The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The former Border Patrol agent Francisco Cantu gains a new understanding of the US/ Mexican border. Joseph Balderrama reads
Francisco Cantu's memoir about working for the US Border Patrol also tells the personal stories of those who risk all for a better life in the US.
Born to the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, the border is in his blood. His decision to become a law enforcer came after four years of learning about it through policy and history while studying international relations, and the realisation that theory isn't enough. He needs to be on the ground to understand the border in all its beauty, ugliness and danger. After four years the personal toll leads him to leave the Patrol but when an immigrant friend does not return from a trip to Mexico Cantu is returned to a world which he discovers is impossible to leave behind.
His evocative account is interwoven with reflections on the history, culture, nature and psychology of the border, and is more broadly about life on either side of a boundary, wherever it is.
Abridged by Richard Hamilton
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
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The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
iPM is the news programme that starts with its listeners. Email ipm@bbc.co.uk. Twitter: @BBCiPM. Presented by Luke Jones and Eddie Mair.
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.
Clare explores the beautiful beaches of Aberlady Bay, East of Edinburgh. She joins the pupils, parents and staff of Saltersgate school which supports children and young people who have additional learning needs. Mary Higgins is the outdoor learning teacher and she's discovered that for some pupils, a long walk on a Monday morning sets them up for the week. She's thrilled by how far and well they ramble and joy they derive from being outside whatever the weather. With special dispensation, some of the parents come along to explain to Clare the pleasure and benefit their non-verbal sons gain from this weekly adventure.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
It's been a week full of snow, ice and piggy discovery on Farming Today - as the team spent a full week on a Yorkshire pig farm, owner by the Morgan family.
This morning, Charlotte Smith braves the 'Beast from the East' and finishes off by looking at some of the key moments in the day-to-day running of the farm, from Anna Hill visiting both the indoor and outdoor units, to discussions with sisters Kate and Vicky Morgan about animal welfare, product labelling, antibiotic use in agriculture, and the future of pig farming in Britain. She also puts some listener questions to the Morgan family.
Meanwhile we also hear more on pig farming standards from Compassion in World Farming's Philip Lymbery, and get a sneak preview of a special episode of The Food Programme, airing on Radio 4 tomorrow afternoon - which will be focusing on rare breed pigs.
Presented by Charlotte Smith; produced by Lucy Taylor.
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News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Extraordinary stories, unusual people and a sideways look at the world.
From real-life events that had been classified for 17 years to Oscar success in 2013 - Paul Gambaccini tells the story of 'Argo'
Actually based on an article in 'Wired' magazine,'Argo' tells the fantastical story of how a CIA agent used Hollywood to rescue six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, during the 1979-1981 Iran hostage crisis - under the guise of filming a science fiction film. Acclaimed by the critics as both "tense, exciting and often darkly comic" and "a movie from an earlier era - less frenetic, less showy, more focused on narrative than sensation". Nominated for seven Oscars, though controversially no nomination for director Ben Affleck, the film walked away with three statuettes, including the coveted Best Picture Award.
With the help of writer Chris Terrio and editor Billy Goldenberg (winners of the two other Oscars for the film), as well as director (and star) Ben Affleck, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, actor Clea DuVall and the real-life diplomat she portrayed, Paul Gambaccini hears how the facts behind a fantastical story were turned into a tense but believable plot.
Producer: Paul Kobrak.
Tom Newton Dunn of the Sun looks behind the scenes at Westminster .
The Editor is Peter Mulligan.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
More information on the stories featured in this week's edition of Money Box can be found in the related links section below.
A new code of practice which could make it easier for people who have been tricked into authorising online payments to fraudsters to be reimbursed by their banks has been confirmed. Currently many banks don't replace lost funds because the scammed account holder has authorised the transaction by making the payment. An interim code will be in place by September - the final version is expected by 2019. Guest: Hannah Nixon, Managing Director at the Payments Systems Regulator.
There are calls to include economic abuse within the statutory definition of domestic abuse. It's happening ahead of a consultation on what should be included in a forthcoming Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill. We hear from 'Jenny' who experienced economic abuse. Guests: Nicola Sharp- Jeffs, Founder and Director of the charity Surviving Economic Abuse and Martin King, Head of Customer Vulnerability at Lloyds Banking Group.
From next month Scottish taxpayers will fall into five tax bands. Some of them in the new bands, could miss out on additional tax relief on their personal pension contributions. Who might it affect and how can it be recovered? Guest: Rachel Vahey, Product Technical Manager, Nucleus Financial
Presenter: Paul Lewis
Producer: Charmaine Cozier
Reporter and Editor: Jim Frank.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis re-cap the week via topical stand-up and sketches with guests Pippa Evans, Phil Wang and more!
Producer: Matt Stronge
It's a BBC Studios Production.
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Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House London with the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Barry Gardiner MP, the editor of "The Spectator" magazine Fraser Nelson, the editor of the online magazine "Spiked" Brendan O'Neill, and the Conservative MP Anna Soubry.
Listeners have their say on the issues discussed on Any Questions?
John Godber's recent stage play is set over the 30 years following the Miners' Strike of 1984/85. It's the story of how Dot and Harry cope with life after he is made redundant amidst a community that has had the heart ripped out of it. After 10 years of turmoil, they do the unthinkable and leave Upton to try and make a new life for themselves in the seaside town of Bridlington.
Directed by Toby Swift
'Shafted!' was produced for the stage by the John Godber Company and Theatre Royal Wakefield before touring in 2016. Three of the Olivier Award-winning playwright's early plays, 'September in the Rain', 'Happy Jack' and 'April in Paris' are available on Radio 4 Extra to accompany this new radio production- all are performed by their original cast, Jane Godber and John Godber.
Opening Night visits Newcastle, where presenter Sharuna Sagar finds out how local voices are being represented in theatre... She drops in on rehearsals for 'The Last Ship', ahead of it's UK premiere this March. Written by Sting, the premiere will be a daunting step because it'll be a first look for audiences in the North East of a play about the shipbuilding industry in Sting's native Wallsend. Will the voices ring true?
Elsewhere, Unfolding Theatre is creating new ways of communicating in theatre. They're holding a 'thinking day', where they've invited inspirational members of the community to help develop their work.
Lastly, Sharuna will hear from Max Roberts of Live Theatre, poet Rowan McCabe and Curious Monkey's Amy Golding talk about what representing unheard voices means to them.
Highlights from the Woman's Hour week.Presented by Jenni Murray
Producer:Rabeka Nurmahomed
Editor:Jane Thurlow.
Full coverage of the day's news.
Are 'ethical' businesses all they're cracked up to be? Evan Davis and guests discuss the newest type of certification in ethical business, the B Corp, and ask if it'll catch on.
GUESTS
Katie Hill, Executive Director, B Lab UK
Wendy Chapple, Associate Professor in Management and member of the Responsible and Sustainable Business Lab, Nottingham Business School
Jean-Cristophe Laugee, Vice-President, Nature and Cycle Sustainability, Danone.
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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Clive Anderson and Arthur Smith are joined by John Lloyd, Tom Fletcher, Bob and Roberta Smith and Tiff Stevenson for an eclectic mix of conversation, music and comedy. With music from JD McPherson and Kadialy Kouyate.
Producer: Tim Bano.
Series of profiles of people who are currently making headlines.
A review of the week's cultural highlights.
John Lloyd unearths the private papers of his friend and colleague Douglas Adams, and discovers more about the agonies he went through to write The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, forty years ago.
The papers, donated to St John's College, Cambridge University, include note books, ramblings, rants about how hard it is to write, unfinished scenes and passages never included in Douglas Adams' books.
John Lloyd co-wrote the first series of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which started on Radio 4 in 1978. He reveals that he and Douglas Adams had been commissioned to write the first novel together, following the success of the radio series, but Douglas decided to "give me the boot" and went on to write the books on his own. The novels have sold something in the region of 14 million copies.
Other contributors to the programmes include the original producer and now novelist Simon Brett; original cast members Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern and Mark Wing-Davey; and Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
John also discusses how unpublished writings by Douglas Adams have just been used in a new series of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, about to be transmitted on Radio 4.
A Bite Media production for BBC Radio 4.
by Margaret Atwood
dramatised for radio by Sarah Wooley
2/2
Zenia's reappearance from the dead has unsettled her 3 old university friends. As we go back to the 1980s and
successful businesswoman Roz's story, will there be anything to make her - or us - believe Zenia is who she says she is
or, more crucially, that she can be trusted?
Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow
In "The Robber Bride" Margaret Atwood has brilliantly turned this Brothers Grimm fairy tale on its head, by re-casting all the roles as female. In the original tale, the Robber Bridegroom steals young maidens for his own ends, but Atwood casts the bridegroom as a predatory woman (described by Lorrie Moore in the New York Times as "Richard III with breast implants"). She looks at the effects Zenia's manipulation has on three female friends in Toronto, as they go through university and into their adult lives, between 1967 and 1990. Having heard how Zenia has lied to both Tony and Charis and stolen each of their men, it's now the turn of successful businesswoman, Roz. Surely Zenia can't pull the wool over her eyes? But we all have our Achilles' heel......
