The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
"These stories are an exercise in imagination and compassion.. a trip around the world.."
Edith Pearlman has been writing stories for decades and is in her mid seventies. Recognition duly arrived in America with various awards, but only recently has her collection, Binocular Vision, been acclaimed in Britain. Now there's chance to hear three of the tales on radio, and be acquainted with a voice that is compelling and new to us..
3. Fidelity
Victor Cullen is a renowned travel writer, a stickler for research. Then one day he starts making his journeys up..
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
Actor Adjoa Andoh explores our need to see our own identities reflected in the culture and environment that envelop us.
With readings from work by Jackie Kay and Aminatta Forna and music by Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba and Florence Price.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales opens the door to his holiday home in Transylvania for a rare and exclusive interview. In the shade of the house he bought and renovated in the village of Zalanpatak, a relaxed Prince Charles speaks openly to Charlotte Smith about his efforts to support remote farming communities. This part of Romania, he says, is "where we see true sustainability and complete resilience."
Farmers here still scythe hay meadows by hand, keep just one or two cows and load milk churns onto horse-drawn carts, rumbling along potholed tracks to village collection points. Charlotte questions the sustainability of such old-fashioned practices but Prince Charles is adamant these "ancient patterns of life" should be preserved.
To that end he has created a village cooperative, encouraging people to market their homegrown and handmade products. He sees the potential for eco-tourism and rents out two rustically-restored houses, offering visitors an authentic Transylvanian experience. And as if to prove his commitment to the culture and traditions of this region, the future king sits at a table in a meadow and judges a scything competition.
But is the Prince preserving a way of life, or a museum? Charlotte explores that question, and many others, on her journey through a landscape unchanged by the modern world.
And from subsistence farms in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains to a dairy farm on the Duchy Estate, we explore the challenges facing rural communities in the UK. The Prince of Wales believes there are similar threats to their survival but shares his thoughts on the solutions; on how to keep young people on the land and family farms thriving in the future.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Services are being held this weekend to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of VJ Day. William Crawley speaks to Alan Wills whose father, George, was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and endured three years of brutal treatment as a prisoner of war.
Jeremy Timm, a Reader in the Church of England, will have his preaching licence revoked by the Archbishop of York after choosing to marry his same-sex partner next month. Kevin Bocquet spoke to him about his decision, and Bishop Robert Paterson, Chair of the Central Readers' Council, addresses the Church's management of the issue.
Scottish Catholic Journalist Ian Dunn explains the significance of the McLellan Commission which will publish its report into the child protection policies of the Catholic Church in Scotland next week.
The only victim of child sex abuse among the Chabad movement of ultra-orthodox Jews to give evidence, as part of Australia's Royal Commission, is now trying to set up an international inquiry into the extent of the problem in his faith, as Matt Wells reports.
Bob Walker continues our series of summer pilgrim walks as he explores the pagan connections of Avebury in Wiltshire.
Our series of essays on Christian persecution concludes with the BBC's Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet reporting from Pakistan.
And does contemporary atheism thrive on poor arguments and cheap sound bites? It's a claim made in a new book by Dr Andy Bannister. He debates with Sanderson Jones, co-founder of the non-religious Sunday Assembly.
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Women for Women International'.
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Terry Waite preaches and worship is led by the Dean, The Very Rev'd Adrian Dorber, as Lichfield Cathedral - nearby the National Memorial Arboretum - marks the 70th anniversary of VJ Day. Hymns from the congregation and choral music from Lichfield Cathedral's Chamber Choir, conducted by Martin Rawles, punctuate the journey from Commemoration, through Reconciliation, to Victory over evil and death. Remembering the prisoners of war, the victims of Hiroshima, and the servicemen in the Far East who felt 'forgotten' in the midst of celebrations back home hailing VE Day as the 'end' of WW2. Producer: Rowan Morton-Gledhill.
John Gray sees the European currency as a misconceived project from the outset and thinks the austerity policies imposed on Greece are destructive and self defeating.
"Attempting to maintain the euro at any cost can only result in mounting desperation, which will seek expression in violence if no practicable policies are on offer to ameliorate the situation."
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Sooty Shearwater. Sooty Shearwaters are rather scarce seabirds around our islands as they breed on islands off South America and the coasts of eastern Australia and New Zealand. After breeding, the shearwaters head north to feeding grounds in the North Pacific and North Atlantic undertaking one of the longest journeys of any migratory animal.
News for Sunday morning. Kevin Connolly looks at the campaign to save Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria villa from demolition. Paddy O'Connell investigates the demise of nightclubs with the help of Peter Stringfellow. Novelist and former politician Chris Mullin imagines a Corbyn-led General Election victory. Reviewing the papers - behaviour tsar Tom Bennett, historian Bettany Hughes and Admiral Lord West. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
Sue MacGregor speaks to former detainees and the head of the guard force at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2002, a detention camp was hastily built in a remote corner of Cub, to house the men captured in America's "war on terror". Thirteen years later, it is still there. And in the intervening time, Guantanamo Bay has become a byword for controversy, a place Amnesty International called "the gulag of our time".
Now Sue MacGregor reunites two of the men held there. Sami al Hajj, a Sudanese cameraman with the news organisation Al Jazeera, was picked up in Afghanistan. He says he was covering America's war with the Taliban. Moazzam Begg, who is British, was living with his family in Pakistan when he was arrested. He claims he was handed over for bounty money. They are joined by Colonel Mike Bumgarner, head of the guard force at Guantanamo, and lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.
Sami al Hajj spent eight years in the camp. He describes being beaten and forcibly kept awake. He went on hunger strike and says he was force fed until he threw up, in an attempt to break his strike. But the worst torture was being kept away from his family, particularly his baby son. Moazzam Begg was detained for three years. He says he saw two men beaten to death by American soldiers in Afghanistan on his way to Guantanamo.
Colonel Mike Bumgarner describes how little guidance was given to those in charge of running the camp and points out that, while force feeding is unpleasant, detainees can't just be allowed to die. Clive Stafford Smith reveals the black humour at the heart of Guantanamo, recalling a detainee who was accused of being an Al Qaeda financier purely as a result of mistranslation.
The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to Sheffield City Hall. Old-timers Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy production.
In the second of a special series of food heroes, Sheila Dillon meets one of the most influential writers on international hunger and social justice in recent times.
Susan George published her first book 'How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger' almost 40 years ago. It was a book that, at the time, offered a radically different perspective on famine in the developing world.
In 1985, as pictures of East African drought and hunger started appearing on our TV screens, Susan George published 'Ill Fares The Land' a collection of essays which didn't shy away from criticising International aid efforts, and demanded a different approach to trade and development. She wrote 'A more just society is a better-fed society'. It would become a seminal text.
Now, aged 81, and continuing to speak at conferences around the world, Susan George speaks to Sheila Dillon about her career, the predictions she made 30 years ago, and the problems we still face in feeding our growing global population.
France's popular music legacy is vast and diverse. Cerys Matthews travels to Paris in search of some of the key classic songs that constitute the French songbook, and talks to a panel of guests including musicologist Catherine Rudent, writer and commentator Catherine Guilyardi and popular music journalist Bertrand Dicale. Whilst some French songs have been chart successes in the UK, and others have become jazz standards, Cerys uncovers a patrimony that ranges from the seductive to the salacious, but which is always delivered with wit and panache. And with some 3,000 French songs including 'Paris' in their titles, the city itself acts as muse as well as backdrop to many of France's greatest popular classics.
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire. Bunny Guinness, Christine Walkden and Bob Flowerdew answer the audience questions.
Fi Glover introduces conversations about changing attitudes to love and partnership and the frustrations of living with a disability that others cannot see, all recorded in the mobile Booth on its visit to Birmingham, in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves 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
The Talisman is the finale of Scott's novels set during the crusades but this one features the dying dog days of the Third Crusade. Richard the Lionheart is de facto leader but the military expedition has ground to a halt and the allies are getting itchy feet. They are sick of Richard's over-bearing leadership and, to make it worse, very few of them still believe Jerusalem can be reconquered.
To the modern reader this must be a rather recondite setting. Beyond the jousting and the knightliness, how much do we care about the crusades anymore? And that's without opening the can of worms as to whether the West had any more right to be there then than it does now.
Jonathan Myerson, the adapter, wondered how to update this story and find a modern parallel to this situation.
And then it came to him: Occupy London in 2011. Those protestors started with the same, almost ecstatic belief in the possibility of change. They aimed to seize the holiest of places - the London Stock Exchange - but were beaten back and forced to set up camp outside. As the original crusaders came to loathe the heat and insect life in their desert encampment outside Jerusalem, the protestors of Occupy came to much the same conclusion - as winter set in - about sleeping on the cold, wet flagstones of St.Paul's Churchyard. And, in much the same way, the competing groups started to feel it was time to pack up and go home.
So, new listeners will follow Scott's original story of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy and, most important of all, star-crossed lovers but will hear new resonances in this old tale.
Mariella Frostrup talks to novelist Leila Aboulela and comedian and author Helen Lederer considers the secret of writing a funny book, and reveals the titles that make her laugh out loud.
Paul Farley listens for ghosts and feels for flesh in the new poems of Mark Doty and Andrew McMillan. Among the subjects are baby mammoths and men working on their muscles in gyms. The body and absent bodies bring a veteran American poet and a young newcomer together across the Atlantic. Prodcuer: Tim Dee.
Tim Whewell investigates the challenges of life post-adoption, discovers the remarkable tenacity of many adoptive parents faced with challenging behaviour, and asks what changes are being made to improve the current situation where a quarter of adoptive families face serious difficulties.
Thirteen years ago, Sarah and her husband adopted two brothers. The younger one had extensive therapy to guide him through a fixation with suicide. The older brother is now living away from the family following years of violence and the revelation that he had been sexually abusing the young son of family friends.
Ten years ago, Mary and Steve (not their real names) adopted two young siblings. The challenges they have faced - truancy, self-harming, drugs, violence - left Mary suffering from depression and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Today, they believe the worst is behind them. But they also believe that adopted children and their adoptive families are the 'poor relations' - compared to children in foster care or in children's homes - when it comes to allocating resources/providing services. "It feels like you're abandoned once the children are placed for adoption with you - as if adoption is a magic wand - and that everything will now be OK," says Mary. "In reality it's very, very difficult."
Forty years ago, most adopted children were given up at birth by mothers escaping social stigma. Today, 70 percent of them come from care. As a result, many adoptive families today need significant support to overcome the history of abuse and neglect that children import into their new family. But are they getting the help they need?
Gordon Brown say Labour must choose a leader who can take it back into government.
Leisure pursuits seem to be a bit of a theme in this week's Pick of the Week.
Jeffrey Bernard (in the guise of actor John Hurt) fills his spare hours with vodka, cigarettes and barbed bon mots. Whereas veteran radio producer Piers Plowright loves going al fresco with a bracing dip in Hampstead ponds.
Rugby star Brian Moore likes nothing more than listening to a good aria - while sound recordist Chris Watson's set on following the journey of an Icelandic ice ship as it makes its way to the sea. That should keep him busy for the next ten thousand years.
So, if you've a spare moment, why not join John Waite for his Pick of the Week this Sunday evening at
Out in the field, David reminds Toby and Rex to check their netting in case of escaped geese - or foxes getting in. Rex warns Toby against mocking pathetic Kenton - he may not be able to take it at the moment. Rex also wonders why Toby is still chasing Pip, as she'll be gone soon. However, Toby's keen to get goose onto hotel chain Reedles' Christmas menu, and if Pip comes with him they'll have a better chance of sweetening them. Rex is horrified.
Susan gets the shop committee together to come up with a plan against Hazel Woolley - Jim wonders if they even have a case to challenge her. But Susan says they have to fight back. Susan has faith in Peggy making waves with Hazel - they can't believe planning permission will be given for the shop's change of use. Peggy's going to get on to Hazel at once. Jim tells Lynda about Caroline's Italian-themed dinner. Carol insists that everyone speaks in Italian for the evening. Christine's nervous.
Ruth knows that David's avoiding talking about Heather. David's uncertain about how suitable Brookfield is for Heather to move in to. Angry Ruth mentions Jill, and how there seems to be one rule for the Archer family and a different one for everyone else.
Gyles Brandreth presides as Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for supremacy in the ring.
Wordaholics is clever, intelligent, witty and unexpected. There are toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words: the whole world of words.
Man's first Mars mission comes at a price. An astronaut’s mother reflects on her place in history. Read by Juliet Stevenson.
There is a "swarm" of migrants coming into Europe according to the Prime Minister. Where are they coming from and how many are coming to Calais to try to get into Britain? Are 70 percent of migrants in Calais making it to the UK, as claimed in the Daily Mail? We scrutinise the numbers.
A debate has been raging over the last month about the benefits of mass deworming projects. Hugely popular with the UN and charities, the evidence behind the practice has come under attack. Are the criticisms justified? We hear from the different sides - both economists and epidemiologists.
