SATURDAY 16 MARCH 2013

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b01r524n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b01r7284)
The Last Days of Detroit

Episode 5

The city of Detroit has suffered like no other US city; it's post-industrial decline, rapid and relentless, chronicled by photographers and journalists alike.

Detroit had been the beacon city of the 20th century, home to the massive Ford plant which, in the 20 years from 1908, produced 15 million Model T Ford cars, and put a nation on the road. In 1928, with skyscrapers dominating the city skyline, you could justifiably have called Detroit the most modern city in the world.

But by the time Berry Gordy founded Motown Records in 1959 - the other great Detroit bequest along with the auto industry - the city was already in inexorable decline. The 1967 riots - at the time the worst in US history - did not cause the problems, but did highlight them. The big three car companies had largely gone elsewhere; bereft of finance, urban planning was in meltdown; corruption was rife; and racial tensions were running high.

After a break of 16 years, Mark Binelli returned to live in the city whose suburbs he grew up in. He found an urban prairie, with 90,000 ravaged and empty buildings, a school system that was impoverished and a crime rate second to none in the US. But Binelli also discovered a new Detroit emerging; with urban farms and a vibrant arts scene. Is a new future, he wondered, being wrought on the post-industrial frontier?

Mark Binelli is the author of the novel Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die! and a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Men's Journal. Born and raised in the Detroit area, he has now, after three years back in Detroit, moved to New York City.

Read by: John Schwab
Abridger: Pete Nichols

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


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r524q)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r524s)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r524v)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b01r524x)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r5rj0)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b01r5rj2)
The programme that starts with its listeners.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b01r524z)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b01r5251)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (b01r5s20)
Series 23

Michael Weltike - Barefoot Walker

Michael Weltike tries to persuade Clare Balding of the benefits of barefoot walking on a wintry wander in the West Country.

They meet at the church of St Andrew in Compton Bishop, near Weston-super-Mare, and walk from there to Crook Peak. Accompanied by Michael's permanently barefoot companion, Woody, Clare and Michael strip off from the ankles down and revel in the unusual pleasure of walking barefoot.

Michael is certain that by 'earthing' himself regularly he maintains a high level of health and well-being.

Producer: Karen Gregor.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b01r91qc)
Farming Today This Week

Charlotte Smith meets farmers battling against the elements to plant out crops in the hope of a good harvest. At the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester soil scientist Dr John Conway explains the damage being caused to our soil and how this affects farming. And farm manager Tom Overbury tells Charlotte about how the bad weather means they are pulling up crops and re-planting them.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Weatherill.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b01r5253)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b01r91qf)
Morning news and current affairs with John Humphrys and Justin Webb, including:

0749
The government is to clamp down on companies using off-shore intermediaries to avoid paying employment taxes. The government claims it may be able to recover almost £100m in tax a year by closing the loophole. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander will reveal the proposals at the Scottish Lib-Dem Conference today and joins us now.

0809
Lance Corporal James Ashworth died last year in Afghanistan - he was 23. He is to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award it is possible to win for bravery in action. Just 13 Victoria Crosses have been handed out since the second world war. The BBC's correspondent Quentin Somerville reports.

0814
Leaders in Beijing confirmed Xi Jinping as president this week. During his 10 year tenure, China is likely to become the world's largest economy and it could overtake the US as the biggest spender on defence. At home he faces growing discontent with inequality, problems with corruption, and tensions with neighbouring countries. Steven Tsang, professor of Contemporary Chinese Studies at Nottingham University and Bronwen Maddox, editor of Prospect magazine debate the issue.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b01r91qh)
Alain de Botton and JJ Williams' Inheritance Tracks

Richard Coles and Sian Williams talk to Alain de Botton about his new 'Manifesto for Atheists' and his desire to popularise challenging subjects like science, philosophy and architecture- amongst other things. They hear from two former Birmingham gang members about how they got out of the vicious cycle of gang life, meet Devon based composer David Haines and find out about how he brings popular engagement with science through song- he's the songwriter in residence at the MIT science festival in the US in a few weeks time, thrill to a Saturday Live Society: this week the 'Friends of the Newport Ship' who rescued, conserved and now plan to rebuild a 15th ship found when the orchestra pit for a theatre was being dug next to the river Usk in Newport, Wales, listen to Welsh rugby legend J.J. Williams as he shares his Inheritance Tracks and journey with John McCarthy to the Watts Gallery in Compton Surrey to explore the largely forgotten genius of Victorian artist, GF Watts.

Producer: Chris Wilson.


SAT 10:30 I Dressed Ziggy Stardust (b01r91qk)
For more than four decades, David Bowie entranced his followers. In this programme, Samira Ahmed looks at his particular appeal for British Asian women.

Across the generations, they were inspired by the skinny South Londoner, who challenged gender barriers and who played with alien identity and other-worldliness. Beneath the make up and exotic costumes, he was also the intelligent, politely spoken suburban young man who you could potentially introduce to your mother.

As Samira explores Bowie’s impact on British Asian teenagers, she talks to Shami Chakrabarti - the director of Liberty - about Bowie’s changing identities, sociologist Rupa Huq tackles his suburban psychoses, and Shyama Perera takes Samira on a journey to explain how her teenage obsession with Bowie even extended to sending costume designs to her hero, enabling her to claim that “I Dressed Ziggy Stardust”.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Alice Bloch
A Whistledown/ Kati Whitaker production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b01r91qm)
Steve Richards of The Independent looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
Budgets create a great flurry of expectation around them, but more often than not it's the politics rather than the sums that matter. That at least is former chancellor Lord Lawson's view, which he takes up with financial journalist Bill Keegan.
Ed Miliband announced a new policy of creating regional banks this week, so is he now moving forward on fleshing out Labour policy for the next election? Labour MP Tristram Hunt and Demos chief David Goodhart with their views.
And speaking of election campaigns how will the campaign for and against Independence for Scotland manage to keep going until the autumn of 2014? MP and deputy leader of the Scottish Labour party Anas Sarwar, and Yes Scotland Chief Executive Blair Jenkins, on how they'll do it.
Plus loyalty and friendship amongst MPs: two Liberal Democrats, MP Annette Brooke and former MP Evan Harris, reflect on the Chris Huhne case.

The editor is Marie Jessel.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b01r91qp)
Referendum Day

Millions of Zimbabweans vote on a new constitution - Andrew Harding, in Harare, quotes one government minister saying the document is the 'midwife' to a brand new future for the country. Jonathan Head talks of Burma's most famous resident, the Nobel prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi. Once revered as an icon, now she's having to get used to being heckled as she goes about her work as a politician. Louisa Loveluck talks of the crumbling Egyptian railway system and how it is starting to tarnish the reputation of the new government led by Mohammed Morsi. More than a billion Indians are about to get brand new state of the art identity cards. Peter Day says it's a bold move by the government - but will it be a successful one? People in Jerusalem are awaiting the imminent arrival of Barack Obama. Kevin Connolly speculates on what may emerge from the trip and wonders if, afterwards, streets will be named in honour of the American president!
The programme is produced by Tony Grant.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b01r91qr)
Pricey DWP phone lines, shock council tax bills for empty homes and ISA investing tips

Money Box has learned that people enquiring about two new benefits - universal credit and the disability benefit personal independence payment - will have to pay premium rates for their phone calls. A letter from the Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith says the department will not be using the new 03 range of numbers and that enquiries and some claims will have to go through 0845 numbers which can cost as much as 40p a minute. The letter was sent to John Healy MP who has campaigned for all DWP numbers to be free. Anne Begg MP, chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee and David Hickson, of Fair Telecoms.org.uk, join the programme.

People who own more than one home will get a nasty shock when their council tax bill arrives this month. Councils in England, Wales, and Scotland are getting greater freedom to charge the full tax - and in some cases a hefty premium on top - for homes that are left empty for some or all of the year, including second homes. David Magor, Chief Executive, Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation, speaks to the programme.

With evidence growing from Money Box listeners that all insurers are routinely raising prices for loyal customers so they can tempt new ones in with better deals, we talk to a senior MP about whether an enquiry into their behaviour is needed. And will the Financial Services Authority act in the last two weeks of its life before it metamorphoses into the Financial Conduct Authority on 1 April? Bob Howard reports and Mark Garnier MP calls for action.

And with share prices rising, while cash savings rates fall, is now the time to put money into the stock market? Or is it exactly the wrong time to do so? Damien Fahy, Money To The Masses, provides some tips.


SAT 12:30 The Now Show (b01r5r15)
Series 39

Episode 5

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin, Maeve Higgins and Nathan Caton to present the a comic run through the week's news.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b01r5255)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b01r5257)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b01r5r5j)
Margaret Curran, James Forsyth, Joan McAlpine, Jo Swinson

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Ayr in Scotland with Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Margaret Curran MP, BIS Minister Jo Swinson MP, Political Editor at The Spectator magazine James Forsyth and Joan McAlpine MSP from the Scottish National Party.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b01r91qt)
Listeners' calls and emails in response to this week's edition of Any Questions?


SAT 14:30 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere (b01r527b)
London Below

Beneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere.

An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London. Stopping to help an injured girl on a London street, Richard is thrust from his workaday existence into the strange world of London Below.

So begins a curious and mysterious adventure deep beneath the streets of London, a London of shadows where the tube cry of 'Mind the Gap' takes on new meaning; for the inhabitants of this murky domain are those who have fallen through the gaps in society, the dispossessed, the homeless. Here Richard meets the Earl of Earl's Court, Old Bailey and Hammersmith, faces a life-threatening ordeal at the hands of the Black Friars, comes face to face with Great Beast of London, and encounters an Angel. Called Islington.

Joining the mysterious girl named Door and her companions, the Marquis de Carabas and the bodyguard, Hunter, Richard embarks on an extraordinary quest to escape from the clutches of the fiendish assassins Croup and Vandemar and to discover who ordered them to murder her family. All the while trying to work out how to get back to his old life in London Above.

A six part adaption of Neil Gaiman's novel adapted by Dirk Maggs, sees James McAvoy as Richard lead a stellar cast which includes Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Anthony Head, David Schofield, Bernard Cribbins, Romola Garai, George Harris, Andrew Sachs, Lucy Cohu, Johnny Vegas, Paul Chequer, Don Gilet and Abdul Salis.


SAT 15:30 Feel the Chant: The Brit Funk Story (b01r5lms)
In the seventies and early eighties, Jazz Funk music swept the UK's dance floors and clubs. This new musical sound emerged from the shadows of disco and had a fascinating impact in Britain.

We hear from Mark King of Level 42, Gee Bello of Light of the World, Bill Sharpe and Jill Sayward of Shakatak, DJ's Chris Hill and Snowboy, Paul P of Hi-Tension and Southern Freeez singer Ingrid Mansfield Allman.

In this documentary, vocalist and presenter David Grant, who was part of the UK soul outfit Linx, revisits this unique era in British music which saw artists experimenting with a fusion of jazz, funk, urban dance rhythm and pop hooks.

He reveals the origins of the phrase 'Brit-Funk' and how the pioneers of this sound, groups Hi Tension and Light of the World, presented their music with a British twist to their instrumentation and vocals.

The Jazz funk scene was British, a club culture unique to these shores with no equivalent in the States. As the music became popular, the release of 12" singles fuelled a craze for white-labels.

Grant acknowledges that Brit Funk, although considered in some quarters as a pale imitation of US Jazz Funk, was nonetheless ours - and heralded a new dawn in dance music. The term evolved from the club DJs - legendary names such as Chris Hill, and James Hamilton of Record Mirror whose column had a major influence in launching new records.

With support from the club disc jockeys and labels such as Ensign and Elite, artists including Light of the World, Level 42, Shakatak and Freeez enjoyed chart success and made regular appearances on Top of the Pops alongside the new romantics and punk groups of this period. With club DJs gaining cult status, the scene also created many 'club hits' which, although they never achieved commercial success, are still remembered with great affection today and discussed on music forum websites and uploaded to Youtube.

Many British based soul and dance bands found themselves merging under the Brit Funk banner. These included Lynx, Central Line, Imagination and Second Image - and initially pop groups such as Haircut 100 and Wham tapped into the style and sound to help launch their careers.

Grant demonstrates how this scene was hugely significant in cutting through racial boundaries in the clubs and was instrumental in raising the profile of black and white musicians working together, notably Spandau Ballet who collaborated with Beggar And Co to produce the classic pop song 'Chant Number One'.

He explains how, during the success of the Jazz and Brit Funk period, "chanting" materialised in the discotheque and nightclub. This football crowd style of interacting with the music and DJ underlined the voice of a new generation which can still be felt today.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b01r93sf)
Heidi Thomas; Valentina Lisitsa; Katherine Parr

Highlights from the Woman's Hour week including Heidi Thomas on Call the Midwife; a campaign to encourage women to report stalkers; the real Katherine Parr; why women need to say No; and music from Valentina Lisitsa. Presented by Jane Garvey.

Editor: Jane Thurlow.


SAT 17:00 PM (b01r93sh)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news, presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b01r5s2g)
Turnarounds

Evan Davis asks his guests what it takes to rescue a sinking company.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b01r5259)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b01r525c)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r525f)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b01r93sk)
Joey Skaggs, Kevin Eldon, Pippa Haywood, Ed Stafford, Arthur Smith, Stornoway, Julie Hawk

Clive's duped by satirist, prankster and media critic Joey Skaggs. As one of the originators of culture jamming, Joey's famously disrupted or subverted media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions. He tells Clive how he managed to pull off his famous pranks, such as Cathouse for Dogs and Brooklyn Bridge Lottery. Joey's a guest speaker at Advertising Week Europe, which runs from Monday 18th to Thursday 21st March.

Clive needs to talk about Kevin with actor and comedian Kevin Eldon, who has appeared in countless comedies; Brass Eye, Big Train and Nighty Night to name just a few. He now has his own sketch show, a veritable catnip for comedy nerds, starring the likes of Julia Davis and Simon Day. 'It's Kevin' starts on BBC 2 on Sunday 17th March at 22.30

Arthur Smith's castaway this week is explorer, adventurer and real life Robinson Crusoe, Ed Stafford. After Walking the Amazon, Ed's latest extreme survival challenge sees him washed up on a desert island, south east of Fiji, with only his brain, bare hands and a camera to keep him alive. 'Naked and Marooned With Ed Stafford' is on each Thursday on Discovery Channel at 21.00.

Clive's banged up with actress and Mrs Brittas Pippa Haywood, who's starring in the second series of BBC One's 'Prisoner's Wives'. There's more porridge for Pippa, as she returns to our screens as Harriet, a respectable middle-aged upstanding member of the local community whose son is in jail. 'Prisoner's Wives' is on Thursdays at 21.00.

With music from Oxford Indie folksters Stornoway who lay their first single 'Knock Me On The Head' from their album 'Tales From Terra Firma'.

And more musical bling from Julie Hawk who performs the title track of her EP 'The Value of Gold'.

Producer: Cathie Mahoney.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b01r93sm)
Zhang Xin

Chris Bowlby profiles the British-educated Chinese property billionaire Zhang Xin, one of the most powerful women in business. She is in advanced talks to buy 40 per cent of Manhattan's iconic General Motors building.

Zhang Xin stands out as the high-profile CEO of the prominent, upmarket property developer SoHoChina, which she founded with her husband. Unusually for Chinese billionaires, she is also a philanthropist and speaks out about issues ranging from democracy to smog, in the international media and on her micro-blog.

A rags to riches story, she grew up in very modest circumstances, particularly after her Chinese-Burmese translator parents split up, and her mother moved her from Beijing to a tiny room in Hong Kong, where she worked in a factory.

After saving up for the airfare to the UK, she was then educated at Sussex and Cambridge universities, worked for Goldman Sachs, and returned to China where she built up her business with her husband.

What motivates this billionaire mother-of-two to carry on working, particularly as property developers are often reviled in China?


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b01r93sp)
Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy

Lee Daniels' film The Paperboy has attracted praise and boos in equal measure - the latter when it was shown at Cannes. It's a steamy Southern thriller with powerful performances from Nicole Kidman and John Cusack.

Kevin Maher's debut novel The Fields has already - inevitably - led to comparisons with Roddy Doyle. It's a darkly funny account of growing up in 80s Dublin and attracting attention - some desirable, some not so.

George Bellows is best known for his paintings of boxers but he also has a reputation for capturing the lives of all sorts of ordinary New Yorkers about their business or leisure: diving into the polluted East River or standing at the shore edge waiting for work. The first retrospective of his work in this country has just opened at the Royal Academy in London.

A Thousand Miles of History is a new play on at the Bussey Building in Peckham, South London. It's a portrait of the lives of Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring and the circle of Andy Warhol - who's played in this production by comedian Adam Riches.

And In the Flesh is a new drama from BBC3 in which zombies rise... and then are rehabilitated into society. But is society ready for them? And will this satisfy those mourning Being Human? Luke Newberry and Ricky Tomlinson star.

The writer and broadcaster Bidisha, and novelists Deborah Moggach and Dreda Say Mitchell join Tom Sutcliffe to review.

