SATURDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2018

SAT 00:00 15 Minute Drama (b00r4rdt)
Hilary Mantel - Beyond Black
Alison's Retribution
Dramatisation by Caroline Harrington of Hilary Mantel's blackly comic novel about a professional medium with a troubled past.
Alison knows that in order to banish the demons of her past she must face them and confront the painful truth about what happened in her childhood. With the help of Mrs McGibbet, yet another spirit from her past, Alison learns the worst. Meanwhile, Colette goes back home to Gavin, and the two of them try to remember why they split up in the first place. Alison's appalling spirit guide Morris realises she's lost to him forever now that she has not only faced down her demons but has committed a good deed and will go on to commit more. Alison is at last free to set off into a brighter future with a replacement spirit guide, the sweet and devoted Maureen.
Alison ...... Alison Steadman
Colette ...... Rosie Cavaliero
Morris ...... Bill Wallis
Emmie ...... Katharine Rogers
Aitkenside ...... Simon Armstrong
Gavin ...... Mark Meadows
Mrs McGibbet/Maureen ...... Sheila Hannon
Directed by Sara Davies.
SAT 00:15 Jonathan Aycliffe - The Matrix (b01ns0y8)
The Ceremony
"Andrew, I do not think you will ever know peace again until you know the ..."
Can student Andrew MacLeod escape the evil that stretches from North Africa to Scotland?
The gripping conclusion of Jonathan Aycliffe's chilling novel abridged in ten parts by Rosemary Goring.
Read by Robert Paterson
Producer: David Jackson Young
First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in 1997.
SAT 00:30 Mastertapes (b03j9np4)
Series 3
Soul II Soul (A-Side)
John Wilson talks to Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul about their 1989 album 'Club Classics Vol 1' including the global hit Back to Life. Including exclusive performance by the whole band.
Soul II Soul is one of the most successful British black groups of all time. Their ethos of 'a happy face, a thumping bass for a loving race' and the sound of their debut album, released in 1989, defined a time and place in the UK's musical history. Featuring the huge hits 'Back To Life' and 'Keep On Moving' the album took London's multicultural underground club culture into the mainstream and achieved worldwide success. 'Club Classics' mixed the sounds of a burgeoning DJ scene with Jazzie B's distinctly British take on rap and the colossal vocal talents of Caron Wheeler.
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.
Mastertapes is new programme in which John Wilson 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.
The B-side of this programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard tomorrow at 3.30pm.
SAT 01:00 BBC National Short Story Award (b0952qq3)
BBC National Short Story Award 2017
The Edge of the Shoal
The winning story from BBC National Short Story Award 2017.
Cynan Jones's story of survival on the seas is read by Jamie Parker.
Cynan Jones is the author of five novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, The Dig, Bird, Blood, Snow and Cove. His work is widely translated, and short stories have appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in a number of anthologies and publications including Granta Magazine and The New Yorker. He also scripted an episode of the television crime drama Hinterland. He has won a Betty Trask Award, the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize, and a Jerwood Fiction Prize, and a chapter of The Dig was shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award in 2013. His novel Cove was longlisted for the Europese Literatuurprijs (in the Netherlands).
The five stories in the BBC National Short Story Award 2017 reflect an energy and excitement about short fiction from a generation of the UK's most dynamic, contemporary writers.
Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Simon Richardson.
SAT 01:30 The Big Noise (b00sqkgj)
A music project in Scotland is aiming to improve life for the kids of Stirling.
The Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra under conductor Gustavo Dudamel stole the show at both the Proms and the Edinburgh Festival, offering real proof of the talent and virtuosity that has emerged from the El Sistema programme in Venezuela.
Can Scotland's version of El Sistema - dubbed The Big Noise - achieve as much in the deprived area of The Raploch near Stirling? Lesley Riddoch finds out.
In June 2008, Sistema Scotland, the brainchild of former bishop and current chair of Creative Scotland Richard Holloway, got underway in the Raploch. Its aim - to inspire and galvanise the education and motivation of children from all backgrounds through involvement in orchestral musicianship. Ability is irrelevant. Anyone can join.
It's a project that's not lacked critics. Some argue it takes attention and money away from existing outreach projects. Others resent the insistence on classical music. Richard Holloway is convinced it will boost confidence, pride and empathy, and thereby articulacy and educational ability, both in children and in the wider community.
