SATURDAY 17 AUGUST 2024
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0021xwb)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 New Storytellers (m0021xv3)
The Outcast Dead and Alive
Hidden in the heart of Southwark on London's South Bank, buried between skyscrapers and stations, are a set of iron gates festooned with photos, ribbons and other memento mori which open into a garden - Crossbones, the site of a medieval sex workers graveyard. Known as the Winchester Geese, these women were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, whose Palace was nearby, and plied their trade in the Southwark streets across the River Thames from the respectable City of London.
In 1997, the writer John Constable had what he calls a 'visitation' which showed him the location of the graveyard and, following excavations, it was confirmed as the site of Crossbones.
Grace Reeve's Gold Charles Parker Prize-winning feature uses extracts from Constable's Southwark Mysteries and Spark in the Dark to explore the history of the burial site, the battle for its survival and the unique rites and rituals that keep memories alive and create new traditions.
Grace is studying an MA in Audio, Radio and Podcasting at Goldsmiths, University of London. The judges said her Gold Prize winning feature, The Outcast Dead and Alive, was “fantastical, bonkers and rather wonderful. Unusual, profound and embedded deep in the social history of ordinary people: it's made me want to go visit the graveyard!"
With special thanks to the Bankside Open Spaces Trust and the Friends of Crossbones. The songs, incantations and poetry are by John Constable and performed at the Ribbon Gates by the Heathen Harlots.
Producer: Grace Reeve
A Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0021xwd)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0021xwg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0021xwj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0021xwl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0021xwn)
The human spirit flourishes
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
SAT 05:45 Frontlines of Journalism (m001lyh2)
6. Getting there
Getting to the truth starts with getting to the story. Often that’s easier than said than done.
Many people want to control access and the stakes can be high for those trying to get past them.
Revisiting difficult stories he and other journalists have had to report, BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen looks at some of the obstacles that stand between journalists and what the Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein called the ‘best obtainable version of the truth’.
Jeremy speaks with: former Reuters journalist Sabina Cosic, Emily Bell - Professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and Eliot Higgins - founder of investigative journalism group Bellingcat.
Presenter: Jeremy Bowen
Producer: Georgia Catt
Assistant Producer: Sam Peach
Additional research: Rob Byrne
Series mixing: Jackie Margerum
Series Editor: Philip Sellars
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m00223rt)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (m0021xsp)
Writing Wildness
Helen Mark heads to the Shropshire hills to discover how to write about nature at The Hurst, a place dedicated to artistic practice.
She meets author-tutors Miriam Darlington (Otter Country, Owl Sense) and Patrick Barkham (The Swimmer, Wild Isles) who share with Helen their techniques of encouraging new writers to find their own voice and how to turn observation and reflection into a compelling story. As she wanders through the summertime meadows with the group of budding writers, she hears how they hone their skills of attention and why writing about the natural world matters to them.
Helen also gains a sense of this pocket of the natural world within the landscape, finding out about the other species who call these Shropshire woodlands and gardens home.
The Hurst is run by the Arvon Foundation who promote creative writing.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m00223rw)
After all the wet weather this year there is talk of both drought and wildfires.
Two separate reports out this week have highlighted the threat that they pose to people and the environment, both in the UK and further afield.
The Shropshire and Herefordshire countryside is peppered with traditional farmhouses and cottages dating back hundreds of years, homeowners are being taught the skills to maintain them for the future.
Plant breeders are worried that UK border rules mean new seed varieties, which need to be trialled in fields in England, are being delayed.
Dry stone walls are an integral part of our landscape from Orkney to Cornwall.
It is estimated that there are about 180,000 miles of them - but that as many as 85% are in need of repair.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Alun Beach
SAT 06:57 Weather (m00223ry)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m00223s0)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 The Missing Madonna (m00223s2)
The Handover
A man sits nervously in a car. Will he get the Madonna back, or a bullet in the head? Olivia pieces together the most critical moment in the plan to rescue the painting.
SAT 09:45 Animal (m001q0v4)
Swooping Season
Most Australians only notice magpies once a year, during ‘swooping season’. For a few weeks, local magpies appear to launch random attacks on passers-by. But maybe we’re only seeing one side of it.
In this episode - why humans should learn to listen better to these intelligent birds. Blair hears from Gisela Kaplan - a Professor of Animal Behaviour who’s spent over 25 years rehabilitating native birds at her home on the south eastern coast of Australia. Gisela introduces us to a different, unexpected side of the Australian magpie.
In Animal, writer and adventurer Blair Braverman presents stories exploring the curious and fascinating ways humans relate to other animals - from magpies to spiders to creatures of the deepest oceans.
Producer and Sound Designer: Arlie Adlington
Co-Producer: Jesse Lawson
Executive Producer: Steven Rajam
Sound Mixing: Arlie Adlington
Series Art: Cameron Hay
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m00223s4)
Alexis Soyer
In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined in the nineteenth century by Dr Annie Gray and comedian Ed Gamble to learn all about French celebrity chef Alexis Soyer. Despite being well-known during his lifetime, Soyer is virtually unknown today. His primary legacy was a portable stove, used by the British army until the Falklands War. But Soyer was a prototypical celebrity chef: he opened the Reform Club kitchen to the public so that they could watch him cook, wrote popular cookbooks, sold kitchen gadgets and branded sauces, and even took part in high-profile charity campaigns. From his birth in France to the success he found in London, via a soup kitchen in Dublin and a hospital during the Crimean War, this episode explores Alexis Soyer’s extraordinary life and culinary innovations.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Hannah Campbell Hewson
Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: James Cook
SAT 10:30 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m00223qt)
Series 3
London to Berwick on Tweed
Comedy icon Alexei Sayle takes his final trip in this series of train journeys across Gt. Britain as he travels from London to Berwick on Tweed.
Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, thoughts, dreams and destinations.
Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the interests of the great British travelling public. There’s hilarity, humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.
Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.
In this programme, Alexei meets ex-teacher Christina, who is returning to Yorkshire after being scared of taking on such a long journey to London - especially the perils of travelling on the underground - but happily found a knight in shining armour to help her at King's Cross station. Alexei also meets train manager Steven who, apart from working on the railway, has carved out a budding career as a playwright; Sally, who spent 24 years in the Army and now works as a philanthropy manager helping a leading cancer charity to raise money for its work; Rahul and Priya, who are heading for Scotland on a short break sightseeing - and tasting whiskey and chocolate; Philomena and Mark who describe the delights of their home town of Dunbar to Alexei; Meg, who was at the start of the computer revolution, demonstrating and programming some of the first office computers; and Gemma who works on the railway, but also has a passion for beauty pageants.
A Ride production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 11:00 Newscast (m00227v3)
Adam Fleming and friends discuss the week's biggest stories.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m00223pf)
Ukraine's incursion into Russia's border regions
Kate Adie presents stories from Russia, Nigeria, the US, Ecuador and Italy.
Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s western border region of Kursk caused authorities to declare a state of emergency there. The incursion is now in its second week and is the deepest into Russian territory since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion. Steve Rosenberg has been watching the reaction in Moscow and reflects on another major news event soon after he first arrived in Russia.
Nigeria has been in the throes of an economic crisis which earlier this month led to 10 days of protests across the country. More than 700 demonstrators were arrested, 22 were killed and many more were injured. The marches eventually petered out but the causes of their discontent, though, don’t look likely to go away. Simi Jolaoso has been to an open-air market in Lagos.
In certain US states, parents are offered school vouchers as a means of paying for their children to go to private school, should they so choose, using public funding which would otherwise be used for state-funded school places. The vouchers scheme has polarised communities across the state of Arizona, says Mark Moran in Queen Creek.
In Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa has moved to clampdown on organised crime and the drug cartels since he took power, amid a surge in outbreaks of violence. Danny Wiser was in Guayaquil, which has seen the worst of the violence and learned how it's impacting key areas of daily life.
The Italian city of Trieste has a complex identity, thanks to its history and geography. It was once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Sara Wheeler found out more about its past on a visit this summer.
Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill & Katie Morrison
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m00223s6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Sliced Bread (p0h451lc)
Toast - Jamie's Italian
What went wrong at Jamie Oliver's UK restaurant chain, Jamie's Italian?
While Sliced Bread takes a break we serve up… Toast. A study of the spectacular failures of brands which had promised so much to consumers.
In each episode, the presenter and BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington, examines one big idea. What did it promise? Why did it fail? What can we learn from it today?
In this episode, which was first broadcast in February 2024, Sean and the serial entrepreneur, Sam White, examine the fortunes of Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain. It was a big hit when it launched so why couldn't it maintain that success?
Expert commentators - and Jamie Oliver himself - reflect on what made his restaurants so special and what led to their demise.
Tracey MacLeod, formerly of The Independent, was one of the first restaurant critics through the door; Emma Lake, Assistant Editor at The Caterer magazine wrote extensively about Jamie's Italian; Peter Harden, the co-founder of Harden's Restaurant Guide, has trawled through reviews of Jamie's Italian to see what changed from the customers' perspective.
Jamie Oliver's perspective comes through an interview he did with Kirsty Young for the Radio 4 series 'Young Again'.
If you have an idea for a topic with a toast moment then you can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in February. In the new series, Greg Foot will investigate more of the latest so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.
Toast is produced by Jon Douglas and Viant Siddique and is a BBC Audio North production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
SAT 12:30 Catherine Bohart: TL;DR (m0021xvr)
Series 1
Episode 4
Want to brush up on the state of education for the new school year? Dust off your calculators and head for assembly. TL;DR has done the recommended reading for you.
This week, Catherine's fascinated by a funding crisis that looks set to hit almost half of UK universities. What's causing it? And what might the solution be?
Joining her in her quest for answers are comedian Pierre Novellie and The Herald's education writer, James McEnaney. In the Sidebar, Lorna Rose Treen takes a break from her Edinburgh show to give us her thoughts as she heads off for her first term at uni.
Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham, Sarah Campbell and Ellen Robertson.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
Recorded at Dynamic Earth as part of The BBC at the Edinburgh Festivals
Edited by David Thomas
Production Coordinator - Beverly Tagg
A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 12:57 Weather (m00223s8)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m00223sb)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0021xvy)
Dame Harriett Baldwin MP, Liam Halligan, James Murray MP, Ann Pettifor
Alex Forsyth presents political discussion from Chartered Accountants' Hall in the City of London with the Shadow Minister for Development Dame Harriett Baldwin MP, economics journalist Liam Halligan, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray MP and the economist Ann Pettifor.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Richard Earle
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m00223sd)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m0021xvt)
As George gets ready to head off to Bridge Farm, Will reminds him that they’re celebrating Mia’s A level results later. She’s got into her first choice of Newcastle University. George says Mia’s results are nothing compared to Brad, who got four A-stars! Emma arrives to give George a lift, telling them that Alice’s hypnotherapy appointment is this morning. Panicked George worries that Alice will remember what really happened on the night of the accident. They’ve got to stop her! He discovers the probable location of the appointment and demands to have Will’s car. Emma’s incredulous when Will offers to drive him. But Will stops in a lay-by en route, explaining that George will only make things worse by going there. He might even trigger Alice’s memory. Whatever George did, it came from a good place and he was trying to help Alice. But tearful George can’t face prison. Will counsels that George will feel better if he admits to everything now. George can’t run away forever.
At her hypnotherapy session Alice tells the therapist that she has a blank after a certain point on the night of the accident. But she’s worried she may discover that she was driving and is guilty. Afterwards Alice recalls that she definitely put her keys in the glove compartment before drinking and has no memory of taking them out. Emma rings to find out how it went, but is really fishing to discover if Alice remembered anything. Alice says she recalled hearing the crash but nothing else. Next time she might just get to the bottom of what happened that night.
SAT 15:00 Stalingrad (m0022dp5)
1. Viktor Shtrum
By Vasily Grossman
Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler
Dramatised by Mike Walker
Part one of Grossman's dark and honest account of the epic battle of Stalingrad; a prequel to his novel Life and Fate, starring Kenneth Branagh, Greta Scacchi and Mark Bonnar and recently published in its first ever English translation by Richard and Elizabeth Chandler.
Stalingrad explores the approach of war to the city of Stalingrad, through the many lives of the Shaposhnikov family and their partners. Atomic scientist Viktor Shtrum struggles with his work for the Soviet state, while his family live, love and work despite swirling rumours, to run the city’s power stations, factories and hospitals.
Viktor Shtrum ….. Kenneth Branagh,
Lyuda Shaposhnikova ..... Greta Scacchi
Alexandra ….. Ann Mitchell
Zhenya ….. Doon Mackichan
Stepan Spiridonov ….. Kenneth Cranham
Nina ….. Danusia Samal
Vera ….. Scarlett Courtney
Tolya ….. Will Kirk
Novikov ….. Rick Warden
Lenya ….. Greg Jones
Pryahkin ….. Clive Hayward
Yeremenko ….. Neil McCaul
Apparatchik ….. Adam Courting
Driver ….. Ikky Elias
Woman….. Sinead MacInnes
Original music composed by John Hardy, with Rob Whitehead, and performed by Oliver Wilson-Dixon, Tom Jackson, Stacey Blythe, and Max Pownall.
Produced and directed by Jonquil Panting
Series Producer Alison Hindell
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m00223sh)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Olympian Emily Campbell, Sexsomnia and the CPS, Science fiction, Paralympian Jodie Grinham
Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo.
In 2020, Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott had the case against her alleged rapist dropped by the CPS. They said that the defence had suggested she suffered from ‘sexsomnia’, where a person performs sexual acts in their sleep. Jade Blue put in a Victim’s Right to Review and received an apology from the CPS for dropping the case, which cannot be re-opened. Jade Blue then sued the CPS – and has now received £35,000 in compensation for damages. Jade joins Jessica to tell her how it feels to have that compensation.
Throughout the summer we’ve been taking a look into the world of 'genre fiction' – the women who read it and the women who write it. In the latest of this series, we discuss science fiction. Seen by some as 'a genre for men,' there are lots of women authors and readers who think otherwise. Bafta-nominated screenwriter and playwright, Moira Buffini, who's written The Dig and TV series Harlots, joins Nuala to discuss her debut science fiction novel, Songlight. Larissa Lai, science fiction novelist and professor at University of Toronto, with two novels shortlisted by the Otherwise Award also joins Nuala.
The Paris Paralympics are two weeks away, and Nuala is joined by archery champion Jodie Grinham. Having already won a silver medal in Rio and a gold at this year's European Para Cup, Jodie will be looking to win a medal again this summer. She has already broken one record, being the first member of Team GB's para team to compete whilst pregnant.
What do you think of maternity clothes? For mums-to-be in 2024, it's apparently all about low-cut jeans and crop tops, moving away from traditional maternity wear. Retailers are recording a decrease of maternity clothes searches with women instead opting for regular clothes, perhaps in a bigger size. So why the shift? Jessica is joined by Assistant Fashion Editor at The Times, Hannah Rogers and influencer and author Alex Light to discuss.
Mary Bridget Davies is playing Janis in A Night With Janis Joplin. It's a biographical musical about the life of Janis Joplin and her musical influences. It includes all the big Janis hits, including Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee performed by Mary - a role she was Tony-nominated for in the Broadway version of the musical.
Presenter: Jessica Creighton
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Rebecca Myatt
SAT 17:00 PM (m00223sk)
Ukraine 'strengthens' positions inside Russia
As President Zelensky says Ukrainian troops in Russia are 'strengthening' their positions, American general David Petraeus assesses the gains made. Plus, 100 firefighters tackle a blaze in the roof of London's Somerset House, and work begins to cover over the Neolithic Ness of Brodgar archaeological site.
SAT 17:30 Sliced Bread (m0021xsh)
Dough - Fridges
Could fridges make way for kitchen cabinets that don't just keep food fresh but actually grow it?
Dough is a new series from BBC Radio 4 which looks at the business behind profitable, everyday products, assessing where the smart money is going now and what that could mean for all of us in the years ahead.
In this episode, the entrepreneur Sam White speaks with experts from the world of refrigeration including:
Federica Torelli – Head of Product Management with Smeg which makes fridge freezers.
Emir Lasic - Principal Analyst with the industry analysts, Omdia.
Jason Hirst - CEO and founder of EvoGro which makes plant growing cabinets.
Also joining them is the technology expert and applied futurist, Tom Cheesewright, who offers his insight and predictions on what might be coming beyond the current production pipeline.
Together, they explore fridge freezer trends and inventions chatting about their own choices for game changing, and pointless, innovations.
We hear how energy efficiency labels are not always as accurate as you might think and assess the chances of indoor incubators providing a new home for vegetables and leafy greens away from the fridge.
Produced by Viant Siddique & Jon Douglas. Dough is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in August when 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, Dough is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00223sm)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m00223sp)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00223sr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0022534)
Jason Byrne, Marjolein Robertson, David Ireland, Isabella Nefar, Catriona Price, Two Hearts
Clive Anderson is joined by comedian Jason Byrne who returns to Edinburgh for his 28th consecutive Fringe with No Show, a performance that will be totally new each night. Playwright and actor David Ireland’s award-winning plays Cyprus Avenue and Ulster American have had success across the world. His latest play The Fifth Step stars Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder as they navigate the road to recovery. Shetland comedian Marjolein Robertson’s show titled O is full to the brim with blood as she explores her fascination with her own funeral and her near death experience. My English Persian Kitchen is the true story of losing a homeland, and building a new life and community around the tastes and aromas of an Iranian kitchen. Isabella Nefar chats about starring in the play, and cooking on stage.
With music from Scottish violinist and composer Catriona Price and Two Hearts, AKA New Zealand's hottest comedy pop-music duo Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore.
Presented by Clive Anderson
Produced by Caitlin Sneddon
SAT 19:00 Growing Solo (m001yjb9)
Hungry Gap
Max Cotton, a retired political journalist, leaves behind the weekly shop, supermarkets and the modern world to find out if he can grow and produce 100% of his food on a smallholding near Glastonbury. His only import for a year is salt.
In this episode, life on the farm starts getting hard as the reality of seasonal food production in England begins to bite. Early spring is the hardest time to produce fresh vegetables - it’s called the hungry gap. We hear how Max is trying to bridge that gap. The irony is that the news has been full of stories about shortages in supermarkets while Max is living off swedes, milk and rationed potatoes.
