SATURDAY 08 MAY 2010
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b00s7gbr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b00s5h0v)
Blood Knots
Episode 5
Author Luke Jennings writes about a lifetime of fantastic fishing and fishing mentors.
Luke takes us back again to dark, brackish waters for that freshwater monter - the pike. Very big pike, in fact.
Reader: Nigel Hastings
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Producer: Duncan Minshull.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s7gbt)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s7gbw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s7gby)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b00s7gh0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s7gh2)
Presented by The Revd Clair Jaquiss.
SAT 05:45 A View Through a Lens (b00ghrfd)
Series 1
Seals
Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.
1/3 GREY SEALS: Despite a raging storm John struggles across the rocky shore of Brownsman Island off the coast of Northumberland to film grey seals giving birth at night.
Wildlife sound recordist is Chris Watson
Producer Sarah Blunt.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b00s7gh4)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SAT 06:04 Weather (b00s7qs6)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (b00s7qs8)
Bluebird's Return to Coniston Water
Matt Baker is in Coniston to find out about the planned return to the water of Donald Campbell's iconic boat, Bluebird, and what this will mean to the village which has protected it since it crashed in 1967.
When Donald Campbell died on Coniston Water in January 1967 attempting to break his own water speed record, it was to many people the end of an era. They would always remember where they were when the iconic images of Bluebird crashing and disintegrating on the lake appeared on TV screens and the story broke across the world. On 8 March 2001, after 34 years underwater, Donald Campbell's ill-fated craft, Bluebird, was raised from the deep by wreck finder and engineer, Bill Smith, and later that year on 28 May Donald Campbell's remains were recovered. In September 2001, he was finally laid to rest in the churchyard in Coniston. Now his daughter Gina, who shares her father's addiction to speed, wants Bluebird restored to her 'beautiful, magnificent self', in the hope of inspiring the next generation of racers, engineers and adventurers. She joins Matt in Coniston to explain why and how it is of the utmost importance that both her father and Bluebird remain in Coniston, a community which took Donald Campbell in and made him him one of its own.
Bill Smith, the man responsible for raising Bluebird from Coniston Water, takes Matt to the spot from which he dived to the bottom of the lake and discovered the wreck when he was grabbed on the foot by Bluebird's tail fin. He describes the moment when he also discovered Campbell's body after Gina Campbell had asked him to look for her father. Anthony 'Robbie' Robinson has lived in Coniston all his life and was a member of Donald Campbell's team on that fateful day in 1967. Standing on the jetty at Pier Cottage, from where Campbell left on that fateful morning, he tells Matt how it felt to watch Bluebird flip over and disappear into the lake.
At Donald Campbell's graveside, Matt meets Steve Hogarth, vocalist with Marillion whose lyrics inspired Bill Smith to first dive for Bluebird back in 1996. Although only 8 years old at the time, the memory of his mother crying when the boat crashed never left Steve and found its way into song years later, a song which he was invited to sing at Donald's funeral....'Three hundred miles an hour on water, in your purpose built machine'. How does it feel to know that without his music, Bluebird could still be at the bottom of the lake?
Gina Campbell has now given Bluebird to the Ruskin Museum and, more importantly, to the village and people of Coniston who protected her father and the crash site for so long. Matt hears from both Gina and Bill Smith about the army of volunteers who are carrying out a labour of love on Bluebird ahead of a planned return to the waters of Coniston, hopefully in 2011 and from the curator of the museum, Vicky Slowe about what this means to the museum and the local community. Who will take the seat in that famous cockpit? What will this mean for the community of this quiet Cumbrian village which has become synonymous with the names Campbell and Bluebird? Where behind the Black Bull Inn & Hotel the Coniston Brewing Company turns out Bluebird Bitter and where walkers and visitors can enjoy the views over the lake from the Bluebird Cafe. And how will it feel to stand on the shores of Coniston Water and watch Bluebird fly again?
Producer: Helen Chetwynd.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b00s7qsb)
Farming Today This Week
Charlotte Smith meets farmers rushing to get crops into the ground now the weather is warming up and harvest the crops that are already for the market. Wiltshire farmers "Bromham Growers" are both planting and harvesting seasonal vegetables in what is the busiest times of the year in agriculture.
SAT 06:57 Weather (b00s7qsd)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (b00s7qsg)
Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b00s7qsj)
The Reverend Richard Coles is joined by MP turned diversity campaigner Oona King, poet Matt Harvey, a couple who met and married within 4 weeks, and a man who witnessed the world's first supertanker oil spill, that of the Torrey Canyon off the coast of Cornwall in 1967. Newsman Bill Turnbull talks bees and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen shares his Inheritance Tracks.
SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b00s7qsl)
John McCarthy asks travel writer Michael Jacobs about the journey he made down the Andes from Venezuela to Patagonia. Michael reveals how a bus trip can turn into a test of nerves and what happened when he went to visit the last speaker of a native language in Patagonia.
John also talks to Roz Strickland who worked as a volunteer in an orphanage in Rwanda and thinks that the country is unfairly characterised as simply about gorillas and genocide. She thinks there is a lot more to it than that - not least the friendliness of the people once viciously divided. It could be the basis of attracting the visitors Rwanda crucially needs.
SAT 10:30 Big in Bangalore, Big in Beijing (b00n6v4f)
Episode 1
With the collapse of The Iron Curtain in the 1980s, a new frontier was open for Western Music acts to exploit.
For years, fans in Eastern Europe had been starved of live performances by Western bands and singers due to the difficulties involved in trying to perform in countries cut off by ideology and politics. So where is the new frontier now? Perhaps bands should look east? With the rise of India and China as economic powerhouses, complete with growing middle classes, are these now the new territories for bands and artists to target as they seek new audiences and revenue streams?
Rajan Datar follows legendary British band Iron Maiden as they head to Bangalore for a sold out festival appearance. With exclusive access Rajan hangs out backstage with singer Bruce Dickinson, who not only fronts the band, but is also the pilot of the specially-converted plane which they use to travel the world whilst on tour.
Rajan speaks to the promoters who are trying to make India the new destination of choice for Western music artists and hears from fans who have travelled for days from all parts of the sub continent to be at the concert. He also discovers, with surprising results, which musical genres sell in India and which don't.
Producer: Tim Mansel.
A Bite Yer Legs production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.
SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b00sbgpp)
Peter Riddell of The Times examines the outcome of the general election with a panel of top political commentators.
He talks to Steve Richards of The Independent, Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, Peter Oborne of the Daily Mail and Benedict Brogan of The Daily Telegraph.
How do they assess the new political world following the election of Westminster's first hung parliament since 1974 ?
Producer: Peter Mulligan.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b00s7qyn)
Disturbing reports from inside an American jail in Afghanistan.
A glimpse of Baghdad's past, and gentler, happier times in Iraq.
History repeats itself in Albania as hunger strikers take to the streets.
How cultural differences continue to divide Hong Kong from the rest of China
and secrets from India's summer of love
When President Obama came to power, his first act was to order the closure of the notorious prison at Guantanamo Bay. And the jail in Cuba is being gradually wound down. But there's increasing focus now on the controversial US detention facilities at the Bagram airbase, in Afghanistan. Hundreds of suspected Taliban or Al Qaeda militants are held there, and the Americans have built a new prison to house them. Very few outsiders have had access to the jail. But after pressing for it for a year, Hilary Anderson has at last been given permission to get in and look around..
Hilary Anderson there..and you can hear more about what she saw at Bagram in "Crossing Continents", here on the World Service from Thursday.
"We are the innocent victims of vicious politics." The words there of a witness to yet another bomb attack recently in Baghdad. He said he'd just counted twenty-five bodies. The bombers struck several times that day, and altogether nearly sixty people were killed. Iraq's long drawn out agony is far from over. But Gabriel Gatehouse says that despite all the nagging fear and uncertainty, there is at least one corner of the city where it's still possible to relax, and remember much better days..
For several months now, there's been rising tension in Albania. The opposition Socialists refuse to accept last year's election result. They've been mounting regular demonstrations, and they've boycotted parliament -- paralysing political life. None of this is good for a former-Communist country that hopes to establish its democratic credentials, and be embraced by the European Union.. In the streets of the capital, Tirana, Mark Lowen has been watching the crisis escalate..
Back on July the first, 1997, British rule in Hong Kong finally ended. On the stroke of midnight the Union Jack was lowered. Fireworks lit a stormy sky, and the territory was formally handed over to China. But now..thirteen years on.to what extent has Hong Kong really been absorbed into the motherland.? And how much of its old, distinctive spirit has endured.? Michael Bristow has been walking the dividing line between what remain two very different societies..
And it's high summer in India. Veteran correspondent Mark Tully's often asked how he copes with the heat of an Indian summer. His answer's perhaps not entirely what you were expecting ...
SAT 12:00 Money Box (b00s7vr5)
Paul Lewis brings you the latest news from the world of personal finance.
The voters have done their bit. So what will a hung parliament mean for our personal finances?
Greek gloom: will the market turmoil spread to other countries?
Plus: How to get a record. A DIY guide to building a credit record after years abroad.
And you and your bank - just who decides when things need to change?
Producer: Lesley McAlpine.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b00s7fb0)
Series 71
Episode 4
Sandi Toksvig presents another episode of the ever-popular topical panel show. Guests this week are Jack Dee, Jeremy Hardy, Francis Wheen, and Sue Perkins.
Produced by Sam Bryant.
SAT 12:57 Weather (b00s7vr7)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 13:00 News (b00s7vr9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b00s7fb2)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from Cokethorpe School in Witney, Oxfordshire. Panellists include the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, Michael Portillo, former Conservative cabinet minister; Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Shirley Williams and associate editor of The Times Daniel Finkelstein.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b00s7vrc)
Jonathan Dimbleby takes listeners' calls and emails in response to this week's edition of Any Questions?
SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b00s7vrf)
An English Tragedy
Based on actual events at the end of World War Two, this play by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood stars Derek Jacobi.
May 1945: victory in Europe, and a Labour landslide. English traitor John Amery is arrested in Italy and brought back to London for trial. If convicted, he faces the death penalty. But his father is a senior politician; surely the Establishment will look after its own...
The play charts the weeks leading up to the execution, following John's arrest in Italy and trial in London. Like a real-life Sebastian Flyte, he clutches his teddy bear, lies, boasts and jokes as the day of execution draws inexorably nearer. Meanwhile his distraught parents try everything in their power to save him.
John Amery was the Harrow educated son of Churchill's Secretary of State for India, Leo Amery. His brother Julian was later to become a prominent Conservative MP. A troubled man, who had been expelled from Public School and bankrupted as a young entrepreneur, John became a passionate fascist. He broadcast pro-Nazi propaganda during World War 2 and ran a programme recruiting British POWs to fight for Germany on the Eastern Front. Unlike his brother Julian, John was a wild boy - bisexual, hedonistic and unstable. Why?
Ronald Harwood's work as a screen writer includes The Pianist, which won him an Oscar for Best Screenplay and his films The Dresser and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly also won Oscar nominations.
John Amery ..... Geoffrey Streatfield
Leopold Amery ..... Derek Jacobi
Bryddie Amery ..... Isla Blair
Warder/ Sergant ..... Christopher Knott
The Major / Judge ..... Pip Donaghy
Dr Rosemary Pimlott ..... Melanie Jessop
Written by Ronald Harwood
Adapted for Radio by Bert Coules
Directed by Philip Franks
The producer is Frank Stirling, and this is a Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 15:30 The Music Group (b00s7vrh)
Series 4
Episode 4
Actor David Morrissey joins columnist Suzanne Moore and money man Vincent Duggleby - who they discover plays banjo, double bass and sousaphone - to explain why they've brought a misanthropic solo record, a risque Seventies pop song and a hitherto unheard BBC recording to this week's show.
Whilst giving a trad jazz masterclass, Vincent explains what track he has in common with Robert Peston. Suzanne admits to being scared at a Beatles concert and David reveals that he once interviewed Kenny Ball. However, his musical knowledge and exquisite taste suggest he'd be just as at home as a DJ on the radio as he is acting and directing his own films.
With Phil Hammond.
The music choices are:
Street In the City by Pete Townshend
Froggie Moore Rag by Mike Daniels and his Delta Jazzmen
Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed
Producer: Tamsin Hughes
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b00s7vrk)
Weekend Woman's Hour
Presented by Jane Garvey.
Two newly elected MPs discuss hopes and ambitions for their political careers at Westminster.
With rising numbers of people marrying and divorcing before they're thirty, we look at the rise of the so called 'starter marriage.'.
SAT 17:00 PM (b00s7vrm)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Carolyn Quinn, plus the sports headlines.
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00s7vrr)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (b00s7vrt)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s7vrw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:30 Loose Ends (b00s7vry)
Clive Anderson returns for a slightly shorter but no less entertaining edition of Loose Ends with the usual eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.
Clive is joined by Dragons' Den's Theo Paphitis, whose latest series, Theo's Adventure Capitalists, sees him following the fortunes of British business entrepreneurs in the emerging economies of India, Vietnam and Brazil.
Nigel Lindsay talks about his role in Chris Morris's controversial new comedy, Four Lions.
Jon Homes gets the inside scoop on the sex, scandal and celebrity world of tabloid journalism from Tabloid Girl Sharon Marshall.
Plus there's music from gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello.
SAT 19:00 From Fact to Fiction (b00s7vs0)
Series 8
None of the Above
Continuing the series in which writers create a fictional response to a story in the week's news. Comedy writer John Finnemore is in the hot seat.
The election is over, and Frank Whitman, Member for Fitton West since 1987, is celebrating. It's been quite a week. Never mind the electorate, Frank's personal swingometer has resembled nothing so much as a metronome.
