SATURDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2024
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0024fp8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:30 Every Kind of People by Kathryn Faulke (m0024fmx)
Episode 5
Kate never expected to become a home care worker. But when she left her role as a dietician in the NHS, burnt-out and disheartened, she thought caring for people in their own homes would be a simpler job. Despite being determined not to become too involved with her 'customers', she soon found herself developing firm friendships, forging deep connections and bearing witness to the extraordinary drama to be found in ordinary lives.
This is a book which reports from the frontline of an often unsung - and frequently maligned – profession. It offers a glimpse into the hidden lives of the housebound and infirm. Every Kind of People is clear-eyed about the challenges facing the NHS and the care system. But it is above all a celebration of humanity and of the life-changing impact of caring, on those who offer it and those who receive it.
Note from the author:
Most of the initial writing was done at the time when these events were happening, with the customers aware that I was writing about them as part of my own story. Sadly, many of these people have now passed away. Their names and many personal details have been changed to protect their identities but, since there are over ten thousand home-care agencies in England employing around half a million care workers supporting many thousands of vulnerable people, it is likely that the challenges faced by those in this book are replicated throughout the country on a daily basis.
Written by Kathryn Faulke
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
Read by Ayesha Antoine
The Waters Company for BBC Radio 4
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024fpb)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024fpd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024fpg)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0024fpj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0024fpl)
Not a Dry Eye
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett
Good morning.
One of the great joys of being a vicar in West Dorset is being able to officiate at glorious country weddings with bells and beautiful flowers and often, because we are in the countryside, including dogs and prize winning livestock.
Last month, I married a couple accompanied by their dog Luna, who came in at the start, ahead of the bridal procession, to the theme music of the classic war time movie ‘The Great Escape’ much to the amusement of the guests.
Apart from Luna’s grand entrance, it was a Rodgers and Hammerstein Sound of Music themed wedding, which had all the invited guests wearing outlandish hats and bright colours.
An important moment in the service was a rousing rendition of ‘Climb Every Mountain’, a song about faith and hope even in the face of adversary, sung directly after I was able to proclaim the happy couple, husband and wife.
In the rising crescendo of the chorus, there wasn’t a dry eye in the church.
Tears were shed throughout; because the wedding was so full of emotion and poignant memories of loved ones lost. Especially for the bride’s father, who had died a couple of years previously and was much loved and missed. The bride had written a poem around the time of his death which was read so movingly at the beginning, as we lit a large candle to remember her ‘Dar’ and to welcome his presence to the wedding, in some mysterious way.
So today, as the Church marks All Souls Day, when we remember and give thanks for our loved ones departed, I pray for all of us, who have seen death in the midst of life, and miss someone close.
Amen.
SAT 05:45 Something to Declare (m0024gz1)
How to Celebrate Life after Death
In this episode, Jack Boswell delves into the rich cultural traditions of Mexico's "Day of the Dead" and how it offers a unique, profound perspective on our relationship with death.
Joining him is Carlos Alberto Sanchez, a Mexican philosophy professor, who explains this annual festival—a joyful celebration of life and remembrance. He shares how families honour their deceased loved ones by creating ofrendas, or altars, decorated with favourite items, food, and music of the departed, inviting their spirits back to visit. The festival is rooted in the belief that death is a natural part of life, and while the body may perish, the spirit lives on.
Paola Feregrino, Director of London’s Day of the Dead Festival, also joins Jack, reflecting on how this vibrant tradition has found a welcoming audience in the UK and why it resonates with so many, especially as it opens up conversations about a topic we often avoid—death.
This episode celebrates the beauty of life, memory, and how we can find connection and comfort in honouring those we've lost.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0024lgw)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m0024fjt)
Lise Wortley - Woman with Altitude
Clare meets ‘Woman with Altitude’ Lise Wortley who recreates the adventures of overlooked and forgotten female explorers.
As Lise takes Clare on a walk around her childhood village of Boxford in Suffolk, she tells Clare why she doesn’t just follow in the footsteps of these incredible women but even wears the same kind of clothing and footwear. Her latest expedition, in woollen skirts and specially made hob-nail boots, was an attempt to climb Mont Blanc on the same route as the French adventurer, Henriette D'Angeville. In 1838 Henriette was the first woman to summit Mont Blanc unaided, in other words without being lifted across the tricky parts as a previous female walker had done.
Lise's adventure didn't work out quite as expected and led to her taking a long and unexpected diversion up a completely different and less well known mountain.
Find out more about Lise on her website: www.womanwithaltitude.com/
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0024lh0)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
SAT 06:57 Weather (m0024lh4)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 07:00 Today (m0024lh8)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0024lhd)
Phil Wang, Nigel McCrery, Chitra Soundar, Peter Capaldi
Nikki Bedi and Nihal Arthanayake bring you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.
SAT 10:00 Curious Cases (m002404v)
Series 1
5. The Taste of Words
11 year old Esther visualises days of the week in a kind of 3D structure. It’s something called ‘synaesthesia’ and she wants to know why it happens - and why other people don’t experience things the way she does.
Hannah Fry and Dara Ó Briain explore the vibrant and varied ways different people experience the world, from the man who tastes individual words - including all the stops of the tube - to the composer who sees music in shapes and colours.
And along the way, they figure out why Mozart is white wine while Beethoven is red.
Contributors:
Professor Julia Simner: Professor of Psychology,University of Sussex
Professor Jamie Ward: Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Sussex
James Wannerton, President of UK Synaesthesia Association
CoriAnder: electronic music producer
Producer: Ilan Goodman
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem
A BBC Studios Audio Production
SAT 10:30 Soul Music (m0024lhg)
America
America is Anita's all singing, all dancing number from the musical West Side Story. The Puerto Rican Sharks gang argue over whether America is a great place to live, an argument still being played out by migrants today.
With contributions from young migrants to the US as well as an actress who has performed the song in a UK production and a Puerto Rican man who watched Rita Moreno performing the role growing up, and went on to study the musical as an academic in the United States.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m0024lhj)
Radio 4's weekly assessment of developments at Westminster
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0024lhl)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0024lhn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0024lhq)
Paul Lewis presents the latest news from the world of personal finance.
SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m0024fnl)
Series 25
Episode 1
Satirical impressions from the team headed up by Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens.
SAT 12:57 Weather (m0024lhs)
The latest weather forecast
SAT 13:00 News and Weather (m0024lhv)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0024fnt)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0024lhx)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.
SAT 14:45 The Archers (m0024fnp)
Writer: Daniel Thurman
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer…. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer…. Blayke Darby
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davies
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Justin Elliott…. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother…. Rex Barber
Martyn Gibson… Jon Glover
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Brad Horrobin…. Taylor Uttley
Azra Malik…. Yasmin Wilde
Khalil Malik…. Krish Bassi
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Wesley…. Barrie Rutter
Inspector Norris…. Bharti Patel
SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (b06bcv9s)
Dead Girls Tell No Tales
It's media folklore that the death of BBC soap opera heroine Grace Archer was a ploy to thwart the launch night of ITV on 22 September 1955.
But for the first time, this drama delves deep into The Archers' archives to reveal what really inspired 20 million people to tune in and left tens of thousands of listeners distraught.
Starring Simon Russell Beale, Eleanor Tomlinson and Ysanne Churchman.
Joanna Toye's drama explores the backstage story to a watershed moment in the history of broadcasting which became one of the defining cultural events of the 1950s.
Dan Archer/Harry Oakes ..... Jon Culshaw
Doris Archer/Gwen Berryman ..... Pam Ferris
Phil Archer/Norman Painting ..... Lex Shrapnel
Grace Archer/Ysanne Churchman ..... Eleanor Tomlinson
Christine Archer/Lesley Saweard ..... Georgie Fuller
John Tregorran /Basil Jones ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild
Carol Grey/Anne Cullen ..... Sally Bretton
Godfrey Baseley ..... Simon Russell Beale
Tony Shryane ..... John Hopkins
Valerie Hodgetts ..... Claudie Blakley
Geoffrey Webb ..... David Reed
Edward J Mason ..... Miles Jupp
BBC Announcer ..... Zeb Soanes
TV Interviewer ..... Paddy O'Connell
Ysanne Churchman ..... Herself
OTHER ROLES:
David Hounslow, Sam Dale, Chris Pavlo, Jessica Turner, Alex Tregear.
Director ..... Sean O'Connor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2015.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0024lhz)
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.
SAT 17:00 PM (m0024lj1)
Full coverage of the day's news.
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m0024lj3)
Nick Robinson has a conversation with, not an interrogation of, the people who shape our political thinking about what shaped theirs.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0024lj5)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SAT 17:57 Weather (m0024lj7)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024lj9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0024ljc)
Michael Palin, Jessica Raine, Susan Wokoma, The WAEVE, Ashley Henry
Monty Python star and king of the travel documentary Michael Palin has just published the fourth volume of his best-selling diaries. In 'There and Back' he covers the years 1999-2009. He joins Clive to talk about how the 21st Century has treated him.
The actor and Call The Midwife star Jessica Raine is soon to return to our screens in the second series of 'The Devil's Hour' where she plays Lucy Chambers, the insomniac social worker who wakes every night at
3.33am.
Susan Wokoma has just finished playing Charlotte in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at the Old Vic and she will soon be back as Fola in the BBC drama Cheaters, which starts its second series later this month.
The WAEVE are a collaboration between Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and singer-songwriter Rose Elinor Dougall. They perform a track from their new album City Lights.
And there's more music from the London based Jazz musican Ashley Henry who has just released his sophmore album 'Here We Are'
Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Jessica Treen
SAT 19:00 Profile (m0024ljf)
An insight into the character of an influential person making the news headlines
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m0024fj9)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m0024ljh)
Up in Smoke
During an Easter parade in 1929, a group of well-dressed young women marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City under a banner printed with the slogan Torches of Freedom. They were smoking cigarettes. This feminist demonstration against the "ancient prejudice" that stigmatised women smokers was, in fact, staged by the tobacco industry in a campaign to expand its market.
Since the invention of the Bonsack cigarette rolling machine in 1880 through to attempts in 2024 to roll back the legal age for buying tobacco products, our relationship with smoking has been complicated. Alan Hall, who quit smoking (mostly) in 1990, considers how a habit that's so evidently dangerous and anti-social can have been adopted by so many for so long - and to have remained for a century so, well, cool.
With Rosemary Elliot, author of Woman and Smoking Since 1890; William B. Davis, the actor who played the Cigarette Smoking (or Cancer) Man in The X Files; Stuart Evers, who wrote Ten Stories About Smoking, and Amy Westervelt, a journalist who traces parallels between the propaganda machines of Big Oil and the tobacco industry.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four.
SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m0024f43)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.
SAT 22:00 News (m0024ljk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m0024fmv)
Investigating every aspect of the food we eat
SAT 23:00 Call Jonathan Pie (m0024ljm)
Call Jonathan Pie: US Election Specials
American Dream: Part 2
Pie’s rival has mysteriously fallen ill and Pie is unleashed live across America. On air he battles Democrats and Republicans abroad whilst navigating the BBC's ridiculously stringent impartiality rules. Off-air the team must pull together to hide some dark secrets from Roger.