Presenter: Max Cotton
Producer: Tessa Browne
Executive Producer: Kate Dixon
A Good Egg production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 19:15 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0j98c02)
Series 30
An Unexpected History of Science - Rufus Hound, Matthew Cobb, Victoria Herridge and Keith Moore
Brian Cox and Robin Ince raid the archives of the Royal Society to reveal an unexpected history of science with guests Rufus Hound, Tori Herridge, Matthew Cobb and Keith Moore. Together they explore some of the surprising and wackiest scientific endeavours undertaken by early members of the Royal Society from the discovery of sperm to testing the insect repelling properties of unicorn horn. They hear how a beautiful book on fish almost scuppered Newton's Principia Mathematica and why a guide to the fauna of Switzerland ended up including depictions of dragons.
Producer: Melanie Brown
Exec Producer: Alexandra Feachem
BBC Studios Audio production
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m00223sw)
The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski
Frances Stonor Saunders explores the life and work of Jacob Bronowski through the uncertain prism of the archive.
Jacob Bronowski was a scientist, a poet and a prolific broadcaster. He is most well-known for the epic 1973 television series The Ascent of Man. It was a landmark of its time: a globe-trotting distillation of Bronowski’s thought – tracing the upward development of human culture across history, via its understanding of science and technology.
Jacob Bronowski had been a familiar figure on the BBC for almost 30 years by the time of the Ascent of Man. He was a public intellectual, communicating difficult ideas in an accessible manner for a wide audience – about literature, art, society. But primarily about science: the essential truthfulness of science and its progressive potential.
Bronowski died in August 1974, a year after the Ascent of Man was first broadcast. And so his greatest work was also his final work.
In the years since, one extract from the series has been seen more than any other – become one of those television moments that lives beyond its own time. And beyond Jacob Bronowski’s. Detached from the larger series – to float free on the internet and social media.
It was filmed at Auschwitz. Jacob Bronowski stands at the edge of a pond into which the ashes of those cremated in the camp’s ovens had been tipped. He makes an impassioned plea for tolerance and against certainty. And then, unrehearsed, he steps into the water: “We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act.” He clasps a handful of the muddy remains: “We have to touch people.”
This short clip, barely three minutes long, viscerally encapsulates Bronowski’s ideas about the dangers of dogma and certainty.
But it also captures, obliquely, other things as well.
One person who could see things in that clip that others couldn’t was Bronowski’s daughter Lisa Jardine. As a professional historian she was used to constructing stories from archival fragments. The 16th and 17th centuries were her usual research terrain, but towards the end of her own life she’d moved closer to home, working on a memoir about the father she always called Bruno, provisionally titled Things I Never Knew About My Father.
Through the lens of Lisa Jardine’s research, writer and historian Frances Stonor Saunders returns to that extract from Ascent of Man and finds within it clues to something more personal and puzzling about Jacob Bronowski’s life and ideas – and the unreliability of the archive.
With Judith Bronowski, Ralph Desmarais, John Hare and David Hendy.
Grateful thanks to Gideon Brower, Michael Hodder, Stephen Moss and Paul Reynolds.
SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m0021xq6)
Should Foreign Tourism Be Discouraged?
In recent weeks tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Spain’s most popular tourist destinations. From Málaga to Mallorca, Gran Canaria to Granada, locals are revolting against what they see as the hollowing out of their communities with the buying up of properties to turn them into short-stay holiday lets for people they argue don’t respect their locality, culture or language. UNESCO has described the situation as "totally out of balance".
On one level this is an argument about economics, but the implications are profoundly moral. People shouldn’t feel like second-class citizens in their own towns, but we also recognise the freedom to move, rest and discover. The affordability of travel makes mass tourism possible, but it’s lamented by those who see it as selfish, narcissistic and damaging to native cultures and the environment. And yet travel supposedly broadens the mind and the soul – a cultural exchange that can be a catalyst for self-improvement, make us more empathetic, and provide a livelihood for host communities.
Should foreign tourism be discouraged? Or if it’s mass tourism we’re worried about, what can we do about it without holidays becoming an elitist pursuit?
Producer: Dan Tierney
Assistant producer: Ruth Purser
Panel:
Giles Fraser
Sonia Sodha
Ash Sarkar
Tim Stanley
Witnesses:
Guillem Colom-Montero
Jim Butcher
Anna Hughes
Emily Thomas
SAT 22:00 News (m00223sy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m0021xv1)
Addicted to Food
Sheila Dillon hears why some clinicians and researchers want the condition 'Ultra-Processed Food Addiction' to be recognised by groups such as The World Health Organisation.
Earlier this year, Dr Jen Unwin (clinical psychologist) and some like-minded international colleagues, including Dr Chris Van Tulleken (scientist, author and broadcaster), came together in London to discuss why they believe Ultra-Processed Foods (UPF), as defined by the NOVA Food Classification system, are the most problematic, and are causing more addicted like behaviours in people. They say if the addiction was formalised, then Government's would have to do more to regulate these foods and the food industry.
People who consider themselves food addicts, explain to Sheila what the addiction is like to live with, how they stay abstinent from certain foods, and why they believe it would help others if the diagnosis was available to more people.
Sheila also speaks to a specialist in Eating Disorders who says they don't believe the scientific evidence for Food Addiction is strong enough, and has concerns that labelling certain foods as 'bad' or 'toxic' could lead to more disordered eating.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced by Natalie Donovan in Bristol.
Additional Resources:
https://the-chc.org/fas
https://liberatetoday.org/
https://liberatetoday.org/
SAT 23:00 Scott Agnew: Dead Man Talking (m00223t0)
Series 1
3. Brought Back to Be Me
Scott was disappointed there was nobody waiting for him when he died. In this episode he ponders whether someone was in fact watching over him and tells the most unbelievable funeral story of all time. With an unexpected apology from his mum, a trip to get measured for a suit and rolling down a hill chased by a bunch of OAPs - this is an episode packed with anecdotes and revelations.
The final episode in a trilogy of tales that gets into the gritty and grim goings on that nearly saw Scott pushing up the daisies. Each episode is far from a forlorn fable, but rather is bursting with colourful, lively stories of the people who have shaped Scott's life and helped him along the way.
This is more than just a life story, this is Scott's death story.
A stand up series, written and performed by Scott Agnew
Produced by Lauren Mackay
Audio recorded by Chris Currie and Niall Young
SAT 23:30 The 3rd Degree (m0021xdt)
Series 13
5. Robinson College, Cambridge
This episode coming from Robinson College, Cambridge, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.
The specialist subjects this week are Law, English and Spanish, and so there’ll be questions involving eggshells, stilts, plums, dragons and the Bolivian Navy. Plus exciting updates about Cillian Murphy and Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow & Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.
In this series, the show goes to Leicester, St Andrews, Loughborough, Falmouth, the University of East Anglia and Robinson College, Cambridge.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
SUNDAY 18 AUGUST 2024
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m00223t2)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Open Book (m0021xdr)
Lauren Elkin
Lauren Elkin talks to Shahidha Bari about her novel Scaffolding, set in an apartment in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris. Anna is a psychoanalyst who has suffered a recent loss. When she meets her new neighbour, young radical feminist Clementine, she starts to question her ideas about desire, feminism and psychoanalysis.
Michèle Roberts' new book is a personal, reflective essay on the French writer Colette. Michèle and Lauren discuss the life and work of Colette, from her Claudine novels set in a girls' school to her controversial novel Gigi, made into a famous film starring Leslie Caron, and the heavily autobiographical works featuring her mother, Sido.
Director of Tate galleries and museums Maria Balshaw tells us about the book she'd never lend: Derek Jarman's Modern Nature.
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Tim Bano
Book List – Sunday 11 August
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin
Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin
The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen
Colette: My Literary Mother by Michèle Roberts
Claudine by Colette
Break of Day by Colette
The Rainy Moon and Other Stories by Colette
Gigi by Colette
Gathering of Strangers: Why Museums Matter by Maria Balshaw
Modern Nature by Derek Jarman
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00223t4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00223t6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00223t8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m00223tb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m00223pp)
The church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Wambrook in Somerset.
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Wambrook in Somerset. The church was originally built in the 13th century of local Hamstone. It has a three stage tower that houses a ring of five bells, the oldest of which date from the late 14th century. The tenor bell dates from the 15th century and was cast by Thomas Jeffries of Bristol. It weighs nine hundredweight, and is tuned to B flat. We now hear them ringing 'Winchendon Place Doubles'.
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m0021w8s)
The Isle of Wight Costal Path; When Oscar Met Sasha
Tony Sheeran tells In Touch about a recent incident when he was attempting to book a self-guided walking holiday on the Isle of Wight, along with his sighted wife and guide dog. Sheeran is an experienced walker, having conquered Mount Fuji and the Capital Ring, but when he came to book with travel operator Macs Adventure, he was initially refused the booking.
Recently, the In Touch team released a documentary called Fifty-Fifty Vision. Within that, we meet visually impaired 16-year-old Sasha McBride, who describes her career ambitions - getting into medicine. We thought we'd bring her together with someone she looks up to, someone who has the same form of albinism as Sasha and is currently practicing medicine as an NHS GP, Dr Oscar Duke.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
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.
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m00223mn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Beyond Belief (m0021w7n)
Religion in the therapy room
Giles Fraser explores the parallels and overlaps between spirituality/religion and psychotherapy.
Professor Josh Cohen is a psychotherapist, who believes that God can be a problematic figure in the therapy room.
Joining the discussion with Giles is Dr Jeremy Holmes, British Psychiatrist and author of -The Spirit of Psychotherapy- which examines the parallels, contrasts, and overlaps between the secular world of psychotherapy and the realm of spirituality. Dr Rania Awaad; Stanford University Professor, Psychiatry, Islamic Law & Theology. And Canon Leanne Roberts; Church of England priest and psychotherapist (Jungian) Dean of Clergy well-being for the Diocese of Southwark.
In 2023 the NHS recorded
1.76 million referrals to their talking therapies programme in England. The British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy say their membership has risen by 27% since 2020. However, you can now access services from therapists within Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and many more of the faiths.
Can therapeutic models replace religion as a way of exploring and understanding our inner worlds? Is religion an awkward spectre in a therapy room? What’s the difference between religion as something dealt with dispassionately and a therapist who bills themselves as a religious psychotherapist ?
Producer: Rebecca Maxted & Bara'atu Ibrahim
Assistant Producer: James Leesley
Editor: Tim Pemberton
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m00223mq)
From fruit picker to farm manager
Charlotte Smith meets Salih Hodzhov, a Bulgarian fruit picker turned farm manager in Kent. Salih first came to the UK as a seasonal worker more than 20 years ago. He's now he's the Chief Operating Officer at one of Britain's biggest soft fruit farms. Charlotte hears how getting people to pick our fruit is an ongoing challenge, with workers coming from further and further away. Changes in the nationality of pickers requires a change of language, culture, and even a change in the height of the raspberry bushes.
Produced by Beatrice Fenton
SUN 06:57 Weather (m00223ms)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m00223mv)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m00223mx)
Faith in Space, Iraq Child Marriage, Tribute to Timothy Dudley Smith
President Zelensky takes the counterattack on Russia to another front with a bid to outlaw the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian Orthodox Church next week.
We're asking how your place of worship is tryng to go green? Is it heatpumps or retrofitting? Were there battles on the way? It comes as Emily hears the story of St John's Church in Waterloo which went through court battles and massive bills in the quest to become energy efficient.
There's concern from human rights groups about Iraq's plan to halve the age of marriage for girls to 9, We hear from Iraqi-born campaigner Payzee Mahmod and BBC Middle East Editor Sebastian Usher.
The Right Reverend Timothy Dudley Smith died aged 97 this week, leaving a monumental legacy of more than 400 hymns. We talk to composer and conductor Noel Tredinnick about the talent of TDS.
Astronaut Barry 'Butch' Wilmore is stranded on the International Space Station with his colleague Sunita Williams, until Nasa can work out how to bring them home. In the meantime we've been talking to his Pastor Tommy Dahn from Providence Baptist Church in Texas about Barry's faith, his role as a lay Elder and how Space missions have solidified his belief in God.
And the new Faith Minister was announced this week. Lord Khan takes up the role. What do faith leaders need from him in the wake of the riots this month and division caused by the conflict in Gaza? We talk to Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and Shayk Ibrahim Mogra.
PRESENTER: EMILY BUCHANAN
PRODUCERS: CATHERINE MURRAY & LINDA WALKER
STUDIO MANAGERS: SHARON HUGHES AND JONATHAN ESP
EDITOR: TIM PEMBERTON
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m00223mz)
STAND
Comedian Adam Hills makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of STAND. The charity refurbishes prosthetics and sends them to amputees in sub-Saharan Africa.
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- 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 ‘STAND’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘STAND’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1158697
SUN 07:57 Weather (m00223n1)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m00223n3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m00223n5)
True Identity
Still Shadey, a Christian rapper from South London shares his experience of finding faith and turning away from a life in gangs in his music.
He also leads a mentoring charity which encourages young people to find their purpose in life and fosters discussions about social injustice and knife crime. This summer Still Shadey has been running a mentoring programme at Merky HQ (Stormzy's youth centre), in Croydon, working with 60 young people to find their creative voices and explore their identity, creating their own lyrics to his song Mirror Mirror.
In this Sunday Worship, recorded at one of these workshops, Still Shadey leads a service exploring identity and purpose based around Psalm 139.
There are contributions from the young people, mentors and speakers including Amani Simpson and Lord Michael Hastings who has committed much of his life to mentoring young people, including Still Shadey.
The music will be a mix of new and classic gospel songs recorded by Melodees from Heaven (The Anthem Choir); Everlasting God, Amazing Grace, Kirk Franklin's Imagine me, Oceans (Hillsong) and Still Shadey's Order my Steps.
Producer: Miriam Williamson
Sound engineers: Chris Banner (location) & Jo Langton (music)
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0021xw0)
Making the Grade
David Goodhart says that with 40% of universities facing deficits and, he believes, too many graduates chasing too few graduate jobs, it's time for a rethink on universities.
And he has a reassuring message for those who didn't make the grade in Thursday's A level results.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Jonathan Glover
Production coordinator: Sabine Schereck
Editor: Tom Bigwood
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m00223n7)
Michael Palin on the Stone Curlew
A new series of Tweet of the Day for Sunday morning revealing personal and fascinating stories from some fresh voices who have been inspired by birds, their calls and encounters.
The stone curlew is a bird that was familiar to Gilbert White around Selbourne . Oddly it is not a curlew, but a member of the thick-knees family. Unlike other waders it prefers dry and sandy habitats to breed in, and being a mostly nocturnal bird it has oversized eyes giving it the old country name of 'goggle eyed plover' For Sir Michael Palin the stone curlew is a most fascinating bird, if a little bizarre on first encounter..
Producer : Andrew Dawes for BBC Audio in Bristol
Studio Engineer : Suzy Robins
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m00223n9)
Riots convictions strain English prisons
The Prison Governors Association warns a sharp rise in prisoner numbers caused by the riots mean new curbs on court hearings are likely this week. Plus, we walk with Sir Ed Davey along the Thames and Sarah Rainsford reflects on being thrown out of Russia.
SUN 10:00 The Reunion (m00223nc)
The Blair government's first 100 days
Things can only get better was blasting around the victory party at the Royal Festival Hall. Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo, had fallen; Tory stronghold, Edgbaston, had gone red. As the sun rose on 2nd May 1997, the man about to become Prime Minister announced, “A new dawn has broken. Isn’t it wonderful?” For Tony Blair, the long years of opposition were over.
But almost immediately the euphoria of a landslide victory was followed by the sobriety of government. ”We ran for office as New Labour, we will govern as New Labour,” promised Tony Blair. The crucial first 100 days of government had begun.
Kirsty Wark reunites the team who were determined to make those early days count.
The new Chancellor of the Exchequer was making a revolutionary move to independent interest rates at the Bank of England. Gordon Brown's political secretary Sue Nye was one of the handful of people privy to the secret and remembers the shock waves the early announcement made.
There was the famous photo of 101 women MPs surrounding their Prime Minister - an image that spawned the infamous headline of "Blair's Babes". Harriet Harman was a rare woman veteran of life in opposition. She remembers how exciting it was, but how in her role as Minister for Women, she quickly realised that women might be visible, but they weren't at the heart of government concerns.
For New Labour, optics were almost as important as policy. Arranging the big events fell to Blair's closest confidante, Anji Hunter, who masterminded the walk to Parliament for the Queen's Speech. She also worked hand in hand with Sue Nye, making sure their bosses shared their plans with their teams.
Kirsty Wark will also be joined by Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff - the man who advised on everything from who should sit where, to delivering peace in Northern Ireland - and the man he worked with on the transition, the Principle Private Secretary to both Major and Blair, Sir Alex Allan. You can hear their stories as they battle with taking power in the fog of sleep deprivation and the sunshine of record approval ratings.
Contributors:
Sir Alex Allan
Baroness Sue Nye
Anji Hunter
Harriet Harman
Jack Straw
Jonathan Powell
Producer: Marie Helly
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m00223nf)
Writer: Avin Shah
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Ben Archer…. Ben Norris
David Archer…. Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer…. Felicity Finch
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Alice Carter…. Hollie Chapman
Justin Elliott…. Simon Williams
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Alistair Lloyd…. Michael Lumsden
Paul Mack…. Joshua Riley
Kate Madikane…. Perdita Avery
Azra Malik…. Yasmin Wilde
Lily Pargetter…. Katie Redford
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Kieron…. Adam Young
Yasmin…. Suzanne Packer
SUN 12:15 Growing Solo (m001yjb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m0021x3p)
Series 30
Episode 2
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they’re able to smuggle past their opponents.
Angela Barnes, Glenn Moore, Shaparak Khorsandi and Neil Delamere are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as legs, restaurants, travel and tigers.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:57 Weather (m00223nh)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m00223nk)
Cheers and challenges as US Democrats convene
Kamala Harris has revitalised the Democrats' presidential campaign but pro-Gaza protests planned for the party's convention illustrate some of the challenges she still faces. Plus, has fast-track justice gone too far? The Magistrates Association calls for reform to the Single Justice Procedure.
