SATURDAY 23 AUGUST 2014

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b04dh1j9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc2k9)
On Silbury Hill

Episode 5

Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - together with Stonehenge, Avebury and the remains of numerous barrows - forms part of a Neolithic landscape about which very little is known or understood.

Adam Thorpe describes his book as '"a marble cake of different soils. Memoir, data, theory, streaks of poetry, swirls of fiction" - but he is not alone in having been drawn to explore the meaning of the largest prehistoric mound in Europe. Artists and archaeologists as well as various cults and neo-pagan traditions have focussed on the blank canvas that the hill presents as a way of exploring our complicated relationship with the past and the people who lived there.

"An estimated million hours spent on construction rather than herding or cooking or stitching must have had a point, but we don't get it. Is conjecture a species of fiction? To muddy the difference further, Silbury insisted on being called 'she'. I obeyed, not out of New Age winsomeness but from the influence of country dialect, in which neuter pronouns are as alien as robot leaf blowers."

This chalkland memoir told in fragments and snapshots, takes a circular route around the hill, a monument which we can no longer climb, and celebrates the urge to stand and wonder.

Episode 5:All Hallow's Eve 2013 – Silbury and the stone circle at Avebury, shadows and rituals.

Abridged, directed and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1jc)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04dh1jf)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1jh)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b04dh1jk)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04dqx46)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b04dqx48)
What's it like to find yourself in the middle of an Ebola outbreak when panic makes people irrational and violent? The documentary maker Martin Belderson talks about how he feared for his life during a visit to Africa, when death was as likely to come from frightened locals and soldiers as it was from the virus itself. Email iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b04dh1jm)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b04dh1jp)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b04dqngr)
Cheshire Salt

Look at any map of the district around Northwich in Cheshire and you'll see that it's dotted with numerous lakes, called flashes. What have these got to do with salt? Felicity Evans is astonished to learn that they've been created by the unregulated extraction of rock salt, which has been exploited for industrial as well as culinary purposes since the 1700s.

We'll hear that salt crystals were evaporated from brine in huge pans at numerous salt works across the county, the firewood for which saw the loss of the county's forests. Meanwhile, the rock salt was hewn deep underground then, just as it is today. In fact, Felicity goes underground at Winsford when she visits the Salt Union's massive caverns, so vast they have a similar volume to that of fifty St Pauls cathedrals.

Felicity meets salt historian and archaeologist Andrew Fielding, as well as Kelly Fletcher, Heritage Officer with Middlewich Town Council. Industrial archaeologist Chris Hewitson shows Felicity around the Lion Salt Works, which open to the public next year, while at Winsford rock salt mine, Felicity goes underground with mine manager, Gary Sinclair.

Producer: Mark Smalley.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b04f89m7)
Farming Today This Week: Rural Tourism

As the summer shows signs of coming to an end, Caz Graham looks at how tourism benefits the countryside. Tourists bring billions of pounds a year into the rural economy, but what does the countryside offer in return? Farming Today This Week comes from Umberslade Farm Park in Warwickshire where young children can experience feeding the animals. Set in an old family estate, Oliver Muntz runs the business after returning home from studying tourism at Harper Adams University. His younger brother Sebastian has recently set up Umberslade Adventure offering older children the chance to swing on zip-wires through ancient woodland.

Farming Today This Week also looks at how the floods affected tourism earlier this year on the Somerset Levels. And from bog snorkelling to stiletto racing, Chris Eldon Lee visits the smallest town in Britain who is going to extremes to boost tourist numbers.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b04dh1jr)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b04f89m9)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b04f89mc)
Gemma Cairney

Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir are joined by Radio 1 DJ Gemma Cairney, former engineer Sam King from Jamaica, who served with the RAF during the Second World War. Now 88 years-old he talks to Saturday Live about his life, legacy and the Notting Hill Carnival. Annabel Tellis Tunley emigrated with her family to Australia in 2004 and is running a project where she calls a Facebook friend, old or new every day. Some of them she hasn't spoken to for up to 40 years. Cellist and recovering alcoholic Rachael Lander on how she's rebuilding her career and looking forward to motherhood, Captain Andrew Wilkins who helps people overcome their fear of flying. He has recreated the interior of an aircraft where nervous flyers learn to 'fly' the plane themselves. The actor Anthony Head shares his Inheritance Tracks and JP Devlin will be in the studio reading your emails and waiting to take your calls.

Gemma Cairney can be heard BBC Radio 1, Monday to Friday 4:00-6:30am

Rachael Lander can be seen in Addicts Symphony, Wednesday 27th August 11pm Channel 4

Sam King's 'Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain', Upfront Publishing; New edition 2004

Anthony Head inherits Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11 and Highway, Highway by Stephen Allen Davies

Producer: Maire Devine.


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (b04f89mf)
Series 8

Bedford

Jay Rayner and the team are in Bedford. Taking questions from the audience on eating and drinking are food scientist Charles Spence, chef Sophie Wright, Masterchef winner Tim Anderson, and former Head of Creative Development for Heston Blumenthal James "Jocky" Petrie.

Food Consultant: Anna Colquhoun
Producer: Victoria Shepherd
Assistant Producer: Darby Dorras
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Forum (b04f8b2v)
Democracy and the Arts in South Africa

Twenty years on from the end of apartheid, what role can the arts play now in helping South African society develop? Recorded with an audience at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Bridget Kendall talks to playwright Mike Van Graan, poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, arts journalist Percy Mabandu, and jazz singer Nomfundo Xaluva who performs live for us.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b04f8cwv)
A Poet at War

Foreign correspondents. Today: can a meeting of presidents halt the fighting in eastern Ukraine? Why the international health workers who've come to tackle the Ebola virus in west Africa are not always welcome. Deported from the US - and back home in Guatemala; why life is difficult for many of the returnees. On leaving Pakistan, there are many happy memories -- but none of them, one departing correspondent says, feature the national airline PIA. And it may be a cool damp summer in Switzerland, but the stories coming from parliament are distinctly hot and steamy.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3np)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Bricks and Bubbles (b04f8cwx)
Episode 4

Increasingly unaffordable prices, soaring rents and regional imbalance. What can be done to fix Britain's broken housing market?

Should we build more? Do we just need to open up empty homes? What about investing our pension money in property development? In the final part of his series, Michael Robinson explores how to put the property sector back on track.


SAT 12:30 The Brig Society (b04dqwyt)
Series 2

Farmer

Uh-oh - Marcus Brigstocke has been put in charge of a thing! Each week, Marcus finds he's volunteered to be in charge of a big old thing and each week he starts out by thinking "Well, it can't be that difficult, surely?" and ends up with "Oh - turns out it's utterly difficult and complicated. Who knew...?"

This week, Marcus has grasped the bull by the horns and become a farmer. After all, what could go wrong? As he himself puts it, "Dairy, livestock, cattle - it's all grist to my mill."

Helping him to plough the fields and scatter will be Rufus Jones (W1A, Holy Flying Circus), William Andrews (Sorry I've Got No Head) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Miranda).

The show is produced by Marcus's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler who also produces Marcus appearances as the inimitable as Giles Wemmbley Hogg. David's other radio credits include Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, The Castle, The 3rd Degree, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia.

Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Dan Tetsell.

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


SAT 12:57 Weather (b04dh1jt)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b04dh1jw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b04dqwz0)
Anthony Seldon, Elaine C Smith, Hugh Pennington, Tony Banks

Shaun Ley presents political debate from the Corn Exchange in Melrose, Scotland with historian and commentator Sir Anthony Seldon, microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington actress and comedienne Elaine C Smith and the businessman Tony Banks.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b04f8cwz)
Syria, Scottish referendum, Downs Syndrome

Your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?

What should be our response to the murder of journalist James Foley by Islamic State militants?

Should we now collaborate with President Assad of Syria, and how can we stop our young people being radicalised here in the UK?

How are you going to vote in the Scottish Referendum?

Your views on the terrible dilemma faced when a scan shows the baby has Downs Syndrome.

Presenter: Julian Worricker
Producer: Angie Nehring.


SAT 14:30 Saturday Drama (b01mnxnw)
The Martin Beck Killings

Roseanna

Roseanna is the first in the Martin Beck series, written over ten years from 1965 - 1975 by the husband and wife writing team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Featuring the intriguing, dogged, intuitive complex figure of Detective Inspector Martin Beck and his colleagues in the National Police Homicide Department in Stockholm, the books set a gold standard for all subsequent Scandinavian crime fiction, and for much of the best crime fiction in Britain and America written since the 1960s. The books have been admired and imitated by crime writers and readers ever since their publication; now Radio 4 offers audiences the opportunity to discover just why the books have been so acclaimed by those in the know.

The use of crime and police procedure to hold up a mirror to society and its most dysfunctional elements is commonplace now, but that's because Martin Beck paved the way for subsequent generations of European crime writers whose fallible heroes - Kurt Wallander, John Rebus etc. - make the best fist they can of their own lives whilst trying to tackle the violence around them.

The books were written deliberately to give an unsentimental, realistic portrait of Sweden in the mid-sixties: not the liberal place it was thought to be, but a society suffering from a stifling bureaucracy and a creeping rottenness behind the surface sheen. Confronting the dark side of this society are stubborn, logical, anti-social Detective Inspector Martin Beck, his closest friend Detective Inspector Lennart Kollberg - overweight, hedonistic, opinionated; Detective Inspector Frederick Melander, with a memory like a card-index file and a noxious pipe clamped in his jaws, and their colleagues in the murder squad.

In Roseanna, they are faced with the body of an unknown girl found in a canal dredger. The long investigation ends with a risky and frightening sting.

Dramatised for radio by Jennifer Howarth
Original music by Elizabeth Purnell
Directed by Sara Davies.


SAT 15:45 Key Matters (b01hy2zr)
Series 3

F Minor

In "Key Matters", Ivan Hewett explores the way in which different musical keys appear to have unique characteristics of their own. In this fourth programme, Ivan is joined by harpsichordist Terence Charlston, to explore the key of F minor. This is a key which acquired its unique personality for historical reasons to do with tuning systems of early keyboard instruments. Under these tuning systems, F minor didn't really work and sounded distorted and frankly, weird. Although tuning systems gradually got sorted out, composers such as Bach and later Beethoven and Schubert, remembered the distorted nature of F minor in the past and so used this key, to write anguished and stormy music.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b04f8fb8)
Jo Pavey, Helen McCrory

Jo Pavey discusses what it's like to be the oldest female European Athletics champion after winning gold in the ten thousand metres in Zurich. Austin Mitchell, Labour MP for Grimsby joins Jane Garvey to discuss his comments that women MPs were more likely to be interested in "small problems rather than big ideas".

What is it like to suffer from an eating disorder when you're in your 40s and 50s and how can women be helped? We talk to two women who've suffered from anorexia, and consultant psychiatrist Paul Robinson. Nia Reynolds on Claudia Jones the civil rights activist who in the wake of the Notting Hill riots established the first major celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture in 1959.

How can more young women and girls be encouraged to take a vocational route into male dominated careers like IT and engineering? The actress Helen McCrory on her new role playing the ultimate anti-heroine, Euripides's Medea. And she tells us what it's like to be married to a heartthrob. Susanna White, Anna Keel and Amy Walker discuss the lack of female directors in television and why it matters.

Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.


SAT 17:00 PM (b04f8fbb)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b04dqx48)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04dh1jy)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b04dh1k0)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04dh1k2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b04f8fbd)
Danny Wallace, Rodney P, Robin Hobb, Matthew Parker, Leo Leigh, Luke Sital-Singh, Bitter Ruin

From 1946 until the end of his life, Ian Fleming lived for two months of every year at the house he built on Jamaica's north coast. All the Bond novels and stories were written here. In his new book Goldeneye, Matthew Parker tells Danny how for Fleming, Jamaica was the perfect mix of British old-fashioned imperial values, and of the dangerous and sensual; the same curious combination that made the Bond novels so appealing and successful.

Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler is a chronicle of the final three years of Marty Reisman's life, a former international table tennis champion-turned-money player. Pursuing notoriety through his idiosyncratic lifestyle and motivated by his love of fame and Ping Pong, he inadvertently has to face his biggest fear: mortality. Film maker Leo Leigh talks about how he chronicled Marty's complex mix of childlike excitement, eccentric narcissism and constant charm.

Twenty years after the publication of classic novel Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb returns to her best-loved characters with Fool's Assassin. One of the world's finest writers of epic fiction, Robin was raised in Alaska, where she learned how to raise a wolf cub, skin a moose and survive in the wilderness.

Why hasn't the food-obsessed British public caught on to curry goat or ackee and salt fish like it has korma, kebab and chicken chow-mein? For Notting Hill Carnival weekend, Rodney P, the Godfather of UK Rap, talks to Nikki Bedi about his mission to get to the bottom of this multicultural mystery.

With music from BITTER RUIN who perform Diggers from their album Waves and more music from LUKE SITAL-SINGH who performs Nothing Stays The Same from his album The Fire Inside

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b04f8fbg)
Nicholas Macpherson

Sir Nicholas Macpherson, largely unknown outside Whitehall, has become a key figure in the Scottish independence debate. And as head of the Treasury since 2005, he's been at the centre of Britain's response to the global financial crisis. Chris Bowlby explains why he's so influential, and how his involvement in the Scottish debate is informed by personal links as well as policy considerations.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b04f8fbj)
Saturday Review with Tom Sutcliffe Comes From Edinburgh, Offering a Selection of the Best of the Festivals

Saturday Review comes from the 2014 Edinburgh Festivals:
National Theatre of Scotland's production of a new history play looking at the Scottish Stuart kings - we've been to see James II.
Front is a multilingual, multi sensory theatrical experience telling the stories of the First World War. Marion Cotillard's new film, directed by The Dardennes brothers is Two Days One Night; in order to try and save her own job, a woman has to persuade her work colleagues to forgo their annual bonus.
The shameful history of colonisation and racial exploitation is explored in Exhibit B, a 'show' that has caused consternation and extreme - sometimes physical - reactions amongst those who have visited it.
Sarah Waters' new novel The Paying Guests is set in 1920s London when a mother and daughter who find themselves in reduced circumstances, take in tenants leading to complicated repercussions.

Tom Sutcliffe's guests this week are Lesley McDowell, Sophie Cooke and Kerry Shale. The producer is Oliver Jones.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b04f8fbl)
Vietnam and the Presidents

An examination of America's descent into war from the exclusive vantage point of the Oval Office.

Across two decades, BBC Washington producer David Taylor conducted over 50 recorded interviews with first-hand witnesses to the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon Administrations mired in the Vietnam crisis.

He had privileged access to National Security Advisors, Secretaries of Defence, First Ladies and CIA Agents. Now, he can create a complete picture of the war, as the private presidential tapes were only recently released in their entirety. David discovers the intimate, hidden side of three presidential characters at war. Their bombast, insecurity, confidence, paranoia and euphoria shaped important decisions about Vietnam.

David discovers how President Kennedy's increasing dependence on amphetamines jeopardised the 1961 Vienna Summit and how he was racked with guilt after the CIA-supported Diem assassination. After the JFK Assassination, Johnson was riddled with doubts over Vietnam. His rampant mood swings are vividly captured on tape. As Johnson quit a presidency defined by Vietnam, enter Richard Nixon, who secretly escalated the war. With Watergate looming and Vietnam unending, Nixon adopted a paranoid bunker mentality and, according to some colleagues, was placed on suicide watch.