Written and performed by Tom Walker.
Additional material by Daniel Abelson and Will Franken
Jules …. Lucy Pearman.
Sam ….. Aqib Khan
Roger ….. Nick Revell
Callers ….. Maria Shehata, Will Franken, Benjamin Davis, Daniel Abelson, Willow Bennison and Ed Kear
Original Music ..... Jason Read
Voiceover ..... Bob Sinfield
Producer ….. Alison Vernon-Smith
Executive Producer ….. Julian Mayers
Production Co Ordinator ….. Ellie Dobing
A Yada-Yada Audio Production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 23:30 Brain of Britain (m0024cv4)
Heat 9, 2024
(9/17)
If you know in which film Will Smith played the Williams sisters' dad, or the correct anatomical name for the voice-box, you could give the competitors in today's heat of Brain of Britain 2024 a run for their money. Russell Davies will ask them for the answers to this and many other questions, with another semi-final place to be decided. The contest today comes from Nottingham, and the competitors are all Midlanders.
Taking part are:
Pam Douglas from Droitwich,
Alan Eeles from Kidderminster,
Vicky Johnson from Nottingham,
Dr Nyasha Zvobgo from Birmingham.
There will also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize, with some devious questions designed to outwit the competitors.
Brain of Britain is a BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SUNDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2024
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0024ljp)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:15 Open Book (m0023x3m)
Books to Read and Re-Read
In this final edition of Open Book, Johny Pitts and Chris Power celebrate some of the outstanding novels from the last twenty six years.
They are joined by Kamila Shamsie, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018 for her novel Home Fire. Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton, and one of this year's Booker Prize judges. Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, and previous chair of the International Booker.
Kamila, Sara and Ted pick out some of the books, including Wolf Hall, Lincoln in the Bardo and On Beauty, which have stood out for them: books they'd recommend to others, and re-read again and again.
Producer: Kirsten Locke
Books List:
Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie
Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie
Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Sara Collins
In the City by the Sea – Kamila Shamsie
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
Seasonal Quartet – Ali Smith
The Bee Sting – Paul Murray
Maps for Lost Lovers – Nadeem Aslam
In Memoriam – Alice Winn
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024ljr)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024ljt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024ljw)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0024ljy)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0024lk0)
The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Croscombe in Somerset
Bells on Sunday comes from the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Croscombe in Somerset. The Grade One listed building is primarily of the 15th and 16th centuries with 19th century restorations. It features fine Jacobean interior woodwork and a three stage tower and spire. There are six bells, dated between 1613 and 1820 from five different founders. The tenor bell weighs seventeen and a quarter hundredweight and is tuned to E flat. We hear them ringing Grandsire Doubles
SUN 05:45 In Touch (m0024f6j)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
SUN 06:00 News Summary (m0024lkw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 06:05 Thinking Allowed (m0024f61)
Food Systems
Laurie Taylor talks to Ann Murcott, Honorary Professorial Research Associate, at SOAS, University of London about the origins and development of food packaging, from tin cans and glass jars to bottles and plastic trays. How central is packaging to global food systems and should we be concerned about wasteful packaging ? Also, Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, offers a spirited defence of processed food from a feminist, economic, and public-health perspective.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0024lky)
Mississippi Farming
In 1910 black farmers owned around 16 million acres of the United States. Today it's just 2.9 million acres. A subsidy system that rewards the biggest and wealthiest farmers combined with a population shift from the rural south to the urban north has decimated the ranks of the men and women who tilled hard-won land.
That shift has created a disconnect with food and farming that Leroy Conish and his family are determined to bridge. He grows squash and other vegetables on a long, thin farm on the banks of the Mississippi between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The nearest grocery store is many miles away and his neighbours struggle to get access to fresh, healthy food. Leroy sells much of his produce to local food banks but he's determined to make a long-term change, linking up with the local small farm support group, Sprout NOLA, to encourage young people from the neighbouring cities to grow their own food and eventually consider a full-time career in agriculture.
Helen Czerski stops for breakfast with Leroy and Gail Conish in the heart of Louisiana.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
SUN 06:57 Weather (m0024ll0)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0024ll2)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0024ll4)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0024ll6)
Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation
Founder Fiona Spargo-Mabbs makes the appeal on behalf of Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation, a drug education charity set up in Dan's name by his parents after he died of an accidental drugs overdose.
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 "DSM Foundation"
- Cheques should be made payable to "DSM Foundation"
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4
Registered Charity Number: 1158921
If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit https://www.dsmfoundation.org.uk/
The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites
SUN 07:57 Weather (m0024ll8)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0024llb)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0024lld)
Saints, Souls & Spirits
Father Dermot Preston presents from the ruins of Byland Abbey, just one in the cluster of remarkable Christian monasteries established in the 12th century in the wilderness of North Yorkshire. The worship today is all about Saints, Souls & Spirits; and Byland is a rich source of reflection on all three. Close to the ‘triduum’ of Halloween/All Saints/All Souls which opened the month of November, the traditional time when Christians remember, and pray for, the dead.
Completorium: Psalmus 90 (91) The Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, Give us the Wings of Faith - James Whitbourn/Isaac Watts - Westminster Williamson Singers, If ye love me - by Thomas Tallis - Talliss scholars , Cecilia Bartoli eta Duruflé Requiem Pie Jesu, Berthier: Beati voi poveri Taizé,
Come Holy Ghost are souls inspire - Choir of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Plainsong/Cosin, John [1594-1672]
For All the Saints Who from Their Labours Rest ('Sine nomine') Ralph Vaughan Williams [1872-1958] Choir of St. Marks Church North
Producer: Carmel Lonergan
Sound engineer: Phil Booth
Editor: Philip Billson
BBC Audio North Production for Radio 4.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0024fnw)
Naughtie on America
Episode 4
James Naughtie with the last of four programmes on America's restless search for meaning.
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0024llg)
Arjun Dutta on the Bee-Eater
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. In this episode we highlight one of the young and emerging generation of wildlife watchers.
Wildlife sound recordist and nature watcher Arjun Dutta feels the sight and sound of bee-eaters in the British countryside is a welcome bit of the exotic. Recently while still at University he was conducting research in Bulgaria. While there his days were filled with the sights and sounds of bee-eaters chattering overhead. Back in Britain, these rare summer visitors are a splash of kaleidoscopic colour in the countryside.
Producer : Andrew Dawes of BBC Audio in Bristol
Studio engineer : Ilse Lademann
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0024llj)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m001stn6)
Dr Nicola Fox, head of science at Nasa
Dr Nicky Fox is only the second woman to hold the post of Head of Science at NASA since the agency was founded in 1958. She has responsibility for around a hundred missions which are investigating the mysteries of outer space. These missions are tackling questions such as how do hurricanes form and are we alone in the universe.
Nicky was born in Hitchin in Hertfordshire and her father introduced her to the wonders of space when she was just a few months old. In 1969 he lifted her out of her cot to watch the television coverage of the Apollo 11 mission when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Nicky’s enduring fascination with the cosmos led her to study physics at Imperial College in London.
After completing her PhD she took up a post-doctoral fellowship at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. In 2010 she became the project scientist for the Parker Solar Probe, humanity’s first mission to a star, which launched in 2018 and is still flying through the sun’s atmosphere collecting data. Recently she oversaw the Osiris-Rex mission which brought back the first asteroid samples from deep space.
In 2021 Nicky was awarded the American Astronautical Society’s Carl Sagan Memorial Award for her leadership in the field of Heliophysics.
DISC ONE: The Best – Tina Turner
DISC TWO: Livin’ On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
DISC THREE: Lara’s Theme - MGM Studio Orchestra, composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre
DISC FOUR: Danny Boy - Andy Williams
DISC FIVE: When You Know - Shawn Colvin
DISC SIX: (Reach Up for the) Sunrise - Duran Duran
DISC SEVEN: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
DISC EIGHT: Canyon Moon - Harry Styles
BOOK CHOICE: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
LUXURY ITEM: Lego
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
SUN 10:45 More Wow (m0022kvp)
4. Love and Grief
What is awe, and where do we find it? Exploring how the elusive emotion of awe can be a vital force in our lives.
As something usually associated with intense experiences and extreme environments, for many of us awe can often seem difficult to attain. Science journalist Jo Marchant tracks down individuals who live awe-filled lives, uncovering where we might find it ourselves and how it can alter body and mind. Episode four.
First, Jo talks to Emily Baughan, a historian and writer living in Sheffield, about her experience of losing her mother and having her first child, with four months between them.
Then, she goes on a walk with a friend, evolutionary ecologist Alex Penn, to talk about how our sense of self can be framed within a much bigger picture of interconnected ecosystems.
Presented by Jo Marchant, author of Cure, The Human Cosmos and Decoding the Heavens.
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Editor: Chris Ledgard
SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0024lll)
WEEK 43
Writer: Daniel Thurman
Director: Marina Caldarone
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer…. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer…. Blayke Darby
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davies
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Justin Elliott…. Simon Williams
Rex Fairbrother…. Rex Barber
Martyn Gibson… Jon Glover
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Brad Horrobin…. Taylor Uttley
Azra Malik…. Yasmin Wilde
Khalil Malik…. Krish Bassi
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Wesley…. Barrie Rutter
Inspector Norris…. Bharti Patel
SUN 12:15 Profile (m0024ljf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 12:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m0024dg9)
Series 3
Bradford - Why West Yorkshire Is the Best Yorkshire
Paul takes his Bradford audience on a quizzing tour of Yorkshire, from below the banks of the Aire to the top of the tallest tower.
What was the biggest sporting legacy of the Brontes? Who was the film industry's first ever nepo-baby? Why is West Yorkshire the Best Yorkshire? And how many Bradfordians have had number one singles - the correct answer may surprise you (as, indeed, it surprised Paul).
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material: Oliver Levy
Additional questions: The Audience
Original music: Tim Sutton
Recording engineer: Richard Biddulph
Mixed by: Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 12:57 Weather (m0024lln)
The latest weather forecast
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0024llq)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world.
SUN 13:30 Buried (m0024sff)
Series 1
Series 1 - Bonus Episode: Recycling Corrupted
Two years on from their award-winning Buried series about British waste crime, investigative journalists Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor return to Mobuoy in Northern Ireland, where more than one million tonnes of recycling and waste was illegally dumped.
Inundated with new leads and information, they decide to follow secret waste trackers hidden in councils' recycling today. The devices lead them to startling revelations about the scale of problems in recycling. Worse still, a leaked police file reveals suspicions that waste criminals flourished thanks to corruption.