SUN 13:30 Ukraine - On the Frontline (m0021x3h)
In Ukraine drone technology is transforming the battlefield and the rules of war are being rewritten. The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville travels to the frontlines in the northeast of the country, and meets some of the Ukrainian prisoners who could help solve a critical shortage of manpower in the country’s war with Russia.
Correspondent: Quentin Sommerville
Producers: Lindle Markwell, Thanya Doksone and Liubov Sholudko
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0021xvf)
Postbag: University of Exeter
How do I get red cedar root balls to spread? What gardening task do the panel find daunting? What are the panel’s thoughts about composting organic materials?
Kathy Clugston and her team of horticultural experts travel to the University of Exeter for a postbag edition of GQT.
While Curator of Horticulture Anthony Cockell leads Kathy and the panel around the grounds, they also dig through the GQT inbox to answer your gardening queries. On the panel this week are garden designer Chris Beardshaw, grow your own guru Bob Flowerdew, and proud plantswoman Christine Walkden.
Later in the programme, the panellists discuss the University of Exeter's national collection of Azaras, share tips on how they can add structure to the garden and provide a sensory experience.
Senior Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m00223np)
Clear Light of Day - Episode 1
Set in the turbulent years of 20th century India, Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light of Day brings us a story of family and political upheaval in the blistering heat of Old Delhi. John Yorke unpicks the threads that hold both family and community together until they fray and fall apart. From an opening in the 1980s, we are taken backwards and forwards in time to find loyalties and tensions amongst siblings set against the backdrop of India’s turbulent history.
The most significant event for India was Partition, when India became an independent country and Pakistan was created as a homeland for the Muslim communities. The divisions and ethnic violence unleashed run through the country and the Das family.
Clear Light of Day presents us with two sisters, Tara and Bim, meeting back at home after Tara has returned from Washington DC. One has chosen a path abroad, the other to stay at home and look after her brother who needs constant care. The family is Hindu, but another brother has left to live hundreds of miles away having married into a Muslim family. It’s when we are taken back to their childhood lives that we come to really understand who they are and what binds them together.
John Yorke has worked in television and radio for 30 years, and he shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatized in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. From EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless, he has been obsessed with telling big popular stories. He has spent years analysing not just how stories work but why they resonate with audiences around the globe and has brought together his experience in his bestselling book Into the Woods. As former Head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and MD of Company Pictures, John has tested his theories during an extensive production career working on some of the world’s most lucrative, widely viewed and critically acclaimed TV drama. As founder of the hugely successful BBC Writers Academy John has trained a generation of screenwriters.
Includes archive clips of Anita Desai from The View from Here, BBC Radio 4,
18.02.95
Contributor : Kamila Shamsie, author
Researcher: Nina Semple
Production Manager: Sarah Wright
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Reader: Aarushi Ganju
Producer: Mark Rickards
Executive Producer: Caroline Raphael
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Clear Light of Day (m00223nr)
Episode 1
In August 1947, the partition of India caused up to two million deaths. Anita Desai's semi-autobiographical novel, set in Delhi, tells the story of a Hindu family torn apart by the tragedy when one of the siblings marries a Muslim. Desai explores the betrayal, grief, and slow path towards reconciliation, experienced by a nation and in microcosm by one family.
The drama is told from the perspective of 20 years later, in 1967, when all has come to pass. Although the memories never fade....
CAST
Bim Meera Syal
Tara Ayesha Dharker
Raja Amit Shah
Dr Biswas/ Akbar Kurtha
Sharma
Bakul/ Nitin Ganatra
Cobbler
Mira/ Neelam Bakshi
Biswas mother (Ep 2)
Father (Ep 1)/ Amerjit Deu
Father Misra (Ep 2)
Jaya Zainab Hasan
Sarla Kiran Sonia Sawar
Mulk Gavi Singh Chera
Adapted for Radio by Jane Rogers
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Open Book (m00223nv)
Evie Wyld
Evie Wyld talks to Johny Pitts about her new novel, The Echoes. The book opens with Max discovering that he’s dead. He finds himself in the South London flat he shared with his partner Hannah, wondering how and why he died, and what the rules are for being a ghost. But the novel is also about Hannah, who moved to South London from rural Australia. Slowly, the book pieces together the fragments of Hannah’s traumatic family history.
Recent years have seen a number of stand-up comedians turn to writing novels - including Jessie Cave, whose debut Sunset was a Sunday Times bestseller, and who is performing two shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Camille Bordas's latest novel is set over the course of one day in Chicago among students and teachers at a degree course in stand-up comedy. They discuss their work, and the different challenges of being funny on stage and on the page.
And for our monthly Editor's Pick - where we ask a Commissioning Editor to recommend us a great read from a rival publishing house - Kinza Azira has chosen Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker.
Presenter: Johny Pitts
Producer: Tim Bano
Book List – Sunday 18 August
The Echoes by Evie Wyld
After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
The Material by Camille Bordas
Sunset by Jessie Cave
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Erasure by Percival Everett
Twenty Grand by Rebecca Curtis
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker
SUN 16:30 The 3rd Degree (m00223nx)
Series 13
6. University of East Anglia
This episode coming from the University of East Anglia, The 3rd Degree is a funny, upbeat and brainy quiz show.
The specialist subjects this week are Physics, Biological Studies and History, so we’ll find out the relevance to each of those subjects of a sombrero, pishing and the Northcote-Trevelyan Report of 1853. Avocets, quangos, muesli and Reginald Maudling all play a key role in the fun.
The show is recorded on location at a different University each week, and pits three undergraduates against three of their professors in this fresh take on an academic quiz. The general knowledge rounds include a quickfire bell-and-buzzer finale and the Highbrow & Lowbrow round cunningly devised to test not only the students’ knowledge of history, art, literature and politics, but also their Professors’ awareness of TV, music and sport. Meanwhile there are the three specialist subject rounds, in which students take on their professors in their own subjects, and where we find out whether the students have actually been awake during lectures.
In this series, the show goes to Leicester, St Andrews, Loughborough, Falmouth, the University of East Anglia and Robinson College, Cambridge.
Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct4x8t)
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius
The Mount Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii in 79AD is well known, but far fewer people know about the last time the volcano erupted in 1944.
It was World War Two, and families in southern Italy had already lived through a German invasion, air bombardment, and surrender to the Allies.
And then at
16:30 on 18 March, Vesuvius erupted. The sky filled with violent explosions of rock and ash, and burning lava flowed down the slopes, devastating villages.
By the time it was over, 11 days later, 26 people had died and about 12,000 people were forced to leave their homes.
Angelina Formisano, who was nine, was among those evacuated from the village of San Sebastiano. She’s been speaking to Jane Wilkinson about being in the path of an erupting volcano.
(Photo: Vesuvius erupting in March 1944. Credit: Keystone/Getty Images)
SUN 17:10 Behind the Crime (m0020xv8)
Sobanan
Sobanan was struggling to manage his money at university, and got involved in dealing small amounts of cannabis to fellow students to top up his income.
A bright, likeable young man, his business-mind allowed him to scale the operation. But it came crashing down when the police discovered what was going on.
Sobanan was sent to prison, where he experienced shocking living conditions. But he also found ways to thrive and remain safe, using his charm and his sharp mind.
Dr Sally Tilt and Dr Kerensa Hocken are forensic psychologists who work in prisons. Their job is to help people in prison understand the harm they’ve caused, identify why it happened and work out how to make changes to prevent further harm after they’ve been released.
In Behind the Crime, they take the time to understand the life of someone whose crimes have led to harm and prison.
Through this extended interview with Sobanan, we learn about a man with an astonishing ability to ignore risk and threat – an ability that led him to fall foul of the law.
For details of organisations that can provide help and support, visit bbc.co.uk/actionline
Producer: Andrew Wilkie
Editor: Clare Fordham
Behind the Crime is a co-production between BBC Long Form Audio and the Prison Radio Association.
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m00223p0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m00223p2)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00223p4)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m00223p6)
Kate Molleson
This week, we learn about sheep competitions in Orkney, seek out a joyful male voice choir from an 8-hour Welsh language broadcast. We also hear the story of a rebel radio station in El Salvador and the time Sister Rosetta Tharpe rocked out on a soggy train platform in Manchester.
Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Robbie Armstrong
Production Co-ordinator: Jack Ferrie.
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m00223p8)
Lilian is looking forward to the Cantering On event at The Stables and tells Paul about the promotional video they’ve made, featuring Justin as a ringmaster. Paul will be representing the vets practice at the event and Lilian would like him to judge the fancy dress competition. Justin is keen to give medals out but Paul would prefer to take out the competitive element to avoid disappointing the young riders. He agrees to come up with a plan they’ll all be happy with.
George, claiming illness, is holed up in his bedroom, with Will and Emma unable to coax him out. They try to convince George to go to the police, reminding him of the life-long consequences for Alice and Martha if she continues to take the blame. They remind him that he is a good person, they’d be so proud of him if he admitted what has happened, and this action might help him avoid prison. Reluctantly, George agrees to go with them to the police the next morning. But alone on his way to The Bull, he makes a call asking someone for help.
Hearing from Jazzer that Alistair is filled with trepidation over a visit from one of the Lovell James owners, Paul approaches Alistair in The Bull’s beer garden. Paul reassures Alistair that he hadn’t been the one to report his and his mum’s relationship to Head Office. Even though it had been a shock to him, he wouldn’t ever want them to get into trouble. Alistair continues to worry about his meeting with Don James.
SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m00223pb)
The Ballad of Scout and the Alcohol Tag
In 2023, Scout Tzofiya Bolton entered a grocery store in the small town where she lived, carrying a toy gun. The only thing she knows about what happened next is what she's seen on CCTV footage - she pointed the toy gun at the person behind the counter and shouted to give her the money or she'd shoot.
A few hours later, four police officers knocked at her door and took her away. She didn't return home for six months.
Scout was released from prison wearing a 'sobriety tag' – a tool increasingly being used to help people control their problematic alcohol use.
This is the story of Scout's relationship with alcohol, and with the tag that monitors her, told through Scout's dazzling poetry.
Scout has a long history of psychosis combined with alcoholism. This was the first time she had been sent to prison. The lead-up was a prolonged psychotic episode, characterised by 'grandiose' behaviour. Scout believed she was a famous celebrity. She would wear ballgowns and walk up and down the high street. Everyone was looking at her – because, she believed, she was famous. In the grocery store, she believed she was making an action scene in a film. She'd called up friends to tell them it was going to be a great day's filming.
Scout needed help. She found it in prison.
For the first time ever, Scout had an extended conversation with a forensic psychiatrist who got to grips with her complex needs.
Sobriety tags take a sweat sample every 30 minutes. The data is automatically sent to probation. There are currently around 3,000 people in England and Wales with sobriety tags as part of their probation conditions.
Music and words: Scout Yzofiya Bolton
Producers: Andrew Wilkie and Ellen Orchard
Sound design: Micky Curling
Executive Producer: Phil Maguire
A PRA production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Buried (m001hf1s)
Series 1
Series 1 - 1. A Deathbed Tape
A trucker leaves a tape about an appalling crime. Three words echo - Dig it Up. It leads one couple to the story of an illegal million-tonne dump in the UK.
In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history. They uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, and realise they've stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste?
In a thrilling ten-part investigation, the husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They’re driven by one question - what did the man in the tape know?
Presenters and Producers: Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Assistant Producer: Tess Davidson
Original Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell
Sound Design and Series Mixing: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producers: Phil Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0021xsr)
What is the BBC's plan for younger listeners?
The future of the BBC depends on renewing its listener base - but younger people are switching off linear radio and focusing on personally tailored forms of media. So how does the BBC compete, and what are its strategies for winning over younger listeners?
Andrea Catherwood speaks to Matt Walsh from the University of Cardiff, hears a panel of students discuss their listening habits, and quizzes BBC Sounds commissioning editor Dylan Haskins and Head of Radio 1 Aled Haydn Jones on what they're doing to try and attract new generations of listeners. She also asks whether the BBC's focus on newer listeners could risk alienating existing, loyal audiences.
And reporter John Rogers goes behind the scenes at youth oriented news podcast Reliable Sauce.
Producer: Leeanne Coyle
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0021xvk)
Susan Wojcicki, Lord Colwyn, Sir Ernest Hall, Mísia
Kirsty Lang on
Susan Wojcicki, the first woman to lead a major company in Silicon Valley.
Lord Colwyn, a jazz loving politician who cared passionately about improving the nation’s teeth.
Sir Ernest Hall, a piano playing entrepreneur, who oversaw the regeneration of a former textile mill in Halifax.
Mísia, the musician who found international acclaim by bringing a modern twist to traditional Portuguese Fado music.
Interviewee: Mike Isaac
Interviewee: Lady Colwyn
Interviewee: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
Interviewee: Jeremy Hall
Interviewee: Carmo Cruz
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Susan Wojcicki on Studio 1.0, Bloomberg Technology, YouTube upload 15/11/2016; Susan Wojcicki, Leadership Live with David Rubenstein, YouTube uploaded 28/05/2020; Susan Wojcicki, Washington Post, YouTube uploaded 18/06/2020; Susan Wojcicki, CNN Business, YouTube uploaded 04/05/2017; The Secret Life of The Third Baron Colwyn, BBC Radio 4, 24/05/1979; Lord Colwyn, House Of Lords Dental Care debate, Parliament TV 01/02/2018; Lord Hall speech, Live Music, House of Lords, Parliament TV, 27/01/2012; Westminster Special: The Ballot for the Last Hereditaries, BBC Radio 4, 05/11/1999; Sir Ernest Hall, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 26/04/1998; Sir Ernest Hall, Private Passions, BBC Radio 3, 18/09/2005; Sir Ernest Hall – Busoni Piano Concerto op.39 – Prologo e Introito, Sir Ernest Hall YouTube channel, Sheffield Symphony Orchestra - Halifax Choral Society - John Langstaff, uploaded 30/10/2022; Mísia interview, Showcase: Misia - Exploring emotions with Fado, TRT World, YouTube uploaded 09/06/2016;
SUN 21:00 Sliced Bread (p0h451lc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m00223mz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m00223pf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m00223ph)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 The Human Subject (m00223pk)
The Mothers of Gynaecology
In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads
connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.
This is the story of a 17 year old enslaved girl - Anarcha - and the other enslaved women who gave birth to the field of gynaecology. The year is 1845 and Anarcha has just had a baby. But there’s a problem. She is in great pain and her doctor, J Marion Sims, believes nothing can be done about it - at least at first.
She has developed a vesico-vaginal fistula, a hole between her bladder and her vagina. This leaves her incontinent and in the doctor’s words: “aside from death, this was about the worst accident that could have happened to the poor young girl”. In search of a cure Anarcha would be experimented on 30 times. Julia and Adam hear from Dr Deirdre Cooper Owens, a professor at the University of Connecticut and the author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynaecology.
Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw
Producers: Simona Rata and Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Commissioner: Dan Clarke
An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 23:30 Frontlines of Journalism (m001lyh2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 on Saturday]
SUN 23:45 Short Works (m0021xvh)
The Dream Retold
It's Festival time in Edinburgh and Gail is determined to lie low, but the Leith resident hasn't reckoned with the persuasive powers of an old friend.
Written by Lynsey May
Read by Victoria Liddelle
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie
Lynsey May lives, loves and writes in Edinburgh. Her debut novel, WEAK TEETH, was published in May 2023. She’s the recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award and a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.
MONDAY 19 AUGUST 2024
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m00223pm)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 Crossing Continents (m0021w8v)
Rejecting public education in Arizona
The so-called ‘parents’ revolution’ is happening in America - and it’s a revolt against the public education system. School choice campaigns are gaining ground across the country, fighting for tax-funded vouchers giving parents the opportunity to select their preferred school. More and more families are ditching institutions altogether, with homeschooling reportedly the fastest growing form of education in the US. Why are families turning away from traditional schooling, and what does this mean for the future of America’s education system? Alex Last travels to Arizona - a state at the forefront of the school choice movement - to find out more.
Presenter: Alex Last
Producer: Ellie House
Series editor: Penny Murphy
Studio Manager: Neil Churchill
Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m00223pp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00223pr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00223pt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00223pw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m00223py)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00223q0)
Edinburgh's historic streets
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m00223q2)
19/08/24 - Biodiversity net gain, growing confetti and coastal communities
‘Green finance’ has become a bit of a buzz word for conservation groups and land managers who want to tap into private money to fund nature recovery. But there are barriers for smaller farmers who want to get involved. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has just been awarded nearly a hundred thousand pounds by Natural England to try and tackle that by working with farmers to help them become “investment ready”.
Is this the UK's most romantic field? A farm in Essex has diversified into growing flowers confetti!
And we hear how a lack of homes for local people, an ageing population, poor public services and poverty are difficulties shared by many of the UK's rural coastal communities.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons
MON 05:57 Weather (m00223q4)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m00223q6)
19/08/24 - Mishal Husain and Lyse Doucet
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 The Artificial Human (m001zng8)
Can AI Look After Me in Old Age?
Artificial Intelligence is in our homes, schools and workplaces. What does this mean for us?
In 'The Artificial Human,' Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong set out to 'solve' AI. Or at the very least, to answer our questions about it. These are the questions that really matter to us - is AI smarter than me? Could AI make me money? Will AI save my life? They'll pursue the answer by speaking to those closest to the forefront of AI-related innovation. By the end of each programme, the subject will be a little clearer - for us, and for themselves.
In this episode, listener Val wants to know; 'Can AI look after me in old age?'
Val has experience of looking after elderly relatives, and she's aware that it can take its toll. It's made her reflect on what her own future might look like. Will AI be able help her to be independent for longer? And if so, how?
Aleks and Kevin don't have all the answers, but they bring intelligence, curiosity and wit to the journey, seeking out the facts for us and speaking to those who are currently shaping our AI futures. This is very much a shared journey to get to the bottom of our deepest hopes and fears about these world changing technologies.
