SATURDAY 26 MARCH 2011

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b00zm4m9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zm3hq)
John Julius Norwich - The Popes

Episode 5

Well known for his histories of Norman Sicily, Venice, the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean, John Julius Norwich has now turned his attention to the oldest continuing institution in the world, tracing the papal line down the centuries from St Peter himself - traditionally (though by no means historically) the first pope - to the present day. Of the 280-odd holders of the supreme office, some have unquestionably been saints; others have wallowed in unspeakable iniquity.

In the final episode of The Popes, John Julius Norwich concludes with the election of the people's pope John XXIII a welcome antidote to Pius XII. Expected to be nothing more than a brief, caretaker pope, John turned out to be anything but. Dragging the Church into the twentieth century, he shook the world.

Producer: David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zm4md)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zm4mg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zm4mj)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b00zm4ml)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zm4mn)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b00zm4mq)
The programme that starts with its listeners.


SAT 06:00 News (b00zm4ms)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b00zm4mv)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b00zq87b)
Edgelands

Richard Uridge explores the Edgelands around Manchester with poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, who urge us to love the disregarded spaces between the city and countryside.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b00zq87d)
Farming Today This Week

Many rural services are more expensive to run than urban ones, from buses to the village shop. Charlotte Smith speaks to people in the village of Stretton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire to discover what value countryside services have to the rest of society. Professor Wyn Grant from the University of Warwick and Reverend Barbara Clutton guide Charlotte through the costs of running a village.

Anna Hill visits Erpingham Primary School in Norfolk, which has just 14 pupils aged from five to 11 years old. Sarah Swadling props up the bar at a pub in Dorset which was resurrected by the locals. And Ruth Sanderson finds out about a scheme which provides mopeds for people to get to work in the countryside.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Weatherill.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b00zm4mx)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b00zq87g)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and Justin Webb, featuring:
08:30 Unite's Len McCluskey and Education Secretary Michael Gove on today's anti-cuts march in London.
08:10 The daughter of rapist Delroy Grant's oldest victim describes her mother's plight.
08:54 Are we are going through "the golden age of the placard"?


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b00zq87j)
Suzy Klein with pop star Rick Astley and poet Elvis McGonagall; interviews with a woman who found out at the age of 18 that her father was not the man who'd raised but a famous novelist instead. There's a Crowdscape from Letchworth, Britain's first Garden City and home of the country's first roundabout, and Inheritance Tracks from Clarence B Jones, the man who helped Martin Luther King write his 'I Have a Dream' speech.


SAT 10:00 Excess Baggage (b00zq8nj)
Morecambe Bay - India

Sandi Toksvig explores Morecambe Bay and the area round about and talks to a travel journalist about her love of India and places to visit near Sheffield.
Producer: Chris Wilson.


SAT 10:30 For One Night Only (b00zq9m8)
Series 6

BB King Live at the Regal

Paul Gambaccini is back with the award-winning series that re-visits the occasions on which a classic live album was recorded. He hears from those who were there, on-stage, backstage and in the audience, to re-create the event for all of us who, each time we play the album, think: 'If only I could have been there'.

On 21 November 1964 what's been hailed as one of the greatest blues albums of all time was recorded at Chicago's premier black theatre, The Regal. It's claimed, that musicians from Eric Clapton to John Mayer still play it for inspiration before they go on stage.

If BB's studio sessions were electric, it was on stage that he really came into his own. Yet, at a time when live albums were becoming the thing, BB had yet to record one. Enter Johnny Pate, A&R man for ABC Paramount, the label that had recently signed Riley B King.

On the night, Chicago DJs Pervis Spann and E Rodney Jones introduced the sets and the enthusiastic audience erupted as BB and his band treated them to a classic performance.

Paul Gambaccini listens to memories of that never-to-be-forgotten night from BB King himself and from the sole surviving member of his band, Duke Jethro. Jethro's usual instrument, the HammondB3 Organ, was in the repair shop so he had to play, for the first time in his life, a piano. Yet his tinkling riffs are one of the album's major charms.

Paul also hears from the album's producer, Johnny Pate, from WVON DJ Pervis Spann, and from Arthur Gathings, who was in the audience.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b00zq9mb)
Peter Riddell looks behind the scenes at Westminster.

A rapid conclusion in Libya? Or a long stalemate? The senior Conservative, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and the Labour peer, Lord Malloch-Brown, discuss whether a new UN resolution is needed to bring about the downfall of Colonel Gaddafi.

The government has volunteered to set in statute a duty to consult Parliament in the event of future military action. Labour's Graham Allen, long-term campaigner for more parliamentary power, is delighted.

Boxed in? Or just pursuing a steady course towards economic recovery? Verdicts differ about the second budget of the Chancellor, George Osborne. The Observer's William Keegan and the Conservative, Peter Lilley, weigh the arguments.

Finally, MPs agreed this week to reject a one per cent pay rise and freeze their salaries at £65,738 a year. The Conservative Mark Field,and Labour's Helen Jones want an independent body to decide their pay in future.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b00zq9md)
From Our Own Correspondent is in a small Gypsy town in eastern Hungary where right-wing vigilantes say crime is out of control. They plan to introduce their own style of security - the police and local authorities are concerned. The programme's in Amsterdam finding out why the Dutch monarchy is less relaxed - and more regal than it was. And visit the country where there's nothing peculiar in naming your baby: "Joker", "Honey-boy", or even "Peanut".

Sue Lloyd-Roberts has been to Saudi Arabia to see if the talk of reform sweeping through the Arab world has had any effect on the daily lives of women in the kingdom.

Chris Morris travels to Portugal for a close-up look at the crisis in the Eurozone.

Each of Europe's remaining royal houses has its own style. Here in Britain there's still a good deal of pomp and circumstance, and ancient tradition. But we've always thought of the Dutch as having a more relaxed approach to their monarchy - fewer carriages, more getting around on bicycles and so on. But it seems that's a rather outdated image - Gabriel Gatehouse says there's been a change of tone.

Most of us don't have a great deal of say over what we're called. Our parents give us a name and we carry it through life. So when you pick one for a baby, you might want to bear in mind that he or she won't always be a baby. They might become a president, or a paratrooper, or whatever. So you might go for a neutral kind of name that would feel right, whatever. But that sort of thinking would be considered way too boring in the Philippines. As Kate McGeown explains, Filipino names are a riot of invention.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b00zq9mg)
The programme reveals HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is to demand hundreds of pounds in uncollected tax from more than 140,000 pensioners. HMRC failed to take account of the state pension when it sent out tax codes to people who first drew their pension this year. It made exactly the same mistake in the two previous tax years, and the government announced in January it would cancel those bills. But HMRC has told Money Box that it has no power to write off the latest money it has failed to collect - £130 million - because the mistake was discovered in the year the tax was due.

The Chancellor has delivered his second Budget, which he insisted is to 'fuel growth.' While George Osborne said he did not need to ask the public for more taxes and spending cuts, there are still plenty of eye-catching measures. Plans include a further cut to corporation tax; a shared-equity scheme aimed at helping first-time buyers on to the property ladder; a single-tier state pension of £140 per week; a consultation on merging the national insurance system with that of the income tax system; and a further increase in the size of the personal tax allowance. Anita Monteith from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales; John Whiting, tax policy director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation and director of the Office for Tax Simplification; and Mervyn Kohler, Age UK's special advisor join the programme.

Money Box has discovered that unofficial websites are illegally selling tickets for next year's Olympic games at vastly inflated prices.One listener has paid a Norway-based website £190 for athletics tickets that she could have got for £32, if she had gone to the official ticket website. Money Box investigates.

This week the big six energy companies have again been strongly criticised by the energy regulator.
Ofgem has accused the companies of bamboozling customers with too many confusing tariffs, and of failing to drop prices quickly enough when wholesale prices fell. Paul Lewis speaks to Richard Frost from Npower to hear how he responds to suggestions that most customers have disengaged from finding the best deals.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b00zm4hy)
Series 33

Er - I thought we didn't have any money? With Rory Bremner.

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis count the cost of war with special guest, impressionist Rory Bremner. Mitch Benn performs an elegy for Knut the polar bear; stand-up Imran Yusuf ponders the unifying talents of a prospective Miss Universe; Laura Shavin whisks us off on a National Insurance holiday and pop singer Alistair Griffin says roll up, roll up for Kate and Wills wedding souvenirs.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b00zm4n0)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b00zm4n2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b00zlln5)
Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical discussion from Kingston Grammar School in Surrey, with panellists Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, Shadow Justice Secretary, Bob Crow, general Secretary of the RMT union and Ann Leslie, the veteran foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b00zq9mj)
Any Answers? Listeners respond to the issues raised in Any Questions? If you have a comment or question on this week's programme or would like to take part in the Any Answers? phone-in you can contact us by telephone or email. Tel: 03700 100 444 Email: any.answers@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b00zq9ml)
Leverage

By Simon Passmore.

A city banker is found dead in an opulent apartment. At the funeral, his former girlfriend Helen is unexpectedly questioned about when she last saw him. Did he mention computer files, or give her anything as a keepsake? Helen's suspicions mount as she retraces his last movements. Her discoveries put her in the firing line. A fast-paced, psychological thriller.

Cast:

Helen . . . . . Claire Foy
David . . . . . Blake Ritson
Mark . . . . . Charlie Cox
Kendra . . . . . Sally Orrock
Clare . . . . . Joanna Monro
Jamie . . . . . Nyasha Hatendi
Ray . . . . . Sean Baker

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko

A taut, character-driven conspiracy thriller by one of radio's leading writers of thrillers. Like the television hit State of Play, Simon Passmore has created an intelligent plot for grown-ups: writhing with twists and heavy on menace. This will be compelling Saturday afternoon entertainment.

David and Helen, a professional couple in their mid-twenties, are shocked when Jamie, an old friend from university, dies unexpectedly. At the funeral, they meet Mark, another mutual friend. Mark implies that he works for Special Services, and tells them that Jamie, a high-flying investment banker, may have killed himself - and that his bank has been under investigation. Did Jamie contact the couple before he died? As Mark teases out information, Helen begins to suspect he is not entirely innocent. Mark's questions turn into threats, and people start getting hurt. David and Helen find they must expose a murder before it's too late.

The lead roles are played by three top young British actors.

Claire Foy is Helen. Claire's recent TV credits include lead roles in The Promise (Channel 4) and Little Dorrit (BBC).

Charlie Cox is Mark. Charlie's credits include lead roles in the films Stardust, Moby Dick and The Merchant of Venice, and TV roles include the Duke of Crowborough in Downton Abbey.

Blake Ritson plays David. Blake's recently starred in Roger Michell's production of Rope at the Almeida; on TV in Emma (BBC), Upstairs Downstairs (BBC), and Romantics (Company Pictures). He has been playing the lead in Radio 4's four-week serial The Far Pavilions (Feb 2011).

Writer Simon Passmore has had a string of recent successes on radio with Accomplices, Offshore and Going To Ground. As a TV drama producer, he has a track-record of making top quality TV drama for the BBC and Channel 4.


SAT 15:30 Soul Music (b00zlk07)
Series 11

Schubert's Winterreise

Winterreise was written the year before Franz Schubert's death aged just 31, these 24 songs based on poems by Wilhelm Müller describe a journey that takes us ever deeper into the frozen landscape of the soul.

Singers Thomas Hampson, Mark Padmore, Alice Coote and David Pisaro describe the experience of immersing themselves in this music.

And Bernard Keefe tells of the time he sang these songs in Hiroshima to survivors of the bomb.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b00zq9mn)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Jane Garvey presents. Anne-Marie Duff on going from Shameless to posh in Cause Celebre, a tale of love, betrayal, loyalty and obsession on the London stage. A small but significant number of children are raised by older siblings. We look at a new report which questions the practical and financial support given by social services. We talk to the teacher, sacked after a book she'd written featuring her pupils ended up on the internet. Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison is best known for throwing herself under the King's horse at the Epsom Derby in 1913. Less well known is how she spent Census night 1911 - we discover why she hid in a cupboard in the House of Commons. We hear from the woman at the centre of protests after the disputed presidential elections in the Ivory Coast and the march that ended with seven women being shot by soldiers. Novelist Esther Freud on the hopes and trials of young actors in search of the Lucky Break - the title of her latest book. And when is a hat not a hat? Our fascination for fascinators.


SAT 17:00 PM (b00zq9mq)
A fresh perspective on the day's news with sports headlines.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b00zm326)
Fashion

The view from the top of business, presented by Evan Davis. The Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.

This week, Evan's guests are all top executives from the world of fashion and clothing. They discuss whether normal business rules apply in their world. They also get down to the nitty gritty of the business itself - who makes the money and how do they set the prices?

The panel also talks about marketing, and the role of PR in getting their products noticed.

Evan is joined in the studio by Jane Sheperdson, chief executive of Whistles; Simon Berwin, managing director of Berwin & Berwin; Kim Winser, fashion and retail expert with private equity group 3i.

Producer: Ben Crighton.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00zm4n4)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b00zm4n6)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zm4n8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b00zq9ms)
Peter Curran and guests take over the Radio 4 airwaves for a glorious forty five minutes of eclectic conversation and music.

Peter is joined by none other than one of television's most popular presenters, Fern Britton. With interviews as varied as Dolly Parton and Tony Blair under her belt, the former This Morning presenter returns to our screens with her brand new Channel 4 five o'clock chat show, Fern. Not only that, she draws on her thirty years of TV experience for her debut novel, New Beginnings.

Choreographer, theatre director and former dancer Arlene Phillips presents a new show, Midnight Tango. Featuring Strictly Come dancing stars Vincent and Flavia, which is about to go on nationwide tour. Plus she's back to judge BBC One's prime time dance show, So You Think You Can Dance?

And Peter meets the alternative drag artist Ty Jeffries, who brings his award winning show starring Miss Hope Springs to the Drill Hall, London.

Emma Freud talks to the equestrienne circus star and grand daughter of Billy Smart, Yasmine Smart, as she starts her first tour of the UK for 25 years as part of Zippo's Circus: Horsepower.

Music from Singing Adams. Formed by Steven Adams, the former lead singer of the cult group the Broken Family Band, they bring their indie folk to the Loose Ends studio.

Plus an acoustic set from Austin, Texas, as Will Sheff and Patrick Pestorius from rock group Okkervil River perform Weave Room Blues.

Producer: Jane Thurlow.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b00zq9mv)
Amr Moussa

Morland Sanders profiles the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.
A key pillar in cobbling together international legitimacy for the coalition mission in Libya was support from the League of Arab States. But after bombing runs began, Amr Moussa appeared to criticise the coalition strikes as beyond the scope of the United Nations mandate.
Is this apparent wavering a lack of consensus in the Arab League and does this limit its influence? How successful has the League been under the leadership of Amr Moussa?
As he prepares to depart as head of the League and stand for President of Egypt what are the challenges now facing both the League and him personally?


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b00zq9mx)
Tom Sutcliffe and his guests novelist Adam Mars Jones, historian Amanda Vickery and film-maker James Runcie review the week's cultural highlights.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a 3D film by Werner Herzog which explores the Chauvet cave in the south of France. The cave was discovered in 1994 and contains paleolithic paintings of animals which date back 35,000 years - the oldest ever found. Wim Wenders has also used 3D for his film Pina (due for release on 22nd April), about the choreographer Pina Bausch. Four of Bausch's most celebrated works are performed by key members of her company.

Philip Hensher's novel King of the Badgers is set in Hanmouth - a small, picturesque Devon town which becomes the focus of national interest when an eight year old girl goes missing. There's a lot more going on behind Hanmouth's closed doors and pastoral facade than is immediately apparent.

Jacques Demy's film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1964. It has now been adapted for the stage by Kneehigh as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and - as in the film - every word of the script is sung to Michel Legrand's original score. Carly Bawden and Andrew Durand are the star-crossed lovers Guy and Genevieve in the rainy Normandy port.

Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everday Life at the Wellcome Collection in London is an exhibition which explores dirt and our relationship to it in six different settings - a home in seventeenth century Delft in Holland; a street in Victorian London; a hospital in Glasgow in the 1860s; a museum in Dresden in the early twentieth century; a community in present day New Delhi; and a New York landfill site in 2030.

Campus is a new comedy series on Channel 4 from the makers of Green Wing. The setting is Kirke University where the behaviour of the teaching staff makes the students look like paragons of virtue and maturity. Andy Nyman stars as the venal Vice Chancellor Jonty de Wolfe.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b00yztnk)
Walls of Sound

When Nelson Mandela was tried 1964 he famously said, "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve, but, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Without the British Library's sound conservation work we would never have heard this. The trial was recorded using a Dictabelt system. The recordings soon became unplayable. The Dictabelts were brought to the British Library where digital transfers were made, allowing us to hear what Mandela said, and how.

In 1924, in Paris, James Joyce was recorded reading from 'Ulysses' and the British Library's disc is as highly prized as its Blake, Hardy and Lawrence manuscripts. Alas, we'll never hear how they read their work.

These are just two of recordings of immense importance that without the work of the Sound Conservation Centre would be lost. And what a loss that would be. The British Library has invested millions in the Centre and appointed its first ever Curator of Radio. Audio is being accorded the conservation effort usually devoted manuscripts and old masters. All this, the radio historian Sean Street argues in this programme, reflects a fundamental change in attitude to sound itself.

In a massive undertaking our sound archives are being saved, restored, digitised, catalogued and opened to all. Street observes all this and talks to curators, technicians and users. Throughout we hear amazing recordings from the libraries walls of sound that, until this change in thinking about sound, few knew about, and fewer could listen to. We listen as these recordings find their rightful place in the documentary heritage of the nation.

Producer : Julian May.


SAT 21:00 Classic Serial (b00zl943)
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World

A Bridge to the Unknown

1/2 A Bridge to the Unknown
By Arthur Conan Doyle, dramatised by Chris Harrald. The hot-headed Professor Challenger claims that extinct species of animals are still to be found living on an isolated Amazonian plateau. Dr Summerlee, Lord John Roxton and the intrepid reporter, Edward Malone, find themselves committed to a journey of a lifetime.

Professor Challenger...David Robb
Dr Diana Summerlee...Jasmine Hyde
Lord John Roxton...Jamie Glover
Edward Malone...Jonathan Forbes
Gomez...Milton Lopes
Beaumont...Sam Dale
Meldrum...Sean Baker
Maple White...Nyasha Hatendi
Tarp Henry...Brian Bowles
Edith Challenger...Jane Whittenshaw
Indian tribesman...Vinicius Salles
Directed by Marilyn Imrie

Dramatist Chris Harrald is a writer for radio film and television. He won the 2009 Sony Gold award for radio drama for his play 'Mr Larkin's Awkward Day'.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b00zm4nb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Unreliable Evidence (b00zllkg)
Terrorism

The first in a new series of Unreliable Evidence with Clive Anderson, looks at the role of the law in preventing terrorism.

The programme brings together the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord Macdonald who has just overseen the Government's review of its counter terrorism powers and Lord Carlile, who for the past ten years been the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

They agree that the right balance has to be struck between security and the protection of civil liberties, but disagree about the extent to which this has been achieved.

Both men have been able to see the intelligence information on which government anti-terrorism legislation has been based. Lord Carlile believes security measures such as control orders have averted terrorist attacks, while Lord Macdonald worries they have often prevented justice being done.

Also taking part in the discussion is human rights barrister, Tim Owen QC, who has appeared in several leading cases relating to control orders and other anti-terrorism measures.

They discuss the law relating to torture, deportation, stop and search powers and the new measures being brought in to replace the highly controversial control orders.

Producer: Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 23:00 The 3rd Degree (b00zlfhf)
Series 1

Salford

Coming this week from the University of Salford, host Steve Punt puts the questions to lecturers and students alike. So if you'd like to hear a Military Historian humming Beatles songs, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology trying to identify Rihanna, or students trying to list types of fruit that begin with the letter 'P', then this is the quiz show for you. Plus the only time in recording history that the word "pebble" has earned a massive cheer.

"The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic new quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz.

Together with host Steve Punt, the show tours the (sometimes posh, sometimes murky, but always welcoming!) Union buildings, cafés and lecture halls of six universities across the UK.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...

The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...

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


SAT 23:30 Make Perhaps This Out Sense Of Can You (b00zlbl5)
Bob Cobbing's playful experiments with sound and text have inspired a generation of poets, artists and composers. A writer whose work skittered between literature and music, poetry and artwork - he is, perhaps, best remembered for his extraordinary poetry readings. With his operatic, resonant voice he would boom, howl, chant and whisper leaving his audience enchanted and enraged in equal measures.

In this programme we delve into the work of Bob Cobbing - exploring his influence on the publishing world, his role in one of the most turbulent periods at the Poetry Society and the visual poem that outraged Margaret Thatcher.

Revered and reviled - he has been a controversial figure at times. In this feature the writers Iain Sinclair, Peter Finch, Alan Brownjohn and Paula Claire, amongst others, reflect on the musicality of his work, how he challenged the conventional notion of poetry and the surprising controversy sound and visual poetry caused in the twentieth century.

Produced by Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4.



SUNDAY 27 MARCH 2011

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b00zq9nk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Lent Talks (b00zllkj)
Austen Ivereigh

This year's Lent Talks sees six well-known figures reflect on different elements of conflict found in the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from the perspective of their own personal and professional experience.

In the second Lent Talk of the series, Catholic writer and commentator, Austen Ivereigh, explores how we can escape the cycle of conflict by becoming a forgiving victim rather than a vengeful one - whilst at the same time receiving justice.

The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, abandonment, greed, forgiveness and love. The main theme for this year's talks will explore conflict in different forms and how it interacts with various aspects of society and culture.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zq9nm)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 02:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00ztdz2)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zq9np)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b00zq9nr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b00zq9t8)
The bells of Westminster Abbey.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b00zq9mv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b00zq9nt)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b00zq9tb)
Trains

'Trains are made for meditation', John Betjeman wrote, celebrating slow travel back in 1940. He was only one of many poets, writers and musicians who have found inspiration in rail travel. Hypnotised by the rhythm of the train, they find a freedom to think and to dream, inspired by the unfolding landscape outside.

Mark Tully chooses the best train poetry and music and talks to the Chaplain of St Pancras Station, Jonathan Barker, about his work on the station. With music by Glenn Miller, Anton Dvorak, Villa Lobos and Baron Samedi.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b00zq9td)
Caz Graham looks at cutting-edge farming at Aberystwyth University. Here, in the shadow of the mountains of Snowdonia, scientists are trying out the latest eco-friendly farming methods, which aim to improve crop yield, reduce pesticides and improve animal welfare.

Presenter: Caz Graham Producer: Melvin Rickarby.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b00zq9nw)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b00zq9ny)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b00zq9tg)
Jane Little with the religious and ethical news of the week. Moral arguments and perspectives on stories, familiar and unfamiliar.

Is the no-fly zone working? We will have the latest on Libya and will ask what next for the region as a whole. Jane Little speaks to Sir Richard Dalton, former British Ambassador to Libya.

Two weeks after the devastating earthquake and tsunami Japan faces the problem of how to carry out a large number of funerals with proper ceremony and honour. Jane speaks to Professor Ian Reader from Manchester University about how traditional Japanese ceremonies are having to be adapted to deal with the crisis.

Calvinism Package. Matt Wells reports on the surprising growth of Calvinism in Washington DC. Why are the strict teachings from 16th century Geneva suddenly so popular?

Anniversary of Death of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Jane talks to Fr Juan Hernández Pico, a Central American Jesuit who is in the UK to deliver the Romero Lecture.

Kevin Bouquet explores claims made by survivors of clerical abuse at a top Manchester school in the 50s and 60s at the hands of an alleged paedophile priest. The Diocese has apologised, but for victims that gesture is too little and too late.

Is Discrimination ever positive? On Monday the Northern Ireland Secretary of State will end the 50-50 recruitment policy for the PSNI, brought in under the Patten Reforms. The two largest churchs are split over whether its too soon to end the policy. Jane speaks with Rev Dr Lesley Carroll and Dr Nicola Rooney about where to go from here.

It's been hailed as a 'budget for growth' but also one containing painful cuts. Jane interviews Ilyas Khan, Chairman of Leonard Cheshire Disability and explores the impact that cutbacks and proposed welfare changes may have on those people with disabilities.

E-mail: sunday@bbc.co.uk

Series producer: Amanda Hancox.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zq9tj)
The Amber Trust

Ronnie Corbett presents the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity The Amber Trust.

Donations to The Amber Trust should be sent to FREEPOST BBC Radio 4 Appeal, please mark the back of your envelope The Amber Trust. Credit cards: Freephone 0800 404 8144. You can also give online at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/appeal. If you are a UK tax payer, please provide The Amber Trust 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: 1050503.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b00zq9p0)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b00zq9p2)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b00zq9tl)
The Unreconciled - Speaking and Listening

Part of our series for Lent live from Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow. Preacher: the Rev Douglas Gay, Lecturer in Practical Theology at Glasgow University. Leader: The Minister, the Rev Moyna McGlynn. Producer: Mo McCullough.

In our journey through Lent, we are looking at issues in Christian reconciliation. Download web resources specially written for the series from the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website. As we travel towards Easter, we prepare ourselves to meet the ultimate reconciling work - what God has done for us in the crucifixion, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ.
Our service this morning asks how, through speaking and listening, we find out what God wants of us, how we hear the call, and how the way we communicate affects everyone around us.


SUN 08:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00zm4j4)
Series 2

Earthworms

Although Charles Darwin is especially well known for his work on the Theory of Evolution through his seminal work "On the Origin of Species", he also published a lot of his research on earthworms.

Earthworms fascinated Darwin, so much so that his observations led him to believe that they showed marked intelligence. And earthworms fascinate Sir David Attenborough too.

He recalls a visit to Australia to film the giant earthworm and intriguingly used his ears more than any other sense to find them. What did they sound like and what did they look like? He reveals all.

Producer: Julian Hector

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b00zq9vh)
News and conversation about the big stories of the week.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b00zq9vk)
For detailed synopsis, see daily episodes.

Written by Nawal Gadalla
Directed by Julie Beckett
Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn

Jill Archer ... Patricia Greene
Kenton Archer ... Richard Attlee
Alistair Lloyd ... Michael Lumsden
David Archer ... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ... Felicity Finch
Elizabeth Pargetter ..... Alison Dowling
Freddie Pargetter ... Jack Firth
Lily Pargetter ... Georgie Feller
Brian Aldridge ... Charles Collingwood
Christine Barford ... Lesley Saweard
Peggy Woolley ... June Spencer
Jolene Perks ... Buffy Davis
Fallon Rogers ... Joanna Van Kampen
Jamie Perks ... Dan Ciotkowski
Joe Grundy ... Edward Kelsey
Eddie Grundy ... Trevor Harrison
Emma Grundy ... Emerald O'hanrahan
Edward Grundy ... Barry Farrimond
Roy Tucker ... Ian Pepperell
Caroline Sterling ... Sara Coward
Robert Snell ... Graham Blockey
Bert Fry ... Eric Allan
Lewis Carmichael ... Robert Lister
Usha Franks ... Souad Faress
Annabelle Shrivener ... Julia Hills
Jim Lloyd ... John Rowe
Marty ... Jonny Magro
Elona ... Eri Shuka.


SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b00zq9vm)
The British Rock and Rollers

In this edition of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor reunites five people who took part in the earliest days of rock and roll in the UK.

The first stirrings occurred when the film Blackboard Jungle, featuring Bill Haley and The Comets singing 'Rock Around The Clock' was released in 1955, but when Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley entered the UK charts in May 1956, a passion for rock and roll was ignited amongst the youth.

Within a matter of months Tommy Steele's 'Rock With The Caveman,' generally considered to be the first rock and roll song to have originated in the UK, had reached number 13 in the charts. The rock and roll revolution was under way.

Tommy Steele was discovered in the 2i's Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street in Soho, as was Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Mickie Most, Joe Brown, Vince Taylor and Terry Dene amongst many others. The person who discovered him, Larry Parnes, was the UK's first pop manager.

In this programme, Sue MacGregor will be discussing those days with Bruce Welch from The Shadows, Terry Dene, Vince Eager and Marty Wilde who all signed up with Larry Parnes and Clem Cattini, who played drums with all of them.

Producer: Brian McCluskey
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b00zlfkp)
Series 59

Episode 7

Nicholas Parsons hosts this long running panel game. This week, panellists Tony Hawks, Paul Merton, Ross Noble and Liza Tarbuck attempt to speak for a minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Subjects include the Theory of Relativity and Moby Dick.
Produced by Tilusha Ghelani.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b00zq9vp)
Natural Wine

Natural Wine is the latest buzz in the wine world but what is it? Sheila Dillon discusses and samples this chemical and additive-free "new" wine that was in fact quaffed by the Ancient Romans.

Producer: Dilly Barlow.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b00zq9p4)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b00zqc43)
The latest national and international news, with an in-depth look at events around the world. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #theworldthisweekend.


SUN 13:30 Charlotte White's Musical Fight (b00zt6v0)
As a teenager Charlotte White performed the opening bars of the prelude to Bach's cello suite. Nothing remarkable about that until you learn that Charlotte is profoundly disabled and performed the piece using assistive technology with every crotchet and quaver triggered through the slightest movements of her head and thumbs.

Josie d'Arby meets this remarkable young woman and discovers how Charlotte was largely written off by mainstream society, enduring cooking classes and music therapy that she describes as "seriously patronising." In this enlightening interview, Charlotte talks about her accident, the moment she re-discovered music, and how this helped every aspect of her rehabilitation.

Josie finds out about the moment the Drake Music Project entered Charlotte's life, firing up her imagination with music, providing her with the equipment necessary to perform and compose and helping to crack the shell into which she'd retreated.

Doug Bott from the Drake Music Project recalls Charlotte's sensitivity to light and sound, as they worked in these quiet half-lit rooms with the whirr of his laptop drowning out the music they were rehearsing. He fondly recalls Charlotte's progression in those early sessions and celebrates her brilliance and determination to perform classical music. He explains how assistive technology works, and discusses the challenges Charlotte faced gaining acceptance and recognition from the wider musical community.

Josie finds out about how Charlotte ended up in Norway listening to her compositions being performed by Tromso Symphony Orchestra at the prestigious Northern Lights Festival, and Tessa White gives a moving account of her daughter's transformation into the confident young woman she is today.

Producer: Toby Field.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00zllrd)
The Edible Garden Show

A 'Grow your own' edition where Eric Robson and the team are trouble-shooting at The Edible Garden Show, Warwickshire.

In addition, Pippa Greenwood, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank explore this new gardening event.

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


SUN 14:45 Genius Unrecognised (b00zs7v5)
Digital Sound

Tony Hill, Director of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry honours the scientists who revolutionised microscopic technology, electrical power, air navigation, gyroscopic travel and digital sound. In their day they were dismissed as blue-sky time-wasters but now we recognise their genius.

Alec Reeves (1902-1971)

Alec Reeves was part of the team of engineers responsible for the first commercial transatlantic telephone link (1927). In 1938 he patented a system called 'pulse code modulation' to reduce background noise. It replaced analogue transmission with a digital sequence of pulses based on a sampling rate of 8,000 bits per second.

It was PCM that was to make possible the digital recording and transmission we have today, but Reeves's invention didn't become cost-effective until after the transistor was developed in the 1950s.

During the war, Reeves developed an airborne radio navigation system that made possible highly-accurate bombing. After the war he was part of the team that invented optical fibre transmission.


SUN 15:00 Classic Serial (b00zs7v7)
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World

Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders

2/2: Our Eyes Have Seen Great Wonders.
By Arthur Conan Doyle, dramatised by Chris Harrald. Professor Challenger and his team are marooned on the isolated Amazonian plateau, at the mercy of dinosaurs and a murderous tribe of hominids. Will they survive to satisfy their scientific curiosity? Will they be able to escape and bring home news of their discoveries?

