepayment meters manage their bills.
A record number of people will need to re-mortgage this year - are the choices getting any better?
And all you need to know about filing your self assessment form.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Tamzin Kraftman
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday 20th January 2024)
SAT 12:30 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
SAT 12:57 Weather (m001vl0z)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001vl1h)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 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
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001vl20)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week
SAT 14:45 The Banksy Story (m001nvr1)
4. Reverse Heists
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, Banksy's hilarious reverse heists at the world's best museums and galleries gain him some serious notoriety.
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 (m000p0lp)
USA by John Dos Passos
Episode Three
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 Three: Margo Dowling, Charley Anderson, Richard Savage.
Margo Dowling is a would-be actress, Charley Anderson is a working-man turned war hero, and Richard Savage is now Moorehouse’s right-hand man on Madison Avenue. The Twenties are beginning to roar, as the fates of all the characters we have met are resolved for good or ill.
Cast:
John Ward Moorehouse ..... Tom Bateman
Eveline Hutchins ..... Hannah Genesius
Janey Williams ..... Sheila Atim
Richard Savage ..... Luke Thallon
Margo Dowling ..... Genevieve Gaunt
Charley Anderson ..... Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
Agnes ..... Laurel Lefkow
Frank / Doctor .... Eric Meyers
Tony Garrido ..... Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Sam Margolies/ Jerry ..... Will Howard
Mo Askew..... Christopher Ragland
Tad Whittlesea..... Gabriel Freilich
Nat Benton ..... Calam Lynch
Doc Bingham ..... Robert G.Slade
Myra Bingham ..... Lily Lefkow-Green
Althea Bingham ..... Georgia Brown
Other parts played by members of the company.
Producer / Director - Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design & Music Arrangement - Lucinda Mason Brown
Production Manager - Lucy Barter
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001vl2g)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Jodie Comer, Vicky McClure, Jameela Jamil
The Killing Eve star Jodie Comer joins us to discuss her latest film, The End We Start From. The protagonist is a new mum, who has to navigate a flooded Britain with her baby. Jodie also reflects on the powerful response to her play Prima Facie, and the impact of fame on her life.
According to a new report by the charity Brainkind, up to one in two survivors of domestic abuse in the UK may be living with an undiagnosed brain injury. We speak to Steffy Bechelet from Brainkind and Dr Annemarie Burns, a consultant clinical neuro-psychologist.
Vicky McClure joins us to discuss her new role as explosives expert Lana Washington in a new series of Trigger Point.
How often do you feel weary and depleted? The burnout coach and historian Anna Schaffner discusses her book, Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary.
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, around 130 of whom are still being held. Since then, nearly 25,000 civilians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment that followed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. We speak to the BBC’s Alice Cuddy and the author Mary Ann Sieghart.
The actor and activist Jameela Jamil has made headlines over the years for her provocative, sometimes sweary social media posts, often calling out celebrity culture for promoting unrealistic ideals. She reflects on cancel culture and her resolution to post online with more 'grace and empathy'.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Erin Riley
SAT 17:00 PM (m001vl2y)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001vl3b)
The Humza Yousaf One
The First Minister of Scotland sits down with Nick Robinson in Glasgow to reflect on his first ten months in power and how his family is dealing with the ongoing trauma of being caught up in the war in Gaza
Producer: Daniel Kraemer
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vl3s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001vl45)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vl4j)
Iran has threatened to retaliate -- after accusing Israel of killing five senior members of its security forces in a suspected air strike in Syria.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001vl4s)
Stuart Murdoch, Joanne Clifton, Tony Singh, Belle and Sebastian, Wayward Jane, Joy Dunlop, Janey Godley, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Janey Godley are joined by Stuart Murdoch, Tony Singh and Joanne Clifton for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Belle and Sebastian, Wayward Jane and Joy Dunlop, recorded at BBC Scotland, Glasgow.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m001vl52)
Gabriel Attal
Stephen Smith looks at the life of the newly appointed French prime minister.
The child of film producers, at one stage it looked like he was bound for a career in entertainment.
Instead, Gabriel Attal has become the youngest PM in modern French history and he hopes to revive President Macron's government.
One of his first tasks will be to lead the French government into the European Parliament elections in June.
Contributors
Marisol Touraine, former French Minister of Health, chair of Unitaid.
Mireille Clapot, National Assembly member for Drôme.
Philippe Marliere, Professor of French and European Politics, University College London.
Dominic Gould, Actor.
Sophie Pedder, Paris Bureau Chief, the Economist.
Credits
France 24
TF1, France.
La Belle Personne, directed by Christophe Honoré
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
Presenter: Stephen Smith
Production: Daniel Gordon, Leontine Gallois, Diane Richardson
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound: Andrew Fell
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Katie Morrison, and Janet Staples
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m001vkvq)
Boy George
Born George O'Dowd, Boy George shot to pop stardom in 1982 as frontman with the band Culture Club and later as a solo artist. With his soulful vocals and flamboyant, androgynous looks, he became a massive star around the world with hits such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? and Karma Chameleon. His personal struggles with drug addiction and a prison sentence in 2009 meant he was rarely far from tabloid headlines. In recent years he’s been a judge on The Voice, survived the jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and has just published a new memoir called Karma. He continues to record and perform as a prolific solo singer songwriter.
George discusses the impact that David Bowie had on him as a teenager and recalls seeing him at the Lewisham Odeon during the Ziggy Stardust tour of 1973. He also talks about the important influence of club promoter Philip Sallon who introduced him to London's gay scene in the late 1970s. Meeting Quentin Crisp in New York with Andy Warhol was also a formative cultural moment. George talks to John Wilson candidly about coping with fame and rebuilding his life after addiction and prison.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001vl58)
Reporting Russia
Russia is a posting which requires foreign correspondents to inform their audiences about a vast country relatively rarely visited by tourists or other travellers, a land that for long periods of its history has been isolated from the West for political reasons. Often, their status and working conditions have been dependent on the state of international relations. They've lived under the threat of expulsion and even arrest. Apart from one short period of openness in the late 1980s and 1990s, it's almost always been hard to gain information and understand what's happening in the country. Now, since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, many of the difficulties foreign reporters experienced in the Cold War have returned. One correspondent - Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal - is currently behind bars, accused of spying.
Tim Whewell, who was a BBC correspondent in Moscow at the time of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Russian president Boris Yeltsin, has been looking through the BBC sound archives to trace the experiences of some of his predecessors - and successors - from the Second World War through to the present day. What were the pressures they've operated under? How did reporters in the Cold War dodge the constant surveillance of the KGB secret police? How did they find ways to meet ordinary people? And what - against all the odds - were their journalistic scoops? How did they cope with the increased physical danger that came with greater freedom in the 1990s? Did they always interpret the huge changes underway in the country correctly? And how do they continue to operate now in the repressive atmosphere of Putin's Russia? It's a roller-coaster of a story - with many funny moments along the way.
Contributors:
Kevin Connolly, former BBC Moscow correspondent
Mary Dejevsky, former Moscow correspondent for The Times
Angus Roxburgh, former Moscow correspondent for The Times and then the BBC
Martin Walker, former Moscow correspondent for The Guardian
Voices from the archives include:
Sarah Rainsford, current BBC Eastern Europe correspondent
Steve Rosenberg, current BBC Russia Editor
David Tutayev, writer and diplomat, occasional correspondent in Moscow in the 1940s
John Rettie, Reuters correspondent in Moscow in the 1950s
Erik de Mauny, the BBC's first permanent Moscow correspondent from 1963, and again in the 1970s
Richard Dimbleby, presenter and moderator of the BBC's General Election coverage in 1964
Philip Short, BBC Moscow correspondent during parts of the Cold War
Svevolod Ovchinnikov, Pravda correspondent in London in the 1970s
Petr Kumpa, Moscow correspondent for the Baltimore Sun in the 1970s
Kevin Ruane, BBC Moscow correspondent in the 1970s
Teresa McGonagle and Molly Lee of the BBC's Woman's Hour in the 1970s
Jack Dee, presenting Have I Got News For You on BBC TV in 2007 (produced by Hat Trick Productions)
Margaret, later Baroness Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990
Mikhail Gorbachev, last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985-1991
Peter Snow, presenter of Newsnight from 1980-1997
Lawrence McDonnell, BBC correspondent in Moscow in the early 1990s
Danielle Gershkovich, sister of Evan Gershkovich, speaking to the Wall Street Journal in 2023
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Mike Woolley
Photo: Erik de Mauney reporting in snowy Moscow, copyright BBC
SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m0002kzx)
China Towns
Episode 1
Inspired by the novels of Arnold Bennett, an epic tale of money, passion and defiance set in the Staffordshire potteries. Dramatised for radio by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan
It’s the 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution is at full throttle. Only the ruthless thrive in this uncompromising world. Edwin Clayhanger leaves school with dreams of becoming a painter but his father’s having none of it.
Ephraim Tellwright ….. Neil Dudgeon
Darius Clayhanger ….. Tim McInnerny
Edwin ….. Cameron Percival
Aunty Hamps ….. Carolyn Pickles
Big James ….. Ian Conningham
Constance ….. Bryony Hannah
Sophia ….. Alexandra Constantinidi
Mrs Baines ….. Clare Corbett
Mr Povey ….. Lewis Bray
Shushions ….. Michael Bertenshaw
Thwaite ….. Tony Turner
Machin ….. Christopher Harper
Snaggs ….. Don Gilet
Jeannie ….. Saffron Coomber
Incidental music arranged by Colin Guthrie and performed by Colin Guthrie, Peter Ringrose and Ian Conningham.
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
Presiding over this seething mass of industry are Ephraim Tellwright and Darius Clayhanger, self-made men, they hold the fate of this community in their hands, passing judgement on those that put the prosperity and reputation of the Five Towns at risk.
This is a radical reinterpretation of six brilliant Arnold Bennett novels for BBC Radio 4. It's his world seen with a modern eye. The books follow the inhabitants of Bursley and the Five Towns (of Stoke-on-Trent) from 1865 – 1903 in an epic sweep across 11 hours, as individuals rise, fall, age, flourish and see the world around them become unrecognisable, transformed by new technology. Fortunes are lost, hearts broken, empires built and compromises made. These tales of aspiration and passion, damage and danger are told with Bennett's forensic, (journalist’s) eye for human psychology and a surprising degree of witty comedy.
The Producers are Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.
SAT 22:00 News (m001vl5g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 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
SAT 23:00 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
SAT 23:30 Stand-Up Specials (m00187rs)
Geoff Norcott: Well Classy
Award-winning comedian Geoff Norcott returns to Radio 4, this time examining his own class identity.
Is it defined by where he's from, or where he's at? Has he changed, now he's known the taste of brioche? Or is he the same old Geoff that he used to be, growing up on the council estate? And, most importantly - why does he care?
Geoff’s previous Radio 4 show won the BBC Best Comedy Award 2019. He is one of the stars of The Mash Report and appears regularly on Question Time. He writes for national publications with articles appearing in The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent and The New Statesman. He writes regularly for other comedians including Sarah Millican, Romesh Ranganathan and Katherine Ryan. Geoff was awarded an Operational Services Medal for five frontline tours entertaining the troops in Afghanistan.
Geoff's first book 'Where Did I go Right? How The Left Lost Me' was published in May 2021.
Written and performed by Geoff Norcott
Produced by Ed Morrish
Exec Producer: Caroline Raphael
Sound Engineer: David Thomas
Broadcast Assistant: Jacob Tombling
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2024
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001vl5n)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Across the Divide (m001styt)
The West Bank
Israeli and Palestinian societies are divided by history, conflict and trauma. But they are also inexorably connected. In Across The Divide Zak Brophy speaks with Israelis and Palestinians with different backgrounds and beliefs to learn about their family histories and the reality of their day to day lives. To hear their hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations. Could the testimony of a handful of the millions who are caught up in the conflict reveal some of the nuance and complexity that is so often lost in times of war? In this episode we hear from two people living in the Israeli Occupied West Bank, one living in a Jewish settlement and the other running a Palestinian community arts centre .
The Across The Divide series is presented and produced by Zak Brophy.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vl5y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vl66)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vl6g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001vl6r)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001vl6z)
The church of St Michael in Melbourne, Derbyshire.
Bells on Sunday, comes from the church of St Michael in Melbourne, Derbyshire. The parish church building originally dates from around 1120. By 1897 the central tower housed a ring of eight bells by the John Taylor foundry. In 1992 these were re-hung and augmented to a ring of 12 bells by the addition of 4 new bells from Holland tuned to match the sound profile of the older bells. The Tenor bell weighs fifteen and a quarter hundredweight and is tuned to F sharp. We hear them ringing Stedman Cinques.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m001vl52)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001vl08)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b0890k5b)
Seeing the Light
In the week of the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, Mark Tully asks what causes sudden flashes of inspiration and what the American psychologist Dr Gary Klein has called "light bulb moments".
January 25th traditionally marks the day Saul saw a blinding light leading to his conversion to Christianity when "the scales fell from his eyes". Isaac Newton is supposed to have discovered gravity when struck on the head by an apple. Archimedes cries "Eureka" in his bath. The history books are littered with anecdotes of great discoveries made in the blink of an eye, problems solved in a single moment or radical changes of mind that are seemingly divinely inspired. Has the divine anything to do with the process or is it the subconscious at work - and do we all have the capacity to experience "eureka moments"?
Expert witnesses include Archimedes, George Frederick Handel, Sir Paul McCartney, mathematician Henri Poincaré and green campaigner Annie Leonard.
The readers are Claire Vousden and Vincent Ebrahim.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001vl0t)
Amazing Graze
Ruth Sanderson meets Stephen Comber, who co-ordinates and cares for a complex army of hardy livestock which graze the wild places of Northumberland. They do this to maintain areas of land for conservation purposes. Stephen matchmakes small flocks and herds with the landscapes they are brought in to manage, through a system of 'flexi-grazing'. Ruth finds out why grazing is important for wildlife conservation on nature reserves and in sensitive habitats, and meets some of Stephen's "moveable fleet of living lawn mowers."