By revisiting his own archive and pouring through the complete presidential tapes, David constructs a surprising picture of the Vietnam War through the eyes of the embattled commanders-in-chief.

Producers: David Taylor and Colin McNulty
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 21:00 The Stuarts (b04dh39f)
Charles II, Part Two: The Long Lease of Pleasant Days

By Mike Walker

Charles II fathered over a dozen illegitimate children, yet his wife Queen Catherine was unable to produce an heir. Mike Walker's sweeping epic sees Charles fending off the claims of his eldest son Monmouth and the plots against his increasingly unpopular Catholic wife and brother. All this while juggling an often tempestuous love life.

Directors: Sasha Yevtushenko & Marc Beeby.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b04dh1k4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Agree to Differ (b04dn662)
Series 1

Fracking

Most discussion formats set out to define opposing points of view and offer the listener a choice between them - maximum disagreement, minimum consensus. Agree to Differ is Radio 4's new discussion programme where the aim is to give listeners a completely new way to understand a controversial issue and to decide where they stand. Often when it comes to debates in these contested areas the protagonists spend more time attacking and caricaturing each other than they do addressing the heart of the issue. Agree to Differ will use techniques from mediation and conflict resolution to discover what really divides them - and just as important - if there's anything they can agree on. The mediator is Matthew Taylor the chief executive of the RSA and subjects for this first series will be fracking, vivisection and the future of Jerusalem.


SAT 23:00 Quote... Unquote (b04dk882)
Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for its 50th series.

In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.

Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.

Episode 2

Comedian and writer Dave Gorman
Novelist and journalist Philip Hensher
Presenter, critic and author Libby Purves
Writer, poet and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen

Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Producer ... Carl Cooper.


SAT 23:30 Stories in Sound (b04dh39k)
Piers the Plowman Revisited

It's one of the strangest, most complex and frustrating works in Middle English, so when writer Ian Sansom is tasked with coming up with a radio adaptation of William Langland's medieval dream poem 'Piers the Plowman', it presents a bit of a challenge.

His producer's solution? To lock Ian away in a Curfew Tower in the Glens of Antrim and challenge him to come up with his adaptation over the course of a weekend, after which time he'll be expected to put on a performance.

The 14th century poem - part theological allegory, part social satire - may have eluded scholars for centuries but Ian has help at hand. Aside from three poetry students from Queen's University, renowned medievalist Dr Stephen Kelly will be there to guide him on his quest for salvation.

As Ian grapples with the text written in alliterative long lines and framed in a series of dream visions, adaptation expert Brian Sibley will be just a phone call away. Then there's the members of Belfast outfit The Wireless Mystery Theatre who'll be dropping by to bring music and their own distinctive style to Ian's performance.

Who knows, it could turn out to be a dream...or it could be a nightmare.

Producer: Conor Garrett

Sound Design: Jason Martin.



SUNDAY 24 AUGUST 2014

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b04f856j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Sussex Scandals (b01cjb66)
Up and Down the Fire Escape

Written by John Peacock.

In his teens, Gerard O' Shea, lived innocently, through the tempestuous affair of his mother, Katie O' Shea and Parnell 'the uncrowned King of Ireland'. 50 years later Myrna Loy and Clark Gable, unwittingly, help him to reach an understanding of those days.

These are three short stories narrated by characters involved in notorious scandals that originated in Sussex: Uppark (Lady Hamilton), Crawley (John George Haigh's girl friend) and Brighton (Katie O' Shea's son, Gerard), ranging from 1815 to 1953. The fall of a woman who revelled in her scandals; another who was forced to face the truth that her lover was a murderer; and the son of Katie O' Shea, defending his father during his mother's notorious affair with Charles Stewart Parnell.

Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f856l)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f856n)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f856q)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b04f856s)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b04f8k3x)
Ripon Cathedral

The bells of Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b04f8fbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b04f856x)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b04f8k3z)
The Spoken Word

Sarah Cuddon explores the power and the magic of the spoken word and reading aloud and samples readings by, among others, Jarvis Cocker of Tove Jansson's Moomin Troll stories and Richard Burton of poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

She also draws upon music by Jake Thackray, Ella Fitzgerald and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

Produced by Alan Hall.
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b04f8k41)
Opium poppy harvest

Sybil Ruscoe goes on the journey of Britain's opium poppy harvest starting in the fields of Dorset but heading to the medicine cabinets of our hospitals and pharmacies. The crop is grown by the pharmaceutical company MacFarlan Smith and provides half of all morphine used in the UK. MacFarlan Smith work with a number of farmers in Dorset, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire. Although the farmer has to drill the seed, MacFarlan Smith monitors the crop on a weekly basis. More commonly grown in warmer countries such as India and Tasmania, the UK harvest this year has flourished.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b04f856z)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b04f8572)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b04f8k43)
Archbishop of York prayer vigil; Oscar Romero; Trafficking

Rt Rev John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, tells William Crawley why he is starting a prayer vigil for peace on Sunday. It's the first time he has done such a vigil for many years.

Should businesses be legislated to ensure they take more of an active role in stopping human trafficking? The Rev Steve Chalke says companies need to be more accountable for their involvement in the trade

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - otherwise known as The Mormons - is well-known for its proselytizing across the world. Jane Little got a rare glimpse inside the church's busiest training centre in Utah.

Pope Francis confirmed the process of beatification has begun for the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero who was murdered in 1980. Bob Walker looks back at his life and assesses how the news will be received amongst his faithful followers across Latin America.

Concerns are growing about the destruction of a cemetery which has a particular importance for Baha'is. Dr Nazila Ghanea is associate professor of International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, and has relatives buried in the cemetery.

The latest report on the Methodist Church shows a Christian movement in rapid decline. During the last 10 years membership has dropped by a third. Professor Linda Woodhead and General Secretary, Rev'd Martyn Atkins, discuss what the future holds.

Bishop Larry Jones describes the measures his church is taking to support the community in St Louis, Ferguson, following the death of teenager Michael Brown.

Producers:
Carmel Lonergan
Zaffar Iqbal

Series Producer:
Amanda Hancox

Contributors:
Steve Chalke
Dr Nazila Ghanea
Professor Linda Woodhead
Rev'd Martyn Atkins
Bishop Larry Jones
Archbishop John Sentamu.


SUN 07:55 Radio 4 Appeal (b04f8k45)
Action Medical Research

Dr Dawn Harper presents The Radio 4 Appeal for Action Medical Research, dedicated to helping fund research for sick babies and children.
Registered charity in England & Wales (208701) and in Scotland (SC039284).
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Action Medical Research'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b04f8574)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b04f8576)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b04f8k47)
The Keswick Convention

Stuart Townend, respected around the world as one of the leading worship songwriters of his generation, leads the music for this year's service from the Keswick Convention, an annual Bible gathering which has been held in the Cumbrian town since 1875.

International preacher, broadcaster and author Dr Ravi Zacharias explores this year's theme: 'The Uniqueness of Christ'. The service also includes a sketch from actor and writer Richard Everett.

Service leader: Jonathan Lamb.

Producer: Simon Vivian.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b04dqwz2)
What's Funny?

Will Self reflects on comedy, asking why we laugh and whether there's too much of the wrong type of humour in our culture.

Producer: Caroline Bayley.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xxk)
Golden Eagle

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

Michaela Strachan presents the golden eagle. Golden Eagles are magisterial birds. With a wingspan of over two metres their displays are dramatic affairs involving spectacular aerobatics. They can dive upon their quarry at speeds of more than 240 kilometres per hour, using their sharp talons to snatch up their prey.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b04f8m50)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b04f8m52)
Writer ..... Tim Stimpson
Director ..... Julie Beckett
Editor ..... Sean O'Connor.


SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b04f8m54)
The Sun Newspaper

Sue MacGregor reunites journalists working on The Sun newspaper in the 1980s to consider how it revolutionised our news.

In November 1969, the presses rolled on a new tabloid that would change Britain forever. "Does your daily paper bore the pants off you?" asked the television advertisement, "Then wake up with The Sun". The paper was to be a combination of sex, sport and contests - according to its young proprietor Rupert Murdoch. This simple formula had shocked many in his native Australia but made Murdoch a fortune. Fleet Street critics were scathing, but the paper's young working class readership lapped up the scandal.

From day one, The Sun chose sex as the battleground for the coming circulation war with its rivals. Girly pictures were a standard element in tabloids at that time and usually came with spurious fashion features or stories. But The Sun boldly dispensed with those. The regular, topless Page Three features started on the paper's first anniversary.

In the 1980s, with Editor Kelvin Mackenzie at the helm, the paper carved out a position as strident, campaigning, anti-establishment and hugely profitable. His style was epitomised by outrageous headlines such as 'Freddie Starr ate My Hamster', 'Gotcha' after the sinking of the Belgrano and 'It Was The Sun Wot Won It' after the Conservative Party election victory in 1992. Rupert Murdoch referred to him affectionately as "my little Hitler".

Joining Sue around the table to look back on the meteoric rise of the paper are five journalists who were there, including legendary news editor Tom Petrie, Harry Arnold the Royal Correspondent and Wendy Henry who later went on to become editor of the Sun's sister paper The News of the World.

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


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b04fc3p1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b04dk891)
Series 70

Episode 2

Hosted by the legendary Nicholas Parsons and recorded at the Edinburgh Festival - how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation? Gyles Brandreth, Paul Merton and Sue Perkins find out.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b04f8m56)
A Taste of Britain Revisited - Dorset

In 1974, Derek Cooper set off on a hunt - for BBC Television - around Britain to discover what was left of its regional foods and traditional ingredients. Forty years on, Dan Saladino revisits that series, called "A Taste of Britain" - to meet some of those involved, their descendants, and to find out what happened after these food traditions, many of which at the time were on the wane, were recorded for the cameras.

In the first of a three-part special summer series, Dan starts his own food journey in Dorset. He'll share stories with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Mark Hix, and go on the trail of some long-hidden buried fungi, as well as an oddly elusive cheese: the Dorset Blue Vinny.

Presenter: Dan Saladino
Producer: Rich Ward.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b04f8578)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b04f8m58)
James Robbins presents national and international news, including an in-depth look at events around the world. Email: wato@bbc.co.uk; twitter: #theworldthisweekend.


SUN 13:30 Soul Music (b041xbxf)
Series 18

Adagio in G minor

Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor, is one of the most popular and moving pieces of music but, as academic and composer Andrew Gant explains, it wasn't written by Albinoni and is now attributed to the twentieth century Italian composer, Giazotto.

Award-winning veteran BBC foreign correspondent, Malcolm Brabant recalls the ' cellist of Sarajevo', Vedran Smailovic, playing it everyday for weeks amidst the wreckage of the beautiful city, as Serbian gunfire raged around.

Virginia McKenna explains how the piece became so special to her and her late husband, Bill Travers, who died twenty years ago this month, the piece was played at the beginning and end of his memorial service.

And TV producer, Gareth Gwenlan reveals why it was chosen as the theme for the character played by Wendy Craig, in the seventies sitcom, Butterflies.

Producer: Lucy Lunt.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04dqwym)
Cheshire

Eric Robson chairs the panel programme from Chester. Joining him to answer audience questions are Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Christine Walkden.

Produced by Howard Shannon.
Assistant Producer: Darby Dorras.

A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.

This programme features the Woodland Trust's 'Nature's Calendar' volunteering scheme. To find out more, visit their website

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/learn/recording-trees-and-nature/natures-calendar/natures-calendar/

1.Q. Could the panel recommend some plants or shrubs that could be cut for long-lasting indoor display?

A. Pinus Mugo, Phormium, Penstemon, Cornflowers, Cotinus Grace (Smoke Bush), Pittosporum, Mexican Sunflowers, Lilies, Daffodils, Antirrinum, Molucella, Zinnias, Hesperanthas, Allium (Globemaster), Alstroemeria and Zantedeschia (Arum Lily) will all work well but the secret is really in the technique. Try to cut the plants early in the morning and as soon as you have cut the plants put them in a bucket filled with very cold water and let them soak for several hours (alternatively, put them in the fridge for a couple of hours) then trim the stems diagonally, bunch and put them in a vase. You could also put ice cubes in the water and change the water regularly. Place the vase where it will get bright but not scorching sunshine and the flowers will last longer.

2. Q. My four-year-old Cox tree suffers every year from dieback on the shoots and also has very mottled, brown leaves. What is wrong?

A. The Cox is prone to disease so if you like the flavor of the apple try growing Red Devil or Ribston Pippin instead.

3. Q. Is it safe to grow Fig trees close the foundations of a house?

A. If you grow a Fig tree near the foundations of a house you could line the growing pit with paving flagstones to restrict the growth. Also prune the tree regularly.

4.Q. What would be the best way to move my eighteen-year-old, four-foot (1.2 Metre) high hybrid Tea Rose to my new garden around the corner?

A. It won't like being moved so take cuttings instead. But if you do want to move it, cut it right back and try moving it in the autumn or winter.

5. Q. Our patio Cherry Tree (Dwarf Prunus Avium) has produced lots of foliage but no flowers or fruit.

A. It could be being baked or waterlogged in the winter. It might also be due to the soil composition. In the future when planting in containers, try mixing a John Innes number two with the same quantity of a general multi purpose. Use a slow-release fertiliser once a year in the spring. Give the tree a bit more time because it's still young.

6. Q. Could the panel suggest flowers that would appeal to the senses?

A. Sensitive Plant, Pulsatillas, Lambs' Ears, Peonies, Lemon Balm and Mint, Pennisetums, Agastache, Thyme, Dill, Fennel, Bamboos and Fuschias, Platycodon Grandiflorus (Balloon Flowers).

7. Q. How can we get rid of the many Poplar saplings that are appearing in our garden? They are growing up from the roots of a tree that was cut down from the railway embankment near our house.

A. You'll continue to get regrowth so ask the railway to treat the tree stump with herbicide. You can also treat the cut surface of the suckers with brushwood killer.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b04f8m5b)
Sunday Omnibus

Fi Glover with three excerpts from a conversation from Cumbria between a mother and daughter about how their family coped with the death of the strong man who was their husband and father.

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.


SUN 15:00 The Stuarts (b04f8m5d)
James II: The Storms of this Deceitful World

By Mike Walker

During his short reign James II faced rebellion led by his nephew and widespread condemnation for his policy of religious tolerance. When he produced a Catholic heir, the political tensions exploded and resulted in his son-in-law William of Orange landing an invading army in England. Why did it go so wrong for dismal Jimmy?

Directors: Marc Beeby & Sasha Yevtushenko.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b04f8m5g)
Literary Scene in London

In a special edition of Open Book, Mariella Frostrup discusses the rise of live literary events with writers Damian Barr, Evie Wyld and Joe Dunthorne before a live audience in London.

Over the past few years there's been a renaissance on live literary events from Literary Death Matches to scratch nights, Bookslams to Bookjams, salons to flash fiction nights. Mariella Frostrup will be finding out what they all are, what they mean for authors and book-lovers, and whether live literary nights really are the new rock'n'roll.


SUN 16:30 In Memoriam: Conversations on a Bench (b04f8m5j)
Anna Scott-Brown hears stories of love, loss and hope from the strangers and friends she sits beside on 'Rosie's Bench' in a park in Oxford. The inscription, Rest Awhile and Remember Happy Times Together, draws out reflections and revelations which Michael Symmons Roberts weaves into a poem, specially commissioned for the programme.

