SATURDAY 23 MARCH 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001xfxw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 How to Win an Information War by Peter Pomerantsev (m001xfvl)
Episode 5

-In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat the powerful Nazi propaganda machine, which crowed victory and smeared its enemies.

However, inside Germany, there was one notable voice of dissent from the very heart of the military machine – Der Chef, a German whose radio broadcasts skilfully questioned Nazi doctrine. He had access to high-ranking military secrets and spoke of internal rebellion. His listeners included German soldiers and citizens.

But what these audiences didn’t know was that Der Chef was a fiction, a character created by the British propagandist Sefton Delmer, just one player in his vast counter-propaganda cabaret, a unique weapon in the war.

Written by Peter Pomerantsev
Abridged by Polly Coles

Read by Alan Cox
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xfxy)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xfy0)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xfy2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001xfy4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xfy6)
Spiritual reflection to start the day with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


SAT 05:45 Lent Talks (m001xdgy)
Truth to Power

Lent Talks on Truth to Power

Written and Presented by The Right Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin the Bishop of Dover and the Bishop in Canterbury.

When I was at theological college, I had an Old Testament lecturer who brought the Old Testament to life for me. There was a particular theme that connected with me, it was the fearlessness of the prophets. These men were simply not afraid to speak ‘truth to power.’ The fact that they might even be endangering their lives by speaking up and speaking out was the least of their concerns. The prophets had a sense of responsibility to address whatever the issues of injustice were. They were like a dog with a bone, pressing home their point, and using whatever means were at their disposal, whatever the cost. In the New Testament, we also see examples of prophetic witnesses and Jesus’ ministry is an example of this. Deep within, I feel we need in our present times more prophetic witnesses in our midst. Most of the events making our news headlines all speak into a lack of fearless men and women, morally upstanding who are prepared to speak truth to power. The Windrush and Post Office scandals; the Covid Inquiry; Grenfell Tower and the Israel Gaza war to name but a few. Where were the fearless prophets in these situations, the strong critical friends who were simply not afraid to speak truth to power? Had they spoken up initially the outcomes no doubt may have been very different. Our world needs more Nathans (the prophet who challenged King David), not scoops on the front page of certain newspapers: men and women of integrity and conviction who are unafraid to speak truth to power.

Producer: Carmel Lonergan
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001xnsm)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m001xddj)
On the Hoof with Hannah and Chico

Clare joins Hannah Engelkamp and her donkey, Chico, for a ramble in the Dyfi Valley a few miles east of Machynlleth in Powys.

On the way Hannah tells Clare about the extraordinary adventure she shared with Chico when they walked 1000 miles around the perimeter of Wales. She did this despite having no previous experience of donkeys, or horses, or any animals really. It took twice as long as she intended and was much harder than she ever imagined. The idea of 'carrot or stick' doesn't work, Hannah says, so the first thing she learned was when a donkey stops you just have to wait and stand and look and wait until the moment seems right to move off again.

Hannah also tells Clare about her involvement with 'Slow Ways'. It’s a Community Interest Company whose aim is to map, improve, and promote walking routes between Britain’s towns, cities and villages.

Clare and Hannah met at Grid Ref: SH 850 027, and walked a section of a Slow Way known as ‘Maccar One’ near Chico’s home at Dyfi Donkey Woods. Maccar One is 23 miles long and connects Machynlleth with Carno. Slow Ways are named for the first three letters of the place at either end of a route e.g. Mac for Machynlleth and Car for Carno.

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001xnsw)
23/03/24 - Farming Today This Week: Universal credit, grouse moor licencing and shellfish

Some farmers who already rely on state benefits are being told they need to look for paid work and ditch their farm businesses if they want to continue receiving those benefits. It’s happening because of changes in the way welfare is delivered, so farmers on Tax Credits are now being switched to Universal Credit. But eligibility for Universal Credit is calculated using monthly income and expenditure, which doesn’t sit well with very seasonal farm businesses.

The Wildlife and Muirburn Bill has passed through the Scottish Parliament and brings in the licensing of grouse shoots, banning animal snares and changing the rules on the burning of heather. For the RSPB it's game changing legislation, for gamekeepers a disproportionate response.

And how sustainable is our scampi? The UK gets through around £68 million worth of scampi a year. But a conservation group says the current drive to make fishing for langoustine more environmentally friendly has failed.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001xnt0)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001xnt2)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001xnt6)
Rear Admiral Jude Terry, Ashley Blaker, Sara Cox, Lauren Laverne

Rear Admiral Jude Terry, the first woman to hold flag rank in The Royal Navy, keeps us ship shape and shares how a rebellious teenager became the highest ranking female member of the Navy.

Ready to send us to the sin bin Sara Cox, not that one, reveals how she "walked through stinging nettles" to become the world's first professional female rugby union referee and inspire a whole generation of officials.

And the professionally ‘shattered’ comedian and writer Ashley Blaker, father of six children tells us why some of them are Coldplays and others, Zappas.

Plus, we have the Inheritance Tracks of musician, broadcaster and voice of Desert Island Discs Lauren Laverne.

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (p099dyw3)
Old Norse Literature

Greg Jenner is joined by historian Dr Janina Ramirez and comedian Kae Kurd in medieval Iceland to delve into the world of old Norse literature. It's full of elves, giants, trolls, gods, deadly mistletoe and eight-legged horse babies. Anything goes in a world created from the decapitated body of a giant where a squirrel runs communications! But what was the ultimate purpose of these stories? Who wrote them? And what do they teach us about Viking culture?

Produced by Greg Jenner and Emma Nagouse


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001xm8b)
Series 43

Edgware

Jay Rayner and his panel of chefs, cooks and writers are in Edgware for this week’s episode of The Kitchen Cabinet.

Joining Jay are chefs Andi Oliver and Jeremy Pang, food writer and Masterchef champion Tim Anderson, and food historian Dr Annie Gray.

The panel discuss a range of culinary questions, from the most interesting recipes involving kale, to their favourite uses for polenta. They also debate the difference between and pie and a tart, and let us in on their favourite cooking hacks.

Meanwhile, Jay chats to Jonathan Grodzinski from Grodzinski Bakery about the sweets and treats enjoyed during the Jewish festival of Purim.

Senior Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m001xntc)
Steve Richards is joined by a panel of guests to discuss the political landscape ahead of a general election. Steve is joined by The Spectator's Fraser Nelson, Whitehall Editor at the Financial Times, Lucy Fisher, and Britan Editor at the New Statesman, Anoosh Chakelian.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001xntf)
Putin: a modern-day Tsar

Kate Adie introduces stories from Russia, Germany, Timor Leste and Oman.

At a recent gathering in a gilded hall in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin thanked VIP supporters for his re-election. As he commenced his fifth term in office, he has reminded his voters that the annexation of Crimea is just the beginning of Moscow's ambitions. Steve Rosenberg reflects on how this latest election has emboldened the President but there are voices of opposition willing to take a stand in spite of the consequences.

When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged the country was seeing a paradigm shift, or Zeitenwende, in supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia, he did not foresee how this would divide public opinion over Germany's potential involvement in a military campaign. Damien McGuinness reports on the ongoing political rifts in Berlin.

Timor Leste has had a troubled history and faces multiple economic and social challenges including malnutrition and rural poverty. But marine scientists are discovering that Timor Leste lies on a vast migration route for a wide range of ocean wildlife, which some hope could fuel a fledgling tourism industry, reports Michelle Jana Chan.

And we're in Oman, where a journey to the medieval capital of Nizwa leads to a conversation about the changes for women in the country, with a female driving instructor. Women have been legally allowed to drive in the country for more than 2 decades, unlike its neighbour Saudi Arabia, and a rise in the number of women in the workplace means more women are getting behind the wheel, says Sara Wheeler.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001xntv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001xm9s)
Pension Freedoms and Flee Funds

This week marks 10 years since a landmark shift in the way we could all use our pensions. Back in the Spring of 2014 the then Chancellor George Osborne announced plans for new freedoms, allowing people over the age of 55 to take 25 per cent of their pension tax-free and use the rest as they wished. What impact did that have?

Hundreds of survivors of economic and physical domestic abuse have been helped by a new scheme set up by one of the UK's biggest banks. TSB's "Flee Fund" was launched just over a year ago to offer financial help to people trying to escape abusive partners. Dan Whitworth reports from Preston.

There was a rare U-turn from HMRC this week. On Tuesday it announced it was planning to close its self-assessment phone helpline for six months of every year. The tax authority said it wanted people to use a chatbot and access its online services instead. Then, just over 24 hours later, HMRC changed its mind and halted those plans. It says its "listened to the feedback and is halting the helpline changes as it recognises more needs to be done to ensure all taxpayers’ needs are met, whilst also encouraging them to transition to online services.” What does that mean?

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Jo Krasner
Researchers: Luke Smithurst, Eimear Devlin and Sandra Hardial.

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 23rd March 2024)


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (m001xfx9)
Series 64

Episode 2

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. Featuring Lucy Porter on Laura Kenny’s retirement, Alasdair Beckett-King on the state of our nation’s health and an original song from Mitch Benn. With voices from Ed Jones and Katie Norris.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Cody Dahler, Zoe Tomalin, Katie Sayer and Peter Tellouche.

Producer: Sasha Bobak
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001xntk)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001xntp)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m001xfxh)
Grace Blakeley, Damian Green MP, Dame Meg Hillier MP, Lord Sumption

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from St Leonard's Church in Hythe in Kent with the author and journalist Grace Blakeley, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green MP, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee Dame Meg Hillier MP and former Supreme Court Judge Lord Jonathan Sumption.
Producer: Robin Markwell
Lead Broadcast Engineer: Simon Tindall


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001xntw)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week


SAT 14:45 Short Works (m001r7v8)
Something Borrowed

Ann Louise Ross reads a story from Karen Campbell.

An exciting announcement forces a woman to mull on love, choice and the delicate bonds of family.

Karen Campbell is the author of eight novels, including Radio 4 Book at Bedtime 'This Is Where I Am'. A former police officer, then Glasgow City Council press officer, she won the Best New Scottish Writer Award in 2009. She also teaches creative writing and has worked with young offenders, homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers, and was recently Writer in Residence at Dumfries and Galloway Council. Her recent novel, 'Paper Cup', is a compassionate and hopeful book about what it takes to turn around a life run off course.


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000kwbs)
Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti's iconic Victorian poem of passion and redemption dramatised, and woven with original song, and testimony from sisters whose lives have been caught up in the cycle of addiction.

Cast
Christina Rossetti ..... Ellie Piercy
Laura ..... Kathleen Cranham
Lizzie ..... Anjana Vasan
Goblins ..... Ed Gaughan, Joel MacCormack & Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Children ..... Eliza & Orla Pearce.
Singers ..... Stephen Jeffes, Tom Raskin & Edward Price

Singing producer ..... Jonathan Manners.
Composer ..... James Maloney
Sound ..... Peter Ringrose
Documentary producer ..... Georgia Catt
Adapted & directed ..... Jessica Dromgoole

Notes
Sometimes mistaken for a children’s poem, Goblin Market is a complex and elusive treatment of addiction, sexual awakening, religious fervour and love. Sharing the music and acoustic of the romantic whirlwind of the poem with testimony stories of modern addiction and protection adds to its power and relevance. The programme reflects on the real pain and trauma often overlooked in the poem, and at the same time, sees the poetry and depth in real experiences of addiction and salvation.

Created and recorded in lockdown, with the actors and singers all in separate acoustically protected rooms, and the interviewees all recording themselves, the programme is testament to the skills of the sound engineer, and the enduring truth that anything is possible in audio drama.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001xnv1)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Laura Kenny, Actor Vicky Knight, baby loss certificates

Dame Laura Kenny, Britain's most decorated female Olympian, talks to Emma Barnett about her sporting career, motherhood and her decision to quit cycling.

Friday’s Woman’s Hour came live from Doncaster which came bottom of one league table for opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the UK last year, according to the website money.co.uk which analysed data from the Office for National Statistics. So we wanted to find out why. Anita was joined by BBC Radio Sheffield’s Paulette Edwards to speak to local entrepreneurs across the city. We hear from Rachel Stockey, Head of Entrepreneurial Skills at the Entrepreneurship Institute at King’s College, London as well as Amy Furniss who set up a business selling dried flowers in 2020 during the Covid lockdown.

On 27 February, Emma Barnett spoke to Zoe Clark-Coates, who runs the baby loss and bereavement charity The Mariposa Trust, about her campaign for baby loss certificates. They were introduced in England in February for parents who’ve lost a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy. Emma shares her own story and also speaks to a woman who’s decided it’s not for her, and another who applied straight away and has now received four baby loss certificates.

The new film Silver Haze is based on recollections of real events in actor Vicky Knight’s childhood, including when she survived an arson attacked aged just eight. Vicky talks to Emma about blending her real childhood experiences with the narrative of the film, and why she wanted to tell her story.

Have you ever had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right? A gut reaction or a tingly spidey-like sense that tells you something is off? Author of Emotional Labour, Rose Hackman joins Emma to explain why we need to stop calling it 'women’s intuition'.

John Lennon told them that ‘girls don’t play guitar’, but these four girls from 1960s Liverpool were determined to prove him wrong. Mary, Sylvia, Valerie and Pamela formed Britain's first female rock'n'roll band The Liverbirds, and went on to tour stadiums across Europe, record two hit albums and play with the Kinks, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry – all in the space of five years. Emma talks to the two surviving members of the band about their incredible story.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Hanna Ward
Studio Manager: Emma Harth


SAT 17:00 PM (m001xnv5)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m001xdbx)
Dishwashers

Is it better to wash your dishes by hand or use a dishwasher?

This question from listener Eve has got to be among the most hotly contested debates out there. She wants to know which method uses more water and which is more energy efficient. To find out, we speak to a man who's spent decades studying the differences - Professor Rainer Stamminger from the University of Bonn in Germany.

Eve also wants to know about the eco settings on dishwashers: how can they save money if they take so much longer? And should you pre-rinse before putting things in?! In short, does the evidence around dishwashers stack up (sorry!) Greg will be finding out.

PRESENTER: Greg Foot
PRODUCER: Simon Hoban


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001xnv9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001xnvc)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xnvf)
At least 133 now known to have died in attack on Moscow concert hall.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001xmb8)
Gemma Whelan, Mark Watson, Shaznay Lewis, Mr Motivator, The Mary Wallopers, Sahra, Sara Cox, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by Gemma Whelan, Mark Watson, Shaznay Lewis and Mr Motivator for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from The Mary Wallopers and Sahra.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001xm77)
Vaughan Gething

Vaughan Gething this week became Wales’ new First Minister, and the leader of Welsh Labour. He’s the fifth person to hold the post and the first black leader of a national government in Europe.

No stranger to breaking barriers, this employment lawyer rose apace to the top of student and trades unions alike, before election to the Welsh Senedd and ministerial office, charged with overseeing first health and then the economy.

Mark Coles looks back at how a cricket-mad schoolboy became First Minister of the land of his father - a journey from Zambia to Cardiff by way of rural Dorset - and finds out what drives him from those who know him best.

Presenter: Mark Coles
Producer: Nathan Gower
Production Team: Debbie Richford, Drew Hyndman, Julie Ball
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0hbmml3)
Series 29

Higgs Boson

Brian Cox and Robin Ince visit CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva in search of the Higgs Boson. Joining them on their particular quest is comedian Katy Brand, actor Ben Miller and physicists Tevong You and Clara Nellist. They find out which particle is the one you’d most want to spend time with at a party, how cosmology is inspiring experiments in the collider and why the Higgs Boson - known as the 'god' particle' - is of so much interest to science.

Producer: Melanie Brown
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b08qxd5b)
Close to the Edit

Film-maker Mike Figgis explores the story of edited film, audio and culture, and how the simple process of cutting and splicing has changed the way people view the world.

We are living in an age of the edit.

From the jump-cuts of Eisenstein and Hitchcock, to the fractured narratives of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, from the cut-and-paste sounds of musique concrete and hip-hop, to the sensibility of social media (to say nothing of the radio feature itself), it's the edit - the cut, the splice; montage and juxtaposition - that has ushered us into the present. To some, it's the stuff of life itself: chimps, for example, share 99% of our DNA; what matters is the sequencing, the edit.

There's a year zero to this story of the edit. From the moment we get up in the morning until we close our eyes at night, the visual reality we perceive is a continuous stream of apparently linked images. That's the way we experienced the world for millennia. Then suddenly, just over a century ago, human beings were confronted with something else: edited film.

But this isn't an exercise in cinema history. It's about our present culture. A culture in which the invisible mediating hand of the editor is ever-present. A culture of the 'creative commons' in which we can pull anything out of context and re-edit it (a gif, an internet meme, a mash-up, a parody of a political speech) and make the edit itself become an art form. Cutting, splicing, sampling -- it's all part of the way the world functions now. This is just the beginning.

With Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us, Margie Borschke, Walter Murch and Will Self.

Producer: Martin Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2017.


SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m0003crc)
China Towns

Episode 10

Inspired by the novels of Arnold Bennett, an epic tale of money, passion and daring to dream set in the Staffordshire potteries. Dramatised for radio by Shaun McKenna and Lin Coghlan.

Unhappily married and bored of being a Councillor’s wife, Hilda decides to play with fire.

Ephraim Tellwright . . . Neil Dudgeon
Edwin . . . Cameron Percival
Hilda . . . Lucy Doyle
Anna . . . Kate O’Flynn
Constance . . . Bryony Hannah
Sophia . . . Alexandra Constantinidi
Amy . . . Jane Slavin
Janet . . . Saffron Coomber
George Cannon . . . Gunnar Cauthery
Ingpen . . . Don Gilet
Gervais . . . Michael Bertenshaw
The Porter . . . Christopher Harper

Produced and directed by Gemma Jenkins.


SAT 22:00 News (m001xnvm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Add to Playlist (m001xfxf)
Eliza Carthy and Tim Rhys-Evans share the joys of singing

Fiddler and folk musician Eliza Carthy and choral conductor Tim Rhys-Evans join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the next five tracks.

Starting at a famous masked ball in Vienna, they then head for the Genoa docks, rounding off with a cheeky Soca hip-thrusting classic. In the penultimate episode of the current series, recorder player and baroque flautist Heidi Fardell demonstrates some of her collection of early instruments.

