SATURDAY 28 JANUARY 2017

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b0890kyp)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b08bqxg2)
The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Miserables, Episode 5

As Victor Hugo finishes the book and it is launched to huge acclaim, David Bellos offers insights into the politics and morality of the novel - as serious and complex as it is perennially popular.

War and Peace, Great Expectations, Crime and Punishment were all published in the same decade, yet only Les Misérables can stand as the novel of the nineteenth century. How did Victor Hugo's epic work come to be the most widely read and frequently adapted story of all time? And why is its message just as important for our century as it was for his own?

Author David Bellos tells the compelling story of The Novel of the Century.

Reader: Daniel Weyman
Abridged by Eileen Horne
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b0890kyr)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b0890kyt)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.

SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b0890kyw)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b0890kyy)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08bbq2f)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

SAT 05:45 iPM (b08bbq2h)
Why I bought my daughter drugs

The programme that starts with its listeners.

SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b0890kz0)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SAT 06:04 Weather (b0890kz2)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 06:07 Open Country (b08bbcyz)
Underground Bristol

Think of Bristol and the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge and St Mary Redcliffe church may be on your list to visit. But what lies beneath? Tunnels, caves and waterways lie hidden, explored by some and missed by many. For those who know tickets on rare open days are snapped up like hot cakes. Helen Mark invites you to explore some of these gems that lie out of sight to explore the myth and history behind them.

She starts at the Redcliffe Caves whose 'rabbit warren' under the streets above reveals more about the city's ancient trades but has a modern life as a film set and theatre location. Yet the magical Goldney Grotto - lined with shells from faraway lands - could conjure images of fairytales but has its closest connection to Robinson Crusoe. While Clifton Rocks Railway - which had to remain hidden within the gorge cliffs - failed as a business, it had two new lives helping to save the lives of others.

No wonder there's so much curiosity about these hidden places!

Presented by Helen Mark
Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b0890kz6)
UK fisheries after Brexit - the view from Peterhead

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.

SAT 06:57 Weather (b0890kz8)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 07:00 Today (b08byfhl)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b0890kzb)
Martin Kemp

Extraordinary stories, unusual people and a sideways look at the world.

SAT 10:30 The Kitchen Cabinet (b08byfhn)
Series 15, Woburn Abbey

Jay Rayner and his panel of cooking experts are at Woburn Abbey. Answering the questions this week are Andi Oliver, Tim Hayward, Henry Dimbleby and Professor Barry Smith.

Produced by Darby Dorras
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

Food consultant: Anna Colquhoun

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

SAT 11:00 Week in Westminster (b08byfhq)
Peter Oborne of the Daily Mail looks behind the scenes at Westminster. The editor is Peter Mulligan.

SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b0890kzd)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.

SAT 12:00 News Summary (b0890kzg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 12:04 Money Box (b08byfhs)
Tax simplification. It's complicated

The latest news from the world of personal finance.

SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b08bbnc4)
Series 92, Episode 4

Miles Jupp chews the headline fat with Jeremy Hardy, Zoe Lyons, Helen Lewis and Vicki Pepperdine.

The team track Theresa May's busy week: from the UK Supreme Court to Washington via a Trident rocket (not literally). Contains added Morris Dancing.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.

SAT 12:57 Weather (b0890kzj)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 13:00 News (b0890kzl)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b08bbpr3)
Stella Creasy MP, Martin Lewis, Penny Mordaunt MP, Shanker Singham.

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate and discussion from Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex with the Labour MP Stella Creasy MP, the founder and chair of moneysavingexpert.com Martin Lewis, Disabilities Minister Penny Mordaunt MP and trade expert Shanker Singham.

SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b0890kzn)
Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
Presented by Julian Worricker
Producer Beverley Purcell
Any Answers after the Saturday broadcast of Any Questions? Lines open at 1230
Call 03700 100 444. Email any.answers@bbc.co.uk. Tweet,#BBCAQ. Follow us @bbcanyquestions.

SAT 14:30 Drama (b08bygsf)
Inspector Chen Novels, A Case of Two Cities

by Qiu Xiaolong dramatised by John Harvey

When the head of the Shanghai anti-corruption squad is found dead in compromising circumstances Inspector Chen is drafted in as "Special Envoy to the Emperor with an Imperial Sword".


Director: David Hunter.

SAT 15:30 Generation Grime (b08bl167)
Radio 4 explores why the music genre of Grime has blown up in the UK in the last few years by following Wales' Astroid Boys on their recent UK tour. Once just the sound of the London underground, Grime's popularity has spread all over the country and is now the biggest youth culture since Punk. Cardiff's Astroid Boys are set to become Grime's next big thing - they've just signed a record deal with Sony imprint Music For Nations and their track Dusted has been picked up by wrestling giants WWE as their new anthem. The band and their fans tell us in their own words how this very British music scene has influenced their lives and given them a much needed voice.

SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b0890kzr)
Amber Riley, Mary Berry, 1967 Abortion Act

Gina Miller talks about the Brexit decision in the Supreme Court and the impact of the campaign on her.

US actress and singer Amber Riley joins Jenni to talk about her role as Effie White in the West End musical Dreamgirls and being a judge on BBC One's talent show Let it Shine.

Professor Deborah Lipstadt was sued by the historian David Irving for calling him a holocaust denier. As a new film about the trial is released she tells us why she thinks the judgment is even more relevant in our 'post-truth' times.

We marked fifty years since the 1967 Abortion Act by talking to Dilys Cossey and Diane Munday about why they campaigned to make abortion safe, free and accessible. Plus we hear a 1964 interview from the Woman's Hour archive with a woman from Newcastle who had a back street abortion.

Mary Berry comes into the Woman's Hour studio to talk about the best recipes in her 60 year career, as well as life after Bake Off. She bakes us her Chocolate Reflection Cake and Scots Whisky Cream pudding.

And the lives of Victorian women are revealed using their bodily secrets to tell their stories according to Kathryn Hughes' new book 'Victorians Undone. We find out what living in a Victorian body was really like.

Presented by Jane Garvey
Producer: Sophie Powling
Editor: Jane Thurlow.

SAT 17:00 PM (b0890kzt)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.

SAT 17:30 The Bottom Line (b08bbcz6)
Negotiating a Trade Deal

Brexit means the UK government will have to negotiate trade agreements with the EU and the rest of the world. Trade deal experts share their tips with presenter Evan Davis.

Guests include:

Janice Charette, Canadian High Commissioner to the UK
Tim Cullen, founder and director of Oxford Programme on Negotiation

Producer: Julie Ball.

SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b0890kzw)
The latest shipping forecast.

SAT 17:57 Weather (b0890kzy)
The latest weather forecast.

SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b0890l00)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b0890l02)
Mark Thomas, Vicky McClure, Ken Hom, Bilal Zafar, Sampha, Loyle Carner, Scottee, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Scottee are joined by Vicky McClure, Ken Hom, Mark Thomas and Bilal Zafar for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from Sampha and Loyle Carner.

Producer: Sukey Firth.

SAT 19:00 Profile (b08byj3g)
Simon Stevens

Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.

SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b0890l04)
Christine,The Nix, Estorick Collection, Death Takes a Holiday, Zelda Fitzgerald

A review of the week's cultural highlights.

SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b01cj2lf)
The Politics of Art

To mark the death earlier this month of the broadcaster and author, John Berger, "Archive on 4" rebroadcasts Tim Marlow's 2012 programme assessing Berger's ground-breaking 1972 BBC-2 series on art and society called "Ways of Seeing".

In the programme, Tim shows how Berger's "Ways of Seeing" challenged, in a revolutionary way, popular ideas about paintings. He reveals how the series contributed significantly to broader social change by offering a compelling new approach to understanding the relationship between painting and wider society. And Tim also considers what the legacy of the series has been for public perceptions of art.

John Berger's decision to wear brightly coloured, open-necked shirts to present the series was arresting enough. But it was his opening-frame vandalism of Botticelli's celebrated canvas "Venus and Mars" from the National Gallery which broke new ground. Berger argued that paintings had been stripped of their context and meaning to raise money for institutions through sales of reproductions. The pictures needed to be seen afresh.

In the febrile political and social atmosphere of the early Seventies in Britain, "Ways of Seeing" argued powerfully, as we hear in extracts from programmes across the series, for understanding art in a far more political way. Tim shows how "Ways of Seeing" was engaged, passionate and up-to-date, explicitly seeking out the opinions of those - notably women and children - whose views had until then been largely ignored. But how well does it stand the test of time?

Producer: Simon Coates.

SAT 21:00 Drama (b0520thv)
Reading Europe - France: Three Strong Women, Episode 2

Reading Europe - France: Three Strong Women - over the next 18 months Radio 4 takes you on a journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.

In this award winning and best-selling French novel Marie NDiaye explores the immigrant experience and the power of humanity. Caught between France and Africa, three women take flight, and their lives are altered forever.

Part 2

Fanta's story continues, as the lies her husband Rudy told in Senegal begin to catch up with them both. Can Rudy hold on to his life in France or will he be destined to follow his father's murderous path?

Back in Dakar a penniless widow, Khady Demba, is forced to join the masses of migrants embarking on a terrifying journey to reach European shores.

Adapted for radio by Pat Cumper
From a translation by John Fletcher.

Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production

Marie NDiaye is French novelist and playwright. She is the first black woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize - the Prix Goncourt - for Three Strong Women in 2009. The novel was also long-listed for The 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award and it was a fianlist for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize.

SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b0890l06)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.

SAT 22:15 FutureProofing (b08bb33g)
Sport

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson investigate the future of sport in the digital age. How will physical activity and organised sport be viewed in the years to come?

FutureProofing looks at how new technology could change not just what it means to be an athlete but also athletes' actual bodies, and asks what role sports will play in our culture in the decades ahead.

Producer: Faizal Farook.

SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b08b7svh)
Heat 1, 2017

(1/17)
Russell Davies launches the 2017 season of the perennial general knowledge tournament, welcoming the first four contenders to the BBC's Maida Vale studios. In the opening contest they hail from London, Carlisle, Richmond in Surrey and Elgin on the Moray Firth. Over the next few months a total of 48 hopeful contestants will be whittled down to 16 semi-finalists and, eventually, four Finalists - the prize being the title of 64th BBC Brain of Britain.