Gradually, the story behind the inscription is revealed by Rosie herself as she remembers her husband Chris, whose life the bench commemorates. The experience of others, mixed with her own, turns Rosie's tale into a heartfelt and emotional acknowledgement of the need to stop and communicate with people around us, as life rushes by.

Hidden lives are revealed and common threads recur as Anna Scott-Brown's gentle - but insistent and sometimes extremely direct - questions elicit poignant and profound responses from those sitting on the bench to 'Rest Awhile'.

Producer: Adam Fowler
An Overtone production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 17:00 Taking the Edge Off (b04dmbkg)
Sixty years after the publication of The Doors of Perception, Francine Stock reviews Aldous Huxley's experiments with mescaline and asks why evolution has failed to select out our need for escape.

Since earliest times we have contrived ways to alter our natural conscious state by trance or stupor or frenzy. Francine Stock asks whether the settings are just 'off' in human consciousness and explores what could be lacking in our brains, that life sometimes seems unbearable without the 'edge' taken off.

With Huxley's biographer, Nicholas Murray, she discovers the author's association with the 1960s counterculture was not one he sought. Sixty years on from the afternoon in Los Angeles when he took mescaline, later described in The Doors of Perception (1954), neuroscience has advanced. Huxley's father, Thomas Henry known as 'Darwin's bulldog' was the biologist who popularised Darwin's theories. Huxley reckoned mind-expanding substances were needed to free ourselves from the limitations of our nervous system since our capacity for perception of anything beyond the strictly utilitarian had atrophied as we evolved. Drugs and other hallucinogens provided the portals to a mystic experience.

There is, however, the alternative possibility that our enduring craving for various kinds of artificial stimulus and escape is an attempt to correct and/or enhance our neural responses.

Francine explores the evolutionary possibilities associated with our use of mind-altering substances in the company of psychologist and neuroscientist Professor Marc Lewis, ethnobotanist and environmental anthropologist Dr Miguel Alexiades, and psychiatrist Dr Tammy Saah. Neuroscientist Dr Valerie Voon shows her what can be seen in brain activity when substances are consumed, and she discusses society's changing acceptance of different substances - from opium in the 19th century to alcohol today - with Professor Virginia Berridge, and visits a health food store to examine the substances available for purchase.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b04f8fbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b04f857b)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b04f857d)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f857g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b04f8pwh)
Radio is at its best when people tell real life stories and we've got some terrific tales this week: of an inspirational teacher changing lives, of a civil rights campaigner standing up to lynch mobs, of the show carrying on in siege torn Sarajevo. We have contemporary stories of climbing feats, the impact of emigration and the power of music mixed with archived accounts of the disastrous effects of war and the advent of page three. So join us for Pick of the Week.

Reflections with Peter Hennessy (Radio 4, 20th August)

Afternoon Drama: The Chemistry Between Them (Radio 4, 20th August)

The Reunion (Radio 4, 24th August)

World at One (Radio 4, All-Week)

Night Climbers of Cambridge (5Live, 17th August)

Crossing Continents (Radio 4, 21st August)

The Documentary: Grapes of Wrath Revisited (World Service, 19th August)

Great Lives (Radio 4, 19th August)

5Live Sport (5Live, 18th August)

Still Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo? (Radio 4, 21st August)

Archive on 4: Vietnam and the Presidents (Radio 4, 23rd August)

Radio 1 Stories: MP3 War (Radio 1, 18th August)

The Langley Music Schools Project (Radio 4, 19th August).


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b04f8pwk)
Loxfest continues. Dan was impressed by the Midnight Walkers, who seemed to nail their set. Harrison Burns came into his own in the end. But he modestly tells Fallon that Jolene is the real country and western star. Fallon's tea service is also doing well.

BBC Radio 6 Music is there to cover the event. The buzz is growing around the imminent arrival of the Pet Shop Boys.

Elizabeth's delighted, and ticket sales are up as well. She tells Roy she's sorry for ever doubting him.

Dan finds Freddie rather out of sorts and discovers he's been smoking cannabis. Dan gets him some water and leaves him with Roy as he tries to find out who supplied Freddie. Freddie mentions an older guy down by the Meadow stage. Elizabeth takes Freddie's wrist band and security pass off him - he's grounded.

Dan approaches Wayne with the pretence of wanting to score some drugs. Wayne has what he's after - but Dan excuses himself, as he needs to go and get some cash. The next person Wayne sees is PC Burns, who gets Wayne to turn out his pockets. In front of a horrified Fallon, Burns arrests Wayne, who calls him 'Judas'.


SUN 19:15 A Charles Paris Mystery (b00wdf4d)
Murder in the Title

Episode 3

By Jeremy Front
Based on the novel by Simon Brett

Charles is appearing in 'The Message is Murder', a terrible play; so bad that someone wants to kill off the cast.

Directed by Sally Avens

As ever, Charles is his own worst enemy, a louche lush who can resist anything except temptation especially in the form of women and alcohol. His intentions may be good but somehow the results always go wrong

He's been out of work so long now he feels he may never get a job and he's driving Frances his semi-ex-wife mad. So when he's offered a small role in an awful play up in Rugland she nearly pushes him out the door.

The production is as creaky as anything Charles has ever appeared in but the next play the theatre is scheduled to do is much more controversial. Soon a protest group has formed calling for a 'Porn Free Rugland'. And nasty accidents begin to befall members of the cast and crew.


SUN 19:45 Comic Fringes (b04f8pwm)
Series 10

Bad Fairytale by Grainne Maguire

An alternative fairy tale written and read by Grainne Maguire.

Short-story series featuring new writing by leading comedians, recorded live in front of an audience at 2014's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

A stand-up comic and comedy-writer, Maguire received a prestigious BBC Radio 4 Comedy Writer's bursary in 2013. She’s written topical jokes for The Now Show and The News Quiz.

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.


SUN 20:00 More or Less (b04dqyh4)
Troubled families?

"Revealed: half a million problem families" reported The Sunday Times. The government's expanding its Troubled Families programme - two years after More or Less found it statistically wanting. Tim Harford discusses the new numbers with BBC Newsnight's Chris Cook.

Chief executive pay: a new survey from the High Pay Centre highlights how much higher CEO remuneration is compared to that of their workers. But Ben Carter discovers the figures aren't quite what they seem.

As the Gaza conflict continues, the fact that there are estimated to be nearly three times as many men as women among the Palestinian civilian casualties has been an issue in the spotlight. Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander look at why men are often over-represented in civilian death tolls, and how the statistics in this conflict are being gathered.

And, further adventures in the audio presentation of data with BBC Radio 4's Daily Service presenter, Andrew Graystone.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b04dqy3q)
Albert Reynolds, Ronnie Stonham, Norman Cornish, Gerry Anderson, Licia Albanese

Matthew Bannister on

The former Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, who advanced the peace process in Northern Ireland, signing the Downing Street Declaration of 1993.

Brigadier Ronnie Stonham, who was the link between the BBC and the intelligence services and wound down the practice of vetting Corporation staff.

Norman Cornish, the Northumberland miner who became an artist.

The broadcaster Gerry Anderson - loved by his radio audience in Northern Ireland, but not by all listeners to Radio 4.

And the Italian American soprano Licia Albanese, known for her interpretations of Puccini and Verdi.


SUN 21:00 Bricks and Bubbles (b04f8cwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b04f8k45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (b04dqrt5)
Health Technology

Peter Day reports from Silicon Valley on the cutting-edge innovation that's promising to transform healthcare. From apps which monitor your fitness to phone attachments that diagnose ear infections, the boom in high-tech gadgets is attracting millions of pounds of venture capital money. But can the technology companies really come up with the goods which will make us live longer, healthier lives?

Contributors, in order of appearance:

Ashwin Raut, Samsung
Young Sohn, Samsung
Sam De Brouwer, Scanadu
Eric Douglas, Cellscope
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Daniel Kraft, Singularity University
Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos
Esther Dyson, HICCup

Producer: Ruth Alexander.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b04f9ch1)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b04f9ch3)
Sue Cameron of The Telegraph analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b04dqpxf)
Luc Besson on Lucy; Dardenne Brothers; Kelly Reichardt boxset

With Francine Stock.

Luc Besson discusses the neuro-science behind his latest thriller, Lucy, in which Scarlett Johansson's brain capacity increases to dangerous levels.

The Dardenne Brothers discuss their latest award winning drama Two Days, One Night, with Marion Cotillard.

Palaeontologist Jack Horner explains how he tried to make Jurassic Park as scientifically accurate as possible.

Catherine Bray reviews a box-set of the films of Kelly Reichardt, whose movies defy conventions such as conclusive endings and coherent dialogue.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b04f8k3z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 25 AUGUST 2014

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b04f858q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 The Educators (b04dmxwl)
John Hattie

What really works in schools and classrooms? How much difference can homework and class size make to a child's ability?

Sarah Montague interviews John Hattie, Professor of Education at the University of Melbourne and Chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership.

Over 20 years, he carried out one of the biggest pieces of education research, compiling studies from previous decades and comparing the effect they have on attainment and ability.

His work is ongoing, but the results show a league table of effectiveness. It reinforces things you might expect, such as the importance of teachers, but also offers some surprises that might have parents and teachers questioning their priorities.

Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b04f8k3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f858s)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f858v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f858x)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b04f858z)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04fcqnm)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b04f9fr5)
The Farm Shop on the Motorway

As far as motorway service stations go, Gloucester Services on the M5 northbound offers something a bit different. It markets itself as a farm shop; selling fresh, local produce from Gloucestershire farms, orchards, pantries and bakeries.

But is it just a watering hole for the well-off? A feast of luxury food for those who can afford it? Sybil Ruscoe finds out how affordable a farm shop on the motorway really is, and meets some of the producers selling their wares to the thousands of people travelling up the M5 every day.

Sybil also chats to chief executive and farmer's daughter Sarah Dunning, whose family started Tebay Services on the M6 in Cumbria back in 1972. Sarah shares her vision for Gloucester Services and defends those inflated motorway prices.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Anna Jones.


MON 05:56 Weather (b04f8591)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qjrh)
Meadow Pipit

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

Brett Westwood presents the Meadow Pipit. The thin but penetrating calls of the meadow pipit can be heard on a remote mountainside or high above the city streets on an autumn day. Meadow pipits are often the main hosts for the parasitic Cuckoos and many a pipit pair ends up stuffing insects into a much larger cuckoo chick.


MON 06:00 Today (b04f9fr7)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Fry's English Delight (b04f9fr9)
Series 7

Plain English

Plain English can be very valuable. Clarity, precision and simplicity are highly important - in an airline safety announcement, in online terms and conditions or instruction manuals, or messages from public bodies.

But Stephen finds it's not as simple as that. A definition of plain-ness is hard to achieve. The study of readability, as it is properly called, can grade certain texts and calibrate their readability, usually coming up with the age of the person who might be expected to read and understand them. But it's not an exact science, and can't come up with a single defined plain-ness.

There ought to be a plain English law, it's been suggested. The trouble is, defining what plain English means can be paradoxically complicated. In order to do so, Stephen and Charlotte dance the tango, examine a famous TV commercial and have an argument. Stephen claims that there is a law enforcing government departments to communicate in plain English. Charlotte doesn't believe him. The outcome of their disagreement is a bit, well, complicated.

Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 09:30 The Ideas That Make Us (b03s6zmg)
Series 2

Comedy

Bettany Hughes considers changing ideas of comedy by listening to a rat laughing and by giggling at schoolboy jokes from Ancient Mesopotamia.

The Ideas That Make Us is a Radio 4 series which reveals the history of the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation, ideas which continue to affect us all today.

In this 'archaeology of philosophy', the award-winning historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes begins each programme with the first, extant evidence of a single word-idea in Ancient Greek culture and travels both forwards and backwards in time, investigating how these ideas have been moulded by history and have shaped the human experience. In the second programme of this series, Bettany considers changing ideas of comedy with neuroscientist Dr Sophie Scott, Assyriologist Dr. Irving Finkel, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company Gregory Doran, and comedian John Lloyd.

Other ideas examined in The Ideas that Make Us are idea, desire, agony, fame, justice, wisdom, liberty, hospitality and peace.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b04f9frc)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

Episode 1

The 17-year-old Philip Larkin goes up to Oxford to read English. In the quadrangle of St John's, he meets a jazz-loving kindred spirit in Kingsley Amis.

Written by James Booth and read by Michael Pennington.

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.

Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.

There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?

A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.

Abridged by Libby Spurrier.

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04f9frf)
Friendship

Woman's Hour and Men's Hour collaborate on a programme about friendship; particularly the friendship that exists between men and women and the different way that the two genders approach platonic relationships. 25 years ago, the film When Harry Met Sally asked the question, can men and women ever be friends? So has anything changed in past quarter of a century or is this question as relevant as it was in 1989? Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison have been best-friends for ten years and join Jane Garvey, Tim Samuels and broadcaster Geoff Lloyd to explain the benefits of having a close friend of the opposite sex. Mark Vernon, author of "The Meaning of Friendship", and Relate Ambassador and relationship psychologist Anjula Mutanda join us to explore why friendship is so important to us and the factors at play when we choose our closest friends. And what happens when friendship is pushed to its limits? Simon Speakman Cordall explains why his friendship survived an extraordinary test and Vanessa Feltz examines why her friendships fell apart in the wake of her divorce.

Presenters: Jane Garvey and Tim Samuels
Producers: Laura Northedge and Will Cantopher.


MON 10:45 Shardlake (b04f9frh)
Dark Fire

Episode 1

Gripping dramatisation of C. J. Sansom's atmospheric Tudor crime novel set during the last days of Thomas Cromwell.

London, 1540, hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake has lived quietly in the three years since he was asked by Cromwell to investigate a murder at Scarnsea monastery on England's south coast (a story told in "Dissolution"). But his quiet life is soon forgotten as he rushes to solve two very different but urgent mysteries: save the life of a young girl accused of a terrible murder; and, discover who has stolen the last precious batch of Greek Fire, a mythical weapon of mass destruction.

Accompanied by Cromwell's man - the young and impetuous Barak - Shardlake desperately searches for clues against the backdrop of a hot and stinking London summer.

A fast and furious crime drama, "Dark Fire" features ethical dilemmas, intriguing characters and a luminous historical setting. Starring Justin Salinger as Shardlake, Bryan Dick as Barak and Robert Glenister as Thomas Cromwell.

Written by C. J. Sansom
Dramatised by Colin MacDonald
Produced and directed by Kirsteen Cameron.


MON 11:00 Recycled Radio (b04f9frk)
Series 2

Truth

Welcome to the chopped up, looped up, sped up world of Recycled Radio, introduced by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, on the theme of Truth.

Expect contributions from those who can spot a lie from a mile off, including politicians Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Michael Howard.

And explore the philosophical meaning of Truth with Nicholas Parsons, Melvyn Bragg and Sandi Toksvig.

Produced in Bristol by Melvin Rickarby.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.


MON 11:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (b04f9frm)
Series 1

Summer

A sitcom from Danny Robins, writer of the Lenny Henry comedy Rudy's Rare Records. This series is set and recorded in Sweden and stars Adam Riches, Danny Robins and some of Sweden's most popular TV comedy actors.

Geoff, a marginally successful stand-up comic from London, is moving to the tiny, cold and unpronounceable village of Yxsjö in northern Sweden - a culture shock forced on him by his Swedish girlfriend Linda's decision to move home to raise their child.