Produced and presented by Ruth Sanderson
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001vl18)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001vl1v)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001vl28)
Cathedral charging; Last Christians in Gaza; Muslim Comedian Ola Labib
Sunday hears from George Antone from Catholic aid agency Caritas, a member of Holy Family Church in Gaza City. He's one of around 400 parishioners taking shelter in the church and tells us about problems finding food and receiving aid to keep going amidst the war.
Would an entry fee put you off visiting a cathedral? One in four now charge in England. William hears from listeners as well as the Very Revd Jo Kelly-Moore, Chair of the Association of English Cathedrals, and the Very Revd Dr Tim Stratford, Dean of Chester Cathedral, which is free to enter.
Muslim comic Ola Labib talks about keeping her standup secret from her parents when she changed careers from pharmacy, and the things she won't do on stage because of her religion.
Hear about the beautiful tradition of Gaelic Psalm singing being preserved and presented in a new exhibition touring the Hebrides this year. Dr Frances Wilkins and Magidh Smith talk about Seinn Spioradail.
Does it matter if the future King, and therefore the future Supreme Governor of the Church of England, is not particularly "religious"? A line from the new biography of the King speculating on the religious observance of the Prince of Wales has sent the tabloids into a spin. William asks political theologian Dr Jonathan Chaplin - when a head of state is given a constitutional role in an established church, does it matter if he, or she, has little or no personal faith?
Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Catherine Murray and Helen Brown
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vl2s)
Habitat for Humanity
Daliso Chaponda makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Habitat for Humanity.
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 ‘Habitat for Humanity’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Habitat for Humanity’.
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: 1043641
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001vl37)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001vl3k)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001vl40)
Unite us all at last
A service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity from the Chapel of Royal Holloway, University of London.
SUN 08:48 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
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03srfgn)
Grey Heron (Winter)
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Chris Packham presents the grey heron. Winter can be a challenging time for grey herons. In freezing conditions, their favoured food supplies of fish and amphibians are locked beneath the ice and prolonged spells of cold weather can be fatal for these birds.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001vl4f)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001vl4q)
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
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001vl50)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who came to international attention when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Still only 24, he has performed at a series of high profile locations including the Hollywood Bowl and Downing Street. Last year he was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms.
Sheku was brought up in Nottingham along with his six siblings who are also extremely talented musicians. At six-years-old he went to a concert by the Nottingham Youth Orchestra where he was transfixed by the cello section. He started having lessons not long afterwards and by the age of nine he’d completed all of his music grades – receiving the highest marks in the country. At 17 he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.
He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and made his debut at the BBC Proms as a soloist with the Chineke! Orchestra in 2017.
In 2020 he was appointed an MBE for services to music and two years later became the Royal Academy of Music’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring.
DISC ONE: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 - 1st movement: Adagio – Moderato. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Jacqueline du Pré, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
DISC TWO: Rivers of Babylon -The Melodians
DISC THREE: Dat - Pluto Shervington
DISC FOUR: String Quartet in C major, Op 20 No. 2, Capriccio: Adagio. Composed by Joseph Haydn and performed by The London Haydn Quartet
DISC FIVE: Chances Are - Bob Marley
DISC SIX: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir
DISC SEVEN: Symphony No.11 'The Year 1905' - II. The 9th January; Adagio. Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich and performed by The Moscow Philharmonic, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin
DISC EIGHT: Largo from Organ Sonata No.5 in C major, BWV 529. Composed by Johan Sebastian Bach and performed by Samuel Feinberg
Book: The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman
Luxury: A cello and strings
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001vl56)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 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.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001vkw1)
Haggis and Hosting: Celebrating Burns Night
In the dark nights of January, celebrating the work of poet Robert Burns by feasting, toasting and speaking poetry has become a much-loved tradition in Scotland and around the world. Sheila Dillon joins Scottish-Malaysian chef Julie Lin in Glasgow as she hosts friends for Burns Night 2024 to share food and ways of celebrating. She also visits the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow to hear more about Rabbie Burns himself. Who was he? And where do the Burns' food traditions come from? After hearing Burns' famous 'address to a haggis', we call in on the recently-crowned world's best haggis maker, Simon Broadribb, at his butcher's shop in Southampton, to see his award-winning recipe in action. Time for a wee dram? Finally, we hear from whisky expert and 'Master of the Quaich' Ann Miller on what to drink alongside your Burns supper, and discover Burns' own links with the whisky industry.
Presented by Sheila Dillon.
Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001vl5h)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001vl5p)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Gangster (p0h2qr7m)
Catching the Kingpins
Catching The Kingpins: 3. In Suburbia
In the wealthy village of Denham in Buckinghamshire, Lee Hannigan and Harry Hicks-Samuels play the part of successful businessmen really well. Hannigan has a car garage, a mansion with a Ferrari on the drive and a place in Dubai. Hicks-Samuels is only 27 but has a watch business and flat in a luxury development.
But the secrets of where their money really comes from are on their EncroChat phones.
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 (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
SUN 14:45 Short Works (m001p23m)
Kicha and the Unicorn
An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4. National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa tells the tale of Cardiffian widow Kicha, whose grief starts to take on an extraordinary horned and hoofed shape.
Reader - Nina Wadia
Directed by Philippa Swallow
Sound by Nigel Lewis
A BBC Audio Drama Wales production
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000mkhq)
Oil on Water
From the novel by Helon Habila. Dramatised by Rex Obano.
A contemporary thriller about neocolonial corruption, ecological devastation and journalistic ethics in the badlands of the oil rich Niger Delta. Two reporters risk everything in search of the perfect story after the British wife of an oil company executive is kidnapped.
Port Harcourt, Nigeria - Rufus is yet to make his mark as a journalist. When he accepts an assignment to interview the hostage held by militants, he finds himself shoulder to shoulder with Zaq, a one-time legendary reporter now in painful alcoholic decline. Together, they form an unlikely bond as they set out up river in search of the kidnapped women. But they have forgotten that there’s no such thing as the perfect story in a region where exposing the truth can get you killed.
Set in a filmic world of mangrove swamps, floating villages, and jungle shrines, this taut and suspenseful thriller has echoes of Graham Greene or Joseph Conrad.
Cast:
Rufus ….. Idris Debrand
Zaq ….. Cyril Nri
Gloria ….. Tamara Lawrance
The Major & The Professor ….. Danny Sapani
Naman & Ibiram ….. Peter Bankole
Tamuno & other voices …. Seun Shote
Joseph, & other voices ….. Uché Gabriel Akujobi
Michael ….. Jordan Nash
James Floode ….. Matthew Gravelle
Isabel Floode ….. Claire Price
Other characters are voiced by the cast
Sound Design ….. Adam Woodhams
Mixing ….. Steve Bond
Executive Producer ….. Sara Davies
Produced and Directed by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001vl63)
Gerald Murnane
A special interview with the writer Gerald Murnane from his home in Goroke, Victoria in Australia. At 84 years old, Murnane has often been considered a front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and now new readers are finding their way to his work in increasing numbers as his 1988 novel Inland is being republished. A watershed entry in his bibliography and a difficult book to summarise, Inland captures some of the key traits of his work: exquisite writing, hypnotically powerful, and an obsessive attention to memory, childhood, reading, and the plains and grasslands of Victoria. Gerald rarely gives radio interviews but talks candidly to Chris Power about Inland, his writing process, his rejection of post-modernist labels and why he calls himself "not a well-read man".
Chris is also joined by literary critics John Self and Mia Levitin to talk about some of the more interesting new books coming our way over the next few months and, the Scottish crime writer and academic Louise Welsh, tells us why an old copy of Rilke's poetry is her Book I'd Never Lend.
SUN 16:30 Moving Pictures (m001sm85)
Winter Scene on a Canal by Hendrik Avercamp
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.
We’re out on the ice this episode - a frozen river in the Dutch Republic in the early 17th century. Avercamp gives us a people-watching delight, filling his scene with tiny figures, each with a story of their own. Sledding, shopping, a quick round of colf: it’s an encyclopaedia of Dutch winter fun.
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 Winter Scene on a Canal.
Interviewees: Pieter Roelofs, Bianca du Mortier, Betsy Wieseman, Jonathan Bikker, Rosamund Oates and Leah Kharibian.
Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald
Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian
Sensitivity consultant: Jessamy Carlson
A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4.
Picture credit: Hendrik Avercamp (Dutch, 1585-1634), Winter Scene on a Canal, Detail, about 1615, Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio), Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 19
51.402
SUN 17:00 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
SUN 17:40 Profile (m001vl52)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001vl6c)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001vl6n)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vl6x)
Russia has blamed Ukraine for the deaths of at least 25 people after shelling hit a shopping district the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001vl73)
Rajan Datar
Reasons to be cheerful parts one, two and three: Blue Monday is not the worst day of the year, but an all-day party in Kansas...we are making headway in our fight against climate change...and one country has found a solution to homelessness. Plus how not to handle a PR meltdown like the Post Office, what it's really like going back to your roots, and why vinyl makes us all feel so groovy…
Presenter: Rajan Datar
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001vkvl)
Natasha apologises to Helen about the Grange Farm land misunderstanding, realising how insensitive she must’ve sounded. Helen tells her not to worry, although she’s finding it hard to move forward from Rob. Natasha’s surprised that Clarrie asked Helen to approach Miles about using the auctioned land for Ed’s sheep. The Echo photographer arrives and Natasha checks whether it’s ok for him to take photos in the Farm Shop as well as the Tearoom. Helen says that’s ok as long as she isn’t in shot. Echo journalist Rebecca appears to interview Natasha, who reminds her that the feature is to celebrate the Tearoom, not to scrutinise it. Rebecca agrees to promote all the right things, including Helen’s dairy window and cheese. When Rebecca asks if she can refer to Helen by name in her feature, Helen doesn’t mind at all. Later when Natasha mentions she was surprised Helen was alright about having her name in print, Helen says she surprised herself, but it felt like the right thing to do. Helen’s spent so many years looking over her shoulder, but now she feels liberated.
The Longest Drinker competition at The Bull is taking its toll on Jolene and Kenton who’re witnessing Neville and Bert’s competitive sides over the title. They’re always there, at opposite ends of the bar glaring at each other. Kenton and Jolene try to find a system to decide who’s the longest drinker but can’t agree, until Jolene comes up with the idea of asking Brad to do the calculations.
SUN 19:15 Can You Hear Me Now? (m001vkd0)
Can You Hear Me Now? Is a character comedian showcase for some of the best up and coming character comedians currently performing online and live on the UK comedy circuit.
This episode is hosted by Jim Smith and was recorded at the historic Oran Mor venue in Glasgow - featuring posh boy rapper MC Hammersmith, Edinburgh award-winner Lorna Rose Treen, and viral character comedians Michael Fry and Eleanor Morton.
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Gusman production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Bodies of Water (m001vl77)
3: Firestone Bay
The next in a series of short stories from the award-winning writer of Send Nudes, all taking their inspiration from water.
From a swim team flirtation to a fight by the Trevi Fountain, from an awkward bath for two to a pond-size a confession, these stories are all inspired by the transformative power of water.
In today's story, pulled by the lure of the ocean, a teenage girl leaves her troubled past behind...
Reader: Sian Brooke is a British actor known most recently for her roles in BBC's Blue Lights and Sherlock.
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 (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
SUN 20:30 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 led 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, Full interview Connected Histories connectedhistoriesofthebbc.org; Annie Nightingale interview, BBC Radio 1, Vintage, 22/12/2018; Old Grey Whistle Test, 100 Voices, BBC Four, 23/02/2018; The Oldest Living Child Psychotherapist, 99 year old Isca Wittenberg, Legacy Interview, MINDinMIND, Youtube uploaded, 02/03/2021; 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, uploaded 18/11/2022; Charlie Allan sings, Blue Grey Coo and Other Bothy Ballads, Ardo Pedigree Cattle, published 1979; Charlie Allan, Man O' Pairts,BBC Radio Scotland, 03/01/2024;
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001vl0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vl2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001vl4s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001vl7f)
Ben Wright is joined by the Conservative MP and Chair of the Health Select Committee, Steve Brine; Shadow Foreign Office minister, Catherine West; and Hannah White - Director of the Institute for Government. They discuss the recent Tory turmoil over the Rwanda plan, and Rishi Sunak's efforts to shift the focus onto tax cuts. They also discuss Labour's electoral prospects, and the programme includes an interview with Neil Kinnock, reflecting on his experience of defeat in 1992. John Stevens - political editor of the Daily Mirror - brings his expert insight. And the backbencher Jason McCartney talks about his decision to use a high-profile slot at Prime Minister's Questions, to share the news of his father's dementia diagnosis.
SUN 23:00 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.
MONDAY 22 JANUARY 2024
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001vl7k)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 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
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001vl6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vl7p)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vl7t)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vl7y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001vl82)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vl86)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Precious Relationships
Good Morning.
Infertility is a major issue these days, but, in the ancient world, it was always thought to be the woman’s problem, or even fault. In Jewish tradition, if a couple had been together for ten years and had no children, the man was supposed to divorce his wife, find a new one- and get on with having a family. There’s a great rabbinic story about this.
A Jewish couple loved each other dearly but they had no children. 10 years on, they went to see the great rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, asking for a divorce. The rabbi heard them out and then told them to part ways but with a party, a celebration, just as they had begun at the wedding. So they prepared a feast, and the wife poured out cup of wine after cup of wine for her husband. As his mood gradually lifted, he said: “My dear, look around our house. Is there any precious item here that you would like? Choose a keepsake and take it with you to your father’s home…”
Once her husband was asleep, the wife instructed the servants: “Quick, bundle him on to a bed and carry him to my father’s house!”
When the alcohol had worn off, the husband woke up from his stupor, hung over. “Where am I?” he called out. “In my father’s house,” replied his wife. “What am I doing here?” he asked.
“You instructed me to take a precious thing from your house with me back to my parents’ home, and there is nothing in the world better than you.”