Frank Whitman MP ..... James Fleet
Verity Whitman ..... Christine Kavanagh
Adrian Foale ..... John Finnemore
Moderator ..... Vineeta Rishi
Questioner ..... Jude Akuwudike
Omnes ..... David Seddon, Tony Bell
Director: Jessica Dromgoole.
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b00s7vs2)
Tom Sutcliffe and guests Maria Delgado, Danny Robins and Bidisha review the week's cultural highlights including Four Lions and Alan Warner's novel The Stars in the Bright Sky
Chris Morris's film Four Lions follows the exploits of four wannabe jihadists in Sheffield who want to make their mark on the world
The Stars in the Bright Sky is Alan Warner's sequel to his 1998 novel The Sopranos. Kay, Chell, Kylah, Finn and Manda are now in their early 20s and they meet up at Gatwick Airport to go on the holiday of a lifetime, but getting away isn't as easy as they thought
Holding the Man is a play by Tommy Murphy based on Timothy Conigrave's best-selling memoir. Already a huge success in Australia, this coming of age gay tragi-comedy has opened at Trafalgar Studios in London
Artist Marc Quinn has drawn inspiration from individuals who have used plastic surgery and hormones to transform their bodies for the sculptures in his exhibition Allanah, Buck, Catman, Chelsea, Michael, Pamela and Thomas at the White Cube Gallery in London
Three plays coming soon to Radio 4 look back to the 1980s. Greed All About It by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman takes us back to the Wapping dispute in 1986. The End of the World by Danny Brocklehurst is about an anxious teenager, terrified of nuclear annihilation. Lennon: A Week in the Life by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais is set in Liverpool in the days following John Lennon's murder.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b00s7vs4)
Satire: The Great British Tradition
Roger Law, co-creator of Spitting Image, looks at what the archives can teach us about the evolution of British satire. Do we really have more of a taste for it than other nations, and where did it all start?
We'll look at the way in which British satire developed on television with great examples from the BBC archives. Roger revisits his early days at the Establishment Club set up by Peter Cook, and talks to Gerald Scarfe and others who helped form the satirical approach of the 1960s.
Roger reveals some of the juicy details behind Spitting Image and its satirical forays. Roger describes one occasion when they depicted the Duke of York, then a bachelor about town, as a nude pin-up with 2lbs of glistening Cumberland sausages between his legs, The Queen consulted the Director of Prosecutions believing that they had simply gone too far. He replied, 'Ma'am if we prosecute;they will appear in court with the puppet ...and the sausages.' It was the end of the issue.
So just what is satirically possible today? Law will interview a wide variety of the awkward squad such as Steve Bell of the Guardian to see how far is too far. Where do they draw the line? From editors of newspapers to cartoonists and stand-up comedians, we'll find out how today compares with the inglorious past.
SAT 21:00 Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie (b0075qkb)
Episode 1
Tim McInnerny plays Laurie and Niamh Cusack his mother, in this production recorded on location in and around the Slad valley. In the first of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, the Lee family arrive in their new home.
Laurie........Tim McInnerny
Mother.......Niamh Cusack
Young Loll..Sunny Leworthy
With Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Lisa Kay, Laura Strachan, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Constance Chapman, Val Lorraine, Chris Grimes, June Barrie, James Lawton, Pupils of Rodborough Primary School.
Music by Paul Burgess
Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe.
SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b00s7vsl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
SAT 22:15 Devil's Advocate (b00s782m)
Celebrity Privacy
David Aaronovitch invites two guest speakers to turn their established views on their head and debate the contrary position.
Speakers are given two weeks to research their arguments before appearing in the debate in front of an invited audience at Cambridge University. We follow the debate, but also hear about their research process and from the people who have acted as their mentors.
At the end of a programme, a vote is taken, and the speakers are invited to reflect on the experience. Has it changed their established views?
The motion is: 'Celebrities have no automatic rights to a private life.'
Speaking for the motion is TV presenter John Leslie, and against is columnist and writer Toby Young.
In an increasingly celebrity-centric society, should stars who ultimately survive on the oxygen of publicity have the right to a private life? Is a lack of clear privacy laws eroding the freedom of the press, and are celebrities hypocritical when it comes to balancing privacy with publicity - or do they need protection?
The programme is recorded in front of an invited audience at Judge Business School in Cambridge.
Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (b00s7vtk)
Series 24
2010 Heat 7
Paul Gambaccini is in the chair for the latest heat of the general knowledge music quiz, with amateur music enthusiasts bidding for a chance to become musical mastermind of 2010.
This week's trio come from London, Gosport in Hampshire and Brighton in East Sussex. As usual, there are musical extracts ranging across many styles and eras, to keep them on their toes.
Producer Paul Bajoria
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.
SAT 23:30 Lost Voices (b00s556s)
Series 2
Padraic Fiacc
Padraic Fiacc was born in Belfast in the mid-1920s and migrated with his family to New York in search of a less violent society - unfortunately they found themselves in the notorious Hell's Kitchen area where social problems were rife and gang warfare raged. Coming back to Belfast later in his life, Fiacc recognised many of these social problems and was able to write about them with an outsider's eye. His straightforward language and spare, stark style marked him out from the more lyrical poets writing in the great Irish tradition, and for decades he has been cold-shouldered by the literary establishment. Brian Patten tells the story, illustrated with some of Fiacc's most poignant and sometimes disturbing poems.
The reader is Jonjo O'Neill.
Produced by Christine Hall.
SUNDAY 09 MAY 2010
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8d18)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b00bbxp1)
Anger
Look Forward in Anger
Oliver James, author of Affluenza and The Selfish Capitalist, offers an overview of anger, describing and illuminating the nature of this emotion, and looking at how and why we are perhaps angrier now than we've ever been.
A series in which five writers from a range of backgrounds shed light on an aspect of anger in a mix of fiction, memoir and thought pieces.
Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8d1b)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8d1d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8d1g)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8d1j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b00s8d1l)
The bells of St Helen's Church, Sefton.
SUN 05:45 It Happened Here (b00sb25g)
House of Commons
Continuing his series about how places have shaped political events, Peter Hennessy, the leading historian of post-war Britain, visits the Office of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons which has been a little-known cockpit of war planning since 1950.
He first discusses what is special about the Office and why it has been so important to successive prime ministers on defence issues. He then considers how prime minister Clement Attlee and his Cabinet decided to handle Anglo-American tensions over the Korean War in 1950 that had been heightened by provocative remarks made by the US general, Douglas MacArthur, on the use of nuclear weapons.
Peter goes on to reveal the significance of the Office in the history of Britain's decision to develop the hydrogen bomb and then describes its pivotal role in the 1956 Suez Crisis and the abortive premiership of Conservative leader, Sir Anthony Eden.
Finally, we learn about the part played by the Office in the dramatic events of the spring of 1982 as prime minister Margaret Thatcher evaluated with her closest advisers the prospects for re-taking the Falkland Islands following the Argentine invasion.
Producer: Simon Coates.
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b00s8dhs)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00s8dhv)
Sleep
Mark Tully considers the role of sleep. We spend an average 27 years of our lives asleep, yet it's claimed we're experiencing an epidemic of insomnia, and that children are particularly badly affected. Why is sleep so important to our physical, mental and spiritual well-being?
The producer is Eley McAinsh, and this is a Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b00s8dhx)
Agrarian Farmer
Britain's farmers are slaves to the supermarkets. That's the view of Tim Waygood, entrepreneur and farmer. In this weeks On Your Farm Adam Henson visits Tim's farm and discovers how in taking back power from the supermarkets, he wants to alter the landscape of Britain. This weeks On Your Farm is recorded at Church Farm near Stevenage, where a philosophy of Agrarian Renaissance aims to reconnect people, land and food, and offers a radical alternative to what it calls 'corporate supermarket consumerism'.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b00s8dhz)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b00s8dj1)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b00s8dj3)
Sunday looks at the past few historic days in Wetminister from a religious angle this week, we speak to the governments faith adviser and discuss the moral and ethical issues with a select panel.
The Church of England Synod is publishing it's report into the thorny issue of women bishops, we will have reaction from both sides of the debate
The Dean of Liverpool Cathedral first went to Nigeria in 1978 when he worked in the oil industry, he has just returned from his latest visit and he will give Edward his reaction to the death of the countrys President.
Scientist Francisco Ayala is one million pounds richer this week after winning the prestigious Templeton Prize. He discusses his controversial views on faith and science with Edward.
And the Pope is vsiting Portugal next week, another row awaits him, this time though it's same sex marriages and the increasingly secularisation of a country once seen as staunchly Catholic
E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.
SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b00s8dj5)
Vision Aid Overseas
Fiona Bruce presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Vision Aid Overseas.
Donations to Vision Aid Overseas should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope Vision Aid Overseas. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide Vision Aid Overseas with your full name and address so they can claim the Gift Aid on your donation. The online and phone donation facilities are not currently available to listeners without a UK postcode.
Registered Charity Number: 1081695.
SUN 07:58 Weather (b00s8dj7)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b00s8dj9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b00s8djc)
Choral Mattins for Rogation Sunday live from Tewkesbury Abbey.
With BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year Laurence Kilsby and Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum.
Preacher: The Revd Sarah Miller, Associate Vicar of Tewkesbury.
Music director: Benjamin Nicholas.
Organist: Carleton Etherington.
Producer: Simon Vivian.
www.bbc.co.uk/religion.
SUN 08:50 A Point of View (b00s7g8c)
Hearts of Oak
In the week when Britain goes to the polls, Simon Schama reflects on the significance of one of the sights that will greet new MPs in the chamber of the House of Commons - the panelling made of solid oak. He traces the power and symbolism of the oak tree in British history from tales of Druids in ancient oakwoods to the songs of Nelson's sailors at Trafalgar and fears a new blight which could threaten its survival.
Producer: Sheila Cook.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b00s8djf)
News and conversation about the big stories of the week with Paddy O'Connell.
On the first ever hung Broadcasting House, we have the latest on the ongoing negotiations between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to form a government. Paddy tests the mood on the streets outside the talks.
Electoral reform looks like being a major sticking point between the two parties, so we have a musical guide to our different voting options. And the former MP for Sunderland South, Chris Mullin, gives his thoughts on his final campaign.
Reviewing the papers this week were former Defence Secretary, Michael Portillo; the actress and comedian, Francesca Martinez; and the Political Correspondent for Channel 4 News, Cathy Newman.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b00s8djh)
For detailed synopsis, see daily episodes
WRITTEN BY ... TIM STIMPSON
DIRECTED BY ... NAYLAH AHMED
EDITOR ... VANESSA WHITBURN
JILL ARCHER ...PATRICIA GREENE
KENTON ARCHER ... RICHARD ATTLEE
DAVID ARCHER ... TIMOTHY BENTINCK
RUTH ARCHER ... FELICITY FINCH
PIP ARCHER ... HELEN MONKS
JOSH ARCHER ... CIAN CHEESBROUGH
ELIZABETH PARGETTER ... ALISON DOWLING
PAT ARCHER ... PATRICIA GALLIMORE
HELEN ARCHER ... LOUIZA PATIKAS
BRIAN ALDRIDGE ... CHARLES COLLINGWOOD
JENNIFER ALDRIDGE ... ANGELA PIPER
ADAM MACY ... ANDREW WINCOTT
MATT CRAWFORD ... KIM DURHAM
LILIAN BELLAMY ... SUNNY ORMONDE
PEGGY WOOLLEY ... JUNE SPENCER
FALLON ROGERS ... JOANNA VAN KAMPEN
KATHY PERKS ... HEDLI NIKLAUS
JAMIE PERKS ... DAN CIOTKOWSKI
JOE GRUNDY ... EDWARD KELSEY
SUSAN CARTER ... CHARLOTTE MARTIN
OLIVER STERLING ... MICHAEL COCHRANE
KIRSTY MILLER ... ANNABELLE DOWLER
JAZZER McCREARY ... RYAN KELLY
JIM LLOYD ... JOHN ROWE
JUDE ... PIERS WEHNER
PAUL ... MICHAEL FENTON STEVENS
HARRY ... MICHAEL SHELFORD.
SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b00s8djk)
Fay Weldon
The writer Fay Weldon joins Kirsty Young to choose her Desert Island Discs.
The author of dozens of novels, essays and radio and TV dramas, she says she spends so much time inventing characters and storylines that the distinction between fact and fiction has become blurred.
As a child, Fay Weldon believed she had a second sight - seeing people who weren't there and hearing voices that no-one else could hear. As an adult, her perceptive nature has served her well too and she says: "I think I know what goes on in other people's heads - more than most people do."
Record: Rockin' My Life Away -Jerry Lee Lewis
Book: Kennedy's Latin Primer
Luxury: A shotgun.
SUN 12:00 The Unbelievable Truth (b00s6rx2)
Series 5
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. Fred MacAulay, Susan Calman, Liza Tarbuck and Charlie Brooker are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as: ducks, Thomas Edison, make-up and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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.
SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b00s8djm)
Off Licences
Last year First Quench, the company behind off licence chains Victoria Wine, Threshers and Bottoms Up and others, went bust. With nearly 70% of drinks now bought in a supermarket is there a future in high street off-licencing?
Robert Clark of Retail Knowledge Bank looks at the recent history of the off-licence, and who has emerged successfully from the recession, including Majestic, Bargain Booze and Tesco. We speak to Tesco's director of Beer Wine and Spirits Dan Jago about their wines, as well as their discounting policy and what impact that has on the industry.
Bargain Booze, based primarily in the north is now the biggest high street off licence chain. What they offer is clear - big brands sold as cheaply as possible. Sheila visits their joint managing director Matthew Hughes to find out more about their success. And at the other end of the scale she visits Green and Blue, a thriving independent off licence based in East Dulwich in London, an off-licence as well as a wine bar and restaurant, running wine courses as well. The independent sector has bought many of the premises left empty by First Quench.