Geoff has to contend with snow, moose, pickled herring, unemployment, snow, Maypole dancing, snowmobiles, snow, meatball rolling, saunas, social democracy, snow, the weirdest pizzas in Europe, bears, deep forests, death metal, illegal alcohol, snow.

Above all, he has a new family to contend with. The Andersson's bewilder him - from father Sten who has a worrying tendency to growl like a bear and threaten him with any blunt instrument to hand, to Gunilla who threatens him with naked folk-dancing.

It's worth it all for Linda, of course - apart from her new found urge to conform with everything and except for her brother, a Goth with a propensity to set fire to things.

Episode 3: Summer
In which Geoff is forced to lead the Maypole dancing at Yxsjö's Midsummer festivities and go skinny dipping.

Writer: Danny Robins
Director: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b04fc4dh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Home Front (b04f9frp)
25 August 1914 - Isabel Graham

After the influx of refugees from Belgium, initiatives are afoot at St Judes to help.

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b04f9frr)
Why the take-up of technologies that help with health and social care has been so slow and whether the people who are resisting using this equipment are right to reject it.

Winifred Robinson visits Mi Liverpool, one of four Government-funded initiatives that is being piloted across the UK and hears how people are using telecare and telehealth packages. She's joined in the studio by Dave Horsfield who runs the project, also by Claire Medd, Clinical Director for Care Innovations and Professor Trisha Greenhalgh from Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.


MON 12:57 Weather (b04f8593)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b04f9frt)
Shaun Ley presents national and international news.


MON 13:45 Lucy Mangan's Literary Solutions to the Economy (b04f9frw)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In the first of a series of five programmes, writer Lucy Mangan selects five different economic remedies from literature. Will she find a solution to Britain's economic recovery in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Lucy finds the book on her bookshelf and takes it for discussion to Professor Mary Morgan from the London School of Economics and to Bob Swarup, who has written a guide to 2,500 years of boom and bust.

In later programmes she will see what ideas found in fairy tales and children's stories can add to the economic recovery debate.

Producer: Janet Graves
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b04f8pwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b04f9fry)
Blink

by Phil Porter

Sophie and Jonah are two shy, lonely individuals thrown together in urban London. Their love affair takes a strange and initially contactless route.

Director: David Hunter.


MON 15:00 Quote... Unquote (b04f9fs0)
Quote ... Unquote, the popular quotations quiz, returns for its 50th series.

In almost forty years, Nigel Rees has been joined by writers, actors, musicians, scientists and various comedy types. Kenneth Williams, Judi Dench, PD James, Larry Adler, Ian KcKellen, Peter Cook, Kingsley Amis, Peter Ustinov... have all graced the Quote Unquote stage.

Join Nigel as he quizzes a host of celebrity guests on the origins of sayings and well-known quotes, and gets the famous panel to share their favourite anecdotes.

Episode 3
Actress, writer and comedienne Maureen Lipman
Presenter and newsreader Penny Smith
Journalist, political commentator and president of YouGov Peter Kellner
Comedian, writer and actor Sanjeev Kohli

Presenter ... Nigel Rees
Producer ... Carl Cooper.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b04f8m56)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 Don't Go In the Water! (b04f9fs8)
Jaws made the scientist Dr Gareth Fraser what he is today - a lecturer in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, and shark jaw specialist, at the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences.

This is his exploration of Jaws - the fiction of the rogue shark that enthralled Gareth when he was a boy in South Wales, looking out on the dark silt of the Bristol channel, wondering what lay beneath.

Even the eminent Professor David Sims (of the Marine Biological Association and University of Southampton) admits to looking out for the fins of Great Whites when he's out tagging toothless basking sharks in Devon and Cornwall.

Can the story really still have such power over our psyches?

Jaws was written by Peter Benchley forty years ago and turned into the first summer blockbuster, by Stephen Spielberg, a year later.

It may have inspired Gareth to swim with sharks - despite his father's fisherman's tales of sea monsters - yet it petrified other people out of the water for good.

Gareth asks what innate fears Jaws taps into - the fear of being eaten alive, like in Hansel and Gretel, or of the deep, dark unknown of the sea. He asks how realistic Jaws' tale of a Great White killing machine really is and what impact it still has today - both on sharks and on new generations of swimmers, either running from the water after flashbacks from the film or running into the waves determined to grow up to be another Matt Hooper, the story's charismatic shark scientist.

Producer: Frances Byrne
A Big Fish production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b04f9hxw)
Charity

The current crisis' in Iraq, Gaza and Syria means there is much work for humanitarian relief agencies working to pick up the pieces of these terrible conflicts. Many of these groups are faith based bodies - organisations motivated by a religious conviction to help those in need. But what does it mean to be a faith based charity? Is it a strength to have a religious dimension or a weakness? And how do you ensure that charity does not become exercise in proselytization?

Joining Ernie Rea to discuss the pros and cons of faith based charity are Andrew Hogg, Head of Media at Christian Aid; Jehangir Malik, Director of Islamic Relief; and Dr Michael Jennings, Lecturer in the Department for Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Producer: Catherine Earlam.


MON 17:00 PM (b04f9hxy)
Carolyn Quinn presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f8595)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b04f9hy0)
Series 70

Episode 3

Hosted by the legendary Nicholas Parsons and recorded at the Edinburgh Festival - how hard can it be to talk for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation? Sue Perkins, Gyles Brandreth and Paul Merton find out.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b04f9lmd)
Lynda and Lilian enjoy a wander around Loxfest. On the hunt for a baby gift, they spot Roy buying something heart-shaped. Lucky Hayley, teases Lilian. With some embarrassment, Lynda tells Roy the name of Leonie's baby - Mowgli. Doing his best not to laugh, Roy says that's unusual. When Leonie and Mowgli come to stay, Lynda and Lilian plan to drop a few hints about changing the name.

Wayne pleads with hurt Fallon about his drugs bust. She's no angel herself. But Fallon tells her father he's well and truly on his own this time. Despite having arrested her father, PC Burns is keen to keen to keep things going with Fallon, but she says she needs space.

Lynda makes a dash to get up close to the Pet Shop Boys, who chat with Elizabeth. Lynda asks for an autograph for Leonie. Neil and Chris can go one better, though. They invite Lynda backstage before their set. They sign a t-shirt for Leonie and seem to love the name Mowgli.

Heartened, Lynda lets herself go as she and Lilian dance to the Boys' set.

Elizabeth and Roy soak up the atmosphere. Ebullient Elizabeth kisses Roy. Seizing the moment, Roy asks her if she wants to come back and stay with him later. It's his last night sleeping over.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b04f9lmg)
Richard Bean

In a Front Row special, playwright Richard Bean discusses his prolific and varied career, which includes One Man, Two Guvnors and three new plays this year alone: Great Britain, Pitcairn and Made in Dagenham.

James Corden, who played the original lead in One Man, Two Guvnors, talks to John Wilson about what is possibly the best role he'll ever play.

And National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner explains the success of his collaborations with Bean, which include this year's phone-hacking satire starring Billie Piper, Great Britain.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Claire Bartleet.


MON 19:45 Shardlake (b04f9frh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Why Men Pay for Sex (b04f9lmj)
The debate about whether there's something wrong with buying sex, and whether it should be illegal, is heated and unresolved. Amid the debate, however, one question is rarely asked: what motivates men to pay women to sleep with them? Four men tell Jo Fidgen why they do it.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald
Editor: Richard Knight.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b04dqlc1)
Goodbye Ireland; Goodbye Gaelic Football

Gaelic Football is Ireland's most popular sport - there are clubs in every parish of the country. The game is very much part of the Irish identity. But it is losing its lifeblood. And all because of emigration. John Murphy goes to the far west of Ireland, to learn about this uniquely Irish game and hear how clubs are struggling to keep going as more and more young people leave the country, to find jobs abroad.

Helen Grady producing.


MON 21:00 The Listeners (b04dm5qg)
Series 2

Episode 3

Listening is about more than hearing as we discover with four individuals for whom listening is very much the focus of their lives; indeed motivates their working lives. Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer whose compositions are concerned with acoustic ecology and soundscape listening. One of her earliest memories of consciously listening was when her piano teacher " would literally stop me and say listen to what you just played ... listen to your touch with the piano". Then when she was a student she attended a lecture by Murray Schafer who founded the World Soundscape project and "literally felt my ears had been opened ". Today Hildegard is part of the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective - a group of people who meet to take part in soundwalks; walks during which participants are asked not to talk but to listen. Acoustic ecologist Phil Morton runs similar walks in Liverpool. The focused listening which happens in these walks can become meditative. Participants not only become more aware of the sounds outside them but also start to listen to the sounds within themselves.
"What drew me was a life centred on listening to God and listening to other people so I'd then be able to devote my life to serving God and to serving the needs of other people" explains Fr. Christopher Jamison on why he become a Benedictine Monk and "listening lies at the foundations of the work of any priest and listening lies at the foundation of the whole monastic way of life ". Listening is also very much the focus of forensic speech analyst Peter French " I'm not listening so much as to what is being said but to how its being said" and in some cases it's what being said in the background behind the speech that is of interest and provides clues as to where a recording is made, as we discover.


MON 21:30 Fry's English Delight (b04f9fr9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b04f8597)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b04f9lml)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04f9lmn)
The Thrill of It All

Episode 1

Spanning 25 years, Joseph O' Connor's new novel The Thrill of It All rewinds and fast-forwards through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. It deals with the formation of a band in the early 80's in Luton, their struggle for recognition, playing low dives, living in transit vans culminating in overnight worldwide success. Then the inevitable, "artistic differences!"

This is an incredibly warm-hearted and uplifting story for anyone who has ever loved a song.

Author ..... Joseph O'Connor
Abridger ..... Neville Teller
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan

The Author

Joseph O'Connor is the author of eight novels: Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and The Thrill of it All. He has also written radio diaries, film scripts and stage-plays including the multiple award-winning Red Roses and Petrol and an acclaimed adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel.

His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His novel Ghost Light was chosen as Dublin's One City Book novel for 2011. He received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012.


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b04dm87k)
Talking About Cancer

The writer Graham Joyce (pictured above left) presents a personal exploration of the language around cancer, and the ways in which we try to make sense of it for ourselves. With contributions from Consultant Haematologist Dr Ben Kennedy and fellow writer Peter Crowther (pictured above right).

Producer Beth O'Dea.


MON 23:30 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.



TUESDAY 26 AUGUST 2014

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b04f85b1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b04f9frc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f85b3)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f85b5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f85b7)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b04f85b9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04fcq8m)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b04f9lv0)
Farm fires, Ospreys, Dredging, Land access

2014 has been a particularly bad year for farm fires. New figures show that the amount they're costing the industry has risen by six million pounds over the last three years, and last year it stood at 50 million pounds. That's more than rural crime costs farming businesses.

Dredging work on the two Somerset rivers which flooded so catastrophically earlier this year is now more than half way through. We catch up with the dredgers, and ask the campaigners who called for dredging to happen whether they're happy with progress.

Ospreys were extinct in England from the middle of the 19th century, until they were re-introduced in 2001. This year a breeding pair at Roudsea Wood and Mosses National Nature Reserve has successfully hatched two chicks - a first for the reserve. Caz Graham goes off for a spot of bird-watching.

Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Emma Campbell.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk0c)
Green Sandpiper

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

Brett Westwood presents the Green Sandpiper; a bird with a wonderful yodelling call and the heart-stopping suddenness with which it leaps up from its feeding place and dashes off. The birds that visit the UK are often from Scandinavia, where they nest high up in a fir-tree. When the chicks hatch they tumble unharmed from the nest and are escorted to safe feeding places by their parents.


TUE 06:00 Today (b04f9q7f)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 What's the Point of...? (b04f9q7k)
Series 6

The National Trust

Quentin Letts casts a quizzical eye over a cherished national institution. The National Trust was formed in 1895 to make the "life enhancing virtues of pure earth, clean air and blue sky" available for all, particularly for the underprivileged poor. To this end, it has acquired 1% of the land and 750 miles of our coastline. It's also taken over responsibility for the upkeep of hundreds of stately homes from the gentry, even though many continue to live in them, tax free. A socialist redistribution of wealth, or subsidised housing for the well-to-do?

On summer afternoons the houses are "brought to life" for swarms of visitors who admire their treasures, sniff the mandatory begonias, and eat coffee and walnut cake in their tea shops, staffed by the National Trust's vast army of unpaid workers.

Just occasionally the Trust enlists its Middle England supporters to campaign in support of their conservation principles. Governments take note: the National Trust has more members than all the political parties put together.

Would Octavia Hill, recognise the organisation she helped to found 120 years ago? Protector of the landscape, pickler of our history, a job creation scheme for the retired? What today is the point of the National Trust?

Producer: Rosie Dawson.


TUE 09:30 Witness (b04f9q7m)
Jailed for Speaking his Mind in China

In 1957 the Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao made a speech encouraging criticism of the Communist system, saying 'Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend'. But when one student, Harry Wu, made his views known, he ended up in prison for nearly twenty years.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc4m0)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

Episode 2

Philip meets Monica Jones, an Assistant Lecturer in the English Department at Leicester University. And so begins a complicated, lifelong relationship.

Read by Michael Pennington.

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.

Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.

There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?

A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.

Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04f9q7p)
Vicky Beeching; Enduring appeal of Kate Bush

Christian rock star, Vicky Beeching explains her decision to come out at 35. Are women the new action heroes? 1 in 5,000 women is born without a womb or a vagina. How does that impact their lives? Does providing women only spaces in gyms encourage more of us to exercise? And the enduring appeal of Kate Bush.

Presenter : Emma Barnett
Producer : Kirsty Starkey.


TUE 10:45 Shardlake (b04f9q7r)
Dark Fire

Episode 2

Atmospheric dramatisation of CJ Sansom's gripping Tudor crime novel set during the last days of Thomas Cromwell.

London, 1540, hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake is summoned by Cromwell and forced to undertake a deadly secret mission: tracking down a batch of Greek Fire, an ancient weapon of mass destruction, thought to have been lost with the fall of Constantinople.

Written by C. J. Sansom
Dramatised by Colin MacDonald
Produced and directed by Kirsteen Cameron.


TUE 11:00 Everything We Know Is Wrong (b04f9r4k)
Every day the newspapers carry stories of new scientific findings. There are 15 million scientists worldwide all trying to get their research published. But a disturbing fact appears if you look closely: as time goes by, many scientific findings seem to become less true than we thought. It's called the "decline effect" - and some findings even dwindle away to zero.

A highly influential paper by Dr John Ioannidis at Stanford University called "Why most published research findings are false" argues that fewer than half of scientific papers can be believed, and that the hotter a scientific field (with more scientific teams involved), the less likely the research findings are to be true. He even showed that of the 49 most highly cited medical papers, only 34 had been retested and of them 41 per cent had been convincingly shown to be wrong. And yet they were still being cited.

Again and again, researchers are finding the same things, whether it's with observational studies, or even the "gold standard" Randomised Controlled Studies, whether it's medicine or economics. Nobody bothers to try to replicate most studies, and when they do try, the majority of findings don't stack up. The awkward truth is that, taken as a whole, the scientific literature is full of falsehoods.

Jolyon Jenkins reports on the factors that lie behind this. How researchers who are obliged for career reasons to produce studies that have "impact"; of small teams who produce headline-grabbing studies that are too statistically underpowered to produce meaningful results; of the way that scientists are under pressure to spin their findings and pretend that things they discovered by chance are what they were looking for in the first place. It's not exactly fraud, but it's not completely honest either. And he reports on new initiatives to go through the literature systematically trying to reproduce published findings, and of the bitter and personalised battles that can occur as a result.