Canadian born British actress Tanya Moodie stars as Zenia.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4, followed by weather.
Since we learned that aid workers, sent to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake, chose instead to have sex with some of them, there's been something of a moral earthquake within the international aid sector. Charities had seemed to be beyond criticism; paragons of virtue. Now their moral high ground is crumbling away. It's not just Oxfam, though that was where the revelations began and where loud apologies failed to stop 7,000 private donors from cancelling their direct debits. Now the spotlight is on the aid 'industry' as a whole. It seems we can't stand the hypocrisy of powerful organisations using taxpayers' money to lecture us on how to behave, while failing to get their own house in order. There is a wider question about their effectiveness in helping people out of poverty: sceptics argue that global capitalism and stable institutions are much more important; without them, development aid is a waste of time and money. They believe the UK's "overgenerous" foreign aid commitment should be scrapped. Others dismiss that reaction as a moral panic which is ignorant, duplicitous and totally disproportionate. Of course, they say, charities - like any institutions - can be infiltrated by bad people, but when it comes to long-term development, oversees aid helps far more than it hinders. Regardless of whether or not international charities are supremely efficient or every one of their employees is a saint, do we still have a moral duty to give them money, either individually or collectively through tax, to help people in poor countries?
Producer: Dan Tierney.
(1/17)
The 2018 season of the venerable general knowledge quiz gets under way. Russell Davies welcomes the first four competitors, who come from Surrey, Lancashire, Aberdeen and Winchester. Over the next four months 48 competitors engage in the knockout tournament, which will see one of them lift the trophy in the summer as the 65th BBC Brain of Britain.
The series will include a selection of the best question suggestions received from listeners, who stand to win a book voucher prize if their questions manage to Beat the Brains.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Roger McGough is joined by his old friend Liz Lochhead, who shares a selection of her favourite poems from the Poetry Please archive of listeners' requests. Her choices include Norman MacCaig, Seamus Heaney, Mark Doty and John Cooper Clarke.
Producer: Mair Bosworth.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The things you do for a flat in Zone 2. Lianne should've known it was too good to be true. A short story for radio by Laurie Penny.
Laurie Penny is an award-winning journalist, writer, activist, internet nanocelebrity and author of six books, including Unspeakable Things and Everything Belongs To The Future. Laurie writes essays, columns and gonzo journalism about politics, social justice, pop culture, feminism, technology, mental health and a splash of science fiction.
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This week's Bells on Sunday comes from St. Anne's Alderney. The church of St Anne's, designed by George Gilbert Scott and consecrated in 1850, is often referred to as 'the Cathedral church of the Channel Islands'. The original peal of six bells was damaged when Alderney was under Germany occupation during the First World War. They were recast in 1953, and have since been augmented by the addition of six trebles in 2013. Recently 12 members of the Ancient Society of College Youths rang just over twenty five thousand changes taking sixteen hours and seven minutes - the second longest time for a tower bell peal and the longest peal on twelve bells. We hear part of that peal, the method being Bristol Surprise Maximus.
Every year, to mark the Christian season of Lent, Radio 4 invites contributors to offer a personal take on an aspect of the Passion story.
Today writer and artist Theo Hobson writes about Performance Art as a way of expressing penitence.
Producer. Rosie Dawson.
The latest national and international news.
Poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the myriad metaphors that we use to describe the character of the human heart.
"The heart, for all its messy truth as a bruise-coloured loosely fist-shaped pump, has been transformed into one of the most potent metaphors in our culture," he says as he reflects on its ubiquitous presence as a "stylised cordate shape with two smooth curves at the top and a point at the base".
But, of course, it is so much more than that, as it is described as the home of so many of our emotions good and bad, and the seat of loyalty, commitment and love. Michael explains that he "can't help but associate it with longing, with yearning. ...because after all yearning, stirring, longing, well... that's what hearts do".
With poetry from John Donne, Rita Dove and EE Cummings, and the music of Beethoven, Handel and the Ink Spots, Michael reflects on what it means to learn "by heart" and the power of a beating heart as a continual reminder of the physical and the incarnational. He concludes that "whether it's concerned with our relationships with each other or with God, the metaphor of the heart is inescapable".
Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.
There are 19 species of the wild snowdrop in the world, all in the genus Galanthus. Wild snowdrops are found across much of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus , with Turkey being a hot spot for these 'milk flowers', but they are not found in Britain. What we think of as British wild snowdrops which herald the beginning of spring, are an introduced species or escapees from garden collections. Over the centuries gardeners have selected over 1000 distinct cultivars and that number is increasing every year. And so it takes a certain special kind of person to become a galanthophile, or a lover of snowdrops.
Brett Westwood relives programmes from the Living World archives and in this episode from 2004 Brett himself travels to Somerset to explore the fascinating world of snowdrops with one such galanthophile Christine Skelmesdale. They start by discussing the snowdrop cultivars in Christine's garden before moving on to 'Snowdrop Valley' (or the more correctly called Avill Valley) on Exmoor. Christine explains the origins of UK snowdrops as imports from abroad, and that far from being native, snowdrops are a naturalised alien, though wonderful, plant.
Producer Andrew Dawes.
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The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Sunday morning religious news and current affairs programme.
Felicity Finch, perhaps better known as Ruth in the Archers, makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of Afghanaid.
Registered Charity Number: 1045348
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 'Afghanaid'.
- Cheques should be made payable to 'Afghanaid'.
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The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.
Mass, live from St Aloysius' RC Church, Glasgow.
Throughout Lent, Radio 4's worship programmes take 'Stories of Hope' as their theme.
They follow Jesus' journey from the River Jordan, where he was baptised, to Jerusalem, where he was crucified
and buried, and where he rose again from the dead. The theme for the third Sunday in Lent is 'Identity Revealed'
and explores how scripture helps us know who Jesus really is.
The celebrant is Fr Dermot Preston SJ and the choir is the Schola Cantorum of St Aloysius' College.
Music includes hymns, 'Lift high the cross', 'We cannot measure how you heal' and 'When I survey the wondrous cross',
with the Missa Brevis by Jonathan Dove and Vaughan Williams' 'O taste and see'.
Director of Music: Ann Archibald; Organist: Hugh Reid
A link to Lent resources complementing the series can be found on the Sunday Worship web page.
"We're in one of those recurring periods in history", writes John Gray, "when the idea of revolution has become appealing again".
In this context, John says we should dust off the work of Teffi - one of the best known writers in Russia before the revolution.
"I doubt", he says, "if anyone has written with such luminous clarity of what it means to live in a time of chaos".
Producer: Adele Armstrong.
Helen Moncrieff, Shetland Manager for RSPB Scotland recalls some of her encounters with the Black Guillemot or Tystie as they are known locally in Shetland after their piercing whistle. These include watching one disappear into the jaws of an Orca.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Brian Burke.
Sunday morning magazine programme with news and conversation about the big stories of the week. Presented by Paddy O'Connell.
The village is in shock, and Brian takes the blame.
Matt Smith is best known as the eleventh Timelord in the BBC One series, Doctor Who. At 26, he became the youngest actor to take the part.
His future looked set to be in football: he played at youth level for Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City until a serious back condition ended his highly promising career prematurely. His drama teacher encouraged him to take up acting and he joined the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at the University of East Anglia. He played Lockwood in the National Theatre's touring production of The History Boys and was nominated for an Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award for his performance in Polly Stenham's That Face. He also appeared as a political researcher in the BBC Two parliamentary drama, Party Animals.
Despite being a surprise choice to play The Doctor in 2009, he became the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA television award for his performance in this role, and has won two National Television Awards. When he left Doctor Who at the end of 2013, he appeared on stage as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical.
In 2016 he took the part of HRH Prince Philip Mountbatten, The Duke of Edinburgh, in the Netflix series The Crown, and received great acclaim, leaving the role at the end of the second series in late 2017.
Presenter: Kirsty Young
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Nicholas Parsons invites Shappi Khorsandi, Jo Caulfield, Julian Clary and Paul Merton to speak for 60 seconds on the subjects like Chicken Nuggets, Cowboys and The Grand Canyon.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.
Tim Hayward embarks on the big pig road trip to meet some of the people who devote their lives to rare breeds of British pigs. He speaks to Adam Henson, best-known as a presenter on BBC One's Countryfile, about why pigs like the Gloucester Old Spot and Tamworth are important to the heritage of the UK, and explains the work his late Father Joe did to keep these breeds alive. Two of Adam's Tamworth pigs became the starting point for brothers John and Nick Francis who came to pig-keeping fresh out of university and now produce meat for a number of Michelin-starred restaurants. Robert Buttle gives Tim slices of artisan charcuterie which he produces from his Large Blacks and Oxford Sandys and explains why pork of this quality needs to be treated like the finest steak. Tim also meets the next generation of pig keepers at Holme Grange School in Berkshire and discovers that showing pigs is not as easy as it looks.
