SATURDAY 02 JANUARY 2016

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b06sf2wb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:15 Penguin Post Office (b04g1b96)
Episode 5

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. As the young Gentoo penguins prepare to enter the water for the first time - they face another of life's challenges - leopard seals. These fearsome predators patrol the shores waiting for the young penguins to take their first dive. Doug Allan joins the team to film the hunt that is likely to follow - but Antarctica is an unpredictable place; the bay is filling with ice which deters the seals, the weather becomes worse and time is fast running out before the team must leave Antarctica and head for home. Producer Sarah Blunt.


SAT 00:30 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.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2wd)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06sf2wg)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2wj)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b06sf2wl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06spm7h)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b06spm7k)
Your Photos of 2015

We take a closer look at some of the photos you've sent in, and have a Your News 2015 montage.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b06sf2wq)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b06sf2wt)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 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.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b06tkv23)
Farming Today This Week: Looking Ahead to 2016

Charlotte Smith looks ahead to what 2016 has in store for farmers with a panel of experts: Patrick Holden, CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust; Meurig Raymond, President of the NFU in England and Wales; Farming advocate Milly Fyfe and Independent agricultural economist Sean Rickard. Among the topics - volatility, climate change and the implications of a Brexit. The producer is Sally Challoner.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b06sf2x6)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b06tkx5c)
Guest editor Lord Browne takes charge of the programme. Lord Browne discusses coming out at work, talks engineering with Prince Philip and we get a tour of the new Tate Modern project.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b06tkx5f)
Pauline McLynn

Actress and author Pauline McLynn talks about her varied career which includes Mrs Doyle in Father Ted and Nasty Nick Cotton's ex-wife in EastEnders. She also discusses being attracted to playing baddies and explains why she's knitting for chickens.

Hollywood trainer Dalton Wong has worked with Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and got Kit Harington into shape for Game of Thrones. Dalton talks about why he made a career out of fitness.

Listener Teresa Verney-Brookes who used her redundancy money to become a Punch and Judy performer 'Professor Queen Bee'.

JP Devlin meets former politician Lembit Opik who reflects on the impact of losing his seat as MP for Montgomeryshire and why he's determined to live life in the present and take opportunities.

Natalie Imbruglia shares her Inheritance Tracks: Close to you by The Carpenters and Nick Cave: Into My Arms.

Sportswriter Tony Evans talks about the significance of football as he was growing up in Liverpool, his time in the band 'The Farm,' and how he came to journalism late, leaving England for America after being in the crowds at Hillsborough.

Cymbeline starring Pauline McLynn is at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, until 21 April.

The Feel Good Plan by Dalton Wong and Kate Faithfull-Williams is out on the 7th January.

Natalie Imbruglia's latest album Male is out now.

Two Tribes: Liverpool, Everton and a City on the Brink by Tony Evans is published in April.

Producer Claire Bartleet
Editor: Louise Corley.


SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (b06tkx5h)
Series 12

Chepstow

Jay Rayner hosts the culinary panel programme from Chepstow, Monmouthshire.

The audience questions are answered by food historian Dr Annie Gray, master of DIY cooking Tim Hayward, Middle Eastern chef Itamar Srulovich and Catalan cook Rachel McCormack.

The panellists tackle subjects including the Monmouthshire Stew and the sticky topic of marmalade. They also discuss and sample some of the regions finest wines.

Producer: Victoria Shepherd
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

Food Consultant: Anna Colquhoun

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 The Forum (b06tkx5k)
Being Cold

Does the experience of coping with bitter cold affect the way people think and feel? And what happens to culture and identity when climate begins to change? To explore these questions the Forum this week comes from Canada, one of the world's most northern countries, with some 40 % of it in the Arctic. Joining Bridget Kendall are Nobel-nominated Inuit activist and former International Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Arctic spatial ecologist David Atkinson and "Ice Huts" architectural photographer Richard Johnson. Recorded in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, as part of the Spur Festival of Ideas.(Photo: Ice Hut #530 by Richard Johnson. Joussard, Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta, 2011).


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b06sf2xw)
New Year Questions

Your window on the wider world. The Iraqi forces claimed victory over IS fighters when they swept into the city of Ramadi - but the place has been devastated, it will be months before residents can return to their homes. Thomas Fessy, who's been there, explains why this is being viewed as a significant achievement by the Iraqi security forces. On the Greek island of Lesbos, bad weather has slowed the tide of human migrants sweeping into the EU but Paul Adams says the new year will see European leaders trying again to come up with a coherent response to what's been one of the great human migrations of recent times. The new Argentine president is trying to breathe life into the country's moribund economy -- in Buenos Aires, as Petroc Trelawny's been finding out, some dare to dream this could bring the glamour back to the once-smart shopping streets of the capital. We're amazed to learn from Carolyn Browne in Brittany that it's possible to drive a car quite legally on the roads of France -- even if you've lost your driving licence after being convicted of drink/driving! And Kota Bharu in Malaysia is a city which few westerners get to - but Gareth Armstrong was a recent visitor and talks to us about a harmonious place where people of different faiths live happily side by side. He points out though that it pays to carry an umbrella there!


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b06sf2y7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (b06tkx5p)
Can We Live Without Cash?

Last year, for the first time, the majority of payments in the UK were not made using cash. In countries like Sweden, Denmark and Finland, they rely on cash for less than 6% of all payments.

In this special edition of Money Box we investigate what this move towards a cashless society means.

We look at how Sweden has done away with the need for small change, take a ride with the man who has turned Transport for London into the largest contactless merchant in the world, and discuss the impact of the electronification of our spending on people without access to a bank account. We also find out what the issuer of our bank notes thinks of it all.

With Victoria Cleland, Chief Cashier at the Bank of England; Anna Ellison, Director of Research at think-tank Policis; Niklas Ardvisson from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm; Shashi Verma, Director of Customer Experience at Transport for London and Kebbie Sebastian, Managing Director of Penser Consulting.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Andrew Smith.


SAT 12:30 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.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b06sf2yl)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b06sf2ys)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 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.


SAT 14:00 In the Moment (b061tfmw)
Comedian Stewart Lee has a great private passion - musical, free improvisation. For over twenty years in diverse attics and cellars below pubs, hired rooms, concert halls and gig venues, Stewart has been immersing himself in this unique musical experience.

Now he sets out to answer a deceptively simple question: "What does it mean to play free - completely in the moment?".

Beloved by its fans and baffling to its detractors, free improvisation has grown from a group of disaffected 1960s jazz musicians playing to three men and a dog to a globally respected and influential form heard regularly at international concert halls and festivals.

Through encounters with some of the scene's most influential exponents - including Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, Sarah Gail Brand, Steve Noble and John Edwards - Stewart Lee explores the remarkable reality of performing music without rules, without preparation, with no safety net and no idea of what's going to happen next.

A Resonance production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 14:30 Drama (b06tvzqr)
The Continuing Adventures of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Deceased)

An original western by Sebastian Baczkiewicz.

It’s 1904. New Mexico. Legendary lawman Pat Garrett has grown weary and old. An altercation with President Roosevelt has left his future looking bleak, his present is awash with whisky, blood and bullets, and all the while he’s haunted by a ghost from his past.

This is the story of how the myth of the Wild West was created and how outlaws were forged into great American heroes.

Pat Garrett ..... Sean Gilder
Billy The Kid ..... Sam Swann
Nancy ..... Madeline Appiah
Benjy ..... Edward Hogg
Clayton Claypole ..... Nathan Osgood
President Roosevelt ..... Rolf Saxon
Stubbenfield ..... John Guerrasio
Maxwell ..... Caolan McCarthy

Director: Helen Perry

Made for BBC Radio 4 by BBC Cymru Wales and first broadcast in January 2016.


SAT 15:30 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.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b06tkxn6)
Weekend Woman's Hour

Shappi Khorsandi, Sara Pascoe and Helen Lewis take part in our first quiz.
As Woman's Hour prepares to celebrate its 70th year we discuss how the programme came about with historians Juliet Gardiner and Kate Murphy.

Lauren Laverne and Late Night Woman's Hour explore the power of public nudity. How does it feel, what does it mean and why do women do it? Inna Shevchenko leader of FEMEN, naked stand-up comic Miss Glory Pearl, Natasha Porter who organises the World Naked Bike Ride and Shahida Bari a lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University in London discuss.

Was 2015 the year transgender became mainstream? Jack Monroe, Paris Lees and journalist, Natalie McDermott talk about some of the issues.

Last year the Church of England welcomed its first female Bishops. How likely are similar developments in the Catholic Church? Christina Rees campaigner for Women Bishops, Tina Beattie Professor of Catholic Studies and Religious Affairs Correspondent Caroline Wyatt discuss.

And what is the best way to make and embrace change? We hear from Adele Tilley who will graduate in Business and Management in July and from the author of The Art of the Possible Kate Tojeiro.


SAT 17:00 PM (b06tkxn8)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b06spm7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b06sf2yx)
The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b06sf2yz)
The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06sf2z3)
Iran warns Saudi Arabia will pay "high price" for execution of Shia cleric


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b06tkxxh)
John Cleese, Juliette Binoche, Chrisopher Eccleston, Maxine Peake and Mark Rylance

Clive Anderson with a sparkling array of some of the best guests and music from Loose Ends in 2015, including John Cleese, Juliette Binoche, Christopher Eccleston, Maxine Peake, Mark Rylance, Catherine Tate, Paul O'Grady, Mick Hucknall and Simply Red, Noel Fielding, Squeeze, Benjamin Clementine & Jimmy Somerville.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b06tkxxl)
Hartwig Fischer

Chris Bowlby profiles the German art historian and curator Dr Hartwig Fischer, who this year takes over one of the most important jobs in UK culture: director of the British Museum. What can the museum's visitors - and its staff - expect from the new man in charge?

Producer: Smita Patel.


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b06tkxxn)
The Danish Girl, War and Peace, Deutschland 83, Angela Clarke Follow Me, Fallout 4 and Her Story

The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, portrayed in the film respectively by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables). Lili Elbe defied convention and pushed the boundaries of medical science to become the first transgendered woman. How will 21st century audiences react to this telling of her story?

Andrew Davies's new adaptation of Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace - into only six episodes on BBC One - features a cast of stars including Lily James, Paul Dano, James Norton, Rebecca Front, Stephen Rea and Jim Broadbent. Davies says he abridges by picking out the "best bits" - but will television audiences agree with his choice?

Deutschland 83 is an eight-episode German television series starring Jonas Nay as a 24-year-old native of East Germany who in 1983 is sent to the West as an undercover spy for the Stasi secret police. The first German language series to be screened in the US - how will British audiences react?

Follow Me is a thriller by Angela Clarke in which a murderer tweets his crimes. In What She Left, T R Richmond looks at the victim's digital footprint in order to piece together what has happened to her. How are writers responding to trends in social media?

And a look at 2015 computer games. Fallout 4 (a sequel to Fallout 3) is high tech, spectacular and epic. Her Story, a surprise hit on the gaming circuit, is low tech and almost entirely narrative driven.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b06tky20)
Work is A Four Letter Word

Many of us have grown up with the belief that a strong work ethic is a positive thing, and that by contrast idle hands are the devil's playthings.

According to Professor Andrew Hussey, that argument makes very little sense. Starting off with a line from the Cilla Black song 'Work is a Four Letter Word' he offers a powerful counter-argument by navigating the ideas of, among others, Bertrand Russell, John Ruskin and the Situationists in France, whose graffiti slogan 'Ne Travaillez Jamais' - never work - still appears regularly on Parisian streets. Hussey argues that the corporate culture in particular, born out of mid-20th Century America and built upon ideologies of work developed during the industrial revolution and on through to the development of the assembly line, can have a hugely corrosive impact on people's lives.

The programme features the voices of workers from the 1930s through to the present day, describing working life in call centres where even a trip to the toilet is timed by management. Hussey doesn't, however, suggest that we all take to the sofa to watch TV and eat crisps, though; instead he argues that by taking control of the work we do and the way we do it, work can actually become a positive force in our lives, once stripped of what he regards as the caustic power of modern managerialism.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.


SAT 21:00 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


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b06sf2z7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 Reflections with Peter Hennessy (b061q92b)
Series 3

David Owen

In this series, Peter Hennessy, the historian of modern Britain, asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and times. Each week, he invites his guest to explore their early influences, their experiences of events and their impressions of people they've known.

In the first episode of this series, David Owen, the former Foreign Secretary and SDP Leader, discusses the transition from his early days as the son of a Welsh doctor in Plymouth to his election as a Labour MP while still in his twenties, and his meteoric rise in politics. His appointment as Foreign Secretary in 1977, aged only 38, marked him out as a possible future Labour leader.

After Labour's defeat in 1979 Owen and other leading social democrats became increasingly frustrated by the party's left-wing stance. With other senior figures he broke from Labour and formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In alliance with the Liberals it took 25 per cent of the vote in the 1983 election, but only 23 seats.

After Owen succeeded Roy Jenkins as leader, he maintained its distinctive, radical stance. However, policy divisions between the SDP and the Liberals undermined the Alliance's credibility. It won 23 per cent of the vote at the 1987 election, but again failed to break through in seats. The tensions between Owen and his colleagues became evident. Owen stood aside from a merger of the SDP with the Liberals and soldiered on with a rump of social democrats until 1990. He stood down as an MP in 1992. Owen continues to speak on foreign affairs. He also writes on diplomacy and the relationship between illness and politics.

Peter's other guests in the series are Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor, and Clare Short, the former International Development Secretary.

Producer: Rob Shepherd.


SAT 23:00 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.


SAT 23:30 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.



SUNDAY 03 JANUARY 2016

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl726)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:15 Writing a New Nigeria (b06qm3mk)
Ideas of Identity

A portrait of Nigeria, seen through the eyes of a new generation of writers and poets. In the second programme of the series, Wana Udobang meets the writers who are exploring Nigerian ideas of identity.

The protagonist in Igoni Barrett's latest novel is a black Nigerian who, one morning, wakes up white. Barrett uses this scenario to explore Nigerians' sense of themselves in relation to other nationalities - particularly Europeans and Americans.

Wana also considers Nigerian geographical and ethnic identities. The north of Nigeria is under-represented in Nigerian English-language literature. Novelists Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Elnathan John are addressing this imbalance: both have written books which are set in the North but which give a more nuanced portrayal, beyond Boko Haram and communal conflict. Elnathan's novel is a coming-of-age story and Abubakar's is a romance between a widow and a young gangster. We also hear from poet and novelist Lola Shoneyin who takes on the sensitive subject of polygamy in her story The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives.