Each week there'll also be a chance, as always, for a listener to win a prize by suggesting a pair of devious questions with which to 'Beat the Brains'.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

SAT 23:30 Can yr Adar - Song of the Birds (b08b3k7y)
Singer-songwriter Kizzy Crawford returns to the RSPB nature reserve at Carngafallt in Mid Wales, where she was inspired to create "Can Yr Adar - Birdsong" with pianist and composer, Gwilym Simcock, and members of Sinfonia Cymru. Kizzy and Gwilym share how they wove music out of the landscape and wildlife she found at Wales's own 'Celtic rainforest', and they open a window on the hidden processes of creation, collaboration and communication that gave birth to a brand new work of art.


SUNDAY 29 JANUARY 2017

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b08bynqq)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

SUN 00:30 Short Rides in Fast Machines (b04pcd4x)
The Bullet Racers

A multi-contributor series of specially-commissioned radio stories about speed.

Every generation observes that life is getting faster - the pace of change, of action, or communication. Our cars, trains, boats and planes are faster than ever. And as every world-record on the athletic track confirms, we're still getting faster ourselves. The title is inspired by the minimalist composition by John Adams ('Short Ride In A Fast Machine').

Episode 1:
The Bullet Racers by Adam Marek
A reporter visits the village of Thaxtum-cum-Shyne to investigate reports of a strange occurrence at the annual race.

Adam Marek is the award-winning writer of two short story collections - 'Instruction Manual For Swallowing' and 'The Stone Thrower'. He won the 2011 Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship and was shortlisted for the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. His stories have appeared in many magazines, including Prospect and The Sunday Times Magazine, and in many anthologies such as Lemistry, Biopunk and The Best British Short Stories 2011. Five of Adam's published stories were broadcast on Radio 4Extra as 'The Stories Of Adam Marek' in March 2014

Reader: Ben Crowe

Produced by Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08bynqs)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08bynqv)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service. BBC Radio 4 resumes at 5.20am.

SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08bynqx)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b08bynqz)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b08byvbk)
St Mary le Ghyll, Barnoldswick

This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St Mary le Ghyll Church in Barnoldswick, Lancashire. Founded in 1157 by monks from Kirkstall Abbey, the tower was added in 1524, but it wasn't until 1723 that the community was able to hang three bells cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester. Last century the bells fell into disuse but in 2010, sufficient funds were raised to augment them to a peal of six. So we hear them now ringing Barnoldswick Treble Bob Minor.

SUN 05:45 Profile (b08byj3g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b08bynr1)
The latest national and international news.

SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b08bynr3)
Tales from the Forest

Why do forests inspire such strong emotions? To many, they are dark, dangerous and wild, to some they are places of refuge and to others they are a source of life. Mark Tully considers these conflicting responses to the forest in a range of musical and literary tales from all over the world.

From the forests of Scandinavia to the jungles of India, and from British woodlands to South American rain forests, Mark collects tales of trees that talk to each other, forest gods and places of ultimate meditation in an investigation of our ancient relationship with the woods.

The readers are Claire Vousden, Francis Cadder and Vincent Ebrahim.

Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling

A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b08byvbv)
The Prairies in Winter

Tom Heap meets Humphrey and Terry Banack who farm 7000 acres of prime Canadian prairie, producing the wheat that makes the bread on Britain's supermarket shelves.

Three combine harvesters and a clutch of huge tractors allow them to farm this vast Alberta landscape of wheat, barley and oil seed rape as far as the sharpest eye can see. In winter the mercury can dip to minus twenty degrees but the hot summer sun produces some of the best wheat yields in the world. Tom and the Banacks discuss farming on an enormous scale and the future of Canada's exports as world trade looks set to enter an age of protectionism.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.

SUN 06:57 Weather (b08bynr5)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b08bynr7)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SUN 07:10 Sunday (b08bynr9)
Crisis response chaplains help kidnapped seafarers; Archbishop Barry Morgan retires; Reaction to 'Shared Conversations'

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.

SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b08byvc0)
Friends of the Elderly

Don, a beneficiary and volunteer for Friends of the Elderly, makes the Radio 4 Appeal on their behalf.

Registered Charity Number 226064
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 'Friends of the Elderly'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Friends of the Elderly'.

SUN 07:57 Weather (b08bynrc)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b08bynrf)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.

SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b08byvc2)
Light for Our Darkness

On the fourth Sunday in Epiphany, and looking ahead to Candlemas, The Archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev. Dr. Barry Morgan, in the week he steps down as the longest serving Archbishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, reflects on navigating the areas of light and darkness in our lives. The live service from the City Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Cardiff, is led by the Rev. Canon Dr. Sarah Rowland Jones. David Michael Leggett directs the Cardiff Ardwyn Singers, accompanied on the organ by Janice Ball. Music includes Christ Is the World's True Light (Nun Danket); Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness (Farrell); Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies (Heathlands); Gladsome Light by Louis Bourgeois and Stanford's Nunc Dimittis in C. Producer: Karen Walker.

SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b08bbpr5)
Teaching to the test

Will Self says it's time for schools to stop "teaching to the test".

He argues that in the contemporary wired world, "it seems obvious that young people need more than ever to know how to think outside the boxes, rather than simply tick them".

There's no reason, he says, to shackle children "to the go-round of memorization and regugitation".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.

SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b03x474w)
Rook

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

Bill Oddie presents the rook. High in the treetops buffeted by March winds, rooks are gathering twigs to build their untidy nests. The bustle of a rookery is one of the classic sounds of the UK countryside, especially in farming areas, where rooks are in their element, probing the pastures and ploughed fields with long pickaxe bills.

SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b08bynrh)
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell. Details of organisations offering information and support with addiction are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 155 947.

SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b08bynrk)
Justin spreads the word, and Toby gets a surprise invite.

SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b08bz0rz)
David Beckham

David Beckham is Kirsty Young's guest as Desert Island Discs celebrates its 75th Anniversary.

As a professional footballer he's the only Englishman to win the league titles in England, Spain, the US and France. He spent the bulk of his career as a midfielder for Manchester United, winning the Treble - Premiership, FA Cup and Champions League - in 1999, before moving to Real Madrid in 2003. He headed to the US to play for LA Galaxy in 2007, and ended his career at Paris Saint-Germain in 2013, retiring in May that year.

Born and raised in East London, the middle child of Ted and Sandra, David Beckham discovered football early and spent hours kicking a ball around at the local park with his father. At the age of seven, he played for his first team, Ridgeway Rovers, before coming to the attention of Manchester United while attending the Bobby Charlton Soccer School. He became a trainee with Manchester United in 1991, and progressed to make 265 first team appearances, winning the Premier League six times, the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Champions League once. He played for England from 1996 to 2009 and captained the side for six years.

He has been married to Victoria Adams - known as Posh from the Spice Girls - since 1999 and they have four children. Since retiring from professional football in 2013, David has spent more time on his work with UNICEF which he has supported since 2005.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

SUN 12:00 News Summary (b08bynrm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 12:04 The Museum of Curiosity (b08b7t22)
Series 10, Episode 3

This week, Professor John Lloyd his curator Jo Brand welcome a fashion historian with a taste for nautical chic, Amber Butchart; a quizzer with a business head and 57 trillion entries in his address book, Jack Waley-Cohen; and a comedian who's as big Down Under as he is internationally, Jimeoin.
This week, the Museum's guests investigate a failed cure for malaria that made the world go crazy for mauve; an inventive use of adverbs that will obsess inventive punsters; and a new unit of velocity for compressed curd.
Researched by Anne Miller of QI and Mike Turner.

The production coordinator was Sophie Richardson.

The producers were Richard Turner and James Harkin.

It was a BBC Studios Production.

SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b08bz0s2)
Leah Chase: The cook who changed America

Meet 94 four year old Leah Chase. For seventy years she has led the kitchen at New Orleans famous Dooky Chase restaurant. During her time she's hosted US Presidents, and civil rights activists, and music legends from Ray Charles to Michael Jackson. Her specialty is serving creole food specialties like gumbo, fried chicken and sweet potatoes. Dan Saladino sits down with Leah as she tells her story through the food she's cooked and asks whether a restaurant can change the course of a country.

SUN 12:57 Weather (b08bynrp)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b08bynrr)
Global news and analysis.

SUN 13:30 From Our Home Correspondent (b08bz0s4)
In this month's programme featuring dispatches from journalists and writers around the country, Mishal Husain first introduces a reflection from the BBC's Home Affairs correspondent, Dominic Casciani on the Supreme Court's hearings and ruling on the Government's Brexit appeal. We also hear about how villagers in North Wales coped when their local council altered the fortnightly refuse collection to a monthly one - a big change that will affect more and more people across the country this year. Lesley Curwen explains why she finds a sale at her local auction rooms so hard to resist - and how the businesses manage to stay in business despite fierce online competition. Hull-based writer Russ Litten tells the story of how a prisoner who doesn't know when he'll be released tries to remain involved with celebrations of his daughter's birthday. And Kelly Stevens reveals how a fairy story staged close to her Cornish home stirs powerful memories of a shattering family tragedy.

Producer Simon Coates.

SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08bbjvn)
Hull - City of Culture 2017

Eric Robson and the panel visit Hull, the UK's City of Culture 2017.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hannah Newton

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b08bz3ht)
Sunday Omnibus - We All Need Support

Fi Glover with conversations between those who have experienced physical and mental illness, difficulties at work and life on the streets and the friends who have supported them. All in the Omnibus edition of the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

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

Producer: Marya Burgess.

SUN 15:00 Drama (b08bz3hw)
Aurora Leigh

Aurora Leigh

Aurora Leigh is a talented young poet. Determined not to conform to society's expectations and instead pursue literary ambitions, she shuns marriage in order to navigate her own path in life. Dramatised from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic poem by Michael Symmons Roberts.

Directed by Charlotte Riches.

SUN 16:00 Open Book (b08bz3hy)
Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi's debut novel Homegoing is already one of the most talked about debuts of 2017. She joins Mariella Frostrup to talk about this tale of two sisters with strikingly different destinies - one sold into slavery, the other a slave trader's wife - and the way their lives reverberate through the generations.

We open the doors to our Reading Clinic with the writer of King Arthur Kevin Crossley-Holland, who chooses his favourite books on the legendary figure of Merlin.