Producer: Toby Field.
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Global news and analysis.
How does the UK's departure from the European Union look from the other side of the English Channel? Anand Menon considers what the EU 27 want from Brexit by focusing on the consequences for trade at for three very different ports: Calais, our nearest neighbour, Rotterdam, the giant of European ports, and Gdansk in Poland, a country which has its own issues with the European Commission. Will the EU nations continue to operate as a unified front, as in the first stage of negotiations, or will cracks start to appear once questions of economic self-interest become more apparent? Professor Menon heads the award-winning think tank The UK in a Changing Europe.
Producer: Sandra Kanthal.
Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Sparsholt College in Hampshire. Bunny Guinness, Chris Beardshaw and Pippa Greenwood field the horticultural questions.
This week, the panellists advise on taming a Ginkgo and an old rose, recommend the best Clematis varieties for summer colour, and help identify an infection on an Azalea.
They also assist an audience member with a large railway embankment in need of some floral cover and give a masterclass in protecting your garden from late frosts.
And Matt Biggs is on a mission to discover exactly what defines an American garden.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Laurence Bassett
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
Fi Glover introduces conversations between a mother and son about his stammering, a daughter and mother about her MND, and a grandmother and grandson about the death of his mother 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.
Crime fiction set in Palestine. Omar Yussef, schoolteacher and amateur sleuth, tries to clear the name of his former student George, falsely accused of murder in their hometown of Bethlehem.
Novelist ..... Matt Rees
Dramatist ..... Jennifer Howarth
Director ..... Mary Peate
Matt Rees has turned his observations from working as Time magazine's Jerusalem bureau chief into murder mysteries set in Palestine, with angry idealist Omar Yussef, school teacher and amateur sleuth, as his narrator.
In The Bethlehem Murders, Yussef tries to save the life of his former student George Saba, a Christian recently returned to his home town of Bethlehem, who has fallen foul of a Palestinian militia group. In doing so, Yussef uncovers a world of corruption, cynicism and fear which makes him regret the passing of a time when Christians and Muslims lived peacefully side by side.
Patrick Gale discusses his novel, A Place Called Winter, set at the beginning of the 20th century. The life of Patrick's own great-grandfather Harry Cane provides the backdrop for a fictional story about the character Harry Cane, who leaves behind his wife and daughter in order to keep a scandalous love affair with another man quiet, and emigrates to the harsh wilderness of Canada.
Harry signs up for an emigration programme to the newly colonised Canadian prairies. Remote and unforgiving, his allotted homestead in a place called Winter is a world away from the suburbs of turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. And yet it is here, isolated in a seemingly harsh landscape, under the threat of war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism that the fight for survival will reveal in Harry an inner strength and capacity for love beyond anything he has ever known before.
Patrick Gale describes how he followed in his great-grandfather's footsteps and travelled to Winter in Saskatchewan and learned about those pioneering communities and their relationship with the Cree, the Native North American tribe. And how the character Troels Munck was named for a Danish man who bidded to appear in Gale's next novel at a charity fundraiser.
Presenter : James Naughtie
Producer : Dymphna Flynn
April's Bookcub choice : The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (2016).
Poets writing on the social media platform 'Instagram' have amassed millions of followers, and have a global audience that responds to their work instantaneously. In this programme we explore the way readers all over the world react to the work of Rupi Kaur, one of the best known of these poets, and ask how 'Instagram' itself is influencing the form and style of poems (including the haiku of Johnathan Rice, who satirises the way we increasingly live through social media). Rupi Kaur and Johnathan Rice are amongst the 'Instagram Poets' who are now so popular they have published books. Kaur's latest is 'the sun and her flowers' (Simon and Schuster), whilst Rice's is 'Farewell my Dudes: 69 Dystopian Haikus' (Hat and Beard Press).
Music was specially composed for this documentary by Scanner, a musician who is interested in the relationship between technology and speech. He has previously worked on projects with artists including Bryan Ferry, Wayne MacGregor, Michael Nyman, Steve McQueen, and Laurie Anderson.
Producer: Faith Lawrence
Presenter: Faith Lawrence
Composer: Scanner
Studio Manager: Sue Stonestreet.
The Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have been accused of failing to disclose important information in several recent high profile sexual assault cases.
But Allan Urry asks if the current disquiet about disclosure should also extend to the Magistrates' Courts where almost all criminal cases start off. Some defence lawyers say evidence that could be helpful to their clients' cases is being with-held and are they're concerned that justice isn't always being served.
Reporter: Allan Urry
Producer: Alys Harte
Editor: Gail Champion.
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The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Liz Barclay chooses her BBC Radio highlights.
Jazzer tries to help, and Jim takes the plunge.
Damien's peace is once again shattered when he is asked to do the food at the funeral of Anthony's maiden aunt. But things become even more complicated when his literary agent is discovered behaving erratically in a branch of Paperchase and Damien has to look after him. Meanwhile, Anthony must prepare a song to sing at the funeral.
Producer: Sam Michell.
An original short story for radio by A.L. Kennedy.
Our relationship with computers is an intimate one. What would they say about us if they could speak? The last of three stories about computers finding their voice.
A.L.Kennedy was born in Dundee in 1965. She is the author of 16 books: 6 novels, 7 short story collections and 3 works of non-fiction. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was twice included in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list.
She has won awards including the 2007 Costa Book Award and the Austrian State Prize for International Literature. She is also a dramatist for the stage, radio, TV and film. She is an essayist and regularly reads her work on BBC radio. She occasionally writes and performs one-person shows. She writes for a number of UK and overseas publications and for The Guardian Online.
Producer: Mair Bosworth
Readers: Neve McIntosh and John MacKay.
Roger Bolton hears listener views on a shocking death on The Archers, Brexit, Breakfast- and a radio classic gets rebooted.
Nic Grundy's sudden death from Sepsis has shocked the residents of Ambridge and Archers' fans. Some have taken issue with how it was handled, but most have been queuing up to praise the powerful storyline. The show's acting editor Alison Hindell joins Roger to answer listener comments and discuss the thinking behind Nic's untimely demise.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy remains one of BBC Radio's most loved comedy programmes. Now, Radio 4 have decided to bring it back. Many of the surviving cast are returning to reprise their roles, as is legendary producer Dirk Maggs. He speaks to Roger and a Feedback listener about the making of the new series, his use of sound effects and how they were able to convince Professor Stephen Hawking to make a surprise turn as the Guide itself.
And, as Brexit continues to dominate the headlines, listeners from both sides of the debate tell us what they think of the BBC Radio News coverage of the issue.
Producer: Will Yates
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
Matthew Bannister on
Ernest Hecht, who founded the Souvenir Press, which published books from Nobel prize winners like Pablo Neruda, academics like Noam Chomsky and best sellers on sexual techniques and toilet paper.
Lewis Gilbert who directed Alfie, Educating Rita and three James Bond movies.
Dame Beulah Bewley who carried out significant research into the effects of smoking on children and advanced the cause of women in medicine.
Sir Lawrence Byford, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary who examined the failings of the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.
Sridevi Kapoor who was often described as Bollywood's first female superstar.
When Robert Mugabe was deposed last year, he had ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades. How do dictators and authoritarians stay in power? James Tilley, a professor of politics at Oxford University, finds out what's in the dictators' survival guide. How do they control ordinary people and stop revolts? How do they stop rivals from taking over? And how do they manipulate apparently democratic procedures like elections to secure their rule?
Producer: Bob Howard.
Weekly political discussion and analysis with MPs, experts and commentators.
With Francine Stock
Director Sebastian Lelio discusses his ground-breaking drama A Fantastic Woman, with transgender star Daniela Vega in the lead, that could win Chile its first ever Oscar.
The director of the award winning love story Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino, explains why it's his version of Dirty Dancing.
Production designer Sarah Greenwood is in the enviable position of competing against herself for the Oscar for best production design, for Darkest Hour and Beauty And The Beast.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The white working class - are they the left behind? Noam Gidron, a Fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University, asks if the right wing, populist vote is a reflection of the declining social status of this group. He's joined by Gurminder Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, who argues that a concern with economic disadvantage, when talking about the election of Trump, as well as Brexit, has led to a new 'identity politics' of race - one where class takes second place to 'whiteness'. The writer and broadcaster, Kenan Malik, joins the discussion.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.
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The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
The latest weather forecast for farmers.
The striking-looking Bullfinch is the subject of the first of five TWEETS from naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines about the birds he hears and encourages into his 'wildlife-friendly' garden. In the past, Bullfinches were persecuted for their fondness for fruit tree buds but as far as Chris is concerned, this is a small price to pay to have a pair of these beautiful birds visit his garden.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Sharon Marwood.