Producer/Presenter: Jolyon Jenkins.


TUE 11:30 Music of the Forest (b04f9r4m)
Horatio Clare tells the story of the complex and unconventional anthropologist Colin Turnbull.

Arguably the most influential field recordings of all time were made in 1954 by a British anthropologist called Colin Turnbull. These recordings of the finely wrought music of Mbuti pygmies, in the Ituri forest of what was then the Belgian Congo, inspired legions of ethnomusicologists and have gone on to be used as influence and source material for a raft of artists, including Madonna, John Coltrane, Brian Eno and Herbie Hancock to name a few. Alongside Bach, Mozart and Louis Armstrong, Turnbull's recordings of the Mbuti were sent into space as part of the Voyager Golden Record.

Colin Turnbull's fascination with the Mbuti pygmies made him one of the most famous intellectuals of the 1960s and '70s. He appeared on chat shows and collaborated with filmmakers and theatre directors. His bestselling book, The Forest People, showed how these hunter-gatherers, roaming the forest in search of honey, fruit, and game, lived lives of compassion for one another in an environment they adored. This idealistic vision, and Turnbull's corresponding unease with the excesses of western life, became the lens through which he would fashion his own existence - the rest of his life became a search to find those same values outside the forest.

Featuring Kwame Anthony Appiah; Steven Feld; Roy Richard Grinker and Terese Hart.

Producer: Martin Williams.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b04fc4dk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Home Front (b04f9r4p)
26 August 1914 - Adam Wilson

In Folkestone, the German Consulate is under surveillance.

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b04f9r4r)
Call You and Yours: Should you lend money to family members?

The family lending economy has reached £31 billion, according to new research. That's three times what the Government is giving banks to boost lending to small businesses. What's your experience of borrowing or lending within the family? Has it put your own finances under pressure? Was it willingly given and gratefully received or did it ruin relationships? Has what used to be a rare thing become the norm in these days of rising house prices and student loans? Contact us now and tell us your stories. Email us at youandyours@bbc.co.uk.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b04f85bc)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b04f9r4t)
National and international news with Edward Stourton.


TUE 13:45 Lucy Mangan's Literary Solutions to the Economy (b04f9r4w)
The Treasure Seekers

Writer Lucy Mangan selects five different economic remedies from literature to see if the answer to the economic recovery has been sitting on her book shelves all along.

In programme two, she selects her childhood favourite, The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit, and takes it to Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick and Bridget Rosewell, economist and former chief economic advisor to the Greater London Authority. She tests whether literary fiction can contribute to the debate on economic recovery.

Producer: Janet Graves
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b04f9lmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Drama (b01hl4gt)
The Sensitive

The Sensitive - The Protector

Alastair Jessiman's gentle psychic detective returns for another investigation - one which will surprise him more than anyone.

Thomas Soutar is asked to investigate the disappearance of a family friend. It's believed the missing man may have committed suicide. The voices in Thomas's head suggest a different explanation - but before he can solve the mystery he's shocked by a revelation about a secret hidden deep in his own past.

Producer/director: Bruce Young.


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b04f89mf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b04f9r9h)
The Diesel Decade

The air quality in our towns and cities has remained stubbornly filthy over the last ten years despite tightening regulations on the poisonous emissions our cars can legally belch out. That means more lung disease and more heart attacks.

New research is pointing the finger of suspicion at the dramatic rise in the number of diesel vehicles on our roads. Take a look at the data from car manufacturers and it seems that diesel engines are getting significantly cleaner. Independent monitoring suggests something very different- real cars driven in the real world can emit up to five times more of some pollutants than the manufacturers claim.

Tom Heap investigates the source of our pavement pollution and kicks off his campaign for cleaner air.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b04f9r9k)
Is the Double Entendre in Rude Health?

Arthur Bostrom examines the origins and colourful history of the double entendre and asks if this comic device is upholding its reputation as a firm favourite or whether its popularity is starting to droop.

Novelist Angela Carter described a double entendre as 'everyday discourse which has been dipped in the infinite riches of a dirty mind'. Whether innocently filthy or gleefully subversive, this British institution is part of a comedy tradition which has made us giggle for centuries.

Bostrom himself is a purveyor of this custom, most memorably as Officer Crabtree in the popular television situation comedy 'Allo 'Allo, and in this programme he slips into a world of suggestive speech; including radio series, saucy postcards and advertising. However as he probes the use of double entendre he discovers it isn't always to everyone's taste - including his own.

He's joined by writer Perry Croft, Lecturer in film studies at the University of Salford CP Lee, Deputy Editor of Marketing Week Branwell Johnson, artist Jez Dolan, comedian Steve Bugeja and Dr Paul MacDonald, a comic novelist and lecturer in creative writing.

Produced by Stephen Garner.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b04f9r9m)
Series 34

Ray Mears on Rommel

The life of Erwin Rommel, for a time Hitler's favourite general is nominated by Ray Mears. Matthew Parris hears why this German soldier was a "great life". They are also joined by Dr Niall Barr, Reader in Military History, Defence Studies Department at Kings College, London.

Producer: Perminder Khatkar.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.


TUE 17:00 PM (b04f9r9p)
Carolyn Quinn presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f85bf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b03m3nty)
Series 4

Episode 4

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

This week, the pros and cons of being grown up enough to have a guest room in "Company Man", and some more extracts from his hilarious diary, which he has kept nightly for over 30 years.

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


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b04f9r9r)
David's been up since 4am dealing with a difficult calving. Ruth helps finish the delivery. There's fantastic news from Shula. Borchester Land's application for a new anaerobic digester has been rejected. Access was the main issue. However, they know it makes no difference to the new road.
Roy and Elizabeth wake up together. Roy tells Elizabeth he loves her. She feels the same. Roy pinches himself as - just for now - Elizabeth decides to forget the outside world and enjoy their cosy bubble.

Charlie asks David if they can put their differences behind them. Confident that Borchester Land will get their way with a new application, Charlie has a proposition for David and Ruth. BL could offer them a contract to grow crop for a new anaerobic digester. No way, say David and Ruth, but Charlie says to think it over.

Roy and Elizabeth have an emotional conversation. She spells out why they can't be together. There would be massive family disruption and a lot of hurt. Roy is distraught. Tearful Elizabeth begs Roy to hold her - one last time.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b04f9r9t)
Johnny Marr; Frank Auerbach at Tate; Alex Gibney on Fela Kuti

Johnny Marr discusses his new album Playland and reflects on his relationship with the guitar from The Smiths to his solo work. As Tate Britain unveils Lucian Freud's collection of Frank Auerbach's work, curator Elena Crippa explains what the collection can tell us about the relationship between the two artists. And Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Gibney, famous for his investigative films about Enron and Lance Armstrong, explains why his new film explores the life and music of Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti.

Producer: Ellie Bury
Presenter: John Wilson.


TUE 19:45 Shardlake (b04f9q7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 Whatever Happened to Global Governance? (b04f9rdr)
The way that countries cooperate with each other is changing, and in surprising ways. The old powers - the United States, Britain, Europe - used to hold the reins of how global issues were dealt with. Professor Ngaire Woods examines how a new playing field is emerging where newcomers - such as Brazil, Russia, India and China - are creating their own solutions.

Is old-style global governance fragmenting? In 1944, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, was the birthplace of the familiar international organisations that keep countries talking to each other. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank were created, followed by the United Nations and what went on to be the World Trade Organisation (WTO). They were a huge achievement - but 70 years on, are they fit for purpose?

The world's smaller economies, such as in Africa, used to have to go cap in hand to Washington DC for answers. Now they have many other options. Professor Woods speaks to former chief economists of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz and Justin Yifu Lin, and former WTO director, Pascal Lamy, to find out why.

So as the old system fragments, how will the world solve its big issues, such as poverty, climate change, immigration and pandemics? And how will Britain negotiate this new terrain?

Producer: Dominic Byrne
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b04f9rdt)
Peter White is joined by Elaine Bastable who has just published a recipe book she first wrote 40 years ago. Elaine now has Age Related Macular Disease in both eyes and is adjusting to living with partial sight, with varying degrees of success.

Alyson Bunn is an Eye Clinic Liaison Officer with Surrey Association for Visually Impaired people (SAVI) and is behind a new hospital passport initiative, to help hospital staff better understand the needs of sight or hearing impaired people.

Photograph: Elaine Bastable and Peter White.


TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b04f9rdw)
Conflicted Medicine: Public Health Campaigns

Dr Mark Porter examines how powerful lobbying groups like the food and alcohol industries steer public health policy in the direction that suits them most.


TUE 21:30 What's the Point of...? (b04f9q7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b04gbyc4)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b04f9rfb)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04fln8n)
The Thrill of It All

Episode 2

Spanning 25 years, Joseph O' Connor's new novel The Thrill of It All rewinds and fast-forwards through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. It deals with the formation of a band in the early 80's in Luton, their struggle for recognition, playing low dives, living in transit vans culminating in overnight worldwide success. Then the inevitable, "artistic differences!"

This is an incredibly warm-hearted and uplifting story for anyone who has ever loved a song.

Author ..... Joseph O'Connor
Abridger ..... Neville Teller
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan

The Author

Joseph O'Connor is the author of eight novels: Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and The Thrill of it All. He has also written radio diaries, film scripts and stage-plays including the multiple award-winning Red Roses and Petrol and an acclaimed adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel.

His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His novel Ghost Light was chosen as Dublin's One City Book novel for 2011. He received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012.


TUE 23:00 The Guns of Adam Riches (b04f9rz9)
Series 2

Mastermind in Love

Adam Riches' new series of comic adventure stories continues with the tale of Mastermind, a blind megalomaniac who is taking a break from world domination to look for love. Aided by a host of absurd henchmen, including some plucked straight from the audience, will Mastermind find what he's looking for or will he end up heartbroken?

Starring Adam Riches, Cariad Lloyd, Jim Johnson and Katharine Bennett-Fox.

Written by Adam Riches
Produced by Simon Mayhew-Archer.


TUE 23:30 Believe It! (b03lpjpk)
Series 2

Secrets

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.



WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 2014

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b04f85c8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc4m0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f85cb)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f85cd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f85cg)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b04f85cj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04fc5dt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b04fcr17)
Badger cull, Hare coursing, Grain port

The number of badgers to be shot in this years pilot badger cull has been cut. A minimum of 615 badgers are to be culled in Gloucestershire and 316 badgers in Somerset over a 6 week period. The numbers are significantly lower than the original minimum targets set last year, which were 2081 badgers in Somerset and 2856 in Gloucestershire. The government aim to reduce the population of badgers in the two TB hot spot areas by 70% of the original population over the 4 year pilot cull.

Although harvest nearing an end may be good news for some farmers, for some it marks the start of the illegal hare coursing season. The illegal sport of chasing hares with dogs can cause havoc for many farmers and landowners, not only damaging land but also the threats and intimidation which comes with it. Farming Today looks at what's being done to tackle the problem.

And as Farming Today continues to look at access to the countryside, we hear from a farmer who has gone to extreme measures to keep walkers off his land.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk0y)
Wood Sandpiper

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

Brett Westwood presents the Wood Sandpiper. Wood Sandpipers are elegant waders and just a handful of pairs breed in the UK, in wooded marshes and remote bogs of Northern Scotland. There's a chance to see them when they break their migration journey south at inland pools and marshes here. Listen out for their cheerful call that has been described as sounding like an old penny-whistle.


WED 06:00 Today (b04fcr19)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Reflections with Peter Hennessy (b04fc5dy)
Series 2

David Steel

In this series, Peter Hennessy, the historian of modern Britain, asks a senior politician to reflect on his or her life and times. Each week, he invites his guest to explore their early influences, their experiences of events and their impressions of people they've known.
In this third episode, David Steel (now Lord Steel of Aikwood), the former Liberal Party Leader, reflects on his role in shifting Britain away from two-party politics towards multi-party politics and coalition government. He was nicknamed 'Boy David' after becoming an MP in 1965 at the age of 26, but soon established his national reputation by piloting reform of the abortion law through Parliament. He discusses his reasons for forming the 'Lib-Lab Pact' with Labour's Jim Callaghan in the late 1970s and talks about his role in encouraging the 'Gang of Four' to quit Labour and form the SDP. As a senior Liberal Democrat with strong sympathy for social democratic ideas, he reflects candidly on Nick Clegg's leadership and his party's coalition with the Conservatives.
Peter's earlier guests in this series were Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister and Roy Hattersley, the former Labour Deputy Leader. Next week's guest is Dame Margaret Beckett MP, the first woman to have been Foreign Secretary and to have led the Labour Party (in 1994) and the first woman to have been Deputy Leader of her party.
The producer is Rob Shepherd.


WED 09:30 Publishing Lives (b03xf16j)
Series 2

Norah Smallwood

Robert McCrum explores the stories of five great British publishers.

Norah Smallwood was the first woman to break into the traditional gentleman's club of publishing in the early 20th Century. She joined Chatto and Windus as a secretary in 1936 and rapidly worked her way up, becoming a partner after the Second World War, and managing director between 1975 and 1982. She was on the board of the Hogarth Press and worked closely with its founder, Leonard Woolf.

Her authors included Aldous Huxley, Elizabeth Taylor, Iris Murdoch, A. S. Byatt and Toni Morrison. She also became close friends with Dirk Bogarde, then one of Britain's leading movie stars, after she heard him on a late night radio show and spotted his potential as a writer. Iris Murdoch said she was 'a combination of comrade, leader, mother, business partner and muse'.

The Observer's Robert McCrum talks to publishing insiders including Dame Gail Rebuck and Booker prize-winning author, A. S. Byatt.

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc5f0)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

Episode 3

Philip begins work as Librarian at Hull University and oversees plans for an ambitious programme of expansion. In his private life, another woman - Maeve Brennan - catches his eye.

Read by Michael Pennington

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.

Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.

There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?

A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.

Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04fcrdh)
Alicia Markova; Thokozile Masipa; Erica Jong; Women's erotic writing

A profile of Thokozile Masipa, the ground breaking female judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial by BBC's Southern Africa Correspondent Nomsa Maseko. Tina Sutton on her new biography of the British ballerina Alicia Markova. A classic interview from the Woman's Hour archive - Erica Jong on her books Fear of Flying and Any Women's Blues - who is writing feminist erotic fiction now? Louise Doughty and Nichi Hodgson discuss. And cook the perfect Black Forest Gateaux with Clare Clarke. Jenni Murray presents.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Eleanor Garland.


WED 10:41 Shardlake (b04fc5f2)
Dark Fire

Episode 3

Atmospheric dramatisation of CJ Sansom's bestselling Tudor crime novel.

London, 1540. Under orders from Thomas Cromwell, detective-lawyer Matthew Shardlake is investigating the theft of a barrel of Greek Fire, an ancient weapon of mass destruction, the formula for which was thought to have been lost with the fall of Constantinople. Assisted by Cromwell's man, Barak, it's increasingly clear that whoever is behind the theft will do anything - including murder - to keep the substance from the Earl of Essex.

Written by C. J. Sansom
Dramatised by Colin MacDonald

Produced and directed by Kirsteen Cameron.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b04fc5f5)
Richard and Mark - Men of Metal

Fi Glover with a conversation about the hidden history that is revealed when you go searching with a metal detector and what makes someone look for such discoveries.

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.