Award winning novelist AL Kennedy talks about her first book for children, Uncle Shawn and Bill and the Almost Entirely Unplanned Adventure and we have our monthly recommendation from inside the publishing industry.

SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b08bz3j0)
Poems for Dark Days

Roger McGough presents a selection of poems for dark days: poems to get you through the saggy bit of the year between Christmas and spring, to sustain us during the dark days of late winter, and to bring comfort and cheer (whether our dark days be actual, personal or political). Listener requests for poems by Raymond Carver, Kathleen Jamie, WH Auden, Emily Dickinson and many more are read by Siobhan Redmond and Peter Marinker.

Producer: Mair Bosworth.

SUN 17:00 File on 4 (b08b7wd7)
The Cost of a Kidney

In the UK three people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. People from ethnic minorities face a particular shortage of donors - the NHS aims to achieve 80% consent rates by 2020, but at the moment only 34% of families from ethnic minorities consent to donate organs when asked, and rates of living donation have started to fall.

File on 4 finds that a small number of patients are so desperate they will risk their health by looking for a kidney abroad. Most British patients head to Pakistan, where an equally desperate group of people are coerced into giving up their kidneys, placing their lives in the hands of organ traffickers.

But now a new, sinister trade is emerging in Pakistan. In October Pakistani police raided an apartment building in Rawalpindi and behind a metal grill, found 24 terrified people locked inside. They had been lured with offers of jobs, but when they arrived were kidnapped and told a kidney would be removed.

As a worldwide shortage of organs fuels an increase in transplant tourism, Allan Urry, working in conjunction with local journalist Nosheen Abbas hears from the people caught up in this illegal trade and asks whether enough is being done to prevent it.

Reporters: Allan Urry with Nosheen Abbas
Producer: Ruth Evans
Researcher: Usman Zahid.

SUN 17:40 Profile (b08byj3g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b08bynrt)
The latest shipping forecast.

SUN 17:57 Weather (b08bynrw)
The latest weather forecast.

SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08bynry)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b08byns0)
Helen Lederer

This week we peek into Robbie Burns's hangover from hell and how to apologise for bad behaviour, a highly successful, if surprising, pioneering transplant from ones persons nether regions to another - and how sexing up vernacular can both sell and surprise - whether its carrots in a bottle or John Humphries selling 'life' as the new must have ...whatever next?
There's music and dance plus Steven K Amos's guide to failing exams in style. This week's iPlayer pick comes from David Sedaris.

Presenter: Helen Lederer
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production Support: Kay Bishton.

SUN 19:00 The Archers (b08bz3j2)
Lilian wants to hear all, and Toby has got places to be.

SUN 19:15 Robert Newman's Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution (b06mts69)
One of Britain's finest comedians, Rob Newman returns to Radio 4 with a witty, fact-packed series mixing stand-up and sketches, challenging notions of Survival of the Fittest and The Selfish Gene with a new theory that's equal parts enlightening and hilarious.

Rob is our guide on a journey through a unique audio A-Z of nature that takes in everything from altruistic amoebae and dancing squid to Richard Dawkins wrestling naked with a postal worker.

Piecing these fragments together allows Rob to correct some major distortions of Darwinism, as well as rejig the theory of natural selection in the light of what we now know about epigenetics, mirror neurons and the Flintstones.

Written by Rob Newman
Starring Claire Price, with Jenni Murray as the voice of the Encyclopaedia.

Producer: Jon Harvey
Executive Producer: Richard Wilson
A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 19:45 The Poet and the Echo (b08bz3j4)
Series 1, Transformations

5 writers choose 5 poems as inspiration for new stories.

Episode 2/5

Transformations

A young woman finds herself transformed into a tree.

An entrancing story inspired by Thomas Hardy's poem about life after death. By the award-winning playwright, Oliver Emanuel.

Credits

Writer ..... Oliver Emanuel
Reader ..... Shauna Macdonald
Producer ..... Kirsty Williams

A BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 20:00 Feedback (b08bbnc0)
Roger Bolton hears from listeners who claim the BBC may be out of step with popular opinion, and staffed by people from privileged middle-class backgrounds. Following Radio 4's recent series The New World, Commissioning Editor Mohit Bakaya and one of the presenters, Jo Fidgen meet some of those listeners to discuss their thoughts about the series and its ideological starting points.

GF Newman's The Corrupted has just finished its third series of ten episodes, broadcast across two weeks. It's a gritty saga of crime and corruption among police and the corridors of power through the decades - most recently, the 1970s. It was loved by many, including Feedback listener David Dent - although he had some questions about the combination of real-life and fictional characters. He and Roger discuss walking the dramatic line with producer Clive Brill.

Radio 2's live night-time programme After Midnight ends this weekend much to the disappointment of many listeners. Will that be to Radio 5Live's gain? Reporter Rob Crossan meets Dotun Adebayo and Rhod Sharp, the presenters of 5 Live's overnight show, Up All Night.

Presenter: Roger Bolton
Producer: Karen Pirie
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

SUN 20:30 Last Word (b08bbnby)
Tam Dalyell MP, Victor Lownes, Babette Cole, Zhou Youguang, Gorden Kaye

Matthew Bannister on

The Labour MP Tam Dalyell who asked the West Lothian Question and pursued Margaret Thatcher over the sinking of the Belgrano.

Victor Lownes who ran Playboy's clubs in the UK - and lived up to the magazine's lifestyle and values.

Children's author Babette Cole, best known for writing and illustrating Princess Smartypants and The Trouble with Mum.

The Chinese economist and linguistics expert Zhou Youguang who came up with the Pinyin system of turning Chinese characters into Roman letters.

And the actor Gorden Kaye, best known for playing the cafe owner Rene in the comedy series 'Allo 'Allo.

Producer: Neil George.

SUN 21:00 Money Box (b08byfhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]

SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b08byvc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]

SUN 21:30 Analysis (b08b7ttp)
Hospital Trust?

Is public affection for the NHS preventing it from becoming fit for the future? Polling suggests that despite many complaints about the public health service, it is regarded as a much-loved and uniquely British institution. That's why for decades, it has been an article of faith among politicians that closing down hospitals or major medical services is close to electoral suicide. Received wisdom is that members of the public are dogmatically attached to their local hospitals. But could our attachment be more than just dogma? And what happens when politicians and professionals believe they know what needs to change - but the public come to an altogether different answer? Amid a time of rising demand, rising costs, and changing priorities, Sonia Sodha of The Observer explores the subtle relationship between public opinion and healthcare management.
Producer: Gemma Newby.

SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b08byns2)
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.

SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b08bbcz1)
Danny Boyle; Rebecca Hall

With Francine Stock

Danny Boyle revisits Trainspotting for its sequel T2 and reveals why he's been watching the original over his daughters' shoulders

Rebecca Hall reveals how she got under the skin of a newsreader who shot herself live on air, for her real-life drama Christine.

Film director Shola Amoo reports from the Sundance Festival as the British film industry tries to make inroads in the American market.

SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b08bynr3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]


MONDAY 30 JANUARY 2017

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b08bynyb)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b08bb20j)
Health divides - Counting global health

Health divides: Where we live can kill us. Americans live 3 years less than their counterparts in France and Sweden. Scottish men survive 2 years less than English men. Across Europe, women in the poorest communities may live 10 years less than those in the richest. People who live just a few miles apart can have gaps in life expectancy of up to 25 years. Laurie Taylor talks to Clara Bambra, Professor of Public Health Newcastle University Medical School, whose research draws on international case studies to examine the cause of these health inequalities and to consider what changes would be needed so that geographical location need not be a matter of life or death.
Global health: moving beyond metrics - From maternal mortality to malaria, statistical methods are used to measure sickness, injury and suffering across the world. But Vincanne Adams, Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California, argues that such well-intentioned 'evidence based' interventions often fail. Drawing on rich case histories from countries including Nigeria and Haiti, she argues that we are missing other ways of knowing and tackling global health problems.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b08byvbk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]

MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08bynyf)
The latest shipping forecast.

MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08bynyh)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08bynyk)
The latest shipping forecast.

MON 05:30 News Briefing (b08bynym)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08d8x5y)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

MON 05:45 Farming Today (b08bynyp)
Avian flu, wool mattresses and the state of British sheep farming

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Vernon Harwood.

MON 05:56 Weather (b08bynys)
The latest weather forecast for farmers.

MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b038qhyz)
Robin

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

Brett Westwood presents the robin. The autumn song of the Robin is the soundtrack to shortening days, gathering mists and ripening fruit. Robins sing in spring but their autumn song is different. It may sound melancholy to us but for the Robin it has clear purpose - to defend the winter territories that male and female robins establish separately after they've moulted.

MON 06:00 Today (b08bynyw)
News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

MON 09:00 Start the Week (b08bynyy)
Turkey: Past and Present

On Start the Week Amol Rajan discusses Turkey past and present with the authors Elif Shafak and Kaya Genç, Chatham House's Fadi Hakura and the historian Bettany Hughes. Shafak's new novel, The Three Daughters of Eve, moves between Turkey and Britain, and is a tale of friendship, faith and betrayal. It portrays Turkey as a country riven by deep divisions in society, politics and religion. Kaya Genç reports from across Turkey, exploring the lives of the country's angry young people on both sides of the political divide, while Fadi Hakura from Chatham House considers Turkey's changing relations with the outside world amid increasing nationalist feeling and isolationism. Bettany Hughes's biography of Istanbul is the story of three cities - Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul - and reveals a city that's been at the heart of political life between the East and the West for the last eight thousand years.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b08bz7ht)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, Episode 1

"There was no better moment to be born, if you wanted to change the world by building things, than Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century."

The first full modern biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son who changed the world with his revolutionary engineering. Telford's life spanned a fascinating time in British history: born in post-Union, post-Enlightenment Scotland, Telford forged a successful career in London and then across the country working on projects that set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

Born in the Scottish Borders in 1757, Telford's beginnings were not auspicious. But he gained a fine education in his village school and, in that egalitarian time and place, mixed there with children from all different classes. Indeed, contacts from his schooldays played a key role in helping him to become established as one of Britain's leading engineers.