News and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
What is art - and why do we need it?
Fifty years ago the landmark BBC Two series Civilisation set out to answer this question. Now historians Mary Beard, Simon Schama and David Olusoga take on this challenge of defining human civilisation through art, in a bold update renamed Civilisations. Mary Beard tells Andrew Marr how humans have chosen to depict themselves, from enormous pre-historic heads in Mexico to lustful paintings meant for male eyes. She unpicks the bloody battle between religion and art, and declares that "one man's art is another's barbarity".
But should art make us recoil? Simon Schama explores our urge to destroy the images we dislike, and finds that hatred and destruction have followed art through the centuries.
This clash of religions and cultures has enriched art, argues David Olusoga. He sees culture on the frontline as empires expanded and a battle took place to define what art could be.
This spring the artist Tacita Dean offers her own account of art's value and meaning as she unveils three exhibitions at once: exploring landscapes at the Royal Academy, portraits at the National Portrait Gallery and still life at the National Gallery. Moving between film and painted images, she challenges our idea of what art looks like.
Producer: Hannah Sander.
Iwona Blazwick, director of Whitechapel Gallery in London, launches a new series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century. Art history has been written from a white, Western male perspective. What would an alternative canon look like?
Eileen Agar was a photographer, collagist, painter and sculptor. One of the few women to be included in London's 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition, next to Picasso and Ernst, she became an overnight sensation and honorary member of the British Surrealists. However she has not received the same lasting celebration as many of her male Surrealist contemporaries.
Contributors include Tony Penrose (director of the Lee Miller Archive and the Penrose Collection), contemporary visual artist Anj Smith and Matthew Bradbury (Director of Modern British and Irish Art at Bonham's). With archive recordings of Eileen Agar from the British Library.
The series features artists selected by three curators from different backgrounds - Iwona Blazwick (Director of the Whitechapel Gallery), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries) and Naomi Beckwith (Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). Told broadly chronologically with inter-changing presenters, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.
Presenter: Iwona Blazwick
Producer: Olivia Humphreys
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Image (c) The Estate of Eileen Agar, courtesy of Redfern Gallery, London.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The Citadel
By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 1
Andrew Manson, a newly trained doctor is established now in Drineffy, a South Wales mining town and has taken on all of his elderly and ailing employer's sick patients. He remains good friends with the cynical Dr Denny - a flawed genius, and narrator, who observes Manson's very own sickness - 'love sickness'.
Set in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which is said to have partly inspired the creation of the NHS.
Pianist Simon Hoban
Produced by Pauline Harris and Gary Brown
Directed by Gary Brown.
Up in the air with the frequent flyers who'll go to extreme lengths to achieve airline status and rack up air miles. Are they playing the system - or is the system playing them? Georgie Glen narrates their stories
Many hardcore frequent flyers will stop at nothing to achieve the privileges which go with airline status, planning convoluted multi-leg journeys to maximise their points. It's a whole sub-economy - a parallel currency which the airlines control, and which the frequent flyers seek to exploit.
The consequence is a life which is spent perpetually in transit, on airplanes and in airport lounges. We hear what motivates these individuals, what they gain and what they lose from spending so much of their lives up in the air.
Producer: Laurence Grissell.
When Sophie's new boyfriend Imran tells her he doesn't like her glasses, Sophie becomes desperate for a new pair of designer Givenchy spectacles. But the salon's client list is still worryingly short and she can't get the money together for such an expensive purchase. But when she hears that there's a dog show coming to town with big cash prizes to be won for well groomed pets, Sophie realises how she might be able to make her designer glasses dream become a reality. Meanwhile, Sheila makes a worrying discovery and Jean meets a potential girlfriend...
Written by Lucy Beaumont
Production Co-ordinator - Luke Mason
Producer - Sam Michell
A BBC Studios Production.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, the post office stated in the Times that it accepted no liability for post lost due to enemy action, and in Folkestone, Sylvia receives a letter from her son.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Notes
By 1918, some of the inevitable consequences of creating a large, paid, female workforce, and relying more than ever on educated women to run organisations supporting the war, were beginning to scare the establishment horses. Women were too free, and their freedom was too dangerous. Creating an impossible ideal of womanhood, and then attacking all other women for their immorality (read freedom) was a means of control then, and hasn't entirely died out.
And hand in hand with praise for women's femininity came the other side of the coin - a celebration of purely masculine men, with an inevitable condemnation of any femininity in men.
Season Thirteen of Home Front - A Woman's Place - is set back in Folkestone, which feels overrun with women, and where anxious pillars of the establishment are flustered by the proximity of all these women to all these men.
Women themselves are emboldened politically by the recent introduction of female suffrage, and suppressed in turn by various measures - including the draconian DORA 40D amendment empowering the police to detain and examine women suspected of giving venereal disease to members of His Majesty's Forces.
The action of Season 13 revolves around three households - Meadowthorpe (a utopian female household), The Old Rectory (a brothel) and Keepers Lodge (a home for unmarried mothers) - which are popularly taken to be much of a muchness.
Season 13 is story-led by Sarah Daniels, with episodes by Sarah, Lucy Catherine and Katie Hims.
News and discussion of consumer affairs.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In a new series based on his popular podcast, Nick Robinson sits down for a chat with some of today's agenda setting politicians to get to know the person behind the public figure and find out what really makes them tick.
In this first episode, Nick meets Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry. She describes her journey from schoolgirl ragamuffin to being the 'queen of sass', explains how life's challenges have made her the person she is and discusses the benefits of singing.
To hear the full episode search BBC iPlayer or your podcast provider for 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'.
Producer: Faizal Farook.
A gripping five part crime thriller by Barbara Machin, the creator of BBC1's Waking The Dead, this radio prequel to the Emmy-winning, hit TV series welcomes back the original cast, Sue Johnston, Holly Aird, Claire Goose and Wil Johnson. THE UNFORGIVEN leaps back fifteen years, revealing how the iconic team got together before they became an official cold case unit - dragged together to save a disappeared DC Peter Boyd from definite disgrace, and possible prison.
It is 1984, a world without DNA, CCTV, mobiles, the internet and databases. Big trouble erupts as a serial killer-rapist launches a huge legal appeal against his conviction, claiming police corruption, and pointing the finger directly at young DC Peter Boyd - and implicating forensic scientist, Frankie Wharton. The clock ticks loudly, there are just five days to save their necks and to stop the notorious killer's acquittal. With Boyd forced to disappear, Grace, the criminal profiler, and cops Spencer and Mel, join Frankie to clear their names and save their skins. They all owe Boyd in different ways, and a heart-stopping case ensues as the unthinkable unfolds.
Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.
(2/17)
Russell Davies asks the questions in the second heat of the 2018 tournament. Which classic novel is set in a nightmarish future in which the US has been renamed the Republic of Gilead? Which genus of plant has a name derived from the Latin for 'rock-breaker'? And what are the equivalent terms in the House of Lords for the Commons' 'ayes' and 'noes'?
The contestants face these and many other tests of their general knowledge, with a guaranteed place in the series semi-finals for today's winner.
There will also be a chance for a Brain of Britain listener to win a prize by outwitting the competitors with questions of his or her own.
Producer: Paul Bajoria.
Starting out in an artistic profession is hard enough - it's a precarious business - you can expect rejection letters and knockbacks, and to be working all night to hit deadlines. But taking the next step in your career can be even more challenging.
In this new series we spend time with young artists who are becoming recognised in their professions, as they look to take their career to the next level.
In this edition, we join musician Ayanna-Witter Johnson as she writes a new song, and talks about her creative life. Her music straddles the classical and urban worlds, drawing on different traditions and fusing them. As she writes she reflects on her life as performer, songwriter, 'cellist and singer. She considers what success might be, and explains what keeps her working in an industry in which it can be so difficult to make a living.
We join her in London, with family, and in search of inspiration. Through being with her as she writes, we get a unique insight into her creative process.
Photograph of Ayanna Witter-Johnson by Bumi Thomas
Producer: Melvin Rickarby.
The human face is quintessential part of our identity - crucial for communication, expressing emotion and understanding our place in the world.
So what happens when that most human of interfaces is placed over what boils down to a cluster of motors and a few lines of code? Aleks Krotoski explores how we will be psychologically affected by machines that can look us in the eye and smile back at us.
Producer: Elizabeth Ann Duffy.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Nicholas Parsons invites Stephen Fry, Jan Ravens, Gyles Brandreth and Paul Merton to speak for 60 seconds on the subjects like Broccoli, Conkers and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Hayley Sterling blows the whistle.
Produced by Victoria Lloyd.
A BBC Studios Production.
Will comes to a decision, and Adam receives an interesting offer.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Observer columnist and writer Nick Cohen thinks mainstream liberal culture and left-wing politicians are failing to help progressive Muslims who want to fight inequalities endorsed by culture and religion in their communities. He calls this the "racism of the anti-racist".
