SATURDAY 30 MARCH 2024

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m001xnkg)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:30 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


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xnl4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xnlq)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xnm7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m001xnmm)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xnn1)
Trains

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

I come to you today recovering from some difficult news. I knew it was coming for a while but it hasn’t made it any easier to process. I am of course talking about the fact that my 26-30 railcard has now expired. I had managed to eke it out for as long as possible, renewing the day before my 31st birthday for one final year, but reality has now caught up with me. Even my distant hopes that they would introduce a 31-35 railcard just in time have not come to fruition, so I am instead forced to play the long game for the next 28 years before I can claim the senior discount.

I love travelling by train. My friend Erin remarked that everyone is a poet when looking out of the window in the quiet carriage, and I love that it can be a space for reading, writing, reflecting, or just a particularly effective power nap before you arrive at your destination. Indeed on the rare occasion that I have had to drive to a schools performance in morning traffic I have vowed to never venture off the rails again. And while I have filled out more delay repay forms that I would have liked, one of the appeals for me of travelling by train is the waiting. However you choose to spend that time, you are getting from A to B regardless.

On Easter Saturday it can feel like we are halfway through a journey. Jesus died on the Friday and rose again on the Sunday, and we are currently travelling between the departure and the arrival. We cannot do anything to make it come about quicker, but we can at least choose how we act in the meantime.

God, thank you for our ability to travel. Thank you for the privilege of getting older. Of gaining more experience and more responsibilities, even if it does mean paying full price for a train ticket. We pray that today you would help us to be grateful for what is ahead of us as well as what it behind us, and to make the most of all the stops we get to take along the way.

Amen


SAT 05:45 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.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m001xwml)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 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


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m001xwmq)
30/03/24 Farming Today This Week: Protest at Westminster, cap on land taken out of food production, Brexit impacts on salmon.

Earlier this week English farmers drove tractors into London and held a rally outside Parliament, protesting at what they say is a lack of support for British food production.

Just a few hours before that rally the Government announced a change in the rules for environmental schemes. Farmers will now only be able to put 25% of their land into schemes which take land out of food production to try to address concerns about food security.

Brexit has cost Scotland up to £100m a year in 'lost' salmon exports, MSPs were told this week.

Why is wool so worthless for farmers? The price they get for a fleece barely covers the cost of shearing.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (m001xwmx)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m001xwn2)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m001xwn6)
Gaynor Faye, Tommy Blaize, Christian Lewis, Liz Bonnin

One of Yorkshire’s finest, the actor famous for Fat Friends, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Gaynor Faye. She’s making her directorial debut with the stage adaptation of The Syndicate, written by her mother; the late, great Kay Mellor.

Tommy Blaize is the voice of Strictly. He’s been singing on the show since the very first episode. But today he reveals the family DNA secret that unlocked the story behind his musical talents.

What do you get when you walk the UK’s 19,000-mile coastline, apart from blisters? For former paratrooper Christian Lewis, it was a dog, a partner, a baby and a renewed sense of purpose.

All that, plus we have the joyous Inheritance Tracks of natural history presenter Liz Bonin.

And if you’ve been affected by anything we’ve spoken about today details of organisations offering information and support with addiction are available on the BBC Action Line: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay
Producer: Ben Mitchell


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m001xwnb)
Mozart

In this special live episode, with music by the BBC Concert Orchestra and pianist Ben Dawson, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Hannah Templeton and comedian David O’Doherty in eighteenth-century Europe to learn all about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart is perhaps the most famous composer of all time, known for his operas, concertos, sonatas and symphonies; his talent is undeniable. But who was the man behind the music? This episode explores Mozart’s life story, following him and his family around Europe as he performed, composed and innovated. It takes in his time as a child prodigy with a controlling father, his doomed love affair, and his life as a working musician struggling to find work at court, as well as his incredible musical talent and the success he found in his own lifetime.

Research by: Madeleine Bracey
Written by: Madeleine Bracey, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Caitlin Hobbs
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse


SAT 11:00 Counterfeit Characters (m001xwng)
What do Artificial Intelligence and digital technology mean for actors and their relationship with audiences?

Leading acting coach Geoffrey Colman, who has spent his working life on the sets of Hollywood movies, in theatrical rehearsal spaces, and teaching in the UK's most prestigious classrooms, wants to find out.

AI, he says, may represent the most profound change to the acting business since the move from silent films to talkies. But does it, and if so how are actors dealing with it? What does that mean for the connection between actors and audiences?

Geoffrey's concern is rooted in acting process: the idea that the construction of a complex inner thinking architecture resonates with audiences in an authentic almost magical way. But if performance capture and AI just creates the outer facial or physical expression, what happens to the inner joy or pain of a character’s thinking? The implications for the actor’s technique are profound.

To get to the bottom of these questions Geoffrey visits some of those at the cutting edge of developing this new technology. On the storied Pinewood lot he visits Imaginarium Studios, and is shown around their 'volume', where actors' every movement is captured. In East London he talks to the head of another studio about his new AI actor - made up from different actors' body parts. And at a leading acting school he speaks to students and teachers about what this new digital era means for them. He discusses concerns about ethical questions, hears from an actor fresh from the set of a major new movie, quizzes a tech expert already using AI to create avatars of herself, and speaks to Star Wars fans about how this technology has allowed beloved characters to be rejuvenated, and even resuscitated.

Producer: Giles Edwards


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001xwnl)
Prospects for Peace in the Middle East

Kate Adie introduces stories from Israel and the Palestinian Territories, India, Tibet, Ireland and Guinea.

What are the prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Yolande Knell has been asking Israelis and Palestinians about their hopes and fears for the future, and whether the recent war in Gaza can be an impetus , or impediment, for a future peace settlement.

In India, the Muslim minority which makes up about 200 million people, has been feeling under pressure as a result of the deepening religious polarisation that has marked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's time in office. Yogita Limaye has been hearing their concerns.

China has introduced educational reforms in the western region of Tibet, which mean that most Tibetan children are now educated in boarding schools, where they are taught in Mandarin Chinese, not Tibetan. Micky Bristow hears concerns from parents that their Tibetan culture is being erased.

Ireland has been experiencing a housing crisis, which has been compounded by a rise in people applying for asylum, and seeking shelter from the war in Ukraine. This has led to increasing numbers of homeless people on city streets. Bob Howard visited a cafe in Dublin that tries to makes the lives of the homeless a little easier.

Guinea in West Africa has so many poisonous snakes, that it accounts for one in ten of all snakebite deaths in Africa. Despite this, there is only one specialised snakebite clinic in the whole country. so many people turn to traditional healers and natural remedies, with sometimes devastating consequences, as Sam Bradpiece has been finding out.

Producers: Polly Hope and Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m001xwp3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m001xwnv)
April Changes: National Living Wage, ISAs and Energy

April brings many changes for our money, and this programme has all you need to know.

From Monday 1st, there will be higher pay for people on the various minimum wages. For the first time 21 and 22 year olds join people aged 23 and over in getting what's called the National Living Wage. It's going up to £11.44 an hour, a near 10% rise. 18 to 20 year olds get a bigger boost with minimum wage up nearly 15% to £8.60 an hour, while 16 and 17 year olds and those on apprenticeships get the largest increase of more than 21%, taking their minimum hourly pay to £6.40.

On the same day, the Energy Price Cap set by the regulator Ofgem will fall reducing the typical annual bill in England, Scotland, and Wales by 12% to £1,690 per year. That is the lowest it has been for two years. So will it be worth switching suppliers for a new fixed deal?

It's 25 years since the introduction of tax-free ISAs. You have just a few days to make use of this year's allowance and there are some big changes next tax year. we’ve got all you need to know.

Plus, what’s changing next week for childcare, why some people need to do a meter reading, and how to save money on stamps.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Dan Whitworth
Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 30th March 2024)


SAT 12:30 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.


SAT 12:57 Weather (m001xwp1)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m001xwp7)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 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


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m001xwpc)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week


SAT 14:45 Drama on 4 (m001xwph)
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

England, 1413. Plague and war are commonplace, the church is all powerful and women rarely read let alone write. Two extraordinary individuals come together in Norwich and, comparing their experiences of faith and family, secure a legacy that will ring through the ages.
An electrifying debut exploring belief, power, femininity and the vital importance of books.

Performed by Jessica Gunning and Jane Lapotaire

Written by Victoria MacKenzie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m001xwpm)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Katie Price, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Biba exhibition

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.

It’s 60 years since the first Biba shop opened and the Fashion and Textile Museum in London have just launched a new exhibition: The Biba Story - 1964-1975. On until September, it explores how the fashion phenomenon blossomed to become the world’s first lifestyle label. Nuala McGovern 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. 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.

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 to discuss.

TM Payne, or Tina, spent the last two 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 1 April. She talks about her years in policing and her new-found passion for fiction.

And MOBO Award-winning singer and songwriter, Zara McFarlane, one of the UK's leading jazz vocalists. She will be appearing at this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Rebecca Myatt
Studio manager: Emma Harth


SAT 17:00 PM (m001xwps)
Full coverage of the day's news


SAT 17:30 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


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001xwpx)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m001xwq1)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xwq5)
Four members of a UN peacekeeping mission have been injured in an explosion in Lebanon.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m001xvs1)
Daniel Mays, Cush Jumbo, Janey Godley, Marc Wootton, Ride, Georgia, Emma Freud, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Emma Freud are joined by Daniel Mays, Cush Jumbo, Janey Godley and Marc Wootton for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Ride and Georgia.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m001xwnc)
Bishop Rosemarie Mallett

Rosemarie Mallett’s star has risen quickly in the Church of England. After a career in academia and a period of disenchantment with the institution, she became a priest in 2005, attracting the attention of senior members of the clergy for her engagement with communities and issues of social justice alike.

Bishop Rosemarie was herself born into a situation shaped by slavery, in the then colony Barbados, before coming to the UK as a child. Now a senior cleric, she has co-authored a report on how the Church of England should make amends for its historic financial involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, which has attracted praise from some and criticism from others.

Stephen Smith talks to those who know Mallett best, exploring how her life has shaped her approach to music, ministry, and racial justice.

Presenter: Stephen Smith
Producer: Nathan Gower
Production team: Debbie Richford, Drew Hyndman
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Programme Coordinators: Sabine Schereck, Maria Ogundele
Sound Engineer: Rod Farquhar


SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (m00193mg)
Series 24

The Wood Wide Web

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by Ted Lasso's Brendan Hunt, Professor of forest ecology and author of "The Mother Tree", Suzanne Simard and botanist Mark Spencer to discover how trees and plants communicate and what they are saying. Suzanne's incredible discovery that trees form a wood wide web of communication has changed our entire understanding of forests and how they work. With the help of amazing fungi, this incredible network of communication allows the trees and plants in a forest to pass information backwards and forwards to help protect themselves against predators and optimize resource. Incredibly, this could even be viewed as a form of intelligence. Brian and Robin find out how this should change the way we look at all plants, and in particular how we manage our forests and discover some of the secrets of those whispering trees.

Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m001xwqb)
Marlon Brando: The Ultimate Contender

R is for Rebellion. Marlon Brando redefined screen acting and burned himself into our collective memory. Incandescent, impossible and utterly ambivalent about his craft and the dream factory that both loathed and loved him.

Twenty years after his death, on the centenary of his birth, Antonia Quirke takes a deep dive into myth and memory with an archival A-Z of Brando's brilliant, maddening career.

Featuring new interviews with daughter Rebecca Brando, professor of theatre Thomas Keith, and the filmmakers Walter Murch and Stevan Riley.

Producer: Mark Burman
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 Drama on 4 (m0003kmq)
China Towns

Episode 11

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

It’s 1903 and change is coming to the Five Towns. Refusing to let old age hold him back, Ephraim Tellwright embarks on a campaign to persuade a divided community to embrace Federation. There are no signs that his ongoing feud with his daughters is coming to an end.

Ephraim Tellwright . . . Neil Dudgeon
Sophia . . . Imogen Stubbs
Constance . . . Emma Cunniffe
Edwin . . . Nick Underwood
Anna . . . Kate O’Flynn
Grace . . . Kate Donnachie
Dr Stirling . . . Sam Dale
Mr Boldero . . . Tony Turner
The Waiter . . . Lewis Bray
The Clerk . . . Joseph Ayre

Incidental music arranged by Colin Guthrie and performed by Colin Guthrie, Peter Ringrose and Ian Conningham.

Produced and directed by Gemma Jenkins.

The Series Producers are Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins


SAT 22:00 News (m001xwqk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 Screenshot (m00168rz)
Easter

Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones explore Christianity on screen, from faith films to nunsploitation.

Mark speaks to priest Father Peter Malone and controversial director Paul Verhoeven about two very different cinematic depictions of the crucifixion - Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

And Ellen takes a look at nuns in the movies, from The Bells of St Mary's to The Devils, with the help of film critics Sister Rose Pacatte and Pamela Hutchinson.

Screenshot is Radio 4’s guide through the ever-expanding universe of the moving image. Every episode, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode journey through the main streets and back roads connecting film, television and streaming over the last hundred years.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:00 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


SAT 23:30 Dead Famous (m001xdm6)
Episode Three - Frida Kahlo

In episode three, we look at the work of Frida Kahlo. Overshadowed in her lifetime by her domineering husband Diego Riviera, Kahlo was not the giant figure of the art world we know today.

Rosie Millard traces Kahlo’s legacy and her rise to fame through films, marketing fads and ground breaking exhibitions. We see how patronage by the likes of Madonna helped turn Kahlo into an icon of feminism and triumphant independence.

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

SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2024

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m001xwqw)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 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


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xwr0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 02:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xwr4)
World Service

BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xwr8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m001xwrd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m001xwpn)
The Priory Church of St Edith, Monks Kirby in Warwickshire

Bells on Sunday comes from the Priory Church of St Edith, Monks Kirby in Warwickshire. Dating from 1077 it was originally a Priory to the Benedictine Abbey of Anjou in France. By the 14th century it had nearly fallen into ruin and was reconstructed into the basic structure and shape we see today. There are eight bells of which the Tenor bell weighs twenty four and a half hundredweight and is tuned to D. We hear them ringing Bristol Surprise Major.


SUN 05:45 Profile (m001xwnc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m001xwlq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (m0004dwy)
In My End Is My Beginning

Mark Tully strikes a valedictory note as he introduces the last original edition of Something Understood. He takes as his theme T S Eliot’s line from Four Quartets - "In my end is my beginning".

This Easter programme weaves together ideas of death and resurrection, cycles of change and cyclical time and the pain and the joy of moving on into the unknown.

There are readings from Eliot, Vera Brittain, Simone Weil and Brendan Kennelly, with music including a Resurrexit by Berlioz, a salsa from Willie Colon and a medieval rondo by Marchaut.

Readers: Paterson Joseph, Emma Fielding and Frank Stirling
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 Easter Sunrise Service - Songs that Vanish: A Poetic Pilgrimage (m001xwls)
"Nobody asked the Island if she wanted to be Holy"

Jay Hulme, goes in search of a faith that is ‘beautiful and holy and wild’ in a poetic pilgrimage to Northumbria. He’s long been inspired by the natural world and the saints of the north-east of England. In this reflection he visits the sites that gave breath to a unique and almost forgotten spirituality. On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne he finds wonder in creation and in the new life of spring; the hope of the Resurrection celebrated at Easter. And at Durham Cathedral he stands in awe at the human endeavour that created such magnificence in glass, wood and stone.

MUSIC
Old Stones / Holy Island Jig
Kathryn Tickell

Now the green blade riseth
Claire Holley

Traveller's Prayer
Keith Duke

Northumbrian Voices
Kathryn Tickell

Morning star (Arvo Pärt)
Polyphony

Star of the County Down
Sheku Kanneh Mason

O Ecclesia (Hildegard von Bingen)
The Gesualdo Six

The Apostles: At the Sepulchre (Edward Elgar)
Hallé, Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir, Mark Elder

The Lamb has overcome
Red River Hymnal (feat. Matt McCloskey)

Producer: Katharine Longworth


SUN 06:57 Weather (m001xwlv)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m001xwlx)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m001xwlz)
Gaza Christians; Trump bible; Easter Island

Parishioner's in Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church are marking Easter Sunday with some extra pomp and pageantry but basically as they do everyday, with prayers for food and a ceasefire. More than 500 people have been sheltering in the Holy Family Church since the outbreak of war. They’re part of the dwindling Christian community in Gaza who’ve stuck together for protection and ignored warnings to leave the northern part of the strip. Producer Catherine Murray has kept in touch with one of their members, George Antone, and tells us how they have communicated over the past six months.

