SATURDAY 02 MARCH 2024
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001wrny)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:30 Ritual by Dimitris Xygalatas (m001wrh1)
Episode 5
How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
By Dimitris Xygalatas.
5/5 Dimitris looks at various ways that ritual is used in contemporary society and explores why its significance in our lives remains strong.
Reader: Robert Jack
Abridger: Ben Lewis
Producer: Kirsty Williams
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wrp4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wrp9)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wrpf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001wrpk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wrpp)
Forgiveness
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
My neighbour dropped in for tea recently, bringing a few little flower cuttings from her flower pots.
I’d been immersed for some days in mediations with people where wounds from the past were arising and old positions being attacked or defended.
After my neighbour left, I sat quietly gazing at the flowers. They reached deep into my heart, touching me in such an unexpected way that renewed my understanding of how we are gifted by nature’s wisdom to uplift our responses to life’s challenges.
This month, Sikhs celebrate Guru Har Rai, who became the 7th Sikh Guru in 1644. He was revered for embodying the virtue of forgiveness and the principle of Nirvair - meaning without enemy or animosity; that the nature of the universe is not against itself.
Guru Har Rai also had a deep love and knowledge of the healing power of plants.
In the presence of these humble flowers touching my heart, I was reminded of the Guru’s response when his devotees questioned him for giving healing medicine to the son of an emperor who had declared the Guru’s father an enemy years before… He explained if someone breaks flowers with one hand and offers them in the other, the flowers will give their fragrance to both hands equally.
Through nature, God reminds me that forgiveness is two words - for giving.
May I remember that the heart, like a flower, is in constant readiness to make an offering in the spirit of true generosity; that to be for giving rather than against something or someone, releases the shackles of the past and contributes to a blossoming future.
Sat Naam
SAT 05:45 Lent Talks (m001wq4t)
Doubt
‘I know the plans I have for you… plans to give you hope and a future.’ - is one of the most popular Bible verses. Then why do we doubt our future so much? Don’t we wish we knew those plans? A sure and certain future can feel increasingly out of reach. After a pandemic highlighted the fragility of life’s fixtures, doubt now hangs over everything from theatre tickets to birthday parties. Meanwhile thanks to generative AI, fake news opens the doors to fake history. Photographic evidence may have once worked for doubting Thomas, but it wouldn’t any more. When we can no longer trust what we can see, how do we put our trust in a God that we can’t see? Comedian and writer Paul Kerensa sees doubt as the double-act partner of faith - yin to its yang, Ant to its Dec. After twenty years of gigs in comedy clubs, and forty years of hospital appointments for a rare health condition that gave him an ‘outie’ bladder, Paul is used to dealing with an unreliable world by finding its humour. Is there hope in doubt? It’s doubtful. But isn’t everything?
Producer: Carmel Lonergan
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001wydd)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m001wqg7)
Walking at Night on the South Downs near Seaford
When author Annabel Abbs suffered a series of bereavements she found herself unable to sleep. Eventually she began getting up and walking around her garden and neighbouring fields around
3am. But when she heard about Caroline Whiteman who runs guided walks at night without head torches, she just had to go along on one. Caroline began the walks as an experiment in overcoming her fear of the dark. She has found other people keen to get out at night and experience the dark in a totally different way under her care and supervision. Although Clare is walking on a winter's night with barely any moon visible it's amazing how quickly the landscape lights up and the chalk cliffs stand out against the sea.
They walked in a loop starting and ending at South Hill Barn Car Park BN25 4JQ near Seaford
Producer: Maggie Ayre
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001wydg)
02/03/24 Welsh farmers' protest; UK rivers' health
Thousands of discontented farmers gathered outside the seat of the Welsh Government, the Senedd, in Cardiff Bay, this week in what was probably the biggest farmer protest seen in the UK in recent years. They’re unhappy about various aspects of agricultural policy including the new Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme, which is heading into its final week of consultation. The scheme is to replace the system of subsidies that operated under the EU’s common agricultural policy, and to claim it farmers need 10% of their land under tree cover and a further 10% used for wildlife habitat. Farmers say it's unworkable, but conservationists say it'll protect farming as well as nature.
We also look at the state of British Rivers. It coincides with the publication of the Rivers Trust's annual report, which shows that no single stretch of river in England or Northern Ireland is in good overall health. We hear about projects by charities and farmers that are aiming to improve the situation. Presented by Caz Graham
SAT 06:57 Weather (m001wydj)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m001wydl)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001wydn)
Jennie Gow, Sarah Marsh, Ken Fowler, Alex Horne
Jennie Gow, the journalist and BBC motor racing presenter who is navigating her post-stroke life and plans to be back on air for the Formula 1 this season.
Sarah Marsh, the deaf author who has written a debut novel about a deaf woman finding her identity in a hearing world.
And sailor Ken Fowler who circumnavigated every island in England and Wales, solo, in a 4m dinghy called Yoda.
And don't miss the Inheritance Tracks of the comedian Alex Horne who is on Channel 4’s hit comedy game-show and this week, we’ve given him the task of assisting us with choosing his musical choices.
Presenters: Jon Kay and Nikki Bedi
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m001wydq)
The Inca Empire
In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Professor Bill Sillar and comedian Sue Perkins to learn all about the South American Inca empire. At their height, the Inca controlled a vast territory from their base in Peru, one that stretched down the mountainous west coast of the continent, from Ecuador all the way down to Argentina. But the empire barely lasted for a century. Beginning in the mid-fifteenth century, it fell in the 1530s with the arrival of Spanish conquistadores, led by Pizarro. This episode goes beyond famous sites like Machu Picchu and explores all aspects of Incan life, death – and taxes! Along the way, it takes in social and family structures, food and drink, religious practices, art and architecture.
[The podcast version of this episode has been edited slightly to amend an incorrect reference to the weight of the stones carried from Cuzco to Ecuador]
Research by: Andrew Himmelberg
Written by: Andrew Himmelberg, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Caitlin Hobbs
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001wxnj)
Series 43
Lewes
Jay Rayner and his panel of food connoisseurs are in Lewes for this week’s episode. Joining Jay are chef Tim Anderson, food writer Lerato Umah-Shaylor, and drinks expert Alice Lascelles.
The panel discusses the best way to use up a glut of avocados, how to use nettles in cooking, and the best type of crisps to pair with wine.
Meanwhile, drinks journalist Alice Lascelles takes us through the best types of English wine, while Tim Anderson offers up his tips and tricks for cooking with Japanese fruit, yuzu. The panel also addresses the question on everyone’s mind - if you could bathe in one fruit, what would it be?
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001wyds)
Bloomberg's Emily Ashton discusses the latest developments at Westminster.
Emily is joined by Lord Barwell, who served as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, Theresa May in Downing Street, and former political adviser to the Labour Party, John McTernan, as they discuss the results of the Rochdale by-election.
To discuss Islamophobia, Emily is joined by Baron Walney, the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, and Baroness Gohir, who leads the charity, Muslim Women's Network UK.
Emily is joined by the Institute for Government's Jill Rutter, and Dame Sara Thornton, the UK's former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to discuss the role of commissioners and independent advisers, following the sacking of David Neal, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
And finally, as the Prime Minister hosted a cabinet in Yorkshire this week, Emily brings together the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, and Seb Payne, Director of the centre right think tank, Onward, to discuss the importance of politicians getting out of Westminster.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001wydv)
Gaza's Humanitarian Nightmare
Kate Adie presents stories from Gaza, Turkey, Somalia, Ecuador and Japan.
US President Joe Biden raised hopes that a ceasefire deal was close to being reached this week over the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. But these hopes faded after a tragic incident in which more than 100 people were killed as aid was being delivered to Gaza City. Paul Adams says the incident also highlighted wider problems as the war continues.
Lizzie Porter follows the story of a family who fled Gaza early on in the war, and who fled to Turkey as dual nationals, leaving family, friends and valuables behind. They told her about their new life in Turkey and their fears for those left behind.
After the militant group, Al Shabaab withdrew from the Somalian capital Mogadishu, the city has become safer. Nonetheless the group remains a potent threat. Yet there is an even greater menace in the country: climate change, after severe droughts, followed by flooding forced farmers off their land. Peter Oborne met some of those who were displaced and who are trying to support themselves in other ways.
A project in Ecuador is using the Amazon’s “ancestral highways” – rivers – and a fleet of solar-powered boats run by Indigenous communities to provide a sustainable model of transport for the future. Peter Yeung went for a ride and heard how this has been met with a mixed response by some indigenous leaders.
And we're in Inazawa in Japan, where the Hadaka Matsuri - or Naked Festival - has come up with a solution to flagging numbers of participants: involve women. Shaimaa Khalil met a group of 40 women who took part (in robes) for the first time.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Matt Willis
Production Coordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001wydx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001wy9v)
The Future of Money and Universal Credit
Money Box gets a special look at a new exhibition at the Bank of England Museum about the future of money. Paul Lewis picks up a gold bar, sees the new King Charles money, and finds out more about the consultation for a new digital pound.
The pensioners getting in touch to ask why they’re soon to start paying tax on their pensions. We'll discuss that with the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group.
And, there are calls this week for the government to slow down the speed at which its moving existing benefits claimants onto Universal Credit. The Child Poverty Action Group says it is seeing cases of people struggling to claim, or missing the deadline as they are unsure what’s required of them. The Department for Work and Pensions told us the vast majority of Tax Credit claimants have successfully moved to Universal Credit, and that there is a range of support available to help people move.
Presenter:: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday 2nd March 2024)
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m001wrlh)
Series 113
Episode 9
Hugo Rifkind, Susie McCabe, Ashley Storrie and Stuart Mitchell join Andy Zaltzman to quiz the week's news from Aberdeen.
This week the panel discuss Gordon Brown’s vision for a second renaissance in Aberdeen, why Lee Anderson has lost the Tory whip, and the difference between Mob Rule and Ja Rule.
Written by Andy Zaltzman
With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Rebecca Bain, Alex Garrick-Wright, Krystal Evans, Peter Tellouche and Christina Riggs.
Producer: Georgia Keating
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinators: Sarah Nicholls & Jodie Charman
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Recorded by Sean Kerwin
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m001wydz)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001wyf1)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001wrmh)
Hilary Benn MP, Tina McKenzie, John Nicolson MP, Jacob Young MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Hexham Abbey, Northumberland with the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn MP, the UK Policy Chair at the Federation of Small Businesses Tina McKenzie, the SNP's Shadow Culture Spokesperson at Westminster John Nicolson MP and the Levelling Up Minister Jacob Young MP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: John Cole
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001wyf3)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week
SAT 14:45 The Banksy Story (m001p22m)
Episode 10: Who Is He?
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 the last episode of this series, Banksy springs a surprise retrospective show in Glasgow, and we hear why Steph told her story.
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 The Green Man Festival, Hadrian Briggs, Pete Chinn, Patrick Nguyen, John Higgs and Steph Warren.
An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m0009z2w)
Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall Of The British Empire) is an album by The Kinks, originally released in October 1969. The songs feature autobiographical stories and characters from Ray Davies' early life and offer a fascinating snapshot of this period in British history - a period of upheaval that resonates strongly with the present.
The story is simple - a close-knit, working-class family is torn apart when Ray's brother-in-law, Arthur, decides to move his family half way around the world to Australia. The whole family is trying to come to terms with what it means to live in post-war Britain - the lost empire, the lack of respect, the broken institutions, a country in flux, a country split over whether or not to join the European Economic Community and a country struggling to come to terms with its own identity.
The drama has plenty of music - with songs written at that pivotal time in British culture re-versioned especially for BBC Radio 4, 50 years later. The songs have special resonance for Ray Davies, who was devastated when his older sister Rose emigrated to Australia in 1964 with her husband Arthur Anning. It inspired him to write the song Rosy Won't You Please Come Home, included on the 1966 album Face to Face.
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) is a study in song of what it means to be British - then and now.
THE KINKS are recognised as one of the most important and influential British rock groups of all time. From their explosive beginnings as part of the British Beat movement to forays into concept albums, The Kinks have a legacy of classic songs, many of which form the building blocks of popular music as we know it today.
SIR RAY DAVIES is the iconic founder member and presiding genius of The Kinks. As his songwriting developed, he emerged as a witty, compassionate social commentator chronicling the aspirations and absurdities of English life. He is the Olivier award-winning writer of the musical plays Sunny Afternoon (4 Oliviers, Pinter Theatre, West End), Come Dancing (Stratford East) and 80 Days (La Jolla Playhouse). This is his first radio play.
PAUL SIRETT (co-writer) is a multi-award-winning writer of The Big Life (Apollo Theatre, West End and BBC World Service), Come Dancing (with Ray Davies, Theatre Stratford East) and Reasons to be Cheerful (Graeae Theatre Company).
THE SONGS:
VICTORIA
Performed by The Kinks
THE FUTURE
Performed by Arthur & The Emigrants
THE VILLAGE GREEN
Performed by Rosie Cavaliero
ARTHUR version 1
Performed by Arthur & The Emigrants
ARTHUR version 2
Performed by The Kinks
SOME MOTHER’S SON
Performed by The Kinks
THE FUTURE
Performed by Mark Newnham
YES SIR, NO SIR version 1
Performed by The Kinks
YES SIR, NO SIR version 2
Performed by Lee Ross
DRIVIN’
Performed by The Kinks, Lee Ross and Rosie Cavaliero
MR CHURCHILL SAYS
Performed by The Kinks
BRAINWASHED
Performed by Ben Norris, Mark Newnham, Stephen Lloyd and Arthur Hughes
WATERLOO SUNSET
Performed by Mark Newnham
AUSTRALIA
Performed by Lee Ross and The Kinks
PICTURES IN THE SAND
Performed by Lee Ross
YOUNG AND INNOCENT DAYS
Performed by Rosie Cavaliero
NOTHING TO SAY
Performed by Ben Norris
POSTCARD FROM LONDON
Performed by Rosie Cavaliero and Ray Davies
YOU REALLY GOT ME
Performed by The Kinks
SHANGRI-LA
Performed by The Kinks
Guitar by Bill Shanley
CAST AND CREW:
Arthur……....……...LEE ROSS
Rose…………….......ROSIE CAVALIERO
Ray…….................STEPHEN LLOYD
Dave………….........MARK NEWNHAM
Terry………….........BEN NORRIS
Bobby…...............ARTHUR HUGHES
Julie/Sally…….......EMERALD O’HANRAHAN
Mr Henderson…...DAVID HOLT
Mum…………….......KAREN SPICER
Dad/Jones……......WAYNE NORMAN
Writers: Ray Davies and Paul Sirett
Sound Engineers: David Thomas and Matt Jaggar
Production Coordinator: Sarah Tombling
Musical Director: Harvey Brough
Director: Karen Rose
Producers: Karen Rose and Ray Davies
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 16:15 Woman's Hour (m001wyf5)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Actor Samantha Morton, Alabama IVF, Andi and Charlotte Osho
The twice Oscar-nominated actor Samantha Morton has just received the Bafta Fellowship: a lifetime achievement award which recognises an outstanding contribution to film and television. She grew up in the social care system and began working in film and television at the age of 13. In a moving speech at the Baftas last week, Samantha dedicated the award to every child in care today.
Both Republicans and Democrats in the US state of Alabama are trying to find a legal solution that would protect access to IVF treatment, after a court ruling cast doubt on its future. Alabama's Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that frozen embryos have the same rights as children. Jenny Kleeman speaks to lawyer Eric Wrubel, who specialises in fertility law and Kristia Rumbley who has three frozen embryos at a fertility clinic in Alabama.
People in their early 20s are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than those in their early 40s, according to a new report. Lindsay Judge, Research Director at The Resolution Foundation, which carried out the research, explains how young women are particularly affected and are one-and-a-half times more likely to experience poor mental health than young men.
Last July, comedian, actor and author Andi Osho joined spoke to us about her second novel, Tough Crowd. During the interview Andi revealed she was also editing her mother’s memoirs – a legacy for her three children. Charlotte Osho has now published The Jagged Path, and she joins Emma along with her editor/daughter Andi.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
SAT 17:00 PM (m001wyf7)
Full coverage of the day's news
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m001wyf9)
The Nigel Farage 2024 One
Nigel Farage tells Nick Robinson that "timing is everything" when it comes to deciding whether to return to frontline politics.
Fresh off the plane from Florida, Farage talks about what he can learn from - and how he can defend - Donald Trump, as well as islamophobia, Liz Truss, and what he would do if prime minister
Producer: Daniel Kraemer
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001wyfc)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m001wyff)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wyfh)
The US has used military planes to airdrop more than 30,000 meals into Gaza.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001wy9x)
Bruce Dickinson, Noomi Rapace, Siobhán McSweeney, Travis Jay, MT Jones, OneDa, Rachel Parris, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson and Rachel Parris are joined by Bruce Dickinson, Noomi Rapace, Siobhán McSweeney and Travis Jay for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from MT Jones and OneDa.
SAT 19:00 Profile (m001wy9f)
Yulia Navalnaya
Mother, widow... and now the face of Russian opposition?
Yulia Navalnaya has risen to the spotlight in recent weeks following her husband's death in a Siberian prison. The wife of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has until now remained in the background. Navalnaya chose to focus on bringing up their children, supporting his political work from behind the scenes. When her husband was poisoned in 2020, she fought the authorities to release him to a German hospital for treatment. Navalny said she saved his life.
Now, Yulia Navalnaya has taken on the role of the defiant widow in their tragic love story. Making speeches to the European Parliament, meeting with world leaders, and launching her social media profile, Navalnaya has vowed to continue the work of her late husband. Who is the woman taking on Putin?
Presenter: Mark Coles
Producers: Ellie House and Madeleine Drury
Studio Manager: Hal Haines
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Editor: Damon Rose
SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0hbmlgd)
Series 29
Asteroids
Brian Cox and Robin Ince journey through the asteroid belt to discuss space rocks with Dr Who companion John Bishop, professor of planetary science Sara Russell and astrophysicist Alan Fitzsimmons. They learn that these seemingly innocuous rubble like rocks can hold secrets to the formation of the solar system but just don’t jump on one – you may shoot straight through it! They find out about the latest space missions that are trying to bump into or grab bits of asteroids and how these technological feats are helping to avoid the end of life on earth as we know it.
Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001wyfm)
RNLI at 200
Griff Rhys Jones takes a deep dive into the RNLI archive in search of stories – the touching, heroic, sad and sensational - as we celebrate 200 years of an iconic British institution.
Since 1824, RNLI crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,900 lives. It’s an extraordinary figure, especially given the RNLI is a charity. But it’s a charity fuelled by a deep UK wide passion – passionate volunteers (often down through the generations of the same family) who give their time and risk their lives to save others, passionate coastal communities who know the value of the service first-hand, passionate fundraisers who devote entire lifetimes to raising funds to support the RNLI, and of course passionate survivors who owe their lives to the RNLI.
On 4th of March 2024, this legendary charity reaches a 200 year milestone.
In RNLI at 200, sailor and long-standing RNLI supporter Griff Rhys Jones dives into the history of the Institution where he draws on stories from the recent RNLI 200 voices project, and rich material from their audio and film archive which stretches back over 70 years. There are also fresh contemporary interviews with historians Helen Doe and Sam Jones, together with key figures from the organisation including current Chief Executive of the RNLI, Mark Dowie, and former Operations Director, Michael Vlasto.
Many of the stories Griff shares are hugely moving and emotive, most of all they’re just touchingly human. From the story of Henry Blogg, the RNLI’s most decorated volunteer to Galen Bartholomew who tells how his great grandmother was rescued when the Suevic ran aground of Lizard point. Margate lifeboat coxswain Edward Parker shares memories of Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk and fundraising legend Lifeboat Mary tells how, if she could, she’d love to capture the smell of the lifeboat for a perfume. There are also tales of tragedy and heartbreak, including the haunting memories of Janet Madron from the night her husband, Stephen, was lost on the Solomon Brown in the Penlee disaster.