Producer: Sarah Johnson.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b01r93sr)
Wheeler: The Final Word

Twenty years ago, Charles Wheeler and David Taylor, his Washington based producer, were told that Richard Nixon had secretly sabotaged the Vietnamese peace talks in the autumn of 1968, to continue the war and ultimately strengthen his chances of claiming the presidency. It was an act of political espionage that cost thousands of American lives.

Back in 1994, Wheeler and Taylor conducted their own investigation, tracking down those involved to piece the story together. Then they waited for the classified material to be released to confirm one of the greatest acts of political subterfuge in American history.

Charles Wheeler died in 2008, before the release of key White House tapes relating to the affair. Now, using these newly released recordings, as well as many of the interviews they recorded at the time, David Taylor pieces together this intriguing story.

On a White House tape, secretly recorded on November 2nd 1968, LBJ denounces Richard Nixon as a traitor, a man with blood on his hands. His Secretary of Defence, Clark Clifford, tells Johnson the candidate's actions threaten American democracy. Johnson fears the country is too fragile to learn the truth about the Republican candidate's exploits and remained silent about the affair until his death in 1973.

Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 21:00 Esther Waters (b01r51f0)
Episode 1

Set against a background of gambling and horseracing; Esther Waters is a stirring tale of how a servant girl makes her way in Victorian England.

Forced to leave the home of her brutal stepfather, Esther takes a job as a maid at 'Woodview', a country estate owned by a nouveau riche racing family.

First published in 1894, George Moore's novel is dramatised in two parts by Sharon Oakes.

Esther ..... Lyndsey Marshal
William ..... Matthew McNulty
Sarah ..... Joanne Froggatt
Mrs Rivers ..... Joanne Froggatt
Leopold ..... Hugh Simon
George ..... Hugh Simon
Demon ..... Stephen Hoyle
Peggy ..... Lisa Brookes
Mrs Latch ..... Melissa Jane Sinden
Mrs Barfield ..... Melissa Jane Sinden
Anne ..... Fiona Clarke
Mrs Spires ..... Fiona Clarke

Esther's tale is a slice of Victorian life that is rarely shown; single parenting, wet nursing, divorce, gambling, and religious zealotry. Through her we discover exactly what it feels like to be poor and powerless. The book was banned until Gladstone revoked it, saying it was compassionate, moral and humane; and after that it became a best seller.

Celebrated author Colm Toibin championed Esther Waters as a neglected Classic for Radio 4's Open Book programme.

Director: Gary Brown

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b01r525h)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b01r5pxn)
The Morality of Poverty

The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, has criticised the Government's plans to hold welfare payment increases below inflation.
Along with more than 40 bishops, he argues that we have "a duty to support those among us who are vulnerable and in need." Is that true? If it is, what does that duty demand?
Must we guarantee a minimum standard of living for all? Should it be an absolute priority to protect children from poverty? Should the government redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest, even if that damages the collective prosperity of the nation?
Bishops in the House of Lords will attack the welfare plans when they are debated on Tuesday next week. The following day the Budget offers another chance to think about conflicting demands. We might consider whether, in times of austerity, we have a moral duty to spread the misery as fairly as possible. We might also look at what we mean by 'poverty'. Is the official EU definition - 'a household income below 60 per cent of median income' - a trustworthy guide to the point at which the state should offer its help? Or should we give hand-outs only to those who would starve without them?
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Michael Portillo, Melanie Phillips, Matthew Taylor and Kenan Malik. Witnesses: Dr Stuart White - Director of the Public Policy Unit at Oxford University, The Right Rev'd Tim Stevens - Bishop of Leicester, Daniel Johnson - Editor, Standpoint magazine, Dr Sheila Lawlor - Director of the think-tank Politeia.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b01r55wv)
The tension mounts as Russell Davies welcomes the last of this year's semi-finalists in the nationwide general knowledge quiz. One of them will take the last remaining place in next week's Final, and stand a real chance of becoming the sixtieth holder of the title Brain of Britain.

Russell's questions will test their knowledge in every field. Will they know with which disease the immunologist Edward Jenner infected his subjects in the attempt to make them immune to smallpox? Or what the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is used to measure?

As always, a listener will get the chance to win a prize by 'Beating the Brains', if his or her questions can stump the combined brainpower of the contestants.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 The Echo Chamber (b01r51f4)
Series 1

Translations

Adventures in strong language - the best of new poetry introduced by Paul Farley. The Echo Chamber has started to resound. Today it is listening to translations of all sorts and hoping to topple the Tower of Babel. Can you transplant a poem from one language to another? Can a man be a woman? A fox a thought? Featuring new poems by Robin Robertson, Leontia Flynn, and Jamie McKendrick and poems journeying into English from Ancient Greece, Rome, Italy, Spanish and German. Producer: Tim Dee.



SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2013

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90kv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b012lkkq)
The Foxes Come at Night

Late September

Cees Nooteboom is one of Holland's leading and most respected authors, a writer of both novels and travel books and a consummate short story writer. The Foxes Come at Night, his recent collection, has won the 2010 Gouden Uil - the most prestigious literary award in Flanders and is now published in English.
The collection is set in the cities and islands of the Mediterranean, territory Nooteboom knows well. The stories are linked by their meditations on memory and age, on love won and lost and on the fragments of life treasured in a photograph or a detail.
In 'Gondolas' a fine art dealer finds the past stirred by a photograph taken on the same Venetian canal bank forty years ago. In 'Thunderstorm' a couple's own fissures are reflected in a horrific moment on a beach. And in 'Late September' a woman waits on a windblown Spanish cafe terrace before the inevitable conclusion to her lonely day.
Written with haunting attention to detail and pitch perfect prose, sensitively translated by Ina Rilke, these stories show one of the European masters of the genre at his best.
Reader Hannah Gordon
Abridger Sally Marmion
Producer Di Speirs.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90kx)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90kz)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90l1)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90l3)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b01r94kc)
The bells of All Saints Church, Maidstone, Kent.


SUN 05:45 Lent Talks (b01r5pxq)
Loretta Minghella

In the fourth of this year's Lent Talks, the Director of Christian Aid, Loretta Minghella, considers the abandonment of self and the need to face who we truly are.
 
The Lent Talks feature six well-known figures from public life, the arts, human rights and religion, who reflect on how the Lenten story of Jesus' ministry and Passion continues to interact with contemporary society and culture. The 2013 Lent Talks consider the theme of "abandonment". In the Lenten story, Jesus is the supreme example of this - he died an outcast, abandoned and rejected by his people, his disciples and (apparently) his Father - God. But how does that theme tie in with today's complex world? There are many ways one can feel abandoned - by family, by society, by war/conflict, but one can also feel abandoned through the loss of something, perhaps power, job or identity. The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, greed, forgiveness and love, as well as abandonment.

Speakers in this year's talks include Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, who considers what it means to abandon being human; Alexander McCall Smith considers how you can feel abandoned by society as you grow older; the journalist and broadcaster, Benjamin Cohen, reflects on the fear of being abandoned by his own Jewish community, for being gay; Imam Asim Hafiz, Muslim Chaplain and Religious Adviser to HM Forces, who has just returned from Afghanistan, explores the total abandonment experienced by both sides as a result of war and, finally, Canon Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's Piccadilly, explores the relationship between abandonment and betrayal.


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b01r90l5)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b01r95gy)
Into the Dark

John Agard, who has recently received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, offers some of his own work in a programme that reflects on the way we interpret lightness and darkness.

With reference to literature, mythology and religious thought, as well as music by Nina Simone, Johnny Cash and Richie Havens, he considers what it means to embrace the darkness.

Readers: Adjoa Andoh and Emma Fielding
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b01r95h0)
With the world population set to exceed nine billion by the year 2050, improving the security of our food supply is crucial. Scientists working at the Roslin Institute, part of Edinburgh University, are working on the development of animals which are resistant to disease, as well as looking at how to improve productivity without compromising animal welfare.

Geneticists are aiming to develop poultry resistant to avian influenza and pigs with an in-born immunity to swine fever. And, with common ailments such as mastitis and lameness affecting milk production on dairy farms everywhere, there is also a focus on improving the day-to-day health of farm animals, both for their good and our own.

Caz Graham tours the Roslin to see how work in the lab finds a direct and practical application in the breeding of farm animals, and the feeding of the world.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b01r90l7)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b01r90l9)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b01r95h2)
The Sunday programme this week comes live from St Peter's Square in Rome as the world's Catholics await the inauguration of Pope Francis.
Edward Stourton will be joined by a panel of theologians and commentators who will outline the new pontiff's prospects ...and hear how he's regarded back home in Argentina.
We will also examine the significance of his chosen Papal name..Francis..with a special report from Assisi.
The announcement of a new Pope comes in the same week as the head of the Anglican church prepares to be enthroned...we have the third in our letters to new Archbishop from Rt Revd Dr Solomon Tilewa Johnson in West Africa, have been on the road with the Archbishop in Coventry..and have a special extended interview with Archbishop Justin Welby.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b01r95h4)
Comic Relief

Jane Garvey presents the Radio 4 Appeal for Comic Relief.

Reg Charity:326568
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope Red Nose Day 2013.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b01r90lc)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b01r90lf)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b01r95h6)
This Is Our Story: Saved from Death

This is our story - Dean Vivienne Faull celebrates Mothering Sunday live from York Minster as the fourth of our Lent series linking stories of faith from the the bible with life today. With members of the Mothers Union in York. Leader: The Revd Canon Peter Moger; Graham Bier directs the chamber choir The 24. Organist: Robert Sharpe. Download Lent resources from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland by logging on to bbc.co.uk/sundayworship; Producer: Simon Vivian.


SUN 08:50 A Point of View (b01r5r5l)
Celestial Bodies

When two spectacular comets appeared in the night sky in 1664 and 1665, many feared they were harbingers of doom. Not long afterwards, the Great Plague and the Great Fire were visited on London.

Lisa Jardine has been looking upwards this week in an attempt to catch sight of the Pan-Starrs comet, which is thought to have been hurtling towards the sun for millions of years. Later this year, another comet is expected to grace our skies.

Her concern is not that they might bring with them a modern day plague, but whether we have learned the lessons early astronomers taught us about sharing scientific information.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b01r95h8)
Sunday morning magazine programme, presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b01r95hb)
For detailed synopsis, see daily episodes

Writer ..... Keri Davies
Director ..... Kim Greengrass
Editor ..... Vanessa Whitburn

Jill Archer ..... Patricia Greene
David Archer ..... Timothy Bentinck
Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch
Pip Archer ..... Helen Monks
Ben Archer ..... Thomas Lester
Josh Archer ..... Cian Cheesbrough
Tony Archer ..... Colin Skipp
Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore
Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas
Tom Archer ..... Tom Graham
Brian Aldridge ..... Charles Collingwood
Jennifer Aldridge ..... Angela Piper
Lilian Bellamy ..... Sunny Ormonde
Nic Grundy ..... Becky Wright
Emma Grundy ..... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Edward Grundy ..... Barry Farrimond
Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin
Christopher Carter ..... William Sanderson-Thwaite
Alice Carter ..... Hollie Chapman
Mike Tucker ..... Terry Molloy
Vicky Tucker ..... Rachel Atkins
Brenda Tucker ..... Amy Shindler
Kirsty Miller ..... Annabelle Dowler
Jazzer McCreary ..... Ryan Kelly
Amy Franks ..... Jennifer Daley
Elona Makepeace ..... Eri Shuka
Darrell Makepeace ..... Dan Hagley
Des Chapman ..... Ben Crowe.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b01r95hg)
Julie Goodyear

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Julie Goodyear.

For a quarter of a century her Coronation Street character Bet Lynch set the gold plated standard for big, brassy, back chatting blondes. Behind the bar of the Rovers Return her bosom swathed in leopard-print and her head piled high with platinum curls she was Manchester's answer to Mae West. Her MBE was awarded for her services to drama - and when she left the series in 1995, her departure pulled in 19 million viewers.

Yet whatever the scriptwriters came up with it was never as dramatic as the life she's lived beyond The Street. She got pregnant at 17, her second husband abandoned her for their best man, and in 1979 she was diagnosed with cancer and told she'd a year to live. She's now married to her fourth husband.

She says, "If anyone should be interested in an epitaph for my life, I would like them to consider, 'At least she tried."

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.


SUN 12:00 Just a Minute (b01r55x3)
Series 65

Episode 5

Gyles Brandreth, Alun Cochrane, Stephen Mangan and Paul Merton attempt to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation under the watchful eye of Nicholas Parsons.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b01r95hj)
Our Changing Taste

Sheila Dillon looks at how our sense of taste develops throughout our lifetimes, and what happens when we lose it, through old age, illness or injury. Two hundred thousand people a year seek medical help over loss of taste, Sheila hears the story of Marlena Spieler, a food writer who lost her sense of taste following a road accident.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b01r90lh)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b01r95hl)
Shaun Ley presents the latest national and international news, including an in-depth look at events around the world. Email: wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend.


SUN 13:30 Soul Music (b01r0g4h)
Series 15

Shipbuilding

The song from 1982 was written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer for Robert Wyatt and has been recorded in several versions by Elvis Costello himself, Suede, June Tabor, Hue and Cry, Tamsin Archer and The Unthanks.

The blend of subtle lyrics and extraordinary music makes this a political song like no other. It transcends the particular circumstances of its writing: the Falklands War and the decline of British heavy industry, especially ship-building.

Clive Langer and Elvis Costello describe how the song came to be written and how the legendary jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player, Chet Baker, came to perform on Costello's version.

Richard Ashcroft is a philosopher who wants the song, which he describes as a kind of secular hymn, played at his funeral because it gives a perfect expression of how he believes we should think about life. Not being able to feel the emotion of the song would, he feels, be like being morally tone-deaf. If you don't like this song, he'd find it hard to be your friend.

The song's achingly beautiful final couplet about "diving for pearls" makes the MP Alan Johnson cry and has also inspired an oral history and migrant integration project in Glasgow. Chris Gourley describes how the participants found a way to overcome their lack of English and communicate through a shared understanding of ship-building practice.

Other contributors include Hopi Sen, a political blogger who was an unusually political child, and the Mercury Prize winning folk group The Unthanks. They toured their version to towns with ship-building connections as part of a live performance of a film tracing the history of British ship-building using archive footage.

Producer: Natalie Steed.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b01r5ql4)
Alexandra Palace

This week the team visits Alexandra Palace in North London, with Eric Robson in the chair. On the panel are Matthew Wilson, Christine Walkden and Bunny Guinness.

At 'Ally Pally', Matthew Wilson also takes time to visit the rose gardens, originally planted by German prisoners of war during WWI. We also prepare for the season ahead, with advice on soil TLC from Chris Beardshaw, weather protection from Peter Gibbs, and planting fruit bushes with Matthew Biggs.

Produced by Victoria Shepherd.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

Questions answered in the programme:
Q: We're converting our front garden into a drive, could the panel suggest any good materials to ensure soak-away and tips for planting in pockets around the parking space?
A: Try bonded gravel such as the type that they used at the Olympic park which uses a 'green' plant-based permeable resin, or alternatively there are hexagonal lattices that you can lay under gravel that hold the stones in place. Remember it's only the ground directly under the car wheels that needs to be solid, so fill all the gaps with low growing herbs and woodland plants such as Thyme and Vinca. Excite your nostrils with plants such as Mentha Requienii which has a fresh peppermint smell, Erinus Alpinus Little Fairy which has fine foliage and purple, white or pink flowers, and Ribes Lauifolium with its lovely yellow scented flowers.

Q: We have three large community planters that we'd like to use for growing herbs and medicinal plants. What suggestions do you have for hardy, low maintenance options?
A: Divide the planters up using Teucrium (variety) Lucidrys as a hedge which has purple flowers and glossy evergreen leaves. Then in the pockets try planting things like Rosemary, Chervil, Artemesia, Borage and Prunella Self-Heal. Soapwort would be good for fun demonstrations as you can pluck the leaves and rub it in your hands to create an instant lather. Why not challenge the local children to plant pot marigolds, letting them pick colours?

Q: My friend has six valuable twenty-foot tall Phoenix Date Palm trees that that are currently located in a big glasshouse. How often should they be watered? Would growing them from seedlings have been more cost effective than importing them from Alexandria in Egypt?
A: Even though Palm trees are most often found in very hot climates, they do require very regular watering and even in their native countries you'll often see them with water channels built around the roots, or growing near flood plains. To grow them from seedlings would take a very long time as they only grow between six and twelve inches a year if you're lucky - and in this country, even slower. So whilst expensive to import you'd be very old before you managed to grow them that tall from seed.

Q: My garden is plagued by Honey Fungus. Are there any new treatments and is there a safe way to pass plants on?
A: There aren't any new treatments available, although there is a growing list of resistant plants which you can find information about on the Forestry Commission website (http://www.forestry.gov.uk) and the RHS website (http://www.rhs.org.uk/Media/PDFs/Advice/HoneyFungusList). Any plant in your garden is likely to have Honey Fungus spores on it, so there's always risk of potential contamination and we'd advise against giving plants away.

Q: We're having trouble growing fruit and vegetables in our small sheltered garden. Do you have any tips?
A: Try Blue Danube potatoes or the new Sarpo Kifli variety which are blight resistant and have a nice flavour. Quick growing crops such as radishes, oriental vegetables and small pumpkins such as the Wee Bee variety would be great too. For pumpkins, try building a small wigwam around them and string up the foliage to increase the surface area exposed to the light. Be inventive with space - grow strawberries in hanging baskets and make your own containers for salad leaves using guttering hung against a wall.

