SATURDAY 26 DECEMBER 2015

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b06s6xsk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:15 Christmas Meditation (b06sdvww)
A reflection on the meaning of Christmas, with Tina Beattie, theologian and writer. Tina looks back on 2015 and tells us how events have influenced her Christmas. In her first year as a Grandmother, she recalls the birth of her own son, on Boxing Day. He is now a father and her memories reflect on how generations of family cope with the fears and hopes of the coming year.

The music of Simon and Garfunkel, The sounds of Silence, Christmas in the Holy Land: St Luke's Gospel 2:3-12, Monks of the Syrian Church and Kim Andre Arnesen's Magnificat, Tina Beattie's music choice for the Christmas meditation.

Readers: Juliet Stevenson and Sir John Gielgud

Tina Beattie is a member of the Catholic Women Speak who have published "Catholic Women Speak: Bringing Our Gifts to the Table" published by Paulist Press: catholicwomenspeak.com.

Producer: Carmel Lonergan.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b06t4pw9)
The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees

Episode 5

In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?

Over the next two years he travelled across Britain, to Europe and the USA, to the workshops and barns of a generation of craftsmen committed to working in wood. He watched them make over 45 artefacts and tools that have been in continual use for centuries, if not millennia.

For his final project, Rob wants to create a totem to embody his reverence not just for his tree, but for all Ash trees - a writing desk. It's an ambitious project. With his friend Andy Dix, he selects the perfect piece of timber for each component. The finished product and its distinctive smell takes Rob back to the day his tree was felled. As his time with the tree comes to an end, his new rapport with the ash is just beginning.

This is a tale about the joy of making things in wood, of its touch and smell, its many uses, and the resonant, calming effect of running our hands along a wooden surface. It is a celebration of man's close relationship with this greatest of natural materials and a reminder of the value of things made by hand and made to last.

Abridged by Jo Coombs
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06s6xsm)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06s6xsp)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06s6xsr)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b06s6xst)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06sdvwy)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b06sdvx0)
Knit One, Heal One

A listener on why knitting is a life saver, and another on his photo of 2015. iPM@bbc.co.uk.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b06s6xsy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b06s6xt0)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b06sdxfb)
Tale Valley, Devon

The Tale Valley is a little known corner of Devon that tourists tend to bypass on their way down to Cornwall. However it has a rich history, and as Helen Mark discovers, man and nature have made an impact on the farming landscape we see today.

One night in May 1941 this quiet valley witnessed the horror of war, when a German bomber crashed - scattering its four airmen across four parishes. Farmer Derek Johns takes Helen alongside the River Tale to the spot where his father came across one of the bodies as he was due to milk the cows the following morning. Helen also hears the stories of those who were children at the time of the crash, to understand how the event affected the landscape and its people.

Theatre director and former drama lecturer John Somers tells Helen how an ambitious production was developed out of this true story, set in the field next to where one of the German airmen fell. Involving hundreds of residents, the play by Tale Valley Community Theatre is typical of the style of production John puts on to bring the community together, and give them an insight into their local area which they might not have otherwise.

Helen meets Caius Nicholas, a young aspiring actor who had a lead role in one of the company's most recent productions, which was based on a real life soldier named on the war memorial in the village of Payhembury. Helen then heads to a local landmark, Hembury Fort, where she volunteers to cut back scrub and bracken which has overwhelmed this historic site. Former Devon county archaeologist, Professor Frances Griffith, and Carrel Jevons, who looks after this privately-owned hill fort, outline the plans to clear the vegetation which will allow them to find out more about the Roman, Iron Age and Neolithic remains that lie below the ground.

Finally, Helen returns to the River Tale where she goes in search of the elusive water vole on the Escot estate. Sarah Hogg from the Tale Valley Trust and Derek Gow explain how the animal was successfully reintroduced to the river, continuing a tradition of bringing back species to encourage man and nature to work hand in hand.

Presenter: Helen Mark
Producer: Fiona Clampin.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b06sdxfd)
Farming Today This Week: A look back at farming in 2015

This programme looks back over the last twelve months. What were the highs and lows of 2015 from the perspective of farming and the countryside?

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Emma Campbell.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b06s6xt2)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b06sdxfg)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b06sdxfj)
Russell Grant

Join Aasmah Mir and Suzy Klein for a live Boxing Day Saturday Live.

Russell Grant has been synonymous with astrology ever since he interpreted the stars on breakfast TV in the 1980s. But if you remember his flamboyant outfits and presenting style, it wasn't hard to see where his real love lay. In 2011 he joined the cast of Strictly and it catapulted him back into the world of theatre, a passion which had started some years earlier at drama school. He joins Aasmah and Suzy to talk about his glittering career and his new project, an astrology themed colouring book.

Bay City Rollers leader singer Les McKeown takes time out of their revival tour to tell us about how different it is now from their 1970's heyday. We'll check out if he's still wearing tartan.

Chinelo Bally's passion for sewing was fuelled when she appeared on the BBC's Great British Sewing Bee programme in 2014. Despite only being in sewing for a couple of years and never having used a pattern, she was encouraged to make her passion her profession. Four years on from starting sewing she's made it her business as a designer and seamstress. She'll join be talking about the Nigerian technique of free sewing, outfit embellishment and the joy of African prints.

In February this year, Sean O'Brien was body-shamed after photos of him dancing were posted online. After his story went viral, an LA woman launched a global online search to find the person they dubbed "Dancing Man" in order to invite him to a big dance party in California. He joins Aasmah and Suzy to talk about his extraordinary year, and how he has used the attention to support anti bullying charities.

We'll touch base with the Coxless Crew, a team of women who will be achieving a world first by rowing 8,446 miles unsupported across the Pacific Ocean in 2015, from America to Australia, and in the process aim to raise quarter of a million pounds for their two charities Walking With the Wounded and Breast Cancer Care.

We've the inheritance tracks of Jon Culshaw. He chooses Memories performed by Elvis Presley and The Boy with the Thorn in his side by The Smiths.

JP meets Ken Dodd to talk about Christmas's past and we have your thank yous.

Russell Grant's Art of Astrology is out on December 31st
Freehand Fashion by Chinelo Bally is out now
A Christmas Shang-A-Lang: The Bay City Rollers Album is out now and their next gig is in Edinburgh on 27th December
Ken Dodd is doing two shows in his home city of Liverpool at the Philharmonic Hall on December 28th and 29th

Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Karen Dalziel.


SAT 10:30 Archive on 4 (b06sdxfl)
Jay Rayner Pigs Out

Jay Rayner gets serious and sybaritic about pigs - starting with medieval Britain swarming with wild boars and ending with 21st century pigs cannibalised for human spare parts.

Jay muses on recent rumours surrounding a certain Prime Minister and a pigs head. Does the pig-image make it all the more taboo? This is the extraordinary and, at times, shocking tale of our relationship with the allegedly filthy animal.

The archive groans and grunts with pig - much of it anthropomorphic, some fact and some fiction.

Remember the Tamworth Two who escaped a Wiltshire abattoir in 1998 and went on the run? They were renamed Butch and Sundance and their intelligence was celebrated by the world's press. Rescued by a popular tabloid, they escaped the slaughterhouse. Jay Rayner, on the other hand, has dutifully been to see pigs killed and dealt with the carcasses.

Animal lovers beware - this portrait of our fellow omnivores is controversial. Jay is a non-observant Jew who loves pork - he cooks it, eats it, reviews it, reveres it.

Jay also considers pig as man's best friend, delighting in the poetry of Dylan Thomas and in another pig fancier, Winston Churchill. The upper classes have always loved their pigs.

In the hands of George Orwell however, the intelligence of the pig makes for some dark meat. And Jay hears from comedian Aatif Nawaz who explains why his mother can't even say the word 'p*g.'

Plenty here about the pigs' fitness for cannibalising human spare parts too. Our porcine friends share some startling similarities to humans, including the size and pumping capacities of their hearts.

Produced by Sarah Cuddon
A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Forum (b06vfwd0)
Core: A Journey to the Centre of the Things

How startling discoveries about the core of the earth and the oldest star yet known help us understand our place in the grand scheme of things. Tim Marlow and the astrophysicist Arif Babul, the astronomer Anna Frebel and the earth scientist Paul Savage go on a quest to find the core or centre.(Photo: a split Earth showing a molten core).


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b06s6xt5)
A Boxing Day Special Edition

Looking back at some historic FOOC despatches: Allan Little, Bridget Kendall, Emma Jane Kirby, Steve Evans and Gabriel Gatehouse read pieces by Fergal Keane, Caroline Wyatt, Charles Wheeler, John Crawley and Kevin Connolly.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b06s6xt7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (b06sdxfn)
(Very) Personal Finance

Money is at the heart of our most personal relationships, like it or not. It's also the root of a large proportion of relationship breakdowns. Being able to talk honestly and openly about it is critical, and yet it can be hard to talk about money.

What happens if one's a spender, and the other's a saver? One young couple talk to Relate counsellor Peter Saddington about where their different attitudes to money come from, and how they might begin to put their relationship on a firmer financial footing.

Professor Mark Fenton-O'Creevy from the Open University shares research that reveals how our emotions affect our relationship with money, and each other.

And Joanne Edwards, chair of Resolution and partner at Penningtons Manches, shares lessons from the divorce courts.

Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Lesley McAlpine.


SAT 12:30 Dead Ringers (b06scz91)
Christmas Special

Politicians, media pundits and celebrities are given a Christmas roasting, with lashings of satirical gravy. The perfect antidote to all the tears you've shed over the Christmas TV ads.

Where can you experience the last ever episode of Downton Abbey, a preview of The Archers, and the shock revelation that none of the news on Radio 4's Today programme during the Christmas season is real. It's all pre-recorded while Sara, Jon and the rest of the team sun themselves in the Bahamas. All that and more in the Christmas edition of Dead Ringers.

Starring Jon Culshaw, Lewis MacLeod, Jan Ravens, Debra Stephenson and Duncan Wisbey.
Producer...Bill Dare
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b06s6xt9)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b06s6xtc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:15 Jon Canter - The Dog (b04tjdxx)
Richard Wilson stars as Fraser McDonald, a counsellor trying to save a marriage on its last legs.

Jon Canter's hilarious comedy features Charlie and Apples – two people who started off as boss and secretary and have ended up as adversaries on the cusp of murder. With over thirty years of experience, has Fraser finally come up against the one couple in a million who couldn't be helped?

When he's not trying to help people, Fraser likes to spend time with the love of his life - Grace, a golden retriever. Their relationship is as simple as it is loving, with a deep understanding that seems to evade most humans. Fraser would be lost without her.

The theatre version was first performed at Frinton Summer Theatre 2014.

Cast:
Fraser.........Richard Wilson
Apples........Jasmine Hyde
Charlie........Patrick Marlowe

Directed by Edward Max
Produced by Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 14:00 Let's Go Round Again - The Story of The Magic Roundabout (b06gqh8m)
In October 1965, a new version of the French children's television programme Le Manège Enchanté was shown on the BBC. Scripted and voiced by the Playschool presenter Eric Thompson, and broadcast with its English title - The Magic Roundabout, it soon became a firm favourite with viewers of all ages. So much so, that when the transmission time was changed to an earlier timeslot, there were so many complaints to the BBC from outraged adults, that it was moved back to its place just before the six o'clock news.

To celebrate the programme's 50th anniversary, Sophie Thompson, Eric's daughter, and his wife Phyllida Law tell us the story behind the much-loved series. We'll hear tales of Zebedee, Florence and Ermintrude, and how Dougal the dog nearly caused international relations with France to break down.

With contributions from Fenella Fielding, Nigel Planer and Mark Kermode, climb aboard for one more spin on the Magic Roundabout.

Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Presenter: Sophie Thompson & Phyllida Law.


SAT 14:30 Drama (b06sf10d)
The Bed-Sitting Room

Three years since the nuclear misunderstanding which led to the third world war ("and it's no idle boast when I remind you that this was the shortest world war on record... two minutes twenty eight seconds... including the signing of the Peace Treaty which is now on sale at Her Majesty's Stationery Office with a free T-shirt") survivors gather together on the former-streets of London.

In amongst the rubble, Captain Kak and his fiancee Penelope find Lord Fortnum, who is convinced he's turning into a bed-sitting room. With property prices what they are, Kak should be on to a good thing.

This atmospheric, surrealist play was originally written by John Antrobus and Spike Milligan.

Adapted by John Antrobus and Paul Merton.

Captain Kak ...... Paul Merton
Lord Fortnum ...... Derek Jacobi
Mate ...... Bernard Cribbins
Penelope ...... Catherine Tate
The BBC ...... Corrie Corfield
Mrs Ethel Skroake ...... Suki Webster
The Vicar ...... John Antrobus
Captain ...... Sean Baker
Seaman ...... Richard Pepple

Music and FX by Jerry Peal.

Director: Sam Michell.
Producer: Victoria Lloyd

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015.


SAT 15:30 Soul Music (b06s9d1h)
Series 21

Fairytale of New York

The tragi-comic tale of love gone sour and shattered dreams eloquently depicted in the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York is the focus of this edition of Soul Music. James Fearnley, pianist with The Pogues recounts how the song started off as a transatlantic love story between an Irish seafarer missing his girl at Christmas before becoming the bittersweet reminiscences of the Irish immigrant down on his luck in the Big Apple, attempting to win back the woman he wooed with promises of 'cars big as bars and rivers of gold'.

Gaelic footballer Alisha Jordan came to New York to play football aged 17 from County Meath in Ireland. Despite being dazzled by the glamour and pace of New York City, she missed her family and friends and stencilled the words 'Fairytale of New York' on her apartment wall as an affirmation of her determination to make the most of her new life in the city. When she was later attacked on the street by a stranger, the words came to signify her battle to recover and not to
let the horrific facial injuries she suffered defeat her or her ambition to captain her football team.
Rachel Burdett posted the video of the song onto her friend Michelle's social media page to let her know she was thinking of her and praying for her safe return when Michelle went missing suddenly one December. Stories of redemption and of a recognition that Christmas is often not the fairytale we are sold, told through a seasonal favourite.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b06sf10g)
Christmas Day party, Preparing for panto, Is Lucy the real star of the Peanuts movies?

Highlights of our Radio 4 Christmas Day Party. Plus Dr Anna Whale, a lecturer in psychology and memory explores why Christmas is a time that lends itself to enduring memories. Daisy-May Hudson, her mother Beverley, and her sister Bronte, talk about being homeless.

Retired Brigadier Nicky Moffat shares her thoughts on whether now is the right time to open up ground combat roles to women.
Hygge is the Danish concept of cosiness. Helen Russell, British author of 'The Year of Living Danishly' and Susanne Nilsson, a Danish teacher at Morley College who teaches hygge in her lessons talk about the concept and why we Brits need to have more hygge in our lives.

As Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie opens, we ask; Who is the the real star of Peanuts? Not soppy Charlie Brown but feisty funny Lucy Van Pelt, who's the subject of a new pocket book called How To Be a Grrrl. Journalist and fan Hadley Freeman and writer Jenny Colgan sing her praises.

And we follow 2013 X Factor winner Sam Bailey as she gets ready to make her pantomime debut.

Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Sophie Powling.


SAT 17:00 The Listening Project (b06spqlk)
The Listening Project on the Road

Fi Glover is joined by John Humphrys and Jon Snow to reflect on conversations gathered during the booth's first summer on the road, and by some of the producers who recorded them.

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.