MON 09:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (b0bfxxm4)
Series 4
Livy
Join Natalie Haynes and guests for half an hour of comedy and the Classics from the BBC Radio Theatre in London.
Natalie is a recovering comedian who is a little bit obsessive about Ancient Greece and Rome. Each week she takes a different figure from the Ancient World and tells their story through a mix of stand-up comedy and conversation.
Today she stands up in the name of Roman historian Livy, who gave us Hannibal crossing the Alps and the inspiration for Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Meticulously researched facts or a damn fine story? History or myth? Mostly the latter, but priceless nonetheless.
Elephants, early science and a lot of essential information from a thousand years ago.
With special guests comedian - and history buff - Al Murray and classicist Professor Llewelyn Morgan.
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00223q8)
Listener Week: Van life, Surrogacy, Women and stonemasonary
Welcome to Woman's Hour's Listener Week, when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!
On today's programme, we hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme.
A message from a listener raised his concerns about the amount of time it had taken for his daughter’s case to get to trial after she was sexually assaulted. He asked Woman’s Hour to speak to the Crown Prosecution Service about why these delays occur. The CPS were unavilable for an interview and have sent us a statement. To discuss this topic we are joined live by Rape Crisis CEO, Ciara Bergman and barrister and author, Harriet Johnson.
What’s it like being a cathedral stonemason? After a listener asked to hear more about women working in heritage crafts, reporter Martha Owen went to meet Rachael Wragg, a stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral. Also known as @thegingermason on social media, Rachael tells us about working the stone, why she decided to retrain as a mason, and why she loves her job.
For some surrogacy is extremely contentious, for others it's life changing. Our listener Helen Trenchard wanted to speak about her experience of having a baby by surrogate. It is legal in the UK although it is an offence to advertise that you are seeking a surrogate or are a potential surrogate looking for "intendend parents”. Nuala explores the topic with Helen and Rena Miras-Pye who carried Helen's baby.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Emma Pearce
MON 11:00 Michael Sheen Gets Into Character (m001zg5b)
From System to Method
Michael Sheen explores the strange art of acting.
When the Moscow Art Theatre performed at Jolson’s 59th Street Theatre in New York in January and February of 1923 they were a huge success. It is said that they received a thirty-minute standing ovation on the first night. How did they manage to create such powerful performances? One of the answers to that question was found in the approach to acting of the company’s director Constantin Stanislavski. Over the previous three decades he had codified, adjusted and refined his own approach to actor training, which he called the System.
Stanislavski never spoke English and his System was taught by a sequence of associates. And, as happens, things get lost in translation.
The Moscow Art Theatre were an inspiration to the Group Theatre in New York, which aimed to emulate its artistic principles – and its approach to acting. Under its director, Lee Strasberg, the Group Theatre took Stanislavski’s System – particularly the elements relating to the use of an actor’s own emotion and psychology – and transformed it into what became known as the Method.
However, when another leading member of The Group, Stella Adler, went to study personally with Stanislavski, she discovered that he had moved on from that emphasis on psychology and emotion and considered it damaging – he now emphasised a deep immersion in the context of the script and the importance of finding character through the process of action within that context.
Stella Adler’s news about the truth of Stanislavski’s teaching was not well received by Lee Strasberg and it precipitated a split within the Group Theatre, within the personal relationship between Adler and Strasberg – and, it might be said, within our own understanding of what exactly Stanislavski’s System and Strasberg’s Method actually are.
Michael Sheen explores the transformation of Stanislavski’s ‘system’ into The Method, with the writer Isaac Butler, the actor Anne-Marie Duff and journalist Michael Goldfarb, an ex-student of Stella Adler.
Isaac Butler’s history of Stanislavski and the Method is called 'The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act'.
MON 11:30 One to One (m001mbw6)
Crying: Keith Brymer-Jones and Susie Orbach
Presenter of The Great Pottery Throwdown Keith Brymer-Jones finds that watching people create pottery often moves him to tears. In this episode he talks to psychotherapist Susie Orbach about why we cry and how it can be a form of communication.
Produced by Caitlin Hobbs for BBC Audio
MON 11:45 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00223qb)
Episode 1 - A question from education's front line
From education's frontline, head of school and English teacher Sammy Wright has a fundamental question about the purpose of school. Carl Prekopp reads.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright has interviewed hundreds of teachers, education experts and pupils across England. Now, here in this book he explores the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed academic subjects, he argues, we simply end up ranking them, and our school,s into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.
With wisdom and humour, Wright's entertaining and thought provoking book considers the role of schools today.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
MON 12:00 News Summary (m00223qf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m00223qh)
Flat sales, high heels and browser cookies
The property market shows signs of picking up - but there's a warning that flat owners are struggling to progress up the property ladder. The estate agent Hamptons says about one in five people who bought a flat five years ago has marketed their home for less than they originally paid for it. Also today - the latest estimates are that energy bills are on the rise again. We'll find out what that means going into the winter, when our usage increases too. Sake is booming - we'll hear from someone who runs courses making it. High heels aren't booming - why have we gone off them? And have you noticed that bottle tops don't come off as easily as they used to? It's all in the name of recycling, but not everyone's happy...
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY
MON 12:57 Weather (m00223qk)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m00223qm)
Court hearings rationed amid cell shortage
The government announces an emergency scheme to ease pressure on prison places. Plus tonight's supermoon.
MON 13:45 Grenfell: Building a Disaster (m00201xt)
1. Wake Up Call
As the world wakes up to news of a fire in west London, questions start about who’s to blame.
At
8.30am on the morning of the 14th of June 2017 Karim Mussilhy is searching for his uncle. It’s over seven hours since the fire started, smoke is still pouring out of the top of Grenfell Tower and a toxic smell is hanging in the air. While residents stare up at the building in shock and Karim scours the streets for his uncle Hesham Rahman, civil servants and ministers also wake up to news of the fire and rush into Whitehall for an emergency meeting. At this moment is the first flicker of recognition that the state may have failed the residents of Grenfell tower – that they hadn’t done what they should have done.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Josephine Casserly
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones
Story consultant: Simon Maybin
Editor: Penny Murphy
MON 14:00 The Archers (m00223p8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Ed Reardon's Week (m001pmsk)
Series 15
6. The Mousetrap
Ed’s prospects are looking rather good as he takes advantage of a new ‘blind recruiting initiative’ to apply for a post at an independent production company. He secures the role of ‘Assistant Deputy Acting Head of Development for Made Content’ which comes with a regular income, free sleep coaching and £250 worth of ski-lift vouchers. Not only that, but it appears he doesn’t have to do very much work. The only problem he has to deal with now is a mouse problem since Queenie, the cat downstairs, seems to have departed this life at the same time as Elgar.
Ed Reardon - Christopher Douglas
Ping - Barunka O’Shaughnessy
Jaz - Philip Jackson
Stan - Geoffrey Whitehead
Olive - Sally Grace
Winnie - Ellen Thomas
Simon - Joe Thomas
HRH/Sheila - Nicola Sanderson
Shop Assistant - Helen Monks
Kebab Woman - Sally Grace
Written by Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis
Production Co-ordinator - Katie Baum
Sound - Jon Calver
This programme was first broadcast in August 2023.
MON 14:45 Jessie Kesson Short Stories (b04gqzv8)
Cold in Coventry
Another reading from the work of acclaimed Scottish author Jessie Kesson. Best known for her novels "Another Time, Another Place" and "The White Bird Passes", Jessie Kesson's writing was often inspired by events from her own life and by the landscape of North East Scotland.
Today, a poignant short story that evokes a young orphan girl's fears for her future when she returns 'In Disgrace' from her first job in service, to face the formidable Madam Superintendent of the Training Institution for Destitute Girls.
Jessie Kesson (1916 - 1994) was a prolific writer of novels, poems, stories, newspaper features and radio plays. She came through a hard start in life (born in the Inverness workhouse, raised in an Elgin slum, removed from her neglectful but much-loved mother to an orphanage in Aberdeenshire) with a passionate determination to be a writer. She combined a successful writing career with a variety of jobs, from cleaner to artist's model, and was a social worker for nearly twenty years, settling finally in London with her husband.
Reader ..... Lizzy Watts
Abridger ..... Kirsteen Cameron
Producer ..... Kirsteen Cameron.
MON 15:00 Great Lives (m00223qp)
Film director Julien Temple on Elizabethan bad boy Christopher Marlowe
Julien Temple, director of The Great Rock n Roll Swindle, Glastonbury and Absolute Beginners, chooses Christopher Marlowe, writer of brilliant plays including Doctor Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great. "I'm excited to talk about him," he says, "because I've known him for more than 50 years."
The link? An attempt as a student to summon up Marlowe in his old college cellar room.
Christopher Marlowe was born in 1564 - the same year as Shakespeare. He was a spy, a writer, a counterfeiter .. and he famously died in a bar room brawl in Deptford in 1593. Was it an accident, or was he killed deliberately? Helping us negotiate the mythic moments of Marlowe's life is Professor of Shakespeare studies Emma Smith.
Julien Temple's film credits include The Filth and the Fury, Pandaemonium, Earth Girls are Easy and Joe Strummer: The Futureis Unwritten
The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer in Bristol for BBC Studios is Miles Warde
MON 15:30 Extreme: Muscle Men (m00223qr)
Muscle Men
4. Perfect Square Pecs
In the lobby of Caesar’s Palace Hotel in Las Vegas there’s a modern-day shrine to a 2000 year old adonis - complete with perfectly square pecs. Michelangelo’s David. 17 feet of white marble beefcake. This is an ideal that bodybuilders can only aspire to. And in the 80s bodybuilding scene, a particular image of perfection emerges and begins to transform what American culture thinks of as a desirable man - one that’s bulked up and defined.
But in the 1980s, the supersized muscular body isn’t approved of for everyone. Host, historian and fitness expert Natalia Mehlman Petrzela explores how strong, muscular women’s bodies were policed, while gay men were excluded from mainstream gym culture, instead forging a strong and vital subculture.
In this atmosphere, for many, steroids seem to offer the perfect quick fix route to “perfection”. And there’s money to be made - the steroid ring built by Dillon, Duchaine and Jenkins is making money hand over fist. But can this Supersized American Dream last forever? Someone is watching them…
Featuring former owner of Gold’s Gym Ed Connors, former bodybuilders William Dillon, Joe Troccoli and Sandra Blackie, personal trainer and author of Muscle Boys: Gay Gym Culture Erick Alvarez, and Dr Harrison Pope, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Presenter and Executive Producer: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
Producer: Caroline Thornham
Assistant Producer: Mohamed Ahmed
Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Production Manager: Cheree Houston
Sound Design and Mix by Daniel Kempson
Original Music by SilverHawk, aka Cyrille Poirier
Executive Producer: Max O’Brien
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
Featuring clips from:
It Happened One Night - Frank Capra, Columbia Pictures
Remarks on Physical Fitness, 30 March 1962 - President John J Kennedy, White House Audio Collection
Bob Paris interview - The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Studios
Episodes are released weekly on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, you can listen to the latest episode, a week early, first on BBC Sounds https://bbc.in/3ybDcHO
MON 16:00 Ukraine - On the Frontline (m0021x3h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Alexei Sayle's Strangers on a Train (m00223qt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
MON 17:00 PM (m00223qw)
Mike Lynch missing as superyacht sinks off Sicily
One dead and six are missing after a superyacht sinks off the coast of Sicily. Amongst the missing - British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who was on PM just 18 days ago. PM reports from the island and speaks to one of his friends.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00223qy)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 18:30 The Unbelievable Truth (m00223r0)
Series 30
Episode 3
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they’re able to smuggle past their opponents.
Miles Jupp, Marcus Brigstocke, Holly Walsh and Lou Sanders are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as milk, sound, Italians and parties.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m00223r2)
Don James, Alistair’s boss, is annoyed to have to be dealing with a complaint about the Ambridge practice. Alistair apologises, explaining that Denise’s marriage was almost over when they started a relationship. Don does not want to know the details but reminds him that Head Office should have been made aware. He discloses that the complainant reported that Denise and Alistair were distracted by each other when treating a dog. To Alistair’s relief, Don confirms that he would not be disciplining them. Both he and co-owner Doug Lovell highly value them and know they would always give their full attention to an animal. He reminds Alistair that he and Doug are also life partners and that it works well for them. Later, Jim and Alistair decide to celebrate by inviting Denise for steak and a game of chess, and Jim hints that perhaps they might want to have more of their own space.
George appears to be resigned to handing himself in to the police, as Will tells Emma he is up and showered. Emma shares that she hates lying to Ed, and is scared of everyone’s reaction once the truth is public. Back to collect George at Number 1 The Green, they discover him missing, along with his bag and some clothes. Terrified, they spend the day contacting taxi companies and George’s friends, as he is not answering his phone or responding to messages. Finally they receive a message from their son: George is safe with somewhere to stay, and will call them tomorrow.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m00223r4)
Pat Barker, the films of Alain Delon, Proms played by memory, Orlando Weeks
Samira Ahmed talks to Pat Barker about the final part of her Troy trilogy, The Voyage Home.
Alain Delon has died at the age of 88 - President Macron called him a French monument. Film critic Ginette Vincendeau assesses his impact on French film.
At the Proms two orchestras are set to play works by Beethoven and Mozart from memory - conductor Nicholas Collon from the Aurora Orchestra explains how musicians manage without a score.
And Orlando Weeks - formerly the frontman of Mercury Prize-nominated band The Maccabees - plays live in the studio and talks about the art he now creates, alongside music.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath
MON 20:00 The Briefing Room (m0021xs4)
Global Tensions 2: China, Taiwan and the South China Sea
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss China's desire for 'peaceful reunification' with Taiwan. Can it really be done peacefully and what happens if it can't?
Guests:
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC Asia correspondent based in Taipei
Amanda Hsiao, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for China
Dr Lauren Dickey, Taiwan analyst at the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Drew Hyndman
Researcher: Ben Morris
Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar
Editor: Richard Vadon
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m0021xsw)
Beavers of London
The Ealing Beaver Project has found success as two new beaver kits have been born in a park in London after being reintroduced last October.
Marnie visits the site to learn more about the benefits they bring - but beavers are just a drop in the river of urban rewilding. We find out what the practicalities and pitfalls of letting nature take back space in our cities are.
Do you feel like your dog is watching you? You're probably right. Zoologist and broadcaster Jules Howard ponders on the human-watching acuity of our beloved pets.
And our guts are not the only places where bacterial communities thrive, new research tells us that our microwaves also have a microbiome. Should we be worried?
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Ella Hubber, Sophie Ormiston and Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinators: Jana Bennett-Holesworth and Andrew Rhys Lewis
MON 21:00 History's Secret Heroes (p0hm0qrt)
17. Charles Drew and the Blood Bank
Charles Drew, an American doctor, led the creation and use of blood banks, saving countless lives both in war and in peacetime. But while he worked around the clock to save lives, he would be dragged into a battle on a different front: the battle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States.
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
Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts
MON 21:30 Intrigue (m001zgmr)
To Catch a Scorpion
To Catch a Scorpion: 6. In Our Grasp
Word comes that Scorpion has been spotted in Turkey and new leads take the team into the heart of the smuggling network, with dramatic developments as they stake out an address.
Barzan Majeed - codenamed Scorpion - leads the Scorpion gang. He's on international most-wanted lists. He started his criminal career in Britain and went on to build a smuggling empire which now spans the globe.
An international police surveillance operation trapped more than twenty of his gang and almost netted Scorpion himself, but he was tipped off and escaped. BBC journalist, Sue Mitchell, and former soldier and aid worker, Rob Lawrie, team up to try to do what the police have been unable to achieve: to find Scorpion, to speak to him, to ask him to account for his crimes and to seek justice to those families he has harmed.
Their investigation takes them to the heart of an organised criminal gang making millions from transporting thousands of migrants on boat and lorry crossings that in some cases have gone dangerously wrong, causing serious injury and putting lives at risk. They witness his operation in action and record as intense situations unfold, where vulnerable people desperate for a better future, put their lives in the hands of ruthless and dangerous criminals.
To Catch a Scorpion is a BBC Studios Audio Production for BBC Radio 4 and is presented and recorded by Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie.
The series is produced by Sue Mitchell, Winifred Robinson and Joel Moors
The Editor is Philip Sellars
Commissioning Editor is Daniel Clarke
Commissioning Exec Tracy Williams
Assistant Commissioner Podcasts/Digital, Will Drysdale
Original music is by Mom Tudie
and Sound Design is by Tom Brignell
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m00223r6)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 The Go-Between by LP Hartley (m00223r8)
Episode One
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." So begins this classic novel of childhood, class and lost innocence, set in the scorching hot summer of 1900.
Shortly before his 13th birthday, Leo Colston goes to spend the summer holidays with a schoolfriend, on his family's country estate. There he becomes the go-between for Marian, his friend's older sister, and Ted - a tenant farmer.
Read by James Wilby
Produced by Alison Crawford and Mair Bosworth
Abridged by Sara Davies
Recorded and Mixed by Ilse Lademann
MON 23:00 Limelight (p0d9062m)
Harland - Series 2
Harland - 4. punresdæg
Dan finds himself an ally in his search for missing police detective Sarah Ward and the secret of the Hare Witches. Lucy Catherine's supernatural thriller set in the drought-blighted new town of Harland.
Dan ..... Tyger Drew-Honey
Lindsay ..... Jasmine Hyde
Sarah ..... Ayesha Antoine
Sadie ..... Melissa Advani
Serena ..... Chloë Sommer
Morris ..... Rupert Holliday Evans
Bob ..... David Hounslow
Other parts played by Jonathan Forbes and Tom Kiteley
Sound Design by Caleb Knightley
Directed by Toby Swift
A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:30 The Rise and Rise of the Microchip (m001wqhf)
When the Chips are Down
Episode 2: When the Chips are Down
The story of chips continues, as the global demand for microprocessors surges Misha Glenny asks what happens when the world’s access to this transformative technology is in jeopardy.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, chip shortages hit industries across the globe, forcing governments to rethink how we all access this critical technology. Misha speaks to Chris Miller, the author of the bestselling book Chip War, about how the USA, China and the European Union are reimagining where and who manufactures our chips.