WED 11:00 Sandhurst and the Sheikhs (b04fc5f7)
Four reigning Arab monarchs have passed through the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst or its associated institutions - the kings of Bahrain and Jordan, the Emir of Qatar and the Sultan of Oman, alongside a long list of lesser sheikhs and princes, and many of the region's military chiefs of staff.

Matthew Teller uses archive, analysis and new interviews to examine Sandhurst's longstanding links with the Gulf, exploring whether there is a detectable 'Sandhurst influence' on the repression of popular protests across the Middle East, and asking whether Sandhurst should help deliver officer-trained military leaders to Middle Eastern allies if they have questionable records on rights and accountability.

Links between Sandhurst and the elite families of the Middle East stretch back over a century. King Hussein of Jordan attended Sandhurst and later said, "I have always felt that my experience at Sandhurst was one which had the greatest impact on my formative years."

Today, the region has started to turn the tables. Gulf monarchies are deploying 21st-century techniques (and, above all, money) to extend their own soft power. Latterly Sandhurst sparked debate by accepting £3m from Bahrain and £15m from the UAE to rededicate two buildings. These controversially included the former Mons Hall, originally named for the first major British-fought battle of WW1, but now retitled the King Hamad Hall after the Bahraini monarch.

Sandhurst insiders - including a former commandant, Middle Eastern activists and exiled academics - debate the rights and wrongs of Sandhurst's role in bolstering at best undemocratic, and at worst repressive, regimes.

Presenter: Matthew Teller
Producer: Karen Pirie

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 11:30 The Gobetweenies (b01ljwm8)
Series 2

The Next Story

Tom and Lucy are furious they are not allowed a dog. Their parents say that when kids go between two households it's too complicated. But their mum and dad's love lives are even more tangled. After all, Tom has seen his parents kissing. So where does that leave their mum's new third husband, and the unstable pet shop owner their dad has been secretly dating?

Written by Marcella Evaristi

Director: Marilyn Imrie
Producer: Gordon Kennedy
An Absolutely Production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:00 News Summary (b04fc4dm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Home Front (b04fc5fc)
27 August 1914 - Gabriel Graham

In Folkestone, Gabriel struggles to write an appropriate speech for the first British war wounded...

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b04fcrdk)
Holiday rental problems; Private jets on the cheap

The travellers who insist flying on a private jet can be cheaper than a scheduled flight - if you know the tricks. We meet the families getting on the property ladder without a deposit or a mortgage. Plus, the pitfalls when you book a holiday rental direct with the owner. You and Yours speaks to the people who have lost their holiday deposits booking through Owners Direct.


WED 12:57 Weather (b04f85cl)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b04fcrdm)
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Shaun Wright, refuses to quit over Rotherham scandal. We hear from the former Labour MP for the town, Denis MacShane; the Children's Commissioner for England, Maggie Atkinson; the Conservative MP and campaigner, Nicola Blackwood; and from Ed Balls, a former Children's Secretary, who says Mr Wright should go.

Mr Balls, the shadow chancellor, also attacks the government's record on exports. We hear from inside the Iraqi town of Amerli, where thousands of Shia Turkmen are under siege from Islamic State fighters.

Also, our latest Letter to London from the poet, Hollie McNish; a couple celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary on why their marriage has lasted; and a shepherdess takes a scientist to task for reducing the arts of a sheepdog to a "herding algorithm".

Presented by Edward Stourton.


WED 13:45 Lucy Mangan's Literary Solutions to the Economy (b04fc5ff)
The Million Pound Bank Note

Writer Lucy Mangan selects five different economic remedies from literature to see if she can find a solution to Britain's economy. In this witty and enlightening series, she uses her extensive personal library to help economists out.

In this the third programme in the series, she re-reads Mark Twain's short story The Million Pound Bank Note, and talks to Bob Swarup and Andrew Sentance about what literary fiction can contribute to the debate on economic recovery.

Producer: Janet Graves
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b04f9r9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b0076zvm)
Keeping the Score

By Martyn Wade. Gerald owns a score box at his village cricket ground, but it's put to most use in the winter months, something his wife has never found out and which Gerald is determined she never shall.

Music arranged and played by Neil Brand.

Directed by Jane Morgan.

Martyn Wade was prompted to write Keeping the Score by the actor David Troughton, who as Martyn remembers it, suggested that he write a play about two men in a score box. At the time Martyn wasn't even sure what a score box was and certainly couldn't think what two men would talk about in such a place, but the idea stayed with him and the result is a delightful play, which requires absolutely no knowledge of, nor enthusiasm for, the game of cricket.


WED 15:00 Bricks and Bubbles (b04f8cwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


WED 15:30 Inside Health (b04f9rdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 The Educators (b04fc707)
Tony Little

Eton College in Berkshire is one of the world's most famous schools. With so many of its old boys having distinguished careers, an Eton education carries the expectation of success.

The school's name has also become a cultural shorthand for influence, privilege and wealth.

Tony Little became headmaster in 2002. A former pupil of the school, he talks to Sarah Montague about how Eton gets results, and whether there's anything in the ethos and practice that could apply to all schools.

He believes a British education is uniquely rich and varied, with much of the value being outside the classroom, but fears it is being eroded by an age of measurement.

Nineteen British prime ministers have been educated at Eton, alongside notable writers, actors and scientists. Tony Little says it asks something of all the boys there. "If they've done it, why not you?"

Presenter: Sarah Montague
Producer: Joel Moors.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b04fc709)
Jihadis on social media; Exploitation in S Yorkshire; TV debates

Social media companies have tried to stop the distribution of the video of James Foley's execution by blocking the accounts of those who shared it. The clip, posted by the group IS, sparked a debate about the ethics of sharing the content. To try and stifle the message, hashtags like #ISISmediaBlackout emerged to starve IS of coverage, and it quickly gained traction. Steve Hewlett talks to Hend Amry, the Syrian activist who instigated the hashtag, and Professor Peter Neumann, the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, about the role social media is playing in the spread of jihadist activity.

A report has found how at least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. In September 2012, Andrew Norfolk, a journalist on The Times newspaper, published an investigation which revealed a confidential 2010 police report had warned thousands of such crimes were being committed in South Yorkshire each year by networks of Asian men. We speak to Andrew about the challenges he faced in covering the story.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and Better Together leader Alistair Darling went head-to-head in their second televised referendum debate this week on the BBC. It's been been criticised by some for descending in to a slanging match, with poor moderation and too much audience response. Steve Hewlett talks to John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde about whether such debates influences voting behaviour. And he discusses challenges of staging events with John Mullin, the BBC's referendum editor, and John McAndrew, who was in charge of the first ever live Sky News Leaders' debate in 2010.

Producer: Katy Takatsuki.


WED 17:00 PM (b04fc70c)
Carolyn Quinn presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f85cn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Dead Ringers (b04fc70f)
Series 12

Episode 5

After a rest of 7 years, the classic, award winning impressions show is back with a new cast of characters.

No one will be safe from the merciless parodies, as the show takes down every programme, institution and politician you hold dear.

Starring Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Duncan Wisbey, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stevenson.

Producer: Bill Dare.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b04fc70h)
Emma's sad that Loxfest is over, but Susan's happier not to be a permanent babysitter. Emma's miffed that Ed will be working late again. But he says the extra cash will be handy in helping them secure their own place. Emma's also excited to be supporting Fallon with her upcycling. She'll supply the junk items, with the help of Eddie.

Charlie's keeping Adam guessing about next year's contract. Brian and Jennifer reassure Adam - they should take Justin at his word. Brian jokes about the baby name Mowgli. Lynda's holding the baby shower tomorrow.

Ed and his tractor come to Charlie's aid at the roadside, towing Charlie's broken-down car back to the Estate. Ed points out Charlie's rule about Ed not being allowed on Estate land. Charlie has to swallow his pride. Time to make an exception.

Jennifer receives a solicitor's letter. She's shocked to be named in John Tregorran's will and is to receive £50K. There's also a personal letter from John, in which he talks of his problems with Carol. It was written six months before he died.

Jennifer worries what people will think but Brian plays it very calm. Any affair was all in John's head, surely. She should accept the money.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b04fc70k)
Jesse Eisenberg, Kate Bush, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Our Zoo

The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg discusses his latest role as a radical environmentalist in his new film Night Moves; Norwegian novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard on Boyhood Island, the latest addition to his autobiographical My Struggle series; Lucy Jones reviews Kate Bush's comeback concert in London last night, and Rachel Cooke reviews new TV drama series Our Zoo, based on the creation of Chester Zoo in the 1930s.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.


WED 19:45 Shardlake (b04fc5f2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 Agree to Differ (b04fc70m)
Series 1

Vivisection

Agree to Differ is Radio 4's new discussion programme where the aim is to give listeners a completely new way to understand a controversial issue and to decide where they stand. Presented by Matthew Taylor.


WED 20:45 Four Thought (b04fc70p)
Series 4

In Defence of Anger

Philosopher Amia Srinivasan makes the case for anger, arguing that it can be a huge source of strength and power, particularly for the apparently weak and powerless.

Using the personal experiences and political beliefs of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to advance her case, Amia argues that we should seriously question why people in power criticise or dismiss those who are angry.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b04f9r9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Reflections with Peter Hennessy (b04fc5dy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b04f85cq)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b04fc70r)
UN Syria war crimes report sharpens the dilemma: can the West work with President Assad against ISIS? Rotherham child abuse: who is responsible? Protestant churches take on drugs gangs in Guatemala. And a new app to make sure your child keeps in touch with you. With Ritula Shah.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04flnj5)
The Thrill of It All

Episode 3

Spanning 25 years, Joseph O' Connor's new novel The Thrill of It All rewinds and fast-forwards through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. It deals with the formation of a band in the early 80's in Luton, their struggle for recognition, playing low dives, living in transit vans culminating in overnight worldwide success. Then the inevitable, "artistic differences!"

This is an incredibly warm-hearted and uplifting story for anyone who has ever loved a song.

Author ..... Joseph O'Connor
Abridger ..... Neville Teller
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan

The Author

Joseph O'Connor is the author of eight novels: Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and The Thrill of it All. He has also written radio diaries, film scripts and stage-plays including the multiple award-winning Red Roses and Petrol and an acclaimed adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel.

His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His novel Ghost Light was chosen as Dublin's One City Book novel for 2011. He received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012.


WED 23:00 Jigsaw (b04fc70t)
Series 2

Episode 1

The return of the rapid-fire and surreal sketch show series.

Starring award-winning stand-up comedians Dan Antopolski, Tom Craine and Nat Luurtsema

Producer: Colin Anderson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.


WED 23:15 Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair (b04fc70w)
Series 1

The Viewing

by Jenny Éclair

A lonely woman takes a peek into other people's properties and lives when their houses are put up for sale.

Producer ..... Sally Avens.


WED 23:30 Believe It! (b03m7p12)
Series 2

Danger Man

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 McKellen (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.



THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2014

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b04f85dk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc5f0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f85dm)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f85dp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f85dr)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b04f85dt)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04fcs1z)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b04fcs21)
Red squirrel disease, Rural broadband, Countryside access

A mystery form of leprosy has been discovered in red squirrels in Scotland. Sybil Ruscoe speaks to Professor Anna Meredith, from the University of Edinburgh, who is investigating the illness. Professor Meredith is hosting a conference, where experts from across Europe meet to discuss how diseases are spread between animals and how some infections can be passed on to people.

And as Farming Today continues to look at access to the countryside, Marie Lennon visits Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. The Plain is used by the Ministry of Defence for training and target practice and is home to around a quarter of a million unexploded shells. The footpath network on the site has just been updated, Marie takes a drive on the chalk hills to take a look.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk3x)
Mistle Thrush: Part One

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

Brett Westwood presents the Mistle Thrush. Loud rattling calls, like someone scraping a comb across wood, tell you that Mistle Thrushes are about. From midsummer to early autumn, bands of Mistle Thrushes roam the countryside, where they feed on open pastures, among stubble or on moorland. These birds are very fond of the white sticky berries of mistletoe and spread the seeds into cracks of tree bark when they wipe their bills or defecate.


THU 06:00 Today (b04fcs23)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 Voices from the Old Bailey (b04fc80v)
Series 3

Shoplifting

The Old Bailey opens up the whole of 18th century society to us - rich and poor passed through London's great criminal court - and so thousands of court transcripts give us a record of voices which have otherwise left no trace. Historians treasure these criminal records, not just for the way they preserve individual voices but because collectively they tell the story of massive social change.

This programme explores consumer revolution and a brand-new crime it spawned - shoplifting. It's a crime that only entered the statute books in 1699 - and it could be punished by execution.

Shoplifting was a brand new offence, seen to be fuelled by a new kind of greed - because in the 18th century, shops were themselves new. They sprang up all across the fashionable districts of London, replacing markets and hawkers, then spread across the south and by the late 18th century every small town in the North - even villages - would have its own shop.

On location in an 18th century shop, Lock's Hat Shop in St James's, Professor Vickery listens to shop-lifting cases from the Old Bailey. Beginning with simple smash-and-grab theft, and ending with an elaborate fraud - the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of diamond jewellery.

Contributors include Professor Peter King of Leicester University, leading historian of crime; cultural historian Professor Helen Berry from Newcastle University; and historian of glamour and fashion, Dr Hannah Greig from the University of York.

With readings by Charlotte Stockley, Ewan Bailey, Oliver Soden, David Holt, Damien Bouvier and Steven Webb - and specially arranged music from singer Guy Hughes and pianist David Owen Norris.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fc80x)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

Episode 4

As middle age approaches, Larkin's public and professional life come to the fore, while his poetry retreats to a more private space. And his personal life is as complicated as ever.

Read by Michael Pennington.

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.

Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.

There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?

A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.

Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04gb67s)
Sarah Waters; Sian Edwards

Sarah Waters talks about her new novel set in Post WWI London, 'The Paying Guests'. Sian Edwards is one of only four female conductors this year compared with eighty concerts at the Proms conducted by men. Seema Malhotra on her new role as shadow minister for preventing violence against women and girls. Female candidates and the European Commission. And picnics at Glyndebourne.

Presenter : Jenni Murray
Producer : Kirsty Starkey.


THU 10:45 Shardlake (b04fcc83)
Dark Fire

Episode 4

Dramatisation of CJ Sansom's Tudor crime novel set during the last days of Thomas Cromwell.

London, 1540. Detective-lawyer Matthew Shardlake, assisted by Cromwell's man Barak, visit the ruins of St Bartholew's, where the barrel of 'Greek Fire' - a liquid weapon capable of terrible destruction, the formula for which was thought lost during the fall of Constantinople - was first discovered.

Written by C. J. Sansom
Dramatised by Colin MacDonald
Produced and directed by Kirsteen Cameron.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b04fc8yq)
Guatemala's Addicts Behind Bars

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in cocaine trafficking through Guatemala en route north, to the United States. Part of the fallout locally, has been a rise in addiction. As a result, more than 200 drug rehabilitation centres have been set up in the capital alone. Many of these are run by Pentecostal churches, with little oversight or regulation. Often addicts are swept up from the streets by 'hunting parties', and forced to attend such a centre. Linda Pressly travels to Guatemala City to investigate compulsory drug rehabilitation.


THU 11:30 Fantasy Festival (b04fc8ys)
Frank Cottrell Boyce

Frank Cottrell Boyce joins presenter Tim Samuels to curate and create the festival of his wildest dreams.

