SATURDAY 07 DECEMBER 2013

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b03k2h7m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b03k2gqd)
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life

Episode 5

Penelope Fitzgerald's novels were short, spare masterpieces, self-concealing, oblique and subtle. She won the Booker Prize for her novel Offshore in 1979, and her last work, The Blue Flower, was acclaimed as a work of genius.

The early novels drew on her own experiences - a boat on the Thames in the 1960s, the BBC in war-time, a failing bookshop in Suffolk, an eccentric stage-school. The later ones opened out to encompass historical worlds which, magically, she seemed to possess entirely: Russia before the Revolution, post-war Italy, Germany in the time of the Romantic writer Novalis.

Fitzgerald's life is as various and as cryptic as her fiction. It spans most of the twentieth century, and moves from a Bishop's Palace to a sinking barge, from a demanding intellectual family to hardship and poverty, from a life of teaching and obscurity to a blaze of renown.

She was first published at sixty and became famous at eighty. This is a story of lateness, patience and persistence - a private form of heroism.

Loved and admired, and increasingly recognised as one of the outstanding novelists of her time, she remains also mysterious and intriguing. She liked to mislead people with a good imitation of an absent-minded old lady, but under that scatty front was a steel-sharp brain and an imagination of wonderful reach.

This biography by Hermione Lee pursues Fitzgerald's life, her writing, and her secret self, with fascinated interest.

Read by Penelope Wilton
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03k2h7p)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03k2h7r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03k2h7t)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b03k2h7w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03k2hjt)
A spiritual comment, prayer and tribute to Nelson Mandela with Lord Harries of Pentregarth.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b03k2hjw)
'My husband was a child sex offender, but I never knew' - A listener who knew nothing of her husband's crimes speaks to iPM. Your News is read by Robert Peston. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b03k2h7y)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b03k2h80)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b03k29y0)
Romney Marsh

Tales of smuggling and 'lookers huts' unfold as Helen Mark explores Romney Marsh in Kent. Historically, this great coastal marshland was the result of reclamation of land from the sea, and is the site of an on-going battle to drain it and keep the sea from taking it back. Throughout the centuries life on the Marsh had been difficult, but by the 19th century the economy and the landscape was dominated by sheep; the Romney Marsh sheep. Today, alongside the sheep the area boasts a Nuclear power station at Dungeness, sitting in stark contrast to the shingle landscape of the National Nature Reserve it neighbours. This, along with the 14 medieval churches which dot the landscape, is what gives Romney Marsh it's unique character.

Produced by Perminder Khatkar.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b03kp2rv)
Farming Today This Week

More than four million of us take part in rural sports, according to the Country Land and Business Association. And with the game shooting season in full swing, Charlotte Smith visits a farm-based pheasant shoot to find out more about the sport. Unlike an expensive private shoot, farm drives are run and managed by farmers who pay a subscription to cover the basic running costs. The shoots are not only for sport, but are, according to the farmers, an important social activity. Whilst shoots may have conservation benefits in creating and managing woodland, could some be detrimental to local wildlife populations?

Aside from shooting, rural sports such as quad biking can be a useful source of income for farmers who want to diversify their business. And traditional sports such as ferreting have added benefit as a form of on-farm pest control.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jules Benham.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b03k2h82)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b03kp2rx)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b03kp46y)
Michael Arditti, Judith Kerr

Richard Coles and Suzy Klein meet novelist Michael Arditti who talks about faith and the novel, nearly dying after eating goats cheese and his travels around the Philippines researching a book, enjoy the Inheritance Tracks of Judith Kerr who wrote and illustrated, amongst other things, The Tiger Who Came To Tea, talk to Melvyn Evans who fought in Aden in the 1960's and realised, 40 years later, that he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and hear from Joe Glackin, a former priest who worked in Liberia with child soldiers and street children. There's more travel with Professor Cathy Warwick CBE, General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, who organises midwifery tours of South Africa, a celebration of Martin Wright, the inventor of the peak flow meter, and JP Devlin travels to the recently announced City of Culture 2017, Hull, where he meets some of the locals.

Producer: Chris Wilson.


SAT 10:30 The Enfield Thunderbolt (b03kp470)
Episode 2

Peter Curran has bought the 40 year old remains of a piece of motoring history. The Enfield 8000 was a prototype electric car built in the early 1970s at the height of the energy crisis, when the British Government feared that the country would grind to a halt at the hands of the oil producing nations of the world.

The car was the result of a secret deal brokered between a Greek shipping billionaire and the Electricity Boards, and was aimed at creating a revolution in the way we thought about transportation.

The Enfield 8000 was shorter than a Mini but had bold styling and came in a range of classic 70's shades. It was powered by four giant tractor batteries and applied the latest electrical circuitry to control the car. It had no gear stick, just a tiny toggle switch which flicked it instantly from forward to reverse. Just over a hundred vehicles were produced, and enthusiastic early owners talked about its delicate handling, impressive pick up speed and natty aero-dynamics.

Peter Curran concludes his story of this ground-breaking British car as he tries to breathe life into his 40 year old Enfield for one final challenge.

Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2013.


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (b03kp472)
Steve Richards of The Independent looks behind the scenes at Westminster.

Did George Osborne's Autumn Statement this week have its sights on the next general election, and if so how exactly does the economy influence voting intentions? Plus is there a blueprint for coming out of Europe, and Lord Prescott on how to deputise for the prime minister at Question Time.

The editor is Marie Jessel.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b03kp474)
Mandela: Five Correspondents' Stories

Nelson Mandela: a special programme featuring five correspondents who will never forget how their own stories came to coincide with that of the great South African leader, who died on Thursday. Fergal Keane was our man in Johannesburg as Mr Mandela fought to keep his country back from the brink of civil war; John Simpson on the day he met a man who had 'become perhaps the most revered person on earth.' Milton Nkosi recalls the risks taken to keep the name of Nelson Mandela alive in the townships during his long years of imprisonment; Hamilton Wende on what it was like, as a white South African, growing up in a country where even talking of Mr Mandela could be dangerous and James Robbins on the long-awaited day when the man who went on to lead the country was freed from prison and appeared before a jubilant crowd in Cape Town.

From Our Own Correspondent is presented by Kate Adie and produced by Tony Grant.


SAT 12:00 Money Box (b03kp476)
Energy firms, Autumn Statement, mobile bills

If you change your energy supplier and leave with a credit on your account some suppliers may keep it. What should happen? And how do you make sure it does? Audrey Gallacher, Director of Energy at Consumer Futures explains.

The bits of the Autumn Statement you may have missed: car tax disc to go; council tax relief for family annexes; CGT change; private debt collectors for money owed to HMRC; and a new way to boost your state pension. Paul Lewis talks to Jane Moore, from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

The government says it has agreed with mobile phone companies that they will cap the debt that can be run up on a stolen mobile phone. But how far is it really going? We'll hear from Dominic Baliszewski of broadbandchoices.co.uk.

More than a million people rely on heating oil to heat their homes, but the market is unregulated and they say competition doesn't work. Money Box talks to Therese Coffey, Conservative MP.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b03k2gqv)
Series 82

Episode 5

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig. With guests Susan Calman, Justin Moorhouse and Greg Proops joining regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b03k2h84)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b03k2h86)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b03k2gr1)
Andrew Lansley MP, Tristram Hunt MP, Jeanette Winterson, Paul Johnson

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Gloucestershire College, Royal Forest of Dean Campus in Coleford with the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Lansley; Shadow Education Secretary, Tristram Hunt; Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies; and the writer, Jeanette Winterson.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b03kp478)
Mandela, Education, Economic Recovery

A chance to have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?

Your views on Nelson Mandela, why our 15 year olds failed to make the top 20 in international tests in maths, reading and science, and your experiences of the economic recovery?

Anita Anand hears your reaction to the subjects discussed in Any Questions? by the Leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Lansley; the Shadow Education Secretary, Dr Tristram Hunt; the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson; the writer, Jeanette Winterson.

You can have your say on any of the subjects discussed on Any Answers? just after the news at 2pm on Saturday. Call 03700 100 444 from 1230, e-mail anyanswers@bbc.co.uk, tweet using #BBCAQ, or text 84844.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b03kp47b)
Carine Adler - Angel Maker

Angel Maker by Carine Adler

When penniless Hungarian Lili arrives in London with her young daughter, she is determined to use whatever means available to make the arrangement with her rich boyfriend Sam more permanent. A passionate tale of money, sex and the power they bring, set in 1950s London.

Producer/Director Charlotte Riches

Angel Maker is set in mid 1950s, post war London, a time when women had few choices and would be lost without a man to protect them. This was especially true for immigrants like Lili Weiss, a penniless, Jewish Hungarian, who comes to London with her young daughter Rosie in the hope of securing a brighter future for herself and her daughter by marrying Sam, a man whom she had a passionate affair with just after the war. As a development entrepreneur, Sam is rich and powerful and is making a name for himself in the higher echelons of London society. As a Jewish immigrant with no family and no money Lili is at the opposite end of this spectrum. Lili must use her sexuality and charm to encourage Max to go against the prejudice of London society and his own family to take her as his wife.


SAT 15:30 Soul Music (b03jznqg)
Series 17

Gymnopédie No 1

From the seat of a concert hall piano, Pascal Rogé, one of the world's greatest interpreters of French piano music, leads us through a personal and musical journey of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies. You may not immediately know the title but in hearing just the first few notes you are most likely to know the music.

Erik Satie's Gymnopédies are a collection of short, atmospheric pieces of which Gymnopédie No.1 is perhaps the most popular. Music historian and author Mark Prendergast has studied Satie's work and reveals the complex character of the man who revolutionised the 19th century classical music of Europe. Melbourne based artist Colin Duncan reflects on the music's 'physical form which takes you into space and time' and for him inspired a body of work created in brail. Murder Mystery writer Cathy Ace remembers how this meditative music could shut out the noise of the city as she sped around London in her old brown mini, whilst Mathematician and author Ian Stewart explores the mathematics of this special piece and how music can touch our soul.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b03kp9bj)
Weekend Woman's Hour: Barbara Broccoli; Jeff Kinney; Mona Eltahawy

Barbara Broccoli on her love of Bond movies and on producing Strangers on a Train for theatre. Jeff Kinney on his Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the books that get boys reading. Who are the new role models for girls? We discuss with Rachel de Souza, Chief Executive of the Inspiration Trust and Holly Baxter from the Vagenda blog. The journalist Mona Eltahawy tells us about the worrying reality for women in Egypt and her hopes for the country. Randi Zuckerberg demystifying technology with her book Dot Complicated. Is it ever okay for audiences at meetings held in universities to be segregated? Sara Khan and Reyana Patel give us their views.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Rebecca Myatt
Output Editor: Jane Thurlow.


SAT 17:00 PM (b03kp9bl)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b03k2hjw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b03k2h88)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b03k2h8b)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03k2h8d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b03kp232)
Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alan McGee, Dan Patterson, Henning Wehn, Danny Wallace, Samantha Crain

Clive's on the cobbles with actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who's best known for her role on Coronation Street as Hayley Cropper, the first transsexual character in a British serial. As Hayley's story ends, Julie talks to Clive about Hayley's life and its resonance, and about what the future holds for her post Hayley. 'Coronation Street' is on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday at 19.30 on ITV.

Clive talks to the German Comedy Ambassador to The United Kingdom, Henning Wehn. This is not the easiest of jobs because Germans allegedly do not have a sense of humour. Henning does not find that funny. He talks to Clive about his new Christmas show 'Henning Knows Bestest', which is at Leicester Square Theatre, London on 8th and 15th December.

Danny Wallace talks to Alan McGee, whose role in shaping British musical culture over the past thirty years is hard to overstate. As the co-founder of Creation Records he brought us the bands that defined an era, including My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream. His autobiography 'Creation Stories' documents the events from leaving school at sixteen to co-founding Creation when he was just twenty-three.

Clive Mocks the Week with television producer and writer Dan Patterson, who was responsible for Clive's improvisation show 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' His new outrageous comedy 'The Duck House' is set in a world of dodgy receipts, dodgier deceit, and pure Parliamentary panic. It's at Vaudeville Theatre, London until 29th March 2014.

With music from Oklahoma's Samantha Crain, who performs 'Paint' and 'Somewhere All The Time' from her album 'Kid Face'.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b03kp9bn)
Tom Daley

He was one of the poster boys for London 2012 - a contributor to Team GB's medal haul, admired for his perfect mid-flight somersaults and skimpy swimwear.

British Olympic diver Tom Daley has lived his life in the public eye since first attracting attention aged ten, when he became Britain's youngest diver to win the national championships.

Tom Daley is in the media spotlight more than ever this week after announcing on YouTube that he is dating a man, provoking much discussion not only of the announcement but of the public's reaction to it. Mark Coles tells his story.

Producer: Charlotte Pritchard.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b03kp9bq)
Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre; Photorealism exhibition in Birmingham; Nebraska; The Dogs of Littlefield

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests Ellah Alfrey, Craig Raine and Rosie Boycott discuss the following -

Nebraska is the latest work from film director Alexander Payne, it's set in and carrying the name of his home state. Best known for his roles as menacing heavy characters, here Bruce Dern plays a old man who believes he has won a large cash prize and sets off to collect it, causing problems for his family and creating tension among his friends. It has been extremely warmly received in the USA, but what will our reviewers make of it?

Suzanne Berne's first novel won The Orange Prize in 1999; an auspicious start. Her latest, The Dogs of Littlefield, tells the story of smalltown America living under the shadow of a poisoner who is killing much-loved pets leading to rifts within the community. A mix of local townsfolk and academic observers have their theories about whodunnit and why. Can canine assassination sustain the interest of this week's reviewers?

The National Theatre has created seasonal shows in the past which have won acclaim from the press and public alike - His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse (which has become a fixture in London's West End for 6 years now). This year's offering is a stage adaptation of another favourite children's book - Emil and The Detectives - written in 1929. The cast includes more than 50 children onstage helping to tack down Emil's stolen money; could this turn out to be another War Horse?

An exhibition of photorealism at Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery is the first major scale retrospective in Europe. The movement began in the USA in the late 60s, and was controversial and scorned by many in the art establishment of the time; but what does a modern audience who live in a high definition world make of this once-daring art?

Daniel Radcliffe makes another bid to shed the Harry Potter image with his latest film, playing homosexual poet Allen Ginsberg, in Kill Your Darlings. Telling the little-known tale of the group of beat writers who became embroiled in a gay murder in 1944, it's a big switch for Radcliffe but will he bring his fans with him?

Producer: Oliver Jones.


SAT 20:00 Making Mandela (b03nxvfh)
Following the death of Nelson Mandela, Laurie Taylor presents a special programme describing how he became a moral icon in Britain. Back in the 1960s, he was virtually unknown in this country. But the efforts of a small group of strategically minded campaigners against apartheid turned him into one of the most recognisable of figures. Laurie tells the remarkable story of Mandela's secret visit to Britain in 1962, and the beginnings of the anti-apartheid campaign in some ramshackle offices. Despite opposition from those who saw Mandela as a terrorist, pure and simple, they managed to focus their campaign around his story and his long imprisonment on Robben Island. Laurie talks to the musicians like Jerry Dammers who celebrated Mandela's birthdays in a series of high-profile concerts and who released the hit single "Free Nelson Mandela." This is the inside story of Nelson Mandela became a hero to an entire British generation.

Producer: Tony Phillips.


SAT 21:00 The James M Cain Series (b03jyp1c)
James M Cain - Double Indemnity

Walter Huff has a good steady job in the insurance business and leads a quiet life. Then he meets and falls in love with Phyllis, an unhappily married woman, enquiring about accident insurance for her husband. They come up with a plan in which Phyllis's husband will die an unlikely death, by falling from a moving train. The 'accidental' nature of his demise will trigger the 'double indemnity' clause of the policy, forcing the insurance company to pay the widow twice the normal amount.
The couple carry out their plan but things soon turn sour. The Insurance Investigator is suspicious, and so are Phyllis's daughter, and her mysterious boyfriend Nino.

