SATURDAY 17 JULY 2010

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b00t0k9t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b00szv9g)
Hampton Sides - Hellhound on His Trail

Breakthrough

Hampton Sides' compelling new book sheds fresh light on the assassination of Martin Luther King and the hunt for his killer, James Earl Ray. In today's episode, the FBI's manhunt for King's killer has made an exciting breakthrough - they now know that the real name of their prime suspect. But they first need to pursue him to London, where he is hiding out under another new identity - that of 'Ramon Sneyd'.

Read by Christian Camargo and Clarke Peters.

Abridged by Viv Beeby

Produced by Emma Harding

The book: Hellhound on his Trail was published in the UK on 3rd June 2010 by Allen Lane.

The readers: Christian Camargo is an American actor, probably best known for his role as Brian Moser in the Showtime drama series Dexter. He also appeared in the Oscar winning 2009 film, The Hurt Locker as head psychiatrist Lieutenant Colonel John Cambridge. In summer 2010, he is playing Ariel in the Bridge Project's production of The Tempest at the Old Vic Theatre, London.

Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer and director, who is probably best known for playing Detective Lester Freamon in the HBO drama series, The Wire. He also appeared in the second series of Damages. He has numerous West End and Broadway credits and was nominated for a Tony award for writing the book of the musical revue, Five Guys Named Moe.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t0kdn)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t0kdq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t0kds)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b00t0kdv)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t0kdx)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b00t0kdz)
"I went back to my room... and wept." Hugh Sykes talks about working from Iraq and how he picked an idea sent in by an iPM listener as the basis for a special report. With Eddie Mair.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b00t0kf1)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b00t0lw4)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b00t0lw6)
Lough Neagh

Helen Mark is in Northern Ireland where she takes to the waters of Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the UK, measuring over 20 miles long, nine miles wide and containing over 800 billion gallons of water! Six major rivers flow into the Lough and only one, the River Bann, flows out. Five of the six counties which make up Northern Ireland have shores on the Lough which is also a source of fresh water to many people. Eel fishing on the lough has played a huge part in the lives of local people for centuries whilst the lake is also at the forefront of the sand extraction industry. Yet although the lough has been described as extremely enigmatic, it has remained very much a place of extraction with very little put back in to it over the years. Seven years ago, a group of local people came together to do something about this and recently their hard work was rewarded when the Lough Neagh Partnership received an award for Outstanding Achievement.
Helen hears from some of the people involved and starts her journey by boarding the Island Warrior from Sandy Bay to Rams Island, formerly a rat-infested strip of land on the lough and now a haven for wildlife and a popular tourist spot. She hears from Gerry Darby about why the Lough Neagh Partnership was formed and also from Island Warrior skipper and volunteer, Michael Savage, about the labour of love carried out to transform Rams Island. Helen then continues her journey around the shore hearing from heritage officer and archaeologist, Moira O'Rourke about some of the stories she has unearthed in her shoreline walks and from Kieran Breen of the Lough Neagh Heritage Boating Association about his passion for keeping alive the age-old spirit of the Lough Neagh by building some of the old traditional working boats used on the lough.
Helen rounds off her day along the shores with a visit to Coney Island, the only inhabited island on the lough, where she hears from the island's only inhabitant about the changes he has seen during his 12 years on Coney.

Producer: Helen Chetwynd.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b00t0sm5)
Farming Today This Week

Charlotte Smith and the Farming Today team have spent the last few days living in a caravan and experiencing the life of a seasonal farm worker: getting up early, picking and packing fruit, getting to grips with day to day life on the farm, and life in a different country.

The soft fruit industry in the UK is worth millions of pounds. The strawberry industry alone is worth £400 million and each year 650,000 tonnes of strawberries are picked in the UK. Each year, more than 21,000 workers from Romania and Bulgaria travel to the UK for agricultural work. The British public are, it seems, too posh to pick.

At the end of a week of hard grafting, Charlotte Smith reports from Windmill Hill Farm in Herefordshire and meets the workers who make sure our supermarket shelves are full of juicy, ripe fruit throughout the summer and reflects on what it is like to be work on a farm in the UK.

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b00t0sm7)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b00t0sm9)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Justin Webb, including:
07:50 Labour leadership contender Dianne Abbot.
08:10 A looming crisis for university funding?
08:30 UK attitude to torture under examination.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b00t0smc)
Fi Glover is joined by Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts, poet Salena Godden and fossil hunter Dean Lomax; Alastair Campbell shares his Inheritance Tracks and Robert Elms eats the world on one London street.

The producer is Debbie Kilbride.


SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b00t0smf)
Jamaica has a reputation as a dangerous place to visit for tourists but is it deserved? Sandi Toksvig talks to prize winning author Ian Thomson about whether poverty and violence are as prevalent as they are painted and if the beauty of the island is overlooked. She also asks journalist Lindsay Johns about the musical culture and whether, as an Anglo African, he feels a connection with Jamaica.

Sandi also talks to artist Layla Curtis about her project with the Penan people of Sarawak. She has been studying the way the hunter gatherers move about the jungle and, to do so, spent time living and travelling with them through the rainforests of Borneo. She gives Sandi a unique insight into their ancient lifestyle on Excess Baggage.

Producer: Harry Parker.


SAT 10:30 My Politician is Funnier Than Yours (b00t0smh)
30 years ago when alternative comedy first developed as a scene, the target of its anger was clear - Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party. Political comedy was all based around Westminster because the decisions made there affected everyone in the UK. In My Politician Is Funnier Than Yours - comedian Ava Vidal looks at how devolution has changed the way we laugh at our politicians. As power has moved from Westminster to Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, she explores whether comedy has followed it and whether politicians are viewed in any way differently in each place. And as Westminster adapts to a new Government, is the content of political comedy here due for a change too? Is there such a thing as national political satire anymore?

Ava talks to established comedians like Jeremy Hardy, one of the few veteran political satirists who has never compromised his left wing ideals, yet has managed to become a national treasure at the same time. Producer Bill Dare has been behind some of the biggest topical comedy shows on TV and Radio - he has little time for satire these days. Tommy Sheppard was in London for the start of the alternative comedy scene, he's now behind the thriving Scottish stand up scene; managing clubs and comedians - he says Scotland now has its own place to have a political comedy scene.

Producer: Rachel Hooper.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b00t0smk)
The Daily Mail's Andrew Pierce asks how backbenchers will react to spending cuts in the rapidly dawning age of austerity. With the Conservative, Ian Liddell -Grainger, and Labour's Barry Gardiner, he looks at the row over the government's decision to save money by axing Labour's school building programme.

After the publication of Lord Mandelson's memoirs, former Labour insiders, Lance Price and Peter Watt asks how far the party will be damaged by revelations which quote Tony Blair as describing Gordon Brown as " mad, bad and dangerous".

There's been an outcry among women MPs about the government's plans to give anonymity to people being investigated for rape. Here, the Conservative, Anna Soubry and Labour's Caroline Flint say why they are opposed to the idea of singling out rape for special attention in this way.

Finally, the Commons sat late into the night while considering the Finance Bill. Are late night sittings coming back into fashion? The former Labour cabinet minister, Margaret Beckett, reflects on the value and the pitfalls of debating into the early hours.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b00t0smm)
From Our Own correspondent sips cold beer by the Amazon with a British missionary who's so angered the authorities in Peru they're trying to have him expelled.

The Balkan republic of Montenegro is one of Europe's newest independent nations. And being a small state in a difficult neighbourhood, it's keen to make some powerful friends. Some believe that becoming a member of the NATO military club might be the answer to Montenegro's security worries. But there's a problem. As Humphrey Hawksley explains, not so long ago..for Montenegrins...NATO was very much the enemy.

When the Peruvian government looks at the Amazon jungle, it sees vast potential. Money is being poured into mining and other projects. But the Peruvian Amazon's indigenous people see the jungle very differently. It sustains their way of life, and they fear that those who exploit the rainforest will do terrible damage. And the tribes have found an ally..a British missionary. His campaign to protect the jungle so angered the government that it ordered his expulsion. A judge overturned the order, but the authorities are appealing his decision. Our correspondent Dan Collyns set off for the remote city of Iquitos, and a meeting with Peru's troublesome priest..

As he rose to power the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy cast himself as bringer of change. He presented himself as a moderniser -- a man ready to break with tradition. And if past French presidents always seemed rather remote and aloof..then Mr Sarkozy's style has certainly been rather different. He's always been more than ready to engage with .. and try to use... the media to his own ends. Emma Jane Kirby been considering the often fraught relationship between the president and the press...and it's impact on French journalism.

At first glance, the desert shores of north Africa have very little in common with the much greener coastlines of northern Europe and North America. But with a bit of imagination, you might just begin to see connections....in geological terms at least. The mountains of Morocco, Scotland and New England all sit on the rim of the vast basin that is the North Atlantic. And as Simon Winchester has been finding out, there are plans now to link these very different locations in an extraordinary way....


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b00t0wdx)
Paul Lewis brings you the latest news from the world of personal finance.

We'll find out why some Northern Rock mortgage customers are being charged thousands of pounds because they want to move home.

A Treasury Minister will explain radical government proposals to change the way people plan for their retirement.

And he likes to use Led Zeppelin to explain his views on the economy - we'll speak to the Bank of England monetary policy member who thinks its time to raise interest rates.

And we'll assess if free bus passes for the over 60s should be scrapped to save government cash.

Producer: Monica Soriano.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b00t0k7c)
Series 31

Episode 5

Education reform, the internet and 24 hour rolling news all draw fire this week.

Are we going to have to send our children to school in converted chip shops?

Plus 30 million of us have broadband access at home (or careless neighbours) and an ex-footballer, a can of larger, a chicken and a fishing rod? Really?

Stand-up guest, Holly Walsh, rages against the coming Proms season and Irish hip-hop improvisers, Abandoman, brainstorm excuses for staying home from work.

To take part in the show's Audience Question search for #nowshow on Twitter.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b00t0wdz)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b00t0wf1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b00t0k7f)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from Wimbledon Reform Synagogue, with questions for the panel, including the writer AA Gill; joint general-secretary of the Unite union, Derek Simpson; the Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond; and the Labour Peer and barrister, Helena Kennedy.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b00t0wf3)
Jonathan Dimbleby takes listeners' calls and emails in response to this week's edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b00t0wf5)
The Moscow Prodigal

Vasily returns to Moscow after ten years in England. His attempts to build a new life there have not been a success - he has been eking out an existence as a minicab driver. At the airport he is met by his childhood friend, Andrei, who now works for the Minister of the Interior. Andrei's expansive manner and expensive air of money and power seem to hint at a more thuggish way of climbing the ladder.

Back at his mother's flat Vasily embraces his brother, but there is little brotherly love. Whilst their ailing mother celebrates her eldest son's return Vasily begins to calculate the value of her central Moscow flat. His brother Sasha simmers with resentment at the way he has been left to care for their mother, but he still has scruples when Vasily explains his plans to profit from the sale of the flat. Soon Vasily is drawn into the world of new money and old power struggles which his friend Andrei is all too keen to introduce him to.

"The Moscow Prodigal" strips away contemporary Russia's veneer of newly acquired wealth to expose the brutal networks of self-interest where ties of friendship and family are all too easily broken by the lure of easy dollars.

This is the first of three plays in the mini-season "Russia Actualnyi" which sets out to explore life in Russia now.

Written by Michael Butt based on an original idea by Vitaly Yerenkov.
Technical production by Scott Lehrer, Grammy winner and Tony winner for Broadway theatre sound design; Music specially composed by Gene Pritzker.

Directed by Judith Kampfner
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 15:30 Jazz in the Open Air (b00szz26)
Jazz, a music first played in small clubs and now found in large concert halls, also has a long history of heading for the great outdoors.

Kevin LeGendre charts the story of jazz in the open air, starting with a teenage Louis Armstrong leading the band from the Home for Colored Waifs through the streets of New Orleans almost a century ago.

Other legendary jazz performers who swapped smoky interiors for notable fresh air appearances include Duke Ellington, who transformed the fortunes of his orchestra with a storming show at the Newport jazz festival in 1956, and saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who spent months practising high amongst the girders of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City.

Kevin also hears from musician Gary Bartz, who formed a band without a piano player so that they were free to perform anywhere, and so could escape from the restrictions of the music industry. Offering the other side of the story, the acclaimed singer Bobby McFerrin reveals why he tries to avoid all outdoor performances. And bringing the story right up to the present, Kevin joins saxophonist Soweto Kinch under a flyover in Birmingham, where he has promoted a music festival amidst the concrete and thundering traffic for the past three years.

Producer John Goudie.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b00t0wr0)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Presented by Jane Garvey. Dame Anne Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, on stepping down after nine years. Is the new 'Men's Hour' on Radio 5 Live a good idea? Germanic women and their historic portrayal as warriors. The rise and rise of the mum blogger. Is the International Baccalaureate a better option than 'A' levels? Child soldiers in Uganda and men in heels.


SAT 17:00 PM (b00t0wr2)
Saturday PM

Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Ritula Shah, plus the sports headlines.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b00t0gb2)
Evan Davis presents the business magazine, where business leaders discuss the issues that matter - from the boardroom to the shop floor, from building success to handling failure.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00t0wr4)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b00t0wr6)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t0wr8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b00t0wrb)
Clive Anderson and guests with an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy.

Clive is joined by one of the most successful female artists of the sixties, pop icon Sandie Shaw. She'll be reclaiming songs sung by men that should've been sung by women. She's joined by special guests Sophie Ellis Bextor and Mica Paris and they're just one of the performances at the brand new festival celebrating British music, art and style, Vintage at Goodwood.

The playwright, composer, musician and lyricist and man behind Blood Brothers talks about having his own season at Londons Trafalgar Studios. Meera Syal, Tim Piggot Smith and Laura Dos Santos will soon be treading the boards in Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. His musical version of Our Day Out starts up in Liverpool in August.

Domestic historian Ruth Goodman goes from Victorian Farms to Victorian Pharmacy on BBC Two. The series explains how high street healthcare emerged from the concocted recipes of apothecaries, herbalists and un-regulated quacks.

Critically acclaimed for his characters on Down the Line and Bellamys People, Felix Dexter gets his Multiple Personalities in Order for his Edinburgh Festival run. Arthur Smith talks to the man behind Early D, The Lion of Harlesden, Aubrey Dubuisson and Julius Olufemwe, Hotel Management student and lover of all things English.

There's music from two of the most talked about artists on the British music scene. Crouch End's indie four-piece Bombay Bicycle Club have gone acoustic for their latest album, Flaws.

And one of this years biggest success stories and the soul influenced sound of the summer, Plan B performs a stripped down version of Prayin' from his No 1 album The Defamation of Strickland Banks.

Producer: Cathie Mahoney.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b00t0wrd)
Rt Rev John Broadhurst

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, the Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith, the mainly Anglo-Catholic organisation opposed to the ordination of women. Traditionalists like Bishop Broadhurst were left more isolated this week after the Church of England's ruling body the General Synod moved one step nearer to the concecration of women bishops. Those close to him say frequent accusations of misogyny have been wounding but are completely misplaced.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b00t0wrg)
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests writers Rowan Pelling and Terence Blacker and playwright Mark Ravenhill review the week's cultural highlights including the film Inception.

In Christopher Nolan's film Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a skilled thief who can steal valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious of his victims while they are dreaming.