Professor Challenger...David Robb
Dr Diana Summerlee...Jasmine Hyde
Lord John Roxton...Jamie Glover
Edward Malone...Jonathan Forbes
Querioz... Vinicius Salles
Meldrum...Sean Baker
Indian tribesman... Milton Lopes
Directed by Marilyn Imrie

Dramatist Chris Harrald is a writer for radio film and television. He won the 2009 Sony Gold award for radio drama for his play 'Mr Larkin's Awkward Day'.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b00zs7v9)
Mariella Frostrup talks to author of Brick Lane Monica Ali about her new book, a novel inspired by the life of Princess Diana.

Seventy years after her death, novelist and critic James Runcie assesses the legacy of Virginia Woolf.

And librarians, listeners and writer Dreda Say Mitchell defend public libraries.

Producer: Sally Spurring.


SUN 16:30 Man Versus God (b00zs7vc)
Storyteller Seema Anand explores Muhammad Iqbal's epic poem Shikwa, one of the most famous and enduring works of Islamic literature. The poem is an audacious and heartfelt complaint in lyrical Urdu about all the many ways in which God has let Muslims down.

When it was first recited by Iqbal at a public gathering in Lahore in 1911, a fatwa was issued by Islamic scholars who were shocked by its seemingly outrageous impudence: here was Man daring to challenge the wisdom of God!

Like many works by Iqbal, the poem is presented as a dialogue between Man and God, a quite revolutionary concept in Islamic literature and with echoes of Milton's Paradise Lost. Iqbal felt strongly that Islam should be open to reform and questioning - and many of his ideas are as powerfully relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

Iqbal is often called the spiritual father of Pakistan for using poetry to raise self-awareness amongst Muslims in pre-partition India so that they would eventually rise up and seek a separate nation. His poems are still recited at social gatherings all across the Muslim world (Shikwa is now even available as an iPhone app) but his poetry has a much wider appeal than just for Muslims. It contains many universal ideas about the relationship between Man, Earth and Divinity which resonate to this day.

Seema Anand (who is not Muslim) is learning to translate the poem with the dream that one day she too will be able to recite it and bring it to new audiences in Britain. Despite the challenge of learning a poem in a language she barely knows and with intricate imagery and ideas drawn from earlier Sufi and Persian poets, it's something she pursues because she's convinced the beauty of the verse nourishes the soul.

Contributors: Professor Javed Majeed, Navid Akhtar
Readings by Sagar Arya, Saeed Jaffrey and Pervaiz Alam

Producer: Mukti Jain Campion
A Culturewise production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b00zlkpz)
Organs Failure?

Is the NHS doing enough to combat the crisis in organ donations for transplants? Allan Urry examines the challenge of ensuring more suitable donors are available at a time when those waiting for life saving operations are increasing. Surgeons are reporting worse outcomes for some patients, as poorer quality organs have to be used because of chronic shortages. This comes despite a big drive by the Department of Health to improve availability. But, are opportunities to recover more organs being missed because of the way doctors manage the care of patients who are close to death?
Producer: Paul Grant.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b00zq9mv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b00zq9p6)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b00zq9p8)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zq9pb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b00zs7vf)
John Harris makes his selection from the past seven days of BBC Radio

This week, the curious tale of the only female pope, the Today programme's inspired attempts to rewrite the rules of several sports, and why the Soviet Union put so many animals into orbit. Plus, the inside story of early British rock'n'roll, the battle for the soul of the Labour Party, and a Nelson Mandela speech rescued by the British Library for posterity.

The Magnificent Andrea - Radio 4
Today - Radio 4
So Wrong It's Right - Radio 4
What's in a Meme - Radio 4
The Popes - Radio 4
Document - Radio 4
It Is Rocket Science - Radio 4
Archive on 4: Walls of Sound - Radio 4
Analysis - Radio 4
Don't Buy A Winter Coat - Radio 4
Front Row - Radio 4
The Reunion - Radio 4
Radcliffe and Maconie - Radio 2

Email: potw@bbc.co.uk or www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/potw
Producer: Kathryn Blennerhassett.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b00zq76v)
The atmosphere between Kathy and Jamie is still awkward, and is only exacerbated when Kathy nags him about his exams and revision. Jamie claims he's revising at school, and although Kathy tries hard, there is little she can do to get through to him.

Eddie has been to the supermarket to buy ingredients for his and Joe's secret Sunday roast, but when they question Clarrie over her movements, it arouses Clarrie's suspicions.

Over a frugal Lenten lunch, Emma tells Clarrie that George is becoming clingy, and has decided he only wants a brother - not a sister. Clarrie leaves early to check on Eddie and Joe. Given only a few minutes notice and thus taken aback by Clarrie's unexpected return, Eddie and Joe rush to hide the evidence of their lunch before having had a chance to eat any of it, watched amusedly by Kathy and Jamie from next door. Unfortunately for Joe and Eddie, Clarrie smells the chicken when she enters, and insists that they eat the bread and cheese she left out for them instead.


SUN 19:15 Americana (b00zs7vh)
American Opinion on Involvement over Libya:
With US warplanes among those flying over Libya to enforce the no-fly zone, Allison Keyes gathers a roundtable discussion with the American people to learn what they think of the latest US efforts in the Middle East.

Ageing in America:
Growing older in the United States can be a complicated experience. Authors Susan Jacoby and Arnold Weinstein say the romantic storylines of books and movies can play a part in the process of coming to terms with ageing. Americana visits with older Americans in a retirement community in Maryland to find out what they think about the myths and truths of ageing.

EL Doctorow:
EL Doctorow joins Americana to talk about his newest book, a collection of short stories called All the Time in the World.


SUN 19:45 Afternoon Reading (b00cqfyr)
Nick Walker - The Further Adventures of the First King of Mars

Take Me to Your Leader

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik we commissioned Nick Walker to write the sci-fi adventure 'The First King Of Mars'. Now in five thrilling action-packed episodes we continue the story where it left off.

Our intrepid crew fear that they are not alone on the Red Planet.

Nick Walker's theatre work has been presented extensively in the UK as well as Europe, and the USA. His plays and short stories are often featured on BBC Radio 4 and 3 series of the late-night show The Bigger Issues. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels Blackbox and Helloland, published in the UK, US, Australia, Japan and across Europe.

Performed by Peter Capaldi

Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b00zm482)
If the pips are always late on DAB radio, how will we know what the real time is when we all switch over to digital?

Roger Bolton talks to Rupert Brun, the BBC's head of technology who says - actually - we won't.
Some listeners question Jenni Murray's use of language during her recent stand-up routine for Comic Relief - the Woman's Hour presenter reveals why she abandoned PC in favour of street slang.

Sir Michael Lyons is coming to the end of a turbulent four years as the chairman of the BBC Trust. In his last interview for Feedback he discusses whether the BBC "lost its moral compass" during the Ross/Brand affair, how executive pay was brought into line and how listeners will be consulted on the next round of BBC cuts.
And MPs put their weight behind your arguments in favour of local radio.

Producer: Karen Pirie
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b00zm4jz)
Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Christopher, Fred Titmus and Jet Harris

Matthew Bannister remembers:

Elizabeth Taylor - we assess her as movie actress, sex symbol and celebrity icon. We have memories from Richard Burton's nephew and the playwright David Wood who appeared alongside Burton and Taylor in an Oxford student production of Dr Faustus.

Also Warren Christopher, the American Secretary of State under Bill Clinton - Lord Hurd pays tribute.

Middlesex and England bowler Fred Titmus, who lost some of his toes in a boating accident, but was playing again within weeks.

And Jet Harris of the Shadows - said to be the first person in the UK to play an electric bass guitar.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b00zq9mg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zq9tj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (b00zlgdl)
Blue Labour

Labour's traditional working class supporters are abandoning the party in their droves. But can Labour win them back without alienating the middle-class voters it needs to win the next election? David Goodhart explores the tensions between two traditions in the Labour movement - a liberal wing focussed on equality and diversity and a conservative strand that is more concerned with issues of solidarity and community. And he examines the new Blue Labour school of thought, which believes that the best way to unite the two traditions is to rethink the Big State approach that became a defining element of the post-war Labour Party's identity.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b00zs7vk)
Carolyn Quinn talks to the Guardian's Chief Political Correspondent, Nick Watt, about the big political stories.

On our panel of MPs we have Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd, Conservative Conor Burns and Labour's Lisa Nandy. They discuss the big TUC demonstration against spending cuts and the involvement of the UK in the UN-backed action to protect civilians in Libya from Colonel Gaddafi's forces.

We have a report on parliamentary select committees. Why are so many committees' reports ignored? What more can committees do to make an impact on government?

Programme Editor: Terry Dignan.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b00zs7vp)
Episode 45

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 George Parker of the FT takes the chair.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b00zm4hw)
This week in The Film Programme Francine Stock travels north of Hadrian's Wall in search of lost Romans and backwards in time to ponder the mysterious and beautiful Palaeolithic paintings found on the walls of a cave in southern France. Her companion for the foray into the land of the Picts is Kevin MacDonald who has directed a film version of Rosemary Sutcliff's classic book, The Eagle of the Ninth; and for the trip to the caves she's joined by the veteran German director, Werner Herzog. His documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams is shot in 3D and has been hailed as his best film to date....quite a claim for a man with Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, Wrath of God in his back catalogue. There's also an interview with Brian Cox about two of his favourite films and the sound designer, Matt Wand, offers us a glimpse into the world of the Foley artist - the people who not only make Marilyn's heels go clickety clack and Clint's horses go cloppity clop but invite us to dream.

Producer - Zahid Warley.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b00zq9tb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 28 MARCH 2011

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b00zq76b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b00zm871)
The Impact of the Temperance Movement - The New North

Will power and prosperity shift to the frozen North? A new book predicts that Iceland, Greenland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Russia will be the beneficiaries of a new world order. By 2050, four megatrends - climate change, rising population, globalisation and resource depletion - will lead to the rise of 'The New North', as migration, energy bonanzas and international trade turn the world upside down. The geographer, Professor Laurence Smith, tells Laurie Taylor why these projections amount to more than planetary palm reading. Also, does the morality of the 19th century Temperance movement influence modern day attitudes to drinking? The law lecturer, Henry Yeomans, argues that prohibitionism - contrary to popular belief - lives on in 'binge drinking' Britain.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b00zq9t8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zq76d)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zq76g)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zq76j)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b00zq76l)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zq76n)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b00zq854)
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


MON 05:57 Weather (b00zq76q)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 06:00 Today (b00zt6x6)
Including Sports Desk at 6.25am, 7.25am, 8.25am; Weather 6.05am, 6.57am, 7.57am; Thought for the Day 7.48am.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b00zs806)
Andrew Marr talks to Niall Ferguson about the history of civilisation, and how the West came to triumph over what appeared to be superior empires in the East, and whether that ascendancy is in permanent decline. While the economist George Magnus questions whether emerging markets, like China, really are about to dominate the world. The Queen will celebrate her Diamond Jubilee next year, and the commentator Peter Whittle presents a robust defence of the monarchy as one of Britain's leading institutions. And as revolution and change sweep across the Middle East, Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed looks at the impact on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Producer: Katy Hickman.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zsc24)
Venetian Navigators - The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North

Episode 1

By Andrea di Robilant.

Read by Sam Dale.

In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus.

The story of their adventure, recounted in a small book accompanied by a beautifully detailed map by an enthusiastic Zen ancestor in 1558, travelled throughout Europe, from the workshop of the great cartographer Gerard Mercator to the court of Elizabeth I. For centuries, the brothers were heralded as pioneering adventurers, until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.

Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out to discover the truth about the Zen voyages. Following in their footsteps, his quest to solve one of Venice's most intriguing mysteries takes him on a fascinating journey of his own, from the crumbling Palazzo Zen in Venice to the space-age transport links of the Faroe Islands, a remote volcanic hillside in Greenland and the ruins of a once dynamic monastery in Iceland.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zq856)
With Jane Garvey. We examine a new law which comes into effect next month in France which will ban Muslim women from wearing the Niqab, or the full face veil in any public place. The author Jean Auel talks about the long awaited instalment in her "Clan of the Cave Bear" series. This week the film "Oranges and Sunshine" opens in London and tells the story of what happened to the thousands of British children sent for a "better life" to countries like Canada and Australia by the Child Migrant Trust. We talk to Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who was instrumental in uncovering what had happened. And we look at the role of women in the aesthetic movement in nineteenth century Britain.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zsc26)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles: Series 2

Episode 1

The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles
by Esther Wilson
Return of award-winning drama series; an illuminating and striking exploration of the challenges and aspirations in the unique life of a young woman with learning disabilities. A series that's both tough and feelgood.
Starring Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies - actors with learning disabilities.

Darleen is taking driving lessons and proposes to Jamie. Marriage, driving lessons, the pitfalls of sheltered housing are all on the agenda in series 2. Created in part through improvisation and inspired by true stories.

Darleen Fyles....... Donna Lavin
Jamie ...... Edmund Davies
Treena ..... Lorraine Ashbourne
Leonard ..... Steve Evets
Ben ...... Wyllie Longmore
Marie ..... Emma Hartley-Miller
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris

Darleen Fyles was recently made into a television drama as part of Jimmy McGovern's Moving On series broadcast on BBC One.

The series is the Play of the Week Podcast and you can download it through the Radio 4 website.


MON 11:00 Mothers and Sons (b00zsc28)
For Mother's Day, an exploration of the special bond between mother and son, stories sent in by listeners to Woman's Hour. Ben was close to his family, had a place in medical school and was on course to fulfill his parents' aspirations - when he suddenly announced he was getting married. He was 19. His parents lost him for ten years. But when he reached crisis point he decided to go home - he had nowhere else to go. "It was dark and there was a light in the porch. Mum held me, and I cried for a very long time."

Beverley, a single parent, used to take her young son Benjamin everywhere with her, even parachuting. But he started smoking cannabis, taking ecstasy, and dropped out of university to organize raves. The drugs affected his mental health and he tried to kill his mother. "I believed she'd been cruel to me when I was young. I developed a fantasy that led me to making a gun. That's when things became dangerous. I made the gun and my uncle said, 'What's that for?' and I said, 'It's to shoot your sister.'" She called the police; he was sentenced to four years in prison. But then came the day when, from his secure mental unit, Benjamin decided to call his mother.

In the third story we hear from Ahmed who does not know whether the woman who brought him up is in fact his biological mother. When he was 17, his parents told him that there might have been a terrible mix-up in the hospital after he was born. He believes that he might in fact belong to another family. He has chosen not to take the DNA test and find out. But the lingering doubts remain. Is he really his mother's son? And what does it mean, in the end, to be a good son, and a good mother?

Producers: Elizabeth Burke and Kim Normanton
A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 11:30 Brian Gulliver's Travels (b00zsc2b)
Series 1

Jampoa

Brian Gulliver, a seasoned presenter of travel documentaries, finds himself in a hospital's secure unit after claiming to have had a number of bizarre adventures.

This week he travels to Jampoa where fame definitely equals fortune.

Written by Bill Dare
Produced by Steven Canny

Brian Gulliver's Travels is a new satirical adventure story from Bill Dare. The series has attracted an excellent cast led by Neil Pearson and award winning Mariah Gale. Cast includes fantastic actors Tamsin Greig, John Standing, Paul Bhattacharjee, Christopher Douglas, Vicky Pepperdine, Phil Cornwell, Jo Bobin and Katherine Jakeways.

For years Bill Dare wanted to create a satire about different worlds exploring Kipling's idea that we travel, 'not just to explore civilizations, but to better understand our own'. But science fiction and space ships never interested him, so he put the idea on ice. Then Brian Gulliver arrived and meant that our hero could be lost in a fictional world without the need for any sci-fi.

Satirical targets over the series: the medical profession and its need to pathologize everything; the effect of marriage on children; spirituality and pseudo-science; compensation culture; sexism; the affect of our obsession with fame.

Gulliver's Travels is the only book Bill Dare read at university. His father, Peter Jones, narrated a similarly peripatetic radio series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.


