SATURDAY 04 AUGUST 2018

SAT 00:00 Kurt Vonnegut - The Euphio Question (b0088zh5)
A way of producing and harnessing happiness is revealed when a physicist plays out the sound of dark matter during a local radio programme.
The sound lulls the listeners into a state of euphoria, producing an effect not unlike a large dose of sedative.
The ethical and moral implications of marketing this new found product become evident - as the temptation to make money and control huge numbers of people proves too great.
Kurt Vonnegut's short story is read by Stuart Milligan.
One of the outstanding figures of modern US literature, Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was a cult figure among students in the 1960s and 1970s with his classics of US counterculture.
The bombing of Dresden by allied forces in 1945 was the pivotal moment of his life, which informed his best-known work 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
Abridged and produced by Gemma Jenkins
Made for BBC 7 and first broadcast in 2007.
SAT 00:30 Mastertapes (b03gvsxn)
Series 3, Robbie Williams (A-Side)
John Wilson returns with a new series of Mastertapes, in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 1, A-side. "Life Thru A Lens" with Robbie Williams
Today, Robbie Williams is the UK's best-selling solo artist of all time. But when he released his debut solo album, "Life Thru A Lens", after leaving the all-conquering boyband, Take That, it was initially met with negative reviews and was slow to take off. However, with songs like Ego A Go Go, Lazy Days, Let Me Entertain You and, of course, Angels, the album not only went on to spend more than 4 years in the charts and become the 58th best-selling album of all time, it also laid down the solid foundations for all that was to follow: nine further solo albums, seven number one singles and more BRIT awards than any other artist.
Here Robbie Williams talks candidly with John Wilson about the album that started it all and they are joined in the studio by the album's co-writer and producer, Guy Chambers as well as guitarist Gary Nuttall and a string quartet.
The B-side of the programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard tomorrow at 3.30pm.
Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (and others) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website, where the programmes can also be downloaded and other musical goodies accessed.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
SAT 01:00 Boxer and Doberman (b00wh02c)
Series 2, The Black Widow
When Boxer and Doberman are called to investigate the brutal murder of a popular Scottish actor, they become entangled (as you do) in a web of intrigue.
Things get even stickier when Boxer seems to fall for the murdered man's widow - seductive breakfast TV star Marion Swann. Doberman's suspicions are aroused. Boxer is just aroused...
Alastair Jessiman's comedy police drama features grizzled old-school, cardigan-wearing detective, DI Bob Boxer - and more instinctive, BlackBerry-wielding young sidekick, DS Shona Doberman.
Listen out for a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from one of the stars of the show which "inspired" Boxer and Doberman - ITV's Taggart. (Clue: his appearance is a tea-time treat...)
DI Boxer ..... Finlay Welsh
DS Doberman ..... Anita Vettesse
Marion Swann ..... Juliet Cadzow
Mackenzie Baxter ..... Sean Scanlan
Joe Macnamarra ..... Alastair Jessiman
Director: David Jackson Young
Made for BBC Radio 7 by BBC Scotland and first broadcast in 2010.
SAT 01:30 The Matter of the North (b07qbfvt)
The Rebellious Tongues of the North
Episode Four is the story of rebellion and dissent in the north - and the way northern dialect is beginning to be marginalised and even mocked. Melvyn Bragg begins at Clifford's Tower in York, site of a Norman fortress built to keep the north under control. It was also the site centuries later, where Robert Aske - one of the leaders of The Pilgrimage of Grace (a great Catholic Rebellion) was executed. It's in York that St Margaret Clitherow was tortured to death. Melvyn goes to Riveaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire and finds evidence that the monks were on the brink of producing high quality cast iron and even blast furnaces. If the Reformation hadn't happened could the Industrial Revolution have begun here hundreds of years earlier? Melvyn examines how the south is coming to view the north - and its dialect. There is an idea that northern kinds of English are less prestigious. An idea that persists. Melvyn discusses this with Joan Bakewell. The poet Simon Armitage celebrates the speech patterns of the medieval poetic masterpiece 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' and Melvyn meets Dame Judi Dench who remembers her time performing the York Mystery Plays.
Contributors
Jonnie Robinson, British Library
Joan Bakewell
Simon Armitage
Judi Dench
Toby Gordon
Natalie McCaul, Yorkshire Museum
Dr Sarah Bastow, University of Huddersfield
Susan Harrison, English Heritage
Prof Andy Wood, Durham University
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mqr7p)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 5
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Life on his Norfolk estate and as a physician, a father and sometimes a fool to his adored King Charles 11,is no longer enough. Not only are he, and his loyal servant Will, ageing, but his beloved daughter Margaret is seventeen and will soon fly the nest. Even the King is failing. How can he reinvigorate his life?
He will set off in search of Wonders.
In today's episode: Merivel rescues a bear and returns to Bidnold.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
SAT 02:15 Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (b06pddx5)
Post-Black
In the last of his programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry explores the prospects for black British theatre and screen. He talks to black British film-director and creative artist Steve McQueen, who was the first ever black director to win an Academy Award for Best Picture - and who's also a proud winner of the Turner Prize for art. Lenny hears about Steve's new project for BBC television, a grand sweeping story of an African Caribbean family growing up across three decades from the late 1960s.
Also taking part in this assessment of the future shape of their art are director and playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, theatre director Michael Buffong and writer Roy Williams.
Series consultant Michael Pearce
Producer Simon Elmes.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b00t6g8d)
Isabel Colegate - The Shooting Party, Episode 5
by Isabel Colegate, dramatised by DJ Britton. Cardew is heading back to the shoot, Ellen and Osbert are looking for their pet duck, Olivia and Aline are watching the guns, Glass has put Dan with Tom at the head of the beaters for a better view. And an error of judgement results in a death.
Narrator ..... Olivia Colman
Sir Randolph ..... Sam Dale
Tom ..... Sean Baker
Cardew ..... Jude Akuwudike
Glass ..... David Seddon
Olivia ..... Jaimi Barbakoff
Lionel ..... Michael Shelford
Cicely ..... Ellie Kendrick
Ellen ..... Sally Orrock
Osbert ..... Joshua Swinney
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b037v8vq)
Philip Hoare - The Sea Inside, Episode 5
Over 5 episodes, abridged by Katrin Williams, the author Philip Hoare tells us about a lifetime's association with the sea. The sea that is local to him and other seas that wait in far flung parts of the world. He walks by them, dives into them and is wholly inspired by them:
5. Travelling the world, seeing all things aquatic, yet it is the
'suburban sea' of childhood and the sound of the blackbird
that draws the author home...
Reader Anthony Calf
Producer Duncan Minshull.
SAT 03:00 Nigel Planer - On the Ceiling (b01l1vy1)
by Nigel Planer
Lapo ..... Phil Daniels
Loti ..... Bryan Dick
Pope Julius ..... Gary Waldhorn
Cardinal Alidosi ..... Roger Lloyd Pack
Composer ..... Adam Cork
Directed by Mary Peate
High up on the wooden scaffolding tower of the Sistine Chapel, two fresco plasterers get on with the day's work preparing the ceiling for their boss Michelangelo who has not bothered to turn up for work again. As they do so, they bemoan the uselessness of the great master.
Pope Julius and Cardinal Alidosi visit the chapel to inspect the progress of their commission. They are never very impressed, and the Pope is more concerned about getting Michelangelo to do his funeral monument at a knock-down price.
On the Ceiling is not about great artists; it is about those people whose names don't go down in history: the ones who do the essential drudge work, their frustration at their lack of genius and their pride in their own technical expertise. In this version of events, low elements combine to make high art.
Nigel Planer is best known as Neil in The Young Ones, and as Nicholas Craig - The Naked Actor. Other television productions include Shine on Harvey Moon; Dennis Potter's Blackeyes. On stage, Nigel has performed in Simon Gray's Unnatural Pursuits; Ben Elton's We Will Rock You and Hairspray.
SAT 04:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03s6pjn)
Series 12, Episode 5
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents. Marcus Brigstocke, Holly Walsh, John Finnemore and Rufus Hound are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as board games, salt, guinea pigs and actors.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 04:30 After Henry (b007jqqj)
Series 4, Little Women
"'I don't know which of the two masculine approaches is the more offensive - Gary's straight boorishness or Vernon's patronising, undervaluing gallantry".
Trying to put up a new shelf, Sarah's goes to war in the battle of the sexes.
Simon Brett's comedy about three generations of women - struggling to cope after the death of Sarah's GP husband - who never quite manage to see eye to eye.
Starring Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell, Gerry Cowper as Clare, Frederick Treves as Vernon and Ian Michie as Gary.
Four radio series were made, but instead of moving to BBC TV - Thames Television produced 'After Henry' for the ITV network.
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1989.
SAT 05:00 London Calling (b05qdw48)
The Great Race
DG John Brown has decided that the BBC will broadcast the 1923 Boat Race. So the rest of the staff must rally round to find a way to bring off the transmission.
Written by Jimmy Perry, the man behind Dad's Army and Hi-De-Hi.
Starring Graham Crowden as John Brown, Jimmy Perry as Colonel Beecham, Bill Pertwee as Sergeant Lucas, Jeffrey Holland as Roger Eccles and Roy Hudd as Fred "Keep 'Em Laughing" Hicks.
Producer: Jo Clegg.
First broadcast nightly on BBC Radio 2 in September 1994.
SAT 05:30 Believe It! (b08mbgxk)
Series 3, Truth
The third series of Jon Canter's not quite true autobiography of Richard Wilson.
After a brush with death, Richard Wilson concludes that it's time to tell the truth. To everybody. He can't just be nice all the time. Sometimes you've got to tell it how it is.
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 JB Priestley - When We Are Married (b007jvkd)
Three couples receive a very rude shock in the midst of their joint silver wedding celebrations.
First performed on stage in 1938, JB Priestley's classic comedy with a star-packed cast.
Starring Alun Armstrong as Albert Parker, Alan Bennett as Herbert Soppitt, Brenda Blethyn as Clara Soppitt, Michael Jayston as Joe Helliwell, Polly James as Lottie, Nicola Pagett as Maria Helliwell, Gwen Taylor as Annie Parker, Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs Northrop, Peter Woodthorpe as Ormonroyd, Cathryn Bradshaw as Ruby, Timothy Watson as Gerald, Deborah Berlin as Nancy, Paul Panting as Fred and James Taylor as the Reverend Mercer.
Music by Stuart Hutchinson
Adapted and produced: Matthew Walters
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994.
SAT 07:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r9t6w)
The Reluctant Jester Strikes Back, Film Greats
Michael Bentine remembers riding the rapids, a trick by Alfred Hitchcock and tales of the Secret Service.
Founding member of The Goon Show and one of the foremost comic minds of his generation - Michael Bentine offers more behind-the-scenes tales of his offbeat and extraordinary life in showbiz.
With extracts from some of his most memorable comic performances and eccentric characters.
Recorded at the Millfield Theatre, Edmonton, London.
Michael Bentine CBE was born in 1922 and died in 1996.
Producer: Andy Aliffe
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in November 1994.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b0381jzt)
Ivor Cutler at 90
The deceptively quiet wordsmith was born in 1923 near the Rangers ground at Ibrox Park.
"I have a harmonium and it's going to explode in two minutes", were the opening words spoken on the Andy Kershaw Show in 1980 by a gentle voiced Scotsman called Ivor Cutler.
Championed by everyone from the Beatles to Billy Connolly, Ivor Cutler was a poet, humourist and absurdist whose appearances on BBC radio and television span over 5 decades. As well as producing a vast body of records, books and plays, Ivor was a notable eccentric, often seen cycling around London in plus fours, handing out homemade stickers and badges to strangers.
To mark what would have been Ivor's 90th birthday, BBC Radio 4 held a 'party', to celebrate his life and BBC archive in particular. Except a full house, with performers, fans, collaborators and even his long-term partner, Phyllis King, introducing their favourite poems, songs and memories of Ivor. Weirdness from the archives, pleasure for fans, and a singular introduction to those encountering him for the very first time.
Highlights include Bramwell and King re-enacting a morse code performance of "The Little Black Buzzer".