Neil Simon's 1971 play The Prisoner of Second Avenue is being revived at the Vaudeville Theatre in London with Jeff Goldblum as Mel - a man forced to the end of his tether by a recession and a heatwave - and Mercedes Ruehl as his wife Edna.

Heartbreak is poet Craig Raine's first novel. Through a series of narratives involving a large cast of characters, Raine explores the different breakages to which the heart is prone.

In 1959 Raymond Cauchetier was engaged by Jean-Luc Godard to take photographs on the set of A Bout du Souffle. A selection of the photographs he took on various film sets over the next ten years have been assembled for the exhibiton La Nouvelle Vague at the James Hyman Gallery in London.

The Normans Season on BBC2 and BBC4 is centred around Professor Robert Bartlett's 3 part historical series The Normans. It also features The Making of King Arthur in which poet Simon Armitage traces the Norman reworking of the Arthurian legend.

Producer Torquil MacLeod.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b00t0wrj)
Dramatising New Labour

What can we learn about New Labour from the way it has been portrayed in drama?

The dramatists have delved into the troubled relationship between Blair and Brown, the events leading up to the Iraq war and its aftermath, the junking of old Labour values, the personalities, the sex scandals, and of course, spin.

They have characterised New Labour and its leading players in comedy, satire, drama, docu-drama and bio-pics. Some Labour politicians even think they have seen a Blair-like figure materialise in Dr Who.

Whilst some dramatists base their work on detailed factual research, others lean heavily on their imagination. But all hope to convey an essential truth about New Labour and its leading players, and indeed sometimes to plug a gap left by conventional journalists.

In this programme Professor Steven Fielding examines these dramas and their impact. He asks what contribution the dramas have made to the way we see New Labour. Do they confuse the viewer about what really happened and what is made up? What is it like for politicians to see themselves portrayed? Do they reveal a deeper truth? How far have they been genuinely revelatory?

The interviewees are former Downing Street spin doctors Alastair Campbell and Lance Price, writers and directors David Hare (Absence of War and other New Labour plays), Alistair Beaton (A Very Social Secretary and The Trial of Tony Blair), Neil McKay (Mo), Peter Kosminsky (The Project and The Government Inspector) and Stephen Frears (The Deal and The Queen), and current and former Labour MPs Clare Short, Adam Ingram, Andrew Mackinlay and Stephen Pound.

The producer is Jane Ashley

Steven Fielding is Director of the Centre for British Politics at the University of Nottingham.


SAT 21:00 Classic Serial (b00syzyl)
PG Wodehouse - Summer Lightning

Episode 2

A star cast in a timeless comedy.

Lord Emsworth's brother, Galahad Threepwood, is writing his memoirs, to the horror and trepidation of all who knew him in their wild youths. Sinister forces at Blandings Castle scheme to halt the scandalous revelations.

Rupert Baxter has been recalled to Blandings by Lady Constance to steal the incriminating maunscript on her behalf. Emsworth's beloved pig, the Empress, has disappeared.

Hugo and Millicent's secret engagement has been broken off. In an attempt to assuage Ronnie's mistaken anger over a nightclub encounter, Sue is now masquerading as an American heiress.

Detective Percy Pilbeam, also ensconced in the castle, plots to steal Galahad's racy memoirs. Beach the butler is nervous about his part in the stolen pig plot.

Will these dilemmas be happily resolved, restoring peace and harmony to Blandings?

Hon. Galahad Threepwood ... Charles Dance
Lady Constance ... Patricia Hodge
Beach ..... Tim Pigott-Smith
Percy Pilbeam ... Matt Lucas
Lord Emsworth ... Martin Jarvis
Hugo Carmody ... Samuel West
Sue Brown ... Lisa Dillon
Ronnie Fish ... Matthew Wolf
Millicent ... Rachael Stirling
Rupert Baxter ... Jared Harris
Mrs Rundle ... Joanna David
Voice of Wodehouse ... Ian Ogilvy

Dramatised by Archie Scottney.

Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b00t0wrl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b00t0d19)
France is the latest European country to talk of banning the burqa - the full Islamic face veil for women. Belgium has already voted for a ban and there's also been talk of similar laws in Holland and Spain. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe and polls there show overwhelming support for the proposal. It's estimated that around 1900 women in France wear the burqa and most do so because they want to. Those in favour of a ban argue that the burqa is a gateway to extremism and an attack on secularism, a central value of modern-day France. For many this is also an issue of protecting women's rights; the burqa they argue, is a symbol of male oppression and as one French law maker is reported to have said, women who wear them must be liberated, even against their will.

The state banning something as personal as what you chose to wear in public is a tricky issue for liberal Western democracies, but can the rush to uncover Europe's most pious Muslims be explained solely by a newfound desire to protect the rights of women? Or is this more about notions of cultural purity and the darker side of humanity in Europe which raises its head from time to time? The fear of the stranger, of shunning those who look different to ourselves - the attitude which can lead to Islamophobia/racism. How far should we compromise our values to accommodate the cultural norms from different faiths and societies?

Michael Buerk chairs with Claire Fox, Clifford Longley, Anne McElvoy and Matthew Taylor.

Witnesses:
Peter Whittle, Director, The New Culture Forum
Mona Eltahaway, Commentator and public lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues
Khola Hasan, Islamic legal consultant
Dr Salman Sayyid, Reader in Sociology at Leeds.


SAT 23:00 Quote... Unquote (b00sznl1)
The quotations quiz hosted by Nigel Rees.

As ever, a host of celebrities will be joining Nigel as he quizzes them on the sources of a range of quotations and asks them for the amusing sayings or citations that they have personally collected on a variety of subjects.

Reader ..... Peter Jefferson.

Produced by Sam Bryant.


SAT 23:30 Poetry Please (b00syzyq)
Roger McGough with your requests, including poems by Kipling, Shelley and Yevtushenko.
Many of the poems in today's programme are about choices. Some are about moral decisions. For instance, Lorna Goodison reads her poem 'For Rosa Parks', about the black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. There are poems about being coerced - like the child in Kipling's 'A Smuggler's Song'. Derek Mahon's 'A Disused Shed in County Wexford' is about the voiceless; those that aren't even heard, let alone have choices to make. W.H Auden urges us all to 'Leap Before You Look', Shelley rages about the state of England in 1819, and Porphyria's Lover makes a terrible decision in a poem by Browning. The readers are Kenneth Cranham and Jonjo O'Neill.
Producer: Sarah Langan.



SUNDAY 18 JULY 2010

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b00t0yt4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b00f9gfc)
Parlez-vous British?

The Taipan

Part of a series of stories revealing the best - and worst - of the Nation's behaviour on foreign soil.

Martin Jarvis reads Somerset Maugham's classic 1922 story The Taipan. A self-satisfied business man lives and works in Hong Kong, where his lifestyle far exceeds anything he could have achieved at home in the UK. But in the Far East, inexplicable - even frightening - things can happen.

Director: Rosalind Ayres
A Jarvis & Ayres Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t0yt6)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t0yt8)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t0ytb)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b00t0ytd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b00t0zsj)
The bells of St. Peter and St. Paul, Tonbridge in Kent.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b00t0wrd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b00t0zsl)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00t0zsn)
The Best Words

Mark Tully talks to poet and novelist Louis de Bernieres about the difference between poetry and prose.

Is poetry, as Coleridge has said, "the best words in the best order"? Is it true that poetry is really better than prose at expressing emotion?

And can poetry really change the world, as at least one writer believes?

Producer: Eley McAinsh
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b00t333j)
Watercress

Watercress is another in a long line of so-called "Superfoods", but this time there's a rigorous study to support its claims. Elinor Goodman visits fourth generation watercress farmer, Tim Jesty and his father Bill on what was once their farm in Dorset to discover how this vegetable is produced. She also discusses the future for the crop with Tom Avery, who now manages their farm on behalf of a co-operative company.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b00t0zss)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b00t0zsv)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b00t0zsx)
Edward Stourton with the religious and ethical news of the week. Moral arguments and perspectives on stories, familiar and unfamiliar.

On this week's programme:

The Vatican issued new rules this week to speed up the handling of sexual abuse charges against Priests. At the same time they also classified attempts to ordain women as "an extremely serious crime against church law." We will speak to Robert Mickens in Rome about the details of the new law and to Pat Brown from the campaigning group Catholic Women's Ordination.

The French Parliament this week voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ban on garments such as the niqab or burka, which incorporate a full-face veil, anywhere in public. We will gauge reaction in France and also ask if the same thing could happen here.

A week after the death of Raoul Moat thousands of people had joined a Facebook page dedicated to the killer. There was also a steady stream of visitors to the spot where he died. Kevin Bouquet reports from Rothbury on the impact on residents and how the local church is helping the community move on.

Haiti is a land of believers, but following January's apocalyptic earthquake, how much has faith been shaken alongside the devastated buildings? The death of the Catholic archbishop of Port Au Prince, was one of the first to be reported in Haiti on the day of the earthquake, and dozens of other clergy lost their lives. Matt Wells reports from the Haitian capital, on the role that faith is playing in the country's slow recovery:

Most British Jews think that Israel should negotiate with Hamas. That's just one of the interesting facts from a study carried out by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. We speak to its Director Jonathan Boyd about whether religious and secular Jews see Israel in a different way.

And did those feet in ancient time? There's another split within Anglicanism, this time over the hymn Jerusalem. Some clergy want to see it used more often while others are banning it from use in weddings. We'll get the thoughts of the Bishop of Wakefield and the Dean of Southwark Cathedral.

Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry? A group of Italian women think so and they have written an open letter to Pope Benedict explaining their thoughts. One of the group is Stefania Salomone and she will tell us why the rules on celibacy need to be changed.

E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk

Series producer: Amanda Hancox.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b00t0zsz)
Hope and Homes for Children

Kate Adie presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.

Donations to Hope and Homes for Children should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope Hope and Homes for Children. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide Hope and Homes for Children 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: 1089490.


SUN 07:58 Weather (b00t0zt1)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b00t0zt3)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b00t0zt5)
Sunday Worship visits the Buxton Festival on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District. Every year the Festival is graced with a series of Orchestral Masses in St John's Church and this morning we hear Mozart's Mass in C K.258 sung by the Buxton Madrigal Singers and Festival soloists. The homily is given by the Bishop of Liverpool, Bishop James Jones and the celebrant is the Revd Christopher Lowdon.
Director of Music: Michael Williams.
Producer: Stephen Shipley.


SUN 08:50 A Point of View (b00t0k7h)
Special Elephants

David Cannadine traces the remarkable history of Asian elephants prompted by the recent auction of colourful models to raise funds for their preservation. He reveals, in particular, the special place occupied by the legendary white elephants of Thailand and how their name became a figure of speech.
Producer: Sheila Cook.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b00t0zt7)
News and conversation about the big stories of the week with Paddy O'Connell.

The government's announced that the UK's international aid budget will now be focused on Afghanistan and less on other countries; we hear from a former Indian Foreign Minister on what a cut in UK aid to India would mean for the country and from Hugh Sykes in Kabul.

As police search for the remains of missing women at a house where the serial killer Peter Tobin used to live, the father of one of his victims, shares his story with us.

The Church of England has moved a step closer to ordaining women bishops, BH asks - do all religions have a problem with women in power?

Apparently Peter Mandelson has a book out - we test enthusiasm for it amongst the reading public.

Kevin Connolly reports from Nashville, Tennessee, as it recovers from recent heavy flooding.

And is going to university really worth it? 17-year-old Adam Eliaz doesnt think so, and tells us why he's started his own business instead.

Reviewing the Sunday papers this week are actress Susannah York, author and historian William Dalrymple and journalist Andrew Pierce.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b00t0zt9)
For detailed synopses, see daily episodes

Written by ..... Joanna Toye
Directed by ..... Kim Greengrass
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
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Kate Aldridge ..... Kellie Bright
Matt Crawford ..... Kim Durham
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Jolene Perks ..... Buffy Davis
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Kathy Perks ..... Hedli Niklaus
Jamie Perks ..... Dan Ciotkowski
Vicky Tucker ..... Rachel Atkins
Roy Tucker ..... Ian Pepperell
Hayley Tucker ..... Lorraine Coady
Phoebe Tucker ..... Lucy Morris
Brenda Tucker ..... Amy Shindler
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Alan Franks ..... John Telfer
Jim Lloyd ..... John Rowe
Izzy ..... Elizabeth Wofford.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b00t0ztc)
Tim Robbins

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Oscar-winning actor, writer and director Tim Robbins.

His film credits include The Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, The Hudsucker Proxy and Mystic River. Brought up in an artistic and creative household in New York's Greenwich Village, he was always encouraged to sing and perform. After talking politics around the dinner table as a teenager he would, on occasion, spend his evenings working the lights for the local drag act.

Indeed it was on stage, rather than in front of the camera, that Tim Robbins developed his own acting style: "It gave me a discipline to still the anarchic energy I had," he says: "A rigid discipline to an emotional truth and the ability to have that at my fingertips."

Producer: Leanne Buckle

Record: A Case of You -Joni Mitchell
Book: A Matchbook
Luxury: A Surfboard.


SUN 12:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b00szxz9)
Series 53

Episode 4

The nation's favourite wireless entertainment pays a return visit to the Sands Centre in Carlisle. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Sandi Toksvig, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment. Producer - Jon Naismith.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b00t0ztf)
Belfast Food Tour

Throughout the Troubles central Belfast was a culinary desert. But peace, and a handful of trailblazing chefs, have sparked a revolution in the city's restaurant and food culture. Sheila Dillon joins the Belfast Bred walking, and eating, tour of the city, in the company of "Barney", a defrosted chef from 'Titanic'.

Created by Kabosh Theatre Company and written by Seth Linder, the play wends its way through shops and restaurants, including Sawers delicatessen, the John Hewitt pub, Mourne Seafood, Nick's Warehouse and ends in the grand St George's market.

Produced by Rebecca Moore.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b00t0zth)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b00t0ztk)
A look at events around the world with Shaun Ley.


SUN 13:30 Grayson Perry on Creativity and Imagination (b00sx8ng)
Grayson Perry is an epitome of creativity: a Turner Prize winning ceramicist who's as famous for his alter-ego Claire as for his pottery.

But what does being creative really mean? He's on a mission to find out.

Talent shows dominate TV schedules and we are taught that everyone can take part, but genuine talent, originality and the idea of learning a traditional arts skill is persistently overlooked he argues.

With the help of some of the most talented people in the business, Grayson Perry will be exploring how the imagination works. Creativity has become the modern buzzword of bureaucrats trying to ensure wider access to the arts. And it has been subject to a lot of mythmaking. Grayson wants to nail down these myths and show how creativity isn't a mystery, but at the same time it isn't necessarily easily accessible.

Writers Terry Pratchett and Rose Tremain, fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and Ray Tallis, poet and neuroscientist all join Grayson on his quest.

(Repeat.)

Producer: Gavin Heard.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00t0k0j)
Chris Beardshaw, Anne Swithinbank and Matthew Biggs answer the questions posed at the Gregynog Festival, Powys, Wales. Eric Robson is the chairman.

We introduce the third GQT listener whose gardening projects we will mentor and revisit over the coming months. Part of our listeners' gardens series.