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

'Ach, ich darf nicht hin zu dir!' From Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II
La Partenza (The Parting) by Trallaleri of Genoa
Gagliarda by Giorgio Mainerio, performed by Il Giardino Armonico
How High The Moon by Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis, sung by Ella Fitzgerald
Dollar Wine by Colin Lucas
Other music in this episode:

Hotel California by The Eagles
The Flower Duet from the opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
Battalia a 10 by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Die Katz (The Cat) by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, sung by Ella Fitzgerald


SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (m001xdct)
Programme 2, 2024

(2/12)
Kirsty Lang is in the chair, armed with more of Round Britain Quiz's trademark cryptic questions. Northern Ireland, the defending RBQ champions, will be hoping they can repeat last year's triumph, as they begin this year's campaign with a match against the Scots.

Freya McClements and Paddy Duffy play for Northern Ireland, against Val McDermid and Alan McCredie for Scotland.

Questions in today's programme:

Q1 (from Barbara Jennings) Which gas has the following effects? Applied to a tree, it makes a mess. Applied to a limb, it causes damage. Applied to a bird, it produces a cry of pain or a famously controversial American poem. And applied to everything, it makes room.

Q2 Why might a short story by Gogol give Bradley Cooper, Nicole Kidman and Gerard Depardieu a wry smile?

Q3 Music: Can you name the four people in the spotlight here, and why are they still burning?

Q4 (from Derek Evans) Who are these: a radio acknowledgement, what Americans find in the bathroom, ericaceous compost, and an actress who was to the manor born.

Q5 (from Simon Meara) A girl with an auric device, a girl fleeing an alien invasion and a woman who didn't see things in black and white all share their name with the 39th and the 40th - although we don't know which is which. Can you explain?

Q6 (from Rob Webb) Music: How might the first three be heard in the fourth (with a minor spelling correction)?

Q7 In which Moroccan city might you have found, at a particular time, the inhabitant of a plastic box, a saintly King of Hungary, an Italian car and a French car?

Q8 Why do a player piano, a grumpy person, a protective plate for a keyhole and a Karmic reptile all take a very long time indeed, in the end?

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SAT 23:30 Music Manifestos (m001wjbz)
Music has always been more than entertainment or something beautiful to the ear. It has a political life too, an art form capable of changing the world as well as enchanting it. Just as political activists and thinkers wrote manifestos in the modern era, so did artists and musicians. The music manifesto is where music, art and politics meet, sometimes pushing music to its limits - and beyond.

The early 20th century saw an explosion of artists’ manifestos linked to the great avant-garde movements like Futurism, Surrealism and Dada. Music followed suit. Luigi Russolo wrote The Art Of Noise (1913), a Futurist music manifesto, making the case for vast, industrial soundscapes and the noise of the metropolis becoming the music of the modern era: ‘…a revolution of music paralleled by the increasing proliferation of machinery...air and gas inside metallic pipes, the rumblings of engines breathing with animal spirits, the rising and falling of pistons, the roar of railway stations and foundries, power plants and subways!’

Music manifestos pushed the boundaries of what music could – and should – be, drawing it away from established ideas of melody, pitch, harmony and tone and incorporating non-orchestral sound and mechanical and electronic instruments. Above all, music manifestos insisted music should be a force of change in our social and political life, not a rarefied art floating above it.

The Fluxus manifesto for music emerged from the art movements of the 1960s, building on the work of American composer John Cage, whose own manifesto, The Future of Music: Credo (1937), pioneered the use of electronic instruments. British composer Cornelius Cardew’s manifesto for Scratch Music (1969) tapped into the counter-culture, radicalising the idea of the orchestra itself. These were fully improvised public performances, making the orchestra a place of inclusion for musicians and non-musicians alike. In the US, jazz sax player Ornette Coleman announced The Shape of Jazz to Come – and wrote a manifesto for a new musical system he named ‘Harmolodics’ (‘the players express their opinions free of the leader…in harmolodics the melody is not the lead’) democratising jazz.

There have been modern music manifestos too. In pop music, ZTT records were inspired by the Futurists and signed The Art of Noise, named after Russolo’s 1913 music manifesto. Pauline Oliveros’ manifesto for Quantum Listening (1999) revolutionises how we listen to music and the world surrounding us. More recently, musicologist Daniel Chua’s manifesto, ‘An Intergalactic Music Theory of Everything’ (2021), launches the music manifesto into outer space - music must be at the centre of future communications with extra-terrestrial life.

Hearing from musicians, critics and writers across classical music, jazz, electronic and pop, this feature explores the music manifesto as a political as well as artistic intervention - in turns explosive, brave and unhinged - and in each case, a push for freedom, a musical call-to arms. How do the radical visions of tomorrow ignite our music today?

Contributors include: music writer Paul Morley, New Yorker critic and author Alex Ross, singer and broadcaster Catherine Bott, electronic musicologist Adam Harper, jazz critic and author Kevin Le Gendre, composer Howard Skempton, Director for the Centre of Deep Listening Stephanie Loveless and astro-musicologist Daniel Chua.

Readings by Elliot Levy and Candace Allen

Produced by Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4



SUNDAY 24 MARCH 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001xnvq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 A Jamaican Poet in Dublin (m001xfgn)
In 1941, while a medical student in Dublin, Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy published his only poetry collection, Flashes from the Dark. Positively reviewed at the time, the book and poet subsequently vanished from the history of Irish poetry.

Over 80 years later, Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant goes to Ireland in search of Levy.

Born in Jamaica in 1904, Levy spent time in New York during the Harlem Renaissance before heading for Europe. He threw himself into the cultural life of 1930s Dublin, and found in Ireland kindness and friendship, but also racist attitudes.

His wide-ranging poetry collection looks at Dublin through migrant eyes, considers themes of race, racism and anti-colonialism, harks back to his home country of Jamaica, and paints vivid pictures of Harlem. The collection was unlike anything else published in Ireland at the time and is thought to be the earliest by a black poet published in Ireland. The work of Ferdinand Levy adds to the richness of the story of Irish poetry and perhaps hints that there are many other voices still to be re-discovered.

Contributors to the programme are poet and academic at Maynooth University Karl O'Hanlon, Trinity College Dublin archivist Ellen O'Flaherty, Professor Brent Hayes Edwards of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, poets Jessica Traynor, Nandi Jola and Raquel McKee, and Ferdinand Levy's daughter, Belinda Levy. The reader is Romario Simpson.

The presenter, Jason Allen-Paisant, is an award-winning poet and Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, American Studies and Creative Writing, University of Manchester.

Consultant: Karl O'Hanlon
Producer: Claire Cunningham
Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins

A Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xnvs)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xnvv)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xnvx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001xnvz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001xmd7)
St Helen’s church, Sefton in Merseyside

Bells on Sunday comes from St Helen’s church, Sefton in Merseyside. The Grade One listed church building was extensively rebuilt in the 15th century in the Tudor perpendicular style. The 14th century tower however was retained and today contains eight bells, four of which date from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. These four bells were all cast by Henry Oldfield of Nottingham. The Tenor bell weighs eleven and half hundredweight and is tuned to the note of F. We hear them ringing Grandsire Triples


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001xm77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001xlxh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b09smglw)
The Masks We Wear

To mark the Jewish festival of Purim, when observants wear masks and costumes, Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand examines the many forms of mask we wear.

Purim commemorates the story of Queen Esther of Persia, who hid her identity as a Jew when she entered the royal harem. Within the palace, not even her husband, the King, realises she's a Jew. But when the anti-Semitic villain of the story, Haman, reveals his evil plot to murder all of the Jews, Esther is forced into a moment of reckoning.

Her uncle Mordecai challenges her to take off her metaphorical mask and reveal her true identity. Mordecai argues that her current disguise won't save her from destruction. He also suggests that there has been a higher purpose to her masquerade - the redemption of her people. Esther's bravery and leadership save the day. She reveals her Jewish identity to the King and the evil Haman's plot is foiled.

So, Purim has become Judaism's topsy-turvy day, when masks are worn, identities played with and the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred.

Shoshana explores the significance of masks during Venice's carnivals, where the frivolity of the celebrations belies the profound historical origins of the masks. She also draws upon Giuseppe Verdi's opera A Masked Ball, which shows masks to reveal much about the human condition.

Masks can be used to hide physical deformity, as is the case in The Phantom of the Opera. They can also take the non-physical form of what Carl Jung called the persona - a kind of mask used to "conceal the true nature of the individual".

Shoshana concludes that masks can be used to hide or reveal who we are, depending on how we use them.

Presenter: Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 Natural Histories (b091tv93)
Eel

We have been catching and eating them for centuries; jellied, smoked or stewed and yet there is still much we don't know about the life of an eel as Brett Westwood discovers when he joins a traditional eel fisherman on the banks of a river in Dorset and learns about bobs and worms. Eel skins were once worn as wedding rings and their heads used as finger puppets in Ely, otherwise known as the Isle of Eels which today holds an annual festival to celebrate all things 'eel' from a giant eel paraded through the streets to the World Eel throwing competition!

First broadcast in a longer form on the 22nd August 2017

Original Producer (2017) Sarah Blunt
Archive Producer (2024) Andrew Dawes


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001xlyd)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001xlyz)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001xlzh)
Integrating refugees; St John Passion; the Value of Religious Education

Faith leaders including the Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Vincent Nichols have welcomed a new report which calls for better support for asylum seekers. It comes from a commission set up to consider how refugees might be helped to integrate into society more easily. It makes a series of recommendations and suggests that the current system creates barriers to asylum seekers who want to quickly make good use of their existing skills and qualifications. The government says it's committed to ensuring refugees can take positive steps towards integration as they rebuild their lives in the UK.

It's 300 years since J S Bach's setting of the Passion narrative from St John's gospel was first performed on Good Friday at the St Nicholas Church in Leipzig. This week many of the UK's cathedrals and churches will be marking the anniversary by performing it. The composer, conductor and singer, Bob Chilcott celebrates the work and reflects on what is one of the most revered of all musical settings of the Passion.

Does religious education at school help young people when they get a job? Lord Karan Bilimoria, a former president of the CBI, thinks it can. He believes RE helps young people to navigate the complexity of modern belief and the diversity of worldviews in the UK today. The businessman, who is from the Zoroastrian tradition, has launched a campaign urging employers to support higher standards in religious education. We hear from Lord Bilimoria, and also from the National Secular Society who feel there are better ways to equip young people for the workforce.

Presenter: Edward Stourton
Producers: Jonathan Hallewell and Alexa Good
Editor: Dan Tierney


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xm04)
Action on Postpartum Psychosis

Laura Dockrill makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Action on Postpartum Psychosis.

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 ‘Action on Postpartum Psychosis’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Action on Postpartum Psychosis’.
Please note that Freephone and online donations for this charity close at 23.59 on the Saturday after the Appeal is first broadcast. However the Freepost option can be used at any time.

Charity number: 1139925


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001xm0t)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001xm1f)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001xm1y)
The Passion

On Good Friday 1724, Bach's setting of the Passion narrative from St John's gospel was performed for the first time in Leipzig's Nikolaikirche. Three hundred years later Gareth Malone leads his own production with the BBC Singers and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The most dramatic moments from Bach's masterpiece are interspersed with excerpts from the Wintershall Passion, presented each Good Friday since 2010 by the WIntershall Players in London's Trafalgar Square. These two different tellings of the story of Christ’s death in music and drama are brought together with reflections by Bishop for Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Communion Dr Jo Bailey Wells. Producer: Andrew Earis.

Then BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Singers, with Gareth Malone – Conductor, Roderick Williams – Baritone, Nicholas Mulroy – Tenor. Additional chorus members: Evan Hancock, Simon Askey, Samar Small, Jake Sawyers, Joy Dando, Astrid Titus-Glover, Annette Leponis, Rhiannon Chard. Music mix: Andrew Smillie.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m001xfxk)
Trump's Second Coming

John Gray assesses what's going wrong for liberals in the US election.

'It's not chiefly Joe Biden's alleged faltering mental powers that lie behind Trump's march to the White House', John writes. 'Far more, it's the evident inability of American liberals to learn from their mistakes.'

And he believes they are displaying a 'reckless hubris' for which they risk being severely punished come November.

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03zrcqw)
Stone Curlew

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Kate Humble presents the stone curlew. Stone curlews belong to a family known as 'thick-knees' but their country name of 'goggle-eyed plover' suits them better. Their huge staring yellow eyes serve them well at night when they're most active. By day, they lie up on sparse grassland or heath where their streaky brown-and-white plumage camouflages them superbly.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001xm2j)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001xm33)
Writer: Tim Stimpson
Director: Rosemary Watts

Pip Archer ……… Daisy Badger
Brian Aldridge ………Charles Collingwood
Lilian Bellamy …….Sunny Ormonde
Sgt Harrison Burns ……. James Cartwright
Chris Carter……… Wilf Scolding
Alice Carter ……….Hollie Chapman
Justin Elliot ……… Simon Williams
George Grundy…….Angus Stobie
Tracy Horrobin …….. Susie Riddell
Kate Madikane ……… Perdita Avery
Stella Pryor ……….. Lucy Speed
Lynda Snell ………. Carole Boyd
Oliver Sterling ……Michael Cochrane
Hannah Riley ……..Helen Longworth
Robert Snell…………Michael Bertenshaw
Miranda Elliot ……………Lucy Fleming


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001xm3m)
Professor Alice Roberts, scientist and broadcaster

Professor Alice Roberts is one of the most popular science communicators in Britain today. As the presenter of the BBC archaeology programme Digging for Britain, she reveals the underground mysteries of our collective past to millions of viewers.

Alice was born in Bristol and developed an interest in science from an early age – examining insects under her microscope in order to draw them and digging up bits of pottery in her parents’ vegetable patch. At the age of eight she was entranced as she watched a live feed which showed researchers at Bristol University unwrapping an Egyptian Mummy.

Alice studied medicine in Cardiff and worked as a house officer doing paediatric surgery and then taught anatomy to students at Bristol University. She followed this up with a PhD in paleopathology, the study of disease in old bones, which led to her first television appearance as a bone expert on the Channel 4 series Time Team.

Alice has written several books that explore human evolution and history and in 2012 she was appointed the first Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

DISC ONE: Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
DISC TWO: Temple of Love - Sisters of Mercy
DISC THREE: Apotheosis - Austin Wintory
DISC FOUR: Cherub Rock (2011 Remaster) - The Smashing Pumpkins
DISC FIVE: Times Like These (BBC Radio 1 Stay Home Live Lounge) - Live Lounge Allstars
DISC SIX: Sugar - System Of A Down
DISC SEVEN: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Composed by Ryuichi Sakomoto and performed by Phoebe Stevens
DISC EIGHT: Coins for the Eyes - Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane

BOOK CHOICE: Middlemarch by George Eliot
LUXURY ITEM: A kayak
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Composed by Ryuichi Sakomoto and performed by Phoebe Stevens

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001xm45)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 One Person Found This Helpful (m001xdfc)
Series 1

5. The Old Man & The Fishfinger

Frank and guests Scott Bennett, Jo Caulfield, Simon Evans and Esther Manito find out what you think about a scenic fishfinger and a wobbly cupcake.

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


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001xly5)
Stouts and Porters: How dark beers became cool

Stouts and porters, dark malty beers maybe used to have a reputation of being a bit stuffy but there has been a recent trend of these drinks growing in popularity.

Guinness, the biggest player in the market, has seen a big increase in sales, for a period being the bests selling pint in pubs for the first time. There’s been a big interest in it from young people, there is a whole genre of social media influencers comparing pints and even Kim Kardashian was photographed with one in London last St Patricks day.

In this programme, Jimi Famurewa looks at how a drink that is so ubiquitous and established becomes a cool.

Jimi goes to the wildly popular Devonshire Arms to meet Oisin Rogers and drink the arguably best pint of Guinness in London. The story of dark beer starts with porter in London and Jimi talks to beer writer Laura Hadland about the history of porter and stouts between the UK and Irish capitals.

Adding nitrogen to stout and porter is a huge part of Guinness’s success. Jimi visits Anspach and Hobday, brewers who are taking on Guinness with their own nitro porter, London Black.

Jimi also look at the history of stout and porter in West Africa with Eko brewery who are taking inspiration from the continent including the Guinness brewed in Nigeria.

Social media is a huge part of the interest in Guinness. Jimi sits down with a pint to talk to Ian Ryan who runs the shitlondonguinness Instagram page and has written a book One Man's Search for the Perfect Pint of Guinness, who is credited in having a big part in this trend.

Produced in Bristol by Sam Grist


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001xm52)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001xm5h)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Three Million (p0hcrwmt)
5. Ghosts

The Bengal Famine, particularly the experiences of people in the rural areas who suffered the most, is not well remembered today. There is no memorial, museum, or plaque to the victims or survivors anywhere in the world.

One man has made it his life’s work to record their testimonies with paper and pen. Kavita hears from him - and tries to understand more about why the three million people who perished aren’t better remembered or memorialised in India, Bangladesh and Britain.

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.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001xfws)
Postbag: Horniman Museum and Gardens

Will my blind daffodils ever flower again, or should I just discard them? Can I use old yule logs to line my plant beds or will the harvested fruit and veg become poisonous? How can I repel spiders from my garden without using chemicals?

Peter Gibbs is joined by his enthusiastic team of horticultural experts as they dig through the GQT inbox and answer your gardening conundrums. On the panel this week are landscape architect Bunny Guinness, self proclaimed botanical geek James Wong and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood.

They visit the Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill, where head of horticulture Errol Reuben Fernandes gives the team a tour of their historical and extensive gardens.

Later, Peter and the panel discuss whether there are house plants that can produce enough oxygen to purify air or if this is just a myth.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker

Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Short Works (m001vllk)
The Language of Flowers

The Language Of Flowers by Elaine Chiew.

Willow, a primary school teacher, likes her colleague Geoff. And Geoff likes her. But they are no good at reading each other’s signals.

Originally from Malaysia, Elaine Chiew is a twice winner of the Bridport Short Story Competition. She is the author of the short story collection The Heartsick Diaspora. Her novel, The Light Between Us, will be published in May 2024.

Writer: Elaine Chiew
Reader: Phyllis Ho
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Hidden Treasures (m001xm68)
The Dumb Waiter

First broadcast in 1981, this Hidden Treasure play by Harold Pinter stars Bob Hoskins as Ben and Roy Kinnear as Gus. It has not been heard for over 40 years.

In this sinister, menacing comedy, two armed men wait in a basement - but for what and for whom?