Nigeria is a country of many languages. Alongside English - and Pidgin English - there's Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and many others. Writers Kola Tubosun and Jumoke Verissimo consider the influence of these on writing in English - and the way that both fiction and social media can promote the survival of minority languages.

But if fiction is to flourish, it needs an infrastructure. Many established novelists have had to look outside Nigeria to achieve recognition and success. Publishers Eghosa Imasuen and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf discuss the challenges of popularising poetry and fiction in a market where self-help and inspirational books completely outsell every other genre.

'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 (b06tl72c)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl72f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl72h)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl72m)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b06tpxw9)
Church bells from St. Mary Magdalene, Ditcheat in Somerset.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b06tkxxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b06tl732)
The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b06tpxwc)
Fear Not

The last words of the poet Seamus Heaney were 'Noli Timere', sent in a text to his wife. They translate as "Do not be Afraid".

The broadcaster Marie-Louise Muir speculates on what Heaney might have meant by this advice to a loved one and reflects on how a calm confidence and moral strength can be developed to keep the noisy external world and its accompanying fears at bay.

With reference to the writings of Keats and JK Rowling, and the music of Talking Heads and JS Bach.

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


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b06tpxwh)
A Life in Forestry

Bun Burrows has dedicated his life to forestry, planting thousands of trees on Exmoor. He takes Ruth Sanderson for a walk through the woodlands of the Haddeo valley, to see his legacy of over 40 years' work. Bun has been managing the ancient semi-natural woodland on the Bury Estate since 1975 together with owner Bernard Dru. Now, to celebrate his 80th birthday and to mark the contribution he has made to the forests of Exmoor National Park, a path is being named after him and included in the Ordnance Survey map of the area.

Produced by Beatrice Fenton.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b06tl73v)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b06tl74b)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b06tpxwk)
New Year's resolutions: the theology, and do they make us happy?

We ask: what is the theological meaning behind New Year resolutions and do they make us Happy? William Crawley is joined by Rosie Harper, vicar of Great Missenden, Rabbi Dovid Lewis and life coach Susanna Halonen to discuss.

Mark Vernon gives an insight into how ancient Greek philosopher's viewed the future as we embark on 2016.

Religious journalist Ruth Gledhill looks ahead to what religious stories will be in the news in 2016.

A vicar in Stoke claims foreign worshippers can "save the Church in England", Bob Walker looks at how and meets migrants and refugees using Anglican Churches as their new place of worship.

The seventh of January marks the first anniversary of the deadly assault on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The shooting, was a wake-up call for one young French Muslim, Mohamed Chirani. He's now training to be a prison chaplain. Our reporter John Laurenson went along to meet him.

William talks to Bill Law, a Middle East analyst, about the religious significance of the execution of the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. He asks him what will the impact be on Iranian and Saudi relations?

Producers: Carmel Lonergan
David Cook

Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b06tpxwp)
Room to Read

Jonathan Self presents The Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Room to Read
Registered Charity No 1125803
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal, mark the back of the envelope 'Room to Read'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Room to Read'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b06tl76b)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b06tl76r)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b06tpxx4)
Ceremony of Carols

'Welcome be thou heavenly King' - a seasonal meditation on the Incarnation based around Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols and led by Canon Stephen Shipley with the Winchester College Quiristers and harpist Eleanor Hudson directed by Malcolm Archer.


SUN 08:48 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.".


SUN 08:58 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.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b06tl77q)
We hear from areas affected by floods, we bring you the bluffer's guide to 2016, and a tribute to the Archers. The papers are reviewed by Val McDermid, Gyles Brandreth and Chris Neill.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b06tq1sj)
Please see daily episodes for a detailed synopsis.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b06tq3th)
Colm Toibin

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Colm Toibin.

Best-known for his novels "Brooklyn" - now made into a film - "Nora Webster" and "The Master," he has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times.

Born in 1955 in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, the second youngest of five children, Colm's life changed suddenly when his father died after a long illness when he was twelve. He says he has been dealing with the trauma which resulted in his writing ever since. After attending St Peter's College in Wexford and University College Dublin, he spent three years in Barcelona teaching English before returning to Ireland. He worked as a journalist until his books began to get published.

He once told a class he was teaching that "you have to be a terrible monster to write. I said, 'Someone might have told you something they shouldn't have told you, and you have to be prepared to use it because it will make a great story. You have to use it even though the person is identifiable. If you can't do it then writing isn't for you. You've no right to be here. If there is any way I can help you get into law school then I will. Your morality will be more useful in a courtroom.'"

Producer: Christine Pawlowsky.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b06tl77s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 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.


SUN 12:32 The Food Programme (b06tq3tk)
Eating to Run: Part 1

How important is diet to running performance? It's a question Food Programme listener and runner Nicole Marais wanted answers too and so she emailed the programme's production team. This programme explains what happened next....

When Dan Saladino went to meet (and run with) Nicole she explained she had tried lots of different diets, from one based on meat, to a vegetarian diet and onto veganism. She was keen to hear the experience of other runners and athletes and how they eat to run.

Dan hears from Kevin Currell, Head of Performance Nutrition at the English Institute of Sport, to find out about the dietary advice given to Britain's elite athletes. Adharanand Finn, author of 'Running with the Kenyans', shares his insights into running, racing and eating in Iten, the town where many of the world's most successful distance runners live and train. Kenyan runners eat a lot of ugali, a carbohydrate rich porridge made of maize flour and water.

Elsewhere however, others are arguing that a low-carb, high-fat diet will help runners reach peak performance. Author of Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes, Christopher McDougall, profiles diets based on this principle, that fuelled long runs by resistance fighters during the Second World War and early Iron Man events in the 1980's. It's a controversial approach and many believe it's just the latest food fad to be picked up by people in the running world.

The programme also features Scott Jurek who eats a carbohydrate rich, vegan diet. It's enabled him to dominate runs like Badwater, a 135 mile race through America's Death Valley.

Will these athletes and running writers give listener Nicole Marais the information she needs to break her own record in this year's London Marathon? Listen, find out and perhaps go on a run afterwards.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.
Researcher: Camellia Sinclair.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b06tl787)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b06tq3tm)
Global news and analysis, presented by Edward Stourton.


SUN 13:30 Hardeep's Sunday Lunch (b06p56yz)
Series 4

Journeymen Boxers

Hardeep cooks up a meal that packs a protein fuelled punch when he enters the world of the boxing journeymen - the men who are paid to show young hopefuls the ropes and not to win. Hardeep meets Johnny Greaves, one of the best in the business - 100 fights, 96 defeats, 4 wins. As Johnny says "turn up, fight, lose, get paid. Happy days." Johnny Greaves is refreshingly honest about the realities of being a mid-ranking professional boxer. Johnny makes losing look like an art form and is very proud of his craft. He first started boxing as a 9 year old against his older brother Frank in the family's back garden in London's East End. When he turned pro, brother Frank became his trainer and manager and Johnny spent the next six years getting beaten up for the pleasure of a baying, paying public. Hardeep discovers what keeps people like Johnny fighting and gets an insight in to the tight-knit world of boxing that's a very long way from the glamour of big money title fights.

Journeymen are the life-blood of boxing and many have skills that belie the stats in their losses columns. They accept fights against ambitious, highly trained fighters and must always put on a show to make sure fans have a good night, whilst making sure they don't hurt them too much - or get hurt themselves. It takes enormous physical skill and courage, but the journeyman also has to be mentally tough; there's a stigma to being a journeyman and no one relishes being labelled a loser even if they're getting well paid for it. Now though, the tables have turned. Frank Greaves, at the veteran age of 37 and despite his wife's concerns, has decided that it's time he stepped into the ring and his brother Johnny has become his trainer. Can Frank make it as a journeyman boxer?

Producer: Phil Pegum.


SUN 14:00 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.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b06tq9r0)
Sunday Omnibus - Artistic Expression

Fi Glover with conversations about clog-dancing, burlesque performance, and the allure of the European male. All in the Omnibus of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

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

Producer: Marya Burgess.


SUN 15:00 Drama (b06tq9r4)
John Steinbeck - East of Eden

Episode 1

Cathy Ames is a young woman who has always filled her parents with a deep sense of unease.

Adam and Charles Trask are brothers whose relationship veers dangerously between love and hate.

Their lives are about to collide in a dark and febrile drama about familial love.

John Steinbeck's epic tale exploring the nature of good and evil, inspired by the story of Cain and Abel.

Starring Holliday Grainger, Robin Laing and David Yip.

Dramatised in three parts by Donna Franceschild.

Cyrus….. Jimmy Chisholm
Charles…..Steven Duffy
Cathy …..Holliday Grainger
Adam ….. Robin Laing
Mr Edwards ….. Gavin Mitchell
Mr Ames…..Nick Underwood
Mrs Ames…..Anita Vettesse
Narrator….. David Yip

Director: Kirsty Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2016.


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (b06tq9r6)
Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North

Richard Flanagan discusses his 2014 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North set among prisoners of war who were forced by the Japanese to work on the notorious Thai-Burma railway.

Flanagan, a Tasmanian, wrote the book in tribute to his late father, who survived the horrors of "The Line". Thousands more did not, and in the programme Flanagan describes how he and his siblings were children of the Death Railway as they grew up listening to their father's stories, which included witnessing the violent murder of his friend Micky Hallam at the hands of Japanese guards.

Flanagan also talks how he set out to write a non-judgemental novel about the camps, and how he used Japanese poetry to open himself up to what is best in the Japanese character, with the poet Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North as his inspiration. The beauty of the poetry allowed him to write the novel that set him free from his father's past.

His father died on the very day Richard Flanagan finished the novel.

Presented by James Naughtie and recorded with a group of readers.

February's Bookclub choice : Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie (2009)

Interviewed Guest : Richard Flanagan
Presenter : James Naughtie
Producer : Dymphna Flynn.


SUN 16:30 The Echo Chamber (b06tq9r8)
Series 6

Kathleen Jamie

2014 was a momentous year in Scotland. The poet Kathleen Jamie decided to keep a poetic diary and wrote a poem each week. The poems have just been published in a collection called The Bonniest Companie. She shares some of them with Paul Farley. Producer: Tim Dee.


SUN 17:00 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


SUN 17:40 Profile (b06tkxxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b06tl790)
The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b06tl793)
The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl79r)
Islamic State video shows apparent killing of men accused of spying for Britain


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b06tq9rc)
Liz Barclay

Liz Barclay presents the first pick of the New Year.

If music be the food of love then we have some lovely radio highlights for you this week.... with three musical greats and few not so greats....ear plugs might come in handy. The women of Ambridge disrobe - in the best possible taste of course - and we meet the Battered Champions of Aleppo and some of the Boat Children who've travelled alone to Europe from war torn Syria....

Liz's choice from the BBC Radio iPlayer is Tony Benn on Desert Island Discs.

Produced by Stephen Garner

The Pick Production team: Kay Bishton and Elodie Chatelain.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b06tq9rg)
Jennifer has Oxford on the brain due to Phoebe's application. She also chats to Peggy about Kenton's twelfth night karaoke coming up at the Bull - for which Lynda wants the Calendar Girls cast to reunite.

After a lovely church service this morning, Jill and Peggy hope for the village hall to be reopened by Easter - they joke about Neil being a slave driver in managing the repair project. Peggy feels a sense of new possibility with the coming of the new year. She's keen to know the latest from Jill about Brookfield. She's not the only one, as Brian is invited in to hear their plans. Ruth's keen to reassure sceptical Josh that whatever happens with Route B, they'll be fine.

As Ruth gets talking to David about spring-calving, she starts to wonder whether David's really happy about her new idea for the farm. But David hides any doubts and says he's excited.


SUN 19:15 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.


SUN 19:45 From the Vineyard (b06tq9rm)
Muscadet by Michele Roberts

Some chefs and waiters play a guessing game that conjures up aromas of this wine, recalled from the narrator's childhood.

Tracy-Ann Oberman reads Michele Roberts' short story.

Producer: Duncan Minshull

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2016.


SUN 20:00 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.


SUN 20:30 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


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b06tkx5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b06tpxwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 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.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b06tq9rp)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.


SUN 22:45 What the Papers Say (b06tq9rt)
Dennis Sewell of The Spectator analyses how the newspapers are covering the biggest stories.


SUN 23:00 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.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b06tpxwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 04 JANUARY 2016

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl7bx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 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.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b06tpxw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7bz)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl7c1)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7c3)
The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl7c5)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06v9yj4)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b06tqr28)
Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference

Anna Hill previews the Oxford Farming Conference and the Oxford Real Farming Conference with Dr Tina Barsby and Colin Tudge.

There are two farming conferences that take place in Oxford in the first week of January. In today's programme Anna Hill talks to Dr Tina Barsby from the Oxford Farming Conference and Colin Tudge, founder of the Oxford Real farming Conference to discuss similarities and differences between the two events and if two contrasting styles of farming can find common ground.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Martin Poyntz-Roberts.


MON 05:56 Weather (b06tl7c8)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sv1s1)
Greater Rhea

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

Chris Packham presents the greater rhea roaming the South American pampas. Greater rheas are the largest birds in South America and look like small brown ostriches. They're flightless, but can avoid danger by sprinting away on sturdy legs reaching speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour. Gauchos, the horsemen of the pampas, used to hunt them on horseback using a bolas; a well-aimed bolas would wrap around the rhea's legs or neck and bring it down in a tangle of feathers and limbs. In the breeding season males call loudly to proclaim territories, and to woo potential mates the male runs around erratically, spreading his wings and booming. He mates with several females who lay their eggs in the same nest. Then the females depart to mate with another male leaving the first male to incubate the clutch and rear the huge brood of chicks on his own.


MON 06:00 Today (b06tqsbx)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06tqt1p)
A Bit of History

David Mitchell sets out on a vigorous but impeccably polite investigation into the confusing world of manners. Are they really in decline, as many would have us believe? Or are we just throwing off the shackles of the Victorian obsession with etiquette?

In the first of four episodes, David eats his lunchtime sandwiches with children in a primary school, and later goes to a street market to see manners - good and bad - in action. And he explores where our manners come from with Professors Steven Pinker from Harvard University and Stephen Mennell from University College, Dublin, and with the author Henry Hitchings.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.