Presenter: David Bramwell is a writer, musician and, recently, presenter of Sony Award winning "The Haunted Moustache". He is the founder of the "Catalyst Club"; a place for enthusiasts to speak on any subject close to their heart. Ivor Cutler is a subject close to his, having kept correspondence with him in the 1980's.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
SAT 09:00 The Meow Show, with Ed Reardon and Elgar (b0868bq0)
The 12-year-olds at Radio 4 Extra thought it would be a wheeze to hire Ed Reardon for a three-hour showcase of programmes about cats from the BBC radio archives, on the condition that his feline companion Elgar joins him as co-presenter.
And so radio's favourite curmudgeon bundles Elgar into his basket and hops on the train from Berkhamsted to Broadcasting House. Between complaints about the paucity of hospitality (apart from a luxury pouch for puss), Ed and Elgar paw through the cat back catalogue to discover some kitty treats:
* In Spoken Cat, Sian Phillips meets the people learning cat language so that they can communicate with their moggies.
* Dawn French reads The Cat Lover, by Lynne Truss.
* Beryl Reid reveals how the Post Office put pussycats on the payroll in A Shilling a Week and All the Mice You Can Eat.
* In City Cat, Fergus Keeling finds out how Felis Domesticus copes with the urban rat race.
* Dylan Winter hears about a whiskered winner of the PDSA Dickin Medal, a cat called Simon who kept up morale during the 100 day Yangtze Incident, in The Animals VC: The Cat Among the Pigeons.
* A vintage edition of Ed Reardon's Week finds Elgar going AWOL.
* And a moving story set on Christmas Eve, The Mousehole Cat, finds an old moggy helping his human to feed a starving Cornish village.
Along the way Ed dangles snippets of poetry and a serenade from Si Si the famous singing cat.
The disgruntled fare-dodger also tries to get tips on publishing success from Tom Cox, the author of four books about his cats and the owner of several feline social media sensations. And the cat-loving comedian Susan Calman has a clandestine consultation with Elgar.
Presented by Christopher Douglas.
Written by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds
Produced by Moy McGowan.
SAT 12:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b009y19f)
Series 2, Trouble With the Credit Card
It's duo Tommy and Sheila's second stab at fame - and she's been spending.
30 years after sweethearts Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr won the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, the musical double-act are back in the big time.
Series 2 of Mike Coleman's six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.
With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley and Edward Halstead.
Music by Frido Ruth.
Producer: Steve Doherty
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1999.
SAT 12:30 Yes Minister (b007jl60)
Series 1, Open Government
Newly re-elected, MP Jim Hacker is summoned to the PM's office.
Jim learns from his chauffeur that the new St Edwards Hospital has 300 administrators, cooks and cleaners, but no doctors, nurses or patients. How can he cure it? As usual the Minister doesn't know his ACAS from his NALGO.
Starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowldes as Bernard. Moira Stuart plays herself.
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn satirical sitcom ran on BBC TV between 1980 and 1984. Yes Minister is centred around the hapless Jim Hacker and a collection of civil service underlings headed by the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby and obsequious Bernard.
Adapted for radio by producer Pete Atkin.
First broadcast on Radio 4 in 1984.
SAT 13:00 Just a Girl (b0bd6vt7)
Series 4 Omnibus
Teenagers Amy and Ryley are falling for each other. How will Amy tell him she's trans? And when should she tell him? Will he still like her? She's going to have to find out. Amy, now 16, and her grandad Ted arrive in Manchester. Ted has a funeral to attend and Amy needs some time out from her mum who wants her to wait before starting cross sex hormones. The last thing Amy needs is to meet a boy she really likes.
In Mark Davies Markham's 4th fourth series of Just A Girl, trans teenager Amy has just finished her GCSEs and is waiting for her results. She's been taking hormone blockers since she was 11 and is now anxious to start on the next phase of transitioning.
She's always been certain of her gender identity - it's other people who are the problem. Over the course of a week away in Manchester, she falls in love, experiences her first kiss, meets the inspirational Kate O'Donnell, deals with challenging counter-views on trans-gender politics and learns that being trans is just part of her life - not all of it.
Ted .... Michael Garner
Amy .... Molly Pipe
Ryley .... Khalil Madovi
Maxine .... Jane Hazlegrove
Kate .... Kate O'Donnell
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Director: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in five-part in July 2018.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0bd6vt9)
Ben Okri
Poet and novelist Ben Okri chooses 'Dock of the Bay' by Otis Redding, and 'Pastorale' from Scenes From Nigeria by Samuel Akpabot.
SAT 14:15 Down Your Way (b0bd6vth)
Muriel Gray in Fort William
uthor and broadcaster, Muriel Gray explores the wilds of the Scottish Highlands and meets some hardy inhabitants of Fort William.
Down Your Way was one of the BBC's longest-running radio series - starting on the BBC Home Service in 1946 and ending its run on BBC Radio 4 in 1992. Using a variety of hosts, including Richard Dimbleby and Brian Johnston, the programme toured villages, towns and cities across the UK. At the height of its success in the 1950s, the series was attracting 10 million listeners a week.
Producer: Kate Whitehead
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1990.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b0381jzt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 JB Priestley - When We Are Married (b007jvkd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r9t6w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Afternoon Drama (b037v4fw)
Ed Hime - Obey the Wave
By Ed Hime
A fictional documentary. Alec Turin, sci-fi writer and creator of cosmic refugee, Lazarus Jones, investigates the Boolians, a religious movement 32 of whose members - including his parents - disappeared in broad daylight in 1973.
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
SAT 18:45 Ambrose Bierce - Moxon's Master (b03zmdqw)
Can a machine think? And if so, could it be prone to violence like humans? A pioneering story first published in 1893, read by Robert Lang.
SAT 19:00 The Meow Show, with Ed Reardon and Elgar (b0868bq0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 Old Harry's Game (b007jvj6)
Series 4, Sleep
Satan has never been to sleep, so Thomas and the Professor try to give him forty winks. Devilish sitcom stars Andy Hamilton. From April 2001.
SAT 22:30 Mark Thomas Presents (b0076w9l)
Shelley Berman
Famed for his pioneering one-sided phone calls, one of America's greatest Jewish comics Shelley Berman performs. From December 2005.
SAT 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bfqk1t)
Alice Fraser 2/3
From 10pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith talks to Alice Fraser.
SAT 23:00 Life: An Idiot's Guide (b043xdf0)
Series 3, Breaking Up
Stephen K Amos is joined by comedians Susan Murray, Tom Craine and Josie Long to present a guide to breaking up.
SAT 23:30 The Skivers (b007yt85)
Series 2, Episode 2
Des Lynham and Sue Cook's secrets are revealed, plus Nick Golson and Tim de Jongh welcome special guest Adam Ant. From February 1995.

SUNDAY 05 AUGUST 2018

SUN 00:00 Afternoon Drama (b037v4fw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Saturday]
SUN 00:45 Ambrose Bierce - Moxon's Master (b03zmdqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:45 on Saturday]
SUN 01:00 Just a Girl (b0bd6vt7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:00 on Saturday]
SUN 02:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0bd6vt9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:10 on Saturday]
SUN 02:15 Down Your Way (b0bd6vth)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Saturday]
SUN 03:00 Archive on 4 (b0381jzt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 on Saturday]
SUN 04:00 JB Priestley - When We Are Married (b007jvkd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Saturday]
SUN 05:30 Michael Bentine - The Reluctant Jester (b01r9t6w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 Isabel Colegate - The Shooting Party (Omnibus) (b0bd7083)
Autumn 1913: An opulent shooting party on an Oxfordshire country estate. A whole society under the microscope, a society soon to be destroyed in the trenches of the Western Front.
Sir Randolph Nettleby has invited guests to the biggest shoot of the season. Everything about it would seem a perfect affirmation of the certainties of Edwardian country life. Yet, their social and moral code is under siege from within and without...
Published in 1980, Isabel Colegate's novel dramatised by DJ Britton.
Narrated by Olivia Colman
Cicely Nettleby ..... Ellie Kendrick
Sir Randolph Nettleby ..... Sam Dale
Olivia Lilburn ..... Jaimi Barbakoff
Lionel Stephens ..... Michael Shelford
Minnie Nettleby ..... Christine Kavanagh
Osbert Nettleby ..... Joshua Swinney
Lord Gilbert Hartlip ..... Sean Baker
Aline Hartlip ..... Sally Orrock
Director: Jessica Dromgoole
First broadcast in 5-parts on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.
SUN 07:15 Clive Dunn - Definitely Dunn (b070p6c6)
Flat Feet and Concert Parties
Don't panic! Memories of Dad's Army star Clive Dunn, who played Lance-Corporal Jack Jones for nearly a decade on TV, radio and film between 1968 to 1977.
Recalling highlights from his first 50 years in entertainment, Clive recalls life at boarding school, joining the army and his early stage appearances.
Clive was aged 68 at the time of recording. He died in Portugal in 2012, aged 92.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1988.
SUN 07:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04mgyps)
Series 4, Episode 3
John Finnemore, the writer and star of Cabin Pressure, regular guest on The Now Show and popper-upper in things like Miranda, records a fourth series of his hit sketch show.
3/6: In this third edition of the fourth series we get updates from some ongoing political negotiations; witness an awkward encounter at an interfaith conference; and hear a curious tale of a young man who heads to Canada to win the respect of his father.
The first series of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described as "sparklingly clever" by The Daily Telegraph and "one of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" by The Guardian. The second series won Best Radio Comedy at both the Chortle and Comedy.co.uk awards, and was nominated for a Radio Academy award. The third series actually won a Radio Academy award.
In this fourth series, John has written more sketches, like the sketches from the other series. Not so much like them that they feel stale and repetitious; but on the other hand not so different that it feels like a misguided attempt to completely change the show. Quite like the old sketches, in other words, but about different things and with different jokes. (Although it's a pretty safe bet some of them will involve talking animals.)
Written by and starring ... John Finnemore
Also featuring ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.
Producer ... Ed Morrish.
SUN 08:00 The Clitheroe Kid (b0bd7085)
Mother's Day of Rest
Can the cheeky schoolboy manage to help his mother on a very unusual day?
Starring Jimmy Clitheroe. With Peter Sinclair as Grandfather, Patricia Burke as Mother, Diana Day as Susan, Danny Ross.as Alfie Hall and Leonard Williams as Theodore Craythorpe.
With Peter Goodwright and Tony Melody.
Just 4 feet 3 inches tall, the success of comic entertainer Jimmy Clitheroe (1921-1973) sprang from a BBC Variety Playhouse try-out in the late 1950s. His naughty schoolboy act was a smash and he even wore school uniform during recordings! At its peak, ten million fans were tuning into 'The Clitheroe Kid' on the BBC Light Programme.
Every week, the Kid's schemes sparked havoc - with the ever present threat of a good spanking from Grandad. The Clitheroe Kid clocked up 16 series in its run from 1956 to 1972.
Theme music by Alan Roper and played by the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra directed by Alan Ainsworth
Scripted by James Casey and Ronnie Taylor.
Producer: James Casey.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in May 1960.
SUN 08:30 Take It From Here (b01s648q)
From 20/02/1957
Worrying cash cuts for BBC radio - and discover how Ron first met Eth in 'The Glums'.
Starring Professor Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley, June Whitfield and Wallace Eton.
Classic comedy scripted by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
Music from The Keynotes and the BBC Revue Orchestra with Harry Rabinowitz.
Announcer. Adrian Waller
Producer: Charles Maxwell
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in February 1957.
SUN 09:00 Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths (Omnibus) (b0bd7087)
Author and journalist Charlotte Higgins explores our age-old fascination with mazes and labyrinths, and reflects on their significance - in art and mythology, in literature and in life.
Her own interest was inspired by a childhood visit to the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete - where, according to legend, King Minos ordered the construction of a labyrinth to house the half-bull, half-man Minotaur. The creature was slain by the hero Theseus, who famously managed to escape from the labyrinth with the help of a ball of red thread supplied by Minos's daughter, Ariadne.
"This is where it began," says Higgins, "my longing for the labyrinth."