On an island in the South China Sea, you’ll find one of the biggest players in microchips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC. Misha talks to Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for the British Secret Intelligence Service about how Taiwanese chip making became central to the growing strategic and military rivalry between the USA and China and how the industry in Taiwan came to be known as the “silicon shield.”
If the way we make microchips is to be reimagined, then central to that new vision will be some of the world’s most innovative tech companies. Misha delves into the modern scientific miracle of making microprocessors as small as a string of DNA with Ann Kelleher from Intel, Paul Williamson of ARM and ASML’s Jos Benschop.
With microchips now central to so much of the world’s tech, Nigel Inkster and the New York Times journalist John Liu guide Misha through the dark arts of corporate espionage and explain how corporations and nations try and obtain access to new technologies by fair means and foul.
TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2024
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m00223rc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00223qb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00223rf)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00223rh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00223rk)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m00223rm)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00223rp)
Rhapsodic Theatre
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m00223rr)
A university study shows that feeding willow to cattle in the outdoors along with their usual diet of grass can reduce methane emissions significantly.
For many tourism is a vital industry but it is one which can come at a cost.
On one hand, bolstering economic growth, on the other draining life out of a community, with second homes and holiday lets pricing out locals.
And AI or Artificial Intelligence is used in so many aspects of our lives now, and it is also being used more and more to help produce our food on the farm.
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced by Alun Beach
TUE 06:00 Today (m00224gj)
20/08/24 - President Biden's emotional farewell
President Biden endorses Kamala Harris as he gives an emotional farewell speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, warning supporters that they are in a battle for the "very soul of America". Justin Webb reports from the Convention where we hear from Joe Biden's senior adviser and close friend Anita Dunn. Here we talk to Secretary of State Jo Stevens as the Government launches Operation Early Dawn - it's plan to reduce prison overcrowding. The search resumes for six people - including the technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter - missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. We talk to the UK Space Agency's Dr Caroline Harper as the JUICE Mission to Jupiter's icy moons slingshots round the earth, feature a year in the life of the swinging sixties and close the book on the phenomenon that has been Taylor Swift's European tour.
TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (m00224gl)
Bill Gates on vaccines, conspiracy theories and the pleasures of pickleball
Bill Gates is one of the world's best-known billionaires - but after years at the corporate coalface building a software empire and a vast fortune, his priority now is giving that wealth away. And his ethos for doing it has been shaped by science.
Famed for co-founding Microsoft, in recent decades Bill’s attention has turned to philanthropy via The Gates Foundation: one of the largest charities in the world. Since its inception in 2000, the organisation's helped tackle issues around health, education, inequality and climate change in some of the world’s poorest countries, with an undeniable impact: from contributing to the eradication of wild poliovirus in Africa, to helping halve global child mortality rates within 25 years.
But, as Jim Al-Khalili discovers, for a man with lofty ambitions and an even loftier bank balance Bill has surprisingly humble tastes - from cheeseburgers and a bingeable spy series, to a good game of pickleball...
Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor
TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m00224gn)
Mpox, your statins questions and tick-borne meat allergies
Mpox is spreading and it’s been classified a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Presenter James Gallagher meets Professor Trudie Lang from the University of Oxford who has been working in the areas affected to discuss what it means for people in the countries it’s already reached and whether its spread can be stopped.
James also puts your questions on statins to Professor Naveed Sattar, and we hear the story of Simon who works in the outdoors as a landscape manager. He was having bouts of severe illness and was struggling to understand what was behind it. The answer? He’d had successive bites from ticks and was having symptoms of an allergic reaction when he was eating meat. He had alpha gal syndrome, commonly known as a meat allergy. We hear how it’s caused debilitating changes to his life.
We also hear from Consultant Immunologist Dr Rachael O’Brian who has been documenting the first case of alpha gal syndrome her team have been diagnosing at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.
Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Assistant Producer: Katie Tomsett
Editor: Holly Squire
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00224gq)
Listener Week: Tummies, Later in life lesbians, Long Covid
Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!
Why do so many of us feel bad about our tummies and why are the rounded or wobbly ones never celebrated? That’s what listener Carole wants to know. Content creator Lottie Drynan created the IBS blog The Tummy Diaries and #mybloatedwardrobe and has learned to love her rounded stomach. She joins Nuala McGovern, along with Charlotte Boyce, Associate Professor in Victorian Literature and Culture at Portsmouth University, and columnist Pravina Ruda to discuss our historical and cultural relationship with our tummies.
Four years on from the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, many listeners have contacted Woman’s Hour to tell us about their experience of Long Covid. Nuala hears from Lexi Boreham who says she’s been “flattened” by the condition and speaks to respiratory physician Dr Melissa Heightman about the latest treatments and research.
Listener Lottie contacted Woman’s Hour because she wanted us to discuss later in life lesbians and what happens when you embrace the sexuality you secretly always knew you had, or perhaps you have only just acknowledged. Nuala speaks to psychotherapist Miriam, who has researched and written about later in life lesbians, and to Georgia who came out around eight years ago after 20 years of marriage to a man.
Listener Sarah Palmer from Farnham in Surrey tells us how her life has been transformed through her volunteering work with the charity Pets As Therapy. She’s one of the 4,000 people across the UK who take their dogs and cats into care homes, hospitals and prisons every week. She’ll speak to Nuala about her life and work with Haggis, a two year old cockapoo.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern
Producer: Lottie Garton
TUE 11:00 Add to Playlist (m0021xvw)
Isata Kanneh-Mason and Richard Stilgoe launch a new series
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason and lyricist and musician Richard Stilgoe join Anna Phoebe and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the first five tracks in the new series, taking us from a pop/disco banger from 2001 to Nina Simone, via a heartfelt countertenor revival.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue
Losing My Mind by Stephen Sondheim, sung by Bernadette Peters
The Self Banished by John Blow, sung by Alfred Deller
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Nina Simone
Other music in this episode:
Summer Breeze by The Isley Brothers
The Self Banished by John Blow, sung by The Deller Consort
TUE 11:45 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00224gs)
Book of the Week: Episode 2 - A conversation with a former student proves illuminating.
From education's frontline, Head of School and English teacher Sammy Wright continues to explore school's role in contemporary life. This episode, a conversation with a former student is illuminating. Carl Prekopp reads.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright has interviewed hundreds of teachers, education experts and pupils across England. Now, here in this book, he explores the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in individual academic subjects, he argues, we simply end up ranking them, and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.
With wisdom and humour, Wright's entertaining and thought provoking book considers school's purpose.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m00224gv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m00224gx)
Call You&Yours : Do you eat more than you ought?
On Call You & Yours, we want to talk about eating habits, over-eating in particular.
Do you eat more than you should and why?
Some doctors think that people can get addicted to some foods, in the same way as drugs and alcohol. Others blame ultra processed food for an epidemic in over-eating.
Do you eat more than you should and why?
Call us on 03700 100 444
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KEVIN MOUSLEY
TUE 12:57 Weather (m00224gz)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m00224h1)
Drug-related deaths in Scotland on the rise
We ask the Scottish health minister why the country's drug-related death rate is climbing. Plus, the ongoing search for the six still missing after the Bayesian yacht sinking.
TUE 13:45 Grenfell: Building a Disaster (m002020v)
2. Building Blocks
How a fire in Scotland in 1999 foretold the fire at Grenfell Tower.
In 1999, a dropped cigarette started a tower block fire in a small town on the west coast of Scotland. The building, which had been recently clad in flammable materials, is said to have caught fire like matchwood. This was one of the first signs that combustible materials were being permitted in the building sector in the UK. These risks were even raised with the New Labour government – so why didn’t they act?
How did the UK’s regulations allow for such materials to be used on high rise buildings? And how did government deregulation in the 1980s shape attitudes to health and safety?
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Josephine Casserly
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones
Story consultant: Simon Maybin
Editor: Penny Murphy
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m00223r2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000j1yh)
Whose Baby?
Teenager Bilal discovers a secret that threatens his entire extended family. What should he do? Which of his three married brothers has fathered a child with a skinny white woman? And why does she keep following him with the kid in the buggy?
Bilal is only 15, the youngest of four boys who loves living in a big Asian family with all his sisters-in-laws and nephews and nieces around him. He’s preoccupied with his leading role in the school drama and especially preoccupied with Sarah, his co-star.
None of his family know anything about the drama - he’s working hard to keep it under wraps. The last thing he needs is another secret to worry about. And this one could blow the family apart.
Whose Baby? is a story about teenage anxiety, responsibility and inexperience. Bilal learns that the world is far more complicated than he could ever have imagined.
It’s also a story about family, love, grief and forgiveness, told with writer Ishy Din’s characteristic humour and warmth.
Cast:
Billy – Gurjeet Singh
Big Mam – Mina Anwar
Kaneeze/Iram – Perveen Hussain
Maz/Bash – George Bukhari
Raf/Mo – Sid Akbar Ali
Writer – Ishy Din
Director – Julia Ford
Executive Director – Jeremy Mortimer
Sound Designer – Eloise Whitmore
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (m00224h3)
In Colour
A black and white film transformed, searching the sunset for the green flash and a reimagining of red. Josie Long presents a kaleidoscopic collection of short documentaries.
Autism Plays Itself
Adapted for radio by Jodie Taylor and Janet Harbord
Based on the short film directed by Janet Harbord, produced by Whalebone Films and sound designed by Action Pyramid
Green Flash
Written by Joe Dunthorne
Red of Visibility
Produced by Phoebe McIndoe
With thanks to THE ECCO founded by Jasmin Bauomy, where a version of this documentary was first created
Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Beyond Belief (m00224h5)
The Gift of the Garden
In her poem 'God's Garden', Dorothy Frances Gurney writes:
'One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.’
Join Giles Fraser and a panel of green-fingered guests as they gather together at the Aga Khan Centre in Kings Cross to reflect on the theological significance of gardens and gardening.
From Eden and Gethsemane, to the ancient Islamic gardens of Andalusia, to the Japanese Gardens of Zen Buddhism; temples to churchyards, these sacred zones have been places of solace and reflection for millennia; places of life and death, of peace and tranquillity.
Here, even non-religious gardeners find common ground with their religious counterparts: on their knees, often in silence, hands in the earth. For many, gardening is the answer. We hear from Jill Smith - lay minister and trustee of 'The Quiet Garden Movement', who tells us how her garden is a place of healing.
Our panellists are Dr Omar Ali de Unzaga - Head of Ismaili Studies at the Aga Khan Centre, Revd Lucy Winkett - Rector at St James' Church in Piccadilly, and Ai Hishii - Director of Japanese garden architects, Momiji Design.
*You can visit the Islamic Gardens at the Aga Khan Centre for free - book online.
Presenter: Giles Fraser
Producers: James Leesley and Bara'atu Ibrahim
Editor: Tim Pemberton
TUE 16:00 A Year in the Life of the Swinging Sixties (m00224h7)
James Peak and Joan Bakewell find some incredible hidden BBC archive from 1963. Wait! Is that The Beatles? And Mary Quant? And Morecambe & Wise?
The Public Ear was a bold new arts show, broadcast on The Light Programme in 1963, which tried to make sense of all the amazing things that were happening in London and the UK in music, art, theatre, comedy, football, politics and feminism. Travel back in time for a Year in the Life of the Swinging Sixties, for archive unheard for these last 60 years - the precise moment that Beatlemania started and the National Theatre was founded, a time when broadcasters could ask people on the street who they'd drop a bomb on.
Joan Bakewell was there the first time around and puts these amazing archive finds into context.
With special thanks to Dame Joan Bakewell, Keith Wickham of The Radio Circle, Helen Toland and Amy McGarrigle
Assistant Producer: Ruby Churchill
BBC Archivist: Liz Storey
BBC Archive Curator: Carl Davies
Sound Design & Mixing: Neil Churchill
Written, produced & presented by James Peak
An Essential Radio production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 16:30 You're Dead to Me (m00223s4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Saturday]
TUE 17:00 PM (m00224h9)
Sunken superyacht: the latest.
Divers continue the rescue operation on the superyacht that sunk in a storm off Sicily. PM speaks to a specialist diver who's taken part in similar operations.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00224hc)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 18:30 Do Gooders (m00224hf)
4. The Influencer
Episode Four - The Influencer
Clive hasn’t been feeling himself of late and a potential diagnosis from Lauren causes him to spiral. Harriett and Gladys battle a looming public relations disaster and Achi solves his impending homelessness with a surprise suggestion from Ken.
Garrett Millerick’s Do Gooders is a new ensemble sitcom that takes us behind the charity curtain and mines the numerous frustrations that come with trying to ‘do good’ on an industrial scale. With Frank Skinner, Fay Ripley, Lisa McGrillis, Ahir Shah and Ania Magliano.
The series follows the exploits of the fundraising events team at a fictional mid-level charity, The Alzheimers Alliance. Fundraising for this kind of mid-table organisation comes with its own unique set of challenges, be it setting up eye catching events, courting celebrity endorsement or juggling the inter charity politics.
And whilst certainly not languishing on the lowest rungs of the charity league table, Alzheimers hasn’t got the dazzling sheen or the pulling power of a cancer charity, nor does it capture the public’s sympathies in the way lifeboats or guide dogs do.
If Cancer Research is Coca-Cola, Alzheimers Alliance is Lilt. A cracking drink, but they’ve got to work hard to remind people they exist or face total extinction.
Cast
Lauren – Ania Magliano
Gladys – Lisa McGrillis
Clive – Garrett Millerick
Harriett – Fay Ripley
Achi – Ahir Shah
Ken – Frank Skinner
Writer – Garrett Millerick
Sound Engineer – David Thomas
Editor – David Thomas
Production Assistant – Jenny Recaldin
Producer – Jules Lom
Executive Producers – Richard Allen-Turner, Daisy Knight, Julien Matthews, Jon Thoday
An Avalon Television Production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m00224hh)
It’s all hands on deck at Bridge Farm ahead of the barley and wheat harvest, with the threat of rain making plans more difficult. With Adam about to leave for a holiday, and George’s day off yesterday, the staff are working extra hard and late. Natasha is taking time out from Summer Orchard to help Pat. As they sort the veg boxes, they fantasise about a week or two off work. Natasha longs for more quality family time, they are exhausted with the businesses and the twins, and Tom is working all hours in the fields. Pat suggests she and Tom book an autumn break to look forward to. George has not appeared for work again and they note his recent flakiness and time off.
Emma and Will are keen to speak to George, who is still away and out of regular contact. They decide to tell Bridge Farm that they’ve encouraged him to take a short caravan break on the coast with friends as he’s anxious about the looming court case. It’s not ideal for Pat, but she understands. Will offers to cover some shifts and Pat makes a plan: Will can help Tom with the harvesting, Susan and Clarrie can pick beans, whilst Helen takes over at the dairy, and this will help boost the team. Natasha will take over deliveries with her daughters listening to nursery rhymes in the car – they will manage!
Will and Emma are reassured when they receive a text from George. He is looking after himself and just wants to get everything straight before he returns home.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m00224hk)
Fran Healy, affordable artists' studios, climate change storytelling
Fran Healy, lead singer of indie-rock band Travis, on why their tenth album LA Times is the most personal since their breakthrough album, The Man Who, and why Los Angeles is a good place to be an artist.
As Equity calls for better guidelines for how the video games industry treats actors and performers, Rebecca Yeo, a member of the union's Video Game Working Party discusses what's needed.
Brian Watkins the playwright of Weather Girl, a one-woman show about an overheating California and one of the big hits at this year's Edinburgh Festival, and Ricky Roxburgh, screenwriter for new film Ozi: Voice of the Forest in which a young orangutan tries to save her forest home from destruction discuss the art of telling stories about climate change and environmental degradation for stage and screen.
Castlefield Gallery in Manchester celebrates its 40th anniversary this year as a contemporary arts space but in 2012 it branched out into finding spaces for artists across the North West. Make CIC was established in 2012 as an arts social enterprise in Merseyside which provides spaces for artists and makers across the region. Castlefield Director and Artistic Director, Helen Wewiora, and Make CIC's Chief Operating Officer, Kirsten Little, discuss the work involved in creating and maintaining spaces for artists.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m00224hm)
Invisible Souls
Fishermen from the Philippines, Ghana and Sri Lanka speak out about how badly, they say, they were treated by a Scottish fishing company that hired them. Most of the fishermen have been waiting in the UK for more than 10 years for their case to be heard. Despite two extensive police investigations, no convictions have been secured for human trafficking or modern slavery. This is the first time the fishermen have spoken out.
Reporter and Producer Monica Whitlock.
Music by Jon Nicholls.
Mix and Sound Design by Tom Brignell.
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley.
Editor Alys Harte.
Image: Fishermen from the Philippines and Ghana who worked on scallop boats.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m00224hp)
Trust
Everyone has to put their trust in other people from time to time but when you are blind or partially sighted, do you have to do it more often than most? For example, when asking a stranger for help on the street or in a train station, when purchasing something in a shop and in our relationships. To help us analyse this topic are three visually impaired people with differing career backgrounds, relationships and life experiences, who also acknowledge there are many times when they have to take a bit of a gamble on when and who to trust. They are Richard Lane, Denise Leigh and Kelly Barton.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
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 (m00224hr)
Ageing without a safety net in Malaysia
Industrialisation, modern cityscapes and strong economic growth promote an image of a youthful, vigorous Malaysia. But the country is now ageing rapidly, and this sudden transformation seems to have caught many - including the government - by surprise. Despite their country’s development, millions have little or no retirement income and face destitution or dependence in their golden years. What little provision is available was compromised during the Covid pandemic when the government allowed workers to withdraw retirement funds just to survive lockdown. Those who did so can now have almost nothing left in their accounts. Without any universal pension, many older Malaysians rely on their families – but younger relatives are often struggling in a low wage economy and find it increasingly difficult to provide for anyone but themselves. As Claire Bolderson reports, Malaysians may have to change their attitudes to retirement and to saving if they are to avoid the spectre of serious poverty in old age.