With thanks to Keith Wickham, Dr Steve Arnold, Ruby Churchill, Louisa Britton, Alison Hindell, Matthew Dodd, Claire Coss, Carl Davies, Helen Toland, Richard Culver, Andrew Jupp, James Peak, BBC Archives and the Radio Circle.

Remastering by Essential Radio.


SUN 15:45 Hidden Treasures: Feature (m001xx8y)
What's the story behind the Hidden Treasures drama season on Radio 4, Radio 3 and Radio 4 Extra?

Some wonderful plays, including Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter with Bob Hoskins and Roy Kinnear, Dennis Potter's Traitor starring Denholm Elliott and Ian Ogilvy, and an innovative recording of The Tragedy of Macbeth with Joss Ackland, Googie Withers and Robert Hardy, have been located in BBC Archives and through the activities of the Radio Circle.

Keith Wickham reports on the recent finds, and asks BBC curators and commissioners to put these finds into context.

With thanks to Carl Davies, Dr Steve Arnold, Alison Hindell, Matthew Dodd, Louisa Britton, Claire Coss, Richard Culver, Gavin Old, Helen Toland, BBC Archives and the Radio Circle.

Presenter: Keith Wickham
Assistant Producer: Ruby Churchill
Writer, Producer: James Peak

An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001xm6t)
Carys Davies

Johny Pitts talks to Carys Davies about her new novel, Clear.

Plus, we discuss Annie Ernaux's Exteriors and the relationship between her writing and photography, as a new photo exhibition of street photography, inspired by her journal entries observing daily life on the streets and transport of a Paris suburb, opens in the city. We speak to the curator and writer of an accompanying book, Lou Stoppard, and to writer Lauren Elkin.

And a literary postcard from Switzerland: Swiss writer Rebecca Gisler suggests that the heart of Swiss storytelling may not lie in its rich cultural centres, but deep in its mountain history.

Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer: Emma Wallace

Book List – Sunday 24 March and Thursday 28 March

Clear by Carys Davies
The Mission House by Carys Davies
Faroese Folklore and Fairy Tales by Jakob Jakobsen
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
Exteriors: Annie Ernaux and Photography edited by Lou Stoppard
Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin
No.91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute by Lauren Elkin
About Uncle by Rebecca Gisler: Translated by Jordan Stump
Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown by Virginia Woolf


SUN 16:30 Diane Arbus: Intimate Portraits (m001np8r)
Photographer Diane Arbus was born 100 years ago and died more than 50 years ago, but her photographs have retained their extraordinary and unsettling power. Alvin Hall sets out to ask why.

After Arbus’ suicide in 1971 and the 1972 MoMA exhibition which launched her posthumous fame, attention has often focused on her death and the more lurid details of her biography. Alvin and a cast of artists, photographers, writers and curators turn instead to consider her art.

In a series of encounters recorded on location in Arbus’ home city of New York, and through the photographer's own words, they set out to evoke the atmosphere and power of her photographs, their creation and the influence they’ve had over generations of photographers who have wrestled with how to make portraits after Arbus.

Featuring responses to Arbus’ work from photographers Tina Barney, Ming Smith, Bill Jacobson and Deana Lawson. Alvin also speaks to Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; journalist and biographer Arthur Lubow; Elisabeth Sussman, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and curator, writer and photography critic Vince Aletti.

Diane Arbus' readings are edited selections from the film Going Where I've Never Been: The Photography of Diane Arbus (1972), voiced by Mariclare Costello.

Writer and Presenter - Alvin Hall
Producer - Michael Umney
Executive Producer - Susan Marling
Mixing Engineer - Chris O’Shaughnessy

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4

Photograph of Alvin Hall by Kendall Messick


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (m001xdnh)
No Place to Call Home

As the cost of living crisis continues to increase the strain on families, a record 142,000 children in England are homeless and living in what should be short term temporary accommodation.
Children are being consigned to B&Bs and hotels, former office blocks - even shipping containers – some without a bed of their own, living among rats and cockroaches - conditions the children’s commissioner has condemned as Dickensian.
With the help of young people and their families, File on 4 investigates how temporary accommodation - meant to be a short term safety net - has become a trap some children can’t escape.

Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Nicola Dowling
Technical Producer: James Beard
Production Coordinator: Jordan King
Editors: Clare Fordham and Carl Johnston

Image: Imgorthand via Getty Images


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001xm77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001xm7n)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001xm85)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xm8q)
State pensions triple lock to stay says Chancellor

The Chancellor has committed to keeping the triple lock system for increases to the state pension - insisting the "expensive" policy can be paid for through economic growth.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001xm96)
Katie Thistleton

Which are better? Cats or dogs? How about puppet dogs? Where do you stand on them? You'll find them all in this jam-packed programme in which Katie will be sharing what she's heard this week about magic mushrooms, the body mass index, expressive writing and Mel B. There'll be beautiful music from Jordan Rakei, anecdotes from Mark and Lard, stories of brotherly love... and some meditation thrown in for good measure.

Presenter: Katie Thistleton
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinator: Paul Holloway


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001xlwl)
Lynda insists that Robert lets Harrison know he’s the only Snell running for Ambridge Cricket Club Chair. But as Robert leaves to make his phone call, Harrison shows up at the door to encourage Lynda to be chair. Harrison ignores Robert’s call as he continues to flatter Lynda, but she sends him away disappointed, insisting on Robert. Robert twigs that it was Harrison at the door just now, trying to court Lynda. He’s conflicted, so they eventually agree to both stand for the Chair position – with a twist – they’ll each campaign for the other.

Jolene doesn’t seem herself as Fallon and Kenton gossip about Brian and Miranda at the recent Ball. Kenton tries to engage Jolene as he encourages Fallon not to worry about Harrison’s upcoming disciplinary hearing – they all need to think positively. But grouchy Jolene snaps that they need more than positive thinking. If things turn out badly for Fallon and Harrison, Fallon wonders whether Jolene and Kenton would be able to lend them money. Kenton says they’ll make it work, but Jolene’s more hard-headed – they don’t have cash to spare. Alone with Jolene, Kenton ticks her off for being so harsh. Jolene points out their own situation and how they could suddenly need money themselves – they need to be prepared. Kenton doesn’t want to think like that, but Jolene says they may not have a choice.

Kenton goes to see Fallon to apologise and reassures Fallon – who’s like a daughter to him - that he and Jolene will help in any way they can. Fallon mentions how sensitive Jolene is right now, but Kenton shares that he has a plan that’s guaranteed to lift her spirits.


SUN 19:15 Jokes (p0hc25z5)
Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living

5. Stuart Becomes an Orphan

Comedian Stuart Mitchell examines his own cost of living crisis. Stuart looks back at the death of his mum and just when he finds himself back on his feet and truly happy, he receives devastating news about his dad.

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 Jeeves - Live! (b09hpg6t)
Series 3

The Aunt and the Sluggard

Martin Jarvis performs the first of two beloved Jeeves stories by P G Wodehouse in front of an enthusiastic, invited audience at the Riverhouse Barn Theatre, Walton on Thames in Surrey.

In The Aunt and the Sluggard, Martin tells an extraordinary tale in the character of Bertie Wooster. While living in New York, Bertie has to persuade his brainy manservant Jeeves to concoct a spiffing plan, so that his poet pal Rocky can continue receiving a financial allowance from a rich aunt. The trouble is the aunt wants Rocky to have a good time visiting the fleshpots of Manhattan and to write her letters about it. But Rocky prefers to live as a recluse on Long Island, miles away. How on earth can it be done? Can Jeeves find a solution?

Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (m001xfx1)
Porn On Woman’s Hour and Tweet Of The Day

This week you’ve been giving us your views on the Woman’s Hour series on the impact of pornography. We dig a little deeper into the issue with Ruth McDermott, a listener who has specialist knowledge of covering sensitive topics.

The BBC is planning to run adverts on some of its audio content on third party platforms like, Apple and Spotify. We speak to Audio Industry Consultant Matt Deegan to get his take on it.

And from April 1st, Tweet Of The Day is disappearing from the weekday schedule, to be replaced by Tweet of the Week. The news has ruffled a few feathers. We hear listeners' reaction and get the inside track on what goes in to making these much-loved snippets of birdsong from wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood

Produced by Leeanne Coyle

A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m001xfwy)
Vince Power CBE, Olga Murray, Akira Toriyama, Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello

Matthew Bannister on

Vince Power, the live music promoter whose Mean Fiddler group operated a string of London venues and built up the Reading and Leeds festivals.

Olga Murray, the American lawyer who devoted her later life to helping the children of Nepal.

Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello, the Italian businesswoman who ran a major container shipping company.

Akira Toriyama, the Japanese manga artist who created the Dragon Ball series which has millions of fans around the world.

Interviewee: Melvin Benn
Interviewee: Shaun Clarkson
Interviewee: Gina Parker
Interviewee: Som Paneru
Interviewee: Janet Porter
Interviewee: Chris Gray
Interviewee: Shao Dow

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used;
Reading Festival 2023 Aftermovie promo, Reading and Leeds Festival, YouTube uploaded 27/10/2023; Vince Power interview , BBC 6Music, 27/03/2008; Vince Power interview, BBC Radio London, 04/12/2022; The Pogues appearance at the Mean Fiddler, 26/01/201986; New Order appearance at the Reading Festival, Reading Festival,1989; Olga Murray interview, Nepal Youth Foundation, YouTube uploaded, 17/09/2012; Olga Murray presentation, TEDx Talks, YouTube uploaded 18/11/2015; Cecilia Eckelmann-Battistello acceptance speech, Lloyds Group, YouTube uploaded 28/10/2015; ShaDow Clone, Shao Dow, YouTube uploaded 26/01/2024;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001xm9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xm04)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 Loose Ends (m001xmb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001xmbq)
Vicki Young's guests are the Conservative MP Tim Loughton, the Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry, and the political commentator Anita Boateng. They discuss the cyber threat from China, the future of the state pension, and the prospects for the main parties in the forthcoming local elections. Lara Spirit - editor of The Times Red Box - brings expert insight and analysis. The programme also includes an interview with the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Doug Chalmers, about the Committee's forthcoming review of accountability in public organisations.


SUN 23:00 P's and Q's (m001xmc8)
Charity

A philosophical discussion series hosted by Vanessa Feltz. In this episode, Vanessa asks - Is charity a moral duty?

How much of our salary should we give to charity? Would we be better volunteering our time instead? On what basis should we pick our causes? Are some more worthy than others? What about choosing an altruistic career? And, if altruism does not feature in our lives at all, can we consider ourselves good?

With Professor Hilary Greaves, Kunle Olulode, Dr Marian Liebmann.

Presenter: Vanessa Feltz
Producer: Angharad Hampshire
Assistant Producer: Camille Corcoran
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Executive Producer: Alexandra Hollands

A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 23:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m001w16g)
Marian

For 20 years, the disappearance of Marian Partington's sister Lucy was a mystery. What had happened to the 21 year old after she left a friend's house at Christmas time in 1973?

The brutal truth was revealed when Fred and Rosemary West's crimes came to light and it was confirmed that Lucy, buried under concrete in the house in Cromwell Street in Gloucester, was one of the murder victims.

Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project, finds out how Marian came to terms with the horrific death of her beloved sister and how she managed to find way a through.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4



MONDAY 25 MARCH 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001xmcq)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Sideways (m001xdg0)
61. Brain Strain

In 1972, at the liberal Vassar College in New York, 18-year-old Rick Shenkman stood out for his unwavering support of Richard Nixon, especially as the Watergate scandal unfolded. His unconditional allegiance raises a perplexing question - why would a bright, well-educated student overlook the facts and maintain blind faith in the president?

In this episode, Matthew Syed delves into one of the most intriguing facets of human psychology - cognitive dissonance.

Conceptualised by Leon Festinger in the 1950s, cognitive dissonance refers to the mental discomfort a person experiences when they hold contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously, or when their behaviour conflicts with their beliefs or values. While we all encounter cognitive dissonance in our daily lives, its underlying mechanisms often remain unnoticed despite their profound impact.

Featuring journalist and historian Rick Shenkman, Professor Elliot Aronson, Professor Matt Johnson and Princeton University graduate student, Logan Pearce.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Julien Manuguerra-Patten
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Daniel Kempson
Theme Tune by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001xmd7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xmdn)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xmf0)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xmfl)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001xmfz)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xmgb)
Spiritual reflection for Holy Week with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001xmgr)
25/03/24 The value of British wool; septic tank crisis.

Why is wool so worthless for farmers? The price they get for a fleece barely covers the cost of shearing.
And septic tanks in Cornwall in crisis because of wet weather.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 05:56 Weather (m001xmh4)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08rt9rh)
Joe Harkness on the skylark

Joe Harkness indulges in some bird therapy, rejoicing in the sight and song of the skylark. Joe writes about the benefits of birdwatching towards wellbeing through connecting people with nature.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


MON 06:00 Today (m001xlr9)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001xlrm)
Crossing borders and belonging

The Vietnamese American writer Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded the Pulitzer prize for his debut novel The Sympathiser in 2016. Now he turns his attention to memoir, in A Man of Two Faces. He was four when he was forced to flee Vietnam with his family, but as he looks back at his life he explores the necessity of forgetting and remembering, and how far the promise and dream of America can be trusted.

The journalist and Deputy Editor of Harper’s Bazaar Helena Lee wants to showcase the voices and experiences of writers from the East and Southeast Asian diaspora living in the UK. East Side Voices celebrates the diversity of that experience and explores the impact on identity, community and family.

Jessica J. Lee was born in Canada to a Taiwanese mother and a Welsh father and in her collection of essays, Dispersals, she muses on the question of how plants and people become uprooted and cross borders. Combining memoir, history, and scientific research she explores how entwined our fortunes, movement and language are with the plant world.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 New Storytellers (m00193n5)
Breathing Lyrical

Can a poem change how you breathe?

A young woman Taqwa found herself devoid of energy and, at a loss for a pathway to recovery, turned to the power of an ancient Persian poem to help her breathe.

Her journey towards alternative healing for long Covid unfolds through conversations about the power of poetry, rhythm and voice, Islamic mystical conceptions of breath, and the impact of literature on the brain. On her journey down this rabbit-hole, Taqwa meets Pat Edwards, from the Poetry Pharmacy, translator Muhammad Ali and academic and publisher Nick Canty.

So, is there a real science behind this ancient art?

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2022 for the Best Student Radio Feature. The award is presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the famous series of Radio Ballads with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

Winning producer of Breathing Lyrically, Taqwa Sadiq, is studying at University College London and the judges adored Taqwa's 'beautiful journey of the programme’... A ‘fantastically interesting idea, well made’.

Producer: Taqwa Sadiq
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xls2)
Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Breaking the cycle, Musih Tedji Xaviere

Described as a grim portrayal of human nature, Mothers’ Instinct is a film about the darker side of maternal love. Academy Award-winning actresses Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway play best friends raising sons of the same age in the same neighbourhood. The psychological thriller follows their apparently picture-perfect life in Sixties suburbia. The two friends in real life join Nuala McGovern to discuss.

A new BBC study of elite British sportswomen shows that many are training and chasing medals for Great Britain while earning surprisingly low wages. The 143 female athletes who responded were above the age of 16, and were competing for their country in senior sport or at top club level. Some women had considered giving up sport, because of the cost of living now. Nuala is joined by Becky Grey, BBC Sport journalist who has been working on this study.

In the first in a new series, Breaking The Cycle, following the work of the SHiFT team in Greater Manchester. Set up to help young people at risk of getting into serious trouble the approach is all about relationships. A 'Guide' works with a child and their family for at least 18 months and just keeps showing up. Our reporter Jo Morris went out and about with the team over the first year of the practice. Today, Sally Dicken from SHiFT paints a picture of the young people they are trying to help and explains the problems SHiFT has been set up to tackle.

These Letters End In Tears follows the story of two girls, Bessem and Fatima, as we learn the price they pay for falling in love. In Cameroon, where the book is based, same-sex relationships are punishable by law. The author, Musih Tedji Xaviere, has made a huge personal sacrifice bringing this story to life, and joins Nuala in the studio.

Reporter: Jo Morris


MON 11:00 The Gatekeepers (m001xlsl)
8. I Sung of Chaos

On 30th September 2022 a coroner in London finds that Molly Russell "...died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content."

The finding is a global first. Social media is ruled to have contributed to the death of a child.

In San Francisco, around the same time, a strange story is unfolding inside Twitter HQ.

Ever since Donald Trump's account was suspended on Twitter, tensions have been building around what is and isn't allowed on platforms.

Elon Musk shares internal staff documents with a hand-picked group of journalists. One of those journalists suspects these documents show collusion between tech platforms and the US government.

Politicians and civil groups on both the left and right from across the world, want the power and influence of these companies to be reigned in.

There's even talk of repealing section 230 - the law that created modern social media.

In this final episode, Jamie Bartlett asks if Silicon Valley's radical experiment is about to implode? And if the online world is chaotic now, what will advances in artificial intelligence mean for us all?

Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Sound design: Eloise Whitmore
Story Consultant: Kirsty Williams
Senior Producer: Peter McManus
Composer: Jeremy Warmsley
Commissioned by Dan Clarke
A BBC Scotland Production

Reading by John Lightbody

Archive credits: BBC News, September 2022; CNN, 2022; C-Span, Jan 2024; BBC Archive, 1967

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

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline


MON 11:30 Why War? The Einstein-Freud Letters (m001tr2s)
In 1932 the world-famous physicist Albert Einstein wrote a public letter to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Einstein, a keen advocate of the League of Nations and peace campaigner, asked Freud if he thought war and aggression was forever tied to human psychology and the course of international relations: could we ever secure a lasting world peace?

Einstein’s letter is deeply prescient, as is Freud’s extraordinary response. The exchange was titled ‘Why War?’. The two thinkers explore the nature of war and peace in politics and in all human life; they think about human nature, the history of warfare and human aggression and the hope represented by the foundation of the League of Nations (precursor to the UN) and its promise of global security and a new architecture of international law.

At the time of their exchange, Freud is in the last great phase of his career and has already introduced psychoanalysis into the field of politics and society. Einstein, the younger of the two, is using his huge international profile as a physicist for political and pacifist intervention.

For Einstein, future world security means a shared moral understanding across the global order - that humankind rise above the ‘state of nature’ never to devolve into total war again. He wrote to Freud, as 'a citizen of the world…immune to nationalist bias...I greatly admire your passion to ascertain the truth. You have shown how the aggressive and destructive instincts are bound up in the human psyche with those of love and the lust for life. At the same time, you make manifest your devotion to the goal of liberation from the evils of war...’ Is it possible, Einstein asks Freud, to make us 'proof against the psychoses of hate and destructiveness?'. Freud's answer is fascinating and quite unexpected.