Producer: Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 Picturing Britain (b00k2dwt)
Series 1

Less is More

There are today a number of companies which specialise in wedding portraits with a difference - artfully lit shots of brides-to-be in posh knickers and veils and the odd football shirt: wedding day gifts for startled grooms. Visiting one of them as the prospective semi-naked wives-to-be prepare for the camera, Adil Ray listens in to the women's conversations about their past, and their hopes and fears about the future.

Producer: Mohini Patel.


SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b00t1016)
Hermann Hesse - The Glass Bead Game

Episode 1

Hermann Hesse's classic novel is set in a futuristic, utopian society. This two-part dramatisation is by Lavinia Greenlaw and stars Derek Jacobi.

Joseph Knecht is a rising star in the Castalian Order, a band of elite intellectuals who live a closeted life of study and Glass Bead Game playing. But Joseph's elevation to one of the highest and most respected ranks of the Order coincides with a crisis of conscience, as his ever deepening doubts about this idealistic and sanitised society threaten to topple its very foundations.

The Glass Bead Game was Hesse's final major work. While recognised in his own lifetime (winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946), he found a new generation of young readers after his death. His work was championed by the heroes of the counter-culture of the 1960s including Timothy Leary, and during the 1970s Hesse became extremely widely read and translated.

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2010.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b00t109n)
Mariella Frostrup talks to novelist Richard Russo about his home town and how its landscape has influenced his writing.

Composer Michael Berkeley and writer Wesley Stace discuss the art of describing the music of a fictional composer.

Nicholas Shakespeare explores the potential dangers of inheriting seventeen million pounds as played out in his new novel Inheritance.

And with three new books devoted to Anne Frank coming out, David Cesarani talks to Mariella about the likely reasons for the enduring fascination with her diary...

Producer Sally Spurring.


SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b00t14pj)
Roger McGough presents listeners' poetry requests, with work by Michael Longley, Edward Thomas and Lavinia Greenlaw. The readers are Kenneth Cranham, Annette Badland and Jonjo O'Neill. Imtiaz Dharker reads her own poem 'Speech Balloon' about that ubiquitous phrase 'Over the Moon.' There are other space-bound poems, including a moving elegy 'For the First Dog in Space.' Michael Longley introduces his grandson to the natural world in his poem 'The Leveret'. Rites of passage in a young person's life are also marked by Billy Collins' poem 'On Turning Ten', read by nine year old Tyler Johnson, and in Roger's own verse written for his daughter Isobel when she passed her first decade. There's also a lament by Edward Thomas about a soldier caught between enemy lines whose relief at his respite is punctuated by sorrow for his fallen comrades.
Producer: Sarah Langan.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b00szzq2)
Arms smugglers

Britain claims to have one of the most effective arms export control regimes in the world, but Allan Urry investigates how weapons dealers are using the UK to get huge secret consignments to the Middle East and other conflict zones, in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions.

Producer: Gail Champion
Editor: David Ross.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b00t0wrd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00t14pl)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b00t14pn)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t14pq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b00t14v9)
Christopher Douglas makes his selection from the past seven days of BBC Radio

On Pick of the week this week - extraordinary revelations about london's polite drivers and cyclists and how the French have begun to envy our capital's effortless style. There are wise words from the top of the Lewisham omnibus and some angry ones from the cricket commentary box. And there's a talking pea.

London - Just Off The Plane - Radio 4
Top Deck Tales - Radio 4
Towering Ambition - Radio 4
Test Match Special - Radio 4
David Jacobs - Radio 2
Saving Species - Radio 4
Tommy Sandhu - Asian Network
Lauren Laverne - 6Music
Through the Night - Radio 3
SE8 - Radio 4
Sarah and Ken - Radio 3
Dick Barton - A Very Special Agent - Radio 4
Night Waves - Radio 3
Imran Khan - 5Live
Desert Island Discs - Radio 4
Simon Gray's Coda - Radio 7
The London Story - Radio 4
Bells on Sunday - Radio 4

PHONE: 0370 010 0400
FAX: 0161 244 4243
Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Cecile Wright.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b00t159n)
Loading up for the Royal Welsh Show, Ruth's worried Pip has gone quiet. But Pip shows up raring to go. She meets her Young Farmers friends and they find a good pitch to camp. Ruth and David are pleased she's having fun - with no mention of Jude. Later, Pip gets ready to party with her pals, as David settles into his sleeping bag.

At the Bull, Brenda tells Kirsty about Tom struggling with his market research on the veal and ham pies. He should give it some time to start showing results. Things are going well at Jaxx, although Kenton's a taskmaster. He just has high expectations, and Kirsty's finding his positive attitude infectious. Brenda's finally starting to feel appreciated at work, since she told Lilian about the road bridge upgrade.

Lilian buys Kirsty and Brenda a drink, and Kirsty can't resist singing Brenda's praises.
When Jolene makes a mistake at the bar, Lilian steps in. Jolene's resistant to the help, but clearly struggling with tasks that belonged to Sid. Lilian takes matters out of Jolene's hands and insists that she takes a break from it all. She's even prepared to put Amside Properties to one side for the time being, to sort things out.


SUN 19:15 Americana (b00t159q)
Americana: Presented by Steve Evans from Washington, DC.


SUN 19:45 Afternoon Reading (b00fyqdg)
Tapertime

Kirsty Gunn

'Tapertime'

The above is an old Edwardian word meaning dusk, and this series of commissioned stories take place as the light fades. What happens to the visual world as dusk emerges? What happens to make people behave differently, often strangely, as the world starts to blur?
Foxes by Kirsty Gunn

At the onset of evening she runs home to arrange the picnic, but animals cross her path,
and a change of plan is made...

Reader Liz Sutherland
Producer Duncan Minshull.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b00t0jcq)
The commissioning editor behind Radio 4's season of programmes 'London: Another Country?' answers the criticisms sent in by listeners.

Also on the programme, the editor of the World At One discusses their coverage of the Raoul Moat Story.

And was a recent edition of The Bottom Line biased in favour of GM food production?

Roger Bolton presents.

Producer: Brian McCluskey
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b00t0k0l)
On Last Word this week:
The eminent conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. We have tributes from Dame Janet Baker, Julian Lloyd Webber and Sir Mark Elder.
Sir Marrack Goulding, the outspoken diplomat who led the development of United Nations peacekeeping - Lord Hattersley pays tribute.
Lord Laing of Dunphail who led the success of United Biscuits and was a friend of Margaret Thatcher.
Jim Bohlen - the Canadian campaigner who was part of the anti nuclear testing sea voyage that led to the foundation of Greenpeace.
And the poet Pete Morgan who often wrote about his beloved Yorkshire countryside.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b00t0wdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b00t0zsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (b00szxzf)
Time to Get Real

After the emergency budget, the main political parties have started to talk more frankly about how to plug the hole in the public finances. But although the coalition has announced plans for more ambitious cuts than first envisaged, it's remained coy about the all-important details of where the axe will fall in government departments. The Opposition attacks the new approach, although it too remains reluctant about identifying exactly where substantial savings can be made.

Going where the politicians seem to fear to tread, Michael Blastland asks some of the UK's most influential policy experts and politicians how the difficult decisions on what to cut should be reached. He demands hard data on which activities should be curbed or abandoned altogether and how the sums will match the rhetoric.

Michael Blastland is the author of "The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers".

Producer: Simon Coates
Editor: Innes Bowen.


SUN 21:58 Weather (b00t159s)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b00t159v)
Reports from behind the scenes at Westminster.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b00t159x)
Episode 10

BBC Radio 4 brings back a much loved TV favourite - What the Papers Say. It does what it says on the tin. In each programme a leading political journalist has a wry look at how the broadsheets and red tops treat the biggest stories in Westminster and beyond. This week Andrew Grice of The Independent takes the chair and the editor is Catherine Donegan.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b00t0k79)
As Leonardo DiCaprio's new film, Inception, is set in a dreamscape, Matthew Sweet asks the actor if he is a Freudian or a Jungian.

As part of Radio 4's London season, Matthew Sweet surveys Tower Bridge in cinema, taking in views from The Long Good Friday and the latest Sherlock Holmes movie

In a new series, Neil Brand traces the beginnings of genres in silent cinema

The BFI want you to search your shed or attic as part of their Most Wanted campaign to find 75 lost British movies.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00t0zsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 19 JULY 2010

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b00t15ml)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b00t0qy7)
Physiognomy and Teenage music

The study of facial features and assumptions about their relationship to character informs the judgements we make about people to this day. For centuries, in literature, in art, in images and cartoons the descriptions of the way people look has served to indicate how they might behave and there is even a kind of science - physiognomy - dedicated to cataloguing the complex relationship between the two.

Laurie Taylor discusses the impact on culture of this strange science of instinct and prejudice with the literature scholar John Mullan and Sharrona Pearl author of About Faces; Physiognomy in Nineteenth-Century Britain.

Also, should we grow out of the music of our youth? Laurie discusses teen passions with Jon Savage and whether musical appreciation means a development away from the sounds we first loved.

Producer: Charlie Taylor.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b00t0zsj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t15q1)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t15z4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t15tl)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b00t16pr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t16r9)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b00t16vx)
The Breeding Bird Survey shows numbers of grey partridge - which are already threatened - have dropped by another 20% in a year. Since 1995 it's declined by 50%. Anna Hill asks whether it should still be legal to be able to shoot the game bird.

Also as the Farming Today team recover from their week fruit-picking, there are signs Pick Your Own is growing in popularity after a massive decline in the 1980s.

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.


MON 05:57 Weather (b00t1v70)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 06:00 Today (b00t16xs)
Morning news and current affairs, with Justin Webb and Sarah Montague, including:
07:30 The Probation Board suggests we are increasingly risk averse.
08:10 Education Secretary Michael Gove defends the passage of the Academies Bill
08:46 Author Diana Athill's care home diary.


MON 09:00 The House I Grew Up In (b00t1v72)
Series 4

Peter Hitchens

Writer & journalist Peter Hitchens was born in 1951 and moved to Portsmouth as the sixties began and the navy (in which his father was a commander during World War 2) declined. He grew up with heroic tales - from Admiral Nelson onwards - of great men who had kept this island safe. His life-long squabble with his older brother, Christopher Hitchens, took root here as did his teenage rebellions - against God, against suburbia - both of which he still deeply regrets and may have played a part he believes in the fracturing of his childhood idyll when his parents divorced and his mother died. He takes Wendy Robbins back to the homes and haunts of his post-war childhood.
Producer : Rosamund Jones.


MON 09:30 Alan Johnson: Failed Rock Star (b00t1v74)
Episode 1

Ex Home Secretary Alan Johnson goes in search of the life he thought he nearly had: as a rock star. In the 1960s Alan Johnson was in a band ("The Area") that cut a single but couldn't get it released. He gave music up for a career that took him from Postman to Union Leader to The Cabinet. So what has he missed out on? Does the fame of being a senior government minister compare in any way with that of being in a successful band.

In this series he meets five people who tasted the fame he craved. Each of the warm and engaging interviews reveal something different about life in music and the truth behind the myths.

In Episode one Alan meets The Merseybeats, contemporaries of The Area who achieved everything Alan dreamed of, and 45 years later are still touring with the same hits. Has the life gone stale or become tired? Is it really a career that could have sustained someone for all that time?


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00t17d2)
Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

Episode 1

It was the imminent birth of her son that prompted the poet and novelist Jackie Kay to try and trace the parents who had given her up for adoption in the 1960s.

Her own childhood had been a profoundly happy one with open and loving parents . They had always made it clear to her that she and her elder brother, both mixed race, were 'special' because they had been 'chosen'. But Scotland and indeed Britain was not always an easy place to be, particularly in those early years, if your skin colour happened to be several shades darker than everybody else's.

The casual offensiveness of the oft-phrased question "where are you from?" - which looked beyond her obviously Scottish accent and saw only her non-white skin - provoked a defiant assertion: "Here." School lessons about Africa were always an uncomfortable experience as classmates trotted out the dancing, drumming, mud-hut cliches.

Eventually, with the solid support of her family and her partner and friends, Kay decided that she needed to know the story of where she was from, and embarked on the complex emotional and physical journey.

Her Mum was a great storyteller and had often shared imaginings of a tragic romance broken off by an arranged betrothal, a princely heritage and a Sidney Poitier-like figure for a father. The truth, as Kay discovers, never quite matches the fantasies - sometimes it outdoes them. As for the jigsaw puzzle of heritage, family and identity, assembling the pieces doesn't always provide answers.

Read by the author.

Producer/Abridger: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00t17kb)
Presented by Jane Garvey: Are you being served? The history and role of department stores in Britain. Living where you grow up, writer Eoin Colfer and Laura Barton discuss the benefits of staying put or moving away. Nora Shourd talks about her daughter held hostage in Iran and live music from The Unthanks.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1861)
A Kind Of Loving

Episode 6

By Stan Barstow
Dramatised by Diana Griffiths

Iconic 1960s novel is set in Yorkshire.

Vic starts a new job managing the record shop. Since he no longer sees Ingrid every day at work, things simmer down between them and for months he doesn't see her. Then one day she walks into the shop .

Vic Brown...Lee Ingleby
Ingrid Rothwell...Rebecca Callard
Mr Van Huyton... Seamus O'Neill
Mrs Brown...Kate Layden
Producer/Director ......Pauline Harris.


MON 11:00 Born in Bradford (b00t1v9s)
Cousin marriage and birth defects

10,000 families have been recruited in one of the most ambitious studies of children's health ever undertaken in the world. Bradford has twice the national rate of infant mortality and the highest rate of genetic illness in Britain. Overall sixty per cent of births in the city are to families living amongst the poorest twenty per cent of those in the UK. Bradford tops the national tables for heart disease, strokes and diabetes

Over half of the 6,000 babies born in the city every year are to Pakistani mothers and two thirds of these women are married to first or second cousins - which significantly increases the risk of autosomal recessive (i.e. genetic) conditions. Doctors have identified 147 of these different conditions in Bradford children, compared to between fifteen and twenty in other health districts. Many lead to severe disabilities and reduced life expectancy.

According to the Head of the study, Professor John Wright, an epidemiologist based at Bradford Royal Infirmary, the aim is to find out more about the causes of childhood illness in newborns from all cultures and classes: "It's like a medical detective story really - trying to piece together the clues in people's lifestyles, their environments and their genetic make-up, as we try to determine whether someone falls sick or someone doesn't."

Safina Nagvi and her sister, Tahira, are keen to support the research. Tahira has just given birth to her third child but has suffered various complications which she says might be linked to genetic problems: "we both married first cousins, and it is OK for us, it's not like we've been forced or we're unhappy - the way we've been brought up it is normal for us, we are happy with things that way.

"But we have had things in our family, though. My son was born five weeks early. He had a condition where the gut and the stomach were joined together. I actually got a heart birth defect - they had to widen one of the arteries up. I also had the same problem that my son had when I was born and we would like to know why".

According to Ann Barratt, the Family liaison officer for the project, one aspect of the study is people looking at why these things are happening: "we would like better understanding of some of these quite rare conditions you see in Bradford. One of the main reasons for the study was because the still birth rate was almost double the UK average a few years ago and that's one of the things we're looking at, why is the mortality rate higher.".


MON 11:30 Bleak Expectations (b00cxvxj)
Series 2

A Re-Kippered Life Smashed Some More

You're invited to marvel at the engineering genius of the early railways, including a tunnel made of beef and pastry and a man who sends loud telegrams to say "He's on the train. Stop."

