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)
02/11/24 Farming Today This Week: Farmers react to the Budget
Following the Budget, Caz Graham is in Cumbria to hear farmers' reactions to the news that inheritance tax will apply to farms from April 2026.
The National Farmers' Union tells us farming is being "bled dry" and has "nothing left to give".
The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel Zeichner, confirmed that next year's farming budget for England remains unchanged at £2.4 billion.
There was no mention of nature in the Chancellor's speech, something the Wildlife Trusts highlighted, saying "the UK Government must commit to long-term strategic funding for nature’s recovery and provide greater funding for environmental regulators".
Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.
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
Phil Wang, who says he wouldn’t be a comedian if he wasn’t of mixed heritage, Malaysian and British, his latest Netflix special opens on the subject of reheating rice and how in the west we’re afraid to do that…so what does his dual heritage allow him to do
A question we could also put to Chitra Soundar, the award-winning children’s writer, who grew up in India, and whose books have inspired the new BBC animated sitcom Nikhil & Jay which is about two Indian/British dual heritage brothers.
Nigel McCrery, the man who created the hit TV series Silent Witness and who’s written over a dozen novels, reveals the details about his involvement in the DNA identification of the Russian Royal family.
All that, plus we have the Inheritance Tracks of the former Time Lord and master of spin Peter Capaldi.
Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Nihal Arthanayake
Producer: Ben Mitchell
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.
Including an interview with Rita Moreno originally broadcast on BBC 100 Women in Conversation in 2023
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)
What next for Georgia?
Kate Adie presents stories from Georgia, the US, Benin and Egypt.
In Georgia, tens of thousands of people took to the streets this week amid claims of election violations, highlighting the rift between voters hoping for closer ties to Europe and those wishing to retain relations with Russia. Rayhan Demytrie reports from the capital Tblisi.
Immigration is one of the leading issues for voters in the US Presidential election. James Menendez travelled to both Mexico and the Southern US to meet people affected, in different ways, by the border crisis.
More than 12 months on since the October 7th attacks by Hamas, and the onset of Israel’s retaliation, foreign journalists have still been unable to report directly from Gaza. As a result, news organisations have often turned to Gazan citizens to relay what they see on a daily basis. Lara Elgabaly reports on some of the virtual relationships she has built in reporting on Gaza - and what it was like when she finally met a family that had been sharing their story with her.
Voodoo is an often misunderstood and maligned religion, says its followers, but the government in Benin wants to correct that - and even use the country's traditional belief system and culture to appeal to tourists, as Sam Bradpiece discovered.
And finally, returning to the US election. With the polls neck and neck, America is likely to remain a deeply divided nation no matter who wins the White House next week – but where does the 2024 race sit in the long arc of America’s political history? Nick Bryant has reported from the campaign trail since the 90s and reflects on what next week’s vote could mean for the country.
Producers: Emma Close, Serena Tarling and Polly Hope.
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith.
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0024lhn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0024lhq)
Inheritance Tax Changes and Car Finance
Wednesday saw the first Budget from a Labour government for nearly 15 years and the first ever delivered by a female Chancellor. Rachel Reeves wasn't the first to stand up in the Commons and announce tax rises, but the scale of them was large by historical standards - about £40bn a year by 2029/30.
The bulk of that will come from raising National Insurance contributions paid by employers. There will also be higher rates of Capital Gains Tax, VAT on private school fees, changes to Inheritance Tax and a rise in stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland.
As promised, there was no rise in the rates of Income Tax, VAT or National Insurance in what the government called the payslips of working people. There was some welcome news as the freeze on Income Tax thresholds will end in April 2028, minimum wages will rise, and the tax on petrol and diesel will not. Paul Lewis discusses the details with a panel of experts.
And, could a landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal pave the way for millions of pounds of compensation for people who bought their cars on finance?
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporter: Sarah Rogers and Neil Morrow
Researchers: Emma Smith and Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle
(First broadcast
12pm Saturday November 2nd 2024)
SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (m0024fnl)
Series 25
Dead Ringers: Ep1. Budget Politicians
What was Rachel Reeves’ real inspiration for her budget? What advice is Kamala Harris giving to Joe Biden, and what exactly is a ‘working person’? JD Vance and Tim Walz make their first appearances on the show and Rishi Sunak probably his last.
This week's impressionists are Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis Macleod, Jess Robinson and Jason Forbes.
The episode was written by: Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden and Tom Coles, Cody Dahler, Rob Darke, Edward Tew, Sophie Dickson with additional material by Jennifer Walker.
Sound design: Rich Evans
Executive Producer: Richard Morris
Produced and created by Bill Dare
Production Coordinator: Caroline Barlow
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)
Daisy Cooper MP, John Glen MP, Paul Johnson, James Murray MP
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from Christ Church in Flackwell Heath, Buckinghamshire with Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper MP; shadow paymaster general John Glen MP; the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson; and the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, James Murray MP.
Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Tim Allen
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)
Justin drives Martyn home from a business event where Martyn overdid the fizz. Justin discusses the Rewilding Ambridge project and his meeting with Kirsty and Rex. He has serious reservations and might suggest BL knock the partnership on the head. When Justin mentions how much he enjoyed tearing a strip off Kirsty and Rex, Martyn’s critical; he no longer relishes stories like that. Justin’s car suddenly breaks down, and while they wait for help, Justin wonders what Martyn meant. Martyn explains he no longer takes pleasure in the misfortunes of others. In fact his acquisition of wealth has become a burden. He warns Justin not to make the same mistakes as him and to be alert to the signs; Justin will recognise them when he sees them. Justin’s surprised when he tries the car and it starts up again.
Ed bumps into Brad and thanks him for visiting George in prison. When Ed wonders why George hasn’t asked the family to visit, Brad makes his excuses and leaves. Brad then tentatively broaches the subject of prison with Helen, wondering what to do about George being bullied there. Helen suggests Brad talks to George’s parents, but Brad’s reluctant because George doesn’t want to panic them. Helen convinces Brad that he needs to do something, he’d never forgive himself if anything happened to George. Later Brad visits Ed admitting that he didn’t tell Emma the truth about George and that George is being bullied. Ed says they need to get George out of that prison. He doesn’t know how but there must be someone who can help.
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)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Hunger strike, Anna Maxwell Martin, US Election and women, Joeli Brearley, Mary McCall Jr
British-Egyptian activist and Maths professor Laila Soueif has been on hunger strike for the past month to protest her son Alaa’s incarceration in Egypt. He is the country’s most high profile political prisoner. Laila and her daughter Sanaa – who has faced arrest and imprisonment herself – joined Anita Rani to talk about why they won’t stop fighting for Alaa’s release.
The BAFTA-winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin stars as Delia in the new ITV series Until I Kill You. It tells the true story of Delia Balmer, who was the girlfriend of serial killer John Sweeney. Anna joined Nuala McGovern to talk about why she wanted to tell Delia’s story, as well as her personal experiences of grief and struggles with the special educational needs system.
The United States goes to the polls next week and presidential candidates are campaigning furiously, with the two frontrunners being the Democratic nominee and current Vice President, Kamala Harris and the Republican nominee and former President, Donald Trump. As a programme, we’re taking a look at whether there’s such a thing as the ‘the woman’s vote'. How are different groups of women likely to vote and why? Nuala spoke to Kathy Frankovic, Consultant to YouGov America and former director of surveys for CBS News and Debbie Walsh, Director of the Centre for Women and American Politics at Rutgers University.
Sacked from her job by voicemail the day after she informed her employer she was pregnant Joeli Brearley set up Pregnant Then Screwed to end pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The charity has helped to influence new flexible working and redundancy protection laws, providing advice to hundreds of thousands of women when they face discrimination and challenging employers and government in high profile cases. After ten years Joeli is stepping down as CEO. She joined Nuala in the Woman's Hour studio.
Film historian Jennifer Smyth talked to Nuala about the life and legacy of the pioneering American screenwriter, Mary McCall Jr. The first woman president of the Screen Writers Guild in 1942, Mary was a key negotiator ensuring better rights and wages for all screenwriters in the film industry. But after years of standing up to male studio heads, she would be blacklisted and go from being one of the biggest earners in Hollywood to living on nickels and dimes.
Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Emma Pearce
SAT 17:00 PM (m0024lj1)
Kemi Badenoch elected leader of the opposition
What does the election of Badenoch as Conservative leader say about the party's future? Plus, we pay tribute to the comedian Janey Godley.
SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m0024lj3)
The Rupert Soames CBI One
How did Churchill's grandson end up at the top of British industry?
Rupert Soames - Chair of the Confederation of British Industry - sits down with Nick Robinson to talk about this Labour government's first budget, which he claims did not offer enough "bang for the buck"
Producer: Daniel Kraemer
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)
Kemi Badenoch has become the new leader of the Conservative party.
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 'Who We Are'
Presenter: Clive Anderson
Producer: Jessica Treen
SAT 19:00 Profile (m0024ljf)
Bidzina Ivanishvili
From his hilltop glass mansion in ancient Tbilisi, he’s accused of cultivating Georgia’s shift from the west over the past decade.
And, with his political party’s recent victory in the parliamentary elections, that trajectory appears set to continue for some time yet.
Bidzina Ivanishvili is the guiding force behind the Georgian Dream party, but what else do we know about the mysterious billionaire?
In this edition of Profile, Mark Coles takes a closer look at the man who keeps animals, collects rare trees, and who spent much of the 1990s in Russia founding companies.
Production team
Producers: Ben Cooper, Marianna Brain, Kirsteen Knight
Editor: Ben Mundy
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Credits
IMEDI TV
SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m0024fj9)
Bill Nighy
A star of stage and screen, Bill Nighy has enjoyed a fifty year career and is now among Britain’s most prolific and much loved actors. Acclaimed for National Theatre roles in plays by David Hare and Tom Stoppard, his popular appeal lies with scene-stealing appearances in films including Pirates Of The Caribbean, Harry Potter and, most famously, Love Actually. Bill Nighy has won Bafta and Golden Globe awards and was Oscar nominated for his starring role in the 2022 historical drama Living. His most recent film is Joy in which he plays obstetrician Patrick Steptoe, one of the pioneers of fertility treatment.