How useful are football predictions and should we always trust the so called experts? The More or Less team look into the idea that predicting where sides will finish in the Premier League is best based on how they performed in previous seasons. Also, why is Leicester City the most watched Premier League team in the Outer Hebrides?
Loyal Listener Neil asks: So much is currently reported as the best, worst, least certain 'in a generation' - but just how long is that?
(Image: Migrants arrive on the beach of a Greek island. Credit: AFP/Getty)
Last Word is presented by Reeta Chakrabarti this week. She will be remembering:
The comic writer and novelist David Nobbs - we speak to his friend and fellow writer Jonathan Coe about the man who invented the 1970s anti-hero Reginald Perrin;
Frances Kelsey, the scientist whose concerns about the drug Thalidomide prevented it from being approved in the US;
Kyril Zinovieff, who as a child in Russia saw Rasputin, and as a spy for Britain encountered Hitler;
The Italian fashion designer Elio Fiorucci, who introduced the world to skintight vinyl jeans;
And the musician Harry Pitch, the harmonica player who performed everywhere from jazz clubs to opera houses.
Opera is an expensive art form. It receives millions of pounds of public money. Can that be justified? Peter Day gets a range of operatic experiences - from top opera companies, to pub performers and a country house summer festival. The first opera was performed 400 years ago in Italy; how does the future look?
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
Julia Hartley Brewer analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.
Greta Gerwig, writer and star of Mistress America, talks about what it's like to write with her romantic partner Noah Baumbach and her life as a teenage fencer and dancer.
Judd Apatow discusses his bad taste comedy Trainwreck and why Hollywood has a problem with potty-mouthed, sexually unfettered women
As someone whose ideal cinematic experience is watching a movie in an empty auditorium on a Tuesday afternoon, Antonia has never understood the appeal of the outdoor screening. So to find out just what all the fuss is about, she braves an open air showing of Withnail And I with critic Tim Robey.
MONDAY 17 AUGUST 2015
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b065rt38)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 The Move (b04n600y)
Frustrations
Each year about three million people across the country pack their entire life into a removal truck and move home. And for most people it is rarely simple. Even the most meticulously planned move can be complicated and traumatic, the most optimistic people reduced to tears.
This week Rosie meets Romaine, a dynamic, fast-talking businesswoman who loves London, thriving on its energy and opportunities. But bringing up young boys and running a fashion company from their two bedroom flat is proving challenging. Sleeplessness, illness and harassment are plaguing the family and for the sake of them all, Romaine has to confront moving to a sleepy rural village.
Pete has long revelled in the unruly and bohemian side of Brighton and Hove. Now in his early fifties he is weary of jostling with tourists and party-goers and feels like a stranger in his own town. Having recently met someone on line who lives a mobile home in Aberystwyth, Pete prepares to pack up and move three hundred miles to be with them.
Producer: Sarah Bowen.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b065rv5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b065rt3b)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b065rt3d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b065rt3g)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b065rt3j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b065s95p)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Venerable Peter Eagles.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b065s95r)
Scottish government's plans to ban GM crops, Rural tourism, Goat meat
Potato growers respond to the Scottish Government's plans to ban genetically modified crops. Nancy Nicolson joins producers at the James Hutton Institute in Perthshire where the talk wasn't just about potatoes - politics was on the agenda too.
This week on Farming Today we're highlighting rural tourism. James Berresford, the chief executive of Visit England, tells Sybil Ruscoe that it's an important and growing part of the tourism sector, and shouldn't be overlooked.
Goat meat has long been a favourite all over the world - in African, Carribean, Asian and Arabic cooking - but now it's becoming more mainstream in the UK as well. Beatrice Fenton meets James Whetlor, a kid meat producer from Devon. He explains that he buys billies from the dairy industry, which would otherwise be slaughtered, and prepares the meat for restaurants.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Mark Smalley.
MON 05:56 Weather (b065rt3l)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2qh)
Pied Wagtail
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Pied Wagtail. In winter, pied wagtails can often be seen roosting in towns and cities in large flocks. By day, pied wagtails are often obvious in fields feeding on insects but they're equally at home on our streets gleaning prey from pavements and road surfaces.
MON 06:00 Today (b065s996)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Front Row (b065s9s0)
Simon McBurney and Ed Byrne Live from the Edinburgh Festival
Actor/director Simon McBurney of Complicite and comedian Ed Byrne join Nish Kumar, Beth Vyse and actor Racheal Ofori as John Wilson presents Front Row live from the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe.
Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald.
MON 09:30 Soundstage (b05mtcrk)
Midnight at the Oasis
Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson introduces the first of five audio postcards, each of which is a time compression; a spectacular natural event which has been recorded over hours, days, weeks or even months but which is heard here, in less than 15minutes. The series begins in the Kalahari Desert. Between November and February summer temperatures reach over 40 degrees centigrade. To avoid the dry, desiccating heat much of the wildlife has developed nocturnal habits. Chris wanted to capture the sounds of this extreme and ancient environment at a time when he could see very little, but could hear everything. This meant recording the sounds of the Kalahari Desert from dusk until dawn. First we hear the sounds of the sand, as grains are driven up the sand dunes and over the summit by the scouring winds. As the afternoon passes, sidewinder snakes slither across the desert surface. Flash rainfalls create pools of water in the dry riverbed hollows which are exploited by flocks of namaqua sandgrouse. As the light fades there's a brief evening chorus of birdsong. After sunset, the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire; the insects, producing an astonishing wall of sound. Baked hard by the sun, the red sand and soil of the Kalahari acts as a sounding board at night for the far carrying and chilling calls of brown hyenas, and before sunrise Chris records the powerful territorial calls of a desert lion which he can hear but cannot see. Sunrise is rapid, accompanied by the displays of clapper larks, calling and beating their wings together. And after sunrise, the temperature soars once again and the animals retreat leaving the voice of the prevailing winds as they scour across the Kalahari desert. Producer Sarah Blunt.
MON 09:45 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b065ssqt)
War Begins
'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' spellbinding first-hand account chronicles the devastating 27-year-long war between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against brutal Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to record what he saw as the greatest war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians today. Looking at why nations go to war, what makes a great leader, and whether might can be better than right, he became the father of modern Realpolitik. His influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Thucydides' masterful account of the end of Greece's Golden Age, depicts an age of revolution, sea battles, military alliances, plague and massacre, but also great bravery and some of the greatest political orations of all time.
Today: With Spartan distrust of the rising power of Athens, is war inevitable?
Abridger: Tom Holland is an award-winning novelist and historian, specialising in the classical and medieval periods. He is the author of 'Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic', which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, as well as 'Persian Fire', 'Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom', 'In the Shadow of the Sword', as well as several novels. His latest non-fiction book, 'Dynasty', chronicling the Roman Emperors, will be published in 2015.
He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'."
Reader: David Horovitch
Producer: Justine Willett.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b065ssqw)
Singer Ella Eyre
21 year old singer and songwriter Ella Eyre made waves last year, featuring on the BRIT Critics' Choice and the BBC Sound Of shortlists. As she now gets ready to release her debut solo album, Feline, at the end of this month. She joins Jane Garvey to talk about making it in the music industry at such a young age, and to perform, Even If, live in the studio.
Why are women better represented in Scottish politics? Has progress towards gender equality progressed or is it stalling? We hear from Meryl Kenny, lecturer in politics at Edinburgh University, and Sarah Smith from BBC Scotland.
The next in our series in which Suzi Godson The Times relationship columnist speaks to men from their twenties to their eighties about their experiences. Today we hear from 56 year old Simon who has two children under 5 and is a father of two 20-something's from his first marriage .
Plus finding appropriate and affordable childcare is a struggle at the best of times, but what happens when you work unpredictable hours? We talk to Ellen Broome from the Family and Childcare Trust about this longstanding problem facing parents and if there's any hope for greater provision for 'wraparound' childcare in the future.
MON 10:45 The Pillow Book (b065ssr0)
Series 8
Episode 1
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return for a new series of the popular mystery series the Pillow Book, set in 10th Century Japan.
Lieutenant Yukinari's patience with the affairs and intrigues of the palace is reaching breaking point. On the Empress's command, the policeman finds himself interviewing a Palace Lord without any sense of the crime that might have been committed.
Inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
MON 11:00 Lives in a Landscape (b065ssr2)
Series 20
The Adoption Party
In the last few years, 'adoption activity days' have gathered momentum in the UK, where children waiting to be adopted meet prospective adoptive parents at a party.
The children are often 'hard to place,' either because of medical issues, their age, or behavioural problems. The hope is that once the families meet them face to face, they will get a much better idea of the children, rather than from paper and photo alone.
For these children, the party day is often their last chance to find a family, before they are put into long-term foster care.
Alan Dein joins couples Rob and Sarah, and Emma and John, and single adopter Rachael, as they look for a child.
Producer in Bristol: Sara Conkey.
MON 11:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b03fdh2c)
Series 1
Time to Celebrate
When Tom phones home we find out why he hates celebrations, why his mum can't stop organising them and why his father needs an electric whisk.
Classic Wrigglesworth rants combined with a fascinating and hilarious glimpse into his family background and the influences that have shaped his temperament, opinions and hang-ups.
Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang Ups is a 30 minute phone call from Tom ringing his parents for his weekly check-in. As the conversation unfolds, Tom takes time out from the phone call to explain the situation, his parent's reactions and relate various anecdotes from the past which illustrate his family's views. And sometimes he just needs to sound-off about the maddening world around him and bemoan everyday annoyances.
During all this Hang Ups explores class, living away from 'home', trans-generational phenomena, what we inherit from our families and how the past repeats in the present. All in a 30 minute phone call.
'Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-ups' gets underneath the skin of Tom and the Wrigglesworth family, so sit back and enjoy a bit of totally legal phone hacking.
Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle
Additional Material by Miles Jupp
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b065rt3n)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Four Thought (b03vgnjv)
Series 4
Nothing to Lose
Byron Vincent discusses nature versus nurture, and society's obligations to its weakest.
In a powerful, personal talk, Byron tells the story of his own childhood on a troubled housing estate, of how his surroundings shaped him, and of the choices he felt forced to make. Faced with similar circumstances he asks who can say they would make different choices. Byron explores the moral consequences of this for the rest of our society.
Introduced by Kamin Mohammadi.
Producer: Giles Edwards.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b065ssr4)
Charity donations, Flood insurance, LEDs
What happens to your donations if a charity goes bust.
The homes charged flood premiums even though they may be located in an area that has never flooded.
Why assets that you own abroad , like a holiday home, are subject to different inheritance rules and what you should do about it.
Singalong cinema.
Ikea's light bulb moment; the global furniture and home fixtures group have decided that from next month they'll only sell LED lights in their lighting range.
Getting to the bottom of why the DVLA are clamping more 'tax dodgers' now road tax has gone digital.
MON 12:57 Weather (b065rt3q)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b065ssr6)
Rigorous analysis of news and current affairs, including Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall answering questions from listeners, hosted by Martha Kearney.
Editor: Nick Sutton.
MON 13:45 How to Have a Better Brain (b065ssr8)
Exercise
Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.
In this episode Sian analyses the importance of physical exercise to brain health with Dr Alan Gow, Dr Hannah Critchlow and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who is using exercise to combat her memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b065s7hy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 14:15 Drama (b01slvvl)
Roy Smiles - Goodnight from Him
A new comedy drama by award-winning playwright Roy Smiles, writer of previous Afternoon Dramas Ying Tong, Good Evening, Pythonesque and Dear Arthur, Love John.
Goodnight From Him tells the story of Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker from their beginnings in cabaret and repertory theatre, via their first meeting at the bar of the Buckstone Club in 1963 and being chosen by David Frost for his new show The Frost Report (alongside John Cleese), to getting their own Saturday night BBC1 series The Two Ronnies in 1971. The show ran for an extraordinary sixteen years, always topping the ratings, ending in 1986 with Ronnie Barker's early retirement.
The play explores the differences between the two: Corbett the happy-go-lucky sketch performer and extrovert, comfortable chatting to an audience; and Barker the shy introvert who needed to hide behind his characters to face an audience and worked like a demon behind the scenes.
Using parodies of some of their greatest sketches - Fork Handles, Mastermind and The Class Sketch from The Frost Report - Goodnight From Him tells the story of how two men worked together for twenty years without ever a cross word.
Written by Roy Smiles.
Producer: Liz Anstee
A CPL production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (b065ssrd)
Series 29
Second Semi-Final, 2015
(11/13)
Three more music lovers who have won their heats earlier in the series join Paul Gambaccini for the second semi-final, from London's historic Maida Vale studios.
Paul's questions range across every style of music, from Bruckner to the Beatles, Billie Holiday and Mel Brooks. With the competition tougher than ever at the semi-final stage, the breadth of the competitors' knowledge is really put to the test. As well as answering general knowledge questions on music they'll also have to 'specialise' in a category chosen from a list of which they've had no warning whatsoever.
The winner takes another of the places in the 2015 Final. Might this year's champion be among today's contenders?
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b065rxjf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Lacrimosa (b065sx6w)
For most of his life, 26-year-old Proinsias O'Coinn, has thought that there's something wrong with him.