Adapted from James M Cain's novel, by Stef Penney

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b03k2h8g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Moral Maze (b03k21p1)
Morality on the battlefield

This Friday a court martial will sentence Marine A - the sergeant who was found guilty of the murder of a wounded Afghan insurgent. In footage from a helmet camera we heard the Commando shooting the man point blank in the chest with the words: "Shuffle off this mortal coil... It's nothing you wouldn't do to us." He then said to his comrades: "Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention". With these words you might feel that Marine A was condemned out of his own mouth. His guilt has certainly been established, now perhaps the more morally difficult question of his culpability has to be answered. Is he simply a cold blooded ruthless killer or a man who having been through the horrors of war, momentarily lost his bearings? For almost all of us it's hard to imagine the exhaustion and pressure that soldiers like Marine A have been through and if we were in the same situation, might we too have pulled the trigger? But would any hint of clemency incentivise revenge jihadist attacks and undermine our moral ascendancy over our enemies? If that is the case why are we trying Marine A and not the drone operators who fire missiles which kill innocent bystanders? We rely on our armed forces to fight on our behalf and when needs be, to kill on our behalf too, but how do we ensure they do the right thing? Is it still sufficient to rely on a "band of brothers" military ethos born out of Aristotelian virtue ethics- where we do the right thing out of strength of character that's inculcated through training and regimental honours? Or do the demands of modern warfare, where targets can be an enemy one moment and a civilian the next, mean that we should focus on more sophisticated rules of engagement and legal documents such as the Geneva Conventions?


SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (b03jz22f)
(12/12)
The 2013 season of the lateral thinking quiz reaches its final contest, with Wales hoping to complete a full house of victories this year. Only the Northern Ireland team can stop them sweeping all before them for the fourth time in five years.

Tom Sutcliffe asks the questions, and provides the teams with helpful nudges where necessary - but the more clues he has to give, the fewer the points he awards them for their answers.

The Wales team consists of Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards, while Roisin McAuley and Brian Feeney play for Northern Ireland.

For the final contest, by tradition, every question asked in the programme has been submitted by a Round Britain Quiz listener.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 The Whitsun Weddings (b03jyp1k)
Whitsun Weddings was the title poem of the collection - published 50 years ago - that made Larkin famous. Poet Jean Sprackland, who teaches Larkin and whose father, a librarian, met him professionally, retraces the train journey at the heart of the poem.

She considers Larkin's views about marriage, about class and about the 'state of Britain', against the background of the poet's own seemingly quiet life in the provincial town of Hull.

For many, Whitsun Weddings is Philip Larkin's most characteristic poem, expressing his detachment from the crowd and from love and marriage of the ordinary sort.

With James Booth, Andrew Motion, John Osborne and Larkin's surviving mistress, the 'third woman' Betty Mackereth.

Producer: Susan Marling
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.



SUNDAY 08 DECEMBER 2013

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl41z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Afternoon Reading (b01292gb)
Three for My Baby

Mighty

These stories take their cue from the Johnny Mercer classic 'One For My Baby' - made famous by Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and especially Frank Sinatra. Each of these specially-commissioned pieces tell of a 'brief episode' of the kind the song alludes to but doesn't describe. In other words, these are stories about doomed love: affairs that turned sour, were thwarted by circumstance or were never, ever, going to work.

Mighty by Tom Connolly

It has been going well for the Man and his lover. So much so that they plan to start a family. But the arrival of a cat in the neighbourhood seems to call his lover back to a painful past ...

Tom Connolly is a film-maker and writer. His first novel, The Spider Truces, was published in 2010. This is his first story for Radio 4. He lives in a remote corner of the Rother Valley, in East Sussex.

Reader: Tom Goodman-Hill

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


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl421)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl423)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl425)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl427)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b03kpky0)
The bells of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield in London.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b03kp9bn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b03kl429)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b03kpky2)
A Special Tribute to Nelson Mandela

Mike Wooldridge presents a celebration of the life and career of Nelson Mandela in a special edition of Something Understood with readings by Adjoa Andoh and Colin MacFarlane.

In a tribute to the life and extraordinary achievements of Nelson Mandela, Mike Wooldridge presents a portrait of South Africa's great statesman, philanthropist and President through readings of a wide and affecting range of friends and admirers - Desmond Tutu, the late Seamus Heaney, Tanzanian poet and songwriter Nasibu Mwanukusi, as well as Robben Island warder James Gregory and the grandson of the architect of apartheid and ANC supporter Wilhelm Verwoerd.

Music is drawn from work Mandela himself was known to love and the enormous range of work written in tribute to him throughout his life.

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


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b03kpky4)
A Norfolk Farm on a Plate

Anna Hill is in Norfolk on the Blickling Estate to see one farmer's produce end up on her plate - as a traditional roast dinner and a pint of ale. Tony Bambridge is a specialist grower of both seed and ware potatoes which require virgin land each time they are grown. Potatoes are particularly susceptible to pests and pathogens and ensuring that he uses fresh land cuts down on the risks of these affecting his crop. For seed potatoes he must leave a gap of 12 - 15 years so he rents neighbouring farmers' land, fitting into their crop rotations. On his own land he also grows Maris Otter winter barley, which he sells to local microbreweries to produce real ale. His niche crop is horseradish root which goes to local restaurants and shops, and is particularly popular amongst the Jewish community at Passover. Tony's wife Emily breeds Lincoln Red cattle to produce beef which is all sold to the local butcher in Aylsham. All these elements come together at the Saracen's Head, where Anna sits down to a plate of roast beef, roast potatoes, horseradish sauce with a pint of local beer, all produce originating from Tony's farm.

Produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b03kl42c)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b03kl42f)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b03kpky6)
Mandela, Faith Schools, Buddha

We report from South Africa on an nation in mourning and remembrance

The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis talks to Edward about the special relationship between the Jewish community in South Africa and Nelson Mandela.

The former Archbishop of Capetown, Njongonkula Ndungane was also a prisoner on Robben Island, he talks about Mandela's leadership.

Rev Dirkie Van Der Spui from the Dutch reform church in South Africa discusses the changes in the South African Churches since Mandela's release.

We speak to Durham University's Professor Robin Coningham on the breakthrough discovery into the origins of Buddhism.

It's one month on from the storm that hit the Philippines and Jim Murphy (the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development) has just returned. He talks to us about how the church is crucial to the population in an emergency and how Britain handles the increased frequency and ferocity of extreme weather events.

As the situation in the Central African Republic deteriorates further, we hear from the Most Reverend Nestor Désiré Nongo Aziagbia Bishop of Bossangoa & Vice-President of the Central African Catholic Bishops' Conference.

The Fair Admissions Campaign claim that faith schools in the UK admit fewer poor pupils than secular schools. Kevin Bocquet investigates.

Producers: Carmel Lonergan and Catherine Earlam.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b03kpky8)
Women and Children First UK

Kathy Lette presents the Radio 4 Appeal for Women and Children First UK.
Reg Charity:1085096 To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Women and Children First Radio'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b03kl42h)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b03kl42k)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b03kpkyb)
The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd Justin Welby, reflects on the life of Nelson Mandela in a service live from St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square and from the Church of Christ the King, Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

Leader: The Revd Dr Sam Wells
With: The Revd Neo Motlabane
Organist: Michael Cayton
Music Director: Andrew Earis
Producer: Simon Vivian & Christine Morgan.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b03k2gr3)
It's Always the Others Who Die

Will Self reflects that our modern, secular society has silenced the voices of the dead. As a result, he argues, we fail to appreciate the sacred buildings, art and literature of the past.

"Having purged them on the basis that they can furnish no proof of their existence, do we not begin to undermine the capacity of that which they have left behind to also speak to us?"

Producer: Sheila Cook.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03jz1hj)
Whooper Swan

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the whooper swan. The elegance and beauty of wild swans has inspired writers and musicians across the centuries - the most familiar perhaps being Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, which may well have been inspired by the Whooper swan.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b03kpkyd)
We'll be live in Soweto as Hugh Sykes reports on the celebration and mourning for the life of Nelson Mandela.

We hear how a ship's cook was rescued after spending three days trapped in a sunken tug boat.

As Kielder Forest aims to be the first Dark Sky Park in England, we find out what lights are revealed.

Reviewing the Sunday papers this week: actor Robin Ellis, playwright Bonnie Greer and journalist Laura Kuenssberg.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b03kpkyg)
For detailed synopsis see daily episodes.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b03kpkyj)
Barbara Hulanicki

Kirsty Young's castaway is Barbara Hulanicki, designer and creator of Biba.

Today her creativity spans fashion, illustration, interior design and architecture but it was the success of the label Biba that first made her name; launching a high street revolution with its opulent-looking but entirely affordable high fashion. According to Twiggy, "she changed fashion in England singlehandedly".

A newspaper advert for a £3 pink gingham dress in 1963 kicked things off and by the seventies her London department store was a throbbing temple to all things skinny-fitted in plum, mulberry, green, brown and black. Romantic, mysterious, nostalgic and very profitable. But when it all turned sour with her business partners, she and her husband Fitz walked away, leaving behind the hugely popular creation that had made her name.

The fantasy and perfection of her creations were a far cry from the harsh reality of her childhood; born in Poland just before the Second World War, the air of privilege that surrounded her family was traumatically punctured when her father, a diplomat, was assassinated.

She says "Now whenever I finish something I take some photographs and say 'goodbye'. When you lose everything, you realise that the only thing you have is what's in your head."

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.


SUN 12:00 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b03jz22p)
Series 60

Episode 4

The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by special guest Victoria Wood with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment.

Producer - Jon Naismith.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b03kpkyl)
Bovril

Cambridge University historian Lesley Steinitz explains the pioneering story of Bovril. From its beginnings at the end of the 19th Century there are many parallels between Bovril then and our food production today.

Robert Opie takes Sheila round the Museum of Brands to see Bovril's strong advertizing campaigns. Pete Simson drinks beef tea with the crowds at a Bristol Rovers game. And Sheila samples a Bovril cocktail.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced in Bristol by Emma Weatherill.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b03kl42m)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b03kpkyn)
The latest national and international news, including an in-depth look at events around the world. Email: wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b03k2gqs)
Wainfleet

Eric Robson is in the chair as GQT visits Wainfleet near Skegness. Bunny Guinness, Pippa Greenwood and Matthew Wilson answer the questions from local gardeners.

This week's topical tips focus on sowing poppies, and Bunny Guinness visits a local garden with links to Lord Alfred Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling.

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

This week's questions:

Q. Could the panel suggest some perennials for planting in tubs that will be hardy, provide year-round cover and add interest?

A. You will need to plant perennials that can tolerate tricky conditions. A pot will eventually have poor soil and little water due to the plant's canopy. Perhaps plant Mediterranean plants. Try shrubs such as Ceratostigma Willmottianum, a late flowering, low-growing shrub with intense blue flowers. Combine it with an autumn, pink-flowering bulb called Nereen Buldiniae. Grasses are another option, providing a long season and changing appearance. A grass such as Miscanthus Yakushima Dwarf grows to about 1m (3ft) and has great autumn flowers. You could try a new hardy Salvia called Amistad. It grows to about 1m (3ft) high, has inky blue blooms and flowers from May right through until winter. Lavender would add structure if you prune them in August sparking new growth for the winter.

Q. I am planning to turn a small piece of land into an orchard. Is it a waste of time to plant fruit trees if the site has Honey Fungus and old tree stumps?

A. There are several species and strains of Honey Fungus and it can be a gardener's ultimate nightmare. It has the potential to wipe out the majority of woody plants. If there isn't too much destruction on the site it may not be much of a threat, but fruit trees are particularly susceptible to damage. Dig out as many of the stumps as you can so that the fungus has nothing to feed on. Perhaps test the site with a young, feathered, bare root tree and treat it with a lot of care.

Q. How and when can we move a Dracunculus Vulgaris?

A. Dig down deep in spring or autumn, lifting as much of the soil as possible to reduce damage. Choose a protected site similar to that which it was in previously.

Q. Could the panel suggest any plants that will produce a scent similar to that of the Philadelphus Mock Orange?

A. Mexican Orange Blossom Choisya Ternata has a very good smell. Daphnes are renowned for their scent, such as the Daphne Odora Marginata with its mass of pinky-white blossoms. For a different sort of scent, try winter flowering Honeysuckle Lonicera Purpusii or the Winter Box.

Q. Could the panel suggest an evergreen tree for container planting in a sunny courtyard?

A. There are many options, such as Box, Yew, Laurel, Cork Oak, Bay. However, a container will mean that the growth will always be stunted. Try planting straight into the ground for better results. The Quercus Suberqercasuba or Cork Oak would provide a lovely looking bark.

Q. I have four apple trees, all twenty-six stock. The varieties are Discovery, Fiesta, Russet and Howgate Wonder. The trees have not produced any apples and I wondered if I should plant a crab apple as a pollinator.

A. When choosing a pollinator it is important to check that the flowering periods coincide. There will probably be a diverse range across the four varieties. One of the best pollinators is James Grieve.

Q. When is the best time to split up Nerines? They have been in the same position for ten years and didn't bloom well this year.

A. Early spring is probably the best time. They usually thrive when in congested clumps. Choose a very sunny, warm site.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b03kpkys)
Sunday Edition - Being Parents

Fi Glover introduces conversations ranging from whether to bring up your child as a vegetarian to whether to bring him up with wolves. And then there's whether to be a father in the first place, and the sacrifices and thrills involved if you decide you will. The Sunday Edition of Radio 4's series proves once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject.


SUN 15:00 The James M Cain Series (b03kpkyv)
The Butterfly

When Jess Tyler's two-timing wife left him he stayed on at the farm alone, growing corn and going to Church. Nearly twenty years later, a young woman turns up with a suitcase, and there's an immediate attraction between them. The problem is that the young woman is Jess's daughter, Kady. Or is she? Only the butterfly birthmark can settle the question for good. A tale of revenge, murder and forbidden love, adapted by Adrian Bean.

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b03kpkyx)
David Vann, Stuart Kelly, Penelope Lively, Suzanne Berne

A magic ring, dwarves, elves, monsters and the battle between good and evil - not the Lord of the Rings, but rather The Saga of the Volsungs, the ancient tale believed to have inspired JRR Tolkein. The Saga is one of a newly republished collection of translations of Icelandic myths and epic Anglo Saxon poetry called Legends of the Ancient North. Author and Beowulf behemoth David Vann and Volsung enthusiast and Man Booker judge Stuart Kelly discuss their centuries old appeal.

The answer to where authors like to write is often a surprising one. From garden sheds to kitchen tables, trains to coffee bars, the locations favoured for imaginative journeys are as diverse as the novels themselves. In a new series we join writers in their designated sanctum and we begin in the North London home of one of the greats - Dame Penelope Lively

Orange Prize winner Suzanne Berne talks to Mariella Frostrup about her latest novel The Dogs of Littlefield. The book is set in Littlefield, Massachusetts, which has been named as one of the 20 Best Places to Live in America, but tension lurks under the surface and boils over via the issue of the rights of the town's dog-owners. Suzanne explains why she decided a dog's life was the way to explore small town America.

Producer: Andrea Kidd.


SUN 16:30 A Notebook on Aime Cesaire (b03kpkyz)
When poet and politician Aimé Césaire died at the age of 94 in 2008, it robbed the Caribbean island of Martinique of its most articulate and powerful voice. He was a prolific writer - of poetry, plays and essays - and served as Mayor of Martinique's capital Fort-de-France for over 50 years, as well as representing Martinique in the French National Assembly for 45 years. Aimé Césaire dedicated his life, in print and in public, to his people and his island.

Aimé Césaire would have been 100 this year, and to walk around Fort-de-France is to be confronted with his image on almost every street, as Martinique honours his centenary and comes to terms with his loss and his legacy.