Woven throughout the crew of the Bonita, a 6800 tonne cargo vessel which met with disaster in the English Channel in brutal weather in the winter of 1981, share the story of their extraordinary rescue.
Producer: Dan Holland
Executive Producer: Pennie Latin-Stuart
An Adventurous Audio production for BBC Radio 4
Photograph: Stephen Duncombe
SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m00035h8)
China Towns
Episode 7
Inspired by the novels of Arnold Bennett, an epic tale of money, passion and defiance set in the Staffordshire potteries. Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan and Shaun McKenna
Darius Clayhanger faces his day of reckoning while across the seas love finds a way to thrive during the Siege of Paris. It’s the 19th Century and the Industrial Revolution is at full throttle. Only the ruthless succeed in this uncompromising world.
Ephraim Tellwright . . . Neil Dudgeon
Darius Clayhanger . . . Tim McInnerny
Edwin . . . Cameron Percival
Big James . . . Ian Conningham
Aunty Hamps . . . Carolyn Pickles
Janet . . . Saffron Coomber
Sophia . . . Alexandra Constantinidi
Madame Foucault . . . Caroline Loncq
Chirac . . . Charlie Anson
Henry Mynors . . . Joseph Kloska
Titus Price . . . Michael Bertenshaw
Dr Heve . . . Tony Turner
Cassie . . . Jeanette Percival
Man . . . Christopher Harper
Incidental music arranged by Colin Guthrie and performed by Colin Guthrie, Peter Ringrose and Ian Conningham.
Produced and directed by Gemma Jenkins.
SAT 22:00 News (m001wyfp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 Add to Playlist (m001wrm8)
Leo Geyer and Gillian Moore take us from Bach to Bowie
Composer, conductor and bassoonist Leo Geyer, and The Southbank Centre's Gillian Moore, join Jeffrey Boakye and saxophonist Jess Gillam - standing in for Cerys Matthews - as they head from a famous Bach well-tempered classic, via Taiwan, to David Bowie's parting gesture. British-Chinese flautist Daniel Shao explains the intricacies of a traditional Taiwanese flute tune.
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Jeffrey Boakye and Jess Gillam
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Well-Tempered Clavier: Prelude in C Major by Bach
Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
A Tayal Folk Song by Ming Flute Ensemble
Symphony No.9 in D Major (1st movement) by Gustav Mahler
Lazarus by David Bowie
Other music in this episode:
Pull Up To The Bumper by Grace Jones
In the Mood by Glenn Miller
Ave Maria by Charles Gounod
Don't Cry For Me Argentina by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice
Fugue No 24 in B Minor by Bach
Symphony No.6: 'Pathétique' by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (m001wq32)
Series 37
Semi-final 3, 2024
(12/13)
Paul Gambaccini hosts the last of the 2024 semi-finals from London's Radio Theatre, as the remaining three heat winners from earlier in the series play off for a place in the Final.
They've already shown the breadth of their musical knowledge; but to make it to the Final they'll really have to be on their mettle. Whether it's Guns n' Roses, Grieg or the Greatest Showman, their expertise across the musical spectrum will be tested through general, specialist and quickfire rounds.
The semi-finalists are
Nicki Cockburn from Cardiff
Vicky Johnson from Nottingham
Anju Sharda from Hertfordshire.
The Final takes place next week.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SAT 23:30 Offstage: Inside The X Factor (p0h6fl4l)
6. Aftermath
As they were voted off the show, the contestants head home to pick up their lives where they left off. Chi Chi finds out who thinks the programme helped them, and who regrets going on the show.
Join Chi Chi Izundu as she looks back on the world of The X Factor, where contestants perform in front of celebrity judges to realise their dream of becoming household names. It’s a world of glamour and excitement, but also of hard truths, hard words and hard work.
Offstage: Inside The X Factor captures the emotion, the excitement and the drama of the show and features some of the captivating characters that led to its enduring success. But it also looks beyond the glitz and glamour revealing how contestants and staff felt, the toll it took on some of them and what they say happened behind the scenes.
Presenter: Chi Chi Izundu
Producers: Rob Brown, Jo Adnitt, Lucy Burns, Joe Kent
Editor: Clare Fordham
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Archive:
The X Factor series 2, 7 (Fremantle/Syco/ITV)
Good Morning Britain (2016, ITV)
Youtube/BRITs (2023)
Youtube/Andy Knowles (2014)
TikTok/TheBradleyHunt (2023)
SUNDAY 03 MARCH 2024
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001wyfs)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 The Poetry Detective (m001wr59)
Poetry and Care
Vanessa Kisuule returns with a new series of The Poetry Detective, a radio show about the poems that go with us through life.
Vanessa meets people with a poem that is precious to them, and then she digs in to the backstory of the poem. Why does it mean so much to them? Who wrote it and why? What's the story behind how it came to be written? How does it work on us?
The many acts of care we exchange are subtle and largely unsung. Care is the invisible thread that keeps the fabric of society from fraying, and yet we overlook the strength it involves to take good care of ourselves and each other, day in and day out. Caring for someone is the ultimate show of love, patience and perseverance, building profound bonds between people. It can also be lonely and frustrating, sometimes placing the carer at the periphery of their own life. Does poetry have anything to offer in this context? Can a poem be an act of care, or at the very least a brief respite from it?
We meet Kirsteen McNish, a writer and special events curator whose interests are focussed on people, places, and lesser heard stories. She tells us about a poem that has become precious to her: 'Selkie' by the Shetland poet Roseanne Watt, from her collection Moder Dy (Mother Wave). Vanessa gets in touch with Roseanne to ask her about the inspiration behind the poem. Why did the selkie myth appeal to her, and what are the skins that Kirsteen and Roseanne might both wish they could slip out of at times? Can writing itself be an act of care and profound communication between poet and reader?
We speak to stroke-survivor Anna Zvegintzov who is using poetry as an act of self-care and tool of recovery. And we meet two doctors working in intensive care for whom a poem became 'like a hymn'. Jane Hirshfield, the author of that poem - The Weighing - speaks to Vanessa about writing and care.
Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth and Alice McKee for BBC Audio
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wyfv)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wyfx)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wyfz)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001wyg1)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001wyb3)
St Leonard's church, Shipham in Somerset
Bells on Sunday, comes from St. Leonard's church, Shipham in Somerset. The current building dates from 1843 and sits on the site of a smaller, mediaeval church. It is unusual in having an octagonal castellated bell-tower. There are six bells, four of which were cast by Thomas Bilbie of Chew Stoke in 1733. The Tenor bell weighs six hundredweight and is tuned to the note of B flat. We hear them ringing Plain Bob Doubles.
SUN 05:45 Profile (m001wy9f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001wy85)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b06d29b1)
The Lump in the Throat
The writer Laura Barton reflects on how we articulate emotion and how feeling finds its way into words.
Starting from Robert Frost's assertion that "a poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness" and becomes something in which "the emotion finds the thought, and the thought finds the words", Laura draws on some of her favourite writers, including Gerard Manley Hopkins, Carol Ann Duffy and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as music from Van Morrison, Volcano Choir and cellist Oliver Coates.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m001wy87)
Floodplain farming
Debbie Wilkins farms near the River Severn in Gloucestershire. With floods becoming an annual event on her land, she's learnt to live with large areas of her farm being underwater during the winter months. Earlier this year, a third of her 900 acres were flooded - but rather than seeing this as a problem, she's changing the way she farms, and finding ways to work in harmony with nature while still producing food from the land.
Sybil Ruscoe meets Debbie and hears how, as a member of the Nature-Friendly Farming Network, she's come to regard flood management as part of her farming business. Debbie knows that having her fields underwater takes the pressure off nearby residential areas at risk from flooding, and says that she's happy to just let the floodplains "do their job". She explains how she's modified what she plants in some fields, choosing grasses over arable crops, as they are better able to survive the deluge. Her strategy also results in the creation of an important wildlife habitat on the floodplain, providing a home for wading birds - as the local Farming and Wildlife Group advisor explains. Sybil also talks to a professor from the Royal Agricultural University, who says that more and more farmers are having the re-asses their decisions on what to plant and how they manage their land as they adapt to producing food in a changing climate.
Debbie takes Sybil on a tour of what she describes as her "hard-working fields": they provide floodwater storage, a habitat for wildlife, and fodder for livestock which produce food - all at the same time.
Produced by Emma Campbell
SUN 06:57 Weather (m001wy89)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001wy8c)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001wy8f)
Gaza aid; Brit Awards; UK Islamophobia
More than 100 Palestinians died trying to get food from an aid convoy earlier in the week. We hear from Gaza's small Christian minority, most of whom have been sheltering in two churches, as well as from ICRC's Matt Morris on the challenges aid agencies face in getting aid across to a people on the brink of starvation.
The 26-year-old artist claimed a record-breaking six prizes, including Best Artist and Best Album. She also became the first woman to win songwriter of the year. Raye is outspoken about her life as a committed Christian, and has even suggested that God saved her from taking her own life. She's talked about her faith to the BBC music correspondent, Mark Savage.
The prime minister's dramatic appearance at the Downing Street lectern on Friday night, warning of extremists "trying to tear us apart", followed days of roiling political turmoil; the row over the now former Tory MP Lee Anderson claiming that the Mayor of London is "controlled" by Islamists, the claim by another Tory MP, Paul Scully, that parts of London and Birmingham are "no-go areas". All these things played into debates about extremism, race and religion. A report by Jasdeep Bahia looks into one of those so-called no-go areas, and Edward Stourton speaks live to Hope Not Hate's Nick Lowles who conducted a poll on Tory Islamophobia, as well as Tory MP Paul Scully.
Editor: Tim Pemberton
Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producers: Bara'atu Ibrahim & Linda Walker
Studio Managers: Sue Stonestreet & Mike Smith
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001wy8h)
Tree Aid
Actor Adjoa Andoh makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Tree Aid.
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 ‘Tree Aid’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Tree Aid’.
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.
SUN 07:57 Weather (m001wy8k)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001wy8m)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001wy8p)
Blessed are they...
The Beatitudes are as radical today as the day Jesus taught them in his sermon on the mount – so how do they inspire and challenge young Christians today as they live out their faith? Ahead of International Women's Day, 1Xtra presenter Swarzy Macaly is joined by rapper Deyah and DJ Rachael Anson, two young women in the music industry who are bold about their faith. They each choose their favourite line from the Beatitudes and discuss how they navigate Jesus’ counter-cultural teachings. Swarzy has chosen ‘“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” whereas Deyah reflects on “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” and Rachel discusses ' Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' The music will be a mixture of gospel and modern worship and hymns recorded by gospel group Seth Pinnock and a New Thing.
Producer: Miriam Williamson
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001wrmp)
The Death and Life of Modern Martyrs
Sarah Dunant reflects on martyrdom past and present.
As Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is laid to rest, Sarah looks to history to ponder what his legacy might be.
And she turns to the work of the 19th-century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: 'The tyrant dies and his rule is over...the martyr dies and his rule begins'.
'History is a long game,' Sarah writes. 'And the shelf life of martyrs in particular is impressive.'
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Penny Murphy
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0sxg)
Red-Eyed Vireo
Michael Palin presents the red-eyed vireo from North America. About the size of British great tits the red-eyed vireo is a common summer visitors to much of North America where they breed in woodlands. The adult vireos are mainly olive green with white bellies and grey heads and their red eyes are highlighted by a white eyestripe. Seeing the birds as they hunt insects among the leaves is much harder than hearing them, because red-vireos are tireless songsters. They used to be known locally as "preacher birds " and territorial males hold the record for the largest repertoire produced by a songbird in a single day.
Each vireo can have a repertoire of between a dozen and over a hundred different song-types. And while these marathon "question- and- answer" sessions are the soundtrack to many North American woods, they aren't universally appreciated. The nature writer Bradford Torrey wrote in 1889 that "whoever dubbed this vireo the preacher could have had no very exalted opinion of the clergy"
Producer Andrew Dawes.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001wy8r)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001wy8t)
WRITER: Katie Hims
DIRECTOR: Dave Payne
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davis
Harrison Burns …. James Cartwright
Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman
Neil Carter …. Brian Hewlett
Susan Carter …. Charlotte Martin
Harry Chilcott …. Jack Ashton
Justin Elliott …. Simon Williams
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Alistair Lloyd…. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd …. John Rowe
Adam Macy …. Andrew Wincott
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Inspector Norris…. Bharti Patel
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001wxrx)
Rita Rae, Lady Rae, lawyer and judge
The Honourable Lady Rita Rae is a lawyer and judge, and the current Rector of the University of Glasgow. Early in her career she was a rare woman in the heavily male-dominated legal world. She went on to work on many high profile criminal cases over five decades as a solicitor, an advocate and subsequently a judge in Scotland’s Supreme Court.
Rita grew up in Plains, Airdrie, to the east of Glasgow. She was a shy child but earned the nickname ‘The Last Word’ from her parents because of her need to argue her case when she felt something wasn’t right. She was inspired to become a lawyer by her maternal grandfather, a noted advocate and anti-fascist from Naples.
Her parents met in a munitions factory in Italy where her mother was working. Her father was a Scottish bomb disposal expert helping to dismantle munitions after the war. They married and moved to Scotland, but Rita and her brother were not accepted by her Scottish family because of their Catholicism.
Rita became a solicitor in 1974, entering a world dominated by men. When told by a senior colleague that women were ‘emotionally unsuitable for court work’, she set about proving him wrong. She became a partner in her firm at the age of 27, and was called to the bar in 1982, one of just 13 female advocates in Scotland at the time. She was made a Sheriff in 1997 and a Judge of the Supreme Courts in 2014.
In 2021 she was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, the first female working rector in the university’s 570-year history.
DISC ONE: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 - III. Allegro scherzando. Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) and London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
DISC TWO: “Ah! Dite alla giovine” from Act 2 of La Traviata. Composed by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Leo Nucci (baritone) and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
DISC THREE: Mamma - Beniamino Gigli
DISC FOUR: Aranjuez mon amour - Massimo Ranieri
DISC FIVE: Cheap Flights - Fascinating Aïda
DISC SIX: “The Flower Song” (“La fleur que tu m’avais jetee”), Carmen, Act II. Composed by Georges Bizet, performed by José Carreras (tenor) and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Jacques Delacôte
DISC SEVEN: Ave Maria. Composed by Giulio Caccini (Arr. Brinums) and performed by Inessa Galante (Soprano), Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandrs Vilumanis
DISC EIGHT: Climb Ev’ry Mountain - Peggy Wood
BOOK CHOICE: The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour
LUXURY ITEM: A solar powered car
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Mamma - Beniamino Gigli
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producers Paula McGinley and Tim Bano
SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001wy8w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 One Person Found This Helpful (m001wq3z)
Series 1
2. Ponce & Prejudice
Frank and guests Desiree Burch, Simon Evans, Kerry Godliman & Andrew Maxwell find out what you think about a dodgy snowglobe and a risky waffle.
This is the panel game based on what we all sit down and do at least once a day – shop online and leave a review, as an all-star panel celebrate the good, the bad and the baffling.
Written by Frank Skinner, Catherine Brinkworth, Sarah Dempster, Jason Hazeley, Rajiv Karia, Karl Minns, Katie Sayer & Peter Tellouche
Devised by Simon Evans and Jason Hazeley with the producer David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001wxpl)
Feeding Norfolk
A message from Delia Smith takes the Food Programme team to Norfolk to see how a network of social supermarkets is helping people out of food poverty.
Nourishing Norfolk, is a project linking a large number of smaller shops, or food hubs around the county. The shops use the "social supermarket" model, providing free fruit and vegetables and cut price food and many other essentials including cleaning and hygiene products, and smokeless coal.
During the team's tour, they hear how being linked has given the hubs more buying power, and they have been able to team up with more local businesses who are able to help - by offering warehouse space, larger scale donations and even logistics.
The hub volunteers then have more time to do what they are good at; offering support, guidance and community to those who need it.
Since the shops are all independently run, they are also able to try out and develop ways that can help with the specific problems faced by people in poverty in their area, which has included the setting up of a mobile food hub.
Delia wrote how she had been blown away by the work that is happening there - where people are not only being provided with affordable food, but also help and assistance at all levels.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan
SUN 12:57 Weather (m001wy8z)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001wy91)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world
SUN 13:30 Three Million (m001wy93)
2. The Cigarette Tin
A boy decides how much rice he can give from a cigarette tin to hungry people. A Christian missionary sets up a makeshift relief hospital. A small child watches through the gates of his house in Calcutta as emaciated women clutching children ask for food.
As the food crisis deepens, shocking testimonies from the countryside show the extent of starvation. Many thousands of hungry people begin moving from the rural areas towards the cities.
Indians - including children - are forced into life-or-death decisions
Presenter Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix Taylor
With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.
Interviews with Damodar Ramchandra Gole and Alan McLeod courtesy of the University of Cambridge
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001wrjs)
Postbag: Harlow Carr
How do I safely dispose of bamboo leaves? How can I stop the roots of my mulberry tree from invading my vegetable patch? If the panel were gifted a £50 garden centre voucher, what would they buy and why?
Kathy Clugston and her arsenal of horticultural experts dig through the GQT inbox to answer your gardening queries. On the panel this week are garden designer Matthew Wilson and houseplant expert Anne Swithinbank.
They visit Harlow Carr in Harrogate where head gardener Paul Cook gives a tour of their tranquil treasure trove and offers his own gardening tips and tricks.
Woodlice - friends or foe? Kathy and panel set the record straight and debunk common misconceptions around these misunderstood animals.
Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m001wy95)
& Other Stories: Daphne du Maurier - Episode 1
In 1971, Daphne du Maurier published Don’t Look Now and it was to become a landmark in the development of the psychological thriller. Du Maurier was an extraordinarily prolific writer producing a string of bestselling novels such as Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, but it’s in her short stories that we find her darkest and most disturbing work.
In Don’t Look Now, a couple visit Venice trying to come to terms with the grief of losing their daughter. A blind psychic tells them she can see their daughter and she is trying to warn them of danger. Their fragility and the psychic’s premonitions become entangled with real life events on the Venetian backstreets.
Du Maurier’s writing was ground-breaking not only in her brilliant handling of suspense and plot, but because her real interest lay in the internal journey of the characters and what was going on under the surface. John Yorke looks at why Don’t Look Now is such a brilliant example of this. Don’t Look Now also gained a huge international following because it was adapted for cinema by the film director Nicholas Roeg.
This is the first of two Opening Lines that explore the short stories of Daphne du Maurier.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for thirty years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series.
From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book ‘Into the Woods’.
As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters - his students have had 17 green-lights in the last two years alone.
Contributors:
Sarah Dunant – best selling author of thriller and historical novels, and broadcaster
Peter Bradshaw – film critic
Credits:
Don’t Look Now and other stories by Daphne du Maurier, Penguin Classics 2006.
Archive clip from 2001 BBC Radio dramatisation with Michael Feast playing the part of John.
Venice sound bed from BBC Radio 3’s Slow Radio: Venice Between the Bells.
Readings: Julian Wilkinson
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Producer: Julian Wilkinson
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound: Sean Kerwin
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m001wy97)
Don't Look Now
John ..... Jamie Parker
Laura ..... Aisling Loftus
Christine ..... Mabel Cresswell
Jonny ..... Bertie Cresswell
Dorcas .... Rebecca Crankshaw
Hilda ..... Jessica Turner
Manager ..... Alessandro Dowling
Detective ..... Ian Dunnett Junior
Brit ..... John Lightbody
Pianist ..... Ian Dunnett Junior
Writer .... Daphne Du Maurier
Dramatist ..... Katie Hims
Director ..... Sally Avens
Du Maurier's brilliantly subtle and disturbing exploration of loss.