Bill Nighy talks to John Wilson about some of the earliest influences on his career including a school drama teacher. He also recalls joining the Liverpool Everyman rep company in the 1970s and the influence of playwright David Hare who cast him in many of his works including Pravda, The Vertical Hour and Skylight.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
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.
Music by Mark McCambridge
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
SAT 21:00 Moral Maze (m0024f43)
The morality of sending offenders to prison.
Overcrowded, understaffed and in disrepair, Britain’s prisons are in crisis. One of the first acts of the Labour government was to announce that thousands of prisoners would be let out early to make room for the next wave of inmates. The Scottish government has a similar scheme. Press photographs taken at prison gates show chortling convicts cheering the Prime Minister before climbing into luxury cars and heading off to celebrate.
Arguments rage between those who say we send too many offenders to prison (more, as a proportion of the population, than any other country in Europe) and those who say we don’t catch and punish enough criminals, so we need tougher policing and more jails.
Perhaps the prison crisis is a blessing in disguise, because it is stimulating new ideas. Initiatives are already under way that may develop into long-term solutions. Reformers want more sentences of community service, more curfews enforced by electronic tagging, more flexible parole used as a reward for good behaviour. They point out that the nations with most prisoners are also, by and large, the countries with most crime; in Britain, they say, lawbreaking flourishes in the absence of both deterrence and rehabilitation.
Our sentencing tariffs, criminologists insist, are incoherent and morally dubious; we are too hard on some offenders and too soft on others; we should rewrite the guidelines to distinguish more clearly between wicked criminals and hapless inadequates; most offenders need support, guidance and incentives to address their problems, not incarceration.
But that’s not what the voters tend to think, so it’s not what MPs have tended to support. The majority view has always been that prisons should be used to protect the public. What’s more, they should be unpleasant places, to express society’s disapproval of criminality, and sentences should be longer, because there has to be punishment as well as rehabilitation.
Lock ‘em up or let ‘em out?
The panel: Sonia Sodha, Giles Fraser, Inaya Folarin Iman, Matthew Taylor.
Witnesses: Ayesha Nayyar, Scarlett Roberts, Peter Bleksley, Dr Hindpal Singh Bhui
SAT 22:00 News (m0024ljk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4
SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m0024fmv)
Back Stage Food – How performers eat before, during and after the show.
In this exploration of backstage food, Jaega Wise meets actors and musicians to find out how they eat to fuel their performance.
The journey begins backstage at the Criterion Theatre in the West End, to meet stars of the hit musical Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) Dujonna Gift and Sam Tutty.
From there Jaega chats to baker Stacy Donnelly who’s provided thousands of real-life pies for Waitress the Musical on broadway, and gets advice from nutritionist and dietician Jasmine Challis on the best diet to fuel dancers.
She also heads to Joe Allen’s in Covent Garden, which is renowned for feeding Hollywood stars, and chats to author of “My Family and Other Rock stars”, Tiffany Murray, who’s written a memoir about watching her Mum Joan acting as chef for performers of the 70s such as Queen, Black Sabbath and David Bowie.
And finally she’ll be getting to know popstar couple Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Richard Jones, to talk riders, eating on tour, and the breakfast Sophie can’t do without.
Presented by Jaega Wise and produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Tory Pope.
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)
Technology Training: Improvements of Provision
What are the big names from across the sight loss sector doing about the current provision of technology training? We have brought together a panel of guests from RNIB, AbilityNet, TAVIP, Visionary, Sight and Sound Technologies and rehabilitation specialists to discuss this issue. On last week's programme, we focused on why so many visually impaired people aren't able to access meaningful in-person technology support and what is stopping the sector from sorting it out. In this programme, we're getting some answers on what they are currently doing within this space.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: Kim Agostino
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
SUN 06:00 News Summary (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)
Religion and the US Election
Edward Stourton presents a special US edition of 'Sunday' from Atlanta, in which he reports on the religious vote from the Bible Belt battleground state of Georgia. With unique access to a broad spectrum of faith communities, he gets analysis on the role of religion in the election.
Producers:
Dan Tierney (in Atlanta)
Catherine Murray
Peter Everett
Saba Zaman
Studio managers:
Amy Brennon
John Cole
Jack Morris
Editor:
Tim Pemberton
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
The Brink
In the last of his essays reflecting on America's search for meaning, James Naughtie recalls a meeting a year ago with General Michael Hayden - the former head of the CIA - who, without fanfare, expressed concern for the future of US Democracy.
'I don’t know that we’ll come through this,’ he said. ‘Right now I think it’s about 50-50.’
James reflects on past presidents, such as Jimmy Carter, and his dedication to the promotion and protection of democracy around the world, and compares it to the present, as we enter the final days of the 2024 campaign.
What might a tight result might mean in the coming months? 'The system will be on trial,' he writes, recalling the legal battles over the 'hanging chads' of 2000 in which the fate of the nation was decided on just 537 votes.
Producer: Sheila Cook
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
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 last leg of the US election
A status report on the presidential race as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris approach the finish line. Plus: as Kemi Badenoch is elected the leader of the Conservatives, her mentor Michael Gove tells us why he thinks she is the right person to head up the opposition.
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)
Writer: Daniel Thurman
Director: Marina Caldarone & Kim Greengrass
Editor: Jeremy Howe
Helen Archer…. Louiza Patikas
Henry Archer…. Blayke Darby
Jolene Archer…. Buffy Davis
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)
US election: final battle for swing voters
The latest from the US election trail and the views of swing voters in Michigan where a handful of undecided voters could change the outcome of the election. Plus the controversial judicial reforms taking place in Mexico.
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 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)
Hillingdon: Seeds, Eucomis and Pineapple Lillies
What plant have you killed the most? How do I encourage my pineapple lily to flower? What plant would you take with you to your island paradise?
Kathy Clugston and her team of horticultural champions are in Hillingdon, to solve the gardening grievances of the audience. On the panel this week are proud plantsman Matthew Biggs, house plants expert Anne Swithinbank, and ethnobotanist James Wong.
Later in the programme, Dr Chris Thorogood is on hand to sew the seeds of knowledge as he educates us on all things seedlings, tackling topics such as what they are, how they grow and how to encourage them to grow healthily.
Producer: Bethany Hocken
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Assistant Producer: Daniel Pearce
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
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)
Carys Davies: The Mission House
The writer Carys Davies talks to readers about her beautifully-crafted novel, The Mission House, which follows the character of Hilary Byrd, a British librarian in his fifties, who is seeking to find himself again in modern-day southern India.
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)
Isy Suttie, Pascale Petit, Deryn Rees Jones, Alan Connor
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 Isy 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 Petit 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)
The King of Spain has been confronted by angry crowds following last week's deadly floods
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0024lmb)
Myra Anubi
We hear the final chapter closing on Radio 4's Open Book after 26 years as they discuss books that should be read and read once again. Plus, the power of music is featured across this week's selection - from bringing opportunities to adults with learning disabilities and neurodiverse people, to providing a glimmer of hope in the teaching of music education in Gaza. And can you ever lose a language you grew up speaking? CrowdScience is on the case.
Presenter: Myra Anubi
Producer: Anthony McKee
Production Co-ordinator: Jack Ferrie
A BBC Audio Northern Ireland production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0024l3p)
Ed and Will discuss the news from Brad that George is being bullied in prison. Ed wants to sort it before telling Emma. He’s been researching how to get George moved from an adult prison and as a result has sent a message to MP Sarah Byron. Sarah’s at a family fun run in Borchester today and Ed thinks he and Will should try to bump into her there. Later they jog up to Sarah and explain George’s situation. Sarah agrees to see what she can do, but cautions not overestimating what’s achievable. As she departs Ed hands her a business card with his contact details on and Sarah muses that she may need some tree surgery. She might give him a call.
At Grey Gables, Brad tells Justin he’s been working on some videos for the EV Charging Station, using George’s drone. He also mentions that Rewilding Ambridge are upgrading their website with a virtual tour, so that Justin can see the point of all of the rewilding. It’s going to use a sample of Rex’s voice using AI. But Justin’s distracted by the table he’d booked for one, turning out to be a table for two. And the other diner is Miranda. They fight over whose table it is but as neither will budge, end up eating together. Miranda berates Justin for the way he’s dealing with Kirsty and Rex, saying he's heartless and has always put business first. He’s Like some skinflint Scrooge now. When Miranda first met Justin it was his kindness that she fell for. Miranda leaves wondering where that’s all gone.
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)
Surviving Politics with Michael Gove. A Point of View. The Food Programme.
In this week's episode of Feedback, former Labour Cabinet Minister Alan Johnson adds his voice to the listener comments on Radio 4's short podcast series Surviving Politics with Michael Gove.
Radio 2 listeners share their tributes and memories of Johnnie Walker who signed off Sounds of the Seventies last weekend ,after 58 years of broadcasting.
A Point of View's American election opinions has listeners offering their views.