Ever since he was a teenager he's been trying to find a song, a film, a poem or any piece of art that could make him cry.
When friends would be moved to tears by a weepy film or a sad song, Proinsias would look on in envy, wishing it could have the same effect on him. You see in his head, being able to cry at a piece of art would allow him to appreciate and engage with it like everyone else.
He's come close on a number of occasions. Like when Jean Grey kills Professor X in X-Men 3 or when listening to the Adele song 'One and Only'. But it's the sheer joy at these moments; that this could be it, this could be the time he's finally able to cry, that stops the tears from coming. It's like the sneeze that comes tantalisingly close but just never happens.
So Proinsias is on a mission to find a piece of art that has the power to make him cry. But as he embarks on this very personal journey, he finds himself facing up to far bigger questions about himself and who he is.
Producer: Conor Garrett.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b065sx6y)
Religion and Debt
The Greek Debt Crisis has highlighted in the most dramatic way just how much our economic systems depend on borrowed money. The figures of international debt are mind boggling. In the economies of wealthy countries like the United States and the UK, around 97-98% of the money is debt. It is money whose value rests not on something that exists in the present but on something that might exist in the future.
We are all living with debt. People in the UK owed £
1.436 trillion at the end of May 2015, according to The Money Charity, up from £
1.407 trillion at the end of May 2014. That's an extra £584 per adult. We have learnt to live with credit, whether it be a mortgage or a loan for a car or just a credit card account which spirals out of control.
It seems that debt has become an essential part of personal finance. But is that healthy? Or ethical? And do our religious traditions have anything to say about our reliance on debt?
Ernie Rea is joined by Habib Ahmed, Sharjah Chair in Islamic Law and Finance at Durham University Business School; Paul Francois Tremlett, Lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at the Open University; and Michelle Swallow, Debt Advisor at the organisation Christians Against Poverty.
Produced by Nija Dalal-Small.
MON 17:00 PM (b065sx70)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b065rt3s)
More than a dozen people have died in a bombing at a busy shrine in Bangkok
MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b065sx74)
Series 63
Episode 6
Back for a second week at Sheffield City Hall, regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Susan Calman, with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b065sx76)
Lynda's keen to find out from Elizabeth about the setup at Lower Loxley for the incoming Magic Opera Company. Lynda is writing a review of the opera, delighted to be asked to cover for Tristram Hawkshaw. Lynda realises that she needs to be careful as some locals will expect bias in her writing. Lynda also tells Elizabeth about plans for Mungo's first birthday at the Dower House. David will be going to the opera, keen to treat Ruth to a good night out to distract her from worry about Heather.
Bert's keen to put a piece of trellis into Freda's flower bed at the Bull garden, so the rose has something to cling to when it's planted in October. Jim and Bert discuss being out of their natural homes - it isn't the same, is it? Jim fears he offended Christine at Oliver and Caroline's.
Joe reports that something terrible has happened to the village hall - a section gave way in front of him. Joe says he had a vision of old Bob Pullen - like a warning from a ghost.
Charlie calls Rob in for a meeting - he has something serious to discuss. As Charlie goes into more detail about the data, and possible oversight from Rob, Rob becomes defensive and gradually angry. It's the last straw - Rob announces that he's quitting.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b065sx78)
Establishing a national theatre, Comedy about mental health, Edinburgh flyering tips
In a devolved Britain, how many national theatres do we need? John McGrath of the National Theatre of Wales and Laurie Sansom of the National Theatre of Scotland discuss the pros and cons of running theatres without buildings.
Many shows at the Edinburgh Festivals this year are tackling issues of mental health. Performers Bryony Kimmings, Tim Grayburn and Brigitte Aphrodite discuss how to turn this challenging and sometimes taboo subject matter into entertainment.
Every year thousands of performers attempt to sell their Edinburgh shows by flyering on the Royal Mile. One theatre group, at the festival for the first time with their show, UKIP The Musical, give Kirsty a lesson in flyering at the Edinburgh Fringe.
And award winning beat boxer and rapper Testament talks about why he's devised a show based on the poetry of William Blake.
MON 19:45 The Pillow Book (b065ssr0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
MON 20:00 The Bin Laden Tapes (b065sx7b)
In early 2002, following the fall of the Talban, Osama Bin Laden's abandoned compound in the Afghan city of Kandahar was ransacked.
Among the finds was a collection of more than 1500 audio cassettes featuring sermons, speeches, songs and candid recordings of Arab-Afghan fighters, recorded between the 1960s up until the 9/11 attacks.
The collection served as an audio library for those who gathered under Bin Laden's roof between 1997 and 2001 - a key era in Al Qaeda's development and growth.
BBC Security correspondent Gordon Corera speaks to Prof Flagg Miller from the University of California-Davis, who has spent more than a decade translating and analysing the tapes.
Through pain-staking detective work Prof Miller has sought to understand what the tapes say about the evolution of Bin Laden, presenting his findings in the book 'The Audacious Ascetic: What the Bin Laden Tapes Reveal about Al-Qaeda'.
The collection features over 200 speakers, with around 20 tapes featuring Bin Laden himself - among them some rarely-heard speeches.
While the cassette tape is undoubtedly an instrument for proselytising and propaganda, this collection reveals that the people making recordings seemed to find extraordinary pleasure in capturing the ordinary sounds of life - conversations over breakfast; sounds from the battlefield; wedding celebrations and militants singing Islamic anthems.
As diverse as the recordings in the collection are, they offer exceptional insight into Bin Laden's broad intellectual interests in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Presenter: Gordon Corera
Producer: Richard Fenton-Smith.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b064zlvn)
Cuba on the Move
Will Grant takes a ride in Cuba to discover how people get around and whether the thaw in relations with the United States will make any difference to their lives. The country is known the world over for its classic cars, a consequence of the American trade embargo imposed after the revolution in 1959, when, as one motoring journalist quipped, 'the tail fin was still a recent innovation in automotive design'. There are a few collectibles but spare parts are almost impossible to come by and most vehicles are held together with sticky tape and glue. It is almost as if Cuba has been stuck in a time warp for half a century with around 60 thousand vintage cars now attempting to navigate the country's notoriously bad roads. Car ownership is still the dream for most people but the reality is a chaotic bus service, a bone shaking ride in a horse and cart or hitching a lift. How do people cope and will things change?
Produced by Mark Savage.
MON 21:00 Natural Histories (b05w9b6b)
Mammoths
"Manny" the hairy, grumpy, yet ultimately caring hero of the animation series Ice Age sums up our love of these giants of the past. When a superbly preserved baby mammoth was displayed at the Natural History Museum she became a star attraction.
We are intrigued by the idea of a hairy elephant wandering our land so tantalisingly recently; the last mammoths are thought to have died out in Russia just 4,000 years ago. Bones of these huge elephants have often been found, people believing they were the remains of giants, or that they were the huge burrowing creatures that died underground.
Beautiful paintings of mammoths adorn ice age cave walls, symbolising our close relationships with these animals that provided us with so much cultural material. Not only mammoth meat but bones and tusks to build shelter, skins for walls, ivory for carvings and teeth for musical instruments; the first flute was a mammoth bone.
Music played on instruments made from mammoth bone created haunting sounds. Delicately carved tiny mammoths are found in places many miles from where mammoths lived, dating back at least 30,000 years. If they were alive today we would no doubt be protecting them from ivory traders, but as they are extinct, the mass of ivory bone being exhumed from the tundra (it is thought there are 150 million tusks buried there) is legally sent to China to be made into jewellery, trinkets and pieces of art.
Not far off 50% of the ivory entering China is mammoth. Some think it is a sustainable alternative to elephant ivory, others believe it keeps the whole trade alive. Should mammoth ivory be treated the same as elephant? Should mammoth become the first extinct animal to be listed as an endangered species?
MON 21:30 Front Row (b065s9s0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b065rt3v)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b065sycl)
Deadly bomb blast hits Bangkok.
At least 19 people known to have died in bombing at busy shrine
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b065sycn)
Go Set a Watchman
Episode 6
GO SET A WATCHMAN
In the literary event of the year Harper Lee's explosive second novel has finally been published. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes. This abridgement for Book at Bedtime brings a compelling and important release to Radio 4.
Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home. It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra. But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.
Harper Lee was the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', a book which has been studied, loved, wept over and revered by generations since its publication in 1960. She lived in Monroeville, Alabama until her death in February 2016.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Harper Lee
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
MON 23:00 Short Cuts (b05stkq6)
Series 7
Songlines
Josie Long hears stories of music and memory. From the song that proves your parents right - rock and roll really will lead you down a dangerous path of drugs and destruction - to the symphony that haunted one man's dreams for decades.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
The items featured in the programme are:
96 Tears
Feat. Anthony Bourdain
Produced by Ann Heppermann, Kara Oehler and Rick Moody
Piano Man
Feat. Barry Colson
Produced by Sindre Leganger
The Stage
Feat. Grace Savage
Produced by Hana Walker-Brown
Lullaby
Feat. Colin Dexter
Produced by Phil Smith
Dream Symphony
Feat. Stuart Sharp
Produced by Olivia Humphreys with Jodie Taylor.
MON 23:30 The Invention of... (b015c342)
Germany
The Thirty Years War
" Germany as we understand it, unified and strong, only came into existence a mere 140 years ago. Before then ? Well there was Bavaria and Prussia, Saxony, Baden Wurttemberg, Pomerania, Westfalia, Schleswig Holstein .this list is extremely long. And defining where one bit ended and the next began - well, it was utterly bewildering."
Misha Glenny presents a three part history of Germany before the world wars, revealing how weak and fragmented it used to be.
The series starts with the siege of Magdeburg of 1631, when a city the size of Paris was burnt to the ground. The events of the Thirty Years War hugely influenced later German nationalists, as Swedes, French, Danish, Spanish and huge numbers of Scottish mercenaries rampaged through the area we now call Germany.
"Germany was in many ways more sinned against than sinning," concludes contributor Simon Winder.
Misha Glenny is a former BBC central European correspondent and winner of a Sony gold. The producer is Miles Warde, who collaborated with Misha Glenny on previous series about the Alps, the Habsburgs and Garibaldi.
TUESDAY 18 AUGUST 2015
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b065rt4w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b065ssqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b065rt4y)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b065rt50)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b065rt52)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b065rt54)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b065t311)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Venerable Peter Eagles.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b065t315)
Liz Truss, 3D cow scanning, sling shot farm
As farming ministers from across the UK meet in an emergency summit, secretary of State Liz Truss tells farming Today that supermarkets need to label their dairy products more effectively so that consumers know whether they are buying British or not.
The dairy industry is changing as is the technology which accompanies it. Sarah Swadling looks in to some 3-D research being carried out by Kingshay Dairy and robotics engineers from the University of the West of England. It means more accurate figures for larger herds of cows.
All this week Farming Today is looking at Agri-tourism. Nancy Nicholson visits a farm in the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway to meet a farmer who has diversified in to hair raising tourism for adrenaline junkies - the human slingshot. Presenter Sybil Ruscoe. Producer Ruth Sanderson.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2w1)
Dunlin
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Dunlin. Dunlins are a stirring sight, en masse, as their flocks twist and turn over the winter shoreline. When the tide turns they take to the air in a breath-taking aerobatic display. Around 350,000 Dunlin winter here, travelling from Scandinavia and Russia.
TUE 06:00 Today (b065t3v7)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather, Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 Fry's English Delight (b065tqyq)
Series 8
Talking about the Weather
A history of weather-related language, Stephen Fry acknowledges the influence of God, who it was thought controlled the weather and used it as a way of talking to humans, and tracks the Englishness of weather talk from Shakespeare to the present day.
God seemed to have signalled his approval of the English cause in 1588, by helping destroy the Spanish Armada with storms. Unseasonably hot winter weather in 1661, which threatened to spread plague, was interpreted by King Charles as a punishment for human sin. In a densely worded proclamation, he ordered all subjects to fast. The weather reverted to normal and the King ordered another fast to say thank you.
Despite modern meteorology, whose language is explained to Stephen by TV meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker, people still look for metaphorical meanings in weather. One activist on the climate change demonstration on an unseasonably warm day in 2015, described it as 'an omen'.
The English preoccupation with weather as a topic of conversation can be quite complex. But Stephen argues we don't have adequate language to deal with the onset of future changes in the climate. We find it hard to realise the idea of 'future generations' as yet unborn. He quotes Marx (Groucho) on the posterity question. 'What has posterity ever done for me?'
Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 09:30 A Walk of One's Own: Virginia Woolf on Foot (b065tqys)
Kensington Gardens
A hundred years since the publication of Virginia Woolf's first novel, author Alexandra Harris wonders at the link between her writing and her passion for walking - this week exploring where it all began, in Kensington Gardens.
Accompanied by Woolf biographer Dame Hermione Lee - the pair set out on a walk which Virginia and would have done probably 20,000 times - from 22 Hyde Park Gate, across the busy traffic and into the park.
