SATURDAY 13 MAY 2017

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (b08p5ljy)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SAT 00:30 Book of the Week (b08pgm46)
Between Them, Episode 5

Pulitzer Prize winning Richard Ford narrates the stories of his parents, taken from a newly published memoir.

It's only mother and son from now on. He moves from college graduate to established novelist and teacher, and she has some advice for him: "Richard, I'm never going to be ecstatic. It's not in my nature. Concentrate on your life. I'll take care of me." Later they talk about where she will live. With him?

Producer Duncan Minshull.


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08p5lk0)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08p5lk2)

SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08p5lk4)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (b08p5lk6)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08pdymv)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


SAT 05:45 iPM (b08pdymx)
My father died before I was born

iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (b08p5lk8)

The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SAT 06:04 Weather (b08p5lkb)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 06:07 Open Country (b08pfqqj)
Lough Neagh

Lough Neagh is the largest lake by area in the British Isles. It supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's water and today it is home to the Lough Neagh wild eel fishery. The Lough Neagh Fishermen's Co-operative sell most of the eels they catch here to markets in Holland or London but they also try to encourage local people to enjoy this delicacy. Helen Mark joins the crew onboard for the first fishing trip of the season and discovers the history and folklore which surround this stunning but sometimes treacherous piece of water.


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (b08p5lkd)
Gloucester Farmers' Market

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


SAT 06:57 Weather (b08p5lkg)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 07:00 Today (b08px3f3)

News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (b08p5lkj)
Sharleen Spiteri

Sharleen Spiteri was just 21 when she found herself and her band Texas at number 8 in the charts with I Don't Want A Lover. Almost 30 years later, she's still writing and recording - back with Texas since 2013 after a spell as a solo artist. Her new album Jump on Board is out now. Texas will play the Isle Of Wight Festival on Saturday 10th June and the UK tour kicks off on 11th September in Cardiff.

So many 50th anniversaries this year, and not least among them the Summer of Love, when nearly 100,000 long haired layabouts (quote) travelled to San Francisco to change the world. Reviews are mixed, concerning their success, among them Nick Campion's. He's an academic specialising in the cultural history of astronomy and astrology (indeed he used to do the horoscopes in a daily paper) - and his book The New Age in the Modern West looks back to that fabled time.

Well, she might not have made it quite to San Francisco, but Esta Charkham did it make it to Holborn and joined the cast of Zigger Zagger, the National Youth Theatre's landmark play about football hooliganism. It lit up theatre land in the summer of 1967. Now Esta wants to reunite the original cast. So far she has traced 43 of the original 87 members. If you are one or know someone who was a cast member email us at saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk with Zigger Zagger in the subject line

You might think that the Reverend Kate Bottley spends her life watching TV for Channel 4's Gogglebox but she's too busy for that. A priest in North Nottinghamshire, a regular presenter on Songs of Praise, wife, mum of two, dog owner and flash mob conductor. She talks about growing up in Sheffield, the priesthood and being a bit of a geek.

Jason Blyth has a fantastic connection to Eurovision. He's a music teacher from Perth who loves Eurovision so much that he wrote a song for it. He's in our Dundee studio

This week the Inheritance Tracks comes from Jazzie B. DJ and producer and one of the founding members of the Grammy-winning musical collective Soul II Soul. In the summer of 1989 their hits 'Keep on Movin' and 'Back to Life' seemed to be blasting out from every passing car. The band's mix of reggae, soul, dub and hip hop emerged from the world of sound systems and their maxim "A happy face, a thumpin' bass, for a lovin' race" got us all into the groove... Soul to Soul are on Tour now
Next Tuesday as part of the Summer of Love Revisited at the Albert Hall, Jazzie B will be in discussion about the black music counterculture of the 1960s and 70s.

It's Eurovision tonight so we want to hear from you. Some people love it, others less so. What are your memories of watching Eurovision? Have you ever been? Do you have an interesting connection? Get in touch and don't forget to leave a number in case JP Devlin wants to call you

EMAIL: saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk

TEXT: 84844

TWEET: #bbcsaturdaylive

Presenters: Aasmah Mir & the Rev. Richard Coles
Producer: Maire Devine.


SAT 10:30 Less Is Less: Why Scandinavian Design Leaves Me Cold (b08px3f6)

Have we reached peak Scandi furniture? Laurence Llewelyn Bowen thinks so.

In a witty and acerbic polemic, Laurence laments the blonde and bland Scandinavian design that has dislodged pattern, antiquity and a tradition of elaborate decoration from British homes.

What do our choices in furniture and interior design say about our social aspirations? How does class influence taste? And what causes our relationship with how our homes look to shift so dramatically?

In stripping our homes of decoration, Laurence worries that we are not only selling ourselves short but contributing to the death of British style.

Laurence visits the Stockholm Furniture and Lighting Fair and issues a challenge to some of the stars of Nordic furniture to give an account of their worldview and design philosophy.

Sara Kristofferson, author of Design by Ikea, explains how the company, now celebrating its 30th year in the UK, encouraged the British to chuck out their chintz in favour of a cleaner, modernist aesthetic inspired by mid-century Scandinavia.

But could brown furniture finally be on the comeback? At Lots Road, auctioneer Nick Carter has noticed a slowing down in sales of Scandi style in favour of an increased interest in 18th and 19th century antiques. What does this say about Britain in 2017?

And upstairs in Laurence's 16th century Cotswolds home, we make a shocking discovery regarding his daughter Hermione's taste in interior decoration.

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.


SAT 11:00 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (b08px3f9)

Nick Robinson assesses developments in the election campaign.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (b08p5lkm)
A Funny Old Game

Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.


SAT 12:00 News Summary (b08p5lkq)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (b08px3fc)
Property prices - long dip or blip?

House price data released this week from two of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders point to lower prices for April, although still higher than a year ago. Estate agents from around the UK give their views and property analyst Kate Faulkner discusses what it might mean for buyers and sellers.

A new law which allows the financial affairs of missing people to be managed by close relatives was passed just before Parliament was dissolved ahead of the general election. What are the issues that people in this situation face and how will the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act help them when it comes into force? We hear from Eddie whose son Carl has been missing since February last year and Susannah Drury, Director of the charity Missing People.

The Conservative Party says it plans to cap energy standard variable tariff prices if it wins next month's general election. A draft of Labour's manifesto is also promising a cap to keep domestic dual fuel bills below £1000 a year. Last year a report into the energy sector by the Competition and Markets Authority found that around seventy percent of domestic customers with the six largest energy firms are on default standard variable tariffs. It also rejected the idea of a widespread cap, instead recommending a temporary one for prepayment customers. Steve Thomas, Emeritus Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Greenwich and David Pike Co-founder of People's Energy discuss.

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Charmaine Cozier
Editor: Andrew Smith.


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (b08pgswt)
Series 93, 12/05/2017

Susan Calman , Zoe Lyons, Lloyd Langford and Peter Curran are all corralled into a newsy formation by Miles Jupp

This week Miles and team steel themselves to deal with a leak.

Producer: Richard Morris
A BBC Studios Production.


SAT 12:57 Weather (b08p5lks)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 13:00 News (b08p5lkv)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (b08pgswy)
Diane Abbott, Jonathan Bartley, Vince Cable, Brandon Lewis

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Scarborough YMCA Theatre in North Yorkshire with a panel including the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, The Co Leader of the Green Party in England and Wales Jonathan Bartleythe former cabinet minister Vince Cable and the Policing Minister Brandon Lewis.


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (b08p5lkx)

Have your say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
Phone Lines open at 1230 on Saturday 03700 100 444. Email any.answers@bbc.co.uk. Tweet,#BBCAQ. Follow us @bbcanyquestions.

Presenter: Julian Worricker
Producer:Beverley Purcell
Editor Eleanor Garland.


SAT 14:30 The Forsyte Saga (b08px3ff)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 1

based on the novels of John Galsworthy
dramatised by Lin Coghlan

It's 1928 and, after her father's death, Fleur is determined to make a steady life with Michael. But when his young cousin Dinny - lively, determined, and 'not the marrying sort of woman' - struggles to help first a brother accused of war crimes and then a best friend in trouble, can Fleur be of use, as echoes of her own life reverberate?

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Written by John Galsworthy
Dramatised by Lin Coghlan

Director/Producer ..... Marion Nancarrow

Over the last 2 years, BBC Radio 4 has dramatised all 9 of John Galsworthy's Forsyte novels and this series "The Forsytes Concludes" brings us to the last 3 novels, which he wrote at the end of his life. This first 90' drama is based on "Maid in Waiting" and moves to Oxfordshire to introduce the Cherrell family and, in particular, Dinny Cherrell, who, aged 24 in 1928, is full of excitement for the life ahead of her. She is Michael & Fleur's cousin and, unbeknown to either of them, their lives are to have parallels neither could have predicted.
With her father Soames dead, Fleur has resolved to put her love for Jon behind her and live a good life with husband Michael and son Kit. But Dinny's brother is in trouble and as things escalate, both Fleur and Michael are pushed to try to find ways they can help the besieged brother and sister.
Joining Jessica Raine, Ben Lambert and Brian Protheroe from the original cast are Nina Sosanya, Allan Corduner, Jonathan Aris and Sarah Ridgeway in this episode, with Max Bennett, Chloe Pirrie and John Heffernan arriving later.
This 90' Saturday Drama is followed by 5 x 15' episodes to tell the story of "Flowering Wilderness" (which sees an unexpected return) and a Saturday and Sunday Drama at the end of the week conclude the story and all 9 novels.


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (b08p5lkz)
Phina Oruche talks about her new show Identity Crisis

The actress Phina Oruche has always used her platform to highlight the importance of diversity in film and television. She tells us about her new one woman show called 'Identity Crisis' and the complexity of being a Black British Nigerian and proud Scouser.

After a photo of the 14 black male undergraduates who were admitted to the University of Cambridge in 2015 went viral we ask what about the black female students at Oxbridge? We hear from Imani Shola who vlogs about her experience at Cambridge, Courtney Daniella Boateng a former president of the Afro Caribbean society at Cambridge and Naomi Kellman who runs Target Oxbridge a scheme to support black students who want to apply to Oxbridge.

We hear from Anna Watkins, Patron of Women's Sports Trust and Olympic Gold Medalist, and Mel Bound who started This Mum Runs both were honoured for their achievements in sport at the BeAGameChanger awards.

More than 60 thousand children were in care in the UK last year. What makes a good foster carer and how do you get suitable candidates to apply? Debbie Douglas has been fostering for 25 years, she and her daughter Lydia Bright (a star of the reality TV show TOWIE) discuss their experience with Jackie Edwards a Professional Advisor with Foster Talk.

The trafficking of people for labour and sexual exploitation is now the second most lucrative criminal commodity after drugs in the world. We hear from Jim Laird a human trafficking expert on why it's happening and what needs to be done.

Food historian Dr Annie Gray tells us about Queen Victoria's love of food. Her book 'The Greedy Queen' examines what she ate, when and with whom and pays tribute to some of the people who cooked for her.

Why do women choose to shave their heads? And why is it considered to be subversive when they do? We hear from the occasional head shaver Lucy Jones and from Liv Little who has been shaving her head since she was 19.

Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor: Jane Thurlow.


SAT 17:00 PM (b08p5ll1)
Saturday PM

Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 iPM (b08pdymx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:45 today]


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b08p5ll3)

The latest shipping forecast.


SAT 17:57 Weather (b08p5ll5)

The latest weather forecast.


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08p5ll7)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (b08p5ll9)
Graham Linehan, Frances Barber, Dominic Dromgoole, Katherine Ryan, MF Robots, Eivør, Arthur Smith, Clive Anderson

Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by Graham Linehan, Frances Barber, Dominic Dromgoole and Katherine Ryan for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from MF Robots and Eivør.