And Andrea talks to a Feedback listener who drove around in his car to hear the end of the The Food Programme's Eating on the Spectrum episode - which he says was broadcasting at it's best.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0024fnd)
Dick Pope, Sister Sally Butler, Professor Tim Darvill OBE, Patti McGee
Matthew Bannister on Dick Pope, the cinematographer who worked closely with Director Mike Leigh on films like “Secrets and Lies” and “Mr Turner”. Mike pays tribute. Sister Sally Butler, the American nun who blew the whistle on historic child sex abuse in her New York parish. Professor Tim Darvill OBE, the archaeologist best known for his work on the history of Stonehenge. Patti McGee, the first woman professional skateboarder. We have a tribute from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
Interviewee: Sir Roger Deakins
Interviewee: Mike Leigh
Interviewee: Fr Ron Lemmert
Interviewee: Dr Miles Russell
Interviewee: Hailey Villa
Interviewee: Tony Hawk
Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies
Archive used:
Life is Sweet, 1991, Film4 Trailer, Director, Mike Leigh. Film4 Production, released date in the UK 22/03/1991; Dick Pope in conversation with Roger Deakins on NAKED (Mike Leigh, 1993), Cinematographers on cinematography, YouTube channel 10/02/2022; 'Naked' Q & A with Dick Pope, British Society of Cinematographers, YouTube, uploaded 05/08/2022; Naked film promo, Director Mike Leigh, British Film Institute, BFI YouTube channel 8 Oct 2021; Mr Turner, Film Promo, Director Mike Leigh, eOne UK , eOne UK YouTube channel, 15/05/2014; America's Catholic Church In Crisis, Reporting Religion, BBC World Service, 29/03/2002; Sister Sally Butler interview, The National Catholic Reporter (NCR), NCROnline YouTube Channel 14/07/2017; Sister Sally Butler interview, A Matter of Conscience: Confronting Clergy Abuse, Director: John Michalczyk, Producer: Susan A. Michalczyk, Vimeo upload, Editor Gautam Chopra, 01/02/2015; The Standing Stones perform Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry, Dir: Dr Miles Russell. Patti McGee interview, The Mike Douglas Show, KYW-TV, NBC, 1965;
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)
Ben Wright is joined by the senior Labour backbencher Siobhain McDonagh; Conservative former Cabinet minister, Kit Malthouse; and Professor or Politics, Tim Bale. They discuss the election of Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader and the direction in which she might take the party. They also analyse the Budget and how it's changed the political landscape. Katy Balls - political editor of The Spectator - brings additional expertise and insights. The programme also includes an interview with former BBC Washington correspondent, Nick Bryant, about the history of the "special relationship" and the implications of the US election for the UK.
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
Reading list:
Michel Balard and Christian Buchet (eds.), The Sea in History: The Medieval World (Boydell & Brewer, 2017), especially ‘The Naval Power of Venice in the Eastern Mediterranean’ by Ruthy Gertwagen
Stephen D. Bowd, Venice's Most Loyal City: Civic Identity in Renaissance Brescia (Harward University Press, 2010)
Frederic Chapin Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973)
Georg Christ and Franz-Julius Morche (eds.), Cultures of Empire: Rethinking Venetian rule 1400–1700: Essays in Honour of Benjamin Arbel (Brill, 2020), especially ‘Orating Venice's Empire: Politics and Persuasion in Fifteenth Century Funeral Orations’ by Monique O'Connell
Eric R. Dursteler, A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797 (Brill, 2013), especially ‘Venice's Maritime Empire in the Early Modern Period’ by Benjamin Arbel
Iain Fenlon, The Ceremonial City: History, Memory and Myth in Renaissance Venice (Yale University Press, 2007)
Joanne M. Ferraro, Venice: History of the Floating City (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Maria Fusaro, Political Economies of Empire: The Decline of Venice and the Rise of England 1450-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
Maartje van Gelder, Trading Places: The Netherlandish Merchant Community in Early Modern Venice, 1590-1650 (Brill, 2009)
Deborah Howard, The Architectural History of Venice (Yale University Press, 2004)
Kristin L. Huffman (ed.), A View of Venice: Portrait of a Renaissance City (Duke University Press, 2024)
Peter Humfrey, Venice and the Veneto: Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
John Jeffries Martin and Dennis Romano (eds.), Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297-1797 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000)
Erin Maglaque, Venice’s Intimate Empire: Family Life and Scholarship in the Renaissance Mediterranean (Cornell University Press, 2018)
Michael E Mallett and John Rigby Hale, The Military Organization of a Renaissance State Venice, c.1400 to 1617 (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
William Hardy McNeill, Venice: The Hinge of Europe (The University of Chicago Press, 1974)
Jan Morris, The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage (Faber & Faber, 1980)
Monique O'Connell, Men of Empire: Power and Negotiation in Venice’s Maritime State (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)
Dennis Romano, Venice: The Remarkable History of the Lagoon City (Oxford University Press, 2023)
David Rosand, Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State (University of North Carolina Press, 2001)
David Sanderson Chambers, The Imperial Age of Venice, 1380-1580 (Thames and Hudson, 1970)
Sandra Toffolo, Describing the City, Describing the State: Representations of Venice and the Venetian Terraferma in the Renaissance (Brill, 2020)
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)
Marketing: How Effective Is Fear In Advertising?
Why do advertising agencies use fear to get us to part with our money?
Advertising agencies and marketing people use different techniques to push our buttons. Humour is one. But what about fear? Do they sometimes try to scare us into buying? Or is it a gentler art- playing on our insecurities about things like old age, poor health or thinning hair?
Evan Davis speaks to Sir John Hegarty and Ian Gathard from the advertising industry and psychologist Juliane Beard, who studies how the brains of consumers work.
Credits:
Volkswagen "Eyes on the Road" advertising stunt
Reebok trainers advertisement: "Lose the Beer Belly"
Aviva home insurance advertisement
Production team:
Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen
Researcher: Drew Hyndman
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
(Picture: Piccadilly Circus in London, Light Trails at night. Credit: Jonathan Herbert, JH Images via Getty Images)
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)
04/11/24 Row over new chair for Dartmoor land use group, sheep, saltmarsh.
There's a row about a new Land Management Group for Dartmoor. There's been a lot of controversy about the state of the environment and grazing sheep there. The new group's been set up to bring together farmers, commoners and environmental groups to sort out the problems. The government's appointed Phil Stocker as the independent chair, but conservationists say he shouldn't have been given the job as he's also CEO of the National Sheep Association. We speak to Dartmoor Nature Alliance about their concerns. We ask Phil Stocker about his new role, and also about the state of sheep farming in the UK.
Farmers in North Somerset say plans to create saltmarshes to offset the environmental impact of a new power station would be disastrous for their homes and livelihoods. Energy giant EDF is building a nuclear power plant - Hinkley Point C - on the Bristol Channel. To offset the number of fish that’ll be killed when it’s up and running, EDF is looking to create saltmarshes along the River Severn. It needs more than 800 acres and is considering the compulsory purchase of agricultural land.
Presenter = Caz Graham
Producer = Rebecca Rooney
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)
Kemi Badenoch becomes Tory leader, Athlete Julien Alfred, Author Eliza Clark
Kemi Badenoch is the first woman of colour to lead a major political party in the UK, after being elected as leader of the Conservative Party at the weekend. What do we know about her as a woman, and as a politician? What does this mean for women in the Tory party? Clare McDonnell speaks to Katy Balls, political editor of the Spectator, Ella Robertson McKay, former head of Conservative Young Women, and Tory peer Baroness Kate Fall.
The Women's 100 metre Olympic champion Julien Alfred joins Clare in the studio. Her gold medal in Paris was the first time St Lucia had won an Olympic medal. She discusses what it took to become a champion and also having a national day named after her.
The author Eliza Clark is publishing a new collection of short stories: She’s Always Hungry. She joins Clare to talk about why she wanted to cover topics from matriarchal societies to body image, and how she thinks female authors deserve more respect.
Natalie Hewit spent two months in Antarctica directing and producing on the documentary film Endurance, about Ernest Shackleton’s expedition. It was a labour of love, and features restored footage and AI-recreated voices of the original crew in 1914, as well as chronicling the discovery in 2022 of Shackleton’s ship, 3000 metres down in the icy waters of the Weddell Sea.
Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Lottie Garton
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 21, 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, 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 with Highland News and Media in Inverness- 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.'
Art Malik reads Hanif Kureishi's brutally frank memoir of life after the fall that left him almost completely paralysed.
‘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: Art Malik
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)
Budget Impact on Housing, Chaos Marketing, Dogs in Restaurants
How will the Budget help the government deliver 1.5m new homes, in five years, and will the raise in stamp duty for private landlords increase the numbers selling up?
The latest Ofcom report on the postal services in the UK shows that the numbers of letters delivered have declined 9% in the last year and has fallen by three quarters in the last 20 years. Is cutting the number of weekly deliveries the only rational answer to the viability of Royal Mail?
More restaurants and shops are relaxing their attitudes to allowing dogs on their premises, is this a good thing?
Gravy sold in beer cans, perfume in cleaning product dispensers and tampons in ice cream tubs, are all examples of so called chaos packaging; is it clever marketing or just confusing?
An MP is asking for non-surgical butt-lift treatments to be banned in the UK, after a young mother died. Clinics offering dermal fillers are not currently licensed but should they be licensed in this rapidly growing market?
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: KEV MOUSLEY
MON 12:57 Weather (m0024l3k)
The latest weather forecast
MON 13:00 World at One (m0024l3m)
PM: People smugglers to be treated like terrorists
Sir Keir Starmer outlines new plans to target Channel smuggling gangs, using techniques developed for terrorism suspects. Plus a tribute to Quincy Jones - the legendary music producer who worked with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra - who has died aged 91. And former Conservative Party leader Lord Howard speaks about the future of his party under its new leader, Kemi Badenoch.
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)
University tuition fees rise for the first time in eight years
Students and universities react to the first rise in university fees in eight years, and we hear from the US on the last day of the election race.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024l3y)
The increase will apply to all domestic undergraduate students from next year
MON 18:30 Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (m0024l40)
Series 3
Merthyr
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)
Emma surveys a tree for Sarah Byron who explains she’s an MP and had heard about their tree business from Ed at the Fun Run yesterday. Later wrong-footed Emma confronts Ed who explains why he met up with Sarah. It was because he didn’t want Emma to know about George being bullied in prison and wanted to fix it first. So Ed and Will were asking for Sarah’s help to get George moved. Ed suggests that Emma outlines what they’re doing when she visits George.