Although a potent critic of colonialism, Césaire was central in advocating for Martinique to become a département of France in 1946 - not a dominion or an independent nation, but an equal part of the French Republic. Thus, in part, was created the Martinique of today, a Gallic outpost in the Caribbean, fully part of the European Union, and where the currency is the Euro. But while the official language may be French, the lingua franca is Creole.

Perhaps Césaire's most celebrated work is the long poem Notebook of a Return to My Native Land (Cahiers d'un retour au pays natal), a fragmentary, excoriating meditation on the predicament of colonial Martinique. Begun in 1936, after Césaire had spent several years in France, it is in Notebook of a Return to My Native Land that he first employed the term that would become inseparable from his name: Négritude. Developed with fellow Francophone intellectuals in Paris in the 1930s, Négritude was an influential literary and ideological movement marked by a rejection of colonialism in favour of a common black identity, rooted in Africa and as such possessed of a shared historical context.

Using extracts from Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, this programme sketches a fragmentary portrait of Aimé Césaire in his centenary year, and also of Martinique itself, since to talk about one is necessarily to talk about the other.

Featuring Christian Lapousiniere, director of the Césaire Study and Research Centre, filmmaker Euzhan Palcy, anthropologists Richard and Sally Price, and Dominique Taffin, director of the Martinique National Archive.

Includes readings by John Norton.

Producer: Martin Williams.


SUN 17:00 Cry Freehold (b03k0s5q)
There is a housing crisis in many parts of Britain. But is land the real issue? Chris Bowlby goes to Oxford, where the problem is acute, to investigate.

He hears how a dynamic city can end up with virtually nowhere to build, how land prices help make homes so costly and how land shortage creates invisible victims.

Producer: Lucy Proctor.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b03kp9bn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b03kl42p)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b03kl42r)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl42t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b03kpkz1)
Sheila McClennon chooses the best of BBC Radio this week.

This week David Sedaris treats us to an impromptu post op performance - in words thankfully not sounds. And Mitchell and Webb wonder if making classical music more accessible has all been a big hashtag mistake. We're Home on the Range with a Lone German cowboy and hear how Dr Strangelove's War Room fooled a President. And there's a moving drama dealing with dementia and the daughter struggling to make sense of who she now is...

Programmes chosen this week:

Afternoon Drama - Kindness - Radio 4
Laura Barton's Tom Boys Radio 4
Meet David Sedaris - Radio 4
Private Passions - Tom Hooper - Radio 3
Sunday Feature - Ken Adams - Radio 3
Hitler's Favourite Cowboy - Radio 4
Crossing Continents - Radio 4
Lost and Found - Radio 4
That Mitchell and Webb Sound - Radio 4
Soul Music - Radio 4
Here Be Dragons - BBC Wales
Today programme - Tuesday - Radio 4
Mandela montage - coverage from World Service and Radio 4.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b03kpkz3)
Shula won't abandon Darrell, whose only other hospital visitor is Neil. She feels guilty for having had paracetamol available, but Alistair says what's clear is they can't handle him alone. Let the professionals help. Shula reminds Alistair about his gambling addiction. Alistair snaps that she threw Alistair out then, so why is Darrell so important? But he quickly apologises. He's just worried about her.

Lynda and Tom discuss Darrell's overdose. It makes everything seem so trivial. Lynda's grateful to Tom for standing in as Robin Hood. But in rehearsals, despite Lynda's seriousness, Tom and Kirsty lark about. However, after some work, Lynda's pleased her production finally has a heart.

Shula visits sleeping Darrell in hospital and apologises in his ear. Rosa appears, but finds it all too much and leaves. She's not going to let Darrell blackmail her anymore. Shula says that Darrell did it because he hates himself, but Rosa is adamant. Shula tells her she can call any time.

Dan stands up for Alistair, calling Darrell a leech. Only professionals can help him now. While Shula won't wash her hands of Darrell completely, she tells them that they've got what they wanted. Darrell won't be living there anymore.


SUN 19:15 Meet David Sedaris (b03kp2kh)
Series 4

Episode 2

One of the world's funniest storytellers is back on BBC Radio 4 doing what he does best.

This week, a story dealing with the guilt he sometimes feels as a result of writing stories about his family in "Repeat After Me" and some more extracts from his hilarious diary.

Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 19:45 Through the Wardrobe (b03kpl7r)
The Rosy Rural Ruby

In tribute to Belfast-born C.S. Lewis who died on 22nd November 1963, three new short stories take us though doors and portals into unexpected worlds and situations. While novelist and playwright Lucy Caldwell charts a defining moment in the life of someone struggling with their sense of identity, a woman gets to know her neighbours a little more intimately than she could ever have expected in a story from novelist and screenwriter Glenn Patterson. And finally in a new story from Frank Cottrell Boyce we discover what might happen if C.S. Lewis himself were to discover an opening to another world. What might such a world contain?

The Rosy Rural Ruby by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Read by David Troughton
Produced in Belfast by Heather Larmour.


SUN 20:00 Feedback (b03kk9bp)
Did Radio 4 devote far too much airtime this week to the marital strife of a cook and an ad man? That's the view of many Feedback listeners who complained that the BBC became more gossip-mag than public service broadcaster in its coverage of Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi's very public divorce.

Also, why has Radio 4 been asking sailors how they get their weather information? Does this signal the beginning of the end for The Shipping Forecast? Network manager Denis Nowlan eases listeners' fears.

And we wander the lanes of Ambridge with the Archers Archivist, Camilla Fisher and long-term writer Jo Toye, who give us the lowdown on how they ensure all the characters are in the right place at the right time.

Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b03kk6bp)
Paul Ausseresses, Olivia Robertson, Noel Woodall, Hugh de Wardener, Junior Murvin

Matthew Bannister on

The French General Paul Aussaresses who admitted to taking part in summary executions and torture during the Algerian War of Independence.

Olivia Robertson, the flamboyant Archpriestess of the Fellowship of Isis, who worked to bring feminine influence into religion in her castle in Ireland.

Noel Woodall, the car number plate expert whose passion became a billion pound industry.

Professor Hugh de Wardener, the pioneering kidney specialist who treated inmates in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

And reggae singer Junior Murvin, best known for his song Police and Thieves.

Producer: Laura Northedge.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b03kp476)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:00 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b03kpky8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (b03k2k7y)
Longevity War Game

In Newcastle if you live in a well off area you are likely to have eleven more healthy years then if you reside in a more deprived part of the city just a few miles away. These figures are replicated in areas all over Britain. Peter Day attends a Newcastle University war game put together to try and find a way to bridge this gap by 50% in ten years with no extra money. Can they come up with new solutions or will the exercise just highlight how big a problem the country faces as the population ages?


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b03kpl7t)
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 (b03kpl7w)
Dennis Sewell of the Spectator looks at how papers covered the week's biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b03k29y2)
Kill Your Darlings; Nebraska; A Long Way From Home; BIFA Awards

Francine Stock talks to Daniel Radcliffe and Dane Dehaan about Kill Your Darlings in which Radcliffe plays beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

Plus Sideways director Alexander Payne on his new film Nebraska starring Bruce Dern. Shot in black and white, it charts a father and son's road journey across the mid West to claim a non-existent sweep stake prize.

And James Fox on A Long Way From Home, a portrayal of a marriage under strain after a couple retires to the south of France.

Plus a look at the best of British film making as we examine the nominations for the British Independent Film Awards.

Producer: Hilary Dunn.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b03kpky2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 09 DECEMBER 2013

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl446)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b03k21nl)
Tooth Loss; Communist Utopia in a Spanish Village

Communist 'utopia' in a Spanish village. Laurie Taylor talks to the writer, Dan Hancox, about his research into a tiny community in Andalucia which set out to create an egalitarian enclave after the demise of General Franco. Does the reality match the dream? They're joined by the social geographer, Helen Jarvis. Also, the health researcher, Nicolette Rousseau, discusses the experience and meaning of tooth loss and replacement.

Producer:Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b03kpky0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl449)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl44c)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl44f)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl44h)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03kpnjg)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with the Most Rev George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b03kpnjj)
Politicians at the European Parliament are expected to vote through reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy this week. The aim is to make fishing more sustainable, with a ban on so-called 'discards' - where fish caught outside the quota are simply thrown back into the sea, often already dead. The changes will also make decision-making more regional, and provide more money to help struggling fishing communities. Charlotte Smith asks what difference the changes will make.

A new multi-million pound butter factory has opened in Shropshire. It could go some way towards addressing the fact that the UK currently imports 100,000 tons of butter, while exporting 70,000 tons of cream. We find out what farmers think of the move.

And we catch up with a turkey farmer at what is undoubtedly their busiest time of year.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.


MON 05:56 Weather (b03kl44k)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5b9c)
Long-tailed Duck

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the long-tailed duck. The musical call of the long-tailed duck gives it the Scottish name of 'calloo', or 'coal- and-candlelight'. In the UK you're more likely to see them in Scotland and northern England where they seek out shellfish, diving up to 60 metres to retrieve them.


MON 06:00 Today (b03kpnjl)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b03kpnjn)
The Building Blocks of Life and Intelligence

On Start the Week Anne McElvoy talks to the geneticist Alison Woollard about the extraordinary developments in biological science in the last decade, and how switching on and off certain genes could improve and extend life. The psychologist Kathryn Asbury studies the vexed question of nature and nurture, and whether a better understanding of genetic influence can improve children's education. Professor Roger Kneebone explains the role of jazz improvisation in the operating theatre, and what recreating surgery from the 1980s can teach modern clinicians. Raiding the past for hidden gems fascinates the conductor Sir Mark Elder as he prepares to bring operatic rarities to a new audience.

Producer: Katy Hickman.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b03nxwz2)
Long Walk to Freedom

Episode 1

Published in 1995, Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's own story of his journey from his birth in 1918 in a tiny village in the Transkei, and an idyllic childhood, through his life as a young lawyer in the bustling city of Johannesburg under apartheid, increasing politicisation by his experiences in the city, membership of the African National Congress, arrest and 27 years' imprisonment, to release and eventual election as President in South Africa's first national, non-racial, one-person-one-vote election.

This extraordinary story is read by the South African actor John Kani who first came to prominence in Europe in the plays 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for which he won a Tony in New York, and The Island which he co-wrote. He received an Olivier award for 'My Children My Africa.'

The music at the beginning of the programme is the South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Abridged by Michelene Wandor

Produced by Chris Wallis
A Watershed production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b03kpnjs)
Winnie Mandela; Ulrika Jonsson

As tributes continue to Nelson Mandela, we return to an interview recorded in 1986 in which his then wife Winnie Mandela recalls the day she first met him. The Education Minister Elizabeth Truss talks about "the gender gap that simply doesn't add up"... the difference between take-up of physics and maths a levels in girls and boys. TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson discusses the family politics of Christmas. And Powerlister Marisa Drew on making it to the top of the heady world of corporate finance.

Presented by Jane Garvey.
Producer: Beverley Purcell
Output Editor: Anne Peacock.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kpnjv)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Episode 1

Sam starts the year observing people gambling with dice at the Groom Porter's but doesn't venture a wager himself. Then his cousin, Anthony Joyce, asks to borrow £350 to rebuild his house after the Great Fire, but before Sam can decide, Anthony tries to take his own life by jumping in a pond. He survives initially but succumbs to a fever. Sam helps his widow by persuading the King not to take all her goods, as is the custom in the case of suicide. Adapted by Hattie Naylor.

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.

Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


MON 11:00 Riding the Graphene Wave (b03kpnjx)
Construction work is underway to build a world-class laboratory at Manchester University. Costing £61m, the National Graphene Institute aims to be the world's leading centre of graphene research and commercialisation.

Graphene is super-strong and super-conductive - it's often called a 'wonder material' - and it was invented in Manchester by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who won a Nobel prize for their work. The city takes great pride in the discovery, seeing a direct line of descent from its legacy of industrial invention, and has awarded the two scientists the freedom of the city in recognition of their work.

Gerry Northam finds out how the the UK is competing in the global market as Korea, China and the USA pour money into the patenting and commercialisation of Manchester's magic material. What will it take for graphene to move out of the laboratory and into the commercial world?

Investors are running the numbers to work out which applications are most ready for go-to-market products, and which countries are making fastest progress in finding ways to manufacturer graphene. Can graphene give the UK a significant new role in the 21st century global economy?

Producer: Philip Reevell
A City Broadcasting production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 11:30 Ed Reardon's Week (b03kpnjz)
Series 9

Intellectual Fireworks

Ed appears to have stepped on the gravy train at last as he takes up a professorship at Much Wenlock Court - a prestigious writing retreat. He hopes this will lead him to, at the very least, a contentious Saturday Essay on the Today Programme. However, this retreat has been set up by one Jaz Milvain so could Ed's change in fortune be too good to be true?

Written by Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas
Produced by Dawn Ellis.


MON 12:00 You and Yours (b03kpnk1)
Fund manager charges, social supermarkets, champagne taste tests

Winifred Robinson presents Radio 4's consumer programme and looks at the hidden charges made by the people who run your pension fund or ISA investment. Also the new "social" supermarket that sells food to registered customers at significantly reduced prices. And the surprising results in champagne taste tests conducted by scientists at Oxford and London universities.


MON 12:57 Weather (b03kl44m)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b03kl44p)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


MON 13:45 A Cause for Caroling (b03kpnk3)
A Carol's a Carol, to Begin With

The first programme in a ten part series in which choral conductor and scholar Jeremy Summerly tells the story of the Christmas Carol in Britain. He begins by trying to capture something of the caroling traditions of today and then heads back into the misty caroling past discovering what he believes is the first carol in the English language.

Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.

In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.

He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.

The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. This series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."

Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.

Producer:Tom Alban.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b03kpkz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b03kpnk5)
Fearless

On April 1st 2013, an aspiring young journalist went to live on the streets of Newcastle for one week. He never came home. His dead body was found, three days later, in a derelict, boarded-up hostel.

As part of a job application for a TV investigative journalism post, 26 year old Lee Halpin decided to tell the story of the recent rise in homelessness by sleeping rough and relying on the services open to the homeless for his survival. The job advert asked applicants for an example of a 'fearless approach to a story'.

'Fearless' is the story of a talented young man eager to escape the confines of Newcastle, impatient to discover what would define him, and egged on by the gauntlet of fearlessness. He set out on one of the coldest weeks of the year, informing only five people of his plans, forgoing a phone and other luxuries in his pursuit for authenticity.

Through intimate interviews with the people who knew him best and those that were filming him over the three days, as well as dramatisations, 'Fearless' pieces together what happened to Lee and why it was so important to him to pursue the story at all costs.

Producer: Gemma Newby
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b03kpnk7)
(1/17)
Russell Davies welcomes the first four contestants in the quest for the 2014 Brain of Britain.

Forty-eight competitors from all over Britain take part this winter, with the eventual winner being named the sixty-first Brain of Britain champion in the spring of 2014. The longest-running general knowledge quiz on British radio is still the title every serious quiz contestant wants to win.

Whether it's science, history, music, mythology, popular culture, literature or sport, there's no telling what the next question will be about, and no clever strategies to resort to if you don't know the answer. There's a point for every correct answer and a bonus point for getting five right in a row. There are no other rules!

The programme also offers the chance for a listener to 'Beat the Brains' by suggesting questions which might be more than a match for the combined knowledge of the contestants.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b03kpkyl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Bryan Ferry's Jazz Age (b03kpy59)
In 1955 at the age of ten, Bryan Ferry developed a passion for jazz music. Listening to his radio in Washington, County Durham, he was transported from rural North East England to 1920s New Orleans and Cotton Club, New York. British Trad Jazz was booming, with Humphrey Lyttelton, Chris Barber and Ken Collier offering a gateway to the 'yellow cocktail' music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.

Now Bryan has returned to his earliest musical love with 'The Jazz Age', a record that remakes and remodels some of his biggest Roxy Music hits in the style of instrumental 20s jazz standards.

Bryan takes us back to his first concert at Newcastle City Hall to see the Chris Barber band and reveals how a performance of St Louis Blues caught his imagination. Trombonist Chris Barber describes how he brought music from the Deep South to rapturous British audiences.