Forty years ago, Edward Said coined the term "Orientalism" to condemn the West's patronising representations of the "exotic" East, whose inhabitants were too irrational to handle the freedoms Americans and Europeans enjoyed.
In this programme, Nick Cohen examines evidence that this old colonial condescension is re-emerging in 2018, He interviews frustrated Muslims tackling discrimination - Muslims who feel betrayed by the Liberal left who, they say, should be their natural allies in their campaigning for women's rights and tackling discrimination such as homophobia in Muslim communities.
In this authored documentary, Nick draws from the experiences of a range of organisations and progressive Muslim individuals - Tell Mama which supports victims of anti-Muslim hate crime, Maryam Namazie from One Law for All campaigning for women's rights against Islamic Sharia law and Jewish Beth din courts, and Amina Lone who says her outspoken views including a campaign against young girls wearing the hijab in school led to her losing her seat as a Manchester city councillor. The local Labour party failed to re-select her, blaming her attendance record.
Tell Mama founder Fiyaz Mugal's said that those who'raised their head above the parapet to speak out were intimidated and threatened, not only by the white far right but also by Islamist extremists, while Maajid Nawaz founder of counter-extremism organisation Quilliam was on a Jihadist's hit list.
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.
In the 2016 referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union, a stark division emerged: those with university degrees were far more likely to vote remain than those with few educational qualifications. And Britain is not the only country where such a gap exists - in the recent American presidential election, far more graduates voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump.
Edward Stourton investigates the impact of this fault line on voting and politics, and asks how policy makers and wider society should respond.
Producer: Neil Koenig.
What's the difference between a consumer and a citizen? Research suggests many of us talk in an environmentally conscious way outside the supermarket, then turn into ruthless bargain hunters once we're inside. Charlotte Smith ends her look at global food value chains by exploring how we shop, and how much influence we have over where our food comes from.
Producer: Chris Ledgard.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
'The Long Drop' is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. The award-winning author reimagines the trial of Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel, in a dark and compelling exploration of truth and storytelling.
Glasgow, 1957. Businessman William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Small time crook Peter Manuel claims to have them. But you don't get something for nothing. Over the course of a bizarre night these unlikely drinking partners will swap stories and attempt to cut a deal with the goal of emerging from scandal with reputations, and profits, intact.
Read by Liam Brennan
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
Libby Purves presents a new live, nocturnal conversation programme, with a very particular connection to the night and nightlife in all its forms. At a time when Radio 4 is usually pre-recorded, Something of the Night lightens the midnight hour. As Broadcasting House shifts to a night time rhythm, some guests might come to the studio straight from a performance, or have a direct working connection with the night. Others might share their expertise on what happens to us after dark, or offer a tale to chill or warm the heart.
Producer: Paula McGinley.
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
In another of his TWEETS about the birds which visit his 'wildlife-friendly' garden, naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines revels in the sight of tiny Goldcrests teasing out insects from between the needles of his much maligned Leyland cypress trees.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Jez Taylor.
News and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Next time you swear at the battery in your mobile phone, spare a thought for the chemist, Clare Grey. Having developed a new way of looking inside solids (using nuclear magnetic resonance), her interest in batteries was sparked by a man from Duracell who asked her a question at an academic conference, and charged up by some electrochemists she met playing squash. For the last twenty years she has sought to understand the precise chemistry of the rechargeable lithium ion battery. And her insights have led to some significant improvements. In 2015 she built a working prototype of a new kind of battery for electric cars, the lithium air battery. If this laboratory model can be made to run on air not oxygen, it could transform the future, by making electric cars more energy efficient and considerably cheaper.
Clare talks to Jim Al-Khalili about the years she has spent studying rechargeable batteries, seeking to understand, very precisely, the chemical reactions that take place inside them; and how this kind of fundamental understanding can help us to make batteries that are fit for the 21st century.
Producer: Anna Buckley.
Jay Brave presents his third and final conversation about race and identity and further explores why he doesn't identify with the term "black" when it means so much to so many other people.
Producer: Toby Field.
Naomi Beckwith, curator at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, continues the series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century. Art history has been written from a white, western male perspective. What would an alternative canon look like?
Born in 1915, Elizabeth Catlett became the first African American woman to receive a Master of Fine Arts. She was blacklisted in the McCarthy era and spent most of her adult life in Mexico City. Catlett was dedicated to representing the beauty and strength she saw in black women in her woodcuts and sculptures. Well known by many black American artists, she's received little attention from the mainstream artistic canon and from international institutions. According to the musician Rufus Reid, she had three strikes against her - she was black, she was a woman, and she made art that was politically motivated.
Contributors include Richard J. Powell (Dean of Humanities and the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University) and Rufus Reid (Jazz bassist, educator, and composer).
Archive audio courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The series features artists selected by three curators from different backgrounds - Iwona Blazwick (Director of the Whitechapel Gallery), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries) and Naomi Beckwith (Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). Told broadly chronologically, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.
Presenter: Naomi Beckwith
Producer: Michael Umney
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Image courtesy of Burning in Water Gallery.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The Citadel
By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 2
Andrew Manson, a newly trained doctor is established now in Drineffy, a South Wales mining town and has taken on all of his elderly and ailing employer's patients. When he assists personally in helping the sick Dr, Page, it causes jealousy and friction with Dr. Page's sister. Though Manson has fallen in love and feels like he can take on the world, much to the irritation of his friend and narrator, Dr. Denny.
Set in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which is said to have partly inspired the creation of the NHS.
Produced by Pauline Harris and Gary Brown
Directed by Gary Brown.
In a new series of Aftermath, Alan Dein tells the story of how a plane-crash, 45 years ago, in Switzerland, deeply affected communities in Somerset.
In April 1973, 139 people - mostly women - boarded a flight at Bristol airport bound for a day's shopping in Basle, Switzerland. They knew each other from neighbouring villages and towns including Axbridge, Cheddar, Wrington and Congresbury. Many of the passengers were mothers travelling together with their social clubs: the Axbridge Ladies Guild, skittles players from Congresbury, the Cheddar Mums' Night Out group.
But the flight ended in disaster. On its second attempt to land during a snowstorm, the plane struck the tops of trees and crashed into a hillside. 108 people were killed. There were just 37 survivors.
We hear the extraordinary memories of David Besley who survived the crash, and helped many people to safety. Claire Board - like many children - lost her mother, as did the children next door. How did the communities manange the loss of so many mothers;? How come the push for compensation came from within the community itself? And what did the lack of bereavement counselling do to those who were grieving?
Producer: Karen Gregor.
Sudanese journalist Yousra Elbagir investigates the musical life of Sudan, past and present, in light of the changes wrought in the 1980s by Islamic rule. She explores what was lost, the possibilities of musical performance in the capital Khartoum at the moment, and the forces at play in a culture that seems to be opening up again.
Music used to be everywhere in Sudan, especially in Khartoum. As a hub of migration of foreign nationals, colonial officers, West Africans on their way to Mecca, and rural migrants, its music represented a melting pot of all incoming influences. The heyday was between the 1950s and the 70s, when jazz seeped out of the night spots which peppered the streets of the city. Later they throbbed to rock and disco.
During the 70s an all-girl trio called The Nightingales were hugely popular, though their routines and outfits were considered slightly risqué even then by conservatives - they became known as the Sudanese Supremes. And Sharhabeel Ahmed melded rock and roll and jazz influences with Sudanese music, with his wife Zakia playing electric guitar in the band.
But the rise of Islamism produced an assault on popular culture. With the 1983 September Laws the then president Jafer al-Nimeiri declared Sharia Law. With the establishment of an Islamic state after the coup in 1989, a series of public order laws in the early 1990s aimed to eradicate un-Islamic cultural practices. Music was haram: forbidden. What songs there were had to glorify religion and the war in the south; it was forbidden for men and women to dance together. Some singers were detained. Many left the country.
The same government may still be in power but there seems to have been a shift in policy since around 2010. Love songs are permitted again, but dancing on stage remains outlawed in the main. The Nightingales, Al Balabil, have reformed.
Recently there's been a flowering in Sudan: a new wave of young musicians taking up music, after decades of difficulties.
In these two features Yousra, who was born in Khartoum and brought up between Sudan and Britain, looks at what remains of the music scene in Khartoum. Having missed the golden age of Sudanese music by a long way (she is in her twenties), she tries to recover that era by talking to the older generation, those who remember the days when Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles would come to town to perform. She explores the changing atmosphere of the 70s, 80s and early 90s, the restrictions brought in after the coup in 1989, and looks at what music means in a country that has faced famine, civil war and economic and political crisis. And she talks to legendary musician Sharhabeel Ahmed, who managed to stay the course.