John and Laura take a holiday in Venice in an attempt to move on from the grief that has gripped them since the death of their daughter.
There they meet two sisters, one of whom claims to have had a vision of their dead daughter. A claim that begins to eat away at the couple's grief and painfully exposes their different methods of dealing with their loss. As John becomes more adamant that the sisters are charlatans he finds hlmself caught up in a deadly hunt around the dank and dark alleyways of Venice.
Don’t Look Now is part of a collection of dramas in Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure, a celebration of the imaginative variety and power of one of our most underestimated but prolific and radical female writers. It is the first of three dramatisations of short stories which are taboo-busting excursions into the dark unvisited realms of the inner life . You can also hear The Blue Lenses and The Little Photographer.
Beside Myself, a biographical Afternoon Drama about Daphne, starring Helena Bonham Carter, accompanies the three dramatisations.
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m001wy99)
Ann Cleeves: Hidden Depths
Bookclub travels to Northumberland to meet best-selling crime writer Ann Cleeves. She joins James Naughtie and listeners to discuss her novel, Hidden Depths: Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope sets out to solve two murders which are apparently linked, although there are no clues to connect the victims.
Upcoming recordings - 1830 BBC Broadcasting House in London :
26 March - Clare Chambers on Small Pleasures
24 April - Nicholas Shakespeare on 6 Minutes In May
Email bookclub@bbc.co.uk to take part. Over 18s only.
SUN 16:30 The Poetry Detective (m001wy9c)
In Memoriam
Vanessa Kisuule returns with a new series of The Poetry Detective, a radio show about the poems that go with us through life.
Vanessa meets people with a poem that is precious to them, and unfolds the history of the poem. Why does it mean so much to them? Who wrote it and how? What's the story behind how it came to be written? How does it work on us?
In this episode, poems to remember the departed and console the living.
Vanessa investigates the surprising history of one of our best known poems of consolation for the bereaved, 'Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep'. At various times it has been attributed to 'Anonymous' or believed to be a Native American burial prayer. And then for many years, people thought it had been written by a Baltimore housewife in the 1930s - Mary Elizabeth Frye. The story went that she had been inspired by a friend's sorrow at not being able to attend her mother's funeral in Germany, due to the rise of the Nazis. But did Frye really write the poem? Literary sleuth Scott Norsworthy has new evidence that points to an alternative author.
We hear from musician and podcaster Robin Allender about a poem he has come to treasure - 'Going Without Saying' by the Irish poet and academic Bernard O'Donoghue. How did the poem come to be written? We speak the poet about how he went about crafting it, and who it was written for.
And Vanessa speaks to American poet Saeed Jones about his remarkable poem 'A Stranger', written about his late mother.
Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth and Alice McKee for BBC Audio
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001wqkd)
A Coal Town Mystery
It’s a scandal that went uncovered for 30 years. Body parts and organs from former workers in the nuclear industry were systematically removed for research. But the families of those former workers were never told. The truth only came to light following a three year inquiry published in 2010. But was this practice contained to one industry, or was this happening on behalf of others too?
News reports around the time of the Sellafield scandal claimed that organs of coal miners were also being routinely removed during post-mortems at the request of the then National Coal Board.
So, was the coal industry involved in a similar scandal - and to what extent? And could the need to advance research and science ever be seen to outweigh the need for permission?
Reporter and producer: Emma Forde
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Journalism Assistant: Tim Fernley
Editor: Clare Fordham
SUN 17:40 Profile (m001wy9f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001wy9h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m001wy9k)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wy9m)
Mr Hunt ruled out borrowing money in order to pay for tax cuts in his budget on Wednesday
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001wy9p)
Emma Clarke
Emma has spent the week listening to some cracking programmes and although her chunky headphones have wrecked her hairdo, BBC radio has warmed her cockles. We’ll go walking with Clare Balding, hear the off-screen stories behind the X Factor, straighten out some arpeggios and learn how dunkable your biscuits are. We’ve got music, poetry, bells and ghosts. Oh, and Mr Blobby.
Presenter: Emma Clarke
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Lydia Depledge-Miller
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001wxp2)
Brian visits Alice to check in and says he could kill Harry for not being honest about his drinking. She defends him - he has his demons, and she knows how that feels. Brian is not mollified, especially knowing Harrison had to arrest Harry for being drunk and disorderly. He asks Alice if she was ever tempted to drink with him. No, she says. And the strange thing is she never saw him with a drink either. Alice confesses to Brian about the damage she did with Harrison’s boss and Fallon’s decision to distance herself. Both are stunned when Harry turns up with flowers and an apology. Brian is furious and doesn’t hold back, revealing that Harrison faces a threat to his career because of Harry’s selfishness. Harry says he’s trying to get help and would do anything to make things right. Later, Alice calls him to apologise about Brian. She also asks him to speak up in Harrison’s defence at his disciplinary hearing.
Jim is tentative as he tells Alistair he’s invited Jazzer for Sunday lunch. He’s worried there might be some awkwardness between them over Jazzer’s comments about Alistair’s feelings for Denise. Alistair assures him there won’t be after Jazzer’s speech at The Bull and agrees to make his special roast potatoes. The three enjoy lunch and a game of scrabble, with Jazzer getting a triple word score - putting down ‘liaison’, pushing Alistair into last place. Announcing he’s made a decision, Alistair says he is going to speak to management about a transfer. Jim and Jazzer are aghast, telling him the idea is insane.
SUN 19:15 Jokes (p0hc1y4l)
Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living
2. Stuart Gets a Golden Ticket
Comedian Stuart Mitchell examines his own cost of living crisis. This time Stuart looks back at his time working for the Treasury with Gordon Brown and ponders whether the status of that job was worth the internal conflict that it gave him.
Each episode, Stuart looks at a chapter of his own unbelievable, but absolutely true, life story.
A working class boy, with huge aspirations, Stuart achieved everything he dreamed of and more. However, he soon came to realise that the cost of having everything was more than he was willing to pay. A morality tale featuring his time working in Westminster, moving to a highly paid job in banking and willingly losing it all to find happiness; Stuart will make us all question the true cost of living.
Written and performed by Stuart Mitchell
Produced by Lauren Mackay
SUN 19:30 Jokes (p0hbnpch)
Jazz Emu: The Sound of Us
2. The Sound of The Future
Artificial Intelligence puts Jazz’s musical career in jeopardy when a robot clone of Jazz begins storming the charts. Human Jazz must beat his electronic counterpart for a spot in the UK Top 40 and convince the London Palladium that HE is the real Jazz Emu.
Jazz Emu: musician, 70s lothario-type, ex-Hollywood foley artist and internationally renowned idiot. After a long career in (and often out) of the spotlight, he has decided to present a radio show in order to connect with the average Joes (and Janes, and other boring names) and bestow his expert knowledge of Sound upon the universe.
Written by Archie Henderson and Adrian Gray
Starring: Archie Henderson, Adrian Gray, Emmanuel Sonubi, Lorna Rose Treen, Cody Dahler
Produced by Sasha Bobak
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4
SUN 19:45 The Song Thief by Colin Carberry (m001wy9s)
Episode 4
An eerie tale of forgotten songs and vengeful spirits by Belfast author Colin Carberry (‘Good Vibrations.’) As read by Aoibhéann McCann ('Blue Lights.')
‘The Song Thief’ follows Harry Probyn on his journey across Ireland to find Aislinn Byrne, the woman who started his song-writing career. After recording her sing years before in Ireland, Harry stole her song ‘Bluebell Wood’. He shared it with the world and made his fortune. Now penniless and on the run from the violent Shanks family, Harry must return to Ireland and find a new hit song.
Song-collectors – hobbyists who collect sound recordings, usually of music, but sometimes poetry, readings, historical speeches, and ambient noises – are responsible for most of what we now know as traditional folk music that has been preserved down the years. However the practice has a darker legacy and is littered with examples of artists being exploited by unscrupulous recordists. While the ‘Folk Revival’ of the 1960s saw many artists from the traditional music communities become famous, most of them were men. Women artists were silenced at a time when men’s voices were encouraged to sing loudest.
Featuring traditional folk music from the BBC Archives recorded on location in Ireland and America in the 1950s.
Author
Colin Carberry is a writer of screenplays and fiction from Belfast. With Glenn Patterson he co-wrote the film ‘Good Vibrations’ for which the pair were nominated for Outstanding Debut at the 2014 BAFTA Film awards. ‘Good Vibrations’ has since been adapted into a stage musical. A frequent contributor of new fiction to BBC Radio 4’s Short Works series, he is currently working on a collection of short stories and developing a number of projects for film, television and theatre.
Reader: Aoibhéann McCann
Writer: Colin Carberry
Music: Gerard O'Kane
Music: Patrick O'Kane
Producer: Michael Shannon
Editor: Andy Martin
A BBC Northern Ireland production.
SUN 20:00 More or Less (m001wq77)
School spending, excess deaths and billions of animals at Heathrow
Is school funding at record levels as the education secretary claimed? Why did the ONS change how they measure excess deaths? Is there a shoplifting epidemic? Did 6.5bn creatures arrive in the UK by plane last year?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Nathan Gower, Perisha Kudhail, Debbie Richford and Olga Smirnova
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley
Editor: Richard Vadon
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001wrk9)
Nicholas Dimbleby, Lord Patrick Cormack, Wendy Mitchell, Eleanor Fazan
John Wilson on the celebrated sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby, responsible for numerous well known commissions around the country.
Lord Patrick Cormack the politician, historian and prolific author.
Wendy Mitchell, the author and blogger who was diagnosed with young onset dementia and worked tirelessly to help improve the understanding of the condition.
Eleanor Fazan, the theatre director, choreographer and actor. Her career spanned almost 70 years and saw her working with some of the biggest names in the business.
Archive Details
Archive used:. “Wogan” BBC 1 10/12/1986. BBC Midlands Today News 13/7/2011. BBC News West 09/09/1999.
“The Bright Side of Life” BBC Radio 4 21/11/2023 & 28/11/2023
Parliamentlive.tv 21/02/23 & 05/09/19.
The Michael Ball Show, BBC Radio 2, BBC, 16/01/2022
Wendy Mitchell reads from “Somebody I used to know”. Bloomsbury publishing, uploaded to Youtube 29 Jan 2018.
"The Complete Beyond The Fringe" Label - Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group Company. Oh! It's a Lovely War, Title Oh! It's a Lovely War Performer - Courtland and Jeffries Album - Oh! It's A Lovely War (Volume 1) Label - CD41 Recordings. Stage to Screen BBC
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001wy9v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001wy8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001wy9x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001wy9z)
Ben Wright is joined by the Conservative MP Steve Brine, Labour peer Jenny Chapman and political commentator Salma Shah. They look ahead to the Budget and discuss fears about extremism in politics. George Parker - political editor of the Financial Times - brings additional insight and expert analysis. The programme also includes interviews with the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Clarke, and the playwright James Graham - who criticises local government cuts to arts funding.
SUN 23:00 Moral Maze (m001wq9x)
The morality of work
Many people seem to be going off the idea of work. In the UK there are more than nine million people who are "economically inactive". Some are unemployed, some are students, others are not actively looking for a job or available to start work. There’s no shortage of jobs, but people are choosing not to take them. Many people decided not to return to work after the Covid lockdowns. They reduced their working hours or took early retirement, choosing the golf course over the office. For some, it’s a moral failure that so many are economically inactive. But why do we ascribe such virtue to the idea of work?
Politicians endlessly refer to "hard working families", perhaps inducing a sense of entitlement among workers, but in the process stoking resentment against those who don't work. Of course the economy relies on work - the wheels only turn when enough people are employed and paying tax.
Some believe the benefits system is to blame - if it's too comfortable not to work - then why bother? But there’s also the broader societal shift where people choose to work less, or not at all and live a more modest but perhaps less stressful life. Is this a laudable position, where people prioritise wellbeing over wealth and status, or a selfish one that denies the collective responsibility we all bear to contribute to society, through labour and taxes? The personal value of work might feel clearer if your job is rewarding and well paid, but less so if you’re on a low income. What is the moral value of work?
Presenter: Michael Buerk
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser
Editor: Tim Pemberton
MONDAY 04 MARCH 2024
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001wyb1)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Sideways (m001wq8c)
58. The Keeper of Lost Memories
In 2020, David Gutenmacher began to buy old photographs and videos that he came across in second hand shops. He was sad about the prospect that families had been severed from their treasured memories, and so he founded the Museum of Lost Memories to try and reconnect people with their personal archives.
But when he came across a video of a family on a safari holiday he realised that finding out who was in these videos might not be all that straightforward.
Matthew Syed considers the role of photography and video in personal memory making, and how we go about using photos to leave a record of our existence on earth.
Featuring:
David Gutenmacher, Founder and curator of the Lost Memory Museum
Jono Marcus
Lina Henkel, professor of psychology at Fairfield University
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Nadia Mehdi
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Music, Sound Design & Mix: Daniel Kempson
Sideways theme by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001wyb3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wyb5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wyb7)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wyb9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001wybc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wybf)
The homeless man
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Prayer for the Day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
To reach the temple I visit regularly, I’ve walked through the same underpass for over 15 years. Last week, for the first time, I encountered a homeless person who’d set up residence there. I stopped briefly, due to being late for a programme, said hello and offered some change. As I rushed on, I caught these words the young man called after me - “may all your dreams come true.”
The next evening, I passed through again. Not in a hurry this time, I stopped and asked him, “what are your dreams?” while aware I was stood in front of a man sitting on the ground with no home, money, food or shoes. He said his dream was to have a girlfriend.
What followed was an unexpected and enriching conversation about relationships.
I invited him to the temple for food anytime and mentally I noted things to bring him next time for the cold nights. But I never saw him again.
I don’t know his name, why he was living on the streets, where he came from; nothing of his life story.
I may have given him some change, but he gave me an experience of what can change through the quality of an exchange with another person. Our conversation felt very healing for me, not that he knew anything of my past either.
I was on the way to a temple but experienced something of the sacred in this cold, stark space of an underpass.
My prayer is that in our busy and often rushed lives, we take occasions to stop, be available for exchanges outside of our everyday conversations, routines and relationships, so we don’t overlook or step over, literally, an opportunity right in front of us that brings a deeper meaning to the value of life.
Sat Naam
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001wybh)
04/03/24 Local food for public sector; Rural crime; Lambing
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, Wiltshire, Dorset and Cornwall are among the latest local authorities which have voted to buy from local farmers when procuring meat, dairy, fruit and veg for council-organised events. Both the government and the Labour Party are aiming for 50% of spending on public sector food to go on local and sustainable produce. We ask Professor Tom MacMillan from the Royal Agricultural University, how significant that could be for farmers.
Farms with expensive machinery, miles from their nearest police station, can be easy targets for thieves. The National Farmers Union say that, nationally, rural crime rose by more than a fifth between 2021 and 2022 - costing an estimated £50 million. Thames Valley Police have been taking part in a week of action to try and prevent rural crime.
It’s lambing time, a full-on time of year for sheep farmers. Last year 15 and a half million lambs were born into the UK flock by June, although that was down six per cent on the year before. We’re going to take an in depth look at lambing this week, the highs, the lows, and the measures farmers go to to ensure a good healthy crop of lambs. We start off by talking to Dr Joe Henry, president of the Sheep Veterinary Society
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
MON 05:56 Weather (m001wybk)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08zc0qv)
Alex Gregory on the House Sparrow
Rower and two times Olympic Gold medallist Alex Gregory tells the story of his childhood pet, a house sparrow called Sparky.
Producer Mark Ward.
MON 06:00 Today (m001wxjv)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001wxkb)
Mysterious Plants
The plant Rafflesia has the world’s largest flowers and gives off one of the worst scents; it’s also something of a biological enigma, a leafless parasite that lives off forest vines. For the botanist Chris Thorogood, an expert in parasitic and carnivorous plants at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Rafflesia is also an obsession. In his book, Pathless Forest, he goes in search of this mysterious plant in some of the last wildernesses in South East Asia.
Dr Kelsey Byers is an evolutionary chemical ecologist who specialises in floral scent and its influence on the evolution of flowering plants. In her laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich she studies how flowers use different smells to attract their pollinator of choice. From sweet aromas to the stink of rotting flesh, she explores how plants use con-artistry and sexual deception to thrive.
The ethnobotanist William Milliken from Kew Gardens has spent much of his career working with indigenous people in the Amazon to preserve traditional plant knowledge. Now he’s focused on collecting folklore about the use of plants to treat ailments in animals in Britain. From wild garlic treating mastitis in cows, to cabbage for flatulence in dogs, he hopes to uncover a cornucopia of plant-based veterinary medicines.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxkw)
£3,217,740: An Average Murder
In a world in thrall to data, it’s possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth, exploring what we lose and gain by leaving the judgements that matter up to cold logic.
The cost of crime to society is illuminated by figures calculated for a range of offences. But how can we measure the cost of a promising life cut short?
An EcoAudio certified production.
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Read by the author
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001wxld)
Sarah Everard's murder 3 years on, Jess Phillips MP and Baroness Ruth Davidson, singer CMAT
On the 3rd March 2021, Sarah Everard was murdered by Wayne Couzens, an off-duty police officer. The incident sparked national outrage and a surge in fighting violence against women and girls. Three years on, how much has changed? Emma Barnett speaks to the Detective Inspector who interviewed Wayne Couzens, Nick Harvey, and former Detective Superintendent Shabnam Chaudri.
If you’ve browsed through political podcasts recently, you’d be forgiven for thinking the guys have got that particular market cornered. There’s The Rest is Politics with Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell, Political Currency with Ed Balls and George Osborne, and Politics at Jack and Sam’s. That may be about to change, with an all-female line-up on new podcast Electoral Dysfunction, featuring Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, Labour MP Jess Phillips and Conservative peer and former Scottish party leader Ruth Davidson. Jess and Ruth join Emma Barnett to tell her what they’ll be covering.
Poet Hollie McNish is back with a new book, with her unique and hugely relatable take on all kinds of taboos, on subjects ranging from friendships, parenthood and breastfeeding, to periods, UTIs and vulvas. Her live readings are often blush inducing, with plenty of adult content and strong language. She’s talking to Emma Barnett about her inspiration behind the book of poetry and prose ‘Lobster and other things I’m learning to love’.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, better known as CMAT, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. Playing country-tinged pop, both of her albums have topped the Irish Albums Chart. She was longlisted for the BBC's Sound of 2024 and joins Emma fresh from the BRIT awards, where she was nominated for Best International Artist.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Emma Pearce
MON 11:00 The Gatekeepers (m001wxlt)
5. The Vortex
One of the strange things about our new media universe, is how innocuous decisions taken in Silicon Valley - turning a dial, or adding a few lines of code to increase engagement - can change your life.
In 2016, Instagram introduced a new way of looking at content: the non-chronological feed.
Now, instead of seeing what your friends were posting in the order they were posting it, an algorithm brought you stuff based on search history, likes, and interactions.
That’s how tech engineers saw things back then - not just at Instagram, but at Pinterest, and other platforms too - if you engage with something, that must mean you want more of it.
Ian Russell believes that this algorithmic change may have altered the course of his 14 year old daughter Molly's life.