Newcastle music historian Chris Phipps traces the mythical connection between the Mississippi and the Tyne, while Bryan shares his memories of a vibrant, modernist city where he studied fine art. The city still shows traces of its jazz heritage, including J G Windows, the record shop where Bryan bought his 78s including the Charlie Parker Quintet's EP whose solos he learnt by heart.

It wasn't just the jazz age of the 20s that inspired Bryan, but its literature too. He recently contributed to the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby, the film of one of his favourite novels.

With live recordings from his recent UK tour with The Bryan Ferry Jazz Orchestra, Bryan reflects on Roxy Music's early years and explains how his grounding in jazz helped him lead one of the most influential British bands of all time.

Producer: Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4


MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage (b03kpy5c)
Series 9

To Infinity and Beyond

This week on the Infinite Monkey Cage, Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined by comedy producer John Lloyd, mathematician Colva Roney Dougal and writer Simon Singh, to explore the universality of mathematics, the nature of infinity and the role of numbers in everyday life. Producer: Rami Tzabar.


MON 17:00 PM (b03kpy5f)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl44t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b03kpy5w)
Series 60

Episode 5

The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Milton Keynes Theatre. Old-timers Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by David Mitchell, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano.

Producer - Jon Naismith.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b03kpy65)
Jennifer tells Will that Brian has written to Ed about shooting Baz. They're appalled by his actions. Will had a right to be on that land.

Jennifer congratulates Jess on her new job and invites her over for a coffee. They discuss Darrell. Jennifer mentions Greg's suicide and his relationship with Helen. Jess says she likes Ambridge but Rob doesn't want to settle there. Jennifer encourages Jess to have a party. If Rob enjoys himself, he might start to see what he'd be missing.

Ed's suspicious when he turns up to do the turkeys and finds that Clarrie has put up tinsel and brought Christmas food. He's angry when Will arrives unexpectedly. Ed and Will compete over George's Christmas treats. Things come to a head when Will says George is upset because he knows that Ed killed his dog. Ed pushes Will against the wall. Clarrie appears, not realising what's going on, and tells them she's proud of them for putting their differences aside. She invites them both over on Christmas day and they agree to come.

When Clarrie goes, Will tells Ed he doesn't care what Ed thinks of him. He'll pretend for Clarrie. But George hates Ed.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b03kv4k7)
Derren Brown; Eimear McBride; MJ Delaney

With Kirsty Lang

Derren Brown's latest television show sees the illusionist attempt to teach a group of senior citizens how to steal a valuable painting from a gallery in broad daylight. Derren tells Kirsty why he chose to focus on an art theft, and also explains his reason for choosing senior citizens to pull it off.

Metro Manila, a low-budget thriller set in the Philippines and shot entirely in the Austronesian language of Tagalog, was last night named British independent film of the year. Its director, Sean Ellis - who had to re-mortgage his home to fund the film - picked up the Best Director prize. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh reviews the film, and considers the extraordinary story behind it.

Kirsty talks to MJ Delaney about her first feature film, Powder Room. Adapted from a play, When Girls Wee, it follows a group of young women during a night out clubbing. Set mostly in the ladies' room, Sam (Sheridan Smith) is down on her luck and thinks everyone's happier than she is, so she pretends to be something she isn't. MJ made her name as the director of Newport State Of Mind, a music video parody of a Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song, Empire State Of Mind, which went viral in 2010.

Author Eimear McBride talks about her debut novel, A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing, which recently won the inaugural Goldsmiths Prize. The book is an experimental work - the story of an Irish girlhood told by an un-named narrator - and it was completed nine years ago, but Eimear struggled to find a publisher for it. She discusses trying to create a new sort of fiction - between the language of James Joyce and the silence of Samuel Beckett - and explains why she believes publishers should take more chances with challenging fiction.

Producer: Rebecca Nicholson.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kpnjv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Whatever Happened to Community? (b03kpy6k)
Nostalgia

Giles Fraser has left a glittering job as Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral and is now working as the priest of a run-down parish in Elephant and Castle. This has set him thinking about the nature of community, which he investigates in this very personal series.

In our digital, global age, we look back with misty eyes to a 'golden age' of community in the 1950s. But our anxiety about lost community is nothing new.

In 1836, Augustus Pugin published Contrasts, a book of architectural drawings comparing the buildings of the medieval community with those of the industrial revolution. In response to what he saw as the urban decay and social rootlessness created by the industrial revolution, Pugin set about re-inventing the architecture of medieval community, initiating the Gothic revival. This wasn't simply about highly decorated churches with pointy arches, it was a wholesale programme of social and moral reform - a return to some imagined 'golden age' where people lived at ease with each other in stable and religiously engaged communities with shared values.

Giles travels to North Staffordshire, often known as 'Pugin-land' because of the high concentration of Pugin's buildings, to explore how many in the 19th century wanted to return to medieval forms of community. He argues that this is not dissimilar to the nostalgia many people feel today in response to globalisation and social churn.

And in the struggling former pottery town of Stoke on Trent he talks to MP Tristram Hunt about contemporary anxiety over community, and challenges a former BNP councillor nostalgic for a past with few immigrants and full employment.

Producer: Jane Greenwood.
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b03k29xr)
India: Resisting Rape

One year on from the horrific attack in Delhi, Joanna Jolly hears from three women who've chosen to report a rape in a country that is at last waking up to the problem. The authorities have introduced tougher laws since the young student was raped on a bus last December but is the experience of women who choose to prosecute their attackers getting any better? Three women talk about their struggle: reporting rape to a not always sympathetic police, being examined in the government's often overcrowded hospitals and finally standing up in court.

Joanna Jolly talks to the senior policewoman running the Delhi's Women and Children's Unit, a leading gynaecologist who has treated rape victims in the city and to those who've worked in the Indian legal system.

Will the public outcry over the attack over a year ago make it easier for women to report rape and will their experience of India's overburdened courts be any better?

Producer: Mark Savage.


MON 21:00 Shared Planet (b03jznqc)
Ocean Pollutants

Sea lions in California are developing cancer and the most likely cause is pollution in the ocean. As world population grows and demands on agriculture increase, can we control the amount of damaging chemicals entering rivers and then being taken into the sea? Many of these agricultural and industrial chemicals are long lasting and highly toxic and, although officially banned, substances like DDT and PCBs are still in use in some areas. As pressure grows to control diseases in order to feed a growing world, solutions have to be found to stop these harmful chemicals damaging wildlife. Monty Don explores the problems of keeping our coastal waters free of toxins. Can we grow food and control disease while still protecting wildlife?


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b03kpnjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b03kl44y)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b03kpy6w)
Will the ANC be able to tackle corruption after death of Mandela?
Iran says threat of sanctions must be removed.
Russian news agency closed.
Aid agencies gave money to Al Shabab in Somalia.
With Ritula Shah.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b03kqbl9)
Truman Capote Short Stories

A Christmas Memory - Part 1/2

'Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning ...'

Truman Capote considered 'A Christmas Memory' one of his best works of fiction. Kerry Shale reads the first of two parts as seven-year old Buddy and his best friend, the elderly Miss Sook, prepare for the festive season.

'"Oh my" she exclaims, "It's fruitcake weather. Buddy, stop stuffing biscuit and fetch our buggy. We've thirty cakes to bake."'

Read by Kerry Shale

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall.
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Mastertapes (b03j9np4)
Series 3

Soul II Soul (A-Side)

John Wilson talks to Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul about their 1989 album 'Club Classics Vol 1' including the global hit Back to Life. Including exclusive performance by the whole band.

Soul II Soul is one of the most successful British black groups of all time. Their ethos of 'a happy face, a thumping bass for a loving race' and the sound of their debut album, released in 1989, defined a time and place in the UK's musical history. Featuring the huge hits 'Back To Life' and 'Keep On Moving' the album took London's multicultural underground club culture into the mainstream and achieved worldwide success. 'Club Classics' mixed the sounds of a burgeoning DJ scene with Jazzie B's distinctly British take on rap and the colossal vocal talents of Caron Wheeler.

Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (and others) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website, where the programmes can also be downloaded and other musical goodies accessed.

Mastertapes is new programme in which John Wilson talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

The B-side of this programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard tomorrow at 3.30pm.


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b03kpy6y)
The Work and Pensions Secretary faces challenges over the roll-out of the Government's flagship new welfare payment, the Universal Credit.

Iain Duncan Smith appears before MPs after he acknowledged that Universal Credit will not be paid to about 700,000 people until after a planned 2017 deadline.

MPs and Peers pay tribute to Nelson Mandela.

And the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility answers questions about last week's autumn statement or mini-budget.

Sean Curran and team reports on Today's events in Parliament.



TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2013

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl45y)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b03nxwz2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl460)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl462)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl464)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl466)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03kqbqb)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with the Most Rev George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b03kqbqd)
The European Parliament will vote today on a new Common Fisheries Policy. But fishing using deep sea trawlers could face a complete ban in the North East Atlantic - that's an area stretching from the coast of Greenland to the straits of Gibraltar.

Currently trawlers can fish around environmentally sensitive areas however, The Lib Dem MEP for the North West, Chris Davies has tabled an amendment to the trawling rules - which would prohibit fishing along the seabed at depths of over 600 metres.

The move would mostly affect fleets in France, Spain and Portugal, but could also have an impact on the UK fishing industry. The Scottish white fish producers association say a ban on trawling would impact on the livelihoods of small trawling communities.

Truffles can fetch up to three times the price of the same weight in gold. But to find these small, dark fruits you have to know where to look. We visit the UK's first commercial truffle woodland to forage for fungi.

And after one of our largest outdoor pig rearing companies goes into administration, we ask what the industry needs to to in order to grow.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Jules Benham.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5bgq)
Gadwall

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the gadwall. Gadwall were rare ducks until a few decades ago, now though, gadwall are spreading fast in the UK. Gadwall can be sneaky thieves, exhibiting what scientists call klepto-parasitic tendencies. They often wait for birds such as coot and mute swans to bring up aquatic vegetation beyond their reach and seize it before their victims can eat it themselves.


TUE 06:00 Today (b03kqbqg)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Making of the Modern Arab World (b03kqbqj)
Episode 1

Egyptian author Tarek Osman uncovers the history of the modern Arab world by tracing some of the great political dreams that have shaped it, from the nineteenth century to the Arab Spring.

Throughout the series, he focuses on two countries that are currently high on the news agenda: Egypt and Syria. As Tarek discovers, these are also the states from which many of the crucial characters and ideas in this story emerged.

In the first episode, Tarek takes us back to Egypt's early nineteenth century encounters with Europe.

He traces the journey of the Islamic scholar al-Tahtawi, who spent several years in Paris in the 1820s. There he was deeply struck by many exotic aspects of French culture, from constitutional governance, through forms of dress and dance, to newspapers. Back in Egypt, he became part of a burgeoning push to modernise his home country.

And Tarek visits what is now a major Cairo hotel, but in 1869 was a vast neoclassical palace, newly built to host the celebrations for the opening of the Suez Canal. Sitting on the garden terrace, he hears of the delights of 'the century's grandest party'.

Through scenes like this, he explores how, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, even as the Ottoman, British and French Empires asserted their power in the Arab world, a cultural renaissance was spreading.

It brought an explosion in literacy, campaigns for women's rights, and a flowering of artistic creativity from novels to cinema.

But the First World War saw Britain and France cut a secret deal to divide parts of the Arab world between them. And the reassertion of colonial power after the war brought major rebellions, such as the 1919 Egyptian Revolution and the 1925-7 Syrian rising against the French.

As Tarek hears, these were in the minds of some of those who, in 2011, took to the streets to protest against their rulers.

And so Tarek traces how, in the years between the world wars, what some historians call the liberal period in the Arab world began to lose credibility.

After all, the lives of the growing Arab middle-class might have been enriched by the Nahda, but many ordinary people remained impoverished. And many still chafed against colonial power.

And so new, harder-edged ideas began to emerge.

In 1928, a young teacher called Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Ismailiya in northern Egypt, to oppose the cultural dominance of the West and reassert Islamic values.

And meanwhile, a much more secular vision of a better future for the Arab world was taking shape too: Arab nationalism.

PRODUCER: Phil Tinline.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b03nxx63)
Long Walk to Freedom

Episode 2

Published in 1995, Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's own story of his journey from his birth in 1918 in a tiny village in the Transkei, and an idyllic childhood, through his life as a young lawyer in the bustling city of Johannesburg under apartheid, increasing politicisation by his experiences in the city, membership of the African National Congress, arrest and 27 years' imprisonment, to release and eventual election as President in South Africa's first national, non-racial, one-person-one-vote election.

Episode 2:
Working in a law firm in Johannesburg and doing a degree, Mr Mandela becomes interested in politics and is soon involved with the ANC, the party fighting for black rights.

This extraordinary story is read by the South African actor John Kani who first came to prominence in Europe in the plays 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for which he won a Tony in New York, and The Island which he co-wrote. He received an Olivier award for 'My Children My Africa.'

The music at the beginning of the programme is the South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Abridged by Michelene Wandor
Produced by Chris Wallis
A Watershed production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b03kqdzy)
Mary Beard; Harriet Green; Michelle Young

Behind today's advent door is Professor of Classics, Mary Beard. Michelle Young tells Jane about her 'fight for equality' in one of the UK's most colourful divorce cases. The woman who saved Thomas Cook from the brink of collapse, power-lister Harriet Green. And, love it or loathe it, the scrunchie is back - we discuss the latest big thing to come out of the eighties.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Lucinda Montefiore
Editor: Alice Feinstein.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kqf00)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Episode 2

Sam buys a pornographic book in French but then burns it (after reading). At the theatre he is so enraptured by some music that it reminds him of how he felt when he first fell in love with Elizabeth. Meanwhile, he's been preparing his defence of the Navy Board to Parliament and can't sleep the night before his speech. Elizabeth comforts him in the early hours and in the morning he has a dram of brandy for courage. The speech is a triumph.

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.

Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


TUE 11:00 Shared Planet (b03kqf02)
Eco-Tourism

Humans in the form of scientific research or for artistic endeavour have for centuries travelled the world in search of new landscapes and places. It was not until the arrival of cheap air travel in the 1970's that far flung remote areas became accessible to anyone. Seeing and engaging with a wild landscape or animal has been shown to improve our desire to protect nature. But as the sheer numbers of people travelling to see wildlife spectacles increases, is it possible that the wildlife they have come to see may be changing their behaviour in response to this pressure. This week's field report comes a whale and dolphin watching trip in the Azores where tourist boats head off in search of a once in a lifetime wildlife spectacle.

Producer Andrew Dawes.


TUE 11:30 Soul Music (b03kqf04)
Series 17

Can't Take My Eyes Off You

Few songs can claim to be - quite literally - as far reaching as the 1967 classic 'Can't Take My Eyes off You'. In this edition of Radio 4's 'Soul Music', we hear from former astronaut Christopher Ferguson who heard this song as an early morning wake-up call aboard the space shuttle Endeavour. And from mum of two Michelle Noakes who sang this classic piece to the baby she was told she may never be able to carry. We also hear from the honeymoon couple whose marriage proposal began with a hundred strong 'flash mob' performance of this track and from Frankie Valli himself, who reflects on one of the most moving performances he ever gave when he sang 'Can't Take My Eyes off You' to a crowd of recently returned Vietnam Veterans. DJ Mark Radcliff recalls the many artists since Valli that have covered this song (not least his mum as she sang along to the Andy Williams version) and composer Bob Gaudio tells us how this now universally famous piece of music began life in a room over looking Central Park with a melody originally penned for a children's nursery rhyme.

Producer: Nicola Humphries.


TUE 12:00 You and Yours (b03kqf06)
Call You and Yours: Childhood Obesity

Winifred Robinson looks at childhood obesity. Why do we have more overweight children in the UK than elsewhere in Western Europe, and what can we do about it?