MON 09:30 Hidden Histories of the Information Age (b04lpxx3)
Enfield Exchange

"Hello Girls"

In 1960 the women telephonists of the Enfield exchange said goodbye to the last manual telephone exchange in Greater London. For decades they had put through calls using this plugboard machine, providing a polite and friendly voice to any caller. With the expertise of the Science Museum's Keeper of Technology, Dr Tilly Blyth, and Curator of Communication, John Liffen, Aleks Krotoski uncovers the hidden histories of the life of the exchange and how it provided a new kind of employment for young women.

Part of the Enfield Exchange is on display in the new Information Age gallery at the Science Museum. The gallery tells the story of the evolution in how we communicate with each other. The objects in the exhibition represent cultural moments from the last 200 years - not just technological innovations.

We also hear from the women who worked as telephonists about the relationship between the supervisors and operators, some of whom were only 15 years old, the aches and pains the plugboard caused and the prestige brought by a job with the GPO.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b06tqsbz)
Young Orson

Episode 1

Orson Welles, the defining wunderkind of modern entertainment, gets his due in a new biography of his early years - including his first forays in theatre and radio before his groundbreaking move to Hollywood.

Episode 1:
A star is born - in Kenosha.

Written by Patrick McGilligan
Read by Jack Klaff
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06tqsc1)
The New Year is upon us again, as can the urge to make life changes whether small or significant. On Monday 4th January/Today Woman's Hour is hosting a phone-in. How would you like to change your life? What are the obstacles in your way? Have you made alterations? What inspired you? What difference does it make when change is forced upon you? Let us know your story, your approach, your hurdles. E-mail us through our website or tweet us @bbcwomanshour or call us on 03700 100 444. Lines open at 7.30am.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Kirsty Starkey.


MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tr5t3)
Toni Morrison - Beloved

Episode 1

By Toni Morrison
Adapted by Patricia Cumper

Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel about a haunted house in the era that followed the abolition of slavery in the United States is adapted for radio for the first time. Toni Morrison's masterpiece melds horror and poetry as it tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio river, but who, eighteen years later, is still not free.

Original music by Jon Nicholls
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


MON 11:00 After Ebola (b06tr5t5)
Dr Wright, Director of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, recorded his experiences at the height of the epidemic from the point of his arrival in Sierra Leone: one of the first wave of thirty NHS volunteers. Recording as he went, he documented the struggles to reconcile the safe opening and staffing of the centres with the need to meet the huge demand as cases spread in the community. He was based at the Moyamba centre, which was built by the British army in just six weeks and was run by a consortium of local and international doctors and nurses. In the country as a whole there were 14,089 cases of Ebola, with 10,134 people surviving: Dr Wright is keen to track what is happening to these survivors.

Twelve months on he is back in Moyamba, recording as decontamination teams move in to safely shut the clinic he helped open. It will mean the end of employment for nurses like Janet and Rose, who worked alongside him when the centre opened: "The contrast is unsettling. I go out for a few weeks and get feted with undeserved glory," he tells listeners: "They put their lives at risk during the entire epidemic and get made redundant." He is also concerned about how the local Moyamba hospital will cope, particularly given the rudimentary state of equipment there. They have run out of basic supplies and have a generator that is from the 1960's. Their pharmacy cupboards are bare - in stark contrast to those at the Ebola Treatment Centre.

It is with some trepidation that he returns to Sierra Leone: "coming back to the battlefield one year on and after the war has been won." One of his roles is to look at how to strengthen local health care systems and he takes listeners into schools and clinics to see what is happening. A study involving 100 survivors is underway locally and meets some of those who are being monitored, including a few that came through the clinic for treatment when he was originally there. About half of them are showing ongoing eye and joint problems, along with other symptoms - Ebola has even been found to live in semen for up to nine months after exposure.

In these recordings he takes listeners with him along the streets as he is welcomed back by groups chanting "Dr John, Dr John," in sing-song voices. They are happy to see him return and keen to explain what has changed since he left. But their optimism does little to hide the worrying fall in childhood immunization rates, the rise in unplanned pregnancies and the spread of other infectious diseases: "The gulf in resources between our Ebola Treatment Centre and the hospital is disturbing. Their labs have run out of even the basic equipment, like needles to take blood samples. We need to be aware that the end of Ebola does not mean the end of our work in Sierra Leone.".


MON 11:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b01p0rpj)
Series 4

Whitehaven

Comedian Mark Steel returns with a new series, looking under the surface of some of the UK's more distinctive towns to shed some light on the people, history, rivalries, slang, traditions, and eccentricities that makes them unique.

Creating a bespoke stand-up set for each town, Mark performs the show in front of a local audience.

As well as examining the less visited areas of Britain, Mark uncovers stories and experiences that resonate with us all as we recognise the quirkiness of the British way of life and the rich tapestry of remarkable events and people who have shaped where we live.

During this 4th series of 'Mark Steel's In Town', Mark will visit Tobermory, Whitehaven, Handsworth, Ottery St Mary, Corby, and Chipping Norton.

This week, Mark visits Whitehaven, to discuss surrealist pirates, the dubious origins of rum butter, and the unreassuring link between rugby and nuclear power. From November 2012.

Additional material by Pete Sinclair.
Produced by Sam Bryant.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b06tl7cf)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Home Front (b06kvdtc)
4 January 1916 - Dorothea Winwood

On this day, Lord Derby published a report that over 650,000 fit single men hadn't offered themselves for service, and Dorothea Winwood is getting into the rhythm of work at the Bevan.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes

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?


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b06tr5t7)
Personal health budgets, Funding circle, Talking ATMs

People entitled personal care budgets are missing out because no one is telling them there's a pot of cash they can access to help them pay for services to manage their care. The revelation comes from a freedom of information request submitted by former care minister Norman Lamb. He says in some parts of the country 99 per cent of patients who are entitled to claim a personal care payment aren't because they don't know that they can.

In the financial world a Unicorn is slang for a web based company that is worth a Billion pounds. There are 40 Unicorns in Europe and 17 in the UK. This week we will be looking at four unicorns who have harnessed the power of the web to change the consumer experience. Today its Funding Circle who match savers with businesses in need of loans.

The NHS could soon introduce a new pre natal screening test for Down's Syndrome. Expectant Mums would have the option of a blood test, rather than taking fluid from around the foetus, which can lead to miscarriage.Some experts say the new test is much safer, and helps families to make better informed decisions. But some Down's Syndrome campaign groups argue that if the move goes ahead, it will inevitably lead to more terminations, and that there needs to be a wider ethical debate before it's introduced.

Last year the people who run RBS banks promised this programme it would install Talking ATMs by the end of 2015. Talking ATMs are useful for people who are visually impaired, because they allow you to follow cash machine prompts through headphones instead of having to memorise the prompts, or asking a member of the public to help. But RBS are yet to make good on their promise.


MON 12:57 Weather (b06tl7cl)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b06tr5t9)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Martha Kearney.


MON 13:45 Etiquette Guide (b06tr5tc)
The Ancients

The mark of a civilised country is to know what it is to be civil. But what if you don't know? Across the ages, social commentators have written guide books to tell the uninitiated how to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

And it's not just snobs that have published guides - the great Renaissance theologian Erasmus took time out from arguing with Luther to instruct children how to behave in company.

Nor is it yet another invention of Victorian England. Five thousand years ago, Ptah-Hotep set down on papyrus the rules of behaviour that all wise men should convey to their sons.

Episode 1: The Ancients
In the 3rd Millennium BC, Ptah-Hotep wrote the Maxims of Ptah-Hotep. He addressed such crucial issues as rules for courteous debate, proper etiquette for a guest and advised strongly against gossip.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b06tq9rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Where This Service Will... (b06tr5tf)
Where This Service Will Terminate

By Katherine Jakeways

Suzie's never been to Cornwall before, but somehow she finds herself on the Cornish Riviera Express, hurtling from Paddington to Penzance. She sits next to David and over the course of an eventful five hour journey an intense relationship develops.

A romantic comedy from writer Katherine Jakeways. The Radio Times has described Katherine as 'new Victoria Wood' saying "her character comedy is so acutely observed and so sharp that it's in danger of causing permanent injury." Starring Rosie Cavaliero (Prey) and Justin Edwards (The Thick of It).

Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.


MON 15:00 Round Britain Quiz (b06tr5tk)
Programme 12, 2015

(12/12)
All of the questions in this closing contest of the current series have been devised by listeners, with Tom Sutcliffe on hand to guide the teams through them. The Midlands and Wales clash for the last time this series, in a contest they both need to win to clamber up the final Round Britain Quiz league table.

'Can you convert old-style currency from Latin into Greek, and then into bone, gut and muscle?' is just one of the arcane teasers they'll have to unravel. With the teams confined to the library of a country house and all electronic devices confiscated, they have only their knowledge and powers of deduction to rely on, along with the odd helpful hint from the chairman, as the clock ticks down towards the end of the series. The more clues and nudges they need, the more points Tom will be deducting.

Tom will also provide the answer to the question teasingly left unanswered at the end of the previous edition, and will be able to reveal who has taken the title of Round Britain Quiz champions for the 2015 season.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 The Food Programme (b06tq3tk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 With Great Pleasure (b06vk6nf)
Phill Jupitus

Comedian Phill Jupitus takes us through his life in books, comedy, poetry and songs, from the Sex Pistols to Steve Martin and the speech that has changed his life. With readers Thom Tuck and Cariad Lloyd, and live music by Boo Hewerdine. Recorded in front of an audience at the BBC's Maida Vale studios.
Phill's readings are from Clothes Music Boys by Viv Albertine, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin, Genesis by Billy Collins, Bossypants by Tina Fey and The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne.
Sound archive is of Professor Richard Demarco accepting his honorary degree as Doctor of Arts from Southampton Solent University.
Live song is Bell Book and Candle by Boo Hewerdine.
Producer Beth O'Dea.


MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b06tr5tp)
Religion and Psychotherapy

There is a long Christian history of exploring the self. Some of the greatest Christian theologians wrote about the importance of the inner life; and in times of distress and suffering it was the Church people turned to for both confession and counsel. Things began to change in the 20th century with the emergence of psychoanalysis and the writings of Sigmund Freud. No longer were ideas about the inner life the preserve of the Church. Psychotherapy was seen as a threat by the Institution; and religion, conversely, was viewed with suspicion among many psychotherapists. Are religion and psychotherapy at war with one another? Or are they more compatible than we might think? Can they be reconciled?

Ernie Rea discusses whether Christianity or psychotherapy provides the more reliable guide to the inner life with Mark Vernon, a psychotherapist and writer; psychoanalyst Anouchka Grose; and Reverend Dr Andrew Walker, Director of the St Marylebone Healing and Counselling Centre.

Producer:
Dan Tierney

Series producer:
Amanda Hancox.


MON 17:00 PM (b06tr5tr)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl7d1)
Speculation over identity of man with British accent in video from Islamic State group


MON 18:30 I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (b06tr6ld)
Series 64

Episode 6

Back for a second week at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool, regulars Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor are joined on the panel by Rob Brydon, with Jack Dee in the chair. Piano accompaniment is provided by Colin Sell. Producer - Jon Naismith. It is a BBC Radio Comedy production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b06tr6lg)
Distracted by Phoebe's application to Oxford, Jennifer seems to have forgotten that Brian was telling her all about the new dairy plans at Brookfield - David has asked Brian to keep these to himself anyway. The charming Justin Elliot visits and is full of compliments towards Jennifer. Justin picks Brian's brains over the future of Berrow Farm and reveals that he wants it to go into arable and to give Adam/ Home Farm the contract. Jennifer's delighted. Justin encourages a surprised Charlie to enjoy Perthshire - to get out into the community, and perhaps even have a bit of fun there.

Eddie's living it up at Grange Farm, impressed by the furniture and fittings. Clarrie's anxious about the upkeep of all the state of the art appliances - she can't shake off the feeling that a 'palace' like this isn't meant for the likes of them. Clarrie also wonders how on earth they're going to afford pigs for Eddie's latest farming idea at Grange Farm.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b06tr6lj)
Tarantino on The Hateful Eight, Costa Book Awards category winners, Playwright Zodwa Nyoni

Samira Ahmed talks to director Quentin Tarantino about his new Western, The Hateful Eight, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth and Jennifer Jason Leigh and is scored Ennio Morricone. Tarantino explains why he sees contemporary resonances in this period piece. The Hateful Eight is released on 8 January, certificate 18.
The Costa Book Awards 2015 category winners are announced on Front Row tonight by the Chair of Judges, James Heneage. Following this, each night this week on Front Row, we will be talking to the individual winners and tonight's interview will be with the winner of the Novel Award.
Zodwa Nyoni discusses the inspiration behind her play Nine Lives, about a gay man from Zimbabwe grappling with the UK's immigration process as he seeks asylum in Britain. Following a debut at West Yorkshire Playhouse and a national tour, Nine Lives receives its London premiere at Arcola theatre from 6 Jan.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Elaine Lester.


MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tr5t3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite... Laicite (b06tr96c)
Catherine Guilyardi examines concerns about traditional French Republican values.

After the Charlie Hebdo killings and the extraordinary demonstration of unity in the country, France discovered that some of its young people did not want "to be Charlie". A number of children refused to respect a minute of silence in their schools, some even going so far as to say that they agreed with the killers.

They represented a tiny minority, but part of the French political elite claimed that traditional Republican values had been lost - including "la laïcité", the principle of the separation of state and religious affairs. It was decided that it was each school's role to make sure that these civic and moral values were taught again.

How are liberté, égalité, fraternité and la laïcité explained and transmitted to a generation and demographic that feels discriminated against and rejected by French society? Is enforcing 'la laicité' by law - for example, by banning religious symbols in school - a kind of discrimination against the poorest and most vulnerable sections of French society, those who feel least welcome in France, Muslim and migrant families?

Catherine Guilyardi meets school children, teachers, academics and a member of the government.

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


MON 20:30 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.


MON 21:00 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.


MON 21:30 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06tqt1p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b06tl7dh)
The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b06tr96f)
Saudi-Iran spat 'threatens Syria peace'

Saudi Arabia's cutting air traffic links and commercial ties with Iran -- as the diplomatic row between the two sides, escalates. Both side are involved in the Syrian conflict -- what impact will the crisis have on upcoming peace talks?


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06tr96h)
The Beach

Episode 1

Our first Book of Bedtime of 2016 celebrates twenty years since the publication of Alex Garland's cult novel, The Beach. Joe Dempsie reads this thrilling tale of paradise sought and lost.