But as Pip travels the length and breadth of the land in search of his beloved school could it be that there is another even more sinister plan underway? And will the evil Mister Benevolent be involved somehow? Yes! And yes again!

Mark Evans's epic comedy in the style of Charles Dickens.

Volume Two, Chapter the Second: A Re-Kippered Life Smashed Some More

Sir Philip...........................Richard Johnson
Mr Benevolent.......................Anthony Head
Sternbeater...................Geoffrey Whitehead
Harry Biscuit......................James Bachman
Young Pip..................................Tom Allen
Lily.....................................Sarah Hadland
Mr Parsimonious...............Laurence Howarth
Pippa........................................Susy Kane
Sundry railwaymen.....................Mark Evans

Producer: Gareth Edwards

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2008.


MON 12:00 You and Yours (b00t18bh)
Julian Worricker speaks to Justin King the boss of Sainsbury's and the man responsible for importing 70,000 vuvuzelas to the UK - does he regret it? How have their customers fared in the recession and what next for Britain's third biggest supermarket?

Sky already uses the information they hold about customers to determine the adverts they see when watching TV online but now they want to extend this to some of their TV channels. So what you get in an ad break will be determined by your post code, subscription package and other data they hold about you.

We examine the effect that limiting housing benefit to four hundred pounds a week could have on those who rely on it to pay their rent, and on landlords.

And would you take 'cognitive enhancing drugs' to improve your performance at work? We speak to the Cambridge professor who says the practice is becoming more common, and more acceptable.


MON 12:57 Weather (b00t18j9)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b00t18l1)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.


MON 13:30 Quote... Unquote (b00t1wcl)
Nigel Rees chairs the quotations quiz with Julia Hartley-Brewer, AL Kennedy, Patrick Barlow and Max Hastings. From July 2010.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b00t159n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b00t1wcn)
Hive Mind

By Simon Bovey

Sam ..... Tony Bell
Amra ..... Ania Sowinski
Jackson ..... Michael Shelford
Olivia ..... Alison Pettitt
Patek ..... David Seddon
Jan ..... Lloyd Thomas

Directed by Marc Beeby

Spring in 2019 is not the riot of colour it used to be. The honeybee is now officially extinct. Farmer Sam Clark struggles to raise a crop worth a damn. But man has adapted. Every spring an army of migrant workers, led by foreman Amra Walczak, descends on Sam's farm to pollinate by hand. It is a laborious process but it works. This spring, however, science offers a new solution, Honeybots, tiny robots that are effectively crawling bees, and Sam's put his farm forward for a trial.
Once released, thousands of Honeybots course through the fields, pollinating the flowers in a fraction of the time it takes Amra and her team. Their job done they return automatically to their hive chest. They are quick and efficient.
That evening, however, dead birds and mice are found in the fields the Honeybots have worked...


MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00t0wrj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


MON 15:45 Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State (b00t18nn)
King James I

The early 17th century saw the first moral panic in English history about the social impact of drunkenness, and Mark Whitaker begins his narrative history series on the politics of alcohol with King James I's campaign against it.

At a time of rapid social change, with increasing religious division and political tension, the ruling classes came to see the ale-houses used by the poor as deeply threatening. In the first three years of his reign James passed Acts against the spread of ale-houses and against "the loathsome sin of drunkenness".

But the state had no police force, so it depended on the pulpit to put the fear of God into the country's drinkers. "It is no one sin, but all sins" became the message; the drunkard was someone "wholly at Satan's command".

Drink was a central and celebrated part of daily life. Ale was regarded by the poor as vital to their diet and drinking it was portrayed as a patriotic duty, while the rituals of social and family life for the wealthy were washed down with French or Portuguese wine. Royal celebrations at the Palace of Whitehall were also notoriously drunken affairs.

Actors read extracts from sermons, memoirs and pamphlets.

Producer: Mark Whitaker
A Square Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b00t0ztf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b00t1wcq)
Women in leadership

Ernie Rea and his guests explore the place of faith in our complex world.

Ernie is joined by three guests who discuss why the idea of women in positions of religious leadership is so controversial.

It is 35 years since the first woman was appointed as a Rabbi in the UK. Since then, women have become priests but not bishops in the Church of England; there are continual calls to ordain women to the Catholic church; while the idea of female Imams is almost unimaginable in Muslim circles.

So why aren't women breaking through the glass ceiling into positions of leadership? How do theological issues influence equality? And do men and women bring different but equal skills to positions of religious leadership?

Joining Ernie to discuss these issues is Canon Lucy Winkett, currently Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral and shortly to become Rector of St James, Piccadilly; Lorna Ashworth, lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England and member or Reform, an organisation which opposes women Bishops and Khola Hassan, the director of Albatross Consultancy which focuses on issues concerning Muslims in Britain.

Jackie Tabick tells Ernie what it was like to be Britain's first female Reform Rabbi and whether opposition to women in positions of leadership has changed in the 35 years since she joined the Rabbinate.

Producer: Karen Maurice.


MON 17:00 PM (b00t19gp)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t19jk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b00t1wcs)
Series 53

Episode 5

The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by David Mitchell, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b00t18lk)
Jill and Emma cheer on George and the boys playing football. They catch up on Josh, the bees, the murder mystery and Jill's sausage and lentil recipe. Emma declares Jill "Ambridge's answer to Delia". Meanwhile, Josh proves he's a boy of many talents, by fixing Emma's washing machine.

Lynda offers further details of who's who and what to say for the murder mystery game for the fete. There's also news from Jim on the celebrity guest, who is now confirmed.

David and Pip give Edana a final groom - and Pip prepares David to face the judges. It comes to light that David had as much fun last night staying up drinking as Pip did camping with her friends. But all's well, as Edana makes a great impression in the show to win her first rosette. They celebrate with coffee and cake.

David's glad Pip is finally happier and having fun with friends. He tentatively reveals that Ruth has spoken to Pip's tutor. It's not too late for Pip to go back to college. Pip's uncertain, but David encourages her to give it a go.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b00t1bjc)
With Mark Lawson, including an interview with Verdine White, Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson from the band Earth, Wind & Fire, who reflect on their career which now spans four decades, with hits including Boogie Wonderland, Let's Groove and September.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley star in a new horror film Splice in which genetic experiments create an unwelcome monster. Gary Lachman reviews.

Yesterday a world-record-breaking attempt was made to gather the largest number of Max Wall lookalikes ever seen on a single stage. The world record stood at 10 people. But rather more turned up.

And a report from the Milton Keynes International Festival.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1861)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 It's My Story (b00t1xdy)
Glad to be Grey?

A generation of gay people have seen the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the lowering of the age of consent, and the introduction of civil partnerships but now many are having to hide their sexuality as they work out their living arrangements as they get older. Jane Hill asks - are elderly residential homes an option right now if you're gay?

Age UK has reported that older gay men and lesbians are five times less likely to access services for older people than the general population. In "Glad to be Grey?" we hear older gay men and lesbians talk about their experiences and concerns about the future particularly if they have to go into a residential retirement home. Some have experienced outright hostility from staff or fellow residents in residential care or sheltered housing. Others simply don't expect the straight people they're living with to understand the culture that has formed such an important part of their lives. Having fought the battles for equality do they face the prospect of being marginalised in old age? BBC News presenter Jane Hill examines a subject which has been largely unexplored up until now.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b00t0f8y)
Haiti

January's earthquake in Haiti left more than 200,000 dead and over a million homeless. Six months on there are still one and a quarter million people living in camps. As yet, there is still no resettlement plan. Progress appears to be painfully slow. The BBC's International Development Correspondent, Mark Doyle, who reported from Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, returns to ask if millions of dollars raised and the billions more pledged will help Haiti in the long run.

Despite the devastation and tragedy wrought by the earthquake on the poorest nation in the Americas, some believed that it could signal a new beginning for Haiti, a country plagued for many years by poverty, corruption, political instability and violence. However, questions are being asked about who is in charge, who is deciding things and for whose benefit. There are also significant concerns that the flood of money and the international organisations providing aid are distorting the local economy and making it impossible to build a self-sustaining economy.

While the government talks of the need to decentralize the economy, to encourage people to leave the crowded capital Port au Prince and return to the countryside, so far there are few signs of how that is going to be achieved. And with the rainy season now begun, life for many of those living in camps, under tarpaulin, is deteriorating.

History is not on Haiti's side. All past interventions by outsiders have been either disastrous for the Haitians or have failed to live up to their promise. No surprise, then, that there is growing cynicism that all the promises of help with materialise and bring about a better country.

Producer: John Murphy.


MON 21:00 Material World (b00t0g9w)
Dr. Richard Pike, the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry joins Quentin in the studio with an update of the latest news from the BP oil situation.

The first ever All Party Parliamentary Group on Life Sciences is being set up at Westminster. The founder of the group, Penny Mordaunt MP Portsmouth North is in the studio to tell us why such a group is important to universities, industry and voters.

Six of Italy's top seismologists could face charges of manslaughter after failing to give a warning before the deadly earthquake that struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila on 6 April 2009. The indictment has outraged experts around the world, who note that earthquakes cannot be predicted and who say that the Italian government neglected to enforce building codes that could have reduced the toll. Quentin speaks to Professor Ian Main from Edinburgh University about why it is impossible to predict earthquakes.

And we return to So You Want to be a Scientist finalist John Rowlands and catch up on his noctilucent cloud experiment so far.

The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.


MON 21:30 The House I Grew Up In (b00t1v72)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b00t1r68)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b00t1rb2)
The Government promises more aid money for Afghanistan - but how to ensure it goes to the right places?

David Cameron launches the 'Big Society' - but how will it work and is this the Government's big idea?

With Ritula Shah.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00t1t45)
Before The Earthquake

Episode 6

It is Lent in the Italian mountains, and Concetta's sister Immacolata has persuaded their parents to allow her and her sister Nunzia to go and celebrate carnuale in the neighbouring village of San Michele.

Chaperoned by their brother, Concetta's husband and his brothers, they set off in high spirits, though Concetta - now heavily pregnant - has to forgo the treat. But when they return home late the next day, there is clearly tension in the air.

Sian Thomas reads this atmospheric mystery by Maria Allen.

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall Productions for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Off the Page (b00t0fzl)
Working Mums

Provocative and thoughtful new writing and discussion, presented by Dominic Arkwright. This week Arabella Weir, Deborah Orr and Oliver James join Dominic in the studio to write about and debate their experiences of Working Mums.
Produced by Beatrice Fenton.


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00t1t8p)
MPs hold their first debate on the Government's plans to allow all schools in England and Wales to become academies - freeing them from local council control. Ministers want the Academies Bill to clear the Commons this week. Labour says that the legislation is being rushed through unnecessarily. In the Lords, peers debate the coalition's decision to get rid of Child Trust Funds. Sean Curran and team report on today's events in Parliament.



TUESDAY 20 JULY 2010

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00t15j9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00t17d2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t15mn)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t15tn)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t15q3)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00t169b)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t16pt)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00t16rc)
Game shooting can cost thousands of pounds a day but the economic downturn means not everyone has as much money to spare. The British Association of Shooting and Conservation say its membership is up and there's still a strong appetite for shooting but Anna Hill hears that low-cost 'no-frills' options are being offered. Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.


TUE 06:00 Today (b00t16zw)
With John Humphrys and Justin Webb. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Inside the Ethics Committee (b00t1xsz)
Series 6

Mentally Ill and Refusing Surgery

Joan Bakewell is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the real life case of John who needs a life-saving operation, but is refusing it.

Patients have the right to refuse treatment, but John is mentally ill. He believes the operation is an elaborate conspiracy to kill him.

Without surgery, John has only a few weeks to live.

Is John's refusal valid? Should the surgeon operate without his consent? It might save John's life, but would it be in his best interests?

Joan Bakewell is joined by her panel of experts to discuss the complex ethical issues arising from this case.

Producer: Beth Eastwood.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00t3cyy)
Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

Episode 2

Acclaimed Scottish poet Jackie Kay traces her biological parents in a journey from Scotland to Lagos.

Jackie continues her journey in search of her roots. Today she meets her birth mother for the first time, and comes closer to tracking down her birth father.

Read by the author.

Producer/Abridger: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00t17jy)
Presented by Jane Garvey. Singer Macy Gray performs in the studio from her new album 'The Sellout'; urinary problems in men, how best to help; the rise of Pentecostal churches in Africa - why are they so appealing to women and Clare Balding talks about her travels round the UK on a vintage bike.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1863)
A Kind Of Loving

Episode 7

By Stan Barstow
Dramatised by Diana Griffiths

Iconic 1960s novel is set in Yorkshire.

Ingrid tells Vic she is pregnant and he asks her to marry him. He is devastated to be so trapped. Vic tells his parents - his mother is very angry - then he faces Ingrid's parents. He dislikes her mother on sight. They plan to marry and live with Ingrid's mother.

Vic Brown...Lee Ingleby
Ingrid Rothwell...Rebecca Callard
Mrs Rothwell...Brigit Forsyth
Mr Rothwell...David Fleeshman
Mrs Brown...Kate Layden
Mr Brown...Fine Time Fontayne
Producer/Director .....Pauline Harris.


TUE 11:00 Saving Species (b00t1xt1)
Series 1

Episode 16

17/40. What is the future for our farmland birds? We have been following the re-introduction of Cirl Buntings into Cornwall: an RSPB led conservation project where Cirl Bunting chicks have been taken from nests in Devon and released on specially selected farms in Cornwall. We sent a reporter down to the West Country to see how it works. But do planned government cuts on departments like DEFRA impact on this and other conservation work to protect our farmland birds? And will the "Big Society" and "localism", the policy centre piece of the coalition - and not Government, protect our farmland birds? We asked the RSPB and DEFRA.

Also in the programme, memories of Butterflies.

Presented by Brett Westwood
Produced by Kirsty Henderson
Series Editor Julian Hector.


TUE 11:30 With Great Pleasure (b00t1zc5)
Grayson Perry

The Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry presents a selection of the written influences on his life and work. His readers are Michael Simkins and Eleanor David.

In a range of choices reflecting themes which appear in his work as an artist, from children's books to stories of psychotherapy, this open and engaging man gives us an insight into his art and his personal life.

Producer: Christine Hall.


TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00t1896)
Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker. What part do you want to play in David Cameron's Big Society?

Would you be prepared to run your post office, set up your local school or even organise a new bus route? The first community projects have just been announced in four parts of the UK. What does Mr Cameron mean when he says he wants to empower people?

How much do you want to get involved? Are you the best person to run your child's school and should local people set up their own local services? Or is this a job for central Government?

Could it mean a bigger role for individuals or is David Cameron just passing the buck?

To contribute your views to the programme, email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at 10am).


TUE 12:57 Weather (b00t18gw)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b00t18jc)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.


TUE 13:30 Composing New York (b00t1zc7)
New York City has always drawn composers from the Old World - from Dvorak and Mahler to Kurt Weill, Rachmaninov and Benjamin Britten. Some, like Puccini, crossed the Atlantic to premier new works, others like Gustav Mahler and Bela Bartok stayed for longer periods to compose, study and conduct. But all were shaped by the energy of New York, just as the city's musical culture was shaped, in turn, by them.