Former United States president Donald Trump is selling Bibles during the Easter holiday, encouraging his supporters to "Make America Pray Again".
In a three-minute video posted on his Truth Social network on Tuesday, Mr Trump told supporters that "Christians are under siege" as he endorsed a large-print King James Version of the Bible complete with what he called America's "founding father documents."
We’ll hear from Theologian Brad Onishi, a professor of religion at The University of San Francisco and co-host of the 'Straight White American Jesus' podcast to get his view on how the move has been received.

Polynesia’s Rapa Nui was given the nickname ‘Easter Island,’ after its first-recorded European contact, on Easter Sunday, 1722. Home of the Moai and giant, stone platforms (‘ahus’), masterful feats of construction, still part of ancestral beliefs and practises today, the island is also one earth’s most remote places, with a history long shrouded in false narratives. We speak to philologist Silvia Ferrara about how new research into a wooden tablet, featuring an independent writing system, that pre-dates European influence by at least two centuries, can widen our understanding of historical religious beliefs and practises on the island.

Presenter: William Crawley
Producers: Bara'atu Ibrahim & Linda Walker
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
Editor: Tim Pemberton


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xvn3)
Mercy Ships

Dr Rachel Buckingham makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Mercy Ships.

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 ‘Mercy Ships’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘Mercy Ships’.
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: 1053055


SUN 07:57 Weather (m001xwm1)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m001xwm3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m001xwm5)
Live from Canterbury Cathedral

The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, shares his Easter message of hope and resurrection in a joyful celebration of the Eucharist, live from the stunning setting of Canterbury Cathedral. Join the renowned choir as they sing Easter anthems and a seasonal communion setting, and lead the congregation in festal Easter hymns. Led by the Dean, The Very Rev’d Dr David Monteith. Canterbury Cathedral Choir is directed by Dr David Newsholme. The organ is played by the Assistant Director of Music Jamie Rogers.

The mass setting is Louis Vierne's Messe Solennelle; Jesus Christ is Risen today (Easter Hymn); Acts 10: 34-43; This joyful Eastertide (Trad. arr. Wood); Mark 16:1-8; The Day of Resurrection (Ellacombe); Thine be the glory (Maccabaeus); Organ: Victimae Paschali Laudes (Tournemire)

Producer: Philip Billson


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03thsbj)
Dunnock

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

John Aitchison presents the dunnock. You'll often see dunnocks, or hedge sparrows, as they were once called, shuffling around under a bird table or at the bottom of a hedge. They're inconspicuous birds being mostly brown with a greyish neck and breast. They aren't, as you might imagine, closely related to sparrows, many of their nearest relatives are birds of mountainous regions in Europe and Asia.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m001xwm7)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (m001xwm9)
WRITER: Daniel Thurman
DIRECTOR: Marina Caldarone

Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davis
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 Horrobin …. 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


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (m001xvl5)
Professor Tim Spector, scientist

Tim Spector is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Head of the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London. He was one of the co-founders of the ZOE Covid Symptom study, which for which he was awarded an OBE. He has also written best-selling books about the relationship between what we eat and our health and well-being.

Tim was born in London in 1958 into a medical family. His mother was a physiotherapist and his father was an eminent pathologist, although Tim initially resisted his father’s encouragement to follow him into medicine. Once qualified, Tim specialised in rheumatology before switching to epidemiology. In 1992, he set up a large-scale research study of twins which now has more than 15,000 identical and non-identical twins taking part.

After a health scare in 2011, Tim became more interested in how we can influence the microbes in our gut to help us stay well. He has published several books on the science of eating well and is a pioneer in personalised food nutrition.

Tim lives in London with his wife, who is also a doctor.

DISC ONE: Life on Mars - David Bowie
DISC TWO: Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 / Act 1 - 13. Dance Of The Knights Composed by Sergei Prokofiev and performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DISC THREE: Paint it, Black - The Rolling Stones
DISC FOUR: Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
DISC FIVE: Puttin’ on the Ritz - Gene Wilder playing Dr Frankenstein, Peter Boyle as The Monster and Norbert Schiller as the announcer. Music conducted by John Morris from Young Frankenstein (Original Soundtrack)
DISC SIX: All of Me (live) - Louis Armstrong
DISC SEVEN: That’s Entertainment - The Jam
DISC EIGHT: In the Ghetto - Elvis Presley

BOOK CHOICE: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
LUXURY ITEM: A fermenting set
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: All of Me (live) - Louis Armstrong

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor


SUN 12:00 News Summary (m001xwmd)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 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


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (m001xwmg)
Lamb Season

Although chocolate eggs and Hot Cross buns take centre stage at Easter, millions of people also sit down to share a joint of lamb to celebrate. In this episode, Sheila Dillon finds out more about the tradition for eating lamb at Easter with Welsh food writer Carwyn Graves, and hears how despite its prominence on Easter tables, the timing of lamb production doesn't always fit with when the festival falls on the calendar. So should we be considering eating other types of sheep meat at this time of year? Sheila speaks to sheep farmer Steve Lewis from Pembrokeshire Lamb whose lambs are being born at this time of year, and is currently selling customers last season lamb and hogget. She also visits Spanish restaurant, Asador 44 in Cardiff to learn from chef Owen Morgan how to prepare older cuts of sheep meat, including 8 year old mutton from The Cornwall Project.

Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan


SUN 12:57 Weather (m001xwmk)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m001xwmp)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world


SUN 13:30 Rwanda Thirty Years On (m001xwmv)
Victoria Uwonkunda makes an emotional journey back to Rwanda, where she grew up. It’s the first time she’s visited since the age of 12, when she fled the 1994 genocide with her family.

Victoria retraces her journey to safety out of the capital Kigali, to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Along the way Victoria speaks to survivors of the violence – both victims and perpetrators - to find out how the country is healing, through reconciliation and forgiveness.

Victoria meets Evariste and Narcisse, who work together on a reconciliation project called Cows for Peace. Evariste killed Narcisse’s mother during the 1994 genocide. Cows are important in the Rwandan culture. Evariste and Narcisse explain their own journeys to forgiveness, healing and reconciliation. And Victoria meets Claudette, who suffered unimaginable horrors at the hands of a man, Jean Claude, sitting next to her as she tells her story.

Victoria Uwonkunda finds that Rwanda, and its people, are healing. There are those who say that the steps Rwanda has taken do not go far enough and question freedom of expression in Rwanda. But Victoria finds hope in the country, a desire to move on for a younger generation – and she finds her own peace with the country that she was born in.


SUN 14:00 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


SUN 14:45 Short Works (m001rynz)
Pwca's Garden by Carys Shannon

Short Works.

Pwca’s Garden by Carys Shannon.

Gwen is 82. Life should be quieter these days… but the Pwca has started visiting again.

An original short story by Carys Shannon, commissioned by BBC Radio 4.

Carys Shannon is a Welsh writer whose work was shortlisted for the 2022 Rhys Davies Prize.

Reader: Sharon Morgan
Sound: Jonathan Thomas
Producer: John Norton
A BBC Audio Drama Wales Production


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m0012fbz)
Howl's Moving Castle

In the land of Ingary, Sophie Hatter is resigning herself to an uninteresting life working in a hat shop, when a castle appears above the town of Market Chipping and refuses to stay still.

Visiting the shop one day, the dreaded Witch of the Waste transforms Sophie into an old crone. Setting off into the countryside to seek her fortune, Sophie soon runs into the sinister moving castle. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls.

First published in 1986, Howl's Moving Castle’s reputation has grown over time to become recognised as a fantasy classic and, in 2004, it was adapted as an Oscar-nominated animated film by Studio Ghibli.

Cast:
Narrator: Robert Bathurst
Old Sophie: Julia McKenzie
Howl: Iwan Rheon
Michael: Angus Imrie
Calcifer: Dan Starkey
Miss Angorian: Gwyneth Keyworth
The Witch of the Waste: Pippa Bennett-Warner
Young Sophie: Dakota Blue-Richards
Neil: Gerran Howell

Written by Robert Valentine
Based upon the novel by Diana Wynne Jones
Sound Design: Richard Fox
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Directed by Simon Barnard

A Bafflegab production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Open Book (m001xwn3)
Andrew O'Hagan and Helen Garner

Alex Clark talks to Andrew O’Hagan about his new book Caledonian Road. Told over the course of a year, Caledonian Road follows art historian and public intellectual Campbell Flynn as a friendship with a young student calls into question the complacency of his much-cherished liberal credentials. With an epic Dickensian cast from drill artists to the wealthy Russian oligarchs in bed with British politicians, the book spools out to encompass a wide canvas of contemporary British life.

Alex also talks to the Australian writer Helen Garner as three books from her back catalogue have been reissued: The Monkey Grip, chronicling a young mother’s life in bohemian Melbourne in the 1970s; This House of Grief, a true crime story of a murderous father; and her most widely renowned novel, The Children’s Bach, which takes us into the lives of a family turned upside down by the forces of sexual desire and the impulse toward freedom.

And, DJ turned novelist, Annie Macmanus shares the Book She'd Never Lend

Book List – Sunday 31 March and Sunday 7 April

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
Down All the Days by Christy Brown
The Mess We’re In by Annie Macmanus
The Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
This House of Grief by Helen Garner
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
The Season by Helen Garner (coming late 2024)


SUN 16:30 Round Britain Quiz (m001xwn7)
Programme 4, 2024

(4/12)
The regular teams from Northern Ireland and Wales, both with a victory under their belts already in the current series, face one another in the cryptic quiz contest.

Freya McClements and Paddy Duffy play for Northern Ireland, against Cariad Lloyd and Myfanwy Alexander for Wales.

Questions in today's programme:

Q1 Where in your house might you look for a Basque football manager, a novel by Patrick Suskind, Travolta as Turnblad, and P.Diddy?

Q2 (from Gerry O'Keeffe) In what way do these people differ: the author of Carrie's War, Bram's young female protagonist, an Italian actress who became a successful photojournalist, and the Queen of Rock 'n Roll?

Q3 Music: Place these titles in chronological order.

Q4 What extremities are linked by the 'last man in', Blackbeard's no.2, Shaw's story of love and war set in Bulgaria, and the A465 between Abergavenny and the Vale of Neath?

Q5 Why might you find Billy Casper's unforgiving teacher, the creator of Atlanta, and one for whom listening was a long-term project, in Yeovil Town?

Q6 (from Ivan Whetton) Music: Why, with these associations, would Galbraith's investigator be regarded as a success?

Q7 Explain why Daisy Jones's band, Poulenc and friends in Paris, a group of musical queens, and Martin Amis's 'murderee', could give you a perfect RBQ score.

Q8 (from Sally Heard) If a gang involved a handyman at a motel, a Cardiff brewery, two little French cakes, a Glenn Miller tune from Sun Valley Serenade and a ghost, who would be the leader and who was the policeman?

Producer: Paul Bajoria


SUN 17:00 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.


SUN 17:40 Profile (m001xwnc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m001xwnh)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m001xwnm)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xwnr)
King Charles made his first major public appearance since being diagnosed with cancer.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m001xwnw)
John McCarthy

It’s been a big week for big anniversaries – Tony Blackburn, Diana Ross and Radio 5 Live.
We've got women on breaking the glass ceiling to run big institutions. How we humans deal with each other, matters of trust, the importance of community – uplifting stories and poignant memories, in real life and drama.
Some seriously counter-intuitive exchanges with a customs official…
Etiquette – how to be polite… And how not to be. And The Terminator turns 40 – he never really went away…

Presenter: John McCarthy
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinators: Paul Holloway & Lola Grieve


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m001xwp2)
The village green is packed and Fallon and Lilian are highly amused by Martha’s efforts to get a head start collecting chocolate eggs – the ones Easter hunt contestants are supposed to find. Jolene seems down and distracted though, despite the large turnout and brilliant weather. Despite Lillian’s efforts to buck her up Jolene’s mood remains sombre. On top of everything else she’s worried about staffing now that Emma has handed in her notice, despite Lilian’s breezy assurances that they’ll cope. Lilian’s own good mood evaporates when Miranda Elliott turns up with Brian - and wins a bottle of fizz in the raffle. When Miranda starts talking about spending more time at The Bull, Lilian pleads with Jolene to talk Emma out of leaving. But Jolene is too exhausted to think about Lilian’s concerns.

Harrison also has a load on his mind – the police hearing on Tuesday could mean the end of his career. Fallon is rattled enough to have asked Kenton if he might loan them some cash should they need it. The only certainty is they’ll face what comes together.

George has a sure-fire plan to win the race and is already planning an early birthday celebration with Tilly Button. More importantly, a win will be sweet revenge against Jolene for barring him; Hannah, for breaking his phone, and his uncle Chris for hogging the limelight on YouTube. He seems set to win when Lilian smells a rat – George has used chewing gum to cement his egg to his spoon. Robbed of this advantage he loses. To make matters worse, Chris takes the winner’s prize.


SUN 19:15 Jokes (p0hc2b2d)
Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living

6. Stuart is Happy

Comedian Stuart Mitchell examines his own cost of living crisis. After losing his dad and giving up everything, Stuart shares the lessons he has learnt that have brought him true happiness.

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! (m000cqgz)
Indian Summer of an Uncle

Award-winning Martin Jarvis performs the first of two PG Wodehouse comic classics, live on-stage. Jeeves as ‘stand-up’!

Bertie is pressurised by his intimidating Aunt Agatha to "save the family reputation" and prevent an uncle from making a potentially embarrassing marriage. Bertie fails in his mission. Can the inimitable Jeeves come to the rescue?

A packed house at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Surrey rocks with laughter as Martin Jarvis entertains playing Jeeves, Bertie and the rest.

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


SUN 20:00 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


SUN 20:30 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;


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m001xwnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xvn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m001xwnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m001xwp8)
Ben Wright's guests are the Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood; Labour peer and former trade unionist, Frances O'Grady; plus journalists Kate Andrews from The Spectator and John Stevens - political editor of the Daily Mirror. They discuss the current political scene and other topics including the extension of free childcare and spending on Defence. The programme also includes an interview with Ann Widdecombe on the prospects for Reform UK.


SUN 23:00 P's and Q's (m001xwpd)
Privacy

In this week’s episode of Ps and Qs, Vanessa Feltz asks - does privacy matter?

The notion of privacy dates back to antiquity, when Ancient Greek philosophers first conceived of the public and personal space as two distinct spheres. Over the last 20 years however, it has often felt as though our privacy is being eroded, from the phone hacking scandal to the way tech giants gather information about us all online.

What do we mean by privacy? And why does it matter?

Guests: Professor Carissa Veliz, Godwin Busuttil, Jacqui Hames.

Presenter: Vanessa Feltz
Producer: Camille Corcoran
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Production Manager: Kerry Luter
Executive Producer: Alex Hollands

A Storyglass production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 23:45 Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line (m001vzx8)
Mathew

When Mathew Shurka was a teenager in Brooklyn, New York he came out as gay to his father, who put Matthew through highly controversial conversion therapy as an attempt to change his sexuality.

What followed was five years of misery that took Mathew to the edge of suicide - he was made to cut his mother and sisters from his life, to sleep with women with the aid of Viagra, and to hide his true identity. He eventually escaped the therapy. But could he find a way back to his father through forgiveness? 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

MONDAY 01 APRIL 2024

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m001xwpj)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 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


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m001xwpn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xwpt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xwpy)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xwq2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m001xwq6)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xwqc)
April Fool!

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good Evening.

April fools! It is in fact the morning.

Suitably for a holiday so shrouded in mischief, there are conflicting reports of when and where April fool’s day began, but setting a day aside for harmless pranks on one’s neighbour has been surprisingly common in the world historically. My favourite suggestion was that the first ever April Fool’s day prank was Noah sending out the dove to look for dry land before the flood had subsided, and I am sure that if April Fool’s day was a thing back on the original Easter Monday it would have given folk like Thomas all the more reason to doubt.