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b06s6xtf)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b06s6xth)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06s6xtk)
Met Office warns of danger to life after rivers overwhelm defences in north-west England. A plan to evacuate rebel fighters from a suburb of Damascus put on hold.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b06sf10j)
Clive Anderson, Arthur Smith, Martin Freeman, Idris Elba, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Max Hastings, Black Peaches, Roo Panes

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Martin Freeman, Idris Elba, Jocelyn Jee Esien and Max Hastings for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Black Peaches and Roo Panes.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b06sf10l)
Maggie Smith

Millions will miss Lady Violet's withering one-liners now that Downton Abbey is over. Chris Bowlby profiles one of Britain's most successful actors: Maggie Smith. Her extraordinary career has spanned Shakespeare on stage, Hollywood films and, of course, popular televison drama.

Producer: Smita Patel

Photo credit: "Downton Abbey" / Carnival Films.


SAT 19:15 Open Book (b0629qxr)
Open Book: Why We Read

Mariella Frostrup and guests discuss why we read, and the pleasure that this strange and solitary activity has given millions. Mariella and her guests John Mullan, Naomi Alderman, Damian Barr and neuroscientist Joe Devlin, will be investigating the history of reading, and the impact it has on our brains and asking what would happen if we didn't read fiction. Clive James will reveal the Book He'd Never Lend and Sarah Dillon will be exploring the pleasures of close reading.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b06sdxfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 today]


SAT 21:00 Drama (b06s7ztr)
Memsahib Emma

Episode 1

Tanika Gupta's glorious adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma is set in mid 19th Century India.

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Bhattacharjee sees no need for love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others.

But her plans soon lead her into all kinds of trouble.

Emma Bhattacharjee ....... Manjinder Virk
Roy ....... Navin Chowdhry
Bhattacharjee ....... Silas Carson
Krishna ....... Maya Sondhi
Sumit Chowdhury ....... Raj Ghatak
Miss Bates ....... Meera Syal
Mrs Weston ....... Tracy Wiles
Mr Elton ....... Leo Wan

Directed by Tracey Neale


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b06s6xtq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Drama (b05s35wy)
13A, 13B

When Jess turns up in the seat next to Phil on a flight to Rome, it soon becomes clear that it's not a coincidence. But even the best-laid plans can be derailed by mysterious strangers and a fear of flying. Romcom by award-winning playwright Peter Souter.

Director Alison Hindell

Peter Souter's best-known radio play is Goldfish Girl which won both the Sony Gold and the Tinniswood Award. He has written extensively for Radio 4 and for ITV wrote Married, Single, Other. His debut stageplay Hello/Goodbye was produced at the Hampstead Theatre and was a development of a radio play called That's Mine, This is Yours.

Ruth Jones became a household name starring in Gavin and Stacey which she co-wrote with James Corden. Previously she had appeared in many radio and stage plays and featured in Fat Friends on ITV for which she subsequently also wrote. She is currently filming the fourth series of Stella which she created, stars in and produces for Sky.

Stephen Tompkinson began his acting career on radio and rapidly became a well-known tv star in Ballykissangel. He has rarely been absent from television since, most recently starring in DCI Banks on ITV, as well as making frequent radio and stage appearances including Spamalot and A Book by Lester Tricklebank.

BBC Cymru Wales production.


SAT 23:00 Round Britain Quiz (b06s89lx)
Programme 10, 2015

(10/12)
Tom Sutcliffe chairs a contest between the Scots (Val McDermid and Roddy Lumsden) and Northern Ireland (Polly Devlin and Brian Feeney). The last time they clashed, the Scots claimed victory: can the tables be turned today? The stakes are high, as this is the last appearance either team will be making in the programme this year.

The panellists might sigh with relief at seeing references to crime fiction and popular music; but what about cricket, 19th century art, Classical mythology and the geography of Paris? They'll need knowledge of all of these to arrive at the answers to today's impenetrable-sounding problems, with Tom on hand to provide a gentle hint, or even just a raised eyebrow, where necessary.

Tom will also have the answer to the teaser puzzle which may have kept you guessing since last week's contest.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 The Echo Chamber (b06s8029)
Series 6

Wendy Cope and Lachlan Mackinnon

Paul Farley hears new poems from Wendy Cope and Lachlan Mackinnon at their home in Ely. Since 'Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis', her first collection, was published in 1986, Wendy Cope has been among the most popular of poets in Britain and her poems have lent ideas to the national imagination. Her husband, Lachlan Mackinnon, has published four highly regarded collections too and is a great poet of love and loss as well as being as funny as his wife. Producer: Tim Dee.



SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER 2015

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2j8)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:15 Writing a New Nigeria (b06pxp37)
Suffering and Smiling

A portrait of Nigeria, seen through the eyes of a new generation of writers and poets.

In the first of two programmes spoken word poet Wana Udobang introduces us to Lagos: her home city, a megacity, an economic powerhouse and, according to its resident writers, the craziest, most congested, most entrepreneurial, hustling, joyful, energetic and creative space in Africa. Fela Kuti captured the essence of Lagos in his song Shuffering and Shmiling'.

As she travels around Lagos, Wana considers how writers are reflecting the issues and concerns of contemporary Nigeria. When Boko Haram kidnapped 270 schoolgirls from Chibok in northern Nigeria April 2014, poet Titilope Sonuga responded with 'Hide and Seek', which captured the country's shock and outrage. But the poem also asked the nation to take a long, hard look at itself, asking how it created the conditions which led to the kidnapping.

Another issue for which Nigeria has achieved notoriety are 419 scams. These were originally e-mails from fraudsters who inveigled their victims into parting with their banks details but now '419' has become shorthand for any fraud in Nigeria. Writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani explains how 419 scams became the subject of her humorous first novel 'I Do Not Come to You by Chance'.

In Balogun Market in the heart of Lagos, Wana Udobang considers how Nigerians navigate by language, slipping in an out of character, dialect and language according to the circumstances. And this flexibility is reflected in poetry too. Efe Paul Azino and Dike-Ogu Chukwumerije consider the role of poets in holding politicians and society to account.

Wana meets two writers who, in different ways, explore Lagos in their work. Toni Kan's first memory of visiting the city was of seeing a corpse by his front gate. Now, he says, he couldn't live anywhere else and it's the setting for his latest novel, 'Carnivorous City'. Meanwhile, at Yaba Neuropsychiatric Hospital Wana meets doctor and poet Dami Ajayi. In his day-to-day work he works with people who've become casualties of the city's fevered, frenetic pace and, in his poetry he reflects on those whose minds have become fractured by life in Lagos.

'Writing a New Nigeria' is produced in partnership with the British Council as part of UK/Nigeria 2015-16

Producer: Jeremy Grange.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2jb)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2jd)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2jg)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2jj)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b06sf42c)
Bells from the Church of St. Andrew, Stratton in North Cornwall.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b06sf10l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b06sf2jl)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b06sf42f)
The Candle

"Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness."

Starting with these words from Anne Frank's diary, the writer and radio producer Sarah Cuddon reflects on the special qualities of candlelight, from celebration and remembrance to romance. She draws on the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Kathleen Jamie and writings by Jez Butterworth and Angela Carter, as well as music by Anton Bruckner, Bill Bruford and Willie Nelson.

And she talks to the writer Matthew Engel about his recent journey around England and the pull he felt to visit every Cathedral on his route, lighting a candle.

Readers: Joanna David and Henry Goodman

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


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b06sf42h)
Winter Sheep

In the far north of Scotland Joyce Campbell is preparing her sheep for a hard winter. Nancy Nicholson pays a visit to meet the Scottish Sheep Farmer of the Year and her prize Cheviot ewes.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b06sf2jn)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b06sf2jq)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b06sf42k)
Maggi Hambling's Winchester tapestries, Mohammed Ali's street art, Ghislaine Howard on the Seven Acts of Mercy.

A Sunday programme special on the relationship between Religion and Art.
For centuries the visual medium was used extensively to tell stories from key religious texts. It was a powerful and effective way of communicating religion to the illiterate masses. Today the masses are literate but biblical illiteracy is at an all-time high. So in this special edition of Sunday we ask what does religious art mean in the 21st Century. How do modern artists interpret religion in their work? Is art used more to challenge religion than to express religious ideas?
It's often said that art galleries are the new cathedrals, places where those who are outside the church explore Life's big questions; what challenge does that pose to the churches? How do religions of the Book engage with increasingly visual cultures, and when does one person's freedom of expression cross the line to become offensive or insulting to others?

Producers: Rosie Dawson
Zaffar Iqbal

Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b06sf42m)
ChildLine

Esther Rantzen presents The Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of ChildLine.
ChildLine is a service provided by the NSPCC.
Registered Charity No 216401
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'ChildLine.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'ChildLine'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b06sf2js)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b06sf2jv)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b06sfb6p)
All Rank Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here: 100 years of Toc H, spreading Peace and Goodwill to all.

'All Rank Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here' read the sign over the door of Talbot House, a few miles behind the front line in Great War Belgium. Founded by Army Padre, The Rev'd Philip 'Tubby' Clayton, MC, in December 1915 when there was little seasonal Peace and Goodwill at the Western Front, 'Toc H' (as it was known in the wireless-operators' code of the day) was a place of rest and refuge for soldiers, where throughout the war, all ranks mixed as equals. In peacetime, Toc H became an international Christian organisation which has for 100 years promoted principles of Friendship, Service, Fairmindedness and bringing about The Kingdom of God. Worship is led by The Rev'd Bertrand Olivier, Clayton's successor at the Toc H guild church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower, and the preacher is the Deputy Chaplain General & Archdeacon to the Army, The Venerable Peter Eagles. Composer Bob Chilcott conducts the London Oriana Choir who join the All Hallows' congregation to sing hymns and carols, as well as some of his own seasonal music, accompanied by organist Jonathan Melling. Producer: Rowan Morton-Gledhill.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b06sd27k)
Howard Jacobson: Sermons

Howard Jacobson would sooner see Radio 4's Thought for the Day more not less religious and argues that humanists and the religious can meet in sermonizing when it's of the majesty of a great preacher like John Donne.

"I fall to wondering what exactly non-religious needs are, and whether, by insisting on a distinction between the religious and the non-religious, humanists aren't making an unpardonably limiting assumption about both."

Producer: Sheila Cook.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0vhm)
Asian Koel

Michael Palin presents the Asian koel's arrival to an Indian orchard. This long-tailed glossy blue-black bird, is a well-known British harbinger of spring, and like its British counterpart, it is a cuckoo.

The koel's plaintive call is heard from late March until July around villages and in wooded countryside from Pakistan east to Indonesia and southern China. In India, it symbolises the birth of a new season, the flowering of fruit-trees, the bloom of romance and all that's good about spring. The koel's song can be heard in many Bollywood movies and has inspired poems and folk songs; it's even rumoured to help mangoes ripen faster.

This almost universal feel-good factor doesn't extend to its victims, because the koel is after all a cuckoo, and lays its eggs in other birds' nests. Asian Koels are parasitic on a wide range of birds, but in India especially, on House Crows and Jungle Crows.

Producer Andrew Dawes.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b06sf2jx)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b06sfh12)
David feels vulnerable, and will Eddie's Christmas surprise be a hit or a turkey?


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b06sfh14)
Patricia Greene

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Patricia Greene.

For nearly sixty years she has played the role of Jill in Radio 4's The Archers which celebrates its 65th anniversary on January 1st 2016. Over the decades the storylines have followed her character through one marriage, four children and since 2010, widowhood.

Born in Derby in 1931, Paddy's love of acting began early on inspired by her father who was a keen amateur actor. As an only and independent child she was surrounded by the adult world and would often eavesdrop as she hid under the kitchen table. Her parents loved entertainment and would take her to the cinema every week to see Hollywood romances or comedies.

After attending a grammar school she went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London in 1951. She wanted to be a classical actress, but then a phone call from the Archers production office changed her career path and she joined the cast initially on a six week contract in 1957. Her character Jill went onto marry the farmer Phil Archer, and is still there with a recent storyline seeing her return to Brookfield, the family farm.

Patricia has been married twice and was widowed in 1986. She was awarded an MBE in 2007.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2jz)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b06s8bpy)
Series 64

Episode 4

The antidote to panel games pays a return visit to the Grand Opera House in York. Regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Sandi Toksvig with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell attempts piano accompaniment.
Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy production.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b06sfh16)
Yotam Ottolenghi: A Life Through Food

Food writer, chef, restaurateur, philosopher...?

Since 'Ottolenghi: the cookbook' was published in 2008, Yotam Ottolenghi has become one of the UK's most followed voices on food and cooking. Nearly eight years later, Ottolenghi's cookbooks total five, the last written in collaboration with head chef at his London Soho restaurant NOPI, Ramael Scully. The restaurant is one of five in the capital, which he runs with a small, loyal team. He's appeared on our TV screens, exploring the foods of the Mediterranean and his birthplace and childhood home, Jerusalem. He's presented an ode to the Cauliflower on The Food Programme on Radio 4 and in a weekly column for the Guardian, has shed new light on cooking with vegetables, paving the way for ingredients from the Middle East to enter our kitchen store cupboards. No wonder that the rise of sumac, za'atar and tahini in our supermarkets was dubbed 'the Ottolenghi effect'.

In an extended interview, Yotam Ottolenghi shares his life through food with Sheila Dillon. She hears how a Jewish boy from Jerusalem negotiated the world of academia, and winded up as a pastry chef in chic restaurants in 90s London. How a chance meeting with business partner Sami Tamimi led to one of London's most successful string of deli restaurants 'Ottolenghi', and on to Soho restaurant NOPI.

Yotam explains how people in his life have shaped the food he cooks. He tells Sheila about the effect of his brother's untimely death in tragic circumstances, his own coming out as gay and reflects on his connection with Jerusalem now that he has adopted London as home for his own young family. As 2015 draws to a close, he looks to the future. What will the Philosophical food writer do next?

Presented by Sheila Dillon. Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b06sf2k1)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b06swyfh)
Former party leaders Lord Howard, Dame Margaret Beckett and Gordon Wilson chew over 2015 and look to 2016. Plus how success on Broadway boosts UK theatre. Presented by Shaun Ley.


SUN 13:30 The Listening Project (b06sfh18)
The Listening Project: Lebanon

Fi Glover introduces conversations recorded in Beirut, with the help of Oxfam, between refugees who have fled the war in Syria to make a new life for themselves, in Lebanon or elsewhere.

All the conversations except one were recorded in Arabic and have been translated into English, the words spoken by actors Sirine Saba, Paul Chahidi, Suzanna Nour, Mariam Haque, Nadia Albina, Farshid Rokey and Evie Killip. Conor Garrett, of BBC Radio Ulster, recorded the conversations which were sourced and facilitated by Oxfam in Beirut.

These conversations in another language, recorded outside the UK, are a new departure for The Listening Project, which is a partnership with the British Library 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.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b06sfh1b)
Lincolnshire

Peter Gibbs hosts a Christmas episode from Lincolnshire. Matthew Wilson, Bunny Guinness, and Bob Flowerdew answer the festive gardening questions.

Producer: Howard Shannon
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b06sfk92)
Sunday Omnibus - CBBC

Fi Glover introduces conversations between children, recorded at the CBBC Live and Digital Festival in Hull, about sharing a room, playing rugby league, the benefits that come from joining the Cub Scouts, and learning to live in a new country. All in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen. These conversations can be seen, animated, on the CBBC website.

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.


SUN 15:00 Drama (b06sfk94)
Memsahib Emma

Episode 2

Tanika Gupta's glorious adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma set in mid 19th Century India.

Emma's plans for Krishna and Mr Elton have backfired spectacularly and she is horrified when he declares his love for her.

