SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2016
SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b07rkjfh)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b07tc375)
Beryl Bainbridge - Love by All Sorts of Means, Episode 5
A biography of the novelist who denied that she ever wrote fiction, maintaining that her books were based on her experiences. "What is more peculiar, more riveting, devious and horrific than real life?" she said.
But while her own life was the primary source for her books, she was never afraid of adding a little colour.
Episode 5: An accidental meeting sets Beryl on the path to success.
The author Brendan King is a freelance translator, editor and reviewer, with a special interest in late nineteenth century French literature. He completed his PhD on Joris-Karl Huysmans' life and work at Birkbeck College, London, in 2004.
Between 1987 and 2010, King worked for Beryl Bainbridge, and helped prepare a number of the novels she wrote during this period for publication, including the book she was working on at the time of her death, The Girl in the Polka-dot Dress, which was published posthumously.
Readers:
Narrator....................James Fleet
Beryl Bainbridge........Samantha Bond
Author: Brendan King
Abridger: Pete Nichols
Producer: Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07rkjfk)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07rkjfm)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07rkjfp)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b07rkjfr)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07tc582)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
SAT 05:45 iPM (b07tc584)
The programme that starts with its listeners.
SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b07rkjft)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SAT 06:04 Weather (b07rkjfw)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 06:07 Open Country (b07tc1rh)
Bellaghy - Seamus Heaney's Homeplace
Seamus Heaney grew up in Bellaghy in Northern Ireland and his poetry features many of the people who lived there and the views he saw there. Helen Mark visits Bellaghy to discover the real places which inspired so many well loved words and meets the people who live there to find out what Heaney's work means to them.
SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b07rkjfy)
Farming Today This Week: Seaweed
Charlotte Smith visits a marine lab at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland to explore the UK's growing seaweed industry. According to the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science - or Cefas - global production doubled between 2000 and 2014 to more than 28 million tonnes a year - worth about $6 billion.
In the UK most companies are small-scale, harvesting and drying by hand. But with growing demand comes growing pressure to cultivate more seaweed in a sustainable way. We ask what regulations should be put in place to make sure this happens; find out how larger-scale harvesting is carried out; and learn about some of the different species of this versatile crop.
Produced in Bristol by Sally Challoner.
SAT 06:57 Weather (b07rkjg0)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 07:00 Today (b07tq8cb)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b07rkjg2)
Damon Hill and Cerys Matthews
Cerys Matthews, Damon Hill, Meik Wiking and Benny Lewis join Aasmah and Richard for Saturday Live.
He became Formula One World Champion in 1996, following in the footsteps of his father, the legendary F1 champion Graham Hill who tragically died in a plane crash when Damon was 15 years old. Now a SKYF1 racing commentator, Damon will be telling us how he ended up behind the wheel himself.
Cerys Mathew came to our attention singing about Road Rage and Mulder and Scully with her band Catatonia, she's sung with legends like Tom Jones, the Pet Shop Boys and the Manic Street Preachers, now she presents a show on BBC 6Music and has started her very own Festival.
Benny Lewis spoke only English until the age of 21, now he speaks 11 and runs the largest language learning blog in the world. He joins us to tell his story.
Denmark is often ranks the happiest country in the world. Could their passion for hygge be behind it? We talk to happiness and hygge expert, Meik Wiking.
We have your thank you's and the inheritance tracks of opera star Joseph Calleja who chooses I'll never love you performed by Mario Lanza and his own version of A Vuchella.
Watching the Wheels by Damon Hill is out now
The Little book of Hygge by Meik Wiking is out 14th September
Benny Lewis' Language Hacking series includes French, Spanish, Italian and German
Cerys' festival The Good Life experience takes place 16-18 September 2016 in Flintshire
Producer: Corinna Jones
Editor: Karen Dalziel.
SAT 10:30 The Muhammadan Bean: The Secret History of Islam and Coffee (b07tq8cd)
Journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik has always been captivated by coffee. Recently he uncovered a little known story about its Islamic roots and how this delicious brew came to change the world.
He had to know more.
In this programme, Abdul leads us on a journey to Turkey as he investigates the forgotten history of his beloved beverage. He discovers that coffee was popularised by Sufi mystics in the Yemen who used the drink as a way of energising themselves during their nocturnal devotions.
Abdul discovers that coffee was drunk in the Sacred Mosque of Mecca itself, until the religious authorities issued a fatwa against it in the 16th century.
With no pubs and inns in sight, coffeehouses would bring about a social revolution within the Islamic world. They were the very first spaces where people of all social classes could come together to discuss news and gossip. Consequently, the drink was persecuted by those in authority.
Back in London, Abdul scours the city backstreets, coming upon the site of London's very first coffee house. He hears how coffee took the capital by storm, leading to a backlash from those who despised the drink they labelled an "abominable, heathenish liquid" and a "bitter Muhammedan gruel".
Originating in Ethiopia, finding its spiritual home in the Yemen, evading zealots and Sultans from Mecca to Constantinople, defying prejudice from Vienna to London - coffee made its mark wherever it went, facilitating radical new forms of social exchange. This programme is a celebration of a drink Abdul describes as "a universal libation, a liquid Esperanto."
Presenter: Abdul-Rehman Malik
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster (b07tq8cg)
Isabel Hardman of the Spectator looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
The Editor is Marie Jessel.
SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b07rkjg4)
Kate Adie introduces dispatches from writers and correspondents around the world. This week: Yolande Knell reports on the boom in civil marriages on Cyprus - for couples from Lebanon and Israel; Roger Hearing reveals what happened when he fell foul of the Russian authorities at the border with North Korea; Jannat Jalil speaks to townspeople in Calais about the impact of the continuing crisis at the so-called Jungle migrant camp; Monica Whitlock considers how lasting Islam Karimov's influence will be in Uzbekistan; and Nick Thorpe assesses what the Turkish and Hungarian celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the Battle of Szigetvar say about relations between the two countries.
SAT 12:00 News Summary (b07rkjg7)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 12:04 Money Box (b07tq8cj)
Beswitched, bothered and bewildered
Exclusive analysis has been given to Money Box that shows the benefits of switching supplier or tariff only exist if you commit to doing it every twelve months. Energy companies automatically put customers onto their Standard Variable Tariff when their deals expire which by definition is their most expensive. The research found that the "Big Six" tend to have the largest gaps between the one year deals and the standard tariffs.
A record 300,000 people sought help from debt charity StepChange in the first half of this year. Between them they owe £2.4 billion. The charity says the trend is for the people in difficulty to be younger and to be tenants. The figures were published shortly after the Bank of England reported that personal borrowing on credit cards, loans, and other unsecured debt had grown ten per cent in a year. Is debt getting out control?
A BBC undercover investigation has found that organised crime gangs are using student accounts to launder money from robberies and drug deals. You can see the report of the full investigation on Inside Out on BBC 1 on Monday at
7.30pm in the London Region or watch on BBC iPlayer.
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Alex Lewis
Editor: Andrew Smith.
SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b07tc527)
Series 91, Episode 1
Jeremy Hardy, Lucy Porter, Andy Hamilton and Kerry Godliman join Chairman Miles Jupp, for the first in a new series of the long-running satirical quiz of the week's news.
Producer: Paul Sheehan.
A BBC Studios Production.
SAT 12:57 Weather (b07rkjgb)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 13:00 News (b07rkjgd)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b07tc52c)
Dan Jarvis MP, Peter Lilley MP, Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Steven Woolfe MEP
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Shuttleworth College in Padiham, Lancashire, with Labour MP Dan Jarvis, Editor in Chief of the online news site "The Canary" Kerry-Anne Mendoza, former cabinet minister Peter Lilley MP and UKIP's Migration and Financial Affairs Spokesman Steven Woolfe MEP.
SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b07rkjgg)
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
SAT 14:30 Drama (b07tq923)
True West
Sam Shepard's examination of the relationship and rivalry between two brothers - Austin, a screenwriter, and his older, estranged brother, Lee. Starring the Glenister brothers.
The drama is set in the kitchen of their mother's home, 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Austin is house-sitting while their mother is in Alaska, and is confronted there by his brother, who decides to pay a visit. Lee manages to bully his way into the house and to borrow his brother's car. The screenplay Austin is writing and about to pitch to a Hollywood producer somehow gets taken over by the pushy con-man tactics of Lee and the brothers have no choice but to co-operate in the writing of a story that will make or break both their lives. In the process, the sibling rivalry comes to a head and their roles as successful family man and nomadic drifter are somehow reversed as each man finds himself admitting that he had somehow always wished he were in the other's shoes.
Robert Glenister and Philip Glenister come together professionally for the first time in their careers and the result is an incredibly powerful and poignant listen.
Adapted for Radio by John Peacock
Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b07rkjgj)
Nicola Adams, Amy Schumer, Eating disorders and university
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.
SAT 17:00 PM (b07rkjgl)
Saturday PM
Full coverage of the day's news.
SAT 17:30 iPM (b07tc584)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:45 today]
SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b07rkjh1)
The latest shipping forecast.
SAT 17:57 Weather (b07rkjh3)
The latest weather forecast.
SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07rkjh5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b07rkjh7)
Clive Anderson, Sara Cox, Sally Phillips, Andy Hamilton, Lemn Sissay, Kully Thiarai, King Creosote, Imarhan
Clive Anderson and Sara Cox are joined by Sally Phillips, Andy Hamilton, Lemn Sissay and Kully Thiarai for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from King Creosote and Imarhan.
Producer: Sukey Firth.
SAT 19:00 Profile (b07tq925)
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, and the co-founder of Paypal. He plans to colonise Mars. Last week that dream might have been scuppered as his SpaceX rocket exploded on the Launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This is the first time a rocket has exploded at launch since 1960. It was carrying a satellite Facebook wanted to use to provide internet access to Africa. While investigations continue into what caused last week's explosion, this week Mark Coles explores the life of the man who also wants to make the travel time from London to Manchester 18 minutes and to counter global warming.
Producers: Charlotte Pritchard and Phoebe Keane.
SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b07rkjh9)
V+A Revolution, Hell or High Water, Jonathan Safran Foer, Inn At Lydda, BBC TV comedy pilots
Jeff Bridges stars as a Texas Ranger on the hunt for a couple of bank robber brothers in a modern day western Hell or High Water
Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am combines a domestic breakdown with an international world-shattering incident.
London's V+A Museum's new exhibition You Say You Want A Revolution looks at global changes between 1966 -1970 when the world seemed to be be in a state of political upheaval
The Globe Theatre's new production, The Inn At Lydda is an imagining of Tiberius Caesar's journey to meet Jesus. But he arrives just after the crucifixion
The BBC is celebrating 60 years since Tony Hancock's TV sitcom debut with a clutch of comedy pilots - are they a continuation of a noble tradition or a pale imitation?
Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Philip Hensher, Kate Williams and Muriel Zhaga. The producer is Oliver Jones.
SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b07tqbw0)
Period Drama Politics
Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History at Nottingham University, asks whether the portrayal of class relations in period dramas - Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs and Noël Coward's play Cavalcade - had any political effect.