My favourite April Fool’s day memory is from when me and my brother were teenagers. There were two-for-one vouchers for a theme park on the side of a carton of juice, and we decided we would pretend to try and cut out said vouchers while the carton was still full when my dad walked in the room, and see if he tried to stop us. Sure enough when he entered he asked us what on earth we are doing, and we couldn’t explain because we were too busy crying with laughter to be able to speak. It was incredibly silly and I am still cannot help smiling thinking about it now.

While making someone the butt of the joke or laughing at their expense can be very cruel, to joke with someone is one of the most generous acts I know. There is an inclusivity in subverting the expectations of society together. There is a trust that you are both on the same page in executing your collective ruse, and there is a palpable relief in revealing that all was perhaps not what it seemed, and don’t worry things can go back to normal now. Part of what made me and my brother laugh was how much the other was laughing, and my Dad ended up joining in, even if he was perhaps questioning the absolute fools that he had raised.

Dear God, thank you for fun. Thank you for the friends that make us laugh, and for those who are the first people we think of when we want to share a joke. Thank you that playfulness and silliness are another way of finding connection, and we pray that we would be open to that spirit of fun and inclusivity today.

Amen


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m001xwql)
Most 16-year-olds who aren't from a farming family, don't spend their free time looking after sheep. However for several years Will Banham from Dorset has been working with farmer Harriet Sykes to look after her flock. The pair make a great team, tending the flock and now they're raising rare breed Long Horn cattle. Working together, each brings something different to the farm.

Produced and presented by Fiona Clampin


MON 05:57 Weather (m001xwqt)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m001xwqd)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m001xwqm)
The war between science and religion

The historian Michael Taylor looks back at the past tug of war between religion and science, and how the discovery of ancient bones challenged religious orthodoxy. Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War Between Science and Religion is the story of a group of people whose insights tested beliefs about creation and cosmology, and ushered in the secular age.

But Nick Spencer from the thinktank Theos dismisses the idea that science has rightly relegated religion to the margins. In his new book Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity (co-authored with Hannah Waite) he argues that religious belief is uniquely placed to help people navigate a world dominated by scientific breakthroughs – from AI to aliens, gene editing to the treatment of mental health.

Professor Frances Flinter has been at the forefront of innovations in the treatment of genetic conditions for decades in her role at Guy’s & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. She is also a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and says that medical decisions are rarely based purely on science, but involve thinking about what it means to be human.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m001xwqv)
From behind bars to bikes

Rachel Burden hears from XO Bikes founder Stef Jones about the lightbulb moment that led him to leave the world of adverstising, and take on a role training ex offenders to become bike mechanics.
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip, and celebrating the people making the world a better place.
We’re all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it’s always worth a go.

Presenter: Rachel Burden
Producer: Uma Doraiswamy
Sound Design: Nicky Edwards
Researcher: Katie Morgan
Editor: Clare Fordham


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xwr1)
Women in Country Music - Extended Version

From Beyoncé's new country album to Shania playing Glastonbury, country music is reaching new heights of popularity. Who are the women leading the charge, who are the icons who inspired them, and how many barriers are still left to be broken?

We speak to one of its biggest female stars, Carly Pearce, who went from working at Dollywood aged 16 to becoming a Grammy and three-time Country Music Association winner.

We explore the sexism still facing women in the industry as female singers remain dramatically underrepresented on US country radio, charts and awards. We also discuss the growth of the genre in the UK, why it's inspired countless films and TV shows, and its history and icons from Dolly Parton and Linda Martell to Patsy Cline.

We're joined by Marissa Moss, author of Her Country; Beverly Keel, co-founder of Change The Conversation; Alex Hannaby, Head of UK at Big Machine; Simeon Hammond Dallas, singer-songwriter; Helen Brown, arts journalist; Professor Francesca Royster, author of Black Country Music; Nicole Taylor, screenwriter; and Zoe Hodges, music journalist.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lucy Wai
Editor: Louise Corley


MON 11:00 The Patch (m001xwr5)
Prestatyn

One random postcode, and a story you probably haven't heard before.

Today, Prestatyn, North Wales. Famous for its beaches and holiday parks, this is where Fred Pontin established the Pontins self-catered British holiday experience. When producer Polly arrives in October, the gates are locked shut, so she goes in search of another starting point. She discovers another camp called The Salford Children's Holiday Camp. Founded in the 1920s, Salford's mayor at the time bought a plot of land here, just so the city's most deprived children could get away to experience the seaside. Nearly a century on, here it still stands. Primary schools from across the city bring children here every year. "If you grew up in Salford, there's a very good chance you've visited the site."

The children have all left for the season, so Jo and Doug, the site managers, introduce Polly to the other residents - a few hundred rabbits and two families of gulls who live on the dormitory roofs. But there's drama outside the camp, and the gulls have become very controversial. The council can issue fines for feeding them, and there have been a spate of gull against human and human against gull attacks.

Polly searches for the roots of Prestatyn's human/herring gull conflict. The journey takes her on a tour through one hundred years of childhood memories at the holiday camp, and leads her right back to where she began... at the gates of Pontins, where something earth-shattering unfolds. Pontins announces its permanent closure. And the gulls have an important, untold role in that drama, too.

Thanks to Peter Rock, Matthew Chandler from the Rhyl Journal, Paul Blain, and Jo and Doug Walsh.

Produced and Presented by Polly Weston
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
Editor: Chris Ledgard


MON 11:45 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xwr9)
Episode 1

In an evocative memoir, Catherine Coldstream describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.

After the shock of her father’s death, and with her family scattered, 24 year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and eventually to the Carmelite nuns of Akenside Priory.

Cloistered takes us beyond the grille of an enclosed monastic world with its tight-knit community of dedicated women. We see Catherine, praying in the sparseness of her simple cell, a novice who has found peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt, and the hothouse atmosphere turns to conflict – with far-reaching consequences for those within. Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma - should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?

A vivid and sometimes painfully honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.

The opening and closing music is Veni Creator Spiritus sung by Voces Poeticae

Note from the Publishers: This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people and places, dates, sequences and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

Written by Catherine Coldstream
Read by Hattie Morahan
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


MON 12:00 News Summary (m001xwrf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m001xwrk)
The Cost of Living, Weddings and Downsizing

It's the day when government bodies and companies tend to increase the cost of goods and services ahead of the new financial year - a day some have dubbed 'national price hike day'. So what's changing and what does that mean for you? We discuss the changes with two listeners from our 'cost of living' panel and Money Saving Expert's Deputy Editor, Gareth Shaw.

New research by the Resolution Foundation has found that the UK spends more on our housing than in any other wealthy nation and we get less space for our money. This is proving a particular problem for older homeowners looking to downsize. We hear from a couple struggling to find a smaller house for the right price, and seek expert advice from Lucian Cook, Head of Research at Savills estate agents

Is getting married just too expensive these days? The average cost of a wedding increased to over £20,000 last year, that's up from £18,000, the year before. We hear from someone who, despite being engaged, feels that cost is too high to justify; and find out from experts how to tie the knot on the cheap.

People entering into free prize draws and competitions online is becoming increasing popular. We find out why with seasoned 'compers' Lorraine Harrison, who has won over £200,000 worth of prizes in 34 years, and Di Coke, who runs the 'SuperLucky' comping blog.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: JAMES LEESLEY


MON 12:57 Weather (m001xwrm)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m001xwrp)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 Experts on Trial (m001xwrr)
1. Shaken Baby

What should we do when experts disagree with each other? Author and criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw lays bare the secret world of expert witnesses. An expert on the reliability of memory, she has submitted evidence in more than 50 trials in the UK, US, and Canada. In this series, she dives into five seminal legal cases where the outcome hinged on a crucial piece of expert evidence.

In this episode, Julia tells the story of baby Z’s death and the ‘trial by experts’ his mother faced. Had she really shaken him? It was the job of medical experts to answer the question. But they disagreed about the interpretation of symptoms known as ‘the deadly triad’.

Dr Julia Shaw speaks with barrister Karen Squibb-Williams to try and make sense of shaken baby syndrome, of the controversy surrounding one of the experts in the case, Dr Waney Squier, and how disagreements like this can be resolved.

NOTE: This programme has been edited since broadcast to remove a statement that Dr Waney Squier emailed photographs to other experts in the case in an attempt to convince them to change their opinion, and one of the experts called that ‘wholly unacceptable’. In fact, Dr Squier emailed the photographs illustrating a specific pathological feature in dispute, to her instructing lawyer at his request, and it was the photographs themselves, with only brief case history, that were described as unacceptable.

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw
Produceer: Simona Rata

A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m001xwp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama on 4 (m001xwrt)
William's Castle

Based on a true story. In 1897, a young orphaned Sunderland choirboy faces his last few days at the orphanage. Haunted by dreams of his late father lost at sea, and troubled by his fate, he scribbles a plea to be remembered in the margins of an order of service:

"Dear friend. Whoever finds this letter, don't tear it up or throw it away. Keep it, in remembrance of me. Signed, William Elliott."

Over a hundred years later, as the church is being restored, his tattered, faded, mouse-bitten paper is found. The discovery of William's hidden letter inspires the community of Hendon in Sunderland to reach back through history and find him. What happened to William?

Cast:
Tracey ..... Charlie Hardwick
Paige ..... Becky Lindsay
Sharon / Erin ..... Christina Berriman Dawson
Governor ..... Ken Smithson
Young William ..... Mikki Hodgson
Older William …. Lyndan Trenholm
Interviewer / Thomas ..... Daniel James

Featuring the voices of Stevie Hardy, Ian Sherlock, William 'Bill' Dove, and the young singers of the Sunderland Music Hub’s Sunderland Youth Choir.

Original music by Holly Rees and Paige Temperley.
Songs 'William's Castle' and 'Remember Me' were created as part of We Make Culture's 'Songs of the Street' project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

With thanks to 17Nineteen, Lily Daniels, Tracey Mienie, Sharon Vincent, Lizzie Nixon, the Sunderland Youth Choir, and the Local History Library at Elephant Tea Rooms.

Written and produced by Jay Sykes
Directed by Polly Thomas
Production Manager: Darren Spruce
Studio Recording: Andy Bell
Sound Design: Jay Sykes and Lucinda Mason Brown
Executive Producer: Chantal Herbert and Eloise Whitmore

A Sister Sounds production for BBC Radio 4


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m001xwrw)
Harry Enfield on Gerard Hoffnung

Gerard Hoffnung’s life was short. He died in 1959 at the age of 34, but this cartoonist, musician, broadcaster and raconteur achieved a lot in that time. Born in Berlin, he lived most of his life in London. His charming cartoons which often gently poked fun at musicians and conductors were printed in magazines and books. His wife Annetta said he was always on-show and even a trip to the bank could turn into an uproarious occasion. Having caught the attention of the BBC he recorded a series of interviews with Charles Richardson, and his delivery of 'The Bricklayer's Lament' to the Oxford Union in 1958 is considered a triumph of comedic story-telling. The Hoffnung concerts which combined music and comedy sold out quicker than Liberace.

Harry Enfield discovered Hoffnung when he was looking through the records in his local library. He knows it's boring for comedians to talk about timing but Hoffnung's was brilliant, and he finds it annoying that comedy wasn't even his main job. Harry got to know the family later on and his impersonation of Gerard became the inspiration for his own character 'Sir Henry'. Harry's joined in the studio by Gerard and Annetta's children, Emily and Benedict Hoffnung.

Future episodes in this series include Alice Roberts on Emma, Queen of England, Journalist Steve Richards on Bruce Forsyth and Baronness Ros Altman on Antoni Gaudi.

Presenter: Matthew Parris
Producer: Toby Field for BBC Studios Audio


MON 15:30 History's Secret Heroes (m001xwry)
11. The Extraordinary Cook Sisters

How did Ida and Louise Cook, two opera-loving sisters from England, help dozens of Jewish people escape Nazi Germany?

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Suniti Somaiya
Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby
Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts


MON 16:00 You're Dead to Me (m001xwnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Saturday]


MON 17:00 PM (m001xws0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xws2)
Israeli troops have withdrawn from a two-week raid of al-Shifa hospital


MON 18:30 It's a Fair Cop (m001xws4)
Series 8

1. Bounty Hunter

In this week's case Alfie turns bounty hunter and goes on the hunt for a wanted man (an infamous bike thief).

Join Alfie and his audience of sworn-in deputies as they decide how to get their man.

Written and presented by Alfie Moore
Script Editor: Will Ing
Production Co-ordinators: Katie Baum
Producer: Sam Holmes

A BBC Studios Audio Production


MON 19:00 The Archers (m001xws7)
Brian and Miranda are enjoying a lazy morning in bed, laughing at how delicious it was causing a stir at their age. Brian tells her he enjoyed watching Lilian award her a raffle prize. Miranda hopes that Justin doesn’t put Brian off her. He tells her there’s not much chance of that and he’s looking forward to them spending more time together. Later, Justin comes to Blossom Hill to try to persuade Brian to play golf. He notices Miranda’s perfume in the air and tries to warn Brian off, telling him that she might be sweetness and light but that it hides a malevolent soul. Brian loses patience and snaps that it is none of his business. Agitated, Justin arrives at Miranda’s door. He tells her he won’t allow her to use Brian as a pawn against him. She sends Justin away with a flea in his ear.

Jolene pleads with Emma to reconsider leaving The Bull but Emma is determined to put all her efforts into the new tree surgery business. Then Robert arrives to say so far there has been no luck with doorbell camera footage he’ll continue the hunt. Agitated, Jolene tells him she doesn’t want him to until, eventually she breaks down. She tells them both about Markey and tries to swear them to secrecy. But they persuade her the only way to cope is to go to the police. She says that if she’s going to tell anyone it must be Harrison. But it must wait until after his hearing. In the meantime, she insists, Kenton can’t know.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m001xws9)
The National Gallery at 200

The National Gallery opened its doors on 10th May 1824. The public could view 38 paintings, free. Now there are more than 2,300, including many masterpieces of European art by geniuses such as Rembrandt, Turner and Van Gogh. It is still free.

The gallery's director, Gabriele Finaldi, guides Samira Ahmed through the collection. Artists Barbara Walker, Bob and Roberta Smith and Celine Condorelli, last year's artist-in-residence , choose paintings from the collection that are important to them, as does the critic Louisa Buck.

The Sainsbury Wing is closed for building work, giving an opportunity to attend to the paintings there, and Samira visits the conservation studio and the framing workshop.

She hears, too, from curator Mari Elin Jones in Aberystwyth about how during the Second World War the entire National Gallery collection was evacuated to a slate quarry in north Wales. The gallery's historians, Susanna Avery-Quash and Alan Crookham, show Samira photos of this period, and documents from the very beginning of the gallery. As part of the bicentennial celebrations 12 masterpieces are going to cities around the UK, to form the centre of exhibitions. Appropriately, Canaletto's 'The Stone Mason's Yard' will be going to Aberystwyth.

From BBC Archive recordings we hear how Kenneth Clark and pianist Myra Hess organised lunchtime concerts held in the empty gallery, keeping cultural life going during the Blitz.

Samira, Gabriele and Bob and Roberta first came to the National Gallery as children; Louisa Buck brought her children, who hunted for dragons in the paintings. The National Gallery is a welcoming, free, safe space for everyone, as a visitor, her baby asleep in his sling, happily explains.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Julian May


MON 20:00 Rwanda Thirty Years On (m001xwmv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 20:30 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.


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m001xwqm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m001xwqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xwsc)
How could Iran respond to Syria strike?

Iran says Israel carried out a strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus - which killed two senior military commanders. We ask how Tehran could respond to what's being called a major escalation.

Also on the programme:

The government is facing a possible revolt from Conservative MPs, over plans to criminalise rough sleeping. We hear from someone who's slept rough about the possible impact of the legislation.

And why your fruit juice might be not quite what is says on the carton: we get a briefing on "applejuicification".


MON 22:45 Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (m001xwsf)
1: 'She felt mischievous, joyful, capable of anything.'

by Gabriel García Márquez

Part One: A happily married woman travels to the island where her mother is buried and embarks on an erotic adventure.