Festivals are fast becoming significant events on more and more people's calendars. And, whether it's a huge rock fest or a small scale village event, it's somebody's job to imagine the festival before it happens, and to assemble all the pieces of the jigsaw that are needed to bring their vision to life.

But what if you could create your own festival - where you set the agenda, chose the guests, pick the acts, and dictate the weather, the food and the ambience. A festival where anyone - whether dead or alive - can be summoned to perform, and nothing is unimaginable.

Fantasy Festival gives the children's author and screenwriter, Frank Cottrell Boyce, the chance to outline his dream festival of participation which is set in a sprout field outside Ormskirk. Letter writing and a collective bedtime story are mandatory activities. And he programmes poetry reading by Seamus Heaney, singing by Martha Reeves and music from Terje Isungset's ice orchestra.
Producer: Rosie Boulton
a Monty Funk production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b04fc4dp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Home Front (b04fc8yv)
28 August 1914 - Dorothea Winwood

Epic new drama series set in Great War Britain on this day a hundred years ago. Britain were victorious in their first naval battle and in Folkestone, there are tears at the Vicarage.

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b04fcs25)
The company selling boiler insurance to vulnerable people who don't need it. Sunday trading 20 years on. How has it changed us? Also, the millions who could be missing out on refunds for mis-sold credit card insurance. The deadline is this weekend. The Big Six energy firms are being investigated by the competition watchdog, but what's in it for customers?


THU 12:57 Weather (b04f85dw)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b04fcs27)
The Eurosceptic Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to UKIP and resigns his seat to fight a by-election. We speak to the UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the Conservative Eurosceptic Bernard Jenkin, and the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson.

Net migration into the UK increased by 68-thousand in the year to 2014. Our home affairs correspondent, Danny Shaw, explains the figures.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has joined calls for South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright to resign over the Rotherham child abuse scandal. We hear from a victim of the abuse, the father of another victim, and the man now overseeing the safeguarding of children in Rotherham - Steve Ashley.

Also, a woman who was sexually assaulted on the London Underground tells her story; and British Transport Police on how they're tackling these types of offence.

And our latest Letter to London - from the Scottish author Ewan Morrison.

Presented by Edward Stourton.


THU 13:45 Lucy Mangan's Literary Solutions to the Economy (b04fc8yx)
The Last Chronicle of Barset

Writer Lucy Mangan selects five different economic remedies from literature. Today, she looks inside The Last Chronicle of Barset by Trollope.

In this witty and enlightening series, Lucy searches for economic solutions in her bookshelves. She talks to Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick and Mary Morgan from the London School of Economics about what literature can contribute to the economic recovery debate.

Producer: Janet Graves
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b04fc70h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 A Meeting with Dora (b04fcb4l)
A Meeting With Dora
by Don Shaw

In 1979 the writer Don Shaw met Dora Russell, who was a campaigner for some of the great causes of the 20 century, including women's rights, progressive education, sexual reform and birth control. She was also the former wife of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. Shaw had been commissioned by the BBC to write a film about their life together. What resulted was a far more personal meeting for Shaw himself. Thirty five years later, using a mixture of fact and fiction, he has re-created that meeting.

Produced and directed by Pauline Harris.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b04fcb4n)
The Needles, Isle of Wight

Helen Mark visits one of the Isle of Wight's great attractions, those famous chalk cliffs, The Needles, at the western end of the island. These iconic white stacks march out to sea, back towards the Dorset coast, that they used to be joined to a mere 10,000 years ago. Tony Tutton of the National Trust shares the great views across the Solent with Helen, describing how treacherous the waters beneath them can sometimes be to competing sailors, and how vicious the winds can be.

Helen also unpicks a Cold War secret that lurks amongst the Needles: in the 1950s, the Victorian gun battery here became the test site for the British space missile programme. We hear from former rocketeer Mike Elliott, who used to work on the Black Knight system.

By contrast, Jamie Marsh, Reserves Officer with the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, shows Helen the impact of the sea at Bouldnor, where old oaks, part of a landslip wood, are being rapidly undercut by the sea - the nearest to a mangrove swamp that you could hope to find in the UK.

Producer: Mark Smalley.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b04f8k45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:55 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b04f8m5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b04fcb4q)
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Gruff Rhys; Richard Attenborough

With Francine Stock.

Francine unlocks The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari as the horror classic is re-released in cinema. Holding the keys are novelist Kim Newman, psychiatrist Peter Byrne and production designer Maria Djurkovic.

Another chance to hear Richard Attenborough's interview with Francine, in which he discusses his philosophy of film and explains why cinema needs to be compassionate and political as well as entertaining.

Singer Gruff Rhys discusses his documentary American Interior about his quest for a tribe of Welsh speaking Native Americans and his distant relative, the 18th century explorer John Evans, who tried to find them and ended up mapping the heartlands of the United States in the process.

Director Ivan Sen on his thriller Mystery Road about an Aborginal detective who stands alone against corruption in the Australian Outback.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b04fcc7x)
Manipulating mouse memory; London pollution; Nature of knowing; Snail fur

Manipulating mouse memory
Optogenetics allows researchers to use light to turn the genes involved in memory, in the brain, off and on. It's a powerful tool for seeing exactly where specific types of memory are formed and processed. Researchers at MIT have been using the technique to manipulate fearful or pleasurable memories associated with a particular location, in mice. This is so they can see how memories are overwritten in the brain's processing regions.

London pollution
Cities in Britain have moved on a great deal from air pollution events, like the London smog of 1952, where 4000 people died in a week. But a recent report has put London air pollution levels as bad as some of the worst in the world, on a level with Mexico City and Beijing. Pollution is a mixture of gases and tiny particulate matter (or PM) -particles too small to be filtered out by our noses, and which end up going straight into our lungs. Dr Rossa Brugha and reporter Marnie Chesterton take a bicycle ride through London's busy streets and parks with an air pollution monitor. Back in the studio, Rossa and Adam talk through the results...

Nature of knowing
Philip Ball, the programme's on-call polymath and author of 'Invisible, the Dangerous Allure of the Unseen', comes into the studio to answer a listener's question about how science can possibly understand the unseeable, if it is supposed to be dealing with the observable universe.

Snail fur and how to grow a new head
Why is it that some animals can regrow lost body parts and others, like us, can't? Even some closely related species, for instance salamanders, can regrow a lost tail, but fellow amphibians, the frogs, can't regrow lost legs? One of the best-studied 're-generators' is the sea creature - Hydractinia, or Snail fur, because it grows like fur on the back of the snail-shell homes of hermit crabs. By studying Hydractinia's regenerative powers at the cellular level, researchers think that most animals, including us, may have the potential to regrow lost limbs using stem cell systems lying dormant within us.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.


THU 17:00 PM (b04fcs29)
Carolyn Quinn presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f85f0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 Susan Calman Is Convicted (b01qm4q4)
Series 1

Death Penalty

Susan Calman explores issues on which she has strong opinions. This week, she examines the issues surrounding the Death Penalty from the perspective gained whilst working on Death Row.

Susan was always stoically against capital punishment - because that was the expected position for a liberal student to take - and thought that she knew all about it. But it's very easy being so liberal when you're sitting in a country that doesn't have the death penalty. Then, as a law student, she travelled to North Carolina and worked on Death Row for a time. What she experienced whilst there persuaded her absolutely that she thought Capital Punishment was utterly wrong.

This is a story about the transition from casually adopting received opinion to developing your own belief system.

Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2013.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b04fcc7z)
Leonie throws her baby shower, with Lynda and Lilian the cooing grandparents. Lynda's still uneasy about the name, and Lilian is squeamish dealing with a dirty nappy.

Rob jokes to Helen about the name Mowgli. Helen's donating Henry's old clothes. Emma also donates spare blankets. Peggy has knitted a baby bonnet. Lynda points out it's a perfect match for Lilian's matinee jacket - almost identical in fact. Lilian makes her escape.

Emma admires Leonie's signed t-shirt from the Pet Shop Boys. Lynda says Elizabeth seems to be suffering - not quite herself. Emma gossips about Wayne getting arrested. Awkward Harrison's going to quit the Midnight Walkers. It's a shame it seems to be off between Fallon and Burns.

Lynda gives Leonie a horoscope for the baby, hinting that certain names bring good luck. Leonie sees through this and gets upset with Lynda.

Rob's annoyed when Helen is late, leaving him on his own at the baby shower. Helen had to deal with a situation. Henry hit another child at nursery. Helen feels better after talking to Emma, who remembers similar problems with her own kids. Helen warmly tells Rob he's the best role model for Henry - strong, kind, sensitive.

Jess phones Rob. She has something to tell him that she's certain he'll want to hear...


THU 19:15 Front Row (b04fcc81)
Margaret Atwood, Paco Peña, Obvious Child, Folkestone Triennial

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood discusses Stone Mattress, her new collection of nine short stories. Flamenco guitarist Paco Peña tells Samira Ahmed about his latest work Patrias which is being performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, inspired by the writer Federico García Lorca who was murdered at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Shahidha Bari reviews new film Obvious Child, about a comedienne who faces some challenging realities when she discovers she's pregnant. And artist Michael Sailstorfer on his interactive work at the Folkestone Triennial.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.


THU 19:45 Shardlake (b04fcc83)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b04fcc85)
Publishing Wars

Who will win the book wars between the world's largest publishers and Amazon, the comprehensive online retailer? Adam Fleming reports on the latest - and potentially epoch-making - chapter in the book wars.

The big French publishing house Hachette is locked in a battle with Amazon in the US over the price of Ebooks. Amazon alleges the prices which publishers, including Hachette, charge for these titles are too high. In support of its campaign to lower them, Amazon has made purchases on its website of books by authors who are published by Hachette - including such well-known writers as Ian Rankin - slower and more expensive. In return, publishers are threatening to withhold books by popular authors from the online retailer. This endangers Amazon's claim always to stock the book readers want.

Adam Fleming asks why this row has flared up now and who will win it. Where do authors and readers stand in this battle between corporate giants and what do they stand to win and lose? He also explores the radical changes that are taking place elsewhere in the publishing industry - such as self-publishing - in which Amazon is itself involved - and independent funding of books. How will these changes affect all those who write, publish, buy and read books.

Among those contributing to the programme are the writers Germaine Greer and Alexander McCall Smith, the children's author Linda Strachan and award-winning self-published writer Al Brookes. We also hear from Ben Edelman, an expert on what Amazon has to lose, and Brad Stone on what it - and its publishing counterparts - stand to gain.


THU 20:30 In Business (b04fcc87)
Take a Bow

Thanks to great craftsmen such as the Amati family and Antonio Stradivari, the city of Cremona in northern Italy has been a global centre of violins for five centuries. Peter Day finds out how tradition, marketing and years of training enable Cremonese instrument makers to survive in a fast changing musical world.

Producer: Caroline Bayley.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b04fcc7x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 Voices from the Old Bailey (b04fc80v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b04f85f2)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b04fcs2c)
Ukraine claims Russian invasion, Tory MP defects to UKIP, Ebola doctor's diary - with Bridget Kendall.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04flnzy)
The Thrill of It All

Episode 4

Spanning 25 years, Joseph O' Connor's new novel The Thrill of It All rewinds and fast-forwards through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. It deals with the formation of a band in the early 80's in Luton, their struggle for recognition, playing low dives, living in transit vans culminating in overnight worldwide success. Then the inevitable, "artistic differences!"

This is an incredibly warm-hearted and uplifting story for anyone who has ever loved a song.

Author ..... Joseph O'Connor
Abridger ..... Neville Teller
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan

The Author

Joseph O'Connor is the author of eight novels: Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and The Thrill of it All. He has also written radio diaries, film scripts and stage-plays including the multiple award-winning Red Roses and Petrol and an acclaimed adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel.

His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His novel Ghost Light was chosen as Dublin's One City Book novel for 2011. He received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012.


THU 23:00 The Show What You Wrote (b04fcc89)
Series 2

Art and Literature

Radio 4's themed sketch show made entirely from contributions sent in by the public is back for a second series.

The best ideas have been chosen from thousands of submissions from new writers resulting in a show like no other.

Recorded in Manchester.

Episode 3 - Art & Literature

Written by
The Public

Producers
Alexandra Smith
Carl Cooper.


THU 23:30 Believe It! (b03mg87c)
Series 2

Episode 4

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.



FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2014

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b04f85fx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b04fc80x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b04f85fz)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b04f85g1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b04f85g3)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b04f85g5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b04fcf4x)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Reverend Mike Starkey.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b04fcscf)
Badger Trust conference, Coastal path, Quagga mussel

Farming and agriculture was man's biggest mistake. That's the theory in a new book called 'Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.' Farming Today puts this theory to farmers and foodies.

It's as small as a thumbnail or as big a fifty pence piece, but the non-native Quagga mussel is a threat to our ecosystems. The mollusc hasn't arrived yet, but scientists at 21 research institutions have identified the Quagga as 'high risk' to Britain.

The Chief Vet of Wales and the Badger Trust share the stage today at the Trust's annual conference. The latest figures show an 18% reduction in new cases of bovine TB in Wales. With the next round of the pilot badger cull due to start in England, campaigners believe the Welsh approach could be an alternative to killing badgers.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Bickerton.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qk4j)
Great Spotted Woodpecker

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

Brett Westwood presents the Great Spotted woodpecker. In spring Great Spotted Woodpeckers drum loudly with their bills against tree bark to advertise their territories. Unlike many of our woodland birds, which are declining, Great Spotted Woodpeckers have increased rapidly over the last few decades - up to 250% since the 1970's.


FRI 06:00 Today (b04fcsfl)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk; Weather; Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b04f8m54)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b04fchlh)
Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love

Episode 5

Larkin finds professional life stressful, sees his poetic future as bleak and - despite continuing relationships with both Monica and Maeve - brings another woman into his life.

Concluded by Michael Pennington.

Philip Larkin was that rare thing among poets - a household name in his own lifetime. Lines such as 'Never such innocence again' and 'Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three' made him one of the most popular poets of the last century.

Larkin's reputation as a man, however, has been more controversial. A solitary librarian known for his pessimism, he disliked exposure and had no patience with the literary circus. And when, in 1992, the publication of his Selected Letters laid bare his compartmentalised personal life, accusations of duplicity, faithlessness, racism and misogyny were levelled against him.

There is, of course, no requirement that poets should be likeable or virtuous, but James Booth asks whether art and life were really so deeply at odds with each other. Can the poet who composed the moving 'Love Songs in Age' have been such a cold-hearted man? Can he who uttered the playful, self-deprecating words 'Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth' really have been so boorish?

A very different public image is offered by those who shared the poet's life - the women with whom he was romantically involved, his friends and his university colleagues. It is with their personal testimony, including access to previously unseen letters, that Booth reinstates a man misunderstood - not a gaunt, emotional failure, but a witty, provocative and entertaining presence, delightful company; an attentive son and a man devoted to the women he loved.

Written by James Booth
Abridged by Libby Spurrier

Produced by Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b04fcsrf)
School dinners; Child brides in Yemen; Lea DeLaria

Gabriella Gillespie, now 50, grew up in Wales and now lives in Bristol. Her Yemeni father was jailed for the man-slaughter of her British mother when she was six. On his release, he sent three of his daughters to Yemen for a 'holiday'. In Yemen, the sisters were sold off in marriage. Yasmin was the first to marry. Ismahan, 17, killed herself on her wedding day. Gabriella herself was married twice, first at the age of 15 but her husband died and then her father arranged a second marriage to a much older man. It was a very unhappy and violent relationship. After 17 years, she fled to the British Embassy with her five children and was sent back to the UK. She has now written a memoir called "A Father's Betrayal".