Two years on, the Big Noise's first full orchestra is launched and Lesley Riddoch takes stock to analyse what the Venezuelan initiative can do in a UK context.
Producers: Amanda Hargreaves and Bronwen Tulloch.
SAT 02:00 Book at Bedtime (b045c66n)
Jo Baker - Longbourn
Episode 10
Sarah still has had no word from James, but the Bennet daughters have good news. Pride & Prejudice from the servants' perspective, read by Sophie Thompson.
SAT 02:15 The Making of Music (b007njhw)
Series 1
The Birth of Opera
James Naughtie discovers how history has shaped the development of classical music. Opera was invented by a group of Italian intellectuals called the Camerata in Florence around 1600. They stumbled across something extraordinary - why not tell a story in music? It took off and soon theatres were springing up all over Italy - forty in Venice alone.
Reader Benedict Cumberbatch
Produced by Rosie Boulton, Sara Conkey and Lucy Lunt.
BBC Birmingham.
SAT 02:30 15 Minute Drama (b04bryc0)
Queens of Noise: Get It On
Episode 5
by Roy Boulter. The debut single's out. The band love it, the record company loves it and Janice Long "loves it to bits". Will the nation agree?
Music Directors ..... Brian Rawling and Marky Bates
Directed by Toby Swift.
SAT 02:45 Book of the Week (b03bg4v9)
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
Episode 5
Jung Chang's biography of this remarkable 19th century stateswoman continues. Cixi faces her greatest challenge as ruler when anti-Western feeling in rural China leads to violence.
Read by Pik-Sen Lim
Abridged by Sara Davies
Produced by Gemma Jenkins.
SAT 03:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b0b666cj)
2-6 July 1918
The third omnibus of Season 14, Needs Must When the Devil Drives, set in Devon, in the week, in 1918, when the Allied countries launched an intervention into the Russian Civil War.
Cast
Klaus Hofstadter ..... Atilla Akinci
Primrose Holden ..... Jade Matthew
Morris Battley ..... Sean Baker
Sylvia Graham ..... Joanna David
Rose Fairweather ..... Helen Longworth
Daniel Marriott ..... Jonathan Bailey
Gabriel Graham ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Amos Rutter ..... Richard Cotton
Moses Wickens ..... Ed Gaughan
Ludwig Huber ..... Marcel Hagen
Arthur Hurst ..... Mark Heap
Jocelyn Ogden ..... Christine Kavanagh
Isaac Cox ..... James Lailey
Victor Lumley ..... Joel MacCormack
Kitty Lumley ..... Ami Metcalf
Hardy Walsh ..... Damien Molony
Cora Gidley ..... Joanna Monro
Lionel Summer ..... Geoffrey Palmer
Hector Gidley ..... Brian Protheroe
Eli Lawrence ..... Michael Shelford
Dieter Lippke ..... Joe Sims
Effie Taverner ..... Lizzie Stables
Gert Battley ..... Maggie Steed
Ivan Jackson ..... Lloyd Thomas
Elspeth Taverner ..... Kelly Williams
Charles Summer ..... Rufus Wright
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
SAT 04:00 Jest a Minute (b017ptbk)
Series 2
Episode 5
Rhod Gilbert's comedy quiz from the Glee Club in Cardiff.
With Greg Davies, Eggsy, Lloyd Langford and Chris Corcoran.
Producers: Paul Forde and Gareth Gwynn.
First broadcast on BBC Radio Wales in 2009.
SAT 04:30 Elephants to Catch Eels (b007qcsv)
Series 1
Episode 3
Tamsyn and Jago's smuggling exploits are to be chronicled at close quarters by a group of fly-on-the-wall balladeers.
They get some exciting material as Jago's up before an unusually hard-line judge - and it seems there's no escape from the noose...
18th century Cornish village sitcom by the writers of Dead Ringers - Tom Jamieson and Nev Fountain.
Starring Lucy Speed as Tamsyn Trelawny, John Bowe as Jago Trelawny, Cameron Stewart as Major Thomas Falconer, Andrew McGibbon as Captain Marriot, Martin Hyder as Squire Bascombe, Mark Felgate as Dewey, Mark Perry as Judge Pettiforth and Michael Fenton Stevens as Anthony the Balladeer.
Producer: Jan Ravens.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003.