But a chastened Emma is cheered by news of Frank Churchill's arrival. Mr Roy, however, is wary of his young English man with his airs and graces.

Emma ....... Manjinder Virk
Roy ....... Navin Chowdhry
Bhattacharjee ....... Silas Carson
Krishna ....... Maya Sondhi
Sumit ....... Raj Ghatak
Miss Bates ....... Meera Syal
Mrs Weston ....... Tracy Wiles
Mr Weston ....... Stephen Critchlow
Frank Churchill ....... George Watkins
Jane Fairfax ....... Rina Mahoney
Mr Elton ....... Leo Wan
Mrs Elton ....... Evie Killip

Directed by Tracey Neale


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b06sfk96)
Look Back at the Year in Books

On Open Book this week, as the year draws to a close Mariella Frostrup and her guests look back at some of literary trends of the last twelve months - from colouring books for grown ups to box set publishing - and try to predict what next year will have in store for book lovers.
Also on the programme, we celebrate some of literature's grande dames, hearing from Diana Athill, Edna O'Brien, Anne Tyler, Judy Blume and Elizabeth Harrower, who have all published acclaimed works this year.


SUN 16:30 The Echo Chamber (b06sfk98)
Series 6

Sam Riviere and Emily Berry

Paul Farley hears new poems from two new poets, Sam Riviere and Emily Berry. Producer: Tim Dee.


SUN 17:00 A Meaty Problem (b06s9d26)
Restaurateur Henry Dimbleby unravels the deep-seated attachment of the British to eating meat.

Henry wants to cut down on his meat consumption. Many scientists and policy makers think this is a good idea - for global food sustainability, climate change and health. In an effort to understand why he is finding it so difficult, he unpicks the cultural history of the British and their relationship to eating meat.

We join Henry as he hosts a vegetarian Sunday lunch for his family, without his beloved joint of meat. He speaks to cultural historian Ben Rogers, author of Beef and Liberty, and learns that the British have long been identified with their beef consumption - propaganda which sets them above the French during the 18th century wars, the fashionably obese John Bull character portrayed in start contrast to the weak and feeble Frenchman existing on a diet of gruel and snails.

Dr Annie Gray recalls the popularity of the ditty O the Roast Beef Of Old England, sung spontaneously by audiences in the playhouses of 18th century England.

With meat eating such a strong part of our cultural identity, Henry asks how we might go about re-programming ourselves so that we can reduce our intake? Like it or not, meat-eating is still very much associated with masculinity and psychotherapist Susie Orbach suggests reasons why men find it more difficult to reduce meat-eating than women.

Henry speaks to Professor of Food Policy at City University London, Tim Lang about whether personal choice can be enough, or whether governmental policy, taxes or rations are needed to change eating habits and prevent a global food crisis.
Produced by Victoria Shepherd
A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b06sf10l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2k3)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b06sf2k5)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2k7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b06sfrkn)
Antonia Quirke

Film critic and broadcaster Antonia Quirke with the best of BBC Radio this week.

What were your radio highlights this Christmas? Possums Book of Practical Cats? Or a robin singing in a field of narcissi?

This week Antonia introduces singing in igloos, fights over jelly and kirsch. Nabokov remembers Imperial Russia and Philip Larkin constructs a religion. Pike, muppets and stallions ... and Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight.

The pick of the Radio iPlayer is Sarah Wheeler on Private Passions

Produced by Stephen Garner

Production team: Kay Bishton and Elodie Chatelain.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b06sfrkq)
Jill asks Pip about the Fairbrothers, wondering if anything's going on. But despite their efforts, Pip seems more interested in Matthew, the Brookfield milker, who she invites over for lunch and also to join her at the New Year's Eve Young Farmers' party. Meanwhile, David's looking forward to the cast coming off his arm. He's happy that Ruth has managed to book her flight home from New Zealand. David senses that Ruth's rather unhappy with him for keeping his broken arm a secret from her. Matthew's sympathetic to the fact that Brookfield may have to get out of dairy as well. Pip wonders what she could do to help if she worked more independently - perhaps a job close to home? Lynda fears a disastrous opening night performance tonight of Calendar Girls, following a problem-filled dress rehearsal. Roy offers up some wisdom that a bad dress rehearsal should mean a good first night - but will be proved correct? Lynda's in a panic on the opening night of Calendar Girls - it's sure to be a disaster...


SUN 19:15 Drama (b06sggdp)
Calendar Girls

Ambridge Queen of Am Dram, Lynda Snell, presents Tim Firth's comedy drama about a group of WI members who make a naked calendar in order to raise money for charity.

Featuring Archers regulars including Carole Boyd, (Lynda Snell), Alison Dowling (Elizabeth Pargetter) and Charlotte Martin (Susan Carter), this smash hit comedy drama also features Sian Phillips, star of the original London West End cast.

Chris ..... Charlotte Martin (Susan Carter)
Annie ..... Alison Dowling (Elizabeth Pargetter)
Ruth ..... Annabelle Dowler (Kirsty Miller)
Celia ..... Sunny Ormonde (Lilian Bellamy)
Jessie ..... Sian Phillips (Jean Harvey)
Marie ..... Carole Boyd (Lynda Snell)
Brenda Hulse ..... Souad Faress (Usha Franks)
Elaine ..... Hollie Chapman (Alice Carter)
Lady Cravenshire ..... Angela Piper (Jennifer Aldridge)
John ..... Ian Pepperell (Roy Tucker)
Rod ..... Brian Hewlett (Neil Carter)
Lawrence ..... James Cartwright (PC Harrison Burns)
Liam ..... Richard Attlee (Kenton Archer)

The accompanying pianist was Simon Taranczuk

A play by Tim Firth based on the motion picture CALENDAR GIRLS written by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi

Adapted and directed by Sean O'Connor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015.


SUN 20:45 From the Vineyard (b06sfrkv)
Red Burgundy by Peter Bradshaw

A crack wine consultant, who sold fine reds to the Chinese, describes a sudden change of heart.

Hugh Dennis reads Peter Bradshaw's short story.

Producer: Duncan Minshull

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2015.


SUN 21:00 Last Word (b06s6xq4)
Some of the most memorable lives of the past twelve months

Matthew Bannister and Economist Obituary Editor Ann Wroe recall some of the most memorable lives of 2015, including a diver, a scientist and a singer.

Producer: Edwina Pitman.


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b06sf42m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (b06s9shq)
Christmas, Made in China

Peter Day visits the Chinese city which makes most of the world's Christmas decorations

Producers: Charlotte Pritchard & David Rhodes.


SUN 22:00 News Review of the Year (b06sfrkx)
2015

What really stood out in the news of 2015 and will have enduring significance? Paddy O'Connell considers the stories, people and issues which have said most about the last twelve months and evaluates the legacy which they have left. He recalls the lighter moments of the year - as well as discussing what we have discovered that we did not know a year ago and how these developments will shape our lives.

Producer Simon Coates.


SUN 23:00 The Moth Radio Hour (b06tgd7g)
Series 1

Tattoos and Two Southern Gothics

True stories told live in the USA: Catherine Burns introduces tales about family history, growing up and surprises in prison.

The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling based in the USA. Since 1997, it has celebrated both the raconteur and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. Originally formed by the writer George Dawes Green as an intimate gathering of friends on a porch in Georgia (where moths would flutter in through a hole in the screen), and then recreated in a New York City living room, The Moth quickly grew to produce immensely popular events at theatres and clubs around New York City and later around the USA, the UK and other parts of the world.

The Moth has presented more than 15,000 stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. The Moth podcast is downloaded over 27 million times a year.

Featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, from the humorous to the heart-breaking.

The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Jay Allison and Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange.


SUN 23:50 A Point of View (b06sd27k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 08:48 today]



MONDAY 28 DECEMBER 2015

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2lg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b06s9j7q)
A Special Programme on Rituals

Rituals at Christmas & beyond. Laurie Taylor presents a special programme on the place of rituals in everyday life. How have they changed over time and do we still need them? He's joined by Adam Kuper, Centennial Professor in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Marina Warner, writer and mythographer and Elizabeth Pleck, Professor Emeritu of History and Human Development & Family Studies at the University of Illinois.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b06sf42c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2lj)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2ll)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2ln)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2lq)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06sg1ts)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b06sg1tv)
The Fergie at 70

The story of the little grey tractor which revolutionised farming. With Sarah Swadling.


MON 05:56 Weather (b06sf2ls)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0hjv)
New Zealand Robin

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the New Zealand robin. The toutouwai or New Zealand robin may share a name with the more familiar European robin, but it is a very different bird to the robin redbreast we know so well. Although about the same size with the same perky upright stance, the New Zealand robin, is appropriately enough nearly all-black, with a pale belly and a white splash just above the bill, but no trace of red. Three subspecies exist; one in north Island, one in South Island, and another in Stewart Island. And like their British counterparts, who they are not closely related to at all, can become quite tame and friendly to humans. The song is very varied and each male has a repertoire of around two dozen different notes.


MON 06:00 Today (b06sg1tx)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b06sg1tz)
Shakespeare's Late Plays - recorded at the Globe's Playhouse

Andrew Marr presents a special edition of Start the Week, celebrating the later life and works of William Shakespeare. Recorded at the Globe's candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the actor Simon Russell Beale and Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole discuss the late romances. The writer Jeanette Winterson explores her personal connection to The Winter's Tale, and the academic Katherine Duncan-Jones questions whether Shakespeare ever gave up on life in London to retire to Stratford-upon-Avon, and the relevance of his will that left his wife their 'second-best bed'.
Producer: Katy Hickman.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b06sg2m9)
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany

Episode 1

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said, a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was.

But the house had changed.

Nearly twenty years later, Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved?

He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out.

The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation.

As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland, and a hatred handed down through the generations.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06sg2mc)
Woman's Hour Quiz

Jane Garvey's joined by Sara Pascoe, Helen Lewis and Shappi Khorsandi for a quiz that takes a comic look at the year for women - and some of the funnier bits of Woman's Hour.

Presented by Jane Garvey
Produced by Jane Thurlow.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sg2mf)
Incredible Women: Series 4

Kirstie Clarke

Meet Kirstie Clarke. She tells it like it is. No holds barred, no matter who she offends. In fact the more people she offends, the better. The next booking will just come along faster.

But when reporter Jeremy Front visits her to find out why she has just topped the new year polls, simultaneously as Britain's most hated AND most loved TV personality, he witnesses a revelation by her housekeeper which shows Kirstie's background may be more complicated than she'd always thought.

Written by Jeremy Front with additional material by Rebecca Front.
Cast: Rebecca Front and Jeremy Front, Ewan Bailey and Amelia Lowdell. Special guest appearance by Vanessa Feltz.
Produced by Claire Jones.


MON 11:00 Pick of the Year (b06sg2mk)
Pick of the Year 2015

Robert Peston chooses his radio moments in Pick of the Year

Robert Peston's is in charge of the radio sweetshop and allowed to gather a pick n mix of the tastiest confections produced across the BBC's magnificent network in 2015.

He's chosen a famous Duck that helped us win world War 2, a Russian who used only his acting prowess to scare off a polar bear, a cat diagnosed with stress, an old geezer's love story that touched a nation, a brace of his pop idols and the black market in sperm.

Other radio moments include James Bond, comedian John Williams and Somerset Maugham, oh and the strong possibility of Mr Eddie Mair.

Produced by Stephen Garner and Kay Bishton.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2m1)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Home Front (b06kvclc)
28 December 1915 - Ruth Billings

On this day the Evening Herald reported the return of 800 wounded soldiers to Plymouth, and Ruth Billings's temper gets her into trouble.

Written by Richard Monks & Shaun McKenna
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b06sg2mp)
Housing

Home ownership has been falling for more than a decade from a peak of 71% of households in 2003 to below 63% today. In London, it is now below 50%. That figure has dropped much more steeply among the 25-34 year-old age group: down by nearly one quarter. For them - and many more on average to low incomes - renting is the only choice - it's all that's left for them

Guests: Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government
Ray Boulger is a mortgage broker with John Charcol
Michaela Benson is a sociologist who has done a study of multi-generational living and sharing
And we hear from some imaginative people on how they are solving their accommodation problems.

Presented by Peter White
Editor: Chas Watkin.


MON 12:57 Weather (b06sf2m3)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b06sggdh)
Questions are being asked about how York could have been flooded so severely. We'll speak to a former senior figure at the Environment Agency.
As the water moves south towards Selby, we'll find out how the council there is preparing.
And looking at the longer-term response, how much would it cost to avoid a repeat of this flooding? We'll speak live to the Environment Secretary Liz Truss.


MON 13:45 School of Thought (b06sggdk)
The Early Years

Every day this week the former Conservative MP and universities minister, David Willetts, is examining our education system - stage by stage.

Putting politics to one side, he's taking a long hard look at education to challenge some of the conventional wisdom we've all lived with for a long time - and which, he argues, shapes the debate without our even realising it.

In today's programme, David suggests that a misunderstanding of neuroscience has led us to put far too much weight on the first three years of life. He says we should rebalance education spending away from the early years in favour of creating more opportunities to learn later in life.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b06sfrkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b06sggdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 on Sunday]


MON 15:45 Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor by John Cheever (b06sbl90)
Martin Freeman reads John Cheever's classic Christmas tale about the power of giving. On Christmas day Charlie, a down on his luck lift attendant, laments his lack of upward mobility. But the generosity of the residents in the wealthy New York apartment building where he works takes him by surprise. A cautionary tale of generosity, indulgence and the law of unintended consequences.


MON 16:00 Round Britain Quiz (b06sggdr)
Programme 11, 2015

(11/12)
The North of England take on the South of England in the penultimate bout in this year's series of the cryptic contest, with the outcome potentially crucial to the positions in which they finish in this year's league table. Jim Coulson and Adele Geras play for the North, against Simon Singh and Marcus Berkmann of the South.

For today's questions they'll need to dredge their memory banks for details of fictional characters and their creators, historians of the early Christian church, great naval battles and British heavy metal bands, among other things. As always, the questions include a selection from those suggested recently by Round Britain Quiz listeners, and Tom will have details of how you can submit your own ideas for consideration in future editions.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b06sggdt)
Heaven and the Afterlife

The question of what happens after we die is central to the world's faith traditions. How has the belief in an afterlife developed across the religions? And what does Heaven mean to people of faith today?

Ernie Rea discusses the concept of the afterlife with Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Dr Shuruq Naguib, lecturer in Islamic Studies at Lancaster University; and the writer and broadcaster Peter Stanford.

Producer:
Amanda Hancox.


MON 17:00 PM (b06sggdw)
News interviews, context and analysis.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2m7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:15 15 Minute Musical (b06sggdy)
Xmas 2015

Seven Bribes

Sepp Blatter hasn't had the easiest of years, as he faces allegations of corruption 15 Minute Musical looks at what kind of backroom deals could have gone down in 'Seven Bribes'; performed by the outstanding Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Pippa Evans.