Justin gives Lilian a lift en route to a BL meeting about the future of the rewilding land. Lilian wishes Justin wasn’t pursuing it. They’re interrupted by the sight of a woman by the roadside. Lilian thinks she looks upset but Justin speeds past. However on his way back, Justin agrees to give the woman a lift. She explains she’d discovered she’d lost her phone and purse on her way to Ambridge and the taxi driver had abandoned her. She introduces herself as Megan, explaining that she’s visiting her daughter whose business is hanging in the balance. Justin counsels being ruthless if her daughter wants to turn a profit. But Megan says her daughter’s not like that. Justin’s quietly shocked when Megan reveals that her daughter works in rewilding and is called Kirsty. As Justin drops Megan off she’s sorry she’s made Justin miss his meeting. He says that’s ok before driving briskly off so that he doesn’t have to reveal his name. Later Justin won’t talk to Lilian about the BL meeting, enigmatically stating that the matter remains undecided.
MON 19:15 Front Row (m0024l44)
Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, political satire in US elections, how to write a book
Actors Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch on their modern day remake of The Day of the Jackal.
Political satire in the US Elections: Helen Lewis of the Atlantic and Mike Gillis of the Onion discuss.
We take a look at how to write a novel with Hattie Crisell and Sara Collins.
and remember the music producer and innovator extraordinaire, Quincy Jones, who’s died at the age of 91.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Corinna Jones
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, the Climate Change Committee.
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)
Spooky Science
It’s our Halloween special from a rain-soaked Jodrell Bank in Cheshire.
We find out what you can see in a dark, dark Halloween night sky with space-watcher and Professor of astrophysics Tim O’Brien.
Also this week, we meet some blood-sucking leeches, the horrors of pumpkin waste and could zombies ever be real?
Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Ella Hubber, Sophie Ormiston & Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.
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)
US presidential campaign draws to a close
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are holding their final rallies in one of the closest races for the White House in history, before polling stations open across the US tomorrow.
James Coomarasamy reports on immigration issues in the swing state of Wisconsin
University tuition fees in England are to rise
and the new Pharrell Williams "Lego" biopic
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)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster as the government announces a rise in tuition fees at English universities.
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)
05/11/24 - DEFRA Secretary on inheritance tax, Basic Payments and the National Living Wage
The DEFRA Secretary has defended the Government's decision to introduce inheritance tax on agricultural assets. Steve Reed tells Anna Hill the wealthiest landowners and farmers "can afford to contribute more". It comes after inheritance tax of 20% is being brought in for farms with £2 million or more of assets. Some farmers are angry - concerned it will mean that when a farmer dies, their family will have to sell some of all of their land to pay the tax.
And we visit an autumn sheep sale in Cumbria to hear why upland and hill farmers are worried about the future, despite a buoyant sheep market.
Presented by Anna Hill
Produced by Heather Simons
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)
What next for Alzheimer's treatment?
The first drugs to slow Alzheimer's progression have been making headlines around the world. For researchers in the field, the arrival of these two therapies called Lecanemab and Donanemab is testament to decades of advancements in the field of Alzheimer's research because for the first time they go further than modifying the symptoms and have been shown in trials to slow down cognitive decline. For patients and families these treatments offer hope that the amount of quality time they'll have together could be lengthened.
Around the world regulatory bodies are weighing up their effectiveness, safety and cost. In the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
has approved Lecanemab and Donanemab for use but the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected them for use in the NHS on the basis the benefit to patients did not outweight the cost, although they could still be available privately.
Presenter James Gallagher examines the decision with Professor of Public Health Carol Brayne from the University of Cambridge and neuroscientist Professor Tara Spires-Jones from the University of Edinburgh. Then, looking forward, he meets scientists searching for future treatments including Dr Emma Mead, chief scientist at the Alzheimer's UK Drug Discovery Institute at the University of Oxford, Dr Ashvini Keshavan, co-lead of University College London's ADAPT blood biomarker trial, Selina Wray, Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and Alzheimer's Research UK Senior Research Fellow at University College London, and UK Dementia Research Institute Emerging Leader Dr Claire Durrant.
This programme was produced in partnership with The Open University.
Presenter: James Gallagher
Producer: Tom Bonnett
Editor: Holly Squire
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024ng9)
Women's tennis in Saudi Arabia, 'Dear Sirs', Women and advertising
This week sees the culmination of the women's tennis season as the WTA finals are held, somewhat controversially, in Saudi Arabia. So far, top seed Aryna Sabalenka is through to the first semi-final, the second semi-final will be decided tomorrow. However, the decision to hold the tournament in a country which has been criticised for it's treatment of women has been in the spotlight and under scrutiny. To discuss this more, Clare McDonnell is joined by sports reporter Catherine Whitaker and Felix Jakens who is head of campaigns at Amnesty International.
A Woman's Hour listener is fed up with the phrase 'Dear Sirs' - Ellie Rees is the co-founder of Brickworks Estate Agency and despite her team being all female, they are often addressed in this way. Clare is joined by Ellie to discuss this, and also by Susie Dent, the author and lexicographer.
ADWOMEN: 100 Years of Women in Advertising opens this week at the Museum of Brands in London. It features iconic adverts from the 1920s to the present day looking at the creative women within advertising and the portrayal of women within the adverts themselves. It also examines the impact of advertising on women’s lives through defining periods of social history. Clare speaks to Alice Kain, the curator, and Sabina Usher, Head of Strategy and Partner at OMD.
Playwright Caitriona Cunningham has drawn on her own experience of being in a mother and baby home in 1979 for The Marian Hotel, a production that’s currently touring Northern Ireland. In it, a group of young pregnant unmarried women hold each other up with sharp, dark humour against the backdrop of the Troubles. Caitriona joins Clare to explain why she decided to tell this story now.
Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Emma Pearce
TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m0024fnr)
Powell and Pressburger
As November marks the TV premiere on BBC 2 of Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, as well as a season of films on the BBC and iPlayer, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the films of these two titans of British Cinema.
Film and culture writer, Lilian Crawford shares with Mark why the works of Powell and Pressburger are a matter of life and death, and how the duo's technicolour films took their cue from the worlds of ballet and opera.
Mark also speaks to British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, for whom Powell and Pressburger’s films hold a strong personal allure. She discusses the technical wizardry and in-camera magic found across their productions, and how that has inspired her own image-making.
Meanwhile, Kevin Macdonald, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker and grandson of Emeric Pressburger, shares with Ellen how some Powell and Pressburger films are nuanced examples of wartime propaganda, and why some still resonate and remain relevant to Britain today.
Producer: Mae-Li Evans
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024ngc)
2: 'Are you still there?'
Art Malik reads Hanif Kureishi's powerful and brutally frank memoir.
‘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
Reader: Art Malik
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)
Call You and Yours: Letters and Parcels
We're sending far fewer letters than we were 10 years ago. But most of us still think the post is important. That's according to the latest report from the regulator, Ofcom.
Meanwhile, the amount of parcels being sent is going up - and here, according to Ofcom, there are signs of improvement in the service we're getting.
So tell us - what's it like sending and receiving letters, or parcels, where you live? Do you rely on the postal service? Is sending and receiving letters and parcels crucial to you, perhaps for your job? If you work as a postie, or delivering parcels, we'd like to hear from you too.
Tell us your experiences - email youandyours@bbc.co.uk, and leave a number so we can call you back. And after
11am on Tuesday 5 November, you can call us on 03700 100 444.
PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON
PRODUCER: TOM MOSELEY
TUE 12:57 Weather (m0024ngk)
The latest weather forecast
TUE 13:00 World at One (m0024ngm)
‘Herculean effort’ needed for clean energy plans
Officials say plans to decarbonise electricity by 2030 are ‘achievable’, but over 600 miles of new power lines are needed. Also: We're in Philadelphia as voters go to the polls.
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
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
6 – From Hot Air Balloons to The Shipping Forecast
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are on a mission to get from hot air balloons to the Shipping Forecast in the most entertaining way possible, in a warm and witty podcast that celebrates new and half-remembered trivia as they try to find unlikely links between random places, people and things.
Across the series, they’ll be joined by guests including Ken Cheng, Kiri Pritchard McLean, Isy Suttie and Marcus Brigstocke, on a scenic route which takes in Shampoo, The Gruffalo, Watford Gap Services and Yoghurt.
Written and hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis
With Angela Barnes
Produced by Victoria Lloyd
Recorded at Maple St Creative
Mixed by Jonathan Last
A Listen production for BBC Radio 4
TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m0024ngr)
Tech Workers
Laurie Taylor lifts the lid on a sector of the economy associated with wealth, innovation & genius. Mark Graham, Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute, uncovers the hidden human labour powering AI. His study, based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of fieldwork, is the first to tell the stories of this army of underpaid and exploited workers. Beneath the promise of a frictionless technology that will bring riches to humanity, the interviews he has conducted reveal a grimmer reality involving a precarious global workforce of millions labouring under often appalling conditions. Also, Paula Bialski, Associate Professor for Digital Sociology at the University of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, discusses her research with software developers at a non-flashy, run-of-the-mill tech company. Beyond the awesome images of the Gods of Silicone Valley, she finds that technology breaks due to human-related issues and staff are often engaged in patch up and repair, rather than dreaming up the next killer app.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
TUE 16:00 The Poetry Detective (m0024ngw)
Wedding Poems
Weddings... finally! An all too rare moment for poems to shine! Time for all those neglected specks of verse to don their smart jackets and satin heels to help mark one of our most revered social rituals.
If you’ve ever been asked to read a poem at a wedding you’ll know that finding and reading the perfect verse is far from an easy task. The hunt for a poem befitting the occasion has unraveled many a wedding speaker, our Poetry Detective included. For those of us who don’t want to settle for one of the ‘top ten wedding poems’, where do we begin?
Vanessa Kisuule speaks to poets Caroline Bird and Rachel Long, who are compiling a new anthology of alternative wedding poems. Why is it so hard to choose a poem that works for a wedding ceremony, and how can people find a poem that really speaks to - and for - them?
"Yes, yours, my love, is the right human face / I in my mind had waited for so long". Stephen Walsh chose The Confirmation by Edwin Muir for both his first and second marriage, finding that the poem had changed for him over the decades and taken on new depth of meaning. Vanessa finds out how Muir's own love story informed the poem, speaking to writer Kenneth Steven about Muir's childhood on the Orcadian island of Wyre, and the huge losses he experienced as a young man before meeting his wife Willa.