Producer: Mike Gallagher
Editor: Penny Murphy
Studio Manager: Hal Haines
Production Coordinator: Katie Morrison
TUE 21:30 Great Lives (m00223qp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:00 on Monday]
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m00224ht)
Sicily yacht sinking: little chance of finding more survivors, authorities say
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch are among the six people still missing after a British-flagged superyacht, named the Bayesian, sank in a storm off Sicily on Monday. Fifteen people, including a woman and her one-year-old baby, were rescued; one body has been recovered. Divers have been struggling to enter the wreck which is lying on its side, nearly 50 metres under the water. We assess the challenges facing rescue teams with a marine salvage expert.
Also on the programme:
An exclusive interview with the gay British-Mexican man who has returned to the UK after being convicted of drug charges in Qatar;
The Scottish sandwich shop offering customers ‘seagull insurance’ for an extra £1…
TUE 22:45 The Go-Between by LP Hartley (m00224hw)
Episode Two
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." So begins this classic novel of childhood, class and lost innocence, set in the scorching hot summer of 1900.
Shortly before his 13th birthday, Leo Colston goes to spend the summer holidays with a schoolfriend, on his family's country estate, Brandham Hall. There he becomes the go-between for Marian, his friend's older sister, and Ted - a tenant farmer.
Read by James Wilby
Produced by Alison Crawford and Mair Bosworth
Abridged by Sara Davies
Recorded and Mixed by Ilse Lademann
TUE 23:00 Jon Holmes Says the C-Word (m00224hy)
7. Pumps, Bags and Jabs
In episode seven, Jon and his guests discuss side-effects, physio and recovery – including catheters, incontinence, stomas and pelvic floors, and self-administered injections and erections, and penis pumps (no, really).
In 2023, Jon Holmes was diagnosed with cancer – which came as a bit of a surprise because, quite frankly, he was far too busy for all of that nonsense. After a very odd, intense, unexpected, ridiculous year, Jon realised that men don’t tend to talk openly about the preposterous indignity of dealing with cancer. So he decided he would, with other men who are going through it, or who’ve been through it.
Here – inevitably – comes his new chatty podcast.
Across the series, Jon will be joined by the comedians Stephen Fry, Mark Steel, Richard Herring, Matt Forde and Eric Idle, actors Colin McFarlane and Ben Richards, rock star and The Alarm frontman Mike Peters, and journalists Jeremy Langmead, Nick Owen and Jeremy Bowen. Jon and his guests will demystify all things cancer in raw, honest, difficult, often absurd and – yes – funny detail, from fingers up the bum to blood tests via biopsies, surgery, catheters, stomas, feeding tubes, penis pumps (no, really) and incontinence pads.
Jon wants to stop the stigma and embarrassment associated with these issues (and by "issues", we mean "body parts and what happens to them"), to raise awareness and encourage listeners to ‘get checked’ as he aims to remove the fear from the whole diagnosis and treatment process in an accessible, honest and entertaining way.
Throughout the series, Jon will also be encouraging listeners to get involved and share their own experiences, whether it's something they have been through themselves or are supporting someone with cancer.
Jon Holmes Says The C-Word aims to humanise what is often a completely de-humanising process, because, honestly, the cancer road is paved with frequently hilarious unexpected moments - and Jon maintains that retaining a sense of humour is all important.
As Jon says: “If there had been a podcast like this when I was diagnosed - one full of other people’s stories, advice and light moments to illuminate the darkness of the whole sorry process - I’d have lapped it up. But there wasn’t, so I spoke to Radio 4, and now there is.”
In Jon Holmes Says The C-Word Jon will be wearing his heart - and, quite frankly, all of his body parts - on his sleeve.
Written and presented by Jon Holmes
Produced by Laura Grimshaw
Commissioning Editor for the BBC - Rhian Roberts
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m001qmkd)
Series 3
Green Wing
Jon Plowman and Peter Fincham and joined in the shed by Tamsin Greig and Victoria Pile to discuss how they made their medical comedy, Green Wing - a series that was a sitcom, a sketch show, and a soap all in one.
They talk about the challenges of making a show that walked the tightrope between the most surreal of comedy, and deeply tender and serious moments. And they tell us the surprising role that Peter himself played in coming up with the title (not that Peter seems to be able to remember any of the salient details!).
An Expectation Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4
WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2024
WED 00:00 Midnight News (m00224j0)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 00:30 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00224gs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00224j2)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00224j4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00224j6)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
WED 05:30 News Briefing (m00224j8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00224jb)
A word in your ear
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (m00224jd)
Drones are being used to seek out and protect curlew nests from predators and farm work.
The Scottish Government is consulting on ways to simplify the rules on crofting, it hopes to strengthen the rules around croft tenancy, and to get more people onto crofts.
Fishing industry bodies in Cornwall have been working to ensure a younger generation of fishermen have the relevant skills to maintain fishing’s position in the county.
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced by Alun Beach
WED 06:00 Today (m00224jn)
21/08/24 - What's Labour doing to tackle small boats?
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has revealed more details about her plans to tackle illegal immigration, with more migrants crossing in small boats so far this year than the same period last year. Mishal Husain speaks to a former adviser to the home secretary and a former head of UK Border Force.
Barack and Michelle Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention, and the latest in the search operation for the sunken yacht off the coast of Sicily.
WED 09:00 Sideways (m00224jq)
65. Divergent Histories
In the 1960s and 70s, Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon were two black British children wrongly labelled as “educationally subnormal”. They were sent to schools where children were never taught to read or write.
They’re just two examples of a scandal that affected hundreds of children in the UK, one that has never been officially acknowledged.
As adults, Noel and Maisie made a surprising discovery - they were both dyslexic. And with that diagnosis came a profound reimagining of themselves and what had happened to them.
Matthew Syed considers the relationship between ableism, racism and eugenics - concepts with roots that stretch back centuries and which continue to have a profound impact on society today.
With Maisie Barrett, Noel Gordon, sociologist Dr Chantelle Jessica Lewis, Assistant Professor Dr Robert Chapman, and occupational therapist Jenny Okolo.
Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Tej Adeleye & Tom Wright
Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Sound Design and Mix: Rob Speight
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4
WED 09:30 Intrigue (m00224js)
Worse than Murder
Worse Than Murder: 5. A Sense of Evil
After weeks of dead ends, police finally have a breakthrough in Muriel McKay's kidnapping case. A suspicious blue Volvo leads them to Rooks Farm in rural Hertfordshire. As they raid the property, they find mounting evidence implicating brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein. But there's still no sign of Muriel herself.
As detectives interrogate the brothers, a disturbing picture emerges of their backgrounds and possible motives. Meanwhile, the search of the sprawling farmland intensifies. Police are now certain they won't find Muriel alive, but can they find enough evidence to bring a murder charge without a body? The press descend on the scene, complicating the investigation. As the case builds, the question remains - what has happened to Muriel McKay?
Worse Than Murder - A tragic case of mistaken identity that shook Britain and launched a tabloid war.
One winter’s night in 1969, kidnappers targeting Rupert Murdoch’s wife abducted Muriel McKay by mistake. She was never seen again. Jane MacSorley investigates this shocking crime which baffled police and, more than 50 years on, remains unresolved.
Presented by Jane MacSorley with Simon Farquhar
Produced by Nadia Mehdi, with extra production from Paul Russell and Megan Oyinka
Sound design and mixing by Basil Oxtoby
Story editor: Andrew Dickson
Executive producers: Neil Cowling, Michaela Hallam, Jago Lee and Rami Tzabar
Development by Paul Russell
Voice acting by Red Frederick
Original music composed by Richard Atkinson for Mcasso
With special thanks to Simon Farquhar, author of 'A Desperate Business: The Murder of Muriel McKay'
A Fresh Air and Tell Tale production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00224jv)
Listener Week: Widow's Fire, DNA discoveries, Decluttering backlash
Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!
As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time for Flowers - about her experience of being widowed, and also by the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, who can shed some light on what might be going on.
DNA testing for family ancestry is becoming more popular, with some companies having millions of users. A listener we are calling Sarah wrote: ‘I would like to hear about non-paternity events. This is when you discover that a parent is not your biological parent often via a DNA test. I made this discovery in my fifties. Increasing we are hearing about the impact of these discoveries but until it happens to you it is incomprehensible to understand. I would like to hear these issues explored.’ Nuala speaks to her and also to Laura House, genetic genealogist at Ancestry, and Lucy Beresford.
A listener who tried decluttering and didn't like it asked us to look into 'the craze of removing any superfluous stuff in their house.' Nuala is joined by journalist Rebecca Reid and professional organiser Jenn Jordan to discuss if household streamlining has become an additional burden for women, or a helpful tool to stay on top of life admin.
There is an iconic spot in Ireland called the Forty Foot and it's where people go to swim in Dublin Bay. If you watched the Apple TV series Bad Sisters, you might have seen it. But 50 years ago, women ‘weren’t allowed’ to swim there, so a group took to the waters in their bikinis – and had a less than welcome reaction from the men. Listener, journalist and feminist Rosita Sweetman suggested we discuss this on the programme. She joins Nuala, as does one of the women who mounted the invasion - activist, writer and poet, Mary Dorcey.
WED 11:00 File on 4 (m00224hm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:45 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00224jy)
Book of the Week: Episode 3 - The crucial transition from primary to secondary school.
Head of School, Sammy Wright, explores a key fault-line in the education system, transition from primary to secondary school which for pupils is an uncomfortable experience. Carl Prekopp reads.
Drawing on his more than twenty years as a teacher and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright has interviewed hundreds of teachers, education experts and pupils across England. Now, here in this book, he explores the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in individual academic subjects, he argues, we simply end up ranking them, and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.
With wisdom and humour, Wright's entertaining and thought provoking book considers school's purpose.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
WED 12:00 News Summary (m00224k0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m00224k2)
Dating Fraud, AAA Games and Air Fryers
Typically, romance scammers trick their victims into sending them money by inventing a fictitious crisis. Now, they're creating fake banking websites, and sending their login details to victims. They ask their lovers to sign in as them, to transfer money that seems to belong to the person they're dating, in order to pay urgent bills. It works a few times, stops and things then get more serious and sinister.
We hear how fraudsters cruelly manipulated one Yorkshire woman's trust this way, to convince her to part with £80,000. She tells us the devastating impact it's had on her and why she feels let down by her own bank's response. Experts tell us this is one of the most sophisticated cons they've ever seen.
Also in the programme, “AAA” titles are video gaming’s equivalent to cinema blockbusters. The budgets and hype associated with these games often exceed anything coming out of Hollywood. Now gamers are being told many of this year's most anticipated releases won't come out until 2025 at the earliest. We find out why, and how fans feel about this.
A decade ago, few of us knew what an air fryer was. Even fewer actually had one. Now, research suggests more than half us own one. While the worst of the energy crisis has faded into the rear view mirror for many, sales show no sign of cooling down. Why is this happening and have they changed cooking forever? We find out from one of the first British journalists to take them seriously and two owners who bought them for very different reasons.
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz
WED 12:57 Weather (m00224k4)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m00224k6)
Why is government borrowing rising?
The rising cost of public services and benefits pushed government borrowing to higher levels than expected in July. We speak to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones.
WED 13:45 Grenfell: Building a Disaster (m00202gm)
3. Bad Behaviour
How manufacturers sold combustible cladding
When Marcio Gomes found out that Grenfell Tower, where he lived, was going to be covered in cladding, he assumed it must be safe. Today we know this material was the main cause of the spread of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
The cladding installed on the tower was made by French company, Arconic - it was highly combustible. Prior to the fire at Grenfell, Arconic staff were warned that covering a tower block in this material could add the fuel power of an oil tanker to the outside walls. Why did they sell it anyway? And how was that allowed?
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Josephine Casserly
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones
Story consultant: Simon Maybin
Editor: Penny Murphy
WED 14:00 The Archers (m00224hh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0019b59)
Perfidy and Perfection
A beautifully constructed comic duet told entirely via the couple’s letters. Starring two outstanding American actors, directed by Martin Jarvis. Written by Yuri Rasovsky.
This ‘Edwardian’ romance is set in 1912 Boston, then Paris, Rome and beyond. We hear that penniless young fortune hunter James, having borrowed money, is setting out to court homely charitable-worker Julia, daughter of a tyrannical, rich Bostonian. She quickly falls under James’ spell. Despite father’s violent objections, she continues to communicate with the dashing young man.
All is discovered. She’s banished to Europe. James pursues her.
When the lovers are left unchaperoned, Julia proves a surprisingly liberated young woman. James’ secret agenda may involve the 1912 mafia. Murder? But does Julia have a plan too?
A devastating twist. Thrilling conclusion. Fun, devilish, surprising. A perceptive study in male/female psychology.
Starring Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory, Florence Foster Jenkins), Jocelyn Towne (The Kominsky Method, Gilmore Girls, We’ll Never Have Paris). Specially composed music by award-winning A-Mnemonic.
Cast
James… Simon Helberg
Julia… Jocelyn Towne
Writer: Yuri Rasovsky
Specially composed music: A-Mnemonic
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4
WED 15:00 Reflections (m0021bcr)
Charles Clarke
The former Home Secretary reflects with Jim Naughtie on life at the heart of the Labour Party.
What was it like to be at Neil Kinnock's side during Labour's wilderness years, running the Home Office on 7/7, and being sacked by Tony Blair?
Producers: Daniel Kraemer and Giles Edwards
WED 15:30 Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny (m00201tm)
Dame Sheila Hancock: Luberon, Provence, France
Sheila wants to whisk Shaun away to the land of lavender fields. But what about his hayfever? Will Shaun be persuaded to don some linen and waft through them with her.. She has very happy memories of holidaying in this beautiful valley. Resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence brings some bon mots.
Your Place Or Mine is the travel series that isn’t going anywhere. Join Shaun as his guests try to convince him that it’s worth getting up off the sofa and seeing the world, giving us a personal guide to their favourite place on the planet.
Producers: Beth O'Dea and Caitlin Hobbs
Your Place or Mine is a BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
WED 16:00 The Media Show (m002244d)
TV's hidden dilemma
To many, we're living through a golden age of TV. But behind the rich offerings for consumers lie several growing structural issues, from a market oversupplied by streamers desperate for subscriptions, to the consequences of the US actors and writers strike, to a downturn in the advertising spend that powers the UK industry. Ros talks to a panel of TV big hitters at the Edinburgh International TV Festival. We hear from the Democratic National Convention where Kamala Harris is about to accept her party's nomination for President - all at a time when the candidate is refusing to do media interviews. Plus, after a spate of newspaper closures and high profile resignations, we explore the state of Scottish news media during a tumultuous period in the nation's politics.
Guests: Chris Curtis, Editor, Broadcast; Stephen Lambert, Chief Executive, Studio Lambert, Andy Harries, CEO, Left Bank Pictures; Claire Lundberg, founder, CTL Scouting; Nicola Shindler, Chief Executive, Quay Street Productions Douglas Fraser, Business and Economy Editor, BBC Scotland; Frank O’Donnell, Senior Partner at Charlotte Street Partners; Karin Goodwin, Co-Editor, The Ferret; Nayeema Raza, Co-Presenter, Mixed Signals
Presenter: Ros Atkins
Producer: Simon Richardson
Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai
WED 17:00 PM (m00224k8)
Sicily yacht wreck: the latest
As four bodies are brought to shore from the Bayesian superyacht, we hear an update from the scene. Also, Brussels prepares to implement a €7 charge for non-EU travellers, as well as new fingerprinting checks at the border; and a panel of food writers share their secrets for how to make a quick, healthy packed lunch.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00224kb)
Five bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of a super-yacht off the coast Sicily.
WED 18:30 Ian Smith Is Stressed (m00224kd)
3. Love
Comedian Ian Smith is constantly stressed and in this series he is looking for any means to calm the hell down. In this episode Ian explores love and all the horrible feelings of fear and shame that come with it. He also takes his girlfriend to an ice bath retreat in an attempt to strengthen their relationship.
A new stand-up series from Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated comedian Ian Smith.
Written and Performed by Ian Smith
Additional Material from Rhiannon Shaw, Max Davis and Charlie Dinkin
Assistant Producer: Ewan McAdam
Produced by Benjamin Sutton and Laura Shaw
A Daddy’s SuperYacht production for BBC Radio 4
WED 19:00 The Archers (m002243r)
Picking damsons for Jim’s jellies, Alistair and Jazzer discuss Alistair’s living arrangements. Jim has been bending over backwards to make Denise welcome and comfortable, but it’s not ideal for them. Yet Alistair feels moving in with her now wouldn’t be right with his Dad getting older. Kirsty greets them as she passes to put a poster up in the shop. She is advertising for a house-mate now that Roy has left, as she can’t afford Willow Farm on her own.
Denise visits Kirsty to view the property. Kirsty misses Roy’s company and enjoys sharing. Denise wonders what it will be like to have her own space again after so many years of marriage. Over at Greenacres, Jim, Jazzer and Alistair reminisce about their own house share. Jim suggests Alistair redecorates to put his own stamp on Greenacres. Denise joins them to tell them the news: if Roy agrees, she would love to move in with Kirsty.
With rain approaching, Will and Ed are apprehensive about getting their work done before the storm and arrange to meet for a drink later. Ed hopes George’s break at the seaside cheers him up but Will is cagey about the trip details. Later in The Bull, Will confesses that he felt like an amateur at Bridge Farm, making mistakes and causing stress at the harvest. His mind is on other things. Ed reminds Will that Emma’s GCSE results come out tomorrow and that he should join them for a drink and cake, they should be celebrating not worrying.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m00224kg)
James Graham, Alexander McCall Smith, the art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Sherwood writer James Graham argues that TV has a problem with working class representation, both in front of and behind the screen, as he delivers this year's MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival. Sherwood Series 2 starts on BBC1 on Sunday.
Alexander McCall Smith, best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, on his new stand alone novel set in Edinburgh, The Winds from Further West.
Kirsty looks at the growing interest in the Scottish artist Wilhemina Barns Graham. She is joined by Scottish art expert Alice Strang and film-maker Mark Cousins, whose documentary about the modernist pioneer, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, is at the Edinburgh Film Festival before nationwide release.