MON 12:00 You and Yours (b00zsc2d)
The explosion in the use of mobile data by people with smartphones and tablet computers has led to the push towards the next big thing in mobile wireless networks, 4G. Now the industry regulator OFCOM is auctioning off the rights to the 4G spectrum. It could raise billions of pounds for the Treasury but what's in it for consumers ?America is often seen as the land of plenty - with its supersized portions and vast amounts of choice when it comes to food. It's not uncommon for restaurants in the States to present encyclopedic-like menu. At The Cheesecake Factory the menu reads more like a novel running to almost almost 20 pages.
But could all that be about to change? In New York, one of the country's culinary capitals, many venues are adopting introducing simpler menus with less scope for customers to pick and choose.

A British company says it has gone into administration largely because of money it's owed for building the stadium which helped Qatar win the 2022 football World Cup. What are the the pitfalls of doing business abroad ?

A group of elderly ex-pats - who lost their life savings to a fraudster because of a loophole in French banking law - say they have reached an "amicable settlement" with Societe Generaleover the return of the money. The story of British con-man Graham Templeton, and the two million pounds he stole from retirees who'd gone to live in the Dordogne, was first reported by our sister programme Face the Facts at the beginning of last year. Now their six year struggle to recover the money appears to be over.

New cars will have digital radios fitted by 2013, to help the government push ahead with the switchover.


MON 12:57 Weather (b00zq76s)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b00ztb2v)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


MON 13:30 The 3rd Degree (b00zsc2g)
Series 1

Middlesex

This episode of 'The 3rd Degree' is brought to you from Middlesex University, where host Steve Punt puts the questions to students and dons of Child Nursing, Design & Art, Biology and Biomedical Sciences. Topics for questions include whirling astronauts, Wagner's operas, and 300 billion copies of the Queen. So if you've ever wondered which exponential function's derivative is equal to the function itself or what are the exact contents of a Jägerbomb cocktail, then this is the quiz show for you.

"The 3rd Degree" is a funny, lively and dynamic new quiz show aimed at cultivating the next generation of Radio 4 listeners whilst delighting the current ones. It's recorded on location at a different University each week, and it pits three Undergraduates against three of their Professors in a genuinely original and fresh take on an academic quiz. Being a Radio 4 programme, it of course meets the most stringent standards of academic rigour - but with lots of facts and jokes thrown in for good measure.

The rounds vary between Specialist Subjects and General Knowledge, quickfire bell-and-buzzer rounds and the 'Highbrow & Lowbrow' round cunningly devised to test not only the students' knowledge of current affairs, history, languages and science, but also their Professors' awareness of television, film, and Lady Gaga... In addition, the Head-to-Head rounds, in which students take on their Professors in their own subjects, were particularly lively, and offered plenty of scope for mild embarrassment on both sides...

The resulting show is funny, fresh, and not a little bit surprising, with a truly varied range of scores, friendly rivalry, and moments where students wished they had more than just glanced at that reading list...

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


MON 14:00 The Archers (b00zq76v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b00jj01n)
Beirut Days

By Kris Kenway. A day in the life of the enigmatic city where east meets west. For three lost souls, this is the day when everything changes.

Narrator ...... Nadim Sawalha
Mounira ...... Souad Faress
Josef ...... Peter Polycarpou
Nadine ...... Sirine Saba
Rania ...... Razane Jammal
Abu Ziad ...... Raad Rawi

Directed by James Robinson.


MON 15:00 Archive on 4 (b00zq9mz)
Walls of Sound

When Nelson Mandela was tried 1964 he famously said, "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve, but, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Without the British Library's sound conservation work we would never have heard this. The trial was recorded using a Dictabelt system. The recordings soon became unplayable. The Dictabelts were brought to the British Library where digital transfers were made, allowing us to hear what Mandela said, and how.

In 1924, in Paris, James Joyce was recorded reading from 'Ulysses' and the British Library's disc is as highly prized as its Blake, Hardy and Lawrence manuscripts. Alas, we'll never hear how they read their work.

These are just two of recordings of immense importance that without the work of the Sound Conservation Centre would be lost. And what a loss that would be. The British Library has invested millions in the Centre and appointed its first ever Curator of Radio. Audio is being accorded the conservation effort usually devoted manuscripts and old masters. All this, the radio historian Sean Street argues in this programme, reflects a fundamental change in attitude to sound itself.

In a massive undertaking our sound archives are being saved, restored, digitised, catalogued and opened to all. Street observes all this and talks to curators, technicians and users. Throughout we hear amazing recordings from the libraries walls of sound that, until this change in thinking about sound, few knew about, and fewer could listen to. We listen as these recordings find their rightful place in the documentary heritage of the nation.

Producer : Julian May.


MON 15:45 Elegies from a Suburban Garden (b00zsd0l)
Episode 1

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his garden and the emotions evoked by each season, are explored. In a modern, high-tech consumer society cultivating a garden remains perhaps the most direct way in which we can maintain an emotional and sensual link with the natural world.

The series begins in early spring. Much of the soil is exposed at this time of year, and at first glance there seems little life, but look more closely, and green shoots of new life are visible. There's an air of expectancy and excitement. What will the new season bring? What has survived the sub-zero temperatures and heavy snows of winter? Hope and expectation is mixed with relief as survivors are discovered. But this is no time to relax, there are jobs to done; the greenhouse needs sweeping and cleaning out, the glass which cracked under the weight of the winter's snow needs replacing, the slugs need rounding up and then the arrival of new packets of seeds set in motion plans for the year's new plantings.

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.


MON 16:00 The Food Programme (b00zq9vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Click On (b00zsc2j)
Series 8

Crimefighting gadgets and crowdsourcing governments

Simon casts an eye over the revolutions and political unrest that has been taking place across the world, and asks whether Western tech companies are inadvertently helping governments suppress their people.

Rupert Goodwins is back, learning how we'll be fighting crime in future.

The government has repeatedly looked to crowdsource us for ideas, but they aren't really using them. Should they bother at all?

And Simon discovers how the RNLI is using technology to save fishermen's lives.

Producer Lucy Lloyd.


MON 17:00 PM (b00zsd0r)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zq76x)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b00zsd0w)
Series 59

Episode 8

Nicholas Parsons is joined by Julian Clary, Paul Merton, Graham Norton and Terry Wogan as they try to speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Subjects include, My Disastrous Trip to the Zoo and for Julian Clary especially... Innuendo.
Producer: Tilusha Ghelani.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b00zq76z)
Lynda and Jim meet with a technician from Gardeners' Question Time. In the hope that Ambridge Village Hall will be chosen as the venue, Lynda suggests to Jim that they form a committee to organise what promises to be a popular event. Themselves, Neil, Christine, and Jill would be the best people for the job. After the technician leaves, Jim jokingly tells Lynda that he's planning to choose some Roman classics for the next book club.

Clarrie's still angry about Joe and Eddie's attempted Sunday roast trick. When Jim learns of their deception, he promises to think of a novel way to teach them a lesson.

Jolene, Fallon and Clarrie discuss Kathy's struggle with Jamie. Jolene's concerned that he no longer feels welcome at The Bull after finding out about her relationship with Kenton. Fallon gets hold of Jamie, who agrees to come over and talk to her on Thursday, as long as Jolene and Kenton stay out of his way.

It's Nigel's inquest tomorrow, so Kenton won't be able to see much of Jolene over the next few days. He tells Jolene he's struggling to take their relationship slowly. Jolene feels the same, and is ready to move things on.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b00zq771)
Essential Killing reviewed; Candy Cabs writers

Kirsty Lang meets the writers of the newTV comedy Candy Cabs, Elliot Hope and Johanne McAndrew.

Folk musicians from the US and Canada have spent a week in Shropshire working alongside British musicians to produce a new album inspired by the folk song collector Cecil Sharp and the time he spent in the Appalachian Mountains. Andy Cutting, Caroline Herring and Jackie Oates discuss their collaboration.

Kirsty and film critic Adrian Wootton discuss Essential Killing, a thriller directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, which stars Vincent Gallo as an unidentified prisoner on the run from a US secret detention centre in snowy Europe, trying to return to his unidentified desert homeland. Gallo's role is completely wordless - and no other character or location is identified...

With the prospect of an eventual digital switch-over on the horizon, will traditional analogue radio become obsolete? Artist Sean Dockray's piece Public Monument aims to explore this by creating an audio time capsule, never to be listened to until its planned future transmission on a dormant FM channel in 2021. Kirsty visits his temporary recording studio at the Royal College of Art, London.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zsc26)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Document (b00zsd10)
Mike Thomson explores newly released documents which suggest that Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil government secretly co-operated with the British to crush the IRA in the 1930s.

In January 1939 the IRA launched a devastating bombing campaign across England for the cause of a united Ireland. Bombs left at power stations, in litter bins and empty cinemas caused havoc in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other major cities. In August 1939 Coventry suffered the worst explosion when a bomb carried by a bicycle brought carnage to the streets and left five dead.

Ireland's Prime Minister Éamon de Valera was in a difficult position as he had turned his back on the militant republicanism of his youth in favour of constitutional politics. With war looming he also wanted to keep Ireland neutral. Faced with an IRA campaign that was undermining his political efforts and ratcheting up the violence - at one stage the IRA even considered recruiting volunteers for "death squads" - documents show that de Valera was secretly co-operating with his arch enemy - the British government - to stamp out his former brothers in arms.

Producer: Paula McGinley.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b00zq2kc)
Baghdad Airport

Gabriel Gatehouse hears the extraordinary tales of the people coming into and out of Iraq - and paints a portrait of a still troubled country through its international gateway.

It's not been the safest of places: one worker describes seeing a car bomb attack on the airport road and you still need to pass through five checkpoints to enter the terminal. Gabriel meets the people entering the country - like British and Ugandan security men, and pilgrims from Iran, bound for Iraq's Shia holy sites. There are the people leaving Iraq, including a Christian family who fear for their lives if they stay. And then there are the people who live in the airport compound - like the American air traffic controller who never leaves, except to return home on holiday.

Producer: Becky Lipscombe.


MON 21:00 Material World (b00zm31w)
Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He talks to Professor Robin Grimes, the Director of the Centre of Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College, London about the latest developments at the Fukushima nuclear plant. We speak to an ornithologist who is battling to save penguins in one of the remotest parts of the world - the islands of Tristan da Cunha - following an oil spill. Also on the programme; can Hollywood put real science into the movies and the latest in sport engineering and how it can lead to gold medals.

The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b00zs806)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b00zq773)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b00zsdg9)
Libya's rebel army makes gains after air attacks by NATO forces. What makes us think they are friends of the West?

Where's an undercover cop in the West End when you need one?

The biofuel crop that is raising CO2 levels.

with Ritula Shah.


MON 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zsdgc)
Episode 1

Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife.

Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.

She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.

The reader is Hattie Morahan.

Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b00zlknd)
First of a new series. Michael Rosen looks at the speaking of English in the UK - who speaks English and who doesn't? If you live in the UK should you speak English - and if so, what will be the effect of cutting the funding for ESOL English language classes?
Michael meets people settled in the UK who are studying English, to find out how they learn it, and how it's paid for.
Then he chairs a discussion on the wider issues with John Eversley, Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Primary Care at City University; Douglas Murray, author and political commentator, and Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion; Sarah Mulley, Associate Director for Migration, Trade and Development at the Institute for Public Policy Research and Ceri Williams, Warden and Principal of Mary Ward Settlement and Centre.
Producer: Beth O'Dea.


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zq775)
Sean Curran and team report on the start of the week in the Commons and the Lords - David Cameron updates MPs on Libya, and last week's European summit; the Education Secretary Michael Gove explains what will replace the Educational Maintenance Allowance which was paid to around 650,000 students in England; and the Home Secretary Theresa May reports on Saturday's TUC march and the violence in central London. Editor: Rachel Byrne.



TUESDAY 29 MARCH 2011

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b00zsdrm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zsc24)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zsdrp)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zsdrr)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zsdrt)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b00zsdrw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zsdry)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b00zsds0)
Forty four food products in the UK currently have protected status and 40 are awaiting approval. Across Europe over a thousand now have this protection and DEFRA is encouraging more producers in the UK to apply.
Anna Hill visits growers of Fenland celery which is one of those hoping to gain the certification; she asks if it's as specialist as champagne or parma ham and deserves the same protection.

The National Farmers Union is warning potato growers, importers and processors to guard against the Epitrix flea beetle which it says could devastate the crop if it arrives in the UK from Spain and Portugal. It claims it could damage yields by 40% and would be impossible to eliminate once here.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.


TUE 06:00 Today (b00zsds2)
Including Sports Desk at 6.25am, 7.25am, 8.25am; Weather 6.05am, 6.57am, 7.57am; Yesterday in Parliament 6.45am; Thought for the Day 7.48am.


TUE 09:00 On the Ropes (b00zsds4)
Adam Ant

Flamboyant and charismatic, Adam Ant was the most successful pop star of the early 1980s.

He is best remembered for his wild sense of style - dressed as a highwayman with a white-stripe painted across his face, crashing through a church window in the video for his biggest hit 'Stand and Deliver'.

The extreme highs and lows of bipolar disorder affected his career and personal life - he attempted suicide; he's been sectioned and he's spent long periods in psychiatric care.

He discusses the highs and lows of his life and career with John Humphrys.


TUE 09:30 The Narrowcasters (b00zsds6)
The Poker Channel

Europe's most unusual minority TV stations with Nigel Cassidy. Tiny television network the Poker Channel is gambling on turning late night card games into compulsive viewing.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zt7py)
Venetian Navigators - The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North

Episode 2

By Andrea di Robilant.

Read by Sam Dale.

In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus.

Their adventures - printed as a small book and beautifully detailed map in 1558 by an enthusiastic ancestor - were celebrated throughout Europe until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.

Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out on a personal quest to see what traces remain of these fabled voyages. In this episode, he arrives in the Faroe Islands: a scattering of volcanic islands half-way between Shetland and Iceland where echoes of its vibrant past as a busy maritime hub still resonate.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zsds8)
With Jane Garvey. Does primary school class size make a difference to a child's chances? Tony Blair's Government brought in legislation to ensure that infants are taught in classes of no more than 30. But Michael Gove, the current Education Secretary believes that schools need better teachers not smaller class sizes. So who is right? Abortion law - new attempts to tighten guidelines surrounding terminations. We speak to the Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa who's currently in London preparing for a fundraising recital in aid of victims of the disaster that has struck her country. And, the Orange Prize for Fiction is launching Orange Inheritance - a list of books that former Orange prize winner and other authors would most like to pass onto the next generation.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt744)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles: Series 2

Episode 2

The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles episode 2/5
by Esther Wilson
Return of award-winning drama series; an illuminating and striking exploration of the challenges and aspirations in the unique life of a young woman with learning disabilities. A series that's both tough and feelgood.
Starring Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies; actors with learning disabilities.

Wedding preparations are developing but lack of finance cause a few disappointments. Plus Darleen's friend in sheltered housing gets attacked.

Darleen ..... Donna Lavin
Jamie ..... Edmund Davies
Treena ..... Lorraine Ashbourne
Leonard ..... Steve Evets
Ben ..... Wyllie Longmore
Bob ...... Stephen Chapman
Vicar ...... Declan Wilson
PRODUCED/DIRECTED BY PAULINE HARRIS

The series is the Play of the Week Podcast and you can download it through the Radio 4 website.


TUE 11:00 Attila The Hen (b00zsdsb)
Natalie Haynes has heard some dark rumours about the true habits of the hen.

So she’s meeting some of the people and poultry involved in the fashion for keeping urban chickens.

With her own chicken knowledge limited entirely to their lives in Ancient Rome, Natalie seeks information from chicken breeders and keepers.

But perhaps the most keen insight is from ornithologist Mark Cocker, who explains how things look from the chickens' own perspective...