They realised they were meant to be together, and, so the story goes, they were finally blessed with children, strange as it may seem. God, let us give thanks for wonderful relationships.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001vl8b)
22/01/24 Organic farm payments, flooded farms, family farming
New money for organic farmers in Wales. What does this mean for farmers? After weeks of heavy rain and flooding in the East of England farmers say they're facing big losses, not just of the crops lost underwater but also of the crops they were due to plant, but can't as the ground is too wet.
We often describe a farmer by the number of generations their family has been on the land, it's not unusual to speak to a fourth, fifth or even sixth generation. Farming has long been a family business and that brings advantages and disadvantages. We're going to be talking about all this week: the family farm.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
MON 05:56 Weather (m001vl8g)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03mhyzf)
Raven
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the story of the raven. Ravens are one of the most widely distributed birds in the world and can survive Arctic winters and scorching deserts. In the UK, Ravens were once widespread, even in cities but persecution drove them back into the wilder parts of our islands. Now they're re-colonising the lowlands and are even turning up on the outskirts of London where, since Victorian times, the only ravens were the ones kept at the Tower.
MON 06:00 Today (m001vktt)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001vktw)
War crimes justice
The legal framework to prosecute war crimes and prohibit the use of ‘aggressive war’ came out of the international war crimes tribunals after WWII – in Germany and Japan. In Judgement at Tokyo the academic and writer Gary J. Bass retells the dramatic courtroom battles as Japan’s militaristic leaders were held accountable for their crimes. With prosecutors and judges drawn from eleven different Allied countries tensions flared, and justice in the Asia Pacific played out amidst the start of the Cold War, China's descent into civil war, and the end of the European empires.
The political philosopher Hannah Arendt witnessed the end of the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1963, coining the phrase ‘the banality of evil’ – a term that is often mistakenly believed to mean that evil had become ordinary. In We Are Free To Change The World, the writer Lyndsey Stonebridge explores Arendt’s writings on power and terror, love and justice, and their relevance in today’s uncertain times.
As the world grows increasingly turbulent war crimes justice is needed more than ever, but it appears to be failing. Since the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands opened in 2002 it has jailed just five war criminals. The journalist and war reporter Chris Stephen looks back at its history and examines alternative options in The Future of War Crimes Justice.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vchk)
Episode One - Diagnosis
Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.
Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.
Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.
In this first episode, Andrew describes how he first realised his sight was deteriorating as a teenager, and how he began to come to terms with his eventual diagnosis.
Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vkty)
DJ Paulette, Abortion, Vinted co-founder, Childcare
Award-winning DJ Paulette has been in the music industry for more than 30 years. She got her start at the famous Haçienda nightclub in Manchester but has DJ'd all over the world. Her book, Welcome to the Club: The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ, tells some of the tales of her career so far and shines a light on many other women in the electronic dance music industry. Paulette joins Emma Barnett.
New guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to healthcare workers says that suspected illegal abortions should not be reported to the police. This guidance, which applies to England and Wales, follows some recent cases where women have been convicted of having illegal abortions. Emma is joined by former Chief Superintendent at the Metropolitan Police Parm Sandhu, and Associate Professor in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University Dr Emma Milne to discuss.
Buying second-hand clothes is fashionable again, thanks to online marketplaces like Vinted, Depop and eBay. Emma talks to Vinted co-founder Milda Mitkute about what it takes to turn an idea into a successful business and why she decided to leave the company in 2017 when her first child was born.
Is the Government's key childcare promise to parents in trouble? One newspaper is reporting that thousands of parents are being warned they won't be able to access the offer of free childcare to under twos this year. Emma gets the view of providers from Neil Leitch, Chief Executive of the Early Years Alliance which represents 14,000 nurseries, pre-schools and childminders, and June O'Sullivan CEO of LEYF nurseries.
MON 11:00 Black, African and British (m001vkv0)
Black, African and British in Business
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 3: Black, African and British in Business
Jumoké Fashola speaks to the founders of three Black African British businesses about innovation, entrepreneurship and their experiences of business ownership.
Chika Russell takes Jumoké inside her international snack brand, Chika’s Snacks and explains why she wanted to set up her company in both Nigeria and the UK. Nigerian investor Tokunboh Ishmael talks to Jumoké about the links between British African businesses and investment and trade between the UK and African nations.
The tech innovator and entrepreneur William Sachiti gives Jumoké a tour of his business, The Academy of Robotics and explains how his childhood in Zimbabwe inspires his innovation in the world of self-driving cars.
The founders of First Response Group Jamal Tahlil and Edgar Chibaka tell Jumoké how they were inspired to create a business with a truly inclusive culture following the negative experiences they had working in security.
Plus Lydia Amoah, chief executive of diversity consultancy Backlight, provides insight into the opportunities and challenges faced by businesses founded by Black African Brits.
You can join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #BlackAfricanBritish
MON 11:30 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 companies encourage it?
Evan Davis and guests discuss the pros and cons of a workplace culture in which staff 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?
Evan is joined by:
Nana Berchie, global people director for diversity, belonging and human rights, Arcadis;
Octavius Black, founder and CEO, The Mind Gym;
Kate Palmer, employment services director, Peninsula UK;
Sophia Luu, freelance design researcher and founder of Secrets Worth Sharing.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: A woman hiding behind her laptop. Credit: Getty Images)
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001vkv2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001vkv4)
Cost of Care; Holiday Scams; Customer Service from Energy Suppliers
We were contacted by a 83 year old listener, Marie, who has spent £200,000 on care costs for her husband, John. He has dementia.
The care home costs are more than £1200 a week, and their savings are nearing the point where there won’t be any left to pay the bill. Marie contacted us to ask for advice on how she can continue to afford to pay for John’s care, what her options might be, and where to get help.
We will be speaking to Age UK to guide us through the options that are there, and where to go for help. Iona Bain, the financial journalist, will also join us to talk about equity release, and is this a safe option to pay for care.
With the weather being cold and wet, it’s no surprise that January is the busiest month for booking a holiday. But, are those deals that we see online too good to be true? Well it seems in some case they are, because they are actually scams that will leave you out of pocket, and without a holiday to go on. Travel expert Simon Calder and fraud and scam prevention expert, Jim Winters will be telling us how to protect our selves whilst looking for a break.
And energy companies and bad customer service - two things that will get a lot of you shouting at the radio I'm sure. We will be talking to consumer experts, Which?, about their recent energy company survey that shows that British Gas comes at the bottom of the table, as well as a man that was paying for his neighbour's energy.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Dave James
MON 12:57 Weather (m001vkv6)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001vkv8)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
MON 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vkvd)
Wordplay
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
Ian begins his quest in the dark ages, not known as a well-spring of comic opportunity. Nevertheless, in the pages of the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - Ecclesiastical History of England, there is wordplay. Not only that it's wordplay that obeys the comedy rule of three and it was potent enough to have a part in the naming of a nation. And how his fellow monks must have laughed.
Producer: Tom Alban
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001vkvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 This Cultural Life (m001vkvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Saturday]
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001vkvt)
Series 37
Heat 7, 2024
(7/13)
Three more music lovers join Paul Gambaccini at the BBC's Salford studios for another wide-ranging contest of musical knowledge. The winner will proceed to the semi-finals and take another step towards the title of 37th Counterpoint champion. To do so they'll not only have to prove the range of their musical knowledge, but will also have to select a special musical topic on which to answer individual questions, from a list of which they have been given no warning.
Taking part are
Stephen Draper from Liverpool
Jo McEvedy from Whitley Bay
Mike Meakin from Harrogate
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001vkw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 History on the Edge (m001pfg8)
Films and Filming
Anita Anand uncovers the hidden story of the British film magazine that, for 40 years, offered a cloak of authoritative cinematic respectability for gay readers who sought sexual contact when homosexuality was punishable by prison.
Films and Filming was a widely respected magazine that built a serious reputation for its coverage of the burgeoning international art-house cinema of the 1950s and 60s. It sold throughout the English-speaking world, its tens of thousands of readers admiring the calibre of its reportage of new masterpieces by Claude Chabrol, Elia Kazan and Bernardo Bertolucci. But when it launched, from a dingy basement near Victoria Station in London in 1954, few knew that Films and Filming was also a clandestine publication of great interest to men whose sexual preference was for other men.
That same year, when Films and Filming launched with Marlon Brando in his signature role in On the Waterfront on the cover, homosexuality had also been featured for months on the front page of Britain’s tabloids, as the famous peer, Lord Montagu, was put on trial and eventually sentenced to a year in gaol for illegal sex with other men.
Today, when equal marriage is legal and widely accepted in the UK, it’s hard to fully comprehend just how furtive and secretive gay relationships needed to be 70 years ago to escape the attention of the law – gay men lived in constant fear of discovery. So the existence of a respectable magazine that offered both stories about cinematic gay icons and images, often of near-naked male film stars, was a lifeline.
Even more of a lifeline were the magazine’s personal ads where gay film fans could arrange to share their interests, cinematic and otherwise, covertly of course, with impunity.
Anita Anand leafs through historic copies of Films and Filming with one of its regular columnists, David McGillivray. She meets his readers and reveals the hidden story of the magazine’s mysterious publisher, Philip Dosse, whose team of editors, almost exclusively gay, ran a distinguished portfolio of arts magazines on theatre, ballet, books and art, as well as film, from that Victoria basement.
Producers: Sara Parker and Simon Elmes
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (m001vkw7)
Women in Charge?
What does female leadership in faith and religion look like today? Whilst more women than ever participated in the Pope’s recent Synod, (an assembly, or meeting) at the Vatican last year, we still seem a fair distance from women being able to offer a sacrament in the Catholic Church.
Aleem Maqbool meets Naima Khan, a Muslim and female imam and Director of the Inclusive Mosque Initiative. For ten years the mosque has been quietly pioneering, with women leading mixed-gender congregations in prayer. Naima tells Aleem why it was important for her to take on a level of spiritual leadership. What has the reaction been and what does her faith teach her about inclusivity and representation?
Jill Duff, the Bishop of Lancaster in the Church of England, Georgia Clarke, a youth leader in the Roman Catholic Church, and Mandeep Kaur MBE, Sikh Chaplain to the RAF and Ministry of Defence advisor on Sikh issues discuss what female leadership means to them. What progress has been made and where are the limits in their traditions to the roles women can play?
Producer: Rebecca Maxted
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser
MON 17:00 PM (m001vkwd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vkwj)
More than thirty thousand homes in Northern Ireland and Scotland remain without power
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m001vkwn)
Series 92
3. Ned Kelly is Australian, right?
Sue Perkins challenges guests Paul Merton, Eleanor Tiernan, Heidi Regan and Tony Hawks 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 Apostrophes and Catastrophes to Hermits.
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 (m001vkws)
Clarrie worries to Susan about Ed’s sheep as despairing Ed’s now starting to think there’s no point in pursuing the tree surgery idea. Adam mentions that his family’s holding a cake baking contest to mark the anniversary of Jennifer’s death. When Susan and Clarrie ask for some advice about Ed’s sheep, Adam suggests sticking them on the outfield of the cricket pitch. Later Susan tells Clarrie that Emma likes the sound of the cricket pitch and is going to talk to Ed. Clarrie and Susan aren’t impressed when Helen explains her plan for cheese Easter eggs. When Helen then lets them know about her forthcoming holiday to Paris with Henry and Jack, Susan and Clarrie don’t fancy the idea of managing the dairy in her absence. However later Helen explains that she’s asked Adam to step in. Out of earshot, Clarrie and Susan aren’t keen on having Adam on board either.
Brian, Alice and Adam compare their Victoria sponges which Lilian’s judging. Lilian mentions Harry and Alice wishes everyone would stop going on about him. Lilian thinks Jennifer would’ve approved of the cake competition as a way of bringing the family together. Though Jennifer would’ve been surprised at seeing Brian baking a cake! Lilian declares Brian the winner and disqualifies Adam; she saw him buying a cake from the Tearoom earlier. Later, Alice insists on keeping Brian company and asks him what he thinks about Harry. Brian tells her to trust her feelings and is emotional when he mentions that Jennifer would just want Alice to be happy. He tells her to go and live her life.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001vkwv)
Andrew Haigh on All of Us Strangers, Lulu Wang on Expats starring Nicole Kidman
Andrew Haigh’s new film All of Us Strangers, is both a love story and a ghost story. Starring Andrew Scott, it explores the impact of a chance encounter in a deserted tower block, and how nostalgia draws him back to the suburban family home where his parents appear to be living, just as they were on the day they died, 30 years ago.
Tom Hibbert was a popular music journalist who wrote for Smash Hits, Q and many other top magazines in the 1980s and 90s and whose irreverent style of writing would inspire the generation that followed. Miranda Sawyer and Jasper Murison-Bowie join to talk about ‘Phew, Eh Readers’, a new book that compiles some of his best articles.
Lulu Wang’s powerful new series Expats explores the lives of women in Hong Kong who are all outsiders for different reasons. It is an unsurprising theme given such female-led cast (including Nicole Kidman), as well as female-led production remains a rarity for shows of this scale and ambition. Writer and director Wang, who grew up in the US after her parents fled Beijing, joins Samira to discuss her expansive vision for it.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May
MON 20:00 Alderney - The Holocaust on British Soil (m001vkwx)
Journalist Christine Finn travels to Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, to tell the harrowing story of the Nazi labour and concentration camps that operated there during World War Two.
Unlike Jersey, Guernsey and Sark, almost all of Alderney's residents were evacuated to England in June 1940.
Thousands of forced and slave labourers were brought to Alderney by the Organisation Todt to build fortifications as part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. Housed in a network of camps, the majority came from the Soviet Union (rounded up after Germany's invasion in June 1941) but there were also French Jews, Spanish Republicans, North Africans - in fact almost 30 nationalities.
Eye-witness testimony from survivors described a catalogue of atrocities committed by the Germans - how large numbers of workers perished from the hard labour, systematic starvation, extreme ill-treatment and outright murder. Some prisoners died in transport to and from the island, and some who were too ill to work were sent back to the continent presumably for extermination.
Christine is accompanied by Colin Partridge, a retired architect and former jurat of the Alderney Court. He's part of an expert panel appointed by Lord Pickles - who leads the government’s work on post-Holocaust initiatives - to examine the surviving archival evidence in order to determine how many died on Alderney during the Occupation and how many forced, slave and volunteer workers were brought there. This includes conscripted labourers and volunteer workers who were not subject to such inhumane treatment.