To discuss what all these changes and different options mean for us as drinkers Sheila is joined in the studio by Peter Richards, wine writer and broadcaster in Saturday Kitchen with his wife Susie Barrie. And Matthew Dickenson from Thierry's, the largest importer of French wines in the UK. They taste Britain's best selling wine, Blossom Hill White Zinfandel to find out what that tells us about what's popular in the UK. They also discuss Naked Wines, an online company allowing shoppers to help winemakers around the world produce great wines, in return for a good discount themselves.
Produced by Rebecca Moore.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b00s8djp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b00s8djr)
A look at events around the world with Shaun Ley.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00s7f9t)
Anne Swithinbank goes in search of bedding-plant inspiration at Sunderland's municipal gardens.
Matthew Biggs, Anne Swithinbank, Bob Flowerdew and chairman Eric Robson are guests of Herrington Flower Club.
The producer is Howard Shannon, and this is a Somethin' Else Sound Directions production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:45 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's Escape to the Country (b00s8djt)
Healing in the Open Air
How the rural landscape came to be seen as a place of moral, physical and spiritual healing for First World War veterans.
SUN 15:00 Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie (b00757rv)
Episode 2
In the second of two episodes dramatised by Nick Darke, young Loll experiences his first taste of the adult world.
Laurie.................Tim McInnerny
Mother................Niamh Cusack
Young Loll...........Sunny Leworthy
Rosie..................Emily Parrish
with Jennifer Compton, Paul Currier, Lisa Kay, Briony Fforde, Daniel Clifford, Jed Blacklock, David Goodland, Bill Wallis, Paul Dodgson, June Barrie, Chris Grimes, Megan Melish, Laura Beckett, Luke Glastonbury-Cole, Buster Reece, Alex Smith, Leanne French, Villagers of Slad and Rodborough.
Music by Paul Burgess
Directed by Viv Beeby and Jeremy Howe
Repeated Saturday
9.00 p.m.
SUN 16:00 Open Book (b00s8dts)
Mariella Frostrup talks to the poet and novelist Blake Morrison about his latest book The Last Weekend, in which four friends' break by the sea turns into a nightmare of competition and recrimination.
Sue Arnold chooses some of her favourite recent audiobooks, from Booker-winning fiction to Russian history.
And the comedian Bill Bailey shares his passion for the novels of Somerset Maugham - and explains how a romantic moment on a remote Indonesian island prompted a love affair of a literary kind.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
SUN 16:30 Back to the Hellespont (b00s8f1x)
It is 200 years since the poet Lord Byron swam the Hellespont, commemorating the feat in a poem and setting off a mania for swimming throughout Europe. He said it was his proudest moment.
His talent for swimming was one of the qualities that made him a legend and wherever he swam became almost a sacred spot. On the shore of the Bay of Spezzia, where Shelley drowned, stands a plinth dedicated to "Lord Byron, Noted English Swimmer and Poet". Note which comes first!
Comedian and Channel swimmer Doon Mackichan takes a look at the man and the event through his poetry and journal entries, comparing Byron's swim with the experiences of some of the swimmers who turn up every year for a race across this historical channel that separates Europe and Asia. Organised by the Canakkale Rotary Club, it is one of the highlights of the wild water swimming calendar.
Byron was inspired by Leander who, according to Ovid, nightly swam the strait to visit his beloved Hero and, after hours of love making, swam back home again. No slouch in the sack himself, Byron marvelled that Leander's conjugal powers were not "exhausted in his passage to Paradise".
Swimming gave Byron, lame as he was, some of the most exhilarating moments of his life. Only in swimming was he able to experience complete freedom of movement and freedom was a state he aspired to in all things - political and sexual.
How many of today's swimmers have been inspired by Byron to put pen to paper? The programme set them a challenge and you can hear some of the best entries alongside Byron's own effort.
The producer is Merilyn Harris, and this is a Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 PVS: The Search for Consciousness (b00s77m0)
It was John Waite's coverage of the Tony Bland case which eventually led to the Law Lords giving permission for feeding to be withdrawn. He'd been in a persistent vegetative state for four years following the Hillsborough disaster and died nine days after that ruling. With the tubes and clinical paraphernalia removed his father, Allan, said it was: "the first time he's looked like our Tony since the day he set off for the football match."
It was Tony's parents wish that future medical efforts focused on trying to improve the diagnosis of PVS, and now Dr Adrian Owen and his fellow Cambridge researchers are using functional MRI scans to try to detect brain activity. They've been asking patients and healthy volunteers to imagine playing tennis to answer questions whilst being scanned. In each of the healthy volunteers this stimulated activity in the pre-motor cortex part of the brain which deals with movement. This also happened in four out of 23 of the patients presumed to be in a vegetative state.
These are not patients who show any signs of any physical recovery but the research raises the possibility that they might retain a degree of consciousness and there might be a way of communicating with them. Up to 12,000 people under 40 in this country suffer traumatic brain injury every year and, according to Professor John Pickard, head of neurosurgery at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge, there are serious deficiencies in their care: "The tendency for patients to be left to languish on general medical, surgical and orthopaedic wards continues to their detriment."
The work might eventually lead to improved diagnosis and care for some patients. It started with the case of Kate Bainbridge, a 37 year old teacher thought to be in a vegetative state after contracting a viral infection. Dr Owen showed her photos of her parents whilst her brain was being scanned: "We found that areas of her brain burst into activity that accorded perfectly with the brain locators of healthy volunteers doing the same task." Today Kate sits in a wheelchair "speaking" with the aid of a letter-board and tells of her relief that doctors finally realised that she was conscious even though she could not speak or make any kind of signal.
Vegetative state and minimal-conscious state are different from brain death, which involves the total destruction of all brain areas and the consequent collapse of heart-lung function. If a vegetative state lasts for more than three months (longer in certain forms of brain insult) there is thought to be progressively less chance that the patient will return to even minimal consciousness.
Today Kate is grateful for the work going on at Cambridge University and credits neuroscientist Dr Owen with helping her communicate - she can send and recieve e-mails, watch television and listen to music. She would like to see much more done to help others diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state: "Not being able to communicate was awful - I felt trapped inside my body. I had loads of questions, like 'Where am I?', 'Why am I here?', 'What has happened?'.
"I just have to look and see what the scans did for me. They found I was there inside my body that did not respond.".
SUN 17:40 From Fact to Fiction (b00s7vs0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00s8dtv)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b00s8dtx)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8dtz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:30 Pick of the Week (b00s8dv1)
Liz Barclay makes her selection from the last seven days of BBC Radio
Full length programme list:
Back to the Hellespont - Radio 4
Pistols at Dawn - Radio 4
Midweek - Radio 4
RIP Boy - Radio 4
Blood Ties - Radio Scotland
The Name Game - Radio 4
The Other Guantanamo - World Service
Cutting The Lifeline - Radio 4
Global Perspectives - World Service
Launching the Style Decade
Tim Rice's American Pie
Morecambe and Wise - The Garage Tapes - Radio 4
Barbershopera! - Radio 4
The Essay - Postcards from Istanbul - Radio 4
Archive on 4 - Satire - The Great British Tradition - Radio 4
Sunday Feature - Theatre on the Frontline - Radio 3
Shortened version programme list:
Back to the Hellespont - Radio 4
Pistols at Dawn - Radio 4
RIP Boy - Radio 4
Blood Ties - Radio Scotland
The Other Guantanamo - World Service
Global Perspectives - World Service
Launching the Style Decade
Morecambe and Wise - The Garage Tapes - Radio 4
Barbershopera! - Radio 4
The Essay - Postcards from Istanbul - Radio 4
Archive on 4 - Satire - The Great British Tradition - Radio 4
Sunday Feature - Theatre on the Frontline - Radio 3
On Pick of the Week Liz Barclay goes back to the Hellespont for the 200th anniversary of Byron's swim across that stretch of water, and encounters the dilemma of locals reliant on the notorious American navy base in Guantanamo Bay. There's heartrending accounts of the lives and deaths of troubled teenagers, a snip of Barber shop music, and a milk bath. Don't ask! It's all guns blazing on Pick of the Week at
6.15 this evening/tomorrow evening at
6.15/ on Sunday evening at
6.15
PHONE: 0370 010 0400
FAX: 0161 244 4243
Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b00s8f04)
Josh films Jill cooking a steak and kidney pudding and apple meringue for his school project. Jill's a natural. It reminds her of when she met Phil. She was demonstrating cooking equipment in a Borchester store. Meanwhile, Pip is having lunch with Jude and his mates, and Ruth suspects Pip's had to cook it. She wishes Pip would come home more. Jill understands her concerns, but thinks they might have to come to a compromise over Jude.
Tom wishes Brenda would come to the cricket but she's busy ironing her work shirts. She eventually makes it but is too late to see Tom bat, as he's out pretty quickly. He hopes Alistair won't be too hard on him. Tom tells Kenton he'll be too busy for the single wicket competition, especially with Brenda in her new job. Kenton remembers how getting Jaxx off the ground took all his time and energy. He admits he neglected Kathy and Meriel, and resolves to visit Meriel soon.
David won't be entering the single wicket competition either. He knows how much it means to Shula and Alistair but he's too busy on the farm, and needs to spend more time with his kids. Alistair's going to have to look elsewhere.
SUN 19:15 Americana (b00s8f06)
David Willis presents an insider guide to the people and the stories shaping America today, featuring location reports, lively discussion and exclusive interviews.
From the failed bomb attack in New York City to the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, it's been a messy week in America. David Willis is joined by Professor Robert Reich, from the University of California at Berkeley, to discuss the top stories capturing attention across the US this week.
One of Hollywood's most glamorous and iconic film production houses, MGM studios, is facing a financial crisis. David talks to film industry expert Kenneth Turan to learn more about this unfolding drama.
Later, beyond the bright lights and painted backdrops of glamorous Hollywood, southern California may be just as well-known for its violent neighbourhoods. Americana boards the LA Gang Tour bus to learn more about the notorious corners of the city and how former gang members are working together to lead 'hood tours for the greater good.
And the King of Rock and Soul is still going strong. David Willis meets Solomon Burke and talks to him about his musical career, God and his very, very large family.
Our email address is americana@bbc.co.uk.
SUN 19:45 Afternoon Reading (b00br85k)
Hay-on-Wye Stories 2008
When Boreas Blows
When Perry is born, his parents plant a Japanese Acer outside his window. And as Perry grows, so does the tree, tall, pale and delicate.
By the time Perry is three, the branches reach up to his bedroom window and creak as if they had something to say. That was when the North wind blew. 'It's only Boreas talking,' his father told him. 'King of the North wind. He's cold and strong but he looks after you.'
Read by Fay Weldon
Producer: Emma Harding.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b00s8f08)
A selected group of listeners meet up with Vanessa Whitburn, editor of The Archers and the most powerful woman in Ambridge.
Also on the programme, listeners ask why Radio 2 has decided to cut Radcliffe and Maconie from four days a week to three. The director of programmes responds.
And are 5live covering enough women's sports?
Roger Bolton gets some answers.
Producer: Brian McCluskey
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b00s7f9w)
On Last Word this week:
The campaigner for gay rights Antony Grey. He was a leading figure in the lobbying that produced the legalisation of homosexuality for adults over the age of twenty one in 1967.
Also: Jean-Louis Dumas who turned the French luxury brand Hermes into a multi billion dollar global company.
The actress Lynn Redgrave who had a gift for comedy and battled her personal demons in public.
Guenter Wendt who was in charge of the final pre-flight checks before pioneering American astronauts launched into space.
And Avigdor Arikha, the Israeli artist whose first drawings depicted the horrors of the concentration camp where he was taken as a child.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b00s7vr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:00 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b00s8dj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b00s7dw4)
Press Under Pressure
Many of the world's best-known business newspapers and magazines are being painfully squeezed by the recession and the rise of rival media. In London and New York, Peter Day finds out why it matters... and how they are going about fighting for survival.
Producer: Julie Ball.
SUN 21:58 Weather (b00s8f0c)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b00s8f0f)
Reports from behind the scenes at Westminster.
SUN 22:45 What the Election Papers Say (b00s8f0h)
Episode 11
BBC Radio 4 brings back a much loved TV favourite - What the Election Papers Say. It does what it says on the tin. Each programme will see a leading political journalist take a wry look at how the broadsheets and red tops treat the biggest stories of the campaign.
Hear all about it - with Editor of The Spectator Fraser Nelson.
SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b00s7f9y)
Jenny Agutter revisits The Railway Children, Walkabout and The American Werewolf in London, and reveals why her school decided which film roles she took when she was a teenager.
Actor Riz Ahmed talks about controversial satire Four Lions, in which he plays the leader of a group of suicide bombers.
Matthew Sweet waxes lyrical about Googie Withers in The Loves of Joanna Godden, in which she plays a female farmer - Romney Marsh's first - with radical ideas.
SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00s8dhv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:05 today]
MONDAY 10 MAY 2010
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8gk0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b00s782f)
Dective tours and Russian organised crime
Crime tours which take people to the scenes from works of detective fiction are an increasing feature of regional tourism across Europe. What draws people to the places where fictional murders were imagined to have taken place?
Laurie Taylor talks to Stijn Reijnders who has made an anthropological study of three detective tours, Wallander in Sweden, Baantjer in Holland and Morse in Oxford. The crime fictional novelist Val McDermid joins them to discuss her impression of the importance of landscape in encapsulating impressions of crime and guilt.