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Composer: Jeremy Warmsley
Story Consultant: Kirsty Williams
Execuitve Producer: Peter McManus
Commissioner: Dan Clarke
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
Archive: 'Instagram implements big changes to users' feed, ditches chronologixal content' DT Daily; March 16th 2016. US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Nov 7th 2023
If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
New episodes released on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest episodes of The Gatekeepers, first on BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3Ui661u
MON 11:30 The Bottom Line (m001wqkv)
Rethinking retirement
A typical career, for many, involves some kind of progression, or at least the expectation of it, until we stop and retire. But is there a better model?
Evan Davis and guests discuss whether more of us should think about easing into retirement by taking more junior roles, going part time, or switching profession altogether, instead of stepping off a career cliff edge when we reach pension age. Could this expand the number of job opportunities for older workers, whilst also helping younger workers push through the ranks?
Stepping back isn’t an option open to all, though, and there could be big implications for pensions, so how should older workers begin to calculate if, or when, it might be possible?
Evan is joined by:
Matthew Rideout, founder of Knead & Desire Bakehouse;
Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest Group;
Zoe Ashdown, head of culture and people engagement at AXA UK and Ireland.
Thanks also to the listeners who sent in voice notes, and to everyone else who emailed bottomline@bbc.co.uk
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producers: Simon Tulett
Researcher: Paige Neal-Holder
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: James Beard and Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: An older man laughing and looking at a laptop with a young woman in a workshop. Credit: Alys Tomlinson/Getty Images)
MON 12:00 News Summary (m001wxm7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001wxmm)
Charity Shops; World Book Day Costumes, Hybrid Cars
Over the past 25 years, the charity retail landscape has changed dramatically. As the high street has adapted to issues such as declining footfall and an increase in online shopping, they have also had to face a decline in volunteers and a dip in quality donations.
Robin Osterley, the Chef Executive of the Charity Retail Association, will explain how they have done this, and Cicely Rea Jackson, a self-proclaimed charity shop queen on Instagram, will give us her hints and tips on how to bag a quality bargain.
World Book Day started in 1998 in the UK. The charity was set up to promote reading for pleasure and to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds access to books. However, in recent years, more people have accused it of being about dressing up in character costumes, and it seems parents are starting to say “too much”. We’ll be talking to the founder of World Book Day and the person that went viral calling out the high costs of costumes.
And we seem to be always talking about the move to driving electric cars, but have we forgotten the hybrid ones? Well, it appears not; sales are up, and manufacturers are turning their focus back to them. We’ll be talking to an early adopter who has stuck with her hybrid.
Presenter: Shari Vahl
Producer: Dave James
MON 12:57 Weather (m001wxmz)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m001wxnd)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
MON 13:45 Strike Boy (m001wxnr)
1. Coal Dust in Our Veins
“We were the vanguard of the trade union movement, and we'd got to be eliminated.”
When Mark was just 10, he found himself slap bang in the middle of what would become Britain’s longest and bitterest industrial dispute - the miners’ strike of 1984-5. Growing up in the Nottinghamshire pit village of Stanton Hill, Mark’s dad was a local union leader and backed the strike from the start, in an area where most miners carried on working.
But, until now, Mark’s never really had a proper conversation with his dad about what happened that year, the different forces at play, and the decisions he took.
Archive: AP Archive (shouting pickets); BBC.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
MON 14:00 The Archers (m001wxp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Limelight (m001wnsr)
Sabine
Sabine - Episode 3
After a terrifying night, Elly is sure she knows who killed Sabine. But crucial evidence has now been stolen.
When Sabine’s body is found beneath the cliffs in an apparent suicide, her sister Elly is convinced she was murdered. Elly's hunt for the killer takes her deep into the secret life in Brighton her sister kept hidden. Sabine is a new five-part murder mystery by Mark Healy.
CAST
Elly ..... Sorcha Groundsell
Sabine ..... Freya Mavor
Mia ..... Aisling Loftus
Oakley ..... Rupert Evans
Daniel ..... Ivanno Jeremiah
Becca ..... Rhiannon Neads
Poppy ..... Juliana Lisk
Sullivan ..... John Lightbody
Written by Mark Healy
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Keith Graham, Ali Craig and Pete Ringrose
Production Co-ordination by Gaelan Davis-Connolly
Sabine is a BBC Audio Production for Radio 4
MON 14:45 The Chronicles of Burke Street (m000xdt9)
The Chronicles of Burke Street
3: Tara's Story
The next in the brilliant new short story series by the award-winning author of 'Love After Love', Ingrid Persaud.
Set on an everyday street in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 'The Chronicles of Burke Street' follows the lives and loves of its unusual residents. Burke Street might seem like an ordinary street, but behind its closed doors lurk secrets, superstitions and barely concealed lies.
Today, in 'Tara's Story', read by Jade Anouka, a young teacher wrestles with her dating apps in her search for Miss Right....
Writer: Ingrid Persaud is the winner of the 2018 BBC National Short Story Award, and her novel Love After Love won the 2020 Costa First Novel Award.
Reader: Jade Anouka
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (m001wxpc)
Series 37
The Final, 2024
(13/13)
Paul Gambaccini welcomes the three competitors who've won through heats and semi-finals to make it to the final hurdle in this year's tournament. At the Radio Theatre in London, one of them will lift the trophy as Radio 4's musical mastermind of 2024.
Paul's questions cover the usual wide range, from Rachmaninov to the Kinks, Bernstein, the Wonka soundtrack and Mark Ronson. The Finalists will have to choose, as usual, from a list of special topics on which to answer their own individual questions, with no warning of what the categories are.
Contesting the title are:
James Bingham from County Wicklow
Annie Hodkinson from the West Midlands
Anju Sharda from Hertfordshire
The winner will become the 37th BBC Counterpoint champion.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001wxpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0hbmlgd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Saturday]
MON 16:30 The Artificial Human (m001wxq2)
Is AI Better Than My Doctor?
Artificial Intelligence is in our homes, schools and workplaces. What does this mean for us?
In a new series, Aleks Krotoski (The Digital Human, Radio 4) and Kevin Fong (13 Minutes to the Moon, BBC World Service) set out to 'solve' AI. Or at the very least, to answer our questions on all things artificial intelligence-related. Each episode will start with a question, and by the end, Aleks and Kevin give us answers we can take away and reflect on, making the subject a little clearer - for us, and for themselves. These are the questions that really matter to us - is AI smarter than me? Could AI make me money? Will AI save my life?
In today’s episode, Sarah Jane asks, “Is AI better than my doctor?”
Sarah Jane is a breast cancer survivor, but overcoming the disease hasn’t stopped her feeling anxious about a recurrence. Could AI help to placate her fears? Could it immediately respond to her concerns, when a doctor is hard to reach? Aleks and Kevin find out…
Aleks and Kevin don't have all the answers, but they bring intelligence, curiosity and wit to the journey, seeking out the facts for us and speaking to those who are currently shaping our AI futures. This is very much a shared journey to get to the bottom of our deepest hopes and fears about these world changing technologies.
MON 17:00 PM (m001wxqd)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wxqt)
Several states had tried to block the former president from their presidential primaries
MON 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m001wxrg)
Series 1
3. Hot Lava Blomps
Frank & guests Sara Barron, Marcus Brigstocke, Pierre Novellie and Laura Smyth find out what you think about Mrs. Tiggywinkle, the M1 and the difference between a blomp and a bloop.
This is the panel game based on what we all sit down and do at least once a day – shop online and leave a review, as an all-star panel celebrate the good, the bad and the baffling.
Written by Frank Skinner, Catherine Brinkworth, Sarah Dempster, Jason Hazeley, Rajiv Karia, Karl Minns, Katie Sayer & Peter Tellouche
Devised by Jason Hazeley and Simon Evans with the producer David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m001wxmp)
Denise is picking up biscuits and coffee when she asks Jim if Alistair has had some bad news as he has seems out of sorts. Jim reveals, awkwardly, that Alistair is thinking of leaving the practice. Angry, she confronts Alistair who confesses he’s in love with her. She’s stunned, but thinks it’s nice. He suggests they go for a walk. Although his feelings developed slowly, he was hopeful but fears they aren’t ever going to be together. Denise says she and John should have separated years ago. Being at work with Alistair and John away in St Lucia is the first time she has been truly happy in years. She doesn’t want to have an affair but has feelings for Alistair. Denise says she still feels robbed after they nearly kissed at Christmas - after all a kiss won’t kill anyone. Later, Jim confesses to Alistair that he had spilled the beans to Denise. But far from being angry, Alistair says he and Denise finally had a conversation, and it went very well.
A tired Harrison heads to work after a sleepless night to find out whether he has been suspended. Fallon calls in sick so she can be there for him. He returns he is on unofficial leave and restricted to desk duties. The police want to interview Fallon and Alice. They’ll also be taking evidence from Harry. Fallon suggests they make the most of the day and curl up in front of the fire. But neither can relax for thinking about Alice, with Harrison fearing he’ll lose his job.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m001wxs3)
Ray Winstone, K Patrick, Ferris & Sylvester
Ray Winstone, star of Sexy Beast and Nil By Mouth, talks about new Netflix series The Gentlemen brought to television screens by director Guy Ritchie.
K Patrick’s in the studio to read from their first collection of poetry Three Births, which explores nature, contemporary queer experience and pop-culture icons like Catwoman and George Michael.
And folk duo Ferris & Sylvester perform live and discuss their new album, Otherness.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Corinna Jones
MON 20:00 How to Build an Oil Field (m001wxmn)
In September 2023 permission was given to develop Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oil field. Located west of Shetland, the UK government says it will provide energy security in the UK for a whole generation, at a time where we have never felt more insecure about the source of our energy and the cost. But will it?
A feat of modern engineering, with the latest technology used to create it. Once operational, where is all this money, and oil, going to flow? And how does this fit into a commitment to transition from a dependency on fossil fuels to greener alternatives?
There’s a lot at stake with this new oil field: jobs, investment, income, and oil, of course.
There are so many questions about how oil and gas works in terms of its relationship to the UK, yet surprisingly few clear answers. This programme will help fill in the blanks.
MON 20:30 Analysis (m001wxsr)
Power Drive
It's widely believed that the Conservaives won the Uxbridge by-election because of motorists who were annoyed by the London mayor's ultra low emission zone. With a general election looming, both main english parties want to harness "driver power". But how did the vote of car and van owners become so important? Does the independence driving brings lead to a libertarian attitude? Or is that combative attitude caused by drivers feeling that they have been used as cash-cows by successive governments, which have gladly taken their road tax and fuel duty. But that power balance is also set to change, with the eventual electrification of all UK vehicles. Could road pricing replace fuel duty - and how will motorists respond?
Presenter: Chris Bowlby
Producer: Jim Frank
Editor: Clare Fordham
MON 21:00 Young Again (m001wqf2)
9. Sir Grayson Perry
Kirsty Young talks to the artist Sir Grayson Perry about what he’s learned from his life so far. Once cross-dressing punk rebel, now ennobled member of the British establishment, Grayson Perry’s extraordinary life has given him plenty of material to inspire his art. He reflects on how his traumatic childhood resulted in him retreating into a rich fantasy world and considers whether he would have been given the freedom to explore it artistically had he been starting out today.
If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them? In Young Again Kirsty takes her guests back to the pivotal moments in their lives. Reflecting on what they wish they’d known at the time, and what they’ve learned along the way, she discovers the honest – and surprising – advice they’d give their younger selves.
Producer: Laura Northedge
Content Editor: Richard Hooper
Executive Editor: Alice Feinstein
Senior Technical Producer: Duncan Hannant
Presenter: Kirsty Young
A BBC Audio Production
MON 21:30 Start the Week (m001wxkb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001wxts)
Haiti gangs demand PM resign after mass jailbreak
Also on the programme:
The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to disqualify Donald Trump from running for president using an anti-insurrection constitutional clause.
And the band making waves with a track they released nearly forty years ago.
MON 22:45 Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (m001wxvd)
Episode 1
Emma Fielding reads Daphne Du Maurier's enduring and beloved classic - a story of romance, daring and a painted pirate ship in a secret Cornish creek, and of the beautiful, roistering Lady Dona St Columb, who, fleeing her vacuous life in London in search of her better self, meets her match at last.
Today: Escape to Navron. On an impulse Lady Dona St Columb, imperious, dare-devil and unhappy, abandons the playhouse and the pranks of her London life to escape to her husband's country seat, Navron House. Arriving with her two small children and a maid, she finds it staffed only by the mysterious William. And while the sun on her face promises the first taste of the freedom she seeks, stranger surprises await too.
Set on Du Maurier's beloved South Cornwall coast, in the secret creeks and inlets of the Helford river, where the curlews wade on the mud flats and the night jars churr at midnight, Frenchman's Creek is a song to another century; an age where a traveller in time might glimpse a figure in the shadows, the moonlight glinting on his buckled shoe or the cutlass in his hand, and a cloaked woman slip might slip silently through the woods to meet her lover.
Reader: Emma Fielding
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Di Speirs
MON 23:00 Lent Talks (m001wxw1)
Betrayal
Lent Talks - Betrayal
Written and presented by Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James’s Piccadilly
At the heart of the story of Jesus’s final weeks is betrayal. He is handed over to the authorities for execution by a friend and a follower - Judas. The sign of betrayal is normally the sign of trust: a kiss. Other friends betray him by leaving him or saying they don’t know him. Betrayal is at the heart of the story of Holy Week.
Betrayal is a thoroughly human thing. It can be in the heat of the moment or after cool consideration. We often would rather think of ourselves as the betrayed rather than the betrayer – but part of the meaning of the season of Lent is that we take time to dare to face our capacity for betrayal, cruelty, selfishness. It’s hard to accept that we can betray one another because that makes us untrustworthy and capable of great harm.
But understanding our own capacity for betrayal is key to deepening our experience of life and faith, confronting our fears and acknowledging our culpability in the spirit not just of remorse but repentance: I.E. changing our minds and changing behaviour not just feeling sorry for letting someone down.
It’s a fruitful, creative process to face our own identity as a perpetrator rather than as a victim as it addresses us at a point of power (we can act for good or ill) and need (our need for mercy or forgiveness from God or one another). The combination of being powerful and needy is not attractive to us usually, and so we avoid this whole subject. It’s time we didn’t.
Producer: Carmel Lonergan
Editor: Tim Pemberton
MON 23:15 The Kids Are Alt Right? (m001vcns)
The Next Generation
Do you still listen to music from your youth?
If you do, it's because your current world view has been shaped by the formative experiences of young adulthood - and the first political decisions we make can stick with us in the same way.
This is relevant to the question of who votes for the radical right now - because older voters formed their preferences back when the centre was dominant.
Bur aren't we supposed to become more right wing as we age? It's a story of generations - and it makes up the complicated stew of our motivations at the ballot box.
The series considers the popular misconception that young people enter the political world automatically left wing.
And there's a similar belief that as we age, we will become increasingly right wing.
But Professor James Tilley is on hand to reveal that the relationship between age and how we vote is not straightforward.
Across five episodes he investigates how young people become attached to particular political parties, how ageing affects our political views - and how the choices made by political parties play out among the young and the old.
Presented by Professor James Tilley.
Produced by Kevin Core.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001wxwq)
Sean Curran reports as the government suffers a string of defeats in the House of Lords over its plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
TUESDAY 05 MARCH 2024
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001wxx9)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 00:30 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxkw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wxxw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wxyd)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wxyx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001wxzh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wy01)
Gratitude
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Prayer for the Day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
Yesterday I was talking with a good friend after reading magazine interviews in which people mentioned they start or end the day writing a gratitude list.
My friend is a Buddhist and shared an approach to the secret to happiness - enjoying what we have in this present moment, which is considered gratitude training. And that being grateful turns us from a state of lacking or needing to a state of inner prosperity.
I shared with him how Sikhs often refer to “dukh” and “sukh”. Simply described, “dukh” is pain and “sukh” is happiness. Both are part of life.
Our conversation also brought to mind “Chardi Kala” - loosely described as having a “positive, buoyant and optimistic” attitude to life and the future.
Chardi Kala involves accepting what is happening in this moment and choosing to find upliftment within it, however difficult the situation might be.
In the past two years, when my friend and I have regularly met up, I’ve shared a lot about troubles and challenges I’ve been encountering and feeling overwhelmed by problems needing to be solved. Yesterday, through our conversation about gratitude, it brought me to look at these past few years through a different lens. I can see there’s been so many personal upgrades and new skills learnt, like how a rock becomes a diamond when put under pressure.
It is my prayer that we can live in a daily state of gratitude for all we receive, as it’s happening in the moment, not in hindsight, free from the mind’s measuring of it being good or bad, and instead trust we are always being given what is needed to enrich our life and have a prosperous future.
Sat Naam
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001wy0l)
05/03/24 - Fertilising by drone, heritage wheat traits and multiple lambs
In between the rain, farmers have planted crops many of which are now battling for growth in saturated ground. Waterlogged soil is a poor growing medium, and it also means farmers can’t bring machinery onto their land to give the plants fertilisers or pesticides to help them grow. Some are now turning to drones to deliver preparations instead, so at least the soil is not disturbed. But, if the ground is still draining, does that mean more danger of pollution from nutrient rich water running off the fields?
A new project’s been launched by farmers and scientists, to uncover special traits found in heritage wheats, which could boost productivity in modern commercial varieties. Scientists at the John Innes Centre have been working with the Watkins Collection of heritage wheats gathered in the 1930s from 32 countries. Unlike modern wheat, some of these ancient varieties can interact with bacteria in the soil to allow them access to more nutrients.
And, it's lambing time - we visit a smallholding in North Yorkshire where all the ewes are pregnant with either triplets or quads!
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x474w)
Rook
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Bill Oddie presents the rook. High in the treetops buffeted by March winds, rooks are gathering twigs to build their untidy nests. The bustle of a rookery is one of the classic sounds of the UK countryside, especially in farming areas, where rooks are in their element, probing the pastures and ploughed fields with long pickaxe bills.
TUE 06:00 Today (m001wxh2)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Long View (m001wxh7)
The Drama of Scandal
The Post Office Scandal has gripped the nation’s attention – but only truly captured the public's imagination following the popular ITV drama of the postmaster’s ongoing quest for justice. As the government takes steps to legislater and offer further compensation, Jonathan looks at two important factors from the Post Office inquiry – a drama making all the difference to overturning a scandal, and a miscarriage of justice being righted to make permanent and impactful change.
Professor Rosalind Crone looks back at the curious case of Adolf Beck, whose wrongful conviction and fight for freedom ended in the Court of Criminal Appeal being founded. Dr Ella Dzelzainis shines a light on writer Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, whose novels were integral in bringing the plight of child factory workers to public attention and resulted in the Factory Acts being passed.
In both cases, it took notable storytelling in the press and popular literature of the day and the outcry of the British public for meaningful change to be made.
Producers: Olivia Sopel and Mugabi Turya
TUE 09:30 One to One (m001k7tw)
Angellica Bell meets Alice Bearn
Presenter Angellica Bell talks to therapist Alice Bearn about starting new chapters in life. From cycling, to running to finding a new job - what are the barriers to making change?
Producer: Melanie Pearson
A BBC Audio Bristol production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 09:45 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxhh)
£13,750: Biological Parenthood
In a world in thrall to data, it’s possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth, exploring what we lose and gain by leaving the judgements that matter up to cold logic.
As increasing numbers struggle with fertility issues, Kleeman explores the financial hurdles that stand between some people and their dream of biological parenthood.
An EcoAudio certified production.
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Read by the author
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001wxj0)
Historic abortion law change in France and Pornography series
Two years after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, lawmakers in France yesterday made history by enshrining this right in their country's constitution - it was a global first. We talk to Stephanie Hennette-Vauchez about the change.