Jaded young backpacker Richard is in Thailand looking for a place unspoilt by tourism. An encounter with a dead man leaves him with a map for 'the beach', a select traveller community cut off from the degradations of vacationing westerners. He joins the commune, but his breadcrumb trail, fantasies of Vietnam War films, and very real armed drug guards risks turning Eden into hell on earth.

'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Heart of Darkness' among the beautiful, young drop-outs, dreamers and drug-takers of the mid-1990s.

Abridged by ..... Sara Davies

Produced by ..... Jenny Thompson

Read by ..... Joe Dempsie

Music ..... Narayan by The Prodigy.


MON 23:00 Mastertapes (b06tr96k)
Series 5

Steel Pulse (the A-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 5. Steel Pulse's 'Handsworth Revolution' with David Hinds and Selwyn Brown.

Originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School in 1975, Steel Pulse were initially refused live dates in Birmingham's Caribbean venues because of their Rastafarian ideals. Instead they aligned themselves With Rock Against Racism and appeared alongside the likes of the Clash, XTC, the Stranglers, Tom Robinson and X-Ray Specs.

It was Burning Spear who brought the group to the attention of Island Records who in February 1978 first released Ku Klux Klan as a single - a full five months before the album itself, which also included Prodigal Son, Prediction and the title track, Handsworth Revolution.

Here David Hinds and Selwyn Brown talk about the album that is widely regarded a milestone in the development of British Reggae, but also perform exclusive acoustic versions of some of the key tracks.

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 Orpheus Underground (b06cw171)
Novelist Neil Gaiman explores the intricacies of the Orpheus myth, the timeless story of art's place in trying to recover the dead.

With contributions from writers Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Carroll, the late Russell Hoban and his daughter Phoebe Hoban, songwriter and cartoonist Peter Blegvad, and composer and conceptual artist Hannah Catherine Jones.

Produced by Michael Umney
A Resonance production for BBC Radio 4.



TUESDAY 05 JANUARY 2016

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl7m4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b06tqsbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7md)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl7mk)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7mr)
The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl7my)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06v9ypx)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b06trbjy)
Is farming entrepreneurial enough? Flooding in Lancashire, Cutting greenhouse gas emissions

Farming is less entrepreneurial than many other industries according to a new report, commissioned for the Oxford Farming Conference.

The Government has extended the Farming Recovery Fund for flood hit areas beyond Cumbria, to Yorkshire and Lancashire. We hear how farmers in the crop growing lowlands of West Lancashire have lost fields of high value vegetables in the deluge.

Scientists suggest one way farming could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% on 1990 levels before 2050 could be to cover 30% of the UK in forest and restore 700,000 hectares of peat bog. Other options include increasing the efficiency of livestock production and eating less meat.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sarah Swadling.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04svjxg)
Atlantic (Island) Canary

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

Chris Packham presents the Atlantic canary singing in the Tenerife treetops. The ancestor of our cage-bird canaries is the Island or Atlantic Canary, a finch which is native to the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands which include Tenerife. The Canary Islands were named by early travellers "the islands of dogs from 'canis', the Latin for dogs, because of the many large dogs reputedly found there. And so the common and popular song-bird which is now a symbol of the islands became known as the canary. Unlike their domestic siblings, wild Island canaries are streaky, greenish yellow finches: males have golden- yellow foreheads, females a head of more subtle ash-grey tone. But it's the song, a pulsating series of vibrant whistles, trills and tinkling sounds; that has made the canary so popular. They were almost compulsory in Victorian and Edwardian parlours; a far cry from the sunny palm -fringed beaches of the Atlantic islands.


TUE 06:00 Today (b06trcg0)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06trcg2)
Manners in Public Places

David Mitchell continues his inquiry into modern behaviour, exploring what we mean by 'civility' and good manners in public places. He meets the vicar of the churches of Blyth, Scrooby and Ranskill, the Reverend Kate Bottley (aka the 'Gogglebox vicar'), and Tony Blair's former head of policy, Geoff Mulgan. Why are people still pinching vicars' bottoms, and what can the state do to improve standards of public behaviour? And, David asks, how is the digital age changing our sense of public space?
Producer: Chris Ledgard.


TUE 09:30 Hidden Histories of the Information Age (b04m3bcc)
Tat-1

In 1957 the singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson in 1957 performed a concert to an audience sitting in St Pancras Town Hall in London. Astonishingly, Paul Robeson was in New York at the time, and he was performing live over a transatlantic phone line.

Robeson was an outspoken critic of lynching laws and anti-fascism. Because of his support of these causes, he was a victim of early attempts by the US FBI to quash civil rights activism, and was blacklisted by the State Department. His passport was cancelled so he could not leave the US.

But Robeson was also an innovator, who used the latest tools to go around the restrictions that were imposed upon him. When the authorities increasingly tried to silence him, he used technology to make his voice heard.

Aleks Krotoski tells the story of how Paul Robeson came to perform for his British fans using the new transatlantic telephone cable, called TAT-1, It was laid between 1955 and 1956, and it linked Newfoundland, Canada and Oban on the West Coast of Scotland.

TAT-1 is one of the objects on display in the Information Age Gallery at the Science Museum in London. This new gallery features the evolution in how we communicate with one another. The objects in the gallery represent cultural moments from the last 200 years, not just technological innovations.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b06vhpqt)
Young Orson

Episode 2

Orson Welles, the defining wunderkind of modern entertainment, gets his due in a new biography of his early years - including his first forays in theatre and radio before his groundbreaking move to Hollywood.

Episode 2:
Orson gets his first professional acting job at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.

Written by Patrick McGilligan
Read by Jack Klaff
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06trcg4)
Podcasts for 2016, Women voters and the EU referendum

This year Britain could face a referendum on its membership of the European Union. The Government has promised voters will get to decide if Britain leaves or remains in the EU by the end of 2017. The campaigns on either side have launched, so what do women voters think about the referendum and are the politicians listening to them? Jane talks to pollster Deborah Mattinson who has contributed to a new report from British Future.

We look at the podcasts to listen out for in 2016 with Miranda Sawyer presenter of 'In Pod We Trust' and podcaster Helen Zaltzman.

What's the impact of moving to the UK as a young woman? What are the challenges, lessons learned, and all that comes with adapting to a new culture? Jane talks to Carolin, born in Estonia, Mish, of Israeli descent who grew up in Holland, and Vikki, born in Kenya.

Do we need to change the way we talk about break-ups? All the words we have - split, finished, dumped - suggest clean and sudden separations, rather than the long, often complicated, and drawn out experiences many of us have. Comedian Rosie Wilby thinks we need a more compassionate way of thinking and talking about the end of relationships and psychotherapist Susanna Abse considers the importance of letting go.

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Ruth Watts.


TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06trd1x)
Toni Morrison - Beloved

Episode 2

By Toni Morrison
Adapted by Patricia Cumper

Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel about a haunted house in the era that followed the abolition of slavery in the United States is adapted for radio for the first time. Toni Morrison's masterpiece melds horror and poetry as it tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio river, but who, eighteen years later, is still not free.

124 Bluestone Road, the house Sethe has lived in with her daughter Denver since she escaped slavery, has long been haunted by a baby ghost. For years, both mother and daughter have tried to discover what it wants.

Cast:

Original music by Jon Nicholls
Sound design by Caleb Knightley

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


TUE 11:00 Putting Science to Work (b06trd1z)
Sugar

The recent Public Health England report on sugar reduction recommended that we slash the amount of sugar we eat to just seven teaspoons a day.

Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity have all been linked to high sugar intake. Treating obesity and its consequences alone costs the NHS £5.1m per year.

Jim Al-Khalili invites three scientific experts from different disciplines into the studio to present the evidence behind their strategy to reduce our sugar intake:

- Dr Peter Scarborough, a mathematician from the Nuffield Department of Public Health at Oxford has been analysing sugar taxes
- Prof Theresa Marteau, a behavioural psychologist from the University of Cambridge, studies the effects of portion sizes
- Jenny Arthur, Director of Innovation and Nutrition at Leatherhead Food Research is experimenting with the microscopic structure of sugar particles

Producer: Michelle Martin.


TUE 11:30 From Mumbai to Machynlleth (b06trys2)
Ghazal, the love song of Indian Classical music, has its roots in 7th century Arabic poetry. It carried to the Medieval courts of Persia and later to the palaces of the Mughal Emperors of India, was adopted by Sufi mystics along the way, and came to be seen as the highest form of expression of love, for subjects both divine and earthly.

In its latest incarnation, Ghazal has met and been enmeshed with a seemingly alien tradition - the anonymous 'hen benillion' or old verses of rural Wales. While the poets of Ghazal used only to be heard by Indian high society, the Welsh poems, some of which also date back to Medieval times, are nuggets of wisdom handed down by ordinary men and women. But both deal in themes of longing and impossible love. The project 'Ghazalaw', a collaboration between Indian and Welsh musicians, searches for affinities between these centuries-old poetic and musical forms, connects the languages of Urdu and Welsh (which both have their roots in Sanskrit), and attempts to bring communities together. Ghazal still holds to the tenets of Sufism, calling for acceptance, tolerance, and forgiveness - the call of the hour, as the singer and composer Tauseef Akhtar points out: the message is love.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b06tl7ng)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Home Front (b06kvdwn)
5 January 1916 - Adeline Lumley

On this day, parliament had its first reading of the Compulsory Military Service Bill, and Adeline brings her son home.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes


TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b06ts0gw)
Call You and Yours: Are you drinking more than you should?

This week England's chief medical officer will issue new advice on healthy drinking limits. Dame Sally Davies is expected to recommend abstaining from alcohol for at least two days a week. And the daily maximum intake for men could also be cut to the same as for women.
Tell us: Are you drinking more than you should? Lines open at 11am and the number to call us is 03700 100 444. Email youandyours@bbc.co.uk.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b06tl7nn)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b06ts0gy)
David Cameron to allow Cabinet ministers to campaign for either side in the EU referendum - we hear from former minister Ken Clarke and Chairman of 1922 comm Graham Brady. Latest details on Labour reshuffle. And Andrew Lloyd Webber pays tribute to music and film producer Robert Stigwood who's died at the age of 81.


TUE 13:45 Etiquette Guide (b06vhpr3)
The Elizabethans

The mark of a civilised country is to know what it is to be civil. But what if you don't know? Across the ages, social commentators have written guide books to tell the uninitiated how to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

And it's not just snobs that have published guides - the great Renaissance theologian Erasmus took time out from arguing with Luther to instruct children how to behave in company.

Nor is it yet another invention of Victorian England. Five thousand years ago, Ptah-Hotep set down on papyrus the rules of behaviour that all wise men should convey to their sons.

Episode 2: The Elizabethans
Fabritio Caroso's Nobilita di Dame (1600) tells us all we need to know about to how behave at court. Caroso writes about the right way for gentlemen to approach the King or how a lady should greet a superior.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b06tr6lg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 McLevy (b06ts0h0)
Series 11

The Devil Makes a Move

4/ 4. Victorian detective drama starring Brian Cox and Siobhan Redmond.

Written by David Ashton.

McLevy keeps a young woman in hiding while the Rev Gideon searches anxiously for her.
Jean Brash's life lies in the balance when she is poisoned by a mystery assailant.

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


TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b06tkx5h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]


TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (b06ts0kv)
Series 5

Steel Pulse (the B-Side)

John Wilson continues with his fifth series of Mastertapes, 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 6 (B-side): Having discussed the making of 'Handsworth Revolution' (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 4th January and available online), David Hind and Selwyn Brown respond to questions from the audience and perform exclusive live acoustic versions of some of the key tracks from the album.

Producer: Paul Kobrak.


TUE 16:00 A Man's a Man for a' That: Frederick Douglass in Scotland (b06kb0g2)
Opera singer Andrea Baker explores the impact of Frederick Douglass and the time he spent in Scotland, the country which she's made her home. As the great-granddaughter of slaves, she's always been inspired by Douglass, who escaped slavery to become an abolitionist and social reformer but, until now, was unaware of the impact he'd had on Scotland and vice versa.

In this feature, which features Parker Sawyers as the voice of Frederick Douglass, she discovers how Scotland got deep into the veins of Frederick Douglass. When he visited in 1846, he found an expression of freedom denied him in the United States: "in (no) class of society, have I found any curled lip of scorn ... on account of my complexion; not once". He famously stated: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." Is it any wonder then, that he felt a connection with the country that produced the immortal poem 'A Man's a Man for A' That'? Indeed, addressing a white audience at a Burns Supper two years after his visit, Douglass said "if any think me out of my place on this occasion (pointing at the picture of Burns), I beg that the blame may be laid at the door of him who taught me that 'a man's a man for a' that."

It could be said that Douglass' influence on Scotland was equally dramatic. He spearheaded the 'Send Back the Money' campaign - what we'd now call a boycott movement aimed at cutting respectable ties with the American South. The idea was to shame the Free Church of Scotland into giving back Southern donations that came from the blood of slaves. Douglass lectured across Scotland - putting fire in the belly of the Scottish anti-slavery movement at a time when the cause was wilting elsewhere in Britain. Andrea Baker investigates if the money was ever sent back.

What was it about Scotland which so 'freed' Douglass? And did the anti-racist sentiment he espoused seed later Scottish campaigns against slavery and apartheid.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b06ts10b)
Series 38

Martin Jennings on Charles Sargeant Jagger

In this episode, you might not know the name of the Great Life but you have probably walked past his work. At London's Hyde Park Corner - the 'Royal Artillery Memorial' stands – a huge stone monument.

Charles Sargeant Jagger was arguably the first British sculptor to try to capture the horror of war. A full-sized gun – a 9.2 howitzer protrudes from the top; four masculine soldiers surround the base – one a corpse.

Martin Jennings also a British sculptor, nominates Jagger as his Great Life. Along with the expert, art historian Ann Compton, they tell Matthew Parris how the First World War shaped and made Jagger. The producer is Perminder Khatkar.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.


TUE 17:00 PM (b06ts10d)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl7pc)
David Cameron says ministers will be able to campaign for either side in EU referendum


TUE 18:30 Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! (b06ts1kz)
Series 2

Winemaker

When Milton finally decides to empty his bins he accidentally makes both a delicious sparkling wine and a deadly enemy.

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 Ben Willbond (Horrible Histories).

With music by Guy Jackson.

Produced and directed by David Tyler

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


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b06ts1w8)
Helen tries, meekly, to talk to Rob about their finances - they seem to have been overspending. But Rob's preoccupied with the hunt meet - chuffed to still fit into the outfit he wore as a younger man. Rob surprises and impresses Shula by restraining a horse, and modestly calls himself a secret horse whisperer. Shula seems to see Rob in a new light - quite the knight in shining armour.