Steven sees striking parallels between the dramas; all three are set in the early decades of the twentieth century in wealthy households with servants; all three portray the relationship of the upper classes with their servants as essentially benevolent; all three appeared at times of national crisis (the 1930s, the 1970s and after the 2008 financial crash); and a Conservative government was voted in after each one.
Steven investigates whether there is a pattern here. Are these dramas just comforting entertainment or could they have had a subtle effect on voting habits? And how accurate is the portrayal of relations between the ruling classes and their servants?
The programme features a specially recorded interview with Downton creator Julian Fellowes, and an archive interview with the Script Editor of Upstairs Downstairs, Alfred Shaughnessy, that hasn't been broadcast before.
With archive material from Noël Coward, Sheridan Morley, Jean Marsh, Eileen Atkins, and Sir John Gielgud, and contributions from Coward's biographer Philip Hoare, Upstairs Downstairs expert Richard Marson, and Selina Todd, Professor of Modern British History at Oxford University.
SAT 21:00 Drama (b07sxttl)
New Grub Street, Episode 2
New Grub Street by George Gissing. Dramatised by Christopher Douglas.
Episode 2
Edwin Reardon's struggles as a serious novelist have created a rift between himself and his wife Amy. Meanwhile Jasper Milvain seems drawn to the bookish Marian Yule. Radio 4's Ed Reardon and Jaz Milvain are loosely based on characters from this Victorian novel. And in this satiric dramatisation George Gissing is played by Christopher Douglas.
Director/Producer Gary Brown
Free schooling, which followed the Education Act of 1807 helped to create a newly literate working class. This created a demand for popular fiction and sensational journalism. Thus a gulf opened up between 'Literature' and the mass market as embodied by writers Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain.
SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b07rkjhc)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
SAT 22:15 Unreliable Evidence (b07tbj8b)
Do we have the laws we need to tackle violence in our society? Recent crime statistics reveal a disturbing 27 per-cent increase in violent crime. Clive Anderson asks a panel of leading lawyers how changes to the law might help tackle the problem.
The programme looks at Law Commission proposals to sweep away archaic laws and introduce new categories of violent crime which would be simpler to understand and create more effective charging and sentencing options. It's also suggested that magistrates be allowed powers to jail violent offenders for longer periods.
Clive and his guests discuss particular concerns about domestic violence, exploring arguments that recent changes in the law relating to psychological abuse and coercive behaviour are inadequate and ineffective.
Outlining the Law Commission's proposals, Professor David Ormerod explains that they are designed to sweep away outdated, incoherent and ineffective laws and achieve quicker, better and cheaper justice.
Barrister and academic Susan Edwards says it may be difficult to produce the necessary evidence to achieve convictions in domestic violence cases involving coercive behaviour. And she complains that the Law Commission has not attempted to improve the law relating to strangulation, a common element of domestic violence.
Magistrates Association chairman Malcolm Richards agrees that allegations of coercive behaviour may be difficult to prove in court and says he and his colleagues are waiting for guidance on how to deal with such cases.
Francis FitzGibbon QC, the new chair of the Criminal Bar Association, doubts the Law Commission proposals will make much difference and argues strongly that magistrates sentencing powers should not be increased.
Producer: Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.
SAT 23:00 Counterpoint (b07sy5y6)
Series 30, Semi-Final 3, 2016
(12/13)
Elgar, Monteverdi, the Eagles and the music of 1970s science fiction shows are among the topics the competitors are required to know something about in the last of this year's semi-finals.
Paul Gambaccini asks the questions, in the contest which will decide which of the 2016 heat winners will take the one remaining place in the grand Final next week. Every point counts - and, as always, part of the challenge will be to select a musical 'specialist subject' from a list of five, of which the competitors have had no prior warning.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
SAT 23:30 Poetry Please (b07sxttq)
Thomas Gray
Roger McGough marks 300 years since the birth of the influential poet Thomas Gray, author of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, with a visit to the graveyard itself, in Stoke Poges. With readers Mark Meadows and Katie Sobey. Producer Sally Heaven.
SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2016
SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqpp3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
SUN 00:30 Skylines (b0460zmx)
Theory of Flight
A series inviting writers to lift their gaze to the horizon - the point where our everyday worlds intersect with the sky.
In Suzanne Joinson's story, a senior government official makes a long distance trip, but reads a life changing letter in mid-air.
Read by: Zoe Waites
Produced and directed by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpp5)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqpp7)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at
5.20am.
SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpp9)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqppc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b07tqs75)
St Paul's Cathedral
This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The present ring of 12, cast in 1878, is one of the heaviest in the country, with the tenor weighing 62 hundredweight. We hear them ringing now Stedman Cinques.
SUN 05:45 Profile (b07tq925)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b07tqppf)
The latest national and international news.
SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b07tqs7b)
Poetic Rituals
The commute to work, the weekly supermarket shop, brushing our teeth before bed. The routine and rituals of our everyday lives can often feel like dull repetition. But what if we could find a path to transcendence through these everyday acts?
Academic Dr Sarah Goldingay searches for what the liturgical reformer Rabbi Chaim Stern called the ritual poetry of our lives. Through this ritual poetry it's possible, Sarah says, to experience a noetic moment - those profound instances when we experience the presence of the divine.
With the help of a diverse pool of writers and thinkers, Sarah argues that simple everyday routines can become powerfully spiritual - even making breakfast, as demonstrated in Sara Maitland's ecstatic experience when devouring her morning porridge. Through the writings of the Buddhist scholar DT Suzuki, Sarah discovers that simply sipping a cup of tea can also be a powerful zen moment.
The act of singing can transform everyday rituals into moments of transcendent beauty. Sarah samples the singing of Scottish herring girls and the haunting rhythms of a Mississippi prison gang, united in song as their pickaxes fall as one.
We might think that powerful spiritual experiences can only be experienced by the specially initiated. This programme suggests that perhaps, by noticing ourselves and the poetic potential of our own everyday rituals, the transcendent might just be closer than we think.
Presenter: Sarah Goldingay
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 06:35 The Living World (b07tqs7g)
Catching Crabs
Chris Packham relives programmes from The Living World archives.
What better way could there be to bring the wildlife to the attention of the next generation than to spend a leisurely hour or two down by the seaside, bucket and net in hand searching under rocks for a crab or two.
In this programme from 1999 Lionel Kelleway does just this and heads to Scotland to join naturalist Stephen Wiseman as they steal a few golden hours at low tide at the exposed rock pools of Culzean Country Park. It's a warm summer's day and Lionel finds himself wading into the shallow waters of a large rock pool while Stephen begins to search for crabs and reflect how rockpooling remains as popular as ever. An activity that is sure to reconnect people to their their natural environment.
Producer Andrew Dawes.
SUN 06:57 Weather (b07tqppp)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b07tqppr)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 07:10 Sunday (b07tqppt)
Ability Sunday, LGBT chaplaincy, Icelandic elves
Religious and ethical news.
SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b07tqs7l)
Child Bereavement UK
Katherine Woods, a mother whose family has been helped by the charity Child Bereavement UK makes the Radio 4 Appeal on their behalf.
Registered Charity No 1040419
To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That's the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope 'Child Bereavement UK'
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Child Bereavement UK'.
SUN 07:57 Weather (b07tqppw)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b07tqppy)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b07tqs7n)
The Power of Peace
Fifteen years have passed since the devastating terrorist attacks launched on the United States on 11th September 2001. Across that time, we've seen horrific acts of violence inflicted on innocent men, women and children, events which have touched the hearts of people throughout the world as extremism and radicalisation have fuelled the destruction of human life.
To many, the situation seems entirely hopeless but a new initiative aims to offer an answer to some of the most difficult situations. Preacher, the Revd. Steve Chalke, argues that living a life of engaged and active peace making is the most radical response to violence and suffering. Members of the church congregation and wider community, including students from Oasis Academies Johanna and South bank participate in the service, sharing stories of active peacemaking in their own lives.
Music led by musicians from the congregation of Oasis Church Waterloo, alongside members of Oasis Waterloo Community Choir and students of the school choirs.
Producer: Katharine Longworth.
SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b07tmqpj)
My Idea of Heaven
John Gray muses on what his idea of heaven is....and why it shouldn't be a perfect world.
History teaches us that trying to create a perfect society leads to hell on earth, he writes.
"But dreams of a perfect world don't fail because human beings are incurably flawed. They fail because human beings are more complicated and interesting that their dreams of perfection".
SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b0378xcd)
Icterine Warbler
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Michaela Strachan presents the icterine warbler. Icterine Warblers are fluent mimics and include phrases of other species in their song. Their name, icterine, is derived from ikteros, the ancient Greek word for jaundice and describes the bird's spring plumage...yellowish beneath and olive brown on top.
SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b07tqpq0)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b07tqpq2)
Anna is asking questions, Pat is determined to show her support.
SUN 11:15 The Reunion (b07tqtbs)
Contaminated Blood
Sue MacGregor meets haemophiliacs and others affected by the contaminated blood disaster.
It is often referred to as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS - throughout the 1970s and 80s thousands of British haemophiliacs were given NHS treatment that, while easing their bleeding symptoms, ended up infecting them with potentially deadly viruses. Nearly 5000 contracted Hepatitis C and 1200 of those also contracted HIV. Many hundreds have died.
Haemophilia is a bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency of one of the proteins essential for the normal clotting of blood. A new treatment containing concentrated amounts of these clotting factors transformed life for haemophiliacs and their families in the 1970s. But the treatment was pooled from multiple blood donations, and it only took one infected donation to contaminate the whole supply.
Britain's blood processing plants couldn't produce enough Factor Concentrate to satisfy demand so commercial supplies were imported from the United States, where the risk of infection was even higher. American donors were paid for their blood, attracting large numbers of higher risk donors - alcoholics, drug addicts and homeless people - who were more likely to be suffering from viruses and less likely to risk their fee by admitting it. This was the era when AIDS was just emerging, and little was known about how it was spread.
Sue MacGregor's guests include David Watters, who ran the Haemophilia Society at the time and was inundated with calls from terrified families; Colette Wintel who was infected with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; Dr Peter Jones who ran the Newcastle Haemophilia Centre; Janette Johnson, whose son Graham contracted AIDS and died aged 15; and "John", who contracted AIDS and Hepatitis C as a teenager.
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:00 News Summary (b07tqpq4)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 12:04 Just a Minute (b07sy5yd)
Series 76, Episode 5
Nicholas Parsons and guests return for the 76th series of the panel show where participants must try to speak for 60 seconds without hesitation, deviation or repetition. No repetition? That's no small order after nearly 50 years.
Paul Merton, now the second most prolific player of the game after Kenneth Williams, will be joined by guests including series regulars Josie Lawrence, Sheila Hancock, Marcus Brigstocke and Gyles Brandreth.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Matt Stronge.
SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b07tqtbv)
Cooking for Poldark
As the much-anticipated new series of Poldark returns to our screens, most eyes will be on Aidan Turner but behind the scenes a raft of experts has worked to ensure each setting is as accurate to the time as possible - including the food. The Food Programme was given special access on set to see the effort that goes into recreating the fantastic feasts that marked so many social functions in the Georgian era and were a marker of class and wealth.
Food Stylist Genevieve Taylor is used to creating wonderful images of food for cookery books and adverts but in her first period drama she faced a new set of challenges - researching the typical foods available at the time and how they were served, how to recreate them, which 'cheats' to use all before transporting the food to set intact, dressing the scene and preventing the crew from stealing the goodies.
She invites us into her kitchen and to the secret set locations for an insight into the detailed effort made - but it's not easy. From sourcing obscure fruits, to whipping up dishes under a gazebo, balancing tiered cakes on wobbly dishes to turning out jellies in front of a whole crew - can she impress Ross Poldark, the Directors and the audience?
Presented by Genevieve Taylor and Sheila Dillon
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
SUN 12:57 Weather (b07tqpq8)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b07tqpqb)
Global news and analysis.
SUN 13:30 The Online Identity Crisis (b07tqvvp)
Our identity is no longer restricted to a passport or National Insurance number. The average adult in Britain spends one day a week online and a large part of this time will be on Google, Facebook, Twitter, or shopping sites. As a result, whether we are aware of it or not, each of us also has a distinct online identity.
This digital persona allows strangers to piece together more about us than we might think. Every minute of every day, online data is being collected, curated and exploited to categorise, sell and even pigeonhole our identity.
Technology and the rise of big data allows outsiders to infer religious and political affiliations simply by examining our social networks. Facial recognition software can put names to complete strangers. If pictured outside a mosque or a synagogue, a club or a school, or leaving a hospice or an STD clinic, assumptions will be made about what kind of person we are and the lifestyle we lead. These decisions could affect our job or even the chances of finding somewhere to live.
With the distinction between our online and offline lives melting away, Financial Times' science columnist Anjana Ahuja asks if it's time to radically rethink the rules about online identity. She talks to privacy activists, computer scientists and data brokers, and hears exclusively from the lawyer who is campaigning for the introduction of a civil law to protect individuals against breaches of online identity.
Producer: Sue Nelson
A Boffin Media production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b07tc522)
Stonyhurst College
Eric Robson and the panel visit Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. Chris Beardshaw, Anne Swithinbank and Christine Walkden answer this week's horticultural queries.
Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
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 (b07tqwm9)
Tsar, Ivan the Terrible: Absolute Power
By Mike Walker
Following years of tumultuous reign, Tsar Ivan IV abruptly leaves Moscow and announces his abdication. Russia is without a Tsar and thrown into chaos, with the boyars unable to rule and in fear of an uprising. They beg Ivan to return. His condition is simple: Absolute Power. Are they right to accept? Was it ever really a choice? Mike Walker's full-blooded drama chronicles the fearsome reign of the first Tsar of All Russia.
Director: Sasha Yevtushenko
As we approach the centenary of the Russian Revolution in October 2017, Radio 4 embark on an ambitious chronicle of Russian leaders; set over 11 plays, in three seasons - beginning with Ivan the Terrible, contemporary of Elizabeth I, and ending with Russia's current Premier - Vladimir Putin. TSAR continues the full-blooded, rich 'more is more' tradition forged by the team that made Plantagenet and The Stuarts for Radio 4.
Series One takes in the reigns of Ivan IV (aka The Terrible), Boris Godunov and Peter The Great.
Series Two (Spring 2017) will chronicle the reigns of Catherine the Great; Alexander I and the Napoleonic Wars; and Alexander II and the emancipation of the serfs.
Series Three (Autumn 2017) takes in Nicholas II and the Revolution, the Soviets, and Putin.
The dramas are produced by Alison Hindell and Sasha Yevtushenko.
SUN 16:00 De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside (b07v00pm)
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. During this period he wrote one of his last great works: an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, later published as De Profundis.
Here the actor Stephen Rea (The Crying Game, Michael Collins, V for Vendetta) returns to cell C.3.3 in HM Reading Prison to perform De Profundis. The reading is preceded by a feature documentary where writer and director Neil Bartlett examines the conditions under which Wilde was writing.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to De Profundis.
And next week on Radio 4, in Letter from Inside, writers and artists from around the world read letters on the theme of imprisonment. The series is at
7:45pm from 12th to 16th September, with letter writers including Ai Weiwei, Jeanette Winterson, Anne Carson, Gillian Slovo, Joe Dunthorne, Tahmima Anam and Binyavanga Wainana.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Joby Waldman
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b07syv2c)
'High Way' to Hell
Earlier this year, the government introduced legislation banning the production, distribution, sale and supply of legal highs. Designed to stop what has been described as a tsunami of chemicals flooding into the UK, it has resulted in the closure of the high street shops which had been selling exotically named substances like Spice, Mamba and China White.
So why are they still finding their way onto the streets? File on 4 traces the supply back to labs in China and discovers a myriad of psychoactive substances are still only a few internet clicks away. Prior to the ban, the authorities were aware of the risk that internet sales could take over from the high street and that China is fast becoming the 'chemical and pharmaceutical wholesaler to the world'.
So is the new legislation really the answer, and if not, what options remain to disrupt the now illegal supply of these lethal substances?
Reporter: Danny Vincent
Producer: Nicola Dowling.
SUN 17:40 Profile (b07tq925)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpqd)
The latest shipping forecast.
SUN 17:57 Weather (b07tqpqg)
The latest weather forecast.
SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqpqj)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b07tqx26)
Liz Barclay
Liz Barclay chooses her BBC Radio highlights.
SUN 19:00 The Archers (b07tqx28)
Tony can't keep still, and Pat is full of questions.
SUN 20:00 Feedback (b07tc524)
It's the first of a new series, and one of the big stories over the summer was the Olympic Games in Rio. But are Radio 4 news bulletins the place for sports coverage - and did the BBC go too far in championing Team GB? Feedback listeners have their say, and Roger Bolton puts their thoughts to Editor of Radio 4's Six O'clock News, Dominic Ball.
The long-awaited trial of Helen for attempted murder has had many glued to The Archers this week, and the fictional village of Ambridge has featured in real life news headlines across the world. With the storyline of Rob's coercive control reaching a climax, it's both gripped and repelled listeners. We hear from two avid fans on either side of the fence.
And, as recording for the new series of Ramblings gets underway, we couldn't miss the opportunity to take a walk in the countryside with presenter Clare Balding. She's traipsed the British Isles for 17 years with producer Lucy Lunt, and Roger discovers why the simple act of walking in the fresh air with incredible scenery elicits such openness from their guests.
Producer: Kate Dixon
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
SUN 20:30 Last Word (b07tmqpg)
The Right Rev David Jenkins, Dame Margaret Anstee, Islam Karimov, Richard Neville
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
SUN 21:00 Money Box (b07tq8cj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:04 on Saturday]
SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b07tqs7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 today]
SUN 21:30 In Business (b07tc1rt)
Making Babies: The Business of Fertility
The business of making babies is booming, both in the UK and globally, as recent research suggests the world's fertility industry is set to be worth an estimated 15 billion pounds by the year 2020. One in six couples in the world are thought to experience fertility problems. There's a huge range of treatments available - from egg donation and specialist 'add ons' to improve the odds, to egg freezing and surrogacy, not to mention an increasing market for gay and lesbian couples.
In Britain, the NHS restricts and rations access to IVF, and sperm donation is heavily regulated. However in Denmark, a multi-million dollar sperm bank is supplying some 80 countries under a very different framework. Pharmacies at the supermarket chain ASDA have been selling IVF drugs at cost price, and tech giants Google and Facebook will pay the costs of freezing the eggs of female employees to be used at a later date.
Will ethical and moral issues surrounding the baby making business, hinder the growth of the fertility industry? Or will it continue unhindered, making money for private healthcare providers, individuals and tech start-ups? What does the future hold not just for those making money, but also for those IVF conceived babies and their parents?
Presenter: Matthew Gwyther
Producer: Nina Robinson.
SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b07tqpql)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
SUN 23:00 TED Radio Hour (b07s3jlt)
Series 3, Champions
A journey through fascinating ideas based on talks by riveting speakers on the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) stage.
Guy Raz investigates the idea of athletic mastery and our sense of achievement. How do people achieve extraordinary feats?
SUN 23:50 A Point of View (b07tmqpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
08:48 today]
MONDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2016
MON 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqpsk)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
MON 00:15 Yusra: Swim for Your Life (b07szbkb)
Swim For Your Life
In the second programme charting how Syrian teenager Yusra Mardini fled her homeland and was selected for the refugee team in the Rio Olympics, we hear how this young competitive swimmer was able to start training again in Berlin, and follow her as she travels to Brazil.
This is a Czech Radio/BBC Co-Production. Czech Radio reporter Magdalena Sodomková first met Yusra in Serbia last year, and has since followed her journey through Europe and accompanied her on her latest adventure in Brazil.
Producers Brit Jensen & Tom Alban.
MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b07tqs75)
[Repeat of broadcast at
05:43 on Sunday]
MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpsm)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqpsr)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpst)
The latest shipping forecast.
MON 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqpsw)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07w1bml)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
MON 05:45 Farming Today (b07tqpt2)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Fiona Clampin.
MON 05:56 Weather (b07tqpt4)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sby29)
Grey Heron
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Grey Heron. The Grey Heron makes a loud croaking sound, often standing in an ungainly way on a tree-top which it might share with many others for nesting - the heronry.
MON 06:00 Today (b07tqpt6)
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
MON 09:00 Open Book (b07tzrw9)
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer burst onto the literary scene at the age of twenty five - his first book Everything is Illuminated was playful, experimental and much praised.
Now nearing 40, he's publishing his third novel, Here I Am, which brings together two distinct strands: the story of a disintegrating marriage in Washington, played out against the backdrop of an earthquake in Israel and war in the Middle East.
In a frank and fascinating interview he talks to Mariella Frostrup about combining the two narratives in Here I Am, why he thinks of this as the least autobiographical, but most personal, of his novels, and why it took him ten years to write.
MON 09:30 Natural History Heroes (b06fnjlw)
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace is best known as the co-publisher of the theory of evolution by Natural Selection along with Charles Darwin. Yet this most famous of his achievements should not eclipse his equally important contributions to science. The 'father' of the study of evolutionary biogeography - the Wallace line is the place where the biogeography of Asia becomes distinct from Australia. Well known in his time as an explorer, collector, naturalist, geographer, anthropologist and political commentator Wallace was above all driven by a wonder and enchantment for the natural world that would be considered childlike if it weren't for the hugely important contribution he made to further our understanding of the natural world. Entomologist George Beccaloni explains why Alfred Russel Wallace is his Natural History Hero.
Produced by Ellie Sans.
MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b07tzrwc)
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carre, Episode 1
John le Carre with five recollections from his writing life, abridged by Katrin Williams:
One time at a party Denis Healey says: 'You're a communist spy, that what you are'. Plus a memorable lunch with Alec Guinness to discuss his character George Smiley.