TUE 12:57 Weather (b03kl468)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b03kl46b)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


TUE 13:45 A Cause for Caroling (b03kqf08)
Spreading the Medieval Word Made Flesh

The second programme in Jeremy Summerly's ten part series tracing the history of the Christmas Carol in Britain. Today he discovers the impact of the Franciscans in using the carol to make the birth of Jesus a focus for the church and harnessing the energy of popular music to that end.

Series Description:

The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.

But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.

In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.

He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.

It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.

That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. This series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:

'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."

Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.

Producer: Tom Alban.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b03kpy65)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b03ln04f)
The Morpeth Carol

by Timothy X. Atack.

9 year old Harry goes on a mysterious Christmas Eve road trip with a very unusual and very dangerous Santa.

Directed by Marc Beeby

Nine-year-old Harry lives on the edge of a housing estate in an un-named Northern town, a serious and intelligent lad with a troubled mum and dad. Late on Christmas Eve he escapes his rowing parents and ventures out into the night. and on a snow-covered precinct in between high-rises he finds what looks like a crashed sled, burning presents scattered in its wake, and mortally wounded reindeer all around. There's also a very scary looking man, gaunt, unshaven and hooded, who skulks around the crash site, finishing off the dying animals with a shotgun...

The Writer

Tim Atack is a writer, musician and film-maker based in Bristol. His work has been commissioned by Paines Plough, Bristol Old Vic, BAC, Arnolfini and BBC Film Lab amongst others.

He's a founder member of the performance group Sleepdogs, and his short film All My Dreams On VHS won the audience award at NexT International Film Festival 2009 in Bucharest. His one-man show The Bullet and the Bass Trombone was recently to be seen at The Shed - the National Theatre's new space - following a nationwide tour.

In the past he has toured with the comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, writing the music for several of their TV and radio projects. He is currently developing a comedy series for television, Dave, Consumed By Fire with Simon Winstone and Tony Jordan at Red Planet Pictures.


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b03kqfzv)
Series 5

Dover

This week Jay Rayner and the panel are in Dover, where much of the food and cooking chat is about food trends and dishes that have made the journey across the channel in both directions.

How important is it to be able to cook the perfect Hollandaise sauce? Panellists Henry Dimbleby, Sophie Wright and Tim Anderson discuss classical French cooking techniques, while historian Annie Gray charts the influence of French cuisine in the UK and introduces us to Le Crumble.

Among other topics, the panel advise the audience on how to make Beetroot palatable, whether it's possible to come to a compromise between red and white wine, doing Christmas French-style, and dealing with windfall apples that keep on falling.

Food Consultant: Anna Colquhoun

Produced by Peggy Sutton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (b03jb1wf)
Series 3

Soul II Soul (B-Side)

Soul II Soul, the B-side. Having discussed the making of "Club Classics Vol 1", the breakthrough album from Soul II Soul (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 25th November and available online), Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler respond to questions from the audience. Jazzie talks more about his own roots as a musician and Soul II Soul perform live versions of tracks from the album.


TUE 16:00 Data, Data Everywhere... (b03kqfzx)
From the Tesco Clubcard to the Large Hadron Collider, from internet searches to genetic science, from social networks to government services - these days they all generate data, huge quantities of it.

The greatest intellectual challenge faced by many organisations today is how not to be overwhelmed by data, and instead how to select and analyse the data that matters.

Future intellectual history may well regard the period we're in now as the 'data decade'. Timandra Harkness explores the challenges and the opportunities through talking to those in a variety of fields who are seeking to tackle them.

Producer: Martin Rosenbaum.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b03kqfzz)
Series 32

Ricky Ross on Hank Williams

The life of the 'Hillbilly Shakespeare' Hank Williams is the choice of Deacon Blue singer Ricky Ross. Williams is regarded as being the prototype rock star and continues to be hugely influential on musicians today despite a short recording career of just six years before he died at the age of 29. Matthew Parris presents. With Nick Barraclough.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


TUE 17:00 PM (b03kqg01)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl46d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 That Mitchell and Webb Sound (b03kqg03)
Series 5

Episode 3

An unusually pedantic episode of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners Question Time, digital life after death, and the mysterious world you might find at the back of a stationery cupboard.

Offbeat sketches from the lopsided world of David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

With Olivia Colman and James Bachman.

Producer: Gareth Edwards

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b03kqg05)
Shula visits Darrell in hospital. Darrell's very down. He took the overdose because his life's not worth living. When Shula mentions that Rosa visited, Darrell worries that she hates him, as all he's done is hurt her. Shula says he'd have hurt her more if his overdose had succeeded.

Neil visits and raises a smile when he explains how he injured his nose practising for the charity peal.

Shula worries to Neil that medication and counselling won't be enough for Darrell. But he's reassuring. She's done enough. He'll have a word with social services.

Later Shula chats to Caroline. Psychologically, Darrell's still in a very dark place. He can't live with her. Alistair and Dan wouldn't stand for it, and they're right. She could give still give him practical support but it's hard when he's so depressed.

Caroline catches Lynda at work, correcting the ginger scone recipe in Appetising Ambridge. Caroline firmly says it's not the time or place to do it.

Lynda's surprised when Leonie turns up. She's had an argument with James. When Robert says Leonie can stay as long as she wants, Lynda's not keen. But Robert is firm. She needs them, so here is where she's going to stay.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b03kqg07)
Christmas singles; new Stieg Larsson story; Drawing the Line

With Mark Lawson.

Front Row's annual Christmas Jukebox returns with music writers Rosie Swash and David Hepworth joining Mark to assess the various candidates in this year's festive single line-up, and advise on which are 2013's Christmas crackers.

As a short story by Stieg Larsson is published for the first time, Mark talks to Larsson's friend John-Henri Holmberg, who has edited a collection of Swedish crime stories, A Darker Shade, which also features the first work of fiction by Larsson's partner Eva Gabrielsson to be published in English.

Howard Brenton's latest work Drawing the Line at the Hampstead theatre is set on the Indian sub-continent during Partition in 1947. Kamila Shamsie reviews the play in which Cyril Radcliffe, with no knowledge of India or expertise in cartography, is set the daunting task of drawing the new border.

Producer: Olivia Skinner.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kqf00)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 Inside the Fed (b03kqg09)
The US Federal Reserve - America's central bank - is 100 years old. Simon Jack tells the surprising story of an institution which despite crashes and crises is a cornerstone of the global economy.

With rare access to the Federal Reserve itself Simon talks to some of those who have been intimately involved with it over the decades.

He discovers some unlikely tales in the Fed's struggle to maintain its independence and he finds out what things were really like there during the worst of the financial crisis in 2008.

Producer: Sandra Kanthal.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b03kqg0c)
Blind dating; V&A music hall exhibition

Mani Djazmi presents this week and looks at dating and museum visits from a blind perspective.

Angus Huntley and Paula Page are both blind and talk about their experiences of dating both sighted and other blind people.

Mani reveals his own experience of going on a date in a museum, which leads us nicely into the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, where Peter White joins a specially-enhanced tour of an exhibition on lost history of the music hall, 'Music Hall: Sickert and the Three Graces'.

The curator Kate Bailey explains some of the additional features she's added for blind people to help them better enjoy the exhibition such as a scented experience, where the smell of oranges becomes evident. Visitors are also asked to feel replicas of the hooped skirts which female performers would have worn on stage. Peter meets other VIPs on the tour and one even sings for him!


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b03kqg0f)
Claudia goes behind the scenes of the Science Museum's new psychology exhibition, Mind Maps.

How do you change teenagers' negative body images? Psychological strategies can help young people defend themselves against unrealistic expectations and stop them "fat talking". Claudia Hammond reports on a new study by Dr Helen Sharpe of Kings College London

Last week All in the Mind launched its 25th anniversary Awards scheme. This week clinical psychologist and All in the Mind Award judge Guy Holmes explains what makes a good therapeutic group.

Learning complicated dance steps can be challenging, as the celebrities on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing discover every week. New research by Professor Margaret Wilson has shown that one technique used by dancers known as marking can improve performance. Claudia cha cha challenges her two left feet with Strictly star Robin Windsor.


TUE 21:30 The Making of the Modern Arab World (b03kqbqj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b03kl46g)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b03kqhzs)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b03kqhzv)
Truman Capote Short Stories

A Christmas Memory - Part 2/2

The second part of 'A Christmas Memory', one of Truman Capote's favourite stories.

In the woods, Buddy and Miss Sook search for a tree. '"It should be" muses my friend, "twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can't steal the star." The one we pick is twice as tall as me.'

Read by Kerry Shale

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (b03kpy5c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday]


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b03kqhzx)
Iain Duncan Smith defends plans for the introduction of Universal Credit - but Labour say he's in denial about delays and extra costs. In the House of Lords - the fate of Afghan interpreters is raised. And an immigration minister tells MPs if firms can't fill vacancies, they should raise the pay they're offering rather than calling for more migrant workers. Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.



WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2013

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl47d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b03nxx63)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl47g)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl47j)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl47l)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl47n)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03ktyzx)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with the Most Rev George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b03ktyzz)
An illegal gangmaster has been jailed for operating without a license. It's the first custodial sentence to be given since the formation of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority in 2005. Audrius Morkunas, a Lithuanian national, living in Norfolk charged workers £400 to find them work in agriculture. Farming Today hears how farmers can protect themselves from being prosecuted if the illegal gangmasters are found to be operating on their land.

The Fisheries Minister George Eustice gives his reaction to the passing of the Common Fisheries Policy for the European Union. And hear what's being done to help small fishing ports across Europe.

There could now be a use for unkempt bits of vegetation on the side of the road. Severn Wye Energy has linked up with a University in Germany to look at using them as an energy crop to burn or bio-digest.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Lucy Bikerton.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5bk0)
Water Rail

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the water rail. Water rails are very secretive and live in thick vegetation in marshes and fens where the birds breed. The adult birds look rather like small moorhens but with chestnut on top, a blue-grey face and a zebra-stripe patch on their sides. They have long blood-red bills used for probing for insects.


WED 06:00 Today (b03ktz01)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b03ktz03)
Jamie Cullum, Richard Dawkins, Greg Davies, Sophie Andrews, Pam Blackwood

Libby Purves meets musician Jamie Cullum; Samaritans Sophie Andrews and Pam Blackwood; scientist and writer Professor Richard Dawkins and comedian and actor Greg Davies.

Jamie Cullum is a jazz singer and songwriter who has sold over four million albums worldwide. Primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on guitar and drums. He hosts Radio 2's jazz show and is about to present Piano Pilgrimage, a Radio 4 series in which he explores the piano's place in modern life. His latest album, Momentum, is released on Island Records.

Sophie Andrews called Samaritans for help 30 years ago. Samaritans' volunteer Pam Blackwood answered her call and the two stayed in touch and became friends. Sophie now runs The Silver Line, a helpline for elderly people, and both Pam and Sophie work as volunteers for Samaritans which celebrates its 60th birthday this year.

Professor Richard Dawkins is a scientist and writer who found fame with his book, The Selfish Gene. In his memoir, An Appetite for Wonder, he revisits his childhood in colonial Africa and remembers his years at Oxford University's zoology department. In the book he considers the influences that shaped his life and intellectual development. An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist is published by Bantam Press.

Greg Davies is a stand-up comedian and actor. Best known for his roles as teacher Mr Gilbert in BAFTA award-winning The Inbetweeners and Greg in We Are Klang, he worked as a teacher before becoming a comedian. His latest show, The Back of My Mum's Head, is at Southbank Centre as part of its Winter Festival.

Producer: Paula McGinley.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b03nxxf2)
Long Walk to Freedom

Episode 3

Published in 1995, Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's own story of his journey from his birth in 1918 in a tiny village in the Transkei, and an idyllic childhood, through his life as a young lawyer in the bustling city of Johannesburg under apartheid, increasing politicisation by his experiences in the city, membership of the African National Congress, arrest and 27 years' imprisonment, to release and eventual election as President in South Africa's first national, non-racial, one-person-one-vote election.

Episode 3:
Mr Mandela's involvement with the ANC leads to his arrest and trial for High Treason.

This extraordinary story is read by the South African actor John Kani who first came to prominence in Europe in the plays 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for which he won a Tony in New York, and The Island which he co-wrote. He received an Olivier award for 'My Children My Africa.'

The music at the beginning of the programme is the South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Abridged by Michelene Wandor
Produced by Chris Wallis
A Watershed production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b03ktz07)
Susan Boyle's Aspergers diagnosis; Sara Thornton; Birgitte Hjort Sørensen

Singer Susan Boyle has revealed she has Aspergers, a form of Autism. Why is the condition so hard to diagnose in women and what is the impact of finding out later in life? Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, talks about playing Katrine Fonsmark in the BAFTA Award winning cult drama Borgen and her new part in Shakespeare's Coriolanus. Powerlister Sara Thornton, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police. And our series looking at childcare around the world begins in Fiji where communal child rearing has been at the centre of traditional village life for centuries.


WED 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b03ktz09)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Episode 3

Sam and Mrs Knipp visit the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. Later, in the dark, in the ruins of St Dunstan, they escape a pair of robbers. Sam and Elizabeth set off for a tour of the West Country, including the hot springs at Bath but Sam doesn't think the water can be very clean, with so many bodies in it. His eyes are starting to hurt now and he begins to fear that he's losing his sight. Adapted by Hattie Naylor.

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.

Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


WED 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b03ktz0c)
Series 15

Rooms for Rent

Alan Dein returns with more extraordinary stories of ordinary life in Britain. In Rooms for Rent, he meets Helga and her daughter Melody in a small Norfolk town who, ever since husband - a Cliff Richard impersonator - upped sticks and left, rent out rooms. They've got two men in situ, and a newcomer has just turned up.

But as the 'family' gather round the communal dinnertable, they dream of a fulfilling future beyond this often noisy house of song and dance. And how will the five of them get on as the Christmas season sets everyone on edge?

Producers: Sarah Bowen and Simon Elmes

Also in this series: The Auction - sale of the century, Yorkshire style, and Christmas at 'Sandringham' - a popular seaside hotel puts up the streamers and doles out puds by the Santa-sackful... But are the guests having fun?


WED 11:30 Believe It! (b03ktz0f)
Series 2

Victor

Jon Canter's "radiography" of Richard Wilson returns for a second series.

Celebrity autobiographies are everywhere. Richard Wilson has always said he'd never write one. Based on glimmers of truth, Believe It is the hilarious, bizarre, revealing (and, most importantly, untrue) celebrity autobiography of Richard Wilson.

He narrates the series with his characteristic dead-pan delivery, weaving in and out of dramatised scenes from his fictional life-story. He plays a heavily exaggerated version of himself: a Scots actor and national treasure, unmarried, private, passionate about politics, theatre and Manchester United (all true), who's a confidant of the powerful and has survived childhood poverty, a drunken father, years of fruitless grind, too much success, monstrosity, addiction, charity work and fierce rivalry with Sean Connery and Ian McKellan (not true).

The title - in case you hadn't spotted - is an unashamed reference his famous catchphrase.

Written by Jon Canter
Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
A Pacificus production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:00 You and Yours (b03ktz0h)
Diesel Investigation

Health ministers from the G8 countries are meeting in London to find new ways of collaborating in the fight against dementia. What are the challenges to governments, researchers and drugs companies in working together more effectively?

Why are so many diesel drivers being landed with big repair bills? A You & Yours investigation has unearthed some surprising answers.

As energy bills rise, there are more and more gadgets available which claim to help reduce your bills. But do they actually work?

Now students are paying up to £9,000 a year for their education, they are expecting more from their university, and their lecturers. But some think their expectations are too great.

The Royal Mail's expert code-breakers, working to decipher our terrible handwriting.

Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.


WED 12:57 Weather (b03kl47q)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b03kl47s)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


WED 13:45 A Cause for Caroling (b03ktz0k)
From Coventry to Agincourt

In the third programme in the series Jeremy finds a developing professionalism in carol singing and writing in the details of a manuscript held by Cambridge University, and he reveals the background of the Coventry carol's mystery play setting. The combination of energetic drama and more refined singing men makes this period a caroling golden age but with clouds on the horizon.

Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.

Producer: Tom Alban.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b03kqg05)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b011zn6g)
Shelley Silas - The People Next Door

by Shelley Silas.

directed by Mary Peate.

Sarah has never much liked her next-door-neighbours Samuel and Teresa - he plays his music too loud and she's just plain creepy, but are they as weird as Sarah thinks, or is she just letting her imagination run away with her? Husband James is sure it's the latter.


WED 15:00 Money Box Live (b03ktz0m)
Saving and Investing for Children

Saving or investing for children? Please note that deposit limits apply to The Halifax Kids Regular Saver mentioned during the programme. Payments from £10 to £100 can be made each month by standing order. Please check with Halifax for full details.

Where can you find the best interest rate for children?

What are the rules about tax?

How much can you save into a Junior ISA?

Should you consider investing in equities?

Whatever your question presenter Ruth Alexander will be ready to help, with guests:

Jason Hollands, Bestinvest

Christine Ross, SG Hambros

Sylvia Waycot, Moneyfacts

To talk to the team call 03700 100 444 between 1pm and 3.30pm on Wednesday or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic charges apply. Calls from mobiles may be higher.

Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Diane Richardson.


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b03kqg0f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b03ktz0p)
Pocket Calculator in Papua New Guinea; Chicago

The Great American City - US Professor of Social Sciences, Robert J Sampson, discusses his landmark research project with Laurie Taylor. Following in the influential tradition of the Chicago School of urban studies, but updating it for the twenty-first century, he argues that communities do still matter because life is decisively shaped by where we live. Neighbourhoods influences a wide variety of phenomena including teen births, altruism and crime. Not even national crisis can destroy the enduring impact of place.

Also, the anthropologist, Anthony Pickles, reveals the significance of pockets for controlling money in Highland Papua New Guinea.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b03ktz0r)
CEO of News UK; Ad-funded programmes; Press reform

In his first broadcast interview since becoming Chief Executive of News UK, Mike Darcey shares his thoughts on the success of Sun digital subscriptions, competing with the Daily Mail, press reform and page 3.

An aspiring press self-regulator has emerged; the Impress Project says it wants to be independent, affordable, and accountable to the public. But will a regulator that's in support of the recent Royal Charter - when all the main national papers are opposed to it - really be able to get any of them on board? We speak to its founder.

Declining budgets are forcing traditional media to reach out to different types of content funding; more are working with commercial companies and brands for help with finance. However, there's a view that "paid for programming" compromises editorially decisions, and this view underpins much of the present regulatory framework. In a new report, former Newsnight Editor and Director of BBC World News Sian Kevill asks audiences what they think of ad-funded content and determines that they are more tolerant than we think. We speak to her and former Ofcom Director Chris Banatvala about his concern with relaxing the rules.

Producer: Katy Takatsuki.


WED 17:00 PM (b03ktz0t)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl47v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 What Does the K Stand For? (b03ktz0w)
Series 1

First Love

Young Stephen falls in love, makes a self-discovery and breaks his first heart.

Stephen K Amos's sitcom about his teenage years, growing up black, gay and funny in 1980s South London.

Written by Jonathan Harvey with Stephen K Amos.

Himself ... Stephen K Amos
Young Stephen ... Shaquille Ali-Yebuah
Stephanie Amos ... Fatou Sohna
Virginia Amos ... Ellen Thomas
Vincent Amos ... Don Gilet
Miss Collins ... Gemma Whelan
PE Teacher ... Harry Jardine
Fanni ... Emerald O'Hanrahan
Violin ... Rachel Barnes

Producer: Colin Anderson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b03ktz0y)
Peggy tells Helen she's looking tired. Jess invites them both to her party, asking if Ambridge Organics could deliver the food. Helen's hesitant but, pushed by Peggy, reluctantly agrees.

Later she tells Kirsty she can't face the party. Kirsty points out that Helen wanted to move on but Helen says she can't just turn her feelings off. Kirsty suggests taking Jess's money for the food and then saying she can't find a babysitter.

Tom asks Peggy whether he should marry Kirsty and she says of course! When Tom worries that he messed it up the first time round, emotional Peggy says she resents watching Jack's memories disappear, so the important thing is to seize the moment.

Rob's surprised when Jess says Helen's doing the catering for the party. Jess thinks it might build bridges between them. She's noticed Helen's awkward around Rob and thinks it's because Helen disagrees with intensive farming. Rob is cross. There's no point having a party if they're moving. When pushed, Jess admits she doesn't want to move. She then suggests cancelling the party, but Rob says it's too late. Jess doesn't know why they're arguing, then. It's done now. They're going to have to go ahead.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b03ktz10)
Alan Bennett, Terry Pratchett, The Duck House, The Great Train Robbery

With Mark Lawson

Alan Bennett gives his reaction as his drama The History Boys is named the nation's favourite play by the English Touring Theatre's 21st Anniversary poll.

A forthcoming two-part television drama, starring Jim Broadbent and Luke Evans, is going to show both sides of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. Firstly from the point of view of the criminals and then of the police who tracked them down afterwards. Written by Chris Chibnall, creator of the hit TV series Broadchurch, the two dramas are timed for the 50th anniversary of the crime - a raid on a Royal Mail train that netted the then-record haul of £2.6m. Crime writer NJ Cooper reviews.

Terry Pratchett's 40th Discworld novel brings the wonders of steam-power to Ankh-Morpork when enterprising young Dick Simnel builds a steam engine. It's 30 years since Terry Pratchett began writing about Discworld, and he talks to Mark about how the ideas for stories appear, what he does with these ideas if they aren't quite ready to be put into a book, and how he and his assistant Rob Wilkins have been teaching Terry's voice-activated software to recognise some of Discworld's more unlikely names.

The Duck House is a new political satire focusing on the 2009 Expenses Scandal. Labour MP Robert Houston, played by Ben Miller, is planning to escape defeat in the next election by defecting to the Tory party when the scandal breaks. Houston must try to persuade the Tories he is squeaky-clean while trying to hide the duck house he put on expenses. Political journalist Andrew Rawnsley reviews.

Produced by Ella-mai Robey.


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b03ktz09)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b03ktz12)
Forgiveness

"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison." If ever there was man who demonstrated the power of forgiveness it was Nelson Mandela. His personal example showed how forgiveness is the most powerful catalyst in the resolution of conflict. South Africa still has its problems but how much worse would they have been if Mandela had called for retribution for all the victims of apartheid, instead of leading the country in a process of truth and reconciliation, where crimes committed under the regime would be forgiven if people confessed their guilt and told the truth about their actions. Mandela was certainly a moral exemplar that we would all do well to try and emulate. Closer to home many people in Northern Ireland are still struggling to find personal peace despite the political settlement of the Good Friday Agreement. A few weeks ago, when Northern Ireland's attorney general John Larkin proposed ending Troubles-related prosecutions his idea was metaphorically drowned out by those demanding justice for the dead. Would the reaction be different if he'd made his proposal now, with Nelson Mandela's example fresh in our mind? In the interest of peace, do we all have a duty to forgive? Or are we expecting too much from victims, so that we can have the comfort of forgetting their pain and loss? Eric Lomax was a prisoner of the Japanese on the infamous Burma-Siam railway. He was mercilessly beaten in captivity. A film of his life "The Railway Man" tells the remarkable story of how Mr Lomax forgave the man who tortured him. As he said "sometimes the hating has to stop." But are their some things we should never forgive? What are the moral limits of forgiveness?


WED 20:45 Pop-Up Ideas (b03l3sh9)
Series 2

Tim Harford: The Power of Maps

Tim Harford returns with a new series of Pop Up Ideas. This time Tim and his guests tell intriguing stories inspired by maps.

In the first talk, Tim argues that maps - for all their beauty - can be dangerous. In the hands of powerful people, the map begins to shape the world in its image.

He tells the story of th Johann Gottlieb Beckmann, who mapped German forests. He developed the idea of the "normalbaum", a kind of platonic ideal of what a tree should be, which could be planted in neat rows to make mapping and harvesting them easier.

It appeared to be a brilliant idea and produced unprecedented growth in the forestry business. But the forests came to resemble the map - with all its uniformity - and eventually the resulting lack of diversity led to the destruction of the forests themselves.

Tim then looks at the taxpayer-funded Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) which operated in Depression-era America and refused "to grant credit to people, not because of their credit history, not because of their ability to repay, not even because of their need. But just because of where they lived on the map."

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


WED 21:00 Frontiers (b03ktz14)
Geo-engineering

Geoengineering is a controversial approach to dealing with climate change. Gaia Vince explores putting chemicals in the stratosphere to stop solar energy reaching the earth.

When volcanoes erupt they put sulphur in the stratosphere. The particles reflect solar rays back into space and the planet cools down. Scientists are suggesting that it could be possible to put sulphur into the stratosphere using specialised aircraft or a very long pipe. But if this was implemented there could be impacts on rainfall and the ozone layer.

Another idea is to spray seawater to whiten clouds that would reflect more energy away from the earth.

Gaia Vince talks to the researchers who are considering solar radiation management. She also hears from social scientists who are finding out what the public think about the idea and who are asking who should make decisions about implementing this way of cooling the planet.


WED 21:30 Midweek (b03ktz03)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b03kl47x)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b03ktz16)
David Cameron pledges action on dementia cure, but what will be done for carers? US threatens Ukraine sanctions and the challenge of Indonesian healthcare - with Ritula Shah.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b03ktz18)
Truman Capote Short Stories

The Thanksgiving Visitor - Part 1/2

'The Thanksgiving Visitor,' Part 1. Sook invites Buddy's worst enemy to their special dinner.

'Talk about mean! Odd Henderson was the meanest human creature in my experience ... alas I was the object of his relentless attentions.'

Read by Kerry Shale

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 Political Animals (b03ktz1b)
Series 2

Barney and George

Barney reveals how President George W Bush broke his heart by being unfaithful with a man called Tony.

Another unreliable dog's eye view of the trials and tribulations of living in the White House.

Written by Tony Bagley.

Director: Marc Beeby.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


WED 23:15 Bird Island (b01jxslg)
Series 1

Episode 2

On one hand, Ben is on the trip of a lifetime to Sub-Antarctica. On the other, he's trapped in an icy hell with one other person, a dodgy internet connection and a dictaphone. Loneliness is something of a problem. His fellow travelling scientist Graham should alleviate this, but the tragi-comic fact is, they are nerdy blokes, so they can only stumble through yet another awkward exchange. Ben experiences all the highs and lows that this beautiful, but lonely place has to offer but fails miserably to communicate this to Graham. So, Ben shares his thoughts with us in the form of an audio 'log'.

Apart from his research studying the Albatross on the Island, Ben attempts to continue normal life with an earnestness and enthusiasm which is ultimately very endearing. We're with him as chats awkwardly with Graham, telephones his mother and as he tries to form a long distance relationship with a woman through Chemistry.com. In fact, we follow Ben as everything occurs to him. We also hear the pings and whirrs of machinery, the Squawks and screeches of the birds and the vast expanse outside. Oh, and ice. Lots of ice.

EPISDE TWO:
Bird Island is the story of Ben, a young scientist working in Antarctica, trying to socially adapt to the loneliness by keeping a cheery audio diary on his Dictaphone. An atmospheric 15 minute non audience comedy.
Ben and Graham are short on food supplies and can't radio main base. Tensions rise as they are forced to survive on porridge.

Written by ..... Katy Wix

Produced by ..... Tilusha Ghelani.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b03ktz1d)
Sean Curran and the team report on Prime Minister's Questions, revelations about crime statistics, continuing criticism of the badger culls, and David Cameron's "selfie". Editor: Rachel Byrne.



THURSDAY 12 DECEMBER 2013

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl48w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b03nxxf2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl48y)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl490)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl492)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl494)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03kv0cd)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with the Most Rev George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b03kv0cg)
Farmers along the East Coast, in Scotland and in North Wales are assessing damage to their land and homes as water recedes after last week's tidal surge. NFU Mutual says that it's had over a thousand claims following the storms and floods. These are mainly for farm buildings as arable land isn't usually covered by the insurers. However, farmers in East Yorkshire and Humberside say the salty water has damaged thousands of acres their farmland containing crops which had been planted in the autumn.

Farming Today continues its look at fishing, in the light of reform to the Common Fisheries Policy. Mackerel is a valuable fish for UK fishermen and half the European catch allocation currently belongs to the UK - the bulk of that belonging to Scotland. But when Iceland, which isn't bound by EU fishing rules, trebled the volume of mackerel it landed and the Faroe Islands followed suit, the Scottish weren't happy. The Icelandic Government says the increased catch is down to 30 per cent more fish being found in their waters. The Scottish say this level of fishing compromises overall mackerel stocks and want an end to the so-called mackerel wars.

And our biggest food companies are putting standards of farm animal welfare higher on their agendas, according to a new report. The latest business benchmarking report on farm animal welfare says its survey of the world's 70 biggest food businesses has seen big improvements in welfare reporting over the last year.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jules Benham.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5bnl)
Mute Swan

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the Mute Swan. Mute Swans are deeply embedded in our culture. They are unique among British birds because the Crown retains the rights of ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water. Since the 15th century, an annual census of mute swans has been held annually on the River Thames.


THU 06:00 Today (b03kv0cj)
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather, Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b03kv0cl)
Pliny the Younger

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Pliny the Younger, famous for his letters. A prominent lawyer in Rome in the first century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. Throughout his career he was a prolific letter-writer, sharing his thoughts with great contemporaries including the historian Tacitus, and asking the advice of the Emperor Trajan. Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius.

With:

Catharine Edwards
Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Roy Gibson
Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester

Alice König
Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Thomas Morris.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b03nxxn5)
Long Walk to Freedom

Episode 4

Published in 1995, Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's own story of his journey from his birth in 1918 in a tiny village in the Transkei, and an idyllic childhood, through his life as a young lawyer in the bustling city of Johannesburg under apartheid, increasing politicisation by his experiences in the city, membership of the African National Congress, arrest and 27 years' imprisonment, to release and eventual election as President in South Africa's first national, non-racial, one-person-one-vote election.

Episode 4:
Gone underground as an organiserfor the ANC, using the name David Motsamayi, Mr Mandela is asked to set up a military wing of the organisation.

This extraordinary story is read by the South African actor John Kani who first came to prominence in Europe in the plays 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for which he won a Tony in New York, and The Island which he co-wrote. He received an Olivier award for 'My Children My Africa.'

The music at the beginning of the programme is the South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Abridged by Michelene Wandor
Produced by Chris Wallis
A Watershed production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b03kv1ds)
Wendy and Peter Pan; Boarding kindergarten schools in China

JM Barrie's classic tale Peter Pan given a feminist twist in a new adaptation for the RSC. What's the best way to after small children if the parents need, or want, to work? The BBC World Service asked reporter, Madeline Morris to look at different models of childcare around the world. Today she looks at boarding kindergarten schools in China where children weekly board from the age of three and see their parents only at weekend. We look at a new study that reveals how child support in South Africa is helping to reduce the risk of young women getting HIV. Plus, All in the Mind, the weekly Radio 4 programme, is celebrating a quarter of a century by launching their 25th Anniversary Awards. Claudia Hammond talks about the Awards, how mental health care has changed for women during the time they've been on air and the early champions in the field, women like the American investigative journalist Nellie Bly.

Presenter Jenni Murray
Producer Kirsty Starkey
Output Editor Beverley Purcell.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kv1dv)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Episode 4

Sam writes a letter to the Duke of York laying out his suggestions for reform of the Navy Board; the Duke is delighted and signs the letter as his own. Elizabeth is upset to hear that Sam has been gadding about while she's been away but that's nothing compared to what happens when she walks in on him in the act of fondling Debs, the maid. Adapted by Hattie Naylor.

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.

Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b03kv1dx)
Indonesia's humungous healthcare plan

On 1 January 2014 Indonesia will launch the largest public health insurance scheme in the world. It will unite a bewildering array of current schemes to cover the entire population, with the poor getting their health care free. Former BBC Jakarta Correspondent Claire Bolderson asks whether the world's fourth most populous country has the resources and organisational skills to make such an ambitious scheme work?
Producer: Mike Gallagher.