Q: What is the best way of tackling Couch Grass, considering our allotment is strictly chemical free?
A: Unfortunately Couch Grass is one of those weeds that we just have to learn to live as it's hard to defeat. You could divide up your allotment up and rotate an empty patch laying thick black polythene sheeting on the ground to keep the weeds at bay. That said, there's debate around whether using polythene bags is actually any 'greener' than a quick blast of weed killer.

Q: Have the team anything positive to say about Sycamore trees?
A: It's a case of right plant, right situation. As a freestanding tree Sycamores are magnificent and one of the best we have in this country alongside the Oak. Indeed they are very effective colonisers, which is sometimes problematic, but often they are first to grow in places where we have destroyed the land - for instance in disused quarries.


SUN 14:45 Witness (b01r95hn)
The Lebanon hostage crisis

In 1991 Giandomenico Picco, a United Nations envoy, went to Beirut to try to free Western hostages. To talk to the kidnappers face to face, he had to allow himself to be abducted. His negotiations led to the release of 11 people, including John McCarthy and Terry Waite.


SUN 15:00 Esther Waters (b01r95hq)
Episode 2

After she was betrayed by William, Esther leaves the workhouse with her baby. She’s desperate for them to stay together. But how can she earn money?

Set against a background of horseracing and gambling; a stirring tale of how a woman survives and brings up her child in Victorian England.

First published in 1894, George Moore's novel is dramatised in two parts by Sharon Oakes.

Esther ..... Lyndsey Marshal
William ..... Matthew McNulty
Sarah ..... Joanne Froggatt
Leopold ..... Hugh Simon
Judge ..... Hugh Simon
Fred ..... Graeme Hawley
Demon ..... Stephen Hoyle
Peggy ..... Lisa Brookes
Mrs Empson ..... Melissa Jane Sinden
Mrs Barfield ..... Melissa Jane Sinden
Anne ..... Fiona Clarke
Bill ..... Greg Wood

Director: Gary Brown

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b01r961p)
Kate Atkinson on Life After Life

Kate Atkinson discuss her latest novel Life After Life with Mariella Frostrup, in which we follow her central character Ursula as she lives her life over and over again, each version altered by one, sometimes small event. During her myriad different lives and deaths Ursula experiences two world wars from both the British and German perspectives, the loss of friends and family as well as the many hardships experienced by that generation and discovers that trying to change the future isn't always as easy as you think.

For many people their first memories of Westerns are from films - John Wayne protecting his land and his gold in The Spoilers, roaming gunfighters in A Fistful of Dollars and Gary Cooper as The Marshall alone against killers bent on revenge in High Noon.
With the dramatization on Radio 4 of two classic Western novels, Hombre by Elmore Leonard and Shane by Jack Schaefer, Open Book explores the Wild West in books old and new with Michael Carlson and novelist Ace Atkins.

People may have the occasional flutter on the Grand National or the Cheltenham races, but what about the Man Booker, the Costa or the Women's Prize for Fiction? It seems many people are now betting on the outcome of our leading literary prizes, but as Graham Sharpe, Media Relations Director of William Hill, who sets their prices for these events explains, picking the winning author can be more difficult than a winning horse.


SUN 16:30 The Echo Chamber (b01r961r)
Series 1

Middle Age

Are the middle years tough for poets? Paul Farley listens to new poems on the subject. With Paul Muldoon, Kathleen Jamie and Hugo Williams. Producer: Tim Dee.


SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b01r5lpz)
Mali: Europe's Terror Threat

The French authorities acknowledge their intervention in Mali has made them terrorist target number one. In recent weeks, the country has raised its threat level - with high visibility police patrols at tourist destinations and government buildings - and a number of people suspected of planning to join Islamic extremists in Mali have been arrested.

Jenny Cuffe examines concerns in France both about the rise of Islamist extremism and the tough action the authorities are taking in response. Last October, police uncovered bomb making equipment following a grenade attack on a Jewish butchers in Paris. Eight months earlier, extremist Mohamed Merah killed three soldiers and a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse. Meanwhile more than 100 imams deemed to be dangerous have been deported in the last ten years and several more are currently under threat of being expelled.

The programme also examines the threat to the UK. Jihadist groups in North Africa have warned that they will target supporters of the French action in Mali. The British Government is currently seeking to deport a number of Algerian terror suspects and authorities are also investigating reports that a British man has been arrested trying to make his way to join jihadists fighting in Mali.

Presenter: Jenny Cuffe
Producer: Paul Grant.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b01r93sm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b01r90lk)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b01r90lm)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90lp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b01r961t)
On Pick of the Week this week with Sheila McClennon.

How an Icelandic composer has converted knitting instructions into music, a master class in yodelling and Radio Three turns up Handel's volume for a Comic Relief one off. There's the Death rattle of the American dream in downtown Detroit and the late great Charles Wheeler on what he believed was President Richard Nixon's worse deed - and it wasn't Watergate. And on the 40th anniversary of Noel Coward's death - a heart-warming drama on the caring man behind the clipped tones.
That's Pick of the Week with Sheila McClennon

Neverwhere - Radio 4
Book of the Week: Last Days of Detroit 3/5 - Radio 4
I Wandered Lonely as a Cat - Poetry and Jazz - Radio 4
Baroque Spring Drama on 3: Moliere's The Misanthrope - Radio 3
The Curse of the Confederacy of Dunces - Radio 4
Archive on 4: Wheeler-The Final Word - Radio 4
Beastly Baroque for Comic Relief-Handel with Care - Radio 3
The Strand - Music From Iceland - BBC World Service
Richard Bacon - Radio 5 Live
Chris Evans - Radio 2
Feel The Chant: The Brit Funk Story - Radio 4
Afternoon Drama: Mr Bridger's Orphan - Radio 4
The Maha Kumbh Mela - Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b01r961w)
David's not impressed when Pip says she was hoping for a break over the holidays. He insists she needs to pull her weight and asks her to take responsibility for checking the ewes and lambs. He later sees her doing a good job and appreciates her effort.
Chris needs to know whether Alice had the job interview in Canada. Alice takes a deep breath and tells him that she's been offered the job. They've given them a month to think about it.
Neil arrives and Alice leaves them alone. Chris tells Neil he's sorry. He knows he acted unprofessionally and is worried about his business. Neil assures him that Ronnie has agreed to hold the fort as long as necessary. Chris admits he doesn't feel he's in control of anything any more.
With Jennifer's decorating finished, Darrell asks Neil to keep him in mind if he hears of any work elsewhere.
Darrell's created a flyer and tells Elona not to worry. He's spreading the word that he's looking for work. Elona can't help but worry and gets cross when Darrell ignores his phone - it could be someone who knows of some work. She doesn't think he pushes himself and is frustrated by his attitude.


SUN 19:15 Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (b01r961y)
Series 2

With Nick Mohammed

Comedy show hosted by Alex Horne and his five piece band and specially written, original music.

This episode explores the theme of destiny including songs on allergies and chance meetings - as well as showcasing Alex Horne's skills as a dream interpreter.

Guest starring comedian Nick Mohammed who plays with the band and has a trick up his sleeve.

Plus The Middle School Choir from Hall School, Hampstead in London.

Alex's Horne Section are:

Trumpet/banjo .... Joe Auckland
Saxophone/clarinet ....Mark Brown
Double Bass/Bass .... Will Collier
Drums and Percussion .... Ben Reynolds
Piano/keyboard .... Ed Sheldrake

Producer: Julia McKenzie.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.


SUN 19:45 Go West (b01r9620)
Of All the Whole Wild World

Five stories made in Bristol
3. Of All the Whole Wild World
by Kerry Hood

Jodie comes to offer her commiserations to her neighbour Peta, who has just lost her mother. She's made a card: "This comes to say I'm sad, Someone has died and that's quite bad." From this inauspicious start, things can really only improve.

Produced by Christine Hall.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b01r5r11)
This week in Feedback, we ask when music should be censored by the BBC. After a listener spotted that Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello had the 'n' word cut out abruptly during a 6Music show, we decided to look into how and why music is edited for offensive language. Roger Bolton visits Radio 1 and 1Xtra to meet DJ Trevor Nelson and Head of Music George Ergatoudis. George explains how they fulfil listener demand for the more controversial hip hop, rap, and pop songs, without offending the audience. And DJ legend Mike Read weighs in on the debate.

And are analogue listeners missing out on the best of new drama on BBC radio? This weekend the star-studded adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere finally arrives on Radio 4 and 4 Extra amid much excitement. But its scheduling has raised some eyebrows from Feedback listeners. Neverwhere begins on Saturday on Radio 4 but episodes two to six will only be available on the digital station Radio 4 Extra. We asked Tony Pilgrim, Head of Planning and Scheduling for Radio 4 and 4 Extra, to explain why.

Also, how should the Today programme cover mental health issues? After a recent item about new findings from the human genome project, which suggested a genetic component to some mental illnesses, we heard from listeners who felt the report needed more balance.

And you come to comedian Jeremy Hardy's defence.

Presenter: Roger Bolton

Producers: Karen Pirie and Katherine Godfrey
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b01r5qzm)
A Swedish princess, a Khmer Rouge leader, a sports commentator, an HIV/Aids counsellor, and a blues-rock guitarist

Matthew Bannister on:

Ieng Sary - number three in Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime, he died while on trial for crimes against humanity

Princess Lilian of Sweden - she was the daughter of a Swansea miner who fell in love with Prince Bertil of Sweden, but wasn't allowed to marry him for more than thirty years because she was a commoner.

The versatile sports commentator Tony Gubba - who found new fans later in life with his work on Dancing on Ice.

John Shine who co-founded the London Lighthouse as a safe haven for people dying of AIDS in the 1980s.

And Alvin Lee - lead guitarist and singer of Ten Years After who gave a legendary performance at Woodstock.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b01r91qr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b01r95h4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 Analysis (b01r5g2p)
Three Score Years and Twenty

As more and more people look forward to ever longer life, Analysis examines what it's like to grow old in Britain and what we can learn from other countries facing the same challenge. We've heard much about the financial issues around pensions or health care. But it also poses more fundamental questions - is Britain a good society in which to grow old?

Will those precious extra years be a time of wellbeing or alienation and loneliness? And, do other parts of the world have strengths from which we could learn?

Chris Bowlby talks to those who have a unique perspective on this - migrants who came to the UK in the hope of better prospects. They can compare British society with other places they know as well. Many are now weighing up what to do when their working lives are over. And a number do not expect to stay here. Their children work long hours and live a distance away. The three-generation homes that supported their own grandparents as they grew old will not be an option for them. Many worry that they face a lonely future.

So is Britain a model for the future of a longer life? Or do those with a global perspective believe there are better places to spend your later years?

Contributors : Professor Sarah Harper (Oxford Institute of Population Ageing), Baroness Sally Greengross (International Longevity Centre) & Dr Chris Murray (Global Burden of Disease Study).

Producer : Rosamund Jones.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b01r9622)
Preview of the week's political agenda at Westminster with MPs, experts and commentators. Discussion of the issues politicians are grappling with in the corridors of power.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b01r9624)
Steve Richards of The Independent on Sunday analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b01r5s22)
The Spirit of '45; difficult second films; Shell

Francine Stock discusses the challenges of making a second film after a successful debut with award winning director of Shifty, Eran Creevy, and Telegraph film critic Tim Robey. Eran Creevy's second film after Shifty - a low budget film set on a council estate similar to where he himself grew up - is Welcome To The Punch, a glossy thriller set in a 21st century financial centre of glass and steel, starring James McAvoy and David Morrisey. Also out this week is Lee Daniel's The Paperboy starring Nicole Kidman and John Cusack. Paperboy is Lee Daniels' follow up film after the hugely successful Precious about an obese teenager in Harlem. As a director's reputation may depend on the follow-up film, what are the pressures and what are the pitfalls? Scottish director Scott Graham talks about Shell, his debut film set on a lonely fuel station road in the Scottish Highlands. Shell is the nickname of a 17 year old living with her father after her mother abandoned them both years earlier, and provides a moving account of a complex close relationship set against the backdrop of a landscape which is paradoxically panoramic yet also claustrophobic. Producer Rebecca O'Brien and editor Jonathan Morris discuss the challenges of putting together archive in Ken Loach's new archive documentary The Spirit of '45, an evocative portrait of a moment of British political history, the end of war and the creation of the Welfare State. The film combines archive from the time with fresh interviews from people who remember it. What are the particular constraints in accessing archive which has to be assembled digitally, compared to Ken Loach's preferred way of working on celluloid? And continuing our occasional series in which people in the industry talk about how they got started, Col Needham reveals how the internet movie website IMDb, which he founded and is now the CEO of, came into being. Producer: Hilary Dunn.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b01r95gy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 18 MARCH 2013

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90mp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b01r5px8)
Guatemalan cemetery; Art auctions

Art Auctions - How do auctioneers and buyers transact sales in seconds? Laurie Taylor hears from Professor Christian Heath who discusses his detailed study into the tools and techniques which lead to the strike of a hammer. They're joined by the arts writer and critic, Georgina Adam. Also, the Guatemalan cemetery with no more room. The growth of the city combined with high death and murder rates means the cemetery is overflowing. The anthropologist, Kevin O'Neill, talks about the harsh effects of an aggressive policy of disinterment when poor relatives can't pay the dues.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b01r94kc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90mr)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90mt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90mw)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90my)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r9900)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b01r9902)
As Tesco announces its commitment to source more meat from Northern Ireland, Charlotte Smith asks what the extra demand - and potential extra profits - will do for farmers.
Amid speculation that the Environment Agency and Natural England could be merged into one organisation, we hear from critics worried that it weaken protection of the natural landscape.
And are youngsters learning enough about farming? A charity aimed at teaching children about the countryside says more work needs to be done.

Presented by Charlotte Smith. Produced by Anna Jones.


MON 05:57 Weather (b01r90n0)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 06:00 Today (b01r9904)
Morning news with current affairs with Justin Webb and Evan Davis, including:

0749
As MPs are set to vote on press regulation this evening, BBC political editor Nick Robinson outlines the differences between the political parties on the issue and the likelihood of an agreement. Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, describes her hopes of cross-party agreement on the issue.

0810
The president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, has announced that the country must accept a 10-billion euro bailout, or face going bankrupt. The deal would involve a tax of up to 10% on the people of Cyprus' savings. Michael Fuchs, economic advisor to Angela Merkel and deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, and Bernadette Segol, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, discuss whether they believe this to be the correct course of action.

0820
The mix of humour and advertising is one of the subjects being discussed by some of the biggest names in the advertising business this week in London at an event called Advertising Week Europe. Trevor Beattie, founder of B2B agency and Susie Essman, star of Curb Your Enthusiasm and chair of the "humour in advertising" session at the event, discuss.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b01r9906)
Lisa Jardine talks to David Cannadine and Aleksandar Hemon

On Start the Week Lisa Jardine asks whether the writing of history has been dominated by conflict and difference. The Professor of History, David Cannadine argues against the predominant 'them and us' agenda, and for a common humanity. While the Balkan writer Aleksandar Hemon splits his life between Sarajevo and Chicago. Ed Vulliamy reported on the war in Bosnia and explores a journalist's role in historical events, and Margaret MacMillan discusses the teaching of history.
Producer: Katy Hickman.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b01r993b)
Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

Episode 1

The first of five extracts from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond's powerful new book, that asks what can traditional societies teach us about how we in the west live now?

Drawing upon several decades of experience living and working in Papua New Guinea, Professor Diamond shows how traditional societies can offer an extraordinary window into how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature. Exploring how tribal peoples approach essential human problems, from childrearing to old age to conflict resolution to health, Diamond reminds us that the West achieved global dominance due to specific environmental and technological advantages, but Westerners do not necessarily have superior ideas about how to live well.

Read by Crawford Logan.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01r993d)
Baroness Sue Campbell; the Baker Brothers; Mollie Moran

Teenage mothers discuss postnatal depression with psychotherapist Dr Amanda Jones. Baroness Sue Campbell, from our Power List, talks about encouraging sport. The Baker Brothers Cook The Perfect Treacle Tart. 96 year old Mollie Moran's book Aprons and Silver Spoons depicts her life in service. She joins Jane Garvey in the studio.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rbtnb)
Soloparentpals.com: Series 4

If It Ain't Broke

SOLOPARENTPALS.COM by Sue Teddern

After much turbulence Rosie and Tom are now living together in Bolton. Rosie is happy in her job but Tom finds being a house-husband a challenge.

Episode 1. If it ain't Broke.

Director: David Hunter

Despite moving in together, Tom and Rosie's relationship is still lacking in synchronicity. The pressures of Tom's relocation, the complications of stepparenthood and the task of being full-time housefather in a less than spacious Bolton terraced house slowly begin to have their effect. At the same time, for Rosie the world is opening up professionally and she even becomes capable of embracing marriage.

One year on, Tom and Rosie live together in Bolton with Rosie's 15-year-old son, Calum, and baby Finn. Care home manager Rosie is climbing the greasy pole at work, while Tom initially enjoys his new role as a stay-at-home-Dad.