Read by the author
Producer Duncan Minshull.
MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07tqpt8)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b07tzrwf)
Just a Girl, Episode 1
How will Amy find her new school, will Gary and Charlotte stay together and will Grandad ever find love? Second series of the drama about a transgender teenager by Mark Davies Markham.
A very ordinary family has come to terms with the less ordinary experience of Amy, who was born as Ben. Amy is nervous about starting senior school, and even more moody as teenage life and the puberty delaying hormone blockers kick in. Her parents, Gary and Charlotte, are struggling with their own relationship and Grandad Ted has his own worries.
This affectionate drama was inspired by real life experiences.
Episode 1:
Amy is adamant she needs red lipstick for her first day at senior school, Charlotte is just as adamant she doesn't. Gary is concerned about a new friend Charlotte has made at the transgender parents support group and Ted is looking for love.
Written by Mark Davies Markham
Original music and piano playing by Alfie Davies
Thanks to Susie Green and the parents at Mermaids and the Tavistock Clinic.
Producers: Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Sarah Kenny
Executive Producer: Kate McAll
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:00 The Web Sheikh and the Muslim Mums (b07tzrwh)
Shaimaa Khalil meets a group of Muslim mums to talk about the everyday fears of parents who worry that extreme interpretations of Islam may be infecting the minds of their children.
Young Muslims commonly learn about their faith from preachers in the community and online. Many preach positive values, but some drift dangerously close to fundamentalism, and beyond. These messages can be reinforced through the tangled grapevine of social media.
How much do mums know about the messages being preached to their children?
This programme brings together five Muslim mums, in a book club-style, to discuss the hate messages their children are exposed to.
They follow the story of a young man who was on the verge of becoming a Jihadi fighter. The mums listen as he talks honestly about his experience and then consider what they've heard - relating his story to the stories of their own young, impressionable children.
They also hear the story of a young woman who began practicing Islam at a young age. Even though her journey to faith was peaceful, her parents worried about where this journey may lead.
The mums learn an enormous amount from the stories of these young people. They discuss whether Imams are out of touch with young Muslims, and whether there has been a collective failure to engage in conversations about extremism. They discuss the legitimate anger many young British Muslims feel as they experience day-to-day Islamphobia and learn about the suffering of Muslims overseas.
Crucially, they discuss how parents can put these issues into context for their children.
A PRA production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 11:30 The Rest Is History (b04ws4hy)
Series 1, Episode 4
Frank Skinner loves history, but just doesn't know much of it.
The Rest Is History is a comedy discussion show which promises to help him find out more about it.
Along with his historian in residence Dr Kate Williams, each episode sees Frank joined by a selection of celebrity guests, who will help him navigate his way through the annals of time, picking out and chewing over the funniest, oddest, and most interesting moments in history.
Frank's guests in this programme are David Baddiel and Emma Kennedy.
Produced by Dan Schreiber and Justin Pollard
An Avalon production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:00 News Summary (b07tqptb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 12:04 Home Front (b07ksx3g)
12 September 1916 - Ivy Layton
On this day in 1916, the papers revealed the arrest of an agent, in Rotterdam, for recruiting spies, and in Folkestone, Ivy Layton enlists a film projectionist.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy.
MON 12:15 You and Yours (b07tqptd)
Consumer affairs programme.
MON 12:57 Weather (b07tqptg)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 13:00 World at One (b07tqptj)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
MON 13:45 Oliver Burkeman Is Busy (b07tzrwk)
The Busyness Paradox
There's a ritual of the modern workplace - one you've heard and most likely indulged in yourself. It's the call and response we go through when you ask a workmate how they're doing: "Busy!" "So busy." "mentally busy." It is pretty obviously a boast disguised as a complaint. And our simultaneously grim and half chuckled reply comes as a kind of congratulation: "Ha, better than the opposite." When did we start doing that?
As if he didn't have enough to do Oliver Burkeman explores this epidemic of busyness to reveal that it may not be what it at first seems.
Producer: Peter McManus.
MON 14:00 The Archers (b07tqx28)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
MON 15:00 Counterpoint (b07tzvdm)
Series 30, The 2016 Final
(13/13)
Paul Gambaccini hosts the grand Final of the 2016 Counterpoint tournament. The three competitors who've won both heats and semi-finals now face the final hurdle, with the winner becoming the 30th BBC Counterpoint champion. Little did the programme's originators suspect in 1986 that the quiz would still be in full swing on Radio 4 thirty years on.
The programme was recorded as a fringe event at the 2016 BBC Proms, and a lively Proms audience is on hand to enjoy the tension and to encourage this year's Finalists.
As always, the Counterpoint champion will have to display a range of knowledge that puts most of us to shame, from the core classical repertoire to film scores, world music, jazz, show tunes and the best of rock and pop music over the past fifty years.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
MON 15:30 Food Programme (b07tqtbv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
12:32 on Sunday]
MON 16:00 Graffiti: Paint and Protest (b07tzvdp)
Graffiti's modern role is evolving rapidly. From Europe to Brazil, street artists are displaying their anger about inequality, invisibility, corruption, control, poverty, and political turmoil. Powerful images and words on walls are creating international headlines.
But can breaking one law help to change another? Where should the line be drawn between democracy and vandalism, between vandalism and art?
Street art as a form of protest is nothing new, of course, but the way in which images are shared, re-posted and retweeted raises new questions about its global potential to affect change. Is the digital canvas now as vital as the physical wall?
Steve Urquhart talks to graffiti writers and street artists based thousands of miles apart. Why do they choose to risk their lives, their limbs, their freedom, to highlight their social concerns? Why do they believe it's their right - their duty - to reclaim public space? What is really being achieved, apart from saying, "I was here"?
Contributors include Blek Le Rat (the "father of stencil graffiti" from Paris), Roc Blackblock who creates massive murals on Barcelona's walls, and 'Cripta' Djan Ivson who scales São Paulo's historic buildings to cover them with stark, crude lettering known as "pixação".
Producer: Steve Urquhart
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 16:30 Beyond Belief (b07tzvdr)
Trauma
The recent terrorist atrocities in France, Belgium and Germany have resulted in many communities, families and individuals having to deal with acute stress and trauma. Trauma takes many forms. Whether it is following an act of terror, a natural disaster or the loss of a loved one to illness or an accident, the question of how a loving God can allow such things to happen is a common response to suffering. While some find comfort through faith; for others, it can make things worse. What role does religion play in times of collective and personal trauma?
Ernie Rea explores the religious response to trauma with Fr Aidan Troy, Parish priest of St Joseph's Catholic Church in Paris; Dr Elisabeth Harris, Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University; and Dr Kenneth Pargament, clinical psychologist and author of "The Psychology of Religion and Coping".
Producer: Dan Tierney
Series producer: Amanda Hancox.
MON 17:00 PM (b07tqptl)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqptn)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b07tzwhf)
Series 76, Episode 6
Nicholas Parsons and guests return for the 76th series of the panel show where participants must try to speak for 60 seconds without hesitation, deviation or repetition. No repetition? That's no small order after nearly 50 years.
This week Nicholas is joined by Paul Merton, Julian Clary, Tony Hawks and Zoe Lyons and the team tackle topics such as Brighton Rock, Enid Blyton and Julian tells us about The French Connection.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Matt Stronge.
It was a BBC Studios production.
MON 19:00 The Archers (b07tzwhh)
Kirsty supports the Bridge Farm Archers, and Rob tells Henry he loves him.
MON 19:15 Front Row (b07tqptq)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
MON 19:45 Letters from Inside (b07v016b)
Joe Dunthorne, Binyavanga Wainana, Anne Carson
Writers from around the world - Anne Carson, Joe Dunthorne and Binyavanga Wainana - read letters on the theme of imprisonment, inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis. Introduced by the novelist Gillian Slovo.
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. Wilde's imprisonment led to one of his last great works - De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas written by Wilde in his prison cell.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to Wilde's letter. Letter from Inside is part of a series of broadcasts related to Wilde's time in Reading Prison.
A new reading of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside, was broadcast on Radio 4 on 11th September at
4pm.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 20:00 Eastern Europeans in Brexitland (b07v016d)
The issue of immigration and immigrants dominated the EU referendum campaign with much of the focus on the increased numbers of Eastern Europeans in the UK following EU expansion in 2004. They are often talked about - but rarely spoken to.
Writer and journalist Gary Younge meets Eastern Europeans who live in the UK. He explores the impact of the Brexit vote on these communities and considers how the vote and their experiences fit into the history of race and migration in Britain.
In this second programme, Gary meets members of the Polish community in the North East of England.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b07tc1r9)
Torah and Tech in Israel
Can you learn to code if you've spent your life studying religious texts? Can you be part of the fast-paced, secular world of technology and startups if you're from a conservative religious community? Israel has been called the "Startup Nation", with a flourishing technology sector playing a big role in the country's economy. But one group who haven't traditionally been involved are ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim. They often live apart from mainstream Israeli society and adhere to strict religious laws covering everything from diet to dress and technology. Many men don't work or serve in the army, spending their lives studying the Torah, subsidised by the government. It's a way of life that leaves many Haredim in poverty, and other Israelis resenting picking up the tab. But in recent years, the ultra-orthodox have been increasingly joining the high-tech world, working in big international tech companies and founding their own startups. David Baker travels to Israel to meet the new breed of high tech Haredim, and find out how they reconcile taking part in the "Startup Nation" with traditional Torah life.
Produced by James Fletcher.
MON 21:00 Natural Histories (b07synwq)
Tiger
Brett Westwood sees how the tiger has burnt bright in our imagination across the globe. And measures the real creature against this beast of our imaginings. With contributions from tiger expert and writer Valmik Thapar, Dr Susan Stronge, Senior Curator, South Asia at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Chris Coggins, Professor of Geography and Asian studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, Susie Green author of Tiger (Reaktion Books) and lecturer and community arts leader Rosamund Hiles who grew up with a tiger. Producer: Tom Bonnett.
MON 21:30 Open Book (b07tzrw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
MON 21:58 Weather (b07tqpts)
The latest weather forecast.
MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b07tqptv)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07v03fc)
Anatomy of a Soldier, Episode 1
Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in Afghanistan. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bike and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in the countryside.
On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home.
We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do - shoes and combat boots, wheelchairs and wheelbarrows, a bag of fertiliser, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.
Anatomy of a Soldier is based on the author's experience of being in a war zone and his journey of survival against all the odds.
Written by Harry Parker
Read by Paul Bazely
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b07syt8m)
Break Ups and Brexit
How do you find the right words to make- or break- a personal relationship? Or to leave a political union, for that matter? To consider the clichés and coinages used to negotiate matters of the heart by everyone from novelist Edith Wharton to actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Rosen & linguist Dr. Laura Wright are joined by Zoe Strimpel of the University of Sussex. Also, in the aftermath of the UK's EU Referendum, author & journalist Sam Leith riffs on the term 'Brexit' and the infectious wordplay it spawned. Producer Kirsty McQuire.
MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07v01r7)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
TUESDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2016
TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqpx0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b07tzrwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Monday]
TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpx2)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqpx4)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpx6)
The latest shipping forecast.
TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqpx8)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07w1mtq)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b07tqpxb)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b020tr6m)
Cormorant
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Cormorant. Although cormorants are common on rocky and estuarine shores, increasingly they are breeding inland in tree colonies - where branches whitened by their droppings are a giveaway in summer.
TUE 06:00 Today (b07v07ny)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
TUE 09:00 The Anatomy of Rest (b07v07p0)
Rest sounds like a straightforward topic. We think we know what it is. Until you start to look closely and then it's not so simple. Over the last two years Claudia Hammond has been working at the Wellcome Collection in London as part of a team called Hubbub - a group including psychologists, artists, poets, neuroscientists, musicians, historians and sociologists - all coming together to examine the topic of rest.
In the first of three programmes Claudia attempts to define rest. Is the absence of work? Does it have to mean doing nothing? Claudia discusses the concept of rest with a historian, a composer, a poet and an English literature scholar.
TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b07v07p2)
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carre, Episode 2
John le Carre with five recollections from his writing life, abridged by Katrin Williams:
There was Yvette Pierpaoli, a business woman who once worked out of Phnom Penn. We discover how her character and actions went towards creating Tessa in the novel The Constant Gardener.
Read by the author
Producer Duncan Minshull.
TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07tqpxd)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b07v07p4)
Just a Girl, Episode 2
How will Amy find her new school, will Gary and Charlotte stay together and will Grandad ever find love? Second series of the drama about a transgender teenager by Mark Davies Markham.
A very ordinary family has come to terms with the less ordinary experience of Amy, who was born as Ben. Amy is nervous about starting senior school, and even more moody as teenage life and the puberty delaying hormone blockers kick in. Her parents, Gary and Charlotte, are struggling with their own relationship and Grandad Ted has his own worries.
This affectionate drama was inspired by real life experiences.
Episode 2:
Amy is delighted by her first day at seniors. Gary and Charlotte are less sure about her interest in boys and disaster strikes when Grandad uses the wrong pronoun for Amy with his blind date.
Written by Mark Davies Markham
Original music and piano playing by Alfie Davies
Thanks to Susie Green and the parents at Mermaids and the Tavistock Clinic.
Producers: Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Sarah Kenny
Executive Producer: Kate McAll
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 11:00 Natural Histories (b07v07p6)
Wandering Albatross
With a wing span that can measure up to 3.5 metres in length, it's hardly surprising that the Wandering Albatross has inspired not only awe but a spiritual response from many of us. And whilst Samuel Taylor Coleridge didn't do it any favours when he portrayed the Albatross as a bird of ill omen in his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as Brett Westwood discovers in this programme, our relationship with the Albatross is far more complex than this; as we have both caught and eaten them, studied their flight and been so inspired by them, that as one man says "In my next life I'm coming back as a Wanderer". Producer Sarah Blunt.
TUE 11:30 Voices of... (b07v07p8)
The Voices of Ian Partridge
A portrait of the English lyric tenor Ian Partridge, in his own words and recordings.
It's not difficult to identify something classically, characteristically English about the lyric tenor Ian Partridge - his reticence and modesty, his boy chorister background and acclaimed performances of composers such as Roger Quilter, Benjamin Britten and Prince Albert.
He still lives in the same part of south London where he was born nearly 80 years ago and he spent over fifty years in a musical partnership with his sister, the pianist Jennifer Partridge. But the refined, passionate quality of Ian's voice has been a passport into other worlds - touring internationally, collaborating with celebrated composers and recording definitive interpretations of, for example, Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann's Dichterliebe and Ralph Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge.
Ian reflects on a lifetime in music that began lying under the family piano as his mother played popular songs of the 1930s and 40s and led ultimately to being appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:00 News Summary (b07tqpxg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 12:04 Home Front (b07ksx3m)
13 September 1916 - Hugh Cavendish
On this day in 1916, the town of Tennessee publicly hanged Mary the circus elephant for the death of her trainer, and Lieutenant Cavendish faces Dr Argent at The Grand Hotel
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy.
TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b07tqpxj)
Call You and Yours
Consumer phone-in.
TUE 12:57 Weather (b07tqpxl)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 13:00 World at One (b07tqpxn)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
TUE 13:45 Oliver Burkeman Is Busy (b07v07pb)
Fetishising Busyness
Oliver Burkeman asks if we are talking ourselves into feeling overwhelmed with busyness.
TUE 14:00 The Archers (b07tzwhh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
TUE 14:15 Tracks (b07v0fts)
Nociceptors
The sixth episode in a major new nine-part conspiracy thriller, starring Romola Garai. Written by Matthew Broughton.
As Helen uncovers disturbing details of a dark and illicit industry, she enters territory more vast and dangerous than she could ever have imagined.
What was the medical experiment carried out on the boy in the coma? And how does it connect to the plane crash?
Tracks: A story in nine parts about life, death and the human brain.
Directed in Wales by Helen Perry.
TUE 15:00 Making History (b07v0ftw)
Tom Holland is joined by Rebecca Rideal and Dr Tom Lorman to discuss armed revolt, fire and a secret war.
Helen Castor meets up with a witness to the Hungarian Revolution of sixty-years ago and we discuss the changing attitudes to refugees.
In London, Dr Tom Charlton is joined by Professor Vanessa Harding and Professor Justin Champion in what became the 17th century equivalent of the Calais 'jungle' - a refugee camp created by the Great Fire of 1666 which was occupied for years.
And Lord Paddy Ashdown makes the case for a forgotten hero to be remembered on the Making History plinth - the wartime SOE's Roger Landes.
Producer: Nick Patrick
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b07v0fty)
Cities Without Cars
The battle in big cities continues: how do you keep cars out to cut congestion and reduce pollution? Chris Ledgard visits Paris and Barcelona to explore two different approaches. In Paris, the mayor's office wants to ban the most polluting cars, and coloured stickers are being introduced to help the authorities determine which vehicles can enter the city centre. Meanwhile, more and more Paris residents are turning to the electric car-sharing scheme, Autolib. We hear how it works. In Barcelona, urban ecologists are adapting the famous grid system designed by Ildefons Cerda to create 'superblocks' - large traffic-free spaces across the city where the sound of traffic is only distantly heard. Chris talks to the scheme's inventor, Salvador Rueda, and hears about his vision for Spain's second biggest city.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.
TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b07v0fv0)
Lost Words and Secret Connections
Have you ever wondered why there's no word for that universal affliction of early morning worry & wakefulness? Or how to describe the act of eking every last drop of washing up liquid out of the bottle? Mark Forsyth, author of The Etymologicon, takes Michael Rosen and linguist Dr Laura Wright on a lexical expedition into what he calls the 'sewer system' of the English language- where words lie lost, forgotten or banished- until now. Producer Kirsty McQuire.
TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b07v0fv2)
Series 40, Eliza Carthy on Caroline Norton
Eliza Carthy chooses the life of nineteenth-century poet and campaigner Caroline Norton to discuss with Matthew Parris.
Following separation from her controlling husband, Norton fought to gain access to her three children. She campaigned for thirty years resulting in changes to English Law that gave women a separate legal identity for the first time.
Producer: Toby Field.
TUE 17:00 PM (b07tqpxr)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqpxt)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
TUE 18:30 Mark Watson Talks a Bit About Life (b07v0fv4)
Series 2, Spirituality
New series from multi-award winning Mark Watson. Assisted and impeded in equal measure by henchmen Sam Simmons and Will Adamsdale, he revives his quest to make some sort of sense of life, against the backdrop of a world, in recent times, has come to seem even more peculiar than usual.
The tenacious trio take on some of human life's central topics: family, spirituality, Scandinavia. Watson peddles his unique, high-octane stand-up while Simmons and Adamsdale chip in with interjections which include (but are not limited to) music, shopping lists, life advice, stunts, avant-garde offerings and divvy interactions.
Expect big laughs, controlled chaos and an attempt to answer the one question none of us can quite escape from - what exactly is going on?
This week, the theme is spirituality. The human spirit, or soul, can be a controversial idea. We cannot see it, yet many people insist it is there - similar to Pokemon. Is there a life beyond death and, if there is, will we like it?
Mark Watson is a multi-award winning comedian, including the inaugural If.Comedy Panel Prize 2006. He is assisted by Sam Simmons, winner of Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award 2015 and Will Adamsdale who won the the Perrier Comedy Award in 2004.
Produced by Lianne Coop
An Impatient production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 19:00 The Archers (b07v0fv6)
Joe's spirits will not be lifted, and Ian's ears are burning.
TUE 19:15 Front Row (b07tqpxx)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
TUE 19:45 Letters from Inside (b07v0fv8)
Ai Weiwei
In 2011 Ai Weiwei was arrested without notice by the Chinese authorities and detained for 81 days. Here he writes a letter to his son Ai Lao who was two years old when he disappeared. It contains a detailed account of the rules and routines he was obliged to uphold during his detention.
It's part of a series in which writers from around the world read letters on the theme of imprisonment, inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. Wilde's imprisonment led to one of his last great works - De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas written by Wilde in his prison cell.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to Wilde's letter. Letter from Inside is part of a series of broadcasts related to Wilde's time in Reading Prison.
A new reading of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside, was broadcast on Radio 4 on 11th September at
4pm.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b07v0fvc)
Homes Not Hospitals
Five years after shocking revelations about the abuse of patients at Winterbourne View, File on 4 asks what progress has been made on the promise to get people with learning disabilities and autism out of hospital units and into homes in the community with good support.
Families of those still stuck in these units say patients are trapped in the system with no clear plan or apparent will to get them home. For those eventually discharged, almost as many others are admitted - parents say, because there aren't enough community support services.
But if people are let out by the institutions, what's does so-called 'supported living' in the community look like? File on 4 hears concerns about the quantity and quality of this promised care. Parents describe living on the brink of a crisis that could land their children back in a cycle of being sectioned and locked up.
NHS England says the plans are taking shape. But families say it's like living in The Twilight Zone, in a limbo hidden from mainstream view and unable to find a way out.
So just how successful is the landmark 'Homes not Hospitals' plan, that aims to improve life for some of the most vulnerable patients in the NHS?
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Sally Chesworth
Editor: Gail Champion.
TUE 20:40 In Touch (b07tqpxz)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b07v0fvf)
Dr Mark Porter presents a series that aims to demystify perplexing health issues.
TUE 21:30 The Anatomy of Rest (b07v07p0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
TUE 21:58 Weather (b07tqpy4)
The latest weather forecast.
TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b07tqpy6)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07vxrm4)
Anatomy of a Soldier, Episode 2
Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in Afghanistan. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bike and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in the countryside.
On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home.
We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do - shoes and combat boots, wheelchairs and wheelbarrows, a bag of fertiliser, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.
Anatomy of a Soldier is based on the author's experience of being in a war zone and his journey of survival against all the odds.