Producer: Christine Hall.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


TUE 11:30 The Original Playboy (b00zsdsd)
This April Hugh Hefner will be 85 years old. The same month his fiancée will be celebrating her 25th birthday. His involvement with much younger women is just one of the reasons he's attracted controversy and criticism his whole life. But are we too quick to dismiss him as merely a pornographer? Former Loaded editor James Brown examines Hugh Hefner's publishing career during his most successful years, revealing how his contribution to cultural and social change is often overlooked.
A philosophy graduate with a genius IQ, Hefner founded Playboy magazine back in 1953 with a $600 loan and some naked pictures of Marilyn Monroe. It was an instant success going on to sell 7 million copies a month. But by 1960s the magazine was much more than just a girlie mag.
Under Hefner's strict direction Playboy presented a lifestyle. The magazine placed itself at the forefront of the new consumer society by featuring articles on fine wine, food, fashion, cars and HIFIs. Thanks to some heavyweight journalism there were articles on environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, anti-Vietnam sentiments and civil rights. The publication was a champion of some of the world's most notable authors; Arthur C Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, PG Wodehouse and Margaret Atwood are just some of the writers who had short stories published in Playboy. The "big interview" was just as impressive - it featured an array of world famous people from movie stars to sportsmen, and from presidents to dictators.
Of course most people associate Playboy with nude photographs. The racy pictures pushed the levels of acceptable nudity in a prudish, post-war society. Their artistic style would influence other magazines, the fashion world and advertising but Playboy's sexual content didn't stop there. Hefner was frustrated at what he saw as America's puritanical attitude to sex. He made it his mission to bring about sexual liberation, regularly publishing his philosophies and attitudes on the subject. He ended up becoming a leading figure in the sexual revolution. This anti-establishment stance resulted in several battles with the authorities who tried to ban the distribution of Playboy. Hefner won them all, paving the way for more liberal publishing and the relaxation of censorship.
In the 1990s' James Brown created the men's lifestyle magazine Loaded, which many called "the new Playboy." The similarities were obvious: both magazines featured men's fashion, serious journalism and of course, beautiful women. In this documentary James Brown speaks to professors, Playboy bunnies, Hef's right hand man and a Hefner photographer to get the lowdown on the octogenarian's extraordinary life and career. It's a rollercoaster ride through American history topped off with an exclusive interview with the man known around the world as the Original Playboy.


TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b00zsdsg)
In his Budget, the Chancellor George Osborne announced a series of measures designed to boost manufacturing in Britain. He wants the brand 'Made in Britain' to lead our economic recovery. But given that manufacturing has been neglected for years and now accounts for only about 12% of GDP, do we have the network of suppliers and the skills to make it work? Call You and Yours with Julian Worricker. Your chance to share your views to the programme. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 (lines open at 10am Tuesday).


TUE 12:57 Weather (b00zsdsj)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b00zsdsl)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.


TUE 13:30 Soul Music (b00zsdsn)
Series 11

Mahler's Adagietto

Gustav Mahler wrote his 5th Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902. The Adagietto is the 4th movement which is thought to have been inspired by falling in love with Alma who he married around this time.

This single movement is the composer’s most well-known piece of music. It was famously used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice. It was also conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York on the day of the burial of Robert Kennedy.

Composer David Matthews explains the significance of this piece in Mahler's output.

Psychoanalyst Anthony Cantle describes listening to it with his mother during her last days of dementia.

Malcolm Reid tells how this piece signified a change in himself as a young man in the British police force with narrow, racist views, to hearing it in Australia and shifting to becoming a liberal.

And Helen Epstein explains why it was played at her mother's funeral.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.

Producer: Rosie Boulton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b00zq76z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b00zsdsq)
The Spellbound Horses

by Julia Blackburn

Julia's father was the poet Thomas Blackburn. He was an alcoholic before he became a poet, but in spite of his drunken rages, his erratic behaviour and his crazy obsession with death, she always knew he loved her.

She learnt the transforming power of words from him, and she clung to them, a life raft in a stormy sea. 'Find the metaphor, darling!' he'd say, 'and when you've got that, you're on the way towards facing whatever it is that needs to be faced!'

Julia is older now than her father ever became, and here is her son Daniel, about to get married. She worries about the impression she has given Daniel of his grandfather. There are no aunts or uncles to give a different twist on Thomas' life so it has all come from her: stories of bad behaviour and drunken excess, told to make Daniel laugh with disbelief but not to bring him closer to the man who was his grandfather.

And what has Daniel inherited as well as that lanky body and those bushy eyebrows? Could there be a locked box of trouble somewhere inside him, a smouldering present from the past?

A work of mesmerising delicacy from the winner of the Pen Ackerley prize for memoir 2009.

Julia...Diana Quick
Tommy...David Troughton
Daniel...Martin Bonger
Hannah...Sally Orrock
Peggy...Jacqueline Tong
House owner...Brian Bowles
Music composed and performed by Lawrence Williams
Director...Mary Ward-Lowery.


TUE 15:00 Making History (b00zsdss)
Tom Holland and the team explore recent historical research and follow up listener's questions and comments.

In this episode we visit the Cheshire/North Wales borders to hear how Iron Age people might have communicated with one another.

Fiona Watson is on the banks of the Forth in Edinburgh learning about a sixteenth century Scottish warship that was never used by them in anger but changed the face of naval strategy.

Tom Holland hears about the life - and death - of a forgotten pioneer of early cinema Louis Le Prince.

Finally, in Yorkshire, we find out how the local community are adding to the history of Britain's bloodiest battle in 1461 and protecting the site of it at Towton near York.

Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00zsdvj)
I Expected the Worst...

My Last Breath

"Before the showing, I put some stones in my pocket to throw at the audience in case of disaster. I expected the worst. But, happily, the stones weren't necessary. After the film ended, I listened to the prolonged applause and dropped my projectiles, discreetly, one by one, on the floor behind the screen."

In a series of three readings this week, famous film-makers describe their adventures in the movie business.

1. MY LAST BREATH
Luis Bunel recalls scandalous times with the Surrealists in twenties Paris, when he made films such as Un Chien Andalou on money borrowed from his mother!

Reader Ian McDiarmid
Producer Duncan Minshull.


TUE 15:45 Elegies from a Suburban Garden (b00zsdvl)
Episode 2

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his garden are explored, and the emotions evoked by each season. In a modern, high-tech consumer society cultivating a garden remains perhaps the most direct way in which we can maintain an emotional and sensual link with the natural world.

It's now late Spring and in Phil's suburban garden in County Durham, there's a real sense of expectation as buds swell, and a songthrush sings for a mate from a high tree perch. A woodpigeon nests in the Pear Tree whilst blackbirds and wrens set up home elsewhere. The dark hues of winter are transformed into a rich variety of greens. Duckweed runs rampant across the pond, cloaking it with an emerald veil. In the glasshouse, the strawberries which were planted earlier in the year are now ready to move outside, and all across the garden the green shoots of spring are bursting through the soil. After the long cold months of winter and the wet days of spring, Nature is gearing up to blossom and grow in the weeks ahead.

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b00zshnl)
Michael Rosen looks at the world of words.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b00zshnn)
Rageh Omaar and Stephanie Calman

Journalist and writer Rageh Omaar, author and founder of the badmothersclub.com Stephanie Calman and presenter Sian Williams discuss three very different books by JRR Tolkien, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding and Emma Donoghue.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Publisher: Harper Collins Childrens

The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
Publisher: Persephone Books

Room by Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Picador

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


TUE 17:00 PM (b00zshnq)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zsdsv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Down the Line (b00zshns)
Series 4

Episode 3

The return of the ground-breaking Radio 4 show, hosted by the legendary Gary Bellamy; brought to you by the creators of The Fast Show.

Down the Line stars Rhys Thomas as Gary Bellamy, with Simon Day, Felix Dexter, Charlie Higson, Lucy Montgomery and Paul Whitehouse,

Special guests are Lee Mack, Adil Ray and Fiona Whitehouse.

Producers: Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b00zshnv)
Hayley and Phoebe are out shopping when they meet Vicky. Hayley explains that Phoebe is worried about her approaching trip to South Africa, so Vicky agrees to try and talk to her since Hayley is struggling.

Phoebe tells Vicky that although she's looking forward to seeing Kate, she's going to miss celebrating Easter with everybody at home. Vicky cheers her up by suggesting that they buy a present for Phoebe's mum and dad, which Vicky will hide and then give to them at Easter on Phoebe's behalf.

It's the day of the inquest into Nigel's death. Elizabeth, Shula and David are all emotional. David must give evidence, and so gives a detailed account to the Coroner of what happened. However, reliving that night reawakens all his feelings of guilt about the accident, and about suggesting to Nigel that they go up on the roof in the first place. The Coroner returns a verdict of accidental death. While Elizabeth and Shula are relieved it's over, David struggles to cope.

Over the phone, Ruth tells David about the four cows that have been slaughtered. She assures him that it's case closed for Nigel's death, but David remains unconvinced.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b00zshnx)
With Mark Lawson.

Monica Ali's novel Untold Story imagines a world in which Princess Diana did not die in a car crash. Suzanne Moore reviews.

The poet Wendy Cope reads from her new book, called Family Values, and discusses the inspiration behind her first collection for 10 years.

Following Green Wing, Victoria Pile has turned to a university setting for her new Channel 4 comedy Campus. Richard Bean's most recent play, The Heretic, featured an academic whose views on global warming cause clashes with other staff in her faculty. Mark Lawson talks to them about creating campus fiction. He also hears from Andrew Davies, whose 1986 TV comedy A Very Peculiar Practice is re-released on DVD later this year and from David Lodge, whose trilogy of novels Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work are now published as The Campus Trilogy.

Producer India Rakusen.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt744)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b00zshnz)
Memory on Trial

Do we understand enough about how memory works to properly assess evidence in sex abuse cases when allegations date back decades? Can juries make decisions based on their common sense in complex cases?

The number of so called "historic abuse cases" making their way through the coruts has increased in recent years following changes in the law that make it easier to bring them to trial and a greater willingness on behalf of victims to come forward.

These are among the most difficult cases the justice system handles given the highly sensitive nature of the allegations being made and the often lengthy gap between the events in question and the prosecution. Many cases now turn on one person's word against another and therefore rely heavily on the quality of memory evidence each side can bring.

But even the memory experts are divided on how the court process should assess memory evidence. Whist many victims never forget their abuse, some psychologists say people can genuinely block out or forget abuse and then remember it in detail later in life. But others warn of "false memory syndrome" and claim that in some cases allegations are wrongly based on ideas that have arised during therapy or from third party experiences which complainants adopt as their own.

In this week's File on 4, Jackie Long examines concerns from across the criminal justice system - from lawyers who claim the system is creating "a new genre of miscarriages of justice" because defendants cannot get a fair trial, from victims who say their long-held memories are being branded as false in court and from psychologists who question how well equipped our courts are to consider such evidence.

So how much do we know about how memory works? And is the courtroom the right place to get to the truth?

Producer Sally Chesworth.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b00zshp1)
Olympic Ticket Update and Blind Photography

Olympics tickets have been on sale for two weeks but it is still unclear what arrangements have been made for blind and partially sighted sports fans. We find out how blind people can apply, what level of access you can expect and whether there will be any concessionary tickets.

And Peter White talks to Gary Waite, the blind photographer who has become the subject of the latest advertising campaign for a leading mobile phone. We hear how he took up the hobby, what the public reaction has been and explore the unusual appeal of blind photography.


TUE 21:00 Is Surgery Scientific? (b00zshp3)
Can surgery be submitted to the same rigorous clinical trials as drugs to ensure the right surgical procedures are being carried out? Or does the very nature of the craft make this impossible? Every operation is unique to each patient and the surgeon who carries it out. No two surgeons will ever carry out the exact same operation. How do we know therefore, which procedure is best?

The answer is not straightforward. What if surgeon decides to alter regular surgery in some way. How does he or she evaluate whether the new alteration is better than the old? If the same were to happen with a drug, it would take 6 or 7 years to make one ingredient change, carry out randomised clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of the alteration before coming into use. Not so with surgery. By its very nature, surgery, a craft, is dependent on the surgeon carrying out the operation, on the patient before him and on the manifestation of the disease he is dealing with in that patient. No two patients are the same, and thus no two operations will be the same.

Although 30 per cent of hospital admissions require surgery, only 2 per cent of medical research funding goes into testing whether surgical procedures have a scientific grounding. Surgeons are now trying to alter that figure and see how this problem can be addressed.

In this programme Geoff Watts looks at the problems faced by surgeons and how they may be overcome.


TUE 21:30 On the Ropes (b00zsds4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b00zsdsx)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b00zshp5)
International leaders discuss Libya's future - but is chaos in the country inevitable?

Ivory Coast descends further into violence.

The poisonous snake on the loose in New York.

With Robin Lustig.


TUE 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zshp7)
Episode 2

Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch read Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, Natalia remembers the night her grandfather told her about his first encounter with the deathless man.

Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.

She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.

The readers are Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch.

Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.


TUE 23:00 Laura Solon - Talking and Not Talking (b00nywl0)
Series 3

Episode 2

Perrier Award-winning comedian, Laura Solon continues her series of sketches, monologues and one-liners.

Olga the ex-tyrannt takes on a British Post Office, a man tries to buy his mother a gift in an expensive department store and Sandrine, the Parisien radio host, chats about why French culture is much better then the culture of say, Britiain.

Producer: Colin Anderson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2009.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zshp9)
News from Westminster.



WEDNESDAY 30 MARCH 2011

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b00zshpt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zt7py)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zshpw)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zshpy)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zshq0)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b00zshq2)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zshq4)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b00zshq6)
Talks break down on whether cloned animals and their offspring can be traded in Europe with no ruling on whether meat from their offspring should be labelled and Farming Today reports that six countries have got together to apply for protected status for 'Traditional Pasture Raised Beef' in an attempt to create a premium product. We hear that sales of local cask ales are showing signs of rising while other beers are seeing sales fall, and Anna Hill visits the John Innes Centre who have just been awarded a grant to study the way plants photosynthesise.
Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


WED 06:00 Today (b00zshq8)
Morning news and current affairs with Justin Webb and Evan Davis, including:
07:20 A personal essay from author Zadie Smith in defence of public libraries.
07:35 Have some UK charities been too fast to launch campaigns to raise money for Japan?
08:10 Police minister Nick Herbert on the "big challenge" of police funding.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b00zshqb)
This week Libby Purves is joined by Travis Meinolf, Vernon Rapley, Prof Lewis Wolpert and Rachel Clare.

Travis Meinolf is an 'action weaver' who travels around the world engaging communities in interactive weaving, drawing on human connections, conversations and stories and embeds them into cloth woven on the move. He is interested in the symbolism and meaning of cloth and has been observing the way people in Libya are representing themselves through sewing their own flags. As part of an event organised by 'Curious About Craft', he will work with the local community in Birmingham.

Vernon Rapley is Director of Security at the V&A. Formerly Detective Sergeant, he led London's Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit until June 2010. With a team of just three full time police officers, he was dedicated to the policing of the world's second largest art market, recovering an average of £7 million of stolen and laundered art each year. He will be giving two lectures - Introducing Fakes and Forgeries at the V&A and one in aid of Venice in Peril at the Royal Geographical Society.

Professor Lewis Wolpert is a developmental biologist, and is Emeritus Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at University College, London. In his new book 'You're Looking Very Well' he explores the scientific and social implications of getting old, and tackling every aspect of the subject from ageism to euthanasia to anti-ageing cream. 'You're Looking Very Well' is published by Faber & Faber.

Rachel Clare is director of 'Crying Out Loud' which brings the most memorable international physical theatre companies to the UK. This spring, 'Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger' bring their dizzyingly evocative Chouf Ouchouf on tour, which weaves together contemporary performance and traditional Moroccan acrobatics, evoking the danger, joy and urgency of a Moroccan medina.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zt7sk)
Venetian Navigators - The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North

Episode 3

By Andrea di Robilant.

Read by Sam Dale.

In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes, fighting savage natives and, just possibly, reaching the New World a full century before Columbus.

Their adventures - printed as a small book and beautifully detailed map in 1558 by an enthusiastic ancestor - were celebrated throughout Europe until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.

Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out on a personal journey to see what traces remain of these fabled voyages. In this episode, the author arrives in Iceland and visits the ruins of a monastery believed to be mentioned in the Zen text. While there he chances upon an old farmer whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the Icelandic sagas brings the distant past vividly to life.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zsjyd)
Jenni Murray presents. What is the special bond between mothers and sons? Does it even exist? And how does it change over time - through the teenage years, when sons marry or become parents themselves? In a celebration for Mother's Day the programme is devoted to the subject. Jenni discusses this key relationship with guests including: mothers Dr Miriam Stoppard and comedian Angie Le Mar. There's a son's perspective too, with the author William Sutcliffe, the journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and the performance poet, Attila the Stockbroker. And the TV presenter and adventurer Ben Fogle and his mother, Julia Foster, describe the nature of their bond and how it has deepened over time.


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8qg)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles: Series 2

Episode 3

The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles episode 3/5
By Esther Wilson
Return of award-winning drama series; an illuminating and striking exploration of the challenges and aspirations in the unique life of a young woman with learning disabilities. A series that's both tough and feelgood.
Starring Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies; actors with learning disabilities.

Darleen is scared to return to her flat in sheltered accommodation after her friend was attacked. She unexpectedly confides in her driving instructor.

Darleen Fyles ...... Donna Lavin
Jamie ...... Edmund Davies
Treena ...... Lorraine Ashbourne
Ben ...... Wyllie Longmore
Marie ..... Emma Hartley Miller
Bob ...... Stephen Chapman
Stacy ..... Niamh Clarke
Produced/Directed by Pauline Harris

A version of Darleen Fyles was made into a television drama for Jimmy McGovern's Moving On Series broadcast recently on BBC One.

The series is the Play of the Week Podcast and you can download it through the Radio 4 website.


WED 11:00 While the Boys Are Away (b00zsjyg)
Episode 3

Gareth Jones follows the experiences of the families left behind while soldiers from the Royal Welsh go on a six month tour of duty in Afghanistan.


WED 11:30 Turf Wars (b00zsjyj)
The Accidental Head

The Accidental Head by Jeremy Front

Beth just wants what's best for her 11 year old son; a solid secondary education at the kind of school that recognises his genius, as well as his aptitude for baroque music. A school like Folgate. But when the family is edged out of Folgate's catchment area, a battle begins.

Beth takes on the might of the council with a mixture of community action, ancient by-laws and sheep.

Directed by James Robinson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.


WED 12:00 You and Yours (b00zsjyl)
Morrisons, Debenhams and HMV share their views on the state of retail shopping and what the future may hold.

We report from the BBC's Money Matter roadshow in Plymouth where a team of experts are on hand to answer questions from the public and hear their post-budget concerns.

Where might the Eurotunnel take you in the future?

And we examine claims that there's a shortage of divorce mediators despite anyone wanting to get a divorce after April 6th in England and Wales will have to see a mediator before going to court - we examine claims there are a shortage.


WED 12:57 Weather (b00zshqd)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b00zsjyn)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.


WED 13:30 The Media Show (b00zsjyq)
Last weekend, a Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidi, broke through the security surrounding foreign journalists in a Tripoli hotel to tell a horrific story. She accused Gaddafi's forces of beating and raping her before being dragged away. Jonathan Miller, foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News, was attacked as he tried to record Eman al-Obeidi's story. He explains the difficulties of reporting objectively from Libya where "the lies and spin and obfuscation are boundless."

The culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has faced a series of challenges in recent months including negotiations over the BBC's new licence fee settlement, questions about digital piracy, plans for local television and the controversy over News Corp's bid for BSkyB. On the day that hundreds of arts organisations hear they have lost their funding due to Arts Council cuts, Jeremy Hunt talks to Steve Hewlett about his plans.

The question of whether paywalls pay is up for debate again as The New York Times launches its second attempt at a paywall and The Times announces apparently encouraging figures. But can online subscribers, who pay significantly less than those who buy The Times in print form, make up for falling readers of the paper? The editor of The Times, James Harding, explains how the figures break down.

The Producer is Simon Tillotson.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b00zshnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b00zsjys)
Mike Harris - The Disappearance of Jennifer Pope

The Disappearance of Jennifer Pope
by Mike Harris in collaboration with Dave and Stefan Pope

The extraordinary true story of the disappearance of an English Nurse, in Ecuador, and how her husband and son tracked down her abductor. Dave and Stefan Pope spend a year in a country fraught with poverty and corruption, where they barely speak the language, with next to no money. But with heaps of determination and good will from a few key characters they eventually reap the rewards of justice.

Further info
In September 2005 Jenny Pope takes a year off to go back packing alone in South America because she believes her marriage is over. Dave has been living in the shed prior to this for the last 18 months. But they keep in touch by e-mail and, gradually, separation brings them back together again - their love is reignited. By the time Jennifer reaches Ecuador she's brought her flight forward as she's missing husband and son. But in January 2006, suddenly her e-mails stop and her credit cards are emptied. Dave and Jenny's 20 year old son Stefan go to Banyos in Ecuador, to find out what happened. They soon realise that the prime suspect is the security guard at the last hostel Jenny stayed; a man with a violent past who carries a gun and a machete in his car, who's bank account deposits match exactly those of Jennifers withdrawals. A poignant and life affirming story of how a father and son's loss and confusion is channelled into energy and determination to find justice for their beloved wife and mother.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b00zsjyv)
Money Box Live with Paul Lewis comes from Plymouth's Drake Circus shopping Centre as part of the BBC's Money Matters Roadshow.

People with savings, investments, tax, pensions and benefit questions can meet the Money Box team in Plymouth to put their questions to the experts.


WED 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00zsjyx)
I Expected the Worst...

Truffaut Letters

"Dear Monsieur,

You do me too great an honour in asking my advice. I have never written a shooting script and I never know where I'm going to place the camera one hour before I start shooting, which is to say, before seeing the actors move through the set..."

A series of three readings, in which famous directors describe their adventures in the
the movie business:

2. Francois Truffaut: Letters.
His missives are a rich source of insight and amusement, as he considers the likes of dubious actors, terrible music, freedom of expression and favourite foods...

Read by Ben Miles
Producer Duncan Minshull.


WED 15:45 Elegies from a Suburban Garden (b00zsjyz)
Episode 3

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his garden are explored, and the emotions evoked by each season.

With the arrival of summer, the garden is transformed. Barely a centimetre of soil is visible, under the luxuriant growth of trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables. Phil slides back the glasshouse door carefully. Just inside there are several pots of squirting cucumber plants. The squirting cucumber, Ecballium elaterium, disperses its seeds in a sudden explosion. As the fruit ripens, it fills with a slimy juice, which gradually creates pressure. It then burst open and propels its seeds with an initial velocity estimated as of 56 km (35 miles) per hour. So, as Phil explains, it's necessary to enter the greenhouse with caution at this time of year, to avoid becoming a victim to a rain of seed pellets! Then there are the pitcher plants capturing and digesting wasps and flies; a gruesome sound on a quiet night! Beyond the glasshouse, poppies fight for space amongst the potato crop; courgettes straddle across the path, and the fruit bushes ripen in the sun. At this time of year, there's almost nothing nicer than grazing as you wander through the garden, even if that means feasting on the occasional maggot-infested raspberry! After all, as Phil says "What's wrong with eating a few maggots?"

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b00zsjz1)
Mafias - Live Music

Woodstock did not have a sponsor, people flooded to Hyde Park for a free concert from the Rolling Stones but now a top price ticket to see Bon Jovi - the 'Diamond Circle VIP Experience' - can cost you something approaching $2,000. What has happened to live music to transform it into the industry it has become? How have concert performances become a successful way of funding music when recorded music has been in retreat? Laurie Taylor speaks to two authorities in the field of popular music studies, Simon Frith and Martin Cloonan, to discuss the social and economic changes which have brought music performance to the fore.
Also we hear of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese Triads in London and Italian Mafias across the western world, but is organised crime really spreading like a global virus? The criminologist Federico Varese explores the capacities of mafias trying to conquer new territories.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.


WED 16:30 The Story of Economics (b00zsjz3)
Monsters

In this three-part series Michael Blastland lays out the history of economic ideas to understand why economics goes wrong and whether it can ever go entirely right.

In the third and final programme, 'Monsters', Michael investigates another view of economics: that it is the story of people, how they think and behave.

The idea raises intriguing questions about whether we really are the rational, self-interested agents described by the machine-like economic models of last week's programme.

Is my, or your, economic judgement as sound as we probably both like to think? Are we swept along by the mob and the moment? Are we prisoners of time and place whose choices aren't calculated, but absorbed from culture?

All this human stuff certainly complicates the calculations.

Add that to everything else we have discovered in this series - that economics is moral, political, scientific, technical, statistical, theoretical, cultural, historical - and, oh dear. Is it any wonder economists disagree?

Producer: Richard Knight.


WED 17:00 PM (b00zsjz5)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zshqg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Act Your Age (b00zsjz7)
Series 3

Episode 2

Simon Mayo hosts the three-way battle between the comedy generations to find out which is the funniest.

Will it be the Up-and-Comers, the Current Crop or the Old Guard who will be crowned, for one week at least, as the Golden Age of Comedy?

Jon Richardson is joined by Andi Osho, Rufus Hound teams up with Andrew Maxwell and Ted Robbins is paired with both Roger De Courcey and Nookie Bear.

Devised and produced by Ashley Blaker and Bill Matthews.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b00zsjz9)
Usha visits Ruth to find out how Elizabeth is, and how she coped with the inquest. Ruth thinks Elizabeth is managing well. She is more concerned about David struggling to put it all behind him, and spending too much time helping his sister.

Usha tells Ruth that Jim has apparently chosen Ovid's Metamorphoses - hardly the popular literary fiction she'd planned for the book club. David drops in to say he's going over to Lower Loxley again. Ruth and Usha also discuss the spread of Johne's disease, and Ruth's demanding new cleaner.

Really impressed with Roy's work, Elizabeth explains to Shula that she doesn't know what she'll do when he returns to Grey Gables. Elizabeth is keen to offer him a permanent job since she knows and trusts him. Shula points out how generous Caroline has been to Elizabeth, and how much she needs Roy back. Shula explains the awkward situation to David, who is on Elizabeth's side and thinks it should be Roy's decision whether to move or not. Shula questions whether it's ethical. David reminds her of the injustice of Nigel's death. How can she ask him what's ethical?


WED 19:15 Front Row (b00zsjzc)
Anne-Marie Duff stars in Thea Sharrock's production of Rattigan's Cause Celebre. The play is based on the true story of Alma Rattenbury who, in 1935, was accused of killing her husband and put on trial along with her 18-year-old lover. Crime writer Frances Fyfield discusses the play.

Theatres and arts organisations find out today whether their budgets have been cut by Arts Council England. We hear from some of the successful companies and those who may go under.

Producer Robyn Read.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8qg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Unreliable Evidence (b00zsjzf)
Intellectual Property

Clive Anderson and some of the country's top lawyers and judges discuss legal issues of the day.

The second programme in the series looks at the law and intellectual property. Humans are an extraordinarily creative species, but can't always agree about the legal rights relating to that creativity.

This programme looks at how our courts attempt to resolve disputes over trademarks, inventions, music and literature; in fact over everything from life-saving drugs to sweater designs. Do our copyright, patent and other laws create the right balance between the protection of entrepreneurship and the potential benefit to the public of less regulated distribution of our creative output?

Producer: Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b00zsjzh)
Feisal Abdul Rauf

This year's Lent Talks sees six well known figures reflect on different elements of conflict found in the story of Jesus' ministry and Passion from the perspective of their own personal and professional experience.

In the third Lent Talk of the series, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the chairman of the Cordoba Initiative Islamic Cultural Centre, near ground Zero in New York, reflects on the conflict between faith and identity.

The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, abandonment, greed, forgiveness and love. The main theme for this year's talks will explore conflict in different forms and how it interacts with various aspects of society and culture.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b00zm0mk)
Alien Invaders

The threat to wildlife from invasive species is now one of the greatest across the world and it is growing. Killer shrimp are the latest non-native species to be found in a formerly quiet and respectable area of Cambridgeshire. In the UK we have endlessly debated the problem of the grey squirrel and Japanese knotweed but in Spain the invaders are being driven out permanently. Can their plan work and would eradication return native species to abundance or simply create new problems in our ecosystems?

Recent studies suggest the rise in invasive species stems from international trade. Global warming has also contributed to species migration and survival in the wild. The Spanish authorities have drawn up a list of 168 offending species including the raccoon and mink, zebra mussels, and one of the worse offenders the ruddy duck.

In New Zealand rats are driving the yellowhead bird to extinction and the chrytrid fungi is causing a worldwide decline in amphibians but can species really recover after competition is successfully eradicated? It seems that in some cases they can. The near extinct black vented shearwater is recovering on a Mexican island after the eradication of cats, goats and sheep. The wallaby is also recovering after red fox were taken out in Australia.

However, there are also a growing number of scientists who argue that to eradicate invasives is costly, cruel and ultimately unnecessary. In Puerto Rico invasive species have been the only plant and wildlife able to survive in eroded soils. Their encroachment has returned lifeless areas to thriving jungles, eventually providing a more encouraging environment for native species to return.

If we can't beat them then it may even be time to learn from these ecological survivors.

Producer Helen Lennard
Repeated on 31:03:2011 13:31:00.


WED 21:30 Midweek (b00zshqb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b00zshqj)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b00zsk0d)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.


WED 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zt22l)
Episode 3

Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch read Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always, provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, memories of a pledge that her grandfather made to the deathless man are conjured up.

Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.

She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.

The readers are Hattie Morahan and David Horovitch.

Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.


WED 23:00 Helen Keen's It Is Rocket Science (b00zt22n)
Series 1

Episode 4

Helen Keen's off-beat but true account of the history of space flight.

With Peter Serafinowicz and Susy Kane.

* Will humanity ever make it to the stars?

* Time travel, parallel universes and faster than light travel.

* Have aliens ever made it here? If so, were they tempted to use their vastly superior intelligence to really clean up in pub quizzes?

Written by Helen Keen and Miriam Underhill.

Producer: Gareth Edwards

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.


WED 23:15 The Ladies (b00tbkg9)
Series 2

Episode 4

The Ladies meet an extreme wedding planner, and the new voice of the automated Tesco tills. And there's a failed attempt to get people to sign up to a new religious cause.

Written by Emily Watson Howes

Cast List:

Emily Watson Howes
Kate Donmall
Susanna Hislop
Fran Moulds

Produced by Mark Talbot
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zsjzk)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster as David Cameron and Ed Miliband cross swords at Prime Minister's Questions. Parliament starts its Easter break next week. That means the next PMQs will be in four weeks.

In tonight's programme:

The government says it won't rule out supplying arms to rebels in Libya - but MPs express reservations about the legality of such a move.

David Cameron insists there's no reason why cuts in police budgets should lead to fewer frontline officers.

And we find out who the PM thinks is the most annoying person in modern politics.



THURSDAY 31 MARCH 2011

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b00zsld1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zt7sk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zsld3)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zsld5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zsld7)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b00zsld9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zslf6)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b00zsldc)
A brewer in Kent does not want to get Protected Geographical Status for his ale as he says that it would limit his ability to expand in the industry. However, another brewer in Kent says that the protection they get through labelling their product as Kentish Ale has been a great benefit.

Also, the fate of a prize-winning pedigree bull which tested positive for TB is to be decided by a high court judge. Charlotte Smith speaks to his owner, Ken Jackson.

And the Forestry Commission is giving money to landowners to plant trees in a measure to slow the flow of water in flood risk areas.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Weatherill.