A stonemason turned architect turned engineer Telford built churches, harbours, canals, docks and the famously vertiginous Pontcysyllte aqueduct in Wales. He invented the modern road and created the backbone of our national road network. His bridges are some of the most dramatic and beautiful ever built, most of all the Menai Bridge, which spans the dangerous channel between the mainland and Anglesey. Astonishingly, gratifyingly, almost everything he built remains in use today.

Reader: Robin Laing

Writer: Julian Glover

Abridger: David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08bynz0)
Talking to yourself, Tyne Daly, Huge age gaps between siblings

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

MON 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08bz7hw)
Clutch, Throttle, Brake, Monday

Christopher William Hill's new comedy drama is about driving lessons, dominant mothers and unexpected friendships.

Nat, a harassed middle-aged teacher, who sees her life rapidly drifting away from her, is desperate to pass her driving test on the anniversary of her father's death. It is his money that has helped pay for her instruction.

Ken, her much older driving instructor, has understandable doubts about his pupil's chances. But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to his client. Their unlikely friendship develops over the course of Nat's final week before her test - despite, or perhaps because of, the distractions provided by Sam's needy and larger-than-life mother.

Original Music: David Chilton
Director: Gordon House

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 11:00 The Untold (b08bz7hz)
The Process

Irene is 73. She has severe kidney failure. She is frail, and walks with a stick. And she may be about to be deported.

Grace Dent gets inside the complex deportation process with a family stuck right in the middle of it, through the highs and the lows, the emotional turmoil, the applications and appeals and the long monotonous waiting.

Grandmother Irene first came to the UK 4 years ago, in 2012, to visit her family. She travelled from South Africa on a 6 month tourist visa and settled in at the family home in North Bristol. Soon after arriving however she fell ill, was rushed to hospital, and was put on emergency dialysis for acute renal failure. This treatment is keeping her alive, and it is all being provided by the NHS. Her family are British. But Irene is not. So she is here illegally, and there's no guarantee she can stay.

This is the story of a short drive to a police station and a meeting with immigration officers, in which the future of a family hangs in the balance.

Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.

MON 11:30 Tom Wrigglesworth's Hang-Ups (b04tjft4)
Series 2, Earning Your Corn

Tom's mum is not best pleased when Tom's dad pressgangs her into helping out at a celebration he's planning to celebrate 168 years since the repeal of the Corn Laws ("Well, it'd be tempting fate to hold on for the bicentennary") and they've chosen the Toby Carvery as a suitable dining venue.

Meanwhile, Tom has decided to buy a flat in London, much to his gran's chagrin.

MON 12:00 News Summary (b08bynz3)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 12:04 Home Front (b083lkx1)
30 January 1917 - Albert Wilson

On this day in 1917, a deputation of suffragettes went to Downing Street to discuss the extension of the vote, but the prime minister refused to meet with them, and in Tynemouth, Albert Wilson is also disappointed.

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

MON 12:15 You and Yours (b08bynz5)
Consumer affairs programme.

MON 12:57 Weather (b08bynz8)
The latest weather forecast.

MON 13:00 World at One (b08bynzb)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

MON 13:45 Against the Grain (b08bz7j6)
Series 1, Sedgemoor Sale

Charlotte Smith visits Sedgemoor Auction Centre in Somerset just by the M5 motorway, one of the regional marts which have replaced small town and village livestock markets. And this place is more important than ever as a social hub, she's told. Without it, one farmer says, he wouldn't see another farmer all week. At Sedgemoor, Charlotte hears typical tales of modern farming: the difficulties of making a living on rented land, farmers getting to grips with new scientific data, and farming electricity - is solar saving the small farmer?

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

MON 14:00 The Archers (b08bz3j2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]

MON 14:15 Drama (b07wtd70)
Comment Is Free

Everybody hates Alistair Cooper and they're not afraid of saying it.

Starring Rachael Stirling (Detectorists, Capital) and Tobias Menzies (Games of Thrones, Outlander) alongside a cast of hundreds, Hilary Cooper watches her husband's story get chewed up and spat out by an unscrupulous media and a divided public. The whole nation competes to be the quickest to comment in this thrilling portrayal of the sound and fury of modern British politics.

Written by James Fritz. Produced and directed by Becky Ripley.

MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b08bz7yb)
Heat 2, 2017

(2/17)
Russell Davies asks the questions in the longest-running general knowledge contest of them all, as four more competitors gather at the BBC's Maida Vale studios for the second heat of 2017. Literature, history, physics, geography, sport, popular music and current affairs all crop up within the first few minutes. In Brain of Britain you never know how the questions will fall, and a few educated guesses can make all the difference. Today's winner will automatically go through to the semi-finals in the spring.

As always, a listener also stands to win a prize by suggesting an ingenious pair of questions with which to try and 'Beat the Brains'.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.

MON 15:30 Food Programme (b08bz0s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]

MON 16:00 I Was... (b08bzccz)
Series 3, Lindsay Kemp's Ballerina

Andrew McGibbon analyses great artists at a significant time in their careers, but from the perspective of someone who worked for them, inspired them, employed them or even did their job for them while no one was looking.

Naomi Sorkin was Lindsay Kemp's ballerina on an outrageous European tour with the mime and dance impresario in the early 1980s. Having been trained in classical ballet at The American Ballet company in New York, one of the world's finest, Naomi was thrust into Lindsay's colourful, joyously camp and profoundly sexual mime theatre - a total change of direction.

Today, she teaches ballet and is a high end interior designer - but, back then, Naomi's decision to dance improvised ballet with Lindsay's touring company forced her to reassess her career by embracing Kemp's whirlwind of mime, dance and on stage debauchery.

It was also Lindsay Kemp who famously taught David Bowie his most striking moves and co-created with him the famous Ziggy Stardust stage show. Kemp continues to tour across the world.

Written and Presented by Andrew McGibbon
Produced by Nick Romero and Andrew McGibbon

A Curtains For Radio production for BBC Radio 4.

MON 16:30 The Infinite Monkey Cage (b08bzcd1)
Series 15, Science's Epic Fails

Science's Epic Fails

Brian Cox and Robin Ince are joined on stage by actor and comedian Rufus Hound, Professor Alice Roberts and Dr Adam Rutherford to discuss some of the great scientific failures, and mistakes made by some very well known scientists. They look at how some of the greatest scientific thinkers of all time, from Darwin to Einstein, got key elements of their own theories wrong, or in the case of others, followed a path of understanding that would later be completely disproved. They discuss why failure in science is no bad thing, and ask whether getting it wrong, is a fundamental part of the scientific method, and should in fact be applied to many other areas of life.

Producer: Alexandra Feachem.

MON 17:00 PM (b08bynzd)
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.

MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08bynzg)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

MON 18:30 The Museum of Curiosity (b08bzcd3)
Series 10, Episode 4

Professor John Lloyd & his curator Jo Brand are joined by Danish comedian Sofie Hagen, mollusc and cephalopod expert Jon Ablett and "Watching the English" anthropologist Kate Fox.

This week the Museum's Steering Committee ruminate on the rules of Dogma films, a snail that survived four years glued to a board in the British Museum and the paleolithic origins of the selfie.

Researched by Anne Miller of QI and Mike Turner.

The production coordinator was Sophie Richardson.

The producers were Richard Turner and James Harkin.

It was a BBC Studios Production.

MON 19:00 The Archers (b08bzcd5)
Pip goes in search of the truth, and has Alistair bitten off more than he can chew?

MON 19:15 Front Row (b08bynzj)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

MON 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08bz7hw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

MON 20:00 Aftermath (b08bzcd7)
Series 1, Shipman

What has been the aftermath of the Harold Shipman murders? Alan Dein investigates.

'Aftermath' is a new series which explores what happens to a community after it has been at the centre of a nationally significant event. This week, the Harold Shipman murders.

In the year 2000, Dr. Harold Shipman was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients. It was later established that he had killed around 250 people. In 2004 he hanged himself in prison. Alan Dein travels to Hyde in Greater Manchester, the town where Shipman was based, to find out what the impact has been; he speaks to victims' relatives, former patients and the GP who took over Shipman's surgery.

Produced by Karen Gregor.

MON 20:30 Analysis (b08bzdd1)
Atom Man

The journey of an American 'cold warrior' from nuclear deterrence to nuclear disarmament. Former US Secretary of Defence William J Perry has spent his entire seven-decade career on the nuclear brink. A brilliant mathematician, he became involved in the development of weapons-related technology in the aftermath of World War II. As an analyst working at the heart of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he thought each day could be "my last day on earth." He was undersecretary for defence under President Carter in the 1970s, and secretary for defence under President Clinton in the 1990s. He arranged the dismantling of thousands of nuclear weapons in former Soviet republics after the collapse of the USSR, used strategic diplomacy with nuclear nations to prevent escalation, and argued - unsuccessfully - against the NATO expansion that Russia continues to find so threatening.

Now Secretary Perry is worried. Very worried. President Trump and President Putin are both ramping up their bellicose rhetoric. Mr Perry sees an increasing risk of nuclear conflagration in South Asia and the Korean peninsula, and in the face of an on-going terrorism threat, he is concerned unsecured nuclear materials could fall into the wrong hands.

"Today, the danger of some sort of nuclear catastrophe is greater than it was during the Cold War and most people are blissfully unaware of this danger," he argues.

What can be done? In a challenging interview with Edward Stourton, Secretary Perry reflects on the nuclear nightmare, and lays out his formula for nuclear security in our changing world.

Producer: Linda Pressly

(Image: Dr William Perry gives a lecture at Stanford University about the history of nuclear weapons. Credit: Light at 11b).

MON 21:00 Revisiting the 14-Day Rule (b08bqssd)
Episode 2

Since 1990 it has been illegal in the UK to research on human embryos beyond 14 days. With recent scientific developments, Matthew Hill asks if the 14-day limit should be extended.

MON 21:30 Start the Week (b08bynyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

MON 21:58 Weather (b08bynzl)
The latest weather forecast.

MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b08bynzn)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08bzf4d)
Reading Europe - Norway: The Bird Tribunal, Love and Atonement

In Norwegian writer, Agnes Ravatn's psychological thriller Allis tells a startling story story from the Norse myths about love and atonement. Lydia Wilson is the reader.

Translated from the Norwegian by Rosie Hedger
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

MON 23:00 Mastertapes (b08bzf4g)
Series 6, Sir Tom Jones (A-side)

John Wilson continues with the series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

The legendary TOM JONES talks to John Wilson about Praise and Blame - the first of a trilogy of albums that would take him back to his musical roots.