And it's the starting point for this book, which takes us on a journey round some literary labyrinths (including the mysterious, forbidden library in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose); explores the neuroscience behind our sense of direction (with special reference to the brains of London cabbies); and introduces us to a highly successful professional maze-maker who's designed more than 90 mazes across the globe.
RED THREAD also includes some personal reflections on the author's sense of direction - or lack of it - in her own life: "What frightens me more than the wrong turns I have taken are the right turns, the ones I so nearly didn't take. What if I hadn't gone to that place, on that day, and met that person, that person who now brings me happiness..?"
Charlotte Higgins is chief culture writer of the Guardian and author of three previous books on the ancient world. She is also the author of This New Noise: the Extraordinary Birth and Troubled Life of the BBC.
Written and read by Charlotte Higgins.
Abridged and produced by David Jackson Young.
First broadcast in five-parts on BBC Radio 4 in July 2018.
SUN 10:10 The Listening Project (b04vr1j7)
Tony and Chris - Magical Powers
Fi Glover with two magicians who are expert in card tricks, mind-reading and spoon-bending, but acknowledge that they deliberately deceive their audiences. Is magic moral?
The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject
Producer: Marya Burgess.
SUN 10:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b07xs9sz)
Adventurers, Chris Bonington
From Salad Days to Joan Baez, mountaineer Chris Bonington shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From June 1999.
SUN 11:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0bd72d5)
Series 7, Inner Compass
True stories told live in in the USA: Jenifer Hixson introduces tales questioning power in the USSR, New York and on death row.
The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.
The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.
Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.
The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.
SUN 11:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00zf648)
Series 2, Cicada
5/20. One of the great wild sounds of North America is the purring of insects in the evening, especially that of Cicadas, one of the great stridulating sounds in the wild. This is the tale of one Cicada; the 17-year periodic Cicada that stunned the community in New England thirteen years after the Pilgrim Fathers had landed. There was a plague of insects, all with red eyes on stalks - and all emerging continuously out of the soil. When the plague subsided a few weeks later the people of Plymouth Rock were braced for another onslaught, but nothing happened until 17 years later. David Attenborough recalls a filming trip to New England to film this species of Cicada with both fascinating natural history and a hilarious twist.
Written and presented by David Attenborough
Produced by Julian Hector.
SUN 12:00 The Clitheroe Kid (b0bd7085)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SUN 12:30 Take It From Here (b01s648q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
SUN 13:00 Isabel Colegate - The Shooting Party (Omnibus) (b0bd7083)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SUN 14:15 Clive Dunn - Definitely Dunn (b070p6c6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SUN 14:30 Clock Dance (b0bd72d7)
Omnibus pt 2
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler's novel about family and self-discovery.
Omnibus of the last five of ten episodes read by Barbara Barnes
Abridged by Sian Preece
Producer: Gaynor Macfarlane.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2018.
SUN 15:45 As Soon As I Open My Mouth (b007jz54)
Potato, Potahto
A smooth Yank, a Yorkshire 'bumpkin' and their Scottish-sounding daughter. Kim Normanton meets families with different accents.
SUN 16:00 Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger (b0076hh4)
1888: After multiple murders, Londoners are gripped by fear.
When wealthy Mr Sleuth takes up residence in the Buntings' lodging house they think their troubles are over. But they're only just beginning...
Marie Belloc Lowndes' classic piece of suspense fiction, inspired by the Jack the Ripper murders.
Narrator .... Nigel Anthony
Mr Bunting ....David Ryall
Mrs Bunting ...Maggie McCarthy
Mr Sleuth .... Jon Glover
Joe Chandler ... Harry Myers
Daisy .... Alison Pettitt
Chief Insp Hopkins ... Paul Moriarty
Policeman ... Brett Fancy
Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan.
Producer: David Blount
Made by Pier Productions for BBC Radio 4 and first broadcast in 2003.
SUN 17:00 Poetry Extra (b0bd72d9)
Poetry of Gold and Angels 2/2 Los Angeles
Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with second part of 'Poetry Of Gold and Angels: Los Angeles.
Los Angeles poet and lyricist Stephen J. Kalinich looks to find the real poetic voice of the city - a voice he believes is to be found in the poetry of the streets.
Stephen worked with the Beach Boys as a lyricist in the '60s and also recorded a poetry album with Brian Wilson, 'A World of Peace Must Come' inspired by Vietnam. Indeed peace has been his major theme as a writer. He recited poetry at a concert of 'Sugarman' Sixto Rodrigez. As well as reciting some of his own work, Stephen is on a quest to discover the true poetry of LA.
On his journey round the city, he encounters poets such as SA Griffin, from the poetry group Carma Bums who talks about his work also to promote peace with his tour of a 'poetry bomb' - a real bomb filled with poems. He also talks about the harshness of living in a town dominated by the movie industry and a desire to be famous from his experience of working as an actor.
And acclaimed song writer PF Sloan talks about his music and difference between writing lyrics and poetry. He also explains how living in LA can sometimes seem like being at a party, being really hungry and the fruit in the fruit bowl is plastic.
And meet Gingee, a poet and DJ from the Filipino community who talks about the issues she has encountered and why she needs to represent her community in her work.
Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.
SUN 17:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04mgyps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 18:00 Eagle: The Space Age Weekly (b00wqdx6)
is to make first contact with the mysterious civilisation that sent the technological secrets to Earth...
Adventures based on the Eagle comic strip 'Dan Dare' created in 1950 by the Reverend Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson.
Starring Ed Stoppard as Dan Dare, Geoff McGivern as Digby, Heida Reed as Professor Peabody and Raad Rawi as the Mekon, Bijan Daneshmand as Sondar, Amber Aga as Treen General, David O'Mahony as the Flight Engineer, Kelly Burke as Flight Control and Dianne Weller as the On-board Computer.
Dramatised by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle.
Director: Andrew Mark Sewell.
Made by B7.
SUN 18:30 Dan Dare (b0076rwk)
The Voyage to Venus, Episode 1
Dashing test pilot, Dan Dare, is selected to fly the Anastasia - a new experimental spacecraft using alien technology - on its maiden voyage to Venus. The mission is to make first contact with the mysterious civilisation that sent the technological secrets to Earth...
Adventures based on the Eagle comic strip 'Dan Dare' created in 1950 by the Reverend Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson.
Starring Ed Stoppard as Dan Dare, Geoff McGivern as Digby, Heida Reed as Professor Peabody and Raad Rawi as the Mekon, Bijan Daneshmand as Sondar, Amber Aga as Treen General, David O'Mahony as the Flight Engineer, Kelly Burke as Flight Control and Dianne Weller as the On-board Computer.
Dramatised by Richard Kurti and Bev Doyle.
Director: Andrew Mark Sewell.
Made by B7.
SUN 19:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b0bd72d5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
SUN 19:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00zf648)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:50 today]
SUN 20:00 Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths (Omnibus) (b0bd7087)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SUN 21:10 The Listening Project (b04vr1j7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:10 today]
SUN 21:15 Desert Island Discs Revisited (b07xs9sz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:15 today]
SUN 22:00 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04mgyps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SUN 22:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b01mk5nk)
Series 2, Hermicia
by Bill Dare
Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have experienced a succession of bizarre adventures. This week, he relives his experiences in Hermicia where charity is strangely in abundance.
Brian Gulliver ..... Neil Pearson
Rachel Gulliver ..... Mariah Gale
Kalfa ..... Colin Hoult
Mena ..... Nina Conti
Boria ..... Martin Treneman
Doctor ..... Patrick Brennan
Rimanda ..... Amaka Okafor
Producer ..... Steven Canny
This is the second series of this satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and including, Duncan Wisby, Vicki Pepperdine, Lisa Dillon, Colin Hoult, Toby Longworth, Adrian Scarborough, Dan Tetsell, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Debra Stephenson, Colin Hoult, Nina Conti, Jo Bobin and Marcus Brigstocke.
For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.
Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
SUN 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bfqkbp)
Alice Fraser 3/3
From 10pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith talks to Alice Fraser.
SUN 23:00 Clare in the Community (b038xtdd)
Edinburgh Special: In Treatment
Clare and Brian's relationship has always been fraught but with communication at an all time low the couple try relationship counselling. A one-off episode recorded in Edinburgh at the Festival.
Sally Phillips is Clare Barker the social worker who has all the right jargon but never a practical solution. A control freak, Clare likes nothing better than interfering in other people's lives on both a professional and personal basis. Clare is in her thirties, white, middle class and heterosexual, all of which are occasional causes of discomfort to her.
Clare struggles to control both her professional and private life and in this special one-off episode recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Clare's professional life is impacting on her personal life as she and Brian seek help with their relationship. After all, Clare gives of herself everyday at work - is it her fault there's little left for Brian's dreary problems at the end of the day?
In Treatment - Cast
Written by Harry Venning
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
SUN 23:30 At Home With The Snails (b007jn95)
Series 1, Episode 4
With 2000 snails in Alex's shed, there are fears that they will take over the village. Stars Gerard Foster and Geoffrey Palmer. From July 2001.

MONDAY 06 AUGUST 2018

MON 00:00 Eagle: The Space Age Weekly (b00wqdx6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Sunday]
MON 00:30 Dan Dare (b0076rwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Sunday]
MON 01:00 Isabel Colegate - The Shooting Party (Omnibus) (b0bd7083)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Sunday]
MON 02:15 Clive Dunn - Definitely Dunn (b070p6c6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:30 Clock Dance (b0bd72d7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Sunday]
MON 03:45 As Soon As I Open My Mouth (b007jz54)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:45 on Sunday]
MON 04:00 Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger (b0076hh4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:00 Poetry Extra (b0bd72d9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]
MON 05:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b04mgyps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Sunday]
MON 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0twv)
Series 1, The Ides of March
Bunny Manders desperately needs ready cash to repay a gambling debt. His old schoolfellow, the celebrated English cricketer AJ Raffles knows just the person to help a fellow out. He's a jeweller in London's Bond Street - and, funnily enough, Raffles had planned to pay him a surprise visit that very night ...
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, James Dykes as Young Bunny and George Parsons as Lord Upton.
EW Hornung's early Raffles stories dramatised by David Buck.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Directed by Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1985.
MON 06:30 The Matter of the North (b07qc3g3)
Lakes and Moors: The Power of Northern Landscapes
Northern landscapes take centre stage in Episode Five as Melvyn Bragg celebrates the fells, lakes and moors that he loves. He meets mountaineer Chris Bonington in North Cumbria and goes on to see how, over the last 200 years the North has provided inspiration for great writers, some of the greatest in the language - Wordsworth, Coleridge, the Brontës - and painters, Ruskin and Turner. The landscape inspired Coleridge, and he came up with the word mountaineering and he's believed to be the first man to climb every peak in the Lake District. Melvyn visits the home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth at Dove Cottage in the Lake District. The area around Coniston water was home to John Ruskin. The poet Ted Hughes, lived in Mytholmroyd in West Yorkshire...and Melvyn says that it's impossible to think northern moorland without bringing to mind the way the Brontës have inscribed themselves on the landscape.
Contributors
Professor Simon Bainbridge, Lancaster University
Professor Sally Bushell, Lancaster University
Chris Bonington
Howard Hull, Brantwood, Ruskin's House
Julian Cooper
Simon Armitage
Syima Aslam, Bradford Literature Festival
Irna Qureshi, Bradford Literature Festival
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
MON 07:00 Ayres on the Air (b03pmk77)
Series 5, Home
Pam Ayres regales her Radio 4 audience with poems, stories and sketches, this week on the subject of Home.
She is joined on stage by Felicity Montagu and Geoffrey Whitehead, with Geoffrey playing her long-suffering husband 'Gordon'.
This week Pam talks about her first home, about the impact of her grown up sons leaving home and about the unwelcome prospect of downsizing. There are also looks at how making your home more 'vintage' can go too far, some handy hints on how to make your child feel more at home if they have to return to the nest post-university, and how your homelife changes when both partners have retired. We are also treated to some wry observations on how our homes have now become so hi-tech we can barely change channels on the TV, and how to approach the thorny issue of moving into single beds when your partner's snoring becomes too much to bear.