The exchange of letters was sponsored by the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, an organisation promoting global security by using prominent thinkers, drawing on multiple fields of knowledge (from science to psychology, politics and law) to achieve a new language for international peace, following the lessons learned from the Great War of 1914-18.

But even as Einstein wrote to Freud in the summer of 1932, the Nazi party became the largest political party in the German Reichstag. Both men felt a sense of apprehension about what was coming; both were pacifist, both Jewish, both would be driven into exile (both Einsteinian physics and Freudian psychoanalysis were denounced by the new regime). The letters were finally published in 1933 when Hitler came to power, suppressed in Germany, and as a result never achieved the circulation intended for them.

Featuring readings from the Einstein–Freud letters and contributions from historians of warfare and psychoanalysis, war journalism and global security, this feature showcases the little-known exchange between two of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers, ‘Why War?’ – a question just as relevant in today’s world.

Contributors include historian of war and peace Margaret MacMillan, BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, defence and security expert Mark Galeotti, historian of international relations Patrick O Cohrs, author Lisa Appignanesi, who has written on Freud and the history of psychoanalysis, and Faisal Devji, historian of conflict and political violence in India and the Middle East.

Readings are by Elliot Levey (Einstein) and Henry Goodman (Freud)

Produced by Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001xlt3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001xltm)
Car club closures, ‘Not my debt!’ and celebrity brands

Community-led car clubs are on the brink. These volunteer-run, eco-driven schemes are more popular than ever, especially in rural areas, but affordable insurance is hard to find and many may be forced to close. We find out more with managers and members of Hour Car Club in Hebden Bridge.

Are you being chased for a debt that is not yours? We hear from a woman who’s credit score has taken hit as a result and seek advice from an expert.

The number of independent record shops is at a ten year high. It's still small - at 461. But it's 122 more than it was a decade ago. There are 122 more than a decade ago. We ask Martin Black, owner of Spinning Discs Records in Sheffield: what’s the secret to a successful shop?

Do you buy into celebrity brands? Megan Markle is hoping so…The Duchess of Sussex is the latest in a long list of famous names branching out into business as she launches her new lifestyle brand 'American Riviera Orchard'. We’re joined by a branding expert to discuss the successes, the failures and why so many celebrities go into retail.

PRODUCER: JAMES LEESLEY

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON


MON 12:57 Weather (m001xlv1)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001xlvj)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 The Trust Shift (m001xlvz)
Local Trust

Across five episodes, Rachel Botsman traces the intriguing history of trust.

Rachel looks back on what she sees as the three major chapters of trust in human history. In the broadest terms, these are Local Trust, Institutional Trust, and Distributed Trust. As we’ve moved from one to the next, we've experienced, what she calls, ‘Trust Shifts’.

These shifts have happened because humans took a risk to try something new. To innovate in ways that have shaped our behaviours, for better or worse. Rachel reflects on how each trust shift has profoundly changed the dynamics of our lives; whether that’s how we bank or buy goods, vote, learn, travel, date, and importantly, find and consume information.

In Episode 1, Rachel takes us right back to 11th century medieval Europe, where the 'Maghribi traders', a tight-knit group of Jewish traders, made a leap of trust. They are the main characters of our first trust shift, when we began to trust outside of our local communities for the first time.

Featuring Avner Greif, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Stanford Univeristy and MacArthur Genius.

Rachel Botsman is the author of Who Can You Trust? and What's Mine Is Yours. She was Oxford University’s first Trust Fellow and has worked with world leaders, the Bank of England, CEOs and financial regulators.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
Editor: Chris Ledgard.


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001xlwl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Hidden Treasures (m001xlx2)
Traitor

First broadcast in 1981, this Hidden Treasure play by Dennis Potter stars Denholm Elliott as Harris and Ian Ogilvy as James. It has not been heard for over 40 years.

In a dingy flat in Moscow, he sits alone - a traitor to his family, his friends, his colleagues. Then the international press descend upon him and he gives his first interview - an interview which brings forth terrible, haunting memories.

Adapted for radio and directed by Derek Hoddinott
A BBC World Service Drama production

With thanks to Keith Wickham, Dr Steve Arnold, Ruby Churchill, Louisa Britton, Alison Hindell, Matthew Dodd, Claire Coss, Carl Davies, Helen Toland, Richard Culver, Andrew Jupp, James Peak, BBC Archives and the Radio Circle.

Remastering by Essential Radio.


MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (m001xlxl)
Programme 3, 2024

(3/12)
How could you twist Prince Harry's recollections so that they appear to involve fruit of the genus Pyrus, an assegai and a goalkeeper with real personality?

Only in an episode of Round Britain Quiz are you likely to hear a question like this: and sure enough the panel will have to deal with it, and plenty of others like it, in today's programme. Kirsty Lang is in the chair as the North of England team of Stuart Maconie and Adele Geras face the Midlands team, Frankie Fanko and Stephen Maddock.

Today's questions:

Q1 How could you twist Prince Harry's recollections so that they appear to involve fruit of the genus Pyrus, an assegai and a goalkeeper with real Personality?

Q2 (from John Moran) If you add nothing to Oscar, Judy Garland, an acclaimed disco band and a stringed instrument, to what would you need to add nothing to complete the quintet?

Q3 Music: What have these pieces got to do with the number 617?

Q4 (from Charles Gilman) Why, if they scored three goals each, might it help James the crime-writer to deal with childhood, Lewis the comedian to deal with old age, and Norman the film critic to deal with obesity?

Q5 Why might Clint Eastwood talk to a Senegalese band who were specialists in all styles, a Paul Thomas Anderson film with a quiz show backdrop, and a borough where midwives are regularly called?

Q6 Music: Can you rank these from lowest to highest?

Q7 (from Karl Sabbagh) Allowing for spelling variations, why might an area of the Low Countries and a large bird; an insect and part of a ship; a northern town and another name for sage; and a cooking method and a form of transport, all keep you amused?

Q8 Beginning with a Greek singer turned MEP, progress down a Northampton river with an Italian jazz trumpeter and an avant-garde Italian composer - and explain how you'd finally team up with a powerful gaming character in the League of Legends?

Producer: Paul Bajoria


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (m001xly5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0hbmml3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Saturday]


MON 16:30 The Artificial Human (m001xlz2)
Should AI Make My Decisions?

Artificial Intelligence is in our homes, schools and workplaces. What does this mean for us, and how will it change our lives? In this episode of The Artificial Human, presenters Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong ask: should AI make my decisions?'

In The Artificial Human, 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, we ask, "Should AI make my decisions?"

Aleks and Kevin don't have all the answers, but they seek out the facts for us by speaking to those who are currently shaping our AI futures.


MON 17:00 PM (m001xlzp)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xm0b)
It is the first time the US has called for a halt to the fighting


MON 18:30 One Person Found This Helpful (m001xm0y)
Series 1

6. Everybody Loves Velociraptor

Frank and guests Simon Evans, Ania Magliano, Sunil Patel and Kiri Pritchard-McLean find out what you think about sharp carpets and a keg with a difference.

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 (m001xm1j)
Worried George plays Jakob a video of Bartleby and asks the vet to look at him. Jakob spots the evidence of Bartleby not eating properly and decides on a change of treatment and a special diet. George worries about the cost and tries to secure a free prescription in return for some social media publicity. Jakob reminds George to focus on animal welfare, not publicity. Without the care Jakob recommends, he doesn’t see Bartleby surviving another winter.

Kenton has a surprise to perk Jolene up. He’s come up with an idea for a special Easter community event. An easter egg hunt crossed with an egg and spoon relay race. He explains the details and Jolene wryly tells him to focus on his recovery. But he has it covered – Jolene is going to take centre stage to run the event. But she says no. Kenton’s disappointed he hasn’t cheered Jolene up.

Elizabeth pops in and Kenton opens up about distant and distracted Jolene. Elizabeth shuts Kenton down when he mentions that Jolene seems panicky about money. He asks Elizabeth to cheer Jolene up, and Jolene works this out, but enjoys Elizabeth’s company. Elizabeth asks Jolene about the Kenton attack investigation, and Jolene puts her off asking Harrison for an update, with Elizabeth changing topic to Kenton’s complicated Easter event plans. Jolene will surely host and adjudicate? Jolene says no, but as Elizabeth offers a pep talk Jolene remembers working the crowds in the past and starts to gee herself up. Okay, she won’t hide away any longer. Elizabeth’s delighted.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001xm23)
Poet Nikki Giovanni, Andrew Buchan on TV drama Passenger

Nikki Giovanni is one of only a handful of poets whose work has been published as a Penguin Modern Classic in their own life time. A key figure of America's Black Arts Movement as both a writer an activist, she speaks to Tom about her life and career.

A well-known actor, Andrew Buchan has now turned to writing with Passenger, the new ITV crimes drama set in the gothic landscape of the Lancashire-Yorkshire border.

And Oxford's Ashmolean museum has a new exhibition of Flemish drawings, Bruegel to Rubens. Artist Jonathan Yeo and critic Jonathan Jones, author of Earthly Delights: A History of the Renaissance, join to discuss.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Ciaran Bermingham


MON 20:00 Death, Suspicion and the Sikh Diaspora (m001xp5w)
How the sudden death of a Sikh activist in Birmingham sparked concern and suspicion in the community.

The sudden death of Avtar Singh Khanda in Birmingham in 2023 immediately aroused concern in the Sikh community. After all, Mr Khanda was a leading figure in the campaign for an independent Sikh homeland – a campaign which has long aggravated successive Indian governments.

Police said there was nothing suspicious about his death - the official cause was an aggressive form of Leukaemia - but friends and family remained unconvinced. Their concern was heightened when, not long after Mr Khanda's death, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed there were ‘credible allegations’ that Indian agents were behind the murder of a Sikh man in British Columbia – an allegation the Indian government has strongly denied and called ‘absurd’.

Are Sikhs in Britain are being targeted too? BBC Religion Editor Aleem Maqbool investigates.


MON 20:30 Analysis (m001xm2p)
The low pay puzzle

From April, 2.7 million workers will get one of the biggest pay rises in UK history as the National Living Wage rises to £11.44 an hour. But will they feel better off?

It's 25 years since the National Minimum Wage was introduced. During that time it's credited with putting billions of extra pounds in the pockets of low-paid workers. But, despite that, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, two thirds of households living in poverty have at least one adult in work. And, according to the Institute for Fiscal studies, far from cutting the annual benefits bill, the cost of benefits paid to working families has ballooned since 1999 to about 50 billion pounds a year.

So what's behind this low pay puzzle? And what can employers, governments and workers do to ensure that work pays? Pauline Mason investigates.

Presenter: Pauline Mason
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham.

Contributors:
Kate Bell, TUC Assistant General Secretary and former low pay commissioner
Damian Grimshaw, Professor of Employment Studies, Kings College London and London & South Forum Co-Lead at the Productivity Institute
Patricia Findlay, Distinguished Professor of Work and Employment Relations, University of Strathclyde, and Director of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research
Matthew Fell, Low Pay Commissioner and Director of Competitiveness at BusinessLDN
Nye Cominetti, Principal Economist, the Resolution Foundation
James Cockett, Labour Market Economist, CIPD
Margaret Esapa, Managing Director and owner, Cherry Care Services, Oxfordshire
Conor Taylor, Director, Foresso


MON 21:00 Young Again (m001xdm2)
12. Philip Pullman

Kirsty Young talks to the author Philip Pullman about what he’s learned from his life so far. Pullman is the acclaimed novelist behind global bestsellers like His Dark Materials. He recounts the story of his own childhood, how he still contemplates the mystery of his father’s death, and why he owes his literary success to hard work.

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: Sam Peach
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 (m001xlrm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xm3k)
How will Israel respond to UN ceasefire vote?

The UN Security Council has passed its first resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - after the United States dropped its veto. We get reaction from Israel.

Also on the programme:

President Putin says that radical Islamists carried out the Moscow concert attack, but suggests Ukraine is behind them. We piece together what we know about those behind the attack.

And why we are still walking alone: the enduring appeal of the pilgrimage.


MON 22:45 Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (m001xm44)
Episode 6

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction .
In many ways it’s a universal story of domestic family life upended and fractured by inconceivable events which seem, even now, both far away and close at hand. The story begins in the spring of 1992 in the city of Sarajevo, as political tensions mount and barricades begin to appear in the streets.
Fifty-five year old Zora is married to Franjo, who is fifteen years older than her. Their daughter lives with her English husband and young child in Wiltshire. Zora’s vocation is her work as an artist and notably a painter of landscapes and the bridges that span the river of her beloved Sarajevo. She also teaches art students, but in the afternoons retreats to her studio high in the eaves of the city’s magnificent public library to work on her canvases.

Priscilla Morris is of Yugoslav and Cornish parentage, she grew up in London and spent her summers in Sarajevo. This is her first novel.
Location audio recordings: the street sounds of Sarajevo recorded by Rafael Diogo and featured on https://citiesandmemory.com/sarajevo-city-guide-best-sounds/

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
THE WATERS COMPANY for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:00 Lent Talks (m001xm4p)
Holy Week

Lent Talks – Holy Week

Written and presented by Dean of Westminster The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle

Westminster Abbey exists to tell the long story, the awkward angular story of British history with all the twists and turns and the ‘heroes’ and the sometimes less than great and good individuals who are remembered here. It is my job to keep that story alive, to believe it and explain why I think we can all still gather in one place and find some common ground. So, I look to Christ’s ministry and to his Passion as part of the long story of God’s grace. Christ’s life and death are the best words we have, the right language to express what it is to be God and what it is to be human. Understood and inhabited his story can help us believe there is a proper ending to our story and some hope to be had.

Producer: Carmel Lonergan
Editor: Dan Tierney

Music: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross by Joseph Haydn.


MON 23:15 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m001w12k)
Jayne

Is it possible to forgive a man who took your childhood innocence through years of sexual abuse - especailly if that man is your father?

A woman we are calling Jayne has spent many years working through the trauma of what happened to her - and to her younger brother whose suicide was in no small part prompted by his father's abuse of him as a child.

Now Jayne's father is close to death and she has been one of those responsible for looking after him - but is forgiveness possible after all these years? Marina Cantacuzino, founder of the charity The Forgiveness Project, finds out.

Presented by Marina Cantacuzino
Produced by Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001xm58)
Sean Curran reports as the deputy prime minister tells MPs China was responsible for cyber-attacks which accessed personal details of millions of voters.



TUESDAY 26 MARCH 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001xm5s)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 00:30 New Storytellers (m00193n5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xm6b)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xm6v)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xm78)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001xm7p)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xm87)
Spiritual reflection for Holy Week with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001xm8s)
26/03/24 - London farmer protests, Scottish herring and hempcrete

Farmers have been gathering in London's Parliament Square to protest about what they feel is a lack of support for British food production. Organisers said they have three demands: first, a ban on what they see as 'dishonest' labelling where food imported and processed in Britain can be labelled as British; second, they want the UK to withdraw from the Australian and New Zealand Trade Deals; and third, they want a clear plan for 'food security'.

Herring used to be a mainstay of communities up and down the west coast of Scotland. In the early 1900s Scotland was producing 2 million barrels of herring a year, but by the 60s and 70s, stocks of herring had been over-fished and collapsed. Since then, they've struggled to return, but a huge new spawning ground has been spotted by satellite.

And, hemp has traditionally been used to make hardwearing textiles - things like ropes and canvas for sails. But it can also be used to build houses using a material called hempcrete! Film-maker, Steve Barron, who's best known for directing music videos, bought some farmland back in 2017, and decided to "grow his own home".

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02twjfh)
Tree Pipit

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Steve Backshall presents the tree pipit.

Tree pipits are small brown birds without any bright colours or distinctive features; but you can identify one from a distance when it is singing, because it has a very obvious display flight. The male bird sings from April to the end of July, launching himself from a treetop perch, then parachutes downwards like a paper dart.


TUE 06:00 Today (m001xm2n)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001xm36)
Sheila Willis on using science to help solve crime

Dr Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland for many years.

She has spent her life using science to help solve cases, working on crime scenes and then analysing material in the lab, and presenting scientific evidence in court.

It’s a complicated business. Forensic science relies on powerful technology, such as DNA analysis, but it cannot be that alone - it’s also about human judgement, logical reasoning and asking the right questions.

It is these fundamentals of forensic science that Sheila has fought for through her long career and what she fears may be becoming lost from the field now.

We find out what happens when the two very different worlds of science and the law clash in the courtroom. How to walk the line of presenting scientific evidence where there is pressure to be definitive where often science cannot be - and what this part of the job has in common with food packaging.

And what makes a good forensic scientist?

We’ll turn the studio at London’s Broadcasting House into a live crime scene to see if host Professor Jim Al-Khalili would be any good as a forensic investigator…

Produced by Gerry Holt


TUE 09:30 One to One (m001xm3t)
Psychedelics and Mental Health: Rose Cartwright meets Sara Tai

In recent years there’s been a renaissance of interest in psychedelics in the West, on a scale not seen since the first wave of medical research in the 1950s and 60s. Drugs like DMT, ketamine and psilocybin (the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms), are now being researched as medications to take alongside therapy for the treatment of various mental health problems. Across this series of interviews, Rose Cartwright explores so-called ‘psychedelic assisted psychotherapy’. What is it? And can it help tackle our mental health crisis?

Her guest today is Dr Sara Tai, professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester, who is currently leading research into psychedelic therapy. How might psychedelic therapy help people to become unstuck? How do the potential rewards weigh up against the risks? And what is the likelihood of these psychedelic treatments becoming legalised for medical use within the UK?

Producer: Becky Ripley


TUE 09:45 New Storytellers (m00199y0)
Down on the Farm

The stressed-filled lives of Britain’s small farmers is a subject rarely spoken of outside the confines of the farming community (and Farming Today). Up before dawn, often not in bed until the small hours. The multiple pressures of livestock, spiralling costs and bad weather can conspire to drive farmers to the edge of suicide.

With at least one farmer in the UK taking their own life each week, Down On The Farm explores the struggles within the agricultural industry - through poetry (Border Country by Owen Sheers), music and verbatim voice. One farmer recounts the impact it’s had on his community, and on his own mental health.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of this year’s Charles Parker Prize 2022 for the Best Student Radio Feature.