Described as a musical "shape shifter" who could "slide from soulful rasp to pop croon, with a voice as husky as it was pretty" (The New York Times), Tom Jones' career has spanned six decades, selling over 100 million records. In 2010, he released an album of largely unknown gospel covers, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things, Pop Staples' Don't Knock and John Lee Hooker's Burning Hell. The album's stripped-down, live production (by Ethan Johns) led one critic to declare "at last Jones the artist is the match of Jones the entertainer" (The Guardian)

A rare opportunity to hear Sir Tom together with Ethan Johns talk and play their way back to an album that "with its loose, spontaneous sound and... all-pervasive sense of artistic rebirth... is a revelation" (Daily Telegraph)

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08bynzq)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.


TUESDAY 31 JANUARY 2017

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b08byp1k)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b08bz7ht)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]

TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08byp1n)
The latest shipping forecast.

TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08byp1q)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08byp1s)
The latest shipping forecast.

TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b08byp1v)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08cbrlm)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b08byp1x)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b01sbyhp)
Greenfinch

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. David Attenborough presents the Greenfinch. Often seen singing from the tops of garden trees looking large for a finch with a heavy bill, these are sadly a declining garden bird.

TUE 06:00 Today (b08cbrlp)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b08bzl8y)
Alison Smith on algae

Alison Smith, Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, is a world expert on algae, which range in size from giant kelp to microscopic cyanobacteria. They are found all over the world from the Arctic to the Tropics, live in water and make energy from the sun by photosynthesis. She talks to Jim al-Khalili about their biology and their many uses, such as biofuels.

TUE 09:30 One to One (b08bzl92)
Nikesh Shukla meets Hayley Campbell

Novelist Nikesh Shukla is learning how to box. It's gone from memories of Rocky movies and watching the big match with family as a child to being a skill he wants for himself. When he voiced his thoughts on Twitter, journalist Hayley Campbell gave him 3 key pieces of advice. She took up kickboxing two and a half years ago and shares how the sport and the partnership with her trainer changed her physically and mentally, but also how the boxing world became a source of fascination leading her to meet and interview some of the most powerful fighters.

Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b08cv1xh)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, Episode 2

The first full modern biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son, who revolutionised British engineering and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

Born in the Scottish Borders in 1757, Telford's beginnings were not auspicious. But he gained a fine education in his village school and, in that egalitarian time and place, mixed there with children from all different classes. Indeed, contacts from his schooldays played a key role in helping him to become established as one of Britain's leading engineers.

After completing his apprenticeship to a stonemason in Langholm, Telford left for London in 1782 with letters of introduction to the two leading architects of the day: Robert Adam and William Chambers. But success eluded him in the metropolis - instead, he found it in Shropshire, thanks to another Borders' contact, Sir William Pulteney, who invited him to work on the reconstruction of Shrewsbury Castle. This led on to his appointment as county surveyor and soon Telford was working on a huge number of public and private properties.

Reader: Robin Laing

Writer: Julian Glover

Abridger: David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08byp1z)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

TUE 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08bzl94)
Clutch, Throttle, Brake, Tuesday

Christopher William Hill's new comedy drama is about driving lessons, dominant mothers and unexpected friendships.

Nat, a harassed middle-aged teacher, who sees her life rapidly drifting away from her, is desperate to pass her driving test on the anniversary of her father's death. It is his money that has helped pay for her instruction.

Ken, her much older driving instructor, has understandable doubts about his pupil's chances. But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to his client. Their unlikely friendship develops over the course of Nat's final week before her test - despite, or perhaps because of, the distractions provided by Sam's needy and larger-than-life mother.

Original Music: David Chilton
Director: Gordon House

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 11:00 Meet the Cyborgs (b08bzl96)
Frank Swain can hear Wi-Fi.

Diagnosed with early deafness aged 25, Frank decided to turn his misfortune to his advantage by modifying his hearing aids to create a new sense. He documented the start of his journey three years ago on Radio 4 in 'Hack My Hearing'.

Since then, Frank has worked with sound artist Daniel Jones to detect and sonify Wi-Fi connections around him. He joins a community around the world who are extending their experience beyond human limitations.

In 'Meet the Cyborgs' Frank sets out to meet other people who are hacking their bodies. Neil Harbisson and Moon Rebus run The Cyborg Foundation in Barcelona, which welcomes like-minded body hackers from around the world. Their goal is not just to use or wear technology, but to re-engineer their bodies.

Frank meets the creators of Cyborg Nest, a company promising to make anyone a cyborg. They have recently launched their first product - The North Sense - a computer chip anchored to body piercings in the chest, which vibrates when it faces north.

"I'm a 51 year old bald guy, with no tattoos or piercings" says co-founder Scott Cohen. "This was never a place I thought I'd end up in. Everyone's talking about machine learning, but what we're trying to do is make our brains smarter."

Of course, the marriage of technology and biology is commonplace in medicine, from pacemakers to IUDs. But now 'citizen hackers' are modifying their medical equipment to add new functions. Dana Lewis from Seattle has created her own 'artificial pancreas' to help manage her Type 1 diabetes and released the code online.

But should limits be placed on self-experimentation? And will cybernetic implants eventually become as ubiquitous as smart phones?

Features music composed for The North Sense by Andy Dragazis.

Presenter: Frank Swain
Producer: Michelle Martin.

TUE 11:30 Tunes from the Trash (b088fch9)
Just outside the Paraguayan capital city of Asuncion lies the town of Cateura. It's an impoverished settlement ranged along the banks of a stinking, polluted river, in the shadow of a giant landfill site. Many of its inhabitants scratch a living by reclaiming objects from the endless ocean of garbage to sell. Recycling of a kind. But for the last ten years the residents of Cateura have been part of a recycling project of a much sweeter sort.

La Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura -- the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura -- use materials from the landfill site to create musical instruments. An oil drum for a cello, a pipe for a flute, a tin can for a guitar. They've toured the world and recorded with the likes of Metallica.

As the Orchestra leader Favio Chávez says, "The world sends us garbage. We send back music."

The BBC's South America Correspondent Wyre Davies visits Cateura, meets Favio Chávez and other members of the Recycled Orchestra and learns how trash, and lives, are being transformed by music.

TUE 12:00 News Summary (b08byp21)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 12:04 Home Front (b083lkx6)
31 January 1917 - Marion Wardle

On this day in 1917, three people were arrested for their secret plot to assassinate the Prime Minister, and in North Shields, Marion tells Edie Kitty's secret.

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b08byp23)
Call You and Yours

Consumer phone-in.

TUE 12:57 Weather (b08byp25)
The latest weather forecast.

TUE 13:00 World at One (b08byp27)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

TUE 13:45 Against the Grain (b08bzl98)
Series 1, Bigger, Better?

The story of average British farm size has been one of continuous growth - and farms are still getting bigger. In episode 7 of Against the Grain, Charlotte Smith visits Northamptonshire to meet Charles Matts, who tells a typical story of farming more land with fewer people and less machinery. So where will it end, and will that be better or worse? Plus ...a brief history of the hedge.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.

TUE 14:00 The Archers (b08bzcd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]

TUE 14:15 Drama (b0787dm6)
All Mouth and Trousers

Between 1966 and 1971, TV's first ecclesiastical comedy, All Gas and Gaiters was regularly enjoyed by over 10 million viewers. The series starred veteran farce actor Robertson Hare as the sherry-tippling Archdeacon, William Mervyn as the bombastic Bishop wedded to his comforts, Derek Nimmo in the role that made him a star as the Bishop's twittish Chaplain Noote, and John Barron as the stern, rule-bound Dean.

Mark Burgess's comedy features Pauline Devaney (78) and Edwin Apps (84) playing themselves. They recall being asked to submit a script to BBC TV's Comedy Playhouse slot by their friend, fledgling TV director Stuart Allen, and their subsequent struggle to create the fictional world of St. Ogg's Cathedral Close and its eccentric inhabitants. The pilot episode of what was to become All Gas and Gaiters was titled The Bishop Rides Again.

Not least of Pauline's problems was her concern that the almost exclusively male-dominated world of BBC Television in the 1960s would not take the comedic writing talents of a young woman seriously. For this reason (and the fact that both she and Edwin wished to keep acting careers and writing work separate), The Bishop Rides Again was submitted to the BBC under the pseudonym, John Wraith.

Frank Muir - then Head of Comedy - knew Wraith's true identity, but the eventual revelation of Pauline's significant contribution to the creative process was greeted with surprised amazement by BBC Light Entertainment executives and cast members alike.

Written by Mark Burgess
Director: David Blount

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

TUE 15:00 The Kitchen Cabinet (b08byfhn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:30 on Saturday]

TUE 15:30 Mastertapes (b08bzmv3)
Series 6, Sir Tom Jones (B-side)

John Wilson continues with his new series in which he talks to leading performers and songwriters about the album that made them or changed them. Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios. Each edition includes two episodes, with John initially quizzing the artist about the album in question, and then, in the B-side, the audience puts the questions. Both editions feature exclusive live performances.

Having discussed the making of "Praise and Blame" - the first of a trilogy of albums that would take him back to his musical roots (in the A-side of the programme, broadcast on Monday 30th January 2017 and available online), Tom Jones responds to questions from the audience and performs acoustic live versions of some to the tracks from the album that led one critic to declare "at last Jones the artist is the match of Jones the entertainer" (The Guardian)

Producer: Paul Kobrak.

TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b08bzmv5)
Words Roadshow in Birmingham

Michael Rosen and linguist Esther Asprey answer questions about interesting local and family words from listeners at a Words Roadshow at the Birmingham Literature Festival. What's a gubbins? What is your dander, when it's up? And what could it be that you're doing if you do a flink-a-flonk...
Recorded at BBC Birmingham.
Producer Beth O'Dea.

TUE 16:30 A Good Read (b08bzp9p)
Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes

Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes talk with Harriett Gilbert about books they love. Alan chooses The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, Melanie picks Andrea Ashworth's memoir, Once in a House on Fire, and Harriett's contribution is Malcolm Bradbury's the History Man. But...who do the guests imply is most likely to be found passed out under the coffee table at a 70s party, and who does Alan imply should be haunting the end of the Cobb in Lyme Regis in the manner of the French Lieutenant's Woman?