Producer: Sukey Firth.


SAT 19:00 Profile (b08px9dp)
Kelvin MacKenzie

Former editor and columnist of The Sun Kelvin MacKenzie is to leave the paper after comparing Everton footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla. It's not the first time MacKenzie has attracted controversy. In 1989, under his editorship, The Sun published a story claiming that Liverpool fans urinated on police, pick-pocketed the dead and prevented policemen giving the kiss of life to some of the victims at Hillsborough. It proved to be, as the paper later admitted, the "most terrible blunder" in The Sun's history and one for which Kelvin Mackenzie would be personally blamed. There have been allegations of bullying in the workplace and humiliating colleagues. But, as Becky Milligan hears, he's also considered to be a brilliant editor with an instinct for knowing exactly what his readers want. So is there a softer, more sensitive side to the abrasive newspaper man?


SAT 19:15 Saturday Review (b08p5llc)
Salome, Frantz, Anything's Possible, Giacometti, 3 Girls

Yaël Farber's Salome at NT tries to retell a biblical story many of us half-know. Has she been misrepresented and misunderstood and is she more than the scheming woman who arranged the decapitation of John The Baptist?
Francois Ozon's bilingual film Frantz is a tale of love and lies in France and Germany shortly after the First World War. If telling the truth is too painful, can it be okay to lie?
Anything is Possible is a new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout. Continuing the story of characters from her previous highly-acclaimed work, My Name Is Lucy Barton.
Tate Modern's newest exhibition looks at the career and output of sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti
BBC TV has dramatised the Rochdale sex abuse scandal. Starring Maxine Peake, it's not easy viewing but what what light can a drama shine upon such a notorious case?

Tom Sutcliffe's guests are Blake Morrison, Viv Groskop and Barb Jungr. The producer is Oliver Jones.


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (b08px9dr)
Blinded by War

Adam Scourfield interviews three British veterans - of the Second World War, the Northern Irish Troubles and the Falklands - all of whom were blinded in the course of these conflicts.

Ray Sherriff was in the Parachute Regiment during World War Two, and fought in Italy and Sicily, even after being shot in the chest in North Africa. He was blinded while fighting at Arnhem, and taken prisoner.

Ray Hazan was serving in Northern Ireland in 1973, when he severely injured by a parcel bomb, which took his sight, and his right hand, and killed his colleague. When Adam spoke to him in 2000, he had not talked about this for 27 years.

Terry Bullingham served as a Fleet Air Arm engineer in the Falklands on HMS Antrim. He vividly recalls the Argentinian air assault which blinded him. As he sardonically remarks, the last thing he saw was a Mirage - the plane that attacked his ship.

So each man's experience of military life before they were blinded is very different from the others. Even the ways they lost their sight are surprisingly divergent. But they each share the terrible moment of realising that their lives had changed forever.

And from there, Adam traces their different routes to coming to terms with what had happened to them.

Written and Presented by Adam Scourfield
Producers: Adam Scourfield and Phil Tinline.


SAT 21:00 Drama (b08pdfj3)
Tsar, Alexander I: Into the Woods

Alexander never wanted to be Tsar. Before his accession he told friends that he hoped to retire into private life abroad. Life, however, had other plans. Starting with his own father's ill-fated reign, and his subsequent murder. How complicit was Alexander in all of this? And then came the greatest threat Russia had ever seen: the new French Emperor. Mike Walker's epic chronicle of the Russian Tsars continues with the story of Alexander I, the Tsar who took on Napoleon Bonaparte and won.

Director Sasha Yevtushenko.


SAT 22:00 News and Weather (b08p5llf)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.


SAT 22:15 FutureProofing (b08pfq5g)
Living in Space

What would it really be like to live on other planets, and what are the implications of humans colonising space?

Living in space is becoming a real prospect, as plans develop for mass space travel and discoveries are made of environments that can support life on other worlds.

Presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson travel to NASA's main space habitation research facility in Virginia, USA, to find out how humans might actually colonise deep space. They also learn about the search for alien intelligence, how private industry plans to harvest the resources of other planets, and why settling in space could offer us all a very different model of society in future.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.


SAT 23:00 Brain of Britain (b08pdy09)
Semi-Final 4, 2017

(16/17)
Russell Davies chairs the contest to decide who takes the last of the four places in the 2017 Final.

To jump the final hurdle the semi-finalists will need to know which languages appear on the Rosetta Stone, the year of the St Valentine's Day Massacre, and the name of the actress who played Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan - among many other questions.

As always, there's also a chance for a listener to stump the competitors with cunning questions of his or her own devising.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


SAT 23:30 Poetry Please (b08pxjj4)
John Masefield and the Sea

Roger McGough marks 50 years since the death of John Masefield with a programme full of poetry about the sea, from the Odyssey to the Ancient Mariner to the Mermaid at Zennor. Producer Sally Heaven.



SUNDAY 14 MAY 2017

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (b08q30jx)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


SUN 00:30 Short Works (b08pgswk)
Series 1, The Mawkin

A journey through the weird fields of East Anglia, into the very heart of Scarecrow Country. The Mawkin is an original short work for radio by Tom Cox about uncanny landscapes, an awkward first date and getting well weathered.

Since quitting his job as The Guardian newspaper's Rock Critic in 2000,Tom Cox has written eight books, including the Sunday Times top ten bestseller The Good, The Bad And The Furry, and the follow-up Close Encounters Of The Furred Kind. He is also the creator of the much-loved @mysadcat and @myswearycat Twitter accounts. His new nature book, 21st Century Yokel, will be published in autumn by Unbound.

Written & Performed by Tom Cox
Produced by Mair Bosworth.


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q397x)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q397z)

SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q3981)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (b08q3983)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (b08q3985)
Hull Minster, Kingston upon Hull

This week's Bells on Sunday is from Hull Minster which, until a special service of dedication this week - was known as Holy Trinity Church.

There is a ring of 15 bells as well as a 23 bell carillon in the tower, but here are just 12 of the bells ringing Little Bob Maximus.


SUN 05:45 Profile (b08px9dp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 06:00 News Headlines (b08q3d58)

The latest national and international news.


SUN 06:05 Something Understood (b08q30lx)
The Fifth Element

Academic Dr Sarah Goldingay examines the elements and explores the spiritual significance of the idea of a 'fifth element' which appears in a wide range of faith traditions.

The four elements - earth, air, fire and water - were established in classical Greece in the west and are mirrored in the beliefs of many other ancient cultures around the world. These material elements are at the core of many creation myths. In Genesis, the spirit of God moves upon the face of the water, makes Adam from water and earth, uses wind to clear the land after the great flood and rains fire of destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sarah notes that, in most of the stories surrounding the four elements, there is another presence, an ethereal force that somehow blends and animates the material four - a fifth element.

Investigating this notion of a metaphysical power that transforms the physical and sparks creativity, Sarah draws upon biblical descriptions of the Holy Spirit, the writings of the first documented alchemist and the differing approaches to improvisation adopted by jazz legends John Coltrane and Keith Jarrett.

Presenter: Sarah Goldingay
Producer: Max O'Brien
A TBI Media production of BBC Radio 4.


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (b08q3d5b)
Farming Penguins

Peter Gibbs meets Hattie and Kevin Kilmartin, Falkland Islands farmers with 35,000 acres of sheep grazing who make their real money from penguins. Wool from their flock of 3000 sheep is exported to Scotland. There it's woven into a unique Falklands Tweed to be sold to the tourists who arrive at their farm to see the enormous Gentoo penguin colony that makes its home in Bluff Cove.

Producer: Matthew Teller.


SUN 06:57 Weather (b08q3d5d)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (b08q30k2)

The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (b08q30k5)
'Breakaway' Anglican church, Humanist weddings, Pope in Fatima

Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (b08q3d5g)
Womankind Worldwide

Jenni Murray makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Womankind Worldwide.

Registered Charity Number 328206
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 'Womankind Worldwide'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Womankind Worldwide'.


SUN 07:57 Weather (b08q30k9)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (b08q30kc)

The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (b08q3d5j)
The Gift of Grace

The abundant and surprising nature of God's grace is the subject of worship from the Chapel of Rugby School. As the pupils there and across the country prepare to sit both internal and public exams, the chaplain, the Revd Richard Horner, reflects on the need for grace during the most testing times. What does trust in God's grace really mean when we are under pressure? At a time when young people face so many pressures, the service explores ways to support and enhance their mental health and wellbeing.

The service is introduced by the headmaster, Peter Green and the Choir of Rugby School is directed by Richard Tanner. The music includes Montiverdi's 'Cantate Domino', Harold Darke's 'Kyrie' and John Rutter's 'The Lord's my shepherd'.

Readings:
Numbers 21:4-9
Romans 3:19-26
Matt 20:1-16.


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (b08pgsx0)
In praise of the elite

Howard Jacobson speaks up in defense of the metropolitan liberal elite.

He ponders why the word "elitist" has acquired such negative connotations in some fields - but not in others.

"It makes no sense to me to love the best when they are footballers or the SAS, but not when they are thinkers or even politicians".

Producer: Adele Armstrong.


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (b08pdxkx)
Sam Lee on the nightingale

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

For this first programme, folk musician and Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee considers the nightingale, that amazing songster which can use two voice boxes to produce over 200 different styles of phrasing; enriching the gathering darkness for those fortunate enough to hear. Having sung with nightingales in Sussex woodlands for many years, for Sam that richness of the male nightingale territorial song, is mesmeric.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (b08q30kj)

News, election latest plus live coverage of the French Presidential inauguration. Reviewing the Sunday papers: crime novelist Dreda Say Mitchell, theatre director Indhu Rubasingham and newspaper columnist Newton Emerson. Presented by Jane Garvey.


SUN 10:00 The Archers Omnibus (b08q30km)

Peggy has to make a tough decision, and Toby cannot believe what he is hearing.


SUN 11:15 Desert Island Discs (b08q3fwv)
Liz Lochhead

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer and poet Liz Lochhead.

She was the Makar, the Scottish national poet, between 2011 and 2016.

Liz was born in Motherwell, not far from Glasgow, in 1947. She was always drawing at school and so decided to study at the Glasgow School of Art, where she didn't enjoy the drawing, but did start writing.

After winning a poetry competition, she started performing her poems at readings in Scotland. She published her first pamphlet of poetry, Memo for Spring, in 1972, after a publisher heard her at a reading.

After her second volume of poetry was published in 1978 and she won the first Scottish/Canadian Writers' Exchange Fellowship which took her to Toronto for a year, she was able to give up her job as an art teacher and start writing full time.

From the early 1980s, she started writing plays as well as poetry, and has also adapted classic Greek and French plays for the stage.

She was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2015.

Producer: Sarah Taylor.


SUN 12:00 News Summary (b08q30kt)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:04 The Unbelievable Truth (b08pdy0h)
Series 18, Episode 6

David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents.

Holly Walsh, Mark Steel, Elis James and Frankie Boyle are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as Delia Smith, robots, rain and Facebook.

Produced by Jon Naismith
A Random Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 12:32 Food Programme (b08q3fxc)
The Last Magnificent: Chef Jeremiah Tower

Jeremiah Tower changed the idea of what a chef could be. Dan Saladino tells his story.


SUN 12:57 Weather (b08q30kz)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (b08q30l1)

Global news and analysis.


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08pgswh)
Paxton, Berwick-upon-Tweed

Peter Gibbs and the panel travel to Paxton near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Matt Biggs, Anne Swithinbank and Bob Flowerdew answer the audience questions.