Re-enacting the scene, Hermione and Alex recall how - 'calling for his dog and his daughter' - Leslie Stephen, father to Virginia Woolf, set off twice daily for a constitutional walk around the park.
Passing the woman selling her "balloon of quivering airballs", the young girl entered a public world and set her imagination to work on all she encountered: people talking and shouting, skaters, statues, ranks of uniformed nannies.
All her life she would remember in vivid detail the early routines of sailing boats on the Round Pond, touching the bark of the 'Crocodile Tree', reading in the grass and starting to match words to experience.
Mike Fitt, the Royal Parks honorary historian joins them, to add his particular knowledge of Kensington Gardens to the mix.
Producer: Sara Jane Hall.
TUE 09:45 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s310r)
From Funerals to Plague
'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' masterful first-hand account of the three decades of war between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against brutal Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to chronicle what he saw as the greatest and most devastating war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians and journalists today. As the father of modern Realpolitik, his influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Thucydides' masterful account of the end of Greece's Golden Age, depicts an age of revolution, sea battles, military alliances, plague and massacre, but also great bravery and some of the greatest political oratory of all time.
Today: from the glorification to the devastation of Athens - Pericles' great funeral speech and the plague that followed.
Abridger: Tom Holland is an award-winning novelist and historian, specialising in the classical and medieval periods, who has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC.
Reader: David Horovitch
Producer: Justine Willett.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b065tqyx)
Pistorius release imminent, What teachers really think, Spare rooms
Reaction from South Africa to the imminent release from jail of Oscar Pistorius, ten months after his conviction over the shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. What teachers really think about their work. If you have a spare room how do you use it and how does it change as your family grows up? A satirical take on art galleries with artist Miriam Elia.
TUE 10:45 The Pillow Book (b065tqyz)
Series 8
Episode 2
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return for a new series of the popular mystery series the Pillow Book, set in 10th Century Japan.
Lieutenant Yukinari turns renegade as he doggedly attempts to root out conspirators in the Palace, regardless of the consequences.
Inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Natural Histories (b05w9b5y)
Snakes
In much of the Christian West snakes don't get a good press, they are considered sly, even evil creatures that tempted Eve causing the downfall for all humanity - quite a burden to bear. The Bible is full of less than flattering references to snakes. Many people fear snakes and kill them on sight. Yet the image of a snake wrapped around a stick is the symbol of medicine. Our complex relationship with snakes means they are amongst the most persecuted creatures on earth. There is no denying that people have in inbuilt fear of snakes as psychological experiments show. DH Lawrence's poem The Snake encapsulates our contradictory relationship with serpents. He is mesmerised by the majesty of the snake, and honoured that it chose to be near him. After scaring the snake away he regrets his mean and petty action: "I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education." Snakes are wound intricately throughout our beliefs, art and literature.
TUE 11:30 Philip Glass: Taxi Driver (b065tqz1)
Philip Glass revisits his parallel lives in 1970s New York - driving a taxicab through threatening twilight streets while emerging as a composer in Manhattan's downtown arts scene.
The Philip Glass Ensemble formed in 1968 and performed in lofts, museums, art galleries and, eventually, concert halls. Two of Glass's early pieces - the long form Music In Twelve Parts and the opera Einstein on the Beach - secured his reputation as a leading voice in new music.
But America's soon-to-be most successful contemporary composer continued to earn a living by driving a taxi until he was 42.
"I would show up around
3pm to get a car and hopefully be out driving by 4. I wanted to get back to the garage by 1 or
2am before the bars closed, as that wasn't a good time to be driving. I'd come home and write music until 6 in the morning."
Glass's new musical language - consisting of driving rhythms, gradually evolving repetitive patterns and amplified voice, organs and saxophones - reflected the urgency of the city surrounding him. New York, on the brink of financial collapse, was crime-ridden and perilous. Driving a cab offered more than a window on this gritty, late night world. Almost every other month, according to Glass, a driver colleague was murdered. Glass escaped altercations with gangs and robbers in his cab.
One of the most successful films at the time was Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver starring Robert DeNiro. Glass couldn't bring himself to watch it until years later. He says, "I was a taxi driver. On my night off, I was not going to go watch a movie called Taxi Driver."
Produced by Paul Smith.
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b065rt56)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Four Thought (b0639xst)
Passports for a Price
Katy Long argues that we should think differently about citizenship. She compares how citizenship and passports are bought and sold, and explores the ethical implications.
Producer: Katie Langton.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b065v41q)
Call You and Yours: Have you found love using a dating app?
An article in this month's Vanity Fair condemns mobile phone apps like Tinder that present users with pictures of partners that they can swipe left for a potential match or right for instant rejection. The magazine said they were mainly being used for casual "hook ups" with no commitment.
Millions of single people use them - but do they ever lead to anything more than casual hook ups? What's your experience of Tinder or other dating apps. Have you found a lasting relationship? Are they ruining the art of romance or is it a myth that old-style dating was anything more sophisticated?
Email us on youandyours@bbc.co.uk and leave a contact number so we can call you back. And join Andrea Catherwood tomorrow at quarter past 12.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b065rt58)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b065v41s)
LABOUR
The former Labour Leader Lord Kinnock tells us the party needs to learn lessons from the past and avoid making introverted and self-indulgent decisions when it comes to choosing its new leader.
THAILAND ATTACK
The Thai authorities are looking for a man in a yellow t-shirt with a backpack who they have identified as a suspect in yesterday's bombing.
THE HARDEST DAY
We mark the 75th anniversary of what's come to be know as the hardest day of the Battle of Britain.
TUE 13:45 How to Have a Better Brain (b065v44t)
Relaxation
Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.
In this episode Sian analyses the importance of stress management to brain health with Dr Annette Bruhl, Dr Hannah Critchlow and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who took up mindfulness to combat memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b065sx76)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Drama (b065vqd2)
Undercover Mumbai
Episode 1
On her release from jail, disgraced police inspector Alia Khan seeks a life of obscurity as a receptionist in a run down Mumbai hotel. But murder soon comes knocking at her door.
Second series of the crime drama set and recorded on location in India. Written by Ayeesha Menon and directed by John Dryden.
Production:
Sound Recordist - Ayush Ahuja
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Script Editor - Phillip Shelley
Music - Sacha Putnam.
Writer - Ayeesha Menon
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Producer - Nadir Khan
Director - John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b065vrl6)
Tom Holland is joined in the studio by the historical consultant for Horrible Histories, Greg Jenner.
Helen Castor is on the South Downs with geographer Dr Geoffrey Mead who has been researching responses to the housing crisis of the 1920s. Close to Brighton, he has discovered an informal settlement - one that was maybe once described as a 'shanty-town', but was built by the aspirational middle-classes who could find £10 to buy a plot of land. Dr Adrian Green from the University of Durham explains that these communities, built on what geographers describe as marginal or non-productive land, were commonplace right the way back to the middle ages when people would move to be closer to work.
Professor Sharon Ruston from Lancaster University is in Warrington, where she highlights the role of the town's dissenting academy - and the work of Joseph Priestley in particular - in promoting the teaching of science to a community of scholars that were barred from Oxford and Cambridge because of their radical religious beliefs and who, she argues, were the intellectual driving force of the industrial revolution.
Tom Holland visits Sheffield to talk to research student Dr Hannah Probert about the significance of facial hair in Roman times.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 The Playlist Series (b03m3j6w)
The Duke of Wellington's Playlist
The Duke of Wellington's military achievements, including his victory over Napoleon, are well-known. Much less well-known is the Duke of Wellington, the musician.
His father was a composer and music was the only consolation of a lonely, unloved childhood – the only thing he was good at was playing the violin. But as a young man, in a theatrical gesture of renunciation, he burnt his violin and vowed to give up music altogether as too much of a distraction from his military career. But despite the grand gesture, the Duke had a passion for music all his life. And music played an important role in warfare too, with military bands marching into battle and vying for supremacy.
This programme discovers and records the Duke's music, including long-forgotten songs about the Battle of Waterloo. Musician David Owen Norris gives old songs a new twist and sets them for jazz singer Gwyneth Herbert and classical singer Thomas Guthrie. He then plays them to a trio of Wellington experts - Royal historian Kate Williams, military historian Tim Clayton, and the Duke of Douro (the Duke's direct descendent).
The programme is recorded on location in Apsley House on Hyde Park Corner and includes performances on the Duke's own Grand Piano.
David Owen Norris is a pianist and composer and Professor of Music at Southampton University.
Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.
TUE 16:00 The Move (b04nv6m6)
Episode 3
On average we move eight times during our lives and end up quite close to where we are born.
But this week Rosie meets Tina, an American artist and serial mover. Tina gets itchy feet within months and is now drawn by the light and coastline of the North East. Fascinated by Scarborough where she knows no one but one on-line friend, Tina is trying to raise the money to make the 250 mile move through crowdfunding.
Jim and Sheila are leaving behind their beloved converted barn to move from Derby to Northern Ireland. Sheila has never lived outside Derby but now in her 70s, Jim is taking her across the North Sea with her Labradors and his home-made aeroplane to be nearer the grandchildren and, with cheaper house prices, a dream of living like kings. But sadly before they go, they have a secret they must bid farewell to.
Producers: Simon Elmes and Sarah Bowen.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b065vrl8)
Series 37
Michael Howard on Elizabeth I
Matthew Parris meets the former leader of the Conservative Party Michael Howard to discuss the life of Elizabeth I of England.
They're joined by Professor Paulina Kewes of Jesus College Oxford.
Producer: Maggie Ayre
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.
TUE 17:00 PM (b065vrlb)
News interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b065rt5b)
A British student is now known to have died in yesterday's bombing in Bangkok.
TUE 18:30 Fresh From the Fringe (b065vrld)
Fresh from the Fringe: 2015, Part 1
Recorded at the BBC's tented venue in Potterow, Edinburgh, Fringe veteran comedian Andrew Maxwell hosts Part One of the cream of sketch and stand-up comedy from this year's Edinburgh fringe festival. Featuring new Scottish comic Larry Dean, sketch group Daphne, character comedian Emma Sidi, Lancashire's Tez Ilyas and experienced stand-up James Acaster. Producer - Joe Nunnery.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b065vrlg)
Helen tries to persuade Rob to talk to Charlie, who has left a message for Rob to talk things through with him. With Charlie in the weaker position, surely Rob can go back to Berrow strong? But Rob says he should have explained the extent of his problems with Charlie- Charlie was vindictive. Also, Rob should have taken time off when he was injured from the flood, but they were under pressure. Helen sees his point. Rob also persuades Helen that Charlie has been worried since she saw Charlie kissing Adam, and so could have been taking it out on Rob. Helen immediately focuses her thoughts on helping Rob find a new job. Charlie, meanwhile, asks Brian whether he has heard anything (not letting on that Rob has walked out).
Pip sticks up for Ruth over Heather's welfare, reminding her dad that the last big decision -about staying on at Brookfield - was done by David alone. It hurt Ruth to not be consulted. Surely it's time for Ruth to make the big decision when it comes to Heather coming to live at Brookfield?
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b065vrlj)
Robert Lepage, Travelling art bus, James Rhodes, Writing your first Edinburgh show
Canadian experimental theatre maker Robert Lepage discusses his Edinburgh International Festival solo show 887 which draws on his childhood in Quebec City to create an exploration of memory and nationalism.
John meets Turner Prize nominated artist Christine Borland as she installs some of her work in a bus that will serve as a travelling exhibition of Turner nominated Scottish art, in the run up to this year's ceremony in Glasgow.
Pianist James Rhodes explains why anyone can learn to play a classical instrument with enough work and discusses his controversial memoir, Instrumental.
How do you go from budding stand-up comic doing short spots in pubs to doing your own solo hour of comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe? Two comedians doing just that explain their process.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Ellie Bury.
TUE 19:45 The Pillow Book (b065tqyz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
TUE 20:00 Overage Drinkers (b064ygls)
Heavy drinking by older people is causing a major public health risk in the UK, yet the issue often falls below the radar.
While alcohol consumption among the young is falling, the over 60s are drinking more, and more harmfully, with one in three developing problems with alcohol for the first time in later life and alcohol-related hospital admissions among the old rising alarmingly.
BBC reporter Leala Padmanabhan investigates, starting with the story of her own father who developed alcoholism in his 70s while caring for her mother, who has alcoholism-related dementia. Despite his background as a doctor and his long experience of witnessing his wife's alcoholism, Leala's father was unable to rehabilitate himself, and his drink problem helped contribute to his death in 2010.
Leala's family is the starting point for a programme telling her own and similar stories.
A large number of people are developing problems in later life, partly because of social factors associated with their age, such as loneliness, bereavement, depression and boredom.
In addition to these late-onset drinkers there is a large number of "baby boomers" who are carrying heavy drinking patterns into old age.
And yet alcohol problems are less likely to be detected in older people, and where problems are detected, they are less likely to be referred to an alcohol service for treatment.