THU 11:30 Precious Metal (b03kv1dz)
The skills of the silversmith are some of the oldest known to man. The creation of beautiful objects in precious metal is an endlessly versatile art form; objects can be tactile, weighty or beguilingly delicate. Their making is spectacular and violent –bashing with hammers, filing, cutting, heating red hot and polishing to perfection. The art of the silversmith is a hard-won product of skill, passion and patience. It produces unique objects of beauty, utility and mystery.

It's also a strange world that brings together ancient and modern –with fiercely guarded craft skills, solitary makers, workshops filled with traditional tools and the latest in digital technologies and precision engineering.

SIlversmithing is also one of this country's quiet success stories. We are now the global centre for contemporary metalwork, attracting students and skilled silversmiths from all over the world. Awareness of this new mood in metalworking is growing: museums are developing collections; British metalworkers are achieving ever-greater international accolades; independent training centres are committed to growing the craft.

Martin Ellis explores the world and work of a number of leading contemporary silversmiths working in this country to see how they work the precious metal to express their vision and tell their stories, from sacred chalices raised out of flat sheets of silver, to intricate objects reflecting back the life of rock pools; fabulously be-jewelled ceremonial scabbards to mysterious silver spoons. He investigates how new generations of silversmiths are learning ancient techniques and how processes like Computer Aided Design and 3D printing offer new opportunities and new challenges to the modern silversmith.

Presenter Martin Ellis

The music was composed by Michael Burdett and Richard Cottle - with sounds from the silversmiths workshops and performed by Little Death Orchestra.

Producer: Mike Greenwood
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


THU 12:00 You and Yours (b03kv1f1)
Food standards, airport restrictions and Christmas hits

The first review of UK food standards following the horsemeat scandal and Grammy winning producer Steve Levine teams up with singer Natalie McCool to make our Christmas song.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Pete Wilson.


THU 12:57 Weather (b03kl496)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b03kl498)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


THU 13:45 A Cause for Caroling (b03kv1f3)
Carol Crisis? What Crisis?

In the fourth programme in the series Jeremy describes the impact of the Reformation and later Puritan attitudes to music in general and carols in particular. The development of the Medieval carol may have been arrested but there was never a serious threat to folk caroling and it wasn't long after the Commonwealth that carols, or rather one particular carol, was back in church.

Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer: Tom Alban.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b03ktz0y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Pilgrim by Sebastian Baczkiewicz (b03kv26x)
Series 5

Parsons Mount

By Sebastian Baczkiewicz

Episode 4: Parsons Mount

Pilgrim's quest for the Radiant Boy forces him to travel to the one place he has been forbidden to go.

William Palmer ..... Paul Hilton
Hecht ..... James Fleet
Millie ..... Amaka Okafor
Chloe ..... Lizzy Watts
Carlton ..... John Norton
Stringer ..... Joel MacCormack
Sound ..... Colin Guthrie

Directed by Marc Beeby


THU 15:00 Open Country (b03kv26z)
Shropshire Union Canal

Felicity Evans travels along the backwaters of the Shropshire Union Canal meeting people who've adopted a new area as their own.

Starting out near Beeston she joins Wirral Autistic Society who have adopted a 2 mile stretch of the canal, which they've used regularly, to maintain its upkeep. She sets to work and finds out how it's changed how they feel about the area.

Along the way she helps monitor the hedgerows which were introduced when the canals were created to stop stock entering the waterways. Now many sections are in poor condition but they need to be improved to help a rare moth which has adopted it as its own.

Travelling on to Ellesmere Port and the National Waterways Museum finds out who still use the canals and how a new generation are learning the traditional skills to rebuild and restore heritage boats.

Produced in Bristol by Anne-Marie Bullock.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b03kpky8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b03kpkyx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b03kv271)
Harvey Weinstein; Xmas gifts from the film world; Alfonso Cuaron on Gravity

Francine Stock talks to legendary film producer and co founder of Miramax films Harvey Weinstein, about his life in films, including his most recent release Mandela. Plus a pick of the best Christmas gifts from the film world with Catherine Bray and Jason Solomons. As we enter the "award season" critic Tim Robey discusses the Golden Globe nominations. And Alfonso Cuaron discusses his 3D wonder Gravity, still pulling them into the box office.

Producer: Hilary Dunn.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b03kv273)
Horsemeat; NanoSims; Early bacteria; Crystallography

Food crime is now big business that criss crosses national boundaries, according to today's report into the safety and authenticity of our food. Public Analyst, Dr Duncan Campbell tells Dr Adam Rutherford that he and his colleagues are hampered by lack of funding and the lack of a national plan for a sustainable laboratory infrastructure. While report author, Professor Chris Elliott, the director of the Global Institute for Food Security at Queen's University, Belfast describes how he wants the UK's scientific infrastructure to be strengthened to avoid yet another serious food scandal.

Show Us Your Instrument: Cosmic Scientist Dr Natalie Starkey from the School of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University reveals the NanoSims instrument.

Thousands of miles apart the same species of microbes seem to crop up deep beneath the earth's surface in cracks of hard rock. Yet nobody seems to quite know how they spread so widely. Scientists now believe they may have survived completely isolated from the surface for what could be billions of years. Dr Matt Shrenk from Michigan State University explains that the biosphere as we know it is far more extensive than we previously thought.

Crystallography... as it sounds is the study of crystals, but it's not quite as simple as that. It underpins many scientific fields and yet it remains a relatively unknown subject area. Scores of Nobel prizes have been won, the first almost 100 years ago and we wouldn't understand the structure of DNA without it. The United Nations has declared 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography and emeritus Professor Mike Glazer from Oxford University says he hopes it will help bring the subject out of the shadows.

Producer: Fiona Hill.


THU 17:00 PM (b03kv275)
Full coverage and analysis of the day's news.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl49b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 The Secret World (b03kv277)
Series 4

Episode 3

Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off has to deal with a baking-related dispute between Ray Winstone and Bob Hoskins.

Olympic director Danny Boyle is tasked with rescuing a cat from a tree, and James Naughtie seeks counselling from poet Roger McGough.

The Secret World is the impression show with a difference.

With

Jon Culshaw
Julian Dutton
Lewis MacLeod
Jess Robinson
Debra Stephenson
Duncan Wisbey

Written by Bill Dare, Julian Dutton and Duncan Wisbey.

Produced and created by: Bill Dare.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b03kv279)
Jill's reluctant to have a lift with Ruth, admitting to Shula it's because Ruth keeps pestering her about making a doctor's appointment to discuss her cataracts. Shula worries about Darrell. Until social services have found him somewhere and he's settled, she can't relax.

Ruth and David spot Jill having a lift with Jim. Ruth jokingly confronts Jill, who says she didn't want to impose. Ruth and David look forward to their anniversary holiday.

Ed and Emma notice that Jess has been selective with her party invites (they aren't included). Emma tells Ed that George was rude to Santa at Underwoods. He doesn't want a present, just Baz back. Ed suggests getting George another puppy to replace Baz. Emma's not sure. But she'll give it some thought. Ed tries one of Susan's ginger scones but is horrified at the taste.

Shula tries to persuade Rosa to visit Darrell. He's not a bad man, just a damaged one. Rosa isn't sure but eventually turns up at the hospital, where Shula discovers that Darrell has discharged himself. Angry Rosa tells Shula it's not her fault. Darrell's always let her down. He's not worth it. She's going to get on with her life, and that's what Shula should do too.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b03kv27c)
Victoria Wood, Neon Artwork, Sam Smith, Moonfleet

John Wilson is in Salford for the unveiling of this year's Front Row neon artwork. The artwork was established in 2011 to celebrate the presence of the BBC in the north and involves a cultural luminary supplying a word in their handwriting to be rendered in neon. The writer and comedian Victoria Wood is the guest artist for the 2013 artwork and joins John to switch it on.

Singer-Songwriter Sam Smith is the winner of this year's Brits Critics' Choice award. He follows Adele, Florence & the Machine, Ellie Goulding, Jessie J, Emeli Sandé, and Tom Odell, who have also won the award in previous years. Earlier this year, Smith's collaboration with the much in demand record producer Naughty Boy led to the number one hit single La La La. Smith talks to John Wilson about what the award means to him and why he's looking forward to 2014.

Moonfleet is a new television family drama starring Ray Winstone and Phil Daniels as members of a gang of smugglers. Adapted by Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes), from the John Meade Falkner novel, the story is set in a small Dorset village called Moonfleet and follows the gang in their attempt to find a lost diamond. The writer Flic Everett reviews.

The Imperial War Museum North has just unveiled a World War I painting that hasn't been seen in public for almost a century. Ypres, 1915 was an Imperial War Museum commission for the museum's first home in Crystal Palace. Damaged by water, the huge painting by Gilbert Rogers - it's more than three metres high and 4 metres wide - remained in storage for decades. It's now been restored and put on view to mark the start of the museum's First World War centenary programme. John takes a look at the painting in the company of curator Jenny Wood.

Producer: Ekene Akalawu.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kv1dv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b03kv27f)
Tension Over Roma Migration

Last month the former Home Secretary David Blunkett warned that tensions between Sheffield's Roma and their more established neighbours could lead to "an explosion". But, with estimates of as many as 200,000 Roma in the UK, such tensions aren't confined to Sheffield. So is enough being done to help ease their integration? Andrew Fletcher reports on how local authorities are coping with the arrival of large numbers of Roma migrants and with Britain's labour market opening to Bulgaria and Romania in January, asks whether there will be extra pressures in areas already experiencing community tensions?

Producer: Rob Cave.


THU 20:30 In Business (b03kv48v)
Workload

Once there were quotas for employing disabled people. Now there is equality legislation and protection from discrimination in the workplace. Employers are ultra-sensitive about this but what does it actually mean for people with disabilities and the people they work with? Peter Day finds out.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b03kv273)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b03kv0cl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b03kl49d)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b03kv48x)
Will Ukraine's Yanukovich sign Europe's trade deal?
David Cameron's legal gaffe.
South Africa reacts to Mandela signer's story.
Special report on Mexico economy.
With Philippa Thomas.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b03kv48z)
Truman Capote Short Stories

The Thanksgiving Visitor - Part 2/2

'The Thanksgiving Visitor' Part 2.

'I felt Odd Henderson before I saw him: with the sense of peril that warns an experienced woodsman say of an impending encounter with a bobcat. To others he must have seemed simply a grubby twelve-year-old boy. But to me he was as sinister as a genie released from a bottle.'

Read by Kerry Shale

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Alice's Wunderland (b03kv491)
Series 2

Wunderwoods Widderday

It's the Wunderwoods Widderday.

Take a trip to the woods of Wunderland, a poundland of magical realms.

Sketch show by Alice Lowe.

Also starring Richard Glover, Simon Greenall, Rachel Stubbings, Clare Thomson and Marcia Warren.

Producer: Lyndsay Fenner

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b03kv493)
Rachel Byrne reports from Westminster.



FRIDAY 13 DECEMBER 2013

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b03kl4bl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b03nxxn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b03kl4bn)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b03kl4bq)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b03kl4bs)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b03kl4bv)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b03kv6ks)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with the Most Rev George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b03kv6kv)
Who'll be picking up the bill in the wake of the horsemeat scandal? Farmers fear they'll have to pay as there are suggestions for new authenticity testing of meat. The interim report by Professor Chris Elliott makes a number of recommendations, from a new food crime unit to a simpler supply chain. The National Farmer's Union says it backs the report, but has concerns about the implementation of some of the ideas.

Talks are underway between a newly created body representing Scottish poultry farmers and the 2 Sisters Food Group, in a bid to secure the future of the poultry industry in Scotland. In November the processor announced it was cutting 200 jobs at its factory at Coupar Angus, putting all its contract growers on notice and stopping all free-range and organic processing permanently. Because of this, a poultry farmer near Aberdeen sends his last load of chickens to the factory.

And what will happen to the excess fish discards that will now have to be landed under the newly agreed Common Fisheries Policy? Fishermen in Plymouth say they're already taking steps to avoid catching unwanted stocks.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03k5br7)
Brent Geese

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Chris Packham presents the brent goose. Brent Geese are our smallest wild geese and are unmistakable with their rather funereal colours, blackish heads and grey backs with a wisp of white on the neck. Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland is a very important wintering site for Brent Geese.


FRI 06:00 Today (b03kv6kx)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b03kpkyj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b03nxy5r)
Long Walk to Freedom

Episode 5

Published in 1995, Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela's own story of his journey from his birth in 1918 in a tiny village in the Transkei, and an idyllic childhood, through his life as a young lawyer in the bustling city of Johannesburg under apartheid, increasing politicisation by his experiences in the city, membership of the African National Congress, arrest and 27 years' imprisonment, to release and eventual election as President in South Africa's first national, non-racial, one-person-one-vote election.

Episode 5:
After 20 years' imprisonment on Robben Island, the political situation is changing and Mr Mandela is moved suddenly to a prison on the mainland.

This extraordinary story is read by the South African actor John Kani who first came to prominence in Europe in the plays 'Sizwe Bansi is Dead' for which he won a Tony in New York, and The Island which he co-wrote. He received an Olivier award for 'My Children My Africa.'

The music at the beginning of the programme is the South African National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

Abridged by Michelene Wandor
Produced by Chris Wallis
A Watershed production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b03kv6l1)
Lady Justice Hallett; Extreme commutes; Honour killings

Power lister, Lady Justice Hallett talks about being the first woman to chair the Bar Council and acting as the Coroner at the inquest into the July 7th London bombings in 2005.

If your journey to work takes you longer than 90 minutes in one direction you are officially an 'extreme commuter', a group that is ever-increasing in numbers. How do people juggle family life with these long commutes and are they right to choose to do them?

Death in the name of "honour" - when women are killed because they have supposedly brought shame on their family it hits the headlines. But in the media frenzy, do we consider the real women who lose their lives, or do they just become statistics? Jenni Murray talks to the women who have written a new play on honour killings premiering in London this week, which aims to help us remember them.

Presenter:Jenni Murray
Producer: Bernadette McConnell.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kv6l3)
The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Episode 5

Elizabeth is furious with Sam over his affair with the maid and refuses to wash. She's still not sure what she saw but gets Debs to confess. Elizabeth wants Debs to be thrown out and a reluctant Sam agrees. Adapted by Hattie Naylor.

Theme music: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, words by Robert Herrick and music by William Lawes, sung by Bethany Hughes. Lute, baroque guitar and theorbo played by David Miller. Violin and viol by Annika Gray, and recorders by Alice Baxter.

Historical consultant: Liza Picard
Sound by Nigel Lewis

A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.


FRI 11:00 Sons and Lovers (b03kv8hg)
With Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence announced himself as a major player on the national and international literary scene.

The book - the first in a series of novels featuring the character Paul Morel - drew heavily on Lawrence's own life growing up in a Nottinghamshire mining village, and helped establish him as one of the most venerated novelists of the first half of the twentieth century.

Since then though, Lawrence's reputation has suffered a series of major assaults from those portraying him as aggressively misogynistic and a misanthropic.

A hundred years on from the book's publication, Frank Cottrell Boyce sets out to explain why he thinks Sons and Lovers deserves to be rescued from the bonfire that has engulfed Lawrence's reputation. It is, he argues, a landmark novel filled with extraordinary moments of tenderness that treats its characters as fully realised human beings with profound spiritual and intellectual yearnings.

Frank returns to St Helen's, the former mining town where he grew up, to make the case that Paul Morel and his family are characters who deserve to live on in our reading lives for another hundred years at least.

Producer: Geoff Bird
A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 11:30 On the Rocks (b03kvby1)
Series 1

Movies

by Christopher William Hill. It's 1937 on the remote Scilly Island of St. Martin's, where the islanders are resisting the attempts of the Penzance GPO man to modernise the post office - around which their world revolves.