This week, the panellists help out with the local Onion Club's white rot problem, tackle early-seeding rhubarb and debate the pros and cons to mist-spraying fruit trees.

Also, Verity Sharp investigates the colourful world of dying clothes with plants.

Produced by Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 14:45 The Listening Project (b08q3hk3)
Omnibus - Facing the Inevitable

Fi Glover introduces conversations about the final certainty, revealing how important it is to talk about death openly 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 (b08q3j6p)
Tsar, Alexander II: The People's Will

In 1861, Alexander II liberated 23 million Russian serfs, four years earlier than the abolition of slavery in the USA. But twenty years later, the tide of revolutionary thinking is rising and dissatisfaction with the regime has led to terrorist cells making several assassination attempts on the Tsar's life. One cell in particular, The People's Will, is determined to succeed this time but in the struggle between autocracy and radical socialism there can be only one winner.

Director Alison Hindell

A BBC Cymru Wales production.


SUN 16:00 Open Book (b08q3ns1)
Writers' Memoirs: Richard Beard and Bella Pollen

Novelists Richard Beard and Bella Pollen discuss turning from fiction to non fiction by writing memoirs.

Philip Davis talks about his new biography of George Eliot.

And the history of the libraries of Timbuktu.


SUN 16:30 Poetry Please (b08q3lcg)
Poetry by Heart Finals 2017

Roger McGough presents a selection of poems recited by finalists at Poetry by Heart, a competition for students at school and colleges in England to learn and recite poems from memory. Recorded at the national finals at the British Library in London, we hear the regional champions battle it out to hear who becomes the regional Poetry by Heart champion for 2017.

Producer: Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas.


SUN 17:00 America Goes to War (b08lh5yw)

On April 6th 1917, America finally entered the Great War on the side of the Entente powers. It seemed a stunning volte face by the progressive intellectual President Woodrow Wilson, elected for a second term on the promise of the man who 'kept us out of the war.' What followed was an even more stunning transformation of American society and its role in world affairs. This programme explores the convulsions that carried America to war and placed it centre stage in world affairs.

America was deeply divided on the issue of war. 'Over there' was both the recent past for millions of its new immigrant citizens and a no-no for the deep isolationist streak that ran through the American psyche. Foreign wars were not its affair. America boasted an army tiny by European standards, no air force and, apart from skirmishes in Latin America and the searing experience of the Civil War, precious little experience of major warfare. The U.S. was ill prepared for the transformation into a total war society, something that had begun piecemeal in Europe, would be giddily experienced in America. Civil liberties were cast aside, internal dissent was stifled and a vast and modern advertising campaign to sell the war to the public was launched with little thought to its effects, and with almost no oversight.

When the Doughboys finally arrived in the Spring of 1918 they fought for 200 days but lost more men from disease than in combat. The impact of the war at home would soon wane & President Wilson's desire for a lasting and just peace would be frustrated. Historian Adam Smith travels to Washington & Hoboken-departure point for 2 million troops and to the former battlefield & cemetery of Meuse-Argonne.

Producer: Mark Burman.


SUN 17:40 Profile (b08px9dp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (b08q30l9)

The latest shipping forecast.


SUN 17:57 Weather (b08q30ld)

The latest weather forecast.


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q30lj)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (b08q30ll)
Julian Worricker

When to take your country to war....when to say yes to a life-changing operation....when to duck, when to look down, even when it's right to buy avocados and white wine....all of these decisions, of varying magnitude, will be aired in this week's programme.

So, too, will John Cleese's return to radio as he relates a Python story concerning a chandelier, a sheep and a goat....and be prepared to be moved by Andrew Flintoff and Robbie Savage talking about mental health.
Julian's radio iPlayer pick comes from Radio 1's feature on Sugar Daddies.
Producer: Stephen Garner
Production support: Kay Bishton.


SUN 19:00 The Archers (b08q3mw4)

Toby cannot be cheered, and Tom offers his philosophy.


SUN 19:15 Wordaholics (b04fzc7p)
Series 3, Episode 1

The return of the work-obsessed panel game.

Comedians Lloyd Langford, Holly Walsh, Paul Sinha and Natalie Haynes join Gyles Brandreth for the panel game about words that will make you laugh your socks off.

On this week's show Lloyd Langford delicately tells us whey avocados are called avocados; Natalie Haynes explains what the modern term astroturfing is; Paul Sinha unlocks the meaning pf the German word handschuhsanbalwerfer and Holly Walsh shares her favourite example of prison slang.

The panel also suggest words that don't yet exist, but should. What could they mean by 'a Clarkson', 'messcalation', 'trage' and 'appointmentia'?

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.
Producer: Claire Jones.


SUN 19:45 Life at Absolute Zero (b08pdxbw)
Series 2, Accept No Substitute

Lynne Truss observes the inhabitants of Meridian Cliffs, a small wind-battered town on the south coast of England.

Jim regularly phones Sarah, his first wife, to go on about Emma, his second wife. Sarah doesn't mind listening to her ex husband talking about the woman who replaced her in his life. On the contrary, she loves hearing about their marital difficulties. But when Emma finds out - what a surprise - she doesn't turn out to be quite so understanding.

Directed by Kate McAll
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 More or Less (b08pgswp)
Nurses' pay, Scottish seats, Penalty shootouts

What is happening to nurses pay?

Amid reports of nurses using food banks, Jeremy Hunt said he doesn't recognise claims their wages are worth less now than in 2010. He says nurses are actually paid £31,000 - more than the average person. If he's right, why do so many nurses say they're earning much less than that?

The Great Scottish Election Conspiracy

The reporting of the Scottish council elections has caused a bit of a stir. Did the SNP lose seven seats or gain six. The media including the BBC reported that they had lost seats, the many SNP supporters are sure that this isn't a fair representation of their performance. This all hinges on how you look at the results last time around and how you account for the major boundary review that took place between elections. Tim tries to get to the bottom of what has happened with Professor David Denver from Lancaster University.

Penalty shootout maths

What do coffee, stew and nerve-biting football finales have in common? Maths whizz and football aficionado Rob Eastaway explains all.
UEFA, European football's governing body, is currently trialling a new system for penalty shootouts. But what is the maths behind the new system - and could a century-old Scandinavian mathematical sequence offer a better approach?

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Charlotte McDonald.


SUN 20:30 Last Word (b08pgswm)
Ueli Steck, Lord Williams of Baglan, Sylvia Moy, Captain James Dickson MBE, Jon Prinz

Matthew Bannister on

The Swiss climber Ueli Steck, famous for his daring high speed ascents of the world's most challenging mountains without the use of oxygen.

Lord Williams the human rights expert who advised three Labour Foreign secretaries.

Sylvia Moy who co-wrote many of Stevie Wonder's best known songs, including "I Was Made To Love Her" and "My Cherie Amour."

Captain James Dickson, the experienced seaman who was winched down onto the deck of the oil tanker Braer when it ran aground in high seas on the coast of Shetland.

And Jon Prinz, the food scientist and custard expert described by Heston Blumenthal as "brilliant and barking mad in equal measure".

Producer: Neil George.


SUN 21:00 Money Box (b08px3fc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:26 Radio 4 Appeal (b08q3d5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 In Business (b08pgbvj)
The Art of the Meeting

We spend hours in meetings at work so what can we do to love them more? Tanya Beckett looks at the art of the meeting and asks how can we make them more productive & enjoyable. How do you deal with the person who never stops talking, or someone who spends an entire hour on their smartphone?
Tanya learns how to prepare for successful meetings and discovers that how they're run tells us a lot about the culture of an organisation, and even a country.

Produced by Smita Patel.


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (b08q30lr)

Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.


SUN 23:00 The Film Programme (b08pgbvb)
Ridley Scott

With Francine Stock.

Ridley Scott tells Francine why his new Alien franchise will be as big as Star Wars

Director Francois Ozon explains how Brexit helped to get his latest drama Frantz made

As the Film Programme's divisive A To Z of film-makers reaches the letter H, Briony Hanson reveals why John "Breakfast Club" Hughes means more to her than Alfred Hitchcock; while Sophie Monks-Kaufman picks an avant-garde animator over the master of suspense.


SUN 23:30 Something Understood (b08q30lx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 06:05 today]



MONDAY 15 MAY 2017

MON 00:00 Midnight News (b08q30qr)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


MON 00:15 Thinking Allowed (b08pfpj2)
Craft work - 'dirty' work

Masters of Craft: Laurie Taylor talks to Richard Ocejo, Associate Professor of Sociology at City University of New York and author of a study which explores the renaissance of bartending, distilling, barbering, and butchering, traditionally low status manual labour jobs which are being re-created as upscale careers by middle class, well educated young men. How does this complicate our notions of upward and downward mobility? They're joined by Phil Hubbard, Professor of Urban Studies at Kings College London.

Also, 'dirty work': Ruth Simpson, Professor of Management at Brunel Business School, finds out how street cleaners and refuse collectors retain their self esteem in jobs which are sometimes stigmatised and held in poor regard.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (b08q3985)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q30qw)

The latest shipping forecast.


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q30qy)

MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q30r0)

The latest shipping forecast.


MON 05:30 News Briefing (b08q30r2)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08rbfkj)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (b08q30r5)
Rural services

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


MON 05:56 Weather (b08q30r9)

The latest weather forecast for farmers.


MON 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q3sz6)
Cyrus Todiwala on the house sparrow

In this programme, London based chef and restaurant owner Cyrus Todiwala talks about his love of the city's house sparrow, bringing a bit of joy to the bustling streets.

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


MON 06:00 Today (b08q30rc)

News and current affairs. Includes Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (b08q30rg)
Post-Truth and Revolution

On Start the Week Amol Rajan seeks the truth in a post-truth world. The political columnist Matthew D'Ancona paints a dystopian picture in which trust has evaporated, conspiracy theories thrive, and feelings trump fact. He argues that the very foundations of democracy are under threat. Claire Wardle is hoping her organisation First Draft will equip users to verify the sources of stories and tackle misinformation online. But what happens when the peddlers of misinformation are state-sponsored? The Chinese writer Lijia Zhang spent a decade working in a rocket factory and her memoir, Socialism is Great!, reflects the great social transformation in China since the 1980s, and the shifts in trust and truth which mirrored such changes. The writer China Miéville, who is best known for his stories of urban surrealism, turns his attention to the story of the Russian Revolution.
Producer: Kirsty McQuire.


MON 09:45 Book of the Week (b08q3xnv)
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, Episode 1

Nearing the end of his career, neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reflects on a life in surgery.

Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London, graduating in 1979. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St.George's in 1987, he retired from there in 2015 and has since continued to operate in Ukraine and Nepal as well as teaching in hospitals around the world.

His first memoir, Do Not Harm, was a bestseller when it was published in 2014 - Admissions is the more personal and provocative follow up.

Henry Marsh has been the subject of two major documentary films - Your Life in their Hands (2003) which won the Royal Television Society Gold Medal and The English Surgeon (2009) which won an Emmy. He has lectured widely on the subject of hospital architecture and design, keeps bees and makes furniture in his spare time. He was made a CBE in 2010 and is married to the best-selling anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.

Written by Henry Marsh
Read by Robert Powell
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08q30rl)
Rupi Kaur, Financial abuse, Swimming Suffragettes

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


MON 10:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q3xnx)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 2

John Galsworthy's epic family saga of love, money and betrayal.
Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan

It's 1930 and two years have passed since Dinny Cherrell saved the day, rescuing her brother's beleaguered reputation. Her best friend, Diana, is in love and travelling the world with her new husband leaving Dinny to wonder if she's ever going to experience true love herself.