Meanwhile, Tom deals with stray pigs at Bridge Farm. In other news, Kenton's doing a 'Twelfth Night' karaoke at the Bull.

Ruth's keen to get Alistair in to check the cows are clear of TB before they can proceed further with the new farming venture at Brookfield. David tries to help out with jobs, feeling like a twit with his busted arm.
Helen tries to phone Ian but gets no response and leaves a message, imploring Ian to meet her for coffee and a chat. Helen brings up the subject of money with Rob, suggesting that he shouldn't spend money on expensive gifts, like her lovely necklace. Rob points out that he wants to treat Helen like a queen and look after her - and she's throwing it back in his face. Rob presses Helen on asking Ian about being godfather to their baby. When Helen reveals that she has not heard from Ian, Rob's exasperated. Helen apologises, upset.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b06ts1wb)
David Bowie's Blackstar, Emma Rice, Don Paterson, Jericho

David Bowie's new jazz-influenced album Blackstar will be released on Friday to coincide with the singer's 69th birthday. Critic Kate Mossman gives her response to Bowie's 25th studio album, produced by long-term collaborator Tony Visconti, which has been described as 'the most extreme album of his career'.

Emma Rice, the incoming Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, discusses plans for her 'wonder season' of plays the theatre will be staging from this summer.

Front Row's interviews with the winners of the Costa Book Awards continue with Don Paterson, whose collection, 40 Sonnets, has won the Poetry prize.

ITV's new historical drama Jericho, set in a Yorkshire mining town in the 1870s, is reviewed by critic Rachel Cooke.

Netflix's Making A Murderer is the latest true-crime documentary to hit the headlines. Seasoned documentary filmmaker Roger Graef considers the appeal of stories of possible miscarriages of justice.

Presenter John Wilson
Producer Jerome Weatherald.


TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06trd1x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 How to Make a Brexit (b06r5d0c)
Carolyn Quinn explores the practical process by which Britain would exit the EU if UK voters opt to leave, and looks at the experience of Greenland, which quit the EEC in 1985.

She meets Greenlandic politicians involved in the 'Out' campaign there, and considers the lessons which can be applied to the much more complex task of unravelling the web of trade, treaties, regulations and directives that bind the UK to Brussels and its institutions. The programme includes contributions from the former Cabinet Secretary, Lord O'Donnell, the economist Ruth Lea, as well as constitutional and legal experts Martin Howe QC, Jean-Claude Piris and Daniel Greenberg. Carolyn also travels to the European Parliament to meet British MEPs contemplating redundancy, and canvasses the views of European think tanks.

Producer: John Beesley.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b06tl7pf)
Body Language When You're Blind

Peter White talks about body language with 3 guests, all of them blind or partially sighted. They talk about how to manage in professional and social situations when you can't read other people's non-verbal signs. They also talk about their OWN body language, and what it may be telling others.


TUE 21:00 The Listeners (b06t0rnl)
Series 3

Episode 3

A Musician, a Poet and a Quaker share their listening experiences; discuss the difference between hearing and listening and reveal how listening is more than just an aural experience; it's something much deeper motivating their work and their lives. The musician is Dame Evelyn Glennie, whose vision is to teach the world to listen by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening. As a result of hearing problems when she was a child, Evelyn learned to 'feel ' sounds, not just hear them. Using different instruments she demonstrates how sounds and reverberations can affect us; emotionally and physically. Katrina Porteous's earliest memory is the sound of a blackbird singing whilst she was in her pram. Since then listening has had a huge influence on her work as a poet; much of her work is about the fishing communities and landscape of County Durham and Northumberland. Like Evelyn, Katrina feels sounds; they are "the heartbeat of a place". On the written page, there is silence between the words of a poem. "If we get it right we can find silence where we can really listen" says Hermione Legg, who has been a Quaker since she was child and regularly attends meetings which are opportunities for a community to come together in worship. There is no creed and much of the meeting is silent. The silence offers an opportunity to listen. Listening is also about communication. "If I'm listened to, I feel I have worth" says Hermione "Why speak if no one's going to listen ... Life would have no meaning without us listening." Producer Sarah Blunt.


TUE 21:30 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06trcg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 21:58 Weather (b06tl7ph)
The latest weather forecast.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b06ts22f)
Cameron gives ministers freedom on EU vote

Former Tory cabinet minister Liam Fox says the decision will not divide the party; we hear a view from Texas on president Obama's checks on gun laws and after a cricketer propositions a female sports reporter, live on air, we ask if 'boys will be boys'.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06ts24j)
The Beach

Episode 2

Our first Book of Bedtime of 2016 celebrates twenty years since the publication of Alex Garland's cult novel, The Beach. Joe Dempsie reads this thrilling tale of paradise sought and lost.

Jaded young backpacker Richard is in Thailand looking for a place unspoilt by tourism. An encounter with a dead man leaves him with a map for 'the beach', a select traveller community cut off from the degradations of vacationing westerners. He joins the commune, but his breadcrumb trail, fantasies of Vietnam War films, and very real armed drug guards risks turning Eden into hell on earth.

'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Heart of Darkness' among the beautiful, young drop-outs, dreamers and drug-takers of the mid-1990s.

Abridged by ..... Sara Davies

Produced by ..... Jenny Thompson

Read by ..... Joe Dempsie

Music ..... Narayan by The Prodigy.


TUE 23:00 Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (b01r51fb)
Series 2

Charlie Baker

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

This episode explores the theme of love including songs on chat up lines and romance in Bognor as well as a foray into drum and bass and a look at the history of the flute.

Guest starring: Charlie Baker who deconstructs a classic love song.

Alex's Horne Section are:

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

Producer: Julia McKenzie.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b06ts26n)
TIP: David Cameron confirms ministers can campaign on either side in the forthcoming in/out EU referendum. The Environment Secretary reports to the Commons on the recent flooding. And the Home Secretary updates MPs on the case of a British terror suspect who left the UK whilst on bail and is now thought to be in an IS propaganda video. Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.



WEDNESDAY 06 JANUARY 2016

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl7xc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b06vhpqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7xq)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl7xv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl7y2)
The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl7y9)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06v9yt4)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b06ts2d2)
Flood protection, Outsourcing food production, Mob grazing, OFC look-ahead

The Environment Agency's chairman will face questions from MPs on flooding today. Plus, we hear from a Yorkshire farmer whose land has been inundated 8 times since 2000.

Two farmers have each been jailed for 3 years after more than a hundred stolen sheep were found on their land.

Are we outsourcing the environmental impact of the food we eat to developing countries? A new study is published today.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Sarah Swadling.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sxv25)
Red-necked Nightjar

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

Chris Packham presents the nocturnal red-necked nightjar of the Spanish countryside. Like others in the family, red-necked nightjars are nocturnal birds which feed on large insects, snapping them up with huge bristle-lined mouths. A summer migrant, the red-necked nightjar breeds mainly in Spain, Portugal and North Africa. It is closely related to the common European nightjar, but it sounds very different. By day they hide on the ground among scrub where their cryptic patterns provide excellent camouflage. They're the colour of mottled bark and as you'd expect from their name, have a rusty-red collar. As the sun sets, they emerge from their hiding places to glide and turn on slender wings through scrub and pinewoods, occasionally warning rivals by clapping their wings together over their backs with a sound like a pistol-shot. Between bouts of moth-chasing, they settle on a pine branch and pour forth their repetitive, but atmospheric song.


WED 06:00 Today (b06ts2gj)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06ts3xr)
Looking at Your Phone

David Mitchell says sorry when other people bump into him. He doesn't like inconveniencing anyone. And he hates rows. So, in part three of his inquiry into the state of modern manners, he goes to an assertiveness class to explore his own behaviour. Is it wrong? And he talks to Professor Sherry Turkle about the dying art of conversation.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.


WED 09:30 Hidden Histories of the Information Age (b04m3gc6)
Our World

On June 25th 1967, 400 million people across the globe watched a ground-breaking TV show. It was called, in English, OUR WORLD and it was a feat beyond technological imagination: it was the first programme that linked up countries live by satellite. So everyone was watching what was happening on the other side of the world - or possibly next door - at the exact moment in time when it was actually happening.
In our modern, 24-hour news world, it's hard to understand just how monumental this was, both technologically and politically. It was the golden age of television. Youth culture had a voice that was about to get much louder. International diplomacy was stretched to breaking point. And our world was rapidly shrinking.

Aleks Krotoski tells the story of how the programme came about. She talks to curators from the Science Museum.

The yellowing pages of Our World's original script is one of the exhibits in the new Information Age gallery at the Science Museum. It tells the story of the evolution in how we communicate with one another. The objects in the exhibition represent cultural moments from the last 200 years - not just technological innovations.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b06vhv6t)
Young Orson

Episode 3

Orson Welles, the defining wunderkind of modern entertainment, gets his due in a new biography of his early years - including his first forays in theatre and radio before his groundbreaking move to Hollywood.

Episode 3:
A 20 year old white actor from the Midwest is the surprise appointment to direct Macbeth for the Negro Unit.

Written by Patrick McGilligan
Read by Jack Klaff
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06ts3xt)
Toni Morrison's Beloved; Loneliness

Loneliness- who suffers and what can be done; with Sue Bourne whose new documentary, The Age of Loneliness, is on BBC One on Thursday evening; Kylie Taylor, a young woman who is lonely despite a busy job surrounded by people and Isabella Goldie of the Mental Health Foundation.

The 15 minute Drama this week is Beloved by Toni Morrison. To discuss Morrison's work and the new writers following in her footsteps we are joined by Patricia Cumper who adapted the book for radio, Dr Tessa Roynon - Teaching and Research Fellow, University of Oxford and writer and journalist, Irenosen Okojie whose debut novel Butterfly Fish was published in 2015.

Each year BBC Radio 1's Sound Of poll invites over 100 music industry experts to vote for their favourite emerging artists who they think should be the ones to watch for the new year. The top five names of the Sound Of 2016 poll are being announced on Radio 1 each day this week, and today they named number three: NAO - a 28 year old East London singer-songwriter and producer. She sings 'it's You' live on the programme.

As Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet is unveiled, we look at who's in and who's out and what it means for the women in the Labour Party with Ayesha Hazarika, former special advisor to Harriet Harman.

Presenter: Jenni Murray
Producer: Eleanor Garland.


WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b06ts3xw)
Toni Morrison - Beloved

Episode 3

By Toni Morrison
Adapted by Patricia Cumper

Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel about a haunted house in the era that followed the abolition of slavery in the United States is adapted for radio for the first time. Toni Morrison's masterpiece melds horror and poetry as it tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio river, but who, eighteen years later, is still not free.

Paul D's arrival at 124 Bluestone Road had the effect of ridding the house of the ghost that had haunted it for years. But he's about to discover that any sense of victory he might have, will be short-lived.

Original music by Jon Nicholls
Sound design by Caleb Knightley

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b06d9rlv)
David and Mairead – A Pregnant Pause

Fi Glover introduces a first for the Project, a conversation about the forthcoming birth between the prospective parents, recorded when the Booth was in Suffolk, only hours before their baby arrived... Another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

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

Producer: Marya Burgess


WED 11:00 Road Stories (b06ts5l9)
Stonehenge

"People talk about the power of the internet, the information super-highway; but sometimes a highway is all you need."

Miles Warde sets off on three eye-opening journeys, on foot, by bus and all other means to discover the importance of the highway to everyday life. In Nepal he travels north to south, from Tibet to India, across the mighty Himalaya. Here he meets people for whom a blacktopped highway is a source of astonishment. Fifty years ago there were only footpaths in these high mountains, but as the Chinese say, "To get rich quick first you build a road."

In Kenya a newly upgraded route from Nairobi through the badlands to Ethiopia promises to transform a region of tribal fighting and banditry. This is the road of 'terror and death', so Miles takes local reporter Michael Koloki along for the ride. Together they meet nomadic people who say Kenya starts at the road; and you'll hear perhaps the first ever recording of a border crossing intimate search.

And closer to home in Wiltshire, the Prime Minister's promise of a new tunnel past Stonehenge kicks up a hornet's nest of local and international uproar.

Miles Warde is the producer of The Invention of ... Germany, Brazil, Italy and France; and winner of the Royal Mail International travel writer award.


WED 11:30 The Stanley Baxter Playhouse (b06shzjj)
Series 7

The Pool

Set on one of Scotland's most famous salmon fishing rivers, we meet two old men with a shared love of the art of fishing and a shared past which haunts them both.

Geoffrey Palmer joins Stanley Baxter on the edge of a famous salmon pool in Scotland, on a cold wintry day.

Series of comic plays starring Stanley Baxter.

Tam ...... Stanley Baxter
Jolyon ...... Geoffrey Palmer

Written by Michael Chaplin

Director: Marilyn Imrie

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


WED 12:00 News Summary (b06tl7z2)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Home Front (b06kvf7r)
6 January 1916 - Hilary Pearce

On this day, General Aylmer led the first relief attempt in the Siege of Kut, and Hilary is caught up in the arrangements for celebrating the Derby Scheme.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b06ts76s)
Disability aids, 4K television, Fishing quotas

Winifred Robinson investigates whether some disabled people who use aids in their homes, to help them to live independently, are getting too much in state benefits. The government has launched a consultation on how aids like walking sticks, wheelchairs and bathroom adaptations affect how much people are paid in benefits. They have suggested that aids like these are mainly a one-off cost and should not necessarily mean that disabled people should qualify for full-blown continuing Personal Independence Payments.

European fishing quotas for plaice, haddock and cod have been increased. This sounds like good news for the fishing industry, but will it also mean lower prices at the supermarket fish counter?

It's the latest thing in TV, but just how good is 4K television and is it worth the money?

Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.


WED 12:57 Weather (b06tl7zd)
The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b06ts76v)
Three shadow ministers have resigned from Labour's frontbench in response to Jeremy Corby's reshuffle. We speak to two of them.
North Korea has said it's successfully carried out a H-bomb test. We get reaction from a Japanese diplomat and the North Korea expert Paul French
Reports from Syria say up to forty thousand civilians are starving to death in the besieged town of Madaya. We speak to a Syrian-American doctor who has family in the area.


WED 13:45 Etiquette Guide (b06vhv6y)
The Middling Classes

The mark of a civilised country is to know what it is to be civil. But what if you don't know? Across the ages, social commentators have written guide books to tell the uninitiated how to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

And it's not just snobs that have published guides - the great Renaissance theologian Erasmus took time out from arguing with Luther to instruct children how to behave in company.