The findings of the Expert Review will be published later this year and their aim is to put an end to almost 80 years of speculation. They are searching through archives scattered across Europe and it is painstaking work - prisoner numbers fluctuated, records were removed or destroyed by the Germans before the end of the war, or they are inaccurate. Key information from the post-war exhumations of the so-called Russian cemetery has been lost. Eye-witnesses describe corpses being thrown into the sea.
Christine and Colin visit SS Lager Sylt. This Operation Todt labour camp was probably built in the summer of 1942 and taken over by the SS in March 1943 with the arrival of SS Baubrigade 1- a construction brigade of 1000 prisoners from Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps in Germany. Sylt then became a subcamp of Neuengamme.
We also visit Lager Norderney. Sylt is often said to be the only SS concentration camp on British soil - but Lager Norderney came under the control of two OT officers in 1943 who were members of the SS and who wore their SS uniforms in camp. During this time, Norderney also became the main camp for Jewish prisoners on the island. Eye-witness testimony describes violence and brutality as a daily occurrence. In 1944, the camps were shut down and most of the inmates were transported back to continental Europe. Norderney is now the location of the island's main holiday campsite.
Contributors include:
Dr Gilly Carr, a British archaeologist and academic. She is the Channel Islands representative for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and is coordinating the Expert Review.
Dr Marcus Roberts, a founding director of jTrails, the National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail, and a professional Heritage consultant who has been researching the labour camps on Alderney for over 15 years.
Gary Font's father Francisco, a Spanish Republican who was brought to Jersey as a forced worker but became a slave worker on Alderney.
Sally Bohan's family returned to Alderney after the war when she was a baby and built the Hammond Memorial to commemorate the foreign workers who died during Occupation.
Photo Credit: Christine Finn
Produced by Victoria Ferran
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4
MON 20:30 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
MON 21:00 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
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001vktw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vkx0)
Sunak: Childcare expansion to proceed despite "practical issues"
The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has defended the government’s plans to expand free childcare after concerns were raised about some parents being unable to apply in time. The rollout for parents of two-year-olds is expected in the spring and will be expanded for children aged nine months from September.
Also in the programme: the UK and the US have once again carried out joint airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen; and we look ahead to tomorrow’s update of the Doomsday Clock, the symbol of how close the world is to ending.
MON 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vkx2)
Episode One: Scenes from a Childhood (Part One)
A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.
'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde
‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
MON 23:00 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
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vkx5)
Susan Hulme reports as a Health Minister announces a drive to get children in England vaccinated against measles.
TUESDAY 23 JANUARY 2024
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001vkx7)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vchk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vkx9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vkxc)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vkxf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001vkxh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vkxk)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Equal Treatment For All
Good Morning.
On this day back in 1889, Daniel Hale Williams founded the Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. It seems incredible that all hospitals were segregated until then, but there are still major issues facing black people in our western health systems. Black people, and people from other minority ethnic communities, suffered worse from COVID19 in its early months- and no-one really knows why.
There are many studies that suggest black people’s pain is often not taken as seriously as white people’s, including by black healthcare staff- and once again we don’t know why. Black people’s diseases, such as sickle cell, often don’t get enough recognition or instant treatment in a crisis. We’re working on it, but there’s much more to do. None of this is new. All of it is serious.
So Daniel Hale Williams’ action was enormously important. He took one major step towards equalising treatment for all people. He began the long process- unfinished as yet- of treating people as individuals, whatever their ethnicity, gender, origin, or social class. He was a visionary. But his vision is not yet totally fulfilled. There’s still too much acceptance of things just as they are - that women have to undergo pain in childbirth, or that sickle cell is extremely painful.
Equalising is one part of this. The other part, which we need to fight for, is recognising that everyone should be treated as an individual, with their own wants and needs, beliefs and social attitudes. Today, let’s each resolve to do just one thing that makes one individual feel fully recognised, special, unique, God’s creation, and needing our care.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001vkxm)
23/01/24 Grocery debate; Bird flu compensation; Fishermen medicals; Family farms and succession.
More than 100 thousand people have signed an online petition and triggered an MPs' debate about the way supermarkets deal with the farmers and producers who supply them. The campaign is calling for the Grocery Supply Code of Practice and the role of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, the GCA, to be reformed.
A group of poultry farmers have won a High Court case against the government's Animal & Plant Health Agency, over compensation for farmers whose flocks were affected by avian flu. The court ruled that the APHA had 'wrongly interpreted' the law under the avian influenza compensation scheme. The case was brought by the National Farmers Union who argued that the time taken between reporting an outbreak and the arrival of government staff to assess compensation, meant that many birds died before the APHA could get there, and so were not counted as part of the compensation.
A fisherman who underwent gastric sleeve surgery to pass newly introduced medical requirements, says he's incredulous to hear the rules may now be changed. Brian Tapper from Plymouth says a high Body Mass Index put his career at sea in doubt, when the new health checks came into force in November. He spent £12,000 to have an operation so he could meet the weight requirements. Some of his colleagues have sold their boats. However, now the government has announced it is going hold a consultation on the requirements, without forcing small-scale fishers ashore.
All this week on Farming Today we’re talking about family farms. But what happens when the next generation decides they don’t want to carry on the family tradition of farming? We visit a a farm in Llandeilo in Wales where they faced that problem, and find out how they solved it.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x4769)
Cetti's Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the Cetti's warbler. Until the 1960s, Cetti's warblers were unknown in the UK but on the Continent they were common in marshy areas, especially dense scrub and the edge of reed-beds and ditches. They first bred in these habitats in south-east England in the early 1970s and by the end of the century their loud and sudden song-bursts were startling people from southern England and South Wales and northwards as far as Yorkshire.
TUE 06:00 Today (m001vm3s)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Things Fell Apart (p0h248k2)
S2. Ep 3: Tonight’s the Night, Comrades
How an American media polarized over Antifa led to an innocent family on a Twilight-themed lockdown-escaping camping trip getting barricaded in the woods by armed, hostile townspeople.
Written and presented by Jon Ronson
Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
Original music by Phil Channell
TUE 09:30 Naturebang (m001gxfx)
Frozen Frogs and Preserved People
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight look to the freeze-thaw abilities of the North American wood frog to ask whether we can freeze ourselves in order to return to a future world...
Early March is breeding season for the North American wood frog. They are frisky because they’ve just thawed out having spent the winter not just in hibernation, but frozen at -18°C. How do they do it, and still survive? And what can we learn from their frozen ways?
Enter the growing field in medicine called cryo-preservation: the process of preserving cells, tissues, or organs by cooling them to very low, or freezing, temperatures. This can grant more time for medical procedures and operations, and help to preserve things like organs during a transplant. And if you take cryopreservation to the extreme, you get to the slightly sci-fi world of cryonics. The practice of cryo-preserving the whole body – immediately upon point of death - in the hope that future medicine can bring it back to life.
Maybe in the future, we will crack the code on how to bring bodies back from the cold. And maybe some of the science lies in the freeze-thaw abilities of the wood frog. Or maybe cryopreserved bodies will remain frozen forever…
Featuring Dr Allison Sacerdote-Velat, Curator of Herpetology at Chicago Academy of Sciences, and Dr Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Produced and presented by Emily Knight and Becky Ripley.
TUE 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vch8)
Episode Two - Lily
Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.
Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.
Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.
In this second episode, Andrew describes how he met his wife Lily and how their relationship has evolved as his sight has deteriorated.
Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vm3y)
Professor Jo Phoenix tribunal victory, Actor Sarah Greene
In an exclusive interview, Emma Barnett speaks to the academic Professor Jo Phoenix who has won an unfair dismissal claim against the Open University after she was compared with “a racist uncle at the Christmas table” because of her gender critical beliefs.
New York Times writer Amanda Taub brings us the latest news from the US Presidential race.
Irish actor Sarah Greene on her new project, an eight-part series – Sexy Beast – which has just launched on Paramount+.
And we hear about a campaign to get a new portrait of Margaret Bondfield, the first female government minister, commissioned and hung in Parliament with MP Alison McGovern and historian Professor Pam Cox.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
TUE 11:00 Wild Inside (m001vm42)
The Bearded Vulture
Ominously called the lamb vulture, there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the bearded vulture. Flying the mountainous ranges across central Asia and eastern Africa, with a wingspan of almost three meters, the bearded vulture is am impressive Old World vulture. Prof Ben Garrod and Dr Jess French are looking past the beautifully coloured plumage, and delving deep inside to learn what this bird of prey really eats and what keeps its great wings aloft.
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 (m001vm45)
The Economic Dreamland
For decades, artists and scientists have dreamed up utopias that aim to reform 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 elements of these forgotten worlds propel us towards a brighter tomorrow?
For Johny, there was a time when he felt he was living inside the future. Between 1950 and 1990, Japan was a time of great prosperity, innovation and invention. The nation 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.
In the second episode of this four-part series, Johny considers what our future workplaces and creative practices might take from the explosive “bubble economy” era of 1980s Japan - a time of happy workers, booming industry, and pioneering inventions that we still love today. But was everything really as shiny as it seemed? What made the bubble era come crashing down and what can we learn from its collapse?
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 (m001vm47)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001vm49)
Call You and Yours: Paying for Care
Call You & Yours: We want to know how are you paying for care costs? If you are getting help - tell us who is helping you. If you have received funding was it easy to navigate the system and find out about support and contributions to the cost of care. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or on Tuesday morning call us on 03700 100 444
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001vm4c)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001vm4f)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
TUE 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vm4h)
Double entendre
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
And in today's programme he travels to Exeter to admire the Bishop's seat and discover the filth hidden behind the Double entendre of the Exeter book of Riddles.
Producer: Tom Alban
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001vkws)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001vm4k)
Talawa Stories: The Master’s House
Talawa Stories from the UK’s outstanding Black Theatre Company presents a haunting and urgent tale that sees four women – stripped of their identities and renamed April, May, September and December – plot their escape from the master’s house and the violence of patriarchy.
The location is unknown; time doesn’t live here and, for the first time, the men are gone. But for how long?
This gripping thriller by writer and actor babriye bukilwa interrogates what would happen in a world absent of men, questioning the depths of internalised patriarchy, underpinned by themes of surveillance, rage within sisterhood, and the power of queer intimacy.
Cast (in order of appearance):
December – Unique Spencer (she/her)
May – Heather Agyepong (she/her)
April – Danielle Kassaraté (she/her)
September - Jumoké Fashola (she/her)
Man/Master – Mohammed Mansaray (he/him)
Creative team:
Writer – babirye bukilwa (they/them)
Director – malakaï sargeant (they/them)
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 (m001vm4m)
Series 37
In Dreams
A couple looks for each other in their dreams, a research facility delves into the otherworldly, and a philosopher imagines a flow of time set to the rhythm of our rivers - Josie Long presents short documentaries that emerge from the dreams of others.
River Time
Featuring Jonathon Keats
Produced by Nadia Mehdi
Haunted
Featuring Linda Fleishman
Produced by Elizabeth Friend
Darling, Are You Dreaming?
Featuring Jules and Vital
Produced by Eloise Stevens
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 (p0gy823v)
Dr Rosie Benneyworth
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 (m001vm4q)
Words for Sale!
Michael Rosen explores how language has become an online commodity, with Dr Pip Thornton, Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Thornton explains, with the help of auction props and a receipt machine, what happens to the words that we put into an online search and how the engines make money from our words and phrases. We discover why William Wordsworth's daffodils and clouds have had their context 'stolen', how Lewis Carroll wrote an incredibly 'cheap' poem and why mesothelioma is the most 'expensive' word. Plus Michael proposes a new form of poetry - the Monetised School of Poetry.
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (m001vl9g)
Alan Freeman picked by Simon Mayo
In 1961 Alan 'Fluff' Freeman took over as the host of the BBC Radio's 'Pick of the Pops' and changed music broadcasting forever. From the opening "Greetings pop pickers" Alan would count down the hottest records of the week punctuating the end of each track with minimal detail before introducing the next. It was exhilarating radio and his staccato delivery and catchphrases of "Right, all right, stay bright" and "Not 'Arf" he influenced a generation of broadcasters.
Simon Mayo was a DJ at Radio 1 at the same time as 'Fluff' and says his broadcasting hero coming came into his studio and said "Simon, darling" before kissing the back of his own hand that he'd placed over Simon's mouth. Simon remembers the end of Fluff's time at Radio 1 and speaks openly about his own departure from the BBC in 2018. He tells Matthew Parris that it was Fluff's economy of words that impressed him when sometimes he'd simply say "and" to link two records, and how Freeman gave once gave him a notebook full of opera and classical music recommendations.
Behind-the-scenes Alan was generous, kind and encouraging, but he was also a deeply private man who few got to know well. But one person who did was producer Phil Swern who worked with Alan for many years.
Presenter: Matthew Parris
Guest: Simon Mayo
Guest: Phil Swern
Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol
TUE 17:00 PM (m001vm4s)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vm4v)
The Prime Minister said more will follow if they continue to attack ships in the Red Sea
TUE 18:30 The Ultimate Choice (m001vm4x)
Series 2
4: Cavemen v Clowns
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 Scott Bennett and Ria Lina.
Host: Steph McGovern
Guests: Scott Bennett and Ria Lina
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 (m001vm4z)
There’s surprising news for Harry, and Chelsea turns detective.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001vm52)
Oscar Nominations, Howard Jacobson, Culture Funding Cuts
Following today’s announcement of the 2024 Oscar nominations, film critic Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Front Row to consider how well this year’s shortlisted categories reflect the year in cinema.
In Howard Jacobson’s new novel, What Will Survive of Us, nothing much happens but everything changes. Lily and Sam, in middle age and longstanding relationships – with other people - fall in love, then stay that way for years and years. The Booker Prize winning author talks to Shahidha Bari about love, sex and literature.
Local Government funding has been rising up the political agenda with one in five council leaders fearing that their local authority is on the verge of municipal bankruptcy. However is cutting council spending on culture a false economy? Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive of Nottingham Playhouse and joint president of UK Theatre, and Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of Derbyshire County Council and member of the Local Government Association’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, join Front Row to discuss.