Leala talks to family members and friends about her own father's decline. She also interviews people grappling with a similar problem, campaigners working to raise awareness, people working in treatment services, and social and medical experts.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b065vrtl)
Gratitude
Gratitude. Why is it sometimes hard for a blind person to accept help when it's offered? Peter White is joined by Ian Macrae, Commissioning Editor of the online magazine Disability Now, Dr David Bolt, Associate Professor of Disability and Education at Liverpool's Hope University and listener Lyndall Bywater to discuss when they say yes, and the best ways to say no to assistance.
TUE 21:00 The Life in My Head: From Stroke to Brain Attack (b0540b3p)
Episode 1
Robert McCrum journeys into his own brain to understand more about stroke.
Ever since he suffered a severe stroke in 1995, Robert has been living with its consequences. He says, "It's one of the remorseless side-effects of the affliction that, if you survive it, you will live with its after-effects and the conundrum about existence it poses, for the rest of your life." The demands of an ongoing recovery still have to be met.
This two part series is a reflection and continued discovery, twenty years on, of Robert McCrum's condition.
Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio4.
TUE 21:30 Fry's English Delight (b065tqyq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b065rt5d)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b065vs3m)
Scottish Catholic Church apologises to abuse survivors.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia says child abuse "inexcusable and intolerable"
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b065vrtn)
Go Set a Watchman
Episode 7
GO SET A WATCHMAN
In the literary event of the year Harper Lee's explosive second novel has finally been published. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes. This abridgement for Book at Bedtime brings a compelling and important release to Radio 4.
Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home. It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra. But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.
Harper Lee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', a book which has been studied, loved, wept over and revered by generations since its publication in 1960. She lives in Monroeville, Alabama.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Harper Lee
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
TUE 23:00 Fresh From the Fringe (b067xjql)
Fresh from the Fringe: 2015, Part 2
Recorded at the BBC's tented venue in Potterow, Edinburgh, winner of last year's Best Newcomer Award Alex Edelman hosts Part Two of the cream of sketch and stand-up comedy from this year's Edinburgh fringe festival. This late night edition features sketch act The Pin, Danish stand-up Sofie Hagen, mustachioed Mike Wozniak and award-winning mad-cap Australian comic Sam Simmons. Producer - Joe Nunnery.
TUE 23:30 The Invention of... (b0167zl1)
Germany
The Rise of Prussia
Germany history is often obscured by the fog of Nazism, making it easy to forget both the high culture, and its often feeble past. There is for example in Koblenz a fountain, marked in 1812 by Napoleon's army heading east, and by the Russians in 1813 heading west. In this series Germany is the turntable, the chess board, the stomping ground of Europe.
"It's very difficult to think of Germany at this time as having a future of unity and power," says Professor Norman Davies. "It was in many ways retarded."
In this second programme, Misha Glenny explores the rise of Prussia - from Frederick the Great in 1740 to humiliation by Napoleon in 1806. He discovers a state far removed from the images of Iron Crosses, spiked helmets and officious bureaucrats of popular imagination. It is Prussia that will eventually create modern Germany, but first there are several myths to dispel.
Misha Glenny is a former BBC central European correspondent and winner of a Sony gold. The producer is Miles Warde, who collaborated with Misha Glenny on previous series about the Alps, the Habsburgs and Garibaldi.
WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2015
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b065rt68)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s310r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b065rt6b)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b065rt6d)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b065rt6g)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b065rt6j)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b065vs42)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Venerable Peter Eagles.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b065vs44)
Lamb exports, From marrowfat to wasabi, Rural tourism degree
UK lamb exports to Europe are being hit by the strength of the pound. They fell 23% in the first 6 months of 2015, compared to 2014. Usually a third of UK produced lamb is destined for export.
Marrowfat Peas grown in the UK are travelling around the world to be turned into trendy Wasabi Pea snacks, and then sent back to us! Scientists are hoping to breed the perfect Marrowfat, so that its worth establishing Wasabi Pea manufacture closer to home.
And, the first degree in Rural Tourism is about to begin at the Royal Agricultural University.
Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Sarah Swadling.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2x8)
Marsh Tit
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Marsh Tit. The marsh tit is badly-named. It doesn't live in marshes, and is most at home in older broad-leaved woodlands. "Oak tit" might be a better name. Unlike some other tit species they don't travel far, holding and defending their woodland territories throughout the winter.
ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.
WED 06:00 Today (b066d7j0)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather, Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 What's the Point of...? (b065vsdg)
Series 7
RoSPA
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was founded a century ago and within a year had cut road deaths by 70%. How did they do it? By telling people to face oncoming traffic. There are no such dramatic quick fixes left today, but RoSPA fights on. They're currently campaigning against window blinds with dangling cords (a strangulation hazard) and in favour of tougher penalties for using mobile phones while driving. Tufty he Squirrel has crossed over to the other side (holding Mummy's hand) never to return. Elf 'n' safety has become a bit of a joke. So - now that we all clunk-click without having to be told - what, asks Quentin Letts, is the point of RoSPA? 3/4
Producer: Peter Everett
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.
WED 09:30 Witness (b065vsdj)
Bloods and Crips
In the early 1990s, gang warfare in South Central Los Angeles was claiming hundreds of lives a year. Then, in 1992, peace activist Aqeela Sherrills helped negotiate a truce between the two main black gangs, the Bloods and the Crips. He tells Witness how it transformed his local neighbourhood of Watts.
WED 09:45 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s3c5q)
Spartan Surrender at Pylos
'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' masterful first-hand account chronicles the devastating wars between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to record what he saw as the greatest war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians today. And as father of modern Realpolitik, his influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Today: the shocking defeat of the Spartans on the island of Pylos.
Abridger: Tom Holland
Reader: David Horovitch
Producer: Justine Willett.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b065vsdn)
Charlotte Rampling, Assertiveness for young women
Charlotte Rampling's acting career has spanned five decades - most recently she's starred in the ITV crime mystery, 'Broadchurch.' She says she doesn't generally make films to entertain people and as a result she often takes on mysterious and edgy roles - perhaps most notably when she starred alongside Dirk Bogarde in The Night Porter.' Charlotte Rampling joins Jane to talk about her latest film, '45 Years,' which is about a couple whose relationship comes unstuck with a surprising piece of news in the week of their forty fifth wedding anniversary; Following the recent closure of Kids Company, what is the role of the voluntary sector in supporting children? We talk to Kathy Evans, who is the Chief Executive of Children England, the umbrella group for the children's voluntary sector, about how charities work with local authorities; We've the latest in our series of interviews with men about family and relationships - today Amjad and Richard talk about marriage in mid-life; And teaching girls and young women to stand up for themselves - Natasha Devon, the founder of Self-Esteem Team, and confidence coach, Annette Du Bois, reveal some of the practical ways to teach young women to stand their ground and speak up for themselves.
WED 10:41 The Pillow Book (b065vsdq)
Series 8
Episode 3
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return! Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
Yukinari finds himself unexpectedly thrown together with his oldest friend Takashi, a man who seems much changed since the two of them last met.
Meanwhile, within the Palace, Shonagon is determined to find out where Yukinari has gone and whether Lord Asaji may hold the key to the policeman's disappearance.
Inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b065vsds)
Reece and Jennifer – Dancing Divisions
Fi Glover with a conversation between two 13-year-olds about how it’s their widely differing attitudes to competition that holds the key to their successful dance partnership, recorded in the mobile Booth in Guernsey - another n the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves 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
WED 11:00 Three Pounds in My Pocket (b065vsdv)
Series 2
Episode 3
Kavita Puri listens in to intimate and heartfelt conversations between the early pioneers to Britain from the Indian subcontinent and their children. They talk about what is important to carry on between the generations and discuss whether the act of migration always means loss.
Producer: Smita Patel.
WED 11:30 In and Out of the Kitchen (b065vsdx)
Series 4
The Birthday
Damien rents a narrowboat for a weekend cruising around the heart of England with his partner Anthony, his producer firend Marion Duffett, his parents Janet and Dennis, his agent Ian, and his builder Mr Mullaney, during which he hopes to relax but also ease tensions between Mr Mullaney and Anthony who aren't getting on well following an Anthony-induced hiccup in their newly formed property business. But canalling isn't always as easy as it looks...
Starring:
Miles Jupp as Damien Trench
Justin Edwards as Anthony
Philip Fox as Ian Frobisher/Dennis Trench
Brendan Dempsey as Mr Mullaney
Lesley Vickerage as Marion Duffett
Selina Cadell as Janet Trench
David Acton as Mr Touchstone
and
Alex Tregear as The Waitress
It was written by Nick Revell
The producer was Sam Michell
WED 12:00 News Summary (b065rt6l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Four Thought (b05sttjh)
John Williams: Unexpected Joy
Comedian John Williams finds unexpected joy in his autistic son's view of life, despite the inevitable struggles.
"I have learnt far far more about the human condition, and what it truly means to be alive from just being with those with learning diabilities than I have from any eminent teacher or book."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b066f7zk)
Charity salaries, Cost of cremations, Estate agency photo theft
You & Yours has found charities continuing to 'bury' details about how much they pay senior staff, despite being told to make pay scales more transparent. More than a year ago the National Council for Voluntary Organisations said donors should be able to find information about pay within "two clicks" of the main site. However many still only provide that information within lengthy Annual Reports.
The cost of council cremations has risen by an average 35% since 2010. In part the increase is down to new rules surrounding air quality - but how should people avoid excessive bills after a loved one dies?
Plus the woman who caught an estate agent using photos of her flat to market a trendy London apartment without her permission - or even her knowledge.
Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Produced by Natalie Donovan.
WED 12:57 Weather (b065rt6n)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b066f91x)
Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn answers listeners' questions. Brendan Foster muses on his former room mate's success as Lord Coe gets the biggest job in world athletics and we hear from the Antrim coast where a cliff face only inhabited by puffins gets a footpath.
Presented by Martha Kearney.
WED 13:45 How to Have a Better Brain (b065vsdz)
Stimulation
Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.
In this episode Sian analyses the importance of mental exercise to brain health with Professor Nazanin Derakhshan, Dr Hannah Critchlow, and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who took up online word games and running a choir to combat memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b065vrlg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b065vsf1)
Undercover Mumbai
Episode 2
Disgraced police inspector Alia Khan is enlisted to help catch a serial killer whose preferred location for his crimes is the rooftop of the hotel where Alia is receptionist. Teaming up with incompetent Inspector Ratna Shinde, it soon becomes clear that the murderer is trying to communicate something to Alia through the victims themselves.
Concluding episode of the second series of the police detective drama, set and recorded on location in Mumbai. Written by Ayeesha Menon and directed by John Dryden.
Production:
Sound Recordist - Ayush Ahuja
Sound Design - Steve Bond
Script Editor - Phillip Shelley
Music - Sacha Putnam.
Writer - Ayeesha Menon
Assistant Producer - Toral Shah
Producer - Nadir Khan
Director - John Dryden
A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 15:00 The New Workplace (b065rlry)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
WED 15:30 The Life in My Head: From Stroke to Brain Attack (b0540b3p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 The Business of Film with Mark Kermode (b054pbwz)
The Business of Showing
In this final programme, Mark Kermode considers the business of showing films. The route from script to finance to screen can be a long one - but then it all comes down to one nervous opening weekend.
Marketing may convince us of a film's merit but, one comment on social media can ruin even the most inventive campaign.
Film festivals are vital for launching a film. The Autumn festival season is where artistic creators battle for the first showing of the most talked about films. For many independent film makers exposure through awards is seen as a crucial - or perhaps only - means of survival. The artistic director of the Toronto Film festival reveals how film makers plead with him to admit their films.
The decline in DVD sales has led to nearly a halving of studio profits. Vincent Bruzzese runs a research entertainment firm and believes there is a disconnect between the film makers and the audience. By analysing data, it's possible to work out why a certain scene works. Hit on certain story tropes and a film will do well.
Netflix and Amazon's are all about giving customers what they want. Their algorithms are set to challenge the studios' dominance. How long is it until the streaming services become major studios themselves?
Meanwhile, the growth of cinema multiplexes have paved the way for boutique cinemas and the notion of the film as an event. Audiences today are engaging with films in very different ways, so how do UK cinemas make most of their money?
Producers: Barney Rowntree and Nick Jones
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b065vsfp)
Royal pictures, Managing talent, Archant's positive performance
Buckingham palace has appealed to the world's media not to publish unauthorised images of Prince George. It says some paparazzi have gone to, "extreme lengths" to take pictures and, "a line has been crossed". The palace said a small number of media organisations, mostly in Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand and the US, had published photos of Prince George in "unacceptable circumstances". However it said the "vast majority", and all UK publications, had refused. Are the Palace trying to re-draw the lines of what is acceptable intrusion? Steve Hewlett hears from Robert Jobson, Evening Standard Royal Editor, and Ken Wharfe, former Scotland Yard Protection Officer to Diana, the Princess of Wales and Prince William.
Sir Tom Jones has criticised the BBC after being told he would not be returning to The Voice. After four series as coach on the talent show, it's been announced he will be replaced by Boy George. Sir Tom took to Facebook to criticise BBC executives about their, "sub-standard behaviour", in the way he was told, with "no consultation or conversation of any kind". The incident has raised questions about the way media organisations, like the BBC, handle top talent. Steve discusses with two leading agents; Sue Ayton from Knight Ayton Management and Jon Thoday Joint Founder and MD of Avalon.