Written and produced by Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor
Executive Producer: Phil Abrams
Sound Design: Jarek Zaba
Sound Recording: Nigel Thompson
Composer: Phil Channell
Commissioning Editor: Hugh Levinson
A Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0024fn8)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
SUN 14:45 Opening Lines (m0024lls)
Our Mutual Friend - Episode 1
Our Mutual Friend was the last novel that Charles Dickens completed, and was written at a point of significant turmoil in the author’s personal life. It's a hugely ambitious and sophisticated novel, drawing the wild complexities of 1860s London life into its purview and marrying realism with mythic symbolism to great effect. Identities shift, deception battles unceasingly with the truth, while the great River Thames continues to flow.
John Yorke attempts to bring shape and light to this disparate, dark and enormously powerful piece of work, with the help of Dickens’ own great-great-great grand-daughter Lucinda Hawksley, novelist and critic Philip Hensher and Professor Phil Davis from the University of Liverpool.
John has worked in television and radio for 30 years and shares his experience with Radio 4 listeners as he unpacks the themes and impact of the books, plays and stories that are being dramatised in BBC Radio 4’s Sunday Drama series. As former Head of Channel Four Drama and Controller of BBC Drama Production he has worked on some of the most popular shows in Britain - from EastEnders to The Archers, Life on Mars to Shameless. As creator of the BBC Writers Academy, he's trained a generation of screenwriters - now with over 70 green lights and thousands of hours of television to their names. He is the author of Into the Woods, the bestselling book on narrative, and he writes, teaches and consults on all forms of narrative - including many podcasts for R4.
Contributors:
Philip Hensher, novelist and critic
Professor Phil Davis, from the University of Liverpool
Lucinda Hawksley, author
Reader: Paul Dodgson
Researcher/Broadcast Assistant: Nina Semple
Sound: Sean Kerwin
Producer: Geoff Bird
Executive Producer: Sara Davies
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 15:00 Dickensian (m0024llv)
Our Mutual Friend: Episode 1. The Mouth of the River
Our Mutual Friend is as relevant now as it was 160 years ago, when it was written. Charles Dickens's epic novel is all about
“…money, money, money, and what money can make of life!” Bella Wilfer
Born and bred Londoner Dan Rebellato, award-winning audio dramatist, brings this huge, vivid novel to life for the 21st century, with a dynamic, ensemble cast, including Bukky Bakray (BAFTA winner for Rocks), Henry Goodman (multi Olivier Award winner and nominee), Mat Fraser (Kaos) and Sule Rimi (The Day of the Jackal 2024).
The third and final adaptation for the BBC Radio 4 Dickensian season, Our Mutual Friend is a coruscating picture of then-contemporary London with striking affinities to now - a world of huge inequalities and cruelties, where ignorance is held up as knowledge, vast wealth is built literally on dust and money is made fishing corpses from the Thames. It’s a world of fraud, deception, rapacity, dishonesty and cynicism - but it’s also a book that battles through all of that to affirm honesty, generosity, and love, a novel of great joy.
This comes from Dickens’s acute observation of the absurdities of life and his usual cast of intriguing characters - the wealthy illiterate Mr Boffin, the scheming fantasist Silas Wegg, the pompous philistine Mr Podsnap, the stylish fraudsters Sophronia and Alfred Lammle, the dandyish shark Fascination Fledgeby. And it's a book with heart - the stories of petulant but vulnerable Bella Wilfer, traumatised and gullible Georgiana Podsnap, and the resourceful survivor Lizzie Hexam are all powerful journeys of survival.
Throughout it flows the Thames, filthy and powerful, bobbing with boats and bodies, on and in which key scenes unfold, mixing class and culture to panoramic effect.
Episode 1: The Mouth of the River
Narrator and lawyer Mortimer Lightwood, introduces us to the highs and lows of London life, from the murky Thames, where Gaffer and his daughter Lizzie Hexam scrape a living dredging its dark waters, to the glittering well-heeled dining rooms and salons of the Podsnaps and Veneerings, and the squeezed middle of the Wilfers.
Into this heady brew comes the mystery of the Man from Somewhere, aka John Harmon, heir to a vast fortune – but only if he marries a woman he has never met, sulky Bella Wilfer. When Harmon goes missing, presumed dead, the mystery thickens, as romance, friendship, deceit and greed swirl through the city.
Cast:
Gaffer Hexam ..... Michael Garner
Silas Wegg and Rogue Riderhood ..... Mat Fraser
Lizzie Hexam ..... Bukky Bakray
Mortimer Lightwood ..... Sule Rimi
Eugene Wrayburn ..... Issam Al Ghussain
Mr Podsnap and Mr Boffin ..... Gordon Kennedy
Mr Veneering and Mr R Wilfer ..... Henry Goodman
Mrs Veneering and Mrs Wilfer ..... Liz Sutherland- Lim
John Rokesmith and Headstone ..... Jeremy Ang Jones
Mrs Podsnap and Mrs Boffin ..... Frances Grey
Bella Wilfer ..... Bettrys Jones
Jenny Wren and Lavinia Wilfer ..... Delilah Tahiri
Betty Higden..... Lucy Speed
Dramatist: Dan Rebellato.
Sound Designer: Jon Nicholls
Assistant Producer: Nicola Miles Wildin
Production Manager: Darren Spruce
Studio Assistant: Louis Blatherwick
Image: YanKi Darling
Executive Producer: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Polly Thomas
A Thomas Carter Projects production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m0024llx)
Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books.
SUN 16:30 Brain of Britain (m0024llz)
Heat 10, 2024
(10/17)
With just three remaining heats in this year's tournament, Russell Davies welcomes four more quizzers to the Radio Theatre in London. At least one of them will take another of the semi-final places, and stand a chance of making it all the way to the Final in Christmas week.
Appearing today are
Diane Balne from Woking
Jack Bennett from Lancaster
Charmian Griffiths from North London
Jamie Mair from Oadby in Leicestershire
To win through to the Final they'll need to show their knowledge of the Olympic Games, European lakes, detective fiction, African flags and John Williams' movie soundtracks - along with a legion of other unpredictable topics. There will also be the chance for a listener to Beat the Brains with clever questions he or she has devised.
Brain of Britain is a BBC Studios Audio production.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria
SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct5ydk)
The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at George Bush
In 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest at America's occupation of Iraq.
George W Bush had been giving a joint press conference in Baghdad with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki at the time. He was in his final months as president as Barack Obama was due to take over.
As he threw the first shoe, Muntadhar yelled: “Here is your goodbye kiss, you dog."
He tells Vicky Farncombe how he prepared for the moment and what happened to him next.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.
(Photo: President Bush ducks after Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw a shoe. Credit: Reuters)
SUN 17:10 The Verb (m0024lm2)
Ian McMillan is joined by four guests for more poetry and performance.
After a year characterised by wet weather, Alan Connor constructs a poem from 188 Words for Rain collected on travels around the country for his new book with that title . Comedian and writer Izy Suttie treats us to a new song written with the approaching Bonfire Night in mind , but the fireworks in the studio don't only come from her guitar. The other guests get a chance to join in too.
Poet Pascale Petite opens up her first novel which took 17 years to write, examining the differences and similarities between poetry and prose and Deryn Rees Jones reads from her own work and takes on this week's neon line , 'all the worse things come stalking in '.
Produced by Cecile Wright
Editor Susan Roberts
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0024lm4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
SUN 17:57 Weather (m0024lm6)
The latest weather reports and forecast
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024lm8)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0024lmb)
Myra Anubi
A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0024l3p)
Justin takes a walk down memory lane, and Ed tries to do the right thing.
SUN 19:15 Serial Offender: Arnold Schoenberg's Twelve Tone Adventure (m0022kng)
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Arnold Schoenberg who devised a means of composing using each of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale as equals. It transformed the way in which music was created and perceived.
The programme explores why Schoenberg remains a controversial and divisive individual. It also interrogates other aspect of Schoenberg's legacy - his challenging compositions and how a desire to perform them to critic free, private audiences gave the gatherings a whiff of elitism, unwittingly contributing to the siloing of subsequent modern classical music.
We ask why his complex music is not performed as regularly as other composers' works?
The programme argues that 'difficult' music such as Schoenberg's should be listened to and performed more frequently. Only by hearing it will we appreciate the elevating and transformative effect it has on us.
Schoenberg once told a pupil, "Today I have discovered something which will assure the supremacy of German music for the next 100 years." To an extent, he was right - his pioneering system and compositional style have bled through into commercial music since the early part of the 20th century, most notably in popular cinema, modern music and advert jingles.
Modernism's impact through music was - arguably - culturally more successful than other art forms; Schoenberg's creation, was both musically pre-eminent and intellectually domineering, yet his own works are frequently side-lined
In a world of musical plurality, should we consider listening afresh to contemplate the beauty and complexity of Schoenberg's work?
Presented by Kate Molleson
Programme developed by Laura Tunbridge
Edited by Nick Romero
Produced by Andrew McGibbon
A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001hf9h)
Try Tai Chi
If you’re looking to add more exercise into your lifestyle why not consider Tai Chi. It’s an ancient Chinese martial art – it’s sometimes called “meditation in motion”. It’s a series of different postures that gently flow into each other in slow movements. One of the big benefits to Tai Chi is that it can significantly enhance the activity of our immune system. And although it looks gentle, it can be a surprisingly good workout! Michael Mosley speaks to Dr. Parco Siu from the University of Hong Kong, who has been studying the health benefits of Tai Chi for over a decade. His research has revealed that Tai Chi can lead to faster brain benefits than other exercises. He also found that Tai Chi was as effective as conventional exercise like moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or muscle strengthening activities for reducing body weight and visceral fat!
SUN 20:00 Feedback (m0023x9n)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0024fnd)
Weekly obituary programme telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0024lhq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0024ll6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0024lhl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:30 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0024lmd)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.
SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m0024fj3)
The Venetian Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable rise of Venice in the eastern Mediterranean. Unlike other Italian cities of the early medieval period, Venice had not been settled during the Roman Empire. Rather, it was a refuge for those fleeing unrest after the fall of Rome who settled on these boggy islands on a lagoon and developed into a power that ran an empire from mainland Italy, down the Adriatic coast, across the Peloponnese to Crete and Cyprus, past Constantinople and into the Black Sea. This was a city without walls, just one of the surprises for visitors who marvelled at the stability and influence of Venice right up to the 17th Century when the Ottomans, Spain, France and the Hapsburgs were to prove too much especially with trade shifting to the Atlantic.
With
Maartje van Gelder
Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam
Stephen Bowd
Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Georg Christ
Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Manchester
Producer: Simon Tillotson
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
.
SUN 23:45 Short Works (m0024fnb)
Freedom Corner by Diana Evans
When two pigeons become trapped on a tower block balcony, a young mother finally decides to act, in a new story for Radio 4 by the award-winning author of Ordinary People, Diana Evans.
Read by Jade Anouka
Written by Diana Evans, the award-winning author of A House for Alice, Ordinary People, The Wonder and 26a. Her prize nominations include the Guardian and Commonwealth Best First Book awards, and she was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers.