They aren't the only solo parents who are now a couple: Tash has tied the knot with 'lush' Jamie and Gill's almost moved in with Tony Macaroni. So it makes sense that they're all now regulars on the soloparentpals.com website. They can keep in touch and seek advice on how to deal with the problems, awkwardnesses and sheer logistical and emotional complications of 21st Century family life.

Naïve as ever, at first Tom thinks marriage will glue everything together. Pessimistic as ever, Rosie reckons that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Once again we have the "will-they-won't-they?" scenario but this time the tables are turned and the advice from their soloparentpals.com confidantes is not always helpful or without its own agenda. How will they resolve this situation? And along the way more complications arise.

Once again the framework is the soloparentpals.com website but as in the third series of SOLOPARENTPALS.COM the scenes are a rich mixture of face-to-face scenes, phonecalls, texts, forum pages and chatrooms.

Liz White stars as Rosie and Julian Rhind-Tutt as Tom.

Once again this is a vehicle for Sue Teddern's character-based comedy and careful plotting - dealing with family issues that will be only too familiar to an increasing proportion of WH listeners. SOLOPARENTPALS.COM is absolutely Sue Teddern's home territory. Her natural comic touch and her ear for domestic and emotional detail combines with a convincing touch of the absurd to create an involving and moving take on the love story - albeit one that continues to be fraught with a multiplicity of misunderstandings and misinterpretations along the way.

SUE TEDDERN has written 13 original plays, 4 series and contributed to two soap operas (Westway and The Archers) for BBC Radio including SAD GIRL, MAKING HAY, GALWAY TO GRACELAND and most recently INMATES starring Pauline Quirke. TV credits include 13 episodes of BIRDS OF A FEATHER, team writer on MY FAMILY and the children's series MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS. Sue's TV drama series HOMEFRONT was recently broadcast on ITV.


MON 11:00 Out of the Ordinary (b01r993j)
Series 1

Episode 1

In a new documentary series uncovering stories from the left field, Jolyon Jenkins reports on the extreme treatments bald men are putting themselves through. They are commissioning laboratories in China to manufacture unproven, untested, and potentially dangerous drugs to cure their hair loss. Is it a hiding to nothing or will they succeed where the drug companies haven't?

Men have always gone bald but now they're not putting up with it. An explosion of online forums has created a "hair loss community". "It's a silent epidemic", says Spencer Kobren, founder of The Bald Truth forum. "Hair loss doesn't physically hurt, but we liken it to a cancer of the spirit". Kobren runs a weekly radio show in which callers express their pain and frustration. Joe isn't sure whether it would be worse to have actual cancer: "I'd rather have one or two good years of hair," he says. "I want to hear the birds sing, I want to walk on the beach, I want to be free of this terrible disease."

In an attempt to deal with encroaching baldness, some young men are reading up on the latest medical research into hair loss and seeking out chemists to manufacture molecules they hope will work. There's no guarantee that the chemicals they are buying are pure, and the buyers have no real idea of the correct dose; but it speaks to their desperation. Some of them report unpleasant side effects. Few of them can show convincing hair regrowth.

Presenter Jolyon Jenkins, a "hair loss sufferer" for two decades, investigates this subculture. Along the way he has a consultation for a hair transplant (£10-£15,000) and looks into "hair systems" - or as some call them, wigs. Does loss of hair really decrease a man's attractiveness significantly? And how did a normal part of being a man become a debilitating disease?


MON 11:30 Thinking of Leaving Your Husband? (b00s0b31)
The Flying Dutchman

Sarah continues to go on a variety of internet dates with an assortment of highly contrasting men. All prove very unsatisfactory until she meets Paul, a Dutch pilot, who has been brought up in South Africa but now lives in Amsterdam. Paul is handsome, charismatic and charming and Sarah convinces herself that finally she has found the man of her dreams. But a romantic night is followed by complete silence from the elusive Paul. Could Sarah's Flying Dutchman be a lying Dutchman?

Cast:
Sarah ... Lia Williams
Paul - and all Sarah's internet dates ... Henry Goodman
Mother ... Miriam Margolyes
Tania ... Frances Barber
Francis Parker ... Roger Hammond
Lucy ... Eleanor Butters
Ellie ... Hayley Roberts
Angie ... Elyse Blemmings

Sound Design: Lucinda Mason Brown
Original Music: David Chilton

Director: Gordon House
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:00 You and Yours (b01r9c91)
Beach for sale, weedkiller, second-hand pianos and the 'right to light' law

Consumer affairs with Julian Worricker. Why a gardening charity is calling for a weedkiller to be banned as it is in some states in the US. Why the law governing 'right to light' may change. We'll be exploring how homeowners could be affected. And if you've ever fancied owning your own stretch of sandy shore this could be the chance you've been waiting for. Two beaches are up for sale on the coast of Cumbria.


MON 12:57 Weather (b01r90n2)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b01r9c93)
Martha Kearney presents national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


MON 13:45 Noise: A Human History (b01r9c95)
Echoes in the Dark

What do caves tell us about the mind and beliefs of Neolithic people? With no scientific explanation to hand for the phenomenon of the echo, it was natural to assume it was a spirit voice.

Certain echoes sounded like the galloping hooves of beasts; others like the fluttering wings of birds. These echoes appeared to come from the rocks themselves. They moved, they were uncanny - all this hinting at a 'spirit world' within.

Professor David Hendy from the University of Sussex visits the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy with musicologist Iegor Reznikoff to listen to evidence deep underground next to paintings of bison and birds.

A 30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b01r961w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b01r9c97)
The Road from Herat: A Life Story

A moving docu-drama starring Harriet Walter as poet and traveller Clare Holtham.

Clare Holtham died in 2010 leaving a volume of poems which form an intimate, spare record of a very unusual life. She also left a mass of minutely documented travel material: clothing lists, itineraries, meticulous journals of where she went and who she met, hand-drawn maps. She left photos that she took on her travels - but very few of herself. The most remarkable shows her sitting cross-legged on the rough floor of a courtyard in Afghanistan, large glasses perched on her nose, next to a very handsome young man wearing traditional Uzbek robes and turban. It was the early 1970s, Clare was 23 and an undergraduate at Cambridge; in her journal she notes that her handsome companion owned '700 sheep, 200 camels, 25 horses and the same number of rifles'.

Clare's childhood was marked by loss and unhappiness, and her adolescence by dogged rebellion. Having run away from home at 14, her intelligence and determination to succeed took her to Cambridge, where she was a brilliant, but utterly unconventional student. As other undergraduates found their feet at University, she was planning summer vacation trips to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. Her poems are a moving record of her journeys and the happiness she found in the wild landscapes and ancient cities of Asia. The memories of her tutor, Jean Gooder, and her close friend, Felicity Rosslyn, thread through Clare's poetry and travel writing, to create an unforgettable portrait of the making of a poet.

Writer: Abigail Youngman

Producer: Sara Davies

Photo of Clare Holtham copyright Newnham College Archive
Photo of Clare's pendant copyright Abigail Youngman.

Thanks to Anne Thomson at Newnham College Archive, Oriole Parker-Rhodes, Joan Hall, Dr Christine van Ruymbeke, Philip Hague, Leyla Pureli, Neil Jeffares, Mark Jeffares, Diana Holtham.


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b01r9c99)
(17/17)

Russell Davies chairs the general knowledge quiz as it reaches the climax of its 2013 series, at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. Forty-eight contestants have been whittled down to just four Finalists, who are about to find out which of them will be named the 60th Brain of Britain.

These contestants being the creme de la creme, they face the toughest questions of the series in their bid to lift the trophy. The broadcaster and Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, Mary Beard, will perform the championship ceremony.

The Finalists this year come from London, Leeds, Lancashire and Portsmouth. Will they be stumped by the interval questions set especially to bamboozle them, by last year's Brain of Britain champion?

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b01r95hj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 The Arthur Cravan Memorial Society (b01r9c9c)
Arthur Smith pieces together an unreliable portrait of Arthur Cravan - charlatan and genius, the Dada James Dean.

Arthur Cravan was - as he never tired of telling people -- the nephew of Oscar Wilde. A self-declared citizen of twenty countries, he was a dandy, forger, flaneur, critic, sailor, prospector, card sharp, thief, editor and chauffeur. He was the true father of dada and surrealism whose real work of art was himself.

Between 1911 and 1915, Cravan wrote and published the magazine Maintenant in Paris, which he filled with belligerent diatribes and scandalous braggadocio. He gave lectures, during which he insulted, mooned and fired guns at the audience. As an act of artistic bravado, he fought the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, and was knocked out as soon as Johnson tired of the charade.

On the run from the First World War, Cravan set sail from Mexico in 1918, intending to reach South America. He was never seen again. But no one knows what happened to him and no body was ever found. But poems and paintings attributed to Cravan continued to surface. And who exactly was the person identified as Arthur Cravan spotted in different parts of the world for decades?

Arthur Smith is beguiled by Cravan's sense of provocation, by his desire to live a rich and full life, a poetic life, in spite of it all. And in this programme he'll call the final meeting of the Arthur Cravan Memorial Society to order as he tries to cobble together the truth about this mysterious and fascinating figure.

Producer: Martin Williams.


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b01r9c9f)
Religion and Addiction

Addiction to alcohol costs the UK around £22 billion per annum in health, welfare, social care and prison costs. The expectation is that more than 200,000 people will die prematurely in this country of alcohol related liver disease in the next 20 years. Is addiction a disease or does it signify an absence of will power? Alcoholics Anonymous famously claims that the cycle of addiction can only be broken by surrendering to a higher power. So is a spiritual approach to the problem effective?

Joining Ernie to discuss the spiritual dimension to alcohol addiction and its treatment are Mike Williams, General Director of Stauros Foundation, a Christian Charity which offers fellowship to people suffering or recovering from addiction; Maia Szalavitz a neuro-science journalist with Time.com; and Dr Wendy Dossett Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Chester University who has just completed a Research Project on Spirituality and Addiction.


MON 17:00 PM (b01r9c9h)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90n4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b01r9c9k)
Series 65

Episode 6

Nicholas Parsons hosts the popular panel game. Just how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds with no hesitation, repetition or deviation?


MON 19:00 The Archers (b01r9c9m)
Pat and Tony are still not convinced by Tom's plan to move to non-organic pork for the gourmet meals. Tom insists an organic label couldn't increase the price enough to compensate for the extra cost of the meat. Tony insists that Welfare Friendly is nowhere near the same as organic but, fed up of arguing, Pat and Tony tell him to get on with it.
Tony morosely tells Pat that Tom's slowly undoing everything they stand for.
Brenda has another horrible afternoon in the office. She tries to tell Tom about it but he receives a business call he's been waiting for all afternoon. He needs to answer it.
Elona wants Brenda to ask Matt and Lilian if there's any work going for Darrell. When Brenda later tells Darrell there's no work at Amside, Darrell is furious with Elona for asking. Elona insists he can't afford to have pride when he needs a job. Darrell just wants her to leave him with some dignity. When he sees a luxury cheesecake, he questions what she's spending their money on. She tells him Peggy gave it to her. Darrell storms off, furious that now they're a charity case.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b01r9c9p)
Sir John Eliot Gardiner; Jack the Giant Slayer review

With Mark Lawson.

Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner discusses his fascination with Bach as he prepares to lead a nine hour marathon of the composer's work at the Royal Albert Hall. In mid-rehearsal, Gardiner explains his attempt to convey the rock and roll of Bach. He also talks about his forthcoming 70th birthday, working with apprentices and the music that saps his energy.

Jack the Giant Slayer stars Nicholas Hoult as Jack, a young farm hand who must enter the land of the giants to rescue Princess Isabelle - in an adventure merging two fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer. Sarah Crompton discusses whether this fantasy adventure from X-Men director Bryan Singer hits the mark.

The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford has become a licensed wedding venue - couples can now take to the stage and tie in the knot in the Swan Theatre. Professor Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute, discusses Shakespeare's attitude to marriage and the weddings in his plays, from Beatrice and Benedick's union in Much Ado About Nothing to Kate's long wait for her groom in The Taming of the Shrew.

On the eve of Philip Roth's 80th birthday, another chance to hear part of a rare interview from 2011: the full interview is available on the Front Row website.

Producer Claire Bartleet.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rbtnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Document (b01r9c9r)
Votes for Victorian Women

Popular history tells us that women did not get the vote until 1918.

Though they could technically vote in local elections before that, many historians have argued that in practice they had no vote until the 1860s at the earliest. And evidence that they ever did vote has proved almost impossible to find.

But now a poll book, discovered in a box of papers in a local record office, clearly shows 25 women voting in elections for important local posts in Lichfield in 1843.

In this week's Document, the historian Sarah Richardson follows the trail of these women, to reveal a picture of Victorian women's involvement in politics which challenges many of our assumptions.

She discovers that they represented a surprising cross-section of society - old and young, poor and prosperous - and attempts to trace their descendants today.

She finds out how, when even universal manhood suffrage was seen as a radical, dangerous idea, these women may have been just a few of many more who could vote at a local level.

And she explores how, decades later, campaigners for Votes for Women at the Westminster level had to contend with this complex legacy.

Producer: Phil Tinline.


MON 20:30 Analysis (b01rbrtd)
Who Decides if I'm a Woman?

A spat between feminist Suzanne Moore and transgender rights activists played out on social networking sites, and then hit the headlines when journalist Julie Burchill joined in too.

Jo Fidgen explores the underlying ideas which cause so much tension between radical feminists and transgender campaigners, and discovers why recent changes in the law and advances in science are fuelling debate.

Contributors:

James Barrett, consultant psychiatrist and lead clinician at the Charing Cross National Gender Identity Clinic

Julie Bindel, feminist and journalist

Lord Alex Carlile QC, Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords

Melissa Hines, professor of psychology at Cambridge University

Richard O'Brien, writer of the Rocky Horror Show

Ruth Pearce, postgraduate researcher in sociology at the University of Warwick

Stephen Whittle OBE, professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University



Producer: Ruth Alexander.


MON 21:00 Material World (b01r5s24)
Clay on Mars, Neanderthals, Cholera, Tapeworms

Dr. Matthew Balme from the Open University talks to Quentin Cooper about the latest results from the Mars Curiosity Mission. The finding of neutral water, he says, indicates that many more types of microorganism may have once inhabited the Red Planet.

Ellie Pearce, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology in Oxford, explains why big eyes in Neanderthals may have led to a stunted social life, and eventually their extinction.

Is John Snow, born 200 years ago this week, really the man who should be remembered as the father of modern epidemiology? He is credited with tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho in 1854 to a single water supply in Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). Canadian bioethicist and author of "Disease Maps" Professor Tom Koch argues that there were others involved, and that such findings are seldom so straightforward.

Finally a novel approach to finding drugs for tapeworms. Scientists have sequenced the genomes of four tapeworms and have published their work in the journal Nature. They are now trying to identify drugs that interact with human proteins and seeing if they would also work in the same way in tapeworms. Dr. Magdalena Zarowiecki, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, explains how this method could be a cheap and quick way of finding a treatment for some of the world's most neglected diseases.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b01r9906)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b01r90n6)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b01r9cb6)
Round-up of the day's news, with Ritula Shah.

A Leveson deal - but will the papers buy it ?

Also tonight - a Cypriot MP tells us why he'll be voting against the bailout plan

Chris Mason profiles George Osborne - and we have reaction to the Chancellor's Budget childcare plans

Another exclusive report from Paul Moss in Kashmir

and Jim Muir on life in Baghdad - 10 years on from the war.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01r9cb8)
Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 6

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abridged By Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.


MON 23:00 The Voice of God (b01k9qbv)
The Rev. Richard Coles Richard explores the various ways that the way God speaks is depicted in literature, the theatre and film and what this reveals about our ideas of the deity. Coles is a priest, a broadcaster and was a pop star. Who better, then, to explore the different ways that the way God speaks is depicted within literature, theatre and film, and within sacred texts?

In the 'Book of Kings' the prophet Elijah is wrung by earthquake, wind, fire and thunder, but God is in not in any of these. It is in the silence following that Elijah hears God in a 'still, small voice'. In Britain Quakers have been listening for God in silence since the 1650s. This hasn't been how artists usually imagine the Almighty communicating. In the theatre and cinema God tends more to the Brian Blessed - or Brian Glover, pronouncing from on high, in the earthy demotic of Yorkshire, atop a fork-lift truck in a famous production of 'The Mysteries' at the National Theatre. With the cinema historian Matthew Sweet Richard explores the variety of divine utterance as depicted in popular culture.

Muslims believe Allah spoke to Mohammed in Arabic via the angel Gabriel. One of his earliest followers was convinced of the truth of Islam by the language - it was so beautiful it had to be true. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit spoke through the Christian disciples, yet every listener heard their own language. Jahweh spoke to certain Jews, but they could never utter his name.

Richard Coles talks to Rowan Williams, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury when this programme was made, the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks and the Muslim commentator, Mohammed Ansar, exploring their their faiths', and their personal experiences of the voice of the creator.

Producer: Julian May

(Repeat).


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01r9cbb)
Susan Hulme with the day's top news stories from Westminster.