Behind this extraordinary cultural exchange lay a deeper question: what should a truly American "classical" music sound like? Did it lie outside the concert hall and with the Broadway musical, as envisaged by Kurt Weill? Or was it Dvorak's iconic New World symphony, with its powerful invocations of the black American spiritual, that pointed the way?

Filled with the sounds of NYC, British composer and New York resident Tarik O'Regan presents a vivid portrait of the city which electrified these great composers and, through their works composed and premiered in New York, transformed the wider world of classical music.

Producer: Simon Hollis
A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00t18lk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b00t1zc9)
Gift

By Philip Palmer

To accompany the new series of Radio 4's Inside The Ethics Committee, this tense drama gets inside the emotional realities of dealing with an ethical dilemma. Richard has been on haemodialysis for almost three years as a result of end stage kidney disease, and his son Martin has offered to donate his own kidney to help his father. But there's more to this gift than either father or son wish to let on.

Cast:

Richard ..... Philip Jackson
Martin ..... Ashley Kumar
Helena ..... Eloise Secker
Jeremy Flynn ..... David Seddon
Claire Glover ..... Daniela Nardini
Maire Kennedy ..... Alison Pettitt
David ..... Michael Shelford
Psychologist ..... Tony Bell
Paramedic ..... Jude Akuwudike
Scientist ..... Lloyd Thomas

Director - Sasha Yevtushenko.


TUE 15:00 Home Planet (b00t37q5)
Cleaning insects from car windscreens used to be a regular chore in the spring and summer months. Yet today, observes one listener, there are comparatively few to scrape off, even after a long journey. Does this mean that insect numbers are in decline, or just that car manufacturers have improved the aerodynamics of cars?

And sticking with cars, will the much hyped move to a hydrogen economy produce an unexpected consequence for the climate? Touted as green because they emit nothing but water vapour, one listener wants to know whether this exhaust is as benign as many suggest - because water vapour is itself a powerful greenhouse gas.

There's also the prickly question of whether hedgehogs prey on bees; how do intricate frost patterns form on the inside of frozen windows, and is there any evidence that mobile phone masts affect bee populations?

Answering the questions are science writer Joanne Baker of the journal Nature, entomologist Richard Jones and Professor Philip Stott, environmental scientist from the University of London. All under the watchful eye of presenter Richard Daniel.

Contact:
Home Planet
BBC Radio 4
PO Box 3096
Brighton
BN1 1PL

Or email home.planet@bbc.co.uk

Or telephone: 08700 100 400

Producers: Nick Patrick and Toby Murcott
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00t1zmf)
Platform 3

The Homecoming

Gregory is a successful New York businessman who has returned to Russia for the first time in many years to visit his mother. He takes a trip out to his mother's dacha in the country and then heads for the local station. He has an urgent plane to catch. Moscow is only two hours away - but only if the train comes. And while he waits, he has a strange encounter...

Written by Olga Grushin and read by Alan Cox. This is one of three stories inspired by railway stations, each by a different writer.

Olga Grushin was born in Moscow in 1971 and spent her childhood in Moscow and Prague. In 1989 she became the first Soviet citizen to enrol for a full-time degree in the United States while retaining Soviet citizenship. In 2006 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists in 2007. She has published two novels: The Dream Life of Sukhanov (2006) and The Concert Ticket in April 2010. The Homecoming is her first story for radio. Olga lives in Washington D.C.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:45 Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State (b00t1qg4)
The Gin Act of 1736

'Madam Geneva', she was called. The provider of 'Dutch Courage'. Mark Whitaker explores the Gin Craze of mid-18th-century England.

William Hogarth's 'Gin Lane' of 1751 is perhaps the best-known piece of propagandist art ever produced in England. It portrays the ravages of the gin addiction that for twenty-five years had dominated the life of the London poor. Gin had first been introduced into the country by William III and the landed classes soon became rich producing the grain from which it was distilled. Governments depended on taxing it.

But by the end of the 1720s people started to recognise the social damage it was causing. Nothing like it had been seen before. The best writers of the day took up the issue. Daniel Defoe wrote against 'the abuse of that nauseous liquor among our lower sort' and argued that it was undermining England's economic power. Henry Fielding called gin a 'diabolical liquor' and wanted it banned completely.

Walpole's government passed a series of gin acts, the most draconian being that of 1736. The liquor trade went underground and government informers roamed the streets. When serious riots broke out in Spitalfields in August 1736, Walpole explained them as the people's desperation at 'the approaching expiration of their darling vice'. But the government was forced to back down.

Actors read extracts from Defoe and Fielding, from Walpole's letters and from parliamentary debates.

Producer: Mark Whitaker
A Square Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b00t20rm)
Chris Ledgard presents the first in a new series of Word of Mouth exploring the different ways in which deaf people communicate: sign language, lip reading and also speaking. One in seven of us in the UK is deaf or hard of hearing (according to figures produced by the Medical Research Council).

For many deaf people, English isn't their first language - they grow up speaking sign language. Chris talks to the artist and writer Louise Stern, who speaks in sign language and is the fourth generation to be born deaf in her family, via her long-time collaborator and interpreter, Oliver Pouliot.

Reporter Sally Heaven visits the University of Bristol Centre for Deaf Studies - the only one in the UK - to find out more about the intricacies of British Sign Language from Linda Day and Rachel Sutton-Spence.

And Chris meets Charlie Swinbourne, a deaf journalist and scriptwriter who grew up in a deaf family and describes himself as "hard of hearing". He speaks and uses sign language, and so he moves between both the deaf and hearing worlds.

Producer Beth O'Dea.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b00t20rp)
Shazia Mirza and Diana Quick

Comedian Shazia Mirza and actress Diana Quick chat to Sue MacGregor about their favourite books by Lorrie Moore, Anton Chekov and Alison Lurie.

A Gate At The Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Publisher: Faber

About Love and Other Stories by Anton Chekov
Publisher: Oxford World Classics, translator: Rosamund Bartlett

Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
Publisher: Vintage

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2010.


TUE 17:00 PM (b00t19f3)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t19gr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Fags, Mags and Bags (b00g0nq2)
Series 2

Confectionary McEnroe

Comedy set in a Scottish corner shop. Tensions run high as Ramesh gears up for the Shopkeeper of the Year award.

Written by and starring Sanjeev Kohli and Donald McLeary.

Ramesh ... Sanjeev Kohli
Dave ... Donald McLeary
Alok ... Susheel Kumar
Sanjay ... Omar Raza
Father Henderson ... Gerard Kelly
Mrs Armstrong ... Maureen Carr
Ted ... Gavin Mitchell
Mr Finegan ... Tom Urie
Elton ... Manjot Sumal
Keenan's mum ... Michele Gallagher

Director: Iain Davidson
Producer: Gus Beattie

A Comedy Unit Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00t18l3)
Anxious Fallon sends Jolene out of the pub for some time to relax. Jolene finds a friend in Pat and lends a hand baling straw. She confides in Pat about how she's really feeling.

Fallon is glad of Nic's help in the Bull, but business is quiet for an evening. The beer tent's all set for the fete on Sunday and Nic has left the pub spotless for when Jolene returns later. When Jolene does come back, the day out with Pat seems to have done her good and she disappears upstairs to watch one of Pat's DVDs.

It's Jamie's birthday. He and Josh are off bowling tonight to celebrate. During the bowling Kathy pushes Kenton about visiting Meriel in New Zealand for Christmas. He won't commit, as there's too much happening at Jaxx. Kathy is angry and disappointed that he's choosing work over his family.

Later, Kathy pours out her heart to Pat over a glass of wine. Where should she go from here? Pat advises her to wait a while before making any hasty decisions.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b00t19jm)
Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century on TV

Benedict Cumberbatch is Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman is Watson and Rupert Graves is Inspector Lestrade, in Sherlock, a series of three new 90-minute TV dramas, which give the classic Arthur Conan Doyle tales a modern setting. Crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell reviews.

This summer, Paul Lewis will become the first pianist ever to undertake the complete Beethoven piano concerto cycle in any single Proms season, playing with four different British orchestras and four different conductors. He talks about Beethoven's style, and the best way to unwrap sweets at a concert.

This year's Mercury Prize longlist was announced today, featuring the usual mix of established and lesser known acts. Chair of Judges Simon Frith discusses the 12 , now nominated for the overall prize http://www.mercuryprize.com/aoty/

One of actor Robin Williams's most famous roles was as a poetry teacher who, in Dead Poets Society, inspired a generation of school children to think for themselves. In his latest film, World's Greatest Dad he reprises this role, but plays a teacher who cares little for teaching and dreams of greater things. As a host of actors queue to send themselves up and play versions of their former selves, Andrew Collins offers some advice.

Producer Nicki Paxman.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1863)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b00t25w7)
Oil Spill Hangover

As BP's oil spill threatens fishing towns and tourist beaches along America's Gulf coast, Gerry Northam asks if lessons from previous disasters could have prevented the tragedy.
When the tanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989, the resulting oil spill became the worst in American history. Fisheries were closed and the local economy was undermined. Many said such a disaster should never again befall American coastal communities. Tankers were obliged to be constructed with a protective second skin, and the law was changed to give polluters the clear responsibility to pay for oil spills.
More than a hundred million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf and a growing chorus of critics is asking why more preparations were not made for such a tragedy? Gerry Northam reports.
Producer Andy Denwood
Editor David Ross.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b00t25w9)
Peter White looks at the latest changes to Audio Description and asks Minister Ed Vaizey and Steve Winyard
of the RNIB whether they go far enough. With the recommended voluntary 20% now comfortably within reach
of most broadcasters by the end of the year, isn't it time to up the stakes and set higher targets?
Ed Vaizey also tackles the issue of embedded accessibility rather than bespoke assistive technology - should
your phone come ready primed or is it better to have your own add ons?
Mani Djazmi visits the Sight Village exhibition in Birmingham to review the latest gizmos with Dr Mike Townsend.


TUE 21:00 Inside the Ethics Committee (b00t1xsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:45 The Test of Time (b00mfhr7)
The Sushruta

Five scientists look back to their ancient forebears and examine how much of that early knowledge still stands the test of time.

Iain Hutchison, Consultant Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon, discovers that the nasal reconstructive techniques he uses today date back to third century BC in South Asia.

A school of surgery - The Sushruta - grew up on the banks of the river Ganges to help victims of punishment who'd had their noses sliced off.

Producer: Erika Wright

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009


TUE 21:58 Weather (b00t1r3f)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b00t1r6b)
Why do defence projects go over budget?

And hundreds of people have died in central and southern China in the country's worst floods in more than a decade.

With Ritula Shah.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00t1t3d)
Before The Earthquake

Episode 7

There was panic in the village after Concetta's sisters disappeared from the fields without trace, but they have been found safe and well after having been held overnight by two men they met at carnuale.

However, according to the strict code of the Italian village, their reputations have been ruined.

And whilst it emerges that Nunzia stayed with her sister to make sure that no harm befell her, Immacolata's intentions appear far less straightforward.

Sian Thomas reads this atmospheric mystery by Maria Allen.

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall Productions for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 Happy Tuesdays (b00t25wc)
Angelos Epithemiou's Big Issue

Burger van owner and erstwhile panellist of BBC2's "Shooting Stars" has been given the opportunity to broadcast on Radio 4 as part of a scheme to get new voices on to the radio.

In this programme, Angelos has invited two guests - Kate Schofield from GreenPeace and an environmental activist called "Toadstool" - to help him examine the thorny topic that is The Environment.

The cast includes: Renton Skinner, Rufus Jones, Katherine Jakeways, Sanjeev Kohli, Tom Verrall and Katy Wix.

The producer is Sam Michell.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00t1t81)
Susan Holme reports on a debate in the House of Lords in which peers agree a new expenses regime - with reservations.

MPs hear about plans to simplify the tax system. They protest at the way ministers often inform the media first of government plans - before the Commons. And they pass the Budget by a majority of 80.



WEDNESDAY 21 JULY 2010

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00t15jc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00t3cyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t15mq)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t15tq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t15q5)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00t169d)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t16pw)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00t16rf)
The Rural Payments Agency is not fit for purpose according to the agriculture minister. The minister Jim Paice tells Farming Today that he intends to fix it. Anna Hill visits a farm in Suffolk where the RSPB have embarked on a project to protect turtle doves and Sarah Swadling discovers how partridges are raised for the coming shooting season.
Presented by Anna Hill. Produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


WED 06:00 Today (b00t179m)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and Justin Webb including:
07:40 Astronomer Paul Crowther on British scientists' discovery of a huge star.
08:10 The SNP's Alex Salmond on the early release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.
08:20 Film director Oliver Stone on politics and his new film, South of the Border.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b00t25wv)
This week Libby Purves is joined by Noel Fitzpatrick, Christine Finn, Lisa Hammond and Carmel McConnell.

Noel Fitzpatrick is "The Bionic Vet" in the BBC 1 documentary series where we see him using the latest technology to pioneer techniques to save or improve the lives of pets. Inspired by "X-Men" he helped a Labrador with a poorly paw; he even built new paws for a cat called Oscar who had an unfortunate encounter with a combine harvester.

Christine Finn is a creative archaeologist as well as a print journalist, broadcaster and writer. The death of her parents sent her back to her family home in Deal which has been the venue for a series of art exhibitions. Her latest exhibition Leave-Home-Stay in Haiti features photographs she took there after the devastating earthquake.

Lisa Hammond is an actress whose career began in Grange Hill and has continued via countless tv and stage roles to bring her to a point where she has "No Idea" - that is, her latest show is actually called "No Idea". It's co-devised with her fellow actor (and friend) Rachael Spence and director Lee Simpson and takes place at the Young Vic. She'll be talking about her show and about the public's reaction - and non-reaction - to her disabilities.

Carmel McConnell is the founder and Managing Director of 'Magic Breakfast'. A former peace activist at Greenham Common, she started Magic Breakfast ten years ago and delivers free, healthy breakfast food and nutrition education to primary schools, feeding 3,000 children each morning at 100 schools in London, Birmingham and Manchester. She won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2008.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00t3cyr)
Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

Episode 3

Acclaimed poet Jackie Kay traces her biological parents in a journey from Scotland to Lagos.

Nigeria: Jackie finally meets her birth father, an encounter full of memorable moments and some curiously personal questions.

Read by the author.

Producer/Abridger: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00t17k0)
Dr Who star Karen Gillan

Presented by Jenni Murray. Dr Who star Karen Gillan talks about her role in the hit TV show as the feisty Amy Pond. Journalists Joan Smith and Mary Ann Sieghart discuss whether the future which was once promised as being female has materialised. Gay couple Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow talk about their lives as parents to five kids they had through surrogate mothers and Esther Fairfax talks about her mother Lotte Berk who became world famous as the devisor of the Lotte Berk Technique, a revolutionary fitness programme that led her to great fame and wealth during the 1960s and 70s.


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1865)
A Kind Of Loving

Episode 8

By Stan Barstow
Dramatised by Diana Griffiths

Iconic 1960s novel is set in Yorkshire.

Vic and Ingrid get married, then settle down to live with Mrs Rothwell whom Vic gets to dislike more and more. Tragedy strikes when heavily pregnant Ingrid falls down the stairs and is rushed to hospital.

Vic Brown...Lee Ingleby
Ingrid Rothwell...Rebecca Callard
Mrs Rothwell...Brigit Forsyth
Mrs Oliphant...Kate Layden
Producer/Director.....Pauline Harris.