A new children's book is also published this week: Wilhemina Barns-Graham, written by Kate Temple and illustrated by Annabel Wright.
Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Timothy Prosser
WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m0021xv7)
Counter-protests
Are counter-protests important for sending a message or can they make confrontation or violence more likely? Is marching in the street a vital expression or is it the wrong place to tackle serious issues? After riots took place outside hotels housing refugees and migrants, counter-protests were swiftly assembled in cities around the UK. They were largely peaceful, but some counter-protesters were arrested and have been charged. Can having two competing sides up the ante and make violence and disorder more likely or is it important two groups of people can be seen to be disagreeing in public? Adam Fleming hears of the history of antifascist counter-protests through history and whether they were effective. He also hears about protest crowd psychology.
Guests:
Maxine Bowler, Stand up to Racism, Sheffield
Andrew Trotter, who was Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Met Police from 1998-2004 where he had overall command for demonstrations and riots.
Professor Nigel Copsey from the University of Teeside
Professor Cliff Stott from Keele University who's studied the psychology of crowds
WED 20:45 Boys (m001ypz1)
About the Boys
1. Becoming a Man
In this episode, teenage boys all over the UK talk candidly to Catherine Carr about what it is like to be a boy in 2024. They reflect on where they get their ideas about masculinity from, and whether those might be different if they lived elsewhere in the country. They also discuss the importance of role models - if they have them. Catherine also hears from adults making a difference in boys’ lives and finds out how examples of masculinity online can put real pressure on boys thinking about what it means to be a ‘successful man’.
Thanks to
South Dartmoor Community College
Dr Martin Robb, Open University
DRMZ Carmarthen Youth Project
Thomas Lynch from Dad's Rock
Elliott Rae Founder of MusicFootballFatherhood
Cambridge St Giles Cricket Club
Dance United Yorkshire
Movember
Rebecca Asher Author ‘Man Up How Do Boys Become Better Men?’
Producer: Catherine Carr
Researcher: Jill Achineku
Executive Producer: Marie Helly
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
WED 21:00 The Life Scientific (m00224gl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 Inside Health (m00224gn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m00224kk)
Sudan: first UN food aid in months arrives
Aid trucks have entered the Sudanese region of Darfur from Chad after a four month gap, bringing food to a population now at risk of famine. Could this lead to a broader deal to end the country's devastating civil war? We speak to the US special envoy, Tom Perriello, who leads the peace talks in Geneva.
Also in the programme:
Is it time to scrap the policy of compulsory resits for students who don't make the grade in GCSE English and Maths?
And, the life and legacy of Irish feminist icon, Nell McCafferty, who dies at the age of 80.
WED 22:45 The Go-Between by LP Hartley (m00224km)
Episode Three
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." So begins this classic novel of childhood, class and lost innocence, set in the scorching hot summer of 1900.
Shortly before his 13th birthday, Leo Colston goes to spend the summer holidays with a schoolfriend, on his family's country estate, Brandham Hall. There he becomes the go-between for Marian, his friend's older sister, and Ted - a tenant farmer.
Read by James Wilby
Produced by Alison Crawford and Mair Bosworth
Abridged by Sara Davies
Recorded and Mixed by Ilse Lademann
WED 23:00 The Lovely Boys Talk Good (m00224kp)
3. Power Hug
Benny and Willy call for help from The Lad Whisperer, Branch Power explains his parenting hacks, and the mysterious Dr Noodleburge shares his cutting age breakthrough, the worlds first personality transplant.
Written and performed by Ben Cohen and Will Robbins.
Additional voices by Davina Bentley.
Sound Design: Peter Duffy
Theme Music Composer: Matty Hutson
Production Co-ordinator: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Producer: Rajiv Karia
WED 23:15 Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT (m00224kr)
Series 1
Puppy Love
Tom and Lauren take care of a puppy for a friend. Lauren should go to her Nanna Doreen’s surprise 90th birthday party but is finding it hard to leave the puppy alone at home. Neil is concerned that Barbara can sense the puppy and it’s causing her to smash his china. Tom would prefer to be at the match instead of surrounded by Nanna Doreen’s flirtatious friends.
Special guest appearance by Julian Clary as Neil.
A Candle & Bell production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m001qtms)
Series 3
Derry Girls
In this episode, how did Lisa know she had managed to find the right group of actors – such a crucial element of an ensemble like Derry Girls? Do Erin and James end up together? And what of Derry Girls : The Movie (or, indeed, Derry Girls : The Musical!)
Derry Girls is a Hat Trick production for Channel 4.
All Derry Girls clips written by Lisa McGee
THURSDAY 22 AUGUST 2024
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m00224kt)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00224jy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m00224kw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m00224ky)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m00224l0)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m00224l2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m00224l4)
Feast of Our Lady
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m00224l6)
Businesses that import meat, both fresh and processed, could have to pay up to six times more than they were expecting to get each lorry through border checks, according to the British Meat Processors Association.
Bracken is a large and very prolific fern, and it can be a big problem for farmers, particularly in the uplands. It eats into grazing land, it harbours ticks and it is difficult to control.
Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland, around 40 miles north of Fort William, used to be a major fishing port but now times have changed and the industry is shrinking.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Alun Beach
THU 06:00 Today (m0022434)
22/08/24 - Justin Webb and Lyse Doucet
GCSE results morning and Justin Webb reports from the Democratic Convention in Chicago
THU 09:00 The Briefing Room (m0022436)
Global Tensions 3: Russia and the West
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the risk of escalation on Russian borders and further afield and explore what form that might take if it were to happen.
Guests:
Natia Seskuria, founder and executive director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies (RISS), a Tbilisi-based think tank
Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services Institute,
Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy
Mark Galeotti, writer on Russian security affairs and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Ben Carter, Kirsteen Knight and Drew Hyndman
Sound engineers: James Beard and Nigel Appleton
Editor: Richard Vadon
THU 09:30 Illuminated (m001yqjz)
Strandings
Peter Riley was 13 when he saw his first dead whale. It was a sperm whale. He spent most of the day with it on a Norfolk beach, and then watched on as someone carried away a trophy from its carcass. That night marked the beginning of Peter’s lifelong fascination with whales. Now, as an author and a Herman Melville scholar, Peter is seeking to understand the ancient and complex relationship between humans and whales.
According to the Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, there are approximately 550-800 strandings of whales, dolphins and porpoises in the UK every year. Although no one is completely certain why this happens, we do know they've been doing it for thousands of years.
For as long as there have been stranded whales, there have been humans drawing meaning from their arrival - a warning, a symbol of hope, endings or new beginnings. So what news might they be bringing us now?
In our current state of unprecedented abundance and advancement, in our pandemic of isolation and individual “strandedness”, the whales seem to be calling us again. As Peter speaks with cetacean experts, chases down whale remains and witnesses a whale stranding himself, he discovers what these magical creatures might be revealing about who we are, what we've become and where we might be headed.
A Sound & Bones production for BBC Radio 4
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0022438)
Listener Week: Leaving a legacy, Periods through history, Belly dancing
Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!
What is it like to parent a neurodivergent child when you are neurodivergent yourself? Anita Rani speaks to listener Rachel, who discovered she had ADHD after her daughter was diagnosed, and Jo, whose children have dyslexia.
How one moment or person can change your life’s trajectory. Listener Bettie tells Anita how a childhood invite to a friend's house introduced her to a new way of life—one she says saved her.
The menstrual cycle, periods, time of the month. One listener, Tracey, wanted to know what things were like for women dealing with this in centuries past. Anita finds out more from Dr Sara Read, who is a Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University, with a specific focus on women’s reproductive health and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
A listener asked us on social media: How can childless people leave a legacy? Statistics from the Office for National Statistics found that more than half (50.1%) of women in England and Wales born in 1990 were without a child when they turned 30. Whether it’s by choice or circumstance, many women don’t have children – what legacy do you leave without them? Anita discusses the idea with author Marianne Power and Nicola Brant who is Head of the Estates, Tax & Succession at the firm Thomson Snell & Passmore.
As part of Listener Week, we discussed tummies and feeling confident about your midriff. One listener got in touch to say she’d started belly dancing to help with this. Belly dance instructor Leilah Isaac tells Anita why she finds it so empowering.
Presented by Anita Rani
Producer: Louise Corley
THU 11:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (p0j98dtz)
Series 30
Alien Life - Russell Kane, Lisa Kaltenegger and Chris Lintott
Are we alone in the universe? Brian Cox and Robin Ince venture to Glastonbury in the search for Alien Life and are joined in their galactic quest by comedian Russell Kane and astronomers Lisa Kaltenegger and Chris Lintott. They imagine the sorts of worlds that might best host alien life, how some of the biological and technological signatures of alien life might appear as well as how evolution might shape this life. They discuss some of the mysterious signatures that have appeared as well as how hard it is to really know what you're looking for and how objects like faulty microwaves have muddied the alien finding waters.
Producer: Melanie Brown
Exec Producer: Alexandra Feachem
BBC Studios Audio production
THU 11:45 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m002243c)
Book of the Week: Episode 4 - School and the culture wars
From education's frontline, head of school Sammy Wright explores the role of school. This episode, he turns his attention to the culture wars. Carl Prekopp reads.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright has interviewed hundreds of teachers, education experts and pupils across England. Now, here in this book, he explores the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in individual academic subjects, he argues, we simply end up ranking them, and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.
With wisdom and humour, Wright's entertaining and thought provoking book considers school's purpose.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
THU 12:00 News Summary (m002243f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 You and Yours (m002243h)
Gap Finders: Frahm Jackets
When Nick Hussey created the cyclewear brand Vulpine in 2012, it was at the height of Britain’s most recent love affair with the bike – thanks to the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and 12 medals in cycling at London Olympics. The brand caught the attention of the biking fraternity, and offered people an alternative option to Lycra – something you’d happily wear in the office! They crowdfunded over £1m, and became the first British company to do that.
However, by 2017 things were no longer going as well and the business went under, with many funders saying mismanagement was to blame and answers were needed. The brand still continues, under different management.
In this period Nick not only lost his business, but also had a rapid decline in his mental health, realising that he had sacrificed his personal life by prioritising his business. It was the wake up call that he needed, and he's spent many years recovering and growing from this experience – something he feels isn’t talked about enough. He believes burn out is a major issue in business.
As Nick has recovered, he has ventured back in to the clothing business but with a change in mindset. He has created Frahm jackets, a high end clothing brand that has mental health advocacy at the heart of it.
Nick will be sharing his experiences, advice, and thoughts for the future of his career and company.
You can contact You & Yours by emailing youandyours@bbc.co.uk or using the hashtag #youandyours
Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Dave James
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m002243k)
Dishwasher Tablets
Do more expensive dishwasher tablets clean better? And how do eco versions stack up?
We are back with a new series of Sliced Bread and even more investigations into your suggested wonder products! We'll also be hitting a significant milestone during this batch of programmes so look out for more on that.
First up - dishwasher tablets. Listener Deborah got in touch after hearing our deep-dive into dishwashers themselves and had some burning questions about the tablets we put in them. Do more expensive ones give you a better clean? Do they protect glasses better? And what about the eco brands that promise to be kinder to the environment?
Listener Graham sent a voicenote asking whether buying an 'all-in-one' tablet is better than using separate components, either for cleaning or the environment.
Greg's joined by Deborah and a panel of experts in our studio at Media City in Salford to run all these questions through the wash.
All our investigations start with YOUR suggestions. If you've seen an ad, trend or wonder product promising to make you happier, healthier or greener, email us at sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk OR send a voicenote to our WhatsApp number 07543 306807.
PRESENTER: GREG FOOT
PRODUCER: SIMON HOBAN
THU 12:57 Weather (m002243m)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m002243p)
New Drug Hope for Alzheimer’s
The first drug to slow Alzheimer's is approved in the UK, but benefits are not enough to justify the cost to the NHS says the regulator. Plus as pupils get GCSE results, more calls for compulsory resits to be abolished.
THU 13:45 Grenfell: Building a Disaster (m00202m3)
4. Someone Who Gives a Damn
A tale of 'deliberate and calculated deceit'.
Beneath the cladding, a layer of insulation surrounded Grenfell Tower. This too was combustible and on the night of the fire, contributed to how quickly the flames spread. The companies which produced this insulation have been accused of misleading the construction industry about how combustible their products were.
In this episode, Kate looks through some of the most jaw-dropping evidence from the public inquiry. Internal emails and company documents expose how insulation companies tested, marketed and sold their flammable products.
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Josephine Casserly
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones
Story consultant: Simon Maybin
Editor: Penny Murphy
THU 14:00 The Archers (m002243r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0017t8m)
Barbeque 67: The Original Summer of Love
Robert Glenister and Anamaria Marinca in a drama about migrant workers Jimi Hendrix and the true story of the rock festival that launched the Summer of Love. With verbatim accounts from those who took part, including Geno Washington, Zoot Money and Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason.
In a Lincolnshire landscape now home to labourers from Eastern Europe, Doug’s greatest memory is of Spalding’s Barbeque 67. Widowed, retired and depressed, this former tulip farmer (Robert Glenister) is helped to his feet by the young Romanian Tereza (Anamaria Marinca). An intimate friendship blossoms. Tereza grafts at picking vegetables and grading potatoes, but she once fronted her own band, Purple Haze, and Doug finds himself retelling the story of the night when Hendrix came to Spalding and played in the first ever rock festival.
For, amazing as it sounds, this happened exactly 55 years ago. On 29th May 1967 thousands descended on a giant agricultural shed, the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall. Alongside Hendrix, one of the greatest line-ups in rock history included Eric Clapton, Geno Washington, Pink Floyd, The Move, Zoot Money and local band Sound Force Five.
While Doug measures the person he has become against the person that Hendrix invited him to be, events in the town lead to an escalation of hostility to its Romanian workers. A series of confrontations will leave both Doug and Tereza to make decisions about where their futures lie.
Cast:
Doug - Robert Glenister
Tereza - Anamaria Marinca
John - Gerard McDermott
Young Doug - Tom Glenister
Young John - Joe Parker
Jimi Hendrix - Shaq B. Grant
Stefan - Timotei Cobeanu
Mr Carlton - Roger Alborough
Additional, real-life contributors:
Jane Cooper
Lynton Guest
Doug Kendall
Christopher Longstaff
Rob Mardle
Vic Martin
Nick Mason
Zoot Money
Rob Offer
Mick Peacey
Alastair Stewart
Colin Ward
Geno Washington
Written by Andy Barrett
Sound Design: David Thomas
Director: Andy Jordan
Producer: Jonathan Banatvala
Executive Producer: Melanie Nock
An International Arts Partnership production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Open Country (m002243t)
Football Falcons Rookies and Rooks
Nadeem Perera presents this week's Open Country from Richmond Park. He's with two young footballers from West Ham and Birmingham City. Nadeem is nature mad and wants to share his passion for birdwatching with the young players as a way of using nature as a tool for better sportsmanship. As a football coach as well as wildlife presenter, Nadeem believes an appreciation of nature can be incorporated into football clubs' daily outdoor training sessions. He's in Richmond Park where he first discovered his love of the outdoors and takes Manny Longelo and Liam Jones on a walk around the park guided by Assistant Park Manager Peter Laurence. Along the way he sets the boys a task of spotting as many birds as they can in order to be crowned the inaugural Open Country Man of the Match.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m00223mz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m002243w)
How babies learn language
Recently a video went viral of a baby talking - or babbling - with a Liverpool accent. Professor Julian Pine from Liverpool University explains how babies and young children learn language, including the rules we take for granted. Including the surprising reasons who children make mistakes like saying "nana" instead of banana, or "I play football yesterday" instead of "I played football yesterday." Plus, did you know verbs and nouns go to different parts of the brain?
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Sally Heaven
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz
THU 16:00 Across the Red Line (m002243y)
Series 7
Should national service be reintroduced? - with former defence minister Tobias Ellwood and president of the NUS Amira Campbell
Anne McElvoy and the conflict mediator Gabrielle Rifkind facilitate this edition's debate about calls to reintroduce National Service. It's an idea many in the military say is essential in the new world order. In January the outgoing head of the Armed Forces General Sir Patrick Saunders said the creation of a citizens army was essential and only last month the new head of the British Army General Sir Roly Walker said Britain's army must be ready in three years to fight a war against what he described as an "axis of upheaval" - Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
In the run up to the recent general election the conservatives pledged to introduce national service if they were re-elected. Support for the idea appeared to split along generational lines with many older people appearing to back it with young people against.
The idea was the brainchild of the former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood who served in the armed forces before becoming an MP. He lost his seat last month but he remains convinced that such service must happen. He argues that the peace of the post cold war era is over, that appeasement doesn’t work and that everyone needs to lean in and take their share of the security burden. Alongside him in the studio but on the opposite side of the debate is the president of the National Union of Students Amira Campbell . The NUS which represents more than 7 million students described the proposal as “regressive” and “ridiculous”
Presenter: Anne McElvoy
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0022440)
Why aren’t we eating more insects?
We try some cricket tacos and ask what role insects might play in our future diets, in a special programme with a live audience at Green Man Festival in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Wales.
Our panellists:
Peter Smithers, an entomologist and fellow of the Royal Entomological Society
Aaron Thomas, co-founder of Yum Bug, which makes meat out of crickets
Dr Emily Porter, a dietician and gut health specialist for the NHS and The Gut Health Clinic
What else should we explore – and where else should we visit? Send your suggestions to insidescience@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Sound manager: Mike Cox
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
THU 17:00 PM (m0022442)
Kamala Harris prepares for her convention speech
A congresswoman tells us what she expects from a Harris candidacy. Plus, we speak to the developer of a new Alzheimer's drug that has just been licensed to use in the UK.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0022444)
The body which assesses medicines says it is too expensive for the NHS in England
THU 18:30 Fresh from the Fringe (m0022446)
2024 Part 1
Radio 4 brings you the spirit of the Edinburgh Fringe this August. Host Mark Watson takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the city, capturing the buzz of the festival and showcasing some of the most exciting comedy talent from this year. Acts this week include Dee Allum, Paddy Young, Colin Hoult, Kate Cheka and Guy Montgomery.