TUESDAY 19 MARCH 2013

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90p3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b01r993b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90p5)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90p7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90p9)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90pc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r9cd0)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b01r9cd2)
Anna Hill hears why the government is having to re-think the way it is compensating farmers for HS2, the high speed rail line. And a new apprenticeship scheme aims to get more young people into farming.

Presented by Anna Hill. Produced by Emma Weatherill.


TUE 06:00 Today (b01r9cd4)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Yesterday in Parliament; Weather; Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Christianity at the Crossroads (b01r9cd6)
Christianity at the Crossroads?

This is an historic week in the history of Christianity, with both the Catholic and Anglican churches celebrating the installation of new leaders.
To have both a new Pope in Rome and a new Archbishop in Canterbury within days of each other has never happened before and is highly unlikely to happen again for a long time. This is an unusual - perhaps unique - moment for the worldwide church.
For the faithful it's a time of celebration and anticipation, a welcome relief from the problems of recent times. Recent decades have seen both churches beset by a series of issues and scandals: child sex abuse and ecclesiastical cover-ups; the place and role of women within the church; falling congregations; tensions arising from human rights and equality legislation. All have caused factionalism and infighting within the churches that have dogged recent Archbishops and Popes, and seemingly placed them on the margins of society. Where once, the West placed their trust in faith, hope and charity, today we value different, secular articles of faith, such as choice, freedom and equality. The new pope and Archbishop Justin Welby have certainly got a lot on their plates.
And yet, the storms are raging not only within these two churches. The banking crisis and recession, the breakdown in public trust, particularly in institutions and advances in science and technology - all ask huge moral questions with greater urgency than ever before - all present major challenges for us in the 21st century.
Are these crises too serious to overcome or too good to waste? Can the new pope and archbishop not only heal the rifts within their own churches but also find ways to speak meaningfully to societies that no longer automatically see them as moral authorities? Have these churches got anything to say to a culture that is unprecedentedly diverse and more secular than before? And is anyone still listening? Chaired by John Humphrys. Panellists: Matthew Parris - Former Conservative MP, Anna Rowlands - Catholic theologian, Rev'd Canon Dr Sam Wells - Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Sarah Dunant - Author.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b01r9cd8)
Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

War and Peace

War and peace.

Second extract from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond's powerful new book that draws upon his several decades of experience living and working in Papua New Guinea. Professor Diamond argues that traditional societies offer a window onto how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and can provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature.

Read by Crawford Logan.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01r9cdb)
Nazi women; architects; bereavement leave campaign

Country music singers Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman; women nominated for an architecture prize join Jane Garvey; bereavement leave campaigner Lucy Herd; is the menopause a taboo topic of conversation ? Nazi women are depicted in new novels by Jane Thynne and Meike Ziervogel.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdb97)
Soloparentpals.com: Series 4

London Calling

SOLOPARENTPALS.COM by Sue Teddern

Episode 2. London Calling

Rosie's unexpected redundancy is a blow and means that Tom is forced to look far afield to bring home the bacon.

Director: David Hunter.


TUE 11:00 Who's the Pest? (b01r9cdd)
Insect Technology

They make up a mighty 80% of the species on earth, and at any time there are ten QUINTILLION of them living.

Meet the six-legged rulers of the world: INSECTS

Entomologist Erica McAlister is known as Fly Girl to her friends. As Curator of Flies at the Natural History Museum, she knows what remarkable, strange, and diverse animals insects are. But for most of us, insects are pests - something we swot, or repel, or catch in a jar and hastily eject from the house. In this three part series, Erica will take listeners on an adventure in insect-world. It's our world, but not as we know it.

Insect world is populated by beings with superpowers - an amazing sense of smell, lightning reflexes, the ability to fly at dizzying speed or walk on the ceiling. And these superpowers have implications for us humans - in medicine, defence, food, art and architecture. They can help us to live more healthily, more safely, more sustainably.

In Episode Three, Erica explores how insect technology can solve human design problems.

Series Consultant: Bridget Nicholls, Director, Pestival.


TUE 11:30 Studio in the Sand (b01rft45)
Foreign correspondent and music journalist Robin Denselow travels to the refugee camps of the Saharawi people in Algeria who were displaced from Western Sahara following land dispute war with Morocco.

The Saharawi have been living in the camps for over 20 years, with their young people knowing nothing except life in the camps, where there is little chance of employment or escape. The music of the Saharawi is not as well known as that of neighbouring Mali, but it is a powerful expression of their culture and their desire to return home to the land from which they were displaced, a land whose landscapes and animals many younger Saharawi have never seen and can only dream about in the lyrics and chords of their music. The Saharawi are Muslim, but unlike in other parts of the region, here the women play a lead role in politics and music.

Robin speaks to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture in the camps about the forgotten struggle of the Saharawi whose plight has vanished off the international agenda, and about the role that their music plays to carry the story of their plight, as well as the haunting energy of their music, to an international audience.

Sandblast is a charity run by Danielle Smith and a group of British sound engineers who are setting up recording studios within the refugee camps in order to train musicians in how to produce recorded music, which can then be exported to an audience that would otherwise never get to hear its very particular note. Robin follows this initiative as the first trainees learn the ropes in the Studio in the Sand, speaking to trainers and new recruits and hearing electrifying first concerts.

Producer: Victoria Shepherd

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.


TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b01r9cdj)
Energy bills and a return to traditional shaving.

Energy bills keep on rising and, as another coal power station prepares to shut its doors, we'll look at the future of the market and what it means for you. E Book sales are booming but will features like alternative endings and paying to unlock chapters appeal to readers or turn them off? Plus, why men across the UK are saving money by returning to traditional shaving.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b01r90pf)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b01r9cr3)
Martha Kearney presents national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


TUE 13:45 Noise: A Human History (b01rdzhz)
The Beat of Drums

Words are only one way to communicate - humans have found many more.

Professor David Hendy travels to Ghana to hear the talking drum, a language made of drumbeats that once carried messages through the rainforest like a telegraph signal.

There's also a treasure from the Pitt Rivers Sound Archive - the sound of Bayaka pygmies of the Central African Republic preparing for a net hunt. How do non-verbal sounds carry information and how do they bind us together as a group?

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b01r9c9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b01rgld4)
Gary Mitchell - Love's Worst Day

Somewhere along the way, Geordie and Jane have lost each other. Life has swallowed them up in the daily grind of screaming kids, unpaid bills and a teenage son who hates the world. Whatever happened to them? They were so happy, full of plans for the future and looking forward to having a family together. Now it is an endless cycle of bad luck and struggling to make ends meet. Jane is trying to cope, Geordie can't cope, but maybe just somewhere - in a little moment in this day - Geordie and Jane are about to find each other again.

Gary Mitchell is a writer and director for television, film, radio and theatre. In 1995, he won the Stewart Parker Award for radio. In a Little World of our Own won the 1998 Irish Times Theatre Award for 'best new play'. In the same year, Gary won the Belfast Drama Award for In a Little World of our Own and Sinking and was made writer-in-residence at the Royal National Theatre, London.
Suffering, a film written and directed by Gary, was chosen as the best short film at the Belfast Festival in 2003. His script, As the Beast Sleep won a Belfast Arts Award for TV and was placed 3rd at the 2002 Prix Europa European TV Awards in Berlin. In 2006, Remnants of Fear won the Aisling Award for Art and Culture. He has written numerous radio plays for RTE and BBC and his most recent stage play will premiere this year in Derry to mark the UK City of Culture 2013.

Loves Worst Day was written by Gary Mitchell and directed in Belfast by Gemma McMullan.


TUE 15:00 The Human Zoo (b01r9cr5)
Series 1

Episode 3

Life will be so much better when we move to Spain, buy a new car, elect a different government, acquire those new shoes.....

We can all succumb to the promise of the new - change will be all we need to live the perfect lives. But we also know the reality rarely lives up to the promise. Shoes are scuffed, endless sun becomes wearisome and new governments - well lets just say they rapidly tarnish.

Yet disappointment after disappointment never seems to banish the lurking conviction that the grass is always greener on the other side. It appears we have within us a bias towards change.

Much of this is about the pursuit of happiness, but our own judgement about what makes us happy is often flawed.
This bias can manifest in the most unlikeliest of ways. The elation of winning that nick-nack in an online auction rapidly diminishes when we realise we've overbid significantly.

In the Human Zoo this week, you'll hear this lust for change in action, illustrated by experiment and discussed by some of the greatest minds in the field. We hear from perhaps the world's leading psychologist, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. You'll hear how our bias for change interacts with our fickle memories which has led to a radical approach to making that hospital stay not feel quite so bad after all.

The Human Zoo, where we see public decisions viewed through private thoughts, is presented by Michael Blastland, with the trusted guidance of Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School.

Presenter: Michael Blastland
Producer: Toby Murcott
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b01r9cr7)
Green Babies

2013 is predicted to see the biggest baby boom in 40 years. Whether it's the Royal baby or an after effect of the Olympics nobody is certain. But what does this mean for the planet? Dr Alice Roberts, who is herself expecting, finds out whether population really is the biggest threat to our environment.
The UK really is bucking the trend. In the US fears of a baby bust are coupled to predictions of economic decline. These are after all tiny unborn consumers. This is perhaps why many eminent nature watchers from David Attenborough to James Lovelock believe that over population is the biggest threat to our planet. No one can predict what a sustainable number of people would be but many agree that the predicted 10 billion plus is too many. At least, that is, if global rates of consumption increase to Western levels. George Monbiot points out that most growth in population is in the developing world where carbon footprints are often negligible.
Paradoxically the key to lowering the birth rate is higher standards of living and that inevitably means increased consumption. The recent Royal Society Paper concludes that population and consumption must be tackled together. So can these new baby boomers become more sustainable? Alice Roberts takes a look at prams, poop and purees to find out if there is such a thing as an 'eco baby'. If there is, she discovers, it may not be in what we purchase on their behalf but about how they connect with the natural world.
More and more evidence suggests being outdoors creates healthier, happier children and 'Project Wildthing' is an attempt to repackage and sell the concept of nature in order to compete with the marketing heavy worlds of toys and TV. Perhaps a new generation of nature lovers might want less stuff and enjoy the planet more.

Producer: Helen Lennard.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b01r9cr9)
The University of Babel

Generations of students have left lecture halls wondering whether they understood what they just heard. Now, a growing proportion of these learners don't consider English their first language. In the first episode in a new series, Michael Rosen visits Birmingham University to investigate how well the English spoken by foreign students equips them for British university life. And to see how lecturers are adapting to their multilingual audience. And there's feature on Special English, the slowed down, limited vocabulary version of the language developed more than half a century ago as a radio experiment, and which the Voice of America network still uses in its programmes.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.


TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b01r9crc)
Konnie Huq and Pat Kane

Konnie Huq is a former Blue Peter presenter and co-writer of an episode of Black Mirror. She joins Pat Kane, writer and singer of the group Hue & Cry, to talk about the books they love. Konnie's choice is Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, a dark novel of seedy low-life set in 1930's Earls Court.

Pat's is a treatise on work and the joy of simply making something, The Craftsman by Richard Sennett.

And presenter Harriett Gilbert chooses a disturbing but compelling satire on how far modern parents will go to protect their children, even after they have committed a terrible crime - The Dinner by Herman Koch.

Producer Beth O'Dea.


TUE 17:00 PM (b01r9crf)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90ph)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Elvenquest (b01r9crh)
Series 4

The Great Escape

The Questers discover the Sword of Asnagar but no sooner has Amis had time to wield it than they fall into one of Lord Darkness' evil traps and are marched off to the most escape-proof prison camp in all of Lower Earth.

Meanwhile, with the Sword of Asnagar finally in his hands, Lord Darkness will soon be declared supreme Ruler and commander of the Forces of Evil. But first, he has to organise a festival...

Starring:
Darren Boyd as Vidar
Louise Delamere as Penthiselea's mother
Kevin Eldon as Dean/Kreech
Dave Lamb as Amis/The Gatekeeper
Stephen Mangan as Sam
Alistair McGowan as Lord Darkness
Ingrid Oliver as Penthiselea
and
Mike Wozniak as Bunny

Written by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto.

Producer: Sam Michell.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b01r9crk)
Alan tells relieved Shula that Christopher is much improved. When she confesses how guilty she feels, Alan suggests it might help to talk to Christopher.
Jim's horrified when he discovers his 'dumbed down' interview has been published in Borsetshire Life. He should have realized Glen doesn't do irony.
Alan's depressed about Jean Harvey's proposal to halt church charitable donations until the books are balanced. He feels donating is what the church is all about. Usha reminds him that the proposal was voted down by the PCC. But Alan feels everything always come down to money. It's people and their actions that matter.
Christopher tells Emma his accident has clarified what's important in his life: Alice and his family. It's made him want to live his life to the max.
Shula tells Christopher how sorry she is, but he says she shouldn't be. She saved his life. Anyway, it was his fault. He was tired and rushing and now wants to put the whole thing behind him. When Shula comments that at least he's still with them, Christopher replies it's down to her. If she hadn't been there and acted so quickly. well, he's just so grateful.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b01r9crm)
Kay Mellor on The Syndicate; Compliance; new takes on Scandinavian drama

With Mark Lawson

In the film Compliance, a police officer phones a fast food restaurant and tells the middle-aged manageress that a young employee is accused of stealing. He asks her to detain the girl until the police arrive. She complies. As the situation develops, in near real time, it becomes uncomfortable to remember that the film is based on real events. Jenny McCartney reviews.

Writer and producer Kay Mellor discusses the return of her TV drama The Syndicate, which stars Alison Steadman and Jimi Mistry. This time it's the turn of five low-paid workers at a Bradford hospital to win the Euro millions jackpot. Kay Mellor discusses writing about the experience of gaining sudden wealth against a backdrop of economic austerity.

A new version of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler tranports the play to Birmingham in the early 1960s, with the central character now called Heather Gardner. Similarly, Strindberg's Miss Julie has been reworked to become Mies Julie, set in the Karoo, South Africa. Writers Robin French and Yael Farber discuss their current productions, and Patrick Marber reflects on relocating Strindberg to Britain in 1945, in his play After Miss Julie.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdb97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b01r9crp)
Dangerous Hospitals?

In the wake of the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal, investigations are going on at 14 other hospitals in England identified as having above average death rates among their patients. But why has it taken so long for enquiries to begin? Should the Department of Health and the hospitals regulator, the Care Quality Commission, have sounded the alarm much earlier?

It took a lengthy public inquiry to get to the bottom of failings in Mid-Staffordshire. Complaints of dangerous clinical practice and shoddy nursing standards were overlooked while whistle-blowers were treated as mere troublemakers and threatened with reprisals if they went public with their concerns.

Evidence is now emerging of a similar pattern in other places.

Gerry Northam examines the list of hospitals now under investigation and hears from doctors, nurses, patients and bereaved relatives. Have NHS managers done enough to address concern about high death rates?

How could it happen that the hospital reported to have the highest rate of excess mortality in the country - 20% above the expected level for its population of patients - was given a full seal of approval only three months earlier by the official regulator?

Producer: Rob Cave
Reporter: Gerry Northam.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b01r9crr)
How to look good

In the latest Blindness for Beginners editions, Richard Lane and Susannah Hancock, who are both blind, join Peter White to talk about ways of looking good and matching colours, without sight to help.
Richard brought with him his colour detector, which he demonstrated on his black guide dog.
Personal shoppers were suggested, as well as taking trusted friends and family, when buying clothes.
Both Susannah and Richard said that they were very concerned about the way they looked and wanted to know that they were well turned out at all times.
Peter suggested asking people to tell him if they could see any spillages or marks on his clothing, as sometimes people feel too awkward to say anything.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b01r9crt)
Alcohol pricing, Phages, Cervical smears, Swaddling and hips, Smart beds

The evidence behind minimum pricing of alcoholic drinks in England and Wales - putting the political debate aside, does it actually work?

Could harnessing the power of phages - naturally occurring viruses that prey on bacteria - help fight the threat posed by growing resistance to antibiotics?

Plus a follow up on last week's item about Cervical smears - if women in their late 60s are among those most likely to develop cancer of the cervix, why aren't they included in the national screening programme?

And babies' hips - concerns that the resurgence of swaddling is leading to abnormal
hip development.


TUE 21:30 Christianity at the Crossroads (b01r9cd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b01r90pk)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b01r9crw)
The day's news, with Ritula Shah.

Tonight - the Cypriot parliament votes "no" to the bailout deal, so what does the "troika" do next ?

Here - new spending cuts are announced on Budget Eve. Lord Lawson tells us how to unveil a Budget when you've got no money.

We're also in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, a town dependent on the defence industry and welfare benefits - what do they want from the Chancellor ?

and have the Syrian rebels crossed a "red line" and used chemical weapons ?


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01r9cry)
Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 7

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abridged by Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.


TUE 23:00 For One Night Only (b01ng098)
Series 7

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!

Paul Gambaccini re-lives Thanksgiving 1969 when The Rolling Stones played Madison Square Garden and recorded an album later reviewed as 'the best rock concert ever put on record'.

In the company of many who were there on the night, including the tour promoter Ronnie Schneider, sound engineer Glyn Johns, Mick Jagger's assistant at the time Jo Bergman, Chip Monck who looked after the lighting, tour manager Sam Cutler, photographer Ethan Russell, and rock journalist Michael Jahn, Paul Gambaccini re-creates the occasion.