In programme 2 Yousra visits a ground-breaking music festival in the northern desert of Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, to meet musicians working in Sudan now. It's a world of grey areas and red lines. She meets the all-female band Salut Yal Bannot, who are pushing at the boundaries and addressing issues facing women in Sudan. But for those trying to incorporate dancing into their performances, like Amjad Shakir, who represented Sudan on The Voice (Arab World), the morality police are waiting at the end of each public performance. Those brought up outside the country who are forging international careers, like Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane) talk about their musical connection to Sudan; electronic musician Sufyvn describes DJing in a city where dancing is still not acceptable. Yousra asks what young creatives are up against in a country where there are still such restrictions, and stigma clings strongly to the profession of musician - especially for women. If things are opening up now: how much, and for whom?
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, news emerged that the last signed work of Bellini was destroyed in an Austrian raid on Venice, and in Folkestone, Adeline takes her art class out.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer phone-in.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In this series based on his popular podcast, Nick Robinson sits down for a chat with some of today's agenda setting politicians to get to know the person behind the public figure and find out what really makes them tick.
In this episode Nick meets Conservative MEP Dan Hannan - the politician who some credit as the man behind Brexit. He explains why it wasn't about immigration, how the British sometimes fail to appreciate what they have and why the UK should look to Switzerland as inspiration.
To hear the full episode search BBC iPlayer or your podcast provider for 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'.
Producer: Faizal Farook.
Barbara Machin's gripping five part crime thriller continues. Trying to peel back the layers of this old case, Criminal Profiler Grace Foley must face her own fears.
Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.
Josie Long presents short documentaries and stories about unearthly happenings - from the myths surrounding Lake Stechlin, which is said to boil whenever a major catastrophic event happens anywhere in the world, to an uneasy evening at a conference for exorcists.
Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4.
The rapid decline of the Great Barrier Reef is one of the environmental crises of the decade. But who is to blame?
Environmental activists have accused successive Australian governments of underestimating the threats to the reef from agriculture and the shipping industry but their focus is now on a coal mine.
India's Adani corporation has government support for the development of one of the world's largest new mines at Carmichael, inland from the Great Barrier Reef. Construction would increase shipping traffic around the reef but the real concern is the extra carbon dioxide that the burning of millions of tonnes of coal would send into the atmosphere. This could increase the speed of climate change and lead to yet warmer waters around Australia, potentially killing even more of the coral of the Great Barrier Reef.
Marine biologist and film-maker, Ellen Husain meets both sides of the debate to find out if new jobs from the mine could outweigh the damage to the reef and the jobs that reef tourism supports.
Producer: Alasdair Cross.
Does the law regarding sex discrimination in the workplace need to be reformed?
Harriett Gilbert, Joanna Trollope and Sabrina Mahfouz talk about their favourite books.
Coverage and analysis of the day's news.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Brand new stand-up from Sara Pascoe.
Sara will be exploring our modern social world though theories of Evolutionary Psychology and more. How does our monkey past influence our modern lives and how come we can still get emotionally hijacked by our primitive emotions?
This week we're covering Territory. It's a vital resource and we live on a crowded planet but why do have such a visceral reaction when someone intrudes on our personal space? From the bigger picture concepts of colonialism and national borders, to how you divide your shared bedroom, to the physical limits of our own bodies, this is a frank, funny look at how our evolutionary history shapes the way we see and move through the world.
Recorded on location at The Freud Museum.
Written by and starring Sara Pascoe
Production co-ordinator Toby Tilling
Producer Alexandra Smith
A BBC Studios production.
Kate returns to Ambridge, and Philip has a confession to make.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
As controversy rages around whether the Bitcoin bubble is about to burst, File on 4 investigates the mystery of the missing Bitcoin billions.
In 2014 one of the world's biggest Bitcoin exchanges suddenly stopped trading and filed for bankruptcy. It then announced that thousands of Bitcoins with a value of almost half a billion dollars had gone missing, leaving customers out of pocket and wondering what had gone on. For a while that remained a mystery, but recently US investigators have revealed that another exchange was involved - and there had been a huge Bitcoin heist.
What transpires is a murky transnational tale spanning Russia, Europe, Japan and the United States,
In a case which shines a light on the darkest corners of online trading Geoff White tells the real-life digital crime drama which shocked the cryptocurrency world.
Reporter: Geoff White
Producer: Nicola Dowling
Editor: Gail Champion.
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.
Dr Mark Porter presents a series on health issues.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
'The Long Drop' is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. The award-winning author reimagines the trial of Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel, in a dark and compelling exploration of truth and storytelling.
Glasgow, 1957. Businessman William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Small time crook Peter Manuel claims to have them. But you don't get something for nothing. Over the course of a bizarre night these unlikely drinking partners will swap stories and attempt to cut a deal with the goal of emerging from scandal with reputations, and profits, intact.
Six months on, Manuel is on trial for eight brutal murders and Watt's lawyer, Laurence Dowdall, is about to take the stand.
Read by Liam Brennan
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
By Tim Key
Comic poet Tim Key is on a double-date, on a houseboat in Hertfordshire. He has a well-planned itinerary for a romantic evening under the stars, but his date has other ideas. Tom Basden provides musical accompaniment to the poetry, while his wife Megan attempts to catch dinner.
Directed by James Robinson
A BBC Cymru Wales Production
The Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning comedian returns for a fourth series of his Late Night Poetry Programme. Currently performing his latest critically acclaimed solo show 'Megadate', Tim Key is never far from stage and screen - from Peep Show to Alpha Papa. But now he's back on late night Radio 4 doing what he does best - attempting to recite poetry whilst tormenting his friend and musician, the equally brilliant Tom Basden.
Praise for Tim Key
"...You never know when Key will suddenly toss you a fantastic joke or startlingly well-constructed line." Radio Times
"The show... has a kind of artistry and strange beauty that makes it unlike any other hour of stand-up you are likely to see." The Observer
"In any other sphere apart from comedy, we'd probably class this way of looking at the world as certifiable. Here it feels like genius." The Telegraph.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
In another of his TWEETS about the birds which are encouraged by his 'wildlife-friendly' garden, naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines describes the wonderful song battles for territory and mates between Song Thrushes in his and his neighbours' gardens. His garden pond is also raided by these musical songsters for mud and wet leaves to line their nests.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Charles McKeddie.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Series in which two artists discuss creative questions.
What kind of parent are you? Did you rush to the cot every time your baby cried, or let her 'cry it out'? Does your toddler eat strictly rationed organic produce, or allowed to eat what he wants? When did YOU go back to work?
It doesn't really matter what you answer to these incessant questions, as long as you know that you are wrong wrong wrong, and have probably done irreparable developmental damage to your kids. Parent of three Adam Buxton gathers helicopter parents, free-range parents, stay-at-home-dads and mummy-bloggers and vocal, judgemental parents from all sides of the debate to hack it out between them.
Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director at the Serpentine Galleries, continues the series exploring overlooked 20th Century visual artists.
Born in Adorf, Germany in 1927, Karl-Heinz Adler trained as an artist in the war-ravaged Berlin and Dresden of the late 40s and early 50s. His ambition was to create abstract art but, in the Communist GDR, abstract art was seen as decedent and unacceptable to the state. Adler and his professional partner Friedrich Kracht became architects instead, developing a modular form of concrete decoration for buildings. This soon saw their abstract art displayed under the cover of architecture in hundreds of locations across East Germany. By the time the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, abstract art was out of fashion in the West and it's only in recent years that Karl-Heinz, now 90, has finally begun to see his work receive international attention.
Contributors include Karl-Heinz Adler and Susanne Altmann (Curator and Art Historian).
The series features artists selected by three curators from different backgrounds - Iwona Blazwick (Director of the Whitechapel Gallery), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries) and Naomi Beckwith (Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). Told broadly chronologically with inter-changing presenters, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.
Presenter: Hans Ulrich Obrist
Producer: Michael Umney
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 4
Image courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The Citadel
By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 3
Dr. Andrew Manson's future is on the line; his elderly employer, Dr. Page's jealous sister is set on wreaking havoc for him. But Manson has more important things on his mind; his first date with Christine. Set in south Wales in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which is said to have partly inspired the creation of the NHS.
Produced by Pauline Harris and Gary Brown
Directed by Gary Brown.
Friends who are druids reflect on life and death. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
by Jon Canter
Produced by Sally Avens
Comedy as James Boswell becomes a time travelling biographer doing for other celebrities what he did for Dr Johnson.
Today he meets Lord Byron at the beginning of his career and Boswell is sure he can help the young man become a celebrated poet but does Byron really need his help?
Jon Canter is an award winning comedy writer for both television and radio. He penned the radio series 'Believe It' starring Richard Wilson but his work goes back to Spitting Image. He is also the author of several books and has been called our greatest living comic novelist.
The first series of Boswell's Lives went on to win the Prix Europa for Drama.