Additional Material: Christina Riggs
Production Coordinator: Katie Baum
Sound Recordist: Sean Kerwin
Sound Editor: Charlie Brandon-King
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Assistant Producer: Becky Carewe-Jeffries
Produced in Edinburgh by Gwyn Rhys Davies
It was a BBC Studios Production for Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0022448)
Lilian is disappointed that Kirsty has arranged to litter-pick at the fete – there is a potential donor at The Stables’ rival event who may help the Rewilding Project so she needs to switch allegiance. At The Bull, Denise is happy to take on the litter-picking role. She and Kirsty agree to house-share and toast their future: cups of tea amongst the hollyhocks and late night gossip on the landing. Roy puts paid to their plans when he calls with disappointing news. He needs to quickly put Willow Farm on the market.
Will comes to congratulate Emma on her Grade 8 result in GCSE English Literature. He admits to Ed that he performed so badly at Bridge Farm’s harvest that they have declined further help. At the celebration, Emma is snappy and distant with her guests and cuts short the congratulations. Ed and Susan show concern for her but Emma says she is just overwhelmed after the build up. She leaves the party to help Lilian, having forgotten her promise to cover George’s video work for The Stables. Ed confides his worries about Emma to Susan. She’s bottling something up and always seems on the verge of tears. Susan reassures him, suggesting she’s just overdoing it and not looking after herself.
Although Emma enjoyed the filming, she tells Will how bad she feels about lying to Ed, especially when he made such a lovely celebration for her. A message arrives from George. He is coming home tomorrow, but he’s bringing someone with him and it’s not good news.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m002244b)
Review: film: Kneecap, TV: Bad Monkey, book: Ootlin by Jenni Fagan
Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Leila Latif and Dorian Lynskey to review Kneecap, a debut film from Rich Peppiatt about a trio of Irish language rappers from West Belfast, Ootlin, a memoir from author and poet Jenni Fagan recounting her traumatic childhood in care and Bad Monkey, a television comedy cop drama set in Florida starring Vince Vaughn.
George Orwell’s biographer D J Taylor considers the importance, or not, of the author’s archive being sold off.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Harry Parker
THU 20:00 The Media Show (m002244d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m0022534)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 Empire of Tea (m001t9ng)
10. Tea or Coffee?
After nine episodes on tea, it’s time for coffee. Sathnam Sanghera meets up with Phil Withington of Sheffield University to find out why coffee failed to take off in Britain in the way that tea did. And he discusses what coffee’s resurgence in the 21st Century means for tea, with Sebastian Michaelis of Tetley.
Produced by Paul Martin for BBC Audio Wales
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m002244g)
Kamala Harris to give biggest speech of career at DNC finale
The Vice President will take to the stage, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, to accept the party’s presidential nomination. Her aides say she'll deliver a robust denunciation of Donald Trump, and lay out her plans to tackle the cost of living and protect personal freedoms, including access to abortion.
Also in the programme:
The first drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease has been approved for private use, but it won't be available on the NHS in England.
And, the world's second-largest diamond was found in Botswana.
THU 22:45 The Go-Between by LP Hartley (m002244j)
Episode Four
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." So begins this classic novel of childhood, class and lost innocence, set in the scorching hot summer of 1900.
Shortly before his 13th birthday, Leo Colston goes to spend the summer holidays with a schoolfriend, on his family's country estate, Brandham Hall. There he becomes the go-between for Marian, his friend's older sister, and Ted - a tenant farmer.
Read by James Wilby
Produced by Alison Crawford and Mair Bosworth
Abridged by Sara Davies
Recorded and Mixed by Ilse Lademann
THU 23:00 Illuminated (m00223pb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 on Sunday]
THU 23:30 What's Funny About ... (m001r1qs)
Series 3
Alas Smith and Jones
in this episode Griff reveals how the Smith and Jones double act was born at the end of Not The Nine O’Clock News. He tells the story of how the famous Head to Head sketches evolved. And he pays tribute to the brilliance of his much-missed friend, Mel Smith.
Alas Smith and Jones is BBC production.
Smith and Jones is a TalkBack production for the BBC
FRIDAY 23 AUGUST 2024
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m002244l)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m002243c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m002244n)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m002244q)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m002244s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m002244v)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m002244x)
Good humour
With Father Jamie McMorrin of St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church in Edinburgh.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m002244z)
An interview with the global rock star and animal welfare campaigner Sir Brian May who is presenting a programme on BBC 2 about Bovine TB and badgers: ‘Brian May: The Badgers, the Farmers and Me’.
Car y Mor is a community owned seaweed and shellfish business, which is providing year round work in an area where most jobs are seasonal.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Alun Beach
FRI 06:00 Today (m00224rz)
23/08/24 - Mishal Husain and Justin Webb
Kamala Harris accepts Democrat nomination at DNC in Chicago, plus other news & interviews
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (m00223nc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m00224s1)
Listener Week: Sex in your 70s, Risky sports, Cost of men and women's haircuts
Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!
Woman's Hour listener Elaine asked the programme to discuss the issue of having sex in later life. Elaine is in her seventies and her partner would like to resume a sexual relationship. They are both negotiating medical conditions and she feels reluctant. Elaine would like to know what is typical or normal in your seventies. Sex and relationship therapist Charlene Douglas and Dr Clare Gerada, former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, explain the medical and emotional challenges around intimacy in later life and the accommodations that can be made if older couples want to have sex.
Listener Teigan Banks got in touch. ‘I would love to talk about how losing my mum at 11 has led to attachment to maternal figures throughout my life and sometimes this can be negative. In all the grief media I see this is something I never see spoken about and it can be quite isolating. I’m sure other people who have lost parents have experienced similar things. I’m 21 now and this is something I still struggle with. I can feel guilty for these attachments as I feel like I’m forgetting my own mum. But knowing these people can’t really replace my mum or be that for me.’ Anita is joined by Teigan to talk about these issues and also by Julia Samuel, a psychotherapist, the author of Grief Works.
Why can women’s haircuts cost more than men’s, at the same salon? One listener has asked us to find out. Anita is joined by Caroline Larissey, chief executive of the National Hair and Beauty Federation, a trade organisation for the hair, barbering and beauty industries, and equality lawyer Elizabeth McGlone, who has short hair.
Listener Kitty Dowry wanted us to take a look at so called 'risky' sports, and to encourage us all to look at them in a different way. Kitty is a climber; she has been doing it for 10 years and wants to see more women give it a go, even those who might have written it off for fear of it being too dangerous. Kitty joins Anita, as does Hazel Findlay, a professional climber and coach.
Listener Ameya is a 20 year old singer-songwriter. She joins Anita to talk about her music, explain how her songs represent her neurodiversity, and discuss why it’s important for her, as a British-Indian woman, to break into the mainstream and raise awareness of autism.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Rebecca Myatt
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m00224s3)
Taste the World
Food, identity, myths and reality. In a globalised world can a dish reflect who we are and where we live? Dan Saladino explores fascinating stories of food, music and tradition in an ever changing and fast moving world.
Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
FRI 11:45 Exam Nation by Sammy Wright (m00224s5)
Book of the Week: Episode 5 - A different approach to schooling
Head of School, Sammy Wright looks at the role of school. This time, he explores what teaching Paradise Lost reveals about effective new paradigms for school & life? Carl Prekopp reads.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright has interviewed hundreds of teachers, education experts and pupils across England. Now, here in this book, he explores the fundamental misconception at the heart of our education system. By focussing on the grades pupils get in individual academic subjects, he argues, we simply end up ranking them, and our schools into winners and losers: some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face.
With wisdom and humour, Wright's entertaining and thought provoking book considers school's purpose.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m00224s7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m00224s9)
'Extreme' Misogyny
Should some forms of misogyny be classed as extremism?
After the Government announced it would look at ‘extreme misogyny’ in a review of its counter-extremism strategy, a fierce row kicked off on social media.
Would creating a category of ‘extreme misogyny’ be a long-overdue move, or dangerous overreach that risks labelling young men and boys as radical?
We look at the kind of misogynist content the government might be worried about, what the law does and doesn’t say about extremism, and how the government’s de-radicalisation programme Prevent is already dealing with forms of misogyny.
Guests:
Ally Fogg, co-founder of the Men & Boys Coalition
Dr Charlotte Proudman, barrister and founder of campaign group Right to Equality
Dr Joe Whittaker, lecturer in Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at Swansea University.
Jonathan Hall KC, UK’s independent reviewer of terrorist legislation
Evelina Gibson, former Prevent officer
FRI 12:57 Weather (m00224sc)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m00224sh)
Fuel poverty fears as energy bills rise
A typical household's annual energy bill will rise by nearly £150 in October, sparking calls for Labour to reverse its plan to cut winter fuel payments to some pensioners.
FRI 13:45 Grenfell: Building a Disaster (m00202rk)
5. Single Point of Failure
Why didn't the civil service act on warnings about combustible building materials?
You’ve probably not heard of Brian Martin but he’s central to the story of Grenfell. The civil servant responsible for the fire safety section of the building regulation guidance, he has described himself as the “single point of failure”.
Kate talks to someone who tried to raise the alarm with him, and asks why he didn’t act on warnings about dangerous cladding.
Under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government, this was a time of deregulation and cutting red tape. Did these attitudes to health and safety prevent action being taken?
Presenter: Kate Lamble
Producer: Josephine Casserly
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Audio engineers: James Beard and Gareth Jones
Story consultant: Simon Maybin
Editor: Penny Murphy
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0022448)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m0021rtz)
11 Minutes Dead
11 Minutes Dead - Episode 3
Paranormal thriller about Near Death Experience.
After losing consciousness in a surfing accident, Beth is faced with a horrifying vision of the future. When she awakes, she discovers not only that she has returned with mysterious new abilities but that something sinister has followed her back from the other side.
Beth’s newfound psychic powers are tested and produce extraordinary results. An ominous new vision takes her to breaking point.
Beth . . . . . Scarlett Brookes
Jem . . . . . Paul Ready
Roz . . . . . Claire Lams
Sammi . . . . . Mabel Cresswell
Stefan . . . . . Mark Edel-Hunt
Traveller . . . . . Maureen Beattie
Production Co-ordinator: Gaelan Davis-Connolly
Sound Design: Peter Ringrose
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
FRI 14:45 Buried (m001hfbl)
Series 1
Series 1 - 2. A Scene of Horror
Dan and Lucy visit Mobuoy, and reveal the audacious scam of how criminals dumped a million tonnes of waste. But there’s worse, as they learn what was buried.
"All you have to do... is dig it up."
A trucker’s deathbed tape plays out. It’s urgent, desperate.
In this BBC Radio 4 podcast series, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor deep-dive into one of the worst environment crimes in UK history - the secret dumping of a million tonnes of waste near a city. But when they uncover missing documents, fears of toxicity and allegations of organised crime, they realise they’ve stumbled into something much bigger. As they pick at the threads of one crime, they begin to see others. Could Britain be the home of a new mafia, getting rich on our waste?
In a thrilling ten-part investigation, the husband-and-wife duo dive into a criminal underworld, all the time following clues left in a deathbed tape. They’re driven by one question - what did the man in the tape know?
Presenters and Producers: Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Assistant Producer: Tess Davidson
Original Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell
Sound Design and Series Mixing: Jarek Zaba
Executive Producers: Phil Abrams and Anita Elash
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m00224sk)
Southwold: Weddings, Pelargoniums and Secret Snakes
Do grass snakes have any benefit to my garden? How do I stop my autumn raspberries from getting maggots? What I can plant between now and next June that will flower in time for my daughter’s wedding?
Kathy Clugston and a panel of experts are in the hot seat as they answer the gardening queries from an audience in Southwold. On the panel are head gardeners Ashley Edwards and Matthew Pottage, and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood.
Later, Matthew Pottage sneaks away to Wootens of Wenhaston Plantsman Nursery in Darsham, where he meets co-owner Jill Stafford to discuss Pelargoniums and how there's a variety for everyone.
Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m00224sm)
Glimmers
"Here is the summer, and here is the light, and she’s crying again, and they are the new tears. She can live with those ones."
An original short story about coming back to the world after postpartum depression, written and read by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh.
A BBC Audio Bristol Production
Producer: Becky Ripley
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m00224sp)
Phil Donahue, Countess Diana Phipps Sternberg, Mary Gibby, Toumani Diabaté
Matthew Bannister on American TV host Phil Donahue – pioneer of the daytime talk show.
Countess Diana Phipps Sternberg, the Czech born interior designer who was at the centre of a vibrant social scene in London during the swinging 60s.
Professor Mary Gibby OBE, the botanist who specialised in the study and classification of ferns.
Toumani Diabaté, the Malian musician known around the world for his virtuoso kora playing.
Interviewee: Bill Brioux
Interviewee: Michael Žantovský
Interviewee: Jess Barrett
Interviewee: Suntou Susso
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
The Phil Donahue show, Radio Ident, WLWD, Dayton Ohio, 1968; Phil Donahue interview, Television Academy Interviews YouTube, uploaded 06/06/2011; Phil Donahue interview on his career and becoming a dad, Today, NBC, 23/10/2024; Phil Donahue on literacy and education, ABC News, Uploaded 20/09/2024; The Phil Donahue Show, Marlo Thomas, 1977, Marlo Thomas YouTube Channel, uploaded, 21/09/2012; The Czech Republic, 1989's Velvet Revolution, BBC World Service, 07/12/1999; Czechoslovakia (1948), YouTube uploaded 13/04/2014; Gardner 4VT in narrowboat Swan, Myk Askin YouTube channel, uploaded 19/04/2010;Toumani Diabaté interview, Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 05/06/2014; Toumani Diabaté interview, BBC Radio 3, 29/05/2021;
FRI 16:30 Sideways (m00224jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m00224sr)
Who's hit hardest by more expensive energy?
The new price cap will bring the average energy bill up by 10%. We assess what this means for the cost of living across the UK, and which people will feel the sharpest pinch. Plus, we'll hear how large parts of the country are bracing for the arrival of Storm Lilian.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m00224st)
The energy regulator, Ofgem, has announced a rise in its price cap from October.
FRI 18:30 Catherine Bohart: TL;DR (m00224sw)
Series 1
Are we going to see Robert Jenrick's Brat Summer?
Confused by candidates? If you're feeling adrift ahead of the Conservative leadership election, TL;DR has done the reading for you.
Alex Kealy joins Catherine Bohart to look at the runners and riders. In the sidebar, Russian stand up Olga Koch looks at why a strong opposition is politically useful, and Financial Times columnist Stephen Bush looks at what it takes for an opposition to get back in the driving seat.
Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham, Sarah Campbell, and Georgie Flinn.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
Recorded by Merlin Kerr at Monkey Barrel in Edinburgh
Edited by David Thomas
Production Coordinator - Beverly Tagg
A Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m00224sy)
WRITER: SARAH HEHIR
DIRECTOR: PIP SWALLOW
EDITOR: JEREMY HOWE
Natasha Archer…. Mali Harries
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O’Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Don James…. Thom Petty
Alistair Lloyd…. Michael Lumsden
Jim Lloyd…. John Rowe
Paul Mack…. Joshua Riley
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Denise Metcalf…. Clare Perkins
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
FRI 19:15 Add to Playlist (m00224t0)
Amy Harman and Roderick Williams head for The Village
Baritone Roderick Williams and bassoonist Amy Harman kick off with a famous four-letter acronym as they add the next five tracks to the playlist with Anna Phoebe and Jeffrey Boakye as they go on their latest international musical journey.
From the cop, the cowboy and the construction worker in Greenwich Village, the show drops in on Brahms, visits the Canary Islands, and ends up at an unorthodox Ella Fitzgerald version of a traditional Scottish folk song.
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Presented with musical direction by Jeffrey Boakye and Anna Phoebe
The five tracks in this week's playlist:
YMCA by The Village People
Scherzo in C Minor from the F-A-E Sonata by Johannes Brahms
Canarios by John Williams
‘Pourquoi me réveiller?’ by Alfredo Kraus
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean by Ella Fitzgerald
Other music in this episode:
Linger by The Cranberries
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood by Nina Simone
Macho Man by The Village People
In the Navy by The Village People
America from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim
Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters
Riverdance by Bill Whelan
My Bonnie by Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers
My Bonnie by Ray Charles
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m00224t2)
Nadra Ahmed, Wendy Chamberlain MP, Barry Gardiner MP, Kevin Hollinrake MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Hartrigg Oaks care community in York with the Executive Co-Chair of the National Care Association Nadra Ahmed, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions Spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain MP, Labour's Barry Gardiner MP and Shadow Business and Trade Secretary Kevin Hollinrake MP.
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Lead broadcast engineer: Jonathan Esp
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m00224t4)
The Power of Weird
At a village fete in rural France, AL Kennedy finds herself among barrel organs, sleeping piglets and 'a guy in a flowing blue smock gliding about on an ancient motor bicycle, just because he could.'
After US Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz turned the word 'weird' into 'the soundtrack of our summer,' Alison relishes how the concept is reclaiming its roots.
Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Tom Bigwood
FRI 21:00 The Verb (m00224t6)
The Adverb at Hay
Ian McMillan presents poets in performance from the Hay Festival for The Verb's performance wing - The Adverb. This week's guests include the Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, the National Poet of Wales Hanan Issa, former Children’s Poet Laureate Joseph Coelho, Professor of Creativity Owen Sheers - and Jazz Money, an Australian poet of Wiradjuri heritage. They share poetry of nail varnish, snow, rivers, labyrinths and the heart.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m00224t8)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 The Go-Between by LP Hartley (m00224tb)
Episode Five
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." So begins this classic novel of childhood, class and lost innocence, set in the scorching hot summer of 1900.
Shortly before his 13th birthday, Leo Colston goes to spend the summer holidays with a schoolfriend, on his family's country estate, Brandham Hall. There he becomes the go-between for Marian, his friend's older sister, and Ted - a tenant farmer.
Read by James Wilby
Produced by Alison Crawford and Mair Bosworth
Abridged by Sara Davies
Recorded and Mixed by Ilse Lademann
FRI 23:00 Americast (m00224td)
Join the Americast team for insights from across the US.
FRI 23:30 Fresh from the Fringe (m0022446)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:30 on Thursday]