'We two boys together clinging / One the other never leaving". In 1994, before same-sex marriage was recognised in UK law, Sarah Doyle was asked to read a Walt Whitman poem at the living room marriage ceremony of her friends Ford and Will. 25 years later she read the poem again at their anniversary party and wrote her own version of it specifically for the couple. Sam Magavern founded the Calamus Project in 2022 to celebrate the poems of Walt Whitman through film, song and live performance. He tells us about the moment in which Whitman was writing, with America on the brink of Civil War, and about the former Confederate soldier who became one of the great loves of Whitman's life.
Song version of "We Two Boys..." performed by Curtis Lovell accompanied by Luis Montijo; included with kind permission of Curtis and the Calamus Project.
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio
Mixed by Ilse Lademann
TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m0024ngy)
Telling the truth, being on TV and the best PR comebacks
In this special episode, David Yelland and Simon Lewis let When It Hits the Fan listeners set the agenda and answer questions sent in to the Fan postbag.
They discuss the truth - when to tell it, and when to hide it. If fly-on-the-wall television comes calling will it always result in good publicity for you? And how far does PR drive the news agenda?
Also, from Queen Camilla to Boy George, what are the best reputation comebacks? And, "as I was just saying to Bono...", does namedropping really oil the wheels of the PR industry?
If you have a PR question of your own to send the Fan team, go to WhatsApp and text the word “Fan” to 03700 100 444. Then start a new message with your question either as a text or a recorded voice note, or text your question by SMS to 84844. Full details are on the When It Hits The Fan BBC contact page.
Producer: Eve Streeter
Editor: Sarah Teasdale
Executive Producer: William Miller
Music by Eclectic Sounds
A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4
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)
Millions of Americans across the US are casting their votes, as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris vie to become the next president
TUE 18:30 Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living (Omnibus) (m0024nh4)
2. A total banker who loses everything
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
An omnibus version of Episodes 3 and 4 of Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living
TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0024nh6)
At the fireworks at Jubilee Field, Kirsty and Megan wonder if they’ll bump into Megan’s mystery rescuer. Megan describes him as charming and quiet, although interested in the rewilding. Kirsty thinks Rewilding Ambridge’s days are numbered and isn’t really in the mood for Fallon’s farewell do at the Tearoom.
Later, Fallon tells the gathered throng that she had no idea about her surprise send off. Natasha and Helen make a speech singing Fallon’s praises, although afterwards Natasha admits to Fallon that she was disappointed by the way Fallon left. Fallon tells Harrison later that she’s feeling nervous about being her own boss.
Megan’s frosty when she and Kirsty bump into Tom and Natasha. They quickly head off to circulate, whispering that Megan’s obviously not a woman to bear a grudge! Kirsty admonishes Megan afterwards saying she made her peace with Tom ages ago. Megan broaches the subject of Kirsty both moving on from her work and from being single, but Kirsty makes it clear she’s fine as she is.
Harrison gets a police call out and has to leave early. Helen catches him on his way out asking him how he’s finding working full-time. Harrison’s cautious in his response saying it’s full on sometimes, but he’s not complaining.
Tom thinks Natasha’s been too generous with Fallon, considering she hasn’t made things easy for them and will have a business to rival the Tearoom. And Fallon’s not going to be easy to replace. Natasha says she has someone in mind – her! Tom’s not convinced, especially when Natasha says she’s considering selling Summer Orchard to do it.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0024nh8)
Christopher Reeve documentary, Booker author Samantha Harvey on Orbital, Art auction news
Directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui talk about their new documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, which uses never-seen-before family archive to tell the story of the famed Superman actor. He became a champion of disability rights after being left paralysed from a horse riding accident.
The final of Front Row's interviews with the authors on this year's Booker Prize shortlist - Samantha Harvey on her novel Orbital.
As a banana stuck to a wall with duct tape is presented for auction with an estimated sale of 1 million dollars, FT columnist Melanie Gerlis, who regularly writes about the art market, explains what you get for the price and why someone would pay that.
Councillor Liz Green - Chair of the Culture, Tourism, and Sport Board at the Local Government Association - talks about the impact of the Government's decision to reconsider £100m funding for six cultural regeneration projects across the UK.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (m0023pw8)
Back Street Beauty
File on 4 investigates the cosmetic beauty trade after the first death in the UK following a liquid BBL procedure. Jane Deith meets women who have been disfigured by this and other cosmetic procedures, and considers why existing regulation is struggling to keep up with a growing industry.
A beauty salon in Clapham, London is exposed for the first time in this programme by a trainee who is horrified by what she witnesses. Several women have complained, claiming they were injured and disfigured by the treatment they received there. .
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Kate West
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Clare Fordham
TUE 20:40 In Touch (m0024nhb)
The Budget: Answers to Your Questions
In Touch reflects on a specific element of the Autumn Budget that relates to the Work Capability Assessment, following concerns raised by the dual-disability charity, Sense. Their CEO, Richard Kramer explains how the proposed amendments could impact people's ability to find and maintain work and the receipt of certain benefits.
We get answers to your questions: including why some visually impaired people are having issues with accessing a survey about the future of the NHS and why some people are having difficulty calling back their guide dogs when they are free running.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Beth Hemmings
Production Coordinator: David Baguley
Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image and he is wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three separate white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch" and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to the right. Both are behind Peter, one is a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.
TUE 21:00 Uncanny (m0024nhd)
Halloween: Trilogy of Terror
Halloween Special: Meadow Cottage Part 1
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)
Sean Curran reports as Robert Jenrick starts a new job under Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch, and on Sir Alan Bates' frustration over delayed compensation payments.
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.
For the 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)
2024 US Presidential Election, Comedian Hannah Gadsby, Irina Jankievska: The Balkan Kitchen
As results come in from the 2024 US Presidential Election, Krupa Padhy speaks to Woman’s Hour presenter Nuala McGovern from Washington DC about what we know so far, and the big ticket issues for women in this election. Krupa gets reaction from Sarah Elliott, spokesperson for Republicans Overseas UK and Sharon Manitta, spokesperson for Democrats Abroad UK. And, as further results come in from the battleground states, she speaks to Emma Long, Associate Professor in American History and Politics at the University of East Anglia.
Award-winning comedian Hannah Gadsby is in London for four nights only with their new show: Woof!. They join Krupa to talk about their diagnosis of Autism and ADHD and how that influences their work, and what they want people to get from their performance.
Irina Jankievska is a food writer and recipe developer. Born in what is now North Macedonia, she left her career in corporate law to follow her passion for sharing her love of Balkan cuisine. In her new cookery book, The Balkan Kitchen, she takes us on a culinary and cultural journey across the former Yugoslavia with recipes that speak for the vast and varied cuisine of a region overshadowed by conflict in recent years – from North Macedonia to Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Kosovo.
Presented by Krupa Padhy
Producer: Louise Corley
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.'
Art Malik reads Hanif Kureishi's brutally frank and powerful memoir.
‘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
Reader: Art Malik
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)
Water Bills, Winter Fuel Payment Scam, Weaker Beer
In December, Ofwat will make a decision on the maximum percentage increase on water bills over the next five years. A new report shows that 40% of people say they may not be able to afford them if they go up by just the minimum suggested amount.
We look at a scam that has been targeting people formerly eligible for winter fuel payments. The scam, which arrives in the form of a text message, is seeking to take advantage of people’s concerns around energy bills as we enter the colder months.
Have you noticed an influx of American fast food chains on your high street? We hear how changing tastes and social media trends are pushing established American brands into the UK market.
Last year, tax changes were introduced that mean breweries pay less alcohol duty on beers under 3.5%. Is this making beers weaker and what does it mean for the taste?
How long do you have before your television becomes obsolete? Some streaming apps such as iPlayer and Netflix are no longer compatible with televisions bought as recently as 2016. We hear why this is and what options you have if your television becomes incompatible.
WED 12:57 Weather (m0024p0c)
The latest weather forecast
WED 13:00 World at One (m0024p0f)
How will Trump govern America?
President-elect Donald Trump claims he has an “unprecedented” mandate to “heal” America. But how will he use it? We’ll examine the impact of Trump’s approach to trade on the UK, and whether he’ll continue to support Ukraine.
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)
The Renters' Rights Bill
In this new series of the Law Show, Dr Joelle Grogan and guests look at the legislation that affects your life.
One of the flagship pieces of legislation for the Labour Government is the Renters' Rights Bill - scrapping no-fault evictions, and imposing new obligations and penalties on rogue landlords. How will it benefit tenants and affect landlords?
Also on the programme: a raft of new laws are coming into effect this autumn, but who decides when a law becomes active or is enforceable?
And family law solicitor Tracey Moloney joins us to look at an aspect of divorce that fills many people with dread: the division of assets. Can your ex claim against property you brought into the marriage? Can they claim your pension? And how can the answers to those questions differ, dependent upon where you live in the UK?
Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan
Producers: Ravi Naik and Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Tara McDermott
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Contributors
Dr Sam Fowles, author and barrister at Cornerstone Barristers
Tracey Moloney, from Moloney Family Law, also known as the Legal Queen on social media
Dr Christy Burzio, barrister at Tanfield Chambers
Sarah Taylor, partner at Excello Law in Bristol
WED 15:30 Menopause Matters (m0024q8r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Monday]
WED 16:00 The Media Show (m0024m03)
Trump's winning media strategy, Observer sale, royal journalism
Donald Trump has pledged to send reporters to jail and strip major television networks of their broadcast licenses. We discuss how the Presidential campaign was covered and what happens next. James Harding of Tortoise Media discusses his plans to buy The Observer, and as a new investigation into the business interests of the Royals is released, we discuss the story, its coverage and the life of the royal journalist.