Producer: Marya Burgess


(Repeat).


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01r9cs0)
The Government approves the first of a planned new generation of nuclear power plants in the UK.
The Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, tells MPs he has granted planning consent for French energy giant EDF to construct Hinkley Point C in Somerset.
MPs hear how a campaigning organisation came to be present during late night talks on the creation of a new press regulator.
A former head of a hospital under investigation over death rates, tells MPs there was a culture of "bullying" in the NHS.
And the Prime Minister faces criticism from MPs for failing to make a statement in person about last week's European Summit.
Sean Curran and team report on today's events in Parliament.



WEDNESDAY 20 MARCH 2013

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90qg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b01r9cd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90qj)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90ql)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90qn)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90qq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r9pzx)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b01r9pzz)
Illegal sheepmeat from the UK has been found on the premises of the meat processor Spanghero - a company at the centre of the horsemeat scandal. French authorities have found 57 tonnes of minced lamb which had been mechanically separated from the bone - a practice that has been illegal in Europe since the BSE crisis. Also on Farming Today, The Government says it will support a ban on neonicotinoids if field trials taking place in Britain prove the pesticide is damaging to bees. The European Commission announced yesterday that it plans to take the issue to an appeals committee later this spring, after experts meeting last week failed to reach agreement over a possible ban.
Presented by Anna Hill. Produced by Anna Varle.


WED 06:00 Today (b01r9q01)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Yesterday in Parliament; Weather; Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b01r9q03)
Nicky Haslam, Ruth Brooks, Kieran Holmes, Nitin Sawhney

Libby Purves meets amateur scientist Ruth Brooks; interior designer Nicky Haslam; tax adviser Kieran Holmes and composer and producer Nitin Sawhney.

Ruth Brooks is a former teacher turned amateur scientist. In 2010 she won Radio 4's So You Want to be a Scientist competition with her quest to discover whether snails have a homing instinct. Her book A Slow Passion: Snails, My Garden and Me tells of her scientific journey. A Slow Passion - Snails, My Garden and Me is published by Bloomsbury.

Nicky Haslam is an interior designer whose clients have included Mick Jagger; Rupert Everett and Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber. His new book Folly de Grandeur celebrates his country home, a former Tudor hunting lodge in Hampshire. Folly de Grandeur - Romance and Revival in an English Country House is published by Jacqui Small Books.

Kieran Holmes is an Irish tax adviser who currently heads Burundi's revenue authority - the Office Burundais des Recettes. Since his appointment in 2010 he has tackled the country's corrupt tax system and helped it move towards greater economic self-sufficiency. He has also worked in Lesotho, Yemen and Swaziland.

Nitin Sawhney is a producer, composer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist. A Mercury Music Prize nominee and MOBO winner, he has collaborated with a range of musicians including Sting; Paul McCartney; Taio Cruz and Anoushka Shankar. His Radio 2 series, Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe, celebrates sounds from around the world.

Producer: Paula McGinley.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b01r9q05)
Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

Child-rearing and Discipline

Child-rearing and discipline.

Extract from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond's powerful new book that draws upon his several decades of experience living and working in Papua New Guinea. Professor Diamond argues that traditional societies offer a window onto how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and can provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature.

Read by Crawford Logan.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01r9r3v)
Boudoir Photography; Tanya Byron; Young Scientist of the Year

Boudoir photography - women commissioning intimate photographs of themselves; Professor Tanya Byron on how sleep deprivation is causing learning and behaviour problems for adults and children; Dr Mamphela Ramphele discusses her new political party in South Africa; Lebanese Iraqi film director Parine Jaddo on her new film, Broken Record. Young Scientist of the Year Emily O'Regan. Presented by Jenni Murray.


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01r993g)
Soloparentpals.com: Series 4

Pianoversary

SOLOPARENTPALS.COM by Sue Teddern

Episode 1. Pianoversary

Rosie and Tom's relationship is under new strain now that he is working 4 days a week in London in order to pay the mortgage in Bolton

Director: David Hunter.


WED 11:00 Lenin in Letchworth (b01r9r3x)
In 1907 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin attended a congress of exiled communists in London that helped plan the revolutionary overthrow of the Russian tsar a decade later. It was during this momentous event that the Soviet Union's future leader is said to have visited the English garden city of Letchworth.

Firm evidence of Lenin's presence in Letchworth is tantalisingly hard to find. But the very idea of the single-minded Russian revolutionary finding himself among the English radicals of rural Hertfordshire - people whom George Orwell described as the "fruit-juice drinking" and "sandal-wearing" classes - is a suggestive one.

What could turn-of-the-twentieth-century English socialists, committed to notions of healthy living, fulfilling work and parliamentary democracy, teach the self-proclaimed leader of the Russian workers and peasants with his implacable revolutionary fervour and appointment with destiny?

Francis Spufford visits Letchworth to investigate the background to the story. He finds out why Lenin might have made the journey and discovers who and what he may have seen and the effect which he might have had on the locals.

Francis also reveals what lasting impression the trip into the Hertfordshire countryside may have made on Lenin and how it seems to have shaped the physical design of Moscow and Stalingrad.

Among those taking part are: Dame Antonia Byatt, the author and authority on turn-of-the-twentieth-century writers; Dr. Tristram Hunt, the historian of the Victorian city and the biographer of Engels; Sheila Rowbotham, the leading authority on English Edwardian radicalism; and Ken MacLeod, the science fiction writer and committed socialist.

Producer Simon Coates.


WED 11:30 Shooting Animals (b01r9r3z)
by Guy Browning and Tom Mitchelson

Ben ..... Joseph Millson
Fran ..... Emily Joyce
Rob ..... Ian Kirkby
Helga ..... Samantha Dakin
Jabari ..... Ivanno Jeremiah
Richard ..... Ben Crowe

Produced by Sally Avens

A wildlife documentary crew attempt to break in a new presenter who is intent on keeping as far away from the wildlife as possible. Whilst the camera is pointed at the wildlife we're more busy watching the antics of the crew and it's eerie how their behaviour echoes that of the animals.

Writers: Guy Browning and Tom Mitchelson met when Guy Browning was looking for the lead actor in his film 'Tortoise in Love'. Tom was perfect for the part of a lovelorn gardener and following the success of the film the two decided to try working together on a project for Radio. Guy Browning wrote the How To.. column in The Guardian from 1999-2009. Before that he wrote about office politics and social climbing.His books collecting his Guardian columns, Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade and Never Push When it Says Pull, were bestsellers. His work has been translated into eight languages. His series for Radio 4, include (Small Talk - 2003) and Weak at the Top ran for two series in 2005/6 starring Alexander Armstrong. He combines this with a career as a serious business writer.

Tom Mitchelson is a writer, actor and broadcaster. He has been sent on various missions by the Daily Mail - sleeping rough in Gatwick Airport, living as a woman for a week and investigating gold diggers. (There is a course available to help you spot them, at #2,500 per day.). Tom has also written comedy material for Ned Sherrin, Griff Rhys Jones and Jeremy Vine. He co-edited Matthew Parris' Scorn and co-wrote the Radio 4 sitcom, Electric Ink.

Cast: The cast includes Joseph Millson as out of his depth presenter Ben. Joseph is currently starring in Holby City but as at home at the RSC, in musical theatre and as a firm favourite on CBBC. Emily Joyce plays producer 'time is money' Fran. Emily is best known for the comedy series My Hero.


WED 12:00 Budget 2013 (b01rdbkm)
Live coverage of the Chancellor's Budget speech with analysis and reaction.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b01r9crk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b01r9r45)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

A Man from a Far Place

written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi receive a visit from an extremely important person - a hero, as it happens, of the two detectives at the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Mma Potokwani has had bad news at the Orphan Farm. And one of Mr J.L.B. Matekoni's apprentices, Fanwell, gets himself into deep water.

produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b01r9r47)
Investing

Wondering where to invest your money? Should you pick an ISA, a fund or shares and is it worth paying for advice or can you do-it-yourself? Call 03700 100 444 between 1pm and 3.30pm on Wednesday or email moneybox@bbc.co.uk.

If you are tempted to put some of your money in stocks and shares you will have questions about the level of risk involved, how much of your capital will be taken in charges and maybe investment jargon. Where can you research your plans and what should you consider?

Perhaps you are thinking of expanding, cashing in or moving existing investments and want to talk it over?

To ask our investment team for their view, call 03 700 100 444 on Wednesday.

Phone lines are open between 1pm and 3.30pm. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.

Presenter Vincent Duggleby will put your questions to:

Jason Hollands, Bestinvest
Darius McDermott, Chelsea Financial Services
Merryn Somerset Webb, MoneyWeek.


WED 15:30 Inside Health (b01r9crt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b01r9r49)
Language of food politics; Italian food market

An Italian food market - Rachel Black talks to Laurie Taylor about her ethnographic account of Porto Palazzo, one of Europe's largest outdoor markets. She watched and spoke to its vendors, shoppers and passers-by to find out how a multi-ethnic market fosters a culinary culture and social life. Professor Sophie Watson is currently studying street markets and joins the discussion.
Also, Guy Cook analyses the language of food and food politics; from baby food labels to organic marketing. How our choices and beliefs about what we eat are influenced by the persuasive power of words.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b01r9rt8)
Helena Kennedy

Baroness Helena Kennedy Acting Chair of the Media Standards Trust talks to Steve Hewlett about the latest twists and turns in implementing Lord Justice Leveson's press reforms. Plus Phil Collins Chief Leader writer of The Times, Professor Natalie Fenton a board member of the campaign group Hacked Off and Chris Blackhurst Editor of The Independent join Steve Hewlett to discuss whether the Royal Charter throws up as many problems as it solves.
Producer Beverley Purcell.


WED 17:00 PM (b01r9rtb)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90qv)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Dilemma (b01r9rtd)
Series 2

Episode 5

Sue Perkins puts Jason Cook, Cerys Matthews, David Aaronovitch and Sara Pascoe through the moral and ethical wringer.

Amongst the dilemmas facing the panel, Sue asks singer and BBC 6 Music host Cerys Matthews whether she'd eat an alien as an act of survival?

There are no "right" answers - but there are some deeply damning ones.

Devised by Danielle Ward.

Producer: Ed Morrish

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b01r9rtg)
When Rosa suggests that Mike distributes Darrell's work flyers, Darrell thanks her, but says it wouldn't be appropriate. Anyway, the ones Darrell's already delivered will probably end up in the bin!
Darrell returns home to find the fridge has broken and Rosa clearing up the mess. Most of the food is ruined. That's all he needs on top of everything. But when Rosa offers him her savings to buy a replacement, he declines. It's his job to look after her, not the other way round.
Ruth and David discuss Elizabeth's recent application for the dairy conversion. They muse about how fabulous it will be and hope it increases business. They chat about Shula's visit to Christopher and her relief that he doesn't blame her for the accident.
David's irritated with Pip when she goes to walk the crops at Spencer's. She's got the time to help there but not at Brookfield! At least she's checked on the ewes and lambs, they think.
But later David finds a dead ewe. He fumes that Pip can't have done a thorough check. He wants to ring her and have it out, but Ruth counsels waiting until the morning. David mourns the old Pip. He can't trust her anymore.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b01r9rtj)
Alan Bennett interview

With Mark Lawson.

Alan Bennett has been a feature of British cultural life for over 50 years, first as an actor in Beyond the Fringe and later as a dramatist, screenwriter and diarist, creating theatrical smashes such as The Madness of King George, The History Boys and most recently People.

As a double-bill of his autobiographical plays, Hymn and Cocktail Sticks, arrives in the West End of London, he reflects on how it feels to see himself being portrayed on stage, and the influence of his parents on his work. He also addresses allegations that his recent play People attacked the National Trust, and explains why he is keen to avoid the National Treasure tag.

Producer Ellie Bury.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01r993g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b01r9rtl)
Business and Displeasure

On Friday Prince Charles - on a nine-day tour of the Middle East - arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet his old friend King Abdullah and discuss military collaboration, opportunities for women in society, interfaith dialogue, education and environmental sustainability. Both their Royal Highnesses were conscious of the fact that Britain has sold four billion pounds' worth of weaponry to Saudi Arabia in the past five years and that BAe are currently trying to clinch a deal to supply the Kingdom with Typhoon fighter-jets. The Royal agenda did not mention Friday's execution by a Saudi firing squad of seven young men who had been arrested for a robbery in which no-one was hurt. Nor did it include the Saudi human rights activists who have recently been handed long prison sentences.
The Prime Minister, who has himself visited the Middle East at the head of an arms trade delegation, says there are "no no-go areas" when discussing the human rights record of Saudi Arabia; but he has also described the country as "a very old ally and partner" and argued that "the defence industry is like any other industry. We are in a global race."
Trade and human rights: are they separate issues, never to be confused? Or, when we go into business negotiations, should the way a government treats its citizens be part of the discussion? If it should, how ought we to balance our own interests against the suffering of people for whom we're not responsible? Are there any absolute moral principles to guide us, or will it always be a messy and pragmatic calculation?
There are some who say we don't have the right to lecture other countries about human rights. Do we? And, if we do, at what cost in money and jobs to ourselves?
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk with Michael Portillo, Anne McElvoy, Kenan Malik and Claire Fox. Witnesses: Howard Wheeldon - Independent defence analyst, Andrew Alexander - Daily Mail columnist, Gabrielle Rifkind - Director of the Middle East programme at Oxford Research Group, David Mepham - Director, Human Rights Watch.


WED 20:45 Lent Talks (b01r9rtn)
Imam Asim Hafiz

In the fifth of this year's Lent Talks, Imam Asim Hafiz, Muslim Chaplain and Religious Adviser to HM Forces, who has just returned from Afghanistan, explores the total abandonment experienced by both sides, as a result of war.

The Lent Talks feature six well-known figures from public life, the arts, human rights and religion, who reflect on how the Lenten story of Jesus' ministry and Passion continues to interact with contemporary society and culture. The 2013 Lent Talks consider the theme of "abandonment". In the Lenten story, Jesus is the supreme example of this - he died an outcast, abandoned and rejected by his people, his disciples and (apparently) his Father - God. But how does that theme tie in with today's complex world? There are many ways one can feel abandoned - by family, by society, by war/conflict, but one can also feel abandoned through the loss of something, perhaps power, job or identity. The Christian season of Lent is traditionally a time for self-examination and reflection on universal human conditions such as temptation, betrayal, greed, forgiveness and love, as well as abandonment.

Speakers in this year's talks include Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC, who considers what it means to abandon being human; Alexander McCall Smith considers how you can feel abandoned by society, as you grow older; Benjamin Cohen, journalist and broadcaster, reflects on the fear of being abandoned by his own Jewish community, for being gay; Loretta Minghella, Director of Christian Aid, considers the abandonment of self and the need to face who we truly are and, finally, Canon Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James's Piccadilly, explores the relationship between abandonment and betrayal.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b01r9cr7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Midweek (b01r9q03)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b01r90qx)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b01r9rtq)
Chancellor delivers fourth Budget, admitting recovery taking "longer than anyone hoped". New bailout plan in Cyprus, but talks in Moscow go on. And Voyager space craft may have left solar system. Presented by Ritula Shah.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01r9rts)
Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 8

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abridged by Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.


WED 23:00 Terry Pratchett (b01r9rtv)
Eric

Episode 3

Eric has summoned a demon and wished to meet the most beautiful woman in the world. Unfortunately, this lands him in a wooden horse in the middle of a rather famous siege.

Fortunately, he is accompanied by junior wizard Rincewind, and his indefatigable Luggage.

Terry Pratchett's many Discworld novels combine a Technicolor imagination with a razor sharp wit, especially when he rewrites Faust as spotty teenage demonologist Eric.

Rincewind ..... Mark Heap
Death ..... Geoffrey Whitehead
Eric ..... Will Howard
Lavaeolus ..... Rick Warden
Elenor ..... Christine Absalom
Sergeant ..... Ben Crowe
Demon King Astfgl ..... Nicholas Murchie
Creator ..... Robert Blythe

Adapted in four parts by Robin Brooks.

Director: Jonquil Panting

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.


WED 23:15 Jigsaw (b01r9rtx)
Series 1

Episode 5

Dan Antopolski, Nat Luurtsema and Tom Craine piece together a selection of silly, clever, dark sketches.

Producer: Colin Anderson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01r9rtz)
Susan Hulme with the day's top news stories from Westminster.



THURSDAY 21 MARCH 2013

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90rr)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b01r9q05)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90rt)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90rw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90ry)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90s0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r9rxk)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b01r9rxm)
A Coalition of English Farmers has warned that they could struggle to be competitive under new European proposals. DEFRA Secretary, Owen Paterson says he wants to make things less complicated but the head of the National Farmers Union Peter Kendall says the outcome will be unfair. A rural accountant gives his reaction to yesterday's budget. He says it could encourage farmers to employ more people on their farms.
Charlotte Smith talks to producers at the International Food and Drink Event and met up with two farmers and food producers who tell her how important big foreign business could be for small UK food enterprises
Presenter Charlotte Smith. Producer Ruth Sanderson.


THU 06:00 Today (b01r9rxp)
Morning news and current affairs with Sarah Montague and Evan Davis, including:

0735
"The plan is not working" is what the shadow chancellor Ed Balls said yesterday's budget showed. Ed Balls explains his view of the new Budget.