Presenter Shahidha Bari
Producer: Paula McGrath
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001vm56)
Bailiffs Behaving Badly
Councils in England and Wales are owed half a billion pounds - mainly in uncollected taxes and fines; money that's needed for essential services. Now, more and more, many are turning to bailiffs to recover the money. File on 4 hears from those on the receiving end - and industry insiders who say their colleagues are incentivised to behave badly. Mark Lobel also speaks to those at the forefront of industry reform who believe say the industry still needs to clean up its act.
Reporter: Mark Lobel
Producers: Phil Marzouk
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001vm5b)
Accessible smart meters, A blast from the past!
Accessible In Home Displays (AIHDs) work with Smart Meters so that blind and visually impaired people can more easily monitor their use of energy. Their features include large buttons, high contrast displays and text to speech functions.
Around a year ago, we looked at complaints from listeners about problems in obtaining AIHDs from their supplier and were hopeful that the issue had been resolved. However, it's clear that some problems remain. We speak to a listener who contacted us about their recent experience and we also hear from their energy supplier.
Our other guest on this edition is no stranger to In Touch, having started as a reporter and gone on to produce the show for many years. They join us today to tell us about being a visually impaired photographer and how that passion took them to Chile to get pictures of rescued miners who had been trapped underground in 2010. Guessed who it is? Tune in and find out!
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch"; and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to
the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.’
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (m001vm5d)
Speedy medicine, and is fermented food good for us?
In this episode we’re taking a look at emergency medicine outside hospitals and surgeries – and meeting the people who save seriously-ill people in unusual places.
Smitha Mundasad goes on a rainy walk in the hills with the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and meets the flying medics of London’s Air Ambulance. Will she have time for a chat before they get a call-out? We also hear from Sweden where they’re making lifesaving changes before the ambulance even arrives.
And from kombucha and kimchi to keffir and sourdough, fermented food and drink is everywhere. But as these foods have exploded in popularity, so have claims of health benefits, from digestion and gut health, to immunity and mood.
We start by trying some fermenting with chef Olia Hercules and then Smitha chats to fermented food “nerd” Professor Paul Cotter to sift through the evidence.
Next week’s Inside Health is all about the perimenopause – the time leading up to the menopause when oestrogen starts to drop. Why is it all still such a mystery?
Send us your questions – and we’ll put them to our panel. It’s insidehealth@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Smitha Mundasad
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Declared interests:
Professor Paul Cotter: “Research in the Cotter laboratory has been funded by PrecisionBiotics Group, Friesland Campina, Danone and PepsiCo. Paul Cotter has also received funding to travel to or present at meetings by H&H, the National Dairy Council U.S., PepsiCo, Abbott, Arla and Yakult. In addition, he is the co-founder and CTO of SeqBiome Ltd., a provider of sequencing and bioinformatics services for microbiome analysis.”
TUE 21:30 Things Fell Apart (p0h248k2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vm5g)
PM defends the latest US-UK airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen
How widespread is the practice of workplace surveillance?
And called up, but on a flight home - why is a 20 year old member of the England test squad unable to play in India?
TUE 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vm5j)
Episode Two: Scenes from a Childhood (Part Two)
A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.
'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde
‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
TUE 23:00 Icklewick FM (m001vm5l)
1. The Giant
IcklewickFM’s switchboard lights up when a very tall man is sighted on the outskirts of town. Amy and Chris try to keep on top of the rapidly escalating situation as the breaking news story tips into a full-blown panic.
The Mayor’s assistant (and rising social media star) Nicola Trickle categorically fails to quell the rising hysteria, and beleaguered manager Stanley Power calls in to discuss Icklewick FC’s latest humiliating defeat.
Radio producer and taxi rank entrepreneur, Mr Patel also says some stuff too.
Created and written by Chris Cantrill and Amy Gledhill with additional material from the cast.
Starring:
Kat Bond
Phil Ellis
Ninette Finch
Colin Hoult
Mark Silcox
Shivani Thussu
Johnny White Really Really
Sound Design and Music by Jack Lewis Evans.
Additional Material by Charlie Dinkin
The Line Producer is Laura Shaw.
Produced by Benjamin Sutton.
Icklewick FM is A Daddy’s SuperYacht Production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vm5p)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2024
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001vm5r)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vch8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vm5t)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vm5w)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vm5y)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001vm61)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vm63)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Celebrate the Good Things
Good Morning.
Do you remember the song “Oh my darling Clementine”, the daughter of a "miner, forty-niner" and the singer's lover? One day Clementine tripped, fell into a raging river and drowned. Her lover couldn’t swim, he didn’t even try to rescue her. But then he kissed her little sister and forgot all about her- so sad! It was only a year earlier than this song, on January 24, 1848, that James Marshall had found gold in Sutter's Mill in California, and the Gold Rush began. People rushed out west. By 1849, miners, prospectors and chancers had arrived in huge numbers. Wealth was to be had by panning or digging for gold. Some were successful and made millions. Most fell on hard times, or were cheated, with no gold and in the harshest of conditions.
It may seem like a different world, yet we still have rushes on particular shares, and stock market crashes. We still believe in Bitcoin- or think it’s a scam. We still believe you can get rich quick, though the evidence is against us. We still want to believe we can make a success really quickly. Easy money- that’s what we’re searching for. But of course there’s really no such thing, despite the pipedreams.
Nor does loads of money really make us happy, though we think it will. Lack of money certainly makes people miserable; poverty is neither ennobling nor healthy. But what makes us happy, once we have enough, is family and relationships, physical beauty, ideas, enjoying small things. The Gold Rush made a few people lucky. The rest ended up poor AND displaced. Let us learn from their poor outcomes to celebrate what we have, give thanks each day for the good things, and help those people who lack them to acquire them, so that they too can find contentment.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001vm65)
24/01/24 Grocery debate; Review into farm assurance schemes; Alternative to neonicotinoids; Family farm in Northern Ireland.
After a Westminster debate, prompted by an online petition with more than 110 thousand signatures, the farming minister has said the government's due to publish its new regulations on fairness in the dairy supply chain before Easter. The debate called for a fairer power balance between farmers and supermarkets and a change to the Groceries Supply Code of Practice.
The National Farmers Union and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board have agreed to commission an independent review of farming assurance schemes - they say 'to ensure the schemes are fit for purpose'. The two groups acknowledge that the Red Tractor Scheme will be part of the review, and say that 25 years after its creation it is now time to re-assess it.
Neonicotinoid pesticides were approved last week for emergency use, that's an exemption to a ban that's been in place in the UK and the EU since 2013. The chemicals are coated onto sugar beet seeds to make them resistant to a crop virus spread by aphids, called virus yellows. Environmental campaigners say they harm plants and insects and shouldn't be allowed. Now, scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich are using techniques similar to the Covid vaccines, to kill the sugar beet yellow virus directly in the plant, without interfering with the aphids that spread it, or having an impact on the wider environment. They've managed to create an anti-viral which binds itself to the RNA in the cell, which cleans out the disease.
All week we're looking at family farms. Today we visit County Londonderry in Northern Ireland where hairdresser Kerry Glass stepped up to help run the farm after her father-in-law lost his sight.
Presenter = Anna Hill
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbyhp)
Greenfinch
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Greenfinch. Often seen singing from the tops of garden trees looking large for a finch with a heavy bill, these are sadly a declining garden bird.
WED 06:00 Today (m001vmbk)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 More or Less (m001vlmb)
Shopping, shipping and wind chill-ing
Was Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves wrong about the increase in the price of the weekly shop? What has the violence at sea done to the cost of shipping? Why did YouGov feel the need to correct an analysis of their polling? Are there 30 million GP appointments every month? And how does wind chill work?
Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Charlotte McDonald and Nathan Gower
Producer: Debbie Richford
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: Rod Farquhar
WED 09:30 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001vmbm)
Drink Green Tea
Michael takes a break to brew up a cup of green tea, warming up to its distinctive taste and its health benefits. Dr Edward Okello, from the Human Nutrition Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, reveals how green tea can benefit our brain power and health. Green tea contains the polyphenol EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) and Professor Okello explains how this polyphenol inhibits a destructive enzyme which harms our brain cells. Michael also learns that a nice hot cup of green tea also induces calming brain waves, improves heart health and could even help delay dementia. Meanwhile, volunteer Jacqui enjoys the benefits of going green.
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 Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vcrn)
Episode Three – Adaptation
Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.
Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.
Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.
In this third episode, Andrew describes the changes he has had to make to his everyday life to adapt to blindness, from using a cane to learning braille.
Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vmbp)
Claire Waxman, Victims' Bill, China birth rate, D-Mer Study, Academy Award nominations
The Victim’s and Prisoner’s Bill heads to the House of Lords today for the Committee Stage. What is it trying to achieve, and what difference will it make to women? Emma is joined by the Independent London Victim’s Commissioner, Claire Waxman OBE, and a woman who will share her personal experience of a partner convicted of child sexual abuse who, under the current law, still had access to his daughter.
China is experiencing its biggest population drop in six decades. In an attempt to recover from the ‘one-child policy’ introduced in 1980, the government are now urging women to have more children. But a large amount of women in China are saying no – they don’t want children, or to get married. To discuss this further, Emma is joined by Dr Ye Liu from King’s College London and Cindy Yu, host of the Spectator’s Chinese Whispers podcast.
D-MER is a relatively unknown condition that could affect around nine percent of mothers who breastfeed. Emma speaks to Charlie Middleton from the University of Dundee, who is leading a study into the condition to find out more about it, and Beth Strachan, who has D-MER and is currently breastfeeding.
The Oscar nominations are out, and many feel that there are some key women who haven’t made the list, but should have. Among these are Barbie director Greta Gerwig and actor Margot Robbie – although Ryan Gosling has been nominated for his role in the movie. There’s only one woman director nominated – Justine Triet. Are women being snubbed? Film journalist Karen Krizanovich joins Emma to discuss.
Presented by Emma Barnett
Producer: Louise Corley
Studio Engineer: Donald MacDonald
WED 11:00 Alderney - The Holocaust on British Soil (m001vkwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m001vmbr)
23. Jane and Ann Boyd - Secret Baby
Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.
In this episode Lucy is joined by the Right Honourable Dame Siobhan Keegan, the Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, who was one of the first women High Court judges in Northern Ireland.
They explore the case of mother and daughter Jane and Ann Boyd, from a poor family living in Holywood near Belfast, whose lives are turned upside down when 19-year-old Ann is dismissed from her job as a domestic servant because she is pregnant and unmarried.
We worry a lot about lack of privacy today, about the invasiveness of social media, but Lucy discovers that in mid 19th century rural Ireland, in a very religious community, there was absolutely no privacy. The Boyd’s neighbours and extended family were in and out of each other’s houses all day, observing every detail of each other’s lives.
So when Ann goes into labour in the Boyd’s cottage, there is no way that Jane is going to be able to keep her daughter’s baby a secret.
Lucy is also joined by historian Rosalind Crone, Professor of History at the Open University. They travel to the Ulster Folk Museum near Holywood and discover the awful truth about how the shame of illegitimacy drove hundreds of Irish women every year to desperate measures to conceal their unwanted pregnancies.
Lucy wants to know what it was like trying to deal with an illegitimate pregnancy in a highly religious, judgemental society. How did the mid 19th century criminal justice system deal with women like Jane and Ann Boyd, and what might happen to women in a similar situation today?
Produced in partnership with the Open University
Producer: Jane Greenwood
Readers: Grace, Catherine and Margaret Cunningham, Jonathan Keeble,
Patrick Kelly-Bradley and William McBride
Sound design: Chris Maclean
Series Producer: Julia Hayball
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4
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 (m001vmbt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001vmby)
Loan Shark Funerals, Criminal Car Crimes and Nectar Card Cloning
The cost of funerals increased by almost 5 percent in 2023 to an average of £10,000, according to a research by financial services company Sunlife. The report also found that 20 percent of people say they experience notable financial concerns when paying for a funeral. We hear how, in some extreme cases, they're turning to loan sharks to help cover the costs.
Last week we told you of what we think is a new kind of fraud where we we think criminals are setting up fake hire car companies, so they can forward the fines they get on to other innocent people. This week our Investigative Reporter Shari Vahl is back with more listeners who are being chased for fines they couldn't possibly have created.
According to market researcher Kantar, 9 in 10 people have at least one shopping loyalty card. Last year Sainsburys, added 3 million new Nectar card customers, making their total 18 million members. However, there have been complaints over the years about the security of Nectar points. We'll take a closer look
And how much holiday can you cram into 24 hours? We catch up with Daycationers who reckon we're wasting our time spending a fortnight on a beach when you can pack in far more fun to just one day...
PRESENTER: PETER WHITE
PRODUCER: DAVE JAMES
WED 12:57 Weather (m001vmc2)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m001vmc7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
WED 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vmcb)
The Drunk and the Bullion Stone
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
The subject of drink and drunkenness is always a contentious one, but however puritanical or sensitive the age, the figure of a drunk, from Joanna Lumley's riotous Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous to Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff has been a regular feature of comedy. And as it turns out, you can go back further still to find the depiction of a comic drunk. Ian's in Scotland to see The Bullion Stone, a 10th century Pictish carving now on display in the National Museum of Scotland.
Producer: Tom Alban
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001vm4z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (p0h2jxkl)
Series 3
4. The Christmas Killers
by Frances Poet with monologues by Eileen Horne
Part Four – The Christmas Killers
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 come to terms with your own capacity for violence?
Dr Alex Bridges ….. Lolita Chakrabarti
Anthony ….. Lorn Macdonald
Finn ….. Reuben Joseph
Twitch …. Brian Ferguson
Simon ….. Shaun Mason
The Governor….. Karen Bartke
Dani ….. Elysia Welch
Dead Elvis….Andy Clark
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 (m001vmcg)
Money Box Live: What's going on with Energy Bills?
How are you dealing with energy costs this winter?
Money Box Live has heard some people are skipping meals whilst others in full time employment are turning to warm banks and food hubs to cut costs.