WED 11:00 Do Pirates Rule the Air Waves? (b00t28d4)
Britain has been listening to pirate radio since the 1960s and today it is reported that there are more illegal broadcasters than ever. Former pirate DJ Trevor Nelson investigates the current scene.

According to official Ofcom figures, there are around 150 illegal radio stations in the UK today and 16% of London regularly tunes in. The pirates argue they are an integral part of the British music industry and provide a community service that legal stations can't. But broadcasting regulator Ofcom says the FM dial is full. They claim the pirates are a problem, interfering with legal stations and the emergency service frequencies. More worryingly, Ofcom says there is evidence of links to serious crime such as money laundering, guns and drugs.

Trevor revisits the world of illegal broadcasting to find out the truth behind today's pirate scene. Now a presenter on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and 1xtra, Trevor began his career in the 1980s on the then illegal Kiss FM. Trevor explores whether the scene has changed considerably since he was in the game or if the musical passion and spirit of pirates past are still present today.

Contributors include broadcasters, legal and illegal, a community radio station, fans, musicians, DJs and OFCOM, who were shadowed by the programme on a raid of a pirate station suspected of interfering with Radio 4.


WED 11:30 The Castle (b00t28d6)
Series 3

The Pilchards of Doom

Hie ye to "The Castle", a rollicking sitcom set way back then, starring James Fleet ("The Vicar Of Dibley", "Four Weddings & A Funeral") and Neil Dudgeon ("Life Of Riley")

In this episode, Sir John grapples with both an adulterous affair and a tin of pilchards. Meanwhile, Thomas explores the secrets of the Universe and Anne falls in love with King Russell de Brand

Cast:
Sir John Woodstock ...... James Fleet
Sir William De Warenne ....... Neil Dudgeon
Lady Anne Woodstock ........ Martha Howe-Douglas
Cardinal Duncan ...... Jonathan Kydd
Lady Charlotte ....... Ingrid Oliver
Master Henry Woodstock ....... Steven Kynman
Merlin ....... Lewis Macleod

Written by Kim Fuller & Paul Alexander
Music by Guy Jackson

Producer/Director: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00t1898)
Winifred Robinson finds out about a new system that claims to get trains running on time, Welsh Assembly plans to restrict the 'right to buy' council houses, how Crown immunity works to prevent the prosecution of ministers and civil servants and the latest on the Goldtrail Holiday company collapse.


WED 12:57 Weather (b00t18gy)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b00t18jf)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.


WED 13:30 The Media Show (b00t4q0n)
Melvyn Bragg is taking the South Bank Show to Sky Arts. He shares his view on the future of arts programmes on television, which Steve discusses with Louise Jury of the London Evening Standard.

Channel Five is up for sale. Will Richard Desmond buy it? Analyst Claire Enders gives her view on this and the changes in the background across the tv industry.

And Dan Sabbagh of media blog Beehive City goes through the first unofficial assessment of the number of people paying to read the Times online. How encouraged should the Times be?


WED 14:00 The Archers (b00t18l3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b00t28db)
Circus Train

Margarita Sharapova's tale, based on working in a Russian circus, is adapted by Louis Nowra.

While their train is waiting at a remote rural station, animal trainer Orest and his assistant Alex take the dog out to relieve herself and their long circus train leaves without them. With no papers or money and not knowing where they are, they embark on a madcap journey, hopping goods trains and hiding away in carriages. Some are full of contraband, others have stowaways and one clattering goods train is carrying mysterious chemicals. Alex and Orest encounter a host of eccentric characters who are finding new and often desperate ways to survive.

As they manically switch trains to try to rejoin the circus, they explore the hinterland of Russia. Life here has changed since communism and yet in many ways is also much the same. A farm is still very much a co-operative even though the spokeswoman talks about the new economy and there is a picture of President Obama on the wall. The drab and ugly towns Orest and Alex pass through rejoice in fictive names like Yellow Rat Town - this is a heightened picaresque tale where imagination vies with grim reality.

Drunken soldiers, village policemen and a succession of chicken farmers harass and pursue the circus couple, convinced they are criminals on the run.

Recorded by a Russian-speaking repertory cast.

Orest Anderlect ... Yasen Peyankov
Alex/Alyona ... Anne Bobby
Nastya ... Angelique Doudnikova
Berg ... Michael Levi Harris
Gorlogryzov ... Stass Klassen
Bruskov ... Moti Margolin
Hayk ... Peter Von Berg
Train Dispatcher ... Tatyana Zbirovskaya

All other parts were played by members of the cast.

Music composed by Gene Pritsker.
Sound design by Peregrine Andrews.

Producer: Judith Kampfner
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b00t28dd)
Vincent Duggleby and guests will be ready to offer advice about tax planning on this afternoon's Money Box Live.

Creating a fairer and simpler tax system was a central theme of George Osborne's June Budget with changes to personal and business tax being announced.

If you need help organising your tax affairs or making sense of the budget plans why not contact the programme.

Perhaps you're concerned about your personal allowance, capital gains tax, self assessment or running a small company.

Whatever your question, Vincent Duggleby and guests will be waiting to take 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. The programme starts after the three o'clock news. That number again 03700 100 444.


WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00t1zmh)
Platform 3

A Good Impression

Ali takes the Glasgow train to a small Highland village and brings his new fiancee Sophie to meet his family. Sophie worries that they won't like her. Ali worries whether his eccentric mother and sister can be trusted to behave. Neither worry is unfounded.

Written by Morven Crumlish and read by Siobhan Redmond. One of three stories inspired by railway stations, each by a different writer.

Morven Crumlish's stories have been published and broadcast widely, including The Big The Beautiful Nanda Gray, which appeared in WORK: the Scotsman/Orange Short Story Collection, and You See Patterns When You Close Your Eyes, featured in Shorts 4: the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday short story collection. She has has also written for the Guardian; was a finalist in the 1998 Vogue Talent Contest for young writers and in 2004 she was awarded a New Writers Bursary from the Scottish Arts Council. Her work has featured in two previous Sweet Talk productions for BBC Radio 4: Loulou and Barbie and the Seven Deadly Sins appeared in 2005 and Dilemmas of Modern Martyrs - five of her stories in 2008. Morven lives in Edinburgh.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 15:45 Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State (b00t1qjs)
The Beer Act of 1830

Continuing his narrative history series on the ways in which the British state has dealt with the 'Drink Question', Mark Whitaker looks at the 1830 Beer Act - when parliament made the seemingly bizarre decision that the best way to decrease public drunkenness was to make access to alcohol easier.

Why? It was believed that a recent upsurge in the consumption of spirits was a consequence of the quality of beer being so low; and this was because a handful of major brewers owned the pubs and controlled what they sold. The Times called this arrangement 'an odious monopoly', and the phrase stuck. In 1830 an MP went as far as to call it 'more oppressive to the lower orders than any other that has ever been imposed upon them.'

Free Trade was the solution of the day. The 1830 Beer Act made it possible for anybody who could come up with a payment of two guineas to get a license to sell beer in their own home. Over the next six months 25,000 licenses were taken out, and almost overnight a new landscape of drinking had been created in England.

But within four years a Select Committee on drunkenness was meeting, and it began to be argued that the last thing an industrialising country needed was a drunk work force. For the first time there was serious public discussion as to what the social causes of excessive drinking might be, and people started talking about mass education as the key to change.

Actors read from parliamentary debates, and from journals and newspapers.

Producer: Mark Whitaker
A Square Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00t28dg)
Lap dancing - Climate change

Leering punters, seedy dives, cruel and crude objectification of women's bodies... the classic image of a strip joint does not leave much space for the notion that occasionally the women might enjoy the performances they give. However, a new ethnography of a lap dancing club in the North of England presents a slightly more complicated picture of life as a sexual entertainer. The sociologist Rachela Colosi worked as a dancer in the clubs she studied and her study offers a rare insiders account of the relationships between the dancers, with the management and the highs and lows, rewards and occasional despair of life as a stripper.
Also, Laurie Taylor will be talking to Marek Kohn about his predictions for the shape of British society in 2100 after global warming has brought its influence to bear.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.


WED 16:30 Case Notes (b00t2bvh)
GP Surgeries

Dr Mark Porter goes to Birmingham to visit the surgery of Steve Field, GP and Chairman of The Royal College of General Practitioners. They offer tips on how to get the best from your doctor and discuss the impact of the governments new changes to the NHS.

Producer: Erika Wright.


WED 17:00 PM (b00t19f5)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t19gt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation (b00t2bvk)
Series 8

How to Communicate Without Showing Off

Jeremy Hardy, together with his special guests Paul B Davies and Morwenna Banks examine the concept of how to, like, uh, communicate and shizzle.

Written by Jeremy Hardy, with additional material by Paul B Davies.

Producer: David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b00t18l5)
At the community shop, Joe confuses David with his new system of selling courgettes separately from the rest of the goods. Brian casually mentions to David that he's on his way to a meeting with the senior partner at Rodways, who he needs to get on board about the market.

Brian explains to Benedict Wheeler that he's sweet-talked Hastings, their major obstacle. After some thought, Benedict agrees to take up the offer. Brian's delighted and passes on his best to Amanda - careful to get her name right this time.

Afterwards, Brian admits to David that he hasn't shared the full extent of his development plans with Rodways.

Lynda has been busy briefing the murder mystery cast and sourcing costumes. David enjoys acting up in his policeman's uniform. He later drops Joe in it by mentioning his courgettes to Lynda and Susan. Suspicious, they confront Joe. Joe's upset that Bert Fry has been offered the 'old retainer' role in the murder mystery. Joe thought his name was all over it. However, Susan has other matters to address. Joe doesn't deny that he's been selling his own produce in the shop. It's the final straw for Lynda, and Joe is promptly taken off the rota.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b00t19jp)
Ballet star Carlos Acosta

Ballet dancer Carlos Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba, the youngest of eleven children. He was sent to ballet school at the age of ten to keep him out of trouble. Now an international superstar, he reveals the problems dancers face as they grow older - he's now 37 - and considers his relationship with his native Cuba.

Comedian John Bishop discusses how he turned to comedy after the break-up of his marriage, and reflects on how peforming stand-up repaired his relationship.

Andy Garcia plays a prison officer who dreams of becoming an actor in the film comedy City Island. Antonia Quirke reviews.

And Ben Eine, the graffitti artist whose work has just been given as a gift from Cameron to Obama.

Producer Helen Roberts.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1865)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b00t2cks)
The Prime Minister this week launched his big idea - the Big Society. David Cameron says he wants to make society stronger by getting more people working together to run their own affairs locally. It aims to put more power and responsibility into the hands of families, neighbourhoods and locally-based communities. The idea is that all of these will take more action at a local level, with more freedom to do things the way they want. Is this a way of re-engaging people with civic society, to remind them that they are more than just individual consumers of services provided by others and that they can't just close their front door on their responsibilities to their community? But can volunteers really replace many of the services provided by local authorities and other state agencies? Or is this just a way of providing them on the cheap - a bit of window dressing to make us feel a bit better about the enormous cuts in public services? More fundamentally are we undermining local democracy and transferring power to unelected/self appointed "volunteers?" Should we all do more? Must we all do more? That's the Moral Maze.

Michael Buerk chairs with Michael Portillo, Melanie Philips, Matthew Taylor and Claire Fox.

Witnesses:
Mark Littlewood, Director General at the IEA (a free market think tank)
Philip Blond, Director of the think tank ResPublica
Silla Carron, Chair of the tenants Association at Clarence Way Estate.
Nick Pearce, Former Head of the No10 Policy Unit.


WED 20:45 The Curse of the Number Two (b00sv6vk)
Episode 1

Nick Clegg's meteoric rise to become Deputy Prime Minister has brought into sharp focus the role of the number two. It's not always an enviable position. So why, in British politics, does the deputy so rarely reach the summit? And why, when he does, does it usually end in disaster? Think of Michael Foot or Anthony Eden. These programmes talk to a number of the politicians who became deputy leader of their party or even Deputy Prime Minister but who just didn't reach the summit -- people like Roy Hattersley, Michael Heseltine, Shirley Williams, Margaret Beckett and Geoffrey Howe. Some never really wanted the job in the first place, others found it an exciting experience from which they learned a lot. One likens it to a bucket of warm spit, only worse. So is there a jinx on the role of the deputy? The political commentator, Julia Langdon, finds out in The Curse of the Number Two.


WED 21:00 Frontiers (b00t2ckv)
Acts of Creation

The creation of an artificial cell by scientist and entrepreneur Craig Venter shows what synthetic biology is capable of. But others want to go much further - recreating life from scratch, or redesigning it at the most fundamental level. In his Harvard Lab, Nobel laureate Jack Szostak is forcing strands of DNA's cousin RNA to compete with each other in a Darwinian struggle for existence. At Manchester University, John Sutherland is seeing whether the raw materials of biochemistry can form themselves in the kinds of puddles that might have existed on Earth 4 billion years ago. Some experts think it's only a matter of years before living synthetic cells will be grown out of inanimate starting materials - a simulation of the origins of life on the young Earth. Science writer Adam Rutherford asks what it will mean to us when it happens.

Producer: Roland Pease.


WED 21:30 Midweek (b00t25wv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b00t1r3h)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00t1r6d)
Defence cuts, how deep will they really be?

UN Secretary General leadership under fire.

And "Sudden Oak Death" spreads across SW England.

With Robin Lustig.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00t1t3g)
Before The Earthquake

Episode 8

The 15-year-old Concetta Salierno finally goes into labour. But as she struggles to give birth to her child in the isolated Italian mountain village, her life is once more in danger, and in her delirium she finally begins to retrieve some vital threads of memory about the days before the earthquake.

Sian Thomas reads this atmospheric mystery by Maria Allen.

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall Productions for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 The Ladies (b00t2ckx)
Series 2

Episode 1

The Ladies return to Radio 4, as we hear from the paranoid Christians preparing for the end of the world, a girl who gets wedged in a dress, and a desperate wannabe mum.

Written by Emily Watson Howes.

Cast:
Emily Watson Howes
Kate Donmall
Susanna Hislop
Fran Moulds

Producer: Mark Talbot
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:15 Rik Mayall's Bedside Tales (b00m6gpk)
Mountain Girl

Settle down, brush your teeth, do whatever it is you do at this time of night. But, most of all, listen because Rik would like to talk to you. One on one. Tonight he'd mostly like to tell you about The Mountain Girl.

Performer ..... Rik Mayall
Writers ..... Rik Mayall & John Nicholson
Producer ..... Steven Canny.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00t1t83)
Sean Curran and team report on today's news from Parliament, including Nick Clegg's first appearance at Prime Minister's Question Time, the Foreign Secretary William Hague on the withdrawal of British combat troops from Afghanistan, and a Committee of Peers hear from constitutional experts on the Government's reform plans. The Editor is Rachel Byrne.



THURSDAY 22 JULY 2010

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00t15jf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00t3cyr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t15ms)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t15ts)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t15q7)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00t169g)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t16py)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00t16rh)
Charlotte Smith hears that cod stocks are once again endangered. Despite fishermen reducing their cod catch, new government research shows UK numbers are still in decline.

And as preparations are made for the shooting seasons more than 35 million pheasants will be released for shoots. The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust estimate that around 1 million birds will survive the guns, but have problems breeding in the wild. Farming Today visits Norfolk to hear how a 3 year monitoring project could help change that. And Moira Hickey treks through the forests of Aviemore to find out how counting Capercaillie chicks could help these endangered birds recover.