Written by Harry Parker
Read by Paul Bazely
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:00 Couples (b07v0g21)
Episode 4
Semi-improvised character comedy written and performed by Julia Davis and Marc Wootton. The duo portray a series of couples in therapy with the renowned therapist Dr Tanya Ray-Harding, as played by Vicki Pepperdine.
In the final episode of the series, Dr Tanya hears some surprising news from Richard and Dewey.
Written and Performed by Julia Davis and Marc Wootton
With Vicki Pepperdine
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4.
TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07v0g23)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
WEDNESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2016
WED 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqpzx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b07v07p2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Tuesday]
WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqpzz)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqq01)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqq03)
The latest shipping forecast.
WED 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqq05)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07w4ymt)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
WED 05:45 Farming Today (b07tqq07)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Presenter: Anna Hill
Producer: Vernon Harwood.
WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b020vp4h)
Little Egret
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the Little Egret. The colonisation of the UK by these small brilliant-white herons with black bills and yellow feet, has astonished ornithologists because of its speed.
WED 06:00 Today (b07v0h78)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
WED 09:00 The Waterside Ape (b07v0hhm)
Sir David Attenborough considers whether new evidence will help a once widely ridiculed theory of human origins move towards to mainstream acceptance.
In 1960, the eminent Oxford marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy proposed a revolutionary idea - our human ancestors had started their existence not on the wide savannahs of Africa, but had become accustomed to living alongside water, swimming and diving in the shallows, collecting the abundant food and learning to use language and fashion tools. Hardy asserted that this adaptation to living at the waterside would also account for a whole range of peculiarities about the human form, including the layers of fat beneath the skin, the relative lack of body-hair, the development of language and speech, and what has been called our 'runaway brains'.
Perhaps surprisingly, it was a screenwriter rather than a scientist, Elaine Morgan, who took up Hardy's theory and, for over 40 years, progressively refined the evidence for the idea. Most mainstream paleo-anthropologists ridiculed and rejected the Hardy-Morgan thesis for decades, but some influential scientists asked for the proposal to be approached with an open mind.
Sir David Attenborough first considered the controversial theory on Radio 4 in 2004. In this new series of two programmes, The Waterside Ape, he brings us up to date with the story and the evidence put forward since then - both for the hypothesis and also for its continuing detractors.
Back in 2004, Sir David asked Elaine Morgan how long it would take for the aquatic adaptation theory to become a mainstream account of human origins. She answered, "I'll give it ten years." As we review the new evidence, has she been proved right?
Producer: Richard Collins
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b07v0hhp)
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carre, Episode 3
John le Carre with five recollections from his writing life, abridged by Katrin Williams:
At sixteen he was sent by his father Ronnie to Paris, to meet with Count Mario da Bernaschina and his glamorous wife. What an adventure! Memories of this encounter went towards the creation of novels such as The Night Manager and The Tailor Of Panama.
Read by the author
Producer Duncan Minshull.
WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07tqq09)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b07v0hhr)
Just a Girl, Episode 3
How will Amy find her new school, will Gary and Charlotte stay together and will Grandad ever find love? Second series of the drama about a transgender teenager by Mark Davies Markham.
A very ordinary family has come to terms with the less ordinary experience of Amy, who was born as Ben. Amy is nervous about starting senior school, and even more moody as teenage life and the puberty delaying hormone blockers kick in. Her parents, Gary and Charlotte, are struggling with their own relationship and Grandad Ted has his own worries.
This affectionate drama was inspired by real life experiences.
Episode 3:
Amy is victimised at school as a result of Ted's faux pas.
Written by Mark Davies Markham
Original music and piano playing by Alfie Davies
Thanks to Susie Green and the parents at Mermaids and the Tavistock Clinic.
Producers: Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Sarah Kenny
Executive Producer: Kate McAll
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b07v0hnm)
Ella and Helen - Life after Retirement
Fi Glover introduces a pair of friends who found that at first retirement felt as if their world has ended, but now they relish the peace when everyone else goes back to work. 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 Eastern Europeans in Brexitland (b07v016d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WED 11:30 Josh Howie's Losing It (b07v0hnp)
The Route
Stand-up comic Josh Howie comes to terms with the impending birth of his first child.
In this fourth episode, Josh and his wife Monique attend their first NCT class where Josh typically manages to fall out with almost everyone.
Written by Josh Howie.
Produced by Ashley Blaker
A Black Hat production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:00 News Summary (b07tqq0c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 12:04 Home Front (b07ksx3s)
14 September 1916 - Kitty Lumley
On this day in 1916, a munitions factory in Essex exploded killing seven and injuring 72, and in Folkestone, Kitty makes a painful decision
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy.
WED 12:15 You and Yours (b07tqq0f)
Consumer affairs programme.
WED 12:57 Weather (b07tqq0h)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 13:00 World at One (b07tqq0k)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
WED 13:45 Oliver Burkeman Is Busy (b07v0lq5)
It's not busyness but bandwidth
Oliver Burkeman asks if our problem with busyness is not that we do not have the time but rather we literally do not have the head space.
WED 14:00 The Archers (b07v0fv6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Tuesday]
WED 14:15 Drama (b07v2mds)
The 56
On 11th May 1985, Bradford City were playing Lincoln City in their final game of the season after being crowned Third Division champions. Just before half-time a fire broke out in the Main Stand. 56 people - 54 Bradford supporters and 2 from Lincoln - lost their lives and over 250 were injured. Writers Matt Woodhead and Gemma Wilson worked with FYSA Theatre Company to create this drama, which draws solely on real-life testimonies and interviews with witnesses.
Performed by Duncan Preston, Melanie Kilburn and Vincent Franklin.
Directed by Toby Swift.
WED 15:00 Money Box (b07v2mdv)
Money Box Live
Financial phone-in.
WED 15:30 Inside Health (b07v0fvf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b07v2mdx)
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
WED 16:30 The Media Show (b07tqq0n)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
WED 17:00 PM (b07tqq0q)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqq0s)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
WED 18:30 Mark Steel's in Town (b07v2mdz)
Series 7, Colchester
Mark Steel's In Town - Colchester
Colchester - The oldest recorded town in Britain
Mark Steel returns to Radio 4 for a seventh series of the award winning show that travels around the country, researching the history, heritage and culture of six towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness, and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for the local residents.
"The oldest hot cross bun in the world was baked in Colchester"
In the second programme, Mark visits the Essex town of Colchester and walks through the streets where 'Emperor Claudius once rode triumphantly on the first elephant in Britain', before Boudicca burnt the place to the ground, that was. He visits 'Jumbo', the town's iconic, Victorian water tower and he delves into the history of Colchester Zoo. Mark also discovers how several nursery rhymes have their origins in Colchester and he investigates the town's rivalry with Chelmsford.
In this series Mark visits Stockport in Greater Manchester, Colchester in Essex, Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, The Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames, Lynton in North Devon and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
Written and performed by ... Mark Steel
Additional material by ... Pete Sinclair
Production co-ordinator ... Hayley Stirling
Producer ... Carl Cooper
This is a BBC Radio Comedy Production.
WED 19:00 The Archers (b07v2mf1)
Anna is hopeful, and Josh gets an eyeful.
WED 19:15 Front Row (b07tqq0v)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
WED 19:45 Letters from Inside (b07v2mf3)
Gillian Slovo
Novelist Gillian Slovo's letter to her mother, the anti-apartheid activist, Ruth First. Part of a series in which writers from around the world read letters on the theme of imprisonment, inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. Wilde's imprisonment led to one of his last great works - De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas written by Wilde in his prison cell.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to Wilde's letter. Letter from Inside is part of a series of broadcasts related to Wilde's time in Reading Prison.
A new reading of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside, was broadcast on Radio 4 on 11th September at
4pm.
Gillian Slovo's novels include Ice Road, Red Dust and 10 Days.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:00 Unreliable Evidence (b07v2mf5)
During the 43 years since Britain joined the European Union, EU law has become almost inextricably woven into the fabric of our lives, influencing everything from employment and consumer law to data protection and the environment.
But on the day that Britain leaves the EU, will all that law cease to apply? How should we approach the process of unravelling ourselves from EU law? What laws and regulations do we keep and what do we discard? Is this an opportunity to free ourselves from expensive and restrictive "bureaucratic EU red tape" or is there a danger that important social safeguards could be lost?
Crucially, in the absence of EU law guaranteeing free movement of labour, what will happen to EU citizens working in the UK and UK citizens working and living around Europe?
Clive Anderson and a panel of leading experts in EU law, with a range of views about the problems and the solutions, discuss the legal implications of Brexit. They are constitutional lawyer Richard Gordon QC, former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer, pro-leave barrister Martin Howe QC and solicitor Niki Walker, who specialises in areas of law heavily influenced by the EU.
Producer: Brian King
An Above The Title production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 20:45 Four Thought (b07v2mf7)
Talks with a personal dimension.
WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b07v0fty)
[Repeat of broadcast at
15:30 on Tuesday]
WED 21:30 The Waterside Ape (b07v0hhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
WED 21:58 Weather (b07tqq0x)
The latest weather forecast.
WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b07tqq0z)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07w1pp4)
Anatomy of a Soldier, Episode 3
Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in Afghanistan. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bike and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in the countryside.
On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home.
We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do - shoes and combat boots, wheelchairs and wheelbarrows, a bag of fertiliser, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.
Anatomy of a Soldier is based on the author's experience of being in a war zone and his journey of survival against all the odds.
Written by Harry Parker
Read by Paul Bazely
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
WED 23:00 The Pin (b07v2ncp)
Series 2, Shoestring
Following a hugely successful first series, which drew praise from the likes of David Walliams and Ben Stiller, Alex and Ben are back with their weird twist on the double-act sketch show. Strap in for a 15 minute delve in to a world of oddness performed in front of a live studio audience.
This week, The Pin are out to prove their accountant wrong, and make a great show on a budget.
About The Pin
The Pin are an award-winning comedy duo, and legends of Edinburgh festival. They deconstruct the sketch form, in a show that exists somewhere between razor-sharp smartness and utterly joyous silliness.
After a sold-out run in Edinburgh, and a string of hilarious performances across BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC 3, Channel 4, and Comedy Central, this is The Pin's debut solo show for Radio 4. Join them as they celebrate, make, collapse and rebuild their jokes, each other, and probably the radio too.
For fans of Adam and Joe, Vic and Bob, and Fist of Fun - a show of absurd offerings from two loveable idiots.
- 'The Pin prove it's still possible to play with the conventions of the medium of sketch comedy.' - The Guardian
- 'Knowing and inventive: a 15 minute blast.' - The Times
- 'The sketches are funny, and made special by Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen also examining, subverting and reversing familiar tropes. The material is excellent.' - Radio Times
- 'Eviscerating their chosen form completely.' - The Sunday Times
- 'A very classy, very funny show indeed.' - The Telegraph
Producer: Sam Bryant
A BBC Studios Production.