Down on the Farm was made by University of Sunderland MA student Megan Hayward, and the judges were impressed with its "impressive storytelling – frank and raw and honest," and a mixture of poetry and song which was "beautiful and well delivered’.

Producer: Megan Hayward
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xm4c)
Killed Women campaign, Anti-ageing products and young girls, France birth rate

Killed Women is a group formed of relatives of women who were murdered in domestic abuse situations. They are campaigning to get the minimum sentence for domestic homicide raised, so it’s the same as if the victim was killed on the street. Julie Devey, a member of Killed Women whose daughter Poppy was stabbed to death in bed, joins Nuala McGovern alongside Clare Ward KC, who led last year’s independent review into Domestic Homicide Sentencing.

When and if a woman chooses to have children is becoming one of the defining issues of our time. It's an issue of great concern to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France - where there were 1.8 births for every woman last year. He's announced plans to incentivise people to have more children including reforming parental leave and free fertility checks for everyone at the age of 25. To discuss this Nuala is joined by Stefania Marassa, Associate Professor of Economics at Cergy Paris University and Sarah Harper, Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford.

Last week, a chain of pharmacies in Sweden banned the sale of anti-aging skincare products to customers under 15. The measures come amid a growing trend of young girls’ interest in high-end skincare products, after seeing them used by influencers on YouTube and TikTok. Nuala speaks to Monika Magnusson, The CEO of Apotek Hjärtat, the company which introduced the age restriction, and Abby Robbins, a mother from the UK, who has first-hand experience of this trend.

In the second part of our series Breaking The Cycle the SHiFT guide Eva has received a crisis call from one of the young people she works with. Though she's worried about him she's pleased that he reached out, it shows he is beginning to trust her. Jo Morris reports from SHiFT in Greater Manchester. It's a new approach to supporting teenagers at risk of getting into serious trouble.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lottie Garton


TUE 11:00 The Reinvention of Poland (m001xm4x)
Anne McElvoy goes on the road in Poland in the latest in her series of programmes exploring the waves of change sweeping through Europe. She takes the temperature of a nation still reeling from last year’s political revolution, in which the centrist liberal alliance led by Donald Tusk overturned the populist government of the Law and Justice (PIS) party after eight years in power.

Tusk has pledged to remake Poland as a progressive liberal democracy at the heart of the EU, purging and recapturing institutions, the judiciary and civil society from the ultra-conservative PIS. This while defending Poland’s borders and reasserting its role as Ukraine’s key ally and a buffer on the front line of Europe. But Poland is deeply divided; Tusk’s narrow victory and recent protests by supporters of the old regime make clear that there will be stiff resistance. The role of the Church – once a buffer against totalitarianism under communism, and now bulwark of deep social conservatism – is crucial. National identity is a strong but complex force in a country which has had to reinvent itself before, having been literally wiped off the map in the 19th century, then carved up by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.

Anne explores Poland’s modern reinvention, talking to Poles about themselves, weaving real stories and testimony with political analysis and her own European expertise and perspective.

Interviewees include Justice Minister Dariusz Mazur, Law and Justice MP Pawel Jablonski, historian Professor Natalia Nowakowska, Law Professor Piotr Bogdanowicz, activists Jakub Kocjan & Joanna Parniewska and commentators Aleksandra Rybinska & Jan Cienski.

Producer: Leala Padmanabhan


TUE 11:30 I'll Be Back: 40 Years of The Terminator (m001xm5f)
"It was the machines, Sarah...a new order of intelligence. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination." So says Kyle Reese, time travelling freedom fighter in The Terminator. Released in the perfectly fitting year of 1984, The Terminator was a low budget, relentless slice of science fiction noir, drawing on years of pulp sf to conjure a future nightmare of humanity hunted to near extinction by the machines it created. In 2029, just 5 years away now,
Arnold Schwarzenegger's unstoppable cyborg killer is sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the yet to be mother of humanities saviour to come. Fate, redemption & the destructive power of A.I. all made in the analogue age but still influencing the way many imagine our new age of Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Beth Singler re-visits the making of the film with producer Gale Anne Hurd and explores its lasting influence. Forty years on, and the circular self-contained time travel plot of The Terminator has been cracked wide open letting out alternative timelines and delayed apocalypses: more films, a television show, graphic novels, comics, video games, theme park rides and even memes have spread versions of the original robopocalypse. More than that, the first Terminator has given us a vocabulary and a vision for the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.

With the voices of Gale Anne Hurd, vfx guru Paul Franklin, Sean French- author of the BFI classic , AI researcher & writer Eliezer Yudkowsky & UCL's professor of science & technology, Jack Stilgoe. James Cameron extract courtesy of BAFTA.
Producer- Mark Burman


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001xm5x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001xm6g)
Call You and Yours: Probate

The wait for probate doubled in the two years following the pandemic. Wait times are coming down but there's still a backlog - what is your experience of probate?

Call us on 03700 100 444, email youandyours@bbc.co.uk and add your phone number so we can call you back

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: KEIN MOUSLEY


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001xm6y)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001xm7f)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 The Trust Shift (m001xm7s)
In Institutions We Trust?

Across five episodes, Rachel Botsman traces the intriguing history of trust.

Rachel looks back on what she sees as the three major chapters of trust in human history. In the broadest terms, these are Local Trust, Institutional Trust, and Distributed Trust. As we’ve moved from one to the next, we've experienced, what she calls, ‘Trust Shifts’.

These shifts have happened because humans took a risk to try something new. To innovate in ways that have shaped our behaviours, for better or worse. Rachel reflects on how each trust shift has profoundly changed the dynamics of our lives; whether that’s how we bank or buy goods, vote, learn, travel, date, and importantly, find and consume information.

In Episode 2, Rachel charts the rise of institutional trust, asking why we trusted institutions in the first place, and how they innovated ways to trust each other on a much larger scale. She tells this through the story of one institution in particular: maritime insurance.

Featuring Christopher Kingston, the Richard S. Volpert Professor of Economics at Amherst College, Massachusetts.

Rachel Botsman is the author of Who Can You Trust? and What's Mine Is Yours. She was Oxford University’s first Trust Fellow who's worked with world leaders, the Bank of England, CEOs and financial regulators.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
Editor: Chris Ledgard


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001xm1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000sr4j)
Holding Back the Tide

The Woman in Puce

by Nick Warburton

Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Vanessa ..... Jessica Turner

Directed by Sally Avens

When Richard and Clare Wells inherit a house in Breck Howe they also inherit a sitting tenant, John Hector, who views the house and the town as his own personal fiefdom. Today John's bravado takes a battering when his past returns to haunt him.


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (m001xm8b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand (m001xm8v)
Series 3: Exercise

S3. Ep 8 - Activity Revolution

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 8 - Activity Revolution - the twins meet up to see how Chris is getting on with his attempts to get more active. They also have a conversation with Orla Hugueniot, public health expert and Head of Marketing at the Department of Health. She explains how government tries to communicate big messages around physical activity to the public. Chris and Xand also chat with Ryan McKay, Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London (and Chris’ brother in law). Ryan explains how important identity is when thinking about barriers to physical activity. Has Chris finally managed to find something that will help him get a bit more active?

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 (m001xm99)
The Lady Chief Justice

Dame Sue Carr, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, is the first Lady Chief Justice, the first woman to hold the role. She gives her first broadcast interview as head of the judiciary of England and Wales to Law in Action, for its farewell edition. She speaks about her priorities, hopes, and concerns, and marks the end of Law in Action by looking back at 40 years in the law. She also picks her favourite editions of the programme, and closes with a tribute to presenter Joshua Rozenberg.

Lord David Pannick KC is widely regarded as the most successful lawyer of his generation practising in his chosen area of the law, public law. Things might have turned out differently though: he had been approached to host Law in Action originally, and presented the pilot edition of the programme, produced by Joshua. He too looks back over the last 40 years and finds that much has changed in court.

We then look ahead to the future, and the next generation of those grappling with the law: we join 15-year old GCSE students at Trinity Academy in Brixton, south London, as they are taught The Big Legal Lesson - as part of a campaign by the charity Young Citizens. What do they make of the law?

Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Researcher: Diane Richardson
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison
Editor: Clare Fordham


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (m001xm9r)
Carol Morley and Will Hislop

THE RED PARTS by Maggie Nelson (Vintage), chosen by Carol Morley
INVISIBLE CITIES by Italo Calvino (Vintage), chosen by Will Hislop
ORDINARY PEOPLE by Diana Evans (Vintage), chosen by Harriett Gilbert

Film director Carol Morley chooses a memoir called The Red Parts, in which author Maggie Nelson tries to make sense of the horror, grief and scepticism of her own aunt's murder trial. A book that blurs the boundaries between personal memoir, psychoanalysis and true crime.

Comedian Will Hislop chooses Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which transports us to 55 different fictional reincarnations of Venice through a series of beautifully detailed and occasionally absurd vignettes. Calvino's prose poems are ordered by theme and, as a reader, you can choose how you want to navigate his matrix of the chapters.

Harriett's choice takes us to London with a novel by Diana Evans called Ordinary People, in which two couples find themselves at a moment of reckoning, an intimate study of identity, parenthood and the fragility of love.

Presenter: Harriett Gilbert
Producer: Becky Ripley


TUE 17:00 PM (m001xmb4)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xmbl)
A ship struck a bridge in Baltimore sending cars and people into the River Patapsco below


TUE 18:30 Tim Key's Poetry Programme (m001xmc4)
2. Customs

More comic chaos from Tim Key, Tom Basden, Katy Wix and guest star Mike Wozniak.

A poetry show like no other – over the course of 6 series Key has performed magic, music, cookery and witchcraft; he’s delivered a baby, gone underground, up the Shard and into space.

And sometimes he finds time to read poems.

This series our regulars are joined by guest stars Stephen Merchant, Lolly Adefope, Mike Wozniak, Sam Campbell, Simon Armstrong and Morgana Robinson.

Written and presented by Tim Key

Produced by James Robinson
A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001xmcm)
Lynda and Robert both turn up at Lower Loxley to speak with Freddie and campaign on each other’s behalf for the Cricket Club Chair position. Freddie cheekily asks them both for a practical demonstration to help him decide who to vote for – he needs to see some cricket skills, starting with a warm up! They reluctantly join in, and Freddie sends them off on a brisk walk around the house before they take turns batting and bowling to each other. Lynda makes the stronger hit, but the ball hits Freddie in a very delicate area, so he goes away to recover. This leaves Robert to wryly comment that Lynda’s skill makes her favourite. She feels awful.

Jolene gets herself dressed up and Kenton notices how much more upbeat she is. She’s raring to go on Sunday and needs an Easter bonnet! Jolene even considers providing some musical accompaniment. She’s also been thinking about the event rules and is upping the ante with prizes. Kenton’s delighted to see Jolene throwing herself into it.

At the Bull, George can’t persuade Brad to bunk off his studies tomorrow and help him film Chris for his Socials. However, Brad is the one buying their drinks, prompting a suddenly sterner Jolene to refuse, as Brad’s too young to buy George’s alcohol. George’s backchat offends Jolene, and she threatens to throw him out. Kenton appears to see what’s going on and Jolene’s unhappy that he doesn’t share her vehemence. George continues insulting Jolene as she insists to soft Kenton that this isn’t just a slap on the wrist - both George and Brad are barred!


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001xmd2)
Norah Jones performs, Sir Ian McKellen on Player Kings, Keisha Thompson

Norah Jones discusses her new album, Visions, and reflects on the song, Come Away With Me, that made her name along with a special performance in the Front Row studio; Sir Ian McKellen and theatre director Robert Icke on tackling one of Shakespeare's greatest characters, Falstaff, in their new production Player Kings; and Keisha Thompson on how her year as artist-in-residence at Yorkshire Sculpture Park led to her creation of "sculpted poetry" in her new collection, Dé-rive.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu


TUE 20:00 Today (m001xmdk)
The Today Debate - How do we get Britain working?

The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we ever could have in the morning.

Mishal Husain is joined by business leaders and health professionals to discuss the UK’s growing problem of economic inactivity, as she asks - how do we get Britain working?

On the panel are Theo Paphitis, one of the UK's best known business leaders; Dr Lade Smith, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists; Dr Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies; Karen Blackett, UK president of WPP and Eccie Newton, entrepreneur and co-founder of the business Karma Cans.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001xmf1)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (m001xmdl)
The psychology of hope

In this episode of All in the Mind, we’re at the 2024 Northern Ireland Science Festival where we’re discussing the psychology of hope.

With a live audience in Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre, Claudia Hammond is joined by a panel of experts well-versed in the topic of hope: Dr Karen Kirby, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Ulster; Dr Kevin Mitchell, associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin; and author Sinéad Moriarty.

We take a look at the role of hope in medical scenarios, if we can learn to be hopeful, and how we can hold onto hope in the modern world. And we take questions from our audience – including whether or not we should all just lower our expectations.

Presenter: Claudia Hammond
Producers: Lucy Taylor and Sophie Ormiston
Audio supervisors: Andrew Saunderson and Bill Maul
Production coordinator: Siobhan Maguire
Editor: Holly Squire


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (m001xm36)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xmfg)
Baltimore bridge destroyed after ship collision

Also:

Hamas respond to the UN ceasefire resolution.

The crackdown on rogue pedicabs in London.

and a mini-reshuffle for Rishi Sunak.


TUE 22:45 Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (m001xmfw)
Episode 7

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction .
In many ways it’s a universal story of domestic family life upended and fractured by inconceivable events which seem, even now, both far away and close at hand. The story begins in the spring of 1992 in the city of Sarajevo, as political tensions mount and barricades begin to appear in the streets.
Fifty-five year old Zora is married to Franjo, who is fifteen years older than her. Their daughter lives with her English husband and young child in Wiltshire. Zora’s vocation is her work as an artist and notably a painter of landscapes and the bridges that span the river of her beloved Sarajevo. She also teaches art students, but in the afternoons retreats to her studio high in the eaves of the city’s magnificent public library to work on her canvases.

Priscilla Morris is of Yugoslav and Cornish parentage, she grew up in London and spent her summers in Sarajevo. This is her first novel.
Location audio recordings: the street sounds of Sarajevo recorded by Rafael Diogo and featured on https://citiesandmemory.com/sarajevo-city-guide-best-sounds/

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
THE WATERS COMPANY for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 The Confessional (m001g9sm)
Series 3

The Confession of Neil Dudgeon

Another edition of Stephen Mangan’s series of soul-searching, self-abasement and moral pratfalls. Each week, Stephen invites a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional booth to make three confessions. This is a cue for some rich and varied story-telling and surprising insights as the confessions are put under the microscope. It’s certainly a way to find out what really makes a person tick and have a good laugh while we’re at it.

The series continues with the Midsomer Murders star Neil Dudgeon, a consummate raconteur.

Presenter: Stephen Mangan
Additional material by Nick Doody
Producer: Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m001xmg9)
Alicia McCarthy reports as senior MPs question Rishi Sunak.



WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH 2024

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001xmgp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


WED 00:30 New Storytellers (m00199y0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xmh2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xmhd)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xmhq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001xmhy)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xmj5)
Spiritual reflection for Holy Week with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001xmjc)
27/03/24 - ELMs change, leather and otters

The Government is placing a 25% cap on the amount of land farmers can take out of food production, and put aside for certain environmental schemes. Farmers can be paid for environmental actions - like growing seed for wild birds - as part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, or SFI, which is replacing the old EU farm subsidies in England. Now, new applicants who choose a selection out of 6 of the schemes, will only be able to put a total of 25% of their land into them. The new cap comes after some raised concerns around our food security - winter flooding and the high cost of fertiliser has made growing food more expensive....and after the Government increased payments for environmental schemes in January, more farmers took them up.

Centuries ago, leather production would have gone hand in hand with animal husbandry in the UK, but now animal hides are very low value - and seen by many as a waste product. There are just a handful of tanneries left in the UK for processing hides into leather. We meet a farmer whose starting the fight back.

And wildlife experts say recent river flooding could be putting otters at risk. Strong currents can wash away cubs and high water levels can flood their river bank homes, or holts.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09vzn2j)
Matt Merritt on the Curlew

Poet and editor of British Birdwatching magazine revels in sounds of approaching spring as the call of the curlew once more fills the air in this Tweet of the Day.

Producer Maggie Ayre
Photograph: Anthony Pope.


WED 06:00 Today (m001xm8d)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 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.


WED 09:30 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001jt2h)
Try Some Turmeric

Turmeric is a close relative of ginger – it has a similar knobbly root-like stem. The golden-hued powder of turmeric adds colour and flavour to food, but it’s also been linked to some surprising health benefits. As well as helping with wound healing and skin conditions, it’s been linked to better brain health. Michael Mosley speaks to Dr. Benny Antony from the University of Tasmania in Australia who has found that turmeric extract was as effective as ibuprofen to reduce pain levels. Meanwhile, our volunteer Yu She cooks up a storm with chicken korma and turmeric pancakes.


WED 09:45 New Storytellers (m0019jxq)
He Wears a Mask, and His Face Grows to Fit It

Police officers often witness things outside the normal range of human experience – violence, brutality and traumatic death that many of us never see.

For most it is accepted as just part of the job and, although traditionally officers have not been encouraged to share their feelings, what is the emotional cost? How does dealing with trauma on a regular basis, change us as human beings? High profile atrocities like the murder of George Floyd in the US, and Sarah Everard's murder in the UK, have also led to scant understanding and sympathy for policemen and women dealing with the day-to-day realities of policing.

In “He wears a Mask, and his Face Grows to Fit it", retired policeman Guy Gardener reflects on the horrors he witnessed during his 30 year career in British policing and how he learnt to cope with the emotional fall-out of the job. Now 70, he recorded this candid interview with his son, also called Guy who was making a feature for his audio production course at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. Guy the son discovered a great deal about his father’s long policing career - stories and feelings that had never been shared before – and he contrasted the reality with an upbeat period recruitment film.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and this series features the winners of the Charles Parker Prize 2022 for the Best Student Radio Feature. The judges praised Guy’s feature saying that it was ‘interesting to hear this perspective in a beautiful interview. The stories the policeman told were ‘very vivid’ and the programme was a ‘powerful listen – a bit gruesome but not in a bad way.’

Producer: Guy Gardener
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xm8x)
Stoning of Women in Afghanistan, Jazz with Zara McFarlane, AI job losses & women

The leader of the Taliban has declared on state television that women who commit adultery will be stoned to death. Nuala McGovern speaks to the former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Fawzia Koofi.