Singer-songwriter Sarah Jane Morris performs live.
We look at what's behind the cuts to Birmingham City Council's budget - equal pay or a new IT system? With Heather Jameson, editor of the Municipal Journal and Dr James Brackley, lecturer in accounting at Sheffield University.
In the next part of our series about porn, Ena Miller talks to ‘Sam’ who, from an early age, measured herself by the women she saw in pornography.
And Imelda May talks about her new documentary Lilly and Lolly: The Forgotten Yeats Sisters, on Sky Arts. Elizabeth and Susan Yeats (also known as Lolly and Lilly) founded a women-only arts and crafts guild to promote women’s economic and cultural independence. Overshadowed by their famous brothers, W.B Yeats and Jack Butler Yeats…until now.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Reporter: Ena Miller
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood
TUE 11:00 Young Again (m001wxj9)
10. Alastair Campbell
Kirsty Young talks to the former spin doctor Alastair Campbell about what he’s learned from his life so far. From the bagpipes to New Labour, geopolitics to Burnley FC, Alastair Campbell is passionate about his interests and deeply tribal in his allegiances. But does he ever allow these passions to cloud his judgement? Having been a key figure in Tony Blair’s government and now the co-host of a hit podcast, Alastair explores how events in his childhood have shaped his outlook on the world and whether he regrets any of the tough decisions he has taken.
If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell them? In Young Again Kirsty takes her guests back to the pivotal moments in their lives. Reflecting on what they wish they’d known at the time, and what they’ve learned along the way, she discovers the honest – and surprising – advice they’d give their younger selves.
Producer: Laura Northedge
Content Editor: Richard Hooper
Executive Editor: Alice Feinstein
Senior Technical Producer: Duncan Hannant
Presenter: Kirsty Young
A BBC Audio Production
TUE 11:30 Dead Famous (m001wxjk)
Episode One - Vermeer
In the first episode of this series, we look at the work of Johannes Vermeer. His paintings, owned by state and royalty, are possibly the rarest in the world. They have no estimated price tag, because they so rarely come up for auction. There are only around 35 in existence.
Yet this artist, whose blockbuster show in Amsterdam last year was one of the fastest selling in history, died bankrupt and unheralded. Collected only by one family in his hometown of Delft, Vermeer’s work fell into obscurity, where it remained for 200 years until rediscovered by a French art critic in the 19th century.
Slowly, via critical acclaim and artistic fashion, the profile of Vermeer rose. Later, the arrival of photography meant his quiet portraits could be appreciated by a public whose ways of seeing had changed. American flamboyance, scandal and a best-selling novel ensured that 350 years after his death, the “Sphinx of Delft” is now the standard against which all Old Masters are measured.
Vermeer. Van Gogh. Frida Kahlo. Three of the best-known artists in the world. Their work is reproduced on everything from umbrellas to jigsaw puzzles to fridge magnets. They command record prices in the auction houses and deliver blockbuster shows which sell out immediately.
It wasn’t always this way, however. Each died with no idea that their work would become so hugely valuable or that it would inspire Hollywood movies and many future generations of artists and fans. Their work was not globally renowned when they were alive. How did they manage to market themselves so well after death? How did their status rise from zero to hero?
In this three-part series, Rosie Millard analyses the legacy of these three artists, all of whom rose to global fame many years after they died. Stepping back in time, she finds the key moments in history that transformed these artists from just dead to Dead Famous.
Presented by Rosie Millard
Producer: Tom Woolfenden
Executive Producer: Kirsten Lass
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001wxk3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001wxkq)
Call You and Yours: What do you spend money on that makes you happy?
In this week's Call You and Yours we want to hear about what you spend your money on that makes you feel happy. We've all had to cut back on the things we love and sometimes make tough choices about what can go and what must stay. We want to hear about the things that have stayed for you. What can't you be without? What's your treat? What do you spend money on, despite the price tag going up, because it makes you feel good? It could be a coffee with friends, a pint in the pub, a vase of fresh flowers or you favourite gym class.
What do you spend money on because it makes you happy?
Call us on 03700 100 444. Lines are open at 11 am on Tuesday 27th February. You can also email us now at youandyours@bbc.co.uk. Don't forget to include a phone number so we can call you back.
PRODUCER; CATHERINE EARLAM
PRESENTER: SHARI VAHL
TUE 12:57 Weather (m001wxl7)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m001wxlp)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
TUE 13:45 Strike Boy (m001wxm3)
2. 'Scabs'
“You had to run the gauntlet and I were covered in spit and all sorts.”
Nottinghamshire miner’s son Mark is a Mansfield Town season ticket holder and even today opposing fans chant “Scabs!” at them. It’s an insult thrown because most Nottinghamshire miners didn’t strike in 1984. It’s ironic for Mark, because his dad was one of the minority that did.
But why were miners in Nottinghamshire different? And what was it like to be a working miner opposing the union’s national leadership and crossing picket lines?
Archive: Tom Pike (chanting football fans); Kinolibrary (Arthur Scargill speech); BBC.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001wxmp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001wxn2)
Land of My Father
It’s 1984. In a mining village in the Welsh Valleys, Alys is doing her O-Levels, falling in love, and just being a teenager.
Then, the Miners’ Strike starts. And everything changes.
Forty years later, reeling from her marriage break up, Alys takes her son on a day out in the Valleys: to the zip wire above the site of Tower Colliery. Soon, she finds herself revisiting the year that altered her family’s lives irrevocably.
Siân Owen’s drama is about the children of the Miners’ Strike - and its legacy.
By Siân Owen
Young Alys... Caitlin Griffiths
Older Alys... Mali Harries
Cai.... Shaheen Jafargholi
Samuel.... Nicholas McGaughey
Sue... Lisa Zahra
Jacob.... Jamie Redford
Cai’s Dad and Eddie.... Rhys Ap William
Sarah.... Jemima Nicholas
Paul.... Rory Kelleher
Production Co-ordinator, Lindsay Rees
Sound Design, Catherine Robinson and Nigel Lewis
Director and Producer, Fay Lomas
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production
TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001wxnj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
TUE 15:30 A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand (m001w2bg)
Series 3: Exercise
S3. Ep 5 - Endurance
Drs Chris and Xand Van Tulleken investigate the science of exercise and the dangers of inactivity.
Is modern exercise a wellness cult? Or is it a vital cure for a world that’s struggling with ill health and stuck on the sofa? Most of us might like to get a bit fitter, but how easy is it to actually start exercising and give up sedentary habits?
In this series Drs Chris and Xand Van Tulleken examine exercise and how best to do it. How much should we be doing? How does it help our bodies? And how does our surrounding environment stand in the way of us getting fitter? Chris is challenged to examine his scepticism towards exercise. Similarly, Xand is asked to look at his new-found exercise evangelism and see what he is really running from.
Recently Xand has discovered the joys of physical activity. He’s running, cycling, heading to the gym and playing ping pong like never before. It’s been a real transformation and a way to keep on top of things after years of unhealthy living.
His twin brother Chris, on the other hand, is really feeling the aches and pains of middle age. With a busy job and a young family, he has precious little spare time for exercise. After a very active period in his 20s and 30s, Chris is now embracing his ‘Dad bod’ and sliding into a creaky middle age. Xand wants to help him turn things around. Can he do it?
In Episode 5 - Endurance - it’s the day of the big race. Chris tries to run a half marathon, without having done any proper training. It’s an experience that leaves him worrying if he’s ever going to get back into shape. The twins then speak with Alex Hutchinson, writer, runner and author of Endure. Alex explains how pain, resilience and motivation all work together during marathons and other feats of endurance. He also gives Chris some tips on how to bounce back from his marathon ordeal.
Presented by Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken
Producer: Tom Woolfenden
Sound Design: Dan King
Series Editor: Jo Rowntree
A Van Tulleken Brothers and Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:00 Law in Action (m001wxnv)
The Post Office scandal
The Post Office scandal is one of the UK's most widespread miscarriages of justice, with hundreds of people wrongfully convicted of theft or false accounting. In most of these cases, the Post Office was the investigator, prosecutor and the alleged victim.
Did Post Office lawyers act unethically by failing to disclose evidence that might have helped the people they were prosecuting? Might they face criminal proceedings for attempting to pervert the course of justice?
The Post Office no longer brings private prosecutions in cases such as this. But should we still be allowing anyone apart from a public prosecutor to bring criminal proceedings in the name of the state?
Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producers: Arlene Gregorius and Diane Richardson
Researcher: Marianna Brain
Editor: Clare Fordham
Production coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001wxp4)
Andrew McMillan and Kathryn Williams
ON WRITING by Stephen King, chosen by Kathryn Williams
THE BITCH by Pilar Quintana (translated by Lisa Dillman), chosen by Harriett Gilbert
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute, chosen by Andrew McMillan
The singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams loves books about the craft of writing and her choice of a good read is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft', by the master of horror, Stephen King. The book gave her practical tools and advice which helped her to write her debut novel, The Ormering Tide. She also loves what we learn about King's life - from his flatulent childhood nanny to the devastating 1999 accident which almost ended his life.
Harriett's choice this week is The Bitch by Colombian author Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. In a village on the Pacific coast of Colombia, between wild jungle and wild seas, a childless woman develops a complicated relationship with an orphaned puppy.
And the poet and novelist Andrew McMillan chooses On the Beach by Nevil Shute. In Australia, a group of people try to come to terms with the end of the world. A nuclear war has wiped out all life in the northern hemisphere and the radiation is drifting steadily south. What would you do if you knew that you, and everyone you know, had only months to live?
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
TUE 17:00 PM (m001wxpf)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wxpq)
Jeremy Hunt will unveil his Budget tomorrow -- the last before the general election
TUE 18:30 ReincarNathan (m000lfb7)
Series 2
Komodo
Nathan Blakely was a popstar. But he was useless, died, and was reincarnated. The comedy about Nathan’s adventures in the afterlife continues with Daniel Rigby and Diane Morgan, and guest-starring James Acaster.
In episode 5, Nathan is brought back to life as the animal that best represents his true self - a Komodo Dragon. The Panel have decided that he's driven by his reptilian brain, the basest instincts of feed, fight and flight. Nathan is desperate to prove them wrong, and tries to help a young Komodo (James Acaster). But, inevitably, things don't go entirely to plan.
Will Nathan ever learn to do the right thing and make it back to human again?
Cast:
Diane Morgan - Jenny
Daniel Rigby – Nathan
James Acaster - Arakas, the young Komodo
Tom Craine – Gap Year Student
Hugh Dennis - Nathan's dad
Freya Parker – Vortex, Buffalo, Gap Year Student, Mum
Daniel Lawrence Taylor - Max
Mike Wozniak – Fangor, the Komodo dad
Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker
Music composed by Phil Lepherd
Producer: Harriet Jaine
Studio Production: Jerry Peal
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001wxpj)
Emma and Fallon await the arrival of Tony’s cowhides for the tea room walls. Emma voices her suspicion that Fallon faked illness to avoid yesterday's corporate event. Harry turns up to order coffee and a croissant. Fallon is far from happy to see him. When she brings his order to the table he says he has come to apologise – and stresses he would never have put in a complaint against Harrison: He has been called to testify at the disciplinary hearing and will speak up on Harrison’s behalf. Then he asks Fallon if Alice might ever take him back. Fallon, furious, tells him to finish his drink and leave. Emma, intrigued by their body language, asks if Harry has done something to Alice. Fallon tells her they have split up but refuses to go into detail. Emma says she won’t tell, as long as Alice does right by Chris and Martha.
Alistair feels odd about enjoying kissing Denise in the medical supply cupboard. She is worried Paul might sense something is going on between them when he appears suddenly and asks what they are doing. They make excuses. Paul says Denise should have been in St Lucia with him and John. He’s worried about how frail his grandma is and the effect her fall has had on his dad. He says John needs Denise – he’s a wreck and on his own out there. Denise says she’ll call John tonight. Alistair asks if he can take Denise out for dinner somewhere out of Ambridge. They make plans for Friday evening.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001wxq0)
Kate Rusby, Edward Bond, Eve Steele and the decline of female filmmakers
The acclaimed English folk singer-songwriter Kate Rusby performs live and chats about her new Singy Songy Session Tour.
Theatre critic Michael Billington celebrates the life and legacy of the provocative British playwright Edward Bond, whose death was announced today.
Dr Stacy Smith, and film data researcher Stephen Follows, discuss Dr Smith's recent report revealing that the number of female film directors in Hollywood has fallen.
And playwright Eve Steele on her new play, Work It Out, inspired by real-life moments in a Zumba class and is now on at HOME in Manchester.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001wxqb)
The Trouble with Parenting
"Maria" ended up in A and E after being assaulted by her 11-year-old child. There’s nothing unusual about children being rude or sometimes abusive to their parents, particularly when they’re adolescents. But some parents are attacked and abused by their children on a regular basis. It’s a pattern of behaviour that can begin as young as three years old and become unmanageable by teenage years.
Many parents remain silent out of shame and out of fear of the consequences if they seek help, worried that their child may be taken into care or criminalised. So it’s a hidden problem. The issue is now on the government’s agenda with a consultation that’s aiming to find a common definition for the issue. Jo Glanville talks to parents, practitioners and researchers about what happens in families when a child becomes violent, what should be done to support them and what lies behind this kind of behaviour.
Presented and Produced by Jo Glanville
Executive Editor: Bridget Harney
Research: Maia Miller-Lewis
Studio Manager: Jon Calver
Actors: Jayne Ashbourne and Juliet Cowan
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
Organisations in the programme offering information or support on child to parent violence:
Family Lives
Parentline family support and bullying helpline | Family Lives
https://www.familylives.org.uk/how-we-can-help/confidential-helpline
CAPA First Response
Capa First Response | You are not alone - Capa First Response
https://capafirstresponse.org/
Talk Listen Change
Young People’s Programmes - TLC: Talk, Listen, Change (talklistenchange.org.uk)
https://talklistenchange.org.uk/project/young-peoples-programmes/
Holes in the Wall
HOLES IN THE WALL | documenting parent abuse
https://holesinthewall.co.uk/
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001wxqs)
RNIB Tech for Life Fair - Belfast
Northern Ireland recently hosted its first major assistive technology conference. The conference was hosted by the RNIB at the Europa Hotel in Belfast and it was home for the day to all the big players in the assistive technology arena. In Touch went along to find out what the latest tech has to offer and the kinds of things visually impaired people were interested in.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m001wxqh)
The science behind screentime, the effect of live music, and can you imagine sounds in your head?
These days we see a lot of negative stories related to screen time – how we’re addicted to our phones and social media is damaging our mental health. But is our panic about screens justified? Pete Etchells, professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University, talks Claudia Hammond through the latest evidence in this field – and it turns out it’s all a lot more complicated than we think.
Many of us will often get catchy tunes stuck in our head, or have an inner monologue narrating our experiences. But this isn’t the case for everyone – some people have what they describe as a silent inner world. This inability to hear sounds in your head has been named anauralia, which PhD student Sang Hyun Kim experiences, and he describes his inner life to Claudia. We also hear from Professor of Psychology Tony Lambert, who has been running studies into anauralia at the University of Auckland.
And Claudia is joined in the studio by Catherine Loveday, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Westminster, who has also recently published a study on anauralia – and puts Claudia’s auditory imagery skills to the test. And Catherine also talks us through a new study on how live music can amplify emotional responses in the brain.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producer: Sophie Ormiston
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
Production Coordinator: Siobhan Maguire
Editor: Holly Squire
TUE 21:30 The Long View (m001wxh7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001wxrd)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
TUE 22:45 Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (m001wxs0)
Episode 2
Emma Fielding reads Daphne Du Maurier's enduring and adored classic - a story of love, daring and a painted pirate ship in a secret Cornish creek, and of the beautiful, roistering Lady Dona St Columb, who, fleeing her vacuous life in London in search of her better self, meets her match at last.
Today: La Mouette On an impulse Lady Dona St Columb, imperious, dare-devil and unhappy, has fled the playhouse and the pranks of her London life to escape to her husband's country seat, Navron House. Arriving with her two small children and a maid, she found it staffed only by the mysterious William. And while she savours her new found freedom, has someone been sleeping in her bed, and even smoking tobacco there and just who will come to call?
Set on Du Maurier's beloved South Cornwall coast, in the secret creeks and inlets of the Helford river, where the curlews wade on the mud flats and the night jars churr at midnight, Frenchman's Creek is a song to an age where a traveller in time might just glimpse a figure in the shadows, the moonlight glinting on his buckled shoe or the cutlass in his hand, and a cloaked woman might slip silently through the woods to meet her lover.
Reader Emma Fielding
Abridger Julian Wilkinson
Producer Di Speirs
TUE 23:00 Rum Punch (m001wxsw)
Drawing on various elements of his own life, Travis Jay’s new sitcom Rum Punch is a family comedy about love, friendship and aspiration. Set in Lewisham and following the multi generational Campbells as they struggle to keep their Caribbean restaurant afloat.
Travis Jay is one of the most exciting up and coming comedians in the country. He has supported Dave Chapelle and Kojo Amin on tour, and has appeared on screen in shows for BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Comedy Central and Netflix.
Cast:
Travis Jay - Marley
Kevin Garry - Des
Eddie Nestor - Delroy
Maureen Hibbert - Angie
Letitia Hector - Lydia
Kevin J - Nicholas
@FaceintheNews - Taylor
Producers - Jules Lom and Daisy Knight
Sound Designer - David Thomas
Executive Producers - Jon Thoday and Richard Allen-Turner
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001wxtk)
Susan Hulme reports as Labour accuses the government of stealing its policies, ahead of tomorrow's budget.
WEDNESDAY 06 MARCH 2024
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001wxv5)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
WED 00:30 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxhh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wxvt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wxwg)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wxx2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001wxxm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wxy5)
Community
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Prayer for the Day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
This week when I was in my local temple, I recounted the time when I longed to be there all of the time, often fantasising about living there, spending my days meditating and praying, being in the company of other Sikhs to be absorbed in discussions about mystical poetry.
The word “Sikh” means learner but rather than retreating from the outside world, it has called me to ask, how would my daily life change if I considered myself as a spirit having a human experience rather than a human seeking a spiritual experience?
I live in the city, in a block of flats that has always referred to itself as a “community” and it’s a diverse group of residents.
Since living here, I’ve reflected on community as two words - common unity.
The central principle in the Sikh faith is that the Creator is extended into all of Creation - and this was expressed by the ten human Gurus through their example of embodying virtues, including equality, compassion, forgiveness, service, courage, peace.
I’m the only person who identifies as a Sikh in my housing community. But through its diversity, I’ve learnt the true meaning of being a Sikh - that every interaction is a reminder of spiritual life in all its many facets and an opportunity to express a virtue.
While there is much division and polarisation in the world, my prayer is that we can truly appreciate diversity and at the same time remember the essential essence common to us all, that is touched through the act of kindness or a moment of compassion, and unites us through our shared human experience.
Sat Naam
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001wxys)
06/03/24 - Hedgerow rules, neonics and lambing
The Government has promised that hedgerows will continue to be protected, even though there’s been a gap in regulations after EU rules lapsed at the end of last year. DEFRA has confirmed that legislation will include plans to maintain cutting bans on hedges and 2 metre protective buffer strips. But farmers will also be allowed to apply for an exemption to cut or trim hedges in August, if they are sowing oilseed rape or temporary grass. Conservation groups have welcomed the protections but some, including the Wildlife Trusts say the government could have gone further.
The Labour Party is considering stopping the emergency use of harmful neonicotinoid chemicals, if it wins the next election. The chemicals protect crops from pests which spread disease, but are dangerous for pollinators. Their use is generally banned but the Government granted emergency authorisation for farmers to use them on sugar beet this year, for the fourth time in a row.