Produced by Justine Willett
MONDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2024
MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0024lmg)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.
MON 00:15 The Bottom Line (m0024fjh)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show, with insight from the people at the top.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0024lk0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024lmj)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024lml)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024lmq)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0024lmv)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0024lmz)
Love of the Land
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett
Good morning.
Having moved only six Autumns ago, from London to rural West Dorset, I'm just beginning to understand the ebb and flow of the UK farming year, helped by a couple of local farmers and by watching the seasonal changes in the livestock and crops in the fields around my house.
Here, they farm beef, dairy and lamb and any crops, like maize, are grown for winter feed.
In the Spring, the field next door is full of ewes and lambs. Carefully delivered in trailers, all of a tumble coming out. Their cacophony of bleating as they arrive seems to fill the Vale, until they sort themselves out and the mothers and their offspring are reunited again. I like to check, by looking at their matching numbers sprayed on their backs. Come in number 18!
Now Autumn is with us, and the rain, the cattle have moved from the hills, herded down the lane past my house, into the winter barns, safe from the worsening weather and the mud of the often waterlogged fields..
And yesterday, when I looked out at sunrise across the field next door, I saw a bevy of pheasants, picking at the grass once grazed by the sheep. Much needed diversification, I’m told, because of the sale price of beef and lamb. These birds, bred for the shoot.
In my watching and listening to the farming life, I am coming to understand how demanding it is and can appreciate that it's like a vocation, a love of the land.
So today, I ask for God’s rich blessing on all our farmers. May you know, a good, and disease free winter, and an abundant Spring.
Amen.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0024ln3)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
MON 05:57 Weather (m0024ln5)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers
MON 06:00 Today (m0024l32)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0024l34)
Ancient crafts: feathers, leather and thatch
The farmer James Rebanks recounts a season he spent on a remote Norwegian island learning the ancient trade of caring for wild Eider ducks and gathering their down. In The Place of Tides he tells the story of Anna, a ‘duck woman’ who helped revive this centuries-old tradition. As he traces the rough pattern of her work and her relationship with the wild, Rebanks reassess his own relationship with his Lake District farm, his family and home.
Alice Robinson is a designer who has never shied away from the inescapable link between agriculture and luxury fashion. In Field Fork Fashion she looks back at the origins of her chosen material, leather, and traces the full life of Bullock 374 from farm to abattoir, tannery to cutting table. And in retelling this story she asks whether it’s possible to create a more transparent, traceable and sustainable system.
There are many crafts classified as ‘endangered’ in Britain, but one that has had a renaissance in the last 50 years is the ancient tradition of thatching. Protections put in place by Historic England in the 1970s not only kickstarted a thatching revival, but also helped save heritage crop varieties. Andrew Raffle from the National Thatching Association says the relationship with local farmers is vital for the tradition, and there are an estimated 600-900 thatchers working today.
Producer: Katy Hickman
MON 09:45 Café Hope (m0024l36)
Help after harm
Co-founder of AIM Northwest, Kerry Bamber, tells Rachel Burden how the charity helps fellow domestic abuse survivors move forward with their lives. She also talks about how their work with perpetrators of abuse, and that with the right help and support, those who offend can make a change.
Details of organisations offering information and support with domestic abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline
Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip, and celebrating the people making the world a better place.
We’re all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it’s always worth a go.
You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024l38)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
MON 11:00 Menopause Matters (m0024q8r)
My Menopause at 15
For the next three weeks BBC Radio Four presents fresh perspectives on the menopause. Ignored or downplayed for so long, the ceasing of menstruation now supports a growing industry of treatment and symptom relief, backed up by books and podcasts, but levels of knowledge and sensitivity in the medical profession vary wildly. This short series gathers together three journalists each with a unique story of the menopause. In the first episode Annabelle Gauntlett searches for medical insights into her extraordinary experience.
“At 13 I had horrific hot flushes that made me feel trapped in my burning skin. Worst of all, nobody could figure out what was wrong with me.”
Two years later Annabelle Gauntlett was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency. While her friends were navigating puberty, Annabelle was going through the menopause.
In the first of three documentaries on contemporary experiences of the menopause, Annabelle, who’s now 22, investigates the medical causes of extreme cases of early onset menopause, examines the response of the medical profession and considers her own future in which natural childbirth is an unlikely prospect.
1 in 100 women in the UK experience menopause before the age of 40, and those numbers are rising, but for most the reasons are unclear. Most of those women experience premature menopause in their 30s- cases like Annabelle’s are rare but extremely upsetting.
Annabelle says, “Teenage menopause quickly became my life. The same track played on repeat in my head every night: ‘Why me?’ With no answers, no support and no future guidance, I became incredibly isolated from my peers who were navigating puberty while mine was ending.”
“My infertility is something that evolves with me at every new stage of life. Recently I found myself smiling at a mother and baby playing peek-a-boo with a tear in my eye. I’m in awe of something I can’t ever have. Every relationship I enter, the first thing that springs to my mind is, ‘How and when will I tell him I can’t have children?’”
Annabelle- now a print and video journalist in the Scottish Highlands- uses her diaries and social media posts from her teenage years to tell her own story, discusses the impact with others in a similar situation and talks to experts in the field about diagnosis, treatment and research.
Producer: Alasdair Cross
MON 11:30 One to One (m001n1p2)
Acceptance: Lois Pryce and Yasmin Khan
Travel writer Lois Pryce was hit by a crippling post-viral fatigue after getting Covid in March 2020. She went from somebody who solo motorcycled around the world to somebody who couldn't walk to the corner shop. A big turning point in her recovery was when she realised she couldn't fight it - she had to accept it. Today she talks about this idea of acceptance with author and human rights activist Yasmin Khan, who was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome after suffering a debilitating burnout in 2011.
Photo by Austin Vince. Produced for BBC Audio by Becky Ripley.
MON 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024l3b)
1: 'A bomb went off in my life.'
Hanif Kureishi: ‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me.’
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others, requiring constant hospital care. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.
Today: Kureishi wakes to find himself lying in a pool of blood, unable to move. As he and his partner wait for the ambulance, his first thought is the life he will now miss..
Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy , and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett
MON 12:00 News Summary (m0024l3f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 You and Yours (m0024l3h)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
MON 12:57 Weather (m0024l3k)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0024l3m)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
MON 13:45 The History Podcast (m0024bg8)
The Lucan Obsession
The Lucan Obsession: 6. The Golden Hour
With Sandra Rivett lying dead in the basement, Lucan must decide whether to face the police or run.
And so begins the second mystery that has made this case so compelling.
Where did Lucan go that night?
Was he being sheltered by his friends who the police nicknamed The Eaton Square Mafia?
Alex von Tunzelmann pieces together what we know of the hours after the murder, asking whose version should we believe.
She meets an eyewitness who says she was the last person to see Lucan alive, and crawls underground into a bunker where the police were sure he was hiding.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
MON 14:00 The Archers (m0024l3p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Jack & Millie (m0024l3r)
Series 3
3. The Moth Whisperer
Jack & Millie have an encounter with an unexpected bean-to-cup coffee grinder, whilst Harry has an encounter with an unexpected son
So Millie’s son Melvin has given her a new tablet with a voice recorder?
So suddenly Jack & Millie have decided to record everything that happens to them? And for this, we should be grateful?
Well, YES! - because this is the new series of the comedy show written by Jeremy Front (writer of the Charles Paris mysteries for Radio 4) and starring Jeremy Front and Rebecca Front as Jack & Millie Lemman - an older couple who are fully engaged with contemporary life whilst being at war with the absurdities of the modern world.
Starring
Jack - Jeremy Front
Millie - Rebecca Front
and
Shirley - Tracy-Ann Oberman
Harry - Nigel Lindsay
Melvin - Tim Downie
Delphine - Jenny Bede
With special guest
Joseph May as Ethan
Written by Jeremy Front
Produced and directed by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4
MON 14:45 Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding (m001741r)
Episode Six
Helen Fielding's iconic 1996 novel of life as a single thirty-something woman in London.
"As I started to cross the lawn they all went quiet, and I realized to my horror that instead of Tarts and Vicars, the ladies were in Country Casuals-style calf-length floral two-pieces and the men were in slacks and V-necked sweaters."
Bridget Jones begins the new year full of resolutions. She pledges in her diary to drink less, smoke less, lose weight, find a new job, stay away from unsuitable men and learn to programme the VCR. But her resolve is tested by the horrors of attending dinner parties with the "smug marrieds", the confusing behaviour of her charming rogue of a boss Daniel Cleaver, and her increasingly embarrassing encounters with Human Rights lawyer Mark Darcy.
Bridget Jones's Diary started life as a weekly column in the pages of The Independent in 1995, when Fielding worked on the news desk. Helen’s column chronicled the life and antics of fictional Bridget Jones as a thirty-something single woman in London trying to make sense of life and love. It was first published as a novel in 1996 and has gone on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and has been adapted into a series of films.
Read by Sally Phillips
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Mair Bosworth and Mary Ward-Lowery
MON 15:00 A Good Read (m0024l3t)
Nihal Arthanayake and Elif Shafak
Nihal has chosen Amma, the debut novel by Sri Lankan writer Saraid de Silva, which he compares to meeting someone on a train and having a long, intense conversation. Elif Shafak's choice, however, You're Embarrassing Yourself by Desiree Akhavan, he describes as more like a hilarious night in a pub. Harriett has gone for The Second Murderer by Denise Mina, a Philip Marlowe novel. But is there a need to add to Raymond Chandler's canon?
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
Join the conversation on Instagram: agoodreadbbc
MON 15:30 Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley (m0023jl1)
Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley
36. Sophie Lyons - Crime Doesn't Pay
In this brand new series Lucy Worsley switches her attention from Lady Killers to Lady Swindlers - con women, thieves and hustlers.
This is where true crime meets history - with a twist. Lucy and her team of all female detectives travel back more than 100 years to revisit the audacious and surprising crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.
In this episode Lucy is exploring Sophie Lyons, pickpocket, blackmailer and conwoman extraordinaire, known as the infamous Queen of the Underworld.
Born in Germany in the late 1840s, aged 8 Sophie moves to New York, USA. She is taught from an early age to steal and pickpockets, and is in jail from the young age of 12.
She becomes a career criminal, constantly crafting new schemes and disguises to make money. But in her later years, Sophie has a change of heart and encourages others to stay away from a life of crime such as hers. She even writes a book: ‘Why Crime Does Not Pay’.
With Lucy to explore Sophie’s story is Guest Detective, Evy Poumpouras, former NYPD officer, criminal investigator, interrogator, and ex special agent with the US Secret Service. Being a first-generation American herself, Evy discusses Sophie’s experience as an immigrant in underworld New York and how women are drawn into crime to survive.
Lucy is also joined by biographer Barbara Gray, who is writing a book on Sophie. Barbara visits the site of Sophie’s childhood home to tell us about what life was like as an immigrant in 1850s New York. And she explores the veracity of Sophie’s memoirs, asking the question - how much can we trust her?