Archant, the fifth largest regional newspaper publisher in the UK, with titles in East Anglia, London, Kent and the South West, has reported its first revenue and profit growth in eight years. Steve Hewlett asks CEO Jeff Henry what they're doing to grow, when similar publishers are declining.
Producer: Katy Takatsuki.
WED 17:00 PM (b066drvp)
News interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b065rt6q)
19/08/15: Jeremy Corbyn reacts angrily to suggestions he's racist or anti-semitic
Jeremy Corbyn says it is "beyond disgusting" to suggest that he is racist or anti-semitic
WED 18:30 Sketchorama (b062nrxn)
Series 4
Episode 3
Frisky & Mannish, Thünderbards and Lazy Susan.
Award winning actress and comedian Isy Suttie presents the pick of the best live sketch groups currently performing on the UK comedy circuit
Every show spotlights three up and coming groups featuring character, improv, broken and musical sketch comedy.
There are so many incredibly talented and inventive sketch groups on the British Comedy scene but with no dedicated broadcast format. Sketchorama aims to bring hidden gems and established live acts to the airwaves.
Producer: Gus Beattie
A Comedy Unit production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in July 2015.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b065vsfr)
Jill and Lynda discuss the village shop and its history. Some people want it torn down, but they need it. Jill remembers when it was a school. Joe has been very unsettled since the wall collapsed. It'll be a while before the W.I can use the hall again.
Pip has been showing the new contract milker (Matthew) around at Brookfield. Jill masks her disapproval when Pip says she's going with Toby to Reedles to help promote their geese - although Jill's ears prick up as Pip debates the idea of staying or going. She is going, though, of course, and Jill plans a big send off for Pip on the Bank Holiday weekend - with the whole family.
Rob goes into Berrow Farm's office, but just to pick up his things. There's an awkward conversation with Charlie as Rob pointedly mentions that he has been a good employee and should get a good reference. Rob is all magnanimous as they say goodbye with a rather forced handshake. No hard feelings, eh?
WED 19:15 Front Row (b065wwj5)
John Hannah, Vicky Featherstone and Lee Hall, Playing Nina Simone
Kirsty Lang from the Edinburgh Festivals with director Vicky Featherstone and Billy Elliot author Lee Hall. They discuss their new production, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, which follows group of Catholic schoolgirls on a school choir trip that gets out of control.
Viv Groskop reviews Gemma Bovery, a film based on the graphic novel by Posey Simmonds. Loosely based on Flaubert's Madame Bovary, it starts Gemma Arterton as an English woman who moves to rural France and attracts the attention of the local men.
John Hannah, best known for his roles in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Sliding Doors, is appearing on the Scottish stage for the first time in 25 years. He discusses his role in The Titanic Orchestra, an absurdist work by Bulgarian playwright Hristo Boytchev.
Two shows at this year's Edinburgh Festival are based on the life and civil rights activism of Nina Simone. Ruth Rogers-Wright and Apphia Campbell discuss the challenges of playing Nina Simone on stage and recreating her unique voice.
Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Ellie Bury.
WED 19:45 The Pillow Book (b065vsdq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:41 today]
WED 20:00 FutureProofing (b065wwj7)
Identity
FutureProofing is a series in which presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson examine the implications - social and cultural, economic and political - of the big ideas that are set to transform the way our society functions.
Episode 2: Identity
Timandra and Leo explore how we will answer the question 'Who am I?' in future. New thinking points towards identity becoming increasingly a matter of choice rather than a fixed set of personal characteristics and social experiences. Instead of the geographical accidents which determine our places of birth and the environments in which we spend our formative years, future identities appear set to become more fluid, shaped by individual preference and an increasing range of options available to us - and not just culturally, but also regarding qualities such as our ethnicity and gender.
How might people express a more nuanced form of gender and sexuality in future? If you are born with one ethnicity, could you choose to identify as another? And if we are to shift identity often, could that remove the stigma traditionally attached to all those who present themselves as very different people at different stages of their lives?
Producer: Jonathan Brunert.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b065wwj9)
The Whirlpool Economy
Charles Leadbeater argues that we are living in a whirlpool economy, where we are moving faster but seem to be standing still. And he suggests some changes we could make to break out of it.
Producer: Katie Langton.
WED 21:00 Mind Changers (b0639gxq)
BF Skinner and Superstition in the Pigeon
Claudia Hammond presents the history of psychology series which examines the work of the people who have changed our understanding of the human mind. This week she explores the legacy of BF Skinner and Behaviourism. One of the most famous psychologists of the 20th century, by applying to human learning the theory he developed through animal studies, he became one of the most controversial.
Claudia is shown round his study by his daughter, Julie Vargas; remaining much as it was when he died in 1990, it is full of quirky, Heath-Robinson-type, home-made gadgets, evidence of Skinner's practicality and ingenuity. They reveal another side to the man famous for his operant conditioning experiments with rats and pigeons, and infamous for his template for what some have described as a totalitarian state, in his book 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity'.
Claudia also meets his younger daughter, Deborah Buzan, and explodes the myth that she was raised in one of Skinner's experimental 'boxes'.
She hears more about the man and his work from Richard McNally at Harvard, and Gordon Bower and Lee Ross of Stanford University.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
WED 21:30 What's the Point of...? (b065vsdg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b066f91z)
Corbyn quizzed over a meeting with a banned pro-Palestinian activist.
We take an in-depth look at his foreign policy agenda
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b065wwjc)
Go Set a Watchman
Episode 8
GO SET A WATCHMAN
In the literary event of the year Harper Lee's explosive second novel has finally been published. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes. This abridgement for Book at Bedtime brings a compelling and important release to Radio 4.
Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home. It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra. But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.
Harper Lee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', a book which has been studied, loved, wept over and revered by generations since its publication in 1960. She lives in Monroeville, Alabama.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Harper Lee
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
WED 23:00 Terry Alderton's All Crazy Now (b065wwjf)
Working Class Normals
Bears, airports, stand up, accents, and even the odd catchphrase. Perfect.
The last episode in this series sees Terry at his very best. Sketches, songs and general hilarity from a brilliant mind.
Written by and starring Terry Alderton.
Additional material from Johnny Spurling, Boothby Graffoe, Richard Melvin, Julia Sutherland and Owen Parker.
Sound designed by Sean Kerwin.
Producer: Richard Melvin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2015.
WED 23:15 Can't Tell Nathan Caton Nothing (b01sjj87)
Series 2
About Poorly Relatives
The series is a mix of Nathan's stand-up intercut with scenes from his family life.
Janet a.k.a. Mum - At the end of the day she just wants the best for her son. However, she'd also love to brag and show her son off to her friends, but with Nathan only telling jokes for a living it's kind of hard to do. She loves Nathan, but she aint looking embarrassed for nobody!
Martin a.k.a. Dad - works in the construction industry and was looking forward to his son getting a degree so the two of them could work together in the same field. But now Nathan has blown that dream out of the window. Martin is clumsy and hard-headed and leaves running the house to his wife (she wouldn't allow it to be any other way).
Shirley a.k.a. Grandma - cannot believe Nathan turned down architecture for comedy. How can her grandson go on stage and use foul language and filthy material... it's not the good Christian way!
So with the weight of his family's disappointment will Nathan be able to persist and follow his dreams? Or will he give in to his family's interference?
About Poorly Relatives - Nathan Caton is unsympathetic when his parents are poorly as he has an important gig and needs to be on his A game. But he agrees not to tell Grandma that they're poorly as she doesn't believe in poorly.
Nathan ..... Nathan Caton
Mum ..... Adjoa Andoh
Dad ..... Curtis Walker
Grandma ..... Mona Hammond
Reverend Williams ..... Don Gilet
Written by Nathan Caton and James Kettle
Additional Material by Ola and Maff Brown
Produced by Katie Tyrrell.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.
WED 23:30 The Invention of... (b016lbtm)
Germany
Germany Unified
In 1871, at the Palace of Mirrors in Versailles, the king of Prussia was crowned emperor of the newly unified German empire - a quite staggering event. This is the story of Germany's journey to define itself, indeed to stamp itself, on the European map.
"Everything was decided by military strength, but also by a revolutionary idea that there were parts of the map reserved for particular nations - blood and soil, and that if you pick up a handful of soil, this is German, and if you move fifty yards to the left, this is French." Professor Norman Davies.
Travelling from the great areas of conflict - Alsace Lorraine in the west to Konnigratz in the east - Misha Glenny brings to life moments in European history that have huge resonance today. Contributors include Dr Abigail Green of Oxford University, and Professor Michael Sturmer, a former advisor to Helmut Kohl.
The producer is Miles Warde.
THURSDAY 20 AUGUST 2015
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b065rt7s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s3c5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b065rt7v)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b065rt7x)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b065rt7z)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b065rt81)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b066dfb7)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Venerable Peter Eagles.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b065x2l8)
Rural plan, Dairy market rise, Farming Today calf
The government has unveiled its new rural productivity plan. However, Professor Mark Schucksmith, Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal at Newcastle University, says that while its broadly positive that the government is focussing on rural areas, the devil will be in the detail. It seems as though there might be a chink of light in the dairy markets as the fortnightly Global Dairy Trade auctions have had their first rise since early March. Chris Walkland is a dairy analyst and says that although its not a cause for celebration, it means that the market might have hit rock bottom and the only way is up.
Farming Today is following the life of Sunblest the dairy cow. On today's programme we welcome her new arrival - a calf. The fate of the calf depends on its sex, normally a male calf will be shot or sometimes sold for veal or raised for beef. Meanwhile a female calf will be reared for dairy. Sybil Ruscoe was there for the birth,.Alistair Driver from the Farmers Guardian newspaper is appealing for Farmers to tweet, email and send in information about their lives, its in an aim to lift the lid on the day to day realities of farming.
.Presented by Felicity Evans and produced by Ruth Sanderson.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx6nq)
Willow Tit
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Willow Tit. Willow Tits are declining rapidly in many areas: they are very similar to marsh tits, so alike in fact that no-one realised that they existed here until 1897 and their identity as a breeding bird in the UK was confirmed three years later.
THU 06:00 Today (b066dfbc)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather, Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 Fantasy Festival (b065x66y)
Baroness Mary Warnock
Baroness Mary Warnock joins presenter Tim Samuels to curate and create the festival of her wildest dreams.
Festivals are fast becoming significant events on more and more people's calendars. 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 is a chance for someone to become the curator of the festival of their very own dreams. And the festival curator in this programme is the moral philosopher, Baroness Mary Warnock who recently retired from the House of Lords at the age of 91.
Baroness Warnock outlines her dream festival which takes place on the uninhabited island of Tanera Mor in the Summer Isles off the West Coast of Scotland. There she convenes a group of 50 people to camp, walk and talk about the effect that wild nature has on the human spirit. Her guests include Haydn, Wordsworth and Coleridge as she attempts to revive the Romantic ideal of spending time in wilderness landscapes in order to reconnect with nature. It's Mary's conviction that if we don't experience wild nature in our lives, we lose something vital of ourselves.
Produced by Rosie Boulton
A Monty Funk production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 09:30 Last Day (b04hysdg)
The Final Whistle
Very few sportsmen and women get to choose when they retire, as often it is forced through injury, loss of form or the capriciousness of the sports market. Even for those are able to pick their time find professional sport leaves a large hole in their lives. Former rugby union players Will James and Damian Hopley share their stories of the way they left, or were forced to leave the sport they loved and how they filled the void the sport left.
THU 09:45 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s3ltg)
An Athenian Atrocity
'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' masterful first-hand account charts the devastating wars between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to record what he saw as the greatest war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians today. And as father of modern Realpolitik, his influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Today: after an Athenian atrocity in Melos, both sides prepare for war in Sicily.
Abridger: Tom Holland
Reader: David Horovitch
Producer: Justine Willett.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b066dfbh)
Sixth form transition, Cilla Black tribute, Cook the Perfect
GCSE results are out today and the landscape post-16 is varied and competitive. Many argue it's becoming increasingly selective, meaning even if you've been at your school since the age of 11 you're by no means guaranteed a place. Jenni is joined by Dan Abramson, Head Teacher of King's College London Mathematics School, Patsy Kane, Executive Head Teacher at Whalley Range, an all-girl state school, and David Igoe, Chief Executive of the Sixth Form Colleges' Association.
Flower festivals have become big business and are mainly run by female volunteers. Jenni speaks to Angela Turner, designer of Salisbury Cathedral's forthcoming Magna Flora exhibition (celebrating 800 years since Magna Carta), and Letitia Rivett-Old, organiser of the Falmouth Flower Festival which celebrates the 350th anniversary of the church of King Charles the Martyr.