TUE 17:00 PM (b08byp29)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08byp2c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

TUE 18:30 John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (b08bzp9r)
Series 6, Episode 6

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

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme was described by The Radio Times as "the best sketch show in years, on television or radio", and by The Daily Telegraph as "funny enough to make even the surliest cat laugh". Already the winner of a BBC Audio Drama Award and a Radio Academy Silver Award, John was named the 2016 Radio Broadcaster of the Year by the Broadcasting Press Guild for his work on Souvenir Programme.

6/6
In this final edition of the sixth series of Souvenir Programme, John lets Lawry take over, with inevitable reactions from Carrie, Margaret and Simon. And, well... Since you ask him for a musical finale...

Written by & starring ... John Finnemore
Cast ... Margaret Cabourn-Smith
Cast ... Simon Kane
Cast ... Lawry Lewin
Cast ... Carrie Quinlan

Original music composed by ... Susannah Pearse
Piano ... Susannah Pearse
Flute ... Caroline Ardron
Bassoon ... Joanna Baillie Stark
Cello ... Sally Stares

Production Coordinator...Sophie Richardson

Producer ... Ed Morrish

A BBC Studios Production.

TUE 19:00 The Archers (b08bzj5l)
Ruth makes a shocking discovery, and Jolene gets the inside story.

TUE 19:15 Front Row (b08byp2f)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

TUE 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08bzl94)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b08bzpb7)
Outclassed: The Kids Excluded from School

Over 300,000 children were excluded from school in England and Wales last year - almost 6 thousand of them permanently.

Many of these children will end up in "alternative provision", sometimes known as pupil referral units (PRUs) - schools for kids that the mainstream can't handle.

But five years on from the Taylor Review, a report that found 'a flawed system' that failed to provide good education and accountability for 'some of the most vulnerable children in the country' - has anything really changed?

File on 4 hears allegations of a system under pressure; of illegal exclusions, 'missing kids' and how some schools are controversially manipulating league tables through 'managed moves'.

We also hear from whistle-blowers from one school who claim an overburdened system and a rise of referrals of kids with extreme and complex needs have led to an increase in the use of physical restraint to manage escalating violent behaviour in classrooms."

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg
Producer: Alys Harte.

TUE 20:40 In Touch (b08byp2h)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.

TUE 21:00 Inside Health (b08bzpb9)
Dr Mark Porter presents a series that aims to demystify perplexing health issues.

TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b08bzl8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b08byp2k)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08bzpbc)
Reading Europe - Norway: The Bird Tribunal, The Nithhogg

In the concluding episode of Agnes Ravatn's psychological thriller Allis and Bagge take to the water and the mythic story of the dragon Nithhogg casts a shadow. Lydia Wilson reads.

Translated from the Norwegian by Rosie Hedger
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

TUE 23:00 The Infinite Monkey Cage (b08bzcd1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Monday]

TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08byp2m)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.


WEDNESDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2017

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b08byp59)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b08cv1xh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]

WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08byp5c)
The latest shipping forecast.

WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08byp5f)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08byp5h)
The latest shipping forecast.

WED 05:30 News Briefing (b08byp5k)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08cbqm8)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

WED 05:45 Farming Today (b08byp5m)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Anna Hill and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b02twhqd)
Coal Tit

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

Coal tits often visit our bird-tables but don't hang around. They dart off with food to hide it in crevices and crannies. What the bird is doing is hiding or cache-ing food to be eaten later. Coal tits are smaller than their relatives and have lower fat reserves, so they store food to compensate for any future shortages. In the winter they store seeds and in summer they will hide small insects.

WED 06:00 Today (b08cbqmc)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

WED 09:00 Midweek (b08byp5p)
Lively and diverse conversation with Libby Purves and guests.

WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b08cv2fx)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, Episode 3

The first full modern biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son, born in 1757, who revolutionised British engineering and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

After completing his apprenticeship to a stonemason in Langholm, Telford left for London in 1782 with letters of introduction to the two leading architects of the day: Robert Adam and William Chambers. But success eluded him in the metropolis - instead, he found it in Shropshire, thanks to a Borders' contact, Sir William Pulteney, who invited him to work on the reconstruction of Shrewsbury Castle. This led on to his appointment as county surveyor and soon Telford was working on a huge number of public and private properties.

Telford's extraordinary career reached its zenith with the construction of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, begun in 1795 and opened in 1805. Still in use today, carrying the Llangollen Canal, it towers a hundred feet high and a thousand feet long over the valley of the River Dee. Built with simple technology, no safety ropes and no experience of building anything so high, unusual care was paid to protecting the workforce: only one man died during construction (and that death was thought to be due to carelessness). It is seen as Telford's masterpiece and he chose it above all of his creations as the background to his official portrait in the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Reader: Robin Laing

Writer: Julian Glover

Abridger: David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08byp5r)
Harriet Harman

Labour's Harriet Harman talks about her political and personal battles for equality fought over three decades at Westminster and the revelations in her memoirs, published this week. How does a different generation of MPs view her legacy and in a new age of female activism, is parliament still relevant for women today? Labour MP Stella Creasy, Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani and activist and founder of UK Feminista Kat Banyard join Jane to discuss.


Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Anne Peacock.

WED 10:41 15 Minute Drama (b08c0pn4)
Clutch, Throttle, Brake, Wednesday

Christopher William Hill's new comedy drama is about driving lessons, dominant mothers and unexpected friendships.

Nat, a harassed middle-aged teacher, who sees her life rapidly drifting away from her, is desperate to pass her driving test on the anniversary of her father's death. It is his money that has helped pay for her instruction.

Ken, her much older driving instructor, has understandable doubts about his pupil's chances. But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to his client. Their unlikely friendship develops over the course of Nat's final week before her test - despite, or perhaps because of, the distractions provided by Sam's needy and larger-than-life mother.

Original Music: David Chilton
Director: Gordon House

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.

WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b08c0r29)
Kerry and Liesje - Hopes and Fears

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between friends who both have sons with autism, anticipating their future and recognising the importance of setting care in place. Another in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

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

Producer: Marya Burgess.

WED 11:00 Aftermath (b08bzcd7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]

WED 11:30 The Write Stuff (b04nqv72)
Virginia Woolf

Radio 4's literary panel show, hosted by James Walton. Recorded at the Hay Festival with team captains Sebastian Faulks and John Walsh and guests Russell Davies and Sue Limb.

This week's author is Virginia Woolf.

Produced by Alexandra Smith.

WED 12:00 News Summary (b08byp5t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 12:04 Home Front (b083lkxc)
1 February 1917 - Cressida Marshall

On this day in 1917, Germany officially resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, and in Tynemouth, Cressida is making a small but courageous step forwards

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

WED 12:15 You and Yours (b08byp5x)
Consumer affairs programme.

WED 12:57 Weather (b08byp5z)
The latest weather forecast.

WED 13:00 World at One (b08byp62)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

WED 13:45 Against the Grain (b08c0rfp)
Series 1, Food Security

Britain last produced all its own food at the end of the eighteenth century. Since then, our levels of food security - growing what we eat ourselves - have risen and fallen depending on world markets, domestic politics, and war. Now, in an unstable world, many people in farming argue that food security should once again be a real concern. But is that just a marketing ploy? In episode 8 of Against the Grain, Charlotte Smith debates the issue with farmers' leaders and economists.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

WED 14:00 The Archers (b08bzj5l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]

WED 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b04pvp7v)
My Dad Keith

My Dad Keith Written by Maxine Peake

Maxine Peake writes and stars in this tale of teenage angst, mid-life crisis and drumming.

The play debuts Mike Joyce the drummer from The Smiths in his first acting role.

Reaching her 40th birthday and with her grandad in hospital, Steph begins to reflect on her life, loves and the quest to find out who her dad was. As a teenager a fractious relationship with her mother pushes Steph towards her grandad and together they set out to piece together the clues to the identity of her dad. They come to a startling conclusion about him.

Steph loves drumming - on anything. She's not got a drum kit but taps out her life using kitchen utensils and releases her tensions and worries on any surface available.

Directed By Michelle Choudhry.

WED 15:00 Money Box (b08c0rfv)
Money Box Live: Making Tax Digital

Financial phone-in.

WED 15:30 Inside Health (b08bzpb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b08c0rm2)
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.

WED 16:30 The Media Show (b08byp64)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.

WED 17:00 PM (b08byp66)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08byp68)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

WED 18:30 What Does the K Stand For? (b08c0rr5)
Series 3, The Riot

Travel back in time to the 1980's for this sitcom about comedian Stephen K Amos's teenage years growing up gay, funny and black in South London. This week the Amos household are caught up in the Brixton riot.
Written by Jonathan Harvey with Stephen K Amos.
Starring Ellen Thomas, Laurie Kynaston, Stephen K Amos, Bola Okun, Emerald Crankson, Karen Bartke and David Sterne.
Produced by Paul Sheehan.
Production Coordinator Beverly Tagg.
A BBC Studios Production.

WED 19:00 The Archers (b08bzj5n)
Justin feels like he can be himself, and Lilian has to improvise.

WED 19:15 Front Row (b08byp6b)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

WED 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08c0pn4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]

WED 20:00 Moral Maze (b08c0rr7)
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. Melanie Phillips, Michael Portillo, Matthew Taylor and Giles Fraser.

WED 20:45 Four Thought (b08c0rv5)
Building for a new life

Mark Breeze asks why architects haven't done more to design shelter for refugees. An architect himself, he tells us that his training was aimed at helping him come up with solutions to the toughest problems, yet none is tougher than finding a balance between impermanence, sustainability and low cost in homes for refugees. After visiting the so-called 'Jungle' camp in Calais and witnessing conditions there, Mark explains how he hopes to find a better framework for architects like him to help.

Producer: Giles Edwards.

WED 21:00 The Split Second Decision (b08c0s41)
As the pace of technology moves at ever greater speeds, how vulnerable are we when making split second decisions? Kevin Fong flies with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions. He examines how we can come to terms with the growing challenge of quick and accurate front line decision making.

WED 21:30 Midweek (b08byp5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

WED 21:58 Weather (b08byp6d)
The latest weather forecast.

WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b08byp6g)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08c24pc)
The Birds, A Nocturnal Disturbance

In Daphne du Maurier's psychologically unsettling story Nat Hocken and his family are disturbed during the night. Tristan Sturrock reads.

A new reading of Daphne du Maurier's classic story where malevolent birds loom large accompanies the Norwegian writer Agnes Ravatn's contemporary psychological thriller where a tribunal of birds stands in judgement of past sins.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

WED 23:00 Tim Key's Late Night Poetry Programme (b053bq5p)
Series 3, Dating

Tim Key is on a date. He's attempting to woo Anne White, while grappling with the concept of dating through the medium of his poetry. Musical accompaniment is provided by Tom Basden.

Written and presented by Tim Key
With Tom Basden and Ellie White

Produced by James Robinson

A BBC Cymru Wales Production

The Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning comedian returns for a third series of his Late Night Poetry Programme. Since series two Tim has been busy touring his latest acclaimed live show, Single White Slut, thrilling audiences at the Old Vic in Daniel Kitson's Tree, as well as filming movies such as Steve Coogan's Alpha Papa and Richard Ayoade's The Double. But now he's back on late night Radio 4 doing what he does best - attempting to recite poetry whilst tormenting his friend and musician, the equally brilliant Tom Basden.

Praise for Tim Key

"...You never know when Key will suddenly toss you a fantastic joke or startlingly well-constructed line." Radio Times

"The show... has a kind of artistry and strange beauty that makes it unlike any other hour of stand-up you are likely to see." The Observer

"In any other sphere apart from comedy, we'd probably class this way of looking at the world as certifiable. Here it feels like genius." The Telegraph.

WED 23:15 James Acaster's Findings (b04pv6kv)
Series 1, Paint

Triple Foster's nominated comedian James Acaster presents the results of his research. This week, he's been investigating 'Paint'. With Nathaniel Metcalfe ('Fresh from the Fringe') and Bryony Hannah ('Call the Midwife').

Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.

WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08byp6j)
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.


THURSDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2017

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b08byp8m)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b08cv2fx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]

THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08byp8p)
The latest shipping forecast.

THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08byp8r)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08byp8t)
The latest shipping forecast.

THU 05:30 News Briefing (b08byp8w)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08d3s5v)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

THU 05:45 Farming Today (b08byp8y)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.

THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx2x8)
Marsh Tit

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Marsh Tit. The marsh tit is badly-named. It doesn't live in marshes, and is most at home in older broad-leaved woodlands. "Oak tit" might be a better name. Unlike some other tit species they don't travel far, holding and defending their woodland territories throughout the winter.

ProducerBrett Westwood,MRS SARAH PITT,Sarah Blunt.

THU 06:00 Today (b08cbp9p)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

THU 09:00 In Our Time (b08c2ljg)
Hannah Arendt

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed by her own experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany before her escape to France and then America. She wanted to understand how politics had taken such a disastrous turn and, drawing on ideas of Greek philosophers as well as her peers, what might be done to create a better political life. Often unsettling, she wrote of 'the banality of evil' when covering the trial of Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust.

With

Lyndsey Stonebridge
Professor of Modern Literature and History at the University of East Anglia

Frisbee Sheffield
Lecturer in Philosophy at Girton College, University of Cambridge

and

Robert Eaglestone
Professor of English at Royal Holloway, University London

Producer: Simon Tillotson.

THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b08cv2jf)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, Episode 4

Julian Glover's new biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son, born in the Scottish Borders in 1757, who revolutionised British engineering and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

After the completion of his masterpiece, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in North Wales in 1805, Telford spent the next thirty years of his life involved in a vast range of works up and down the country. These included the construction of over a thousand bridges; twelve hundred miles of good road across tough terrain; forty-three harbours and fishing ports (from Wick to St Katherine's Docks in London); canals throughout England; and the great new road across Wales to the Menai Bridge and Holyhead. In particular, his new roads and bridges revolutionised access to the Scottish Highlands, and in 1819 Telford embarked upon a 'promotional tour' of the north of Scotland in the company of the Poet Laureate Robert Southey.

But the Highlands were also the location of one of the great struggles of Telford's career: the Caledonian Canal (designed to link Inverness on the east coast with Fort William on the west). Begun in 1804, construction was slow, difficult and costs kept rising; it was not completed until 1822 - and Telford did not attend the formal opening ceremony.

Reader: Robin Laing

Writer: Julian Glover

Abridger: David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08byp90)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

THU 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08c2ljj)
Clutch, Throttle, Brake, Thursday

Christopher William Hill's new comedy drama is about driving lessons, dominant mothers and unexpected friendships.

Nat, a harassed middle-aged teacher, who sees her life rapidly drifting away from her, is desperate to pass her driving test on the anniversary of her father's death. It is his money that has helped pay for her instruction.

Ken, her much older driving instructor, has understandable doubts about his pupil's chances. But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to his client. Their unlikely friendship develops over the course of Nat's final week before her test - despite, or perhaps because of, the distractions provided by Sam's needy and larger-than-life mother.

Original Music: David Chilton
Director: Gordon House

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 11:00 From Our Own Correspondent (b08c2ljl)
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.

THU 11:30 Inconspicuous Consumption (b08c2ljn)
Series 2, Clock Face

Comedian and presenter Aatif Nawaz considers why the old fashioned clockface continues to survive in the modern-day.

It's over 300 years old, it's hard to learn and doesn't give as accurate a reading as its, cheap modern digital counterpart, yet there's no sign of the analogue dial - hands, face and all - losing popularity.

Or is there?

Aatif Nawaz doesn't wear a watch on stage or off. For a comic to look at his or her watch mid-set is a mistake, as Aatif finds out talking to fellow comedians. Many younger people just use their smartphone.

Aatif visits the keepers of Edinburgh's famous floral clock, more novelty than useful timepiece. And he meets primary school pupils grappling with the big hand and the little hand. Their teacher says they start school with a knowledge of digital time telling but must learn the less intuitive analogue system.

Dr David Rooney, Keeper of Technologies and Engineering at the Science Museum, provides a history of the portable timepiece. We learn from him and watch journalist Suzanne Wong of high-end watch magazine Revolution that the first wristwatches were for women. Men regarded wrist wear as effeminate. It was only with the advent of World War 1, that the wristwatch's practicality made it male friendly.

Professor Joe Smith, social scientist at the Open University, sings the aesthetic praises of the old face - confessing, as a family member of the venerable clockmaker Smith of Derby, a special interest. Dr Smith says the public clock is and always was an expression of social and aesthetic values nationally and internationally.

Aatif, his wrist still naked, agrees, citing Mecca, not London as the home to the world's biggest clockface.

A Testbed production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 12:00 News Summary (b08byp92)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 12:04 Home Front (b083lkxj)
2 February 1917 - DR Walker

This day in 1917 marked the official formation of the Women's Land Army, and in Tynemouth, Dilys works out how to win her fight.

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.

THU 12:15 You and Yours (b08byp94)
Consumer affairs programme.

THU 12:57 Weather (b08byp96)
The latest weather forecast.

THU 13:00 World at One (b08byp98)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

THU 13:45 Against the Grain (b08c2ljq)
Series 1, Public Money, Public Goods

What can we expect from farmers in return for subsidy? Some economists argue that money should only be paid if farms provide a public good. But what do farmers think, and what can they realistically expect in a post-Brexit world? Charlotte Smith investigates.

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

THU 14:00 The Archers (b08bzj5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]

THU 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b038jk3j)
Red and Blue, Sacrifice

Philip Palmer's series following wargame exercise writer Bradley Shoreham. Shoreham's challenging training scenario places Yorkshire at the centre of a global pandemic alert. Its credibility rests on the successful recruitment of the formidable Dr. Hoffman.

Written by Philip Palmer
Directed by Toby Swift

The second series of Red and Blue from 2013, Philip Palmer's drama series focusing on the work of Lieutenant Colonel Bradley Shoreham (Tim Woodward). After leaving the British Army, Shoreham became a Consultant Subject Matter Expert. He spends his working life creating war games for training purposes. Fictional they may be but the higher the level of authenticity the greater their value to the participants. And when governments and major corporations are paying for training they expect a high return for their money.

The other episodes:

In 'Ransomware', he's been hired by a City hedge fund to test its cyber-security in a planned exercise.

In 'Shadow', Shoreham finds himself on an oil rig in the North Sea, testing the safety protocols and the rig's security.

THU 15:00 Open Country (b08c2ljs)
The Mildenhall Treasure

In January 1942, Gordon Butcher was ploughing a field in the village of West Row, near Mildenhall in Suffolk. His plough hit something solid, and on further investigation discovered a circular piece of metal. Sensing he'd found something significant he went and found his boss Sydney Ford, and for the rest of the afternoon he and Ford pulled piece after piece from the ground. What they found was in fact a Silver thirty-two piece set of Roman tableware, and it remains the greatest find of its kind in the UK. 'The Mildenhall Treasure' as it became known went on display in the British Museum, and the story of this extraordinary find was captured by Roald Dahl in a short story of the same name.

Helen Mark visits the find site to find out about a new joint-project between the British Museum and Suffolk County Council which aims to identify exactly where the treasure was buried and why, and to better understand the archaeological context of this find. Richard Hobbs from the British Museum tells the story of the Treasure, and Faye Minter and the detectorists talk about their work on the find site and how they've grown up with stories about it. She visits Mildenhall Museum in which a replica of the find is housed and finds out what this incredible Treasure still means to Ford's Grandson Sydney Holder.

Producer: Toby Field.

THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b08byvc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]

THU 15:30 Open Book (b08bz3hy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]

THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b08c2ljv)
Cinema magazine programme.

THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b08byp9b)
Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.

THU 17:00 PM (b08byp9d)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08byp9g)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

THU 18:30 The Cold Swedish Winter (b06tvswt)
Series 2, Episode 2

The second series of this sitcom from Danny Robins (co-creator Lenny Henry comedy Rudy's Rare Records), set and recorded in Sweden and starring Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Adam Riches, Danny Robins and a cast of Sweden's most popular TV comedy actors.

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

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

While Geoff and Linda now have their own place, he still has to deal with her disapproving Dad, Sten (comedian Thomas Orredsson from Crimes of Passion), her alarmingly flirtatious mother Gunilla (comedian Anna- Lena Bergelin) and her apparently suicidal, arsonist brother, Anders (award-winning stand upFredrik Andersson).