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Directors ..... Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins

Today's play marks the start of the eighth novel in the series, Flowering Wilderness.


MON 11:00 The Untold (b08q3yjq)
The Divorce Settlement

A father faces eviction after the house he's lived in for 20 years becomes the final marriage asset to be divided in his daughter's divorce settlement. He's 81 and frail; he suffers from emphysema. But he's independent and wants to die in the place he knows as home.

His daughter has decided she won't tell him - she worries the news would kill him. Instead she must find a way to secure the house and his future in it. She hopes he'll never know how close he was to losing it.


MON 11:30 Dot (b08q3yjs)
Series 2, Psychology

by Ed Harris

Comic adventures with Dot and the gals from personnel. Peabody's not been the full shilling recently and now Dr Pinkly has arrived to test who is the psychological 'weak link' and everyone's a suspect. Who will be deemed sane and who will be sent to Sunnyside Sanatorium? Ed Harris' rollicking comedy starring Fenella Woolgar.


MON 12:00 News Summary (b08q30rs)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 Home Front (b08lhsnz)
15 May 1917 - Victor Lumley

On this day in 1917, two British soldiers were shot for desertion, and in Folkestone, Victor Lumley feels far from the action.

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


MON 12:15 You and Yours (b08q30rx)
Lawyers in hospitals; Stove pollution; Closing restaurants

Earlier this year, You & Yours discovered that personal injury lawyers were being allowed to set up advice services in NHS hospitals, including units which treat people with head and spine injuries. They offer patients help with employment law and benefits, but they also provide advice on making claims and questions were raised about whether the NHS was, in effect, inviting lawyers to sue it. Responding to our investigation, NHS England told us the practice was "completely unacceptable" and it's now emerged that law firms will soon be banned from operating from or touting for business in NHS premises in England. Will this lead to fewer claims against the NHS? How will it affect patients who need legal advice?

For many, a wood burning stove is a special feature of their dream home, making a room not just warm, but also wonderfully cosy. They are fashionable too, with more than a million UK homes now using either a stove or open fire. Since wood is a renewable fuel, stoves are also marketed as "green". But not everyone is convinced. Air pollution experts say they do contribute to pollution, particularly in urban areas. One You & Yours listener describes how smoke from stoves blights her neighbourhood. The industry says modern stoves are very efficient and are a good alternative to central heating. We ask, just how green are stoves?

In the last few decades, restaurants have boomed in the UK. But now, some of the big chains are closing branches. The industry blames rising food prices and staff costs, but some analysts think that too many opened in the first place. We examine the new pressures facing restaurants and how they are likely to fare in the years ahead.

Producer: Jonathan Hallewell
Presenter: Winifred Robinson.


MON 12:57 Weather (b08q30rz)

The latest weather forecast.


MON 13:00 World at One (b08q30s6)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


MON 13:45 Our Man in the Middle East (b08q4cls)
Series 1, The Giant Awakens

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen on America's dramatic intervention in the region during the massive military build-up to the first Gulf War. "Watching it happen I had the feeling that a great military giant, chastened since its defeat in Asia 15 years before, was shaking itself, and waking up to fight again," he says.

Over these 25 programmes, Jeremy reflects on the present and the past of the Middle East, after reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. He combines first-hand accounts from the front line with an in-depth look into the region's history. He has witnessed endless wars between individuals, religious groups and full-sized states, jostling for military, political and economic power. He has interviewed dictators, fanatics and fundamentalists as well as the ordinary people caught up in their dangerous games. In that time, the past has always been present, providing motivation and political ammunition . Bowen has made headlines himself and he has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of reporting - on the worst day, he says, in his life.

Producers: Mark Savage and Cara Swift.


MON 14:00 The Archers (b08q3mw4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 Drama (b05pqsl3)
The Imperfect Education of Sabrina Sidney

Drama by Abigail Youngman starring Rory Bremner, Aidan McArdle and Amanda Root. Set in the eighteenth century and based on true events, it tells the story of two young girls involved in a most peculiar educational experiment carried out by the philanthropist and intellectual Thomas Day.

Directed by Alison Crawford.


MON 15:00 Brain of Britain (b08q4clw)
The 2017 Final

(17/17)
The grand Final sees the cream of this year's competitors vying for the 64th BBC Brain of Britain title. The Finalists are from Leeds, Rochester in Kent, Wigton in Cumbria and Northwich in Cheshire. Russell Davies asks the questions.

Producer: Paul Bajoria.


MON 15:30 Food Programme (b08q3fxc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:32 on Sunday]


MON 16:00 With Great Pleasure (b08q4cly)
Tim Smit

Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project chooses his favourite pieces of writing which include the moving letters between staff and gardeners from the Lost Gardens of Heligan during World War 1, poetry by Emily Dickinson and extracts of great speeches by Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy read for him by actors Anna Chancellor and Toby Jones.

Producer: Maggie Ayre.


MON 16:30 The Digital Human (b08q4cm1)
Series 11, Silence

Aleks Krotoski explores living in a digital world. Why in a digital world can silence make us feel uncomfortable and how can technology actually help us achieve silence?


MON 17:00 PM (b08q30sj)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q30sr)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (b08q4cm3)
Series 78, 15/05/2017

Just A Minute is 50 years old this year! Nicholas Parsons has been hosting since day one, and kicks off the first episode of the new series with a cracking line-up: Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence, Graham Norton and Stephen Fry.

The panel have to talk on a given subject for sixty seconds without repetition, hesitation or deviation. Graham tells us how he lets off steam, Paul informs us about Charles Darwin, Josie tells us what she thinks of low hanging fruit, and Stephen gets stuck into selfie sticks.

Hayley Sterling blows the whistle and it was produced by Matt Stronge.

Just A Minute is a BBC Studios production.


MON 19:00 The Archers (b08q4cm5)

Lily offers her analysis, and Adam has a keen student.


MON 19:15 Front Row (b08q30sw)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


MON 19:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q3xnx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


MON 20:00 The Invention of... (b08q4hwl)
The USA, The Melting Pot

To build a country you need people. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free." This quote, from the base of the Statue of Liberty, is part of the great American myth. Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, English, Irish, Poles, Germans, Koreans, Jamaicans - astounding numbers of people have started life again in the US. But not everyone has been welcomed with open arms. Who do you let in, who do you keep out? This has been an American obsession from the very start.

With contributions from Comanche writer Paul Chaat Smith, novelist Zoe Heller, Sarah Henry of the City Museum of New York, Jaime Arras of the border patrol in El Paso, and Harry Allen, better known as the Media Assassin with Public Enemy. The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer in Bristol Miles Warde.


MON 20:30 Crossing Continents (b08pfqls)
Elephants, Politics and Sri Lanka

Every year elephants kill dozens of people in Sri Lanka. Hundreds of these huge mammals are slaughtered too - often by farmers attempting to protect their land. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly travels to the east of the island - one of the regions devastated by over two decades of civil war. Thousands of people fled their homes during the fighting, and in their absence, the elephants moved in. With peace came resettlement, but many villages are now forced to negotiate a precarious existence with the wild herds, and death-by-elephant is not uncommon. Meanwhile, the government is attempting to take action against the illegal ownership of elephants, and prosecutions are in train. In Sri Lanka, elephants are a status symbol for the rich and powerful, and they are also highly revered in Buddhist culture - no pageant is complete without a slow-moving procession of elephants. But there are claims the confiscation of illegally-kept animals has created a shortage for religious rituals, and criticisms that the government is over-responding to the animal rights lobby. In a fractured nation, elephants are becoming increasingly politicised. Linda Pressly reporting.


MON 21:00 In Their Element (b08pdzxq)
Series 1, And then there was Li

From the origins of the universe, though batteries, glass and grease to influencing the working of our brains, Neuroscientist Sophie Scott tracks the incredible power of lithium.

Its 200 years ago this year that lithium was first isolated and named, but this, the lightest of all metals, had been used as a drug for centuries before.

From the industrial revolution it proves its worth as a key ingredient in glass and grease, and as the major component in lithium ion batteries it powers every smartphone on the planet.

In mental health lithium has proved one of the most effective treatments. And its use to treat physical ailments is now making a comeback.

We explore how the chemistry of lithium links all these apparently unrelated uses together.


MON 21:30 Start the Week (b08q30rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:58 Weather (b08q30t5)

The latest weather forecast.


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (b08q30t7)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08q4hwn)
Golden Hill, Episode 1

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition. He has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Francis Spufford says of his book, "Golden Hill is just a novel. More specifically, it's an eighteenth century novel. It's set in the winter of 1746, in what was then the very small British colonial town of New York; but it's also written like a novel from the eighteenth century. So the story of the charming but unreliable-seeming young Mr Smith, who turns up from London with a document in his pocket that may be a fraud or may be worth a fortune, is as hectically stuffed with event as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.

"Eighteenth-century readers expected to get their money's worth, and Golden Hill contains (among other things) a mystery, a political intrigue, a love story, a ball, a duel, a high-stakes card game, a trial, a dash of horror, a play-within-a-play, some surprisingly graphic sex and a rooftop chase. As a slow writer, I enjoyed working on something that runs fast. It was intricate fun devising and winding up the book's clockwork. But I hope it's also a story that feels alive, and makes the past feel alive too, while Mr Smith runs for his life, and the snow falls on Manhattan Island."

Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


MON 23:00 Word of Mouth (b08pdzy1)
The Postbag Edition

Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright answer listeners' questions from the Word of Mouth inbox and postbag. They're joined by guests, Katherine Fry and Rowena Kirton, authors of the book 'Grammar for Grown-Ups' to talk about everything from your grammar gripes to queries about why everyone seems to be using or abusing the word ''literally' lately.

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


MON 23:30 My Muse (b07pfc34)
Kathryn Williams on Sylvia Plath

My Muse: in the first of a 3 part series artists describe the artists that inspire them. The award winning singer songwriter Kathryn Williams was motivated to write an entire album, Hypoxia, by the work of the poet Sylvia Plath.

Kathryn was commissioned to write some songs for the Durham Book Festival to mark the 50th anniversary of Sylvia Plath's death and the publication of her novel, The Bell Jar. She wanted to write something that got away from the popular tragic image of Sylvia Plath who killed herself at the age of just 30. Instead Kathryn wanted to focus on the writing. Plath is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Once the commission was over Kathryn couldn't stop writing and decided these songs would be her next album. She got stuck and called on the singer songwriter and producer Ed Harcourt for help, who we hear from in the programme. Kathryn also speaks to Andrew Wilson author of Mad Girl's Love Song, a biography of Plath's early life. They meet at Parliament Hill Fields, one of the many places in England that inspired Plath. Another is Hardcastle Crags in West Yorkshire where Kathryn goes on a walk with the poet Sarah Corbett, author of And She Was. For the first time - and amidst cracking thunder - Kathryn visits the grave of Sylvia Plath along with Gail Crowther, author of The Haunted Reader and Sylvia Plath.

Kathryn wants to concentrate on Plath's work, not her death, so ends with Deryn Rees-Jones, also a poet and a critic and Professor of Poetry at Liverpool University, where a collection of some of Plath's manuscripts are held.

Producer: Nicola Swords, BBC Radio Production North.



TUESDAY 16 MAY 2017

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (b08q30xk)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


TUE 00:30 Book of the Week (b08q3xnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q30xp)

The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q30xs)

TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q30xx)

The latest shipping forecast.


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (b08q30y2)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08rmmnh)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (b08q30y4)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q5wxv)
Peter Rock on the Lesser Black Backed Gull

The story and sound of birds.


TUE 06:00 Today (b08q30y7)

News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 The Life Scientific (b08q5wxx)
Ottoline Leyser on how plants decide what to do

To the untrained eye, a plant's existence may seem rather uneventful. It spends its days rooted to the spot, seemingly at the mercy of its environment.