Other celebrities that will have their lives penned by James Boswell for this series include - Simone de Beauvoir (Amelia Bullmore) Agatha Christie (Vicki Pepperdine) and Ghandi (Phaldut Sharma)
Miles Jupp is an actor, stand up and presenter of The News Quiz.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, Germany signed a peace treaty with Finland, and in Folkestone, Edie and Marion negotiate some unforeseen challenges.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In this series based on his popular podcast, Nick Robinson sits down for a chat with some of the people setting the agenda in politics today to get to know the person behind the public figure and find out what really makes them tick.
In this episode Nick meets the Private Eye editor and Have I Got News For You stalwart Ian Hislop. Ian explains why he is a sceptic but not a cynic, discusses his admiration for the Victorians' political energy and makes the case for why the Eye's satirical journalism matters.
To hear the full episode search BBC iPlayer or your podcast provider for 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'.
Producer: Faizal Farook.
Day Three of the race to save Boyd and suddenly, this cold case leaps back to life. The team desperately need Frankie Wharton's forensic analysis to try to find the kidnapper, and save a life.
Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.
Financial phone-in.
Sociological discussion programme, presented by Laurie Taylor.
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Has Tony Hawks ever committed a crime, what's the most embarrassing thing Rachel Riley does when working on Countdown and what did Desiree like least about working as a dominatrix?
All these questions, and more, will be answered in the show hosted by Joe Lycett where panellists are tested on how well they know their nearest and dearest.
Produced by Matt Stronge.
It was a BBC Studios Production.
Joe turns detective, and Toby hatches a plan.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Combative, provocative and engaging debate chaired by Michael Buerk. With Matthew Taylor, Giles Fraser, Melanie Philips and Michael Portillo.
Every year, to mark the Christian season of Lent, Radio 4 invites contributors to offer a personal take on an aspect of the Passion story. Artist and song-writer Ben Okafor re-members Jesus' agony in Gethsemane and his own trauma as a child caught up in the Biafran war.
Producer: Rosie Dawson.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
'The Long Drop' is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. The award-winning author reimagines the trial of Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel, in a dark and compelling exploration of truth and storytelling.
Glasgow, 1957. Businessman William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Small time crook Peter Manuel claims to have them. But you don't get something for nothing. Over the course of a bizarre night these unlikely drinking partners will swap stories and attempt to cut a deal to emerge from scandal with reputations, and profits, intact.
Six months on, Manuel is on trial for eight brutal murders and Watt's lawyer, Laurence Dowdall, is struggling under cross-examination at the High Court.
Read by Liam Brennan
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
A heady combination of maths, science and comedy with Festival of The Spoken Nerd trio who are stand-up Mathematician Matt Parker, Physicist Steve Mould and Physicist-Musician Helen Arney. It's science that you can play along with at home as the team look at domestic phenomena that we relate to on a day to day basis.
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner.
A BBC Studios Production.
The last of four 14 minute vignettes in a brand new series from John Kearns, the Winner of the Main Prize at the 2014 Edinburgh Comedy Festival, as well as the Best Newcomer Award in 2013. John struggles to enjoy his fantasy day of doing nothing, in "Day Off."
Producer: Arnab Chanda.
Susan Hulme reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
In another of his TWEETS about the birds which are encouraged by his 'wildlife-friendly' garden in inner-city Wolverhampton, naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines is delighted to find Great Spotted Woodpeckers visiting after he noticed that a local neighbour had success with tempting fat bars!
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Ian Redman.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Highlanders and Islanders were cleared from their homes in waves in C18th and C19th, following the break up of the Clans after the Battle of Culloden. Initially, landlords tried to keep people on their estates for money-making schemes, but the end of the Napoleonic Wars brought convulsive changes. Some of the evictions were notorious, with the sudden and fatal burning of townships, to make way for sheep and deer farming. For many, migration brought a new start elsewhere in Britain or in the British colonies, while for some it meant death from disease while in transit. After more than a century of upheaval, the Clearances left an indelible mark on the people and landscape of the Highlands and Western Isles.
The image above is a detail from a print of 'Lochaber No More' by John Watson Nicol 1856-1926
With
Sir Tom Devine
Marjory Harper
and
Murray Pittock
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Iwona Blazwick, Whitechapel Gallery director, continues the series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century. Art history has been written from a white, Western, male perspective. What if we could revise the canon?
Born in Syria in 1934, Marwan Kassab-Bachi stopped for a brief visit in Berlin on his way to resettling in Paris in 1957. In Berlin, he stumbled on a world of artistic activity that sucked him in and led him to stay for the rest of his life. Marwan's portraits are haunting, drawing the viewer into the inner psyche of his subjects. As Marwan said, "I paint souls." Though he has received more recognition in his adoptive home of Germany than in his country of origin, his work continues to reference Syria's socio-political situation. Drawing on influences from both Western and Arab styles, Marwan's work also explores the identity of those who live in a cultural diaspora. According to Iwona Blazwick, he is a true original whose work carries the power and complexity of Francis Bacon.
Contributors include art critic Robert Kudielka, gallerist Michael Hasenclever and collector Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi.
The series features artists selected by curators with varied perspectives - Hans Ulrich Obrist, Iwona Blazwick and Naomi Beckwith. Told broadly chronologically with inter-changing presenters, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.
Presenter: Iwona Blazwick
Producer: Olivia Humphreys
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Image for episode and series image (c) Gerhard Milting.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The Citadel
By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 4
Dr. Andrew Manson performs a remarkable doctoring feat in a crises. Set in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which is said to have partly inspired the creation of the NHS.
Produced by Pauline Harris and Gary Brown
Directed by Gary Brown.
Reports from writers and journalists around the world. Presented by Kate Adie.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, the Bolsheviks became the Russian Communist Party and in Folkestone, Kitty isn't in a party mood.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer affairs programme.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In this series based on his popular podcast, Nick Robinson sits down for a chat with some of today's agenda setting politicians to get to know the person behind the public figure and find out what really makes them tick.
In this programme Nick meets Education Select Committee chair Rob Halfon MP. The President of the Conservative Workers and Trade Unionists explains why his party urgently needs to take radical action to reconnect with the people and what he really thought about Nick the first time they met.
To hear the full episode search BBC iPlayer or your podcast provider for 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'.
Producer: Faizal Farook.
Mel Silver, a fearless 20 year old police officer, finds herself at the centre of the case of her life. Now, with only two days to find the victim alive, she's determined to push the case on herself.
Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.
Clare Balding joins archaeologist, Charlotte Frearson and her dog, Indy, on their daily, five mile walk to work. A few years ago Charlotte was suffering from crippling anxiety, her doctor suggested medication or a dog. After detailed research Charlotte decided a whippet would be better than drugs and she bought Indy, short , of course, for Indiana Jones. Everyday they walk from their home in Crouch End, across London to UCL's Institute of Archaeology in Bloomsbury. It's hard to know who enjoys the walk more as Charlotte has the chance to reflect on the antiquities that might lie beneath their feet and Indy has the chance to hunt out tasty morsels on the pavement. As they take their favourite route from park to park Charlotte explains to Clare how Indy is now being assessed to be a Pet As Therapy dog, not just for her but for the students who sometimes find it easier to talk to him than their tutors.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
With Francine Stock
Award winning director Lynne Ramsay on You Were Never Really Here.
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Simon Jones stars as Arthur Dent in a brand new full-cast series based on And Another Thing..., the sixth book in the famous Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy.
Forty years on from the first ever radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent and friends return to be thrown back into the Whole General Mish Mash, in a rattling adventure involving Viking Gods and Irish Confidence Tricksters, with our first glimpse of Eccentrica Gallumbits and a brief but memorable moment with The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast Of Traal.
Starring John Lloyd as The Book, with Simon Jones as Arthur, Geoff McGivern as Ford Prefect, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Sandra Dickinson and Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Jim Broadbent as Marvin the Paranoid Android and Jane Horrocks as Fenchurch. The cast also includes Samantha Béart, Toby Longworth, Andy Secombe, Ed Byrne, Lenny Henry, Philip Pope, Mitch Benn, Jon Culshaw and Professor Stephen Hawking.
The series is written and directed by Dirk Maggs and based on And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional unpublished material by Douglas Adams.
Music by Philip Pope
Production research by Kevin Jon Davies
Written and directed by Dirk Maggs
Based on the novel And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer, with additional material by Douglas Adams
Recorded at The Soundhouse Ltd by Gerry O'Riordan
Sound Design by Dirk Maggs
Produced by Dirk Maggs, Helen Chattwell and David Morley
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4.
Alice's evening ends in disaster, and Fallon takes up a challenge.
Arts news, interviews and reviews.
Evan Davis presents the business magazine.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
'The Long Drop' is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. The award-winning author reimagines the trial of Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel, in a dark and compelling exploration of truth and storytelling.
Glasgow, 1957. Businessman William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Small time crook Peter Manuel claims to have them. But you don't get something for nothing. Over the course of a bizarre night these unlikely drinking partners will swap stories and attempt to cut a deal to emerge from scandal with reputations, and profits, intact.