Lucy wants to know: is Sophie’s reform genuine, or just another scheme to make money? Can a career criminal ever truly give up crime?
Producer: Hannah Fisher
Readers: Laurel Lefkow and Jonathan Keeble
Sound Design: Chris Maclean
Executive producer: Kirsty Hunter
A StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4.
If you're in the UK, listen to the newest episodes of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/3M2pT0K
MON 16:00 Buried (m0024sff)
[Repeat of broadcast at
13:30 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 How to Play (m0022ksj)
Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand with Nicholas McCarthy and the RPO
Pianist, Nicholas McCarthy, who was born without a right hand, invites us behind the scenes as he prepares for his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Nicholas shares the story of how Ravel’s Concerto for the Left hand came to be composed for a musician who lost his arm in the First World War, and he discusses some of the special challenges he faces as the world’s only professional one-handed pianist.
Conductor Jordan de Souza and members of the RPO talk about what makes Ravel’s Concerto such extraordinary music, as well as a huge technical achievement. They share their experiences of working with Nicholas, and how they meet the taxing demands this piece places on all of its performers.
Produced by Chris Taylor for BBC Audio Wales and West
MON 17:00 PM (m0024l3w)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024l3y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
MON 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m0024l40)
Series 3
Merthyr - where a pub quiz is a pub ui
Paul hosts a round of his perfect pub quiz in Merthyr Tydfil, the first time the show has visited Wales - so he takes the opportunity to quiz the locals on their language, their flag and their cities.
Written and performed by Paul Sinha
Additional material: Oliver Levy
Additional questions: The Audience
Original music: Tim Sutton
Recording engineer: Steve Martin
Mixed by: Rich Evans
Producer: Ed Morrish
A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4
MON 19:00 The Archers (m0024l42)
There’s a ray of hope for the Grundy family, and Lilian remains unimpressed.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0024l44)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
MON 20:00 Rethink (m0024fjw)
Rethink... energy
Rethink considers how we might take a different approach to issues that affect all of us, asking some of the brightest minds what we could do to make the world a better place.
This week, we're rethinking energy. The massive rise in the price of wholesale gas in 2022, and the subsequent rise in our household energy bills highlighted the need for the UK to have a secure, reliable and cheap energy supply.
So what choices do we have? UK fossil fuel reserves are dwindling, but we have offshore wind, and sunshine in the south. Renewable power is also cheaper than fossil fuels. In the first three months of 2024, the UK's wind, solar and other forms of renewable power generated just over half of our energy and by the end of September, coal had been phased out completely.
But there is still a long way to go before the UK is self-sufficient.
It can take as long as 15 years to connect a renewable power plant to the National Grid.
A nuclear power station hasn't been completed in the UK for nearly 30 years
Do we have enough power storage for cloudy or windless days?
And industry and homes are still reliant on gas.
So how to we need to rethink energy to keep the lights on, charge our many devices and power our electric vehicles in the future? And if we get it right, what will be the rewards for everyone?
Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham
Contributors:
Aoife Foley, Professor & Chair in Net Zero Infrastructure at the University of Manchester.
Emma Pinchbeck, Chief Executive, Energy UK.
Sam Richards, a former special advisor on energy to Boris Johnson, and now the Chief Executive of campaign group Britain Remade.
Andrew Crossland, Associate Professor in practice at the Durham Energy Institute.
MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m0024fjy)
A weekly programme looking at the science that's changing our world.
MON 21:00 Start the Week (m0024l34)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:45 Café Hope (m0024l36)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 today]
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0024l46)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (m0024l48)
Episode 6
Grace has told curator Becker the story of the violent assault that led to her moving to Eris to protect her friend, the artist Vanessa Chapman.
Written by Paula Hawkins
Read by Alexandra Mathie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4
The New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN explores ambition, creativity and loyalty in an unsettling psychological thriller with echoes of Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith. Uncovering buried links between late artist Vanessa Chapman, her faithless missing husband and the rural GP who holds the key to Chapman’s work, Becker must race the tide if he’s to escape Vanessa’s remote Scottish studio with the deadly story behind ‘Division II’.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies and adapted into a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s most recent thrillers, INTO THE WATER and A SLOW FIRE BURNING, were also instant No.1 bestsellers. THE BLUE HOUR has just been published around the world.
MON 23:00 Limelight (p0gm1b1f)
Harland - Series 3
Harland - 5. Diu triach
Lucy Catherine's supernatural thriller reaches its apocalyptic conclusion. Sarah may still be at his side but Dan finds the world around him is being ripped apart as forces unleashed centuries ago come crashing into the present. The Hare Witches will not be denied.
Dan ..... Tyger Drew-Honey
Sarah ..... Ayesha Antoine
Janis ..... Fiona Skinner
Fordingbridge ..... Sean Baker
Keshia ..... Rhiannon Neads
Molly Gold ..... Carolyn Pickles
Dom Rob ..... Josh Bryant-Jones
DJ ..... Don Gilet
Production Co-ordinator ..... Jenny Mendez
Technical Producer ..... Andrew Garratt
Sound Design by Peter Ringrose and Caleb Knightley
Directed by Toby Swift
A BBC Audio Production for BBC Radio 4
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0024l4b)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUESDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2024
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0024l4d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 00:30 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024l3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024l4g)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024l4j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024l4l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0024l4n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0024l4q)
The Glories of the Night Sky
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett
Good morning.
As today in Britain we celebrate Bonfire Night, I am praying for peace in the places around the world, where rockets in the sky now bring terror.
But, as I look to the heavens this evening, at my local fireworks, I will also be reminded of the many glories that we have seen in the night sky over these last few months.
Having grown up in London, I hardly ever saw the stars, apart from the very brightest, because of the heavy light pollution. It wasn't until I stayed, as a child, in a village with no street lights, that I discovered, much to my amazement, that the sky was full of billions of them!
Stargazing has been my life-long passion, especially hoping to see the Northern Lights, which I never imagined I would see here in the UK in my lifetime.
But last month I did.
Having missed the spectacular show in May, I was determined to stay up and see them and I was not disappointed. With the aid of a camera and a great deal of patience, just from my bedroom window, I captured the glorious array of green and purple and pink that performed as a light show above my house, all night long. Amazing!
In Church we've been reading the book of Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible, written several thousands of years ago. It is full of human suffering, but also astonishing descriptions of our world, as God the Creator in his discourse, reminds Job of the glories of His creation.
Glories, I witnessed the other night.
So today, not only do I pray for peace in our world, but I also give thanks for Creation.
Amen
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0024l4s)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 06:00 Today (m0024ng3)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Young Again (m0024ng5)
17. Irvine Welsh
Kirsty Young asks the author Irvine Welsh what advice he would give his younger self.
Welsh became a literary sensation when his first novel, Trainspotting, was published in 1993. The film adaptation that followed made him a star. But before that he'd gone from being a punk in London to a turn into administrative work for his local council, via a brush with heroin addiction. He looks back at his childhood in Edinburgh, his parents' romance and a first arrest at just eight years old.
A BBC Studios Audio production.
TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m0024ng7)
Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024ng9)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m0024fnr)
Powell and Pressburger
As November marks the TV premiere of Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Ellen and Mark explore the films of these two titans of British Cinema.
TUE 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024ngc)
2: 'Are you still there?'
Hanif Kurieshi: ‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.’
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.
Today: as his friends fly out to visit him in Italy, where he still requires constant hospital care, Kureishi can't help but wonder how others will see him now...
Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy , and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett
TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0024ngf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m0024ngh)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0024ngk)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0024ngm)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
TUE 13:45 The History Podcast (m0024bgb)
The Lucan Obsession
The Lucan Obsession : 7. The Investigation
Police traipsed through 46 Lower Belgrave St on the night of Sandra Rivett’s murder, but did they contaminate the evidence?
The police files are still closed. Where there have been unanswered questions, enticing myths and conspiracies have filled the void.
Alex von Tunzelmann pieces together what we can know of the investigation, trying to separate fact from fiction.
She hears from two policemen who worked on the Lucan case and reassesses the forensics with an ex-Metropolitan Police detective.
Stories emerge about close relations between the press and police and she wonders if booze, bribes and class deference may have obscured the truth.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0024l42)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0024ngp)
Life and Time Part One: Fourteen Years
Award-winning writer James Fritz takes us behind prison walls and into the complex issues that exist in the UK prison service. Two prisoners are on ‘Imprisonment for Public Protection’ sentences. The first is a young man who has committed his first offence. The second a returning prisoner who is now in his late 70s and struggling to cope with life in prison. Both lives are caught up in a Kafkaesque nightmare from which there seems to be no escape.
For Martin time is spinning out of control. Time is just falling through his fingers and being lost day after day, year after year. Will life always be behind a prison wall.
Martin ….. Connor Finch
John ….. Kenneth Cranham
Prison Officer Rose ….. Robert Glenister
Kate ….. Kacey Ainsworth
Sammy ….. Ty Tennant
Lee ….. Carl Prekopp
Margaret ….. Tracy Wiles
Directed by Tracey Neale
In 2002 the Home Secretary David Blunkett introduced a new type of sentence, intended to protect the public from those who had committed serious crimes.
Imprisonment for Public Protection, or IPP, gave judges the power to grant open-ended, indeterminate sentences to those regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired.
Originally designed to be used only a handful of times, in the period between 2005 and 2012, 8,711 IPP sentences were handed out, often to relatively minor repeat offences.
As of September, there are still 2734 prisoners serving IPP sentences in the UK. All have long-since served their minimum tariff. Many still do not know when they will be released. In 2020 the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Brown described IPP sentences as ‘the greatest single stain on our criminal justice system.’ David Blunkett, the man who introduced them, has described the IPP sentence as the ‘biggest regret’ of his long career.
UK prisons are also facing the serious issue of an ever-growing elderly population. There is not adequate provision for this problem. Long serving and experienced officers are leaving and there are increasing numbers of much younger officers who have just entered the profession and lack essential prison life experience. In addition, there is hardly any care provision offered by councils because they are struggling to balance the limited finances they have at their disposal. They are hardly able to care for those outside let alone those behind bars.
Writer, James Fritz is a multi-award-winning writer from South London, whose dramas for BBC Radio 4 include Comment is Free, Death of A Cosmonaut, Eight Point Nine, Dear Harry Kane and The Test Batter Can’t Breathe. James has won Richard Imison, Peter Tinniswood, ARIA and Prix Europa Awards for his audio work. His theatre awards include the Bruntwood Prize, The Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright and he has also been nominated for an Olivier Award. His most recent theatre credit is the The Flea which is now performing its second run at The Yard Theatre.
Producer and Director, Tracey Neale
Sound Design, Keith Graham
Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands
TUE 15:00 Punt & Dennis: Route Masters (m0023zj9)
Series 1: From Beer to Eternity
Episode 6
Comedy chat show taking the conversational long way round to a series final destination.
TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m0024ngr)
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
TUE 16:00 The Poetry Detective (m0024ngw)
Wedding Poems
What makes a good poem for a wedding? Vanessa Kisuule investigates the best and worst of matrimonial verse. With Caroline Bird and Rachel Long.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m0024ngy)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.
TUE 17:00 PM (m0024nh0)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024nh2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
TUE 18:30 Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living (m0024nh4)
Series 1
2. Stuart Is a Total Banker
Comedian Stuart Mitchell examines his own cost of living crisis with a move into the high flying world of banking - and just when he thinks he has it all, the world crashes around him. Stuart gives up everything he has worked so hard for in an attempt to be true to his self and is left wondering if his journey was really worth it, when he's scrambling to pay the bills?
Each episode, Stuart looks at a chapter of his own unbelievable, but absolutely true, life story.
A working class boy, with huge aspirations, Stuart achieved everything he dreamed of and more. However, he soon came to realise that the cost of having everything was more than he was willing to pay. A morality tale featuring his time working in Westminster, moving to a highly paid job in banking and willingly losing it all to find happiness; Stuart will make us all question the true cost of living.
Written and performed by Stuart Mitchell
Produced by Lauren Mackay
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0024nh6)
Natasha has a brainwave, and Kirsty finds herself on the spot.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0024nh8)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0023pw8)
Current affairs documentary series investigating major issues at home and abroad.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0024nhb)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 Uncanny (m0024nhd)
Halloween: Trilogy of Terror
Halloween Special: Meadow Cottage
A brand new case for Halloween. Helen, her husband and baby son move into a 200 year-old house in the Lake District. At first all is fine, but one October morning they open their front door to find a pile of small stones on their doorstep.
The odd incident sets into motion a series of terrifying events that lasts for the next 18 years…
Written and presented by Danny Robins
Editing and sound design: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme music by Lanterns on the Lake
Production manager: Tam Reynolds
Commissioning executive: Paula McDonnell
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard
A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 21:30 Today in Parliament (m0024nhg)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
TUE 22:00 America Decides (m0024lwq)
Ros Atkins and Nuala McGovern present in depth reporting, analysis and reaction from the 2024 US presidential election as results across America are declared.
WEDNESDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2024
WED 06:00 Today (m0024nzx)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Life Changing (m0024nzz)
Hostage Survival
In 2013 Nick Hitch found himself at the heart of a violent attack on a Gas facility in Eastern Algeria. It was later revealed that the militiamen were affiliated to Al-Qaeda. As a senior project manager Nick was deliberately targeted, threatened with execution, forced along with his colleagues to sit for hours in fear of detonating explosives to which they had been attached, and ultimately packed into a vehicle alongside a man with a crude suicide bomb on his knee.
Thirty-nine foreign workers died during the attack, several of them Nick's close colleagues.
Talking to Dr Sian Williams, he describes how the attack unfolded, how the challenges affected and continue to affect him, and how he has sought to put his horrific experience at the service of others who have faced similar trauma.
Producer: Tom Alban
Anyone affected by any of the issues described in this programme can find help and support at
www.hostageinternational.org
WED 09:30 The Gift (m0024p01)
Series 2
1. Switched - Part 1
An at-home DNA test - taken by chance when a game of golf is rained off - forces one man and three women to reassess everything they thought they knew about their families.
It’s the perfect gift for the person who already has everything. It promises to tell you who you really are, and how you’re connected to the world. A present that will reveal your genetic past – but could also disrupt your future.
In the first series of The Gift, Jenny Kleeman looked at the extraordinary truths that can unravel when people take at-home DNA tests like Ancestry and 23andMe.
In this second series, Jenny is going deeper into the unintended consequences - the aftershocks - set in motion when people link up to the enormous global DNA database.
Reconnecting and rupturing families, uprooting identities, unearthing long-buried secrets - what happens after technology, genealogy and identity collide?
Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
The Gift is a BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024p03)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
WED 11:00 File on 4 (m0023pw8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Tuesday]
WED 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024p05)
3: 'I am not a show.'
Hanif Kureishi: ‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me. My partner, my children, my friends.’
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others, requiring constant hospital care. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.
Today: Kureishi rages against his powerlessness and now constant dependence on others...
Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy , and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett
WED 12:00 News Summary (m0024p07)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 You and Yours (m0024p09)
News and discussion of consumer affairs
WED 12:57 Weather (m0024p0c)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0024p0f)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
WED 13:45 The History Podcast (m0024bgc)
The Lucan Obsession
The Lucan Obsession: 8. Speculation and Suspicion
The nation was spellbound by the inquest into Sandra Rivett’s death.
For the press the story was a dream. A tale of the aristocracy, gambling, debt and murder was a welcome relief in an era of shortages and strikes. They salivated over the grim details.
Alex von Tunzelmann hears how inquest became a trial, supercharging our obsession with this case.
And she wonders if we can take his guilt as fact when she hears a never before broadcast recording of an interview of Lady Lucan and an incriminating new story from a policeman.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
WED 14:00 The Archers (m0024nh6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0024p0h)
Life and Time Part Two: Forty Minutes
Award winning writer, James Fritz, takes us behind prison walls and into the complex issues that exist in the UK prison service. Two prisoners are on ‘IPP' sentences. The first is a young man who has committed his first offence. The second, John, (a reoffender) is now in his late 70s, he has mobility issues, and is struggling to cope with life in prison. What happens when John's cellmate is on work duty, and John falls seriously ill and he can't even call out for help.
Martin ….. Connor Finch
John ….. Kenneth Cranham
Prison Officer Rose ….. Robert Glenister
Lee ….. Carl Prekopp
Margaret ….. Tracy Wiles
Directed by Tracey Neale
In 2002 the Home Secretary David Blunkett introduced a new type of sentence, intended to protect the public from those who had committed serious crimes.
Imprisonment for Public Protection, or IPP, gave judges the power to grant open-ended, indeterminate sentences to those regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired.
Originally designed to be used only a handful of times, in the period between 2005 and 2012, 8,711 IPP sentences were handed out, often to relatively minor repeat offences.
As of September, there are still 2734 prisoners serving IPP sentences in the UK. All have long-since served their minimum tariff. Many still do not know when they will be released. In 2020 the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Brown described IPP sentences as ‘the greatest single stain on our criminal justice system.’ David Blunkett, the man who introduced them, has described the IPP sentence as the ‘biggest regret’ of his long career.
UK prisons are also facing the serious issue of an ever-growing elderly population. There is not adequate provision for this problem. Long serving and experienced officers are leaving and there are increasing numbers of much younger officers who have just entered the profession and lack essential prison life experience. In addition, there is hardly any care provision offered by councils because they are struggling to balance the limited finances they have at their disposal. They are hardly able to care for those outside let alone those behind bars.
Writer, James Fritz is a multi-award-winning writer from South London, whose dramas for BBC Radio 4 include Comment is Free, Death of A Cosmonaut, Eight Point Nine, Dear Harry Kane and The Test Batter Can’t Breathe. James has won Richard Imison, Peter Tinniswood, ARIA and Prix Europa Awards for his audio work. His theatre awards include the Bruntwood Prize, The Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright and he has also been nominated for an Olivier Award. His most recent theatre credit is the The Flea which is now performing its second run at The Yard Theatre.
Producer and Director, Tracey Neale
Sound Design, Keith Graham
Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands
WED 15:00 The Law Show (m0024p0k)
New rights for renters, and can your ex claim your house?
Conversation about the laws making headlines, and the laws that shape everyday life. Dr Joelle Grogan speaks with barristers, solicitors and others about how the law could affect you.
She kicks of the discussion by finding out about some laws that have just taken effect, like the Workers Protection Act, or others that are on the horizon. What will they mean for those affected?
The Renters' Reform Bill is a major piece of legislation introduced by the new government, that aims to give new rights to tenants in the private sector, and impose new obligations on landlords. For example, it sets out to abolish Section 21 "no-fault" evictions. Joelle speaks to specialist lawyers to hear how it will impact both.
And when you divorce, could your ex get your house, even if it was yours to begin with, or they didn't contribute to the mortgage? And what about your pension? Family solicitor Tracey Moloney has the answers - which may surprise you. They differ quite significantly depending on which nation of the UK you live in too.
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
WED 15:30 Menopause Matters (m0024q8r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Monday]
WED 16:00 The Media Show (m0024m03)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
WED 17:00 PM (m0024p0m)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024p0p)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
WED 18:30 Ivo Graham's Obsessions (m0024p0r)
6. Mike Bubbins & Sian Lloyd
In the last of the series, Ivo Graham travels to Cardiff to find out what obsesses his Welsh guests
Ivo is joined by writer and star of BBC Two's Mammoth, Mike Bubbins, and former weather reporter and Welsh national treasure Siân Lloyd.
Mike loves the 70s, and what's more 70s than American cop show The Rockford Files? Siân has a remarkable sweet tooth and love of baking. Ivo also finds out what the Cardiff audience are obsessed with, before being joined by a Very Obsessed Person, or VOP. Cath Pendleton aka the Merthyr Mermaid talks about her love of cold water swimming, and the unbelievable feats she has accomplished in sub-zero temperatures.
Hosted by Ivo Graham
Featuring Mike Bubbins, Siân Lloyd and Cath Pendleton
Written by Ivo Graham and Tom Craine
Additional Material by Ruth Husko, Eleri Morgan, Christina Riggs and Peter Tellouche
Recorded at Cardiff Glee Club by Chris MacLean
Sound edited by Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinators: Katie Baum and Jodie Charman
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies, a BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4
An EcoAudio certified production
Show image: Matt Stronge
WED 19:00 The Archers (m0024lzg)
Rex offers a glimpse of the future, and a visitor makes their presence felt.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0024p0t)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m0024p0w)
Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories.
WED 21:00 Soul Music (m0024lhg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
WED 21:30 The Conflict (m0024p0y)
Middle East
06/11/2024
What can history teach us about the conflict in the Middle East?
Jonny Dymond brings together a carefully assembled panel of experts, academics and journalists to talk about the conflict in the region.
What has happened in history to lead us to this point? And, what can history teach us about what might happen next?
Please get in touch with Jonny and the team: theconflict@bbc.co.uk.
The Conflict: Middle East was made by Keiligh Baker and Ivana Davidovic. The technical producers were Jonny Hall and Tim Heffer. The assistant editor is Ben Mundy. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
This episode is part of a BBC Sounds series.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0024p11)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (m0024p15)
Episode 7
Curator Becker has been searching for missing artworks from the Chapman estate. Her reluctant executor Grace has sensationally claimed that Vanessa’s ex-husband Julian destroyed them in a jealous rage.
Written by Paula Hawkins
Read by Alexandra Mathie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4
The New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN explores ambition, creativity and loyalty in an unsettling psychological thriller with echoes of Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith. Uncovering buried links between late artist Vanessa Chapman, her faithless missing husband and the rural GP who holds the key to Chapman’s work, Becker must race the tide if he’s to escape Vanessa’s remote Scottish studio with the deadly story behind ‘Division II’.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies and adapted into a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s most recent thrillers, INTO THE WATER and A SLOW FIRE BURNING, were also instant No.1 bestsellers. THE BLUE HOUR has just been published around the world.