As children across the UK go back to school we discuss school meals. From September they will be offered free to all children of Primary school age in England, and in January new nutritional standards come in to force. So what's the history of the school meal system in the UK - and what will these imminent changes mean for pupils, parents, teachers and school caterers?

Lea DeLaria gave us the critically acclaimed Jazz reinventions of 'The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd' and Blondie's 'Call Me' and soon she will be releasing her fifth album where she will be taking a new look at one of pop music's most enduring singer songwriters, David Bowie. She is also working on the third series of Orange is the New Black to be broadcast next year on Netflix. Lea plays Big Boo one of the inmates in the prison where the series is based. Lea will be joining me to talk about her successful career.

And is there any such thing as "The One"? Do they really exist?

Presenter:Jenni Murray
Producer: Bernadette McConnell.


FRI 10:45 Shardlake (b04fchlk)
Dark Fire

Episode 5

Dramatisation of CJ Sansom's Tudor crime novel set during the last days of Thomas Cromwell.

Drawing a blank in their investigation into the theft of Greek Fire, detective-lawyer Matthew Shardlake, assisted by Cromwell's man Barak, turn their attentions to the case of Elizabeth Wentworth: an orphan accused of murdering her young cousin.

Written by CJ Sansom
Dramatised by Colin MacDonald
Produced and directed by Kirsteen Cameron.


FRI 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b04fchlm)
Series 17

The Death Doulas

Alan Dein meets doulas in Lewes in Sussex - people working in palliative care from all walks of life who have learned how to be companions for people who are dying. They also are involved in consciousness-raising about the end of life and run Death Cafes in Lewes. We follow doulas Polly and Jane as they reveal their motivation for being involved in this work, talk to people about end of life directives, and describe what a doula does in the room of a dying person.
Producer: Sara Conkey.


FRI 11:30 My Teenage Diary (b03bfkb7)
Series 5

Kate Mosse

Comedian Rufus Hound is joined by author Kate Mosse, whose diary tells of a rain-soaked family holiday to the Lake District in the 1970s.

Highlights of the trip included getting lost in the Newbury one-way system and a visit to a pencil factory.

Producer: Harriet Jaine
A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b04fc4ds)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Home Front (b04fchlp)
29 August 1914 - Albert Wilson

In Folkestone, the cake sale at St Jude's is in full swing.

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Music: Matthew Strachan
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b04fcsrh)
Discount cards, Ticket agents, Dining alone, Elves

One of the biggest Ticket agents says customers are being left vulnerabale because of risky selling practices.

How can a discount card end up costing you 100s of pounds? The pitfalls of signing up for discount schemes.

A table for one? The growth of the dining alone restaurant.

While most of us are still hoping for a final flurry from summer, some people have already got their minds firmly set on Christmas... we learn how to become one of Santa's little helpers

And the online docu-soap about a group of disabled housemates in Brighton is about to get a huge new audience. Thanks to the team behind the hit series Game of Thrones, The Specials - which we featured on You and Yours when it launched in 2009 has been picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network - and will be screened in a potential eighty five million homes next weekend.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b04f85g7)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b04fchlr)
National and international news with Shaun Ley.


FRI 13:45 Lucy Mangan's Literary Solutions to the Economy (b04fchlt)
Cinderella

Writer Lucy Mangan searches her bookshelves to find literary solutions to the economy.

In this programme, the final in the series, she turns to the fairy tale of Cinderella, as written by Charles Perrault. This is the version where all the magic happens, and good triumphs in the end.

In this enlightening and witty series, Lucy talks to economists Andrew Sentance, formerly one of the treasury's wise men, and economist Bridget Rosewell, to see what fairy tales can contribute to the economic recovery debate .

Producer: Janet Graves
A Pennine production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b04fcc7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Brief Lives (b04fchlw)
Series 7

Episode 3

Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly. Ep 3 of 6

A high powered lawyer and her daughter are arrested for possession of drugs after a house party. But when our team of paralegals investigate they find a cat's cradle of other motives.

Director/Producer Gary Brown.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b04fchly)
RHS Wisley

Peter Gibbs is at RHS Wisley for the horticultural panel programme. Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness and Matthew Wilson join him to answer audience questions.

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

This week's questions and answers:

Q. Each year, some things in my allotment do well while others don't. This makes spring planning tricky. Any suggestions?

A. Keep a log of the vegetables that do well and those that don't and also keeping note of the weather conditions.

Q. What is the panel's opinion on using mycorrhizal fungus granules in annual hanging baskets and pots? Would the fungus help to release nutrients from the compost and would the plants still need feeding?

A. Mycorrhizal fungus can be useful in some situations but don't bother using it in pots and containers planted with annuals. It would make more sense to save the fungi for longer-term planting and use standard feed for the annuals.

Q. How can I propagate a deep purple Perennial Geranium (Psilostemon) from an existing root? There are pale pink Geraniums (Enderssii) taking over and I want more of this deep-purple variety.

A. Dig it up. Now is the time to propagate. Divide it into two or three plants, pot it up and plant it somewhere else.

Q. Should we give up on our potted black bamboo or try moving it to lower ground? It's currently on a sixth floor roof terrace, which is very exposed. It is very well fed.

A. You will need to divide the plant because it looks like the roots are getting too large for the pot. Divide the plant in two. Prune out the dead branches.

Q. What relevance do RHS Awards of Garden Merit (AGM) have to plant performance in situations with different cultural conditions to those at Wisely?

A. The RHS awards of garden merit are very useful as they are based on a number of trials in different conditions. However, due to the huge variety of gardening conditions in the UK it difficult to make them fully comprehensive. Trials are held all over the four corners of the country.

Q. How can I transform an old concrete-lined pond (underneath trees) into a bog garden?

A. You must allow the water to get out somehow so it doesn't go stagnant. Try drilling a few holes. If you don't think the location is ideal, your best bet might be to smash it up with a pickaxe and have a pond elsewhere. If you did want to try the bog garden, put some grit in the bottom and then fill it up with a loam baste compost or soil from the garden. Put a pond next to it to make it look seamless.

Q. What are these bugs on my Bay leaves? How can I treat them?

A. These bugs are called 'bay sucker'. They're very difficult to treat but they don't seriously harm the plant so just try to remove the leaves that are covered in the critters.

Q. Which plants do the panel like to show off best?

A. Pippa loves to show off her Sun Flowers, Liquid Amber trees and her Amelanchiers. Bunny loves her Merveille Sanguine Hydrangea and her Filariasis. Matthew loves his frilly Peony Inspecteur Lavergne.
Wisley garden boasts a Peony Rockii (Tree Peony).


FRI 15:45 Opening Lines (b04fchm0)
Series 16

Baker, Emily and Me by Claire Fuller

A chance to hear Claire Fuller's story again in the series which gives emerging short story writers their radio debut.

Lizzie Watts reads this post-apocalyptic tale set in a world of never-ending rain. A young girl is thrilled to be part of a plan to steal a chicken from the Snatchers.

Produced by Gemma Jenkins.

Claire Fuller's first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the 2015 Desmond Elliot Prize. She has written many short stories and several of these have been selected to be read in public performances by White Rabbit Theatre Company, as well as being published in the literary fiction journals, Vintage Script and From the Depths. Her second novel, Swimming Lessons, was published in 2014.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b04fcstv)
Richard Attenborough, Helen Bamber, BKS Iyengar, Sam Galbraith, Bill Kerr

Matthew Bannister on

The film director and actor Lord Attenborough. After a week of tributes, we bring you a highly personal interview in which he talks movingly about his family - and we cast light on his role in the development of London's Capital Radio.

Also: human rights campaigner Helen Bamber who was inspired to devote her life to helping victims of torture by her experiences of working at the Belsen concentration camp after the war.

The yoga guru BKS Iyengar who inspired millions of devotees around the world.

And the neurosurgeon Sam Galbraith, who survived a lung transplant and became a Labour MP and MSP.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (b04fcsyt)
How Deadly Is Ebola?

Media reports are suggesting that as many as 12,000 people may have Ebola in West Africa, but experts tell More or Less that's not the case. It's also said that Ebola kills up to 90% of victims, but while that's true of one outbreak, the death rate in other Ebola outbreaks has varied widely. Tim Harford and Ruth Alexander look at what we know about how dangerous Ebola is, how bad the latest outbreak is, what factors might influence whether people survive once they're infected, and how likely it is that there might be an outbreak of the virus in the UK.

Have 25% of guide dogs in London been hit by a cyclist? Tim Harford fact-checks the numbers behind a questionable headline.

The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said an 'unexpected' rise in the prison population is in part driven by 700 more sex offenders being sentenced this year than last. But is this really what's driving the numbers? Tim Harford speaks to Carol Hedderman, visiting scholar in criminology at University Of Cambridge.

Internet rumours abound that 10,600 people have died within six weeks of being pronounced fit to work. But the numbers are not quite all they seem. Tim Harford takes a close look at them with Tom Chivers of The Daily Telegraph.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b04fchm2)
Sheila and Helen - More Than Just a Mother

Fi Glover with a conversation between friends who discovered they had a similar history of failed IVF attempts and share the realisation that their lives are rich without children, proving 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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 17:00 PM (b04fcsyw)
Carolyn Quinn presents coverage and analysis of the day's news.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b04f85g9)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The Brig Society (b04fchm4)
Series 2

Religion

Uh-oh - Marcus Brigstocke has been put in charge of a thing!

Each week, Marcus finds he's volunteered to be in charge of a big old thing and each week he starts out by thinking "Well, it can't be that difficult, surely?" and ends up with "Oh - turns out it's utterly difficult and complicated. Who knew...?"

This week, glory be, Marcus Brigstocke has decided to form his own religion - based on peace, loving, kindness and probably war.

Among his acolytes and apostates are Rufus Jones (W1A, Holy Flying Circus), William Andrews (Sorry I've Got No Head) and Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Miranda)

The show is a Pozzitive production, and is produced by Marcus's long-standing accomplice, David Tyler who also produces Marcus appearances as the inimitable as Giles Wemmbley Hogg. David's other radio credits include Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, Cabin Pressure, Thanks A Lot, Milton Jones!, Kevin Eldon Will See You Now, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive, The Castle, The 3rd Degree, The 99p Challenge, My First Planet, Radio Active and Bigipedia.

Written by Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Salsby, Toby Davies, Nick Doody, Steve Punt and Dan Tetsell.

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


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b04fchm6)
Roy is desperately unhappy and struggling to cope with acting normally at work. Elizabeth is trying to be business-like but can't bear to see him suffering. Roy just wants to be left alone to work. But Elizabeth can't leave it. As they rue their impossible situation, they fall into each other's arms, only to be almost caught by Freddie. Roy goes home and Elizabeth breaks down in tears.
Elizabeth tells Freddie she was thinking about Nigel. And the pressure of Loxfest has just been too much. Unable to face Roy herself, Elizabeth gives Freddie an envelope to give to him, claiming it's just some paperwork and keys.
Vicky's worried about Mike's back, She tells Hayley she's on eggshells trying to talk to him about retiring. Vicky lets Hayley in on the wider plan. She wants to move to Birmingham with Mike and Bethany.
Hayley tells Roy. He can't believe Mike is planning to move to the city. Mike says he's ready to move on and focus on what's best for Beth, but his mixed feelings are clear. It's another tough blow for Roy but he bottles it up and tells Mike he's fine.
Freddie gives the envelope - which has now been opened - to Hayley. He says it's urgent. Something slips out onto the floor. Abbie picks it up and gives it to Hayley. It's a heart-shaped locket.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b04fchm8)
Alan Ayckbourn, Omid Djalili, Venice Film Festival

Kirsty Lang talks to Olivier and Tony Award winning playwright Alan Ayckbourn about Roundelay, his 78th play. Comedian Omid Djalili discusses his memoir Hopeful: An Autobiography which is about his unconventional childhood and adolescence. Two developers of "video games" that have no visuals but are just audio explain how to play these imaginative games and Catherine Bray joins Kirsty from the Venice Film Festival with news of the films that are making waves and the up and coming directing talent to look out for.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Olivia Skinner.


FRI 19:45 Shardlake (b04fchlk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b04fchmb)
Simon Heffer, Thomasina Miers, Prof Sir Simon Wessely, Osama Saeed

Ritula Shah presents political debate from the Broadcasting House Radio Theatre in London with the chef Thomasina Miers who founded the Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, political columnist and historian Simon Heffer, the new President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Osama Saeed who manages Global Communications for Al Jazeera TV.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b04fchmd)
Why Orwell Is the Supreme Mediocrity

Will Self takes on one of the nation's best loved figures, George Orwell.....and braces himself for the backlash! "Not Orwell, surely!" he hears the listeners cry.

He uses Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" to make his point. This - he says - is often seen as "a principled assault upon all the jargon, obfuscation, and pretentiously Frenchified folderol that deforms our noble tongue". That - in Self's view - couldn't be farther from the truth.

Describing Orwell as a "Supreme Mediocrity", Self gets to work.....

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b04fchmg)
25-29 August 1914

With the first war-wounded arriving home through Folkestone, the locals attempt to boost morale with a fundraising event.

Written by: Shaun McKenna
Consultant Historian: Professor Maggie Andrews
Music: Matthew Strachan
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Directed and produced by: Lucy Collingwood
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b04f85gc)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b04fchmj)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b04fqjkv)
The Thrill of It All

Episode 5

Spanning 25 years, Joseph O' Connor's new novel The Thrill of It All rewinds and fast-forwards through an evocative soundtrack of struggle and laughter. It deals with the formation of a band in the early 80's in Luton, their struggle for recognition, playing low dives, living in transit vans culminating in overnight worldwide success. Then the inevitable, "artistic differences!"

This is an incredibly warm-hearted and uplifting story for anyone who has ever loved a song.

Author ..... Joseph O'Connor
Abridger ..... Neville Teller
Producer ..... Gemma McMullan
Reader ..... Philip Glenister

The Author

Joseph O'Connor is the author of eight novels: Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea, Redemption Falls, Ghost Light and The Thrill of it All. He has also written radio diaries, film scripts and stage-plays including the multiple award-winning Red Roses and Petrol and an acclaimed adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel My Cousin Rachel.

His novel Star of the Sea was an international bestseller, selling more than a million copies and being published in 38 languages. It won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Neilsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. His novel Ghost Light was chosen as Dublin's One City Book novel for 2011. He received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2012.


FRI 23:00 Summer Nights (b04fchml)
Series 2

Do we need darkness in our lives?

From reports of massacres and atrocities including beheadings in the Middle East to Ebola in West Africa the news has been full of horrific images. But such images and stories of despair and devastation hold our attention. And contemporary culture is saturated with violent imagery, from crime fiction to horror films. So what lies behind our fascination with the dark needs of our fellow men, both real and imagined: sensation, catharsis, the opportunity to sharpen our moral instincts - or something altogether darker?

Presenter: Jay Rayner
Producer: Ruth Watts
Interviewed guest: Val McDermid
Interviewed guest: Stewart Purvis
Interviewed guest: Adnan Sarwar
Interviewed guest: Cleo Van Velsen.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b04fchmn)
Marie-Jamila and Rachel - A Different Education

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between two friends about the impact the National Front had on their school days in East London during the 1980s.

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 learn more about The Listening Project by visiting bbc.co.uk/listeningproject

Producer: Marya Burgess.