Poems include: A September Song, My Little Grandson & Pollen on the Wind
Sketch writers: James Bugg, Jan Etherington, Claire Jones, Grainne McGuire, Andy Wolton and Tom Neenan.
Producer: Claire Jones.
MON 07:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0bcglvw)
Series 69, Episode 6
Back for a second week at the Playhouse Theatre in Oxford, regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by programme stalwart Jeremy Hardy with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell.
Producer - Jon Naismith.
It is a BBC Studios production.
MON 08:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jrp7)
Cyrano de Hancock
Chaos looms when Sid confesses he's in love with the lad's secretary, Grizelda.
Starring Tony Hancock, Sidney James, Bill Kerr, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques.
Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.
Theme and incidental music composed by Wally Stott. Recorded by the BBC Revue Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Producer: Dennis Main Wilson
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in December 1956.
MON 08:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k29b)
Inspecting the Piles?
1948: In their battle to restore the pier in Frambourne-on-Sea, Frank and Uncle Arthur must tackle a tricky situation - with an inflatable dinghy.
A seaside saga of pier perpetuation starring John Le Mesurier as Arthur Wilson, Ian Lavender as Frank Pike, Bill Pertwee as Bert Hodges and Vivienne Martin as Miss Perkins.
After a pilot episode was made in 1981, Arthur Lowe sadly died. So this 13-part series was revamped to feature the Dad's Army characters played by Pertwee and Lavender instead. The series was later adapted for ITV by Yorkshire TV.
Written by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles, based on the characters originally created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
Producer: Martin Fisher
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in December 1983.
MON 09:00 Dilemma (b01888wg)
Series 1, Episode 6
Sue Perkins puts Zoe Lyons, Phill Jupitus, Simon Garfield and Humphrey Ker through the moral and ethical wringer in the show where there are no "right" answers - but some deeply damning ones...
Quandaries on the agenda include swapped babies, one-night stands, and biochip crime prevention.
They also try to solve some dilemmas the audience have brought along.
Devised by Danielle Ward.
Producer: Ed Morrish.
MON 09:30 Spangles 'n' Tights (b04nv8v5)
The Ambassador
The Dublin Theatrical Costumiers are asked to dress a British Embassy pageant, only to become embroiled in an unfortunate scandal...
Christopher Fitz-Simon's five-part comedy.
Stars David Kelly as Dessie Doyle, Pauline McLynn as Violet Doyle, Eugene O'Brien as Antony Gogan, Frank Kelly as Mr McNamara, Bosco Hogan as Mr Bagshott, Ali White as Polly Hoskins and Sylvia Syms as Lady Bletchley.
Music played by John Trotter.
Directed at BBC Belfast by Roland Jaquarello.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1998.
MON 10:00 Marcy Kahan - A Bullet at Balmain's (b00t5jmj)
Noel Coward in Post-Liberation Paris, 1948: haute couture, existentialism, jazz . . . and death.
Coward is in Paris to play the lead in his own play 'Present Laughter' in French. But the murder of a promiscuous mannequin provides a stylish distraction.
Another adventure for the celebrated playwright, actor, composer and amateur detective by Marcy Kahan.
Starring Malcolm Sinclair as Noel Coward, Elenor Bron as Lorn Lorraine, Tam Williams as Cole Lesley and Linda Marlowe as Ginette Spanier.
Director: Ned Chaillet
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.
MON 11:00 Anthony Horowitz - Blackfriars Bridge (b012s2gc)
A cuckolded husband intends to murder his rival. What could go wrong with his fastidious plan? Anthony Horowitz's thriller, read by Robert Bathurst.
MON 11:15 Giles Cooper - The Disagreeable Oyster (b0076rx2)
Will all the sides of Mervyn Bundy be able to cope when his firm sends him on a trip?
The BBC Drama Repertory Company star in Giles Cooper's play for radio.
Starring Hamilton Dyce as Bundy, John Graham as Bundy Minor, Kathleen Helme as Alice, Haydn Jones as the Policeman, Beryl Calder as the Receptionist, June Tobin as Vi, Malcolm Hayes as Popper and Arthur Young.
Producer: Donald McWhinnie
First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme in 1957.
MON 12:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jrp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 12:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k29b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0twv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 13:30 The Matter of the North (b07qc3g3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mw1kw)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 6
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Older and perhaps a little wiser, with his daughter on the brink of adulthood and his dearest friends ageing too, life on his Norfolk estate is no longer sufficiently satisfying. How to reinvigorate his life and find new purpose?
In today's episode: After his sojourn in France, Merivel has returned to Bidnold, to find his beloved Margaret in the grip of the deadly typhus. But a surprise visitor brings solace and perhaps hope.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
MON 14:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017vp92)
The Secret Room
As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook explores the social history of the post office.
Throughout its history, the Post Office has been a consistently progressive and democratising force in society. Launched in 1516 by Henry VIII, the Royal Mail was intended to support official communications and bolster intelligence. It was only a rise in literacy, trade and interest that stimulated a demand for a public service.
It became a vehicle for literacy, free speech, commerce and communications in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, before evolving into a kind of prototypical welfare state in the early twentieth century, when it was the largest employer in the world. The Post Office has become a cherished social institution, linking people together and extending their vision outward into the wider world.
It's called Royal Mail but it should be known as the People's Post
In the paranoid era of the English Civil War the postal network became an important instrument of state control. In a secret room deep in the post office building, agents opened and copied letters from suspected dissidents on a grand scale.
Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook
Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman
Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart
Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak,
Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw
Producer: Joby Waldman
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b03yn66f)
Lavinia Greenlaw - Five Fever Tales, The Question of Why
A new drama serial by Lavinia Greenlaw about one of the oldest of human diseases.
Malaria has blighted human life in parts of the world for as long as humans have been humans. The mosquito, the parasite it carries, and the human bloodstream are evolving together. In many places the parasite still has the upper hand. The Question of Why: the first of five dramas based on facts and taking in ancient historical itches and ideas about the disease and the latest scientific attempts to understand and outwit it.
The disease caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes came to humans probably from gorillas a long time ago. Through recorded history the fever-prompting disease has shadowed humans almost everywhere warm enough for mosquitoes to live between the Poles. We have evolved together. It is still the biggest killer of children in parts of the world.
Made with the research assistance of Wellcome Trust.
Medical/science adviser: Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute.
Music and sound design: Jon Nicholls
Narrator: Siobhan Redmond.
Other parts: Russell Boulter, Richard Bremmer, David Collins, Jasmine Hyde, John Mackay
Producer: Tim Dee.
MON 14:45 Book of the Week (b0383jgq)
Lloyd Bradley - Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, Episode 1
The story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the 40s right up to the present day.
In the first episode the Empire Windrush brings an exciting new style of music to London with the arrival of Caribbean Calypso star Lord Kitchener.
Read by Ben Onwukwe.
Written by Lloyd Bradley.
Abridged by Natalie Steed.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
MON 15:00 Marcy Kahan - A Bullet at Balmain's (b00t5jmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
MON 16:00 Dilemma (b01888wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
MON 16:30 Spangles 'n' Tights (b04nv8v5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
MON 17:00 Ayres on the Air (b03pmk77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
MON 17:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0bcglvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 18:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn3n)
The Golden Apples of the Sun, Hail and Farewell
From Ray Bradbury's collection of sci-fi short-stories: a tale about a voyage to the sun - and a young boy whose real age is a mystery...
Starring Don Fellows, Ed Bishop, Simon Treves and Judy Bennett.
Dramatised by Lawrence Gilbert.
Producer: Peter Hutchings
First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991.
MON 18:30 A Good Read (b00770jd)
Janet Reibstein & Roshan Doug
Sue MacGregor, and her guests - poet, Roshan Doug and psychologist, Janet Reibstein - discuss books by Grace Paley, Dai Sijie and Philip Larkin. From 2006.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Publisher: Vintage
The Collected Stories of Grace Paley
Publisher: Virago
The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin
Publisher: Faber.
MON 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (b007jrp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
MON 19:30 It Sticks Out Half a Mile (b007k29b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
MON 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0twv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
MON 20:30 The Matter of the North (b07qc3g3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
MON 21:00 Anthony Horowitz - Blackfriars Bridge (b012s2gc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
MON 21:15 Giles Cooper - The Disagreeable Oyster (b0076rx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
MON 22:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0bcglvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
MON 22:30 Start/Stop (b04nrh2j)
Series 2, Wedding
Hit comedy about three marriages in various states of disrepair. Starring Jack Docherty, Kerry Godliman, John Thomson, Fiona Allen, Charlie Higson and Sally Bretton.
This week the prospect of attending a wedding pushes everyone to the limit. Alice and David wrestle with the dress code; Barney and Cathy struggle with the memories of their own wedding and Fiona and Evan aren't talking to each other after one of Evan's comments went a bit too far.
Producer ..... Claire Jones.
MON 23:00 Where's the F in News (b0bclyhx)
Series 1, Episode 3
An energetic, intelligent female-anchored show with a female panel - using the events, trends and talking points they think should really be top of the news agenda in a series of fresh and funny challenges.
Host Jo Bunting is joined by a panel of women including Anneka Rice, Eleanor Tiernan, Cariad Lloyd and Dr Sue Black
Jo Bunting is a producer and writer of topical comedy and satire, with credits including Have I Got News For You, the Great British Bake Off spin off show An Extra Slice with Jo Brand, and the successful topical chat show That Sunday Night Show presented by Adrian Chiles on ITV. Jo was a guest interviewer on Loose Ends for several years and a panellist on Loose Women.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:30 The Museum of Everything (b00hg82b)
Series 3, The Expo
Marvel at the meerkats, visit a new theme park... and one man must face 'The Curator'. Stars Marcus Brigstocke. From August 2006.

TUESDAY 07 AUGUST 2018

TUE 00:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn3n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:30 A Good Read (b00770jd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0twv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 The Matter of the North (b07qc3g3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mw1kw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017vp92)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Monday]
TUE 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b03yn66f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:45 Book of the Week (b0383jgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Monday]
TUE 03:00 Marcy Kahan - A Bullet at Balmain's (b00t5jmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:00 Dilemma (b01888wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Monday]
TUE 04:30 Spangles 'n' Tights (b04nv8v5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Monday]
TUE 05:00 Ayres on the Air (b03pmk77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Monday]
TUE 05:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b0bcglvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Monday]
TUE 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0wps)
Series 1, Gentlemen and Players
When Raffles and Bunny are engaged for cricketing weeks at country estates, the playing of cricket can hardly be said to be their chief preoccupation.
Bunny is an incorrigible ladies' man, while amateur cracksman, AJ Raffles takes an understandable professional interest in his fellow guests' portable property...
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Henry Stamper as Inspector MacKenzie, Ron Pember as Crawshay and David Garth as Lord Amersteth.
EW Hornung's early Raffles stories dramatised by David Buck.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Directed by Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1985.
TUE 06:30 The Matter of the North (b07sy32x)
Northern Inventions
Episode Six features George Stephenson, one of the many northern inventors who helped launch the Industrial Revolution. Melvyn Bragg believes the Industrial Revolution is the greatest Revolution the world has ever seen - and its heart lies in the North of England. In this programme he pays tribute to the men who nurtured that great revolution. The inventors and engineers - often from very humble beginnings - whose discoveries would shape the world to this day. One of the greatest was the north east's George Stephenson, whose Rocket locomotive heralded the age of the railways. The programme starts with the writer Frank Cottrell Boyce - who ( in collaboration with Danny Boyle ) put the Industrial Revolution centre stage at the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. Melvyn met him at Rainhill near Liverpool where Rocket took part in a famous trial. Of course, Stephenson wasn't the only great inventor of the period - the great machines of the cotton industry can also be claimed by the north - the genius of Samuel Crompton and his Spinning Mule is celebrated. The façade of Sheffield Town Hall is emblazoned with scenes of industry, but why wonders Melvyn are the achievements of these great men not celebrated more? Why aren't they as much a part of our national mythology as Tudor Monarchs?