Also on the programme Patricia Rawlinson discusses her study of organised crime in Russia. When Soviet era economics made way for 'Shock Therapy' privatisation in the early 1990s, the resulting social chaos was blamed on organised crime. Was it to blame? And is gangsterism really so antithetical to unbridled capitalism?
Producer: Charlie Taylor.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b00s8d1l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8glm)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8gpd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8gmx)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8h24)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s8hb5)
Presented by The Revd Clair Jaquiss.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b00s8hkx)
Slugs are a major pest on farms and in gardens but farmers are now being told to significantly reduce the amount of slug pellets they use or they'll be banned. A study has found that more metaldehyde, the pesticide used in most pellets, is getting through the soil and into rivers. Although the chemicals industry insists it isn't harmful to wildlife or humans, the level of metaldehyde must be reduced to 0.1 parts per billion to comply with EU rules. Also on Farming Today, we'll be taking a closer look at British wildlife. Spring has sprung, and this should be a great time of year for insects and mammals. But recently Natural England warned that nearly 500 plants and animals have become extinct in England and virtually all of these have been lost within the last two centuries. There are now fears the familiar farmland bird; the lapwing could soon disappear from some parts of the UK.
Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Anna Varle.
MON 05:57 Weather (b00s91s0)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 06:00 Today (b00s8hv4)
With Sarah Montague and James Naughtie. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day with Clifford Longley.
MON 09:00 Start the Week (b00s91s2)
On Start the Week, Andrew Marr talks to Australia's foremost poet, Les Murray, on the joy of etymology and the diversity of Australia's language, and why he's fighting to keep the 'Pobbledonk' and 'rippy' from extinction. Dr Sandy Knapp is also fighting to preserve the diversity of plants, and she talks about the thrill of finding new species and the conventions of naming. The theatre director Elen Bowman is reviving John Osborne's 'The Devil Inside Him', a play that was first performed half a century ago, lost, and only recently recovered in a box in the Lord Chamberlain's Office. And the political journalist Colin Brown, fresh from the election, takes us on a trip round Whitehall, from the time of Henry VIII to today.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00s8hv6)
Jenny Uglow - A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Episode 1
Michael Maloney reads from the book by Jenny Uglow.
Charles II was thirty when he crossed the Channel in fine May weather in 1660. His Restoration was greeted with maypoles and bonfires, like spring after long years of Cromwell's rule. But there was no going back, no way he could 'restore' the old. Certainty had vanished. The divinity of kingship fled with his father's beheading. 'Honour' was now a word tossed around in duels. 'Providence' could no longer be trusted.
As the country was rocked by plague, fire and war, people searched for new ideas by which to live.
Exactly ten years later Charles would stand again on the shore at Dover, laying the greatest bet of his life in a secret deal with his cousin, Louis XIV.
The Restoration decade was one of experiment: from the science of the Royal Society to the startling role of credit and risk, from the shocking licence of the court to the failed attempts at toleration of different beliefs. Negotiating all these, Charles, the 'slippery sovereign', layed odds. Yet while his grandeur, his court and his colourful sex life were on display, his true intentions lay hidden.
A Gambling Man is a portrait of Charles II, exploring his elusive nature through the lens of these ten vital years - and a portrait of a vibrant, violent, pulsing world, in which the risks the king took forged the fate of the nation, on the brink of the modern world.
Written by Jenny Uglow
Read by Michael Maloney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00s8hz8)
Presented by Jane Garvey. Casting new light on the Lady with the Lamp: the newly redeveloped Florence Nightingale museum on London's Southbank.Wendy Law-Yone talks about her new book, The Road to Wanting, which takes the heroine on a journey from the remote tribal villages of northern Burma, to ex-pat life in Rangoon under a grim military regime, and then, in shocking scenes, to the brothels of Thailand and the hedonism of Bangkok. We look at the Satchel as this season's new fashion must-have and we cover a row over the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery's decision to open "Art from the New World" with a striptease performance at a private party from Burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese. The museum says she is in keeping with the style of the art on display, but others argue that stripping has no place in an art gallery.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00s8jp8)
The Donor Trail
Steven
By Richard Monks. Five monologues charting the journey of a donor heart.
Steven was left reeling when doctors told him he was suffering from a congenital heart condition, cardiomyopathy. But now, following a successful heart transplant, he is determined to make the most of life.
Steven is played by Derek Riddell
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
MON 11:00 God On My Mind (b00rfhpr)
Evolution
Matthew Taylor discovers what the latest scientific research can tell us about the human need for religion.
We are programmed by our genes to believe in supernatural powers and to obey moral codes. Is this because it gave our ancestors an evolutionary advantage? Iranians, Scandinavians, Papuans, chimpanzees, twins and wedding rings offer some startling answers.
MON 11:30 Rudy's Rare Records (b00n8nk9)
Series 2
Oh Carolina
Adam finally goes out on a date, but is the lady in question quite what she appears? Starring Lenny Henry. From October 2009.
MON 12:00 You and Yours (b00s8jxm)
On today's You and Yours Julian Worricker will be joined by a panel of housing experts who will discuss renting and buying in the light of a hung parliament.
We hear why Mills and Boon say they've formed a perfect union with The National Trust.
And we get the latest on an "unpaid" gas bill which has now led to a British Gas customer being chased for payment even though the Head of British Gas told this programme that he would deal personally with the problem.
MON 12:57 Weather (b00s8k97)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b00s8kct)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b00s8f04)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b00d6nds)
Peter Lorre vs Peter Lorre
By Michael Butt.
Towards the end of his unique career, movie star Peter Lorre found himself at the centre of a strange legal case. Incorporating verbatim extracts from the court transcripts, Michael Butt's play wonders what was going through Lorre's troubled mind as he fought to protect his name.
Peter Lorre.........Stephen Greif
Lester Salkow.......Peter Marinker
Helen Hafner.........Helen Longworth
Eugene Weingand.....Kenneth Collard
Jack Paar/Barclay.....Nathan Osgood
Judge Burnett Wolfson..John Rowe
Robert Shutan......Kerry Shale
Curtis Gemmil......John Chancer
Director: Toby Swift.
MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00s7vs4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
MON 15:45 The Good Samaritan (b00mk6dn)
Hassan's Story
1.Hassan's story. When a group of Jewish commuters were attacked on the New York subway, a slightly built accountancy student decided it was time to act.
Producer John Byrne.
MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b00s8djm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:30 Traveller's Tree (b00s92p5)
Series 6
Food and Travel
Katie Derham celebrates the pursuit of good food as a newly popular reason to travel.
Nowadays we travel to eat. The pursuit of good food has become a mission and a pleasure on holidays. To examine and celebrate this trend Katie is joined by Antonio Carluccio, the Number One ambassador for Italian food and Sarah Miller, editor of Traveller magazine.
There are reports from Goa, where foodie film director Gurinder Chadha takes a cookery course to learn how to make a classic fish curry and from West Sweden which has, per capita, the highest number of starred restaurants on earth. Susan Marling takes a trip to discover how the best seafood, land produce and fruits of the forest come together in traditional dishes now given an exciting modern twist.
There's also a report about a 'pig safari' in Shropshire - the model for an increasingly popular style of weekend with British food at its heart.
And Craig Allen, veteran foodie, talks about being a traveller who follows his nose entirely.
Further information:
India:
Lucy Greenwell was at Judy Cardozo's cooking school in Panjim, Goa, run by a company called Holiday On The Menu.
France:
Marseille restaurants mentioned by Craig were La Cote De Boeuf, 35 Cours Honore d'Estienne d'Orves, Copropritete Jardin de Thalassa, and 120 Rue Commdt Rolland.
The pair of restaurants joined by a viaduct in Marseille are L'Epuisette and Chez FonFon.
England:
The Pig Safari in Shropshire is run by Carolyn Cheshire At Lower Buckton Farm in Leintwardine
Pigs in Clover, Rare Breed Farm in Cardeston And The Old Hand and Diamond Pub in Coedway
Sweden:
For details of Oyster events contact Destination Grebbested. Oyster Safari organized by Everts Sjobod.
Gothenburg Restaurants:
Restaurant Fond, Gotaplatsen
Restaurant Kock & Vin, Viktoriagatan 12
Traveller's Tree is a co-production between Just Radio and Whistledown. The producer is Susan Marling.
MON 17:00 PM (b00s8kyk)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8l5x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (b00s92p7)
Series 3
Episode 1
Prepare to have your synapses twisted into a string theorist's nightmare, as Professor Lloyd and his new curator, the startlingly insightful comedian Jon Richardson, hurriedly throw the dust covers off the Museum's clump of empty plinths for a brand new series of the BBC's most improving comedy panel show.
This week, fantasy novelist Sir Terry Pratchett offers them a Secret And Personal Extra Day Of The Week; cosmologist and author Marcus Chown donates a bizarre but plausible scientific theory of the afterlife known as the Enigma Point; and Shappi Khorsandi has somehow finds herself in a position to offer none other than Charlie Chaplin.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b00s8kd9)
Fallon serves Harry in the bar at The Bull. It's clear they get on well, as they chat about Jazzer and the recent auction in Grundys' Field. Fallon asks Jazzer if he'll be entering the single wicket competition but Harry says he can't, as it's only open to local residents. Fallon comes up with a plan, and Alistair agrees that Harry can enter if he were temporarily resident in Ambridge. Delighted Harry accepts Fallon's kind offer to move into the Bull. Mike teases Fallon, and wonders what Jazzer will have to say about it.
Helen is elated when she gets back from her appointment at the clinic, and reports that she can start her treatment tomorrow. She asks a happy Pat if she will come with her, and Pat is only too pleased to oblige.
Tom tells Pat and Helen that Brenda's first day went really well. He's thinking of organizing a get-together on Friday night, to celebrate her first week. Helen tells him she'd love to be there but she's off alcohol for the foreseeable future. With a bit of luck she'll be pregnant. Nine months from tomorrow, she shall very likely be a mum.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b00s8zdb)
Julie Andrews reviewed, Junior Apprentice and Tippi Hedren
A review of Julie Andrews' one-off show at the weekend which reportedly left many paying customers disgruntled.
With Junior Apprentice and Junior Masterchef arriving in the TV schedules, Emily Bell and Lorraine Heggessey consider the latest trend for Junior versions of established brands.
And Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock's films The Birds and Marnie, on six decades in Hollywood, acting with Marlon Brando and still working in her eighties.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00s8jp8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 Tiger v Dragon (b00s92p9)
The Power of the Poor
This is the Asian century. It will be increasingly dominated by two countries that share nearly half of the world's population: India and China. But the hype around the economic growth of these two Asian giants, lumped hopefully together as "Chindia," has obscured some much darker truths.
In this provocative series of programmes, Mukul Devichand travels across frontiers, from the controversial new ports China is building in the Indian Ocean to the poor interior villages of these continent-sized countries. He examines whether China's authoritarianism may in fact be doing much more for the poor than India's sometimes bloody democracy. He also looks at how the old nationalist rivalries mingle with the intense hunger for oil and other natural resources. Far from the dream of a co-operative "Chindia," there's a risk India and China may well end up at odds with each other in what some have called an Asian cold war.
Part 1: The Power of the Poor
In the churn and tumult of India and China's rapid economic growth, which country has done more to lift the lives of its hundreds of millions of very poor? In the first programme of the series, Mukul Devichand travels from Indian sweatshops to villages in rural western China to tell a tale of difficult lives, development and bloodshed which challenges the very idea of democracy.
While India gave the poorest a vote at the ballot box, Communist China delivered rural education and built roads and factories at breakneck speed. Has Indian democracy failed to deliver where authoritarian China has succeeded?
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b00s3h3y)
Can an economist save Peru?
The world famous Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto believes that the key to ending poverty for countless millions is to give them the right to own the land that they live on. If a person owns the land, and has the paperwork to prove it, his theory says, they can use it as collateral to borrow money from banks to help build businesses and improve their quality of life.
But de Soto's ideas have proved controversial. Now they are being tested in the rainforests of the Amazon. The indigenous Peruvians who live there believe that they already own the land and protest against what they see as the encroachment of big business. Last year, protests culminated in more than 30 deaths at Bagua
Linda Pressly journeys from Lima to the heart of the Amazon region with Hernando de Soto to discover how he is working with indigenous people.
Presenter: Linda Pressly
Producer: Paul Vickers.
MON 21:00 Gordon Brown: A Political Life (b00skg35)
Shaun Ley looks back at Gordon Brown's life in politics. Hear how Brown rose from his early years as a student firebrand, through the long exile in opposition, to the creation of New Labour and his three years in Downing St.
MON 21:30 Start the Week (b00s91s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b00s911s)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b00s91k9)
Deal or no deal? Live update and analysis on political negotiations.
The European rescue package - what does it entail?
Reporting the mood in Greece - is it really a country on the edge of an abyss?
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00s91l4)
No And Me
Episode 1
Lou Bertignac is 13. She has an IQ of 160 and a deep fear of standing in front of the class. At home her father puts a brave face on things but cries in secret in the bathroom, while her mother rarely speaks and hardly ever leaves the house. Lou seeks escape from this silent misery at the Gare d'Austerlitz, where she finds grand emotions in the smiles and tears of arrival and departure.
One day her life is changed irrevocably when she encounters No, a girl who lives on the streets of Paris.
Delphine de Vigan was born in 1966. No and Me (2007) is her first novel to be published in English; it was a bestseller in France, where it was awarded the Prix des Libraires (The Booksellers' Prize) in 2008 - and also in Italy and Germany.
Read by Emerald O'Hanrahan
Written by Delphine de Vigan
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
The producer is Rosalynd Ward.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b00s778z)
Michael Rosen enters the world of flavour, examining how what goes in to our mouths corresponds with the words which come out of them.