The publication of a discovered novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is an unexpected and thrilling event in international literature. His final novel, completed just before his death in 2014, was written while Márquez was suffering from dementia.

Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

A beautiful, surprising, sensual novel about regret and the mysteries of love.

An EcoAudio certified production.

Read by Maggie Service
Translated by Anne McLean
Abridged by Siân Preece
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane


MON 23:00 Archive on 4 (m001xwsh)
The Trickster: A Thistle up the Backside of Society

What's the role of the trickster in society? Is his or her sleight of hand just what we need to keep culture and society on its toes, to keep us thinking differently and avoid getting stuck in a cultural rut? David Bramwell leafs through the BBC archives to look at stunts, hoaxes, tricks and tomfoolery, examining the motivation of the trickster and the positive effects of their activities.

We hear archive going back to the early 1960s and talk about jokes, tricks and stunts pulled on you and me by corporations and individuals. We encounter familiar names like Ken Campbell, Orson Welles, Chris Morris, Marcel Duchamp, Banksy, Pussy Riot and perhaps some less familiar, like Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, The Leeds 13 and identity fraud victim Steve Bustin.

We also hear new interviews with 'classical trickster' expert Lewis Hyde, Daisy Campbell, Paul Merton, Zoe Lyons, Suki Webster, Marcus Brigstocke, Neil Forsyth and others.

It's not all fun and laughter though as we examine the darker, unintended consequences that can arise from a trickster trying to pull the wool over the unsuspecting eyes of their victim.

Written and Presented by David Bramwell
Additional Voices: Anne Rupert and Shelley Blond
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4

TUESDAY 02 APRIL 2024

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m001xwsk)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xwr9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xwsm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xwsp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xwsr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m001xwst)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xwsw)
New Bike

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good Morning

This month, for the first time in fifteen years, I bought a new bike. My loveable steed Blue Lightning had served me faithfully ever since my paper round as a teenager, but having my squeaky brakes on full while going down Margate’s various hills had led to me sounding increasingly like an imperilled goose or swan, and I was finally ready to upgrade. As it had been so long since I last bought a bike, I asked around for advice. I read multiple blogs, messaged the keen cyclists that I knew, and used all of that combined knowledge to make the informed decision of picking one that was yellow, because that felt fun.

There was however only one place online that had it in my size, and they couldn’t deliver but said I could pick it up from one of their stores. While none of these stores were within a 100 mile radius of Margate, I happened to have an upcoming gig in Leicester so thought I could connect two wheels with one chain, as it were. A combination of delays and traffic meant I arrived at the shop five minutes before closing time, and my new bike’s maiden voyage was less of a leisurely cycle by the canal and more of a 3-mile off road adventure in the pouring rain on an unlit towpath.

And yet while I was slowly rolling through puddles that were too deep to put my feet down on either side, while I was following directions on my phone’s loudspeaker because it was too wet to operate the touch screen, and even while I carried my newly muddied bike up two flights of stairs to store in the function room of the pub while I performed, I found I was grinning the entire time. As Yellow Lightning now sits in my front room ready for its next ride, it feels like it has had a suitably epic origin story to get there.

Dear God, thank you for adventure. Thank you that it is often things going wrong that make for a better story. That the journeys we take can mean as much as the places we take them to. That something feeling fun is as good a reason as any to make an informed decision. We pray that you will be with us today in whichever journeys we take. That we will be able to grin our way through any unexpected puddles,and have a warm change of clothes when we eventually make it home.

Amen


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m001xwsy)
02/04/24 Flooded farms, fox hunting, walking trail

We hear from farmers unable to put cattle out to graze because the fields are still too wet. It's adding extra cost as they need to buy in food and bedding to keep the livestock inside for longer.

We join a trail hunt in Yorkshire where both hunters and those watching for violations say tensions are rising.

And the groups helping to develop a major European walking trail through Northern Ireland, being frustrated by bureaucracy.

Presented by Charlotte Smith


TUE 06:00 Today (m001xwt0)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m001xvmr)
Nick Longrich on discovering new dinosaurs from overlooked bones

We are fascinated by dinosaurs. From blockbuster hits to bestselling video games, skeleton exhibitions to cuddly plushies, the creatures that once roamed the planet have fully captured our imagination, giving us a portal to a completely alternative Earth. And it’s likely new species are still out there, waiting to be found...

Dr Nick Longrich is a palaeontologist and senior lecturer at the University of Bath, and he studies the dinosaur bones that many have overlooked. By rummaging through the back rooms of museums, he finds traces of never-before-described dinosaurs and goes on the hunt for other specimens to confirm or deny his hunch. Through these adventures, he’s discovered over a dozen new species, painting a more detailed picture of our prehistoric world.

Nick is also fascinated by rare ‘one in a million year’ events – like asteroid collisions or mega volcanic eruptions – and investigates how the event that wiped out the dinosaurs created the world we live in today. From an Island off the coast of Alaska, Jim Al-Khalili discovers how Nicks early immersion in nature has trained his brain to spot the subtle differences in the world around us that many would overlook.

Produced by Julia Ravey.


TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m001xvnb)
Can noise harm our health?

From ear-splitting aircraft noise and the drone of traffic to the hum of an open-plan office, the world around us can feel loud. But is it getting louder? And is this having any effect on our health - and even on how long we live?

We find out when living close to a road, railway or airport might go from nuisance to health hazard, with potential effects on our sleep, heart health, mood and concentration.

It’ll get loud as we do some tests in a lab to explore how unwanted sound might affect the rest of the body beyond our ears, and we sift through the growing research on the impact of noise. Who might be most at risk and why?

We also find out why our reaction to noise might be about more than just volume - and we go in search of some simple tips to help.

Keep in touch with the Inside Health team at insidehealth@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production coordinator: Connor Morgans


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xwt2)
Scotland's hate crime law, Motherhood and art, Actor Rachael Stirling

Scotland's new hate crime law came in to effect yesterday. The Act creates a crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex. To discuss the concerns some women have Emma Barnett is joined by Susan Smith, co-director of the group For Women Scotland, and The Times journalist John Boothman.

A new play at the Hampstead Theatre – The Divine Mrs S - explores the life of Sarah Siddons, who was the first truly respected female actor in theatre, achieving a huge level of celebrity at the end of the 18th century. April De Angelis’ backstage comedy explores the origins of celebrity culture and portrays Siddons, played by Rachael Stirling, as a pioneer in command of her own image and craft. Emma talks to April and Rachael about what inspired them to bring Siddons back to life.

Why have women with children long struggled to be taken seriously as artists? Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood looks at the joys and heartaches, mess, myths and mishaps of motherhood through over 60 artists and 100 artworks. Art critic Hettie Judah who curated the exhibition and artist and senior lecturer at the Royal College of Art Hermione Wiltshire who has two pieces of work displayed in it join Emma.

In January 2023, Eleanor Williams was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after inflicting injuries on herself and then posting pictures of them claiming they were a result of rape and grooming. Why would she lie? That’s the subject of a new podcast, Unreliable Witness, which looks into what happened before, during and after the accusations made by Eleanor. Sky News Specialist Producer Liz Lane joins Emma to talk about the new discoveries about the story she made while looking into what happened.


TUE 11:00 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


TUE 11:45 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xwt4)
Episode 2

In an evocative memoir, Catherine Coldstream describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.

After the shock of her father’s death, and with her family scattered, 24 year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and eventually to the Carmelite nuns of Akenside Priory.

Cloistered takes us beyond the grille of an enclosed monastic world with its tight-knit community of dedicated women. We see Catherine, praying in the sparseness of her simple cell, a novice who has found peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt, and the hothouse atmosphere turns to conflict – with far-reaching consequences for those within. Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma - should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?

A vivid and sometimes painfully honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.

The opening and closing music is Veni Creator Spiritus sung by Voces Poeticae

Note from the Publishers: This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people and places, dates, sequences and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

Written by Catherine Coldstream
Read by Hattie Morahan
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m001xwt6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m001xwt8)
Call You & Yours Surge and Dynamic Pricing

Call You & Yours: We want to talk about surge pricing - the way that prices go up when there's more demand.
It's happens with travel, concerts, even some energy tariffs.
It's a way of balancing price and demand.
Does surge pricing work for you or do you feel forced to pay over the odds?

Call us from 11am on Tuesday on 03700 100 444

PRODUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON


TUE 12:57 Weather (m001xwtb)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m001xwtd)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 Experts on Trial (m001xwtg)
2. Hair Disaster

Can we keep flawed expert testimony from entering courtrooms? Author and criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw lays bare the secret world of expert witnesses. An expert on the reliability of memory, she has submitted evidence in more than 50 trials in the UK, US, and Canada. In this series, she dives into five seminal legal cases where the outcome hinged on a crucial piece of expert evidence.

In this episode, Julia tells the story of George Perrot who was only a teenager when the police suspected him of aggravated rape, burglary and assault against two elderly women. The only piece of evidence tying him to the crime was a strand of hair. In court, FBI expert Wayne Oakes said he was confident the hair matched Perrot’s. But could he be sure?

Dr Julia Shaw speaks with forensic scientist Jo Millington about the reliability of hair analysis, how difficult it is to convey probabilities and statistics in legal settings, and what we can do to keep badly flawed expertise out of courtrooms.

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw
Produceer: Simona Rata

A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m001xws7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000wrn2)
Jazz and Dice

Two teenage girls, best friends and lovers, anticipate their future together as one of them goes off to university, causing a rift between them. Nevaeh, also known as Dice, is secretly dating her best friend Jazz. When Jazz goes off to university, Dice is left heartbroken, and her mother is left to pick up the pieces.

A year later, Dice is moving on, having shed the shame around her queerness, when she finds out Jazz is engaged to a man she met at university. And she wants Dice to come to the wedding. Dice and her mother make the long drive to the occasion, for a dramatic finale. Will Jazz go through with her vows?

Starring Claire Rushbrook (Secrets and Lies, Home Front), Carly Houston (BBC 3 Crip Tales) and Lucy Fallon (Coronation Street), Jazz and Dice is a fresh funny drama with a big heart.

The play, by new writer Leanne Allen tackles love and families, with a witty, warm touch. Her protagonist is a wheelchair user (like Leanne) but the drama is not about disability, it’s about love in the 21st century. Leanne first started writing in 2018 when she attended the Writing for Radio course at Moniack Mhor. Since then she has gone on to write for Naked Productions and Theatre of Debate. Connections was her first radio drama for community radio and BBC Radio 4, broadcast in 2020. Leanne's work with Theatre of Debate was part of the COVID And Me campaign by the National Institute for Health Research. The monologue was made public on the NIHR website in 9th July 2020 and shared widely across social media. Jazz and Dice is her first full length BBC Radio 4 commission.

Jazz and Dice is co-produced by Krishna Istha, a writer, comedian and performance artist making work about taboo or under-represented experiences of gender, race and sexual politics.

Cast:
Dice ..... Carly Houston
Jazz ..... Lucy Fallon
Laurie ..... Claire Rushbrook
Sat Nav/Registrar ..... Garry Robson

Production team:
Co-Directors/Co-Producers, Polly Thomas and Krishna Istha
Sound Recordist, Louis Blatherwick
Sound Designer, Paul Cargill
Illustration, Isobel Platt
Executive Producer, Eloise Whitmore

A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 15:00 Don't Log Off (m001stzz)
Series 15

Voices from the Ether

Well over a century on since the first wireless radio transmission from the Isle of Wight, voices from the ether continue to inform, educate and entertain us, even sometimes to save our lives. Alan logs on to connect with three of them. In Kodiak, Alaska, Terry's public radio fisheries reports are at the cutting edge of climate change. In Sydney, Ben is embracing the podcast revolution. And in St Helena, Sharon hosts a local community radio show on this, one of the most isolated islands on earth.

Producer: Conor Garrett


TUE 15:30 Beyond Belief (m001xwtj)
Interfaith: Can We Still Talk?

People of faith who have pro-actively built bridges with those from other religions say their work is the most difficult it's ever been. Since the Hamas attack of October 7th 2023 and the conflict in Gaza, previously friendly relations between British Jews and Muslims have been strained. Separately, the British government has withdrawn funding from one national network. Interfaith work can span gatherings in places of worship, sharing bagels and samosas to women's discussion groups, debates and shared charity work.

Giles Fraser asks if this effort is in crisis? And with many feeling disillusioned, is interfaith work worth saving?

Joining Giles to share their experiences and discuss is Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, Dr Ed Kessler from the Woolf Institute, Julie Siddiqi and Professor Harriet Baber from the University of San Diego.

Presenter: Giles Fraser
Editor: Dan Tierney
Producers: Rebecca Maxted and Peter Everett
Assistant Producer: Ruth Purser


TUE 16:00 Love's Growth (m001xwtl)
John Donne’s poem Love’s Growth is both a stirring celebration of the renewal and hope offered by the return of Spring, and also an intimate, sometimes erotic love poem written for his future wife, Ann More. When the two got married without her father’s approval, Donne was thrown in jail, but the intensity of the feelings shared by the couple, as expressed in the Love’s Growth, might suggest that was a price worth paying.

Michael Symmons Roberts invites three other Donne fanatics to offer a close reading of the poem, not in the hope of pinning down its too-numerous nuances, but instead trying to illuminate its deft marriage of mind and matter - and also celebrating the swagger of its lines and the young man who wrote them.

For Donne’s biographer Katherine Rundell, it's a punch of a poem with its opening stanza “all the oxygen in a five mile radius rushes to meet you.” For Professor Simon Schama, who “can’t think of life without him", Donne’s poem offers a radical break from those poets who until then had deliberately ignored the physical pleasures of love, as well as a riposte to the darkness of winter. For Anthony Capildeo, Love’s Growth also constitutes a foreshadowing of Donne’s later religious life and work.

All agree that Love’s Growth is a work of genius - but when it comes to the poem’s final lines, who will consider it a playful and beautiful surprise, and who will regard it as an over-reaching and taxing disaster?

Produced by Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 16:30 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.

Producer: Beth McLeod


TUE 17:00 PM (m001xwtn)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xwtq)
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it was a "tragic incident".


TUE 18:30 Tim Key's Poetry Programme (m001xwts)
3. Safari

Key takes the show on safari, with Tom Basden, Katy Wix and guest star Sam Campbell.

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
An EcoAudio certified production


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m001xvj6)
A nervous Harrison thanks Alice for coming to his hearing as his barrister greets him. Alice and Fallon follow him into Police Headquarters. The inquiry panel begins questioning Harrison, laying out gross misconduct allegations against him. And there’s no sign of Harry until he is called as a witness against Harrison. Despite his efforts to speak up for Harrison, the initial questioning is pretty damning. Fallon is not impressed – from where she’s sitting it looks like Harry threw Harrison under the bus.
Later however, Harrison’s barrister recalls Harry. He says he has more to add. He wants to take the blame for the entire situation. None of the panel should blame Harrison, he says. He was only trying to protect Alice and Martha. Harry also confesses that he threatened to report Harrison and he fully understands his decision to tell Alice about him.

Harrison is pessimistic about his chances, despite Fallon’s optimism. Alice is relieved that Harry spoke up but Harrison says being a good colleague or a good person makes little difference. The panel finds he breached standards by disclosing confidential information but accepts he did so because he was concerned about a vulnerable friend. Although he’s guilty of misconduct, he should keep his job, with a written final warning that will stay on his file for two years. Hugely relieved, Harrison hugs Fallon and thanks his barrister. But none of them have any time to spare for Harry, who waits nearby. Alice stays just long enough to thank Harry but says she, too, has to go.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m001xwtv)
Dev Patel on Monkey Man, which books are on the curriculum?

Actor Dev Patel joins to talk about his directorial debut Monkey Man, a movie inspired by the Indian legend of Hunaman that tells the dark and brutal story of a young man in Mumbai out to avenge the life of his mother.

As exam season approaches we ask which books are currently being taught in our schools, and why? We speak to Kit de Waal, whose breakthrough novel My Name is Leon has just been made a curriculum text, and Carol Atherton, English teacher and author of “Reading Lessons: The Books We Read at School, the Conversations They Spark and Why They Matter”.