0751
A new study suggests 97% of GPs have prescribed a placebo at least once in their careers - that is something that has no clinical benefit for the patient's condition. Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, and Margaret McCartney, a GP from Glasgow, analyse the effectiveness and ethics of placebos.

0810
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has urged George Osborne to make a swift economic "U-turn", after growth forecasts for 2013 were halved to 0.6% in the Budget. George Osborne defends his decisions on the 2013 Budget.

0821
A picture will be released by the Planck Space Observatory at nine o'clock this morning of the oldest light in the universe. Dr Jo Dunkley, a lecturer in astrophysics at Oxford University, explains the work at Planck.


THU 08:57 DEC Syria Crisis Appeal (b01rrrmh)
John McCarthy presents the DEC Syria Crisis Appeal.
Reg Charity:1062638
To Give:
0370 60 60 900 Standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply
or make and send a cheque to DEC Syria Crisis Appeal, PO Box 999, London EC3A 3AA.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b01r9rxr)
Alfred Russel Wallace

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer of evolutionary theory. Born in 1823, Wallace travelled extensively, charting the distribution of animal species throughout the world. This fieldwork in the Amazon and later the Malay Archipelago led him to formulate a theory of evolution through natural selection. In 1858 he sent the paper he wrote on the subject to Charles Darwin, who was spurred into the writing and publication of his own masterpiece On the Origin of Species. Wallace was also the founder of the science of biogeography and made important discoveries about the nature of animal coloration. But despite his visionary work, Wallace has been overshadowed by the greater fame of his contemporary Darwin.

With:

Steve Jones
Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London

George Beccaloni
Curator of Cockroaches and Related Insects and Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project at the Natural History Museum

Ted Benton
Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex

Producer: Thomas Morris.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b01r9skn)
Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

Treatment of the Elderly

Treatment of the elderly.

Extract from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond's new book which suggests that traditional societies offer us a window onto how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and can provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature.

Read by Crawford Logan.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01r9skq)
A special edition presented by teenagers

Lauren and Holly from Bartley Green School in Birmingham present a special School Report edition with Jenni Murray. We discuss safety on buses; meet Paralympic athlete Hannah Cockroft; Henry Dimbleby Cooks The Perfect School Dinner.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdb6s)
Soloparentpals.com: Series 4

Sex and the City

SOLOPARENTPALS.COM by Sue Teddern

Episode 1. Sex and the City

Not only is Tom working 4 days a week in London to pay the mortgage in Bolton but now his mother has broken her arm in Hove

Rosie ... Liz White
Tom ... Julian Rhind-Tutt

Director: David Hunter.


THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b01r9sks)
The Black Cowboy

How did Herb Jeffries become a black cowboy film star when he wasn't even black? Sarfraz Manzoor travels to Kansas in search of the answer. Mike Wooldridge is in Pakistan - an election date's been announced but will the new team of rulers tackle what some call an alarming rise in religious intolerance? Western Sahara is not much reported upon: Celeste Hicks goes there and tells a tale of secret police, comic book spies and wobbling octopus. Anthony Denselow travels to Uttar Pradesh in India to find out why so many widows make their way to the city of Vrindavan. And the Chinese have developed a thirst for fine wine. Jim Carey has been discovering that Australia's winemakers want a slice of this potentially huge new market.
From Our Own Correspondent is produced by Tony Grant.


THU 11:30 Destination Freedom (b01r9skv)
It's often assumed that the drive for black emancipation in America began with Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. This documentary challenges that perception, taking us back years earlier to the arts broadcasting of Chicago radio's Destination Freedom.

Appearing a whole decade before the civil rights movement, Destination Freedom was truly the first of its kind.

It launched in 1948, a weekly series of 30 minute radio dramas that showcased the lives and accomplishments of prominent African Americans - from Louis Armstrong, Joe Lewis and Duke Ellington, to the 18th century icon of the anti-slavery movement Crispus Attucks and Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who fought for women's suffrage. The programme's founder and writer, Richard Durham, described it as radio that was "rebellious, biting, scornful and cocky".

Artistically, as well as politically, it was years ahead of its time. Never heavy handed or simple propaganda, the broadcasts were even, on rare occasions, acoustically innovative to the point of being sound-art surreal. The profile of the world class African-American heart surgeon Daniel Hale Williams, for example, is told from the point of view of one of his patient's hearts (in an episode called 'The Heart of George Cotton').

The show walked a daring line between reform and revolution, and was shut down by its network in 1950, as McCarthyism and anti-communism tightened its grip on American broadcasting.

As well as drawing on the archive of Destination Freedom, this programme illuminates a largely unknown, but important, chapter in the history of civil rights and tells how radio drama played its part from the very beginning.

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


THU 12:00 Budget Call (b01r9skx)
You and Yours and Money Box join forces to analyse Budget 2013, and explain what it will mean for you. Email your questions to youandyours@bbc.co.uk

Winifred Robinson will be joined by Paul Lewis and a panel of experts to answer your questions.

The panel includes Phil Agulnik, Director of the online benefits calculator, Flora Maudsley-Barton, Independent Financial Adviser, Elaine Clark on personal and small business tax, and David Hollingworth from London and Country Mortgages.

You can call the programme when lines open on Thursday at 10:30 GMT. The number is 03700 100 444. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.

Join Paul Lewis and Winifred Robinson at four minutes past twelve for a Call You&Yours Budget 2013 Special.


THU 12:57 Weather (b01r90s2)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b01r9skz)
Martha Kearney presents national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


THU 13:45 Noise: A Human History (b01rdzq0)
A Ritual Soundscape

Orkney's Neolithic sites feel like theatre stages, encouraging us to move through them in unfamiliar ways. If the people noticed striking sound effects, they must have been tempted to exploit them. But exploit them how, exactly?

Were these the kind of places where our ancestors came to make a spectacular din - or places where they came in search of silence and sensory deprivation?

Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex explores the ritualistic use of sound.

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b01r9rtg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b01r9sl1)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

written and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi have received a visit from an extremely important person - a hero of the two detectives at the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Mma Potokwani has had bad news at the Orphan Farm and the ladies are determined to help her. And Mr J.L.B. Matekoni sets out to clear the name of his apprentice, Fanwell.

produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b01r9sl3)
Inishowen

In a year when Derry-Londonderry takes centre stage as the UK City of Culture, Helen Mark steps out into the city's back garden to explore the hidden gems of the Inishowen Peninsula. Located at the northernmost tip of Ireland where it meets with the Atlantic Ocean, and with Lough Foyle to the east and Lough Swilly to the west, Inishowen is rich in history, heritage and landscape, with more than its fair share of undiscovered delights.
Helen Mark begins her journey at the Glenevin Waterfall with American, Doris Russo. Now in her 90s, Doris first visited Donegal almost 20 years ago when she fell in love with the area and bought Glen House with its adjoining land and beautiful, yet inaccessible, waterfall. Helen hears how Doris took it upon herself to clear the brambles and undergrowth that blocked the route to the waterfall and so began a project that would take years to reach fruition with the help of the local community and volunteers. There are very few people in the area now without a friend or relative who has been involved in the Glenevin Waterfall including farmer, Michael Devlin, who tells Helen of his own experiences of the waterfall as a child.
At the northern tip of Inishowen Helen meets writer, Cary Meehan, to visit the atmospheric Bocan Stone Circle at Malin Head. Cary has made a promise with herself to visit a sacred place every week and feels that these are places that give people a divine connection that there really are no words for.
Heading back along the shores of Lough Foyle, Helen stops off for a kayak trip out on the waters with Adrian Harkin before making her way back to the border. Before she leaves Inishowen, Helen makes one last stop to meet Dessie McCallion who takes Helen to one of his favourite hidden gems, a woodland near the village of Muff where he walks and feeds the red squirrels who call the woodland home.
Presenter: Helen Mark Producer: Helen Chetwynd.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b01r95h4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b01r961p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b01r9sl5)
In the House, Point Blank, Compliance

On the Film Programme this week Francine Stock talks to the director Craig Zobel about his disturbing new movie, Compliance. Based on real life events in the US, it portrays a prank call from a supposed police officer to a fast food restaurant. HIs instructions lead to violence perpetrated against a young employee. Zobel explains his fascination with people's responses to authority. The French director Francois Ozon, known for 8 Women and Swimming Pool is back with a new comedy, In The House, which portrays a curious relationship between a student and his literature teacher. The film raises questions about when voyeurism spills into active participation and blurs the lines between fact and fiction. There's debate too on whether narrative really matters in film-making with Mexican director Carlos Reygadas who discusses his film Post Tenebras Lux, a film which has split the critics despite a Best Director accolade at Cannes last year. If you don't get it the first time, you should watch it again, he insists. His previous films include Battle in Heaven and Silent Light. We also re-visit Point Blank, a cult crime film starring Lee Marvin and first released in 1967. Director John Boorman describes the making of the film including his wrangles with the studio, who at one point called in a psychiatrist. Boorman is currently the subject of a British Film Institute season which opens on 25 March. Producer Elaine Lester.


THU 16:30 Material World (b01r9sl7)
Planck, Elusive Giant Squid, Emotive words

Adam Rutherford discusses new science results from the Planck space telescope; a spectacular new map of the "oldest light" in the sky has just been released by the European Space Agency. Its mottled pattern confirms much of the standard model of cosmology, but some of the new data challenges current thinking and may imply a need for some completely new physical theories. In particular, a large asymmetry in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation may even be a shadow of something that happened before the Big Bang. Professor George Efstathiou and Dr. Joanna Dunkley, both of the Planck science collaboration, discuss the findings.

Could the elusive giant squid be just one single species? Professor Tom Gilbert from the Museum of Natural History of Denmark in Copenhagen explains how his team have analysed giant squid mitochondrial DNA and found it to be almost the same in samples taken from across the globe. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society Biology.


THU 17:00 PM (b01r9sl9)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90s4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:27 DEC Syria Crisis Appeal (b01rrrmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:57 today]


THU 18:30 Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation (b01r9slc)
Series 9

How to Speak

Stand by your radios! Jeremy Hardy returns to the airwaves with a broadcast of national comic import as he asks the question "Does power come from the barrel of a gun or from a jar of onion marmalade?"

In this show, Jeremy is joined by special guests Paul B Davies and Pauline McLynn as he examines how to speak, when to speak and when not to speak - via the medium of speaking.

Welcome to "Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation", a series of debates in which Jeremy Hardy engages in a free and frank exchange of his entrenched views. Passionate, polemical, erudite and unable to sing, Jeremy returns with a new series of his show, famous for lines like -
"Kids should never be fashion slaves, especially in the Far East. My 12-year old daughter asked me for a new pair of trainers. I told her she was old enough to go out and make her own" and, "Islam is no weirder than Christianity. Both are just Judaism with the jokes taken out."

Few can forget where they were twenty years ago when they first heard "Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation". The show was an immediate smash-hit success, causing pubs to empty on a Saturday night, which was particularly astonishing since the show went out on Thursdays. The Light Entertainment department was besieged, questions were asked in the House and Jeremy Hardy himself became known as the man responsible for the funniest show on radio since Money Box Live with Paul Lewis.

Since that fateful first series, Jeremy went on to win Sony Awards, Writers Guild nominations and a Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

The show is a Pozzitive production, and is produced by Jeremy's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler.

Written by Jeremy Hardy
Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b01r9slf)
Worried Elona waits up for Darrell, who comes home looking terrible. Frustrated that he won't talk, she confronts him and he puts it down to a heavy drinking session. Elona doesn't like lying and senses something isn't right.

Hungover Pip is shocked to learn that David found two lambs and their mother dead last night from hypomagnesaemia. He says they'd have been okay if Pip had checked properly in the morning. She clearly had other priorities.

Tom stuns Pat, Tony and Helen by suggesting they sell the herd and buy in organic milk. Tom says he has thought this through. The milking is a massive burden, especially since Tony's heart attack. Tony sees that as an excuse. Henry gets upset as the discussion becomes heated. Tom wants to provide for the future - and his own children. Defensive Pat accuses Tom of never really caring about the cows, as she worries about losing their credibility with customers.

Helen starts to come round to Tom's view, as Tom asks them to consider his proposal. He apologises for upsetting Henry, but Helen's more worried about Pat and Tony. Helen wishes Tom had spoken to her first. She reminds him it's not Tom against the world.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b01r9sw2)
Nigel Kennedy; TV drama The Village; writer Esther Wilson

With John Wilson.

Maverick violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy talks about his admiration for Fats Waller, Dave Brubeck, Ravi Shankar and Bach - all of whose music features in his new album. And he reveals an unexpected side-effect of wearing Jimi Hendrix's old bandana during a live performance.

The Village is a new TV drama series with an epic ambition: to chart the life and times of one English village across the 20th century. Starring John Simm, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, the story centres on Bert Middleton, now 112 years old but only 12 and the son of an impoverished farmer when the story begins. Author Kate Saunders gives her verdict.

The bombed-out St. Luke's church in Liverpool tonight stages the premiere of Tony Teardrop - a play that focuses on the lives of a group of homeless people. The church itself was the inspiration for playwright Esther Wilson, who also wrote the Radio 4 drama serial The Pursuits of Darleen Fyles. She discusses how she creates drama from the experiences of the homeless people she's met, and explains why drama struggles to compete with real life.

Producer Nicki Paxman.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdb6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b01r9sw4)
Pension Liberation Schemes

It can begin with a simple text inviting you to release money from an old pension before you are fifty five, the earliest age at which you can officially access your money. People in financial difficulties may be tempted to sign up, but will they ever see their money again?
Simon Cox investigates the dangers of "pension liberation" schemes.


THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b01r9sw6)
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.

It's said that the best way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a large one. Evan Davis and his guests explore just how profitable selling crushed grapes really is. How do they convince consumers they are offering quality and value?

Joining Evan in the studio are Graham Sumeray, CEO Fine + Rare; Dan Jago, Category Director (Beers, Wines and Spirits) at Tesco's; Alok Mathur, co-founder and director Soul Tree Wines.

Editor: Innes Bowen.


THU 21:00 Who's the Pest? (b01r9cdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:00 on Tuesday]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b01r9rxr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b01r90s6)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b01r9sw8)
New deal for Cyprus to solve its debt?

Kurdish rebels announce ceasefire;

Justin Welby installed as new Archbishop of Canterbury.

With Roger Hearing.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01r9swb)
Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 9

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abdriged by Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.


THU 23:00 Bridget Christie Minds the Gap (b01r9swd)
Series 1

Episode 3

Bridget considers women and their relationship with their bodies via a lap dance, TOWIE and a fish called Michael.

Fred MacAulay helps her remember some of the key incidents which brought her to an epiphany and a call to arms.

Four-part stand-up comedy series on the state of British feminism today.

Producer; Alison Vernon-Smith

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01r9swg)
The Shadow Chancellor says a Budget initiative designed to help homebuyers obtain mortgages amounts to a "spare homes subsidy" for the better-off.
The Business Secretary says the details have to be worked out and accuses Ed Balls of hypocrisy and having presided over an unprecedented housing bubble.
The House of Lords debates the budget and peers are told to ask shorter question.
And the Foreign Secretary insists that elections in Afghanistan and Pakistan will not interrupt the process of restoring security to the region.
Sean Curran and team report on today's events in Parliament.



FRIDAY 22 MARCH 2013

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b01r90t7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b01r9skn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b01r90t9)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b01r90tc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b01r90tf)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b01r90th)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b01r9wc4)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Father Martin Graham.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b01r9wc6)
The Soil Association says supermarkets are partly to blame for a fall in organic sales. They say that less shelf space has meant that fewer products are available for purchase. However, the British Retail Consortium says that the big retailers are only responding to consumer demand.
The number of schools with farms in the UK is rising. The head of the School Farm Network says these farms should be seen as a key school resource. However, the largest school farm in the UK is facing financial pressure because of a poor harvest and local funding cuts.
The Angling Trust says stocks of roach, dace and chub have declined dramatically over the past 6 years.It blames recent flooding and the cormorants and goosanders who also fish the waters and is calling on the Environment Agency to help and improve fish stocks.
Presenter Charlotte Smith. Producer Ruth Sanderson.


FRI 06:00 Today (b01r9wc8)
Morning news and current affairs with Sarah Montague and John Humphrys, including:

0751
A soldier who "kept a cool head under fierce fire" in Afghanistan is one of 119 servicemen and women being honoured for their bravery today. Capt Mike Dobbin, who is being awarded the Military Cross, and Private Lewis Murphy, who has been cited for the Queen's Commendation for Bravery, reflect on their experiences.

0810
Cypriot MPs are to vote on new measures to raise the funds the country needs to secure vital bailout before today's deadline. The BBC's Europe correspondent Chris Morris reports, and Michael Meister, deputy parliamentary chairman of Merkel's CDU party and their chief economic spokesman, and Sir Howard Davies, former chairman of the FSA and former deputy governor of the Bank of England, discuss the action that Cypriot MPs need to take.

0820
The crime drama queen Lynda La Plante, author of Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution, has become the first non-scientist to be inducted into the Forensic Science Society. Lynda La Plante, and the president of the Forensic Science Society, Dr Ann Priston, examine the extent to which science is a good tool for television drama.