Visiting the lab of a flavourist, he finds out how language is used to create tastes that don't exist yet. Food historian Ivan Day demonstrates how words have been imported alongside the food they describe.
Michael's also joined in the studio by food critic for the Guardian, Jay Rayner, to discuss what makes a great menu.
MON 23:30 The New Galileos (b00jzx36)
The James Webb Space Telescope
Meet the scientists behind the James Webb Space Telescope, the gigantic successor to the Hubble Telescope. In the first of two programmes on modern day telescope builders and astronomers, Andrew Luck-Baker talks to some of the 2,000 strong team constructing a telescope unlike any that has been sent into space before.
When launched in 2014, JWST will have by far the largest mirror on a space telescope - 6.5 metres across. It also needs to sit behind a giant sunshield so that it can chill to the temperature of deep space. The sun shade covers the area of a tennis court.
One chief goal is be to see deeper into the cosmos than even Hubble has allowed. The further astronomers see, the further back through the Universe's history they voyage. With JWST, NASA scientists hope to see the very first stars to light up after the Big Bang, almost 14 billion years ago. Before these primordial stars, the Universe was just a void of cool, gaseous darkness. JWST should reveal how and when these stars transformed the infant Universe into a place where planets and people were possible.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
TUESDAY 11 MAY 2010
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8ghj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00s8hv6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8gk2)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8gmz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8glp)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8gpg)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s8h26)
Presented by Andrew Graystone.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00s8hhm)
4 million workers left agriculture in the EU between 2000 and 2009. Farming Today asks why there has been a 25% slump in farm workers while incomes from agriculture have risen.And honey bee numbers have fallen twice as fast in the UK as they have in Europe over the last twenty years according to a recent study carried out by Reading University.
TUE 06:00 Today (b00s8hkz)
With Sarah Montague and James Naughtie. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Democracy on Trial (b00s936s)
Episode 1
Michael Portillo losing his parliamentary seat was voted Britain's third most favourite TV moment. So, the man who has felt the sharp end of the democratic process sets off to examine and interrogate development of this fickle, fragile, sometimes futile entity that we know as democracy.
Before 1900, there were no genuinely democratic countries in the world - and never had been. By 1943 only a handful of countries were still democratically run. It seemed that a forty-year experiment in representative government had run its course - and failed.
Yet, sixty years later, democracy is seen as the greatest gift that can be bestowed on another country, and it's an ideal worth fighting and dying for.
Michael Portillo uses this a starting point to question the effectiveness of a form of government we take for granted. Seen by Plato as dangerous, the Enlightenment as a route to chaos and by nations in the Middle Eastern, Africa and China as far from a universal panacea - democracy has a surprisingly tenuous grip on the world. Michael meets historians and the key state makers past and present to analyse the fall, rise and future of what we glibly call 'the democratic ideal'
Producer: Philip Sellars.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00sbmk0)
Jenny Uglow - A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Episode 2
Charles works quickly to re-establish the monarchy and ensure a stable government. A glamorous and decadent court is also making a name for itself with Charles at its centre.
Written by Jenny Uglow
Read by Michael Maloney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00s8hyy)
Presented by Jane Garvey.
Britain is one of five EU countries not to have introduced a ban on smacking. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio Deputy
Secretary General of the Council of Europe argues that we should. Judith Woods, columnist for the Telegraph, disagrees.
The International Whaling Commission has just proposed reintroducing controlled whale hunting. Science writer Elin Kelsey looks at threats to the world's whale population and reveals why male killer whales are reluctant to leave their mothers.
What should you write in a condolence letter ? Kate Boydell's husband died suddenly leaving her a widow at thirty-three. She received hundreds of condolence letters and set up a website for widows. Dodie Graves has been a bereavement councillor in a hospice for many years.
Is work pressure increasing the risk of heart disease in women under 50? A Danish survey claims a link. Dr Sarah Clark and Professor Andrew Steptoe debate the situation in Britain.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmvc)
The Donor Trail
Clare
By Richard Monks. Five monologues charting the journey of a donor heart.
Clare's in a high pressure job, on call at all hours, she has limited time to get a heart from the donor to the recipient.Failure isn't an option.
Clare is played by Julia Ford
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
TUE 11:00 Saving Species (b00s936v)
Series 1
Episode 6
We're keeping an eye on an important Nightingale story - the British Trust for Ornithology are re-capturing Nightingales' they attached data loggers to last summer. If they can re-catch these same birds they will be able to decipher the data on the loggers and tell us where these wonderful migrant song birds go to in Africa over winter.
Because of the events in the Mississippi delta, we have delayed our first report from Howard Stableford in Costa Rica to this programme. He visited the rainforest in Costa Rica to see how forest disturbance was impacting on the pollination behaviour of hummingbirds. The research, only in its early stages, is showing that the behaviour of the birds does change near forest edges with banana plantations. Howard also reports on the delicate relationship hummingbirds have with the exotic heliconia flower.
We also have the second part of the Field Cricket release into an RSPB reserve in southern England. The Field cricket has the reputation of being Britain's loudest insect. We covered their capture in a previous programme and we were there for their translocation. And we ask, why bother - does anyone care about a cricket?
And if there is room we'll keep you up with our larval poets [baby Purple Emperor Butterfly caterpillars] in Wiltshire with National Trust butterfly man Matthew Oates.
Kelvin Boot will be there with a roundup of global wildlife news - especially the latest in the Gulf of Mexico.
Presented by Brett Westwood
Produced by Sheena Duncan
Series Editor: Julian Hector.
TUE 11:30 The Tudor Tarantino (b00s936x)
Dominic Arkwright charts the rise and fall of Thomas Middleton, the bad boy of Renaissance drama.
He wrote stories of murder, incest and sexual blackmail in the backstreets of London and was hugely popular in his day, occasionally out-selling Shakespeare at the box office. So why were his plays banned from the stage for over 300 years?
Gary Taylor, editor of The Complete Middleton, argues that this dangerous genius was just too controversial to survive and thrive. Shakespeare's stories of kings and queens, of hope and redemption, outlasted the disturbing visions of the trouble-maker Middleton. But more controversial is the claim that Middleton had a hand in the Bard's success.
Dominic examines the evidence for Middleton's "collaborations" with Shakespeare, and looks at Middleton's claim to greatness. Also assessing the case for Middleton are Professor Jonathan Bate, Professor Sir Brian Vickers, and actress Harriet Walter, about to take to the London stage as one of Middleton's most villainous anti-heroes.
Producer: John Byrne
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.
TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00s8jx2)
What do you make of the general election? Twenty-seven million people voted and the result is a hung parliament with both David Cameron and Gordon Brown tussling for the keys to Number 10. But four days after polling day, we still don't know who's going to form the next government. The Conservatives got the most votes and seats, but not enough for a parliamentary majority. And Gordon Brown remains in charge, despite members of his own party urging him to stand down. So as the Tory leader continues talks with the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, can they agree a deal? Or will it be a rainbow coalition with Labour and all the smaller parties joining forces? Is a Hung Parliament a satisfactory outcome to a four week campaign? Or did the result confirm we need a proportional voting system? Did you vote tactically as some Ministers advised?
Were you one of hundreds unable to vote as polling booths struggled to cope with the turnout? The Electoral Commission has described our current Election machinery as "Victorian". It's been trying to persuade Government and Parliament to modernise the system so but why has no one listened? Do you trust the electoral system to deliver the result you want?
Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b00s8k5w)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b00s8k99)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00s8kd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b00s936z)
Sunday
A dramatisation by Ronald Frame of Georges Simenon's novel about a chef who decides to kill his wife. The tense and vivid story is set in 1957, and takes place on a single day, in and around a modest auberge in the untamed wooded hills above Nice.
Émile ..... Grant O'Rourke
Berthe ..... Emma Currie
Ada ..... Melody Grove
Nancy ..... Francesca Dymond
Doctor ..... Michael Mackenzie
Waiter ..... Simon Tait
Mme Harnaud ..... Joanna Tope
Produced by Patrick Rayner
Émile is married to a domineering older wife, Berthe. It is her family that owns the little hotel 'La Bastide'. Although Émile is the chef, he feels like a servant. In an attempt to assert himself he starts an affair with one of the maids. But he continues to be humiliated by Berthe, just as he feels mocked by the pleasure-laden air of the Riviera. His hatred of his wife festers. Finally he hatches a plot to poison her - and now the day of reckoning has arrived...
Georges Simenon is of course best known for his Inspector Maigret stories. But this is one of his much admired 'romans durs' - spare, hard, gimlet-eyed tales, often set in provincial France, that deal with the extraordinary dramas that take place in the most ordinary of lives.
The novel was first published in 1959 under the title 'Dimanche'.
As well as being a much-respected novelist and short story writer, Ronald Frame has written many plays and series for Radio 4 and Radio 3. Previous dramatisations include Daphne du Maurier's 'Don't Look Now' and Somerset Maugham's 'The Razor's Edge'. This is his third Georges Simenon 'roman dur' dramatisation for Radio 4, following 'Monsieur Monde Vanishes' and 'The Blue Room', which the Daily Mail called 'grippingly good, wonderfully atmospheric...reminds us just how good radio drama can be.'.
TUE 15:00 Home Planet (b00s9371)
A holiday in the countryside would not be complete without a collection of seashells or pine cones. But with nature coming under pressure from all sides is it okay to gather a few mementoes to remind you of your holiday? Or should we take nothing but pictures to remind us of our time away?
Why are grey squirrels appearing to develop patches of red fur? Does this mean the British woodland favours those with a reddish hue?
Does the mimicry of songbirds give us a hint of the sounds of ancient woodland?
Should we in the Earth's temperate zones be setting an example and planting more trees?
Answering these questions are Dr Anna Lawrence, Head of the Social and Economic Research Group of the Forestry Commission; Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London and Graham Appleton of the British Trust for Ornithology. The programme is presented by Richard Daniel.
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00s937p)
Tales From Tate Modern
A Modern Love Story
Situated in the unlikely environs of a former power station on the banks of the River Thames, Tate Modern is the most visited art museum in the world, and a global landmark. To celebrate its 10th anniversary in May 2010, BBC Radio 4 has commissioned three writers to respond to Tate Modern, in three distinctive ways.
The first in the series is a monologue performed by Clare Corbett. She plays Sophie - a young woman working in Tate Modern's Education Department. Her head is full of facts and figures about the building and its contents, but she has other things on her mind as well: the imminent arrival at Tate Modern of old boyfriend, Liam - who's down from Liverpool for the day.
Written by Mark Burgess
Read by Clare Corbett
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:45 The Good Samaritan (b00mr234)
Sylvia's Story
2. Sylvia's story
After serving just two days of her prison sentence for failing to pay her full council tax, pensioner Sylvia Hardy had her protest ruined when an anonymous benefactor paid her arrears and she was released.
Producer John Byrne.
TUE 16:00 Gordon Brown: A Political Life (b00skg35)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b00s93v3)
Series 21
Charlotte Guest
Businesswoman Baroness Sarah Hogg discusses the life of Lady Charlotte Guest, a Victorian polymath whose many achievements included running the largest ironworks in the world. Assistance is provided by Lady Charlotte's great grand-daughter, Revel Guest.
Producer: Paul Dodgson.
TUE 17:00 PM (b00s8kx4)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Carolyn Quinn. Plus Weather.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8kym)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 PM (b00skygy)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Carolyn Quinn.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00s8kcw)
As Susan serves Jill, they discuss the opening of the shop as a community enterprise, and Susan's plans for training volunteers. Later, at a shop meeting, Susan shows how magnanimous she has become by proposing that they invite Peggy to cut the ribbon at the grand opening.
Helen goes for her first course of treatment at the clinic. She's on a high but Pat warns her that it's unlikely to work first time. Helen disagrees. She might need to wait two weeks before she can do a test but she feels absolutely sure that she's pregnant.
Jude is irritated when Pip insists on staying in to do revision, rather than going to a party. Pip says that she's worried about her exams, but Jude is unsympathetic. He questions why Pip even bothered coming over if all she wants to do is read. Pip is crushed as Jude accuses her of not being fun any more. He's not staying in all night, so if she won't go to the party with him, he'll just have to go on his own.
TUE 19:15 The World Tonight (b00s911v)
Deal or no deal?
Which way - if either - will the Lib Dems jump?
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00s91kc)
No And Me
Episode 2
Lou returns to Gare d'Austerlitz in search of No, 18 years old and homeless.
Read by Emerald O'Hanrahan
Written by Delphine de Vigan
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
The producer is Rosalynd Ward.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 So Wrong It's Right (b00s943r)
Series 1
Episode 1
Charlie Brooker hosts the new comedy panel show celebrating one of Britain's favourite subjects - failure.
It's a game of competitive ineptitude, the aim of which is to come up with the wrongest answer to each question. In this episode, the guests joining him to try and out-wrong each other with their ideas and stories are panellists comedians David Mitchell & Rufus Hound and presenter Victoria Coren.
In this show the panel's worst holiday experiences, the internet and Anthea Turner all come under the 'wrong' spotlight - as well as the guests best ideas for the worst new reality TV show. Will anyone beat Rufus Hound's pitch - the primetime reality show 'Blaze Of Granny'?
Producer: Aled Evans
A Zeppotron production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 The New Galileos (b00k4g9l)
The Large Binocular Telescope
The world's largest telescope is nearing completion on a mountain top in Arizona. With the combined power of its two giant mirrors, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) will image the Universe in greater detail than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Andrew Luck-Baker talks to the astronomers who expect to see planets orbitting and being born around distant stars with the telescope. He also meets the technologists who designed and constructed the revolutionary observatory, and visits the spinning furnaces in which the 8.4 meter diameter mirrors were made.
The LBT is a trail blazer for astronomical technologies in the next generation of super-massive telescopes.