MGM was Hollywood’s most famous maker of lavish musicals like such classics The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis and Singin' in the Rain. As the famed film studio turns 100, musician and broadcaster Neil Brand has made a new Radio 3 documentary looking at their legacy. Critic David Benedict joins to discuss.


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m001xvfh)
Degraded by Deepfakes

Jodie had everything - a good job, great friends and a busy social life. But her world was turned upside down when she was targeted by an online abuser who posted pornographic deepfakes of her online. Initially turned away by the police, she turned detective herself - but nothing could prepare her for what she eventually discovers. She now struggles to trust anyone. And what happened to Jodie could happen to any of us. Here she tells her story for the very first time.

Reporter: Kate West
Producer: Rhoda Buchanan
Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards
Digital Producer: Melanie Stewart-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston

If you’ve been a victim of harassment, stalking or revenge porn, details of organisations offering information and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (m001xvvj)
Should Blindness be Front and Centre?

In Touch discusses whether your blindness should be at the front and centre of your life. Perhaps an ambiguous question because it can depend on the environment you're in, the company that you share, whether you need help and many other factors. What is undoubtedly true though, is that it's not that easy to go completely under the radar with poor sight or none.

We tease this out with author Andrew Leland, who spent time researching visually impaired people and the way society interacts with us, Rachael Andrews, who is not afraid to campaign for herself, and other people at the same time, and stand-up comedian Jamie MacDonald, who uses his blindness as a tool to make other people laugh.

Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Liz Poole
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.


TUE 21:00 Crossing Continents (m001xwtx)
Secret Sisters. Political prisoners in Belarus

Belarus has huge numbers of political prisoners - around three times as many as in Russia, in a far smaller country.
Almost industrial scale arrests began after huge, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations swept the country in 2020 after Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in presidential elections. Mr Lukashenko has been in power for 30 years. Protestors said the result was a fraud, and that they’d been cheated of their vote.
Almost four years on, the authorities are still making mass arrests.

Many of those detained are women. The most prominent woman prisoner, Maria Kolesnikova, a professional flute player, has been incommunicado for over a year, with no word at all reaching her family or lawyers.

Political prisoners are made to wear a yellow patch on their clothes. The women say they kept short of food and made to sew uniforms for the security forces, to clean the prison yard with rags and shovel snow. They speak of undergoing humiliating punishments such as standing in parade grounds under the sun for hours.
Yet they also tell us of camaraderie and warmth in their tiny cells as they try to keep one other going. And women on the outside continue to take personal risks to help the prisoners by sending in food, warm clothes and letters.

Presented by Monica Whitlock
Producers Monica Whitlock and Albina Kovalyova
Sound mix Neil Churchill
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy


TUE 21:30 Three Million (m001wr56)
1. War

During the Second World War, at least three million Indian people, who were British subjects, died in the Bengal Famine. It was one of the largest losses of civilian life on the Allied side. But there is no memorial to them anywhere in the world - not even a plaque. Can three million people disappear from public memory?

From the award-winning creator and presenter of Partition Voices and Three Pounds in My Pocket, this is the story of the Bengal Famine of 1943. For the first time it is told by those who were there - farmers and fishermen, artists and writers, colonial British and everyday citizens. Nearly all of the testimony in the series has never been broadcast before.

Eighty years on, those who lived through it are a vanishing generation. Time is running out to record their memories.

We begin in 1942. As the Japanese sweep through South East Asia, Calcutta (now Kolkata) is inundated with hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers from all over the world. Fear of a Japanese invasion of British India provokes a consequential decision.

Presenter : Kavita Puri
Series Producer: Ant Adeane
Editor: Emma Rippon
Sound design and mix: Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine Schereck
Original music: Felix Taylor

With thanks to Dr Janam Mukherjee, Professor Joya Chatterji and Dr Diya Gupta.

Interviews with American soldiers courtesy of The National World War II Museum, New Orleans https://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Interviews with G S Khosla and Debotosh Das Gupta courtesy of the University of Cambridge

Major General Dharitri Kumar Palit interviewed by Gillian Wright, 1987, British Library reference C63/195/09. Audio © British Library Board and the interviewee. The British Library has been unable to locate the family of the interviewee. Please contact oralhistory@bl.uk with any relevant information.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xwtz)
UK demands answers over Gaza aid deaths

The UK government is demanding answers as the three Britons killed in an Israeli air strike on an aid convoy in Gaza are named. We speak to the UN's top humanitarian official in the region, and ask the Israeli government whether it's concerned about alienating allies.

Also on the programme:

Should the addresses of local councillors to be kept secret - in order to prevent abuse and intimidation? We'll discuss.

And we remember the grand storyteller of Guadeloupe - Maryse Condé - the only winner of the "Alternative Nobel Prize for Literature".


TUE 22:45 Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (m001xwv1)
2: 'She felt like a different woman.'

by Gabriel García Márquez

Part Two: Ana Magdalena Bach recovers sufficiently from the humiliation of the previous year to embark on a new adventure.

The publication of a discovered novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is an unexpected and thrilling event in international literature. His final novel, completed just before his death in 2014, was written while Márquez was suffering from dementia.

Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

A beautiful, surprising, sensual novel about regret and the mysteries of love.

An EcoAudio certified production.

Read by Maggie Service
Translated by Anne McLean
Abridged by Siân Preece
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane


TUE 23:00 The Confessional (m001ghws)
Series 3

The Confession of Sheila Hancock

The comic and intrusive chat show, in which Stephen Mangan interrogates celebrity penitents about their stories of shame, guilt and embarrassment.

Each week, Stephen entices a different eminent guest into his virtual confessional box to make three confessions of sins, peccadilloes, misdeeds and idiocies - anything really that will make us laugh, shudder, blush or cringe at their expense.

In this episode, Stephen's guest is reluctant national treasure Dame Sheila Hancock - actor, singer, director, novelist and writer. Together they discuss inappropriate behaviour, snobbery and flagrant rule-breaking.

Other guests in this series are Jessie Cave, Neil Dudgeon, Maisie Adam, Lady Antonia Fraser and Ben Bailey Smith aka Doc Brown.

Presented by Stephen Mangan
Additional material by Nick Doody
Produced by Frank Stirling
A 7digital production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Poet Laureate in the Arctic (m001r7zg)
Episode 1

Considering himself a nature poet and with a geography degree Simon Armitage pledged to put the environment at the heart of his thinking when he became Poet Laureate in 2019. In this series he travels to the Arctic to see for himself what's going on in this part of the world which is so crucial to the climate change debate. He starts with a visit to a glacier

The Steindalsbreen glacier in the Lyngen Alps is over 10 000 years old. His guide is British biochemist Professor Jemma Wadham from UiT, the Arctic University of Norway. After a lifelong obsession with glaciers, Jemma has recently made the north of Norway her home. Her visits to the Arctic, and Svalbard in particular, began when she was studying for her PhD. Her regular study trips mean she has witnessed the changes that are happening here due to climate change and warming for herself. In the Arctic and Antarctic these changes are happening four times faster than the rest of the planet.

As well as experiencing the Arctic for himself and seeing first hand what's happening, Simon tries to capture the majesty and vulnerability of the place in new poems written in response to what he finds .

Producer - Susan Roberts

WEDNESDAY 03 APRIL 2024

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m001xwv3)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xwt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xwv5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xwv7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xwv9)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m001xwvc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xwvf)
Wonderful

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

A prayer in the form of a poem:

May you always picture where you are
as where you’re meant to be.
May you take in your surroundings
like you visited especially.
We all end up in the soil eventually,
so may you carry such goodness
that it nourishes for centuries.

May you see life as a show
and may the entry fee be empathy,
sat front row with an empty seat
for friends in need.
When you’re on form,
be generous and spread that energy.
When you’re not sure,
be gentle with yourself
and don’t forget to breathe.

You need not be defined by your many feats;
you are not a centipede.
There is a joy in doing something terribly.
May you share brews and bruises
and may you do this tenderly.
You are the most improved you
there has ever been.

May you be seriously silly,
may you be wickedly kind.
May you be brilliantly dumb sometimes
and yet stupidly bright.
May you certainly have doubts,
may your weirdness be the norm.
May the coolest thing about you
be your warmth.

May you be powerfully vulnerable,
or at least mightily soft.
May you be a contradiction,
and yet at the same time not.
And, whether you are any, none
or all of the above,
above all, may you know
that you are loved.

Just as you cannot be in traffic
without being traffic,
life is not something
that you are stuck in
while it happens.
There is more in you
than you could possibly imagine.
The very fact that you exist
makes everything a bit more magic.

When it all feels too much
and there is little you can do,
may you still see the best in people
and may people include you.
May one thing match the gravity
of all you’ve ever done.
This wonderful reality:
the best is yet to come

Amen.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m001xwvh)
Supermarkets sell vegetable such as potatoes at a vast loss during Easter and Christmas as a loss-leader, but what effect does this have on farmers?

According to new figures from NFU Mutual, more than £900,000 worth of farm animals were injured or killed by dogs last year, in Wales alone.

And a landowner in North Yorkshire is covering huge swathes of his land with tens of thousands of trees, and is hoping companies will sponsor areas of his new forest to offset their carbon footprint and help flood mitigation.

Presented by Caz Graham

Produced by Alun Beach


WED 06:00 Today (m001xvcf)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Life Changing (m001y10v)
Witness

Georgia Gabriel-Hooper is now 20, she works for a tractor dealership and enjoys bumbling around the countryside. But as a child she was witness to a terrible event: her mother, Cheryl, was murdered in a domestic homicide. Understandably that day had a profound impact on Georgia who’s since shown extraordinary courage and determination to use her personal testimony to raise awareness and create change around domestic abuse.

If you, or someone you know, has been affected by domestic abuse or violence, you can find details of support available on the BBC Action Line at bbc.co.uk/actionline. If you are in immediate danger, you should dial 999.


WED 09:30 Influenced (m001xvdh)
Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat

Left the Chat: No 1. Whatsapp Mishaps

In 1998, Helen’s family got their first home computer - and she logged on to chat with existing friends and strangers she met online. Since then, instant messaging has taken over our lives, with an estimated 2.7 billion users on WhatsApp alone.

But what is happening in the secrecy of our direct message inboxes and neighbourhood group chats? Three stories of chaos, confusion - and comedy - highlight just how strange it can feel to make sense of the fast paced, casual world of instant messaging.

Producer: Tom Pooley
Assistant Producer: Orla O'Brien
Sound Design: Louis Blatherwick
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith
Original music: Coach Conrad

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xvf0)
Girls State, Author Holly Gramazio, First female prime minister of the DRC

In the run-up to local elections in England and Wales, the Local Government Alliance have called for the law to change around publicising local councillors' home addresses. This is after some councillors are warning that a recent upsurge of abuse and threats is forcing large numbers of women to quit their roles in local government. Emma Barnett speaks to viral lockdown star Jackie Weaver about being a woman in local government.

Judith Suminwa Tuluka has been appointed the first ever female prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A former planning minister, she’s relatively unknown – so what does this mean for the DRC, and the women who live there? Emma finds out more about the new prime minister with BBC Monitoring’s Beverley Ochieng and the co-founder of a DRC NGO, Anny Modi.

How did 77 women from the same Cambridge college end up working at Bletchley Park during the war? Dr Sally Waugh, an alumna of women-only Newnham College, has uncovered a previously unknown contingent of female codebreakers and other staff who were recruited to conduct top secret work as undergraduates. Emma speaks to her to find out more.

A new documentary film, Girls State, spotlights the girls hoping they will become the first female President of the United States. It follows a real-life mock government programme attended by teenage girls in Missouri. The American Legion, who run the programmes, hold separate programmes for boys and girls in all fifty states in the US. Emma is joined by the film-maker Amanda McBain and Emily Worthmore, one of the girls who stands for Governor, the highest position in the mock government.

Games writer and author Holly Gramazio’s debut novel explores a world where an endless supply of husbands emerges from the attic. But when you can change husbands as easily as a lightbulb, how do you know when to stick with the one you’ve got? Holly joins Emma, live in the Woman’s Hour studio.

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Lottie Garton


WED 11:00 File on 4 (m001xvfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:45 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xvfy)
Episode 3

In an evocative memoir, Catherine Coldstream describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.

After the shock of her father’s death, and with her family scattered, 24 year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and eventually to the Carmelite nuns of Akenside Priory.

Cloistered takes us beyond the grille of an enclosed monastic world with its tight-knit community of dedicated women. We see Catherine, praying in the sparseness of her simple cell, a novice who has found peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt, and the hothouse atmosphere turns to conflict – with far-reaching consequences for those within. Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma - should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?

A vivid and sometimes painfully honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.

The opening and closing music is Veni Creator Spiritus sung by Voces Poeticae

Note from the Publishers: This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people and places, dates, sequences and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

Written by Catherine Coldstream
Read by Hattie Morahan
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


WED 12:00 News Summary (m001xvgj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m001xvgy)
Plan.com, village shops and solo travel

Would you say yes to the offer of a better mobile phone contract? Shari Vahl investigates the actions of Plan.com, an official partner of O2, whose customers have complained they’ve been misled into agreeing to phone contracts with potentially costly cancellation fees.

Village shops are integral to rural communities, but is the quality of what they can sell now under threat? Reports from shop owners suggest that Booker, a wholesaler owned by Tesco, is preventing them from buying the products they would like, raising questions about the future of these businesses.

How has central heating shaped our lives? This once revolutionary technology has had an outsized impact on everything, from what we wear to the sexual revolution. Sam Johnson-Schlee talks us through this life-changing invention.

The cost of living crisis, combined with increased environmental awareness, has created huge demand for repair cafes across the UK. We hear from an organisation that has helped opened 30 sites in Wales in the last year alone.

And, would you opt to go on holiday alone? We explore why more of us are deciding to travel solo.

PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON

PRODUCER: CHARLIE FILMER-COURT


WED 12:57 Weather (m001xvh7)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m001xvhh)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


WED 13:45 Experts on Trial (m001xvhs)
3. False Confessions

Can expert witnesses change criminal justice systems? Author and criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw lays bare the secret world of expert witnesses. An expert on the reliability of memory, she has submitted evidence in more than 50 trials in the UK, US, and Canada. In this series, she dives into five seminal legal cases where the outcome hinged on a crucial piece of expert evidence.

In this episode, Julia tells the story of the Guildford Four, -four young people who confessed to the IRA bombing of a pub in Guildford in 1974. Professor Gisli Gudjonsson, a forensic psychologist, provided expert evidence in the appeal showing how the wrong interrogation tactics can lead to miscarriages of justice.

Dr Julia Shaw speaks with professor Lawrence Allison, an investigative and forensic psychologist. They speak about the correct way to interview terrorism suspects, false confessions, and the ways in which expert evidence can change criminal justice systems for the better.

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw
Produceer: Simona Rata

A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4


WED 14:00 The Archers (m001xvj6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000sqs2)
Top of the World

Top of the World is Gloria’s chart-topping podcast that promises healing with altitude. She’s a relationship therapist who takes troubled couples for mountain walks. These people have problems, but the summit of Schiehallion or Helvellyn lends perspective. Secrets are shared, buried traumas are exposed to the healing mountain light.

Sian and Jamie have felt their ten year marriage crumble as political arguments became personal and Covid lockdown kept them from their one shared interest. Their mutual friend Tom, a big fan of the podcast, has asked Gloria to help out. The unhappy couple agree to a hike up Cadair Idris in search of reconciliation.

Gloria: Jeany Spark
Sian: Siwan Morris
Jamie: Robert Wilfort
Tom: Matthew Aubrey

Writer: Hugh Costello
Director: Alasdair Cross


WED 15:00 Money Box (m001xvjg)
Money Box Live: Resenting Renting?

April is a big month for our finances, some bills go up and one or two even come down.

A big relief for many households will be the that energy prices are dropping, but one bill that is still going up is rent.

UK rent prices rose 9% in the 12 months to February.

Research shared exclusively with Money Box Live has revealed you're more likely to be in your overdraft if you're a renter compared to people with mortgages. You're also less likely to have savings to fall back on in an emergency.