WED 23:15 Bird Island (b042l2xt)
Series 2, Episode 1
EPISODE ONE:
Ben, a young scientist working in Antarctica, tries to adapt to the loneliness by keeping a cheery audio diary on his Dictaphone. This week, Ben is all-consumed by a new cereal bar while Jane and Graham are completing The Penguin Census.
Written by ..... Katy Wix
Produced by ..... Tilusha Ghelani
ABOUT BIRD ISLAND:
An atmospheric comedy about a cheery scientist based in Sub-Antarctica. Starring Reece Shearsmith, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Alison Steadman and Katy Wix.
On the one hand, Ben is on the trip of a lifetime. On the other, he's trapped in a vast icy landscape with a dodgy internet connection and a dictaphone. Loneliness is something of a problem. So, Ben shares his thoughts with us in the form of an audio 'log'.
His fellow scientist Graham should alleviate this sense of isolation, but the tragi-comic fact is, they are nerdy blokes, so they stumble through yet another mumbled exchange. Not to mention the new arrival Jane, who Ben is even more awkward around, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to him.
Apart from his research studying the Albatross on the Island, Ben attempts to continue normal life with an earnestness and enthusiasm which is ultimately very endearing. We eavesdrop as he chats awkwardly with Graham or Jane, phones his mother or talks to himself, as he often does. We also hear the pings and whirrs of machinery, the Squawks and screeches of the birds and the vast expanse outside. Oh, and ice. Lots of ice.
Bird Island is written by Katy Wix, half of sketch comedy Duo 'Anna and Katy'. Katy is also an actress who stars in 'Miranda', 'Outnumbered' and 'Not Going Out'.
WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07v2nhk)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016
THU 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqq2w)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b07v0hhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Wednesday]
THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqq2y)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqq30)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqq32)
The latest shipping forecast.
THU 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqq34)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07w53pf)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
THU 05:45 Farming Today (b07tqq36)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Trish Campbell.
THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02tycf8)
Black-browed Albatross
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Steve Backshall presents the black-browed albatross.
Although they're residents of the Antarctic seas , black-browed albatrosses have turned up in the UK many times. For a while, Albert-or Albert Ross as he was christened by birdwatchers- was one of the most well-known birds in the British Isles. He was first spotted in the gannet colony on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth in 1967. Sadly he failed to find a mate among the masses of gannets there.
THU 06:00 Today (b07v2ysd)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
THU 09:00 The Waterside Ape (b07v2ysg)
Sir David Attenborough considers whether new evidence will help a once widely ridiculed theory of human origins move towards to mainstream acceptance.
In 1960, the eminent Oxford marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy proposed a revolutionary idea - our human ancestors had started their existence not on the wide savannahs of Africa, but had become accustomed to living alongside water, swimming and diving in the shallows, collecting the abundant food and learning to use language and fashion tools. Hardy asserted that this adaptation to living at the waterside would also account for a whole range of peculiarities about the human form, including the layers of fat beneath the skin, the relative lack of body-hair, the development of language and speech, and what has been called our 'runaway brains'.
Perhaps surprisingly, it was a screenwriter rather than a scientist, Elaine Morgan, who took up Hardy's theory and, for over 40 years, progressively refined the evidence for the idea. Most mainstream paleo-anthropologists ridiculed and rejected the Hardy-Morgan thesis for decades, but some influential scientists asked for the proposal to be approached with an open mind.
Sir David Attenborough first considered the controversial theory on Radio 4 in 2004. In this new series of two programmes, The Waterside Ape, he brings us up to date with the story and the evidence put forward since then - both for the hypothesis and also for its continuing detractors.
Back in 2004, Sir David asked Elaine Morgan how long it would take for the aquatic adaptation theory to become a mainstream account of human origins. She answered, "I'll give it ten years." As we review the new evidence, has she been proved right?
Producer: Richard Collins
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b07v2ysj)
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carre, Episode 4
The ever popular John le Carre with five recollections from a writer's life, abridged by Katrin Williams.
During the filming of The Spy Who Came in From The Cold, its star Richard Burton requests that the author be on set with him. Then Elizabeth Taylor turns up too..
Read by the author
Producer Duncan Minshull.
THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07tqq38)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b07v2ysl)
Just a Girl, Episode 4
How will Amy find her new school, will Gary and Charlotte stay together and will Grandad ever find love? Second series of the drama about a transgender teenager by Mark Davies Markham.
A very ordinary family has come to terms with the less ordinary experience of Amy, who was born as Ben. Amy is nervous about starting senior school, and even more moody as teenage life and the puberty delaying hormone blockers kick in. Her parents, Gary and Charlotte, are struggling with their own relationship and Grandad Ted has his own worries.
This affectionate drama was inspired by real life experiences.
Episode 4:
Amy is still refusing to go back to school, and the pressure is telling on her parents.
Written by Mark Davies Markham
Original music and piano playing by Alfie Davies
Thanks to Susie Green and the parents at Mermaids and the Tavistock Clinic.
Producers: Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Sarah Kenny
Executive Producer: Kate McAll
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b07v2ysn)
Fixing India's Car Crash Capital
India has some of the world's most dangerous roads. The government says almost 150,000 people died on them last year. Nowhere saw more crashes than the booming city of Mumbai. The carnage is relentless, affecting people at every level of society. We meet the Mumbaikers who are saying, enough: a vegetable seller who fills potholes in his spare time after his son died in one; a neurosurgeon whose experience treating victims has led him to try to build trauma centres along one of the worst roads; and an unlikely combination of engineers, activists and police officers with an ambitious plan to bring the number of deaths on a notorious expressway down to zero. It's hoped there will be lessons in Mumbai for all of India. The country is in the midst of an historic road-building push. By 2020, Prime Minister Modi wants to pave a distance greater than the circumference of the earth.
THU 11:30 The Double War (b07v2ysq)
At the height of the Vietnam War as black America was campaigning for civil rights, Motown put out an LP of recordings of African American soldiers talking about their time in Vietnam called 'Guess Who's Coming Home'
The interviews were recorded by a Wallace Terry who had been sent to Vietnam by Time Magazine, who was told about rampant racism, confederate flags and even cross burnings. Blacks were 'bloods' and 'brothers', whites were 'honkey' and 'the beast'
He also found black soldiers resentful about having to fight a war against people they didn't see as the enemy when many of them felt they should have been at home in the US fighting for civil rights against the real enemy, white establishment America
Terry went on to write a book called 'Bloods' based on his interviews which told the story of the soldiers who had come home to be met with hostility for fighting the 'white mans war'
Alvin Hall explores the interviews to find out how black soldiers felt about fighting in the war meeting some of the veterans who featured in Bloods to see how they feel about what they had to say forty years ago, how they feel about their time in Vietnam what has happened to them since.
The recordings in 'Guess Who's Coming Home' are raw and sometimes uncomfortable but an honest, candid account of the anger many black soldiers felt fighting the wrong war thousands of miles from home.
THU 12:00 News Summary (b07tqq3b)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 12:04 Home Front (b07ksx3y)
15 September 1916 - Adam Wilson
On this day in 1916, the Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith, was killed in action, and in Folkestone Adam Wilson finds himself caught up in real war games.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy.
THU 12:15 You and Yours (b07tqq3d)
Consumer affairs programme.
THU 12:57 Weather (b07tqq3g)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 13:00 World at One (b07tqq3j)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
THU 13:45 Oliver Burkeman Is Busy (b07v2yss)
Addicted to Busy
Oliver asks if people have become addicted to busy, either because it makes them feel like heroes fighting the odds, or because problems can be avoided by never sitting still.
THU 14:00 The Archers (b07v2mf1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Wednesday]
THU 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b049z7x1)
Hatch, Match and Dispatch, Nine Lives
By Anna Maria Murphy
Isn't it strange that the registering of life's important moments happen in a sterile municipal office? Everyone's got a story as to how they got there.
The fifth in a series of six quirky plays that start in a Register Office and end in a birth, marriage or death.
Beth's elderly father Patrick has a lifetime's worth of stories, and Beth knows them so well she almost feels as if she's lived them herself. But one story she finds hard to believe - Patrick claims that he was never born. That he's lived forever. As Beth tries to untangle the truth of her father's birth, she uncovers an unexpected family secret.
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production.
THU 15:00 Ramblings (b07v2ysv)
Series 34, Passionate Walkers: David Nicholls
In this new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding talks to those for whom walking is more than a leisure activity but a passion that's vital to their lives. In this first programme she goes to Thursley in Surrey to meet the novelist and screenwriter, David Nicholls. His first novel, 'Starter for Ten' was followed by the much acclaimed 'One Day', and as David admits to Clare. its success took him a little by surprise.
They take an eight mile circular route around The Devils Punchbowl. David explains how important walking is to his creative process, although he always worries its a bit of a skive ! However, he finds it the ideal way to listen to and absorb a novel when he's adapting one of the classics for TV, as he did with 'Far From the Madding Crowd'. He talks to Clare about how he loves exploring new cities by foot and the techniques he uses to encourage his children to walk.
The walk Clare and David took can be found on OS Explorer map OL33 & 145 or Landranger 186, the map reference is SU 955 414, the walk starts in the village of Thursley about 3 km south-west of Godalming. Thursley GU8 6QD
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b07tqs7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
07:54 on Sunday]
THU 15:30 Open Book (b07tzrw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 on Monday]
THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b07v2ysx)
Colin Firth, Ralph Fiennes
Colin Firth and Francine Stock indulge in some Bridget Jones's Baby talk, and the actor admits that he is partly to blame for the out-dated stereotype of the reticent Englishman.
Ralph Fiennes explains why he spent three months learning Russian for his role in Two Women.
THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b07tqq3l)
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.
THU 17:00 PM (b07tqq3n)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqq3q)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
THU 18:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b07v2ysz)
Series 4, A Dance to the Music of Tom
Episode 4 - A Dance to the Music of Tom. Mr and Mrs Wrigglesworth attempt to bond with the new neighbours. Meanwhile, Tom receives some worrying news.
Series 4 of Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups presents another hilarious helping of down-the-line adventures from Edinburgh Comedy Award nominated Tom. Listen in on Tom's weekly phone calls home to his Mum, Dad and Gran in Sheffield and get a glimpse into the triumphs and tribulations of the Wrigglesworth clan in all its dysfunctional glory.
Starring Tom Wrigglesworth, Paul Copley, Kate Anthony, Elizabeth Bennett.
Written by Tom Wrigglesworth and James Kettle with additional material by Miles Jupp.
Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.
THU 19:00 The Archers (b07v2yt1)
Oliver revises his plans, and David starts to scheme.
THU 19:15 Front Row (b07tqq3s)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
THU 19:45 Letters from Inside (b07v2yt3)
Tahmima Anam
Novelist Tahmima Anam's letter to her unborn child. Inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis written in Reading Prison in 1897.
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. Wilde's imprisonment led to one of his last great works - De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas written by Wilde in his prison cell.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to Wilde's letter. Letter from Inside is part of a series of broadcasts related to Wilde's time in Reading Prison.
A new reading of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside, was broadcast on Radio 4 on 11th September at
4pm.