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.
WEDNESDAY 12 MAY 2010
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8ghl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00sbmk0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8gk4)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8gn1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8glr)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8gpj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s8h28)
Daily prayer and reflection with Andrew Graystone
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00s8hhq)
The re-introduction of sea-eagles has not resulted in more lambs being taken in Scotland according to a new report from Scottish Natural Heritage. And Farming Today goes in search of the Great Crested Newt in Suffolk and visits Shetland to bring the latest update on whether ash from the volcano in Iceland is affecting farm land in the UK.
WED 06:00 Today (b00s8hl1)
With Sarah Montague and Evan Davis. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 Midweek (b00s944x)
This week Libby Purves is joined by Tom Cunliffe, Peter Bowles, Mary Gauthier and David Harber.
Tom Cunliffe, the writer, sailor and historian presents the BBC Four series 'The Boats That Built Britain'. The series examines the crucial ways in which the sea has helped to shape modern Britain and provide viewers with an intimate insight into the role the sea has played in British life over the past 100 years. There will also be an exhibition running in conjunction with the series at the National Maritime Museum.
Peter Bowles is the British actor probably best known for playing the suave Richard de Vere in the hit comedy 'To the Manor Born'. His career began with the Old Vic Theatre Company in 1956 which took him to Broadway and later on to the West End. His TV credits include 'The Avengers' and 'Rumpole of the Bailey','Only When I Laugh', Lytton's Diary' and 'To the Manor Born'. His films include 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. His autobiography Ask Me If I'm Happy is published by Simon and Schuster.
Mary Gauthier is an American singer/songwriter. On her newest album, 'The Foundling', she opens the door on the defining circumstance of her life, the emotional journey and aftermath of finding the mother who surrendered her in New Orleans after her birth in March 1962. The Foundling is on Proper Records.
David Harber is an artist specialising in bespoke sundials, water features and other original outdoor sculptures. For his latest project he has created a sundial based on a 400-year old design by John Blagrave, one of Britain's greatest mathematical instrument makers. He was inspired by the recent discovery that Blagrave is a direct ancestor.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00sbmjr)
Jenny Uglow - A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Episode 3
As a keen theatre-goer, Charles takes every opportunity to mingle with his people. But in private he and his wife Catherine of Braganza long for an heir.
Written by Jenny Uglow
Read by Michael Maloney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00s8hz0)
Presented by Jenni Murray.
As a new era in British politics dawns, we ask what role female politicians will play in the coalition government and discuss why women still make up just 21.7% of MPs at Westminster, despite attempts to get a more representative parliament. We hear about Dorothy Hodgkin who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964, for her work on penicillin and vitamin B12. The Royal Society is holding a celebration day to mark her centenary. What do you do when the children gang up with your spouse to demand another furry addition to the family? And how do a pet person and a non-pet person ever reach a compromise? And the novelist, Michelle Lovric, talks about the medical and historical research that led to her novel, 'The Book of the Human Skin'.
WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmtz)
The Donor Trail
Miranda
By Richard Monks. Five monologues charting the journey of a donor heart.
Heart surgeon Miranda's encounter with Jean, the donor's mother, brings about an unexpected change.
Miranda is played by Samantha Bond
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
WED 11:00 Comprehensively Eton (b00s96ng)
Jolyon Jenkins on the state-school boys who won scholarships to Eton. Bradley, Oscar, Joe and Rishad are bright all-rounders who went from their local comprehensive to the world's most famous school.
Eton is probably the most famous school in the world. With fees of almost £30,000 a year, it educates some of Britain's most wealthy and privileged boys. It also offers scholarships and bursaries to a small but growing number of bright and motivated boys who've been educated in the state sector.
But what does the scholarship scheme mean for the boys? How are they regarded by the fee-payers? What kind of boy does Eton want as a scholar? Do the scholarship-boys fit in at Eton, or is there a class divide? Do they stand out because their accents are different or once anonymised in the tail-coat are they woven into Eton's ancient fabric?
Bradley is from Blackpool, his parents are full-time foster carers who found out about the Eton scholarship when they read about it in 'The Sun'. Bradley started at Eton last September in what is known as 'F Block' (the equivalent is year 9 in the state sector).
Oscar Hardy is from Seaford on the south coast, a former young-mayor of Seaford and A*grade student; his comprehensive was closing its sixth form so he took a punt on an Eton scholarship - and succeeded. Jolyon hears from them, and Rishad and Joe, who all won scholarships - and significant bursaries - to attend Eton College.
Producer: Karen Gregor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.
WED 11:30 Dave Podmore (b00sjvcl)
Dave Podmore on the Stump
Everyone remembers where they were when they heard the news that Dave Podmore had been elected MP for the hotly-contested marginal seat of Leicester Forest Services (East). Except Dave Podmore who, to be fair, had had a few.
Pod's had a lot on his mind. His attractive wife Jacqui is playing away with an Aussie ex-cricketer even more overweight than Pod; his dogs get turned away from a bed-and-breakfast by a seaside landlady who has no qualms about letting gays in to reorganize her table settings; and he urgently needs money to pay for the dogs' sumptuous new living quarters.
His faithful sidekick Andy points out that there's still money to be made as an MP, so Pod embarks on the long road to Westminster - starting by parking illegally on it outside the Town Hall.
Pod develops a political philosophy - he wants to see a world where no dogs have to be licensed, no patio heater is deemed environmentally unsound and where it's possible for the fly-tipper to walk without fear throughout this green and pleasant landfill.
All of this appeals to Hard Shoulder Man, Pod's core voters, and he's elected in a landslide. So how come he has to resign his seat three days later? And will Jacqui return? And could reality TV possibly come to the rescue and give us a dramatically satisfying ending?
Written by Christopher Douglas, Nick Newman and Andrew Nickolds.
Producer: Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00s8jx4)
Join Winifred Robinson as we hear from villagers who've won their way onto a new TV show in which they spend lottery money to improve their villages.
Spend the night at your local museum - the national scheme kicks off this weekend - what is happening in your area?
And Facing the Facts - John Waite updates us on the saga of British people living in France who lost thousands of pounds to a charming fraudster - will they get any of their money back?
WED 12:57 Weather (b00s8k5y)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b00s8k9c)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b00s8kcw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Brief Lives (b00s9f38)
Series 3
Episode 3
By Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly
Continuing the legal drama set in Manchester. Sarah is called to an army base to deal with a violent incident between two female soldiers. Who is telling the truth? And Doug goes to bat for Frank's son Louis when he's accused of being a serial biter in the nursery.
Frank ..... David Schofield
Debbie ..... Emma Atkins
Sarah ..... Tracey- Ann Oberman
Doug ..... Eric Potts
Jane ..... Beth Palmer
Norton ..... Jonathan Oliver
April ..... Lisa Allen
Barratt ..... James Quinn
Louis ..... Isaac Whitmore
Producer Gary Brown.
Original music by Carl Harms.
WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b00s9f3b)
MONEY BOX LIVE
Vincent Duggleby and guests will be here to answer your questions about saving and investing on today's Money Box Live.
Whether you need a safe home for savings or advice about dealing with volatile stock markets, the panel will be waiting for your call.
Phone lines open at
1.30 this afternoon and the number to call is 03700 100 444. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.
Producer: Diane Richardson.
WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00sbn99)
Tales From Tate Modern
The Way to Veritas
The second in the series celebrating Tate Modern's 10th birthday is a monologue performed by Sidney Sloane, (well-known to younger listeners as a CBeebies TV presenter). He plays Anthony, an art-lover with a particular interest in one of Tate Modern's most celebrated installations: The Pack, by the German artist Joseph Beuys.
An astonishing creation, in which 24 sledges are arranged behind the open rear-door of a Volkswagen Campervan, it captivates him completely. In this story he struggles to determine the truth behind its conception.
Written by Roy Apps
Read by Sidney Sloane
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:45 The Good Samaritan (b00mw5n5)
The Butterfields' Story
3. The Butterfield's Story.
Jane and Ashley Butterfield used to organise railway tours of India. Distressed by the sight of children living rough near railway lines, they set up their own charity to run a home for girls on the outskirts of Delhi.
Producer John Byrne.
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00s9f5l)
Evacuation
In 1939 over three quarters of a million unattended schoolchildren left Britain's towns for the supposed safety of the countryside. They were the first wave of evacuees and they stunned their rural hosts with their combination of lice, bedwetting, bad table manners, dirtiness, inadequate clothing and malnutrition. For the first time the realities of urban deprivation were brought out of the shadows of the city and into the light of public opinion. What effect did the experience have on social policy in Britain? Laurie Taylor talks to John Welshman, the author of a new book Churchill's Children: The Evacuee experience in war time Britain and also to the social historian Selina Todd.
Also on the programme the extraordinary enthusiasm for the barbecue which gripped America in the years after the war. Laurie talks to Tim Miller about the birth of what has become known as 'Patio Daddy-o'.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b00s97ys)
From the close of polling on Thursday night, the tv news programmes have been competing to provide the best coverage. Neil Midgley of the Telegraph and Emily Bell of the Guardian look back at Thursday night and Friday morning, particularly the BBC's boat party on the Thames. Which broacaster won?
The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh looks back at his attacks on Nick Clegg before the coalition. Does he stand by what he wrote?
David Elstein looks at the the way the coalition will affect the media. Are the Conservative and Liberal Democrat policies too far apart?
And Thomas Kielinger of Die Welt contrasts the UK media's coverage with the way his German colleagues would have covered an election in Germany.
WED 17:00 PM (b00s8kx6)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8kyp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b00s9f90)
Series 2
Kirkwall
The last episode in the series sees the comedian visits Kirkwall in Orkney and encounters Thorfinn The Skullsplitter; an extraordinarily violent ball game and why it's pointless being a hairdresser on the island.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b00s8kcy)
Jennifer's impressed by Kenton's transformation of Jaxx. Later, Kenton shows Elizabeth some pictures of Meriel, and insists that he'll go to see her as soon as he's not so busy with Jaxx.
At work in the Orangery, Pip tells Elizabeth about her row with Jude last night. Elizabeth suggests Pip stay for supper, then she can revise at Lower Loxley. Grateful for the chance to escape, Pip accepts, but then worries that she's letting Jude down. Elizabeth advises her that if Jude doesn't see her for a couple of days, it'll be all the more special when he does.
Lilian invites Paul to the Dower House. She explains Matt's plans for their new business, and asks his opinion. Paul feels conflicted. He wants the best for her, but his feelings for her are deepening. Lilian accepts his advice on how they might make the business work. As Paul leaves, Jennifer turns up. She tells Lilian that Peggy's been for lunch with Ted, and really enjoyed herself, but what Jennifer really wants to discuss is the nature of Lilian's relationship with Paul. Lilian tersely insists that she's looking forward to Matt coming home next week. At the moment that's all she's thinking about.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b00s8zd0)
Russell Crowe, Ashes to Ashes and the Archbishop of Canterbury
Russell Crowe talks to Mark Lawson about playing Robin Hood in Ridley Scott's new prequel.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, discusses 400 years of the library of his official residence, Lambeth Palace.
Ashes to Ashes writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham on winding up the final series.
And Love the Sinner, a new play at the National Theatre, which focuses on the tensions around the ordination of homosexual priests in the Anglican church.
Producer Nicki Paxman.
WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmtz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
WED 20:00 Devil's Advocate (b00s9f92)
Terrorism
Two guest speakers are invited to turn their established views on their head and debate the contrary position.
The motion is: "Terrorism can only truly be defeated by ignoring it in our everyday lives."
The debate will explore the strategies and ideologies behind the war on terror: is it real or a construct made by governments, and if so for what gains?
Speaking in favour of the motion is former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, who spent almost six years in the Ministry of Defence during Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister and was responsible for much of the government's response to terrorism threats after 9/11.
Speaking against the motion is Jamie Bartlett from the think tank DEMOS, who in the past have argued that the state have overreacted to terrorism.
Richard Hollingham presents.
The programme is recorded in front of an invited audience at Judge Business School in Cambridge.
Producers: David Prest and Rose de Larrabeiti
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:45 What the Election Papers Say (b00s9f94)
Episode 12
BBC Radio 4 brings back a much loved TV favourite - What the Election Papers Say. It does what it says on the tin. Each programme will see a leading political journalist take a wry look at how the broadsheets and red tops treat the biggest stories of the campaign.
Hear all about it - with Assistant Editor of the Guardian Michael White.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b00s9fgy)
Rethinking Climate Change
Could there be a better way to fight climate change? A group of top scientists has become exasperated with fighting what they see as a losing battle against carbon dioxide emissions. They want to open an entirely new front.
2009 was a depressing year for anyone who felt a sense of urgency in tackling climate change. The failure of the Copenhagen summit to agree international action was bookended by a series of scandals which seemed to undermine the credibility of some of the associated science.
For many of the scientists intimately involved with climate analysis the events of 2009 were the ultimate stamp of failure on a long process that had done little to convince public or politicians of the need to act and nothing to actually turn back global warming. These scientists, authors of the Hartwell Paper published on the 11th of May, believe that they need to start afresh if we are to have any hope of success.
They point out the obvious failure to reach multi-national agreements on curbing emissions. Future strategy, they say, should be led by individual groups, governments and temporary alliances. Efforts should focus on practical solutions that bring other benefits alongside emission-control. If a strategy brings about poverty reduction or economic renewal then it is much more likely to attract widespread support than any programme labelled as 'anti-climate change'.
The group also believes that the focus on carbon dioxide has been mis-guided from the start. They estimate that more than half of man-made warming can be attributed to sources other than the burning of coal, gas and oil, and most of those emissions are easier to reduce. We should tackle black soot, reactive nitrogen and methane before we make the kind of tough decisions needed to fight carbon dioxide.