The energy price cap, which is now what most of us pay, jumped 5% at the start of the year to £1928 for typical use - but what exactly does that mean and are you a typical user?
Meanwhile, the charity Citizens Advice has estimated two million people on prepayment meters could have their gas and electricity cut off because they cannot afford to top up.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says its spending an average of £3,700 per household to support families with the cost-of-living. And there is some relief on the way as prices are predicted to fall in the spring.
Answering all your questions and comments with Felicity Hannah is Peter Smith, Director of Policy at the charity National Energy Action and Deputy Policy Director Daniel Portis from Energy UK which speaks for the industry.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Editor: Jess Quayle
(This episode was first broadcast oat
3pm Wednesday the 24th of January 2024)
WED 15:30 Inside Health (m001vm5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (m001vmcj)
THE ENGLISH
THE ENGLISH: Laurie Taylor asks how the country house became ‘English’ and explores changing notions of Englishness over the past 60 years. He’s joined by Stephanie Barczewski, Professor of Modern British History at Clemson University, South Carolina and author of a new book which examines the way the country house came to embody national values of continuity and stability, even though it has lived through eras of violence and disruption. Also, David Matless, Professor of Cultural Geography at Nottingham University, considers the way that England has been imagined since the 1960s, from politics to popular culture, landscape and music. How have twenty-first-century concerns and anxieties in the Brexit moment been moulded by events over previous decades?
Producer: Jayne Egerton
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001vmcl)
Deepfakes v democracy
Voters in New Hampshire have been getting phone messages apparently from Joe Biden urging them not to take part in the state's presidential primaries. How alarmed should we be about the potential for deepfakes to derail elections? We also talk about the world’s number one YouTuber, MrBeast and why Elon Musk was desperate to get him onto X. Also on the programme, we explore the government’s proposed reforms of the BBC and the political debates they have stirred.
Guests: Jake Kanter, International Investigations Editor, Deadline; Emily Bell, Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism; Zoe Kleinman, Technology Editor, BBC News; James Ball, Fellow, Demos; Walter Sheirer, Professor of Computer Science, University of Notre Dame; Owen Meredith, Chief Executive, News Media Association
Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Simon Richardson
WED 17:00 PM (m001vmcn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vmcq)
Moscow said the aircraft was carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war due for repatriation
WED 18:30 Clare in the Community (m000937l)
Series 12
Questions, Questions
Clare's got tickets to 'Any Questions' This is going to be the best night of her life, even is she does have to take Mrs Singh. Elsewhere, Brian's gone back to Men's Group and discovered there's been some developments.
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
CAST
Clare.....SALLY PHILLIPS
Brian.....ALEX LOWE
Nina Conti / Monkey.....NINA CONTI
Jonathan Dimbleby.....RICHARD LUMSDEN
Mrs Singh..... NINA WADIA
Keith....ANDREW WINCOTT
Joan ..... SARAH THOM
Ursula.....REBECCA ROOT
Hayden.....GEORGE FOURACRES
Shaznay......JENNY BEDE
Jenny Murray.....JENNY MURRAY
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001vlbn)
Alice drops in on Brian who hasn’t got dressed and is watching TV. They discuss the news and then Alice asks Brian if he’s ok. Brian reluctantly explains that he’s had a tightening in his chest since the weekend. Alice postpones her hack with Harry to sit with Brian, who guesses Alice has something else on her mind. Alice admits she’s wondering whether it’s too soon to introduce Harry to Martha. Brian tells her to stop over-thinking it and just ask Harry if he feels ready for it. Alice agrees to do that, but only if Brian makes an appointment with his GP.
Brad’s still stressed about working out who’s the Longest Drinker for The Bull’s competition. Added to that Mia’s asked him to find a model for the ReNew Fashion Show. Chelsea says Brad just needs to learn to say 'no' and reckons that Mia will think Brad’s really assertive if he gets Eddie Grundy on the catwalk.
Ed thinks Adam’s suggestion of the cricket field might work, although he couldn’t get hold of Grey Gables to ask if it would be alright. Brad appears and tries to convince Eddie to be a model at The ReNew Fashion Show. Eddie refuses until Chelsea arrives demanding that Eddie gets changed ready for a catwalk practice. Eddie gets into role and is convinced to put on a pair of heels, until Brad and Chelsea start laughing, and he realises he’s been had. Ed appears and asks for Brad’s help tomorrow. Brad reluctantly agrees and Chelsea wonders what’s happened to Brad being more assertive.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001vmcs)
Masters of the Air, Ronan Bennett on his Top Boy novel, hobbies and DIY art
Masters of the Air creator John Orloff, Literary spin offs from film and TV with Ronan Bennet and Robert Lautner, and when does a hobby turn into art? with Miriam Elia and Hetain Patel.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Corinna Jones
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m001vmcv)
Ukraine - the moral case for ceding land for peace
It’s now nearly two years since Russia began its full scale invasion of Ukraine. Hopes that Ukraine might seize back its territory have been dashed, in a conflict that’s become deadlocked. At first it felt clear – the invasion is wrong, Putin must fail and be seen to fail, Ukraine’s defiance and bravery must be supported with everything its allies can provide. But as the death, destruction and bloodshed continues, with little sign of progress on either side, questions have been raised about how the war might ever be brought to an end.
How realistic is it for Ukraine to aspire to recapture all of its land, even Crimea? This year’s US presidential election has sharpened the focus: A Trump victory could threaten Ukraine’s future supply of arms. Some believe Russia would settle for the land it has already captured. If so, for Ukraine the bitter pill of ceding some 20% of its territory would at least bring the war to an end. But what’s the moral case for this? What’s the real value of peace – bought at the cost of justice? If western powers are seen to allow aggression to win the day in Ukraine, what message would that send to Vladimir Putin and other tyrants around the world? In Ukraine, what’s the moral case for ceding land for peace?
Presenter: Michael Buerk
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Assistant Producer: Linda Walker
Editor: Tim Pemberton
WED 21:00 When It Hits the Fan (m001vmcx)
CEO salaries, Jordan Henderson and prostate PR
David Yelland and Simon Lewis discuss the fan-hitting hornet’s nest that is executive pay. After Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea said he couldn’t justify his £4.5 million pay packet, they ask - is the BBC Breakfast sofa a wise PR move for a chief executive?
Footballer Jordan Henderson - why his communications strategy is a little... offside.
And, the power of high-profile people being open about their medical conditions – how a prostate diagnosis can be used for the public good.
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 (m001vmcl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vmcz)
Anger in Argentina at radical reforms
Thousands of Argentinians have been protesting against its new leader's plans to rip up the economic rule book. We're live in Buenos Aires.
Also on the programme:
Did the Ukrainians shoot down a plane carrying scores of their own prisoners of war? We'll examine what we know.
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor on the importance of remembrance.
WED 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vmd1)
Episode Three: Scenes from a Childhood (Part Three)
A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.
'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde
‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
WED 23:00 We Forced a Bot to Write This Show (m001vmd3)
E6: The One Show, The Crown, and Clarkson.
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? (m000pgjz)
Series 1
2: Nedved
In her first stand-up series for Radio 4, Edinburgh Best Newcomer Nominee, Chortle Best Newcomer and Winner of the Herald Angel Award, 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 part two we go back to Sarah's school days as she gets mistaken for a footballer and looks closer at the reality of androgyny in early 2000s Nottingham ...
Producer: Adnan Ahmed
BBC Studios Production
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vmd6)
PMQs, severe weather and the next pandemic?
THURSDAY 25 JANUARY 2024
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001vmdc)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vcrn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vmdl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vmdq)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vmds)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001vmdv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vmdz)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Gratitude in The Everyday
Good Morning.
A friend of mine received a very serious cancer diagnosis recently, and was shocked and terrified of what the future might hold. She wasn’t afraid of dying, but she hated the prospect of chemo and radiotherapy, of getting weaker, of a return of her cancer, of gradually giving up. But, as I tried to comfort her, she said something very interesting. She’d been walking around London and suddenly everything she saw was in much sharper focus, the leaves on the trees, people’s smiles, the colour of the grass, the smell of the lilies at the flower stall. Everything was writ large, as if she was seeing and sensing things for the first time- or maybe the last.
She’s not the only person I’ve heard saying this. There is something about bad news that makes the brain focus acutely, on the here and now. As she was talking about revelling in the beauty of the season and the glory of winter in London, she made me realise that it shouldn’t take a serious diagnosis of disease to make us look at our surroundings more appreciatively. We SHOULD stop in our tracks deliberately and relish the colours, the scents, the overwhelming sense of the good fortune we can achieve from rejoicing in our surroundings. We SHOULD feel blessed by natural beauty and the abundance of nature. We should- like the rabbis of old- say a blessing every time we see something new, thanking God for it- or simply recognising our good fortune in being alive. Today, let’s each stop for one moment and look at one thing- a tree, an animal, a flower, a plant- and focus on it as if we were seeing it for the first- or last- time.
That should lift our day with joy and gratitude!
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001vmf3)
Billions of farm animals are transported around the world every year, both within the borders of individual countries and between them. An assessment of the welfare regulations surrounding animal transportation in different countries has found that livestock is not adequately protected while in transit. The research looked at policy relating to animal transport in the USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the EU and the UK.
Campaigners say urgent action is needed to give hedgerows legal protection. EU rules that governed all UK farmers in BPS or Basic Payment Schemes, were phased out at the end of 2023 and new ones to replace them aren't ready. Defra consulted with farmers last summer, but haven't published their plans yet. The Woodland Trust say they're concerned that in the meantime, habitats and wildlife could suffer if there aren't any limits on how and when hedges are cut back.
We’re talking about family farms all this week, the highs, the lows and the whole culture of a family running a farming business together. The Laytons have been working their traditional family farm in Herefordshire for more than 60 years. But sadly that tradition looks about to end after farmer Richard Layton took his own life in spring last year. He was 53. Neither of his two children are expected to take over the farm. We speak to Richard’s family about their plans for the future.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09k6gl1)
Doug Allan on the Snow Petrel
Recollecting about his encounters with birds in Antarctica, wildlife cameraman Doug Allan recalls ringing Snow Petrels with mixed feelings.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
THU 06:00 Today (m001vl92)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001vl96)
Panpsychism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that some kind of consciousness is present not just in our human brains but throughout the universe, right down to cells or even electrons. This is panpsychism and its proponents argue it offers a compelling alternative to those who say we are nothing but matter, like machines, and to those who say we are both matter and something else we might call soul. It is a third way. Critics argue panpsychism is implausible, an example of how not to approach this problem, yet interest has been growing widely in recent decades partly for the idea itself and partly in the broader context of understanding how consciousness arises.
With
Tim Crane
Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Rector at the Central European University
Director of Research, FWF Cluster of Excellence, Knowledge in Crisis
Joanna Leidenhag,
Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at the University of Leeds
And
Philip Goff
Professor of Philosophy at Durham University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Anthony Freeman (ed.), Consciousness and Its Place in Nature: Does Physicalism Entail Panpsychism? (Imprint Academic, 2006), especially 'Realistic Monism' by Galen Strawson
Philip Goff, Galileo's Error: Foundations for A New Science of Consciousness (Pantheon, 2019)
Philip Goff, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 2023)
David Ray Griffin, Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom and the Mind-Body Problem (Wipf & Stock, 2008)
Joanna Leidenhag, Minding Creation: Theological Panpsychism and the Doctrine of Creation (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Joanna Leidenhag, ‘Panpsychism and God’ (Philosophy Compass Vol 17, Is 12, e12889)
Hedda Hassel Mørch, Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions (Cambridge University Press, 2012), especially the chapter 'Panpsychism'
David Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West (MIT Press, 2007)
James van Cleve, 'Mind-Dust or Magic? Panpsychism versus Emergence' (Philosophical Perspectives Vol. 4, Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, Ridgeview Publishing Company, 1990)
THU 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vbzj)
Episode Four – The Clinic
Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.
Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision but, starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it - to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.
Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.
In this fourth episode, Andrew describes a visit to his eye doctor with his wife and wonders whether he is ready embrace life without sight.
Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vl9b)
Long Covid, Holocaust Memorial Day, Princess Superstar
Hundreds of doctors - led by campaign group Long Covid Doctors for Action - are planning to sue the NHS over claims that inadequate PPE provision has left them with Long Covid, according to Sky News. One of those, Dr Nathalie MacDermott, joins Emma Barnett to discuss it.
Emma is joined by the rapper Princess Superstar who, after a 30-year career, has finally hit the big time following her song, Perfect, featuring on the soundtrack for the blockbuster film Saltburn.
Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, we speak to three Jewish women - one, a survivor who was born in a concentration camp - about how you keep teaching the lessons of the Holocaust as fewer and fewer survivors are around to tell their stories.
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is facing pressure to fix "unfair" child benefit rules. Campaigners like Martin Lewis have called for it to be a focus of the Budget in March as he says single income families are being penalised. Emma talks to the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, the Conservative MP Harriet Baldwin, and Tom Waters from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (m001vl9d)
American Mercenaries: Killing in Yemen
While recent attention has focused on the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen, BBC correspondent Nawal Al-Maghafi investigates a different, hidden aspect of the country’s long civil war.
The conflict in Yemen began in 2014. It has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In 2015, a coalition formed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen. Its stated aim was to return the elected government to power, and to fight terrorism.
However, Nawal Al-Maghafi , from BBC Arabic Investigations has found evidence that the UAE has been funding a method of covert warfare in southern Yemen – assassinating those who have spoken out against the UAE’s operations in the country. Assassinations were initially carried out by a band of former American Special Forces operatives turned mercenaries, who were paid by the UAE. These extra-judicial killings, conducted in the name of counterterrorism, continue to this day. The UAE denies the allegations.
Reporter: Nawal Al-Maghafi
Producer: Alex Last
Sound mix: Rod Farquhar
Series Editor: Penny Murphy
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Executive Producer for BBC News Arabic: Monica Gansey
THU 11:30 Great Lives (m001vl9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001vmd8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001vl9l)
Gap Finders: Daniel Attia the founder of Yopa and Creature Comforts
Our Gap Finder today is Daniel Attia.