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

Episode 2: Geoff is feeling threatened by the perfection of life in Sweden. Then an ex of Linda's shows up. How can he cope with the perfect Swedish man?

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

THU 19:00 The Archers (b08bzj5q)
Pat needs to iron things out, and Roy is feeling sensitive.

THU 19:15 Front Row (b08byp9j)
Arts news, interviews and reviews.

THU 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08c2ljj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b08byp9l)
Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.

THU 20:30 The Bottom Line (b08c2mlk)
Care Homes

The care home business is heading for a crisis according to Evan Davis's guests in this edition of The Bottom Line.

The cost of providing care in this labour-intensive business has increased significantly because of the introduction of the National Living Wage. The fees paid by local authorities on behalf of poorer residents no longer cover the cost of providing accommodation, food and staffing. Care homes make up the shortfall by charging higher fees to privately funded residents. Social care analyst William Laing tells Evan Davis that private payers subsidise publicly funded residents by, on average, £8000 per annum. But this is not an option in less affluent areas with a shortage of fee paying clients.

John Ransford of the HC-One group provides care for mainly publicly funded residents. He tells Evan that 24 hour care for the elderly has to be provided for less than the cost of a night in a Travelodge.

Evan's guests believe that the care sector's business model is unsustainable. Find out what they think will happen next.

Guests:

Dr. Jane Townson. Chief Executive Officer, Somerset Care Group

John Ransford, Non-Executive Director, HC-One

William Laing, Founder and a Director of Laing Buisson, Healthcare Intelligence Company

Producer: Julie Ball.

THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b08byp9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]

THU 21:30 In Our Time (b08c2ljg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]

THU 21:58 Weather (b08byp9n)
The latest weather forecast.

THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b08byp9q)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08c37yk)
The Birds, An Attack

In Daphne du Maurier's psychologically disquieting tale an attack is imminent. Tristan Sturrock reads.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

THU 23:00 Gaby's Talking Pictures (b08c2n3r)
A funny, entertaining, (slightly) competitive panel show, hosted by Gaby Roslin, with team captains Lee Mack and John Thomson and the considerable vocal talents of Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona, celebrating the wonderful world of cinema, films and the people who make them.

The team captains are joined in this pilot show by special guests Stephen Tompkinson and Sarah Hadland, and two self-confessed film nerds - Robert Ross from the world of "Carry On.." films and Star Wars expert Mark Newbold.

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4.

THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08byp9s)
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.


FRIDAY 03 FEBRUARY 2017

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b08bypd5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.

FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b08cv2jf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]

FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08bypd7)
The latest shipping forecast.

FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08bypd9)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.

FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08bypdc)
The latest shipping forecast.

FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b08bypdf)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08dwwv3)
A reading and a reflection to start the day with the Rev'd Mary Stallard, Director of the St Giles Religious Education Centre, Wrexham.

FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b08bypdh)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Mark Smalley.

FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b03dx6nq)
Willow Tit

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

Martin Hughes-Games presents the Willow Tit. Willow Tits are declining rapidly in many areas: they are very similar to marsh tits, so alike in fact that no-one realised that they existed here until 1897 and their identity as a breeding bird in the UK was confirmed three years later.

FRI 06:00 Today (b08cbp1z)
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b08bz0rz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]

FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b08cv2qt)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain, Episode 5

Julian Glover's biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son, born in the Scottish Borders in 1757, who revolutionised British engineering and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

Telford built churches, harbours, canals, docks and the famously vertiginous Pontcysyllte aqueduct in Wales. He invented the modern road and created the backbone of Britain's road network. His bridges are some of the most dramatic and beautiful ever built, most of all the Menai Bridge, which spans the dangerous channel between the mainland and Anglesey.

With his death in September 1834, just as the railway age was dawning, Telford had little idea of how lasting his legacy would be: he shaped the lives of the Victorian civil engineers who followed him and almost everything he built is still in use today.

Reader: Robin Laing

Writer: Julian Glover

Abridger: David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08bypdk)
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.

FRI 10:45 15 Minute Drama (b08c32cw)
Clutch, Throttle, Brake, Friday

Christopher William Hill's new comedy drama is about driving lessons, dominant mothers and unexpected friendships.

Nat, a harassed middle-aged teacher, who sees her life rapidly drifting away from her, is desperate to pass her driving test on the anniversary of her father's death. It is his money that has helped pay for her instruction.

Ken, her much older driving instructor, has understandable doubts about his pupil's chances. But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to his client. Their unlikely friendship develops over the course of Nat's final week before her test - despite, or perhaps because of, the distractions provided by Sam's needy and larger-than-life mother.

Original Music: David Chilton
Director: Gordon House

A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 11:00 The King of Dreams (b07vkf71)
Imagine you could control your own dreams. What would you do? Cast yourself as a swashbuckling hero, rule the world for a night, conduct a passionate affair with the film star of your choice?

In fin de siècle Paris a shy young aristocrat, the Marquis Leon d'Hervey taught himself how to control his own dreams and wrote a book detailing years of his nocturnal adventures. In 'King of Dreams' Professor Alice Roberts learns how to advance her own skills in lucid dreaming and finds out why the work of the Marquis is inspiring neuroscientists and psychologists today.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.

FRI 11:30 Secrets and Lattes (b040hhnm)
Series 1, Growing Pains

Episode 2 of Hilary Lyon's new Edinburgh-based series sees business booming in Cafe Culture, the leafy Bruntsfield coffee shop that Trisha (played by Julie Graham) has opened with her solvent sensible sister, Clare.

Clare (Hilary Lyon) obsessively plans a special themed Valentine's Night celebration in the cafe and rises to the commercial romance challenge. Trisha can't imagine anything more ghastly - she's not a fan of Valentine's nonsense at the best of times, but throw in her recent complicated relationship break-up in London and it really turns her off.

The sisters are delighted that business is booming, but what should they do about the staffing issue? They definitely need more help, but can Trisha persuade Clare and temperamental Polish chef, Krzysztof (Simon Greenall), that kleptomaniac teenager Lizzie (Pearl Appleby) is actually the right person for the job?

Valentine's Day duly arrives. Unexpected revelations abound, unconventional marriage proposals are made and unwanted flowers are delivered. All in all, it's not a very loved-up affair.

Directed by: Marilyn Imrie
Producers: Moray Hunter and Gordon Kennedy
An Absolute production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 12:00 News Summary (b08bypdm)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 12:04 Home Front (b083lky3)
3 February 1917 - Edie Chadwick

On this day in 1917, America formally broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and in North Shields, Marshalls Munitionettes Football Team have a challenge of their own.

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole

Note:
This is the final episode in this season of Home Front, which returns to Radio 4 on 17th April 2017.

FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b08bypdp)
Consumer news and issues.

FRI 12:57 Weather (b08bypdr)
The latest weather forecast.

FRI 13:00 World at One (b08bypdt)
Analysis of news and current affairs.

FRI 13:45 Against the Grain (b08c32cy)
Series 1, Leaving Brussels

Charlotte Smith concludes her series by asking what British farmers can expect in a world after Brexit. In Brussels, Charlotte talks to politicians and industry insiders to find out how Brexit will affect farming in the rest of Europe. Will the UK be missed?

Producer: Chris Ledgard.

FRI 14:00 The Archers (b08bzj5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]

FRI 14:15 Afternoon Drama (b04vqwym)
Inventing Scotland

Inventing Scotland a comedy by Mike Harris
The true story of how one man's need for cash created a national myth and saved the union.
It is 1822 . King George is coming to Edinburgh and novelist Walter Scott has two weeks to create a patriotic, nation-binding spectacle that will avert revolution, save the union, earn the monarch's eternal gratitude, and also rescue himself from imminent bankruptcy.

Director/Producer Gary Brown.

FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08c32qh)
Whitefield, Manchester

Eric Robson and his panel visit Whitefield, Manchester.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 15:45 The Evening Walk (b08dnlg0)
Jack starts his evening walk with his dog Pirate full of the joys of nature, but things change dramatically and his life will never be the same again - in ways he could never have imagined.

This new short story was specially commissioned from the acclaimed actor Nickolas Grace, who also reads it.

Produced by David Roper
A Heavy Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.

FRI 16:00 Last Word (b08c33hz)
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.

FRI 16:30 Feedback (b08c33j1)
Radio 4's forum for audience comment.

FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b08c33j3)
Humayrah and Saima - Like a Punch in the Chest

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between friends about how they see their faith reflected in the media and how it makes them feel. 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 (b08bypdy)
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.

FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08bypf0)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.

FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b08c33j5)
Series 92, Episode 5

Susan Calman, Andy Hamilton and Isabel Hardman are Miles' esteemed guests for this week's round of news-wrangling.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.

FRI 19:00 The Archers (b08bypf2)
Helen is on a mission, and a fallen tree causes chaos.

FRI 19:15 Front Row (b08bypf4)
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.

FRI 19:45 15 Minute Drama (b08c32cw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]

FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b08c34q1)
Stephen Crabb MP, Nia Griffiths MP, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, Leanne Wood AM

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from The Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn, Wales, with a panel including the former cabinet minister Stephen Crabb MP, Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffiths MP, Sir Emyr Jones Parry who is Chancellor of University of Aberystwyth and a former diplomat and the leader of Plaid Cymru Leanne Wood AM.

FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b08c34q3)
A reflection on a topical issue.

FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b083lky7)
30 January-3 February 1917

In the week, in 1917, when America formally broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and in Tynemouth, people are making small steps forwards.

Written by Katie Hims
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole

Story-led by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews

Note:
This is the final omnibus of this season of Home Front, which returns to Radio 4 on 17th April 2017.

FRI 21:58 Weather (b08bypf6)
The latest weather forecast.

FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b08bypf8)
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.

FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08c38g4)
The Birds, Preparing for a Siege

In Daphne du Maurier's unsettling and classic story Nat makes preparations to keep his family safe. Tristan Sturrock reads.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.

FRI 23:00 A Good Read (b08bzp9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]

FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (b08bypfb)
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.

FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b08c34q5)
Billy and John - You've Got a Friend

Fi Glover introduces a conversation between men whose friendship is relatively new, yet runs surprisingly deep. 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.