In 'Costing the Earth' Tom Heap conducts a thorough examination of the new approach with experts including author Bjorn Lomborg, the UN's Yvo de Boer and climate negotiators from Oxfam and WWF. He asks if it's right to abandon all the efforts made over the last decade. Can we really save the planet without every major nation signed up to the same plan?
WED 21:30 Midweek (b00s944x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b00s90xl)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00s911x)
National and international news and analysis.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00s91kf)
No And Me
Episode 3
Lou tries to enlist No's help with her class presentation.
Emerald O'Hanrahan reads from this tale of adolescence and homelessness, set in contemporary Paris.
Read by Emerald O'Hanrahan
Written by Delphine de Vigan
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
The producer is Rosalynd Ward.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 The Shuttleworths (b00s9fh0)
Series 5
Tale of a Toaster
John's wife Mary starts bidding for a fancy toaster on the internet, complete with crumb tray, but John becomes obsessed that she'll be outbid.
The Shuttleworths is written and performed by Graham Fellows, and the series is produced by Dawn Ellis.
WED 23:15 One (b00n1jtk)
Series 3
Episode 1
Sketch show written by David Quantick, in which no item features more than one voice.
With Graeme Garden, Dan Maier, Johnny Daukes, Deborah Norton, Katie Davies, Dan Antopolski, Andrew Crawford and David Quantick.
WED 23:30 What Scientists Believe (b00p6t2b)
Episode 1
Philosopher Stephen Webster investigates the links between scientists' personal beliefs and their scientific work. He wants to know how an individual scientist's personal, psychological and intellectual qualities map onto their chosen area of science. How much of a scientist's personality is reflected in their work? Should subjective private beliefs be a part of objective scientific outcomes? What happens if tensions develop between a scientist's beliefs and the formal demands of science? If tensions arise, how can they be resolved?
Stephen meets medical consultant Philip Kilner. Philip first trained as a doctor and then left medicine and retrained as a sculptor, concentrating on water sculptures and fluid dynamics. He then returned to medicine.
Philip is now a Consultant and Reader in Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. One of his water sculptures, Single Cavity Flowform, is on display at the hospital. Philip talks to Stephen about the combination of artistic and scientific insights help him interpret images of the heart.
THURSDAY 13 MAY 2010
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8ghn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00sbmjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8gk6)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8gn3)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8glt)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8gpl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s8h2b)
Presented by The Revd Clair Jaquiss.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00s8hhv)
Fight for more European money for farmers, and do more to protect wildlife - just some of the advice offered to the new government to improve farming. Charlotte Smith hears from the RSPB and the Country Land and Business Association. And a report on the plight of the water vole - their numbers have dwindled by 95% over the last few decades, but a reintroduction programme in Devon hopes to help slow their decline.
THU 06:00 Today (b00s8hl3)
With John Humphrys and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 In Our Time (b00s9ftw)
William James's 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'The Varieties of Religious Experience' by William James. The American novelist Henry James famously made London his home and himself more English than the English. In contrast, his psychologist brother, William, was deeply immersed in his American heritage. But in 1901, William came to Britain too. He had been invited to deliver a series of prestigious public lectures in Edinburgh. In them, he attempted a daringly original intellectual project. For the first time, here was a close-up examination of religion not as a body of beliefs, but as an intimate personal experience. When the lectures were printed, as 'The Varieties of Religious Experience', they were an instant success.They laid the ground for a whole new area of study - the psychology of religion - and influenced figures from the psychiatrist Carl Jung to the novelist Aldous Huxley. To date, James's book has been reprinted thirty-six times and has been hailed as one of the best non-fiction books of the twentieth century.With:Jonathan ReeFreelance philosopherJohn HaldaneProfessor of Philosophy at the University of St AndrewsGwen Griffith-DicksonEmeritus Professor of Divinity at Gresham College and Director of the Lokahi FoundationProducer: Natasha Emerson.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00sbmjt)
Jenny Uglow - A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Episode 4
The Restoration is firmly established and trade is flourishing. Charles' next aim is to make England master of the seas. But he's up against fierce competition and war with the Dutch is imminent.
Written by Jenny Uglow
Read by Michael Maloney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00s8hz2)
Presented by Jenni Murray.
An increasing number of women are entering medical school and it's predicted that women will form the majority of UK medics by 2017 but the new president of the Medical Women's Federation says hospitals aren't ready for this changing workforce.
As a new Robin Hood film opens starring Russell Crowe as Robin and Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian - we look at versions of Maid Marian in history. How the American TV series Glee is influencing singing in British choirs and Barbara Trapido discusses her latest novel Sex and Stravinsky.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmv1)
The Donor Trail
Terry
By Richard Monks. Five monologues charting the journey of a donor heart.
Terry's job as a donor transplant co-ordinator is a difficult one; watching people's grief can be tough particularly when Terry has painful memories of his own.
Terry is played by Jeff Hordley
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b00s9g08)
The Pakistani Taliban
The Pakistani army has quashed the Taliban in tribal areas such as Swat by the use of military force. But has the problem of militancy been resolved? And how serious is the threat from Islamist insurgents in the heartlands of Pakistan, particularly the Punjab?
Owen Bennett-Jones investigates the appeal of these movements to young Pakistanis. How much are they about fundamentalist Islam? And how much are they a reaction to grievances about land, jobs and poverty?
Owen travels across the country, meeting both feudal landowners and the young Punjabis who are attracted by the lure of militancy.
Presenter: Owen Bennett-Jones
Producer: Shelley Thakral.
THU 11:30 Why Go? (b00s9g0b)
Chris Ledgard explores the world of the ancient oriental game of Go.
The game of Go expresses "a psychological essence" of the Far East, according to the British Museum's Dr Irving Finkel. It's ancient, but no-one knows quite how old - the claim that it originated 4,000 years ago is open to question. What's beyond doubt is its place in oriental culture. The remarkable cave of Buddhist treasures discovered at Dunhuang on the Silk Road through China included a 6th century Go manual now kept in the British Library. Miniature Go boards and pieces have turned up in ancient burial sites. In the twentieth century, some of Japan's finest writers turned to Go for inspiration, following major games and probing the psychology of the top players. And, as the first atomic bomb fell, two of the world's best exponents of Go were playing a title match on the outskirts of Hiroshima.
But Go is little known in the West. This is in spite of the efforts of one of the two players in what became known as the Atom Bomb Game, Iwamoto Kaoru, who spent his later years setting up Go Centres in Europe and the Americas.
In Why Go?, Chris Ledgard explores the world of Go, talking to experts in the East and West about the game's history and culture, and examining some its ancient artefacts. Dr Finkel discusses Go's place in the history of games. After Go, he says, "you could argue that the world's board games went downhill." Susan Whitfield, the Director of the International Dunhuang Project, brings the fifteen hundred year Go manual out of storage and explains how it was discovered and what it tells us. Britain's two foremost experts on the game describe how they got hooked, and Chris Ledgard visits Amsterdam to examine Iwamoto Kaoru's legacy and find out why, in spite of all the time and money he spent, relatively few people in Europe play the game.
Go's Chinese name is weiqi, which is often translated as "the surrounding game". It's a game of co-existence. Two players, one with black stones the other with white, place their pieces on the intersections of a board marked with 19 x 19 lines. The aim is to secure territory and the emphasis is on long-term strategy, subtlety, and not bludgeoning your opponent. Rob Foster, a translator of the Dunhuang manal, describes the game as "a conversation...it's hand talk".
And the programme addresses the key question of whether - as some argue - Go reflects aspects of oriental thinking and is a game few western players really understand.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.
THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00s8jx6)
Winifred Robinson reveals the government helplines that keep you waiting - and in some cases, never answer your call at all.
THU 12:57 Weather (b00s8k60)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b00s8k9f)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b00s8kcy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b00s9g1y)
Mark Wheatley - So You Want to Disappear
By Mark Wheatley
Fraser once tracked clients who jumped bail. Then he added a little twist to the business by helping people disappear instead, which is why Kathryn gives him a call.
Kathryn ..... Lia Williams
Fraser ..... Neil Pearson
Ali ..... Tessa Nicholson
Mitch ..... Michael Shelford
Kyle ..... Miche Doherty
Producer: Eoin O'Callaghan.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b00s7qs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
06:07 on Saturday]
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00s8dj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:55 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00sbn8z)
Tales From Tate Modern
Shifting Sand
To celebrate Tate Modern's 10th anniversary in May 2010, BBC Radio 4 has commissioned three writers to respond to the art museum, in three distinctive ways.
The last in the series is a satirical monologue performed by Nicholas Boulton. He plays an un-named conceptual artist, desperately trying to complete his latest installation, Sand. It could all go horribly wrong, but for the talent and ingenuity of his young assistant, Eve.
Written by Cathy Feeny
Read by Nicholas Boulton
Producer: David Blount
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 15:45 The Good Samaritan (b00n0wyt)
Gordon's Story
4/5 Gordon's Story.
Dominic Arkwright meets people who have lent a helping hand, including the man who stopped by the roadside to help some swans in distress, only to have his luxury car stolen.
Producer John Byrne.
THU 16:00 Open Book (b00s8dts)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:30 Material World (b00s9gbn)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. This week the dangers of deep water exploration. How do engineers drill wells into the rock below the sea bed? How do they overcome the different currents that drag the mile long steel tube in different directions?
The maths behind electoral reform - is there such a thing as a fair voting system?
The fourth of our finalists from our science talent search "So you want to be a scientist?" meets her mentor and decides on how best to track snails from her garden.
And fifty years of the laser - what will be next fifty bring - we find out if nuclear fusion is a reality?
The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.
THU 17:00 PM (b00s8kx8)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8kyr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show! (b00h8n6q)
Series 4
Charley Ant
Count Arthur Strong prepares to gatecrash an audition for "Charley's Aunt". Unable to find his make-up bag, he enlists the help of his acting student protege, Malcolm, to help put the finishing touches to his costume. Dashing or disastrous, which will it be?
We once again follow the one-time Variety Star as he uncompromisingly fulfils his daily list of engagements. Everyday life with Count Arthur Strong is, as always, an enlightening experience!
All Tourettic ticks, false starts and nervous fumbling, badly covered up by a delicate sheen of bravado and self-assurance, Arthur is an expert in everything from the world of entertainment to the origins of the species.
Cast:
Steve Delaney
Alastair Kerr
David Mounfield
Mel Giedroyc
Terry Kilkelly
Produced by John Leonard and Mark Radcliffe
A Komedia Entertainment & Smooth Operations production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b00s8kd0)
Eddie and Joe find a nice little earner, and David perfects the art of compromise.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b00s8zd2)
Boy George TV biopic, Art Fund Prize shortlist, video game music
Set at the heart of the 80's music scene, Worried About The Boy is a TV biopic which tells the story of a young Boy George, dreaming of living a life filled with originality and passion, and of becoming a star. Kirsty Lang and music critic Alexis Petridis review the new drama, and assess the way it portrays an iconic figure and the cultural era he epitomised.
Kirsty Young, this year's chair of judges for the Art Fund Prize, announces the shortlist for the best museum or gallery in the UK, the winner of which will receive £100,000.
Israeli film-maker Samuel Maoz served as a gunner in a tank in the first Lebanon War of 1982, and he has recreated the tension and horror of that experience in his new film Lebanon. Maoz discusses the film, which won the Golden Lion Award at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, and why he set it almost entirely in the claustrophobic interior of a tank in hostile territory.
With the Ivor Novello awards recognising video game music with the creation of a new award, we talk to Ivor and Bafta nominated composers Joris De Man and James Hannigan about composing soundtracks for video games.
THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmv1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 A Celebration for Ascension Day (b00s9gbq)
A Celebration for Ascension Day
The Very Revd June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, is the preacher at this service live from St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, celebrating Christ's ascension into heaven. Featuring music from Vivaldi's 'Gloria' sung by the BBC Daily Service Singers and St Martin's Choir with Sinfonia Britannica, directed by Andrew Earis.
Celebrant: The Revd Nicholas Holtam
Organist: Martin Ford
Producer: Simon Vivian.
THU 21:00 Saving Species (b00s936v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:30 In Our Time (b00s9ftw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b00s90xn)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00s911z)
More Liberal Democrats join the government . Can the party retain a distinctive voice ?
Ireland's lessons on how to cut public spending.
Why Afghanistan's failed poppy crop could undermine the Taliban.
With Robin Lustig.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00s91kh)
No And Me
Episode 4
Lou Bertignac is 13. She has an IQ of 160 and a deep fear of standing in front of her classmates at school. While Lou makes her presentation to the class, No goes missing.
Emerald O'Hanrahan reads from this tale of adolescence and homelessness, set in contemporary Paris.
Read by Emerald O'Hanrahan
Written by Delphine de Vigan
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
The producer is Rosalynd Ward.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 The Music Teacher (b00s9gbs)
Series 1
Episode 2
An aural feast of a musical comedy written by and starring 2009 Writers' Guild Award winner Richie Webb as long suffering multi-instrumentalist music teacher Nigel Penny. Featuring Vicki Pepperdine as Arts Centre Manager Belinda.
Shut away in a tiny windowless practice room in a regional arts centre, music teacher Nigel Penny endures his usual succession of bizarre pupils whilst wrestling with the latest curveball thrown at him by panicked Arts Centre manager, Belinda.
Episode 2 sees Nigel faced with having to up the rate he charges his students; but he finds his negotiating skills somewhat thwarted by a guitarist with no strings, a Cameo tribute act and possibly the world's most confusing busker.
Belinda meanwhile is struggling to cope with the Arts Centre's new emergency procedures - and therefore so is everyone else.