And we visit Wood Farm, near Carlisle, in Cumbria, for lambing! Tom Wilson has 1250 Suffolk Cross Texels to look after, but his family also runs a 200 strong dairy herd so the family employ a live-in lambing assistant.
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b020tp6d)
Goldfinch
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Goldfinch. With its bright yellow wing-flashes and face painted black, white and red, the goldfinch is one of our most colourful birds.
WED 06:00 Today (m001wxkc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 The Briefing Room (m001wxky)
Election special 1. Is democracy in India under threat?
2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes.
The first – this one - focuses on the world’s biggest democracy - India - where prime minister Narendra Modi is hoping – perhaps expecting – to win a third term. The party first came to power in 2014 and since then fears about “democratic backsliding” have been growing. David Aaronovitch and guests ask how worried we should be about that.
Guests:
Yogita Limaye, BBC's South Asia Correspondent
Rohan Venkat, editor of “India Inside Out” newsletter
Louise Tillin, Professor of Politics in the India Institute at King’s College London
Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House.
Production team: Rosamund Jones and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineers: Hal Haines and Sarah Hockley
WED 09:30 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001wxlg)
Get Skipping
It’s time to dig out that skipping rope, as Michael learns that the popular childhood pastime could have big benefits for health and wellbeing, especially as we get older. Professor Urs Granacher from the University of Freiburg, shares how skipping is a form of jumping exercise, which could help increase not just our speed, but could also help us age healthily. These exercises help increase muscle power and can also strengthen our bones. Our volunteer Shona, a new mum based in Shetland, uses skipping as an excuse to get outside.
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 Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxlv)
$2,000-3,000: Silicon Valley Philanthropy
In a world in thrall to data, it’s possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth, exploring what we lose and gain by leaving the judgements that matter up to cold logic.
Journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman maps out the charitable trend taking Silicon Valley by storm – Effective Altruism.
An EcoAudio certified production.
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Read by the author
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001wxm8)
Raye, Women swimming the Channel, Anita Hill, Adaptive fashion
The South London singer-songwriter Raye joins Emma Barnett following her record-breaking six wins at the Brit awards last weekend. Raye tells us about her grandma Agatha who joined her on stage after winning Best Album for My 21st Century Blues. She also talks about being a woman in the music industry and the strength she has found from fellow female musician Charli XCX.
The English channel has always held an allure for endurance swimmers the world over, but the first British woman to complete it was Mercedes Gleitze. She achieved this feat in 1927 and a new film, Vindication Swim, recreates that moment in history. Kirsten Callaghan plays Mercedes, she joins Emma along with the current channel swimmer Sarah Philpott to explain what it’s like to spend that long in open water, and what drives women to do it.
It’s the Oscars this weekend, the first ceremony since the Academy introduced new diversity rules for all candidates. But almost seven years since the start of the Me Too movement - has Hollywood really become a safer place for the women who work there? According to the latest survey by the Hollywood Commission, which was set up in 2017 to help stop workplace harassment and discrimination in the entertainment industry, there's still a lot of work to do. Emma speaks to the chair of the Hollywood Commission, the activist, academic and author Anita Hill.
If you had 20 minutes with the Prime Minister what would you use your time to ask? Grazia magazine, ahead of International Women's Day this week, chose to focus on the personal and the domestic in a series of three videos which have had a lot of reaction online. Lindsay Nicholson, writer and former editor of various women's magazines including Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, joins Emma to discuss.
Children with a disability, or limited mobility, often need some type of adjustment to garments so they can wear them. It’s known as adaptive clothing and whilst there are a growing number of brands offering this, they’re not widely available on the high street. My next guests are trying to raise awareness of this with a fashion show. Andrea Jester is a leading hand and upper limb plastic surgeon at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Carmen Burkett is a fashion lecturer at South and City College in Birmingham. They’ve teamed up to put Andrea's young patients - or models as they’ve become - in touch with student designers.
WED 11:00 How to Build an Oil Field (m001wxmn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (p0h3qd6j)
29. Mary Ann Brough - Mother with Everything to Lose
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 Alexandra Wilson, a barrister specialising in criminal and family law and author of ‘In Black and White’, to explore the case of Mary Ann Brough in 1854.
Mary Ann lives in the picturesque county of Surrey, close to London. She’s married to George, who lives and works at the stately home nearby, while Mary Ann stays at home looking after six of their children. It sounds like an idyllic family life. But there are cracks beneath the surface. George suspects Mary Ann of having an affair and even hires a private detective to follow her to see if his suspicions are correct.
After the detective reports back, George confronts Mary Ann and declares he will be starting legal proceedings to take full custody of their children. After he leaves, Mary Ann puts the children to bed, but later that evening she commits a drastic act. She slits the throats of each of her children before trying to kill herself.
She is discovered the next day still alive, fully admitting to what she did. But why did she do it? Was it a cloud of insanity that took over her in a flash? Or was it to stop her husband gaining custody of the children and taking them away?
Lucy Worsley is also joined by Professor Rosalind Crone from the Open University. Together, they visit the village Mary Ann lived in and the stately estate nearby. In the studio with Alexandra Wilson they discuss the circumstances surrounding Mary Ann’s crime and how the custody laws at the time may have impacted her actions.
Lucy asks, has the way society treats custody disputes changed since Mary Ann’s time and does it view each parent equally?
Produced in partnership with the Open University.
Producer: Hannah Fisher
Readers: Clare Corbett, Jonathan Keeble
Singer: Olivia Bloore
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 (m001wxn8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Strike Boy (m001wxnn)
3. Arthur and Maggie
“We'd been beaten by militancy before. We were not going to be beaten again.”
Two firebrands dominated the national stage during the miners’ strike of 1984-5: NUM leader Arthur Scargill and prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Back then, as an 11-year-old miner’s son, Mark just knew that his family were on Scargill’s side and Thatcher was against them.
Now Mark wants to know what was behind the government’s plan to close pits and take on the unions. To find out, he meets one of Margaret Thatcher’s top ministers, Michael Heseltine. Were union leaders really the “enemy within”?
Archive: Kinolibrary (Arthur Scargill speech); BBC.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
WED 12:18 World at One (m001wxnz)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
WED 13:57 Weather (m001wxp8)
The latest weather forecast
WED 14:00 The Archers (m001wxpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001wxpt)
Beside Myself
Daphne ..... Helena Bonham Carter
Man ..... Bill Nighy
Terry ..... Alex Tregear
Lawyer ..... Ian Dunnett Junior
Writer ..... Moya O'Shea
Director ..... Tracey Neale
Helena Bonham Carter photo credit: Matt Crockett
Daphne du Maurier, makes her way along the clifftops near Kilmarth but any semblance of independence is quickly dispelled by the annoying presence of her nurse, Terry, following at a distance, for being unable to write, the author is suffering from insomnia and depression.
The routine of these ambles is well known to her fans and they often seek her out. So when a stranger approaches, Daphne thinks he’s just another and picks up her stiff stride, eager to get away. However, this one’s not to be deterred. As they walk along Daphne, to own amazement, finds herself revealing much to the man about her life. Why is she compelled to divulge so much? Perhaps too much.
Beside Myself is part of a collection of dramas in Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure, a celebration of the imaginative variety and power of one of our most underestimated but prolific and radical female writers. Three short stories - Don't Look Now, The Blue Lenses and The Little Photographer - have been selected for their taboo-bursting excursions into the dark unvisited realms of the inner life.
WED 15:00 Money Box (m001wxq4)
Money Box Live: Budget Special
As Chancellor Jeremy Hunt presents his Spring Budget, Money Box Live sifts through the details - and the impact on all our finances.
Expectations included a 2p cut in National Insurance contributions but will that look like on your payslip? Money Box reporter Dan Whitworth answers those key questions.
Felicity Hannah is joined by Sarah Coles, Head of Personal Finance at Hargreaves Lansdown; Simon Gammon, Managing Partner at the mortgage broker Knight Frank Finance, and Dawn Register, Tax Partner at the accountancy firm BDO.
Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producers: Craig Henderson, and Kath Paddison
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researcher: Eimear Devlin
Editor: Sarah Rogers
(This episode was first aired on Wednesday the 6th of March at
3pm on Radio 4)
WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m001wxqh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Sideways (m001wxr0)
59. What's Your Name?
What's your name? You might think you know, but in this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed discovers the answer could be more complicated than you first assume.
That's what Hajar found out, after spending her whole life searching for a name to truly call her own.
This is the story of our names, and the influence they have over who we are and who we choose to become.
With Hajar Woodland, Eva Echo, Emilia Aldrin, David Zhu and Arjee Restar.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Leigh Meyer
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound design and mix by Daniel Kempson
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 16:30 The Media Show (m001wxrm)
Is this the end for TalkTV?
With the scandal still all over the front as well as the back pages, we explore what the Christian Horner allegations tell us about the challenges journalists face in holding sports leaders to account. TalkTV is moving to online only and GB News has been censured by Ofcom. We consider the successes and failures of both channels. Plus, as pictures of the Princess of Wales are published in the United States we hear why codes of behaviour among British journalists mean, despite being freely available online, they will not be appearing on TV or in print here.
Contributors: Jake Kanter, Investigations Editor, Deadline; Aggie Chambre, Host, Westminster Insider podcast; Andrew Benson, Chief F1 Writer, BBC Sport; Fern Buckley, F1 Correspondent, talkSPORT; Chris Ship, Royal Editor, ITV News
Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Simon Richardson
WED 17:00 PM (m001wxs8)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wxsz)
Jeremy Hunt has announced a National Insurance cut and raised the child benefit threshold
WED 18:30 Janey Godley: The C Bomb (m001wxtm)
Series 2
1. Not Dead Yet
Despite her diagnosis of terminal cancer in 2021, Janey’s defiantly not dead yet, and is as hilarious as ever, even in the face of online haters who seem to think she’s not dying quickly enough.
In this mix of stand-up and chat, Janey and her daughter and fellow comedian Ashley talk about why having cancer is like having an extramarital affair and what it’s like to be told you’re dying, and she takes to the stage to tell tales of loudmouths in hospital wards and the unlikely benefits of chemotherapy!
Janey shared her extraordinary life story in the first series - exposing all the abuse, poverty, and trauma she’d experienced in her trademark darkly comic style.
Now, with death chasing her down like a runaway bus, she’s still compelled to get up onstage and fearlessly poke fun at every escapade, encounter and event she’s experienced on her own journey with cancer, and make sure she goes out in the same way she’s lived - with nothing left unsaid.
Recorded live in front of an audience in her hometown, Glasgow.
Produced by Julia Sutherland
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m001wxvj)
Jakob is on his way out and lets Denise and Paul know their boss Doug Lovell plans to visit tomorrow. They agree they’re glad it’s not Doug’s partner Don, who has an edge. As he leaves Denise tells Paul she spoke to John on the phone last night, and he cried. Alistair is excited about dinner on Friday night but Denise is having second thoughts. Later Paul says John has messaged to say he had an amazing conversation with Denise and he feels a lot better. She tells Alistair John cried on the phone and wants to try again. Alistair is crushed and tells Jakob he’s thinking of leaving the practice. Jakob tells him bluntly that he’s lying. Alistair confesses he can’t cope with working with Denise while he feels so strongly about her. Jakob begs him not to say anything to Doug when he visits tomorrow. Later Alistair tells Jim Denise has decided to work on her marriage. Jim is sorry, so is Alistair.
Alice visits the shop to invite Jim and Jazzer to Martha’s birthday. Jim says he plans to go back to bed with a book, reminding Alice that it’s World Book Day and she doesn’t have an outfit for Martha. Jim suggests he look through costumes left over from Ambridge panto but his suggestions are unsuitable for a three year old. But material for a Very Hungry Caterpillar costume is a hit. Brian checks in on Alice and they reminisce about Jenny – it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday. Alice says she has asked Harry to speak up for Harrison and she believes he will.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m001wxw5)
Ava DuVernay on Origin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julianne Moore
Ava DuVernay talks to Tom Sutcliffe about her latest film, Origin. It stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, following her journey as she researches her best-selling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents while dealing with personal tragedy.
Gabriel García Márquez’s final novel Until August is being published posthumously today despite his final wishes. His son Gonzalo explains why, and critics Max Liu and Blake Morrison discuss the ethics of defying a writer’s final request.
Julianne Moore and director Oliver Hermanus discuss their historical TV drama Mary & George, which explores the affair between King James VI and I and George Villiers. Julianne Moore plays Mary Villiers, a woman who goes to extremes to improve her social position.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Julian May
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m001wxwt)
The morality of forgiveness
The Legacy Act in Northern Ireland provides a conditional amnesty for people who committed crimes during the Troubles, as part of a broader process of reconciliation. It’s an attempt to draw a line under events of the past, but it’s generated anger among the families of some victims, who feel they’ll be denied justice.
When things go wrong, we need to find people to blame. Who’s responsible? Who should be punished? But might we do better if we were prepared to blame less – prioritising the truth, and forgive more? It's been proposed that the NHS adopts a no-blame system where staff don’t lose their jobs if they admit a failure, so the NHS learns quickly from its mistakes. The “no-blame culture” idea already exists in parts of the US aviation industry where people are encouraged, even praised, for owning up to mistakes that could cost lives.
If blame means disgrace and the end of a career, it’s hardly surprising that people hide the truth about their own failure. How many of us would admit it quickly, if we discovered that a mistake at work had led to terrible consequences? More forgiveness might lead to greater openness and honesty. It could make it easier to avoid mistakes being repeated. But is it moral to forgive serious wrongdoing? Where is the justice in that? Surely the fear of blame is a powerful incentive for us all to do our jobs properly and avoid mistakes. Do we need more forgiveness – or less?
Presenter: Michael Buerk
Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser
Editor: Tim Pemberton
WED 21:00 When It Hits the Fan (m001wxxd)
Christian Horner crisis continues, the Telegraph battle and Hancock’s Eton cockup
David Yelland and Simon Lewis return to Formula 1 and the latest instalment of the Christian Horner crisis. The alleged texts between the Red Bull boss and a female colleague have been leaked and the tabloids are feasting. Fighting a battle for your reputation in the red tops is a sure sign of a PR problem. Can using the star power of Horner’s wife, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, rescue the situation?
David and Simon also go behind the scenes of one of the most controversial deals the British media has seen - the bidding war for the Telegraph Group - and lift the lid on the world of takeover PR.
Plus, what happened when Matt Hancock went to Eton and appeared to forget who might be in the room?
Producer: Eve Streeter
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: William Miller
Assistant Producer: Sophie Smith
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur production for BBC Radio 4
WED 21:30 The Media Show (m001wxrm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001wxy0)
Chancellor cuts 2p off National Insurance
Also tonight:
Nikki Haley drops out of the race to be US President
and
a special showing of Oscar nominated film "The Zone of Interest" at Auschwitz.
WED 22:45 Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (m001wxym)
Episode 3
Emma Fielding reads Daphne Du Maurier's timeless and adored classic - a story of love, daring and a painted pirate ship in a secret Cornish creek, and of the beautiful, roistering Lady Dona St Columb, who, fleeing her vacuous life in London in search of her better self, meets her match at last.
Today: Behaving Badly. On an impulse Lady Dona St Columb, imperious, dare-devil and unhappy, has escaped to her husband's country seat, Navron House with her two small children. Chancing on a hidden creek below the house, she has stumbled on the very French pirate who has been upsetting her neighbours.
Set on Du Maurier's beloved South Cornwall coast, in the secret creeks and inlets of the Helford river, where the curlews wade on the mud flats and the night jars churr at midnight, Frenchman's Creek is a song to another age, where a traveller might glimpse a figure in the shadows, the moonlight glinting on his buckled shoe or the cutlass in his hand, and a cloaked woman might slip silently through the woods to meet her lover. And where a Frenchman, captain of a pirate vessel La Mouette, is terrorising the local aristocracy with his daring and bravado.
Reader Emma Fielding
Abridger Julian Wilkinson
Producer Di Speirs
WED 23:00 DMs Are Open (m001wxz3)
Series 3
2. Surprise!
Unusual DNA results, a surprising gender reveal and a life coach who knows far too much all feature in this episode of DMs Are Open, written by the public.
Surprise! Stevie Martin and the team are back again this week to bring you sketches, one liners and voice notes written by the most surprising bunch: the good listeners of Radio 4.
Stevie is joined by Katie Norris, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Nimisha Odedra and Will Sebag-Montefiore as they delve into the DMs and see what surprises await them.
Written by the public. This week it was written by:
Kathy Manuira
Paul Creasy
David Elliott & Andri Panayi
Angela Channell
Katharine Kennedy
Emily Reader
Amelia Stephenson
Sam Coade
Louis Beer
Cody Dahler
David Duncan
Jin Hao-Li
Kate Dehvert
Rhiannon Shaw
Voice notes were performed by:
Alex MJ Smith
Alex Garrick-Wright
Phil Ossai & David Ajayi
Jon Powell
Recorded at Backyard Comedy Club
Script Edited by Simon Alcock and Catherine Brinkworth.
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Assistant Producer: Caroline Barlow
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001wxzm)
Series 11
Episode 4
Jon Holmes presents the multi-award winning The Skewer. The week’s biggest stories like you’ve never heard them before. The news, remixed as a satirical comedy concept album. Headphones recommended.
This week - The Budget Tale of Mr Jeremy, The Cat in the Hat Returns, and Rishi Sunak Speaks to The Nation.
Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001wy05)
Sean Curran reports on the Budget.
THURSDAY 07 MARCH 2024
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001wy0p)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
THU 00:30 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxlv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wy13)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wy1j)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wy22)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001wy2l)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wy2z)
G.O.D.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Prayer for the Day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
Even though I wasn’t brought up in a family home with any religious faith, since becoming a Chaplain, I’ve had many conversations about what God is or could be with a wide range of people. These exchanges have taken place on train platforms, tubes, buses, and have provided unexpected and also insightful explorations about something that can be both hard to identify and also very personally clear for some.
A reference or proposition I return to often is very practical - the letters G. O. D. representing the Generating, Organising and Delivering force that moves all things in the universe.
One day in my local temple, observing a group of volunteers in the kitchen preparing food, I had a realisation.
The volunteers had GENERATED a shopping list and the necessary ingredients. They ORGANISED themselves into washing, chopping and cooking tasks. They then DELIVERED the cooked food to anyone who was hungry.
This was G.O.D. in action! It demonstrated to me an energy or force active within each of us and we can decide how to direct or express it. The temple prepares food each day for people from all walks of life. This, in itself, I realised is seeing the God in all and serving the spirit in all without needing any spoken declaration or explanation.
Dear God, whoever is providing my lunch today, I’ll offer thanks for their service. But may I also keep remembering that through action and interactions with others, I’m given the opportunity to continue discovering and knowing you in a way that can be both mystical and very practical.
Sat Naam
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001wy3g)
07/03/24 Spring budget and farming communities: Lambing
The government's spring budget is getting a lukewarm response from many in rural communities - with more discussion of what wasn't in it, than what was. The NFU said it didn't go far enough to offer stability for agricultural businesses, growth in food production and decarbonising the sector. Friends of the Earth described it as: 'yet another missed opportunity to properly invest in building a strong, clean and prosperous future.' The Tenant Farmers Association said it was 'bitterly disappointed' that inheritance tax relief on farms hadn't been restricted only to those renting land out on a long term basis. While the Country Land and Business Association welcomed the extension of tax relief to land in environmental schemes, it said changes on taxing short term lets risked squeezing and stifling rural businesses.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said it was all about long term growth and encouraging people back to work. We speak to Green Bank, Action on Communities in Rural England and a fruit grower to find out what they thought.