SAT 05:00 Winston (b00q9280)
Winston Back Home
After All This Time, a Happy Ending
Old rogue Winston is set to wed Nancy at last, but exactly how will they tie the knot?
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 May 1994.
SAT 05:30 Michael Frayn's Matchbox Theatre (b06r8cjk)
Episode 3
Michael Frayn: the most comic philosophical writer of our time. An all-star cast has great fun with his hilarious view of us all. People talking. To each other, to themselves. To no one. Trying to communicate. To explain.
In Episode 3, a controlling theatre director (Alex Jennings) thinks he can direct anything. Lloyd Owen and Rosalind Ayres talk to each other on their mobiles, yards apart. Patricia Hodge and Roger Allam can't agree on how to deal with household repairs. And Matthew Wolf decides to take a short break from this very programme. Ian Ogilvy, Julia McKenzie, Julian Sands and Sophie Winkleman attend an unusual Memorial, and Janie Dee and Richard Sisson enjoy a musical invitation list. Martin Jarvis lectures on being 'quite clear'.
So no worries about queuing up to get a drink in the interval or finding the loo. We're on the radio - the theatre of the listener's imagination. Sit back and enjoy.
Episode 3 cast: Alex Jennings, Patricia Hodge, Roger Allam, Rosalind Ayres, Mathew Wolf, Ian Ogilvy, Julia McKenzie, Sophie Winkleman, Julian Sands, Janie Dee, Richard Sisson, Martin Jarvis
Written by Michael Frayn
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
Director: Martin Jarvis
A Jarvis and Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 06:00 Rose Tremain (b0bk10sh)
Temporary Shelter
Salesman Larry is feeling burnt out, so he and wife Marje try to relax on their first holiday in seven years at a camp site in the South of France.
Appearing to be full of jovial bonhomie, Larry reveals a very different side to his nature when Trist suddenly pitches his tent next door and starts to question him...
Rose Tremain's drama stars Roy Kinnear as Larry, Fiona Walker as Marje, Anthony Newlands as Trist, Yves Aubert as Jean-Louis and Grazyna Monvid as Annette.
Directed at BBC Manchester by Kay Patrick.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1984.
SAT 07:15 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b072n5xh)
Jinnah: The Chess Player
Professor Sunil Khilnani, from the King's India Institute in London, looks at the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Descriptions of his early life do not sound like someone who would go on to lead India's Muslims: he spoke English, dressed impeccably in Western clothes from Savile Row, smoked cigarettes and, according to some accounts, consumed alcohol and ate pork. Yet it was Jinnah who, along with others, publicly assented to the partition of India which, carried out in haste, would give roughly half of India's Muslims political autonomy, cause around a million deaths, displace some 14 million people and transform the geopolitics of the world.
Producer: Mark Savage
Music: Talvin Singh.
SAT 07:30 Touchline Tales (b01p0vfd)
Series 3
Episode 1
Old friends Des Lynam and Christopher Matthew return with a third series of the programme in which they head to sporting venues, in order to enjoy, observe, reminisce and trade tales about some of the greatest pleasures in their lives. This time round, they muse and mutter during a training session at a boxing gym and they reminisce and recount their own experiences of Real Tennis during the British Open. But they begin the series amongst the youthful of a school rugby match at Rugby School.
As a commentator and friend of sporting stars, Des has a fund of stories to tell, and insights to reveal, about the men and women in professional sport - their lives, their characters, their training regimes, their triumphs and their disasters. But Christopher more than matches him with his own experiences as a lifelong spectator at the highest levels of sport (and, like Des, an occasional participant at the lowest), as well as with his observations on sporting events he finds himself attending for the first time.
Indeed, amusing, informative and entertaining talk between old friends is what these programmes are all about.
Recorded entirely on location, their extended discourses have been edited down to a seamless half hour - with each programme capturing the atmosphere, the passion, the frustration, the humour and, at times, the sheer quaintness, of entertainments regularly enjoyed by millions of people up and down the land.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
SAT 08:00 Archive on 4 (b03ddnfm)
Not Enough Hours in the Day
In this Archive on Four Claudia Hammond traces the history of the time use survey.She explores how social change has transformed the way people use their time, with more women working outside the home and the rise of supposedly labour-saving devices. These days men have an average of 5 hours and 48 minutes spare and women have 5 hours and 23 minutes, far more time than most people realise. Going back to the BBC archives and others such as those at Sussex University Claudia compares now with the past.