Contributors
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Professor Hannah Barker, University of Manchester
Professor Robert Colls, De Montfort University
Matthew Watson, Bolton Museum
Professor Richard Horrocks, University of Bolton
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
TUE 07:00 Secrets and Lattes (b040hhnm)
Series 1, Growing Pains
Episode 2 of Hilary Lyon's Edinburgh-based series sees business booming in Cafe Culture, the leafy Bruntsfield coffee shop that Trisha (played by Julie Graham) has opened with her solvent sensible sister, Clare.
Clare (Hilary Lyon) obsessively plans a special themed Valentine's Night celebration in the cafe and rises to the commercial romance challenge. Trisha can't imagine anything more ghastly - she's not a fan of Valentine's nonsense at the best of times, but throw in her recent complicated relationship break-up in London and it really turns her off.
The sisters are delighted that business is booming, but what should they do about the staffing issue? They definitely need more help, but can Trisha persuade Clare and temperamental Polish chef, Krzysztof (Simon Greenall), that kleptomaniac teenager Lizzie (Pearl Appleby) is actually the right person for the job?
Valentine's Day duly arrives. Unexpected revelations abound, unconventional marriage proposals are made and unwanted flowers are delivered. All in all, it's not a very loved-up affair.
Directed by: Marilyn Imrie
Producers: Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
An Absolute production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 07:30 Jake Yapp's Media Circus (b0bcgw3b)
Series 1, Speech Radio
Jake Yapp applies his sharp satirical eye to the modern media, exploring its strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies through stand-up, sketch and music.
Episode 2 - Speech Radio
Jake uses the medium of speech radio to satirise... Speech Radio. Exploring its most exhausting iterations and tropes.
Written, performed and composed by Jake Yapp
Starring George Fouracres and Emily Lloyd-Saini
Additional material by Robin Morgan
Produced by Joe Nunnery
A BBC Studios Production.
TUE 08:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b007vlws)
Series 1, The Wedding Ring
Crime writer Gerald is distracted when Diana loses something precious.
The convoluted chronicle of an optimistic author written by Basil Boothroyd.
Starring Ian Carmichael as Gerald C Potter and Charlotte Mitchell as his wife and more successful writer, Diana.
With James Thomason, Trader Faulkner and Robin Browne.
The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter ran from 1976 to 1981.
Producer: Bobby Jaye
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1976.
TUE 08:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
Mission Inedible
The bungling civil servants botch a promotion for British food delicacies in New York.
Stars Richard Murdoch and Deryck Guyler.
With Norma Ronald, Ronald Baddiley and John Graham.
Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham.
'The Men from the Ministry' ran for 14 series between 1962 and 1977. Deryck Guyler replaced Wilfrid Hyde-White from 1966. Sadly many episodes didn't survive in the archive, however the BBC's Transcription Service re-recorded 14 shows in 1980 - never broadcast in the UK, until the arrival of BBC Radio 4 Extra.
Producer: Edward Taylor
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in July 1977.
TUE 09:00 Where's the F in News (b0bclyhx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]
TUE 09:30 Any Other Business (b013cnyp)
Episode 4
Chesbury FC is in dire straits, but Lady Mayoress Graham is determined to save the day.
Lucy Flannery's local government sitcom stars Nelson David, John Duttine, James Grout, Rosy Fordham, Nick Hardy, Howard Lew Lewis, Toby Longworth, Jan Ravens, Vivienne Rochester and June Whitfield.
Producer: Liz Anstee
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1995.
TUE 10:00 Marcy Kahan - Death at the Desert Inn (b00t6v8d)
$300,000 dollars are left in a satchel in Noel Coward's Las Vegas suite, and so he sets off again on his unexpected posthumous career as a detective.
Marcy Kahan's crime thriller stars Malcolm Sinclair as Noel Coward, Eleanor Bron as Lorn Lorraine. Tam Williams as Cole Lesley, Belinda Lang as Judy Garland and Jake Broder as Joe Glaser.
The Desert Inn, scene of one of his greatest cabaret triumphs, is the setting for "a highly probable Noel Coward Murder Mystery", complete with Judy Garland, a showgirl, a Broadway agent, an unlikely croupier, a US Congressman and Coward's act, with half of Hollywood in the audience.
Another crime to be solved with the Master's favourite weapon - wit.
Director: Ned Chaillet
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.
TUE 11:00 Borderlands (b0076q1t)
A Cut Above
By Alison Fell. 4 Extra Debut. A granddaughter learns more about a family secret when she attends a funeral in the Scottish borders. Read by Siobhan Redmond.
TUE 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b00h8nh9)
Alexis Zegerman - Deja Vu
Performed in French and English, Alexis Zegerman's drama tells the story of a love affair between a woman from London and a Paris-based French Algerian. When Claire and Ahmed meet, it is language that stands between them. But when Ahmed is stopped and searched in London under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, the seed of a much larger difference is sown.
Claire ...... Caroline Catz
Ahmed ...... Karim Saleh
French Policeman ...... Richard Sanda
French Policeman ...... Hovnatan Avedikian
British Policeman ...... Chris Pavlo
Translator ...... Helen Longworth
Directed by Lu Kemp and Christophe Rault.
TUE 12:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b007vlws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 12:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0wps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 13:30 The Matter of the North (b07sy32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mw5j8)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 7
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Older and perhaps a little wiser, with his daughter on the brink of adulthood and his dearest friends ageing too, life on his Norfolk estate is no longer sufficiently satisfying. How to reinvigorate his life and find new purpose?
In today's episode: Returning from his French adventures and with Margaret out of danger, Merivel turns his attention to his old patients, including his old lover, Lady Violet Bathurst. And the King remains an unpredictable guest.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
TUE 14:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017wy75)
The London Penny Post
As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office and examines it's impact on literacy, free speech, commerce and communication.
Launched in 1680 by London merchant, William Dockwra, the Penny Post was the first accessible and cheap method for sending mail within the capital. Costing the equivalent of £6 today, there were receiving houses all over London and the suburbs where you could go to post a letter and expect same day delivery.
Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook
Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman
Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart
Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak,
Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw
Producer: Joby Waldman
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b03ynf5h)
Lavinia Greenlaw - Five Fever Tales, The Wrongly Named Tree
A new drama serial by Lavinia Greenlaw about one of the oldest of human diseases.
Malaria has blighted human life in parts of the world for as long as humans have been humans. The mosquito, the parasite it carries, and the human bloodstream are evolving together. In many places the parasite still has the upper hand. The Wrongly Named Tree: the second of five dramas based on facts and taking in ancient historical itches and ideas about the disease and the latest scientific attempts to understand and outwit it.
The disease caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes came to humans probably from gorillas a long time ago. Through recorded history the fever-prompting disease has shadowed humans almost everywhere warm enough for mosquitoes to live between the Poles. We have evolved together. It is still the biggest killer of children in parts of the world.
Made in collaboration with Wellcome Trust.
Medical/science adviser: Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute.
Music and sound design: Jon Nicholls
Narrator: Siobhan Redmond.
Other parts: Russell Boulter, Richard Bremmer, David Collins, Jasmine Hyde, John Mackay
Producer: Tim Dee.
TUE 14:45 Book of the Week (b0383pv3)
Lloyd Bradley - Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, Episode 2
Journalist Lloyd Bradley's new book tells the story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the 1940s right up to the present day.
After his exploration of calypso, author Lloyd Bradley turns his attention to another Caribbean import which has seeped into the soundtrack of London - steel pan.
Read by Ben Onwukwe.
Written by Lloyd Bradley.
Abridged by Natalie Steed.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
TUE 15:00 Marcy Kahan - Death at the Desert Inn (b00t6v8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
TUE 16:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015yt4k)
Series 4, Ince, Highfield, Edwards
Hosted by the Professor of Ignorance from the University of Buckingham John Lloyd C.B.E. and the intensely curious comedian Dave Gorman.
This week's guests:
Coming from a long line of vicars, Robin Ince is the UK's most rational comedian, and he tests his reason to the limit once every year by performing at least four shows a day at the Edinburgh fringe. His infamous Bad Book Club, which in which he invites his fellow comedians to celebrate awful literature, has become an institution, and his massive Christmas show Nine Lessons and Carols For Godless People is now a huge event, featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Dara O Briain and Richard Dawkins.
Roger Highfield is a scientist, science author and the editor of New Scientist, but if you met him, you wouldn't immediately guess that science is his thing. He's jolly and worldly and has the hearty laugh of a comic supervillain. He first made his name as a scientist be being the first person ever to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. Roger has written and co-written 9 best-selling science books, including a book on the hows and whys of Dolly the sheep, an explanation of the science of Harry Potter and a biography of Einstein.
Gareth Edwards is a filmmaker whose success and methods of achieving it have sent ripples of fear through the studios of Hollywood. His movie Monsters is an apocalyptic blockbuster which he made for one five hundredth of the budget for Avatar by shooting with a small, mobile team, hiring non-actors on the spot and using dazzling-but-cheap CGI effects.
TUE 16:30 Any Other Business (b013cnyp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
TUE 17:00 Secrets and Lattes (b040hhnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
TUE 17:30 Jake Yapp's Media Circus (b0bcgw3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 18:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn3z)
The Flying Machine, The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
From Ray Bradbury's collection of sci-fi short-stories: the terrible perils of invention and the murderous dangers of jealousy...
Starring Don Fellows, Ed Bishop, Turan Ali and Paul Maxwell.
Dramatised by Lawrence Gilbert.
Producer: Peter Hutchings
First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991.
TUE 18:30 Meet the Parents (b01jxxzs)
Series 2, Evelyn Glennie
1/1
Evelyn Glennie talks to her mum about life growing up in Aberdeen and how her parents' musical influences led her to become a musician. She also explains how she had to overcome losing her hearing at the age of 12.
TUE 19:00 The Small, Intricate Life of Gerald C Potter (b007vlws)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
TUE 19:30 The Men From the Ministry (b007jq45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
TUE 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0wps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
TUE 20:30 The Matter of the North (b07sy32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
TUE 21:00 Borderlands (b0076q1t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
TUE 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b00h8nh9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
TUE 22:00 Jake Yapp's Media Circus (b0bcgw3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
TUE 22:30 BBC New Comedy Award (b0bd7ywv)
2018, Semi-Final 1 - Edinburgh
The first semi-final of the BBC New Comedy Award 2018, hosted by Mark Watson and recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Acts are: Helen Bauer, Matt Hutchinson, Sarah Mann, Stephen Buchanan and William Stone.
The judges are comedians Angela Barnes, Marcus Brigstocke and Julia McKenzie (Executive Editor, BBC Studios Radio Comedy).
TUE 23:15 Don't Start (b06wg843)
Series 3, Driving
What do long term partners really argue about? The third series of Frank Skinner's sharp comedy. Starring Frank Skinner and Katherine Parkinson.
In this episode, Kim and Neil's return home from a funeral involves a missed left turn, a backseat stenographer and the planet Zobula.
The first and second series of Don't Start met with instant critical and audience acclaim:
"That he can deliver such a heavy premise for a series with such a lightness of touch is testament to his skills as a writer and, given that the protagonists are both bookworms, he's also permitted to use a flourish of fine words that would be lost in his stand-up routines." Jane Anderson, Radio Times
"Frank Skinner gives full rein to his sharp but splenetic comedy. He and his co-star Katherine Parkinson play a bickering couple exchanging acerbic ripostes in a cruelly precise dissection of a relationship." Daily Mail
"...a lesson in relationship ping-pong..." Miranda Sawyer, The Observer
Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses. Underneath the cutting wit, however, there is an unmistakable tenderness.
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 The Maltby Collection (b00czc0j)
Series 1, Episode 6
A TV detective star fancies Prunella during filming at the museum. With Geoffrey Palmer and guest Hugh Dennis. From July 2007.