We've been looking at lambing this week, and for those of us not involved it's a lovely time of spring, new life and hope. The reality on farms, particularly ones which rely on family labour is that lambing season is a test of endurance. We visit a sheep farmer near Exeter, who's nearly made it through the season.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5c8y)
Purple Sandpiper
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
David Attenborough presents the purple sandpiper. On winter beaches, where waves break on seaweed-covered rocks, purple sandpipers make their home. 'Purple' refers to the hint of a purple sheen on their back feathers. They are well camouflaged among the seaweed covered rocks and being relatively quiet, compared to many waders, are easy to overlook.
THU 06:00 Today (m001wymc)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001wymz)
The Mokrani Revolt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revolt that broke out in 1871 in Algeria against French rule, spreading over hundreds of miles and countless towns and villages before being brutally suppressed. It began with the powerful Cheikh Mokrani and his family and was taken up by hundreds of thousands, becoming the last major revolt there before Algeria’s war of independence in 1954. In the wake of its swift suppression though came further waves of French migrants to settle on newly confiscated lands, themselves displaced by French defeat in Europe and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and their arrival only increased tensions. The Mokrani Revolt came to be seen as a watershed between earlier Ottoman rule and full national identity, an inspiration to nationalists in the 1950s.
With
Natalya Benkhaled-Vince
Associate Professor of the History of Modern France and the Francophone World, Fellow of University College, University of Oxford
Hannah-Louise Clark
Senior Lecturer in Global Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow
And
Jim House
Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone History at the University of Leeds
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Mahfoud Bennoune, The Making of Contemporary Algeria: 1830-1987 (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
Julia Clancy-Smith, Rebel and Saint: Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters, Algeria and Tunisia 1800–1904 (University of California Press, 1994)
Hannah-Louise Clark, ‘The Islamic Origins of the French Colonial Welfare State: Hospital Finance in Algeria’ (European Review of History, vol. 28, nos 5-6, 2021)
Hannah-Louise Clark, ‘Of jinn theories and germ theories: translating microbes, bacteriological medicine, and Islamic law in Algeria’ (Osiris, vol. 36, 2021)
Brock Cutler, Ecologies of Imperialism in Algeria (University of Nebraska Press, 2023)
Didier Guignard, 1871: L’Algérie sous Séquestre (CNRS Éditions, 2023)
Idir Hachi, ‘Histoire social de l’insurrection de 1871 et du procès de ses chefs (PhD diss., University of Aix-Marseille, 2017)
Abdelhak Lahlou, Idir Hachi, Isabelle Guillaume, Amélie Gregório and Peter Dunwoodie, ‘L'insurrection kabyle de 1871’ (Etudes françaises volume 57, no 1, 2021)
James McDougall, A History of Algeria (Cambridge University Press (2017)
John Ruedy, Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation (Indiana University Press, 2005, 2nd edition)
Jennifer E Sessions, By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria (Cornell University Press, 2011)
Samia Touati, ‘Lalla Fatma N’Soumer, 1830–1863: Spirituality, Resistance and Womanly Leadership in Colonial Algeria (Societies vol. 8, no. 4, 2018)
Natalya Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (Manchester University Press, 2015)
THU 09:45 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wyq7)
£20-£30,000 per year: The National Health Service
In a world in thrall to data, it’s possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth, exploring what we lose and gain by leaving the judgements that matter up to cold logic.
Kleeman explores the process by which NHS budgets are allocated – and meets some of the people who found their lives changed by the stroke of a pen.
An EcoAudio certified production.
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Read by the author
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001wync)
Nikki Haley, Pornography series, Author Liz Jensen
Nikki Haley has officially dropped out of the race to become Republican candidate for US President. So what does this mean for the upcoming elections, for women voters and also for women in politics? Emma Barnett speaks to political strategist at the Harvard Belfer Center, Shannon Felton Spence and director of the US and Americas at Chatham House, Leslie Vinjamuri.
The author Liz Jensen’s son Raphael was a wildlife biologist, an environmental activist, and a prominent member of Extinction Rebellion. In 2020, at the age of 25, he unexpectedly collapsed and died due to an unknown heart condition. Liz speaks to Emma about her new memoir, Your Wild and Previous Life, about her process of grief, hope and rebellion.
On Friday 22nd March, Anita will take Woman's Hour to Doncaster and join forces with BBC Radio Sheffield for a special panel edition of Woman's Hour - Who wants to be a female entrepreneur? Ahead of that, Emma talks to BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Paulette Edwards who is spending a day at Opportunities Doncaster Live, where school girls have gone to find out about local business opportunities and how to develop their entrepreneurial minds.
Continuing our series opening up the conversation around pornography and its impact on sex and relationships, our reporter Ena Miller talks to a woman we are calling Sophie. She believes porn has shaped her sex life and the desires of her sexual partners in a negative way, and explains why she thinks this is the case.
Who do we want to be to our children when we’re dead and gone? And how do we want them to remember us? These questions are posed by the play The Hills of California currently on stage in London. Set in Blackpool in 1976, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother’s run-down guest house, as she lies dying. Olivier award-winning actor Laura Donnelly, who plays the mother Veronica, joins Emma.
Presenter: Emma Barnett
Reporter: Ena Miller
Producer: Lottie Garton
THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m001wynk)
Nigeria’s growing economic crisis
Kate Adie presents stories from Nigeria, Ukraine, Iran, Uzbekistan and Nepal.
Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, with soaring inflation and a depreciating currency, making many basic food items unaffordable for the majority. Mayeni Jones describes the challenges of daily living in a country where inflation is around 30 per cent.
In the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, several villages have been captured after Russian forces took control of the town of Avdiivka last month. James Waterhouse has been to cities just behind the front-line as they prepare for what might be coming their way
Turnout in Iran’s parliamentary elections last week was at a record low of 41 per cent - though voters had a limited choice, as only candidates approved by the Supreme Leader’s Guardian Council could stand. Our correspondent, Caroline Davies, was given rare permission to report from the capital Tehran, where young people explained why they chose not to vote.
We travel to Uzbekistan, a Muslim-majority country – but, as we discover, not all visitors are in tune with the country’s traditional conservative values. Chris Aslan reports on how religious piety is increasingly being embraced in the country.
And, for those climbing Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, it's not just reaching the summit that's taking their breath away. Our Environment Correspondent, Navin Singh Khadka, finds out what's causing a stink.
Producer: Sally Abrahams
Production Coordinator: Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
THU 11:30 A Good Read (m001wxp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
THU 12:00 News Summary (m001wzgt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001wynx)
Gap Finders - David Lorenz
David Lorenz is the CEO and founder of Lunaz, a company that takes classic luxury cars, and “upcycles” them with new technology to make them fully electric. They have also expanded and applied this method of “upcycling” to specialised commercial vehicles, focusing on electrifying whole fleets.
The company, based in the home of the F1 British Grand Prix in Silverstone, announced a large scale partnership with Biffa, the waste management service, to electrify their fleet of bin lorries last year. They’ve also attracted some big name investors, such as David Beckham, and comedian Jack Whitehall.
But David Lorenz isn’t from an automotive background – he previously spent thirteen years in hospitality. He tells us where the idea for this company came from, how he found the right people to help him grow it, and what he plans on doing next.
PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth
PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001wynz)
Milk Alternatives
Which is the cream of the crop for your health and the planet?
The supermarket shelves are fairly bulging with plant-based options for people who either prefer not to drink cow's milk or can't for health reasons like an allergy. Some have been around for a while - like soy, almond and the current best-seller in the UK, oat - but there are newer additions to consider like hazelnut, hemp and a drink made from dried peas.
Listener Sian wants to know if these milk alternatives are better for her health and the environment than cow's milk. Do they give you the same nutritional benefits? And what's the carbon footprint of each, and how do they compare to the production of cow's milk?
If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener and want to know if there’s any evidence behind it, then email us: sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807
Presenter: Greg Foot
Producer: Simon Hoban
THU 12:57 Weather (m001wyp1)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m001wyp3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
THU 13:45 Strike Boy (m001wyp5)
4. Flying Pickets
“I'm not saying I'm proud of what I did, but I reverted to guerrilla warfare."
Flying pickets were striking miners who travelled to different pits trying to get working miners to join them on strike. Because most Nottinghamshire miners worked, miner’s son Mark’s home village was full of pickets with different accents, hurling insults and scrapping with police.
Forty years on, Mark goes to South Yorkshire to meet a flying picket who spent the year of the 1984-85 strike dodging police road-blocks, shouting at working miners, and ambushing buses. He tells Mark about the things he did that year that he wouldn’t dream of doing now.
Archive: BBC.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
THU 14:00 The Archers (m001wxvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001wyp7)
Dragons of the Pool
Inspired by the true story of the Chinese seamen, forcibly repatriated from Liverpool in 1945-46, Dragons of the Pool is a fictional account based on the history of the "compulsory repatriation of undesirable Chinese seamen" following their service during World War 2, back to Hong Kong and China, which was on the brink of Civil War.
Set over the course of 50 years, the drama follows the journey of middle aged Leigh and her long lost father, Haoyu, as he tries to make his way back to the child he was forced to leave behind in Liverpool.
As Leigh’s mother Maggie’s dementia worsens, memories start coming back. Having moved away from Liverpool as a small child, Leigh begins her journey to find out the real story of her father only as she packs up her mother’s things.
The story touches on Maggie and Haoyu’s romance, Leigh’s birth and from there we follow his journey from his abduction, via his return to China’s Shanghai, travelling to the West Indies before returning to the UK in the late 1960s with his second daughter, XinYi.
Leigh learns about the Dragons of the Pool, a Facebook group of mixed raced left behind children searching for their Chinese fathers. Eventually she and Maggie meet her half sister, Xinyi, who begins to fill in the dots as to what happened to her father. Not all plain sailing, coming in second to a sister that existed only in Haoyu’s heart makes it hard for the sisters to connect - but finally they start to build a relationship.
Cast:
LEIGH JONES (XĪNYU) ..… Liz Sutherland
MAGGIE JONES ..... Lucy Speed
LǏ HAOYǓ ….. Jeremy Ang Jones
TAN MINGZE ….. Jon Chew
LǏ XĪNYI ….. Gabby Wong
Production team:
Writer, Kathryn Golding
Producer, Polly Thomas
Director, Shan Ng
Original Music., Ruth Chan
Sound Designer, Alisdair McGregor
Sound Recordist, Wilfredo Acosta
Illustrator, YanKi Darling
Production Manager, Darren Spruce
Executive Producer, Polly Thomas
Special thanks to Yvonne Foley, founder of Dragons and Lions, for her time and help with research.
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4
Kathryn Golding is a former Beats Fellow. She was on a year-long attachment with Graeae, a leading disabled-led theatre company and has been part of writers' groups at the Royal Court and Soho Theatre. She is currently under commission by Bush Theatre, English Touring Theatre Company and Graeae Theatre Company. Her first full-length play, A Perpetual State of Happiness, developed on attachment with Graeae, had a rehearsed reading in 2019 at the Bush Theatre. She has also written for Royal Court Theatre, English Touring Theatre Company, Paines Plough and Tamasha. Her TV pilot, Breeders was longlisted for the TriForce Creative Network’s WriterSlam. Audio drama with Naked Productions includes Connections for national community radio stations and BBC Radio 4, and Night of the Living Flatpacks for national community radio, funded by Audio Content Fund.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m001wyp9)
Kingfishers on the River Frome with Nadeem Perera
Nadeem Perera is not your conventional image of a birdwatcher. In fact growing up in inner city London he was not raised as or encouraged to be a 'nature boy'. But dropping out of school as a troubled teen he had a revelation. One day he was sitting in woodland and saw a green spotted woodpecker in front of him and his passion for birds was born. Now he can be seen on BBC 1 on the One Show talking about birds and has moved to Bristol to further his career in wildlife presenting. He takes Clare for a walk along the River Frome starting in Eastville Park. It's a grey Winter's day but they are overjoyed to be accompanied along the river by kingfishers lighting up the landscape. Along the way he talks about the project he runs called Flock Together and about his passion for combining young people of colour with the outdoors and nature.
They walk from Eastville Park to Snuff Mills and the Stoke Park Estate
Producer: Maggie Ayre
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001wy8h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Bookclub (m001wy99)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Rise and Rise of the Microchip (m001wypc)
Quantum Leaps and Future Chips
In our final episode, Misha Glenny explores the power of microchips to unlock the potential of future innovation in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and neurotechnology.
The semiconductor has transformed the world as we know it, but is it on the cusp of changing what it means to be human?
This year chips took a decisive step into a new frontier, the human body, as Elon Musk’s company Neuralink successfully implanted their first brain chip. Misha speaks to Professor Henri Lorach, who helps paralysed patients walk again using brain implants, about this pioneering technology and how it could revolutionise our lives.
At the centre of the Artificial Intelligence revolution is advanced microchip technology, those chips provide the power that makes AI possible. Misha hears from AI start-up Synthesia about the opportunities and the threats for nations and citizens of creating AI generated videos and Dame Wendy Hall, a member of the United Nations advisory body on AI, reflects on the need for regulation and strong governance of AI.
Beyond the realms of most human comprehension lies quantum computing, the next evolutionary phase in the microchip journey. Misha speaks to startup Quantum Motion and tech giant IBM about how their quantum chips which stay colder than absolute zero/ outer space can complete tasks that take everyday computers hundreds of years in mere minutes. Yet in the wrong hands these chips could have a dark side – Misha hears from Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for the British Secret Intelligence Service about how quantum computing could break down the world’s cryptography and cyber security and reveal top secret information previously hidden.
Presented by Misha Glenny, Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Produced by Olivia Sopel and Mugabi Turya
Archive Credits:
BBC News Archive
Victoria Coren Mitchell explaining quantum chips (Source: Quantum Motion)
Rishi Sunak at the Bletchley Park, AI Summit (Source: Downing Street)
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001wypf)
How pure is the water from your tap?
A recent study on how to get rid of microplastics in water sparked presenter Marnie Chesterton’s curiosity. When she turns on the tap in her kitchen each day, what comes out is drinkable, clean water. But where did it come from, and what’s in it? Dr Stewart Husband from Sheffield University answers this and more, including listener questions from around the UK. Is water sterile? Should I use a filter? And why does my water smell like chlorine?
Also, new research indicates that bumblebees can show each other how to solve puzzles too complex for them to learn on their own. Professor Lars Chittka put these clever insects to the test and found that they could learn through social interaction. How exactly did the experiment work, and what does this mean for our understanding of social insects? Reporter Hannah Fisher visits the bee lab at Queen Mary University in London.
And finally, more than 20 million years ago, our branch of the tree of life lost its tail. At that point in time, apes split from another animal group, monkeys. Now, geneticist Dr Bo Xia at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard thinks he may have found the specific mutation that took our tails. Marnie speaks with evolutionary biologist Dr Tom Stubbs from the Open University about why being tail-less could be beneficial. What would a hypothetical parallel universe look like where humans roam the earth, tails intact? And what would these tails look like?
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Louise Orchard, Florian Bohr, Jonathan Blackwell, Imaan Moin
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
THU 17:00 PM (m001wyph)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wypm)
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said tough decisions would be needed
THU 18:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m001wypp)
Series 5
3. I'm Still Here
Joanna witnesses a random act of kindness and helps a friend in need.
Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam return as the loving, long-married couple, in the 5th series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy.
This week, Joanna witnesses a random act of kindness and believes they should all do more. ‘You give a little love and it all comes back to you’. Roger responds ‘So your guru is Bugsy Malone, is it?’. Her resolve is tested when she is asked to stay with her old friend, Paula, once a 60s party girl, now suffering from Alzheimers, while her exhausted husband takes a break. Joanna is apprehensive but Roger and the dog accompany her and in spite of the heartbreak and moments of panic, Joanna sees the ‘party Paula’ emerge, joyfully, as they relive old times.
Conversations from a Long Marriage is written by Jan Etherington. It is produced and directed by Claire Jones. It is a BBC Studios Production.
Wilfredo Acosta - sound engineer
Charlotte Sewter - sound assistant
Jon Calver - sound designer
Katie Baum - production coordinator
Conversations from a Long Marriage won the Voice of the Listener & Viewer Award for Best Radio Comedy in 2020, was nominated for a Writers’ Guild Award in 2022 and a British Comedy Guide award in 2024.
‘Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam have had illustrious acting careers but can they ever have done anything better than Jan Etherington’s two hander? This is a work of supreme craftsmanship.’ RADIO TIMES
‘Peppered with nostalgic 60s hits and especially written for the pair, it’s an endearing portrait of exasperation, laced with hard won tolerance – and something like love.’ THE GUARDIAN
‘You’ve been listening at my window, Jan’. JOANNA LUMLEY
‘Sitcom is what marriage is really like – repetitive and ridiculous – and Jan’s words are some of the best ever written on the subject’. RICHARD CURTIS
THU 19:00 The Archers (m001wxyf)
Alistair tells Jakob he has to leave. He can’t stay now Denise knows how he feels. Jakob says their partnership means a great deal, particularly as he doesn’t get on well with people. As he begs Alistair not to talk to Doug today, Don James turns up instead, and he’s a lot less amiable. The team is shaken after his visit. He leaves them a list of 50 things they need to improve. Alistair says they just have to take on the useful stuff and ignore the rest. Then he announces his plan to leave the practice, shocking Denise. And Paul says nothing Alistair is saying makes sense – everyone loves him. Angry, he demands to know why Denise is so quiet. He says his colleagues are being really weird and accuses Alistair of lying. Jakob snaps at Paul to shut up – and rants that Paul talks constantly and acts like the whole world revolves around him. Paul leaves, hurt, but Jakob is unrepentant.
Emma tells Fallon she and Ed still haven’t decided whether to accept money from Will for the tree surgery business. As Emma goes on insensitively about how secure Harrison’s career is as a policeman, Fallon reveals that, in fact, there’s a chance he could lose his job. Harrison turns up and asks Emma whether Tracy might let him take over captaining the cricket team. She says she’ll make quiet enquiries. Later Fallon suggests he might consider taking a second job instead. They have no way of knowing what’s going to happen with the hearing.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m001wypr)
Jordan Harvey in session, Nye and Copa 71 reviewed
The up'n'coming Scottish country singer performs songs from his debut album It Is What It Is ahead of his debut solo performance at the Country To Country Festival in London this weekend.
Plus, Susannah Clapp, the theatre critic for the Observer, and Boyd Hilton, the entertainment director of Heat Magazine, join to review the new play Nye at the National, which stars Michael Sheen as the politician who helped found the NHS and to look at the new football documentary Copa 71 about the real life story of a women's football tournament held in Mexico in 1971.
THU 20:00 Law in Action (m001wxnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Tuesday]
THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (m001wypt)
In the eye of a crisis
Evan Davis makes up crisis management scenarios to see how three CEOs handle a business emergency. To make it more realistic none of the guests know what the predicaments are before speaking to Evan.
Guests:
Kathryn Jacob, CEO of Pearl and Dean
Dame Inga Beale, former CEO of Lloyd's of London
Justin King, former CEO of Sainsbury's
Production Team:
Presenter: Evan Davis
Editor: Matt Willis
Producer: Simon Tulet & Paige Neal-Holder
Sound: Sarah Hockley & Rod Farquhar
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (m001wypf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001wymz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001wypx)
Joe Biden’s State of the Union address
Also:
Pembrokeshire votes to increase council tax by more than 20% over 2 years.