Claire Thomson is a chef and mother of three who is on a mission to inspire parents who feel they have to cook separate meals for the kids. Every day she makes a proper tea for the whole family, tweeting it at
5pm, hence the title of her book 'The Five O'Clock Apron'. Claire exlores how to deal with children who don't want to eat vegetables, and prepares a broccoli pesto pasta.
Today Cilla Black's funeral takes place in Liverpool, we pay our own tribute with a 2003 interview from the Woman's Hour archives, where Cilla talks to Martha Kearney about her life and career.
We're halfway through our Queens of Crime season and this week it's the turn of Josephine Tey. Famously private, Tey refused all interviews about her work, but has fans all over the world. Crime writers Val McDermid and Nicola Upson delve into the life and work of Josephine Tey.
THU 10:45 The Pillow Book (b065x672)
Series 8
Episode 4
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return! Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
Shonagon investigates Yukinari's disappearance from the Palace. Meanwhile the Lieutenant finds himself held hostage by his childhood friend, Takashi, who - it appears - has been commissioned to deliver the Lieutenant's head to someone within the Palace walls.
Inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b065x674)
The Harragas of Algeria
Why are so many young people leaving Algeria? Unlike Syria or Libya, Algeria is supposedly a beacon of stability in a troubled region and it enjoys vast wealth from its oil and gas resources. Yet it remains a major source of illegal migrants to Europe and thousands continue to risk their lives crossing the sea to get there. They are known as 'Harraga', derived from the verb to burn in Arabic because they burn their identity documents. President Bouteflika's right hand man has called the harraga phenomenon "a national tragedy". Lucy Ash meets some of those heading for Europe's Eldorado and those bereaved friends and families of harragas who have disappeared in the Mediterranean. John Murphy producing.
THU 11:30 Decoding the Masterworks (b065x676)
Paolo Uccello - The Hunt in the Forest
Dr Janina Ramirez is joined by Professor Martin Kemp and Professor Catherine Whistler of the Ashmolean museum to examine and decode the perspective brilliance of Paolo Uccello's painting The Hunt in the Forest.
The painting is thought to be one of the last major works completed by Uccello before his death in 1475 and is rich in the work he had done involving perspective. The huntsmen's lances, the branches of the trees and other decorative details all contribute to the focus on an apparent vanishing point at the heart of the painting in the gloom of the forest.
It's thought to be part of an elaborate domestic decoration, possibly for a linen box and it now holds pride of place in the Ashmolean's collection. You can see it by following the link below.
http://www.ashmolean.org/education/resources/resources2011/TOPHuntInTheForestNotes
Producer: Tom Alban.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b065rt83)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Four Thought (b05y0ql3)
Amanda Palmer
In the third of four editions from this year's Hay Festival a pregnant Amanda Palmer talks about the prospect of reconciling art and motherhood.
"And right now, at 24 weeks pregnant, all I can do is look at the female heroes who've preceded me and not descended into crappy boringness, and pray to the holy trinity: Patti Smith. Ani Difranco. Bjork. Hear my prayer: may I not get baby brain."
Producer: Lucy Proctor.
Image courtesy of Shervin Lainez.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b066cw6l)
Cancer treatment for older people, Romance fraud, Car hire insurance, Effective altruism
Consumer affairs programme.
THU 12:57 Weather (b065rt85)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b0684thq)
With three weeks left in the Labour leadership election, Yvette Cooper joins us for our final Election Call to answer listeners' questions.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have received their GCSE results. But are the grades reliable? Is it time for a single exam board? We speak to the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.
We take a tour of "Dismaland" - a "bemusement park" opened by the artist Banksy in Weston-super-Mare.
Presented by Martha Kearney.
THU 13:45 How to Have a Better Brain (b065xcgc)
Sleep
Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.
In this episode Sian analyses the importance of sleep to brain health with Professor Angela Clow, Dr Hannah Critchlow, and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who started keeping a sleep diary to combat memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b065vsfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Drama (b065xcgf)
Red and Blue
Hazard
Philip Palmer's series about ex-military wargamer Bradley Shoreham this time sees him hired to stress test the emergency services where his divide and rule tactics soon provoke hostility. Meanwhile his spectacular falling out with the super-rich hedge fund baroness, Alessandra Pacetti, threatens further shocking repercussions.
Directed by Gemma Jenkins.
THU 15:00 Open Country (b065xcgp)
Cornish Alps
From a ferry, Helen sees the sharp, conical peaks that dominate the coastline, known locally as the Cornish Alps. The skipper, John Wood, explains how they were formed from the spoils of the clay industry.
Helen takes a closer look at one of the largest of the spoil heaps near St Austell, known as the Sky Tip, and talks to primary school teacher Ann Teague and local landlord Andrew Dean about why they think it is such an important landmark. They explain how they see beauty in the scarred industrial landscape, and are campaigning to prevent a new town being built near the peak.
Helen then comes across a reunion of former clay workers at the Wheal Martyn museum, where she meets Arthur Northey and Colin Knellor. They started working in the industry as boys of fourteen and as well as recounting stories from their lives working in clay, they tell Helen that they would welcome development on the brownfield sites where the clay mines once stood.
From a viewing platform high above a quarry, Helen looks down at the lunar landscape of a working clay mine. Her guide is Ivor Bowditch who worked as a mine captain, then as a spokesperson for the china clay industry. He shows Helen what the mining company has done to regenerate the land after the clay has been taken from it. One of the main projects is a series of clay trails through the landscape, which Helen then explores with a group of walkers.
Presented by Helen Mark and produced by Beth McLeod.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b065rv5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b065s7hr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:00 on Sunday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b065xcgw)
Fifteen Seconds of Fame
Antonia Quirke hears from listeners who found 15 seconds of fame in the movies, like John Chapman whose hair can be seen in two scenes in Star Wars. Hanja Kochansky rubbed shoulders with Richard Burton in Cleopatra, while Diane Poole was picked from her school playground to take the plum part of Hayley Mills' sister in Whistle Down The Wind. Antonia visits Downham village to meet Diane and her best friend Pam Dyson, who played Pam in the movie. There's the tale of the badly behaved extra and the resident of Notting Hill who was greeted one morning by the sight of Rhys Ifans in his grey underpants on his neighbour's doorstep.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b065xcgy)
Why the expansion of the paleolithic brain was powered by cooked carbohydrates. Gareth Mitchell talks to Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, Mark Thomas, about the difficulties of establishing what our ancestors ate. More than half the world's corals grow in deep, cold waters, many around the shores of the British Isles. But a new study shows they are under severe threat from ocean acidification caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide. Gareth talks to Professor of Marine Biology, Murray Roberts, from Heriot Watt University about why these corals could all be gone by the end of the 21st century. This week's short-listed Royal Society Winton Prize book is Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code. Marnie Chesterton talks to the author Matthew Cobb. BBC Science and environment reporter, Jonathan Webb, joins Gareth from the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston to talk about why the grime on buildings could be a new source of air pollution and why carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be used to make carbon fibres.
THU 17:00 PM (b066fbyg)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b065rt87)
Four years after it closed, the British embassy in the Iranian capital is to be re-opened
THU 18:30 Meet David Sedaris (b065xch2)
Series 5
Little Guy, The Ones That Got Away, Now Hiring Friendly People
More from one of the world's best storytellers, David Sedaris, doing what he does best:
Reflections on being small in Little Guy, fulmination in the coffee queue in ‘Now Hiring Friendly People’.
An off the cuff question to David's boyfriend leads to a surprising answer in ‘The Ones That Got Away’.
Plus more questions from the audience.
Producer: Steve Doherty
A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2015.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b065xch4)
Peggy talks shop, and Rob explains himself.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b065xch8)
Banksy's Dismaland, Andrew Haigh, Resistance, Andy Warhol
A new exhibition, Dismaland, by the street artist Banksy, opens in a disused lido in Weston-super-Mare. Andrea Rose, former director of visual arts at the British Arts Council, reviews.
Director Andrew Haigh discusses his latest film 45 Years, which is about an elderly couple approaching their wedding anniversary and stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay.
The human rights journalist and author Caroline Moorehead looks at the new TV drama Resistance based on the true story of teenagers at the heart of the French resistance movement during World War II.
Stephen Smith, culture correspondent for BBC's Newsnight, discusses his new documentary in which he sets out to discover the real Andy Warhol in the hour-by-hour detail of his daily life.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Anna Bailey.
THU 19:45 The Pillow Book (b065x672)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
THU 20:00 The Report (b065xchb)
Tunisia on the Fault Line
The gun attack on the beach resort of Sousse that killed 38 tourists in June deterred many holidaymakers from travelling to Tunisia. But not journalist Frances Stonor Saunders. She set off for an all-inclusive holiday package to Hammamet, a nearby seaside resort. As well as deserted beaches and eerily empty hotels, Frances has a chance encounter with a man who helped foil a previous terror attack at a popular tourist site. And she hears why Tunisians are refusing to go to local hotels, despite desperate pleas from hotel owners.
Producer: Ben Crighton.
(Image credit: European Photopress Agency)
THU 20:30 In Business (b065xchg)
Graphene
It would take an elephant balanced on the tip of a pencil to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness cling film. That's the description those promoting this new wonder material like to use to illustrate the strength of graphene.
The atomic material was isolated by two scientists at Manchester University in 2004. Now, just over a decade and one Nobel prize later, Peter Day visits the newly opened the National Graphene Institute. Its aim is to bring business and science together, to develop potential future uses for graphene. Will this strategy succeed where Britain's past attempts to spin out scientific discoveries have not?
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.
(Image credit: The University of Manchester)
THU 21:02 BBC Inside Science (b065xcgy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 Fantasy Festival (b065x66y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b066fchf)
Tspiras resigns as Greek leader
What does PM's departure mean for Greek economy - and its relationship with the Eurozone ?
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b065xchl)
Go Set a Watchman
Episode 9
GO SET A WATCHMAN
In the literary event of the year Harper Lee's explosive second novel has finally been published. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes. This abridgement for Book at Bedtime brings a compelling and important release to Radio 4.
Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home. It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra. But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.
Harper Lee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', a book which has been studied, loved, wept over and revered by generations since its publication in 1960. She lives in Monroeville, Alabama.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Harper Lee
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
THU 23:00 Woman's Hour (b065xchn)
Late Night Woman's Hour: Dating in the Digital Age
Lauren Laverne and guests take a night night live look at how dating, identity and relationships are changing.
With Philippa Perry, Monica Whitty, Hannah Jane Parkinson, Charly Lester and Irma Kurtz
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Luke Mulhall.
FRIDAY 21 AUGUST 2015
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b065rt9j)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s3ltg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b065rt9l)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b065rt9n)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b065rt9q)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b065rt9s)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06850w7)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Venerable Peter Eagles.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b06855zc)
Farming Today calf, Wheely boats, Condensed nature
Should the countryside be used as a haven for wildlife or to produce food? Anna Hill meets Marek Nowakowski from the Wildlife farming company, who is doing research with DEFRA to see if its possible to condense wildlife in to smaller areas, therefore using a smaller amount of land which could be used for food production, whilst still encouraging the same amount of biodiversity.
All this week Farming Today is exploring how rural tourism impacts on the countryside, its people and its economy. Chris Eldon visits a farm who have diversified in to waterway tours for the less able and elderly.
The sex of the Farming Today calf is revealed, along with its all important new name.
Presented by Felicity Evans and produced by Ruth Sanderson.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx6vq)
Hawfinch
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Martin Hughes-Games presents the Hawfinch. The Hawfinch is a large thickset finch with a massive bill. It uses this to crack open hawthorn and cherry stones as well as hornbeam seeds to get at the soft kernels inside. In doing so, it exerts a force of around 180 pounds per square inch.
FRI 06:00 Today (b066dfzy)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather, Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b065rvpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 The History of the Peloponnesian War (b05s3stf)
The Beginning of the End
'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' masterful first-hand account chronicles the devastating wars between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to record what he saw as the greatest war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians today. And as father of modern Realpolitik, his influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Today: an expedition to conquer Sicily spells the beginning of the end of Athenian power.
Abridger: Tom Holland
Reader: David Horowitch
Producer: Justine Willett.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b066dg00)
Anna Watkins Olympic Rower, Jack The Ripper, Gay marriage, Women's Vote myths
Sport and Motherhood: Olympic Gold Medal Rower Anna Watkins about her return to training for Rio 2016 with Eleanor Oldroyd BBC Sports presenter. What are the challenges faced by high profile female sports women who continue to compete after pregnancy.
Is it time to call "time" on Jack The Ripper? What is our fascination with this Victorian serial killer of women? With Alyson Brown, Professor of History at Edge Hill University and Katherine Connelly historian and biographer of Sylvia Pankhurst.
Men and Relationships: Gay Marriage, with Harvey B Brown a gay married man who describes the importance of his parents long and happy marriage.
Laura Green, a young entrepreneur from Runcorn with Down's Syndrome who set up her own fashion business.
Women's Vote Myths: as Labour party members began to cast their leadership votes this week, many a commentator highlighted Jeremy Corbyn's popularity with female voters because of the appeal of his "principles". But how important are "principles" to women voters? Katharine Peacock, Managing Director of research consultancy ComRes analyses women's voting behaviour.