THU 06:00 Today (b00zslf8)
Morning news and current affairs with James Naughtie and Evan Davis, including:
08:10 Labour leader Ed Miliband.
08:20 What the Square Kilometre Array will tell us about the secrets of space.
08:55 Author Monica Ali and Prof Jean Seaton on the nation's continuing fascination with Princess Diana.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b00zt235)
The Bhagavad Gita

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bhagavad Gita.The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse section of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, is one of the most revered texts of Hinduism. Written in around 200 BC, it narrates a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the deity, and the Pandava prince Arjuna. It has been described as a concise summary of Hindu theology, a short work which offers advice on how to live one's life.The Gita is also a philosophical work of great richness and influence. First translated into English in the 18th century, it was quickly taken up in the West. Its many admirers have included Mahatma Gandhi, whose passion for the work is one reason that the Bhagavad Gita became a key text for followers of the Indian Independence movement in the first half of the twentieth century.With:Chakravarthi Ram-PrasadProfessor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster UniversityJulius LipnerProfessor of Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion and Fellow of Clare Hall at the University of CambridgeJessica FrazierResearch Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Lecturer in Religious Studies at Regent's College, LondonProducer: Thomas Morris.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zt7vw)
Venetian Navigators - The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North

Episode 4

By Andrea di Robilant.

Read by Sam Dale.

In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes and fighting savage natives on distant shores.

Their adventures - printed as a small book and beautifully detailed map in 1558 by an enthusiastic ancestor - were celebrated throughout Europe until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.

Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out on a personal journey to see what traces remain of these fabled voyages. In this episode his quest reaches the shores of Newfoundland and prompts the question: did Antonio Zen arrive in North America a full century before Columbus?

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zslfb)
Jenni Murray presents. In our ongoing series Women in Business, we look at making your product or service stand out from the crowd with Millie Kendal of the make-up duo Ruby & Millie. The colourful textiles of iconic designer Lucienne Day set a trend in home-furnishing in fifties Britain. A new exhibition celebrates her work and looks at her influence on contemporary design. In Iran, Sakineh Ashtiani remains under sentence of death for adultery. How might the appointment to the country of a UN Special Rapporteur to investigate the abuse of human rights affect her case? Fictional diaries such as EM Delafield's Diaries of a Provincial Lady have an enduring appeal. We look at why the domestic trials of their authors provide such a rich seam of material.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8rp)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles: Series 2

Episode 4

The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles ep4/5
by Esther Wilson

Darleen's fiance Jamie is in a real dilemma - the bailiffs are coming round, and he discovers he's been robbed.

Return of award-winning drama series; an illuminating and striking exploration of the challenges and aspirations in the unique life of a young woman with learning disabilities. A series that's both tough and feelgood.
Starring Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies - actors with learning disabilities.

Darleen Fyles....... Donna Lavin
Jamie ...... Edmund Davies
Treena ..... Lorraine Ashbourne
Ben ...... Wyllie Longmore
Marie ..... Emma Hartley-Miller
Kenny ..... Declan Wilson
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris

Marriage, driving lessons, the pitfalls of sheltered housing and benefits are all on the agenda in series 2. Created in part through improvisation and inspired by true stories.

Darleen Fyles was recently made into a television drama as part of Jimmy McGovern's Moving On series broadcast on BBC One.

The series is the Play of the Week Podcast and you can download it through the Radio 4 website.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b00zsldf)
Uganda

Anna Cavell investigates the human trafficking of Ugandan women to Iraq. They were lured there by promises of well-paid jobs - but instead found themselves effectively in slavery, beaten and in some cases raped. She hears the story of how a Ugandan security contractor and an American officer together organised a courageous freelance raid which freed nine of the women. And she discovers that despite the rescue, the practice appears to be continuing.
Producer: Natalie Morton.


THU 11:30 Ludwig Koch and the Music of Nature (b00jn4m2)
Ludwig Koch was once as famous as David Attenborough, as pioneering as 'Blue Planet' and as important as the BBC Natural History Unit. They all owe their existence to this German refugee who first recorded the music of nature. Through his archive and new field recordings the poet Sean Street tells the story of Ludwig Koch.

When Sean Street was recording in a store-room at the Science Museum for a Radio 4 archive programme he came across a grey crate, stencilled, as if it belonged to a band on tour, with KOCH on it. This was the disc-cutting machine which Ludwig Koch used for a decade to make the recordings of birds, mammals and insects that led to a new field of study, of broadcasting and the creation of the BBC's Natural History Unit.

Sean and his producer then began investigating and discovered that Koch made the first ever wildlife recording, of a bird, when he was eight, in 1889 - and that it still exists in the BBC's archives.

Koch was an effusive man and this led to several confrontations with Nazi officials, whom he despised. There is an extraordinary recording of him telling the story of a Berliner whose bullfinch sang 'The Internationale'. He was carted off to prison and the bird 'executed'. "Under dictatorship," Koch observed, "even songbirds suffer". He came to England, worked with Julian Huxley on theories of animal language, and recorded birds from the Scillies to Shetland.

In 1940 he joined the BBC and soon became a household name, beloved of comedians (there's a great sketch by Peter Sellers parodying him at work) because of his resolute pronunciation of English as if it were German.

As well as being wonderful radio in itself his work was of great significance. It inspired producer Desmond Hawkins to start 'The Naturalist', (using Koch's enchanting recording of a curlew as its signature tune). Sean Street uses his recordings and contributions of those who worked with him in what becomes a natural history programme in itself, with Koch the subject and Sean exploring his habits and habitat.

There is also an attempt to record curlews as he did so successfully, to shed light on the achievements of this courageous, influential and loveable genius. Today sound-recordists use tiny digital machines and sophisticated microphones. But there are other problems - traffic, planes, people - and fewer, shyer curlews.

Producer: Julian May

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.


THU 12:00 You and Yours (b00zt3pm)
Winifred Robinson discusses whether prescription charges should be abolished in England as they have been in every other country in the UK. Speed cameras in Oxfordshire were switched off last year because of budget cuts - but are now being switched back on - so who's paying for them? We ask whether pupils should be encouraged to use mobile phones in the classroom. And all of a flutter - could relaxing the gambling laws generate billions of pounds and throw a life line to struggling pubs?


THU 12:57 Weather (b00zsldh)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b00zslfd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.


THU 13:30 Costing the Earth (b00zm0mk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:00 The Archers (b00zsjz9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b00gd54t)
Hugh Costello - The Forgetting Curve

As an expert on memory loss, Greg Cooke is asked to invalidate the testimony of an eyewitness in a high-profile murder trial. He undermines the Prosecution's key witness by convincing the jury that we forget as much within 24 hours as we do over a whole year. As a result, a vicious murderer walks free, but Greg is soon to discover - there's a price to pay.

A tense, white-knuckle ride as a rather self-satisfied hero embarks, reluctantly, on a voyage of self-discovery.

Hugh Costello is an Emmy nominated TV and Film writer. His recent work for radio includes Afternoon Plays 'My Dear Children of the Whole World' and 'What The Bishops Knew'.

The Forgetting Curve was written by Hugh Costello.

Greg Cooke was played by Michael Glenn Murphy
Isabelle Kavanaghby Lia Williams
D.I. Baddely..... Chris McHallem
Eve Cooke.....Andrea Irvine
Valerie Ryan.....Karen Ardiff
Brenda.....Annie McCartney
Professor Nolan.....Richard Howard
Kelly.....Hugh Costello
And Paul.....Inam Mirza

The Forgetting Curve was recorded in Belfast and the producer was Eoin O'Callaghan.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b00zq87b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:07 on Saturday]


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b00zq9tj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Afternoon Reading (b00zt3pp)
I Expected the Worst...

Wings of Desire

"Usually a line emerges that enables you to fix on the characters and their relationships. But with angels you could do anything; there were connections all over the place, you could go anywhere. You could cross the Berlin Wall, pass through windows into peoples' houses. And anyone was hero of a potential film..."

In a series of three readings, famous film directors celebrate their work in the film business:

3. WINGS OF DESIRE
Wim Wenders describes working with angels on his famous film, based in Berlin. And should angels be shot in black and white or in colour?

Reader Stephen Dillane
Producer Duncan Minshull.


THU 15:45 Elegies from a Suburban Garden (b00zt3pr)
Episode 4

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his garden are explored, and the emotions evoked by each season.

With the arrival of autumn, the fruits of all the hard work of the previous months are literally ready to pick. Phil doesn't waste any time gathering in the Autumn-fruiting raspberries.

The other great success in the garden has been the raised beds; and for what feels like weeks now, Phil and his wife have been enjoying home-grown courgettes. In fact Phil is so impressed by his raised beds, that he's beginning to think about transforming all the vegetable area to raised beds ... and having bought a new spade after the old finally collapsed, he's ready to begin!

Before that, though, there are plenty of other tasks to do, such as cutting the hedge, now the nesting season is over, With a hatred of noisy electrical garden tools Phil happily clambers up his ladder with a pair of secateurs and sets too, trimming the beech hedge.

Whilst to some, the garden in Autumn may seem at times a sad place; as leaves fall off the trees, but the red, orange and golden colours of the leaves are for Phil a last 'Hoorah!' as the garden explodes with colour; enjoying its very own firework display. Surrounded by such wonderful colours as well fruits and vegetables to harvest, Autumn is surely a time to feel a sense of elation in the garden.

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.


THU 16:00 Open Book (b00zs7v9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:30 Material World (b00zt3pt)
Adam Rutherford presents the weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. He talks to Dr. Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth about the latest developments at the Fukashima Plant and Professor Gerry Thomas from Imperial College, London tells him about the current risk to human health. Also on the programme; is sonar damaging beaked whales and could placing decoy artificial birds on the ground near pylons, prevent real birds from flying into them? Finally, the RSC is about to stage a play about Sergei Korolyov the father of the Russian space programme. Adam meets the play's writer Rona Munro.

The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.


THU 17:00 PM (b00zslfg)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zsldk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 So Wrong It's Right (b00zslfj)
Series 2

Episode 4

Charlie Brooker hosts the panel show devoted to the art of being wrong with comedians Rufus Hound, Sharon Horgan and Fergus Craig competing to give the best in wrong answers.

Charlie's favourite hobby - the computer game - comes in for the So Wrong It's Right treatment this week. Asked to pitch a terrible idea for a computer game, who will triumph in the battle between Fergus' Football Player Liaison Officer, Sharon's Breast Feeding game and Rufus' innovative third person shooter - You Should Have Seen It Man Like Wow?

Also up for examination are the panel's nominations for modern woes - how will Charlie react to Rufus' nomination for his greatest modern irritant: 'Charlie Brooker'.

The host of So Wrong It's Right, Charlie Brooker, also writes for The Guardian and presents BBC4's satirical series Newswipe & Screenwipe as well as Channel 4's You Have Been Watching. He won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009 and Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his newspaper columns.

Produced by Aled Evans
A Zeppotron Production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b00zslfl)
Peggy and Jennifer arrive at The Laurels to visit Jack, to be met by Elona who has been caring for him. Elona explains that Jack has had a little accident, so while they wait to see him Peggy quizzes Jennifer about her approaching trip. Later, Elona and Jennifer discuss Elona's two daughters while they wait for Peggy to finish with Jack.

Jamie is coming to The Bull after school. Although Jolene wants to talk to him, Fallon thinks it would be a bad plan. However, when Jamie leaves he bumps into Jolene outside the back door, and she cannot help but have a word. She discovers that Jamie has told Kathy about Kenton. But she explains that whatever happens she will always love Jamie's dad and that Jamie is still welcome to visit whenever he likes. Fallon is cross when she finds out, but Jolene is hopeful that Jamie accepted at least some of what she said.

Kenton drops by to surprise Jolene - he has booked a holiday for two to Monte Carlo! He's arranged everything. Both The Bull and Jaxx will be left in safe hands, so all Jolene has to do is pack and enjoy herself. She can't wait.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b00zslfn)
Daniel O'Donnell, William Boyd, Source Code review

Mark Lawson meets Irish singer Daniel O'Donnell who explains the importance he places on talking to his fans.

Duncan Jones' first film Moon was acclaimed by critics. His latest, Source Code, features a soldier who wakes up to find himself inhabiting another man's body. Novelist and critic Matt Thorne reviews.

Novelist William Boyd discusses literary hoaxes as his book featuring an invented artist, Nat Tate, is republished on April Fool's Day.

Rocket to the Moon by Clifford Odets was branded a failure when it premiered in 1938. Keeley Hawes stars in the National Theatre revival. American literature expert Sarah Churchwell reviews.

Duncan Jones' first film Moon was acclaimed by critics. His latest, Source Code, features a soldier who wakes up to find himself inhabiting another man's body. Novelist and critic Matt Thorne reviews.

Producer Nicki Paxman.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8rp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b00zt3pw)
Overseas Donations to British Universities

As conflict grows in the Middle East Simon Cox asks whether universities may rethink the donations that many UK universities have received from this region of the world. Following the resignation of Howard Davies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which accepted money from Libya, The Report asks whether other universities may find themselves embarrassed. UK universities - especially Oxford and Cambridge -have received more donations from Arab and Middle Eastern countries in the past 10 years than ever before - in part to fund centres for Islamic studies. What impact has this had on scholarship?

Criticism has grown as some students, academics and campaigners believe that universities should not accept money from countries with bad human rights records. But is it possible to draw up a list of countries from which no money should be taken? And could understanding of the Islamic world be compromised if the money doesn't come in?

Producer Rosamund Jones.


THU 20:30 In Business (b00zt3py)
Over a Barrel

Turmoil across the Middle East sent oil prices jumping and has raised big questions about the security of the energy supplies that have powered the world economy for the past 100 years. Peter Day investigates the future of oil.and what the current upheavals might mean for other energy supplies.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.


THU 21:00 The Biggest Radio on Earth (b00zt3qd)
Plans are advancing for the biggest radio on Earth, an array of up to 3000 radio telescopes across a continent. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will have its central core in either South Africa or Western Australia, but its spiral arms of outlying giant dishes will reach out 3000 km across several countries. Astronomer Dr Lucie Green hears how it could search for habitable planets, intelligent life and new-born galaxies.

The ambitious 1.5 billion Euro plan is a partnership between 70 institutions in 20 countries, with its headquarters in Manchester. But wide-open spaces with sparse population and few mobile phone masts are needed to build it. So there is fierce competition between the two remaining short-listed host countries as the time to decide between them approaches. For one proposal, the array would be centred in the ancient desert of Western Australia, with outlying dishes as far away as New Zealand. The other comes to a focus in South Africa's Northern Cape and reaches out to Ghana, Kenya and Mauritius.

The rewards could be, quite literally, astronomical, with 50 times the sensitivity of anything before and the ability to detect alien broadcasts from distant solar systems and even to image the gaps in dusty discs where planets may orbit. But the astronomers also have to justify the cost at times of financial restraint, given that the array will not be complete until 2024. And engineers have to prove that it will be possible - something they've already begun to do by linking together 7 existing radio telescopes in the UK with a new high-speed fibre optic network.

Producer: Martin Redfern.


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b00zt235)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b00zsldm)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b00zt3s0)
Radio 4's daily evening news and current affairs programme bringing you global news and analysis.

The former Libyan Foreign Minister is being debriefed in the UK, and the UN ambassador says he'll no longer be Colonel Gaddafi's spokesman. What will be the impact on the Libyan government?

We'll debate the privatisation of British prisons.

And up, up and away - a sneak preview of the Virgin Galactica.

The World Tonight with Robin Lustig.


THU 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zt3tr)
Episode 4

Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, the tiger begins his long journey into local legend.

Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.

She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.

The reader is Hattie Morahan.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.


THU 23:00 The News at Bedtime (b00wrbt8)
Review of the Year

Join legendary nurseryland broadcasters John Tweedledum (Jack Dee) and Jim Tweedledee (Peter Capaldi) as they return to Radio Fourtywinks for a one-off special, presenting their review of the year in Nurseryl Land, with the help of roving reporter Mary Mary Quite Contrary (Vicki Pepperdine) and a very special Thought for the Year with Peter Rabbi and a whole load of other festive treats.

Starring
Jack Dee - John Tweedledum
Peter Capaldi - Jim Tweedledee
with
Vicki Pepperdine, Lucy Montgomery, Alex MacQueen, Dan Tetsell and Lewis MacLeod

Written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman

Produced by Simon Nicholls.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zslfq)
Alicia McCarthy with all the news from Westminster.