And
Sacked Ukrainian General is made Ambassador to London by President Zelensky
THU 22:45 Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (m001wypz)
Episode 4
Emma Fielding reads Daphne Du Maurier's timeless and adored classic - a story of love, daring and a painted pirate ship in a secret Cornish creek, and of the beautiful, roistering Lady Dona St Columb, who, fleeing her vacuous life in London in search of her better self, meets her match at last.
Today: The Cabin Boy. The Frenchman has been quiet of late, preferring to be idle in the Creek, teaching Dona to fish and about the birds. But the time for action is drawing near and perhaps he will find he has need of a new crew member.
Set on Du Maurier's beloved South Cornwall coast, in the secret creeks and inlets of the Helford river, where the curlews wade on the mud flats and the night jars churr at midnight, Frenchman's Creek is a song to another age, where a traveller in time might glimpse a figure in the shadows, the moonlight glinting on his buckled shoe or the cutlass in his hand, and a cloaked woman might slip silently through the woods to meet her lover.
And where a Frenchman, captain of a pirate vessel La Mouette, is terrorising the local aristocracy with his daring and bravado.
Reader Emma Fielding
Abridger Julian Wilkinson
Producer Di Speirs
THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m001wyq1)
Hunt’s Budget - will it make a difference?
Has Jeremy Hunt done enough with his Budget to change the political and economic weather?
Amol and Nick assess the politics of the Chancellor’s speech – possibly his last major intervention before a general election.
And they’re joined by Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England and now chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, to look at what difference the economic measures will make.
Episodes of The Today Podcast are weekly 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 producers are Hazel Morgan and Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Dafydd Evans and digital production from Elliot Ryder.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001wyq3)
Susan Hulme reports as MPs dissect the chancellor's Budget.
FRIDAY 08 MARCH 2024
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001wyq5)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 00:30 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wyq7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001wyq9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001wyqc)
World Service
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001wyqf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001wyqh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001wyqk)
Occasions to celebrate
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Angad Kaur
Prayer for the Day with Angad Kaur
Good Morning.
The month of March has a diverse range of events or occasions for remembrance, observances and celebrations which keeps alive within us the things that matter; reminding us of what we want to keep present in our lives.
There are too many to highlight here, but some to mention include National Women’s History Month, Girl Scout Week and St. Patrick’s Day. There are important causes such as National Brain Injury Awareness Month and Epilepsy Awareness Day.
The first day of spring will also arrive to celebrate new life as it starts to blossom around us.
For Christians, Lent continues through March with prayer and remembrance of Jesus fasting for 40 days.
For Sikhs, there are a number of celebrations including Holla Mohalla Festival, the remembrance of Guru Har Rai becoming the 7th Guru and the Sikh New Year.
I will joyously participate in many of these occasions locally and nationally. But there is something additionally special for me on the 14th of March. While it’s the Sikh New Year, which I’ll celebrate with my community, it’s also my mum’s birthday.
Since my dad died suddenly and unexpectedly two years ago, my mum’s health quickly declined, leading to her being placed in a care home. Her birthday has now taken on a new meaning - the remembrance of the value of life and to celebrate, quite simply, just being in her company.
Dear God, I give thanks for all the events we can look forward to in our calendar each year that bring us together as a community but I also give prayerful thanks for the very personal moments of remembrance and the smallest of celebrations, that may have no significance whatsoever for anyone else, but are just as important.
Sat Naam
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001wyqm)
08/03/24 Farmer protests; Red Tractor / green tractor row; Learning to lamb.
The consultation on the Welsh Government's controversial Sustainable Farming Scheme has now closed. The National Farmers Union Cymru marked the moment by placing 5,500 pairs of wellies on the steps of the Welsh Parliament to highlight the farming jobs which could be lost if the plan is adopted. Farmers across Wales, and some in England, have held tractor convoys and protest meetings over the past few weeks. We look at what's led farmers to take action now.
The whole idea of a green tractor standard should be dropped according to the levy body the AHDB and the National Farmers Union. They say they want 'a more transparent approach which works for farmers'. This is an ongoing dispute about the farm assurance scheme Red Tractor which had designed a voluntary green tractor element, called the greener farms commitment. This would have seen farmers share environmental information with retailers, for a premium, and so help those retailers meet sustainability targets. Farmers said it was developed without proper consultation and their discontent forced two reviews of Red Tractor: one on governance, which was published last month; and a wider review of the scheme, which is expected to take much longer. We speak to the AHDB.
We've been talking about lambing all week - from the exhaustion of nights in the lambing shed to the highs, and lows, of this time of year. We've mainly been on farms talking to farmers but members of the public are learning to lamb at St Fagan's near Cardiff. The National Museum of History runs a working farm and an annual lambing course aimed at non farmers.
Presenter = Charlotte Smith
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09qcbsr)
Andy Clements on the Golden Plover
Andy Clements of the British Trust for Ornithology describes how he was first bewitched by the captivating sound of the Golden Plover in summer above the moors.
Producer: Sarah Blunt
FRI 06:00 Today (m001wxr8)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001wxrx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The Price of Life by Jenny Kleeman (m001wxsj)
$368,901: The Average Ransom Demand
In a world in thrall to data, it’s possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything – including life itself. Journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on a journey to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth, exploring what we lose and gain by leaving the judgements that matter up to cold logic.
Kleeman meets an unlikely hostage negotiator and relates the tense tale of a modern-day kidnap.
An EcoAudio certified production.
Abridged by Laurence Wareing
Read by the author
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001wxt4)
Women's Football in '71, Mollie King, Female psychopaths
A new documentary, Copa 71, follows the trailblazing women who headed to Mexico for an unofficial Women's World Cup in 1971. Woman's football had been banned in many countries including the UK for 50 years. Unperturbed 6 teams gathered and played in front of crowds of 100,000 fans. One of those players, Chris Lockwood joins Anita Rani alongside co-director of the film Rachel Ramsay.
On International Woman's Day Maidenhead MP and former Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she is standing down at the next election, telling the Maidenhead Advertiser she has taken the “difficult decision” after 27 years representing the constituency. She becomes the 63rd Tory MP — and the most senior — to announce that they will not be standing again in 2024. She says that causes such as tackling modern slavery were taking an "increasing amount" of her time - as a reason for her stepping down now. We hear from David Lee - deputy editor for the Maidenhead Advertiser who broke the story and assistant editor at the Spectator Isabel Hardman.
What’s it like being the first, directly elected female Mayor of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone? Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr talks about her career in politics and a new BBC Africa documentary which follows her run up to elections.
New research suggests that female psychopaths could be up to 5 times more common that we previously thought. So what are the main differences between men and women when it comes to psychopathy? How do you deal with a woman who fits the bill? And what could the wider impacts of this study be in terms of our court systems and other societal sectors? We hear from Dr Clive Boddy, an Associate Professor of corporate psychology at the University of Anglia Ruskin who’s conducted this research. And Estelle Moore, clinical and forensic psychologist and chair of the London Psychological Professions Network.
The Radio 1 presenter and singer Mollie King joins Anita to discuss her Red Nose Day challenge for Comic Relief – a 500km cycle across England, setting off from London and crossing the finish line in Hull, the hometown of her late father. She explains it’s the first time she’s cycled on a road, how she plans to navigate busy city centres, winding country roads, and unsteady terrain, and her fitness journey since giving birth to her daughter in 2022.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Studio Manager: Tim Heffer
FRI 11:00 Farmers and Furious (m001x62m)
Following wide ranging farmers' protests across Europe, now British farmers are starting to show their discontent with thousands of farmers meeting in Wales, as well as protests taking place in England.
BBC Radio 4 Farming Today's Charlotte Smith joins farmers as they are protesting and asks if the industry is now at breaking point.
Will the new promise by the Prime Minister to ensure food production is supported, and not just environmental work, be enough to appease English farmers? And has the Welsh First Minister's comments that farmers can not simply decide themselves what to do with millions in subsidies, just inflamed the situation further?
With so many demands on our land, from capturing carbon to reversing the biodiversity loss, is there still space for farmers to produce food profitably in the UK?
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
FRI 11:30 Room 101 with Paul Merton (m001mlqb)
Series 1
Steph McGovern
Returning in its original one-to-one incarnation, Paul Merton interviews a variety of guests from the world of comedy and entertainment to find out what they would send to Room 101.
In this episode, Steph McGovern tells Paul her pet hates include political vox pops and confusing toilet signs.
Additional material John Irwin and Suki Webster
Produced by Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001wxvf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001wxw2)
'Black Out' performances
A theatre production dealing with race issues has been criticised after announcing plans to stage some of its performances for primarily black audiences.
The so-called ‘Black Out’ nights are scheduled for two dates of Slave Play’s West End run. Some have labelled the move divisive and unnecessary, and even Downing Street has got involved. The show’s playwright and producers say they’re aiming to bring new audiences to the theatre and allow black people to watch it without the “white gaze”. But what does this term mean, what are the origins of Black Out performances, and is this a concept that’s applicable to other minority groups?
FRI 12:57 Weather (m001wxwp)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m001wxx7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
FRI 13:45 Strike Boy (m001wxxt)
5. Women against Pit Closures
“'Oh, are you a feminist now?' No, I'm an ordinary housewife with a brain.”
Mark talks to his mum about life for them as the family of a striking miner during the strike of 1984-5, when he was an 11-year-old kid. He hears about the solidarity campaigns and support groups that provided them daily dinners and weekly food parcels - from as far away as Russia.
Travelling to another pit village in the north-east, Mark meets a miner’s wife who went from, in her words, “an ordinary housewife” to running a women’s support group, helping striking miners and their families, and speaking at rallies.
Archive: BBC.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001wxyf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (p0hb2cpr)
Love and Other Lies
Love and Other Lies - 4. Happy Family
Josie ..... Jessica Gunning
Tyler ..... Anthony J Abraham
Larry ..... Paul Ready
Daria ..... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Nick ..... Josh Bryant-Jones
Gemma ..... Rhiannon Neads
Man/Aiden ..... Ed Coleman
Emma ..... Kitty O'Sullivan
Writer ..... Sarah Cartwright
Script Producer ..... Anne Isger
Technical Producers ..... Peter Ringrose & Alison Craig
Composer ..... Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
Director ..... Sally Avens
Josie and Tyler should be celebrating; they've discovered they're not murderers.
They didn't kill the man who they thought was sextorting Josie but was really just another victim of the catfishers.
So why won't Tyler let Josie go to the police? What exactly is he hiding from her? And who is Pauline?
The thrills keep coming as Josie's suburban life is turned upside down.
FRI 14:45 Child (p0h6wcqr)
9. Birth Plan
How can we truly plan for something as big and unknowable as birth? What are we forgetting to prepare for - or not being told? India Rakusen talks to obstetrician and gynecologist Dr Ranee Thakar about tearing during birth, and to Siobhan Miller, founder of the Positive Birth Company, about hypnobirthing.
Presented by India Rakusen.
Producer: Ellie Sans.
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 Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001wxzf)
Vale of Pewsey
Can a mixture of coca-cola and milk help revive a neglected plant? When should I start feeding my germinated seedling compost? How do you protect salvias during the winter?
Peter Gibbs and a panel of horticultural experts provide some much-needed advice to an audience in the Vale of Pewsey. On the panel are pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood, house plant specialist Anne Swithinbank, and award-winning garden designer Chris Beardshaw.
Later in the programme, regular panellist Dr Chis Thorogood takes us on an adventure deep into the jungle searching for a wild jade plant.
Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001wxzy)
Stew Woman
Stew believes that the world is his oyster. He has large appetites for food and women. And his wife is planning a very unusual dinner for him.
Hannah Vincent lives in Brighton. She began her writing life as a playwright and her first radio play Come to Grief was a re-working of one of her stage plays. It won the BBC 2015 Audio Award for Best Adaptation. She is the author of the novels Alarm Girl and The Weaning and the collection She-Clown, And Other Stories.
Writer: Hannah Vincent
Reader: Arthur Darvill
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001wy0h)
Iris Apfel, Colin Murray Parkes, Baroness Henig, Jim Lawrence
Matthew Bannister on
Iris Apfel the colourful fashion and interior designer whose own dress sense made an impact until her death aged 102.
Dr Colin Murray Parkes, the psychiatrist once described as “the David Attenborough of the bereavement world.”
Baroness Henig, the deputy House of Lords Speaker who was a historian and expert on the security industry.
Jim Lawrence who became skipper of a Thames sailing barge aged eighteen and went on to set up a successful sail making business in Essex.
Interviewee: Dame Zandra Rhodes
Interviewee: Laura Higginson
Interviewee: Debbie Kerslake
Interviewee: David Henig
Interviewee: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering
Interviewee: Simon Devonshire KC
Producer: Catherine Powell
Archive used:
Iris Apfel on BBC Radio 4 “Woman's Hour” 31/07/2015; Colin Murray Parkes on BBC Radio 4 “Word of Mouth - The Language of Bereavement and Grief” 14/01/23; BBC Wales “Aberfan 2 days after the disaster” 24/10/1966; BBC News 20/09/2001; St Thomas Church Memorial Service, BBC New Special, BBC, 20/09/2001; Colin Murray Parkes courtesy: Cruse Bereavement Support, YouTube 23/09/2019; Baroness Henig on Woman's Hour - 20/10/2011; House of Lords 08/11/23; Parliamentlive.tv. BBC Parliament “Levelling up and Regeneration” 6/9/24; Jim Lawrence: Jim Lawrence singing, “The Singing Bargee”, Paul Desmond, YouTube 14/11/2012; Jim Lawrence Recalls His Early Days, Paul Desmond, YouTube uploaded 14 Nov 2012
FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001wy0z)
Schedule Shake-up, Moral Maze and Singers Saved
Schedule changes, Moral Maze and Singers Saved.
As Radio 3 and 4 prepare to shake-up their schedules, you’ve been getting in touch with your views. Archers fans and Record Review regulars have been quick to air their concerns. Also, Andrea Catherwood looks back at some more memorable schedule change moments with former Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer.
Moral Maze listeners vent their feelings on the recent debate on veganism where all four of the panellists were meat eaters.
The BBC Singers have been saved - again! Andrea asks Paul Hughes, former Director of the Singers, if they really are safe this time.
And it’s never too early to start thinking about your Interview Of The Year nomination.
Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Leeanne Coyle
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 17:00 PM (m001wy1f)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001wy1w)
Operation Kenova investigated the agent who was codenamed Stakeknife
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m001wy2d)
Series 113
Episode 10
Mark Steel, Marie Le Conte, Simon Evans and Zoe Lyons join Andy Zaltzman for the last episode in the present series.
This week the panel give their 2p on the budget, the battle for the White House and what it might sound like if George Galloway joined the News Quiz.
Written by Andy Zaltzman
With additional material by: Cody Dahler, Meryl O'Rourke, Molly McGuinness, Peter Tellouche and Christina Riggs.
Producer: Gwyn Rhys Davies
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Recorded by Marc Willcox and Neva Missirian
A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001wy2x)
WRITER: Katie Hims
DIRECTOR: Mel Ward
Brian Aldridge … Charles Collingwood
Harrison Burns …..James Cartwright
Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter ….. Wilf Scolding
Harry Chilcott ….. Jack Ashton
Emma Grundy…… Emerald O'Hanrahan
Jakob Hakansson …. Paul Venables
Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd ……. John Rowe
Paul Mack …… Joshua Riley
Denise Metcalf ……. Clare Perkins
Jazzer McCreary ….Ryan McCreary
Fallon Rogers ….. Joanna Van Kampen
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m001wy3f)
Anna Meredith and Joe Stilgoe head for South Africa
Anna Meredith - composer, producer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music - and singer, songwriter and pianist Joe Stilgoe join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add five more tracks. The journey takes them from Hugh Masekela's South Africa to a masked ball in Brazil, and ending up at arguably the most famous notes ever played on the saxophone.
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masekela
You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon
My End is My Beginning by Guillaume de Machaut
Baile De Máscaras by Bala Desejo
The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini
Other music in this episode:
Titanium by David Guetta feat. Sia
Nautilus by Anna Meredith
Lazarus by David Bowie
Mr Bull No. 4 by Freddie Gumbi
In My Solitude by Branford Marsalis
Old Landmark by Aretha Franklin
Padam Padam by Kylie Minogue
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001wy3v)
Simon Boyd, Nigel Huddleston MP, Sarah Jones MP, Soumaya Keynes
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from the Mowlem Theatre in Swanage, Dorset with the Managing Director of Reid Steel Simon Boyd, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Nigel Huddleston MP, the Shadow Minister for Industry and Decarbonisation Sarah Jones MP and the Financial Times columnist and economist Soumaya Keynes.
Producer: Robin Markwell
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001wy47)
Peak Envy
Will Self believes we are reaching a state of 'peak envy'.
'Is it any surprise,' Will writes, 'that in this, arguably the second century of self, when for the most part humans see nothing around them but images of those better off than themselves, envy should be quite so epidemic: a greenish toxin - the very mustard gas of modernity.'
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 Strike Boy (m001wy4k)
Omnibus 1
Mark Watson was 10 when the 1984 miners’ strike took over his life. Forty years on, he wants to know what really happened and how it changed his community - and this country.
Lying in bed one night as a boy, Mark heard a massive roar, like a football crowd. He opened his bedroom window and saw a red glow in the distance where the noise was coming from. He jumped out of his window, onto the kitchen roof, and bolted out the back gate. Just a few hundred yards from his house, he was suddenly confronted with a mass of action - hundreds of police and pickets, shouting and shoving. He was hooked.
The son of a striking Nottinghamshire miner, Mark was caught in the middle of Britain’s biggest ever industrial dispute. Ever since, he’s wanted to make sense of the deeply-held views on all sides. Travelling the country, hearing tales of violence, desperation, and determination, Mark investigates the conflict that became a battle for Britain’s soul - and its consequences today.
Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001wy4v)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective
FRI 22:45 Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier (m001wy51)
Episode 5
Emma Fielding reads Daphne Du Maurier's enduring and adored classic - a story of love, daring and a painted pirate ship in a secret Cornish creek, and of the beautiful, roistering Lady Dona St Columb, who, fleeing her vacuous life in London in search of her better self, meets her match at last.
Today: Fowey Haven. La Mouette has left the creek and sails with a new prize in her Captain's sights. And aboard there is a new member of the crew, a Cabin Boy with ringlets to hide and rubies in her ears.
Set on Du Maurier's beloved South Cornwall coast, in the secret creeks and inlets of the Helford river, where the curlews wade on the mud flats and the night jars churr at midnight, Frenchman's Creek is a song to an age where a traveller might just glimpse a figure in the shadows, the moonlight glinting on his buckled shoe or the cutlass in his hand, and a cloaked woman might slip silently through the woods to meet her lover. And where a Frenchman, captain of a pirate vessel La Mouette, is terrorising the local aristocracy with his daring and bravado.
Reader Emma Fielding
Abridger Julian Wilkinson
Producer Di Speirs
FRI 23:00 Americast (m001wy56)
State of the Union: Biden's Pitch to the Nation
Under the close gaze of his critics - and millions of American voters - Joe Biden delivered arguably the most significant State of the Union address in recent times.
The president chose to focus on his economic record, his plans to to fix America's immigration system and repeatedly took aim against Donald Trump.
The Americast team chew over the president's speech with the help of Joe Biden's former speechwriter, Jeff Nussbaum, who told us what it's like to work with him and how you judge the success of a speech like the one Biden just delivered.
HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent
• Sarah Smith, North America editor
GUEST:
Jeff Nussbaum, former speechwriter for Joe Biden
GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast
Find out more about our award-winning “undercover voters” here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.
US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s new BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155
This episode was made by George Dabby with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo, and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001wy5b)
Alicia McCarthy reports from Westminster as peers hold their annual debate to mark International Women's Day.