Guests: James Harding, Editor and Founder, Tortoise Media; Claire Atkinson, Media Reporter, Media Mix Newsletter; Max Tani, Media Editor at news website, Semafor; Alistair Jackson, Investigations Editor, Channel 4; Jennie Bond, former BBC Royal Correspondent; Kinsey Schofield, Host, To Di for Daily
Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Simon Richardson
Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai
WED 17:00 PM (m0024p0m)
Trump celebrates his victory - what next?
Donald Trump celebrates a historic return to the White House. We hear from Trump's former Chief Advisor and ask what went wrong for the Democrats.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024p0p)
He is set to become the first Republican candidate in 20 years to win the popular vote
WED 18:30 Ivo Graham's Obsessions (m0024p0r)
6. Mike Bubbins & Siân 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)
Kirsty’s with Megan at Rewilding Ambridge where they chat about Fallon’s leaving do last night. Megan thinks Tom and Natasha were a bit on edge, but Kirsty reckons Megan’s imagining things. Rex tells them he’s just been running a trial of their website’s virtual tour. It’s running in a beta version at the moment before it’s finalised and goes live.
Megan cautions Kirsty to be careful selling her Beechwood house to Helen without an agent. Kirsty berates her for being interfering like she was when she grilled Rex earlier about having a girlfriend. Kirsty and Rex have a business relationship and she can manage her own life.
Justin tries out the virtual tour, mis-hits a key and a computerised version of Rex’s voice tells him that he’ll be the guide for the tour. Justin asks to be shown what’s happening with the rewilding this morning. ‘Rex’ explains that brambles are being cleared and Justin muses out loud that Kirsty’s working even though rewilding’s days are numbered. When ‘Rex’ repeats that Kirsty’s working when it all seems a bit pointless, Justin wonders what’s going on. ‘Rex’ invites Justin to visit the ‘Future of Ambridge Room’. There Justin sees a vision where wildlife and vegetation flourish. Then ‘Rex’ outlines the alternative; fields of mono-crops, a lack of wildlife and insects and a dead River Am. When Justin asks what would happen to the people if the rewilding stopped, ‘Rex’ states that Kirsty will lose her job and may give up hope and move away. She may disappear.
WED 19:15 Front Row (m0024p0t)
Pauline Black, Waters Rising at Perth Museum, and Posthumously Completing a Loved One's Creative Work
As a documentary about her life reaches cinemas, musician and activist Pauline Black, the lead singer in 2-tone hit band The Selecter, talks about her career.
We hear from the curators of the Waters Rising exhibition at Perth Museum, which features representations of flooding in literature and art over many centuries.
And as an unfinished play by award-winning writer Oliver Emanuel comes to Radio 4, and an unstaged play by writer, poet and musician Beldina Odenyo is produced in Glasgow, we discuss posthumously completing a loved one's creative work.
Presenter: Kate Molleson
Producer: Mark Crossan
WED 20:00 Moral Maze (m0024p0w)
VAT on private school fees: justice or spite?
The tax increases on private schools, though long trailed, were among the most emotive measures in last week’s blockbuster budget, because they’re widely seen to be as much a moral issue as a question of politics or economics. It was a former Conservative education secretary, Michael Gove, who asked: why should the state support the already wealthy to buy advantage for their children? Others see it as an attack on aspiration and excellence, ”a vindictive piece of class warfare on parents who scrimp and save to pay fees”, according to Mr Gove’s former colleague David Davies.
Taxing private schools – justice or spite?
PANELLISTS: Ash Sarkar, Ella Whelan, Giles Fraser, Mona Siddiqui
PRESENTER: Michael Buerk
PRODUCER: Catherine Murray
ASSISTANT PRODUCER: Ruth Purser
EDITOR: Tim Pemberton
WED 21:00 Soul Music (m0024lhg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:30 on Saturday]
WED 21:30 The Conflict (m0024p0y)
Middle East
Israel withdrawal from Gaza (2005)
We look back on the region’s history and discuss what it can teach us about the future.
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?
This week Jonny is joined by Orla Guerin, the BBC’s senior international correspondent, Dr Ahron Bregman, senior teaching fellow at King’s College London and Dr Julie Norman, an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at UCL.
They explore how the decision by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to “disengage” from Gaza and withdraw 9,000 Israeli settlers still looms large over the current conflict in the region.
This episode was made by Keiligh Baker with Ivana Davidovic. The technical producers were David Crackles and Jonny Hall. The assistant editor is Ben Mundy. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
This episode is part of a BBC Sounds series. It was recorded at
14:00 on Tuesday 5 November 2024.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0024p11)
Donald Trump re-elected as President of the United States
Donald Trump sealed an extraordinary comeback to be elected 47th President of the United States. Almost four years ago he left Washington under a cloud after the assault on the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. Since then he's become a convicted felon in connection with hush money payments to an adult film star during his 2016 Presidential campaign, then in July he narrowly escaped death when a would-be assassin's bullet grazed his ear while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania. During his second term he has pledged to deport millions of illegal migrants, impose tariffs on imports, and broker peace between Ukraine and Russia. In this special episode we broadcast live from a burger bar in Wisconsin, the state that tipped Trump over the magic number of 270 delegates, speaking to voters, Democrats and Trump associates.
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)
Susan Hulme reports as the new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch faces the prime minister at PMQs for the first time.
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)
07/11/24 - Inheritance tax details, mobile sheep dips and salt-marsh plants
Many farming families are extremely concerned about the future of their farms, after the Government introduced inheritance tax on farmland in the Budget. But there’s a lot of confusion about how much inheritance tax farmers will have to pay. We invite a tax expert to dig into the details.
One of the sheep industry's most enduring health and welfare challenges is scab - an itchy condition caused by mites. It’s controlled by either injecting a dose of medicine or the traditional dipping of sheep. But increasing resistance to the injection method means more and more farmers are moving back to sheep-dip. Organophosphate dip is toxic and can harm human health and pollute waterways, and anyone buying or using sheep-dip needs a certificate of competency. Because of that, professional, mobile dipping contractors are becoming more common. We see one in action.
And plants that live in coastal salt-marshes have adapted to their inhospitable environment by producing high levels of an anti-stress molecule that protects them. Now, scientists at the University of East Anglia have identified the genes that help produce the molecule and say one day it could be used to help crops cope in stressful conditions like drought.
Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons
THU 06:00 Today (m0024lyw)
07/11/24 - Justin Webb and Amol Rajan
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0024lyy)
George Herbert
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poet George Herbert (1593-1633) who, according to the French philosopher Simone Weil, wrote ‘the most beautiful poem in the world’. Herbert gave his poems on his relationship with God to a friend, to be published after his death if they offered comfort to any 'dejected pour soul' but otherwise be burned. They became so popular across the range of Christians in the 17th Century that they were printed several times, somehow uniting those who disliked each other but found a common admiration for Herbert; Charles I read them before his execution, as did his enemies. Herbert also wrote poems prolifically and brilliantly in Latin and these he shared during his lifetime both when he worked as orator at Cambridge University and as a parish priest in Bemerton near Salisbury. He went on to influence poets from Coleridge to Heaney and, in parish churches today, congregations regularly sing his poems set to music as hymns.
With
Helen Wilcox
Professor Emerita of English Literature at Bangor University
Victoria Moul
Formerly Professor of Early Modern Latin and English at UCL
And
Simon Jackson
Director of Music and Director of Studies in English at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Amy Charles, A Life of George Herbert (Cornell University Press, 1977)
Thomas M. Corns, The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry: Donne to Marvell (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
John Drury, Music at Midnight: The Life and Poetry of George Herbert (Penguin, 2014)
George Herbert (eds. John Drury and Victoria Moul), The Complete Poetry (Penguin, 2015)
George Herbert (ed. Helen Wilcox), The English Poems of George Herbert (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Simon Jackson, George Herbert and Early Modern Musical Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Gary Kuchar, George Herbert and the Mystery of the Word (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
Cristina Malcolmson, George Herbert: A Literary Life (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
Victoria Moul, A Literary History of Latin and English Poetry: Bilingual Literary Culture in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Joseph H. Summers, George Herbert: His Religion and Art (first published by Chatto and Windus, 1954; Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, New York, 1981)
Helen Vendler, The Poetry of George Herbert (Harvard University Press, 1975)
James Boyd White, This Book of Starres: Learning to Read George Herbert (University of Michigan Press, 1995)
Helen Wilcox (ed.), George Herbert. 100 Poems (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production
THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m0024q8y)
MAGA
Comedy writer Armando Iannucci and journalist Helen Lewis decode the utterly baffling world of political language.
This week, Trump has made his way back to the White House, but will he Make America Great Again? What does that phrase really mean? And how did it become the enduring political message of our times?
Helen and Armando examine how political reporters struggle to get answers, and what the effect of this election campaign will have on political language for years to come.
A longer version, where Helen theorises on wrestling's impact on the world of politics, and Armando confesses the role he played in securing Trump's victory, is available on BBC Sounds.
Sound Editing by Charlie Brandon-King
Production Coordinator - Katie Baum
Executive Producer - Pete Strauss
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies.
A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4.
An EcoAudio certified production.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0024lz0)
Second Trump presidency, Dating red-flag questions, Sophie Tea
As Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 US Presidential Election and the election coverage dominates front pages around the world, we discuss what a second Trump presidency may mean for women. Krupa Padhy speaks to Woman's Hour presenter Nuala McGovern, who is in Washington DC, about what’s happened overnight, the latest news from the Harris campaign and any further information that has been revealed about women voters. Krupa is also joined by US Deputy Editor for the Telegraph, Rozina Sabur, and Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House.
Iqra Ismail, a football coach and refugee advocate, was prevented from playing in a match last month because she wears tracksuit bottoms rather than shorts, which she says compromises her religious beliefs. Iqra, who captained Somalia in 2019, was expected to play her first game against an east London team, but was told by the referee that club shorts were a requirement. Iqra joins Krupa to discuss why she has chosen to speak out.