Tahmima Anam is a British Bangladeshi novelist whose books include A Golden Age and The Good Muslim.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b07v2yt5)
David Aaronovitch looks at important issues in the news.
THU 20:30 In Business (b07v2yt7)
Start-up Scotland
Brexit, a global slump in oil prices, and political uncertainty around a second independence referendum; these have combined to place the Scottish business community in uncharted waters. Additionally, Scotland has longer term historical structural issues, particularly when it comes to successfully starting and growing new ventures. It is widely recognised that the Scottish economy needs to grow faster and be less dependent on both fossil fuels and inward investment. For this edition of 'In Business', the BBC's Scotland Business Editor Douglas Fraser explores what is being done to support and encourage entrepreneurship
Producer: Dave Howard.
THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b07tqq3l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 today]
THU 21:30 The Waterside Ape (b07v2ysg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:00 today]
THU 21:58 Weather (b07tqq3v)
The latest weather forecast.
THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b07tqq3x)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07w1q2x)
Anatomy of a Soldier, Episode 4
Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in Afghanistan. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bike and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in the countryside.
On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home.
We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do - shoes and combat boots, wheelchairs and wheelbarrows, a bag of fertiliser, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.
Anatomy of a Soldier is based on the author's experience of being in a war zone and his journey of survival against all the odds.
Written by Harry Parker
Read by Paul Bazely
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:00 Heresy (b02x98fp)
Series 9, Episode 6
Victoria Coren Mitchell presents another edition of the show which dares to commit heresy.
Her guests this week are comedians Katy Brand and David Baddiel and television presenter Richard Osman.
Producers: Victoria Coren Mitchell and Daisy Knight
An Avalon Television production for BBC Radio 4.
THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07v2yt9)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
FRIDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2016
FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b07tqq5k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b07v2ysj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
09:45 on Thursday]
FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b07tqq5m)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b07tqq5r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.
FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b07tqq5t)
The latest shipping forecast.
FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b07tqq5w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b07w5c7n)
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain.
FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b07tqq5y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside
Presenter by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Trish Campbell.
FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03bks90)
Jack Snipe
Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs.
Wildlife Sound Recordist, Chris Watson, presents the Jack Snipe. The song of the Jack snipe has been likened to the sound of a distant horse cantering along a road. To hear it though, you need to visit Scandinavian bogs and mires where these small waders breed. When the ice seals their northern breeding areas jack snipes head south and west and many winter in the British Isles.
FRI 06:00 Today (b07vj61d)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
FRI 09:00 The Reunion (b07tqtbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
11:15 on Sunday]
FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b07v33l0)
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carre, Episode 5
John le Carre with five recollections from his writing life, abridged by Katrin Williams:
Asked to visit the film director Karel Reisz at home in London's Belsize Park, he meets a young actor called Vladimir. But the meeting has nothing to do with films or acting - nothing at all..
Read by the author
Producer Duncan Minshull.
FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b07tqq62)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b07v33l2)
Just a Girl, Episode 5
How will Amy find her new school, will Gary and Charlotte stay together and will Grandad ever find love? Second series of the drama about a transgender teenager by Mark Davies Markham.
A very ordinary family has come to terms with the less ordinary experience of Amy, who was born as Ben. Amy is nervous about starting senior school, and even more moody as teenage life and the puberty delaying hormone blockers kick in. Her parents, Gary and Charlotte, are struggling with their own relationship and Grandad Ted has his own worries.
This affectionate drama was inspired by real life experiences.
Episode 5:
Amy's return to school is triumphant, as she stands up to the bullies. Gary and Charlotte make their peace, Ted buys a new motorbike and there is a surprise ahead for them all.
Written by Mark Davies Markham
Original music and piano playing by Alfie Davies
Thanks to Susie Green and the parents at Mermaids and the Tavistock Clinic.
Producers: Polly Thomas and Eloise Whitmore
Production Coordinator: Sarah Kenny
Executive Producer: Kate McAll
A Naked production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:00 James Wong's Alternative Country Garden (b07v33l4)
Garden designer James Wong asks if British gardening is stuck in the past.
The traditional English Country Garden is synonymous with overflowing beds, informal borders, bees, butterflies and lazy summer afternoons. But for garden designer James Wong this idyll is to blame for a lack of innovation and progress in British horticulture. James argues we should take inspiration from Singapore's reinvention as a 'City in a Garden'. There, horticulture has been widely seen as a factor in turning the city state from a colonial backwater to a tiger economy in just three decades.
Yet here in Britain, while we claim to be a nation of gardeners, James argues that the idealisation of our past is limiting innovation and alienating the next generation. He digs into our assumptions about what makes a garden and presents an alternative vision for a brave new gardeners' world.
James takes advice from different schools of design and we hear from staunch defenders of the English Country Garden as well as those keen to support a horticultural revolution - including the mind behind The Eden Project, Sir Tim Smit, and one of the principle planting designers of London's Olympic Park, Nigel Dunnett.
Produced by Darby Dorras
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 11:30 Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice (b05r3srd)
Episode 2
Comedian Deborah Frances-White tells the true story of her teenage years as a Jehovah's Witness.
Assisted by fellow comedians Thom Tuck, Alex Lowe, and Cariad Lloyd, Deborah recalls her treks around the streets of Brisbane where she gets abducted by a gang of bikers and tries to convert a Cuban jazz musician.
Deborah turns her comic spotlight on the trials of being a trainee witness and of some of the unexpected fellow travellers she meets on the way, including Peter Andre and Michael Jackson.
Producer: Alan Nixon
A So Television production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:00 News Summary (b07tqq64)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 12:04 Home Front (b07ksx49)
16 September 1916 - Norman Harris
On this day in 1916, papers reported the successful first deployment of 'a new type of heavy armoured car' called a tank, which might change the course of the war, and in Folkestone, Maisie Harris is captivated by the Battle of the Somme film.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy.
FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b07tqq66)
Consumer news and issues.
FRI 12:57 Weather (b07tqq68)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 13:00 World at One (b07tqq6b)
Analysis of news and current affairs.
FRI 13:45 Oliver Burkeman Is Busy (b07v33l6)
In Praise of Idleness
Oliver Burkeman asks if the solution to busyness is not to work harder and organise ourselves but to indulge in a little idleness.
FRI 14:00 The Archers (b07v2yt1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Thursday]
FRI 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b01nq7d6)
The Other Simenon, The Neighbours
When he wasn't writing Maigret, Georges Simenon produced a huge body of novels and short stories, often tough, gripping and psychologically-penetrating dissections of lives confounded by fate. In The Other Simenon we explore more of his dark tales of human misfortune!
In The Neighbours, Emile Jovis, the director of a Paris travel agency, finds that moving home doesn't always make for a better life. Acting from the best possible motives he decides to uproot his family from their dilapidated flat in the Marais district of Paris to a new development outside the city. All too soon, however, he becomes aware that his wife and son do not share his enthusiasm. And his peace of mind is shattered when he overhears a series of blunt and brusque conversations coming from his neighbours' flat. His irritation on hearing their voices leads to an obsessive interest in their world.
Dramatised by Ronald Frame and starring Jamie Glover and Robin Weaver.
Other parts played by members of the cast.
Producer/Director: David Ian Neville.
FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b07v33l8)
Snowdon
Peter Gibbs presents the horticultural panel programme from Snowdon. James Wong, Chris Beardshaw and Pippa Greenwood answer questions from atop the mountain.
Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 15:45 Tapestry (b07v34ty)
A divorced actress is facing her 50th birthday and decides it is time to spread her wings. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she opts for a holiday in New Mexico. But, without warning, a chance encounter throws her back into an episode from her past, from which she will never escape.
Radio 4 has commissioned this new story by the leading actress Stephanie Cole, who also reads it.
Produced by David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 16:00 Last Word (b07v34v0)
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
FRI 16:30 Feedback (b07v34v2)
Radio 4's forum for comments, queries, criticisms and congratulations.
FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b07v35vr)
Georgia and Clive - Having to Let Go
Fi Glover with a conversation between a couple who form strong attachments to the children they care for, and find the goodbyes painful, even though they know they are necessary. 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 (b07tqq6d)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b07tqq6g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b07v35vt)
Series 91, Episode 2
Susan Calman, Hugo Rifkind and Andy Hamilton join Chairman Miles Jupp, for the latest edition of the long-running satirical quiz of the week's news.
Producer: Paul Sheehan.
A BBC Studios Production.
FRI 19:00 The Archers (b07v35vw)
Pat and Ursula clash, and Rob thinks about his new job.
FRI 19:15 Front Row (b07tqq6j)
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
FRI 19:45 Letters from Inside (b07v35vy)
Jeanette Winterson
Writers from around the world read letters on the theme of imprisonment, inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.
Novelist Jeanette Winterson takes Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale as the raw materials of her writing. The letter is addressed to Perdita, born in prison where her father has sent her mother because he wrongly believes she has been unfaithful to him.
Oscar Wilde was incarcerated in Reading Prison between 1895 and 1897, enduring the Separate System, a harsh penal regime designed to eliminate any contact between prisoners. Wilde's imprisonment led to one of his last great works - De Profundis, an extended letter to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas written by Wilde in his prison cell.
In Autumn 2016, Reading prison will open to the public for the first time for an Artangel project in which a 30-strong showcase of artists and writers share works in response to Wilde's letter. Letter from Inside is part of a series of broadcasts related to Wilde's time in Reading Prison.
A new reading of De Profundis: Oscar Wilde's Letter from Inside, was broadcast on Radio 4 on 11th September at
4pm.
Produced by Barney Rowntree and Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b07v35w0)
Angela Eagle MP, Paul Mason
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Warwick Business School with a panel including Angela Eagle MP and Paul Mason.
FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b07v36ks)
A reflection on a topical issue.
FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b07ksx4c)
12-16 September 1916
In the week in 1916 when tanks were deployed for the first time with great optimism, it's a week of decisive action in Folkestone.
Written by Mike Walker
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole
Story-led by Katie Hims
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
FRI 21:58 Weather (b07tqq6l)
The latest weather forecast.
FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b07tqq6n)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b07w1rzq)
Anatomy of a Soldier, Episode 5
Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops in Afghanistan. Two boys are growing up there, sharing a prized bike and flying kites, before finding themselves separated once the soldiers appear in the countryside.
On all sides of this conflict, people are about to be caught up in the violence - from the man who trains one boy to fight the infidel invaders to Barnes' family waiting for him to return home.
We see them not as they see themselves, but as all the objects surrounding them do - shoes and combat boots, wheelchairs and wheelbarrows, a bag of fertiliser, an exploding IED and the medical implements that are subsequently employed.
Anatomy of a Soldier is based on the author's experience of being in a war zone and his journey of survival against all the odds.
Written by Harry Parker
Read by Paul Bazely
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b07v0fv2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
16:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b07v36kw)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b07v36l0)
Zoe and Cameron - Perhaps I'll Join the Quidditch Team
Fi Glover introduces a conversation between a young couple anticipating the changes coming their way as they begin student life. 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.