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b06sgjr8)
Series 64

Episode 5

The godfather of all panel shows pays a visit to the Grand Theatre in Blackpool. Old-timers Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Rob Brydon, with Jack Dee in the chair. Colin Sell accompanies on the piano. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b06sgynx)
The Calendar Girls cast are elated after a successful opening night, but hungover Lilian's not so keen to have to do it all again. And what can they do about Jean Harvey, who seems to be out to deliberately upstage everyone?! Jean has also got Neil and Roy to move the set around for her, to preserve modesty. Lynda hopes for a favourable review from Tristram and praises Jean, to others' chagrin. Elizabeth talks to Roy about Nigel - it will soon be five years since he died. During tonight's second performance Kirsty seems to have a problem with her costume - Neil has to perform some 'emergency surgery' with safety pins. Jean Harvey's character Jessie's knitting seems to have gone missing - sabotage from Lilian, perhaps. Harrison saves the day by improvising and bringing it onstage to 'Jessie' with an adlib. Following an altercation with Lilian, Jean may have got her own back by not being around for her entrance, forcing Lilian to improvise. The show goes well, though, and Kirsty and Lilian share a secret joke about Jean, which Lynda seems to miss.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b06sgjrb)
Cultural Philanthropy

Five years on from the launch of government plans to encourage more philanthropic funding of the Arts, Kirsty Lang speaks to key cultural philanthropists about the part they play in funding artistic endeavour. Speaking to Sir Paul Ruddock, Dame Vivien Duffield, Hannah Rothschild, David Speller, Lloyd Dorfman, Michael Oglesby and cultural historian Robert Hewison, Kirsty examines whether the plan is working and asks if more needs to be done to change attitudes.

Image (Clockwise from top left): Dame Vivien Duffield, Lloyd Dorfman, David Speller, Hannah Rothschild (Credit: Harry Cory-Wright), Sir Paul Ruddock and Michael Oglesby (Credit: Joel C Fildes)


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sg2mf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 The Philosopher's Arms (b06sgjrd)
Series 5

Future People

The Philosopher's Arms, presented by Matthew Sweet, asks what sort of people should we bring into the world. In the pub this week are, among others, Oxford University professor Jeff McMahan and disability studies expert Tom Shakespeare.
Producer: David Edmonds.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b06s9rzh)
Saving India's Parsis

India's Parsis are one of the subcontinent's most successful communities. But their future looks precarious because their numbers have fallen dramatically. Some Parsis believe the answer could be to accept converts, and re-write the rules on who's deemed a Parsi. Others are resistant to change. Now the Indian government has stepped in to fund fertility treatment for couples who dream of parenthood. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly travels to Mumbai to meet them.


MON 21:00 Putting Science to Work (b06s9d1f)
Infuriating Packaging

Opening presents can be quite a challenge. Toys incarcerated in rigid transparent plastic cases can bring tears, not of joy. Not to mention vacuum-packed luxury foods that are just impossible to get into. So, can science save us from infuriating packaging? And, if so, which technology is most likely to deliver us from this irksome everyday problem? Three scientists battle it out in the studio, pitching for Jim's imaginary pot of research money. Dr Alaster Yoxall is determined to understand what makes things fiddly. Professor Mark Miodownik dreams of packages that can be opened by your mobile phone. While Professor Lynne Boddy believes mushrooms as the new polystyrene. Could the future of packaging be mouldable mould?

Producer: Anna Buckley.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b06sg1tz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b06sf2m9)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b06sgjrg)
Historic deal over 'comfort women'

Japan and South Korea sign agreement; Vichy archives released; record Australian drought

(photo shows South Korean "comfort women" - credit: Reuters).


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06sgjrj)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 1

EM Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Mastertapes (b06sgjsc)
Series 5

Squeeze (the A-Side)

John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.

Programme 3. Squeeze's 'East Side Story' with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford.

Originally intended as a four-sided double LP with each side using a different producer (Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello), East Side Story was released in 1981 as a single LP with 14 songs. With it Squeeze moved away from their traditional 'new wave' sound to a more varied mix of genres that took in rockabilly, R&B, blue-eyed soul, Merseybeat, and psychedelia.

With tracks like Tempted, Is That Love, Messed Around and Labelled with Love (which was only on the album because eventual producer Elvis Costello persuaded Glenn Tilbrook it should be included) the album is packed with keen, precise, funny and sad lyrics about lovers, drunks, deadbeats and lonely working girls - or as Chris Difford describes them: 'suburban short stories'.

Complete versions of the songs performed in the programme (as well as some that weren't) can be heard on the 'Mastertapes' pages on the Radio 4 website.

The B-side of the programme, where it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions, can be heard on Tuesday 29th December at 3.30pm.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.


MON 23:30 Sounds Up There (b055g9r2)
In late 2010, Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón presented Glenn Freemantle with a challenge - to create authentic sound design in the vacuum of space. In 2014, Glenn won an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing for his work on the film. Now, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first-ever spacewalk, Glenn sonically recreates the stories of real-life spacewalkers.

Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov completed a major Space Race hurdle by performing the first-ever spacewalk in March 1965. Alexey ran into serious problems with his suit pressure and was barely able to re-enter the airlock. Since Leonov's tense inaugural moments, there have been 175 successful spacewalks devoted to maintenance of the International Space Station alone.

In this programme, we'll meet some of the spacewalkers and walk through what the experience is like floating in zero gravity above the earth. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield describes his awe at flying weightless above the earth. Record-holding astronaut Sunita Williams describes her spacewalking experiences accumulated over more than fifty hours. Steven Smith describes the enormous pressure helping repair the Hubble Space Telescope. And Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano describes his dramatic 2013 spacewalk, when he almost drowned in his helmet.

Along the way, Glenn will use sound to help us feel the vacuum of space, punctuated by breaths, heartbeats, vibration, the radio crackle, the whoosh of the airlock. The thoughts and feelings of the spacewalkers describing the most awe-inspiring visions of their lives is dramatically contrasted with the odd sounds around them.

Produced by Colin McNulty
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.



TUESDAY 29 DECEMBER 2015

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2n7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:15 Penguin Post Office (b04fyz58)
Episode 1

In October 2013, wildlife cameraman and director Andrew Graham-Brown and assistant producer Ruth Peacey set sail for Antarctica to film the lives of a colony of Gentoo penguins for a BBC Natural World film. Every year the Gentoos return to Port Lockroy which is on a tiny island called Goudier to find a mate and raise their young in the shadow of world's most southerly public Post Office. It was to be one of the most challenging filming trips the team had ever undertaken. Joining them in Antarctica was wildlife cameraman Doug Allan who narrates this series of five programmes which follows the team's adventures. In the first programme, we join them as they board their yacht Pelagic, which with its 12mm steel hull is designed for the glacial ice fields they encounter on their journey south. But fields of ice and giant icebergs are not their only challenge they also have to cross the notorious Drake Passage. Here the unimpeded waves of the vast Southern Ocean squeeze through the relatively narrow, shallow bottleneck of the Drake Passage, resulting in often unpredictable and brutal seas. It's a terrifying ordeal for them all. Producer Sarah Blunt.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b06sg2m9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2n9)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2nc)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2nf)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2nh)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06t56bf)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b06sgwyl)
Hind Stalking in Sutherland

David Allison is Head Stalker on the Duke of Westminster's Reay Forest estate in Sutherland, in the north west of Scotland, and the autumn and winter months - October to February - are the hind-stalking season. What David describes as 'grooming the herd' involves the culling of hinds - female red deer - to keep numbers stable. While some estates invite paying guests to involve themselves in the cull, this estate does not, leaving the work to the seven professional stalkers who, between them, aim to kill around 200 hinds this season.

The estate, covering 96,000 acres, maintains a deer population of around 3,300 deer - that's eight deer per square kilometre, which David says is a level that's good for the environment, for the deer and for the estate. Moira Hickey accompanies him as he sets out for a day's stalking, in which he aims to identify weak hinds and any late-born calves which he judges unlikely to survive the winter. His knowledge of the terrain and his assessment of the weather conditions soon lead them to a small group of deer, and the day ends with two carcasses on their way to the estate game larder, to be sold on as venison.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0htz)
Hyacinth Macaw

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the hyacinth macaw of the Brazilian Pantanal. Raucous ear-piercing screeches are produced by one of the most beautiful parrots in the world, flying high over the marshy wetlands of the Pantanal. As their name suggests they are a rich cobalt blue, with sulphur-yellow eye rings with a massive bill and long elegant tail-feathers streaming behind them in flight, making them our longest parrot. Popular as captive caged birds, they are now endangered in the wild and legally protected in Brazil. They feed on palm nuts, including those of the acuri palm which are so hard that even the macaw's powerful bill can't break into them, until they've first passed through the digestive tracts of cattle.


TUE 06:00 Today (b06sgxg3)
Guest editor Sir Bradley Wiggins takes the helm. Sir Bradley talks suits with Paul Smith, the politics of cycling with Jeremy Corbyn and reflects on the legacy of London 2012.


TUE 09:00 The Long View (b06sgxg5)
Slave Labour and Consumer Power

Jonathan Freedland examines current debates about ethical shopping and production, in the light of early 19th century campaigns to boycott goods which involved slave labour.

Producer Clare Walker.


TUE 09:30 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.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b06sgxjc)
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany

Episode 2

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said, a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was.

But the house had changed.

Nearly twenty years later, Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved?

He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out.

The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation.

As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland, and a hatred handed down through the generations.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06sgxjf)
Was 2015 the year trans became mainstream?

Was 2015 the year trans became mainstream?

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Kirsty Starkey.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sgxjh)
Incredible Women: Series 4

Maria Webber

Meet Maria Webber. Newly-appointed as the government's new special adviser for schools, Webber divides opinion. Some admire her ability to get results. Others criticise her corporate approach to education.

Reporter Jeremy Front goes to meet her at the Leather Village Academy and Knowledge Assimilation Facility (her latest school in St Albans) and witnesses, first hand, the style and ethos which has earned her the popular name the 'Head Head'.

Written by award-winning Jeremy Front with additional material by Rebecca Front.
Cast: Rebecca Front, Jeremy Front, Ewan Bailey and Evie Killip.
With special guest appearances by Michael Rosen and Charles Carroll.
Produced by Claire Jones.


TUE 11:00 Putting Science to Work (b06sgxjk)
Crowd Safety

A deadly crowd collapse at the Hajj pilgrimage in September has brought public safety into the spotlight once again. Here in the UK, the Hillsborough inquest has been re-examining the tragic events of 1989 which led to the death of 96 football fans at the Sheffield ground.

Today we ask how science can prevent crowd disasters. Jim Al-Khalili invites three scientists into the studio to explain their strategy for improving crowd safety:

- Dr Suzy Moat, from Warwick University's Business School, is testing new technologies to monitor crowds
- Dr Cliff Stott, a psychologist from Leeds University, says the answer lies in better crowd management
- Paul Townsend, Associate Director of 'Crowd Dynamics International', would like more focus on how we design and use public spaces

The panel debates the pros and cons of each method and how we can put science to work to keep crowds safe.

Producer: Michelle Martin.


TUE 11:30 Tiny Tinkles (b06sgxjp)
Comedian and conductor Rainer Hersch investigates how and why 'tinkly' musical sounds are so evocative of childhood, but can also have a creepier quality.

Starting with the toy piano, is there something inherent in the tinkly musical quality or is it just the kind of music we think that very small children like to hear?

The Schoenhut Piano Company still makes toy baby grands that are played seriously by concert pianists such as Xenia Pestova. She charts the history of the toy piano in serious music to Rainer - one that began with John Cage in 1948 - and explains the advantages and drawbacks over their grown up versions.

In Bristol, Rainer visits The Music Box Shop to talk to Richard Dean. He tells Rainer that music boxes of the 18th and 19th century were essentially portable mp3 players which could fit into pocket watches - the very first time that music could be 'recorded' and reproduced.

Victoria Williamson, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Sheffield whose research focuses on music and memory, suggests that the simplicity of these instruments means that the music available is in simple tonal forms, with limited notes in particular key and a simple melody - very similar to lullabies.

Rainer asks why this 'tinkling' music can suddenly become sinister. Richard Dean at the Music Box Shop - who have supplied boxes for props to the horror classic The Woman in Black - suggests it's the idea of a 'luddite technology' where no one is obviously playing the instrument. Victoria Williamson suggests that our emotional reaction is a battle between the quality of the sound and a learned reaction based on our memories.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4

'Crazy Legs'
Composer: Ed Bennett
Played live by Xenia Pestova

John Cage - Suite for Toy Piano
Music for Amplified Toy Pianos
Played by Pascal Meyer and Xenia Pestova

'Patience'
Toy Piano and Electronics
Composer: Lauren Sarah Hayes
Played live by Xenia Pestova

'Recollections'
Composer: Yfat Soul Zisso
Played live by Xenia Pestova.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2nl)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Home Front (b06kvcv4)
29 December 1915 - Isabel Graham

On this day France gifted the land holding British war cemeteries to Great Britain, and the Grahams discover where Adeline and Phyllis have gone.

Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b06sgy15)
Call You and Yours

Consumer phone-in.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b06sf2nn)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b06sgy17)
News with Shaun Ley including floods latest. Can the Conservatives gain votes in the north? we speak to minister Matthew Hancock. Following the death of Lemmy, we hear about Heavy Metal - the West Midland's cultural gift to the world.


TUE 13:45 School of Thought (b06sgy19)
A-Levels

Every day this week the former Conservative MP and universities minister, David Willetts, is examining our education system - stage by stage.

Putting politics to one side, he's taking a long hard look at education to challenge some of the conventional wisdom we've all lived with for a long time - and which, he argues, shapes the debate without our even realising it.

In this programme, David laments his own choice of A Levels and argues that the current system forces school pupils to specialise much too soon. As a result, he says, there is a sudden and unhelpful parting of the ways between science and the humanities.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b06sgynx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 McLevy (b06sgy1c)
Series 11

The Night Walker

3 / 4. The Night Walker. Victorian detective drama starring Brian Cox and Siobhan Redmond.

Written by David Ashton.

A lodger dies in his room shortly after arriving from London. McLevy finds a young woman unconscious in the street. An old acquaintance reappears - and Jean is accused of shoplifting.

Other parts played by the cast.
Producer/Director: Bruce Young
BBC Scotland.


TUE 15:00 Archive on 4 (b06sdxfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (b06sgy7p)
Series 5

Squeeze (the B-Side)

John Wilson continues with the fifth series of Mastertapes, the programme in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios.

Programme 4 (B-side): Having discussed the making of 'East Side Story' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 28th December and available online), Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook respond to questions from the audience and perform exclusive live versions of some of the tracks from the album.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.


TUE 16:00 The Food Programme (b06sfh16)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b06sgy7r)
Series 38

Precious Lunga chooses Wangari Maathai

Matthew Parris's guest this week is the epidemiologst Precious Lunga, who nominates for Great Life status that of the Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Muta Maathai.

In the course of her life, Professor Maathai made a huge contribution to re-establishing environmental integrity to Kenya by working with the women who lived there. She founded the Green Belt Movement and became a politician. In 2004 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The expert witness is Maggie Baxter from the Green Belt Movement.

Producer Christine Hall

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.


TUE 17:00 PM (b06sgy7t)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2nq)
Married couple convicted of planning 7/7 anniversary attacks
Belgian Police arrest two over New Year's Eve bomb plot
North West of England braced for more flooding


TUE 18:15 15 Minute Musical (b03m7pzp)
Series 8

Julian and the Assanging Technicolour Download

A series of satirical, barbed, bittersweet fifteen-minute comedy musicals.

With over thirty musicals selling out in the West End night after night - the British public (and the Radio 4 audience) cannot get enough of them, therefore ...

In true West End style, artistic licence is well and truly taken and stretched, as easily identifiable public figures are dressed up, gilded, fabricated and placed against a random musical backdrop for sugar coated consumption. The stories are simple and engaging but with an edge - allowing the audience to enjoy all the conventions of a musical (huge production numbers, tender ballads and emotional reprises) whilst we completely re-interpret events in major celebrities' lives.

Beautifully crafted with astronomically high production values 15 Minute Musical does for your ears what chocolate does for your taste buds. All in fifteen minutes!