Not so, plant biologist Ottoline Leyser explains to Jim Al-Khalili. Plants are intelligent creatures that possess a unique ability to adapt in ways we animals can only dream of. They can alter their entire body plan of roots and shoots, when required, in response to their surroundings.

Now Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory & Professor of Plant Development at Cambridge University, Ottoline has spent her career unearthing the mysterious mechanisms that underpin this process. She's pieced together the finely-tuned network of hormonal signals which regulate how the roots and shoots of a plant develop.

These new insights into what plants get up to are so remarkable that Ottoline is determined to change the way we think about them.

Producer: Beth Eastwood.


TUE 09:30 One to One (b03zy22n)
Jane Hill meets John Jennings

More from the series where broadcasters follow their personal passions by talking to the people whose stories interest them most. BBC newsreader Jane Hill's father and uncle both lived with Parkinson's disease, and in this series she talks to people from families with an inherited genetic disorder. In the second of two programmes she talks to John Jennings, who has a high chance of inheriting a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's disease. They discuss the emotional impact of having this disease in the family and his decision whether or not to get tested for the gene.
Producer: Sally Heaven.


TUE 09:45 Book of the Week (b08q5wxz)
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, Episode 2

Nearing the end of his career, neurosurgeon Henry Marsh reflects on a life in surgery. Concern for his patients is still paramount from the moment the working day starts.

Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London, graduating in 1979. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St.George's in 1987, he retired from there in 2015 and has since continued to operate in Ukraine and Nepal as well as teaching in hospitals around the world.

His first memoir, Do Not Harm, was a bestseller when it was published in 2014 - Admissions is the more personal and provocative follow up.

Henry Marsh has been the subject of two major documentary films - Your Life in their Hands (2003) which won the Royal Television Society Gold Medal and The English Surgeon (2009) which won an Emmy. He has lectured widely on the subject of hospital architecture and design, keeps bees and makes furniture in his spare time. He was made a CBE in 2010 and is married to the best-selling anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.

Written by Henry Marsh
Read by Robert Powell
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08q30yc)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


TUE 10:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q5wy1)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 3

John Galsworthy's epic family saga of love, money and betrayal.
Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan

The return of poet Wilfrid Desert from the Middle East is the talk of London high society and his declaration of love for Dinny Cherrell ruffles a few feathers closer to home too.

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Directors ..... Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.


TUE 11:00 In Their Element (b08q5wy3)
Series 1, Carbon: The Chemical Story of Our Lives

Impassioned Scientists, tell the story of different elements, explaining why these well-known substances matter, not just for chemistry but for the development of modern civilisation.

We hear why they are an integral part of what makes us human and how we interact with the world around us. We'll find out how elements link the origins of the universe with contemporary treatments for mental illness, why elements play a strategic part in the life and death or every organism on the planet, including ourselves and how whole societies and cultures have risen and fallen on the backs of these most basic chemicals.


TUE 11:30 Tales From the Stave (b08q5wy5)
Series 15, Puccini's La Boheme

Puccini's La Boheme is the subject of the last in the current series of Frances Fyfield's manuscript explorations, Tales from the Stave. Working their way through the often feverish handwriting of Puccini's fourth and arguably most popular opera are the internationally acclaimed conductor Gianandrea Noseda, the soprano Eleonora Buratto and the Ricordi archives leading authority Gabriele Dotto.
What they uncover is the work of a composer still honing and perfecting even as he completed the final manuscript version of his masterpiece in time for performance at the Teatro Regio in Turin. The score is cluttered with tweaks, re-thinks and a sense of urgent emphasis, as well as some of the most familiar and beautiful music of the Romantic Opera repertoire. The vibrant, unbridled characters of the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 19th century come fizzing to life in the score which makes the tragic final Act all the more poignant, something reflected dramatically on the manuscript itself at the point at which the heroine, Mimi, dies.

Producer: Tom Alban.


TUE 12:00 News Summary (b08q30yg)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 Home Front (b08lhspd)
16 May 1917 - Kitty Lumley

On this day in 1917, an all-female Russian unit called the Women's Battalion of Death was established, and in Folkestone, Kitty's in need of female friendship.

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


TUE 12:15 You and Yours (b08q30ym)
Call You and Yours

Consumer phone-in.


TUE 12:57 Weather (b08q30yp)

The latest weather forecast.


TUE 13:00 World at One (b08q30yr)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


TUE 13:45 Our Man in the Middle East (b08q5wy7)
Series 1, All Flesh Is Grass

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen recalls the devastation of the first Gulf War as he witnessed the aftermath of the bombing of a shelter in Baghdad, which killed 400 civilians. "In a war life does get scythed away like grass," he says. "There were so many bodies, and blackened pieces of bodies, that they piled up in the corridors, the entrance hall and the yard outside."

In this series, Jeremy reflects on the present and the past of the Middle East, after reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. He combines first-hand accounts from the front line with an in-depth look into the region's history. He has witnessed endless wars between individuals, religious groups and full-sized states, jostling for military, political and economic power. He has interviewed dictators, fanatics and fundamentalists as well as the ordinary people caught up in their dangerous games. In that time, the past has always been present, providing motivation and political ammunition . Bowen has made headlines himself and he has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of reporting - on the worst day, he says, in his life.
Producers: Mark Savage and Cara Swift.
Music: Brahms's German Requiem, Opus 45.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (b08q4cm5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 Tumanbay (b08q5wy9)
Series 2, Healing the Sick

As slave trader Ibn (Nabil Elouahabi), accused of hoarding heretical text, seeks justice from the new regime's religious courts, news arrives of a devastating plague in the swamps outside the city. Undeterred, the all-powerful Inquisitor, Barakat (Hiran Abeysekera), continues his mission to cleanse the city of heretics and he chooses Gregor (Rufus Wright) to assist.

Tumanbay is created by John Dryden and Mike Walker and inspired by the Mamluk slave rulers of Egypt.

Orignal Music by Sacha Puttnam and Jon Ouin

Sound Design by Steve Bond
Sound Edited by James Morgan and Andreina Gomez
Script Edited by Abigail Youngman
Produced by Emma Hearn, Nadir Khan and John Dryden

Written by Andy Mulligan
Directed by John Dryden

A Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:00 Short Cuts (b08q5wyh)
Series 12, Postcards

Josie Long presents stories of messages sent across borders. Unsent postcards, a last message and the journey for home.

An old handwritten note, in pursuit of a woman who ran away, leads to a town submerged in water; the writer Laura Barton discovers a tranche of muted, unsent missives in a storage box; and we hear the voices of those who are far from home.

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 15:30 Costing the Earth (b08q5wz0)
Mekong Delta Blues

New dams threaten life on South-East Asia's most vital river, a river that provides food and water to 70 million people. The government of Laos is determined to develop the nation by building hydroelectric dams for electricity. Many people in the downstream countries of Cambodia and Vietnam are worried that the flow of the life-giving waters of the Mekong will be much reduced and fish life devastated. Peter Hadfield reports from the banks of the Mekong.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.


TUE 16:00 Word of Mouth (b08q5x0w)
Game On: The Language of Video Games

With 99% of 8-15 year olds playing video games, Michael Rosen & Dr Laura Wright explore how gaming is influencing language and storytelling. From terms like 'epic fail' and 'levelling up' entering education and politics to sophisticated developments in interactive storytelling taking on the cinema and film industry. Narrative paramedic, Rhianna Pratchett and Associate Professor in Games Research, Esther MacCallum Stewart guide us through the world and language of gamers. There will be zombies...

Producer: Sarah Addezio.


TUE 16:30 Great Lives (b08q5x7l)
Series 42, Sue Cameron on Emma of Normandy

Twice Queen of England and mother of two kings, but have you heard of Emma of Normandy? Doyenne of Whitehall and Westminster journalists, Sue Cameron names William the Conqueror's aunt as her great life.

Matthew Parris explores the time 1,000 years ago when England was emerging as a new nation in the decades before the Norman invasion, when the country's Anglo Saxon rulers were beset with Viking invasions. Emma, herself of French Viking descent, was pitched into a maelstrom of war and politics, when she crossed the channel as a teenage bride in 1002.

Joined by medieval historian Vanessa King of Goldsmiths, University of London, Sue Cameron and Matthew conjure the fortunes of a woman who emerged as a key powerbroker and kingmaker. Emma bestrode early English court politics for half a century during her life, and for years afterwards. Married first to Aethelred, the Saxon king, she was promptly summoned to marry his successor after his death in 1016, the Danish king of England, Canute, who's alleged to have ordered the waves to cease. Sue Cameron imagines what it must have been like for Emma in the midst of these turbulent times, trying to protect the sons she had with both kings, while advancing their position at court.

Producer: Mark Smalley.


TUE 17:00 PM (b08q30z2)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q30z7)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 18:30 Small Scenes (b071x4ny)
Series 3, Episode 1

Award-winning sketch series starring Daniel Rigby, Mike Wozniak, Cariad Lloyd, Henry Paker and Jessica Ransom. Featuring more overblown, melodramatic scenes from modern life, such as a woman who uncovers the conspiracy behind cryptic crosswords, a saxophonist who is tortured by his inability to play the solo from Baker Street and what happens if you buy Chris de Burgh's old house.

Written by Benjamin Partridge, Henry Paker and Mike Wozniak, with additional material from the cast.

Produced by Simon Mayhew-Archer.


TUE 19:00 The Archers (b08q60pm)

Harrison has his work cut out, and Matt returns two items.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (b08q30zc)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


TUE 19:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q5wy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


TUE 20:00 File on 4 (b08q60pp)
Policing the Police

From the Hillsborough Inquest to Plebgate, from the revelations about undercover officers to the shooting of Mark Duggan, the last few years have been as controversial as any in the history of British policing. The government has introduced a range of new measures to try and make the police service more accountable. These have included the strengthening of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, measures to crack down on officers retiring when under investigation, and a new openness surrounding police disciplinary hearings. But have these new ideas really worked?

Critics point out that when the new measures were announced by then Home Secretary Theresa May, she was booed and cat-called by serving officers at the Police Federation conference. They say such actions underline the degree of resistance within the police to any genuine accountability

File on 4 investigates a series of cases of alleged wrongdoing brought against the police by both members of the public and by serving officers. We look at some of the tactics police forces still appear to be using to avoid scrutiny, and we ask : despite the new measures, how much has really changed?

Reporter : Mark Gregory
Producer :Sally Chesworth
Editor: Gail Champion.


TUE 20:40 In Touch (b08q30zm)

News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.


TUE 21:00 All in the Mind (b08q60pr)
The Everyday Effect of Unconscious Bias

We are all guilty of making instant unconscious decisions about other people. Could a greater awareness and a practical approach can help to overcome this common hurdle at work?

Claudia Hammond hosts a special edition recorded live in front of an audience at The Royal Institution in London to discuss something that happens to all of us - when our minds make snap judgments about other people without us even realising it. It's known as unconscious bias - although it doesn't mean bias in any deliberate way. The whole point is that we don't even know it's happening. How does it play out in real life?

Claudia Hammond is joined by a panel of experts to discuss what effect the bias in our decision making has on the lives of each and every one of us and what we can do about it

Taking part are business psychologist Binna Kandola; Jessica Rowson, from The Institute of Physics who's been examining why more girls don't choose to study physics at school; Emma Chapman a Royal Astronomical Society fellow; Louise Archer Professor of Sociology of Education at King's College London.