Meanwhile government plans to scrap no fault evictions for tenants in England have been delayed. Neither tenants nor landlords are happy with the current position.

Felicity Hannah is joined by Sarah Pennells, Consumer Finance specialist at Royal London, Dan Wilson Craw, Deputy Director at Generation Rent UK, and Richard Donnell, director of research at the property platform Zoopla.

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

(This episode was first broadcast on the 3rd April 2024)


WED 15:30 Why Do You Hate Me? (m001vtl1)
1. I Regret Posting Online That I Was Madeleine McCann

When Julia Wandelt posted on social media that she believed she was Madeleine McCann, she became a lightning rod for online anger. In the first of a new series exploring extraordinary cases of online hate and the possibility of forgiveness, Marianna Spring, the BBC's Disinformation and social media correspondent, speaks to Julia about her motives and regrets.

Listen to more episodes of Why Do You Hate Me on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. For this series, Marianna Spring (one of the most trolled BBC journalists) dives into her inbox and investigates a different extraordinary case of online hate to find out. She meets the people at the heart of these conflicts, and in some cases brings them together, to see if understanding - even forgiveness - is ever possible. Subscribe to BBC Sounds to hear the episodes first.

And watch the episodes on BBC iPlayer too.

If you have been affected by some of the issues raised in this programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Host: Marianna Spring
Series Producer: Emma Close
Producer: Ben Carter

Editor: Sam Bonham
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell
Production co-ordinator: Rosie Strawbridge

Archive credits: Peteski Productions distributed through CBS Media Ventures.


WED 16:00 The Media Show (m001xvjr)
Fear, threats and intimidation

British counter terrorism officers are investigating the stabbing last Friday of an Iranian TV host outside his home in London. Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati was hospitalised, before being discharged and moving to a safe place under the supervision of the Metropolitan Police. We talk to British Iranian journalist Sima Sabet, who has also been targeted.

Have US diplomats been targeted by Russian sonic weaponry? A joint report between The Insider, Der Spiegel and CBS's 60 Minutes alleges it’s the result of their brains being targeted by "directed energy" weapons operated by a secretive Russian military unit. We meet one of the journalists involved in the story.

In Londonderry journalists covering a dissident republican parade on Easter Monday were attacked with petrol bombs thrown by masked youths. Politicians have condemned the violence. We hear the testimony of one of the reporters targeted.

We talk to the producers behind the successful BBC reboot of Gladiators.

And as Gmail celebrates its 20th anniversary, how useful is email today as a form of communication? Or has it been overtaken by messaging apps like WhatsApp?

Presenters: Ros Atkins and Katie Razzall

Producer: Simon Richardson

Guests: Sima Sabet, former presenter, Iran International; Dan Baldwin, Managing Director, Hungry Bear Media; Julia Hobsbawm, journalist and author; Niall Deeney, Derry Correspondent, Belfast Live; Mike Isaac, Tech Reporter, The New York Times; Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist; Michael Weiss, Editor, The Insider


WED 17:00 PM (m001xvk2)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xvkj)
The military veterans were killed in an Israeli attack while working for an aid agency


WED 18:30 Room 101 with Paul Merton (m001xvkz)
Series 2

Chris McCausland

Paul Merton interviews a variety of guests from the world of comedy and entertainment to find out what they would send to Room 101 as well as the one item they cannot live without.

In this first episode of the series, Chris McCausland attempts to banish teacups with tiny handles and prices that end in 99p, as well as explaining his unswerving devotion to a particular Christmas-time edible treat.

Additional material John Irwin and Suki Webster
Produced by Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m001xvlq)
Kenton is rattled about Jolene’s revelation of Markey’s threats. But he’s relieved that she had Harrison to confide in and that he took her to give a statement to the police. Jolene worries the stress of knowing might impede Kenton’s recovery from the dog attack. He’s just relieved that there’s a reason behind Jolene’s behaviour in recent weeks. That’s until she reveals that Markey followed her into the supermarket. A furious Kenton wants to confront Markey, only calming down when he's told that both them and the pub are on a police priority list. Jolene just wants to get back to normal and Kenton proposes they man the pub together, sending Lilian home.

Harry’s picking up his dropped keys when Alice checks to see if he’s okay. He seems unwell/complaining of nausea telling Alice he has an appointment with Dr Malik. Suspecting he has been drinking, she insists on driving him to the appointment. She feels uncomfortable when he begs her to stay in the room during the appointment. It’s bad news: his blood tests show his health hasn’t improved. He’s forced to be honest about his drinking. Azra refers him to the liver clinic for further tests. They need to establish whether he has or is heading towards cirrhosis. He's in denial, but Alice insists he faces the music. He is adamant he can stop/ he saw it coming. Since they broke up he’s been drinking more, but this time he can stay on the wagon and he’ll go to the hospital. Foolishly, Alice agrees to make sure he does.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m001xvm8)
50 years of ABBA’s Waterloo, Harewood House exhibition, Trevor Griffiths remembered, the rise of eco fiction and drama

Almost 50 years to the day when ABBA's Waterloo triumphed at Eurovision, ABBA specialist Carl Magnus Palm and Millie Taylor, professor of musical theatre, discuss how the song became such an all-conquering hit.

A visit to Harewood House to see a new exhibition, Colours Uncovered, which tells the story of this stately home through the prism of colour. Darren Pih, chief curator and artistic director of the Harewood House Trust and curator and archivist Rebecca Burton, take Nick through the house.

Dramatist and screenwriter Trevor Griffiths is remembered by theatre critic Michael Coveney, who was at the first night of his ground-breaking play Comedians, which put Jonathan Pryce on his road to stardom. Griffiths also provided Laurence Olivier with his last stage role. However, working class, left-wing and politically committed, Griffiths preferred writing for television because it allowed him to communicate with millions rather than thousands.

The environment and climate change is becoming increasingly popular in mainstream film, TV and fiction. Now Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, director of the 2022 Oscar-winning Japanese movie, Drive My Car, has his own eco-drama, Evil Does Not Exist, in cinemas this month. To discuss that and how climate change is breaking into the mainstream, Nick is joined by Eve Smith, the author of One, and by Greg Mosse, the author of The Coming Storm, both of which feature a near-future world significantly altered by environmental catastrophe.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu


WED 20:00 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


WED 20:45 Uncharted with Hannah Fry (m001qw4s)
1. The Returning Soldier

It’s 1973 and the UK is in crisis: runaway inflation, industrial strike action and political turmoil. Unnoticed at the time - in hospitals and front rooms around the country - something odd is happening with the country’s newborns. A higher proportion of boys are being born than ever before in the 20th Century. What was behind this puzzling trend?

Hannah Fry follows one researcher’s obsessive mission to unravel the mystery.

Episode Producer: Ilan Goodman
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Story Editor: John Yorke

A series for Radio 4 by BBC Science in Cardiff.


WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m001xvmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Inside Health (m001xvnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xvnx)
International pressure grows on Israel to explain why its military killed seven aid workers

Also in the programme: NATO discusses a "Trump-proof" plan for funding arms to Ukraine; and the terrifying ordeal of a Haitian journalist kidnapped by a criminal gang.


WED 22:45 Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (m001xvpg)
3: 'She felt the world sink beneath her feet.'

by Gabriel García Márquez

Part Three: Ana Magdalena's plan for a new erotic adventure is thwarted by the appearance of an old family friend.

The publication of a discovered novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is an unexpected and thrilling event in international literature. His final novel, completed just before his death in 2014, was written while Márquez was suffering from dementia.

Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

A beautiful, surprising, sensual novel about regret and the mysteries of love.

An EcoAudio certified production.

Read by Maggie Service
Translated by Anne McLean
Abridged by Siân Preece
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane


WED 23:00 Aurie Styla: Tech Talk (m001xvq8)
1: Loading, Please Wait...

Stand-up comedian Aurie Styla, a 90s nerd, takes an autobiographical journey through technology history.

We begin in the early 90s, with the tinny sound of the Nintendo Game Boy and his first 13-inch television which only worked if asked very nicely, and he re-wired to show all the channels available - in total, four.

A technology lover since those days of that 13-inch TV and his first console, the Sega Master System – featuring ‘Alex Kidd In Miracle World’, the most frustrating video game of all time – Aurie has seen technology transform in a manner that would have been hard to believe in the 90s.

This show charts his personal relationship with machines, looking at the past (computer games that you had to load from cassette tapes), the present (houses that are lit and warmed via apps on your phone, cars that drive themselves without you) and the future (AIs that tell you how to dress and what to eat for dinner, and superior intelligences that command your every move whether you want to object or not).

Technology has moved on rapidly, from being a fun sideshow to the bedrock of our understanding of human life. Aurie guides us through this landscape with infectious wit, taking time to remember the awkward interface of MSN Messenger while also negotiating the modern culture of having to check with a virtual assistant before you turn your lights off. A warm, human show about the way the world has become less and less warm and human, celebrating the march of tech while being appropriately terrified of it.

An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:15 The Skewer (m001xvr0)
Series 11

Episode 8

The week’s biggest stories like you’ve never heard them before. The news, remixed as a satirical comedy concept album.

Jon Holmes presents the multi-award-winning The Skewer. Headphones on. This week - Spirit of Dark Thames Water, the Cruci-Hate Crime-Bill, and if you want blood, we've got it.

Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Poet Laureate in the Arctic (m001rgv5)
Episode 2

Simon Armitage is at the UK Arctic research station in Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, by some measures the world's most northerly community. He spends time with research scientists working in the field to look at what's going on in this part of the globe, which is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet.

As he tours the base with geologist Jane Francis, CEO of the British Antarctic Survey, he is shown the colourful huts in which scientists from 11 different nations work on projects and long-term observation monitoring.

Geir Wing Gabrielsen, a senior research scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, has been studying the Atlantification of the Kongsfjorden in Svalbard in recent years. He discusses his work with the diminishing populations of northern seabirds such as fulmars and their consumption of large amounts of plastic in the water.

As well as experiencing the Arctic for himself and seeing what's happening there, Simon is trying to capture the majesty and vulnerability of this region in new poems written in response to what he finds.

With Professor Jane Francis, CEO the British Antarctic Survey
Iain Rudkin, station leader, the Natural Environment Research Council Arctic Research station
Professor Geir Wing Gabrielsen, Norwegian Polar Institute

Producer Susan Roberts

THURSDAY 04 APRIL 2024

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m001xvrg)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xvfy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xvrt)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xvs4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xvsd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m001xvsn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xvsx)
On (not) going on tour

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

This month I am about to go on tour. I'm playing about 35 different dates all over the country and I am so excited to share my new poems with people. As a performance poet a lot of what I write is with an aim to share it out loud, so it often feels like when I am on stage it is these words finally getting to thrive in the environment they were made for. There’s a lot of nervous energy around ticket sales but mostly I cannot wait. It’s my favourite thing to do.

Which is why it felt conflicting when I finished my last tour that I knew what I needed to do was exactly the opposite. After gigs disappeared during Covid and I began to fear they would never come back, it had been especially cathartic to feel like we had come through the other side, and very tempting to want to keep going forever, in case it got taken away again. Yet despite this, or indeed because of this, I knew what I needed to do most was to take some time out from performing. To allow myself to write for the sheer fun of it again. To have dinner with friends. To finally get involved in the five-a-side football WhatsApp group I’ve been lurking in for five months. To not just make a living but to make a life, or, as Robert Henri puts it, to be in a wonderful state that makes art inevitable.

As counter-intuitive as this was, it has led to me writing more in the last six months than ever before. It means the admin behind the scenes feels worth it because I have something that I want to say. It means I am looking forward to the friends I am staying on the way as much as the gigs themselves. It means that when this tour is done, I will almost definitely be taking another break until I feel ready to go again on my own terms.

Dear God, thank you for connection. Thank you that whether we are in a group of 2 or 2000 we do not exist in isolation. Thank you for this wonderful world we find ourselves in, and I pray you would enable us to take some time today to appreciate it. To know that whatever it is we decide to do or not to is a choice we are empowered to make, and to help us make the right one.

Amen.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m001xvt5)
04/04/24 - 'Not for EU' labelling, share farming and footpath repairs

Muddled, costly and unnecessary regulatory burdens - that's the Food and Drink Federation's description of new labelling rules which it says will cost food companies million of pounds. From October dairy and meat products for sale in Great Britain will have to have 'not for EU' on the packaging. Just as products on sale in Northern Ireland have had since last year. The Government says the aim is to make sure that Northern Irish consumers have access to the same goods, as with the same labels there isn't an incentive for companies not to sell in Northern Ireland. The FDF says that's unnecessary. We hear from the boss of a dairy company who says it will cost them at least £300,000.

Succession is something we talk about a lot on Farming Today - for farming families where no one wants to take over the business, share farming can be a solution. We visit a couple who have set up a share farming deal with one young farmer to see how it works.

And 30 million pounds is needed to improve mountain paths in Scotland - that's on top of the five million already spent on 140km of trails in the two National Parks. The government agency Nature Scot says paths in the uplands need work. But what’s in it for land owners and managers?

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


THU 06:00 Today (m001xvh1)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m001xvhb)
Nikola Tesla

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and his role in the development of electrical systems towards the end of the nineteenth century. He made his name in New York in the contest over which current should flow into homes and factories in America. Some such as Edison backed direct current or DC while others such as Westinghouse backed alternating current or AC and Nikola Tesla’s invention of a motor that worked on AC swung it for the alternating system that went on to power the modern age. He ensured his reputation and ideas burnt brightly for the next decades, making him synonymous with the lone, genius inventor of the new science fiction.

With

Simon Schaffer
Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College, University of Cambridge

Jill Jonnes
Historian and author of “Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World”

And

Iwan Morus
Professor of History at Aberystwyth University

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age (Princeton University Press, 2013)

Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth, Tesla: Master of Lightning (Barnes & Noble Books, 1999)

Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983)

Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New (Open University Press, 1988)

Iwan Rhys Morus, Nikola Tesla and the Electrical Future (Icon Books, 2019)

Iwan Rhys Morus, How The Victorians Took Us To The Moon (Icon, 2022)

David E. Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology (MIT Press, 1991)

John J. O’Neill, Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla (first published 1944; Cosimo Classics, 2006)

Marc J. Seifer, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius (first published 1996; Citadel Press, 2016)

Nikola Tesla, My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (first published 1919; Martino Fine Books, 2011)

Nikola Tesla, My Inventions and other Writings (Penguin, 2012)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production


THU 09:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001xvhl)
Get Fit with HIIT

There’s no question that exercise is important for our health, but many of us find it difficult to fit into our busy schedules. In this episode, Michael Mosley explores how high-intensity interval training, HIIT for short, might be the most time-efficient way to get fitter. It can also boost your cognitive performance, help you live longer, and improve your quality of life. Martin Gibala, Professor of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, reveals all about the beneficial impact of HIIT on your cardiorespiratory system, your ability to control your blood sugar levels, and your risk of chronic diseases. Meanwhile, busy mum and NHS worker Suzanne finds HIIT a great way to incorporate a workout into her hectic routine.

Series Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Editor: Zoë Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xvhx)
Pregnancy discrimination, Prue Leith, Femcels, Social workers on screen

An employment tribunal has ruled that describing an expectant mother as 'emotional' at work was discrimination. Described as a David and Goliath case, Nicola Hinds, who had been an account manager at Mitie, a FTSE 250 company, represented herself. The judge upheld her claims of pregnancy discrimination and constructive dismissal saying she was 'inexcusably' ignored by her boss and portrayed as 'hormonal'. She is now in line to receive compensation. Nicola joins Emma Barnett.

82% of social workers are women, and they are fed up of seeing themselves portrayed as baddies on screen. Social Work England says they end up depicted in dramas as dragging children away from their families. Reporter Melanie Abbott talks to social worker in training Ceira Walsh about the impact on her. And Sarah Blackmore from Social Work England and screenwriter Emma Reeves, responsible for Elaine the Pain in the Tracy Beaker series, discuss with Emma Barnett what changes could be made.

Emma speaks to Dame Prue Leith, the chef, author and TV personality, who took part in her first ever catwalk this week at the age of 84. She wore clothes designed by the brand Vin and Omi, who've collaborated with the King to use plants grown in his garden to make their sustainable clothes.