WEDNESDAY 08 AUGUST 2018

WED 00:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn3z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:30 Meet the Parents (b01jxxzs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p0wps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 The Matter of the North (b07sy32x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mw5j8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017wy75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b03ynf5h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Tuesday]
WED 02:45 Book of the Week (b0383pv3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Marcy Kahan - Death at the Desert Inn (b00t6v8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:00 The Museum of Curiosity (b015yt4k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Tuesday]
WED 04:30 Any Other Business (b013cnyp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]
WED 05:00 Secrets and Lattes (b040hhnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Tuesday]
WED 05:30 Jake Yapp's Media Circus (b0bcgw3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Tuesday]
WED 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p10th)
Series 1, A Costume Piece
Reuben Rosenthall has made his millions in the diamond fields of South Africa, and it seems only right and proper to Raffles that some of this wealth should be redistributed.
But his attempts to seize the diamonds don't quite go according to plan, as a low-key stakeout spirals into a terrifying scramble for survival.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Geoffrey Matthews as Reuben Rosenthall and John Hollis as 'Slammer' Purvis.
EW Hornung's early Raffles stories dramatised by David Buck.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Directed by Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1985.
WED 06:30 The Matter of the North (b07synwj)
Manchester: First City of the Industrial Revolution
Melvyn Bragg celebrates the achievements of Manchester, the original northern powerhouse. Its emblem is the bee, a symbol of work, cooperation and industry. It was from here that huge scientific, social and commercial changes would sweep the globe. Melvyn visits Quarry Bank Mill in Styal outside Manchester which is one of the best preserved textile mills in the country.
Melvyn visits the house of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who chronicled the rapidly changing lives of the people who lived in or near Manchester, or Cottonopolis as it was known. Melvyn hears how a culture of dissent or non-conformity fed into the city's spirit of invention. He discusses the great scientists that came out of the city - James Joule the father of thermodynamics and John Dalton the father of atomic theory. Melvyn also hears about one of the country's biggest and now largely forgotten art exhibitions which was held in Manchester - The Art Treasures exhibition of 1857.
Contributors
Canon Apiarist Adrian Rhodes, Manchester Cathedral
Professor Hannah Barker, University of Manchester
Dr James Sumner, University of Manchester
Jenny Uglow
Dr Katy Layton-Jones, University of Leicester
Maria Balshaw, The Whitworth Art Gallery
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
WED 07:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00b0qrc)
Series 2, Tommy Wants a Knighthood
Comeback duo singer Tommy mounts his own campaign to be awarded an MBE.
30 years after sweethearts Tommy Franklin and Sheila Parr won the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, the musical double-act are back in the big time.
Series 2 of Mike Coleman's six-part sitcom stars June Whitfield and Roy Hudd.
With Pat Coombs, Julian Eardley, Mike Coleman and Edward Halstead.
Music by Frido Ruth.
Producer: Steve Doherty
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1999.
WED 07:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07v0hnp)
The Route
Stand-up comic Josh Howie comes to terms with the impending birth of his first child.
In this fourth episode, Josh and his wife Monique attend their first NCT class where Josh typically manages to fall out with almost everyone.
Written by Josh Howie.
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 08:00 The Navy Lark (b013r1vy)
A Deliberate Bashing
Desperate to escape his mother-in-law, can Captain Povey rely on the crew of HMS Troutbridge to assist?
Stars Jon Pertwee as the Chief Petty Officer, Leslie Phillips as the Sub-Lieutenant, Stephen Murray as the Number One, Ronnie Barker as Commander Bell, Richard Caldicote as Captain Povey, Ronnie Barker as Commander Bell, Tenniel Evans as Taffy Goldstein, Janet Brown as Mrs Crump and Lawrie Wyman as the Inspector.
Laughs afloat aboard British Royal Navy frigate HMS Troutbridge. The Navy Lark ran for an impressive thirteen series between 1959 and 1976.
Scripted by Lawrie Wyman
Producer: Alastair Scott Johnston.
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1963.
WED 08:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008yrvn)
From 15/07/1958
Kenneth Horne finally has his request played on Housewives' Choice, and Hornerma looks at 1908.
Starring Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Ron Moody.
Written by Eric Merriman and Barry Took
Music from Pat Lancaster, the Malcolm Mitchell Trio and the BBC Review Orchestra conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.
Announcer: Douglas Smith
A madcap mix of sketches and songs, Beyond Our Ken hit the airwaves in 1958 and ran to 1964 - featuring regulars like Arthur Fallowfield, Cecil Snaith and Rodney and Charles.
The precursor to 'Round The Horne' - sadly only 13 shows survive from the original run of 21 episodes in Series 1. Audio restored using both home and overseas (BBC Transcription Service) recordings.
Producer: Jacques Brown
First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in July 1958.
WED 09:00 Who Goes There? (b007v2sv)
Series 2, Episode 2
Martin Young chairs the quiz looking at lives of the noteworthy and notorious from the history books.
Tackling the biographical teasers are team captains Francis Wheen and Fred Housego with guests Claire Rayner and Roy Hattersley.
Producer: Aled Evans
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1998.
WED 09:30 The Right Time (b00c0btz)
Series 3, Episode 3
Vengeful parents, school day memories - and an unusual police stop and check...
The sketch comedy for people growing older disgracefully.
Stars Eleanor Bron, Graeme Garden, Neil Innes, Clive Swift, Roger Blake and Paula Wilcox.
Written by Tony Bagley, Julie Baloo, Colin Bostock Smith, Jan Etherington, Graeme Garden, Mike Haskins, Emma Kennedy, Bob Sinfield, David Spicer, Peter Usher, Chris Thompson and Pete Reynolds.
Script Editor: Jed Parsons.
Music by Ronnie & The Rex and Neil Innes.
Producer: Claire Jones
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2003.
WED 10:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvdp)
Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy, Inferno
Blake Ritson, David Warner and John Hurt star in Stephen Wyatt's dramatisation of Dante's epic poem - the story of one man's incredible journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
In Episode 1: Inferno, the thirty-five year old Dante (Blake Ritson) finds himself in the middle of a dark wood, in extreme personal and spiritual crisis. But hope of rescue appears in the form of the venerable poet Virgil (David Warner), now a shade himself, who offers to lead Dante on an odyssey through the afterlife, that begins in the terrifying depths of Hell.
Many years later, the older Dante (John Hurt), still in enforced exile from his beloved Florence, attempts to finish his great poem and reflects on the events that have led him to its writing.
All other parts are played by members of the company
The Divine Comedy is dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Sound design is by Cal Knightley
Directed by Emma Harding and Marc Beeby.
WED 11:00 Borderlands (b0076q39)
Annunciation
By Sue Gee. Since her mother's death, Morag has lived quietly with her father in the old house beside the church. Today, however, is a day unlike any other. Read by Stella Gonet.
WED 11:15 Patricia Hannah - In the Treacle Well (b0075srp)
Who do you turn to for help and support when you discover that your husband is having an affair?
Isobel Lauder- a genteel Edinburgh housewife - seeks guidance from two unlikely sources: Bette Davis and Celia Johnson playing their respective and highly contrasting film roles in 'All About Eve' and 'Brief Encounter'.
Written by Patricia Hannah
Isobel ... Leigh Biagi
Leonard ..... Robert Paterson
Serena .... Norah Elwell-Sutton
Bette Davis .... Jan Ravens
Celia Johnson .....Monica Gibb
Producer: David Jackson Young
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.
WED 12:00 The Navy Lark (b013r1vy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 12:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008yrvn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p10th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 13:30 The Matter of the North (b07synwj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mwvlb)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 8
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Older and perhaps a little wiser, with his daughter on the brink of adulthood and his dearest friends ageing too, life on his Norfolk estate is no longer sufficiently satisfying. How to reinvigorate his life and find new purpose?
In today's episode: Merivel must operate on his old lover, Lady Bathurst, to save her life - and his honoured guest makes an offer that he cannot refuse, despite his misgivings.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
WED 14:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017x0vh)
A Culture of Letters
During the 18th century, an expanding postal network offered new possibilities for long-distance relationships. From traveling preachers to sailors and their families, people from all backgrounds found ways to write home.
As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office and examines it's impact on literacy, free speech, commerce and communication.
Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook
Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman
Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart
Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak, Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw
Producer: Joby Waldman
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b03ynts4)
Lavinia Greenlaw - Five Fever Tales, What the Doctor Saw
A new drama serial by Lavinia Greenlaw about one of the oldest of human diseases.
Malaria has blighted human life in parts of the world for as long as humans have been humans. The mosquito, the parasite it carries, and the human bloodstream are evolving together. In many places the parasite still has the upper hand. What the Doctor Saw: the third of five dramas based on facts and taking in ancient historical itches and ideas about the disease and the latest scientific attempts to understand and outwit it.
The disease caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes came to humans probably from gorillas a long time ago. Through recorded history the fever-prompting disease has shadowed humans almost everywhere warm enough for mosquitoes to live between the Poles. We have evolved together. It is still the biggest killer of children in parts of the world.
Made in collaboration with Wellcome Trust.
Medical/science adviser: Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute.
Music and sound design: Jon Nicholls
Narrator: Siobhan Redmond.
Other parts: Russell Boulter, Richard Bremmer, David Collins, Jasmine Hyde, John Mackay
Producer: Tim Dee.
WED 14:45 Book of the Week (b03847t6)
Lloyd Bradley - Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, Episode 3
The story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the 40s right up to the present day.
In the third episode a milestone is passed with the emergence of Afro-rock - a genuine London sound from an African perspective.
WED 15:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
WED 16:00 Who Goes There? (b007v2sv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
WED 16:30 The Right Time (b00c0btz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
WED 17:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00b0qrc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
WED 17:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07v0hnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 18:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn6h)
A Sound of Thunder/The Murderer
From Ray Bradbury's collection of sci-fi short-stories: a risky time-travelling safari trip and a technology-loathing man...
Starring Don Fellows, Ed Bishop and Judy Bennett.
Dramatised by Lawrence Gilbert.
Producer: Peter Hutchings
First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991.
WED 18:30 Comic to Comic (b007znnn)
Series 2, Miles Jupp
From gag-writing to TV's Balamory - the self-styled posh stand-up tells the story of his career.
Series in which Bruce Morton talks to top stand-up comedians about life, the universe and comedy.
Producer: Carol Purcell
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in January 2006.
WED 19:00 The Navy Lark (b013r1vy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
WED 19:30 Beyond Our Ken (b008yrvn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
WED 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p10th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
WED 20:30 The Matter of the North (b07synwj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
WED 21:00 Borderlands (b0076q39)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
WED 21:15 Patricia Hannah - In the Treacle Well (b0075srp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
WED 22:00 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07v0hnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
WED 22:30 BBC New Comedy Award (b0bd9xdp)
2018, Semi-Final 2 - Edinburgh
The second semi-final of the BBC New Comedy Award 2018, hosted by Mark Watson and recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Acts are: Chloe Green, Isa Bonachera, Mamoun Elagab, Thanyia Moore and Tom Mayhew.
The judges are comedians Angela Barnes, Marcus Brigstocke and Julia McKenzie (Executive Editor, BBC Studios Radio Comedy).
WED 23:15 Foley and McColl: The Interview (b0076cvt)
Rockall
The duo are set to tell all on the Parkinson show. But will anyone believe their stories? Stars Sean Foley, Hamish McColl and Michael Parkinson. From February 2003.
WED 23:30 Delve Special (b007k4nj)
Series 2, Double Agent Russell Nicholson
Reporter David Lander interviews the notorious spy at his luxury home in Bulgaria. Stars Stephen Fry. From September 1985.

THURSDAY 09 AUGUST 2018

THU 00:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn6h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:30 Comic to Comic (b007znnn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Wednesday]
THU 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p10th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:30 The Matter of the North (b07synwj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mwvlb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017x0vh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Wednesday]
THU 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b03ynts4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Wednesday]
THU 02:45 Book of the Week (b03847t6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:00 Who Goes There? (b007v2sv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]
THU 04:30 The Right Time (b00c0btz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Wednesday]
THU 05:00 Like They've Never Been Gone (b00b0qrc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Wednesday]
THU 05:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07v0hnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Wednesday]
THU 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3d3w)
Series 1, Nine Points of the Law
Bunny is forced to extemporise when Raffles' theft of a valuable painting seems to go wrong.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, David Buck as Addenbrooke and Nigel Graham as Craggs.
EW Hornung's early Raffles stories dramatised by David Buck.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Directed by Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1985.