Winner of the Writers Guild of Great Britain Radio Comedy Award this series provides an energy boost and a seasonal treat at 1815 over the Christmas week.

Other episodes include:

Ra Ra It's Puti
A camp look at Russia's greatest love machine.

The Last Days of Farage
Nigel Farage goes to Europe with a Britpop soundtrack.

Half A Sixth Form
Michael Gove has a licence to teach.

It's A One-Hit-Wonderful Life
Simon Cowell contemplates ending his career until his guardian angel Susan Boyle appears to show him life without Cowell - It's A Wonderful Life.

Heaven Knows I'm Middle-Aged Now
Morrissey looks for a new musical collaborator.

Cast: Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Jess Robinson
Written by: Dave Cohen, David Quantick and Richie Webb
Music Composed, Performed and Arranged by: Richie Webb
Music Production: Matt Katz
Producer: Katie Tyrrell.


TUE 18:30 Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! (b06sgygq)
Series 2

Financial Advisor

Milton becomes a responsible sober-suited Financial Adviser, and fights off a Swedish invasion with the aid of his trusty hamster.

Mention Milton Jones to most people and the first thing they think is 'Help!'. Because each week, Milton and his trusty assistant Anton (played by Milton regular, Tom Goodman-Hill) set out to help people and soon find they're embroiled in a new adventure. Because when you're close to the edge, then Milton can give you a push.

"Milton Jones is one of Britain's best gagsmiths with a flair for creating daft yet perfect one-liners" - The Guardian.

"King of the surreal one-liners" - The Times

"If you haven't caught up with Jones yet - do so!" - The Daily Mail

Written by Milton with James Cary (Bluestone 42, Miranda) and Dan Evans (who co-wrote Milton's Channel 4 show House Of Rooms), the man they call "Britain's funniest Milton" returns to the radio with a fully-working cast and a shipload of new jokes.

The cast includes regulars Tom Goodman-Hill ( Spamalot, Mr. Selfridge) as the ever-faithful Anton, Josie Lawrence and Dan Tetsell (Newsjack).

With music by Guy Jackson.

Produced and directed by David Tyler.

A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2015.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b06sgyqd)
Elizabeth gets talking to Dr Locke at Lower Loxley. He points out his daughter Sasha and joins Elizabeth for a hot chocolate. Richard also talks about his ex, Chloe, and Christmas, and congratulates Elizabeth on her performance in Calendar Girls. He remembers his own Ambridge drama experiences and tells Elizabeth he'll see her again soon.

Helen admits to Rob she was disappointed that he let her sleep in on Christmas morning - she missed Henry opening his presents. Rob wanted her to rest after being ill. He gently reproaches Helen about Henry wanting chocolate, having been given a huge selection box by Pat and Tony. Helen and Rob tell Pat about their new 50-50 job share agreement. Pat's surprised, but Helen insists it's what she wants. Pat also tells Tom that he can't avoid Kirsty forever. Tom suggests a part time assistant at the shop and Rob agrees. Helen suggests Anya but is disappointed when Rob poo-poos the idea and suggests Anya's not very bright.

Pat asks Helen if she's alright - she seems peaky. Helen insists she's eating fine. Helen admits she thinks Rob doesn't approve of Kirsty. Helen also hasn't heard back from Ian - she's a bit concerned but says he must just be working flat out.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b06shyr7)
Elvis Costello

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Elvis Costello looks back over a musical career which spans almost four decades, as he publishes his new memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Sitting at the Front Row piano with his guitar, the musician discusses his upbringing in London and Liverpool, the influence of his father - a successful radio dance-band vocalist - and the heady years of pop stardom with hits including Watching the Detectives, Pump It Up, Oliver's Army and (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sgxjh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 The Boat Children (b06t42ff)
Among the vast number of migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in summer 2015 were many unaccompanied children.

Presenter Hashi Mohamed, once a child migrant himself, travels to Italy to meet young new arrivals heading north from Sicily in search of a better life.

"I had it easy really," says Hashi Mohamend, "I got on a plane with some of my siblings from Nairobi to London via Paris."

By contrast many of the child migrants he meets from Egypt, Gambia, Eritrea, Somalia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia have suffered violence, extortion and life threatening danger en route to Europe.

Producer: Tim Mansel.
Producer: Helen Grady
Researcher: Alice Gioia


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b06shyr9)
Book Review Programme

Lyndall Bywater and Sean Randall join Peter White to talk about their favourite books. Listen to a lively conversation about three modern titles, which also includes debate about the pros and cons of different audio versions.


TUE 21:00 The Listeners (b06shyrk)
Series 3

Episode 2

Fiona Gameson has been blind since she was about 3 and half years old, and since childhood has used echolocation to help navigate her surroundings. Echolocation is used by bats and dolphins and some other marine mammals to navigate and hunt their prey. It involves producing a sonar emission (mouth clicks in Fiona's case) and listening to the echoes to hear and "see" their surroundings. Lore Thaler a lecturer at Durham University has been studying human echolocation and we hear about her work with individuals like Fiona. We also hear from Christopher Wills Clark, a senior scientist and Professor at Cornell University and in the Bioacoustics Research Programme at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology where he studies the acoustic behaviour of birds, fish, elephants and whales. He too is familiar with the notion of 'seeing with sound', of creating 'maps' from sounds and using these to navigate underwater. Above the waves, poet Katrina Porteous discusses how listening to the soundscape of places has influenced her work and Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustic Engineering at Salford University recalls some of his favourite listening experiences in reverberant spaces and explains how the acoustics in a badly designed lecture hall in the late 1800's was the starting point for the study of architectural acoustics along with some hand claps and a saxophone in Trevor's case! Producer Sarah Blunt.


TUE 21:30 The Long View (b06sgxg5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b06sf2ns)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b06shz1f)
Storm Frank: Further flooding expected

As Northern England, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland brace themselves for more heavy rain we examine claims of a North-South divide in flood defence funding.
(Photo credit: Ben Pruchnie/ Getty Images).


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06t61ck)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 2

E M Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:00 The Show What You Wrote (b06shz1h)
Series 3

The End

Jason Manford, Janice Connolly, Gavin Webster, Fiona Clarke and Darren Kuppan star in the themed sketch show made entirely from contributions sent in by the public.

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

Aptly the series concludes with an episode themed around "The End". It features Heaven's unexpectedly strict dress code, the pitfalls of post-apocalyptic dating and someone's dying wish...

Written by: Owen Archlimb, Stefan Arif, Keith Carter, Rob Gilroy, Matt Harvey, Oliver Ley, Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Jones, Matt Oakley, Lev Parikian, Rob Smyth, and Chris Tindall.

Script editor: Jon Hunter
Producers: Ed Morrish and Paul Sheehan

A BBC Radio Comedy production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in December 2015.


TUE 23:30 Notes From a Northern Irish Childhood (b05wyq5y)
Amidst the violence and bloody conflict of the early 1970s, youth orchestras sprang up across Northern Ireland.

Aged 7, Marie-Louise Muir took a bus to orchestra practice every Saturday morning, carrying her cello across a landscape marred by bomb blasts, riots and civil unrest. While the violence raged, she met children from other religious backgrounds for the first time. She formed friendships - and a love of music - that would endure long after the sound of gunfire had faded.

But life moved on for Marie-Louise. Her cello was set aside in her attic where it languished for 25 years. Even her own children never heard her play.

Now Marie-Louise dusts down her cello and allows it to reverberate with memories of a troubled but life-changing period.

She joins young musicians on stage for a grand concert in her home town of Londonderry, a city once gripped by some of the worst violence of the Troubles. In between lessons with her cello teacher David, struggling to play John Williams' classics, Marie-Louise meets old friends and tutors to discover the true impact of music on their lives. In Omagh, she revisits the school assembly hall where they used to practice with Mary Scully, now one of the world's top double bass players. Paul Cassidy, of the world famous Brodsky Quartet, recalls carrying his violin through riots in Derry and the impact of hearing Grieg's piano concerto for the very first time. John, Frank and Gordon came from different religious backgrounds but found a shared love of music amid hormones and sneaky cigarettes on the bus to orchestra practice.

For Marie-Louise Muir, this is a personal and emotionally charged journey, taking her back to a time when her cello, the orchestra and music provided protection, friendship and hope.



WEDNESDAY 30 DECEMBER 2015

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2pm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:15 Penguin Post Office (b04fz6kr)
Episode 2

In October 2013, wildlife cameraman and director Andrew Graham-Brown and assistant producer Ruth Peacey set sail for Antarctica to film a colony of Gentoo penguins for a BBC Natural World film which every year return to Port Lockroy on a tiny island called Goudier to find a mate and raise their young in the shadow of world's most southerly public Post Office. It was to be one of the most challenging filming trips they had ever undertaken. Joining them in Antarctica was wildlife cameraman Doug Allan who narrates this series of five programmes which follows the team's adventures. Having survived the notorious Drake Passage, the team have reached the southern oceans but their troubles aren't over. They are surrounded by sea ice and send the first mate up the mast to help navigate a safe journey through the maze. All goes well until a fierce storm takes them by surprise and once again they endure a terrifying journey until they reach Anvers island and sanctuary for the night. Next morning they set off on the last leg of their journey but instead of reaching Port Lockroy are forced to stop within a few hundred metres of Goudier island by yet more dense sea ice. Producer Sarah Blunt.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b06sgxjc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2pp)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2pr)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2pt)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2pw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06shzbt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b06shzbw)
Fenland Celery

Anna Hill celebrates the return of Fenland Celery in Cambridgeshire, a little-known Victorian winter speciality.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0lwc)
House Wren

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the house wren found across the New World. Having one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the New World, the migratory house wren occurs anywhere from their breeding grounds in Canada and North America, to their to wintering grounds from Central America to Chile. The male house wren's song is a torrent of trills delivered at full volume from his territory of shrubs, low trees and ferny banks. Diminutive he may be but he's feisty and is known to drag other birds' eggs or chicks from a nest-hole he wants for himself. In parts of North America, house wrens are a significant cause of nest failure in some other species of songbirds.


WED 06:00 Today (b06shzh5)
Guest editor Miriam Gonzalez Durantez takes charge of the programme. Miriam talks children's food with Jamie Oliver and Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain and interviews Home Secretary Theresa May and Manchester City footballer Vincent Kompany.


WED 09:00 Midweek (b06shzh7)
Si King and Dave Myers, Michael Foreman, Lady Alexandra Shackleton, George Hinchcliffe

Libby Purves meets Si King and Dave Myers - also known as the Hairy Bikers; illustrator Michael Foreman; The Honorable Lady Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of Sir Ernest Shackleton and George Hinchcliffe with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Lady Alexandra Shackleton is the granddaughter of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Sir Ernest set up the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, a cross-continent trek that came to be known as the Endurance mission. Endurance departed in August 1914 and by January 1915 it had already become trapped in the Antarctic ice. Two exhibitions document the story - Enduring Eye: The Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley is at the Royal Geographical Society and By Endurance We Conquer: Shackleton and his Men is at the Polar Museum which is part of The Scott Polar Research Institute. The Royal Geographical Society is in Kensington, London and the Polar Museum is based in Cambridge.

Michael Foreman is an illustrator and storyteller. His book A Life In Pictures contains previously unseen illustrations from his sketchbooks which give an insight into his inspiration and methodology. Beginning with his childhood in wartime Suffolk, through his early career as a young artist and culminating with his collaborations with authors including Terry Jones and Michael Morpurgo, the book celebrates the places, stories and people that inspired his output. A Life In Pictures is published by Pavilion Children's Books. Painting With Rainbows - A Michael Foreman Exhibition is at Seven Stories - the National Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Si King and Dave Myers are known as The Hairy Bikers. They have written 14 books and celebrated their love of food, travel and motorbikes in a number of TV series. Their latest book, Blood, Sweat and Tyres, tells how two lads from the North East had their childhood challenges and how they met over a curry and a pint on the set of a Catherine Cookson drama. Blood, Sweat and Tyres - The Autobiography is published by Orion Books.

George Hinchcliffe is a founder member of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. He is also its musical director and arranger. A multi-instrumentalist, he has been playing the ukulele since 1960 and
has also played with Mary Wells, Michael Nyman and Brian Eno. The Orchestra has re-released the album (Ever Such) Pretty Girls: 20th Century Punk Classics.

Producer: Paula McGinley.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b06shzh9)
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany

Episode 3

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said, a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was.

But the house had changed.

Nearly twenty years later, Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved?

He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out.

The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation.

As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland, and a hatred handed down through the generations.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06shzhc)
Alicia Vikander, Women in the Catholic Church, Gender Equality in the Film Industry

Alicia Vikander on her role in The Danish Girl. Following the consecration of female Bishops in 2015, how likely is it that change will follow for women in the Catholic Church. There were some good strong roles for women in film in 2015: has gender parity been achieved in the industry? We discuss with film critics Karen Krizanovich and Kate Muir, and hear extracts from our interviews with Lily Tomlin, Kate Winslet and Geena Davis.


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b06shzhf)
Incredible Women: Series 4

Mandy Fenwick

Meet Mandy Fenwick. A huge child star in the 1980s, she inspired a new generation of young actors including Outnumbered's Tyger Drew-Honey.

Thirty years on she has just written a warts and all memoir about her celebrity-filled childhood.

On his visit to her home to record this episode of Incredible Women, Jeremy Front witnesses the effect the publication of the book is having on Mandy's mother and sister.

Written by Jeremy Front, with additional material by Rebecca Front.
Cast: Rebecca Front, Jeremy Front, Tyger Drew-Honey, Alison Steadman, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Brian Protheroe, Hugh Kermode and Nell Peachey Gudgin.
Produced by Claire Jones.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b06shzhh)
Sophie and Jan – Love Without Borders

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a couple for whom the chemistry was instant, fuelled by foreign attraction -
another 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 How My Sister Said Goodbye (b06shzhp)
Jonathan Freedland tells the story of how his sister Fiona prepared a unique audio legacy for her family and friends in the weeks leading up to her death at the age of 50.

After Fiona Freedland was diagnosed with cancer in her mid 40s, she resolved to leave behind a record of her life for her loved ones to remember her by. A lifelong listener to Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Fiona asked her brother Jonathan to make an unofficial version of the programme, interviewing her whilst she picked the music that would tell the story of her life. Over the course of one special afternoon not long before she died, Jonathan fulfilled Fiona's wish.

Fiona's husband and daughters reflect on this unique piece of audio: a moving document of a life cut short, the story of a woman seeking to establish the terms by which she would be remembered.

Producer: Laurence Grissell.


WED 11:30 UK Confidential (b06vjd73)
1986

Martha Kearney reviews secret government files from 1986 - the year of US air strikes against Libya, the Chernobyl disaster and a Royal wedding between Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. She discusses the annual release of official papers with three distinguished politicians from the time - former Health Secretary Lord Fowler, former Labour leader Lord Kinnock and former Liberal leader Lord Steel - as they look for new insights into some of the top political stories of that year.

Early 1986 saw the Westland helicopter crisis and the resignation of two Senior Ministers, Michael Heseltine and Leon Brittan. On the opposition benches, Labour was engaged in a struggle with the Militant left wing of the party, but the popularity of the new SDP / Liberal Alliance failed to materialise into votes in the 1987 election.

Meanwhile Britain was gripped by a fear of AIDS, and arms talks between the USSR and the United States faltered at Reykjavik, but led ultimately to a treaty between the superpowers just a year later, marking a significant thaw in Cold War relations.

Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
A Whistledown production in association with Takeaway Media for BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2py)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Home Front (b06kvcxv)
30 December 1915 - Nell Kingsley

On this day a British P&O liner was torpedoed killing 334, including women and children, and at the Bevan Hospital an injured soldier avoids returning to duty.

Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b06shzyk)
Flooded businesses, The cost of 2016, Diaries

As small businesses in flood-affected regions calculate the cost of the damage, many say finding flood insurance is becoming nigh on impossible. Traders are urging insurers to extend a scheme that has been set up for homeowners to business owners. "Flood Re" is due to launch in April, it is a not-for-profit flood reinsurance scheme that will allow homeowners to get affordable insurance. Peter White asks Flood Re Chief Executive Brendan McCafferty whether there will be any support for small businesses.

With the new year just around the corner, You & Yours speaks to industry experts about what might happen to food prices, the cost of energy and the way we bank in 2016. By the way, it is not good news for chocolate lovers.

Plus Paperchase says sales of diaries have increased by 20% in the last year. So why are some people still logging their daily lives in books, when so much of our lives is shared on social media? We have asked some avid writers to share their highlights of the year gone by.

Presented by Peter White
Produced by Natalie Donovan.


WED 12:57 Weather (b06sf2q0)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b06shzym)
Reports from northern and western parts of the UK as Storm Frank lashes them with strong wind and rain. Former head of the Civil Service Lord Kerslake calls for a review of emergency funding for those affected by the floods.

The cabinet minister Oliver Letwin has apologised for a memo he wrote for Margaret Thatcher in 1985 in which he blamed riots involving mainly young black men on their "bad moral attitudes". Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote tells us that the legacy of such attitudes still reverberate. Lord Willetts, who served with him in Number Ten at the time says the Conservative Party has changed.

In the latest in our reviews of the main political parties' 2015, Labour Shadow Cabinet Minister Jon Ashworth rejects calls for a shadow cabinet re-shuffle.

And as part of our fiftieth anniversary celebrations, something that's never been heard on our programme before - the day Neil Kinnock erupted in fury at Jim Naughtie's questions; and why it's known as the "great kebbabing".


WED 13:45 School of Thought (b06shzyp)
Vocational Training

Every day this week the former Conservative MP and universities minister, David Willetts, is examining our education system - stage by stage.

Putting politics to one side, he's taking a long hard look at education to challenge some of the conventional wisdom we've all lived with for a long time - and which, he argues, shapes the debate without our even realising it.

In this programme, David argues that universities should play a bigger role in vocational training. Apprenticeships, he says, have got far too much attention.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b06sgyqd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Tumanbay (b06shzzq)
Series 1

Strangle Hold

In the fifth episode of this epic saga inspired by the Mamluk slave-dynasty of Egypt, General Qulan (Christopher Fulford) finds the Provincial Governors less than enthusiastic as he arrives to gather the armies to fight rebel "queen" Maya. In Tumanbay, Gregor is under pressure to find the spies but his investigations keep leading him back to Shajar the Sultan's chief wife (Sarah Beck Mather) and a reliquary she has secreted away.

Tumanbay, the beating heart of a vast empire, is threatened by a rebellion in a far-off province and a mysterious force devouring the city from within. Gregor (Rufus Wright), Master of the Palace Guard, is charged by Sultan Al-Ghuri (Raad Rawi) with the task of rooting out this insurgence and crushing it.

Cast:
Gregor.....................................Rufus Wright
Sarah......................................Nina Yndis
Shajar.....................................Sarah Beck Mather
Cadali......................................Matthew Marsh
Physician.................................Vivek Madan
Wolf........................................Alexander Siddig
The Hafiz.................................Antony Bunsee
Bello........................................Albert Welling
Ibn..........................................Nabil Elouahabi
Maya's Envoy..........................Nadir Khan
Daniel.....................................Gareth Kennerley
Al-Ghuri..................................Raad Rawi
General Qulan........................Christopher Fulford
Provincial Governor Usman.....John Sessions
Fatima.................................Sirine Saba

Other parts played by:
Christian Hillborg
Alec Utgoff
Akbar Kurtha

Music - Sacha Puttnam
Sound Design - Steve Bond, Jon Ouin
Editors - Ania Przygoda, James Morgan
Producers - Emma Hearn, Nadir Khan, John Dryden

Written and Directed by John Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (b06sj04y)
Money Box Live: Relationships and Money

Does money cause tension in your relationship? Have you lent money to a friend, only never to get it back?

Even if you don't like to talk about money, sometimes you have to. If you're having difficulty managing joint finances with your partner, or a dispute about money has arisen in your family, why not call Money Box Live to get some practical advice and tips on how to sort it out.

Ruth Alexander will be joined by a panel of experts, ready to answer your questions about relationships and money:

Penny Mansfield: Director at relationship guidance charity, One Plus One.
Michelle Simpson: family lawyer, Chafes Solicitors and Resolution.
Jonathan Chesterman: advice manager at debt charity, Step Change.

You can email your question to moneybox@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday 30 December. Standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply.

Presenter: Ruth Alexander
Producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Andrew Smith.


WED 15:30 The Listeners (b06shyrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b06sj050)
Fashion and Beauty

Fashion:pleasure and danger. Laurie Taylor considers the costs of 'keeping up appearances', then and now. From the flaming tutus of ballerinas to the deaths of garment workers: what perils have accompanied changes in dress, for the producers of clothing, as well as the wearers. How have our ideas of style and good looks shifted according to changing notions of masculinity & femininity? What relationship do beards and facial hair have to our understanding of what it means to be a man? And have the vagaries and demands of fashion invariably hurt women more than men, the poor more than the wealthy?

Laurie is joined by Christopher Oldstone-Moore, Senior Lecturer in History at Wright State University, Alison Matthews David, Associate Professor in the School of Fashion at Ryerson University and Joanne Entwistle, Senior Lecturer in Culture and Creative Industries at King's College London.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b06snvwf)
TV Remakes

The number of remakes seems to be increasing - Cold Feet and the X Files are both returning to our TV screens next year. So is this lazy commissioning, or is it actually more risky than commissioning new original work because of the weight of audience expectation? Writer Debbie Horsfield, talks about her approach to the new Poldark series, and why she avoided being influenced by the very successful 1970s series. Steve Hewlett also hears from Jane Tranter, who brought back Dr Who and Auf Wiedersehen Pet to the BBC, when she was controller of drama commissioning. Maurice Gran who co-wrote the BBC classic series Birds of a Feather, which was remade sixteen years later for ITV and Lucy Lumsden, the former BBC controller of comedy commissioning, and latterly Head of Comedy at Sky, and Julia Raeside, TV critic at the Guardian.

Presenter: Steve Hewlett
Producer: Dianne McGregor
Editor: Karen Dalziel.


WED 17:00 PM (b06snvwh)
News interviews, context and analysis.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2q2)
30/12/15 Heavy rain and gales continue to batter the country.

Bad weather continues to batter the UK. Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault.


WED 18:15 Don't Start (b06vc3sg)
Series 3

Christmas

What do long term partners really argue about? The third series of Frank Skinner's sharp comedy. Starring Frank Skinner and Katherine Parkinson.

In this episode, our loving couple, Neil and Kim, spend a harrowing Christmas Day together.

The first and second series of Don't Start met with instant critical and audience acclaim:
"That he can deliver such a heavy premise for a series with such a lightness of touch is testament to his skills as a writer and, given that the protagonists are both bookworms, he's also permitted to use a flourish of fine words that would be lost in his stand-up routines." Jane Anderson, Radio Times

"Frank Skinner gives full rein to his sharp but splenetic comedy. He and his co-star Katherine Parkinson play a bickering couple exchanging acerbic ripostes in a cruelly precise dissection of a relationship." Daily Mail

"...a lesson in relationship ping-pong..." Miranda Sawyer, The Observer

Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Each week, our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint. Each week, the stakes mount as Neil and Kim battle with words. But these are no ordinary arguments. The two outdo each other with increasingly absurd images, unexpected literary references and razor sharp analysis of their beloved's weaknesses. Underneath the cutting wit, however, there is an unmistakable tenderness.

An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 It's Jocelyn (b06snvwk)
Series 1

Episode 1

It's Jocelyn is the series from comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien (3 Non Blondes and Little Miss Jocelyn).

Back with a raft of brand fresh characters including the Overly Dramatic Family, a pair of terrible African Drummers and a bad-tempered couple who run a takeaway business, Jocelyn vents her frustrations at the world around her through sketches and stand-up. From pedantic dinner dates to coping with annoying friends, Jocelyn's life provides a rich seam of humour.

Jocelyn is delighted to be joined in the cast by Curtis Walker, Ninia Benjamin and Kevin J.

Producer: John Pocock

A BBC Radio Comedy production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b06snvwm)
Rob seems to have strong ideas about baby names and he and Helen discuss godparents - Helen still needs to talk to Ian about it. Rob and Tom spot an apparent error by Helen with a stock order for the Bridge Farm shop. Tom agrees to talk to Helen about it. Later, Helen can't believe she'd make such a mistake, explaining to Rob that she carefully counted out the order. He tells her not to worry about it and tries to get Helen to eat something - but she insists she had a big lunch.

Phoebe's delighted to have passed her driving test and phones Roy who has been a great instructor. Jennifer's convinced that an offer from Oxford will land on the doormat any day now. She's disappointed that Brian doesn't show his delight for Phoebe, but he admits he's distracted by a bombshell from Justin Elliot. Justin told Brian in confidence that he intends to close Berrow Farm. Brian tells Jennifer that they mustn't let on to anyone - especially Adam.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b06snvwp)
Stories of the Year – Part One

This year Daniel Craig was back as James Bond for the fourth time in Spectre, Lenny Henry wrote a television drama based on his own teenage years, and Tracy Emin remade her bed.

Director Rupert Goold and actor Juliette Binoche put a modern spin on ancient Greek drama, rapper Abd al Malik was influenced by Zola, while author Paula Hawkins's new book The Girl on the Train ended the year as a bestseller around the world.

Composer Philip Glass and pianist James Rhodes wrote memoirs on the role of music in their lives, while singer Jess Glynne and actor Bradley Cooper suffered for their art.

Finally, ballet dancers Carlos Acosta and Sylvie Guillem bowed out while still at the top of their game.

Tomorrow Ai Weiwei, Keith Richards and Anthony Hopkins, among others, share their stories.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Angie Nehring

Image (L-R): Jess Glynne, Daniel Craig and Sylvie Guillem (Credit: Bill Cooper).


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06shzhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 A New Life in Europe (b06tqjvr)
The headlines tell of migrants drowning and of queues at borders and reception centres, but in a short news report it's impossible to capture the detail of the journey hundreds of thousands of Syrians have made. There's little detail of the nights spent sleeping rough, the reality of running out of money and the nagging question 'Is it worth it?' For several months this year reporter Manveen Rana travelled with the Dhnie family from Syria as the mother, father and their three children made their way to Germany. "A New Life in Europe" is an intimate account of that remarkable journey as it gets tougher and as the family begin to wonder whether they have made the right decision.

Presenter: Manveen Rana
Producers: Emma Rippon and Dixi Stewart.


WED 21:00 Would You Eat an Alien? (b06s5zjp)
Alien Persons

Jake the Spaceman (aka comedian Jake Yapp) has crash-landed on a remote planet and doesn't have much food to keep him going until he is rescued. Fortunately, the planet is teeming with alien life forms that are edible, but which ones should he eat? He wants to cause the minimum amount of pain and distress to the creatures, so what does he need to know about the nature of the beings on the planet? Can they feel pain? If so, how can he minimise suffering? Will eating an alien cause distress to others? Is the alien so aware and sensitive to its environment that Jake needs to consider whether it is a non-human person?
Christine will interview animal welfare scientists, philosophers and wildlife biologists to get under the skin of animal sentience and the potential consequences of accepting that animals are conscious, aware creatures.
These big questions generate surprising and challenging insights into our attitudes to other life. When you know absolutely nothing about the alien in front of you, what do you need to know before eating it?


WED 21:30 Midweek (b06shzh7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b06snvwr)
UK storm connected to mild Arctic

As Storm Frank continues to wreak havoc in parts of the UK, we examine links between El Nino and unseasonal weather around the world, including the North Pole.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06t5x73)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 3

E M Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:00 Woman's Hour (b06snvwt)
Late Night Woman's Hour: Naked for New Year

Lauren Laverne and guests discuss getting naked for New Year. Intimate, late night conversation on why the naked body still has the power to shock. With Inna Shevchenko, leader of the international feminist organisation FEMEN; Miss Glory Pearl , the naked standup comedian; Vikki Dark feminist academic and ex-model who now campaigns against the 'glamour' industry; Shahida Bari, lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University in London, whose latest book is about the philosophy of clothes; and Natasha Porter - photographer and organiser of the World Naked Bike Ride.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Luke Mulhall.



THURSDAY 31 DECEMBER 2015

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2r3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:15 Penguin Post Office (b04fzd88)
Episode 3

In October 2013, wildlife cameraman and director Andrew Graham-Brown and assistant producer Ruth Peacey set sail for Antarctica to film a colony of Gentoo penguins for a BBC Natural World film which every year return to Port Lockroy on a tiny island called Goudier to find a mate and raise their young in the shadow of world's most southerly public Post Office. It was to be one of the most challenging filming trips they had ever undertaken. Joining them in Antarctica was wildlife cameraman Doug Allan who narrates this series of five programmes which follows the team's adventures. Having survived the notorious Drake Passage , the team have reached the southern oceans but their troubles aren't over. They are surrounded by sea ice and so have to send the first mate up the mast to help navigate a safe journey through the maze. All goes well until a fierce storm takes them by surprise and once again they endure a terrifying journey until they reach Anvers island and sanctuary for the night. Next morning they set off on the last leg of their journey but instead of reaching Goudier are forced to stop within a few hundred metres by yet more sea ice. Producer Sarah Blunt.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b06shzh9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2r5)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2r7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2r9)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2rc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06snw9h)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b06snw9k)
Island Dairy

Sarah Swadling visits Scilly's only dairy farm, a tiny herd of 10 cows on windswept St Agnes.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0ly5)
Christmas Shearwater

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

On Christmas Day, Sir David Attenborough presents the Christmas shearwater. 2000km south of Hawaii the highly marine Christmas shearwater is at home over the Central Pacific seas, tirelessly riding the air-currents, skimming wave-crests and hugging the contours of the sea looking for food. They rarely come to land as adults, but when they do, it is to return to their place of birth on remote oceanic islands to breed. Here they form loose colonies, laying a single white egg which is incubated for around 50 days. Inhabiting these far flung inaccessible islands means little is known about their biology, but that remoteness gives them protection from land based predators.


THU 06:00 Today (b06sny86)
Guest editor David Adjaye takes charge of the programme. We talk to Uber about the changing city and explore the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b06sny88)
Tristan and Iseult

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tristan and Iseult, one of the most popular stories of the Middle Ages. From roots in Celtic myth, it passed into written form in Britain a century after the Norman Conquest and almost immediately spread throughout northern Europe. It tells of a Cornish knight and an Irish queen, Tristan and Iseult, who accidentally drink a love potion, at the same time, on the same boat, travelling to Cornwall. She is due to marry Tristan's king, Mark. Tristan and Iseult seemed ideally matched and their love was heroic, but could that excuse their adultery, in the minds of medieval listeners, particularly when the Church was so clear they were wrong?

With

Laura Ashe
Associate Professor of English at Worcester College, University of Oxford

Juliette Wood
Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University

And

Mark Chinca
Reader in Medieval German Literature at the University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b06sny8c)
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany

Episode 4

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said, a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was.

But the house had changed.

Nearly twenty years later, Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved?

He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out.