TUE 21:30 The Life Scientific (b08q5wxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (b08q30zr)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08q60pt)
Golden Hill, Episode 2

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition. He has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Francis Spufford says of his book, "Golden Hill is just a novel. More specifically, it's an eighteenth century novel. It's set in the winter of 1746, in what was then the very small British colonial town of New York; but it's also written like a novel from the eighteenth century. So the story of the charming but unreliable-seeming young Mr Smith, who turns up from London with a document in his pocket that may be a fraud or may be worth a fortune, is as hectically stuffed with event as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.

"Eighteenth-century readers expected to get their money's worth, and Golden Hill contains (among other things) a mystery, a political intrigue, a love story, a ball, a duel, a high-stakes card game, a trial, a dash of horror, a play-within-a-play, some surprisingly graphic sex and a rooftop chase. As a slow writer, I enjoyed working on something that runs fast. It was intricate fun devising and winding up the book's clockwork. But I hope it's also a story that feels alive, and makes the past feel alive too, while Mr Smith runs for his life, and the snow falls on Manhattan Island."

Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


TUE 23:00 That Was the Tweet That Was (b08q60r5)

Radio 4 comedy.


TUE 23:30 My Muse (b07q31y9)
Lemn Sissay on Bob Marley

Lemn's reverence for Bob Marley is rooted in his own childhood in care, his feeling that both Marley and himself were born as outsiders. Lemn Sissay was fostered up until the age of 12, but was then abandoned by that family and placed him in care. A series of children's homes followed. Lemn didn't know any black people, but the music of Bob Marley gave him a sense of hope and of identity. As an adult Lemn traced his birth parents - both were from Ethiopia, a place of deep spiritual significance to Bob Marley.

For Lemn, Marley seemed to cross all boundaries speaking to people around the world, whatever colour they were, with a message of self-empowerment, through the new sound of reggae music, which he played a great hand in creating. As Lemn says - a muse inspires urgency. 'What must be written, must be written'.

Lemn speaks with the poet and reggae star Linton Kwesi Johnson, to the photographer Denis Morris who's taken some of the most iconic pictures of Bob Marley. Lemn meets Chris Salewicz, author of Bob Marley, The Untold Story and two people from his, past Adele Jones who knew him as a young burgeoning poet and Linden - the man Lemn credits with introducing him to Marley all those years ago.

Producer: Nicola Swords, Radio Production North, Salford.



WEDNESDAY 17 MAY 2017

WED 00:00 Midnight News (b08q312x)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


WED 00:30 Book of the Week (b08q5wxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q312z)

The latest shipping forecast.


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q3131)

WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q3134)

The latest shipping forecast.


WED 05:30 News Briefing (b08q3136)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08r750r)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (b08q3138)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q6156)
Mya Rose Craig on the Black Browed Albatross

The story and sound of birds.


WED 06:00 Today (b08q313b)

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Soul Music (b08q6181)
Series 24, Waterloo Sunset

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks was released in 1967. To mark its 50th anniversary, Soul Music hears the poignant, thoughtful and life-changing memories of those who love it.

Childhood holidays were an escape from bullying for John Harvey. He describes the unforgettable moment when he heard Waterloo Sunset for the first time, on the radio, in 1967. Getting to know the music of The Kinks, and finding out about the character of its lead singer, Ray Davies, shaped and coloured his life from then on.

Allison Moore Adams is an American who married Vernon, a Brit. Waterloo Sunset was sung at his bedside following a terrible road accident. The painting used to illustrate this edition of Soul Music is of Vernon and Allison on Waterloo Bridge. It's by Allison's friend, Isabelle Logie, who also sang to Vernon in hospital.

Christopher Young used to work in mental health. For him, the lyrics of Waterloo Sunset symbolise the isolation that many people feel.

Professor Allan Moore, a musicologist, discusses why this beautiful pop song works so well.

Producer: Karen Gregor.


WED 09:30 John Cleese Presents (b08q61n6)
Series 1, Episode 2

In today's show John tries to conduct a radio phone-in. What could possibly wrong? The possibilities are endless.

Starring John Cleese, Harriet Carmichael and Peter Dickson, and written by John Cleese and James Peak.

The extracts used in this programme are taken from John's audiobook of his autobiography, So Anyway.

Producers: James Peak and Andre Jacquemin
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 09:45 Book of the Week (b08q61n8)
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, Episode 3

Henry Marsh goes to Nepal, where an old friend has set up the Neuro Hospital. Training the eager young doctors is a key part of his role there - deciding when to operate is more difficult.

Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London, graduating in 1979. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St.George's in 1987, he retired from there in 2015 and has since continued to operate in Ukraine and Nepal as well as teaching in hospitals around the world.

His first memoir, Do Not Harm, was a bestseller when it was published in 2014 - Admissions is the more personal and provocative follow up, reflecting on a life in surgery.

Henry Marsh has been the subject of two major documentary films - Your Life in their Hands (2003) which won the Royal Television Society Gold Medal and The English Surgeon (2009) which won an Emmy. He has lectured widely on the subject of hospital architecture and design, keeps bees and makes furniture in his spare time. He was made a CBE in 2010 and is married to the best-selling anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.

Written by Henry Marsh
Read by Robert Powell
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08q313g)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


WED 10:41 The Forsyte Saga (b08q61nb)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 4

John Galsworthy's epic family saga of love, money and betrayal.
Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan

Dinny's loyalty is put to the test when the truth about Wilfrid's experiences in the Middle East threatens to come out.

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Directors ..... Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.


WED 10:55 The Listening Project (b08q61nd)
Dave and Dan - Leicester till We Die

The financial status of footballers was very different in Dave's youth, but a Leicester fan is a Foxes fan forever. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


WED 11:00 The Invention of... (b08q4hwl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 11:30 Shush! (b08q62bx)
Series 2, Taken at the Flood

When the library is threatened from an unexpected quarter, Snoo gains some friends and Alice sacrifices her favourite tunic.

Meet Alice (Rebecca Front) - a former child prodigy who won a place at Oxford aged 9 but, because Daddy went too, she never needed to have any friends. She's scared of everything. Everything that is except libraries and Snoo (Morwenna Banks) - a slightly confused individual with a have-a-go attitude to life, marriage, haircuts and reality. Snoo loves books, and fully intends to read one one day.

And forever popping into the library is Dr Cadogan (Michael Fenton Stevens) - celebrity doctor to the stars and a man with his finger in every pie. Charming, indiscreet and quite possibly wanted by Interpol, if you want a discrete nip and tuck and then photos of it accidentally left on the photocopier, Dr Cadogan is your man.

Their happy life is interrupted by the arrival of Simon Nielson (Ben Willbond), a man with a mission - a mission to close down inefficient libraries. Fortunately, he hates his mission. What he really wants to do is once - just once - get even with his inexhaustible supply of high-achieving brothers.

Written by Morwenna Banks and Rebecca Front
Based on an idea developed with Armando Iannucci

Produced by David Tyler
A Pozzitive production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:00 News Summary (b08q313j)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 Home Front (b08lhsx2)
17 May 1917 - Walter Hamilton

On this day in 1917, a special thanksgiving service was held at Westminster Cathedral in aid of the Red Cross, and in Folkestone, Walter Hamilton's generosity is stretched.

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


WED 12:15 You and Yours (b08q313l)

Consumer affairs programme.


WED 12:57 Weather (b08q313n)

The latest weather forecast.


WED 13:00 World at One (b08q313r)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


WED 13:45 Our Man in the Middle East (b08q62bz)
Series 1, Retreat to the Mountains

The story of the Kurds of Iraq, told by BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. They were brutally oppressed by Saddam Hussein after rebelling against him in 1991. "In towns and villages men and boys were taken away and killed," he remembers. "25 years ago I visited a Kurdish village that had no males over the age of 12." Today, Iraq's Kurds enjoy independence in their own de-facto mini-state in the north of the country.

In this series, Jeremy reflects on the present and the past of the Middle East, after reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. He combines first-hand accounts from the front line with an in-depth look into the region's history. Bowen started reporting on the region in the lead up to the Gulf War back in 1990. Since then, he has witnessed endless wars between individuals, religious groups and full-sized states, jostling for military, political and economic power. He has interviewed dictators, fanatics and fundamentalists as well as the ordinary people caught up in their dangerous games. In that time, the past has always been present, providing motivation and political ammunition. Bowen has made headlines himself and he has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of reporting - on the worst day, he says, in his life.
Producers: Mark Savage and Cara Swift.


WED 14:00 The Archers (b08q60pm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama (b08q63kv)
Martha

Original drama by Thomas Pickles about a young woman and a storm.

Retreating from London, twenty-five year old Tabitha Mosscrop returns to her remote Northern village only to find it flooded and her family home destroyed. She and her father take shelter in their old caravan as the storm outside continues to build.

Despite the dangers, Tabitha can't pull herself away from the eye of the storm and as the rain pours and the thunder rumbles, she's forced to confront what she's running away from.

Directed by Nadia Molinari

This drama was recorded in surround sound and you can listen on headphones for an immersive 3D listening experience.


WED 15:00 Money Box (b08q313t)
Money Box Live: The Bank of Mum and Dad

Financial phone-in.


WED 15:30 All in the Mind (b08q60pr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 16:00 Thinking Allowed (b08q63kx)

Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.


WED 16:30 The Media Show (b08q3146)

Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.


WED 17:00 PM (b08q3148)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q314b)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 18:30 Rum Bunch (b08q63kz)
Series 1, Clenton

Justin Edwards, Mel Giedroyc and Dave Mounfield are in the fictional town of Clenton to perform a poorly researched reenactment of the life of Annie Oakley, the gun toting legend of the Wild West.

Due to Mel's terrible American accent, Justin has asked Clare Grogan to take on the main role - much to Mel's annoyance - while Dave is trying to boost the sales of his homemade fish paste by getting a celebrity endorsement. Things take a turn for the worse after Clare, inspired by her criminal alter ego, goes off script.

Will Mel ride to her old friends' rescue? Will they be able to understand what she says if she does?

The Rum Bunch is Justin Edwards (The Consultants, The Odd Half Hour, Newsjack, Sorry I've Got No Head, The Thick of It), Mel Giedroyc (Mel and Sue, Bake Off, Let It Shine) and Dave Mounfield (Count Arthur Strong, This Is Jinsy).

The house band is Jason Hazeley and David Reed - The Penny Dreadfuls.

Produced by Jim North
A Top Dog production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 19:00 The Archers (b08q63l1)

Kenton gets the wrong end of the stick, and Rex will not take no for an answer.


WED 19:15 Front Row (b08q314h)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


WED 19:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q61nb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:41 today]


WED 20:00 FutureProofing (b08q655q)

Series that explores the big ideas that are set to shape our future.


WED 20:45 Electionomics (b08rvksx)
Electionomics, 17/05/2017

How do you make sense of the election? Each week Business Editor Simon Jack and Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed analyse the facts behind the election headlines and unpick the economic and business realities as the country prepares to decide on the next incumbent of Number 10.

With the help of the leading business and economic experts in their field, Electionomics promises to be the antidote to the political sound bite - in-depth and incisive. There may even be the odd joke, even though neither Simon nor Kamal are very funny.

Photo credit: BBC/Amanda Benson.


WED 21:00 Costing the Earth (b08q5wz0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 15:30 on Tuesday]


WED 21:30 Soul Music (b08q6181)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


WED 21:58 Weather (b08q314m)

The latest weather forecast.


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (b08q314t)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08q655v)
Golden Hill, Episode 3

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition. He has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Francis Spufford says of his book, "Golden Hill is just a novel. More specifically, it's an eighteenth century novel. It's set in the winter of 1746, in what was then the very small British colonial town of New York; but it's also written like a novel from the eighteenth century. So the story of the charming but unreliable-seeming young Mr Smith, who turns up from London with a document in his pocket that may be a fraud or may be worth a fortune, is as hectically stuffed with event as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.