Eighty years ago the BBC conducted Britain's first ever survey of time use. Its aim was to discover whether anyone would have time to take up a brand new leisure activity - watching TV. In fact last year's time use survey in the US tells us that if people gain any unexpected spare time they spend it watching TV.
But we are unreliable chroniclers of our time: even in the last fortnight we remember only between nine and fifteen things we have done.
The programme will trace the history of the time-use surveys and why they are much harder to conduct than you might think. People hate filling them in. Lawyers have to account for every six minutes of their time in order to charge the right clients, so they're experts on time use, but they detest doing it because it reminds them how fast time goes.
Using the BBC written archives and first-hand accounts of time-use from the Mass Observation Archive at Sussex University Claudia follows the changes in the way time-use has been measured.
We'll also learn hear the idiosyncratic stories of the individuals who recorded their own time use. The Reverend Robert Shields has written what is thought to be the longest diary in the world. It's 30 times longer than Pepys' diary and it fills 91 cardboard boxes. Using six typewriters he noted down everything he did, describing everything from his dreams to his urination. He died in 2007 and won't allow most of it to be read until 2057, but a few pages are available. Then there's Gordon Bell who works for Microsoft and is chronicling every 20 seconds of his life with a photograph and employs people to scan every page he reads from books, so that there's a complete digital record of his life.
SAT 09:00 Writing Yorkshire (b007jy0t)
Poet, Radio presenter, and Yorkshireman Ian McMillan has been on a literary tour around God's Own Country to visit the streets, towns, cities and moors that have inspired so much classic writing. From Ian's own home town of Barnsley and his own literary hero Barry Hines, to the Moors of Haworth that will forever belong to The Brontës, we're exploring a county bursting at the seams with writers and writing.
Ian chats to Blake Morrison, author of 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' about the idiosyncratic way that Yorkshiremen speak, and visits the offices of Peepal Tree Press to hear from poet Khadijah Ibrahiim, who writes about her Jamaican Yorkshire identity.
Along the way Ian brings us the following programmes from the BBC Archives
A Kestrel for A Knave
Episode 1 of the 2008 Book at Bedtime adaptation of Barry Hines novel read by James Anthony Pearson.
Still Angry After All These Years
Documentary following Barry Hines as he returns to the streets of Barnsley
The Shuttleworths - Mini Break in Giggleswick
Wuthering Heights
Episode 4 from the 2018 adaptation by Rachel Joyce of Emily Bronte's novel
Writers on Themselves - Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes' essay 'The Rock', first heard on the Third Programme in 1963
Billy Liar
The final episode of the 1991 adaptation
A Chip in the Sugar
Alan Bennett reads his classic monologue
Presenter: Ian McMillan
Producer: Jessica Treen.
SAT 12:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b03zy1cd)
Series 13
Episode 1
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.
Alex Horne, Lucy Beaumont, John Finnemore and Jack Dee are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as birds, witches, pubs and shoes.
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 production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:30 Second Thoughts (b007jx4k)
Series 2
Overtaken By Events
Hannah's driving her mother round the bend, while son Joe is discovering girls.
Sitcom about the battles of divorcees Bill MacGregor and Faith Greyshott trying to forge a relationship whilst balancing the demands of his ex-wife, Liza and her teenage children, Hannah and Joe.
Stars Lynda Bellingham as Faith, James Bolam as Bill, Celia Imrie as Hilary, Kelda Holmes as Hannah, Mark Denham as Joe.
Series two of four inspired by the real lives of its writers, husband and wife Jan Etherington and Gavin Petrie.
A TV version made by LWT for ITV appeared in 1991 and ran for four series, with a spin-off 'Faith in the Future'.
Producer: Sioned Wiliam
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1989.
SAT 13:00 AL Kennedy - Subterranean Homesick Blues (b0bk12c7)
Series 3 Omnibus
Their tempestuous relationship means they couldn't manage a week's holiday together, so how is John going to persuade Maggie that they have a future?
AL Kennedy's continuing comic drama starring Bill Nighy and Anna Calder-Marshall as John and Maggie attempting to give love one more chance.
Director: Sally Avens
First broadcast in five parts on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018.