The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation.

As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland, and a hatred handed down through the generations.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06sny8k)
Women in music 2015, Changing your life

Journalists Jude Rogers and Laura Snape join Jenni Murray to discuss 2015 for women in music. We'll also hear the best performances and interviews from the last year on Woman's Hour - Patti Smith; Ella Eyre; Joan Armatrading; Laurie Anderson; Stick in the Wheel and Sona Jobarteh.

And how to make a New Year's resolution which will last beyond January - we talk to Adele Tilley, a mother who decided to return to education after a turbulent adolescence and is now in the final term of her master's degree and Kate Tojeiro, author of 'The Art of Possible'.

On Monday 4th of January we are doing a phone-in about making and embracing change. Whether it's a change in career, a return to education, or conquering a fear - what do we need to do to achieve our goals? If you'd like to take part you can email us now through the Contact Us page or tweet @bbcwomanshour or phone us on 03700 100444 on Monday morning - lines open at 8am.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sny8q)
Incredible Women: Series 4

31/12/2015

Meet Linda Ridley, crime writer. A prolific writer who draws on her East End background to create bestsellers full of hardened criminals and gruesome crimes.

Reporter Jeremy Front travels to her manor house in rural Essex to find out what makes this incredible woman tick.

There's a special appearance by Val McDermid who explains Linda's appeal as she sees it, as well as divulging what she feels are her weaknesses.

But is Linda Ridley all that she seems? And is Val McDermid, for that matter?

Written by Jeremy Front with additional material by Rebecca Front.

Cast: Rebecca Front, Jeremy Front, Ewan Bailey and Debra Baker. Special guest appearance by Val McDermid.

Produced by Claire Jones.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b06sny8s)
The Battered Champions of Aleppo

A fuzzy team photo from the 1980s sends Tim Whewell on a journey to track down football players from a small town in northern Syria who were once the champions of Aleppo province. In the last four years of war their hometown, Mare'a, has become a war zone - bombed by the Assad regime, besieged by Islamic State, subject even to a mustard gas attack. And the civil war has torn through what was once a band of friends - some now pro-rebel, some pro-regime. They're scattered across Syria and beyond, some fighting near Mare'a, some in refugee camps abroad. What have they gone through since they won that cup? And do they think they can ever be reunited?

Shabnam Grewal producing.


THU 11:30 Miles Jupp and the Plot Device (b06sny8v)
How many stories are there in the world? According to William Wallace Cook, dime novelist and prolific producer of American pulp, there were precisely 1,462 and in Plotto, his "Master Book of All Plots", he anatomised them all in the service of struggling writers everywhere. Plotto, published in 1928, was nothing less than a manual of fictional devices, intended to sit on a writer's shelf between the dictionary and the thesaurus. Any writer stuck for inspiration could leaf through Plotto to discover plots like "a ventriloquist, captured by savages and threatened with death, makes an animal talk-and is given his freedom" or "a reporter, writing up an imaginary interview as fact, quotes a man as being in town on a certain day. The man, subsequently accused of a crime, establishes an alibi through an interview innocently faked by the reporter."

Cook hailed his own book as "an invention which reduces literature to an exact science." But it was weird science. Nevertheless it worked for Cook, who churned out up to 50 novels a year. It also worked for Perry Mason creator Earl Stanley Gardner who borrowed liberally from Plotto. Even the young Alfred Hitchcock had a copy. And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Cook must have been delighted by the appearance of "The Plot Robot," whose name promised much but which, rather disappointingly was a cardboard circle with a pointer attached to it.

Miles Jupp investigates the Plot Device that promises to make writing easy, with the help of crime writers Val McDermid and John Harvey.

Producer - David Stenhouse
Actor - David Jackson Young.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2rf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Home Front (b06kvd35)
31 December 1915 - Alec Poole

On this day a man was sentenced to three months hard labour for buying a soldier a bottle of whisky, and at the Bevan Hospital patients prepare for New Year's Eve.

Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b06sny92)
Smoking

Today's programme is for anyone who smokes and would like 2016 to be the year they stop. Please listen if that's you or if someone you love is a smoker and you're keen to help and encourage them to quit. Research on smoking cessation suggests that when you're giving up, the attitude of family and friends is the most important thing. It isn't easy - we'll hear from some people who are having to try, try again.

Despite decades of health advice in the UK, smoking is still the main cause of preventable sickness and premature death. The Department for Health calculates that smoking kills more people each year than alcohol, obesity, road accidents and illegal drugs put together. Although smoking rates have halved in the last 40 years - in Britain today 22% of men and 17% of women are smokers. Two thirds start as children.

We'll be in the company of Professor Robert West. He leads of a team of researchers investigating how best to encourage and help smokers to stop. His work includes large-scale surveys into what triggers attempts to quit, the methods people use when they try to stop and how successful they are.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Editor: Chas Watkin.


THU 12:57 Weather (b06sf2rh)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b06sp41p)
The city regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has abandoned holding an inquiry into the culture and behaviour of staff in banking. The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, is critical of the move and describes it as "reverting to conversations of the gentlemen's clubs".

The floods are receding. But the costs are rising. We hear from south west Scotland.

The New Year honours have been awarded - amid claims that some civil servants and political advisers don't deserve them. We hear from the MP who led a recent inquiry into the system.


THU 13:45 School of Thought (b06sny94)
University

Every day this week the former Conservative MP and universities minister, David Willetts, is examining our education system - stage by stage.

Putting politics to one side, he's taking a long hard look at education to challenge some of the conventional wisdom we've all lived with for a long time - and which, he argues, shapes the debate without our even realising it.

In this programme David argues that the controversial goal of getting 50% of school leavers into university is far too timid. University changes people for the better, he says, so why shouldn't 75% of school leavers go - and perhaps even more?

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b06snvwm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 North by Northamptonshire (b06sny99)
North By Northamptonshire: Full Stop

A heart-warming comedy drama with a stellar cast who come together, one last time, to bring the much-loved and critically acclaimed series to a close.

It's New Year's Eve and the inhabitants of Wadenbrook, having recently performed their own amateur production of My Fair Lady are excited to be off to see a professional and starry production at Birmingham's Hippodrome. Former school teacher Mary has, of course, organised the trip, with a rather uncharacteristic ulterior motive at the end of it. The indefatigable Norman will come along too, spurred on at the thought of seeing Strictly dancer Favia Cacace in the flesh. Long suffering Jan's excited about the qualities Lionel Blair will bring to the role of Higgins, and gentle Jonathan follows wherever Jan goes. (As long as his ex-wife Esther and the cuckoo Orson don't object). At least they will have Ken and Keith there - Wadenbrook's most enduring couple and the cement that binds them all together and a badly kept secret that everyone's bursting to tell.

Written by Katherine Jakeways.

Narrator...Sheila Hancock

Esther and Radio DJ... Katherine Jakeways
Jan...Felicity Montagu
Keith...John Biggins
Ken and Jonathan...Kevin Eldon
Mary...Penelope Wilton
Norman...Geoffrey Palmer
Orson...Simon Kane

Script Editor...Richard Turner

Producer...Julia Mckenzie

A BBC Radio Comedy Production


THU 15:00 Open Country (b06sny9c)
Balnakeil Craft Village

Helen Mark meets the artists and artisans of Balnakeil Craft Village in Sutherland.

Constructed as an early warning station in the Cold War period, the MOD camp reinvented itself as a place for creative people to live and work when nuclear attack did not come. Set against white sand beaches and the clearest blue seas, it's easy to see why the landscape inspires artists in this remote part of Scotland.

Helen meets internationally-renowned ceramic artist Lotte Glob, one of the earliest inhabitants of Balnakeil. Her work can be found in the most isolated places in the hills around the village, carried there by Lotte on one of her long walks.

There's South African painter Nicola Poole, who loves the simplicity of life here and the way it allows you the quiet space to be creative. She thinks it's 'paradise' and is inspired by the landscape in her paintings. Her husband Ludo Van Muysen repairs musical instruments for the whole Highland region, but he can turn his hand to many types of work, and originally trained as a nurse in his home country of Belgium.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b06sf42m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b06sfk96)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b06snz24)
Women in Film

Francine Stock hosts a discussion about the roles of women in the film industry and whether anything is getting better in terms of jobs, pay and opportunities. Joining her are producer Elizabeth Karlsen, director Carol Morley and writer/actor Justine Waddell.

Director David O. Russell talks Joy.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b06snz8v)
Adam Rutherford and guests oceanographer Dr Helen Czerski, astrophysicist Chris Lintott and zoologist Dr Tim Cockerill share their highlights of the science year and answer listeners' science questions.

Producer: Adrian Washbourn.


THU 17:00 PM (b06sf2rk)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2rm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:15 15 Minute Musical (b06sp2zd)
Xmas 2015

Jeremy Corbyn Superstar!

It's at this time of year thoughts turn to JC and the journey he went on to try and save humanity. Yes Jeremy Corbyn has gone from backbench obscurity to Leader of the Opposition in the past twelve months, but will his followers betray him? Find out in Jeremy Corbyn Superstar!

Written by Richie Webb, Dave Cohen and David Quantick and performed by the multi-talented Richie Webb, Dave Lamb and Pippa Evans.


THU 18:30 Intensive Carey (b06sp2zg)
Critically acclaimed comedian Carey Marx unexpectedly suffered a heart attack a few years ago. He survived. And turned his experience into a stand-up show.

Presenting his debut half hour for Radio 4, this is the true story of Carey's brush with death. It turns out that cardiac failure can be funny.

Written by and starring Carey Marx.

Producer Alexandra Smith.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b06sp2zj)
Eddie starts making plans for getting pigs onto Grange Farm - he'll get hold of a few weaners. Joe feels a good omen about 2016.

There's a Young Farmers' party on for New Year's Eve. Pip's going with Matthew, to Rex and Toby's disappointment. However, Pip ditches it in the end, as Ruth's flight from New Zealand has been delayed and Pip was going to go after picking up Ruth from the airport.

As David looks forward to the plaster coming off his arm, he's worried about having to break it to Ruth that they may have to let the cows go at Brookfield. Meanwhile, Elizabeth tells Shula about David's marriage worries. Ruth finally returns from New Zealand. She has had a lot to think about over the last few weeks and feels exhausted.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b06sp2zl)
Stories of 2015 - Part Two

John Wilson continues his look at those who made the headlines in the arts in 2015. From award winners Marlon James, Ali Smith and Benjamine Clementine to Glenda Jackson who returned to acting in Radio 4's Zola season. Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Ian McKellan worked together for the first time this year, Ai Wei Wei had a major exhibition at the Royal Academy and Amy Poehler starred in hit children's animation Inside Out. Michel Houellebecq and Claudia Rankine both wrote about issues affecting their countries, Josie Rourke and James Graham enthuse about The Vote play, Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamarti played Othello and Iago in the RSC's groundbreaking production, and Kazuo Ishiguro and Keith Richards reflect on careers that might have been.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sny8q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Future of Leadership (b06shyrh)
Margaret Heffernan argues that existing models of command and control leadership have outlived their usefulness in the commercial world. So why are dynamic and aggressive CEOs still lionised?

Margaret starts her mission sitting in on auditions for RADA. The academy's director, Edward Kemp, talks about how to identify stars for this highly competitive world. "It's never the supermen or superwomen...but people who can liberate the energy, imagination and momentum of the whole group," he says. The implications for the business world are clear.

She talks to Patty McCord, one of the founding members of Netflix about "Netflix Culture". Workers decide when and how much holiday they want, they claim any travelling expenses they want...and Netflix has effectively abolished HR. Leadership has been devolved throughout the organisation and profits have soared. We hear how Microsoft is transforming the way it "does" leadership. For years it's been viewed by many as having a "dog eat dog" environment. Now the company is trying a very different way. Teams, helpfulness and empathy are - we are told - the new order of the day.

Prof Rob Goffee from London Business School - the author of "Why should anyone be led by you?" argues that we're in the midst of a crisis of leadership which needs to be urgently addressed. He says commercial businesses need to look to the army for inspiration. Margaret interviews the former US Army General, Stan McCrystal, General Nick Carter, the head of the British army, and its former head, Lord David Richards. Command and control is long gone in the army ...so why are so many other organisations sticking with it?

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


THU 20:30 In Business (b06sp2zt)
Not So Small Beer

Peter Day explores the rise of craft beer and how the big breweries are fighting back by buying up the competition

Producer: Rosamund Jones.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b06snz8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b06sny88)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b06sp41t)
The Best of 2015

A special edition, with Ritula Shah, of the programme's foreign highlights this year.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06t58qq)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 4

E M Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


THU 23:00 Wireless Nights (b06ptqf1)
Series 4

Underwater at the Proms

Jarvis Cocker's nocturnal exploration of the human condition takes him beneath the waves in this special edition of Wireless Nights.

Accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic at this year's Proms, as Jarvis drifts off to sleep he soon finds himself on an underwater voyage down to the endless night of the ocean bed. En route, he meets psychoanalyst Carl Jung, two submariners called Roger trapped in a tiny submersible and a free-diver experiencing "the rapture of the deep".

The BBC Philharmonic creates a sonic seascape as Jarvis goes deeper and deeper - but will he make it back to the surface in time to wake up?

Producers Laurence Grissell and Neil McCarthy.



FRIDAY 01 JANUARY 2016

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b06sp48z)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:15 Penguin Post Office (b04g13rf)
Episode 4

In October 2013, wildlife cameraman and director Andrew Graham-Brown and assistant producer Ruth Peacey set sail for Antarctica to film a colony of Gentoo penguins for a BBC Natural World film which every year return to Port Lockroy on a tiny island called Goudier to find a mate and raise their young in the shadow of world's most southerly public Post Office. It was to be one of the most challenging filming trips they had ever undertaken. Joining them in Antarctica was wildlife cameraman Doug Allan who narrates this series of five programmes which follows the team's adventures. Having finally arrived at Goudier island, the film crew waste no time filming the lives of the Gentoo penguins which return here every year to mate and raise a family. Once they have found their mate, the penguins build nests from small stones which resemble mini volcanoes - to keep the eggs off the ground and keep them dry. Squabbles break out when penguins steal stone from each other's nests. The nesting parents also have to watch out for predators like the skuas which nest on nearby islands and won't hesitate to steal an egg or a chick to feed their own young. As the weeks pass, the reality of life an island with no running water and no electricity begins to take its toll on the team. Producer Sarah Blunt.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b06sny8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2st)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2sw)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2sy)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2t0)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06sp491)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles RE Centre, Wrexham.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b06sp525)
Wintering Birds in Lancashire

The wetlands just inland from the Ribble Estuary in Lancashire are one of Europe's most important wintering grounds for geese, ducks and swans. Throughout the winter months they're home to tens of thousands of pink footed geese and nearly two thousand whooper swans. It's a terrific spectacle but not always a welcome sight for local farmers because birds like these can strip a field of grass or crop overnight. Caz Graham visits the Martin Mere Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust reserve at Martin Mere to meet the birdlife and hear about the difficulties of farming adjacent to one of Britain's biggest bird tables.

Produced and presented by Caz Graham.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04t0lzb)
Wandering Albatross

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Sir David Attenborough presents the wandering albatross of the South Atlantic Ocean. On the windswept South Georgian Islands, a stiff breeze is ruffling the grass tussocks as a Wandering Albatross is billing and coo-ing to its mate. These huge seabirds, mate for life and can live for 50 years (or more). Longevity is vital for a species which produces only one chick every two years. The chocolate brown youngster takes to the air nine months after hatching, the longest pre-fledging period of any bird, but when it does, it breaks another record, as adults have the longest wingspan of any living bird, which can reach over 5metres.