Nor is it yet another invention of Victorian England. Five thousand years ago, Ptah-Hotep set down on papyrus the rules of behaviour that all wise men should convey to their sons.

Episode 3: The Middling Classes
During the 18th century the growing middle classes needed a guide to behaviour. The Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour defined much of our modern understanding of politeness including maintaining restraint around overt opulence.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b06ts1w8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Tumanbay (b06ts76x)
Series 1

In The Beginning

In the sixth episode of this epic saga inspired by the Mamluk slave-dynasty of Egypt, Tumanbay is in chaos after the murder of a highly placed individual. Heaven and her slave companion find themselves prisoners of a nomadic tribe in the desert. Having failed in his duty of keeping the Palace safe, Gregor attempts to unlock the secret of the missing reliquary and find out why it is worth killing for.

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
Heaven.....................Olivia Popica
Wolf..........................Alexander Siddig
Cadali.......................Matthew Marsh
Ibn............................Nabil Elouahabi
Maya's Envoy............Nadir Khan
Madu.........................Danny Ashok
Daniel........................Gareth Kennerley
Slave.........................Akin Gazi
Boy............................Darwin Brokenbro
Al-Ghuri......................Raad Rawi
General Qulan............Christopher Fulford
The Hafiz....................Antony Bunsee
Bello...........................Albert Welling
Boy.............................Darwin Brokenbro
Manel.........................Aiysha Hart
Shamsi, Maid, Sabira.......Laure Stockley
Rajik...........................Akbar Kurtha
Pamira........................Nathalie Armin

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

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by John Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4


WED 15:00 Money Box (b06ts7jq)
Money Box Live: Tax and Self-Assessment

Lesley Curwen and guests answer calls on tax and self-assessment.

Have you got questions about the January 31st online filing and payment deadline? Or how the new digital tax accounts will work?

Other issues you may want advice on: the tax changes for buy to let landlords announced last year. Or the tax-free Personal Savings Allowance of £1,000 (or £500 for higher rate taxpayers) on the interest that you earn on your savings which starts in April 2016.

On the panel:

Anita Monteith, Tax Faculty, The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales

Elaine Clark, Managing Director, Chartered Accountant, Cheap Accounting

Nimesh Shah, Partner, Blick Rothenberg.
Call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday 6th January or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk now. Standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply.


WED 15:30 The Listeners (b06t0rnl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b06tvbpj)
The end of 'careers', Humour at work

Identity and work: Laurie Taylor explores selfhood in an era in which our working lives are becoming increasingly uncertain. He talks to Jesse Potter, lecturer in Sociology at Canterbury Christ Church University and author of a new study which interviewed people who'd undergone profound work-life changes. How do individuals achieve meaning and fulfilment when their productive lives fail to satisfy? Also, Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management at City University London considers how employees use humour to cope with paradox and change.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b06tvbpl)
Scotland culture minister Fiona Hyslop, Children's social media, Walter Presents

Scotland's Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop says the BBC is not spending enough of the licence fee cash raised north of the border in Scotland.

Journalists are accused of unfairly harvesting information for stories from children's social media accounts. Is this legitimate use of information that has been put into the public arena? Or should anything posted online by a child always be off-limits to the media no matter what?

Channel Four launches a new foreign language drama on demand service called Walter Presents. We hear from Walter.


WED 17:00 PM (b06twbz8)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl7zx)
Labour reshuffle leads to resignations.

Labour reshuffle leads to resignations. UK calls for more sanctions against North Korea.


WED 18:30 It's Jocelyn (b06tvbz1)
Series 1

Episode 2

A raft of fresh new characters from Jocelyn including a terrible shop assistant, a pair of terrible bedroom DJ's and an old lady obsessed with dying.

Jocelyn vents her frustration 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 Jee Esien 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 January 2016.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b06tvbz3)
Over coffee, Helen finally gets Ian to talk to her, but he's reticent and unresponsive to small talk. Helen points out that her baby will need male guidance and he is the very man she'd like to offer that. But Ian is angry that Helen betrayed him by not mentioning Adam and Charlie's kiss. Ian doesn't want to be her friend - and certainly not her baby's godfather.

Later at the shop, Helen starts to cry in front of Clarrie and Susan and puts it down to hormones - Clarrie can remember this well herself. Helen insists she's fine, honestly. Susan thinks Helen is looking a bit peaky, though.
Phoebe's letter from Oxford arrives, but she can't bring herself to read it and keeps it from Jennifer. Phoebe leaves messages for boyfriend Alex, anxious for him to come and open it with her for moral support, but gets no response.
Phoebe confides in Jennifer that she feels Alex doesn't want her to go to Oxford so is avoiding her, but Jennifer assures Phoebe he loves her. Phoebe admits that she has been lying - she has heard from Oxford. She asks Jennifer to open the letter. Granny Jennifer obliges, but stops short of revealing the contents - Phoebe really needs to read this herself...


WED 19:15 Front Row (b06vhvsq)
Pierre Boulez obituary, Costa Biography winner, Tracy Ullman review; Bolshoi Babylon

The death of one of the 20th century's most important composers and conductors, Pierre Boulez, was announced today. Sir Nicholas Kenyon, MD of The Barbican and former Radio 3 Controller, and composer George Benjamin who worked with Boulez, discuss this hugely influential figure.

Throughout this week we’re hearing from each of the category winners in the 2015 Costa Book Awards, which were announced on Front Row on Monday. Today we hear from Andrea Wulf, winner of the Biography category for her historical book The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humbolt, The Lost Hero of Science, who lived from 1769-1859.

Stand-up and writer Meryl O’Rourke reviews Tracey Ullman’s Show which brings the comedian back to British TV screens for the first time in 30 years.

A new film documentary Bolshoi Babylon gives us unprecedented access to the power struggles behind the scenes at Russia’s most famous theatre, including the widely-reported acid attack in 2013 on the Bolshoi’s former lead dancer and artistic director Sergei Filin that left him almost blind. The film’s two co-directors Nick Read and Mark Franchetti discuss the challenges of dealing with the Kremlin-sponsored elites, the political divisions and the professional jealousies among the dancers and the management.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Rebecca Armstrong


WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06ts3xw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 Leader Conference (b06tvbz5)
Series 5

06/01/2016

In the first of a new series of Leader Conference, Andrew Rawnsley is joined by Mary Riddell of the Daily Telegraph, Bronwen Maddox of Prospect; Hugh Muir of the Guardian; Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror; and Caroline Wheeler of the Sunday Express.

Three subjects in the news are chosen for the three "leaders". Two of these reflect current events at home and abroad - and prompt lively and provocative discussion. The third subject is in a lighter vein.

Contributions from listeners are also encouraged throughout the programme via e-mail, using the address leaderconference@bbc.co.uk and on Twitter using the hashtag #r4leader.

Following the discussion of each of the three subjects, Andrew invites one of his guests to draw up on air the "leader" for that subject setting out its main points. This important component of the programme helps ensure that resolution of the debate is achieved for listeners and that the full range of views expressed is reflected.

The leaders are posted online at the Radio 4 website the day after the programme is broadcast.

Producer Simon Coates.


WED 20:45 Four Thought (b06vhvss)
A Boat of One's Own

Michelle Madsen makes the case for the life of a continuous cruiser on Britain's rivers and canals. Michelle is a poet and journalist who has spent the last two years living aboard a boat, and discusses how it has affected her poetry, her prose, her friendships and her life.

Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton.


WED 21:00 Science Stories (b06tvc2f)
Series 2

Submarine for a Stuart King

Philip Ball dives into the magical world of Cornelis Drebbel , inventor of the world's first submarine in 1621.

How did the crew of this remarkable vessel manage to breathe underwater, completely cut off from the surface, 150 years before oxygen was officially discovered?

King James I of England and thousands of his subjects lined the banks of the River Thames in London to watch the first demonstration. The strangest boat they had ever seen sank beneath the waves and stayed there for three hours.

Did Drebbel know how to make oxygen? Historian Andrew Szydlow reveals that Drebbel did have secret knowledge of how to keep the air fresh.

In his day, Drebbel was a pioneer of exploring uninhabitable places. Today's equivalent is to make oxygen on the Moon and as scientists grapple with this ultimate challenge, Monica Grady explains their work is being used under the waves where Drebbel began.

Producer: Erika Wright.


WED 21:30 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06ts3xr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b06vhw1l)
Siege warfare - are civilians being starved to death in Syria?

Siege warfare: are people being starved to death in Syria? Are race relations worsening in Germany? We discuss the attacks in Cologne. And humanist chaplains in hospitals.
Picture: Syria - AFP PHOTO / KARAM AL-MASRIKARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images -.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06tvc2k)
The Beach

Episode 3

Our first Book of Bedtime of 2016 celebrates twenty years since the publication of Alex Garland's cult novel, The Beach. Joe Dempsie reads this thrilling tale of paradise sought and lost.

Jaded young backpacker Richard is in Thailand looking for a place unspoilt by tourism. An encounter with a dead man leaves him with a map for 'the beach', a select traveller community cut off from the degradations of vacationing westerners. He joins the commune, but his breadcrumb trail, fantasies of Vietnam War films, and very real armed drug guards risks turning Eden into hell on earth.

'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Heart of Darkness' among the beautiful, young drop-outs, dreamers and drug-takers of the mid-1990s.

Abridged by ..... Sara Davies

Produced by ..... Jenny Thompson

Read by ..... Joe Dempsie

Music ..... Narayan by The Prodigy.


WED 23:00 Don't Start (b06tvc3t)
Series 3

The Bath

Cardamon scented candles, kumquats and a debate over the virtues of shared bathing compared to shared showering occupy Neil and Kim.

Frank Skinner's sharp comedy starring Frank and Katherine Parkinson.

What do long term partners really argue about?

Don't Start is a scripted comedy with a deceptively simple premise - an argument. Our couple fall out over another apparently trivial flashpoint and 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.

The first two series of Don't Start met with instant critical 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

An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2016.


WED 23:15 Before They Were Famous (b03h429n)
Series 2

Episode 5

Even the most successful of writers have, at some point, had to take day jobs to pay the bills.

Ian Leslie presents the second series of this Radio 4 spoof documentary, which sheds light on the often surprising jobs done by the world's best known writers in the days before they were able to make a living from their art.

In a project of literary archaeology, Leslie unearths archive examples of early work by great writers, including Fortune Cookie messages written by Germaine Greer, a political manifesto by the young JK Rowling, and a car manual written by Dan Brown. In newspaper articles, advertising copy, and company correspondence, we get a fascinating glimpse into the embryonic development of our best-loved literary voices.

We may know them today for their novels, plays or poems but, once upon a time, they were just people with a dream - and a rent bill looming at the end of the month.

Producers: Anna Silver and Claire Broughton
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b06tvcm0)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster on the first PMQs of 2016, including questions on floods and Shakespeare.



THURSDAY 07 JANUARY 2016

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl85c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b06vhv6t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06tl85h)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl85k)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl85m)
The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl85p)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06vrsbk)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b06tvgnq)
Oxford Farming Conference

Farming Today is at the Oxford Farming Conference, where around 450 delegates are discussing issues ranging from farm subsidies to ways of feeding a world population which is projected to reach nine billion. We hear from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Liz Truss, and from her Labour shadow, Kerry McCarthy. We also catch up with news from the alternative event - the Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Emma Campbell.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sy3qh)
Brown Thrasher

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

Chris Packham presents the brown thrasher, usually seen in North America. Brown thrashers are related to mockingbirds which breed across most of eastern and central North America. They're famous for their vast repertoire which can include over 1000 song types. They spend much of their time skulking in dense shrubs at woodland edges and in parks and gardens. They're russet on top, white below and heavily streaked like a large thrush but with much longer tails and stout curved bills. Their name comes from the noisy thrashing sound they make as they search the leaf litter for food. Normally, brown thrashers are short distance migrants within North America but in 1966, in November of that year, in Dorset, birdwatchers almost dropped their binoculars in disbelief when they heard the call of a brown thrasher coming from a coastal thicket. It remained here until February 1967 and is the only British record.


THU 06:00 Today (b06tvgns)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06tvgnv)
The Golf Club

David Mitchell ends his look at the state of modern manners in the bar at Chipping Sodbury golf club. The older members reflect ruefully on the demise of the jacket and tie. It is, they argue, all about standards - and they're falling. So has everything really gone wrong with our manners? David returns to Henry Hitchings, Kate Bottley, Steven Pinker and some of his other series' guests and gets an altogether more optimistic view.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.


THU 09:30 Hidden Histories of the Information Age (b04m3ftg)
Leo Computer

The company that brought computers into business was Lyons, known for its cakes and teashops. Aleks Krotoski tells the story of how this technology transformed office work.

One element of the first Lyons Electronic Office, or LEO, computer is on display in the 'Information Age' gallery at the Science Museum in London. This new gallery tells the story of the evolution in how we communicate with with each other. The objects in the exhibition represent cultural moments from the last 200 years - not just technological innovations.

Aleks Krotoski talks to Dr Tilly Blyth and Jessica Bradford of the Science Museum about how Lyons brought computers to its business and hears from one of the first programmers. A tea shop manager recalls how LEO changed her working life.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b06vj05s)
Young Orson

Episode 4

Orson Welles, the defining wunderkind of modern entertainment, gets his due in a new biography of his early years - including his first forays in theatre and radio before his groundbreaking move to Hollywood.

Episode 4:
Until Orson, no one wanted to produce Marc Bernstein's pro-labour opera The Cradle Will Rock, with its clear left-wing union sympathies. Enthralled with Bernstein, Orson with his partner John Houseman, commit to a Broadway run. But as the hot subject of unionisation rages across the nation, the Federal Theatre Project is made to take drastic action.

Written by Patrick McGilligan
Read by Jack Klaff
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06vj05v)
Jessica Raine

Actor Jessica Raine, perhaps best known for her lead role as Jenny Lee in Call the Midwife, will be talking about her new role in ITV's new period drama "Jericho".

Who are the women to watch in 2016? Political journalist Anne McElvoy and the Economist Bronwyn Curtis discuss the women poised to impact global events over the next twelve months. Plus apart from friends or family where do you turn for help as a parent? Do Internet forums and message boards help answer your questions or just end up confusing you more? The blogger Unmumsy Mum, otherwise known as Sarah Turner, and Mumsnet Editor Sarah Crown talk about pros and cons of parenting advice in the digital age. Plus we talk to 19 year old, Canadian, R&B pop singer-songwriter, Alessia Cara who's just been unveiled as Number Two in this year's BBC Radio 1 Sound Of 2016 poll.


THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tvgnx)
Toni Morrison - Beloved

Episode 4

By Toni Morrison
Adapted by Patricia Cumper

Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel about a haunted house in the era that followed the abolition of slavery in the United States is adapted for radio for the first time. Toni Morrison's masterpiece melds horror and poetry as it tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio river, but who, eighteen years later, is still not free.

The residents of 124 Bluestone Road return from a day trip to the Cincinnati fair to discover a young woman collapsed outside their home. They feed her and allow her to convalesce and yet the mysterious visitor reveals very little about herself, other than her name, Beloved.

Original music by Jon Nicholls
Sound design by Caleb Knightley

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b06tvgnz)
Brazil Versus Sleaze

Brazil is in crisis. Confronted with a massive downturn in the economy, its currency has crashed, while its political class sinks in a quagmire of corruption allegations linked to the state oil company, Petrobras. In the northern state of Maranhao - dominated for decades by the powerful Sarney family - a new governor from the Communist Party of Brazil is attempting to bring a fresh broom to one of the country's most undeveloped states. Already he claims to have cut expenses by millions of Reals just by removing seafood and champagne from state banquet menus. But the malaise runs deep in Maranhao. In the small community of Bom Jardim, a 25-year-old mayor is under house arrest accused of skimming the education budget and running council business remotely using WhatsApp. And with the cancelling of a project to build a huge Petrobras refinery, Maranhao is feeling the economic pressure. Linda Pressly reports from one of Brazil's least known regions.


THU 11:30 Compression versus Art (b06tvgp1)
Trevor Cox asks whether compression can detract from our enjoyment of recorded music - does it matter that what we hear may not be the same as what the musicians heard in the studio? How important is high quality reproduction? He looks at attempts to make music recordings sound louder and louder (the so-called Loudness War) and asks whether anything is lost in the process. And he considers whether making audio file sizes smaller, so that they take up less space on portable devices, means that some of the musical detail is lost. He talks to record producer Steve Levine (who produced Culture Club among many others) mastering engineer Ian Shepherd, the musician Steven Wilson, members of the BBC Philharmonic, and Dr Bruno Fazenda, Senior Lecturer in Audio Technology.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b06tl864)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Home Front (b06kvfjt)
7 January 1916 - Victor Lumley

On this day, Lord Selbourne made an appeal for more game to be donated to hospitals, before the end of the shooting season, and Victor feels more hunted than hunter.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b06vj05z)
High street christmas results, Child maintenance service, Wearable tech

Marks and Spencer posts results today that will tell us how their shops performed over the festive period. It follows announcements from John Lewis, Next and other big retailers earlier this week. We examine what they're getting right and wrong, and try to build a fictional 'perfect' department store, with all the best bits of the high street in one place.

The Child Maintenance Service, set up in 2012, has now allowed more than 35 million pounds of arrears to accrue. The government said that the CMS would find solutions to the problems experienced by the old Child Support Agency. But one listener says that while CMS staff are friendly, they seem "shackled by their IT system" and are unable to help with his two cases. We ask how well the CMS is performing and compare it with similar systems abroad.

Sales of wearables - things like wristbands and smart watches - are on the up. But other than technology enthusiasts, who is buying them? Lots of smart watches ended up in the November Black Friday sales, suggesting retailers were desperate to get rid of them. Will wearable technology ever achieve the wide popularity that analysts predicted a year ago, or will it only ever appeal to so-called 'early adopters'?

Producer: Alex Burton
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.


THU 12:57 Weather (b06tl86f)
The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b06vj063)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Martha Kearney.


THU 13:45 Etiquette Guide (b06vj065)
The Americans

The mark of a civilised country is to know what it is to be civil. But what if you don't know? Across the ages, social commentators have written guide books to tell the uninitiated how to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

And it's not just snobs that have published guides - the great Renaissance theologian Erasmus took time out from arguing with Luther to instruct children how to behave in company.

Nor is it yet another invention of Victorian England. Five thousand years ago, Ptah-Hotep set down on papyrus the rules of behaviour that all wise men should convey to their sons.

Episode 4: The Americans
Britain and America aren't just divided by a common language, but also by manners. In 1883, Walter R. Houghton published American Etiquette and Rules of Politeness, defining the way modern America behaves.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b06tvbz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b06tvhnj)
79 Birthdays

One of the first pieces of radio drama was broadcast in 1928 under the title 'Kaleidoscope'. It told the story of one 'ordinary' British man's life - then 70 years - in sound. No recording or script of that original broadcast now exists, but the idea has always intrigued poet Michael Symmons Roberts. Now, as the average male lifespan in Britain reaches 79, this drama takes up the challenge, telling the story of Jimmy through significant birthdays on the road to his 79th.

Jimmy loses his life before it begins when he's being born. A guardian angel, Leila is waiting for him. Jimmy is desperate to know what would have happened to him had he been born . After a lot of persuasion, Leila grants Jimmy his wish, showing him his life as he spools through his birthdays, playing out the key moments in full .

Produced in Salford by Susan Roberts.


THU 15:00 Open Country (b06tvm6t)
River Tay

The Tironesian monks of Lindores Abbey were forcibly removed by Protestant firebrand John Knox in 1559 but they've left an extraordinary legacy for Tayside. The orchards they planted with native French varieties of pear, plum and apple were subdivided as the nearby town of Newburgh took shape. Every autumn the locals set out their stalls and sell purple pyramids of unusual plums and cartloads of the apples that can ripen on the trees beyond Christmas.

The monks are also credited with the creation of the first Scotch Whisky. There's certainly documentary evidence of them supplying potent quantities of aquavitae to the Scottish Court in 1494.

Caz Graham follows the tracks of the Tayside monks and meets the local man aiming to create the first Lindores whisky for 500 years.

Further up the River Tay Caz explores Britain's biggest reed bed in search of the desperately shy Bearded Tit and meets the last of the salmon net fisherwomen. Now 80, Nan Jarvis spent decades dragging nets through the silvery Tay in search of the King of Fish.

photo courtesy of the RSPB.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b06tpxwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Bookclub (b06tq9r6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b06tvm6x)
Eddie Redmayne

With Francine Stock.

Eddie Redmayne reveals the research he undertook for The Danish Girl, a new drama about transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, and what he observed about women's body language.

Celia Johnson's daughter Lucy Fleming talks about her coda to Brief Encounter, written exclusively for The Film Programme.

Borgen writer Tobias Lindholm discusses A War, his new thriller about Danish troops serving in Afghanistan, and why that conflict has defined his generation in Denmark.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b06tvm70)
El Nino Special

El Niño is releasing vast quantities of heat normally stored in the Pacific, causing floods, droughts and fires. Adam Rutherford discusses the latest with our El Niño expert Roland Pease.

This weather event arrives every 2-7 years but it's hard to work out how profound it will be. Back in May last year, the Met Office climate scientist Adam Scaife correctly predicted an El Niño. He returns to give an overview of this phenomenon.

How does an altered weather pattern in the Pacific end up altering the weather in Cumbria. Tim Stockdale at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and Richard Allan at Reading University explain the science behind the current events.

The rains are coming to drought-ridden California as a result of El Niño. Jack Stewart explains why this is not entirely a good thing.

Professor Sue Page from Leicester University and Professor Martin Wooster from KCL study the Indonesian fires exacerbated by an El Niño event. They describe the devastating effects of these fires. An estimated 15,000 death can be attributed to the previous El Niño burning and it has added 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.


THU 17:00 PM (b06twhfq)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl87c)
Chancellor warned of the "dangerous cocktail of economic risks" facing the UK. A man wearing a fake suicide vest has been shot dead by police officers in Paris.


THU 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b06tvm72)
Series 5

Episode 1

John Finnemore - writer and star of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Double Acts, regular guest on The Now Show and The Unbelievable Truth - returns for a fifth series of his multi-award-winning sketch show, joined as ever by a cast of Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Simon Kane, Lawry Lewin and Carrie Quinlan.

This first episode sees an unlikely wager, a troubled bluesman, and, well - since you ask him for a rip-roaring adventure on the high seas...

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme won the BBC Audio Drama Award for 'Best Scripted Comedy with Live Audience' in 2015; and a Radio Academy Silver Award for Comedy in 2014.

"One of the most consistently funny sketch shows for quite some time" - The Guardian
"The best sketch show in years, on television or radio" - The Radio Times
"The inventive sketch show ... continues to deliver the goods" - The Daily Mail
"Superior comedy" - The Observer

Written by and starring ... John Finnemore
Ensemble ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Ensemble ... Simon Kane
Ensemble ... Lawry Lewin
Ensemble ... Carrie Quinlan
Original music composed by ... Susannah Pearse
Original music performed by ... Jason Hazeley

Producer: Ed Morrish

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is a BBC Radio Comedy production.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b06tvm74)
Peggy relishes in Phoebe's success at getting a place at Oxford, and discusses with Christine their own education and aspirations. Christine talks proudly of getting into Grammar school. Peggy surprises Chris with her own sad tale of unrealised promise - she passed the exam herself for her local grammar school. but her father objected, so Peggy went to the Council school.

Peggy wishes Jennifer a happy birthday and she and Christine also relish in Tristram Hawkshaw's review of Calendar Girls, which should please Lynda as it also lambasts Felpersham's offering.

David and Ruth congratulate the Fairbrothers on their success with their geese. Toby chooses his moment to appeal to David to let them stay on and develop at Hollowtree, seeming to disregard Ruth who's no pushover. David defers to Ruth who explains that there are issues to be worked out and they need to be sure that any plans the boys have don't clash with the new direction of Brookfield - she will be in touch.

Ruth tells David that if he's not certain about their plans for Brookfield they shouldn't go ahead - they're a partnership and need to do be in this together.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b06vrs2p)
A War, Maigret, Guys and Dolls, Frances Hardinge, The missing Hong Kong booksellers

Colonel Tim Collins reviews the new Danish feature film A War which offers a foot soldiers' view of life on the frontline. Set in the recent military conflict in Afghanistan, the company commander makes a decision that has grave consequences for him and his family back home. Tobias Lindholm's film is Denmark's entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Oscars.

2016 sees the return of Inspector Maigret, both on screen and in print. John Simenon, son of Maigret's creator Georges Simenon, and crime writer Natasha Cooper discuss the French detective's enduring appeal.

It's the musical that brought us Luck Be A Lady and Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat. David Benedict reviews Guys and Dolls, starring Sophie Thompson and David Haig, as the acclaimed Chichester Festival production opens in the West End before embarking on a UK tour.

In Hong Kong the whereabouts of five missing booksellers remains a mystery, although they are widely suspected to have been detained by the Chinese authorities. As one major bookshop chain stops selling politically sensitive books in Chinese, Professor Gregory Lee, a specialist in Chinese cultural and literary studies, assesses the implications.

Frances Hardinge, winner of the Costa Children's Book Award with The Lie Tree, discusses her tale of murder and deception set in Victorian England.


THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tvgnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Report (b06tvm79)
Afghanistan: Time for Truth?

In 2014 the prime minister said that Afghan security forces were now ready to take over from NATO to secure Afghanistan. Yet 2015 was the most violent in the 14 year conflict with record numbers of civilian and Afghan security force casualties. With the official end of NATO led combat operations, the Taliban have resorted to a new tactic of mass attacks. A US Department of Defence report acknowledges that despite being less well armed or trained, the Taliban have outmanoeuvred the Afghan security forces, recapturing several districts in Helmand province once held by the British and Americans at such a high cost in blood and treasure. The Taliban even captured the country's fifth largest city, Kunduz, for a while last autumn. Meanwhile Al Qaeda re-established training camps, and ISIS now has a foothold in the country. Denying Afghanistan to jihadists targeting the West has always been the bottom line justification for expending so much blood and treasure. In The Report this week John Ware asks if Mr Cameron spoke too soon, and poses this question to Western leaders: are they still up for the wars of 9/11?

Reporter: John Ware
Producer: Tim Mansel
Researcher: Holly Topham.


THU 20:30 In Business (b06tvm7c)
The Business of Trust

The revelation that Volkswagen cheated emissions tests is the latest in a line of scandals that have dented the public's faith in business since 2008's financial crisis.

It was seen as a betrayal of trust. But just what is trust and how important is it in business? And, once it has been lost, can it ever be won back?

The editor of Management Today, Matthew Gwyther, interviews Rupert Stadler, the chairman of Audi - which is part of the VW group.

He also speaks to the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, Charlie Mayfield, and former chief of Severn Trent Water and Jaguar, Sir John Egan.

The former EMEA head of public relations firm Edelman, Robert Phillips, explores PR's influence on trust and Nobel Prize winning economist and author Professor Robert Shiller gives his thoughts.

Amid all the negativity about business, Rachel Botsman - who is an expert on the collaborative economy - offers some hope.

Producer: Keith Moore.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b06tvm70)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 Behaving Ourselves: Mitchell on Manners (b06tvgnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b06vrs2r)
Yemen's Forgotten War

Rare report from Yemen's second city; Are we still "Je Suis Charlie" ? ; Big Yin's tour

(photo shows fighters in Taiz loyal to Yemen's government. credit - REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub).


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06tvm7g)
The Beach

Episode 4

Our first Book of Bedtime of 2016 celebrates twenty years since the publication of Alex Garland's cult novel, The Beach. Joe Dempsie reads this thrilling tale of paradise sought and lost.

Jaded young backpacker Richard is in Thailand looking for a place unspoilt by tourism. An encounter with a dead man leaves him with a map for 'the beach', a select traveller community cut off from the degradations of vacationing westerners. He joins the commune, but his breadcrumb trail, fantasies of Vietnam War films, and very real armed drug guards risks turning Eden into hell on earth.

'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Heart of Darkness' among the beautiful, young drop-outs, dreamers and drug-takers of the mid-1990s.

Abridged by ..... Sara Davies

Produced by ..... Jenny Thompson

Read by ..... Joe Dempsie

Music: Narayan by ..... The Prodigy.


THU 23:00 Mark Thomas: The Manifesto (b01bm0pr)
Series 4

Episode 1

Comedian-activist Mark Thomas and his studio audience consider policy proposals for a People's Manifesto.
This week's agenda:

1) Excluding Non-Doms from free access to the NHS
2) Every citizen to be given £10,000 in quantitative easing vouchers, to be spent in the next 6 months
And
3) Proportional voting rights for MPs based on the size of their majorities

"Any Other Business" policies are also taken from the studio audience throughout the show.