FRI 10:45 The Pillow Book (b065xh39)
Series 8
Episode 5
Lady Shonagon and Lieutenant Yukinari return! Robert Forrest's popular thriller set in 10th century Japan.
Shonagon receives an invitation to visit Lord Asaji in his grotto. Meanwhile Takashi delivers the Lieutenant Yukinari's head, as he was commissioned to do.
Inspired by the writings of Sei Shonagon, a poet and lady-in-waiting to the Empress of the 10th Century Japanese court.
Written by Robert Forrest.
Directed by Lu Kemp.
A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.
FRI 11:00 The Gover Way (b037r5d9)
In 1989 the doors closed for the last time at Alf Gover's Cricket School in East Hill, Wandsworth, South London.
Writer Charlie Connelly, an alumnus of the legendary coaching venue, explores the extraordinary global legacy of this outwardly charmless but inwardly magical building and the extraordinary man who ran it.
Alf Gover enjoyed a distinguished career as a fast bowler for Surrey and England during the 1930s, but it was the cricket school he gave his name to in 1938, and which changed little over the next half century, that made his reputation as, in the words of Wisden, "cricket's Mr Chips".
From legends of the game like Viv Richards and Garry Sobers to Sunday afternoon sloggers and uncoordinated schoolboys, Alf Gover would devote exactly the same level of attention to their straight bat and high left elbow.
The claustrophobic, gas-lit, draughty south London venue became a mecca to players from all over the world - even Harold Pinter had a picture of himself batting at the Gover school hanging over his desk, while a young John Major would save up his pocket money for lessons from the master.
Featuring archive recordings and interviews with Nicholas Parsons, Sir Trevor McDonald and former Surrey captain Mickey Stewart, as well as family members and cricket people from all levels of the game, Charlie argues that Alf Gover deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest English cricket figures of all time.
Presenter: Charlie Connelly
Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Sisters (b065xhth)
Series 1
No Wi-Fi
Susan has hidden Fiona's work phone, in a bid to encourage a healthier work-life balance. But Fiona declares Susan a hypocrite due to her own constant internet use and online gaming. Each sister thinks the other is completely addicted so they set themselves a challenge to go without their devices for 24 hours.
In the empty hours that lie ahead, the pair try to find ways to occupy themselves but inevitably end up getting increasingly irate with one another.
As they try to stave off the building frustration, Susan makes a rash decision, while Blake's attempts to hijack the neighbours' Wi-Fi don't end well.
Written by Susan Calman.
Starring Susan Calman, Ashley Jensen and Nick Helm.
Producer: Mollie Freedman Berthoud
Executive Producer: Paul Schlesinger
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in August 2015.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b065rt9v)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Four Thought (b05pnw2z)
Amy Golden
Amy Golden, who is seriously disabled - she can move only her right arm and cannot speak - shares what life is like through her eyes. In an essay read by actor Rhiannon Neads, she reveals her frustrations, her battle with depression and also the pleasures of being able to watch what other people are up to without being noticed. "I think perhaps they sometimes allow me to pick up on things because they don't realise that there's a thinking, feeling person inside this body," she says. Her talk is a passionate plea to be heard and noticed. "If you want to know what I want to say you have to focus on me," Amy insists. "You can't ignore me, or pretend I'm not here."
Producer: Sheila Cook
Editor: Richard Knight.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b065xhtk)
Opencast coal mining, Mortgages with low deposits
As the UK's remaining deep coal mines all shut down this year, Peter White asks what's the future for opencast mining?
A look at the reported surge in low rate mortgages that only need a small deposit.
And how are the improved defences coming along after the floods of Winter 2013?
FRI 12:57 Weather (b065rt9x)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b0689wgk)
Rigorous analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Shaun Ley.
Pressure is growing on the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. We hear from a politician whose sympathy for the inquiry is fast running out, and from a former Foreign Secretary who suspects some are trying to neuter it.
Andy Burnham's Labour leadership campaign, has warned the party that "several thousand" Tory infiltrators could have obtained votes in the contest. We'll hear from some of those who say they've been wrongly excluded.
And the woman who got a shilling for her trouble after answering a message in a bottle that has been floating at sea for more than one hundred years.
FRI 13:45 How to Have a Better Brain (b065xhtm)
Diet
Evidence-based, information-rich and full of smart tips and techniques, How To Have A Better Brain delivers a practical and optimistic guide to boosting brain power throughout our lives. Drawing on the latest neurological research into protecting and preserving cognitive function, journalist and broadcaster Sian Williams, currently studying for an MSc in Psychology, investigates the best ways to avert, and in some cases even reverse, mental deterioration.
In this episode Sian analyses the importance of diet to brain health with Professor Barbara Sahakian, Dr Hannah Critchlow, and neuropsychologist Dr Catherine Loveday and her mum, Scilla, a former Consultant Psychiatrist who took up eating chocolate every day to combat memory loss.
Producer: Dixi Stewart.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b065xch4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Brief Lives (b065xj53)
Series 8
Episode 1
Drama: Brief Lives by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly.
Return of the series about Frank Twist and his team of legal representatives. A naked young woman is arrested for protesting against the fur trade, but this is just the beginning of a tortuous maze for Frank.
Director/Producer Gary Brown.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b065xj64)
Bedfordshire
Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from Bedfordshire. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness and Anne Swithinbank answer the audience questions.
Produced by Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio.
FRI 15:45 Joe Smith and His Waxworks (b065xk1q)
The Waxy-way
An extraordinary account of a showman's life drawn from his memoirs about touring a rough waxworks show around the southern counties of England in the 1840s. Read by Tony Lidington.
Published in 1896, Bill Smith's memoirs recall his early life working for his Uncle Joe, whose touring waxworks show was well-known at country fairs in the south of England in the middle of the 19th century.
It's an extraordinary story of the hardships of an itinerant performer's life, in an age when the great historical characters from kings to vagabonds, and famous scenes from the Bible, literature and fairy tales were brought to the towns and villages of England by the showmen and storytellers of the travelling fairs.
In today's episode we hear Uncle Joe in action as he describes the execution of King Charles I and the love life of Bluff King Hal in his own inimitable way - with very little regard for historical accuracy.
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b065xk1s)
Khaled al-Asaad, Jazz Summers, Jack Gold, Manual Contreras, Dawn Wofford
Presenter Lucy Ash remembers:
Khaled Al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist beheaded by Islamic State who was famous for his in depth knowledge and love of the ancient city of Palmyra;
Jazz Summers, the maverick music manager who took Wham! to China and had a reputation as a hard man;
Jack Gold, multi-BAFTA winning TV director of the Naked Civil Servant and Goodnight Mr Tom;
Manuel Contreras, the army general who ran Chile's brutal secret police during Pinochet's dictatorship;
And Dawn Wofford, the showjumping champion who won her first competition at the age of three.
Producer: Neil George.
FRI 16:30 More or Less (b065xk1v)
Soaring diabetes - is there some good news?
Diabetes
We heard earlier this week that there had been a 60% rise in the number of cases of diabetes in the last ten years. But is there actually some good news in these figures?
Odd (attempted) burglaries
Police in Leicestershire have been sending forensic teams only to attempted burglaries at houses with even numbers. The papers reported it as a scandal driven by money-saving. But was it in fact a sensible attempt to work out how best to deploy tight resources?
Men who pay for sex
Do one in 10 men regularly pay for sex, as a Channel 4 Documentary claimed recently?
Loop
The ancient Greeks saw magic in the geometry of an ellipse and now mathematical writer Alex Bellos has but this to use in a new variant of pool.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b065xk1x)
Joanna and Jenny – Living Where We Work
Fi Glover with a conversation between friends and colleagues from a charity in London’s East End who find that it helps to live in the same world as the young people they work with, recorded in the mobile Booth in Tower Hamlets - another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves 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 (b066d2gy)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b065rt9z)
Macedonia has become the latest flash-point in Europe's migrant crisis. Police used tear-gas against hundreds of people trying to cross the border from Greece
FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (b065xk1z)
Series 15
Episode 2
A satirical take on politics, media and celebrity recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Featuring Jon Culshaw, Debra Stephenson, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod and Duncan Wisbey.
Produced by Bill Dare. A BBC Radio Comedy Production.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b065xk21)
It's Mungo's 1st birthday party today. Keen to avoid it, Brian finds a bit of de-antlering to help Adam with. Brian gets hold of Martyn Gibson to find out what's gone on at Berrow Farm - he learns that Rob has quit. To Jennifer, Brian questions Charlie's judgement - it's a shame to lose Rob from Berrow, he feels. Jennifer compares incompatible Charlie and Rob to Brian and Adam.
Kenton snaps at Jolene and later apologises - he's ashamed of himself as she points out she has been running the bar on her own this last week. Kenton opens up - he always felt second best as a kid and questions his worth now. But he feels Jolene changed everything, coming into his life. Now, whilst he can take responsibility for ruining his own prospects, he can't forgive himself for ruining Jolene's life as well.
David breaks it to Jill that they plan to have Heather move in to Brookfield - things in Prudhoe haven't been working out. Jill comes straight in to say of course they must do what's right for Heather, even suggesting which room will be best for Heather. With great self-control, Jill assures David she'll be quite alright when she moves out. She has experienced so much joy at Brookfield - and this is what's so hard for David. But Jill says she shall be quite alright when she moves out.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b066d2h2)
Andras Schiff, The Bad Education Movie, Patrick Ness
Samira Ahmed talks to pianist Andras Schiff, as he prepares to play Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Proms.
Young adult author Patrick Ness on his new novel, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, about the ordinary life of a teenager.
Hannah McGill reviews The Bad Education Movie, the big screen offspring of Jack Whitehall's hit BBC Three series, which follows the characters on a school trip after their GCSE's.
FRI 19:45 The Pillow Book (b065xh39)
[Repeat of broadcast at
10:45 today]
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b065xk23)
Jeremy Corbyn, Dan Jones, Polly Toynbee, Elizabeth Truss
Ritula Shah presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, London, with the Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn MP, the historian Dan Jones, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee and the Secetary of State for the Department of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Elizabeth Truss.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b065xk25)
John Gray: Recalling Eric Ambler
John Gray recalls the life and work of the thriller writer Eric Ambler and finds uncomfortable echoes of today's society in the pages of his novels.
"What they reveal is a world ruled by financial and geopolitical forces that care nothing for the human individual. Most unsettlingly, this world is unmistakably European."
Producer: Sheila Cook.
FRI 21:00 What Is a Story? (b065xk27)
Omnibus: Part 2
Marina Warner - in the company of leading contemporary writers - looks at the world of contemporary fiction, considering writing and storytelling from a number of different angles.
Marina is the Chair of the Man Booker International Prize 2015 and this programme draws on the expertise of this year's International Booker judging panel, the views of the shortlisted writers, as well as other key literary talent.
She speaks with writers as diverse as Julian Barnes, Michelle Roberts, Fanny Howe, Marlene van Niekerk, Alain Mabanckou, Lydia Davis, Edwin Frank, Elleke Boehmer, Wen-Chin Ouyang, Daniel Medin, Nadeem Aslam and this year's Man Booker International winner, Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
Key to this exploration will be questions around the boundaries between fact and fiction, which Marina believes are central to any discussion of the subject, since readers' pleasure depends so much on trust built up between the storyteller/writer and the audience.
In this compilation created from five programmes originally broadcast in July this year, Marina
considers the work of imagination in making up stories and looks at older forms of narrative, including animal fables, fairy tales, ghost stories and myths.
Producer: Kevin Dawson
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b065rtb1)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b066tqbj)
Migrants rush to the border between Greece and Macedonia.
Police fire tear gas -- we speak to Macedonia's interior ministry.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b065xk29)
Go Set a Watchman
Episode 10
GO SET A WATCHMAN
In the literary event of the year Harper Lee's explosive second novel has finally been published. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes. This abridgement for Book at Bedtime brings a compelling and important release to Radio 4.
Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home. It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra. But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.
Harper Lee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', a book which has been studied, loved, wept over and revered by generations since its publication in 1960. She lives in Monroeville, Alabama.
Read by Fenella Woolgar
Written by Harper Lee
Abridged by Robin Brooks
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.
FRI 23:00 Woman's Hour (b065xk2c)
Late Night Woman's Hour: Masculinity, Being a Man in 2015
Lauren Laverne talks frankly to five incredibly different men about how they fit into society in 2015.
With comedian Richard Herring, Dr Leighton Seal who runs an Andrology clinic to treat erectile dysfunction at St George's Hospital in London, Lyricist Mikill Pane, Lincoln Jopp, a former Colonel in the British Army who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery and philosopher Phillip Blond who runs the think tank Respublica.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Rebecca Myatt.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b065xk2f)
Stanley and Sonja – Back on the Bike
Fi Glover with a couple who met through cycling over 50 years ago. He's still pedalling, but she's stopped. If he has his way, though, she'll soon be back in the saddle. Recorded in the mobile Booth at Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey, it's another conversation in the series that proves 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