Also in Scotland, new forensic science may help solve cases where birds of prey have been poisoned. The Scottish and Irish governments are to work together, using DNA techniques to track the criminals and the cross border trade in poisons.

Presenter: Charlotte Smith Producer: Melvin Rickarby.


THU 06:00 Today (b00t179p)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and Justin Webb including:
07:33 The story of Iraq veteran John Dale's struggle with mental health problems.
07:47 Archaeologists discover a new ceremonial monument at Stonehenge.
08:15 Will a graduate tax split the coalition?


THU 09:00 Voices from the Old Bailey (b00t2l2d)
Series 1

Wicked Women

Professor Amanda Vickery presents dramatised extracts from gripping court cases and discusses with fellow historians what they reveal about 18th century society and culture.

This time, Amanda listens to the voices of criminal women in the Old Bailey, with fellow historians Judith Hawley, Peter King and Jeremy Barlow, on location in a crowded 18th century lodging house.

The first is a shoplifter, who pilfers a pair of silk gloves. She faces the gallows - but the jury saves her life.

The second is a con-woman, and her case tells us a lot about the vulnerability of men in the 18th century.

The last is an abused wife who chooses the ultimate way out: murder. But once she has murdered her shopkeeper husband, she has great trouble disposing of the body...

Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00t3cyt)
Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

Episode 4

Acclaimed poet Jackie Kay traces her biological parents in a journey from Scotland to Lagos.

In September 2009, six years after her first trip to Nigeria, Jackie is invited to participate in a writers' workshop in Lagos. She is determined to visit her ancestral village and hopes to meet not only her father but also some of her half siblings.

Read by the author.

Producer/Abridger: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00t17k2)
Presented by Jane Garvey. In 1940, Alec Bristow published the wartime classic "How to Run an Allotment, his daughter Jane talks about the legacy of the book. Teaching children to read - are synthetic phonics the only way? Back in the 1950s, two schoolfriends Jackie Hockridge and Terry Cryer formed The Taylor Maids, they tell Jane about why they've reformed for Edinburgh and trafficked women and the Olympics - how big a problem is it likely to be?


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1867)
A Kind Of Loving

Episode 9

By Stan Barstow
Dramatised by Diana Griffiths

Iconic 1960s novel is set in Yorkshire.

Things go from bad to worse between Vic and Ingrid, as Ma Rothwell interferes more and more. Vic goes on a drinking spree and returns at midnight to find Ma Rothwell waiting for him They have a final showdown, during which Vic throws up on her carpet.

Vic Brown...Lee Ingleby
Ingrid Rothwell...Rebecca Callard
Mrs Rothwell...Brigit Forsyth
Percy...Jake Norton
Producer/Director.....Pauline Harris.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b00t2mhq)
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a strange place. An island and a commonwealth, it exists in an uneasy relationship with its massive neighbour, the US. All of its political powers, and much of its government cash, come from Washington, but Puerto Ricans can't vote in US federal elections. And now an economic crisis generated in the US has come home to roost on the island. Puerto Rico's Republican governor has announced a wave of layoffs of public sector workers, along with deep cuts in services. Students responded by staging the longest ever university strike in North American history. And this dispute plays into the bitter arguments over the island's status. Should it seek independence, and the right to make its own decisions? Or should it push for more integration into the US, so at least it has some say in its future?

Maria Hinojosa, the distinguished journalist and presenter of Latino USA, travels to the island to examine its future through the voices of young people. She meets the students who so furiously defied the governor. She hears from young activists who are pushing for independence. And she seeks out one of the many young Puerto Ricans who are signing up to serve in the US military - and who see their primary loyalty on the mainland.


THU 11:30 Almanacs: The Oldest Guides To Everything (b00t2mhs)
Ben Schott charts the history of the most influential form of mass publication in the 16th and 17th centuries. At their height, apart from the Bible, almanacs were the bestselling books on the market, with over 400,000 sold annually.

Behind the scenes at The British Museum, Dr Irving Finkel outlines the almanac tradition from Babylonian clay tablet to Gutenberg's earliest printed material. The British Library's Moira Goff lets Ben loose in the archives to peruse The Kalender of Shepherdes and the oldest Old Moore's Almanack.

Combining the characteristics of calendar, self-help manual & pocket encyclopaedia, almanacs contained utilitarian information on just about everything: feast days, when to sow crops, let blood, how to write an IOU, even advice on amateur surgery and DIY abortion. They also included dramatic astrological prophesies about the likelihood of plague, famine and war. Passages were read to boost soldiers' morale in battle and by MPs in the House of Commons.

Almanac compilers were arrested & grilled by parliamentary committees. Did one actually predict the Great Fire of London? Professor Bernard Capp assesses their powerful role in revolutionary politics.

Almanacs played a central part in spreading knowledge, literacy, popular journalism and advertising. Ben digs up early adverts for pills, potions and all manner of quackery. But they were also mocked in all kinds of ways, as Dr Adam Smyth explains.

The blank pages inserted into almanacs were used for jottings of accounts and personal memos, so they also gave us the personal written diary.

The statistical has replaced the astrological but its influence lingers on.

Producer: Tamsin Hughes
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00t189b)
Consumer news.


THU 12:30 Face the Facts (b00t386s)
Fire Safety Disorder

As more firms are being fined using laws designed to keep people safe from fire, John Waite discovers the government has been breaking its own laws on fire safety. The difference is that while private companies and individuals face huge fines or prison sentences, ministers and civil servants need not worry about such things. That's because they work in buildings classed as crown premises and crown immunity from prosecution covers fire safety laws. Only if someone was to die in a disaster might they find themselves in court under different legislation. And the government is not always as good at following the fire safety regulations as perhaps you might think. Serious failings have emerged at one central government headquarters and other breaches have been uncovered at other parts of the country. All this follows the programme's earlier revelations on towerblocks deemed a danger to residents and the firefighters' training college which hadn't followed fire safety legislation when one of its own buildings burnt down.


THU 12:57 Weather (b00t18h0)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b00t18jh)
National and international news with Martha Kearney.


THU 13:30 Questions, Questions (b00t2xcp)
Stewart Henderson presents the interactive problem-solving programme which offers answers to those intriguing questions of everyday life, inspired by current events and popular culture.

Each programme is compiled directly from the well-informed and inquisitive Radio 4 audience, who bring their unrivalled collective brain to bear on these puzzlers every week.

QQ has become something of an institution on Radio 4, providing informed and ingenious answers to questions such as:

How do you know when a volcano is extinct?
When was the conventional heart icon first drawn?
How do woodpeckers keep their beaks sharp?
Why do we put pork with apple and lamb with mint sauce?

Email: questions.questions@bbc.co.uk
Tel: 03700 100400
Or you can reach us online via our Radio 4 message board.

Producer: Dilly Barlow
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b00t18l5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b00t2xcr)
The Target Audience

Glitz and glamour are the trademarks of a hugely successful TV show where Russia's famous, powerful and rich are interviewed by a trio of canny and beautiful young women. But tonight's guest, Yuri Tseitlin, is faced with a dilemma whereby his oil empire may just slip out of his fingers. Before he deals with his offscreen problems he has some tough questions to answer.

The three interviewers - a young model from the provinces, a political journalist and a businesswoman - are all driven by the cruelly aspirational culture around them. They are beginning to enjoy the influence and the recognition that TV offers them. They were voted into the job by an audience of viewers whose own lives are forever excluded from the sparkle of Moscow's media, fashion and business worlds. But each of these young women has her own agenda in the interview with Mr Tseitlin.

In the last of our plays in the 'Russia Actualnyi' series, we get a frontline take on the world of Russian business as it collides with other more powerful interests. Writer Igor Simonov has run a number of businesses - he knows and understands the unspoken rules of commerce and politics in Russia today. The play has been staged in Moscow's Praktika theatre, a powerhouse of new drama, where it received critical and popular acclaim.

Yuri Tseitlin ... Yasen Peyankov
Nastya ... Anne Bobby
Katya ... Angelique Doudnikova
Director ... Michael Levi Harris
Vadim ... Stass Klassen
Alexei ... Moti Margolin
Announcer ... Doug Shapiro
Michael ... Peter Von Berg
Marina ... Tatyana Zbirovskaya

All other parts were played by members of the cast.

Technical production by Scott Lehrer, Grammy winner and Tony winner for Broadway.
Music specially composed by Gene Pritzker.
Consultant: Noah Birksted-Breen of Sputnik Theatre.

Director: Judith Kampfner.
A Waters Company Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b00t0lw6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:07 on Saturday]


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00t0zsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00t1zmk)
Platform 3

Union Station

A young man visits his cousin Neil and his wife Lou before setting off to continue his tour of the American Mid-West. He remembers Union Station as 'one of the oldest and most significant stations in the country, on the historic, transcontinental railroad, the first to span the continent from coast to coast.' But when he gets as far as the bus-station, the locals find it hard to give him directions...

Written by Gerard Woodward, and read by Patrick Kennedy.

Gerard Woodward was born in London in 1961. After studying painting and anthropology, he published three prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to novel-writing. His first novel, August, was shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award, his second, I'll Go To Bed At Noon, for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. Since then he has published another collection of poetry, We Were Pedestrians (shortlisted for the 2005 T.S Eliot Prize) and become Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. His collection of short stories, Caravan Thieves, was published in March 2008. A Birthday Cockatrice appeared in an earlier Sweet Talk series for BBC Radio 4 - The Foods of Love and Hate (2008). Nourishment, his new novel, will be published in September 2010. Gerard lives in Somerset.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 15:45 Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State (b00t1qn4)
Temperance and the 1872 Licensing Act

We join presenter Mark Whitaker in the ideal industrial community of Saltaire, near Bradford. Developed between 1850 and 1870, it was planned as an environment in which workers would be diligent, healthy and happy - because they would have no access to alcohol.

At the heart of the village was the Saltaire Club and Institute that was set up 'to supply the advantages of a public-house, but without the evils.' Temperance developed from the 1830s as a movement of the skilled working classes, and in 1853 became organised as a formidable political pressure group - the UK Alliance. It argued for teetotalism, and for the right of ratepayers to ban the liquor trade in their own town.

It had formidable parliamentary support. But it was hated by writers such as Charles Dickens, who ridiculed the idea that prohibition would create a more sober nation. The Times dismissed teetotallers as "intolerant brooding theorists".

The issue came to a head in 1871-2. There was a General Election and Gladstone's Liberals were trying to pass a new Licensing Bill. The campaign was marred by violent confrontations between those who wanted more or less freedom to drink. Gladstone himself hoped to create a more continental drinking culture and reduced the duty on French wine. But he couldn't win. When he lost the next Election in 1874 he complained that he'd been 'borne down in a torrent of gin and beer.'

Actors read from temperance literature, from Dickens and from newspaper reports.

Producer: Mark Whitaker
A Square Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 16:00 Open Book (b00t109n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:30 Material World (b00t2xct)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. This week: seeing through clothes without getting personal, earworms you can't get out of your head, identifying an Anzac hero, how we want to be seen in a social network, and closing in on the mysterious Higgs boson.


THU 17:00 PM (b00t19f7)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t19gw)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 The Secret World (b012mzvm)
Series 2

Episode 4

Alan Titchmarsh reveals a dark side when his career is at risk. Jon Culshaw explores famous folk's private lives. From July 2010.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b00t18l7)
Pip reveals that she's been into college to re-register. She's going to start again next term. David's shocked but delighted. Ruth's relieved they have their daughter back.

At Lower Loxley, Pip tells Elizabeth her news. Elizabeth's pleased, but David can't resist having a dig when Pip heads off to start work. He points out that he was right about Jude. Elizabeth should have seen Pip's woes coming. Elizabeth counters, saying that certain people should have handled the whole situation better.

Kenton admits to Nigel that things with Kathy aren't going so well. Tonight's eighties bash at Jaxx will take his mind off it though. Kenton's still in the doghouse, so is determined to stick to regular hours and avoid another lock in.

Later at Jaxx, Nigel bumps into some of his old crowd. Kenton decides to invite them to stay on after closing. As the night draws in, Kenton becomes maudlin about Kathy. Nigel suggests he gives Kathy time to get over Sid. Kenton loses track of time and panics when a taxi arrives for Nigel at 1am. Kenton still has work to do before leaving, so Kirsty offers to put him up at her place tonight. He can think about what to tell Kathy tomorrow.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b00t19jr)
Singer Tom Jones

With John Wilson, including an interview with Tom Jones who, at 70, speaks about not acting his age, growing up in Wales and the inspiration behind his new blues and gospel album Praise and Blame.

Harold E Edgerton's pioneering photographs capturing motion on high speed film using a stroboscope are now legendary. As a new exhibition of his work opens, photography historian Colin Ford chooses the five innovations in photography that changed the way we see the world.

The National Trust, in partnership with Arts Council England, has launched Trust New Art, a three-year project which brings contemporary art and craft to existing National Trust properties. Tom Freshwater, Contemporary Arts programme manager at the National Trust, explains the thinking behind the scheme and some of its commissions. Design critic Corinne Julius gives her verdict.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1867)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b00t2xcy)
Community Sentencing

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke wants to reduce the prison population by getting more offenders on community sentences. But magistrates claim the effectiveness of some community punishments is being compromised because of under resourcing. James Silver travels to Liverpool where one district judge believes the Government needs to do more to ensure courts have the range of community sanctions they need to tackle crime.

Producer: Rob Cave.


THU 20:30 In Business (b00t388j)
Coming Soon

What happens next as the Credit Crunch crisis continues? Peter Day gets the long view from a clutch of the distinguished economists including Kenneth Rogoff, Raghuram Rajan and Sushil Wadhwani.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.


THU 21:00 Saving Species (b00t1xt1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday]


THU 21:30 Voices from the Old Bailey (b00t2l2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b00t1r3k)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00t1r6g)
No chance of convicting a police officer for manslaughter in the case of Ian Tomlinson, says the CPS. Are the police above the law?

Kosovo's declaration of independence was legal, says the International Court of Justice.

Is the White House running scared from right-wing bloggers?

With Robin Lustig.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00t1t3j)
Before The Earthquake

Episode 9

Tragedy has befallen Concetta whilst in labour. However, she has finally grasped some threads of the memories she had lost about the events of the days before the earthquake.

Although consumed by grief, she has found a new understanding with her husband Felice, but she still needs to steal away to share some news with Peppe's brother Francesco.

Sian Thomas reads this atmospheric mystery by Maria Allen.

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall Productions for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Recorded for Training Purposes (b00t2xd2)
Series 4

Episode 1

The sketch show about modern communication kicks off a fourth series. Described as "brilliant" and "first-rate" by the Telegraph, it takes aim at such idiocies of modern life as TV talent show formats, disclaimers at the end of emails, and using good reviews of a previous series as a way of enticing listeners.

Recorded in front of a studio audience, the show features a cast whose credits spread from Radio 4 afternoon plays, via award-winning fringe theatre, to Star Wars: Rachel Atkins, Dominic Coleman, Lewis Macleod, Julie Mayhew, Ingrid Oliver and Ben Willbond.

The show had an open-door policy, meaning that anyone could send the show sketches. Some 1500 were sent in this way, with every single one being read by a script-editor or producer - with the funniest stuff getting recorded and broadcast. In addition, a small number of the new writers who got material broadcast this way in series three were given one-to-one script-editing notes and feedback from the production team as part of BBC Radio Comedy's commitment to discovering and developing new writing talent.