Written and presented by Mark Thomas
Produced by Colin Anderson.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b06tvm7l)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster where MPs argue over energy bills, the response to recent floods and the Government's decision to speed up the equalisation of the pension age.



FRIDAY 08 JANUARY 2016

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b06tl8g5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b06vj05s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b06tl8g7)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b06tl8g9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b06tl8gc)
The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b06tl8gf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b06vb42q)
Spiritual reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Neil Gardner of Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b06tvswc)
Oxford Real Farming Conference

Anna Hill reports from the Oxford Real Farming Conference, set up seven years ago as an alternative to the more conventional Oxford Farming Conference. Here the talk is of sustainability and farming with a light touch on the environment.
We speak to delegates at both events and find out what they think will be the biggest issues in farming this year.
As the debate over a possible UK exit from the EU heats up, we hear thoughts for and against from former Conservative Environment Secretary Owen Paterson and the EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan.
And we speak to a soil expert from Natural England to understand why the bugs living in the soil play such an important part in flood management. The producer is Sally Challoner.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b04sttd3)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater

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

Chris Packham presents the wedge-tailed shearwater of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Wedge-tailed shearwaters are large sepia brown seabirds with long wings and streamlined bodies. They feed mainly on fish and squid which they scoop from the surface or catch by diving. While the parents are careering over the open seas, their solitary chick squats alone in its island burrow. The return of the adults means a welcome feast for the chick. Its reward is a mouthful of warm and waxy stomach oil, the digested remains of the adults prey. It may sound revolting to us, but this oil is rich in energy and allows the chick to grow even bigger than its parents before losing weight again prior to its first flight, which happens a few weeks after the adult birds have abandoned it to its fate.


FRI 06:00 Today (b06twjtk)
Morning news and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Yesterday in Parliament, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b06tq3th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b06vj1t0)
Young Orson

Episode 5

Orson Welles, the defining wunderkind of modern entertainment, gets his due in a new biography of his early years - including his first forays in theatre and radio before his groundbreaking move to Hollywood.

Episode 5:
Welles and Houseman agree on a Halloween Eve adaptation of The War Of The Worlds. What could possibly go wrong?

Written by Patrick McGilligan
Read by Jack Klaff
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b06vj1t4)
Mhairi Black, Safe drinking, Amy Jackson, Shepherdess

When the new flat rate state pension starts in April 2016, thousands of women born in the 1950s won't be able to access the full amount. Mhairi Black, the youngest MP in 350 years has led a House of Commons backbench debate on the issue and joins Jenni to discuss her concerns.

There's no safe level of alcohol if you're pregnant according to new guidelines on drinking from Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies. Dr Sally Marlow, researcher in Addictions at King's College London and Linda Geddes, freelance science and medical journalist discuss the evidence and whether women will follow the advice.

Amy Jackson is Bollywood's unlikely superstar. Spotted aged sixteen, she's starred in a number of Indian films - but Amy is white and from Liverpool. She joins Jenni to discuss her remarkable career.

At the age of 23, Emma Gray broke up with her fiance and set off with her three dogs to become a sheep farmer in Northumberland. Reporter Sarah Falkingham went to meet her.

Presenter: Jenni Murray.


FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tvswh)
Toni Morrison - Beloved

Episode 5

By Toni Morrison
Adapted by Patricia Cumper

Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel about a haunted house in the era that followed the abolition of slavery in the United States is adapted for radio for the first time. Toni Morrison's masterpiece melds horror and poetry as it tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio river, but who, eighteen years later, is still not free.

A young woman calling herself Beloved has arrived and stayed at One Twenty-Four Bluestone Road, and her hold, on each of its residents, has strengthened day by day.

Original music by Jon Nicholls
Sound design by Caleb Knightley

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


FRI 11:00 The Best Exotic Etiquette Academy (b06tvswr)
Author, broadcaster and etiquette coach William Hanson explores why there's such a demand for British politesse around the world.

We join William at the Wasan Knowledge Hub in Mumbai where he teaches classes in business protocol and social etiquette. William asks Ekta Wasan why she set up the academy two years ago, and students explain why they have a desire to learn these very British skills.

William also speaks to Nisha JamVwal, a well known socialite and author who is married to a member of the Indian royal family. Yet, even with classes about tiaras and table manners, Nisha admits that few members of the Indian upper classes would enrol in such classes, and challenges the needs for British traditions in an age where the country is truly embracing its own cultural identity.

Then to Shanghai, another city where William's knowledge is craved. Three years ago, Chinese men and women had no idea what etiquette training was. So why the sudden demand?

Angelina Du talks openly about why she launched her exotic etiquette academy and we explore how the growth of high end goods has turned classes in British manners into a luxury commodity.

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 11:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (b06tvswt)
Series 2

Episode 2

Geoff is feeling threatened by the perfection of life in Sweden. Then an ex of Linda's shows up. How can he cope with the perfect Swedish man?

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
Johan ...... Andre Wickstrom
Ian ...... Danny Robins
Soran ...... Farshad Kohlgi
Female Steward ...... Shanthi Rydwall
Ice Hockey Announcer ...... Fredrik Andersson

Writer: Danny Robins
Additional Material by Ben Kersley

Director: Frank Stirling

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


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b06tl8gh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Home Front (b06kvfmm)
8 January 1916 - Ruth Billings

This day marked the ending of the Dardanelles campaign, as the last troops evacuated Gallipoli, and finds Ruth Billings cold and hungry, and unsure how to survive.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes

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?


FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b06tvswy)
Doorstep selling, Smart meters, Alcohol limits

The first new alcohol guidelines in 20 years have been published. We ask what real people make of them, do they make people think twice about drinking and how we relate to official health guidance in general.

An energy industry insider has written to the Environment Minister to say the £11 billion smart meter project is in "a mess". Smart meters are supposed to help us monitor our gas and electricity bills and so lower our bills. We ask Alex Henny who used to be a director of London Electricity and is a former government advisor why he thinks they're a waste of money and ask a representative of the smart meter manufacturing industry to respond.

We investigate a furniture company that was found guilty of aggressive sales tactics in a case taken by trading standards in Suffolk but seems to have gone on to do the same thing in another part of the country.

And the white goods delivery company that began with a one pound bet in the pub but went on to be valued at more than a billion on the stock market.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b06tvyxs)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b06tvsx0)
Analysis of news and current affairs, presented by Mark Mardell.


FRI 13:45 Etiquette Guide (b06vj1tb)
Modern Manners

The mark of a civilised country is to know what it is to be civil. But what if you don't know? Across the ages, social commentators have written guide books to tell the uninitiated how to do the right thing at the right time in the right way.

And it's not just snobs that have published guides - the great Renaissance theologian Erasmus took time out from arguing with Luther to instruct children how to behave in company.

Nor is it yet another invention of Victorian England. Five thousand years ago, Ptah-Hotep set down on papyrus the rules of behaviour that all wise men should convey to their sons.

Episode 5: Modern Manners
The making of manners in cyberspace. How to respond to emails without causing offence, and what is acceptable on social media. In the world of "netiquette", we don't have facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to help, so rules need to be applied.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b06tvm74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b03mtfrl)
Enid Bagnold - National Velvet

Episode 2

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.

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 (b06tvwtz)
Monmouthshire

Eric Robson hosts the horticultural panel programme from Monmouthshire in Wales. Pippa Greenwood, Matthew Wilson, and Christine Walkden answer the questions from the audience.

This week the panel discuss what to do about moss in flowerbeds, how to deter animals from attacking your strawberries, and whether to plant wild garlic or Lily of the Valley in a shady bed.

Also, Matthew Wilson takes a tour round one of Monmouthshire's most successful vineyards.

Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:45 Shorts (b06tvwv1)
The Time Being

How To Conduct a Rishta Meeting by Nafisa Muhtadi

Season 8 of the showcase for previously un-broadcast writers.

A woman shares her considerable experience of Rishta meetings, having by now met one or two potential husbands too many.

Sohm Kapila reads Nafisa Muhtadi's short story.

Nafisa Muhtadi is a writer based in the Black Country. She is part of the current cohort of Writing West Midlands’ Room 204 Writers Development Scheme. She graduated with a Masters in Creative Writing (Distinction) at Birmingham City University.

Producer: Jeremy Osborne

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


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b06vb42x)
Robert Stigwood, Patricia Torrens, Pierre Boulez, Lord Ezra, Natalie Cole

Matthew Bannister on

Robert Stigwood, the impresario who managed Eric Clapton and The Bee Gees, produced Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita and the movies Saturday Night Fever and Grease.

Patricia Torrens the first adviser on diet to the Department of Health.

Pierre Boulez, the avant garde French composer and conductor who pioneered serialism and the use of electronics.

Lord Ezra who was chairman of the National Coal Board in the 1970s.

And Natalie Cole, the acclaimed singer who battled drug addiction and sang a posthumous duet with her father Nat King Cole.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (b06wbghr)
Flood Defence Spending

Tim Harford and the team take a look at some of the numbers in the news about flooding. What is a one hundred year flood? And is there really a north-south divide in the amount of money spent on flood defences in England?

What is the total number of possible tweets that could be created from 140 characters? In a recent programme Professor John Allen-Paulos told us that when you take into account all of the symbols available, the total number of possible tweets is Googol2.8 (which is a 1 followed by 280 zeros.) But has he missed some options?

One of our listener's questions whether Christmas Eve is really the busiest day on the roads. We take a look at the figures.

Plus - which is the bigger number? The total number of Storm Trooper toys ever made, or the number of real life soldiers serving in armies around the world?


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b06d9t3l)
Sophie and Monica - Leaving a Legacy

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between friends who have reached their 40s without having children, about how the outside world judges them. Recorded when the Booth was in Moseley Park in Birmingham, 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 (b06vyddj)
News interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b06tl8gk)
R4 1800 08/01/2016

The private security company, G4S, has suspended seven members of staff from a secure facility for young offenders in Kent, after the BBC secretly filmed evidence of abuse.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b06tvwv5)
Series 89

Episode 1

Series 89 of the satirical panel show. Miles Jupp is back in the chair, trying to keep order as an esteemed panel of guests take on the big (and not so big) news events of the week. For this, the first episode of the new series, Miles is joined by Francis Wheen, Susan Calman, Nish Kumar and Zoe Lyons.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Radio Comedy Production.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b06tvwv9)
Eddie and Ed are up in the middle of the night to attend to some business - Clarrie just hopes it's legal. Eddie collects some pigs and Clarrie feels bad for momentarily thinking he has stolen them from Bridge Farm. Eddie's keen to have cattle one day - Clarrie tells him to dream on.
Brian's keen to knock heads with Adam and come up with strategies for managing the Estate contract. Jennifer's a bit down, reflecting on her own life as she thinks of Phoebe's Oxford success. Brian offers his support, pointing out that Jennifer certainly hasn't waster her time.
David has thoroughly analysed the figures and agrees with Ruth that her grass-based farming plan is the way to go. Ruth can see that David is finally convinced, as he has already set things in motion with Alistair. David wants to leave Brookfield as a going concern to Pip and John - and maybe Ben too. After a horrible year they both feel so blessed. David admits he worried that Ruth wasn't going to come back from New Zealand. But they do love each other. As they reaffirm this, Ruth challenges David to a race up to the top of Lakey Hill.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b06vb42z)
Emma Donoghue on Room, Grey Gardens, Andrew Michael Hurley, Occupied

Emma Donoghue talks to Kirsty Lang about adapting her best-selling novel Room into a BAFTA nominated film, starring Brie Larson as a woman trapped in a shed with her child.

Matt Wolf reviews the European premiere of Grey Gardens, a musical based on the influential 1975 documentary of the same name, a riveting fly-on-the-wall account of an ageing mother and daughter living and together in squalor in a Long Island mansion.

Andrew Michael Hurley, winner of the Costa First Novel award for The Loney, discusses his unsettling tale set in 1976 on a wild section of the North West coast.

Diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall reviews Occupied, a new Norwegian drama series that imagines Russia has invaded Norway.

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Timothy Prosser.


FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b06tvswh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b06tvwvc)
Heidi Alexander MP, Jeremy Banx, Penny Mordaunt MP, Fraser Nelson

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from St Mary's Church, Caterham in Surrey with the Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander MP, Financial Times cartoonist Jeremy Banx, Armed Forces Minister Penny Mordaunt MP, and the Editor of the Spectator magazine Fraser Nelson.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b06tvwvg)
Peerless

Tom Shakespeare argues the House of Lords should be completely reformed and turned into a Senate of 300 members (down from over 800). He suggests they should consist of 100 politicians, selected in proportion to parties' showing in the previous general election, 100 cross-benchers, chosen for their expertise, and 100 members of the public, selected from the electoral roll like juries.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius.


FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b06kvlgq)
4-8 January 1916

In a week when compulsory Military service became almost inevitable, the Bevan hospital becomes a welcome alternative to home for Dorothea.

Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole

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


FRI 21:58 Weather (b06tl8gp)
The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b06w29qd)
Saudi considers sale of state oil firm

Who will invest in Saudi oil; will new alcohol guidelines actually change our behaviour; and the Syrian rock band gigging in Europe.
Picture Credit: AFP.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b06tvyxv)
The Beach

Episode 5

Our first Book of Bedtime of 2016 celebrates twenty years since the publication of Alex Garland's cult novel, The Beach. Joe Dempsie reads this thrilling tale of paradise sought and lost.

Jaded young backpacker Richard is in Thailand looking for a place unspoilt by tourism. An encounter with a dead man leaves him with a map for 'the beach', a select traveller community cut off from the degradations of vacationing westerners. He joins the commune, but his breadcrumb trail, fantasies of Vietnam War films, and very real armed drug guards risks turning Eden into hell on earth.

'Lord of the Flies' meets 'Heart of Darkness' among the beautiful, young drop-outs, dreamers and drug-takers of the mid-1990s.

Abridged by ..... Sara Davies

Produced by ..... Jenny Thompson

Read by ..... Joe Dempsie

Music ..... Narayan by The Prodigy.


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b06ts10b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b06tvyxx)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b06d8h0l)
Alex and Josh – First Time Fathers

Fi Glover with a conversation between old school friends who are now facing fatherhood for the first time and share their hopes and fears, recorded in the Booth at the Hay Festival, 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