What are femcels? The female version of incels, or involuntary celibates. are the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary, Emma speaks to Dr Jilly Kay from Loughborough University to hear more about research into this group and what their online activity looks like.


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m001yb8n)
Michael Palin

John Wilson talks to actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer Sir Michael Palin. A founding member of the hugely influential comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he wrote and performed in its five television series and three feature films including The Life Of Brian. Other big screen credits include A Fish Called Wanda, Brazil, The Missionary and The Death of Stalin. Michael is also a globetrotting documentary presenter and bestselling author.

Michael recalls the early influence of listening to radio comedy as a child, especially the absurdist humour of The Goon Show devised by Spike Milligan. Meeting Terry Jones at Oxford University in 1962 proved to be a life-changing event as the two soon started working on sketches together and after graduating were hired for David Frost's satirical television show The Frost Report. It was on this programme that the duo first worked with future Python members John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.

Starring in Alan Bleasdale's 1991 ground breaking television drama GBH allowed Michael a departure from comedy but also set the bar high for future acting roles which he increasingly forwent in favour of writing and presenting documentaries, including a particular favourite about the Danish Painter Vilhelm Hammershøi.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


Archive :

A Fish Called Wanda, Charles Crichton, 1988
Take It From Here, BBC Light Programme, 1954
The Goon Show, The Man Who Never Was, BBC Light Programme, 1958
Comic Roots, BBC1, 1983
That Was The Week That Was, BBC, 1963
The Frost Report, BBC1, 1966
Do Not Adjust Your Set, ITV, 1967
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, BBC1, 1969-1970
The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones, 1983
Friday Night, Saturday Morning, BBC2, 1979
The Life of Brian, Terry Jones, 1979
GBH, Alan Bleasdale, Channel 4, 1991
The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci, 2017
Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi, BBC4, 2008


THU 11:45 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xvjf)
Episode 4

In an evocative memoir, Catherine Coldstream describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.

After the shock of her father’s death, and with her family scattered, 24 year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and eventually to the Carmelite nuns of Akenside Priory.

Cloistered takes us beyond the grille of an enclosed monastic world with its tight-knit community of dedicated women. We see Catherine, praying in the sparseness of her simple cell, a novice who has found peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt, and the hothouse atmosphere turns to conflict – with far-reaching consequences for those within. Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma - should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?

A vivid and sometimes painfully honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.

The opening and closing music is Veni Creator Spiritus sung by Voces Poeticae

Note from the Publishers: This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people and places, dates, sequences and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

Written by Catherine Coldstream
Read by Hattie Morahan
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 News Summary (m001xvjq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 You and Yours (m001xvk1)
Gap Finders - Sasha Haco

Unitary was co-founded by Sasha Haco and James Thewlis in 2019 after they met during an entrepreneurship scheme. It uses AI to identify and moderate harmful content on various internet platforms, like social media, dating sites, and advertising.

This is currently a job primarily done by humans which requires a lot of man power, and can also be extremely distressing. #

Using AI means that not only can content can be moderated at a fast pace, but it also protects people from being repeatedly exposed to that content – especially if it can be moderated before it’s even published.

We speak to Sasha about building this business from scratch, the challenges she’s faced having not come from a business or tech background, and what learning curves lie ahead as they compete in the world of advancing technology and AI.

PRODUCER: Kate Holdsworth

PRESENTER: Winifred Robinson


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m001xvkh)
Toast - Little Chef

Why did the restaurant chain, Little Chef, disappear from our roadsides?

Sean Farrington discovers what happened to the brand which brought us Jubilee Pancakes, Olympic Breakfasts and free lollies for the kids.

At its peak, Little Chef had over 400 restaurants on most of our major highways and a turnover well in excess of £100m.

So, how did such a successful business ultimately end up toast?

Sean speaks to Fiona Alper who was married to the Little Chef co-founder, Sam Alper; the entrepreneur, Lawrence Wosskow, who once owned Little Chef and Becky Parr-Phillips who started as a waitress but rose through the ranks to become Little Chef's head of operations.

Alongside them all to analyse Little Chef's fortunes is the self-made millionaire and serial entrepreneur, Sam White.

Produced by Jon Douglas. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk

Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in May. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.


THU 12:57 Weather (m001xvky)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m001xvlf)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


THU 13:45 Experts on Trial (m001xvlz)
4. Fire Flashover

How can courtrooms deal with the endlessly self-correcting nature of science?

Author and criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw lays bare the secret world of expert witnesses. An expert on the reliability of memory, she has submitted evidence in more than 50 trials in the UK, US, and Canada. In this series, she dives into five seminal legal cases where the outcome hinged on a crucial piece of expert evidence..

In this episode, Julia tells the story of David Gavitt who woke up one night to find the living room of his home aflame. He told the police he tried to save his family but couldn’t - in only minutes his house was on fire. Fire investigators believe he did it. But how sound is the science they are relying on?

Dr Julia Shaw speaks with long-time fire investigator Emma Wilson about the revolution that took place in the field of fire investigation, the phenomenon known as ‘flashover’, and what we should do when the science changes.

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw
Produceer: Simona Rata

A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4


THU 14:00 The Archers (m001xvlq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000sql7)
The Ventriloquist's Dummy

No one seems to know what is wrong with Jess. No one but The Gut, that is. But Jess isn’t listening.

Amanda Dalton’s drama documentary explores the history of ventriloquism, the relationship between mind and body and the mysterious wisdom of the gut.

Jess.....CHRISTINE BOTTOMLEY
Eurycles.....SANJEEV BHASKAR
The Gut.....MEERA SYAL

Programme Consultant Dr Nick Read

Directed by Nadia Molinari


THU 15:00 Open Country (m001xvmk)
Field notes from Mars

Rose Ferraby joins geologist Dr Claire Cousins, visual artist Ilana Halperin and art historian Dr Catriona McAra as they explore the artistic and scientific terrains of both Orkney and the planet Mars. From the windswept Orcadian cliffs to the Martian landscape, they discover the surprising similarities of these two locations and explore how both science and art can interpret time, space and history in new and insightful ways.

Produced by Ruth Sanderson


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m001xvn3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Feedback (m001xvnp)
The Future of the BBC, Radio 4 Audience Research and Miners’ Strike Series

Are the days of the BBC licence fee numbered and, if so, what might replace it? In the week that the licence fee goes up by £10, we’re asking you to give us your views on the corporation’s future funding model. Matt Walsh, Head of Cardiff University’s Journalism School gives us his take.

The Radio 4 Schedule changes have now kicked in, but what research were the decisions based on? Andrea puts your questions to Alison Winter, Head of Audiences, Radio and Education at the BBC.

And Strike Boy is a 10-part series which follows the son of a striking Nottinghamshire miner as he uncovers the motivations and memories of some of those involved in the 1984 miners’ strike. For this week’s Vox Box, two listeners who have their own personal connections to the strikes, cast an ear over the Radio 4 series - and the producer responds to their comments.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Leeanne Coyle
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4


THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m001xvp8)
What's the future of the state pension?

The state pension system relies on the workers of today paying the pensions of current retirees. But does an aging population and rising costs threaten that model continuing?

David Aaronovitch talks to:

Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Paul Lewis, financial journalist and presenter of Radio 4’s Money Box programme
Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the Financial Times and presenter of the FT's Money Clinic podcast
Sir Steve Webb, formerly Minister for Pensions and current partner at Lane Clark & Peacock

Production team: Drew Hyndman, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m001xvpt)
200 years of dinosaur science

In 1824, 200 years ago, Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to ever be described in a scientific paper. William Buckland studied fossils from Stonesfield in Oxfordshire in order to describe the animal.

In this episode, Victoria Gill visits palaeontologist Dr Emma Nicholls at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, who shows her those very fossils that launched the new science of palaeontology. Danielle Czerkaszyn then opens the archives to reveal the scientific illustrations of Megalosaurus by Mary Morland, which helped shape Buckland's description.

But this was just the beginning. Over the coming decades, remains kept being discovered and scientists were gripped with dinosaur mania, racing to find species. Now, in 2024, we're finding new dinosaurs all the time. Victoria travels to the University of Edinburgh to meet Professor Steve Brusatte and Dr Tom Challands as they start extracting a dinosaur bone from a piece of Jurassic rock - could this be a new species? Together, they reflect on how palaeontology has changed over the last 200 years and ponder the ongoing mysteries of these charismatic animals.

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell and Hannah Robins
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 
Editor: Martin Smith


THU 17:00 PM (m001xvqc)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xvqw)
There are growing calls on Rishi Sunak to hold Israel to account for the attack


THU 18:30 What's the Story, Ashley Storrie? (m001xvrb)
1. How Dad Met Mother

Glasgow's nightlife in the early 1980's was still flying the flag for disco, bell bottoms and oversized lapels, and it was outside the local club in Shettleston where Ashley's parents met for the first time, starting the story that led to an unexpected marriage and a family feud that was never resolved.

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


THU 19:00 The Archers (m001xvqy)
Justin is distracted by Miranda's presence in the village. After much needling, Lilian manages to extract the truth from Justin... he went to visit Miranda when he should have been playing golf on Monday. Lilian is furious… he’s obsessed with her but calms down when Justin says she doesn’t hold a candle to Miranda. Lilian says that Justin will just have to keep his distance. But Justin can't wait to say 'I told you so' to Brian.

Alice arrives at Eve’s home unannounced and discovers Harry lied to Azra about telling his mother he might have cirrhosis. Eve knew he had a drink problem but thought it was under control. Alice admits her family worry about her too but their love and support has bolstered her. Eve is unconvinced: Harry’s addiction has completely crushed the family. He’s been deceitful, insulting, and cruel. Whenever Eve and Harry’s father, Graham, hoped things would change he would simply self-destruct. They have accepted it’s a hopeless cycle. Alice is outraged – how could they turn their backs on their child. But Eve says they gave him so many chances. They can’t do that anymore. Otherwise he’ll pull them all down with him. Eve reveals even Harry’s sister who idolised him has lost faith in him. Alice suggests maybe the warning from a doctor might be the incentive Harry needs to change. But Eve is beyond the point of trusting anything will be different this time. She hopes he gets sober, but his family can’t help him any longer.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m001xvrq)
Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter, Netflix drama Ripley, Io Capitano movie reviewed

Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter - Netflix drama Ripley starring Andrew Scott - Io Capitano, the Oscar-nominated movie about teens in Senegal in search of a better life - all reviewed by film critic Leila Latif and music writer Jasper Murison-Bowie.

And novelist and critic John Domini remembers the American novelist (and his former teacher) John Barth, author of cult bestseller Giles Goat Boy, who has died at the age of 93. 

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Paul Waters


THU 20:00 The Media Show (m001xvjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m001xvs1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Why Do We Do That? (m001dgcr)
Why Is Heartbreak So Painful?

In this episode, Ella Al-Shamahi delves into the origins of a broken heart. Words or phrases that use ‘heart pain’ to describe emotional pain appear in many languages, suggesting it is present in many cultures. Studies show that looking at photos of ex-partners within six months of a break-up triggers the same areas of the brain as physical pain. And as odd as it sounds, just like with physical pain, painkillers can act on feelings of a broken heart. So why is it so painful? TV and Radio Presenter Clara Amfo comes on to talk about love, break-ups and heartbreak. Dr Freddy van der Veen, Associate Professor of Psychology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam reveals the very real signals that travel from our brain to our heart, which may have served an evolutionary purpose.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xvsb)
US says Israel must make changes to keep receiving support

Also on the programme: as NATO marks its 75th birthday, we hear why it remains as relevant today as it was in 1949; and the Brighton taxi driver who drove Swedish supergroup ABBA back to London a few days after their Eurovision win…


THU 22:45 Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (m001xvsk)
4: 'She felt struck by a sinister omen.'

by Gabriel García Márquez

Part Four: August comes round again and Ana Magdalena Bach decides once again to pursue her destiny on the island.

The publication of a discovered novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is an unexpected and thrilling event in international literature. His final novel, completed just before his death in 2014, was written while Márquez was suffering from dementia.

Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

A beautiful, surprising, sensual novel about regret and the mysteries of love.

An EcoAudio certified production.

Read by Maggie Service
Translated by Anne McLean
Abridged by Siân Preece
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane


THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m001y2sj)
Tragedy in Gaza: Will this week’s events change anything?

Two events in the Middle East have grabbed the headlines this week - the killing of seven aid workers, including three British nationals, in Israeli strikes in Gaza and the assassination of three Iranian generals in Syria. But will these events change anything?

Nick is joined by former chief of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, almost six months after his first appearance in the wake of the Hamas attacks. They reflect on how the war has changed since they first spoke.

Tel Aviv-based political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin updates us on the Israeli public’s view of the war as it nears the six month point.

And Radio 2 DJ and novelist Sara Cox swings by the studio to give us her 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 Ricardo McCarthy and digital production from Elliot Ryder.


THU 23:30 Poet Laureate in the Arctic (m001rqm8)
Episode 3

Simon Armitage is spending a few days at the Natural Environmental Research Council Arctic Station in Ny Alesund in Svalbard, by some measures the world's most northerly community. He spends time with research scientists working in the field to look at what's going on in this part of the globe which is warming faster than the rest of the planet.

Travelling by boat, Simon joins the BIOPOLE team Alanna Grant, Nathan Callaghan and Alex O'Brien as they sample glacial meltwater entering the Kongsfjord. The National Environmental Research Council's BIOPOLE long-term project examines how nutrients in polar waters drive the global carbon cycle and primary productivity.

Geologist Professor Jane Francis - CEO of the British Antarctic Survey - and Simon's conversation ranges from sleeping in 24 hours of daylight to the joy of finding fossils of leaves in rocks at the top of mountains in Ny Alesund from a time millions of years ago when the Arctic was tropical, and to the changes in the landscape that Jane has seen since her first visit over 30 years ago.

As well as experiencing the Arctic for himself - whist keeping a watch out for polar bears - Simon is trying to capture the majesty and vulnerability of this region in new poems written in response to what he finds.

with:

BIOPOLE field scientists Alanna Grant, Dr Nathan Christian Callaghan and Alex O'Brien
Professor Christopher Evans
Jane Francis - CEO the British Antarctic Survey
Iain Rudkin, station leader, the Natural Environment Research Council Arctic station

Producer Susan Roberts

FRIDAY 05 APRIL 2024

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m001xvst)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xvjf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m001xvt2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m001xvtb)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m001xvtg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m001xvtl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m001xvtq)
Sticky Toffee Pudding

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

I recently wrote a poem for my wife Grace for our sixth anniversary. I had written her a poem for our first three anniversaries and then claimed to have two ‘fallow years’ so I wanted this one to be really good, and because the associated gift for six years is sugar I started writing a very sweet poem about sticky toffee pudding because just like Grace, it is delicious and warm.

As I started writing my very sincere and lovely poem, I began to feel the familiar temptation to also slip in some ridiculous puns. The more earnest the poem got, the more outrageous the puns that followed. For every: Just like the letter Y, I want to end each day with you, there was a Like a rock climbing enthusiast, you help me to feel bolder just around the corner.

My initial solution was to create a separate burner poem where these lines could exist without undermining the sanctity of the original, and yet all this meant was that I ended up being as proud of this silly second poem as I was the first, and so presented both to Grace in the hope that it would by me another year’s breathing space.

And yet love isn’t just the sincere bits. It is silly and it it is ridiculous as much as is it heartfelt and romantic, and if anything it is the combination of the two that makes it so special, so there is now a new third poem that combines the above two. This is a bit of a theme in my life at the moment, as having come through a difficult period I had been determined to focus only on joyful things, before realising in fact it is the sharing in our difficulties that makes the joy so much deeper when it does come, and it is the combination of the two once again that makes life so special.

Dear God, thank you for the wonderful spectrum that is life. Thank you that you give us both the light and the dark, and people to share it with. We pray that in those moments of hardship we can be brave enough to ask for help, and in those moments of triumph we can find people to celebrate alongside, and in amongst it all that we remember to be ridiculous and silly too.