"Eighteenth-century readers expected to get their money's worth, and Golden Hill contains (among other things) a mystery, a political intrigue, a love story, a ball, a duel, a high-stakes card game, a trial, a dash of horror, a play-within-a-play, some surprisingly graphic sex and a rooftop chase. As a slow writer, I enjoyed working on something that runs fast. It was intricate fun devising and winding up the book's clockwork. But I hope it's also a story that feels alive, and makes the past feel alive too, while Mr Smith runs for his life, and the snow falls on Manhattan Island."

Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:00 Cracking Up (b08q71fz)
Series 1, Revision Express

Dylan has exams looming and, like many teenage boys, is finding the whole work/life balance tricky to negotiate. Spencer has problems of his own as his flat has been pumped full of raw sewage and he decides to kill two birds with one van. He parks a mobile home on the family drive emblazoned with a sign that reads Revision Express.

He proposes to aid Dylan's revision with a technique known as appetitive stimulus. Despite Tilly's observation that "I think he's already started...I'm sure that's why he spends so long in the bathroom", it turns out to be a system of rewards that Spencer covertly places in Dylan's wardrobe.

So basically - bribery.

Things start badly as Dylan's friend Jamal takes a picture of Spencer emerging proudly from the Revision Express in a peaked cap and uniform and uploads it to Instagram where it immediately goes viral and sprouts memes of Spencer as (among other things) a zookeeper and Hitler.

A Big Talk production for BBC Radio 4.


WED 23:15 Beef and Dairy Network (b08q71g1)
Series 1, Episode 4

The number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds.

In this episode we interview youth worker Teresa Beckton about why young people don't think beef is cool. Also, there's a chance for one lucky listener to win a 4GB USB key.

The original Beef And Dairy Network Podcast series can be found at www.maximumfun.org

Performed by Benjamin Partridge, Cariad Lloyd and Josie Long
Written by Benjamin Partridge and Josie Long
Produced by Benjamin Partridge.


WED 23:30 My Muse (b07sy5y8)
Lisa Dwan on Samuel Beckett

Lisa Dwan, a renowned performer of works by Samuel Beckett, reflects on Beckett, who left Ireland, and one of his key inspirations, Dante, who was exiled from Florence, never to return.

Producer Sara Parker.



THURSDAY 18 MAY 2017

THU 00:00 Midnight News (b08q3177)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


THU 00:30 Book of the Week (b08q61n8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q3179)

The latest shipping forecast.


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q317c)

THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q317f)

The latest shipping forecast.


THU 05:30 News Briefing (b08q317h)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08rvymc)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (b08q317k)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q71yy)
John McPherson on the Ptarmigan

The story and sound of birds.


THU 06:00 Today (b08q317m)

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (b08q317p)
Louis Pasteur

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and his extraordinary contribution to medicine and science. It is said few people have saved more lives than Pasteur. A chemist, he showed that otherwise identical molecules could exist as 'left' and 'right-handed' versions and that molecules produced by living things were always left-handed. He proposed a germ theory to replace the idea of spontaneous generation. He discovered that microorganisms cause fermentation and disease. He began the process named after him, pasteurisation, heating liquids to 50-60 C to kill microbes. He saved the beer and wine industries in France when they were struggling with microbial contamination. He saved the French silk industry when he found a way of protecting healthy silkworm eggs from disease. He developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies and helped establish immunology. Many of his ideas were developed further after his lifetime, but one of his legacies was a charitable body, the Pasteur Institute, to continue research into infectious disease.

With

Michael Worboys

Anne Hardy

and

Andrew Mendelsohn

Producer: Simon Tillotson.


THU 09:45 Book of the Week (b08q71z0)
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, Episode 4

Operating on a human brain poses great risks, and requires confidence and decisiveness. But sometimes mistakes are made - and not always in the operating theatre.

Henry Marsh read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London, graduating in 1979. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1984 and was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St.George's in 1987, he retired from there in 2015 and has since continued to operate in Ukraine and Nepal as well as teaching in hospitals around the world.

His first memoir, Do Not Harm, was a bestseller when it was published in 2014 - Admissions is the more personal and provocative follow up, reflecting on a life in surgery.

Henry Marsh has been the subject of two major documentary films - Your Life in their Hands (2003) which won the Royal Television Society Gold Medal and The English Surgeon (2009) which won an Emmy. He has lectured widely on the subject of hospital architecture and design, keeps bees and makes furniture in his spare time. He was made a CBE in 2010 and is married to the best-selling anthropologist and writer Kate Fox.

Written by Henry Marsh
Read by Robert Powell
Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08q317r)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


THU 10:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q71z2)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 5

John Galsworthy's epic family saga of love, money and betrayal.
Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan

Against Michael's advice, Wilfrid publishes his poem and waits for society's reaction. Dinny fights to remain loyal to Wilfrid without unduly hurting her family.

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Directors ..... Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins.


THU 11:00 Crossing Continents (b08q71z4)
Banishing the 'Bad Hombres'

Reports from around the world.


THU 11:30 Against Our Ruin (b08q739x)

Hayden Lorimer, from the ruins of a modern architectural masterpiece on the banks of the River Clyde, asks poets, thinkers and entropy tourists why we love fragments and scraps more than finished art works. With Alice Oswald and Patrick McGuinness, Mark Ford and Seamus Perry, and the music of Bob Dylan, Pere Ubu and Christian Marclay. These fragments I have shored against my ruins, wrote TS Eliot in The Waste Land. Are we all cultural vultures now? Producer: Tim Dee.


THU 12:00 News Summary (b08q317t)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 Home Front (b08lhsyn)
18 May 1917 - Esme Macknade

On this day in 1917, sugar queues were reported in London, with stocks believed to be at their lowest yet, and in Folkestone, Esme's patience is in short supply.

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


THU 12:15 You and Yours (b08q317w)

Consumer affairs programme.


THU 12:57 Weather (b08q317y)

The latest weather forecast.


THU 13:00 World at One (b08q3180)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


THU 13:45 Our Man in the Middle East (b08q739z)
Series 1, Jerusalem

BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen reflects on the allure and intractable challenge of the Holy City. "The tectonic plates of religion and culture come together in Jerusalem," he observes. "When they move, we all feel it."

In this series Jeremy reflects on the present and the past of the Middle East, after reporting from the region for more than a quarter of a century. He combines first-hand accounts from the front line with an in-depth look into the region's history. Bowen started reporting on the region in the lead up to the Gulf War back in 1990. Since then, he has witnessed endless wars between individuals, religious groups and full-sized states, jostling for military, political and economic power. He has interviewed dictators, fanatics and fundamentalists as well as the ordinary people caught up in their dangerous games. In that time, the past has always been present, providing motivation and political ammunition. Bowen has made headlines himself and he has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of reporting - on the worst day, he says, in his life.
Producers: Mark Savage and Cara Swift.


THU 14:00 The Archers (b08q63l1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama (b05nxmzy)
Duchamp's Urinal

A documentary fiction about how a men's urinal changed the face of the art world at the turn of the 20th century.

Presented by art-historian Ben Street, and a cast of other subversive characters.

Written by Al Smith and Ben Street
Produced by Lu Kemp.

A BBC Scotland Production for Radio 4.


THU 15:00 Ramblings (b08q741m)
Series 36, The Nidderdale Way: Pateley Bridge to Scar House Reservoir

In this series Clare Balding will walk the Nidderdale Way, a spectacular fifty- three mile route in North Yorkshire, encircling the valley of the River Nidd. On this first section from Pateley Bridge to Scar House Reservoir, she's joined by local walking expert, Stephen Spelling and Michelin star chef, Frances Atkins. Frances is one of only six female chefs in the UK to have a Michelin Star, her restaurant is en route at Ramsgill . She explains how important walking is for her as a source of inspiration and relaxation from the stresses of the kitchen. Stephen advises Clare on the right equipment to have when tackling consecutive days of walking. They're also joined by Frances's black Labrador, Polly. While something of a law unto herself, Polly clearly loves this landscape of moorland, rolling green fields, dry stone walls and remote farm houses as much as her three companions.
Producer : Lucy Lunt.


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (b08q3d5g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Open Book (b08q3ns1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Sunday]


THU 16:00 The Film Programme (b08q74qt)
La La Land's composer

Francine Stock talks to Justin Hurwitz, the Oscar winning composer of La La Land.


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (b08q3182)

Adam Rutherford explores the science that is changing our world.


THU 17:00 PM (b08q3184)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q3186)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 18:30 Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (b043x48z)
Series 3, Episode 3

Stand-up Alex Horne and his 5-piece band explore fashion and trends through live music and comedy. This week there's a ceilidh and songs about Alex's car and the first dance at his wedding amongst others. They're joined by special guest comedian Marcus Brigstocke and singer Vula Malinga.

Host... Alex Horne
Band... Joe Auckland, Mark Brown, Will Collier, Ben Reynolds, Ed Sheldrake
Guest... Marcus Brigstocke and Vula Malinga
Producer... Charlie Perkins.


THU 19:00 The Archers (b08q74qw)

Kirsty makes a promise, and Justin fights his corner.


THU 19:15 Front Row (b08q3188)

Arts news, interviews and reviews.


THU 19:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q71z2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


THU 20:00 The Briefing Room (b08q767r)

Series looking at important issues in the news. Presented by David Aaronovitch.


THU 20:30 In Business (b08q767t)
Keeping Up with the Burgers

McDonalds has long dominated the burger market and continues to do so in the UK. But the US owned, giant fast food chain is in the midst of a make-over. Posher burger chains are springing up everywhere and McDonalds is now offering table service and new-look restaurants. Matthew Gwyther, Editor of Management Today, asks how and why McDonalds feels the need to present a new image to its customers and whether it will work in today's health conscious society.

Producer: Caroline Bayley.


THU 21:00 BBC Inside Science (b08q3182)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 today]


THU 21:30 In Our Time (b08q317p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


THU 21:58 Weather (b08q318b)

The latest weather forecast.


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (b08q318d)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08q767w)
Golden Hill, Episode 4

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition. He has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Francis Spufford says of his book, "Golden Hill is just a novel. More specifically, it's an eighteenth century novel. It's set in the winter of 1746, in what was then the very small British colonial town of New York; but it's also written like a novel from the eighteenth century. So the story of the charming but unreliable-seeming young Mr Smith, who turns up from London with a document in his pocket that may be a fraud or may be worth a fortune, is as hectically stuffed with event as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.

"Eighteenth-century readers expected to get their money's worth, and Golden Hill contains (among other things) a mystery, a political intrigue, a love story, a ball, a duel, a high-stakes card game, a trial, a dash of horror, a play-within-a-play, some surprisingly graphic sex and a rooftop chase. As a slow writer, I enjoyed working on something that runs fast. It was intricate fun devising and winding up the book's clockwork. But I hope it's also a story that feels alive, and makes the past feel alive too, while Mr Smith runs for his life, and the snow falls on Manhattan Island."

Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


THU 23:00 Start/Stop (b04vk6l2)
Series 2, Hotel

Hit comedy about three marriages in various states of disrepair. Starring Jack Docherty, Kerry Godliman, John Thomson, Fiona Allen, Charlie Higson and Sally Bretton.
This week David has to go into hospital for a delicate operation. Cathy is away on a spa weekend with Fiona. And Barney, Evan and Alice find themselves home alone. Could this be the opportunity for Barney and Alice to spend some time together?

Producer ..... Claire Jones.