THU 06:30 The Matter of the North (b07syyrh)
The Radical North
Melvyn explores the radical movements that sprang from the North - Chartism, the campaign for women's votes, anti-slavery protests, the birth of the Labour Party. The programme begins outside Manchester's Midland Hotel where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce. It's also near the site of the Peterloo Massacre - one of the defining moments in British social history. People had gathered here in their thousands from the city and surrounding towns and villages - protesting for parliamentary reform. fifteen were slain and hundreds wounded by charging cavalry troops. Melvyn visits what one contributor Dr Robert Poole describes as Democracy Wall - it runs alongside of the nearby Quaker Meeting House - many people were crushed against it at the time of the Massacre. The wall is the only structure left from the period. The massacre inspired the poet Shelley to write the Masque of Anarchy, part of which is read for us by the actor Maxine Peake. Melvyn goes on to describe the rich history of dissent nurtured in the north - the women's suffrage movement, the campaign to abolish slavery, chartism, and the founding of the Independent Labour Party. Why the north? Was it Methodism, the size of the population, the isolated landscapes, the topography of the cities or even the weather?
Contributors
Dr Robert Poole, University of Central Lancashire
Dr Katrina Navickas, University of Hertfordshire
Professor Robert Colls, De Montfort University
Dr Jill Liddington, University of Leeds
Judith Cummins MP
Rommi Smith
Jonathan Schofield
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
THU 07:00 North By Northamptonshire (b03nt1sw)
Series 3, Episode 3
by Katherine Jakeways
Sheila Hancock narrates the bittersweet adventures of the residents of a small market town in Northamptonshire. This week, visitors are expected in Wadenbrook, and a revelation is long overdue.
Producer: Steven Canny
As is well-known: Yorkshiremen wear flat caps and Essex girls wear short skirts; Liverpudlians are scallies and Cockneys are wideboys. Northamptonians gaze wistfully at these stereotypes and wish for an identity of any kind and a label less ridiculous than Northamptonians. Northamptonshire, let us be clear, is neither north, nor south nor in the Midlands. It floats somewhere between the three eyeing up the distinctiveness of each enviously. Now Katherine Jakeways is giving Northamptonshire an identity. And she waits, eagerly, for her home-county to thank her. And possibly make her some kind of Mayor.
Joined by nearly all of the incredible cast which graced Series One and Two - including Sheila Hancock as the Narrator, Penelope Wilton, Felicity Montagu, Geoffrey Palmer and Kevin Eldon - and with the exciting addition of Tim Key and Nathaniel Parker - North by Northamptonshire hopes (and promises) to once again delight audience and critics.
'The laughs are cruel, but the monsters of suburbia are curiously sympathetic, and the characters so well drawn and well played that this could run and run.' Time Out.
THU 07:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0bclvy3)
Series 1, Angela Barnes and Adam Kay
Joe Lycett chats to guests and the general public about their obsessions and guilty pleasures.
THU 08:00 Yes Minister (b007jl89)
Series 1, Big Brother
MP Jim Hacker crosses swords with Sir Humphrey over civil liberties
Starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby and Derek Fowldes as Bernard.
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn satirical sitcom ran on BBC TV between 1980 and 1984. Yes Minister is centred around the hapless Jim Hacker and a collection of civil service underlings headed by the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby and obsequious Bernard.
Adapted for radio by producer Pete Atkin.
First broadcast on Radio 4 in 1984.
THU 08:30 The Goon Show (b007jtj9)
The Sleeping Prince
When Neddie Seagoon is made president of Yakabakoo, he tries to quell a revolution. Stars Spike Milligan. From February 1957.
THU 09:00 The Personality Test (b00mvs9s)
Series 2, Antony Worrall-Thompson
Celebrity chef and writer Antony Worrall-Thompson quizzes a panel about himself.
With Sue Perkins, Lucy Porter, Will Smith and Robin Ince.
Series with changing hosts who quiz the panel.
Script by Richard Turner and Simon LIttlefield
Devised and produced by Aled Evans.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
THU 09:30 Alison and Maud (b007k377)
Series 2, Beds in the East Are Soft
It's not a guest but Daddy who's not keen on a mattress. Is a sneaky swap the answer?
Second of two series of Sue Limb's Bed and Breakfast sitcom about sisters Alison and Maud and their guests at the Abbeyfield Guest House in Norwich.
Starring Denise Coffey as Alison, Miriam Margolyes as Maud, Joss Ackland as Father, Chris Emmett as Mr Mullett and Geoffrey Whitehead as Bernard.
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2004.
THU 10:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvtm)
Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio
Blake Ritson, David Warner, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in Stephen Wyatt's dramatisation of Dante's epic poem - the story of one man's extraordinary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
In Episode 2: Purgatorio, Dante (Blake Ritson) is led up Mount Purgatory by his guide, the shade of Virgil (David Warner). On their journey, they encounter numerous souls who have embarked on the difficult journey up the mountain - a journey that will eventually lead to their spiritual salvation.
Many years later, the older Dante (John Hurt), still in enforced exile from his beloved Florence, reflects on the episodes from his life that have inspired his great poem.
All other parts are played by members of the company
The Divine Comedy is dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Sound design is by Cal Knightley
Directed by Emma Harding and Marc Beeby.
THU 11:00 Borderlands (b0076q3t)
The Debatable Lands
By Julia Darling. When she receives bad news, Rona needs space to think. An encounter with a neighbour forces her to confront her situation. Read by Gina McKee.
THU 11:15 Afternoon Drama (b00pxqz5)
Sophie Woolley - Carbon Cleansing
By Sophie Woolley. When ex-banker Tabitha knocks 'green' activist Will off his bicycle with her 'Chelsea Tractor', two worlds literally collide. A tale of ecological responsibility, guilt and grimy hot tubs.
Tabitha ...... Doon Mackichan
Will ...... Joseph Kloska
Samantha ...... Gemma Saunders
Mary ...... Tessa Nicholson
Reporter ...... John Biggins
Directed by David Hunter.
THU 12:00 Yes Minister (b007jl89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 12:30 The Goon Show (b007jtj9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3d3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 13:30 The Matter of the North (b07syyrh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mx27q)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 9
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Older and perhaps a little wiser, with his daughter on the brink of adulthood and his dearest friends ageing too, life on his Norfolk estate is no longer sufficiently satisfying. How to reinvigorate his life and find new purpose?
In today's episode: With Margaret lost to the Court and the death of Clarendon the Bear, Merivel needs new purpose - he determines to rekindle a friendship.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
THU 14:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017x3pj)
The Mail Coach
Introduced in 1784 the mail coach slashed journey times by two thirds, provided a new state of the art form of public transport, and allowed newspapers to reach the provinces within 24 hours. The time-pieces carried by guards also had the unintended consequence of creating standard UK time in the era before GMT.
As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office and examines its impact on literacy, free speech, commerce and communication.
Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook
Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman
Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart
Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak,
Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw
Producer: Joby Waldman
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b03yqj37)
Lavinia Greenlaw - Five Fever Tales, Little White Crosses
A new drama serial by Lavinia Greenlaw about one of the oldest of human diseases.
Malaria has blighted human life in parts of the world for as long as humans have been humans. The mosquito, the parasite it carries, and the human bloodstream are evolving together. In many places the parasite still has the upper hand. Little White Crosses: the fourth of five dramas based on facts and taking in ancient historical itches and ideas about the disease and the latest scientific attempts to understand and outwit it.
The disease caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes came to humans probably from gorillas a long time ago. Through recorded history the fever-prompting disease has shadowed humans almost everywhere warm enough for mosquitoes to live between the Poles. We have evolved together. It is still the biggest killer of children in parts of the world.
Made in collaboration with Wellcome Trust.
Medical/science adviser: Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute.
Music and sound design: Jon Nicholls
Narrator: Siobhan Redmond.
Other parts: Russell Boulter, Richard Bremmer, David Collins, Jasmine Hyde, John Mackay
Producer: Tim Dee.
THU 14:45 Book of the Week (b03859mj)
Lloyd Bradley - Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, Episode 4
The story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the '40s right up to the present day.
As roots reggae is increasingly acclaimed by the 1970s music press, many black British teenagers find themselves drawn to the poppier sounds of lovers' rock.
Read by Ben Onwukwe.
Written by Lloyd Bradley.
Abridged by Natalie Steed.
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.
THU 15:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvtm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
THU 16:00 The Personality Test (b00mvs9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
THU 16:30 Alison and Maud (b007k377)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
THU 17:00 North By Northamptonshire (b03nt1sw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
THU 17:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0bclvy3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 18:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn6v)
The April Witch/The Fog Horn
From Ray Bradbury's collection of sci-fi short-stories: a magical creature - and the story that led to Ray's 1953 film 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'.
Starring Ed Bishop, Paul Maxwell, Lindsey Coulson and Ferne Arfin.
Dramatised by Lawrence Gilbert.
Producer: Peter Hutchings
First broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991.
THU 18:30 Great Lives (b013q212)
Series 25, William Shakespeare
No less a figure than the national bard, William Shakespeare, is nominated for great life status by poetry curator and TV producer, Daisy Goodwin. Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre joins Matthew Parris to put flesh on the life that is remarkably light on known and verifiable facts. How and why did this son of an illiterate glovemaker from Stratford on Avon come to bestride the international stage, adopted not only as England's national poet, but even displacing Goethe and Schiller in Germany? Dromgoole argues that more than a sense of the man is conveyed in his 37 plays.
Producer: Mark Smalley.
THU 19:00 Yes Minister (b007jl89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
THU 19:30 The Goon Show (b007jtj9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
THU 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3d3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
THU 20:30 The Matter of the North (b07syyrh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
THU 21:00 Borderlands (b0076q3t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
THU 21:15 Afternoon Drama (b00pxqz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 today]
THU 22:00 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0bclvy3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
THU 22:30 The In Crowd (b0085jgt)
Series 1, Episode 2
Sketch show from Manchester's Comedy Store with Robin Ince, Helen Moon, Smug Roberts and Kate Ward. From August 2001.
THU 22:45 The Shuttleworths (b00smbj9)
Series 5, How's Your Nan
Having recently enjoyed some of Ken's takeaway pompadom (sic), John decides to go for his first curry, but he's reserving the right to order an omelette if the food is too hot and is wearing a leisure shirt for easy washing as curry sauce can stain.
John is created and performed by Graham Fellows, and the series is produced by Dawn Ellis.
THU 23:00 The Hudson and Pepperdine Show (b0076fd6)
Series 3, Time for a Break
Fancying a summer holiday, Mel and Vicki opt for a house swap with another double-act.
Starring Mel Hudson and Vicki Pepperdine with Martin Hyder, Dave Lamb and Jim North.
Written by Danny Robins and Dan Tetsell with the cast Script edited by Graeme Garden.
Music by Richie Webb.
Producer: Chris Neill
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2003.
THU 23:30 Late (b0076dgy)
From Tangoing to Keeping Watch
Tango dancers, DJs and a neighbourhood watch.
Bleak, funny, sultry, bitter, poignant - the first of a four-part series of brief visits to a city, late at night.
Stars Paul Merton, Richard Wilson, Liz Smith, Julian Clary, Meera Syal, Tilly Vosburgh and Holly Johnson.
Scripted by Mandy Wheeler, Joss Bennathan, Tilly Vosburgh, Rob Colley and Paul Merton.
Sound engineer Richard Brough provides a variety of tones and emissions reflecting late-night city life, from crying babies to midnight shoppers, cabbies to sex workers.
Music by Robert Katz.
Producer: Sarah Parkinson
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2001.
THU 23:45 Roger McGough's Other Half (b04wwgzm)
Episode 1
Roger McGough is joined by Helen Atkinson-Wood, Philip Jackson and Richie Webb in a hilarious and surreal new sketch show for BBC Radio 4. With sketches about Fandom, Fatherhood and 17th Century France, you'll hear his familiar voice in a whole new light. Expect merriment and melancholy in equal measures, and a whisker of witty wordplay too. Produced by Victoria Lloyd.