Cast:
Nigel Penny ..... Richie Webb
Belinda ..... Vicki Pepperdine
Other roles by Dave Lamb, Jim North and Jess Robinson.
Written by Richie Webb.
Producer: Richie Webb
Director: Nick Walker
A Top Dog Production for BBC Radio 4
THU 23:15 My Teenage Diary (b00jj13t)
Series 1
Russell Kane
My Teenage Diary is a six-part comedy series in which fully-grown comedians are given the chance to revisit their formative years by opening up their deeply intimate teenage diaries, and reading them out in public for the very first time.
Hosted by Rufus Hound.
Rufus is joined by comedian Russell Kane, whose detailed accounts of everyday life as a teenager, combined with anger-fuelled poetry displays just what it is to be unpopular, unattractive and unlucky in love.
Producer: Victoria Payne
A talkbackTHAMES production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 What Scientists Believe (b00p945q)
Episode 2
Philosopher Stephen Webster investigates the links between scientists' personal beliefs and their scientific work. He wants to know how an individual scientist's personal, psychological and intellectual qualities map onto their chosen area of science. How much of a scientist's personality is reflected in their work? Should subjective private beliefs be a part of objective scientific outcomes? What happens if tensions develop between a scientist's beliefs and the formal demands of science? If tensions arise, how can they be resolved?
Stephen meets Clare Lloyd, Professor of Respiratory Immunology, who runs a busy medical research lab at Imperial College, London. Her lab investigates asthma and how allergens can inflame nasal airways, especially in small babies. Clare talks to Stephen about the pressures of running a research lab, and how she goes about providing her team with a productive working environment. As a Principal Investigator, Clare has to encourage and inspire her researchers. She also has to secure finance for her research projects and make sure the lab runs smoothly and effectively, because ultimately, Clare's success as a scientist will be judged by her academic results.
FRIDAY 14 MAY 2010
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00s8ghq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00sbmjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00s8gk8)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00s8gn5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00s8glw)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00s8gpn)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00s8h2d)
Presented by The Revd Clair Jaquiss.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00s8hhx)
Farm subsidies now cost each tax-payer £70 per year. Charlotte Smith hears 29 farm businesses received more than £1 million in subsidy last year. And as the butterfly numbers continue to decline, some farmers are making it a priority to help boost their numbers. Farming Today visits a project in Devon, where the wildlife trust is working with farmers to create new butterfly habitats .
FRI 06:00 Today (b00s8hl5)
With Evan Davis and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b00s8djk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00sbmjw)
Jenny Uglow - A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration
Episode 5
After The Great Fire of London in 1666, rebuilding work began with a vengeance. But elsewhere, all is not well and Charles is about to take the biggest gamble of his life.
Written by Jenny Uglow
Read by Michael Maloney
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00s8hz4)
Presented by Jenni Murray.
Toulouse-Lautrec is familiar to most of us for his decadent posters of skirt twirling girls dancing the Can Can at The Moulin Rouge. Now a new exhibition 'High Kicks and Low Life: Toulouse-Lautrec Prints', on loan from the British Museum, is reintroducing British audiences to his lesser known works.
The F-Plan, Cabbage Soup, Scarsdale, Atkins and Maple Syrup - all diets we've tried over the years. Now we have The Dukan Diet. Why are we always swept along by the latest craze?
And Compromise - it's the word for of the week after events at Westminster! But what is compromise? How is it acquired? And women are often said to be better at it than men but are they really - where were the women during negotiations at Westminster?
Exam Hell! School exams are now under way until the end of June and it's not only pupils, but parents too who'll be eagerly ticking off the days until that last paper is handed in. How do you avoid the Great Revision Battle?
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmv3)
The Donor Trail
Jean
By Richard Monks. Five monologues charting the journey of a donor heart.
Jean's painful decision to allow her fifteen year old son's heart to be donated was one she never expected to have to make. Now she looks to the future that her son Saul has given to others.
Jean is played by Maxine Peake
Directed by Nadia Molinari.
FRI 11:00 Day One in Number 10 (b00slb8n)
Episode 1
What happens on a Prime Minister's first day in Number Ten? Who does he see? What decisions await him? What is everyone else in Number Ten doing? Peter Hennessy speaks to people who have been there alongside new Prime Ministers from Anthony Eden to David Cameron. Among them are secret servants of the state talking for the first time about some of the most sensitive aspects of a new Prime Minister's inheritance. He hears about Cabinet-making and the first audience with the Queen, and from the man in charge of the Conservative transition team about what was worrying him before the election.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
FRI 11:30 When the Dog Dies (b00s9l4y)
Series 1
The Rival Grandad
Ronnie Corbett reunites with the writers of his hit series Sorry - Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent - for a sitcom about Sandy Hopper, a grandad happily growing old along with his dog Henry and his lodger, Dolores (Liza Tarbuck).
In this third episode, The Rival Grandad, we meet Sandy's grandson Tyson's other Grandad - Rex - who is a popular swashbuckling figure of a man, Tyson's hero and thus the bane of Sandy's life. Sandy's chance to get even comes when he takes Tyson and his sister Zoe to a new Adventure Park featuring dinosaurs, sharks and a great many light-fingered monkeys. Can Sandy's lodger, Dolores, save Sandy from an utter fiasco?
Sandy ..... Ronnie Corbett
Ellie ..... Tilly Vosburgh
Dolores ..... Liza Tarbuck
Tyson ..... Daniel Bridle
Mrs Pompom ..... Sally Grace
Blake ..... Jonathan Aris
Zoe ..... Amelia Clarkson
The producer is Liz Anstee, and this is a CPL production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b00s8jx8)
Peter White finds out how the real Sheriff of Nottingham plans to cash in on the latest Robin Hood film to boost the local economy. So prepare to don your green tights and enjoy medieval banquets and forest tours.
Plus, we'll examine in detail one promise made by our new coalition government. A new 'per flight duty' will replace 'air passenger duty', but how will it affect passengers and airlines?
And we'll bring you poet Ian McMillan's lament to the demise of that most magical musical machine - the juke box.
Also, the Icelandic volcano is still erupting - but has this dramatic event helped or hindered tourism and Iceland's beleaguered economy?
FRI 12:57 Weather (b00s8k62)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b00s8k9h)
National and international news with Shaun Ley.
FRI 13:30 Feedback (b00s9mmj)
Roger Bolton airs listeners' views on BBC radio programmes and policy.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00s8kd0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Drama (b00scql1)
Can You Tell Me the Name of The Prime Minister?
By Martin Jameson
A week after the election, psychiatrist Liz De Souza is called to examine a patient at a secure government research facility. Disorientated and confused, he is convinced that Tony Blair is still Prime Minister. A Science Fiction mystery.
Liz De Souza...........Amita Dhiri
Sarah De Souza........Suzanna Hamilton
Mal ......................Jude Akuwudike
Greer.....................Tony Bell
Thorpe..................David Seddon
Debbie Campbell......Christine Kavanagh
Director: Jeremy Mortimer.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00s9xwr)
A correspondence edition presented by Eric Robson with Anne Swithinbank, Bunny Guinness & Pippa Greenwood. How good are supermarket bedding plants? We also bring you an update on our tomato trials at Sparsholt College.
Producer: Lucy Dichmont
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 The Good Samaritan (b00n52kx)
Jamie's Story
Dominic Arkwright talks to the Sheffield man who came to the rescue of a distraught teenager.
Producer John Byrne.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00s9xwt)
On Last Word this week:
Peter Heathfield. As General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers he stood four square behind Arthur Scargill - who pays tribute - during the strike of the 1980s.
Also the singer and actress Lena Horne who rose above racial discrimination to become an international star.
The ultra Orthodox Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, who was strongly opposed to Zionism and the state of Israel and became an advisor to Yasser Arafat.
Marguerite Garden the fourteen year old girl who carried secret messages for the French resistance and saved the lives of many British airmen.
And Peter O'Donnell who created the cartoon adventures of Modesty Blaise - the daring action woman with fans around the world.
FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00s9xww)
The star of Gigi, Leslie Caron, discusses her star spangled career with Francine Stock.
Memorable as the unmarried mother in the groundbreaking British drama The L-Shaped Room, Caron discusses working with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Cary Grant in the golden age of Hollywood.
FRI 17:00 PM (b00s8kxb)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00s8kyt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b00s9xwy)
Series 71
Episode 5
Sandi Toksvig presents another episode of the ever-popular topical panel show. Guests this week are Phill Jupitus, Jeremy Hardy, Andy Hamilton, and Susan Calman.
Produced by Sam Bryant.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00s8kd2)
WRITTEN BY ..... CAROLINE HARRINGTON
DIRECTED BY ..... KATE OATES
EDITOR ..... VANESSA WHITBURN
JILL ARCHER .....PATRICIA GREENE
KENTON ARCHER ..... RICHARD ATTLEE
DAVID ARCHER ..... TIMOTHY BENTINCK
RUTH ARCHER ..... FELICITY FINCH
PIP ARCHER ..... HELEN MONKS
JOSH ARCHER ..... CIAN CHEESBROUGH
ELIZABETH PARGETTER ..... ALISON DOWLING
PAT ARCHER ..... PATRICIA GALLIMORE
HELEN ARCHER ..... LOUIZA PATIKAS
TOM ARCHER ..... TOM GRAHAM
BRIAN ALDRIDGE ..... CHARLES COLLINGWOOD
JENNIFER ALDRIDGE ..... ANGELA PIPER
MATT CRAWFORD ..... KIM DURHAM
LILIAN BELLAMY ..... SUNNY ORMONDE
FALLON ROGERS ..... JOANNA VAN KAMPEN
JOE GRUNDY ..... EDWARD KELSEY
EDDIE GRUNDY ..... TREVOR HARRISON
SUSAN CARTER ..... CHARLOTTE MARTIN
MIKE TUCKER ..... TERRY MOLLOY
VICKY TUCKER ..... RACHEL ATKINS
BRENDA TUCKER ..... AMY SHINDLER
JAZZER McCREARY ..... RYAN KELLY
JUDE SIMPSON ..... PIERS WEHNER
PAUL MORGAN ..... MICHAEL FENTON STEVENS
HARRY MASON ..... MICHAEL SHELFORD.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00s8zd4)
Yes Prime Minister on stage; live report from Cannes
Henry Goodman and David Haig, who are starring as Sir Humphrey and Prime Minister Jim Hacker in a stage version of Yes Prime Minister, discuss what it's like to step into the shoes of Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne who made such an indelible impression in the tv series.
Abi Morgan, author of Sex Traffic, talks about her new tv drama Royal Wedding, set in 1981 on the eve of Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding, and explains why she finds writing television drama much easier than writing stage plays.
Jason Solomons reports live from the Cannes Film Festival.
In the new film Hot Tub Time Machine the eponymous hot tub takes its occupants back to the 1980s. For would-be time-travellers who don't wish to arrive soaking wet, science fiction expert Roger Luckhurst considers the range of other time-machines available on the market.
FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00sbmv3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00s9xx0)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from the University of Brighton. On the panel. the former Labour minister, Roy Hattersley; the former Conservative minister, Douglas Hurd; the Liberal Democrats' Simon Hughes MP; and the newly elected Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas.
Producer: Victoria Wakely.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b00s9xx2)
Britain's New Politics
Simon Schama reflects on the political dramas following the general election and favourably compares the British system for a swift handover of power to the cumbersome American one. He praises the party leaders for managing, ultimately, to rise above the usual partisan rhetoric, and looks forward to a new politics in the spirit of Thomas Paine.
FRI 21:00 Friday Drama (b00scyjq)
Greed All About It
It is 1986 and Alice longs to be taken seriously as a proper journalist. So when Greg 'from management' takes a shine to her and mentions that he is involved in setting up a new newspaper in a high tech office in Wapping, she senses an opportunity.
A sharp, satirical look at the Wapping dispute by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Part of the Eighties season on TV and Radio.
Alice ..... Sally Hawkins
Ted ..... Ron Cook
Greg ..... Richard Dillane
Harry ..... Clive Russell
Eileen ..... Marion Bailey
Andy ..... Freddie White
Charles ..... Nigel Hastings
Graham ..... John Biggins
Reporter ..... Keely Beresford
Producer Gary Brown.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b00s90xq)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00s9121)
William Hague meets Hillary Clinton in Washington. Can a Poodle become a Bulldog ?
Thailand's government fires on 'Red Shirt' protestors. Can there be a deal for new elections ?
The great European bailout hasn't stopped the euro from falling.
With Robin Lustig.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00s91kk)
No And Me
Episode 5
Lou makes a bold proposition to her parents.
Emerald O'Hanrahan reads from this tale of adolescence and homelessness, set in contemporary Paris.
Read by Emerald O'Hanrahan
Written by Delphine de Vigan
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
The producer is Rosalynd Ward.
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b00s93v3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 What Scientists Believe (b00pd299)
Episode 3
Philosopher Stephen Webster investigates the links between scientists' personal beliefs and their scientific work. He wants to know how an individual scientist's personal, psychological and intellectual qualities map onto their chosen area of science. How much of a scientist's personality is reflected in their work? Should subjective private beliefs be a part of objective scientific outcomes? What happens if tensions develop between a scientist's beliefs and the formal demands of science? If tensions arise, how can they be resolved?
In this programme, Stephen meets zoologist Andrew Gosler. For more than 25 years, Andrew has been studying the Great Tit population in Wytham Wood near Oxford. Andrew greatly respects the animals he studies and the environment they inhabit. He finds inspiration working so closely with nature, and that inspiration motivates his scientific enquiries. But Andrew accepts that scientific description can only ever provide a partial description of reality. Science will never encapsulate Andrew's own, private and unique relationship with the world he studies.