Six months on, Manuel is on trial for eight brutal murders including those of the Watt family and bereaved patriarch William is about to take the stand at the High Court.
Read by Liam Brennan
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
It's Jocelyn returns for a second series of sketches and stand-up from the wonderful mind of Jocelyn Jee Esien.
In episode one, Jocelyn talks about a break-up, a flirty dentist crosses the line and a street magician shows off his skills to the public.
This series Jocelyn is joined by Paul Whitehouse as a cockney funeral director, as well as the vocal talents of Ninia Benjamin, Curtis Walker, Dee Kaate, Gavi Chera and Karen Bartke.
The producer is Suzy Grant and It's Jocelyn is a BBC Studios production.
Sean Curran reports from Westminster.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4. Followed by Weather.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest shipping forecast.
The latest news from BBC Radio 4.
A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Bishop Joe Aldred, Churches Together in England.
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.
In another of his TWEETS about the birds which are encouraged by his 'wildlife-friendly' garden in inner-city Wolverhampton, naturalist and environmentalist Chris Baines describes the regular visits of the stunning-looking Nuthatches which visit his pond for mud to line their nests and his feeders for food.
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: Sarah Blunt
Photograph: Alan Brewster.
Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.
Naomi Beckwith, curator at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, continues the series exploring overlooked visual artists from the 20th century.
Born in 1938, Jim Nutt studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1966 he began to exhibit with a small group that critics named The Hairy Who, after the title of their first show. His work drew acclaim for the apparent contrast between its technical skill and elegance, and its brash, scatalogical content. Since the mid-1970s Nutt has been producing just one work a year. But though he's something of a hero in his adopted hometown, he has never achieved the international profile many people think he deserves. Did the strangeness of his art, his loyalty to Chicago or his refusal to feed art world demand prevent him from achieving international recognition?
Contributors include Jim Nutt, John Corbett (writer, musician, radio host, teacher, record producer & gallery owner), Suellen Rocca (Hairy Who member & Director of Exhibitions at Elmhurst College Library), and Gladys Nilsson (Hairy Who member and wife of Jim Nutt)
The series features artists selected by three curators from different backgrounds - Iwona Blazwick (Whitechapel Gallery), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Galleries) and Naomi Beckwith (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). Told broadly chronologically, the series explores why these artists have been obscured and why some are now being reinstated into the 20th century artistic canon.
Archive audio courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Presenter: Naomi Beckwith
Producer: Michael Umney
Researcher: Jessie Lawson
Executive Producer: Joby Waldman
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4
Image (c) Jim Nutt, courtesy David Nolan Gallery, New York.
Programme that offers a female perspective on the world.
The Citadel
By A J Cronin. Dramatised by Christopher Reason
Episode 5
Dr. Andrew Manson is approached by a union Branch Secretary hoping to effect change in medical practise . The estranged love of his life, Christine, is back in town.
Set in south Wales in the mid 1920s and based on A J Cronin's ground breaking novel, which is said to have partly inspired the creation of the NHS.
Produced by Pauline Harris and Gary Brown
Directed by Gary Brown.
Matthew Taylor begins a new series examining how charities work, and asking what they are for.
In this first episode, Matthew asks what we think about when we think about charities, and examines whether the reality is different. He looks at the differences between large and small charities, examines some of the recent scandals surrounding the charity sector, and hears from a man who thinks business, rather than charity, is the best way to solve social problems.
In Leeds and Bradford, Matthew visits a small volunteer-led horse sanctuary, a charity music gig, and a church hosting a children's centre as he delves into questions around charity fundraising. How efficient are charities' fundraising operations? Has the big increase in money spent on fundraising recently resulted in more money coming into the sector? And how does what we imagine charities do to raise money differ from the reality?
Producer: Giles Edwards.
by Jeremy Front
Based on the novel by Simon Brett
Directed by Sally Avens
Bill Nighy stars as actor cum amateur sleuth Charles Paris. Charles is starring in a revival of a 70's farce when the Director drops dead and another premature death follows soon after when an audio producer doing a promo for the show dies in suspicious circumstances. Charles attempts to find out if foul play is afoot.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
On this day in 1918, Businessmen's Week was said to have raised over £100m in war bonds, and in Folkestone, Alice's fortunes take a downturn.
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole.
Consumer news and issues.
The latest weather forecast.
Analysis of news and current affairs.
In this series based on his popular podcast, Nick Robinson sits down for a chat with some of today's agenda setting politicians to get to know the person behind the public figure and find out what really makes them tick.
In the final programme in this series, the straight-talking Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips, talks to Nick about feminism, why pragmatism trumps principle and her unlikely friendship with Jacob Rees-Mogg.
To hear the full episode search BBC iPlayer or your podcast provider for 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson'.
Producer: Peter Snowdon.
With one day left to save Boyd and crack the case, everything disappears into desperation as another victim is snatched, right from under our team.
Written by Barbara Machin
Directed by Allegra McIlroy
Sound Design ..... David Chilton
Crime Story Consultant ..... Brian Hook.
Eric Robson and the panel are hosted by the Thornton Le Moor Garden Forum in North Yorkshire. Matthew Wilson, Pippa Greenwood and Chris Beardshaw answer the horticultural questions.
Producer: Dan Cocker
Assistant Producer: Hester Cant
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.
In Lesley Nneka Arimah's specially commissioned short story something precious is lost.
Lesley Nneka Arimah is an award winning writer. She was the winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa in 2015 and has twice been shortlisted for the Caine Prize. Her debut short story collection, What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, was published to acclaim in 2017.
The reader is Ony Uhiara.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard.
Obituary series, analysing and celebrating the life stories of people who have recently died.
Radio 4's forum for audience comment.
A mother and daughter reflect on their love - and fear - of scuba-diving. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.
Eddie Mair with interviews, context and analysis.
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.
Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis re-cap the week via topical stand-up and sketches with guests Pippa Evans, Phil Wang and more!
Producer: Matt Stronge
It's a BBC Studios Production.
Clarrie attempts to calm the waters, and Ruth finds herself frozen out.
News, reviews and interviews from the worlds of art, literature, film and music.
Jonathan Dimbleby presents political debate from Falmouth University in Cornwall with a panel including the Labour MP and Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee Frank Field.
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
The first omnibus of Season 13, A Woman's Place, set in Folkestone, in the week, in 1918, when the Northern Lights aided a deadly air raid on the South East.
Cast
Sylvia Graham ..... Joanna David
Adeline Lumley ..... Helen Schlesinger
Edie Chadwick ..... Kathryn Beaumont
Kitty Lumley ..... Ami Metcalf
Alice Macknade ..... Claire-Louise Cordwell
Sophie Beckwith ..... Abbie Andrews
Esme Macknade ..... Katie Angelou
Isabel Graham ..... Keely Beresford
Gabriel Graham ..... Michael Bertenshaw
Bill Macknade ..... Ben Crowe
Private Sweeney ..... Ryan Early
Oscar Hendrickx ..... Pierre Elliott
Marion Wardle ..... Laura Elphinstone
Albert Wilson ..... Jamie Foreman
Private Brown ..... Clive Hayward
Jessie Moore ..... Lucy Hutchinson
Adam Wilson ..... Billy Kennedy
Jack Wilson ..... Ashley Kumar
Terence Wentworth ..... Jack Lowden
Nora Thatcher ..... Chetna Pandya
Dilys Walker ..... Ellie Piercy
Florrie Wilson ..... Claire Rushbrook
Rev. Alec Poole ..... Tom Stuart
Joe Macknade ..... Lloyd Thomas
Lilian Pemble ..... Alex Tregear
Fryn Tennyson-Jesse ..... Fenella Woolgar
Ray Wardle ..... Isabel Barry
Stella Wardle ..... Oliva Wales
Written by Sarah Daniels
Directed by Jessica Dromgoole
Sound: Martha Littlehailes
Composer: Matthew Strachan
Consultant Historian: Maggie Andrews.
In-depth reporting and analysis from a global perspective.
'The Long Drop' is Denise Mina's first foray into true crime. The award-winning author reimagines the trial of Scotland's first serial killer, Peter Manuel, in a dark and compelling exploration of truth and storytelling.
Glasgow, 1957. Businessman William Watt wants answers about his family's murder. Small time crook Peter Manuel claims to have them. But you don't get something for nothing. Over the course of a bizarre night these unlikely drinking partners will swap stories and attempt to cut a deal to emerge from scandal with reputations, and profits, intact.
A killer is about to be revealed as Watt and Manuel struggle to stay one step ahead of feared gangster Dandy McKay.
Read by Liam Brennan
Abridged by Siân Preece
Producer: Eilidh McCreadie.
Mark D'Arcy reports from Westminster.
Friends who have discovered how to be assertive in life and at work. Fi Glover presents another conversation in the series that proves it's surprising what you hear when you listen.
Producer: Marya Burgess.