WED 23:00 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (m0024p19)
Episode 8
As he waits for the DNA results from the bone removed from Vanessa's sculpture, Becker is starting to wonder what motivates her friend and executor Grace Haswell.
Written by Paula Hawkins
Read by Alexandra Mathie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4
The New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN explores ambition, creativity and loyalty in an unsettling psychological thriller with echoes of Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith. Uncovering buried links between late artist Vanessa Chapman, her faithless missing husband and the rural GP who holds the key to Chapman’s work, Becker must race the tide if he’s to escape Vanessa’s remote Scottish studio with the deadly story behind ‘Division II’.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies and adapted into a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s most recent thrillers, INTO THE WATER and A SLOW FIRE BURNING, were also instant No.1 bestsellers. THE BLUE HOUR has just been published around the world.
WED 23:15 Influencers (m001qtm3)
Series 1
5. Popstars
Katy Brand and Katherine Parkinson write and star in a new comedy about the world of influencing, where they play Ruth and Carla – two wannabe stars of the online business world.
They are bound together by a carefully controlled image that can lead to lucrative product placements and well-paid endorsements - but only if the PR is played just right. And that’s a problem because, behind the scenes, things are not always as harmonious as they seem.
Episode 5: Popstars
Ruth and Carla cook up a cunning plan to trick the mystery Daughters of Influencers bloggers by making a pop song on an app, and launching themselves as a new band called Motherz.
Carla – Katy Brand
Ruth – Katherine Parkinson
Written by Katy Brand and Katherine Parkinson
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0024p1f)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament
THURSDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2024
THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0024p1j)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 00:30 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024p05)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024p1l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024p1n)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024p1q)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0024p1s)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0024p1v)
Walking the Way
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett
Good morning.
As the nights draw in, I am reflecting over last summer’s walking of St Wite’s Way, our guided pilgrimage experience inspired by Dorset’s patron saint.
Her holy relics lie in our church in Whitchurch Canonicorum, which has been a site of healing and pilgrimage for over a thousand years.
This last summer pilgrims have come from all over the world to walk St Wite’s Way, bringing with them all of life. Some with great heartache from experiences of the past, some just curious about the Saint and some simply looking forward to walking in the glorious Dorset countryside. Whatever the reasons to join, all are welcome, from all faiths and none.
St Wite’s tradition is one of healing and protection, wisdom and guidance and as we walk, and stop to reflect and explore our inner and the outer landscape, things emerge, often unexpectedly.
And it seems to me that in the simple act of setting aside time, and walking fully present to ourselves and others, creates opportunities to reconnect with aspects of our spirituality and identity that are normally hidden in our busy day to day lives.
Many who have joined us over the summer have spoken of this and the sense of healing and wholeness this reconnection brings and I am thankful to God for their stories, and the inspirational story of St Wite, told in the very place where she lived and ministered, a thousand years ago.
So today I pray for all fellow pilgrims, who are searching for the way, may you find the enlightenment and healing you seek.
Amen
THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0024p1x)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
THU 06:00 Today (m0024lyw)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0024lyy)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas.
THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m0024q8y)
Armando Iannucci and Helen Lewis break down the baffling world of political language.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024lz0)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m0024lz2)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music
THU 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024lz4)
4: 'Who am I now?'
Hanif Kureishi: ‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me.’
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others, requiring constant hospital care. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.
Today: With a return to his home in London within sight, Kureishi struggles with his new identity
Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy , and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett
THU 12:00 News Summary (m0024lz6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m0024lz8)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show, with insight from the people at the top.
THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0024sy5)
Toast - Kodak
Kodak made photography mainstream so why did it falter in a digital age?
The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, discovers how Kodak rose to become a massive global enterprise best known for its cameras and film.
Alongside him is the serial entrepreneur, Sam White, ready to offer her opinions on the business's fortunes.
Kodak is still trading profitably but is now a much smaller business than it once was.
Sean and Sam hear from expert guests including:
Kamal Munir - Professor of Strategy & Policy at Cambridge Judge Business School which is part of the University of Cambridge
Don Strickland - Kodak's former Vice President of Digital Imaging
Paul O'Sullivan - who runs a film processing business in London
Andrew Long - who worked in Kodak's consumer products division in the UK.
Produced by Jon Douglas. Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.uk
Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.
Sliced Bread returns for a new batch of investigations in December, where Greg Foot investigates so-called wonder products to find out whether they really are the best thing since sliced bread. In the meantime, Toast is available in the Sliced Bread feed on BBC Sounds.
THU 12:57 Weather (m0024lzb)
The latest weather forecast
THU 13:00 World at One (m0024lzd)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
THU 13:45 The History Podcast (m0024bgf)
The Lucan Obsession
The Lucan Obsession : 9. A Race Across The World
Our interest in Lord Lucan could have petered out after the inquest. But people start to spot him all over the world. Could he really have escaped the UK?
Alex von Tunzelmann explores what role this idea plays in our fixation with the Lucan case.
She hears how the media kept the story going, inventing sightings for copy and jollies abroad. People admit to elaborate hoaxes and blatantly fabricating stories.
But should we dismiss the idea? Alex finds one story from a closed police file that completely bowls her over.
Producer: Sarah Bowen
THU 14:00 The Archers (m0024lzg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m000cc72)
Their Humble Servants
Jonathan Myerson's drama explores the workings of Buckingham Palace from the bottom up. How do the staff deal with the day to day running of the Royal household - let alone when crises occur?
An intruder has been detected in the palace grounds on the eve of a banquet being thrown by Lord Melbourne and in the week when the Abdication Bill is due to pass.
The Royals themselves do not take part in this new fictional drama - just their humble servants.
Cast:
JEREMY STERN Dominic Rowan
MICHAELA ARLINGTON Ayesha Antoine
HOWARD PATCHETT Alec Newman
GERARD DERBYSHIRE Paul Chahidi
PIPPA WALL Harriett Hare
THE REV. CECILIA Tanya Loretta Dee
LORD MELBOURNE/FISHERMAN Jack Staddon
Other parts played by members of the cast
Written by Jonathan Myerson
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4
THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0024lzj)
River Itchen - Hampshire
Clare explores the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire with Andrew Simkins who has just completed walking around the coast and borders of England. It’s taken him eight years, and it’s been an extraordinary journey in more ways than one. His beloved daughter, Alice, died age 28 in 2016 and he discovered that devoting himself to the process of walking helped him deal with the grief; it gave him a feeling of solace and a sense of connection with her. When people asked him if he was walking alone, he would reply 'I’m often in the best of company’.
This isn’t a sad episode of Ramblings, though, it’s very much about the positive impact of walking even in the most awful circumstances, and Andrew is a cheery companion.
The route Andrew is sharing with Clare isn’t part of the coast OR borders, but he explains that he chose to divert away from the coast at this point as the Itchen Way appealed to him so much.
Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0024ll6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Feedback (m0024lzl)
The programme that holds the BBC to account on behalf of the radio audience
THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m0024lzn)
David Aaronovitch and a panel of experts and insiders present in-depth explainers on big issues in the news.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0024lzq)
A weekly programme looking at the science that's changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (m0024lzs)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024lzv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
THU 18:30 Unspeakable (m0024lzx)
Series 1
Episode 2
Ever had an emotion or sensation on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't find the word? Finally, here's the show for you.
Stand-up Phil Wang and lexicographer and etymologist Susie Dent challenge guests to dream up new words for universal, shared concepts and experiences which have always lacked names. Until now!
We've got our best people on the case. Linguists? Anthropologists? Nope. Comedians!
Phil Wang and Susie Dent welcome guests putting forward a new word suggestion, hilariously picking apart each other's pitches. Unspeakable is a celebration of language and shared experiences and it's a cure for that relatable moment when we're lost for words.
Hosts: Phil Wang and Susie Dent
Guests: Jo Brand, Lou Sanders and Kiell Smith-Bynoe.
Created by Joe Varley
Writer: Matt Crosby
Recorded by Jerry Peal
Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producers: Joe Varley and Akash Lockmun
A Brown Bred production for BBC Radio 4
THU 19:00 The Archers (m0024lzz)
Emma fears the worst, and Helen is forced to put her own feelings aside.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0024m01)
Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.
THU 20:00 The Media Show (m0024m03)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m0024ljc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
18:15 on Saturday]
THU 21:45 The Warsaw Ghetto: History as Survival (m001ljf9)
7. The Umschlagplatz
The Oyneg Shabes Archive chronicled every facet of life and death in the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940-43. An underground project that became history as survival. Anton Lesser narrates this 10 part series revealing the lives and stories of the Ghetto. Episode7-The Umschlagplatz.
Emanuel Ringelblum had gathered his 'zamler's to collect, write & record daily existence in the Warsaw Ghetto in a clandestine project codenamed Oyneg Shabes (Joy of the Sabbath). Fears of what the Nazi's might be capable of had grown since Ghetto life & the beginning of the archive but few believed they would murder the entire population of Europe's largest Jewish community. By the summer of 1942 appalling evidence of mass murder had been documented and transmitted to London. Then, in July , the Great Deportations began. It was the beginning of the end. No one was safe, even as the terrible roundups got underway, members of the Oyneg Shabes tried to document events and secure the archive. Every day 6000 men, women & children were herded towards the Umschlagplatz where the trains departed daily Eastwards.
Narrator Anton Lesser. Featuring the voices of Richard Katz as Abraham Lewin, Elliot Levey as Emanuel Ringeblum & Tracy-Ann Oberman as Rachel Auerbach. Polish dialogues Gregorz Janiszewski. German dialogues Michael Joseph & Felix Tzapir. Translation by Emma Harris, Christopher Hutton, Sean Gasper Bye & Samuel Kassow. Written & produced by Mark Burman.
For more information on the Oyneg Shabes/Ringeblum archive go to the website of the Jewish Historical Institute https://cbj.jhi.pl/
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0024m05)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (m0024m07)
Episode 9
Grace has finally shared a cache of Vanessa’s lost paintings leaving curator Becker desperate to flee Eris with the news.
Written by Paula Hawkins
Read by Alexandra Mathie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4
The New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN explores ambition, creativity and loyalty in an unsettling psychological thriller with echoes of Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith. Uncovering buried links between late artist Vanessa Chapman, her faithless missing husband and the rural GP who holds the key to Chapman’s work, Becker must race the tide if he’s to escape Vanessa’s remote Scottish studio with the deadly story behind ‘Division II’.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies and adapted into a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s most recent thrillers, INTO THE WATER and A SLOW FIRE BURNING, were also instant No.1 bestsellers. THE BLUE HOUR has just been published around the world.
THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m0024m09)
Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week.