We look at the legacy of children's TV executive Kay Benbow, hailed as “Queen of the Beebies”, who has died with historian Dr Emily Baughan and producer Anne Wood.

Our reporter Jo Morris talks to the mum of a young man who got into serious trouble with drugs in the third in our series Breaking The Cycle about SHiFT a new approach to helping young people at risk of going off the rails.

A new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research warns of an AI "jobs apocalypse" which will have the greatest impact on women and young people. We talk to Carsten Jung from the IPPR and to AI Expert Prof. Gina Neff.

And live music from Zara McFarlane who's appearing at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood


WED 11:00 Dehumidified (m001xm9d)
One baffling online scam – involving a £138 dehumidifier – and a humiliated BBC producer who will not rest until she has a return address for it.

January 2024. Polly Weston’s toddler has a terrible cough, no one in the house is getting any sleep, and, as is traditional for Bristol Victorian Terraces, her house has a lot of damp patches. So she decides to invest in a dehumidifier.

A very convincing review online, by a real consumer journalist called Luke Edwards, recommends one company.

The company's sleek website reads “Dewett UK – Better Air, Better Life.”

Sold. She orders one for £138… Then it begins.

Luke, it turns out, had his identity stolen. Day after day he receives the same desperate phone calls from people across Britain who have fallen victim to his “byline”. The story is always the same. Once the dehumidifier arrives, it doesn’t work, and you can’t return it – Dewett will not give you a return address. It's come from China, they say, and there is no point in you sending it back. The email exchanges become increasingly wild.

But what starts out as the story of one BBC producer, on a vendetta to find a return address (and to prove, despite being duped, she’s still a good journalist)… will take us to corners of the world we never could have predicted. It might just end in us accidentally blowing the lid on something much, much bigger...

Produced and presented by Polly Weston
A BBC Audio Bristol production


WED 11:30 Protein: powerhouse or piffle? (m001xzrx)
Take a trip around the supermarket and you'll see shelves of products claiming to be 'high in protein'. Scroll through your social media and you'll find beautiful, sculpted people offering recipes and ideas for packing more protein into your diet.

Science presenters Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber have noticed this too. They wanted to unpick the protein puzzle to find out what it does in our bodies and how much we really need. Can this macronutrient really help us lose weight, get fit and be healthier?

Along the way, they speak to Professor Giles Yeo from the University of Cambridge, Bridget Benelam from the British Nutrition Foundation, Paralympian hopeful Harrison Walsh, and food historian Pen Vogler.

Presenters: Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber
Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
Editor: Martin Smith

Credits: @thefitadam/@TSCPodcast/@tadhgmoody/@meg_squats/@aussiefitness


WED 12:00 News Summary (m001xm9t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001xmb6)
Olympic Trips, Ultra-Processed Food and New Build Problems

With less than four months to go, anticipation is slowly building for the Paris Olympics. But what can visitors to the French capital expect this summer?
The Independent’s Simon Calder gives us an insight into travel and accommodation ahead of one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Are we becoming more health-conscious consumers? With around an estimated one million people abandoning Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF) every month in the UK, we find out why our shopping habits are changing and how this might shape what’s on supermarket shelves.

Data from the Home Builders Federation shows that an increasing amount of people are unhappy with their new build homes. Our report Bob Walker heads to Oxfordshire to see this first hand and explore why people are hesitating when it comes to buying new builds.

Finally, is sustainable toilet roll as good for the planet as it claims? We look at a new report by Which? that examines its environmental credentials.

PRODUCER: Charlie Filmer-Court

PRESENTER: Peter White


WED 12:57 Weather (m001xmbm)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m001xmc6)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


WED 13:45 The Trust Shift (m001xmcp)
Distrust In The Institution

Across five episodes, Rachel Botsman traces the intriguing history of trust.

Rachel looks back on what she sees as the three major chapters of trust in human history. In the broadest terms, these are Local Trust, Institutional Trust, and Distributed Trust. As we’ve moved from one to the next, we've experienced, what she calls, ‘Trust Shifts’.

These shifts have happened because humans took a risk to try something new. To innovate in ways that have shaped our behaviours, for better or worse. Rachel reflects on how each trust shift has profoundly changed the dynamics of our lives; whether that’s how we bank or buy goods, vote, learn, travel, date, and importantly, find and consume information.

In Episode 3, Rachel explores how as the role of institutions grew in our lives, events happened which shook their foundations, and people began to question their purpose and intentions. She tells the story of how trust in one system, healthcare in the United States, unraveled. And how it can be a lesson to all institutions.

Featuring Julian Appiah-Koduah of Jul's The Hair Klinik in Mitcham, and Dr Bayo-Curry Winchell, Family Medicine and Urgent Care Physician, Medical Director and Founder of Beyond Clinical Walls.

Jul's The Hair Klink are part of the UK-first BAME Barber Network project, set up by the London South Bank University, Croydon BME Forum and Off The Record.

Rachel Botsman is the author of Who Can You Trust? and What's Mine Is Yours. She was Oxford University’s first Trust Fellow and has worked with world leaders, the Bank of England, CEOs and financial regulators.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
Editor: Chris Ledgard


WED 14:00 The Archers (m001xmcm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000srfm)
Holding Back the Tide

Good Fences

by Nick Warburton

Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Mrs Cardabbon ..... Sue Jameson
Morton ..... Sue Jameson
Hedley ..... Nick Murchie

Directed by Sally Avens

Clare and Richard Wells have inherited a house in Breck Howe and a sitting tenant, John Hector, who views the house and the town as his own personal fiefdom.
When a new neighbour moves in next door it's not long before John and he lock horns over rights of way.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m001xmd4)
Money Box Live: How Do Wills Work?

More than half of adults don't have a Will according to new research from insurance company Canada Life. The main reason people say they haven't sorted one is that they don't think they have enough money to leave behind.

So what types of Will are there and what do they mean? We'll be hearing from one man who says he was disinherited over changes to a Mirror Will. We also speak to a mother concerned about digital assets following the death of her son.

Plus, what happens if you don't have a Will at all, where will your estate go?

Felicity Hannah is joined by Nina Sperring, Partner at Price, Slater, Gawne solicitors and is a member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners which specialises in estates and Wills and Jade Gani, Chief Executive of Circe Law and a Director of The Association of Lifetime Lawyers.

Presenter: Felicity Hannah
Producer: Sarah Rogers
Reporter: Neil Morrow
Editor: Jess Quayle

(This episode was first broadcast at 3pm Wednesday March 27th 2024)


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (m001xmdl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Sideways (m001xmf2)
62. Lost and Found

In 1984, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Joe Boylan gets lost in a blizzard on an Austrian mountainside. Joe will have to fight with everything he has to survive and be reunited with his family. How he does it reveals often typical patterns of behaviour exhibited by lost people in similar situations.

Through the story of Joe’s extraordinary 48-hour battle against the wilderness, Matthew Syed examines the fascinating area of study called Lost Person Behaviour, which has changed the way search and rescue teams operate, world over.

Featuring Joe Boylan, Robert J Koester, mathematician and author of Lost Person Behavior, Alistair Read from Mountain Rescue England and Wales, Neil Balderson of Lowland Rescue and Maura O'Connor, science journalist and author of Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Leona Hameed
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 (m001xmfh)
How conspiracy theories went mainstream

Last week, the Princess of Wales announced that she is undergoing treatment for cancer. It was preceded by weeks of speculation about her whereabouts that went well into conspiracy territory. How exactly did conspiracy theories move from the fringes to the mainstream? And what are the responsibilities of the "mainstream media" when covering them? Also on the programme, BBC Radio 5 Live celebrates its 30th anniversary and what Tim Davie's speech means for the future of the BBC.

Guests: Chris Curtis, editor in chief, Broadcast; Nicky Campbell, presenter, BBC Radio 5 Live; Rachel Cunliffe, associate political editor, New Statesman; Dr Annie Kelly, journalist and postdoctoral researcher specialising in conspiracy theories.

Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Dan Hardoon


WED 17:00 PM (m001xmfx)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xmgc)
Water companies have said customers will have to foot the bill for improvements


WED 18:30 Janey Godley: The C Bomb (m001xmgs)
Series 2

4. Friends, Enemies, and a Big Decision

Janey knows she’s got a big mouth – and sometimes that’s a great thing. She can talk to anyone, and often makes celebrity mates without even knowing who they are! But it’s also got her into trouble on many occasions.

In this episode, she tells us all about making friends and enemies - and the Hollywood star she’s making a surprise gift!

Things also take a surprising turn as Janey decides in the spur of the moment to make a big decision, and say goodbye to something that’s been a massive part of her life for years, but which has now become a toxic influence that needs to go.

Reflecting with rare candour on her life, as she continues to live with a terminal diagnosis, she still finds humour and insight in both the darkness and the ridiculous.

A mix of stories told onstage to a hometown audience, and intimate conversations with her daughter Ashely Storrie, recorded in the living room of the home they share.

Produced by Julia Sutherland
Featuring Ashley Storrie
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m001xmg1)
At the Bull, Emma tries to appeal to Jolene about George’s ban. But Jolene won’t stand for George’s backchat. Upset Emma swears George has grown up and argues with Jolene, with Kenton caught in the middle. Jolene tells Emma that if she has a problem with her decision, she knows where the door is.

Kenton challenges Jolene on her mood swings. Jolene doesn’t want bad people in the pub, and Kenton realises what’s up, thinking back to his attack. It’s time to move on, and there’s no point alienating anyone, including Tracy and Emma. If Brad and George apologise, will Jolene let the matter go? She agrees – they had better mean it, though.

George sets up his next video, with Chris all dressed up to demonstrate his work as a farrier, attending to Bartleby. He tells Chris about being barred from the Bull and Chris chats about the Cricket Chair nominations – he’ll vote for Lynda, and Harrison wants to recruit younger players. In return for today’s filming, Chris wants George and Brad to come along to cricket nets practice tomorrow and watch the team. Chris is a natural on camera, even adlibbing and giving George instructions to join in with what he’s doing, filing Bartleby’s hooves.

Emma asks about the video and George is annoyed that all the comments are about ‘fit’ Chris. Emma’s pleased to receive a text from Kenton, offering George an olive branch. But George stubbornly refuses to go and apologise to Jolene. Emma seethes and threatens to cancel his phone contract if he doesn’t say sorry.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m001xmh5)
Big Mood, how does comedy work? Bach St John Passion

Camilla Whitehill on her new Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood, starring Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West, which explores the lives of Millennials.

Gareth Malone and Hannah French celebrate Bach's St John Passion, which was first performed in Leipzig 300 years ago this Easter.

Joel Morris, author of Be Funny or Die, discusses how comedy works and what makes us laugh with Father Ted director Lissa Evans.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Olivia Skinner


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m001xfw6)
Misgendering and Hate Crime

Exploring the debate around gender, pronouns, and Scotland’s new hate crime law.

People online are threatening to report misgendering - for example referring to a trans woman as a man - to the police. They say new Scottish legislation due to come into force in April will make misgendering a criminal offence. What does the new law actually say? What existing laws apply across the UK around misgendering? And does Scotland’s new law prioritise trans people over women?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Maybin, Simon Tulett, Ellie House, Paige Neal-Holder
Editor: Richard Vadon


WED 20:45 Lent Talks (m001xm4p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]


WED 21:00 When It Hits the Fan (m001xmhm)
What can we learn from Kate?

In this episode, David Yelland and Simon Lewis discuss the lessons learnt from the Princess of Wales’s video announcement that she is undergoing treatment for cancer.

It raises some important issues for the Royal Family in a social media age. And for all of us. What is privacy in the online world? How can people in the public eye manage their privacy in the global village that is social media? And for the Royal Family going forward, what can the Palaces do to protect individual members while also promoting the royal brand?

The Royal Family are in the vanguard here. What Kate is experiencing is what many others may have to face in the future. Will this be a turning point?

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 (m001xmfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xmhw)
What lessons can be learnt from Finley Boden case?

A review finds that opportunities were missed to protect 10-month-old Finlay Boden - who was murdered by his parents during lockdown. We ask a leading child protection expert how much safer children are since the pandemic.

Also on the programme:

Is Scotland about to become the first UK nation to allow assisted dying? We speak to the MSP who's publishing a bill tomorrow.

Cambridge City Council has ordered an "eyesore" sculpture of the late Prince Philip to be taken down. How do you stop dodgy art popping up in public spaces?


WED 22:45 Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (m001xmj2)
Episode 8

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction .
In many ways it’s a universal story of domestic family life upended and fractured by inconceivable events which seem, even now, both far away and close at hand. The story begins in the spring of 1992 in the city of Sarajevo, as political tensions mount and barricades begin to appear in the streets.
Fifty-five year old Zora is married to Franjo, who is fifteen years older than her. Their daughter lives with her English husband and young child in Wiltshire. Zora’s vocation is her work as an artist and notably a painter of landscapes and the bridges that span the river of her beloved Sarajevo. She also teaches art students, but in the afternoons retreats to her studio high in the eaves of the city’s magnificent public library to work on her canvases.

Priscilla Morris is of Yugoslav and Cornish parentage, she grew up in London and spent her summers in Sarajevo. This is her first novel.
Location audio recordings: the street sounds of Sarajevo recorded by Rafael Diogo and featured on https://citiesandmemory.com/sarajevo-city-guide-best-sounds/

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
THE WATERS COMPANY for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:00 DMs Are Open (m001xmj9)
Series 3

5. Taking Care

A spritely grandma, a not-so-tender goodbye and an inappropriate kids cartoon? It could only be written by the public.

Stevie Martin delves into DMs to find the best sketches and one liners, and brings the best sketches and one liners written by YOU, the British public.

Joining Stevie to take care of business this week are Freya Mallard, Katie Norris, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sean Burke.

Written by the public. This week it was written by:

Cody Dahler
Ralph Jones
Kate Dehnert
Vicky Richards
Liam Kelly
Alex MJ smith
Sean Fee
Dave Heron
Lauren Ingram
Sam Coade
Peter Tellouche
Ruth Husko
Daman Bamrah
Miranda Holms

Voice notes were performed by:
David McIver
Luke Edwards
Kathy Maniura

Script edited by Catherine Brinkworth and Nathan D'Arcy Roberts

Recorded at Up The Creek Comedy Club

Recorded by David Thomas
Sound Design: Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Assistant Producer: Caroline Barlow

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


WED 23:15 DMs Are Open (m001xmjj)
Series 3

6. Disaster

Rouding of the series; a pretentious 999 call, a resilient flight crew and a promise fulfilled at the apocalypse.

Stevie Martin brings this series of DMs to a close, with another round of sketches and one-liners lovingly crafted by the listeners at home.

Joining Stevie to avoid disaster this week are Freya Mallard, Katie Norris, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sean Burke as they dip into the DMs.

Written by the public. This week it was written by:

Peter Tellouche
Cody Dahler
Ruth Husko
Kate Dehnert
Ed Greenwood
Karen Morden
Sophie Brawn
Euan Mumford
JoJo Maberly
Daman Bamrah
Miranda Holms

Voice notes were performed by:
Kit Foxley
Rosie Francis
Steve Blair

Script edited by Catherine Brinkworth and Nathan D'Arcy Roberts

Recorded at Up The Creek Comedy Club

Recorded by David Thomas
Sound Design: Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Assistant Producer: Caroline Barlow

Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies. A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


WED 23:30 The Skewer (m001xmjp)
Series 11

Episode 7

The week’s biggest stories like you’ve never heard them before. The news, remixed as a satirical comedy concept album. This episode - We're Going On A Bear-emy Hunt, Peppa Pig Goes To Gaza, and fun with flags.

Jon Holmes presents the multi-award winning The Skewer. Headphones on.

Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:45 Today in Parliament (m001xmjt)
Susan Hulme reports as the House of Lords considers a controversial bill to reform the leasehold system.



THURSDAY 28 MARCH 2024

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001xmjy)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


THU 00:30 New Storytellers (m0019jxq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xmk2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xmk6)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xmkb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001xmkg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xmkl)
Spiritual reflection for Holy Week with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001xmkq)
28/03/24 - Scottish salmon exports, basalt dust and flax fishing nets

Farmed salmon was the UK’s most valuable food export in 2023, according to the HMRC, with £581 million pounds worth of international sales. But Scotland’s salmon farmers reckon they could have made far more, and that Brexit has cost them up to £100 million a year worth of exports.

Flax is grown commercially to produce fabrics like linen in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France and it was once common in fields around the UK too, but not any more. However, some small-scale flax producers are passionate about its potential and feel it could, once again, have a commercial future. We visit Simon and Ann Cooper who grow flax and use traditional methods and home-made tools to process it into fabrics for things like sailcloth and fishing nets.

And new research suggests spreading basalt dust on arable fields could help capture carbon and boost yields. The process is known as ‘enhanced rock weathering’ and uses a by-product of the road-building industry.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Heather Simons


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b09ws5p4)
Mark Cocker on the Twite

Nature writer Mark Cocker recalls seeing twite feeding between the goalposts at his school in Derbyshire, however twite and its trilling song are a rare sound today in the uplands.

Producer Tim Dee
Photograph: Simon Stobart.


THU 06:00 Today (m001xm89)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001xm8t)
The Kalevala

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Finnish epic poem that first appeared in print in 1835 in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire and until recently part of Sweden. The compiler of this epic was a doctor, Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884), who had travelled the land to hear traditional poems about mythical heroes being sung in Finnish, the language of the peasantry, and writing them down in his own order to create this landmark work. In creating The Kalevala, Lönnrot helped the Finns realise they were a distinct people apart from Sweden and Russia, who deserved their own nation state and who came to demand independence, which they won in 1917.

With

Riitta Valijärvi
Associate Professor in Finnish and Minority Languages at University College London

Thomas Dubois
The Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Folklore and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

And

Daniel Abondolo
Formerly Reader in Hungarian at University College London

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Nigel Fabb, What is Poetry? Language and Memory in the Poems of the World (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio and Jarkko Niemi (eds), Versification: Metrics in Practice (Finnish Literature Society, 2021)

Riho Grünthal et al., ‘Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread’ (Diachronica, Volume 39, Issue 4, Aug 2022)

Lauri Honko (ed.), The Kalevala and the World's Traditional Epics (Finnish Literature Society, 2002)

The Kalevala Heritage: Archive Recordings of Ancient Finnish Songs. Online Catalogue no. ODE8492.