FRIDAY 10 AUGUST 2018

FRI 00:00 Ray Bradbury - Golden Apples of the Sun (b007jn6v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:00 on Thursday]
FRI 00:30 Great Lives (b013q212)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:30 on Thursday]
FRI 01:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3d3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 on Thursday]
FRI 01:30 The Matter of the North (b07syyrh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mx27q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017x3pj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:15 on Thursday]
FRI 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b03yqj37)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:30 on Thursday]
FRI 02:45 Book of the Week (b03859mj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 14:45 on Thursday]
FRI 03:00 Classic Serial (b03xtvtm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:00 The Personality Test (b00mvs9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Thursday]
FRI 04:30 Alison and Maud (b007k1w7)
Series 1, Fishing for Compliments
Is there something fishy about Bernard, apart from his VAT returns?
First of two series of Sue Limb's Bed and Breakfast sitcom about sisters Alison and Maud and their guests at the Abbeyfield Guest House in Norwich.
Starring Denise Coffey as Alison, Miriam Margolyes as Maud, Joss Ackland as Father, Chris Emmett as Mr Mullett, Geoffrey Whitehead as Bernard and Phyllida Nash as Marina.
Producer: Jonathan James-Moore
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2002.
FRI 05:00 North By Northamptonshire (b03nt1sw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 on Thursday]
FRI 05:30 Joe Lycett's Obsessions (b0bclvy3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 on Thursday]
FRI 06:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3hkh)
Series 1, Wilful Murder
Bunny is horrified when gentleman thief Raffles calmly declares he wants to try a different crime - by planning to commit a murder.
Starring Jeremy Clyde as AJ Raffles, Michael Cochrane as Bunny, Henry Stamper as Inspector MacKenzie, Ron Pember as Crawshay and John Church as Sergeant/Waiter.
EW Hornung's early Raffles stories dramatised by David Buck.
Signature tune composed by Jim Parker.
Directed by Gordon House
A BBC Radio 4/ BBC World Service production first broadcast in 1985.
FRI 06:30 The Matter of the North (b07tbkwz)
The 20th-Century North
Melvyn Bragg explores the great cultural movements that came from the North of England which rippled out to affect the world - music with the Beatles, social commentary with Coronation Street and the rise of some of Britain's greatest comedians. Melvyn Bragg examines the contribution of the north to British culture throughout the 20th century - and celebrates the way in which it refreshed and transformed the arts of this country. Also included are some of the earliest voices of northerners ever recorded - part of the Berliner Lautarchiv collection recorded by Wilhelm Doegen - held at Humboldt Universitat. The British Library also offers access to these recordings via its website.
Contributors
Maxine Peake
Dame Joan Bakewell
Lee Hall
Sir Michael Parkinson
Professor Dave Russell
Jimmy McGovern
Dame Judi Dench
David Hockney
Producer: Faith Lawrence.
FRI 07:00 Winston (b00pbv78)
Winston Back Home, So This Is What Happiness Is All About
The idyllic return of Winston and Nancy to Winterleaf Gunner proves to be short-lived...
Peter Tinniswood's bawdy comedy serial stars Bill Wallis as Winston, Maurice Denham as Father, Shirley Dixon as Nancy, Liz Goulding as Rosie and Christian Rodska as William.
Director: Shaun MacLoughlin.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 1994.
FRI 07:30 Believe It! (b08n2yhf)
Series 3, Legacy
The third series of writer Jon Canter's version of Richard Wilson's autobiography. Will you believe any of it?
After a recent brush with death, Richard considers the legacy he will leave behind. So he ponders the best way to bequeath something to the next generation.
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 08:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b0125g83)
Series 7, Episode 13
A look at love, sex and marriage - plus a tense climax in the hunt for the Professor Prune's Time Trousers.
Starring Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall and Bill Oddie.
Sketches written by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie
Originating from the Cambridge University Footlights revue 'Cambridge Circus', ISIRTA ran for 8 years on BBC Radio and quickly developed a cult following.
Music and songs by Bill Oddie, Liam Cohen and Dave Lee.
Producer: David Hatch/Peter Titheradge
First broadcast on the BBC Radio 2 in April 1969.
FRI 08:30 Listen to Les (b00d8yxw)
Les Dawson's topic is marriage and mothers-in-law, plus Wotan, Man of Steel camps it up.
With Daphne Oxenford, Eli Woods and Colin Edwynn.
Music by Brian Fitzgerald.
Scripted and produced by James Casey.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in March 1985.
FRI 09:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03srj01)
Series 12, Episode 6
David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.
Henning Wehn, Graeme Garden, Jeremy Hardy and Victoria Coren Mitchell are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as the British, beetles, the Clergy and novels.
The show is devised by Graeme Garden and Jon Naismith, the team behind Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Producer: Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 09:30 After Henry (b007s8gm)
Series 4, Family Album
"Look at this old dear - roses round her cottage door, a cosy smell of making cake wafting from her kitchen. I can imagine a lot of people buying that, putting it in a frame and claiming it as their own grandmother. Probably easier to cope with than the real thing".
Eleanor's family snaps spark arguments with daughter Sarah over the past...
Stars Prunella Scales as Sarah, Joan Sanderson as Eleanor, Benjamin Whitrow as Russell, Gerry Cowper as Clare and Jean Anderson as Auntie Lilian.
Written by Simon Brett
Producer: Pete Atkin
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1989.
FRI 10:00 Classic Serial (b03xtx55)
Dante Alighieri - The Divine Comedy, Paradiso
Blake Ritson, Hattie Morahan and John Hurt star in Stephen Wyatt's dramatisation of Dante's epic poem - the story of one man's extraordinary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
In Episode 3: Paradiso, Dante's spiritual journey comes to a glorious conclusion as he (Blake Ritson) is led by Beatrice (Hattie Morahan) through the spheres of Paradise and into the presence of God himself. As they ascend, they encounter a number of souls who have also achieved blessedness.
Many years later, the older Dante (John Hurt), still in enforced exile from his beloved Florence, reflects on the episodes from his life that have inspired his great poem.
All other parts are played by members of the company
The Divine Comedy is dramatised by Stephen Wyatt
Sound design is by Cal Knightley
Directed by Emma Harding and Marc Beeby.
FRI 11:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b0bdb7ym)
Emma Gannon: Nobody Panic and The Poetry Exchange
Made for 4 Extra. Emma Gannon joins Amanda Litherland to recommend favourite podcasts. Including Nobody Panic and The Poetry Exchange.
FRI 12:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b0125g83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 12:30 Listen to Les (b00d8yxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 13:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3hkh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 13:30 The Matter of the North (b07tbkwz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 14:00 Book at Bedtime (b01mx2wb)
Rose Tremain - Merivel: A Man of His Time, Episode 10
Rose Tremain returns triumphantly to one of her best loved characters, in the long awaited sequel to her Booker short-listed best-selling novel, Restoration, published in 1989.
Seventeen years after the events related in Restoration, Merivel, a man of wit, wisdom and not a little passion, is facing a crisis. Older and perhaps a little wiser, with his daughter on the brink of adulthood and his dearest friends ageing too, life on his Norfolk estate is no longer sufficiently satisfying. How to reinvigorate his life and find new purpose?
In today's episode: Sir Robert sets out for Switzerland, and has a lusty encounter on the road to what may prove true love and enlightenment.
The reader is the stage and screen actor Nicholas Woodeson.
The abridger was Sally Marmion and the producer was Di Speirs.
FRI 14:15 The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office (b017x4fv)
Freepost
In the early 1800s the post office operated an expensive and illogical payment system. This forced letter-writers into ever more imaginative ways of avoiding postage, from using private couriers, to hiding letters in barrels of butter, to sending coded newspapers. MPs were allowed to send letters for free, but as only a signature was required it created a system that was ripe for abuse.
As Royal Mail faces an uncertain future, Dominic Sandbrook charts the development of the post office and examines it's impact on literacy, free speech, commerce and communication.
Writer and Presenter: Dominic Sandbrook
Historical Consultant: Susan Whyman
Musicians: Sam Lee, Bella Hardy, Mick Sands, Nick Hart
Actors:Morgan George, John Sessions, Simon Tcherniak,
Malcolm Tierney, Jane Whittenshaw
Producer: Joby Waldman
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 14:30 15 Minute Drama (b03yqwhg)
Lavinia Greenlaw - Five Fever Tales, Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve
A new drama serial by Lavinia Greenlaw about one of the oldest of human diseases.
Malaria has blighted human life in parts of the world for as long as humans have been humans. The mosquito, the parasite it carries, and the human bloodstream are evolving together. In many places the parasite still has the upper hand. Emergency Prescriptions Kept up One's Sleeve: the last of five dramas based on facts and taking in ancient historical itches and ideas about the disease and the latest scientific attempts to understand and outwit it.
The disease caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes came to humans probably from gorillas a long time ago. Through recorded history the fever-prompting disease has shadowed humans almost everywhere warm enough for mosquitoes to live between the Poles. We have evolved together. It is still the biggest killer of children in parts of the world.
Made in collaboration with Wellcome Trust.
Medical/science adviser: Julian Rayner, Sanger Institute.
Music and sound design: Jon Nicholls
Narrator: Siobhan Redmond.
Other parts: Russell Boulter, Richard Bremmer, David Collins, Jasmine Hyde, John Mackay
Producer: Tim Dee.
FRI 14:45 Book of the Week (b0385knn)
Lloyd Bradley - Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital, Episode 5
The story of a city's transformation through its music, taking in the wave of Commonwealth immigration in the '40s right up to the present day.
In the final episode, jungle and garage pave the way for grime, a style which has crossed over into the mainstream.
FRI 15:00 Classic Serial (b03xtx55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 today]
FRI 16:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03srj01)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
FRI 16:30 After Henry (b007s8gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 today]
FRI 17:00 Winston (b00pbv78)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:00 today]
FRI 17:30 Believe It! (b08n2yhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 18:00 Philip Levene - Cold Storage (b007jxmr)
Cold stores are intended only for perishable goods - so the doors don't always have handles on the inside - as one accident-prone frozen food manufacturer finds out...
Philip Levene's drama stars Nigel Graham as Robert Craig, Bonnie Hurren as Lucy Craig and John Forrest as Alan Scott.
Producer: Margaret Etal
First broadcast in Thirty-Minute Theatre on BBC Radio 4 in 1973.
FRI 18:30 Mastertapes (b03h35tp)
Series 3, Robbie Williams (B-Side)
John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.
Programme 1, the B-side. Having discussed the making of "Life Thru A Lens", the album he released after leaving boy-band Take That (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 11th November and available online), Robbie Williams candidly responds to questions from the audience and performs live versions of some to the tracks from that debut solo album, as well as his new release, "Swings Both Ways"
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
FRI 19:00 I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (b0125g83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
FRI 19:30 Listen to Les (b00d8yxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:30 today]
FRI 20:00 EW Hornung - Raffles (b01p3hkh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
FRI 20:30 The Matter of the North (b07tbkwz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:30 today]
FRI 21:00 Podcast Radio Hour (b0bdb7ym)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 today]
FRI 22:00 Believe It! (b08n2yhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
FRI 22:30 Funny From the Fringe (b0bdbp0w)
Award-winning comedian, Jayde Adams takes us on a journey to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A Fringe veteran, she gets amongst it, taking us from the big glitzy theatres to the sweaty underground venues where the best shows you've never heard of perform.
This is the full Edinburgh Festival Fringe experience, but in your ears.
A BBC Studios Production.
FRI 22:55 The Comedy Club Interviews (b0bg64bm)
Jacob Hawley. 1/2
From 10pm - midnight, 7 days a week, the Comedy Club has two hours of comedy. Plus Arthur Smith chats to Jacob Hawley. Episode 1 of 2.
FRI 23:00 Rubbish (b00770g2)
Series 1, Diversity
Diversity: Local government officer Martin Christmas wants inner peace, but is feeling held back. Stars Reece Dinsdale. From October 2006.
FRI 23:30 Chain Reaction (b00mwrhk)
Series 5, Alastair Campbell interviews Alistair McGowan
Chat show in which the one week's interviewee becomes the following week's interviewer.
Alastair Campbell interviews impressionist, comedian and actor Alistair McGowan.