Episode 3: Movies. Morwenna is bored of island life.

Directed by Mary Peate.

Sound by Jenni Burnett, Anne Bunting and Caleb Knightley
Production Co-ordinator, Jessica Brown.


FRI 12:00 You and Yours (b03kvby3)
Junior Doctor Working Hours

Junior Doctor working hours: Do long shifts put both the doctors and patients in danger? We speak to the father of a Junior Doctor who died in a crash after working long shifts.

We'll have the latest numbers of people living permanently in care treatment centres - centres that were designed as only a temporary arrangement.

We hear why it really is a crunch point for energy - could the lights go out in 2014?

Angora wool produced in China is accused of being unethical - some high street stores have refused to stock it. Where and how can you buy ethical Angora wool?

And the newspaper that only reports good news.


FRI 12:52 The Listening Project (b03kvby5)
Margaret and Monica - Dust to Dust

Fi Glover introduces a conversation about the rights and wrongs of cremation that gets a little heated before the friends agree to differ, proving once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b03kl4bx)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b03kl4bz)
National and international news. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.uk or on twitter: #wato.


FRI 13:45 A Cause for Caroling (b03kvby7)
The Ghosts of the West Gallery

In the fifth programme of his series telling the story of the Christmas Carol Jeremy Summerly visits Dorchester where Thomas Hardy captured the caroling tradition that had matured through the 17th and 18th century but which faced extinction in the 19th. The West Gallery tradition of musicians and singers in parish churches was an integral part of community life in Hardy's Wessex as elsewhere. Jeremy explains the origins of that tradition and the fuguing carols so beloved at the time and why it was that their days were numbered.
Along with folk musician Tim Laycock he gets to see the carol manuscripts from which Hardy's great grandfather played and sang on Christmas night in 1800.

Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.

Producer: Tom Alban.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b03kv279)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b03kvby9)
Helen

A journalist is accused of molesting his stepdaughter in this powerful drama starring Ed Stoppard and Lia Williams, and introducing Lucy Cook as Helen.

Following his divorce, David lives alone with his twelve year-old daughter Helen. Clara, Helen's mother, has remarried Tom, a successful journalist. Helen sees them at weekends and for holidays. When Helen, seemingly out of the blue, makes a shocking and violent accusation against Tom, claiming he's molested her, it has devastating results for everyone involved.

Helen is a powerful, contemporary drama about a family torn apart by anger, weakness and resentment. The play explores the damage we so easily do to those we love. Is Helen telling the truth? And if she isn't, can the damage ever be repaired?

Starring Ed Stoppard and Lia Williams, and introducing Lucy Cook as Helen.

HELEN
By Virginia Gilbert

Producer/director: David Ian Neville.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b03kvbyc)
The Millennium Seed Bank

Eric Robson hosts GQT from The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. On this week's panel are Bunny Guinness, Anne Swithinbank and Christine Walkden.

We mark the eightieth birthday of the iconic post-war garden designer, John Brookes, who coined the term 'room outside'. Christine Walkden explores the depths of the underground Millennium Seed Bank and traces the journey of the seed from collection to preservation.

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

This week's questions:

Q. Is it possible to save an apple tree that has blown over in the wind?

A. Yes, it is very possible to salvage a fallen tree. Use some stakes to keep it upright throughout the winter and then remove them next summer. It may have lost some of its fine roots, so make sure you water it properly next summer. You could prune the head to reduce the wind resistance or support some of the heavier branches. Add mulch to encourage the feeding roots to grow back.

Q. Is a hotbed a good way of growing early vegetables and how would one go about it?

A. One way of doing it is to stack manure or spent hops about 2ft (61cm) deep, cover it with 6 inches (15cm) of soil and sprinkle a handful of sulphate ammonia over the top. You can add a wooden and glass frame over the top to allow you to capture all of the heat from below.

Q. Could the panel suggest some long flowering plants in blues, reds and whites to help create a First World War commemorative display?

A. The single strained Begonias would look beautiful and you could try the white flowering forms with dark red leaves. They don't need deadheading and can cope well in lousy weather.
Perhaps try the red Maltese Cross Lychnis or the brick red Pelargoniums. Marguerite Argyranthemum would provide an array of white daisies. You could try one of the blue Salvias.
Tender perennials are often better value for money as they have a very long flowering season. Salivia Indigo Spires flowers from May right through until early December. Salvia Bethellii has a pinky-red flower and provides colour for a long period. The tender perennials can be lifted at the end of the display and planted somewhere else.

Q. How should a Mandevilla be cared for over the winter?

A. Mandevillas are fabulous climbing plants, with windmill-like flowers spanning 1-3inches (2.5-7.5cm) across. Bring the pot into a cool, frost-free room. Keep it on the dry side because they don't need much water. Don't worry if it loses some leaves and its tips because you can trim it back in spring.

Q. How can you propagate a Cornus Controversa Variegata or the Wedding Cake Tree?

A. They are beautiful specimens with tiers of leaves. You could take them as bare root cuttings, but they would probably do very well as new growth in spring. Put them into a mix of peat and grit, and cover with polythene. They will probably take a long time to form the stunning structure, so it might actually be worth just buying a mature plant.

You could try air layering. Damage a small piece of stem about 6 inches (15cm) from the tip of a good shoot. Bind some damp moss mixed with compost around it with polythene. Leave it for a year or so and keep misting the bag.

Q. Could the panel suggest some native wild flowers to add yearlong colour in a cemetery?

A. The Cuckoo Flower or Cardamine Pratensis always reminds you that spring has arrived. Perhaps try digging slits into some of the turf or use a grazing animal before sowing; otherwise the seeds will have to compete with the grass. Meadow Sweet is ideal for a damp spot and will provide end of season colour. Try Yellow Rattle to reduce the fertility rate of the grass. Once the growth rate of the grass has slowed, add plants such as Ajuga Reptans and Penny Royal. Fritillaria Meleagris takes three years but the time will fly by and is well worth it for the beautiful bell-shaped flowers.


FRI 15:45 Saki (b03kvd4v)
The She Wolf

by Hector Hugh Munro, better known by his pen name Saki.

A mischievous story in which Saki's regular character Clovis springs an elaborate trick on fellow guests at a house party. A playful satire on Edwardian society with a streak of the ludicrous.

Read by Maureen Beattie
Produced by Allegra McIlroy.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b03kvd4x)
Stan Tracey, General Alfonso Armada, Mary Eyre, Bob George, Mary Riggans

Matthew Bannister on

The jazz pianist and composer Stan Tracey. His son, Clark, reflects on playing drums with his father for thirty five years.

Also the Spanish General Alfonso Armada who was jailed for his part in the abortive coup of 1981.

Mary Eyre who played hockey for England - and tennis at Wimbledon.

Bob George, the biology teacher who became the UK's leading expert on fleas.

And the actress Mary Riggans, best known for her roles in "Take The High Road" and "Balamory".

Producer: Neil George.


FRI 16:30 Feedback (b03kvd4z)
The news of Nelson Mandela's death reverberated around the world on Thursday evening. But by Friday morning it dominated not only the news but also the normal schedule across BBC Radio 4. Many listeners were frustrated by the coverage which they say was just too much, and at the expense of important national news about the worst storms for a generation and the Autumn Statement. And the coverage continues. We speak to the Head of the BBC Newsroom, Mary Hockaday, and ask whether Nelson Mandela's death really warranted all that airtime.

And is Radio 4 becoming a speech and music network? Listeners are divided about whether melody has a place as part of Radio 4's speech output with programmes like Mastertapes, Soul Music and dedicated music documentaries all occupying airtime in recent weeks. We speak to Radio 4's Commissioning Editor for the Arts, Tony Phillips, about whether there are now more music programmes on the network.

While popular music may not be every listener's cup of tea, there are certainly plenty of you who enjoy the dulcet tones of bells on Radio 4. Last week Denis Nowlan, Radio 4's Network Manager, asked for listeners' help to reveal when bells were first heard on a Sunday on the network. Since then, we've heard from many of you who remember them from your childhood.

We'll also be visiting Ambridge to speak to the woman who presides over sixty years of history - The Archers Archivist, Camilla Fisher. She's joined by long-term script writer Joanna Toye to pull out some hidden gems from the thousands of minute details she holds about characters' lives.

Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 16:56 The Listening Project (b03kvd51)
Alice and Jan - Scared to Love

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a mother and daughter about how her anencephalic first pregnancy has had an impact on her relationship with her subsequent children.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 17:00 PM (b03kvd53)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news. Including Weather at 5.57pm.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b03kl4c1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b03kvd55)
Series 82

Episode 6

A satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Sandi Toksvig. With guests Samira Ahmed, Hugo Rifkind and Rufus Hound joining regular panellist Jeremy Hardy.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b03kv6l5)
Lynda's upset about the error in Christine's ginger scone recipe, but Jill reassures her. Lynda's edgy when Lilian asks if Leonie and James are visiting together over Christmas.

When Lynda tells Leonie she needs to decide about James, Leonie says she wishes she knew and then bursts into tears, leaving Lynda wondering what she's said.

Later Leonie apologises. She's confused about her relationship and needs time to think. Lynda's late for rehearsals and is perturbed when Lilian says that Kenton's directing in her absence. Lilian wonders if Lynda's concerned that Leonie appears to have vanished into thin air. Lynda assures her that Leonie will be fine.

While Jill and Jim are Christmas shopping, Jim thinks he spots Darrell singing drunkenly, with the police moving him on. Later Jim sees Darrell shoplifting. Darrell says he's looking for a present for Rosa, but Jim says he saw him steal something. Darrell denies it and heads off, but is apprehended by the store detective. Jim wants to help him but Jill says to leave him. Maybe this way, someone with the right skills will notice Darrell and give him some proper help. And then maybe he'll stay out of Shula and Alistair's lives.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b03kvd57)
Martin Freeman; American Psycho; Crime books round-up

With Mark Lawson.

Martin Freeman returns this week as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in Peter Jackson's trilogy. He talks to Mark about the physical difficulties of shooting scenes with Ian McKellen's towering Gandalf and how his commitment to the BBC's Sherlock almost cost him the role altogether.

Bret Easton Ellis' cult novel American Psycho has been adapted as a new musical starring Matt Smith as Patrick Bateman, the successful Manhattan banker turned serial killer. Dreda Say Mitchell reviews.

Mark investigates whether dividing large publishing houses into small imprints improves authors' chances of winning literary prizes. With Editor in Chief of Atlantic Books Ravi Mirchandani.

Jeff Park, Front Row's Crime Fiction aficionado, joins Mark to reveal his Christmas round-up of crime books.

Jeff's Top Six:-
Samurai Summer, by Ake Edwardson
The Ghost Riders Of Ordebec, by Fred Vargas
Dead Lions, by Mick Herron
The Siege, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
The Enigma Of China, by Qiu Xiaolong
The Square Of Revenge, by Pieter Aspe

Also recommended:-
The Late Monsieur Gallet, by Georges Simenon
The Good Suicides, by Antonio Hill
The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)
Rogue Male, by Geoffrey Household
A Conspiracy Of Faith, by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The Scent Of Death, by Andrew Taylor
Death Of A Nightingale, by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

Producer: Timothy Prosser.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b03kv6l3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b03kvd59)
Sajid Javid MP, Chuka Umunna MP, Shami Chakrabarti, Amjad Bashir

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from the Farnley Academy in Leeds with the Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, Financial Secretary to the Treasury Sajid Javid MP, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna MP, and UKIP's spokesman on Small Business Amjad Bashir.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b03kvd5c)
Why Dickens Endures

John Gray gives his own theory for the cultural longevity of Charles Dickens, celebrating his view of life as a theatre of the absurd. "Dickens enjoyed human beings as he found them: unregenerate, peculiar and incorrigibly themselves."

Producer: Sheila Cook.


FRI 21:00 A Cause for Caroling (b03kvd5f)
A Cause for Caroling: Omnibus

Forging a Tradition

Choral Conductor and scholar Jeremy Summerly begins his narrative history of the Christmas Carol in Britain with a journey through today's caroling tradition. He then travels back to the earliest traces of carol singing and performing in the early Medieval period, traces the development of the golden age in before the dual hammer blows of Reformation and Puritanism which ushered the carol away from the church but gave it a durability that survives to this day.

Series Description:
The Christmas carol is as popular now as it was when carolers celebrated the birth of Edward III in 1312. Back then the carol was a generic term for a song with its roots in dance form, nowadays only the strictest scholar would quibble with the fact that a carol is a Christmas song.
But the journey the carol has taken is unique in music history because each shift in the story has been preserved in the carols that we sing today. Go to a carol concert now and you're likely to hear folk, medieval, mid-victorian and modern music all happily combined. It's hard to imagine that happening in any other situation.
In these programmes Jeremy Summerly follows the carol journey through the Golden age of the Medieval carol into the troubled period of Reformation and puritanism, along the byways of the 17th and 18th century waits and gallery musicians and in to the sudden explosion of interest in the carol in the 19th century. It's a story that sees the carol veer between the sacred and secular even before there was any understanding of those terms. For long periods the church, both catholic and protestant, was uneasy about the virility and homespun nature of carol tunes and carol texts. Nowadays many people think that church music is defined by the carols they hear from Kings College Cambridge.
He traces the folk carol in and out of church grounds, the carol hymn, the fuguing carol and the many other off-shoots, some of which survive to this day and many others which languish unloved but ready for re-discovery.
It's a journey full of song describing the history of a people who needed expression for seasonal joy in the coldest, hardest time of the year. And however efficient the heating system may be, the carol still generates warmth. Much of that is to do with the positive nostalgia of this music.
That nostalgia is in part due to the fact that carols are one of the first kinds of song children actually sing rather than hear. Many favourite carols were actually written for Children; Once in Royal David's City the most familiar example. Another factor is the concentration in the texts on the humanity of nativity with tunes garnered from the uninhibited world of folk song and ballad.
The series title is taken from a Thomas Hardy poem in which he ponders of a Darkling Thrush why it should chose to sing - 'so little cause for carolings of such ecstatic sound' - is the question asked. THis series is an attempt to answer why Carols remain so popular and familiar to so many. In fact Hardy himself, in his first novel Under The Greenwood Tree, went some way to answering his own question when he described the Mellstock Quire singing at Midnight on Christmas Eve:
'Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time worn hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father to son through several generations down to the present characters, who sang them out right earnestly."
Jeremy brings the series up to date with the story of the famous Nine Lessons and Carols service broadcast by the BBC since the 1920s but born originally in Truro. It's a service that commands a worldwide audience measured in many millions, but as Jeremy concludes it has left an imbalance in the appreciation of our caroling tradition, a tradition that has always had one foot in the pub and another in the choir stalls.
Producer:Tom Alban.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b03kl4c3)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b03kvd5h)
Violent purge in North Korea raises new fears about state's stability. Revelation that Mandela was once a senior communist. EU players debate UK referendum scenarios. Presented by Philippa Thomas.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b03kvd5k)
Truman Capote Short Stories

One Christmas

'One Christmas', Buddy is invited to New Orleans to spend the festive season with his estranged father.

'I cried, I didn't want to go. I was afraid of strangers, But Sook said, "It's the Lord's will."'

Read by Kerry Shale

Abridged and produced by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b03kqfzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b03kvd5m)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b03kvd5p)
David and Natasha - Warriors or Wizards

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a couple who met LARPing about their favourite characters and the way Live Action Role Play has influenced their own personalities, proving once again that it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

The Listening Project is a Radio 4 initiative that offers a snapshot of contemporary Britain in which people across the UK volunteer to have a conversation with someone close to them about a subject they've never discussed intimately before. The conversations are being gathered across the UK by teams of producers from local and national radio stations who facilitate each encounter. Every conversation - they're not BBC interviews, and that's an important difference - lasts up to an hour, and is then edited to extract the key moment of connection between the participants. Most of the unedited conversations are being archived by the British Library and used to build up a collection of voices capturing a unique portrait of the UK in the second decade of the millennium. You can upload your own conversations or just learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.