THU 23:30 The Double War (b07v2ysq)

At the height of the Vietnam War as black America was campaigning for civil rights, Motown put out an LP of recordings of African American soldiers talking about their time in Vietnam called 'Guess Who's Coming Home'

The interviews were recorded by a Wallace Terry who had been sent to Vietnam by Time Magazine, who was told about rampant racism, confederate flags and even cross burnings. Blacks were 'bloods' and 'brothers', whites were 'honkey' and 'the beast'

He also found black soldiers resentful about having to fight a war against people they didn't see as the enemy when many of them felt they should have been at home in the US fighting for civil rights against the real enemy, white establishment America

Terry went on to write a book called 'Bloods' based on his interviews which told the story of the soldiers who had come home to be met with hostility for fighting the 'white mans war'

Alvin Hall explores the interviews to find out how black soldiers felt about fighting in the war meeting some of the veterans who featured in Bloods to see how they feel about what they had to say forty years ago, how they feel about their time in Vietnam what has happened to them since.

The recordings in 'Guess Who's Coming Home' are raw and sometimes uncomfortable but an honest, candid account of the anger many black soldiers felt fighting the wrong war thousands of miles from home.



FRIDAY 19 MAY 2017

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (b08q31bx)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.


FRI 00:30 Book of the Week (b08q71z0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (b08q31c3)

The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (b08q31c5)

FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (b08q31c7)

The latest shipping forecast.


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (b08q31cc)

The latest news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (b08r71t4)

A reading, reflection and prayer, with Jonathan Rea.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (b08q31ch)

The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 05:58 Tweet of the Day (b08q79q1)
Val Thompson on the pink-footed goose

Val Thompson describes the comfort she derives from seeing pink footed geese in Norfolk, a place she visited with her late husband, and how reconnecting with birds has helped her through bereavement.

Tweet of the Day has captivated the Radio 4 audience with its daily 90 seconds of birdsong. But what of the listener to this avian chorus? In this new series of Tweet of the Day, we bring to the airwaves the conversational voices of those who listen to and are inspired by birds. Building on the previous series, a more informal approach to learning alongside a renewed emphasis on encounter with nature and reflection in our relationship with the natural world.

Producer Maggie Ayre.


FRI 06:00 Today (b08q31ck)

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (b08q3fwv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:15 on Sunday]


FRI 09:45 Book of the Week (b08q79q3)
Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery, Episode 5

By Henry Marsh. Reflections on a life spent operating at the frontline of neurosurgery at home and abroad. Abridged by Lizzie Davies.


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (b08q31cm)

Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.


FRI 10:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q79q5)
The Forsytes Concludes, Episode 6

John Galsworthy's epic family saga of love, money and betrayal.
Dramatised for radio by Lin Coghlan

Convinced he's a coward, Wilfrid hurtles towards self-destruction and Dinny tries to save him

Original music composed by Neil Brand

Directors ..... Marion Nancarrow and Gemma Jenkins

Tomorrow's Saturday drama sees the conclusion of Flowering Wilderness where Michael hopes to persuade Wilfrid to stand by Dinny. It also marks the start of the final book in the series, Over The River, when Dinny's sister Clare (Chloe Pirrie) makes an unexpected return to England declaring her marriage is over.


FRI 11:00 The Human at Play (b08q79q7)

Farrah Jarral asks who gets to play in our society. Starting with a question about why it's more acceptable for adults to play, she explores the often hidden linguistic, social, economic and political battles over the right to play.

Starting at the London Toy Fair, Farrah travels to Bristol to find out why it became the centre of a play revolution, and she speaks to play advocates, activists and academics. At the end she comes back to where she began: with the final battle over the right to play, and whether adults can give ourselves permission to play.

Producer: Giles Edwards.


FRI 11:30 The Casebook of Max and Ivan (b05pnsr2)
Perfect 10

British Comedy legend June Whitfield makes a guest appearance as a beauty pageant judge.

Max and Ivan are private detectives for whom no case is too small.....Sorry, for whom no fee is too small.
Driven by their love of truth, justice (and the need to pay off their terrifying landlord, Malcolm McMichaelmas), they take on crimes that no-one else would consider. In this case, they investigate why 10-year-old Ophelia Hamilton always comes last in the beauty pageants her mother enters her for.

Max and Ivan - comedians and actors Max Olesker and Ivan Gonzalez - are a critically acclaimed, award-winning double act who have quickly established themselves as one of the most exciting comedy duos on the circuit.
Over the course of the series they are dropped into new worlds, and have to use their skills to penetrate deep into each community. If that means Ivan dressing up as a 14 year old German girl, so be it!

They are joined across the series by four star guests from the world of comedy - June Whitfield, Reece Shearsmith, Jessica Hynes, and Matt Lucas.

Cast:
Max..................Max Olesker
Ivan.................Ivan Gonzalez
Dame Celia......June Whitfield
Malcolm............Lewis MacLeod
Crosby.............David Reed
Sandra.............Jessica Ransom

Producer: Victoria Lloyd
A John Stanley production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:00 News Summary (b08q31cp)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 Home Front (b08lhsz9)
19 May 1917 - Noah Hamilton

On this day in 1917, a roundup of Jewish tailors in East London resulted in several men being charged as absentees, and in Folkestone, Noah Hamilton is tempted to disappear...

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole.


FRI 12:15 You and Yours (b08q31ct)

Consumer news and issues.


FRI 12:57 Weather (b08q31cw)

The latest weather forecast.


FRI 13:00 World at One (b08q31cy)

Analysis of news and current affairs.


FRI 13:45 Our Man in the Middle East (b08q7d60)
Series 1, Recipe for Disaster

How the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin changed the region's history, as remembered by BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. "No political killing in the twentieth century was more successful," he argues, observing the dramatic effects on the Oslo peace process. "Perhaps there was a moment for peace, and it came, and went."

Bowen started reporting on the region in the lead up to the Gulf War back in 1990. Since then, he has witnessed endless wars between individuals, religious groups and full-sized states, jostling for military, political and economic power. He has interviewed dictators, fanatics and fundamentalists as well as the ordinary people caught up in their dangerous games. In that time, the past has always been present, providing motivation and political ammunition. Bowen has made headlines himself and he has paid a personal price, coming under fire and losing a colleague in the course of reporting - on the worst day, he says, in his life.
Producers: Mark Savage and Cara Swift.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (b08q74qw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Drama (b08q7j32)
Now, Where Were We?

By Claire Miller

Yasmine's sneezes send her back in time, so she uses this opportunity to get her relationship with Ross just right, against the advice of best friend Becky. Surely, nothing should be this difficult!

Writer ... Claire Miller

Director ... Janine H. Jones.


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (b08q7j34)
Southport

Eric Robson and the panel are in Southport. Pippa Greenwood, Christine Walkden and Bob Flowerdew answer this week's questions.

Produced by Hannah Newton
Assistant producer: Laurence Basset

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 15:45 Short Works (b08q7j36)
Series 1, Extrapolation as an Art Form in the Lobby of the John Muir

In Joshua Ferris' specially commissioned short story, a writer living in a New York apartment building is put in a tough spot when one of the doormen requests an honest assessment of his first screenplay. William Hope reads this artful tale.

The novelist Joshua Ferris is best known for his acclaimed and award winning novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. His acutely observed debut short story collection The Dinner Party is published in June 2017.

Produced by Elizabeth Allard.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (b08q7l86)

Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.


FRI 16:30 More or Less (b08q7l88)

Investigating the numbers in the news.


FRI 16:55 The Listening Project (b08q7l8b)
Dot and Jean - The Garden Keeps On Giving

A niece and aunt with just 11 years between them have learned a lot from each other and from horticulture. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.


FRI 17:00 PM (b08q31d8)

Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (b08q31dh)

The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (b08q7l8d)
Series 93, 19/05/2017

Satirical review of the week's news, chaired by Miles Jupp.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (b08q7l8g)

Peggy surprises her family, and Lilian receives a warning.


FRI 19:15 Front Row (b08q31f1)

News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.


FRI 19:45 The Forsyte Saga (b08q79q5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:45 today]


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (b08q7l8j)
Michael Gove, John McDonnell

Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Cranmore School in West Horsley, Surrey, with a panel including former Education Secretary Michael Gove and the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (b08q7l8l)

A reflection on a topical issue.


FRI 21:00 Home Front - Omnibus (b08lhszc)
15-19 May 1917

The fifth omnibus of Season 10, Our Daily Bread, set in Folkestone, in the week, in 1917, when sugar queues were reported in London, with supplies believed to be at their lowest yet.

Cast
Victor Lumley ..... Joel MacCormack
Kitty Lumley ..... Ami Metcalf
Walter Hamilton ..... Joseph Kloska
Esme Macknade ..... Katie Angelou
Noah Hamilton ..... Finn Monteath
Mildred Manchester ..... Annette Badland
Reg Roach ..... Arthur Smith
Florrie Wilson ..... Claire Rushbrook
Alfred Vane ..... Charlie Clements
Mabel Thatcher ..... Chetna Pandya
Dolly Clout ..... Elaine Claxton
Cynthia Hamilton ..... Fenella Woolgar
Noah Hamilton ..... Finn Monteath
Mrs Herrin ..... Georgie Glen
Adeline Lumley ..... Helen Schlesinger
Maggie Macknade ..... Hollie Thoupos
Nancy Parker ..... Jane Whittenshaw
Sylvia Graham ..... Joanna David
Isabel Graham ..... Keely Beresford
May Arnold ..... Lois Chimimba
Jessie Moore ..... Lucy Hutchinson
Gabriel Graham ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Oscar Hendrickx ..... Pierre Elliot
Mrs Joan Edkins ..... Rachel Davies
Evelina White ..... Rosie Cavaliero
Dicky Manchester ..... Roy Hudd
Mr Herrin ..... Stephen Critchlow
Alec Poole ..... Tom Stuart
Singers ..... Stephen Jeffes, Charles Gibbs

Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Editor: Jessica Dromgoole

Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.


FRI 21:58 Weather (b08q31fl)

The latest weather forecast.


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (b08q31fx)

In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Book at Bedtime (b08q7l8n)
Golden Hill, Episode 5

New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger, fresh off the boat from England, pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition. He has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted?

This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble.

Francis Spufford says of his book, "Golden Hill is just a novel. More specifically, it's an eighteenth century novel. It's set in the winter of 1746, in what was then the very small British colonial town of New York; but it's also written like a novel from the eighteenth century. So the story of the charming but unreliable-seeming young Mr Smith, who turns up from London with a document in his pocket that may be a fraud or may be worth a fortune, is as hectically stuffed with event as it would have been if Fielding or Smollett had written it.

"Eighteenth-century readers expected to get their money's worth, and Golden Hill contains (among other things) a mystery, a political intrigue, a love story, a ball, a duel, a high-stakes card game, a trial, a dash of horror, a play-within-a-play, some surprisingly graphic sex and a rooftop chase. As a slow writer, I enjoyed working on something that runs fast. It was intricate fun devising and winding up the book's clockwork. But I hope it's also a story that feels alive, and makes the past feel alive too, while Mr Smith runs for his life, and the snow falls on Manhattan Island."

Written by Francis Spufford
Read by Jamie Parker
Abridged by Isobel Creed and Jill Waters
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.


FRI 23:00 Great Lives (b08q5x7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:30 on Tuesday]


FRI 23:27 The Double War (b07vs3v5)

Motown records put out an LP of recordings of African American soldiers talking about fighting in Vietnam. Alvin Hall explores what they had to say and how their views have changed.


FRI 23:55 The Listening Project (b08q7lpd)
Alec and Audrey - Marriage Isn't for Us

A couple who mean the world to each other have never found the time was right to say 'I do'. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.

Producer: Marya Burgess.