The scripts were edited by award-winning writers James Cary, Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris. James' writing will be familiar to Radio 4 audiences from the his sketch show Concrete Cow to his sitcoms Think The Unthinkable and Hut 33. He also co-writes, with Milton Jones, Another Case of Milton Jones. Jason and Joel have written sketches for Mitchell & Webb on both TV and Radio, The Armstrong & Miller Show, The Peter Serafinowicz Show, and are the best-selling authors of Bollocks to Alton Towers: Uncommonly British Days Out.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00t1t85)
Susan Hulme reports on good news for a million people who lost out with the near collapse of Equitable Life. They're to get compensation.

There's further taunting of Nick Clegg by Labour MPs after he gave a 'personal' view from the despatch box opposing the Iraq war.

And MPs want action to sort out the problem of mice in the Commons.



FRIDAY 23 JULY 2010

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00t15jh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00t3cyt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00t15mv)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00t15tv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00t15q9)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00t169j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00t16q1)
with the Rev Derek Boden, minister of Malone Presbyterian Church, Belfast.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00t16rk)
Rural communities across England are to get a right to build. Later today, the Government will announce its plan to give local people the ability to get together and build houses even in areas where local councils have refused planning permission. The idea is proving controversial even before its official. The Campaign to Protect Rural England says bypassing the current planning system isn't the way forward. It comes as Defra announces the abolition of more organisations. The Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman is getting rid of The Agricultural Wages Board, The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, The Inland Waterways Advisory Council and is also withdrawing funding from the Sustainable Development Commission. The National Farmers Union has welcomed the demise of the Agricultural Wages Board but the Unite Union says it's a disaster for farming in England and Wales.
Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Anna Varle.


FRI 06:00 Today (b00t179s)
Morning news and current affairs with Sarah Montague and Evan Davis including:
07:51 Should villages have control over planning permission?
08:10 What does the banking stress test mean for the economy?
08:48 Life expectancy inequality 'higher than the 1930s'.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b00t0ztc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00t3cyw)
Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

Episode 5

Acclaimed poet Jackie Kay traces her biological parents in a journey from Scotland to Lagos.

Jackie reads the final extract from her memoir, including an emotional conclusion to her Nigerian odyssey.

Producer/Abridger: Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00t17k4)
Presented by Sheila McClennon.
When coal was king, they were the queens. The Coal Queens of the 1960s, 70s and 80s were wives and daughters of pitmen, crowned in beauty contests, who brought a bit of sparkle to the collieries. A report from Human Rights Watch looks at what life is like for women in Afghanistan living in areas already controlled by the insurgents. Can you tell your Bellis Perennis from your Digitalis Purpureas? - should we encourage the bringing back of Latin names into the ordinary gardener's lexicon? And a new anaesthetic technique used in caesareans.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1869)
A Kind Of Loving

Episode 10

By Stan Barstow
Dramatised by Diana Griffiths

Iconic 1960s novel is set in Yorkshire.

After leaving Ingrid, Vic goes to his sister's, breaking down at last. Can the couple survive, can they find a kind of loving to carry them through?

Vic Brown...Lee Ingleby
Ingrid Rothwell...Rebecca Callard
David...Conrad Nelson
Chris...Deborah McAndrew
Producer/Director.....Pauline Harris.


FRI 11:00 Cache in Pocket (b00t2xwm)
Ten years ago, an American computer engineer hid some items in a bucket and plotted their location using a Global Positioning System, for others to find. Now, geocaching is a worldwide phenomenon. Ian Peacock investigates.

Ian Peacock tracks the rising popularity of geocaching; a technological treasure hunt.

There are over a million caches in the world. There's one in every continent and over 60,000 in the UK. There's even one in space.

Ian begins his quest as a 'muggle' - a non-geocacher. A day spent accruing nettle stings and caching tips from the UK's top cacher though, Dr Solly (with over 15,000 finds to his name)and Ian is clearly getting hooked.

He and his producer decide to have a race. A travel bug race; they set two moveable travel bugs in separate caches to see whose bugs travels furthest and fastest. Some make round the world trips. One couple even let the final destination of their travel bug determine where they will spend their honeymoon. Ian also gets a lesson from 'geocachingwomble', aka Dominic, an autistic student who describes a very extreme case of muggling that he was the victim of.

Growing in caching-confidence, Ian sets our very own Radio 4 audio-cache within the grounds of that iconic broadcasting spot; Alexandra Palace. He hopes that people will find the cache and leave a short recording about, well, anything really! Feeling that he's earned his caching stripes now, Ian tries his hand at an 'extreme' cache. Donned in fetching head-torch and wellies his quest takes him to a dark and watery tunnel.

Dave Ulmer speaks about the decision he took that started all of this, when in 2000 after the satellite systems were unblocked by Bill Clinton, he placed some simple items in a bucket for others to find. It wasn't long after that, that geocaching went viral, and Ian for one, certainly gets the bug.


FRI 11:30 Paul Temple (b00t2xwp)
Paul Temple and Steve

The Suspects

The net is closing on Dr Belasco, but the sleuth and his wife are now in danger from an unexpected quarter. Stars Gerda Stevenson.


FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b00t189d)
Winifred Robinson asks why Easyjet's punctuality was so poor last month. Plus the UK's Ambassador to Spain on the issues facing Brits both on holiday and living in the country. Also, how does the Mercury Prize affect the artists that win and those who are nominated? And, as David Cameron says he wants more choice in public services, the programme explores whether choice is a good thing for consumers.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b00t18h2)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b00t18jk)
National and international news with Shaun Ley.


FRI 13:30 Feedback (b00t2xwr)
Why did the Today Programme give Peter Mandelson so much airtime to plug his new memoir? What was BBC News thinking when they redesigned their website? And was Men's Hour worth waiting for?

Just some of the questions raised by Feedback's listeners. Roger Bolton gets some answers.

Also on the programme, we hear listeners' suggestions for changes to the station which the new controller of Radio 4 could implement.

Producer: Brian McCluskey
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00t18l7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b00t2xwt)
The Orchestra

An improvised play based on documentary interviews with real orchestral players, conductors and managers.
Devised, directed and produced by Rosie Boulton.

David Adams is halfway through a five year contract as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra when things start to go wrong. A row with the brass section leads to a dressing down by the Board. Suddenly David is experiencing a deep crisis of confidence. How did this happen and will he be able to recover his self-belief sufficiently to return to the podium and win the orchestra back?

This improvised drama sheds light on the controlled and controlling world of orchestral life whilst exploring universal themes of leadership, self-belief and job satisfaction.

The intention of this drama is to be as accurate and true to the orchestral experience as possible and it was conceived using frank and revealing interviews with those currently working in the orchestral field. Bringing Colin Metters, Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music into the cast is another means of achieving real insight into this very particular world.

Cast

Principal Conductor: David Adams - Philip Franks

Conductor's Wife: Kate Adams - Christine Kavanagh

Leader of the Orchestra: Patrick Hardy - Julian Rhind-Tutt

Principal Horn: Marie Cherrington - Hayley Doherty

2nd Trumpet: Sean Jackson - George Irving

Conductor's advisor: Harry Bennett - Colin Metters

Guest conductor: Marc Altschuler - Rumon Gamba

Actuality of rehearsal provided by BBC Philharmonic, conductor Rumon Gamba.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00t2xww)
We join Blackshaw Head Optimistic Gardeners - aka Gardeners With Altitude - near Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

Pippa Greenwood, Bob Flowerdew and Christine Walkden form the panel. Eric Robson is the chairman.

We also introduce the fourth GQT listener whose gardening projects we will mentor and revisit over the coming months. Part of our Listeners' Gardens series.

Produced by Howard Shannon
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:45 Britain on the Bottle: Alcohol and the State (b00t1qpx)
Political Thinkers and the Drink Question

Mark Whitaker shows how the 'Drink Question' was of central importance for both of England's most original and influential political thinkers of the 19th century - John Stuart Mill and TH Green.

For both of them it raised the question of how far the state could be justified in interfering in the lives of individuals. The debate had started in the letters page of the Times in 1856, in a high-level exchange between the Tory MP Lord Stanley and Samuel Pope, Secretary of the temperance movement the UK Alliance. The latter argued that his rights as a citizen were "invaded" by the behaviour of heavy drinkers; the former that no Englishman would agree to be "coerced for his own benefit".

Mill picked up the topic in his essay On Liberty, published in 1859. Mill was mid-Victorian England's most influential public intellectual, and his books were best-sellers even though his ideas were radical. He insisted that "drunkenness is not a fit subject for legislative purposes", and feared that the weight of public opinion would crush individualism.

TH Green was an academic philosopher at Oxford, and was deeply involved in the temperance movement during the 1870s. He believed that individual freedom lay in pursuing the common good and that mass drunkenness made this impossible in England. He thought that "moderate drinkers" had to sacrifice their pleasure for the sake of society as a whole.

Actors read extracts from their work.

Producer: Mark Whitaker
A Square Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00t2y8h)
On Last Word this week:
Eduardo Sanchez Junco - who developed the Spanish gossip magazine Hola into a worldwide brand. We have tributes from his former international editor the Marquesa de Valera and his competitor Richard Desmond.
Also top Russian spy Sergei Tretyakov who defected to the Americans in 2000.
The influential climate change scientist Professor Stephen Schneider who advised eight American presidents, but received death threats from sceptics
And "probably the daftest broadcaster in the world" - as his jingle had it. BBC Radio Norfolk's veteran entertainer, country music fan and the voice of Carrow Road - Roy Waller.


FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00t2y8k)
The League Of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss presents the first of his favourite character actors, Ernest Thesiger, the mad scientist in The Bride Of Frankenstein

Matthew Sweet talks to one of the unsung heroines of British cinema - Angela Allen, the script supervisor who spent 30 years by the side of John Huston. She recounts tales of dysentery and whisky drinking on the jungle set of The African Queen, of problems with Marilyn Monroe on her last movie, The Misfits, and Montgomery Clift's troubles with the bottle on Freud.

The star of The Thorn Birds television series, Rachel Ward, tells Matthew why she quit acting and Britain to become a film director in Australia

The child star of Sammy Going South, Fergus McClelland, reveals the reasons why many believed the film was jinxed.


FRI 17:00 PM (b00t19f9)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news with Eddie Mair. Plus Weather.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00t19gy)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b00t2y8m)
Series 31

Episode 6

Mr Cameron Goes to Washington.

International diplomacy and domestic politicking test the ConDem coalition, while the debates on police funding and staffing levels gather momentum in the press.

Guest stand-up, Nathan Caton, considers the meaning of the latest crime statistics and volunteers for repatriation (back to Hammersmith), so long as Nick Griffin’s price is right.

Jon considers the humanitarian implications of Tesco’s new “lasagne sandwich” and Mitch is delighted by charismatically advertised cleaning product, Cillit Bang’s new brand-mate.

Plus the Now Show audience tell us about the times they tried to help others, only for things to go horribly wrong.

To join in with the Now Show audience question check out the #nowshow thread on Twitter.

Starring Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, with Jon Holmes, Laura Shavin, Nathan Caton and Mitch Benn.

Written by the cast with additional material from Nick Doody, Jane Lamacraft, James Kettle and Hannah George.

Produced by Colin Anderson.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00t18l9)
Lilian finds herself covering at the Bull, as Nic goes to the Game Fair with Will. Jolene's taking it easy in Borchester, getting some beauty treatment. Will's troubled when Lilian points out what a popular barmaid Nic is, especially with some of the local lads.

Kenton calls Kathy to try to explain his actions last night. Kathy's too busy and tired to listen, so Kenton shows up at work to apologise. For a moment he thinks Kathy's suspicious of him and Kirsty. He assures Kathy he had a terrible time on her sofa and it won't happen again.

At the game fair, Will gets jealous when a Bull punter stops to chat with Nic. Nic brushes it off though. She's more interested in the shooting area, asking Will to stop distracting her as she goes for the bull's-eye.

Bert's also jealous when Lynda compliments Lilian on her characterisation for the murder mystery. Lynda has organised some last minute rehearsals, although Lilian persuades her that too much rehearsal will spoil the spontaneity. Lynda then stuns Lilian when she reveals that the fete's special guest is Colin Dexter. It's going to be the most thrilling Ambridge fete ever!

Written by ..... Simon Frith
Directed by ..... Rosemary Watts
Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
Kenton Archer ..... Richard Attlee
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Helen Monks
Nigel Pargetter ..... Graham Seed
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Jolene Perks ..... Buffy Davis
Fallon Rogers ..... Joanna Van Kampen
Kathy Perks ..... Hedli Niklaus
Joe Grundy ..... Edward Kelsey
William Grundy ..... Philip Molloy
Nick Hanson ..... Becky Wright
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Brenda Tucker ..... Amy Shindler
Lynda Snell ..... Carole Boyd
Bert Fry ..... Eric Allan
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Benedict Wheeler ..... Sam Dale.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00t19jt)
Ian McEwan and Fay Weldon on creative writing courses

The Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia turns 40 this year and boasts an array of famous alumni, including Ian McEwan and Naomi Alderman. Mark Lawson examines the history of creative writing teaching, and speaks to writers including Ian McEwan, Fay Weldon, Richard Ford, Chang-rae Lee, Tobias Hill and Joyce Carol Oates about some of the controversies surrounding these courses.

Producer Georgia Mann.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00t1869)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00t2y8r)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the live debate from Lochinver village hall, Sutherland, with questions for the panel including Lord McNally, Minister of State for Justice and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords; Fergus Ewing, Community Safety Minister in the Scottish Government and SNP MSP; Diane Abbot MP, Labour leadership candidate; and Magnus Linklater, Scottish Editor of The Times.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b00t2y8w)
Endings of Empire

In the fiftieth anniversary year of independence for Somalia, David Cannadine looks back at the ceremonies which marked the end of Britain's empire and sees the midnight lowering and raising of flags and the accompanying celebrations as often merely masking deep rooted tensions and resentments.
Producer: Sheila Cook.


FRI 21:00 A History of the World in 100 Objects (b00t2y8y)
Ancient pleasures, modern spice (AD 1 - 500)

Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum in London, continues his global history as told through objects from the Museum's collection. In this episode, Neil is exploring the ways in which people were seeking pleasure around the world 2000 years ago, from pipe smoking in North America to court etiquette in China and the conspicuous consumption of pepper in Roman England. But he begins his investigation with a silver cup that offers a rare glimpse into the world of sex in ancient Rome.
Producers: Paul Kobrak and Anthony Denselow


FRI 21:58 Weather (b00t1r3m)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00t1r6j)
Only seven European banks have failed key stress tests.Does that mean the banking crisis is over?

Trafigura has been fined for exporting hazardous waste to the Ivory Coast. We explore the trade in toxins.

Are Drones the weapons to win the fight against the Taleban?

with Robin Lustig.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b00t1t3l)
Before The Earthquake

Episode 10

When the earthquake robbed her of her memory Concetta was told that she'd been seen at night with Peppe di Rienzo, and she assumed he was the father of her child. But now she finally knows the truth, she has a score to settle.

Sian Thomas reads the conclusion of this atmospheric mystery by Maria Allen.

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall Productions for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b00t20rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00t1t87)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament with Mark D'Arcy.