Do you have a first date red-flag question? What would be an absolute sure-fire, definite no-no answer which would tell you there is definitely going to be no second date? Olivia Rodrigo, the American singer-songwriter and actor, is quoted as saying that if her date wants to go to space, that is a red flag for her. Krupa talks to Helen Coffey, senior journalist at the Independent who's written her take on questions she would ask, and Poppy Jay, director and podcaster most famously on Brown Girls Do It Too and now the spin-off Big Boy Energy.
From Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to Gustav Klimt’s Mother and Child, women’s bodies have been a major theme throughout art history. But can we ‘reinvent’ the classic nude? Artist Sophie Tea is famed for doing just that, with paintings celebrating the female form and women of all shapes and sizes. Sophie joins Krupa in the studio to discuss finding fame on social media, pushing back against the ‘ideal’ body type and trying to make women feel a little bit nicer about themselves.
Presenter: Krupa Padhy
Producer: Rebecca Myatt
THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m0024lz2)
Thelma Schoonmaker
Thelma Schoonmaker has, for over five decades, been Martin Scorsese’s cutting room collaborator. Having edited his first feature film in 1967, she has worked on every Scorsese movie since Raging Bull, including Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, Wolf Of Wall Street, right up to his most recent features The Irishman and Killers Of The Flower Moon. As the widow of the legendary British filmmaker Michael Powell, she has also played a key role in the restoration of classic Powell and Pressburger films including The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and A Matter Of Life And Death. Thelma Schoonmaker has won three Academy Awards, more than any other film editor.
Thelma tells John Wilson how enrolling on a six week film making course as a young graduate in New York led to her meeting and helping Martin Scorsese edit a short film he was making. He then asked her to edit his 1967 feature film debut, Who's That Knocking at My Door and their partnership began in earnest. She recalls how she and Scorsese were part of the editing team on Michael Wadleigh's music festival documentary, Woodstock for which she received her first an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing - the first documentary ever to be nominated in that category. Thelma reveals the process of working with Scorsese in the cutting room and how, through him, she met her late husband Michael Powell, whose films with Emeric Pressburger, both she and Scorsese had so admired from childhood.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Archive and music used:
The Red Shoes, Powell & Pressburger, 1948
Who's That Knocking at My Door, Martin Scorsese, 1967
I Can't Explain, The Who, Live at Woodstock, 1969
See Me. Feel Me, The Who, Live at Woodstock, 1969
Star Spangled Banner, Jimi Hendrix, Live at Woodstock, 1969
Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese, 1980
Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie-editing, BBC4, 30 August 2005
Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ, Peter Gabriel
Sunshine of Your Love, Cream
Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni
Love Is Strange, Mickey & Sylvia
Layla, Derek & The Dominos
A Matter of Life and Death, Powell & Pressburger, 1946
Michael and Martin, BBC Radio 4, 30 June 2005
THU 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024lz4)
4: 'Who am I now?'
Art Malik reads Hanif Kureishi's brutally frank memoir of his life after the fall that left him almost completely paralysed.
‘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
Reader: Art Malik
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)
Ideas: How To Turn Your Dreams Into Business Reality
You've had a brilliant business idea. At least, you think you have. What do you do next? Evan Davis speaks to three successful entrepreneurs- including former contestants on The Apprentice and Dragons' Den. Where do the best ideas come from and how do you know when they are worth pursuing? What are the top tips for pitching and when is it time to let an idea go?
Evan is joined by Rob Law, the inventor of the Trunki ride-on suitcase for kids, Pippa Murray, founder of the nut butter brand Pip & Nut and Tom Pellereau, who invented the curved nail file for his company Stylideas.
Production team:
Producers: Simon Tulett and Michaela Graichen
Researcher: Drew Hyndman
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound: Rod Farquhar
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
(Picture: Getty Images, Credit: Teerachai Jampanak)
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)
Bank of England cuts interest rates
Bank of England cuts interest rates as expected: what impact will Donald Trump's victory have on future falls? What next for North Gaza, and parkour to be taught in schools.
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 US election, and the end of Open Book
As the dust settles on the American election, we hear from Ric Bailey, Chief Adviser for Politics in BBC Editorial Policy, about how the corporation has tackled its coverage of an eventful campaigning period, and a momentous result.
After we heard from listeners on what seemed like an abrupt end to long-running literature programme Open Book, Andrea talks to former presenter Mariella Frostrup, and Arts Commissioner for Radio 4 Matthew Dodd about its legacy and what the station's future literary offerings look like.
And one listener nominates George Clarke's interview about the Grenfell Inquiry on the Today Programme for Interview of the Year.
Presenter: Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Pauline Moore
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4
THU 16:00 The Briefing Room (m0024lzn)
What does the Budget mean for the UK’s economy?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered the first Labour Budget in 14 years. Naturally there was a flurry of instant responses to individual tax measures, but what about the big picture?
Well, more than a week has passed, and the dust is settling. We thought it was time to return to a panel of experts who we spoke to in September. Is this really a once in a generation budget? What will it mean for the government’s finances and services? Will it bring much needed growth? And what might the re-election of Donald Trump mean for the British economy?
Guests:
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Mehreen Khan, economics editor of The Times
Chris Giles, economics commentator at The Financial Times.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch
Producers: Charlotte McDonald, Diane Richardson and Kirsteen Knight
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar and Neva Missirian
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0024lzq)
COP29: Are climate summits working?
This year is set to be the world’s hottest on record, likely shattering the aspiration to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
So where does this leave COP29, the upcoming UN climate conference in Azerbaijan?
This week Inside Science is asking, are climate summits really working? What is the point of them - and are they doing enough?
Joining Marnie Chesterton to discuss this are:
- Joanna Depledge, expert on international climate negotiations at the University of Cambridge
- Mark Maslin, climate change professor from University College London (UCL)
- Jim Watson, professor of energy policy, also from UCL
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Ella Hubber, Sophie Ormiston & Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
If you want to test your climate change knowledge, follow the links on this page to The Open University to take a quiz.
THU 17:00 PM (m0024lzs)
Biden responds to Trump victory
In his first public words since the election result, President Biden commits to a peaceful transition of power to Donald Trump. European leaders consider the impact of a new Trump Presidency. Plus the latest from Germany where the ruling coalition has collapsed and the archaeologists who discovered a shipwreck without leaving dry land.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024lzv)
They were brought down from 5% to
4.75%
THU 18:30 Unspeakable (m0024lzx)
Series 1
2. Bodily rumbles and holiday grumbles
Jo Brand and Lou Sanders both coin new words for taboos in the world of etiquette, while Kiell Smith-Bynoe creates a term for a holiday feeling that many of us know all too well.
Ever struggled to find the right word for a feeling or sensation? Unspeakable sees comedian Phil Wang and lexicographer Susie Dent invite celebrity guests to invent new linguistic creations, to solve those all too relatable moments 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)
Kirsty tells Helen she’s sorry to see her mum go. And the surprising thing is that Megan’s purse and phone turned up in her bag, which she’d already searched. They agree that’s weird. Talks turns to Kirsty’s private sale of her house to Helen, who mentions she’d like a survey. She’d also like to keep the curtains if that’s possible. Later after some thought, Kirsty asks to keep them. With the sale of Willow Farm looming, it’s one less thing to worry about. Helen’s understanding.
Emma and Will visit George in prison and are unnerved when George points out an inmate called Baseball, who looks scary. George explains that if he’s on your side, you’re laughing. When Will mentions that they’re trying to get George moved to a Young Offenders Institute, George thanks them but says he’s fine where he is. George adds that his cellmate is alright when you get to know him, and he’s making a few friends; people who’ll look out for you and watch your back. So he’s not going anywhere.
Later Emma tells Susan that George was like his old self, full of confidence and mouthy. Susan thinks that’s good news, but Emma isn’t so sure. When Susan asks whether Emma sent her love, she guesses George didn’t say anything, and Emma confirms that he just looked away. Susan presumes it’s because George still blames her for putting him inside. Emma reckons he’ll come round, but then suddenly admits she hates George being in prison. He’s changing and making friends with some terrifying people. It feels worse than if George was being bullied.
THU 19:15 Front Row (m0024m01)
Review: The Piano Lesson, Florence 1504, Jonathan Coe's The Proof of My Innocence
Nancy Durrant and Nii Ayikwei Parkes join Tom Sutcliffe to review The Piano Lesson, the latest August Wilson play to be adapted for the screen by the family of Denzel Washington. Directed by Malcolm Washington and starring John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler, a brother and sister argue over the future of an heirloom piano.
We discuss Jonathan Coe's return with new novel The Proof of My Innocence, a satirical murder mystery.
Florence in 1504 is the backdrop for the Royal Academy's new exhibition of drawings by Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael, and we hear from ceramicist Felicity Aylieff at Kew Gardens where her new exibition featues large scale pots up to five metres high.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Sarah Jane Griffiths
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)
Trump begins appointing transition team
President-elect Donald Trump has started to appoint his transition team ahead of re-entering the White House. While we were on air Trump announced that his campaign co-chair Susie Wiles will become his Chief of Staff. Many businesses in the UK are looking to see who will shape his economic policy and tariff regime. We spoke to his former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.
The BBC's Political Editor Chris Mason has been speaking to Foreign Secretary David Lammy about his litany of insults directed towards Donald Trump when Lammy was a backbench MP.
As European leaders meet in Budapest, we discuss whether Trump's re-election will lead to fundamental changes to the relationship that's existed between Europe and the US since 1945.
And Australia says it'll ban social media for those under 16.
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)
Trump 2.0
In this episode we look forward and discuss what a second Trump presidency could mean for the world with Lord Sedwill who was the UK’s most senior civil servant and national security adviser when Trump was last in the White House. Amol and Nick also speak to Mike Gonzalez who is a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington DC about what we can expect from Donald Trump this time round.
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time we release a new episode and you won’t miss our extra bonus episodes either. You can also listen to the latest episode of The Today Podcast any time on your smart speaker by saying “Smart Speaker, ask BBC Sounds to play The Today Podcast.”