THU 23:30 Dying for a Transplant (m00213w3)
There’s a lack of organ donors from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK and it's having an impact on people from ethnic minorities on the transplant waiting list.
This means that if you’re from any ethnicity in the UK other than a white minority, you’re likely to spend longer on the waiting list and have a higher chance of dying before receiving a transplant.
This is a phenomenon all too apparent to comedian Emmanuel Sonubi, who suffered life threatening heart failure in 2019, was subsequently diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and was told by doctors that the need for a life-saving transplant could loom large in his future.
But when each nation of the UK now has laws that deem deceased adults as consenting to having their organs donated, why does demand continue to outstrip supply? Among the myriad of reasons, many experts believe a lack of representation and mistrust in health care professionals might be just two, along with families of the deceased refusing donation on cultural or religious grounds.
In Dying For A Transplant, Emmanuel sits down with comedian and former Eastenders and Goodness Gracious Me star Nina Wadia, whose mother waited years for a successful kidney transplant, and asks why she feels so strongly about being part of the NHS Heart to Heart campaign, which asks people from ethnic minority backgrounds to be vocal in their approval of donation in the event of their death.
Dr. Dela Idowu tells us what inspired her to start the Black Living Donor Choir and about some of the stigmas and myths that permeate in her community.
Behind all the stats, facts and figures there are real people and one of them is Sophia Iman Ali, a young woman whose father, Amjid Ali, spent decades on dialysis until he received an organ from a relative. In an attempt to stop the ambiguity around organ donation in Islam, Amjid was instrumental in having a fatwa issued in 2019 that made it permissible.
After decades of this persistent shortage, will we ever be able to turn things around to offer full transplant equality?
Presented by Emmanuel Sonubi
Produced by Kurt Brookes
A Made In Manchester production for BBC Radio 4.
FRIDAY 08 NOVEMBER 2024
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0024m0c)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 00:30 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024lz4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0024m0f)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0024m0h)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0024m0k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0024m0m)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0024m0p)
Cold Water Shock
A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett
Good morning.
Every Friday morning at around
8:30, stormy weather and sewage alerts permitting, you’ll find me on the beach with my two friends, preparing to swim.
I can't say I'm an experienced cold water swimmer but I've been swimming regularly since the end of March this year and I've made a pact with my fellow swim sisters to swim throughout this winter. Even if it means just going in for a few moments.
I started swimming to accompany my friend who had tragically lost a close family member she used to swim with. I took the funeral; and wanted to keep in touch, so swimming together seemed like the natural thing to do.
That first day in March was memorable. It was cold and choppy. As I stepped into the waves, the stones from the beach pounded my ankles. The shock of the iciness of the water hit me. I felt a surge of adrenaline. As I left the water 60 seconds later, I was fully alive and instantly hooked.
Now, as I wade in, I am more familiar with the creeping numbness of cold water swimming. As winter approaches I know that every moment we stay in may be a moment too long and leave us shivering when we get out. So we plan to stay safe.
Yet I find, the more I swim, I notice that the intensity of the experience in some mysterious way mirrors the shock felt by my friend in her loss, which strangely, helps.
So today in this season of Remembrance I pray for all those around the world who live with the same shock, that in the depths of their trauma, there will be a glimmer of hope.
Amen
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0024m0r)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
FRI 06:00 Today (m0024p2l)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m001stn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:00 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Continental Divides (m0023gmn)
Episode 4 - The Eastern Front
Misha Glenny explores a number of political divides facing Europe and asks whether the continent is undergoing the same crises it went through in the 1930s.
In this fourth episode, he explores how different European countries are dealing with the war in Ukraine.
First, in Serbia, a historic Russian ally is turning towards Europe - but not without political controversy. And in Sweden, politicians are plotting an uncertain future after long held principles of neutrality were finally abandoned in favour of NATO membership. Has Europe's role in NATO reached a crucial turning point?
Producer: Artemis Irvine
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson
Sound Design and Mix: Simon Jarvis
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024p2n)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m0024p2q)
Investigating every aspect of the food we eat
FRI 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024p2s)
5: 'I will make something of this.'
Hanif Kurieshi: ‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me.’
On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs, and was now completely dependent on the help of others, requiring constant hospital care. So began an odyssey of a year through the medical systems of Italy and the UK, with the hope of somehow being able to return home to his house in London.
While confined to a series of hospital wards, he felt compelled to write, and, unable to type or to hold a pen, he began to dictate his thoughts to family members. The result is an extraordinary series of dispatches from his hospital bed – a diary of a life in pieces, recorded with rare honesty, clarity and courage. It's also a portrait of a new life, shaped by new feelings – of gratitude, humility and love.
Today: almost a year since his fall, Kureishi is back home. His life has been smashed, remade and altered, but he's determined to make something of it...
Writer: Hanif Kureishi is an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker and novelist. His novels include the award-winning The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy , and his screenplays include the Oscar-nominated My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus.
Reader: tbc
Abridger: Julian Wilkinson
Producer: Justine Willett
FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0024p2v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Rare Earth (m0024p2x)
Green infrastructure or green fields?
How can we build new green infrastructure without wrecking the countryside? Helen Czerski and Tom Heap debate the issue with a panel of experts, and ask what the measures outlined in last week's budget will mean for planning decisions and the environment.
Producer: Emma Campbell
FRI 12:57 Weather (m0024p2z)
The latest weather forecast
FRI 13:00 World at One (m0024p31)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.
FRI 13:45 The History Podcast (m0024bgh)
The Lucan Obsession
The Lucan Obsession : 10. The Final Act?
Alex trawls through Lord Lucan’s belongings from his speedily abandoned flat.
She finds incriminating books where he’s torn out pages on how to kill your wife, and is taken aback by photos that make her reconsider the story.
She draws together what makes this a compelling crime, and asks what would give it the perfect ending.
And in a remarkable interview with a former Met Police Detective, she discovers that we could perhaps get an answer to one of the two mysteries tomorrow.
Presenter: Alex von Tunzelmann
Content Producer: Becca Bryers
Series Producer: Sarah Bowen
FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0024lzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Limelight (m00238rm)
Central Intelligence
Central Intelligence - Episode 9
The inside story of the CIA from the perspective of Eloise Page (Kim Cattrall), who joined on the Agency’s first day in 1947 and, in a 40-year career, became one of its most influential figures. Eloise takes the listener on a journey through the highs and lows of US foreign policy, spanning the staggering world events that shaped her career, as well as portraying her relationships with early CIA leaders, Allen Dulles (Ed Harris), Richard Helms (Johnny Flynn).
New episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
In Episode 9, when news starts to trickle through that the coup in Iran has failed, the CIA’s man on the ground, Kim Roosevelt (Rob Benedict), goes rogue to try to turn things around.
Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall
Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris
Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn
Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend
Kermit Roosevelt..........Rob Benedict
General Fazlollah Zahedi..........Dana Haqjoo
Nasiri & General Riahi..........Bijan Daneshmand
Queen Soraya..........Isabella Nefar
The Shah..........Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy
Assadollah Rashidian..........Adam Sina
Rocky Stone..........Akie Kotabe
Clover Dulles..........Laurel Lefkow
Clare Boothe Luce..........Jennifer Armour
Bellboy..........Will Hislop
Original music is by Sacha Puttnam
Production:
Written by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox
Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova
Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel
Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch
Trails: Jack Soper
Archive Research: Andy Goddard & Alex Lynch
Production Assistant: Jo Troy
Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Mat Clark & Paul Clark
Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman
Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony Diaz
Margarita Mix, Santa Monica Sound Engineer, LA: Bruce Bueckert
Mirrortone Sound Engineers, NY: Collin Stanley Dwarzski & James Quesada
Director: John Scott Dryden
Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn
Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott Dryden.
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 14:45 Something to Declare (m0024q90)
Jack Boswell explores how other cultures handle the universal problems we face at home.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0024p34)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.
FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0024p36)
No Good Deed by Riley Johnston
An original short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4 from the author Riley Johnston. Read by Tara Lynne O’Neill (Derry Girls.)
Riley Johnston was first published in ‘The 32: An Anthology of Working-Class Voices’ (2021) Her novel ‘A Holy Show’ was long-listed in the Discoveries prize (2021) and Irish Writers Centre, Novel Fair (2023). Riley’s short fiction has been published and won awards, including the Mairtín Crawford Award, 2022. Riley is supported by the Arts Council, Northern Ireland.
Writer: Riley Johnston
Reader: Tara Lynne O’Neill
Producer: Michael Shannon
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0024p38)
Weekly obituary programme telling the life stories of those who have died recently.
FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m0024nzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m0024p3b)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024p3d)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m0024p3g)
Series 25
Episode 2
Satirical impressions from the team headed up by Jon Culshaw and Jan Ravens.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0024p3j)
WRITER: Nick Warburton
DIRECTOR: Kim Greengrass
EDITOR: Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer…. Louiza Patikas
Natasha Archer…. Mali Harries
Tom Archer…. William Troughton
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Justin Elliott…. Simon Williams
Miranda Elliott…. Lucy Fleming
Rex Fairbrother…. Nick Barber
Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond
Emma Grundy…. Emerald O‘Hanrahan
George Grundy…. Angus Stobie
Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy
Brad Horrobin…. Taylor Uttley
Kirsty Miller…. Annabelle Dowler
Megan Miller…. Susan Twist
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Sarah Byron…. Michelle Greenidge
FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m0024p3l)
Las Vegas
As Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl premieres at TIFF, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the dark world of Las Vegas on screen, from Showgirls to the Rat Pack.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0024p3n)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0024p3q)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.
FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m0024p3s)
The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0024p3v)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins (m0024p3x)
Episode 10
Grace has a chilling reason for knowing that the rib at the heart of Vanessa’s sculpture does not belong to her missing ex-husband Julian.
Written by Paula Hawkins
Read by Alexandra Mathie
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie
An EcoAudio certified from BBC Audio Scotland for BBC Radio 4
The New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN explores ambition, creativity and loyalty in an unsettling psychological thriller with echoes of Du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith. Uncovering buried links between late artist Vanessa Chapman, her faithless missing husband and the rural GP who holds the key to Chapman’s work, Becker must race the tide if he’s to escape Vanessa’s remote Scottish studio with the deadly story behind ‘Division II’.
Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a global phenomenon, selling over 23 million copies and adapted into a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s most recent thrillers, INTO THE WATER and A SLOW FIRE BURNING, were also instant No.1 bestsellers. THE BLUE HOUR has just been published around the world.
FRI 23:00 Americast (m0024p3z)
Join the Americast team for insights from across the US.
FRI 23:30 Things Fell Apart (m00213vh)
S2. Bonus episode: An Audience with Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson’s second season of unexpected human stories from the culture wars focused on the divisions that erupted in the wake of the Covid lockdown. It was a number 1 hit podcast and received five star reviews. In a fun, free-flowing live discussion from the Hay Festival in Wales, Jon turns the tables on himself and asks his audience to ask him anything they like.
Series Producer: Sarah Shebbeare