0831
EU foreign ministers will be meeting in Dublin today and will be considering whether it is time to start arming rebels in Syria. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign secretary, and Professor Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle Eastern studies at City University, discuss whether Syrian Rebels should be given military support.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b01r95hg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b01r9wcb)
Jared Diamond - The World Until Yesterday

Diet and Health

Diet and health.

Extract from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond's powerful new book which suggests that traditional societies offer a window onto how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and can provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature.

Read by Crawford Logan.

Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b01r9wcd)
Ukrainian Eggs; Girls Who Abuse; Women Rowers

How to decorate Easter Eggs Ukrainian style, Olympic Rower Anna Watkins and sports historian Jean Williams on the history of the Women's Boat Race and why do some girls sexually abuse? Sheila McClennon discusses pioneering research.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdbxn)
Soloparentpals.com: Series 4

Be It Ever So Humble

SOLOPARENTPALS.COM by Sue Teddern

Episode 1. Be It Ever So Humble

Tom's plans to propose were scuppered when Rosie discovered he had accepted a permanent job on London. It looks like they are living apart again

Director: David Hunter.


FRI 11:00 The Forgotten Black Cowboys (b01r9wcg)
Hollywood shows us a wild west populated only by white cowboys. But it's only part of the story, as Sarfraz Manzoor discovers as he goes in search of America's black cowboys.

On his journey through Texas, he finds that the west was populated by both African Americans and Hispanic cowboys, and that their legacy lives on today. He joins a trail ride with black cowboys as they make their way across the dusty plains following the routes of their ancestors. Complete with twelve covered wagons and up to 200 riders on horseback, Sarfraz finds a great pride in this black heritage.

In Wichita, Kansas, he meets one remarkable performer, the very first actor to appear as a black cowboy in the movies of the 1930s. At a time of racial segration in the United States, few white cinema goers would ever have heard of Herb Jeffries, but he was the hero in films such as 'Harlem on the Prairie'. Today Herb Jeffries is about to turn 100.

So how did this part of America get airbrushed out of the movies and the history books? He talks to experts and archivists, as well as those who have lived the life of the range, to find a true life story hidden from sight for many years.


FRI 11:30 HR (b01r9wcj)
Series 4

Lamb of My Father

by Nigel Williams. Sam, having won the lottery, casts around for another project to invest his and Peter's energies and cash in. This time they hit on haute cuisine, Welsh style.

Sam ..... Nicholas Le Prevost
Peter ... Jonathan Pryce
Myfanwy ..... Lizzy Watts
Welshman ..... Steffan Rhodri.


FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b01r9wcl)
Train fares, nuisance callers and tasteless fruit

News of a crack down on the companies that keep on calling you even when you've opted out of marketing calls. Should train companies be obliged to offer you the cheapest ticket for your journey? Why does fruit seem to taste better on holiday? The latest techniques used by thieves to steal money from cashpoints.

Presented by Peter White and produced by Sarah Lewthwaite.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b01r90tk)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b01r9wcn)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


FRI 13:45 Noise: A Human History (b01rdzx0)
The Rise of the Shamans

Around the world charismatic individuals claim the ability to change the weather, heal illness and help crops grow. Professor David Hendy explains how sound - and its manipulation - is central to the shaman's power.

David introduces the eerie rituals of Siberian reindeer herders as they summon spirits, before coming closer to home to hear a mysterious singing angel high in the facade of Wells Cathedral.

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b01r9slf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b01r9wcq)
Mike Walker - The Edison Cylinders

Rhona Forrester, a physicist in a sound laboratory, is persuaded by an old flame to restore some early wax cylinder recordings. But the voice that emerges begins to exert a malevolent influence.

Written by Mike Walker

Directed by John Taylor

A Fiction Factory production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b01r9wcs)
The Edible Garden Show

Eric Robson chairs GQT from The Edible Garden Show in Warwickshire - with Bob Flowerdew, Christine Walkden and James Wong taking the audience's questions.

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

This week's questions:

Q: I have recently acquired items from an old fridge freezer, including three glass shelves. How can I put them to use in the garden?
A: Try them as temporary wind breaks to shield tender plants. Alternatively, recycle them at your local tip in a swap for free compost. Freezer glass tends to be fairly strong, but do take care.

Q: What trees would you propose we plant to screen the new railway line being built at the bottom of our heavy clay garden?
A: Try fruit and flower trees such as Crataegus Prunifolia, a native tree which has beautiful Autumn colour and good fruit. Malus 'Flowering Crab' and Sorbuses - the Mountain Ashes - would also work and come in a spectacular range of sizes and with good leaf colours, flowers and fruits that will feed the wildlife. Although not a tree, Bamboo Phyllostachys would make a great screen and will also absorb sound. Use a high nitrogen fertiliser on your clay soil and it should grow pretty quickly.

Q: I have a horseradish root growing very close to my rhubarb and last year the rhubarb died very quickly. Are the two things related?
A: Some plants are antithetical to others but in this case it sounds unlikely - the rhubarb probably just had a bad case of crown rot. Horseradish is very difficult to move or get rid of so it would probably be a better idea to plant your rhubarb elsewhere anyway. Try a virus-free variety such as Victoria.

Q: I planted broad beans, peas and asparagus in October and received poor results. Should I have left it to spring?
A: In a normal year, planting in October would be fine but the constant wet and cold weather over the past year has been problematic. That said, have patience with your asparagus as it can sometimes take nearly 20 weeks before you see the first shoots appear.

Q: I'm keen to grow the 'super-fruit' pomegranates, what varieties would work in the UK?
A: Pomegranates are very difficult to grow as they need long hot summers - so forget about a serious crop. You could try growing the dwarf variety in your greenhouse, which incidentally has magnificent flowers. On the subject of 'super fruit', you might be surprised to hear pomegranates only contain about as many anti-oxidants as red lettuces or red apples - so you could grow those instead.

Q: What are the best 'value for time' crops that I could plant at my allotment?
Q: Build a fruit cage and plant soft fruits - once everything's in the ground you'll have nothing to do for six months until it's time for harvest. Grow things such as quinces, chillis and guavas, or try white strawberries that are 'invisible' to birds as they tend to only hone in on the red colours. Rapid growing vegetables such as salad leaves, spring onions and radishes are always good.

A: I'd like to grow my own Loganberries. What variety and conditions would you suggest?
Q: Consider the Tayberry - a hybrid developed in Scotland, which is bigger, juicier and easier to grow. The Black Raspberry Glenn Coe would be another good alternative - it's a new breed from the UK that fruits twice a year with a very high sugar content.

Q: I have some Cordon Apple trees which have rooted from above the rootstock union. To stop them getting too over-vigorous can I simply cut the roots that have grown above?
A: Providing that they haven't taken over from the original root-stock - yes. Check by getting a hold of the bottom of the tree and give it a yank at ground level. If it's firm you should be fine.

Q: We planted the top of a pineapple in our front garden and it's now a very attractive plant about 3 foot tall. It has survived frost and snow - will it survive being moved?
A: We're amazed to hear it has survived being outside. Pot it up in a gritty, well-draining compost and bring it into cover. Expose it to smoke to bring it into flower and six months later it should fruit.

Q: Do you have any advice for growing a butternut squash?
A: Why not try something you can't find in the shops such as Cucurbita Ficifolia, the 'fig leaf gourd' also known as the 'angel's hair pumpkin' in Spain and 'shark fin melon' in Asia. You can eat the stem tips and the gourd has a mild cucumbery flavour. It's the most cool-tolerant of all Curcubita and will take over your garden.

Q: I bought a Garrya Eliptica that' remained in its pot for two months and now looks black and crinkly. Should I prune it?
A: Don't prune it as it sounds as it sounds like it has experienced considerable death. Leave it in the pot and wait to see if anything shoots.


FRI 15:45 Maiden City Stories (b01r9wcv)
Peace Reigns Supreme

Three new short stories, specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to celebrate Derry~Londonderry's status as UK City of Culture, from some of the city's leading literary figures. Seamus Deane, Jennifer Johnston and Brian McGilloway each bring us a new short story, recorded in front of an audience in the city's Verbal Arts Centre.

'Peace reigns supreme' by Seamus Deane.

Writer

Seamus Deane is a Derry born poet, novelist, and critic. A founding director of the Field Day Theatre Company and member of the Royal Irish Academy, Deane's first novel, Reading in the Dark (published in 1996) won the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize and the 1996 South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature, is a New York Times Notable Book, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize and the Irish Literature Prize in 1997, besides being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996 and since translated into over 20 languages.

'Peace reigns supreme'
by Seamus Deane
Read by Sean McGinley and Kerr Logan
Produced by Heather Larmour.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b01r9wcx)
A famous African author, a plotter against Hitler, a horror writer, an actor and an illustrator

Matthew Bannister on:

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, thought to be the last surviving member of the 20th July plot against Adolf Hitler.

The actor Frank Thornton - who had a varied stage career but was best known as Captain Peacock in the TV sitcom Are You Being Served.

James Herbert, the best selling author of horror stories like The Rats and The Fog.

And the children's book illustrator Barbara Firth, who enchanted both parents and children with her work on "Can't You Sleep Little Bear".


FRI 16:30 Feedback (b01r9wcz)
Do BBC reporters know their Higgs boson from their Bunsen burner? Many of you think BBC science reporting is woefully inaccurate. Roger Bolton talks to David Shukman, a year into his role as the BBC Science Editor, to find out what steps the BBC is taking to equip reporters with scientific knowhow.

Last week the Crown Prosecution Service published its first ever study into false allegations of rape and domestic violence, which said that such claims are a very small percentage of the overall figure. So why did Newsbeat major on the victims of false claims? Roger talks to Newsbeat presenter Chris Smith.

And Radio 2 presenter Stuart Maconie takes us inside the People's Songs, Radio 2's social history of post-war Britain told through 50 pop records, largely determined by listeners. We meet some of the listeners whose stories of love, lust, and life made the run-down.

Also, how can a ten-year-old know what it's like to be eighty? Well, the young actors in a new Radio 3 drama, called The Startling Truths of Old World Sparrows, were very convincing according to many listeners who wrote to Feedback to say how moved they were. The play took the testimony of three octogenarians and used child actors to voice their thoughts. Roger speaks to Fiona Evans, its writer, to find out more about this ground breaking approach.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producers: Karen Pirie and Katherine Godfrey
Feedback is a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 17:00 PM (b01r9wd1)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b01r90tm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The Now Show (b01r9wd3)
Series 39

Episode 6

Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis are joined by Mitch Benn, Sara Pascoe, Laura Shavin and Grace Petrie to present a comic run through the week's news. Produced by Colin Anderson.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b01r9wd5)
At playgroup, Helen worries about Henry's behaviour, but Emma tells her not to be hard on herself. When Emma wonders if Helen would have another child, Helen jokes she'd never cope. Emma says Christopher is desperate to be home. Helen's concern for Susan and Neil leads Emma to comment on parents losing children, which she quickly apologises for.

Tony's in a thoughtful mood. He doesn't think he could bear to let the cows go. Pat just can't see Tom's logic. He's riding roughshod over them, not appreciating their experience. He needs to remember they are a family business.

Pat asks Brenda's opinion on Tom's 'brainwave'. Brenda's shocked to learn of Tom's plan to sell the herd. Tony says it has shaken his faith in the farm's future.

Brenda confronts Tom who says he was only presenting an idea to Pat and Tony. But Brenda points out their hurt feelings. Tom should also have discussed his ideas with Brenda. Tom explains his concern for Tony, who deserves to retire in comfort. Brenda fumes when Tom describes his own stress yesterday. What about the week she's had?! Lilian and Matt have been unbearable. Angry Tom feels he is the only person looking out for the family's future.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b01r9wd7)
The Book of Mormon; Lee Mack; London Zoo Tiger House

With John Wilson

The Broadway hit musical The Book Of Mormon has opened in London. The show is a satirical tale of Mormon missionaries visiting a Ugandan village threatened by a brutal warlord. Book, lyrics and music are by Trey Parker and Matt Stone - creators of the animated comedy, South Park - and Robert Lopez, composer of Avenue Q. Grace Dent reviews.

Comedian Lee Mack, writer and star of TV sitcom Not Going Out, talks about surviving the death of British sitcom, the perfect gag-rate and filming two alternative endings for the new series - depending on whether Lee and Lucy finally get together or not.

ZSL London Zoo's new "tiger territory" was designed in collaboration with the zoo keepers, and the new enclosure aims to provide the tigers with the most suitable environment. The zoo is known for its famous buildings, and the Lubetkin penguin pool and Snowdon aviary are architectural icons. Michael Kozdon, the architect who designed the new tiger enclosure, zoo keeper Teague Stubbington and architecture critic Owen Hatherley discuss how zoo buildings have changed to accommodate the animals, rather than to make an architectural statement.

Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri pays tribute to his celebrated countryman Chinua Achebe, who has died aged 82. A novelist, essayist and poet, Achebe is best-known for his novel, Things Fall Apart, which has become the most widely-read book in modern African literature.

Producer Rebecca Nicholson.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b01rdbxn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b01r9wd9)
Jack Straw, Peter Lilley, Susan Kramer, John Bird

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Ellesmere Port in the North West with the former Home Secretary MP Jack Straw and the founder of the Big Issue John Bird, Baroness Susan Kramer and Peter Lilley MP.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b01r9wdc)
Turkish notions

"Lately I've been thinking a lot about the Turk", writes Adam Gopnik. He's talking - not of the Ottomans - but the famous chess playing machine constructed in the late 18th century.

A mechanical figure of a bearded man, dressed in Turkish clothing, appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. It was - in fact - a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine.

It was a sensation. But the players inside were nothing more than good chess players.

"We always over estimate the space between the uniquely good and the very good", Gopnik writes. "We worship one tennis player as uniquely gifted, failing to see that the runners-up, who we scoff at as perpetual losers, are themselves fantastically gifted and accomplished, that the inept footballer we whistle at in despair is a better football player than we have ever seen or ever will meet".

As some of the world's top chess players battle it out in London in the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship, Adam Gopnik reflects on why we overrate masters and underrate mastery.


FRI 21:00 Noise: A Human History - Omnibus (b01r9wdf)
Episode 1

A six-week series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Professor David Hendy from the University of Sussex visits the caves of Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy with musicologist Iegor Reznikoff to listen to evidence of the mind and beliefs of Neolithic people.

He travels to Ghana to hear the talking drum and explores our relationship with noisy nature.

Orkney's Neolithic sites feel like theatre stages, encouraging us to move through them in unfamiliar ways. Were these the kind of places where our ancestors came to make a spectacular din - or places where they came in search of silence and sensory deprivation?

Finally, David explains how sound - and its manipulation - is central to the shaman's power.

Series Producer: Matt Thompson
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b01r90tp)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b01r9wdh)
The day's news, with Philippa Thomas.

Tonight - the latest from Cyprus, where the Parliament is trying to reach a bailout deal.

And an exclusive interview with the deputy head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who talks about protests, Putin, and the relationship between London and Moscow.

Later - a state of emergency in central Burma after violence between Buddhists and Muslims; the overprescription of antibiotics in India; and why potash could make a lot of people rich in North Yorkshire.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b01r9wdk)
Lucy Caldwell - All the Beggars Riding

Episode 10

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. (Trad.)

After the death of her mother, Lara Moorhouse finds herself besieged with questions about her childhood that she never had the courage to ask her mother when she was alive. In particular, questions about her father.
When Lara and her younger brother Alfie were children, their father, an eminent surgeon, died in a helicopter crash. He had been largely absent from their lives, spending much of his time working in Belfast during the Troubles and only coming back to London two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic where he had first met their mother years before.
For unbeknownst to her, Lara's father had another life in Belfast; a wife, other children: another family.
As she delves into her parents' lives and the story of their relationship, Lara confronts her own past, and theirs, and discovers an unexpected legacy from her father's hidden double life.
All the Beggars Riding is Lucy Caldwell's third novel. In 2011 Lucy won the The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was awarded the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for her second novel 'The Meeting Point'. A playwright and novelist Lucy's theatre credits include the award-winning 'Leaves', 'Guardians' and 'Notes to Future Self'. For radio she has written the Imison Award-winning 'Girl from Mars', 'Avenues of Eternal Peace', 'Witch Week' a dramatization of Diana Wynne Jones' novel for BBC Radio 4 Extra, and most recently she adapted her stage play 'Notes to Future Self' for Radio 4.

Read by Anne-Marie Duff
Abridged by Doreen Estall
Producer Heather Larmour.


FRI 23:00 Chinua Achebe: A Hero Returns (b00hlczn)
In a change to the published schedule, Radio 4 revisits a 2009 documentary joining Chinua Achebe, the giant of African literature, on a dramatic visit to Nigeria, his home country. The programme was presented by Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society.
Producer: Smita Patel.


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b01r9wdm)
Mark D'Arcy with the day's top stories from Westminster. Day three of the Budget debate in the Commons sees a row about this week's unemployment figures and about claims that Jobcentre managers are using targets and league tables. Also in the programme: the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Alastair Carmichael on the health of the Coalition; and an attempt by a cross-party alliance of MPs to make sure householders in flood risk areas do not face massive increases in their insurance bills - or lose their cover altogether. Editor: Rachel Byrne.