SAT 14:10 Inheritance Tracks (b0bk12c9)
Robert Winston
Professor Robert Winston chooses the second movement from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
SAT 14:15 Down Your Way (b0bk12cc)
Heather Couper in the East Midlands
Astronomer Heather Couper explores the unknown delights of East Leicestershire and north Northamptonshire.
Heather checks her watch by the stars and steps back in time to 1066.
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: Jill Marshall
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1989.
SAT 15:00 Archive on 4 (b03ddnfm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:00 today]
SAT 16:00 Rose Tremain (b0bk10sh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:00 today]
SAT 17:15 Incarnations: India in 50 Lives (b072n5xh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:15 today]
SAT 17:30 Touchline Tales (b01p0vfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:30 today]
SAT 18:00 Doctor Who (b06dk5t0)
Heroes of Sontar
Episode 1
The Time Lord takes Tegan to the planet Samur to recuperate. However, it's not the haven it once was.
Peter Davison is the Fifth Doctor with his companion Tegan Jovanka played by Janet Fielding.
Planet Samur was once a peaceful haven. Pilgrims journeyed across the seven galaxies to meditate in the courtyards of the vast Citadel that spanned its equator. It was Samur's misfortune, however, to find itself situated on the furthermost frontier in the eternal war between the amoeboid Rutan Host and the belligerent, troll-like Sontarans...
Twenty years after detonating a bacteriological weapon over Samur, rendering it uninhabitable, the Sontarans are back: a select platoon of seven has landed here on a secret mission, carrying sealed orders given to them by Fleet Marshal Stabb.
The TARDIS has landed here, too, bringing the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa into the second great Battle of Samur. Fighting not only the Sontarans, but mystical mercenaries... and a deadly, decades-old curse.
Written by Alan Barnes and directed by Ken Bentley.
A Big Finish production.
SAT 19:00 Writing Yorkshire (b007jy0t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]
SAT 22:00 The Lee Mack Show (b00c075z)
The Lee Mack Show
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson joins the quick-fire comic for stand-up, sketches and music. With Angela McHale and Steve Brown. From March 2005.
SAT 22:30 The Richest Man in Britain (b00nw3wq)
The Kidnap
Sitcom by Nick Hornby and Giles Smith about an ageing rock star and his search for fulfilment.
Trillionnaire rocker Dave Mabbutt finds the perfect excuse to get rid of shed-loads of cash when his mum is taken hostage.
Dave Mabbutt ...... Mark Williams
Dom ...... Russell Tovey
Mr Green the Banker ......Geoff McGivern
Dimitri the Kidnapper ...... Phil Cornwell
Sophie/Waiter ...... Matt Addis.
SAT 23:00 Simon Evans Goes to Market (b0639xp0)
Series 2
Sugar
Comedian Simon Evans' new series about the economics of some of the goods - or bads - to which we're addicted.
If you crave your daily coffee, can't get by without a cigarette, feel that mid-afternoon slump without your sugar-fix, or can't face an evening without a glass of wine, you are definitely not alone. But have you ever thought about the economics that has made your addiction possible? Who does it profit? And would you want to make some canny investments that take advantage of our human weaknesses?
In this series, Simon Evans looks at the economics, history and health issues behind these oh-so-addictive commodities.
This week it's sugar. Some people say sugar could be the new tobacco - exposed as a health risk that's been knowingly concealed for decades. And the trouble is sugar is in almost everything now - even things that 'look' savoury. What part does economics have to play in how we have got to this point? How do we make sense of what the food industry is doing with sugar? And if we want to invest in this addiction, how do we do it?
With the help of economics guru, More Or Less host Tim Harford and the Queen of investment know-how, Merryn Somerset Webb, plus author David Gillespie, Simon walks us around the economics of this very familiar commodity and pokes fun at our relationship with it.
Presented by Simon Evans, with regular guests Tim Harford and Merryn Somerset Webb.
Written by Simon Evans, Benjamin Partridge and Andy Wolton.
Produced by Claire Jones.
SAT 23:30 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b00xhzjc)
Series 3
Episode 3
Comedian-activist, Mark Thomas, considers the blue-sky political policy suggestions of the public.
This week's agenda:
1) Nationalise British Music Festivals
2) Abolish Stamp Duty
3) Reduce Voting Age to 16
Plus more weird and wonderful suggestions from the studio audience, submitted as "Any Other Business".