Mauri Kunnas, The Canine Kalevala (Otava Publishing, 1992)

Kuusi, Matti, et al. (eds.), Finnish Folk Poetry: Epic (Finnish Literature Society, 1977)

Elias Lönnrot (trans. John Martin Crawford), Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland (first published 1887; CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017)

Elias Lönnrot (trans. W. F. Kirby), Kalevala: The Land of the Heroes (first published by J.M. Dent & Sons, 1907, 2 vols.; ‎ Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, 2000)

Elias Lönnrot (trans. Francis Peabody Magoun Jr.), The Kalevala, or Poems of the Kaleva District (Harvard University Press, 1963)

Elias Lönnrot (trans. Eino Friberg), The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People (Otava Publishing, 1988)

Elias Lönnrot (trans. Keith Bosley), The Kalevala: An Epic Poem after Oral Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1989)

Kirsti Mäkinen, Pirkko-Liisa Surojegin, Kaarina Brooks, An Illustrated Kalevala: Myths and Legends from Finland (Floris Books, 2020)

Sami Makkonen, Kalevala: The Graphic Novel (Ablaze, 2024)

Juha Y. Pentikäinen (trans. Ritva Poom), Kalevala Mythology, (Indiana University Press, 1999)

Tina K. Ramnarine, Ilmatar’s Inspirations: Nationalism, Globalization and the Changing Soundscapes of Finnish Folk Music (University of Chicago Press, 2003)
Jonathan Roper (ed.), Alliteration in Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), especially chapter 12 ‘Alliteration in (Balto-) Finnic Languages’ by Frog and Eila Stepanova

Karl Spracklen, Metal Music and the Re-imagining of Masculinity, Place, Race and Nation (Emerald Publishing, 2020), especially the chapter ‘Finnish Folk Metal: Raising Drinking Horns in Mainstream Metal’

Leea Virtanen and Thomas A. DuBois, Finnish Folklore: Studia Fennica Folkloristica 9 (Finnish Literature Society, 2000)


THU 09:45 New Storytellers (m0019rj4)
Sara's Spirit

On the evening of 3rd June 2017, three extremists drove a hired van over London Bridge, mounting the crowded pavement repeatedly before going on a rampage through Borough Market. This attack took eight innocent people's lives, including 21 year old Sara Zelenak.

Sara's Spirit tells the story of a young woman from Brisbane, Australia, who got caught up in the tragedy. Five years on, her parents Julie and Mark are keeping her memory alive, as they navigate the grief of losing their child.

This series of New Storytellers is presenting the winners of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature 2022. However, for editorial reasons, the fourth prize winning feature will be broadcast at a later date. So, although Goldsmiths’ College student Anna Budd's feature, Sara's Spirit, was not one of the five winners it was very highly commended by the judging panel and so earns a place in this series. The judges said it was a "very accomplished, professional piece" for its "harrowing and emotionally immersive" exploration of grief and loss. "It ‘didn’t sugar-coat the impact of the tragedy."

Producer: Anna Budd
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xm98)
Biba exhibition, Pupil behaviour, Australian politician Georgie Purcell, Breaking the cycle

Nearly one in five teachers working in England has been hit by a pupil, according to a new BBC commissioned survey of 9,000 teachers. The survey, gathered between February and March this year, also found that 15% of secondary school teachers say they have experienced sexual harassment from a pupil when working at a school. The teacher workforce is predominantly female, 76% of teachers are women. Nuala McGovern is joined by Dr Patrick Roach, General Secretary of teacher’s union NASUWT.

It’s 60 years since the first Biba shop opened and the Fashion and Textile Museum in London have just opened a new exhibition: The Biba Story - 1964-1975. On until the 8 September, it explores how the fashion phenomenon blossomed to become the world’s first lifestyle label. Nuala speaks to its founder - Barbara Hulanicki - and the curator of the exhibition - Martin Pel.

Australian politician Georgie Purcell is the youngest woman in the parliament of the state of Victoria. She’s also a former stripper who holds degrees in law, and communications and politics. From posting TikToks about animal rights, politics, and beer, to archiving her life achievements with tattoos and sharing photos of herself pole dancing – she is definitely not your average politician. She’s also been a target of almost constant sexist attacks and abuse, which on occasions made her fear for her life. Georgie talks to Nuala about why she's still determined to get more women into politics.

In the fourth part of our series, Breaking The Cycle, a boy who was groomed and trafficked by a gang tells his story. He was kicking a football with a mate when a man in a flash car pulled up and befriended them. Soon that 14-year-old was going missing from home and selling drugs from a 'trap' house in a seaside town far away. He describes how isolated and frightened he felt and the sheer relief when it was all over. His 'guide' from a new practice called SHiFT has helped him to understand what happened and how to stay out of trouble. Our reporter Jo Morris met them.

Today marks 30 years since the beginning of BBC Radio 5 Live. Once having a reputation for being ‘bloke radio’, many well loved and respected female broadcasters including Naga Munchetty and Rachel Burden have taken over the airways. Nuala hears from presenter and broadcaster Eleanor Oldroyd, who has been at the station from the very beginning, to discuss what has changed for female broadcasters and women’s sport.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Claire Fox


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (m001xm9q)
Surviving 'chemical detention' in Belarus

Kate Adie introduces stories from Belarus, Senegal, the US-Mexico border, Cambodia and Brazil.

Political prisoners in Belarus attract less international attention than those in Russia - but there are far more of them, even in a smaller country. Many are women, held in a kind of house arrest known as 'chemical detention', under stringent rules which control their every move. Monica Whitlock gathered testimony from some living under these conditions.

After months of political turbulence, Senegal eventually did hold its planned presidential election - and the popular vote brought Africa's youngest leader, 44-year-old Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to power. James Copnall reported on the final days of the campaign and reflects on how Senegalese democracy proved itself.

Controlling migration to the United States will be one of the most contentious issues in this November's American presidential election. Amid talk of a crisis, and after record numbers of apprehensions of undocumented migrants by the US Border Patrol in December, Tim Mansel visited the border between Mexico and Arizona.

Sand might seem as a cheap and almost inexhaustible resource - but far from it. With the world using up more than 50 billion tonnes of it per year, to make everything from skyscrapers to smartphones, reserves could soon run low. In Cambodia there's now a flourishing black market in illegal sand mining along the banks of the Mekong river, as Robin Markwell has seen.

And Ione Wells, the BBC's new South America correspondent, explores her new base: the industrial megacity of Sao Paulo. Some people call it 'Rio's ugly sister', but she's found much to appreciate amid its high-rise sprawl.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison


THU 11:30 A Good Read (m001xm9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


THU 12:00 News Summary (m001xmcd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001xmcw)
Gap Finders - Jayne Sibley

This week’s Gap Finder is Jayne Sibley, CEO and founder of Sibstar. It’s a pre-pay debit card that carers can have control over via an app, in order to prevent dementia sufferers from being taken advantage of.

The idea came to her while she was caring for her parents who were both diagnosed with dementia seven years apart. As their conditions progressed, Jayne wanted to try and ensure her mother got to retain as much of her independence as possible, but found that difficult to do when it came to money.

She took Sibstar to the TV programme Dragon’s Den, winning backing from two of the Dragons, and the card was officially launched in March last year in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society, and Mastercard.

We speak to Jayne about her experience with dementia, how she set up the business, the challenges and pitfalls with it, and how she plans to grow it further.

PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth

PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001xmdc)
Mushroom Coffee

This one's all about mushrooms - not so much your chestnut, button or portobellos from the supermarket, but more the likes of lion's mane, reishi and chaga. These much-feted fungi are claimed to offer all sorts of benefits, from relaxation to disease-fighting properties. We've had loads of questions about products containing them, particularly around mushroom coffee. Is there any evidence that it's better for you than your regular brew? Listener Leon is fond of it - and wants to know if there's any science to back up his inclination. To get him some answers, we hear from a registered nutritionist and a mycologist (fungi expert) who's just written a book all about medicinal mushrooms. So are they the best thing since Sliced Bread?

If you’ve seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener and want to know how it stacks up, then email us: sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or send a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807

PRESENTER: GREG FOOT
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY


THU 12:57 Weather (m001xmds)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m001xmf7)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


THU 13:45 The Trust Shift (m001xmfm)
Distributed Trust

Across five episodes, Rachel Botsman traces the intriguing history of trust.

Rachel looks back on what she sees as the three major chapters of trust in human history. In the broadest terms, these are Local Trust, Institutional Trust, and Distributed Trust. As we’ve moved from one to the next, we've experienced, what she calls, ‘Trust Shifts’.

These shifts have happened because humans took a risk to try something new. To innovate in ways that have shaped our behaviours, for better or worse. Rachel reflects on how each trust shift has profoundly changed the dynamics of our lives; whether that’s how we bank or buy goods, vote, learn, travel, date, and importantly, find and consume information.

In Episode 4, Rachel charts the rise of the trust shift we've experienced in our own lifetimes: Distributed Trust. The kind of trust that used to be centralised in institutions, which is often hierarchical, and controlled, is now being distributed through networks and platforms. For better or worse, this shift is facilitating the sharing of trust across vast networks of people, on a scale that wasn’t possible before.

Featuring Rikke Rosenlund, founder of Borrow My Doggy: an online platform that connects local owners with people who want to look after a dog.

Rachel Botsman is the author of Who Can You Trust? and What's Mine Is Yours. She was Oxford University’s first Trust Fellow and has worked with world leaders, the Bank of England, CEOs and financial regulators.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
Editor: Chris Ledgard


THU 14:00 The Archers (m001xmg1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000ss3w)
Holding Back the Tide

Walk On

by Nick Warburton

Richard Wells ..... Paul Ritter
Clare Wells ..... Kate Duchene
John Hector ..... Philip Jackson
Mrs Cardabbon ..... Sue Jameson
Theatre Director ..... Nick Murchie

Directed by Sally Avens

The arrival of a touring theatre company in Breck Howe makes Richard question the mundanity of his life running the B&B.
And when auditions are held for extras John Hector is determined to steal the limelight putting Richard's dreams of escape in jeopardy.


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m001xmgh)
Creaking Trees and a Full Rainbow at Innerleithen

The beautiful Borders of Scotland is the location for Clare’s walk this week. She’s exploring the area around Innerleithen with Stewart Wilson. After a career in finance Stewart made a handbrake turn in his early 40s and became a tour guide and travel blogger. He says most visitors to Scotland bypass the Borders for Edinburgh or the Highlands and Islands but – in doing so – are missing out on gorgeous scenery and fascinating history.

So today Stewart wants to share what it is about the Borders, and Innerleithen in particular, that should make people want to stop and explore. He grew up there in a family who, for generations, had worked in the textile industry. It’s a sector that has all but disappeared, apart from a few high-end makers, so the area has to try and develop a new identity. History, mountain biking, and of course hiking are all a draw, including the challenging long distance Southern Upland Way which passes nearby.

Stewart begins today’s walk at Innerleithen Parish Church on Leithen Road. From there he then leads Clare over Leithen Water at Cuddy Bridge and, after a couple of stiff climbs through a forestry plantation with trees creaking in the wind, arrives at the disused relic of Kirnie Law reservoir. It's a great view point, which thanks to the rainy, sunny, sleety weather, created a full rainbow over the heathery hills beyond. It's a circular route that takes them back down to Innerleithen, just over five miles in total.

Producer: Karen Gregor
Presenter: Clare Balding


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xm04)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (m001xm6t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 Tracking the Planet (m001xmgv)
Navigating the Anthropocene

Our planet is alive. A dynamic, moving, pulsating organism. Air pressure rises and falls, ocean currents meander, and the climate continues, by tiny increments, to warm.

And at the same time, billions of animals are on the move.

All over the planet, animals are fitted with sophisticated tracking devices by teams of dedicated scientists, which tell us so much about what they’re up to. From rhinos in bulky satellite collars, to microscopic chips glued to the back of a bee, they record where the animals go, what they eat, and how and why they migrate across the globe.

But they record so much more than that too – modern trackers can also log local climactic conditions, windspeed, temperature, even some measures of the animal’s own health; heartbeat, or skin temperature. Every tagged animal is transformed into a tiny dynamic weather station, collecting data on climactic conditions and the health of ecosystems, which would be impossible to collect otherwise.

Diving Weddell seals bring back data on the melting speed of a deep water glacier. Roving Tiger Sharks uncover previously unknown sea-grass habitats. High-flying sea-birds on annual migration tell us about changing wind patterns across the tempestuous equator, and farm animals in the mountains of Italy, moving nervously in their fields, give a silent alert: an earthquake is on the way.

In this series, Emily Knight explores some of the stories that can be told about the animals that call this world home, and the much larger over-arching story too: How the changing conditions on this planet are transforming THEIR lives, changing their migration routes, re-positioning their food-stocks, bringing new diseases or challenging weather. We can track how they’re coping with it all, and how, sometimes, they’re not.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001xmh7)
Inside Your Microbiome

Microbiomes are a multi-million-pound industry. Every week, many people send off poop samples to be examined so we can learn about our own ecosystems of bacteria, virus and fungi that live in our guts, with a view to improving health. But how accurate are these tests? Microbiologist Prof Jacques Ravel is calling for better controls in what is currently an unregulated industry. He joins us along with Prof Tim Spector, scientific co-founder of personalised nutrition app ZOE, to discuss the areas of concern, and potential benefits, of this direct-to-consumer model.

Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman has died at the age of 90. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most influential psychologists, his many years of study centred on how and why we make the decisions we do. In 2011, his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, which summarizes much of his research, was published and became a best seller. We’re joined by presenter and author Claudia Hammond to unpick his legacy.

The price of lab monkeys has plummeted. Used for drug development and testing, their value skyrocketed during the vaccine development period of the pandemic. But when the boom for vaccines died, the demand for (and value of) these monkeys plunged. Journalist Eleanor Olcott provides the full picture. 

Are there alternatives to animal testing? Marnie visits a lab in Cambridge to find out about neural organoids, cellular clumps grown from stem cells made to replicate the brain. Developmental biologist Prof Madeline Lancaster shows her around and Dr Sarah Chan from the University of Edinburgh digs into the ethics of this cutting-edge branch of science.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Florian Bohr, Hannah Robins, Louise Orchard and 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 (m001xmhj)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xmhs)
The previously-undisclosed papers were seen by the BBC


THU 18:30 Conversations from a Long Marriage (m001xmj0)
Series 5

6. Out of Time

A spider rescue, a wedding and a huge shock. Can Joanna and Roger's marriage survive?

Joanna Lumley and Roger Allam play loving, long-marrieds, in the 5th series of Jan Etherington’s award-winning comedy.

This week, Joanna rescues a spider from the bedroom ceiling and there are joyful preparations for the wedding of Auntie Hilda and Jack in the care home. ‘The last wedding we planned was our own’ Joanna says, reminding Roger they’ve been together for 50 years. ‘On and off’ Roger responds. Then Roger has a visitor from his past that will rock the foundation of their marriage. Struggling through Auntie Hilda’s wedding day, a devastated Joanna tells him ‘I feel like I’m looking down on myself and trying to work out how I can live with this’ and she finally has to make a decision that breaks Roger’s heart.

Conversations from a Long Marriage is Written by Jan Etherington. It is produced and directed by Claire Jones. And it is a BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.

Wilfredo Acosta - sound engineer
Charlotte Sewter - studio 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 (m001xmj7)
Tensions mount at the cricket practice, and Robert has an idea.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m001xmjg)
Steven Knight drama This Town reviewed, The Perth Museum re-opening

Peaky Blinders' writer Steven Knight's new drama, This Town, is out this week. Author Daniel Rachel and art historian Sarah Gaventa review.

We'll also review a landmark exhibition on the Italian designer Enzo Mari which opens at the Design museum, showcasing his infinite calendar, self assembly book cases and beautiful children’s books.

We take a look inside Perth Museum after its 27 million pound refurbishment.

And we remember the American Sculptor Richard Serra who has died at the age of 85.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones


THU 20:00 Law in Action (m001xm99)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]


THU 20:30 The Reinvention of Poland (m001xm4x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday]


THU 21:00 A Dentist's Life (m001y0kf)
In February 2024, the NHS dental crisis hit the headlines as hundreds of people queued outside a dental practice in Bristol to register as NHS patients. It was the latest sign of the severity of the national shortage of NHS dentists.

The Nuffield Trust have declared that NHS dentistry faces its 'most perilous point' in 75-year history and the government have responded pledging to improve access and funding for dentistry.

At the centre of this crisis are the dentists who serve our communities.

A Dentist's Life follows one Cornwall based dentist, Dr Jenna Murgatroyd, as she treats patients needing vital care, manages a practice facing financial risk and trains the next generation of dentists.

As a second generation dentist, Dr Murgatroyd also reflects on the past and the future of the profession and asks what it means to be a NHS community dentist today.


THU 21:30 In Our Time (m001xm8t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xmjq)
Secret papers show Post Office knew case was false

Also on the programme: Crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried is jailed for 25 years; and we wish Five-Live a happy 30th birthday


THU 22:45 Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (m001xmjv)
Episode 9

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction .
In many ways it’s a universal story of domestic family life upended and fractured by inconceivable events which seem, even now, both far away and close at hand. The story begins in the spring of 1992 in the city of Sarajevo, as political tensions mount and barricades begin to appear in the streets.
Fifty-five year old Zora is married to Franjo, who is fifteen years older than her. Their daughter lives with her English husband and young child in Wiltshire. Zora’s vocation is her work as an artist and notably a painter of landscapes and the bridges that span the river of her beloved Sarajevo. She also teaches art students, but in the afternoons retreats to her studio high in the eaves of the city’s magnificent public library to work on her canvases.

Priscilla Morris is of Yugoslav and Cornish parentage, she grew up in London and spent her summers in Sarajevo. This is her first novel.
Location audio recordings: the street sounds of Sarajevo recorded by Rafael Diogo and featured on https://citiesandmemory.com/sarajevo-city-guide-best-sounds/

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
THE WATERS COMPANY for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m001xmjz)
Why should you have to pay for the BBC?

BBC director general Tim Davie has outlined his vision for the future of the BBC. He fired the starting gun on a consultation on the future of the licence fee and spoke of how the BBC could increase its revenue through adverts. So this week Amol and Nick ask, why should you have to pay for the BBC?

They speak to Richard Sharp, the former chairman of the BBC, in his first interview with the BBC since leaving the corporation.

Youtuber and comedian, Max Fosh, explains why younger people are choosing to bypass the BBC and publish their content direct on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

Plus historian and host of the You're Dead To Me podcast, Greg Jenner, drops in to give his moment of the week.

Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk

The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producers are Hazel Morgan and Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Michael Regaard and digital production from Elliot Ryder.


THU 23:30 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



FRIDAY 29 MARCH 2024

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001xmk3)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 00:30 New Storytellers (m0019rj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xmk7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xmkc)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xmkh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001xmkm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xmkr)
Spiritual reflection for Holy Week with The Very Rev John Conway, Provost of St Mary's Scottish Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001xmkt)
Easter Farm Holidays

Many farms across the UK have diversified into holiday cottages and glamping, but now more and more are offering farm experiences alongside their accommodation. At Aberhyddnant Organic Farm in the Brecon Beacons, guests are given the opportunity to bottle feed lambs, cuddle chicks, meet calves, and even take a sheep for a walk. Mariclare Carey-Jones has been finding out why these types of experiences are proving popular this Easter.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x458y)
Great Crested Grebe

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Bill Oddie presents the great crested grebe. In Spring, great crested grebes perform a high ritualized mating display. This includes head shaking and a spectacular performance during which both male and female birds gather bunches of waterweed and as they swim towards each other, before rising vertically in the water, chest to chest, and paddling furiously to keep themselves upright.


FRI 06:00 Today (m001xn4r)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001xm3m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 New Storytellers (m0019yzr)
The Sound Collector

Sara Parker introduces the Gold Winner of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Audio Feature 2023.

Rummaging around in a lifetime's possessions, two sisters discover an exercise book. As they open it up and sift through the pages, a poem unearths buried memories.

Producer Talia Augustidis, a recent graduate of University College London, discovers the moving writings of her older sister Thea, along with a poem, The Sound Collector. It brings them back to a moment in their childhood, when familiar sounds and voices suddenly disappeared overnight.

New Storytellers presents the work of new radio and audio producers, and Talia’s feature won the top Gold Award of the Charles Parker Prize for the Best Student Radio Feature in 2022. The award is presented every year in memory of the pioneering radio producer Charles Parker who produced the ground-breaking Radio Ballads featuring voices of communities unheard at the time, with musical narratives by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

The judges of the prize, made up of producers, critics and commissioners, praised Talia's Gold Prize winning work as "such a layered piece; intelligent, probing, sensitive. A piece to make us think and feel."

Poet: Roger McGough

Producer: Talia Augustidis
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xn5s)
Katie Price, A decade of same-sex marriage, From policing to crime-writing

Model turned TV personality Katie Price joins Clare McDonnell to talk about her views on young women getting cosmetic surgery, after having several procedures herself.

Today marks ten years since the first marriages of lesbian couples in England & Wales. We speak to women impacted by this change in law, and what being able to marry in a same-sex couple - rather than have a civil partnership - meant to them, a decade ago.

All week we’ve been looking at a new way of supporting young people at risk of getting into trouble. Our reporter Jo Morris has been meeting them, their parents and some of the SHiFT ‘Guides’ at a practice in Greater Manchester . Today Jo meets the youngest of them, Robyn. She’s only 27 and came to SHiFT after working in a school. She wanted to be able to do more for the children in her charge and has very personal reasons for feeling a connection with young people who need help.

TM Payne, or Tina, spent the last 2 decades working in the criminal justice system, specialising in domestic abuse. She’s now turned her hand to writing and is set to publish her first crime novel on the 1st of April. She talks about her years in policing and her new-found passion for fiction.

Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Studio Engineer: Emma Harth


FRI 11:00 Mila's Legacy (m001xn6c)
How many medicines can you think of created for just one person? The likelihood is none - which is why the world hasn’t heard of milasen yet. But its creation, and the efforts behind it, could build a pathway towards some of the greatest advances in genomic medicine, and a new initiative being trialled in Britain has a huge role to play in making this happen.

At the age of seven, Mila Makovec became the first person in the world to be treated with a medicine created just for her. A bubbly young girl from Colorado, Mila suffered from a very rare genetic disorder called Batten disease, which leads to a painful early death in children. Mila’s mother, Julia Vitarello, resolutely sought out scientists to try to discover a way to save her daughter. After relentless efforts, one doctor, Timothy Yu from Boston Children’s Hospital, imagined a possible treatment for Mila. The challenge was it involved making a completely unique treatment for Mila’s specific genetic mutation. It would be novel and very expensive - but it was her only option. Julia raised the millions of dollars required through a charity she set up in her daughter’s name, and in 2018 Mila became the one patient in the world to receive the drug milasen.

Initially, it worked, and Mila’s condition stabilised and improved. However, the treatment was given after the disease had done a great deal of damage to a small child, and Mila died when she was ten years old.

There are an estimated 7,000 rare diseases in the world, affecting more than 400 million people - and most are genetic. The majority have no effective treatment. New medicines for these conditions can’t be put through clinical trials on groups of patients because they are so rare. So, currently, such novel therapeutics can only be legally given after lengthy and costly work that is uncommercial for drug firms.

Having got so achingly close to saving her daughter, Mila’s mother is now leading efforts to make these new genetic medicines available to other children with rare diseases - and Britain is where her campaign is about to take a huge step forward.

The launch of the Rare Therapies Launch Pad is bringing together efforts from Mila’s Miracle Foundation, the UK medicine’s regulator the MHRA, Genomics England and Oxford University in an world leading attempt to build a new streamlined regulatory pathway to allow one-off drugs to be designed and approved for use in individual patients with rare diseases.

Natasha Loder, Health Editor at the Economist, tells this very personal story of how one mother’s determination to try and save her daughter could lead to a revolution in personalised medicine - one that has the potential to bring hope to millions of families.

Producer: Sandra Kanthal


FRI 11:30 Room 101 with Paul Merton (m001n8wd)
Series 1

Julian Clary

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 final episode of the series, Julian Clary's choices include wild swimmers and Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh.

Additional material John Irwn and Suki Webster
Produced by Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001xn9c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001pfgj)
Eurovision and Israel

One of the UK’s biggest Eurovision parties has been cancelled in protest at Israel’s inclusion, so how worthwhile is a boycott of the event as a response to the war in Gaza?

The song contest’s organisers say the event is non-political, but this isn’t the first time global events have had an impact on participation and even lyrics - we chart the key moments. And it’s not the first time Israel’s participation has sparked debate - a Eurovision expert talks us through the ups and downs of its long association with the event.

We’ll also hear about the controversy around Israel’s song this year and how it’s changed, plus the view from the Middle East on what Israelis and Palestinians are saying.

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Tulett, Simon Maybin, Ellie House and Paige Neal-Holder
Editor: Penny Murphy


FRI 12:57 Weather (m001xn7s)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m001xn89)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


FRI 13:45 The Trust Shift (m001xn8t)
New AI Frontiers.

Across five episodes, Rachel Botsman traces the intriguing history of trust.

Rachel looks back on what she sees as the three major chapters of trust in human history. In the broadest terms, these are Local Trust, Institutional Trust, and Distributed Trust. As we’ve moved from one to the next, we've experienced, what she calls, ‘Trust Shifts’.

These shifts have happened because humans took a risk to try something new. To innovate in ways that have shaped our behaviours, for better or worse. Rachel reflects on how each trust shift has profoundly changed the dynamics of our lives; whether that’s how we bank or buy goods, vote, learn, travel, date, and importantly, find and consume information.

In Episode 5, our final episode, Rachel explores the trust challenge we are currently facing, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence creeping into many areas of our lives. What can we learn from what's come before?

Featuring Dr Jack Stilgoe, Professor in Science and Technology Studies at University College London, where he researches the governance of emerging technologies. Jack is also part of the research programme, Responsible AI.

Rachel Botsman is the author of Who Can You Trust? and What's Mine Is Yours. She was Oxford University’s first Trust Fellow and has worked with world leaders, the Bank of England, CEOs and financial regulators.

Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
Editor: Chris Ledgard.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001xmj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001xn99)
Silos

SILOS - 2: Acclimatisation

'Why not try an acclimatisation session and see for yourself? You don't even have to shut the lid!'
As Riv persuades Nat to step into a tube, Marvin digs deeper into the tech and is alarmed by what he finds.

CAST:
NAT - Anastasia Hille
RIV - Paul Bazely
ROZMAY - Rakie Ayola
CAROL - Rebekah Staton
HONOUR - Raad Rawi
DIZZY - Waleed Akhtar
TIGER - Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong
MARVIN - Lee Rufford
INFOVERT VOICE - Teresa Gallagher
POLICE OFFICER - Ben Crowe

Writer: Anita Sullivan
Director: Karen Rose
Producer: Sarah Tombling
Sound: : David Thomas
Composer: Simon Slater
Exec Producer: Rosalynd Ward

Legal Advisor on Stasis Rights: Elizabeth Barrett
Cultural Advisor: Francis Gallop

Interviewees: Ben Fletcher, Leon Kruger, Mareike Guensche, Camy Creffield, Liz Aggiss, Kiwi Sam

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Child (m001xjvw)
16. First Love

The chemical and emotional connection between a parent and baby is really important but just how quickly are babies making emotional connections? India talks to MIT Professor Rebecca Saxe about scanning babies brains to find the answers. Helen Jukes questions the ‘naturalness’ of the mother-baby bond and talks about the variety of relationships out in the natural world, and India talks to Paternal mental health expert Scott Mair about the important role of dads in the very early days of bonding.

Presented by: India Rakusen.
Producer: India Rakusen
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 Good Friday Meditation: The Story of the Tree (m001xn9t)
The felling of the sycamore tree in Northumberland led to an outpouring of grief across the country. People had gone to Sycamore Gap to mark key moments in their lives; births, betrothals, bereavements. It was important to the Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley who sometimes ran along the stretch of Hadrian's wall where the tree once stood.

The medieval poem "The Dream of the Rood" tells the story of another tree, the tree that became the cross of Jesus. The story of the crucifixion is told from the point of view of the cross, a tree "cut down at the copse's end, moved from my root" and forced to bear the Saviour of the world.

Last autumn also saw the launch of the “Storychair” in the crypt of Newcastle cathedral. It was created from an oak which came down during Storm Arwen in 2021. It was designed by local craftsman, Nick James, in collaboration with women from the Changing Lives charity which works with people involved in the criminal justice system. Dawn Harrison from Changing Lives tells Bishop Helen-Ann that the project has been life-changing. “The women have transformed their image from being female offenders on the outskirts of society to being welcome in Newcastle cathedral – they are not calling themselves offenders any more, full of guilt and shame, they are designers that are the proud owners of the story chair. “

In this meditation for Good Friday, Bishop Helen-Ann reflects on the potential of trees to bear witness to pain, strength and new life. Readings from the Dream of the Rood are woven together with music from the Northumbria community and the Northumbrian pipes to offer an original and compelling angle on an age-old story.

Producer: Rosie Dawson
Reader: Trevor Fox


FRI 15:30 Gardeners' Question Time (m001xnb8)
My cherry tree blossoms in January. Is it confused? Should I lift my tulip bulbs? When is the best time to mulch?

Peter Gibbs presents an archive show featuring the best snippets of springtime gardening advice from Gardeners’ Question Time in years gone by. While the panel discuss their top tips for planting house plants and the best way to spruce up a hanging basket in spring, Matt Biggs talks us through the history and popularity of daffodils.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001xnbs)
Richard Taylor, Lisa Lane, Rose Dugdale, Ian Green

John Wilson on

Richard Taylor, who became a tireless campaigner against knife crime and supported disadvantaged young people.

Lisa Lane, the chess champion who was the first player to feature on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Rose Dugdale, the English heiress and debutante who went onto join the IRA.

Ian Green, the Scottish folk music champion who started the record label Greentrax.

Producer: Ed Prendeville

Archive used:
Rose Dugdale – Mná an IRA, Sé Merry Doyle Loopline Film, 2012; Rose Dugdale charges, BBC News, 06/05/1974; Anti-war march 1967,BBC,26/03/1967; Alfred Beit – Russborough House interview, Midweek, BBC, 03/07/1974; What’s my Line, Freemantle – May 1961, YouTube upload 26/04/2014; BBC Archive – News report Rose sentencing, BBC, 27/11/1974; BBC News – report on murder of Damilola; BBC News – Hardtalk; BBC News interview with Richard Taylor; Ian McCalman – Farewell to the haven; Shian Road sung by Isla St Clair. Written by Ian McCalman; The Pearl Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham and Violet Tulloch; Take the Floor – 19/02/11 Programme number: 10L33047/01; Dateline East Asia Presented By Kathryn Davies;


FRI 16:30 Feedback (m001xnc8)
Covering the Royal Family, Law in Action and In Touch

The BBC’s Royal Correspondent Jonny Dymond reflects on recent coverage of the Royal family and the Princess of Wales' revelation of her cancer diagnosis, responding to listener comments. And Robin Edwards who was editing Radio 4’s 6 o’clock news on the day of the Princess' announcement, talks about the dilemma he faced when reports of the Moscow shooting started to come through just ten minutes before they went on air.

Also, we hear listeners express their views on the news that Radio 4's Law In Action has come to an end after nearly 40 years. Joshua Rozenberg who presented the very first episode in 1984, as well as the last one, looks back on the series and gives us his thoughts on why it was axed.

And the BBC has reversed a decision to shorten the length of In Touch – Radio 4’s programme for blind and partially sighted people. Anna Tylor from the Royal National Institute Of Blind People gives us her reaction.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Leeanne Coyle
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 17:00 PM (m001xncs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xndl)
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says he will strenuously contest the charges


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m001xnf2)
Series 64

Episode 3

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. Starring Geoff Norcott on cynical advertising strategies, Rachel Fairburn on our nation's obsession with conspiracy theories and an original song from Rachel Parris. With voices from Jon Culshaw and Laura Shavin.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Cameron Loxdale, Tasha Dhanraj, Pravanya Pillay & Christina Riggs.

Producer: Sasha Bobak
Executive Producer: Rich Morris
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001xnfk)
WRITER: Daniel Thurman
DIRECTOR: Marina Caldarone

Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davies
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Chris Carter …. Wilf Scolding
Emma Grundy …. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy …. Angus Stobie
Jakob Hakansson …. Paul Venables
Brad Horrorbin …. Taylor Uttley
Elizabeth Pargetter…. Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter …. Toby Laurence
Hannah Riley…. Helen Longworth
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell …. Carole Boyd
Robert Snell …. Michael Bertenshaw


FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m001xng0)
Maya Youssef and Keelan Carew ride into the sunset

UK-based Syrian qanun player and composer Maya Youssef and concert pianist Keelan Carew put the finishing touches to the current playlist with Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye.

The final leg of the journey takes us from Wagner's famous water nymphs to a massive Beyoncé hit from this year, via France, Sicily and Lebanon.

Add to Playlist returns to Radio 4 with a new series on 24th May

Producer Jerome Weatherald
Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye

The five tracks in this week's playlist:

"Weia! Waga! Woge du Welle!" from Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner
Mouvement de Sicilienne by Charles Koechlin
The Magic Number by De La Soul
Ya Nassim Alrouh by Toufic Farroukh
Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyoncé

Other music in this episode:

Bye, Bye Boozoo by BeauSoleil
Dollar Wine by Colin Lucas
Money by Pink Floyd
Money, Money, Money by ABBA
Price Tag by Jessie J
Greenback Dollar by Woody Guthrie
I Need a Dollar by Aloe Blacc
Independent Women, Pt.1 by Destiny's Child
The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel
Diamonds are Forever by Shirley Bassey
Prelude to Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner
Three is the Magic Number by Bob Dorough
Amen Brother by The Winstons
Brimful of Asha by Cornershop


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001xngj)
Andrew Griffith MP, Seema Malhotra MP, Sarah Olney MP, Tim Stanley

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from The Exchange in Twickenham with Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation Andrew Griffith MP, Shadow Minister for Skills Seema Malhotra MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP and columnist and leader writer for The Telegraph Tim Stanley.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Kevan Long


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001xnh5)
Work Work Work

A L Kennedy argues that, as a country with low productivity, we must urgently address our unhealthy relationship with work.

But creating more workaholics like herself, she says, is the last thing we should be doing.

'Toxic work doesn't just blight our business hours - it wearies our affection, steals our time for each other,' Alison writes.

'We rely on free moments and free energy to invent, to recharge, to create. An exhausted, stressed population is docile, but doesn't solve problems well.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


FRI 21:00 Archive on 4 (m001v360)
Saints and Sinners

The story of religious broadcasting is as much about control as it is about the nature of the sacred. Through programmes and previously unbroadcast interviews from the BBC's Oral History collection, Rev Giles Fraser looks back over a century of fascinating debates and tensions over how to broadcast matters of faith and spirituality and how the development of religious broadcasting reflects Britain’s uneasy relationship with religion.

Producer: Amanda Hancox


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xnhs)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective


FRI 22:45 Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (m001xnjd)
Episode 10

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction .
In many ways it’s a universal story of domestic family life upended and fractured by inconceivable events which seem, even now, both far away and close at hand. The story begins in the spring of 1992 in the city of Sarajevo, as political tensions mount and barricades begin to appear in the streets.
Fifty-five year old Zora is married to Franjo, who is fifteen years older than her. Their daughter lives with her English husband and young child in Wiltshire. Zora’s vocation is her work as an artist and notably a painter of landscapes and the bridges that span the river of her beloved Sarajevo. She also teaches art students, but in the afternoons retreats to her studio high in the eaves of the city’s magnificent public library to work on her canvases.

Priscilla Morris is of Yugoslav and Cornish parentage, she grew up in London and spent her summers in Sarajevo. This is her first novel.
Location audio recordings: the street sounds of Sarajevo recorded by Rafael Diogo and featured on https://citiesandmemory.com/sarajevo-city-guide-best-sounds/

BLACK BUTTERFLIES by Priscilla Morris
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
THE WATERS COMPANY for BBC Radio 4


FRI 23:00 Americast (m001xnjy)
Join the Americast team for insights from across the US.


FRI 23:30 Dead Famous (m001x4kn)
Episode Two - Van Gogh

In the second episode of this series, we look at the work of Vincent Van Gogh. He died having famously sold only one canvas. Defeated, he took his own life in 1890. Since then, of course, his fame has grown and grown. His work now inspires immersive digital exhibitions, virtual reality experiences and even AI chatbots.

Rosie Millard traces the story of Van Gogh’s posthumous fame - from Kirk Douglas’ doomed hero in the 1956 Hollywood biopic Lust for Life to the thrilling sale of Sunflowers in 1987. Rosie also explores the quiet determination of Vincent’s sister in law Jo van Gogh-Bonger who championed his work.

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