FRIDAY 01 APRIL 2011

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b00zsk0s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b00zt7vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b00zsk0v)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b00zsk0x)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b00zsk0z)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b00zsk11)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b00zt4gq)
With the Reverend Prebendary Edward Mason, Rector of Bath Abbey.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b00zslfv)
The government accuses some farmers of fraud by avoiding culling TB infected cattle and is introducing tougher measures to prevent unlawful activity. Watercress and West Country Cheddar: Charlotte Smith hears more examples of protected foods and discovers that the designations are not always straight forward and Caz Graham meets just one of the three million sheep that are lame in the UK.
Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


FRI 06:00 Today (b00zt4gs)
Morning news and current affairs with Evan Davis and James Naughtie, including:
07:30 Latest on the heavy fighting in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan.
07:40 A breakthrough in 3D radio.
08:10 Is the Gaddafi regime crumbling from within?


FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b00zq9vm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b00zt8cr)
Venetian Navigators - The Voyages of the Zen Brothers to the Far North

Episode 5

By Andrea di Robilant.

Read by Sam Dale.

In the fourteenth century, so the story goes, two merchant brothers set out from Venice on a journey through the rough seas of the North Atlantic, encountering warrior princes and fighting savage natives on distant shores.

Their adventures - printed as a small book and beautifully detailed map in 1558 by an enthusiastic ancestor - were celebrated throughout Europe until, in 1835, the story was denounced as a 'tissue of lies' and the Zens faded into oblivion.

Intrigued by the myth, the writer Andrea di Robilant set out to discover what traces remain of these fabled voyages. In this final episode, the quest reaches its furthest point north on the slopes of a smoking volcano in Greenland.

Abridged by Laurence Wareing.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b00zt4gv)
Jenni Murray presents.

Have changing attitudes to homosexuality shifted perceptions of masculinity? Mark McCormack from Brunel university discusses his new research with John Amaechi, the first openly gay basket ball player.

A head for business - can you teach business nous or are you born with it? Self made business woman Michelle Mone is in discussion with successful Dragon's Den entrepreneur Carol Savage.

Hugo Vickers talks about his new book which tells the story of the final days of the Duchess of Windsor.

Louise Adamson takes a look at a new exhibition of handbags and shoes in Woking. Fashion writer Justine Picardie and fashion historian Anthea Jarvis discuss the art of matching accessories.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8ss)
The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles: Series 2

Episode 5

The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles 5/5
by Esther Wilson
As the wedding approaches, Darleen and Jamie buy their ring with a budget of £45, and then disaster strikes on the wedding day as Jamie gets cold feet.
A rom-com with a difference. Created in part through improvisation and inspired by true stories.

Return of award-winning drama series; an illuminating and striking exploration of the challenges and aspirations in the unique life of a young woman with learning disabilities. A series that's both tough and feelgood.
Starring Donna Lavin and Edmund Davies - actors with learning disabilities.

Darleen Fyles....... Donna Lavin
Jamie ...... Edmund Davies
Treena ..... Lorraine Ashbourne
Ben ...... Wyllie Longmore
Marie ..... Emma Hartley-Miller
Jeweller/Bob ...... Stephen Chapman
Produced and Directed by Pauline Harris

Marriage, driving lessons, the pitfalls of sheltered housing are all on the agenda in series 2. Darleen Fyles was recently made into a television drama as part of Jimmy McGovern's Moving On series broadcast on BBC One.

The series is the available to download as a podcast through the Radio 4 website.


FRI 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b01fd2tz)
Series 7

Between Brothers

Alan Dein follows the lives of two brothers - Alex, searching for a fresh start away from London gangs and his adopted brother JJ, who is poised for success on the London stage.

Alan charts the lives of Alex, JJ and parents Liz and Andreas as they cope with changes which will fundamentally shift the balance of their family life.

As JJ approaches 16 he must make decisions about his life and is preparing for auditions which could see him relaunch his acting career. This was put on hold five years earlier when the woman he knew as his 'mum' died and he was taken in by best friend Alex and adopted by Alex's parents, Andreas and Liz. Before this he had toured with productions like the King and I and his teachers believe he has the talent, drive and determination to succeed.

These are characteristics in short supply for Alex who is preparing to move to the Philippines to live with his maternal grandmother. He has been selling Cannabis and now owes money to a local gang. Excluded from school he sees little prospect of his life improving and welcomes the opportunity to start afresh somewhere new - even though that means leaving best friend JJ.

The recordings track events from the initial intervention of family therapists offering intensive support in London to the equally enticing offer from relatives abroad. As Alex prepares to leave England JJ prepares for the auditions which could seal his future and both brothers get use to the idea of living their separate lives.


FRI 11:30 The Artiness of Naughtiness (b00zt4gz)
What have Jonathon Swift, Orson Welles, Marcel Duchamp, Yoko Ono, Malcolm Mclaren, Jeremy Beadle, and Sacha Baron Cohen got in common? Toby Amies discovers how tricksters and pranksters have turned the poking of fun into an art form.

Pranking is such a part of society, we've got a specially sanctioned day of misrule in the calendar. Mark Twain described the 1st of April as "the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year". But for some people April Fool's day is just not enough; generally opposed to the status quo, they are determined to alter our relationship with reality by forcing us to question its veracity.

There are pranksters who have been determined to show us our folly all year round and most have philosophical, political and artistic reason to do so.

Toby investigates this reasoning behind pranking - discovering why people will risk consequences as serious as prison to make a point or get a laugh. Sometime the motivation behind a prank is not always only a good laugh at someone else's expense. It can be a very serious business.

Toby draws a wobbly line from the court jester to the hoaxes of Swift and Welles to Yves Klein to the playful Marxism[!] of Debord and the Situationsists, through to the commercial modern pranking industry and the work of Sacha Baron Cohen, Improv Everywhere, Jeremy Beadle and America's king of the prank, Joey Skaggs.

Presenter: Toby Amies

Producer: Rob Alexander
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b00zt4h1)
David Blunkett, speaks up for listeners frustrated by the limitations of DAB radio.

Our retail series concludes with a look at customer data.

Plus, closing the tax loophole that could make CDs and DVDs more expensive. But will the government really go this far?

As the new South Downs National Park Authority becomes fully operational, we find how residents and visitors could benefit.

And a journey to the stars - how close are we to the reality of space tourism?


FRI 12:57 Weather (b00zsk13)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b00zxdtv)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4. Thirty minutes of intelligent analysis, comment and interviews. To share your views email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on Twitter: #wato.


FRI 13:30 More or Less (b00zt4h3)
"Embarrassingly small" cuts?

The Coalition Government's planned spending cuts have been described as "savage" by the TUC's Brendan Barber. But they have also been described by Fraser Nelson of The Spectator as "embarrassingly small". Who's right?

The Other Census

The census is all well and good. It will tell us how many we are, where we live, with whom, and more. Good, hard facts. But, we wondered, could we yield some surprising data by asking less obvious questions? Follow the link below to complete The Other Census.

The cost of intervention

Libya seems to be in full-fledged civil war and the UK is part of an international coalition intervening in the conflict. Last week the Chancellor addressed what all this might cost. But how does he know?

Strawberry Fields... forever?

The maths behind the most mysterious edit in music.

Producer: Richard Knight.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b00zslfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b00ftd09)
The Lottery Ticket

A black comedy about the unlikely friendship between an asylum seeker and a migrant worker who find a stray lottery ticket and think it may be the answer to all their problems. By BAFTA winning writer, Donna Franceschild.

Cast:
Salih...............Nitzan Sharron
Jacek..............John Kazek
Woman...........Meg Fraser
Director: Kirsty Williams.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b00zt4h5)
Hartlebury, Kidderminster

Eric Robson leads the GQT team in lively horticultural debate in the village of Hartlebury.
Anne Swithinbank investigates the manufacture and safety of municipal compost for the domestic gardener.

Get more from your shopping: Using your grocery leftovers to grow from seed. Bob Flowerdew advises.

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


FRI 15:45 Elegies from a Suburban Garden (b00zt4h7)
Episode 5

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his suburban garden are explored, and the emotions evoked by each season.

Winter brings with it heavy snows and for more then a fortnight, the garden lies buried under two feet of snow. Phil is forced indoors, and watches the garden through the windows. But this brings its own rewards as the bird feeders attract hungry visitors. The highlights include a flock of Waxings; tropical looking birds with prominent crests which migrate here from Scandinavia, and arrive one morning and feed on the remains of the crab apples before disappearing again.

As soon as the snow melts, Phil ventures back out into the garden; young green daffodil shoots are peering above the soil, and there are the first strange-looking scented flowers on the Wintersweet. Phil has seen a small hexagonal greenhouse in a catalogue which would make the perfect bird hide and herb house, so now he has to clear a space for it; and that means removing a large tree stump. Meanwhile in the glasshouse, the Hollyhocks seedlings have survived the winter and Sweet Pea seeds have germinated on wet paper towels in a plastic container and are now ready to sow into seed trays, prior to planting out later in the year.

And whilst Winter signifies loss and the end of one gardening year, sowing seeds and planning ahead is forward looking and with this, there's the excitement of a new cycle starting again.

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b00zt4h9)
Edward Stobart, Geraldine Ferraro, Diana Wynne Jones and Robert Tear

Matthew Bannister on

Edward Stobart who built up the family trucking firm to become a business success and a cult brand.

Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to stand as vice president of the USA.

Childrens' fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones who drew on her own troubled relationship with her parents in her books.

Paul Baran, the American electrical engineer who developed some of the key building blocks of the internet.

And the flamboyant tenor Robert Tear - we have a tribute from Sir Thomas Allen.


FRI 16:30 The Film Programme (b00zt4hc)
In The Film Programme this week, Francine Stock talks to two directors at very different stages of their careers - Jerzy Skolimowski and Jim Loach. Skolimowski has been involved in cinema since the Sixties and as well as collaborating with Polanski directed, Deep End and Moonlighting. He believes his new film, Essential Killing, is his best yet. Jim Loach by contrast has just made his first feature - Oranges and Sunshine... a story about the deportation of children from the United Kingdom to Australia - a subject that might easily have tempted his father, Ken. Francine also talks to the actor Roger Allam about his part in bringing Posy Simmonds' cartoon strip, Tamara Drewe, to the big screen and the BFI's Bryony Dixon shares her delight in the ever-evolving relationship between cinema and radio.

Producer: Zahid Warley.


FRI 17:00 PM (b00zt4hf)
Eddie Mair presents the day's top stories. Including Weather.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b00zsk15)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b00zt4hh)
Series 33

Once upon a Time There Was a Deficit

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis take a look between the lines of the Coalition cuts story; Jon Holmes shrugs at the iPad and finds a way to enliven British theatre; Mitch Benn downloads a Cloud Girlfriend and guest stand-up Paul Sinha doesn't spout 'extreme anti-white vitriol' towards the countryside.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b00zt5xk)
Hayley and Jim are delighted that Ambridge has been chosen as the venue for a recording of Gardeners' Question Time. Lynda's pleasure is marred by her discovery of two peregrine eggs on the path. She's worried that the peregrines have moved on. Jim breaks the news that selecting Ovid's Metamorphoses for the book group was an April fool joke. Lynda's not amused. His real choice is The Ghost by Robert Harris.
Elizabeth asks Roy if he'd be interested in a permanent job at Lower Loxley. He's unsure about leaving Caroline and Grey Gables, but Hayley convinces him that it would be a great opportunity.
Jamie calls to see Fallon, and is surprisingly friendly with Jolene. She invites him to stay for tea as long as he lets Kathy know. Kathy is convinced that Jolene is deliberately trying to undermine her authority, and confronts her. It escalates into a terrible row about Jamie, Sid and Kenton. Kathy tries to ban Jamie from ever going to The Bull again, but he accuses her of not understanding anything, and runs back inside the pub. Kathy tries desperately to apologise, but Jamie rejects her calls. Kathy is terrified that she might have blown everything, for good.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b00zt5xm)
Violinist Leila Josefowicz, novelist Glen Duncan, The Killing

Kirsty Lang and crime writer Natasha Cooper discuss the Danish TV series, The Killing - which has just been released on dvd - and consider the phenomenal audience response to it.

Kirsty talks to violinist Leila Josefowicz.

Glen Duncan explains the inspiration for his novel, The Last Werewolf.

The British singer-songwriter, Imogen Heap, explains how she asked fans to send her sounds from their own lives, and then used them to create Lifeline, the first track of a new album which is a collaborative, online, work-in-progress.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b00zt8ss)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b00zt5xp)
Eddie Mair chairs the topical discussion from Ashford, Kent with panellists Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, Margaret Beckett MP, New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny and Anne McElvoy, Public Policy Editor for the Economist.

Producer: Victoria Wakely.


FRI 20:50 David Attenborough's Life Stories (b00zt5xr)
Series 2

Wallace

It was the great travel books written in the 19th century by Alfred Russell Wallace that inspired Sir David Attenborough himself to achieve great things in the realm of natural history.

But Attenborough tells us that Wallace was more than just a great travel writer. His power of meticulous observation and recording as he explored many parts of the world were in the highest league imaginable, even for Victorian standards - and his power of analysis very much akin with Darwin, his great contemporary.

Wallace independently came up with a theory of evolution that was in parallel to Darwin's thinking - two field naturalists breaking huge conventions of the time and coming up with the single most important theory in Biology. How did they resolve the conflict between themselves?

Written and presented by David Attenborough

Producer: Julian Hector

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.


FRI 21:00 Friday Drama (b00zt5xt)
The Cairo Trilogy

Episode 3

Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon from the novels of Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz the drama was recorded on the streets of Cairo.

This episode begins in the 1940s with the Second World War in progress. It has a devastating effect on the family business and one of the grandchildren is sucked into a newly emerging radical Islamist movement.

Cast:
Old Kamal............Omar Sharif
Kamal..................Amr Waked
Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawab....Ihab Sakkout
Ahmad................Sedky Sakhar
Munim.................Ahmed Nour
Sawsan...............Dina Nadim
Badur..................Radwa Elgabry

Other cast members: Tamer Nasrat, Rena Malak, Caroline Khalil, Yara Goubran, Zeinab Moubarak, Ola Roshdy, Nairy Avedissian, Ekram Zalat, Sherif Nour, Salah Fahmy, Yeve Youssef, Sedky Sakhar, Dina Nadim , Saymaa Shalan, Radwa Elgabry, Mika Thabet, Hany Seef, Hugh Sowden.

Music by Sacha Puttnam
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon

Producer/Director: John Dryden
A Goldhawk Essential Production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b00zsk17)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b00zt60z)
Adidjan is under siege as election winner Alassane Outtara attempts to drive out President Gbagbo.

Prescription charges go free in Scotland. Why do the English have to pay?

Will 'jaw jaw' not 'war war' decide Libya's future?

with Roger Hearing.


FRI 22:45 Tea Obreht - The Tiger's Wife (b00zt611)
Episode 5

Hattie Morahan reads Tea Obreht's evocative debut novel set in a Balkan country scarred by war, and where Natalia, a young doctor, is struggling to understand the mysterious circumstances of her grandfather's death. A tattered copy of The Jungle Book which her grandfather kept with him always provides an unlikely clue, sending her on a quest that leads to the extraordinary stories of the deathless man and the tiger's wife. Today, Natalia evokes her grandfather as a nine year old boy, and the day the men of his village set off to hunt the tiger.

Tea Obreht is on "The New Yorker's Top Writers under 40 Fiction Issue" (June 2010), and at 24 was the youngest on the list. 'The Tiger's Wife' is one of the Waterstone's 11 - the best debuts that they have picked for 2011. Her short story, "The Sentry", appeared in the "Guardian Summer Fiction Issue", alongside stories by Hilary Mantel and David Mitchell.

She was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and raised in Belgrade, where she spent her childhood. In 1992, her family immigrated, and in 1997 eventually settled in the United States.

The reader is Hattie Morahan.
Abridged by Sally Marmion and produced by Elizabeth Allard.


FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b00zshnn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b00zt613)
The day's top news stories from Westminster.
Tonight Peers hold their first full scale debate on the military intervention in Libya.
MPs debate the way the BBC is funded.
And the programme takes a look at our attitudes to politics and politicians.