If you have a question you’d like Amol and Nick to answer, get in touch by sending us a message on WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The senior producer is Lewis Vickers, the producer is Nadia Gyane, research and digital production from Joe Wilkinson. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Hannah Montgomery.
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)
Cuts to Welsh environment regulator, soil erosion, Welsh sheep
Cuts to the Welsh environmental regulator - Natural Resources Wales - will have a negative impact on nature, according to the wildlife charity WWF Cymru. NRA needs to save £12 million and says it will achieve that by focusing on its core services to protect the environment, and no longer running its cafes, visitor centres and libraries. WWF Cymru says this will mean some environmental crimes and pollution will go undetected.
Researchers from the University of Worcester are using detailed analysis of farmland to put a price on the soil being washed away by rain. The aim is to help understand the cost of erosion and how much it could be worth spending to put it right.
And we meet a Welsh sheep farmer who's facing greater challenges as the climate changes.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced in Bristol by Sally Challoner.
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)
Footballer Steph Houghton, Susie Wiles, Actor Kate Phillips, Writer Ece Temelkuran
Former England and Manchester City captain Steph Houghton was one of the first big names in women's football. In her new book, Leading From The Back, she details her experience of fighting to take the women's game from niche to mainstream. She also talks to Kylie Pentelow about her husband, former footballer Stephen Darby, who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2018.
In one of his first moves since his victory in the US election, President-elect Donald Trump has named his 2024 campaign manager, Susie Wiles, as his chief of staff in the White House. She will make history as the first woman to hold the title. But what do we know about the woman Trump referred to as the "ice maiden"? Kylie is joined by Anne McElvoy, Executive Editor at POLITICO and host of the Power Play podcast to discuss.
Award-winning Turkish writer and political thinker Ece Temelkuran speaks to Anita Rani about a new play based on her novel, Women Who Blow on Knots. It's set against the backdrop of the Arab Spring in 2012, and four women embark on a road trip starting from Tunisia through Libya and Egypt to Lebanon, and is currently at the Arcola Theatre in East London.
This Sunday, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light starts on BBC One. The much anticipated second series of the TV adaption of Hilary Mantel’s novels starts when Anne Boleyn is executed, and Henry VIII marries his third queen, Jane Seymour. Jane is played by Peaky Blinders actress Kate Phillips – she joins Kylie to talk more about the iconic role.
FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m0024p2q)
Fishing for Change
Five seafood species make up 80% of what is consumed in the UK – while at the same time the vast majority of what is caught in UK waters gets exported. But is that trend beginning to shift?
In this episode, Sheila Dillon hears how initiatives like the "Plymouth Fishfinger" are hoping to make more use of fish that has often been seen as ‘by-catch’, and how seafood festivals are working to connect the public with local seafood, and can even help regenerate coastal communities.
She also hears how the Fish in Schools Hero programme is working to get young people to try more seafood, and shows how simple it can be to prepare.
Also featured are Ashley Mullenger (@thefemalefisherman) and tv chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Presented by Sheila Dillon
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan.
FRI 11:45 Shattered by Hanif Kureishi (m0024p2s)
5: 'I will make something of this.'
Art Malik reads Hani Kureishi's brutally frank memoir of life after a catastrophic injury that left him almost completely paralysed.
‘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
Reader: Art Malik
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)
Clean energy 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. On the panel this week: Emma Pinchbeck, new CEO of the Climate Change Committee; Roger Mortlock, chief executive of the CPRE - the Countryside Charity; and Professor Matthew Kelly, modern historian from Northumbria University.
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 - Series 1
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)
How to Embrace Imperfection
Jack Boswell explores the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi and how it challenges our pursuit of perfection by embracing the beauty of imperfection and transience.
Joining him is Dr Takeshi Morisato, a lecturer in non-Western philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, who introduces the basics of Wabi Sabi - an art of acceptance that finds beauty in life’s flaws and incompleteness. Takeshi explains that Wabi Sabi offers a different perspective from the Western pursuit of happiness and perfection, instead teaching us to acknowledge life’s challenges without trying to erase them. Through this philosophy, we’re encouraged to see each experience, good or bad, as valuable in its own right.
Later in the episode, Jack speaks with Bonnie Kemske, a ceramic artist and Japanese tea ceremony practitioner, who delves into the practice of Kintsugi - the art of mending broken pottery with gold. Bonnie explains how Kintsugi embodies Wabi Sabi’s message - broken things aren’t simply discarded but are repaired in a way that highlights their unique history and resilience. Kintsugi invites us to honour what we’ve endured, as the cracks in a pot are like marks from our own experiences, showing strength in their repaired beauty.
Through personal stories, Bonnie shares how the concepts of Wabi Sabi and Kintsugi can help us find meaning in pain and celebrate our resilience. She reflects on her journey through loss, relating how the practice of Kintsugi helped her accept grief as a part of her own history rather than a flaw to erase.
This episode invites listeners to find beauty in everyday moments and to embrace imperfections - both in the world around us and within ourselves - as a source of strength and comfort. Wabi Sabi offers a way to be more present and accepting, giving us the freedom to see our lives as ever-evolving works in progress.
Host: Jack Boswell
Producers: Leo Danczak & Emma Crampton
Senior Producer: Harry Stott
Executive Producer: Sandra Ferrari
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Audio Supervisor: Tom Biddle
Sound Editor: Alan Leer
A Message Heard production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0024p34)
The National Memorial Arboretum
Do the panel have any idea of who or what has stolen our apples? When is the best time to plant my Prunus Incisa? How do I successfully grow fennel?
Peter Gibbs and his team of gardening experts visit The National Memorial Arboretum, to solve the gardening queries of the audience. On the panel this week are grow-your-own legend Bob Flowerdew, pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood and garden designer Bunny Guinness.
Later in the programme, Bunny discusses planting for remembrance with the National Memorial Arboretum's head of estates Andy Ansell, as they explore 150 acres of reflective spaces.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
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)
Quincy Jones, Janey Godley, Lyudmila Trut, Dr Paul Stephenson
Matthew Bannister on
Quincy Jones, the music producer, composer and arranger who worked with artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson.
Janey Godley, the comedian who used her challenging childhood and youth in Glasgow as material for her shows.
Lyudmila Trut, the Russian geneticist who dedicated her life to a revolutionary – and evolutionary - experiment investigating the domestication of silver foxes
Dr Paul Stephenson, who led the Bristol bus boycott to end race discrimination in employment.
Producer: Ed Prendeville
Archive used:
Jeremy Vine : Live from Glasgow, Radio 2,
17.11.14; Janey, BBC Scotland,
14.05.24; JANEY GODLEY INTERVIEW, BBC 1 Scotland,
17.01.24; Janey Godley “The C bomb Shall We Start At The Beginning” BBC Radio Four,
01.06.23; Janey Godley Stand Up Specials, BBC Radio Four,
01.02.2023; BBC Points West,
18.07.14; BBC World Service, The Bus Boycott,
28.08.23; Windrush, BBC4,
24.06.08; Horizon: The Secret Life of the Dog, BBC 2,
06.10.2010
FRI 16:30 Life Changing (m0024nzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 17:00 PM (m0024p3b)
Fury within Church of England over abuse report
The Archbishop of Canterbury said he considered resigning after a report into abuse in the church. One Bishop explains why she is angry. Plus a profile of the woman who will be Donald Trump's Chief of Staff in the White House, Susie Wiles.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0024p3d)
Police say some Israeli fans attacked a taxi and pulled down a Palestinian flag
FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (m0024p3g)
Series 25
Dead Ringers: Ep 2. America Went There
What really swung it for Donald Trump and how did Joe Biden really react to the result? Kemi Badenoch’s first decision as Tory leader, and Nigel Farage’s Trump victory podcast.
This week's impressionists are Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis Macleod, Jess Robinson and Ducan Wisbey.
The episode was written by: Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain, Laurence Howarth, Ed Amsden and Tom Coles, Rob Darke, Edward Tew, Cody Dahler, Joe Topping, Peter Tellouche, Duncan Wisbey with additional material by Jennifer Walker and Vicky Richards.
Song lyrics by Bill Dare and Duncan Wisbey
Music by Duncan Wisbey
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Produced and created by Bill Dare
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Barlow
FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0024p3j)
WRITER: Nick Warburton
DIRECTOR: Kim Greengrass & Marina Caldarone
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.
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0024p3n)
Dame Harriett Baldwin MP, Lord Darroch, Emily Thornberry MP, Ann Widdecombe
Alex Forsyth presents political debate from the American Museum in Bath with shadow business minister, Dame Harriett Baldwin MP; Lord Darroch, formerly the UK's ambassador to the US; foreign affairs committee chair Emily Thornberry MP; and Ann Widdecombe, Reform UK's immigration spokesperson.
Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Nick Ford
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0024p3q)
Time Travel
Sara Wheeler reflects on the valuable perspective offered by out-of-date guide books. They shed light on the life of the early traveler - advised to pack an iron bedstead and a portable bath tub - and reveal how destinations may have evolved or be frozen in time.
'The chief question I ask the old guides is whether the spirit of a place - the genius loci - can survive the upheaval of the years. Is the spirit of the place immutable or can it change?' asks Sara.
Producer: Sheila Cook
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m0024p3s)
Milton and our modern world
Andrew Doyle writes plays, performs stand-up, hosts a show on GB news and has written articles for Spiked. He is the co-author with Tom Walker of Jonathan Pie: Off the Record and has published a book called The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World. He has a doctorate in early Renaissance poetry from the University of Oxford.
Professor Alice Hunt is based at the University of Southampton and is working on a book titled England’s Republic: The Lost Decade, 1649–1660 supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship
Kate Maltby is a lead columnist for The i newspaper and a theatre critic. She is also a Senior Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge working on Renaissance literature.
Professor Islam Issa is based at Birmingham City University. His books include Alexandria, the City that Changed the World, Milton in the Arab-Muslim World and Milton in Translation, ed. with Angelica Duran and Jonathan Olson
Producer: Luke Mulhall
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