In 2013, at the age of 23 Daniel co-founded Yopa, the online estate agency after trying to sell his house and wondering why the agent he employed did so little yet took 2.5% of the purchase price.
Daniel thought there was a much simpler way to do it, and launched Yopa charging a flat fee (now £999), with the options to add extra services if the seller wanted. The company attracted millions of pounds of investment from Savill's Estate Agents and now is one of the biggest estate agencies in the UK.
While being Chief Executive at Yopa Daniel felt burnt out and stressed with running the company, and in 2019 left to invest in other start ups.
He now has a new idea to transform the way we use vets. He's starting a new business called Creature Comforts where you sign up to be a member and pay subscription of £20. Daniel promises transparent pricing, on the day appointments at the surgeries, and telephone advice from his vets. But - can he make it work amidst a shortage of vets across the country?
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: LYDIA THOMAS
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001vl9n)
Toast - Commodore Computers
Why did the best-selling computer manufacturer, Commodore, go bust?
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 examines the remarkable story behind the man who founded one of the world's best-selling computer manufacturers.
Commodore computers were huge in the 1980s so why couldn't the business adapt to survive in an age when computing became even more popular?
Expert commentators and employees reflect on why the company was so successful and what led to its demise.
Guests include David Pleasance - a former Commodore international executive and later joint managing director of its UK arm; Tim Danton - editor-in-chief of PC Pro magazine; Dan Wood - a Commodore computers enthusiast.
Alongside them is the self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White, to analyse the missteps that changed the brand’s fortunes.
If you have an idea for a topic with a toast moment then you can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
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 (m001vl9v)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001vlb3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
THU 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vlbc)
Visual Humour and Misericords
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
In today's programme Ian looks for the earliest examples of visual humour. It's not something you can find in the texts of ancient manuscripts, but in the company of art historian Dr Janina Ramirez he finds, under the seats of New College Oxford Chapel, wooden carvings that suggest those who made them were never happier than when making people laugh. There are straining green men, noble knights on pantomime horses and semi-clad students involved in what appears to be a boozy brawl.
Without the benefit of film, it's as near as we can get to examples of Late Medieval visual humour which verges on a depiction of slapstick.
Producer: Tom Alban
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001vlbn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 McLevy (m001vlc1)
McLevy in the New World (Series 2)
Fate Takes a Hand
1/2. Fate Takes a Hand. By David Ashton. Starring Brian Cox. San Francisco, 1849. At the height of the California Gold Rush, McLevy sets himself up as a private investigator hoping for a rich client. But his first case turns out to be less than lucrative – a poor black cook accused of murdering his wealthy white employer.
MCLEVY ..... Brian Cox
JEAN ..... Siobhán Redmond
GEORGE TAYLOR ..... Bryan Dick
ISAAC ..... Ben Onwukwe
SARAH ..... Ayesha Antoine
HENRIETTA ..... Nicole Ansari
PIERCE ..... Sandy Grierson
MALACHI FALLON ..... Forbes Masson
SAM BARTON ..... Gerard McDermott
Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/Director: Bruce Young
THU 15:00 Open Country (m001vlcq)
The changing river with Philippa Forrester
For over two decades presenter and wildlife expert Philippa Forrester has lived in a house with a river flowing through the garden. It's home to an abundance of species including Kingfisher, Mink and Egrets, and it's been the backdrop to a remarkable period of time when Philippa helped raise two orphaned otter cubs ready to be released back into the wild.
In this programme Philippa tells some of the stories of this river, and remembers how whole trees and even a car have come floating past after particularly heavy rains. She talks about how the river changes in the seasons, but also how she's seen legions of Signal Crayfish marching down after the sluice gate has been opened. Philippa drops down to Keynsham to speak to Simon Hunter about what can be done to help tackle this invasive species, and Ben Potterton from The Otter Trust pops over to the house to talk about those enigmatic and elusive carnivores.
Presenter: Philippa Forrester
Guest: Ben Potterton, The Otter Trust
Guest: Simon Hunter, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust
Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001vl2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (m001vl63)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 Wokewash (m001vld9)
Pride Before a Fall?
Following on from the success of Green Inc and with the same bold, provocative and entirely un-switchoffable energy, writer, comedian and satirist Heydon Prowse turns his tongue-in-cheek attention corporate Wokewashing.
From a razor company talking about #MeToo to an LGBT sandwich and a burger chain tackling depression, writer and satirist Heydon Prowse unpacks how some of the world's biggest corporations are falling over themselves to appear socially conscious, progressive. And he lifts the lid on the advertising and PR companies who've woken up to just how much money they can make helping them.
In this first episode, Heydon investigates corporations’ approach to LGBTQ+ inclusivity. He’ll trace the history from brands’ first engagements with gay customers to the situation today, where Pride month sees the high street and social media festooned with corporate rainbow flags. Heydon will ask how many companies live up to this inclusive message in actions. This episode will also take a look at the backlash to brand engagement with LGBTQ+ issues that has been seen in the UK and the USA as the corporate world is drawn into the culture wars. It’s led to boycotts and hasty backpedalling, but what’s really going on, and why?
Contributors:
Peter Tatchell, Activist and Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation
Prof Alison Taylor of New York University's Stern Business School and author of 'Higher Ground: How Businesses Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World.'
Rain Dove, Model and Actvist
Andrew Doyle, Comedian, GB News Presenter and author of The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World.
Producer: Sam Peach
Archive Credited To:
John Sloman (Youtube)
Dove US (Youtube)
raindovemodel (instagram)
dylanmulvaney (instagram)
Make Yourself At Home Podcast by Nines
Ben Shapiro (Youtube)
CNN
WKMG News
Kid Rock (X)
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001vlf5)
Hydrogen and the race to net zero
Hydrogen has long been touted as a potential wonder gas that could play a significant role in our race to net zero. Now, planning permission has been granted for the UK’s largest production hub of its kind, and one of the most advanced in the world. Located in Cheshire, it bills itself as a vital piece of Northwest England’s mission to help manufacturers in the region decarbonise their processes and support UK jobs. We speak to chemical engineer and the plant’s site manager, Richard Holden, and we also catch up with Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials and Society at University College London, about hydrogen and our future energy economy.
Almost 25 years ago, Dr Marc Lammers stumbled across a mystery. The humpback whale singing he was recording via an underwater microphone near the shore was quieter during the day than at night. But he wasn’t able to answer why. Many years later, a PhD student, Anke Kuegler, joined his research team and took on the task of uncovering what was really going on. Using multiple ways of listening to and tracking the whales, she found out that the singing humpbacks were moving off-shore during the day, and closer to shore at night. Part of the mystery was solved, but it raised an even bigger question: what is driving this behaviour?
Plus, a recent study has shown that terrestrial hermit crabs around the world are using non-organic materials, like plastic bottle caps, as their homes. Professor Marta Szulkin and her team at the University of Warsaw looked through social media photographs and videos (known as iEcology, or Internet Ecology) to find evidence for this new behaviour. Marta has theories about why the crabs are doing this, but it will take many years of research to uncover the long-term effects on hermit crab populations and their evolutionary trajectory. And, resident materials expert, Mark Miodownik, chats to Viv about what we can, and cannot, solve about the global plastic emergency.
Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
THU 17:00 PM (m001vlfl)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vlgl)
Valdo Calocane has been sentenced to indefinite detention at a high-security hospital
THU 18:30 Ellie Taylor's Safe Space (m000hmh1)
Series 1
4: Monogamy
Comedian Ellie Taylor has some opinions she'd like to get off her chest. In this episode she looks at being married and wonders whether being monogamous is actually all it's cracked up to be. She discusses her views with sketches, and help from the studio audience and her side-kick Robin Morgan. She also welcomes on a special expert guest...a lady who was once in a "throuple".
It is produced by Sam Michell and is a BBC Studios Production.
This programme was first broadcast in 2020
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001vlh3)
Susan and Clarrie read the article in The Borchester Echo promoting the Tearoom and Dairy. Adam turns up to have a refresh of the dairy in preparation for covering when Helen goes on holiday. Susan’s nose is put a bit out of joint and she tells Adam that they’ve held the fort before. Adam explains he’s just going to observe them. When he compliments them on their work, Susan takes the opportunity to put some streamlining ideas his way, much to Clarrie’s irritation. Afterwards Adam suggests going for a drink at The Bull where Burns Night is being celebrated. Susan pushes Clarrie into having a whisky even though she doesn’t want one. Whilst Adam’s at the bar, Susan thinks they might have a bit of fun with Adam while Helen’s away.
Ed and Eddie get ready to herd the Texels to the cricket ground. Ed wonders if it’s such a good idea after all – they haven’t got permission for the sheep to be there. Brad arrives to help Eddie and Ed, while Emma and Mia are waiting in position further on. Things get tricky at St Stephen’s church when a ewe and her twins head for the church porch whilst there’s a funeral on. But they manage to move them on and successfully reach the cricket ground. The experience has made Ed make up his mind about the tree surgery business. He just needs to get some money for the equipment by selling the new rams in August. Ed feels luck might be coming his way.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001vlhm)
The Color Purple reviewed, and the pop concert as cinema phenomenon
The Color Purple reviewed, and the pop concert as cinema phenomenon.
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (m001vlg9)
Is the UK prepared for more floods?
The UK is experiencing more rain and more floods than previously, and because of climate change this is set to get worse. More than 6 million homes are at risk of flooding in the UK.
What is the state of the country’s flood defences? Can people get insurance? What can we do to prepare for a wetter future?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:
Louise Slater, Professor of Hydroclimatology at the University of Oxford
Edmund Penning-Rowsell, Research Associate at Oxford University Centre for the Environment
Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading
Steven Forrest, Lecturer in Flood Resilience and Sustainable Transformations, Hull University
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonald
Production Co-ordinator: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison
Sound: Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m001vlj4)
Many unhappy returns
Some major fashion brands have started charging for online returns, or even banning customers who routinely send products back. The companies say that growing levels of returns are hitting their profits, so just how costly is it to process an unwanted dress, and what really happens when we pop it back in the post?
Evan Davis and guests take us behind the scenes into the hidden world of returns and the mini-industry that has sprung up to deal with the billions of pounds of items rejected by customers.
It's a growing problem, according to many retailers, with a small number of customers causing particular damage, so what's the best way to tackle it and does the responsibility lie with brands, shoppers, or governments?
Evan is joined by:
Robert Kulawik, chief operating officer, Everything5pounds.com;
Andy Rough, CEO, ACS Clothing;
Dr Regina Frei, associate professor of digital economy, University of Surrey.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett
Researcher: Paige Neal-Holder
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: A woman putting folded clothes into a cardboard box. Credit: Getty Images)
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001vlf5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001vl96)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vljy)
Emergency UN Security Council meeting over downed Russian plane
The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting tonight over the downing of a Russian military plane - which Moscow says was carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Will we ever find out what really happened? We speak to someone who worked on the MH17 case.
Also on the programme:
Anger from the families of those killed in attacks in Nottingham last summer after the killer, Valdo Calocane, is going to hospital - rather than prison. We'll ask what families can and should expect from the CPS in tragic cases like these.
A Russian woman has been sentenced to what's thought to be the longest prison term ever imposed on a woman in that country for killing of pro-war blogger. We speak to her husband in exile.
And as The Traitors reaches it's finale we speak to the Dutch TV producer who came up with the original idea.
THU 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vlkf)
Episode Four: Little Sister (Part One)
A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.
'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde
‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m001vlkv)
How do we deal with President Trump (again)?
Shockwaves from the Republican primary in New Hampshire are reverberating through the streets of Westminster and across Europe as political leaders come to terms with a new reality – Donald Trump could well be elected US president in November.
Amol and Nick look at why America may turn back to Trump with Megyn Kelly, the US news anchor who had to deal with invoking the ire of the former president – but is now the broadcaster he turns to when he wants to speak to the nation.
They also speak to Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff during his time in Downing Street, about how to build links with a president who doesn’t share a political philosophy with the incumbent in No 10.
And fellow Today presenter – and host of Americast – Justin Webb drops in to share his prediction for what will happen in the race for the White House.
Plus – Nick remembers his trips to the US with Blair and Gordon Brown, including a time when George Dubya Bush made him go viral – in the days before going viral was a thing.
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 Dafydd Evans.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vll9)
Alicia McCarthy reports as MPs question ministers about job losses in the steel industry.
FRIDAY 26 JANUARY 2024
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001vllm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vbzj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001vlm1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001vlmc)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001vlms)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001vln5)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001vlnf)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger
Holocaust Memorial Day
Good Morning.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, when we remember the Jews, Communists, Roma, homosexuals and others brutally murdered by the Nazis. It reminds us what can happen when hatred is encouraged, unchecked and murderous. But we CAN stand up for humanity. People did. Take the American prisoner of war Sgt. Roddie Edmonds. When his platoon was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, he was held in Stalag IX-A. The command came that the Jewish POWs were to fall out after morning roll call. Were the Nazis going to murder the Jews amongst the prisoners, as well as all the Jews in the countries they occupied?
“We’re not going to do that,” said Edmonds. “The Geneva Convention affords only name, rank and serial number, and so that’s what we’re going to do. All of us are falling out.” Edmonds, a Christian, was true to his word. The next morning, all 1,275 soldiers stood at attention in front of their barracks. The commander of the camp was furious: “All of you can’t be Jewish?!” “We are all Jews here,” replied Edmonds.
“I’m commanding you to have your Jewish men step forward.” Edmonds reminded him of the Geneva Conventions. The commander pressed his gun into Edmonds’ forehead. “You will have your Jewish men step forward or I will shoot you on the spot.”
Edmonds replied: “If you shoot, you’ll have to kill all of us, and you will have to stand for war crimes after we win this war.” The major was furious, but he walked away. The men went back to their barracks and cheered Edmonds.
God, teach us to learn from Sgt Edmonds’ example. We are all human, whoever we are, and whatever our origins. But sometimes it takes courage to lead others in showing that humanity.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001vlnn)
The Co-op is launching a new scheme to encourage its beef producers to cut emissions. The Beef Sustainability Pilot, which will run for two years, will pay farmers who reduce the carbon footprint of the beef they rear. It'll initially cover up to10% of the beef supplied and could mean an extra payment to farmers of between 6 and 12p per kilo. The supermarket says the data will form part of its plans to be net zero by 2040.