Amen


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m001xvtv)
05/04/24 - Flooded farms fund, accessible footpaths

Flooded and waterlogged farmers are asking what's happened to the Government's Farming Recovery Fund. It was announced after storm Henk back in January and offered up to £25,000 to farmers towards the clean up after the storm. Well since then, the rain has kept on falling - but no sign of the fund. We hear from one flooded farmer who needs the money to clean up a 10 mile stretch of flood debris.

Today the Ramblers organisation launches its 'Outdoors Unlocked' campaign, urging the Government to remove all unnecessary barriers to access within the next five years. They say that accessing green spaces can be daunting and difficult for people with mobility or visual impairments. We find out how Farming Today listeners can help.

And wool if often worth less than it costs to shear the sheep. But one farming family have come up with a way to make a bit more money from them. David and Ruth Wilkinson have opened a tiny wool mill factory on their Dorset farm.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Marie Lennon


FRI 06:00 Today (m001xvkp)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001xvl5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m001xvll)
Rwanda genocide, Bowie's hairdresser, womanhood during Ramadan

Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide on Sunday, April 7th, BBC journalist Victoria Uwonkunda returns to the counry for the first time after fleeing the genocide as a child in 1994, to find out how the country, and its people, are healing.

Lots of our favourite pop - or rock - stars have had iconic looks to go along with their music. Suzi Ronson is the woman behind a hairstyle many of us will recognise - the red spiky hair of Ziggy Stardust, a character and onstage persona created by David Bowie. Her new memoir, Me and Mr Jones: My Life with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars, talks about her time with the band during the 70s and meeting her late husband, guitarist Mick Ronson.

It’s almost the end of Ramadan 2024 – the month of fasting observed by Muslims all over the world. But what’s it like to be a modern woman, potentially on your period, and still going through Ramadan? Anita speaks with Mehreen Baig from the podcast Not Even Water and Hodo Ibrahim, co-host of The Oversharers podcast, on the challenges and advantages of being a Muslim woman in Ramadan.

You'll likely see the price of getting your nails done go up as of Monday, on what's being called the National Nail Tech Price Increase Day. While you might be paying around £40 to get your nails done, your nail technician would only take home around £7 an hour, once you take away the costs of things like tools and products. Amy Guy is the founder of Nail Tech Org and Rochelle Anthony owns her own salon, and they talk about what the price rise means to them.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Cecelia Armstrong


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m001xvm4)
Cooking at home with Gary Lineker

Footballing legend, broadcaster and our host for lunch… Gary Lineker makes his famous 'gambas al ajillo' for Leyla Kazim at his home as she hears how he learnt to cook nine years ago and never looked back. They also discuss food memories from his professional football career, from playing and eating around the world to unorthodox pre-match lunches, Spanish-style. Along the way, she hears stories from Gary’s friends and family as a little-known side to Gary’s character as a newly passionate cook and self-confessed foodie gradually takes shape.

Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.


FRI 11:45 Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream (m001xvmp)
Episode 5

In an evocative memoir, Catherine Coldstream describes life as a contemplative nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery on the brink of the Millennium.

After the shock of her father’s death, and with her family scattered, 24 year-old Catherine was left grieving and alone. A search for meaning led her to Roman Catholicism and eventually to the Carmelite nuns of Akenside Priory.

Cloistered takes us beyond the grille of an enclosed monastic world with its tight-knit community of dedicated women. We see Catherine, praying in the sparseness of her simple cell, a novice who has found peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors. Power struggles erupt, and the hothouse atmosphere turns to conflict – with far-reaching consequences for those within. Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma - should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?

A vivid and sometimes painfully honest account of her twelve years in the Order, Cloistered is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when good people cut themselves off from the wider world.

The opening and closing music is Veni Creator Spiritus sung by Voces Poeticae

Note from the Publishers: This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life, experiences and recollections of the author. In some cases names of people and places, dates, sequences and the detail of events have been changed to protect the privacy of others.

Written by Catherine Coldstream
Read by Hattie Morahan
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m001xvn7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m001xvnv)
Racism and the countryside

Rural parts of the UK have recently been described as 'colonial', predominantly white spaces, where members of ethnic minorities feel unwelcome, sparking a debate about whether the countryside is racist.

Data shows that the rural population is 97% white, much more so than in towns and cities, so might that be an explanation for some people feeling out of place? Why has a prominent museum rehung some of its paintings, adding context about the nationalist sentiment some of them might evoke? And how did this debate start in the first place? We track its evolution and the contested evidence at the heart of it.

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Simon Tulett, Ellie House, Arlene Gregorius and Ajai Singh
Editor: Richard Vadon


FRI 12:57 Weather (m001xvpd)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m001xvpw)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


FRI 13:45 Experts on Trial (m001xvqf)
5. DNA Transfer

Can psychological bias contaminate forensic science? Author and criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw lays bare the secret world of expert witnesses. An expert on the reliability of memory, she has submitted evidence in more than 50 trials in the UK, US, and Canada. In this series, she dives into five seminal legal cases where the outcome hinged on a crucial piece of expert evidence.

In this episode, Julia tells the story of Lukis Anderson, whose DNA found its way on the fingernails of a murder victim he never crossed paths with. It turns out that a DNA match is not quite the smoking gun we think it is.

Dr Julia Shaw once again speaks with forensic scientist Jo Millington, this time about the limitations of DNA evidence and secondary transfer of DNA. She asks how bias in forensic science might come into play, even for DNA analysis.

Presenter: Dr Julia Shaw
Produceer: Simona Rata

A TellTale Industries production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m001xvqy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m001xvrd)
Silos

SILOS - 3: Playlist

'Alone. One journey, then another. Now I am here. Who am I here?'
Marvin reveals disturbing information about Riv. But Nat ignores his advice and returns to Silo 605 and is persuaded to try a playlist. As Hanna takes over Jodie's room, Nat's experience both asleep and awake, gets even stranger.

CAST:
NAT - Anastasia Hille
RIV - Paul Bazely
ROZMAY - Rakie Ayola
CAROL - Rebekah Staton
HANNA - Bryony Hannah
HONOUR - Raad Rawi
DIZZY - Waleed Akhtar
JODIE - Anna Fenton-Garvey
MARVIN - Lee Rufford
INFOVERT VOICE - Teresa Gallagher
IVAN - 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 (m001xl5b)
17. Milk

Milk. However it comes its a vital source of life. India Rakusen explores it’s various forms and the history and politics that have shaped the way we view how we feed our babies.

The pressures around feeding our new-borns can be intensely difficult to navigate. India speaks to a new mum, Kerry, about her experience expressing and feeding in neonatal wards. She also finds out how milk is built from scientist Mary Fewtrell and talks to historian and author Joanna Wolfarth about the way milk has ruled motherhood, and how we can move forward.

Presented by India Rakusen
Producer: Ellie Sans
Series Producer: Ellie Sans
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant
Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
Original music composed and performed by The Big Moon and ESKA Mtungwazi
Mix and Mastering by Olga Reed

A Listen production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m001xvrs)
Fulham

Is it possible to grow edible watermelons in the UK? How do revive my red Duke of York potatoes after over-chitting them? How can I continue growing leeks while protecting them from leaf miners?

Kathy Clugston and a panel of keen gardening experts are in Fulham, West London to unearth the answers to the audience's gardening conundrums. On the panel this week are organic gardener Bob Flowerdew, pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood, and curator of RHS Wisley Matthew Pottage.

Later, we immerse ourselves in the Sound of Blossom festival at Kew Gardens, where head kitchen gardener Helena Dove educates us on the life cycle of blossoms, and the benefits it has for insects and wildlife.

Senior Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m001xvs2)
La Scala Sauchiehall Street

"The barrier between this world and the next is thin in La Scala."
Louise Welsh's short story celebrates Glasgow of the 1930s, when the city boasted more cinema screens per person than anywhere else in the UK.
Read by Elysia Welch
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m001xvsc)
Joe Lieberman, Diana Baring, Lynn Kinnear, Kay Benbow

Matthew Bannister on

Joe Lieberman, the US Democrat politician who fell out with his party over the Iraq War.

Diana Baring, the respected literary agent. We have a tribute from her client Frederick Forsyth.

Lynn Kinnear, who was one of the most influential landscape architects of her generation.

Kay Benbow, who commissioned and made many acclaimed TV shows for children.

Interviewee: Matt Lieberman
Interviewee: Frederick Forsyth
Interviewee: Caroline Dawnay
Interviewee: Sean Griffiths
Interviewee: Kim Tserkezie

Producer: Catherine Powell

Archive used:
Joe Lieberman addresses the Senate floor, 04/09/1998, AP Archive, YouTube upload, 21/07/2015; Joe Lieberman interview, The Mehdi Hasan Show, MSNBC, YouTube Upload, 27/10/2021; Joe Lieberman interview, HardTalk, BBC News, 29/06/2017; Joe Lieberman interview, All things considered, NPR, 12/10/2015; Late Night with Conan O'Brien 15/01/2003 Show Executive Producers Lorne Michaels Jeff Ross; The Day of the Jackal trailer, Universal City Studios LLC, IMDb, 1973; Walthamstow Wetlands, London Wildlife Trust, YouTube upload 04/2021; Lynn Kinnear interviewed by Hattie Hartman, 01/07/2022; Balamory Theme Song – BBC Foster Paterson; Woman's Hour : Children's Television; 12/09/2014; Nina and the Neurons BBC Series 2 “Nina’s Cake Bakes” 02/04/2008; The Clangers, Smallfilms for the BBC, 31/10/08


FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m001y10v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m001xvsm)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m001xvsw)
Israel has released a report on how its forces killed seven aid workers in Gaza


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (m001xvt4)
Series 64

Episode 4

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. Starring Jon Holmes on animals making headlines, Angela Barnes on theft and an original song from Jonny & the Baptists. With voices from Ed Jones and Roisin O’Mahony.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Tasha Dhanraj, Mike Shepard, Alex Bertulis-Fernandes and Peter Tellouche.

Producer: Sasha Bobak
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m001xvtc)
Writer: Daniel Thurman
Director: Peter Leslie Wild

Brian Aldridge…. Charles Collingwood
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer …. Richard Attlee
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman
Eve Chilcott …. Juliet Aubrey
Harry Chilcott …. Jack Ashton
Justin Elliott …. Simon Williams
Miranda Elliott …. Lucy Fleming
Eddie Grundy…. Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Dr Azra Malik…. Yasmin Wilde
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Robert Snell…. Michael Bertenshaw
Odette Callander…. Christine Kavanagh
Mrs Cromwell…. Karen Bryson
Mr Murray …. Ian Dunnett Jr


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m001xvth)
Censorship

As the British Board of Film Classification publishes its new guidelines, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode delve into the long, chequered history of film censorship and classification in the UK.

Mark speaks to BBFC President (and original Strictly Come Dancing winner) Natasha Kaplinsky about her role, and about her reaction to the new guidelines. And he discusses the Board's controversial history, and some of its most notorious decisions, with ex-BBFC Head of Compliance Craig Lapper.

Ellen talks to director Prano Bailey-Bond about her debut film Censor, which was inspired by the 'video nasty' moral panic of the 1980s. And pop culture critic Kayleigh Donaldson talks her through some of the differences between the BBFC and its US equivalent, the MPA Ratings Board.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m001xvtm)
Sir Jake Berry MP, Baroness Chakrabarti, Inaya Folarin Iman, Richard Walker

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Enginuity at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in Shropshire with the former Conservative Party Chair Sir Jake Berry MP, the Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti, Contributing Editor at the Daily Mail and Director of The Equiano Project Inaya Folarin Iman and the Managing Director of Iceland Richard Walker.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Simon Tindall


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m001xvtr)
Motherland

Zoe Strimpel reflects on the extraordinary experience of ‘crossing the rubicon separating non-motherhood from matrescence’.

‘I had never quite put aside an abiding ambivalence about having a baby, even during pregnancy,’ writes Zoe.

But in the space of thirty minutes - and the delivery of a baby girl by C-section - Zoe says, ‘my hop over the long-tended, long-contemplated border with motherland rapidly resolved as her tiny features came into focus and a sense of interestingness became a sense of desperate affection and even of familiarity.’

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


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m001xvtw)
What do you owe the state ? Do you think in terms of loyalties and duties ? Writing during the English civil war, Thomas Hobbes came up with an outline for the social contract between the people and the sovereign – on Free Thinking, Matthew Sweet and guests unpick his ideas and come up with a version for now. They also explore the politics of butter and seek guidance about history from an unexpected source.

Barry Smith is Director of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study and founding director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses. For BBC Radio 4 he presented a 10 part series called The Uncommon Senses. You can find him on previous Free Thinking conversations about Pleasure and Futurism.
Joanne Paul is the author of The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England. She's Honorary Senior Lecturer in Intellectual History at the University of Sussex and was a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker and presented her research in a Radio 3 Essay exploring Speaking truth to power
James Kirkup is a Senior Fellow at the Social Market Foundation think tank and he writes for publications including The Times
Sophie Scott-Brown is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, where she teaches intellectual history. She is the author of The Histories of Raphael Samuel - A Portrait of A People’s Historian. You can find her in the Free Thinking programme archive discussing anarchism and David Graeber and Happiness

Dr Stu Eve is Archaeological Director of the Waterloo Uncovered project.

Previous episodes of Free Thinking are available on the programme website and BBC Sounds and as the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast.

Producer: Robyn Read


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m001xvty)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (m001xvv0)
5: 'She felt more than strong enough to carry on being herself.'

by Gabriel García Márquez

Part Five: Haunted by the past, Ana Magdalena Bach returns once more to the island and makes a startling discovery.

The publication of a discovered novel by Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez is an unexpected and thrilling event in international literature. His final novel, completed just before his death in 2014, was written while Márquez was suffering from dementia.

Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.

A beautiful, surprising, sensual novel about regret and the mysteries of love.

An EcoAudio certified production.

Read by Maggie Service
Translated by Anne McLean
Abridged by Siân Preece
Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane


FRI 23:00 Americast (m001xvv2)
Could the Israel-Gaza war cost Biden the election?

Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday for the first time since the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza this week. Netanyahu has called the incident an “unintended strike”, but the White House has said it’s ‘outraged’.

Back home, US policy toward the Gaza war is causing problems for the president. A growing campaign of voters are using their ballot to protest Biden’s handling of the crisis.

Jeremy Bowen joins us from Jerusalem to assess whether the US/Israel relationship has ever been this strained and we assess how Joe Biden can deal with the domestic ramifications of the war ahead of the 2024 election.

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent
• Katty Kay US Special Correspondent

GUEST:
• Jeremy Bowen, International Editor

GET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
• Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480
• Email Americast@bbc.co.uk
• Or use #Americast

Find out more about our award-winning “undercover voters” here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.

US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s new BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155

This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo, Claire Betzer and Natasha Mayo. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.


FRI 23:30 Poet Laureate in the Arctic (m001ryd7)
Episode 4

Simon Armitage is spending a few days at the Natural Environmental Research Council's Arctic Station in Ny Alesund in Svalbard. This is the world's most northerly community, consisting of a group of buildings housing scientists from 11 different nations. He's here to see for himself what's happening in this part of the world, and to talk to research scientists who can explain the importance of the work they are doing in the Arctic, which is warming faster than the rest of the planet.

Travelling by by bike and on foot, Simon heads out from the base, joining Dr Jaz Millar, Emily Broadwell and Madeleine Lewis from the University of Bristol on their trek to a glacier to take samples for the iDAPT project. This four-year study is examining how the earliest plants were able to make the transition from fresh water to land, one of the most important steps in the evolution of the Earth. Simon finds out why this project is relevant to the current rapid change happening in the Arctic now.

Having heard thunderous cleaving of ice from the snout of the sea glaciers in the fjord, Iain and Simon go for a closer look in the station's boat. Finding it impossible to get close to the front of the glacier, the boat is left to drift as they listen to the sound of the ice popping and melting in the 24-hour-long sunshine.

As well as experiencing the Arctic for himself - whist keeping a watch our for polar bears - Simon is trying to capture the majesty and vulnerability of this region in new poems written in response to what he finds.

with:

iDAPT field scientists Dr Jaz Millar, Emily Broadwell and Madeleine Lewis
Iain Rudkin, station leader, the Natural Environment Research Council Arctic station

Producer Susan Roberts