FRI 06:00 Today (b06sp65d)
Guest editor Baroness Campbell takes charge of the programme. Baroness Campbell takes a sceptical MP around the House of Lords, debates assisted dying with Matthew Parris and we investigate whether the suburbs are the true home of British creativity.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b06sfh14)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b06sp7mb)
The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany

Episode 5

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said, a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was.

But the house had changed.

Nearly twenty years later, Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved?

He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out.

The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation.

As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland, and a hatred handed down through the generations.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06sp7md)
Woman's Hour Turns 70 in 2016

The first edition of Woman's Hour was broadcast on October 7th 1946. It aimed to meet the needs of busy listeners with a "daily programme of music, advice and entertainment for the home".

The programme has evolved to reflect the interests of its listeners - a magazine on everything about women and of interest to them, presenting the women's perspective and women speakers. Jenni Murray discusses how Woman's Hour got on air, what listeners made of it, how it reflected the changes in women's lives and how it stayed on air.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Ruth Watts.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sp7mg)
Incredible Women: Series 4

Judi Santos

Meet Judi Santos. Famed for her 1960s anthem 'Big Beautiful House', she has never sold out on her principles.

Jeremy Front goes to San Francisco to interview this 'incredible woman' as she releases her first new album for twenty years. But is it all sunshine and flowers in the Garden of Eden?

Written by award winning writer Jeremy Front with additional material by Rebecca Front.
Cast: Rebecca Front, Jeremy Front, Brian Protheroe, Evie Killip, Ewan Bailey, Hugh Kermode. With special guest appearance by Bob Harris.
Produced by Claire Jones.


FRI 11:00 This Is Me Totally Sausage (b05pbwjp)
German comedian and broadcaster Henning Wehn explores the fast-growing use of ELF - English as a lingua franca. Around the world there are an estimated 800m non-native speakers of English and the number is growing all the time.

Through talking to French, German, Brazilian and even American expats based in the UK, Henning discovers that just having the English vocabulary and grasping of grammar doesn't really help foreigners understand the nuanced, elliptical way that the British speak their own language.

From Japanese estate agents to French web entrepreneurs, non-native English speakers are baffled by the way the natives communicate using humour, obscure idioms based on cricket or rugby, and the understated codes of class and status.

Henning talks to academics and consultants in the fast-growing field of ELF and learns that it is rapidly developing a grammar and structure of its own - often not understood by those who have grown up speaking English.

Producer: Keith Wheatley
A Terrier production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 11:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (b06sg2mm)
Series 2

Episode 1

Geoff and the Anderssons celebrating baby John's first Christmas, as Geoff unwisely volunteers to organise the festivities for the whole family.

The second series Danny Robins' sitcom, set and recorded in Sweden.

Starring Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Adam Riches, Danny Robins and a cast of Sweden's most popular TV comedy actors.

Geoff has moved to Yxsjö in northern Sweden, to start a new life with his girlfriend Linda in the (frequently frosty) bosom of her family.

This year, new dad Geoff has plenty of fresh experiences to contend with, including three varieties of pickled cabbage, sinister Christmas elves and an unpleasant visit from Sweden's answer to the BNP. It's all worth it though for Linda and baby John.

While Geoff and Linda now have their own place, he still has to deal with her disapproving Dad, Sten her alarmingly flirtatious mother Gunilla and her apparently suicidal, arsonist brother, Anders.

Geoff is determined to be more Swedish than the Swedes as he takes to his new country with renewed enthusiasm, and he has help, in the form of fellow expat, cynical Ian, an unending source of (slightly misleading) information, and Soran, a Danish Kurd with Swedophobia.

Geoff ...... Adam Riches
Sten ...... Thomas Oredsson
Linda ...... Sissela Benn
Gunilla ...... Anna-Lena Brundin
Ian ...... Danny Robins
Soran ...... Farshad Kohlgi
Anders Fredrik Andersson

With Thomas Ericsson and Shanthi Rydwall.

Director: Frank Stirling

A Unique production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2016. .


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2t2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Home Front (b06kvdgj)
1 January 1916 - Hilary Pearce

On this day the Home Secretary resigned as the first draft of the Compulsory Military Service Bill was considered by the Cabinet, and in Folkestone Hilary Pearce makes an unexpected offer.

SECRET SHAKESPEARE
A Shakespeare quote is hidden in each Home Front episode that is set in 1916. These were first broadcast in 2016, the 400th anniversary year of the playwright's death. Can you spot them all?

Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole

Story-led by Shaun McKenna
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.


FRI 12:15 15 Minute Musical (b06sggdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Monday]


FRI 12:30 June Whitfield: 90 Not Out (b06sfrks)
Terry and June to Eastenders and Beyond

In an age of instant celebrity, what does it take to maintain a long career in entertainment?

June Whitfield is one of our best-known faces and most widely loved stars. She has recently turned 90 years old. It's an ideal opportunity for BBC Radio 4 to wish her a happy birthday and toast her long, successful career - a career which is still ongoing.

Joanna Lumley visited June at home in Wimbledon to re-live some of her finest comedy moments and explore how the entertainment industry has changed - most notably the expanded roles for women as performers, writers and producers - during her remarkable career.

The second part of this extended interview with June covers the latter part of her career, starting with the role that brought June to a whole new audience - Mother in Jennifer Saunders' 90s sitcom hit, Absolutely Fabulous.

Joanna Lumley, a co-star with June in Absolutely Fabulous, listens back to some selected gems from the archives and discusses the highs and lows of her time in the entertainment business.

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


FRI 13:00 World at One (b06sp8dk)
News Programme. Munich police give more details of the terror threat to rail stations in the city. We hear from those who survived the skyscraper fire in Dubai. Stephen Evans looks at the end of China's one child policy and we discuss if polling companies need to change their methods. Presented by Shaun Ley.


FRI 13:45 School of Thought (b06sp9gm)
Late Learners

Every day this week the former Conservative MP and universities minister, David Willetts, is examining our education system - stage by stage.

Putting politics to one side, he's taking a long hard look at education to challenge some of the conventional wisdom we've all lived with for a long time - and which, he argues, shapes the debate without our even realising it.

In this programme David argues that we should make it easier for people to come back to education later in life. Life is messy, he says, and the education system should reflect that.

Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b06sp2zj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b03m7p9z)
Enid Bagnold - National Velvet

Episode 1

Fourteen year old Velvet is mad about horses. She knows 'there are pleasures earlier than love. Earlier than love, nearer heaven' in the form of horses.

When she wins a piebald horse in a raffle, she recognises he's something special. He can easily clear five-foot fences, and he'll do anything for her. Soon, she and butcher's assistant Mi have their sights set on the biggest race in England. But how can a girl in 1930s England get near Aintree?

Peter Flannery rescues National Velvet from Hollywood, returning 14 year old Velvet to her Sussex butcher's family in the 1930s. A welcome return for Enid Bagnold's strange, inventive fairytale about a young amateur girl rider who takes an untrained horse over the stiffest course in the world and wins.

Sound design: Eloise Whitmore

Author: Enid Bagnold

Dramatised by Peter Flannery
Director/Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Polly Thomas

A Sparklab production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b06spdm3)
Old Royal Naval College

Peter Gibbs hosts the horticultural panel programme from the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Chris Beardshaw, Bob Flowerdew, and Pippa Greenwood join him to see in the new year.

The panel tackle questions about growing pumpkins in pots, replacing a recently departed Eucalyptus, and alternatives to grasses in a mixed border.

Also, Chris Beardshaw returns for his annual inspection of the herbaceous border that he planted in Greenwich Park.

Producer: Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:45 Shorts (b06spdm7)
New Irish Writing

Time Stands Still

A new series of original stories from some of Ireland's most exciting writers.

In wintry Newry an elderly man embarks on a new adventure in a story by Eugene O'Hare while Lisa McInerney brings us a kid doing a bunk off school, and a man thinks fondly of his glamorous new girlfriend in Kevin Maher's story of love and leather jackets.

Writer ..... Kevin Maher
Reader ..... Mikel Murfi
Producer ..... Jenny Thompson.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b06spffh)
Eric Tomlinson, Elsie Tu, Peter Dickinson, Lillian Vernon and Lemmy

Recording engineer, Eric Tomlinson, who worked on the score for Star Wars and added music to Charlie Chaplin's silent films.

Elsie Tu, social campaigner, legislator and educationalist in Hong Kong.

Author, Peter Dickinson, who twice received the prestigious Carnegie medal for his work.

Entrepreneur, Lillian Vernon, whose catalogue business was the first company owned by a woman to be listed on the US Stock Exchange.

Motorhead frontman, Lemmy, who's credited with introducing punk sounds into heavy metal.

Producer: Maire Devine


FRI 16:30 More or Less (b06spffr)
Numbers of the Year 2015

Tim Harford looks back at some of the most interesting numbers behind the news in 2015, from the migrant crisis to social media messages.

Contributors include: Professor Jane Green, Helen Arney, Paul Lewis, Andrew Samson, Leonard Doyle , Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Farai Chideya, Claire Melamed and Professor John Allen Paulos.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b06spffv)
Jean and Georgina - It's Strictly Not Come Dancing

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a mother and daughter for whom clog-dancing forms a supportive - and unconventional - bond. Another 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 (b06spjqd)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2td)
Police in Germany have been giving details of the terror alert which prompted them to evacuate train stations in Munich last night.


FRI 18:15 Ed Reardon at Christmas (b06spjqg)
It's time to celebrate the Christmas Week with Radio 4's curmudgeonly author Ed Reardon, and his faithful companion Elgar. Or is it? As we meet Ed on Christmas Eve he seems to be abandoning his only friend at a cat refuge centre. It seems that Ed must spend his Christmas day alone with only a computer for company as he's been commissioned to write the thirty thousand word long 'Great British Bake Off' novel and Elgar isn't allowed in the agency office.

Still, all is not lost as he's managed to scrape together the means to buy some liquid refreshment to keep him going. He also has the unexpected 'pleasure' of Jaz Milvain turning up on Christmas Day to do some preparation work for his New Years' Day appearance as guest editor on something called the 'Today Programme'. Ed will most surely give his old friend some helpful information...

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


FRI 18:30 Dead Ringers (b06spjqj)
A Look Back at the Year 2020

A New Year's Day edition of Dead Ringers, in which the team imagine what the first day of 2021 looks, or sounds, like.

As we say goodbye to 2020, just who's in power at 10 Downing Street and in the White House; what is the fallout from the EU Referendum; which celebrity couples are in Splitsville; and just what does a virtual reality Gardeners' Question Time sound like? Not to mention a duet between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.

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

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2016.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b06spjql)
David and Ruth wake up together for the first time in weeks. David expresses that he'd love for things to go back to the way they were, but Ruth sensitively tells him that that can't happen - they'll talk properly later. There's a family summit in the kitchen as Ruth calls everyone (including Jill) together and explains her idea for a new way of doing things - advising that they forget about yields and focus on producing better milk from cows on grass. There's a robust debate about the future of farming at Brookfield, with Ruth seeming to gradually win everyone round to her way of thinking.

David and Ruth are alone together as they look over the herd. David has been tense all day, perhaps worried that Ruth was going to drop a bigger bombshell - about their marriage. But Ruth emphatically points out that she loves him and wouldn't swap him for all the world. Just like Dan and Doris, and Phil and Jill - whatever the future holds, they're in this together.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b06t1c50)
The Danish Girl, Bach's Magnificat, Deutschland 83

Samira Ahmed talks to Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper about his new film The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery.

JS Bach's first Christmas Service in Leipzig has been reconstructed by John Butt and the Dunedin Consort for their new CD, which includes Bach's Chistmas Cantata 63, and his great Magnificat.

Channel 4 launches its foreign language drama platform Walter Presents with the German TV series Deutschland 83. Philip Hensher reviews.

And historian Nina Ramirez reviews ITV's new epic drama Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06sp7mg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Correspondents' Look Ahead (b06spjqp)
2016

Who and what will be making the global headlines in 2016? Owen Bennett-Jones and leading BBC correspondents discuss and give their predictions about what will shape the world in the year ahead and assess its likely impact on the United Kingdom.

Owen is joined by Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet who has spent the year reporting from across the globe.North America Editor Jon Sopel looks ahead to next year's US Presidential election. Who does he think will win the race for the White House? Joining them are the BBC's most experienced diplomatic correspondents, James Robbins and Bridget Kendall. Last year she predicted that 2015 would be a year of shocking terrorist activities in Europe and a big year for the Pope. What will she and the other correspondents predict for 2016?

Producer: Jim Frank.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b06spjqs)
Howard Jacobson: Wisdom

Howard Jacobson does not feel complimented when someone describes him as "wise". He would sooner have understanding, akin to that of Shakespeare.

"What's wrong with wisdom is it implies stasis, as though our greatest faculties of cognition and intuition are at their journey's end, have attained a peak of complacency from which they gaze down imperturbably on the small vanities of man.".


FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b06kvl04)
28 December 1915 - 1 January 1916

In the week that the Home Secretary resigned over the Compulsory Military Service Bill, the Bevan Hospital celebrates the new year.

Written by Richard Monks
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole

Story-led by Shaun McKenna
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b06sf2tg)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b06spjqx)
Gun attack in Israel kills three - who is behind the shooting?

Gun attack in Israel kills three - who is behind the shooting? New guidelines on how much we should be drinking in the New Year. And what's the best way to give away your wealth?


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06t608f)
The Provincial Lady Goes Further

Episode 5

E M Delafield was great friends with Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, and became a director of Time and Tide magazine.

When the editor "wanted some light middles", preferably in serial form, she promised to "think of something". And so it was, in 1930, Delafield began writing her largely autobiographical novels detailing the day-to-day life of a Devonshire-dwelling upper-middle class lady and her attempts to keep her somewhat ramshackle household from falling into chaos.

Substituting the names of Robin and Vicky for her own children, Lionel and Rosamund, The Diary of a Provincial Lady has never been out of print.

In this second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, written in 1932, our Lady is now a published author. Success and a sizeable royalty cheque allow her to travel further afield. She attends a literary conference in Brussels, takes a lease on a small flat in London and the family goes on holiday to Brittany.

But while she endeavours to embrace the London literary scene, things at home remain reassuring the same. Mademoiselle weeps on the sofa and refuses to eat when Vicky decides she'd like to go away to school, Robert is his usual monosyllabic self, snoozing behind a copy of the Times, and there's a seemingly endless stream of visitors arriving at the house.

This second volume is just as appealing, charming and wickedly witty as the first.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b06sgy7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:27 Donald Duck Gets Drafted (b0680gts)
Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, illustrator and animator Gerald Scarfe tells the story of Disney's fascinating on and off-screen contribution to the war effort.

The programme explores how the iconic Studio in California became a war plant in the 1940s, churning out groundbreaking military training films and propaganda shorts, educational posters and leaflets, along with insignias for troops to help boost morale on the frontline.

Gerald, who worked as production designer on Disney's 1997's big screen animation Hercules, examines what motivated Walt to offer his artists' inkwells as weapons of war. He uncovers why Donald Duck rather than Mickey Mouse became the Studio's wartime mascot and reveals which film reportedly put Walt on Hitler's own personal hit list. He also examines Walt Disney's personal role as a Goodwill Ambassador in South America, intended to help stem potential Nazi influence.

Produced by Kellie Redmond
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b06spjr1)
Saph and Milly – Agents of Burlesque

Fi Glover with a conversation between friends for whom burlesque has provided a confidence-building outlet for creativity, and an opportunity to prove that a walrus act can be sexy. Another 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