Since we left the EU, different agricultural policies are being developed and introduced at different speeds in all four nations of the UK. They are all, in their own ways, shifting towards rewarding farmers for benefiting the environment, rather than the old EU system which largely paid farmers based on the amount of land they farmed. We speak to four farmers from around the UK who are all part of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, a group "working to mainstream nature-friendly farming as the most sustainable way of producing food" to hear their views on the current policy landscape, and whether they're able to have an influence on the new schemes.
All week we've been talking about family farms - the joys and the challenges of running a business with your closest relatives. For the younger generation taking over the business can be tricky, doubly so when it happens suddenly and unexpectedly, which is what happened to the Pollock family who farm in Fife. Claire Pollock now runs the farm while her mum and sister run the on site farm shop.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2x8)
Marsh Tit
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 Marsh Tit. The marsh tit is badly-named. It doesn't live in marshes, and is most at home in older broad-leaved woodlands. "Oak tit" might be a better name. Unlike some other tit species they don't travel far, holding and defending their woodland territories throughout the winter.
ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.
FRI 06:00 Today (m001vld5)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001vl50)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland (m001vbqp)
Episode Five - Immersion
Andrew Leland reads from his witty and revelatory memoir about losing his sight and his quest to learn about the rich culture of blindness.
Andrew is midway through his life with an inherited eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa, suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon, but without knowing exactly when, he will likely have no vision left.
Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Andrew embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, ‘normal’ life to one with a disability. Andrew is determined not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it: to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.
Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humour, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider, and from which we have much to learn.
In this final episode, Andrew describes his experience at a training centre for the blind and contemplates how his life will be when he has lost all of his sight.
Andrew Leland’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and The San Francisco Chronicle. He has hosted and produced The Organist, an arts and culture podcast, and has been an editor at The Believer magazine since 2003. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and son.
Reader: Andrew Leland
Abridger: Ellin Stein
Producer: Jane Greenwood
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001vlfw)
Lauren Sequeira, Rape misconceptions, Singer Julia Bullock
False beliefs about what does and doesn’t constitute rape are more deeply ingrained in young people than we might think. The Crown Prosecution Service has conducted research into what these misconceptions are, and the impact they’re having on the justice system when it comes to rape convictions. Anita Rani is joined by Baljit Ubhey from the CPS and Andrea Simon from End Violence Against Women to hear more.
Julia Bullock is an American classical singer. Her debut solo album, Walking in the Dark, was nominated for a Grammy award. Next week, she is bringing her mixed-media project History’s Persistent Voice to London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. It shines a light on the words, work and experiences of Black American and British artists, and includes new songs commissioned from leading Black women composers. She joins Anita to discuss her music, her influences and her passions.
Journalist Helen Carroll faced a backlash online when she revealed she pays her son £40 a month to load the dishwasher. This sparked a discussion - were you paid as a child to do household chores? Or do you think children should just be doing things around the house anyway without money? Parenting coach and psychologist Sue Atkins joins Anita to discuss.
Domino Day is a brand new series coming to BBC Three which combines the world of modern dating with the world of the supernatural. Series writer Lauren Sequeira speaks to Anita about why the show’s themes of modern relationships and female empowerment are so important to her, and why she wanted to show witches in a whole new light.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lottie Garton
FRI 11:00 The Briefing Room (m001vlg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Thursday]
FRI 11:30 You Heard It Here First (m001kpxz)
Series 1
Episode 2
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 even work out what chocolate bars are being eaten based on sound alone.
The competing comedians are Alan Davies and Jess Fostekew taking on Suzi Ruffell and Paul Chowdhry.
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 April 2023.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001vmdj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m001vlhf)
Can we live without waste?
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 second episode Tom and Helen ask why we're rubbish at tackling waste. Estimates suggest we could cut up to 15% of greenhouse gas emissions if we just used all the stuff that we make and grow. Fashion houses burn their unworn stock and supermarkets make late changes to their orders from farmers, leaving edible crops to go to waste. It's the one climate change solution that doesn't ask anybody to give up anything, so why can't we put a stop to waste? Tom and Helen are joined by the waste-hunting journalist, Oliver Franklin-Wallis and expert on the bio-geography of landfill, Professor Kate Spencer of Queen Mary's, University of London.
Produced by Emma Campbell for BBC Audio Wales and West in conjunction with the Open University
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001vlj1)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001vljk)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
FRI 13:45 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001vlk1)
The Heege Manuscript
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
In this programme Ian is at the National Library of Scotland to see a manuscript that is unique in British comedy history. It actually describes the set of a 15th century entertainer who performed for audiences in Nottinghamshire at the time of the Wars of the Roses. The secrets of the Heege manuscript, which used to be part of a huge Medieval collection owned by Sir Walter Scott, were unearthed by Dr James Wade who shows Ian around the well-thumbed document. It was written out by a Richard Heege who, he claims, was able to report on what he saw because he was the only person sober enough to do so. He gives us examples of comedy routines including the hunt for a killer rabbit, a comedy sermon and a nonsense verse about a village fair. It's as near an eye-witness account as we have of a jester in action.
Producer: Tom Alban
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001vlh3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001vlkh)
Cobalt
Cobalt - Episode 3
Maita's in Zimbabawe looking for her dad. She's not ready for what she finds.
Series creators Eno Mfon and Darragh Mortell
Episode 3 by Eno Mfon
ORIGINAL MUSIC by Kaidi Tatham
CAST
Maita - Saffron Coomber
Julian - John Pfumojena
Mum - Caitlin Richards
Chiedza - Chipo Mushuku
Sound: Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
Director: John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production
FRI 14:45 Child (p0h2r53n)
3. The Secret Within
Pregnancy tests are so easy to take at home, but that wasn’t always the case.
In this episode, India examines the moment of finding out you’re pregnant and what to do with that knowledge. Should we tell, or wait 12 weeks? And why wait 12 weeks when the first trimester can be so hard?
We meet our first pregnancy hormone HCG, and hear from Hetal Bopodra who experienced extreme sickness during three pregnancies. India also speaks to Joeli Brearley from Pregnant Then Screwed about the “motherhood penalty” and the sometimes thorny issue of telling work you’re pregnant.
Presented by India Rakusen.
Producer: Georgia Arundell.
Series producer: Ellie Sans.
Executive producer: Suzy Grant.
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts.
Original music composed and performed by The Big Moon.
Mix and Mastering by Charlie Brandon-King.
A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001vll5)
Masham
Is it possible to use too much manure? What can I do to protect my larger plants from being damaged by builders? What’s the panel’s favourite plant with a rude name?
Kathy Clugston is in Masham, North Yorkshire for this week's programme along with a panel of horticultural experts, including garden designer Matthew Wilson, houseplant expert Anne Swithinbank, and curator of RHS Bridgewater Marcus Chilton-Jones.
Later, Matthew Wilson pays a visit to Rudding Park's kitchen garden where he speaks to kitchen gardener Emma Pew and head chef Callum Bowmer about what benefits of growing fresh produce directly on the hotel grounds has on their guests and visitors.
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001vllk)
The Language of Flowers
The Language Of Flowers by Elaine Chiew.
Willow, a primary school teacher, likes her colleague Geoff. And Geoff likes her. But they are no good at reading each other’s signals.
Originally from Malaysia, Elaine Chiew is a twice winner of the Bridport Short Story Competition. She is the author of the short story collection The Heartsick Diaspora. Her novel, The Light Between Us, will be published in May 2024.
Writer: Elaine Chiew
Reader: Phyllis Ho
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001vlly)
Norma Barzman, Lord Saye and Sele, Jim Hobson, Susan Campbell
Matthew Bannister on
Norma Barzman, the screenwriter from the Golden Age of Hollywood who fled to Europe after facing being blacklisted from the House Un-American Activities Committee for her Communist views.
Lord Saye and Sele, the aristocrat who served in the army during the Second World War, then worked to restore the historic family seat Broughton Castle.
James 'Jim' Hobson, the Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire who was in charge of the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested.
Susan Campbell, the illustrator who co-founded the Walled Kitchen Garden Network.
Interviewee: Larry Ceplair
Interviewee: John Barzman
Interviewee: Martin Fiennes
Interviewee: Franco Pardini
Interviewee: Jim Buckland
Interviewee: Caroline Conran
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
CSULB Human Rights Forum - Norma Barzman, the Advanced Media Production Center, California State University Long Beach, Beach TV CSULB, YouTube, uploaded 06/04/2009; The Locket (1946), RKO Radio Pictures; Norma Barzman, Hollywood Exiles, Podcast, BBC World Service, 15/01/2024; The House Committee of Un-American Activities Actuality, Omnibus, Hollywood on Trial, BBC Two, 04/11/1973; Give us This Day (1949) Dir, Edward Dmytryk; IMDB; Lord Saye and Seye interview, From D-Day to Bergen-Belsen: Lord Saye & Sele, Dir/Prod Nathan Portlock-Allan, YouTube uploaded 26/01/2021; Lord Seye and Sele, SignPost, BBC, 25/04/1962; News Conference, Newsbeat, BBC Radio, 04/09/1979; The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story, BBC Four, 11/04/2019; Susan Campbell "Trained Fruit in Historic Kitchen Gardens", Garden Conservation YouTube uploaded 30/09/2022; Susan Campbell makes her first visit to Althorp, Episode 8, Walled Garden Historian, spencer1508.com;
FRI 16:30 More or Less (m001vlmb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m001vlmq)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001vlnd)
But the ICJ stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m001vlnm)
Series 113
Episode 4
Andy Zaltzman quizzes the news. Providing all the answers are Lucy Porter, Geoff Norcott, Alasdair Beckett-King, and Cindy Yu.
In this episode Andy and the panel address the issue of BBC bias after upsetting a minister with last week's show, try and figure out exactly what Keir Starmer stands for, and ask the question... who is ready for war?
Written by Andy Zaltzman
With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Mike Shephard, and Meryl O'Rourke
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 (m001vlns)
WRITER: Caroline Jester
DIRECTOR: Kim Greengrass
Brian Aldridge… Charles Collingwood
Helen Archer … Louiza Patikas
Jolene Archer … Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer … Richard Attlee
Natasha Archer … Mali Harries
Tony Archer … David Troughton
Lilian Bellamy … Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter … Hollie Chapman
Susan Carter … Charlotte Martin
Harry Chilcott … Jack Ashton
Clarrie Grundy … Heather Bell
Ed Grundy … Barry Farrimond
Eddie Grundy … Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy … Emerald O‘Hanrahan
Brad Horrobin … Taylor Uttley
Chelsea Horrobin … Madeleine Leslay
Adam Macey … Andrew Wincott
Azra Malik … Yasmin Wilde
Rebecca Price … Rose Robinson
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001vlnx)
Dreams
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode take a deep dive into the cinematic subconscious to explore dreams in film and television.
Mark talks to Sandra Hebron, psychotherapist and head of screen arts at the National Film and Television School, about the origins and history of dreams in film.
He also speaks to director Bernard Rose, best known for his 1992 film, Candyman. They discuss his debut film, Paperhouse, and how it portrays the blurred lines between reality and dreams.
Taking a look at everything from The Sopranos to The Big Lebowski, Ellen investigates some of film and TV's most memorable dream sequences with help from film critic, Anne Billson.
Ellen then speaks to independent film director, Tom DeCillo, whose 1995 film, Living in Oblivion sought to subvert the clichés of the cinematic dream sequence.
Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001vlp1)
Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, Fay Jones MP, Anna Mikhailova, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from HaverHub in Haverfordwest. On the panel: Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Fay Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Wales, Mail on Sunday Deputy Political Editor Anna Mikhailova, Nick Thomas-Symonds - Shadow Minister without Portfolio.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Lead broadcast engineer: Nick Ford
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001vlp4)
I See No Ships
As the size and capability of the Royal Navy is thrust into the spotlight with events in the Red Sea, Stephen Smith reflects on whether this will put an end to speculation of planned cuts to the oldest arm of the British armed forces.
And with a spot of naval history in his family, Stephen examines why Britain's relationship with the sea, for all its flaws, is fundamental to who we are.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 Ian Hislop's Oldest Jokes (m001w922)
Omnibus Week 1
There are a number of themes or types or techniques in British comedy that seem to survive any social or political upheaval. We love wordplay, we're suckers for Double entendre and while animals can be cute or terrifying, they can also make us laugh. In this series Ian Hislop looks back to try and find the first examples of these jokes or comedy genres. We love a good parody but when did that become a thing? Can we really find Anglo-Saxon Double Entendre? You bet we can, and filthy to boot, another trove of British Humour.
He visits libraries, museums and chapels, and also talks to comedy stars and writers of today like Nina Conti, Paul Whitehouse, comedy song writing duo Flo and Joan and parodist Craig Brown.
Ian begins his quest in the dark ages, not known as a well-spring of comic opportunity. Nevertheless, in the pages of the Venerable Bede's 'Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum - Ecclesiastical History of England, there is wordplay. Not only that it's wordplay that obeys the comedy rule of three and it was potent enough to have a part in the naming of a nation. And how his fellow monks must have laughed.
Producer: Tom Alban
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001vlp7)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Scenes from a Childhood by Jon Fosse (m001vlp9)
Episode Five: Little Sister (Part Two)
A selection of connected short stories by the celebrated Norwegian author Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature - “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”. Minimalist and compelling, these pared-back vignettes take us from infancy to awkward adolescence, skirting the line between fiction and autobiography. Episodes one to three draw stories from the titular story sequence 'Scenes from a Childhood'; episodes four and five are taken from the story 'Little Sister'.
'the Beckett of the twenty-first century' - Le Monde
‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ - New York Times
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Read by John Mackay
Produced by Mary Ward-Lowery and Mair Bosworth
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
FRI 23:00 Americast (m001vlpc)
Join the Americast team for insights from across the US.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001vlpf)
Sean Curran reports as the House of Lords debates the war in Ukraine.